Making Sense of Complexity

This episode of beyond you'd why is brought to you by our why App. Head over to yinstitute.com to take the why app so you can discover your why today. Knowing your why is the essential first step in having the clarity to move forward faster and have a bigger impact.

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually helping you discover and then live your why. And as you know, each of the podcasts I talk about a particular why, and then we bring somebody on that has that why. And today we're going to be talking about the why of make sense to make sense out of things, especially if complex or complicated. Now, these are people that take elements of every situation they're in and make sense out of them. They take complicated or what may appear to be complicated factors, problems and concepts and organize them to create solutions that are sensible and easy to implement. They're highly solution oriented and excellent problem solvers. In conversations with people that have this why, you might hear them say something like, okay, I got it. Given all that, let's do this. People with this particular why can be very successful management consultants, visionaries, leaders, authors, executives, coaches and analysts. They typically can be viewed as experts because they can find solutions quickly. They may also be authors as they can use their skills to summarize complicated issues in writing. And so today my guest is Sabrina Cadini. Now, Sabrina is a life coach, brain fitness coach, and life work balance strategist who helps busy professionals improve their wellbeing and productivity without sacrificing precious time for personal life, family and work. Sabrina, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me, Gary. This is such an exciting time for me to meet you and to chat about this makes sense aspect of my life. It's so awesome.

So you took the Y app, you discovered your why, and it came up with make sense. How did that feel to you?

Oh my goodness. As I was reading the description, I was thinking this is exactly like me. This is me. It was so accurate. So thank you.

Well, you know, there's 1500 possible question choices, but I know you only had to answer about 10 or 12 and then it triple checks itself as we're going. I'm very confident in the results. But it sounds like from your history and what you're doing now that you've always been somebody that is there to make sense of the complex or challenging.

Yes, always. I always want to understand why something is happening, why everything that I do is happening in that way. I always go to the Root of the cause. Okay, so I am doing a specific action. Why is this happening? Why am I thinking about? Maybe I think too much, the way I am. I always want to understand the why behind it.

So I hear an accent. Tell us where you're from.

Yes. I was born and raised in Italy, in Milan, and I moved to the states in the mid-90s with my husband and then 2 year old son. And it was such a culture shock. It was.

Huge change for me. But, you know, little by little, I get used to it. And again, I asked myself a lot of questions, a lot of whys and a lot of how can I make this work? And here I am loving this beautiful country. I live in San Diego, Southern California, and this is my home now.

Okay, so you moved here, you and your husband and your son moved here, and then you got into what, event planning. Is that the first thing that you did?

Yes. My husband and I owned a destination management company back in the 90s, so our specialty was organizing medical conventions all over the United States. And that's how I started with event planning. I did something in Italy. It was mostly events and weddings. But here in the States, we were specializing in more corporate travel for pharmaceutical companies. And I absolutely loved it. But I have to say it was a little boring for me because I always had this feel for design, for creativity. And, you know, medical conventions are nowhere near creativity and imagination and design. So after September 11, the business went down completely. Most of our clients were coming from Europe. They were scared to travel. And so I went back to the design, to the event planning, to the wedding planning. I also specialized in fundraising. So I was on the board of several charity organizations as their event planner and hospitality chair. And that was absolutely a great time for me because I could use my creativity, I could use my design skills. And I started developing this ability to solve problems in a second. You know, everything like emergencies or unexpected changes, I was there making sure that everything would flow seamlessly no matter what. And then I think this ability of mine is very helpful in my coaching practice today because I can understand what people are going through, what my clients are experiencing as far as challenging challenges or issues, and I can find a solution for them. So together we can find a way to improve their lives.

Yeah, you know, everything you've mentioned, it's really interesting when you know from an outside perspective, looking at everything that you've talked about and everything that you've done, they're all about taking a whole lot of stuff coming at you and having to figure out a Way to understand it, having to figure out a way to solve the problem so that you can help people move forward. And I'm sure that's what event planning is. A big part of it is solving problems, right?

