Written by: Tracey Sofra, 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. Financial intimacy is where two people in a relationship are honest about their beliefs about money. That’s where both partners are in tune to create a healthy financial relationship with trust and honesty at its very core. Of course, all types of intimacy in a relationship are important but financial intimacy can either make or break your relationship and is, therefore, an essential component of any relationship. Issues from Lack of Financial Intimacy Secrets about debt or money problems Financial imbalance leads to resentment (when one partner earns more or has bigger financial obligations) Communication breakdowns Lack of trust and financial infidelity (If one partner has been caught lying about money) Improve Financial Intimacy in every stage of the relationship 1. When dating If you are just getting to know each other, it's a great time to ask questions: How does your partner value money? Do you share similar beliefs and financial aspirations? You may not want to ask as many questions as your accountant would. But you can find out if they’re keen to buy a home and save for the future. 2. Moving in together When things are more serious, you might decide to move in together. Sit down and discuss your money management plans. Ideally, this conversion should happen before you've officially moved in together. How will you split the bills? Will you have a joint account? Will you split the rent 50/50 or each pay a proportion based on your salaries? There are no right or wrong answers here. The point is to have an honest discussion to ensure you’re on the road to financial compatibility and that you're comfortable with the plan. 3. Getting married Newly engaged? Congratulations! This is a great chance to have a chat about your finances with your partner! Before you get carried away with looking at dresses and venues, have an open discussion about how much you plan to spend on your special day. You also want to discuss and establish your joint short- and long-term financial goals if you haven't already. 4. Buying a home together This is a big step in a relationship. Financial intimacy here means discussing how you'll afford a deposit on your first home. Will you each save 50%? Perhaps this isn't possible. In which case, will you choose a different split based on your earnings? Consider if you purchase the property in joint names or tenants in common. Don't forget to discuss how you’ll split the mortgage costs and repairs. 5. In a long-term relationship Set some time aside often to talk about goals, budgeting, paying off debt, investing, and other money goals. I call these Money Dates and simply put money dates are allocated time you spend budgeting, managing, and planning your finances. They allow you to check in with your money regularly and ensure you are showing it the love and attention it deserves. You don't need to have the entire conversation in one sitting instead, be intentional about bringing it up so you can both get on the same page financially. Financial Intimacy takes teamwork Don't feel like you need to go at achieving financial intimacy alone! Professionals are available to speak to you depending on your relationship stage and your specific concerns. For example, you might speak to a financial advisor, accountant, mortgage advisor, tax advisor, or relationship/marriage counselor. It’s never too late! Whatever relationship stage you’re at, financial intimacy is worth achieving. And this is a goal within reach. Begin by opening up to your partner about any concerns you have. Even if financial intimacy has been lacking, it’s never too late to get back on track. Begin with an open and honest discussion about how you both view money and create joint financial goals together. Don't forget to seek professional advice if you need it to help you stay on track. I'm Tracey Sofra and I believe women should take control of their money and create the financial independence they deserve to live a life of choice. If you are ready to take the next step in your journey to living a life of choice, take the Financial Confidence Quiz and find out how you score to move forward in your financial life. GET YOUR SCORE NOW! Tracey Sofra is Australia’s leading Financial Advisor specialising in Women’s Financial Confidence. As a Business Leader, Mentor, Financial Advisor, Author, Speaker, and Mum, for over three decades Tracey has shared her proven method for shifting mindsets and the limits to financial success for thousands of women. Her passion for financial freedom is infectious leaving you inspired to challenge the status quo, build confidence and create change. To enquire about her working with you or your organisation please contact us at info@wowwomen.com.au Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Tracey! Tracey Sofra, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Tracey Sofra, is Australia’s leading Financial Advisor specialising in Women’s Financial Confidence. As a Business Leader, Mentor, Financial Advisor, Author, Speaker and Mum, for over three decades Tracey has shared her proven method for shifting mindsets and the limits to financial success for thousands of women. Her passion around financial freedom is infectious leaving you inspired to challenge the status quo, build confidence and create change. Tracey is dedicated to Investing in Women's Empowerment across the globe as part of a greater social impact across the UN Sustainability Goals.

Written by: William Liu, 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 shared previously about ways to improve your own personal leadership. I discussed that the reason why leadership is so near and dear to me is the positive impact it has had on my life. I fully understand that I am a byproduct of the senior leaders that took the time to lead me well. While strong leadership is predicated on authenticity, trust, and honesty, that equally extends to the culture of your team and organization. It is a leader’s responsibility to shape the organizational environment around the people they lead and influence. Most importantly however, it is to have a healthy culture where everyone can thrive in. Before we dive further into the topic of culture, I would like to offer my interpretation and definition of organizational culture. Organizational culture is the “collective way that a group of people, bonded through shared mission and values (whether formal or informal), think, act, and interact with one another to accomplish a set vision and direction.” Another way to frame it, culture is the combined behaviors that are practiced day in and day out throughout the organization. These behaviors bleed into how you communicate, collaborate, plan, and ultimately perform. I firmly believe that leaders and managers set the cultural tone for their teams and organizations by setting the standard, communicating that standard, modeling that standard, and developing systems and processes to help their teams in enacting the spirit of the standard. As it relates to establishing healthy organization culture, I strongly feel that phrase from John Maxwell “that everything rises and falls with leadership” is so appropriate in this context. It starts from the top. Focus on organizational health is a necessity: Especially in this tight labor market along with the continued economic headwinds, senior leaders in a company must focus on organizational culture and its impact on organizational health. It is no longer just a competitive advantage; it is a necessity. This is paramount because at the end of the day, what is an organization without people? And with so much uncertainty permeating economically, geopolitically, and socially, focusing on this to reduce retention risk to a company as well as treating people well is a no-brainer. Another way to look at this is, what would you do now to prevent your best people from leaving your organization later? Would taking the appropriate measures, steps, and time to reduce that risk be worth it. I know for me the question is unequivocally yes. While that may sound extreme, it really is looking at it from a risk management standpoint. Employees are feeling uncertain, potentially burn-out, and even frustrated and dissatisfied. This is then leading them to either find other jobs and resign or engage in behavior like quiet quitting. Ultimately, it is a leader’s job and responsibility to act. Whether your organization is extremely healthy or not, there are still always ways to improve. Practical applications to start today: So, what are ways to start? I bucketed it into 3 general phases from what has helped in my own experience in recent years through the pandemic and even post-pandemic. 1. Assessment: Assess where your team is at using employee engagement surveys like Energage or even just create your own custom survey through Google Forms. It starts with asking the right type of questions based on what you observe going on at work and what you hear. Be curious and ask why? You could be experiencing communication challenges or seeing signs of burnout. In that case, you could ask questions such as the following: How would you rate the communication within your team? How would you rate the communication with other people in the organization? Are you noticing a disconnect between what is asked by management and what is being accomplished? How would you rate the general mood and sentiment feels like at work? Are you feeling signs of exhaustion, stress, or internal friction bubble up? Do you feel tasks and projects are behind? Is there a passion emanating from what your team members do regularly? 