Special Guest Expert - Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Here's the big question. How is it that most entrepreneurs hustle and are always busy and struggle to take just one step forward, only to fall two steps back? They're dedicated, determined and driven, but only a few finally break through and win. This show uncovers those quantum patterns of highly successful people so you can simply model what they do and apply to your future success. That's the question. And the answers are right here. My name is Brigitta Hoeferle and this is the Success Patterns Show. And that is right. Welcome, everyone, to the Success pattern show. Here's the Golden nugget success patterns or more valuable than ideas. Let me explain. Ideas, while powerful, require trial and error. A lot of time to put into action. Just think about manufacturing. First you have an idea, then you have a proof of concept, then a working prototype. Then you go into small production batches and finally you go into full scale production. Oof! This takes months, years, maybe. And you have met some you may have met some people who are collectors of ideas, but they do little else. Forget everything you've heard about ideas. You're not looking for ideas. You're are looking for success patterns. Success patterns are different. Success patterns are better. Why? Success patterns are proven. Have a logical sequence of steps to follow. Have an action bias and deliver consistent results. In this content rich program, you're going to learn valuable success patterns with our special guests today, where last week we had a hacker in the house. This week we have a doctor in the house. And I'm super excited that we have this very special doctor who I've just recently met at a conference. I'm thinking back must have been last October. She is an empowerment coach, a trainer, a mentor. She is a she was a competitive athlete. But I'm going to say once an athlete, I think you're always going to have that athlete mindset. She was a synchronized swimmer in the young, young, Democratic Croatia. She is originally from Croatia and has moved from there. She has overcome great diversities, spending her early twenties in the war in Croatia and was on the front for international humanitarian organizations. Hello. This woman knows a thing or two about success patterns and she has learned through overcoming these adversities. She has studied to what it really takes for an individual and for teams to overcome adversities. And she stands for mental and emotional toughness that is led by a no excuse policy. Ladies and gentlemen, I couldn't be more excited and happy to introduce on our show today, Dr. Soyinka. Thank you, Dr. Soyinka, for being here all the way from Germany.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Hello, Brigitta. Thank you for being here. The guest on your show and as you mentioned, yes, we met just recently. It was in November in California. And I couldn't overlook a very, very impressive woman, What? This blond hair and the big, really big glasses I like. Who are you? I want to talk to you. That was really nice. See.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
It's interesting that you say that because I went to a continuous education last weekend in Dallas, Texas, and I was going through a Whole Foods and someone calls my name from like the end of the aisle and says, Brigitta, is that you? And it's a woman that lives in California. I live in Atlanta, and she recognized me by my hair. So what are the odds? No, I'm really honored, Dr. Soyinka, that you are here. And I told you this itself. Deutsch. Martin But no one would understand us.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Yeah, well, let's do it in English. Let's do it in English plus minus. Everybody gets English, but German. More minor than plus.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got a point, Dr. Soyinka. The doctor stands for something. This is not just a doctor that you bought somewhere. This is a doctor that you have actually gone to school for. Tell us, what did you study?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
I'm off to Germany, got a scholarship late nineties to write a PhD in international relations and European foreign policies. And, yeah, I finished and then life turned out I will not be going back to Germany, not to Croatia. So I stayed in Germany and the life developed here in Germany. So I have stayed for, oh my God, 23 years now. So I'm a full German already.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
And for the ones I mean, you speak impeccable English and for my German audience, she also speaks impeccable German. You would not hear that she is originally from Croatia. And that's just that kind of speaks to the person that you are and the thoroughness that you have. And you texted me before the show and you're just a very thorough and yet a very you're not attached. There's there's there's not an attachment to your thoroughness. Tell me more about that, because that's a really cool pattern to have.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Yeah. It wasn't always like it. As you might know, I'm a yoga teacher, too. At some point, when the life got really tough in the early 2001 and two in Germany, I was new in the country and a few things went wrong and I started started the yoga science. I just want to find my peace. I wanted to move. I didn't have my team from Croatia anymore and the huge sports community and started doing yoga. So the physical part of the yoga was not so challenging because I used to be an athlete and I continued moving as I have to move, I cannot. Not move in three days of not moving, you know, makes me a very undesirable person. And my husband cannot wait for me, you know, to start doing something. So I relax after that. I need to I just need to move. So I really started studying yoga, philosophy and meditation and mindfulness and the rest. And so that really helped me a lot in being very, very flexible, not only in the body, but very flexible in the mind, too. And then you just, you know, you're just flexible, adapt pretty quickly and you are just fine.