Written by Eric Bergmann For a single hour-long episode, Ilia Shishkov records 20–25 hours of gameplay, and roughly the same amount of time then goes into reviewing and selecting footage. That is how the 2026 series "100 Hours in the Army" was built: Ilia's character, with no admin privileges, rises from newcomer to one of the leadership positions in the in-game army, and viewers follow along across four episodes of about an hour each. One of them gathered 470,000 views in a month. Ilia is the author and head of the media project "HOMA – GTA 5 RP," based in Russia. He has been making videos about role-play based on GTA V since 2019, and his @HOMATAWER channel has more than 245,000 subscribers and 53.7 million views. We asked Ilia how he holds viewers' attention, why the promise of the thumbnail has to be confirmed in the first minutes of a video, and why an audience follows a creator into a new game. From the personal archive of Ilia Shishkov Ilia, hello. What was the idea behind launching "100 Hours in the Army" on the new Majestic project? Hello. I wanted to show progress from zero on the same terms as any player. A long stretch of gameplay had to be turned into a clear and engaging story while keeping the feel of an ordinary player's real journey. So I played it without any admin privileges. The goal was to get as far as possible within the hundred hours tracked by the game's statistics. In the end, viewers watch the character climb step by step from newcomer to one of the leadership positions in the in-game army. How much material stays off camera? A great deal. For one hour-long episode I record 20–25 hours of gameplay, and about the same amount of time then goes into reviewing and selecting. Out of many in-game events, you have to build a coherent narrative. I record gameplay in OBS Studio and voice in Audacity, and we edit in DaVinci Resolve. The series has four such episodes in total, and each one takes me about 70 hours of work to produce. How do you decide what makes it into the video? The backbone of the series is the character's progression. Viewers should see a consistent story from newcomer to a leadership position. I select moments to fit that story, write the script and the connecting transitions, and film the main narrative line separately on camera. Then the team edits, and I assemble the final version. How did viewers receive the series? One of the episodes reached 470,000 views in a month. A long video is easy to close in the first few minutes. How do you keep the viewer? First of all, I confirm the video's promise. I start by working out what the viewer expects from the title and thumbnail. Then I pick the most interesting moments and show them briefly in the intro. From the first minutes, the viewer understands what's coming and sees that they'll get exactly what they clicked for. Do you come up with the title and thumbnail before filming or after? After. I work on them at the very end, once the final cut is assembled. I develop them together with the designer, and we go through options with the help of AI, among other tools. I take them as seriously as the footage itself. Which part of this is hardest for beginning creators? Keeping a steady release schedule. Many newcomers can't manage it, and their delivery is often rough. The idea isn't properly thought through, so even good footage is hard to get across to the audience: the viewer simply doesn't understand why they should open the video. In the first year, I'd advise setting up regular releases and learning to carry every idea through to a video the viewer can understand. You also review other creators' videos. How does that work? I help several creators: SALAT PATAPON, Alex Boom, Willy Vens, Caesar Banhammer. We discuss ideas and break down videos, I give recommendations on titles and audience retention, and when needed I introduce them to representatives of game projects. The main thing I try to pass on is how to connect an interesting idea with how the viewer actually perceives the finished video. Your longest-standing partner is GTA5RP. Using your promo code homa, 472,332 people have registered there, 143,802 of them have spent more than 12 hours in the game, and the code ranks in the project's top three by registrations. What matters most to you when you invite viewers into a game? Trust. I protect it and I'm not willing to deceive viewers or advertise questionable products for the sake of earnings. A reputation is built over years, and for me it's part of the business. I have no dramatic stories on that front: I simply try not to let my work get to such situations. Even so, in 2026 you began working with the Majestic team, which by its own data has more than 100,000 daily players. How did that fit with GTA5RP? Keeping my agreements matters to me. I'd had offers to move to Majestic before, but I kept working with GTA5RP. I joined the Majestic team through their new project, Russia Online, a role-play game on a map of Moscow, because my contract allowed that format. And in 2025, GTA5RP gave me a personal award for contributing to the project's development, a gold ring with its logo. What did you do for the new project's launch? It opened on August 20, 2026. I released a video announcing the opening, took part in the project's media presentation, made two videos, and invited my audience to join. Content featuring me is published in the project's official Telegram channel, and the website has my personal page (russia.online/homa) and the promo code homa. The task wasn't easy: the project was entering a competitive niche where viewers already know other role-play platforms. I had to show what sets the new game world apart and get my own audience interested in it, so I presented the project through my gaming experience and personal brand. How did the first month end? 12,357 players registered with the promo code homa. Two launch videos gathered more than 700,000 views in two weeks. How were the registrations and payments counted? The project ties registrations to the promo code, and payments to the players who came through it. The first-month figures were passed to me by the project's PR manager. How has your audience changed over the past year? People who've watched me for a long time are growing up, and at the same time new viewers arrive with their own expectations. I have to adjust both formats and delivery to these changes. You already use AI when working on thumbnails. In a couple of years, will it start making videos in place of creators? GTA 6 RP may well appear, but that's my forecast; I can't claim anything about the developers' plans. As for AI-generated content, I think there will be more of it. Viewers will still be drawn to real creators with character, emotions, and a perspective of their own. That's why I'll keep developing my personal brand and my connection with the audience. The viewer who stays after the video Views show how many people opened a video. For a game project, something else matters more: whether a person stays in the game once the video ends, and for Shishkov the answer to that question is recorded in the statistics of two projects. Behind it is a fairly clear mechanism. From the first minutes, the viewer gets what the title and thumbnail promised, the creator doesn't push questionable products on them, and over the years trust builds between them. New role-play projects have to reach players who already know other servers, and a creator with the audience's trust becomes one of the most reliable ways for them to bring in people ready to stay for a long time.

Written by Lidija Poth, Transformational Coach Lidija Poth is an AC-accredited transformational coach and founder of MyLifeCoachingHub, guiding women and leaders toward authentic living and relationship healing. With expertise in architecture, city planning, and teaching at TU Delft, she facilitates transformative retreats and coaching for lasting freedom and joy. We grow older. We live through different seasons, together and apart. First dates. Falling in love. Moving in. Marriage. Buying a house. Children arriving, becoming rebellious and leaving. Then, sometimes, a quiet estrangement. A midlife transition. A sense that the person across the table is no longer the one you once chose. Is this simply “what happens” in relationships? Or does it happen when we stop meeting each other as we actually are now? This summer, I spent a month on the Croatian coast. I listened. I observed. I sat in silence. Around me were beautiful houses, cars, dinners, clothes and holidays, and unhappy people waiting for the other person to change, avoiding the conversation and not moving toward each other. It became clear quite quickly: you cannot buy happiness, and you cannot outsource the work of a relationship to lifestyle. Occasionally, someone asked how I live, who is in my life and whether I am happy. I could answer with a smile. I make my choices from myself. No concessions that cost my inner alignment. Simply being. That experience left me with one question I keep returning to in coaching and in life: “What if, in every phase of a relationship, you made contact again as if you were meeting for the first time?” Relationships are not one story, they are a sequence of transitions Family life cycle research has long shown that couples move through predictable stages. Evelyn Duvall, in Family Development (1957), described how families shift from forming a pair to launching children and standing face to face again.[1] Marital satisfaction often peaks before the first child, dips during intensive parenting years and can rise again if the couple renegotiates who they are to each other. Parenthood itself already changes the bond. On Brainz, How to Maintain Connection in a Relationship When Parenthood Shifts Priorities describes how new identities, not only new logistics, can make partners feel they are losing themselves and each other. The Gottman Institute has reported that a large share of couples experience a drop in relationship satisfaction after the birth of a first child.[8] That dip is not proof that love has failed. It is proof that the relationship has entered a new phase and needs a new conversation. The years after children leave home are another sensitive turning point. Pew Research Center has shown that so-called gray divorce, divorce after age 50, has risen sharply since the 1990s.[6] Susan Brown and I Fen Lin named this pattern in their 2012 study, and later work in the "Journal of Marriage and Family" found that a substantial share of divorcing couples are now 50 or older, around the age when children often leave home.[4] That does not mean midlife is automatically a crisis. Many couples use this phase to deepen closeness. The difference is rarely luck. It is whether the couple treats the new phase as a new relationship or keeps living inside an old script. Related reading: 6 Signs Your Relationship Needs Your Full Attention After The Kids Leave Home. Why we drift: Assumptions replace curiosity What I saw that summer was not a lack of resources. It was a lack of approach. People expected the other person to change. They avoided difficult conversations. They stayed busy with houses, dinners and travel. The relationship became a shared logistics system instead of a living encounter. John Gottman and Nan Silver, in The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (2015), show that lasting connection depends on updating “love maps.”[2] A love map is not a list of facts from the beginning of the relationship. It is a living picture of who the other person is now. That picture expires quietly. After a child is born, after a career shift or after children leave home, the old map no longer matches the land. You still recognise the face across the table, but you may no longer recognise the inner life behind it. You think you know the other person. In fact, you know a version from five or ten years ago. Updating a love map does not require a dramatic talk. It requires curiosity without assumptions. Questions can be as simple as: What is taking up space in you this season? What do you dream of now that you did not dream of before? How do you want to be met, not in general, but in this phase of your life? What would make you feel happy, respected and alive in this relationship today? Gottman connects this to a small daily move: turning toward. When someone says, “I had a strange day,” that is a bid for contact. A living love map hears the invitation. An outdated one hears only noise. Sue Johnson, in Hold Me Tight (2008), adds the attachment layer: in midlife the roles loosen and the question becomes whether we still choose each other as we are now.[3] Growing apart is not always a failure of love. It is often a failure of updating. Two people keep changing. The relationship stays frozen. On Brainz, How Hard Times Turn Long-Term Partners into Roommates and How to Find Your Way Back describes the same quiet shift: two people still sharing a life, but no longer meeting as partners. Happiness cannot be purchased, and neither can connection Material comfort can create ease, but it cannot create presence. When conversations are avoided, distance grows quietly. When one person waits for the other to become different, both stay stuck. When we treat a relationship as a finished product instead of a living process, we stop being curious. In "Gray Divorce: What We Lose and Gain From Midlife Splits," Jocelyn Elise Crowley found that many later-life separations were not driven by a sudden hunger for a new lifestyle.[5] Couples were often asking a simpler, harder question: “What is the value of this marriage now?” That question becomes louder when children no longer organise the days. My own stance is simple, and it is the same stance I bring into coaching: I choose from myself. I do not abandon my inner alignment to keep a form intact. That is not hardness. It is clarity. A relationship can only stay alive if both people are allowed to remain real and if both are willing to meet the real person in front of them. Shifting interests in midlife can widen the gap or open a new chapter. See also: Midlife Crisis: How Changing Interests Impact Relationships and Ways to Resolve Conflicts. The invitation: Meet again, without assumptions Imagine this as a practice, not a fantasy. In every phase, after the wedding, after the first child, after the teenager’s rebellion, after the house grows quiet, you sit down as if you have just been introduced. No assumptions. No “I already know how you are.” No demand that the other person stay who they were at twenty-eight. You ask: Who are you now? What do you dream of in this phase of life? How do you want to be met? What would make you feel happy, respected and alive in this relationship today? This is not naïve romance. It is relational hygiene. Couples who move through transitions well do not stay the same. They renegotiate identity, intimacy, time and meaning. They allow two new adults to appear inside an old bond. A life change becomes livable when people can name what is ending, what is beginning and what still supports them. Nancy Schlossberg, in her 1981 model for analysing human adaptation to transition, describes a transition as a shift in roles, routines and identity.