Day: February 24, 2021

The crux of the adjustment in travel is and has been around staying longer and traveling slower in destinations. I’ve seen hotels offer long term remote work stays as slow travel is much more of an interest to nomads. Travelers are expected to stay longer in one place, allowing them to stay at accommodations longer and adapt to the culture in different ways. Expect to see more regulars at local spots for longer periods of time. Residency visas are allowing for longer stays. Airlines are also lowering travel change fees, to be more understanding of the situation for travelers who may be impacted by sickness.

As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lisa Kavanaugh.

As a former CTO, Certified Coach and Digital Nomad for 7+ yrs, Lisa combines decades of experience to partner in the creation of more meaningful impact in her client’s personal and professional lives.

She primarily works with:

⋙ Those who are looking to shortcut their path to working-from-anywhere or using travel to facilitate a major life reset.

⋙ Organizational leaders stretching into new opportunity, helping them to navigate with confidence and authenticity.

Using design thinking and an awareness-based approach focused on aligning action with individual values and sense of purpose, Lisa strives to empower her clients to maximize capacity, satisfaction and impact. She is known for listening between the lines, insightfully reflecting what she sees and challenging clients to probe deeper for new awareness that enables them to play bigger.

Lisa has been quoted & featured in Fast Company, FOX News, ZDNet & VentureBeat, has spoken at conferences and events including SxSWi, Web2.0 Expo, MLB.com Speaker Series and Pandora’s Women in Business Series. She was also named in FOX Business’ Little Pink Book’s Top 10 Women in Technology for 2012. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara, and her ICF coaching certification from The Coaches Training Institute.

A true global citizen, she holds US & EU passports, and is proud to call herself a digital nomad. She loves to snowboard, learn new languages, and host boisterous costume parties.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was born in Italy and lived in Germany, Texas, Michigan and Alaska before I turned 18. As a multinational (German/American) I moved and traveled a lot as a kid and I believe it helped me develop a sense of comfort in transitions. I enjoyed living in different places, having friends around the world, and speaking different languages. These experiences are innate to who I am and how I’m programmed.

Early in my career, after a few years at HP I moved to San Francisco and joined Ask.com (it was Ask Jeeves at the time, remember that guy?) I started as a mid-level software developer and left as CTO and Chief Product Officer. These were very high demanding jobs and extremely stressful. It wasn’t a coincidence that I ended up in the hospital with Crohn’s disease during this time. I decided to take a pause from my stressors, take a year off and backpack around the world with my husband. It changed my life.

I never went back to my old job or career but I did create a new career in coaching. I took what I learned from my own leadership experience, my newfound obsession with learning as much as I can about what makes great coaching, as well as what I learned from several amazing coaches I worked with during my executive career. These coaches had a tremendous impact on my growth as a leader and helped me discover what I wanted. Ultimately, I realized I want to be on the side of serving others.

Now I serve leaders in their growth through REBELxLABS. I help them lead with more alignment so they can have the impact they want to have without ending up in the hospital like I did. The people I work with are ready to step away and start optimizing for more time, connection and freedom in their life. We work together to determine how to work and play from anywhere in the world.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

The impetus for starting REBELxLABS happened when I was living in Lake Tahoe for a 5th season. I often hit the mountain from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. midweek. I’d meet people during this time, tell them what I do and I’d see people light up with the possibility of how they, too, can redesign their life. So many people live within the confines of a very rigid work and play paradigm. It became evident to me that I need to expand beyond leadership coaching and be of service to those who seek to unlock their version of freedom.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

It’s unlikely funny to others but I think many can relate, especially those of us who work so hard to kick bad habits to the curb. When I started REBELxLABS, the old Lisa creeped in and she’s not peachy. I ramped up this new business in addition to leadership coaching and I decided to do everything in 6th gear, thinking I had to do it all at once. In fact, I was doing everything the opposite of what I was recommending to my clients. Instead of following the life I designed for myself, I was short tempered and stressed all the time, thinking that everything had to happen yesterday, and now, and perfectly done. Luckily I had my husband to point out my old patterns and decades of recovery practices to get me back in alignment with what brings me joy and reduces stress while still creating my vision.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

