Intentional Performers Brian Levenson

Mickey Bergman is one of the most fascinating, interesting people that I’ve met (and certainly that we’ve had on this podcast). He’s currently the Vice President and Senior Advisor at the Governor Richardson Center for Global Engagement. We are going to talk about Governor Richardson, who’s also known as “The Gov” to Mickey, and the impact that he’s had on Mickey’s life. The Center for Global Engagement really was at the forefront of what Mickey calls “fringe diplomacy,” which is a field that he is forming, which is an innovative discipline exploring the space in international relations that are actually beyond the boundaries of states’ and governments’ capacity and authority. So, Mickey and his team, they try to negotiate and help represent families of hostages, people whose loved ones are imprisoned and in awful situations and places like North Korea, Cuba, Lebanon, and the Middle East. We talk a lot about Mickey’s work in Gaza and trying to help a lot of Israelis who are currently hostages of Hamas. So, he has been in some of our most challenging areas of the world. We talk about Russia in today’s conversation. Mickey and his people go in and they try to help families get their loved ones back; that is really what they do, that is his job, and he represents families, not governments. He was the Executive Director of the Global Alliances Program at The Aspen Institute, and he’s a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where he teaches about emotional intelligence and international relations. Emotional Intelligence is something that Mickey references often in today’s conversation and the importance of being able to manage emotions and find ways to understand people they are talking to and try to create what he calls symmetry and common ground and try to really get to know people even if they represent some of the atrocities that exist in our world. Mickey talks a lot about evil and good and bad and how that bad people can do good things and good people can do bad things and how he tries to keep that the forefront of his brain when he is representing hostages and personally trying to get them back to their families. He’s published numerous articles, he’s been interviewed, and he’s done opinion pieces in The New York Times, Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and The Boston Globe just to name a few. He’s appeared on TV on places like CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX News, etc. So, Mickey is an expert when it comes to trying to understand what it takes to bring people home. And just to give people an idea of the scale and the scope of Mickey and his colleagues’ work, in 2019 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work at the Richardson Center, where he led a team to facilitate the release of more political prisoners than any other organization. And Mickey is from Israel and he talks a lot about his work in today’s conversation to try to bring hostages home from Gaza. And remember, Mickey represents the families that have members that are still in hostage situations in Gaza. And so, this conversation goes deep and gets vulnerable pretty quickly. Mickey still has family in Israel, he cares about the country, we both talk about how we are proud to call ourselves Zionists in today’s conversation, and still there are challenges that exist with governments at play and his ability to get people home, and that is what Mickey is most focused on is trying to help families reunite with prisoners that are held hostage, oftentimes in an unjust way. And so, I found this conversation to be extremely inspiring, I find Mickey to be someone to be thoughtful, to be caring, to make you think, and I know and I hope that he does that with all of you today. He has a wonderful book which we talk about quite a bit which is called In the Shadows and I highly recommend you check that out, it is a wonderful read as I share in today’s conversation. And so, as you liste

Andy Lopata is all about building quality, strategic, and intentional relationships, and trying to teach others how they can do so as well. He’s written 6 books on networking and professional relationships, with his latest being all about aentoring; it’s called The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring, and it was co-written by Ruth Gotian who is a past podcast guest. He also writes a regular blog for Psychology Today and has been quoted in the media multiple times, including The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and Ink. He is someone who not just thinks about networking from a transactional standpoint, but really from an intentional place, which is why he made for such a quality guest on the podcast today. He started working in networking in 1999 with his father, and he’s going to talk about his relationship with his father and what he learned from him as a mentor along the way as well. He spent 8 years as a Managing Director of a UK networking organization that had over 2000 member companies. His approach to building professional relationships is all about being authentic, being genuine, and being thoughtful about the political nature that we might find ourselves in. At the end of the day, it’s just as important that people know who you are as it is to know who you know. At his core, I think Andy is someone who cares a lot about people, cares a lot about being intentional and thoughtful with how we’re connecting with each other, and, as I said, I think he is someone who will come off as being genuine and authentic, but also extremely thoughtful in his own expertise, in his own knowledge, around how we connect. The last point I’ll make is a lot of today’s conversation revolves around vulnerability and the power of asking for help. So, I am grateful to all of you who continue to support this podcast and I hope that you can continue to support us in sharing this conversation with the world.
Andy had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:
“You don’t want to wait for someone’s life [to end] before you tell them what they mean [to you]” (6:25).
