Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

Latest Episodes:

Navy SEAL & Endurance Athlete David Goggins on Being the Hardest Human Alive Feb 15, 2017

Show notes

This conversation is with David Goggins. It's real. This podcast is not for kids -- it's for adults -- who want to understand toughness and authenticity. David is clear. Very clear. He lives in true alignment. He's figured out who he is -- and he lives accordingly. Period. The odds were stacked against David ever making anything of himself. He grew up in an abusive household, barely graduated high school, and struggled with serious health issues, to name just a few of the challenges David had to overcome. In spite of all of these obstacles, David never had a “woe is me” mentality. David is the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL training (including two Hell Weeks), the U.S. Army Ranger School (where he graduated as Enlisted Honor Man) and Air Force tactical air controller training. David has completed multiple ultra-marathons, triathlons, ultra-triathlons, bike races and arduous mountain ascents, setting new course records and regularly placing in the top five. His achievements made him the subject of a lead feature in Runner’s World, where he was named “Running Hero”, and Outside Magazine named him “The Fittest (Real) Man in America.” The Navy SEALs even asked him to be their poster-boy and appear in a recruiting commercial.

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Singer-Songwriter Jewel on Music, Insight, Community (ft. Wisdom 2.0's Soren Gordhamer) Feb 08, 2017

Show notes

This conversation is with Soren Gordhamer and singer-songwriter, Jewel. This week’s podcast is a bit unique. It’s with singer-songwriter Jewel and also features a guest appearance from Wisdom 2.0 founder Soren Gordhamer. Soren’s brought tech leaders and wisdom leaders together to have a deep exchange of ideas and practices with one purpose: how to better impact the living and working environments for us and maybe the next generation. If you're not familiar with Wisdom 2.0, I encourage you to go check it out. Their next conference is in San Francisco from February 17-19. This conversation is primarily about Jewel - her path, her insights and where her music comes from. Jewel’s path is completely her own, yet at the same time, just like yours, just like mine, just like so many of us. She touches on universal concepts and principles that cut across humanity, that cut across all people. It's the deeper calling to belong to love, to touch our own potential and humanity, to adjust to the difficult and stay true to what authenticity means. To me that is a fundamental skill and approach to life, that is right at the center of what she's about. Her courage is demonstrated by her willingness to look within and not turn away from what is painful and dark --and there lies the spring from where her truth is expressed -- and -- in return the music, the movements, the words, and thoughts that come together to form beauty. I hope that comes across in this conversation. As a reminder these conversations are long form. There's no way to hack or shortcut the insights that people have worked their entire life to try to understand. There are no shortcuts for this and so the there should be no short cuts for the learning either. We want to be proficient, we want to be as expedient as we can possibly be in learning, but at the same time let’s embrace the long form and the watering of ideas, knowing that there's so much more to still unpack. In this conversation, we jump into why fear is a “thief.” Isn't that a cool word for fear? We also discuss doing the hard work to figure out who you truly are, what forgiveness means to Jewel, and why perfectionism has been an inhibitor to mastery or her. I want to share this idea one more time with you guys that: “every day is an opportunity to create a living masterpiece.” This conversation pulls on that thread like you wouldn't believe. So together hopefully we can make this commitment to carve our unique paths with some fuel and some fire and just really get after it in life.

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood on Purpose and Progression Feb 01, 2017

Show notes

Amy Hood is currently serving as the Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft Corporation — whose corporate mission is: “Empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.” This conversation is so good. It’s about so much more than her professional accolades and she’s got them: Harvard MBA, undergraduate degree from Duke in economics, being listed at the #44 spot on the Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list. This conversation is about her commitment to a full life experience, in all of her roles as a woman — as a mom, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a global citizen — and of course as the CFO of one the most influential technology companies in the world, Microsoft. If you’ve ever thought, I’m not sure I can do “that” — whatever “that” is in your life — because you’re too far down the tracks, or you’re not sure how to manage something new — or how to make difficult decisions about work/life engagement — or how to not become consumed with chasing outcomes (while at the same time having world-class outcomes as a by product) — or how to help others grow — I think you’re going to love this conversation.

