Written by Natasha B. Russell Darby, Motivational Speaker A dynamic force in the entrepreneurial world, Natasha B. Russell Darby (NBR) is the Founder & CEO of NBR Global Solutions Inc. With a passion for empowering purpose-driven ventures, NBR Global Solutions offers coaching, speaking, training, and consulting services that equip entrepreneurs, businesses & non-profits with the tools they need to succeed. As we step into the first days of 2026, the air is thick with "resolutions." But for the high-level entrepreneur and executive, resolutions are rarely enough. What is required is a fundamental shift in valuation. In business, we meticulously track the ROI of our investments, the depreciation of our assets, and the health of our balance sheets. Yet, many leaders fail to apply that same rigor to their most critical asset, themselves. To thrive in 2026, you must stop treating your energy as an infinite resource and start treating it as your most sacred capital. 1. Energy management over time management We have been lied to. We’ve been told that if we just "manage our time" better, we can do it all. But time is a finite commodity, energy is the actual engine of leadership. You can have a perfectly blocked-out calendar, but if your energy is depleted, your decision-making will be flawed, your creativity will be stagnant, and your leadership will be reactive. The audit: Look at your daily tasks. Are they "energy givers" or "energy takers"? The shift: To thrive, you must protect your "power hours", those times when your focus is highest, and refuse to spend them on low-value administrative noise. 2. Delegation as an act of sovereignty Many leaders view delegation as "passing the buck" or a loss of control. In reality, failing to delegate is a failure of leadership. When you insist on doing everything yourself, you become the bottleneck of your own organization. Delegation is not just about offloading tasks, it is about reclaiming your genius. The rule of 80%: If someone else can do a task at 80% of your capacity, it shouldn't be on your desk. Trust as scale: By delegating, you aren't just freeing your time, you are empowering your team to grow. You are choosing to lead at the level of strategy rather than the level of execution. 3. The "fuel" filter: Making choices that help you thrive Every "yes" you give to a project, a client, or a meeting is a "no" to your own well-being and strategic vision. In 2026, your primary goal is to become more selective. Ask yourself, "Does this fuel my vision, or does it merely fill my schedule?" The Thrive Fac tor: Choose relationships that are reciprocal. Choose projects that challenge your intellect. Choose habits that nourish your body. The Worthiness Mind set: Recognizing your own value means realizing that you do not have to "earn" rest through exhaustion. Rest is the preparation for peak performance. Make 2026 the year you lead from abundance A business is only as healthy as the person leading it. If you are ready to stop "grinding" and start growing, it begins with the decision to value yourself as much as your vision. The transition from a "Do-er" to a "Strategic Leader" is a journey that requires clarity, courage, and often, an outside perspective to help you see the blind spots in your own self-valuation. Let’s architect your thrive-state in 2026: Executive coaching: I specialize in helping leaders audit their energy, master the art of delegation, and build systems that prioritize their health without sacrificing their profit. Let’s work one-on-one to ensure your 2026 is your most sustainable year yet. Speaking engagements: I am currently booking keynotes and workshops for Q1 and Q2. I help organizations understand that "Self-Care is a Strategic Asset," providing teams with the tools to work smarter, lead better, and thrive collectively. You are the engine of your legacy. It’s time to start treating yourself like it. Connect with me via email  to schedule a discovery call or inquire about my 2026 speaking calendar. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , and visit my   website  for more info! Read more from Natasha B. Russell Darby Natasha B. Russell Darby, Motivational Speaker NBR is driven to transform lives and businesses through impactful leadership and strategic communication. With a passion for purpose-driven leadership, she empowers clients to lead with purpose, confidence, and clarity. NBR's expertise in communication, branding, and public relations enables her clients to achieve their business goals and unlock new opportunities. As a sought-after speaker and event host, she inspires audiences to reach their full potential, both personally and professionally. Dedicated to making a positive impact globally, Natasha actively volunteers her time in support of youth.

Written by Kenneth J. Breniman, Grief Guide & Mindfully Mortal Therapist Ken Breniman is a queer author, licensed clinical social worker, yoga therapist, and thanatologist guiding fellow mindful mortals at the threshold of life, death, devotion, and (r)evolution. His work blends neuroscience, primatology, Celtic wisdom, and psychedelic integration to invite braver ways of being human. When Dr. Jane Goodall died last year, I was both saddened and, eventually, mobilized. Emerging research in grief psychology and neuroscience suggests that when grief is tended, it can become a powerful motivator, left unattended, it can become immobilizing. This is an empowering reframe, one increasingly relevant in a world shaped by collective loss. I wasn’t grieving because Dr. Goodall’s work was unfinished, nor because her legacy felt fragile. I was grieving because she embodied a way of being human that now feels endangered – patient, relational, scientifically grounded, spiritually humble, and hopeful without being naïve. In her final interview, she looked directly into the camera and into the eyes of anyone willing to meet her there. As an ancestor-in-training, this elderly woman took a sip of Irish whiskey and made a simple request to the world, “You have it in your power to make a difference. Don’t give up. Do your best while you’re still on this beautiful Planet Earth.” Not perfectly. Not heroically. But humanely. She reminded us that hope is not a feeling, it is a discipline. A practice. A choice repeated daily. Her death stirred grief in me, not just for her, but for the part of myself that had been waiting. Waiting for certainty. Waiting for moral clarity. Waiting for permission to act without contradiction. Instead, I stayed still. I wrapped myself in existential analysis like a weighted blanket and mistook paralysis for wisdom. Eventually, the weight became too heavy, and something else stirred, an urge to move. From despair to motion I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, where being different is noticed early. Later, I moved to Japan, came out, and found myself part of the early 1990s LGBTQ movement, one that wasn’t loud or performative. We were simply people showing up, risking small acts of honesty in daily life, often without language, legitimacy, or safety guaranteed. Ironically, it was in another country, living as a visible outsider, that I learned social change doesn’t always come from volume. Sometimes it comes from intentionality. Sometimes it comes from knowing when to speak and when to listen. When I returned to the United States, I became a social worker and grief-tender, walking alongside people navigating trauma, loss, and mortality. Years passed. I continued to serve. And still, the world hardened. Climate disruption accelerated. Extinction became visible rather than abstract. Authoritarian impulses, once considered fringe, began moving closer to the center. There is a particular despair that comes from understanding too much and moving too little. It can masquerade as maturity. In my mid-50s, I began asking a different question, "What is the smallest honest action that might interrupt my numbness?" For me, the answer was Borneo. Why Borneo, and why now Orangutans are not symbols. They are kin, sharing roughly 97 percent of our DNA, and they are exquisitely vulnerable to instability. Habitat loss has long been the headline. Climate disruption is now accelerating that loss, with researchers warning that its combined effects may push already fragile populations toward extinction. Peer-reviewed research estimates that over 100,000 Bornean orangutans disappeared between 1999 and 2015. Today, fewer than 105,000 remain in the wild. Climate change compounds this loss, erratic weather, prolonged droughts followed by intense rainfall, disrupted fruiting cycles, and collapsing forest canopies force orangutans into increasingly dangerous proximity with humans. Females give birth only once every seven to nine years. There is no quick recovery from compounded stress. What unsettled me most was a line from Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael that began haunting me again. If gorillas were gone, what would that say about humans? Rwanda and Uganda have made remarkable progress in gorilla conservation since Quinn wrote those words. But now another of our closest relatives faces climate-accelerated erasure. That realization became too heavy for me to hold without moving. The sound bath question, asked honestly Before leaving for Borneo, I offered a sound bath to chimpanzees at a local zoo. The keepers were receptive. The chimps were curious, alert, engaged, choosing proximity and distance on their own terms. That experience matters. And it proves nothing. Does it mean displaced, traumatized, and orphaned orangutans will find singing bowls soothing? Does it mean local communities will welcome them as meaningful tools rather than foreign curiosities? Does it risk becoming another well-intended imposition carried in by a Westerner? I don’t know. And that not-knowing matters. Primates are individuals. Sanctuaries are complex systems. Cultural relationships to sound, ritual, and outsiders vary widely. What regulates one nervous system may overwhelm another. So I hold this not as a solution, but as a hypothesis, one that must be tested slowly, ethically, and only with consent. If the answer is no, I will listen. If the answer is yes, I will remain cautious. Receptivity is not something I get to assume. It must be earned. Singing bowls: Borrowed, commercialized, complicated Singing bowls, often marketed in the West as “Tibetan,” originate from Tibet, Nepal, and the Himalayan foothills, where metal bowls historically served many purposes – ritual, alms collection, meditation support, and daily use. What is less acknowledged is that the modern wellness framing of singing bowls is largely a Western reinvention. Claims of ancient, exclusively meditative use are often overstated, retrofitted for global wellness markets now worth billions. Naming this matters. I am borrowing a tool that has been romanticized and commodified, sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes carelessly. That reality demands humility, not defensiveness. Why test this with