ROTG Presents

Latest Episodes:

Siobhán Murray – Dealing with Burnout & Building Resilience – EP158 Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

Siobhan is an accredited psychotherapist, certified life-coach, experienced public speaker, trainer and best-selling author – The Burnout Solution
She helps people to overcome overwhelm, burnout and manage the demands of their personal and professional roles; learn how to embrace self-care and how to navigate living in a chaotic world; hone their authentic leadership style so they can make a difference and thrive in their work. She supports all clients to find meaning and purpose, manage life transitions; navigate complex personal and professional change and build their resilience and resourcefulness so they can achieve their full potential.
In this episode, Siobhan focuses on dealing with stress, burnout, building resilience and lots more.
Here’s a list of the topics discussed:
•How to manage yourself to avoid burnout before it happens
•Recovery from burnout is hardcore
•Burnout is not purely occupational
•Burnout can be related to a personality type
•Burnout from doing something you didn’t love is a myth
•Personality types – the introvert and extravert and the ambivert
•Teaching Emotional Intelligence to Kids
•Using alcohol to feel ok in social settings in her twenties
•Setting up the Ronald McDonald house in Dublin
•Being a terrible employee and not suited to the corporate world
•Feeling sheer exhaustion from being in an open plan office
•Researching for her book, she really fully understood herself at this time
•Honing in on the energy and how interactions can take her energy
•Knowing how to recharge at home in isolation
•Extroverts getting the energy from people
•What Siobhan did when she gave up drinking?
oStopping for November
oA tool she used that worked for her
oReplacing the glass of wine with a diet 7-Up
•Starting to study psychotherapy around the same time of giving up alcohol
•Deciding to become a psychotherapist as it allowed Siobhan to be able to work and be a single parent
•In therapy, talking about the back / past but deciding to study on coaching so they could now focus on the future and view of the world
•Bring both past and future to her coaching session – holding the client in a safe space
•Burnout can happen for any work, even if you love it!
•If you’re not minding yourself, you will burnout
•Stress is important – it’s when it becomes unmanageable it becomes dangerous
•The difference between Stress, Burnout, and Overwhelm?
oStress keeps you safe – this is very close to excitement
oBurnout where are cortisol – bodies get depleted of adrenalin and cortisol
oWith Stress, cortisol rises but then it reduces back down…burnout we are in continual stress
oWhere does dread fit into this?
•The power of language can be very impactful
•The 5 Whys technique
•Pushing ourselves to use positive language to help over
•Tools you can use to deal with these?
•The 4 Pillars/Corners to help you maintain resilience:
oSleep (the most important of all)
oNutrition
oExercise
oClutter
•Tuning into the signals and feelings of things that are not comfortable and understanding this
•Getting to the point where you’re feeling in control and manage yourself
•The draining impact of staying at a dinner late when you just wanted to go home!
•NLP exercise – How we learn?
•Creating a 12-week online course and learning a lot from this process
•Twistingthejar.com
•Social Media – Siobhan Murray
•For Siobhan's Speaker Bio please email siobhan@siobhanmurray.com

