Change Wired

If your calendar predicted your future, would you like what it shows?  

In today's episode we'll walk through a clear, 5-step work-life integration system designed to turn values and your future self visions into the life you live daily. Instead of chasing someone else’s idea of balance, we strip away borrowed goals and define a good life in your words, for this season, starting now.  

It's a realignment process.  

We create a match between what you want in life and what you do every day.  

If this resonated, subscribe, share with one person who’ll keep you accountable, and leave a quick review to help more people build a life they love.  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

What if consistency isn’t about willpower but about design?  

In this special crossover episode, Angela flips seats and becomes the guest. Interviewed by Kevin Joseph from the Lekker Network, I unpack how small, deliberate system changes can unlock unstoppable performance in individuals, teams, and entire organizations.  

Angela shares her journey from health and neuroscience to behavioral science and leadership transformation, and the practical insights that help people stay on track long after motivation fades.  

💡 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:  

• The hidden code of consistency — why success depends more on systems than self-discipline.
• Why motivation is unreliable (and what to build instead).
• The Consistency Code™ — a three-pillar framework:
  1️⃣ Awareness – clarity on what, why, and how.
  2️⃣ Enablement – design environments that make desired actions easy.
  3️⃣ Reinforcement – sustain motivation through visible progress and recognition.
• How to make “soft stuff” measurable — translating values like innovation, inclusivity, and trust into trackable behaviors.
• The real reason pilots matter — testing one variable at a time to find what truly works before scaling.
• How accountability and identity shape performance — and why being seen doing the right thing often matters more than being told to.
• The human side of data — why what works in Silicon Valley won’t necessarily work in South Africa or the Global South, and how context drives behavior.
• How to turn overwhelm into focus — by doing fewer things, better.

Why Listen:  

If you’ve ever wondered why change initiatives fade, habits don’t stick, or culture programs stall — this episode gives you the behavioral blueprint to fix it.  

It’s a candid, practical, and inspiring conversation about designing consistency into your life, your team, and your business — one small system at a time.  

🎧 Tune in to the full episode and discover how to build a culture where consistency becomes effortless and success, inevitable.  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

Feeling stuck while juggling big, messy goals? We’ve all been there.  

Today we talk about a simple, coaching-proof, reliable way to turn overwhelm into motion: after years of coaching complex client cases, one thing never fails - oversimplification outperforms overcomplication when you need momentum and progress. 

You’ll hear practical examples across domains: a single rule that quietly drives weight loss, a daily recognition habit that nudges culture toward engagement, and a no‑frills sales sprint that outperforms complex business strategies. Each tactic is intentionally small, easy to track, and resilient on your busiest days. 

We also dig into the softer but crucial arenas: repairing strained relationships with one genuine appreciation every day, and rebuilding self‑esteem by recording a single hard thing you did or value you upheld. These practices shrink the gap between intention and action and create proof you can feel. No sprawling frameworks, no massive life overhaul just one behavior you can start your day on.  

If this resonates, tap follow, share it with someone who feels stuck, and leave a quick review.  

What’s your one action you’ll start today?  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

Most teams, people and companies don’t have a motivation problem - they have a design problem.

In this episode I sit down with Ricardo Lopes Costa, founder and CTO of Funifier from Brazil and the author of "The Fantastic Engagement Factory: how to motivate people on a large scale with gamification". We uncover how gamification, psychology, and smart feedback loops can turn apathetic workflows into performance engines people actually want to use.

Ricardo’s company, Funifier, has worked with global brands like Coca-Cola, HP, Banco do Brasil, and Caixa Econômica Federal, helping them turn dry KPIs into dynamic challenges that spark human motivation — often with billion-dollar impact. 

Ricardo shares how:

• A small experiment with locked online lessons accidentally sparked his obsession with engagement.
• A single leaderboard turned learning into a movement across Brazil.
• Caixa’s “Tamo Junto 9Bi+” initiative became the world’s largest gamification case — driving over $1 billion USD in additional profit in just months.
• Recognition and belonging often outperform money when it comes to performance.
• Even small businesses — from cupcake stands to ice-cream shops — can gamify experiences to make people participate more.
• Why the future of leadership lies in designing human experiences, not just managing numbers.

If you’re a leader, HR professional, or entrepreneur who wants to build teams that care, perform, and grow — this episode will show you how to make motivation measurable.

Key Takeaways

• Motivation is designable — when you treat engagement like a system, not a feeling.
• Recognition > rewards: appreciation drives sustained effort more than money.
• Start small: pick one unmotivated area, personalize it, make it visible, make it fun.
• Emotional design is the missing layer in most transformation and culture projects.
• Everyone — even small businesses — can use gamification principles to spark engagement.

🔗 Learn More

• 📘 The Fantastic Engagement Factory: How to Motivate People on a Large Scale with Gamification
• 🌐 funifier.com: Ricardo’s company and gamification platform 
• 📸 Instagram: @ricardolopescosta_

👤 About Ricardo Lopes Costa

Ricardo Lopes Costa is an entrepreneur, author, and international speaker specializing in gamification and behavioral design for business. He is the founder and CTO of Funifier, creator of the Funifier Gamification Platform, used in over 25 countries to help organizations motivate people at scale.
His work with banks like Caixa Econômica Federal and Banco do Brasil has been recognized as some of the most impactful gamification projects in the world.
Ricardo is also the author of The Fantastic Engagement Factory, where he shares the psychology, design, and strategy behind motivating thousands of people, one game mechanic at a time.

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

Habits don’t fail you because you’re weak.  

They fail because they’re stuck in the wrong place.  

Let me explain...  

Today we unpack a simple, powerful rule for consistency: put each habit where it naturally fits your life so it stops feeling like work.  

Think of your day like a kitchen - your daily coffee maker sits by the water and the mugs, not in the back of a cabinet. Your routines deserve the same thoughtful placement.  

Years of weekly training, hundreds of days of writing and language practice, and long-running reading and meditation - I break down exactly how the placement principle keeps these habits alive.  

We explore how friction hides in tiny details: a gym that requires a drive, a planner out of reach, a walk in an unsafe or unpleasant area, or a “react first” habit embedded in chaotic meetings. When the tools, timing, and context don’t match the behavior, every repetition feels like a negotiation. When they do, starting will NEVER become automatic, habits will not survive.  

You’ll learn how to find the perfect slot for each habit by mapping your energy peaks and valleys, pairing high-focus tasks with your sharpest hours and low-effort rituals with natural rhythms.  

If your goal is lifelong change, design beats discipline: reduce friction, keep cues consistent, and let ease and automaticity grow from repetition.  

Ready to make your routines feel seamless instead of heavy?  

Press play, pick one habit, and move it to a better place in your day.  

If this resonated, share it with a friend, start a mini listening club, and leave a quick review so more people can build habits that last.  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

Big goals shouldn’t feel like hauling a suitcase of rocks up a hill.

We’re talking about how ambitious people accidentally strap on extra weight with the wrong scorecard - chasing outcomes, timelines, and approval - when the real leverage lives in daily process, commitment to daily work, clear systems, and consistent action.

Today, I'm walking you through a practical high-performance exercise that reframes control, so you can stop measuring what you don’t own and start optimizing the inputs you do.

We dig into concrete examples across life and work: training vs winning, habits vs goals, preparation vs luck, and systems vs willpower. On the communication and leadership side, we unpack speaking clearly vs being understood, authenticity vs approval, boundaries vs reactions, and decision quality vs outcome certainty. In creative strategy, we anchor on experimentation, iteration, and feedback instead of perfection and prediction, showing how curiosity and small learning loops speed up real progress and reduce burnout.

We'll finish with 2 grounding questions that tie it all together, 2 questions you must ask yourself whenever life, goals and work feel heavy.

If you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or judged by an external scoreboard, this conversation gives you a lighter way to travel - focused, energized, and resilient over the long haul.

If the episode resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s chasing something big, and leave a quick review to help others find it.

Then tell me: what controllable input will you commit to this week?

Also, try my new GPT - Negative Self-Talk Trainer: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68f9e96bb94c81918b16bc403c31adfe-self-talk-trainer  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

In this special episode of Change Wired, I sit down with Claude Silver, the world’s first Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX, to celebrate the launch of her new book, Be Yourself at Work: The Groundbreaking Power of Showing Up, Standing Out, and Leading from the Heart.

Together, Angela and Claude unpack how to build cultures of belonging -where people don’t just fit in, they flourish. 

🔑 Episode Highlights

• Why “fitting in” is outdated and how belonging unlocks performance.
  Claude explains that belonging is about psychological safety, while fitting in is about conformity. Teams thrive when people feel seen, not when they match.
• The 3 Emotional Pillars of Heart-Led Leadership:
  • Emotional Optimism — believing things can get better and seeing possibility even in hard moments.
  • Emotional Bravery — having the difficult conversations with compassion and self-awareness.
  • Emotional Efficiency — creating clarity and speed through empathy and trust.
• The Lie Exercise:
  A simple self-awareness tool Claude uses to help people challenge limiting beliefs. Write down the lie you tell yourself (“I’m not smart”) and find evidence that proves it wrong. Replace it with a truer, kinder statement (“My intelligence shows up in many ways”).
• Culture Fit vs. Culture Add:
  Great companies don’t clone culture, instead they expand it. Claude shares how curiosity and openness to difference build stronger, more creative teams.
• How to Retain Top Talent:
  Don’t wait for exit interviews, instead do stay interviews. Listen before people leave. Create opportunities, mentorship, and moments of appreciation.
• Running on Calm:
  “When I get anxious, my team gets anxious,” Claude says. She shares practices like grounding, breathing, and visualization to help leaders find calm under pressure.

💬 Practical Takeaways

• Ask yourself: What part of me am I not bringing to work?
  Reflect on what it costs you—and your team—to hide that part.
• Practice Emotional Bravery: speak up when something feels misaligned, with respect and curiosity.
• Make time for self-awareness rituals: journaling, stay interviews, reflection moments, or asking your team, “What do you need from me this week?”

👩‍💼 BIO

Claude Silver is the world’s first Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX, working alongside CEO Gary Vaynerchuk to build a people-first culture that powers creativity and growth. A pioneer in emotional intelligence at scale, she’s on a mission to bring more heart, humanity, and authenticity into the workplace. Claude has been honored with Campaign US’s Female Frontier Award and AdWeek’s Changing the Game Award, and has spoken at Meta, Google, the US Armed Forces, and more.

She lives in New Jersey with her wife and two children.

🔗 Links

• 🌐 Claudesilver.com
• 📘 Be Yourself at Work 
• 💌 Newsletter & Resources via Website
•  💬 Connect on LinkedIn and Instagram  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

When a tough week whispers “You’re a failure,” what do you do next?  

We dig into a fast, 4-question CBT flow that turns harsh self-talk into a clear plan you can act on in minutes feeling confident, empowered, hopeful and motivated again - we demo a custom Self-Talk Trainer that guides the process and exports a one-page PDF you can use as a mental training log.  

We start with a core premise: thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are linked, and high performers are often tripped up not by skill but by the voice in their head. Using a relatable example - missing sales targets for a few weeks - we will do a live walkthrough of the Self-Talk Trainer, a custom GPT I designed to help you rewire negativity in your head into positive action that helps you grow and make progress despite the challenges.  

This sequence in under 60 seconds.  

It prompts you to capture the situation, analyze distortions like catastrophizing, craft a better thought you actually believe, and choose one small action. It then generates a clean PDF recap so you can track reps and see your thinking evolve over time - perfect for leaders, founders, and anyone who wants to perform under pressure without being dragged by rumination or self-attack.  

This is the start of our “mind gym” approach: short, consistent drills that condition your inner voice to be precise, fair, and forward-moving. If you’ve ever spiraled after a setback, this tool and framework will keep you learning, adjusting, and taking action.  

Try the Self-Talk Trainer, share it with someone who needs a mental reset, and tell us what shifts for you. If this conversation helped, subscribe, leave a review, and send the episode to a friend who could use a stronger inner coach.  

Try Self-Talk Trainer here -> https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68f9e96bb94c81918b16bc403c31adfe-self-talk-trainer  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

Ready for a life boost that doesn’t require another app, hack, or supplement?   

Today we unpack why sleep is the hidden engine behind emotional stability, sharper decisions, and real learning, and how a few consistent habits can transform your days by fixing your nights. 

We start with the brain, how chronic restriction (yes, even 1-2h a night) quietly erodes attention, working memory, processing speed, and reasoning. If you lead teams, negotiate deals, parent, or simply want to grow faster, “sleep on it” isn’t a cliché; it’s a strategy.  

Then we get practical.  

We lay out the core behaviors that reliably improve sleep quality.  

Finally, we show you how to make these shifts stick with a simple habit loop: trigger, action, reward. Pick one change per week, set hard boundaries around your schedule, and anchor it to a personal why that matters more than late-night distractions. 

This is a warm, candid guide for anyone who wants better focus, calmer emotions, and faster growth without grinding harder.  

Subscribe for more science-backed tools, share this with someone who’ll keep you accountable, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. What’s the one sleep habit you’ll start tonight? 

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.

Ever notice how big goals melt into "some day land" when the day gets messy?  

On today's episode, we break down a simple, evidence-backed tool that turns “I should” into “I did,” replacing fragile motivation with clear cues and automatic actions. Instead of relying on willpower, we show how to script your behavior like software: a specific trigger, a concrete next step, and a defined finish line that delivers a quick reward your brain actually remembers.  

Who does what, when, where, how often, and with whom?  

A fundamental question to answer if you want to get good at programming your brain for challenging, consistent action.  

You’ll hear a practical running example that moves from vague hopes to precise routines: when to act, what to wear, where to go, and how to know you’re done. We layer in environment design to remove hidden friction and temptation bundling to make new habits feel rewarding right away. The goal is less decision-making in the moment and more doing on cue. 

Then we add the secret amplifier: WOOP—Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. By naming likely blockers upfront - low energy, surprise tasks, bad weather - and writing alternative if-then plans for each, you keep momentum even when the day doesn’t cooperate. You’ll learn how to apply the same structure to leadership, feedback, learning, and communication, so your next move is already decided when it matters. Fewer negotiations with yourself, more consistent action, and a system that sticks. 

If you’re ready to trade hope for a reliable plan, press play and build your first brain program today!  

3-minute blog this episode is based on: The simple trick that 2X your chances of doing what you said you would. Programming your brain to follow through 101  

Text Me Your Thoughts and Ideas

Support the show

Brought to you by Angela Shurina  

Certified Health, Sleep, Performance & Executive Coach 360 with 18 years of experience helping people change to feel, be and do their best.