Written by: Kim Wagner, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. What does success look like to you? Growing up, I always thought success was having a high-paying career, a fancy car, luxurious homes, and first-class travel. Everywhere I looked, marketing campaigns were showing that was how successful people lived. And let’s not forget that successful people are beautiful and have the perfect body and life. But what if we all got it wrong? As we get older, many people realize that this is way off and that success is different for everyone. “Success is really nothing more than the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. This means that any person who knows what they are doing and where they are going is a success. Any person with a goal towards which they are working is a successful person” — Earl Nightingale. Success is not one size fits all. The trick is to get past all of our subconscious, preconceived ideas to find out what true success is for you. In client sessions, we work through the layers of conditioning and subconscious beliefs to find their real meaning of success. By focusing on areas such as expectation, limiting beliefs, worthiness, equality and perception of freedom, we can start to explore what success means to each individual It’s such an amazing journey! By the time we are 7 years old, a large portion of our belief blueprint has been installed. We literally are what we see, hear, feel and experience from a young age. However, you’ll notice that many children repeat the patterns of their parents and also earlier generations. If the belief systems are not changed, children often don’t break the cycle, and it simply keeps on repeating. The damage that this perception of success does is massive. We are already carrying around negative and limiting beliefs about ourselves. Our self-talk is harsh and non-relenting - we certainly are our own worst enemy when it comes to being judgemental. Every time we cannot achieve one of these perceived levels of success, we feel like more of a failure. The cycle continues until we feel completely useless and have not achieved anything worthy. Unfortunately, these belief systems are also generational, so they have potentially come from many years ago and will continue until the beliefs are changed. But what if we looked at this with fresh eyes? We cannot all have the same definition of success. It’s not possible to all be the same, and we all know people who seem to have it all but are very unhappy. The ultimate proof of success is being happy. That’s it. Having the best paying job or biggest house does not fit anywhere in that world. My definition of success is doing what I love, spending time with my tribe, and helping as many people as I can. Once I was able to let go of what I was supposed to do, the possibilities were endless. The opportunity to choose what I wanted was really exciting, and I’m so grateful to have had that realization so I can live a life full of success on my terms. As long as we are doing things that make us happy, we have true success. Imagine not feeling like you have to do or be something that you’re not. And that you could choose your career, life partner, how you spend your time based on what makes you happy. When we forget about what society deems as necessary for success, we open up a pandora's box of possibilities. With no limits or judgment, we can be free to choose our own destiny. That is the true meaning of success. For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website! Kim Wagner, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kim is a PSYCH-K® Facilitator, PER-K® Catalyst, Reiki Master, Intuitive Healer, Author, Speaker, and Educator. After losing her mother to cancer whilst pregnant with her second child, Kim started to research and train in the field of belief systems and trauma. The learnings and results have been astounding. Kim helps people to transform their lives. Her expertise is to heal trauma, replace negative and limiting belief systems and change the perception of stress. With a corporate background, Kim's unique ability to help clients allows her to transform lives across the globe. Kim is co-author of Upself Guidebook and an article contributor for multiple publications.

Jenny is a personal financial coach, with a passion for helping millennials reach their financial goals. Having completed a degree in Economics, along with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Coach Master Training, she teaches them how to organize their money and put it to work so that one day, sooner rather than later, they won’t have to. A millennial herself, Jenny’s financial savviness has allowed her to follow her dreams of travel and visit 50+ countries as well as compete internationally in two different sports, all while maintaining a sense of financial wellbeing. Jennifer Gattinger, Financial Coach Who is Jenny? I am originally from Michigan, USA, but having lived in and traveled to over 50 countries. In addition to Michigan, I have spent a significant amount of time living in Spain and Miami and have most recently spent time in Portugal as a digital nomad. Needless to say, I love to travel, especially when it leads me to lesser-known destinations and authentic experiences with the locals. In addition to travel, I love sports. I grew up competing in tennis and have since gone on to compete internationally in pádel and dragon boat. What is it that you do for your clients? As someone who’s always believed in living life to the fullest, I’m out there helping others do just that. As a financial coach, I help millennials set up and manage their personal finances. I teach them how to make their money work for them and help them become more confident in making their own money decisions. One of the biggest regrets that I have is not having started investing and saving for retirement in my 20s. Looking back, I wish I would have known about the magic of compound interest as well as what investment options were available to me at that time. I originally got into coaching because I wanted to help fill the gap in the lack of financial education taught in schools and keep others from having the same regrets. I have also recently become a certified Bucket List coach, where I use the M.Y.B.U.C.K.E.T.L.I.S.T Blueprint® to help others not only create personally meaningful, holistic bucket lists, but start taking action towards their newfound goals. In doing so, I help them realize that the bucket list is so much more than travel and show them that they can be living a bucket list lifestyle in their day-to-day lives. I am currently working on merging my financial coaching together with my Bucket List coaching, under the umbrella of helping others “live by design, not by default”. I am working on creating a new website and can be followed on Instagram @globalgatt or on LinkedIn in the meantime. Who should hire/work with you? I am available to work with individuals, non-profits, schools, and companies. For individuals and non-profits, I offer Bucket List workshops, where participants create their own Bucket Lists, as well as the Bucket List Life Plan, which is a 12-week deeper dive into the M.Y.B.U.C.K.E.T.L.I.S.T Blueprint®. In this program, we focus on one letter each week and participants actually have to take action each and every week towards their goals. Additionally, I offer group financial coaching, focusing on topics such as goal setting, expense tracking, budgeting, supplemental income, and retirement savings. For schools and companies looking to invest in their employees, I am available to facilitate my Bucket List workshops and the Bucket List Life Plan as well as the Living Paycheck to Purpose SM Financial Empowerment Program. As mentioned above, these Bucket List programs are designed to help employees live with more intention and make the most out of their lives by unpacking the M.Y.B.U.C.K.E.T.L.I.S.T Blueprint® and identifying their own life meaning and purpose, while the Living Paycheck to PurposeSM Financial Empowerment Program allows employees to create their personal visions of financial success and participate in discussion and activities pertaining to goal setting, budgeting, savings, debt reduction, investing and building wealth. Both of these programs have demonstrated an increase in employee satisfaction and motivation, which in turn leads to increased productivity and greater workplace morale. What is your big goal? Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Ten years from now, I see myself continuing to help others “live by design, not by default!”.In doing so, I’d be crossing off one of my own big bucket list goals. Some other goals that I hope to have crossed off by then are competing in a 3rd international sporting event, running a 10K in the Serengeti, having a family, and traveling to Torres del Paine in Patagonia and Iraqi Kurdistan, among other places. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and visit her website for more info! Read more from Jennifer!

Written by: Clare Tries , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise . Lead generation for new business owners is tricky. Your digital presence is just starting to brew, and your resources are understandably tight. Many marketing agencies will try to persuade you that big investments in lead generation outreach are the only way to start scaling; that the only way to get the high-quality leads you’re after is to pour your savings into their lead gen services. This isn’t necessarily true. Yes, there is a point in your marketing roadmap where investing in outreach and lead generation will be the next step to continue to scale. But as a baby business, there are other more lucrative ways to save your resources while increasing engagement. These pointers come from experience – my baby, Clash Copy, is only 11 months old! When I first started Clash Copy, I thought that the only way to gain quality marketing leads was to throw outrageous amounts of money at it. Thankfully, I didn’t have outrageous amounts of money! This was a lifesaver – it granted me the opportunity to do research, learn by trial and error, and find three rewarding ways to grow your business on a budget. Here are three great ways to generate leads without spending a bunch of money: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile Perfecting your LinkedIn profile boosts your digital presence, which in turn attracts more prospects. This is a simple yet often overlooked method for lead generation, so it is likely easy to make your business’s profile stand out. One of the easiest ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile for lead generation is to optimize your content for search engines. LinkedIn functions as a search engine, so using keywords, getting recommendations, and filling in all of the information impact whether potential clients find you or not. Partner With Complementary Businesses Growing a business is all about creating quality relationships. There really is no way to sidestep this. So, consider partnering with other business owners in an industry that’s complementary to yours. This can help with building relationships, networking, and client-sharing. For example, say you own a coaching business that focuses on nutrition and wellness. It could be incredibly beneficial to partner with a local health food store that offers the kinds of products you want to recommend. Taking this relationship-building further, you could even offer to feature this health food store in a podcast, on your website, or in a blog post. In turn, they likely have clients on their mailing list interested in your services; you could feature your products/services in their monthly newsletter. Make Yourself Easy to Find! Yes, this sounds too simple to be valuable advice. But the number of new business owners we work with that have not accurately set up their website, LinkedIn, or Google My Business so that people can quickly get in touch is surprising! It is often the first thing we do when acting out their marketing roadmap; we make it effortless for potential clients to find and contact their experts. You can do this by having your address and contact information updated on all platforms. Also, include a consistent call to action button across your website that links to an updated booking calendar. That way, leads can easily book a time to chat and will be prompted to do so often (this repetition is surprisingly persuasive). You want to make it irresistibly easy to take action on all of your web pages, shared resources, outreach messaging, and platforms. Personal experience is most valuable when shared with fellow entrepreneurs; I hope you find my confrontation with the best budget-friendly ways to kick-start lead generation helpful. Clash Copy works with IT companies and small businesses to strategize the most resourceful and rewarding way to scale quickly. If you’re curious about what your marketing roadmap could look like, book a free consult with one of our experts. For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my we bsite ! Read more from Clare! Clare Tries, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Clare Tries is the Founder and CEO of Clash Copy Corp. She is a creative copywriter and passionate marketing professional with over a decade of experience in IT industry. Her company provides collaborative and rewarding marketing solutions for the IT industry and small business professionals.

