Written by: Mendy Linden, 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. "We are one amongst many in one mind, and only the brightest gets to shine and come out to the world." I know this sounds creepy, but when I say many in one, I don't mean multiple personalities. This is not a split sequel. It means everything we are, our fears, our hopes, our dreams, our needs. We have been taught for too long that to make it in today's world. We need to show only the best of ourselves, not our struggles or insecurities. In short, buckle up, buttercup, and keep moving . So we do so, dealing only with what does not disrupt the image we have constructed for the world and pushing everything else deep down to the darkest corners of our mind. Enter The Shadow The shadow is the place in your psyche where we put all the feelings we can’t or don’t want to deal with. Picture the shadow as a jewelry box, with lots of drawers where we carefully store all the things we can’t or don’t want to deal with. It is not a new place. We built it throughout our childhood as since then, whenever a situation feels or looks like one of the things you put in this box, you get notified in the form of thought and/or feeling. How does the shadow work? Children and young adults experience raw emotions with little or no limits. They have not developed a framework to deal with complex situations (loss, shame, guilt, blame) and base their decision-making process on feelings and reactions to pain. No one wants to hurt. Therefore it becomes second nature to avoid pain and push uncomfortable feelings where we don't have to deal with them "jewelry box." This simple act defines how we will deal with our reality, issues, feelings, pain, loss, challenges and, as a result, shapes everything we do from our career to our choice of partner as adults. If, as a child, you were not allowed to cry, to express sorrow or guilt, and healthily process those feelings, you are most likely an adult with little empathy for sensible or expressive people and who could consider emotional displays a sign of weakness. Whatever pain you don't deal with as a child will come back to haunt you as an adult, influencing your tomorrow as much as it influenced your today. For example, crowded rooms are scary, dogs are dangerous, having visceral reactions to impromptu situations. The more clutter we have in this box, the harder it becomes to function in the present. Like a saturated inbox, we receive constant notifications, like pop-ups on our smartphones that we can’t ignore. How many times have you snapped at someone for being emotional or punishing yourself for feeling tired or scared? Are you afraid of public speaking? Is it hard for you to be clear about what you want? Can you see now how this bleeds all over your life? Romantic relationships, business, the overall feeling of well-being, meeting new friends, but most importantly, your relationship with yourself. Nobody comes out of their childhood with an empty box," we all have a Shadow place," filled with truths that, when faced, will free us. How do we solve this? To create a light state of being, you need to go on a journey to the jewelry store, open the box and clean the jewelry. Imagine each piece is an issue, a burden you have been carrying around and as you wipe of the dust, start embracing how it makes you feel, process each feeling, and allow your mind to process this new sentiment. You will discover the hidden gems within you. Keep on cleaning up the energy every day, and commit yourself to feel enough, loved, wanted, admired, supported, and healed, and that is what you will become. As with the most important things in life, it takes time to get there, but when you do, light breaks out, and a sense of belonging and love will come to stay. Clearing out the shadow means embracing each step, each feeling. And it is less scary to do so with someone you trust. You don't have to do it alone. I intend to offer you space where you can learn about foundational work to build self-acceptance, self-understanding, and ultimately self-mastery. To start our relationship, I invite you to answer this question... How do you feel about yourself? If you struggled to answer and are serious about taking the next step, reach out, post in the comments, and/or connect with me in this group , where we continuously add value to each other lives by discovering what our true journey looks like. And remember, I will be here at Brainz Magazine bringing you an article a month and hoping to hear about your challenges. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Mendy Linden, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Mendy is the inspiring creator of the Self Leadership program ‘Living Free & Fulfilled’, about growing emotionally, mentally, energetically and financially. She welcomes women to this self-discovery journey to uncover, understand and embrace their inner demons as a source of untapped potential and resilience to find their inner strength. Driven by an unsettling feeling of “not belonging”, Mendy is no stranger to the hurdles of life. The self-worth and preservation she found within is what fuelled her to embark on an adventure, to not only transform herself into a happier and more conscious person, but to also become an intuitive guide for every woman wishing to change their life. Helping them to rewrite their narratives. In the past 13 years, Mendy has helped clients, on a one-to-one basis, to achieve their life goals. She does this by providing her clients with the tools to face their fears and break the barriers that impede self-love, growth, fulfillment and success.

Written by: Jean Fleming , 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. Imposter Syndrome affects around 70% of the population, and contrary to popular belief, it affects around the same number of men as it does women. But what is Imposter Syndrome, and what can you do to control it? Imposter Syndrome, or Imposter Phenomenon, is defined in Collins English Dictionary as “a persistent feeling of being unworthy of one's status or success. ” – and that is despite external evidence of competence and success. So, what does that mean in practice? It’s that voice in your head that tells you things such as: I do not know as much as my peers. I am not good enough to go for that promotion at work. Everyone else here knows more than me. They are going to find out I am a fraud. The result of all this negative talk in your head is that you can hold yourself back from achieving. You do not share those great ideas in the team meeting . You do not go for the promotion at work that, deep down, you know you are qualified and capable of getting. All this can have a negative effect on your business or organization and simply leave you feeling unhappy and unfulfilled. If you have experienced Imposter Syndrome, you are certainly not alone. The good news is that there is lots you can do - here are 5 tips: 1. Identify your triggers. There are many situations where Imposter Syndrome can kick in, and differing from your peers in some way can often bring this on. For example, are you younger or older than your peers? Are you the only female in a male-dominated team or only male in a predominantly female team? These situations can often lead to feelings of being a fraud. Take the age example; if you are younger than your peers, this can often lead to the belief that you do not have enough experience, or you will not be taken seriously by older colleagues – with age comes the assumption of experience. Knowing your triggers is the first step to getting Imposter Syndrome under control by allowing you to stop and think rationally about what is going on. 2. Keep an achievement log. At the end of every day, write down what you achieved that day. It doesn’t always have to be major achievements, and they can be personal or professional. Did you get the kids to school on time? Did you get that proposal sent off? Did you finally clear your emails? Write it all down at the end of each day, and you will be amazed at what you achieve each day – I bet it’s way more than you think! The purpose of this is to increase your confidence in yourself and prove to yourself how much you achieve daily. 3. Understand and celebrate your strengths. Being asked in a job interview to describe your strengths is always a hard question. But if you were asked to describe your partner, friend, or colleague's strengths , I bet you would reel off a list a mile long! Try asking someone you trust to tell you what they think your strengths are. Not only will this boost your confidence, but it will also give you some external validation which is always nice. 4. Re-write your stories. When you experience Imposter Syndrome, try re-writing the narrative in your head. To give an example, instead of saying to yourself, "Everyone here knows more than me, I'm going to get found out." Try saying to yourself: "Everyone here is so knowledgeable and experienced . I'm going to learn so much from them." Turn the scary negative story into a bright and positive one. 5. Be kind to yourself – what would you say to your best friend? To put this into context, I had a photoshoot recently for my marketing materials. Like a contestant in a Miss World Competition, I waited for the results to come in. 135 photos later, the horror hit me – I look terrible in half my clothes! Too tight, too short, too….just not right! And then I stopped and listened to myself, and I realized that I am talking to myself in a way that I would never speak to my best friend. I would encourage her, point out the good points in the photos – her beautiful smile, how her personality shines through. And I realized that I need to be my own best friend and speak to myself with the warmth and kindness I would speak to my best friend. Next time you find yourself criticizing yourself, stop and think about what you would say to your best friend and be kind to yourself. Try using these techniques today and turn that negative voice in your head into your biggest cheerleader. For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my website ! Jean Fleming, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jean Fleming is an empowerment and leadership coach helping women to create the life they want. With over 30 years of business and HR experience, Jean was the first woman to join the Board of a global company – a role she still fulfills 11 years later. Jean is an experienced ICF accredited Coach, a DiSC Profiler, an Emotional Intelligence EQi-2.0 Assessor, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Jean uses her extensive range of skills and experience to bring a dynamic and supportive service to her clients to help them identify and create the life they want.

Written by: Leslie Gaudet, 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. Hey! I’m back! So, in my first article, I told you a little bit about me, and in this article, I’m going to dive in a little bit deeper and tell you some more about what I do. It has to do with understanding triggers, our emotional responses to our triggers, and how they relate to our mindset. What are triggers? Some triggers that can affect us emotionally are: the anniversary date of loss or trauma; family friction; financial issues; judgment or criticism; isolation; and overwhelm. Imagine your trigger is feedback, but instead of treating it like that, you revert to a childhood memory that triggers the feelings of being judged or criticized. Instead of embracing the feedback as positive and taking time to unpack what just happened, you automatically get defensive. How do you switch your mindset around this? You ask yourself some questions, such as: What was the feedback? Who is the person that gave you the feedback? Do you respect them? Have they ever maliciously criticized you? Are they someone who generally wants the best for you? These are just some questions that you can start with. Being reactive in a situation where feedback is meant to help you grow is when you miss that opportunity to step into being the best version of yourself. Feedback is giving you information so that you can grow into a better human being. Criticism is not. So, telling the difference means thinking about the person who gave you the feedback and how you feel about them generally. Are they someone you know, like, and trust? Do they generally criticize you, or is this your own insecurity of unworthiness? Is the feedback you received about you as a person or something you are doing that can help you do something better, which again is meant to help you grow as a person? It takes practice, but it certainly is doable to switch your mindset — which leads me to my story. I always knew that there was something that was driving my emotional responses, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was until I started digging a little deeper into the subject and I started finding out that we all have trigger moments and that our trigger moments are based around what we believe, what we see, how we think and feel, and ultimately how we respond. Those responses, though, are what intrigued me the most as I delved a little bit deeper into understanding my own emotional trigger moments and how I responded to external stimuli, which are things like other people, places, sounds, and even smells and how they related to my personal experiences. I happened upon this ‘space between’ moment ideology by thinking about how we formulated our beliefs when I was on my mindset quest a year ago. You see, I had been working with my clients based on triggers and understanding triggers and our responses, but I always felt that there was something more to it than just having a trigger moment, and that’s when I realized that my mindset was a key factor. I believe that our mindset (our set of beliefs) influences our thoughts, and our thoughts dictate the words we speak and the actions we take. In turn, those responses that we have (our emotional trigger responses) are based upon the meaning and the emotions that we give to our experiences. Let me tell you why. For me, there’s a certain smell that brings me right back to a very unpleasant time in my life. As a young girl, I experienced being molested over a period of many years (by people I knew for the most part), and one of the things that can bring me right back to a place and a time is a certain smell. I can’t explain it. I just know that when I smell this certain smell, it automatically reminds me of that time in my life. It can bring me right back there as if time froze, and I can see it clearly in my mind. It’s a time that I had been powerless, but I proudly can say that it doesn’t hold power over me today. So, what is this ‘space between’ moment that I’m talking about? What does it mean? I can tell you what it means to me, and then you can formulate your own opinion. What I can say is, "When something happens to you, you have that moment where you pause, and that’s where you are deciding the meaning that you are going to give to what just happened, the emotion that you are going to assign, along with the level of intensity of the emotion. Once you have done that, then you will file that memory away into your emotional memory bank." You will have, in essence, experienced a ‘space between’ moment. That’s what I did. I had my ‘space between moment’ and then created an emotional memory around it and filed it away. For me, it became not only an emotional trigger moment, but my emotional trigger moment also had its own trigger. Meaning, the trigger for me, for that moment in time, was a certain smell, and so even today, although I am a strong woman. I have since worked through those difficult times and put them behind me, that smell can still bring me right back to remembering that time in my life with perfect clarity, like I’m there, but I’m not. The amazing thing about where I am in my life today is that although I have a trigger to my emotional trigger, that trigger (that smell) no longer evokes the emotions that it used to, which were shame, guilt (thinking that I was to blame), and ultimately feelings of unworthiness because I found ways to manage those emotional triggers so that I could show others that there is another way to manage those emotional triggers for themselves. I’ve also learned to appreciate the sense of smell with positive things like freshly cut grass, an orchid, or even the smell of bread baking in the oven. The moments that I call ‘space between’ moments are just us figuring out how to navigate our lives and how to best navigate our emotions. It all happens fairly quickly, but once you realize this process actually is happening because you have an actual emotional trigger, that’s the first step. Then you have something to work off of and start