Ep. 1640 – The Good News with Angie Austin – Rebecca Macieira-Kaufman FitCEO/ Be the Leader of Your Life / Monica Mohindra – Library of Congress Vietnam War Vets Day Sharing Their Stories
In this episode of The Good News, Angie Austin is joined by Rebecca Maciera-Kaufman to delve into the insights from her book, Fit CEO: Be the Leader of Your Life. Learn how simple routines can foster a holistic approach to leadership and health, even in the busiest of lifestyles. Discover the secrets of maintaining fitness on the go and embracing the principles of intentional living and stress management tailored for high-performing individuals.
00:00:30 Introduction to The Good News with Angie Austin
00:00:38 Interview with Rebecca Maciera-Kaufman on Fit CEO
00:07:35 Discussing Stress Management and Habits for Success
00:15:00 Veterans History Project with Monica Mohindra
00:23:56 Sharing Personal Stories and Project Impact
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SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with The Good News. Joining us is Rebecca Maciera-Kaufman to talk about her book, Fit CEO. And the full title is Fit CEO, Be the Leader of Your Life, Achieve Holistic Health in Your Busy Life at Work, Home, and Play. And Rebecca, you wrote this book with Lillian So. Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you. It’s great to be here, Andy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, so tell me, great to have you, tell me a little about your CEO background and then Lillian’s personal training background and how you put that together for this, you know, these simple habits for a holistic life.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sure. So over my years as an executive, I always wanted to be CEO someday and let the universe know. And at the time, one of the places I worked at a subsidiary bank that they asked me to be CEO of that required commuting. So I looked for a personal trainer that might be willing to work with me just half an hour a month. And I met Lillian So. And Lillian The two of us had a mind meld. I had already planned to write the book, said CEO. It was an accumulation of all my habits and hacks that people were always asking about with my extensive travel and leadership about how I managed my schedule, my energy, and seeing my family. And so I asked Lillian if someday when I wrote the book she would be willing to be my co-author, and she said yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, that’s pretty cool. All right, so when you say you wanted to work with her half an hour a month, how did that work?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, at the time, I was commuting to multiple countries and states, and I was trying to figure out how to have a routine that I could do in under 30 minutes in a hotel room or in a gym. And so she and I worked together once a month, sometimes twice a month if I was in town enough, and built routines for me. So I traveled with a jump rope, some stretchy bands, and was able to create a really quick routine, 25 minutes that I could do anywhere. Five minutes of jump roping, some bands that are like using your muscles and building muscles and then some stretching and stay fit while traveling.
SPEAKER 04 :
And do you incorporate those workouts in your book?
SPEAKER 07 :
I do. They’re all in the book. In the appendix, we show pictures of how to do them and then The book is written in 30 chapters. Each chapter is two to three pages. It takes a total of two hours to read the book. It’s very short and sweet. And each chapter is a leadership lesson from my life as being an executive and a CEO, and then the leader of my life, as well as then Lillian adds her voice that’s literally in another font, which says, what to do, immediate and imperfect action or getting in your body or pen to paper. And we give you exercises that you can do in five or ten minutes.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I love this idea because I have three kids and I have a home studio and I am, you know, fairly busy. My kids are all in competitive sports. One’s going to be a college athlete next year. And we travel, I would say, 10 to 12 times a year just for their sports. And then all my old NBC News friends from L.A., we travel again together now that our kids are older that we can get together and travel. So I travel a lot more probably now, though, for fun than when I was younger. So this is very intriguing to me. I was just part of a study at the University of Colorado Health Center on the Anschutz campus. It’s a huge medical campus. It’s kind of cool. I do five minutes of exercise like 10 times a day. And that was to prevent diabetes. But I started to realize like, wow, even though it’s a hassle to remember to do it 10 times a day, if I set a timer, it’s really easy to do five minutes of exercise at a time. And even though yours is 25, like in a piece, I see how you could really fit all of these little bits of exercise into a very busy schedule and stay fit, like no excuses, you know?
