# Shiftward: How Small Shifts Create Sustainable Change

An episode of [Amplify Speakers Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1874167939), 19 Jul 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://api.riverside.com/hosting-analytics/media/4604f8f7f5f4aae55f439092e081cdbc4b0c1125f0c2af417d7e3a3ecec74fa5/eyJlcGlzb2RlSWQiOiI5NzFiOWViYS00YzJmLTQwMjUtOGY5MC0wOTA1NzFjNGJlMzQiLCJwb2RjYXN0SWQiOiJkNDdhNjkwNS1lNzY5LTQ2MDgtYjM4ZS1kY2Y4M2E0M2ViOTEiLCJhY2NvdW50SWQiOiI2OTUyMTkxOWFmYjZiNjY4ZTA0NGE2ZGUiLCJwYXRoIjoibWVkaWEvY2xpcHMvNmE1ZDE4NzcxNTBiZWY0MTU5NjFiMWU4L2NocmlzLXN1bmRzLXN0dWRpby1jb21wb3Nlci0yMDI2LTctMTlfXzIwLTMzLTI3Lm1wMyJ9.mp3

Shiftward: How Small Shifts Create Sustainable Change Summary In this episode of the Amplify Speakers podcast, host Chris Sund interviews Rich Bracken. He shares his journey from being a DJ to a keynote speaker, emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership and organizational culture. Discover practical insights on change management, performance, and how investing in emotional skills can lead to a 22x ROI. Takeaways · Rich Bracken's transition from DJ to speaker · The role of emotional intelligence in leadership · Change management and making change stick · The impact of organizational culture on performance · Practical tips for improving emotional skills · The significance of psychological safety in teams · Rich's book 'Shift Word' on adaptability and change · The power of engaging and moving audiences Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Rich Bracken 01:12 From DJ to Keynote Speaker 04:03 Creating Memorable Experiences 07:36 Understanding Emotional Intelligence 10:38 The Launch of 'Shift Word' 14:50 Focus on the Feeling 18:38 The Importance of Emotional Metrics 21:37 Valuing Employees and Building Culture 24:14 Investing in Emotional Intelligence for Success Quotes "Up to 58% of your performance is dictated by emotional intelligence." "Focus on the feeling, not just the numbers." "Invest in emotional intelligence for a 22x ROI." Links Rich Bracken’s Profile: https://amplifyspeakers.com/rich-bracken/ Rich Bracken’s Website: https://www.richbracken.com/ Rich Bracken’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-bracken Rich Bracken’s Book: https://www.richbracken.com/book

## Transcript

Chris Sund: Welcome to the Amplified Speakers Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Sund. Today's guest is Rich Bracken. And if you've ever seen him speak, you know exactly why people remember him. Rich is an award winning keynote speaker, executive coach, and brand ambassador for TalentSmart EQ, the world's leading emotional intelligent research firm. He's worked with Fortune 100 companies, professional sports organizations, and leaders across the country. Helping them elevate emotional intelligence, executive presence, communication, and performance. What makes Rich different, though, is how he delivers it. He blends real leadership insight with the energy of someone who spent two decades as a national touring DJ, creating an experience that's equal parts practical, engaging, and definitely unforgettable. From helping leaders handle pressure and build trust to teaching teams how to communicate with more confidence and impact, Rich brings a message that hits whether you're leading a company, a team, or just trying to show up better in your everyday life. Welcome, Rich.
Rich Bracken: Thanks, Chris, and I will tell you, man, you've got the best podcast voice over voice I think I've ever heard that like that bass at the end of the sentences makes me like wanna b also buy a car but also listen to this podcast all day long. I'm thrilled to be here and I'm excited to have a conversation with you.
Chris Sund: Yeah. I've been looking forward to this a lot. I think for for those that don't know you, just leading off right into the the DJ part, I'd love to hear how going from being a DJ to people all over the country asking you to come talk. You know, what did that transition look like?
