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.

My guest is Rob Biesenbach a corporate communications consultant, keynote speaker, and author. In addition, he is a Second City-trained actor and improviser, who has appeared in nearly 200 stage and commercial productions. As a consultant, he has worked with Fortune 500 companies such as AC Nielsen, Mars, MillerCoors and Motorola. As a speaker and trainer, Rob has delivered programs on storytelling, presentation and communication skills for clients including AARP, Allstate, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Deloitte and Lockheed Martin. Rob is a former vice president at Ogilvy PR Worldwide. He was also press secretary to a state attorney general. Rob has written a number of books, which can be purchased on Amazon, but the one I’m going to quiz him on today is: Unleash the Power of Storytelling. We talk about the essentials of storytelling.

Dr. Todd Kashdan is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Senior Scientist at George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.  He has published over 185 peer-reviewed journal articles and written a number of books.  He is the author of the book ‘Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life’.  He is also a scientific advisor for Time, Inc., National Geographic, and Merck.  He and I discuss the nature of curiosity and how important it is to entrepreneurship and life in general.

Angela Duckworth wrote one of my favorite books... Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. In 2013 she became a MacArthur Fellow, which means she won what some call “the genius award.” This is a sizable 'no strings' attached grant to do research. Not to mention, it’s typically given to geniuses.  She is the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development.  She has advised the White House, the World Bank, teams in the NBA and the NFL, and CEOs of the Fortune 500.  Her TED talk is among the most-viewed of all time.  And… she is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her Ph.D.  We have a deep talk about what Grit is.

Kai-Fu Lee is a venture capitalist, technology executive, writer, and an artificial intelligence expert. Dr. Lee developed the world's first speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system as his Ph.D. thesis at Carnegie Mellon. He's been an executive, at Apple, SGI, Microsoft, and Google.  He is one of the most followed micro-bloggers in China where he has over fifty million followers. In 2018 he authored the book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. He and I discuss the impact of AI on the future of work.

Karla Starr is a writer who has written for O, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, the Guardian, and more. She is the recipient of a ‘Best Science/Health’ book award from the Society of Professional Journalists.  Her first book, 'Can You Learn to Be Lucky? Why Some People Seem to Win More Often Than Others', was published earlier this year. She and I explore how doing the little things and preparation increase the surface area of luck.

Dr. Larry Weiss has spent the past 8 years as the Head of School at Brooklyn Friends. Since 1974, when he began his career in secondary school education, he has helped lead in one form or fashion Friends World College, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, Horace Mann School in Riverdale and Saint Ann’s.  Dr. Weiss graduated from Columbia College in 1971 majoring in Oriental Studies. He subsequently earned Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and Ph.D, degrees at Columbia  University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a Certificate in Chinese Studies from Columbia's East Asian Institute.  Dr. Weiss teaches high school seniors a class on critical thinking.  He and I talk about how to be a good critical thinker and the pitfalls to avoid.

Emma Seppälä is the Science Director of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. She is also Co-Director of the Yale College Emotional Intelligence Project at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. She is authored of the 2016 book The Happiness Track. She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University. We have an in-depth discussion about how to be compassionate and the value of doing so.

Greg McKeown is a public speaker, leadership and business consultant, and author. He is the founder and CEO of THIS, Inc., a leadership and strategy design agency based in Silicon Valley. His book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, published in April 2014, is a business and self-help book that discusses how to lead a more meaningful and successful life. He and I discuss the principals of essentialism as he walks me through some priority setting exercises.

Phil Hellmuth is a professional poker player who has won a record fifteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He's a colorful guy with a lot of interesting stories. He's written a book called #Positivity. He and I discuss how a positive outlook along with goal setting have impacted his life and led to success.

Kamal Ravikant is an extraordinary guy. He has trekked to one of the highest base camps in the Himalayas, meditated with Tibetan monks in the Dalai Lama's monastery, earned his US Army Infantry patch, walked 550 miles across Spain, lived in Paris, been the only non-black, non-woman member of the Black Women's writers' group, written a novel, held the hands of dying patients, and worked with some of the best people in Silicon Valley. He is also the author of Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It. He and I have a great discussion about self-love in one of the most unique and human episodes of Intangibles ever.

Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times best-selling author. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Colorado State. She’s the Principal of The Eurich Group a multi-faceted executive coaching organization. Her most recent book entitled 'Insight' focuses on self-awareness. She and I explore the topic of self-awareness from many different perspectives. It's an engaging conversation.

Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg is a Clinical Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine and Director of the Luria Neuroscience Institute.  Dr. Goldberg divides his time between research in cognitive neuroscience, clinical practice in neuropsychology and teaching. He is one of the early scientists to study how creativity is processed in the brain.  He and I have a very heady discussion about the stages of the creative process, what parts of the brain are being used and why. It's an interesting topic but there is a lot to process.

Dr. Francesca Gino is a professor of business administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. She is also formally affiliated with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, with the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative at Harvard, and with the Behavioral Insight Group at Harvard Kennedy School. She teaches a PhD course on Behavioral Approaches to Decision Making and a PhD course on Experimental Methods. And she has written a couple of books the most recent of which is called, “Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules”. She and I talk individuality and rule breaking. It’s a lively, witty discussion.

Duncan Pritchard is a professor of philosophy.  He is currently at the University of California Davis as Chancellor's Professor of Philosophy but has held Chairs in Philosophy at the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling, Scotland. He has studied the problem of skepticism, the rationality of religious belief but his main area of focus is epistemology which is the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope.  He and I talk about his work on 'Intellectual Humility'.

Joe Burton (@joewburton) is the author of ‘Creating Mindful Leaders’, a book about mindfulness in the workplace. He is also the Founder and CEO of Whil (@WeAreWhil), a leading digital wellbeing training platform. During his career he spent fifteen years as a global COO at multiple public companies. He is a regular contributor to Forbes, Business Insider and HuffPost. Joe and I discuss how he discovered mindfulness, how it changed his life and the tips and tools that can help anyone.

Alex Hutchinson is an author and journalist. He’s an expert on the science of endurance and fitness. He is a contributing editor for Outside, and also writes for The Globe and Mail and Canadian Running magazine. He was a Runner’s World columnist from 2012 to 2017. He and I discuss his third book, published in February 2018. It’s called ENDURE: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. We explore the science (and mysteries) of endurance.

Kate Swoboda, also known as Kate Courageous, wears many hats including life coach, consultant to organizations, contributing columnist to magazines such as USAToday, Forbes and Business Insider and is also the author of a brand new book called The Courage Habit. Kate tells us how to make courage an everyday part of our lives by simply learning how to practice it.

Pamela Meyer is an author, certified fraud examiner, and entrepreneur. Described by Reader's Digest as "the nation's best-known expert on lying," Meyer is the author of the 2010 book Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception.  Her 2011 TED talk, "How to Spot a Liar," has exceeded 16 million views and is one of the 20 most popular TED talks of all time.  Mrs. Meyer is also the CEO of Calibrate, a company which, trains financial institutions, insurance providers, law firms and human resource professionals on verbal and non-verbal cues to deception, facial micro-expression interpretation, advanced interrogation techniques and information elicitation.

Dr. Jarrod Spencer is a Sports Psychologist.  He works with professional, Olympic, college, and high school athletes, coaches, and teams across the country. In addition to serving as the Sports Psychologist for athletic teams at such schools as University of Maryland, Old Dominion University, Lehigh University, and Lafayette College, Dr. Spencer also works individually with athletes from University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, Ohio State, Cal Poly, Princeton, and many more. Dr. Spencer is president and founder of Mind of the Athlete, LLC, a sports psychology company committed to improving the emotional health of athletes. He is also the creator of the Mind of the Athlete Program.

Zach Elwood is a former professional poker player and the author of two books on poker tells. His first book, Reading Poker Tells, is widely regarded as the best book on the subject and has been translated into three languages.  In addition, he’s worked as a poker behavior consultant for two World Series of Poker Main Event final tablists. He knows a thing or two about tells and body language.

This is a recap of some of the guests that have been on in the first 21 or so episodes and a synthesis of some of the things I've learned so far.