getting curious about it and its origins. You can go back to those moments and revisit them by journaling them out, and if you are in that place where you need guidance, then there are so many avenues available to you; whether that’s therapy or coaching or having a strong and amazing tribe of friends and family who support and encourage you and who have your back no matter what. Having the courage to face my past was a difficult one because at first, I wasn’t ready to dredge all of that “stuff” up, thinking that I had already “been there done that” and that unpacking it again to go through the emotional journey of the past was a waste of time. Getting coached around this helped me with that. It was the most liberating moment in my life. When I was finally able to come out the other side with my head held high, knowing my true worthiness, releasing my shame, then I was finally able to put to bed my emotional trigger around that history of mine. When I was able to finally take away the power of a trigger of a simple smell, that’s when my life shifted. I gained my power over my life and the confidence to step into being a powerful coach who helps other women see and own and step into their own power. It’s not always easy to find the courage to revisit that which has been swept under the rug and forgotten about for so long only to be remembered with a smell. Still, it has been liberating to finally release and set myself free from my past. You can change your patterns to your emotional triggers. Even a trigger such as a smell can be turned around. Why am I sharing this with you, and why am I sharing such a traumatic and vulnerable piece of myself? I share this with you to let you know that there is hope for all of us to navigate these very vulnerable moments in our lives and to get unstuck so that they don’t manage how we live our lives. If you are stuck in those emotional cycles of repetitiveness of ‘trigger, emotional explosion, calm downtime, apologize-ish, forgive, and then carry on with your day’ moments, it’s okay. It’s okay if you have been in this emotional cycle. It’s okay that you want to make a change but are not sure how. All you need to know is that you want to change and the reason why. The rest will follow if you trust that there is another way. And Trust is the keyword here. So, I ask you now. Have you thought about your emotional triggers and possibly the “triggers” to your emotional triggers? Are you stuck on the emotional rollercoaster and are ready to slow it down and change how you respond to your emotions? If you are ready to be released from your emotional triggers holding power over how you show up emotionally in your world, then reach out to me and let’s start a conversation. Believe it when I say it starts with first speaking it, so that you can face it, finally embrace that it was and no longer is, allowing you to release its hold, and finally Rewrite the Story of You. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Leslie! Leslie Gaudet, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Leslie Gaudet is a Mindset and Emotional Awareness Coach for women. She helps her clients achieve self-awareness around their emotional triggers by shifting their mindset to make better decisions when they respond, which allows them to bring more balance, peace, and harmony into their life. Almost 4 decades working as a Legal Assistant and Paralegal in the corporate world left her feeling emotionally and physically drained. That’s when she decided that she had to make some changes for her to live a life she loves. Those changes involved learning to love herself (without judgment or criticism). That mindset is the key to everything because our mindset influences our thoughts, and in turn, our thoughts dictate our words and actions. Thru her journey to self-love and self-acceptance, Leslie became certified as a Life Coach and attained further certifications in Group Coaching and Emotional Intelligence. She works closely with her clients, starting with mindset because that is the foundational piece to self-love and self-acceptance. She teaches her clients about triggers and how they affect us emotionally by helping her clients tune into, spot, and understand their own so that they can become more self-aware of their trigger moments and emotional responses. With proven tools and techniques and with her guidance, her clients tap into and discover their true potential to living their life and loving the life they are living. Leslie believes that you will transform your life when you Change Your Brain (the way you think).

Written by: Barry Borgerson, 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 the need arises to penetrate new forms of problem solving, we must try to find some visualization mechanisms to help us work our way through uncharted mental territory. In my first Brainz Magazine article, Our Mysterious Problem-Solving Deficiencies , I mentioned the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephapnt as a way to gain insight that we may be missing the big picture of our current problem-solving deficiencies. Here is a 19th-century poem that cleverly leads us through that parable. The Blind Men and Elephant Poem by John Godfrey Saxe (1872) Since we currently have many types of inadequately solved problems, we would do well to try to discover if we are addressing different parts of a greater “deficiencies elephant” that we have somehow been missing. Or, using the identification I employed in my first Brainz article, how can we figure out what the Class II elephant actually looks like? We need to start by examining how people currently go about understanding the various parts of this problem-solving elephant. A major characteristic of the large class of problems that we do not solve well enough is that they all relate to human activities. Therefore, we need to find a way to understand and manage many types of our activities better than we have been doing. The first step is to identify how we try to identify the underlying sources of human activities. Most current efforts focus on how the human brain operates, as illustrated in the following image. The Brain-Centric View of Human Activities You’re Out of Your Mind: Many articles and books that say they address the mind actually focus on the brain instead because that is where our current problem-solving processes work so effectively. To transcend this confusion, we need to make an explicit distinction between the mind and the brain. The Brain Has Its Place: The tangible human brain consists of 1.4kg (3 pounds) of convoluted gray and white matter that exists in the physical world and therefore lends itself well to scientific investigations. Scientists continue to do a wonderful job of penetrating the brain’s enormous complexities to solve many important problems. Discovering the Mind This Is a No-Brainer: In order to solve the large class of mysterious human-activities problems, we must stop conflating the mind and the brain. If we model it effectively, the intangible human mind is not nearly as complex as the brain. It has escaped comprehensive understanding because it has many properties that are not naturally accessible to us and some that create illusions (and even delusions!), which often deceive us. We can experience these illusive mental activities as profoundly real even when they do not correspond with anything outside of our mind and when they do not align with our success and well-being needs. The belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory is a grave example of the former and the wild popularity of the “sustainable success” books is an example of the latter. Use Your Mind for a Change: Many investigators have made progress in modeling the human mind. However, it is so elusive (inaccessible) and illusive (self-deceiving) that previous theories have not modeled the intricacies of our mental activities sufficiently to allow us to construct robust processes that empower conquering most of our debilitating human-activities problem-solving deficiencies. That is, we need to use our mind more effectively to understand and change enigmatic parts of our mind. Because the human mind is a unique non-material entity in nature, we need a unique theory and a new problem-solving foundation (paradigm, worldview) to understand it that includes specialized processes to manage it. Mind Over Matter : The components of our model are not such enormously complex material brain mechanisms as neurons, neurotransmitters, the amygdala, limbic structures, or the prefrontal cortex and their intricate interconnections and interactions. Instead, we focus on non-material human mental factors such as hopes, fears, certainties, intentions, beliefs, feelings, cultures, skills, goals, procrastination, and habits, which are much easier to grasp than their brain underpinnings. You’ve Lost Your Mind: Many characteristics of our mind don’t incarnate from one specific part of the brain but instead derive their actions from distributed brain mechanisms. That includes those actions associated with most success-producing human activities. Therefore, we do not have a serviceable mapping between many important mental activities and their brain correlates. Other parts of our mind are elusive and illusive, so in important senses, you’ve lost your mind – at least crucial parts of it. Mapping the Mind: On his March 15, 2015 CNN GPS program, Fareed Zakaria featured a segment, Five Moonshots for the 21st Century, which included mapping the human brain . Many scientists are working effectively on creating such a comprehensive map. To solve our many success-destroying human-activities problems, we must create a different moonshot with much wider consequences. We need to create a related but fundamentally distinct map of the human mind . And, we must make that moonshot in the third decade of the 21st century because our problem-solving deficiencies are causing increasing dysfunctions and failures in many crucial areas of our lives. These include business with the human ramifications of the rising Fourth Industrial Revolution and spectacularly in our Western political systems, both of which are gravely impacted by the rippling effects of the global coronavirus pandemic. Mind Your Mind: That is, pay attention to how your mind actually operates. How much direct control do you think you have over your mental activities? If You Don’t Mind! Most people don’t pay explicit attention to their mind – they don’t mind! When people have occasion to think about their mind, most primarily see it as uniform. I had my informal uniform-mind model destabilized when I was a boy of about 11. I was attending a Saturday matinee at the theater in downtown Alameda California, which was only a five-block walk from where I lived. As was usual in those days, a double feature was playing and as I returned to the seating area from buying snacks, the customary newsreel was playing between the two movies. The commentator was discussing physicist Niels Bohr who made significant contributions regarding the atom for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1922. The narrator was lamenting the fact that Bohr never produced any breakthroughs in his later life comparable to the ones he made earlier. The statement the commentator made next created cognitive dissonance for me because he generalized that after a major discovery, most scientists never have comparable future breakthroughs. That made no sense to me. How could it be possible that as you acquire new knowledge and gain more experience that you become less creative? It forced me to make explicit my implicit assumption that our mind is uniform, in which case the phenomena described by the commentator would not occur. I suddenly realized to my dismay that either the commentator was wrong or I had a defective model of the mind. Do You Mind? Was the newsreel commentator right or was my uniform-mind assumption correct? We need to start mapping the human mind by identifying how most people view their mind, at least implicitly. Most people seem to believe, as I previously did, that they have very high control over their mind because it consists mainly of thinking, intentions, and explicit knowledge. The Single-Mode View of the Human Mind I use situational light bulbs to represent this thinking mode of our mind. Automatic Mental Activities: With a little reflection, most people will realize that some of their actions take place automatically, such as their sports and musical skills. Therefore, the mind must contain some vague functions that are different from the thinking, intentions, and explicit knowledge components of which we are so familiar and that we know how to use very effectively to create our successes. The Thinking-Plus-Some-Skills View of the Mind In the above diagram, I introduced a second visualization mechanism to empower you to gain additional insight into the nature of our automatic activities – using situational robots because our unintentional activities operate like internal robots. Robots Within: If they reflect a bit longer, most people will admit that sometimes they exhibit actions that are not consistent with their intentions such as procrastinating or displaying anger. To overcome the many debilitating human-activities problems we have not been solving adequately, we need to dig deeper into this automatically executing part of our mind. Grasping at Parts of the Mental Elephant. Instead of the poem, we can use an illustration of the blind people and the elephant parable to make the point about missing the big picture. Maybe that is what is happening to us now in trying to solve specific human-activities problems when we are missing the overarching view of what is going on in our mind. Each Was Partly in the Right, and All Were in the Wrong! In the above diagram, I use blind light bulbs to represent our thinking mode, which is where our explicit understanding lies. Dual Mental Modes: The first major change we must make to our mental model is to recognize that we all operate in two powerful but distinct modes. Our thinking mode is very natural to us, is the center of our attention, easily improves through education, and was the primary basis of most of our past successes. The other mode has been unfamiliar, resists easy improvements, takes place mostly outside of our explicit awareness, and, when we conquer this automatic mode, will provide the basis of our next wave of successes in conjunction with our already-potent thinking abilities. We Have Two Robust Mental Modes Two Selfs: Since we operate in two distinct modes, a thinking mode and an automatic mode, we can usefully assume that we have two “selfs” – a thinking-self and an auto-self . Our Two Selfs Auto-Self Emancipation: The Science/Enlightenment Revolution emancipated our thinking-self, created the Modern West, and gave us over two centuries of amazing successes. Our challenge now is to find a pragmatic way to emancipate our auto-self to create another long period of even greater and more-consistent successes. A No-Class Solution: We can now put an end to speaking indirectly of Class I and Class II problems in these articles. We can now talk directly about problems that we can solve effectively using our thinking-self and those that require transforming the auto-self of ourselves, other individuals, and groups – including businesses. Here are some seemingly independent human activities that we have not understood and managed adequately: Paradigms Culture Changes Behavior Transformations Tacit Knowledge – as opposed to explicit knowledge “Heart” – as in hearts and minds “Art” of Leadership – as opposed to management “science” Robot-Like Activities: How can we account for the above mysterious activities and many more that are automatic, unintentional, not solvable by our potent thinking abilities, and not based on explicit knowledge – that seem to be robot-like? Can’t Make Heads or Tails of Our Mysterious “Elephant in the Room”? The Auto-Self Elephant: We have not been able to make heads or tails of our mysterious “human-activities elephant” because it is the previously mysterious auto-self. People have been examining parts of this “auto-self elephant.” However, “each was partly in the right and all are were in the wrong” when it came to understanding the big picture. What Does 2Selfs Theory Bring to Mind? There is an auto-self elephant in our success room, and it’s high time we acknowledge that it is there and learn to understand and manage it because it’s stomping on our aspirations and it’s not going away. The above insights into the auto-self are but six of many ways careful observers have noticed that we have some mysterious activities that we struggle to understand and manage. We need to recognize explicitly that we operate in two distinct modes that sometimes cooperate and other times compete. Our goal must be to create a generalized, pragmatic theory that allows us to understand and manage both of our selfs across a broad set of human-activities problems we have not been solving adequately. 