2. Action: From that survey, use the information collected and begin to work to address any of the concerns and issues raised from it. The important thing is to start the process of changing things for the better. It often will not be a short-term fix but starting now is a great first step. Depending on the results, it may be something to publicly acknowledge to your team and that can set the context for what is to come. Often just that willingness by a leader to bring up something hard and contextualize it for the team helps to remove ambiguity. You can also begin to engage in a bi-directional conversation with your teams in group settings. This could be doing anonymous focus groups in conjunction with your human resources team. It could even be spending time as a team monthly to get to know each other and establish that trust where you can open up more as a group. This can also be augmented by more informal practices like skip-level meetings, where a leader skips a level down to talk to more junior team members. Perhaps, even setting up a vehicle to practice appreciation and gratitude through writing a nice card, leveraging recognition tools, or setting up a slack channel to say something nice for everyone to see. 3. Involvement: This makes this a team effort. Get your managers and others involved. For there to be genuine transformation, it cannot just be on the leader. It really is about listening to what is being communicated back to you and setting an intentional plan to create new habits, new practices, and new rituals that ultimately tie back to the mission, vision, and values of your organization. You will be surprised how significant the change can be when people understand their purpose in a company and where the company is going. In addition, ask for new ideas to try out to make the organization healthier and improve adherence to the culture. Once you get that ball rolling, it is about continuous incremental improvement. Measure where you are quarterly, use the results to continue what is working well, make changes for those parts that are not, and continue to listen. Healthy organizational culture is a good investment: This may sound so elementary and simple, but that is the point. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. The pandemic really accelerated the trend in this direction so there are so many resources (podcasts, books, audiobooks, etc.) that can help. If you are a manager or leader, there is no excuse not to focus on improving the health of your organizational culture. If you are not in those positions, please bring it up with your colleagues and managers. Things won’t improve overnight, and depending on the level of change needed, it may take a while to gain traction and take hold. But focusing on improving your organizational health through the culture is always a good investment. Another favorite starting point is the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team framework. I strongly recommend this book read to everyone. Follow me on LinkedIn, for more info! Read more from William! William Liu, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine William Liu is currently a higher education marketing executive at the American College of Education. He enjoys the challenge of identifying and solving mission-critical problems for organizations and has a wealth of experience tackling challenges around the world from his time in the Army as a psychological operations specialist to now. In his 20 years working in marketing, he has a strong history of transforming teams through his emphasis on organizational health and culture. His mission in life is to leverage his leadership to help solve problems in his community, at work, and in the world at large. He believes that every life he can impact professionally or personally can lead to a better world.

Written by: Chrysanthi Vazitari, 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. If you know me, you’ll know I love a good music reference. Hence the title for this article. Even though I never stopped believing, there were times in my life that made my journey a bit difficult. But let’s take it from the start… During my 20s, I realized that I wasn’t anywhere near the “dream career” everyone was talking about. I was really unsatisfied with my career, even though I managed to accomplish a lot of things at a really young age. That led me to experience burnout, an experience that lasted almost a year. Imagine it as a year of many sleepless nights, a constant lack of energy and the permanent feeling of exhaustion. The prolongation of that feeling caused a great deficiency of vitamins, extremely high levels of cortisol, which led to health troubles. Imagine that… You might wonder… “Why didn’t you get some help?” Honestly, I don't know. Nobody told me that what I was experiencing was not normal or that it was burnout or it was due to the long dissatisfaction from my lifestyle. I was so overwhelmed with everything, I thought that giving time, till I somehow have an epiphany on what I want to do with my life, will be the solution. Of course any action, even applying for a job, felt like another element in my to-do list. My usual excuses were, among others: "There are things more important right now", "You can do this later", “But I don't want to change my job for another similar position” “This is all I have done for the past few years, I don't know if I can do anything else” and many more negative and no-cannot-do thoughts. But later was never coming, so I said f**k this Chrysa... just do something! So, in 2020, I took a leap and decided to study something, so I started a coaching training. I always loved psychology, I was always curious about people and I do love helping and boy, I fell in love with it. I said “that’s it”. Coaching gave me an opportunity to align my values with my needs and make them a priority. Of course, very soon the next new thing came up. As I am a free-spirited person, being an entrepreneur, was something that I had been desiring since I can remember myself. From my first sales of handmade paintings when I was 5 years old, to my small stress ball shop back in the elementary years. (yes you can imagine what they looked like). Therefore, I had to take some uncomfortable decisions and ofter work harder than before! I started saying no to gatherings or invitations and I channeled my focus on growing for once. Trust me... Many times I was tempted to just give up, still am sometimes, and get a job in the field of my comfort zone BUT my vision for the career identity I wanted to build was stronger than ever. Just a few months later after taking my certification, I quit my job and two months after that, I got my first big coaching job with a multinational company. The rush you get when you start something new, especially something that you wanted for so long, is truly indescribable. One and a half years later, since I decided to take an action, I have worked with more than 180 people from all over the world, delivered around 40 workshops/trainings, challenges and learned so many more new things than I ever did in the 5 years of my "corporate" life. My journey finally started to mean something. After all, it’s not the destination so much as the journey. Of course, all of these would have never happened if I didn’t ask for help. If “you can do this later” didn’t become “you need to do this now, for yourself”. My dream is happening because I stopped and grasped my needs for once. I invested in myself and decided to finally build the life that I wanted! I am still building it of course, but it all happened when I CONSCIOUSLY DECIDED to take a bet on myself and start becoming the Chrysa I always dreamed of. If you should take something from my journey, it is that you should start feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable and always know that you can ask for help. Because of that I now help other passionate professionals to Grow & Glow their careers with my unique and fun programmes. Maybe I can help you too! So, don’t stop believin’! If you are seeking clarity, career satisfaction or to pivot your career, I am your person. Book a discovery call here. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Chrysanthi! Chrysanthi Vazitari, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Chrysanthi is a certified transformational coach working with multi-passionate and highly energetic professionals, who try to get career satisfaction, advancement or who want to completely pivot their careers. Chrysa has successfully pivoted her career three times already, from an educator to communications advisor in big corporations and is now an entrepreneur/coach. She is the founder of Career Grow & Glow and the co-founder of GrowthUP coaching. Her coaching method is the ACC: Awareness ‒ Clarity ‒ Choice (by CMA) in combination with somatic/embodied and cognitive-behavioral elements. Of course, there is constant change, as she doesn't rest and keep incorporating new methods along the way!

