How to Find Your Calling and Design a Stronger Work Culture with Dr. Alicia Mckoy

from the crossroads of America in the Hoosier State of Indiana this is get in the podcast focused on the unfolding stories in extraordinary Innovations happening right now in the Heartland I'm Matt Hunker CEO at Powder Keg and I will be one of your hosts for today's conversation I'm joined in Studio by co-host Christopher Toph day CEO at Elevate Ventures and Nate spangle who is the head of community at powder cake today's guest is Dr Alicia McCoy founder and CEO of peak mind most of our brains are meant to mind wonder is to think of all the things that could happen a focus brain get things done right that's a mind wondering brain is stress or even focus brain is abductive right Dr Alicia McCoy is the founder and CEO of peak Mind Alicia is an author speaker and serial entrepreneur dedicated to making the work environment better for everyone for the past nine years Alicia has studied neuropsychology and interviewed numerous scientists therapists and corporate coaches to find the best ways to transform our workplaces for the better in today's episode we've talked all about it and cover topics like daily habits to help improve your mental health actionable tactics to help make your workplace and workspace healthier and how to identify gaps in your company culture and even how to fill those gaps I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation here's Dr Alicia McCoy Alicia thanks so much for being here we're so excited to have you happy to be here I'm really excited to talk about Peak mine and what you're building there but wanted to start by taking it back a little bit about where you grew up which is in Texas right it was so if we want to say where I was conceived it was actually in Japan Okinawa Japan my mother and father were both in the Army and they decided they didn't want to have two babies my sister's 18 months older than me so that once they realized they were having a second child they both decided that their terms were they weren't going to renew and so they both exited out of Japan into San Antonio that's where you they officially I don't know whatever the off-boarding process for the RV is and we stayed there for 15 years before coming to Indiana what was that like it was awesome growing up in the Melting Pot of America tell me about it I've only been through San Antonio so I don't actually know what it's like because San Antonio has so many army bases they have I believe five if they're still all open that brings a lot of international traffic through San Antonio did you say a billy fat I know they have five different army bases okay and so most people have to either go through basic training in San Antonio or they exit out um or it's a transfer station for a lot of people and so that brings the Melting Pot together and the Riverwalk is pretty cool too and being close to Mexico and freeze immigration traffic through throughout the Midwest what do you think all that kind of immigration and melting pot mess of San Antonio did for you when you think about your career today and all that exposure that you had are there some things that you learned in those first 15 years of your life that you still carry with you today for sure diversity equity and inclusion growing up in a Melting Pot diversity is just something you're you don't think anything of and so coming to Indiana it was not the most diverse City State San Antonio what were some of the things that you learned in those first 15 years growing up there yeah having access to just so many diverse people and types of ethnicities and languages I spoke Spanish when I was a kid I called the babysitter Abuelita which is little grandma and grew up eating amazing Foods so I remember eating Indian as a kid I may not have loved it my mother's sister can tell you that but I was exposed and I'd be hard-pressed to say when Indiana got the first Indian restaurant I don't know maybe any of you guys know but I don't it's too funny before I was born definitely before I was born I I loved comicas on a girl I grew up in West Lafayette where Purdue is and there's I don't know if you remember that plate still because you went to pretty because on a girl was just fire so good that's my favorite any restaurant in India nice what'd you dream about when you grew up when you were a kid that's a good question that I don't know if I remember battle me the actual dream dream what do you want to do in it I want to do this someday yeah I would think if I had anything that I really thought I was a doctor or veterinarian I've always been a caregiver and so taking care of people that probably would have been the path that you're taught in school right what do you want to be a doctor a nurse a veterinarian one of those standard I love that so then wanted to bring you and your family to Indiana my mother's family was here and so when she got out of the army it was military bases and friends not family and so just she had a point where she wanted to be closer to relatives and and so we came up and we visited One Summer and she realized how nice it was to be around family and decided that she wanted it to be an everyday thing Marissa High School I was I was just finished my ninth