1st Lead U - Leadership Development

Brain Training for Leadership Success - Ep. 219

• John Ballinger • Season 2 • Episode 219

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Can the brain truly heal itself like the body does? Join us on our latest episode of 1st Lead U, where we uncover the transformative power of brain training with our special guest, Michelle Hecker Davis from LearningRx. John Ballinger and Douglas Ford delve into the critical role of self-awareness and emotional intelligence in leadership. Hear the true  story of how John's  overcame audio processing challenges through LearningRx's innovative techniques, drastically improving her reading comprehension and memory. This episode is packed with insights on how cognitive training can revolutionize not only personal development but also leadership skills.

Michelle hecker Davis shares her fascinating journey from a promising career in corporate accounting to discovering her passion for brain training, all sparked by a Craigslist ad. Her first student, a struggling fourth grader, experienced a life-changing transformation, solidifying Michelle's belief in the power of cognitive enhancement. Now a proud owner of a LearningRx center in Chattanooga, TN, Michelle shares the emotional full-circle moment with her first student, who returned to the center as an intern. Her story is a testament to the profound impact of brain training on both her life and the lives of countless students.

We also explore the evolution of LearningRx and its international counterpart, BrainRx, and discuss the significance of becoming a Board Certified Cognitive Specialist (BCCS). Davis says there is a tremendous amount of new latest research related to neuroplasticity, autism, ADHD, and dyslexia to explore.  She goes on to explain the Pyramid of Cognitive Skills and provide practical strategies for maintaining cognitive flexibility. Davis offers invaluable advice on brain exercises for leadership development and emphasizes the importance of community support in addressing cognitive challenges in schools. Tune in for an enriching conversation about brain healing, cognitive assessments, and the extraordinary potential of brain training exercises.

Here are some resources:
Learning RX - https://www.learningrx.com/
Learning RX - Chattanooga - https://www.learningrx.com/chattanooga-east/
423-305-1599
m.davis@learningrx.net

The Brainy Moms Podcast - https://www.thebrainymoms.com/

Change Your Brain Change Your Life - Dr. Daniel Amen - Amazon


Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away - Ben Utecht



John Ballinger:

Cut her finger, heal. Break her bones, heal. Well, the brain can do the same thing, but there has to be a cognitive process and they have to know like or is it broken.

Douglas Ford:

Welcome to First Lead you, a podcast dedicated to building leaders, expanding their capacity, improving their self-awareness through emotional intelligence and developing deeper understanding of selfless leadership.

John Ballinger:

Hello America and welcome to First Lead U where we believe selfless leadership is essential. America is suffering a leadership crisis. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence is the key to developing selfless leaders.

Douglas Ford:

Now here is personal growth coach, john Ballinger.

John Ballinger:

Hello world, my name is John Ballinger with First Lead U. I'm here with my co-host.

Douglas Ford:

Mr Douglas Ford John, how are you this week?

John Ballinger:

I am good, good, how are you?

Douglas Ford:

I'm doing good. It's been a good few days with the nice weather and it's the time of year Everybody's you know getting out and out of the war, I don't know tornadoes. It's like every time you seem like you turn on the TV.

Douglas Ford:

There's a tornado somewhere. There's 50 tornadoes.

John Ballinger:

Yeah, so looks like things may be calming down a little bit. So we have a guest on today. Yes, that's what I hear, and I was exposed to this guest years ago really.

John Ballinger:

My daughter had some challenges with reading and comprehending and things like that.

John Ballinger:

And we didn't know what was going on with it handing and things like that, and we didn't know what was going on with it and uh had a suggestion to take her to get her tested at learning rx, which is, uh, we're going to be talking to the, the owner of this uh franchise of learning rx today, michelle davis, but I saw my daughter's brain get rewired. No, that's awesome Over a six month period.

John Ballinger:

And um it it was cause.

John Ballinger:

You saw where she tested and what was going on and she had an audio processing problem which means what she would hear.

John Ballinger:

Oh, excuse me, I mean let me rephrase that what she would read and process is. Her brain is telling her that she couldn't quite take that in and then say back to you what she just read. So she would get frustrated at reading something and not being able to remember it or be able to tell you what she just read. And when I first heard audio, I thought well, it's a hearing issue read, and when I first heard audio, I thought well, she said it's a hearing issue.

John Ballinger:

No, it was a processing of what her brain was saying through the reading part of it, even if she just read silently. But you're still when you read, you're still processing your, you know your brain right and she couldn't and and it was, and you talked to Michelle, she'd tell you.

