E88: What Every Business Owner Needs to Know About Their Brain with Natalie Mackenzie

In this episode of Dream Business Dream Life, Emma is joined by Natalie McKenzie, also known as The Brain Lady and Cognitive Strategist, to explore how brain health directly impacts business performance, decision-making, burnout, and long-term wellbeing.

From sleep deprivation and hustle culture to digital overload, AI, and poor nutrition, Natalie explains how everyday business habits quietly affect how your brain functions, often years before we notice the consequences. This conversation challenges the idea that pushing harder leads to better results and instead makes the case for protecting your brain as a core business strategy.

If you’ve ever experienced brain fog, exhaustion, overwhelm, poor focus, or burnout, this episode will change how you think about productivity, success, and sustainability in business.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why your brain controls every business decision you make
• How poor sleep can reduce decision-making by up to 40%
• The early warning signs of cognitive overload and burnout
• Why hustle culture is damaging long-term brain health
• How AI and digital overload affect critical thinking
• Why most people skip the basics and jump straight to supplements
• The surprising link between brain health and future dementia risk
• How understanding your cognitive strengths can improve business efficiency
• Why doing hard things is actually good for your brain
• Natalie’s surprisingly simple brain-friendly habits (including eggs 🥚)

🧠 Key Topics Covered:

• Brain health for entrepreneurs
• Burnout prevention for business owners
• Cognitive performance and decision fatigue
• Sleep, nutrition, hydration & productivity
• AI, technology & brain function
• Sustainable success without hustle culture

Who is Natalie?

Natalie Mackenzie is a cognitive & brain health expert for business owners, with a background in Psychology, Neuropsychology and business strategy. She works with founders, leaders and entrepreneurs to optimise their cognitive performance , overcome decision fatigue and avoid burnout-through blending cognitive science and practical business frameworks, to also look after brain health for later life.  Natalie is sought after media expert, regularly sharing her expertise on cognition in publications such as The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent and many others.

www.thecognitivestrategist.com https://www.instagram.com/thecognitivestrategist/ 

Want to connect? Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemmahine

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-hine

Website: https://www.emmahine.co.uk

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaHineStrategy

Transcript

Hello and welcome to today's episode of Dream Business Dream Life. Today I'm joined by Natalie McKenzie who in my world is lovingly known as the Brain Lady. So hi Natalie, how are you? I'm very, very well, how are you? I am good, thank you. I am good. Okay, so the Brain Lady, what does that actually mean? 

I do love that new term. I'm either the brain lady or as it turns out, the egg lady as well. But we might get on to that one. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm Natalie. I'm also known as the cognitive strategist, which basically means that I help business owners understand their cognitive and brain health. So everything that we do every day in business, in life is all related to cognition. So how we think, how we behave, how we make decisions. and that's intrinsically linked to good brain health. So my job is basically to make sure people understand what they're doing every day, how it impacts their brain health and how to protect their brain so they don't get sick and dementia and things like that later on in life because business is hard and it's my job to make sure that it's not impacting the brain. 

Amazing, amazing. So tell us a little bit more about that in the sense that how does your brain impact your business? 

Everything. This is the thing. Lots of people think about kind of physical health, mental health, which is all brilliant and we need to be thinking about it. But it is your brain and your behaviour that leads all of your decisions. It helps you plan, organise, strategise, see things visually, see how to lay things out, see how to present things, see details for customers and clients, all of the things that we take for granted every day. But when we're in a busy business, whether you're working on your own or when you're in a team, the kind of external demands of running a business can get in the way of how efficiently and how well your brain works. So I go back and look at the basics like sleep, hydration, what you're doing day-to-day, what your planning looks like, how well how well you make decisions, if you're a quick decision maker, if you get decision fog, all of the things. But everything that we do every day, so the habits that we have, and especially in today's digital world, all impact how efficiently that brain behaviour works. 

