 Inspirational Buddy, as we journey to take your health back. We are coming to you live from my home office in Makiki and from downtown Honolulu, from the studios of Think Tech Hawaii. Think Tech Hawaii features the hearts of about 45 very different and colorful show hosts. Today, we will be talking story with a young, handsome, energetic, charismatic, successful and inspirational Corey Campbell. Corey Campbell is the CEO and founder of Akamai Training and Consulting, a Honolulu-based company helping organizations develop their leaders and enhance customer service. I've asked Corey to come in today to discuss with us tips to thrive through crisis and to discover the new you. I just felt that we could all use, we could all use some guidelines in this direction. Crisis can destroy us. We all know that or it can create breakthroughs for us. The choice lies in how we face it and the daily decisions we make to own it. Wow, or fall victim to it. What I would like to take, what I would like you to take away from today's discussion is outer circumstances don't control inner state unless we allow them to. We're gonna hear more about that. Exploring ways to stay energized and healthy is critical to maintain your mental, physical and spiritual well-being. Find a system that works for you and commit to it daily. So please, let's all welcome Corey Campbell and let's be inspired. Welcome Corey. Hey Wendy, thank you so much. It's lovely to be here again. I think we were here two years ago about this time. So I'm excited to be back. Exactly two years ago. I mean, it's just great friendship that brings great minds together that way I know it. We've been through a lot, a lot together and having great times and even doing these times, we're still gonna have great times. Is that right Corey? That's it Wendy. And you know, it's funny that today is crazy, right? And so many hard things are happening right now but a big part of it is focusing on the positive things and actually stacking some of that back. And so I wanted to point out to our audience, I can actually see a little trophy behind you. And if I'm not mistaken, that's not a little trophy. That's like two miles behind. Let me show you, this bunker is not little. It's not little. It is not little, it is a big one because why do I have this trophy on my desk Corey? That was actually winning the Dragon Boat Racing Championship last year, which was super exciting with your team, the Juice Plus team. Right and you were one of the inspirational markers on our team. I mean, we have the great captains of Cassandra and Mike but you know, you short of wearing a little skirt and pom-poms, you were gathering the paddle and you were cheering us on every paddle, every time we dipped into the water, you were cheering us on and encouraging and motivating. I mean, you would think you were at work and I didn't even have to pay you or organize it. You just did it because that's just who you are Corey. Is that right? You know, one of the truest things that I know in life is emotions are contagious. And I believe this, right? So if I walk into anything and my energy is off, my emotions are off, it transfers to everybody. And we saw it in that Dragon Boat Racing Boat and I gotta give you credit, Wendy, because you bring the power and the thunder every single time, you do that powerful chant as we are rolling, right? It's the eyes, you know, it's all in the eyes Corey. Yeah man, you know, I felt it, like those moments when I was exhausted and tired and I was like, I don't know if I have another 15 strokes. If I heard one person go, we got this. We got it. And so that's always something that I try to provide for others and I hope to get in return. And I think it's a great message for COVID-19. Right. One of the most frustrating, oh, I just can say one of the most frustrating things I'm hearing from people is that the proximity we're living, right? And now I'm around these people all the time. And I think if we all just commit to that and remember, hey, my emotions are going to transfer to you. And let me pay more attention to that before I go greet you. That can change. Right. And you know, Corey, that's why you came to my heart. I said, you know, we've gone through many months of being in isolation and different changes in our lives. And I thought, you know what? We need to be uplifted. So I thought, I got to get Corey back on. And that's why I said, hey Corey, are you available for our show today? And we're just excited about all of this. But you know, Corey, I know that you've been working very hard up to the point where we started doing a life change and everything was changing around us. So how have you had to pivot your business to thrive through this crisis? Man, that's a huge question. And I'll say this, you know, I am traditionally been an in-person trainer. I work with teams and leaders and try to bring them together. And so all of a sudden, in-person training was completely disallowed. And I remember when my last training was on March 16th, everything, and I was so excited for this year. I had, you know, so many new clients, things going on and everything just got canceled. And I realized right away, and I, and look, I'll be honest, and I think everybody deserves