The Breakout – Unleashing Personal Growth

Part Two: All about advice! Raymond Kemp Sr. gives us his top tips: 1) Bias towards action 2) Embrace who you are, and 3) Enjoy the journey. He also suggests finding a mentor who believes in you, helps you gain momentum to help you reach your goals and tells you the truth!

And, you will want to hear about the US President he has met who surprised him the most. He ends his interview with us with a discussion on the continued discrimination in the military. Raymond’s service is not over, as he now wants to inspire other leaders to do the right thing.

Raymond is a highly experienced Senior Executive in Leadership and Human Resources. He is an accomplished, results-oriented, forward-thinking organizational consultant with over 10 years of experience at the highest levels of the US Navy improving organizational strategies, increasing operational excellence, and boosting the performance of teams and employees in a variety of organizations.

He represented the US Navy at the NATO International Senior Enlisted Seminar, which included briefing over 200 military leaders from African and European nations on leadership development and the value of cooperative agreements. As an Inspector General, he mentored over 300 junior executives, monthly, in leadership best practices and ethics at the Naval Leadership and Ethics Command & Senior Enlisted Academy. He spearheaded the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” through face to face discussion with every crew member under his command for the purpose of building trust/resilience.

Throughout his career, he has completed combat deployments in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Fleet areas of responsibilities and participated in operation Desert Storm, Operation Restore Hope, Operation Southern Watch, Continue Hope, Sea Angel II, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Fleet Master Chief Kemp's personal qualifications and awards include the Enlisted Surface Warfare, Enlisted Aviation Warfare, and the Enlisted Information Warfare; two Meritorious Service Medals, four Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, a Combat Action Ribbon, and various unit and campaign awards.
Connect with Raymond to learn more about him and his background:

• LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdkemp/
• Kemp Leadership = https://kempleadership.com/
• Quote of the Day Show = https://seancroxton.com/quoteoftheday/
• As A Man Thinketh by James Allen = https://www.amazon.com/As-Man-Thinketh-Complete-Original/dp/1250780047/ref=pd_lpo_3?pd_rd_i=1250780047&psc=1
• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done = https://www.amazon.com/Execution-Discipline-Getting-Things-Done/dp/1847940684

Sign up for our newsletter at https://abbraccigroup.com/. Please subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends about our podcast. Learn more about the CHARGE® model by purchasing the book, The Way of the HR Warrior. Let us know about the moments for you that changed your life trajectory. Drop us a note via our website.

“This was a very big, well-constructed, covert military spy operation that we were on. I didn’t want anyone to talk about it”. That’s how Meirav Zur felt about her long, painful journey through fertility treatments. She’s an actor and writer who makes a living being open and vulnerable on stage, but for almost a decade, Meirav insisted that she and her husband keep this part of their lives top secret. Until one day, something shifted, and Meirav found a beautiful way to get past her silence.

This episode kicks off a three-episode run that will explore different aspects of motherhood on The Breakout. In this first part of the series, we hear how the pressure of expectations around family planning kept Meirav from sharing her experiences with even her closest friends, and what made her finally let it all out. We’ll also hear about the extraordinary way she shared that story, and the amazing impact it continues to have on hundreds of people. Plus, we’ll learn the simple rule of improvisation that helped Meirav break out.

The Breakout is hosted by change and talent specialists, Dr. Keri Ohlrich and Kelly Guenther. Keri and Kelly are founders of Abbracci Group, a results-driven coaching and consulting firm focused on getting the best out of people. Join them as they get advice and insights from change experts, and dive into the stories of people who have busted out of life’s stifling boxes and shifted their lives into bold new territory.

Connect with Dr. Keri Ohlrich and Kelly Guenther

The Breakout on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@thebreakoutpodcast

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Abbracci Group website
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Abbracci Group LinkedIn
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Connect with Meirav Zur

Meirav Zur website

Meirav’s amazing show: Inconceivable (go see it!)

Meirav on Instagram

Meirav on Facebook

Inconceivable on Twitter

Many health benefits are derived from running, but Erica Kaufman had emotional benefits as well. She took up the challenge of a half-marathon and while training she had a breakthrough. She needed to rebalance her life.

Erica made major life changes to her marriage, her career and they way she interacted with her children. Her advice for others: Constantly re-evaluate what is important to you and be open to new paths and options that come your way. Sometimes the path you have laid out needs to change!

Erica is a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, leader, colleague and more. Her three children are 13, 10 and 9, and her step-daughter is 4. She and her husband divide time between their homes in Pennsylvania and Virginia. She enjoys traveling, cooking for her family and guests, and running. She has always been drawn to the water, where she swims, kayaks, paddleboards and always looks to advance her surfing skills.

