Joshua Spodek | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Joshua Spodek PhD MBA is a two-time TEDx speaker, #1 bestselling author of Initiative and Leadership Step by Step, host of the award-winning Leadership and the Environment podcast, and professor at NYU.

He holds a PhD in astrophysics and an MBA from Columbia, where he studied under a Nobel Laureate and helped launch a satellite (having emerged from some of Philadelphia’s most dangerous neighborhoods). He left academia to found a venture to market an invention that showed animated images to subway riders between stations.

He teaches and coaches leadership and entrepreneurship at NYU and Columbia Business School. He has spoken at Harvard, Princeton, West Point, and globally renowned corporations.

Appearing on every major network, the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and more, he has been called “best and brightest” in Esquire’s Genius issue, “astrophysicist turned new media whiz” by NBC, and “rocket scientist” by Forbes.

He visited North Korea twice, swam across the Hudson River, has done burpees daily since 2011 (135,000 and counting), takes 16 months to produce one load of garbage, and hasn’t flown (by choice) since March 2016. He blogs daily at joshuaspodek.com.

Current position (3)

Professor of leadership and entrepreneurship

NYU

Host

The Leadership and the Environment podcast

Columnist

Psychology Today

Achievements (3)

Sustainable living

- Filled only one load of trash in 2019, one in 2018, and one in 2017
- Haven't flown (by choice) since March 2016
- Pick up at least one piece of trash per day

Sports

- Competed at Nationals twice and Worlds in Ultimate Frisbee
- Captain of Ultimate Frisbee team
- Finished 7 marathons
- Swam across Hudson River

Habits

- Burpees daily, over 145,000 and counting
- Cold showers, over 450 and counting
- Blog daily, over 3,500 posts and counting

Degrees (2)

MBA

Columbia University

2005 to 2006

PhD in Astrophysics

Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania

1993 to 1999

Presentations

Presentations (5)

How to Make a Meaningful Connection (for leadership and teamwork)

Small talk and exchanging cards and resumes are poor excuses for connecting meaningfully with people. Meaningful connections lead to job offers, promotions, funding, and more connections. This interactive workshop will give you the skills and experience to connect with anyone any time. Led by a former science geek (PhD in physics) who built a global company, earned his MBA at Columbia, then started and hosts an award-winning podcast with world-renowned guests.

Initiative: How to Bring Your Passions to Work (and Life)

Taking initiative is the route to promotions, raises, greater responsibility, and entrepreneurship. It's the best protection or escape from a boss or job you dislike. Yet we've lost our ability to initiate. Schools teach compliance and following. Shark Tank and business plan competitions turn it into a spectacle benefiting investors, often at the expense of initiators. Our culture promotes one narrow type of initiative. This session will expose the forces keeping you from learning to initiate, profiles people who have learned to take initiative and succeed despite those forces, and walks you through steps to become someone who knows how to initiate, even (especially) if you don't have an idea or know your passions.

Leadership and the Environment

The environment is one of the most critical issues ever. With billions of people craving environmental leadership, it's an area ripe for podcasting. This workshop will teach practical, immediately useful skills for podcasting around the environment -- including how to inspire. We will cover finding and booking guests, how to start, the difference between intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, then practice podcasting.
Workshop leader Joshua Spodek PhD MBA is an award-winning host of the Leadership and the Environment podcast, bestselling author, and two-time TEDx speaker on environmental leadership.

How to Get Advice and Mentors Vested in Your Success

Few things improve your career more than mentorship from a valuable person -- all the more so when they see their success in yours. This interactive workshop will give you skills and experience in getting advice you can use (not judgment) and how to reel in mentors who will want you to succeed. Led by a former science geek (PhD in physics) who built a global company, then started and hosts an award-winning podcast.

Rock-solid habits for success, without losing them

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Great historical achievers credit their success to their habits. Few have excelled at habits as much as Joshua Spodek, or helped as many start and keep theirs. Joshua has not missed a day of burpees since 2011 (over 145,000 and counting), of blog posting since 2010 (over 3,600 posts and counting), cold showers (over 450 and counting).

Joshua will share his personal journey of self-discovery doing burpees on six continents, cold showers during a polar vortex, and more.

He will share the secret to overcoming the biggest challenge of a habit. The challenge isn't starting, it's not stopping. Joshua shares how to start so you won't stop.