the time to go down the rabbit hole and kind of just, and feel sorry for yourself. Right? And I did, and I was like, God, this was going to be such a magnificent year. And then I started to get to work on, and this is a big belief in mind, just the little steps that I can shift to make my business, you know, webinar based and online. And I thought, honestly, I thought it was going to be awful. I was like, people need to be together the train, but I'll tell you, as soon as you start to shift your thinking around things, you see me yours, right? And I started to go, okay, I'm going to start telling myself that it's amazing to train through webinars in this format. And it started to become true. And I'll be honest, I had a great session, like a four week emotional intelligence session where at the end, people said, I was able to be more real in this because it was just in one breakout rooms that I came in a classroom. So that was pretty cool. Who knows we may never go back to live even when we were allowed to. I think it's possible. I mean, how convenient is this before we had to go to a place to film this and how are you sitting in your home? And I'm in my office, it's great. Okay, well, let me ask you a question, Corey. Do you have long pants or shorts on? Or do you have shorts on at all? No, don't answer. I'm only joking. I'll tell you. Beauty, right? You'll love this when I'm going to show you, I wear pants and I usually go barefoot in my session now and you could never do that before in real life. Never, never. I mean, and you feel a little bit more yourself, like you said, because you're in your home, you know, in your comfortable environment and you, you know, it's a whole different world. And I think we will become more and more comfortable because like you, you had to go and organize the event, set up the room, make sure everybody got there on time, parking, everything. I mean, like, I could show up to your, your session, I have my water bottle, I have my food, and when you're talking, I can go get more food and come back. That's right. And you continue on. That's exactly right, man. There is so much good to this, but the requirement is changing the thought process in our head, right? Because the moment we go, this is terrible for me and it's going to shut me down, which I think everybody did and should have done. We needed that space, but we got to shift out of that to then find the angles. And there are, there are beautiful stories happening everywhere and there's terrible stories happening. And a big part of it, I think, is just the thoughts we're programming in our head about what's ahead. Right. But the good thing, you know, as I was watching you, you did get out and you were able to detox in the outside of your office and your home, and then you came back and you went back to work. So that's very critical that you're having to know that. And of course that's how I'm sure how you train and what you train on that people take breaks and do other things to clear their minds as well. But I know that you've had a lot of challenges during these times. How do you keep your mind focused and positive? That's what we want everyone to learn. I think one of the most critical things is paying attention to how you own the morning, right? And what thoughts you program in. And this is an interesting concept, but if you go to bed at night thinking something, and let's say it's nerve wracking, right? And it's scary. And you wake up the next day thinking the same thing. You are by definition living in the past. Every single, I mean, numerous times throughout the day, we have a choice. And that's why I love this road image. You have a choice to choose one road that's either, the road that's not letting you be yourself and not owning up to your true passion and who you are. Or you have the typically the tougher road, which I call the right road, right? It's like I'm gonna choose the right road and this is gonna be my authentic self going after it. But it takes a lot of work, I think, to be able to put yourself in that state. And I'm really like, I pay much attention to like, what's my thought in the morning? And if it's coming from yesterday, I have a whole, I might not have a whole process, which we'll talk about later in this session of how I shift my thinking around the day ahead to be able to choose that right road, which then my thoughts changes, it changes my actions, changes my behaviors and ultimately changes what happens for me in that day and beyond. Wow. And you know, you're so consistent because two years ago, I heard the same direction from you and two years later, you're still, you know, encouraging that and that is so key. And that's why it's probably stayed on your agenda to continue sharing that point. So, you know, working with your clients as a leadership coach, do you find people respond differently to change? Oh yeah, very different, right? As we know in person, when we see our friends, we see our family members responding differently. There's a great article by Peter Block and I like to reference the different styles of approach that people have to change. And you know, one of the most scary ones is just becoming the critic. And that means I'm just gonna stand on the