[7] A relationship is no different. If the phase of life changes and the conversation does not, distance is almost inevitable. Would you be happier? Would you still choose each other? Or would honesty reveal that the partnership has already ended and only the habit remains? Those are not cynical questions. They are respectful ones. A relationship deserves truth more than it deserves performance. What about you? Where in your relationship have you stopped being curious? Which phase are you in, and which version of your partner have you stopped updating? Ask yourself, quietly and honestly: What do I dream of now? How do I want to be treated in this phase of my life and this relationship? What would actually make me happy, not five years ago, but today? If you are willing to ask those questions of yourself, you can also ask them of the person beside you. That is where a relationship either renews or tells the truth. In my work, including Sparks in Relationships, this is the heart of the conversation: growth, changing expectations and the mindset shifts needed so a relationship can keep working as life keeps changing. You do not have to stay frozen in an old chapter. You can meet each other again. Footage by Michelle Muus Fotografie at Suitehotel Pincoffs, made possible by the PUT-IT-ON platform. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Lidija Poth Lidija Poth, Transformational Coach Lidija Poth is a transformational coach with an OTHM Level 7 qualification and accreditation from the Association for Coaching (AC) United Kingdom. She is the founder of MyLifeCoachingHub. With two decades shaping urban environments as an architect, city planner, and educator/mentor at TU Delft, she now channels that strategic insight into empowering individuals, executives, high-intelligence professionals, and those recovering from toxic dynamics. Her co-creative approach builds deep trust to unlock personal freedom, authentic leadership, and joy. Through 1:1 coaching, programs, and immersive retreats in Bali and Croatia, she guides clients to reconnect with their true selves and thrive sustainably. Her mission is to ensure no one is left behind in their journey to becoming their best, most aligned version. References: [1] Duvall, E. M. (1957). Family Development. J. B. Lippincott. [2] Gottman, J. M., & Silver, N. (2015). The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Harmony Books. [3] Johnson, S. M. (2008). Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love. Little, Brown Spark. [4] Brown, S. L., & Lin, I. F. (2012). The gray divorce revolution: Rising divorce among middle-aged and older adults, 1990 to 2010. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. [5] Crowley, J. E. (2018). Gray Divorce: What We Lose and Gain From Midlife Splits. University of California Press. [6] Pew Research Center. (2017). Led by Baby Boomers, Divorce Rates Climb for America’s 50+ Population. [7] Schlossberg, N. K. (1981). A model for analyzing human adaptation to transition. The Counseling Psychologist, 9(2), 2-18. [8] The Gottman Institute. Research summaries on relationship satisfaction after the birth of a first child.

Written by Joanna Kristensen, Sex & Relationship Coach Joanna Kristensen is a certified sex coach helping long-term couples revitalize their sex lives and deepen intimacy. She also supports couples in navigating the relationship challenges that can arise after years together. It hurts to know your partner still seeks sexual pleasure but doesn't have much interest in having sex with you. You probably miss feeling desired: knowing your partner wants you without having to ask or wonder. Sex between you has become less frequent. Maybe you're the one who keeps reaching for them, or you've stopped because being turned down hurts. Your partner still watches porn. Something that might once have seemed like a private habit starts to feel personal. You compare yourself with the people on the screen. Has your body changed too much? Has sex with you become predictable? Does your partner simply not find you attractive anymore? It's hard not to feel like you're competing with something you can't compete with: a curated fantasy. But your partner watching porn while your sex life is struggling doesn't mean they've stopped wanting you. Many couples go through this, and you are not alone in feeling this way. It's quite a common challenge, and with openness and understanding, couples often find a way through it together. It means there's something worth understanding, especially if you feel rejected or disconnected. Let's look at what porn might mean to them, what's happening between you, and how to start talking about it. What if it isn't about you? Your feelings are valid. Sex is one of the ways we feel chosen by our partner and close to them, so of course this hurts. But porn and partnered sex don't necessarily meet the same need. One can be quick stimulation, stress relief, or a familiar private routine. The other involves another person, with all the feelings, expectations, and vulnerability that come with sharing intimacy. What might porn be giving them that sex between you isn't? There's no single reason people in long-term relationships watch porn, and sometimes it has very little to do with the relationship. For some, it's simply part of masturbation: familiar, convenient, pleasurable. For others, it's a way to unwind. After a stressful day, in a bad mood, or when they're simply bored, it's a quick way to switch off and feel something good. That can have nothing to do with you, though it can still leave you feeling shut out if it happens often. But sometimes porn offers something that has become harder to find in partnered sex. Think about how different the two experiences can be. When you're alone, you don't have to check whether another person is in the mood, worry about how your body is responding, explain what you want, or risk being turned down. You choose what you watch, how long you spend, and when you finish. For someone who feels stressed, insecure, or under pressure around sex, that can be a relief. Perhaps sex has started to feel stressful. One of you may worry about keeping an erection, reaching orgasm, or satisfying the other, and every attempt at closeness comes with pressure. Porn offers a way out of all that, but it doesn't deal with what's making sex hard between you. Sometimes one of you wants sex more often than the other, and porn becomes where that difference ends up. Novelty plays a part too. A screen offers endless variety, while sex with the same person can fall into a routine: same place, same positions, same sequence of moves. Routine is normal, and it can change. It's worth asking when the two of you last tried something new. These reasons can overlap, and you can't tell from the outside which one applies to your partner. That's why asking works better than guessing. When does porn become a problem between you? Porn use doesn't mean a relationship is in trouble, and couples feel differently about it. What matters is whether it supplements your sex life or replaces it, and whether either of you feels hurt or disconnected. Signs worth paying attention to: Porn repeatedly takes the place of partnered intimacy that one or both of you want. You feel rejected or lonely, and attempts to talk go nowhere. Your partner shuts down or gets defensive when you bring it up. Your partner hides it or lies when you ask, or breaks an agreement you made. Your partner wants to cut back, has tried and can't, or carries on despite real consequences. None of these tells the whole story on its own. Stress, medication, health problems, pain, hormonal changes, resentment, and different levels of desire can all affect your sex life too, so don't assume porn is the cause just because both are happening at once. If you are unsure what's behind the change, try to notice any patterns. For example, keep track of when your partner turns to porn and what else has been happening in your lives at the time. Having an open conversation about these patterns can help you both see if porn use is part of a larger picture, and make it easier to understand what you each need. What if you're the one who watches porn? If you're the one watching, ask yourself what you get from it, especially if sex between you has changed or disappeared. Is it simply a source of pleasure, or has it become an easier way to meet your needs without dealing with pressure, anxiety, rejection, or the closeness you miss but haven't asked for? If it's creating distance between you, be honest with yourself about its role, and be willing to talk about it with your partner. How do you start finding your way back to each other? 1. Talk about what you're experiencing If your partner’s porn use is hurting you, don't pretend you're fine with it. Start the conversation when you're both relaxed and able to talk. Lead with curiosity rather than accusation. You could say: "I've noticed we haven't been physically connecting much lately, but I can see you're still meeting your sexual needs in other ways. It's making me feel disconnected from you. What's been going on for you?" Give your partner room to answer. It may be hard to hear, or they may not fully understand their own behavior yet. You might find that porn has become a habit they never connected to your sex life. You might find anxiety, a sexual difficulty, or a fear of rejection that neither of you knew how to talk about. Or you may find you have very different expectations about sex and porn. 2. Get curious about your sex life together Instead of focusing only on porn, look at what sex has been like for both of you lately. Does it feel enjoyable, pressured, predictable, or disconnected? Does one person always initiate? Does one of you worry that initiating will lead to an expectation of intercourse? Have you stopped or never really started talking about what you enjoy and what you'd like to change? Sometimes sex has become linked with pressure, disappointment, or a sense of obligation, and that's what is holding desire back. If so, cutting back on porn alone won't fix it. You may need to rebuild a sense of safety, pleasure, and shared interest in your sex life. 3. Be honest about what you need and what you're comfortable with You're allowed to have feelings and preferences about porn in your relationship. You might be fine with it in general but unhappy with how it's affecting your sex life. You might feel differently about secrecy, the kind of content, or how much time it takes up. Talk about what matters to each of you, and say it plainly: "I need to feel like our physical relationship matters to you. I'd like us to figure out how to prioritize each other again." It helps to separate three things. A personal boundary is what you need and what you're willing to accept. A request is something you ask your partner to consider. An agreement is something you both choose. Be clear about what you need, what you're asking for, and what you're willing to live with. The aim is an arrangement that respects both of you and protects the relationship, not one person giving in. 4. Take it step by step One conversation probably won't solve this. Start with what you actually miss, then ask for one small change you both want more of. Is it having sex more often? Being touched during the day? Feeling wanted without always having to initiate? Try watching something together if you're both genuinely curious about it, and neither of you feels pressured; it may open up a conversation about fantasies or things you'd like to explore. But it's not a solution everyone will want, and you don't need to do it to rebuild your sexual connection. 5. Get support if it isn't working If every conversation turns into an argument, your partner denies watching porn or dismisses your concerns about its impact on the relationship, or porn use feels out of control and is affecting daily life, get support. A therapist who works with sexual behavior can help with compulsive patterns, and a sex and relationship coach can help with the conversation and with rebuilding intimacy. You don't have to wait until it feels unbearable. So, does your partner prefer porn to you? Not necessarily. What looks like a preference may be about convenience, stress, habit, novelty, or something that has become difficult between you. It may also show a real difference in what you each want from your sex life. You can't know which just by looking at what your partner watches. Pay attention to how you feel, what has changed between you, and whether you can talk about it honestly. If you're the partner who feels rejected, your feelings are valid. If you're the one who watches, try to listen before you defend yourself. Underneath it all, you both probably want the same thing: to be able to say what you need, to be understood, and to feel wanted. Key takeaways Watching porn doesn't automatically mean your partner finds you less attractive or desires you less. Porn becomes a concern when it starts getting in the way of the sex life or connection you want together. People watch porn for different reasons, from pleasure and novelty to stress relief or avoiding difficulties around sex. If you're feeling rejected, tell your partner how you feel and talk about what's happening between you instead of assuming you know why. You can respect each other's needs while being honest about what you're comfortable with and what you need from the relationship. If porn is becoming hard to control or is affecting your relationship, professional support can help you understand the pattern and work through its impact. If you and your partner haven't been able to have this conversation, I offer free discovery calls where we can explore what's really happening and decide where to go from here. These calls are completely confidential and judgment-free, so you can feel safe sharing whatever is on your mind. Reach out if you'd like support taking that next step. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Joanna Kristensen Joanna Kristensen, Sex & Relationship Coach Joanna Kristensen is a certified sex coach specializing in sex and intimacy for long-term couples. She works with couples where sex has become infrequent or stopped altogether, where mismatched desire or physical challenges are affecting confidence and connection, or where patterns of avoidance and pressure have quietly taken hold. She also supports couples navigating life transitions that can reshape both sex and intimacy. Having experienced infertility, parenthood, infidelity, and her own midlife transition, she brings a grounded understanding of how life changes a couple’s sex life and intimacy and how to restore both in a lasting way. Her philosophy is "Don’t replace it, repair it."