John Ballinger:

But neurons weren't quite matching up and feeds in her brain and stuff, and so they rewired her brain and I remember the day that she came home and she had gotten some kind of a word because she had memorized all 50 presidents. Oh, that couldn't be right. There's 40.

John Ballinger:

There were like 45, 45 or whatever yeah, how the presidents, and in a specific amount of time like they only give you got to do it in this amount of time and I thought I can't do that you know, because there's there's a series of presidents probably that nobody remembers right who they are right, and she was kind of like who is that?

Douglas Ford:

George Washington and Lincoln and whoever the president is today, thomas.

John Ballinger:

Jefferson, you know but you don't remember all the ones that are in between all that and she was rattling them off.

John Ballinger:

I'm like, who is that?

John Ballinger:

You know. But I thought well, that's impressive, because she went and she was reading it, processing and then saying it back and they use a metronome it starts out slow, and so in our house for six months.

John Ballinger:

So I hear this and then it goes faster.

John Ballinger:

And it's her brain, literally being rewired right in front of us so, as we're talking about what we're doing at first, lead you and the brain and some of the challenges that it has.

John Ballinger:

I thought it would be good to get Michelle on to talk about it and kind of find out because it's prerecorded, so we're going to bring her into it. She talks a lot about what we talk about.

Douglas Ford:

Yeah, it certainly sounds very familiar during the interview that we do and, as you mentioned, we recorded. We were all remote that day.

John Ballinger:

We were, so we did have a little bit of a technical issue, so it may sound a little bit different.

John Ballinger:

And so even though.

Douglas Ford:

I could hear myself.

Douglas Ford:

John and Michelle could not hear me.

John Ballinger:

So John takes the lead on pretty much most of that conversation, but it's a great conversation.

John Ballinger:

Things can be good content, but before we get to that, yeah, yeah, I've got the word of the day you know the word is listening and when I, when I uh read this definition as I pulled it up before we started to record.

John Ballinger:

The definition is giving attention to sound. That's just the basic definition. And then it goes in and says listening involves complex, effective cognitive and behavioral processes.

John Ballinger:

That's quite a few processes, mm-hmm, what are those again?

John Ballinger:

Those are.

John Ballinger:

It involves a complex, effective cognitive and behavioral processes.

John Ballinger:

And we talk a lot about leaders needing to listen, listen twice as much as you speak.

John Ballinger:

We talk about the importance of listening properly to your people eye contact things like that, and Michelle is going to get into that cognitive behavioral process that the brain, so somebody can be talking to you, and if your brain's not wired properly, what they're saying to you.

John Ballinger:

You may not understand 50% of it and we talk about that with leadership, just because the leader understands what they want them to. What they're saying doesn't mean what the people that they're trying to say it to is hearing them and they'll leave a meeting thinking, well, I told them what I wanted to do and the people that are sitting in the room are like so what are we supposed to do?

John Ballinger:

yeah, well, and we talk about too, I mean the people who are receiving it are, they are they engaged right.

Douglas Ford:

Are they listening to that or are they?

Douglas Ford:

is their mind filled with some other things that are causing them to be distracted. Uh, it could be that they're not able to kind of turn their mind off from the project they're working on if they're in a meeting and their you know new information is being shared or they're supposed to be participating in a meeting.

Douglas Ford:

They may be hindered from doing some of those things because their mind is otherwise occupied Could be with work, could be with personal things could be with any number of things that is preventing them from actively engaging in the listening process

John Ballinger:

as well. What if they're just confused by what they're saying Could be, you know, I just don't understand the way you're explaining that.

John Ballinger:

I just don't get it. And I do a little test. It's really, it's a tell somebody. So tell me how to get to your house.

John Ballinger:

You know and you'd be.

John Ballinger:

I'm amazed every time I ask that, how different somebody tells you to get somewhere. You know some will start.

John Ballinger:

Well, just go out to the road. Well, that turned left or right out of the driveway.

John Ballinger:

Oh well, you are left. Well, I don't know Exactly, yeah, and, and you really have as a leader, you have to be more specific today, that I think, than you.

John Ballinger:

Generalities just don't work, and I'm and I'm guilty of that, I am very guilty of thinking you should know what I'm thinking, but guess what they don't because they're not in your head, and so you have to be more specific, and my team those will tell me. I mean, I don't understand what you're saying and nobody else is going to understand what you're saying. Be more specific.

John Ballinger:

And so, leaders, today, as part of all the things that you've got to learn to be as a leader, you have to learn to be more specific and know the audience you're speaking to.