Amazing, amazing. And if you've ever heard Natalie talk, you tend to get very scared because you'll sit there and say, are you a person that does this? And you sit there going, yeah. Are you a person that does this? Yeah. And all this list of things that come out there. Because I don't think we necessarily intentionally make our brain not work as efficiently as it could be. I don't think there may be some crazy people out there that do that. But generally, I think most people don't intentionally realize the impact that not getting enough sleep, for example, how you are fueling your body in terms of the types of food that you're putting into your body. I personally, until I got to hear more of you and you talking more, didn't really associate sleep, yes, but diet and behaviours and all that type of stuff. I probably didn't really think about the link between how that was making my brain work, not just now, but in the future. And I think that's an important piece, isn't it? 

Is. And that's the key, as you say, that's the important bit, because I think we're very guilty, all of us, including me, and my background helps. But We're not thinking about these future things. We're very much always in, oh, I'll think about that when, or I'll deal with that when. And I think as we get older, whether or not it's because we hit a particular age, it might be things like perimenopause or a family member gets dementia or someone gets sick with something else. People then don't look in, until then, people aren't looking inwardly at things like that, especially brain health. It definitely sits on the back burner until something smacks you in the face to make you think, oh, crikey, I really need to think about that. And the problem with the brain health is, that, and again, here's a scary stat, my faves, things are changing inside your brain around 20 years before you'll actually see it. So things like dementia, for instance, might not show up until 65, but they're starting in your brain at 45, which is a year from where I am. things like that. People don't realise it. 

Miss that moment. You're gone. I'm gone. 

There's still time, Emma. There's still time. 

That's what I needed to hear. And that was going to be my next question. Is there a point where we just say, you are screwed now? 

No. I mean, that would be really bad if I said that, wouldn't it? I don't think until you're at the point, and even to be honest, from a research perspective, there's now a lot more evidence that, when people do have dementia, there's things that can be done to slow it down. Obviously, they're looking at how to stop it, how to reverse it. We're not there yet, but we're getting there, hopefully. But there are all these sorts of things people have to be considering earlier. You, and again, sadly, we don't have a big window when actually from a brain perspective, we're really literally firing on all cylinders and really optimal. It's only really from about age 28 to 35 where your brain is really in tip-top proper condition because it's not fully developed until 28, 29, 30 anyway, depending on your gender. And then from then on, a few years later, age-related decline starts. kids get in the way, your busy lifestyle, digitalization, AI, blah, all the things that I moan about, they start getting in the way of brain function. And because of the world we live in now, that's happening sooner than it was 50 years ago when we didn't live in such a busy, fast digital world. 

Yeah, So are things like dementia... becoming more frequent, or is it because we know of it more now? Because that's the thing I've never been sure about. We see it a lot more now, but is that because we've got access to a lot more information, or is it because of our lifestyles? 

A bit of both, to be honest. It is because of our lifestyles. If you think back only 50 years ago, how different life was, it wasn't as stressful. I mean, I don't know. I wasn't there. You might be. I don't think. 

I was teeny teeny. I was only little. 

But like our parents, for instance, didn't have to think as quickly as we do. They weren't on all of the time. They didn't have that reaction needed. They didn't have something visual there all of the time. And I've said it in talks before, I think we are heading for a bit of a dementia epidemic because we're at that point where treatment is good, but it's not fixing it yet. But we're seeing more and more of it. And that's down to multiple things. It's the hereditability. I can never say it. That element is always going to be a concern. But we know some research shows 40%, some shows up to 80% of dementia cases are avoidable, which is massive. 

Massive. 

Huge. And that's environmental, behaviourally, diet, hydration, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. All of those things. And I think if anybody, in any illness across the board, if someone said to you, let's say we'll plump in the middle for 60%, there's a 60% reduction that can happen just by changing your lifestyle, everybody would be doing it. 

Absolutely. Because I think if anybody has ever experienced anybody in their lives with dementia, it's something that you would definitely hands on heart always say, I don't want to be like that when I get old. And I think that's what we say is I don't want to be like that when I get old. But you do see, don't you, a lot of a lot of people who haven't experienced it, I suppose, probably more so. But because you can't actually see it right now, you know, at this moment in time, as far as I'm concerned, I can't see my brain. So it's good. 

Yeah. 

You know, it's good. And I can tick locks of the boxes when I go down your list that says, do you do these things, do you do these things, that's impacting your brain. I can tick a lot of those boxes, as can I imagine most of us out there. But on the days where I've had a really good sleep, I perform so much better. So we know it's a thing. 

