Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

What are the things we can do today to help minimize our chances of developing dementia as we age?
Dr. Tommy Wood is a physician and neuroscientist, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience at the University of Washington, and author of The Stimulated Mind.
The book takes on a belief many of us still hold, that the adult brain becomes fixed at an early age and then declines from there. Tommy traces that idea back to 1906 and to the words of a Nobel laureate. Then he unpacks what the latest research and data say, and it’s not what you might think.
This is a conversation about a tough subject, mental decline and dementia. Many of us have been touched by this in our own families, and what Tommy has to say gives all of us hope that we have more agency than we think when it comes to this part of our health.
Tommy and Mike get into the 14 modifiable risk factors named by the Lancet Commission, why midlife is when risk starts to diverge, and the three buckets Tommy sorts everything into: stimulus, supply, and support. Mike talks about his grandfather, who had vascular dementia and covered for it so well that the family did not see it for years.
Tommy tells us that “At 70 years old now, you are less likely to be diagnosed with dementia than any other time in history.” The trajectory is not fixed, but there’s a lot more work to be done.
Enjoy the conversation.
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Links & Resources
Dr. Tommy Wood’s Website: drtommywood.com
Dr. Tommy Wood’s Book: The Stimulated Mind: Future-Proof Your Brain from Dementia and Stay Sharp at Any Age
BetterBrain, where Tommy is Chief Science Officer: betterbrain.com
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This is a conversation about habits, the ones you want to build and the ones you want to get rid of.
Jon Gordon has written more than 30 books on leadership, habits and mindset, including numerous bestsellers.
Jon's most recent book is titled The Power of Positive Habits, and it tackles a critical issue so many of us face: how do I break the habits that no longer serve me, and how do I build ones that will help me flourish?
Jon and Mike discuss the inward reflections that have helped them break the patterns that have held them back. Jon talks about how he needed to heal wounds from his childhood before he could really break his most challenging habits. The path he describes is not easy, but one well worth considering.
This is a conversation about self-awareness, self-challenge, and how to build practical habits, like gratitude, visualization, and something Jon calls the habit before the habit.
"You are your habits," Jon says, and the best part is you can choose new ones.
Enjoy the conversation.
Links & Resources
Learn more about Jon here: https://jongordon.com/
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Jon Gordon’s Books: The Power of Positive Habits, The Energy Bus, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The One Truth, The Coffee Bean, and The Hard Hat

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What is the change you seek to make?
On today's episode we go back to the Finding Mastery Vault for a conversation with Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, teacher, and one of the most influential thinkers of our time on leadership, creativity, and making meaningful change. Seth has written more than twenty international bestsellers, including The Dip, Purple Cow, and The Song of Significance, alongside one of the longest-running daily blogs in the world. His claim is that naming the change you're actually trying to make is more than a branding exercise. It's what helps make every downstream decision clearer… what to commit to, what to quit, whose opinion to take seriously, and who you will have to become to pull it off.
We first released this one a few years ago, and since then the world has only gotten noisier, faster and more demanding of change, which is exactly why we felt it was worth bringing back.
In this episode, you'll learn:
What Seth means by the change you seek to make, and why it clarifies everything downstream
Leadership as a voluntary act, and why enrollment and inspiration come before authority
Why consistency is what makes you trustworthy enough to lead change at all
How to tell a dead end from the dip when you're deciding whether to quit
Whose judgment has actually earned the right to shape your work
Who to go to for reassurance, and who to go to for insight

