Dr. Michael Gervais was a promising young surfer—until the pressure to perform shattered his focus. A single offhand comment flipped his mindset from fear to possibility, launching a lifelong fascination with the psychology of peak performance. Today, he's a world-renowned high-performance psychologist. In this episode, Michael shares how to conquer Fear of People’s Opinions (FOPO), train your mind for peak performance, and build a purpose-driven identity through mental techniques like breathing, imagery, and mindset training.

In this episode, Hala and Michael will discuss:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:00) A Mindset Shift That Rewired Michael’s Life

(07:53) Why Mental Strength Beats Raw Talent

(11:25) Coaching Elite Athletes vs Rising Performers

(14:20) High-Performance Challenges in Leadership

(17:50) How Sleep Impacts Mental Performance

(20:59) Breathing Techniques for Mindset Control

(24:35) How to Practice Mental Imagery Effectively

(30:01) The 90-Second Mindset Routine for Success

(32:50) The Psychology of FOPO and How to Combat It

(48:26) Performance-Based vs Purpose-Based Identity

Dr. Michael Gervais is a world-renowned high performance psychologist and expert on the connection between mindset and peak performance. His elite client roster includes Super Bowl-winning NFL teams, Olympic medalists, Fortune 50 CEOs, and internationally acclaimed artists.  As the host of the Finding Mastery podcast, Dr. Gervais dives deep into the minds of elite performers - interviewing legends like David Goggins, Brené Brown, Toto Wolff, and Satya Nadella. He is the author of The First Rule of Mastery and co-founder of Compete to Create, a mindset training company that partners with Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and AT&T.

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Resources Mentioned:

Michael’s Podcast, Finding Mastery: bit.ly/FindingMastery-apple 

Michael’s Website: findingmastery.com/ 

Michael’s Book, The First Rule of Mastery: bit.ly/RuleofMastery 

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Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, Career, Leadership, Health, Growth mindset, Mindset, Habits, Positivity, Human Nature, Human Psychology, Critical Thinking, Robert Greene, Chris Voss, Robert Cialdini