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. If you’re unfamiliar with Joe, he has an incredible podcast called One Percent Better, he is someone who practices what he preaches, and he has had over 200 episodes where he’s interviewed best-selling authors, CEO’s, and all kinds of different people and leaders, to try and figure out how they’re getting one percent better every single day. Joe is way more than simply a host, though. He’s a high school teacher, he has a history coaching baseball, and he coaches people today on how they can communicate better. He is someone who thinks deeply about how to have, what he calls, damn good conversations. Currently, he’s working one-on-one with a variety of people to help them with different projects that they’re doing, whether it’s their podcast, or a TED Talk, or helping them become a better public speaker, Joe is my go-to person for whenever I’m looking for advice, expertise, and coaching when it comes to my ability to communicate. He thinks about conversations all the time, he thinks about how we can improve them, and how there’s great value in the power of conversations.

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.

Here are some insights of mine from Joe’s interview of me:

“We sometimes forget how appreciative people are for receiving gifts” (8:55).

“Gratitude, appreciation, and acknowledging when someone did a good job is just so underrated” (9:45).

“The more grateful I am for something, the more ambitious I tend to be” (10:45).

“Satisfaction and complacency are opposites” (11:00)

“Satisfaction fuels success” (11:20).

“Just because a conversation doesn’t land with me doesn’t mean it won’t land with someone else” (13:10).

“I have personal values and professional values” (14:40).

“I don’t believe in true altruism” (15:15).

“Humans need to fill our cup if we’re going to pour into other’s” (15:30).

“You should never give out of notoriety” (16:05).

“There’s a time to be public and a time to be private” (16:20).

“Thoughts come in; thinking is what we do with them” (18:10).

“Most of us believe in polarity, we just stifle it with our own convictions” (19:00).

“I want to love people and I want to love them deeply” (21:00).

“Boundaries are so underrated” (21:55).

“If I’m going to love the stuff that I do, I need boundaries” (22:05).

“I love bringing people together. It’s one of my favorite things to do” (23:10).

“I’m a connector” (24:40).

“If you can find a place that has no cell service and WIFI, that in itself is magical” (29:10).

“Things are way easier if you do it with a partner” (33:20).

“It’s scary [to ask somebody for something]” (34:55).

“Coaching is less about expertise and more about asking damn good questions and being highly curious” (36:00).

“You have to have an offering. How do you have an ask without an offering?” (36:40).

“Give me the person that is good and wants to be great” (38:50).

“I don’t need to shortcut and I don’t need to hack. It’s not going to be as fulfilling for me” (43:30).

“I’ve gotten better at listening to my thoughts and understanding they might not be true” (46:00).

“When I’m curious, I can get anything out of someone” (46:40).

“Podcasting is one of the few things that you can overprepare for” (50:30).

“I’ve perfected my preparation and then I try to be highly adaptable” (50:45).

“I think sometimes we underestimate what we’re actually doing” (58:00).

“A lot of people are afraid to just turn on the mic” (58:10).

“Things aren’t as scary as we make them out to be in our head” (58:40).

“We limit what art is or what creativity is to what we can see with our eyes” (1:00:15).

“We are all artists; it’s just how we choose to use the brush” (1:01:05).

“When we label young people, we limit their possibilities” (1:02:00).

“My clients have become my friends” (1:05:00).

If you’re interested in learning more about what Joe does, I highly recommend you reach out to him via email ([email protected]). You can check out the website for the One Percent Better Podcast here. Also, I strongly encourage following Joe on Twitter.

Thank you so much to Joe for interviewing me!

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.