Written by: Linda Dent, 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. Is your business built to last? One theme that runs through all my coaching sessions is the fact that business owners are not able to quantify their financial success. Ask yourself these questions: Do you have a target for Revenue this month? Do you have a target for Expenses this month? Do you know if your marketing spend is producing the desired results? Can you tell me what your bank balance is right now without looking? Do you have a dashboard of the most important figures to track? Reflecting on this, I concluded that either the business owner is uncomfortable with bank statements, accounting, and excel spreadsheets or they just have not realized how important it is for the business owner to know their own numbers. 90% of small businesses fail within the first two years! Whilst many reasons could be found for this failure, and I believe that not knowing your numbers is a high contributing factor. “Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night, I can see paradise by the dashboard light” This is a line from Jim Steinman’s lyrics in the song by Meatloaf. It’s about two young lovers planning to go all the way. I assume that most small business owners want to go ‘all the way’ to business success and a bright future. What happens if you don’t set targets? Well, first of all, no target means no direction, no focus, and to focus on everything is to focus on nothing. If you step up to the archery target with no training and no practice, draw your bow, close your eyes and shoot, chances are arrows will land all over the place, and you will never hit anything. You will not beat your competition that way, and people will write you off. You will fail at archery. If this is your business, it's like selling to everyone, no target market, spending indiscriminately on the next cool idea, getting into debt, losing your best employees, and watching your business wither and die. But that’s NOT you Running a business doesn’t have to be hard, but, like archery, often the fun is in hitting the target not just once but many times. Celebrating the wins with your team feels great. So what are those simple secrets: Step 1: Work with your accountant to figure out a Revenue and Expense trend over the last 6 months. Step 2: Estimate the Revenue and Expenses you can expect for the next 6 months taking account of any changes – new hires, new product launches, expenditure on new machinery, or price increase from suppliers. Step 3: Set realistic but higher revenue and lower expense targets to aim for. Step 4: Figure out what actions you need to take to get there. What are other numbers important in your business? Number of leads? Number of new clients? Number of lost clients? Average revenue per customer? Return on Investment? Debt to Equity ratio, Stock turnover etc Step 5: Create a dashboard of the most important ones and track them daily or weekly, review monthly and amend your tactics where necessary. . Finding Paradise Business ownership can be ‘dark and lonely,’ but with a dashboard to illuminate the way, you can reach your own version of paradise. Finding a business partner or coach that you can trust to have your best business interests at heart, guide you along the trickier parts of this exercise, helping you to reach those targets is one way to success. Valued Insights, Focussed Action Reach out for a Virtual Cuppa with Just Ask Linda to have a conversation about this article and my simple 3-step coaching process for business owners who want to build businesses that fund their dreams. For a free 1PageStrategicPlan template, send your name, business name, and email address to me at linda@justasklinda.co.za . Connect with me on Facebook , YouTube , LinkedIn , LinkTree , and visit my website . Read more from Linda ! Linda Dent, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Linda is a Business coach with a solid background in the Banking Industry. She believes in building businesses through long-term relationships and a partnership approach to grow and empower the small business owner through planning, actions, and regular reviews of actual results vs. planned results. She is the Founder and CEO of Just Ask Linda Business Coaching, which was born out of a desire to Grow, Learn, Empower others and Enjoy her work, her very own GLEE philosophy. From understanding your unique strengths and how they apply to work, establishing where you are now and where you want to be in your business, getting to know your numbers and setting goals, managing your time, or rather how to do more of what you love each day, building a loyal team of employees or just listening to the business owners’ major business challenges and offering up new thinking, you can Just Ask Linda. If she can make a difference in a business owners’ life, helping them overcome Money, Time and Team challenges to grow a successful business and share some part of their business journey; then she will be full of GLEE. Owning a business is an adventure, and she loves the one she is on.

Viloshni Moodley is an accredited Sexpert practicing as an Online Intimacy Coach. She is the founder and owner of Ultimacy Online, since leaving her over 25 years of management experience within Corporate. Her passion for empowering individuals with positive sex education and breaking the negative conditioning cycle has influenced her change in career path. She believes relationships are the most important factor to overall well-being and thus passionate about making a change to ensure people have more fulfilling relationships. Having a happy, healthy relationship provides balance in individuals and couples. Her work specializes in coaching individuals or couples who wish to achieve certain goals in the bedroom and short courses in different areas of sexuality. You have a title that people usually get excited about. You are “The Intimacy Coach & Sex Expert.” Can you explain to the readers more about the work you do? Most people have never heard of an Intimacy Coach before. On hearing a response from one person stays with me, “I am a very conservative lady, but I have lots of friends who love sex. I will send them to you”. I had to immediately correct her perceptions of what an Intimacy Coach does. Some think you assess the size of their genitals and tell them whether they are well endowed or not. This journey has been quite interesting with the different perceptions that exist. As an Intimacy Coach, I empower people with sex-positive education in a way they can feel liberated with themselves and in the bedroom. I create a space that is free from judgment and shame, where open conversations can ensue. I am passionate about sharing sex-positive information for people to make decisions based on safe behavior and considering their sexual health. Once empowered with information and the tools to enrich your relationship, one will attain a sense of overall well-being. Relationships are important to an individual’s motivation and sense of well-being. Being in a secure, healthy relationship can create a happy home environment that kids can thrive in, and parents become great role models to the kids on sharing affection openly. It takes this type of empowerment to change the statistics of societal issues like gender-based violence, sexual health issues, etc. My view is that each of us as individuals has a role and can make a significant difference in raising our families now and in the future. The impact is on the improvement of future statistics of sexually transmitted infections, diseases and gender-based violence cases What would you say are the main keys to a happy sex life? Communication – a word always thrown around but never easy to understand on how. The use of verbal and written communication can be powerful. Tell your partner what you enjoy and what pleases you. After all, you are responsible for your own orgasm. Write a list of what you love about each other physically, mentally, emotionally & sexually. Read this to each other. Appreciation – compliment your partner on how they look, how they make you feel, and tell them what you appreciate about them. In this way, you will be giving them an emotional, physical, and appreciative compliment. Respect – it is always important to understand each other’s boundaries and, if not known, have a conversation and agree on them. Start by listing the activities, and next to the list identify what you will do, what you will not do, and what you may consider at a later point. Ask for permission before penetrating your partner. If your partner says no, accept it and never force them. Play – never stop playing, whether it is just tickling each other, pillow fights, wet each other if the weather permits, foreplay, create games in the bedroom, and keep the imagination alive. The touch and holding of each other can create sexual arousal which can lead to more. You have created a lot of interesting courses for people to learn more. Can you tell us more about what it is and how it can help people with their intimacy and sex journeys in life? Firstly, one needs to understand their own body and what pleasures them. Too often, the burden of pleasure is put onto a partner. Taking control and knowing that your orgasm or pleasure is not dependent on your partner, but yourself is a great starting point. Whilst the courses are packed with information, tips, and where necessary tools, they are a guide. The individual needs to realize that the work needs to be done by themselves, with me guiding them every step of the way. The courses cater to everyone, regardless of where you are in your journey. You can be a hopeful beginner for Power Play (BDSM), recently disabled and wanting to become intimate again or one looking to start to build intimacy. What is the most fascinating thing you have learned so far on your own intimacy and sex journey? And is that something you would recommend to all people? It is an absolutely liberating experience once you build Intimacy with yourself and earth-shattering orgasms are very possible on your own. On a serious note, take time to understand your own bodies and what triggers pleasure for you, understand your erogenous zones and how you would like the intensity of being touched in those areas. Fall in love with yourself, take bubble baths alone, and indulge yourself in alone time in exploring your body. You will find this will bring you closer to your partner, and your time together will be a lot more meaningful. Invest in yourself and enhance your second survival, extinct being sex after our first being survival. A meaningful area of our life that does not get the focus it deserves as most societies deem it taboo. Consider the health benefits for both males and females. From your experience, what are the three most common mistakes men and women make in bed or when trying to get intimate? Lack of Communication – partners who fail to talk about or understand their mismatched sex drives, what pleasures them, and most importantly, what it takes for them to orgasm. Lack of Foreplay – on average, a woman takes about 20 mins to become ready for penetration. Without foreplay, sex can become unpleasant. Low self-confidence – hang-ups with the body size, shape, or the way their genitals look. How can this be solved in the best possible way? Many couples find it difficult to talk about sex and prefer to just do it instead of getting into a discussion. Find ways to talk about this important area of your life. If you are unable to do this, consider getting assistance to do so. Focus on the journey and not the destination. The journey can be beautiful if you take your time and are patient with each other. If your partner has low self-esteem, stand in front of a long mirror with her and start to undress her. Whilst undressing her, tell her how beautiful each part of her body is with words and lavish her with kisses. We are human after all. Despite how independent, financially secure, and socially connected we are, the basics of love, care, attention & security are still what we yearn for. Follow Viloshni on Facebook, Instagram and visit my website! Read more from Viloshni!