Declan O'Connell - Coaching Individuals & Teams for High Performance - EP157 Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Declan is an experienced professional coach, trainer, and facilitator. His areas of expertise include high performance, leadership, mental toughness, career management, and team development
Declan brings a true passion for his coaching, offering a customised approach that targets the specific developmental needs of those with whom he works with.
Declan offers bespoke training interventions derived from a detailed Organisational Needs Analysis. These interventions include bespoke leadership and management development programmes; team development programmes; and personal development and self-awareness programmes for general staff.
Declan can cater for all organisational levels from C-Suite, Directors, Middle Management, New-to-Management and Graduates.
Declan’s approach is focused on developing a trusted partnership with his clients through a challenging but supportive, empathetic style. He fully believes in the power of people’s potential and his approach is centred on supporting his clients navigate and achieve their desired goals. He is particularly adept at helping to create a transformational shift in the mindset and behaviour of individuals.
Declan has a huge passion on people and performance. His goal and work is to help people and teams to solve problems, underpinning this work is developing emotional intelligence.
Declan has 4 main focus areas in his work. These are:
•Performance Consultant
•Leadership Development
•High Performance Teams
•Performance under pressure
During the conversation, we dive into a number of areas of interest from Declan’s journey with lessons learned, tools for achieving high performance, and tips you can apply to help you and/or your team grow. If any of the below summary points are of interest, you’ll want to hear more!. Links to more on Mindflick and how to connect with Declan at the end.
Key talking points we covered are:
•Always having a burning interest in people, people psychology and mindset, initially through a sporting frame
•Completed an Adult Education course in Sports Psychology which then lead to a masters in UCC in Psychology
•Having a passion for and loving to work with people, 1-1 or in groups…
•Where did this interest come from - Nature v Nurture and lifelong learning
•Reading autobiographies that were full of lessons of life experiences
•The importance of continuous learning
•Feeling imposter syndrome when starting his master’s degree in Psychology
•Seeking out rich learning experiences always and immersing himself in this world
•Making the decision to step out and go out on his own?
•What were the lessons learned from the early days of working for himself
•Developing a process for tracking learning
•With Coaching - the concept of non-attachment – knowing the process but not attached to any outcome….being clear on this
•Knowing your own preferences is key
•When do strengths tip over to become weaknesses?
•Developing self-awareness
oThe master’s program in UCC was very focused on Self-Awareness and this was a big eye opener
oVideoing coaching sessions and looking back on these that helped with self-awareness
oGaining a huge sense of who you were after this UCC course
•Using the Spotlight framework from Mindflick
•Trying to develop a sense of humility in individuals and teams
•Once humility is developed, now focus on curiosity
•At the top of the pyramid – allowing individuals and teams
•How to develop humility
•Behaviour styles frameworks using FLEX
•The key to making things safe
•Core principals of Spotlight – it’s a strengths-based tool
•Adaptability – being able to look at things from different frames
•Creating safety is key in a team environment
•Self-regulation and being able to judge the room
•The big 5 personality traits
•Spotlights is key on adaptability
•Personality is 70% of the environment
•Reinforcement sensitivity theory
•Evidence based practitioner is essential for the spotlight assessment
•Mindset framework within Spotlight – COPE
oContainment
oOptimistic
oPrudent
oEngagement
•The importance of practice in developing a mindset
•Profiling Teams with Performance and Improvement
•Spotlight Teams features
oLevel of psychological safety – key to high performance
oTeam dynamics of performance, engagement and effectiveness
oProvides a plan to take the team to the next level
•The COPE framework with a tech start-up example..
o4 optimistic mindsets and 1 prudent mindset – this helps keeping things balanced
•The vital need for psychological safety in the team – this is critical
•Asking a difficult question in the boardroom is like being evicted from the tribe!
•Making new habits stick in leadership teams
•Having healthy tension within the group is key but it comes back to relationships
•The power of being an outsider
•Seeing tangible benefits is always a key breakthrough
•Learning from assessments but not to box anyone into any frame – keeping loose and knowing the moving is ok
•Premature evaluation – placing limits on the relationships
•Key tools to use:
oA reflective log – making a log on a daily basis and developing as a result of this
oThe Empty Chair Exercise – making sure the team look at areas that aren’t being looked at
oDe Bono Thinking hats
oMaking Teams fall in love as a tool…. Trust Exercise – Professor Arthur Aron – Human Intimacy – 36 questions
Staring at each other in the eyes for 4 minutes without talking!
oProblem Cleaning & Pig wrestling
Problem Cleaning is a simple and effective process that enables people be more insightful, productive and impactful when dealing with the challenges that they face.
Starting to describe the problem from different frames..
•New developments from Mindflick focusing on
oSpotlightYouth
oSpotlightX
oSpotlightTeams – putting a metric on teams
•The most standout thing you’ve learned in the last 12 months?
oNon-attachment – confidence of delivering your
oPressure and Stress is a choice – managing yourself outside of this
oThe evolution of the reflection log – linking self-esteem to this ongoing and this is not sustainable always
oRest, Recovery, Reflection, Sleep, all are key – linked to self-esteem
oGetting comfortable with some things that land and some that don’t!
•Having a goal of making one person breath easier!
For more on Declan, you can find him on:
•LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnelldeclan/
•Instagram – https://twitter.com/oconnelldeclan
•Twitter - https://twitter.com/oconnelldeclan
For more on Mindflick & Spotlight
•https://mindflick.co.uk/
If you enjoyed this one, I’d love to hear what stood out for you?

Charlotte Labee - Finding Brain Balance - EP156! Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

