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Alex Auerbach on Elite Sport Psychology

Alex Auerbach is a Licensed Counseling and Sport Psychologist, he’s a Certified Mental Performance Consultant and Board-Certified Coach working in professional sports. He’s worked with elite teams and performers from a range of domains, including the NBA and the NFL, Olympians, Army Special Forces, Fortune 5 companies, and venture-backed start-ups. Currently, he is the Senior Director of Wellness and Development for the Toronto Raptors.

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Sherri Coale on Coaching and Writing

For 25 years, Sherri Coale served as the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Oklahoma where she is the winningest women’s basketball coach in OU history. She built a powerhouse program in Norman that appeared in 19 straight NCAA tournaments and competed in three Final Fours. During her illustrious career at the University of Oklahoma, in addition to coaching the Sooners, Coale participated in USA Basketball as an assistant coach. She is an author, a master motivator, an engaging speaker, a gifted writer, and a keen observer of everyday life.

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Joe Ferraro Interviews Brian Levenson on a Variety of Topics!

Today’s episode of the podcast is a little bit different. Today, I’m going to be interviewed by Joe Ferraro. In Joe’s interview of me today, we talk about things like boundaries, business, how I see and think about things, and we even talk about art and creativity. I hope you enjoy.

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Steve Gladis on Partnerships, Leadership, and Culture

Dr. Steve Gladis is an executive coach, author, speaker, and professor at George Mason University. He’s published 26 books on leadership and thinks a lot about culture and the elements of a great leader. He’s also a former faculty member at the University of Virginia, served as an FBI special agent, and was a decorated officer in the US Marine Corps.

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Tim Urban on Procrastination

Tim Urban is a writer and the creative force behind the extremely popular Wait But Why blog and newsletter, which has over 600,000 subscribers. He has a book coming out in February of 2023 and has authored dozens of viral articles on subjects such as why we procrastinate, which is what we talk a lot about in today’s conversation. His email list has people like Elon Musk as subscribers, and TED Curator Chris Anderson and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams. Tim also is a speaker; he’s got an incredible TED Talk that I highly recommend you check out.

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Nate Boyer Acting on Dreams

Nate Boyer is a former active-duty Green Beret, he’s a world traveler, he’s involved with philanthropy and started his own non-profit, he’s a community leader, and he played in the NFL as a professional athlete with the Seattle Seahawks. At his core, Nate is a dreamer. He is someone who puts his eyes on a vision and gets after it. He has a new movie out called MVP that I highly recommend you check out, he has a non-profit that brings together vets and athletes as well, and he really loves to play at the intersection of different identities and different people.

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Tom Rath on Contributing through Strengths

Tom Rath is an author and researcher who has spent the past two decades studying how work can improve human health and well-being. Tom has 10 books, which have sold more than 10 million copies. He has made hundreds of appearances on global best-selling lists. Tom also spent 13 years at Gallup, where he led the organization’s strengths, employee engagement, well-being and leadership consulting worldwide. He has served for the past 5 years as an external advisor in Gallup Senior Scientist. He’s also served as the vice-chair of the VHL Cancer Research Organization and has been a regular lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Bronco Mendenhall on Taking a Sabbatical

Bronco Mendenhall is one of the more interesting sports coaches I’ve interviewed on this podcast. What makes Bronco interesting is not that he was the Head Coach of Brigham Young University’s football program from 2005-2015, and not that he was the Head Coach of the University of Virginia’s football program form 2016-2021. What makes Bronco so interesting is that he intentionally walked away from the University of Virginia football program to take a year off.

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Tara VanDerveer on Authentic Coaching

Tara VanDerveer is an absolute legend in the world of basketball. She’s a hall-of-famer, she’s a 5X National Coach of the Year in College Basketball, she’s won 3 NCAA Division I titles, she’s been to 13 Final Fours, and she’s won a gold medal with USA Basketball. Her awards and accolades are up there with just about any college coach, and she’s the all-time leader in wins in women’s basketball.

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Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper on Building Eastside Golf

Olajuwon Ajanaku, the Founder of Eastside Golf grew up in East Atlanta. He gained a golf scholarship to Morehouse College and won a National Championship alongside his co-founder, Earl Cooper.

Earl Cooper is a PGA Professional and currently ranked as one of the best young teachers in America by Golf Digest. He has worked as the first African American golf professional at Detroit Golf Club and Wilmington Country Club.

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Marc Riccio on Creating a Competitive Advantage

Marc Riccio is the CEO of USA Lacrosse, a nearly 400,000-member organization that serves as the governing body of the sport in the United States. Prior to joining USA Lacrosse, Marc was the Chief Commercial Officer for KlarisIP, a boutique intellectual property and media consultancy. Marc spent 17 seasons leading business operation and development for the New York Jets (NFL) and he worked for Hofstra University, leading marketing and development for intercollegiate athletics.

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Owen Eastwood on Building Belonging

Owen Eastwood helps teams and organizations thrive. He really focuses on the systems and the process and how you can build an elite culture. Over the past decade, Owen has worked with some of the most elite teams and groups in the world, including The England National Soccer Team, The British Olympic Team, NATO, and The South African Cricket Team.

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Amanda Ripley on Conflict

Amanda Ripley is a New York Times Bestselling Author, an investigative journalist, the host of The Slate Podcast “How To!,” and the co-founder of Good Conflict, a company that creates workshops and original content to help people get smarter about how they fight and deal with conflict. Her most recent book is High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out.

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Dr. Michele Borba on Thrivers

Michele Borba, Ed.D. is an educational psychologist, former classroom teacher and Mom who has spoken to over one million parents and educators in 19 countries. She is recognized for her solution-based strategies on raising resilient kids, and recipient of the Sanford N. McDonnell Lifetime Achievement Award in Character Education. Dr. Borba has appeared over 150 times on the TODAY show and featured in outlets including New York Times, Dr. Phil, Washington Post, Time, and Dateline.

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Michael Lombardi on Gridiron Genius

Michael Lombardi is a former NFL General Manager, a 3X Super Bowl Champion, and somebody who thinks deeply about leadership. He has a daily newsletter with George Raveling called The Daily Coach which aims to be inspiration for people around leadership. Michael is also the author of Gridiron Genius.

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Fran Fraschilla on Learning Through Basketball

Fran Fraschilla has been an ESPN college basketball analyst, the director of USA Basketball’s 3-on-3 National Team, and the head coach at St. John’s, along with other schools. Fran had lots of success in his coaching career, which he started from a very young age. Even though he’s often heard from listeners on TV, at his core he is a coach. Fran is somebody who’s become an expert when it comes to basketball, but he’s really someone who loves to learn. He thinks deeply about leadership, culture, and mindset.

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Val Ackerman on Leading Leagues

Val Ackerman was named the fifth Commissioner of the BIG EAST Conference on June 26, 2013. She previously served as an attorney and executive at the National Basketball Association, was the founding President of the Women’s National Basketball Association, and is a past President of USA Basketball, which oversees the U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic basketball program. She also served for two terms as the U.S. representative to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

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