Susan David is an award-winning Psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, the co-founder, and co-director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital and the CEO of Evidence-Based Psychology. She and I talk about her work on emotional agility, which is how to best react to a situation to maximize the outcome. She talks about how this works for individuals and teams from a startup founder perspective. It's an enightening conversation.

Andrew Zolli is currently Vice President for Global Initiatives at Planet Inc. where he overseas the global humanitarian, social and ecological "Impact" initiatives. He is also Chair of the Garrison Institute an organization explores the intersection of contemplative practice, scientific & creative inquiry, and systems change, and is dedicated to uncovering the wisdom, tools and practices that are urgently needed for life to flourish. He serves as an advisor to Cure Violence and One Concern. He is the author of Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back which explores why some people, communities, systems and organizations are able to persist, recover or even thrive amid disruption. He and I discuss all of these initiatives, focusing especially on his written work and dive deep into resilience and what we can apply on a daily basis.

Maria Konnikova is the author of two New York Times best-sellers, The Confidence Game and also Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. She is a contributing writer for The New Yorker, where she writes a regular column with a focus on psychology and culture and is the host of the long form storytelling podcast from Panoply, called The Grift. She and I break down the scientific method to help people learn the skill of deduction.

Olivia Fox Cabane, the author of The Charisma Myth and of The Net And The Butterfly talks with me about charisma. We discuss the different types of charisma, how to develop charisma, and how to avoid the things that can sometimes get in the way. We look at the psychological underpinnings in alternatingly serious and funny ways.

Daniel Pink (@DanielPink) is the author of six provocative books — including his newest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. His other books include the long-running New York Times bestseller A Whole New Mind and the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into 37 languages. He was host and co-executive producer of the 2014–2015 National Geographic Channel social science TV series Crowd Control. In this episode, we explore the research on behaviors, which improve our timing and our decision-making positioning us for success.

Subir Chowdhury (@subirchowdhury) is chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group, leaders in strategic initiatives, quality consulting, and training. Subir has worked with many organizations, large and small, across diverse industries including manufacturing, healthcare, food, government, and nonprofit. He’s helped hundreds of companies save billions of dollars. Subir is the author of fifteen books, including international bestsellers such as The Ice Cream Maker and The Power of Six Sigma. His most recent book is called The Difference: When Good Enough Isn’t Enough.

George Anders is a business journalist and author. He has worked as an editor or staff writer at The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Bloomberg View. He has written five books including the New York Times bestseller, Perfect Enough. His most recent book is called You Can Do Anything – The Surprising Power of a ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Education. We talk about how artificial intelligence might impact the future of work. We explore what things about human beings are essential and why they may always be. It’s a good contemplation of a number of possible outcomes for the world. It can especially benefit people with young children and want to know how to guide them.

Douglas Hubbard (@hdr_frm) wrote a book entitled ‘How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business’. He is also the founder of Hubbard Decision Research (HDR) a consultancy that applies quantitative analysis methods to the most difficult measurements and challenging decisions in business. He explains some techniques for measuring things that are hard to measure and then walks me through an example of how one would measure what is often thought about as intangible quality. We had a fun time talking.

Richard Clarke (@ghsrm) is the former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism for the United States. These days he is a best-selling author as well as the Chairman of Good Harbor Consulting and Good Harbour International, two strategic planning and corporate risk management firms. We touch on the principals of leadership that are contained in a number of the books he has written. And we also review some of the cutting edge technologies that are starting to impact the world today and his view. Richard has a number of areas where is if very knowledgeable so the conversation covers a lot of ground. As you may be able to tell I was very excited to talk to Richard.

Maria Gotsch is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Partnership Fund for New York City which is the investment arm of that organization. Maria has spearheaded the creation and operation of a number of the Fund’s strategic initiatives, including: FinTech Innovation Lab, New York Digital Health Accelerator and NYCSeed which is seed financing for IT/digital media companies. She has compiled her thoughts over the years on how good founders listen to their customers, employees and investors. She and I trade thoughts and experiences as well as some of the highlights of the best practices in research about how to be a good listener. The points Maria makes are well thought out and concise. This is the first episode of the second season of ‘Intangibles’ podcast.