“I came from an aspirational family, so I always wanted to impress and make them proud” (10:40).
“I got to that point where I needed to hear [feedback]” (11:35).
“It is good to like your mentor, but I always think it is more important to respect them” (12:05).
“I need a combination of someone I respect that I’m working with that I allow to challenge me… but also the sense they are listening to me” (16:20).
“It’s not what you know or who you know, it’s who knows you” (19:50).
“Opportunity knocks when you don’t even know there’s a conversation taking place” (20:00).
“We can see how dangerous it gets when people start believing their own publicity and they think that every idea they have is brilliant” (21:55).
“There are a number of reasons why it’s important for a mentor to be vulnerable” (26:50).
“Ego needs to be left at the door before you go into the room to mentor” (27:25).
“Your message is going to resonate more with the other person if you’re not perfect” (27:45).
“We learn from people who say I succeeded but I had challenges along the way and I made mistakes along the way” (32:30).
“Performance only accounts for 10% of any promotion, image is 30%, and exposure is 60%” (36:40).
“What I do is I take things that should be natural and authentic and then I break them down into their component parts” (41:20).
“You need to be able to separate the strategic thinking from the way you engage with people” (41:35).
“You need the strategy, you need to understand what you’re trying to achieve, and recognize when people can help you so you can ask the question but then focus on the relationship” (44:40).
“Most people will get a lot more joy from helping other people than from receiving help” (49:05).
“We assume people know what’s going on in our lives” (

I’ve been really fortunate to spend time with some of the best athletes in the world, whether it’s through my podcast or whether it’s through other relationships I’ve had in my life, I’ve gotten to be inside certain circles that put me in spaces with professional athletes. I also had a sport psychology practice where I worked with a number of professional athletes. One of my favorite athletes that I’ve ever interacted with is today’s guest. Zaza Pachulia is just an amazing human. He’s likeable, he’s thoughtful, he’s curious, he’s caring; he is the type of person that you just want to be around. He was an amazing teammate; I think if you asked players that played with Zaza, that’s how they would describe him: a great teammate who would do whatever it took to help the team win, including some of the not so glamorous aspects like playing defense and setting screens and helping out on the boards; he was an amazing offensive rebounder. As I think about today’s conversation, it actually has less to do with Zaza’s 16 years and over 1000 games that he played in the NBA, and more to do with his mindset and his curiosity and his desire to learn, grow, develop, be vulnerable, be willing to change, be willing to evolve, be willing to grow. At the core, that’s as much who Zaza is as winning 2 championship rings with the Golden State Warriors. And make no mistake, he’s also a competitor. He cares deeply about winning and being the best version of him that he can be when it comes to parenting, when it comes to mentoring, and when it comes to playing a game.  
Zaza had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:
“Every human being has a turning point in their lives” (6:15).
“Every day is a battle” (9:20).
“[Your kids] have to have goals, have to have dreams, and how can we, as parents, make sure that every day they wake up they’re inspired” (11:15).
“Give your best, give 100% every single day” (13:35).
“We all have different journeys. Every successful person has different paths to success” (15:35).
“When I retired from basketball, I had to work on myself because I was preparing to live a different kind of life” (21:45).
“It’s not only about what I tell [my kids]. It’s not authentic if I tell them to be happy but I’m miserable” (22:55).
“Kids observe everything” (25:55).
“Lead [your kids] by example” (26:35).
“I was lucky to have coaches who cared a lot” (27:40).
“It’s not about what outsiders think. It’s about what we think as a group, as a family” (31:30).
“Control whatever is in your hands” (36:25).
“I believe in consistency and I believe in authenticity. You have to be who you are” (38:50).
“I am who I am, but I am the same person every day” (39:05).
“In everybody’s journey, decisions are such an important part” (46:45).
“Basketball helped me bring [my curiosity] into my real life” (53:15).
“You’re never going to get time back” (1:00:45).
“Curiosity led me to reading and hearing the stories of amazing people” (1:01:00).
“Basketball has always been priority number one” (1:02:40).
“I gave everything to basketball and basketball gave lots of things back to me” (1:02:55).
Additionally, you can find out more about the Zaza Pachulia Basketball Academy here.
Thank you so much to Zaza for coming on the podcast!
I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.
Thanks for listening.

