The Poultry Leadership Podcast
"Welcome to 'The Poultry Leadership Podcast,' where we dive deep into the world of poultry leadership to help you soar to new heights in your career. Join us as we sit down with some of the industry's most accomplished leaders, farm owners, and allied professionals. Gain valuable insights, strategies, and personal stories that reveal the secrets behind their success. Discover what makes these poultry visionaries the outstanding leaders they are. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, our show is your go-to resource for unlocking your full leadership potential. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey to becoming the poultry leader you aspire to be."
This podcast is brought to you by Prism Controls, the leader in Environmental Controls for the past 45 years! Check them out at http://www.prismcontrols.com
The Poultry Leadership Podcast
How Emotional Health Transforms Leadership
Ever feel like you're wearing an emotional mask at work? You're not alone. Brandon Mulnix sits down with TEDx speaker and breathwork practitioner Sam Kabert to explore the hidden mental health challenges that plague even the most successful leaders.
Sam shares his remarkable journey from building a seven-figure business while working just four hours daily to confronting a numbing depression despite having achieved all his goals. This vulnerability opens a powerful conversation about why emotional health—not just mental health—might be the missing piece in leadership development.
"Thoughts are the language of the mind, and feelings are the language of the body," Sam explains, unveiling why so many leaders get trapped in destructive patterns of compartmentalization. When we metaphorically put difficult emotions into boxes without ever unpacking them, we're simply placing Band-Aids on deeper issues that eventually manifest as burnout, physical ailments, or strained relationships.
The episode features a guided breathwork experience that demonstrates how simple techniques can activate the parasympathetic nervous system and shift brainwave states from high-stress beta to more peaceful theta waves. Sam also introduces practical tools like the WIFL (What I Feel Like expressing) technique that creates space for authentic connection in team settings.
For leaders in high-stress environments—whether first responders, poultry farmers dealing with avian influenza outbreaks, or executives facing constant pressure—this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on integrating work and personal life rather than artificially separating them. Sam's work with first responders through his nonprofit, offering free sessions and workshops focused on trauma release, highlights the universal need for emotional processing rather than emotional suppression.
Ready to transform your leadership through emotional awareness? This episode might just be the deep breath you didn't know you needed. Share it with someone who's struggling—because sometimes, acknowledging our feelings is the strongest leadership move we can make.
Connect with Sam - https://samkabert.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kabert/
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix, and on today's episode we're going to talk about mental health. Today we're going to be talking about it because this is a very important topic to me. This is a very important topic to me as a first responder, as somebody who did 20 years in the field, in the trenches, being a paramedic. Mental health really shaped my life in both positive and negative ways, and so I'm really glad that I ran into today's guest, Sam Kabert. Now, Sam is unique.
Brandon Mulnix:We've had some great conversations leading up to this podcast episode, so as I introduce him, I want you to know that this guy's amazing. He really does love the subject, he values the subject and he really values first responders. So I'm excited to get into that with him. But to introduce Sam a little bit, he's a TEDx speaker, which that's just cool in itself. He's also the host of the Soul Seeker podcast, so I have high expectations for how he performs on this podcast as well, as he's worked with folks like Google, the PGA and other companies that you would know out of Silicon Valley over the years, as well as around the globe, just helping others in their mental health journey. So with that, welcome to the show.
Sam Kabert:Brandon, what an awesome intro. Thank you so much. I'm stoked to be here with you, and I'm here for it all. So wherever this takes us, let's go.
Brandon Mulnix:Hey Sam, I cheated. I looked online for your intro. Can you share with the audience who you are?
Sam Kabert:Yeah, totally. So I was just mentioning to you before as well. Like for me, ever since I was young, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. When I grew up, I just knew I wanted this elusive state of work-life balance and fast forwarding from junior high high school, when that was like, hey, I don't know what I want, but I know I want to enjoy my life. Right, fast forward to 31 years old. I had built my business up to a seven figure company with no employees, just virtual assistants. So for any of the business owners out there, I think we can relate to like it's. It's a lot when you are responsible for other people and personalities, and anyone in HR as well. So, anyways, I was just working with VAs. I didn't have employees, I built a seven-figure company while working less than four hours a day, and I was actually named to Silicon Valley's 40 under 40 list that year as well.