Yeah. But, and again, I think the online world's got a lot to answer for with these sorts of things and the business world, to be honest, because I think that hustle kind of culture, like you've got to go hard, go hard, go hard to make your business work. And if that means that you don't sleep, sleep's for losers, you know, hard, successful people don't sleep. It's absolute rubbish. And I think that people have to not listen to that. You know, when the advice is, oh, just get up four hours before you normally would and only sleep for five hours. Absolutely not. You may be okay in the short term, But research is so heavy that shows that poor sleep impacts cognitive function. It can reduce decision making by like 40%. And again, let's look at that practically. If someone said to you, bad night's sleep, half of your decisions are going to be crap ones, you'd be like, oh, that's rubbish. 

Exactly. And if you could see the thing that was causing it, you would stop it, wouldn't you? if it was a physical, tangible thing that you could say, right, just stop that, you would stop that, wouldn't you? 

Would, absolutely. And again, we're in a society as well where people need to see things to actually understand them. They need to see the impact or the outcome to believe it. And my background's in brain injury, so I've spent 24 years working with people with hidden disability, with a brain injury that can't be seen, but I see every day the impact of what happens when a brain isn't working as it should. And that's hard for them and it's hard for the general public because again, people can't see it and you can't understand what you can't see. If I was really clever and it would make me a billionaire, I'd love to come up with something where you could have it in your house, like your bathroom mirror would be like a brain scanner. So you could actually see every day what was happening. I think it's coming and I'd like to say that it was my idea. 

And we'll own that, we'll mark that right here at this date and time. If anybody does it, we're going back for loyalty, royalty, not royalties. Yeah, absolutely amazing. I'd love that. I think that'd be, but do you know what? It's not as unrealistic as you think, is it? Because they don't be skin. They do be skin, don't they? sit and look at your skin to see how much sun exposure you've had that you shouldn't have had and all of that sort of thing. 

Yeah, I think it'll be there one day. Absolutely. And I think that will really help people because, and the problem with the brain is it's not that, I'm making it sound like it's really simple to just scan the brain. It's not, you've got to understand what you're looking at. But I think, yeah, it just goes back to that point that until people feel it, like I... I have to kind of work hard to practice what I preach. I don't find it easy to do all the things on those lists that I say that everyone does and I don't get it right all the time. You know, and again, I've said to people before, life is also for living and I'm not in the camp of... there's so much advice out there. It's such a noisy space. there's the whole biohacking thing and only eating particular things, not drinking alcohol. You know, I like a glass of wine, champagne and gin. You know, life is for living, but it's kind of making sure that you are just trying to do all the things as best you can to reduce your risk of anything happening. But also for now, again, if I've had it, if I've had, I'm sure everybody is the same, when you've been drinking the night before, you wouldn't go and make big decisions the next day. 

If you did, they're not going to be good ones. 

They're not going to be good ones, are they? 

No. 

And you know that. So you kind of don't do that, but you don't do it with things like sleep. You don't do it if you've had... a day where you've been on Zoom for 8 hours back-to-back, which again isn't good for your brain. Things like that, people just don't think about how that impacts the next day and what it means for business and life now. 

Yeah, So is the general theme here that I'm picking up, and I could be completely wrong, that if something makes you feel tired, as in being on Zoom all day or sitting on your phone till late at night or not getting enough sleep or not fuelling your body in terms of food and things correctly? Are they the things that are the things that you should be looking for? 

Yeah, you've got to start at the basics. So if you're finding, and again, online is busy because people want answers quickly, but often it's the basics you need to look at. So if you're finding that you're in a decision fog and you feel overwhelmed or you're just excessively tired. And again, tiredness shows up in different people in different ways. For me, it's my speech starts to, I really find it hard to find words. That's my marker. Or people that will just say, oh, I feel really flat or I can't get any motivation. My kind of get up and go is gone. Go back to the basics. Look at what your sleep's been like for the last week. Look at how many nights you're getting, how many hours you're getting a night. Look at your hydration, how much water you're drinking. Are you skipping meals? Or have you been so busy that you're doing all the convenience food and just grabbing high carb quick fixes? All of those things, those basics, people skip and start spending a fortune on supplements instead that take three months to work. Don't go and look at the basics and then they get stuck because things don't work quickly. 