Written by: Erin Vogt, 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. At one point, I knew I had found the answer. Something had to explain the inner confusion, relentless distraction, Rolodex of jobs, battling focus and sensory overloads. I was treated as a sad, burnt-out Mom, given anti-depressants, and the brain fog was ten times worse. Daily, I felt even-keeled and scarily numb. Even that tiny dose altered me. Not into the better person I wanted to be or the braver one. It had parked my keister into comfort and avoidance. I was an insomniac, dull, paranoid, felt a loss of sparkle, and was the queen of Mom-shame while I aced People Pleasing 101. (Cue the violin). Fidgety and showing fake smiles in pain, my counsellor inquired why I was so deflective and distracted. I had always laughed and said, "That is my ADD talking." Joking turned into a severe contemplation, and weeks later, my assessment returned: High Functioning ADHD. Combined with my psychiatrist's evaluation of Obsessive Compulsive Personality (not OCD), Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and prone to further bouts of Depression. My first response was, "Now, isn't that a fun bowl of alphabet soup?" To be followed by denial, frustration, and shame that eventually led to finding joy and self-acceptance. Through this diagnosis experience, I realized my mental health comorbidities had a semblance. A switch finally went off. I could understand why I was more susceptible to Depression and living with unknown anxiety could result from living with ADHD all those years. I discovered that nearly 50% of adults diagnosed with ADHD experience some anxiety disorder. [1] Even more disturbing was reading that only 20% of adults sought professional help. Tying the Pieces Together My behaviour patterns started to make sense, and I was in a more empowered position to make effective changes. Feeling as though I did not measure up to my peers or family members, I masked my true personality to fit in. The people with ADHD I meet while networking and coaching share the same tone: "I never feel like I truly fit in anywhere." I've come to understand that lacking this sense of belonging may be because we feel forced to adapt to fit in. Adaptability is one angle we, as ADHD'ers, shine (we love change and pressure) and also, we feel compelled to adapt to people and situations not even suitable for us. Wanting to feel the rush of dopamine, we switch around jobs, relationships, hobbies, and obsessions. Consistency is a struggle, and time either runs warp-speed where we are on the catch-up train, or it lags on and on, and a turtle appears to move faster than said tedious task. At the time of my diagnosis, I was mid 30's and had overcome four depressive episodes, including two bouts of post-partum Depression. I became fanatical in researching what I "had" and how I could improve my life. Books, podcasts, webinars, Ted Talks, interviewing friends, social media rabbit holes, and YouTube became my obsessions. Reading and hearing materials that normalized the chaos was constructive and heart-warming. Moving Forward Intentionally Years later, I dove into transformation and got clarity around my habits. I got quiet with my thoughts, lit up journals, Zoom rooms, learned to laugh, and eventually could love this part of myself. I'll never forget the first aha moment realizing I was not alone in my patterns. "You mean others lose track when setting the table, get lost in parking lots, forget to send cards, pay bills on time, smile and nod they live "present" yet struggle to focus on one topic? Not just teens? Adult life with ADHD exists. Seriously?" I like to call it ADDulting. It turns out it was not just me. Well, fancy that! There's a "name" for it—a label giving context to past disasters and victories dating back to preschool. Maybe I'm not destined to be the strange duck forever, and other fantastic duckies may join me in my homey sparkle pond, where you know there will be dancing. Fortunately, such magic has occurred. By the grace of God, I have received the most incredible opportunities and circles of friends since I learned how to accept and no longer deny my true authentic self. Adapting habits to suit a distracted mind and spontaneous attitude and calling 'squirrel' every 42 seconds is not the most straightforward task. And it is worth every effort. I remain grateful for the pitfalls and challenging lessons that allow me to live in the same headspace as my clients. Such accurate empathy is necessary within any coaching relationship. The past six years have been a whirlwind of emotions and creative zest. Finally, answering a decade-long calling of becoming a Coach for women who are overwhelmed and exhausted. Once I had this understanding, I knew that moving forward to establish my best level of health (i.e. mental, physical, social and emotional) was a necessary goal to be at my best in all areas of life. Habit change has been an arduous back-and-forth process, far from linear and also a beautiful journey. Growing Awareness of ADHD Today, the internet is ripe with reels, Tik Toks, Instagram carousels and videos to see that we are not alone in our ADHD challenges. It is refreshing to laugh at our quirks. Let's face it; our actions can be pretty ridiculous and hilarious. It's encouraging for those who are on their discovery path. It feels enlightening to be in the company of driven, creative and impactful entrepreneurs who desire to lead the world in transforming mindsets and old paradigms around understanding mental health, human behaviour and habit change. We must continue creating and expanding the conversations in this growing ADHD community so we can find our authentic voices and truly belong. This quote by ADHD and Executive Function Coach Anna Dafna beautifully summarizes what we, living with ADHD, get to focus on: "Be grateful for every test...and all its challenges, visualize how you want your life to be, focus on what you want to achieve, trust your abilities, take the difficult road and believe in yourself." Finding focus and calm in our day requires work; however, it doesn't have to cost anything but attention and time. Learning to manage stress and overwhelm is possible when intentionality is at play. Here are 8 Ways to Activate Calm in Stressful Times Get outside and move your body. Let nature offer answers to what overwhelms you. Leave your smartphone and smartwatch at home when outdoors for a walk or jog. Focus on what you hear in 10-second increments. Pause, reflect and repeat. Find one physical object in your home that has meaning. Create focus around its shape, colours, size and texture —zone in on the simplicity and memories of what this object represents. Grab your water and a snack. Adults with ADHD can forget to eat and hydrate properly. Hours of continuous work and hyper-focused activity can affect habits of daily living. Watch a child or animal play, and where possible, play with them. Remember that you once were a carefree child as well. There's no shame in reliving this curious, joyful part of you. Gather your thoughts in one place. Write whatever is on your mind now. Grab any loose piece of paper (i.e., a straggly receipt in your purse) and just let your pen move. Play music if you like, and feel the flow of what your emotions are telling you. Your thoughts dictate feelings, which inform your actions. Your actions dictate your behaviours, which inform your behaviours and carve your habits. Phone a friend. Old school, not texting or sending direct messages. Use voice exchange to share tone and context about what you're going through. You deserve such attention from a loving family member or friend. Offer yourself grace. What have you accomplished today that is worth celebrating? Go for ABC - (A) Always (B) Be (C) Celebrating. No matter what you crushed or flopped, consider the action as progress. After all, Nelson Mandela graced us with this quote: "I never lose. I either win or I learn". Create clarity around your racing thoughts by downloading Erin Vogt's Guidebook: 6 Essential Ways to Calm Your ADHD Mind, here. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Erin! Erin Vogt, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Erin Vogt is a Transformation Coach focused on mental wellness for women. Overcoming years of extreme stress and depression, Vogt helps women create freedom from overwhelm and exhaustion by making lasting changes in their health habits. She shows women how to unshackle from guilt and shame to find their authentic voice and confidently own their life. Erin is the Founder of Beyond Mom Club and runs the Creating Freedom for Women Community. Source: [1] ADHD Statistics: Numbers, Facts, and Information About ADD (additudemag.com)

Roberto is an experienced business coach who applies neuroscientific paradigms in the programs created for his clients. Roberto has the passion to work with people and for people within companies, to ensure high levels of performance and a degree of job satisfaction that makes them accomplished and successful and improves the total productivity of the company. His vision is to see his country (Italy) better than it is now, through the success of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) which represent at least 70% of the national economy. He says, "'I want to leave our children and our grandchildren a better country". For this, he contributes in improving the success of companies through his business coaching program (“PerFormare”) and through his neuroscience expertise, working on the balance of four human beings variables: Mind, Body, Emotions, Relationships. ""PerFormare"", the innovative business coaching program proposed by Roberto, leverages an assessment based on neuroscience, done at the beginning and the end of the program; He can make the intervention with clients, who choose to work with him, very precise, accurate and effective. Roberto is an expert in NLP (Master Practitioner), Mindfulness, Personal Trainer, Nutrition, Neuroscience, Leadership and collaborates with different experts according to the needs of clientIf you want to know deeply how to best use the skills and talents of the people who are part of your team, if you want to know the relational modalities and behavioral patterns of your collaborators, if you want to know how to best organize your team and make it perform at its best please, take a look at https://robertopatricolo.com/ to learn more about Roberto his work and his innovative approach. Roberto Patricolo, Business and Performance COACH Introduce yourself. I am the father of three beautiful girls, now adults who are taking flight for their future autonomy, in work, in the family, and in their own choices. I live with my wife Letizia and Agnese one of my three daughters, trying in my little one not to let them miss anything and to the development of the future of everyone in the family. almost 3 years. My hobbies are music, listened to and playing as a blues guitarist, reading historical books and historical, adventure, and fantastic films. I am very passionate about the history of the mafia because they also tell about my adolescence and youth, as I was born in Sicily; and neuroscience, which excites me a lot to the point of being