Are You Using Your Old Brain To Conduct Business?

After many months filled with long hours of writing marketing and publicity copy for clients, I was lucky enough to enjoy a vacation last week. Yes, it flew by, but during the trip, I read a very interesting book that go me thinking in a new way so I thought I’d share it with you.  

Here’s what Diane had to say:

It’s called “A New Brain For Business, Leadership Practices that Unleash the Very Best from your People and your Business,” by Richard S. Trafton and S. Diane Marentette (creators of The New Brain For Business Institute). Well, I chatted with Diane Marentette about this new way of thinking.

What is the New Brain vs. the Old Brain way of thinking?

The Old Brain is the seat of emotion. Every single input we receive passes first through our Old Brain for danger signals, because about 90% of our old-brain wiring focuses on one emotion – fear.  

The Old Brain has no language, no future and limited “thinking” ability. The Old Brain is, however, astounding at protecting us from danger through our fear reactions, including fears of being blamed or looking stupid or negative in any way.

Our New Brain is where our ability to analyze, take in detail, communicate, and pursue conscious and intentional action resides. Most of what we look for in business resides here, but the Old Brain takes precedence over the New Brain when we have a fear reaction, and our resultant behavior can be automatic, habitual, and not in our best interest!

How can “New Brain” thinking help small business owners increase sales?

Sales increase in a number of ways. One sustainable process to increase and maintain sales is by having a valuable product or service, and deliver it consistently and within the expectations you have set for your clients or customers.

Thinking through your best product or service, putting together replicable mechanisms for production and distribution, making promises you can keep to your clients – the best of all this comes from our New Brain.  

We get in our own way when we begin to fear that our sales are not what we need or want, that our product, our processes, our people are failing in some way, and our Old Brain gets in the way. Even with our very best New Brain thinking, we may not get what we want. But the possibility of achieving what we want in any sustainable way resides in the New Brain.

If you could take one, key piece of advice out of your book that would help small business owners make a difference in their leadership skills, what would that be?

Focus on the future. Nothing in the past changes. You can only change going forward. A clear example of this is, “tell people what you want, not what you don’t like.”

This is powerful because what you want is in the future. What you don’t like is in the past. Focusing on the future invites the New Brain. Focusing on the past invites the Old Brain.

How have you promoted and marketed your business so far?

There are a number of ways, including our Website and social networking. Our business is based upon the relationships we establish with those organizational leaders with whom we partner. We become trusted advisors to them, and additional business results from their needs, referrals from them, and, if they move to another organization, a newly defined partnership.

What promotional and marketing strategies have worked best for you and why?

In the end, the trusted advisor relationships we establish not only help business grow and thrive for us and our partners, but bring personal satisfaction and make the work worth doing.

What are your plans to spread the word about your book and “New Brain” presentations in the future?

Whether it is online or in person, we plan to use social networking, newsletters, articles, video, and other media to provide our audiences with valuable content.  

Our focus is to provide suggestions that people can use right away to begin making a difference in the way they do business and interact with others. While at the same time, we seriously challenge current thought models about behavior in the workplace.

Is there anything you would like to add?

There is no solid, sustainable business that is fast, easy or simple. Our Old Brains demand otherwise and we struggle to find the magic bullet.  

A shift in our understanding of who we are as human beings can shift business success. The New Brain for Business Institute is about translating good science about who we are and how we function into good business results.

Very interesting information Diane! Thanks for sharing your insights.

Did this interview help you start thinking differently about your marketing and publicity activities? If you’d like to learn more about the book and using your New Brain vs. your Old Brain, visit www.newbrainforbusiness.com.

And if you have questions about providing valuable content and SEO copywriting to your audience, please write to me here or visit www.rembrandtwrites.com for your free reports, information about my new book and more!