And I think that's partly because we're in such a fast-paced world, aren't we? want everything to happen now. Like you say, supplements take three months to work. Well, we've given up by then, haven't we? Because we haven't worked in 24 hours. You're not feeling like a completely new person. It's like, well, that doesn't work. You know, I'll try the next thing, the next thing. 

And I've been guilty of that. You know, I've had times where I've had different things that have, you know, whether it's been pain or fog or whatever it might be. And I go and try something new and then I'm like, oh, that's crap. But, and I know. I know better. But so that's what I'm saying. I say it is really hard for people to do that because of just the world that we live in. And people want to feel better and they want high energy levels back or they don't want to feel old. 

Yeah, I don't think anybody wants to feel grotty, do they? I don't think anybody wants to feel constantly tired. You know, I just don't think that that's what we want. So if there's ways we can make that better, then, you know, maybe we need to start looking at it. I think something that, and I think the world is changing a little bit, which is a good thing. We are getting a little bit better, I think, generally. This might not be the case in terms of brain health, but generally it's actually trying to prevent things happening before they happen. So I'm, I mean, completely different thing here, thinking about looking after your skin. I think people are young, at a younger age, people are starting to think about, you know, I don't want the wrinkles and, you know, I don't want my skin to, you know, to look I'm sitting here doing this thinking, oh dear. Me too. Yeah. But I think we are at a younger age, we're starting to think about things like putting on the suntan cream when we're in the sun. So we don't. So I think there is things that we are starting to do that are more preventative. Do you see any of that shifting yet in terms of brain health or not? I know this is your mission, isn't it? 

I do, I do. And again, it's down to the lens of which you see life, isn't it? So obviously, I've been in brains for 25 years. So everything on my feed is brains everywhere. So I see it being spoken about. And like I said earlier, the biohacking stuff, that is a real push for people to start thinking about their bodies and brains more so. But What I'm not seeing much of is just the basics again. It's kind of been a bit commercialized still. Like I say, the biohacking is flipping expensive and hard work. It really is. Like the amount of things that people, you know, when people are looking at microplastics in dishwasher tablets or different minerals in bottled water, when you're going that extreme, it's really, really hard work. But I certainly do see it's changing and I want really to bring it into the business world for people to just appreciate that hard hustle type, you have to give up everything and work really hard, especially if you're pivoting or you're coming out of a full-time job into another business, that actually you really do need to be aware of what it potentially could be doing up here? And whether or not, A, is it worth it? And B, can you do a little bit less, but still have the same outcome and maintain your mental and brain wellbeing? That for me is really important. Just be aware of it. 

Yeah, and I think there's something there, isn't it, that says that if you want to build a business, whatever that looks like, It's about your own performance, isn't it? So to be able to run that business efficiently and without it taking up all of your time, without you having to have the hustle culture all of the time, you have got to be able to perform at your peak in the times that you do work. So if you want to work less hours, you know, work four day weeks, lots of people want to work four day weeks, for example. If you want to do that, you've got to perform well in the four days that you are working because the output has got to be the same, hasn't it? You can bring in efficiencies and all of that type of stuff from a business perspective, but generally you've got to be in peak performance during that time. And the brain is the thing that every single thing, I'm doing the robot dance now here for anybody that can't see this. That's my robot dance. But every single movement we make, every single word that we make, that is coming from the brain, isn't it? 

Yeah, everything. You have to refine it. Yeah. You have to, you've got to understand how it works for a start and how your brain performs best. Because every brain is different. It's the same as a fingerprint. You know, the areas are the same, but the way that it's been wired and the connections are entirely different based on everyone's experience, literally from the moment that you're born. So, you know, not everybody's brain works the same. And that doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, Of course, you've got neurodiversity, but neurotypical brains work different as well. And people will have, we all have a cognitive profile like we do a physical one. You know, you have one side stronger than the other type thing. And you've got to understand how your brain works best and what it's not so good at. And very much those bits that it's not so good at, I'm like, This is when you outsource. This is when you get a team member. Stop kind of trying to push proverbial up a hill if that's not naturally how your brain works very well. And that can be hard for people if they're kind of sole traders or on their own and they're not yet at that point in their business when they can outsource or they can get team members in because they're working really hard to try and do things that their brain isn't suited to. And then that uses more cognitive energy, that leads to more fatigue, and then that's when people go sod it, I'm not doing it. 

