Neff Inspiration

294 David Hollenbach: Fireproof - Transforming Failure into Fuel for Your Future

In FIREPROOF: Your Grand Strategy for Transforming Failure into Fuel for Your Future, Mr Hollenbach takes the idea behind Yale University’s Grand Strategy Program designed for political leaders and heads of large corporations and applies those principles to the individual. His book answers the question: How can I create a Grand Strategy for my life? He then leads the reader through steps to develop their unique Grand Strategy to create a life that helps others and leaves a stellar legacy.
No matter the disaster's severity, your intrinsic value is not attached to an occupation or your outward identity. Your value is in who you are. Take what you have learned and set your path toward where you want to go by implementing the steps in Fireproof.
In a readable style sprinkled with personal stories and captivating case studies, the author delivers material that is both inspirational and actionable. At the end of each chapter are action steps to help the reader answer the questions:
• What Is Your Desired End State?
• What Do You Stand For?
• Why Are You Doing This?
• What’s In Your Way?
• What Do You Need?
• Where Do You Begin?
• What’s Your Timeline?
• What Happens When Everything Falls Apart?
While most people ask, “What should I do to reach my goal?” the Grand Strategy process begins with a much better question: “Who do I need to be?” Your core essence determines what kind of leader you are. When you know what’s inside you—flaws and all—you can use tools to release your limitations and let go of self-defeating behaviours. You can, in real and practical ways, define yourself.
Personal development topics create a thread throughout the entire work: self-leadership, self-awareness, communication, healthy relationships and self-care, as well as uncovering your core values and finding your big WHY. The author provides an analysis tool for challenging situations to help the reader discern which parts they can control, what they can influence and which things they can neither control nor influence. He also provides tools for releasing stress and working through feelings of overwhelm. He lists critical daily habits and mindset matters that are essential for success.
Media Contact:
Hollenbach@HollenbachLeadership.com
https://flow.page/davidhollenbach

293 Kimberly Bell: Talking about Taboos - Domestic Violence, Teen Pregnancy, Abuse, Trauma and PTSD

Kimberly Anne Bell is a passionate speaker and author who uses her personal life struggles as a fountain of inspiration, empowerment and insight into the realities that are often hidden beneath the surface of our society. Through her talks she covers topics like domestic violence, kinship/foster care, teen pregnancy, abuse, trauma and PTSD from her own experience. She has a deep understanding of family dynamics and how this shapes the mind. She uses her words to empower others to never give up hope and begin a process of self-discovery and healing

Kimberly Bell is an inspirational speaker, minister, mentor, and author of "The Epitome of Kimmy: Accept & Embrace It All". She is originally from Salisbury, Maryland, and now holds two degrees; one in human growth & development/psychology and the other in theology. She has served on the ministerial staff at St. James A.M.E. Zion Church and completed four years of conference studies. Through her book and talks, she shares her life story and personal experiences to inspire others to never give up hope while raising awareness to societal issues.

3 top tips for my audience:
1. Accept & Embrace that which is beyond your control because you still have a long road ahead and life is full of seasons.  
2. You have to first be able to accept yourself and love yourself to be able to grow..
3. You are not responsible for anyone else’s behavior but what you are responsible for… is how you react, how you behave and the things that you do.

Social media and contact info
https://kimberlyannebell.com
https://www.facebook.com/kimberlyannebelloodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21705865.Kimberly_Anne_Bell
https://www.amazon.com/Kimberly-Bell/e/B09C1JK1CC

292 Kelly Wallace: Surviving Child Sexual Abuse and testifying against my perpetrator at eight

After watching a child sexual abuse awareness video in her second grade classroom, Kelly Wallace told her mom that she was being molested on weekend visits at her grandparents house. In the middle of a contentious divorce, Kelly’s mom believed her but her father, an up and coming attorney sided with his dad.Kelly Wallace testified against her grandpa at eight years old. With a less than 2.8% conviction rate of sexual assault cases, her grandpa was found not guilty. She is a recovering alcoholic with twenty-one years of sobriety.
Kelly Wallace developed a writing style that both roots in the moment and peels back the layers of human nature at the Pinewood Table writers group led by award-winning authors Stevan Allred and Joanna Rose. Kelly’s writing honors include publications in The Manifest-Station, On Loan From the Cosmos, VoiceCatcher and Perceptions magazines, fellowships at the Summer Fishtrap Gathering and the Attic Institute, and residencies at Hypatia-in-the-Woods. A graduate of Wells College in Aurora, New York, she is a frequent podcast guest speaking about her experience as a child sexual abuse survivor.      
                