2Selfs Theory now satisfies that need. 2Selfs Theory provides an orderly, systematic model of the mind that empowers us to solve many types of currently mysterious problems associated with human activities. The currency for success for the thinking-self is knowledge within one’s professional domain – the path to success is intentions and learning. The currency for success for the auto-self is alignment with success needs – the path to success is transforming. Success previously focused on becoming knowledgeable . Now we must add to that becoming transformable for repeated successes. The first level of creating a robust model of our auto-self is to recognize four different types that operate in distinct ways. The 4 Auto-Self Types All four types of auto-self activities play important roles in our lives including in business. However, this series of articles for Brainz Magazine focuses on auto-contexts (the perceptual “lenses” through which we view the world) and auto-behaviors (our habits) because those two types are causing our systemic failures. They also provide the opportunity, once we conquer them, to create successes and well-being beyond what we ever achieved. In future articles, I will dig deeper into auto-contexts and auto-behaviors as a necessary way to solve many types of problems and how conquering them should launch a new era of greater prosperity and reestablish the viability of representative governments. When trying to understand the dual nature of the human mind and in particular our hyper elusive and chronically illusive auto-contexts, we can employ a third powerful visualization mechanism that goes way back to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. In his Allegory of the Cave ( The Republic ), Plato described a scene where prisoners in a cave were looking at shadows on a wall. The shadows were of objects and people from outside the cave. The cave dwellers could hear the people outside the cave by their sounds bouncing off the cave wall. The cave dwellers were constrained so they could not turn around and see the actual people or objects. Their perceived reality consisted of the shadows. Plato pointed out that they lived in a constrained mental world of seeing only the shadows that create fuzzy images of real objects. He proposed that if they were freed and went outside the cave, they would not recognize the three-dimensional objects they then saw and would probably struggle valiantly to deny the actual reality they just encountered for the first time. We now understand that is due to the potent certainty illusion, a specific artifact of auto-contexts, which you will learn about below We cannot have a successful future if we continue to see only the shadows of our auto-self and attempt to manage its many manifestations through fuzzy access. 2Selfs Theory is not very complicated compared to many topics you already studied and understand. The problem is that it exposes enigmatic parts of your mind. We have not penetrated this part of the mind adequately in the past because most of its activities take place outside of our awareness and its mechanisms often deceive us. To understand it well, we need to identify and model a few auto-self properties. As we do that, we will benefit from having navigation tools. Navigating the Path to Greater Successes and Well-Being Exploring new mental territory necessarily requires introducing some new concepts and therefore adding to our vocabulary. Readers of my previous writings have reported that they sometimes got lost in navigating through the unfamiliar terrain with new-concept boulders and many signs in the form of new vocabulary terms. In order to make the path easier as you work your way through understanding and managing our previously mysterious but crucially important auto-self, I provide here four navigation landmarks. I will use these repeatedly below and throughout my remaining Brainz Magazine articles to keep you oriented on your path to a more successful future. 4 Major 2Selfs Theory Navigation Landmarks Certainty Illusions Comfort Imperative Abilities Mismatch Transformable Certainty Illusions Certainty illusions create the major force that drives the mysterious, often-deceptive activities of auto-contexts. Certainty illusions often provide a necessary anchor to frame our thoughts including for science paradigms, problem-solving worldviews, and business cultures. However, they also cause us to experience that we have access to reality, the way things really are, or the “truth” independent of correspondence with the world outside of this automatic mode of our mind. A massive problem with certainty illusions is their tenacity and opacity because they stay rigid even when the environment changes, and we don’t normally notice when that happens. This illusive certainty also blocks our attempts to reconstruct auto-contexts when they are ill formed or when the rapidly changing social environments renders previously aligned auto-contexts obsolete. Big lies in politics are examples of the former and business-culture reconstructions are examples of the latter. You will learn in my future Brainz Magazine articles how certainty illusions impact our lives in many highly impactful ways that most people do not currently recognize. We will use “certainty illusion” generically to mean that auto-contexts create a certainty within us that is independent of correspondence with anything outside of our mind. We will also use certainty illusion more specifically to refer to an auto-context-based certainty for which we have not, cannot, or do not verify currently corresponds with the world outside of our mind. We will use certainty delusion to refer to an internal certainty that we have verified or could verify does not correspond to realities outside of our mind. The Comfort Imperative The Comfort Imperative is the major driving force that controls auto-behaviors. The Comfort Imperative moves us toward pleasure and relentlessly drives us away from discomfort. It blocks needed actions including discomfort-inducing auto-behavior and auto-context transformations. It is also the underlying reason why seduction traps in the form of simplistic solutions are so effective when people experience discomfort. Unfortunately, simplistic solutions relieve the immediate discomfort associated with needing a solution without producing the solution needed. Additionally, the Comfort Imperative is the underlying reason why self-help programs rarely produce the desired results because auto-behavior reconstructions create discomfort over an extended period. Abilities Mismatch The Abilities Mismatch manifests the conflict between our prowess at thinking-self problem-solving and our current anemic auto-self problem-solving capabilities. The Abilities Mismatch is the fundamental situation causing our systemic decline, which reveals that we have now developed technologies and products (using our amazing thinking-self capabilities) that have passed the threshold where they have overwhelmed our ability to manage their human-activities (auto-self) ramifications. The Abilities Mismatch is not a fundamental part of human nature. However, because of it, we have now reached the point in the course of human events where it has become necessary to take decisive actions to secure our successes, prosperity, and the pursuit of happiness. Or, said slightly differently: The Abilities Mismatch has escalated to the point where it has precipitated a major tipping point of our journey in the maturation of the human species. Why has the Abilities Mismatch become so devastating? Technologies are driving so many disruptions in the business environment that the need for culture changes becomes ever-increasing, and we have not had systematic processes to accomplish that. In politics, communications technologies make disseminating disinformation and Big Lies so easy that too many voters are vulnerable to having certainty delusions constructed into their auto-contexts, which overwhelms their ability to make rational choices including ones that impact their own successes and well-being. We have successfully worked our way through a series of technologies in the Modern West, so why do I claim we have now hit a major inflection point that requires a rare type of discontinuous response to recover and then exceed our previous greatness? Technologies of the first two industrial revolutions were steam and then electricity, and those industrial revolutions created changes slowly enough that our predecessors could work through the changes wrought to human activities to sustain progress. All of that changed with the Third Industrial Revolution because the underlying technology was semiconductors that had the unprecedented property of increasing performance while decreasing costs year after year and decade after decade. That, when coupled with highly sophisticated software, led to explosive improvements in computer and communications technologies. These technological events have created capabilities and rates of change that our auto-self, and particularly our auto-contexts, can no longer accommodate with the implicit understanding and indirect management we have been attempting to use. As if that’s not bad enough, we are now teetering on the precipice of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will only make matters worse. And that is just for business. The ease with which charlatans and conspiracy promulgators can use modern communications technologies to spew disinformation and Big Lies has incapacitated citizens and therefore voters to avoid the construction of certainty delusions into their auto-contexts. Think about the “Stop the Steal” insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Transformable We must focus on one crucial new capability. We need to become transformable. The success focus for the Modern West was widespread learning, which continuously improves our thinking-self capabilities. The next focus must add the success factor of widespread transforming , which will periodically improve our auto-self alignment with success and well-being needs. You will learn more about transformability in the auto-contexts and auto-behaviors sections below and throughout the rest of my Brainz articles as I discuss practical applications. The mind contains these hidden, illusive auto-context “lenses” through which we interpret the world. In subsequent articles, you will learn about the decisive roles auto-contexts play in so many aspects of our lives and how to manage them to our enormous benefits. This section provides an overview of the nature and importance of auto-contexts. Auto-contexts (that sometimes appear as paradigms, mindsets, worldviews, and colloquially the “box”) act as automatic contextual frameworks. They create hidden perceptual lenses that enable and disable our constructive thinking. Auto-contexts play the decisive role in creating discontinuous innovations and incorporating them into an organization’s culture. They have also caused innovation deathtraps because we had not created and propagated a process for managing them systematically. Previously, we had barely scratched the surface of the role auto-contexts play in our current demise and the promise that understanding and managing them will provide to empower us to reestablish and then exceed the previous greatness of the West. Conquering auto-contexts is extremely important because they create problem-solving foundations for professions, countries, and the whole West. They are the basis of cultures, including in business. Auto-contexts are also the key to constructing much greater personal responsibilities for citizens of the West. Additionally, they contain the enduring values of individuals and whole societies. We will not have a positive future unless we conquer the auto-self. The most important type of auto-self activity we must now conquer is the auto-context. And, the property of auto-contexts that currently causes the most devastating damage to our successes and well-being is the certainty illusion. You can’t escape your prison if you don’t know you are in it, and auto-contexts have now pushed us into a mental (and success) prison that is destroying our future due to the Abilities Mismatch. Fortunately, we now have the opportunity not just to overcome the negative effects of auto-contexts but also to use them to create a greater future than we ever experienced. Here is a fair challenge some people have given me. “If auto-contexts are so important, why haven’t we robustly modeled them by now so we can overcome their negative consequences and take advantage of the enormous opportunities you claim conquering them can offer us?” The reasons why we have previously failed to understand and transform auto-contexts effectively include the following: Elusive: Even more than for auto-behaviors, auto-contexts frequently elude our detection – they impact us in overwhelming ways that we don’t explicitly recognize. Illusive: Auto-contexts frequently deceive us – they create powerful experiential certainties that often do not correspond with anything outside of our mind – the often frustrating certainty illusions and the normally devastating certainty delusions! Conflating Brain and Mind: We can model auto-contexts effectively at the mind level, but they are distributed in the brain, which makes modeling them there impractical if not impossible. Mind Phobia: People have been reluctant to focus on the many nuances of this aspect of our mind. We sometimes don’t like what we see when we look there including obsolete cultures, inadequate problem-solving worldviews, and inaccurate self-images. Exposing the contents of our auto-contexts often leads to cognitive dissonance. Using Science for the Mind: Science is the right process for understanding the material brain. We need a different process to understand the non-material mind because many of its activities are not available to third-party observations, as science requires (actually auto-contexts are normally not accessible even to first-person observations!). Lack of a General Mind-Centric Theory: We have been missing a model of the mental elephant and trying to understand problem-solving mysteries by grasping for parts and looking at shadows. We have needed the moonshot that maps the elusive and illusive aspects of the human mind – 2Selfs Theory now provides that map. To revisit the elephant allegory, we could imagine another elephant for auto-contexts where investigators have been grabbing hold of many different parts including: If we were to try to assemble the auto-context elephant from the above partial views that insightful investigators have created, it would look very strange indeed with this many different parts. An important take away from the above list is we have widespread (albeit partial and shadowy) awareness of the existence and importance of the automatic mode of our mind and in this case of auto-contexts. We have so many views because we have failed to identify, understand, and manage the generalized auto-context mechanism that underlies all of the specific views. Our problem-solving job gets much easier once we understand all of these widely recognized issues as specific instances of a type of mental activity we can model for understanding and management, which 2Selfs Theory now provides. In particular, we can now systematically manage cultures and problem-solving worldviews in business. Also, this opens the possibility to overcome the technology-enabled political disinformation that is constructing dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes in so many voters. Because certainty illusions impact our lives in so many ways including in business, politics, our values, our attitudes, and problem-solving foundations, you will see them occur throughout my Brainz Magazine articles as massive, currently unrecognized barriers to our future successes and well-being. You also learn how managing them will be a , and perhaps the , major process for securing a better future. Auto-behaviors produce our behavior habits and do so without thinking-self intentions and often against explicit intentions. While our thinking-self creates our success goals, auto-behaviors play the key role in executing our success agenda. Due to one of the many quirks of human nature (in this case, the Comfort Imperative), auto-behaviors make people vulnerable to seduction traps (simplistic solutions) when they experience discomfort, a condition that