Intentional Leaders Podcast with Cyndi Wentland

Empowering Leaders through Neuroscience with Britt Andreatta, PhD.

• Cyndi • Episode 150

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Dr. Britt Andreatta, a luminary in leadership and neuroscience, graces our latest episode with her wealth of knowledge. She recounts her transition from academia to the  world of corporate learning and development, offering a unique blend of scientific insight and practical application. Britt's journey illustrates her fearless pursuit of leadership development. Her story is a testament to how understanding the brain can unlock potential, both in personal development and in shaping effective leadership practices.

Listeners will gain a fresh perspective on how neuroscience can empower us to navigate challenges and lead with purpose, especially in a world still adjusting to remote work and shifting priorities. Britt's extensive research and four thoughtful books provide a roadmap for leaders aiming to thrive amid these changes. Her insights encourage us to adopt an experimental mindset, understand when to persevere, and recognize when it’s time to pivot.

For those eager to expand their leadership skills, Britt's website and publications are rich resources waiting to be explored. Join us as we unravel the intricacies of leadership with one of the field's most insightful voices.

Social Media Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittandreatta
https://twitter.com/BrittAndreatta
https://www.instagram.com/brittandreatta/
https://www.brittandreatta.com/presskit/www.youtube.com/@BrittAndreatta
https://www.facebook.com/brittandreatta

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Cyndi:

Hello and welcome to the Intentional Leaders Podcast. I get to interview a noted author and also someone I have been fangirling for several years. Her name is Dr Britt Andreatta and she is an author of four super cool books. They are called Wired to Grow, resist, connect and Become. Each of these four books gives us keys to biology, neuroscience, but also how to be a great leader in the real world. I've been so excited about this interview because I wanted to know more about her journey, also how she thinks about the work that she's doing, her purpose and how she inspires others to learn and grow. I know you're going to enjoy this podcast interview. Take a listen.

Britt:

Thanks, Cyndi. I'm excited to talk to you and your listeners.

Cyndi:

And I am thrilled to have you. For anybody who looks on your website which I hope they do and I think they should what you're going to all see listeners on Britt's website is all of her podcasts that she's been on, the books that she's written and the accolades she's received, and we're going to talk about that today. But I want you to run to the website and order all of Britt's books and today specifically, we're not going to talk about each of the books as much, Britt, as I want to talk bigger picture about the effect that you've had on people's lives and their learning, and your leadership journey Sounds great. So your career started in academics. You moved into the learning and development space. I'm just kind of curious what prompted that move and what did you learn about yourself because of that?

Britt:

So my time in academics I was really focused on student success. My roles that I had at the University of California were running summer orientation, creating the leadership development program for students so that they would graduate with some really solid knowledge about leadership before they went into their working lives. Created student success courses, which were really meant for incoming new students so they could hit the ground running. We created some really wonderful, award-winning programs. So I ended up consulting with a lot of universities around how to build similar programs. A lot of that is training and development. Right, you know, building a course or teaching people skills and information has always been the skill set that I'm leaning on. And while there I also became a faculty member and associate dean of students. So I was in the university system for a good chunk of my career. But what prompted the move was I really felt like I had done everything I wanted to do. I had been a thought leader in that space and had built a lot of great programs. But what prompted the move was I really felt like I had done everything I wanted to do. I had been a thought leader in that space and had built a lot of great programs. But I also felt like, wow, this age range of 18 to 22 or 26,. If you look at graduate students, 30,. I felt like I was kind of done in that space.

Britt:

So what prompted the move was I left UCSB and I became the chair of the bachelor's program at Antioch University. I was there a couple of years and that's when I realized, oh no, I'm actually done with academics, like I really just want to work with learning and development, I want to work with leadership development, yeah. So that prompted the jump over to Lyndacom. I'd been on a panel with Lynda Weinman, who's the co-founder of Lyndacom. She'd been recruiting me, looking at the company it's a video training company and I was like how can I support what you're doing? I'm not a video person. But I realized that she did not have an internal learning and development person for her staff, and so I actually made a lunch appointment with her and I pitched the role yeah, I could do this for you. And so that's how I made it in at Linda and spent several years there, and then we were acquired by LinkedIn and then I eventually left and started my own company where I work with a lot of different organizations around the world.

