Get inspired to live a fulfilling life I CEO and Founder of get inspired

Raphael Buck

Change your state, change your life. 
How to not miss your penalty shots in life.
  
Same moment. Different state. Different destiny.
 
You can often predict whether a player will miss or score 
a penalty before the ball is kicked just by the walk.
 
Player 1  
Shoulders tense. Jaw tight.  
Focus: “Don’t miss.”  
Meaning: “If I fail, I let everyone down.”  
The body contracts. The shot hesitates.  
Often miss.
 
Player 2  
Body loose. Breathe steady.  
Focus: “Pick the corner.”  
Meaning: “This is my moment.”  
The body expands. The movement flows.  
Often goal.
 
Same distance. Same pressure.  
Different state. Different result.
 
 
WHAT IS A STATE?

The concept popularized by Tony Robbins is simple:
State is the combination of three elements:

1. Physiology  
Posture, breathing, movement. 
The body influences the mind.

2. Focus  
What you pay attention to. 
Threat or opportunity.

3. Meaning  
The story you assign. 
Failure or training.

Physiology shapes focus.  
Focus shapes meaning.  
Meaning drives action.  
Action drives results.

  
WHY it matters
 
Decisions Improve  
Emotional state influences risk perception 
(Lerner et al., 2015). 
 
Energy Drives Execution  
Performance follows physiological activation. 
(Jamieson et al. 2010)
 
Identity Is Reinforced  
Repeated emotional states shape self-perception
(Damasio, 1994).
  
  
WHAT actions to take 
  
1. Activate Your Body
  
Before important conversations or decisions: 
move. Stand tall. Deepen your breathing. 
Elevate intensity for 60–120 seconds.
Body leads mind
  
2. Direct Your Focus
  
Ask better questions.  
Not: “Why is this difficult?”  
But: “What is the opportunity here?”  
Focus creates feeling
  
3. Reframe Meaning
  
Events are neutral. Interpretation is not.  
Replace “This is a problem” with “This is training.”  
Meaning shapes reality
  
4. Interrupt Fast
  
When you feel contraction, catch it early. 
Stand up. Walk. Reset breathing. 
Disrupt the loop
  
5. Create Rituals
  
Elite performers anchor peak states through routines: 
music, movement, visualization, breath. 
Build your own pre-performance ritual.
Ritual creates reliability
  

FINAL thought
  
Circumstances are rarely under your control.
Your physiology is.  Your focus is.  Your meaning is.


➕ Follow me for more life design advice
✍️ Subscribe to my newsletter on life design
https://lnkd.in/ewzbNmS9
  
Design a life that works for you 🔥
Raphael

Change Your State - Change Your Life

First Principles - Relationships. 
Why great relationships are not about you but about the other person and what you build together.

Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchill’s mother, 
once attended two dinners with 
two different British prime ministers.

After the first dinner she remarked:
"When I left the table, 
 I thought he was the most brilliant man in England."

After the second dinner she said:
"When I left the table, 
I thought I was the most brilliant woman in England."

The first man impressed her.
The second man made her feel valued.

Great relationships when 
others feel seen, valued, and understood.

 
WHY it matters

Happiness
Quality relationships are the strongest 
predictor of long-term happiness 
(Waldinger & Schulz, 2023).

Health
Strong relationships significantly increase 
longevity and physical health
(Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010).

Resilience
Supportive relationships buffer stress and 
improve psychological resilience 
(Cohen & Wills, 1985).

 
WHAT actions to take

Five First Principles on Relationships

1. Trust
Trust grows through reliability and psychological safety. 
Keep your word, be consistent, listen without judgment,
and assume positive intent. 
Principle: Create psychological safety.

2. Understanding
Seek to truly understand the other person’s perspective, 
emotions, and aspirations. Ask thoughtful questions, 
listen carefully, and show genuine curiosity. 
Principle: Seek to understand first.

3. Appreciation
Express appreciation regularly. Notice small efforts, 
acknowledge strengths, and say thank you often. 
Principle: Show sincere appreciation.

4. Shared Meaning
Build experiences, rituals, and goals together. 
Travel, traditions, family habits, and common 
projects create shared memories and direction. 
Principle: Build something together.

5. Repair
Conflict is inevitable. What matters is repairing 
quickly. Apologize early, lower tension, and focus on
understanding rather than winning. 
Principle: Repair quickly.


FINAL thought

The secret of great relationships is surprisingly simple:
Make the other person feel bigger.
As writer Maya Angelou famously said:

“People will forget what you said, people will forget 
what you did, but people will never forget 
how you made them feel.”

Design a life that works for you 🔥

➕ Follow me for more life design advice
✍️ Subscribe to my newsletter on life design
https://lnkd.in/ewzbNmS9

Raphael

First Principles - Relationships

Be a Free Spirit. 
Live by choice, not convention.