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. We Solve Many Types of Problems Extremely Well Advanced societies have become successful because so many of their citizens know how to solve complex problems very effectively. We do that because we can systematically accomplish many activities, including scientific investigations, technology developments, and product engineering. If we look at success from the West's perspective, we also have had the advantages of representative governments, market economies, and personal freedoms. One of the main paths to success is the enormous education level, both formal and informal, acquired by so many individuals. The very fact that you are reading this article in Brainz Magazine shows your active involvement in absorbing new types of information to increase your knowledge. We pride ourselves on being very effective problem solvers, and we are, as evidenced by our many successes. Why then have we allowed ourselves to fail badly at solving so many problems associated with human-activities? It could help you understand the depth of this problem if you try to identify topics that you, your organization, and even your country do not and increasingly cannot solve adequately. If you focus on currently mysterious problems, you might discover to your surprise how many such issues actually exist. We are struggling because we have failed to recognize two distinct classes of problems explicitly, so we haven’t taken widespread actions to address this dichotomy directly. The issues above, which we might label as Class I, include very complex problems that we solve very effectively. However, we have another large set of problems that we might aggregate under the umbrella of Class II, which we are not solving adequately. Unfortunately, we are becoming increasingly poor at solving these as their difficulty and importance escalate. Problems We Are Terrible at Solving and Getting Worse Here are some problems that we do not solve effectively – how many of these did you identify? Perhaps you have a very high level of perception, so you were able to identify most of these and possibly additional problems not on this list. We currently lack the systematic widespread ability to: Incorporate the onslaught of technologies into business cultures at the increasing rate they are occurring. Transform errant behaviors of business leaders so they can operate at peak performance to compete effectively in the global economy. Recognize and avoid simplistic solutions that satisfy the desire for successes without producing the successes desired. Reverse the increasing dysfunction in our political and governing systems in the West. Empower voters to distinguish between valid information and disinformation, including Big Lies. Avoid tragic drug addictions. Rehabilitate prisoners so they can return to society with low chances of recidivism (re-offense). Construct and maintain positive shared values explicitly and systematically We will briefly examine below each of these important topics that we are not solving well enough. We need to figure out what is going wrong. We are becoming increasingly and methodically better at solving many types of problems. Despite all that amazing capability, we are actually becoming worse at solving a different class of problems. This article is the first in a series of invited papers by Brainz Magazine. Although many of the above topics are common to most advanced societies, I will primarily take a West-centric approach in these articles to provide context and examples. Also, I will occasionally focus on the US both because of its dominant position in the West but also to give other specific examples. Our Inability to Incorporate the Onslaught of Technologies into Business Cultures at the Increasing Rate They Are Occurring We Are Not Prepared to Handle the Next Technology Revolution In his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and chair of the World Economic (Davos) Forum, makes a compelling case that advanced societies are at a major technology-driven inflection point. More importantly, for our purposes here, he also identifies many troubling deficiencies leaders have in systematically managing the business challenges created by this rising technology-driven revolution. What are we missing? Schwab identifies a robust suite of technologies that will increasingly crash over us, and those technologies and the products they spawn should provide amazing benefits to us. However, he also notes that these technologies will fundamentally change “the way we live, work, and relate to one another” but that we are stuck in “non-disruptive thinking” that may block us from taking timely advantage of these technologies. Schwab then points out that these technologies will affect all individuals and organizations but that we don’t have the necessary “social models” to empower us to “shape the revolution in a manner that improves the state of the world” or have “institutional frameworks” to diffuse the technologies effectively. Why can’t we manage our social models and institutional frameworks as successfully as we manage our technologies? "There is evidence that the technologies underpinning the fourth industrial revolution are having a major impact on how businesses are led, organized, and resourced. One particular symptom of this phenomenon is that the historic reduction in the average lifespan of a corporation listed on the S&P 500 has dropped from around 60 to approximately 18 [years]." What is going wrong here? Technologies should be leading to greater successes, so why are companies failing so often? "The fourth industrial revolution may be driving disruption, but the challenges it presents are of our own making. It is thus in our power to address them and enact the changes and policies needed to adapt (and flourish) in our emerging new environment. We can only meaningfully address these challenges if we mobilize the collective wisdom of our minds, hearts, and souls." This is where Schwab insightfully identifies the depth of our problems. Yes, the problems are of our own making because they stem from our amazing (Class I) science, technology, and product problem-solving abilities. However, it is not currently “in our power to address them and enact the changes and policies needed to adapt” because those problems lie in human-centered Class II activities that we don’t currently understand and manage well. As a further example of how poorly we know how to solve these problems, even a person of such eminence as Klaus Schwab punts on solving this problem by saying we must rely on the “wisdom of our minds, hearts, and souls.” That just identifies that these problems are still mysterious and elusive – it doesn’t help solve them. "The world is fast-changing, hyper-connected, ever more complex, and becoming more fragmented, but we can still shape our future in a way that benefits all. The window of opportunity for doing so is now." I have designed this series of Brainz Magazine articles to satisfy that chronic need now. After we develop some theory in the March article regarding the underlying nature of Class II problems and how to solve them systematically, we will revisit Schwab’s warnings about our inadequacies at incorporating the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. Schwab gave us a qualitative analysis of the emerging technology revolution, the deficiencies of business leaders to manage the human ramifications of this technology tsunami, and the need to take action now. Next, we take a brief look at Professor Robert Gordon’s pessimistic quantitative analysis of a dismal future despite the technology revolution Schwab identifies for us. We Have Fallen Down, and We Can’t Get Up. The carefully researched book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Professor Robert Gordon, makes a compelling case that the best years of America are behind us, so we should expect stunted productivity growth. As a result, the US (and by extrapolation, most of the West) can anticipate suffering through continuing low gains to standards of living for many hard-working people. That process is already well underway and has indirectly led to political chaos in the West that is causing a disastrous rush to the political extremes, which, if continued, will likely create growing negative consequences to Western economies and, therefore, to successes in many business sectors. This could lead to a widespread negative spiral. Unfortunately, the situation may even be worse than Gordon projects. Prosperity and well-being in the US and the West are likely to fall more dramatically than extrapolating historical trends might indicate because (mostly digital-based) technologies create increasingly problematic consequences. You will see widespread evidence of the growing mismatch between the technology disruptions we are creating using our amazing Class I abilities and our increasingly inadequate Class II capabilities to manage the growing unintended consequences to many aspects of human activities. Max Finally Hits a Wall Max was the CEO of a midsize manufacturing company with four locations. He had a long and storied career at his company, but he failed to adapt to accelerating changes in the business world. He had a strong personality and tenaciously focused on measurable results but suffered from some significant behavior issues. Even more crucially, Max’s past successes so paralyzed him that he was way too slow to incorporate new technologies into his company’s operations and to make timely changes to their business strategies to counter emerging global competition. The company could not prosper without making culture change more frequently, and Max had failed to develop the capabilities to accomplish these changes systematically. Max executed so many aspects of his CEO role very effectively. What might be the underlying reason why he could not handle other crucial aspects of his leadership duties? To be an effective CEO going forward, Max had to change. In a subsequent Brainz Magazine article on culture change as a specific case of understanding and reconstructing our hidden perceptual lenses that often mislead us, you will learn what happened to Max after working his way through two advisory coaches and then engaged in a transformation-coaching process. Failures to Transform Errant Behaviors of Business Leaders Why are we so ineffective at widespread behavior changes in business and elsewhere though leaders know they need to align the behaviors of key players on their team and their own involuntary actions with success needs so they all can operate at peak performance to compete effectively in the global economy? Hal Needs to Rescue His Career Hal was a senior technical contributor at a multi-site engineering and manufacturing company. He wasn’t formally a manager because many people found it very difficult to deal with him, but he still had considerable influence because of his excellent technical abilities. The head of HR asked me to coach Hal. It turned out that Hal had a special relationship with the CEO because they grew up in the company together, and the CEO had very high regard for Hal’s technical expertise. I suspected that after having successfully coached several leaders in the company, the head of HR wanted me to try and fail with Hal so that he and Hal’s boss could convince the CEO to consent to fire him because of his troublesome, disruptive behaviors. Because Hal knew he was walking on a tight rope, he had a high incentive to moderate his behaviors, so what might have kept him from accomplishing that when he could solve many difficult problems very well? William Must Eliminate Dysfunctional Behaviors at Work and at Home William was the CEO of a mid-size design and manufacturing company. He was extremely effective at most aspects of his leadership role, but he had the dysfunctional habit of publicly humiliating his employees if they did something that displeased him. His HR manager repeatedly urged him to ameliorate his aggressive behaviors, and William frequently embarrassed his wife in public with some of his obnoxious behaviors. The HR manager had convinced William to try a coach, but William just chewed the coach up and spit him out because he could see no value. This is a good example of William wanting to change because he had been made aware both at work and at home of the damage he was doing, but although he had control of so many aspects of his leadership role, he could not make the changes. William needed a transformation coach, and you will see in another article how that worked out. Just What Is Self-Help? When we want to learn something new – to acquire additional knowledge, we don’t call that “self-help.” We call that “education” or, in business, we often call it “continuous learning.” Education is clearly a thinking-based, intentional Class I activity, and we are very good at that process. What then is “self-help” for which a massive book, audio, video, and workshop industry has emerged? When we speak of self-help, we are really talking about “periodic transforming” of unintentional behaviors, aren’t we? No amount of new knowledge will reliably empower us to make enduring changes to our undesired behavior habits because transforming behaviors are among the many types of Class II problems. Additionally, trying to transform our own behaviors rarely produces the desired results because self-help is an unfair fight. We Need to Learn to Avoid Unfair Fights Though you can effectively solve many types of problems, you can’t reliably transform counterproductive habits that you may have. Even worse, you likely struggle to admit you have such bad habits even though you no doubt notice them in others and others likely notice them in you. The underlying problem is that we always automatically take actions to flee discomfort, and the behavior-transformation process produces considerable discomfort over an extended period. That creates an unfair fight between hopeful intentions for habit change and automatic resistance to staying with the process of transforming oneself long enough to become permanently changed. That is why Max, Hal, and William, along with most other business leaders, could not change their own counterproductive behavior habits to improve their leadership capabilities. The unfair fight is why self-help programs, although they may appear appealing, have such a high recidivism rate to the providers' benefit. Overcoming Unfair Transformation Fights Transforming behaviors is likely the type of Class II problem that we have learned to solve most effectively, but not through self-help. The most reliable way to transform errant behaviors is through the transformation-coaching process, which requires specialized processes by an expert transformation coach over an extended period to establish enduring results. Why Has Systematic Leadership Development Remained Elusive? Business scholars sometimes refer to