When I was first introduced to Chris Waddell for this podcast, I was super excited. His bio is absolutely inspiring. He was Dalai Lama’s Unsung Hero for Compassion. He’s won 13 Paralympic medals. He’s in the Paralympic Hall of Fame. He’s in the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. NPR credited him with one of the best graduation speeches ever for his keynote at Middlebury College in 2011. He has won more medals than any male monoskier in Paralympic history. He is somebody who has been recognized for being one of the 50 most beautiful people by People Magazine, which we talk about in today’s conversation. The accolades are endless, they’re inspiring, they’re impressive, they’re almost outer worldly. In our conversation, we talk about the downside that comes with people who view Chris as a hero. I watched a documentary that he was featured in, and the documentary was beautiful, it was all about his ascent to Mount Kilimanjaro as an unassisted paraplegic. That documentary was a fascinating watch and it is the focal point of a lot of our conversation today, as Chris challenges the notion that others sometimes think that he’s outer worldly and that he’s some sort of hero because of some of the challenges he’s faced as far as with his ability to walk. That is what makes this conversation so real, so unique, so vulnerable: even though Chris is paralyzed and doing things that most able-bodied people would think is beyond the realm of possibility for them, Chris is a human and you’re going to love him in today’s conversation because he’s open, honest, and vulnerable.
Chris had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:
“If you don’t tell the story, it didn’t happen” (6:25).
“In climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, I wanted to confirm I was a superhero” (7:50).
“I wanted to free myself of this burden of being the superhero” (8:00).
“If you’re a human being, you’re part of the team” (8:30).
“The victim thing is the thing that I want to avoid at all costs” (12:20).
“If I continued to be a victim of circumstance, then my life ended at 20 years old effectively” (12:40).
“We often see our greatest strength in crisis” (16:25).
“The vulnerability is where we ultimately connect as human beings” (18:05).
“The only way that we really connect with other people is through being honest” (18:50).
“I wanted to stretch people’s imaginations and do things that were never possible” (24:25).
“I want to create and be able to convey whatever is in me” (26:05).
“I find heroes everywhere I go” (28:00).
“We’re always capable of more than we think we’re capable of” (28:25).
“Simplicity is the ultimate goal, but it takes a lot of work to actually get to the point where we achieve simplicity” (32:35).
“Ease can be the real root of our genius, too” (33:40).
“[Busyness] draws us away from efficiency” (38:25).
“If we’re occupied, then we have no time for thought” (38:50).
“I don’t get there on my own” (45:55).
“If we’re not aware of what other people are doing, we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice” (46:10).
“The key to communication… is ultimately about being direct” (47:05).
“The biggest struggle for me is conflict” (51:15).
“There’s the way I see myself, the way that people see me, and then there’s the way I think that people see me” (54:10).
“You don’t want to be seen for that surface level stuff” (57:45).
“The struggle is where we connect as human beings” (58:00).
“If we’re perfecting our craft, we’re never growing old” (58:20).
“It’s the getting better part that’s the most addictive part of being a human being” (58:55).
“Fear is my greatest motivator” (1:01:50).
Additionally, you can find the website for the One Revolution Foundation here and Chris’s personal website here, where you can find his books and much more. I’d also highly encourage you to check out

Devon Harris is an original member of the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team and captain of the 1992 and 1998 teams. He’s a 3-time Olympian, and he achieved something that he could only have dreamed of having been brought up in Kingston, Jamaica. And yes, Devon and his teammates were the inspiration for the movie Cool Runnings, which if you’re like me, you probably grew up watching on loop over and over and over again. We talk about that a little bit in today’s conversation. Most of today’s conversation is about Devon’s perspective on the culture in Jamaica and how that leads to great performers and great athletes. We talk about Devon’s own perspective and how he had naivete, and his teammates probably had naivete, to achieve something that they could have only dreamt of where they were going to compete in the Olympics. He is someone who is philosophical, he is thoughtful, and he has a military background which he’s going to share greatly served him and helped him when it came time for the Olympics. And so, this is conversation that gets deep into themes like confidence and themes like greatness. Devon is a motivational speaker, he thinks deeply and thinks in ways that might be new to you and I think will be helpful to you.
Devon had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:
“There is nothing glamorous about a bobsled” (5:35).
“Other people have done it before so I should be able to figure out how to do it” (6:00).
“If I die, I die. But I’m going” (7:25).