primates at all? My working hypothesis is simple – apes in captivity, particularly those recovering from trauma, may benefit from carefully introduced, choice-based auditory enrichment that supports regulation, curiosity, and agency. This idea is not speculative fantasy. Zoos and sanctuaries routinely use auditory enrichment as part of welfare programs. Professionals at the Smithsonian National Zoo, the Oakland Zoo, and others have expressed openness to exploring this question when framed ethically and non-intrusively. That receptivity doesn’t prove effectiveness. It does suggest the question is legitimate. So rather than speculate endlessly, I chose to volunteer for a month in Borneo and donate a set of singing bowls, purchased with funds generously provided by my yoga students, as a potential tool the sanctuary may or may not choose to use in the future. Experiment does not mean extraction. It means observation, consent, and restraint. The white savior mirror I am a white American man with a passport, education, and professional flexibility. History is heavy with people who looked like me traveling somewhere “to help” and leaving harm behind. If this becomes a story about my meaning, it fails. If it centers my voice over local expertise, it fails. If it turns animals or communities into aesthetic backdrops, it fails. The only ethical posture I can find is this – to be a participant, not a protagonist. Show up. Follow local leadership. Accept correction. Leave changed, hopefully, for the better. The work, then, is not to withdraw in fear of getting it wrong, but to stay in relationship – to listen, to be accountable, and to keep choosing care over control. What this is really about: Grief, privilege, and the search for direction This is not about orangutans alone. It is about grief seeking direction. Privilege seeking responsibility. Love refuses to stay theoretical. If there is a way to use my access, care, curiosity, and devotion to primates, without pretending I’m saving anyone, then this work is worth doing. Time will tell what is welcomed and what is not. Listening is part of the work. A closing question If you read this and think, 'That’s him, not me,' pause. What part of you has gone dormant because the world felt too broken? What longing did you label impractical or naïve? What gift is still waiting for permission to be used? You don’t need to go to Borneo. You don’t need a platform. You don’t need perfection. But you do need to choose. You may need to curl up with despair for a while, most of us will at some point. Let stillness help it pass through you. Just don’t mistake it for a destination. Don’t let it become so heavy that it keeps you from moving. Eventually, my hope is this, you will crawl or step, however awkwardly, toward what you love. My lifelong hero spent her life reminding us that hope is not a feeling. It is a discipline. I’m choosing to practice it in a way that makes sense to me, imperfectly, visibly, and in motion. And I choose to believe that when we act with humility rather than dominance, with devotion rather than despair, we are not acting alone. We are walking with those who came before us, with elders, with teachers, with ancestors like Dr. Jane Goodall, who spent her life showing us how to belong to this planet rather than rule it. Only that we keep choosing life while there is still time to choose it. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kenneth J. Breniman Kenneth J. Breniman, Grief Guide & Mindfully Mortal Therapist Ken Breniman is a queer author, licensed clinical social worker, certified yoga therapist, and thanatologist whose work lives at the intersection of mortality, meaning, and transformation. Drawing from neuroscience, primatology, Celtic wisdom, and psychedelic integration, he challenges the myth of human exceptionalism while honoring the precious role each of us plays in the ongoing evolution of our species. Ken is the author of a three-body solution and subversive acts of humanity, and the creator of the See-Soul children’s grief literacy series. Through writing, teaching, and ritual-informed practice, he guides mindful mortals toward deeper humility, resilience, and collective becoming.

Written by Clio Bushland, Courageous Living and Leadership Specialist Clio Bushland is a specialist in Courageous Living and Leadership. She combines her background in Marriage and Family Therapy with a foundation in neuroscience and over two decades of business leadership to help people transform fear from a barrier into useful data and energy, and align their actions with their goals at work and at home. In leadership and in life, we often wait for confidence before we act. In reality, confidence comes from meaningful action. Over the years, I've noticed that when my clients focus on building confidence, they often feel frustrated and behind. One day, confidence is high, the next, it is gone, and its absence feels like some kind of failure. But when we shift the focus to understanding and accepting fear, they feel more resilient and energized, while also less discouraged when confidence wavers. “I have not only faced fears, but walked through them. Now I look forward to the increased confidence that comes every single time I do something that I didn’t think I could.” – Shelly – Engineer, Inventor, and Client Confidence is a prediction, not a prerequisite Confidence is often seen as a prerequisite for meaningful action. We want to feel confident before we share our ideas, make a big decision, or take a risk. But confidence is a result of taking these actions, not a prerequisite to taking them. Confidence is the brain’s anticipation of success based on experience. The brain reviews prior outcomes and predicts whether we are likely to succeed. If it decides we are likely to succeed, we feel confident. If it doesn’t have enough data to predict success with confidence, we feel fear. It is the brain’s way of warning you of risk. The trap of waiting to feel ready Waiting to “feel confident” before starting becomes a trap. It stops you from taking action and allows you to confuse avoidance with preparation. Fear does not mean you are not ready. You can be prepared without feeling ready. You can be ready and still feel afraid. Feeling ready rarely precedes action, that feeling of readiness emerges through action. When we wait for confidence to come first, we reinforce hesitation rather than progress. Removing the expectation of feeling ready eliminates an unnecessary barrier. There are also situations we never fully feel ready for, no matter how many times we experience them. Some situations reliably activate the threat response even after repeated exposure. Think of activities such as public speaking and performance that trigger our fear of social evaluation. Even seasoned professionals experience stage fright. This is not a weakness. It is a biological reality. Why new situations trigger fear instead of confidence Why is it that new situations can trigger such fear even when they seem innocuous or straightforward on the surface? Why can we come off a success in one area but immediately feel a lack of confidence when we start something new? When we do something new, our brain has no data to work with. Because one of its most primal jobs is to keep us alive, the brain defaults to caution. Novelty is often treated as a potential threat until proven safe. The novelty is why starting something new can feel so scary. Even when the new thing is something good and rewarding, it can still bring substantial fear. Risk and reward are inextricably linked The actions that move us forward and bring us reward generally involve risk. Sometimes that risk is tangible. Leaving your position to start your own business involves financial risk. Sometimes it isn’t so tangible. Building your personal brand requires exposure that leaves us feeling vulnerable to judgment or ridicule. Your brain is wired to perceive risk as a threat and respond with fear. Courage lets you use that fear as valuable data for decision-making rather than letting it be the final decision-maker. All that said, I am talking about the fear that arises when we are doing something new or challenging, but also necessary to our goals. I am not talking about a gut feeling of dread when you are about to walk down a dark alley. While our nervous systems are not designed to handle hours of doomscrolling, they are highly equipped to handle situational threats. If your gut says take a different street, or avoid that person, or be extra cautious in an unfamiliar environment, listen. Remember that courage aligns our actions with our values. Unless one of your values is putting yourself at unnecessary risk, remember to use your judgment about when to use courage to push through and when to listen to what your fear is telling you. While risk is part of life and progress, there is no need to add risk without reason. Fear is not a personal failing – It is a neurobiological state Our bodies have predictable physical responses such as tension, increased heart rate, and narrowed attention when our threat detection system is triggered by conflict, new opportunities, or unfamiliar situations. Sometimes, no amount of positive self-talk returns the nervous system to baseline. This is not a weakness or a character flaw. This is your brain doing its job, protecting you, avoiding threat, seeking familiarity. It is also not (usually) a sign to stop. You can handle fear and uncertainty. You are built for it. Courage is always available – Confidence isn’t One reason I focus almost exclusively on courage rather than confidence is that courage is always available. Courage breeds action, which is essential for your growth. Confidence depends on internal and external conditions, memory, physiological state, and prediction. Some days your nervous system simply cannot generate confidence. But courage remains an option regardless of your emotional state. Another advantage of courage is that it enables us to take the actions that build confidence. Courage enables us to take action, gain exposure, and build experience, which is precisely how the brain learns to predict success, build familiarity, and generate confidence. Courage into action into capability into confidence. Waiting for confidence can lead to stagnation, avoidance, and procrastination. Take action first. Confidence comes later. Courage moves us forward when confidence can’t When you choose to have that necessary but uncomfortable conversation or begin the exciting but intimidating project, you are using courage to move toward what matters. Courage can look many different ways, and much of the time you can’t see it at all. For some, leaving the house is a profound act of courage. For others, it doesn’t even register. Some people can lead a meeting with no hesitation or fear, but asking someone for help leaves them with sweaty palms. At work, we require courage to speak up in meetings, request resources, or pursue a promotion. In our personal lives, courage might mean setting a