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. And in the book, we share exactly what you’re talking about. If you want to do five minutes a day to start, 10 minutes a day, four times a day of five minutes, whatever works for your schedule, going for a walk, parking a few blocks away from the grocery store and walking there and back with your bags. Right. Taking the stairs if you’re in a place that has a, you know, there’s an escalator or there’s stairs. Take the stairs. And just adding it throughout the day, which we say get in your body and move.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m telling you, I don’t know how there are overweight sports parents because when we go to, we just got back from two volleyball tournaments and one in Boston and one in Vegas. I was walking like I’d say seven miles a day because you have to walk so far to get into these giant coliseums and all that jive. But I’m really intrigued also besides the fitness aspect, what are some of the key principles to becoming the leader of your own life? Because I know you put some of your CEO aspects into the book.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. I mean, like with anything in life or business, if you want to get it done, I talk about starting and we talk about starting with intention. What do you want to achieve? Where do you want to go? Setting your intention is the start to achieving the life you want or the result for a business outcome. Then set aside the time in small increments, five to ten minutes, and build the routines and habits to get you there and commit. One of the things I did in business is create a set of routines that we did as a management team consistently that signaled exactly where we were going for the whole team, how we were planning to get there, and how we were doing against that, and then celebrating each time we made a good step towards it. So these are examples in business. And in life, it’s the same. It is setting the time to, say, move five minutes a day as you do 10 times a day, and then celebrating the fact that you did it. And if you don’t, be nice to yourself. It will happen tomorrow.
SPEAKER 04 :
How about some suggestions to make the most out of each of our days? And what are some of these healthy habits?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it’s really about eating right and moving as well as getting outdoors and smiling. A lot of what one can do is just start your day right with the right kind of food and Make sure you’re moving throughout the day. Make sure you get some fresh air and some sunshine. And remember to smile and enjoy the day. There are other things like the fresh air really helps when you get outside, looking at the sky and maybe finding some awe. And then throughout the day in those minutes where you’re going to move, maybe get on the floor and get off the floor. It really helps with your leg muscles. And then find gratitude for yourself first and foremost that you did. move and get outside, get on the floor and then gratitude for life and you’ll get a lot more out of your day.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m wondering, you know, for people, I mean, this is really great for people who are busy, but to be honest with you, even if they’re not busy, a lot of us just take those extra moments and sit on the phone. You really can’t incorporate watching a movie. I watch Netflix while I’m doing my five minutes. I sit on the stairs, my phone on the stairs, and then I do, I have my headphones on. I can still watch my Netflix and then I do my five minutes. So a lot of the things we waste time on, like a Netflix show or TV, Just playing some video game. You can walk around your yard with your dog and still do these goofy games or whatever you like to do on your phone. You can do these things together and still work out. I think stress, though, for someone like you who really truly is busy… And when you talk about your travel schedule, you know, missed planes, sleeping in the airport, trying to find a hotel, they’re all taken because there’s a storm and all the planes are grounded. How do you manage stress? Do you have tips for managing stress as well?
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. We share a lot of those in the book. But start with resetting. And what I mean by reset is take a break, step back. So the problem, you’re stressed, your planes cancel, meetings are all messed up. So before you allow that. stress to rise through your body. Take a break, step back and put your own oxygen mask on first and gain some perspective. Zoom out. Okay, we’re going to get on another flight. Okay, I’m going to get the meetings rescheduled or I’m going to do them by phone and walk to the airport. And think about the stress at arm’s length from you, maybe in the middle of the table and not on your chest as a heavy weight. Another key habit is take a breath. Move some more. And if it’s a personal stress, something not related to business, you’ve got bad news at the doctor’s office, call a friend. Gain perspective. Get some support. But one of the things I love to tell everyone is think of a metaphor. And the metaphor I love is be a duck and let it roll off your back. You can look at it in a puddle on the floor instead of, again, a weight on your body.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I just traveled with a lot of people on these trips. Um, you know, so you’ve got 10 players and that means usually at least 20 family members, maybe a couple of kids. So that’s 30 throwing a couple of extra kids at 35. And then the coaches you’re around 40 people that you’re interacting with every day, just on your team. And then we actually took a spring break after that with another family and stayed in the house. Okay. So with that, I realized how many people can’t let things go. Like they hate this other team because they don’t like the coach. They don’t like the setter on that team because they used to kid used to play with them and the dad is mean and I can’t wait, you know, cheering when they fail, you know, getting irritated about some problem with the rental house or like just fixating on everything. problems and i turn to my husband and i’m like we are so blessed that we can just let things go it takes so much stress out of your life like you cannot change this so how can we make the best of this right like in one case they offered us another backyard of a house two blocks away with a waterfall and slides and a pool and a basketball court and like how is that not making the best of it right but that but my friend was still mad that our pool at our rental wasn’t working and I’m like who cares we got a waterfall on a slide you know but not being able to let things go I love your duck analogy because if you can visualize it maybe you can help you let things go because that fixation on those things you can’t change is exhausting yeah I have another example I used to
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, walk into the house. I had kids, a husband walk into the house from my job and it would sort of be on my body, all that stress.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
I gave me that feedback, which is great. And so I started a practice of a few blocks from home. I stopped being on the phone with a colleague or employee and I would roll down the window, have the fresh air come in and I would throw all my stress mentally, you know, metaphorically out the window. So by the time I ran home, I was back to being mom and kids would run and grab my legs and my husband and I would hug hello. So not bringing the stress into the household. And another way, roll down the window, throw it out the window. Or when you walk in the door, flush it down the toilet. Whatever you need to do, do symbolic things to take the stress off your body metaphorically. And guess what? It does help.