management “science” and the “art” of leadership. What are we to make of those designations because management isn’t really science, and leadership isn’t really art? I suggest we do well to view those labels as metaphors that indicate that management processes are Class I problems, whereas leadership processes are Class II issues. That is why we are currently much better at creating management competencies than developing leadership capabilities. Two primary leadership-development activities are aligning behaviors and actions with success needs and learning to make timely culture changes to respond to escalating disruptions in the business environment. Here are three basic approaches for solving Class II problems: Simplistic solutions Empirical processes Root-cause theories Simplistic solutions appear as a first phase when we realize we are failing or when we encounter a mysterious type of problem that we don’t yet understand. Simplistic solutions seduce us into pretending we are solving our problems – that insidious pretending relieves our discomfort of knowing we are failing at something important to us. The next section addresses this ineffective form of solution. You might be unpleasantly surprised to learn you may have fallen for some seduction traps. Simplistic solutions do not provide effective results for behavior transformations or culture changes. Empirical processes arise as a second phase of solving mysterious problems through employing systematic trial and error. These processes are frequently quite effective, but because they lack a root-cause theoretical foundation, they often end up becoming less successful as the needs escalate. Another limitation is that they are usually single-purpose. That is, in leadership development, they might focus on behavior transformations or culture changes, but not both. You will see some effective examples below. Root-cause theories for solving Class II problems eventually emerge when the empirical processes start falling behind increasing demands of the still-mysterious issues. These theories remove the mystery by explaining the new phenomenon by building a systematic model of the elusive mental mechanisms involved. As such, they can respond effectively to escalating needs, and they can solve multiple types of amorphous problems, including behavior transformations and culture changes in business and many other types of currently mysterious issues. My March article will outline such a theory. In these articles, you will also discover that once we develop a theoretical understanding of the underlying mental processes involved in Class II problems, we can create transformable leaders and companies, providing the necessary key to unlock repeated future successes as turbulence accelerates in business environments. Coaching for Class I and Class II Problems It’s a laudable effort to train and certify coaches because the rise of the increasingly problematic Class II issues and subsequent widespread career derailments has enticed so many people to enter the field without adequate training. However, even the most celebrated certifiers sometimes fail to make the crucial distinction between business coaches and lifestyle coaches and between transformation coaches and advisory coaches. I have used the services of some certified coaches, and so have clients, including Max and William, who didn’t even have a clue how to make behavior transformations even though they claimed they could do that. You will find that advisory coaching is a knowledge-based process that can provide effective solutions to Class I problems when applied by appropriate experts. Transformation coaching is a Class II activity for which effective execution requires very different types of processes and a specialized set of insights and skills. In terms of transformation coaching, simplistic solutions do not adequately reconstruct errant behaviors or changing cultures. People who develop empirical theories and processes often provide significant help to transformation coaches so they can effectively reconstruct counterproductive behaviors or change cultures, but rarely both. The underlying mental mechanisms still stay mysterious, as do other aspects of leadership development. 2Selfs Theory, which you will see outlined in my next article, removes the mystery surrounding the whole suite of Class II problems, including those for business, as indicated above, and many others. Another wonderful advantage of creating a mind-level theory is that we can retain all of the excellent empirical progress made and then extend it to meet relentlessly growing needs. Our Inability to Recognize and Avoid Simplistic Solutions that Satisfy the Desire for Successes without Producing the Successes Desired Simplistic Solutions Cannot Rescue Us. A heavily advertised, broadly supported, and widely read set of books that appeared over a period of more than two decades (and that many still read and reference) focused on trying to “discover” static business “best practices” for “sustainable success.” You can see an excellent analysis of this business “success” approach by reading the book, The Halo Effect…and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers by Professor Phil Rosenzweig. "Start with In Search of Excellence, draw a line to Built to Last, link it to What Really Works, and then extend it all the way to Good to Great. What pattern do we see when we connect these dots? Each successive study made a bolder set of claims – to have gathered more data, to have consulted more experts, to have been more exhaustive in its research and more thorough in its analysis than the previous studies. Each claimed to boldly go where no research had gone before, to do what had never been done, and to have a greater claim to the truth. By the time we get to the last two, there are grandiose claims about virtual guarantees of success and immutable laws of physics" Most business consultants and professors who contributed to these books are not scientists, so we can forgive them if the authors thought they were actually practicing something related to science. But we may wonder why more commentators did not point out the methodological flaws and the disconnect between the hyperbolic claims and the results they actually achieved that Rosenzweig so effectively describes with his “halos.” "But for all their claims of rigor and science, not one of the studies cracks the nut at the center of the puzzle. Not one of them recognizes the central problem that robs them of validity – namely, that relying on articles from the popular press, on business school case studies, and on retrospective interviews, their data were compromised by the 'Halo Effect.'" Rosenzweig provides us a great service by pointing out fundamental methodological flaws in the “best practices” genre of trying to “discover” a formula that would enable companies to achieve “lasting success.” However, he was operating within the boundaries of Class I problem-solving constraints, so he didn’t help us understand how to find a much better way to achieve business successes in our turbulent times. We need a revolutionary new path forward that models the mental foundations of success drivers for clear understanding and provides pragmatic theory-anchored processes to transform inadequate or even dysfunctional leadership attributes to align with success needs. "While most reviewers took Collins’s work at face value – accepting its claims to be rigorous, scientific, and exhaustive – a few saw it for what it is: a trip to feel-good fantasyland. George Anders of the Wall Street Journal wrote that Good to Great offered a picture of the business world somewhere between Norman Rockwell and Mr. Rogers – a simple and reassuring place of homespun values and old-fashioned virtues where everyone feels safe and secure." These “sustainable success” books provided simplistic solutions because they didn’t provide a theory – they just created lists of “best practices” derived from after-the-fact interviews and literature searches, as Rosenzweig pointed out for us. This approach of trying to find a magical elixir for “sustainable success” seems equivalent to trying to drive through uncharted, rocky territory by staring at the rearview mirror. "Guess how many companies on the S&P 500 in 1957 were still on the S&P 500 in 1997, 40 years later? Only 74… And of the 74 survivors, guess how many outperformed the S&P 500 over that period? Only 12 out of 74. The other 62 survived, yes, but they didn’t thrive." You can see from these statistics why the business profession has resigned itself to expect and accept the inevitability of business failures. Rosenzweig uses a different set of metrics than did Schwab, but they both make the same sad point – companies with long histories of successes fail at alarming rates. The business community will benefit enormously if we discover the root cause of this enigma and create systematic processes to overcome this dysfunction in the future. Because of the massive disruptions in our business environments that will only accelerate, we must abandon any notion of finding a formula for sustainable success and instead focus on creating theories and processes that will empower us to create a long-term series of repeated successes. Populism – The Bane of Representative Governments Populism, whether from the far left or the far right of the political spectrum, provides dramatic examples of the use of simplistic solutions in politics. Populism doesn’t work by appealing to the intellect of voters or to systematic conservative or progressive platforms. Instead, it exploits vulnerable emotions. People with little or no track record of success in actually getting things done in government generally perpetrate populist programs. They appeal to pie-in-the-sky wants of the downtrodden, to fears, which populists often stoke, and to propaganda that promises results that will not materialize. As such, they follow the normal pattern of seduction traps in the form of simplistic solutions that promise desired results without producing the results desired for most voters who they seduce. Populism is the bane of representative governments because it exploits raw emotions, constructs widespread pretending, and makes countries vulnerable to descent into autocratic rule. I will discuss populism and how to avoid/escape it in a future article on the deterioration and resurrection of Western political systems. The large set of problems that we are not currently solving effectively is causing growing discomfort for many people. As a result, seduction traps are running rampant because simplistic solutions provide an escape from chronic, and often not explicitly recognized, discomfort by seducing people into pretending they have found a solution without actually providing a path to alleviate the source of their discomfort. This was true for the best practices books and is perennially true for populism seduction traps. Until we relieve the widespread discomfort due to the many manifestations of our inability to solve Class II problems, many people will continue to fall for simplistic solutions, which will create grave danger to their prosperity and well-being. Our Inability to Reverse the Increasing Dysfunction in Our Political and Governing Systems in the West Unmanageable Political Turmoil “The World Is Changing Before Our Eyes, and We Can't Do Anything to Stop It.” So says Nic Robertson, CNN's international diplomatic editor in a November 3, 2018 article with the above title. He writes:[1] "Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, effectively stepped down as the leader of her party and irreparably weakened her ability to keep Europe on an even keel. That very same day, Brazil elected a far-right leader who is even Trumpier than US President Donald Trump…[Jair Bolsonaro’s] arrival and Merkel’s slow shuffle to political oblivion are not happening in isolation: The world is changing, and this week ruled out a reverse…[Markel’s] opponents trade on fears of terrorism, violence and a clash of cultures. "It’s not just Germany where right-wing nationalism is profiting at the cost of the more traditional parties; it’s all over Europe. Brexit is as much a part of its complexion as is Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s shutdown of the EU’s migrant-sharing policies. The post-war institution is under pressure from eurosceptics of all stripes. Be it from Brexiteers, Italy’s new government, Hungary’s or Poland’s right-wingers, change is coming. They are all trading on fears and harnessing the anger their rhetoric generates. "We are watching the world order being ripped up over fears of returning to a world order that our current post-war world order was designed to forestall. It sounds complicated, but it is not. There is not enough of everything to go around. There are not enough people making decent livings in a global economy. So, we are reverting to protectionist nationalism to insulate ourselves from the deficit. We are running from the problem, not solving it. But it’s what we have always done when fear takes hold. The world order we see now is one fixing for a fight. We are not quite sure what that fight will be or where it will begin, but we shape our arguments and prepare our defenses. As with many arguments, it has a momentum of its own. We are watching, aware of what’s happening, but without seeing a way to hold it back. That’s what makes Merkel’s slow political demise all the more troubling. In a turbulent Europe, she provided a bulwark of no-nonsense common sense, a steadying logic in an increasingly illogical situation. The season of her political generation is waning, and there is a chill in the air." The same problems exist in spades in the US, so it appears that the whole West is failing. I will dedicate a future article in Brainz Magazine to analyze the decline of Western political systems and propose ways to resurrect their effectiveness. Robertson’s assessments should terrify us, but they probably shouldn’t surprise us. He says we are experiencing a political descent, and “we can't do anything to stop it.” Some recent actions have “ruled out a reverse.” “We are watching, aware of what’s happening, but without seeing a way to hold it back.” This situation is currently true because we only know how to solve Class I problems effectively. However, when we learn to solve Class II problems, we will have the opportunity to reverse the growing dysfunction of Western political systems. The Truth Is You Don’t Know What the “Truth” Is "‘We have turned a corner,’ Matt McGlone, an associate professor of communications studies at the University of Texas at Austin who studies the language of deception, told me. ‘Trump is not the first, but he certainly is the most successful at a national level at showing how persona itself can create a different set of evaluative criteria for the truth.’ Trump doesn’t have to tell the truth, McGlone explained, as long as what he is saying feels true: ‘People don’t take him literally at his word, which is amazing. Just amazing.’[2]" What is going on when even a professor of communications and deception at an excellent university is “amazed” at the existence of two sets of “evaluative criteria” for the “truth”? It would be hard to conjure up a more dramatic example of our abject failure to solve critical problems as we move into the third decade of the 21st century than recognizing we still do not know how to understand and manage the existence of two distinct forms of “truth.” "In Here" vs. "Out There" Realities Human nature causes us to have some powerful, tenacious realities (including assertions, assumptions, theories, certainties, “truths”) “in here” (that is, in our mind) that sometimes do not correspond to realities “out there” (that is, in the world outside of our mind). We can effectively use our mental processes to solve extremely complex problems, so why can’t we just change our minds to align them with external realities and our success needs? In the rest of my Brainz Magazine articles, you will see how we can solve this and many other Class II problems. Voters’ Inability to Distinguish Between Valid Information and Big Lies "Despite scores of failed legal challenges, numerous recounts, and Congress’ confirmation of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, a large majority of those who voted for Donald Trump incorrectly say their candidate received the most votes cast by eligible voters in enough states to win the election. Among Trump voters, 40% say he “definitely” won, and another 36% say he “probably” won the election. Only 7% of Trump voters concede that Biden definitely won the 2020 election, while another 15% say he probably won. Biden voters nearly unanimously believe their candidate won.[3] " Because people realize I work in the field of currently mysterious problems, they ask me how it is possible that so many voters, even well after President Biden was inaugurated, still think Biden and Harris did not win the election. This is a poignant example, and a potentially fatal one for the viability of Western political systems, of the need for discontinuously different ways to solve this crucial personal-responsibility problem. Once we crack open the nut to reveal why we cannot adequately solve Class II problems, that will create the possibility to solve this issue. Big Lies are discomfort-based seduction traps that construct tenacious certainty delusions when repeated accompanied by strong feelings. Our Inability to Avoid Widespread Drug Addictions The statistics in the US are staggering.[4] Whether it’s a problem with alcohol, opioids, cocaine, or any other substance, addiction kills thousands of Americans every year and impacts millions of lives...Addictions destroy marriages, friendships, and careers and threaten a person’s basic health and safety. Almost 21 million Americans have at least one addiction, yet only 10% of them receive treatment. Drug overdose deaths have more than tripled since 1990. From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 Americans died from overdosing on a drug. Alcohol and drug addiction cost the U.S. economy over $600 billion every year. In 2017, 34.2 million Americans committed DUI. More than 90% of people who have an addiction started before they were 18 years old. Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 are most likely to use addictive drugs. This is another example of a massive inadequately managed Class II personal-responsibility problem. A subsequent article will propose a pragmatic solution to this problem that becomes available once we learn to solve Class II problems systematically. Our Inability to Rehabilitate Prisoners so They Can Return to Society with Low Chances of Recidivism In the US, we have an extremely high prisoner population and an unacceptably high recidivism rate. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, about two-thirds of released prisoners were arrested for a new crime within three years, and three-quarters were arrested within five years.[5] While the United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population, it has nearly 25 percent of its prisoners—about 2.2 million people.[6] Why have we failed so badly to transform the behaviors of prisoners so that when they are released, they have a low probability of returning? For many prisoners, their environment constructs their antisocial behaviors, and deep-seated attitudes often drive those bad habits. This is another painful example of a Class II problem that we have not yet figured out how to solve systematically. As with all of the other inadequately managed or unmanaged activities discussed in this article, a subsequent article will propose specific processes for managing this problem once I outline a theory that explains the underlying nature of this whole class of currently mysterious problems and provides methodical processes to solve them. Our Inability to Construct and Maintain Positive Shared Values Explicitly and Systematically In the United States, the founders of our country bequeathed us some national aspirational values. We have struggled for 2 ½ centuries to make incremental progress in realizing those aspirations. However, our hard-earned, shared positive values are very fragile, and we have recently seen a degradation of our national values. How can we explicitly construct and maintain our shared values, which were done mostly implicitly until now? As you keep reading my Brainz Magazine articles, you will understand that this is another example of a Class II problem based on hidden realities-and-perceptions lenses that frame how we understand and experience our human-activities world. Where Can We Look to Solve Our Large Class of Mysterious Problems? We can help ourselves overcome our chronic difficulty in understanding how to solve Class II problems if we notice that even penetrating thinkers have not adequately figured out the underlying mechanisms that empowered us to solve Class I problems, which launched the Modern West. Here is what Yuval Harari had to say about this topic in his international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind: "History proceeds from one junction to the next, choosing for some mysterious reason to follow first this path, then another. Around AD 1500, history made its most momentous choice, changing not only the fate of humankind but arguably the fate of all life on earth. We call it the Scientific Revolution. It began in Western Europe, a large peninsula on the western tip of Afro-Asia, which up till then played no important role in history. Why did the Scientific Revolution begin there of all places, and not in China or India? Why did it begin at the midpoint of the second millennium AD rather than two centuries before or three centuries later? We don’t know. Scholars have proposed dozens of theories, but none of them is particularly convincing." Why the Science Revolution happened when it did and in the West is an interesting topic. However, to help us with our current critical need, unraveling the conundrum of what fundamentally happened at the mind level is much more important than solving the mystery of why, when, and where it happened. We are experiencing an existential crisis to our successes and well-being, so we can no longer leave as mysteries understanding the foundational (mental) nature of the extremely rare culture-wide revolutionary transformations in our problem-solving abilities. That unanswered deficiency will keep us from reversing our descent as a whole Western culture and block our path to recovering and exceeding our previous greatness because we now desperately need another mega-transformation equivalent to the Science/Enlightenment Revolution. What blocked the brilliant scholars who addressed this problem from finding a satisfactory solution? As you might now expect, they were trying to solve a Class II problem using Class I theories and processes. When you read my March article, you will discover that underlying Harari’s mystery was an elusive mental transformation that emancipated the West from its millennium-long mental prison so that we could solve Class I problems effectively and that laid the foundation that created the greatness of the West. You will also learn that a different form of the same type of mental transformation must occur now so that we can launch ourselves into the long-term benefits of solving Class II problems increasingly effectively. You can start yourself on the journey of understanding currently mysterious mental activities if you devote some time between now and when you read my March article trying to figure out the underlying nature of what happened to create the combined Science/Enlightenment Revolution. That understanding can empower us to make a new type of mental transformation so we can solve, to our great benefit, the increasingly debilitating Class II problems as systematically, effectively, and beneficially as we have long solved Class I problems. Because that insight is extremely elusive, as evidenced by the fact that brilliant investigators have not penetrated it effectively enough to stop our widespread decline, I will provide here a high-level map of the terrain we must traverse. You may find it empowering to think through what mental activity might possibly be in play that could enable us to solve Class II problems as effectively as we now solve Class I problems. Because these elusive mechanisms are so crucial to our successes and well-being, you already know implicitly something about this part of the mind from various ways people inside and outside of business refer to it. What do the mental mechanisms we variously refer to as “paradigms,” “worldviews,” “cultures,” the “box,” “status quo,” and a second form of “truth” have in common? More crucially, how does explicitly understanding and managing this elusive, amorphous mental activity provide the key to unlock the mystery of Class II problems so we can solve them? We might usefully use the following physical-maturation process as a metaphor to help us understand the nature of our current problem where we need to make a major transformation in the mental-maturation process of the West (and indeed of humankind!) We must learn to walk before we learn to run. Before that, we must learn to crawl before we learn to walk. We began to crawl toward understanding the existence of Class II problems when careful observers started noticing some mysterious activities they variously called “soft” success factors, the “art” of leadership, and “status quo” as mechanisms that prevent us from making needed improvements in business. More generally, other indirect mechanisms emerged that pointed to mysterious human phenomena such as “paradigm shifts” and “thinking outside the box.” Next, we learned to walk toward these shadowy phenomena when empirical theories emerged in business, including “tacit” knowledge[7], the “people process,”[8] “deep change,”[9] “disruptive thinking,” “social models,” “institutional frameworks” of Schwab, and the “halo effect” from Rosenzweig. Unfortunately, the treadmill we are on in the form of business and other types of human activities is accelerating due to massive technology innovations, among other issues, so even our fastest walking and even occasional trotting is still causing us to fall off the success conveyor. We must learn to sprint and run marathons for our Class II problems just as we have long done for our Class I problems, and that will require a mental revolution of the magnitude that launched the Science/Enlightenment Revolution. Here is another insight into why career derailments are increasing and companies keep failing. Most investigators haven’t figured out how to overcome these chronic problems because they have been trying to focus on just one part of a bigger problem at a time. That brings to mind the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephant where each blind man grabs a specific part of an elephant and proclaims a different inadequate answer to what an elephant is. You might better understand why we have been unable to solve so many currently mysterious problems when you recognize that various wise people trying to figure out how to solve these types of problems are grabbing hold of small parts of the overall problem and missing the big picture. Some investigators address such chronic issues as behavior transformations, culture changes, and leadership development in business. Other researchers and scholars are grabbing hold of political chaos and Big Lie seduction traps. Still, others grab hold of drug addictions and prisoner recidivism. They are missing the big picture of Class II problems. As you read through my Brainz Magazine articles, I hope to convince you that we cannot solve these increasingly debilitating problems individually because we have been trying to do that using our magnificent Class I problem-solving capabilities. I will start my March article by painting a picture for you of the whole Class II “elephant.” If we fail to take bold actions to conquer Class II activities, we risk stumbling into an existential threat, not to our existence as the West and the continuing viability of its countries, but to methodical career progressions, to long-term viability of companies, and to returning to our systematically improving standards of living. Additionally, our well-being is now under systemic threat, including for the deteriorating personal-responsibility problems, which we are not solving anywhere near adequately, as you saw above. I will address each major issue discussed in this article in future Brainz Magazine articles. While each of my subsequent articles will focus on specific topics that I introduced here, many of them will rely on insights and processes developed in previous articles. Therefore, if you read each article, you will gradually acquire the capability to understand and manage the large suite of Class II problems identified above and many more. Here are some key topics I will address in my March article – It’s All in Your Mind! Are we just in a bad problem-solving cycle, or have we staggered onto a slippery slope? If we are systemically failing, what could have happened to cause this success-destroying decline? How can we be enormously effective at solving Class I problems and so bad at Class II? What fundamentally changed in the Science/Enlightenment Revolution that Harari says scholars have missed? If the unsolvable issues discussed above have a common barrier to solution, what is it? Can we solve Class II problems discontinuously better while retaining previous progress? What mental mechanisms, which are part of human nature, have we failed to conquer? “Class II” is a weak, indirect identification of our current set of mysterious, unmanageable problems. What strong, direct mechanism can we create to replace it? You must learn the fundamentally elusive and self-deceiving aspects of human nature that cause debilitating problems identified in this article and acquire the capability to conquer the ones that affect you, your family, your career, and your company. Your future successes and well-being depend on it! Connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more information! 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. References: [1] https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/02/opinions/nic-robertson-opinion-intl/index.html [2] http://fusion.net/story/309150/donald-trump-liar/ [3] January 15, 2021: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/01/15/voters-reflections-on-the-2020-election/ [4] https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/addiction-statistics/ [5] https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4986 [6].http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/incarceration.aspx [7] The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation by Nonaka and Takeuchi [8] Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Bossidy and Charan [9] Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within by Robert E. Quinn