boundary, scheduling a doctor’s appointment, or trying something new. Whether you are leading a team or leading your own life, courage is the mechanism that moves you forward when confidence is unavailable. Courage allows you to take control and act despite fear, which is vital to progress in all areas of your life. How courage builds true, lasting confidence And that brings us to practical application. How do you take courageous action when your brain is sounding the alarm? Below is a simple, science-informed framework to help you move from fear into meaningful action. The BRAVE method™ B: Breathe & break the cycle The first step is to interrupt the body’s automatic fear response and stop spiraling. Slowing our breathing engages the prefrontal cortex and re-engages the part of our brain that enables us to make decisions based on logic rather than fear. Another fast and effective technique is to soften your gaze or widen your field of vision. Under stress, our visual field narrows, expanding it engages the parasympathetic system and helps reduce threat activation. The two combined are a powerful way of signaling your brain to shift resources from responding to a threat to solving a problem. R: Reality check Ground yourself in what is actually happening. Modern threats are rarely physical danger. More often, ambiguity, interpretation, or uncertainty triggers our threat detection system. Give the situation the urgency it actually merits, not the urgency assigned by fear. You can’t take five minutes to calm your nervous system when the building is on fire. You usually benefit from giving yourself time to settle down before you send that angry email or respond to that negative comment on social media. Dealing with disrespect from a coworker can wait until you have had a chance to think about how you want to respond. The closer to the problem, the better, but it doesn’t have to be immediate. A: Align with your values & direction Reconnect to what matters most to you. Make sure your choices align with your values and goals. Courage becomes more accessible and sustainable when anchored in integrity and in your purpose. V: Venture forward Move forward, whether it is a bold leap or a single tiny step. What matters is movement in the direction you want to go. E: Evaluate, celebrate, and iterate Once you have taken action, notice the outcome, what you learned, and what data you generated. This step is essential, especially when your motivation system is strained by stress or low emotional bandwidth. Sometimes you will take action and get immediate validation that the choice you made moved you in the direction you want to go. Sometimes you will have to wait for that validation. And sometimes you will get it wrong. You will make mistakes and missteps, that is part of being human. You still get credit for moving forward despite fear. Celebrate the act of courage itself, even if the outcome isn’t what you hoped. Win or learn. Continue or adjust your next steps based on the information you just gathered. In summary Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the willingness to act in the service of what matters most, even when afraid. If you want to build something meaningful, a life, a team, a company, courage is not optional. It is a foundational capability. Confidence is great, but it is a result of action, not a requirement for action. Courage is the gateway skill that enables progress. Once you start taking action, confidence follows.   Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Clio Bushland Courageous Living and Leadership Specialist Clio Bushland is a specialist in Courageous Living and Leadership who helps people move through fear with clarity and intention. Her background spans Marriage and Family Therapy, neuroscience, nonprofit leadership, and more than two decades of hands-on business management. She teaches people to transform fear from a barrier into useful data and energy, making it possible to align their actions with their goals in both work and life. Clio is known for blending research with real-world practicality, supporting leaders and individuals in building the resilience and skills needed to navigate today’s complex and rapidly changing world.

Written by Isabelle Veser, Music Producer I'm Isabelle Veser, a French-German-Greek EDM producer, singer, and songwriter based in Cologne. I've collaborated with international artists like Luca Testa, Van Snyder, Millean, and Burak Yeter. After performing at Canadian Music Week and Rotterdam School Festival, I'm excited to bring my music to the U.S. this year. Isabelle Veser has always approached songwriting as a form of emotional documentation, a way of capturing moments, feelings, and inner conflicts before they fade. She often describes her creative process as instinctive, melodies usually come first, soft and unplanned, followed by lyrics that spill out like thoughts she hasn’t yet spoken aloud. Whether she’s on the road, backstage, or alone in a quiet room, Isabelle writes by tuning into her own honesty, letting vulnerability guide her pen. Her new release, “No Friends,” is a perfect example of this raw and intuitive way of creating music. A Song Born in a Paris Hotel Room at 2 A.M. Veser has shared that “No Friends” was written during a sleepless night in a modest hotel room in Paris. After a long day of travel and rehearsals, she found herself unable to rest, overwhelmed by a nagging feeling of isolation. The city outside was alive with late-night energy, but her room felt strangely still. Sitting on the edge of the bed, illuminated only by the neon glow seeping through the curtains, she opened her notebook and began writing, not about a person this time, but about the universal experience of feeling alone even when surrounded by people. Why she wrote the song During that period, Isabelle was navigating the fast-paced music world, constantly moving from city to city. She often found herself surrounded by crowds yet disconnected. “No Friends” became her way of acknowledging that loneliness, transforming it into something honest rather than shameful. The song’s message is simple but powerful, solitude doesn’t mean weakness, sometimes it’s the starting point for self-understanding. How it was written Most of the lyrics were shaped in that single Parisian night. With only her travel guitar and her phone’s voice recorder, she captured the melody exactly as it emerged, soft, vulnerable, almost confessional. In the weeks that followed, she refined the structure with her producer, but the emotional rawness stayed untouched. Some of the vocal textures from that first voice memo even made it into the final version, giving the radio release a genuine, unfiltered quality. From midnight thoughts to radio airplay It’s rare for a song created in such isolation to resonate so strongly with listeners, yet “No Friends” has done just that. Perhaps because it speaks to something deeply human, the fear of being alone and the quiet strength found in embracing it. Isabelle Veser’s late-night confession from a Paris hotel room has become a track that feels both intimate and universal. And as radio audiences continue to connect with it, it’s clear that “No Friends” is far more than a moment of loneliness, it’s a moment of truth. Follow me on Instagram ,  and visit my website  for more info! Read more from Isabelle Veser Isabelle Veser, Music Producer Isabelle Veser has been passionate about making music since childhood. Determined to prove that women can succeed in the male-dominated EDM scene, she began producing, composing, and singing her own tracks in 2022. Her style blends Mainstage, Big Room, and Techno, though she enjoys working across all genres. With discipline and perseverance, she has built a growing career in music. She now helps other artists develop their own sound and navigate the industry.

Written by Jen Legaspi, Master Life Coach Jen Legaspi is a trauma-informed Master Coach and author of Brave Wise Woman. She works with women who overthink, self-abandon, and learned early to perform, please, or perfect in order to feel safe. Her work centers on rebuilding self-trust through nervous-system-aware, non-performative inner work — a quiet rebellion against the pressure to be perfect. Everywhere I look, people are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) for coaching and guidance when they’re doubting themselves. Did I say the right thing? Are my feelings valid? Am I overreacting? It’s convenient, nonjudgmental, and always available. For perfectionists, people-pleasers, and anyone prone to second-guessing, AI coaching can feel like a lifeline. But here’s the catch, the real question behind those queries: Can I trust myself here? – isn’t one AI can answer . And the more you outsource that question, the less you learn how to answer it for yourself. AI can reassure and validate you forever, but it will never teach you how to trust yourself. Why care about self-trust when AI can validate When AI can give you instant answers that feel good, it’s fair to wonder, why bother learning to trust yourself? The core reason is that self-trust eases the hidden stress and frustration that come from relying on others, or AI, to tell you what to feel, want, or do. Without self-trust, you become dependent, consciously or not, on others to define what you want, how you feel, what you need, and even how far you can go in life. Psychologists call this an external locus of control, when your sense of worth and direction comes from outside of you instead of within. In other words, who you are gets shaped by what’s outside of you. That dependency comes at a cost. Emotionally, it leaves you stressed, drained, anxious, disappointed, resentful, and even angry, whether you realize it or not. It also robs you of authenticity, because your choices reflect what others expect instead of what you truly want. On a human level, this is a pain many of us carry, the struggle to live in alignment with who we really are. Trusting yourself builds the resilience to navigate life when there’s no clear answer or outside guidance. Your inner compass guides you through uncertainty and helps you make decisions without instant reassurance, something technology can’t give. Not all of us are ready to grow or focus on self-trust, but deep down, most of us long to feel steady, capable, and aligned with who we truly are. The appeal of AI as a “coach” AI feels irresistible for many reasons. In an attention economy, it’s always ready, willing, and able. Coming home from a confusing date? Ask AI. Ruminating over a mistake at work? Ask AI. In a worst-case scenario spiral? Ask AI. The technology is fast, convenient, and, unlike humans, never judges or rejects you. Instead, it validates. For perfectionists and people-pleasers afraid of failing in front of others, AI offers relief from the vulnerability of shame in being wrong. From that perspective, it can feel emotionally safe. And every time AI validates you or offers a cool, insightful answer, your brain gets a little hit of