SPEAKER 04 :
I like that. I like that a lot. I do the filing cabinet in my brain. And so the filing cabinet in my brain, I go, okay, this is like right in the front right now, but I’ve got to go have fun at this, you know, like we had a banquet last night, let’s say for basketball. So I’ve got to honor my kid. I can’t be worried about something. So I file it in the back of my brain. I have this little visual where whatever the problem is, it goes way to the back of the file. It’s so stupid, but it works.
SPEAKER 07 :
Love it. It’s a great example of using an image, a metaphor to really compartmentalize the stress somewhere else so you can be present for the thing that you need to be present for, which is your kids or the game or the friend.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, they won state. So it was really fun. So I didn’t want to ruin that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they’re so excited. They have a big trophy and everything is really cute. Okay, so what we got a minute left. What do you want people? What would be your dream for people to take away from the book after they spend two hours going over all your routines and your tips?
SPEAKER 07 :
My dream would be that at the end of the day, people realize that they really are a collection of all of our own habits and choose the habits that nourish you.
SPEAKER 04 :
I like that.
SPEAKER 07 :
That would be my dream.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I like that a lot. And really easy to find the book Fit CEO. Give us a website if you’d like as well. I found Fit CEO, Be the Leader of Your Life on Amazon, but I’m sure it’s all over where books are sold and a website for us as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. So my website is rmkgroupllc.com. That’s rmkgroupllc.com. And in there are all my publications. You can go to the publications link and there’ll be Fit CEO there and other articles and things I’ve written. And Fit CEO is at amazon.com, barnesandnobles.com, booktopia.com, and any local bookstore you can order it. Awesome. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you, Andy. You bet.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Hudson, thanks for tuning in to KLTT, the Mighty 670.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. Real excited about this interview. National Veterans Day is March 29th, and this April marks the 50th anniversary of the war’s conclusion. Joining us again today is Monica Mohindra, director of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. The Veterans History Project hopes to preserve the stories of all veterans, and at this time is particularly calling upon Vietnam vets and their families also to share their personal stories as part of our national record. Welcome back, Monica.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thanks so much for having me back, Angie.
SPEAKER 04 :
One of my favorite interviews, and you know, I’ve done thousands because I’ve been doing news and TV and radio for 30 years, and I love this project.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, wow. How flattering. How kind. It’s not me, though. It’s all of us. It’s the Veterans History Project. That’s really what gets to everyone because we’re all having the opportunity here to engage in this important national mission together.
SPEAKER 04 :
I love it. All right, so let’s just give an overview for those people who don’t know. What is the Veterans History Project?
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s at least three things at once. It is a national effort, as I just mentioned, created by the United States Congress through unanimous legislation in both the House and Senate in October of 2000. That law had original signatories numbering over 238 members of Congress. And their idea then, as well as what we continue to do today, is to work with people like you and your listeners all across the country to collect information, preserve, and share the firsthand experiences of U.S. military veterans, those who served from World War I through the more recent conflicts. At the Library of Congress, it is also already an archive of over 121,000 individual collections of those veterans, in their own words, absolutely unfiltered. And it’s an opportunity for anyone hearing me or learning about the Veterans History Project to participate in gathering these stories and making history themselves by participating in the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ve gone in and I’ve read a few of them, and it’s really neat to do this. So let’s also touch on what we mentioned at the beginning, that this is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. And so what are you specifically doing to commemorate that?
