Mental Fitness Training with Neurofeedback
by Gary Ames
AlertFocus.com 610-668-3223
Executive Summary
Neurofeedback is now simple and powerful. This fitness training for the central nervous system has a profound impact on wellness, performance and productivity including boosting emotional intelligence. Neurofeedback is safe, fun and effective. We intend to provide neurofeedback as a service to businesses as training and development to enhance talent.
Neurofeedback is brainwave biofeedback. Neurofeedback is one-on-one training where an EEG detects brainwaves and computer software processes the digital signals. Sounds and images reflect current brain activity. A Service Provider adjusts thresholds for feedback allowing the client to calm their brainwaves in a balanced way for pervasive and enduring benefit.
Neurofeedback can effectively treat numerous disorders. It is also a training method to make the best and brightest, better and brighter. The remarkable power of neurofeedback is best expressed in the breadth and difficulty of the tough disorders it treats with high success rates. Scientific studies regularly report 80% success rates with a wide range of genetic and acquired disorders that are normally resistant to any form of correction.
In this plan (Google neurofeedback {term}) means use neurofeedback plus the {term} so you can investigate claims in a search engine.)
Selected clinical applications of neurofeedback
► Attention Deficit, ADHD (Google neurofeedback Lubar), autism, Asperger’s
► Anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder
► Alcoholism/substance abuse, Eating disorders
► PTSD, Trauma recovery, Brain injury
► Epileptic seizures (Google neurofeedback Sterman)
► Migraines (90% get at least 90% relief, EndMigrainePain.com)
► Criminality (2776 felons, 3-year recidivism=15% vs. 65%)
Acceptance of neurofeedback within business settings for peak performance training is lagging behind the military, schools, and among athletes, and artistic performers. (Google: {Zoning in, Motivating the Musical Mind} proving a 17% increase in musical talent).
One way to understand such diverse and robust results is to conclude that neurofeedback promotes resilience and flexibility of the central nervous system.
۞ Resilient, Efficient – Centered, buoyant, hardy stamina.
۞ Flexible, Effective – Adapt, sparkle, creative improvisation.
Neurofeedback technology has grown in simplicity of use as well as its power. Fitness training for the brain has a broad impact on physical health, mental health, and emotional well-being. The greatest cash-rich opportunity is for sales training and executive development for business performance enhancement.
Given the growth of neurofeedback technology and supporting research–greater penetration into business is inevitable. The main problem we face now is messaging. We’ve got the goods but don’t know how to talk about it, even after our successes.
We seek funding for the marketing research, sales research and initial efforts. Once we have that, we will have it all! The greatest application of neurofeedback may be in team building. It may be in fixing the people problems by boosting emotional intelligence. Possibly talent enhancement training will be a reward granted to the most senior executives. Perhaps consultants and financiers will value neurofeedback as a lubricant for organizational change. Little boys with ADD grow up to become salespeople; neurofeedback can eradicate that disorder while boosting inherent sales skills.
The most lucrative way to provide neurofeedback training is also the cheapest. In the roving trainer model, performance coaching is delivered on-site and one-on-one for an hour. It is sold and packaged as groups of sessions to a day-full of clients for one Service Provider. Salespeople earn 20% of sales. It costs $6,000 to equip a Service Provider who will earn 15% of sales. There is an instant pay-back for a modest sale.
The financial projections assume an average sale is 10 sessions for 8 people charged at an hourly rate of $250-$300/hour. Actual sales bundles will vary and are to be determined. The only expansion opportunities considered here are adding affiliates to in-house salespeople.
The most reliable benefits of central nervous system optimization for successful people in business include better sleep, improved cognitive functions (~12 IQ points), and generic enhancement of wellness, performance and productivity. Generally the greatest dysfunctions are normalized first. A competitive skill advantage of our team is in setting individual goals that will be noticed by management.
The central nervous system is central to all that you do. Neurofeedback makes people more effective, more human, more wise. Neurofeedback wilts evil. Brain maps of murderers lose their distortions with neurofeedback. Felons go straight. Mind-body ecology is purified as medications and toxins are discarded.
As a way of thinking about improving human behavior, neurofeedback is a highly attractive alternative to chemical and psychological models. Neurofeedback is now the best available technology to change people for the better. The bioelectrical perspective and the psychophysiological self-regulation paradigm are an impending scientific revolution. Once society embraces the revolution, training, education, public health, mental health and the criminal justice system will all be very different.
We intend to play a part in moving the tipping point toward the proliferation of neurofeedback into institutions by establishing a large and profitable beachhead in the sales training and executive development market.