Written by: Ghesi Stojanov, 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. As a teen, I never envisioned that as an adult, I would be that girl who would bury her oldest son, lose a home, a business, and have to live off food stamps before 26. I never thought in a million years that I would then be the girl who would later have a beautiful son with a genetic disorder and learning disabilities. Hear the Doctors say; you have triple-positive breast cancer, have a double mastectomy, a partial thyroidectomy, or have to fight for answers to help my daughter's debilitating COVID-19 long hauler symptoms all before the age of 40. But I am also proud to be that girl who married her best friend, blessed with two beautiful children, privileged to have lived in Australia for nine years, driven cross country in the United States and Australia with two kids in tow under five years of age. In my 40 years on this planet, I've laughed, I've cried, I've been brought to my knees, and even had to fight for my life. Yet, I still get excited when I see fireworks, met beautiful people, and love life with every part of my soul and its endless possibilities. When most of us envision a life of fulfillment, we never incorporate the trials, heartaches, or struggles. It's not as if we've never experienced problems, traumas, or disappoints as children. It's just that we never believe that it's going to happen to us. So, when life kicks us in the guts, we struggle. Not because we're not strong enough or capable. But we are not given the proper tools to help us overcome, adapt, learn and grow through it -which will make or break us, depending on how we receive and internalize the negative and positive circumstances thrown our way. Learning how to embrace the good, the bad, and the ugly motivates us to grow through it instead of sitting in it. Owning everything life has in store for us empowers our minds, hearts, and souls to grow stronger, find solutions, and helps us to let go of the negative thinking that is holding us back from truly embracing all the beauty that life has to offer. Life will slap you in the face and even bring you to tears -but life does not keep you there. That’s a choice we choose to make. I want to share five simple steps that I used to help me overcome some of the darkest moments in my life. So you can grow stronger, turn your dark moment into light so you can live life with joy and power too. 1. Embrace Your Circumstances. Whether it's business or personal, you have to wrap your heart, mind, and soul around it and embrace it for what it is (a really crappy moment). When you embrace your circumstances, you make a conscious decision to take action by stepping forward to face it instead of burying your head in the sand and wishing it away. When you embrace our circumstances, we are taking the first steps to take back our power. Doing this allows your brain to start creating a game plan to overcome and grow from it. 2. Acknowledge Your Pain. When we acknowledge our pain, we recognize it and admit that change needs to occur, which switches our narrative. Slowly bringing us out of a place of "why me" into "why not me." Doing this allows us to open our hearts and minds to let go of our negative thinking and emotions to create change. 3. Listen to What You Need. When we listen to what we need, we get honest with ourselves, start to take inventory of what we need, and check-in with our needs regularly. Doing this allows us to tune into our inner voice instead of tunning it out and shutting it up, and trying to bury it. 4. Own Your Happiness. When we take ownership of our happiness, we stop looking for relationships, friendships, children, and things to make us happy. We stop burying our needs and begin to reclaim our rightful place in the driver seat of our lives. Owning our happiness permits us to let go of the things that tie us down and hold us back from finding true fulfillment -by taking ownership of what we need, who we are, and what we do. 5. Plugin Spiritually. When we feel like the world's weight is on our shoulders and we want to tap-out, this is when being plugged into a higher source is so important. Being plugged in allows us a safe place to share all our thoughts and feeling without judgment -giving us time to process without fear. Being spiritually Plugged in helps to anchor us by keeping us charged, comforted, strong, focused, and at peace. Over my forty years, I've learned to turn these dark moments into light. By embracing the issue, acknowledging it, listening to my needs, owning my happiness, and tapping in spiritually -so I could release my pain, enjoy the present joy that surrounds us all, and start creating a purposeful future. Each of these five steps flows into the next and unlocks different parts of your mind, heart, and soul -allowing your subconscious and conscious self to align so you can overcome the problem at hand and turn your dark moments into your light and power too. "Remember your life is your greatest masterpiece, Be the Color." Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Ghesi! Ghesi Stojanov, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Ghesi Stojanov is a transformational coach with a mission to help others find balance, own their journey, and tune in to their power. After the loss of her first child in 2004, welcoming her youngest son with a genetic disorder NF1 in 2011, and a triple-positive breast cancer diagnosis in 2013, Ghesi created techniques that helped her navigate through these challenging moments with power, purpose, and light. She helps her clients on their journey to "Be the Color" in their greatest masterpiece that is their life.

Written by: Joyce Nassar, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I look at myself in the mirror and enjoy my radiant, healthy face and shining clear eyes. I feel into my body and enjoy the perception of the energy flows of pure life within me, in every cell. I look in the mirror and see love, happiness, joy, harmony, peace, and health. Today I am 42 years old and bursting with energy and creativity. I am absorbed in my task to develop myself further and further, support people, show them ways, pick them up in their challenges, lead them into self-development, self-love, self-esteem, and successfully into the love and joy of life. What a gift. Hard to imagine that 12 years ago, I was a mental, psychological and physical wreck! At 30 years old, I had diagnoses such as chronic traumatized, depression, burnouts, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and panic, tinnitus, bone and joint pain, chronic sinusitis, cluster headaches, regular bronchitis, irritable stomach and intestines, cervical spine and back problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, breathing problems, weakness and nervous breakdowns, listlessness, and more. There were also various suicide attempts and addictions where I continuously felt of being a victim of life, of having failed, of being worthless, unworthy, not worth living and loving. I was disgusted with myself at times, despised myself, and, yes, even hated myself. How was it possible to be so psychologically, mentally, and physically destroyed at 30? Looking back, I can say that my life has been anything but conventional. Even as a small child, I was searching. I just wanted to be loved and seen. My father had left my mother when I was a few months old, and my mother was caught up in her own inner issues and could only act as she was able to. She had certainly loved me in her own way, but I got to feel very early what it was like to feel alone, not understood, to serve the surface and illusions more than to live honestly and truly. My childhood was filled with mental, physical, and sexual violence and eternal blame. Nowadays, I can talk freely and openly about my life because I am completely healed. My permanent development of my body, mind, and in harmony with my soul, strengthens me so much that my past is not only a survived part of my life. I draw from this wealth of experience, create something new, and in deep appreciation and gratitude for myself, I have made the decision not to sweep my past under the carpet, but to help other people with my life story, as well as to open perspectives. In all that I am about to tell, please keep in your subconscious that I have been free, healthy, and happy for many years! The first sexual abuse I experienced was in my nursery. I was 6 years old, assumed that I was safe at home, that I could rest safely in my bed before supper, after an exhausting day of training in competitive gymnastics. The "good friend of the house" was there too, at my bedside. It became a regular thing for three years, until I was 9 years old. Once my mother came into the children's room during this time. She asked what we were doing there. He replied, "Massage. I am massaging Joyce." My mother replied that she would now go on making supper and left my nursery without hesitation. For me, this behavior symbolized that everything was fine. Although I had been enlightened very early, at the age of 4, by my mother regarding the human body and sexuality, and I certainly guessed deep in my subconscious what was being done to me, I let a veil of repression, of forgetting, fall over the fact of the abuse. I was usually the loner, always dressed differently from the other children, spoke "differently" from a very early age, seemed more serious, and craved attention. I tried to be what was expected of me. On the other hand, I also lied a lot and rebelled against many things. Again and again I ran away from home, in despair and helplessness, because I did not feel understood, and I detested maintaining the facade. I had few friends, was the eternal outsider at school and the gymnastics club. In the playground and on the street where I lived, there were some older boys and also men who frightened us smaller girls so that they could get what they wanted from us. When I was 13 years old, I tried hashish and marijuana. I knew the smell from home, so it was nothing out of the ordinary for me. I finally found "friends." Friends who accepted me at least a little bit. We were very different, came from different parental homes and social "classes," but we all had one thing in common: we wanted to do what we wanted freely and not what was constantly expected of us! In each of us was the rebel. We lived that out. I belonged to the extreme variety. I was always driven by the urge to be LOVED and SEEN. I played the cool, the crass, the tough. Inside, however, I was already broken, unhappy, and in permanent pain. I experienced my first rape at the age of 15. After that, many more were to follow. I had no support from home but listened to myself that I was to blame in this case as well. All this was a trigger for me, and I suddenly remembered those three years in my nursery again. I had lifted the veil of forgetfulness and fell even lower. My mother tried to convince me that I imagined everything and that these "delusions" came from my, by now, heavy drug use. I tried to numb the powerlessness that was growing inside me by all means. Until finally, at the age of 16, due to nervous breakdowns and self-sacrifice, I came to a clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry, made my first cocaine withdrawal, and got a few months off from the destructive life outside the clinic walls. However, violence at all levels characterized my years regularly. I myself also went from being a constant victim to a perpetrator several times, inflicting physical and mental violence on others. More and more, I fell into the pattern of not caring about anything. Since self-inflicted suicide attempts were unsuccessful, I tried to destroy myself with drugs and daredevil behavior. I fell into many addictions, including mental ones. This came out, especially when I met my then-husband at the age of 19. It was a moment when I was in absolute abandonment. To the outside world, I was able to keep up appearances with my look and my behavior, which fit in everywhere. Despite my drug and alcohol consumption, people thought I was "strong," that I had most things under control. I could articulate myself well, looked well-groomed, and knew how to "behave" in almost all situations and social classes, so that I was accepted superficially, looked "good" or "cool," and no one could see behind my facade. But at 19, I was already dead inside, or so it felt. That summer, I had also lost 4 days of my life because 2 men had drugged me with knockout drops. I know until today only some sequences from these 4 days, in which I found consciousness for short moments, and perceived myself on a bed. I was lying in a small room, a camera was set up by the bed, and different male faces were above and beside me. I will not go into details now, although nowadays I can speak freely about it, and I am at peace with what happened. In this article, I would like to touch only a small selection of some life excerpts to be able to represent to some extent of my experiences. My then-husband at that time was, for me, the illusion of protection, security, strength and love. I became a slave to him like what he said was my life. I let myself be completely manipulated, plunged into severe anxiety, obeyed, and believed him when he said that I could be glad that such a man as he married someone like me, and I should be grateful for it. By the time I was 20, I had gone through my second cocaine withdrawal and was "only" drinking alcohol occasionally when my then-husband allowed me to. I was 22 years old when I gave birth to my child. This lit a small fire in me again. The fire of true love. I knew that I would do everything for her so that she would have a better life. Slowly I left the illusion in which I held myself captive. But