grade year got it so you stood several years left three years of high school here and then when I got to the college portion I had to decide okay do I go back to San Antonio because I'd only known Indiana for three years and I went and toured University Texas San Antonio and it was a hot muggy like day and it was just like so desolate and bare and no grass and I was used to grass from Indiana for three years and so I was like can I do this here yeah and maybe jump in a few steps here but I think you ended up at Ball State and not San Antonio yeah correct I actually had my University San Antonio ID wow I was supposed to be down there in two weeks oh wow and I just said I can't do this and you're gonna be a roadrunner for the Cardinals hey Dan so I I said okay who can I get into here locally and and another funny story is that I also chose my college because I was so burnt out of being a three sport athlete and an academic athlete that I honestly might have said what school can I go to that nobody's even paying attention to grades we need to check that out you were a three sport athlete so what were those three Sports basketball volleyball on track yes what were some of the mental performance to tricks and hacks that you kind of learned in sports before you were deep in the mental Wellness face I'm sure you learned some things yes I'm sure I did somewhere but I've always naturally been a leader that is one thing that I look back that I didn't realize then but I was almost always a captain right and so in Looking Back Now that I'm helping coach my niece in basketball I see the traits that she has because she is the one that says hey guys let's you know come on get together start shooting the ball she's naturally taking the lead and I always had those treats where I learned it I'm not sure I'm sure heading to Army parents who are strong sophisticated intelligent people helped right you have some good DNA yeah so having our appearance to the background was entrepreneurship a part of your home life growing up my father did but I don't know I'm subconsciously I would imagine I recognized it right at one point I do remember seeing a bunch of jewelry on a table it was like this African wood jewelry right and so I remember seeing like why do we have this and he was selling it I don't know what if it was a chain at the time or what it was but maybe those small subtle things were creeping in without me knowing do you think the military background played a part in your Elite Performance both in academics and in sports not directly but I think just genetically because they both were out so I never got to experience being a military brat as people say right they were out before him I could realize sure but I would imagine the bungu parents are maybe a little bit more regimented than your average adult yes did you have to make your bed every day no thank goodness what was your first kind of memory of that desire to be an entrepreneur it would be I would say when I moved to Los Angeles so I graduated from Ball State in 2003 I worked here for about a year and a half I was already working while I was in college I was blessed enough to go through two fantastic internships my high school guidance counselor who's a friend's mom of mine she basically handed me an application when I my senior year of high school and said fill this out you're doing it I wasn't an ask it was a time which I'm thankful for because what it was is at the time Indianapolis had what was called the in-roads program and it was a group of companies like Lily and Croaker and other corporations that volunteered and or pledged what we're doing now with India what is it employee rate where companies say I will and right techpoint is doing something like that where I will spend five thousand dollars on an intern and for the summer they'll come and they'll get to experience our corporate culture and learn something and so I did Kroger for two years so my first year summer of college I was working at Kroger in what was now or at the time it was a top 10 Management training program in the country so I was interning alongside 55 year old people who were learning to be general managers and so I was every two weeks I would rotate through the meat department I rotate through produce I'd go then through the corporate office I'd sit in HR I had to order it was really stressful one week I had to order all the food for a store oh can you imagine you don't want to mess that up no and you have to take the calls when I didn't order enough cheese cheese sauce or something yeah Hoosiers do enjoy their cheese puffs yeah was it in Indianapolis or was that in Cincinnati no Indianapolis and I did Kroger for two summers and then I said Okay the third summer I was like okay guys the meat department is getting a little late okay what else can we do the next episode let's change it a little bit and so since I was studying interior design and marketing they said we have nothing in interior design but the closest would be construction and so do construction was one of the corporate partners and Duke to be in and so I worked the junior to senior summer and then basically my senior year of college I was driving down to Indianapolis and I was working as a an employee for Duke and I