Joe Ferraro on Leveraging Curiosity

Joe Ferraro is currently entering his 23rd year as an educator, teaching 12th grade English. Joe also teaches public speaking and creative writing. In addition to his work in the classroom, he is the founder of damngoodconversations.com. Damn Good Conversations is a company whose mission it is to teach you repeatable ways to have the best conversations in your life and work. His flagship service is a weekly personal growth podcast, which is called “One Percent Better.” In this episode, we discuss being and becoming (8:01), the word “enough” (9:00), if damn good conversations and interviews are separate or the same thing (12:00), if there is a time Joe has to turn off the curious, interviewer mind inside of him (15:59), high velocity questions (18:05), bringing curiosity and questions into the classroom (19:56), fitting in in high school (24:14), why he decided to share his podcast with his students (27:58), if middle schoolers are more curious than high schoolers (30:28), cultivating curiosity in his children (32:24), the distinction between teaching and podcasting (34:50), growth (37:00), if anything in the educational system holds teachers back (40:26), why he teaches (43:52), questions he receives from alumni (45:07), why he podcasts (47:22), communication advice (50:42), why we like to put people into either/or boxes (55:25), what makes a great teacher (59:21), how he makes his classroom different from other classrooms (1:00:21), curious environments (1:01:56), what 17-year-old Joe would say to Joe today (1:05:36), and what his classroom will look like in 5 years (1:06:28). You can check out the website for Damn Good Conversations here. Also, I highly recommend following Joe on Twitter @FerraroOnAir. Thank you so much to Joe for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening. -Brian