Douglas Ford:

So let's talk to.

John Ballinger:

Michelle.

John Ballinger:

Hecker-Davis with LearningRx and let her educate us and the audience on how the brain can be rewired.

John Ballinger:

I'd like to welcome Michelle Hecker Davis from LearningRx to First Lead U. Welcome, Michelle.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really looking forward to talking with you.

John Ballinger:

Michelle, would you tell us a little bit about yourself and your personal journey of getting into learning Rx?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Sure, you know, I'm trying to think how much I can tell because my story goes way, way back and in fact, when I was in school myself, you know, school was very easy for me and so I was able to do really well. In fact, I was that probably annoying kid who was beating the curve all the time and, you know, or or flattening the curve for those who wanted to get some extra points, because I always made really good grades and I didn't really have to study very hard. And, to be honest with you, that entire time I felt like I was fooling people because everyone thought I was so smart. And, I be honest with you, that entire time I felt like I was fooling people because everyone thought I was so smart and I thought, you know, I'm not. I don't feel like I'm smarter than anybody, it's just easy, I can just remember stuff and I can just, you know, process it easily. And so it wasn't until much later in life, when I had, you know, ended up being the valedictorian in high school, went to college, got a degree pretty quickly and ended up going into corporate accounting, before I decided and realized that that was not the job for me at all. I did not like it, I didn't enjoy it and at a young age making really great money. I thought this isn't what life is about.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

So I found it was Craigslist at the time which will tell you how long ago it was an ad to be a brain trainer and I thought what in the world is this? So I heard about brain training and this concept of the brain needs exercise, you can change the brain and you can actually make learning easier. And I thought about my best friend all through school who would study the same as me but she would make a C. And I thought why is she studying so hard, harder than me? And it's so easy for me and not for her? And I couldn't understand it. So when I learned about the brain, I learned, you know, that these are processes that that people hold. You know some. For some, learning is easy and for others, learning is hard. Well, what determines that? Are seven core cognitive areas. And then again, going on to, well, we can train those. I kind of thought, well, that just is that real. That kind of sounds too good to be true, you know. And I was skeptical.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

And it wasn't until my first student that I had and this was in 2010,. She was a fourth grader on a second grade reading level, and all the teachers at the time were saying we think it's time you consider medication for ADHD, because she can't focus, she can't read, she's struggling. And her mom just said I know there's something else. And she had been recommended a psychologist's office out in California who was doing this same brain training. And this mom was about to spend six figures to send her daughter to California to get brain training and they said, hey, there's a center opening in Chattanooga, you know, within the next six months. Just hang tight. So she did and I ended up being her first trainer, or, you know, her trainer.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

And so I watched this student. After six months of brain training and me even being a new trainer, she went from a second grade reading level to on a fourth grade reading level and got on honor roll for the first time and never had to get on medication after six months. And that's what really spoke to me. I mean I get chills to this day. It blew me away. To see her come out of her confidence was insane. I mean she just was this whole other person. And I'll fast forward.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

You know that was when I really got into green training and that was in 2010, and ended up taking over and then ultimately buying the center, you know, years later, but I've been running it for a very long time, and so JC was her name very long time, and so JC was her name, my student and she ended up going to Southern Adventist University to get her degree and she got her master's in social work and ended up doing her internship here at LearningRx, which was a really cool full circle moment, because, you know, she talks about how LearningRx changed the trajectory of her life for her and I talk about how her training changed the trajectory for me.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

You, her, and I talk about how her training changed the trajectory for me. You know, and it really did. I mean, this is what I am so passionate about now, because I have seen again and again and just like you said, john, your experience with your own daughter. When you see what brain training can do, I just don't know how I can't be on the rooftops screaming about it all the time Anybody who will listen.

John Ballinger:

I have been a closet salesperson for LearningRx ever since I went through it. So I have sent many people your way without you even knowing it, because I've seen the difference it's made and I tell people you know, a child and even adult doesn't want to not know how to learn. They, you know, you see the society, you know the things that go on and they want to. They just don't know how to.