just continued that for a year and a half after graduation and then I said okay I'm tired managing middle-aged people and telling the painter keep the paint off the carpet unfortunately that's your job when you're a project manager in a construction company so that's fair yeah did you have a mentor early on there Rich crossbowl was over the pre-construction or who were the interior Construction Division and so he was our manager and he was great for the first six months and that first internship the first summer I went on all his calls with him and then at about six months he said you know what Alicia you got this you don't need me here's your setup projects and they handed me my you know small jobs right take a room this size and change the pain out change the carpet and keep it in budget you start Whittle and you continue to progress it from there that's awesome that's near dear to my heart because that's how my career started nice as well commercial construction real estate development that's awesome mind was at the cocktailing floors tell me about the kind of spark for your first engineering Endeavor how did that come about yeah and left do construction because I didn't want to strangle any middle-aged men who's and I love it when they say I've been doing this for 30 years today in your public night okay she's not for 30 and I've done it for two so it's 32 years we can figure this out yes thanks hey every day all day and so I moved to Los Angeles because I'm young and in my early 20s I said okay what should I do next and I took whatever savings I had and I just I packed up a little U-Haul and moved across country and knew maybe two people in LA and I took a couple months three months and I just traveled the city I learned and then I said okay I need to get a job and so I went to Craigslist and got a corporate interior design job the weekend the Craigslist was the thing back then it was actually legit and not creepy and you're living to tell the tale yes that's amazing what did you learn in those first couple weeks in L.

A Landing in a new big city like that yeah luckily I have friends that we traveled internationally so when I wasn't working the last two years of college I was traveling to cities and in different countries so I I probably traveled 30 different places in Junior and Senior year college and so I in addition to San Antonio I was already pretty well traveled so la to me I'd been there before but I just I didn't know people but what I did get to know was the lay of land where are things at what do I like to do here is it was a bigger city like Indiana where you had access to so many different things somebody and now I was a grown-up versus San Antonio or as a kid so I got to actually enjoy and have fun and get to party a little bit healing my hair down that's great what brought you back family yeah what brought my mother here at Indiana in the first place here we were in La we were seeing a recession the writers were on strike and so that was before the what was it OE recession and so in late 2006 2007 the writers all went on strike and that lasted for about a year the city was just decimated right and so it just became hard to be an entrepreneur because I started my first company in 2005.

I was working for one of the corporate designers that I had gotten the jobs through Craigslist with and a phenomenal High high-end corporate designer who are designing hotels and nightclubs and one of our Residential Properties was actually the largest residential property in all of Malibu so a really rich gentleman who has a tower in London a tower in downtown L. A and owns you know the biggest residential property and so those were the types of customers that we were solving for I think Michelle Pfeiffer was one of our clients so getting that exposure was amazing but what I realized is the leadership when the leadership isn't good it doesn't matter if you have access to the best things in the world and the best clientele yeah it was so painful and stressful working there the corporate culture was just broken and it was all because of the leader and so a couple of us decided this is just this isn't working why don't we're smart intelligent women let's try and do it on our own let's figure this out and we did we add in a Starbucks in LA or maybe the other coffee place on one of those two places and we said all right he's going out of business and one of the ones actually did he shut down two weeks later we never got everyone a paycheck wow he was run out of town which is really unfortunate because he was so prestigious we were designing for the tsumami and brothers which the SLS hotels were some of the best in the world at the time yeah and so to have that much creativity and he had a five million dollar contract on his desk that he wouldn't sign the shamamian brothers wanted to lock him in we would have been hit their only interior designer wow five million dollar guarantee to just do any of the night clubs any of the hotels any of the restaurant and he couldn't sign it mental well-being got into the way and even the best of his Consultants one of the women that I started my company was she was trying to be his business consultant and tell him hey look we've got to get this together but doing