I only managed to break away from my then-husband after he had choked me to death. I had a near-death experience. As a result, I was revived, and I had to flee with my child from a foreign country in which we were living at the time, in fear of my life. I was only able to do this with the support of complete strangers who helped me hide from my furious husband, who chased my child and me until we were finally on the plane back to Germany. I cannot summarize in short form what happened then. But in the following 4 years, I should again look into the abysses of life and the so-called society. At the age of 28, I was addicted to cocaine again, completely desperate, because all the therapies of the all past years had no long-term success. Then suddenly, I felt a voice deep in my heart, an ever louder cry, "Enough is enough! It suffices! I want to live!" This cry did not get any quieter, and I began to feel it, the hunger for LIFE, for true life, a life full of joy, happiness, harmony, health, peace, and - LOVE. After my third cocaine withdrawal, I needed a few more years to bring my decision to LIVE into visible change, to go new ways, without doctors, alternative practitioners, or the usual possibilities that I had tried unsuccessfully for over 20 years in the long run. Taking antidepressants and tranquilizers made me "function" better, but I did not feel life itself. The eternal pain, powerlessness, and longing remained. So after two attempts, I had the drugs phased out after taking them for several years, at the age of 32. I remembered how I had managed as a child to be cheerful and happy at times and how I had felt safe and secure. Other people called it a fantasy world, but I loved my companions and my travels through other worlds while my body was in my bed. I could leave my body already very early. After 4 years, I began to pray out of an impulse. I called my contact, GOD. I remained connected with the divine in my childhood age. I heard nature speak with me, cleaned houses and dwellings from negative energies. I could see the memories of the places and their former inhabitants. My medium abilities allowed me to speak with the deceased and deliver messages. I even laid my hands on other people and healed what needed to be healed. For me, it was all normal and I loved this connection. Although I could help many people and cleared many houses, offices, and apartments of negative energies, others laughed at me. Since others' opinions used to be very important to me, I created a mental block to my spirituality, abilities, and gifts when I was almost 14 years old. Through this, I increasingly plunged UNDER the darkest hells in life. But through these memories of this part of my childhood, the love of shamanism and the indigenous peoples, I found the way to a shaman who made a shamanic trauma healing with me. Since then, EVERYTHING changed for me. I built a healthy distance to the past, and no longer fell into the maelstrom of negative memories. I could focus better and control my thoughts more and more with my words, building a positive mindset. In addition, my knowledge finally became FEELING. Not only to feel the eternal pain and suffering, but to perceive and acknowledge positive feelings, such as love, joy, happiness and gratitude, without fears, within me. I turned back to my spirituality and consciously opened the doors for my abilities, which I already had as a child. I integrated personal development teachings into my daily life and took shamanic training with a shaman from North America, who taught me Paleolithic shamanism and its traditional healing methods. I also studied with the High Priestess of the Mayan Solar Tradition and became a Xamanic woman. A Maori shaman from New Zealand, a priest from the Nigerian Yoruba culture, an Inuit shaman from Greenland, and some of their students, are among my teachers. At the age of 34, I developed a way to connect body, mind and spirit into harmony to finally be stable and healthy in the long term. I succeeded in doing this because I had experienced all levels INTENSIVELY myself. For 8 years, I am free from all diagnoses, addictions, traumas, and also physical complaints! With the memory of my spirituality and my abilities, the further development of my own consciousness, transformations and new insights that I have integrated into my life, I have not only managed to heal myself. I also cleanse places and buildings of negative energies again. I show women, young people, and men the ways and possibilities how they too can manage to come into their love, self-worth, and power to manifest their own individual spirituality and their true fullness, with all their unique gifts and abilities, in this world completely clear and free. I do not use concepts or believe in anything but rather consciously live the belief in themselves again. My online coaching, programs, seminars, and retreats, we reactivate the memories of our individual spirituality that allow us to grow beyond ourselves, find and satisfy our longings in the center of our heart. This happens in the combination of coaching sessions, distant healings, self-discovery pathways, perspective shifts, accompanying the transformative processes, consciously opening the pure consciousness to learn the 360-degree view, self-healing activations, the expanded understanding of body, mind, and spirit in harmony, drumming sessions, sound healings, channeled tones and syllables, individual meditations, specific guided inner journeys, rituals, ancestral healings and ancestral lineage purifications. Through the expansive understanding of creation and zero-point based on vibrations, energies, and frequencies, we experience profound changes out of the moment, and without having to dive into the past or repress anything, answers and insights emerge on the path we walk, in love, appreciation and unconditional recognition for ourselves. For people to be and become healthy, and so the world, we may understand that condemnations, judgments, evaluations, comparisons and competitions, "better" and "worse," "right" and "wrong," and all these smallholding systems may be dissolved, and that we are much more than we see in the mirror and/or have always been told or have told ourselves. I stand up for all people to give courage with my story and my face and to bring the message to the world. Never give up! Believe in yourself! You are valuable and important! You yourself can change everything if you WANT to! The moment we start to live from the center of our heart, the pure heart connects consciously with our soul to believe in our uniqueness again. We step out of expectations and conditions that should be fulfilled. Lovingly we accept ourselves, and we take care of ourselves for our very highest good. First of all, inwardly, the healing of the memories and the experiences begin, as well as the way into perfect health. The moment we stop SEARCHING and move into FINDING, issues such as addiction also dissolve as a completely new alignment is defined and lived. Everything is energy. Energy contains vibrations. Vibrations create frequencies. If we understand that every word, every thought, every alignment, every action, simply EVERYTHING is energy, we can consciously nurture the energy that we ourselves want to live in, that we ourselves want to FEEL and the body goes with it. It is like a joyful dance of the cells, which are led from their shadow existence back into the light, feed on the new sun, and thus begin to blossom in a consciously reactivated field of love and joy, in their perfection and dignity. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and visit my website for more info! Joyce Nassar, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Joyce Nassar is a spiritual transformation guide, and guides people who think that it is no longer going on, that they are not important enough, that they are or must be an eternal victim, that they never get away from their past, that they have no chance of love, health, joy, happiness and success, of new, healthy and positive life paths. With her incredible life, consisting of mental and physical violence, addictions, all her other suffering and diagnoses, her irrepressible life energy, which she has repeatedly brought up, with her spiritual know-how and her rediscovered love of life, she is now able to help people to get into emotional balance, to feel the self-worth and self-love again and to live consciously again. Her connections to the divine universe and the spirits have given her the construction of creation in terms of vibrations, energies and frequencies. This deep and higher awareness and expanded understanding makes it possible to change health, situations and one's own life, as well as other lifes, into the positive. It consciously reactivates the memories of the original cells, so that body mind and soul can be felt and lived in harmony. Joyce Nassar has stood up to encourage with her story, her words and her face, and to bring the message to the world: Never give up! Believe in you! You are valuable and important! You can change everything yourself by using the power of decision for you!

Written by: Eugenia Oganova, 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’re a female coach looking to sign premium clients into your amazing program. You are doing all the “right things” — posting regularly to promote your offer, going live on Facebook and Instagram and you’re prepared, you are great at what you do, and your clients love it. Yet, the results are just not to the level you want them to be — you’re not getting enough sales. Wondering if you are working way too hard for what you are getting? It feels like there should be an awesome result since you are putting out all that action, right? Often female coaches are so determined to make it happen that the energy of “making it happen” becomes a priority, and it feels like you should push harder. You probably got this advice a lot, from male coaches especially, to do “massive effort” and to “put out more, and more, and more.” And when women try this masculine strategy, it doesn’t work. It leads to a few highly uncomfortable feelings: ● Self-doubt: “Is there something wrong with me??” ● Feeling desperate and pushing harder: frantically trying to do all the things. ● Or even arrogance: “Why aren’t they buying?! This is a no-brainer!” If this is happening, you may want to look not only at WHAT you are doing but also at the energy with which you are doing it. It seems logical to do more when something is not working, but… In fact, it is actually counter-productive. We tend to sabotage energetically the very thing we are trying to create when we push with an incorrect energy. Taking a few more courses, getting another certification, acting super-excited in your live streams, hiring a money coach or a healer, or someone to post for you, or redesigning your website, won’t help. These are band-aid solutions that might make you feel better temporarily because you are “doing something” but won’t resolve the root cause of the problem. The more you DO, the more exhausted, frustrated, and desperate you feel. If you are doing everything you think of doing (assuming your messaging is correct!) and still not getting the results you want, then the issue is NOT in the DO-ing at this point. The issue is not WHAT you are doing but HOW you are doing it. You need to look at what attitude do you have while you are doing what you’re doing: HOW are you doing it? WHO are you being within the action you are taking? Are you doing the action while in the mindset of SCARCITY? Are you externally saying all the right things and posting to promote your event with excitement and positivity while on the inside secretly freaking out? “What if no one signs up?” “What if this doesn’t work?” “I can lower the price, so maybe they will buy…” If so, you are broadcasting the energy of scarcity, not abundance! In fact, you are literally creating what in Wealth Energetics is called “an interference pattern” to your own intention: One energy wave is “I am promoting this offer,” and then there is an opposite energy wave of “What if it doesn't work” that clashes with it. Business strategy must be paired, withholding the correct Wealth Energetics to work. Action without the correct internal attitude won’t create the results you want. This is bigger than a “positive mindset” that often masks the problem with the energetics instead of fixing it. What you are energetically radiating to the world is the energetics of what you can create. So the questions you want to ask yourself are: Am I focusing on what I don’t have? How can I refocus on what I do have? This is the foundational premise of Wealth Energetics. If you focus on the wealth that you already have: wealth of your expertise wealth of how you can help them wealth of clients you already have the gratitude for all the wealth you do have You then are radiating the correct energy to attract premium clients to you. How do you create the correct result when you already think you’re DO-ing everything? The usual solutions are: DO more; DO harder; You must be missing something... When what you really need is to check who you're BE-ing within the action, check what energy you’re doing the action with. So if you realize that you’re kind of aware of this but don't know what to do with it, like, you’re an expert - a coach, a healer, a holistic professional who knows what you're doing and your clients have great results. Still, you feel like you're working harder than you think you should for the results you’re getting, then I invite you to apply to work with me. I help my clients build strategies based on their unique soul design that saves the years of pressure and forcing them into ineffective ways so that they do only what works for them instead of “all the things.” Find out more about Eugenia’s coaching program on her website. Follow her on Facebook and join her FREE Wealth Energetics for Women Entrepreneurs group. Read more from Eugenia! Eugenia Oganova, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Eugenia Oganova is an international Conscious Wealth Energetics Business & Marketing Coach for coaches, healers, and holistic health professionals who desire to fully step into their Soul Mission and live their Purpose through a profitable business. She creates custom high-end business, marketing & energetic strategies so that you can attract premium clients and uplevel to multiple 6-figures without burning out or self-sacrificing. Eugenia is a Soul Strategist and a Self-Transformation expert with over two decades of expertise in spiritual entrepreneurship, transformational therapy, conscious healing, and a best-selling author of 3 books. Using an energy-based approach coupled with transformational psychology, extensive business and marketing knowledge, and her clairvoyant wisdom, Eugenia has created many programs that activate long-term core-level transformation in her clients.