Sam Kabert:And what's fascinating is, despite having reached all my goals, having financial freedom at the time and I could do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, I had work-life balance, I was going through a numbing depression, and that was back in 2019. So I really got to this rock bottom where the universe I mean to get woo for a moment here started to send me these experiences like breath work, like a journey with just myself and my breath, where nothing else involved, just breathing for about an hour and a half with a facilitator, where I literally felt reborn and it was the most wild sensation of my life that I was like there's got to be something more here. So that's what sent me on this journey of going within, really addressing my mental and emotional health. And here I am now, six years later. I've become a yoga instructor, I lead men's groups, a breathwork practitioner, a master practitioner in MER. That's mental, emotional release for complex PTSD and NLP and hypnosis. So that's kind of what I'm up to now and how I got here.
Brandon Mulnix:So, Sam, you're not my usual guest. My usual guest is somebody from the poultry industry, someone that is an expert in that field. But what's interesting is is, I found, as someone who was in a field that should have had really good mental health support sometimes we don't find what we're looking for within our current network, and that's why bringing you on and sharing some of what you've been very successful in doing for not only the first responders we've already talked about, but also for individuals, you know individuals high functioning athletes, high functioning executives, people that are struggling with a lot of burnout and a lot of things that you would think, man, they've got it all together, just like you thought. You know you were at a point where you had it all together, you know. So, for the listeners, I'm just asking you guys, bear with me.
Brandon Mulnix:This is something unique, this is something different, but, man, I think this really will help you If you're suffering from burnout, if you're a leader who just doesn't have it all together. Everybody thinks you do. This is for you. So, Sam, I'm setting the bar pretty high, but as we get going, you know, when I talk about mental health for leaders, let's dive into that subject specifically. Why is it important for a leader to have good mental health?
Sam Kabert:Yeah, and before I get into that, I'll mention as well like I am from Silicon Valley, a town about 30 minutes South. It's called Gilroy. It's the garlic capital of the world, and I grew up with goats, horses, chickens, roosters my dad was just talking about new chickens he got just yesterday and my neighbors out here in Santa Cruz, a beach town. My neighbors were kind of boxed in, but literally I hear their rooster crow and the chicken, so it's kind of funny. Anyways, though, having said all that, mental and emotional health is so important for everyone. You know, leadership is a broad, it's a broad term, right? I think this applies to all of us, because we're all leaders in our own unique way. We can either lead ourself, how we show up for ourselves, we can be a leader within our family and being a role model, you know or in the workplace all these different areas. And right now it's a beautiful time as it relates to mental health, because in the past few years, people have really opened up to de-stigmatizing mental health. Yet I actually believe what's as important or more important than mental health is emotional health, and I do believe that's going to be the next wave. And it's funny because, like you know this, brandon, especially like being a first responder and whatnot, and a man especially probably I'm stereotyping and generalizing, but, you know in a more man's, man type role and industry than like Silicon Valley with like tech nerds, you know, and geeks or whatever, and I'm just using broad terms here. I'm not calling anyone out or being judgmental, just using broad terms. Point being, though, like it takes anyone, but especially in a business environment, and especially if you're a man, to be vulnerable to talk about your mental health, then, when it comes to emotional health, like what we're talking about here is our feelings, and we're all like, well, oh, no, no, no, no, I don't want to talk about my feelings. That's like touchy feely, but wait a second. How, how do you make decisions? How do you decide what you're going to eat? Right, what do you feel like eating when you talk about your workouts? And every decision we make is based off of feeling, yet we're like I don't want to go there for some reason. So, to wrap this up, like in terms of why mental and emotional health is so important for everyone, leaders, is because it allows us to be honest with what we are actually feeling.
Sam Kabert:Something that you and I talked about previously was compartmentalization, and we can unpack this a bit more. But when we compartmentalize we're basically like, hey, I can't address that thought or that feeling that's coming up right now because I have to be present with what I'm doing. So then we metaphorically put it in a box in the back recesses of our mind, we wrap it up and we never go back and open up that box. So compartmentalization although yes, it can be useful in the moment it's actually doing us a disservice if we never unpack that box. So I help people to get to the root of all their different baggage and issues, because we all have it that we've left unprocessed, so that we can get to the root, release it in real time.