Cyndi:

Yeah, what a sweet journey. I did a stint in academics too. It is very different to me when I look at academics versus the corporate world. I kind of was in business and the corporate world and even nonprofits. Then I went into academics and it was so different culturally and how people thought about learning and development. What did you see as the biggest differences culturally with academics versus business?

Britt:

I think if I had been a true academic and what I mean by that is truly just teaching subject matter expertise within a narrow field I don't know if the jump would have been so easy.

Britt:

But the things I was already teaching was how to make a successful transition, how to develop your skills, how do you read the environment to make sure you can thrive, and then specifically the leadership development stuff and all the things that we know make great leaders. So I was already teaching content that was a natural segue into any other environment. But I have to say I was nervous. I was nervous about the academic corporate jump and my final interview was with the CEO and he really kind of dug into me about that and said you know how many times they've hired academics who failed and wasn't a good fit. And finally I just looked at him and said I think I can do this, but you can fire me right. And he's like of course I can and I'm like well, so let's give it a try and if it's not working out, let me go. I like your style.

Cyndi:

It's not like we're stuck with each other because you might have decided you didn't like it either.

Britt:

Exactly.

Britt:

I started with the same leadership models and practices that I had given students as I was preparing them for the world, and I was like, oh, is this going to work?

Britt:

But by then I had had enough graduating students who had already 10 years out in the working world email me continually and say things like Britt, I'm at Microsoft and the training I did with you is way better than what we're getting here or in this corporate role, and I've gone to all the classes and you prepared me more. So I already knew that the way that I talked about leadership was valuable. But then that really panned out. So the employees at lyndacom loved it and then they quickly were like, oh, we need to film this so it can go in our library, which we did, and then the clients were loving it and so luckily, there was good indicators. But I think it's because I've always focused on, hey, here's the why behind this and now here's what you need to do. So I really focus on helping people understand it, but then really pivoting them to hear the actions you need to take. That combination is what helps people improve the best and the fastest.

Cyndi:

Excellent, and that strategy sounds like it's worked out for you in theory, in practice and in application as well. So then, when you left Linda and LinkedIn and started your own business, what prompted that move? Just out of curiosity?

Britt:

At the time we were about to get acquired, which of course you don't know is coming. I was already getting enough consulting requests that I thought, huh, you know, it looks like there's enough business here. And then we got acquired and I really wanted to have the Silicon Valley experience and work at LinkedIn. So I did that for a year. It just confirmed that it really doesn't matter the industry or the organization size. The same issues come up over and over again. So it was a good confirmation that it really doesn't matter. We get kind of back to the core concepts.

Britt:

By the time I did that because I was commuting 500 miles to that job and flying up every week and staying hotels. It was a year of that I realized that just wasn't great for me or my family. So by then I realized I could jump and one of my former co-workers was now chief people officer at a company in Seattle and she approached me about launching their leadership development program and what the contract would be worth was already my salary. So it was very easy for me to take the leap. I already had the safety net, so jumped and then continued to work with lots of different clients. I really like working for myself. I don't think I'd ever go back in-house again.

Cyndi:

I've had an LLC for decades, but to really jump into it full-time, I didn't start until the end of 2019. I think that too like, why didn't I do it? And I think, as you said, you had a contract, you had some safety and I was always so worried if I needed that safety net or not and at some point I realized I really didn't even need that. I could have just jumped, taken the risk. So of course, I told people to go get your books.

Cyndi:

I love what you write and how you write and how you put together a lot about the brain awareness. I mean, that's the name of your organization, your company. When I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison here, that was many decades ago it was all about behaviorism, right, bf Skinner and Pavlov's dog and it was all about behavior, behavior, behavior. And then it wasn't probably until the last 10 years I got involved more in mindset and about neuroscience and I geek out on all that because I think, oh, it answers so many things about why people, as you said, behave the way they do. So that really resonated with me in reading your books and why I just gobble them up and everything you do. So one I appreciate that, but how did that come about, that fascination for you about neuroscience and being brain aware?