Learn to say no. And not only how to say no, but when to say no. It is a real skill to learn and understand the sense in your body when something is a yes for you versus a no. Learn what activities, people and environments light you up and give you energy — and which drain the life from you. Be intentional with how you manage your energy.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

It may sound cliche but without question it is my mother. My parents divorced when I was 6 years old, and my mother, at 33, went back to medical school. Everyone told her she was too old and she was crazy to take this on as a single mom. She did it anyway and went on to build a very successful Urgent Care business and sell it. She was able to pay for my schooling and help my husband and I buy our first home. Lack of debt may be the biggest help anyone can receive.

Through leading by example and the many ways in which she shaped me, she taught me it’s never too late, you’re never too old, you can always say no to a situation that is no longer serving you and say yes to reinventing yourself. She also instilled in me the love for travel, experiencing new and different cultures and finding something to celebrate every day.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

REBELxLABS is about the intersection of leadership and life design. I work with so many inspiring professionals and leaders who have taken the leap to work and travel from anywhere in the world, while taking the lead in how they design their own life.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

Too many people have heard my story and said “I wish I could do that but my job would never let me be remote or I would never have the courage or … ” Through my coaching programs I aim to unlock the path to freedom for those that wish to leap. With the pandemic, remote work has never been more accessible. Yes, it takes discipline. And, yes, digital nomadism takes courage and resilience and some creative planning, but I believe anyone who wants to do it, can and should. My mission is to make it easier for more people to step away from the status quo and design a life worth living.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

The disruption is all in the numbers and increased interest in a differently designed life. Digital nomads are taking the world by storm and I hope to meet some aspiring ones in 2021. A recent survey found that 4.8 million independent workers currently describe themselves as digital nomads, while many more (17 million, in fact) aspire to someday become a digital nomad.

As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?

The crux of the adjustment in travel is and has been around staying longer and traveling slower in destinations. I’ve seen hotels offer long term remote work stays as slow travel is much more of an interest to nomads. Travelers are expected to stay longer in one place, allowing them to stay at accommodations longer and adapt to the culture in different ways. Expect to see more regulars at local spots for longer periods of time. Residency visas are allowing for longer stays. Airlines are also lowering travel change fees, to be more understanding of the situation for travelers who may be impacted by sickness.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

My perfect vacation experience involves moving my body through nature (like hiking, surfing, snowboarding, and more) so at the end of the day I’m physically exhausted versus mentally exhausted. It would also include little to no screen time, while experiencing a new and foreign culture, where I make meaningful connections and relationships.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

While I love working with many of my peers, some of my most memorable experiences have been with teaching and mentoring youth. I traveled to Jerusalem to volunteer with a great program called MEET (Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow) where I taught high school seniors Python, Flask, Bootstrap, basic databases and data structures. It was a great experience to work alongside them as they created their senior projects using these technologies.

My husband and I a few years ago had a wonderful opportunity to volunteer and teach English in Cambodia. I wrote about my experience here.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I’d love to see a movement in which each and every person believes they are enough, they stop comparing, and start loving themselves and those around them more deeply. Imagine what could be possible.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

LinkedIn Lisa Kavanaugh

REBELxLABS IG

REBELxLABS FB

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Lisa Kavanaugh of REBELxLABS: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Bring attention to your movement. Taking time to notice and become aware of how you are currently moving, or not moving, is the first step. It is imperative to acknowledge where you are and create a gauge or baseline. Some examples may be: texting on my phone, chopping onions, running, or sitting at my desk.

As a part of my series about the “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Erica Hornthal.

