Written by: André Hedlund Metacognition has become a popular word in school settings and businesses around the world. It relates to humans’ ancient quest to unravel the brain's mechanisms and mind and what that can tell us about learning. In a few words, we can say that metacognition has to do with the process of thinking about thinking. It helps people reflect on more effective learning strategies according to brain physiology and function as well as cognitive psychology. In recent years, Cognitive Sciences have contributed to a better understanding of how both the brain and mind learn. Nevertheless, students and professionals alike still struggle to establish a routine of “brain-friendly” strategies that allows them to potentiate their learning outcomes. Is there a better way to maximize performance when it comes to learning? Well, let’s look at six metacognitive strategies that might give you an edge. 1. Testing Effect The way tests are used in educational settings and some companies are highly ineffective. Written exams are the most popular choice and they normally test people’s abilities in retrospect and in a very deterministic manner. That means it is much more a type of assessment OF learning than assessment FOR learning. Assessment OF Learning can be compared to a photo of a beautiful landscape. It is a moment captured by the lenses of a professional photographer. But it could also be an illusion as it does not show the surroundings. It could also be a bad photo because of certain weather conditions on that day. But that does not mean the place is not beautiful. What to do? Test students and professionals throughout the learning process to help them memorize concepts and learn new skills. Instead of doing it in retrospect, use the concept of Testing Effect to make sure tests are utilized in a brain-friendly way. Low-stakes testing reduces stress and allows people to take them without pressure to check whether they can remember the new things they have been exposed to. Pop quizzes, flashcards, and game nights are some examples of how you can do it. 2. Retrieval Practice Our brains can be quite lazy at times because they consume nearly ¼ of our calorie intake and they need to preserve energy for potential harsher times. That means that we might want to avoid making an effort. The problem is that, just like a muscle, our memory systems need to struggle a little bit to make sure things are working. We need to feel the muscle burn so that we know the exercise is doing what it is supposed to. Another issue is that our brains forget things quite easily due to all the information we are exposed to, and the very little time we have to rehearse all of it. What to do? The best thing we can do to minimize forgetting things forever and make sure the exercise of learning is working is retrieving recent information. After learning a new concept in the classroom, in a meeting or conference, a good idea is to consciously bring that concept back to our working memory to reinforce its neuronal connections. Do it a couple of times during the day by simply asking yourself: “Ok, what have I learned today?”. Go through the concepts in your mind and write them down on your mobile or a notepad to check how much of it you can remember. The effort will help you strengthen your connections. 3. Spacing Effect One of the most effective practices to help us consolidate declarative memory has been around for more than a century and we still have not been able to use it systematically. German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus officially discovered it and it is known as the Forgetting Curve. As I mentioned before, our brains forget things quite quickly if we do not rehearse them in our minds. Ebbinghaus tested himself with syllables written on different cards and realized just how rapidly our memory decays. He also noticed that if instead of revising the cards multiple times on the same day, he would dilute these revisions throughout a longer period, he was able to remember the information with fewer revision sessions. After all, we consolidate declarative memory during our sleep. What to do? A Russian friend once told me that when she was a little girl and needed to memorize a poem for school, she would practice the poem at night, go to bed, and then do it again in the morning. She was definitely on to something and we need to follow her example. If you need to memorize concepts, terms, formulas and anything you can verbalize, the best idea is to study them throughout a period of a month or even more. You can revise the content the following day after you see it, then you can do it a few days after, then more days after and so on. Spacing refreshes your memory and reduces decay. Read more about it on my blog. 4. The Pomodoro Technique Our working memory system is quite limited, which means it gets full very quickly when we are being exposed to lots of information. Its capacity reduces even more when we are under stress or in heightened negative emotional states. In short, that tells us that we simply do not have the capability to take in lots of information simultaneously. We need to take a few breaks to avoid cognitive overload and refresh our attention. What to do? Have you ever heard of The Pomodoro Technique? Invented in the 80s by an Italian engineering student, it is a practical strategy to help maintain our attention levels high and to keep our memory from overloading. You can download a Tomato Timer app, buy the real thing or simply access a website to keep track of your time studying or working. The idea is to do focused study/work for 25min nonstop and to break for 5min to relax and facilitate memory consolidation. Then you can repeat 25min + 5min and finally take a longer break (15min should work). Think of it as doing a workout series in the gym. The same principle applies. Read more about it on my blog. 5. Mindset Although the strategies before were directly linked to cognition, particularly attention and memory, there are other ways we can make sure we learn more effectively that relate to our beliefs and attitudes towards learning. One example is how we think of ourselves as learners and whether we believe that we can learn something or not. This is connected to research about mindsets. In Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she explains that some people have a more fixed mindset for certain things, which means they believe their ability to learn them is fixed and that they might not have what it takes to accomplish the goal. Other people have developed a more growth mindset and look at learning as an interesting challenge that requires effort and dedication much more than talent. What to do? Developing a more growth mindset means focusing on the process of learning and asking questions about how we can learn best. It also requires the belief that we are able to do it and that it depends much more on effort and grit rather than intelligence. That means we need to look at the task we want to accomplish as something that can be solved through inquiry, brainstorming and analysis, time dedicated and determination. We can reward ourselves or our students or employees for sticking to the task and working hard. We can praise their effort more often rather than the result itself. Read more about it on my blog. 6. Self-Efficacy In line with the Growth Mindset concept, we can say that some people have managed to make themselves more proactive and goal-oriented than others and that is probably why their performance is better. These people can be referred to as self-efficacious people and their process of doing things when they are difficult for them can teach everyone one or two useful things. Self-efficacy is the ability to set yourself on the path that will make you fulfill whatever it is that you need to fulfill. It is about organizing, prioritizing, delegating and reflecting on what works so