How to make yourself into a Genius

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#DrManjirSamanta-Laughton, #Genius, #GeniusGroove, #NewScience

Gina Lazenby with Dr Manjir Samanta-Laughton at Conscious Cafe Skipton’s last event. Great video recording of the event

Dr Manjir Samanta-Laughton had an unusual start to her medical training.  In her first few weeks at Medical School she had what she described as a spiritual awakening. Instead of seeing the human body through the reductionist eyes of her trainers, where each part of the body is studied separately, as if it part of some clockwork system, she suddenly became of the human soul and consciousness, and how everything is connected.  This sudden vision put her deeply at odds with everything she was being taught but seemingly she managed to compartmentalise these two worldviews and qualified as a doctor. 

Eventually she left medical practice and explored bio-energy therapy becoming a broadcaster, author and sought-after international speaker in what is known as the New Science. Her two popular books are Punk Science and The Genius Groove. With training and practise in medical science and energy work, Dr Manjir has become a renowned expert on the science of spirituality and consciousness looking at quantum physics, string theory and consciousness and how they relate to mystical experiences. She joined us as guest speaker for Conscious Cafe Skipton (just before Lockdown) to discuss how we find our Genius, highlighting the science that is now validating so much of what many of us intuitively know .. or have learned through mystical teachings and spiritual practice. It was an exceptional evening that we recorded. Dr Manjir has very kindly edited the video into a great educational film that you will get great benefit from. She has also opened up some of her online classes to our Conscious Cafe community. Here is the link for free access. These are highly recommended.

Early programming does children a great disservice

Dr Manjir reflected on the great divide of the 11-plus exams which us older folks remember. That was where one single exam determined your future .. pass it at age eleven and you were deemed to be clever and went on to a good grammar school. Fail it and you were labelled stupid and off you went to secondary modern school. Many children were deeply affected by this early division and labelling. The more we now know about how Genius is developed within us, the more cruel we can see this early selection of children was, or is, as schools potentially continue to test and stream children.

What actually is Genius?

Most of us think it looks like the wild-haired Einstein, possibly Hawking in his wheelchair or maybe the disturbing yet lovable Rainman played in the movie by Dustin Hoffman. In other words, a Genius is a remote other-worldly being who is more like a super-human calculator.  We still think that Genius is something you are born with and is linked to your genetics, in other words it is fixed. There is no current popular thinking that says you can become a Benius …. until now.

IQ is a worthless rating

The continual assessment by teachers searching for higher IQ is deeply flawed as there is no scientific basis for this testing. IQ tests originally came about as a way to help children with special needs. The same test that was around 50 years ago cannot still be used as the population has evolved. The test has been changed .. the bar raised higher. That does not make sense.

Brain Science is still old science

The mind, consciousness and the soul are seen as synonymous with the brain. Yet the brain i simply an organ in our heads. So much of what we know is still guesswork as the field of Neuroscience is in its infancy. Looking for patterns in brain scans is not going to show how we work. There has been a belief that the brain is fixed at birth and there is no further growth. New Science tells us that the brain is fluid …. it changes.  London Taxi drivers are not born knowing the routes .. they study “The Knowledge” and their brains change as a result of this intricate learning.

Something beyond the brain

We have to look beyond the brain and understand that something is coming in that changes it. It causes it to respond. Manjir points out that current Medical Science does not like it when things are invisible. 

Forget genes

Who you are is NOT in your genes or because of them. It is a fallacy that your intelligence, your IQ and your personality is determined by your biology. This is such a pervasive scientific idea that it is not questioned. The Human Genome Project which is founded on the principal that everything about us is created by our genes, has come across a difficult truth. If the humble fruit fly has just 16,000 genes and a rice plant has 60,000 then humans must have many more .. likely over 100,000. Inconveniently for this theory, humans have only 24,000 genes. So the complexity and diversity  that we express cannot just be from our genetic makeup. That belief is old science. Seemingly, genes do not make us more intelligent.

Dr Manjir speaking at Conscious Cafe video – CLICK HERE for the recording

Epigenetics tells a different story

Dr Bruce Lipton, author of the celebrated book “The Biology of Belief” has done much to popularise the concept of Epigenetics. What he says is that there is something beyond the genes which changes the way they are expressed.  Each cell has the potential to be changed by something coming in from the outside .. and these could be thoughts, memories, beliefs and experiences.