side, I'm gonna complain, I'm gonna oppose everything and I'm going to let it take me over these negative thoughts. Psychologists will tell you about 85% of our subconscious thoughts running through our head are negative. That's scary, right? Because we start to believe those. So it's easy to fall in the critic state, which by the way, we jump into all these at all times. Exactly. It's easy to fall in the victim state, which says, oh my gosh, whoa is me, right? And I have no control over this. The world has handed this to me and now I just, this is it. But we know that doesn't benefit us, right? And it's easy to fall in that one. You know, another style is the bystander, which just says, hey, I'm just gonna stand on the side. I'm gonna wait and see what happens. But ultimately, where we're headed, right? Where we wanna go is the navigator role, you know? And I often reference the Hokulea as a great example of this. They figured out how to sail, right? Without any instruments. So they said, I'm gonna take this challenge and I'm gonna go own it. And I'm gonna hunt for information that helps me through this. And that's the approach that I think we should all strive for. You may not have it every day, but if you have a day of victim mentality, then let me get in the navigator tomorrow. That's important. And you know, those are very key points, those four points right there, Cori, because honestly, I mean, like you said, we're all human, we're all gonna experience it. And it matters how long you stay in each one of those numbers, one, two, three, or number four. And you know, yeah, we all went through all that and then the pity party and then let's stay on the side and all that. But yes, the best place to be, honestly, is in the navigation. And so when you can get yourself into that zone and into that level and create your days, according to that, it's powerful. It's so powerful. And that's exactly where I wanna start my day and where I wanna be ending my day as well. And it does take some work at getting to that point, but we have time and we can do that and it's just becoming better at what we do daily. And Wendy, that's a very simple tip for that, is just stop yourself and go, where am I right now? Am I a critic, bystander, victim or navigator? And just that simple question alone can kind of break that mental pattern of thought and go, all right, I'm in victim mode. Let me step out of this. Exactly. Exactly. And I think everyone should copy that slide and put it on their desk so that they can see and just take a visual, where am I today? And take a look at it and analyze it and then figure out what do you want? Where do you wanna be? And that's a key right there. So what is the secret to thriving through a crisis, Corey? Through crisis, I think the biggest challenge is and it all starts with maintaining control of our thoughts. We all know this, right, Wendy? When you are in a state of stress and you're nervous, do you perform at your best? The reality is no, the example I often give people is if you lose your keys, right, and you're trying to find them and you're running around stressed out and yelling, you don't find them. When you've calmed yourself down and go, let me think differently. And that's built into the science behind our brains, right? We release cortisol, our stress hormone when we're stressed out. So if we wanna manage ourselves through a crisis, the first place we gotta start every morning is going our thoughts. And again, I really believe, I am a weirdo for systems, I need them. So I think everybody needs the morning system. And here's another quick tip. If you wake up and you check your cell phone or the news, and that's the first thing you do, I would suggest you consider what a shift helped me because that makes you very reactive, right? The news right now is negative and it brings us down. Oftentimes whatever's on that phone, whether it's email or a message or whether it's a social media thing about what's happening, it brings us down and we get reactive. So on those first 30 minutes, right? That gets you into your thoughts. And when your thoughts shift, your energy changes. And as we know, life is about energy, right? And when we walk through the day like, oh, this is gonna be, I mean, we walk into a day going, this is going to be awful. We are right, right? So we'll literally change our energy. We ultimately change our life. And so I really believe though, it kicks off with this attention, right? It's self-awareness of our thoughts. And then, you know, actually steering them in a different direction. Mm-hmm. All right. So, you know, yeah, it all starts with controlling our thoughts, exactly. So do you have any tips to help us to do that better? I think one of the most important things to be aware of the understanding our thoughts is how our bodies are structured and our brains operate. And so you'll see this on the diagram here. Basically, anytime our brain receives a stimulus, it shoots up our spinal cord into our brain. The first system that it goes through in our brain is called the limbic system. And that's where our brains attach a motion to what has occurred. And everybody's familiar with the fight-or-flight response. That is managed by your amygdala, which