that you can attain your goal. What to do? Albert Bandura, one of the main authors of Self-Efficacy Theory, says that there are four important sources that can help us be more self-efficacious. The first one is mastery experiences or having our own successful performance of something. We sometimes do not do things because we believe we will fail. But when we decide to act and see that we can, we realize that accomplishing it is possible. Secondly, Bandura suggests vicarious experiences or observing others do something and noticing they are able to. That encourages us to think: “If they can do it, so can I”. In third place, there is verbal persuasion. We can tell ourselves that we are able to accomplish something and others can do the same to us and give us the encouragement we need. Finally, there is our emotional state, which relates to how we are feeling and what influence that has on our performance. We need to try to put ourselves in the right emotional state to learn. Read more about it on my blog. As someone who has studied psychology and neuroscience, I must say I do believe these strategies can have a very positive impact on our performance when we learn. However, I must also say that I do not believe in magical solutions and that learning is not a mechanical thing, it is organic. And as in anything organic, other variables are at play and we cannot claim that there is a fixed recipe for success. What we can say is that if you start reflecting on how you learn and apply strategies based on robust evidence from cognitive sciences, you will most likely maximize your learning outcomes. Follow André on Instagram and LinkedIn! André Hedlund, Guest Writer Brainz Magazine André Hedlund is a Chevening Alumnus, MSc in Psychology of Education from the University of Bristol, and an Edify Bilingual Program Mentor for SPOT Educação. He is also a representative of BRAZ-TESOL's Mind, Brain, and Education Special Interest Group (MBE SIG) and a guest teacher in postgraduate courses on Multilingualism, Global Education, Cognition, and Neuroscience. He is the former president of Partners of the Americas Goiás and he has worked as a Michigan Certificates Examiner. His blog (edcrocks.com) has been accessed more than 30 thousand times by people from more than 140 countries. André has delivered workshops and lectures in Argentina, the USA, the UK, Portugal, Spain, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania as well as webinars to different countries. He uses Instagram (@edcrocks) to host monthly lives about how neuroscience and psychology can be applied in the classroom and interviews teachers from all over the world

Written by: Susan Francis, 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. For the longest time, in fact pretty much all of my life, I believed that hard work created success. I wholeheartedly believed that the harder I worked, the more action I took, the more I hustled, the more success I would have. And let me tell you, I was determined to out-hustle everyone. I was ambitious, dedicated and not afraid of hard work. I put in the effort, I put in the energy, but yet I wasn't creating the results I wanted. Perhaps you can relate? When I started my entrepreneurial journey a few years ago, it became apparent that what I was doing was not working. I was out hustling everyone I knew, and still not hitting any goals. It left me deflated; feeling like a failure, and like I just wasn't cut out for this. I was signing up for every program trying to learn new strategies and marketing skills, looking for the secret sauce, looking for the one thing that was finally going to unlock my success. Was it organic marketing, funnels, ads, running a Facebook group, LinkedIn, doing more live streams?? What was the secret sauce? Thousands of dollars and many courses later, I did not find it. No sauce. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It wasn't my action that was creating at all; it was my energy. It was what was within me. It was what I believed about what I was doing, how I truly felt about myself, how I felt about my business and how I was showing up. It was my energy and my alignment, not the action at all, that was determining my results. You see, there is no amount of action that can make up for misaligned energy. We are energetic beings, and we communicate far more with energy than we do with words. People can feel your energy, and your energy and vibration are what is creating your reality. If you take action from a place of believing your business is hard, not feeling confident that people will want to buy from you, worrying that people don't have the money, and feeling uncertain where your next client will come from, then you are literally repelling business away from you. When I truly got that it was mastering my mindset, focus, and energy that determined my success, my business went from $500 months to $15K months in 60 days. It was no new strategy, no secret sauce. I was taking all of the same action, but I was showing up in a different energy. I was showing up believing something different. To be able to skyrocket your business success, or to thrive in any area of your life for that matter, you must master your mindset, focus and beliefs. How you feel about what you're doing is the most important thing. Ask yourself… How do you feel about your goals? Do you believe you can create them? Do you have fear around them? Are you showing up fully as the person who already has them? It's not what you do that matters. It's how you feel about what you do. For life to flow, to create success with ease, you must clean up any contradictory energy. Any fears, doubts, worries need to be cleaned up. You can not create more money or more clients from an energy and belief that “business is hard and no one wants to buy from me”. Instead, you must connect to your value, your worth and know how incredibly amazing you are and how your work impacts the world. You must show up in this energy. To get into a state of flow, you must be aligned with what you want to create, because when you are in alignment, you show up differently. When you are connected to the truth of who you are and aligned with your goals you are guided. New ideas flow, inspiration lands, new opportunities come to you. From an aligned place, there is no hustle. There is only flow because you understand that it's energy that creates . One hour of aligned action is worth 100 hours of misaligned action. Do the inner work. Shift your beliefs, master your mindset, show up in the energy of knowing everything is always working out for you, and allow your life and business to flow with ease. To learn more about this you can listen to my podcast episode, (#2) Less hustle, more flow. To follow Susan you can find her on Facebook, Instagram, join the Facebook community for regular live training, learn more on the website, or listen to the Soul Aligned Business Babes podcast. Susan Francis, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Susan Francis is a leading Mindset, Manifestation and Business Mentor and Coach empowering female entrepreneurs to create more income and impact their soul-aligned businesses. She helps women unlock the truth of who they are, helps them to step into their power fully, and teaches them the secrets to taking quantum leaps in their success. She believes life was meant to be easy, to feel good, to flow, and you can create anything you damn well want! With a background in senior management in the fashion industry, she escaped the 9 to 5 hustle after her daughter's birth to follow her passion for helping other women create epic time and financial freedom. Trained in NLP and Time Line Therapy, and obsessed with the Law of Attraction, she knows at a very deep level that everything is an inside job, and as she helps clients make shifts in their mindset, and energy they become magnetic to their dream lives and business success.

