ROTG Presents

Latest Episodes:

Deirdre O' Shaughnessy, The Art of the Interview, Journalistic Empathy, & Success Defined - EP118 Jul 12, 2019

Show notes

Deirdre O’Shaughnessy is an award winning editor and co-presenter of Cork’s leading daily talk show, the 96fm Opinion Line.
She appears regularly on RTE Today and has featured as a regular guest on Newstalk Breakfast, Tonight with Vincent Browne and RTE Morning Edition.
She has hosted corporate events for IBEC, Ulster Bank, the Insurance Institute of Ireland, Network Ireland and the Tax Institute of Ireland, and in the charity and community sector has worked with Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, the Simon Communities of Ireland and the Mercy Hospital Foundation
I was looking forward to sitting down with Deirdre and dig into how she prepares for interviews, understand how she deals with nerves, what her core values are and how she stays motivated. She didn’t disappoint in this hour-long conversation.
For a full brief summary of the topics covered, see below. I’ve also included book recommendations and links to Deirdre on Social as well as her website.
Enjoy this one & please do help me get it out to a wider audience.
Episode Summary:
•Preparing for an interview with Mary Robinson
•The importance of good questions
•Dealing with pressure in preparing for interviewing with Mary Robinson
•The process in preparing for interviews – not overly prescribing the questions
•Finding the thread and pulling at this
•Allowing for the audience to interact with an interview
•Refreshing to see interviews and talk shows that are unplanned
•Ordinary people sharing stories – this is the key focus
•Pulling the thread on the radio show with real questions
•The importance of emotion in an interview
•Tommy Tiernan’s ability to listen and showing up the traditional show format
•Dealing with emotions and nerves when interviewing people
•Learning from others in the interviewer world and taking something from each of them
•The joy of putting down the phone when working for private radio
•The approach to forming a great question?
•Taking advice from her Uncle to study in other areas before going into journalism
•Thinking on your feet all the time and being in the moment in the Opinion Line on 96FM
•The Family of Swans – a perfect example of going from mundane to absurd – the human connection
•Choosing Law based on a Celtic Tiger decision
•Having a passion for writing which then lead naturally into journalism
•Getting work experience in the Irish Times in 5th year and working at the Flood tribunal
•Great responsibility, experience in management and deadlines as the full time editor of the Student Union Newspaper in UL
•Getting a job with Galway Independent after blagging her way in the interview and working on courts – progressing to be the deputy editor
•Taking a chance & going for it!
•Being luck and working during the recession
•Freedom & Variety emerging as core values for Deirdre
•Lucky with the timing of the social media explosion and being at the forefront of social media in the newspaper
•Through Twitter connections, getting opportunities to work with Vincent Brown, Clare Byrne and others!!
•The media are always looking for something different – just being willing to push yourself through
•In Media, be willing to just say YES!
•Factors that make you successful
•Empathy as a key trait in media – the best tabloid journalists having huge empathy!
•Developing a thick skin and learning from experience.
•If she had her time over, some stories Deirdre wouldn’t do again!
•Establishing the line and reflecting back on what was learned!
•Media being unstructured compared the structure in Corporate
•Being comfortable working in the moment, being flexible and not feeling too bad if you do cancel on others!
•Doing the role Deirdre is meant to be doing!
•Side projects that allow for greater fulfilment
•Awarded the Simon cumber media award
•Broadening perspectives with projects abroad for charity – Rwanda and Cambodia
•Enjoying travelling even more when working!
•Ordinary People having the most extraordinary lives
•Goal Setting, Measurements and Success!
•The importance of reflection
•Job offers in the media world!
•Success = financially secure, side projects, variety and having a great work life balance
•Self-depreciation is key
•Having great faith in the bigger picture
•Don’t over index on the bad days
•Dead Dinner party guests that Deirdre would bring to dinner!
oAA Gill (food critic)
oQueen Elizabeth
•
Book Recommendation:
•Mary Robinson’s book – Climate Justice - https://amzn.to/2JdpYhg
•Factfulness – Book

Brock Lewin - Following your Passion, Freedom & Trust, & Learning when to Delegate - EP117 Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

