Finding Mastery: Conversations With Michael Gervais

In Episode 3 of The Process, Alex Fiance updates us on the recent public launch of one of their companies, CERA, who offer a personalized home-care solution to the aging population, allowing elderly people to live where they are most comfortable and happy.We then get to learn from Tim Hwang, the founder of FiscalNote, a Kairos company.Tim shares why he cares about making societal impact and how his merging interest in technology and politics was the impetus for Fiscal Note. We discuss his company's values, the biggest mistake he's ever made, and why entrepreneurship is about the intersection of risk and passion.You can find episodes 1 and 2 here: https://findingmastery.net/kairos/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Satya Nadella needs no introduction. He and his team are guiding one the world's most significant high-tech companies. He's the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, and one of only three in their history.    The first time I met him (in 2014, when he was just a handful of weeks in as CEO) I was struck by how deeply he listened, his authentic curiosity to learn, and the clarity of how he organized his thoughts. It was apparent that he deeply valued, and was going to thoughtfully design, a culture at Microsoft for people to find and connect to their purpose — to experience their life efforts with deep meaning — while at the same time, holding true to their mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.That is so rich. It's what we all want. To live a life of purpose and meaning — and to really make a difference with what we do, and how we do it.This conversation explores where that comes from for him.As this conver

This week’s conversation is with quarterback Sam Darnold on leadership, trust, and confidence.Sam was just selected by the New York Jets with the 3rd pick in this year's NFL Draft.Over the last two years, Sam has been one of the top college quarterbacks in the nation, playing at the University of Southern California.I’ve known Sam since he participated in the Elite 11 quarterback camp - which features the best of the best quarterbacks coming out of high school. It’s been incredible to see how far he’s come since then.You might know him as one of the best rookie quarterbacks, but this conversation shows a different side of him: insight, integrity, humility, and honesty.We discuss everything from his leadership style, why building strong relationships and trusting himself have been fundamental to his success, and how he’s managed the distractions that have come with his quick rise to fame.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-in

This week’s podcast is with Chris Ashenden, the co-founder of Athletic Greens.Now I want to be totally transparent here – Athletic Greens is a partner of the podcast but I wouldn’t be comfortable having Chris on unless I fully believed in the product and their mission.In this conversation, we touch on Chris’ upbringing and how his experiences traveling around the world with his family shaped him -- and ultimately was the impetus for the creation of Athletic Greens.There were times where Chris was close to broke – living on a diet of rice and beans just to get by - but Chris never gave up.He refused to alter the quality of the product or the mission of the company even if it meant potentially losing everything.Chris is grateful he stuck to what he believed in and it becomes clear how his philosophy has rubbed off on the company.We discuss how to create a culture that stands for honesty and integrity and how to best develop trust with others.I hope this conversation inspires you – that it’s possible to do thing

This week’s podcast is with Jim DiMatteo.After graduating from the University of California Berkeley in 1986, Jim followed in his father’s and brother’s footsteps and joined the US Navy where he began an unprecedented Naval Aviation career.He retired as a Captain and has amassed nearly 5,000 hours in 5 different fighter aircraft (F/A-18, F-16, F-14, F-5, A-4) in over twenty-five years of service.After extensive combat flight time in Desert Storm, Jim was recruited into the prestigious TOPGUN Adversary squadron. It was there that he accumulated more TOPGUN Adversary flight time than anyone in the history of the US Navy and Marine Corps.He was awarded numerous accolades, including US Navy Fighter Pilot of the Year and US Navy Adversary Pilot of the Year.After retiring, he became the first Race Director in America for Red Bull and the U.S. Director of Aviation for Brietling.Jim was recently inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame for his lifetime achievements in aviation.In this conversation, we discuss how he p

Kairos Managing Partner Alex Fiance shares they’ve made a new investment in a company called iBeat, a smartwatch that continually monitors your heart rate, oxygen levels, and blood flow for life-threatening emergencies. Topics discussed include why they chose to invest, their process for determining if a company is the right fit, what Alex believes are the most important traits for an entrepreneur to have and answers a few questions from the Finding Mastery Tribe.All episodes of "The Process" are available here: https://findingmastery.net/kairos/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ali Smith co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation in 2001, where he currently serves as Executive Director.He has over 15 years of experience teaching yoga and mindfulness to diverse populations.Through his work at the Holistic Life Foundation he has helped develop and pilot yoga and mindfulness programs at public and private schools, drug treatment centers, juvenile detention centers, mental crisis facilities, and retreat centers, nationally and internationally.In this conversation we discuss how they got schools to buy into their mission, the way in which they’ve made a big impact in many kids lives, and Ali provides some concrete examples of what his mindfulness practice entails.This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens.Receive a free 20-count travel pack of Athletic Greens (valued at $99) with any purchase!Claim here: athleticgreens.com/findingmasterySupport for Finding Mastery also brought to you by Health IQ:Health IQ uses science & data to secure lower rates on life insurance for healt