an integral part of my work and my proposal to clients. I have always done the work of consulting and supporting others, and in the last 12 years in coaching I have wanted to affirm my propensity to help, and I always find a way to lend a hand to those in need. What is the name of your business, and how do you help your customers? My activity, Wellness eXperience for the concept of well-being not only for health but, above all linked to the concept of satisfaction and happiness that each of us wants to achieve. My activity is in the field of coaching, and I can define it as performance and neuro coach in the commercial field; because I believe business is excellent when performance is excellent. Every person, in my opinion, can have a high performance if he understands how it works and what makes it work in the best way: the brain and the balance between mind, emotions and body. What kind of audience are you targeting your business? My business is aimed at all those who want to increase their satisfaction in life, especially entrepreneurs, professionals and managers and business teams. What are your goals for your business? My goal is to raise awareness in Italian entrepreneurs that people are the real engine of the economy and not procedures or strategies for their own sake. In this sense, I have already developed a project that incorporates neuroscience since last year. What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future? I would like to get entrepreneurs to understand what I can do for them and to seriously consider the idea of ​​collaborating with me for the growth of their businesses and the Italian economy. I'm talking about collaboration, not about the customer. For me, the relationship with the customer must be a partnership relationship. What is your work inspired by? My work is inspired by my desire to see my children live in a fairer, wiser, and more balanced world, and to do this everyone must do their part. I do my part, helping those who can and want to improve their way of approaching life and the situations that arise daily, in the private and personal sphere, as well as in the professional one. If everyone does their part, I believe we can become successful in creating a great future. Tell us about your biggest professional achievement so far. Helping people to change their lifestyle. I collaborate with medical studies; we have developed a path that integrates the nutritional medical part with mental coaching to create awareness in people of their value as people and improve their determination and strategies for weight control. To date, for the past 3 years, considering the pandemic period, over 200 people have benefited from this path. Another success refers to the certification as a professional in neuroagility, an innovative neuroscientific paradigm that helps people to greatly improve their skills in learning, development and use of talent and to better understand how to interact with others both from the point of view relational, and from a behavioral point of view especially in the context where very often, situations of conflict or friction or simple misunderstandings are created in teams not only because of misaligned values ​​but very often because the brain of one processes information in a way unlike another component that processes information in another way, returning completely inadequate answers. If you could change one thing in your industry, would it be and why? I have always avoided marketing to manipulate people and bring them into my business. What I would like is that so many coaching gurus would avoid advertising to hook clients and lead by example by truly helping them. I have never believed that in classrooms of 300 or 400 people you can really help each other. So I would like to change a marketing of my scope that is fairer and really useful to people. Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Roberto!

Written by: Kadena Tate, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. When I started my business, I made several huge mistakes that lowered my self-confidence and cost huge amounts time, money, energy, and resources. The biggest mistake was creating a course that no one wanted. I spent months working on this new course and when I finally launched it, no one was even mildly interested. At the time, I didn't realize that I had made a lot of assumptions that ushered me straight into failure. My first mistake was not even considering the answer to four critical questions: (1) What is keeping my ideal client up at night filled with worry? (2) What are they currently doing to try and solve their problem? (3) What is the real reason they haven't been able to fix it on their own until now? (4) What solution would they willingly invest in? If I had known the answers to those questions, I would have realized that my solution didn't match their problem. For this reason, it's so important to make sure that you're creating something that people actually want. If you create something that nobody wants, then you're going to have a hard time making any money – and you might even go out of business. So before you create a new product, service or program for your association, membership program, or mastermind, make sure to do some research and find out what people are actually looking for. In today's article, I'd like to offer a solution. It's called the minimum viable product, or MVP. The MVP is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for further development. The MVP approach allows startups to validate their business idea quickly and cheaply without expending too much time or money on developing a full-fledged product. Building an MVP doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, there are several simple ways you can get started. Here are nine of them: 1. Identify the core feature of your product. This is the one thing that your product must do in order for it to be considered successful. For example, the core feature of Kajabi is helping you turn your knowledge into an online course or membership program. The core feature of Stripe is providing a platform for people to accept payments online. The core feature of WhatsApp is messaging, and the core feature of Instagram is photo sharing. Figure out what the one thing is that your product must do in order for it to be successful. 2. Identify your target market. This is the group of people who are most likely to use and benefit from your product. For example, the target market for Kajabi is online entrepreneurs who want to create and sell courses or membership programs. The target market for Stripe is businesses of all sizes that need to accept payments online. The target market for WhatsApp is anyone who needs to communicate with others via text message. And the target market for Instagram is people who enjoy taking and sharing photos. 3. Identify your early adopters. These are the people who are most likely to try out your product in its early stages. Early adopters are usually willing to take on more risk than the average person, and they're also more likely to give you feedback that you can use to improve your product. For example, the early adopters for Kajabi were online entrepreneurs who were looking for a better way to create and sell courses or membership programs. The early adopters for Stripe were businesses of all sizes that needed a better way to accept payments online. The early adopters for WhatsApp were people who needed a better way to communicate with others via text message. And the early adopters for Instagram were people who enjoyed taking and sharing photos. 4. Identify your minimum viable product. This is the simplest version of your product that you can create that will still allow you to achieve your core feature. For example, the MVP for Kajabi was an online platform that allowed users to create and sell courses or membership programs. The MVP for Stripe was a simple payment processing system that allowed businesses to accept payments online. The MVP for WhatsApp was a messaging app that allowed users to communicate with each other via text message. And the MVP for Instagram was a photo-sharing app that allowed users to share photos with each other. 5. Create your MVP. This is the fun part! Once you've identified the core feature of your product and the minimum viable product, it's time to start building a prototype. A prototype is a basic version of your product that you can use to test your assumptions and get feedback from potential customers. You can create a prototype with just a few hours of work using tools like Sketch, Adobe XD, or InVision. Don't try to make your MVP look perfect. Remember, the goal is to get feedback from users, not impress them with your design skills. A basic design will suffice. 6. Test your MVP. Once you've built your MVP, it's time to put it to the test. Send it out to your early adopters and get their feedback. See if they can use it to achieve the core feature of your product. If not, figure out what needs to be tweaked or changed. 7. Launch as quickly as possible. The sooner you launch, the sooner you'll start receiving feedback. Try to launch in less than two months if possible. 8. Use existing platforms and tools. Unless your MVP requires a new platform or tool, there's no need to reinvent the wheel—just use what's already out there. For example, you can use Google Forms or SurveyMonkey to create surveys and collect user feedback easily and quickly. 9. Create a landing page. A landing page is a single web page that describes your product and includes a sign-up form for interested users. Creating a landing page is a quick and easy way to gauge user interest in your MVP without actually having to build anything. 10. Offer a free trial or discount. This will help you attract users and encourage them to sign up for your MVP. 11. Get feedback from potential customers. Once you have a prototype, it's time to get feedback from potential customers. Show them your prototype and see if they're actually interested in using your product. You can do this by conducting customer interviews, surveys, or demonstrate via webinar. 12. Keep it small and focused. An MVP should not be complex—it should be focused on one core feature only. Trying to do too much will only slow down your development process and hinder your ability to get user feedback effectively. As you can see, building an MVP is a great way to validate your business idea quickly and economically. By launching in less than two months with a focus on one core feature, you can get feedback from potential customers and make sure you're on the right track. So don't wait—get started on your MVP today! Do you have any other tips for building an MVP? Share them in the comments below! Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kadena! Kadena Tate, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kadena Tate is the author of “Cultivating Courage: The Path to Reclaiming Your Power” and contributing author of the NY Times Bestseller “Business Model You,” published by Wiley Press. In addition to writing books, Kadena also works as a revenue strategist and business model designed for authors, coaches, and speakers who want to create movements, masterminds, and membership programs.