3. Business Description & Feasibility
§ The products/services offered and value proposition
§ Market opportunity and target market
§ Marketing plan and sales strategy
§ Analysis of competitors, suppliers, buyers
§ Barriers to entry & market entry strategy
§ Operations plan
§ History of the business (if any)
What is neurofeedback? Since 1970, people have used neurofeedback (brainwave biofeedback, EEG biofeedback, or Neurotherapy) to voluntarily alter brainwaves. Originally discovered in animals, it soon was first shown to be an effective remedy for epileptic seizures in humans. Clinical applications grew over the decades and now number nearly 200 including AD/HD, anxiety, learning disorders, and migraines. Permanent success rates for these tough disorders are often in the 80-90% range.
Not only does neurofeedback generally provide greater relief, but also lasting relief without pills. Neurofeedback is virtually free of negative side-effects. Two examples: ADHD and migraines. The success rates for neurofeedback are 80-90% for these intractable disorders. NF is as powerful as Ritalin, but 40 sessions replaces the need pills forever. 90% of migraineurs get at least 90% relief from pain within 20 sessions.
Neurofeedback uses an electroencephalograph or EEG to measure brainwaves. Real time brainwave information is fed back to the client in the form of images and the sounds of your favorite CD. When emergent variability of brainwave amplitudes exceeds any of the target thresholds, the media stop momentarily, then play again. This gentle comprehensive adaptive guiding toward stability is utterly calming.
Brainwave self-awareness becomes self-directed control over brainwave output. What follows is automatic adoption of a greater range and flexibility of mental functioning. This is enhanced psychophysiological self-regulation of the central nervous system. It’s like learning to ride a bike in a mild wind tunnel. You lose excess wobble as you ride and are better able to do maneuvers.
Prove any of my claims for yourself on www.google.com. First ask yourself: ‘How much evidence do I need to take the next step?’
Google the term neurofeedback plus any terms of interest and any limiting terms. For scientific hits, try the terms: method subjects results. For graphics, add QEEG, LORETA or topographic for color brain maps showing brainwave intensities.
For example, ADHD has a large body of compelling research on neurofeedback. Google: neurofeedback ADHD. Add Lubar or Monastra to see the work of prolific researchers.
Peak Performance Training. Google: neurofeedback performance – returns over 11,000 hits.
This plan is about neurofeedback to improve brain fitness for the higher tiers of paying customers. Plenty of research reports support that neurofeedback makes the best and brightest, better and brighter. For example Zoning in, Motivating the Musical Mind documented a 17% improvement in the musical performance of graduate students at the Royal College of London. West Point uses neurofeedback when training sharpshooters. Athletes are another large category of those benefiting from central nervous system optimization. Neurofeedback is used in a few hundred schools.
Research shows that after 40 sessions the average improvement in IQ is 12 points (regardless of where you start). Nothing else does that. Other cognitive, emotional and physical improvements are well documented. Neurofeedback practitioners around the world are accustomed to calling myriad mind-body improvements just side benefits.
Neurofeedback seems to allow the mind to repair and reorganize itself for optimal functioning without pushing. This form of change is the ultimate in self-directed learning. As a growth experience, this ‘aim your brain training’ doesn’t take you from here to there, instead it gradually reveals with clarity where you are now.
Neurofeedback does not change your personality and make you into a “normal” person. It tends to de-abnormalize people and make them more mature. It undistorts EEG brain maps. It removes blinders and melts limits. Nobody regrets the changes made by neurofeedback, nobody wants to go back. By merely providing information about the brain’s current activity, people’s lives transform. If you think this is a placebo effect, Google: neurofeedback cats or coma. Think of neurofeedback as an enduring mental massage, a tonic for the brain, a tune up for the CNS. Everyone can benefit from this training, there are no contraindications.
The revenue for an industrial psychologist or executive coach in a business setting is typically $2-3000 per day. We will start at the low end of that range and then move to the top of it.
There are 2 units of sales. Either 6 or 20 1-hour sessions of coaching for 8 people delivered 2 or 3 times per week. At minimum that is $12,000 in 2 weeks and a maximum of 60,000 in 10 weeks. There are surcharges for less than 8 people and discounts for higher quantity orders. Assessments are front-end intensive and are included in early sessions.
Even the first small sale will entirely cover the costs of purchasing all equipment and compensation for sales and labor–an instant payback period. 85% of clients will pay in full upon contracting, the other 15% complete payment half way through.
Third party Consultants can charge their clients whatever price they like or can bundle our service within theirs in any way they want.
A roving in-house neurofeedback coach is highly scalable. This is best place to start because it is quick cash intensive. The initial product is for 8 people to take 6 or 20 sessions.