John Ballinger:

And what I saw. You all showed them how they can learn, and I was at a principal's office in Chattanooga and we were talking about some challenges that high school students had with dropping out at the 11th grade mark and I just told them. I said, you know, it's not if kids are smart, it's how they're smart and we don't do a good job finding out how they're smart, and suggested learning Rx in that situation as well. But that's a great story to tell us about how you went from accounting to brain, yeah, and then ultimately, you ended up in the franchise. I guess it's a franchise LearningRx franchise.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Yeah, we are a franchise and we actually are international. So internationally it's a little different. It's called BrainRx and it used to be called PACE, which is processing and cognitive enhancement, and it was clinician delivered. Different it's called BrainRx and it used to be called PACE, which is Processing and Cognitive Enhancement, and it was clinician delivered only. And so this psychologist office in California that was doing PACE you know, training, processing and cognitive enhancement they turned it into a franchise in 2003.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

So it is a family owned business, clinician owned that has really tried to make it more accessible to more people when they turn, you know, put that model through, and so I did end up buying the center. But, you know, as far as you know, I have been running it as the director for a long time, but I was the director of training, so I've been through the training myself and I've done lots of additional certification. So now I'm a board certified cognitive specialist, which is a license that I hold which allows the more opportunities for especially students that we have or clients that have learning disabilities, to be able to get potentially reimbursed by insurance. So that's a really good step in the right direction for them. But it's children and adults, it's not just kids.

John Ballinger:

So when I say students, keep that in mind right and douglas, I think she just answered your question yeah, absolutely.

Douglas Ford:

Um. So when you uh send your email, when I see your name writing, it's got bccs behind it, and so I was wanting to know a little bit more about that, and I think you said that. But if you could repeat what that means and then how that um, what, what led you to get those certifications and and what type of training did that involve?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Sure, so it's a. Bccs stands for board certified cognitive specialist, um, and actually a unique, uh, uh, unique, uh, what's the word?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

This is why I'm starting brain training myself in a couple of weeks Cause I'm like, oh, I know what to do about this when I can't think of that word.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

But a certification that our center has is called we're a board certified cognitive training center, and we're actually the first in the state of Tennessee, which is very cool. But this is through the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards that this certification comes from, and it essentially means that we have studied the latest research. It's changing all the time and have heard from the most recent sort of expertise in the areas of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, inclusion in a classroom and that includes IEPs and even litigation concerns in that arena and anxiety. So there are cognitive concerns that are related to learning, and so it is not through LearningRx that I have that certification, but it is a big part of what we do at LearningRx, and so that's just. A goal that I have is to stay up to date on the most recent research, not just our research, but you know everything that's happening around the world, and so that's where that comes from.

Douglas Ford:

And you brought up something interesting you said there. You said that it's changing all the time and that I think that's key. And I think that's key and if you could explain that a little bit more, because you know people read things and it's like maybe the information's quote unquote outdated, but could you explain a little bit about why that information keeps changing and why maybe what we know today is kind of different than we maybe you've known 10 years ago.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Oh, my goodness, yes, and I love this sort of anecdote that when I started doing this work in 2010, and I would say the word neuroplasticity that's what it means when the brain is changing and people did not know that word you know, and now, and we're in 2024. Most people that I say neuroplasticity, they nod their head. They know that word, they know the brain changes and they've sort of accepted that we can change things like the brain and mindset and, like you were talking about earlier, john, that people will ask you that. You know, can you really change your brain? And it's interesting to me because I've seen it so much that it's just no question for me but at the time, 14 years ago, it was definitely in question. Can you actually change your brain? You had not heard about it a lot.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

You know, I even had a student who was fetal alcohol syndrome and had been through a lot in her life, adopted from a different country, and when I met with her and her mom and was working through some it was essentially some math facts with her, but we were doing them on a metronome beat, which is how you make that skill automatic, so it's a training way to do that. And her mom said, oh, the neurologist said she won't be able to add, you don't have to do that one. And I said, excuse me, the neurologist told her she will not be able to add, and I just thought that is so outdated to think about and I'm sure that that there has been a time when people have thought that, and neurologists, doctors, have thought that IQ cannot change. But that time is over and it absolutely can. And of course, she was able to add and subtract and she's actually living independently now and she was one that you know.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

She had been told, her mom had been told she will never be independent, she will live with you forever, and her mom just did not accept that and she did every therapy, every training you know. And again, she's actually 20 years old now and so I she stays in touch with me is another one that you know. She's living on her own and she's working and she's a fully functioning member of society, even with everything she's been through. So it's hard for me to have any empathy or sympathy towards someone who says the brain doesn't change. You just don't.