Erica Hornthal, known as “The Therapist Who Moves You” is a board-certified dance/movement therapist and licensed clinical professional counselor as well as the founder and CEO of Chicago Dance Therapy and creator of the Dance Therapy Advocates Summit. As a licensed talk therapist, Erica knows that words only get us so far. Whereas, if we’re willing to tap into its power, the body can take us the rest of the way as we process emotions and strengthen our mental health

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

I remember being at a crossroads when it came time to choose a career. Attending my high school’s career fair, I was frustrated when the only dance-related field was “Dance Studio Owner”. I was told I could teach dance or try my hand at becoming a professional dancer, but I knew that neither were my true passion. I yearned to help people, but also loved how dance made me feel. Dancing since the age of 3, I thought that I had to choose between dance and science. What I found as a freshman in college was that I could have both! Thanks to an advisor, I was introduced to the world of dance/movement therapy; a profession and field that not only excited me, but spoke to my very soul. I declared myself a psych major and dance minor and upon graduation 4 years later found myself enrolled in graduate school for dance/movement therapy and counseling. Since finishing my coursework, writing a thesis, and completing over 3600 hours of supervised work, I decided to create my own practice and business and never looked back. A decade later I have found a niche for myself; advocating for the field I love and educating the world on how the way you move makes you who we are.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

The most interesting story on my mind these days has to do with how I refocused my work due to the pandemic. My full caseload went completely virtual and I found myself at a loss since many of the tools and resources I use in session have a great deal to do with being in person. While we can use our bodies and its innate healing potential anywhere, I like using visuals, markers, paper, and sometimes instruments. I thought to myself, “If I never see a client in person again, how can I replicate some of these interventions, and empower my clients to do them at home?” This resulted in my first workbook; Body Awareness for Mental Health. The interesting part of this is that I pitched my workbook to an editor at an educational publishing house who ultimately offered me a contract to turn the workbook into an academic course. Additionally, the course to be released in 2022 is intended for the K-12 curriculum. It will allow educators and administrators to harness the power of body awareness for mental health not only for themselves, but to then pass it onto their students and integrate it into their classrooms. The amazing part is that this isn’t a population I focus on, but now I can share this vital information with students and schools across the world.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

I’m not sure this qualifies as a humorous mistake, but a powerful lesson, nonetheless. When I was early on in my career, I had only a business card and my relentless self promotion. I will never forget when after a presentation someone asked me for my brochure. The voice inside my head said, “You are an imposter! You don’t have a pamphlet!” The voice that came out of my mouth said, “May I send you an electronic pamphlet?” I went home and worked for 3 hours making a professional pamphlet. Not only did I pivot in the moment, but I created a new marketing tool and launched my mailing list. The lesson for me that day was never say “no.” Look at everything as an opportunity and see what you can create to manifest your dream or reality.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

While I am so grateful to my family, educators, and fellow therapists who have supported and challenged me, I have to thank the individual who introduced me to dance/movement therapy; my college advisor who recognized my passion for dance and my love for psychology. Had she not mentioned those three words, I don’t know what my career would look like today. Perhaps I would have found it on my own or eventually found a way to incorporate movement and the body into mental health as so many people are doing these days.

What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?

Practice what you preach. Don’t just tell your clients, but live by your words. Find ways to increase your awareness and listen to your body. It gives you plenty of warning signs when you are on the verge of burnout and provides the path to positive mental health.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

Get out of your head and into your body. So much of work culture perpetuates the silencing and minimizing of our inherent body wisdom and knowledge. How we sit, interact, and perform on the job can contribute to and exacerbate the stress we experience. Incorporating and normalizing opportunities for movement in the workplace will support your employees, allowing them to set healthy boundaries while maintaining or even improving productivity and morale.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Mental health is often looked at in binary terms; those who are healthy and those who have mental illness. The truth, however, is that mental wellness is a huge spectrum. Even those who are “mentally healthy” can still improve their mental wellness. From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to improve or optimize our mental wellness. Can you please share a story or example for each.

Movement is such a powerful took for improving and sustaining mental health. Here are 5 steps you can take to incorporate more movement into your life.