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Flexible in the mind. I really like what you said because it's one thing that I teach. So share with us how does one become? Well, flexible in the body for a lot of people is already a challenge, right? Yoga helps continuing to work out and stretch and all of those things. How do you become flexible in the mind?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
You become flexible in the mind if you don't really attach always to your opinion, if you don't attach to things, if you can accept that there are more, there's more than one outcome, and then you might be better off with the second one. And the flexibility, you know, goes back also to some family issues that my family had back in those days in the eighties. So I accepted sort of what was going on. And then we had this terrible war in the nineties in and I would always say my best years in my early 20 years. And you know, what do you do there? Know? Do you despair or do you accept the way it is? And then you find the best possible way to go through and not to get crazy or or all gray hair or loose hair or loose life, you know, what do you do? You accept And then you just really you never, never. I will never I will never forget. You know, I come from Zagreb. It's a capital of Croatia. When the other countries sort of started bombing the capital, it was like, outrageous. Like, I don't know, like, what the hell is happening? You know, We are, you know, we we used to be together for 40 years, and now they're throwing the bombs on us. What's going on? And we all got down in the cellars and it was the it was the first week of the university. I just, you know, enrolled in the university. I had all the plans and the visions and the dreams, and all of the sudden I was sitting in the cellar with the rest of the people from the house. And then I had books, my books, my first books from the for the first year you freshman first year books on my lap. And I started studying. It was like it was like sort of like I was a defense mechanism, Like I know where I want to go. This is the wrong move. Definitely. I did not.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Sign up for this.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
No, it was like, I am getting out of this. You know, this is a wrong movie, wrong theater. I'm getting out. So this is like. How you, you know, you you overcome that and then you just you just have this vision. You it just have this vision. I see my self there and I don't see myself here. So and I still don't know how will I get there, but I know I will tell you.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
And it's and it starts it starts with your thoughts. It starts with your what you're seeing in the future. So, you know, being in the bunker, being in the cellar with I don't know how many hundreds of people probably Yeah.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
I don't really remember anymore because it was not so huge. So not everybody could fit down. And so, so who fit, fit who then they had to cross the street and go in another bigger bunker, you know?

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Yeah.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
There was like a it was not really a good bunker, but it was something unless you're safe.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
It was safe clearly because you're here with us. I'm curious, were there is the Croatian mindset overall a mindset like you just described it, like we're going to fight on, we're going to move on, we're going to you know, I'm in the wrong movie. I did not sign up for this. I really don't want to be here. I'm just going to kind of bury myself in my books and just create my future. Were you the only one or was there a small group of people or is it more of a Croatian mindset?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
I think it's more of the Croatian mindset. If you just look a little bit at the history, you will you will see that Croatia has never really has a regulated system like, you know, in German. I mean, you're a German, you come from Germany, you know how everything is regulated. Many things work and people are very safe within those within those boundaries of regulations and how the system works. You don't have that in Croatia, especially not in the young Democratic Croatia. You know, we just got out of one country, one federation and fights, and the rest of people are more like, you know, like freestyling, like, you know, like what comes will solve. So I think that flexibility and being used to change and being used to the there are no big regulations that you always have to find your way out as something really very typical of Croatian that that one is true. Thank you for bringing it up. It's such a good question.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting of what you have learned. And by the way, we have casting who says hello and hello to everyone that is watching us live and then also watching the recording. How does what? Everything that you have learned and I want to challenge maybe even or ask.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
