Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview Raminder K. Hayre, or "The RKH", is best known for her spiritual activism, and healing business. She is a lawyer that transitioned out of conventional practice to make education accessible to the public via her social media platforms. She is a leader in the space of helping clients and professionals find their purpose through understanding their energy, and activations that they were born with. She was named one of the leading women in industry impact by Women in Business, and strives to help people limit burnout by focusing on their inherent success codes. Can you start by introducing yourself, who is Raminder K. Hayre? I was born and raised in the Lower Mainland, which is right outside Vancouver. I am a lawyer turned spiritual healer. I went to university for a long time, did my master's in business, a sociology degree, and went to law school. I always assumed that I was going to be a lawyer growing up, I never thought that I would differ on my path or choose to do something like spiritual healing. I am of South Asian background and therefore linking my aura to spirituality is pretty simple in my culture. For the last couple of years, I've been working on transitioning out of the law to focus on my spiritual healing business full-time. People often wonder why I made such a big change, and that is not something that I didn't choose to do. I was chosen to do it, if that makes sense. I had to make the difficult decision and I don't regret it; Now I run a life-purpose business. Life coaching is essentially like holistic therapy. I'm not a counselor or a registered therapist, but I sit down with my clients and I help them to understand their spirituality, what their purpose is, what their design is, how they're meant to succeed, and how to avoid burnout. I think the natural thing that came up in the last couple of years was individuals questioning their purpose in life through the pandemic. Being a healer, you're naturally in tune with what your past lives were and what you did. I came back, let's say, to do all this work again. I get to help other people figure out what their purpose is, help them heal, eliminate burnout, help them find success in their careers and their passions in a way that we're not taught in the conventional system. Can you tell us more about your work and how you ended up where you are today? My business and coaching are based on what our human design is. All of us are built with a specific design. An energy type and profile that is built to make us succeed. When we're in the system and when we're in the conventional system, we're professionals. We are taught to succeed based on a great cookie-cutter strategy. But The thing is, we're all unique individuals that are unique in our energy. Curating our business, our growth, and our success based on that energy is actually what makes us profitable. It's what helps us succeed. I teach people about where their activations are in their chart and what they are. Sabotage or fears come up to be apparent, right? How has your wound growing up or your relationship with your family or romantic partners impacted you? The way you show up to the world, the way you show up for your success and your value, it's an all-encompassing sort of coaching platform. And then the other side is helping women heal their womb space to conceive naturally. So that's a whole other aspect of the business. I use my legal background and knowledge as an activist now to teach the public on my Instagram and my YouTube about what purpose is, what law is, and what policy I'm giving my opinions publicly about. I've created a niche in that space where people come for a different perspectives. How does someone bring intuition into their business to attract ideal clients? We are kind of taught to be of a money mindset, right? We want to bring all the clients in. We want to bring all the money in. The way that we bring this in is by attracting those that are meant to be around us, right? We can't possibly relate to every single person on the planet. That's where we start to kind of doubt ourselves and what we're, you know, what our worth is and if we're going to be valuable to another individual. The thing is, what people are attracted to is when we use our intuitive ability or when we use our guidance system to create programs or offerings or workplaces that are in alignment with that specific person. Like people base their business on their workplace on a structured model, right? Let's look at your business plan and what is the SWOT analysis. What are your strengths, and your weaknesses? What's your target? Who's your audience? Things like that. What are your opportunities in this space? The thing is that that differs based on every individual that's creating that space as well as every individual that's coming in. If we are continuously trying to relate to everybody, we don't relate to anybody. Using our intuition allows us to see how we want to show up. It's like; “what would I want in this space)”, “how would I feel connected to and who do I want to bring in that also feels that same level of connection?”, “what do they want to hear?”, “what do they want to see?”, and “how do they want to feel?”. Over time we've become bogged down with how everything has been created that we've kind of lost that human element along the way. Using our intuition is those nudges that we get doing something different that somebody else hasn't done before. Blocking out the noise and understanding that because our idea is unique, it will be met with criticism and resistance because people are not used to seeing something new. Every single business person, or entrepreneur, has gone through that rejection. The billionaires, millionaires, and whoever people look up to is someone with influence has gone through that rejection with somebody telling them that their idea isn't good or that it's not going to be received well. When we're able to block that out and listen to what our guidance is telling us. Only then are we able to lead ourselves based on what we know feels good, and that's a huge part of our design. When we feel good, lit up, and excited, that means that we're in alignment with our truth, with our purpose, as well as with what we know we can create. When we start to feel the bitterness, frustration, burnout, sadness, and anger, that's when we know our body is telling us, OK, the compass is completely going, you know the wrong way, you're going in the wrong direction. How can we live a purpose-driven life? How I explained this to clients in my audience is that purpose is the way we act, it's not a destination. It's ensuring that we are living in our truth at all times. That's the way we speak, that's the way we take action steps. That's what we tolerate. Right? Those are the ways that we live with a purpose and we all have a unique purpose within our human design. I do those sorts of readings to help people assess what's my design. It ends up being a lot of reassurance and validation of how this individual knows they work well or what they want to do intuitively. Then maybe they talk themselves out of right on our path of purpose. We have destinations that could be a career, a person, a vacation, and the way that we create a hiccup in our life. As humans, we think our purpose is a destination. We think our purpose is creating a family or getting this car or doing this job and we start to define ourselves and our identity based on this thing. We don't allow ourselves to grow because growth is uncomfortable. Our ego doesn't like growth because it doesn't like uncertainty. We will use every single excuse we can to stop ourselves from making a more purposeful decision. A purposeful decision could be something like getting a divorce, quitting the job, or making a move that maybe others don't want you to do, but you're willing to do because you know that it's the right thing based on your intuition. The way that we can live a life of purpose is by focusing on what feels good for us. What ends up getting in the way is our conditioning in our chart. That's what I call our susceptibility in our human design chart. So that's where people's thoughts and opinions come in the way. That's when you're not able to tune into what your heart's desires are when you don't listen to your instinct when you don't listen to your emotional response. Once we realize that our decisions are based on the opinions of others is when we have the awakening moment. How many times we've chosen somebody else's comfort or not wanting to be uncomfortable as you know our choice, we all have the power of choice. Even if it's a difficult decision or you're choosing between two shitty options, you have that power of choice, right? Feel free to block that word out, but we all can make a decision whether we think that's good or bad and that ends up changing our trajectory. Which is giving ourselves the time and space to think about what feels good in our heart. People may think that's cliche, but that's really what allows us to make a business that is truly successful because it's one of passion. A lot of passion projects are what have created a successful business even though you have hardship along the way of creating it, at the end of the day you're happy in what you're doing? A lot of people are starting to figure out that they're not happy and what they're doing based on where their priorities are, based on taking more rest than they ever have these last couple of years, and are now starting to adjust and learn more about themselves as well as like what their new routine is or what they want to create. I think that there's beauty in that. It comes with making those difficult decisions. You are also a former professional dancer and have danced across North America, and judged a competition in Australia. Has dance taught you anything that you still carry with you today in your current work? I love that question and I do sometimes bring in this perspective when I'm just talking or when I naturally come up, so I'm really happy to include that here. I was a dancer for about 18 years of my life, from the age of 3 to 21. I did ballet, hip-hop, and jazz. I also danced professionally in Punjabi folk dancing, which is called Fagra BHANGRA, and that's where I competed throughout Canada and the States. It is also the same dance that I judged when I lived in Australia while I did my masters and went to law school. The one thing about growing up as an athlete of any sort or having a passion or a hobby that you pursue is persistence and resilience. Punctuality was a huge one as well, you gotta make it to practice on time. You gotta make it to your competition on time. You gotta make it to rehearsal on time. I think that that shaped me to be someone that's able to micromanage very well. At the time when I got older and danced, between 11-12 years old, I started to volunteer. I volunteered around the studio and it eventually turned into teaching and coaching as a volunteer in various types of dance for me, having many things to do at one time and juggling all of that was just second nature. It's not anything I thought about. Like I knew what blocks of time I had. I was more productive in school because I made sure I did my homework because I knew I had to go dancing after. It's not anything I wanted to miss. I also made great friendships, people that I'm still friends with after, you know, almost 30 years. People I still relate to, grew up with, and have been able to maintain that connection with. I think being in a team environment in a sport like dance or hockey or soccer, you're around the team and we built a bond, and no matter what sort of environment that I was in my best friends right now are people I professionally danced with. The amount of stuff that you go through, the community you have, the family, the tension, Saying they got the success and the triumph. It allowed me to see beauty and growth. For us as team members it has been profound. Seeing where we were a decade ago and what we may have created problems about, disagreed on, or argued about is something that we worked through to maintain this connection. I think once I can, when I see that as a healer, I find a lot of beauty in that because at that point you may not think that