Ellen Kay, Founder of Neuro8, joins Mick for a remarkable conversation that spans thought-controlled drones, neuroscience, defence trials, and the inner workings of human performance. From a Special Forces Defence Expo coffee conversation to a live US military trial flying drones by thought alone, Ellen reveals why lasting change — in people and organisations — is always an inside job.

## Key Topics

- The drone trial: How Ellen worked with US military operatives to fly drones using brainwave activity alone, and what the AI-driven linguistic analysis revealed about deep personal change

- The brain-body loop: Why 95% of who we are is fixed by age 35 — and how to work with the 5% window for genuine transformation

- Stress, performance, and coherence: The critical difference between short-term stress (useful) and chronic stress (destructive), and how nervous system coherence unlocks peak performance

- The operative who struggled: The most instructive case from the trial — a participant whose self-reported success was contradicted entirely by the data

- Engineered serendipity: Why showing up, having the coffee, and sharing what you are passionate about is a deliberate strategy, not luck

- Hyper-enabled operators: The vision of serving personnel — and leaders — who can perform optimally with or without technology

## Where to Listen

- Website: https://thewaggleroom.com

- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWaggleRoom

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/TheWaggleRoom

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-waggle-room/id1879089102

- Substack: https://substack.com/@mickbrian

## Guest Info

Ellen Kay is Founder of Neuro8, a neuroscience-based change and performance training company. She has worked across corporate, cyber security, and defence sectors, and led a landmark thought-control drone trial with US military operatives.

- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ellenkay

- Website: https://neuro8.com

- Email: [email protected]