Written by: Kimberly King, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. With summer days away and the pandemic restrictions lifting, now is the perfect time to start thinking about safety at summer camps! This year, ensuring camp safety may be a little more challenging with Covid concerns. However, body safety hasn’t been at the forefront of our minds as many of our kids have been home for the past year. Time to dust off the prevention toolbox to help prepare your child for a safe camp experience. Stories like this one are the reason why this is so important! Every year about 7 million kids pack their bags, sleeping bag, notebook, flashlights, and stationary… and head to sleepaway camp or day camp. Camp is a right of passage for many children and tweens—a time to be independent and free with the support of responsible adults and the support they need. Plus, fireside chats with new friends and an unlimited supply of smores- do not hurt! Most campers will return home with many fun stories, camp songs, and new penpals. Sadly, for some kids- this is not the case. Parents : Talking about prevention may create fear and overwhelm for some of you. Many parents tell me they don’t know where to start, they are scared, and they get stuck. I have good news for you! You can help prevent child sexual abuse by learning the facts, eliminating the risks, and educating our families. It’s easy to tackle this often tricky topic if we start early. Our kids need a few simple small body safety strategies. Come visit my just released Body Boss Bootcamp - Safety Chats for Little Kids Kids to help make this whole topic less stressful! 5 Kid-Friendly Empowerment Strategies to Teach Your Kids Before They Pack for Camp + Questions You Should Be Asking Before They Head to Camp: For the Kids: Flag Your Feelings: Help your kids learn to identify their feelings by practicing daily open communication. Learn to identify their feelings using red/green flags. Be the Boss of Your Body: Your kids can learn that they are the boss of their bodies. They have the right to say “no” to unwanted touch. Start by reviewing consent and body boundaries. Private Parts have special rules: Nobody should ask to see or touch your child’s private parts, and nobody should ask them to do the same. No games with private parts, no dares with private parts. If this happens- 🚩Raise a Red Flag and Tell a trusted adult right away. Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun: Encourage truth-telling. Secrets are confusing and dangerous for kids and are used in the grooming process by abusers. Watch our helpful video explaining secrets . Telling is NOT Tattling! Create a safety circle with 5 names of trusted adults. Be sure your child has access to a trusted adult always. Your child should be able to call you from camp if they have a problem. It is always ok to tell on this topic, and sexual abuse is NEVER a child’s fault. For the Parents: Be “THAT MOM or DAD”: Before you say “YES” to camp, make sure you know the answers to the following questions: Can I have a copy of the sexual abuse prevention policies? Who can I call? Ask for names and numbers of former parents - call them for references. Does the camp do background checks on counselors? Do they follow the rule of 2? What access will kids have to phones and cameras? Have any complaints been filed against the camp? Can my child call home? What are the sleeping arrangements? What are the reporting procedures? What A Prepared Camp Looks Like: A prepared camp will be well versed in safety policies and be engaged in prevention strategies. These policies look different based on age and camp environment. But, implementation focuses on overall camper safety. Rosalia Rivera , Consent Educator and Abuse Prevention Expert, advises parents, “ Look for camps with a long history and a culture of safety and ask a lot of questions about prevention policies and procedures. Rosalia is a consent and safety skills parenting expert. Her online class Prepare To Prevent is designed to help parents, and this topic is covered. I decided to dig a little deeper this year and interview a few camp directors about camp safety this year and how they juggle the challenges of body safety and overall safety. What the Directors are Saying About Safety: Jennifer Brown, Director of Summer Camps for Carmel Clay Parks, runs a camp focused on safety and child abuse prevention. In 2011, they earned the certification of a “ Partner In Prevention .” This prestigious, safety-focused certification is a big deal! At Carmel Clay Camps, they talk about safety and prevention upfront and maintain 90% of the staff are certified and trained in sexual abuse prevention. According to D2L, “Organizations that train their staff and volunteers create an environment that better protect children. Perpetrators are drawn to places where they can have easy access to children.” A camp that focuses on prevention through training, policies, and safety procedures is not an attractive workplace for a perpetrator because they will probably get caught. Jennifer shared that “training increases staff and volunteer awareness that teaches them to recognize the signs that an opportunity exists for abuse to occur and the signs that abuse has occurred. Our staff knows how to react if they recognize the signs or if a child discloses abuse and responds responsibly.” Because of this focus on prevention, Jennifer shared with me that they have added additional layers of safety procedures that focus not only on protecting children from adult abusers. Jennifer stated that “We are aware that some child-to-child sexual abuse can happen and have instituted safety procedures to protect children from other children. We changed the way we do bathroom, showering, and changing procedures.” Child sexual abuse between older, more powerful children or same-aged children is one of the blind spots that some camps might not have on their radar yet. 40% of reported child sexual abuse happens between children. Donna Guerrera, the director at St. Paul’s School , runs a summer day camp for preschool-aged children in Westport, Ct. According to Donna, “Summer camp will look a little different this year as we follow CDC protocols to keep all of our children safe and healthy. All of our staff are vaccinated and have undergone a background check by the state of Connecticut. Each camp group has 2 of our highly qualified teachers who are First Aid, CPR, Epi-Pen certified, and have completed state-mandated sexual abuse prevention training. Donna shared that, “When children need to change their clothes and need help, there are always two teachers with the children to ensure the rule of two.” and that safety is priority number one. Sleepaway camps provide different challenges that include a mix of ages, sleeping situations, and showering! Also worth considering, camps vary in size, location, and specialty areas. Pre-Pandemic, I presented a Simply Safe Kids Training at Surf Hatteras . As an advocate and educator, it was focused on safety and prevention. Surf Hatteras is a small camp in The Outerbanks of North Carolina. As a small surf camp, they take safety in and out of the water as the top priority. Surf Hatteras has at least ten full-time staff members working during every summer session. This camp maintains a better than a 1:2 staff to camper ratio at all times. This is to ensure the safety of each surfer, but it is also to make sure that each one gets the personal attention he or she needs every day. And they don’t just hire anybody! The interview process is quite intensive and focused on prevention. “We’ve got the best people in the world.” Every surf instructor is a certified lifeguard as well! A combination of educated and empowered kids, “that mom/ that dad,” and a camp with an established culture of safety will provide you with three layers of prevention. Please make sure you brush up on body safety, ask those big questions, and research your camp and camp policies extensively before packing your bags for camp! To learn more about empowering your kids with Body Safety Skills, join us for Body Boss Bootcamp f or KIDS ! Pre-launch registration begins today! For questions, concerns, resources, and support, please visit my website and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. Read more from Kimberly! Kimberly King, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kimberly King, "The Safety Mom," is the author of the best-selling, most highly recommended book for children on prevention called I Said No! A kid-to-kid guide to keeping private parts private. Kimberly is a mom of three children, a survivor, a Sexual Abuse Prevention Facilitator with D2L.org, and a Sexual Assualt Crisis Counselor with The Rowan Center. ​She spends her time training adults and children on prevention strategies and sharing her expertise as a consultant, advisor, and media source. Her work has been featured in various magazines, podcasts, and blogs, including; NBC, Ticker News, The Chicago Tribune, Women’s Fitness, Child Mind Institute, Social Work Now, US News and World Report, The Health Journal, Modern Mom, PopSugar, Child Life Mom, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Thrive Global, Medium, Dads Divorce, Split, Sex Ed Rescue, Consent Parenting, Pretty Wellness Podcast, iHeart Radio, and is highly recommended as a resource by national prevention organizations. Please contact her directly for any media requests.