Nicky Clinch is a Master Maturation Facilitator & Teacher, workshop leader, Hay House author and Shamanic Healer. Nicky leads people from all over the world through profound life-changing processes, allowing them to heal from the root, becoming free of their past and come home to who they truly are. A leading expert in the field of human behaviour and the human condition, ontology, healing trauma and energetic intelligence, Nicky is dedicated to using her life to serve the evolution of human consciousness on our planet and for human beings to discover their truest infinite potential. Founding and leading The Alchemy of Being: Academy of Maturation Coaching, she has now trained hundreds of people globally. Nicky Clinch, Master Maturation Coach + Shamanic Healer Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better. Well this year I turned 43 which feels like a big deal somehow. I have been with my husband for 12 years and I have 2 beautiful children, a 4yr old son and a 9yr old daughter. We live on the most beautiful land on the edge of the NZ bush in West Auckland where we are committed to becoming as fully self-sustainable as we can. We are building a bio-dynamic kitchen garden on the land, growing as much as we can. We have three chickens that roam freely, two bunnies, five wild ducks that live on the pond and our beautiful black cat (that thinks he’s a panther) called Pango (which is the Maori word for black). Let’s just say we live a full and nourishing life. I’m extremely grateful. I run my entire business from the home ‒ my office has two walls of glass that allows me to sit at my desk and look out over the land. It is the most incredible thing to be able to sit and connect with people all over the planet every single day and run my company that is primarily based in UK and Europe all whilst living this life immersed in nature. I don’t think of my work as work, it is without a doubt my purpose and my passion. I feel lucky every single day to do be able to do what I do and doing it every day feeds my life and makes it better. I count myself extremely lucky to be able to have such a relationship with my work ‒ rising and evolving consciousness, deep healing and connection are my passions. I also love to cook, grow food, I love travel and adventure, exploring stunning areas of nature. I love people, connecting, socialising and equally I love being alone at home. I am one of those people that just need both in equal measure. My heritage is I am Chinese/Malaysian/Thai mixed with English and Russian. I grew up in Hong Kong and spent most of my childhood travelling all over Asia. I flew on my first transatlantic flight alone at the age of 5 so I often feel like no one country is my home but the whole planet. This aligns with my work where I feel like no one kind of person is my focus but the human species. What is your business name and how do you help your clients? My business name is Nicky Clinch Ltd. and our company vision is for human beings to come home to being so they can pass it on to the children and the next generation. We help human beings become free of the human condition and the suffering that is generated from this. The work we offer is immensely deep, it takes real courage and commitment but the gift, the promise is real freedom and coming home to one’s true self. I don’t mean this in a ‘woo woo’ way ‒ Maturation is a very grounded rooted ontological process of educating people on the mechanism and functionality of the human mind and how we generate our appearing reality. By working through our maturation process, we help people break free of their attachments to their stories and identities generated by the human mind, that keep people stuck in repeated patterns and loops of their pasts. These repeating patterns create immense levels of suffering and struggle, rob people of their true power, freedom and life-force and then get passed on through the generations. When people come to work with us and become free of the attachments to the stories, identities and movement of the human mind, they can truly come into alignment on a bodymind level and start to live from a space of infinite possibility and presence. Allowing them to start generating life from the present (rather than repeating the past), opening the possibility of creating a new paradigm from the future. What kind of audience do you target your business towards? Well in honesty, in Maturation, if you are human then it relates to you as we work with the human condition. Generally, the people that come to us are those that have already done a substantial amount of work, self-actualization and healing on themselves and even though they are already ok, they keep finding themselves repeating similar patterns that are limiting them from the immense possibility of what they dream. We work with both men and women; our target age group is 32-50. These people are usually done with finding more strategies to manage life and are interested in living from a space of freedom, self-accountability and presence. What are your current goals for your business? We have a goal to impact 1 million human beings, facilitating them to break free of the past and live beyond the story so they can pass on a new level of consciousness to future generations. Who inspires you to be the best that you can be? Hands down my children inspire me every single day. Every time I look at them I see our future and I feel the responsibility to teach them how to be the leaders of our future. The children of our world are our future leaders and they are learning from who we as the adults are being much more than what we are doing or saying. If we are filled with resentment, fear, anger, blame; if we are judging each other and fighting for more war and separation, they are learning from us and will repeat these patterns for generations to come. That is the nature of the human condition. And so, we have an immense responsibility right now on our planet; who each of us are being in our lives and with each other, is what is going to sculpt the future. And so, my children are my inspiration. Second to that, my clients. I count myself to be immensely lucky to be able to work with many human beings at extremely deep levels. I feel lucky people are willing to tell me the truth about themselves every day and allow me/us to take them to the deepest roots of themselves in service of their maturation. To be able to witness human beings heal deeply and break free of suffering and come home to who they truly are is a gift. Every day I witness this and it gifts me with quite an extraordinary viewpoint on life and the value of every single moment we get to be here alive on earth. Therefore, beyond my children, my clients gift me this every day and it inspires me to want to be better. What is your work inspired by? All the old teachers ‒ David Bohm, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Adyashanti, Mooji, Ken Wilber, Anthony Demasio, Prema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh… but also, the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine and five elements theory I absorbed and learnt from my Buddhist Thai/Chinese grandparents, who taught me just from who they were being, the natural flow of change that is life and to live from a place of compassion and non-attachment. Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far. So many and I must admit, many of the most fulfilling ones happen inside a 1:1 client session or our Listening to Life programme, where not many publicly will see. That moment when a human being releases something of their past they’ve carried for a lifetime, and it literally changes how they appear right in front of us. Wow, it makes everything worthwhile. Publicly, launching my first book. When we hit our first million in the company. When our hero programme, Listening to Life became fully international where we enable participants from all over the planet to be all in one room. Selling out our Alchemy of Being 2022 maturation coaching programme in 6 weeks ‒ that was amazing. If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why? Gosh, I am not interested in being judgmental but I feel there are so many coaches offering services to others without truly having done the deeper healing work on themselves. Which often leads to trauma and survival patterns and identities running the show. We have 80% coaches and psychotherapists in our current Alchemy of Being training programme and they are surprised to discover how much they carry unresolved within them that they didn’t even know about. The more we can truly offer service from a space beyond trauma, beyond survival within our own self ‒ the more we can break the cycles and create a new paradigm of living and being for our species. Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today. I have had many but I know I would not be who I am today if I hadn’t gone through such challenges and dark times in my younger years. Facing the absolute hell that comes with addiction as a young person and the shame and hopelessness that comes with that was one of the greatest gifts of my life. Why? Because I not only overcame it but I have truly become free of it and it will forever gift me with a deep sense of gratitude for life and for being here. It also allows me to be with other humans in their darkest places, because whatever they struggle with or have been to, I have been there myself. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