is a small gland inside the limbic system. After that, it slowly proceeds all the way to your frontal lobe, which is where your brain attaches ration and logic. Now, we often wonder like, okay, so what this means, right, is I respond with a motion before I have thought rationally through it, which is why it's so easy to shoot off and yell at someone. And then later on go, I wish I hadn't done that. And we're wired that way for survival, right? As everybody knows, you go all the way back. We were built to respond with a motion in case a tiger came in and we had to get stronger and more powerful than ever before. The danger is we don't have tigers now, we have other people doing things that send us into that same response. And what I find right now during crisis is our gauge is a little bit shorter, right? Like, if somebody does something, we're already kind of a heightened emotional state. So we gotta just go, we have to know, okay, I am processing in my limbic system when I'm full of motion and if I want to have the right decision in this matter, I should probably just give myself some time before I say something to my husband or wife or my children, give myself a little bit of time. Psychologists say an emotion takes 90 seconds to run through. After that, what happens is we turn that emotion into a thought, okay, now I'm upset and then it triggers another emotion. But if someone near you is doing something that upsets you, remember, right? It's not about that person, they're in a tough space and I can, by me responding differently and helping them through this, they'll do that in return, right? And truly, spread aloha. I mean, I think that's the greatest thing we have in Hawaii is remembering the spirit of aloha and saying, I'm just here to help you and it's not about what you're giving me in return and it's all tied into our brain science. Right, and that's so key. Even when you receive a letter or an email and you wanna respond, if you need to respond, you may write it, but do not send it. Don't send it, okay? And then you just go back another hour later and you read it, your response, you read the situation in the response. Trust me, you won't send it. And then you rewrite it the right way and that will help a lot. Same idea was what you're sharing with us. Just take your time and think about things that have processed. So there are so many things causing frustrations today, Corey, how can we avoid some of those triggers? I think one of the most important things to be aware of is this concept of an unenforceable rule. And what that is is that's simply something that you have decided is the way the world should operate and you put it on everybody else in situations and when it doesn't happen, you get upset. And so here's a great example and some people might even be upset of me for saying this but an unenforceable rule right now is whether or not someone else is wearing a mask, right? And there are two very different opinions on that. We're not here to talk about that but whatever your opinion is, if you see, I mean, if you see somebody else not, you can send yourself into a frenzy or if they are and you're not, you can spend a whole period of time on that. But for me, it's not about masks. This is about family members, this is about friends. This is about me going, you know, my husband, my wife, my kids should do this. And then when they don't, I get so upset and it drags into my day and it triggers me and then I change who I am. And so one of the most profound things I've done for myself is I literally sat down and I wrote all my unenforceable rules in my life. And the ones that I, an unenforceable rule means you don't have control over it. Which allows you, once you've identified I don't have control over this, you can release it. I'll tell you, I mean, it's little things for me like how my girlfriend washes the dishes sometimes I'll look over them but why wouldn't you do this and then I go, this is unenforceable. I have no control over this. I'm just gonna let this go. And I think that's the key to thriving in a crisis is identification of what's causing you that trigger. And then realizing it's unenforceable, I'm going to release this from me right now. Right, wow. Pick your battles. Right? That's right, that's right. Wow, that's important. Especially when everyone's in isolation and lockdown and family mode and you know, everything, the triggers are all there, right? They're all there. So is there a formula to thriving through crisis mentally, physically and spiritually? I think, so there is I believe a typical kind of formula and I learned this from Tony Robbins and I really love this. And basically, you know, we need to have a strategy, right? To make sure that we are controlling our thoughts, you know, controlling our energy, those things. But a strategy doesn't mean very much when it's not backed up by the right story. And you know, great example, we've all had great strategies to diet or to exercise more. They're easy to break pretty soon because the story behind that strategy is, ah, you know, I like this food, I don't wanna work out today and all these things. And so we gotta change the story in our head. And that's why I love saying crisis creates breakthroughs. And