is now widespread and a major cause of our current social-systems dysfunctions, particularly with our political meltdowns, but also in business. A Powerful Insight into Our Auto-Self: "Who’s in Charge Here?" Here is a personal story of gaining insight into my automatic mode of behavior. Perhaps this will help you recognize similar internal encounters in your experiences. When I was a young driver, I developed a bad habit that when people cut me off in traffic, I would become enraged, scream at them, and attempt to retaliate by cutting them off as soon as I could. When I was about 20, I grew increasingly concerned about my uncontrollable anger and my unsafe retaliatory driving. One day it could either get me an expensive ticket or cause an accident. Eventually, I firmly decided I would no longer react that way when someone drove rudely. When the next driver cut me off, how do you think I reacted?... I retaliated! After I recovered from losing control, I was flabbergasted and I was painfully disappointed that I had not done better. This experience drove me into reality vertigo that forced me to ask myself, "Who's in charge here?" I had created a clear intention to behave differently, yet something "inside me" that I didn’t understand compelled me to behave badly, as if my intention did not matter. I refused to accept my inability to stop my road rage. I resolved that, no matter what, I would not attempt to reciprocate when the next impolite driver aggressively squeezed his or her car between mine and the one in front of me. Since I commuted in city traffic during rush hour, I did not have to wait long for an opportunity to test my resolve. Happily, the next time a driver cut me off I did not make aggressive gestures or retaliate. However, what happened internally astonished me. An almost overwhelming impulse to strike back surged through me. I still felt the driver had trespassed on my rightful territory, and I needed to teach him a lesson. That was the first time I experienced so vividly a struggle between my intentions and my automatic thoughts and actions. It felt like a bewildering internal war over control of my behavior. This traumatic internal conflict launched an epiphany for me. I suddenly realized I had two distinct aspects of myself competing for control of my thoughts and actions, and "I" didn't have a clue how to determine which competitor won. I learned another valuable lesson during the following months. I continued my determination to avoid retaliatory driving behavior. My internal struggle persisted as my compulsion relentlessly challenged my intention, but I persevered. Happily, after a while the urge to seek revenge started to recede. After a few months, it became comfortable to avoid agitation and to resist retaliation. I overcame my need to strike back by telling myself stories, which was fortuitous because I was decades away from understanding the automatic, uncontrollable mode and its properties (which 2Selfs Theory now reveals as an attitude buried in an auto-context). I told myself that I was not responsible for reforming rude drivers and that my emotional health, my safety, and the safety of other drivers were more important than avenging someone else's inconsiderate behavior. Finally, avoiding retaliation became easy for me. In my current terminology, I transformed myself – I became different by reprogramming my auto-self (i.e., my auto-behavior and the auto-context that contributed to it). My new automatic behavior was consistent with my intentions. I no longer had to focus my attention on the problem, and avoiding retaliation no longer required the greatest willpower I could muster. This was a rare case of transforming myself, which we usually fail to accomplish due to the unfair fight between intentions and the Comfort Imperative causing us to terminate our transformation attempts. Recognizing the internal struggle I went through to transform away from my road rage provides a vivid example of why we need systematic auto-behavior transformation processes, both directly and indirectly through auto-context reconstructions, which 2Selfs Theory now provides. Auto-skills enact rapid actions without thinking-self direction or attention. Auto-skills act in sports, musical performances, and nonverbal (evocative) communications. Auto-skills also provide crucial parts of language processing and perform complex image processing of the shape, location, and motion of objects. At work, auto-skills play a key leadership role in motivating others through effective interpersonal communications and public speaking. Many coaches are expert at creating high-level auto-skills in sports, music, public speaking, and interpersonal communications. This is the most familiar type of auto-self activity because we already recognize many of its occurrences simply as skills. Auto-Expertise detects patterns and relationships in familiar, complex situations and presents “intuitive” results to the thinking-self, which proudly proclaims the results without having a clue about how the auto-self created them – also known as intuition, gut feeling, hunch, and rule of thumb. In his book, Winning , when legendary former GE CEO Jack Welch speaks of making “gut” decisions, he refers to making decisions through non-analytic means. He writes, “Much has been written about the mystery of gut, but it's really just pattern recognition, isn't it?” This ability to recognize patterns rapidly is the result of this unnoticed emergence of auto-expertise. Currently, auto-expertise occurs through recurring experiences with a similar type of process. It is a very valuable auto-self capability especially for leaders. A great topic for research would be how to construct this capability explicitly for specific domains, but that is outside of the scope of this series of articles for Brainz Magazine. Transformations – A New Fork State of Mind When we study and gain new knowledge or acquire normal problem-solving improvement processes, we learn to do better . When we undergo an auto-context or auto-behavior reconstruction, we become different . The state of your mind is not incrementally better; it becomes discontinuously different. So, how can we go about creating this new fork in our state of mind? We don’t know how, but we do know that the tangible brain incarnates the intangible mind. We know that because if something alters the brain directly in significant ways, it changes the mind. Brain injuries or a brain tumor can alter the mind. Therapeutic drugs can relieve some problems at the mental level. Psychoactive drugs, including alcohol, directly affects the brain and we know that alters the mind. Sarah is an MD with a family medical practice. One of her patients, Oscar, reported suffering from excessive anxiety and occasionally experiencing anxiety attacks. Sarah prescribed sertraline (Zoloft) for Oscar and started him on a very low dosage. Over the next few months, she gradually increased Oscar’s dosage until he started feeling much better. Sertraline works by increasing levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects mood (but sometimes also appetite, sleep, memory, and sexual desire). Although Oscar did experience some annoying side effects, the relief to his mood swings was worth it to him, so he continued using sertraline. This is clearly a brain-level intervention that affected Oscar’s mind. However, the change mechanism also works in the other direction. Think of PTSD – if someone encounters a serious trauma that doesn’t include a brain injury, it can still have a visible permanent or at least long-lasting effect on the brain, which in turn creates mental problems. Psychotherapy is designed as an intervention at the mind level that then alters the brain, which in turn produces the desired result at the mind level. Also, transformation coaches can alter auto-behaviors and auto-contexts, which create changes in the brain that then manifest themselves in desired results to the mind. Think also about the phenomena we know as cult conversions and political brain washing. Clarence is a clinical psychotherapist with a Ph.D. in psychology. When Maria came to see Clarence because she was experiencing some panic attacks, he accepted her as a patient and they agreed to start an extended period of psychotherapy. Clarence was not a psychiatrist with an MD degree, so his interventions were strictly at the mind level – he used cognitive behavioral therapy. Over a period of several months, Maria gradually started feeling much better. They continued for a few more months until they both felt comfortable Maria’s mood swings were under control. This was clearly an intervention to the mind that produced some desired, but unrecognized, effects to the brain, which in turn created the desired mind-level reduction in mood swings. So we know we can change the brain/mind system through interventions to the brain or to the mind. Our challenge is to determine for any given benefit we want to achieve, at which level should we apply the intervention? For mental disturbances, sometimes interventions occur at the brain level as with Sarah and Oscar, sometimes at the mind level as with Clarence and Maria, and sometimes at both as with many psychiatrists. However, we have a large class of problems not related to mental disturbances for which we need to make interventions including the so-called “soft success factors” such as leadership development, behavior transformations, and culture changes in business. These require interventions at the mind level. That’s also true for mentally inoculating voters so they can resist the virus of political manipulations in the form of disinformation and Big Lies propaganda. This Will Toggle Your Mind! With this model, which 2Selfs Theory uses, we apply transformation processes at the mind level and achieve desired results at the mind level without any regard to the brain. By the way, that is also the model used by most psychotherapy practices of psychologists. Psychiatrists on the other hand do pay attention to the brain because they are also medical doctors who can prescribe drugs that operate directly on the brain. It may boggle your mind that with 2Selfs Theory you now have the ability to toggle your mind and the minds of those who you count on for your successes without any regard for the brain’s role in the process. Levers We Can Grasp : We need levers we can both grasp (as in understand) and grasp (as in get hold of) if we are to manage human activities successfully. In terms of the brain/mind distinction, our performance-improvement techniques are not such brain-related interventions as psychoactive drugs, brain surgery, or transcranial magnetic stimulation. Instead, 2Selfs Theory employs mind-focused processes such as becoming self-aware, committing to goals, declaring intentions, inducing positive and negative feelings, and revealing the hidden contents of auto-contexts. In business, this enables improving leadership capabilities, transforming errant behaviors, and changing obsolete or dysfunctional cultures. For the large class of inadequately solved problems, these are much easier to grasp (understand and get practical hold of so we can manage them) than their brain underpinnings. You Need to Change Your Mind: Part of the elegance and simplicity of 2Selfs Theory derives from not depending on (increasingly effective and concomitantly ever more complex) theories regarding neural correlates of mental states. We can operate at the mind level without understanding or even caring how the brain creates these mental functions or how the mind-level transformations change the brain structures to create the human-activities changes we desire. So if you are struggling a bit to deal with modest complications associated with 2Selfs Theory, count your lucky stars that you don’t have to deal with the amazing complexity of the human brain in trying to align auto-self characteristics with realities in the outside world and more specifically with success and well-being needs. Systematic, repeated future successes will belong to those leaders, businesses, voters, and citizens who make the effort to become transformable . That is, to those who engage in activities to transform their own auto-contexts and auto-behaviors as their environment inevitably changes and who become competent at guiding those around them to transform as such needs relentlessly occur. The Abilities Mismatch has generated an environment with the technologies we have created through our outstanding thinking-self capabilities that we can no longer accommodate through our thinking-self-centric problem-solving capabilities. As a result, we cannot have a reliable, successful future without creating and widely propagating transformability. That is our current equivalent to the fact that we would not have had the successes we achieved in the Modern West if we had not created and propagated widespread education. You might argue that many people will continue to be successful even if they don’t become transformable. That is true just like it was true that many individuals and companies prospered during the coronavirus pandemic. However, I don’t think we will look back on that pandemic as a great success and well-being era for the West and indeed for the whole world. We need a system that can create and propagate long-term prosperity and widespread well-being. Establishing a Path to Greater Successes and Well-Being You saw in my first Brainz Magazine article, Our Mysterious Problem-Solving Deficiencies , how we have a large class of problems associated with human activities that we are mysteriously getting increasingly worse at solving. In this article, you gained several perspectives on how to overcome those mysteries and solve the problems. We can now set the stage for the rest of my Brainz Magazine articles. Answering Two Previous Questions We now know the answer to my earlier question of whether the newsreel commentator or I was right many years ago. He was! My implicit uniform-mode model of the mind was incorrect. We can now see the reason why. Once we gain a success including with a science theory or a business practice, repeated benefits associated with that success automatically and imperceptibly migrates to an auto-context, which creates a certainty illusion that the current path is not just a way but the only way to solve the problem. We now know the answer to my youthful question, “Who’s in charge here?” Clearly, my auto-self, not my thinking-self, was in charge of my road rage including both an auto-context-based attitude and aggressive auto-behaviors. My thinking-self eventually took control when I clumsily and painfully worked my way through auto-self transformations so that my auto-self activities aligned with my intentions. With 2Selfs Theory, we can now accomplish such transformations more methodically. Achieving Greater Control of Our Future I once slogged my way through a Great Courses program on freewill and determinism. The instructor assumed that either freewill or determinism prevails. He then proceeded through laborious contortions laying out the arguments on each side of this perennial philosophical debate. With 2Selfs Theory, it now becomes apparent that the question itself is ill formed. If we form it differently by asking can we enact our intentions, the answer is obviously yes. You do it every day at work and elsewhere using your well-honed thinking-self capabilities and your hard-won knowledge. However, you also know from your experiences in life and from the list of human-activities problems we are not solving well that sometimes our auto-self takes over and we seem to have no control at all. So the real answer is sometimes we can enact our intentions and sometimes we can’t. However, we now understand that the situation is much better because we have acquired the ability to transform those auto-self characteristics that don’t align with our intentions and therefore with our success and well-being needs. Many philosophers seem content endlessly re-litigating their freewill/determinism exclusive dichotomy. However, business people, voters, and citizens have more-pragmatic concerns they need to address regarding the capabilities of our mind. These include making timely culture changes, resisting ubiquitous technology-enhanced disinformation, avoiding drug addictions, reducing prisoner recidivism, and establishing and maintaining positive shared values. We know we can execute immediate actions consistent with our intentions much of the time. Now we know that using 2Selfs Theory we can arrange to transform ourselves so we can become able to take many other types of actions consistent with our intentions – we can become transformable. We can also reliably coach others to transform their habits and organizations to change cultures. We also now realize we do can all of that through interventions to the mind without regard to the brain. We must now head that direction. 