Brock Lewin is the found of very successful Coffee Roasting Business Badger & Dodo. Since his first shot of coffee in 1993, he’s been involved one or another in this business.
He set up Badger & Dodo in July 2008 in his in-law’s farm in Fermoy, Co. Cork and since then he’s been building up the business and brand across Ireland and beyond.
I’ve been very interested in the coffee explosion in Ireland over the last few years so was really looking forward to chatting with Brock about his learnings and experience in this world and having the chance to deep dive into Coffee, Business, Entrepreneurship, lessons learned, and lots more that might make for interesting listening.
Just whet your appetite, some of the topics we dive into include:
•The history of coffee in Australia from post-world war 2 Italians bring it in!
•Coffee evolving over the 50 years up to the 1990s
•A flat white, a short white, and more!
•1st, 2nd and 3rd wave coffee
•Learning the roasting process
•Taking the leap of faith and setting up a coffee roastery in recession hit Ireland
•Brock’s Beans as an early brand identity
•The Badger and Dodo Brand
•The Coffee Tree image being used in the coffee world
•Marketing and Advertising
•Route to Market via Farmers Markets
•Quote - Luck is when preparation meets opportunity
•Quote – Good coffee being recession proof
•Refreshing the Brand!
•Cupping world champion and how to train the pallet
•Business Planning
•Why coffee is exploding in Ireland?
•Big breaks in early days of the business
•Leadership Style
•Graphic Design
•Strategy & Planning – rolling on a yearly basis plans
•The importance of business coaching
•Delegation – bring in people you can trust!
•Knowing what type of business you’re running – keeping it at a certain level
•Know where your limits are!
•Expanding the business to the USA – the amount of US tourists that buy it here and then keep buying it when they get home!
•Mistakes made and missed opportunities – not setting up a coffee shop in Cork when the opportunity was there in the early years – not playing to the home market!
•Brock and his own coffee drinking habits – Less is more!
•Advice for start-ups
•Work life balance
•What would Brock be doing if not for Coffee?
•Keeping Motivated – The essential need to travel aboard!
•Freedom & Trust at the core!
How to get in touch?
Website – https://badgeranddodo.ie
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/badgeranddodo/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/BadgerAndDodo

William Pullen – Overcoming Meltdown, Empathy Running, & the Power of Practicing the Pause - EP116 Jun 28, 2019

Show notes

William Pullen is a psychotherapist and lives in London and developed a specific type of psychotherapy which is a fusion of running and psychotherapy.
I connected with William after seeing his TEDx talk earlier this year and wanted to learn more about how this can help you get more than 1% Better.
Using Integrative Psychotherapy, William aims to facilitate wholeness between the feeling, behavioural, cognitive, and physiological levels of functioning – in other words the whole person. This is done in part through looking at aspects of the self that you may be unaware of and making them conscious.
A full summary of our broad ranging conversation includes:
•William hitting a low point in his career working in TV and Advertising
•Feeling disconnected in this world that was superficial
•The Fast life style was too much and it led to a meltdown
•Depression and sitting at home turning 40!
•Starting out running and taking incremental movement
•Ambitions early in life – always wanting to work with young people
•A nicer kinder William and a more aggressive ego driven William
•Sport and the ability to move is hotwired into people for healing
•Trigger points leading to the meltdown – the warning signs were there!
•A toxic relationship forcing many changes of shape and form!
•Love and the struggle that comes with it!
•The cultural change and how it’s impacted love!
•The survivor mentality and learning how to look after yourself
•The goal and driving force to the lifestyle
•Managing to control urges and using running
•Creating a running therapy program
•Empathy Runs emerging from couple counselling training
•The Empathy Muscle – making space for someone else’s opinion
•Agreeing to share the stage of life with others is at the heart of Empathy
•Relationship Counselling and learning how to create a dialogue to escape the tit for tat game
•Active listening & Empathy
How to do an Empathy Run?
•Find someone you trust and like
•Arrange to meet
•Decide who goes first & who listens
•At the end the listener repeats back what they heard!
•Giving someone the freedom to talk about whatever they want to talk about!
•And swap roles
•Running helps you get into a narrative flow
•There is no sense that you are trying to resolve something – it’s never the job of the listener to solve or resolve things!
•There are no expectations – that’s key!
•The importance of pausing – 0.4 seconds is the normal gap!
•How to develop the pause – and the challenge of doing it!
•Practicing the Pause!
•Feedback on Empathy Runs!
•Writing a Book – the story about this!
•Approaching Penguin and a program combined with this
•Living a more authentic life and writing a book about this – being uncomfortable about authenticity as writing about it!
•Authenticity & Authentometer!!
Book – Run for Live – https://amzn.to/2FzJEts
Book – DRT - https://amzn.to/2X2k770
TEDx Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq6393AreD4
Website – http://dynamicrunningtherapy.co.uk/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/williampullen/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/pullentherapy

Murray Newlands – Maximizing Personal Value, Develop Key Strengths, & Taking Action Sooner! EP115 Jun 24, 2019