Written by Diana Beaulieu, Womb Healing Teacher Diana Beaulieu is the founder of the InnerWomb Method, an innovative healing modality empowering women to awaken their embodied feminine power through Womb Healing. She trains practitioners globally to bring profound emotional and energetic transformation to women’s lives. How might shame and unresolved pain shape patterns of power and harm? Through a spiritual and energetic lens, this article explores masculine and feminine trauma dynamics. A note before we begin: none of what is described here excuses the act of sexual violation. It offers a deeper way to understand the collective river of sexual trauma in which we all swim, and an empowering framework for survivors. The river we swim in In my last article, I wrote that trauma is an energetic event. We are an ecosystem of mind, body and energy, and lasting healing means tending to all three. But there is one more dimension: trauma does not only live inside each of us. It flows between us, along gendered lines, down the generations, carried in a collective energy field our grandparents inherited and our children will inherit. Let me define the two dynamics. The masculine trauma dynamic is the pattern of discharging unresolved trauma outward: pain that has never been felt or metabolised is compressed in the body until it becomes a charge, then released into another person's body, energy or life through force, control, words or sexuality. The feminine trauma dynamic is its mirror: receiving and holding what is discharged, carrying the undigested pain of another as though it were one's own. One pole discharges; the other receives and holds. One distinction must come first. Masculine is not male, and feminine is not female. In this understanding, they are energetic poles, ways of being, of giving and receiving, of responding to trauma, rather than biological categories. Both poles live in every one of us. A woman can express the masculine trauma dynamic; a man can express the feminine one. It is a spectrum, not a binary, and not limited to sexuality: it appears anywhere one group holds power over another, sometimes as the drip of poison, the joke or passing comment that quietly erodes another's sense of self. Sometimes a man absorbs the feminine's trauma into his own body. Trauma moves between poles, and the poles live in us all. Six thousand years: The wound that shaped us all Why did the masculine dissociate from his pain, and why did patriarchy diminish men as surely as it subordinated women? We must go back before the wound, to a humanity organised around wholeness rather than trauma. The blueprint for that wholeness, I believe, is in us now, so healing is never building something from nothing; it is a returning. In that original design, the masculine is the sun: the solar force that continually gives, pouring out warmth, light and pure creative love. The feminine is the earth: receiving the sun's rays on every inch of her skin and alchemising that light into life, for life is the expression of the earth receiving the sun. Neither stands above the other: it is a dance of equals, and sexuality is its most profound expression. Then, roughly six thousand years ago, in what is now Iraq and the wider Middle East, peaceful cultures with gender equality gave way to city-states, hierarchy, patriarchy and enslavement. Much has been said of how the feminine suffered, and she did. But men were wounded too: forced into violence and warfare, enslaved, bound into serfdom and later into modern wage slavery. The move from being free and sovereign to being subjugated was humiliating and shaming. That shame had to go somewhere. Energetically, the masculine was shut down into the lower centres, losing connection to the heart. To keep functioning, he dissociated: live in the upper body, and push the pain down. For emotion is energy, and what is pushed down settles, like dirt in water, into the pelvis, the emotional sink where the hardest feelings come to rest: guilt, rage, fear and shame, the most difficult of all to acknowledge. The masculine trauma dynamic: Where the pain goes The masculine trauma dynamic plays out in many arenas of life: the abuse of political power, control and manipulation, verbal abuse that belittles another until a sense of wrongness is internalised, and violence that invades bodies. All express the same archetype, the tyrant, and the abuse of masculine power and superiority, whether through physical strength or political position. The pain pools in the belly, and most of all in the sexual energy centre, the hara. Sexual release, orgasm, is one of the biggest sources of emotional and energetic release available to him, and so becomes his way of regulating himself. Here an unfortunate alchemy takes place: pleasure and the discharge of shadow emotions become intertwined, felt not only as stimulation but as relief, the unburdening of toxic energy that has built up to an almost unbearable degree. In that moment, whatever is undigested in him, the aggression, pain, fear, guilt and shame, is projected into the feminine sexual space of the womb, the container of life. Trying to soothe himself, he compounds the wounding, feeding a cycle of pain that never ends. And here is the tragedy at the heart of the mechanism: discharge does not heal. Releasing energy into the feminine does nothing to heal the masculine; it wounds him further. Temporary relief is replaced by a growing shame, for deep within he knows he is the sun and that he is violating the source of life. The cycle turns: trauma projected outward, never healed, just passed on. The shame that cannot be owned Underneath the relief, an unspoken shame begins to stir: a sense of having violated something sacred, of not being worthy to enter the feminine space at all. With the womb as earth and the hara as sun, this shame says: the sun is not worthy to shine upon the earth. Because this shame cannot be owned, it is dissociated, out of reach and controlling the masculine from deep within, it is projected onto the feminine. This is one reason the feminine body and sexuality have been blamed and shamed throughout history: the shame was never hers to begin with. This projection, writ large, is also the root of scapegoating. Underneath the aggression lie two unconscious needs: to reunite with the feminine, the sun's deep need to be received by the earth, and to discharge what has built up within his emotional body and hara space. Twisted together with the projection that the feminine herself is shameful, these needs can swell into an urge to enter by force, all the easier where the one before him is a child or a woman. Entitlement rushes in where shame is not owned. And yet the tyrant in this map is not a being of real power, but someone weak and collapsed inside, using force to take power over others. Any energy that comes from the perpetrator, sexual or otherwise, arises from that inner collapse. This is not an excuse: the force was never evidence of true power. And sexuality is no longer dialogue, nor a dance, but the expression of one person's right over another, a pattern written even into the history of medicine, in gynaecology's invasion of the female form. What happens within the feminine, and how does the river run clean again? That is part 2. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Diana Beaulieu Diana Beaulieu, Womb Healing Teacher Diana Beaulieu studied Biology and Human Sciences at Oxford University and brings over 20 years of experience in anthropology, writing, shamanism, and energy medicine. As the founder of the InnerWomb Method, she has trained practitioners in over 40 countries, including doctors, coaches, and therapists. Her pioneering work blends somatic healing, shamanic practice, and quantum transformation to help women reclaim their feminine power. Diana is recognized as a leading global authority in the field of Womb Healing.