Written by: Kelley Tenny, 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 So many working moms (and dads) are finding that their daily routines are out of whack with the school year's return. But with just a few simple shifts, you can get not only your routine but your kids’ as well back on track. Back to school time is hectic for everyone, regardless of the conditions, and with so many kids learning from home, it can definitely wreak havoc on the entire household, especially for parents also working from home. But it doesn’t have to! In fact, I discovered a few tricks to get the systems back in place. Here are three ways to “back to school” proof your schedule. 1. Identify the best times of day to get things done. When kids go back to school, one of the biggest disruptors are getting them ready for where they need to be. Whether you are having to drive them to and from school or simply having to get them out of bed and put some breakfast on the table before they “log in”, this can take time that you usually have scheduled for something else. One thing to do is to take a look at your day and decide where there can be uninterrupted chunks of time for you to get your stuff done. Can you find a couple of hours in the morning to answer emails or workout before they wake up? Is there a time when they are logged on with their teachers when you can take client calls? Is there a time in the late afternoon once school is over where they have some free time, and you can make calls or complete other work tasks? Don’t forget to identify and schedule times for your personal self-care too. It may be an hour to read, take a bath or just be alone, be sure you are taking care of you! 2. Create a List of Non-Negotiables Every morning (or night before bed), create a list of non-negotiables for the day. What items need to get done no matter what and schedule them into your calendar. This is also known as time blocking. You may have chunks of time set aside to get things done, but for these non-negotiables, you literally want to make an appointment with them. One advantage of time blocking is that it will help you know exactly how you’re going to use your time and exactly when you’re going to accomplish specific tasks. The normal to-do lists may present you with a list of tasks to complete in your own time. Time blocking provides you with a list of tasks and a specific time frame to complete each task. 3. Enlist Help When there are more plates to keep spinning, it may be time to call in support. This support may be personal or professional. Consider the tasks that you have that can be done by someone else. Is there space for a virtual assistant to help you clear out your email inbox or maybe a meal delivery service that can deliver breakfasts and lunch so that you don’t have to spend time planning and cooking meals? This could be as simple as using a grocery delivery service like Amazon or Instacart! The help doesn’t necessarily have to be hired! Can your kids lay out their clothes the night before and get ready for school on their own? And if they could, would this give you an extra 30 minutes to work on some of your non-negotiables? Do you have a significant other that can take over at some point during the day so that you have more room on your calendar to get on clients calls or take part in self-care? With a bit of creativity and commitment, you can take back control of your schedule regardless of what the kids are doing. Remember to allow yourself some grace in a new time where everyone needs some adjusting. Don’t beat yourself up if it takes a few weeks or if you experience bouts of frustration. Trust that you have exactly what it takes to run your business without sacrifice, even with the new school year underway! Follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn or visit my website for more info! Read more from Kelley! Kelley Tenny, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kelley Tenny is a health and wellness coach whose L.I.F.E. method shifts the way that entrepreneurs do business, helping them thrive instead of leading lives of sacrifice. Her signature L.I.F.E. method combines visioning, implementable goals, mindset, diet and movement to build a sustainable lifestyle that her students love. It is time to thrive in your garden of success!

Written by: Michelle Greene Rhodes, 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 Households across the world are adapting to juggle several responsibilities at a time as parents and children are both staying at home. As a result, improving family wellness, while staying productive may appear as an unachievable possibility as remote work may be characterized by anxiety, loneliness and pressure to excel professionally. Struggling to draw boundaries between professional life and personal life, individuals working from home may be putting in long hours and doing domestic chores instead of taking periodic breaks. While this may appear productive, it is easy to feel burnt out and overwhelmed. Hence, it is crucial to clearly communicate expectations with coworkers to ascertain a flexible schedule to meet deadlines by prioritizing realistic and attainable deliverables for both. Designating a workspace at home may limit disruptions and increase remote productivity. Communicating to children when their schedule is the busiest can help get cooperation from family members. While setting a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door can be helpful too. Creating a schedule that replicates a normal workday can improve efficiency. Using peak hours to tackle the most difficult tasks allows employees to take advantage of their creativity. Setting achievable goals can provide motivation to embark on a new work project or learn a new skill for personal development. At the same time, breaks should be taken when required, to feel rejuvenated and focused once work is resumed. Employees must continue to build a rapport with their coworkers just as they did in-person, even though channels of communication may have changed. This will help to brainstorm stimulating ideas and seek feedback that will improve the quality of work. Meanwhile, physical fitness garners productivity by increasing blood flow, concentration and improving overall health. Meditation and exercise are a great way to uplift one’s mood by healthily channeling one’s energy. Additionally, exercise helps with stress management by balancing cortisol levels in the body. Children are filled with energy and curiosity, so keeping them at home, while addressing their educational and development needs can be challenging. Structuring the day with a foreseeable, yet flexible routine can create a sense of order in a chaotic time. This can ensure that children are coping well to complete their schoolwork, eating a healthy diet, completing chores as well as scheduling playtime to stay happy. "At Greene Rhodes Consulting, we emphasize fundamentals to help our clients practice empathy and compassion to improve family wellness." Maintaining a structured environment to improve the effectiveness of e-learning is necessary as parents and caregivers transition to homeschooling. Replicating a classroom environment with digital tools prevents distractions and promotes engagement. At the same time, children’s screen time may increase. Outlining a plan that defines time limits for each activity can be helpful, so time is not eaten away from reading, playing outdoors, connecting with family, or getting the required amount of sleep. At Greene Rhodes Consulting, we emphasize fundamentals to help our clients practice empathy and compassion to improve family wellness. Developing healthy habits can ward off stress, provide emotional support to one another, and help families to power through during a time of crisis. How can you incorporate wellness into your family that in turn will increase productivity in your professional life? Visit our website for more info and connect with us on LinkedIn ! Read more from Michelle ! Michelle Greene Rhodes, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Michelle G. Rhodes is a Corporate Wellness Consultant and is Certified in Managed Care and Licensed as a Registered Nurse. By combining her love for Managed Care/Population Health background with her innate ability to create educational programs and cost savings solutions that are uniquely designed for each employer, Michelle is sought after for her multiple successes in cost saving and exceeding targets. She has helped corporations craft wellness programs that offer definite returns on investments and assists them in meeting and exceeding their annual performance measures and goals. Michelle creates various wellness initiatives for awareness campaigns all the way to the creation of wellness culture transformations. Michelle Rhodes Media LLC is also a continuing education provider for Nurses, by the California Board of Nurses, and provide workshops for Nurses to learn continuously.