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I like you said in the intro, I I spent a little over two decades touring both you know the US and also played overseas a little bit as well as a DJ and That was always music's always been a passion of mine. And between the music passion, I've always been a performer of sorts. So I remember like standing on my bed as a kid, and you know, when I was six or seven, singing into my plastic microphone, Duran Duran, and Prince and Michael Jackson at the top of my lungs. So performance, music, and then also just this servant mentality. I love making people have, you know, be happy. I love entertaining people. And so all of those things came together as a DJ. I got to play some amazing shows, crowds of up to 15,000. people. Like it was just insane. And so when I transitioned out of DJing, and that's a whole nother story for a whole nother podcast, but when I transitioned out of DJing, the speaking thing just kind of not on purpose, but kind of naturally fell into the place of what I was doing with the DJing. And so as my speaking career started growing, I was doing on other side as I had a full-time job, there was this plateau moment. And I was talking with another friend of mine who's a big name speaker and we were bouncing ideas back and forth. How do I separate myself in this crowded industry? And how do I become unique? And she said, Well, don't you talk about music in your presentations? And I said, Well, yeah. I, you know, I talk about it as a benefit, you know, helping emotional intelligence and and performance. And she said, Well, didn't you also didn't used to DJ? And I said, Yeah, you know, I had my moments. And she goes, Well, why don't you try to do something with that? And so there was born, so I have the emotional intelligence keynote, but then all of a sudden I had this new version called Soundtrack for Success, where it was the emotional intelligence content, but then backed up with music because music, number one, bonds us all. Number
Chris Sund: I can definitely see that. You know, I've watched testimonials and listened to them from people that said at your events. And they're some of the best I've ever seen. Because you have people that are raving about, you know, you turned the event around or you kicked off the event with this high energy, the music. You have people singing or and dancing. And then you have people that are like are borderline, you can tell, emotional. And they're like, from what they learned and what they took away from it. And so really hard to be both informational and inspiring and entertaining all at the same time. And I could sit and just listen to people talk about how great it is after one of your events.
Rich Bracken: Well, I I appreciate that. I think and it's that I that compliment. I'm also my New Year's resolution was to take compliments better. So I appreciate that. I I receive your compliment here. and I think those testimonials mean the most to me because you know, a lot of speakers can get up and and give some information and that's great. They can educate people or they can give them actionable takeaways and that's fine. But when you can move a room, when you can literally take the emotion of the room and move it wherever you want to. And I did that as a DJ too, like depending on the song I played or depending on the mood I wanted to have. I could change the dynamic of the room in seconds. And so to have people say things like one of my favorite testimonials said, I don't know if I'm at a an educational session, a sermon, or a comedy show. Like it was in it, but it was all of the above. So the fact that I'm able to do that and I break the fourth wall all the time. I'm engaging the audience and we're doing stuff together. Yes, the music and dancing, but also there's polling and questions and engagement and sometimes a little bit of crowd work, almost like I'm a stand up comedian. So it's a lot of fun. But my favorite moment of all time was I did this, you know. events here in Kansas City for 1,500 female executives with the OS this women's leadership event. And at the end of the event, this woman just charges up the center, the center aisle. The applause hadn't even stopped yet. Like I'm still standing on stage. She is bolting for the for the front of the stage. And I'm like, do I need to call security right now? Like she looks like she's she's a woman on a mission. And long story short, she basically told me that yes, she had a great time But then I shared things that empowered her. And then she sat in the room, in the back of the room, and cried for the first time in a year and a half. And so to be able to do that from an entertainment standpoint to empower people, but
Chris Sund: Completely. I mean, i there's one thing to have them sit there and have the light bulb go off, right? And go, that's a great thing. I'm gonna take the notes. But to let somebody sit in a spot where not only the light bulb goes out, but they're the wheels are spinning, they're taking the time to reflect. And too often than not in a busy work environment or depending how even if they're just checking in, checking out, and to take the time to get it lost in your thoughts and realize like, man, I really need this.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: This is healthy. I would love to hear from you. What, you know, could you give a sample of of what, you know, from an emotional intelligence standpoint that you think America needs to hear right now?