Written by Paul Corke, Leadership Innovator, Author & Speaker Paul Corke is an executive coach, author, speaker, and leading expert in mindset, leadership, and innovation, as well as the managing director of Paul Corke International. With 25 years of award-winning corporate experience, he specializes in organizational effectiveness, coaching, employee engagement, talent management, and leadership development across global markets. How much of the person you are today have you consciously chosen, and how much has been chosen for you? It is a question I have been reflecting on increasingly through my work on authentic leadership, and one that I think deserves more consideration than we often give it. We hear so much about the importance of being authentic. Be yourself. Be true to your values. Bring your whole self to work. These are familiar messages, and for the most part I agree with them. But there is something that has always interested me about the advice to simply be yourself. What if the person you believe yourself to be is not entirely the person you would have chosen to become? From the moment we enter the world, we begin to be shaped by it. Our upbringing, education, relationships, culture, experiences and the expectations of others all influence how we see ourselves. We develop beliefs about what is acceptable, what success looks like, how we should behave and what other people expect from us. Some of these influences serve us well. Others may limit us without us even realising. Over time, the behaviours we adopt become habits, our habits become preferences, and eventually we begin to describe them as part of our personality. We tell ourselves, and others, that this is simply who we are. But is it? Perhaps authenticity is not quite as simple as being ourselves. Perhaps it begins with understanding how we became ourselves in the first place. The person we become In my previous articles, The Intelligence of Intent and The Will to Love, I explored two ideas that I believe are fundamental to leadership that is ready for the future. The first is that leadership begins within. Before we can lead others effectively, we need to develop a greater awareness of our own thinking, beliefs and intentions. The second is that leadership requires a willingness to participate in life, to care, to contribute and to take responsibility for the wellbeing and development of others. Authenticity brings these ideas together. If we are to lead intentionally, and if we genuinely want to make a positive difference to the lives of others, surely we must first understand who we are and what is driving us. Yet I wonder how often we really do. Throughout our lives, we learn to adapt. We adapt to our families, our friendships, our workplaces and the organisations we become part of. We learn what is rewarded, what is discouraged and what behaviour appears to help us succeed. In leadership, this can become particularly interesting. We develop an image of what a leader should look like. Perhaps confident, decisive, assertive, charismatic or always in control. We observe leaders we admire and sometimes begin to adopt their behaviours, believing that this is what leadership requires. There is nothing inherently wrong with learning from others. Much of our development comes from observing, reflecting and experimenting with different approaches. The difficulty arises when we begin to confuse the role we are playing with the person we actually are. I have worked with many leaders who have become highly successful by adapting to the expectations around them. Yet sometimes, when we begin to explore their identity, values and preferences, there is a realisation that the way they have learned to lead is not necessarily the way they would naturally choose to lead. They have become very good at being the leader they believe they are expected to be. But somewhere along the way, they may have lost sight of themselves. The authenticity gap This is something I explored in my second edition of Leadership Boxed, Authenticity: Leading True to Yourself. I think of it as the authenticity gap, the distance between who we are and who we feel we have to be. We can experience this gap in many aspects of life, not just leadership. It might be the career we pursue because it meets somebody else's definition of success. The behaviours we adopt because we want to belong. The opinions we keep to ourselves because we fear judgement. Or the expectations we continue to meet long after we have stopped questioning whether they are right for us. The wider that gap becomes, the more energy we can spend maintaining a version of ourselves that doesn't quite feel like us. There is an interesting connection here with what I have previously described as the happiness gap. We can spend much of our lives pursuing things we believe will make us happy, only to discover that achievement and fulfilment are not necessarily the same thing. Authenticity asks us to consider whether we are pursuing a life, and a form of leadership, that is genuinely aligned with who we are. Not who we think we should be. Not who others want us to be. But who we consciously choose to become. Nature doesn't try to become something else Throughout this series of articles, I have often turned to nature as a way of exploring leadership. There is something about spending time in the natural world that encourages us to reflect on our own lives. Perhaps it is the absence of many of the expectations, distractions and pressures that occupy so much of our everyday thinking. A tree does not try to become another tree. It grows according to its nature, while continually adapting to the environment around it. Its roots provide stability, but its branches respond to the conditions in which it finds itself. It may bend towards the light, withstand difficult weather or change its pattern of growth as the seasons unfold. I think this offers an interesting perspective on authenticity. Being authentic doesn't mean remaining unchanged. It means understanding what should remain constant while recognising what needs to evolve. Our values may provide the roots, but our behaviour needs to be capable of adapting to the world around us. That is particularly important in leadership. Authenticity is not an excuse One of the things I have become increasingly conscious of through my coaching work is the way authenticity can sometimes be misunderstood. I have heard leaders describe themselves as direct, demanding, impatient or outspoken and then justify the impact of those behaviours by saying, "That's just who I am." But is that authenticity? Or is it simply a reluctance to consider how our behaviour affects others? For me, authentic leadership has never meant having permission to behave however we choose. We can be true to ourselves while still recognising that other people experience the world differently. We can be naturally direct and learn to communicate with greater sensitivity. We can prefer time to reflect while recognising that others may need more immediate engagement. We can be highly driven without expecting everybody around us to share the same pace or priorities. This is where awareness of ourselves becomes so important. Understanding our values, strengths and preferences helps us recognise what comes naturally, what gives us energy and where we may need to make a more conscious effort. But awareness alone is not enough. We also need to understand our presence, the impact we have on others and our willingness to adapt. In Leadership Boxed, I explored five interconnected areas of authenticity: values, strengths, preferences, presence and adaptation. At the centre of these sits alignment. Because authenticity is not simply about knowing ourselves. It is about bringing greater consistency between who we are, what we believe and how we choose to behave. Perhaps most importantly, it is about recognising that our authenticity should never come at the expense of somebody else's. The experience of authenticity There is a thought that has stayed with me throughout my work on this subject. Authenticity is experienced by others. We may believe ourselves to be authentic. We may describe ourselves as honest, open, respectful or guided by our values. But ultimately, other people experience our leadership through what we do. They experience it in the conversations we have, the decisions we make, the promises we keep and the way we respond when things don't go according to plan. They notice whether we behave consistently when under pressure. Whether we listen to opinions that challenge our own. Whether we are prepared to admit that we have made a mistake. Whether the person who turns up in one situation is recognisably the same person who turns up in another. This doesn't mean behaving identically in every circumstance. Different situations require different approaches, and leadership would be incredibly ineffective if we failed to recognise that. But there should be something consistent beneath the behaviour. A sense of integrity, a connection to our values. A recognisable humanity. The psychologist Carl Rogers placed great importance on congruence, the alignment between our inner experience and outward expression, alongside empathy and acceptance in creating conditions for personal growth. I think there is something particularly relevant here for leadership. When people experience us as genuine, when they feel respected and when they believe they can express themselves without constantly having to protect who they are, we begin to create the conditions in which they can grow. Perhaps that is one of the greatest responsibilities of an authentic leader. Not simply to become more fully ourselves, but to create the space for others to do the same. The courage to be yourself There is another dimension to authenticity that I think we sometimes overlook. Courage. It can take courage to question beliefs we have held for much of our lives. Courage to acknowledge that the version of success we have been pursuing may no longer be the one we want. Courage to challenge expectations or admit that something we once believed about ourselves may no longer be true. It can take courage to stop performing. Particularly when that performance has brought us recognition, status or success. I think this becomes increasingly important as we develop as leaders. There comes a point when we have to decide whether we are going to continue meeting the expectations of others or begin to lead more consciously from our own values and sense of purpose. That doesn't mean rejecting everything we have learned or abandoning the responsibilities we hold. It means becoming more intentional about the person we bring to those responsibilities. Which brings us back to psychological intelligence (PsyQ) and the importance of choosing who we intend to become. Because we are not fixed. We are continually learning, evolving and becoming. Authenticity is not about returning to some perfect, original version of ourselves that existed before life influenced us. It is about recognising those influences, understanding what matters to us now and making more conscious choices about how we want to live and lead. Am I leading as myself? There is a question I would encourage every leader to spend some time considering. Am I leading as myself, or am I leading as the person I think I am supposed to be? It sounds simple, but I suspect the answer is not always straightforward. Perhaps there are situations where you feel completely comfortable being yourself, and others where you feel the need to perform. Perhaps there are behaviours that have served you well professionally but no longer reflect the leader you want to become. Or perhaps there are parts of yourself that you have kept hidden because you have never been entirely sure they belong in leadership. I would encourage you to explore those questions with curiosity rather than judgement. Authenticity begins with awareness, but it develops through reflection, choice and action. We do not have to change everything about ourselves. Nor should we assume that everything we have become is somehow wrong. Sometimes the greatest development comes from recognising that we already have more to offer than we have allowed ourselves to believe. Leading true to yourself As I look towards the future of leadership, I believe authenticity will become increasingly important. In a world where artificial intelligence can generate information, replicate communication styles and produce increasingly sophisticated content, the human experience of leadership will matter enormously. People will still want to know whether they can trust us. Whether we mean what we say, whether our actions reflect our values and whether we genuinely care. Whether they can be themselves in our presence. This is why authenticity sits so naturally within my thinking around Leadership 5.0 and the leader who is ready for the future. The future will undoubtedly require us to become more adaptable, more technologically capable and more comfortable with uncertainty. But none of those things should require us to lose our sense of self. In fact, I would argue that the more complex the world becomes, the more important it is that we understand who we are and what we stand for. We need roots strong enough to hold us steady, while remaining flexible enough to grow. Perhaps that is the real challenge of authentic leadership. Not simply asking ourselves who we are today, but considering who we are becoming, why we are becoming that person and whether the choices we make are genuinely our own. Because leadership is not about becoming somebody else. It is about becoming more consciously ourselves, while helping others find the confidence and freedom to do the same. "Lead true to yourself. Create the space for others to do the same." Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Paul Corke Paul Corke, Leadership Innovator, Author & Speaker Paul Corke is an executive coach, author, and speaker, and is considered to be a leading expert on mindset, leadership, and innovation. He is also the managing director of Paul Corke International, an innovative executive coaching business. He previously spent 25 years in the corporate world with award-winning results, specializing in organizational effectiveness, coaching, employee engagement, talent management, and leadership development, with experience in the UK, Ireland, Europe, the US, and the Middle East.