The revenue plan begins with company-generated sales of a series of one-on-one neurofeedback training to groups 8 employees. An extension of this phase is to attract sales affiliates.
Executives and salespeople will derive the benefits of stress reduction, improved cognitive skills (IQ, memory, attention), emotional fluency, work performance, productivity, and healthy well-being. Every organization has talented people who create people problems. Neurofeedback can help individuals and teams during one-on-one training sessions.
The idea here is for a portable neurofeedback gym. Ideally, 2 or 3 times a week, the same 8-12 people come to the on-site coaching office for their 1-hour sessions. The technology is feasible and is analogous to a Personal Athletic Trainer. One Personal Mental Trainer can roll in suitcases with laptops and portable DVD players. With an electrical outlet, the Service Provider Trainer can coach one or two individuals at once in any location.
By convention, the entire training fee is paid upfront 85% of the time. The normal sales commission is 10% with salary, so 20% devoted to this expense is sufficient except at start-up.
Not included in this plan are other sources of revenue. Plenty of other opportunities exist such as phone consulting around renting devices for home training under guidance. We can envision a retail mental gym facility. It will become possible set up other cities with dealerships and practice management agreements.
The training and development market potential is huge, well into the billions. Neurofeedback results can expand the market size. Myriad training companies of all sizes thrive in niches from universities to one-on-one coaches.
For example, GlaxoSmithKline spends $500,000 a year on coaching alone for those at a certain level. The major outplacement firms have entered the market to provide personal-business effectiveness coaching. Research shows a 500% ROI for this expense. Individual sales quotas of $1 million for coaching are feasible.
Another viable niche are the consultants and financiers who place organizations under the stress of change. Their largest barrier to success are the valuable individuals who resist change at the time when their best performance is needed.
This is the right time because neurofeedback technology has matured as the knowledge-based economy has shifted corporate value from capital intensive to reliance on human capital. In a knowledge-based economy, value exists in intangible assets. Talent is a prime competitive advantage.
In our economy, 80% of S&P Assets are intangible. These include: Systems, Products, Brand – (goodwill) as well as talent-related forms of human capital assets: Intellect, Knowledge, Innovation, Teamwork, Ambition, Courage, and Agility.
“Effective human capital practices represent 43% greater value between like companies.”
Deloitte & Touche, Creating Shareholder Value
As early targets industries, we like the Biotech and Big Pharma. They can enter the literature on neurofeedback and understand it. HR controls the budgets for training, development, organizational development, wellness, health & safety. We may need to let an HR person in free.
Neurofeedback coaching will be sold directly to businesses by those experienced in selling training services to HR and executive buyers. They use the telephone and personal meetings. Salespeople will give speeches, write newsletters, update the web site, generate PR, but mostly rely upon the contacts they have made to gain access and pitch the service. They will rely upon collateral material to reinforce the sale.
What’s it good for? The sales messages we have now is as follows. Neurofeedback is an individual talent enhancer and team effectiveness multiplier. Neurofeedback improves well-being, performance and productivity. The most measurable aspects are in wellness (downtime vs. uptime in The Zone) personnel development (capacity for robust contribution) and interpersonal harmony (disruption, squabbles, morale, retention). It is a catalyst for personal and organizational change to aid in the management of transitions.
The greatest economic benefit from neurofeedback is for those who contribute at high levels. Emotional intelligence may be the best hook for business. I think of emotional intelligence as self-awareness and self-regulation. Reduced emotional noise permits greater awareness of others and the dexterity to adapt, harmonize and influence. Neurofeedback can deliver those goods.
Pay for performance guarantees. This is a considerable competitive advantage over other forms of training. The results of neurofeedback are so strong and certain that a money-back guarantee is feasible. The challenge comes is setting a criteria. It would work very well for migraine headaches. Other viable examples would be IQ score, explosive outbursts, paperwork completion, non-productive activities and proportion of time in the peak performance zone.
Every organization has somebody who is valuable and talented, but is high maintenance because they generate people problems, poor morale, or turnover. Anyone on mental health leave of absence or a performance plan is also in this target category. The diversity of the underlying issues is a huge advantage for the generic mind-body enhancements neurofeedback offers.
Ten years after publication, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman is currently the #5 best seller in the chemical industry on Amazon.
A striking marketing tool would be a series of video clips where the client reads one line of poetry or sales message before and after each session. Within a few weeks or months, the face will be clearer with less extra character features. The voice will be progressively more prosodic and pleasant. Within minutes, the before and after contrast will show greater beauty, poise and grace.
A marketing and PR effort will support a telemarketing outreach to set sales appointments. A sale should take 2 to 3 meetings and have a 20% closing ratio.