If you have ever felt your choices quietly bending toward the approval of people who have not earned it, this conversation offers you a perspective you need to hear.
Links & Resources
Seth Godin Photo Credit: Brian Bloom
For More on Seth, go to https://www.sethgodin.com/
Seth Godin’s Books: The Dip, Purple Cow, Linchpin, Tribes, This Is Marketing, The Practice, and The Song of Significance. His newest book, The Knot: Problems Can Be Solved, is set to be released in September 2026.
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What questions are tugging at you right now, and how might exploring the answers to those questions help unlock your potential?
For this 30th installment of our popular Ask Me Anything series, Dr. Michael Gervais is joined by co-host Victoria Garrick Browne, a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, former Division I volleyball player at USC, mental health advocate, creator, and speaker. Victoria turned her own private struggle with performance anxiety and depression into a gift for millions, and she founded The Hidden Opponent, a nonprofit that brings mental health education and support to student-athletes on campuses around the country. She's the ideal person to sit alongside Mike for this AMA and help answer these questions with care.
The questions our community submitted are honest and vulnerable, and they keep circling the same root: identity. What happens when who you are gets fused to what you do? Mike and Victoria explore why the culture around us so easily hands young people a performance-based identity, what it looks like to move toward a purpose-based one instead, and why the way a parent talks about their child at the dinner table quietly shapes how that child sees themselves.
This is a practical and useful conversation for anyone who competes, coaches, parents, or is simply trying to figure out who they are.
In this conversation, we explore:
How to help young people build an identity rooted in who they are, not only in how they perform
Why the way you talk about your child, even at Thanksgiving, is shaping their identity
How to tell the difference between healthy competitiveness and unhealthy pressure
The warning signs of burnout in a young athlete, and why competing too early can backfire
How to share a mental health story in recruiting without it becoming a liability
Whether real confidence can exist without external validation
The difference between formal instruction and guided discovery in coaching and parenting
A simple, honest way to work with imposter syndrome

If your sense of who you are has ever felt a little too tied to what you do, this one is well-worth your time.
Links & Resources
To learn more about Victoria, please visit: https://victoriagarrickbrowne.com/
To learn more about The Hidden Opponent, the non-profit Victoria started, please visit: https://www.thehiddenopponent.org/
Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and wellbeing: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery
Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/
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Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine: findingmastery.com/morningmindset
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Learn more about The Hidden Opponent: thehiddenopponent.org
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When the moment arrives and you don’t have a script, are you trying to impress, or working to connect?
Matt Abrahams is a lecturer in organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast, and author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot. His path into this work starts very young and is almost comically literal. His last name starts with AB, so all through school he was the one teachers called on first. He felt what it is to be put on the spot before he had any tools for it. Later, in the corporate world and then at Stanford, he watched how much rides on those unscripted and authentic moments, and he set out to study what actually helps.
The central idea of this conversation is freeing: speaking in the moment is a skill, not a gift you’re either born with or not. Like any athlete, you can learn it and train it, and, as Matt puts it, you can prepare to be spontaneous. That reframe changes everything downstream. When the spotlight hits and the heart starts pounding, the body reads the moment as a threat. The work is learning to meet it as an opportunity instead, to buy yourself a little space, and to put your attention where it belongs: on the person in front of you rather than on your own performance.
Matt and Mike spend time in this conversation getting quite practica. Matt shares the two tools to reach for when your mind goes blank, the simple What, So What, Now What structure for organizing a thought under pressure, and a listening practice he calls pace, space, grace. Mike opens up too, telling the story of a first international conference where he tried to breathe his way to calm on stage and realized, mid-panic, that he had never trained the skill he needed most. In the end, they land on this simple concept: being present, grounded, and in service of the other person is the big rock that makes the rest work.
In this conversation, we explore:
How speaking in the moment is a trainable skill
What actually happens in the body when you’re put on the spot
How to shift from seeing a moment as a threat to seeing it as an opportunity
The two tools to use when your mind goes blank
The What, So What, Now What structure for organizing a thought quickly
Why great listening is pace, space, and grace
How to turn the spotlight off yourself and onto connection
Why the goal is never to sound perfect, only to connect
Matt’s work is a reminder to all of us that the goal was never to sound perfect. It was always to connect.
Links & Resources
Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and wellbeing: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery
Get exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors!
Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/
Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter
Download Dr. Mike’s Morning Mindset Routine: findingmastery.com/morningmindset
Follow on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X
Matt Abrahams’ Book: Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot
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