Charlotte Labee is an expert on Brain Balance and she’s been helping others get their brain in balance for the last few years. I was delighted to have her on the podcast to talk about exactly what the means and how you can take steps towards it.
Charlotte’s story is a very interesting one. From modelling, to entrepreneurship, to TV presenting and now building out a successful career in wellness. Like all of us, she experienced peaks and troughs. Success and setbacks. She has developed her own approach and model that helps and encourages people to experience immediate results. She gives lectures and training sessions in an accessible and enthusiastic way, using theory to support her practical experience.
During the interview, Charlotte talks about her life lessons, learnings, and turning points that have lead her to where is is now. A summary of the discussion is below:
•Building a large following on social media with her current Brain Balance work
•Tapping into wellness and brain balance
•Charlotte’s early life – becoming a model by chances made by life
•At age of 17, left for Milan to start modelling?
oExperiences at that time?
oMindset at the time?
•Taking opportunities that society pushed to her instead of what she really wanted herself
•Not paying attention to the signals that she was feeling inside
•Feeling really lonely and not having space for happiness
•Making the move from modelling to designing her own fashion label
•The business exploded quickly, and this took a bit her ‘self’ in this period….
•Realising that 90-hour weeks were taking their toll and impacting on her health
•The conscious brain was giving signs for months – her life was in disbalance
•The first big sign was when Charlotte was diagnosed with Cancer, not once but twice in her early thirties.
•This was following by her house burning down and then the business going bankrupt
•This led to a turning point and started her on the path to finding a balance after being out of balance
•Ignoring illness, emotions, and disbalance….kept going but this was wearing on her
•Developing bad habits that were very difficult to change
•Recognising the disbalance and then starting to look at new ways to deal with this
•Another scare when Charlotte lost power in her arm which was the last signal – this was the bottom and it was time to start building back up
•Taking steps from there to get back into balance
•The Vagus nerve and stress – the positive and negative side of it
•How does stress work for the brain and what is the function of it?
•Finding a huge interest in the functions of the brain – this lead to a happier place
•This ignited the learning and step by step it make her feel more like herself again
•Making small changes in her life – starting with food and noticing the improvements
•Then move onto the next step – sleep, social environment, and seeing what positives come from this
•Developing self-awareness of what’s going on in your brain
•Changing the neural pathways in the brain and the leads to the improvements in other areas
•Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) tools
•Neural Cause Effect (NCE)
•Developing the Golden Growth Method Blueprint
oStep 1 is knowing how your brain works – this is key before moving forward
o85% of the brain is programmed in the first 8 years of our life
oUnderstanding what the rules of the brain are will allow you to change it
•6 step process in 60 days leads to big changes in your brain balance
•To change a habit, practice one thing 3-4 times a day every day for 4 weeks!
•Influence your brain in the right way!
•The Win Hoff method and learning from the Ice Man – the real proof that you can change!
•Learned something new in the last 6 months?
•Working on her own relationships and constantly changing
•Always be willing to invest and change the relationship
Now & the Future:
•What is a typical day like for you now?
•Is there anything you’ve changed your mind about in the lasts 6 months?
•How do you deal with fear?
•What is one action someone can take to improve / get better?
•What’s next for Charlotte
Contact Charlotte Labee
Charlotte Labee is by now one of the most popular speakers when it comes to the brain, health and a balanced lifestyle. In inspirational fashion, she uses clear and accurate theory to substantiate her own practical experiences while enthusing others to get the most out of life.
You can find her on:
•Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/charlottelabee/
•Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/charlottelabee/
•LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-labee-4364a216/

Peter Kalmus - Making Climate Change Real & Learning from Coronavirus - EP155 Mar 27, 2020

Show notes

Peter Kalmus – Making Climate Change Real & Learning from Coronavirus – EP155
Hello there & welcome to this week’s 1% Better interview. This is the First interview proper of S4. During the off season, following some Climate Change news, I noticed the name Peter Kalmus popping up regularly – when I read more about him, I was fascinated by his career story as well as his activism.
When we did record – 2nd March I think things were heating up on COVID19 with Italy getting bad but nothing yet in Ireland, and very little elsewhere in Europe and US. Things have changed since so it was good we had the opportunity to discuss Coronavirus and how we could learn from it in the climate change movement.
Please do share this one broad and wide….if you disagree or would like to add more to it, get in touch too.
Just to note, Peter was speaking on his own behalf and his views and opinions. I’ve shared links to climate activists groups at the end. But for now, here is a summary of the topics covered in the podcast.
Introduction
Peter Kalmus (born May 9, 1974) is a climate scientist, writer and climate activist based in Altadena, California. He is a data scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an Associate Project Scientist at UCLA’s Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science & Engineering.
In addition to authoring articles about climate change, he is the founder of the website noflyclimatesci.org and co-founder of the app Earth Hero: Climate Change.
Topics covered in detail:
•Peter’s background – studying physics, programming on Wall Street and then following his quest of learning
•Astrophysics and getting a PhD in this area working on waves travelling through space and time
•In mid-2000s, taking a big interest in the climate crisis and the radical energy imbalance
•Inspired by Jim Hansen – one of the leading voices on climate crisis
•Moving into Earth Science with a post doc – switching fields which was a big deal
•Sitting on the side-lines during the discovery of gravitational waves but it was a worthy sacrifice
•Dedicating his life now to working to save the life support system of our planet!
•Now moving toward biodiversity and ecosystem breakdown
•Getting depression during an undergraduate in physics at Harvard so didn’t have confidence to go straight to graduate school
•Taking a year to get over this and working in New York during this period
•After 4 years, the confidence came back to apply for the PhD
•Depression almost leading to suicide during his time at Harvard
•In 2006, Peter’s first son was born, and this really was a big change in his life and had him start thinking much clearer on the suffering the planet
•Starting to meditate around this time has helped develop compassion more
•Emotional Intelligence v Intelligent Quotient
•Non-Human Intelligence and how smart tress are for example
•Feeling the darkness at the edges of Peters's consciousness and knowing how difficult this is…
•The Practice more than anything to develop EQ is meditation and having kids
•Vipassana meditation – observing the reality of change!
•Working and disciplining the mind to notice a change
•Bio-chemical changes creating sensations
•Climate Change being abstract compared to the Shark Bite Concern
•The tangible nature with the Coronavirus is more real whereas Climate Change feeling less real
•This analogy about fear - Read into why people are more scared of a shark bite than client change?
•People are responding now as they are in emergency mode as people now believe they could die but with Climate Change, people don’t believe they can die
•Would calling it pollution or waste – make it more real?
•Have we faced a similar challenge in the past and overcome it?
•Bright spots idea – anywhere doing it well and replicate this?
•Becoming an Activist is not a choice for Peter when he sees what is happening!
•How Peter takes action in his own life – flying less as a starting point
•Getting to a Carbon Free environment has to be the goal
•How quickly Coronavirus has managed to slow flying but Climate Change is not having this impact…
•The Coronavirus has been very useful for climate activists as they can look at this for new approaches to make it real
•How to make Climate Change more real and scare people now!
•3 Actions to make Climate Change more real?
1.Create more fear as the current approach is not working! Create more Fear!
2.Non-violent direct action – the house on fire analogy! Act like it’s an emergency and wake people up! The Greta Thunberg movement is a great start…much more is needed here. Civil disobedience – once enough people do this, behaviours will start to change…but it needs to be in mass numbers.
3.Taking Action to reduce emissions - Leading climate activists living our lives as this is happening now – again Greta Thunberg got a boat to the US and back. Activists need to stop burning fossil fuel and more. This will send a clear message to the public.
•Are scientists in general agreement on Climate Change?
•How to solve this challenge is still to be agreed on?
•Are there bright spots emerging?
•How can we get better?
•What actions can we take to reduce emissions?
1.Planning out – your day, week, month year – to make the change!
2.The Flying Less Movement?
3.Use the Earth Hero Apps – reduce our emissions
4.Become more conscious on what you’re using?
5.Burn less fossil fuel
6.Become activist – join the movement and take action!!
7.Lean in more…leads to more learning:
More on Peter
•The Earth Hero App – download this on all the App stores
•Web – Peterkalmus.net
•Twitter - @climateHuman
Become a Climate Activist
•Ireland – Stopclimatechaso.ie
•Friends of the Earth FOE.ie
•Plan-International.org