John Ballinger:

You have not seen the latest research and it's important that you that you keep up to date with that, especially if you next time. Can you tell us how the brain and learning, how they're directly connected and how do they inform our career path Because, like I said earlier, 50% of the people that we work with, they're not in a position that their brain is suited for when they take our assessments we give them? Can you tell us how the brain, training and learning and all that actually can help somebody with a career path?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Yes. So I love this question, I think about it a lot and one thing I would love for you to visualize with me. So I want you to visualize and picture a pyramid where, at the very base of this pyramid, we have our physical needs being met. So are we getting the sleep that we need? Do we have a great diet? Are we have optimal exercise? You know our physical sort of state is our vision working well, our hearing, that kind of thing. Then a step up from that in the pyramid is your social-emotional state. This is where your personality, your environment, all these things when you look at things like Myers-Briggs or you know personality assessments, you know, have this sort of social-, social, emotional interaction with people. The step above that is cognitive ability and then on the very top is our knowledge base, what we know, you know, and what we have learned. So when you go to that step of that, cognitive skills, there are seven key areas that affect the learning process skills.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

There are seven key areas that affect the learning process Attention. So can we focus, can we handle distractions? Can we divide our attention? Our working memory and our working memory I think about as in, how many tabs can we keep open in our brain window, like your mental post-it notes. So can you be responding to an email and then get a text message, and then someone asks a question and now you have three tabs open. Can you go back and forth between these tabs?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

And I like to talk about working memory a lot, because people know that we don't multitask, we don't do something all at the same time, but we task switch efficiently or inefficiently, and that's what I'm talking about with working memory. That skill is vital to switch between tasks efficiently. Then you have processing speed, which is how long it takes you to complete a task. And you know in the classroom there's somebody who's done first and there's someone who's done last. In your work environment there's somebody who gets done very quickly with the same amount of work that it takes someone else twice as long to do. That's always the way that it is. You know the processing speed is just that factor.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Now, those skills processing speed, working memory and attention are a huge part of what's called executive functioning skills, and you think about that like the executive of your brain. Do we know what to do? Can we keep up with multiple tasks and can we do it quickly and efficiently? So when you think about those skills, you're thinking about your efficiency. Now, when you're talking about leadership and roles and positions, does your position require efficiency or not? And so it's important to understand for yourself oh I'm great at that or I'm not great at that, because then you can really see where your gaps are. And of course, we do have an assessment for that. But a lot of times hearing about it, you know I have people, oh, that's me, you know.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

The other four skills are logic and reasoning. Can we problem solve If we don't have the information? Can we figure out what would make the most logical sense to go next to the next step? Now your leaders have got to have logic and reasoning, and this is something I've really pushed for different organizations to do cognitive assessment for leadership positions. Because if you have someone who has no logic and reasoning skills that you want in a leadership position, that's going to be a big challenge for them. You know they're going to need some guidance, they're going to need some management.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Visual processing is the skill that allows us to visualize in our mind's eye. If you're going to be an engineer, and actually if you go into that path, you probably have great visual processing already, because it's that's the ability to see in your mind's eye, to visualize. You know whether it's thinking about equipment and how something works and building it, putting it together. You know mechanics have great visual processing. They're able to almost do that in their head, where you know any kind of map, following someone who struggles with a left and right directional sort of thing. You know they may not have great visual processing and they're going to need to just write everything down and actually have a visual aid because they're not able to picture it in their mind. Then you have auditory processing, which has to do with our sound analysis.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

I was working with an adult client this morning who is dyslexic, and you know he works at Volkswagen and he's a very bright young man, but he struggled with reading and spelling and that story is all too common when you have an above average IQ and you struggle with reading, which is lines up with what's called dyslexia.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

There's a lot of different types of dyslexia even, but it's very common to have to be very smart and struggle with reading and that offers challenges towards leaders who have the great logic and reasoning, have the great visualization, but struggle with reading and writing and spelling. So again, that's another skill that, depending on the gap, depending on the job, a lot of people find the things that they're great at and they end up going towards that type of work, whereas when you learn that you can actually change those skills and build them, you don't have to limit yourself in the type of work that you're able to choose and do. The last skill is long-term memory. That's the seventh and that's just your retrieval. Can we store and retain, or do we have to go over it again and again? So I'll pause there because I know I just said a lot.

John Ballinger:

Yeah, well, we have a I think Doug I can't remember which podcast it is where we talk about neuroplasticity and neurodiversity, Um, and we spent a whole episode talking about that, because it's something obviously that, with my background, I do a lot of work on, especially with leadership, because leaders don't, they don't even think that they can learn how to have those different tabs open and do it with calmness and perspective and listen and all that at the same time. They think that's impossible. I'm like, no, it's possible, but you have to work at it. It's not something for a lot of people, it just comes natural to them.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Right.