Written by: Nicola Wakeling , 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. How do you choose whether you need therapy or coaching? On my very first coaching course, much of the conversation centred around where coaching stopped and therapy started. Later when I got together with a psychotherapy group, the same conversation was happening! So if we are all confused, what does that mean for everyone else? As with all good therapists/counsellors/coaches, I will ask another question that might clean things up for you – What is it that you are trying to achieve? If you are trying to make some changes in your life that will return some sort of ‘normality’, you want life to be as it was ‘before' the problem. You have an idea of how life should be – and you don’t want to suffer anymore. This generally falls into the category of Therapy and Counselling. We will return to these and distinguish between them later on. If you want some new horizons, to be able to express a new aspect of your life, maximising on what you already have, then that would mostly be Coaching. The interesting thing is that most people start by wantingto change something, and when that has dissolved, they then want to move forwards in new and exciting ways. In these instances, Therapy and Coaching are intertwined and that’s where the line blurs. Then there are the people who have taken a wrong turn in their life somewhere and have ended up in a less that satisfying place and that may be causing them all manner of distress. So you can see that by the definition above, this may be coaching or therapy… and it’s even more complicated when you might consider that you may not know where you are or what you want! But let’s continue on. Therapy is an umbrella term that can cover anything from Physical Massage, Reiki, and Somatic Movement, right through to Psychotherapy and Counselling. It would also be used to describe different forms of talking therapies such as hypnotherapy, trauma therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and other newer modalities that have excellent results in specific circumstances. Counselling is more specific in that it approaches change through conversation – with the counsellor specifically trained to lead you into finding the information that you need to understand your problem and move forwards. Counselling is not specifically solution based, in that it isn’t looking for ways of solving problems, more about bringing a full acceptance and understanding of your position and how to move forwards is formulated in the fullness of time. Other talking therapies look more specifically for ways of integrating other tools to bring about more rapid change. Hypnosis is very effective at bringing about relief and has some amazing study results proving efficacy. So whilst you might be trying to decide which route to go, you will find that many professionals out there are already combining many ‘modalities’ together. So another way of working out ‘Which is better for me, counselling, therapy or coaching?’ would be to ask your friends and family. See who has already been down this route. For whatever reason, we still don’t discuss these subjects amongst friends and family, but you may be surprised at who has a recommendation for you. Very few of my clients share their journeys with a wide group of friends – but they will often recommend if they hear of someone in a similar situation. Look at the websites and feeds of local therapists/coaches and look for posts that resonate in some way with you. Perhaps you are looking for a fast-paced, motivational solution, perhaps you are looking for gentle nurturing, or perhaps you are looking for a pragmatic and irreverent service that throws all sorts of challenging ideas at you. Some professionals are led by challenging their intellect and others will take a more holistic and intuitive, emotional approach. Mostly we pick someone who echoes our own approach to life – it’s not a bad policy – you will likely pick the professional that seems to ‘speak’ your language. The most important aspect of any therapeutic/ coaching relationship is rapport – this refers to the quality of the relationship that you have with your professional. Go with your instinct. There are a million different configurations of coaches, therapists and coaches/therapists out there – many will train in one modality and then specialise, while others will add more and more tools and understanding, that will enable them to be able to ‘follow’ you and bring you exactly what you need. Counsellors also train in Coaching, Coaches add in Hypnosis, and Trauma Therapists sometimes add in Massage. But nearly all of them will offer some sort of consultation or first appointment so that you can make your choice with a better understanding. Don’t be put off by someone that appears to ‘specialise’ in a broad range of problems, or a huge array of goals. When we are looking for a surgical intervention then it makes sense to choose someone that does it all day every day, but I would say that this isn’t necessarily the case with coaching/therapy. Some interesting questions to ask during your first consultation or session – How would you summarise your specific style of therapy/coaching? Have you seen someone before that is similar to me and what was the outcome? Do you work with other professionals in different fields? How would you summarise my situation and how would you see us progressing from here? What would you expect to be the signs that I would notice first if this is the right path for me to go down? These questions might give you an idea of the ‘flavour’ of the therapist/coach. From there, go on instinct – if it feels like a good match and fit for you – make the commitment and move forwards. Personally, I started with Hypnotherapy as it is proven, effective and often a bit like magic, and then carried on with Integrative Psychotherapy, Applied Neuroscience and Generative Coaching. I have studied for hundreds of hours and read hundreds of studies and books. I have been mentored and supervised for years by master coach Mark Schwimmer who, with 30 years of highly skilled work in transformation, challenges me to master my skills. I aim to bring not just results but also systemic change to my clients so that they get so much more than they ever thought was possible. I am also a skills-based coach for therapists/coaches to help integrate their work to a higher level. I mash everything together and often work with clients who have tried many other modalities and often traditional counselling and don’t seem to be getting to where they want to go. Whatever your need, there are many professionals out there who can work with you to help you get the outcomes you want. There is never one straight path or one answer. Ask for book recommendations and be prepared to really reflect on the changes that are happening and what then is possible for you. Professional coaching or therapy is not like going to a doctor to be made better. We cannot ever see our own issues and goals clearly and this is exactly what professional help is all about – having another set of highly skilled eyes to see where to put your attention to get what it is that you want. Good luck! Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Nicola! Nicola Wakeling, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Nicola Wakeling is an exceptional and passionate Therapist and Coach combining hypnosis, NLP, neuroscience, generative coaching and existential psychotherapy together into a fast-paced results driven practice. With years of SME experience and national award-winning businesses under her belt, she is passionate about optimising growth from within using all possible resources, even when they have to be discovered and unleashed first. Nicola is also a skills-based Mentor for Coaches. She has a private practice both online and one to one in Buckinghamshire, UK

When the ships are out and sailing for months, there is consequently a need for water resources as well. One of the primary reasons you need Ballast water treatment is to ensure that ballast water is pumped and, consequently, there are complete safe operating measures throughout the voyage journey. The primary aim of this particular water treatment is to ensure that the water quality is maintained under all circumstances; hence, we are here at Bawat to help you! Furthermore, this specific treatment's primary aim is to reduce the stress on the hull and ensure ultimate efficiency. What Does Our Ballast Water Treatment Do? The Ballast water treatment plant is one of the most promising machines, which ensures that the ultimate security is provided to the water management of the sailing fleets. Not only the ships but also ensure we can aid other potent types of fleets, like heavy lift vessels, divers, dredgers, cruise ships, barges, yachts, and ferries. We can say that this particular system is quite a breakthrough, and we have ensured that the energy that is onboard and not used or often referred to as waste energy, treats the onboard water during the voyage journey. Why Collaborate with Bawat Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) Consequently, it becomes essential to ask why you should choose us at Bawat when there are a few other options in the market. Some of the most critical factors that make us different from others are: A Global Brand We have tried to make sure that we can provide you with Ballast water treatment in more than one country, and this includes India, Italy, Norway, China, Japan, Korea, the USA, Taiwan, and much more! The Machine's efficiency The Ballast water treatment machine we have incorporated is exceptionally efficient. It ensures that we can guarantee you complete safe water onboard. US Coast Guard Approved Finally, one of the primary reasons you should contact us is that we have got approval from the US Coast Guard. Hence, we can vouch that all the regulations are maintained, and therefore there is complete security in Ballast water treatment. Bawat is here to aid you with the best Ballast water treatment so that you can maintain the quality of water onboard, and that too while maintaining the topmost quality. Get in touch with us today to learn more about Bawat Ballast Water Management System (BWMS).