Her lifelong passion for helping entrepreneurs unlock their potential by discovering their vision and leadership style inspired her to create NFactor Coaching, combining the best practices from her 20 years of training and teaching in some of the world's largest business training circuits, including BNI and Peak Potentials. Noel takes clients through a unique Vision-to-Profit process, identical to the thinking and habits that led many of the leaders of today's top companies (like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Sarah Blakely) from inspired start-ups to industry dominance. Noel facilitates this process, teaching Entrepreneurs and CEOs the unique traits (she has coined "E" traits) that UNLOCK their power to instantly lead and grow their companies with Vision with a convenient, online Trademarked 12-Week Shakedown. This interview with Coach Noel will share powerful tips that help you employ the human elements of Visionary Leadership to build a brand people want to buy so that you can transform your company's vision into profit. What is Vision? A clear picture of your ideals in motion. Creating a vision is like producing a movie. You start with the audience's experience in mind, craft a story that engages them, write a script that captures that story perfectly, then hire the directors and actors that believe in and convey the energy of the project to each viewer. What is the flow of Vision to Profit? It is human elements that drive brand success. Personal buy-in from all parties. It begins with your leadership, your inspiration, why your brand exists, how it uniquely serves who it is meant to. This is translated into a vision that paints a clear picture of the ideals that will make it happen, a reference point for each decision and action. When your vision is clearly communicated and backed by actions consistent with your ideals throughout your company, you build a reputation that your brand doesn't simply sell products but rather is an instrument for making a positive impact on people's lives. Selling is simple numbers on a ledger; Marketing a human message makes you socially relevant , focusing on personal impact. And the profit eventually matches the impact. You invest in people, and then people invest in you. Your company's growth is a social positive feedback loop that starts with you. When you remove these human elements, business is just math — meaningless equations and numbers — and numbers don't work on people. No amount of money can keep a business alive when it loses social relevance, but social relevance can redeem any company no matter how little money it has. You must surround the math with the functioning human construct of meaning. Can you recall an experience where the Human Element made all the difference? I learned a great lesson about connecting human elements and profit as a director/trainer in Business Networking International (BNI). The whole point of BNI is to build relationships of mutual trust among members to pass qualified referrals that help expand and grow each other’s business. They do this by hosting visitor days in their chapters to bring fresh energy and referrals into the room with mixed results. One year I voted that we host a charity event instead of a regular visitor’s day. I had grown a medical practice primarily through veteran outreach/ PR marketing. I believed the members would see a greater return on their investment by picking charity over business as a venue. What happened amazed me, and I wasn’t alone. The first surprise was the response from the invited people. Instead of being invited to “an exciting business networking event,” this welcomed to them — "This is a fund-raising event for your favorite charity. We would love to promote your business among our 1,500 local members and their contacts. Would you like to add a product or service to our live auction? Great! Did I spell your name and business right?" Silent auction list was put into two 4-inch binders circulated around the region at each weekly chapter meeting for a month, gaining more bids, more donations of products and services, and ultimately more emotional buy-in, ultimately, more social relevance for being personally involved in the event. The physical event was icing on the cake. More members brought guests than previous events, guests who all bought discounted services that day, with 75% converting into regular customers. The region’s closed business doubled for the quarter in one day. The greatest testament was the members who had spent years going to meetings “learning” to pass referrals to each other — finally opened up and actually did it . NFactor Coaching is named for its advice theory: Each “N” Factor is a key that UNLOCKS your power as an entrepreneur. Looking good (morally) is a social factor that unlocked their potential to grow their networks, not through a business process, but under the umbrella of shared values . Every attendee gave to a charity that day and saw others do the same. It made them feel good about themselves and their fellow members, opening the door to true networking, and the money began to flow in. Human elements driving profit. What made you choose Visionary Leadership as a coaching specialty? Vision is the common denominator among the most successful leaders and brands in the business, but it eludes the other 99%. I like the challenge of uncovering vision as a hidden element of leadership success, of de-constructing it and creating a process that makes it accessible to emerging leaders around the world so they can build companies as instruments to make the change they know is needed, not only driving profit but also maximizing their positive impact on other people's lives. What Visionary Leader inspires you most? American President John F. Kennedy exemplified the finest qualities of a Visionary Leader when he announced America's top priority would be putting a man on the moon. These are his words as he looked to the sky, "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." His challenge to followers, "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." What his vision accomplished: Americans looked up at a promising achievement, not around at conditions that led nowhere. They understood that fulfilling the vision was impossible without their individual contribution. They understood implicitly that it was a vote of confidence for Kennedy to choose the most demanding and rewarding goal, and it brought out the best in people because they were reaching for greatness. As a true Visionary Leader, you do not determine the destination based on present resources or circumstances but rather pick the elevated destination and have the potential to achieve it fly back in time , unlocking peoples' capacity to achieve it, then the resources will appear. In the end, it wasn't science, technology, or mathematics that closed the distance of 238,900 miles from the Earth to the moon — it was vision. What is the first step in the flow of Vision to profit? It's the way you think: Stop "running a business" and think like an entrepreneur. Use an organic process to figure out your most purposeful venture. Your inspiration is the spark that lights the fire that spreads through your vision. Focus your inspiration: If you could only accomplish ONE thing in your business in the next 5 years, what would it be? What is the one problem you wish to solve? What is the solution? Why do you want it? Who do you serve? Who benefits, and how? Pinpoint the outcome that stokes your strongest personal desire. This tells you the kind of industry and product you will operate with. Next, you need to think and act as a Visionary Leader. You know you are responsible for bringing your solution to the customer, now you need a bridge between the problem and the solution. What is the transformation you envision for each customer? How do you take them from their personal Hell to Heaven? How are you going to enlist the help of others to make this transformation happen? What are the intangible rewards that will drive their desire to make this work with you? What is the arch that connects all the dots of the human side of your business? There is an undeniable link between Vision and Profit: Apple sells 5% of the product in the tech industry and makes 90% of the profit. Amazon is larger than its next 9 competitors, put together. Spanx was founded with $5,000 and grew to a $1 Billion valuation — without a single penny spent on advertising. The Hidden Elements of success: The most defining characteristic of each industry's top-performing brand is that they form their brand around sharing their human ideals. They project a picture of what "ought to be" and make it happen in their daily communication and decisions. This process allows them to harness the power of vision as a catalyst to create unparalleled loyalty both inside and outside their company, alleviating and overriding the normal pains and pressures of business (that keep their competitors locked in a lower level of function), resulting in an eventual reign of profit. After analyzing a global study on the growth performance of over 30,000 companies across all major industries, the Brandz team revealed that companies that share their brand purpose could expect to make an average of two times the profit (demonstrated on a brand equity index) over their competitors that do not. Writing and sharing your brand purpose can be a very effective exercise for defining your broader company vision. The first step can be telling the simple story of how your company or current venture inside a company began. People love stories. If you tell the world why your brand exists, what the personal meaning is to you, it becomes a human story. It, therefore, becomes more emotionally relevant to consumers because they see themselves more as a character in an engaging story rather than a transaction number at the end of a terminal. With all that profit, why do so few leaders create a company Vision? Leaders without vision (the 99% with less successful brands) tend to see the principles of success backward. They believe as a leader because you have exceptionally high engagement and profit, you get to add vision as a sort of "luxury" or a "bonus," like adding sprinkles to the top of a cake after it is baked, cooled, and frost. Whereas, Visionary Leaders with the most successful brands know that because their vision creates human engagement, people go the extra mile every day to live it. They get to add sprinkles on the cake: Profit. I feel a need to examine this "Vision as a luxury" mentality as a possible driver of today's business leadership vacuum following the record-breaking mass exodus of CEOs in 2019 that continues today. If there were one prevalent mentality behind this exodus, it would be the sprinkles on the cake analogy: Many CEOs are hired to lead companies to keep them profitable: To drive people to ultimately create a finished product and experience that uniquely satisfies the customer with a culture that benefits the people behind the effort but they only want to add sprinkles on the cake. They want a company to prove itself to them with numbers before they invest in its future. But few companies will ever satisfy this expectation because there is no sustained human investment in individuals or groups in accomplishing greatness, generating the profit numbers the ego likes to see. These people in authority want credit for a cake they are unwilling to bake themselves, and they can't have it, so they look for the next bakery. And on. It is a great point of personal short-sightedness to examine in your own leadership expectations. As the head chef, when the numbers don't flatter