illegal drugs on top of having mental well-being issues just doesn't make for a good business no yeah no what are some of those early signs looking back where you maybe started to see some cracks in the system and for leaders who are listening and leaders around the table here or some of those kind of early signs where hey maybe you should reach out and start getting some help one thing is reach this particular point for sure when you start questioning sitting in your car saying do I want to drive to work today that was the Catalyst for Peak mine for me I've been a business owner for 10 years and one day I just was like I don't even want to go into my own office but I own a place they work for me I'm not happy with that and don't want to see them today I have the power and that really started me to say okay what is the steps to take do I just let them go or do I train on do I or they the type of people that we really want in the cool the company and this was my corporate interior design business that I was started in 2005 and so really took a look at that and said how do I change it for myself how do I change it for them so that we never get to this point of burnout again and then that realizing that it wasn't just me going through that all of my CEO customers at the time were going through that I was working in 26 different states so I was traveling three days a week I was in different states doing corporate 50 million dollar buildings 25 million dollar buildings and so all of my CEO customers were all feeling the same thing right we designed a building and we do a post evaluation and walking a year later and say how do you like the building and then there'd be grumpy unhappy employees that say I don't like the break room we built the break room the way that you wanted it why don't you like it and seeing that time and time again you start to realize that I don't think you even know what you want I don't even think you understand what you're saying you're just saying words to say words this is such a critical subject because this is the old adage that CEOs will loneliest job in the world for sure in humans they never everybody's different it's I think it's probably hard for most humans to self-admit right and I'm struggling to have an issue I need to reach out I need help whether it's tapping a friend and getting vulnerable or going to a professional where it might be so we're probably going to get into Canada then you're launching Peak mind but this is such a powerful subject and no doubt that people that are listening to this right now are thinking about shelves I've been struggling and I don't want to admit it I don't want my spouse to know my girlfriend my boyfriend whatever it is talk about that before we jump into the peak mine side what would you say what have you seen of how people can overcome that White Knuckle moment that I don't want to admit I need help because I'm a strong person right and I can brute force my way to success in this role yeah I think it's going to come out one day whether it comes out in a healthy way or I say and my quote is burnout leans to act out how you act out do you get too drunk that turns into a DUI and now you're facing legal charges and now you're like okay I have to do something or do you black out or do so many different things unfortunately are the catalysts for chain and unfortunately a lot of us have to feel that pain I don't know why that's human nature okay dang it ugly now I have to address it or you see it and witness it in somebody else right which is my modeling and talking about how you were success how you overcome things is helpful for other people because that is a motivator for others and so the more we have that men share the more that other people share their journey and their story and their struggle can help somebody else and so there's so many different ways to move this people forward nudging we'll get into with Peak mine right that's one of the sciences that we look at but it can be done and luckily the pandemic I believe has thrust that into the Forefront and way more people are talking about their own abilities and their their stressors these days than ever before which is the blessing in disguise of the pandemic quick break from our normal programming I have Erica schweire CEO from Elevate Ventures here in the studio today Erica thanks for being here yeah thanks for having me and you're going to tell us a little bit about this reality Innovation conference that's coming up yep so it's the largest prospector Innovation conference in the world we're going to feature six Innovation Studios so think hard tech software Sports Tech again food Healthcare and Entrepreneurship is going to kind of be our catch-all I love that tell me what is who's it for yeah it's for innovators entrepreneurs investors honestly anybody probably listening to this podcast it's going to be a multi-day thing that's multi-day in downtown Indianapolis yep people coming in from all over the country and maybe even all over the world to be here that's our hope yep and the dates are actually August 29th to the 31st perfect and if people want to find out more information about speakers tickets things like that where can they go yeah so they just go to rallyinnovation.