Written by: Leticia DeSuze, 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. "People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be – whether they will admit that or not." – Earl Nightingale. Although this is one of my favorite quotes, this is one of the hardest truths for people to grasp. If we acknowledge that we are where we are because it’s what we’ve chosen — by default, we acknowledge we have the power to choose differently. However, this requires taking 100% responsibility for every facet of our lives, and many people aren’t willing to do that. It’s easier to blame and deflect and point to situations and sources outside of ourselves for our current reality. Have things happened to all of us that were outside of our control? Absolutely. We, however, get to choose how we allow our experiences to shape us. When we absolve ourselves of responsibility, we take on the posture of victims - where life is happening ‘to’ us instead of ‘through us. It’s disempowering and lends itself to repetitive patterns and cycles. Why would someone knowingly choose a life they don't want? Why would someone knowingly choose to repeat unhealthy patterns? Most times, they don’t. It is subconsciously done, and people are unaware that they have deeply ingrained beliefs running the show and informing their choices. A belief is simply a thought we make real or accept as true. This happens to everyone, and no one is exempt. Could it be then that we are living by beliefs that are not true which have disconnected us from our deepest desires? Our beliefs are formed when we're very young and impressionable. For example, before I stopped drinking coffee, I would keep the spoon in my coffee long after my creamer was stirred. Why? It felt natural and like it was supposed to be there. It was only when someone brought to my attention that the spoon was repeatedly hitting me in the forehead that I became consciously aware of and slightly embarrassed by it. Some months later, I was having breakfast (and coffee) with my mother. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my mother drinking her coffee with the spoon hitting her in the forehead in exactly the same way — as if it were normal. My mother never said, “Leticia, this is how you drink coffee.” Through my observation of her drinking coffee over the years, this was the way to do it. When I started drinking coffee as a young adult, I was on autopilot. It took someone outside of myself to bring conscious awareness to something that may not have been in my best interest. Here’s another example. When my daughter was about three years old, I noticed she took an unusually long time in the restroom. I asked what she was doing. “Nothing, mama.” Well, knowing the curious child she was, I opened the door, and to my surprise, she was standing on the bathroom counter and looking very closely in the mirror while attempting to arch her eyebrows. She actually had my razor. Thank God she wasn’t hurt, but she was only modeling what she’d seen me do. While these were fairly light examples, how many more beliefs and patterns have we absorbed in our childhood environments that continue to govern our choices in a more detrimental way? The effects of which show up in our careers, relationships, businesses, finances, and health? We live on autopilot by these beliefs and are deeply resistant to changing them because we don’t recognize them. If we find ourselves living lives we tolerate but not lives we've intentionally created - we've got work to do. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Whose beliefs am I living by?” I personally have had to ask myself questions like, “Whose relationship beliefs have me afraid of vulnerability? Whose money beliefs have me thinking I will never have enough? Whose health beliefs have me normalizing not taking care of myself and being sick and on medication? Whose fears have me afraid to step boldly into my dreams?” I had to dig deep with each of these questions and so many more until I found their origin, only to discover they were generational. I didn’t create the beliefs, but I took full responsibility for how they showed up in my life. Sometimes when you discover something, it’s because the work is yours to do. Although it took me years to change my beliefs to align with my desires - I did it. And so can you. It doesn’t have to take you so long. I didn't do this work alone, and neither should you. I had the help of coaches and mentors. The beauty is when we see our beliefs, we can shift them. Without help, we only have the level of thinking and mental conditioning that has produced them, and we will continue to repeat patterns because it's the only thing we know to do. If you are serious about changing your life, by far the most important advice I would give you is to invest your time, energy, attention, and money into your mindset and never stop. Your mindset is the foundation upon which you build everything else, and there are mental challenges at every new level of life. This is the ultimate key to creating sustainable success. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Leticia DeSuze, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Leticia DeSuze is a holistic mindset coach and business strategist who works with C-level executives and established entrepreneurs who desire to break the 7-figure barrier. Having coached more than 1200 senior leaders and entrepreneurs across multiple industries, Leticia believes that every problem is a mindset problem and that mindset matters most. Leticia has developed a 'laser-like' ability to pierce the facades and identify the deeply engrained thought patterns that have limited her clients' potential and identify opportunities for accelerated growth. She helps them clearly define what they want and designs the roadmap to get there - while holding them accountable. The end result is a life and business they've intentionally created vs. one they've settled for.

Written by: Natasha Bazilevych, 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. As we all know, virtual presentations are here to stay. And it’s not a secret simply showing slides or talking non-stop through your computer or phone screen is boring. You’ll put your audience to sleep in no time. So, how do we make our online presentations, FB lives, or Zoom calls engaging? How do we make sure our listeners interact with us, enjoy our content, and don’t want to let us go at the end? I’ve got 7 tips for you. You can use all of them or one of them, depending on the kind of your presentation. Let’s discuss each strategy in detail. 1. Start small. Ask a simple question. It’s no secret you can’t ask somebody to marry you on the first date. That’s creepy. The same rule applies to presentations. You can’t ask somebody to answer a deep question before you warm up the audience, connect with them and build a rapport. First, you’ve got to ask easy questions that require a one-word answer. Make it as simple for the audience as possible. Invite your listeners to drop an emoji if they’re on their phones. I like a question that starts with: “On a scale from 1 to 10, how …” And then you can add anything from 'how is your day so far' to 'how great are your presentation skills’ to ‘how much do you like astrophysics?’ People just need to put a number in the chat. It’s fast and creates engagement. Another simple request could be to ask for a show of hands. It’s easy for an audience and create interaction. Of course, you’ve got to make these questions relevant to your topic or your goal. 2. Go Deep. Invite listeners to share experience. As soon as you built a rapport, you’ve earned your right to go deeper with your audience. Now, you can ask them deeper questions that require reflection and expanded comments. If your listeners are with you on Zoom or another platform, invite them to unmute themselves and share their opinion, experience, or stories. Again, the situation, your topic, and your objectives will dictate possibilities for interaction. 3. Create connections. Connect your speech, your message to particular people in the audience. You can prepare it in advance if you know you will be listening to you. Or be spontaneous and flexible, insert the names of people you see in front of you into your speech. Refer to them, use them as an example, praise and compliment them. It will create a unique atmosphere and connection. 4. Tell a joke. This one is probably the hardest. You need to know which joke is appropriate in which situation. But if you can evoke laughter, that's a huge win. Some even call humor a Holy Grail of Public Speaking. This kind of interaction puts you in a position of influence. Why? Because as soon as you make somebody smile or laugh or experience any other positive emotion, they'll warm up to you and become much more open-minded. 5. Create a poll. No matter what platform you’re using, there’s always an opportunity to create a questionnaire or a poll. On some platforms, you’d have to do it in advance. Others, like Zoom, will allow you to put a poll on the screen for everyone to participate right away. It’s a fantastic way to engage the audience and learn their opinion. You’re killing two birds with one stone. Use it as your marketing research and a way to connect with listeners. 6. Use breakout rooms for discussion. Encouraging your listeners to discuss in groups what they’ve learned is a powerful way to engage them. They’ll reflect, share their opinions, bond with other participants, create new connections. It’s a win/win for both a speaker and a listener. You have the ‘breakout room’ option on all popular platforms for online meetings. Make sure you get acquainted with its functionality before using it. As soon as your audience is divided and all participants are in breakout rooms, you have an option to take a short break, or join different rooms to listen to discussions. 7. Play games with the audience. Who doesn’t like FUN? Everybody does. So, help your listeners enjoy your speech even more by playing a game with them. You can create a game related to your topic or search online. There are numerous resources with activities and games. Be flexible and creative. If you find or remember a game you played at a party, modify it for an online presentation. Use your imagination. Would you like to take your presentation skills to the next level? Ready to speak with power and reach your audacious business goals? Get your free video course here . Follow me on Facebook , LinkedIn , Instagram and visit my website for more info! Read more from Natasha! Natasha Bazilevych, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Natasha Bazilevych is an international speaker and business trainer. She teaches business owners, top managers, and entrepreneurs to give powerful presentations and reach audacious goals. Natasha has been teaching business skills for 13 years, has two bachelor's degrees and an MBA. Her signature program, “Speak With Power,” is a unique experience after which each participant knows how to overcome fear, craft powerful messages and deliver them with confidence.

Written by: Victoria Vela, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I started grad school and elbow deep in research studies on perception, human learning, and cognition…. but then I saw it… "The Dress," do you remember it? Do you remember which team you were on — white & gold, or black & blue? It was a perfect litmus test for how an individual processes information! I thought it was fascinating that while I was so sure it was White & Gold, my husband was so sure that it was Black & Blue. I knew there had to be a good explanation for why we were interpreting the same image completely differently. So, as usual, I turned to neuroscience. There is a theory that we process information in one of two ways. Bottom-up processing is very straightforward, processing information as it comes in. We form an idea based on the smallest piece of information. Top-down processing refers to perception driven by cognition. We apply our knowledge and expectations to form an idea, which means we "fill in the blanks" a bit to understand the input. Here's another example… What did you see there? A woman (top-down processing) or a saxophone player (bottom-up processing)? Top-down and bottom-up processing effectively explained what was happening to all of us, arguing over what color the dress REALLY was. Spoiler alert: it was actually black & blue. Those of us seeing the white & gold dress were taking context clues to fill in the blanks and make predictions to decide what we were seeing (top-down). Those of us seeing blue & black were quickly reacting to the stimuli to make a judgment about what they were seeing (bottom-up). Six years later, I'm building websites, sales funnels, and marketing strategies…and I realize that this old meme is actually a great way to learn about the buyer's brain. When the overall objective is to optimize content for higher conversions, understanding the buyer’s brain is a TOP priority. So, what can an old meme teach you about optimizing conversions? Team White & Gold (Top-Down Processors): They are more likely to gather as much information as possible to reason out a logical answer. They are more likely to put more thought into making a decision to buy. They're going to need more facts & details to reach a decision. They're more likely to be very careful with how they spend their money. What do they need to buy? Lots of concrete facts Details Tangible results Excellent design to create credibility. Team Blue & Black (Bottom-Up Processors): They are more likely to react quickly to the content they see. They are more likely to purchase based on perceived value. They're more likely to make the buying decision based on emotions. They're more likely to be more impulsive when spending money. What do they need to buy? An attractive offer Excellent design to create credibility. Lots of visual stimuli to evoke strong emotions. When you understand how your buyers process information, you can better guess how they're going to interpret your content and optimize your sales funnels, websites, or social media content to convert ANY type of buyer. Reach out to me if you want to optimize your content to increase conversions. I've got a framework for that! You can learn more at my upcoming webinar: How to build funnels that convert any type of buyer . I will teach you about the different types of buyers and how to optimize your sales funnels and websites to convert ANYONE. For more information, follow me on Instagram and visit my website! Victoria Vela, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Victoria Vela is a marketing strategist with a specialization in Neuromarketing. After a career in teaching and learning to adapt delivering content to different learning styles, Victoria brings the same psychological approach to marketing. She is now the CEO of Microcosmic Marketing an Marketing Agency specializing in helping coaches create the kind of comprehensive marketing strategies that allow them to become a leader in their field, with expert visibility, expert design, and high converting automated sales funnels.

