Executive Athletes- Performance Beyond the Boardroom

Jonathan Levitt is a runner from Boston, MA. He’s the Sales Manager at InsideTracker, a Cambridge, MA based health tech company that provides personalized guidance on nutrition and performance based on your blood, DNA, and soon, wearable device data, while also taking into account your habits and goals. Jonathan graduated from UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Business with a double major in Sport Management and Marketing, and co-founded and ran an intramural baseball league while at UMass. He started running in 2013 after the Boston Marathon bombing, and since then has run 6 marathons, a 50k and a 40 mile day in the Grand Canyon. When he’s not running or helping others with their performance, he has his own podcast called For The Long Run, which is an exploration of what keeps elite runners running long, strong, and motivated. You can find him here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlevitt815/ Or follow him on twitter: https://twitter.com/JWLevitt

In 2002 Mark moved to Thailand to further his dream of becoming a professional fighter – to train Muay Thai,. with the sport’s very best. Three years and two knee surgeries later, that dream was over. After spiraling into self doubt, pity and being an overall miserable person – going as far as forgetting how to smile for an entire year – Mark decided it was time for a major change. Mark knew that whatever it was that led to his debilitating bout of depression and self doubt must also affect other people. He was determined to find out the techniques that can make us into better, more effective human beings. Shortly after establishing himself as a life coach and presenter in Asia and Europe, Mark discovered the answer. Every conversation and coaching session about fear, trauma, self-loathing and self-doubt shared one common trait: the way in which people speak about themselves. The words we use. Mark put this hypothesis to the test and four years and thousands of empowered clients and event attendees later, Procabulary was born. https://procabulary.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markengland1/

There couldn’t be a bigger believer in purpose, than Paul Epstein. Over a 15-year run as a professional sports executive, he learned how purpose can be the igniter of high-performance. Backed by his track record of achieving success and significance, Paul steered business teams that executed billion-dollar NFL campaigns, broke Super Bowl revenue records, and generated league-leading sales results for cellar dwelling NBA clubs. Paul’s proudest moment was when he was internally known as the “Why Coach” at the San Francisco 49ers—coaching others to find their Why, and ACT on it. Paul has now curated the most actionable takeaways into a leaders playbook of how he and his teams produced this impact in these hyper-competitive environments. He calls it…PLAYING OFFENSE. https://paulepsteinspeaks.com/playing-offense 

Ishveen Anand is a trailblazer in the sports marketing industry having built OpenSponsorship.com into the world's largest marketplace connecting brands to athletes for digital marketing campaigns. Her accolades include getting on the Forbes 30U30 sports list, Inc's top 100 female Founders list and raising $1.5M for the company including from NBA all-star Baron Davis, 500 startups, notable VCs and her Alma Mater Oxford Angel Fund. The marketplace has 7000 athletes, 60% are managed by the major sports agencies and 40% is athletes direct. They have done 6000 deals including for brands like Sperry, Anheuser Busch, ESPN, Fanduel and 100s more. https://opensponsorship.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ishveenanand/

Steven Sashen is the co-founder and CEO of Xero Shoes • www.XeroShoes.com. Steven and his wife, started the company after discovering the comfort, benefits, and FUN of natural movement, by getting out of thick, padded, motion-controlled shoes. Steven likes to ask, "Do your feet feel better at the end of the day than they did at the beginning?" If not, you're not wearing Xero Shoes. Prior to jumping into the footwear business, Steven was an internationally-known Internet marketing expert, Search Engine and Social Media marketing consultant, and software designer. He also co-hosted the Emmy award winning, internationally syndicated TV show, Disk Doctors.   Steven is also a Masters All-American sprinter, one of the fastest 55+ year olds in the United States. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashen/

Matt Johnson is the founder and is was also the President of the Garmin, Cannondale, and now EF Pro Cycling Team. He is also an avid ski racer and and has won a dozen Master's World Cup races and a few years ago was Master's SG World Champion. https://thefeed.com/ We built The Feed to share how the right nutrition at the right time can instantly improve your performance, get you more improvement out of each workout, and increase your enjoyment of training and racing. I started 8 years ago while I was running a Tour de France team, I saw how better nutrition was giving our riders a huge advantage in their training (getting more out of every workout) and in competition (performing stronger in the last 20% of the race or the last week of a 3 week stage race). We boiled this down to a simple formula of what to eat Before, During, and After each workout. Over the past 8 years we have refined this further with feedback from over 200,000+ athletes being feed by The Feed. But one size doesn’t fit all. Which is why we are here to build you a personal Feed that will work for you and your sport, your diet, your flavor preferences, and your training goals. We hand picked the best products on the market for you. We have have picked products from over 150 top nutrition brands (out over 400 brands we have tested). One of my biggest gripes was always being forced to buy a whole box of the same flavor. So we sell everything as “single servings”. We believe variety between flavors and products is critical to better performance. Plus nobody wants to eat twelve bars of the same flavor! (plus you can save money by just getting what you really want). Every product on The Feed has been rigorously taste tested by us. We get rid of all the cardboard tasting bars and chalky protein. We also do real-world testing of every product during our own workouts. We answer questions on whether it delivers on what it promises. Finally we are heavily biased towards natural products and we keep only a few weeks inventory on hand so everything is fresh. We work with big companies (hello Clif Bar!) and small companies (we are looking at you Joje Bars). We are focused on quality products, that you can use on-the-go, that are good for you (ahem, we are not GNC). We are also a great place to find the latest, newest hot products. Sometimes they are from brands you have never heard of (Vafels, are yummy) or even big brands that surprise us, the new plant based Clif Nut Butter Bars are, well, the bomb! Need help, our feed coaches are here to help you for free, email us at [email protected] and tell us your sport, what you are training for, any nutritional preferences and flavors you love and hate. You can order two ways from The Feed. If you are more of a stock the pantry kind of person, then make a big one-time order. If you want to make sure you have the freshest stuff and mix up flavors and products, then choose a subscription and get the freshest products delivered every 4 weeks.