What is actually controlling our genes?

In the Biology of Belief, Bruce asserts that our genes are controlled by our perception of our environment. This then goes in to our bloodstream, and the molecules that form then modulate the gene expression. He says that the hormones that run through our system are different according to HOW we react to something. In other words, perception is the driver of biology, not some innate blueprint.

Physics has had its own Revolution

Another revolution has been happening in Physics. There is nothing inside the atom. Nothing is solid. Nothing is fixed. Twentieth century physicists created shock waves with the discovery of Quantum Physics. Experiments have shown that reality changes depending on how you look at it.

Wave Particle experiments that have been well-documented show that the Observer affects the experiment. How can that be, that the results change depending on who is doing the experimenting and what they are thinking? It seems that our own consciousness reacts with reality .. to change it. And yet these new theories are not pervading popular thinking even though, unknown to most of us, the microprocessors inside the mobile phone in your hand uses Quantum Physics everyday. Scientists are beginning to agree that reality is stranger than first thought. Yet current Medical Science does not reflect any of this New Science thinking.

Understanding the Wave

The Wave is a mathematical possibility of what the wave could be. It is your own observation that brings that particle into being. Your consciousness allows you to perceive your environment. The atoms in the brain come into being through an act of consciousness, of observation. Even though this research changes everything, Medicine and Physics continue to remain separate areas of study.

Brain Consciousness Paradox

In the 1960s, the Consciousness Research Group determined that consciousness is fundamental to reality. Consciousness forms the ground state that matter comes from. Matter comes from consciousness, not the other way round. And that means you create your own reality. You are a conduit of consciousness. Finally, Physics has come around to stating what Mysticism has been saying for thousands of years. We have this knowledge in the 21st century yet we are not using it. This is a deeper aspect of reality that you have either not been taught or you have forgotten.

Quantum Physics says that particles can be anywhere. Particles pop into and out of existence all the time. This is the Quantum Vacuum which has so much energy it could boil the oceans in a second. What surrounds us all is actually a sea of light. And this sea of waves forms a pattern. At each point where the waves cross there is information. It is all holographic, which means that one part contains information about the whole. Even though mainstream science gets this, the media does not. This field of wave patterns contains all the information that has ever existed in the past, present and future. What the ancient mystics have called the Akashic Records.

How you access Genius 

According to the new science of Genius, your brain now becomes the conduit that can access all this information. That means everyone has a unique relationship and resonance to genius in this field of light that surrounds everybody and everything. You are continually reacting with this field of consciousness all the time in your own way. Your brain and your being brings through what is particular for you. Information is continually coming to you through the field. Your whole being is bringing in information, all the time. All you have to do is tap in to it. Simple as that!

More information is on the video recording with Dr Manjir where she explains how your passionate enquiry can switch on your Genius. Study further with Dr Manjir for free.

 

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Mastering the online space to promote your business

How to Grow Your Business Online – with QVC legend Dexter Moscow

Lady Val Corbett hosted a fund-raising lunch for the Corbett Network’s work in helping ex-offenders create a new life. After the keynote speaker Dame Inga Beale talking about leadership times of great change, we had a workshop explaining how to be successful online.

Who better to guide us to getting our messages across now when we are not allowed to meet in person than someone who spent years perfecting selling from a screen via QVC. Dexter Moscow opened his workshop session with a reminder to us that we are more powerful than we think and we should so be proud of the power that we can bring to this new online environment. Having more confidence in what we do and what we can offer is a great starting point for promoting yourself online. Dexter seems to be a master of not only online promotion but also at teaching others.   He used to be a trainer of presenters on QVC TV and was also a presenter himself selling millions of goods and items. 

Dexter referred to today being Shakespeare’s birthday who said that all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players. Within this new working environment of today’s new reality, we are very much on a stage. We need to learn to do what he helped his QVC with, being more natural and more authentic when we are operating in an environment where effectively, we are selling to an invisible audience.   We can speak to people and we can see them but we have to adjust to compensate for not being present in the same room and reading the signals we might have seen more easily.

Dexter said that there are three key elements to master: 

1. The actual technology 
2. The content that we can create to make these video conferencing calls, or videos,  more effective. 
3. The delivery mechanisms, the way that we can actually connect with people. 

Business is now very personal 

The key to being successful when presenting from a screen is to make an emotional connection. People buy emotionally. They decide, logically. So everything we do is through an emotional filter. 