3 top tips for my audience:
1. Never, ever give up!
2. Rejection is protection
3. Don’t quit five minutes before the miracle

Social media and contact info
Kellywallace.org
Twitter: kellythewriter1
Insta: kellythewriter

291 Pam Warren: Paddington Train Crash, The Lady in the Mask and Taking the E’zy Path to Change

Our guest today, Pam Warren, is one of Uk’s most prominent change and disruption experts whose highly acclaimed international speaking career was, quite literally, forged from fire.
We’ll be hearing from an incredibly inspiring woman who spearheaded a national campaign to dramatically improve UK’s rail system and has won numerous national awards including Woman of the Year. Her popular autobiography chronicles the turbulent recovery period she endured after the Paddington Train Crash and shows how she transitioned from the ‘Lady in the Mask’ victim to an indomitable survivor and resilient victor.
Now a professional speaker, Pam shares her story of survival, her battles with authorities to champion rail safety and her own physical and mental trauma following the crash.
Pam is a successful survivor. She wants her experiences on overcoming such huge obstacles to show others, that with resilience and perseverance, no problem should be insurmountable.
Her mantra: “Whatever life throws at you there is change and from change comes opportunity.”
                
3 top tips for my audience:
1. Fall in love with change to such an extent that you welcome, seek, and actively promote it without fear. 
2. ·Why perseverance trumps resilience - however blended together they make you unstoppable.  
3. It’s not important how the world looks at us, it IS important how we look at the world.

Social media and contact info 
https://www.pamwarren.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/PamWarrenSpeaker
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamwarrenspeaker/
https://twitter.com/pamwarren06
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSaN1R_No2pMC9rBro87nig

#pamwarren #inspirationalspeaker #inspiring #keynotetalk #fallinlovewithchange

290 Elisabeth Lava: Mental Health & Spiritual Growth are Intertwined - Healing through that Paradigm

Elisabeth Lava is the author of “Stillness and Wilderness: A Bold Ride from Despair to Deep Wisdom and Love”.
“The Healer of Healers”, Elisabeth is a thought leader on the intertwining of mental health and spiritual growth. She became an expert during her regional leadership of a large federal mental health grant and simultaneously experiencing deep depression from loss and trauma that sparked a spiritual emergency. She then studied with experts on the psychology of awakening, and spiritual emergence/emergency.
She is a former deadly disease investigator, community health leader, and veterinarian, who helped prepare for and respond to the pandemic. Elisabeth was pushed into a rapid transformation that led her to powerful healers, mindfulness, meditation, yoga, Ayurveda and spiritual practices of deep wisdom.
Now Elisabeth bridges the world as a transformational health, life, and spiritual emergence coach®. Healthcare providers, veterinarians, and conscious leaders hire her to support them to return to wholeness through deep selfcare or transition to a different career to find inner joy and peace.

300 Gloria Masters: Flight path to Healing after Childhood Sexual Abuse

Gloria is an author, advocate and speaker for all things child sexual abuse (CSA). She does this through speaking, interviews, and writing to help other survivors. She is currently publishing her second book, Flightpath to Healing, which is a guide for survivors. She hosts the podcast called Handing the Shame Back, also a YouTube channel. This provides a safe space for other survivors to share their stories, and find resources. Her Guide for Survivors  includes excerpts, teachings and exercises you can try, to start rebuilding your way back to yourself. Beginning with where you are on your journey, it gently leads you to a more peaceful place of healing.