SPEAKER 06 :
50th anniversary of the conclusion and this opportunity to understand this milestone is something that we’ve been working towards for many years. We’re fortunate to work directly with the National Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Commission. They worked all across the country and gathered 800 interviews just through their singular effort of Vietnam War era veterans. And that was a really great start to us being able to share those stories and use those to gather more stories. So we have also really wonderful special focus Vietnam collections in an online set of exhibits on our website, which is locforlibraryofcongress.gov for government.gov. There you can find absolutely unmediated, raw collections of these Vietnam veterans, but also some curated exhibits. And what I mean by that is we’re not messing with what they say or what they contributed. It’s what they wanted to share. Put them together in a way that helps you connect to the through lines of their story. So one of them is in-country stories from the Vietnam War. Another is personal snapshots picturing the Vietnam War through their photographs, their eyes literally at the moments that they were there. And Vietnam War looking back, more of a retrospective. So with this and with partners… partnering organizations all across the country. We’re doing what we can to really put a focus and a highlight now on these Vietnam veterans’ stories and the importance of collecting them.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know what’s so neat, I think, about the way you collect it? A lot of people that are a little bit older-ish sometimes, like my mom, for instance, she would be intimidated by, oh, how do I do this? Do I log on? I don’t have a computer. What do you mean log on? But you have this VHP field kit that I’ve looked at that you can fill out as a PDF document. But if you’re blind, they have Braille. If you can’t hear well, they have options for you to be able to share your story in So that you aren’t eliminated from sharing because of some unique ability or I always call it, it’s not really a disability, it’s differently abled. You know what I mean? Like anyone can do this and you can always get help from a family member as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely. I love you calling out. Not only do we have Braille, but we have audio described. For those who would like that help, that’s available on the website. You can also call us directly. You can leave a message. Sometimes we’re able to actually pick up the phone. We continue to print the field kit. You can call us or have someone email us. We will send it out to you in that amazing thing called postal delivery. You will receive the field kit in your hands. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a family member about contributing their story when you can show them this tangible paper. You can show them the release form that ensures that they keep their copyright. You can show them the other archival forms that we need to fill out to ensure their story is told correctly. There’s a biographical data form that gathers the information from a DD-214, so you know that your story as the veteran is being told in this raw, unmediated fashion and you’re sharing it the way you intend it to be shared so yeah absolutely please call us please visit the website we want to make this as accessible for participation as possible
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, as I mentioned to you, some interviews stand out to me. I just interviewed a veterinarian that worked for the Rolling Stones when he was young, and Keith Richards told him to do something with his life, and now he’s my vet, and he just wrote a book. That stands out to me. Or you talking to me about the Veterans History Project, or my friend who’s blind who’s written 60 books, and he’s done nine movies, and he said, I’d make movies I can’t see and I write books I can’t read like those stand out now for you you have all these stories I know they’re all amazing in their own right because everyone has a story but any that you can give us a little snippet of that really touched you or stand out to you you know it’s so hard always to answer that question because
SPEAKER 06 :
We have so many. There’s 121,000, and I like to say my favorite story is the one you’re about to send in because it’s true. But it’s also true that while we’re commemorating the end of the Vietnam War, there have been some that have been playing on my mind a little bit more recently, including Jack Danner, Jr., who was deployed with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1965. He helped establish Camp Ratcliffe before then serving as an advisor to the South Vietnamese Battalion. His collection really stands out to me because it includes vivid photographs from Operation White Wing Masher. I really, really appreciate the chance to delve in and see photographs from the eyes of the people who were there. Operation White Wing Masher was a large search and destroy mission, and it shaped his view of the war, and you can see that yourself when you get to his collection. Again, you can search that just by putting his name in our database on our website, loc.gov forward slash vets. And then, of course, there’s Ray Marie. Ray Mary left. She was a nurse aboard the USS Repose, and she treated soldiers airlifted straight from the battlefield. Her photos document a harrowing and deeply human series of moments aboard the hospital ship. These stories weave together most compellingly because they’re about humanity and sacrifice and bonds in this mission of purpose that lasts a lifetime. They help us understand not just what happened in the moment in Vietnam, but how that shaped the men and women who served and then how we are connected to that.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then people can read these, they can listen to some of them, right? Some of these are the actual vets’ recordings of them?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, absolutely. Of our 121,000 and growing collections, over 80% of them, if you go into our database, you’re not just reading a snippet or hearing a snippet. You’re going in and you’re hearing the whole thing, unedited, completely raw, what it was, They wanted to say what it was they wanted the world to witness, whether that’s letters, diaries, photographs. or the actual audio and video interviews, if we were able to gather those, if people across the country were able to gather those.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, Monica, I want credit for this idea, okay? I want to do this for you. I want to do a podcast where I would share all of these veterans’ stories, and then you’d cut snippets, obviously, of their interviews, just news style, so it would be like, you know, kind of the way Dateline does it, so we’d introduce someone, and then we’d share some of their story, and then I would talk and give some of their background. I think that would be an amazing podcast.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s do it. I love it. I love Nancy.