Emilly Grueso, CEO of The Rise Marketing Agency and founder of www.emillymariegrueso.com is a digital marketing and branding expert. She shares her expertise through the Socialite Vault, an online Membership Club filled with recourses, videos, monthly masterclasses, 1:1 coaching, and more. All aimed to educate and empower entrepreneurs on online marketing & branding strategies. As a serial entrepreneur, Emilly is a chief executive officer at The Rise Marketing Agency, a full-service digital marketing agency that helps businesses execute online marketing strategies to various services, including social media management, aged PPC advertising, email marketing and more. – I’m a certified digital marketing strategist and have been taught by some of the world’s most successful marketers. I found my passion and truly love helping others monetize their passions as well. Whether that be through my membership-club or done for you services with my agency. Putting business aside, there’s so much more to me than just being an entrepreneur. I am a mother of three kids aged 1,2 & 5. I am Latina; both parents are Colombian. Born in Queens, New York, and raised in Leesburg, Virginia. I grew up with two entrepreneur parents, so I’ve always had the desire to become my boss from a very young age. Will the Socialite Vault be helpful for new entrepreneurs? – Absolutely, the vault is a personal blueprint to building a successful business online. It works for newbies and even the ones who aren’t new to the game. When I created this membership club, I knew exactly who I wanted to help and why I wanted to help them. I can remember the feeling of being a new entrepreneur and not knowing the things you need to do and wishing you had some clarity. If I can help someone in that situation, then I know I did my job. So to answer your question, The Socialite Vault will absolutely be helpful for new entrepreneurs. What’s a good tip for staying focused and accomplishing your goals? – My biggest tip would be to start with the end in mind. When you do this, you can reverse engineer your way to accomplishing your goals faster and more efficiently. This alone allows me to stay focused because I always have the end in mind. A book that I read that changed my perspective on goal setting is The One Thing by Gary Keller. I highly recommend you read this book if you’re a business owner and you want some more clarity on goal setting and exactly how to do it. You mentioned before that your agency helps businesses. Do you have a preferred niche that you target? – Not at all. When The Rise Marketing Agency started, we were only helping restaurants. Since then, we have grown to help boutiques, landscaping companies, real estate agents, weight loss centers, plastic surgeons to larger corporations. If you have a business and you need help, we will be there for you. Tell us about your 1:1 strategy call – I like to call it my marketing breakthrough consultatio n . It’s an hour packed strategy session where we talk about your business & goals. It provides insights that will help your brand, and we also talk about suggestions that would make a huge difference. When it’s all done, we put together a proposal with some simple strategies and suggestions outlined. The call is super insightful and helpful, so I recommend you get a paper and pen and get ready for some heavy notes. The entire call is recorded, so at the end of the session, I send it over. Managing multiple businesses must be very challenging how do you overcome failures? – Failures are inevitable. If I’m not making mistakes, then I’m not growing. I try not to dwell on it. I make the changes necessary then move on. Hopefully, It taught me a lesson. One of my favorite mantras is “ Fail Forward, FAST”. I believe a major problem with today’s society is the fear of failure and what others may think about you. This fear of failure is limiting the number of risks people are taking. This is scary because, in order to achieve the things you want, you have to be willing to take risks and do the unknown & seemingly impossible. Imagine what you would accomplish if you didn’t let the fear of failure dictate your actions? For more information, follow Emilly on Facebook , Instagram and visit her Agency and her Membership website !