your ego: Are you rallying the kitchen? Are you Leading to greatness for profit to follow? Or are you the founder or CEO of a dozen dead bakeries? How has the COVID era changed your personal sense of vision? Entirely. In March of 2020, I found myself in the middle of turbulence, with the third interstate move that year, a divorce, and career change, all with a 3-year-old in tow. Then the COVID shutdowns hit my area. I could have collapsed amid total personal chaos, but instead, I thought about vision: What is the most ideal life I can create for myself and other people? I asked myself, "If I could choose one positive impact to make, what would it be?" I love entrepreneurs. I love to see change unfold. What could I give to this group of truly exceptional people? The answer: More of what they already are. Emphasize the traits that make them successful at creating the positive change they know is needed because entrepreneurs don't only solve problems in industry; they drive the human race forward. The best leaders will be born of the COVID crisis. Influencers have always looked for large shifts in trends, lifestyles, and expectations, and COVID is the BIG shift, leaving no one unaffected. One way of life has died, another way of life: Emerging. The vision you create today will be a new horizon, and if you lead effectively, your company can be a bridge over the chasm of uncertainty and fear, drawing people toward the brightness of a new day. The simplest definition is the most compelling. As soon as you find your spark of vision, hold it up, and it will give Light for others to follow. Thousands of entrepreneurs and CEOs around the world have worked with Noel, discovering the keys that unlock their ability as leaders to create and implement a vision so they not only build a profitable company. But leave a legacy! If you are thinking about the total direction of your company or need a speaker at your next corporate event. Book a free Discovery call . Download the free guide to starting the Vision-to-Profit process in your business and join Noel on the NFactor blog for more keys to UNLOCK your power as an entrepreneur. Follow Noel on Facebook, Linkedin and subscribe to her Youtube Channel for more information.

Written by: Sarah-Jayne Juniper, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. You finally take the leap, you have found your passion, your vision is coming to life, you step into the business world to achieve your greatest desires when all of a sudden you are hit with an abundance of noise! Stood at the center of a noisy room, you are faced with advice, guidance and suggestions. Everyone around you is saying they understand exactly what you need to ensure your idea becomes a true success, all before you have had the opportunity to share your story with them. Sound familiar? Out of panic, stress and feeling way out of your comfort zone, you are led down a path that takes you further away from what you originally went into business for. You find yourself saying yes to everyone, changing and adapting your plans to meet their ideals; ensuring that their needs are met before your own. As the pressure builds and a rush of questions whirl around, you realize you have disconnected with your why and your values. With an increase of working hours, endless to-do’s, and little money coming in, you are unable to direct your energy to what allows the business to truly move forward- YOUR energy and your passion. Your drive, determination and love for what you do start to disappear. How can I say no to these amazing individuals who are guiding me on this new journey of business? I will not be a success if I take back control of how my business is managed! What if, what if, what if…? Voices begin to turn into loud, blurry noise- white noise. You don’t want to let anyone down, upset them, appear too confident or bold in the sea of opportunity full of successful people. However, you know you can not continue along this path, after all, YOU took the greatest leap, you believed in YOU and YOUR ideas! Feeling burnt out, you suddenly take a step back, think and observe. The moment comes where you remember to silence the mind before proceeding. You begin to say no to the things that do not serve your vision, the noise begins to turn back into advice and suggestions which no longer overwhelm your thoughts. Your ego is no longer dictating how you manage the world around you, creating authentic connections. The power of now begins to create endless opportunities, powerful conversations that introduce you to a world greater than you had ever imagined. Business begins to take form and you realize it isn’t nearly as daunting. Success now being defined as a process and platform to share, grow and aspire rather than relentless money chasing. Your determination now burns through because you are being guided by your passions, not the financial gain. Advice and suggestions coming towards you are now directed specifically to what YOU and YOUR business need. My message to you. The business world does not need to be loud and overwhelming. Yes, you need to work hard, you will feel way outside of your comfort zone most days and you will question the journey at times. However, these are the moments where you have to go within, take the time to reconnect with your why, your passion and your vision. Without you, your vision will not come alive. You are the greatest value; DO NOT forget that. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,YouTube and visit my website! Read more from Sarah-Jayne! Sarah-Jayne Juniper, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sarah-Jayne Juniper is a leader in holistic, Mind Coaching. She had a Masters in Psychology as well as certified with training in Neuroscience. Travelling the world has changed her life, heightening her passions for all things nature, community and knowledge of the world. Sarah-Jayne believes that “instead of bridging the gap it is let's fill it in. By confronting habits and behaviours that no longer serve us we learn to embrace all aspects of who we are, helping us move towards our goals. To transform your life you must transform your mind. It is her mission to bring people together, to change the unthinkable and build a world led by love, equality, passion, belief and determination. Her clients are those who are ready to take life to the next level, face mental wellbeing with a forward-thinking attitude and focus eager for fulfillment.

Written by: Bronwyn Smith, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. When we are young we are encouraged to dream. We are encouraged to dream about our adult life, what we want to be, where we want to go. However, by the time we are sixteen or eighteen, the same people that encouraged us to dream at six or eight are now giving us a “dose of reality .” Telling us our grades are not good enough to be a Doctor or being a model is just a fantasy. And so, as adults, many of us live in “reality” never believing or reaching our true potential. The closest most people get to dreaming is a Dream Board. We love making a Dream Board, but within weeks we are just walking past it, not paying any attention to it. Alternatively, we have goals. We don’t want to call them dreams because what will people think? Dreams are far more powerful than goals. When you dream, your mind adds a huge level of detail that isn’t there with a goal. Take this test: My Dream is to earn a six-figure income within 2 years. My goal is to earn a six-figure income within 2 years. Which stirred your imagination more? The Dream, right. And that’s the difference. When it’s a dream of a six-figure income, your mind and body get excited. Your mind immediately goes to what you will do with the money. What your life will look like earning that income. You can play with a Dream. Will I buy a new house with the money? What holidays can I have with the kids? It’s like a dream board in your mind. You can change it at will and your mind can go into detail. So if you imagine a holiday with your kids and you have a photo of a beautiful beach resort on your dream board, in your mind, you can be surfing with the kids, having breakfast overlooking the beach, planning your day, or having a romantic dinner with your partner, he chose oysters followed by steak and you chose scampi followed by lobster mornay. Wow, that tasted so great with that wonderful bottle of French champagne as we watched the lights dance on the water in front of the restaurant. The evening was so romantic and it was wonderful to spend the evening without the kids. So now it’s not just a six-figure income it’s a lifestyle. It’s not just a pretty picture on the wall but family connection and memories. This is what makes a dream so powerful and motivating. Your dream will motivate action! The reason a Dream motivates action is because of the Why! Why do you want the six-figure income? Because of the lifestyle and time with your family that it gives you that you don’t currently have. Because it gives you choices that you don’t have now. It’s not the money that excites you, it’s what you can do with the money that has the power. Most people think that the Why has to be huge and gigantic to be motivating and that’s often not the case. Mostly the Why doesn’t have to be big, yet it does have to be powerful. My favorite example is JK Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter series. Her Why for writing and having the book published was to be able to afford heating in the Scottish winter for her baby daughter. It is such a simple Why. Yet it was really powerful, wanting to keep her baby daughter warm in winter. It was such a powerful Why that each day she was motivated to go to a local cafe, where it was warm and continue to write her book. It was so powerful that she sent the manuscript to twelve publishers before she found one that would publish it. She was determined that her Dream would come to fruition not because she wanted to be a published Author necessarily but because of the Why! When you learn to dream, a whole new world opens up. It’s like a 3D Dream Board that you can walk through, change and build on. Whatever your dream, always make sure you know the Why so those dreams will come to fruition and become your reality. If you would like to learn more Join my Facebook group Mindset Revamp with Bron . Follow me on Instagram transformational_therapist or go to my website www.transformational-therapist.com to be placed on the waiting list for my upcoming course. Read more from Bronwyn! Bronwyn Smith, Executive Contributor Brainz Magainze Bronwyn Smith is a successful Coach and Clinical Hypnotherapist trained as a Rapid Transformational Therapist (“RTT”). Bronwyn was trained by some of the most impressive people in the industry. Tony Robbins and Chole Madanes as a Coach and Marisa Peer as a Rapid Transformational Therapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist. Bronwyn is passionate about working with business people and entrepreneurs to change their mindset to enjoy amazing success and wealth. Before Bronwyn became a Coach and Clinical Hypnotherapist, she was a Litigation Lawyer for nearly 30 years. During that time she built a successful practice with clients ranging from major corporations to mums and dads. Bronwyn also changed the Law of Demurrage in New South Wales. Bronwyn is the Transformational Therapist transforming people’s lives by showing them how their dreams can become a reality and changing their mindset around money, success, knowing that you are worthy and that you deserve the best, believing in yourself, overcoming obstacles and naysayers in order to live their dreams and create their best lives.

