ADAIRE BYERLY is the CEO and Founder of Entertainment Mindframe™.
Adaire tackles fashion and entertainment industry workplace issues that directly affect the level of professionalism and career success by incorporating modern-day sciences and her first-hand experience in the industry as an actress and model.
Adaire manages to get to the root of the problem, which can include depression, anxiety, the #MeToo Movement, along with verbal and email miscommunication that can cost a company valuable money.
AC: What does success mean to you?
ADAIRE BYERLY: Success in general, I believe is to be in a state of internal peace, that is a long journey that most spend their whole lives aiming to achieve. Success specifically for me is mastering that, as well as leaving behind something others can learn from and still apply after I am gone.
How has your perception of success changed over the years?
For most of my life, I believed that success was directly proportionate to the number of accomplishments or accolades to show for. For years, this belief had weighed on me, paralyzing me from moving forward with my desires and never allowed me to see what I had to offer. I had to eventually conquer and throw away the belief systems I picked up over the years because it was interfering with my own happiness. Once I slew that dragon, I was able to move forward with my business and things began to bloom more quickly than I had planned for.
What is the driving purpose behind Entertainment Mindframe™?
I developed Entertainment Mindframe™ to tackle the common and intangibles issues in the work environment. I provide cognitive enhancement for professionals in the entertainment, media and fashion industry by applying brain and behavioral sciences into the business side of fame through communication.
Through my years as a professional in the industry, I noticed psychological patterns and behaviors that were constantly projecting into business politics, negatively effecting the success in one’s career or an entire brand. Working in a world full of creative geniuses, you will experience the want for expression and acceptance rather than structure. You find a lot of ego, rebellious and stubborn behavior, push back, gossip and power dynamics that make it difficult for anyone to properly conduct business. The main issue I found through observation is many people only view these industries as a platform to showcase their talent, overlooking the fact that these industries are actual businesses that affect our U.S. economy by billions of dollars. When we put that into perspective, we begin to understand why we should focus on the mental stability and cognitive awareness of professionals.
My focus starts at the root. That means everything that goes on behind the camera, in the mind of professionals and in operations. I aim to identify, eliminate, rebuild neuropathways, and shift perspectives that project into a career and work environment by creating a tailored communication strategy. That includes training, cognitive consulting, seminars, rewriting policies or HR procedures or changing company culture. I focus mainly on communication through linguistics and perception. I also work with professional Psychologists and Neuroscientists to ensure the methods concur with the scientific community.
How are you adapting the business to meet the challenges of COVID-19?
The internal structure for companies has changed due to the social distancing regulations so part of my clients are working from home and the focus has shifted on strategy and virtual communication during this time. Since so much had slowed down and fear and stress have taken a front seat, I’ve had many professionals reach out looking for some comfort through all this major change. As a result, the Psychologists and Neuroscientists that I do research with have transitioned into providing material and resources to help people through this time. We have had live talks offering free insight and suggestions, I brought my Q&A series to focus on COVID-19 topics as I answer questions from people from social media platforms, and I am creating recovery strategies from this pandemic.
In your opinion, does company culture impact on productivity?
Absolutely. Businesses work from the inside out, much as the human does. Our brain is made up of billions of neurons that are constantly communicating to help us make decisions, communicate, and perceive the world around us. If any of your neurons have “poor” communication from one to the other, those pathways will eventually burn out and something that you were once good at, is now very difficult for you to do. Also if your neurons are building unhealthy pathways or known as “bad habits”, it will cause you to make a poor or irrational decision. Now, let’s look at people as neurons. If people poorly communicate and build unhealthy communication within a work environment, the culture can become uncomfortable, unorganized, contradicting, unsafe, uninspiring, and eventually unable to operate. We have all heard that saying, we are a product of our environment. Yes, we are, but we also have the power to create that environment.
How can company culture affect the mental health of employees?
If there is friction of any kind within the culture of a company, people will not perform at their best. As animals, we all crave some sort of stability and certainty. We dislike not knowing. We also dislike feeling unsafe. Why? Because our brains were made to keep us alive so we try to steer away from anything that may “harm” us and our well-being. It has nothing to do with choice or preference as much as it does our psychological make-up.
If the environment we work in is full of miscommunication, distrust, spitefulness, passive-aggressiveness, or lack of professional courtesy, we will negatively respond. Scientifically speaking, as I mentioned before, our neurons are constantly firing to keep us safe. If our survival- mode is kicking in, which can be an overproduction of the flight or fight hormone, we will start operating irrationally causing that to take the front seat, rather than what you are actually paid to do.
How can communication solve these problems?
I had found in the entertainment and fashion industries that we have perfected the art of communication so precisely, that we have inadvertently neglected the science of it. I always tell my clients that communication is a science as much as it is an art. It is not just made for you to express how you feel. The purpose of communication is to become fluent with another person by speaking at their comprehension rather than enforcing your own.
In business, we cannot just look at people as opportunity or money, we must recognize them first as humans. Communication is key. Without proper communication and understanding will never be reached. Many people view an understanding as “agreeing” however, you do not need to agree to reach an understanding, or to even communicate. I have a simple order of process that I show my clients to visually show them how their thoughts impact communication, which then impacts the company as a whole: The individual (the mind) à the environment à operations à the project/production à the final product.
