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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 B******t: 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.