Brandon Mulnix:As you talked about that. It's interesting because part of mental health is the positive emotions that sometimes we box up as leaders and we have no one to celebrate with. I was just talking the other day with a newer leader and saying, dude, if you need someone to call and just say, you know, say your proudest moments of the week, call me, because there's so many times as leaders we don't. You know. Our employees may tell us the good things that they do, but who do we get to tell our good things to? And being a first responder, being a farmer, being business guy, we have wins. How do you balance those, those two different boxes that you compartmentalize, can you? Can you jump into that one a little bit?
Sam Kabert:Yeah, if I'm not answering it the right way, just feel free to chime in. But as it relates to like the celebrating the wins, like even before this, you celebrate a win with me and I'm like hell, yeah, that's awesome, that's amazing, Right. And a lot of times it's funny because, whether it's a win or it's something where we're asking someone to like quote unquote hold space for us, which basically means like we're venting or getting something off our chest that we've been holding there's this subconscious expectation that the person is going to react a certain way, and by subconscious I mean that the subconscious or the unconscious makes up 95% of our awareness, everything that we don't have access to. So we aren't realizing a lot of times, when we're celebrating a win with someone else or when we're venting someone else, that like hey, on a subconscious level, I'm expecting them to react or respond a certain way. That's not why we do it, but that it does come into on a subconscious level. I'm expecting them to react or respond a certain way. That's not why we do it, but that it does come into play on a subconscious level.
Sam Kabert:When, then, that person doesn't respond in the way that you want it, you feel like you're standing naked there, right, you're exposed, right. Like wait a second, that's not what I expected, like why can't you be in this with me? Whether it's like the negativity or the positivity. So this all plays a role in mental and emotional health, because it's called shadow work and Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, he coined the term the shadow. And the shadow just means to make the unconscious conscious. It's not about things that are bad or good or bad or right or wrong or anything like that, it's just about becoming aware. So now, all of a sudden, if we're celebrating a win or event, such whatever it is, we know why we're showing up that way, so we don't have that subconscious expectation from the other person, so that we aren't feeling worse after sharing. You know.
Brandon Mulnix:No, that's a great, great feeling. You know, I've had that time where I got to share a success with somebody and it kind of hit on deaf ears and I'm like, was that really a win? Was that good enough for them? Now, my wins weren't good enough for them. Now I'm disappointed and I just, you know, you just keep compartmentalizing stuff like that.
Brandon Mulnix:But as an industry, you know, mental health has really come to light. Just in the past year I've seen companies that have really highlighted their drive to help their employees. You know, from suicide, from, you know, people that didn't think, for whatever reason, they needed to continue on, and that's hard. One of the other things is there's people dealing with the mental health effects of avian influenza and losing their birds. I mean, just as we're recording this, more farmers are, you know, losing more birds and just what it takes for someone to go in and just depopulate a house is just, it's tragic. But yet leaders are asked to do it and with their teams, and then be able to kind of help their teams recover. Any thoughts from your perspective on the poultry industry and what we're going through?
Sam Kabert:Yeah, you know, the first thing I'll address is the topic of suicide. You know that hits home and when you brought that up I had chills go all through my body. It's like, oh, here we go again. I just lost a close friend, a family member, to suicide about two months ago. I'm wearing the wristband. It was April 12th, so almost two months at this point and that's the second time in my life now I've become a survivor of suicide, losing someone close to me.
Sam Kabert:And yeah, it's actually something that's come up at least once, one other time today and a few times yesterday, and I'm like, oh, interesting, that's coming up again. You know, um, but suicide is a very real thing and I it doesn't matter what industry it is. Really, I think a lot of it comes down to not being authentic with how we're feeling. Like I, I'm really about emotional health more in mental health. You know I talk about mental health as well, of course, but it you know I'm talking about feelings here and mental health is more about thoughts. You were mentioning how mental health is being talked about a lot more and what I hear people saying is like hey, about a lot more.