com and sign up for communications they can also get their tickets I'll love it you heard it here rallyinnovation. com we'll see you there yeah absolutely so 10 years right you're working interior design you're sitting in your car not wanting to go into the building and you're like that is that your moment of what do I want to do is that what led you to launching Peak mine it is it was the moment I said something has to change because I mean we closed the company down or it's going to change and it's got to be better and that was about 10 years in business and so I said how do I spend the next 10 years working smarter not harder and at that time I said okay I need to look for assistance and so I hired two women who are business strategists and I worked with them for a year and a half and they put me through homework every two weeks and gave me all sorts of forms and asked me what my purpose and passion is and I say I dumped my entire brain out onto the table and said you guys figure it out tell me what I shouldn't do for the next 10 years and what do I need to cut that's not for eating us profit and not happy and bringing us joy and what what do I do moving forward and do more of or the things that you're surprised by and that they told you that you just weren't aware of yeah they said for any CEO had eight different streams of income just in case a pandemic happens and takes one of your companies out which that makes total sense turn a hobby into a paid hobby have one that's free but have one that just so that you're fulfilled in making income so that I think that strategy that thought process as a CEO you're taught to focus on one company make it your soul Focus but I believe in having that balance and or having other things that you can fall back on especially because so many businesses fail yeah what how do you think that ties to mental Hill just having multiple Hobbies multiple streams of income multiple interests yeah you're trying to get to my drumming hobby aren't you yes I see you trying to pull it out never I would never no I think it's that's good right it's good to have balance and I found that out as well through that process so what am I spending my time on when you're so consumed with one thing it is hard to have other outlets and when that one thing is stressful as running a company as stressful as we know and so you have to have some outlets and if you don't have a lot of family around you I've been a single mom for my son's 13 and so I don't have that support outside of here other than my child and friends and so I have to look at hobbies and I have to do other creative Outlets to be able to have that fulfillment or go to yoga and have that that group of yoga friends so tell me about Drummond I actually I do think Germany is interesting it's interesting that's one of your hobbies because it is a Common Thread I've got a group of CEO friends who are all or either former CEOs or credit CEOs and we all play music together it does seem like there's an interesting dimension of Entrepreneurship that is very much related to music and vice versa yeah I think it's we're so analytical right we might crave that creative side and yes creativity is a part of running a company but it's a smaller part right when we're in strategy or rolling out a new product or an BYU ants design and so I think naturally your body creates that creativity and so if you can't get it there doing arts or right A lot of people paint or journal or Draw or play music and I'm a high frequency person now when I I may be calm right now maybe but for the camera right now but naturally I'm a high-paced high functioning person and so rummy matches that frequency and so if I want to have that same creativity I couldn't sit there and draw right with a pencil it's just it's not my mode but yeah I get to bang out of Bing right and just like release that enough energy so in multiple things happen at one time there's different things we want different speeds oh yeah and I love to draw them like EDM there you go so Matt plays music drumming tof what's your hobby I played the trumpet yes okay wow we just got some musicians here on the table yeah what's your name on the side oh the p is a spectacular I can't carry beatboxer everywhere yes we'll maybe have to play that out yeah absolutely I'm not the musician right but my hobby is coaching wrestling it's it's thanks one of those high energy like focus on pouring into this and it's a great dime but it is definitely not the drumming or the trumpet or bugle like a tofu you just like yelling at people yeah it's like bad guys did you hit product Market I think white Coach sorry letting their lives together what's interesting about Germany is that it's so physical and you mentioned yoga as well I'm curious what you see just in your work around mental health and wellness how does that tie into physical movement oh yeah one of the things that they'll tell you is to get that stored up energy out right energy it has to transmute into something else and doing yoga working out yoga is a slower more meditative process which helps me to slow my brain down because I do function so high all the time I need that decompression time people that know me and see how fast I work they think that I'm just always like that and they always ask the question what do you do in your freed then you know and I have to do those meditations and mindfulness practice to slow me down and refocus was that hard at first yeah I think the process is like everyone says you think of any little thing is distracting