Oh, absolutely. And, you know, I was doing a lot of weddings more than events. And, you know, wedding planning can be extremely demanding and stressful. Not that other jobs are not stressful, but wedding planning also has that emotional aspect because you have to deal with family dynamics, different issues, meltdowns of rides or grooms. That always happens. And you're right there cutting the middle, trying to be a confident. A therapist, you know, an advisor. Right. It's more than a planner, which I loved to do because couples would become part of my family, basically, and I would really become very close to that, but it's very draining at the same time. So at the end of the day, I would feel very satisfied to help them, you know, have this beautiful day celebrating their union. But at the same time, I was completely exhausted because really the energy would leave me completely. I was like a dead battery at the end of their celebration.

What got you into wanting to do events? What got you into wanting to do wedding planning? Why did you go that route?

As I mentioned, I had started in Italy working for a producer at a TV station where I was working at the time. And I really liked the way that, you know, event planning works. So basically, you think about a vision, you put together, like a series of details, and, you know, you're trying to bring that vision, which is what the client wants. And it's a combination of needs, of expectations, of goals that they have in mind, and you bring that vision to reality. And I have to say, that process of bringing the ideas to the production, to the final results is actually my biggest think. I really love it. Sometimes I love the behind the scenes more than the actual event. You know, the creation of those beautiful moments that will become a beautiful memory in the eyes of the client and of the guests. So I create experiences, and that's what really got me into event planning. The idea that can come to life and be a reality in front of you. But also the relationship with my clients, because I loved to help them solve a problem. And you think about, wait a second, event planning is solving a problem. And it is because if you work with a corporate client, for instance, they have to organize an event for a launch, product launch, right? So you have to consider everything about the brand, their message, their values, their goals, what they want to achieve with this event, and you make that happen. So you are an event facilitator, and you make everything happen so that they have. They get the results that they want, their guests are happy, and the product launch will be successful, and the brand will have more visibility, more success than everything else. So, again, you know, event planning for some people is like, okay, you put together a caterer and a florist and you're done. No, there's a lot to think about behind the scenes that goes beyond the visual effects. You know, there is a lot of thinking, a lot of brainstorming, a lot of planning, a lot of coordinating, a lot of managing, and that's what really got me into event planning. You know, I'm weird, but I love complicated things, and I love to make complicated things easy.

So the more complicated they are, the more active and alive I feel. That's how I am.

Yep. Which is exactly what the why of Make Sense is all about, is taking complex and challenging things. In fact, it's funny because you almost said word for word, what the description of that why is. Because.

It'S the more complicated, the better. The more challenging, the better. If it's not challenging, it's not fun. Right. If it's just something you've done over and over again, it's like, why am I doing this? Somebody else could do this. Give me a challenge here, which is. I can imagine now what coaching represents to you. Life coaching, brain fitness coaching, life work, balance strategist. I mean, that's all about taking this complex thing called life and helping people understand it so that they can do it better. Helping them solve the problems that are keeping them stuck. Right?

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And that was, I think, a natural segue from event planning. I experienced burnout because, of course, you know, there was a lot to think about. And I was. I realized that I was saying yes too many times. I was taking too many jobs because I loved my job. I had this huge passion for what I was doing, and my body said, okay, Sabrina, that's it. You can't go on like that. I was sleeping probably three or four hours a night because I didn't have the time. And I didn't make time for myself because I didn't have the time. So that was my biggest excuse. And of course, you know, your body and your brain are not programmed to function 24 hours a day. That's unfortunately, a problem for us because we would like to be, you know, on the go every day, every time, every hour, every second, but we can't do that. That's very simple. And so after burnout, I noticed that my body was trying to tell me something. It was sending me signals. And so I had these thankfully minor health issues that were sabotaging my productivity. They were sabotaging my attention, my focus and my energy. And so I started to function less, to work worse, you know. So after all this, I realized that I had to change my lifestyle completely. So I asked myself a lot of questions. Why is this happening? How is this happening? I want to understand because I always want to know what goes on. As I mentioned at the beginning, after like I would say six months, really trying to understand what was going on, I was able to hack my life and find solutions to live better, to work better, to regain my energy, my productivity, my focus and everything else. And so, little by little, I realized that maybe event planning was not the best way to continue my life, but instead helping others understand what is wrong in their lives and provide solutions. Because I've been through that process and now I want to share it with the rest of the world. So I am on a mission, I would say, wow.

So you experience the same thing that you're helping your clients through, which is overworking, letting yourself go. Focus too much on business, focus too much on helping others. And then at certain stage you gotta help yourself. Right? So that you can actually be there for other people.