Rich Bracken: geez. yeah, I was gonna say yet another one that we can unpack for day is well let me let me also quickly touch on the on what emotional intelligence is because a lot of people I think brush by it as like a fad topic or something that they just see in articles. so it's understanding your emotions and what you do with them and then understanding and recognizing the emotions in others and how you manage that from a relationship standpoint. So how are we getting along? How are we you know deciding the temperature of the conversation? How am I reacting? How are you reacting?
Chris Sund: Mm-hmm.
Rich Bracken: so with self-awareness and self-management, it's what am I feeling and what am I doing with it? And then you've got social awareness, how am I observing you and how am I paying attention to you? What is my active listening ability? What is my empathy? And then my relationship management. And I think we need all of it as a as a country, as a as you know, within any industry. And that's the nice thing from a speaker standpoint or from just an emotional intelligence application standpoint, is that it's universal in usage. And when we have the the data shows through talent smart eq, the data shows that up to 58% of your performance is dictated by your emotional intelligence. So a lot of people be it's a soft skill, a woo-woo thing. I'm like, actually no. It's a psychological fact and an emotional fact that when you have a higher emotional intelligence, you're a better leader, you're a better salesperson, you're a better teammate, you're a better colleague, you're a better friend and family member or spouse or partner. All of these things improve. So if we are more aware of our emotions, we are a better control of them, we're kinder and we get along with other people better, and then we we manage that relationship effectively, everything gets better. But we don't often take the time to slow down and pay attention to those things. And so when I talk about, you know, actionable takeaways or things that they need to go do after they get done listening to me, it's stuff like calendar blocking. You know, block time before and after meetings, block time for yourself for self-care. Five minutes a day is all you really need. But it's it's proactively understanding that we need to be better all together. And I always get the saying wrong is the the sh all, you know, the the rising tides of all ships. Like if we're all working on it a little bit, we all improve.
Chris Sund: Yeah, that is great advice. And and too often than not, like y once again, you f you fill up your calendar and you you just go through it and you're not taking enough time to spend in your own thoughts planning and and taking care. So wonderful advice. we're on the getting ready for one of your biggest announcements to come out. And I know when this this probably airs, the way it should work is
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: You know, it's already gonna be out, but I'd love you to talk about you got your book. I'd love you to share a little bit about s what it's about, behind it, everything.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so Shift Word is my first book. and it is the concept of how we can be more adaptable to change management. So, how are we actually adapting ourselves and how are we embracing change? But then how do we make it sustain? How do we make it stick? because north of 75% of corporate corporate initiatives with change fail, and over 80% of personal inch initiatives with change fail. So think about New Year's resolutions. They fail within the usually the first month. But companies are do trying to do too much. And so the the origin of the book came from my own personal weight loss journey. So I lost a hundred over a hundred pounds and have kept it off for twenty seven years now. And so I had always wanted to be in Men's Health to tell my story because they have like the the weight loss transformation stories. And I always wanted to be in there. And that was 27 years ago when I did it. So I tried for a couple of years, never got anywhere. And then serendipitously, this time last year, I got interviewed by Men's Health magazine through a friend of mine. And so my my article that went online, I was in the magazine and on on their website as well. And the article that I talked about, how I sustained it for so long, you know, when it put came out on the website and I went back and read it, this the the way it broke down all the different sections of the article is like, that looks like it could be a book. And I'd always wanted to write one. I just never knew what I wanted to write it on. And so I started exploring, started doing some research. I'm like, there's something here. And so I started exploring it, started writing it, paired up with the publishing team. Shout out to Game Changer Publishing. They're amazing. And so we we brought this book to life. And so Shift Word is really giving you, giving individuals, both personally and professionally, ways that they can embrace change and make it stick. Because so many times we just are doing too much. Like we talked
Chris Sund: Yeah, I it's advice that I think everyone, if they sit there and think about it, they need, right? We all do. And a lot of times, we just get stuck. Or I talk to I talk to people and you meet and they're like, Hey, this is where I'm at. And it just is. So to have impact that you can prove, hey, I was here and now I'm here. And this is what I did to to get there.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: And everything I've learned since then and is really amazing. So I've been really excited, to say the least. I knew this was was coming. So I've been pretty pumped to see this finally come to life and come out. And by the time I'm listening to this, hopefully Amazon or whichever bookseller I go to, probably Amazon, shout out to them, will hopefully already be at my house.