You that.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
It's not necessarily the things that, you know, you have a huge foundation of knowledge of what you have studied clearly, but where you've studied it and under which circumstances you've studied it, I think also had a huge impact. Your culture has a huge impact on that. How does all of that? Because that accumulates and makes. Dr. Soyinka. Dr. Soyinka Right. How does that translate into you going into organizations and corporations and guide them and assist them with what you're doing today?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Well, you know, I have sort of a track record of difficult times and that I have overcome difficult times that had everybody asked me, like, where did you get that energy from and why are you smiling all the time? You know, I made a look tired because days are long and filled with people and with fun. But, you know, I'm actually good mood. So that translates in companies that people really see that I can energize people, motivate people, give them another perspective that I learn how to build up the resilience and learn that, yeah, okay, here's our fine. I do cry, but I'm not crier for a long time. I cry like I really can cry, but it's 10 minutes and then all the rest is like, you're not in a good state. If you go for too deep, then you're in the in the valley of sorrow and then you don't exit out. So, you know, you you ventilate, so to speak, by, you know, by crying. And then you just go on and then you always see and push for it. So this motivates people a lot. Plus, you know, the my my athlete background still impresses people. Then the mental resilience, you know, all the mindfulness and meditation techniques that I bring in the companies. Because as you know, meditation is a business case. Meditation creates more creativity in the heads of people and clears, clears the very, very busy heads. And ultimately there are so many benefits also settles people down. You know, they learn how to channel the emotions. You know, they learn how to how, so to speak, be in the middle with, you know, super happy feelings and super negative, unhappy feelings. So and if you are in the middle, then you're really balancing your life pretty well. And you don't need work life balance, which, by the way, there is no work life balance. And I actually hate the term work balance. It means I'm working, I'm not living. It's really like working 12 hours and not living. That's that would be really disastrous. So but, you know, to learn that while you're working, how you how you work, how you develop that resilience, how you develop a very positive view on life, I mean, you are there and will be queen for me. So you know, what impact, you know, a conscious conscious a control. It's maybe some people will perceive it negatively, but really conscious control over your thoughts will give you the possibility to consciously control your emotions. And if you got that in place, you are safe. Even if you are in the basement and somebody is bombing, you know.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
I mean guys, Mike, drop right there, Conscious Control and I want to speak to that word control because some people will pick up control and and give it a negative meaning, right. Of when someone is in control of something, then then it's manipulative or it's control and it's rigorous or it's or it's whatever negative connotation someone might want to give. By the way, everyone is saying Hello, Greetings from Berlin, by the way. Everyone, this is Germany and it is almost 11:00 at night. And we have most of our viewers today from Germany. So hello. Can't sleep enough Deutschland control conscious control is so key and I really want to go deeper into that because when someone. Truly understands that, that they are the creator of their own circumstances. Clearly, you had no you had no say. If you're going to be if you're if you're going to be in a war or not, or if whatever other adversities. I'm pretty sure the war wasn't the only adversity in your life. Right. The pandemic was an adversity we all had to overcome somehow.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
But how this kind of. Was really funny because everybody was like, oh my God, pandemic, everybody. I was like, People relax. You have food, you are at home, you have you have everything, relax. And what's wrong at the wrong is that you cannot party outside. Okay? That feels wrong. If you are 20, if you're a little bit older, it's okay. You're tired anyway. But it was for me, it was like, What are people really freaking about it? Really? It made some really not very true maybe to somebody, but I was totally relaxed. And in a pandemic I was like, okay, just, you know, just another show. But I was really totally, totally relaxed during the whole pandemic. They need to take a shot. Yeah, I will take it because I want to obviously meet you in the US. It was not possible to fly to us even if you don't have a shot. Do I believe it? Absolutely not. I got that going anyway. It was not that disastrous, but I was down for two and a half weeks anyway. Conscious control. Super important.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Would you say? Now I want to put another term in here that can be controversial and that is the term programing. Could you say that adversity going through overcoming adversity? I think that's the key here. Overcoming adversity not from an outside control or from an outside perspective, but from an inside perspective of I have overcome adversity, not some stumbles, but by something that I did. Programs you to. Face other adversities when they when they are happening. Simpler, I don't want to say with ease, but more simplistic.