Sam Kabert:And what I hear people saying is like, hey, if you need to address mental health, you should do some meditation. And when you're sitting there in meditation, notice a thought. Then let the thought drift away. Or maybe you're experiencing anxiety, or experiencing stress or loss, perhaps from you know what you're describing in your industry. Well, try breathing, because breathing can help you to cope with that. And I actually believe that's the worst advice you can give someone, because that just creates more compartmentalization.
Sam Kabert:Right, it's like, hey, in this moment I'm experiencing stress, I'm experiencing anxiety, I'm experiencing sadness, I'm experiencing grief, whatever it is. Okay, let me just put a Band-Aid on that so I don't have to feel that right now. Okay, now I I feel a little bit better. It's still there, but I don't notice it as much, and now I'm just going to move forward with my life. And then, when you put your head on the pillow at night, you're just like, oh, there's just this sinking feeling. You don't know what it is because you put a band-aid on it, so it's not right in front of you. And then, when you wake up in the morning, you're just kind of like, okay, whatever, you know, because you have a bandaid on it, so it helps you somewhat. But is it actually getting to the root? It's not.
Brandon Mulnix:You know, as you were sharing with that. You know, it definitely is interesting that this mental health, this emotional I'm an emotional guy. I can. I cry at everything. People pick on me all the time when I'm watching a movie. Maybe it's, maybe it's my heart, maybe it's just. You know, I'm, I'm sappy, but that's okay, cause I realized that that's who I am. And to repress that's a bad thing. But when it comes to leadership and as you're talking, you could just imagine how many people think that their responsibility when they get to work is to shut down emotions, shut down mental health issues, like they can turn them off, and turn them on like a switch or the emotion or what they're dealing with as a distraction, and then perform at peak performance and then go home and then turn it all back on again because the problem didn't leave them. I mean, is that something that's you know? You've noticed in your profession and what you're doing and how you help leaders?
Sam Kabert:A hundred percent. That's how people operate. You know, like, have you seen that show, severance on Apple? I'll have to watch it. It's fascinating. It's been out for a few years. Then they took a hiatus and it came back, I think, this season, so I think it's two seasons or something like that.
Sam Kabert:But the basic premise is there's a medical procedure that happens and when these people go to work they know nothing about their personal life, and when they come home they know nothing about their work life. And I know, in the first responder scene that's huge, that's almost what they teach, right, and not just like first responders, most careers, like. When we think of work-life balance, that's exactly what we're doing. We're separating the two as opposed to integrating them, because we're only one person. Right, we say, oh in your work life, oh in your personal life. Who do you know? That's living two lives, like literally living two lives. We're only living one life but yet we separate it like that.
Sam Kabert:So we're lying to ourselves, and when we lie to ourselves, we're harboring that shame or harboring that guilt, whatever it is, and that can manifest in a whole host of dis-ease in the body, because the body is typically what happens when we're experiencing an illness is. It's the body speaking to you, trying to get your attention, and that's where the shadow work comes in, being like oh wow, is this pain about something else? Let me actually feel into that and see what's here so that I can move through it versus no, no, no, no, no. Let me just get some pharmaceuticals or whatever it is to just numb that and trust that's going to happen. Meanwhile now you're having a bunch of gut issues because your gut microbiome is all messed up, because you're taking pharmaceuticals and not accessing the pharmaceutical natural holisticness of your body in terms of regenerative health in a human form, you know.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, as you were talking, you mentioned the pharmaceuticals, but it was more like when I get home, I just need just that beer.
Sam Kabert:That too yeah.
Brandon Mulnix:I need to go for that run, which isn't a bad thing. I'm not going to say that that's a bad thing or a good thing. I like to run, but it's. There's so many different ways people cope instead of deal. So, yeah, it's, it's a challenge in that, but that best advice I ever got from somebody one time was and take a deep breath. That best advice I ever got from somebody one time was take a deep breath and it's like why is that such good advice, Sam? Why is taking a?
Sam Kabert:deep breath. Such good advice. Yeah, this is going to calm your nervous system. So this is what I teach. This is what I'm all about. It's all about breath work and if you'd like, I could guide us through like a minute or two of breathwork, would you like that? I'd like that. Cool, all right.