But it isn’t about selling anymore, even when I was on QVC we didn’t talk about selling, we talked about influence and persuasion. So we need to be more influential in the way in which we connect with people. 

Remember any aspect of what you has to be based on understanding that you have been invited into some somebody’s home. This was the whole concept of QVC, and the whole concept of QVC was about telling stories. 

When you are making a pitch, don’t tell people what you do. Tell them what you have done for others. And that’s a story. When people can step into that personal experience, or that company’s experience, they are emotionally connected. So it’s not just about what you do, but what you do that has had an a positive impact on others, or that it resolved the problem for others. You are a writer, you’ve written a dozen books .. what benefit are they to people? That is the key.

Presenting on video, live or recorded, is key to business success now. As people increasingly take in and consume information on video, rather than text, this way has become the new norm. Video consumption has been rising by 100% every year, and 60% of younger people in the millennial or Gen Z groupings will consume video on a daily basis, as a preference.

3-Part Framework for testimonials 

because that’s what we’re talking about with testimonials or stories, and often when we see testimonial testimonials we we hear this or we see this. If this was a very lovely person to work with. 

You can tell story on your video format. Here’s how: 

1. The problem that that person brought to me was … 
2. What I did to resolve that problem was…
3. And the result was …..

This formula was always successful at QVC.

1 Master the TECH – Take the time and trouble to get it right

1. The first thing is to be aware that the camera is absolutely key. Because if you want to convey information, either in video or if you want in this environment. The quality of the camera is essential. No fuzziness or you lose credibility.
2. The second element is good sound. You need a lapel microphone or good digital mic on your computer.
3. Be steady. If you’re going to use an iPad or smart phone use a tripod.
4. Make sure you have a good background view. You can use a virtual one but they are a bit disruptive when you move. Better to set up a good studio setting behind you and attend to all the details of what can be seen. Simple, clean and uncluttered is good.
5. Whatever camera you use, the eyeline is absolutely key. Make sure you have a good view and your viewer has too,
6. Have a good shot of you when you camera is off-line, like a good logo. There might be space for a key branding message.
7. The last element of this equipment is lighting. Make sure you are not in harsh light or dark shade. Test out various options or buy a professional portable lamp.

2 Master the CONTENT – invest time in crafting this 

Plan: Don’t wing it for any Zoom or conference call.

If you want to get a message across, craft it first. Create an agenda just as you might for for a physical corporate meeting. It helps steer and to know where you are going.  Share the agenda. The advantage there is that people will know what you’re going to say, they can communicate with you more effectively and that keeps you on track.

If the meeting is not live then get your message across on video. That is what is expected now. Add sub-titles so that people can view/listen and read. People often watch in crowded spaces or while traveling and have the sound down but read the words.

Keep up your understand for how people like to receive information. Some like to hear and enjoy podcasts others like to read and scroll down the text. Give all the options.

Keep it short: The perceived wisdom is that each video should be no more than about two minutes. Certainly a story within a video should be no more than two minutes.  Once you have their attention, people are watching videos longer, but they do have to be compelling.  The average slot on QVC was about 12, minutes, and those 12 minutes were three individual four minute slots of repetition. So the massage was about four minutes.

Good Opening: You have to start with an engagement. How do you engage people? By telling a story. Even sharing a good joke makes it less stuffy.

Be passionate about what you do. Be excited. Let that come through in your voice.

 

The two minute story – there are three elements to an emotional storytelling environment. 

1. There’s the incident (which is the overarching element of the story) 15-30 seconds
2. The action (what did you actually do to address the overarching. It could be a problem addressed, which is recommended then people can step into that experience, because then they know how that’s resolved. What you actually did is the majority of that storytelling aspect). Remember: Don’t tell people what you do tell them what you’ve done for others. 
3. The benefit. (What was the quantifiable result of you solving that problem for them). About seven to 10 words and therefore about 15 seconds. What was the result of your interventions. 

3 – Master the DELIVERY – Use the four cornerstones of an effective presentation 

This is a framework that we used all continually on QVC where we had to influence or persuade people to do something that is the hardest thing in the world to do … pick up that phone and come online and order.  The quality of what we did was always marked by how much we sold.