Neurofeedback can deliver results in ways that are both palpable and measurable. Market research and salespeople must determine which market niche, what message, and what packaging is most viable. This is where more research is needed.
Six sessions is definitely enough training to either subjectively notice an effect or objectively see it. Usually both. Twenty sessions will clear up disorders, reduce pharmaceutical load, renormalize sleep-wake cycles, and produce palpable balance and clarity to the individual. Only a few high functioning people will derive added benefit beyond 40 sessions for work purposes.
Providing neurofeedback training services to businesses is still a very small niche. (Google neurofeedback performance OR optimal.) It is sparsely populated with psychologists who do it as part of their clinical practices. This is a field with some successful entrepreneurs, but no successful business models. The market is somewhat larger is sports and artistic performance improvement. The field suffers from diverse opinions of what neurofeedback does and how to talk about it.
There is a striking case of successful vertical penetration with neurofeedback. www.PlayAttention.com stands alone among providers of neurofeedback hardware and software. They don’t talk like other people and don’t go to the same conferences. Their messaging removes ‘neuro-anything’ from the vocabulary. They market an attention trainer to parents with ADHD children and special education interests. They get appointments with local school executives, provide a demo and get orders in hundreds of schools. They offer tons of online and phone support but it is basically a do-it-yourself program.
There is an example of neurofeedback training aimed at business and sports markets in www.peakachievement.com. I believe their proprietary technology is limited, blunting their results.
HeartMath.com is the largest provider of biofeedback to businesses. They sell a $300 device with a piece of software as well as instructions to increase heart rate variability. Basically, it is better for your heart rate to increase while inhaling and decrease while exhaling in a coherent manner. They have done the most research on biofeedback in business settings.
HeartMath practitioners vary widely in their approach. One mid-western entrepreneur uses HeartMath as a main part of his business consulting practice with seminars and private executive training programs. Many other HeartMath sales originate with referrals from healthcare practitioners. Personal growth is another market niche. Those who use HeartMath in their consulting practices, do so in a wide variety of ways. For example, there is a strong golf segment.
Neurofeedback is generally considered faster and more profound intervention with a wider range of positive results.
Scientific evidence from Shell, BP, Unilever, Cisco, Boeing, and a major electronics corp. Pre and post training shows lasting results (within 6 weeks, and then more gains at 6 months). Numbers below are improvements in top 2 of 5 survey responses.
• Wellness: (impacts absenteeism, safety, insurance costs)
o Annoyed, angry – 65% down
o Tense, stressed – 38% down
o Blood pressure down 6% / 4% (as measured)
• Performance (impacts presenteeism, individual targets)
o Sleepy, exhausted – 40% down
o Well-being – 43% up
• Productivity (impacts costs, quality, yield, profitability)
o Intend to quit – 40% down
o Empowerment – 51% up
o Teamwork – 50% up
o Focused, perceptive – 30% up
We welcome competitors with open arms. Other than copyrights, protection is counterproductive. The market is so huge and diverse that any competitor is a marketing assistant.
Supplier. I believe best, simplest, most advanced, safest, most efficient and broadly applicable software for everyone is NeuroCARE (www.zengar.com). This neurofeedback software trains for comprehensive adaptive renormalization of EEG. The software displays and trains brain waves from .01 – 62 Hz in both hemispheres simultaneously. Each session reduces emergent variability of EEG amplitude targets in up to 18 frequency ranges concurrently.
This approach to central nervous system (CNS) functional transformation describes biofeedback as a non-linear dynamical process control procedure. The theory is that synchronization through chaos will dissipate CNS attractors and promote self-optimization. Optimal functioning means that a resilient and flexible system will clearly apprehend the present without blinders and respond to situations with full access to current potential. The experience is physically calming while mentally sharpening.
Buyers are of two kinds: customers and affiliates. Affiliates are any consultant, executive coach or training firm that sells services to business. Neurofeedback can be an add-on to any sales training, executive coaching, wellness or many other training and development bags of tricks.
The corporate market for training is notoriously faddish. Anything goes in sales training. With an interesting pitch, and for the right price the HR and executives should be able to accept neurofeedback training. Apart from the proper message and positioning, there is no reason for them not to accept neurofeedback.
Barriers. If this is so great, why haven’t I heard about it before? Neurofeedback is under-recognized for several reasons. It is not a pill. There isn’t much money in getting people off of pharmaceuticals. The 5 largest categories of pharmaceutical medication are for: anxiety, attention, depression, sleep and pain. Neurofeedback squarely impacts each of these complaints. Medical certainty with expensive Type I studies about neurofeedback is an absurdly rigorous criterion for therapeutic acceptance.