John Ballinger:

So growth mindset versus fixed mindset as it relates to leadership skills.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

I love talking about growth mindset because it's such a vital part of leadership and learning and growing. So when we understand that our mindset or the process of learning is something that changes and something that, when we make mistakes or have failures, we actually get a mindset where we love that and you may not love it, love it but you appreciate it for what it is. So mistakes and failures allow us to be able to learn from those. And what's tough is that a lot of times and I actually talk about how we're raised in the school system and I would say the public school system, but I'm sure it's in private schools too where you have this idea of you got the wrong answer, you're getting a red X, you're not supposed to do that. And it starts training people from a very early age that you're not supposed to get wrong answers. So I get an A on a paper and someone says to me you're so smart, you got an A. Well, now when I don't get an A, guess what I say in my mind? I say I must not be smart because I didn't get an A.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

So we get into this fixed mindset of I'm not supposed to make mistakes, I'm not supposed to do hard things. I don't want your feedback If I'm giving effort. I feel like you know I must not be good at that, and so you end up getting into this point where we're only doing the things that we're good at and we're avoiding the things that we're not good at, and that's how we get into a fixed mindset. Now that happens a lot with in work environments, and I would I would go on to say that a lot of those leaders that you're referring to, that that don't have great leadership and great a great organization, are probably in a fixed mindset. It's not an environment of failing forward, of making mistakes being a positive thing, and that can be detrimental to the growth and the whole mindset of everyone in that organization. So that's a huge skill for leadership just to be able to make great mistakes.

John Ballinger:

Right. What could someone do to ensure they're maintaining proper cognitive exercises Like how do we train our brain just on an everyday? We're not in your center, but we're a leader and we want to know how do we exercise our brain.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

I will tell you, my best advice for changing your brain is doing something different. It's so easy for us to get into a habit where we go the same route every day. You know, in the car we follow the GPS, even though we've been there a million times. And it's interesting because our phone actually does a lot of thinking for us, right? It stores numbers, so we don't have to use our memory. We even can write down our grocery list so that we don't have to remember it. And again, we can follow directions in the GPS instead of using our visual processing to get somewhere. And so when you think about just understanding that your brain needs to work and you know, for someone who does physical exercise, you kind of can get this concept to thinking about if you just lift a five pound weight every single day, you're not really getting exercise. So I hear people say oh, my grandmother does a crossword puzzle every day. Well, she's probably good at crossword puzzles and it's probably not very challenging for her. So if I hear she hates Sudoku, that's the one she needs to do, you know. So when you're doing something challenging and maybe that is when you're right-handed and you use your left hand to brush your teeth. That's hard, you know. That takes some brain work. Maybe it's learning an instrument or a different language, challenging your brain to do something different, and I'm telling you that is uncomfortable at times, depending on what it is for sure. But when you think about those, and especially if you can identify a particularly weak area if processing speed is one it takes you a long time to do things start timing yourself and start challenging your speed. If you struggle to remember things, start challenging yourself. Try to remember that list that you're going to the grocery store. We use a visual technique that a lot of memory masters use, where we'll visualize or picture this item and we'll connect it to the next thing. You know, you have a list of items that you have a visual picture for and you can remember that and and then use that you know when you go to the grocery store.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

So, depending on what area you want to work, there are absolutely things you can do. There's a lot of board games that work on different skills actually have a list that I reference a lot on. You know, if you want to develop some logic and reasoning, you know and you play a game like chess, you're going to be practicing your logic and reasoning. Visual processing is great. With Battleship, you know, a game where you're having to picture, visualize in your mind's eye. So there's a lot of different things.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Like you know ways like that, and that's why you hear about brain games, you hear about apps. But the important thing is not just to play it but to actually challenge yourself in something that's hard. And that's when someone I hear about, you know lumosity or some of these brain apps that I love. I'm a huge proponent of that. But you know, what happens is the moment it gets too challenging, you quit, you know, and that's the moment that you really start training. And so that's really you know why what we do at Learning Rex is so vital because we provide that personal accountability, that one on one personal trainer to make sure it happens.

John Ballinger:

You know one personal trainer to make sure it happens, you know Right? Yeah, douglas, it sounds like Michelle's already listened to all 48 episodes.

Douglas Ford:

She certainly hits on a lot of our key points, that's for sure.