I find it fascinating what drives people 
to live their lives as they do.

There are countless explicit and implicit conventions 
about what a successful career looks like, 
what defines a great relationship, how to raise a family, 
and how to live healthily.

Many follow conventions without ever challenging them. 
They climb a ladder they never placed. 
They follow a script they did not write.

A free spirit is different.
“A free spirit is someone who is internally free enough 
to choose their life deliberately and 
brave enough to accept the consequences.”


WHY it matters

Agency
A free spirit strengthens agency 
Higher perceived control increases motivation, 
persistence, and performance under uncertainty 
(Bandura, 1997).

Coherence with What Matters
Living by chosen values increases coherence. 
When behavior aligns with intrinsic goals, well-being and 
sustained motivation rise significantly 
(Deci & Ryan, 2000).

Flexibility & Resilience
Detachment from rigid identity increases adaptability. 
Psychological flexibility improves resilience
(Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010).


WHAT to do

1. Awareness & Detachment
List the conventions shaping your career, relationships, 
money, and health. Question each: 
Did I choose this or inherit it?
Principle: See the script

2. Curiosity
Expose yourself to alternative models of success 
and living. Read outside your field. Seek opposing views. 
Curiosity expands possibilities. 
Principle: Expand the frame

3. North Star
Define your core values, long-term ambition, 
and non-negotiables. 
Write a one-page personal constitution. 
Freedom requires direction, not drift. 
Principle: Choose your direction

4. Courage
Act in alignment even when approval declines. 
Make one visible decision that optimizes for meaning 
over optics this year. 
Freedom requires tolerating friction. 
Principle: Accept the cost

5. Discipline
Build systems that protect your autonomy: 
health routines, financial runway, deep work blocks. 
Discipline sustains freedom over time. 
Principle: Protect your freedom
 

FINAL thought
Being a free spirit is not about rebellion. 
It is about authorship.
Not escaping structure but choosing it. 
Not rejecting responsibility but owning it.

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become 
who you truly are.” Carl Jung

➕ Follow me for more life design advice
✍️ Subscribe to my newsletter on life design
https://lnkd.in/ewzbNmS9

Design a life that works for you 🔥
Raphael

Be A Free Spirit

Either / Or:  How to make major life decisions?
A simple question provides the right path. 

Major life decisions. Everyone faces them.  
Do I pursue this career or that career?  
Do I stay in my current job or change?  
Do I engage with this partner or another?  
Do I commit to the relationship?  
Should we get married?  
Should we have children?
  
All of these are major life decisions.
  
Some decisions feel clear; 
Others are far less obvious.  
Because they offer different paths.  
They involve trade-offs. 
Those choices can lead to regret
The regret of an alternative life.
  
I recently came across a beautifully 
simple question for navigating such choices.  
It comes from Søren Kierkegaard in Either/Or:
  
“𝗢𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀, 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 
𝘄𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵.”
  
 
WHY it matters
  
Clarity
Focusing on intolerable regret simplifies 
complex choices by revealing what truly matters, 
reducing cognitive overload and indecision 
(Iyengar & Lepper, 2000).
  
Commitment
Decisions aligned with deeply held values 
create stronger motivation and persistence  
(Self-Determination Theory; Deci & Ryan, 2000).
  
Life Satisfaction
People who make decisions consistent with 
intrinsic priorities report higher long-term 
life satisfaction and lower regret 
(Schwartz et al., 2002).
  

WHAT to do 
  
1. Imagine Both Futures
Visualize both life paths in vivid detail
career, relationships, daily life, identity. 
Notice which imagined future creates 
deeper excitement or discomfort.
 
2. Identify the Regret
 Ask: ten years from now, which missed path 
would create the heavier regret? 
Regret reveals priorities
  
3. Remove Perfection
Accept that no choice eliminates trade-offs. 
Every meaningful path sacrifices another possibility. 
Life is trade-offs
  
4. Follow Aliveness
Notice which option feels more alive, meaningful, 
or expansive, even if it is harder or riskier. 
Growth usually lives there. 
Energy signals direction
  
5. Commit Fully
Once chosen, stop revisiting the alternative path. 
Invest your energy fully in building the life you selected.
Commitment creates meaning
  

FINAL thought
  
“Life can only be understood backwards; 
but it must be lived forwards.” Søren Kierkegaard
  
  
Design a life that works for you 🔥

➕ Follow me for more life design advice
✍️ Subscribe to my newsletter on life design
https://lnkd.in/ewzbNmS9

Raphael

undefined undefined

Either / Or - Life Decisions

Perception Defining Personal Branding for Accomplished Founders and CEOs | Founder & CEO Lark Creatives |

I work with accomplished founders and CEOs to build perception-defining personal brands, rooted in identity, clarity, and the truth of who they’ve become.