Rediscover the true you and learn to become whole again. Written through the eyes of a CSA Survivor, Gloria fully understands the complex and often confusing things Survivors experience. She is able to provide insight, and a way forward through her own experiences. Her wish for all CSA survivors is to know, they are seen, supported and believed.

Her memoir ‘On Angels Wings’ – My Flight from Trauma to Grace, details sixteen years of unparalleled CSA and trauma. Flightpath to Healing is her second book and can be purchased through GloriaMasters.Com                                                                       She is the founder of Handing the Shame Back foundation, a charity dedicated to CSA Survivors. She is the host of the YouTube and podcast channel of the same name, designed exclusively for survivors. She loves her life, is free to enjoy every moment and, yes, still follows her Angels wherever they go.        

3 top tips for my audience:
1. There is always hope
2. The Shame never belonged to you
3. You are not alone, I stand beside you

https://www.gloriamasters.com/#/
https://handingtheshameback.buzzsprout.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/GloriaMastersHandingtheShameBack
https://www.instagram.com/handingtheshameback/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriamasters16handingtheshameback16nonprofit/
https://www.facebook.com/HandingtheShameBack/
https://twitter.com/HandinShameBack

Are you kidding? If you have nothing nice to say, shut up!

The Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin  is under fire for dancing at a party, when she should be applauded for giving politics a human face. 
Let's celebrate Sanna for working on her work-life balance - I for sure should take a leaf out of her book :-)

#imwithsanna #sannamarin #worklifebalance #worklifeintegration #areyoukiddingme #mystepstosobriety

289 Gregg Champion: Building your Recovery Playbook

Gregg Champion is a branding expert who has worked with top consumer brands, major television networks, and professional sports teams over the last 15 years. In the last few years, he has focused on selective start-up ventures as an investor, advisor, educator, and start-up coach.

Gregg is a TEDx speaker who has been in recovery for over 20 years after nearly ruining his life with drugs and alcohol. Policy makers, media personalities, and addiction experts recognize Gregg as a highly valued and trusted member of the recovery community. Gregg has helped, supported and career coached over a 100 millennials to get their first job or internship in the "real world." Through his own vast experiences working with Fortune 500 brands, running his own companies, and fostering relationships with millennials at colleges and universities across the nation, he has developed a bullet proof playbook on how to land, keep, and thrive at your dream job. 

In June 2015, Gregg was named Mentor in Residence at USC's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurship after serving as a co-teacher for a 400-level undergrad course on Venture Management within the Marshall School of Business. Gregg, his wife Jennifer and their two daughters Elysse and Annabelle reside in Pacific Palisades.

3 top tips for my audience:

1. Remain “Willing to be Willing.” (Keep gathering recovery tools) 
2. You are allowed the alcoholic thought, you are not allowed the alcoholic action.
3. We don’t have bad days… we have a bad two hours. (Use the tools you have to dig yourself out)

@startuprecovery @greggchampion 

288 Monica Cox: Getting sober [again] for Myself as a Functional Fertility Coach and Infertility Warrior

In Monica’s words: 
Many times we get sober for outside reasons. But what happens when the reasons disappear, and we slip back into old habits? This was my story. The second time I got sober, I did it for myself. 

Monica Cox is a top Functional Fertility Coach and Infertility Warrior. She's a Functional Fertility Health Coach and supports women in finding the root cause of their fertility issues and becoming the conscious mother they were born to be! She dealt with years of unexplained infertility, failed IVF's & survived several miscarriages before becoming an IVF mom & getting pregnant naturally, even though the doctors said there was nothing she could do to improve her situation.             