Listeners’ Voices, Change Curves, & Emotional Smarts! – EP154 Mar 20, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to the season 4 launch of 1% Better!
0 – 6 mins : Introduction
Hi there…and welcome to the start of the new season of 1% Better.
Now to say things are different to when season 3 ended or when I last shared an episode would be an understatement. A big one. In this launch show, I touch on what’s going on in the world as of the time of recording (18th March 2020) with COVID19, Coronavirus, and Social Distancing very much the words of the time.
I touch on everything going on in my head about what’s happening and also point to how we can start to adapt to this change in a more positive, proactive light! And how listening to podcasts can help.
I also talk about my hopes of talking with some experts on infectious diseases, research and work ongoing on tests and vaccines as well as talking with some that have recovered from the disease.
6 mins to 13 mins – Off-season Recording
During the off-season, I’ve been busy recording new shows, researching and creating content for more solo episodes and spending a lot of time putting together a new series within the show focusing on Emotional Intelligence. I also mention the 1% Better Community and how being part of this has helped me stick to my goals for the year so far!
13mins to 40 mins – Listeners’ Voices
The final part of this intro episode which is different! How have you, the listener, become 1% Better?
During the off-season I’ve been asking listeners to contribute some audio to the show talking about what they’re doing to become 1% Better (or more)! Here are just 5 that you might find interesting, inspiring, useful, and actionable. Remember…in this very strange time, it’s good to take action, set goals, and not just sit around waiting for thoughts to turn into negative emotions!
The clips come from:
1.Eoin O’Hanlon – Control the Small Things, let the big things take care of themselves
2.Jess Cohen – Stand Up Comedy & the 1% Better Community!
3.John O’Brien – Mindset & Running!
4.Seán McGillicuddy – Daily Meditation Practices, Sharing gratitude, Keeping your Head Up & Writing Poetry!
5.Darragh O’Riordan – Feeling better with cold water Swimming & the impact on work – COLD Water Swimming!
40 min to End
Finally, I close out this episode with a call to action. More of your stories please!! How are you improving from listening to this show or others? What actions are you taking?
If you have something you’d like to share, email me and we can arrange to get your recording in to me and out on another 1% Better from the listener episodes.
Email: Rob@robofthegreen.ie
Or Join the 1% Better Community
https://join.slack.com/t/robofthegreen/shared_invite/zt-8ofg7r9d-xTpoTVd~Rfce7gCUWU8bag
Thanks for being part of this. Stay safe!
Rob

Cynthia Johnson - Entrepreneurship & Personal Branding - 1% Better in 864 - EP153 Feb 28, 2020