We have too many benefits; neurofeedback sounds too good to be true. Neurofeedback is easy to do but is hard to talk about and understand. It is vague. There are large areas of ignorance about the brain. Most practitioners are psychologists, who are poor evangelists. Experts in the field of neurofeedback have many areas of agreement and disagreement. Initial sessions are sometimes dramatic, but not usually. Improvements are so natural they are unexpected. And finally, ignorance about messing with the brain is like a Fleet Manager being afraid of auto mechanics.
Neurofeedback is remarkably safe, even for sensitive people. Unwanted side effects are rare, minor and self-limiting. There is a motto in the field about resolving trauma: “You don’t need to feel it, to heal it.” Since 1970, with thousands of practitioners, primarily treating damaged or sensitive nervous systems and difficult children, no court has ever awarded damages for neurofeedback training.
The only problem we foresee in this plan is designing an effective marketing message that will appeal to the HR or executive buyers of this service. Neurofeedback is a new way to do training for individualized benefits which are unexpected in magnitude and diversity of effect. We have the expertise to administer neurofeedback to individuals who seek it. What we don’t have is the go to market message or qualified messengers to seize the business opportunity.
Marketing research will yield a company name, collateral material, web site, and ways to describe what we have, what it does and the benefits. After that, the sales and marketing strategy is a well-worn path.
Neurofeedback has a unique problem that hinders word of mouth dissemination. Everyone will report that neurofeedback is relaxing, pleasant or interesting. Yet some neurofeedback clients may not credit their training with the dramatic results they achieve. Change occurs from the inside out, which is unexpected. It may be that people don’t know how to deliver good word of mouth, especially when questioned about how neurofeedback works. Change is apparent to the discerning 3rd party especially with carefully individualized metrics.
We need to find a better way to explain that neurofeedback changes people autopoetically with bioelectrical training and a self-regulation skill building. Autopoiesis means the changes neurofeedback produces are self-directed and arrive already integrated. The remaining consolidation occurs during sleep. This may feel like relief from habituated stressors or greater maturity. Perhaps explaining the nature of the changes, letting people see them coming, naming specific milestones, and having an acceptable theory of change will allow more clients to credit their training with the results achieved.
Proving effectiveness. There is and is not a problem with evidence for neurofeedback. Only 10% of what MDs do each day meet the most stringent standard of medical certainty. Yet ample Type I studies are required to break into medical acceptance. Even alternative treatments that meet the toughest criteria are not assured success in healthcare. Fortunately, business never requires evidence with such absurd stringency. When the criteria is best available technology, neurofeedback wins. Assembling the most compelling evidence and testimonials is a messaging task.
To enter the market we need a local prestigious reference client performed at low cost or no cost. The internal strategy will be to ask for volunteers among high potential employees. We can use company metrics and we’ll negotiate individual high-confidence metrics. When we get dramatic results, I want a solid endorsement statement with phone numbers for those who want to make sure this is for real without a downside.
Attracting Salespeople, Service Providers, staff, management and Affiliates are not barriers, just procedures.
This is a start-up service venture with minimal equipment and capital requirements and with enormous financial and social potential.
4. Financial Projections to Demonstrate Feasibility
§ A summary of the financial narrative
§ How your company will generate revenue and profits – through sales of your service and with strategic partnerships
§ Financial history and funding to date
§ Key assumptions used in financial projections
§ List of key forces driving revenue and costs
§ Overview of revenue and cost projections
§ Funding needs and anticipated use (amounts and timing) of funds sought
§ Break-even point – the point where the business’s cumulative losses are completely offset by accumulated profits.
§ Identify any other points that are important milestones in the development of your venture. This may be the quarter in which you first turn a profit, the first quarter in which your business is cash flow positive, the point at which you achieve a given sales level, or other important financial milestones.
Coaching sales revenue is based on the number of salespeople and affiliates as well as their pricing and productivity. The number of fully engaged Service Providers grows steadily over the 3 years of the plan. The cost of Sales and Provider compensation remain fixed at 20% and 15%.
Expense figures are drawn from similar consulting businesses with adjustments for the special characteristics of an enterprise engaged in remote training with technology. Profits are high because few expenses are incurred after the engine is running.
Getting the engine running may cost $40,000-$60,000 for focus group marketing research and developing a sales message. Guaranteeing the sales compensation and a few salaries for the initial period is why we need a separate starter motor.
Portable brainwave equipment will cost $5,000 and requires a $1,000 budget for training support, maintenance and replacement. Each sale of only 6 sessions for 8 people at $250/hour instantly breaks-even where all equipment, sales and labor expenses are covered.