And that's really interesting because what we're seeing a lot more of is people focusing on things like getting their human design read, the soul signatures read, you know, all of these things that they are looking at in terms of how they're made-up based on the birth date and all of that type of stuff. But there's another option, isn't there? And that is to come and have your brain read. That's probably the really bad way of describing that. 

Not with my not with my mobile scanner. Can you imagine? 

Not with the mobile scanner in the mirror. That's something that you can help with, isn't it? That's something that part of what you do is reading the brain. Do you want to tell us a bit about that? Because obviously I've just not sold that for you, have I? 

Yeah, no, I sound like you've made me sound like a tarot reader. Yeah, so I do cognitive health assessments, which are different to kind of psychological assessments. They're very much based on the type of psychological assessments that people have that are very specific to things like working memory, spatial memory, decision making, impulsivity. So I do these cognitive health assessments that are on a platform that we use. And then I tailor make a report based on your business, what your concerns are, what your business needs are, what your home needs are, because obviously most people are trying to balance both. and give you a report. Basically, it says, you've got, let's say you've got good short-term memory for verbal things, but not visual. What does that mean? How do you need things presented? How do you need to look at things, for instance? Or you might not be very good at deductive reasoning and being able to see detail, but you might be really brilliant at What's another one? Spatial processing, which is more to do with marketing, how you do marketing materials and things like that. And what it does is it gives you a baseline as well of your cognitive health now. So that goes back to my mission of people A, thinking about their brain health now, but also as we get older, you don't know if you really are declining cognitively, if you don't have a baseline that you've done before, that you've got something to compare to. So I think everyone should have them anyway, whether it's related to business or just your cognitive health, because it helps people understand A, where they're at now, and as they get older, if there are any changes, or as big life stressors, people get sick or divorce or whatever it might be, we can then run them again and see actually how it's impacting the brain. 

Which is amazing, isn't it? That it's and it's so clever. And this is all scientific stuff, isn't it? 

It's proper science. 

Proper scientific stuff, proper clever. She's proper clever, you know. She's proper clever, you know. Proper clever. probably clever. But I think it's an important message, isn't it, for people to start thinking about the things that they can do. And you spoke about, it's the foundational stuff, it's getting some of the basics right. And I think that's exactly the same in business. There's people out there telling you need to do all this fancy stuff and you know, you need to be doing this, you need four of these, three of these, six of these. It's like a little pick and mix, isn't it, of all of the different things that you can have. Whereas A lot of people still haven't even got those absolute basics in business right. And you said that that's the same with brain health. So do you want to share some of that with us, some of those basics? 

But the biggest one is sleep. And you know why we'll talk about this till the cows come home. But again, a lot of people be like, oh, I'm fine on 6 hours sleep. You're not. I'm telling you, are not. There is a very, very small proportion of people in the world who are okay cognitively long term on 6 hours. And the chances of you being in that are the same as you being hit by lightning. I don't fancy that option, thank you. But this is the thing, people are like, oh no, I don't need anymore. Now the eight hour thing is a bit of a misnomer. People do are okay on different amounts of sleep. Some people need 9, some people 7. I'm 7. Eight if I can, or not if I can, but seven is kind of my optimal. But some people need 9 or 10. So again, it's understanding, listening to your body, what you need. But things like making sure that you've got a really good sleep routine. You go to bed at the same time every night. You get up at the same time every day. Doesn't matter about, you know, weekends. If you've had a late night, you still get up at the same time. That is the big key thing for sleeping. Sleep begets sleep. It loves routine. Things like your sleep environment. People say to me all the time, oh, I wake up at night at like 3 o'clock every morning, and there's a reason for that. But they then, they're on their phones, or they've picked up something next to their beds. So your bedroom should be for sleep, and one other thing, should you choose to partake in it. 