Written by: Sonjali Di Guida, 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. Like a caged bird, we are sometimes stuck in the confines of our heads, singing our own melodies of freedom. Oh, that feeling of overwhelm, weighing down on you and your confidence like a bolder in your otherwise beautiful garden! We contemplate how to cope, only to find that the tactics we employ may very well be as useful as ingesting a poisoned apple. Imagine you were camping with four other people, and there was a terrible storm which collapsed your tent. In this scenario, your closest mate looks at the others and yells out, “It’s all your fault, you should have checked the weather.” In the meantime, your other mate blurts out, “I don’t really know my way around these woods, but so everyone feels better, I will go and find help”. Meanwhile, the third person adjusts her spectacles and looks at the collapsed excuse of a tent and states, “If we were to analyze this further, the support bracket could only hold roughly forty-seven pounds of weight”. Finally, your last mate stares off into the distance and excitedly yelps, “Look a bird!” What do these four friends have in common? They are each using a coping stance, but NOT fixing the tent! Virginia Satir, a reputable therapist, recognized the coping patterns people use when they do not feel safe enough to be honest with themselves. Perhaps you can relate to one of those mates from your camping trip? Be it blamer, placater, computer or distracter, as in our example, these coping stances at times really helped us get through difficult times. They may very well have serviced us when seeking shelter from uncomfortable situations, stress, and challenging relationships. These patterns may have helped us at home, in the workplace, personally and professionally, yet they are not useful to achieving our outcomes. They leave us static, and treading through the woods at a snail’s pace. While we should, in retrospect, thank our unconscious minds for giving us these coping mechanisms, there is a more liberating and useful solution: level with yourself. When we finally allow ourselves to do this, we can finally take action to grow through our challenges. Yes, there may be some emotional baggage you take with you on your camping trip, but using these coping patterns only makes your luggage heavier in the long run. I implore you, take action and fix your proverbial tent. You will find your tune much more upbeat when you are pitching a tent on level grounds. Follow me on Instagram , Facebook and visit my website for more info! Read more from Sonjali! Sonjali Di Guida, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sonjali Di Guida, is a passionate and outcome driven hypnotist, dedicated to helping individuals master their growth mindset, from the very core of their beings – the subconscious. With her training from the Master Hypnotist Society as well as utilization in Neuro linguistic programming systems, her clinic, The West Island Hypnosis Center has helped her many clients make transformational changes – both personally and  professionally. Her executive background as well as her experience running her consulting firm and hypnosis clinic have allowed her to continuously master her craft in changemaking.

Written by: Karen Yee, 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 used to feel confident, but then ‘this’ happened.” “I used to believe I could do it, but then ‘this’ happened.” “I used to feel like I knew what I was doing, but then ‘this’ happened.” Does the above sound like you? “These” incidents that happen to us programs into our subconscious mind at such a rapid rate that it becomes our truth. And it can become a new disempowering reality that you exist within from this moment forward. With millions of neurons firing at every millisecond, do you know how many times a day this can happen in your subconscious mind? TONS. I see this over and over again in the business owners I speak with and coach. They have these skewed stories they believe to be their truth: “I can’t charge that much” “I have no idea how to brand myself” “I don’t know how to do this ‘online’ thing” “I don’t know why I can’t get customers” And on and on and on.. I’m here to let you know that YOU DO, YOU CAN , and YOU WILL . In an excerpt of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, Robert Kiyosaki goes into how the “power of our thoughts” separates us from being rich and poor. How? You are not poor because of the amount of money you earn biweekly, it’s because of your thoughts and actions. For example, a poor habit is saying “I can’t afford it” . A rich habit is “How can I afford it?” One is a statement . The other is a question . One lets you off the hook, and the other forces you to think. Can you spot it? When you constantly put yourself in the mindset of “I can’t afford it”, your brain stops working. The latter puts your brain to work. To manifest abundance into your life and business is just that. The stronger you work your brain, the more money you make. "The stronger you work your brain, the more money you make." You know the analogy of “if you go to the gym once a week, you’re never going to build muscles”. Going to the gym on a regular basis increases your chances of building stronger toned muscles, increasing your chances of better health, mental health, and more. I challenge you to observe what is playing in your thoughts. Which one will you adopt? I choose to adopt a rich mindset. If you do too, I invite you to join me in my program where I share in-depth how to manifest abundance into your life and business so that it becomes an empowered reality. Stay tuned for Karens upcoming articles, and follow her on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit her website for more info! Read more from Karen! Karen Yee, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Karen is the founder of New Futures On Demand and a believer that everyone has the ability to create a new future with their skillset. She guides small to medium companies and individuals to build a winning profile and launch a profitable online business. She created the Art of Selling Mastermind™️, an online intensive training program that helps people uncover, brand, package, and sell their services, so they create more impact and build their WFA dream lifestyle.