Written by: Lauren Cartigny, 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. Ouch! Hard truths can be hard to hear sometimes. This article aims to uncover the challenges leaders face to make a difference in reducing suffering in the workplace and encourage you to ask yourself hard questions to help you overcome them. “Sacrificing health and family for work is not an expression of loyalty. It’s a sign of poor priorities.” –Adam Grant How many leaders can truly say they believe that high performance from a place of well-being is possible? How many can say they have mastered self-awareness and self-regulating skills to reduce stress and deal with high pressures from a place of calm? The answer is likely to be very few. That is to be expected based on the stressful world we live in. We will not go from one extreme to another overnight. Those who have learnt to perform from a place of well-being, most likely have had the support of an Executive Coach. So how can leaders confidently become advocates of well-being and make a difference in the workplace now? Hard Truth Number 1 High performance from a place of suffering is normalised. Most traditional high performance training focuses on asking us to change our mindset, to focus, to be more resilient, to keep going, to never give up, and to win at all costs. All these approaches have only resulted in rewarding overworking, normalising the numbing of our feelings, and ignoring our body’s alarm bells trying to warn us that it needs a break. Is determination, hard work and willpower part of success? Yes absolutely. Are these the sole answer? No. Perseverance and consistently working non-stop, without stopping to recharge our energy, and our bodies, without relaxing our minds, and without feeling our emotions, are simply ways of justifying working in auto-pilot mode. This is a mode where we are disconnected from ourselves. We stop feeling our bodies, our emotions and we purely run on adrenaline. With all adrenaline highs, come adrenaline lows. This fluctuation over time causes chronic illnesses. High achievers tend to know this well, because yes, this way of working does deliver results, but at what cost? For me, success in auto-pilot mode cost me my health due to undiagnosed chronic stress over years of seeing myself as a resilient high achiever. I felt I managed stress fine until my usual way of recharging at weekends was disrupted by personal commitments. This tipped my body over the edge. I started having severe acne due to internal inflammation. I thought it was due to my skincare. I developed stomach pains. I thought I was intolerant to gluten. I lost a lot of weight. I thought my fitness regime was working. My athletic body became constantly achy and fragile. I thought it was due to exercising. I often felt dizzy. I just thought I was dehydrated. All these together were symptoms of chronic stress. People don’t tend to realise that if you feel pain in your body continually for over six months this is unprocessed emotions stuck in your body. Chronic stress is a result of unprocessed emotions. Delivering high performance from a place of chronic stress has a negative impact on our health, and most often we simply don’t realise it. We are not educated to look out for the signs. We blame old sports injuries, indigestion, drinking too much, worrying about a specific one-off situation, or not having enough sleep. There are always excuses to avoid the hard truth that we are suffering from stress. Most of us suffer symptoms of chronic stress to some degree. This tends to go hand in hand with having high-powered roles. Are you willing to challenge the status quo? On a scale of 1 to 10, how stressed are you on average? What pain do you feel in your body that you have had for longer than 6 months? Could these be symptoms of chronic stress? Are you willing to put the same effort into your work, into learning to manage your physical and mental health? Hard Truth Number 2 There is a stigma in sharing vulnerability in the workplace. Despite all the social media visibility of promoting well-being in the workplace, the stigma attached to speaking up about our health is still very real. 39% of UK Business Executives admitted not seeking help for fear that it would impact their reputation if they admitted struggling. And yet … 78% of UK Business Leaders have experienced fatigue, lack of motivation, mood swings and disturbed sleep since the lockdown. Bupa Survey Dec 2020 It can be hard to admit to ourselves that we may be suffering, let alone admit it openly to other people who influence our careers and our earnings. Great power can be found in our vulnerability, but this requires better understanding ourselves to find understanding and learnings in what holds us back. Leaders who have been coached tend to be more confident in speaking of their challenges because they understand them and have made progress in overcoming them. If you can develop compassion for your own vulnerability, then you are implying that you will have compassion for your teams’. Why does this matter? Because you can’t change what you can’t see. So, if your team isn’t telling you what they struggle with to deliver, how can you help them? Are you confident enough to find power in your vulnerability? Is the culture of your company serious about employee well-being? How confident are you in your capacity to deliver results? How much support have you had to learn to manage stress? How comfortable are you in sharing your experience with your team? How comfortable is your team sharing their challenges with you? Hard Truth Number 3 People do what you do, not what you say. I have met many leaders who want to do more about well-being, but they often tell me they feel like an imposter as they don’t take lunch breaks, they are asked to put pressure on their teams, and they know they display signs of stress themselves. Will being an example of delivering results from a place of calm be inspiring to your team? Yes. Will they want to learn from you? Yes. Is it realistic to think you will be an example of this overnight. No. We don’t need to be perfect to be credible. We just need to have a strong intention, a passion to put effort in managing our own well-being and demonstrate progress in prioritising well-being when driving results. That is enough to start momentum. This shift will take years to make, but it won’t happen without leaders starting to take small tangible incremental steps. To refer to Adam Grant’s opening quote, a lot of the work is about prioritising the right things. As a manager, the biggest impact you can have now is to empower your team to take responsibility for their well-being by helping them set their own boundaries to manage workloads. Your role is to help them honour those boundaries and manage the implications of that. Do you have imposter syndrome when advocating well-being in your workplace? What indicators do you use to measure when a member of your team has reached max capacity? Have you given your team permission to tell you when they have reached their limit? Do they feel safe to do so? Do you switch off when you take your holiday? Do you take breaks during your day? Do your team members understand how stress manifests in themselves? Are they equipped to self-regulate their predictable stress symptoms? Are you? Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Lauren Cartigny, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Lauren Cartigny is a Business and Life Professional Coach for Executives and Conscious Leadership Trainer. Following a successful international corporate career in Sales for leading Tech firms, Lauren faced an unexpected burnout. After re-learning how to perform from a place of well-being as opposed to delivering results from a place of suffering, Lauren has created transformative coaching and training programs for high achieving Leaders seeking to empower themselves with self-knowledge to improve their well-being, their relationships, and their results. Lauren is the Founder of The Self-Science Lab a personal development training company for professionals seeking to find Peace, Power and Purpose.