you're going to still be friends with this individual in 10 years or 20 years down the road, and then you see how your connection has grown and how they're like a family member to you. I think being able to see the evolution from being in my teens to now fully in my adult years, allows me to see the possibility that you can build that strong connection outside of. A family dynamic. Is your work inspired by anyone or anything special? Do you have something or someone that keeps you motivated? To be honest, the people that keep me motivated are individuals like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was one of the Supreme Court judges in the US, who's now passed Chief Justice McLaughlin, who was the Chief Justice in Canada. They keep me motivated as individuals that were lawyers and judges because they mastered the voice of dissent. What I mean by that is that they created a name for themselves and a reputation for having a minority voice. For me as a spiritual activist, it can be difficult because I am met with censorship, I am met with ridicule, and hate. Even though I'm not practicing anymore and with that came choosing to give up my goal to be a judge, which was very difficult because Since the age of 14, I've seen myself being a judge, being on the Supreme Court, I had to decide whether having a public influence is more important versus staying in a system that I believe just unproductive. That's why I look up to people that have built a name on opinions that I have or that I would have. They help me maintain hope and my trajectory in my path. That's what helps me stay on purpose. Because if I were to allow other people's opinions of my voice to get in the way, I would, I would have shut off my social media 10 years ago. What do your future plans look like? Is there something new and exciting going on? Yeah, I think the choice of leaving the system has allowed me to expand right or allowed me to not put limits on what I can achieve. Because if I were to, if my mind was like, OK, you're going to be a judge, that's what you're going to do, right? Of course, I can move up the ranks in that specific role, but I would be limited in my scope of what I could do, which was another reason why I decided to go to non practicing. So, what makes me excited about my life and my brand now is like, I can do whatever I want with it. It's my baby. It's my rules, it's my system, right? I can raise it as I like. I would love to do more conferences and things like that where I'm speaking with other healers. It's just my first year of really planning this as my full-time gig. I anticipate a lot of unique opportunities coming my way once more professionals start to adjust their mindsets to bring empathy into the workplace. I also aspire to be in workplaces to help them create an environment that is based on individual energy, strengths, and weaknesses that aren't talked about. Teaching them about their employees and being like this is how these types of people work, this is what's productive for them to do. This is how you can create more success than that and I think that we're opening up that space right now where it's going to be more mainstream rather than something that's boutique - rather than people branching out and making this their own, like their own safe space. As the years go on, I anticipate and predict that that sort of safe space will be something that bigger corporations seek to have because of its retention right there. Retention is their success. If they're unable to retain employees, it's because they're doing something wrong internally. I think that they're going to start to look at how they can retain people by bringing empathy into the workplace. I also plan to write a book! It is interesting to me since I am intuitive. The last two years I've been very public about it on my platform, including things like what dates mandates are going to go away or what's going to be the next step in our government, that sort of stuff. I see things from the future and I want to bring that perspective into the book. So that's one of my main goals right now, as well as creating more content around purpose and getting people connected to wanting to know more about theirs! For more info, follow Raminder on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and visit her website!

Written by: Lyn-Genet Recitas , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Imagine a world with no faith, and little hope in your health. This is the world of chronic illness. You naturally expect help from your medical team, but they expect you to keep getting worse. That is not how it has to work. I’m a realist, and an optimist. Probably because I see healing every day. Normal people doing normal things, like eating the right foods for their unique chemistry. Here’s what I tell all of my nutrition clients and now I’m telling you. Until you’re dead, your body wants to heal. Every day. And I mean every day. Your body is talking to you (ouch, twinge, bloat), and you have just forgotten to listen. You have been deprogrammed from yourself. I’m a nutritionist that specializes in inflammation and thyroid disorders and have written several health books. My books like The Metabolism Plan, give the reader a blueprint on how to map their own health. And it’s easier than you think. It just takes a scale and a thermometer. But I am jumping ahead. Because this story is one of many, I have received that gives this hardened New Yorker hope and faith. This is Caleb’s story about his battle with multiple sclerosis. LG ‒ Caleb, what were your first symptoms? Caleb ‒ It was Sunday in February of 2008. I was driving my TV van and I was headed to my next job. I noticed that I couldn’t feel my left hand gripping the steering wheel. Then, I noticed the left side of my face had that, "Novocain" numb feeling. The numb sensation went from the top of my head to the toes on my left foot. I pulled the van over and collected myself. I thought I was having a stroke. It’s snowy here in Maine, but it’s a small town and I get into the ER and met the doctor quickly. I explain to the doctor what I am going through. He says, "Ok, let's have you stand up and walk across the room”. The doctor says, "How long have you been limping?" I had no idea that I was walking with a limp. Interesting… then he says, " Touch your nose with your right hand." I did it and passed with flying colors. "Now with your left hand." I moved my left hand to touch my nose and poked myself in the eye, on the cheek, poked my forehead and then my top lip. I could not find my nose. That was so funny. I couldn't help but laugh at myself. The doctor immediately orders an MRI. LG: How did you find out you had MS? Caleb: The next day, Monday, was a huge snowstorm. The hospital called and said they have a cancellation and could perform the MRI that morning. Unheard of! So, we drive to the hospital and get the MRI. The neurologist - who happens to be an MS specialist ‒ reviews the photos. He proceeds to tell me that I have MS. I said, "Ok. What are we going to do now?" My neurologist told me that I was his fastest diagnosis of MS he has had. It was less than 24 hours from my initial trip to the ER to when I got my MS diagnosis. Well, I like to think I want to be the top of the class, but not this way. I was just relieved to have an answer and MS is manageable, right? Medications, more medications, and other medications for those medications. I always have a very positive and optimistic outlook on everything. If I am not dying, then I will be fine. I will figure it out. MS was not going to be any different. LG: What was your diet like before the MS? Cal : I mainly ate fast food, processed, microwavable food and drank soda, Gatorade and some juices. I consumed a lot of sugary treats. I was driving a lot, and I would eat from the convenience store and McDonalds because I was on the road for 9 to 12 hours. Breakfast sandwiches and breakfast pizzas to double quarter pounders and double whoppers. I have met them all, many times. I did not really have much of a preference for where I ate, as long as I was eating. LG: How did you find out and feel about medications? Caleb : My neurologist told me all about them. We have steroids for your flares, Avonex for your MS, Zanaflex for your muscle stiffness, Vicodin for pain, The steroids did help me get over my flare within 7-10 days. The Avonex was just horrible. It is a self-injectable medication that you inject straight into the thigh muscle. I hated it, it made me so sick. Half the week I was recovering from the shot ‒ to only have another shot in a few days. Then there was Rebif, exact same results. Rebif lasted for a couple of months until I decided that I could not do that medication any longer. My neurologist then prescribed Copaxone. I was lucky, there were so many sites I could pick from for injection. But the injection sites would not heal and felt like fatty bumps under my skin. Copaxone out, on to the next one. It is now, 2011. 3 years into my journey with My neurologist talked about other meds but nothing really promising on the horizon. The combination of the steroids and meds together caused my appendix to become very inflamed, and I just made it to the hospital in time for them to take it out. You don't really miss your appendix until you learn what the appendix really does. Man, I am going to really miss my appendix. LG: Does diet help symptoms? Caleb: Short answer: Hell YES! Let me take you a little deeper into that answer. When I first moved in with my girlfriend Kimberli, my diet was crap. We jumped onto the low-fat dairy train along with the multigrain breads. We thought we were eating healthy. We would eat at Subway which was being deemed," A healthier choice". We both started to gain weight even though we were eating "HEALTHY". My symptoms were getting worse, and my MS would continue to get worse every year. I was on many different meds and on meds to counteract side effects from other meds. I was a mess even though we thought we were eating “right”. Then, in the early months of 2013, Kimberli got to see the episode of Dr. Oz that featured Lyn-Genet and her book, The Plan. At the time, Kimberli was having a hard time with her feet and in a bunch of pain. We were both overweight. I was battling major fatigue, muscle spasms, migraine headaches, staggering, major pain in my neck, back and legs. The fun did not stop there, I also had brain fog and depression. So, Kimberli ordered The Plan and we set a date for when we would start. The Plan made so much sense to me and I thought it was easy to follow. Some foods that you think are healthy may not be healthy for you. In fact, “healthy” foods can make you really sick, so when you are trying to eat “right” your body rebels. During the first three days, known as “The Cleanse” the pounds started to melt away and I had a major boost in the amount of energy I had. I started prepping and cooking my own food. I found that some of the healthy foods I was eating was actually making me gain weight and be sick. I replaced the processed foods with fresh food and good clean spices. After a year of following The Plan, I noticed that I did not need my muscle relaxers and pain killers anymore. I did not need my antidepressants. I was moving better and feeling so much better. I lost 30 pounds in, 6 months, without dieting. I ate a LOT. I would refer to Lyn-Genet as my nutritionist. Fast forward to May of 2016, I had eaten some hemp seeds. I did the smell test and “I was like, well... maybe they might be on their way out. I will add them to my breakfast anyway”. Oh man, what a mistake that was. My stomach was in knots, and I could not eat or drink water. Time for a trip to the ER. I was admitted and they took some blood, and hooked up some fluids. The doctor comes in and says, " Looking at your symptoms, I would like to treat you for Crohn’s disease." I say, " Ok, what does that look like?" " We would give you a high dose of steroids to stop the flare." Me: "Uh, I don't think so." The doctor leaves and comes back a little while later and says, " Well, it might Ulcerative Colitis and I would like to start some steroids." Again, I was like, "Ya, No. I am not doing steroids." That was the last time I saw the doctor. I went back to Planning and eating MY anti-inflammatory