dopamine, a reward that keeps you coming back for more, even if nothing is actually changing beneath the surface. Each dopamine hit bypasses the real work, learning to listen to yourself, trust your instincts, and navigate uncertainty. One social media user summed up the appeal, “It’s cheaper than a therapist.” Another said, “A machine gets me while humans don’t.” These comments capture why AI can feel like an easy solution, until you realize what it can’t give you: trust in your own guidance. Advice that sounds wise but isn’t AI can generate advice that sounds reasonable on the surface but often misses the deeper truth. One social media user posted that they asked AI, “How do you get your head and your heart to feel the same way?” The bot replied, “Do what your head says, and your heart will follow.” At first glance, it reads as calm and Yoda-like, but it lacks the nuance needed for someone struggling with inner conflict. That conflict often shows up when different parts of you want different things, your head says one thing, your heart another. In those moments, we often default to the head to figure it out for a sense of control or safety. Perfectionists and overthinkers, especially unconsciously, rely on analysis and reasoning to manage anxiety. But this kind of advice only reinforces the disconnect from the body, the place where stress, unprocessed emotions, and your true knowing live. For perfectionists and overthinkers, skipping over the body can feel like the safest move, but it often fuels the cycle of second-guessing and anxiety they long to break free from. Turning to technology in those moments only reinforces the same loop. Unseen patterns influencing your life Some believe they’d know if AI gave them bad advice. One person wrote on social media, “I think I’m very self-aware and would be able to tell if the advice I received from AI was off.” But if self-awareness were enough, none of us would keep repeating the same patterns in relationships, careers, or habits. Think of an iceberg. The tip above the water is what we notice, but most of the mass is hidden below. Around 95% of our behavior is driven by unconscious patterns, limiting beliefs, suppressed emotions, implicit memories, and body responses outside awareness. This means that no matter how much self-awareness or emotional intelligence you’ve developed, there will always be hidden layers quietly shaping your decisions and outcomes in life. That’s why deeper work, especially in a skilled human coach relationship, is often needed to uncover and shift them. Healing is human While personal insight and reflection matter, healing is accelerated when another person holds space for your emotions, witnesses them with love instead of judgment, reflects new possibilities, and notices resistance so you can move beyond it. For many of us, especially people pleasers, resistance often shows up in what you’re avoiding, your needs or hard truths, which is something AI won’t catch. AI also can’t hold you accountable. And accountability matters. Keeping your word to yourself proves you can rely on your own choices and decisions. That reliability is a key part of building self-trust. Without that practice, AI robs you of the chance to exercise integrity, strengthen that trust, and create meaningful change. Having a human coach vs. AI When we don’t trust ourselves, we’re cut off from our body, the very place trauma and unprocessed emotions live. A skilled coach pays attention to subtleties in tone, breath, posture, and expression that point the way back to your deeper truth. Coaching isn’t about handing you answers, it’s about helping you discover and trust your own. AI, by contrast, mainly reflects what you already think and feel (the tip of the iceberg you’ve put into words) which can create an echo chamber of validation while leaving the deeper layers unexamined. Instant reassurance from AI can bring temporary relief, but it doesn’t always support the kind of personal growth that shifts unhelpful patterns. Building self-trust is about safely noticing, feeling, and responding to your own thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, even when it’s uncomfortable. Human connection provides the accountability, witnessing, and nervous system co-regulation that allow you to explore these deeper layers and strengthen your inner guidance. How to teach yourself to trust yourself If you’re ready to reconnect with your inner compass, try these practices: Notice the impulse, and move. When you feel the urge to reach for AI, it’s often less about needing an answer and more about wanting to offload the discomfort of uncertainty. That urge is your body’s way of signaling that energy wants to move. Instead of outsourcing it, try heel drops (lifting and dropping your heels repeatedly), running in place, or shaking out your limbs. Pause afterward and notice, has the impulse shifted? What about your thoughts? This simple practice helps release tension and reconnects you with your own guidance. Spot your glimmers, and savor them. Glimmers are small moments of calm, joy, or connection. Journaling, laughter, walks in nature, or time with supportive people are examples. These experiences give your nervous system a mini-break from stress, strengthen grounding, and reinforce your capacity to feel safe and resilient. Keep promises to yourself. Follow through on small commitments, showing up for a yoga class, starting a task you’ve been avoiding, or checking in with your feelings. Every time you honor your word, you reinforce that your choices matter, building self-trust and a foundation for bigger, meaningful changes. The takeaway The impulse to reach for AI when you’re second-guessing yourself is one I’ve felt too. It feels safe, validating, and immediate, giving a quick hit of reassurance. But shifting patterns doesn’t come from instant answers on a screen. It comes from being seen and supported as a whole person with someone who can uncover the hidden layers shaping your choices, help you face resistance without judgment, and practice accountability in a way that strengthens self-trust. Each time you pause, feel, and respond from your own inner guidance, you reclaim your voice, your clarity, and your confidence. That’s the kind of personal growth no algorithm can deliver. Ready to learn how to trust yourself again? A human coaching relationship can make all the difference. Visit here to take the first step, a complimentary call with me. Follow me on   Instagram ,   Facebook ,  and LinkedIn  for more insightful tips and empowering guidance. Read more from Jen Legaspi Jen Legaspi, Master Life Coach Jen Legaspi is a trauma-informed Master Coach and author of Brave Wise Woman. She works with women who overthink, self-abandon, and learned early to perform, please, or perfect in order to feel safe. Her work centers on rebuilding self-trust through nervous-system-aware, non-performative inner work — a quiet rebellion against the pressure to be perfect.

Written by Kate Castro, Singer/Songwriter/Keynote Speaker Kate Castro is known for her resilient mindset and founder of SenseK8 LLC. She is a singer, songwriter, and keynote speaker who teaches people the importance of embracing uncertainty during adversity to lead a happier life. You can see Kate in the TV show “Women In Power” coming soon in 2026. From a very early age, I felt compelled to cultivate a strong mindset in certain areas of life because of my environment. Although I lived in a loving household, there was a scarcity of material and financial resources. I grew up in a house where abundance was not the mindset. My parents were always worried about how much things would cost. How much were the groceries going to cost that week? Did we have enough for new clothes? Ensuring we kept the furnace no higher than 68 degrees because oil wasn’t cheap was a must. When we are born into an environment of scarcity, the mindset of lack lingers for a long time unless we know how to change it. Most of us have been told to pursue our dreams, no matter what they are. At a certain age, a parent, an aunt, a friendly caretaker, or a teacher told us to chase our dreams. Figure out what you want to do in life and pursue it. Not everyone has been fortunate enough to have people who encourage them to live out their dreams, as many folks don’t get the chance to be dream chasers because of family responsibilities, bills, obligations, and/or emotional trauma that hold them back. The external chase It was visceral for me, the inner knowing that I wanted success. Financial success, because I knew what it was like to live without it. I had to work hard for many things I had since the age of 12, when I started babysitting, and 14, when I had a paper route to earn money. If I wanted something, I needed to earn money to get it because money didn’t grow on trees. My mom and dad were hard workers, but that didn't mean they made a good living when I was little. This hard work and eagerness to earn more money instilled in me a clear ambition, for sure. Making money meant I was more valuable-or so I thought. Even as a little girl, I knew there was a difference between the rich and the poor, or at least the perception behind the socioeconomic status. I had the notion that I wasn’t as good as the girl from a wealthy background who lived on the south hill. Even though I was unaware that I was equating my worth with my family's finances at a young age, I was caught in cycles that are clear to me now, which created a lot of resistance in my adulthood. I was seeking to be of greater value in the face of external forces. Because of that, my attachment to my desired outcome pushed those things away or made them more challenging to attain. Whether it was to procure a higher status at work, not only for money but also for my ego, the constant effort to be thinner, and the lifestyle I desired in a certain amount of time, I was giving off a frequency of desperation to the energy world. Society often conditions us to believe that worth must be earned or proven. We strive for excellence in every aspect of career, family, and personal development, yet measure our value by external markers such as titles, achievements, finances, and social approval. This relentless pursuit of validation rarely satisfies, no matter how much we accomplish, it often feels insufficient.   