2Selfs Theory provides the mental key to unlock the reprograming of counterproductive and sometimes dysfunctional and pernicious auto-self robots. Understanding and Solving Previously Mysterious Problems Here are some of the important issues you will see new forms of solutions for in my upcoming Brainz Magazine articles. Incorporate the onslaught of technologies into business cultures at the increasing rate they occur by overcoming certainty illusions to become competent at systematically and quickly reconstructing auto-contexts. Transform errant habits of business leaders by counteracting the Comfort Imperative to reconstruct their auto-behaviors so they can operate at peak performance to compete effectively in the global economy. Recognize and avoid discomfort-enabled simplistic solutions that satisfy the desire for successes without producing the successes desired through counteracting the effects of the Comfort Imperative. Reverse the increasing dysfunction in representative forms of government by empowering voters to distinguish between valid information and disinformation including Big Lies. We must do that before propaganda inculcates certainty delusions into the auto-contexts of victims, as is tragically happening too often now. Avoid tragic drug addictions by constructing recreational drug phobias into the auto-contexts of students. Rehabilitate prisoners so they can return to society with low chances of recidivism by reconstructing their dysfunctional auto-contexts and auto-behaviors. Establish and maintain positive shared values through explicit and systematic auto-context constructions. Create a win/win process for college tuition rebates based on the need for organizations to train and retain transformable leaders and individual contributors. My April Brainz Magazine article, Paradigms Lost – and Resurrected: A Systematic Path to Transform Culture and Worldview Habits, will delve into the practical ramifications of auto-contexts and how conquering them can create a better personal, career, company, and political future among many other benefits. Connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more information! Read more from Barry! Barry Borgerson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr. Barry Borgerson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in computer science and one of his minors in the management of human resources. Barry co-led a multi-year DARPA-funded research project at the University and then went on to a highly successful career in the computer industry starting as a lead computer architect and progressing through successive promotions to increasingly responsible leadership positions in technical management up to executive-level general management. When he took over a business that was failing and initiated actions to change some dysfunctional behaviors and the outdated culture of that business, he encountered so much counterproductive resistance that he started a long-term study into why very smart, highly educated, and extremely experienced people frequently cannot enact externally obvious changes they need to make to succeed. That study led him to discover that the underlying cause of so many dysfunctional activities and the tenacious, normally uncontrollable, resistance to deep changes reside in enigmatic automatic human activities that business leaders normally do not notice, cannot change on their own if others point out their dysfunctions, and often deny they even exist. Barry then developed 2Selfs Theory, a comprehensive, business-friendly, generalized theory of the mind that models the sometimes cooperation but often competition between our explicit problem-solving abilities (using our “thinking self”) and our previously mysterious involuntary activities (driven by our “automatic self”) and provides systematic, reliable processes to align our elusive automatic actions with our explicit intentions and needed success priorities. Dr. Borgerson has repeatedly verified the effectiveness of the pragmatic 2Selfs Theory by applying it in many venues including through transformation coaching to reconstruct counterproductive behavior habits of business leaders and to change obsolete or dysfunctional company cultures, where the transformation processes worked immediately and repeatedly as the theory predicted.

Written by: Britta Lübbing, 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 have as many lives as you have possibilities" — Matt Haig, 2020 (The Midnight Library, p. 31) One of the most famous cliches about my generation is that we have a collective commitment issue. We are unable to choose between the possibilities and the freedoms in front of us. Suffering from the privilege of having it all. I believe that what we are really suffering from is not necessarily too many choices but too many limiting beliefs. Why? Let me take you into the brain of a 27-year-old, aka member of the just Millennial almost Generation Y club. Your 20’s seem to be a weird period. For some reason, it feels like an in-between level of child- and adulthood. Well, I kind of AM an adult. Not only officially stated by my ID. The fact that I receive an electricity bill every month or just paid a ridiculously high garbage fee also confirms that. On the other hand, youth seems to be only a breath away. Didn’t I just finish school? How is it possible that years of studying seemed to have passed in a second? When did all this seriousness enter my life? Or, to put it in my younger sister’s words, who likes to quote IKEA, "Leonie would like to be picked up in AdultLand" (referring to Småland - the playground in IKEA stores). Although my current "playground" looks very different from the "playground" a couple of years ago, the contrasts — looking at my environment — couldn’t be more extreme. While it is still acceptable to indulge yourself in weekends in bed watching Netflix or, pre-Corona, enjoying a wild nightlife, I might very likely be attending the wedding of my childhood friend one week later. Some of us feel trapped in our shitty jobs, while others have founded successful companies already. Not to forget mentioning the moment when you find out that your first love, aka ex-boyfriend, already has a child while you struggle taking care of your newest Monstera plant. You get where I am going? People of my age are all over the place when it comes to dreams, goals, and ambitions. But does it mean we feel free, happy, and fulfilled, following a path of excitement and adventure? I dare to state the opposite. Funny enough, as kids, we dream about being adults — it seems to equal total freedom. We can stay awake as long as we want to. Nobody restricts our TV usage or candy consumption. We are allowed to drive cars, and we can be whoever we want to be — at least that’s what we think. We want to "become," and many of us know very certainly who or what. With increasing age, this "becoming" turns out to be more and more difficult. Our inner and outer limitations start to form us. As a result, we develop a mindset of seeing more reasons why we shouldn’t do certain things rather than why we should. We assess our impact as smaller and smaller, our freedom of choice begins to fade, our idea of what is possible is shrinking slowly. Let’s come back to why I believe that our commitment issues don’t resume from the fact that we have too many choices but too many limiting beliefs: In my opinion, the reason why we cannot commit is that we have already decided that we only deserve living in an aquarium, when in fact we are meant to live in the ocean. And seriously, why would we limit ourselves to the former? We start comparing our aquarium with bigger aquaria or other peoples’ aquaria. We jump from one aquarium to another because we assume it to be the ocean or a good equivalent. Only to find out later it is not. Because we haven’t lost our idealistic view of the world yet, we still believe in the ocean's existence, and it seems like some have even found it. So we continue searching. The solution: Instead of overthinking our becoming, we should put much more focus on un-becoming - how we can escape the aquarium that we have built for ourselves and make decisions that are actually coming from an authentic, honest desire for who we want to be. I believe that in our 20’s un-becoming should be our deepest concern: When I was 18 years old, my parents got divorced, followed by years of family drama. During that time, I felt like someone had thrown me into the washing machine, spin cycle program. The truth about my life and my identity — which I thought I was (supposed to be) — got so shaken up that I started seeing their relativity. Things I had taken for granted were suddenly disposable. The world as it used to be, how I was raised to see it, was totally messed up. Some parts of everything happening around me had a hilarious amount of reality tv character — only increasing my urge to run. In NLP, we talk about "Towards" and "Away" Meta programs, a concept that fascinates me a lot. My younger Self tried to run away until a point that I realized I couldn’t run away from myself. Not to forget that "Away" never has a specific direction. Hence, I didn’t know where I was aiming. Even though this has been the hardest period of my life with too many mental low points, it has also put me in the unique position to re-assess my life at an age where most of my peers are busy enjoying it. The good part about the "spin cycle program" during that age was that it intensified and sped up my inner growth. The positive side effects and safety an aquarium has to offer — I didn’t have them (anymore). I realized that to be fully free and fulfilled, I had to follow my heart and make what I considered the best choices for myself, not what other people thought would make me happy or be the best to do. I have spent the last years un-becoming, and I am still in the middle of it, a hard yet so rewarding journey. But who said learning to swim in the ocean was easy? There are some words that I would like to share with people of my generation reading this as well as all other readers of any age. Don’t try to figure things out: This is very much in line with preaches of Gary V. To expect the youngest generations of our society to have things figured out is simply unrealistic. Most people of any age haven’t, so why should we? The amount of pressure we are facing as a consequence of this will only lead to us building stronger aquarium walls but not help us grow into responsible, innovative, critical, global citizens. Building walls takes time and energy, and it doesn’t leave us with much energy left. As human beings, our view of the world is quite limited - making it hard to see the bigger picture of pretty much anything. Our brains want linear, but life is not. So stop wasting the present by trying to figure out a future that will most likely not happen. That brings me to the next point. Purpose is overrated - thinking big, underrated. As humans, we love to indulge ourselves in philosophical questions. One of our favorite ones seems to be the purpose of life, and many big thinkers have developed various concepts around this. Metaphorically speaking, questioning why we need to swim at all while unhappily feeling stuck in an aquarium seems to be not only the wrong order but also the wrong approach. As I mentioned earlier, many of us are in a constant trade of different aquaria versions, but only a few ever doubt the legitimacy of the aquarium at all. This is a friendly invitation to swap the purpose question against something more useful: What do I really really want, why I am not there yet, what is holding me back, how can I overcome that, and what the hell am I doing in an aquarium? The ground rule when thinking about your answers: THINK BIG and then even bigger! Setting goals is more important than reaching them: Once you have wrapped your mind around the last point, you will most likely identify new goals for yourself. Great progress! Setting goals can be very motivating and fill us with a lot of positive energy. Goals are important because they give us direction and help us prioritize. The tricky part, however, is right to come: Execution. Now, there are approaches out there that will tell you to push for your goals no matter what. Luckily we have already talked about the fact that "life happens when we are busy making plans" (I am not the smart person who said that, unfortunately). Therefore, I have a little bit more compassionate idea to offer. What about if we agreed on the importance of having goals? And even more, on letting them go if they don’t feel right anymore? I want you to never feel bad, guilty, or ashamed for a course of direction. First of all, setting goals needs to be learned; hence, failing at it is part of the game, especially in the beginning. There is nothing bad about not reaching our goals and sadly, nobody tells us that. We are expected to set the perfect goals perfectly from the beginning. Only by allowing ourselves trial and error will we eventually become masters in knowing what we want and how to get there. The learnings lie in evaluating why goals were missed, not accomplished, or wrong in the first place but not in beating ourselves up. Secondly, while — as said before — we are busy executing, life is busy happening, and sometimes both go together and sometimes they don’t. Therefore, we need to act from a place of flexibility, knowing that the ocean is big and different paths lead to it. Plus, an agile mindset will keep us sane and allow us to stick through the tough times. The storm might delay our plans but not delete them. By the way, storms… another quick tip coming! Never follow the money. Always follow your heart: Especially in hard times, we start questioning why we are doing all this. Without a good answer (for yourself), you will simply not make it. While money might be a great answer at first — sooner or later, unbearable circumstances and trapped dreams cannot be paid off. On the other hand, ideally, the ocean holds some type of currency that pays not only our rent. While I am neither rich nor have acquired a fortune through my current doing yet, I am convinced that freedom and abundance lie in the ocean and not in an aquarium. Got it? Time for the last checkpoint! Soul searching is a privilege: I have covered many aspects in this article, and what we should never forget, is that most parts of it are written from a rather privileged perspective. All of the struggles we are facing are real. Wanting more from life is important. Nevertheless, we should never forget that different people face different realities of life. In the bigger picture, our struggles regarding our inner growth most likely are not existential or life-threatening. So be gentle with yourself, take care of yourself (physically and mentally), and acknowledge your pain. But also know what life has given you and show solidarity with those less privileged. Gratefulness for who we are, where we are at, and what we have is such an important tool and will make your journey to the ocean much easier. I hope you have got some inspiration out of this, and I hope your journey of un-becoming starts soon. For everyone here who thinks they are too old for this aquarium/ocean stuff: It is never too late to un-become. Maybe you are at a point in life where you accepted the fact that you are a bird. I encourage you to find your inner penguin. What can I say, "the ocean is waiting for you!" For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website! Britta Lübbing, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Britta is the founder of Bttrflymovment, a platform, and community dedicated to supporting and connecting people in their 20‘s who are looking for a way to fully unlock their potential. After studying Business and getting a taste of a 9-5 corporate career she quickly realized that this lifestyle would never allow her to „swim in the ocean“ but rather lead to jumping from one aquarium into the next bigger one. Furthermore, she had friends and fellows around her with great ideas, ambition and talent seemingly stuck not knowing how to make their dreams come true. Britta’s passion for Self Development, true connection, and a fulfilled life eventually led to the vision of a safe space that would allow young people to transform from a caterpillar into a butterfly and also, allow them to connect to like-minded people with shared expectations for life. Bttrflymovement was born. Britta loves to write, share and inspire through her journey according to the motto: Be the Change you want to see in this world!