Britt:

Great question. Just to clarify, my PhD is in education, leadership and organization, and then before that I had a master's in communication and media, so my focus has always been at that intersection of kind of leadership and learning. But interestingly enough, my first fascination with brain science came in therapy. I grew up in a pretty abusive household and so as an adult was managing panic attacks and some repressed memories coming to the surface, and so I was in therapy. And that's when my therapist explained to me this amygdala hijack, where your body can kick off the fight, flight, freeze, response, kind of out of nowhere and what's happening with that. That really shifted for me, understanding what was happening, being able to manage and ultimately heal a lot of that trauma.

Britt:

For myself, when I got the job at lyndacom and I was nervous about this jump from academic to corporate, there was now kind of all this new brain science research coming out right Because MRI machines had been invented and there was starting to be a lot of new focus on it. So I thought, huh, I wonder what we know about how the brain actually learns and how people change behaviors. So I started studying it just so I could be better at my craft. There was so much cool stuff. I ended up putting together a lunch and learn talk because we were a learning company selling training to other companies, yes, and the employees were like, oh my gosh, this is amazing, you need to go do this as a talk. So the sales and marketing teams put me out there as a speaker and I did the talk and then people were like this needs to be a book and I can do that. I'll turn it into a book. So that was the first book, wired to Grow, which is all about how the brain learns. And then we got acquired by LinkedIn and I'm certified in all the change management models and none of them were explaining what was happening to us individually and collectively.

Britt:

So I thought, huh, I wonder what brain science says about change. So that became book number two and then I realized, oh, I guess this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be the person who kind of translates the academic research, particularly from neuroscience, but also psychology and economics and organizational development, to how we attack these problems in the workplace. So then the third book was all about teams and collaboration and psychological safety. And then the fourth book is all about purpose and creating meaningful work.

Britt:

So there's a set of four books and you can kind of jump in on any of them, yes, but I like to give the here's what scientists say. For me, the fascination is, you know, yes, as a human with decision-making power, I can make certain choices, but there's also some elements of my biology that are just how I'm wired that I cannot override, no matter how much I want to. So, for me, understanding how the brain works just gave me so many more insights and changed how I approached a lot of things. Those changes became super effective. So it started with me and then became stuff I shared.

Cyndi:

Oh my gosh what a beautiful journey. What's interesting and beautiful is that you went through that learning experience yourself from therapy, from your history, from healing yourself, into learning about that and putting your first book together on that very topic. How do you help people to do that, regardless of their circumstances and many of us have traumas, big and small, in our lives and healing from all that and also realizing, I think, the effect that it has on our growth and development and how we see our potential, is so huge. I love the way that you put your work together. It's understandable, it's digestible, it's relevant and it's then applicable. As you said, you want to get people to know, like, what's happening in your brain and what's going on there, but then how do you navigate in the real world because of that and what do you have control over? Because some things are very much driven by our subconscious.

Britt:

Absolutely Well. I'm glad you find value in it, and what's been so lovely is that folks like you come up to me and share with me. Hey, this really has been meaningful, this has really helped me. And so there's been feedback from the community saying this makes sense. This has really helped me. And then I built training around all of these topics and the companies that roll this training out see really great results. So you know, if I was just making stuff up, or if it was interesting but not really effective, I think the results would have been different. But it seems to be a little bit of a secret sauce that just helps folks kind of make that leap to their potential and start to perform better.

Cyndi:

I'm not at all surprised that companies who use your approach, utilize your frameworks in all the areas that you've written about, have seen good results. I don't know a lot of people in your space that are doing that. You and I saw each other recently at the Association for Talent Development and there's a lot of people talking about neuroscience, so I mean, it seems like there's a buzz about that now in the learning community, or more than there has been over the last couple of years. We've seen more and more of that. But I think you pull it together in a way that, as you said, it's not just. Here's something interesting to note I've assimilated all these smart people who have all this stuff to say, but then you make it into a framework to apply. That's also easy for people. Not easy because change is hard, but easier than to apply and to think about how they're thinking about the world.

