excellence, actually
Steve Magness, Brad Stulberg, & Clay Skipper
"excellence, actually" is a podcast from The Growth Equation, hosted by Steve Magness, Brad Stulberg, and Clay Skipper. Drawing on their years of working and corresponding with Olympians, coaches, executives, world-class physicians, and other elite-level achievers in their coaching practice and professional careers, they give you the mental and physical tools, practices, habits, and frameworks used by the best in the world in the pursuit of excellence. Each episode will give you concrete ideas and tips to use in your life immediately to help you become more meaningfully engaged in the pursuits that support your goals and your values. This is not the performative nonsense that is peddled online by grifters and influencers, but the evidence-based systems that work for the best in the world. This is excellence, actually. (This podcast used to appear under the name FAREWELL.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
81 snips
Mar 26, 2026 • 41min
How to Coach Anyone, Including Yourself
A viral coach-player moment sparks a conversation about how to motivate without destroying trust. They unpack eye contact, agency, and when intensity helps versus harms. Practical youth-coaching stories show peer leadership and role assignment. They also explore coaching yourself, using targeted validation, and when tough self-talk can actually reset performance.
102 snips
Mar 19, 2026 • 44min
Stop Self-Sabotaging: How to Get Out of Your Own Way
They dig into why we sabotage performance, from not trying to choking under pressure to night-before mistakes. Neuroscience and child psychology explain protective brain biases. Practical themes include building self-trust through exposure, acting like a 'good enough' parent to yourself, and coaching techniques to quiet the inner critic and free automatic skills.
125 snips
Mar 12, 2026 • 35min
Unstuck Yourself: The Art of Building and Keeping Momentum
They explore how wins and losses can both stall progress and practical rules to reset fast after either. Conversations cover tiny adjacent steps to regain motion and strategies for protecting rhythm like stopping one rep short. They compare daily habits to long-term planning and offer simple warmups and A/B/C goal frameworks to keep momentum without overthinking.
94 snips
Mar 5, 2026 • 49min
Beautiful Suffering: How Elite Athletes Find Joy in the Grind
A lively dive into how elite athletes mix joy with relentless practice. They unpack the idea of “beautiful suffering,” how agency fuels enjoyment, and why coaching styles shape resilience. The conversation covers avoiding binary thinking, reclaiming intrinsic motivation after burnout, and practical ways to make hard work feel meaningful.
38 snips
Feb 26, 2026 • 30min
Back to Work: Navigating Success, A.I., and the Unknown
A monthly roundup of real-world work wins and stumbles. A chaotic book launch and the fleeting thrill of bestseller lists. Deep dives into practical A.I. tools and worries about alignment and plagiarism. A simple ABZ framework to break analysis paralysis and keep progress moving.
48 snips
Feb 19, 2026 • 33min
Olympics Review: Lessons in Pressure, Courage, and Going All the Way
A lively roundup of bizarre scandals, comeback stories, and jaw-dropping performances from the 2026 Games. Conversations probe when dedication becomes dangerous and why athletes push through injury. They unpack pressure, choking, and how the brain reacts under the spotlight. Practical approaches to rebuilding confidence and the small-step mindset behind legendary endurance wins are also highlighted.
8 snips
Feb 12, 2026 • 52min
The Olympian's Guide to Handling Pressure, with Lilah Fear
Lilah Fear, British Olympic ice dancer and world medalist known for her partnership with Lewis Gibson, shares her elite mental-performance playbook. She talks about managing pre-performance nerves, switching between focused and relaxed states, using training reps to counter doubt, journaling to reclaim joy, and turning setbacks into fuel for the next performance.
74 snips
Feb 5, 2026 • 25min
How to Pursue Excellence Without Sacrificing Your Values
They dig into why health and wellness attracts so many grifters and how optimization culture can replace ethics with efficiency. The conversation explores how status pressure, fear of mortality, and incentives drive people to rationalize bad choices. They emphasize the role of accountability, community, and valuing decency over purity to resist slippery slopes.
127 snips
Jan 29, 2026 • 32min
How to Get Out of Your Head and Into the Zone
A lively dive into how elite performers move from thinking to feeling while they perform. The hosts unpack situated cognition and the idea of a positive felt sense. They compare musicians, surgeons, climbers, and mathematicians and outline the four phases of competence. Practical tactics for building intuition, managing control versus play, and practicing your way into flow are highlighted.
164 snips
Jan 22, 2026 • 52min
The Way of Excellence: Inside Brad's New Book
Brad Stulberg, a performance coach and author, dives into his new book, The Way of Excellence. He shares how the book’s inspiration stems from a life-changing trip to the Himalayas and explains that excellence isn’t perfection, but deeply caring about what matters. Insightful stories from athletes and creators illustrate the importance of rituals, gumption, and the fear of vulnerability. Brad emphasizes focusing on daily practices and trade-offs that lead to a fulfilling, excellent life, making this conversation a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone striving for greatness.