This week’s conversation is with Cassidy Lichtman, a former member of the United States women’s national volleyball team.At the age of nine, Cassidy developed a chronic pain disorder in one of her legs and was told that she might never walk again.Imagine waking up one day with pain. Pain you didn’t understand. Pain that had no cure, no matter how many doctors you visited.On one side of the spectrum there is the physical pain.Over a short period of time, that is usually more manageable.Observe it, notice it, choose not to respond to it and focus on something else.But what about when you have to wake up with it again the next day and the next day and the day after that.Therein lies the mental pain.How would you respond when it feels like you’ve lost control over everything that once seemed to be such a certainty?Cassidy is a fighter and has persevered her whole life.Despite unsuccessful efforts to treat the pain she re-learned how to walk and then began playing volleyball. She went on to be a two-time All-Ameri

This week’s conversation is with American Swimmer and Olympic Gold Medalist Conor Dwyer.You wouldn’t know it looking at him now, with his 6’5”, athletic frame, three Olympic medals and four World Championships titles to his name, but success in the pool didn’t come easily to Conor. He was a multi-sport athlete throughout his youth, settling into swimming as his main focus late in high school. He was good but never quite great and the self described ‘very late bloomer’ struggled to get any collegiate coach to look his way as graduation approached. Unlike most of his teammates now on the U.S. National Swim Team there were no red carpet swim scholarships rolled out in his direction. But what Conor may have lacked in head-turning results early in his career he made up for with a gut- wrenching work ethic. What changed for Conor? His mindset. His environment. His training.In this conversation, we discuss how Conor transformed his swimming career: from unrecruited to winning multiple gold medals 

This week’s conversation is with Admiral Bill Owens on leadership, courage, and relationships.Bill is currently the executive chairman and co-founder of Red Bison Advisory Group, a company which identifies opportunities with proven enterprises in China, the Middle East, and the United States and creates dynamic partnerships focusing on: natural resources (oil, gas and fertilizer plants), real estate, and information, communication and technology.He was previously chairman the board of CenturyLink Telecom, the third largest telecommunications company in the United States and was also on the advisory board at SAP USA.The list goes on and on of important businesses that Bill has been involved with.Bill began his career as a nuclear submariner. He served on four strategic nuclear-powered submarines and three nuclear attack submarines, including tours as commanding officer aboard the USS Sam Houston and USS City of Corpus Christi. Owens spent a total of 4,000 days (more than 10 y

Welcome to “The Process” a new audio series from Dr. Michael Gervais and Finding Mastery.In this series, we’re going to learn about The Process: What really goes on “in the thick of it,” for those on the pursuit of mastery?In this first season, we’re going to follow Kairos and their CEO Alex Fiance.Kairos is a global community of fellows, founders & advisors that work together to identify society’s most pressing challenges and then build and fund new solutions to address them.They focus on areas where outdated industries and governments are failing to meet our communities’ needs.Over the course of the next 6 months, we’re going to learn about young entrepreneurs tackling the worlds biggest problems – what are some of the biggest problems? How do they find the entrepreneurs they believe can solve them?  How do they determine which companies to invest in? And we’ll dig into the mindset of these entrepreneurs.Young people have the ability to make a big difference and we’re

This week’s conversation is with Valorie Kondos Field, often referred to as “Miss Val.”She’s the head coach of the six-time NCAA Champion, 21 NCAA Regional Champion and 17-time PAC 12 Champion UCLA Women’s Gymnastics team.Valorie was recently named the Pac-12 “Coach of the Century,” and in 2010, she became one of only two active coaches to be inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame.She considers the late John Wooden, the legendary and most successful collegiate basketball coach of all time, as one of her inspirations, and closest mentor and friend.Countless student-athletes praise Valorie for her guidance during their athletic careers, and after they’ve graduated from UCLA and have entered the next chapter in their lives. Included in the hundreds of athletes she has coached or mentored are Olympic champions Simone Biles, Jordan Wieber, Kyla Ross, Madison Kocian, Laurie Hernandez and Nastia Liukin.For Valorie, life is a grand adventure that all comes down to choices.The moment she found out she had b

This week's conversation is with entrepreneur Daymond John on the power of clarity, vision, and imagery.From street hustle -- to Shark Tank to being a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, he has become globally recognized for his relentless commitment to promoting and supporting entrepreneurs. Daymond initially made his mark as the entrepreneur and branding expert behind the groundbreaking lifestyle brand, FUBU (which eclipsed more than $6 billion in global retail sales).He started a global brand from the basement of his mother’s house.Today, the streetwear market that FUBU pioneered is a $20 billion dollar industry.In this conversation we discuss what has been the driving force behind Daymond’s success, his process for setting goals, and why having clarity is so important to him.In every single of these conversations I ask the guest if they have a guiding philosophy that shapes their life. Daymond likes to ask people if they can describe themselves in 2-5 words. When you’re able to