Britt:

Thank you. I think the difference for me has been even when I was in the academic world, I was supervising 10 teams. We'd have a budget, we'd have people of various you know, I was hiring, training, sometimes letting go. Academics are really fascinating people but they're very much working A in silos. A lot of these scientists don't talk to each other but in addition, they might have a small group of graduate students they oversee, but they're not necessarily managing budgets and teams and onboarding and conflict and all the same things that I think traditional jobs have. So I think what I've seen is that there are a lot of academics who come in to share but they can't really translate it to what does the manager need to do tomorrow, right? Or what does the executive need to do tomorrow? Or even the employee, because academics as much as I love it, it's a very kind of unique environment in which you work and it's not the same.

Cyndi:

Absolutely. It's cerebral, it's intellectual, it's understanding the world or some component of it. It's not necessarily again translating into practices or skills or disciplines or habits and what that looks like, what that process looks like. So, out of those four books, which one is your favorite? Do you have a favorite child?

Britt:

You know I don't, because they collectively represent my own journey. So to me they're a timeline Like I was really wanting to learn how the brain learned and then I really wanted to look at change. Right now I'm working on the second edition of Change, because I think there was change before the pandemic, then there was the impact of the pandemic and now kind of this new world with AI and climate change and everything. So I'm redoing that book to align with where we are now. But they each represented something that I was fascinated with at the time. So I don't really have a favorite, because they were perfectly aligned to who I was or what I was seeing in the world at the time that I wrote them.

Cyndi:

What beautiful tapestry, because it's about your personal and professional growth. Really, what are the different things that were interesting or fascinating or helpful at the time to explore for you?

Britt:

Well, and also what I saw going on with my clients After Change. It was time for the Teams book. It was like everyone was moving to Matrix Teams. There was starting to be a lot more remote work, so I saw a need for people having more understanding around that. And then I started on the Purpose book before the pandemic, but I paused it when the pandemic started, like everything got scuttled, like for everybody else. But I was really glad I did, because people's sense of purpose and what meaningful work means now is completely transformed because of the pandemic and the trauma that we lived through collectively and individually. So I think pausing and then coming back to it really made it better align with where we are now as a culture and globally. You know it's not just in the US, it's everywhere.

Cyndi:

Yeah, so last week I spent the whole week with different leadership groups. When I talk to leaders about purpose and their legacy and their brand and who they want to be, that feels very elusive to people, that purpose because it seems big, and to some people they're more caught up in the tactical day-to-day. As you said, get it done, get results, sell or support or whatever. How do you help translate to leaders the value of purpose?

Britt:

When I approach any topic, first of all I research everything I can get my hands on. So I start with neuroscientists and then that ultimately leads me to other scientists psychologists, organizational development specialists, all kinds of stuff and then I also research all the data coming out. Some of the big global researchers like Gallup, mckenzie, gartner, deloitte you know all of them Accenture and then I'm looking for what does this bigger picture tell me? So there starts to be pretty clear I think I'm good at pattern recognition. There starts to be some pretty clear dots to connect. But then I transition to okay, if all this is true, then what do we need to do about it? So then I focus on kind of the strategies for people to use.

Britt:

I found a long time ago that if I took all that and sat down to write a book, the book would be terrible, dry, boring, awful. Just the academic training would come out and it would just be awful. So once I'm done with that, what I do instead is I build a presentation, because I have found that when I'm thinking about a live audience and presenting to them, I am much better about what order should it come in and what's the aha moment they need first, and then what would they need? Second, and how could they apply it? So all my books first start off in PowerPoint and I basically build a big presentation and then I take that and then start writing it and turning it into words, and so, oh, I love that.

Cyndi:

That is so cool. I do everything in PowerPoint. That's how I think.

Britt:

I think of pictures and stories and put the storyboard together so that is so cool For me, then because I'm thinking about how an audience needs to process this. I think for some reason that works for the reader too, that when they're reading, they're being taken on a journey, and that journey is very intentional. I build all my trainings the same way. There's a very specific journey of aha moments and shifting people's understanding. And with that said, I'm also triangulating the data, like if one study says something and it's kind of an outlier, I might not put too much stock in it. But when I start to realize, oh my gosh, everyone's seeing the same thing from these different perspectives, that's when I really hone in on like something's going on here and I sometimes will build the case by saying, okay, gallup found this and Gartner found this and this scientist at the University of Wisconsin found this, and so then I'm looking at where are all the points of alignment and what does that mean? Is that how you discovered the purpose? Yes, I mean, I know for myself.