We're not going to say what that is. 

Nothing else. No knitting, no crochet, no books, no TV, nada. 

None of that. Sorry, hubby, that TV's got to go. 

But again, looking at people's lives now, how many people do actually live like that? Majority. But exactly. 

And we bring that into children's lives now as well, don't we? When we allow the children to, you know, watch a little bit of telly before bed or, you know, 10 minutes on your iPad or that's the world we've become, isn't it? Without actually realizing the impact it's going to have on them when they get older. Because as a parent, If we absolutely had the evidence, and I know the evidence is there, but if we actually had the evidence that by giving our child that iPad every night before they get, literally before they go to sleep, that when they're 65, they're more likely to get dementia, there's no way we'd do it. 

No, exactly. And honestly, yeah, my kids hate me, don't they? Because they're like, we want TV in our room, my kids are 9 and 12. I'm like, no, absolutely not. 100% not, because there's so much evidence about the impact of screen time late in the evening on kids. Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with my kids being on iPads and things like that in the day, but limited. Again, the research, again, my kids hate me, because I'm like, the research shows that if you're spending this amount of time, they're like, whatever. But it does, it's having an impact on the developing brain. So it's not even what it might do to them when they're 65, because chances are actually when they're 65, there might be better treatment or cures for dementia. But it's stopping their brain development now. And there's some really interesting books out there about how AI and tech are actually changing the shape of children's brains now and what that means for them in 20 years time and what it means for the world in 20 years time, because they'll be incapable of having conversation or critical thinking and all of that. But again, the world currently is that all their mates have iPads and they're all on Roblox. and that's the norm. It wasn't our norm. But that is the norm and it's really hard, isn't it, as a parent to navigate what their peers have versus what you... 

Absolutely. And totally looking this aside, not even thinking about the brain, for me, my children are all much older. So when they were little, I'd always take colouring books out with me, or if we went out for a meal, or it'd be a little book that's noughts and crosses. And in fact, that is still in my bag if I've got the grandkids with me, because I still get my paper and pen out, and they look at me as if to go, I've got an app on my phone, then I will do it on a piece of paper. But for me, it was more sociable. 

Yeah. 

And I'm not against iPads. I'm absolutely not. I'm here and my phone's here and all of that stuff around us. But there's definitely something there, isn't there? 

Is. And it's again, boundaries and limits. And it's the same with us. You know, we have to be more boundaried and more limited with our own digital use. You know, I say that to everyone, you know, you need daily limits because it's there constantly in this kind of dopamine need all the time. But as parents, we do have a responsibility to look after our kids' brain health. And again, in such a digital world and what's coming with AI, it's coming fast and it can be really, really confusing and hard to navigate. But I think right now we do have a massive responsibility to look after our kids' brains. And I see it from both perspectives. So I run a business where I employ 80 staff and the majority, so perhaps 60 of them are between the ages of 21 and 25, they're all graduates. And I can't tell you over the last five years the difference in cognitive ability and socialisation and critical thinking skills. And it absolutely terrifies me. 

But it's the thing, isn't it? If we've got, there's something we need to work out. Most people will now jump onto Google ChatGPT or something. I'm not saying they'd use the answer, but to give them, to do some of that thinking for them in the 1st place. You know, you hear it. you're not quite sure what to think about, put into ChatGPT, it'll give you some ideas. I can't even say ChatGPT. It'll give you some ideas. And we all do that at times. We absolutely all do that at times. But I think my best stuff comes when it's actually come from here. But it's harder, isn't it? 

So much harder. But it's the hard stuff that is going to keep your brain going. So, you know, you've seen me speak when I said about, you know, do you use chat to do like more than 70% of your content. And so many people sat down. And I was like, this is part of the problem. Because if you're not engaging your brain in high level critical thinking, you're literally from a very, very basic perspective, you're not using the neurons. They're not firing and not wiring and they're not staying strong. If you're not doing it, that's not happening. You basically, it's akin to sitting in a chair all day and expecting yourself to have good legs. It's not going to happen. If you're not using it, it's not going to work and it's not going to work now and it's not going to work in 10, 15 years time. So again, it comes back to the same point we just made about you've got to be boundaried with yourself. I think AI is brilliant, but also I think people have to be stricter with themselves. So my advice is always use it for the stuff that your brain isn't good at. Use it for automations and the basic rubbish, boring, tedious stuff. then save the rest for that, for you, your experience, your thought, your views, because that's what you need to keep going, not only for your business to make sure that people know that it's you, but you need it for 20 years time so you know what day it is. 