Absolutely. And you know, also this fast paced life, this modern society is kind of, I don't know if condemning is the right word, but you have to show you're busy all the time. Because when people ask you how are you? What is the question you hear all the time? I'm busy. Oh, I'm super busy. I'm so busy. You have no idea what, why.

You always have to show that you are busy. And if you're not busy and you're taking care of yourself, you are seen as a lazy person. Or maybe someone who is not good at this job because he doesn't have clients. But that's not the case. You know, when you take care of yourself, it means that you are smart about your life and you know how to live better and how to work better. Because when you take time for yourself, you are more productive in the business. So yes, you know, that's something that all of my clients do. And my ideal client is a busy professional. They don't have the time to stop because they are so busy. They have family, they have full time job, and they think they cannot afford time for themselves. They cannot afford to slow down in order to accomplish whatever they want in their lives. Their goals, their dreams, their desires. But I show them that it's actually the opposite. When you slow down and you take care of yourself, you find more time to follow your dreams and to accomplish your goals.

Great. So tell me about this thing I saw that you say brain fitness coach. What is a brain fitness coach?

Yes, this is a question that I get a lot of times because people think that I help them do like crossword puzzles or something like that, but it's actually much more than that. So I basically help them keep their brain alive and to slow their cognitive decline. And the way I do that encompasses different aspects of their daily life, which is, which are nutrition, sleep, exercise, and again, self care, as I briefly mentioned earlier. So body and brain. Body and mind are not to be considered, like, to be different entities. We usually think about our body as one system and our brain or our mind as a different system. But in fact, they work together. They are part of our body. They're one system. And so they're very connected. They're tightly connected. And this is something that people don't realize it. I can sleep a few hours because I don't have the time to do that. And so doing that, I will have more time to work on a project. But in reality, what happens is you drain your body and you tire your brain. So the next morning you will be more, more tired than the day before. And so you will have, you will need more time to work on that project. You will waste more time in your day, and at the end of the day, you realize you don't have, you haven't accomplished everything that you needed to do because you were tired from the night before. And that's, you know, that creates a vicious cycle because the less you do, the less you sleep, the less you take care of yourself, managing them in a very bad way. So brain fitness is about optimizing your brain function by taking care of your body and your brain. So again, we talk about the best foods that can give you the right energy to be active all day and to really thrive in life and in business. We talked about ways to sleep better. So I helped them improve sleep hygiene. And also we talked about ways to stay active. A lot of people tell me, I don't have time for the gym, so don't tell me I need a personal trainer. And I tell them, you don't have to go to the gym to stay active. There are so many different things that you can do and still exercise your body and keep your brain active and functioning and, you know, really giving you the best that you can get from it. So you can go dancing, you can go walk, you can be immersed in, in nature, hiking, you can do sports, play sports, kayaking, sailing, boating, I mean, whatever really gives you a way to stay active during the day. And then also self care. Self care is very, very important. And more and more studies are showing that self care techniques really improve your overall health, your well being and your productivity. Such as meditation, breathing techniques. I mean there are so many things that we can do to live better, to function better. And so brain fitness was something that I wanted to add to my life coaching because I strongly believe that your brain is capable of amazing things. It's such an amazing organ and I call it a machine because it can give us so many different tools and ways to really excel in our life every single day. And we don't use it enough. And not only we don't use it enough, but we ignore it so much and we don't take care of it as much as we should.

That's an interesting perspective because what I think I'm hearing you say is the focus and the purpose of fitness is about making your brain healthy. And if your brain's healthy, the rest is healthy. But if your brain isn't healthy, then the rest is not healthy. And so exercise, diet, nutrition, sleep, all of those, the reason that you do those is to keep your brain healthy, not just to do those things. Is that correct?