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Yeah. Simpler, maybe more relaxed. You know, I just. Well, you know, I didn't die. Then why would I die now if pandemic is here? Clearly, many people died. I don't want to, you know, be very unconscious about it. But I considered myself in good health, healthy food, healthy lifestyle. Enough sleep? No, Basically, no alcohol. No, no smoking. You know, you know that people who are smokers have more problems with COVID or are just generally more prone to to get COVID. I was like. Yeah. You know, adversities come, but, you know, that didn't kill me. Why would that kill me? I mean, that was much harder. Much many things are predictable right now, as we know. On the global.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Scale, there are many things unpredictable throughout our life.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
This is this is exactly my lesson in life. I have come through so many different scenarios political systems, different educations, different people, really different, very huge problems. And still, here I am. And I you know, I didn't go gaga, as you would say, in Germany. I was still okay because it's kind of a normal it's it's like a it's like, you know, it's like this fabric. It has so different shades and colors. And depending on how it's on this place and or that place. So this is how life is, you know, that maybe it's not so nice, but I love this color, you know, So this is how the life is. And then you intertwine and then you go with that. And I mean, I have to say, I mean, yoga did a great job for me. I have my yoga.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
My yoga and meditation. Yeah, yoga and meditation.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Yeah, absolutely.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Absolutely. When you. So two questions. And they go back to back. When you go into organizations, first question, which organizations, which organizations hire you? Do they already have an understanding of what you offer? Do they know what the outcome is for their employees? And then second question or second, part of that question is what do you do with them?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Okay. First thing, depending on the on the company side. So if it's a large if it's a large company like 500 people plus, they would usually know what is health management and companies, you know, they would usually know. But if I tell them I will do empowerment with your people, they're unclear about that. What I really do is I do like health management and companies of 4.0, which means, yes, you do movement, so do sports for them. You do relaxation meditation techniques, you know, to clean the brain. Then you do also what I call and what is actually personal development and all put together is actually an empowerment program for the company. So what what I, what I, what I introduced the last three years since COVID started is a part of empowerment programs is to talk a lot more about emotions, how to deal with emotions, especially with very prominent ones. Fear, fear of of failure, fear of not being seen, fear of saying, no. You know, people have all sorts of fear. So how do you how do you help people? And then I say, you know, if I go into your company, I will design a program where will do a questionnaire, will listen what people say, Well, we'll listen to you. And then I will design a program that will empower them to be much more efficient, to be more positive, create a better working environment, and, you know, be in a more relaxed. We want people actually to be in an alpha state, know this more relaxed state of mind where they really get creative ideas, where they can produce stuff so the company can innovate, know it's innovation will bring them you, it will make them competitive and bring them, you know, more forward into the future than anything else. And if people are relaxed and not in constant cramp or in constant, you know, anxieties, this doesn't produce anything. So I try to convey that message. I get it. It's, you know, how will you measure that? People have less fear. You can't really measure them, but you can see people you know, I have couple of metrics. Yes. You know, I say if I if I get your one person in your company to be just three days less on a sick leave in a year, that saves you at least $1,500 or euros because we have the authority right now.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
And if we have 1000 people now calculate how much money do I save if they don't? Yeah, exactly. They don't miss the job for three days. And then you have all those soft factors that you cannot calculate. They sit people sit at work but do nothing or do just little so efficient. Is not there or you have a good team of, I don't know, ten, seven are stop performers and then you have three who are negative creating bad climate. So. Guess what happens to the whole team? They never perform. They underperform. Good people go look either for another department or another company and they just say, Well, you know, I don't want to work in this environment. And we know in Germany, right, that it's a very employee oriented market. Employees are in a better negotiating position than the employers. So this is like. Companies learned that they have to invest a little bit more money and and time into development of those soft skills. You know.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