Yeah. Which is quite important, isn't it? 

Yeah. Quite important. 

I hope so. I'd like to think in 20 years time, I still know the date. I'd still know the date. 

Yeah. And I think again, because it's there, we just go to it so easy because it is, it's easier. But my advice again is the harder that you find something, the better it is that you do it yourself. because our brains like hard things because when we do things that are hard, more cells fire, more cells, we have the whole cells that fire together, wire together. The more we do hard things, the more that happens and the stronger those connections set down and the stronger the pathways become and the more efficient they become. So I will say to people when they say, well, that's really hard or I've got a lot of discomfort around that. I'm like, that needs to go to the top of your list. Because that's your brain saying, do me, do me, because I'm really hard and that's actually going to really help me. And anything like whether it's doing things online or public speaking, for instance, that people are terrified to do it, do the things you find hard because your brain will benefit more. And then you'll get this amazing dopamine hit and your brain will then go, oh, I like that. I want to do it again. And it can have a really, really good positive impact. 

That's it. And the thing is, we do, we love it. We love it when we sit there and say, I did that. And I don't think you get that pride if you've had something else do it for you. So I think, you know, that piece in its own is ace, isn't it? You know, it's wonderful. In fact, get your brain working. Brucey, Brucey bonus, isn't it? We mentioned right at the beginning, I feel like we haven't sagued on to this anywhere yet, but I feel like we need to bring eggs into the conversation because I saw Natalie on Monday, and the first thing I had to run and tell her is that I'd had eggs for my breakfast. I was so proud of that moment. Now, it literally was like going and telling, you know, my mum had eaten something that I should have thought. I was so proud. I was so, proud of the fact that I'd had eggs for breakfast. But tell everybody why. 

Oh, it's because I eat eggs every single day. Every morning, my breakfast is eggs. And I'm such a creature of habit, mainly because they're a great source of protein, of course, which we all know. But from a brain health perspective, eggs are one of the best things that you can eat. But it is funny because I have so many people that do that. They come and say, oh, I saw eggs the other day. I had poached eggs and I thought of you. Every Saturday on Instagram, you'll always see me with a picture of me poaching my eggs. And there's nothing sadder in the world, Emma, than an over poached egg. It's like it's awful. But it's, and some of the talks I've been giving them, but what people now do is they're like, oh my God, I thought of you the first thing I, as soon as I woke up this morning, because I went to check my phone. And I'm like, I love that. Whether it's eggs or phone checking, eat more eggs, check your phone less. 

Love it, love it. To the extent that I shared a reel with you recently, didn't you? And you probably can't remember because you get lots of people. 

I do. 

But it was that was something to do with somebody going into who would go into a shop and buy a boiled egg. And I'm like, I know who would. 

Yeah. And I think about a week later, I was rushing between trains or something and I popped into Mark's to get my 2 boiled eggs. 

Boiled eggs, absolutely. So there you go. Well, that's marketing, isn't it? 

Yeah. 

That is absolute, you got your marketing to a tee. 

Yeah, but also from a cognitive perspective, the decision making element. So people that struggle with things like decision fatigue, and I will always bring it back to the brain is, you know, there's a reason why Steve Jobs and Barack Obama wore the same clothes is because it was one less thing to think about. My eggs every day are genuinely 1 less thing for my brain to think about. So it leaves space for other things. And I know it sounds really boring and I do jazz them up. I do. I do. They're very versatile. But again, it's one less thing. I'm like, but honestly, Emma, if there's no eggs in the house, it's not a good, I'm not a happy person. 