Yes, exactly. And you know, I am very much into nutrition well being and I study a lot. I always educate myself about the body and mind connection, but most specifically about the gut brain connection. I don't know if you're familiar about this, but again, as I was saying, body and brain are tightly connected and they are truly connected through the vagus nerve. Vagus nerve is the biggest nerve in our body and it really connects our digestive system to our brain. And a lot of neurotransmitters are also produced in the digestive system in our gut. And so there's such a big connection between the two that we can't ignore. And so the way you eat really influences our brain health. That's something that we cannot ignore at all. And you know, with our western diet, you know, you don't get the necessary nutrients for our body, for our brain. And so what you get, you are like fatigued, tired, you get brain fog. And that's very often caused by a poor diet. And so that's something that I immediately work on with my clients, trying to correct their eating habits and they Feel much better. Like in days, like in a few days, as soon as they remove sugar from their diet, they're like, oh, my goodness, I woke up this morning and I didn't feel the brain fog that I usually experience. I didn't even need to drink my coffee to get this, you know, spike in activity and, you know, and feel energized. I felt great, you know. And so, again, these are little changes that we can work on and really improve not only the energy, but also the function of your brain. But again, yeah, the gut brain connection is big, and that's something that I stress in my coaching practice.

Yeah. So what I like about what you're saying is, you know, if you were to diagram fitness out, if you were to diagram what it is you're doing, it puts the brain at the center instead of just. A lot of people don't even talk about the brain. They only talk about fitness or, yeah, you got to eat well, you got to exercise, you got to do those things. But they don't talk about it from the perspective of how that affects your brain. And recently I went through a kind of a crazy scenario where I ended up in the hospital in ICU for, like, five days. I was in the hospital for nine days. Just a crazy thing where it really affected my brain. All from taking an Advil, of all things, but.

It really affected my brain to where all I could, my brain wasn't healthy. And I knew my brain wasn't healthy, and I was still fit, I was still active, I was still eating right. I was still doing all those things. But when my brain wasn't healthy, nothing else mattered. Nothing had any. I mean, I didn't care about anything else except for making sure my brain was healthy. So I ended up having to go see a brain expert to find out that I was fine. But until I figured that out, it wasn't okay. And so I have a real good perspective on what you're talking about, because all the rest of things were still in line. But if the brain isn't right, then you're not right.

So true. Very scared. I mean, such a scare for you, Gary. I'm glad that you were able to, you know, feel better soon, but, yeah, absolutely, what you're saying makes perfect sense. And, you know, I don't know if you hear about inflammation. A lot of people are talking about that today. And I'm not talking about the acute inflammation, which is like something when you bruise yourself or when you cut yourself. That's natural, and that's actually the body's natural protection, you know, to provide healing. But I'm talking about the low grade inflammation that a lot of people are going through nowadays with, again, this poor diet that involves inflammation in your gut and that it can go to your brain. So when you get an inflamed brain, people think about a brain on fire, but it's not really that. It's mostly a problem about neurotransmitter disruption. And that's when you get, you know, the feeling of depression, you feel tired, you know, all these unwanted feelings that really slow down your day and they put you in a bad mood. And then you are not able to work. You're not able to feel, you know, comfortable and happy and relaxed at home. And so that, you know, starts everything else. And I mean, my clients feel, like hopeless sometimes. And they're like, sabrina, I know that something is going on, but I don't really know what the problem is. Can you help me understand? So when you take a look at what they're eating, how much they're sleeping, how much they're exercising, and how much time they're dedicating to themselves, which is little, I realized that they have probably inflammation happening. And so the brain is like, attacked by this inflammation going on and they, they're unable to really be themselves. You know, they, they become, you know, sluggish, they become tired, and they're not able to accomplish whatever they want to accomplish. So again, nutrition is key.

Okay, so, Sabrina, let me ask you a question. You've got people's attention right now. The listeners are listening and they're saying, okay, Sabrina, give me one thing, one thing that I should do as far as nutrition or not do as far as nutrition, something I shouldn't do or something I should do to make the biggest impact. What would that be?

Absolutely. Now, keep in mind this is generic information because I'm not a nutritionist and people listening are not my patients. I don't work with patients. I work with healthy individuals. But general guidelines is stay away from inflammatory foods. Inflammatory foods are generally sugar. So added sugar, I'm not talking about the sugar you find in fruits, for instance, but added sugar, anything that is added in processed foods or prepackaged foods. A lot of fast foods, you know, the foods that you buy are packaged at grocery stores are usually foods that can cause inflammation in your gut. And then once they cause inflammation in your gut, this inflammation can be moved to your brain. How? They're called leakage. Basically, the immune system gets activated because this food disrupts the microbiome. Which is basically the bacteria that live inside our digestive system. And the immune system get also activated because they don't recognize, it doesn't recognize these foreign intruders like sugars or gluten. Also, gluten can also be an offender in many people. Dairy could be also a problem. And again, I'm just giving you general guidelines because your audience should get tested and see if they're sensitive of if they're allergic. You know, I don't know their bodies, I don't know how they are able to digest different foods. But once these foods are in your system and the immune system doesn't like them because they don't recognize them, they try to attack them. And they also attack healthy tissues in some cases. You know, again, there are so many. I mean, I would need probably three or four hours to explain the process.