John Ballinger:

A ton of them. Michelle, it's eerie how you're touching on key points and we're just we're. We're focused on helping leaders learn how to lead themselves well so they lead their teams well, and a lot of the talking points that you're talking about and strategies. And you know, we talk about speed of thought, just the speed of thinking, and how you can speed up, and it doesn't have to be a blue circle of death on your computer, like a lot of leaders, when, when faced with a lot of information, you can see their brain just start spinning like the blue circle on a computer and then they don't get anything done or they just walk off and they leave their team just standing there. It's a lot of what you're talking about is what we've talked about at First Lead U at First Lead U.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Well, I have a personal leader passion for leadership as well, that you know. Maybe we get together and we come up with a little. Like you know, maybe there's an exercise a day on each of your podcasts or something like that, because you know, like you have the word of the day. Maybe there's an exercise of the day because I think it's so important to view your brain for one as something that is changeable, but then actually make actionable steps to change it and to work with it and work on it.

John Ballinger:

Yeah, I really like that At the end of every podcast. We like giving homework out, and so that would be a great place to insert that in.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Oh, yeah, love it.

John Ballinger:

Can brain training be done remotely or does it have to be in the office?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

It is remote. Actually, interestingly enough, in 2019, we started piloting remote training to offer it to families that were just too far away, a couple hours away, and then, when COVID hit 2020, we had been piloting this program for almost a year and we just said, okay, it's go time, and so we ended up actually training a lot in person. You know, here in um in the south, everybody wanted to be in person and that was great for us and um. We actually went through a major challenging part in our system where a few centers did close um, because they weren't able to kind of keep up with that and shift. But we ended up thriving and, you know, I think it had a lot to do with.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

For one, I was very passionate about training auditory processing. When you're training auditory processing, you have got to be able to discriminate between sounds and you have got to be able to see mouth movement. So I, you know I consulted with infectious disease doctors and audiologists and said how do I continue training and not wear a mask? I cannot do it. I cannot train auditory processing with a mask. What do we do?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

So we just you know everybody's schedules were cleared, so I put two people in here at a time all day, and then I, so it was very limited. And then I had these you know sort of clear barriers, whatever, and we trained without masks and we had great gains in reading, whereas the entire county was going down in reading scores. And I can't even get into education right now to talk about our reading scores. But auditory processing is vital and I knew that was going to make a huge difference in our growth in our schools after COVID and, of course, since then. You know you're hearing about these kids COVID kindergartners, going into third and fourth grade. It's facilitated, this retention law. You know it's just a major, major issue, but it goes back to the brain. I don't know if I went somewhere else with your question.

John Ballinger:

Well, I think this isn't even the question on our list that we've got, but should schools adopt this process when they find someone that's struggling?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Well, it's interesting because you know, I feel like teachers are in a really tough spot. They're expected to. You know there are some kids who aren't getting basic needs met. So you think about that physical base layer and then the social, emotional.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

So when you have kids who are not getting basic needs met physically, socially, emotionally, cognitively, academically you know the schools are trying to address academics and that's really their role and in my opinion, we need to come together as a community and use community support and resources, because teachers and schools cannot do everything. They cannot raise our kids for us. We need to partner with schools so that schools I mean their role really is academics, it's not cognitive development and it's not social, emotional support and it's not physical support. But they're ending up they're taking all these roles and it's too much. So now our teachers are overworked and underpaid and you know they just they can't do everything. So so I actually don't think that this needs to be in schools, because they don't have the capabilities or the resources to give one-on-one support to a student, to pour in, to change their brain. The way that we can and needs to be done.

John Ballinger:

Maybe I phrased that differently. When a teacher sees a child struggling, what should that teacher be able to do with that partnership in order to get further help? I mean, is that just?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Yeah, I see. Yeah, so, as a resource, for sure, that's a goal that I have is to get. I do a free CEU course for teachers who you know they get continuing education credits, and so you know I do free workshops in schools, too, just to teach them, and so you know I do free workshops in schools to just to teach them. For example, auditory processing disorder and ADHD look very similar. Well, adhd diagnoses are flying out all over the place and I get them and I learn about their auditory processing being the issue, you know. So it's interesting because you know that is another thing where I try to be a resource. But what's challenging for the district is that they, if they recommend a service that they cannot provide, then they are required and responsible to provide it and pay for it, and so schools are very hesitant to make recommendations outside of the school. Gotcha.

John Ballinger:

Wow, another hill to climb, right.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Yep, that's right.

John Ballinger:

Yeah, so, lastly, how can people get in touch with Michelle and your team at LearningRx for Brain Training?