Additionally, Erica translates business strategy into people strategy, programs and processes as the Vice President, Human Resources for Day & Zimmermann’s Munitions & Government Group, which manufactures and provides munitions support services for U.S. Armed Forces and allied nations. She further serves on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Society of People and Strategy and also coaches leaders to cultivate insights to help them perform at their best and have meaningful, fulfilling careers.

Erica grew up in Gettysburg, a small historic town in Pennsylvania, where her parents were both small business owners. This firsthand view of the excitement and challenges of entrepreneurship helped fuel her drive and persistence. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at Muhlenberg College, she earned her Doctorate at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. She subsequently decided to apply her clinical training to business, where she could utilize her deep understanding of people, systems and change to shape her work with individuals, teams and organizations.

She started her professional career in Consulting with Right Management, where she worked with organizations in multiple industries to improve leader and organization effectiveness. Erica continued to develop her skills at Exelon Corporation, and thereafter at Day & Zimmermann, leading people, processes and programs from Talent Acquisition, Leadership Development and Succession Planning. Erica’s passion is in creating healthy organizations and relationships. She is energized by helping people examine their situations to see new possibilities and enact change.
Connect with Erica to learn more about her and her background:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericafreedman/

Sign up for our newsletter at https://abbraccigroup.com/. Please subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends about our podcast. Learn more about the CHARGE® model by purchasing the book, The Way of the HR Warrior. Let us know about the moments for you that changed your life trajectory. Drop us a note via our website.

Emily Sander took the time during COVID to write her book and help others become better leaders. And you might think that the decision that changed her life, but you would be wrong. Emily shares her deeply personal story on being adopted from South Korea when she was 5 1⁄2 months old. That marks the situation that changed the trajectory of her life.
She talks about her wonderful parents who helped her during difficult times (aka kids being mean!). Emily's great advice is to rest your mind in gratitude and change up your surroundings!
Emily has spent more than fifteen years in the business world, but when she realized that her favorite role was mentoring leaders, she decided to pursue coaching. As a C-Suite Executive and ICF-Certified coach, she combines her experience and proven insights with a keen ability to understand each client’s unique personality and situation. She is the author of the book, Hacking Executive Leadership.
Connect with Emily to learn more about her and her background:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilysander/
• Website: https://www.nextlevel.coach/
• Creating a Family (website): https://creatingafamily.org/
• Adoption Council (website): https://adoptioncouncil.org/
• Before You Adopt (book): https://www.amazon.com/Before-You-Adopt-Questions-Should/dp/172939308X
• In On It (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FV4PTW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
• The Whole Life Adoption (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDHWRY4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
• Adoption the Grafted Tree (book): https://www.amazon.com/Adoption-Grafted-Tree-Laurie-Wishard/dp/0896660095
• Holt International (website). https://www.holtinternational.org/

Sign up for our newsletter at https://abbraccigroup.com/. Please subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends about our podcast. Learn more about the CHARGE® model by purchasing the book, The Way of the HR Warrior. Let us know about the moments for you that changed your life trajectory. Drop us a note via our website.

Has anyone told you to “get off your island”? Have you ever needed a shake-up in your life? Did you think that your life was linear and would go according to plan? Do you know what “emergency brake to a donut” means? How about "the pie is not fixed"? Are you hungry now? Grab a pastry and listen to Jen Hwang speak about listening to her friends’ advice to get off her island and the steps she took to reset her life.

Jen dives into what she did to figure out the relationships in her life and how she needed to break lifelong habits. A solo trip to Australia helped her to clear her head and reset. She discovered that she needed to be exemplary for herself. She had to be honest with herself about what she wanted and needed to ask for it. She talks about a quote from a favorite book, Wolfpack, “Be grateful for what you have and demand what you deserve.”

Jen Hwang is a Boston-born, South and Midwestern-raised, San Francisco resident. She studied Chemical Engineering and Economics at Northwestern University, back when the Big Ten was only (ahem) 11 schools. She has adventured her way through sales, leadership and executive roles in such industries as luxury consumer goods, digital media, staffing and recruitment tech. Jen has worked in a wide range of environments, including Global 500 and Fortune 500 publicly-traded companies, mid-sized private companies and early-stage startups. She’s obsessed with dogs, sports, wine, and a great farmer’s market.
Connect with Jen at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenhwang/ to learn more about her and her background.
Sign up for our newsletter at https://abbraccigroup.com/. Please subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends about our podcast. Learn more about the CHARGE® model by purchasing the book, The Way of the HR Warrior. Let us know about the moments for you that changed your life trajectory. Drop us a note via our website.