The other large commitment is for $1500/month for 2 offices in a shared support services space such as that found on Bala Avenue.
We own one NeuroCARE Pro, one NeuroCAREmote, one portable pIR HEG and other assorted biofeedback tools worth $10,000. On January 1, 2005 Gary Ames will invest $20,000 cash and full time effort into the business. Dr. Berman prefers the income from corporate clients rather than his clinical practice. To join with gusto, a salesperson such as Frank Powell only needs to believe he can sell his contacts, keep them happy and be paid fairly. Dmitry Semenov is paid in Rubles for his web wizardry.
Each salesperson can produce 1 sale per week. This sales productivity increases in year 2 and doubles in year 3. The average sale is for 8 people to receive 10 sessions at $250 to 300 per person/per day. We add one salesperson per quarter in year 1 and then monthly in year 3. We add one Affiliate and one Affiliate sale per month after 6 months, and then one Affiliate every quarter in year 2 and monthly in year 3. Affiliates are compensated at the same rate as in-house Salespeople.
Sales compensation is 20% of sales, Service Providers earn 15% of sales. Average contract length is one month. Each new Service Provider needs $6,000 of training and equipment to launch them. Then each Service Provider can handle 2 average assignments per month.
The field of Training and Development is rife with fads. Remember ‘Quality Circles’ and ‘Management by Objectives?’ Many of the same themes are recycled periodically with new names and champions. All the PR and marketing opportunities will await us. Acceptance and recognition is the accelerant neurofeedback needs to flourish as it deserves.
Everything else is mundane and the duty of management. Sales closing ratios, profitability, workforce planning, marketing channels are all malleable and manageable with success. It would be fiction to forecast them with granularity.
Sales and labor are 35% of revenue. $6000 launches a Service Provider to generate $10,000 per week. House accounts yield $10,000 in revenue with $1500 in marginal costs.
We seek an initial injection of $150,000 in funds to cover marketing research and 6 months working capital for operations and salaries.
The main funding needs are at start-up. They are for marketing research, advertising, and sales messaging. We need to determine the viable ways to talk about this service to the buyers of training and development. We need to put the proper words into collateral materials, proposals, web sites and into salespeople’s mouths. This will include a list of client expectations and things we don’t talk about.
In addition, we need enough working capital to pay salaries until the engine is running on its own steam.
The investor break-even point occurs early in the first year of operation.
The first large expenses are within the line item for advertising for marketing research and sales message research. After a temporary office space is secured, the proceeds from the first sale will be devoted to purchasing $9000 of equipment and compensating sales and labor. The second sale will primarily contribute to the bottom line and recouping advertising expenses. At 1.25 small sales per week, this should occur within 2 months. After that, larger sales and affiliate sales will be more profitable. Home training, the retail enterprise, and sales from proliferation will be gravy which are funded by earnings after investors are satisfied.
5. Social and Environmental Impact Assessment
§ Reach, depth and quality of positive social and environmental impact on “stakeholders” – see list of stakeholders above
§ Integration of the financial and social goals
Optimizing the central nervous system so that people are more resilient and flexible is the best hope for humanity: for each person to be more fully human. We will start with business leaders who derive financial benefits in order to drive further proliferation. Once the ball is rolling neurofeedback is the way to end large categories of human suffering, attain sustainable prosperity and achieve world peace!
What does it mean to be wise? Calm, balanced, intelligent, aware, self-controlled, skilled with people, problem-solving ability guided by intuition, plus the Boy Scout traits. Neurofeedback delivers all of that, enduringly. What is needed by your head, family, business, community, nation – and what the Earth needs now, is less foolishness and more wisdom. I propose to get their by optimizing one brain at a time. Business success must precede all other efforts.
Further, I view evil as correctable brain pathology. Neurofeedback offers no less than the eradication of evil from the face of the Earth, by shedding our inhumanity. Show me the QEEG of 20 murderers and I see a strategy for reversing their brain damage or dysfunction. (Google: neurofeedback drake murderers) People are evil when they are twisted, driven and lacking the advanced human capacities of foresight, conscience, and will. Neurofeedback repairs evil where it lives. Neurofeedback can rehabilitate criminals. (Google: correcting the incorrigible.) But this population is the second step. First we accentuate the positive, then eliminate the negative.
More conservatively, neurofeedback’s greatest potential for societal contribution: is with Depression, Obesity and diabetes, Addictions, Minor traumatic brain injury, Psychological trauma and Psychological issues of the elderly.