if you are telling yourself this is the worst thing for you, which I have done, don't let it sit there, stop it, right? And then go, okay, that's what I'm telling myself now. Let me change, let me rewrite this script in my head to say this crisis is going to be the greatest thing for me. And because I think that way, I start to open my mind up. And in order to change your story, you often need times you need to change your state. And by that I really mean your physical state, right? I mean, if I'm sitting, when I am feeling nervous or stressed or even in COVID, when I'm feeling lonely, what I wanna do is remain right there. It feels good, like I'm like, I'm angry, I'm pissed. But you gotta change your state. So whether that's, you know, getting up and just standing up and standing differently or doing some jumping jacks or walking outside or taking your pet for a walk, change your state. It starts to impact your story, which then allows you to create a strategy. And we're about to talk about a strategy for the morning that works, but it only works if you commit and you create absolute certainty in your mind, this is the step I'm going to take to shift myself. Wow, and that's so critical. And it's all, you have total control over what you do, how you behave, how you react, like you're saying, just take some time and enjoy that moment or don't receive it and let's figure out how and what we can do about it. So for you, you know, the mornings are so important to you. And I know this from speaking to you a few years ago, but you know, setting up the morning is so critical to our success throughout the course of the day. So how do you do that effectively, Corey? Thanks, Winnie, yeah. And you know, what you're seeing here obviously, so years ago, I started looking into morning rituals and I learned everyone that I could. I mean, there are many and I started to build this into a structure that worked for me. And ultimately, you know, Akamai is the business name. It was really important to me because to me, when you operate, when you live Akamai and you operate of a place of consciousness and awareness and trying to do the right way and living in an intelligent manner, it starts in your morning, right? When the sun comes up. And you know, Charles Darwin had a great quote, which has come back to me 10 fold during this time. And he said, it's not the most intelligent nor the strongest animal that survives. It's the one most responsive to change. And so what I like to do is I like to run through six steps in my morning. It's built to the acronym Akamai because it makes it easy for me to remember. And this is what we embrace at the company. But it starts off attitude to gratitude and I'll run over each step. The idea here is you do this for one minute or more if you want, but at least you can finish this whole thing in six minutes and create an entire different roadmap per year day. So gratitude, I like to write three new things I'm grateful for every single day. And I really believe you should write them in the same journal because then on those days where you have a bad day, you can go back and read those. And they say Wendy, gratitude is the greatest structure to defeat fear, anger, tension. When you own this every day, I mean, you're one of the most grateful people I know and I value that so much about you. After gratitude, moving to knowledge, right? Our brains are constantly, they're growing or they're not growing, right? They're putting thoughts in. And I like to think of my brain as a garden and I go, I wanna feed it healthy thoughts because if I don't, weeds will grow just as much. So for one minute, I'm gonna pick up a book. I'm gonna listen to a motivational clip on YouTube, something to feed my brain a different thought process. And I actually find sometimes just looking through a book for one minute, I can find a little piece of information that I go, I needed that today. Right. Absolutely. And then after the third, the third minute is affirmations, which this is okay. We talked earlier about how our brains run negative thoughts to our head. Scarily, they run them even stronger about ourselves, right? I'm not gonna be in my best day. I'm tired. I'm not gonna do a good job. So affirmation statements, sometimes these are misconstrued, like people go, oh, is this where you say you're amazing and you're great? For me, they're more tangible. I am going to do this thing tech Hawaii and my thoughts are gonna come clear. I'm gonna know exactly what to say. You know, if I have a client meeting, I'm gonna walk in with energy and I'm gonna, the way that I greet that person is gonna change the entire meeting. They're very concrete and tangible for me with affirmations. And I'm building myself up for one minute for what I'm going to achieve that day, which can be really, really powerful. So powerful. So fourth minute then we got mindfulness. This is a hot topic for everybody and I love it. It's just about bringing you back center. So after I've kind of built myself up, then I go, okay, let me give my brain this minute of peace and quiet to breathe, to infuse myself with oxygen. I believe in, you know, a structure. So let me just take long, slow, deep breaths in for about eight seconds, hold it