Written by Iryna Vilgash, Founder & CEO, Qualified Executive Coach Iryna Vilgash is a serial entrepreneur in leadership and global education. She is a qualified Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 7 executive coach. Through MINDS Coaching and Consulting, she helps executives strengthen their leadership effectiveness, develop greater self-awareness, and drive meaningful change within their organizations. Investors scrutinise financial projections and market potential, but leadership readiness often receives less attention. This article explores why independent leadership advisory should be integral to protecting invested capital and strengthening the capacity to deliver sustainable growth. The risk behind the investment Investors assess financial risks, market potential, technology, business models and growth projections before committing capital. One critical question deserves greater attention: Does the leadership team have the capacity to deliver what the investment promises? A compelling investment pitch does not guarantee organisational readiness. Securing capital does not necessarily mean a founder has the leadership capacity to manage it effectively and deliver on the investment thesis. When leadership capability does not meet the demands of growth driven by investment, the financial consequences can be substantial: accelerated cash burn, delayed commercialisation and revenue growth, inefficient capital deployment and, ultimately, reduced investor returns. Leadership risk is investment risk. Accountability for managing it must be clearly defined. Who should finance leadership risk reduction before leadership limitations compromise invested capital, programme outcomes and long-term value creation? When founder strength becomes organisational risk Successful founders are often decisive, ambitious and deeply committed to their vision. As companies scale, founder dependency can become a constraint on organisational performance. A key warning signal is the gap between formal authority and actual decision-making. Executive roles and governance structures may exist, while critical decisions remain concentrated in the founder's hands. Consider a common governance scenario: a newly appointed executive is accountable for commercial growth but cannot approve key decisions without the founder's approval. Responsibility has been delegated, but authority has not. As the organisation grows, this disconnect can delay critical decisions and weaken executive accountability. This becomes particularly challenging during the transition from founder to chief executive officer (CEO), when personal control must evolve into delegation, executive accountability and scalable leadership systems. The critical question is whether leadership can recognise and close these gaps before they become structural risks to growth and investment performance. Gaps that are recognised and addressed may reflect normal growing pains. Those that persist or are actively defended may signal deeper leadership and governance risks. The investor's blind spot The ability to select a promising investment does not automatically provide the expertise required to strengthen the leadership capacity needed to deliver on its investment thesis. This challenge is particularly evident in companies led by founders where decision-making remains highly centralised. The leadership approach that contributed to early success may become a barrier to organisational development and scaling. Even when founders recognise the need to adapt, they may be reluctant to discuss leadership limitations openly with investors. Through international investment and innovation forums, high-level government and institutional engagements, and direct discussions with investors and ecosystem leaders, I have observed that leadership risk is recognised, but this recognition does not always translate into systematic risk management. From my perspective, leadership risk management must be as integral to investment strategy as financial risk management. Beyond pitch preparation: The leadership readiness gap Startup support often prioritises fundraising, pitch preparation and investment readiness, while the leadership capacity required to deliver on investment commitments receives less systematic attention. Investment readiness helps founders secure capital. Leadership readiness helps them deliver on it. This gap is particularly relevant for startups driven by research, university spinouts and technology ventures transitioning from research and development towards commercialisation. As these ventures advance, leadership must combine entrepreneurial thinking with the ability to manage invested capital, navigate growing organisational complexity and assume greater accountability for results. A technology may be ready for its next stage of development while the organisation behind it is not. The same leadership readiness gap extends to companies backed by investment and complex reconstruction projects. For Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction, involving international investment, institutional funding and partnerships across borders, leadership and governance readiness must be assessed alongside financial and technical project readiness. Continuous independent leadership and organisational advisory can then strengthen execution capability throughout implementation. Funding for such advisory should not be limited to private investors. International financial institutions, institutional partners and donors can also finance independent leadership and organisational support within recovery and reconstruction programmes. Leadership due diligence: Assessing the capacity to evolve Leadership due diligence should assess more than executive credentials, track records and management team composition. It should examine how leaders make decisions under pressure, exercise accountability and adapt as organisational complexity increases. My approach combines nearly nine years of experience in corporate insurance, including aviation and complex corporate risks, with a background in education, an Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 7 qualification in Executive Coaching and Mentoring, and extensive corporate leadership and entrepreneurial experience. I assess the breadth of a leader's strategic thinking, the consistency between commitments and actions, and the ability to translate strategic decisions into results under challenging conditions. Equally important are behavioural patterns, emotional regulation and interpersonal judgement. These influence decision quality, executive relationships and the ability to manage conflict, accountability and organisational change. Past success does not automatically demonstrate readiness for greater leadership responsibility. The ability and willingness to evolve should be treated as indicators relevant to investment. Who should invest in reducing leadership risk? The investment industry already recognises the value of operating partners, executive development and portfolio support. The opportunity is to integrate leadership risk management more systematically across the investment lifecycle. My proposal is to establish independent leadership and organisational advisory funded by investors as an integral part of portfolio risk management and value creation. If investors finance growth, they should also invest in the leadership capacity required to deliver it. Independent advisory provides founders and executives with a confidential professional environment to examine difficult decisions, challenge assumptions and address leadership limitations that may be difficult to discuss with investors or boards. Funding by investors must not mean control by investors. The advisory mandate should define confidentiality boundaries, agreed organisational objectives and how progress will be reported without disclosing confidential executive discussions. Professional independence must be protected while organisational progress remains open to assessment. But what happens when leadership cannot adapt to the demands of scaling? Avoiding difficult decisions may expose invested capital to greater risk than addressing leadership limitations early. Independent advisory can help assess whether leadership capabilities can be developed or whether adjustments to executive responsibilities, leadership roles or team composition should be considered. Decisions concerning leadership changes must remain within the company's governance structures, informed by independent assessment and demonstrated progress. The objective is not to preserve existing leadership structures at any cost, but to ensure that the organisation has the capacity to execute its strategy and meet its investment commitments. From investment selection to continuous leadership advisory Leadership due diligence before investment. Continuous leadership and organisational advisory after investment. Before committing capital, investors should assess leadership risks that may affect the investment thesis, including founder dependency, actual authority to make decisions, governance maturity, executive capability and the capacity to evolve. After investment, independent advisory should strengthen the leadership and organisational capacity required to deliver on the investment thesis, particularly during transitions from founder to chief executive officer (CEO), commercialisation, international expansion and scaling. Leadership and organisational advisory must be aligned with the investment thesis and the company's strategic priorities. Its impact should be assessed against agreed objectives, using measurable improvements in decision quality, executive accountability, governance effectiveness and organisational execution, rather than participation in advisory sessions alone. The objective is to identify and address leadership risks early, before they undermine strategic execution, capital efficiency and investment value over the long term. A strategic choice for investors Capital and investment conviction cannot compensate for leadership limitations. When leadership fails to deliver, capital is exposed to losses and expected returns are seriously threatened. As organisations become more complex, leadership capability and accountability must evolve accordingly. Leadership risk management must be integral to investment strategy, not a series of isolated interventions in response to underperformance. At MINDS Coaching & Consulting, we advocate integrating independent leadership and organisational advisory funded by investors into portfolio risk management and value creation strategies. Our approach focuses on leadership readiness, executive decision-making, governance maturity and organisational execution, strengthening the capacity of companies backed by investment to meet their strategic and financial commitments. Investing in growth without investing in the leadership capacity to deliver it leaves a critical investment risk insufficiently managed. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Iryna Vilgash Iryna Vilgash, Founder & CEO, Qualified Executive Coach Iryna Vilgash is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of a leadership company, MINDS Coaching & Consulting, and a study abroad agency, Wake Up, both based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and well positioned for global collaboration. She holds an internationally recognised ILM Level 7 qualification in executive coaching and mentoring, regulated by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) in England. Before starting her first business in 2014, Iryna Vilgash was a key player in corporate sales within the insurance and commercial property sectors for nearly a decade. She is quite assertive in standing out as an authentic voice providing leadership solutions, transformational learning and career enhancement both in Ukraine and worldwide.

Written by Lydia Linise, Founder of MHB Academy Lydia Linise is the UK's leading pioneer in halal brow bleaching, a faith-aligned beauty technique she brought to light and has taught to 300+ professionals across 15+ countries through her academy, MHB Academy. Through her courses and mentorship programme, she helps beauty entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses rooted in their values. The door had just closed behind my only client of the week. I sat down on the sofa. The massage table was still in the middle of my living room because my living room was my salon. I just stared at it. Hmm. I'm not happy with that. It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't amazing either. It's not invisible like I wanted. Something's not right. It's not how I want it. Why can't I get the result I want? One client. The whole week. She had paid me £50, smiled, said thank you, and left. I was sitting there, frustrated. I turned to my husband and told him that I wasn't happy with the result. That something wasn't working. He looked at me and said, "You can't keep charging £50 like this. You need to do another training course. You need to do something." He was trying to help, bless him. But there was one problem: there was no other training. Nobody was teaching this. Nobody was even doing it professionally. So I said no. "No. I'm going to keep going. That's how I'll learn. If I have to refund girls, I'll refund them. I don't care." Because my goal wasn't to make money straight away. My goal was to get it right. That night, sitting on that sofa, I understood something: nobody was going to understand my vision. Nobody could see how far this could go. Except me. I could have stopped right there. Honestly, it would have been the logical thing to do. I didn't. That's the only reason I'm still here today. Let me take you back I arrived in England in 2017. Freshly married, freshly converted, and alone with my husband. I had lived in France my whole life. My English? A catastrophe. I went to English classes at college with other foreigners. The funny thing is, I could understand the other foreigners. But the native speakers? Nothing. I had to learn the language all over again. I couldn't find a job. So I ended up working in French, in debt collection for a big company. I was paying over £200 a month just for the train to get there. But at least I started making my first friends at work. I felt a little less alone. The makeup artist who didn't believe in herself On the side, I had a passion for makeup. So I thought, why not start a makeup business? The problem was, I didn't believe in myself. Every time I got a client, I almost cancelled. I'm not good enough for this. If I could do it for free, I did it for free. Then one day I told myself: first things first, you need to learn English. So I started taking clients just to practise. Because with clients, you have no choice. You have to talk. That's how I really learned English: chatting with clients. Little by little, I stepped out of my comfort zone. I said yes to photoshoots, student projects, and brands. My confidence started to grow. But here's what I didn't understand back then: I wasn't running a business. I was enjoying the moment, posting before and after photos, doing tutorials on my own face and following trends. That's being a beauty influencer. It has nothing to do with being a business owner. I just didn't know the difference yet. The coffee that transformed my beauty business One day, over coffee, I was telling a friend I couldn't manage to quit my job and do makeup full time. She said, "Why don't you offer brows? Women already do it at home. You could use it to bring people to your makeup page." I thought it was a brilliant idea. That same night, on my phone, on the sofa, while everyone was asleep, I searched everywhere. Halal brows. Brow bleaching. Decolouration. I found only one woman doing it, in London. She didn't teach. So I watched her videos over and over again, trying to work out what she was using. I bought my first products that very night. The cheapest bleach I could find, cheap henna, and lamination kits from Amazon. I practised on myself first. Then my sister-in-law agreed to be my guinea pig. We were on her sofa, in her living room, with all the products on a towel on the floor. That's how it started. Then I tried on a colleague. I burned her. But I told myself: no, I have to keep going. £400 that felt like a fortune By then, I had left my job and I was on Universal Credit. So I started selling things from home to pay for my first training course. My mum helped me too. It was a £400 online course with an Australian trainer. £400 was huge for me at the time. But it was transformational. Everything I thought I knew from social media? It wasn't even the tip of the iceberg. Then I opened my Instagram page. My first posts featured my sister-in-law, my colleague, and me. That's it. I did everything to find clients. I followed every girl in Bolton wearing a hijab. I printed flyers and put them on cars all around my area. The next day, I found them on the ground. Never mind. I posted in every Facebook group. I ran ads. I did giveaways. Slowly, one client here, one client there. That's where you found me at the start of this story: on that sofa, after my only client of the week, frustrated with the result. I didn't stop I filmed everything because my trainer had told us to, so we could see our progress and where we went wrong. The few clients who were happy started talking. They brought their sister, their mum, their neighbour. I posted every single day. But I realised it wasn't enough. So I called my mum, who still had all my marketing and communication notes from my studies in her garage, and asked her to bring them next time she visited. There I was, rereading my old lessons and applying them to my page. I learned about hooks, content and video editing. I spent hours, days, editing before-and-after videos. My vision was so clear, and my page didn't reflect it yet. Very early on, I also got someone to help with my page, and we built a strategy together. I understood quickly: alone, I wouldn't make it. I had to invest in my skills. Then Eid happened Six months later, Ramadan came, then Eid. Word of mouth exploded. Everyone wanted their brows done for Eid. I was fully booked. That was the trigger for everything else. They loved their brows, so they came back. Every month, every two months. Meanwhile, I kept training in the technique. Getting a proper qualification that would allow me to get insurance without having to wax or be waxed was a real battle. Nobody would agree to it. Then London Lash said yes. I'm so grateful to them. Soon I was seeing five or six clients a day. Sometimes ten days in a row. I moved from the living room to my son's bedroom when he started nursery. I realised I was earning more than I had in any job I'd ever had. There was a real opportunity here. My biggest boosters When I got pregnant with my third, I decided to start teaching. But I didn't want to just teach. I wanted to be the best. So I got my Level 3 qualification in education. Months of learning, videos and simulations. I spent my whole pregnancy building my courses, online and in person. Then I launched. Honestly, that baby was a huge barakah. Without him, I wouldn't have launched my courses. After he was born, I hit my first six figures. I moved into my studio. Now I'm investing in my own products. My children have been my biggest boosters. Sincerely. Why I'll never go back I would rather go back to Universal Credit than work for someone else again. When I see women frustrated at work, people fired like pawns, women stuck in situations, relationships, marriages because they don't have their own money, I can't. Because here's what I know now: even if my business collapsed tomorrow, I could build another one. The skills don't go anywhere. This journey taught me so much. About myself, about the world we live in, about business. Financial independence isn't a luxury anymore. It's a necessity. I could never go back. I'm so grateful. What I wish for every woman That's exactly what I wish for every woman, Muslim or not: get trained. Get a skill that lets you earn your own money, independently. Because that's the real key. Having the choice. The choice to stay, or to leave when something doesn't feel right. Whether it's leaving a marriage, a country, a city or a job. You need to have the choice. Now it's your turn If you're reading this and a little voice inside you is saying, “That could be me,” I want you to know: it can. I started with £50, barely any English, and one client a week. Follow me on Instagram for more info! Read more from Lydia Linise Lydia Linise, Founder of MHB Academy Lydia Linise is the UK's leading pioneer in halal brow bleaching, a faith-aligned grooming technique she brought to light and built an entire training academy around. As the founder of MHB Academy, she has trained 300+ beauty professionals across 15+ countries, helping them add an exclusive, in-demand service to their practice. A French-born revert and mother of three, Lydia built her business from the ground up during nap times, proving that faith, femininity, and entrepreneurship are not just compatible, but powerful together. Through her courses, mentorship, and podcast "Become the Reference," she is on a mission to make halal brow bleaching a global industry standard.