Mary-Kay Messier is a member of the Bauer Hockey senior leadership team as Vice President, Global Marketing where she oversees creative, digital, social, paid media, consumer experience, sports marketing and strategic partnerships, including with the NHL, the NHLPA, international federations and pro athletes. Under Mary-Kay’s leadership, her team created the internationally successful First Shift program. Now in partnership with the NHL, NHLPA, and founding partner Hockey Canada, the First Shift has welcomed over 30,000 new families to hockey. Drawing from her extensive professional network, as well as her management and marketing experience, she is helping to elevate the women’s game, growing girl’s participation and creating more career opportunities for girls and women across the sport of hockey. For the women’s game, She is focused on advancing equity for the best women players in the world through the establishment of a sustainable professional league. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-kay-messier-77427b34/ https://twitter.com/marykaymessier https://pwhpa.com/pwhpa-welcomes-mary-kay-messier-as-senior-advisor/ 

Currently the CEO of Bonne Santé Group, Ryan Zackon most recently served as Vice President and Interim Chief Operating Officer for Twinlab Consolidated Holdings, Inc., a publicly held 50-year old international health and wellness company engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of a broad array of nutritional products. His responsibilities included overseeing operations, logistics, supply chain and business development. During his tenure with the company, Mr. Zackon designed and initiated a highly proactive restructuring program including a substantial decrease in personnel, significant cost-cutting, consolidation of operations, margin increases and realignment of the company’s priorities. Prior to his position as Chief Operating Officer to Twinlab, Mr. Zackon served as the VicePresident of Operations at Woodfield Distribution, LLC a leading 3PL provider to the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry. During his tenure with Woodfield, Mr. Zackon oversaw significant growth in fiscal year 2018 revenue and expanded the company footprint by standing up new domestic and international facilities. Before working with Woodfield, Mr. Zackon was Chief Operating Officer of Private Label Express, a nutraceutical health and wellness contract manufacturer and distributor. Under his leadership, Private Label Express scaled from 90 employees to over 240 employees with revenue exceeding $75 million. Prior to relocating to Florida, Mr. Zackon served as the Chief Operating Officer of PDF Security Services, a leading multi-national security consulting firm based in Sacramento, CA. Prior to PDF, Mr. Zackon founded Dynamic Protective Services. In addition to his accomplishments in the private sector, Mr. Zackon is a graduate of the Los Angeles County Police Academy at Rio Hondo Class 177. Upon graduation Mr. Zackon was engaged by the Los Angeles Police Department and Palantir Technologies to serve as an Intelligence Analyst embedded within LAPD’s Special Investigation Section (SIS). Mr. Zackon trained at the Central Intelligence Agency in Mclean VA, followed by assignment to the Joint Regional Intelligence Center in Los Angeles. Mr. Zackon graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Psychology and is bilingual in English and French. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanzackon/

Scott is the Founder and President of CoreTech Leasing which is firm that specializes in the financing technology related assets. As a long time  and successful entrepreneur he built a leading business in the commercial finance and lending space.   In addition to be CEO and Founder, Scott understands the importance of physical and mental on being a successful business person.  He is a passionate snowboarder, body surfer and a high level competitor in the Underwater Torpedo League. https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-mcfetters-a8a6454/ https://coretechleasing.com/

Erin has a very impressive combination of an extensive background in competitive sports and a passion/business experience in wellness and enhancing sports performance through new health /recovery modalities. Originally competing at the national level for badminton and softball in the NZ, she also enjoyed volleyball, kayaking and snowboarding.   She can now often be found cycling and mountain biking around the Surrey Hills in the UK. As a qualified Civil Engineer, Erin has over 10 years experience focused on the wellness & wellbeing sector designing and constructing many luxury experiences like saunas, steam rooms, ice caverns and salt rooms for both commercial and residential projects. Erin became interested in Halotherapy after trying it for herself and feeling the many benefits, especially with regards to the respiratory system.  Now she is passionate about sharing these many benefits with others, hoping to make a positive difference to people’s wellbeing, health and performance. Erin has her own Halotherapy business, is the UK representative on the Global Wellness Initiative – Exploring Salt & Halotherapy, Founder of the UK Halotherapy Network and VP of GetHaloHome the supplier of home halotherapy solutions, which is why we are having this podcast today. OTHER GetHaloHome is the consumer arm of Halotherapy Solutions who for  the first time ever, have combined both Halotherapy and Infrared together in the HaloHomeIR—from a joint development project between the #1 manufacturers in both the Infrared and Halotherapy industries. For an exclusive Executive Athletes discount through June 30, use EXEC007 and contact [email protected].