My dad was one of the most creative people I knew. He was also left handed, which is a sign of right brain activity. My mother was far more analytical and right handed, a sign of left brain activity – This is not to say she wasn’t creative, but that she preferred to live in the left brain. While everyone uses some level of both sides of their brain, we tend to have one side more dominate than the other. The right brain controls the left side of the body and the left brain the right side.

I took two free online tests this morning to see what the systems thought of my dominating side. Both tests revealed I was right brained. The one test suggested I was 75% right brained, while the other 69%. I figured that since most statistical analysis is accurate within a +/- 5%, I could trust the test.

What was interesting is that the one test gave a breakdown of areas of dominance and how I process information. It was also the longer of the two tests. For instance, one of the ways I process information allows me to fully understand something if I see it. This does not suggest I have problems understanding intangibles, but that I have to see it in my minds eye first to understand it.

During a recent talk I boarded an intangible concept on friendship using symbols and diagrams. It allowed the audience to see and understand something that is typically vague and allusive of meaning. It became concrete for them. While several of the people were amazed at how I could do something like that off the top of my head, it came natural to me because I always see the visual in my minds eye so I can understand the complex and vague.

A psychologist once told me that the reason I struggled with reading as a kid, was because I was still memorizing 50,000+ symbols. While some people are able to understand a word based on each individual letter that makes up a word, my mind sees the word like a logo as one image. Therefore, I had to memorize what it looked like before I could properly read it.

When I give directions or write a story, my natural inclination is to describe it visually or as I see it in my minds eye. I understand the complex based on a series of images and remember things in that same fashion. It is the same ability that allows me to see how an entire motion picture will look before anything is filmed. And yes, it does mean that I can create and watch all kinds of movies in my mind for my own entertainment.

Access to the right and left brain is different than the determination of the dominant side. Most women can switch back and forth between both sides of the brain all within a split second or during the middle of a sentence, while men struggle to transition to the other side of the brain, but they can do it. Those who are center brained, like I am (according to a Bell Labs test I took a dozen years ago) can easily move back and forth at will. This ability gives me great insight into both sides of every situation, but the down side is that I might second-guess myself often.

Intuition, which was my highest score, has its life in the right brain. This allows you to determine an answer to things with your gut that is amazingly accurate. I recall a time were my logical friend was working on an intense computer program that had taken him about 36 hours of troubleshooting and he still hadn’t arrived at an answer. I asked him to share with me what he was trying to accomplish to see if I could help.

After laughing at my foolish request because I didn’t even know the programming language he was using, he humored me and spent a few minutes explaining it. A thought immediately popped into my head and I suggested that he consider… He was intrigued and dove in. Within a few hours he had completely solved his problem based on my recommendation.

My friend and I experienced numerous scenarios together as he would use my insights for troubleshooting. It didn’t take long for him to decide that I was accurate 99.99999% of the time, leaving room for human error. These experiences always caused us to laugh, as I was able to solve numerous problems that I didn’t understand.

These moments typically happened after he spent hours of research struggling to find an answer, but had less than 80% of the information necessary to solve the problem. It wasn’t magic or spooky, just a combination of innovative, intuitive and creative mental processing abilities functioning as I was made to function. However, he was made very left brained and couldn’t even begin to comprehend how I could do what I did, since it was “impossible” without the right information.

But consider that the right information for the left brain is different than the right information for the right brain. I know numerous people who can read the non-verbal communication that people give off when they greet someone they haven’t met before. Within a few minutes I can tell you more about them than most have summarized after a dozen meetings. Right brained people just use different tools to come to the same conclusion.

There is far more going on about the left and right brain than what a blog can handle. Numerous books have been written on the subject and various tests are online for educational and entertainment purposes. I suggest you take time to find out which side of your brain is dominant and what area or type of processing you use most.

Copyright © 2011 By CJ Powers
Photo © Ilenia Pagliarini – Fotolia.com

With the folding of the literary world into the visual world, many speakers are looking for new ways to capture the visual attention of their audiences. Charismatic personalities have a head start, but all are capable of making a visual connection.

Word pictures and stories are the easiest visuals that can be shared. This weekend I heard a story about a young boy who bolted out of his house toward school after a quick bowl of Captain Crunch cereal. It happened in snow-covered Wisconsin, but the blanket of snow didn’t hinder the boy.

He ran into the school and was surprised to see it empty. He walked the halls and couldn’t find one student at their lockers. After giving a careful listen, he wondered if the Sunday evening service about how to survive missing the rapture had come to fruition.

He combed the halls and found one teacher sitting at her desk, but the sight didn’t comfort him, as he knew the teacher all too well. He sprinted back home knowing that if his mom were there he would be all right, especially since she clearly knew God.