Show notes

Hi folks,
This is one from the 864 show I did back in 2018 that you probably haven't heard so releasing it now on 1% Better. Hope you enjoy. Details of the conversation below:
Cynthia Johnson is an American entrepreneur, marketing professional, SEO specialist, columnist and public speaker. She is a co-founder of Ipseity Media and previously served as the director of brand development of American Addiction Centers (AAC). She is currently member of the Forbes Agency Council and advisory board for the Millennium Alliance. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, Cynthia was one of the 10 Personal Branding Experts to Follow, in 2017
Her work has been featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Huffington Post, TIME, and several other industry specific publications.
Below is a summary of the questions and topics we cover in this 15 minute podcast.
Q1 30secs – What stands out the most?
•Entrepreneurship portion – learning so much from this
Q2 1mins – Born with or learned?
•It’s an energy that you develop and be exposed to
Q3 2mins – First venture?
•Suspended for selling coolade
Q4 3mins – Starting young? Less fear?
•Yes and no – you get in trouble for this – maybe there is something wrong!
•For Cynthia, it was more interesting and learned more
Q5 4mins – A big mistake?
•Get the ego out of the way!
•Have the moments when things are not going your way – you get the ego out!
•Arriving to a presentation not prepared for CFOs
Q6 6mins – Teaching to be better prepared?
•Know who you’re audience are?
Q7 7mins – Public speaking?
•Not fear – perform much better in front of 2000 people than 2!
•When others do what you do and have the same view
•Knowing the material is key – you can learn faster when you are presenting something new
Q8 9mins – Prioritize work?
•Focus on the short term goals?
•Long term goals – break them down in much smaller chunks
•Making sure you’re doing things for other people – look at these points of value add
•Balance time with being useful to self and others
Q9 11mins – Chasing people – what was the turning point?
•Speaking at a conference – that she attended before
•Someone mentioned
•A girl can stand up there and look pretty – but we need good content
•Slide deck that stood out and became the most downloaded
Q10 13mins – A favourite phrase?
•Sit back and be objective – the only way you’ll get to the next level is find out what other people think of you
•Poe’s LAW
Q11 14mins – Advice?
•Don’t quit, ask for the time off!
Get in touch with Cynthia via:
Twitter - @CynthiaLive or @bellviyinc
www.CynthiaLive.com
www.BellIvy.com

1% Better Season 3 Best Bits - Part 2! EP152 Feb 14, 2020

Show notes

Hi all,
I’ve been delighted with the response from ‘the best bits part 1’ and have seen an increase in downloads on the selected episodes from last week as a result.
Now, just to reiterate, you should listen to every episode from Season 3 (and 2 and 1)….not just these 10.
Over the week, I was changing ones that should make this list but it’s a thankless task. Every person I chatted to have a story to share and a lesson learned that you will take something from. I mean that.
My reason behind this --- Pretty much before approaching any guest I ask myself – why do I want to talk to this person? If I can’t easily answer that….I don’t go further. If it’s not authentic and you can’t tell that I’m interested, then you’re not going to like listening. That’s my #1 rule. It hugely helps when compiling the questions too.
Anyway, here are the next & final 5 clips from season 3.
1.First up is psychologist and author Barry Schwartz 138. Author of ‘The Paradox of Choice’.
Barry Schwartz is an American psychologist, professor, author, speaker and researcher. Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. Schwartz’s research addresses morality, decision-making and the inter-relationships between science and society. Barry Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Barry has millions of views of his Ted talks online.
The clip touches on a few reasons on why there is a bigger focus now more on purposeful and meaningful work? Working for purpose, not just to get paid! This is a very unstable attitude.
Link to the show - https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/barryschwartz-ep138/
2.Rosanna Arquette from episode 124.
If you want to find out about her relationship with Madonna or other standard movie questions from her acting career, this is probably not the interview for you!
The 864 aims to understand a little bit more about the person, what they value, how they have been successful, deal with life challenges and other obstacles that get in the way and we stayed close to these topics in this conversation with Rosanna.
In the clip, Rosanna talks about Staying in Gratitude and not being in fear
Link to the show: https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/rosannaarquette-ep124/
3.Brock Lewin 117
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.
In the clip, Brock talks about starting out in 2008 at the start of the downturn – this was a great chat with Brock on Coffee – making fresh starts and feeling like he had freedom to start out! – Good Coffee is recession proof!
Link: https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/brocklewin-ep117/
4.Nirbhasa Magee 133
I recently found an article on the BBC website about a 3100 mile race that happens every year. It’s called a run to self-transcendence and as someone that is very intrigued in self-development, I wanted to learn more. And hopefully talk with one of the runners that attempted and, maybe even, completed it. Not only did I manage to find one, he’s also a fellow Irishman. His name is Nirbhasa Magee and his the guest for this episode.
Nirbhasa has been a meditation practitioner since his late teens/early twenties and through his practice, started to go for short runs with friends from the meditation group (Sri Chinmoys) he’s part of. One thing led to another. Before he knew it, he had moved on to marathons, ultramarathons, then 6 and 10 day runs and eventually the 3100 mile race.
In this podcast interview, Nirbhasa tells this story in detail, shares the benefits he’s gained from meditation and running and provides some hugely interesting insights from his journey so far.
In this clip, Nirbhasa talks about using Heart Centred Meditation
Link: https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/nirbhasamagee-ep133/
5.Maysoon Zaid 141
Maysoon is a comedian, author, disability advocate, and self-confessed hustler. Maysoon has been facing into challenges in her life from the very beginning after being born with cerebral palsy. She was treated the same as her sisters growing up and never saw the disability as something to hold her back from following her dreams. We talk about her career, tap dancing, acting, comedy, work as an advocate for Muslims and Arabs in the US as well as her work helping people overcome the stigma with disabilities
She has a new audio book called Find Another Dream coming out through Reese Witherspoon’s company, Hello Sunshine. The book has been on the best seller list for weeks and is beating Donald Trump Jr’s book.
In this clip, Maysoon talks about never having bombed but aiming to get half the room to laugh!
Link to the show: https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/maysoonzayid-ep141/
Sign up to the 1% Better Slack Community?
Sign up here - https://buff.ly/2JqM5Qh
So that’s it.
Season 3 done.
Between now and the formal launch of season 4, I’m sure I’ll put out some updates and perhaps some repackaged episodes of the 864 show that you might not have caught when that came out originally.
Please do keep checking the web site (hoping for it to be updated soon) for more
Follow on the socials – links on the site – or just search ROTG
Oh and I really would love to do a few live shows in the coming months…Cork, Dublin, Galway, Zimbabwe, where ever …..please do get in touch if you could host something like that!
Thanks to the 10s of thousands that listened in the last 12 months.
Now time for a small break….
Good luck,
Rob