Written by: Sarah Needham, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. With restrictions relaxing, more of us will start to network in person again! Yippee! Or is it scary?! It is not surprising that some people are not excited by this prospect . Most of us have seen very few people in the last 18 months. I think you would, however, be surprised to know that most people find networking events daunting. We would actually prefer to be ‘almost anywhere’ but in those first few minutes of conversation when meeting someone new. So most of us find this uncomfortable, and yet we all know we only have a few seconds to make a first impression on others. We also know that it can be really hard to change their initial perception of us! No pressure then! So chances of making a good impression when we feel nervous are, you guessed it, pretty slim. Why does networking make so many of us feel so uncomfortable? One of the most basic human needs is to feel accepted. So for anyone (except the most outgoing), this is often the root of our discomfort. This means if we can connect with one or two people quickly , we suddenly feel a lot more comfortable. If this is so common, why is no one talking about it I wondered? We often introduce ourselves by what we do or the roles we play in life (job title, mum, etc.). Unfortunately, this tells others little about us. This often does not build a connection, so therefore we don’t start feeling more comfortable. So once both sides are done with role descriptions, where does the conversation go? More discomfort, feeling awkward? Let me tell you about my experience with this! I left Rolls-Royce after 17 years in 2018. Shortly after, I attended an event where, as a Mentor, I was put on the spot to introduce myself in front of 50+ people in German (not my native language)! I was completely unprepared. Previously this had never been an issue for me, I had always had pretty cool job titles & most people knew the name of the company I worked for! But what should I say now? Who am I? How did I want to introduce myself to this group? I realized I had never told anyone anything about me when introducing myself; what was important to me, what I was good at, or really anything about my life. I bumbled through that introduction but probably did not leave the impression on those attending I would have liked. But the emotion of disconnection with myself sure as hell left a lasting impression on me! How come when put under pressure, the girl who can usually talk to anyone falters for words? Because: I was not prepared; I had not seen clearly (until that point) how much of my identity I had related to my career or my other roles in life. So now I challenge you to think about it. How do you introduce yourself? What is the first impression you wish to make? There is no magic formula, but each & every time you introduce yourself, you get to make a conscious decision! Asking yourself these simple questions can help you bring awareness to the situation: Why are you introducing yourself? To who? What is your intention? Why am I attending this event ? What do I want to get out of it? New friends, business connections, potential clients, etc. What is important to you & what might you have in common with the others? Perhaps I am in a room of other female leaders, people who work in tech, or other entrepreneurs. What is interesting about you, how are you different? I often use the fact that I have two adopted daughters, two cats & a dog, or went sky diving over Cape town, or the fact I love learning about what makes people different. What question can you end on to help open a discussion & learn about the other person? I ask people why they are proud of themselves today, or what their superpower is, or what is most important to them in their life at the minute. Now it can be a lot simpler, i.e., ‘What has been the silver lining of the pandemic for you?’ These questions might sound like an effort, but actually, it takes only a couple of minutes to run through them in your head (or even better, talk through with someone else). In fact, I would challenge you that if you do not have a couple of minutes to prepare, then why are you investing an hour or two of your life attending the event in the first place? If you are really nervous, then try out at least the first part of your intro in front of the mirror or record it & listen back. Doing this a few times helps you gain confidence in what you want to say. If you want to take it one step further, then make it into a game. Find out something about people that they had never told anyone else about in a first introduction! How? Ask the question when the conversation has run its natural course & you are ready to move on! Actually, you bring the other person in on your game (building more connection & increasing the likelihood they will remember you in a month) & you might even inspire them to join in! If you hate networking , this will not help you always walk into networking events with confidence & sparkle. However, using this can make a big difference when you normally stutter your way through meeting new people & help you feel connected a lot more quickly. I would love to know your thoughts! Also, what other tricks do you employ to make meeting new people more fun? Do you have a standard go-to intro that maybe needs a shakeup, or are you someone who takes a couple of minutes to get conscious & challenge yourself to be brave & shake it up a bit each time ? For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my websit e ! Read more from Sar ah ! Sarah Needham, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sarah Needham is a coach with an extraordinary vision: “To create a world where everyone feels they can stand up and engage in discussion about what matters most.” She wants us all to take off our invisibility cloaks and share courageously what we think and feel. Sarah believes that we are all unique for a reason, and we should challenge ourselves to step proudly into our uniqueness, our own SUPERPOWER! As a coach, she challenges herself to inspire people by holding regular sessions on this topic. Sarah’s work brings together her three core values: technology, sustainability, and challenging others to embrace their uniqueness. She helps tech founders and leaders unleash their impact in creating a more sustainable life on earth whilst prioritizing their own self-care, and in doing so, creating a more sustainable business. Sarah is an engineer with many years as a leader at one of the world's leading global engineering corporations. She is British, living in Potsdam, Germany, with her husband, two adopted daughters, and two cats.