1. Bring attention to your movement. Taking time to notice and become aware of how you are currently moving, or not moving, is the first step. It is imperative to acknowledge where you are and create a gauge or baseline. Some examples may be: texting on my phone, chopping onions, running, or sitting at my desk.
2. Keep a movement journal. Writing down or documenting how you are moving; not just the frequency, but the quality and nuances of your movement, holds you accountable and highlights what areas we can improve. This would entail writing down the aforementioned examples.
3. Challenge your movement. This involves beginning to play with our ingrained movement patterns. Ask yourself why you move a certain way and change it up. Try engaging your non-dominant hand more often, play with the different rhythms or timing of your movement.
4. Diversify your movement. This means broadening your movement vocabulary, or the movement currently at your disposal. Try a new form of exercise, preparing your own food instead of carrying out, or simply finding ways to move more throughout your day.
5. Practice makes habit. All of these things must be practiced and incorporated into your lifestyle. It is not temporary and not a quick fix. Set timers that remind you to think about your body and movement. Create a schedule that allows you to bring this practice into your daily life.

See the video here.

Much of my expertise focuses on helping people to plan for after retirement. Retirement is a dramatic ‘life course transition’ that can impact one’s health. In addition to the ideas you mentioned earlier, are there things that one should do to optimize mental wellness after retirement? Please share a story or an example for each.

All of these tips apply to anyone, regardless of age and ability. Early on in my career I worked mostly with older adults diagnosed with dementia. This is where I really started to understand the need for movement and how movement supports mental health. Retirement is a very important phase of life, a transition as you mentioned. One of the best ways to transition into different roles is through our movement. Embodying the transition that we want and living it in our bodies is a powerful way to make them come to fruition.

How about teens and pre teens? Are there any specific new ideas you would suggest for teens and pre teens to optimize their mental wellness?

All of the above pertain to teens/tweens as well. I would recommend my Body Awareness for Mental Health Journal. The journal is all about finding ways to highlight how our physical sensations influence our mental health.

This free journal is an easy way for young adults to practice these vital tips at a young age so by the time they reach adulthood it is part of their everyday lived experience.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

Move Your DNA and Movement Matters by both Katy Bowman continue to have lasting impacts on me. It was the first time I saw in print how our movement or lack thereof is changing our evolution. This gave me the encouragement to write my own book (coming out Summer 2022) that continues the discussion on how our mental health is impacted by these changes in movement.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

This is the Body Aware Movement. Being body aware is about looking at our own movement habits and patterns and how they impact our mental health which ultimately influence our relationships and environment. When people embrace a body aware existence, they become more resilient, compassionate, and understanding.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”- Vivian Greene

This is what I have learned keep me going through even the hardest or most uncertain times. I can stop and wait, but truthfully life goes on. Things continue to change and I can be present to it or watch opportunities pass me by. We must learn to “dance” in the storm and keep moving for that it what helps us manage the stressors that the storm brings.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Instagram: @the.therapist.who.moves.you

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Erica Hornthal of Chicago Dance Therapy: 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Some of the tech will exponentially increase flight safety through intelligent object avoidance, or deconfliction with other aircraft. Other technologies that interest us will help connect rural communities separated by bad infrastructure; or making safety inspections of things like bridges, wind turbines, radio towers safer for people. Still more are about making cities more intelligent; improving connectivity with base stations and traffic controls; network optimization; marketplaces, like multi-modal trip discovery, fleet risk mitigation, and more.

As As part of our series about “The Future Of Air Travel”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ben Marcus and Cyrus Sigari.

The firm’s leaders are Ben Marcus, who also founded AirMap, and Cyrus Sigari, who founded JetAviva and a slew of other companies. They’ve been business partners for almost as long as they’ve known each other, which goes back to when they were 11. Both got their pilots licenses at age 17, then Cyrus went on to become one of the youngest U.S. flight instructors at 18. Both went to the same engineering school, worked for the same companies, founded companies together, and have now started UP.Partners.