Britt:

I was going through some stuff during the pandemic and I was hearing it bubble up. I was still actively working with clients and so hearing it bubble up in all kinds of organizations, and then started to do some research into okay, how do we experience purpose in the brain? Purpose is a different type of well-being than happiness is. That was really fascinating to look at. And then, of course, purpose is contextualized. So is meaningful work. You know how that was defined for us first comes from our parents and how they saw work, and then we have our sense of it. But then it's also how is it going at this job under this boss? Right? So you can be clear about your purpose. But now it's not going well because you have a boss that does not know how to engage you. So there's purpose of work, in work and at work those three levels. So, yeah, purpose became kind of clear that it needed to be focused on, and it wasn't just what I was seeing, but I was seeing it bubble up in multiple places.

Cyndi:

Interesting and you have found your purpose, at least from my perspective. You've found an audience and you have found people who need what you're thinking about and what excites you and what you're interested in. So you have this passion and purpose and you're finding the people that really connect with it, and I'm definitely one of those people like okay, what are you going to write next? Where are you going? And I will follow you when you step back and think about all of the accolades you've got professionally which are significant, and all the things that have been secrets to your success. If you would look at someone new starting out in this field of learning and development and leadership, what would be a couple tips that you would give to someone based on the success that you've achieved and I know that's individual to your own story but what would you say to others who are looking to find a purpose in the way that you did?

Britt:

So, specifically to learning and development, I would say the Association for Talent Development is amazing. It's international, it's by far and away the biggest learning organization. If you go to their conferences, if you take their courses, if you engage with the network, it's going to support you and they have a really great model for what are the competencies you need to be successful in the field. Again, from a learning perspective, I would say understand the brain science of learning. If you don't get that then you won't know how to maximize that right and what blocks it. So I think getting some basic knowledge in the brain science of learning or the learning sciences, it will help you then craft better training. It'll help you understand how to get to an audience and move the needle. Ultimately, we are trying to move the needle on some behavior. There's no training that gets rolled out professionally to adults without us trying to accomplish something. We're either trying to increase the behavior or decrease the behavior and ultimately to serve some other needle sales, engagement, succession planning, something. So understanding how all that's connected is really important. And then the third is an attitude of experiment and assess and improve, like try some stuff, pilot something, look at what worked and what didn't work. Tweak the stuff that did not work, keep the stuff that did. To me, ultimately, you have to see the aha moment in the eyes of your learners and then you have to see the behavior change following that.

Britt:

We had a lot of people come into the field from graphic design and, while I love graphic design, sometimes I think if you haven't been in the room and seen your exercise failing before your very eyes, like it's not working, they're not getting it, they're not having the aha moment, like I think that's a real cornerstone is facilitating. Live in the room, because that's where you get a lot of feedback around oh, this is not landing, I better say that a different way. Or, oops, I better ditch that exercise and let's go at it differently. I think that's a really important skill and now that I look at those three tips, I think they can apply to going into any career. Right, find a professional association that's going to support you, understand the biology of humans, because humans are involved in everything, and then take a pilot, assess, improve, approach to anything you're working on, and I think those tips will kind of hold you for anything you want to track.

Cyndi:

It's a great framework for any career and any industry and any life choice too. I love the first one about professional association is it eliminates the feeling that you're not alone. You know, and I think a lot of people in the world and, as you said, even post-pandemic, I think people went through that period of isolation and are still experiencing that, you know. So how do we reach out? How do we connect with each other in a meaningful way? I put a pause on going to that ATD conference for a few years and I only did the last few years. And my husband, who's my business partner, he's like that's really expensive and I'm like yep, and I'm going to pour all that money right into my brain because I want to get the energy from people, I want to get the new ideas from people and that sense of community I don't have as a solopreneur. I don't have anyone that's sitting next to me to share ideas with. So I think that's really awesome.