Written by: Amy Morgan, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. When it comes to improving your personal finances, your money mindset is a critical foundational piece. What you believe about money, yourself, and the world shapes how your life will unfold. Your money mindset is your unique set of beliefs and your attitude about money. It drives all the decisions you make about saving, spending, and handling money. All of your financial habits are rooted in money. Every single day you have the power to make decisions that will move you forward financially or set you back. It’s up to you. Attaining the right mindset to build wealth means working on the way you think, working on discipline, getting uncomfortable, and doing what it really takes to get to your end goal. To improve your money mindset, first, you need to understand that money is a currency. Currency is energy. If you can learn to manage this energy, this changes everything. What you have internalized about money over your life comes down to two basic orientations toward money — lack or abundance. Step 1: Abundance Mindset VS. Lack Mindset When you live in an abundance mindset, you know there is more than enough of everything to go around. Resources are always available and unlimited. It's an inner knowing and trust completely that your needs, wants, and desires are available to you. Someone who lives in abundance easily gives and receives. If you live in abundance in relation to money, you look at everything you buy as an investment and circular. What you give comes back to you. An abundant money mindset thinks like this: There is always money available to me. Everything always works out for me, and I am always provided for. I am so lucky to have so much money. There is always a way. I am open to new and creative ways. On the contrary, if you live in a lack mindset, you are in a fear-based world of never having enough – money, time, connections, health, happiness, power, or love. You are in scarcity, scattered, there isn’t enough energy. It is impossible to practice the Law of Attraction if you are thinking of lack. A lack money mindset thinks like this: There isn't enough. People with money are greedy. I have to work hard, and there is never enough. I have no choices. This is just not possible. Step 2: Have the belief that success is possible for you. To stay in the abundant mindset, you absolutely must believe that having success and having money is possible. Your behavior will follow your beliefs, so having the belief that you can make it easier to stick to good habits. And over time, your entire perspective will change for the better. Deciding you are going to be wealthy is an incredible boost to your mindset. This is because, with this decision, you are telling yourself you can do it. Unless you believe you can be wealthy, you probably won't be inclined to do what it takes actually to build wealth . To truly use the Law of Attraction to bring in wealth, you need to raise your vibration to the abundance and truly believe it. You need to have an inner knowing that it is all possible energetically. Ask yourself why and what it is that is possible. You do not need to know how the Law of Attraction is, and that will bring you exactly what your vibration tells it. Write out specifically what you envision your life to look like when you have already acquired the wealth you are looking for. What will you do with it, who will you be with it, how will it be different. Write it out as if it has already here and available for you. Step 3: Determine your values, let go of standards focus on what matters to you. Have you asked yourself lately why you really want more money and what is energetically behind it? If it is just the number, you are still thinking in lack or desperation. Really dig in deeper. Is it about the freedom or independence the money can provide? That would be a better energetic belief to really stand behind. To live in abundance, to believe it’s possible, you must know your values and really let go of what other people want for you and be clear on what you really want. It should not be what your parents wanted you to have, or your neighbors have in keeping up with them. Get super clear on why you want that intention, why it is important to you, and get specific. Step 4: Be grateful & appreciate what you have. To have more, you need to honor what you have. You have to be in the present and the positive of everything you do have right now. When you are grateful, you focus more on the things you have that you appreciate all the good that has come to you. Gratitude also drives contentment in your life, which is key to wealth building because when you are content with what you have, you are less compelled to spend or sabotage yourself to gain material satisfaction which doesn't always work because you'll find that there's always something new that you can buy. Step 5: Ask the Universe. Ask! The Universe does not know what you want unless you ask for it. Write out specifically what you envision your life to look like when you have already acquired the wealth you are looking for. What will you do with it, who will you be with it, how will it be different from your life right now. Write it out as if it has happened already here and available for you. Feel it and believe it. If you want to change your money mindset, start with these tools. Become comfortable with a new way to change your habits around money. It’s all about setting the right intentions and being specific with your desires. You are more than capable of increasing your money mindset values, and the rewards will be more than well worth it. Follow Amy on her Instagram and LinkedIn . You can also join Amy’s Free Facebook Group and visit her website . Read more from Amy ! Amy Morgan, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Amy Morgan is a Transformational Empowerment Coach who helps successful women let go of their past, break free of limiting beliefs, and align with their future selves so that they can be unstoppable! Amy uses a holistic approach that allows you to remove the obstacles that hold you back and cultivate awareness & habit upgrades permanently. Amy created “The YES YOU CAN” Program that uses Transformational Techniques to provide mindset shifts for her clients to achieve true inner peace, worthiness, and confidence so that their personal and professional dreams become their reality. Yahoo Financial named Amy as Top Coach for 2021. Amy works with both 1-1 private clients and a group coaching program, Yes You Can , using her unique approach so that you can heal, live fully, and transform to achieve all your dreams.

Written by: Dr. Khalilah Johnson, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. “To give at the level necessary, I had to give all of myself to care for her. I had to be in it 100% and in order to do that, I had to let go of me.” I am so honored to have the opportunity to have interviewed Shirley Johnson about her personal journey with Alzheimer's. As June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month I wanted to share her story in hopes that it will help others who are dealing with similar situations as well as provide a voice for caregivers and family members who might be struggling with this disease on their own. It's truly an honor to interview you today. Thank you for sharing your inspiring journey with us. How did you first find out that your mom was suffering from Alzheimer's, and become her caregiver? What were those beginning days like for you? It was very difficult. My mom was very combative in the beginning and she would strike out at me at given times. I didn't fully understand dementia. I just knew she was no longer able to remember and do a lot of things she used to. It wasn't easy for her to accept the loss of her independence. Some researchers have referred to Alzheimer’s as the long death because of the 7 transitional stages to grief. Give us an overview of what those stages looked like for you. It’s very hard to detect the early stages of dementia because memory loss can be a sign of aging. We noticed she would repeat herself a lot or forget how to cook or even care for herself. She would often drive herself somewhere and didn't remember where she was. She would put all her clothes on at one time and you couldn't convince her she wasn't already dressed. She would forget how to use her words or that she had already eaten. Mom was a vegetarian most of her life and we would be out at a restaurant and she would order a burger. "If you left the door open, she would leave to try to find her way back home. It wasn't easy to accept the different stages because there were good days and bad days. “One day she would arrive at daycare and be excited; the next she wouldn't know why she was there. Each stage of her decline, I grieved. Tell us about your mom, who was she before all of this, and what lessons did she teach you? My mom was an awesome woman! She was my best friend, I could always talk to and depend on her. She called me every day and there was nothing she wouldn't do for me. When I was pregnant, she would wash my clothes, cook, and clean for me. Once she even drove three hours to bring groceries and then drove three hours right back home. She was on a fixed income but would always offer to pay. Her thing was, “you don’t ever have to be without, I’m here for you.” She lost her mom at three and never wanted anyone to feel alone. She would invite strangers’ home from church for dinner because they looked like they were by themselves. Her love was unconditional, there was no amount of sacrifices she wouldn't make for others. She loved people. She loved to bake, read, write, and sing. She would walk daily, and most people couldn't keep up with her. She lived a very healthy life: she never drank or smoked. She was a great teacher, and disciplinarian who believed strongly in education and worked hard to make sure her children had opportunities. An exceptional writer. The church would often ask her to write welcome letters, greetings, and tributes, she was a brilliant writer. "When going through her things we found many personal notes, she would write everything. She wrote about what she was feeling and thoughts about what she was going through, and tons of reminder notes." "After she died, people shared so many stories of how she helped them," from helping people overcome addiction, to illness, to homelessness, all types of stories of selfless acts of love. What advice would you give to someone in the audience who is currently going through this tough time with their loved one? Be patient, understanding, and realize that this is not the person you knew. It will hurt when they forget all the memories you shared. Dementia is one of the hardest diseases. You watch them leave you and you can't bring them back. Play their favorite music, music is known to give comfort. Hug them, love them, care for them as if they're fragile and special. Educate yourself - I watched videos of other people's stories on YouTube. The Alzheimer's Association and the Department of Aging were great resources. I switched her doctor to a geriatric doctor, who specializes in Alzheimer's and they were very good at finding resources. Join support groups, go to meetings, go to conferences, and stay connected to the community. Get support and counseling. When you're a caregiver of someone with Alzheimer's, you feel like you're by yourself and nobody understands. It helped me when I was able to talk to a friend who cared for her mom because I knew she understood. Caregivers are known to decline during and after, so make sure to take time to care for yourself. What did you learn about yourself from the event of your mother's diagnosis? I learned through this who she was, although that may sound crazy. I learned how much we were alike. I looked at all the many things she had written, and it helped me to see myself. I was able to see my own selfishness. To take care of someone else, it takes great sacrifice. In the beginning, I didn't want to make them. I had to work through anger and frustration, blaming her for allowing this to happen. It's a process of growth, learning, and self-examination. We are not naturally forgiving or unconditionally loving people. We must become what she was. Her whole journey forced me to move forward. It forced me to face my own demons. "It made me see my ugly and unpleasant attitudes." To give at the level necessary, I had to give all of myself to care for her. I had to be in it 100% and in order to do that, I had to let go of myself. And if I was asked, I would do it again, because I wouldn't miss out on this journey I had with her. As the best parts of her died, so did the worst parts of me. Every time another version