Cyrus’ and Ben’s passion for flight quickly transitioned into a lifelong profession. They graduated from Purdue University with degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. After graduation, Cyrus worked as a propulsion systems engineer and flight test engineer for Eclipse Aviation, where he was credited with leading the team that certified the first new aircraft fire suppression system in more than 50 years. His work at Eclipse earned him several EPA awards.

In late 2019, Ben and Cyrus launched a venture capital investment firm focused towards the enablement and acceleration of this new industry called UP.Partners. UP.Partners accelerates and positively affects the movement of people and goods in all three dimensions by building a virtuous ecosystem. The unique community of sector-expert entrepreneurs, executives, corporates, and co-investors equals unparalleled access, the right decisions, and the best support and synergies between our portfolio companies and their founders.

Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

The world needs innovation in how people and things move. This is why helping humanity to go UP has always been our North Star. Moving people and goods in the 3rd dimension will become a part of everyday life for much of humanity over the next 20 years and we believe that key technologies enabling aerial mobility are needed for continued advances in terrestrial mobility. By investing in these technologies and services, we are helping humanity go UP.

Consider this: almost 80 percent of the world’s population has never left the ground. If you live in the developed world, that statistic sounds absurd, but it’s true; the majority of the world’s population has never been flying. But new technologies can address that now. Just like wireless technologies brought communication to regions that don’t have a well-developed wired infrastructure, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft will be a boon for rural communities lacking advanced road infrastructures, in addition to addressing traffic and pollution problems in cities.

UP is helping innovators accelerate the development of these life-changing technologies so they can get to market sooner and begin making the world a better place for the people benefitting from them.

Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the Aviation and Air Travel industries?

UP.Partners partners with amazing entrepreneurs who are building companies that develop enabling technologies for multi-dimensional mobility. Yes, the UP community includes companies that build electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), but we also invest in technologies like machine vision, hydrogen cells for power (which sounds crazy for a flight application but the technology is super solid and the power output is superior to standard batteries); autonomous technologies for inventory management, electric autonomous crop dusting aircraft, mapping technologies, and on and on. These are typically intended for the aerial mobility space, but they often have secondary and tertiary use cases as well.

Some of the tech will exponentially increase flight safety through intelligent object avoidance, or deconfliction with other aircraft. Other technologies that interest us will help connect rural communities separated by bad infrastructure; or making safety inspections of things like bridges, wind turbines, radio towers safer for people. Still more are about making cities more intelligent; improving connectivity with base stations and traffic controls; network optimization; marketplaces, like multi-modal trip discovery, fleet risk mitigation, and more.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing these innovations?

Simply: technology which will help humanity go UP.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

Moving people and goods in the 3rd dimension will become a part of everyday life for much of humanity over the next 20 years. We believe that key technologies enabling aerial mobility are needed for continued advances in terrestrial mobility.

We’re seeing drones being used for a broad array of valuable use cases today — food and medical supply delivery, public safety, infrastructure inspection, agricultural spraying, etc. The vast benefits these technologies bring are not dependent on urban air mobility.

The future of urban air mobility promises to fundamentally change how people get around cities and more rural communities. Along the way, other industries will be transformed, for example freight will start to move on autonomous aircraft, reducing cost and enabling more efficient point-to-point logistics.

Are there exciting new technologies that are coming out in the next few years that will improve the Air Travel experience? We’d love to learn about what you have heard.

Sooner than a few years from now, and not just improve the air travel experience, but add a completely new sector designed for on-demand, short distance travel. Uber Air, for example. You’ll be able to hail an eVTOL from your phone and go from downtown to uptown or do short commutes that would otherwise waste hours in a car. That’s the most obvious promise of this technology, but there are far more use cases being developed.

As you know, the Pandemic changed the world as we know it. For the benefit of our readers, can you help spell out a few examples of how the Pandemic has specifically impacted Air Travel?

As for air travel itself, the pandemic has been a disaster. Commercial airlines don’t anticipate getting back to pre-pandemic business levels until sometime in 2024. However, the pandemic has certainly been a forcing function for the advancement of autonomous technologies, which might have developed more slowly if the pandemic hadn’t hit us.