Cyndi:

And then, as you said, the biology piece and that was a big part for me. That was missing in my learning and development. Even after I went through college and I was in the School of Education and Rehab Psychology all of that it was still very focused on behaviors, and then even the cognitive behavioral therapy came into my work and practice. But even the cognitive therapy of changing your thoughts or exploring your thoughts connected to your emotions isn't about the biology of what affects us. So I think that's pretty powerful. And the third one is you're just talking about learning, right, you know how do you learn and fail and use the failures to get better, which is a beautiful thing, absolutely Okay. So here's a vulnerability question, knowing that you are so amazing. When was the last time that you felt like something didn't go well?

Britt:

I mean that happens often. So when I'm building a training or a talk I've done it enough now I liken it to carving something out of wood. I can feel when something's not right, I'll have the presentation and I'll be working on the aha moments and the ideas and everything. And when I'm building something, I just have a sense like, oh, this section is rough, it's not right yet. Okay, I keep tinkering, but when it slots in it'll just feel smooth and I know it's right, and then it goes well. So I pay attention to that, I pay attention to something's still wrong here and I'll keep at it till I solve it. Yeah.

Britt:

And then in terms of mistakes, you know I make some mistakes in business because I feel like my real gift is about learning and building training. I'm not so great at like estimating expenses or projecting, so I've made some mistakes there where I'm like, oops, yeah, you know it's not my forte. So then it's about can I either learn the skill or should I hire someone with the skill right, lean on somebody else's expertise? But yeah, I mean, I think if you're doing anything worthy in this world, you are going to make mistakes at it. You're going to take some chances and then learn and development.

Britt:

I think the way you get to success, though, is that you don't just stop after the failure. Right, you don't eat the failure. You keep saying, okay, what else can I try, what else can I do, and so you can turn failures into successes. With that said, I just finished reading the book called Quit the Power of Knowing when to Kind of Stop Doing Something, and it was really interesting information that we sometimes can stick with something longer than we should because of this cost, fallacy or whatever, and so I just finished reading it and I had a lot of aha moments in there too that we can sometimes get attached to wanting it to turn out, or because we spent so much energy on it already that we don't see the signs and let go of something as soon as we should.

Cyndi:

I gotta get that book, because I did this leadership assessment and this was a while back, but the dimension it was scoring us on was perseverance and determination and I scored like a 98. Yep, and while that has served me well, sometimes it's the exact thing you're saying that I feel like if I don't keep going, it's a sign of I'm quitting, and quitting is bad and that means something bad about me. I tell myself all these stories about that, as opposed to is this serving me well? And, as you said, why am I doing it? Can someone else do it if I don't like it? If I can't do it, do I have to learn absolutely everything about running a business? Probably not. I can probably find some pretty smart people who can do that, but I love that concept.

Britt:

It's a life-changing book for me. The very first introduction starts with we value grit and perseverance and we don't talk about quitting or we see quitting in the negative light when really it's just another skill set right, it's just another skill set knowing when and how to do it. So recommended. It definitely opened my eyes to some things.

Cyndi:

I will absolutely get that, so thank you for the recommendation.

Britt:

You're welcome. Someone recommended it to me and I was like I don't need to read that, but then I was on a long train ride. I thought I'll just dig in. Oh my God, I was fascinated from page one until the end. So I love books like that, you too, it's helpful.

Cyndi:

All right, so you are focused on being deliberate. Obviously, I called my company Intentional Leaders because I think that self-awareness is so profound and all the research suggests that we're less self-aware that we believe they are and how we're wired in our past, we don't really recognize the connection with how we show up today and the actions and reactions we have. So when you think about yourself as an intentional leader, what are a couple practices that you think are most essential for you to show up in that way?

Britt:

I think it comes down to two things. I mean. The obvious one is you have to make plans right, you need to make some goals, you need to set some criteria and you need to do the work to execute on them. That means managing your time well. That means, if you get behind, knowing how you're going to get back on track, get better at estimating so you're not Weird concept, yeah, all that stuff. So I think there's the kind of the planning and execution part of it that you have to lean into and be good at. And then the other one just has to do with relationships.

Britt:

I remember Jennifer Hudson, the singer who was on I think it was American Idol, and they brought her back to kind of talk with some other contestants going through and they were like tell us the secret of the business.