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Author Robert Greene on Mastery & Research Jan 25, 2017

Show notes

Robert Greene is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, and his fifth book, Mastery, which takes a deep dive into the lives of historical figures such as Charles Darwin, Mozart, Paul Graham and Henry Ford. This conversation was on the recommendation from Ryan Holiday (if you haven't had the chance to listen to my conversation with him, it is episode 043). The reason I wanted to sit down with Robert is obvious -- but equally as important as his insights, I wanted to understand what led him to be interested in mastery and power. He has a wonderful way of being committed to principles, and at the same time, being cognitively nimble and agile – a fantastic combination to explore ideas, and at the same time being grounded. We talked about everything from Machiavelli to how people have misused his principles on power – to the importance of having a life task.

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Entrepreneur Anne Devereux-Mills on Leadership, Philanthropy, Parenting Jan 18, 2017

Show notes

Anne Devereux-Mills is an incredibly accomplished human. She was the chairman and CEO of a number of ad agencies in New York City – which is a massive undertaking. She then transitioned from the corporate world to non-profit programs such as helping start a school in Uganda. She’s had a phenomenal life journey and faced many obstacles -- including being a single mom of two while battling cancer. Anne is now the Chief Strategy Officer for Lantern, a San Francisco based start up that brings mental wellness programs to underserved populations due to the stigma of mental health, access and cost. She is also the founder of Parlay House, a salon-style gathering of over 800 Bay-area women who meet to pull each other forward through a combination of shared experiences, meaningful content and peer-to-peer connections I wanted to connect with Anne to better understand how she's been able to do so much in her life – not just in one arena, but so many arenas. As a single mom parenting, running a business in a male dominated industry, blazing trails in Uganda, battling cancer-- all of that is just an incredible effort and she’s been able to it in a world class way. I hope you'll be reminded from this conversation how important authenticity is -- and how important relationships are -- and how important it is to take risks and do the hard work.

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Entrepreneur Mark Divine on SEALFIT & Mindset Training Jan 11, 2017

Show notes

This conversation is with Mark Divine. Mark and I first met a number of years ago at a high performance camp (Elite11). Mark served 20 years in the Navy SEALs, retiring in 2011 -- and has taken his insights and best practices from the SEAL's candidate mentoring program to create a warrior-leader training model that involves physical, mental, and emotional, and intuition training -- the idea was to create a training process for corporate teams, sport teams, first responders and warriors from all walks of life -- that were based on what he came to understand from training thousands of special operators candidates across the globe. The company names are SEALFIT (Physical and mental training), and Unbeatable Mind. The reason I wanted to connect with him -- is because he has sincere interest in helping people grow, by pushing their limits, as well as, he has a fantastic command of the basic mental skills that can either accelerate or inhibit progressive learning (pushing boundaries as a way to improve at an accelerate speed requires the intent to do so, and the mental skills to "stay in it" when it's hard." What I hope comes through this conversation is that if you're not training your mind -- seriously training your mind, you're not getting the most out of your potential. We go pretty deep into a handful of mental skills, as well as, specific ways to begin a mindfulness training program. There's no time like now to get started, or to re-start (over and over and over again) training your mind. It's not complicated, but it does take time. Know your ideal mindset (for the craft your invested in). Know the inner-dialog that supports and gets in your way. Invest in breathing, so that you can have a command of your activation levels when you need it. Know you philosophy, articulate your mission in life (in writing) -- and push limits every day so that you can figure out how to think when it doesn't go the way you had planned.