1% Better Season 3 Best Bits - Part 1! EP151 Feb 07, 2020

Show notes

Hi all,
As I bring the curtain down on season 3 of 1% Better, a season that included over 50 shows, and has been running for 11 months, I thought it would be a good idea to pull out some of clips from some of the stand out shows of the season. This wasn’t easy and in the end I practically picked them at random. I’ve decided to go for 10 clips over 2 short episodes.
I hope you enjoy it. Below has a short summary of each guest/interview and a link to the full episode on the site.
Thanks for support in season 3. Season 4 is already underway recording wise and deep in planning.
Here are the five from today’s show
1.Ma Anand Sheela episode 100
Ma Anand Sheela. Sheela came to prominence recently from the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country. That’s when I learned about her. However many of you listening might have first heard of her back in the early 1980s when she was the secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, latterly known as Osho.
The documentary blew my mind and I was struck by Sheela’s personality, devotion for Bhagwan, and then her own seemingly unending quest for power. When I watched the show, I thought how cool it would be to talk with her for the podcast. To learn more about her values, upbringing, what drove her motivations, and of course what life is like for her since the commune broke up and after her time in prison. When I managed to connect with her, tell her about the podcast, and invite her to be a guest, I was delighted when she agreed.
Episode Link https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/maanandsheela-freedomgoalsacceptinglife-ep100/
2.Sir Steve Timothy episode 125
Steve Timothy is a comedian, online sensation, soon to be Author, Rapper, Satirist, and other titles. He calls himself a chancer and professional Tom-fool. Whatever you want to call him, he’s making a mark.
We connected a couple of weeks back, shortly after his sell out show in Cork, to talk about his career, struggles with anxiety, dealing with trolls, disability, love for Everton Football Club, creativity, business, Conor McGregor, and of course the character he and his partner, Sinead, are best known for, Farmer Michael and Kathleen!
Episode link https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/sirstevotimothy-ep125/
3.Susan Winter – Episode 101
This is the first episode I’ve done that focuses primarily on relationships and, I can safely say, Susan is a guru and thought leader in this every changing space.
About Susan. She’s been a guest on Oprah, has a list of media credits that covers about every News show, magazine and paper that I’ve ever heard of, is a best-selling author (Allowing Magnificence and Older Women/Younger Men), she specializes in evolutionary forms of loving partnership and higher thinking, and is in high demand.
She’s just had over 10 millions view on YouTube where she posts short informative videos on relationship challenges and how to improve in your loving partnerships.
During the hour, we talk about everything on relationships from online dating, cultural challenges, and new terms like Bread Crumbing, Catfishing, and of course Ghosting! I’ve shared links to Susan site, and social platforms at the bottom of these notes.
I really enjoyed this one as you’ll probably detect from it and I learned a lot. I’m sure you’ll take something from it too that will make your relationships more than 1% Better.
Episode Link - https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/susanwinter-relationships-onepercentbetter-ep101/
4.Motty Varghese – How to Sleep Better – Episode 114
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)
Episode link - https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/mottyvarghese-sleepbetter-ep114/
5.Susan Bennett Episode 107
Susan Bennett is an American voice-over artist. She is best known for being the female American voice of Apple‘s “Siri” since the service was introduced on the iPhone 4S. Susan and I connected a few months back and I was delighted when she agreed to be a guest on the show to talk about her career, overcoming fears, ‘coming out’ as Siri, the great fortune that has ultimately brought and how life has changed since.
Susan shares her story and provides lots of bits of advice from lessons learned over the last few decades from her successful acting, voiceover, and musical career.
Episode link: https://robofthegreen.ie/episodes/susanbennett-voiceofsiri-ep107/
So there you go….5 very interesting interviews, 5 different subjects, and lots of 1% Better insights and actions you could take onboard I hope.
As always, thanks for listening. Back next week with the second 5 clips and that will be it for a few weeks. Probably.
Thanks!
Rob

Mel Parker – Leadership Force Multipliers, the Trifecta of Hope, & Chasing the Fire! - EP150 Jan 30, 2020

Show notes

Mel Parker is CEO of Take the Limits off. He’s also an ex-Airborne Ranger in the US military and has been facing his fears all his life
I had the pleasure of meeting Mel in person last year as he delivered a day’s training on Emotional Intelligence. I knew straight away that he would be a great guest to have on the podcast to talk about his leadership journey.
His book, The Parker Principles, 10 Leadership Force Multipliers, is full of useful interesting insights from his experiences over the years. We talk about many of these in this episode.
Here is a summary of the topics covered in our conversation
•Mel’s background in leadership
•Growing up on a pig and tobacco farming
•Raised by a single mother and a very close connection with his grandmother
•Being ‘resource challenged’ and considered below the poverty link
•Having a grandmother with a tremendous amount of Faith!
•With enough hard work and education, opportunities could exist for anyone!
•Always believing there will be a better tomorrow – if you put in the time and efforts
•The role leadership has played in Me’s life
•Where did his grandmothers positivity come from – no clear but seemed to be inbuilt in her!
•She was wordily, full of common sense and could read people
•She was a veracious reader and taking this from her
•Dealing with fear from a young age and the relationship with this
•Always having danger growing up – he could get into trouble growing up and had situations where people didn’t know which way things would go
•Dealing with anxiety
•Reading books and getting motivated and inspired from this work
•Trifecta of hope
o1) Science Fiction as one – always a hero – leadership mentality
o2) Comic books – giving Mel a level of resilience – had to overcome great tragedy – teaching him that the pain and difficulty are just part of his ‘becoming’
o3) Faith of his grandmother
•Taking action from an early age – getting a public library card to read for free!
•Catching the fire and loving to learn
•Juxtaposition of Education & Leadership = Opportunity – this gave Mel focus all the way through
•Bicycle – Education = back wheel & leadership = front wheel
•Starting to conceptualize the leader idea or role from a young age – this become something he wanted to follow
•Getting into sports which allowed Mel his first taste or real leadership
•This led to it becoming a rhythm
•How taking on this role felt? Pressure but excitement and responsibility instead of fear!
•Developing a mentality to solve problems….this is what he’s at!
•Being in a crisis situation and thriving v being in a comfortzone and not being happy!
•Looking back and thinking about what I could have done differently?
•Always chasing the fire….this was part of his way!
•Leadership is universal and these fires can be put out in any industry?
•Moving his family 15 times in his career – this was due to promotions and bigger fires…
•Looking forward or back more? At the age of 50 this changed!
•Questioning is there more than the next big job?
•Mel’s mission changed after his 50th birthday…
•Becoming aware you have less life in front of you than you have behind you?
•Have Mel’s values changed overtime and what ones did?
•Oct 2016 as a big turning point when Mel’s grandmother passed
•His grandmother challenged Mel to stop living in fear on her death bed!
•Being challenged to write his book and start his own company!
•Facing fear and stepping away from his corporate pay cheque
•Starting to trust himself and moving forward!
•This pushed Mel to move and he started his company and started the book!
•Working harder and being happier now than anytime in his career
•Having control now and being able to say NO!
•Having a focus on family and being connected
•A change in identity moving away from the corporate world!
•Finding it difficult to give that up as he had built a life that he never had when growing up!
•Growing up with nothing, then not worried about bills every month, never wanted to lose this!
•Writing the book and how this was approached
•Believing that it was always important for Mel to share his leadership principles with his team – this is who he is!!!
•Anytime not living to these, you have permission to throw the flag
•The importance of calling out who you are and establish this!!
•Dealing with the “Who am I?” question
•This is what you can hold me accountable to
•The book was a way of telling the world who Mel Parker is and this how you can work with me
•He empowers his team to throw the flag on him if he’s not living these!
•What is a ‘Force Multiplier’ – added to a core force to make it more powerful – an army term
•Force multiplier can help amplify the leader that you are!
•Touching on some of the principles from the book including
oServant leadership
oTrust
oAuthenticity
•How leadership has changed and how the world has evolved
•People are the competitive advantage – what is the best way to maximize their output
•Coaching and Leadership
•Getting leaders to be more vulnerable?
•Working with leaders to let their team in more
•Micromanagement and trust
•Having relationships with North and South and East and West! This is key!!
•Listening and how to coach leaders to listen better
•The ability to receive is just as important as the ability to transmit – come out from behind your desk!
•Taking actions to create connection
•High Trust Organizations at the core
•Trying to build trust with better listening skills
•Gallop poles measuring institutions based on trust – 2 levels of high trust – the military have been at the top for the last 30 years..
•The hyper focus on character in the military
•A key takeaway on lessons learned through mistakes and failures that have been big successes?
•Learning a methodology to allow team members make honest mistakes – everyone gets a second chance – learning this from his very first corporate job!
Check out Mel’s site & book on:
•The site – www.takethelimitsoff.com
•Book – the Parker Principles – 10 leadership force multipliers