Rich Bracken: Yeah, no, I appreciate that and Right. So I I number one, I appreciate the the promise on the buy. I think it's ironic too that the whole weight loss story was the the foundation of the book and I'm actually launching the book yeah, we'll have launched the book on my birthday and already bought a c a customized cake with a book cover on it. So I'm gonna be eating cake talking about my weight loss journey. So where the irony's not lost on me there. but again, like it's not and it doesn't have to be massive dramatic overhaul change. Like if you need that, great, this book is perfect for you. But even if you want to make some small tweaks to your performance. Maybe you're already a high performer, but there are a couple of small details that are holding you back. This is all about performance improvement, change management, and just getting a little bit better. And so it's small shifts, but it's it's going to have a huge, tremendous impact on people that decide to get it.
Chris Sund: Been like I said, I've been really excited to get it. I would love to hear if you were gonna lean into a part of the book and I hate to like still a little secret, but I wanna I wanna give a little teaser and go. Here's one of the parts that man, I just couldn't snap right in the pages. Right. You could just feel it like, man, I love when I get a talk about this. I love when people get to hear this because I know they need it in their life.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. yeah. I think I think the the main one that comes to mind is a chapter called Focus on the Feeling. And what I talk about there is that, you know, when I'm with my weight loss journey, I was always looking at numbers. I was look looking at my weight. I was stepping on a scale, I was looking at my calorie count. Numbers drove everything to me. And so even when I lost the weight and I got down with from 260 to 155. And even when I was at my lowest, I was so focused on on the number. But if you think about it, if you stepped on a scale first thing this morning and you weighed, let's say 175 pounds. And then you stepped on a scale at 4 p.m., no matter what, you're going to weigh more. You take on more water, you take on more food, your body changes throughout the day. So literally, that number changes every single day during the day. So you're never going to be at a point where you just remain the same or you're consistently losing because your body just changes every single day. And I think companies are the same way. And I think socially we're the same way. Think about social media. People are driven by numbers. We're driven by likes and comments. I will say, I'm excited for the metrics of my book to come out so I can see how many people bought it. But that's the only one I'm gonna focus on there. But when we think about social media, we're so caught up in, you know, I I put this video out, but I only got two likes or I only got 500 impressions on LinkedIn. But so many times, and I've done this too. So I'm not saying that this is something that I'm, you know, I'm holier than now. I've had this too, where I really did something or I created a video because I thought it was going to drive impressions or I thought it was going to drive followers. And I worked on it, put it out, and it just went fr. You know, it did nothing. And so I got caught up in the numbers. Instead of saying, you know what, I feel good about everything I put out. And if it helps one
Chris Sund: Mm-hmm.
Rich Bracken: You know, I think about corporations that are focusing on revenue and profits and all of these things. We had, you know, there's a corporation here in Kansas City that laid off 21,000 people to focus on AI. You know, the impact of that, not only the people that got let go, but then you've got the people that are still there. So imagine, and it was done by email at like five o'clock in the morning or something like something ridiculous like that. So imagine the sentiment of those individuals that had been let go into the into the workplace. They're definitely not saying anything positive about you. So there's that piece of the emotion. But then think about the people that are still within your walls or still working for you, still in your company. They're terrified. They're not going to be working at their best because you have done something that was driven by numbers and numbers only. Instead of saying, well, we really need to take care of our people and have a more holistic culture, those companies that get driven by greed and numbers are missing the point too. So companies that have strong cultures have trust, have psychological safety. They take care of their people. They don't go through layoffs because they're trying to make an extra profit. They're doing the right things for the right reason. The money will come, but when they're focused on numbers too much, things get lost in the conversations.