Written by: Elena Herrera, 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. No. It is a small word, but so many women have a hard time saying it, no matter how successful they are. Welcome to the world of boundaries... Boundaries — the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental limits we set with others that determine what we will and will not accept in life — are especially difficult for women because we are natural caregivers and nurturers. Setting boundaries is not something that is taught at school. It originates in childhood based on family standards and values, which usually dictate what women should and should not do. As an Intuitive Transformation Coach, I see many great, caring, and kind women who struggle to set boundaries. One of the reasons for this is the old programming . You might be a successful woman in business, but are you letting your clients pull on you too much? Are you overdoing in an attempt to take care of your client’s emotional state? Are you being “nice” when you actually mean to be direct and tell your client the truth? Don’t be hard on yourself. So many of us do it without ever questioning it, and there is a reason for it. It is so common for women to be raised in certain social ways — being polite, overly nice, and sweet, not hurting others' feelings , being comforting, and being compliant - that it becomes their second nature. While this might seem to be a norm in our society, this often leads to denying your own feelings, putting others first, and ignoring your own instincts — all for the sake of fitting in, being accepted, or keeping the peace. This causes women to consistently look outside of themselves for validation, always caring about what others think or worrying about how they might react to them. Let’s be honest — this robs us of inner harmony, integrity, and self-esteem. Poor boundaries are the number one reason many women struggle in life - exhaustion, resentment, troubled relationships, inability to create change, etc . Lack of healthy boundaries leads to feeling joyless, overwhelmed, anxious, jaded, overly sensitive, and unhappy . In my younger years, I struggled with a lack of boundaries because of my own need to please others which caused me to feel insecure and lose myself in relationships. I rarely said “No” because I either didn't want to appear impolite or didn’t want to hurt other people's feelings by “rejecting” them. But at the end of the day, I ended up rejecting myself. It took me years of self-awareness and inner growth to let go of the guilt of putting my needs first and honor my truth. I found that at the core of the difficulty of establishing boundaries is usually some limiting beliefs like these: It is selfish to put my needs first. I don’t want to bother people. If I express how I feel, I’ll be rejected. It is my duty to help others. I am only worthy when I do things for others. It is important to get along with everyone. Nobody needs conflict. Can you relate to any of these? Or maybe you have your own limiting belief that causes you to disrespect your boundaries? Once you identify your beliefs, you can explore your deeper WHY for the lack of boundaries. From my personal experience , I have discovered that underneath it all is FEAR — fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, fear of being alone, fear of being “exposed ,” fear of showing up, etc . This is a very primal fear that usually gets developed at a very young, vulnerable age. How many times in the past I was afraid to communicate my true feelings to my partner because I thought he would leave me. I realized that the root of this fear stemmed from my no so peaceful upbringing with both parents constantly screaming at each other. When my mom tried to communicate something to my dad, he would only get angry and storm out. So, she would rather keep quiet rather than asking for anything. This family dynamic taught me to suppress my emotions and needs so I wouldn't trigger my partner’s anger. When I recognized this deeply seated belief and how it affected my relationships, I then started working on my healing and inner transformation. Once I shifted my misguided belief, “It is not safe to communicate how I feel,” to “It is safe and necessary to have an open communication to be true to myself, ” I was able to set healthy boundaries and keep them. My relationships improved tremendously, my energy level went up, and I felt more at ease with myself and life. So, let me tell you… You need strong, healthy boundaries for balance, self-protection, and inner harmony. You need these boundaries to deliver the best work/service for your clients! You also need them to be efficient and productive with your work, build and maintain healthy relationships, and raise responsible kids! That's why the very first step on a path to healthy boundaries is to become aware of where your lack of boundaries stems from. Knowing yourself better can help you uncover why you do what you do and reveal intentions and motivations behind your actions or inaction. When you finally understand why you are unable or unwilling to set boundaries, you can create a desired change in your inner and outer world. The next step is to focus on letting go of old, limiting beliefs, and adapt the truth: Setting healthy boundaries allows me to communicate clearly and confidently. By setting healthy boundaries, I exude self-respect and self-worth. Setting healthy boundaries gives me the freedom to be myself. Setting healthy boundaries allows me to attract people and circumstances into my life aligned with my true self. By setting healthy boundaries, I give myself love and care. Setting healthy boundaries allows me to take care of my needs, which are as important as others' needs . By setting healthy boundaries, I create balance and harmony in my life. Finally, be patient with yourself. It takes time and practice to finally get comfortable with saying, “No .” Few useful tips to keep in mind that will help you say, “No”: 1. Before you say “Yes ,” take time to respond. Connect to yourself to determine how you truly feel. What do you really want to say? 2. Check your intentions. Simply ask yourself, "If I agree to this request, do I do it from a genuine place to help, or do I feel guilty to say no?" Respond from a place of your authentic truth rather than fear. 3. Keep it simple . You don’t have to give any excuses or justify yourself for saying no. Saying, “no, I cannot” is enough. If you know you need to build strong, healthy boundaries, but struggle to do it yourself , don't hesitate to reach out to me. I will help you to set boundaries and follow through on them. The benefits to your life and your loved ones are worth the effort. Feel free to fill out a questionnaire on my website to set up your FREE 30-min consultation. Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram or visit my website . I’d love to hear from you. Read more from Ele na ! Elena Herrera, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine My personal story of transformation took my life from “unconscious” to “connected and meaningful.” Applying the same tools and modalities I teach today, plus my gift of intuition, I grew from a personal trainer to a full-blown Intuitive Transformational Coach who helps dozens of people to live a life of self-awareness, radiance, and fulfillment.

Written by: Maggie Perotin, 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. We're in times where every business should have a mere presence not only online but also fully benefit from it to build brand recognition, marketing, and sales. And if it wasn't that apparent pre-COVID-19, it has become a necessity now. Even when COVID restrictions are fully lifted one day, the new reality is going to be different. And as the savvy business owner, you want to pivot in the direction of where the new normal is going. Therefore, whether you're just starting your business and know the online world is the place to be or thinking of expanding your presence online, avoiding these 5 common mistakes will save you money, time, and sanity. Mistake 1: Being present on the wrong online platforms The key to achieving maximum visibility in your business is to be present where your ideal clients are hanging out. If your audience is mostly on LinkedIn and put all your marketing efforts into Facebook, you won't succeed even with the best campaign ever. If you focus and master even one right platform, you’ll be able to establish your expertise, attract a loyal audience and turn them into loyal fans and clients. Solution: Do your research first. Find out what platforms your ideal clients go to, especially for information on issues that your offer solves, and be consistently present there. That's how they will notice you and get to like you and develop trust and respect for your expertise. Mistake 2: Starting your presence on too many platforms at once Trying to be present on all the social media platforms there are, especially when you're new to the online world, can be overwhelming. Every platform is different. So, unless you have a big team and unlimited financial resources, resist the “shiny object syndrome” and need to be everywhere. All it will do is overwhelm you, take up too much time and make it extremely difficult to stay consistent. And you probably know by now that consistency in showing up on-line is key. Moreover, spreading your focus and energy in too many areas in the beginning will most likely lower the quality of the content you put out on these platforms. Lastly, once you have an audience, you need to nurture them by staying active, replying to their comments, showing that you care. If you can’t do that promptly, your brand image will suffer. Solution: If you're just starting, pick one or two platforms you want to be present on and get very good at those. Focus on building your audience and nurturing them. Stay consistent. Once you've mastered these platforms, then move on to the next one. Mistake 3: Writing online content in your expert language To attract your ideal client to your website, newsletter, follow you on social media or buy from your landing page, you need to write content (copy) that speaks to them (converts). The two most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when creating content are: a) writing in their own expert language; b) tooting horns about their offering without really showing how it can benefit their ideal clients. Solution: Write your content in a way that your audience understands and can relate to. When we're passionate and knowledgeable about a topic, we tend to think everyone has the same level of expertise in it. It’s called a cognitive bias. Let me tell you that it's not true. What seems obvious to you isn't so evident to others. So, try to go back in time to when you were a newbie to your industry. What did you think about similar offerings? How did you describe the concepts you want to share with your audience? Additionally, talk to your ideal client and listen deeply to what they say. Tune in to their language. How are they describing their issues, and what do they want the solution to bring them? Because all they want is to understand your offer is what's in it for them, how you can help them solve their issue or reach their goals. Once you know all that, use it in your content. Mistake 4: Focusing only on Likes and Follows The purpose of your presence on online platforms is to build an audience filled with your ideal clients whom you can serve and help. Once you deliver lots of value, one day they will be ready to buy your offer. Therefore, attracting a qualified audience to your platforms is vital. It's not about having 10K likes and following random people who will never buy from you. Please don’t buy followers. There are many other better ways to invest that money in your business. Focusing on “vanity metrics” rather than on providing value only keeps you busy. Solution: Focus on attracting the right audience to your platforms rather than only a sheer number. It's better to have 1K of your true engaged ideal clients following you and 100 of them buying than 10K random followers who are not. Ultimately only the true fans will engage, sign up for your free offers and eventually hire you to help them. Mistake 5. Creating a sales funnel without a promotional plan Sales Funnels, which are series of landing pages and emails that take your ideal client on a purchasing journey, are popular because they work great if done right. They help you automate your client acquisition process and create a predictable flow of income. There are many ways you can utilize them in your business. The most important thing that many entrepreneurs overlook at first is that creating a funnel with an excellent copy on the landing pages and in emails is only one side of the coin. And this site will not bring you email opt-ins, consult calls, or sales. The second side of the coin is often missed. And it is equally essential also requiring a budget — sometimes even more significant than the first one. And that is promotion and advertising. Because you can have the landing page, copy, and e-mail sequence in the world, but if no one knows your funnel exists, you won't be getting any results. Solution: When deciding on using a sales funnel to grow your business ensure that you have a solid promotional budget and robust marketing plan to support the whole project. Lastly, I wanted to share with you the primary root cause of these mistakes that I see with the entrepreneurs I help and talk to. In most cases, it's the lack of an overarching STRATEGY for their business. And as you can now imagine, the consequences of that can be dire and painful. The crazy amounts of time spent creating posts that bring no or minimal results. The loads of money spent on building funnels that don't generate any sales. The stress, overwhelm, and lost opportunities for spending all that time and money on activities that would actually grow the business. So whatever you do in your business, always start with a strategy and plan. Once you have it, the rest will be much easier, less painful, and produce faster results. And if you don't know how to create it, you can share your challenges with me via e-mail to maggie@stairwaytoleadership.com , and I’ll help. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram and visit my website ! Read more from Mag gie ! Maggie Perotin, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Maggie Perotin is a business and leadership coach, helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses without the overwhelm so they can live the life they want. Through her DREAM-PLAN-DO coaching model, she helps her clients reach their potential and get results while maintaining balance in life. Maggie has over 13 years of coaching and leadership experience in the corporate world in various domains. She holds a Masters Degree in International Relations, Facility Management Administration designation, and currently pursuing an Executive MBA at Jack Welch Management Institute. Maggie uses all her knowledge and experience to help entrepreneurs be strategic and creative in building a successful business and brand that attract their ideal clients. She is passionate about spending quality time with her blended family with four kids in the Canadian nature, traveling, self-development, and healthy cuisine of the world.