They're all actually under empowerment. They're called soft, but they're everything but soft because if we really look at them, if you don't have them, they're not soft. They are so necessary. And and I would even go as far as what you are teaching in organizations should be taught in every school so that the kids that are going into the workforce already have a great routine and a great habit as they're going into the workforce. Why the heck is that happening in education?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Well, it is actually, but just in some in Germany. My, my, my our daughter went to a private bilingual school, know English, 70%, 30% German. And they started really teaching how to cope with fear, you know, how to good communication skills to develop empathy. My daughter even got a certificate. She was, you know, she got like, you are the best person, you know, the best most, you know, empathy toward other people very socially you help ever. So I was I was kind of like, okay, so that yoga. No, that wasn't so bad either, you know? So that was nice. But, you know, they started actually at university. I also teach students at the university for economics here. It's also a private school for students who are already employed.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
That's in Frankfurt, right?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
In Frankfurt, Exactly. Yeah. The whole economy on management. And and, you know, students started hearing about that. But you see that many are still with their heads, although they are young, you know, new generation. But they're still part of the old educational system because the system hasn't changed here, I mean, either in Croatia, but it hasn't really changed. So that so so they they they carry this this huge luggage with them in the future. But this luggage is no longer serving them. You know, they have to it's heavier, but they have to adopt a new one. So they have like a conflict of what do they what what should they feel? What should they think, you know, what is it actually want? But this particularly this university, I know two others they did do already. They develop those skills.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Boy, what great work you do. I could talk to you for hours. We're going to have you back on the show. Will you come back on the show?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Of course I will. Yes. Atlanta?

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Yes. Okay, let's do it. Let's do it. I love it. So last question and then I want to ask you how people get in touch with you. Will you work with organizations in the US or do you only work with organizations in Germany?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
I haven't worked with the organizations in the US. When we were in California in November, some people I was talking to some people and they they basically have the same problems like people in Germany or companies. Oh, Germany, even worse. Yeah. So I'm right now I'm in conversation with some well, let's see, maybe something turns out and they decide for some of my progress. I mean, it can always start with something small and see how it goes.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Yeah, I love it. I love it. I want to continue that conversation with you as well. How do people get in touch with you?

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
Soyinka Well, you can find me on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram with Dr. Zreika. Here is also the Facebook, as you see. You can find me over my website. Dr. Rekha dot com. You can even write me an email if you want to. I think the email will just be here or there is the other one which should go that directly to me, but that's fine if you reach me directly and then you can even get an appointment and schedule a free free consultation. And I also said like. One, one person can get a free hour of consultation on Work-Life Strategy. Love it.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
I absolutely love it. For the ones that are here in the US and that are not German, don't be afraid. Dr. Shrinker does not bite. I guarantee it. She does not bite. She's amazing. She's just as pink and kind and fluffy as the chair that she is sitting on. And I say that because I know her personally and there are so many great people. There is Mario that said, nice to see Dr. Shrink. She made me love yoga. Likewise, a cooler talk from Christine, who is actually from Indiana. We had another Facebook user, Atticus. Thank you guys for sharing your thoughts with us here as well. Get with Dr. Soyinka. Zarina is spelled Z as in Zebra. R i, n k, and her email is really, really easy. It's Zynga, z, r, i, and K at Dr. D, r minus or Dash Soyinka as r, z, r, I, and K.A.. So is Renuka at Dr. minus Soyinka dot com. Make sure that you get with her. Soyinka Thank you for being here. Thank you for being here so late on your day. And we'll have you back very soon.

Dr. Zrinka K. Fidermuc Maler:
But I get that. Thank you so much. I'm so honored that I was able to share your stage, your virtual stage, and that you invite me as a guest. I still need to learn how you love it. My daughter can do all the tricks. So much for being your guest and I'll talk to you soon and a lot of success for your show. Thank you Brigitta Hoeferle.

Brigitta Hoeferle:
Thank you, Dr. Zrinka. And for everyone else, make sure that you tune in again next week, same time, same place on Tuesday at 430 Eastern time. Until then, ciao. Bye bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Success Patterns Show at www.TheSuccessPatternsShow.com My name is Brigitta Hoeferle.

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