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Seahawks President Peter McLoughlin on Negotiation, Change, Management Jan 04, 2017

Show notes

This conversation is with Peter McLoughlin - the president of the Seattle Seahawks. When most people think of professional franchises, they think of the athletes, coaches, or general managers. I wanted to better understand what goes into running the business of an elite sport franchise and to better understand how someone switches careers after 21 years of success in one industry to another. Currently, Peter is responsible for all financial and business operations, sales and marketing, sponsorship, and administration of the Seahawks and the business operations for the Portland Trail Blazers. He also directs the management of CenturyLink Field, CenturyLink Field Event Center and WaMu Theater. Before moving to Seattle, he served as CEO of the St. Louis Blues Enterprises from 2006-10. For 21 years prior to joining the Blues, McLoughlin served in a variety of executive roles at Anheuser-Busch. From 1998 to 2006, McLoughlin was vice president of corporate media and served as an officer of the company. He negotiated media agreements with television networks that included category exclusivity in 15 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics and dominant presence in MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA and World Cup soccer telecasts. He and his wife Kelly have five children. From this conversation, I hope you learn about the art of setting a vision, risk taking, negotiation and the process of grief and loss.

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Big Wave Surfer Nic Lamb on Training For Risk, Making Choices, The Ocean Dec 14, 2016

Show notes

Nic Lamb surfs very large waves. He’s a professional surfer on the Big Wave Tour, and was ranked number 4 in the world last year. A native to the Santa Cruz area in California, Nic is no stranger to a wave called Mavericks. It’s legendary for how heavy the conditions are. At 14 years old, Nic Lamb became one of the youngest surfers to ever charge Mavericks and was one of the youngest competitors in the event in 2014. He won the Mavericks contest in 2016 — you need to take a look at this wave (see below). I wanted to interview Nic to better understand the concept of thinking clearly in rugged environments. We all have real or perceived threats — we can learn from those who excel, on the world stage, in conditions that are very dangerous. More importantly I hope people take away a new way of thinking about risk — maybe a new– way to re-design risk-taking; it’s not about physical risk (which could be a mistake for those who didn’t tune in because they’re not sure how to learn from surfing) — the real risk is to have the clarity and conviction to stand for something that you love, that you believe in — and this conversation get’s into ways to train your mind, body and craft to excel when risk is required – (recovery, imagery, mindfulness) — and — this conversation is a solid a reminder to be in nature, and to progressively prepare and test yourself as often as you can. Nic is intense, thoughtful, and is charging toward his passions and goals. It’s a fun time to know Nic and watch him push his craft to limits, and the industry.

In This Episode:

• What’s it’s like to surf Mavericks

• Learning how to act from those who came before him • Why he loves and fears the ocean

• What happens when he’s trapped under a wave • What drives him to crave victory • Managing relationships with limited time

• Implementing a daily mindfulness practice

• The importance he places on strength, conditioning, and recovery

• Why preparation is key to risk taking

• Finding something to obsess over as a starting point for mastery

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hall of Fame Coach George Raveling on Progression and Being Relevant Dec 07, 2016

Show notes

George Raveling, referred to by many as “Coach”, is Nike’s Director of International Basketball and has been inducted into numerous hall of fames, including the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

In This Episode

-Parents both passing away at a young age and heading to Catholic boarding school

-Surrounding yourself with the right people

-Importance of challenging yourself -How to get others to believe in themselves

-The meaning of environmental control

-The tension between accepting someone and challenging them to do more

-How the power of storytelling can help people embrace change

-Value of increasing self-awareness

-Having a purpose in which you live your life

-Fueling his “positive reservoir”

-Reinventing yourself every 10 years

-Investing more time in the “why” instead of the “how”

-Taking time to audit your life on a regular basis

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lt. Col. Jannell MacAulay on the Air Force, Parenting, Health Nov 30, 2016

Show notes

Lieutenant Colonel Jannell MacAulay is currently the Commander of the 305th Operations Support Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. She leads a joint team responsible for supporting rapid global mobility to missions ranging from in-flight refueling to combat operations to humanitarian relief. In This Episode:

-Why she chose to go to the Air Force academy

-Parents instilling from an early age that there were no limits

-Rules based vs. value based thinking

-The moment she reached a burnout point -Learning to be ok with the imperfect

-Her constant battle with finding balance in her life

-Why teamwork and self-love are imperative for her

-What defines strong leadership

-Being motivated by seeing others do well

-How she defines success

_________________

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery

Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/

Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter

Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected