Rewired Mind

Merle Riepe focuses on helping businesses increase profitability through people. He helps companies build better internal relationships, improve employee engagement and provides candidate assessments to ensure better hires.

As an organization psychologist, his focus is on creating a good relationship between people and their work. "Too many people seem to have a broken relationship with their work." This could be attributed to either that they do not agree with the leadership of the company that they work for or that they feel as though there is no meaning behind the work they are doing.

With our current challenge of COVID-19, organizations are trying to develop skills and hire candidates remotely. At the same time, many are experiencing layoffs. With distance being a factor, we need to ensure trust and transparency on both sides.

Merle offered some tips to handle bad thoughts that will come up during stay at home orders and social distancing. Write down the bad thoughts so that you can see them and write down what the distortion is in the thoughts. He also advised against using the terms "should" and "must" and to try reframing things as "want" when it comes to doing things. This can help against self-shaming which is very easy to fall into during this time. An example of this would be framing a task as "I want to get this done" vs "I must get this done". He also mentioned the focus should be on feeling better during this pandemic vs. getting better.

Some books that Merle mentioned that were helpful to him were Feeling Good and When Panic Attacks, both by David Burns, who also has a podcast. He also mentioned The Power of Full Engagement by Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr as well as Why by Simon Sinek and Peak Performance by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness.

With his company SOLVE, he looks to get to the heart of an issue and figure out a way to fix it. His background in psychology helps him with providing the right solutions for his clients. You can reach him at [email protected].

"I don't regret anything about my past." JT McCormick, a man who was raised in the slums of Dayton Ohio by a black pimp drug dealing father and a white orphan mother, worked his way from being the lowest paid employee of a software company to becoming the CEO of that company. During his time there, he helped build the business to a multi-million-dollar company that is consistently ranked as one of the best places to work in the state of Texas.

JT is currently the CEO and President of Scribe Media, a publishing company that helps individuals from diverse backgrounds write, publish and market their books, allowing them to tell their story. Scribe has worked with the likes of David Goggins as well as members of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. They were also ranked as having the number one Company Culture in America by Entrepreneur Magazine.

His book I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Poverty, Racism and Abuse to Achieve the American Dream, tells the heartbreaking and inspiring story of his fight to succeed despite the tremendous odds that were stacked against him.

In addition to his job as CEO at Scribe Media, JT has used his story as a way to mentor young men and women in the juvenile justice system and those in lower income communities.

To learn more about JT's company, please visit www.scribemedia.com

#Inspiring #Mentoring #BeingSeen #EveryoneHasAStory #DavidGoggins

The word "Service" comes to mind when you know Troy Wilkinson. He began in law enforcement, became a lead bomb investigator, assisted on a Joint Terrorism Task force and then worked in violent crime and homicide. His greatest achievement during this time in his career was his skill and ability in investigating cyber crimes and child pornography. In 2007, he was recruited by the US State department to train police officers in Kosovo on cyber investigations and held many positions within the Intelligence Community. While working under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he was a top cyber investigator and helped the UN and EU to lead investigations into political corruption, organized crime, financial crimes, and terrorism. Alongside a team of international investigators, he created the first IT forensics lab for the EU Mission in Kosovo.

After returning to the US, Troy co-founded a company with the mission to create intelligent, automated and self-healing cyber security platforms to help protect American businesses against cyber criminals.

With the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently going on, Troy has some tips regarding cyber security. In addition to learning about his stellar background, this podcast gives you some insight into why we need to step up our game in security to combat these criminals who are not taking a vacation

He also has set up a fundraiser called Healthcare Heroes, and it is designed to give back to those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. This fundraiser would provide getaways for those "Healthcare Heroes" to allow them to take a well-deserved vacation once this crisis ends. For more information on this fundraiser and how you can give, please visit https://healthcareheroes.vegas/

#CyberSecurity, #IT, #LawEnforcement, #HealthcareHeroes, #COVID19, #InformationSharing #007

Amy Tyre was raised in Boston and had a typical childhood. The first notice of a major shift for her happened when she moved to Arizona. This change forced her to realize that she needed to rely more on her immediate family after relying on her parents while living in Boston. However, the biggest moment for her was getting sick. She had struggled with symptoms of IBS since middle school but she did not realize this until much later. To try to solve this problem, she sought out the use of traditional medicine, only to find that this approach only made things worse. She then looked into alternative medicines.

After being told by a medical intuitive that the main cause of the IBS issue was not allowing her emotions to surface, she did yoga and was able to get her emotions to surface, only to find that she did not know what to do with them. She worked with therapists to help her sort out what these emotions were. She was told by a gestalt therapist to just allow for those emotions to surface. This approach allowed her to not only get a sense of what her emotions were but also start to work through those emotions.

During her recovery period, she learned that pain is not comparative. Based on all of the changes that she encountered she realized that the pain that one person feels might be very different for someone else. After allowing her emotions to surface she realized that she was miserable even though she had everything that one could want from a material standpoint. She realized that something was wrong but was unable to figure it out until much later.

As she was growing and learning about her emotions, she realized that she wanted to contribute to the rise of alternative medicine practitioners as that was something that she had success with during her journey. She decided to do this by creating Alternative Medicine Connection, a site for posting experiences with alternative forms of medicine.

Now, she works in yoga, something she has studied for over 20 years and is a mentor and coach, hoping to give back what she has learned through her own experiences to help others. To find our more or to contact her go to https://yoga-for-joy.com/

Some of the books that she had mentioned as being helpful to her throughout her journey are The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, Many Lives, Many Masters by Bryan Weiss, The Art of Happiness by the Dalia Lama, Journey of Awakening by Ram Dass, Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall and The Book of Joy by the Dalia Lama and Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu.

#yoga #Alternativemedicine #emotions #allowyouremotionstosurface #painisnotcomparitave

I had the pleasure of meeting Jenn at an event a while back and as I mention in the interview, when you hear enough people tell you that you have to meet someone, you sometimes wonder if the universe is telling you something.

Jenn Kaye is a never-ending seeker of what moves people to action and she was an ideal candidate for my next guest of 'Rewired Mind'.

We sat down and talked about her experiences as a child and how formative they were in her daily life now as an Executive Coach.

Jenn describes her coaching role as "helping leaders and difference-makers get the results they want by identifying their authentic voice and customizing their message for optimum impact."

We talk a lot about the challenges she faced throughout her life, and what led to her "rewired" thinking.

We sit down and talk about what it takes to truly listen, and we talk about the fact that among her accomplishments is the honor of sharing the "Jenga champion" title with me!

Enjoy,

Allen Plunkett

PS: Here are some links if you're interested in reaching out to Jenn;

• Website (JennKaye.com)
• Instagram @jennkaye
• Facebook

Overview In this interview I sit down with Brianna Morsa, known to most she works with as "Coach Bri". Her depth of knowledge and growth mindset is inspiring. When I seek out guests for the podcast I have certain names I immediately think of as great guests – because of their inspiring stories, depth of knowledge, interesting lives and life changes, etc. Bri checks every one of those boxes – just an inspiring person all around. She's been transforming lives for many years. From personal training she moved into mindset coaching as she realized that if she helped her clients transform their minds, they could do more than just change their bodies. They could change their whole life. Background

We talk about her difficult childhood and her life in sports, how she almost became a nun (seriously), and how many of those things led to eating disorders, discovery of herself and interventions by her friends and family, and how that turned her into the life coach she is today. Bri talks about her training in MMA, background in Kempo and Karate and her high school and college athletic background. She finds a lot of her inspiration in the focus and dedication in others. One of the cool stories she shares is how she relates to the Olympian Kerry Strug and how despite adversity, Kerry overcame a serious situation.

Brianna shares how she handles some of the emotional challenges people face in life and how being honest with oneself provides a tremendous advantage. Challenges and Honesty

• She is relentlessly honest about the more painful moments in her life;
• Serious struggles with her relationship with parents
• How her early goals to be a Nun conflicted with her sexuality
• How bulimia took over a substantial portion of her life, and discovery of just how bad it became (in patient treatment and multiple interventions).

Rewired Thinking The concept of a life coach to some creates an impression of someone who (in theory) has it all together – one of the most insightful parts of this interview comes at about the 33-minute mark. Bri clarifies how our past experiences shape who we are, but even more that they are ongoing struggles. And that being honest with others about those current struggles and sharing what she's learned are the most important part of being a great example and teacher as a life coach.

She works with high level athletes, executives, and individuals as a High Performance Mindset Coach. Whether it means staying poised and focused in the peak of competition as an athlete, leading a team with authenticity and confidence, or applying discipline in life where it is most needed, she uses a combination of many modalities, disciplines and NLP techniques to help her clients.

Coach Bri is a Master Practitioner of NLP, speaker, writer and is deeply passionate about her work in transformation. She is currently working on creating new modalities to help her clients breakthrough their old patterns and limiting beliefs to expand into and beyond their potential.

To get more information about her, find her below;

• On Facebook, at /HumbleLionCoaching
• On Twitter @Bmorsa24
• Instagram @humblelioncoaching
• or her website, at HumbleLionCoaching.com

I hope you'll listen to this carefully and enjoy. Allen

Gene Fojtik is someone I have been fortunate enough to know for the past several years. Introduced by Jack McElaney and Sanjay Nasta, Gene is someone who you immediately want to learn more about. Aside from being a proven entrepreneur, futurist and engineering leader. He is introspective, curious and likes to talk about things that matter. In this episode, we are lucky to have Gene open up in a very casual conversation about work, life, relationships and struggles. He is engaging, genuine and someone who is very relatable.

In Our Discussion

He talks about the "whispers" we may all hear, but not heed as we look to build a life of meaning and purpose. So singularly focused on his work and carving a successful path, he didn't listen to those whispers quite as earnestly as he thinks he could have. Enjoy this interview as we all get to learn how he is listening intently today and encouraging others to do the same.

Career

Throughout his career, Gene has acquired experiences in technology and resource management, defining and implementing architectural governance, as well as building and managing highly efficient disparate global development teams responsible for delivering complex global mission-critical systems.

Through visionary leadership, Gene strives to turn ideas into realities. He has a commitment to ensuring that every stage of program delivery is carefully and strategically laid out while tasks are executed with precision. His past experiences with international management and conflict resolution are reflective of his determination and dedication to finding solutions to problems that demand high levels of technical acumen.

Specialties

• Real-Time Hyper-Scale Architecture, patterns and delivery for HTAP
• Very large systems of systems engineering
• Systems Characterization and Optimization
• Knowledge Engineering, Representation & Ontologies
• Strategic Planning, International Management & Program Management
• Business & Practice Development
• Software engineering and development
• Enterprise & Solution Architecture
• AI, Machine learning

I'm excited to get your feedback on this interview.

Enjoy,

Allen

This episode was so inspiring. Rinkan Patel represents the epitome of rewired thinking and the growth mindset.

I met Rinkan a little over a year ago, and from the very first few words he spoke I could tell that his approach to life and leadership was different than most. He was born very poor, with good family support, and eventually came to the United States as a young boy.

The story of his upbringing, his approach to life, and raising his children are inspiring and can be a lesson for us all.

In particular, we talked about some of these topics;

• Who Rinkan "truly" works for.
• We discuss his upbringing and happiness through serious adversity.
• Rinkan met Sean Achor, author of the Happiness Advantage. We talk about some of the things he took away from that and his TED talk.
• An experience for Rinkan at age 22 that caused a profound change
• How he responds to negativity and how he advises others to overcome negativity
• How he talks to his kids about goals, and how he goes beyond the question of "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
• We talk about "the fulcrum" concept

This is an inspiring story and I hope you enjoy.

Allen Plunkett

We would love your feedback. Please leave your feedback on Apple Podcasts, email us at [email protected] or call 602-824-8265 and leave a message - whether you have a suggestion for a guest or just want to let us know what you think - we'd love to hear from you.

Show Notes:

Rinkan Patel's LinkedIn Page

Link to Shawn Achor's TED Talk

Shawn Achor's book, The Happiness Advantage

Phoenix Staff website

For my inaugural episode I sat down with Jonathan Keyser. He's an incredible success story - a two-time best-selling author and owner of Keyser Company – named one of Inc. Magazine's Fastest Growing Private Companies.

Jonathan created Keyser Company with the idea in mind of selfless service for others. It's a concept he learned years ago, and has found tremendous personal growth and success of his business and foundation, The Keyser Institute.

Jonathan's latest book, You Don't Have to Be Ruthless to Win, is a fantastic book that demonstrates how you can activate selflessness in your life, and how it can create extraordinary, long-term success in your own business. Jonathan's book is endorsed by Governor of Arizona Doug Ducey, John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, and Keith Ferrazzi, New York Times Bestselling author.

I sat down with Jonathan and asked about how his mindset changed from one of being about personal financial success and what it meant to his company. Some of the questions we dive into are;

• How did your core values change?
• How does this selfless strategy weigh on your time and how do you create a strategy to balance the increase of time on you personally?
• How do you identify people who adopt or already have a similar philosophy?
• With the philosophy of treating your staff like family, how do you fire "family"?
• What are the calls-to-action for entrepreneurs to implement in their business?
• Who were the people who helped you get to where you are?

We'll talk about Carol Dweck's book, Growth Mindset being instrumental for both of us and John Ruhlin's book Giftology, and the influence that it had on Jonathan.

This is our inaugural episode. I hope you enjoyed it! PLEASE give me your feedback - there are a few ways you can do it;

Email us: [email protected]

Call us and leave a message at: 602-824-8265‬

If you want more information about my company, Phoenix Staff, visit our website by clicking here. We are an IT staffing company based in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Austin.

Thanks again for listening.

Allen Plunkett

Rewired Mind is an exciting new podcast coming September 3rd. We'll feature stories about industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs who changed their approach – and changed the lives around them.

The Rewired Mind Podcast is hosted by me, Allen Plunkett. I'm the owner of Phoenix Staff, an IT staffing company serving the Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Austin areas. We'll feature two new episodes every month and hope you'll tune in. My first guest is an incredible entrepreneur, Jonathan Keyser, founder and CEO of Keyser Company, and the Keyser Institute. He's written two best selling books and just released his latest, You Don't Have to Be Ruthless to Win. The personal and professional turnaround he's made and the success of his business is a wonderful story. I hope you'll subscribe to learn all about him.

I'd truly appreciate if you'd subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or visit ReWiredMindPodcast.com for all episodes and to learn more.

For more information about Phoenix Staff, visit PhoenixStaff.com.