René Rodriguez is a renowned keynote speaker, leadership advisor, and the best-selling author of Amplify Your Influence, which offers practical strategies to enhance communication and leadership skills. With over 27 years of experience, he has applied behavioral neuroscience to address leadership, sales, and change management challenges. René created the AMPLIFII™ course, a methodology that has trained over 100,000 professionals worldwide.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [0:00] René Rodriguez explains how daydreaming engages the prefrontal lobe to simulate future scenarios
- [3:09] Why René considers Amplify Your Influence his most meaningful professional accomplishment
- [5:03] How storytelling shapes perception and constructs reality through narrative
- [10:15] The role of social media in thought patterns and daydreaming
- [16:21] René’s predictions on the future of technology and AI
- [19:40] How technology impacts brain health
- [23:39] René shares how virtual work has eroded interpersonal communication and leadership
- [28:30] Tips for generating meaningful connections in remote work
- [32:20] Why multitasking is ineffective and how to promote deeper focus
- [36:17] The importance of tone in communication and delivery
In this episode…
In today’s hyperconnected world, the constant barrage of notifications, digital content, and virtual interactions has left many struggling with shortened attention spans, weakened interpersonal connections, and difficulty staying present. As more professionals transition to remote and hybrid work, how can we reclaim focus, foster meaningful connections, and lead effectively?
According to behavioral neuroscience expert René Rodriguez, storytelling, social media, and virtual communication impact how the brain processes and stores information. To reclaim focus, he suggests reducing social media consumption and replacing it with activities that stimulate creativity, such as puzzles or focused time blocks for thinking. Through attention-narrowing exercises, like staring at a single point to build concentration and the “40 for 30” technique — giving someone 40 volts of full attention for 30 seconds — leaders can foster meaningful interactions. René also recommends employing narrative storytelling techniques and upgrading your virtual setup to enhance presence, engagement, and communication.
In today’s episode of What The Teck?, Rolando Rosas and Dave Kelly sit down with René Rodriguez, who talks about the neuroscience behind influence and communication. René explores the effects of doom scrolling, how leaders can counter negativity bias through storytelling, and how to maintain an optimal tone during interactions.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Rolando Rosas on LinkedIn
- Dave Kelly on LinkedIn
- Global Teck Worldwide
- Circuit Loops
- René Rodriguez: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTok
- Amplify Your Influence: Transform How You Communicate and Lead by René Rodriguez
- “The No.1 TikTok Teacher: Forget Hacks! This is What Really Works To Get Followers into Customers” with Helen Polise on What The Teck?
Quotable Moments:
- “We spend upwards of 50% of our waking hours daydreaming… it’s a part of the function.”
- “The fastest way to build connection is tell your story… use it as a gap filler.”
- “You would get fired if you worked for somebody and you spent half the day scrolling.”
- “Dopamine feels very good… it’s secreted in the anticipation of reward.”
- “Think of a pause as a highlighter… if you don’t have any pauses, you’ve highlighted nothing.”
Action Steps:
- Practice intentional daydreaming: Use quiet moments to visualize future goals and scenarios that align with your values. This strengthens your decision-making and allows your prefrontal lobe to simulate constructive outcomes.
- Reduce social media scrolling: Limiting time on social platforms cuts dopamine-driven distractions and reclaims hours for creative thinking. This simple change can significantly improve mental clarity and productivity.
- Use the “40 for 30” focus method: Give someone your full attention for 30 seconds to foster a deeper human connection and trust. This small shift can dramatically improve team communication and engagement.
- Upgrade your virtual setup with CALL: Focus on camera, audio, lighting, and location to increase presence and influence in remote environments. A professional setup builds credibility and keeps audiences engaged.
- Share personal stories in leadership: Storytelling helps bridge the gap between how you’re perceived and who you really are. It builds emotional trust and reduces the effects of negativity bias in virtual communication.
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Global Teck Worldwide.
We are a full-service online retailer of professional headsets, webcams, and speaker phones from top manufacturers.
Since 2002, Global Teck Worldwide has provided affordable, high-quality communications equipment and customized telecommunications services to organizations of all sizes.
Our specialists have invested hundreds of hours in technical training, certifications, and seminars to assist customers with purchasing decisions.
We have served thousands of customers in a variety of industries with value-added services, including ergonomics, employee work accommodations, and hearing-impaired services.
