April 2014 – The Brain Alchemist

Game on: 5 Ways to Boost Learning through Play

We don’t play enough. Play is so much more than just having fun. Play changes our neurobiology and is essential to our neurological growth and development, well-being and creativity. Play allows children to build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains. Play has also been identified as one of the primal emotional systems of animals. Adults can benefit from play as a way to boost creativity, imagination, and social agility.

Learning through play is both engaging and effective. Here are five ways to boost learning through play:

1. Play can relax the brain and make us more comfortable to take risks and experiment. As adults we become overly concerned with the opinions of others. The fear of embarrassment and social rejection inhibits our creative expression. Play eases these tensions and encourages action.

2. Play introduces the elements of challenge and reward. Rewards trigger the release of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine, which Professor David Linden calls “the Compass of Pleasure.” Dopamine increases our internal motivation and desire to learn. When uncertain outcomes are coupled with random rewards, we become even more engaged in the activity. When the brain is busy predicting if we win or lose, it produces more dopamine, which is responsible for focused attention and more pleasurable experience.

3. Play helps us enter the state of flow, or complete immersion in a task. According to psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, to achieve the state of flow, we need a careful balance between the level of challenge and the skills of the participant, as well as immediate and unambiguous feedback. Play allows us to create and test those levels of engagements and see our progress, keeping us curious and persistent.

4. Play prepares us for the unexpected and encourages flexibility. We can change roles and identities like game avatars, consider what-ifs and come up with more creative solutions. Through role playing, we can put ourselves through different kinds of experiences and emotions, learn to better understand other perspectives and produce a more diverse repertory of behavior.

5. Play leads to mastery. Play is a ritual with its sets of rules and scripts. As any ritual, play creates expectations for a certain kind of behavior and prompts the brain to give commands in accordance with these expectations. We can practice and get better through play. Thus, play offers a fun way to build skills.

As a speaker, author or expert, you can incorporate the elements of play and gamification into your content to boost engagement and learning. Games offer an easy way to introduce your audience to your main messages and teachings. Click HERE to see the World Class Speaking trivia game that The Brain Alchemist developed to promote brain-friendly public speaking.

P.S. What kind of game could you create for your audience? Explore and play with us when you sign up for our Bookphoria complimentary consultation at
http://bookphoria.com/register-for-your-complimentary-consultation/

How to enchant with your brand online in 20 seconds or less

Online communications are often devoid of facial cues and physical interactions. Therefore, they may feel impersonal. Research shows that even most charismatic authors, speakers and experts may lose their attraction power via the Internet. In time when everyone can build a website, a blog and even produce their own movie, standing out from the crowd is more and more challenging. You no longer should shoot for mere “attention”, but for a strong emotional response to your brand and your services. You must strive to enchant your audience so they can trust and buy from you.

Every second counts online. Every point of interaction with a client is your opportunity for enchantment. A brand bumper may be a great solution for your company, especially if you produce videos. A video bumper is a brief announcement, usually two to 15 seconds that can contain a voice-over, an image, or a dynamic logo with the background music announcing your brand. It’s a branded piece of video – a video intro – that you can put top and tail on your video marketing to give you a professional edge. To learn more about how to build a great bumper read our blog post here.

Today we want to enchant YOU… and show you several case studies of brand bumpers that our Bookphoria team created for our clients.

The Chakra Shoppe:

The owner of the Chakra Shoppe Blanche Blake (www.chakrashoppe.com) wanted to see her brand shining through her brand bumper. Blanche is a talented energy healer, who wanted to show the healing, flowing, peaceful and blissful feeling that her customers get after the treatment. She also wanted to utilize all colors of the rainbow that correspond to the colors of 7 chakras. In addition, Blanche is an incredible singer who wanted to use her music piece in her video bumper.

Wired@Heart:

This bumper was created for Dr. Marina Kostina’s company Wired@Heart (www.wiredathear.com) the main goal of which is to help small business owners build connections and engagement online. Therefore, we chose warm colors, animation and the music that create a sense of warmth, connection and interaction yet have a high-tech feel. The sparkles represent energy exchange among people.

The Brain Alchemist:

My own bumper for The Brain Alchemist demonstrates the power of the brain. The core message is to “rewire your brain to speak your mind and be heard.”

Liquor License Academy:

Trust, simplicity, elegance are the cornerstones of Liquor License Academy. We wanted to portray a solid, reliable service for the sophisticated members of the liquor industry. The colors and the music of this bumper were intended to created a safe, relaxing environment which projects trustworthy yet friendly context for learning.

Bookphoria:

In our Bokphoria bumper, we show how a book comes alive through the growing of the vines from the book, the changed color of the logo and the dramatic music – we want our audience to see that they become not only writers of their content and their books but producers/ actors/ high tech designers.

These are a few examples of video bumpers. You could be the next lucky one to let your brand shine through your personalized, enchanting digital signature! Sign up for our complimentary consultation at http://bookphoria.com/register-for-your-complimentary-consultation/