It all starts in our heads and trickles into everything we do. If we can solve it at the root, the rest of the process runs smoothly. What does that look like? It increases employee retention rates, lowers office tension allowing more efficient workspaces, even prevents legal repercussions by enforcing proper business code and education, and finally, creativity and work production is greatly enhanced by finetuning this communication. All of this has ultimately resulted in an increase and expansion in business.
Do you have a daily routine?
Monday through Saturday I do. I wake up between 4:30-5:00 am and take that time to answer emails, complete small things I will need to do and make sure my day is laid out and on track based on my projections at the beginning of the week. I hate waking up after 8:00am because I find myself chasing the whole day. My brain also works best in the morning, so I genuinely enjoy the time to myself. During my work schedule, I make sure that I have multiple breaks and get sun or a quick workout in.
I also do intermittent fasting which enhances my energy and cognitive function. I will only drink water or coffee in the morning and not have my first meal until noon, then eating two more times in the day at set times before 8:00pm.
How do you keep track of your short and long term goals?
The first thing I do is try to find out who my goals benefit. Are they for me? Or are they for people outside of me? Or could it be mutually beneficial? Discovering the intention will let me know what I am really trying to reach and how to strategically get there. For instance, my intention behind becoming a business owner was not to be rich or brag about “freedom”. I truly started my company because I was able to verbalize a need in an infamous industry, I enjoy solving problems and watching others succeed. As a result, I get paid to think and solve problems. Which is something I truly find fulfillment in. If I were to say that my goal is to get paid for what I love, my scope would have been too broad because I have a love for other things and could have ended up pursuing something to fulfill my own voids with no structure. Narrowing down those intentions will make the path and goal clear.
For goals in general, I write them down and put completion dates to them and then check on them to make sure I am on track to executing it. One thing to note is: not all goals come to pass. Sometimes things change, as we can see from this world-wide pandemic, so I see many people become frustrated and hard on themselves because it is not happening the way they planned. It is 100% okay to alter or even get rid of goals that will no longer serve you or relevant.
What were the biggest obstacles you faced in becoming a successful entrepreneur?
My greatest obstacle was how to make science appealing to a world that is so visual. When I was working with my attorney, we found that this is not only a new concept to the world of show business locally, but nationally. It isn’t popular or trendy because it has never been done before in this industry, meaning there is no path to follow. The pressure of realizing I was starting a wave of something entirely new was both exciting and overwhelming. I had my doubts for years, but eventually, I had to conquer them and commit to sharing my knowledge.
How do you deal with rejection and failure?
Honestly, I can’t and don’t care enough to allow it to bother me. I will not place an attachment to something outside of me, especially something someone says. Rejection and struggles happen in moments which means they do not take root. If I spend too much time on a moment that is no longer assisting me, it only creates negative internal self-talk. As far as failure goes, I don’t play life or business in those terms. There is a theory out about applying finite and infinite games to life and business. A finite game is played for the purpose of having a winner and loser (failure). An infinite game is played for the purpose of continuing to play. I do business and life as an infinite game. I am not here to win, I am here to keep going and leave seeds everywhere I walk. A no, rejection, or a setback is not going to stop me from playing the game.
For all the dreamers reading this now, what mindset do they need to turn their vision into reality?
You need to have roots in your vision and inventions. Be stern enough to not bend with the wind, but flexible enough to make changes that will bring you forward. You do not need a role model or even a mentor to make it. Because the things you do will be new and you will not have a road map to go by. If you are an innovator, get used to other people not understanding and become familiar with teaching them. Lastly, you must throw out all of the beliefs systems hindering you. Whether it is from your family, neighborhood, culture, religion, friends, or even in the music you listen to. Not doing this will cause you to have an identity crisis with you are versus who you have been told you are. Your story is yours to write. Not to be tied to everyone else.
If you could start all over again, what would you do differently?
There is nothing I would do differently. I made many mistakes and for a long time I thought those mistakes set me back, but they helped teach and mold me to what I am now. I had to walk the journey, and I still have to walk a journey. And I would much rather look ahead and honor that path than have regrets.
What is your biggest source of motivation?
I think it’s witnessing humanity dig our own graves. Our lack of knowledge in science and human nature gets in our way. If we understood how complicated we were, but yet how easily we can change our reality, the world would be a different place. So shining light on that power in each person and watching them become their own hero, that is my motivation.
How important is social media to you right now?
Social media is an important tool, in general, to have that I’ve been forced to appreciate. I did not always like social media but that was because I had a limited perspective of it. During the pandemic, it is extremely important for everyone because it serves to connect with others during isolation.
What do you want the world to look like in 10 years?
I would like to see more psychological and self-awareness as well as a more scientifically literate species. I would love to see people more aware of how much of an impact we have on each other and our environments. Including our planet.
If you had the chance to put something on billboards worldwide next week, what would it be? Or what would it say?
I would actually use my quote.
“We are floating on a tiny planet surrounded by billions of stars and multiple galaxies. The chances of your existence is within the trillions. You are a beneficiary of chance and are fortunate to experience living. In other words, enjoy life and stop giving so many shits.”
INTERVIEW: ADAM CROOKES