of her left, a new version of me appeared. In life, it can be easier to avoid dealing with difficult things and not dealing with our pain but with Alzheimer's, you don't have a choice. "You don't get to say, this is too much for me. You must deal with whatever happens at that moment." "There are so many decisions to be made, like what does she need right now. What to do about her healthcare or does she need a hug." "I had to study her because she couldn't communicate. It was like having a newborn baby, you must figure out what their movements and cries mean." Thank you so much for sharing your powerful story of selflessness. What’s even more amazing is that at 61 years old as a caregiver you not only held down a full-time job you also graduated with honors with your B.A. in Social Work. You are truly inspiring. Tell us more about that and what’s next for you? When I decided to go back to school for social work my original reason was, I wanted to help young people. I realized they needed guidance, mentoring, and support. When I became a caregiver, I also realized there wasn't enough support for our seniors. So, I changed my direction and started taking classes in aging. I began to learn how our seniors are neglected and how badly they're treated. It's sad because they took care of us, but a lot of children will walk away because they can't handle it. Our seniors are like infants, they retreat. It’s amazing that while being a caregiver for my mom, I was even able to graduate at all and to graduate with honors while maintaining straight A's in the beginning, working a full-time job and an internship was God's grace. I had to find people to watch her so I could go to class. I believe I inherited my faith and resilience from my mom. It's funny because my mom would always say, "I would be the one to take care of her." She was so strong, and everyone leaned on her and she was always there. I decided to retire when my mom went into hospice, because she needed to be taken care of 24/7 and was confined home. Prior to that, I was in a master's program, so my plan is to finish. For now, I'm adjusting. It takes some getting used to realize I'm free to go about the country as I want. When I was caring for her, even going to the store was hard. Today, I'm still grieving and changing my routines. It's been 5 months but sometimes I still look at the monitor to check in on her before realizing she's not there anymore. My emotions are a mixture of peace, sadness, and celebration because of who she was. When I think of her it makes me smile and feel grateful. I’m at peace because I know she's no longer suffering. In the end, the hardest part was when she stopped smiling. Sometimes she did nothing else, but I would go in her room and she would smile and that would be enough to get me through the day. My goal is to finish school, take vacations, and enjoy what opportunities life brings—unafraid. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to care for a loved one with Alzheimer's and Dementia. What are the most important lessons you learned from your mom? Being there and being kind is so often enough. She would sometimes become agitated, but if I went in her room and said, “Hi Mom” then gave her a hug, that was all it took for me to see her smile again." On behalf of Brainz Magazine, we want to thank Shirley Johnson who has shared her story about caring for her mother diagnosed with Alzheimer's before transitioning this past December. We hope that those living through similar struggles will find comfort in Ms. Johnson's words. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Dr. Khalilah Johnson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr. Khalilah Johnson, is an Executive Coach, Communication Architect, and Trauma & Resilience Expert with a multi-generational trauma history. After years of suffering severe trauma starting as early as adolescence, she struggled with deep depression, sleep deprivation, and detrimental memory loss; leading to her being diagnosed as permanently disabled. She went from being locked inside of her own mind and limited in speech, to today, being an award-winning powerful Inspirational Keynote Speaker, International Best-selling Author. She is the CEO of Redefined Unlimited Executive Coaching Firm, Brazen Nation Media Digital Marketing Agency, and Power After Trauma LLC. In pursuit of a breakthrough for herself and others, Dr. Johnson, is now a distinguished member of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, in collaboration with the National Center for Crisis Management, and a Licensed Interfaith Chaplain. Her professional training includes over 40 specialists’ certifications in the areas of holistic healing, psychology, trauma, marketing, and business. Dr. Johnson teaches the same methodology she used to break free from a life sentence of a disabling, mental, and emotional prison, through her signature program, UNPACK 2 IMPACT; The 5 E’s of Effective Generational Transformation. In this program, she has taught students that span over 97 countries, how to clear blockages of limiting beliefs, identify, and break intergenerational trauma patterns, turn purpose into profit and go from invisible to influential. Her story has inspired millions globally and has been shared on Fox, NBC, CBS News, Chicago Tribune, Authority Magazine, and Thrive Global. Her mission: breakthrough barriers, build better businesses and become bridges of hope, to future generations.

Written by: William Lee, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I was forty when my twin daughter and son were born. My life had been pretty complicated up to this point. Their births transformed it instantly. The purpose, the mission, the strategies, the plannings, the methodologies, the systems, the structures, the processes, and the mystical work-life balance all became crystal clear and congruent. Magic! Would I get the same alignment, were they born in my 20’s or 30’s? Most likely not. Overserving too many people’s interests with limited knowledge and skills were recipe for disaster. Instead, inner desires and external realities had to come together. No brainer, right? When we think deeper about what connects our mind to the outside world and how we can utilize it to good use, it gets more complicated than that. What’s In Our Mind Informed by a mix of Buddhist’s Prajnaparamita Sutra «波若波羅密多心經», Taoism’s Tao Te Ching «道德經» and Confucianism’s Chung Yong «中庸», when a human makes contact with the external world, or with another person, there is a natural flow of chain reactions happening inside that person’s mind. First, the person feels 受 the external world through the five senses of vision 眼, hearing 耳, smelling 鼻, tasting 舌, and touching 身. This part of the mind spontaneously reacts to the newly collected information with their previous experience or natural instinct – the (sub)consciousness 意識 – and attaches an emotional feeling to it. Second, this emotionalized information is then relayed to the thinking part of the mind. Here, the information is compared and categorized against a set of mental yardsticks. Whatever reacted out of this comparison forms a new stream of internalized information to be further fermented and processed at the next part of the mind. The internalized information next mixes and reacts with our (sub)consciousness to produce a decision to act (or not). Guided by a set of known methodologies, instinct or pure trial-and-error, actions are subsequently devised to close that gap. This event-specific decision and actions, along with the information previously collected, internalized, and now processed, is stored for future emotional attachment at the said first step of thoughts. The (sub)consciousness also provides the mental yardsticks utilized at the second step and the known methodologies at our internal processor, influencing the future. From Naught (?) to Something The twins are now a little more than 4 years old. I am intrigued by their growing differences each day. But, I wonder how much I contribute to that. At first milk, Xin-Xin the girl was gorging like there was no tomorrow. She probably would eat anything. On the other hand, the boy Kai-Kai frowned and stopped immediately when the milk touched his tongue. He was chewing and tasting, perhaps trying to discern the new sensation. When he was finally able to associate that taste with food and satiety, he was drinking like his sister. Similarly, the way they learn a language has always been establishing the connection between a certain sound and the corresponding thing or feeling. By instinct and trial-and-error, they learn to discover – later remember and repeat – certain muscle movements capable of reproducing that same sound. Empathy is learned by identifying a certain set of conditions that would give the same feeling as one would to another human being. With growing discoveries, connections, and repeats, they start to have enough databases to learn and think consciously, logically, reasonably, and critically. They started with no experience, no memory, and no idea of how to use their individualized body parts. But, by living, experiencing, and connecting dots, they now become something capable of anticipation, imagination, reflection, and diversion. They have independent minds, but we are connected through our five senses and love. Good Faith the Future On a cold December morning in northern China, Mr. J woke up early. “Tender documents, check. Quotation sheets, check. Strategic roadmap, check. Pen, check. Printer, check. Paper, check. Spare battery, check. Chocolate, check. Water, check. Extra clothing, check. …” He was about to attend a commercial tender worth tens of million US dollars annually, making up around 45% of his region’s turnover. His customer was infamous for attempting anything possible to wear down suppliers’ spirit to gain commercial advantage. That included a “broken” heater in a sub-zero temperature negotiation room for hours. Then suddenly, his mobile phone rang. It was from a customer machine superintendent. At an extremely low inventory level, if Mr. J’s product was to be replaced early, an installation accident or two could cause production loss, costing millions. Without compensation, Mr. J’s company was destined to years of desolation. “Is this a negotiation tactic?” He got angry when he associated this incident with a bad experience. The anger stopped him from thinking freely and creatively. Calling his mentor, he was advised to have good faith. After recalling another incident of great success, a positive mentality returned. He remembered he was always going to be a positive contributor, even if he had to sacrifice. Assisted by a calm, confident and empathetic voice, Mr. J was able to get that superintendent talking. His experience allowed him to ask the right questions. Then, with facts established, he was able to find a plausible solution worth trying. With just a flip of internal recollection, good faith, and the ability to connect. Mr. J and his team found space and time to visit the customer's head office, complete the tender registration, ask for temporary leave, visit the troubled mill, resolved the issue, and re-joined the tender. His company later became the biggest winner, and years to come. “You have to do the best with what God gave you.” “Remember what I told you, Forrest. You’re the same as everybody else. Do you hear what I said, Forrest? You’re the same as everybody else. You are no different.” Famous lines from Mrs. Gump to her son in the 1994 film Forrest Gump. Our ability to learn, grow, love, and be happy is no different from others, so understand how our minds work and use it to the fullest. Each one of us has been born with it all. So enjoy the journey and be comfortable with it. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Read more from William! William Lee, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine William Lee, a business coach and expert in connecting people’s wheels of fortune together, excels at producing positive results in complex multi-stakeholder engagement, end-to-end customer experience satisfaction, and remote team management. Frustrated by years of conflicts and external negativities, William dug deep to understand how our minds work, how we interact with one another, and how good faith can improve our connected world together. Through a process called CentriFusion, William’s methodology and system provide an easy first step to vastly improve team empathetic capability. With increased presence and engagement, as a result, fertile mental grounds are sown to enable organic and spontaneous growth, aligned to a shared common purpose. William provides the way to attain TRUE and SUSTAINABLE COMFORT in your businesses. Enjoy life without complacency!