The mindshift As a longtime student of quantum physics, I now understand that everything really is energy. Believing and living as an energetic being who vibrates at a high frequency, I have been able to alchemize several circumstances from pain into purposeful learning. Everything is interconnected. In his book PEMF: The 5 th  Element of Health, physicist Bryan Meyers explains how food, water, sunlight, oxygen, and Earth’s magnetic field are vital to life. The frequencies of the Earth’s magnetic field are necessary for the human body’s energy production. It makes sense, then, that we are energetic beings and that the power of our minds is beyond what we have ever known. I expanded my consciousness by weaving together scientific and spiritual concepts. During my cancer journey, I meditated daily and sent energetic love to the trees, animals, and people I love because I believed it would make me feel better. In doing so, it made me feel healthy and cared for. I applied this concept to money in my spiritual practice as well. Money is a tool, and when we think of it as abundant rather than scarce, more shows up to help us live with additional options and navigate our lives freely. Even when material things haven’t shown up yet, I hold the vision in my mind that it’s already taken care of and on the way. I’ve dedicated a lot of my life in the past fifteen years to becoming more energetically aware of everything. Dr. Wayne Dyer was the catalyst of this awareness in my twenties. I realized that what I believe to be true will be my truth. I was all action for years-I had to do, rather than being conscious of my limiting beliefs of things not unfolding unless I made them. Now I think there is no limit to the abundance available to me. I changed my mind and now vibrate on the level of what I want to attract. When we think we are abundant, we attract more of what we desire. The missing piece The ambition to follow your passions carries significant weight in life, while the fortitude to plow through obstacles builds resilience that endures, though wholeness, after all, stems from within. I have faced plenty of adversity in my lifetime, and I’m grateful for it now, because I know those hard times brought me to a clearer place. The ability to reflect on and learn from the most challenging situations brings so much clarity that we can move forward confidently in all aspects of life. This clarity made me realize it all boils down to "worthiness." I was seeking to feel worthy. Until I felt the worthiness inside, the hard work and hustle were the only way to get things done, often with accolades to follow, but sometimes at the expense of stress, burnout, and little playtime. One can go on like this for years without realizing there is another way, a more fulfilling, less stressful way to live. I chased opportunities and people because I wanted to reach my next goal or attain something I thought would make me happy and more valuable. Pursuing goals is essential to a successful life, but not when you don’t leave room for patience. I chased certain people because I so badly wanted things to happen on my timeline. I was afraid opportunities wouldn't present themselves unless I made them happen. Time and time again, in the face of unwanted outcomes, I realized my past ways were not the best course of action. It’s like chasing a butterfly, the more you go after it, the further it flies away. After much self-reflection and inner work, I know it was a scarcity mindset. “If I don’t get this person to see me, I’ll miss out. I need so-and-so to see my talent. Jane Doe must hear the lyrics in my songs,” and on and on. Sometimes, though rarely, those relationships did develop and produced beautiful projects. Alignment Once I realized the extent to which I had been operating in lack, my life changed. When we release the need for others to like us, know we’re awesome, like our work, and so forth, there is a tremendous amount of energy to create from! I no longer chase. I radiate and align with opportunities that fit my passions. Everything is now drawn to me because I changed how I feel and how I identify with it all. This transformation occurred because I embodied the feeling of being worthy of the things I desire. The elevated version of myself changed my life. I created a frequency that turned the old lack mentality into abundance. Choosing to encompass the new version of me became the new reality.  Awareness The outside validation I once longed for dissipated. I did the inner work, and I finally realized that I was doing certain things for approval. My decisions are no longer driven by fear or urgency. I make decisions easier, and I do less because I know that opportunities will meet me if they are meant to. No hustling. I plant seeds of my desires in the ether, then I relax and play while I wait. There is wisdom in the wait. Observe. Trust. I take inspired action when I feel it. There are times when the old version of me arises, where I want to act out of impulse, but then I pause. I become aware of the old chase mentality and realign my thoughts with the expanded me. The photo connected to this article is from a recent trip I took with my family to London. In it, I am enjoying the scenery, unaware that my stepdaughter was taking my picture, simply allowing the environment to be. There are some people that I still want to work with whom I chased in the past. Maybe those collaborations will come to fruition one day, but it won’t be from the old, rushed energy I once had. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn ,  and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kate Castro Kate Castro, Singer/Songwriter/Keynote Speaker Kate Castro is a singer, songwriter, and keynote speaker. A cancer diagnosis provoked a personal and spiritual awakening. Healing and transformation lead her to guide others to find what lights them up in life. Founder of SenseK8 LLC, living in possibility and embracing uncertainty is what Kate encourages others to experience. All challenges have the ability to be opportunities. You can see Kate in the TV show “Women In Power” coming soon in 2026.

Written by Jamee Culbertson, Senior Instructor, Teacher Trainer Jamee Culbertson integrates Taoist practices, the Alexander Technique, and spiritual healing for transformative experiences. She is a Senior Healing Tao Instructor teaching Tai Chi, Qigong, and Taoist meditations at the Universal Tao Boston School of Taoist Practices. Jamee is a teacher trainer certifying teachers in both disciplines. What if clarity isn’t something you’re missing, but something you’ve been avoiding? This article invites you into an embodied exploration of conscious decision-making, showing how nervous system regulation, energetic anatomy, and inner power can guide choices that feel aligned, confident, and deeply your own. Our new class, ‘Three Dantian Qigong and Decision Making’ is an Embodied Energetic Journey Into Clear, Confident Decision-Making powered by Nervous System Regulation. Resistance to clarity Many people don’t bring consciousness to the decisions they make because, oddly enough, they don’t actually want clarity. " Clarity isn’t something we lack, it’s something we unwittingly avoid. ” Strange to say, but many people do not want to embrace their power, especially if they’re comfortable in their victimhood. That was certainly the case for me for a time. It took the tough love of a Lakota medicine woman, one of my earliest teachers, to help me find my own source of power and learn to trust it. There is something profoundly important about being guided by someone who has done the work and is walking with their power. They don’t tell you what to do, they show you what’s possible. Learning automatically Neuroscience offers a powerful insight here. Brain cells called mirror neurons are activated both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing that same action. These neurons light up sensory, empathetic, and social connections within the brain. In other words, consciousness is contagious. We learn not only through instruction, but through presence. Much of today’s holistic messaging tells us we must “raise our vibration” in order to manifest what we want, but rarely does it explain how. That’s where these teachings come in. Accessing your energetic blueprint In this course, we show you how to access your energetic blueprint, your actual energetic architecture. This is not metaphorical, it is experiential. When you learn to make decisions by tapping into your energetic design, those decisions are undeniably on track for you. You cannot be led astray by your own blueprint. “When decisions come from your energetic design, doubt falls away and direction becomes unmistakable.” If someone is holding back from engaging with and building their power, it may simply mean they aren’t ready, and there is no judgment in that. Distinguishing timing from self-limitation However, there is an important distinction between honoring right timing and telling ourselves a story that we don’t have what it takes to move forward. These stories can take many forms—just about any reason that allows us not to act. This is why money is so often used as the reason not to go for what we truly want. Money becomes the “cause” for not moving forward with something that feels empowering or even life-changing. Yet money is never the cause, not when we understand that the universe has our back. Reframing money as energy There is no shortage of energy in the universe. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed. This isn’t woo-woo, it’s physics. And money, at its core, is a form of energy. “This isn’t woo-woo, it’s physics, consciousness, and choice working together.” So when we say we want something, yet claim we can’t afford it, what limits are we placing on ourselves and on the universe? We are effectively saying yes but no. Saying, “Yes, I want this, but now is not the right time” is very different from saying, “I don’t have the resources.” Proper action requires proper timing. If something truly lights you up and you say yes to it, resources have a way of becoming available even if you don’t yet know how. Expanding awareness of our multidimensional nature As we come to understand our own energetic anatomy, we begin to recognize our inter-dimensional self. This may sound far-reaching, yet multidimensionality exists within the physical body itself. By expanding our awareness, we gain access to more of our design. This process is deeply healing, profoundly transformative, and undeniably empowering. Reclaiming decision-making power as women And it is especially empowering for women. “When women reclaim their power to decide, generational patterns begin to change.” Why women? Look at our ancestry. My grandmother could not vote, I can. My mother did not have a voice, I do. When women become the decision-makers in their own lives, real change begins. And that is where transformation truly takes root. Follow me on  Facebook ,  Instagram ,  and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jamee Culbertson Jamee Culbertson, Senior Instructor, Teacher Trainer Jamee is a Senior Instructor at the Universal Tao Boston School, teaching Tai Chi, Qigong, and Taoist meditation. With nearly 40 years of experience, she integrates Taoist practices, the Alexander Technique, and spiritual healing. She is an internationally certified Alexander Technique Instructor and teacher-trainer at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Jamee has taught at Harvard University, Mass General’s Home Base program for veterans, and community wellness events like Rosie’s Place. Her work blends ancient wisdom and modern techniques to support healing, balance, and self-awareness.