We’ve already seen companies like Wing and Amazon advance their drone delivery business for consumer goods. Wing itself famously started delivering library books to children in Virginia after the quarantine started, and more people than ever began to order comfort food, coffee and toiletries through the service. It’s convenient, and it’s touchless, which underscores autonomous air delivery’s importance right now.

The increased use of these technologies in everyday life has had the benefit of proving them out — more flights in these circumstances means the technologies that have made them commonplace will soon go into advancing manned eVTOL-type air travel. We’ll have had the benefit of refining the technologies needed to make this a very safe proposition.

Can you share five examples of how the Air Travel experience might change over the next few years to address the new realities brought by the Pandemic? If you can, please give an example for each.

1. On-demand short distance flights / Uber Air
2. Touchless delivery of goods; faster, life-saving delivery of medicines/medical necessities, etc. Wing / Zipline
3. Quicker access to goods and services for rural communities: Lilium
4. Software that offers flexible navigation — the ability to alter flight plans in real time to take advantage of favorable winds, avoid routing around storms, etc.
5. Less reliance on fossil fuels for air travel. The bulk of short distance trips will be electrified.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Helping humanity go UP is what we’re about. We’ve already started the movement and recruited some of the world’s most influential people to help with the mission. We’re aligned with Ross Perot Jr., who is an aviator himself, and the Waltons of Bentonville, AR, who each host one of our UP summits every year, which assembles the aerial mobility ecosystem to compare notes, make deals and investments, and bring these exponential technologies to market.

We also publish a newsletter called TransportUP, which chronicles the latest in aerial mobility — it’s like TechCrunch for flying cars. We have our fingers on the pulse of this industry, and the technology is very advanced. If we could get help with anything, it’s with the regulatory sector — public policy tends to move much slower than the advancement of technology. What we need is a way for these two sides to work together better so everyone can take advantage of this amazing technology sooner.

Ben Marcus & Cyrus Sigari of UP.Partners: The Future Of Air Travel In The Post Pandemic World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

First, change your perception of stress. I read a book called “The Upside of stress” and it absolutely changed mine. It shows why stress can be good for you, how it can help you grow, keep you challenged, and how to balance it out. I recommend reading that book and that’s the first step. So, embrace stress, in a balanced way of course .

As a part of my series about the “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Aziz Kaddan, a mental health advocate who has been exploring the human brain for many years. He is a CEO and co-founder of Myndlift — a neurofeedback training platform. By the age of 23, Aziz was honoured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

My background is in computer science. I started my degree early on and managed to get my first qualification when I was 19 years old. That allowed me to start working in the tech industry in Israel at a very young age. There I was exposed to the world of Neuroscience through various conferences and also through my father who is a pediatric neurologist. At that time I got to understand more about the field of mental health, neuroscience and the connection between them. When I saw that EEG and neurofeedback can be used as a way to improve mental wellness but it only existed in clinical settings around the world, I decided that now is the right time to use the current technology in the market to change it. I’ve noticed that new devices were emerging on the market that offer the ability to measure or sense brain activity by using wearables instead of going to labs or clinics. At that point I understood that there is potential here to create something big by bringing neurofeedback from the clinical setting into the home setting by using wearable devices. That’s what we did with Myndlift.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

When we first started the company we wanted to get some exposure and there was a conference happening in Tel Aviv which was covering the combination of Brain and Technology. It was called Brain Tech. Participation in the conference wasn’t cheap and we didn’t have enough to invest in it when we started the company, so I contacted the head of the planning for the conference and begged her to give us tickets for free. She felt sorry for us and just let us in. She even allowed us to have our own booth and show our technology because she liked what we had to offer and our entrepreneurial spirits. As a result of that conference we managed to get a lot of exposure and PR, also, a small investment that helped us take off. The funny thing is that five years later she became an investor through her own venture funds and became a board member of Myndlift. The one who helped us, when we were beggars, is now an investor in the company.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