Alexander Baburin - Becoming Grandmaster, Talent v Hard Work, & Planning as a Key to Success! EP149 Jan 24, 2020

Show notes

In this week’s episode I talk with Alexander Baburin, Ireland’s only Chess Grandmaster currently.
I’ve always had an interest in Chess – playing badly but the strategy, the history, and the focus required be a great chess player!
The podcast gives me a wonderful opportunity to talk with experts in their fields and I was delighted when Alexander agreed to come on and talk about the world of chess and his career.
Here is a summary of the topics we discussed during the episode. I hope you enjoy!
Summary Topics:
•The 10,000 hour rule and the Grandmaster
•Hard work v Talent
•Bounce, Matthew Zayed and deliberate practice
•Playing the Polgar sisters – 2 making grandmasters and 1 international master
•Women Grandmaster titles and full Grandmasters
•Growing up in Russia (Gorky)
•Discovering Chess at the age of 7 and being taught the rules by his dad
•Joining a Chess club in school and quickly realising this was something he really liked
•3-4 years later, becoming seriously hooked and starting to play 10+ hours per week
•Early practice was more just friendly games and less structured study and play
•Having a coach and getting play more structured
•What is the best use of your time when playing Chess seriously?
•What to do before the games and after the games
•Creating a Plan to help develop his game – similar to studying for an exam
•There are many topics to focus on to study in chess
•The coach can help very much with this work
•Studying Chess and the impact it had on academic life
•Schools being supportive of Chess and seeing this as a positive hobby/passion
•Chess teaching planning and discipline leading to better schooling
•Having Swimming and Basketball as passions in early years
•Tapping into the desire to win and do your best
•Getting into the ‘Zone’ when playing and everything else fades away
•Living his life and playing for years before realizing it would be a career
•At the age of 20, Alexander had to make a decision where to go next and this time was when Chess became an option as a career – a couple of years later, the boarders opening up, this helped Alexander pursue Chess as an option
•By 22-23, chess became something he would do for the foreseeable future.
•How Chess ranking works and the difference between National, International Masters and Grandmasters, getting a ‘rating’ and moving up and down rankings
•The big gap between IM and GM and reaching the GM level taking 5 year…
•How international competitions work and how to achieve a ‘norm’
•The Swiss System in Chess
•How quickly can someone achieve GM status?
•Looking at the speed at which kids have reached GM at the age of 14-15
•Getting to GM level in 7-8 years and aligns with the 10k hours rule
•Common traits with Grandmasters – coming all forms and shapes
•One common trait – Hates to Lose!
•Every loss is a ‘little death’ – psychologically very difficult
•Driven by the desire not to lose more than the desire to win!
•Developing resilience and dealing with frustrations…
•The role of luck or is it pure skill in Chess?
•Luck playing a role in his career and providing opportunities
•Controlling Emotions during a Game and approaches to keep them in check
•Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat
•How the style of play develops and changes over time
•Playing against ‘pieces’ or against ‘players?
•Chess players peaking at the age of 35 but now it seems to be younger – at 27/28
•The Indian summer is noticeable in many players – even up to the age of 60
•Alexander stopped growing as a player 20 years ago due to making a conscious decision to diversify – write books, coaching, etc
•The general level of play is increasing now compared to 20 years ago – at the club player level – but at the top level, less so
•The role of technology and how it’s changed the game of Chess in a dramatic way
•Making information and learning much more accessible
•Chess engines helping players learn much quicker – like a spell checker
•How technology has brought more cheating in Chess
•Watching more chess online has had a positive impact – it’s overall been a positive
•What advice amateur players could look at to improve their game?
•Coaching, Planning, studying games, and be consistent on a regular basis
•Having a plan is better than no plan!
•Training Sam Collins in Ireland to be a Grandmaster
Connecting with Alexander – you can find him on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/alexander.baburin.37
Email – Baburin@gmail.com

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