foods I had in my arsenal. I told my doctor that I am never doing the med route as a “go-to” again. My quality of life improved and I was feeling great. My walking is greatly improved, my memory is improving, and I am not taking any meds at all. The first 3-month checkup and the neuro wanted me to go back on meds. He did not have any faith that diet had that much of a significance when treating MS. At my next appointment, my neuro wants to do a cognitive test to determine if I’m getting better like I say, or I am worse like he suspects. I pass the cognitive test and score better than he did. He then states, " Well, your tests came back great, and I can't argue with success. Why don't you continue what you are doing." So, I am. Food and water are a huge part of my success treating MS. If they can come up with fool proof ways to avoid STRESS, that would be great. It seems that stress is the only factor that aggravates my MS. I was not able to do much without feeling winded, fatigued or just plain worn out. I’m now to able to work and play 9 holes of golf AND make dinner. This is just amazing. I owe most of it to The Metabolism Plan and Lyn-Genet. I may be doing the work, but Lyn-Genet wrote the words in a way that turned the lightbulb on in my head. I learned about proper hydration and how to find the foods that were causing inflammation. Without that knowledge, I would not be able to do the things I do now. Multiple Sclerosis is definitely a learning process. In many ways, I think MS has changed my life for the better. I would not change anything up to this point. MS was kind of an end and a beginning for me. I owe much of that to Planning. The Metabolism Plan and The Metabolism Plan Workbook is the updated version of The Plan. Caleb still uses The Metabolism Plan 9 years later. Facebook may be a bit dodgy at times, but it’s how I met Caleb who I now call friend. Please note the Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, and diverticulitis may need a custom menu. You can email info@lyngenet.com to set up an appointment. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Lyn-Genet! Lyn-Genet Recitas, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Lyn-Genet Recitas, Sports Nutritionist, HHP NMT, is the NY Times and International Bestselling author of The Plan and The Metabolism Plan a groundbreaking anti-inflammatory nutritional protocol which has been published in over 15 countries. She’s been featured on Dr. Oz, Huffington Post, CBS, NBC, Fox News, Women’s Running, Fitness, Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, and Prevention. Lyn-Genet and her staff of doctors and nutritionists have helped hundreds of thousands of men and women reach their best health by finding their chemical responses to food, not counting calories. The Plan is an effective way to lose weight, improve health and reverse the aging process.

The doctors diagnosed Christine with incurable fibromyalgia. Accepting that & their medications, she was work-disabled for 20 years. She became interested in spirituality & healing. 20 years later, on her 65th birthday, having witnessed her mother’s suffering & death with dementia, she decided she must create a new life while she still could. She focused on what she most wanted & used a spiritual 4-body healing approach. She not only healed herself but created a repeatable process to help others heal themselves, called Fibro Freedom Formula: You Healing You. Get supportive advice and learn from one who has walked in your shoes, so you can learn and be coached in peace, without any anyone telling you that you are making this up, or that fibromyalgia is incurable. The last thing you need is to be misunderstood because of this invisible illness. Christine Lutley, FibroCoach.Online Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better. I am a first-born, now seventy-year-old Canadian woman, from Nova Scotia. I was blessed to have traveled in all Canadian provinces, a couple of Caribbean Islands, and to Fiji, Tahiti, and Australia 4 times, and best of all to have lived in Hawaii for 23 years. I love the ocean, mountains, beaches, and palm trees. The cold chills me. I am passionate about women’s issues. I graduated from a women’s university and spent much of my career working with women, in a hospital, as a shopping center manager, and as a women’s not-for-profit executive director. Much less exciting, I spent 20 twenty years work-disabled from fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Normally, a hard worker, people-pleaser, and over-achiever with perfection as a goal; I broke those habits while I was very ill. I learned to “just be” while enjoying the beauty of Hawaii and learning for the sake of learning. I love to learn, especially big-picture ideas that explain life and help me to make the most of it -- philosophy, spirituality, psychology, coaching, and healing. I love to share what excites me. For most of my life, I was single or divorced. I have no children. I have been a dog-mom, 6 times, and 3 of those have been with support or service dogs. The spelling of dog is no accident. Like God, dogs are love. COVID-19 made my choice to coach virtually a very ordinary decision. However, the virtual aspect of being able to work with people anywhere from my own home, and to study with anyone, anywhere, made it a comfortable way for me to re-enter the working world, after having been out of the workforce for two decades. I had become used to being at home, a private person, and withdrawn. So, it took me a little longer than I would have preferred to become as open and visible as I need to be seen by those who will most benefit from my help, but instead of focusing on the slowness of my emergence, I am delighted it has happened. Early in my career, it was easy to be visible and represent an organization. Now, I have become open and visible about my own wounds, my healing, my thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and experiences, about me, and how I can help others solve their own problems because of all that. I give myself credit for that courage and consider myself a bit of a unicorn (a huge honor, since I have long loved unicorns). Tell us about your business. What is your business name? Who do you target as your audience? How do you help your clients? My business is called FibroCoach.Online. I first benefitted from coaching in my late thirties with Bob Proctor, before The Secret. I used his system to achieve my dream of living and working in Hawaii. Decades later, I studied coaching and decided I wanted to coach women like me, women with fibromyalgia or other chronic pain and fatigue conditions, to heal themselves and to create lives they love, despite their diagnosis with an incurable illness. I believe that most of us with a chronic illness like fibromyalgia have some history of trauma or abuse and that the pain and fatigue are cries for help that refuse to be hidden by medications. I am no exception. I know the problems faced by those who have experienced lots of trauma, including childhood sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, financial abuse, psychological abuse, and rape. Way too many of us have that in our history and our bodies stored it all, so of course, there are consequences. Chronic illness, including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, are among the consequences that add lots more complications to life. Sufferers don’t feel understood. I understand. I have done the inner work with support and learned to do inner work with others. These topics are not broadly discussed and have a lot of stigmas attached to them. Even worse than stigma, is the lack of hope felt by those who have been told their condition is incurable. No cure means no medical cure, not that we are doomed to suffer, cannot heal ourselves, and manage our lives well. Before I can help anyone, I inspire them to believe that there is hope, that it is a mistake to accept anyone else’s limiting beliefs as our own, and that we can each learn to heal ourselves. I share my story focusing on the solutions. I am a member of my fibro groups and I share my story and my advice broadly. In my own social media and in my programs, I focus on spirituality and our innate power to heal ourselves. I demonstrate practices I use and offer a step-by-step process that is both spiritual and practical to heal on all levels: physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically. Simple, practical tools, repeated daily, replace old habits and cause wellness. I focus on solutions and teach others to do the same. I keep no secrets about my history and feel no shame about anything that has happened to me. Nothing they might share shocks me, nor is insurmountable because we are spiritual beings having an earthly experience. We are powerful creators. We need to make changes, to be sure our creations become based on our own beliefs and not on unhelpful beliefs we learned elsewhere. I am extremely well-trained at helping others with that and with many healing practices and modalities. What is your work inspired by? My work is inspired by awe, largely of the spirituality I experienced and literally embodied while living in Hawaii. It is very different than the more indoor life I learned from my Catholic upbringing, northern European heritage, and living in a cold Canadian climate. Spirit and life are everywhere, all the time, and my senses were all fully surrounded by them most of the time because I was able to be outdoors, in the water and on the sand, every day, without layers of clothes, feeling the breeze and the sun on my skin. I embodied the spirit and perhaps that is why I felt more at home than anywhere else. I felt in my element, surrounded by spirit. It wasn’t just in church on Sundays. I experienced a little of that on my first trip when the plane was landing. I was in awe. The Spirit of Hawaii is literally in the land, the volcanic mountains, and the lush growth there, and in the sea. I was awed by most of what surrounded me. My senses thrived in that beautiful environment. The music and dance intrigued me. The Aloha and the strong sense of Mahalo warmed my soul and have become part of me that nothing can take away. I was referred to a spiritual healing center by a friend with fibromyalgia and I learned a 4-body healing approach from Kahu Fred Stirling, at what became the Honolulu Church of Light. If you could change one thing about your area of focus, what would it be and why? I would disconnect any association between the words incurable and all chronic illnesses, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and more. People make assumptions about the word, especially when spoken by a doctor and they make more of it than it really means. Incurable means there is no medical cure, to date. It is not a prognosis, but only a current perspective on a medical diagnosis arrived at largely by exclusion. It does not mean that it isn’t possible to get better, that patients must expect to suffer from it for the rest of their lives, or that it will get worse. Yet many patients assume those to be facts and are convinced their doctors told them that. Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today. It was a time of dramatic incongruence in my life. My second marriage was a mistake, and my Ex became abusive. The relationship had very high highs with lots of world travel and very low lows that included physical, emotional, and financial abuse, over time. I was the Executive director of a YWCA and was, in essence, a professional feminist. Imagine becoming a victim of domestic violence and abuse while working on that issue professionally. It boggled my mind. I started having flashbacks of a nice part of a dissociated memory, playing with helium-filled balloons on the ceiling. I left my Ex twice. The second time, I left and moved 6000 miles away to Hawaii. That flashback was active for many years. After I became very ill, but a year before I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I was anxious and depressed, was diagnosed with PTSD, and was in therapy. It became clear that the flashbacks were from an incident of childhood sexual abuse by an adult male babysitter when I was only 4. It took 56 years of distance, being raped at age 60, and being treated with EMDR by a psychologist friend, to eventually bring the memory to where I could access it and associate it with an innocent fright that made the details of the original incident suddenly visually obvious. It became clear that the assault had been horrendous for a kid, and I was sick with measles when it happened. That awareness finally explained why I was not happy during my first marriage to a really good man. I was broken; but I did not recognize it until abuse retraumatized me a few times. Later, watching my Mom suffer and die with dementia provided the Big Why I needed to create a new life for myself and get well. I deeply understand how our unconscious mind can hide memories from us so completely, while still attracting inappropriate behavior into our lives. Every illness I ever had could be attributed to abuse at 4. Symptoms started in my early teens. They alternately escalated and vanished, until fibromyalgia brought me to a crashing stop. Even then, with twice-a-week psychiatric support, I still couldn’t face going there. I think it is unlikely that I would have been able to heal myself if I had not finally discovered really happened to me as a little girl, or at least trusted myself enough to believe the flashbacks. I find it interesting that I was sick with measles when the childhood abuse happened because being ill was the way I got time off to distance myself from whatever was going on in my life. My mother and grandmother experienced lifetimes of illness, too. I doubt they ever got the same clarity about why, as I did. More than half of the women I surveyed about a possible connection between fibromyalgia and trauma believe there is one. I am convinced there is. It is now clear to me that all that happened to me also happened for me, so I could reconnect to and understand my journey and my purpose. I have known what happened for 10 years now. I have written my story, spoken about it live, accepted the facts, released the previously stuck and unexpressed emotions, and mostly healed it. I am no longer chronically exhausted and full of pain. Holding onto our toxic crap, even blissfully unaware that any trauma ever happened still drains our energy, our life force, and our power, so our bodies cry out in pain for healing. No medication can fix this. I was broken and I needed to heal myself and my wounds. I had great medical care in Hawaii and great healing support too. I give lots of credit to those who supported me through that journey. I learned a lot. I know I was blessed by breaking and by healing. I would not have had access to all that if I had not had good reason to venture far from home. Without encountering spirituality, so directly and intimately, swimming with sea turtles, recognizing sea lions on the beach, examining octopi much too closely, having manta rays use my tummy as a pool wall to turn around on, I just might have missed the sheer wonder of it all and missed the connection to all things that spirituality is. Being well now and being able to help others to heal themselves makes life make sense. It gives me meaningful work to do. I am well enough and can be of service. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Christine!

Michael Cook is a leading thinker on how to get out of the weeds of what you do, and into the realm of creating what you want to happen. So why 80/20? The pace of life, not just business, means that we rarely spend the time building a plan, a strategy of how to get to where we are headed. And for understandable reasons. Our desks get filled with the now, whether urgent issues, other people’s problems or simply the habits we’ve grown accustomed to and which is probably the combination of same. Naturally this leads us into reactive mode, rather that the proactivity we need to avoid future issues, build the relationships we need and influence those we need to. His clients are those who see the value in that. Michael Cook, Bringing 80/20 thinking to your business Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better. Michael Cook is the founder of The 80/20 Business Consultancy. He has more than 30 years in business and has enjoyed 2 careers. He has worked right across the globe, both as an expatriate in Asia and the US as a C-suite executive for a multinational, as well as building a second career as an international business coach and consultant. Based in the UK, he has a grown-up family and enjoys following sports as well as international global affairs. His most annoying trait is a love of newspapers! What is your business name and how do you help your clients? The 80/20 Business Consultancy are a small and savvy business team, with experience to know that 80% of success comes from just a small, often hidden, part of what needs doing. And the skills to help you identify what these are, and then execute them. Clients face this more now than ever. Simply because the range of pressures demanding their time is so wide. Yet while often urgent they are rarely that important. Finding time for a reset, and the strategic rethink necessary, becomes elusive, not least because it is hard to know where to start. This is where we help. What kind of audience do you target your business towards? We speak to, and work with business owners, or anyone with responsibility for the success of an important area of their company’s business. What is your work inspired by? I’m inspired most by 2 thoughts. First, the idea that if we allow it, we are so often the architects of our own misery by constantly creating expectations of others that we have no control over whatsoever. And secondly, that conflict is only ever a state of being. And as there is only ever one moment, the moment we are in, we can so easily choose to move from being in conflict to one of ‘solution finding’ if we choose. The choice is always ours. If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why? At its heart, our industry delivers when it can encourage people to think about things differently. When we can open our mind to the possibility at least of another view existing. One that can then lead to another solution. For after all, any solution to a problem is always driven by how a problem is defined. And so often that is where the issue lies, the definition. It’s a simple message yet one that so often gets overlooked. Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today. 20 years ago, I was fortunate to attend a series of programs in London run by the Landmark Forum. The experience was profound beyond words and has led to where I am today. Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Michael!

Iria Talladay is a Serial Entrepreneur and business coach who embodies the American Dream. After moving to the United States from her native Costa Rica, she managed to build a successful 7 figure e-commerce business from scratch and position herself as an innovative industry thinker with solid entrepreneurial acumen. Her achievements prove that it is always possible to follow the path that will lead to fulfillment, regardless of background or heritage. Now she is focused on paving the way and helping other entrepreneurs do the same. Iria Talladay, CEO and Founder Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you, your life, and the pivotal moment that brought you to where you are today. I am a proud Hispanic businesswoman, wife, and soon-to-be mother of two under two! I love the outdoors and spending time with my family and my dogs. I have always wanted to live by my own rules and consider myself a rebel. However, far from being a rebel without a cause, I love structure and have always known the importance of hard work and persistence. I have a bachelor’s degree in PR and Advertising, and an MBA focused on management and operations. I knew early on that I wanted to focus my talent and creativity on being my own boss and building a life that fit my terms and vision. Hispanic culture is very entrepreneurial by nature, and my family is a classic example of this. Both my parents created successful businesses of their own. Growing up with such strong role models was not always easy, but it was worth it! From them, I learned that achieving my dreams was possible (and expected of me) and that if you are looking for results, you will inevitably have to put in the work. After working for my father for several years, I realized that being under his wing, professionally, was both a blessing and a curse. Although the lessons I learned from him are invaluable, and I am incredibly thankful for them, they also made me realize that I needed to step away from the family business and make myself proud by forging my own path. It was then that life gave me the opportunity to move to the United States. I took it without hesitation. I did not have a plan, a clear vision, or a trust fund, but I did have an immense desire to grow professionally and personally. When born an entrepreneur, you enjoy driving through the rough, off-path trail, even if it’s bumpier than a corporate job highway. I packed my bags and jumped on a plane. I literally came to this country with less than a thousand dollars (which I borrowed from my brother). I used that money to pay the first month’s rent on my apartment and get myself a blanket, some stuff for the kitchen, and the loveliest cup of coffee I could afford. I knew that seemingly small detail would help me feel inspired during my morning routine. I still keep all of the things I bought that day as lucky charms and reminders of where I started. After that initial leap of faith, my life changed completely. That moment was pivotal and humbling. I was starting over in a place that was entirely new to me, during a time when I was feeling more vulnerable than ever, and yet, I was able to prove to myself that I could survive and make it on my own. What is your business name, its goals, and how do you help your clients? I am the owner and creator of The Bean Online. A business blog/ tool kit for entrepreneurs. Our focus is to provide information, recommend services we have used over the years, and test new technologies to keep up with current trends. We want to save our customers time by doing all the research and analytical work, providing detailed content for their current needs, and facilitating their decision-making process. This allows them to save money and time, thus being able to focus on growing and streamlining their entrepreneurial endeavors. I am passionate about providing the tools needed to inspire others to venture out and channel their entrepreneurial skills into profitable models built to succeed. Anyone can develop entrepreneurial skills; you do not need to have millions of dollars to your name to build a successful business. The fact that I did it shows you that it is possible. Once I started my company and reached the 7-figure mark, I knew it was time to help others do the same! Creating your own business is about having the right tools, mindset, and, most importantly, being willing to do the work. If you add education to that mix (the first building block for self-improvement), it will be easier to deal with the challenges that come with being self-employed. The most important thing when it comes to determining whether you will succeed or not is persistence. Your mind has to be wired not to give up. The Bean Online was designed to serve as a tool kit where you can find resources to aid you in all the above. How has branding impacted your business’ success? Branding has been an instrumental part of every business I have participated in. Taking the time to build a brand that stands out is a fundamental part of creating something unique. If you look up the word “brand” in the dictionary, it will define it in terms of names, designs, symbols, or figures that differentiate one's goods or services from the rest. However, to me, a brand is way more than that. A brand is a business’s DNA, personality, aftertaste, and overall vibe! Building a client base takes effort, and so does keeping one. With so many choices readily available to potential customers, you need to know what your audience wants and then deliver it in a way that is creative and appealing. Standing out amongst the vast ocean of options is not for the faint of heart. However, if you manage to do so, you are setting yourself up with a competitive advantage that will reap many benefits in the short and