but practicing for time doing it over time builds a practice is that your best advice because I'm thinking of like yoga or meditations if you're a high function person you're like okay I'm sitting here with my eyes closed but I'm still thinking about 10 000 other things oh yeah for sure whether you have a paper alongside you and you open your eye and you write down okay dude the product Market fit if you still fill out the Elevate report you know I forwarded email reminder this month yeah so I guess if you have a couple good strategies for people that maybe have active brains right and they want to slow down and get into a meditation or a yoga practice and any good actual items there guided meditations right you have to start with where somebody's talking at you because at least you can focus on their voice if you try and do the no word you're going to totally be distracted have you ever heard of or practice Yoga Nidra I believe so I don't remember all the different types but I've been doing it for 20 years so I think I've done most of them I'm a huge fan it's insane yeah explain Yoga Nidra is I've become this massive believer G right and I never used to think about it too much until the last seven years maybe but yoga need your basically you get to a really comfortable State and you have somebody guide you through whatever that journey is they talk you through a meditation state where it's all about clearing the noise focus on that one thing you really want or trying to achieve holy it happens yeah yeah it's insane thoughts turn into energy right a focused brain versus um most of our brains are meant to mind wonder is to think of all the things that could happen a focus brain get things done right that's a mind wondering brain is stress brain Focus brain is a productive brain and so focusing on something you put your energy right where energy goes or what is it or attention goes energy blood exactly yeah and the body goes and the body goes yeah the perfect is to stay in Focus yes I was just talking to my best friend about that this morning it's how do you carry that with you in all the moments and so I get the question a lot is what I'm speaking is how can I remember put a visual cue whether it's a stress brain on your desk and it makes you question okay am I stressing put something wear something wear a different color right there's some energy practitioners talk about if you want to feel or connected wear purple so just anything you can do to refocus and remind yourself that's why also gentle nudges and reminders are helpful I was going to ask you about that with respect to office design you probably do 10 000 hours in designing corporate office what are some of the things that either a artist Stakes that you see across the board or it's like low hanging fruit for people who are trying to design an office space whether it's a home office or a corporate office yeah the easiest thing the first thing I would tell a company to do is to a wellness room or a quiet room give people a space to decompress you have to be able to allow somebody to take that 5 10 15 minutes to just decompress we are all functioning there's so much stimuli and a workplace and it can be a small space it doesn't have to be a huge room but just if you were to start anywhere I'd say just do that first but then my favorite space at 16 tag yeah they're awesome but there's a list of other things to do and to reassess but what I also tell companies and I'm doing this for so many years is that you have to build culture in the building for your people you can't just design a Google office and I had a lot of clients when Google became popular say I just want to design us the Google office I said no your people aren't Google people or not I'm doing that and right that's the three C's that we have in Peak mine is comprehension understanding truly understanding you people understanding your needs as a culture and then building in the rest okay just on Peak Minds give us like the high level and then let's go D yeah we're just empowering employees to thrive right meeting them where they are we provide 150 action steps to disrupt stress during the work day because stress is going to happen we're all we have different moments of stress some is healthy but most of it's chronic stress which is killing up the CDC states that 80 of diseases are caused by stress we have to it's now one of the five top pillars that for the Attorney General the United States wow you go to his website workplace stress is on there so we have to do something about it and not everyone wants to meditate or do yoga they're not there yet and so how do we meet the rest of the people where they are when they're not right we have to do it in small very minute gentle nudges until they're ready to maybe go to a therapist or to do yoga or to go drumming out whatever it is I love it so so we had a little bit of a stressful situation leading into this podcast with our recording equipment right so if let's say this podcast was a customer of peak mind mad stressing out about recording mics what would the starting point be and what would like actual product adoption look like for a member of a company yeah so he could go to his phone or his laptop and say easy to give feedback to the platform right if he just wants to vent if he's a journaler if he wants to just say the words right some people need to be heard and so that we give them an Avenue to be heard and what we're doing on the back end is using neuro-linguistic programming into our algorithm to train us on how he