1. Firstly, what right do you have to talk about what you’re talking about. Describe who we are so we establish credibility.  How long we’ve been in our particular sector or, again, the information that we’ve given to others that has been helpful. 
2. The second element is the companies that you’ve worked with, or the departments that you’ve helped. So it personal credibility then company credibility. Who have you been involved with that gives you further credibility. 
3. The third element is the difference between emotion to logic. Emotion is the way in which  you connect with people, but you still have to offer some logic. Offer 3-4 key facts about what you do and how you do it. And that can involve the numbers as well, that can be the turnover increased, or the effect that you had on an individual to improve their lives. Stories and data.
4. The fourth element is the most important. WIFM   What’s in it for me?  Think from their perspective. That should be your mindset. When you are communicating with people, your agenda is important but it should also combine what they want out of it.

Successful selling comes from having a strong belief in what you are providing, that it has value for other people.  You have to appreciate the value that you’re giving. Then once you can start  asking questions to elicit a response, you know if you are talking to the right audience and whether what you have will be beneficial and resolve their problems. If what you have is of genuine value then there is no need to be  afraid or ashamed. If you have good material then be proud.

During your online presentation, you can offer something that is an invitation so that people can experience your expertise and the quality of what you do. But don’t make it free. People are less likely to respect things when they are given away.

Final Tips

• Have fun with what you’re doing, because if you are excited about it, they will be too and they will relax
• Share your message throughout all  social media because people want to have problems addressed and this is the moment this is the age of face to face communication
• Look at the camera directly – that is where to make eye contact
• If you are working live (TV or Facebook)  never talk to millions, just one person
• Engage your target audience so that they are prepared to listen. Grab them in those first 30 seconds with a great quote, fact, joke or topical story. Keep them engaged by asking questions
• Enlighten them – either by confirming something they already know but had not thought about before, or did not realise that they did not know
• Entertain them – whatever the subject be approachable and have fun. Remember this is an entertainment channel
• Excite – Be excited yourself. Let that come out in your voice. Bring in your passion, be sincere, authentic .. if you are, people will buy your ideas, or products.
• Do not make a video unless you are aware of the problem that exists and how you are solving it
• Think about the experience that they are having that you know you can help with 

Leadership through times of great change

Leading in Changing Times

On April 23rd we had a first .. many UK business women are regular attendees at Lady Val Corbett’s legendary London networking lunches where she invites fascinating and high profile keynote speakers like Channel 4’s Jon Snow, national treasure comedian and global traveller Michael Palin and the colourful cook Prue Leith. The money raised from the lunch events funds the Corbett foundation and their important work in supporting ex-offenders creating a new life. So with the Lockdown and our West End lunch venue closed for business, our ladies lunch was held online .. we brought our own lunch at home and 60 of us settled in on Zoom to listen to our speaker addressing us from her own home. Lady Val was rather apprehensive how this would go but it’s fair to say it was a roaring success. We all now seem to be discovering how much can be achieved, and conveyed, through a screen and no travel! We still get the buzz of connection.

Dame Inga Beale, first female CEO to lead Lloyd’s of London in over three centuries

Our speaker was Dame Inga Beale, DBE, a British businesswoman who became the first female CEO of Lloyd’s of London. After leading the global insurance and reinsurance market for five years, embedding modernisation and cultural change, she left in June 2018. She has spent most of her career in the insurance industry and described herself as “a bit of a change agent for most of my work life” with many difficult challenges.” She seems to thrive on taking on transforming businesses and particularly changing the way people work by using technology. But the challenge of taking on the modernisation of Lloyd’s was the most difficult of her 38-year career.

You can see how the scale of the task was daunting and the successful outcomes was accomplished without a Global Pandemic-like crisis to spur it on!  Dame Inga explained how a forward-thinking Edward Lloyd first started the business (and the insurance industry) from his modest coffee house on Tower Street back in 1688 and, after 325 years, the way business was traded was basically the same. Even though the current building was one of the most modern in the city, the $40 billion of business traded on an annual basis was still done on paper slips. Dame Inga was brought in to change this extraordinary situation and move Lloyd’s from a paper-based environment to digital, hopefully succeeding where several predecessors had failed. She called this “the most complex and difficult transformation I’d ever taken on.” The time span seems to have been done within five years and it is a saving grace that this was accomplished prior to the Covid-19 pandemic which has forced everybody to shift online. Imagine the additional crisis if Lloyds still lived on paper slips! Here is how Dame Inga performed this business miracle:

1. Inga said her first step was to LISTEN. She spent hours, days, weeks talking to hundreds of people to understand them, their practices and their needs. “I had to ask them what they wanted, what was so precious, what couldn’t be kept ad look at what could be kept, what could be changed. I had to understand why it had failed before.”
2. BARRIERS had to be broken down. There was a great deal of separation with top execs hidden way on the upper floors and her own huge office having wonderful views over the city but no windows out into the business so she could see the people. She knocked down those walls replacing with glass and created an open plan environment, a clear signal that everything was going to be opened up.
3. The HIERARCHY had to go. Centuries of male and patriarchal leadership kept the business structure old fashioned. She said she “had to try and reduce hierarchy, because it was stifling the ability of the whole organisation to change and to modernise. People weren’t engaging in conversation and they weren’t listening. If you were up in the clouds in this secluded executive zone, you weren’t in touch with the employees, you weren’t in touch with what was happening.” Many decisions were referred up to committees which made things sluggish so they had to go.
4. The CULTURE had to have a major shift. People had to be empowered to make their own decisions instead of handing them off to a committee. She had to almost encourage people to do this and to step up and make bold decisions. When this happens, mistakes can be made so she had to allow a culture where people felt it was OK to make some mistakes. 
5. Break RULES: People were used to feeling that they had to conform to everything. Now the culture was shifting to encouraging people to start breaking those rules! Creativity and good decision-making was stifled. Inga established an Innovation Lab to help move forward.
6. Pick your BATTLES: in her quest for relaxing the rules and stuffiness, Inga sought to bring in more informality to the dress code of suits, ties and jackets always on .. however hot the season was. One hot Friday she allowed suit jackets to come off … that was a new rule that only lasted an hour. It seems it was one change too far. That was not something that had to be forced as there were other wins happening throughout the rest of the business, particularly where young tech folk were being recruited into the Innovation division. Slowly slowly change happened.
7. Understand the FEARS: of course humans resist change, it’s natural. Digging in to find out why and where the fear is coming from is important. At Lloyd’s, it was not just the older generation that was resistant to change, the under 30s were also trying to hold on to the past. It turned out they were in fear for their jobs, livelihoods and career prospects so they were trying to stick with the old ways. Once that was known and the gaps understood, then reassurances could be made with the right delivery of new skills training. New tech advances and more equipment don’t necessarily remove all jobs, they simply require humans to skill up in new and different areas. Humans need to be helped to grow alongside the progression of technology.
8. Being INCLUSIVE was key: in order to move forward and bring everyone along, Dame Inga highlighted that everyone had to be involved in designing their future. It is clear that as the commercial landscape changes jobs change and some disappear but new roles appear and it is vital that people are re-skilled for the new future. Roles that have not been thought about before are now emerging and so everyone has to be flexible in being open to learning and for providing the means for staff to grow and learn.

The project of taking this institution from its seventeenth century roots fully into 21st century digital paperless efficiency was colossal. How did dame Inga cope and get all this done with five years .. and stay sane? She became very focused and said she “Just had to keep going.” The missiles kept coming (she said she simply threw away the hate mail) and obstacles kept appearing but she did not let those distract her. She stayed on course with the support of trusted colleagues …. “You need allies, you can’t do everything on your own”. 

With Dame Inga’s expertise in insurance, she is always looking at emerging risks and the current global pandemic is really highlighting where the world is vulnerable and where resilience needs to be increased.

In the near future areas of concern will potentially be:

• food shortages 
• water shortages
• the increased risk of living in cities, areas of concentrated populations
• global supply chain vulnerability and the need to buy local
• maintaining healthy work / life balance
• mental health 
• inequality and the ability of the poorest to cope with disasters

Dame Inga said it is amazing how so many people and systems have adapted so quickly to handle this current global pandemic. Yes many have struggled, and continue to do so, but society has done remarkably well with personal and national resilience high. We have been forced to take on new ways of working in days when businesses might have struggled for a few years to adapt and produce the same results and enabled working-from-home.  The investment Dame Inga made in her time at Lloyd’s was well-spent in helping this historic institution handle the emergency that we have all been going through. The lesson now is, whoever you are or whatever you do, get ready … work out ways that you can make yourself and your business be as resilient as possible for future emergencies.

The next lunch with Lady Val will be on June 18th