Written by: Brittney Oliver, 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. Let’s talk about poop! Why? Because the previously avoided topic of fecal material is something that needs to be discussed for health's sake but also, because of the unique window it gives us into the interworking of our entire body and quality of life. On a microscopic level, your poo is full of microbes; living organisms that all have special jobs. Some of these organisms are responsible for metabolism, some for detoxification, others for nutrient assimilation, cardiovascular function, and so on. In order to dig into the microbiome or “Gut,” we need to first dig directly into the very stuff that we flush and forget; our poo. As gut health science has evolved, so has the study of fecal material and the organisms that inhabit it. The multitude of microbes found in poop are representative of the bacterial ecosystem inside the gut, running the body and essentially running your life. Did you ever stop and wonder if maybe your mid-day brain fog, slow metabolism, or your constant migraines were potentially caused by the live organisms living in your digestive tract? What if there were an intricate stool analysis that could help you physically “see” just how diverse your digestive colony is, how resilient your body is when faced with sickness and toxin exposure and how your internal health compares to those in optimal health? Microbiome testing is all the rage now, and for a good reason! It allows a second perspective into the human gut and, when combined with symptom and dietary analysis, can give a fairly in-depth profile understanding into one’s state of wellness. The more that we can understand our individual state of health and understand the living organisms within us, the more that we can tailor our eating habits, lifestyle, stress, and supplements to better our quality of life and optimize our own health. We can actually optimize the “machine” that is our body! So, what if a coach could do this? What if a coach could work alongside medical professionals, running advanced microbiome analysis, adding doctor-approved gut supplementation, and tweaking dietary suggestions accordingly for clients? The coaches at the Holistic Wellness Coaching Academy “gut health school” are blazing a new trail for the coaching profession. Think, just how many suffering individuals could we help if more of us are able to see what’s within the body? This is why POOP should start becoming a common topic of conversation. If our embarrassment surrounding this very natural, non-discriminatory process is allowed to hold us back from the conversation, then the unfortunate side effect will be more and more people suffering in silence, flushing so many answers down the toilet. For more information, follow me on Instagram and visit my website! Read more from Brittney! Brittney Oliver Prendergast, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Brittney Oliver is a board-certified Holistic Health and Life Coach specializing in Gut Health and the Mind-Gut connection. After writing her first book, "Buddha Belly," she developed the Holistic Wellness Coaching Academy, where she certifies individuals throughout the world in Gut Health and Mindset Strategy coaching. Brittney, or "Coach Britt," as she is commonly known, is passionate about mental health and strives to empower others to live their ultimate life vision. She believes that through seeking purpose, we will find a passion capable of igniting our power to grow far more than willpower ever could.

Written by: Tara Best, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. What will you remember the Covid-19 pandemic for? Will it be fear and worry or opportunity and success? The global pandemic has had a wildly different impact on us, depending on our location, family situation, job, and mindset. But as we start to leave our third national lockdown here in the UK, I’ve noticed a pattern when I talk to my coaching clients. If they’ve hit targets or smashed goals, then they’re feeling a strange emotion alongside happiness, gratitude, and pride. They’re feeling guilty, and that’s often coupled with worry that they aren’t worthy of their success. How crazy does that sound?! These people have worked their hearts out during the most unpredictable time most of us can remember, and their reaction to success is to feel guilty about it! Then they start to attribute it to other people or external factors… But dig a little under the surface, and you can see why they’ve reacted that way. Our news and social media feeds are full of stories about people working tirelessly on the front lines against the virus, tales of inspirational community workers, and tips for coping with homeschooling pressures, working from home, and social isolation. It’s natural to feel empathy for those struggling and to offer support where you can. It would be downright inhuman not to! But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate your hard-earned success. In fact, I think it’s actually more important now than it ever has been before. Here’s why I believe you should work on recognizing you are worthy of success and celebrating it too! To develop a positive mindset. I work with my clients to develop a more positive and productive mindset, turning their limiting beliefs and thoughts into affirmations to move them towards their goals. If you’re new to mindset work, then you need to investigate it! It’s the best way to turn that voice which says, ‘I’m not good enough’ to ‘I’m getting better at this every day and then “I'm amazing at this!”. Celebrating success and using them in your affirmations is an incredible way to instill some positive thought patterns in your unconscious mind. To boost your confidence and self-esteem. We all have wobbles; we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t. But it’s how we react to them which helps separate positive people from those who let negativity take hold. Recognizing and embracing successes means you have that amazing memory to go back to. I love getting clients to make an epic list - whereby they write out 10 things they are insanely proud of, and I encourage you to do the same! Think of things you have achieved in your career and life, hard times you’ve overcome, breakthroughs you’ve had, or just things you’re proud of. Then, if you have a day when you can’t find that inner confidence, you can read your epic list to remind yourself of the many reasons why you are an amazing human. For your own learning and development They say it’s important to fail in life, as the knowledge and experience you gain from failure are invaluable. Whilst that’s totally true, I say it’s equally important to recognize when you’ve succeeded, and for the very same reasons! Taking a little bit of time to look at why something worked well and what you learned along the way means that you can replicate it again in the future. And who doesn’t fancy a little more success coming down the tracks?! For your support network too! You know those people who you turn to for support when times are tough? Your partner, your team, your colleagues, your mentor or coach, or your parents? Well, if they’re there for the tough times, then make sure you include them in the good times too! A positive, happy phone call, a special meal at home, or even a glass of wine on a Zoom call are all ways to say ‘thank you’ to your support network for their part in your success! To get the happy hormones flowing! It can be tempting to view hitting a goal as a box ticked before it’s time to move on to the next task at hand. But surely the chance to celebrate success in your business, career, or personal life right now is the perfect tonic to the strange and unsettling times we’re experiencing? Even if you haven’t had homeschooling, work uncertainty, or money worries to contend with, life has still been downright odd for the past year. Allowing yourself to celebrate and share successes is a great way to get happy hormones flowing. Put on your favorite music, enjoy your favorite food and drink and even dance around your house. Because why not? Anything which gets the dopamine and endorphins flowing has to help at the moment! For more top tips, mindset hacks, and positivity, make sure you follow me on Instagram, check out my website, or subscribe to my podcast, Tara Talks, available on all podcast platforms. Tara Best, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Tara Best, of Tara Punter Coaching and Tara Punter PR is incredibly passionate about all things mindset and marketing and helping business owners thrive, while taking control of those limiting beliefs likely to hold them back in business. As a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Coach, NLP Practitioner, Practitioner of Time Line Therapy and Hypnotherapist, she has the tools required to help clients re-wire their subconscious mind, to help them create unlimited success. She combines this with her marketing and public relations expertise to truly help her audience thrive. Best is also the voice behind the popular podcast, Tara Talks and soon to be a published author.

Written by: Melia Diana, 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 say you want to change. You say you want to grow. Desiring to navigate through life more peaceful and joyful. You’re tired of having the same arguments. You’re tired of attracting the same toxic people in your life. But, this time- it’s going to be different. You’re going to put your foot down. Get serious! You deserve better, only to come to the same conclusion as last time… “It’s going to hurt!” You’re scared to go to those excruciating pain points. So, you run from the chance to heal your wounds. You push it aside with the grand gesture of “next time.” Self-doubt starts flowing through your pours. The mind starts rattling off emotions of fear and rejection. You think you’re not worthy. You doubt the healing process. You’re terrified to step out of a desolate place of misery. Why? Any new path initiates transformation. A new cycle of shedding layers. It’s going to take accountability and hard work. You have to desire the outcome rather than the pain. The pain will eventually pass, and you will inherit your reward of obedience. Guess what? We don’t heal alone. We need Jesus to help us along our journey. This is why God sent His son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. We get to come upon His feet for everything and anything going on in our lives. Any problems we are facing. All emotions hindering us from progressing in our relationships. All feelings stopping us from reaching our happy, healing phase. For the inner healing to work, you have to dig deep into those hidden and buried wounds for restoration. The cleansing process starts and ends with God. Yes, it’s going to hurt, but you have to be vulnerable for this process to succeed. The one-on-one coaching work I do is transformational and allows my clients to get rid of the toxicity that is destroying their relationships. I do this with God’s help because He’s part of my business. I would say, stop hiding behind closed doors and suffering. Stop acting like you have it all together on social media. At some point, you will have to say "enough" and want to do something different. Spinning in a hamster wheel is called insanity and does nothing for progression. God wants more for you and your relationships. So, what are you waiting for? The world needs more people healing as opposed to hurting. Stop being scared to heal and do something about your misery! I want to leave you with this Scripture- “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds” (Psalm 147:3 NLT). You don’t have to this alone! God is with you, but if you’re feeling stuck, please feel free to book a free Clarity Call with me. I will pinpoint the number one reason hindering your relationship progression. Book a Clarity Call with me! Watch this video “Scared to Heal the Pain?" Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and check out my website and YouTube-channel! Read more from Melia! Melia Diana, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Melia is an International Best-Selling Author, Certified Christian Counselor, Speaker, and Relationship & Dating Coach; specializing in inner healing transformation. She has spent over 14 years in medical & fitness field, as a Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant and Certified ACSM Personal Trainer helping people through her passion to deliver attainable and solid goals. But it doesn’t stop there! Melia’s extensive certifications and background led her to utilize her faith, knowledge, experience and personal development to brand and design her own Signature Coaching Programs. She developed a unique methodology to help clarify the missing links and identify core root problems hindering God’s best. She takes women through a one-on-one transformational healing journey, guided by the Holy Spirit, for restoration of their hurting souls and removal of toxic wound patterns. With a godly approach, she helps Christian women to break all barriers and have loving relationships they’ve always desired. She is faith-based author of Vertical Relationship: 4 Steps To Salvation & Getting Right With God and International Best-Seller of Overcomer: Redeemed Masterpiece, where she wrote “7 Keys To Finally Have a Godly Man.” God’s mission for Melia, is helping lost souls find true healing to cultivate fruitful relationships. With her God given gifts, Melia just wants to sincerely help others heal through the love of Jesus Christ. Her empathetic approach encourages and inspires others for growth, wisdom, and a stronger mindset for a more abundant, peaceful & fruitful life.