Show notes

Murray Newlands is a very interesting guy. The Huffington Post has listed him as one of the “Top 10 People to Know in the Silicon Valley” and the "British Marketing Guru".
He’s a marketing powerhouse, an entrepreneur, investor, business ddviser and Speaker. As we talked I quickly realized he had serious focus, and an ability to set and achieve goals. Without looking too far ahead.
He’s demonstrated over his career so far a real ability to deliver against his big goals, and learn along the way. Anyone that creates over 1000 blog posts in 2 years must have huge determination, a work ethic and self-belief.
Murray was a great fit for the podcast as he lives incremental improvement and has so many valuable stories and lessons taken from them to share in this conversation.
His latest focus has been with Turing, an elite placement company for engineers. As their Chief of Strategy & Partnerships officer, he is disrupting "the future of work" and the way companies hire remote workers and tap into global resources. The talent behind Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter and more have been vastly curated by Murray and the Turing team.
Full summary below. I hope you enjoy it.
•Goal Setting & Incremental improvements
•Having a child and how it made Murray reflect back on life and his habits
•Persevering through school and became a solicitor
•6 Years leading to a solicitor – hard work and just went with it
•Taking the approach of one day at a time!
•2019 – having a goal of getting fit – and losing 20 pounds in 4 months – taking each day at a time
•Applying tiny incremental steps!
•There is no overnight success
•How did Murray get successful – taking tiny steps and moving along
•Decide on what directions you want to go in and taking the first steps!
•The unexpected benefits from following the process
•The moments of success that stand out!
•Focusing more on what you are good at, not just what you’re not good at!
•Find out what you can do
•Spotting what other people are doing to achieve things?
•Look for others doing great things!
•Tool – a sheet with 200 lines on it & working out 200 times!
•Setting out goals and writing them out!
•Get visual when setting goals
•Telling others what you’re doing with goals
•Building Habits
•Taking a deliberate approach & figuring out the WHY!!!
•Getting a Visa to work in the US was a Goal for Murray
•Starting out writing 2 blog posts a day for 2 years!
•How to get 2 blog posts a day for a period
•Having to write a lot to get noticed – writing 500 to 1000 blog posts
•Thinking about what you are trying to achieve and how you want to get there!
•Tips to CEOs – with writing – is it your true value!
oDo out audio dictation and then give it to a professional writer
oIdentify your 10 ideas and get it out there
•What do I want to achieve and what is the best way to do it?
•How to maximize your value in the process?
•Find where the real value is?
•Look for other established platforms? – adding value to other groups?
•Resetting goals and pivoting in your career
•Building and Selling Start-ups
•The new emerging talent sourcing approaches
•Stand out traits of strong leadership
•Understanding of where you want to get to, what you need to achieve, and finding the right people to help you get there!
•You can’t be successful on your own!
•The cost of having someone negative on the team massively outweighs that
•Firing people who are not a good fit fast enough!
•Clear out anything that gets in the way
•Too many leaders see success and think it’s their success!
•Dealing with Intuition and following the gut!
•Follow the gut and set some goals as boundaries
•Relationship with Fear – excited about new projects
•Driven by fear and pushing yourself along
•If you stop pushing yourself, you will get bored!
•Take on a lot of what you’re afraid of so you can achieve a lot
•Best learnings from failures?
•Trying too hard to overcome things I’m not good at and not focusing enough on things that I am good at!!
•Not firing people fast enough leading to lots of difficult situations
•The Future Plans?
oHelping more people all around the world to be more successful
oTeaching his daughter new things
oLearning the fun of do new things!
•Advice – Try to keep the current job and start the start-up on the side
oYour first business on your own might not be successful, but if you don’t do it, you will not learn from it!
oMaking failures is ok! You will learn from it!
•US v UK mindset on failure?
oTry and give it a go!!
•Books to Recommend
oPlay Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets
Connect in with Murray:
Website – MurrayNewlands.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurrayNewlands
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murraynewlands/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/futureofengagement/featured