Written by Tatiana Aleobua, RN, Reiki Practitioner, Wellness & Nutrition Coach Tatiana Aleobua is a registered nurse, certified Reiki practitioner, and certified NASM wellness and nutrition coach with over a decade of medical experience that shaped the foundation of her holistic wellness business. She supports individuals through integrative mind, body, and energy-based care. “Everything happens in divine timing.” For many people, this familiar expression offers comfort during periods of uncertainty, disappointment, and transition. It acknowledges that life does not always unfold according to our expectations and that some experiences require patience. Yet what happens when waiting becomes a habitual response rather than a temporary necessity? When hesitation is interpreted as divine timing, fear as patience, or avoidance as surrender, it becomes important to examine what is guiding our decisions. An important part of spiritual growth is learning to distinguish between trusting the process and declining to participate in it. Faith and personal responsibility need not be opposing forces; they can support one another. Understanding divine timing Divine timing is often understood as the belief that certain experiences, opportunities, and relationships unfold when the time is right. For those who embrace this perspective, it can offer reassurance when circumstances lie beyond their control. Trusting divine timing, however, does not require passivity. An opportunity may call for preparation, a meaningful relationship may require emotional maturity, and greater financial stability may involve thoughtful planning and consistent effort. Faith can sustain us through uncertainty, while action helps us prepare for the possibilities ahead. Each has a role to play. When patience becomes procrastination Patience allows us to tolerate uncertainty without demanding immediate results. There is nevertheless a meaningful distinction between giving something time to develop and repeatedly postponing the steps that could support progress. Someone may aspire to start a business but delay developing a plan. Another person may want healthier relationships while avoiding difficult conversations about recurring patterns. Someone seeking financial stability may postpone reviewing spending habits or existing commitments. In each case, the question is whether waiting serves a practical purpose or leaves an important next step unaddressed. These situations do not necessarily indicate a lack of faith or commitment. Fear, limited resources, and uncertainty about where to begin can all make action more difficult. Recognizing those obstacles allows us to approach them with compassion rather than judgment. Personal growth involves acknowledging both the constraints we face and the choices available to us. A delay may call for continued patience, but it may also be an invitation to make a considered decision. The role of fear in spiritual decisions Fear is not always easy to recognize. It can appear in explanations that sound reasonable or spiritually reassuring: “I am waiting for another sign.” “I need to feel completely ready.” “If it is meant for me, it will happen.” “There must be a reason nothing is moving forward.” These statements may express sincerely held beliefs. They may also serve as protective explanations that help us avoid the possibility of disappointment, rejection, or failure. The distinction lies less in the words themselves than in the motivations behind them. Not every delay reflects avoidance. Health challenges, financial limitations, external circumstances, and personal responsibilities can create substantial barriers. These realities deserve acknowledgment, not dismissal. When a reasonable action is available and fear is the main obstacle, however, indefinite waiting can keep us from pursuing what matters to us. Honest reflection can help clarify whether we are honoring our intuition or protecting ourselves from discomfort. Faith and active participation Faith can provide strength when an outcome remains uncertain. It does not, however, replace preparation, education, accountability, or practical decision-making. Prayer for better health can coexist with seeking appropriate medical care. A vision of financial stability can be supported by a realistic plan. Belief in meaningful relationships can be expressed through healthy boundaries, just as a sense of purpose can be supported by developing relevant skills. Spiritual beliefs can offer meaning and motivation, while intentional behavior gives those aspirations practical expression. The aim is not to control every outcome, but to take responsibility for the choices within reach. Knowing when to wait and when to act Not every situation calls for immediate action. Rest, reflection, healing, and preparation can be appropriate and necessary responses. Waiting may be wise when information is incomplete, emotions are overwhelming, or a decision requires careful consideration. Waiting becomes less productive when it repeatedly prevents reasonable steps toward a meaningful goal. To assess the difference, consider three questions: Which aspects of this situation are within my control? What realistic step can I take with the resources and information currently available? Am I waiting because patience is necessary, or because moving forward feels uncomfortable? These questions encourage self-awareness without dismissing spiritual beliefs or individual circumstances. They create space for a response that is both thoughtful and practical. Spirituality and personal responsibility Spirituality can deepen our connection to our values and the world around us, encouraging compassion, gratitude, reflection, and a sense of purpose. Personal responsibility complements that connection by inviting us to examine how our actions reflect our intentions. We may seek peace while continuing to engage in unnecessary conflict. We may want change while holding tightly to familiar patterns, or desire growth while resisting the uncertainty it brings. Recognizing these tensions is an opportunity for honest reflection. Accountability need not involve shame or blaming ourselves. It means acknowledging where we have influence and making choices that more closely reflect our values, while remaining compassionate toward our limitations. Final thoughts: Trust the timing, honor your responsibility Divine timing and personal responsibility need not be opposing forces. Faith can provide the courage to continue without certainty, while thoughtful action allows us to participate in meaningful change. Some experiences genuinely require time, and some circumstances remain beyond our control. In other situations, progress begins when we stop waiting for perfect conditions and take a realistic first step. You do not have to force what is not ready, rush your healing, or control every outcome. You can remain present, prepare within your capacity, and act when an appropriate opportunity arises. Trust the timing of your life while honoring your responsibility to participate in it. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Tatiana Aleobua Tatiana Aleobua, RN, Reiki Practitioner, Wellness & Nutrition Coach Tatiana Aleobua specializes in nervous system regulation and burnout recovery, a focus shaped by her own journey of healing chronic stress and burnout. As a holistic and spiritual nurse, she blends clinical knowledge with mind, body, and energy-based practices to support sustainable healing. As the founder of Wholistically Yours LLC, she helps individuals restore balance, clarity, and long-term vitality through approaches grounded in both experience and care.