long term. When building a brand, you need to aim to achieve something memorable, likable, and adaptable (in a way that can cover more than one product, market niche, etc. this ensures that brand equity is maintained through time). Focus on developing a clear image of your ideal customer and how you will ensure your offer stands out innovatively. You can read more on how you can achieve that here. What is your work inspired by? Many things inspire me. One of them is that you can grow exponentially if you are willing to put in the work, constantly learn and challenge your preconceived notions. When you are focused on moving forward, you won’t have to worry about hitting a glass ceiling because there isn’t one. The sky is the limit. I am also inspired by human beings (especially women). We are remarkable creatures. When we think that our plates our full, we manage to find a way to transform them into bottomless bowls that keep holding more. More ideas, more thoughts, and more dreams! Being a mother is also one of my main sources of inspiration. Motherhood has helped me improve my persistence and develop an ironclad will. Once you have children, you are responsible for setting an example for them, and I do not take that lightly when I think about the lessons that I want to teach my kids; not giving up and always going after their dreams are among the top ones. That, and to constantly learn from their mistakes. Nothing worth building will come easy, and making mistakes is part of our nature. However, the ability to learn from those mistakes and grow accordingly separates those who make it from those who don’t. Hard lessons toughen the spirit, and some things cannot be learned from someone else's experience. You have to go through them on your own. I would love to see a world where women and mothers from different backgrounds can lead successful businesses that provide them with financial freedom. When that happens, the world as a whole will improve. Becoming a mother is a top-notch training ground for women who dream of creating successful businesses. A woman who can run her home smoothly will most likely be able to do the same for her company. What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future? I would love to continue empowering like-minded individuals and providing them with tools for their development for many years to come. I am very aware that to succeed, you need a great team. It’s like that African proverb that says, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. I take great pride in the fact that I have managed to create a strong team of professionals who share my vision and are instrumental to my success and the success of my businesses. Knowing I can generate employment opportunities for talented individuals brings me immense joy and fulfillment. I plan to expand my business mentor career through The Bean Online and keep sharing my knowledge with entrepreneurs willing to change their lives and grow incredible brands and business models. Growing my platform and lifting each other up will allow me to change my community and feel like I am actively contributing to making the world a better place for my children, their children, and everyone else. How does networking impact the way you interact with your industry? Connection is the thread that holds everything together. Everything is connected. So, seeking to connect and collaborate is fundamental to my personal and professional growth. Interacting and learning from others generates the most impactful results when building a sustainable career as an entrepreneur—sharing ideas, experiences, and resources with like-minded individuals is always incredibly rewarding. The opportunity to learn and grow increases when we are open to interacting and receiving honest feedback from those who have achieved what we aim to achieve. Therefore, one of the main objectives behind The Bean Online is to build a community in which every member contributes and adds value. I am always delighted to connect with projects, brands, and colleagues seeking to learn new things and reach their highest potential. Please visit our website to learn more about our project. I would love to network, chat, and share a virtual cup of coffee with you, so feel free to reach out! You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and connect with me through my LinkedIn profile. Read more from Iria!

Written by: Jane Morales, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. It is often said that to learn to love others, you must first learn to love yourself. Although this phrase is wrong, it tends to be associated only with relationships. The truth is that increasing your self-esteem allows you to prioritize yourself in different contexts. Although many ignore it, self-esteem is of great importance to our well-being. Even certain emotional disorders, such as stress, anxiety, or depression, are associated with it. Similarly, it concerns social welfare, life habits, future projects, and interpersonal relationships. So, how to increase it? Self-esteem is not a concept invented to sell self-help books. It is not a metaphysical idea or a letter up your sleeve that allows you to solve all the problems of your life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, it is a concept with centuries of debate that involves action at all times. Signs that you don't have strong self-esteem: You may not be aware that you lack self-esteem. Therefore, here I will show you some of the signs that can indicate to us that there is a lack of self-love and self-esteem. You doubt yourself: The less love you have for yourself, the more doubts you will present toward your person. People with a lack of self-love tend to be very insecure in their decisions and have fear or fear in the face of certain situations in their daily lives. Fear of the opinions of others: Caring way too much about what others say about you. One of the curious facts about love is that the less affection we have for ourselves, the more importance we give to the opinions of others. Recurring negative thoughts: Negativity and obsessive thoughts are also signs of a lack of self-esteem and its meaning. This internal dialogue makes people see life passed through a dark filter, affecting many aspects of their life. Judge accordingly: When people judge others, this is usually a sign that we also do it excessively towards ourselves. Loving oneself implies being kind and humble to others without continually judging others. Fear of saying your opinions: Self-esteem and self-expression are always very much accompanied. For this reason, those who can confidently share views with others also show excellent self-esteem. On the contrary, when we doubt our courage, our mind can put us consistent excuses for why we do not have the right to say our truth or our opinions. Learning to love yourself is essential to have strong relationships and high self-esteem. Self-esteem is an action that we begin to cultivate from the moment we are born and develop in a functional family environment. The most critical learning leads to the fulfillment of all the others who will train us as self-sufficient people. This self-esteem arises with the recognition of our primary caregivers and the affection they gave us from the early stages of life. Therefore, it is a fundamental basis with which we can develop as self-confident adults. So, we must provide the necessary daily importance to emotional growth and physical or organic health. Keys to developing our self-esteem One of the ways to increase our self-esteem is by strengthening our skills and behaviors that help us carry out the necessary activities to live. This self-esteem becomes more intense when we value our strengths, qualities, and the negative aspects and areas for improvement. Learning to recognize our mistakes and develop a critical capacity will lead us to a more transformative self-care. Through the following keys, we can create the strength to respect ourselves and project ourselves wisely toward others. Cultivating individual freedom We have to work on emotional independence to increase our self-esteem. Emotional dependence is a negative trait that makes us be with others out of necessity and not our choice. Learning to be with oneself and to be an individual is significant to be then able to be in a society without being toxic. But first, you must heal the relationship with yourself to establish lasting and stable relationships with others. Looking for healthy relationships Maintaining healthy relationships helps our value increase and, therefore, self-esteem. For example, healthily dealing with family members, keeping a job, having good friends, and being part of a working couple is essential to increase self-esteem. In addition, feeling protected, understood, and respected reinforces self-confidence. Recognize our work Feeling productive or functional increases the idea we have of ourselves. Therefore, valuing our daily work will help us recognize our effort and personal self-realization. Every day, our work is a bridge to meet our basic needs. Take care of our basic needs Loving yourself is synonymous with self-care in different aspects of our life. It starts with intellectual self-care, with which we protect our minds and take out our most creative parts to stimulate our thoughts. Taking care of our body increases physical health and frees us from stressful stimuli. In addition, we must not forget our emotional and spiritual care, that ability to connect with our inner self to fully attend to the here and now. We all want to improve. To a greater or lesser extent, we can get better, and our future can improve. We even compare ourselves with others who get things quickly while you might go around the road several times to reach your final goal. Sometimes these perceptions are part of a lack of self-esteem. But how do you love yourself? One of the reasons a person might not have self-love is their treatment or teachings during childhood. The family environment dramatically influences our self-esteem. If our parents have a positive idea of themselves, our self-esteem will likely be more significant. If, on the contrary, we have seen since childhood a lack of self-love in our parents, with emotional distance, criticism, or even disqualifications towards us, there is no doubt that our self-esteem will be very low. As a result of this last situation, we will be much more exposed away from home, where it will be difficult to defend ourselves and even be afraid of success. Self-esteem means something entirely different for each person. Even so, we all have many different ways to take care of ourselves and show us the appreciation we deserve. Finding out what self-esteem is like for you as an individual is an integral part of your mental health. The percentage of love we show ourselves is how we conduct ourselves to others and, therefore, model our relationships with others. Whether it's free group therapy, empowerment coaching, a clinical psychologist through your insurance, or someone with whom you are connected, therapy is the ULTIMATE form of self-care and self-esteem. Few things come close to the power of sound therapy sessions: a mental health professional can decipher the code of many underlying thought patterns, experiences, and feelings that could prevent a more profound sense of self-love and joy. And if this is not possible, consider writing a diary. Try doing a "brain dump," which, as it sounds, consists of dumping all those endless thoughts on one page. It is like a cathartic purge, in which you can write it, take it all out, and then close the page and leave room for new positive thoughts. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jane! Jane Morales, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jane Morales is a Human Development, Leadership, and Assertiveness Coach, Meditation Master, Writer, and Public Speaker. She holds a BS in Marketing from Bentley University in Boston and a Master of Science in Communications from Boston University. In addition to her higher education, she is trained in The Power of Intention, Positive Affirmations, and Living your own Success. She completed a higher degree in Psychosynthesis Psychology which expands the boundaries of human potential exploring values and purpose in life.