“Every time we set out to do something amazing, great, different, there is a certain amount of fear with it” (7:40).
“Courage is being scared to death but doing the thing anyway” (8:15).
“I could not allow that fear to stop me, so I went for it” (9:05).
“Anyone who has achieved something great and out of the box experiences some level of delusion” (13:15).
“There’s a certain level of delusion, but it’s founded on the experience and the knowledge and the work that you did before” (14:55).
“You can always learn new skills” (16:10).
“You have to be willing to acknowledge that you don’t know so you can learn” (17:50).
“We [Jamaicans] feed off the success of our compatriots” (23:20).
“There’s a kind of defiance that’s embedded in us as Jamaicans” (26:25).
“No task is too difficult; no obstacle is too great” (29:35).
“It was the army experience that I relied on to get through those early days” (31:50).
“Adversity allows you to grow. Adversity allows you to be inventive and be creative” (35:05).
“Once you learn to deal with adversity in one area of your life, it translates into another area” (35:50).
“I never could have imagined, coming from where I’m coming from, that you could have a movie made about a part of my life” (42:35).
“I don’t know if they really captured the hardships we experienced trying to get to the Olympic games” (44:05).
Additionally, you can find everything you need to know about Devon on his website. You can also find the link to his foundation, Keep on Pushing, here.
Thank you so much to Devon for coming on the podcast!
I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.
Thanks for listening.

Dhani Jones is someone who I did not grow up with, I think he’s about 6 years older than me, but we went to the same high school and his name was a name that we heard over and over again growing up. He helped our high school get to the state championship, he went on to play football at the University of Michigan where he earned All-Big Ten Honors. You’re going to hear him mention the University of Michigan experience quite a bit in today’s conversation; he is quite proud of his time at the University of Michigan and being an alum is something that he likes to talk quite a bit about. He was selected in the 6th round of the NFL draft and he ended up playing 11 seasons, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Giants, and finally for the Cincinnati Bengals where he really had a transformative experience in his own career and he really took off in some of his later years and performed some of his best ball at the end of his career, which is not necessarily typically the case in professional football. But I think what makes Dhani so unique and why I was so excited to have him on the podcast is that he has range. He’s not just a football player, he’s actually more of an artist; he’s an explorer, he has been a tv host with VH1 and with The Travel Channel and with CNBC, he is a venture capitalist and loves to make investments, he’s an entrepreneur, he loves to tinker and try new things. He is a unique guy, he is an N of 1, and I hope that comes across in today’s conversation. So certainly we talk about mindset, we talk about his experience playing football, leadership, we talk about strategy and exploration, and really this conversation is about philosophy and about life as much as it is about performance.
Dhani had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:
“You’re taught that if you’re a jack of all trades you’re a master of none” (6:00).
“It’s okay to have a range of beliefs, it’s okay to have a range of curiosity, as a matter of fact it’s even been proven that it’s better; it creates a better level of elasticity and it creates a better level of understanding where you are in this world” (7:30).
“It’s always important to ask more people more questions, to ask them what they see in you” (8:55).
“In the end, I loved the game (football) that gave me the tools necessary to move into the real world” (10:20).
“I see how things align through the chaos” (11:40).
“A lot of times what might look like confusion is just a misunderstanding” (12:20).
“Conviction is sometimes more of an easy route [than curiosity]” (16:45).
“On Sunday I would turn it all off because I had reached my conviction, and I would go play” (21:35).
“What I needed to survive was actually how to better control some of the curiosity and the questions that I had” (26:30).
“My real passion is art. I always wanted to be an artist… The waves of creativity have always struck me in so many different ways” (28:45).
“The last 4 years of my career, I came to love and appreciate the game because those that were around me appreciated me” (38:20).
“[Golf] is the ultimate lesson” (42:00).
“You want to learn about yourself, you want to learn about other people, you want to learn about life, you go to the golf course” (42:25).
“I go into a different frame of mind when I’m cycling” (45:30).
“No one should be given permission to learn. Everybody should be given an opportunity to learn as much as possible” (51:35).
“The world of curiosity gets narrower and narrower as you get older” (52:25).
“How do you arrive at your greatest gift if you didn’t even know that it existed?” (52:50).
“I’m curious about what people really care about” (54:00).
“I would go to outer space tomorrow” (56:20).
“We should never limit our curiosity. We should never limit our brain’s opportunity to see and to experience more light” (57:50).
“The game of