Written by: Arna Van Goch, 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. One of the best things about being a solopreneur is feeling like you’ve made it. You’ve hit the ground running, you’ve done the work required of you (inside and out), and you’re starting to reap the rewards! Yass! Own it! Oftentimes, however, after a prolonged period of “hitting the ground running,” the cracks start to show. First, it’s little moments here and there that make you feel unsure of yourself. Then, you find yourself having entire “off days” or even weeks. Friends and family make off-hand comments about you constantly being busy, and you realize that you can’t remember the last time you took a proper break. This is when you have to look at changing your business model. The 1:1 model is awesome. It can serve so many people, and of course, you have the benefit of being able to sell high-ticket, which is a whole different ball game to selling scalable programs. Scalable programs come in a few different forms, so let’s break them down briefly now: Low Ticket Offer The LTO is something that people love and hate at the same time. And personally, I find there is an art to this. It’s no myth that it’s easy to buy into a low-ticket offer for under US$50 and then never use it again. It’s also no myth that they can be super useful. It’s a great way to build an email list quickly, especially if your offer is sweet AF. I personally know entrepreneurs who have made 5, 6 figures using the low ticket offer within the space of a month. What you need will need to do this properly: FB Ads Specialist Copywriter $$ to put into FB ads (If you don't want to go down the ad route, then having a large audience will be important here) Strong post-purchase email campaign to grow your relationship, as written by your copywriter What you don’t need: A specific outcome. This can be “365 social media prompts” or any template people can take to use. This is not my favorite way of generating income, but I don’t doubt that it works. This is where you can expect lower sales percentage, although if you play this right, volume will push your income right up, and of course, eventually funnel your new clients into higher offers or even your 1:1. The hardest part of this is that it’s quite an impersonal process, which means you’ll have a higher drop-off rate than you would in a higher ticket program. High Ticket Program I really, really like high ticket programs. I find them super useful because you can foster such a great sense of community within them, take people through a process, many of whom will likely see results, and you can do it all over again. High Ticket programs are best run 3-4 times a year, although you could even do it once a year if you like. There is a huge difference between different high-ticket programs and how they are launched. I’ll talk about this in my Clubhouse Room next week, because I think it’s important to know the differences. Since we are giving you a quick snapshot here, I’ll give you the main takeaways: What you need will need to do this properly: Program platform- this can be on your website, on a third party like Kajabi or Teachable Strong launch sequence/process An engaged audience An effective process that you take people through Lots and lots of copy! A specific outcome or goal that your clients will achieve What you don’t need: Facebook ads- that is, if you have the right audience Loads and loads of email reminders to build a relationship Memberships Membaaashippssss!! I love memberships. I love being part of them, I love what they can do, and of course, it’s great for the pockets of those running it! Memberships are great because they’re much less fast-paced. They’re also easier on the pocket, which of course, can be nice depending on who you are targeting. I’ve seen so many creative memberships in my time! Pattern-making, still-life memberships, and of course, business-related ones as well. These work well when you are working people through a process that can be repeated. I myself am an affiliate for a membership to help you with your English. When you are running a membership, remember that this is the one that takes the most amount of work long term. Memberships run monthly, meaning that you have to create fresh content and continue to support members through live videos etc. What you need will need to do this properly: A great place to build a strong community Strong launch process to start your membership Strong evergreen process to keep bringing people in An engaged audience Relatively clear goal of what you want people to get out of your membership Lots and lots of copy! An overview of how you will run your membership Copy, copy, copy :) What you don’t need: To have your entire year planned out to the minute detail A course platform (if you don’t want to) There is SO MUCH MORE I can talk about on this topic that one measly article cannot cover, but I wanted to give you the basics, a quick overview of what is possible in scaling your services. If you want to know more about how to position yourself and your offer, I’ll be sharing so much more in the Brainz Magazine Exclusive Club, and I’d love to hear your perspectives and answer your questions! When: March 29, at 11.20 UTC Where: Brainz Magazine Exclusive Club (on Clubhouse) How: Join our Brainz Club or follow @Beingdutchanese and hit that notification button! Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and connect with me on LinkedIn. Read more from Arna! Arna Van Goch, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Arna van Goch is a business automation coach. She helps 5 figure entrepreneurs hit 6 figures by streamlining their businesses and strategies to work less & earn more. Over her own entrepreneurial journey, she has worked with online businesses to land 6 figure contracts and supported businesses reaching 7 figures. Besides working online, she has an avid passion for travel, energy work, and awesome Netflix series like Next in Fashion.

Written by: Joanne Angel Barry Colon, 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. Hooray, spring is here, and April is on its way! Did you know that every month carries a meaning, energy, and vibration when referring to Numerology? With Numerology, every letter is associated with a number from One to Nine . Using the PYTHAGORAS CHART when you take the number that corresponds with each letter in the word APRIL, it adds to 11 (A P R I L: 1 7 9 9 3 = 29 = 11), which is known as a Master Number and carries the vibration of the Master Teacher and Healer of partnerships and relationships. It also adds to the number two and carries the frequency of partnerships between the physical and spiritual, relationships, contracts, and marriage. April is the 4th month of the year and carries the frequency of balance, new foundation, patience, and stability. In Numerology, the current year's vibration is called Universal Year Energy , which means everyone on the planet feels this energy whether they’re conscious of it or not. 2021 adds to a five and carries the frequency of change, freedom, courage, and unpredictability. When you add April and 2021 together (4+5=9), you get the number nine, which carries the frequency of completion, letting go, and transformation. In addition to April’s phenomenon with Numerology, four planets are lining up in Aries Energy: Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus. Each of these planets is associated with what I refer to as Spiritual Energy . Whenever there are more than two planets in one astrological sign, energetically, anyone with that astrological sign in any of these planets may experience physical and spiritual growth during this period. This energy influences everyone on the planet, whether they’re conscious of it or not. Below are the spiritual meanings and dates of each planet associated with April (March 20th - April 30th) and Aries (March 20th - April 20th) energy: Sun: March 20th to April 20th ► Ego and Spiritual Growth Moon: April 12th (New Moon) ► I Feel Mercury: April 3rd to April 19th ► I Think and Communicate Venus: March 21st to April 14th ► Love, Relationships and Money What does all of this mean for you? Collectively, we may all experience healing (physically and spiritually) in our partnerships and relationships both personally and professionally, and those who have Aries in any of these planets may experience this healing at a higher or stronger intensity. Below is a list of examples of what one may experience: A change in communication on how you listen and/or speak to others, self and spirit. How you receive and give love. Connecting more with feminine and masculine energy Relationship with money Ready to take action More in tune with your 5 senses (seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting) Ready to let go and complete projects Ready for new things Awareness to when you’re being led by ego or the heart Throughout April, many may experience Mastery of Healing in Partnerships and Relationships. To learn more about Numerology and your Natal Chart, email HealingWithin76@gmail.com and receive 10% off a Self-Growth Discovery Session. For additional services, go to https://www.wholisticfitnessny.com . Follow me on Facebook , Instagram and visit my website for more info! Read more from Joanne! Joanne Angel Barry Colon, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Joanne Angel Barry Colon has 30+ years in the health, fitness, and wellness industry. She is the Wholistic Fitness owner located in NY Queens, certified holistic personal trainer, intuitive healer, cosmic energy reader, student of Astrology, Master of Numerology, and Creator of Chakra Balance Numerology Cosmic Energy Forecast Deck. She is the Host of Joanne's Healing Within T.V Show and Joanne's Cosmic Energy Radio Show and Author/Self-Publisher. Joanne's mission: To help women (men by referral) release issues from their tissues as they release emotional weight and fall in love with themselves while witnessing their transformation of being the best version of themselves.

Written by: Brooklynn Bradley-LaFleur, 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. My husband and I have been getting our house ready to sell. I have been deep cleaning, cleaning out, packing up, and getting rid of everything we are not keeping. Since I have sworn to be a cleaner and more productive human as soon as we get in the new house, I have been thinking about what I will keep around and what my must-haves are. I want to find products, cleaning supplies, and anything else that will help a working parent have an easier time keeping a clean home. Alexa – One thing I love to do is turn my favorite podcast on, pour a cup of coffee, and start conquering the world! I seriously cannot live without my podcasts. When I am home alone, I crank it up and do a little cleaning. I have the Echo, and all I have to do is tell her what I want to listen to and what volume. She turns it right on for me. I also have one inside the salon. It helps the workday go by faster and gives us some entertainment while we transform our clients. Roomba – I find it difficult to keep up with all the dirt and hair that gets tracked through the house every day. When I finish work for the day, the last thing I want to do is sweep my whole house. I have a husband and a four-year-old son; I cannot go a week without vacuuming. My Roomba saves me! Blue-ray – This year, my husband and I got rid of our cable and switched over to a blue-ray player with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. We love it! It saves money on our cable bill, and we get to watch what we want when we want. It made more sense to us because we work crazy hours. It also solves the problem of losing your recordings when the electricity goes out at our house. Dyson Handheld – If you have pets, it works PERFECT on pet hair! Corners, suede, small places, all the things! Whenever I have time, I can sweep the mess to a corner of my room and vacuum it up with my handheld. It gets every last crumb of dirt and debris. I can reach high places, corners, hard-to-reach areas, and areas I can’t see. It just makes everything more convenient and efficient. Diffuser – I decided to stop burning wax in my home last year and started diffusing essential oils. There are so many different blends pre-made now. You can fill your home with a stress-free blend, clean air blend, and even a happy blend. I love mixing them up and experimenting. It makes my workday less stressful, more productive, and I feel focused and ready to tackle my to-do list. Light Ring – Originally, I purchased a light ring to go Live on Facebook. Now I use it so much I am getting another one. It is an excellent tool to film videos, take selfies, product pictures, put on makeup, pluck your eyebrows, and even brighten up a room for office work or homework. Vacuum Sealer – We bought my husband a food saver a few years ago since he is the chef in our family. He uses it all the time. We have not had any problems with it; he has sealed everything possible! It comes in handy when we go down to south Louisiana and bring home a bunch of meat. He seals it, puts it in the freezer, and pulls it out when cooking a big family dinner. A food saver will allow you to meal prep, buy in bulk, save money, and not have to worry about it going to waste—an excellent time-saver when you have a family and are trying to run a business. For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , Youtube-Channel , and visit my website ! Read more from Brooklynn! Brooklynn Bradley-LaFleur, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Brooklynn Bradley-LaFleur is the CEO & Founder of Brooklynn Three. Brooklynn Three is the parent company of Salon Rouge Spa, LaFleur Couture Wellness Boutique. She has published articles in two entrepreneur magazines, been a guest speaker on several entrepreneur magazines, and is an international best-selling author. Her mission is to help people transform their lives from the inside out by identifying internal and external complications you may be experiencing and connecting you with holistic based products and self-care services. She hosts a wellness web series every Wednesday at 11 am CST. The web series helps educate on the benefits of different products, suggests tips, and shares personal testimony inside the LaFleur Couture Facebook group. Shipping options and free self-care consultations are available. Website - Brooklynnthree.com Email - brooklynn@brooklynnthree.com Quote: “Self-care is not a luxury; it is a non-negotiable.”