Shouting through the house in search of his mom, he found his brother, which didn’t give him any peace, as he knew his brother. Finally, he found his mom and was relieved. The rapture hadn’t happened. He would be just fine, but would also read the Bible more veraciously to make sure he didn’t miss the real rapture that was yet to come.

The story took me on a memorable journey and taught a simple lesson that surpassed the fading of information – 24 hours after a speaker shares key information only 15% of it is remembered. Yet, we tend to remember pictures forever.

I recently received several compliments a week after my last speaking engagement. The comments were based on the chalk talk I gave and each person commented on the picture I drew. Anything directly associated with the picture was remembered, but everything else was already forgotten.

By reducing a talk to a series of pictures, we can test the memorability of our message. It’s a process that also helps us clarify our message. Everyone knows the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words and most can confirm it by sharing scenes from the latest movie they saw.

The idea is to make sure your key points can be visualized. It doesn’t matter what form it takes, as long as it can be seen and not just heard. Those who have photographic memories will be most thankful, but everyone will find your shared concepts more understandable and memorable.

Copyright © 2011 By CJ Powers

This is an amazing milestone for a person who flunked English three times and had to retake the courses until passed. I thought not knowing what a verb or adjective was might hinder my abilities to write, especially since my blog entries are published without editorial oversight, but I’ve quickly learned that blogging is more about ideas and opinions than grammar.

Blogging gave me opportunity to meet some incredible people and to formulate my thinking process. If you count the number of pages I’ve written, including my first few blog sites that bit the dust, I’ve written enough to publish four books. It’s no wonder Michael Hyatt suggests that bloggers focus on specific areas of topic with the idea of formulating a book after every 100th blog entry. In fact, he did that very thing with his latest book.

My blogs are more eclectic and my audience has changed over time. During one of my previous blogs I focused on stories and gained a significant audience. But when I started writing a few entries on entertainment my audience changed. For whatever reason, those who liked my stories didn’t care for my entertainment pieces. When I merged my blog that supported men physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, I lost many of my entertainment audience and found that the majority of my readers were women.

This current blog was the most consistent when it comes to publishing dates with almost three entries each week. It too has seen a turnover of audience. The bottom line is that Michael’s concept of focus is preferred, as you can share your expertise and publish a book after every hundred or so entries. But, that’s not what I’ve done.

In reviewing the past 100 entries, I’ve seen that filmmakers are my biggest audience followed by pastors. The one commonality they have is their love for using story to get messages across. This gives me the idea that writing a blog about story telling in various formats and venues might be a good point of focus. However, when I write about relationships, I get a temporary surge in women readers that far exceed the other two audiences.

Hmm, what if I were to create a films for women that pastor’s could reference in making their key life changing points? The filmmaking community would show interest, the women would probably watch the films and the pastors would gain plenty of ideas to share the practical applications of their content.

In all reality, the one thing that consistently drives an increase in audience in the area of blogging or filmmaking is quality. The majority of the audiences I’ve addressed have made it clear that their loyalty is only there when my content is rich with quality. Whenever I do something with a high level of quality the audience numbers rise. And, whenever I do something of less quality, the numbers drop quicker than you could imagine.

I’m not really surprised by that concept. In chatting with folks from Veggie Tales, Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks, they have all stated that I should not release a film unless it’s of high quality. My filmmaker friends and blog experience proves that to be true and it does make sense.

On the other hand, my educator friends tell me the opposite. They point out that doing numerous projects will hone my skills and I’ll be able to create something within the sheer volume of work that might hit the mark and generate a future. Unfortunately, I’ve met too many people whose careers have ended once their experimental or early works surfaced.

Out of the millions of writers, I’ve only learned about two who got book deals as a result of their blog, and neither one was me. And, out of the thousands of filmmakers, I’ve only learned about five who got a feature deal based on a short film, again not me. Typically speaking, there are only two reasons people have gotten book or film deals from a blog or a short, and that was due to the audience they generated or the quality of unique information they brought to the table.

Back when I was full time in filmmaking, I was given opportunities to direct projects based on my creativity, knowledge and morals. Today, it seems that opportunities come up when projects stir the market long enough for someone to take the risk of etching a deal. Unfortunately, what stirs a market in blog entries are usually controversial, and in the film community is visual impact over story. Since my work is typically to help others rather than be controversial and I usually put story first over visual impact, I’m not in the running for that miracle.

I will just have to do what is put before me to do and be content with my ability to reach those who have found that I have something of value for them. And, for those who don’t like what I share, they will certainly drift off to another artist.

Regardless of how small or unique my audience might be based on my eclectic style, I’m happy that they have found something useful in my work for their life. So, while there might not be two hundred thousand people celebrating this 100th entry milestone, there are some who are thankful for what I’ve shared – They are the ones I do this for.

Happy 100th!