Yes, when we were starting the company we were trying to get into the good tech accelerators. They get thousands of applicants, usually requiring them to record the video of themselves. We thought of ways to stand out, and we would spend days, sometimes weeks, on video production making these funny videos about the company and the founders instead of focusing on the business. Needless to say, these videos yielded no results and we didn’t get into any of these accelerators. That experience taught me to focus on the right things instead of creating funny videos for the company.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I think it’s very important to have a mentor who’s a few steps ahead of you, but at the same time, not too far ahead because you need somebody who’s been there and still has the memory of what has been done and still remembers the lessons that they learned along the way and transfer these lessons to you.

Three years ago I was at a conference and I saw a man speaking in a panel. He was one of the hotshots in the digital health field in Israel. He created an amazing company called Early Sense. Right after the conference I went up to him and asked to be my mentor. It was a very straightforward approach and he agreed to talk. Since then he kept mentoring me for free for months until one day asked him to join Myndlift as our board member. He continues helping me to this day. During the three years I have weekly calls with him and sometimes he’s not only my business Mentor but a therapist as well.

What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?

I suffered burn out myself three years ago and I’m grateful for my wife who helped me along the way to get out of it.

Everyone should find their escape spot. I started doing music. After a lot of stress at work I would dedicate the day or the weekend to do some music just to get out, keep my head out, and do something very different. Some other people hike, while others do sports.

We need to get creative, move our body and just find that balance between work and other hobbies.

It’s very important to get enough sleep. It’s been three years since I had that burn out. I go to bed very early, I wake up early to have a few hours before everybody else wakes up. This also helps enormously.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

I’m still striving to build a great company culture and we still have a long way to go. Essentially, we focus on:

1. Transparency. We are transparent with our employees about everything concerning the company.
2. Flexibility. If an employee needs a mental health day, just go and take it, rest. No questions asked. We try to avoid monitoring work hours too much and focus more on productivity and the sense of projects or goals achieved. It gives the people in the workplace the autonomy and responsibility that they strive for.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Mental health is often looked at in binary terms; those who are healthy and those who have mental illness. The truth, however, is that mental wellness is a huge spectrum. Even those who are “mentally healthy” can still improve their mental wellness. From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to improve or optimize our mental wellness. Can you please share a story or example for each.

I’m going to start with the easier ones.

First, change your perception of stress. I read a book called “The Upside of stress” and it absolutely changed mine. It shows why stress can be good for you, how it can help you grow, keep you challenged, and how to balance it out. I recommend reading that book and that’s the first step. So, embrace stress, in a balanced way of course .

Secondly, everyone should have that doesn’t involve drinking alcohol, smoking or social media.

Find a positive escape, for example, mine is music. It can be art or sport, surfing or anything else you like. It can also be reading as it allows you to have a different experience.

Steps three, four, and five require some commitment, but the the moment you find your sweet spot it’s going to be smooth sailing from there.

The third one is move, and I’m not saying you should become a marathon runner, you can just start taking simple walks during the day or even doing yoga or stretching. Exercise gets more oxygen in your brain which definitely helps in your overall mental well-being. So that is a must.

The fourth one is nutrition. I’d recommend trying to cut down on things that contain sugar or carbs, with high glycemic index.These are the types of carbohydrates that turn into glucose really quickly in your blood and you get a boost of energy and then a drastic drop right after. Just like what happens when you eat a lot of chocolate, for example, you feel energetic and then an hour later you are super tired. This does not only impact your body but your brain as well. The way you feel impacts your mood. So, try to steer away from these kinds of foods as much as possible and you will see how it will impact your mental health.

The fifth one is sleep. Being able to adjust my sleeping schedule to be consistent has helped me a lot with regulating my mood or with preventing burnout. It is important to go to bed at approximately the same time every day. The more consistent your sleeping schedule is throughout the week, the more stable your circadian rhythm is which essentially plays a big role in the composition of hormones in your body throughout the day. Sleep is one of the most important, if not the most important, factors that you should keep an eye on if you want to optimize your mental well-being. It is also one of the most difficult because of all the distractions that we have around us.