Written by: Arna Van Goch, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. This is the article every business coach should be writing. Because if you don’t, are you even a business coach? It sounds like a harsh question, but the more time I spend in the online world of business, the more I realize that no, no one really knows their numbers. Sure, they can tell you whether or not they achieved their $10k month or if they bagged a new client, but that’s pretty much where the fun stops. And the thing is… numbers can be fun. As long as you know how to put them together properly. This is why I love being in automations. Because you don’t have to spend hours every month determining what your numbers are. Once set up, it can be quite easy to figure it out. KNOWING YOUR NUMBERS All it takes? Total discipline. Hah, did you cringe too? I still do sometimes. I’m not going to take you through my whole process in the space of a 5-minute read, that would be near impossible. But what I can do is give you the top 3 numbers you should be tracking. Your leads Your sales calls Your sales made They all lead into each other, which is why it’s so crucial to know all these figures. Especially in the service-based business, what is a lead? Is someone I do a 5-minute favor for a lead? And what is a sales call? The only thing that seems tangible is a sale made, because that’s when the money hits your bank account. So let’s work backwards, to make it easier to digest. Sales Made Ok, this one is super easy. As I noted above, sales made is literally money in the bank. As I tell all my service-based clients, until they’ve paid it’s not in the bag yet. I’ve had a few people in my own business where they have said yes on the phone and a day later they’ve backed out or canceled the follow-up call without a word. Sales made can be easily tracked in your payment system like Paypal or Stripe. It’s easy to set up a couple of automations so that they are tracked in the same spreadsheet for you to look at whenever you fancy as well. Sales Calls Sales calls or sales opportunities are wide and far-ranging. It is up to you how you decide to mark your sales calls. Especially in this online world, it can feel a bit messy to figure out what is a sales call. On most booking systems you can search specific date ranges for specific call types. For services, though, sales calls are really our bread and butter. If you’re in the service space, you really need to be using a booking system and specific links. I have one particular booking link I send people for sales calls in particular, so I know to be able to count them up. You can even set this up as an automation with your google calendar so that spreadsheets get updated every time events are added to your calendar. At the end of the month, I go in and I look at the sales calls I’ve made. It even serves as a great reminder to follow-up with people, so I like looking at it more than once a month! Your Leads Your leads! This is always an interesting one. In some schools of thought, every person you don’t personally know, but speak to, are leads. Every person is a potential lead. Is that entirely true for you? Maybe it’s a good way for you to start off with, especially when you’re new to being super gung-ho about tracking your work. This one can feel a little harder to manage, but again depends on your business. If you’re in e-commerce, it can be every person that visits your website. Or perhaps every person that puts something in a shopping cart, or every person that signs up to your newsletter for 10% off their first order. Better yet, maybe it’s all three. If you’re in a service-based business like myself, I like to note down people that I speak to that I know would benefit from my services. I have a spreadsheet that I keep handy, open all the time to jot down names and dates, and even little comments. I find it easier to keep track this way, because then I can also easily go back. I do this in an Excel spreadsheet so that I can easily look over it. Yay for Excel tabs am I right?! Now what? So it’s cute if you know what your numbers are. But then what? Let’s put them side by side: Sales calls divided by total leads = Total calls divided by total sales = Total leads divided by total sales = What does that mean to you? Are the numbers higher or lower than you thought? Are the numbers spot on? What do you want to improve? It’s no secret that if you increase your leads, you will ultimately be able to increase your sales too. So now, we look at what we did to get leads this month. This is why it’s so important to have a very aptly named “Where” column in my leads pages. So this way, when I look through last month’s leads, I can take a look at where the majority of the leads came from. I can even make pie charts or count percentages of where my leads are coming from. It’s very important for us to be able to really get granular about it. I can see where successful sales have come from, I can see where I’m more successful, or (importantly) less so. And now, action! Right team, this is down to the wire now. We are planning for the month ahead. The question now is: what do we do to improve our leads? What are 3 things we’re going to do? We’ve looked at where we’ve been successful, what is working well, what isn’t. Where do I need to put more effort? Is Facebook returning the most on investment? Is it maybe Instagram instead? Where is somewhere I can focus on, and somewhere else I can improve? Maybe I can make a commitment to do more Instagram Lives, or even to just post to LinkedIn already. Other times it’s about honing your craft. Maybe you saw on your numbers that oh, perhaps you can improve on your sales skills. Maybe you just need a quick class on it or a few practice sessions with an accountability buddy. What are three things we’re going to do? Commit to at least 2 hours a week to the goals. If it’s going out of your comfort zone, if it’s learning something new… whatever it is, take out 2 hours a week of your regular scheduled programming to really focus. Ideally, you’d focus 2 hours a day, but I’m not your coach and I’m not going to police you. But you need to be pushing the envelope if you want your business to change. YOU GOT THIS At the end of the day, team, you got this. You are exactly where you’re supposed to be right now- and there is greatness in you. You are capable of what you set your mind to, what you are excited about, and how you want to change your business. I know people that have done it alone, I know others that have done it through group programs or 1 to 1 coaching. Whichever way to do it, commit. Believe in yourself and give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and connect with me on LinkedIn Read more from Arna! Arna Van Goch, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Arna van Goch is a business automations coach. She helps 5 figure entrepreneurs hit 6 figures by streamlining their businesses and strategies to work less & earn more. Over her own entrepreneurial journey she has worked online businesses to land 6 figure contracts and supported businesses reaching 7 figures. Besides working online, she has an avid passion for travel, energy work and awesome Netflix series like Next in Fashion.

Dez Stephens, ACC, is the Founder and CEO of Radiant Coaches Academy, a division of Radiant Health Institute – a social enterprise and prominent international coach training school that certifies holistic life coaches, wellness coaches and business coaches. She is a credentialed coach, master trainer and marketing strategist. Who is Dez? Please introduce yourself – In short, I am a social justice entrepreneur, peoples’ advocate and planetary activist. I am dedicating to opening up new markets within the global coaching industry. Providing accessible and affordable certification opportunities empowers compassionate individuals to create change wherever they are. Above all, I am passionate about eliminating barriers through mediums that continue to give back and build stronger communities, while lifting the individuals involved. What was it that made you so interested in Coaching? – For me, this started in my childhood when adults asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. My response was typically, “I just want to help people, but I’m not sure how.” After briefly considering education, healthcare, social work and therapy; none of that fully resonated. I went into nonprofit work straight out of college because I thought that this would flex my humanitarian muscles. Like many of us when we work for nonprofits, I got burned out after many years of endless fundraising