Intangibles

Richard Lui is a journalist and news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News. He was formerly at CNN Worldwide. Lui is also a columnist, contributing to publications including USA Today, Politico, The Seattle Times, Detroit Free Press, and San Francisco Chronicle. In 2020 Lui directed the documentary Skyblossom which profiles five families, each with a student providing care for a veteran parent or grandparent with disabilities. This where today’s topic, selflessness, comes into play. Seven years ago, Richard walked into his supervisor’s office, prepared to give up his dream job at NBC, having just learned of his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As in the documentary, Richard was compelled to care for his father. It turns out, there was a comprise to be reached with NBC. It also turns out that what Richard learned from that time in his life became the basis for his book ‘Enough About Me - The Unexpected Power of Selflessness’. We are going to get the benefit of that learning in our conversation today.

Stephen M. R. Covey is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The SPEED of Trust—The One Thing That Changes Everything. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to become one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine. In this episode, we discuss trust and how it should be developed, ingrained, and practiced by everyone, every day, all the time.

Ximena Vengoechea is a researcher, writer, and illustrator who works on personal and professional development. She has been published in Inc., The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Huffington Post. She is a contributor at Fast Company and The Muse and writes Letters from Ximena, a newsletter on tech, culture, career, and creativity. She is best known for her project The Life Audit. An experienced manager, mentor, and researcher in the tech industry, she previously worked at Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter. She is also the author of ‘Listen Like You Mean It: Reclaiming the Lost Art of True Connection’. She and I spend some time in conversation about how to become a better listener.

Ron Carucci is the best-selling author of nine books, including ‘To Be Honest’, which we dive into in our discussion about what it means to be honest and how to do it. Ron is the co-founder and managing partner of Navalent, a consultancy that works with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations. Ron is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Forbes. His work has also been featured in Fortune, CEO Magazine, Inc., Business Insider, MSNBC, Business Week, and Smart Business. And he is a two-time TEDx speaker.

Carl Bergstrom is a theoretical and evolutionary biologist and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Bergstrom is a critic of low-quality or misleading scientific research. He is the co-author of a book on misinformation called Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World and teaches a class by the same name at the University of Washington. He and I talk about the importance of understanding what is being perpetrated around us and how to avoid falling into traps created by skilled bullshitters.

Andrew Tarvin (or as he prefers, Drew Tarvin) is the world’s first Humor Engineer teaching thousands of people at over 200 organizations, including P&G, GE, and Microsoft how to get better results while having more fun. He is a best-selling author of a couple of books (my favorite being Humor That Works), he has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and TEDx, and has delivered programs in 50 states, 18 countries, and 3 continents.  And in the spirit of the topic, he loves the color orange and is obsessed with chocolate. He and I talk about how to use humor to communicate and motivate people.

John Tierney has written a number of books and he is also a journalist who writes for The New York Times and The City Journal. The first time he came on the podcast it was to discuss willpower because he, along with psychologist Roy Baumeister, wrote a book called ‘Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength’.  He again collaborated with Dr. Baumeister. This time they have written a book called, “The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It.”  He and I investigate how to meet adversity and how to overcome it.

Dr. Ethan Kross is one of the world's leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business, he is the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. He has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, and NPR's Morning Edition. His pioneering research has been featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Science. He completed his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at Columbia University. Chatter, The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It, is Dr. Kross’ first book.  He and I talk about our inner voice.

Joshua Medcalf is a multi-faceted, thoughtful, self-aware guy. One of the more remarkable things about him is he dropped out of his Master’s program at Duke University, skipped scholarships to law school, and moved across the country into a homeless shelter to serve people. He’s written many books, including the fable 'Chop Wood, Carry Water.'  He’s started businesses.  He’s lectured.  He’s worked with high-profile collegiate sports programs. He has spent a great deal of time helping to develop mental toughness in those he has worked with and for.  He and I dive deep into the topic.

Jason Harris is the Co-Founder & CEO of Mekanism a premier creative agency in New York City. Customers he has landed include Alaska Airlines, Ben & Jerry’s, OkCupid, HBO, MillerCoors, Peloton, and The United Nations.  He is the Co-Founder of the Creative Alliance, which is a force for good.  And… he is the author of The Soulful Art of Persuasion a great take on what he has learned about influence and how to develop it over time.