Much of my expertise focuses on helping people to plan for after retirement. Retirement is a dramatic ‘life course transition’ that can impact one’s health. In addition to the ideas you mentioned earlier, are there things that one should do to optimize mental wellness after retirement? Please share a story or an example for each.

I believe the same steps that I described earlier will work for retired people and they should be even more consistent with them.

How about teens and pre teens. Are there any specific new ideas you would suggest for teens and pre teens to optimize their mental wellness?

Same here, I could also recommend them to be careful with choosing their escape activity, make sure it is something positive but not destructive.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

I have two books that have been very influential for me. One is the “The Upside of stress” by Dr Kelly McGonigal. It helped me to perceive stress in totally different way, helped me to see stress as the growth and accelerator. I got a lot of versions of this book and gave it to every single employee at my company so that they also understand that stress is not necessarily a bad thing and sometimes can be useful.

The other book is “Principles” by Ray Dalio. Ray says that whenever we make a decision we should try to understand why did we make that decision and if there’s a principle behind it, we should write it down as our basic principles. Then, each time that there’s a decision that needs to be made, we can go down to the basic principles and make the decision based on that.

I am journaling and writing down every decision that I make, big or small, and trying to extract principles to live by. It helped me a lot in trying to regulate the way that I make decisions.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

We already started the movement to help people improve their mental well-being using wearable and mobile technology. We are bringing something that existed only in the clinical setting called Neurofeedback into the home setting so that everyone can do it now at home in an accessible and affordable way. Through this we’re helping people to get directly into their brain activity and try to influence it using games or videos and, therefore, achieve better focus, lower anxiety in an objective and data-driven way. Right now there are lots of solutions that are not based on data, but on speaking, for example:

Talking to a psychologist is great, but we believe that more data needs to be added or included in mental health and that’s exactly what we’re doing: we are bringing brain data into the mental health equation in order to help people improve their mental well-being with tangible progress and information along the way.

That’s our movement and it’s already bringing good to people, and we really hope that more people will get exposed to it, understand the mission, and help us achieve this big dream to make Mental Health data-driven.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

I guess my most important life lesson and this might be a “cliche” but I think that good deeds travel fast and it is extremely important to help other people without expecting anything in return. I want to continue building Myndlift and grow this movement of better mental health. I had people along the way helping me push through and the more help I received from them, the more I wanted to help others myself.

Now I try to help other entrepreneurs that are at earlier stages than I am just because I’m also receiving help from other entrepreneurs that are more advanced in their businesses.

So here is one simple example that has nothing to do with the entrepreneurship world of mental health but it really got me into thinking. I was driving my car in Tel Aviv, which is a city that is extremely difficult to find a parking spot, especially on a Friday. We were going down the street and somebody jumps on the street and waves to us. We stopped the car thinking that something is wrong. I lower my window to try to understand what’s going on. He says: “I’m actually leaving my parking spot right now, and I wondered if you wanted to park instead of me”.

We were shocked because this was the first time that somebody just offered the parking spot because they are leaving and they want to make sure that you don’t get stuck looking for other parking spots. He was super helpful. Obviously, we took him up on his offer and we parked then. After that I started doing the same thing just because somebody else did it to me and, ever since, every time I get my car out of the parking lot I try to see if there’s somebody there looking for a parking and propose mine.

Crazy thing about this story is that week after that the same thing happened when somebody asked me if I wanted to take his parking spot because he’s leaving. That just shows that good deeds travel fast. There was nothing like that before in Tel Aviv and just one kind act created a chain of kindness.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Official page: https://www.myndlift.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myndlift/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/myndlift/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myndlift/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/myndlift?lang=eshttps://twitter.com/myndlift?lang=es

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Aziz Kaddan of Myndlift: 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.