speaks right I say that I'm having a low-key person so I end things with an exclamation marker or smiley face right that's my happy day my normal if I don't do that then it's showing that okay Alicia's not mad if I just end with a period it's just not my natural language processing in my natural speech and so our technology is helping to understand that so that then it can give him an action step to do based on his needs if he said no I'm not going to do yoga and we can give him another one of the 150 ways to lower his stress based on the workforce environment that we know so we're taking data and making the best out of it and trying to meet each person's needs and so you'd get different action steps and different resources how can do you get into I need to find what you just said really interesting and Powerful the exclamation point in an email versus a period I literally had somebody once say why are you yelling yeah because I'll use exclamation points yeah in that one every second but like 75 it's from a place of excitement yes passion No One's Gonna Know passion but it can be missed it can be misread or if you received on the other end does it touch any of those types of things on how to deal with communication yeah for sure you have to look at communication style and so we have a place on another part of our app that gives you the ability to tell people who you are how you like to be communicated to right and so it's open-ended it's the only part of our platform where we share your information because we give you six different options to say okay do you want to talk about your disc personality and what that means to you because why are we just saying okay you took a Discord and you're a high D you're only going to be a high D there's a lot of variations with that and a high D but I'm also very compassionate and understanding and so it yes can I lead a room of course but I can also I'm mature enough to understand that and so giving people an opportunity to share that I can say when I do next wait exclamation mark that that means just I'm really excited I love that it's like when you text it like you're texting with your grandma or maybe an older individual they hit you with the K like Grandma like why are you mad at me what did I do come on she's just trying to be hip okay no they're only saying K when they're upset or something call up like is everything okay yeah everything's great class have you had experiences with any of your clients or even teams that you've worked with before where you've noticed some on the team or maybe even a group of people on the team are struggling but they're not necessarily open to mental health support for sure how do you coach leaders through those situations yeah for sure you have to meet people where they are they're not ready there's nothing you can say or do um if you look at the theory and change how our brains evolve through change there's actually pre-contemplation where before you can't even contemplate changing because you don't even know you need to change and so you're just talking being a dead horse literally they're it's in one ear out the other physiologically and so understanding that and giving yourself compassion and Grace and saying I'll talk to them when they're ready right I'll nudge them when they're ready because that's all we can do that the nudge theory states that I can gently remind you and gently nudge you which some people may take one nudge and others may take 28.

yeah and so understanding that and our technology helps replicate that for you because none of us as leaders are going to remind somebody on our team 28 times to call that 1 800 number or for the EA it's just not going to happen you may do it once twice you're lucky you can get around to it the third time what are you most excited about right now for Peak mind yeah I'm excited about the national press we're getting we in June we've been studying virtual reality Therapeutics and virtual reality Integrations into workplace well-being for nine years as long as the one that I had the idea for Peak mine and the market wasn't ready there were people here in Indian trusted advisors and investors that I took it to in 2017 2018 I was in a pitch deck and they said yeah we're not we're not ready for it and so we've been listening and in June of last year it just we really saw the indicators right more talk and major news articles about virtual reality in the workplace virtual reality Therapeutics Salesforce and one of our partner calls they said wait you have a virtual reality integration every meeting that should be the lead we love the platform the world that's the partner with them right now for the platform but they were like the VR is something we can take internationally and we can sell the platform through that and that really started us to talk about that and so I'm excited because I understood how powerful virtual reality immersion therapy can be some articles say that it's seven times more effective so if I just tell you to stop stressing and I tell you to go do yoga right if I show you yoga and I can put you into an immersive yoga studio you're seven times more likely to actually go do it and to retain the information that I told you so is that the type of like you're you've drawn a VR headset in your yoga studio we don't have that one yet okay that's I just thought about that or in toast case maybe like front row to Rack show just getting your stress out with your head back in the quiet room but we do have music options we have beaches we've got a rustling fire