I help leaders rediscover who they are beyond achievement, using the integration of psychology, strategy, and storytelling to shift how they see themselves before the world sees them differently.

The result: thought leadership, influence, and lasting impact.

I’ve had the privilege of working with more than 150 founders and executives across the world, guiding them through defining transitions: exits, reinventions and new chapters of leadership.

And here’s what happens when identity becomes clear and perception aligns:

⤷ They see themselves in a new light, and the world reflects that clarity back to them.
⤷ They receive invitations into elite rooms and communities.
⤷ They gain access to global speaking platforms and thought-leadership stages.
⤷ Their influence expands and they attract a community aligned with their values.
⤷ Their companies grow in credibility, authority, and revenue.

These are the leaders who benefit the most from my work:
⤷ Exited founders
 who have money but are now seeking meaning, identity, and reinvention—and want a personal brand that reflects who they are today.

⤷ Growth-stage founders and CEOs
 reaching for larger stages and new levels of visibility to accelerate their company’s trajectory.

⤷ First-time startup founders
 who understand that their personal brand is the gateway to traction, capital, and opportunity.

If you’re a founder or CEO ready to build thought leadership, influence, and impact beyond business achievement, I would love to connect.

Before founding Lark Creatives, I spent two decades building and scaling companies, generating more than $200M in revenue, leading high-stakes transformations, and partnering with global brands navigating complex growth.

Those years taught me something fundamental: success can build empires, but it can also blur identity. 

Many leaders reach the top only to realize the world sees a version of them that no longer reflects who they’ve become. 

My work exists to close that gap, bringing alignment between the internal truth and the external perception, between the leader you are and the legacy you want to leave behind.

Reach out if you feel you have reached a point where perception defining brand is no longer a choice.

Johnson Gill

“We respect you enough not to lie to you”.

This is what put Volkswagen on the US map.
 
While everyone had massive, big, bold ads Volkswagen did something that looked almost like a mistake.

They ran an ad with a lot of white space.

A tiny image of a strange, round car.

And two simple words at the top:

Think small.

Volkswagen was selling the Beetle in America.

An underpowered car.

Odd-looking.

German, only a decade after World War II.

By every rule of advertising at the time, this was a disadvantage to be hidden or reframed.

Volkswagen did the opposite.

They acknowledged it.

In doing so they also broke every rule on purpose.

The ads admitted the car was small.

They admitted it wasn’t flashy.

They even admitted it didn’t change much year to year.

What the campaign said,  implicitly, was this:

We respect you enough not to lie to you.

That was new.

And in doing so, it made the reader feel smart for choosing differently.

People didn’t buy the Beetle because it was fast or luxurious.

They bought it because it felt honest in a dishonest category.

“Think Small” marked a turning point.

Volkswagen proved that brand power doesn’t always come from saying more.

Sometimes it comes from saying exactly what everyone else is afraid to admit.

That shift, from performance to honesty, from volume to wit, from persuasion to respect,  changed advertising permanently.

You can trace it through:

Apple’s simplicity.
Patagonia’s restraint.
modern direct-to-consumer brands that speak plainly.

All of them borrow from this moment.

“Think Small” worked because it treated the audience as equals.

And being honest always payoff.

You are naturally, intuitively and by default differentiated.

We try really hard to be like everyone else and that’s a mistake. 

People can relate the most when they see someone talking about things deeply rooted in their identity.

Fact is you can talk about things that you don’t believe in, and it will never invite the same level of conviction that you have in something you truly stand for.

People can intuitively read when something you say is something you believe in, or you’re just saying it because it is what everyone else is saying.

Our identity is our differentiator and we don’t really realize it because we are too close to it.

We only realize it matters when we see how other people relate with it.

I strongly believe that what you share with the world at large, if not rooted in your identity, won’t really resonate and therefore won’t have impact.

You can’t manufacturer identity and therefore it will be as real as it gets.
 
It’s in the way you think about problems.
It’s in the trade-offs you are willing to make.
It’s in the things that irritate you, excite you, or feel wrong to you.

When you speak from that place, people feel it.

They may not agree with you.

But they will know it is real.

And real always carries more weight than manufactured.

This is where most personal brands go wrong.

They try to sound like everyone else trying to impress. 

They adopt language that works for others, hoping it will work for them.

But borrowed conviction is easy to spot.

It lacks depth.
It lacks tension.
It lacks the friction that makes ideas memorable.

When something is rooted in identity, it carries its own gravity.

And that gravity is what creates resonance.

The real work is having the courage to express it.

Revenue has an expiry date. Reputation doesn't.