Written by Barbara Basia Siwik, Personal Coach & Nutrition Advisor Barbara Basia-Siwik is a certified personal coach, holistic fitness coach, and nutrition advisor using sports psychology and neuroscience to elevate wellbeing worldwide. She authored a practical e-book and leads transformation bootcamps and holistic programs for lasting change. Why changing your workout timing, evening nutrition and recovery habits could make all the difference. It's autumn. The mornings are darker, evenings feel longer, and your calendar is filling up faster than your coffee cup. Suddenly, that evening workout you enjoyed all summer feels like another task on an already exhausting list. You push through, train hard, come home tired, eat something quickly, and finally get into bed. But your brain? Apparently, it's ready for another meeting. The next morning, you're exhausted, reaching for coffee and questioning your motivation. What if your motivation isn't the problem? What if your routine simply needs a seasonal adjustment? Change the training time, not the goal Autumn doesn't mean you need a completely different fitness program. But changing when you exercise might help. If your schedule allows it, consider becoming a morning exerciser. Why? Because your workout gets done before emails, meetings, unexpected responsibilities and evening fatigue start negotiating with your plans. Morning outdoor light can also support your circadian rhythm, helping regulate alertness and your cycle of sleep and wakefulness. There's something psychologically satisfying about starting the day having already done something valuable for yourself. Make it practical: Prepare your clothes the night before. Start with 20 to 30 minutes rather than forcing yourself into a session lasting 60 minutes. If possible, get some natural daylight afterward. But remember, the best training time is ultimately the one you can sustain. Why evening workouts sometimes leave you wide awake Ever finished a late workout feeling physically exhausted but mentally switched on? You're not imagining it. Exercise temporarily increases heart rate, body temperature and nervous system activation. Intense sessions can also increase stress hormones, including cortisol. These responses are normal and help your body perform. However, particularly intense exercise close to bedtime may make it harder for some people to fall asleep. That doesn't mean evening training is bad. Research suggests moderate evening exercise generally doesn't disrupt sleep, and individual responses vary. The problem may be the combination of a demanding workday, a late session of high-intensity exercise, insufficient recovery, and an already overstimulated mind. Make it practical: If late workouts affect your sleep, experiment with finishing intense sessions earlier, reducing their intensity or allowing more time to wind down. Don't automatically blame your workout. Look at the whole day. Your evening recovery starts before bed You cannot spend the entire day running on stress, finish with an intense workout and expect your nervous system to switch off instantly. Recovery needs some space. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean another complicated wellness routine. A few minutes of slow breathing, gentle stretching, meditation or simply sitting quietly without your phone can help create a transition between activity and rest. Try breathing in gently for four seconds and breathing out for six. Repeat for a few minutes without forcing the breath. Make it practical: Give yourself 10 to 15 minutes to wind down after evening training. Lower the lights, reduce stimulating activities and allow your body to cool down. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop demanding more from yourself. Yes, you can eat at 9 PM Here's another myth worth leaving behind: Eating after 8 PM doesn't automatically make you gain weight or sabotage your progress. Imagine finishing your workout at 8:30 PM and going to bed at 11 PM. Should you skip dinner because it's supposedly too late? Absolutely not. Your body still needs nutrients to support recovery, particularly when you've just trained. Protein supports muscle repair and adaptation. Carbohydrates help replenish glycogen, your body's stored carbohydrate fuel. No, carbohydrates at night aren't automatically a problem. What may matter more for sleep and digestive comfort is the size, composition and timing of your meal. If a large, heavy dinner leaves you uncomfortable, consider something lighter and easier to tolerate. For example, a smoothie made with banana, oats, Greek yogurt and milk, adjusted to your energy and protein needs. Or a partly liquid dinner, such as vegetable soup alongside eggs, toast or another protein source. Make it practical: If you go to sleep at 11 PM, eating your meal after training around 9 PM can be perfectly reasonable. A gap of roughly two hours may help with comfort, although individual digestion varies. If you experience reflux, a longer gap may be helpful. A smoothie isn't automatically easier to digest for everyone, and liquid meals aren't a requirement. Choose the texture and portion that work for your body. The goal isn't to eat less because it's late. It's to recover without compromising your comfort or sleep. Build your autumn routine around your real life This is something I regularly work on with my clients. We don't build fitness routines around an imaginary week where everything goes perfectly. We look at their working hours, energy, sleep, digestion, training preferences and current circumstances. Sometimes moving a workout to the morning changes everything. Sometimes keeping evening training but adjusting its intensity, recovery and nutrition is the better solution. Sometimes the smartest decision is a shorter session followed by an earlier night. Make it practical: Review your current week. Which workout leaves you energised? Which one consistently affects your sleep? Are you eating enough afterward? Could changing the timing or duration improve your recovery? Sometimes the smartest investment is working with a qualified professional who can evaluate your current habits and build a sustainable training and nutrition strategy around your body, lifestyle and goals, rather than another temporary plan you'll struggle to maintain. Your goals haven't changed, your circumstances have Autumn isn't asking you to abandon your fitness goals. It's asking you to pay attention. To your sleep. Your energy. Your training schedule. Your evening meals. The amount of stress you're carrying into bedtime. You don't need to become a morning person overnight. You certainly don't need to stop training in the evening. You need a routine that works with your body and lifestyle, not against them. Because the goal isn't to finish another workout at any cost. It's to build a stronger body without exhausting the person living inside it. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more info! Read more from Barbara Basia Siwik Barbara Basia Siwik, Personal Coach & Nutrition Advisor Barbara Basia-Siwik is a personal coach and holistic fitness & nutrition advisor who blends physical training with mind-body science for lasting transformation. She applies sports psychology and neuroscience to help clients create sustainable change from within. After starting her career in England, she built a successful practice in Spain, coaching clients in Barcelona and worldwide online. Barbara has developed holistic programs, authored a practical e-book for busy individuals, and led transformation bootcamp events across Spain. Her mission is to inspire long-term change through holistic fitness, evidence-based methods, and habits that strengthen both body and mind.

Written by Jennifer Martin Rieck, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor Jennifer Martin Rieck is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and the owner of Epijennetics Counseling & Consulting in Libertyville, Illinois. She is also the owner and writer of epijennetics.com, a website that explores the mental shifts that lead to the healthy expression of self and healthy connection to others. In our relationships, keeping the peace can sometimes mean setting aside your own needs. But if you frequently feel you have no real choice, when saying what you want consistently seems likely to bring anger, rejection, or punishment, Schema Therapy offers a way to understand that belief and the feelings that go with it. Schema Therapy can help to break the pattern and help you gradually practice having a voice. Disagreeing with someone we care about often feels uncomfortable. We may compromise because we value the relationship or because the other person’s preference matters to us. However, it becomes an unhealthy pattern when we regularly silence ourselves because we expect that speaking up will not be safe. In Schema Therapy, this pattern is called the Subjugation Schema. The International Society of Schema Therapy describes Subjugation Schema as excessive surrendering of control to others because a person feels coerced, often to avoid anger, retaliation, or abandonment. It can involve suppressing needs and preferences, or hiding emotions, especially anger, because they seem unacceptable or risky to express. What can subjugation look like? Subjugation may show up as routinely letting someone else choose, agreeing when you disagree, or struggling to say no even when a request is unreasonable. Some people have trouble knowing what they want because they have spent a long time tuning in to everyone else first. Others avoid situations where they might be directed or controlled. A person may also keep feelings inside until resentment builds, then express it indirectly or in a sudden outburst. Schema Therapy describes two broad forms of the Subjugation Schema: Subjugation of needs: setting aside preferences, decisions, and desires in favor of someone else’s wishes. Subjugation of emotions: holding back feelings, particularly anger, because expressing them seems likely to bring consequences. From the outside, going along with someone can look considerate or easygoing. However, what truly matters is the experience underneath. Are you willingly choosing a compromise, or do you feel you are not allowed to disagree? Do you feel connected to what you want, even when you decide to set it aside? Subjugation and related patterns Different patterns can lead to similar behavior. With subjugation, the central fear is often that asserting yourself will bring punishment, conflict, rejection, or loss of connection. Self-sacrificing behavior is more often driven by concern about another person’s wellbeing or by guilt about putting yourself first. Approval-seeking focuses more on securing acceptance, praise, or recognition. Because these schemas can overlap, it is sometimes helpful to work with a therapist who can help you explore the personal meaning and motivation behind the behavior. This can help you to better articulate your feelings and needs and understand what growth looks like for you. How schema therapy works with subjugation Schema therapy looks at how past and present experiences connect with repeated thoughts, feelings, and responses. It considers coping styles too: a person might give in to a schema, such as by avoiding situations that activate the pattern, or could overcompensate for it by leaning toward defiance or overcontrol. Because getting to the root of the behavior may involve dissecting an interaction step by step, a therapy session is often a good place to work on processing reactions and triggers. Schema Therapy treatment may combine several kinds of work. Cognitive strategies help examine beliefs such as “If I disagree, something terrible will happen” and compare them with current evidence. This is called reality-testing a thought. Behavioral practice can help someone express preferences or set limits in safe and manageable situations, to help them build up a tolerance for their discomfort. Experiential techniques, including imagery or chair work, may help explore the feelings and needs connected to the pattern and can also be a helpful way to explore alternative behaviors and responses. The therapy relationship itself can also be part of the work of healing a schema. A client might find it hard to disagree with the therapist, ask for a change, or say when something feels uncomfortable. A therapist can invite honest feedback and shared decision-making so that the therapy supports the client’s agency rather than repeating a dynamic of obedience. Practical steps to discuss with a therapist If you relate to the Subjugation Schema, it might be helpful to try some of the following changes with someone you trust. If you are dealing with intimidation, threats, violence, or coercive control, practice boundaries and safety-seeking or consider reaching out to a trusted professional or local support service before confronting the person. 1. Notice when “yes” does not feel like a choice After a moment when you agreed automatically, pause and write down what was happening. What did you want? What did you predict would happen if you said no or offered another option? What did you feel, fear, guilt, anger, numbness, or something else? Noticing the pattern without blaming yourself can help reveal what the response is trying to prevent. 2. Reconnect with your own preferences If “What do I want?” feels hard to answer, start with small, low-pressure questions: What would I choose for lunch? Do I want company or time alone? What would make this plan workable for me? You do not have to act on every preference. The first step can simply be recognizing that you have one. 3. Practice one small, clear request When the situation is safe, try a specific, modest statement such as, “I’d prefer to meet earlier,” or “I can help for an hour, but I can’t stay late.” A clear request is easier to understand than hoping another person will guess what you need. Begin in a relationship where disagreement is usually tolerated, then reflect on what happened and how it felt. 4. Make room for anger without letting it take over Anger can signal that a boundary or need matters. It does not require you to shout, retaliate, or act immediately. You might name it privately, write about what felt unfair, or discuss it with a therapist. The aim is to understand the message and choose a response that protects your wellbeing. 5. Review the relationship, not just your delivery Assertiveness is not a technique that guarantees another person will respond well. Notice whether the people around you can listen, negotiate, and respect a reasonable “no.” If someone repeatedly punishes, threatens, or controls you for expressing yourself, the concern is not simply that you need better communication skills. It may mean that the person lacks empathy, is too easily defensive, or blames others rather than taking accountability. 6. Bring moments of compliance into therapy If you notice yourself agreeing with your therapist automatically or hiding a reaction, you can try saying, “I’m not sure I agree, but I’m nervous to say so.” A schema therapist can help explore that moment and make room for a different experience. What progress can look like Progress does not mean becoming confrontational or always putting yourself first. It may mean identifying your own preferences sooner, being able to disagree without automatically abandoning your position, and finding relationships where your needs and feelings can be discussed with mutual respect. It can also mean recognizing when a situation is unsafe and seeking support instead of pressuring yourself to speak up alone. If this pattern is causing distress or affecting your relationships, work, or decisions, consider speaking with a licensed mental health professional. A therapist familiar with Schema Therapy can help you explore the pattern at a pace that feels manageable and tailor the work to your circumstances. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Jennifer Martin Rieck Jennifer Martin Rieck, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor Jennifer Martin Rieck is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and the owner of Epijennetics Counseling & Consulting and epijennetics.com, a website that explores healthy self-expression and healthy connection to others. She specializes in working with individuals who struggle to break free from narcissistic or self-sacrificing relationship patterns.