Neurofeedback is a general means of impinging on brain function to effect improved regulatory control. Among the primary regulatory functions that can be normalized with biofeedback we can list autonomic arousal and autonomic balance, central arousal, attentional networks, affect regulation and problems of attachment, the anxiety-depression spectrum, and the problem of addiction. There is broad efficacy for recovery from the functional deficits that attend physical brain trauma, and for improved function in the face of degenerative conditions. Biofeedback enhances the stability of brain function wherever that is found to be deficient, as in seizures, migraines, vertigo, rage, hot flashes, etc. Finally, biofeedback offers comprehensive pathways of recovery from deep emotional trauma, as well as from the characterological disorders that issue from unremediated early childhood trauma. Biofeedback can effect improvement in motor control for a variety of movement disorders. It can be invoked to improve cognitive function and working memory, as well as to remediate sensory hyperexcitability. Last, but perhaps not least, biofeedback can help to normalize other regulatory functions such as appetite, blood glucose level, as well as endocrine system and immune system activation.
This web site contains a dated research bibliography
http://www.isnr.org/nfbarch/nbiblio.htm. It contains primarily outcome studies and case reports and is divided by into these problem areas:
Epilepsy; ADD/ADHD, Learning Disabilities, & Academic-Cognitive Enhancement; Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, & Sleep Disorders; Depression, Hemispheric Asymmetry, & Anger; Addictive Disorders; Brain Injury, Stroke, Coma, & Spasticity; Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, & Autoimmune Dysfunction; Pain & Headache; Schizophrenia; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Parkinson’s Dystonia; Tourette’s Syndrome; Autism; Cognitive Decline with Aging; Asthma; Hypertension; Dissociative Disorders; Creativity & Optimal Functioning; Criminals.
Summary of studies in peer-reviewed journals
See www.alertfocus.com/perform/meta.php for a meta analysis of studies listing method of control, publication sources, and criteria, such as:
DISORDERS
# STUDIES
# SUBJECTS
# MEDLINE
# CONTROLLED
ADHD
35
1539
20
7
Anxiety disorders
19
124
15
2
Behavior disorders
27
285
19
6
Epilepsy
45
364
42
12
Other: Tics, Insomnia, etc.
40
466
27
6
TOTAL
166
2778
123
33
This means, for example, that after 40 neurofeedback sessions, ADHD is gone. It is no longer detectable. There is convergent validity from three diverse measures that all functioning is within normal range on all measures. EEG brain maps, computerized attention tests and 3rd party reports all agree that the disorder is not there anymore for 80% of subjects. They can stop taking Ritalin without remission.
Only 10% of migraineurs do not get at least 90% relief from their debilitating pain in 20 sessions. The majority just never get those headaches any more at all. That is over 6% of men and 18% of women suffering needlessly due to ignorance of this technology.
The bioelectrical perspective and the psychophysiological self-regulation paradigm are an impending scientific revolution. Once the revolution is accepted, the pharmaceutical industry, education, public health, and the criminal justice system will all be very different. We hope to play a major part in the proliferation of neurofeedback into institutions by establishing a profitable beachhead in the sales and executive training and development market.
Pro bono plan. We plan to support any non-exempt staff and Board members of 501 (3) c organizations by offering them our lowest current price for neurofeedback sessions. Initially Dr. Marvin H. Berman will see these people in his office in Lafayette Hill in a manner so that it can be covered by most health insurance plans. Dr. Berman is experienced with grants and installing neurofeedback into public institutions. He will be the conduit if graduate students want to conduct research and when public service organizations want to add neurofeedback to their pallet of offerings.
6. Description of Management Team
§ Depth of relevant industry/issue experience
§ Evidence of previous training in management, leadership, sales, technology, and industry specific skills
§ Previous work experience
In any professional services firm there are Providers, Finders and Minders. Providers are the experts who do the work, Finders get clients and Minders oversee operations. Only the main Providers are not fungible, all others are. The management team is slight, but it contains all the expertise that it needs to have. All the business management skills required are generic. Executives, management and staff can be recruited from related industries. Sales talent can be recruited from among those who sell training and development services to HR and executives and who have contacts to exploit.
Frank Powel Business Executive, Training Salesperson
MANCHESTER 2001 to 2004
Senior Vice President, Client Services
Key accounts and new business development responsibilities for a $40 million dollar Human Resources consulting and outplacement firm.
Selected Accomplishments
• Key accounts lead sales role for blue chip company accounts including GlaxoSmithKline, Campbell’s Soup, Rohm and Haas, FMC, and Aventis Behring. Won competitive renewals at several of these accounts and increased market share. Cultivated high quality relationships with key decision makers that resulted in increased sales for an expanded array of services.
• Developed new business at 21 accounts over three years by actively cultivating relationships with senior HR decision makers. Most of these companies had historically purchased services from the competition.