This week’s conversation is with Hall of Fame swimming coach Bob Bowman, the maestro behind the illustrious career of Michael Phelps.He’s now the Head Coach for the Men’s and Women’s programs at Arizona State University.He is a four-time member of the U.S. Olympic Team staff, including Head Coach of the Men’s team at Rio 2016.He has guided swimmers to 38 Olympic medals, including 21 individual medals and 19 individual gold medals, and 43 World Records over the course of his illustrious career.Bob comes from a family of teachers and that’s how he views himself: a teacher.He has experienced an incredible amount of success, but it is all about the process for him.When it comes to the process, Bob has four phases to his model: discovery, imagination, challenge, and high performance.This conversation has it all.We cover the common traits of high performers, how he gets the most out of his swimmers, and Bob shares some fantastic stories about his experiences coaching Olympians Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt, and o

Jeremy Bailenson is the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab and a professor at Stanford University.Jeremy studies the psychology of Virtual Reality (VR), in particular how virtual experiences lead to changes in perceptions of self and others.When I was up at his lab, he ran me through a fear-inducing protocol that completely hijacked my thinking brain. Right up my alley!In this conversation we discuss Jeremy’s path – why he was almost too early to VR over 20 years ago - and how he dealt with early rejection because of it.Jeremy shares how he prevailed to run a lab at Stanford that is leading the way for technological advancements in virtual reality.He is also the co-founder of STRIVR, a company that has integrated virtual reality into the way sports teams train their players.This is a thought provoking discussion – Jeremy was able to see the future before many of his peers and was able to do the work to carve that path.For those that are intrigued by th

This week’s episode is special. It’s from our first Finding Mastery “Live” recorded at the USC Performance Science Institute.Seattle Seahawks head coach, Pete Carroll, USC Executive Director for Entrepreneurial Studies, David Belasco, and I created the institute to teach, train, and research the science, best practices, and applied processes for a high performing mindset in any domain.That’s our mission.I can't tell you how excited I am for what we're building - it's got all the makings for something very special for the next generation of doers and thinkers.The guest for this first Finding Mastery Live is Alex Honnold, someone I’ve wanted to talk to for a very long time.Alex, in my mind, is one of the most compelling athletes in sport right now.Alex is a professional adventure rock climber whose audacious free-solo ascents of America’s biggest cliffs have made him one of the most recognized and followed climbers in the world.If you're not familiar with free solo climbing, it's literally climbing without

This week’s conversation is with Jake Blauvelt, one of the world’s best all around snowboarders.He’s got a smooth, creative and effortless-looking style and it’s lifted him into an elite group of top athletes in the snowboarding world.Jake’s career started like most other snowboarders: traveling from contest to contest, making a name for himself riding half pipe & slopestyle events, & eventually winning the Burton US Open Slopestyle in 2004, one of the most prestigious events in snowboarding.It wasn’t long before Jake realized that his was a different calling; his style & his capability on a snowboard belonged in the backcountry, in natural terrain where he could let his endless imagination & creativity run wild where he could find his own lines and make use of the features that nature provides.Jake sees himself as an artist, not a stuntman and in this conversation we get into everything from how Jake approaches risk, trains confidence, and aspires to live in the state of flow.Jake is true to

This week’s conversation is with Gretchen Rubin.Gretchen has spent the past decade researching and writing about happiness and is the author of several books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers The Four Tendencies, Better Than Before, and The Happiness Project. I wanted to talk to Gretchen because happiness is something that every one of us seems to searching for yet some of us have trouble finding.When you ask people on the street or in a casual conversation, "What are you looking for in life? What does it all come down to?" Many people say happiness. What's been interesting is that on this podcast, many of the interesting thinkers and doers have not said happiness. They are looking for something different than that.I wanted to pull from Gretchen why and how happiness is something that she's spent her life trying to understand.In this conversation, we have a great discussion on how happiness and habits are linked.Gretchen came up with her own personality f

This conversation is with UC Berkeley rugby coach Jack Clark on team, culture, honesty.Jack is the iconic rugby coach at the University of California. His team-building abilities are considered legendary within university circles and throughout the corporate sector.Since becoming head coach of the Golden Bears in 1984, Clark has led the rugby program to 29 national collegiate championships.In 2000, Clark was chosen as one of Cal’s Ten Most Influential Sports Figures of the 20th Century.Not only has Jack sustained an improbable level of success for nearly 3 decades, but he’s not the slightest bit sick of what he does.In Jack’s words, “I really wouldn’t trade jobs with anyone. I mean anyone.”Jack has so much to share in this conversation.Everything from how he brings out the best in his players to how he scales culture to why his players are getting their unofficial PHD in team.This is a phenomenal conversation and you may have to listen to it multiple times to truly soak up all of Jack’s insights.This epi

Nutritional scientist Chris Talley is my go-to for all things food science. We've worked together with hundreds of professional athletes and Olympians. We worked together at Red Bull with their high performance program, up at the Seahawks and with handfuls of athletes that live right on the edge of intense risk and danger.I hope you enjoy Chris' mind and world-views as much as I do.This conversation is loaded so we’ve split it up into two parts.In part one, you’ll learn about Chris’ journey, his work with many NFL teams and Olympians, and what’s driven him to work so hard to become the best at what he does.This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens.Receive a free 20-count travel pack of Athletic Greens (valued at $99) with any purchase!Claim here: athleticgreens.com/findingmasterySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.