Written by: Diana Som On October 24, 2025, the NBA: Technology and Innovation award announced its winners at the Congress Center of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation in Moscow. From the personal archive of Evgenii Muzychuk The Tech Entrepreneur of the Year nominee category went to Evgenii Muzychuk, a chemist from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. He designs and casts silicone molds that makers use to produce pieces in epoxy resin, plaster and chocolate. More than 450 people from seven countries entered the competition, and an expert panel chose the winners by secret ballot. Muzychuk won for his patented method of making silicone molds and for the production business he built around it. It’s a two-person operation: Muzychuk and his wife, Anna. Together they have made more than 40,000 sales through online marketplaces. We talked with Muzychuk about what the judges looked for and how he turned his invention into a business. Evgenii, thanks for talking with us. What did the judges single out in your work? Thanks for having me. The panel looked at two things: my patented method for making silicone molds and the production business I built on it. In short, I found a specific manufacturing problem, figured out the technical reasons behind it, came up with my own way to solve it, patented the solution, and brought it into commercial production. In the final vote, the panel gave me high scores. How did the selection process work? It runs in several rounds. First, the organizers put together a list of candidates and pick the nominees from it. Then the expert panel votes by secret ballot and scores each nominee against set criteria. There’s no fee to enter, and the judges look at results from the past three years. The panel includes people from business, science and the media. Among them are Vladimir Gamza of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Valentin Makarov, president of the RUSSOFT association, and Yuri Khakhanov of the Skolkovo Foundation. Let’s get to the invention itself. What problem were you trying to solve? A silicone mold is cast over a master model, and it’s convenient to make the master on a 3D printer. The trouble is that the face of a printed master comes out rough. That roughness carries over into the mold and then into the finished piece, so the maker has to rework every casting by hand: sand it, fix the defects, and apply a finish coat. The second problem is that pieces can be hard to get out of the mold. I needed a mold with a smooth surface that releases the piece easily and gives it a finished look right away. How did you do it? I coat the face of the printed master with liquid epoxy resin and let it cure. The resin spreads into an even layer that gets thinner toward the edges, so it sets into a convex lens. Then I put the master on a heated table and pour platinum-cure silicone over it. Once the silicone cures, the mold has a concave, glossy surface. Anything cast in it picks up the curve of the lens and comes out smooth and shiny. That’s where the name “lens effect” comes from. Will any epoxy resin work? No. It all comes down to viscosity, meaning how thick the resin is. Through trial and error, I found the range that works: 100 to 700 mPa·s. Resin that’s too thin gives you a thin lens with ragged edges. Resin that’s too thick goes on unevenly and rounds the edges off too bluntly. The patent describes a test with four molds: one with no epoxy layer and three made with resins of different viscosities. Each mold was filled with the same material. A force gauge measured how hard you had to pull to get each piece out, and then the surface quality was compared. So the mold takes over part of the finishing work? Yes. The surface quality is built in at the mold-making stage. There’s far less hand sanding, defect repair, and finish coating, and the finished piece comes out of the mold more easily. Chocolate, for example, comes out of one of these molds already glossy. Most of my customers are confectioners, furniture workshops, and artists who work with plaster, wax, soap, and epoxy resin. They work in small batches, so the less time finishing takes, the sooner a batch is ready. How does your chemistry background help? Mostly, it helps me understand the materials. I graduated from Siberian Federal University with a degree in chemistry in 2010. I started my own business in 2020, during the pandemic. I sold my car, used the money to open a shop in Krasnoyarsk, and started learning how silicone molds are made. I learned 3D modeling and dug into the properties of different silicone compounds. Now our main material is platinum-cure silicone. It’s a two-part system: you mix the base and the curing agent at a 1:1 ratio and add pigment. Your production team is just you and Anna. How do two people handle the whole process? We design new products, build the 3D models, print the master models, cast the molds, check quality, run each batch, and sell the finished products. We have no partners or investors, and I’ve been registered as self-employed since 2022. I do the modeling. We print on FDM and resin printers. For the silicone, we have a vacuum chamber and a compressor, and I converted some drying ovens to cure it. Production really took off after we bought new equipment. Over the past year, we’ve mostly been fine-tuning production and streamlining our processes. Besides your standard molds, you also make custom ones. How is that process different? To me, the main differences are price and the amount of work. I design a custom mold from the customer’s sketch, photo, or drawing, and it goes through every stage from scratch: the 3D model, printing the master, and casting. Each stage takes time, and all of it has to be built into the price of the order. Forgetting to do that is the most common mistake in our field. You filed your patent application in December 2023. What made you decide to protect your intellectual property? Before launching production, I studied the silicone molds sold on online marketplaces and couldn’t find any with this kind of coating. The solution was mine, and it was worth protecting. Looking back, I should have filed sooner. If I could, I’d patent both the casting method and every single product. Intellectual work deserves protection. How do you decide whether to take on a new order or develop a new product? The first thing I look at is the subject. I turn down orders that go against my values. Then I think about whether customers actually need the product and whether someone else already makes it. I like making things people need that aren’t on the market yet. If I don’t have enough to go on, Anna and I talk it over and look at similar projects. Do you plan to scale up? What projects do you want to take on in the next few years? Yes. I want to add new food molds to the lineup, and overall I’m aiming to double our production volume. We’re also planning to launch our own website and start selling internationally. Why a mold workshop won a business award Run by Melon Group Publishing House since 2018, the NBA National Competition's Technology and Innovation award celebrates high-tech companies and forward-thinking professionals across various industries, from AI and robotics to advanced manufacturing. A two-person workshop making molds for chocolate and resin is a prime example of this technological diversity. Muzychuk’s victory in the entrepreneur category confirms that the judges highly value small manufacturing operations built on original, innovative inventions. For creators who craft molds and pieces by hand, his achievement demonstrates that specialized manual work is rightfully recognized as a fully-fledged, protected technology.

Written by BE Alink, Founder & CEO of The Alinker Inventions Ltd. BE Alink is a certified Bio-Tuning® Practitioner, a recording soundscape artist/composer of brain entrainment music, a life coach, and creator of ceremonial pieces. BE is a paradigm-shifter-inventor, founder, and CEO of The Alinker walking bike and the author of her memoir ‘Inventing BE’. Since we announced that we are selling our remaining inventory of Alinkers in the months to come, we have received so many comments and emails from people who have shared with us how much the Alinker means to them and how much they love this community! So while we are looking for a party with the channels and funds to take over the Alinker and make it huge, I want to say: No, we're not going away. We're just transforming. Hear me out. Over the last 10 years, we have built a community of people who are engaged, who have found themselves in the Alinker community. Yes, of course we sell Alinkers, but for me personally, this community is way more important. These are people who chose another path rather than just following what the doctor said, people who were willing to ask critical questions, people who have a vision for themselves, people who found hope when they first saw the Alinker, people who move through discomfort to grow and regain their lives, people who literally changed their lives. Yes, I am talking about you. Though we might have to let go of the Alinker as a company that sells bikes once this last inventory sells out, I am in it for the long haul. From what I have come to know of you, you are too. What I have been talking about over the years has often been less about the Alinker and more about who we are in the current system. I named it the “sickcare” system in my TEDx talk in 2017, an independently organized event associated with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). We do need a sickcare system when we break a leg or need a colonoscopy, but chronic illnesses do not belong in a system that just medicates the symptoms of disease that our bodies signal when they do not get what they need. What our bodies need starts with the stories we tell ourselves, the identities we are attached to, the language we use to describe who we are, and the things we quietly say to ourselves when we look in the mirror. We are so trained to look for external solutions to our perceived problems, but when we feel unworthy, never good enough, the external solutions are not going to heal us. In fact, we might be setting ourselves up for failure and strengthening the pathway of “See, I am a failure. I am weak,” or whatever the silent stories are that we operate on. So we are transforming. Over the next few weeks and months, you will find me writing more about the inner journey, the journey we all need to take in order to unpack the conditioning we are subjected to by a system that does not have our well-being at heart. We have a choice to make. Who do I want to be? That choice has consequences. The choice is to become aware of who you are now and who you choose to be. Over the next few months, I will break it down in posts, newsletters, webinars, and Zoom calls. I will go deep into who we are as conditioned consumers and who we are in the quantum field. I will teach about our brains, neuroscience, our autonomic nervous system, how we can reset it, and a lot more. Many people will think, “Yeah, not for me,” making immediate judgements instead of being curious. “I just want to do what I know, what is comfortable.” But ask yourself this: Is it comfortable to continue to do what is familiar? How did you get to the situation you are in now? Are you really happy, or barely surviving? Change can be scary because awareness has consequences, but remember this: We are doing this together, and if we want this world to be a place of kindness and peace, we have to be kindness and peace. With love and onwards, we expand ourselves, BE. "Changing the world is an inside job. Changing your world is your choice." Comments from Alinker users that will move you I just received my Alinker through the rent-to-own program, and I am so inspired and touched by BE's vision for humanity. Dignity through movement! I've been angry for six years that my health and ability to move through the world have been diminished by autoimmune disease, but this is giving me hope again. I am telling anyone who will listen to watch this talk and think about how they consider ability and mobility. I received my Alinker this week. It’s a whole new lease on life for me after being hit by a truck three years ago. BE, I received my Alinker two days ago, and it is a life changer for me. After getting hit by a car three years ago, followed by hip replacement surgery, I have not been able to go for walks, and when I did, I used a rollator. Now, I can move easily with no leg or hip pain! People now see me as “cool” instead of an old lady hunched over her rollator. I am beyond grateful that you have made this contribution to the world at large and to my world. Blessings. BE Alink, thank you for giving me my life back! I just got my Alinker last Wednesday. The longest walk I had taken since my physical challenges hit was two blocks. Today, I walked almost two miles and enjoyed the scenery! I had to take a lot of breaks, but the Alinker allows me to rest. Thank you for designing this bike! Let's keep rolling! The months ahead In the months ahead, as we sell our last stock for now, we hope to reach people or parties interested in taking over the patents, trademarks, and everything we have built over the last 10 years. We have done the 10 hard years that big parties never want to do, so for anyone with the channels and funds to acquire the Alinker company, it is a package ready to go! The package includes patents, trademarks, a trusted manufacturing partner that can expand, quality control protocols, an extensive social media following and mailing lists, mountains of testimonials, a research study done in collaboration with Stanford, extensive proof of product, brand recognition, viability, and impact, with 7,000 Alinkers out in the world. Introductions can be made to be@thealinker.com. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from BE Alink BE Alink, Founder & CEO of The Alinker Inventions Ltd. BE is a thought leader who uses language as an awareness tool to create awareness around our conditioning that made us mass consumers of all that is making us sick and is killing the planet. BE: "Changing the world is an inside job". With her 10 years of international work in non-Western countries, she brings her unique perspective on our Western world. Whether through her invention of the Alinker walking bike or, more recently, the brain-entrainment compositions she created and hosts for groups and online, BE dedicates her time to building communities around the modalities that support the health and life of all of us.