Chris Sund: Cann't agree more. Yeah. And too often that it gets to be a driving point for businesses and companies or even people to just focus on that's what you want. And it's okay to say, hey, I'm looking that I want to run a nice profitable business. But if that's your purpose, right, that's where you get you lose. And when your purpose is grounded in delivering, you know, a service or or selling whatever it is, but it's grounded in helping.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. absolutely.
Chris Sund: people both inside your walls and outside your walls. So that's where the the winds come from. I mean, I can't imagine those twenty-one thousand people going, Okay, you la or you let go let's say the people still in the walls. You let go twenty one thousand people. That could have been me. It could be me tomorrow. And despite how many let's say they're working two thousand plus hours a year and they've been there however many years, kind of going, Hey, everything I just dedicated
Rich Bracken: yeah. Well Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: All that work, all that energy I put into this to be told over email at five AM. I mean, what's that tell you about how much they they care about you as a person?
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Right. And and again, like those people that are still there are not going to be putting their best quality work forward because they're psychologically unnerved. But then also, why would you want to work harder if, you know, why would I want to put forth an extra effort if I'm still there, knowing that I could be callously fired tomorrow as well? Like it it doesn't make sense to me. but again, like it just it comes down to the fact and and again, I'm not saying like you should not care about your revenue and you should just run a a a business into the red but feel good about it. There's a happy medium there. And if you're not incorporating, and part of what I talk about in the chapter, is how do you incorporate emotional metrics at the same time as you're incorporating the financial metrics in the social media and everything else, the hard data? So there's a balance there. And if you can find that balance, that sweet spot of in the in-between, it's it unlocks so much potential for organizations, for leaders, for teams. Because we, when we are more psychologically safe or we feel more emotionally connected to our organization or we trust our leaders more, we do work harder. We do come with better ideas. ideas. We do go the extra mile to make sure that our organization is thriving. So that's that sweet spot of the middle where you can, yes, pay attention to the hard data, but this emotional KPI that you're not paying attention to could be more damaging than you being not profitable.
Chris Sund: I I think the motivation of of anybody, you know, comes down to feeling valued and appreciated. That the work they're doing matters. and it doesn't mean like, hey, the work I'm doing has to like go change the world. It just means it's being seen, it's being valued, and people are looking and being like, thank you. Which when you break down what you have to do to accomplish that.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: It's it's nothing hard. It's nothing that takes technology or this this big budget. And yet it's that emotional side, that awareness of understanding your employees and what matters to them that I think moves the needle the most. Yeah. So what what
Rich Bracken: absolutely. Yeah, and I think leaders leaders that leaders that don't invest in just the small details. Like I I have worked for some great leaders and I've worked for some terrible leaders. And I can tell you 100% of the difference comes in the leaders' care for what their teams feel. And so that to me, like I don't remember any of the profits or any of the numbers or any of the data, but I do remember how my leaders made me feel. Did I feel appreciated by the bad ones? Absolutely not. Did I feel appreciated by the great ones? 100%, even in the tough times. So I think leaders that don't invest in that emotional psychological safety are are they're creating a larger blind spot than they think exists. Because those are the people that are like, if you only care about the numbers and you don't care about me, why would I want to stay here? There are plenty of jobs. Even if people are like AI is taking jobs, like, okay, but there are still plenty I see d you know, things getting posted on LinkedIn all the time on my network. There are plenty of jobs out there. You can go find another company that does care about their employees and work hard for them and probably make more money or have a lot longer, happier tenure than working for somebody that just does not care and just is more caring about the numbers than they are their people.