campaigns and activism. I felt discouraged because I wanted to “do more” and help more. I could have really used a coach myself back then! One day while working at a nonprofit, a respected colleague of mine turned to me and said, “You would make an amazing life coach because you’re so compassionate and so resourceful.” I turned to my colleague almost in disbelief like, “There’s a name for this thing I want to do?” That one realization was the seed that has since grown into a beautiful garden I couldn’t have imagined as a child. You speak of humanitarian work on your website and have even helped set up a charity in Honduras. When did you start with this movement to give back to communities through coaching, and why this subject is so exciting and important to you? – I had a small idea back in 2013 to use coaching to empower people from less prosperous backgrounds to get a foot up and into a market wherein they could work both locally and internationally. My hope was that they would pay it forward and give as they had been given. That inspiration turned into training and certifying over 150 holistic coaches in Central America, where professional coaching barely existed a decade ago. I set out to offer full and partial scholarships and now offer global in-person and online professional coach training certifications. Through this project, I have seen so many lives changed, and to me, there can be nothing more important. As such, we are expanding and hoping to reach communities around the globe to replicate our model. It is clear that one of the biggest aspects of your career has been your social entrepreneurship. What are some other examples of projects that you have been involved in? – As a result of my coaching and coach trainings in Honduras, I am a co-founder of an NGO providing pain recovery and grief recovery coaching to Central Americans through the Melanie Gissell Foundation. We set up this nonprofit organization to honor a 10-year old girl who died in a tragic car accident. Her parents and I now support Latin Americans who are dealing with their own loss of a precious loved one. – I am a co-founder of RISE Global providing sustainable educational initiatives to high schoolers in Honduras and indigenous peoples on American Indian Reservations in the United States. – For nearly 10 years, I volunteered at the Tennessee Prison for Women as a coach and mentor. I have also provided life skills seminars to women leaving prison with a history of drug abuse and sex trafficking. – I am a Team Lead with EthicalCoach providing coaching + training to NGO leaders internationally. – My training academy established a "Coaches Who Care" initiative to provide pro bono and discounted coaching to those in need. It is easy to say that you've built a powerful movement from within your organization. Could you share your three best tips to our readers? Stay committed and surrender to your calling. Often we resist what is yearning within us. Your desires are not random. They are your destiny. Everything else pales in comparison. Follow your intuition. You are the author and creator of your life. Your instincts are guiding you, so allow them to take you where you need to be and listen to your gut when it tells you, “Not this,” or, “Not now.” Skate away from the crowd. Don’t do what everyone else is doing. Pay attention to the innate creativity that lives inside each and every one of your cells. You are unique and you are meant to express your uniqueness. We are thrilled to have you onboard here on Brainz Magazine. What can our readers expect from you? – Readers can expect compassion and inspiration, mixed with a dash of humor and candor. I want readers to know that there is always a way forward and someone believing in them and their dreams. I will share stories of how lives have been profoundly impacted and changed through the medium of professional coaching and how individuals, families and communities are evolving and growing. But most of all I will offer hope. Lastly, what is your big goal? Do you have a dream? Where are you in 10 years from now? – The dream…the BIG dream. I would love to see the benefits of coaching on every continent. In 10 years, I would love to see thriving coaching communities in areas that currently have never even heard of coaching as a viable business. I would love to see individuals living their best lives, empowering others and growing their coaching practices to truly make a positive difference. For more information, follow Dez on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit her YouTube-Channel and website!

Written by: Suzanne Ratti, 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. In today’s digital marketing world, almost anyone with a laptop can claim to be a great marketer. But, great marketing is contingent on whether or not the strategy is helping you achieve your sales goals. After all, what value is a thousand Likes providing, if no one is actually buying your stuff? In this article, we’ll evaluate why it’s important to have a marketing strategy that drives revenue, not just followers. Sales & Marketing Alignment = Success Make no mistake about it - Sales and Marketing Alignment is the key to success! This is going to require a marketing leader or team that fully understands the sales process. It’s also going to require constant communication between the sales and marketing team. A few years ago, a client came to me with a problem. Their internal Marketing Director had created a ‘winning’ campaign. She was running victory laps over the “likes and shares” that the campaign created and the phone was ringing off the hook! The problem was, the calls were not from ideal clients. The leads were loss-leaders and the sales team was wasting a tremendous amount of time on the wrong prospects. In this case, it was clear how disconnected the sales and marketing teams were. Ultimately, a lot of money was wasted on marketing and resources. The sales team was frustrated and the company missed some big goals, despite making a significant investment in marketing. What are Your Sales Goals? Before you enlist a marketing company or spend valuable resources on marketing, it’s important to have a clear idea of your “Sales” goals. Far too often, marketing operates in a silo that is disconnected from the sales team, sales processes, and sales goals. This is ironic, right? Because the primary goal of marketing is to drive sales. Does your marketing team or outsourced agency understand your sales goals, sales challenges, typical objections, and Unique Selling Propositions? Sales Driven Marketing When your marketing team begins to create a strategy, it is important to start with sales-driven metrics. This is the only way to evaluate your Return on Investment (ROI) and ultimately measure whether you are reaching desired sales goals as a result of marketing initiatives. Many marketing firms report on impressions, shares, and engagement. These are good metrics to know, but they have absolutely nothing to do with sales. A sales-driven marketing strategy will look much deeper than social media to understand how the marketing initiatives are actually driving traffic to your website, shopping platform, or call center. Evaluating the behavior flow, conversions, and bounce rate will create more meaningful dialogue and successful tweaks to your sales and marketing strategies! Virtually Connecting Teams During Covid If your sales team has a daily or weekly huddle, be sure to include your marketing team in the conversations. This will provide them valuable insight that they can use to build better marketing strategies. However, nothing replaces having a sales-driven marketing team with experience in sales. Ultimately, this is the best way to create sales-driven marketing strategies that drive revenue! Do you need more creative ideas for Sales & Marketing? Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin and visit our website! Read more from Suzanne! Suzanne Ratti, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Suzanne Ratti is a Sales & Marketing Strategist, a proven performer and an entrepreneur with a passion for helping businesses revolutionize the way they deliver their products and services to their target audience. Her background in Sales and Marketing for powerhouses like Xerox and SmartCEO allows her to translate real-world experience, critical skill sets and proven results for businesses in virtually every industry and setting. Suzanne provides engaging coaching and presentations that can inspire, motivate and empower business owners, solopreneurs, and their sales teams to think differently.