Written by: Gina Martin , 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. Most high-achievers have this innate ability to push through any situation or life demands, no matter how stressful or demanding. We are go-getters at heart and mind and always go, go, go. This is great because it enables you to achieve above others, but sometimes it comes at a cost. Burnout! I get it; this used to be me (sometimes I still do, but catch myself). Constantly overworking and overachieving because that's how I knew I could prove my worth. This is not sustainable. Eventually, the body or mind breaks down. Have you ever gotten sick and become upset because you missed work, or do you find laying down, resting, and being sick unproductive? Or Are you good at listening to your body's warning signals? When we don't feel well, whether it is our mind feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and like working against the current, or our body feeling drained, tense, or tired, it is because our body is trying to tell us it is time to rest, recover and re-charge. We need to learn to be in tune with our bodies and realize that when we do make it a priority to listen to how we feel mentally and physically, we can make a conscious choice on how to move forward and find the harmony we need in between being productive and recharging our batteries. So, my question to you is: How do you find work/life harmony ? Here are a few things I've learned to practice that I found have helped me find harmony: When I feel like my creativity is lacking - I walk away and take a long walk. Then I think about what project I'm working on and why I began doing it. Then, I re-schedule it for the time of day when I know I get the most energy and flow. When I wake up sick - I give myself the day off. I practice centering exercises or meditation to ensure that my mind is at ease and that they do not judge me for taking time off. I make it a point to eat a nice healthy lunch and call a friend that always makes me feel better. Self-care - is part of my business plan and monthly schedule. It is not an "if I can fit in" I schedule it on my calendar and show up as if it was a client waiting for me. Of course, self-care means something different for all of us, but whatever that is for you, make the time for you. When you take care of yourself, you are better able to be the best leader, mother, partner, and friend for your loved ones. I would love to hear from you; comment below. How do you find harmony? Part of the work I do as a Life & Leadership Coach is to help my clients find work/life harmony while increasing productivity and improving well-being and relationships. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Gina! Gina Martin, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Gina Martin is an Executive Leadership and High-Performance Coach, Mental Fitness Advocate, Entrepreneur, Mother, and Breast Cancer survivor. Gina’s Self-Leadership journey started when she became a single mother and immigrated to the US before turning 18. As an entrepreneur, she built two direct sales businesses where she drove record personal and team sales and received national recognition and multiple awards. Her passion for sales, love for people, and personal development led her to start her Retail Leadership journey. She trained, promoted, and impacted hundreds of individuals over a twenty-year career. She has led cross-functional teams of up to 600 people for prestigious brands such as Victoria's Secret, GUESS, Inc., and Gap. She is the founder of Gina Martin Coaching. Her mission as an Executive Leadership Coach & High-Performance Coach is to help her clients discover and develop their self-leadership skills, unlock what's keeping them from achieving the success they desire, and inspire them to take massive action toward creating the lifestyle they've always dreamed of and deserve.

Written by: Mariette Jansen, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. When life seems complicated, the simple act of writing on paper has a number of benefits that might surprise you. Especially when you are faced with a complicated project or a self-development challenge, overwhelm easily pops up and will block the progress you are aiming for. And the simple tools I highly recommend are using pen and paper. What happens when you put pen on paper? 1. Brain activity Writing engages the brain in language, memory and muscle movement: directing the movement of the hand, recalling the shape of letters and finding the right words. 2. Emotional connection Handwriting is unique for each individual and can express emotions. Imagine angry writing or reflective, with lots of corrections, representing a process. 3. Remembering better Note-taking with a pen and paper enables you to better digest and remember the information as research shows. There is immediate rephrasing as it is impossible to write everything down and filtering out the crucial elements you have to immediately rephrase the information into your own words and filter out only the crucial parts. 4. Improves focus and introspection Using a digital device easily distracts, where writing can take place in the cocoon of your own thoughts, helping introspection. How to use pen on paper? Journaling – capturing what has happened each day. You can describe events, thoughts, feelings and anything else that seems relevant. It is helpful to record experiences, like a holiday, or change. When I discovered that my mother was a narcissist, journaling helped me to understand and deal with the situation. Downloading / Dust writing – subconscious writing aimed to literally get the dust out of your head, enabling you to enter deeper lawyers. Your download pages are not meant to be read again. They are simply part of a process. Recording events – especially helpful when you are the target of emotional abuse, manipulation and gaslighting. The emotional abuser, often a narcissist, will twist what really happened, causing you to doubt yourself. When you have documented the events, dialogues or situations, you can check for yourself what happened. In a work situation it will help to explain and support a situation. Planning – a things-to-do list, activities, or a simple shopping list. Capturing fleeting thoughts – Fleeting thoughts and ideas are invaluable, but also easily forgotten. I carry with me a beautiful little notebook, which I use to scribble down whatever pops up. Like this blog post. Its original version was jotted down when I waited for a train, a while ago. Doodling – scribbling aimlessly, creating a picture. Often you might do that when listening on the phone. It helps to concentrate, but can also be an act of mindfulness. Tips to discover the power of pen and paper Get yourself a nice notebook. Not too big, so it can travel with you. Something that is nice to look at and lovely to touch. Maybe get a special pen as well. Start trying the different options. Choose one a day. Find out which techniques help you the most when you feel overwhelmed, confused, or emotional. Continue writing. For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website! Read more from Mariette! Mariette Jansen, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr Mariette Jansen is a successful coach, therapist, and blogger for over 20 years. Also, author of best-selling self-help book 'From Victim to Victor' for victims of narcissistic abuse. She grew up with a narcissistic mother and had several romantic relationships with narcissists. Her mission is to empower and educate on life skills, narcissistic abuse, and thinking patterns. She offers a free coaching session via her website. Originally from the Netherlands, she now lives in the UK.