Written by: Dr. Kapil and Rupali Apshankar, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. You’ve probably heard of teenagers taking a gap year, where they take a short break between high school and college to sort out their future plans. But now, a growing number of adults are taking a strategic break and putting their careers on hold during a sabbatical gap year. Many recent graduates are taking longer to land their first job. Older professionals who have been laid off are facing retirement earlier than they expected. For others, it’s an intentional search for new adventures. Whatever your motivation, these steps will guide you through your sabbatical year from planning to reentry. Planning a Sabbatical Gap Year Finance your dreams. The biggest question for most people is how to afford a year off. Build up your savings or plan to work while you’re away. You may even be able to raise funds through crowdsourcing and other methods if you’re doing something like nursing in an orphanage. Get your family on board. Depending on your destination, you may want to take your family along. Changing schools is a big step for your children, but they may learn things they would’ve missed by staying home. Talk with your boss. Figure out the odds for returning to your old job if that’s your plan. Depart on good terms with your employer, so you can at least count on a positive reference. Learn from the experience of others. Reach out to those who’ve gone before you. Look for people who share your individual interests. If you’re traveling to a major city out of the country, ask for suggestions on how to get connected with the local expatriate community to help you find your way around. Managing the Logistics Set your own schedule. Your break can be shorter or longer than 12 months. Decide how much time makes sense for you. Travel light. Pack only the bare essentials. You’ll get through airports more quickly. Find accommodations. Explore all your options. You may be able to rent your condo out or find a house swapping arrangement. If you have a mortgage, remember to check with your lender to see if you meet the requirements or have to complete any necessary forms. Protect your health. Talk with your doctor. You may need to get vaccinations or stock up on your prescription medications. Enjoying the Experience Do volunteer work. Browse through the many agencies that sponsor international volunteer services. Work on a farm or get involved with conservation work in the Amazon. These organizations may help you with living arrangements as well. Turn your side hustle full time. Your sabbatical can be the perfect opportunity to turn your side hustle into a full-time gig. You will be able to wake up in your Ikigai zone every morning – and perhaps you will find your passion along the way, discover your true purpose and turn a handsome profit as the cherry on the top. Pursue spiritual development. Retreats and pilgrimages are a major part of many faith traditions. Join a group trip or design your own itinerary. Study abroad. Take drama classes in London or enroll in a Spanish architecture class in Madrid. Pick up new languages at every stop you make. Contact your alma mater or other universities about their foreign study programs. Designing Your Reentry – Or Not Make a permanent transition. You may enjoy your sabbatical so much that you want it to last for the rest of your life. You may be surprised to find how much you change. Simplify everything. Whatever path you decide to take, prevent clutter and distractions from building up again. That way you’ll stay energized and ready to take off on your next adventure. Ease back into old routines. Give yourself time to readjust. High-speed traffic and crowded stores may feel overwhelming at first if you’ve been exploring the countryside all year. It takes courage and a willingness to accept risk when leaving your life behind and traveling down a new path. If you believe a sabbatical gap year is a good choice for you, go ahead and give it a try. It could turn out to be the start of a whole new life. Using the principles of success and happiness outlined here, Live Your Bliss is a Transformational Lifestyle Design System that we created which empowers you to DISCOVER, CREATE, and LIVE your very best life. On your own terms, and nobody else’s. Join our global movement at Blissvana, take charge of your life and start living your bliss today. We’d love to help you become the Michelangelo of your own life and create a masterpiece of your life. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and visit our website for more info! Read more from Dr. Kapil and Rupali! Dr. Kapil and Rupali Apshankar, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kapil and Rupali are Amazon's 1 bestselling authors and globally respected business and life strategists. They are founders of Blissvana, a boutique personal development, self-growth, and success studio. Their coaching methods have been proven at the highest levels of success in every dimension of human life. Kapil and Rupali's lives revolve around love, happiness, abundance, and bliss ‒ at home and work. Kapil and Rupali's purpose is to create the highest possible quality of life they can for themselves, and the people they love while helping others around them do the same.

Written by: Martyna Boss, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. December is one of the busiest times in business. Successful companies are planning for next year, which is the last moment for the most significant long-term investment. Yes, you are reading this right- that is one of the best times for you to attract and close high-ticket clients quickly. This is why I created a step-by-step strategy to attract and close high-ticket clients for you so that you can start next year with consistent profit. Before we start, let's consider why high-value (high-ticket) offers are essential to your business. It's great for starters because selling high-ticket offers works even with tiny audiences below 1000 followers. Having that high-value offer positions you as an expert and someone who values knowledge and experience – that attract people who understand power or investing in themselves. It's easy to scale a business because the cost of getting a new client is meager compared to the profit. That allows us to invest more in business and provide better client service. High-ticket offers are mostly with 1:1 or small groups, so our clients get these unique, tailor-made solutions. The results are better, and we get better testimonials, which gives us more trust and credibility. In the long run, that business might run with zero ad budget and grow only from word-of-mouth. I called this the Boutique Business Model. Operating costs and your time are much lower with a high-ticket offer strategy. If you have a course or membership, you might need a whole team to get it up and running correctly. With a high-ticket group masterclass, you might work with your clients only twice a month, and most of the work can be done by a small team. We could continue with the benefitsof high-ticket offers, but today we want to focus on getting the first or next high-ticket client before Christmas. I hope you are ready for that, so let's dive in. Prepare your schedule You want to ensure that all the high-value content you produce will pop up in front of your ideal client's eyes. But who has time to post daily on hundreds of different platforms? Moreover, new trends and algorithms change faster than I can blink my eyes. There is a simple strategy to manage your content. It's called content repurposing. All you have to do is produce at least four long-form and high-value pieces of content. It can be YouTube videos, blog articles, or podcast episodes. Once you have more experience, you can start producing more high-value content, but once a week is a minimum to keep your fans engaged. These three platforms are like evergreen machines that will help you get the proper visibility and show your expertise with minimum effort. Focus on something other than TikTok or Instagram as your primary platform. The problem is with a content life cycle. Unfortunately, providing content on this short-attentions platform is an endless content creation hamster-wheel for business owners. Instead, you can focus more on the quality of your leading platform and hire a content repurposing team. They will change these four pieces of content into 20 or more short-form content pieces and schedule on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, etc. Go on the stage I know what you can think right now, but this is one of the fastest and easiest ways to pop up in front of your ideal clients. It can be a real or virtual stage – with the second one, no one has an excuse. Almost everyone these days have access to the internet and social media platform. When I lived in San Francisco, a group of homeless people lived in tents. They have photovoltaic panels to charge their phones and access social media. You can show your expertise on Instagram lives, in different Facebook groups that allow guest speaking or become a guest on podcasts. Remember to look for options with a similar audience to yours- so you will pitch your offer to the right prospects. Create a high-value offer The following industry problem is that most people teach only marketing and sales techniques and love to repeat that your offer doesn't matter and that all our activities should focus on marketing strategies... So let's take a look at these two myths closer. First, selling one-to-many is a highly effective way to grow and scale your online business, but only when you build your audience. I mean an audience of ideal clients who follow you daily and buy almost everything from you. You have fans who trust you. But you can build trust over time with your consistent actions and through sharing your expertise. It will work for influencers and all more known online content creators. But, if you only have a few hundred people on your Instagram account and some colleagues from 9-5 on your LinkedIn account, that strategy will only bring you burnout and disappointment. The second industry killer is a mantra that your offer does not matter, only marketing and sales. Is that mean you can provide poor results services or products as long as you know how to market them properly? Don't go this way! Most people say these things and swear by them because marketing and sales are the ONLY skills they have. And this shortcut takes you nowhere. Business is all about relationships and providing value to others people's life. If your offer doesn't solve a real problem or make a fundamental transformation for others, any marketing strategies will not help. Instead, you will buy tons of courses from gurus who promise they know the"secret" strategies that no one does. Use your email list According to research by Litmus, for every $1 spent on email marketing, our return on investment will be $32. That is an impressive ROI and guidance, where we should spend our marketing budget too. You might be surprised, but if you have 5000-1000 prospects on your mailing list, you already have a six-figure business. Don't leave money on the table, and look at your mailing campaign statistic; which campaigns this year perform the best? Use this data to create a compelling campaign with a call-to-action to DM you or book a call with you or your sales team. Explain to your audience how many spots you have available for 2023, what results your existing clients got this year, and what your audience can expect from working with you. Explain the process. With a proper email marketing strategy, you should have calendars and DMs fully booked. Pay attention to this powerful tool. Use mail merge to follow up with qualified past leads Your mailing list is where you are warming up your audience, but your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is where you follow up and close your clients. If your business doesn't bring consistent clients, that's only because no one follows up with old prospects. Getting new clients is expensive - it costs you time and money. But once you have them on your prospect list, you have to care about all prospects who said no to your offer. So, naturally, all our attention goes to new clients, it's always exciting, but remember about the rest of your prospect list. Only because someone said no, it doesn't mean no forever. People who buy high-ticket offers treat this as an investment. They need to discuss this with family members, with business partners, check out your testimonials, and obviously competitors. But finally, they will make this decision. Guess where they will invest their hard-work-earn money? In someone who pitches them an offer once and disappears? Or maybe to this lovely person who once a week checks out how they are doing, how they feel, and shows them interest and attention? If your prospect list is extensive, use the mail merge option to send hundreds or even thousands of emails with a personal touch. That option is available in most CRMs on the market. The time before Christmas and New Year is outstanding for upselling existing clients and generating new high-ticket clients. So don't be afraid even to use cold emails or cold calls. People will appreciate you reaching out to them when they need your products or services. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Martyna! Martyna Boss, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Martyna Boss is an investor, serial entrepreneur, and business consultant with over 17 years of experience. She studied Management & Marketing with a specialty in Multimedia Design in Warsaw and is a Digital Marketing Expert certified by Google. Martyna is a creator of PreVision - an interactive 3D walkthrough solution for real estate; she has been running start-ups in IT, was a co-founder of the PC game, running a construction and renovation company, and negotiating contracts with investment funds in the US, Europe, and China. Martyna founded consulting and sales agency House of White Ravens LLC, which produces $100k+ monthly profit for each client. She loves traveling with her family, private mom of a toddler.

Written by: Rita Trotter , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Healthy living doesn't necessarily equate to the absence of disease. Rather, it consists of all of the things that affect your quality of life — including happiness and satisfaction with your life choices. Experts agree that one way of improving health is to cultivate a sense of vitality. Life is about more than your physical health. It's about finding balance in all aspects of your life — mental, physical, spiritual, and social. To achieve the highest quality of life, it's important to make healthy choices for you personally and for the planet. And above all, you should feel well in your own skin every day. What does it mean to be vital? Vitality is something you can feel. It's a state of physical, mental, and emotional well-being that allows you to live your best life. The word "vital" comes from the Latin word "vita," which means life. So, basically, you want to be living your best life and doing things that will make you feel more alive. Vitality is one of those words that has different meanings for different people but what I see as the core definition is “full of life” or “full of energy” or “full of excitement” or “full of enthusiasm.” You get the picture! We all have moments when we feel like this but it's important to know how to create those moments more often so we live our best life. It also means to be in good health and to age well. What's so great about being vital? It means that you're doing things that make your heart beat faster and your blood pump harder. It means that you're using your body and mind in ways that help them grow stronger. It also means that you're taking care of yourself. You're eating well, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep so that you can wake up feeling energized instead of lethargic or groggy. And finally, it means that you have a lot of energy — both physical and mental — which allows you to do all kinds of good things for others as well as yourself! How to become a more vital person 1. Make sure you are getting plenty of rest Rest helps you recharge so that you can be at your best. Think of our bodies as batteries, we need to recharge in order to function. It is easy to get caught up in day-to-day activities and not take time out for yourself. But if you don't give yourself time to relax, then the stress will build up inside until it explodes. Here are some ways to make sure you’re getting enough sleep: Get up at about the same time every day, including at weekends. This will help your body feel more rested when it wakes up in the morning and help you fall asleep more easily at night. Establish a relaxing bedtime routine that signals it’s time to wind down for the night — such as reading or listening to music — and don’t let yourself stay up later than planned. Don't use your phone or other electronic devices right before bedtime; they emit a blue light that suppresses melatonin production (the hormone that helps regulate circadian rhythm), which can disrupt sleep patterns. Sleep is also when our bodies repair themselves, so make sure you're If you're feeling tired throughout the day, try cutting back on caffeine or alcohol 2. To be more vital, eat more vegetables and fruits Your body is a machine that needs proper maintenance to stay healthy and happy. Eating vegetables and fruits can make you feel more vital, according to a study in the Journal of Nutrition. The study included 106 people who were asked to eat either a vegetarian or nonvegetarian diet for five weeks. Then they switched over for another five weeks. The researchers found that vegetarians reported more energy and vigour after eating their meals than nonvegetarians did. It was also easier for them to fall asleep at night and get up in the morning. The team also found that when people ate more plant-based foods, they had lower blood pressure and better blood sugar control. They also lost more weight than those who ate meat. Fruits and vegetables are good sources of vitamins A, C, D, E and K, as well as fiber. They also contain high concentrations of phytochemicals that help our bodies fight disease and live a longer life. 3. Drink more water. Water is essential to life. And the more you drink, the better. So why is it important to drink enough water? Our bodies are made up mostly of water — about 60 percent by weight — so it stands to reason that we need adequate amounts of H20 just to keep things moving along smoothly inside us. And while it might seem like common sense that staying hydrated is important, our bodies need fluid in order to function properly. Water helps keep everything moving through our internal plumbing, keeps our skin looking youthful, and is essential for proper brain function and metabolism. And if you're going to be working out or sweating a lot, that extra H20 will help replenish lost nutrients in your body — especially electrolytes like sodium and potassium. 4. Be aware of stress and reduce it Stress is a killer of vitality. It destroys our ability to truly be present in our lives. When we're stressed out, we're lost in thought about what's going on in our lives, which prevents us from experiencing life as it happens. Stress is part of life, but too much stress can lead to serious health problems including heart disease, depression and anxiety disorders. It can also lead to an increased risk of diabetes, cancer, dementia, and other chronic diseases. It impacts your sleeping patterns, hormones, and overall physical and mental health, thus, keeping you from living a more vital life. The good news is that you have more control over stress than you might think. You don't need to wait until you're in a crisis situation before taking action to reduce stress. Take these steps now to reduce your stress levels: Be aware of your feelings when they arise so that you don't get caught off guard by them later on. Identify what triggers your feelings (work deadlines, family needs, money worries) and find ways to handle those situations differently. Consider working with a therapist who specializes in helping people cope with stress. 5. Do some exercise, but don't overdo it. Exercise is one of the best ways to boost your vitality. It can help you feel better, look better and be more productive. But how do you know if you're doing enough to get the health benefits? The key is to find an exercise routine that you enjoy and that you can stick with long term. If you don’t like the idea of going to the gym or doing yoga then there are lots of other ways to exercise at home or outside. For example, if you don’t have time for a full workout, then try walking more often or doing some exercises at home while watching TV in the evening. Or if you live near a park then take advantage of it during lunch breaks or after work instead of just sitting around at home watching TV all evening! According to the CDC, adults should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity (such as jogging or swimming laps) per week. You should also do strength training exercises twice a week that use all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms). You don't have to limit yourself to these recommendations though. For example, if you love running or cycling but hate lifting weights, then you can choose not to do strength training and still get those benefits from aerobic exercise alone. The same goes for people who prefer yoga or an exercise class over going on runs. 6. Know what you value in life You're probably still trying to figure out who you are and what you want from life. But as you get older, it's common to start feeling like your best days are behind you — that there's nothing left to look forward to. This is a dangerous mindset because it can lead to depression and other mental health issues. In fact, one of the most important things we can do as we get older is to stay connected with our values and make sure they're still guiding our lives. Ask these questions: Why do you get up every morning? What motivates you? What gives your life meaning? These are questions worth asking yourself on a regular basis — not just at the end of each year or when big life events happen. Once you've answered this question, it's time to write down your answer so that you can refer back to it whenever you need inspiration or motivation. This will help keep your values top of mind and help guide your decisions. For example, one of my main values is freedom; freedom to be myself without having to worry about pleasing anyone else or worrying about what others think of me. I also value adventure and new experiences. I'm always looking for ways to challenge myself by trying something new or going somewhere I've never been before — whether it's hiking up a mountain or learning how to salsa dance! Having a sense of purpose in life gives you the energy to live life to the fullest. Knowing what you value in life is one important key to vitality. And there you have it, some simple and effective ways to feel vital every day. Small changes can make a big difference in your life. Remember, the changes don't have to be large to make a difference. If you start off with one small change in each area of your life and repeat it again and again, you will see good overall results. We hope they help you find the joy and balance that can improve your health and well-being — both today and in years to come. If you're committed to cultivating a more vital life, contact Rita today to receive a bespoke plan for vitality. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Rita! Rita Trotter, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine My passion, work, and philosophies focus on the joy factor, self-acceptance, physical and emotional cohesion, and authentic wellness and I enjoy sharing my wisdom for all that is connected to a successful and healthy life. My foundation in women’s health comes from my own struggles with weight, sleep, energy, productivity, and health and my passion to share this with the whole female collective. I am a Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach, Behaviour Change Specialist, Long Covid Rehabilitator, Women’s Hormone, and Pre and Post Natal Specialist, Health for Business Coach, published author of three globally selling books, and the creator and facilitator of The Self-Health System Programmes.