SPEAKER 04 :
People would listen because I listen to this history podcast. It’s like history made fun or something. It’s just like, I can’t remember the name of it, but it’s like reenactments or like real life stories. And I find that so interesting where it’s the real story of someone in the Wild West that… like the lady in the camp that did all the laundry because she didn’t want to be that other kind of lady in the gold mine camp, you know what I mean? So I don’t know. I just love hearing about history. So thank you so much for what you’re doing to preserve these memories. Obviously, the Vietnam vets, not just the anniversary now, but the fact that they’re getting older and we want to catch these stories while they’re still here is really important. So give us that contact info again one more time.
SPEAKER 06 :
Please visit us at loc.gov. forward slash vets, V-E-T-S. So that’s libraryofcongressloc.gov, government, forward slash vets, V-E-T-S, for veterans.
SPEAKER 04 :
I highly recommend checking it out. Thank you so much for joining us again, Monica.
SPEAKER 06 :
I really appreciate it, Angie. Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
You betcha. Well, just so fun to talk to Monica again. Okay, so obviously I think this is important to preserve these stories, but not just to preserve these war stories, but family stories as well. I know some people are interested in putting together those family trees or doing their DNA testing and figuring out who they’re related to, but I also like getting the stories of family members Um, I’ve asked grandpa, um, my father-in-law if he would share some, they’re not really that interested in it, but maybe if I can get Riley to ask him, he might cause he and Riley talk a lot. And maybe it would be nice if Riley could say, Hey, could we preserve some of your history? And could mom and I interview you, grandpa, my father-in-law, I did do some interviews with my dad and I cherish them. I sent two of them to my, uh, my stepmom not so long ago and she said it was like he was in the room that it was so wonderful to hear him and I’ve done several with my mom because I’ve toyed with the idea at times of writing a book and been told many times wow your your story your family history is pretty difficult you should write a book about this you know like overcoming or beating the odds or whatever it may be and so I have done quite a few interviews with my mom and which reminds me I need to start doing that again. And so I’ve saved the files on my computer. So if I do ever decide to write a book, I can have them. The hard thing with my mom is a lot of her memories are really painful. And oftentimes there’s not like a positive lesson out of that. But I guess for my mom would just be survival. For my dad, it was overcoming his alcoholism. He was an abusive alcoholic. And overcoming that to really do something with his life and really make something of his life. It’s so impressive what his siblings, six of them, came out of the Depression. And they all were able to, without really parents, some of the siblings had to raise other siblings, that they all went to school. universities and, you know, higher education was something each of them achieved. Teachers, a nurse, head engineer on the Hoover Dam. My dad had his PhD. So really impressive, you know, what they were able to do with their lives. So I wish I would have saved more of their stories. But some of them passed away before I really was, you know, doing this type of thing, radio, where I do a lot of recordings and a lot of interviews. TV was a little bit different. Although now with iPhones, you can record anybody, anywhere, anytime. So think about that. Think about recording, maybe even your own for your own grandkids or your own children. I think that’d be a cool idea. Maybe I should think about doing that myself for my kids. All right. Thanks so much for listening to the good news. It was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
