Finding Mastery: Conversations With Michael Gervais

For those of you who care deeply about what you’re putting in your body, you’ve come to the right place. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to part 1, I highly recommend giving that a listen first so you can get some context for who Chris is and why he’s so good at what he does. I also want to thank our partner Athletic Greens for supporting the podcast and allowing us to keep growing - if you haven’t had a chance yet, go to AthleticGreens.com/FindingMastery and learn more about their product. I love it and they’ve got an amazing offer available right now so take advantage of it before it’s gone! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This conversation is with MMA fighter and legend, Vitor Belfort, on belief, mindset, and overcoming fear.I wanted to sit down with Vitor to understand how he has created command of his deep love for people and at the same time has the ability to engage in one of the most brutal and violent sports (mixed martial arts).Vitor grew up in a tough neighborhood in Rio De Janeiro and from an early age knew he wanted to be a world champion.He came to the United States to realize that dream.For Vitor, it all comes down to belief.One of Vitor’s favorite phrases is: “Learn to love what you’ve been taught to fear,” and in this conversation, we have a great discussion on what it really means to fear something and how to overcome it.Vitor has a deep sense of clarity - of who he is and what he is after in life - and I hope his clarity challenges you to do the same for yourself.And for those that listen to this podcast this week - Vitor is singing his swan song on UFC Fight Night 124 - January 14 will be his last fight before

This conversation is with rugby coach Stuart Lancaster.Stuart is currently coaching in Dublin, Ireland with Leinster Rugby. He was the former Head Coach of the England Rugby team from 2011-2015. Failure is something no one wants to experience but almost everyone has to go through at some point. Those on the razor’s edge, those that push their own boundaries, curious to see how much they’re really capable of, definitely experience those setbacks. For those performing on the world stage, those setbacks occur under a magnifying lens.Every move critiqued, scrutinized, and debated.In this conversation, Stuart opens up to us and shares a tough moment in his life that he could have let define him.Stuart had an impressive rise to head coach of the English Rugby team only to experience some unfortunate shortcomings during the 2015 World Cup, which was hosted on their home soil.Stuart was let go soon there after.Stuart takes us through the pressure he felt in the lead up to the games and what he felt wha

This conversation is with Sharon Salzberg on Being Present, Letting Go, and Having FaithIf you know her name, you know where this conversation will go: Mindfulness.Sharon has played a crucial role in bringing mindfulness practices to the West and into mainstream culture. She first began teaching mindfulness in 1974.(Note: be careful who teaches you about mindfulness — it’s a very, very “in” thing to talk about, and just like most skills in any field, the nuances that come with a deep commitment to understanding and living in alignment are imperative for anyone you’re going to trust in the process of progression.)In 1971, in Bodh Gaya, India, Sharon attended her first meditation course. She spent the next three-and-a-half years engaged in intensive practice and study with highly respected teachers from India, Burma and Tibet.In 1976, she established, together with Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts.In this conversation you’ll hear depth. You’ll hear

This week’s conversation is with Tom Carroll on being a maverick, honesty, and risk.Tom is best known as one of Australia’s great surfers and sportsmen. I have known of Tom since I was a grom (stoked little kid who flat out loved surfing).With two world professional surfing championships and three wins at Pipeline (one of the heavier waves in the world) under his belt, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s just a champion athlete.Rather Tom is a maverick -- in many ways.Reaching the professional level of any sport has its fair share of challenges, but in the modern era, there is generally some sort of path or map to follow -- like in baseball, gymnastics, or soccer -- there's a variety of developmental clubs / teams / or university systems that help cultivate and weed out those that have "it" and those that don't.Coaching and feedback along the way and physical training would be assumed,Tom emerged in an era where none of this existed and essentially had to figure it out as he went. He was part of the begi

This week’s conversation is with Women’s Senior National Team Water Polo head coach Adam Krikorian.Since taking over the Women's Senior National Team, Adam Krikorian has been just about perfect.From his arrival in 2009 Team USA has competed in 18 major FINA Championships and come away with Gold in 15. This includes the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, 2009, 2015, and 2017 FINA World Championships, the 2010 and 2014 FINA World Cups, seven FINA World League Super Final crowns and the 2016 Olympic Qualification Tournament.He's helped the United States maintain a number-one world ranking for the majority of his tenure.Following the 2016 Olympic Games, Krikorian was named Coach of the Games by the USOC at the Team USA Awards. And in early 2017, Krikorian was also honored by the Los Angeles Sports Council and the LA Sports Awards by receiving the first ever "Extraordinary Achievement In Olympic Sport" honors.Based on Adam’s impressive resume, you might expect Adam’s definition of success to align with winning, but