3 top tips for my audience:
1. Tap into your subconscious mind 
2. Keep telling yourself the story you want to be living
3. Be graceful to yourself; healing isn’t straightforward 

Website: https://www.findingfertility.com
@findingfertility
IG: https://www.instagram.com/findingfertility/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@findingfertility

#fertilityhealthmatters #ttc #ivf#infertilitysucks #infertility #unexplainedinfertility⁠⁣⁠
#highnkcells #autoimmuneissues #fertilityjourney#ttcsisters #ttcjourney #ivfjourney ⁠⁣⁠
#fertilitydiet #ivfdiet #thisiswhatinfertilitylookslike#thisiswhatinfertilityfeelslike ⁠⁣⁠
#secondaryinfertility #infertilitycommunity #keto #paleo#pregnantnaturallyafterivf
#functionalmedicine #ttcwithinfertility #ivfwarroir#ivfsuccess #functionalfertility #endosupport#findingfertility #fertilityproblems

287 George Kalantzis: What happens when you begin to take responsibility for your life!

In George's words:
As my heart shattered into a million pieces, I realized I was trapped somewhere between the past and future, watching life drift apart.

Mistakes were made. Hearts were broken. Harsh lessons became a story I was called to write.

I now believe everything in life is eligible for questioning. Nothing lasts forever, and unexpected life changes provide me with an opportunity to let go of old stories while my words bleed out in the form of new stories that shape everything I see.

Like so many people do, I crafted an identity throughout my childhood. 

At six years old, I experienced my parent’s divorce, and my hopes as a little boy were shot down. As the firstborn son in a Greek family, I cultivated a strong work ethic from my father and a fiery side of life from my mother. 

Despite feelings of abandonment and rejection, I was told to grow up and be a man. A phrase so powerful, it fueled my life with shame and the need to continually prove myself worthy in everything I did.

But everything changed after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

My first few years as a Marine included a lot of personal hurdles I had to clear. I lost my best friend in the Iraq war, and the battle with addictive behaviours and depression began. 

As I climbed the ranks and gained valuable life experiences, I got the chance to play America’s superhero. From training with the FBI in Quantico, Top Secret clearances, combat deployments, and travelling to over 40 countries, I realized that perhaps each of us does have a unique reason for being here. 

I chose to hang up my uniform after ten years of honourable service.

                                               

                                               

Though I wasn’t sure what would come next, one thing was certain, I wasn’t ready to face myself, and I didn’t know how to sit in the discomfort, so I defaulted to what I always did- run.

I took what seemed like the most logical route after one would leave the military. I applied for MBA programs and started a family in hopes of finding something greater. Through years spent transforming hundreds of lives as a personal trainer, I found my passion for helping people unlock their potential and mine. 

From endurance races, powerlifting, bodybuilding, and everything in between, I trained hard for hours and used my body like a machine. 

But there was a double-edged sword to this life: I had confidence issues within myself, I was in and out of the emergency room for years with a medical condition, and I never saw my family and ran around like a headless human.                        

To me, life felt like a checklist. Marriage, fatherhood, and pursuing a big dream felt like those things I needed to do. I had no reason to believe those things, but each day I sank deeper into a dark vault of depression.

I felt trapped by the outside world as I watched familiar patterns of my past repeat in my life, and suicidal thoughts became a regular occurrence for me.

Meanwhile, I felt the rage of a man with a broken heart. I felt guilty for everything that happened in my life, and the excruciating shame forced me to a place in which I almost took my life.    

Several months after everything came crashing down, I got sober, celibate, and started to write about my experiences. 

I found retreats, yoga, meditation, coaches, single parenting, and myself. 

I connected with my family, joined men’s groups, fell in love with nature, and immersed myself in the studies of human behaviour and the school of heart-knocks. 

I left my comfort zone behind for a world of uncertainty and truth. 

I decided I was no longer a slave to other people’s lives or the limitations and stories that held me hostage. Through my pain, I created a new story. One that gave me the courage to open my heart and clear space for whatever needed to move through me. 

I turned myself into a writer because I knew my life would become a reflection of my heart and soul in the form of words that would allow others to heal their wounds by sharing my story. 

It’s not about creating a fairytale, it’s about my quest for emotional authenticity because my words will forever speak my truth. 

These days I have slowed way down. Taking inventory of my life and my choices revealed so much to me. I’m slowly understanding my patterns, triggers and who I am today. Not yesterday or tomorrow. 

This is my life, and I share it not to persuade anyone to change but to give people an example of what happens when you begin to take responsibility for your life rather than run from it.