Motty Varghese – How to Sleep Better – EP114 Jun 14, 2019

Show notes

I’m really interested in learning more about sleep, so I did some searching and it turns out we have a world-renowned sleep expert here in Ireland. In Dublin in Fact. He’s name is Motty Varghese. He’s a senior Respiratory and Sleep Physiologist in St James's Hospital, Dublin since 2003.
We learn about Motty and how he got into this area and then I think I asked him everything I could think of about sleep.
You will be way more than 1% Better informed on Sleep after this.
Summary of what we covered:
•Where the passion and desire in the field of sleep
•Graduation as a respiratory and sleep physiologist & technologies
•Doing sleep studies for about 45millions people in India
•Working in Middle east and then moved to St. James in Dublin
•15 Years working St. James.
•Sleep Diagnostics and sleep problems
•Sleep Apnoea and Insomnia as the two main issues
•And then started to specialise in Behaviour sleep medicine
•Always had an interest in sleep medicine but not much in the area initially when he was growing up
•Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
•Insomnia & Sleep Apnoea
•Insomnia and CBT as a non-medication way of sleeping problems
•CBT for Insomnia
•The 3 P model:
oPredisposed individuals
oPrecipitating factor
oPerpetuating factors
•Address the behaviours with Sleep
•Insomnia as a vicious circle
•Sleep and Genetics
•Women have higher chances than Insomnia
•The growth in the topics of sleep over the last decade
•Learning Memory & physical health can be improved with good sleep
•Circadian Rhythm & the Master Body Clock
•Sleep is a CS process
•Sleep and Melatonin
•Humans are solar powered
•Chronotypes – evening, intermediate and morning types
•Morning type people are the happier type!
•The importance of employers know what the chronotype of their employees!
•Waking up before the alarm goes off – a sign of their sleep need is met
•Early Morning Awakening Insomnia
•Sleep Apps – the value of!
•The best way to judge your quality of sleep is by how you feel!
•Sleep Apps leading to more anxiety about sleep quality!
•Don’t over rely on technology
•How much light and deep sleep should I get?
•How to get in to good sleep
1.How long was I aware before I went to sleep – get a consistent wake time!
2.The light exposed to before going to bed – 2 hours before you go to sleep – to optimize the melatonin
3.The Master Body Clock – not much control over this
•The best environment for a good sleep
1.Dark as a Cave
2.Quiet as a Cave
3.Cooler temperature
•Mattresses and how useful these are?
•Napping – General Rules – 30mins to 45mins to avoid REMS
•Best position for sleeping – sleep on the non-dominant side
•Sleep and Pain Tolerance levels
•Most common myths on sleep – no compensation for lost sleep!
•Sleep when traveling & jet lag!
•Exercise & Sleep – 3 hours between exercise and bed – core body temp is high
•Eating Late – Not eat for 3 hours before going to bed!
•Journaling – transfer thoughts from brain to paper!
1.Rationalize worries on paper
2.Make a to do list for the next day
3.Reduce the intensity of the mind
•Sleep and having a beginner’s mind!
•Every night is a new night – this is a key mindset to have for everyone!
•Be non-striving for sleep – you can’t force it
•Be Patient with the process with CBTi
•How does Motty manage his own sleep
1.7+ hours nightly
2.Sleep as much of the time you spend in bed
3.High sleep efficiency
•Sleep v Rest -- Bed is for sleep – not for rest
•Get up and leave the bedroom for 30mins
1.Reduces anxiety not falling asleep
2.Strengthens bed sleep association
3.Better opportunity when you do go back
•Don’t over research on sleep
•Optimize sleep hygiene habits
Get in touch with Motty on his work and consulting at www.sleeptherapy.ie

Charlotte Underwood - Surviving Suicide, Writing to Raise Awareness & Saving a Life - EP113 Jun 07, 2019

Show notes

Charlotte is as survivor. As a survivor of alcoholism, sexual assault, rape, self-harm and a constant chain of trauma and mental illness.
She tells her story and share my experiences with the world.
We talk about suicide, depression, hope, and a desire to help others by sharing her own stories, experiences and idea.
Her goal “If I can save a life, or just make someone feel less alone, then I’m achieving my dreams.”
Her main topics of writing are mental health, depression, anxiety, and suicide. With the aim to raise awareness as well as end the stigma.
If you face your own demons, challenges or know someone close to you that is facing a hard time or feels like – they might find this very valuable and worth checking it out!
Summary of our conversation can be found on the episode page on www.robofthegreen.ie

Confidence Uncovered: Truths, Myths, and Flexing the Muscle - EP112 May 31, 2019

Show notes

This solo show is all about Confidence. The full blog post is available on the site - link here
http://robofthegreen.ie/2019/05/27/confidence-uncovered
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, please do consider sharing it!
Best,
Rob

Hugh O’Donovan – Focusing Attention, Positive Psychology & Mindful Walking – EP111 May 24, 2019