**if you have any issues with a dead spot while listening, redownload the episode and you should be good to go. There was a technical glitch that occurred for a few people on the initial download.This conversation is with Ray Conner, who was responsible for running America's largest manufacturing export, Boeing.If you're not familiar with the company, you've likely put your life in their hands (if you've been in an airplane).Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners, defense, space and security systems.Ray is the Vice Chairman of The Boeing Company, and a member of the Boeing Executive Council.We met when he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer.Ray earned his stripes at Boeing - he started as a mechanic long before realizing his vision of becoming CEO.How does that happen?While Ray struggled in school, one of his high school coaches taught him the value of goal-setting, self-talk, and visualization which helped pave the way for his future e

Imagine being within striking distance of your lifelong dream, only to come to a fork in the road. Continue onward but in doing so, put others lives in danger, or turn back and potentially never have another shot at fulfilling your dream.What would you do? How would you respond? Ethical decision making under duress is a fascinating process.I don’t know anyone that says, “I’m a bad human being. I’m a terrible human being and I do bad things. But some people put up an armor, a shield of denial, when there is a something at stake they badly want. When there is money, effort, years of commitment on the line, the moral compass can become clouded.This conversation with mountaineer and Trinity College field hockey and lacrosse coach Anne Parmenter touches on just that, and more!Anne has a unique perspective – she’s been in the trenches summiting the World’s greatest mountains and has also coached for over 20 years.Anne has climbed Aconcagua in Argentina, Denali, Chimborazo in Equador, Mount Blanc in t

Varun Soni is the Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California (USC) and the first Hindu to serve as the chief religious or spiritual leader of an American university.In a time where it feels like we have never been more divided, this conversation is about unity. It’s about empathy. It’s about diversity. It’s about curiosity and regard.There is so much to learn in this conversation.Varun has been personally impacted by some of the most influential thought leaders in history… Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, to name a few.As a leader (and I’m not throwing that term out there loosely) at the University of Southern California, Varun is deeply committed to helping students become, through embracing the tension between differences and commonalities.His goal is to run the office of religious life at USC as the office of the future – to envision what religion and spirituality is going to look like 10 years from now rather than what it looked like 10 years ago.In this conversation we talk about how to maste

This week’s conversation is with David Epstein.David is author of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He is a science writer and investigative reporter at ProPublica, and before that was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he authored or co-authored a number of the magazine’s most highprofile pieces.Despite his success as a writer, David didn’t always know that was what he was meant to do.Prior to becoming a science writer, David was an 800-meter runner and University record holder at Columbia University, where he studied geology and astronomy. He lived and worked both on a seismic research vessel in the Pacific Ocean as well as in the Arctic as a science researcher.The trigger for David becoming an investigative reporter was the sudden collapse and death of a friend and teammate during a track competition. David was compelled to get to the bottom of what really happened that day and it led him on a much deeper journey: to understand the relationship between sport and gene.This conversatio

This conversation is with Arianna Huffington. Arianna is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the founder of The Huffington Post, and the author of 15 books, including, most recently, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution.Arianna has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, in 2012 won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. In August 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a corporate and consumer well-being and productivity platform with the mission of changing the way we work and live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is the price we must pay for success.With that in mind, a big focus of this conversation is on recovery.We discuss what it’s going to take to get people to care about recovery and the specific moment that made her realize why it can't be overlooked.In many of the Finding Mastery conversations, guests have shared how hard it is for th

On this podcast, we get to hear from many different vantage points: artists, scientist, elite military, politicians, those who run highly successful businesses, and those who have been on the razor’s edge in the sports arena.When it comes to elite sport, there’s a rare breed that have succeeded as both player and coach — and winning championships in both roles is almost unheard of.That is why I wanted to sit down with Luke Walton, head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.Luke played in the NBA for 10 years, winning 2 championships.He’s coached for 4 years, winning one NBA title with the Golden State Warriors.But even more important to his track record, Luke is flat-out a phenomenal human being.He was hired as the 26th head coach in Lakers franchise history, the eighth individual to both play and coach for the organization, and is the youngest coach in the NBA.Luke has been around the game of basketball and legends his entire life.His dad, Bill, played under John Wooden at UCLA, is a member of the Naismith Memoria

In January 2012, Robert Rabbin was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and told he had a few months to live. However, in keeping with his contrarian nature, he took a non-conventional path.Robert began his professional journey in 1985, after spending 10 years living and working with meditation master Swami Muktananda in India.Long before then he was on a pursuit – a pursuit to understand the “why”.The questioning and the wondering, has been the signature characteristic of his life.Who am I? What is my purpose? What is real?At 11 years of age Robert asked himself those 3 questions and has been on a relentless journey to answer them ever since.The spirit of inquiry, wondering, and curiosity has allowed him to go deeper and further than most people – deeper than those that accept a preexisting condition of knowledge.In this conversation we take a deep dive into mindfulness and the meaning of a “thought stream.”We discuss why words and language can be insufficient when it comes to truly understanding what is trans