Sam Kabert:So before we get into this, I'll just mention that science has something called the 90 second rule and it teaches that our body has a 90 second physiological response when we experience an emotion, and it's been said that emotions are energy in motion, and that's backed up by the scientific fact. So if we don't allow ourself to feel what's coming to the surface, it gets stuck and it gets stored in the body. So by leveraging our breath, we can allow that energy to move through us. So what we'll do right now for all of you listening, like if you're driving or doing anything where you can't close your eyes, you can breathe with us. Just be mindful, don't close your eyes, otherwise I'd invite our listeners to take a seat now and, brandon, for yourself and for me and for anyone that can just beginning to shut down your eyes and sitting straight up and feeling your feet on the floor and, through your nose, inhaling all the way up, sipping in a bit more air at the top and through the mouth, a big sigh let it go. And again through the nose, inhaling up as you let the belly and the back body expand, and bringing that breath all the way up to the top, sipping in a bit more at the top and just go ahead and hold your breath here, just holding the breath and now just sighing it out Let it go, let it go.
Sam Kabert:And this next breath in inhaling all the way up, sipping in a bit more air at the top and holding the breath and just allow one feeling to come through and giving it a name being with that feeling now and sighing it out Let it go, let it all out. And we'll do one final one through the nose, inhaling up, sipping in a bit more air at the top, hold the breath, roll up the eyes as if you were to look at your eyebrows, but with your eyes closed, and just imagine yourself in the next few hours as you go throughout your day. How do you want to feel? Ease, confident, joy, happiness, whatever it is. Allowing yourself to feel that emotion now and then go ahead and sigh it out let it go, let it go, let it all out and just laying the breath, return to the natural rhythm and flickering the eyes back open. Just a simple exercise, not going super deep, but a quick little reset Like do you feel like some shifts?
Brandon Mulnix:Oh yeah, I could feel it in my shoulders, feel it in my body. Most of my tension always falls in my shoulders.
Sam Kabert:Ah, that's good to know, I know where the muscles are.
Brandon Mulnix:I know at the end of a stressful day that my shoulder is going to hurt and in the middle of about second breath, it was when my shoulders went back, relaxed.
Sam Kabert:So to answer your question, like that's the felt experience, to answer your question, the scientific answer is like a lot of times what we're doing is first we're activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which is rest and digest. Next we can get into the vagus nerve and the vagus nerve is going to help us go deeper into rest and digest. We're balancing out the carbon dioxide to oxygen levels as well and then finally, like there's activation of what's the theta brainwave states and not to get too deep on neuroscience, but there's three different ranges of beta brainwave states and not to get too deep on neuroscience, but there's three different ranges of beta brainwave states and that's typically like high performance not necessarily flow states, but like you know doing and the wakeful state. High beta would be like high stress, right.
Sam Kabert:A lower beta would be just normal day-to-day stuff, and then we start to shift into theta, as we're doing breath work I know this is just about a two-minute exercise we just did so it's not like going to be the most impactful thing, but it can start to slow down those brainwave states so that we get into easier state. And sometimes what I'll do too is lead people to specifically feel a negative emotion so that they can process it and then notice at the end there there's future pacing like and see yourself for the rest of the day. How do you want to feel? And since now we're entering into the theta brainwave state, we're actually rewiring the neural networks in the brain to fire and wire positive connections that actually feel good. So that's a little bit of the nerdy science behind it.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, you are talking to a tech company with nerds You've mentioned it earlier about the geeks and nerds and I'm like oh, he's talking about our company.
Sam Kabert:Hey, I'm into this stuff too, right. So you know all self-deprecating here and no judgment or anything like that, of course, so, Sam, you know we talk about our individual emotional and mental health.
Brandon Mulnix:Let's talk about how we translate this to a team people that we're responsible for. Can you lead us kind of through how important it is for us to, as leaders, care about our employees in this way?
Sam Kabert:100%, Brandon. So first things first, the acronym WIFL. Have you heard that one before?
Sam Kabert:I have not yeah, I ask it all the time. Rarely has anyone ever heard it. I was lucky enough back in like 2013, when I was in the office supply industry, to go to a conference and there was a breakout session for young professionals, and they taught us the acronym WIFL, and the idea is that it stands for what I feel like expressing and what they taught us back then. I mean, this was back in 2013, in the stale office supply industry that they taught us this, but it was like open up a meeting with a Wiffle where it's creating the space where people can express something, and maybe like in a business environment, right, you're hosting this meeting and you're seeing that person in the meeting that just seems like they don't want to be there, right, and we start to make assumptions of what's going on, but we have no idea what's going on their world. Maybe something stressful just happened, or they're feeling some anxiety for something later on.