I hope you've got a local marks where they sell the boiled, the boiled ones. That's all I can say. What a trauma, what a trauma. I do like an egg, but I am one of, I have a very funny food phobia anyway, but my eggs always have to be lemon, as in scrambled or omeletted. I couldn't, I couldn't have an egg that was. the egg white and the yellow in the middle. I just couldn't physically bring myself to eat it. Now I know it's exactly the same thing, but it has to be scrambled together. So for me, it's always scrambled egg or omelet. 

Yeah, I know your, I know your food needs. 

But it's still egg, right? It's still egg. 

It's still egg. It's together. 

It has to be lemon. Has to be lemon. The only way that has to be. 

Of all the things that I'm known for, I've got loads of letters after my name, but it's the brain and egg lady. 

But do you know what? You said take it back to basics. 

Yeah. 

Couldn't get more basic than eating an egg. 

And they're cheap. And that only goes back to those practical things. You know, there's so many, so many people that they think they've got to spend a fortune on like stuff to actually just do, put good stuff into their body, but you really don't. 

No, I think, again, I think it's the availability of things that tell us that they're going to make us feel better. There's that many, and I've 100% been there and have probably popped more of these things than... a lot of people, but you see a supplement, don't you, that, well, it's going to help you with a cortisol belly. This is going to help you to get your energy back because, so you don't need to sleep tonight because actually you'll be fine. Just pop this pill in the morning and you'll be absolutely fine. And I think the lifestyle of people make that feel like the easy fix. Just grab the thing that says on the tin, that's going to make me better. And it might do for a split second. It's a bit like sticking a plaster over a really deep cut, isn't it? It's still going to be scarred and it's still going to be messy when you take the plaster off. And I think that's. That's the message I'm getting from you here about the brain. Yes, it's going to help you today. If your brain is working efficiently and it's got its rest and it's everything that it needs, your business is going to run better, your life is going to be better. But actually long term, you are least likely, is that the right word? You are less likely. You know what you said if I haven't got enough sleep, I can't talk. You are less likely to have some of these things. And you are not saying it's a guaranteed. If we want to cut down the risks of things, your brain is one of the things that we need to be. 

Looking after, isn't it? is 100%. And it's not that hard. Just be aware of it. You know, if you want more understanding about how your brain works, that's where I come in. But just start thinking about actually what your brain needs now. literally from today and just try and have it there as a thought, in everything. Is what I'm doing right now good for my brain or not? Or is the way that I'm feeling now my brain telling me that A, it's fatigued or overwhelmed or just needs a rest? 

It just needs a rest. And we need a rest, so why wouldn't our brain need a rest? Because it's working really hard, isn't it? Every day, every minute, every second of the day. 

Running a business is hard. And if you're running a business with a family or you're you've got caring responsibilities as well. we're only human. There's only so much that capacity that we have to be able to deal with all of that without it eventually taking its toll. 

Yeah, And just one final question. Would you say that there's a link between brain health and burnout? 

Yes. 

There you go. Who wants to burn out? And I think that's the thing, isn't it? It's turning things into language that people actually get. and I think we talk a lot about burnout, don't we? But I don't think I've ever heard anybody, you obviously, I hear you talk about this all of the time, but actually talk about, well, if you look after your brain more, you might not burn out. You hear people talk about the go to the gym or eat healthily or, but it's the, what you do is that goes deeper, isn't it? It's the why. It's the absolute why. 

Yeah, it definitely does. Chronic stress leads to burnout. Chronic stress comes from cognitive overload. 

Super, super, super. So if any of our listeners want to come and learn more, want to have their brain scan in your amazing mirror, they want to have the cognitive help. 

Coming, it's coming. 

Let's call it the proper name. Where do they need to come and find you? 

I am normally hanging around on Instagram as the cognitive strategist. And if you go on there, there's a couple of freebies. You can do like my business brain quiz, basically, which will tell you, know, how your brain's performing in business. or you can sign up to my free 30 day business brain boost emails. 

Amazing. And we will share all of those links in the show notes for you as well. So if you can go and grab those. But thank you for joining me. I have loved our conversation. I hope you have too. 

I have, love it. You know me, I'll talk about the brain all day long. 

Absolutely. So go and follow her on Instagram and we'll see her eating eggs. I think that's what we'll say. Natalie eating eggs. Thank you everybody for listening. We will see you next time.