Mann Patel | Mxnn is the Founder and CEO of MxnnCreates, a high-end digital studio behind immersive, interactive brand experiences. He is also the founder of Sylzo, creator of ACI (Artificial Creativity Intelligence), and serves as CTO at Orphiqe. His work sits at the intersection of creativity, AI, and modern business, focused on building systems that make originality measurable and scalable. In his writing, he covers creative intelligence, digital innovation, and the shifting economics of attention. Mann Patel (Mxnn), Serial Entrepreneur Who is Mann Patel? Mann Patel | Mxnn is a founder and creative executive known for turning creativity into repeatable systems. He is the CEO and founder of MxnnCreates, the CEO and founder of Sylzo, and the creator of MxnnDirective, a startup incubator scheduled to release in 2026. His work focuses on creative direction and building internal “thinking frameworks” that help teams stop overthinking and start thinking differently. Mann has been recognized as the #1 Youngest CEO worldwide by ICON, his company has been featured on Gary Vaynerchuk’s YouTube channel, and was ranked among the Top 50 profiles on Crunchbase. What inspired you to start MxnnCreates and shift the way digital experiences are built? MxnnCreates started in 2022 when I was still a teenager in school, building Shopify sites for clothing brands that did not look like anything else on the market. I was mixing 3D and interactive elements into work that most people still treated like a static brochure. What pushed me to start it was simple. I kept seeing people charge six figures for websites that barely ran on mobile, looked generic, and felt like they were built on autopilot. It made no sense to me that “expensive” had become a synonym for “lazy.” So I set a different standard. I wanted websites to be treated like canvases, not templates. The goal was to raise the creative ceiling and make digital experiences feel intentional, immersive, and worth someone’s attention. The moment I knew it was working was in school at lunch, sitting alone, looking at my phone, and seeing business owners trying to schedule meetings with me. I had never even been on a sales call in my life, but I was already closing people running companies three times older than me. How would you describe your philosophy of True Creativity™ to someone new to your work? True Creativity™ exists because “creativity” got turned into a marketing synonym people throw on anything. To me, True Creativity™ is a stricter standard. It is a stamp of real, human-made originality, like the Geneva seal in watches. It is not about looking cool. It is about effort, intention, and ideas that could not have come from a template. True Creativity™ is not WordPress templates, not a buzzword, and not AI-generated slop. AI can help speed up parts of work, but True Creativity™ requires a human to make the decisions, take the risks, and put the taste on the line. My simplest test is this: if the idea feels unexpected, but instantly obvious in hindsight, and you can tell a real human had to fight for it, it passes. If it feels like it could have been auto-generated or copy pasted from what already exists, it fails. You can see True Creativity™ in moments like the first iPhone or landing a man on the moon. Not because they were “innovative” as a word, but because humans pushed past what was normal and made something that redefined the standard. What problem are you most passionate about solving for businesses with your services? I care most about helping serial entrepreneurs and young founders who move fast and build constantly. A lot of them get trapped early, not by competition, but by bad infrastructure. They sign contracts with mediocre developers who charge monthly forever and effectively hold a weak site hostage. It kills momentum, credibility, and speed. What we do is remove that bottleneck. After we step in, the brand instantly looks established. The business feels trustworthy, the founder stops bleeding time, and their online presence finally matches the ambition of what they are building. Long term, the goal is money. More sales, higher deal size, higher conversion, more leverage. The difference is we get there through credibility and execution, and we do it far faster than most teams. I also protect the standard. Clients can have opinions, but if an idea is garbage, we deny it. People come to Mxnn for creative direction, not permission to dilute the work. In simple terms, how can an immersive, custom web experience transform a brand’s online presence? In the first five seconds, the feeling should be shock and interest. Not confusion. Not “nice.” Shock in a good way, like someone just walked into something different than every other site they have seen that week. I have seen this play out in real rooms. I was on a call with one of the biggest accounting firms in Dubai and within the first minute the person leading the call told me their entire boardroom was addicted to the hero effects on our site. They kept interacting with it like a game, kept learning, and ended up spending over 20 minutes on a section most people scroll past in two seconds. By the end, around 20 people were speechless. That reaction creates a business outcome most companies are starving for. Memorability. The brand gets implanted. When someone hears “website,” they think Mxnn. And we replicate that same effect for our clients. When someone thinks “dog training,” the mind should snap back to the feeling of that one dog training site they interacted with and cannot forget. Generic sites are template-driven. They are built to be acceptable. Immersive custom experiences are built to be remembered. What makes your approach to AI (like ACI at Sylzo) different from traditional AI tools? Traditional AI is built to produce “good enough” output quickly. It’s automation-first. It helps people move faster, but it also makes everything start to sound the same. ACI is different because it is creativity-first. It is designed to help humans find sharper angles, original ideas, and choices that actually have taste behind them. It is deliberately narrow on purpose: it protects standards instead of trying to do everything. If ACI generates something generic, that’s not a win. That’s a failure. The goal is the opposite of mass output. The goal is one idea that makes someone stop, smirk, and remember. Who are your ideal clients, and how do you tailor your work to their goals? My ideal clients are founders and operators who need credibility fast and understand that perception is a growth lever. That includes serial entrepreneurs, high-visibility creators turning attention into real businesses, and teams who treat their website like a core asset, not a box to check. I tailor every build around the real goal, not the surface request. Most people ask for a “website,” but what they actually need is trust, clarity, and a reason to be remembered. The process is simple: Positioning and intent: what the business must be known for, and what the visitor must feel immediately Creative direction: translating that into a signature experience that cannot be confused with a template Execution and refinement: building fast, tightening the flow, and polishing until it feels inevitable The best clients want direction and let us lead. A red flag is someone who wants premium results while controlling every creative decision, or someone shopping for the cheapest option. Can you share an example of a challenge you solved that had a big impact on a client’s growth? One of the most common problems I fix is when a founder is trapped. They’re paying monthly for a site that looks generic, runs badly on mobile, and can’t be changed without begging a developer. That isn’t a website. That’s a bottleneck. In one case, we rebuilt the entire experience around credibility and clarity. We tightened the positioning, redesigned the flow so people immediately understood what the company does, and made the experience memorable instead of forgettable. Most importantly, we gave the founder control again with a system that could scale. The outcome wasn’t cosmetic. It changed perception. Conversations closed faster, inquiries improved, and the founder showed up with more confidence because the brand finally matched the level they were operating at. The lesson is simple: if your digital presence is average, you pay for it every day in trust, speed, and missed opportunities. What do you want people to understand about creativity and technology working together? Creativity without technology stays stuck in someone’s head. Technology without creativity is just a faster way to produce the same boring result. Most people think creative tech is decoration. They assume it’s just motion or effects. The real value is psychological: it builds trust faster, makes a brand memorable, and raises perceived value because the experience feels intentional. People don’t remember what they saw. They remember what they felt. When creativity and technology work together correctly, the market can tell instantly. Quote to steal: Creativity is the idea. Technology is the delivery. When both are sharp, the market feels it instantly. How do you help startups and creators overcome limitations when building bold digital experiences? Most founders aren’t limited by ambition. They’re limited by time and execution. Either they’re moving too fast to manage vendors properly, or they’re stuck with people who build slow, build generic, and then charge forever. The first step is removing confusion. We get brutally clear on the goal and what the visitor must feel immediately. Once direction is sharp, everything becomes faster and cleaner. We cut what wastes momentum: endless meetings, bloated scopes, template thinking, and “nice-to-have” features that don’t change perception or conversion. What stays non-negotiable is the standard. Even with limited resources, the work has to create credibility immediately. That’s what opens doors. What advice would you give to someone who thinks custom digital design and AI are out of reach? That belief usually comes from two fears: “it’s too expensive,” or “I’ll get trapped with the wrong vendor.” Both are valid. But staying stuck is more expensive than most people realize. You don’t need the biggest build on day one. You need the right first move. Start with one high-impact upgrade that improves credibility immediately: tighten positioning, rebuild one key page, or fix the conversion path. Small upgrades done correctly compound. The biggest mistake is trying to do it cheap in the wrong way. Cheap usually means templates, rushed thinking, and unclear ownership. That’s how businesses end up paying monthly forever for something they can’t control. Custom work isn’t about spending more. It’s about spending correctly so you stop leaking trust, time, and opportunities every day your presence looks average. What’s the next evolution you see for creative-tech, and how is Mxnn preparing to lead it? Two things are happening at once: attention is getting harder to earn, and AI is making average output cheaper than ever. That combination is going to wipe out anything generic. When everyone can generate “good enough,” the only thing that stands out is what feels intentional, human, and impossible to confuse with a template. The next wave of digital experiences will feel less like pages and more like products. More interactive, more responsive, and built around how people actually explore and decide. The best experiences won’t just display information, they’ll create a feeling strong enough that the brand gets remembered. Most teams will use AI to speed up mediocrity. They’ll automate the parts that should stay human, and polish something that still has no taste behind it. Mxnn is preparing by building systems that protect standards. We engineer creative thinking internally so output stays original. We move fast without sacrificing taste. We don’t chase trends, we keep raising the ceiling. Bold prediction: as AI floods the internet with noise, human-made creativity becomes the real luxury, and the brands that win will be the ones that feel designed by someone who actually cares. Follow me on Instagram for more info! Read more from Mann Patel (Mxnn)