for about 12 seconds, breathe out for about six. It's a great way to kind of bring it to life. And then just think about this moment right here. If something's caused you tension in the past, tell yourself I can't control the past. If you're worried about the future, tell yourself I have no dominance over what happens in the future. I have this moment right here and I'm gonna own this moment. And then that turns into activate for the fifth minute, which is just, you know, when you know this, right? When we change our body, we change our thought process. So for one minute, we're gonna activate whether that's jumping jacks, whether that's just movement, whether it's walking. And during that physical activation, we're gonna activate our mind and we are gonna visualize the day ahead. One of the things I love to do and it's great tip, just visualize your first minute, two minutes walking into the office or when you start and how are you gonna own it? And the last one is intention setting. And that's just setting a roadmap for the day ahead. If we don't have a roadmap, all the obstacles can knock us off. I have five questions that I like to ask myself to lead me forward for that day. That's amazing. And you know, that's so easy to remember. You just, you know, the word akamai is such a powerful word in itself. You just brought more depth into that word of being smart and smart for yourself and how you wanna start your smart day off. So that's so critical. So do you have a system? Do you have a system you use to set your intentions every day? Yeah, for the intentions, Wendy, and I'm glad we have an opportunity to share this with the group. I tell people every time, finding the questions that work best for you, but I ask myself five questions every single day. What word describes how, who are you gonna be today? What task absolutely must be done? What person do I need to connect with and how will I do that? Fourth one, or third one, so one piece, I ask myself this, one piece of advice that a high performance coach would tell me, because I feel like we can give better advice to others than we can sometimes give to ourselves. So I flip it around. And the last one is the most important. What's one thing I have to do to take care of my mental or physical well-being today? I write these every day. I try to commit to these and no matter what happens throughout the day, my day might get taken in different directions. I commit to doing these five and I'll always find, there are days where maybe I miss it in the morning and I always actually, I'll go back and I'll write these because I need this map for where I'm headed today. Wow, wow, okay, so if our audience wants to take one thing away from our talk today, Corey, what concept would you say is the most important? You know, I mentioned earlier that I believe our minds are like gardens and so it's this, right? We've offered a number of different tips and ways to set your morning up, control your thoughts, pay attention to those around you, realize we need a little more time before we make our decisions, learn about unenforceable rules, but it all ties into this, right? We're gonna stand guard by our minds and go, I'm gonna feed healthy thoughts and I'm gonna water those healthy thoughts daily because the other thoughts will grow just as quickly if not quicker and they'll grow more profoundly. So I'm gonna do that and I'm gonna create this sensation of purpose, a foundation to kick off my day, a belief in myself and what I do and who I am and why I'm here and you started off the session when he's saying this, outer circumstances don't determine who we are unless we allow them to. And so I'd love for everyone to walk away. My big passion in life is helping people transform how they view their lives to live more energized and engaged and inspired, but it takes work and I'll leave you with this thought, it's mental fitness, right? Our minds, it's just the same thing as physical fitness. We work our bodies out and we go, okay, I want physical change. We probably should all dedicate and commit to working our minds out and getting that mental fitness. And one thing COVID has given many of us is more time to do that, which is actually a blessing for all of us. So I would say mahalo to isolation, not to COVID, mahalo to isolation for a long distance. Be at home and have this time to really evaluate who we are, what we are and who we wanna be. So Cory, unfortunately we've run out of our time because we could go on and on, but I just wanna say mahalo to you and real quick, how can we get in touch with you? Sure, the easiest way is my website, www.acamaitraining.com. I've also got a free gift up there for you guys. That morning routine, there's a bonus gift if you go to brain food on the website. Please check it out, please use it. There's all the questions, the intentions, but yeah, also you can always email me at Cory, C-O-R-E-Y at acamaitraining.com. That's amazing. So people listen up, be inspired by Cory Campbell. He's already inspired me and I'm ready to get going again. So thank you so much Cory and mahalo to Cherise for having a beautiful haircut on you. I love it. Yes, we'll see you all again soon. So aloha Cory Campbell and Wendy Lowe. Aloha everyone.