Written by: Ibbie Aromolaran, 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 hear it all the time, “marry someone who is good for you, not for your family”, but how true is that really? Our friends and families are core parts of our lives. They are the people we spend the most time with. They are the ones we love and cherish. They are the ones who have been with us through significant parts of our lives. So why then would we not consider their opinions about potential partners we choose? One would expect that our friends and families have our best interests at heart. One would expect that our friends and families are like-minded individuals to us. After all, birds of a feather tend to flock together. So if these are the people we connect with in heart and mind, wouldn’t their opinions reflect our deepest desires? On the other hand, sometimes the family we’re stuck with, and the friends we choose aren’t the best for us mentally, physically, or spiritually. Sometimes we choose friends based on circumstance or convenience, and with family, well... we don’t get to choose them. Unfortunately, some family and friends do not have your best interest at heart, and everything they say can be taken with a grain of salt. Some are so consumed by their own opinions, preferences, misguided ideas and agendas that they fail to actually consider how or why a potential partner is ideal for you. So when does it actually matter what your friends and family think of the person you are dating? Well, consider these 3 things: 1. Does their track record show that they’ve always had your best interest at heart? If your loved ones have consistently had your back, supported your growth, and only ever wished the best for you, their opinions about your potential partner should hold a lot more weight than a loved one who was distant, unsupportive, and negative. 2. Do their values, mindset, and overall goals align with your values, mindset, and goals? If values, mindset, and goals align, it is extremely likely that your loved ones only want you to be with a partner who also aligns. Hence the reason their opinions should be held in high regard. 3. Are the reasons they’re not fond of your partner rooted in facts or in preferences? Listen carefully to your loved ones’ analysis of your partner, is it rooted in fact (i.e, how this person treats you & others, how this person handles his/her finances, how this person operates in life) or rooted in their preferences (what this person looks like, how this person dresses, which political party this person is in)? If rooted only in preference, choose your preferences over theirs. If rooted in fact, consider their thoughts. If you really dig deep and answer these questions honestly for yourself, you can better decide if you should consider your family and friends' thoughts and opinions about the person you are dating. I know firsthand that it is difficult to consider the opinions of others when you are deep in the thick of your infatuation and euphoria over a particular person, but I urge you to hold on to the idea that if your family and friends have your best interest at heart, they may be able to see what you’re possibly blinded to. For more information, you can find Ibbie on Instagram, follow her on Facebook, connect with her on LinkedIn, and watch her on YouTube! Ibbie Aromolaran, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Known for her unique, time-saving, efficient & fun approach to dating, Ibbie Aromolaran has a passion for guiding and empowering ambitious women to create the love lives of their dreams. As a Mental Health Therapist turned Certified Dating Coach, she is deeply dedicated to helping women uncover their deep-rooted barriers to successful dating and build new, effective habits from the ground up through her high-end, 4-phase program that helps women learn to date like pros and create meaningful connections within 12 weeks! Ibbie has a certification in dating & relationship coaching, a master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and is currently in her doctoral program studying social psychology and the science of human interactions. All in all, she is keenly interested in sharing her knowledge about how humans can best connect with one another.

Serena is an expert Business Strategist, Growth/Development and Empowerment Mentor to Female Entrepreneurs, as well as a best-selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and successful multiple Business Owner. Her main passion is offering business strategies, support and empowerment to ambitious and high vibe business women both locally and internationally – through HER Business Revolution at www.herbusinessrevolution.biz . She is also known for her organization skills through owning Glow Virtual Assistants, and for her support of women and child-related charities (also founding two charitable initiatives – Mums Empowerment Movement and SociaBubble). – I'm Serena Fordham - an expert Business Strategist, Growth/Development and Empowerment Mentor to Female Entrepreneurs; as well as a best selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and successful multiple Business Owner. Why do you do what you do? – When I started my first business, Glow Virtual Assistants, in 2013, after being made redundant while on maternity leave, I felt quite alone and isolated, and longed for people like-minded business owners around me for support. Hence when I was offered the opportunity to take over a local network of female entrepreneurs, I jumped at the chance. – This then grew into HER Business Revolution as it is today, and means I can fulfill my true passion of offering business strategies, support and empowerment to ambitious and high vibe business women both locally and internationally to encourage them to build bigger, better and more profitable businesses. – Also, innovation to help people is a high priority of mine, and as well as being an active supporter of women and child-related charities, I have also founded two charitable initiatives - Mums Empowerment Movement and SociaBubble - in order to help a variety of people progress in work and business. What do you like to do in your spare time? – As an owner of 2 successful businesses and two social enterprises, spare time is hard to come by. However, when I do get the chance, I like to read a good book, and I love to spend as much time as possible with my family and friends at my home, the park or the beach, as these are my happy places! I live in a small countryside village in the UK and like to take long walks with my husband, two children and our dog Coco to blow away the cobwebs and give me some headspace from my busy work life. Why did you want to be a Brainz Executive Contributor? – Sharing knowledge and experience is really important to me, and I have had many mentors and coaches, as well as other external influences, over the years who have contributed to the success and growth of award-winning businesses. Being able to contribute to Brainz Magazine gives me the opportunity to educate and support lots of business people and hopefully be a small part of their future growth and success too! How can we find out more or get in touch? – The best place to find out more is through my business websites: http://www.herbusinessrevolution.biz/ http://www.glowva.co.uk/ http://www.mumsempowermentmovement.co.uk/ http://www.sociabubble.co.uk/ Stay tuned for more articles from Serena!