Britt:

And she said if you're good to work with, you'll have plenty of work of the business. And she said if you're good to work with, you'll have plenty of work. I really took that to heart. You want to be the kind of person who's warm and approachable, your team is supportive, that if you treat people well, you know if you are good to work with, you'll have plenty of work. So I really take that to heart. I really believe in treating people well. I mean, it's a lot of my message about how we create great workplaces and I really try to then do that with the people the contractors, my facilitators, my staff and my clients that I really take that all seriously and believe in relationships matter. They matter the most. Everything else kind of comes around that. So those would be the two things that I think are the core to how I approach things.

Cyndi:

I love it. So one is big picture, know where you're going, have a plan to get there. And also, you said something important is realize when you're not on track, making those adjustments to shift, get back on course. And then, second, how do you build that kind of trust and rapport with others and the relationship building? I think it's really fascinating in life because those relationships and the connections we have is everything right. I really haven't marketed my business really very much and all the connections I get are through other people, other people who know of me, or they go to another company and like, oh, we want training, we'll contact Cindy again, or whatever it might be. I really do believe those relationships and that trust that we build with people. Plus, it just makes your life so much more fun, doesn't it? Absolutely, absolutely. Think of all the super cool people that you get to work with and people that you enjoy and they enjoy you. There's something really joyful about that.

Britt:

For sure. I love the joyfulness of that. That's what I loved about our connection. We were literally walking across the street together and you stopped me and you were like connection, like we were literally walking across the street together and you stopped me and you were like oh my gosh, and you shared some of the things that have touched you about my work. That made me feel great and I wanted to get to know you more. And then the funny thing is we ended up sitting next to each other on the plane ride from the conference. We looked at each other like oh my gosh, it's you. So that was so fun.

Cyndi:

It was fun. When I look back at conferences, those are the moments that, to me, are the most powerful. Did I learn some things? Absolutely. Did I walk away with some new tools? Yes, but walking away with a connection, a real connection to me, is a beautiful thing and, because I love your work, that you're doing, I was just like I got to take a peek into her brain how is she doing what she's doing? Because I so admire it. So I really appreciate you taking the time to do this today. What's your next project, britt? Where are you going from?

Britt:

here, the training company that I have. We've got several products. So we have one on change that there's more and more demand for that. We have also kind of a holistic leadership program called Brain Aware Leader. I'm putting the finishing touches on Brain Aware Executive. So I work with executive teams all the time so we're making that a product that people could buy or get certified in and roll out in their organization. And then lately we've been doing a lot of specialty work. We've got a version for healthcare and healthcare leaders and organizations, another one for sales teams and another one for kind of tech and engineering teams. So those have kind of come from listening to the market. My two favorite parts are either building something or delivering something. So those have been the fun things to work on. And then of course you know paying attention to the market and sales and going up with the up and down, with kind of the fluctuation of things.

Cyndi:

Yeah, so those are all the things that we're up to and those, to me, get me to develop something new, and that's where I get really energized, as you said, kind of the storyboarding, the research, what is going to be the aha, what do I want to share with someone that maybe they're going to hear in a different way or maybe that are a different point in their life where they're going to be open to thinking about themselves differently or choosing differently, and all of those things bring me tremendous motivation and energy. Yeah, thank you. If I have to do something over and over and over and over and over and over again, it becomes very transactional. I don't like that. Yeah, me neither. That's not fun, all right.

Cyndi:

Well, thank you again for taking time today. Britt, I know you have a lot going on and I appreciate the time and energy that you're spending with me today and sharing, not just about the work that you do and the power it has, but you as a human being and the journey that you've been on from a leadership perspective. And I know there'll be a lot of interested people that will check out your training, check out your website and, I hope, get all your books.

Britt:

Fantastic. Well, thank you, cindy. Always lovely to connect with you and let's keep in touch, Okay, that?

Cyndi:

sounds great. I hope you learned something interesting in this podcast interview with Britt. She is a wealth of knowledge and information and for any of us who are struggling to understand how to be a great leader, we have to be comfortable looking at our history, our biology, our brain as well as our behaviors, and I hope you found some insight that intrigues you enough to go check out Britt's website all of the information she has, the articles and the books she's written. Also, if you know someone else who might be interested in this topic and interview with Britt, please feel free to share it. Thanks so much for listening.