Sam Kabert:Anything could have happened by opening up the space with, like, what I feel like expressing. It's not asking everyone in the meeting to share and start crying or anything like that. It's just like 30 or 60 seconds of like hey, if there's anything that's keeping you away from being fully present right now. This is an opportunity to share and now, when that person shares that thing, we're no longer making assumptions. Instead, we're seeing them with compassion and we're connecting like humans, because in work environments we're so focused on doing and just like gain the objections. And then there's meetings for the sake of meetings right, that as well. So the Wiffle is great to connect with people. And the other thing that I do is even on, like my podcast, I open it up with three simple breaths, nothing big, just like simple breaths and like, hey, let's just ground with some breath. So those are just two actionable things that you guys can take with you and integrate into your meetings.
Brandon Mulnix:Those are a great acronym. I like that one and the taking deep breaths even at the beginning of a meeting. We're all in it together is what I keep saying. You know when, when the team is suffering or struggling, I'm, as your leader, struggling with you and it's okay. You know, asking questions of how can I help and truly being genuine about it and making sure that you're not just saying it to check the box off, that I got to ask this as a leader. No, what I mean this is your team. You spend more time with these people. You spend more time with them than you do your own family Most of the time.
Sam Kabert:Thank you for saying that, yeah.
Brandon Mulnix:If and and and, and I'm not the right person for every work environment. Believe me, I'd probably fit in in the office supply environment and I go to the offices as you were saying that. I'm like, oh, that's where I recognize you from. Is the office Wait?
Sam Kabert:what.
Brandon Mulnix:The show the Office. Yeah, yeah yeah, no, Sam was not on the Office. Yeah, yeah, but no, I can envision that environment, though, of stress, and we all are unique and have our own stresses at work, whether it's our boss, employees, what they're going through, everything it's all good. So, Sam, as a leader yourself, you've led teams, you've led companies. What other areas am I missing that we should be talking about today here on the podcast?
Sam Kabert:Yeah, one thing I'll mention is I've talked a lot about like mental and emotional health, but what does that actually mean? So think of it this way like thoughts are the language of the mind and feelings are the language of the body. When we experience a thought, it sends a signal to the body which produces a feeling. So that is why it's so important, because if we don't allow ourself to feel that feeling, then we get stuck in mental thought loops and we just ruminate there. So for that reason, I combine subconscious reprogramming with nervous system regulation through breathwork, and I have found that is the missing link, because in all of like the different trainings and groups and books and podcasts and different things that I've gone to, it's usually one or the other People are usually focusing on like the mind and mindset, or they're focusing on like nervous system and feelings, and I'm like wait a second, like we need to be merging these two together. So that's why I'm so passionate about that.
Brandon Mulnix:So many of our industry the poultry industry, the farming industry are first responders. They're military folks. You've got a passion for that. Can you share with me the services that you offer the first responders?
Sam Kabert:Yeah, back in in college, uh, I was I don't know 18, 19 years old and I was in the living room when, um, my friend had hung himself, when I mentioned earlier about suicide, and I remember the paramedics coming, I remember being in the hospital all night, you know, and and just really, I think the pandemic in a lot of ways really opened my eyes further to, uh, like the heroes on the front line, if you will, and I'm a keynote speaker as well. So I've spoken to a lot of different industries and in 2024 I started to gain speaking to responder groups and then it was like, oh my God, I'm really seeing how much this work is needed with first responders. So I started a nonprofit and basically I'm offering like free sessions and free workshops, whether it's in person or remote, so all kinds of different things, from short breathwork sessions that are about 30 minutes to day-long intensives where we're doing deeper work and breathwork journeys. And this is trauma release.