Mike Erwin served in the US Army for 13 years, including 3 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.He is the Founder and President of The Positivity Project, a non-profit strengthening leadership and relationships through a deeper understanding of character.Mike is also the board chair of Team Red, White, and Blue, providing a network that helps veterans to combat their tendency to isolate themselves as they go through a difficult transition from soldier to civilian.When Mike was nearing the end of his deployment, he looked for a way to continue making a difference, and decided to help veterans returning from war.He's on an endless quest to do good for our country and the world.This conversation is not a military conversation -- it's about relationships and the commitment to help others transition in life.It's about finding purpose across multiple professions and staying true to what matters most to you.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https

In this conversation we sit down with Jan Singer.Jan is the Chief Executive Officer for Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, the world’s most recognized and beloved intimate apparel company.There are thousands of apparel companies across the globe. How do the successful one’s stand out?Part of the success is tapping into the psychology and philosophy of their potential customers. The clothes we choose are in many ways a reflection of our personal philosophy. Jan has a clear understanding of how important it is for her to be clear, open and authentic — as her philosophy impacts those that work with her, and ultimately shapes the experience of the product and customer experience.We all have choices we make everyday – of our actions and our thoughts — and how we choose to spend time and money.This conversation touches on that very issue — choice — and the process to choose thoughts that serve us well.Jan’s authenticity in the conversation is a hallmark for her success in leadership.We learn about her leadership style and

Judson Althoff is executive vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business organization.He leads the company’s commercial business strategy and over 40k people across the globe in a whole range of functions that need to work closely together in one coherent team for a company in the midst of digitally transforming itself with it’s customers.Leading that many people who have to work that closely is in itself intriguing. Doing that while being part of a leadership team engaged in one of the most significant shifts in how technology is sold and consumed is another.This conversation is about continuously striving for self-improvement and Judson’s insatiable inner drive to help others reach their potential.It’s about continuously striving for excellence, but not at the cost of hurting relationships with loved ones.We discuss how difficult but important finding balance is and the ways in which mindfulness and an investing in recovery practices can be of help.We talk about what it means to be a lea

This conversation is with John Nordstrom -- of the Nordstrom high-quality fashion retailer in the US -- whose history has gone from a small shoe store, to having over 350 large luxury department stores -- to being publicly traded on the NYSE -- to being in the middle of a potential family buy back.This conversation is about a man who cares for his family and cares for his customers. It's authentic and it's one of the reasons the Nordstrom company has been successful.In this conversation, we talk about the steps Nordstrom took in growing the business. John takes us through the history of their expansion and how customer service came to be their number one priority.We also discuss how to create a culture of trust within a company and how to inspire others to be just a little bit better every day.We touch on the parallels between running Nordstrom and a professional sports team (he and his family brought the Seahawks to Seattle in the 1970s) and the factors that ultimately lead to running a successful organizati

This conversation is with Dr. Albert Bandura. This conversation was an honor. He's literally a living legend in the field of Psychology -- He's an extraordinarily innovative scholar whose work in social cognitive theory has become an incredible resource in academics and for practitioners dedicated to human excellence His theories are part the core pillars with my work with elite teams, athletes, and performers. It was a complete joy to learn from him in this conversation, after I've spent so many years from him via research articles. His research changed our understanding of human learning -- how modeling and interactions impact learning - and how we can become more powerful as humans, in a variety of circumstances. He laid the theoretical foundation for understanding the self-regulatory mechanism for his theory on human agency. Human Agency is defined as the human capability to exert influence over one’s functioning and the course of events by one’s actions.  Albert’s “Theory of Agency” has 3 elements.&

In these conversations, it's my intent to really dig, relentlessly dig, to work to understand the truth. The truth of the nature of the conversation, but also the truth of the person.And opening up is challenging - it's a really hard thing to do, as many of us can recognize, to be authentic and to be vulnerable. But in this conversation with Alec Stewart, it just worked and it was a pleasure.Alec is a former English cricketer, a right-handed batsman-wicketkeeper and former captain of the England cricket team.He is the second most capped English cricketer of all time in Test matches and 3rd most capped in One Day Internationals (ODIs), having played in 133 Tests and 170 ODIs.He's got a storied tradition and an incredible body of work.Alec now acts as an executive director of Surrey, one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales.This conversation is about enjoyment for relentless hard word and appreciation fo

Shaka Smart is the Men’s Basketball Head Coach at the University of Texas and he's got a phenomenal way about himself.It just jumps out of this conversation how much he cares about other people, how invested he is in relationships, how he's working to be the most authentic person he can be — and at the same time pull that out of other people.He's definitely a relationship-based coach, which is obvious in this conversation, and he's got a real crisp point of view about how to help others become their best.I hope you enjoy learning from Shaka as much as I did and that we're doing justice in these conversations to highlight the brilliance and the genius within people.I also want to thank Ryan Holiday, a former guest on the podcast, for introducing me to Coach Smart.And lastly please help support Finding Mastery so we can continue to produce weekly content for you! Donate here!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.