If you are a government agency, small business, or Fortune 500 company, contact us at https://circuitloops.com/contact-us/ to discover a solution that fits your communication needs.
Episode Transcript:
René Rodriguez 0:00
We spend upwards of 50% of our waking hours daydreaming, 50% of the 50% it’s a part of the function of the prefrontal lobe, which is a lot like a future simulator, and it’s running scenarios to help us navigate the world. Pretend that Ben and Jerry’s had an ice cream. It was called liver and onions. Would you want to try it?
Intro 0:15
René Rodriguez is a world renowned expert in influence and communication, who uses over 27 years of research in behavioral neuroscience to transform how people will create lasting change, and is the author of Amplify Your Influence.
René Rodriguez 0:30
We Daydream to construct narratives. We use narratives to construct reality. Imagine this, if I can take over your daydreaming time, and I can implant it with Doom scrolling, and through those dreams growing. I capture your attention on things that are negative. Think about the power of that.
Rolando Rosas 0:44
What’s the impact on our brains that you’ve seen in your research?
René Rodriguez 0:48
Let’s break it down. A storyteller is usually the one that owns the narrative and the one that we look to, which is why leaders need to be good at storytelling. As a leader, knowing that that’s the world you gotta communicate into. How do you build connection? The fastest way to build connections, to tell your story, we communicate words, tone and non verbals. The landmark study done by Dr. Albert Moravian, what he found was, when it came to understanding meaning, that 7% of the meaning came from words, but if you change the tone, you could shift the meaning by 38% and so what’s really powerful is we have a tool that we call 40 or 30 a study done on doctors had patients rate the doctor in terms of their bedside manner. What they found was that the doctors that had high ratings of One distinguishing factor, and the factor was
Rolando Rosas 1:32
welcome to What The Teck?, your gateway to business strategies and tech secrets shaping today’s workplace. Dave, I always want to get better at decision making, but more than that, making meaningful connections. And it’s really fascinating when you’re able to speak to somebody that can actually peel the curtain back and explain why we make decisions. We do a
Dave Kelly 1:56
lot to learn today. You know, we have a neuroscientist on board, and sometimes people say, Hey, you’re a salesperson. You have the gift of gab. And maybe there’s a lot more to just being a good sales person, just a good speaker. Maybe it’s more about the audience and how we interpret them and listen to them, so that we can influence a relationship, influence a decision, and ultimately, have connections.
Rolando Rosas 2:22
That’s what it’s all about. So let’s get right to it. Welcome to What The Teck? Mr. René Rodriguez, Hey,
René Rodriguez 2:31
how are you? Thank you for having me on how are you, René? I’m good. I’m good. Thanks for having
Rolando Rosas 2:36
me coming to us from the land of 10,000 Lakes. Yeah, well, I’m looking forward to this engaging conversation today with you. Likewise, likewise, thanks for having me. You know, René, I had the opportunity to check out some of the things that you’ve put out there online, and you’ve been a prolific speaker. You’ve done TED talks, and there’s so much to unpack with the things you’ve presented. But you know, among all the different things that you’ve done, what are you most proud of?
René Rodriguez 3:09
Professionally, for sure, be the book. And the book was a labor of love of almost a year and a half and truly slaving over every single word that is written in there and trying to come up with what you’ve been thinking and working on for, you know, now it’s 30 years, and putting it all together into one thing is, it’s fun to kind of see the idea, and then you’re holding your ideas and realize that was, yeah, that’s that, by far, is probably my favorite business accomplishment,
Dave Kelly 3:37
for sure. Do you remember when you held your book in your hand for your first time.
René Rodriguez 3:42
Oh, yeah. It was very surreal. It was like, it’s because you think about it, you wanted to. My mother always wanted to write a book. And it’s something that you until you hold it, it’s hard to realize, and it’s so weird because you look at it and it’s like, there’s a documentation of my thoughts that I can’t erase. And that’s really the hard the reality of it speaking is one thing, I can say things, and you can forget what I say when you write it, it’s like you go, no, no, René, you wrote this. And so you got to really think, do I really believe that? Can I back up what it is that I’m saying? And I think that’s why there’s the quickly published books, and there’s ones that are the labor of love, that are there. And when you look at that, whether nobody reads it or not, it’s something that means a lot to me. For
[Continue to Page 2]
Recent Comments