When leaders establish technology on an international basis, there is seldom a straight, easy road. It entails the ability to master complex systems, adopt a long-term perspective, and mobilize global teams towards a common goal. Aleksei Uvarov perceives this. Having worked in the fields of nuclear energy, environmental innovation, and developing a platform on a global scale, he has become a rarity in having the ability to shift gears between engineering detail and strategic leadership, and at the same time not forgetting the overall picture, namely, to create systems that last. Discipline engineering as a strategic competitive edge His professional career began in strict technical conditions: Uvarov graduated from Saint Petersburg State Marine Technical University with a degree in ship power engineering and went on to work in nuclear propulsion systems at the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy.  These initial roots have informed his views on business: not hype-driven, but precision-led. The critical thinking needed to operate nuclear systems turned out to be a commodity for assessing market risks, evaluating technology scalability, and creating long-term-oriented ventures.  This attitude was physically manifested when Trading House UVAROV was established as a distribution company focused on environmental technology, well ahead of market trends at the time. The history of opening a business in a relatively untested field provided a foundation for a trend in Uvarov's career: investing in something ahead of its time. Scaling, purposefully: Gem4me journey As one of the co-founders of Gem4Me and a board member, Uvarov has helped create not just another messaging app, but a digital ecosystem that combines communication with commerce, integrating marketplace features with international messaging.  His portfolio covers investment strategy, product expansion, and market growth, with a firm focus on teamwork and disciplined development. In 2022, Uvarov received the Oscar Prosperity award in Turkey in recognition of innovation and professional growth. He was also a winner of the Business Club KKA-10 (MarketSpace) first-place award and the Investor in People award due to creating a high-performing multinational team.  However, the key to this achievement lies not only in the increase in platform users but also in the ability to develop internal infrastructure that can withstand the load of sudden growth. Passing innovation faster than the market Market timing is one of the most complicated issues behind technology, not technical issues. Uvarov has been working on products and systems that were years ahead of public demand throughout his career. That creates a new type of leadership challenge: training stakeholders, building trust, and developing market structures from scratch.  In the case of technology that has yet to capture the market, as Uvarov describes it, you must first instill faith in what it can be. This especially applies to founders today who are on top of AI, clean tech (or other deep technologies). Innovation cycles do not always work with market readiness, and walking a fine line between the two is an art not many have perfected. Creating teams with global thinkers To Uvarov, global expansion is not only an objective; it is where tech must operate. It could be creating environmentally resilient systems or directing platform development at Gem4me; he has always managed to lead cross-cultural teams with not only shared deliverables but also shared orientations.  This style gained him the accolade of people-oriented leadership and, more to the point, gave him lasting teams that would withstand the challenges of expansion into the new market. He focuses on clarity and consistency rather than charisma. He quotes Henry Ford, who said that success is self-sustaining when everyone is working in the same direction, and this is the rule that guides his work at all levels. Founders scaling across systems and markets: Lessons The lack of volatility is not something that tech founders and strategic investors are currently complaining about. It could be regulatory changes, a fragmented market, or changing user expectations, but there is mounting pressure to strike a balance between innovation and scalable systems.  The trip by Uvarov provides several lessons:  Good technical knowledge leads to better risk assessment and problem planning.  Early investment in internal systems provides strength as the company expands.  The creation of multicultural teams based on a shared vision guarantees the cross-border execution.  Deliberate slowing of growth keeps product quality and investor confidence in balance.  These lessons have a much broader appeal than one platform or product, to people seeking to cross-industry boundaries to lead. Prospectus: The long-term perspective The future view Uvarov presents does not focus on product cycles but on the creation of technology ecosystems that provide people with long-term service. He is dedicated to making science and business interrelated to create platforms that provide genuine utility across regions and generations.  It is a method that does not rely on hype in the short term but aims at systems thinking, building trust, and investing in the patients. The real effects are long-term thinking, building good relationships, and providing solutions that remain helpful in other markets over time. Transforming vision into infrastructure The majority of leaders talk about vision, whereas Uvarov is an engineer who sees it as a structural problem, which has to be supported, not just held in belief. To him, a radical thought can only be justified when it can be translated into daily decisions and into scalable team and system alignment.  This is reflected in his team-building, market-entry, and investor-relationship approaches. Uvarov does not pursue every opportunity and instead chooses to establish internal structures that can guide the timing of expansion, resource allocation, and where to strengthen before scaling further. This has enabled Gem4Me to remain resolute in the high-paced global expansion. Both digital and organizational infrastructure are constructed to be enduring, rather than fast.  That mentality is a product of his engineering account: systems can only be as strong as their structures allow. This underscores an essential shift in perspective for founders moving at the speed of innovation: long-term vision does not imply dreaming big. It is the creation of structures that enable those dreams to be implemented across boundaries, groups, and even timelines. Final thoughts Anyone who is designing the future of technology, not merely the construction of technologies, but also the ecosystem itself, can learn the story of Aleksei Uvarov as a strategic blueprint. His profession illustrates the result of applying engineering accuracy to patient leadership. When you are thinking about cross-border expansion, platform strategy, or a long-term technology project, consider how you might not only build quickly but also sustainably.  The speed of an industry is an aspect Uvarov counters with a model grounded in structure, sustainability, and substance. His journey reminds us that innovation does not last; it takes preparation. And preparedness follows the creation of the right systems, the presence of partners who are on the same page, and having a vision that can withstand the years. About the Author Lena Mikhailova is an author and researcher in global innovation, leadership, and new technology. Having studied engineering and communications, she delves into the role of technical systems in strategic decision-making in industries.

Jonathan Haber never set out to chase trends. He wanted to solve real problems. That mindset has shaped his career and made him a steady presence in Montreal’s growing tech ecosystem. Today, Haber is known as a technology entrepreneur and business strategist who helps early-stage startups turn ideas into tools people actually want to use. His work focuses on clarity, collaboration, and empathy. Not flashy promises. Just thoughtful execution. A curiosity that turned into a career Haber grew up in Montreal with a natural interest in how systems work. He liked figuring out better ways to organise things. That curiosity followed him to McGill University, where he studied Business Administration. After graduating, he launched his first software venture. It was a small company. The goal was simple. Help local businesses improve workflow and client communication. “That first business taught me a lot very quickly,” he says. “I learned that technology alone doesn’t build trust. It’s how it serves people.” The company wasn’t about scale or speed. It was about listening to users and adjusting based on their needs. That lesson stayed with him. Learning the limits of technology alone As Haber worked with more teams, he noticed a pattern. Many startups had strong ideas but struggled with execution. Tools were complex. Communication was unclear. Teams felt disconnected. “I saw founders building impressive tech that people didn’t enjoy using,” he says. “That’s when I realised something was missing.” That missing piece was what Haber later called “soft-tech.” Tools designed to support people, not overwhelm them. Founding Haber Strategies Inc. To address that gap, Haber founded Haber Strategies Inc. The firm focuses on helping early-stage startups through their most uncertain phase. His work centres on market clarity, team alignment, and user-focused product design. He helps founders slow down and ask better questions. “What problem are you really solving?” he often asks. “And for whom?” Through Haber Strategies, he has worked with dozens of startups across sectors like software, AI, and digital platforms. His approach is steady and practical. “I don’t believe in forcing solutions,” he says. “Most of the time, the answers are already there. You just have to listen.” Leading with empathy and structure Haber’s leadership style is shaped by experience. Early in his career, he tried to solve everything himself. That didn’t last long. “I learned the hard way that leadership isn’t about having all the answers,” he says. “It’s about creating space for people to speak.” One example stands out. He worked with a startup whose remote team was losing focus. Morale was low. Productivity was slipping. Instead of rushing to fix the tech, Haber spoke with each team member. The issue wasn’t effort. It was confusion. “We simplified their communication tools and rebuilt workflows around feedback,” he says. “Within weeks, the team felt connected again.” The lesson was clear. Good systems support people. They don’t fight them. Montreal’s role in his journey Haber’s career is closely tied to Montreal. He credits the city’s culture for shaping his approach. “Montreal has this mix of creativity and collaboration that’s hard to replicate,” he says. “People here want to help each other.” He points to the city’s universities and diverse talent pool as key drivers of innovation. He also values informal connections. Coffee meetings. Meet-ups. Shared advice. “When one startup succeeds here, it lifts the whole ecosystem,” he says. Life outside work shapes the work Outside the office, Haber finds balance through hockey, hiking, and food. “Hockey teaches teamwork,” he says. “You learn to trust others and make quick decisions.” Hiking helps him step back and think clearly. Exploring new restaurants feeds his curiosity. “These things remind me that perspective matters,” he says. “You do better work when life isn’t just work.” Looking ahead with purpose Haber remains focused on human-centred technology. He sees a shift happening. More founders are building tools that support connection and clarity. “That excites me,” he says. “Tech should help people feel more capable, not more stressed.” His career reflects that belief. Step by step. Conversation by conversation. “I don’t measure success by how loud something is,” he says. “I measure it by whether it makes life easier for someone.” In a fast-moving industry, John Haber has built his career on something steady. Listening first. Building second. And always keeping people at the centre.