Written by: Judi Snyder, 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. Why do we look forward to retirement, and when we get there, we are often unhappy, unfulfilled, or underwhelmed? One reason may be; for the first time, we are being asked to “choose” and not being told what we “should” do. I’m inviting you to entertain the likelihood that we have been sleepwalking — robotically moving through our lives, ignoring what we choose for our best possible self. We’ve all heard that we “should” all over ourselves every day — and it’s true. From the time we are toddlers to retirement, we are barraged with parents, teachers, family, friends, and bosses telling us what we “should” do. We should be walking by this age. We should be potty trained by this age. We should go to school and be proficient in XYZ by this age. We should get As and Bs, and we should go to college. We should graduate from college and get a great “job.” We should strive for advancement in that job. We should be a democrat or republican. We should get married and have kids. Those kids should be in soccer, football, music… fill in the blank. This “blank” is well-meaning and most often driven by our parents who didn’t have that “opportunity” and wanted to ensure that their kids did. Should is nothing more than a detour from your authentic self and can act as an alarm. All of these “should’s” are well-meaning, and truth be told, we have contributed to perpetuating the “should’s” with our loved ones. It’s not our fault…we’ve been trained to follow “should” and ignore “choose” or what I define as our authentic desires. Should is the “assembly line” of life that gives us order and boundaries, and that is not necessarily a bad thing; however, it is important to include your sense of self in every decision. Some should’s are necessary and the result of learning from other’s mistakes. For example, “you should not put your hand on a hot stove,” …although there is something to be said for “seeing for yourself.” Once your hand is burned, you're not likely to push that boundary again. Society is patient and exceptional at influencing our behavior in incremental steps over time. Subliminal messages are everywhere, and we are subconsciously encoding those messages as our own thoughts and including these new “rules” in our decision-making process. Edward Bernays was one of the most influential and powerful people of all time in public relations and propaganda. He was an Austrian-American pioneer, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, and not widely known outside of his area of expertise. Bernays was considered the father of manipulation, key advisor to 5 Presidents, and responsible for making smoking in public socially acceptable for women, among many other societal behavior changes. Bernays said: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…it is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.” Let that sink in. Bernays rebranded “propaganda,” which had a negative and manipulative connotation, to the modern-day description “public relations.” He had the secret sauce to tap into one's need for safety and be accepted by society. What does this have to do with the journey of should to choose? This process highjacked our intuitive ability to connect with our true purpose or the “choose” to one of “should,” which creates acceptance through the belief we will serve the greater good of our tribe. In reality, serving ourselves first is the only way to authentically serve our fellow humans. What do they say on the airplane…put your oxygen mask on first before helping others? Life does allow for the slight “coloring outside the boundaries of should” to some extent. You’ll hear terms like “think outside the box” or “thought leader” to describe the person who taps into their purpose and challenges the widely accepted status quo. Challenging the status quo leads to growth and innovation. While we may look back on these people with admiration often, they were ostracized or misunderstood for their deviation from society. To embark on the journey from “should” to “choose,” we need first to understand why we follow others directions even when we intuitively feel it isn’t “right” for us. Humans are emotional creatures, social by nature, and we learn by observation. Conformity is a survival mechanism. Before we can begin to get back in touch with “us,” we need to be aware of the drivers that cause us to ignore our inner desires and conform. Drew Eric Whitman defines 8 Common Desires as the primal biological needs that we all feel compelled to fulfill, no matter who we are, where we live, or what we do: 8 Primal Desires in Everyone: 1. Survival: Live a long and healthy life 2. Protection: Safety, care, and protection for yourself and loved ones 3. Freedom: Freedom from danger, fear, and pain 4. Comfort: Comfortable living conditions 5. Pleasure: Enjoy food, beverages, and experiences 6. Relationships: Sexual relations, companionship, and compatibility 7. Success: To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses 8. Likability: Social approval, being part of the “in” crowd These eight primal desires can be summed up in two words — safety and security. We will generally conform to the desired behavior to protect and nurture these primal desires. We look for reinforcement confirming that we are “safe” and behaving as expected. There are both flagrant and unspoken consequences for not conforming, yet there are some people that seem to be born to “buck the system.” We may even have times and events in our lives when we have “fallen on the sword” for our beliefs rather than conform. This appears to begin happening around mid-life, hence the phrase “mid-life crisis.” The dictionary defines a mid-life crisis as an emotional crisis of identity and self-confidence that can occur in early middle age. This identity and self-confidence crisis occurs when the “I ,” or your true self, gets so buried in the should that there is barely any semblance of who we were meant to be, so we descend into depression and begin questioning everything around us. Depression, in its simplest term, is “anger turned inward .” We get angry about the perceived loss of who we could have been, choices we have made, and begin feeling our mortality. Now that we understand the birth of the “I should ,” how do we get to the “I choose”? I recommend 3 easy steps: 1) Recognize 2) Realize = Real eyes 3) Revisit Recognize when you are doing something because someone else wants you to is the first and likely the most difficult step. I would invite you to become aware of your self-talk and notice every time you say to yourself, “I should.” Should the alarm you are about to detour from your desire, set that alarm to go off every day! Realize by taking a step back and questioning the “why.” I called to check in on a client who recently became widowed to see how she was adjusting. She began dating her husband in high school, and they had been married for over 60 years! She began our conversation by saying she discovered so many things about herself without her “other half” that came as a complete surprise. For example, she made oatmeal and a banana every morning for breakfast and realized for the first time; she really didn’t like oatmeal or banana’s so much. She didn’t have to have it for breakfast any longer! Looking at things differently is not necessarily making anything or anyone wrong. It just may not be right for you. It is about your preference…there is no “wrong” color in a crayon box, merely different colors because we are all unique. Revisit your decision by asking, “Is this something I CHOOSE to do?” or “is this something I believe “I SHOULD do?” Then choose and move forward. If you have been a “people pleaser” for most of your life like many of us, this will take baby steps. Just speaking up about what you want for breakfast is a great start. Work up to planning the next vacation and all of the excursions! For some, this journey can be easy and intuitive, but for most of us, it requires unlearning “to follow” and relearning “to connect” to our “gut” or inner guidance. When we retire, we are, for the very first time, not being told what to do. Everything is a choice, and while that sounds great, it is often a source of our anxiety because it is new to us. Our “choose” muscles are weak at best but most likely non-existent. Choose muscles help us define our purpose and are the key to lasting satisfaction. We need to exercise the Choose muscles to build them and make them strong. It’s been said the longest journey you’ll ever take is from your head to your heart. This is the journey from “I should” to “I choose.” It is rarely an easy journey but one that is necessary for your happiness and well-being. Bon Voyage! Follow me on Facebook , LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Judi! Judi Snyder, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Judi is a retirement and transition coach, helping people nearing or in retirement find purpose, wellness, and financial certainty in their golden years. In 2004, she transitioned from employee to entrepreneur into financial services. Because of her own transition, she understands the unique challenges of creating a new identity and purpose. Judi became a CeFT®, Certified Financial Transitionist®, to further enhance her solutions for those going through financial transition and address the financial aspects of transition. Becoming a CPRC, Certified Professional Retirement Coach, expanded her tool chest to help clients navigate through the non-financial aspects of retirement, such as finding purpose, exploring spirituality, and health and wellness, which are as important as the financial planning yet rarely addressed. Happiness and fulfillment are about more than money.

Written by: Mags Thomson, 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. We all know that investing in our business is important. We can't grow our business without feeding it. Much like our plants, pets and children would whither without food, water and some loving attention. There are so many ways to invest though, and so many people telling us to buy this or that, simply move some money to the left, or maybe to the right. What are the considerations to keep in mind when deciding how to invest in your business’ growth? Let's have a look! 1. Will You Invest Time or Money? There are two main ways you can invest in your business. Very simply said, you can invest your time or your money. Sometimes we forget this, and rather than paying for a system or to outsource something, we decide to just do it ourselves. We may get creative and string together a bunch of free systems, process applications manually or whatever it is. This is great when we’re operating on a shoestring budget. It is, however, also important to realise when we do this. Money is not the only finite resource in our business. So are our time and energy. There is not necessarily a right or wrong answer to this question. It is just important to keep in mind when making choices about spending money or not. And, when you don’t have the room for financial investment right now, then at least add the system that will simplify your life at the top of the list of future investments. And buy it as soon as you have made the cash available. 2. Will You Invest In Learning or Expertise? When you need new skills added to your business, there are two ways to do it. Learn the skill or hire an expert. Making this choice requires you to look at a few different things. Is this is a skill you will need often? Is it something you think you’d enjoy doing and have a talent for? Do you have the time and brainpower to learn a new skill right now? Does your business have time for the inevitable learning curve you will experience? Because, however much you enjoy the learning or however much innate talent you have, you will never be as good as the expert is on day one. Again, no right or wrong answers necessarily, just things to be aware of and think about when making decisions. 3. Do You Need a Quick Boost or Sustainable Results? When trying to figure out what to spend your money on, it’s important to know what you need your Return on Investment to be. Sometimes, what you are looking for is some quick result 500 sign-up for your new freebie to inflate your mailing list in the weeks leading up to your new product launch, for example. Using paid ads on social media can be a great investment for a goal like this. Other times you want to build your reputation and authority gradually so that you can scale your business or raise your prices over time. This is more of a long-term investment. You will want to put some money into a project that can position you as an authority and can create meaningful connections. As I explained in my previous article in BRAINZ, writing a business book can be a great way to achieve that. 4. Can You Expect People to Invest In You, If You Won’t? As a business owner, we are asking our customers or clients to trust us with their investment. Is it fair for you not to put your money where your mouth is and trusting yourself with your investment? I recently read the sentence ‘how you spend money can affect how you attract money.’ This doesn’t mean that you should just be randomly spending money you don’t have (yet). It does mean that thinking about the investments you can make, in either time or money, and how these can help you grow and serve your customers. Taking note of the investments you’d like to make, or preparing for when you can, begins creating the kind of momentum you need. Setting up your workflow in a way that would allow you to add a Virtual Assistant to your business will make your life easier when you get to that time. Making a list of software you’d love to get. Test drive their free options to know if it’s everything you hope it will bring, so you know the list is ready for when the investment can be made. Can You Tick All the Boxes In One Go? Would you like to save time AND money? Would you like to learn new skills AND work with experts? Would you like to grow your audience AND become the go-to authority in your field? By joining a House of Hives co-authored book, you get it all for the price of one. You share the cost with your fellow authors. You only write a chapter, instead of a whole book, so there is a considerable time safe. You improve your writing skills by working with a professional editor and marketing team. And you grow both your audience and authority by promoting your book to everyone’s audiences and becoming a best-selling author. Want to know more? Check out the House of Hives author programme for more information. Follow Mags on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit her website for more information! Read more from Mags! Mags Thomson, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine Mags is a story coach, impact co-creator, and the founder of House of Hives. She helps female entrepreneurs and change-makers use their personal stories in their business, bridging the gap between emotive storytelling and strategic marketing. Together with developmental editor Karina Asti and event strategist Ana Gallo, she helps women co-create books and collaborative online summits to empower themselves and their brand. Resources https://gillianperkins.com/3-ways-invest-business/ https://www.bluchic.com/why-investing-in-your-business-is-important/ https://geffnerproductions.com/the-importance-of-investing-in-your-business/ https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/business/invest-in-yourself