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Well, there are lots of ways. We're on all the social media, mostly Instagram and Facebook, and we have a great website, learningrxcom. There's a ton of anything from research to specific types of clients that we work with. There's a free survey. That's really cool. You can go on there and see. You know, hey, is it my processing speed or is it working memory, I don't know, or is it attention, and so that's just a totally free survey that you can go on our website and take.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Um and then um, there's a podcast that I love to recommend called brainy moms, and it's different dads too, but it's a lot of um. You know, it's actually the head of our research department, who's an educational psychologist and talks a lot about just neurodiversity. And um, you know it's actually the head of our research department, who's an educational psychologist and talks a lot about just neurodiversity, and, you know, has different guests on to talk about development. You know child development and that kind of thing, and I just love Brainy Mom's podcast. There's good, good info on there. So, but that's not mine. That's one that I love, but my website and social media is a great way to connect, and we love doing free trial sessions at our center. So if you're like, hey, I want to try some brain training and see what it's like, it's hard to describe, but I would love to invite anyone in to just give us a call and schedule a time to come in for a free trial session.

John Ballinger:

Yeah, douglas, we can put. We can put those links and things on the podcast information that we solicit, so I think it'd be good to give out to the listeners. In closing, anything else you would like to say when it comes to brain training and what you do to help those that need to expand their cognitive and social ability.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Yeah, there are actually a couple of books that I like to recommend, so I don't know if you remember Ben Utecht.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

He was a I don't know which team he was on. He was a football player in the NFL for the Patriots maybe Ben Utecht. But he suffered a lot of concussions and ended up doing the learning or brain training and wrote a book called Counting the Days While my Mind Slips Away, and it's a little bit of a love letter to his family that he's worried he won't remember one day because he's watching his memory go. And he ended up doing a brain training program and had so much of a significant change that it completely changed the trajectory of where he was going with this book. So it's really interesting to hear that perspective.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

And then I also like to recommend Change your Brain, change your Life by Dr Amen with the Amen Clinics in Atlanta, and there's so many, there's so many great books that include neuroplasticity. So yeah, if you're interested in it, you know I love talking about it, I love the conversation, so feel free, you know, to reach out. My center is over by Hamilton Place Mall, so I just people stop by all the time when they're going to Five Below or Marshall's or Ross. We're in that same shopping center so I would love to chat about this anytime.

John Ballinger:

Well, we truly appreciate your time taking it out of your busy schedule to come on first, lead you and talk to us about brain training and, as I said earlier, I'm a fan because I've seen it work on my daughter and I highly encourage anyone that's stuck I call it stuck with you think you can't learn or you you're, you're. A speed of speed of thought is not where it needs to be. Look up Michelle and her team and let them help you out. Michelle, thank you very much for being on first lead you thank you so much for having me.

Douglas Ford:

It's a great conversation and Michelle, I'll ask you one more time just to give us that phone number and a website where people can reach out to you.

Michelle Hecker Davis:

Yes, the phone number for LearningRx is 423-305-1599. And our website is learningrxcom. Or you can Google LearningRx Chattanooga to find my local site. My email is mdavis D-A-V-I-S at learningrxnet.

John Ballinger:

Man, what a conversation.

Douglas Ford:

Yeah, like I said earlier, it was a great conversation with her. She has a lot to offer and I'm pretty sure we'll be hearing from her again. Yeah, I actually sent her an email with her. She has a lot to offer and I'm pretty sure we'll be hearing from her again.

John Ballinger:

Yeah, yeah, I actually had. I sent her an email. I think it was that evening or maybe, um, maybe the next day. That what she's doing. And this isn't for just kids, by the way the adults that have had challenges that they didn't really realize what was going on. I saw adults over there. I saw people with medical injuries like strokes, heart attacks that had caused them to have memory issues. It's crazy how?

John Ballinger:

But the brain's a healing, just like the rest of our body. Cut our finger, heal, break our bones, heal. Well, the brain can do the same thing. But there has to be a cognitive process and they have to know like, where's it broke at. You know, it's kind of like a. We got to come in and we got to look at it and take this assessment and this assessment tells us this is the part of the brain that's, that's not uh, uh, operating properly, and so we need to do this and, uh, I'm quite sure we'll hear more from michelle uh over the coming weeks and we've even talked about doing a little uh puzzle at the end of podcast. That helps retrain the brain or at least exercise the brain.

Douglas Ford:

I think that'll be healthy for our, our audience as well yeah, our could or um could be uh an addition to our one thing, or homework uh, that we add in there as a, as a special, uh special element, uh moving forward. So well, thanks for uh inviting Michelle to be on the podcast.

John Ballinger:

Yeah, awesome, yeah, so Great week. We'll see you next time you.

People on this episode

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John Ballinger

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Douglas Ford

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