Nick Velasquez is a passionate learner and a devoted student of mastery. He's the creator of the popular blog UnlimitedMastery.com, where he writes about learning science, peak performance, creativity, and mastering skills. His writing has been featured in publications such as TIME and Thought Catalogue. The name of Nick’s book is: Learn, Improve, Master: How to Develop Any Skill and Excel at It. We talk about how t learn. Warning: this was recorded over Zoom.  The quality is mediocre.

Stu Heinecke is a Wall Street Journal cartoonist among other things. During his career, he has become a hall of fame nominated marketer and he has learned a lot about how to communicate with people. Specifically, he has gained an understanding of the best way to break through to people. This is commonly known as ‘contact marketing’. To me, there is a grounding in behavioral psychology. I see Stu’s skill set as how to humanize a message and how to interact on a person-to-person level, even if you may not have met that person before. Stu has written a book that captures his learnings called ‘How To Get A Meeting With Anyone’. He and talk about how to make emotional connections. Warning: this was recorded over Zoom. The quality is mediocre.

Maria Konnikiva is the author of two New York Times best-sellers, The Confidence Game and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes.  She is now, also, a successful professional poker player. Her new book about her poker journey is called 'The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win' is just out. Maria is my first 2-time guest.  She and I talk about what the pressure and repetition and introspection (that one hones by playing high-stakes poker) do to sharpen personal judgment and how it can improve decision all-around making. Warning: there is an instance of indecent language.

Dr. Diane Halpern is an American psychologist and former president of the American Psychological Association. She is Dean of Social Science at the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute and also the McElwee Family Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. She received her PhD from the University of Cincinnati.  She has received at least a dozen awards for teaching and research. She wrote a textbook called Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking.  She and I talk about heuristics, biases, probabilistic thinking, assessing sources of information and many other topics related to critical thinking.

Apollo Robbins is a pioneer in the application of deception to real-world environments, Robbins uses pick-pocketing and sleight-of-hand to demonstrate perception management, diversion techniques, and self-deception. Known as “The Gentleman Thief,” Robbins first made national news as the man who pick-pocketed the Secret Service while entertaining former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. He has picked the pockets of more than 250,000 men and women. Forbes has called him “an artful manipulator of awareness,” and Wired Magazine has written that “he could steal the wallet of a man who knew he was going to have his pocket picked.” He and I talk about his craft and how it applies to entrepreneurs.

Larry Chu is currently a partner at Goodwin - a law firm with over 1,000 lawyers - where he leads the Technology M&A practice on the West Coast.  On the sell assignment side, his clients have included Qualtrics, Nest and Oculus.  On the buy-side, his clients have included Box, PayPal, Informatica, Sony, Skype, McAfee, and Atlassian.  He has also counseled a number of banks and private equity funds, such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and Kleiner Perkins.  He has advised on over 200 transactions having a total value of over $125 billion.  He gives me his strategies for negotiating difficult things.

Dr. Jack Mayer is a Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire.  He received his Ph.D. in psychology at Case Western Reserve University and was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University.  His 1990 article, "Emotional Intelligence" with Dr. Peter Salovey, provided a foundation for research in the area, and they have published dozens of works in the area since, including the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test.  Dr. Mayer, one of the earliest and most original thinkers and researchers on the topics of emotional intelligence and personal intelligence.  He and I discuss EQ.

General David Petraeus has had a long and distinguished career. He served in the Army for 37 years.  Highlights include Commander of the International Security Assistance Force, 10th Commander US Central Command and Commanding General Multinational Force – Iraq (where he successfully directed ‘the surge’ and literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency).  His educational credentials are stellar as well… BS from the US Military Academy (top 5% his class), MPA and Ph.D. from Princeton.  After leaving military service General Petraeus was the director of the CIA. These days he is the Chairman of the KKR Global Institute. He and I discuss leadership.

Ryan Holiday is an author, marketer, entrepreneur and founder of the creative advisory firm Brass Check. Holiday began his professional career after dropping out of college at the age of 19, instead choosing to work with Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power. Holiday is the author of several books and has written for Forbes, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, and many other publications. Holiday's third book The Obstacle Is The Way, is based on the Stoic exercise of framing obstacles as opportunities. His latest book, Stillness Is the Key, reads like the prequel to the former.  He and I discuss both books.

Elizabeth Stanley is an associate professor of security studies with joint appointments in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Earlier in her career, she served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer as a captain. She is the creator of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training, which has been tested through four neuroscience research studies with the U.S. military. She has a B.A. in Russian & East European Studies from Yale University, an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University. She and I discuss her career-long work on resilience.