Show notes

Hugh O’Donovan is a Coaching Psychologist, Lecturer, & Author of the excellent book ‘Mindful Walking’. He also been an Entrepreneur and was a member of the Irish Army for 23 years. During this episode, Hugh reflects on many of the stand out moments in his career and shares very valuable insights and practical tips that you could use to become a better version of yourself.
For me, some of the key takeaways here touch on discipline, developing awareness, giving yourself a choice, mental well-being and the idea of flourishing!
I would recommend you take out a pen and paper for this one.
Thanks for your ongoing support and listening. Hope you’re enjoying this as much as I’m enjoying sharing it.
A summary of topics covered:
•Improving Performance & Mood
•The value of Acts of Random Kindness
•Mindfulness and the evidence behind how it’s working
•Experimenting in Mindfulness
•The physical benefits of movement
•Learning the skills of focusing attention
•The curious thing about walking and how a natural mindfulness comes when you’re moving
•Incorporating Mindfulness into many things you do
•23 years-experience in the Army
•The importance of discipline learned in the Army and how mindfulness also invites you to approach things in a disciplined way
•Having a Busy mind – but building the awareness of these thoughts
•Leaving you with a choice to breath
•Behavioural changed in society
•The challenge of transitioning from the Army into Civilian Life
•Being in Business but not being driven to earn money!
•Losing a friend to a tragic event and identifying this as a turning point
•The importance of reviewing, reflecting and re-evaluating
•The Army being all about Service
•Values, Goals and Actions
•Congruent Goals & making sense of the path and direction
•How Hugh managed to get out of the business
•Moving into psychology and feeling like this was the right place
•All of us being psychologies as we are all trying to understand things!
•Positive psychology and the science of flourishing
•Martin Seligman and understanding the need for a rebalancing on mental wellbeing
•Focusing on mental wellbeing instead of mental illness
•Beyond Zero and flourishing
•The importance of Gratitude
•A negativity bias as part of the human condition
•Keeping a diary/journal to track the things you savoured from day!
•Rewiring the Brain & neuroplasticity
•How can you get people to buy into the practice of journaling?
•Keep yourself safe and avoid discomfort
•Mindfulness asking us to observe our experience and explore discomfort
•Appreciate comfort and discomfort
•Exploring the edges of own discomfort
•The writing process and what lead Hugh to write the book!
•An exercise to try – ‘asking yourself to writing a letter to yourself in the future’
•The secret of writing – sit down and write – 100 words a day x 365 = 36500
•Writing the book as being the best year of Hugh’s life
•The formal and informal practices of Mindfulness’s
•The manta of ‘showing up, slowing down, and noticing what comes up!’
•The invisible becomes visible when we do this!
•Taking the new attitude towards life
•The only time you know when you’re fully present? – aware of the breath – the only way!!
•Acronyms to help you remember approaches
oFORM = Focus, Observe, Reflection, Meaning (new) = FORM
oFARM = Focus, Act, Reflection, Meaning (new)
•The 7 pillars of mindfulness
•Mindfulness is not about performance, it’s about observing what is
•How the attitude towards mindfulness has changed over the last decade
•Concerns with how Mindfulness could be used to get more out of the system!
•The Finite System with finite resources!
•The economic system is about growth and there is tension!
•Changing mindsets and nudge people towards behaviours that keep us in a good place!
•Current work and research in coaching psychology
•Working with the HSE and the GLOW (goals for life opting for wellness) program
•Plans for the next book that promises to be ground breaking
•Other books recommendation:
oMark Willams & Danny Pennman – Mindfulness book
oMindfulness for Dogs
•Hugh’s website HODA is an Arabic word – can be translated as guidance and enlightment
Connect in with Hugh on www.hoda.ie

Greg Herman – Fashion, Creativity & Finding the Right Path! – EP110 May 17, 2019

Show notes

The Greg Herman Brand first began in 1995/96 and over the years, this has taken on many different versions and evolutions.
Greg was living in LA and then moved to Cambridge in the UK. It was here when fashion really started to connect with Greg. Around this time, Greg’s sister was struck down with Cancer and this had a huge impact on him. He realized that he wanted to carve out his own legacy and figure out what he wanted for himself. This made him take a step back and review the situation.
During the discussion, Greg shared very openly about his life, growing up, challenges, up’s, down’s and everything in between.
Full detailed show notes on the episode page on www.robofthegreen.ie

Rana Gujral - Where Emotional Intelligence meets Artificial Intelligence - EP109 May 10, 2019

Show notes

Rana Gujral is an entrepreneur, speaker, investor and the CEO of Behavioral Signals, an enterprise software company that delivers a robust and fast evolving emotion AI engine that introduces emotional intelligence into speech recognition technology.
Full Details on www.robofthegreen.ie/episodes

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