that you can look at the fire pit right because that movement that color is suiting to some people our law enforcement officers have said put me in front of a stream and just put me in by a river yeah let me watch the water I'm like heck yeah I'll do that every day if that is what gets you at the mainly person to finally take time and go into that meditative State whether you call it meditation or not it really is yeah because you're focused on one thing you're focused on the water that is so cool that's really neat for those who whether they have VR or don't have VR and maybe they don't have a subscription to Peak mine yet what are your top three tips to start practicing mindfulness or exploring mindfulness or de-stressing yeah Google right or go to YouTube there are so many free options they'll start playing around test them out and the first one you pull up may not be for you but there's so many different ones just start going through the and try it because something's probably gonna stick or talk to other people go to a class if you need a community right there's so many different yoga studios so many different mindfulness practices that you can do here in town There's I think one on the North side right that's like a heated floor and they do mindfulness guided mindfulness oh I know people I'm on the board with that go there I love that what's your success stories or a success story that kind of pops out in your mind or maybe a struggle and then a success story with one of your clients out there without any names but yeah I think a struggle would be one of our clients they needed to really get the platform we talked to them for maybe three four months beforehand and then they the reason they picked up the phone and became a client was they had a suicide or they knew their people were struggling they knew they didn't have a solution to help Empower them to thrive they didn't realize how bad the incident would be but that was the motivating incident for them to pick a phone and so to walk through that crisis with companies and unfortunately they're not the only ones right so that's the War I hate to see that how is he doing today the company they actually disband they were a franchise and they sold because they actually had two more employees going suicide hold they were in an industry that was very stressful I won't list it because you know but it they sold because the owners just couldn't in the top leaders couldn't keep stomaching it and they didn't know we can help but we can't change overnight cultures take three to five years to change so it's We're Not Gonna help everybody overnight we can start to nudge them in the right direction so the sooner you start a product like ours the better off your the better your chances especially because we know that so many people are stressed these days yeah yes so for leaders in the space that might be listening right now obviously first thing go get your company and talks with Pete mind and help bring that to the workplace but is there something that if you want to create a healthier culture something that leaders should start doing today to help for tomorrow and next week top I say talk you have to communicate people are craving your words as a leader they are craving your passion whatever it is get on and sing a silly song do a Beat Box build that relationship with them because they're craving that in the world we loneliness is an all-time high so be that voice for them remind them of what your purpose and passion is as a company to help motivate people because that'll at least bring into the table and start to build that connection enter the part of the episode that is the rapid fire questions all right all right outside of the amazing entrepreneurs what is Indiana known for camels all right what is one Hidden Gem in Indiana good especially 38th Street International Food on 38th Street I love it okay who is someone that we need to keep on our radar someone who's doing something big Dr Alicia e McCoy oh I'm well the best kids I love it I love that too Alicia this has been amazing thank you so much for taking the time to share your journey and talk about such an important topic I'm hopeful that we're gonna continue to talk about this on future episodes have you back on the show keep doing awesome work thank you so much great to chat thanks Alicia good word this has been get in a powder kick production in partnership with Elevate Ventures and we want to hear from you if you have suggestions for a guest or segment reach out to Matt or Nate LinkedIn or on email to discover top tier tech companies outside of Silicon Valley in hubs like Indiana check out our newsletter at powderkeg.

com newsletter and to apply for membership to the powder cake executive Community Check out powderkick. com premium we'll catch you next time and next week as we continue to help the world get in since you just listened to this podcast you might be thinking about starting one for your company lucky for you our partners over at cassid have you covered cassid is the first and only podcast in video marketing platform made specifically for B2B Brands I love this about them the platform makes it possible to publish Syndicate amplify and measure the value of your podcast and video content in fact we use it for our podcast here at powder K and if you're a startup you should listen up because cassid for startups is definitely for you they are offering exclusive deep discounts of up to 82 off retail price for qualifying startups connect with casted at casted. us slash powderkeg