Written by: Mikal Nielsen, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Thank you for stepping into this article, and congratulations, you are likely to have taken ownership of being a high achiever, or at least questioning it. Being a high achiever is natural. I believe we are all born that way. However, many of us, I included, had it conditioned out of us. It took me many years to reconnect with that natural part of me who wants to be the best version of me that I can be. And then another bunch of years to fully embrace it and take ownership of it, including the beautiful ups and painful downs that come in the wake of it. When we admit at least to ourselves that we are high achievers and realize that it more often than not brings with it a certain amount of stress, we open up to looking at it in a far healthier and more productive way. Let's first have a quick look at why stress tends to come along for the ride of high achievements: Stepping Up. High achievers want to achieve higher. Along with stepping up comes an increase in intensity and pressure. If we are not very careful and aware, stress will tend to creep in. Stepping Out. Achieving at a higher level most often requires that we step out of our comfort zone. That's scary — which in and of itself, it is not a problem, but it will turn into stress if not managed. Be our best. As high achievers, we have a tendency to demand the best of ourselves. That is all good as long as we are in the driver's seat. But, unfortunately, sometimes it is a deeper need to prove ourselves that is driving the achievement, in which case it will bring stress along for the ride. Takes more time. Higher achievements tend to take longer. That means something else has to go. Depending on what goes, say time with the family or looking after your own health, it will bring different stress into the mix. If any of this is landing for you, let me assure you that you are not alone. All high achievers have experienced stress. It's frustrating, because deep down, you know it doesn't have to be that way. But, with COVID-19 thrown into the mix, this has increased the stress levels for most people, including high achievers. You know that times like this define you, and this is the time that will allow you to step up, step out and increase the impact you have on the world. But, don't allow stress to infiltrate into the journey of your achievements, as it will not only diminish the fulfillment you get from it but even has the potential to sabotage it. So, what is this thing we call stress, and how do we fix it? If it was easy to fix, we would have done that a long time ago, but it keeps getting worse and worse. So I'm here to assure you that it is not easy. Well, you knew that already. Otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this article. However, I'm also here to tell you that it is simple. Not easy — but simple. I wrote a whole book about that ‘The Quick Fix to Any Problem,' but for now, let's try and understand stress at the most basic level before we look at 3 simple ways to reduce it. Stress is caused by resistance to what is. The gap between what is and what you perceive it should be may show up as frustration, anger, irritation, hurt, resentment, and so on. The intensity will depend on the size of the gap. The gap has a tension to it that we can label any way we want, but the tension itself is just tension. So tension itself is not stressed, but the resistance to the tension is stress. So stress is a mental construct. It is not caused by outer circumstances but by us allowing outer circumstances to stress us out. Therefore, the most useful and powerful solutions to stress come from within, not from changing the circumstances. If your circumstances are unacceptable and you need to change them or remove yourself from them, make sure to do that, but there is no need to allow stress to enter into it. But the reality is, we do let stress slip in the backdoor and find ourselves in a state of overwhelm, throwing our arms in the air and speaking a language that hopefully no one is recording. This is where having a bunch of stress busters comes in handy. I will share 3 really simple but extremely powerful stress buster here, so you have a bit of a repertoire to circulate through. Then, if you want more, download my free 36-page Stress Buster Guide for High Achievers with an additional 7 stress busters as well as lots more information about stress and its harmful side effects. You can use this link to access it. Stress Buster No.1 Pause When we get caught up in stress, our minds tend to be extremely busy, but unfortunately not in a productive way. So mostly, it will be looping around in circles, and despite going fast, not really getting anywhere. This is where the pause comes in. As soon as you catch yourself in the middle of stress, you have a window of opportunity. You can either fall victim to the momentum of the stress and stay caught in it, or you can activate a conscious pause to take back control of the moment and your mind. One way of doing that is to count to 5 slowly. Then, you can count up or down whatever works best for you. Pausing and counting to 5 does a number of extremely valuable things: First, it gives you a mental break to let go of thoughts. Calms you down. It allows you to recalibrate for what's next. Increases clarity and focus. Sets you up for the other 2 stress busters. As you can see, super simple and. In reality, very easy. The by far hardest part is to remember to do it when the pressure is on. I, unfortunately, don't have an easy solution to that. But I do have the solution: Practice! With that, on to the second stress buster. Stress Buster No.2 Breathe Conscious breathing is probably the oldest and most effective way of reducing stress. The main reasons for that are: You are already breathing, so no need to do anything that is not already happening. It is always there, in every situation, day and night. No physical effort is required. It is good for your health. It's free. When we are stressed, we tend to breathe faster and more shallowly, neither being good for our body or mind. Instead, it creates more tension and makes our minds more erratic. To reverse this, use the breathe stress buster straight after the pause by taking a big breath in really slowly. While taking that breath, pay full attention to the movement of your body breathing. Then, in the exhale, feel a sense of letting go of both physical and mental tension. Please, give it a go right now. A big breath, smile, and let it go. Ahhhhh! At the end of the first big breath, make a conscious decision to take another one or not. Either way is fine as long as it is a conscious decision. Rinse and repeat as many times as is useful to you. With the pause and breathe sorted, we can progress to the third stress buster: Stress Buster No.3 Gratitude The more stressed we are, the more we have lost touch with being grateful for what we already have and what is already working in our lives. Gratitude is a powerful positive feeling that tends to have a calming effect on our minds. As mentioned earlier, stress is related to tension, and negative feelings and typically makes the mind more erratic. Therefore, gratitude is a powerful antidote to stress and a perfect Stress Buster. You can use it on its own or in conjuration with Stress Buster No.1 and/or No.2 Simply take a few moments to remind yourself of 2-3 things you are grateful for in your life amidst the stress you are feeling, or remind yourself of a couple of things that are working well. Let's give it all a go together. Pause, count to 5. Breathe, one big and really slow breath in, and let it go. And now tell yourself what you a grateful for in this moment. Well done! Be aware of how you feel now and if it is any different from before. Is your mind more at ease? Do you feel more present? Is there less tension? Just be aware and then move on with what's next in your day. Stress Buster Application: Take several doses a day, with or without meals. Known side effects: Increased happiness and wellbeing. For a more in-depth understanding of stress and more ways to bust it, download my free comprehensive Stress Buster Guide for High Achievers: 10 Ways to Eliminate Stress Without Hurting Performance. You can find it here: https://mikal.nz/stress-buster-guide. If you want to dive deeper into this and have specific personal aspects, you would like to discuss them. Then, I offer BRAINZ readers a complimentary 20-30 minutes Discovery Call. You can use this link to book a time that suits you. Thank you for reading to the end, another high achievement. Happy Stress Bustering! Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or visit my website for more info! Mikal Nielsen, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Mikal's mission is to help high achievers awaken their natural wisdom to create profound fulfillment, deep peace of mind, and a perfect balance between everything truly important to them. With a corporate background and starting and running 3 businesses, Mikal has spent the last 14 years coaching business founders, owners, and leaders to get more life out of life and more business out of business. He is a mind mechanic with 35 years of experience in mindfulness, personal and spiritual growth, and 30 years of experience coaching others in these fields. Mikal is an international speaker, certified firewalking coach, author of 5 books, and creator of Modern Meditation for busy people. In addition to coaching entrepreneurs and business leaders, Mikal and his wife Kathy offer relationship coaching. With 30 years of living together and growing up with 3 children, they have learned and experienced a lot and have co-authored a book about their journey together. Seeing how many relationships are struggling or have gone stagnant, they have decided to offer couples coaching.