But essentially what you're saying is there's certain foods that your body doesn't like and if you eat them, it causes a reaction that's not good for your brain.

Yeah, exactly, yeah.

And then one thing you want them to do is just stay away from sugar.

Sugar? Yeah, sugar is the biggest offender.

Okay, so stay away from sugar. That'll make a big difference.

Oh yes, absolutely. And you know, sugar is hidden in everything. I don't know if you ever read labels of foods that you buy. Sugar is in everything. And so eating like whole foods, plant based foods, lots of vegetables and fruits if you can digest them better. Well, because again, fruits have still have sugar. So if you are not able to digest sugar very well, you have to limit your consumption of fruits, but mostly vegetables, good protein like meat, eggs, fish, possibly grass fed meat so that you don't have to get hormones and antibiotics. You know, that sometimes are in me healthy fat in the fish. And I would say salmon, anchovies, herring, sardines, these are usually the best fish to eat because they have less mercury, so less toxins in your body. And possibly wild caught instead of farm raised, because farm raised again, they might have toxins and antibiotics as well. So wild caught would be best.

So Sabrina, these are all things that you hear quite often, right? This is stuff that, that you pick up every magazine and they talk about those kinds of things. So tell me some of the things that you do that are different than what I typically hear to help me to become healthy, to help me be fitness or to help me focus on my brain as the area that I need to really look at when it comes to fitness. Because it sounds like your focus is more on the brain Versus just like fitness or getting in shape.

Yes, well, it's on the brain, but I have this holistic approach. So it's not only one part of the body, but it's a very complete approach. So I take a look at nutrition, sleep, exercise and self care. These are my four points. I have these four principles that I.

So I have the nutrition, sleep, exercise and self care. So these are my principles. I have a program called lifework, balance and my principles are eat better, sleep more, move daily, love yourself. And then the fifth one is own your life. This is when you apply everything that you learned about your nutrition, sleep, exercise and self care and you apply them to your business life because again, when you are a healthy individual, you can achieve better in your business.

That's awesome. So Sabrina, if one of our listeners is saying, man, I really need to talk to her, I'd love to learn more about what she's doing. How could somebody get in touch with you? What's the best way to get in touch with you?

Yes, the easiest way is to find me on my website@sabrinacadini.com and I'm also SabrinAcadini on social media, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn.

And who is it that you're really looking for? Who is it that you really feel like you can have the biggest impact with?

All of my clients are busy professionals. They're usually solopreneur, freelancers, mompreneurs, business owners. So people who own their own business and they have a lot of challenges, of course, to either start the business or to grow their business. Plus they have a family. The demographics is usually late 30s, late 40s. That's usually the range of people I work with and mostly women. But I started to get some male clients. They saw what I do and they're like, oh my goodness, maybe you can help me. So yeah, that's my.

And so if I was listening to this, knowing now what your why is knowing now why I would choose you, which is because you're that person who has always helped busy people, busy events, busy things, understand what's going on, create a solution that works and help people move forward. So you help people move forward by helping them solve their problems. And you do it through the perspective of how does this affect your brain? How do we get your brain healthy so the rest of you stays healthy.

Yeah, exactly. And again, I wanted to get certified in brain fitness because I was interested in coaching them. Not only from the perspective of, yes, you have to give time to yourself because you want to feel better. I was always interested in knowing why and how. And so adding neuroscience and neurohacking into my coaching practice, I believe really makes a big difference for my clients because they can understand the process of the brain, why they're doing that, why they're creating new habits, and how we can do that in order to accomplish our goals.

That's awesome. Well, Sabrina, thank you so much for being here today. I'm glad we got a chance to talk. I'm glad we got a chance to meet. And I know you're going to make a big difference for all of your clients. So thanks again for being here.

Thank you so much, Gary.

Take care.

You, too.

Bye.