Sam Kabert:The other way I support first responders is through MER. That stands for mental, emotional release, and this gets to the root. And by getting to the root we are able to reprogram the subconscious mind that was holding onto those traumas so that we can actually release them, and some history about MER. Like Tony Robbins, what he's utilizing is NLP neuro-linguistic programming and he learned from Tad James back in the 1980s who created timeline therapy. Tad James' son, dr Matt, took timeline therapy and created MER to enhance it mental emotional release and Dr Matt actually became a doctor just to do scientific studies to prove the efficacy of MER and how it is able to wipe out even complex PTSD. So this is amazing work and, yeah, if anyone's interested, just reach out to me and we can chat more for sure.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, I'll have your contact information in the show notes or listeners. If you have any need for this or feel that you'd like to look into it more, please reach out to me and I'll connect you with Sam. This is one of those things that really means a lot to me and it's anything we can do to connect and get you or your department you know help. Then we want to do that Because you know I've been there. I've had the supervisor tell me well, just toughen up. And it's like what the hell do you mean by that? I've been through hell myself.
Brandon Mulnix:What does toughening up mean? And, yeah, started a really long dark chapter and thankfully I've had my own therapy to get me through some of that and know that you know, know I did my time and I'd love to just share any help with first responders out there that, hey, I know that you work hard every day on the farm and then you go and volunteer, leave your family, leave dinner to go deal with somebody's worst day, and very rarely do you ever get a call. That's a blessing. It's always something that's going to potential trauma every time that pager goes off. So please get with me on that, Sam, as we get ready to wrap up here. You know your time is very, very important to me. What are your final words for the poultry industry?
Sam Kabert:Well, I think it's so easy to put it this way A lot of people I work with would be more in an office environment, imagining that there's people listening that are actually in the field, not just like an office environment.
Sam Kabert:You have a really big advantage because I hear so often from people just being stuck at a desk and stuck out, stuck indoors. To be outdoors and to be able to just connect with the stillness. You know, it's not like I'm not getting woo here, I'm just being honest, like maybe it's a bird, maybe it's the change of the wind, and just noticing these small things and taking a deep breath outside, like I mean, that is such a gift. But we don't always see things that are right in front of us as a gift. So I'm really really into mindset shifts and into like those small moments being like how is this right here really serving me and how can I take advantage of this to really check in with myself? And if you're working outdoors and in your body, like in a lot of ways that's a huge advantage to people versus people that are just sitting at their desk indoors all day.
Brandon Mulnix:You know yeah, there's, there's definitely a a difference. As I hear you, I you're giving me permission to go and sit in the woods and hunt and do the things like fish and just be one with the sunshine and nature. That's what I heard, that's what I'm taking from it, which is fair. I mean you see a picture of Glacier National Park in the background, because that's my happy place.
Brandon Mulnix:That's where I'm most grounded, where the air is thinnest and the people are. The lack of people are important in those spaces, but but no, Sam, thank you for your time. Thank you for you know caring about the mental health of not only the industry but also the first responders. Thank you for for being a guest on our show. Yeah, brandon, thank you so much for having me and for being a guest on our show.
Sam Kabert:Yeah, brandon, thank you so much for having me and for taking a chance on someone outside of your industry and to talk about a topic that is vulnerable, and the fact that you are showing up for your listeners and giving them access to tools like this. You're just such an amazing resource in person, so I've really enjoyed the time that we've had to connect and I appreciate the opportunity to share.
Brandon Mulnix:Poultry Leadership Podcast listeners. You know when I bring you guests like Sam, it's not taking a risk, it's making an investment in you. It's not easy to get connected and find and vet the people that you know really are important to you for the industry. But give it a shot, take a deep breath, look into what Sam has to offer, look into whatever you can do to improve your mental health as a leader, as a person, because that's what's going to help you provide the best person, not only for yourself but for your family, for your coworkers, because, to me, if you go through life and all you're doing is fighting the demons, fighting the trauma, that's hard, that's hard. Let's get you on the other side, where you're absolutely enjoying having hope, loving life and just being the best version of yourself.
Brandon Mulnix:So can't go without saying thank you to our sponsor, Prism Controls. They do what it takes to get to keep the show going, keep it on the air, help me be available to bring you guests like Sam. So, poultry listeners, please share this with somebody, whether they're a first responder, whether they're poultry folks. Just let's get the message out, let's get them help, let's get them realize that they're not alone. And, as always, thank you for listening. Have a great day.