Written by: Santarvis Brown, Senior Level Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Looking for leadership lessons is common in just about every industry. Sometimes the best advice comes from looking to an unlikely source for inspiration. In my opinion, one of the best examples of excellent leadership comes from giraffes. Yes, really. Giraffes might not show it off, but they have the whole “lead well and simply” thing down. From seeing the bigger picture to recognizing the importance of expressing themselves, this animal is a great one to emulate whenever you’re looking for a bit of an advantage in your leadership position. In this article, I take a closer look at giraffes and how you can use their example to thrive. Keep reading for more! 1. They have higher views Giraffes might seem like pretty chill animals. Maybe their relaxed demeanor stems from their ability to see the bigger picture? Having a “big picture” mindset helps leaders push past initial setbacks and strive for greatness. If you get caught up in issues that need addressing today and allow them to overshadow the grander idea, you might quickly find your vision failing. Take a lesson from giraffes and always focus on the bigger picture. Consider issues today as nothing but a stepping stone to reach it. 2. Willing to stick their necks out Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but giraffes aren’t afraid to stick their necks out when they see something good. In fact, their first instinct is to push forward even if doing so seems inadvisable to others. They understand the big picture and are willing to take on the risk to achieve it. Leaders should be able to see what is worth taking a risk on. Don’t be afraid to stick your neck out for something you believe in. 3. Sleep standing up Did you know that giraffes sleep standing up? These smart creatures are always ready to act. No matter the time of day, giraffes understand the importance of quick action. Leaders must emulate this quality. Don’t be caught off guard no matter what the situation. When you are prepared to take on anything, you’ll never be truly surprised. Keep yourself accountable and prepare yourself for potential conflicts or projects which might disrupt your daily work. Adapt to changes quickly. 4. Unique spot patterns Finally, we arrive at one of the giraffes’ biggest appeals. Their spots identify them to other giraffes. Without them, individual giraffes would blend together. As a leader, you should understand that individualism is what makes the world work. Instead of painting all your employees with the same brush, pay attention to their differences. Once you understand where someone shines, you can use them to the fullest extent of their potential. Are you ready to improve your leadership style? Keep the trusty giraffe in mind as you work towards greatness and take your time when you make decisions. You have plenty of time to sort out the big picture and come up with a game plan. Visit Santarvis on his LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more information. Read more from Santarvis! Santarvis Brown, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr. Santarvis Brown has spent 15+ years serving as a leader, innovator, and changemaker in education, showcasing in-depth insight as an administrator, educator, and program director. A noted speaker, researcher, and full professor, he has lent his speaking talent to many community and educational forums, serving as a keynote speaker. He has also penned several publications tackling issues in civic service, faith, leadership, and education.

Written by: Marguerite Thibodeaux, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. How to cultivate a collaborative learning culture in the workplace. Learning is now a required skill for work. The rate of change in today's world means that no job role or deliverable will stay the same for long. We all need to keep learning and getting better if we want to continue providing value and stay relevant. We do that most effectively together. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. " ‒ African proverb How do you set your team up for sustainable success by making collaborative learning a normal part of their day-to-day? It starts with each individual taking responsibility for their own learning and then sharing what they've learned with others. When everyone is focused on continuous improvement, it creates a powerful feedback loop that drives results. The benefits of collaborative learning are unmistakable. Increased engagement Increased creativity and innovation Increased productivity Decreased turnover How can you cultivate a collaborative learning culture in your workplace? Here are the four key areas that you can use as a guide: 1. Lead by example One of the best ways to cultivate a collaborative learning culture is to lead by example. By doing this, you are setting up habits, systems, and an environment that fosters collaborative learning. It makes it easier for your teammates to choose to do what they know is best for them and for the company. If we want a collaborative environment where everyone is learning from each other, it's important to set that tone from the top down. Here are a few examples you can consider sharing with your team: When you learn something new, share it with your teammates. When you come across an interesting article or blog post, send it to them. If you’ve been to a conference or seminar, tell your team about what you’ve learned. When you share your expertise with others, it not only helps them improve their performance but also builds trust and credibility. This also shows your teammates that you value collaborative learning. It, in turn, can inspire them to do the same, creating a more collaborative and learning-focused culture. 2. Hold regular time It's essential to set aside regular time for your teammates to learn new things, share their knowledge, and find solutions to work-related problems. Carving out time for learning shows that you are invested in your teammates’ development. You are also creating a space for innovation, problem-solving, and knowledge sharing. Just like Google's 20% rule, where employees are encouraged to spend 20% of their time working on side projects, you can encourage your team to spend a certain amount of time each week collaborating with others. This can be done in a number of ways, depending on what works best for your team: Carve out time for teammates to work on whatever they want. Host lunch-and-learns, brown bag sessions, or even informal conversations. Schedule weekly or monthly"learning days" where everyone gets together to share what they've been working on. Set aside a few minutes at each team meeting for people to share something new they've learned. This not only helps to keep everyone up-to-date on the latest developments but also encourages your teammates to view themselves as part of a larger learning community. As a result, holding regular time for learning can be simple but powerful. 3. Accountability Check on your teammate’s development roadmap monthly to highlight the importance of learning. When your teammate has learned something new, coach them on how they might share that new information or skill with others. When teamwork is a key performance consideration, a lack of collaborative learning becomes a performance coaching opportunity. Hoarding knowledge or skills runs counter to teamwork and holds the entire team back. 4. Celebrate Celebrating wins and accomplishments—both big and small—is a big component of motivation, showing they are valued and re-energizing effort. Share your teammates’ achievements and wins with the senior leadership or give shoutouts in public spaces like team meetings. When people feel like their work is valued, they’re more likely to put in the extra effort for collaborative learning. How do you cultivate a collaborative learning culture in your workplace? If you need help applying these best practices to your team, click HERE to snag a FREE 30-minute complimentary session with me. About the Author: Marguerite Thibodeaux is an executive coach and talent management consultant dedicated to changing our relationship with work. Work should be a place where each of us gets to enjoy the challenge of contributing to something bigger than one self. She focuses on helping leaders at all levels create habits, skills, and environments that empower teams to thrive. Every leader deserves support. Follow her on LinkedIn for leadership tips and discussions. Check out her website for free leadership resources like a Professional Development Roadmapping Worksheet and Attrition Risk Matrix. Want one-on-one adapting these strategies to your team? Book a complimentary call with Marguerite. Every leader deserves support. Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Marguerite! Marguerite Thibodeaux, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Marguerite Thibodeaux, an leadership coach and talent management consultant, helps leaders and organizations bring the best out of people with courage, compassion, and clarity. After building development programs and leading a talent transformation at a Fortune 100, she became increasingly aware that not all leaders had access to a Fortune 100 Learning & Development team. To do something about that, she started Magnanimous Leadership, a leadership coaching and consulting firm that's on a mission to make resources and support available to every leader.

PwC, which employs almost 328,000 people worldwide, has announced office closures over Christmas to save on energy bills in the face of soaring prices. The company is to shut its main office in London from 23 December until 3 January as well as some smaller offices across the UK. Chairman Kevin Ellis told BBC News that PwC’s staff wanted the company to “do our bit to reduce energy consumption”. He added: “Office life is hugely important to our culture and business but having all our offices open over the holiday period doesn't make sense at a time of energy scarcity. We've taken a pragmatic approach ensuring some offices across the country remain open for those who need them.” Both Deloitte and KPMG have also opted to shut their offices as they have for several years; but this is the first year that PwC has joined their ranks.