Reputation takes years to build. Revenue can vanish in a quarter. Founders have this backwards.

Revenue is easy to chase.

It's measurable. It's immediate. It shows up on a slide.

Reputation doesn't work that way.

It builds slowly. Painfully slowly. 

And most founders don't have the patience for it because it doesn't show up on any slide.

But here's what I've seen over and over again - revenue without reputation has a ceiling. 

You'll hit it. 

And when you do, every dollar of new revenue costs more than the last one.

Before I became a brand strategist I had revenue responsibilities for years. 

I couldn't imagine building a business without building a brand alongside it.

I studied Tony Hsieh early on. 

The man built Zappos into something people genuinely loved. 

Not because of discounts or performance marketing. 

Because of how he made people feel. 

That reputation carried revenue for years after the hype died down.

That's the thing about reputation, it outlasts everything. 

The funding cycles. 
The pivots. 
The bad quarters.

Revenue is what you make. 

Reputation is what stays.

So why are founders still treating it like a phase 2 problem?

Build it from day one. 

The founders who last aren't always the ones who grew the fastest. 

They're the ones people trusted the longest.

In M&A transactions, independent studies consistently show that brand contributes 20–30% of total business value on average.

In consumer-facing sectors, that premium can reach as high as 50%.

When a company is acquired, the buyer is not just purchasing revenue, assets, technology and people.

They are purchasing certainty.

↳ Certainty that customers will stay.
↳ Certainty that pricing power will hold.
↳ Certainty that trust won’t have to be rebuilt from zero.

Brand is what carries that certainty.

Without a strong brand, the buyer is acquiring potential.

 With one, they are acquiring certainty of growth.

Why brand shows up as a premium.

A strong brand does three things that spreadsheets can’t:

↳ It reduces risk. Customers already know what to expect. The buyer isn’t gambling on future perception.

↳ It accelerates cash flow. Trust is already there . Marketing doesn’t have to work as hard. Sales cycles compress.

↳ It protects margin. Strong brands don’t compete only on price. They compete on value for the their buyers. 

That combination is worth paying for.

Which is why brand ends up being one of the largest intangible assets on the balance sheet even if it was never treated that way internally.

And because it doesn’t show up as a line item on monthly reports, it’s easy to underfund or ignore.

Until the moment it is priced explicitly.

That’s when people realize that the brand wasn’t a cost center.

It was the asset.

If brand contributes materially to company valuation, then the leadership brand contributes materially to brand value.

Buyers don’t just evaluate the product.

They evaluate the leadership behind it.

A CEO with a strong personal brand:

↳ lowers perceived transition risk
↳ increases confidence in continuity
↳ and raises the ceiling of trust

That has financial consequences.

Unlike company brands, a personal brand doesn’t get sold in a transaction.
It carries forward.

It goes on after an exit and into new ventures and into future negotiations.

Leaders who ignore it are leaving value on the table, even when everything else is working.

If a brand can represent up to half the value of a deal, then treating it as an afterthought is a misallocation.

And if a company brand creates enterprise value, then a personal brand creates leadership value, long before a transaction ever happens.

This is anyone who thinks the company brand can compensate for the human behind the company.  

[Here’s why there are wrong]

On LinkedIn people don’t discover companies first. 

They discover people.

They read a post.
They click the profile.
They scan how you think, what you believe, how you explain problems.

And then, almost instinctively, they look for the company behind you.

From your profile, they jump to:

↳ the company page
↳ the website
↳ the product
↳ the story

Many founders worry that building a personal brand will distract them from the business.

That it will pull attention away from the company.

That it will dilute the corporate narrative.

In reality, the opposite happens.

A strong founder brand creates a halo effect for the business.
A company page speaks in corporate language.
A founder speaks in human language.

When a founder consistently articulates:

↳ the problem they care about
↳ the decisions they make
↳ the principles they operate by

The company inherits that clarity.
The market doesn’t separate the two.

It connects them.

This is why founder-led companies feel more credible, even when they’re smaller.

That’s the halo effect in action.

None of this comes from posting about the company constantly.

It comes from being clear, consistent, and credible as a leader.

If a founder stays silent, the company has to work harder to be trusted. 
If a founder shows up thoughtfully, the company starts halfway there.

Personal branding for founders and CEOS isn’t a distraction from company building.

It can catapult the company itself and that’s the business. 

People don’t buy companies in isolation,
they buy into the people who stand behind them.

And on LinkedIn, that halo is one of the most underutilized advantages a founder has.

taplio

The Battle

Raphael Buck

Johnson Gill

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreRaphael Buck's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJohnson Gill's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Raphael Buck

Johnson Gill

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Raphael Buck's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJohnson Gill's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRaphael Buck's LinkedIn Performance