Written by Andrew James Brookman, Writer/Author Andrew Brookman is an Author of many books, many of them in the LGBTQ genre. Andrew has just released his memoir, Colours of a Rare Bird, about his life as a closeted Homosexual, published by Merlinus Publishers. When I came out as gay last year, it was a huge relief. I was able to finally tell everybody my secret, a secret I had been keeping for 33 years of my life. I also wrote a book about my life as a closeted Homosexual and how, at forty-seven years of age, I have never had sex with a man or a woman. I can at last be up front about my sexuality and tell people my story instead of saying "I do not wish to talk about my personal life". I go out to the city once a week, and I will see gay men kissing, and now it does not hurt me as much as it used to because I am out of the closet and I am not hiding away anymore. Recently, I have been watching the massive hit Netflix show "Stranger Things," and it’s a show I love. When Will came out as gay, as you can imagine, I could totally relate because keeping his sexuality a secret was his weakness, and I have written a book about this. I was bullied and I lived in fear of my sexuality, and I constantly put on a front, but it was a huge weakness and just like the character William, I had to tell people in the end because I wanted to be authentic and I wanted to share my creativity with the world and like Will my strength that I knew I had inside me. Recently I wrote an article for a paper called "Reach Out" it’s a free paper and I have been going around my city giving these papers out to LGBTQ establishments and at the same time telling my story about my time in the closet and my book called "Colours of a rare Bird" and its been good therapy for me to tell people my story. People tell me that their brother is gay or their niece is gay, and how most of them had a hard time coming out, or, like me, went into the closet. I had one man just last Saturday say to me, "My nephew is gay, but he will not come out of the closet. How do I get him to come out?" My answer, as always, is that it must be his call, and it can only be done by him. Nothing I can say and nothing I can do will make him come out of the closet; it has to be his personal choice. He will find his journey to coming out in his own unique way. This Christmas was the first Christmas in thirty-three years that I did not feel sad because I just feel so much lighter, and I am being an authentic me. I am now writing a series of middle, grade, teenage books for the LGBTQIA community called "Howdy the Gay Magician" about a gay teenager who has magical powers and how he fits in to a magical kingdom where there is no judgement and constant sunny skies and through his friend Rickard who visits magical kingdom we get to see the difference between howdy world and our own. If we can just accept people for who they are and put aside our own personal judgement and show support and love, then we make the magical kingdom in my story come true for LGBTQIA closeted people. I now at last say goodbye to people like Venca and Henry Creel from Stranger Things because, since I came out as gay, just like William in the show, bad people no longer have any power over me. Visit my website for more info! Read more from Andrew James Brookman Andrew James Brookman, Writer/Author Andrew Brookman is a talented writer who writes many genres, from Horror to murder Mystery to writing for children. Andrew Brookman just loves writing stories. His favourite genre is LGBTQ writing, both fiction and non-fiction stories for the LGBTQ community. Andrew is now focused on helping people who may have challenges with their sexuality, like he once did.

Written by Danielle Baron, Life and Business Coach & Licensed Integrative Therapist Danielle catalyses children and adults to rise like a phoenix from the flames and to reach their optimum potential. She is an entrepreneur, an inspiring 11+ and 7+ entrance exams tutor, a rapid transformational therapist, a business coach for overachievers, a life coach for all, and an NLP Master practitioner, and she is also certified by the ILM. Across social media and modern dating culture, many women are choosing to step back, not out of bitterness or defeat, but out of self-respect. This article explores why increasing numbers of women are prioritising healing, autonomy, and empowerment over relationships that require self-abandonment. Liz Lindenbauer, a screenwriter, creative producer, and journalist, starts by reflecting on this:   If anything, like me, you will have no doubt seen many sides of the online dating world echoed in social media, from the male podcasters spewing red flags for views to the trad wives baking bread whilst in labour, to the men complaining that women should be doing their laundry to avoid the male loneliness epidemic.   It can all be so disorientating. But what I see consistently and most importantly, authentically, are women who have chosen to step away from online dating and the hinders on Tinder, and instead to pour that energy back into themselves.   This has been a keen topic online for me, as years ago, after online dating went awry with a man that could have been a plot in a Nicolas Cage movie, I felt guided to turn away from the dating world and focus on myself.   I focused on trying to live a more balanced life. Raising my autistic daughter, focusing on my screenwriting and my agent in LA, and working on myself.   I had done it all by the age of 25. I had lived with two men (engaged to the first one), and then I was pregnant and married to the other at 23, (separated after abuse at 24), finding myself alone with a very young daughter, in a daunting situation where I put all of my energy into getting our lives together.   There I was on my 25th birthday, divorce in the works, and the first guy I had started to date ruined my birthday. I was doing all I could to be stable whilst coping with an incompetent council who couldn’t send us housing benefits on time, a creepy landlord who came onto me, a house that was in disrepair in a ditch, and living off welfare with little emotional support.   But I could dream! And I did so, writing one online article a week and getting free samples sent to me for mothers and babies. I would run a self-proclaimed yummy mummy article, and a lot of the products we tested were not even on the shelves yet, or even in well-designed packaging.   My point is, I had to go on my journey. A journey that a lot of women in our generation are lucky to be able to experience. We recognise it's no longer our job to keep a man happy, or to fix a broken man. In many cases, we have witnessed the damage this has caused our female relatives, and we wish to break that cycle.   I now write this article from a luxury apartment. My comedy writing has been considered at places I could only have dreamt of, as well as having fought the authorities single-handedly to get my daughter the right support, and we are happier and more successful than ever.   I had to go through the pain alone to make me unstoppable. Only then could I understand what many strong women bring to the table. In many cases, we are the table! When I first left my ex-husband in secret with a baby, too naive to understand the difficulties I would have to overcome, I originally could only think of meeting a man and getting married, and having a few more kids.   I am still open to that. However, I am so glad that did not happen then! I would never have gotten to experience my self-discovery.   Which is the answer to my above question! The title of this article.   Women are choosing to rediscover who they are, and they haven’t abandoned men. They are just no longer choosing to abandon themselves! And a man’s reaction to that will tell you everything you need to know about him.   Danielle Baron is an Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine, as well as an interviewer, host, model, and educator. She offers her perspective on this:   Reading Liz’s words, I felt an immediate, familiar recognition. Our life arcs mirror one another, each shaped by that pivotal moment, or moments, when a woman decides she will no longer sacrifice her peace or her potential.   I moved through relationships believing each one had taught me what to avoid, what never to tolerate again, only to find myself back in abuse, this time disguised by a different mask. More recently, I found myself sitting in a local council-run course where the unspoken message seemed to be that the ultimate goal was to learn to trust again, as if healing only counted if it led us back into another relationship. As if a woman on her own were somehow incomplete, unfinished, or waiting to be resolved.   For me, empowerment didn’t arrive as a sudden awakening or a neatly packaged revelation. It came slowly, in fragments earned through experience, loss, and evolution.   I became a mother at twenty-five, shortly after discovering I’d been cheated on. From that point on, life turned into a delicate balancing act, managing complicated relationships, layered responsibilities, and the quiet yet relentless pressure placed on women to hold everything together. To be the good wife, which to those around me meant without a life of her own, and the understanding partner who silences her boundaries and excuses her partner’s behaviour.   And this pressure is often upheld through internalised misogyny, passed down and reinforced by other women as well as men, where the expectations placed on us are endless, while the expectations of men remain minimal.   All carried alongside the persistent message, sometimes subtle, sometimes explicit, that partnership is the ultimate measure of success. And yet, time and again, I found myself doing the hardest parts alone. And, paradoxically, those were the moments I was happiest and successful. There was no dramatic declaration where I announced I was “done with dating.” There still isn’t. Instead, there’s a quiet bodily response, a subtle nausea, an instinctive avoidance when the possibility presents itself again.   When a woman stops abandoning herself, her entire nervous system recalibrates. Her standards rise, not from entitlement, but from self-respect. What once felt exciting begins to feel unsafe. What once felt familiar begins to feel intolerable.   True empowerment is freedom, peace, and fulfilment. It is the calm, grounded certainty that you will be okay on your own, and because of that, you will only walk beside someone who adds, not drains. But let’s be frank here, the masks the other person wears at first imply and even demonstrate they will be a radiator and not a drainer. However, then you realise their mask wasn’t real, and they are in fact a drainer. I’m tired of gambling my peace on that discovery.   This is why so many women are stepping back from dating culture as it currently exists. Not because men are obsolete. Not because love is unwanted. But because women are no longer willing to barter their well-being for companionship. Read more from Danielle Baron Danielle Baron, Life and Business Coach & Licensed Integrative Therapist Danielle catalyses children and adults to rise like a phoenix from the flames and to reach their optimum potential. She is an entrepreneur, inspiring 11+ and 7+ entrance exams tutor, rapid transformational therapist, business coach for overachievers, a life coach for all, and an NLP Master practitioner, and she is also certified by the ILM. One of Danielle’s much-loved abilities is being an overachiever because she thrives on the excitement and follows her passion, which is to help people live fulfilling lives.