Chris Sund: Completely spot on. It's people need to hear that. And what your what you deliver in your expertise is the the I think one of the keys to unlocking the great culture. I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel recently, but I want to talk about their people on this panel. All of them led extremely successful companies. And they asked at the end of the session to a room of similar executives, what is the one thing?
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: advice you'd give right now that is the most important for every single person in this room. And it across the board, it was culture. You want to win, you want to compete, you want to do this, then lean into the culture side. And you're giving the secret, I think one of the most important parts, if you really break down what culture is, it's not, you know, games and foosball tables and in free food, right? That emotional intelligence.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: is I think the key to unlocking a great culture.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. I d 100%. I could not have said it better. And what I what I want organizations and anybody listening to this to understand is this is that your leaders, as they're going up, you know, taking on bigger titles, taking on more responsibility, naturally their emotional intelligence drops because they've got more visibility, they've got more responsibility, they got more pressure. And so those that organizations that are not investing In emotional intelligence or emotion emotional intelligence training or coaching, which I and the company do, like it's it it is a huge missed opportunity. And there are, you know, there's data galore about the money that's being left on the table due to bad culture, due to missed sales, due to employee burnout and turnover, because these leaders are elevating and not bringing emotional intelligence with them. So the small investment, you know, compared to what the loss could be. Is is a tremendous ROI. So to have your leaders trained on emotional intelligence and communication and building that psychological safety, the ROI is tremendous for organizations, but a lot of them are not. And one of the data points I share in my presentation is that those companies that invest in emotional intelligence, keynotes, training, coaching, workshops, whatever, have a 22 times higher likelihood. They have a much bigger head start. on success than their co their competition does. Twenty-two times higher rate. So if if w a company just says, hey, we're gonna invest a half a million dollars into emotional intelligence and leadership training. You're going to have a tremendous ROI on that because you're going to be retaining and attracting top talent. You're going to have happier, more successful people. You're driving a more positive culture. You're getting the best out of your people. And your leaders are leading more effectively, which gets the best out of the organization as a whole. So all of those things combined, I think it's my my biggest
Chris Sund: Completely agree. I mean, 22x is amazing. You tell anyone, hey, I'm gonna get you 22x if you invest in this. And the question would be like, why wouldn't you start right now? And so I know we have to unfortunately tie a bow on this, even though we could go on much longer. But I want people to really sync that in. If you're looking, you have some of the top executives anywhere telling you.
Rich Bracken: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Sund: You want to win in today's climate, you got to invest in culture. What does that mean? What do I do? Well, you just heard it. You want a 22x return, you want to invest, you actually want a framework or training that is what's gonna move the needle, then you need to bring Rich to come speak. You better look into his training and workshops. I'm gonna be putting it in in the description here. You're gonna be able to find his website. You're gonna be able to find him on LinkedIn. I'll also have The most exciting part, the link to his book. So get on there, grab a copy, make sure, buy it for your team, and then figure out when you can get him out there.
Rich Bracken: Let's go. Yeah, if you if you if you're not ready to invest in emotional intelligence, go buy the book, learn how change is good for you, and then call me and let's do a keynote and and a and a contract and we'll make it happen. But again, like companies just are are missing. a very easy opportunity to thrive and succeed and it's sitting right there in front of them. So we would love to talk with you all about that. But at the end of the day, I just love helping people. And if it's helping people personally, great. If it's if your team of executives are burnt out and they need just some some lift, great. But also at the same time they're going to benefit pro professionally as well. So it's again, it's a win win. But I can't tell you how much I appreciate this conversation. I'm a such a huge fan of you, man. and thrilled to be partnering with you. So I just love this collaboration, but again, people just need to understand that they have control over their success and they have control over their happiness and it's an easy fix. Let's just talk about it.
Chris Sund: Yes, it is. And man, I enjoy every single time we get to meet and talk. So it was a blast finally getting you onto the podcast, getting to work into your schedule. And I can't wait to talk some more. So thank you again for being on here, Rich.
Rich Bracken: Thanks for having me, man.

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