• Led the regional sales team in consulting sales for executive coaching and organizational development services in 2003. Inducted into the “Million Dollar Club” at the national sales meeting.
• Initiated and led a region-wide forum for HR leaders in transition that resulted in a highly valued new offering to the leaders while in their job search and additional sales to these leaders as they landed new positions.
• Had a major role in shaping the regional marketing plan. Increased the visibility of the Manchester brand in the marketplace with well positioned sponsorships, speaking engagements, volunteer activities and trade show participation at SHRM, PHRPG and other target-rich functions.
Gary Ames, M.A., San Francisco State University (Psychology) and M.B.A., Temple University (Training and Development). Gary is a licensed psychologist. He has been a college instructor, trainer and coach for 30 years. As an Executive Coach and Job Campaign Manager, he helped over 1000 executives and professionals attain new and better jobs. His career consulting innovations can be seen at www.QuickJobSearch.com and www.GaryAmes.net.
In 2003, Gary became certified in the most sophisticated neurofeedback methodology by completing The Technical Certification Course in NeuroCARE Pro (Comprehensive Adaptive Renormalization of EEG): “The Period 3 Approach To Central Nervous System Functional Transformation Using Non-Linear, Dynamical Control Procedures.” See www.zengar.com. In February 2004, Gary took accredited courses and seminars at the Winter Brain Conference. Gary is an active member of the Assoc. for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback and their Neurofeedback Div. (www.aapb.org). He maintains www.AlertFocus.com, www.EndMigrainePain.com and can be reached at 610-668-3223.
Advantage: Creating performance metrics.
Gary Ames has been a career development consultant for 20 years. Soon after getting his MBA he began interviewing managers and executives about their careers and quantifying their accomplishments. From several years Gary worked with clients paying their $5-10,000 of their own money for career development consulting and who all paid a premium for an anytime money-back guarantee.
Having worked with over 1000 clients, Gary has developed a broad and deep grasp of industries and jobs at all levels. He is able to predict achievements that are not expressed and can suggest metrics to measure them.
The advantage is that Gary can combine his knowledge of diverse careers with expected patterns of psychological renormalization. He is uniquely skilled at devising work performance metrics that will tangibly improve with training for each individual. This is not unlike predicting where the effects of improved sleep or nutrition will show up first on the job. The metric can be as simple as a before and after photo, showing greater clarity of the trainee’s face or work area.
The financial and marketing advantage comes when these predicted benchmarks of progress are sufficiently certain to make training guarantees. ‘I am willing to risk a portion of the fee that this trainee will achieve progress in one or more of these performance metrics within 20 sessions.’ The lack of specificity and certainty is a major objection to all forms of performance coaching. I can enumerate several individualized high confidence improvement targets for each trainee.
Dr. Marvin Berman earned his Ph.D. from Temple University in 1987.
He is currently on the faculty of Thomas Jefferson Medical College’s, Dept. of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. Past academic appointments have been at: Widener University, Wharton School of Business, Lehigh University and Temple University.
Dr. Berman is a licensed clinical psychologist since 1989 and in the private practice of psychotherapy since 1976 working with children, adolescents and adults. His focus is on body/mind interaction, relationship problems, substance abuse, physical disorders including chronic illnesses and dementia. He added brainwave biofeedback to his practice in 1995.
He has been the Principal Investigator of two sponsored studies on EEG biofeedback.
Consultation and training appointments have been diverse.
He maintains memberships and professional affiliations with:
§ American and Pennsylvania Psychological Association
§ Biofeedback Certification Institute of America
§ Vice-President, Philadelphia Center for Organizational Dynamics (A. K. Rice Institute)
§ American Group Psychotherapy Association, Associate Clinical Member
§ International and Philadelphia Institutes for Bioenergetic Analysis
§ Systems-Centered Training and Research Institute
§ Cheltenham Township Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Committee.
The Quietmind Foundation conducts clinical research and creates opportunities for new avenues of study through affiliations with Thomas Jefferson University’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and LaSalle’s Applied Clinical Psychology Program. Current research projects focus on the use of brainwave biofeedback in treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Early Stage Alzheimer’s Dementia, and anxiety disorder in a methadone maintained population.
The Quietmind Foundation is recognized by the IRS as a 501c3 charitable organization, and is a Pennsylvania charitable corporation. We provide services on a sliding fee scale and are in-network participating providers with most managed care organizations.
Dmitry Semenov, Freelance web design and marketing.
www.share-ideas.com/resume.htm
Dmitry is an expert in web design, development, and marketing. He enjoys working with clients to achieve all aspects of their web marketing and promotion goals. Dmitry is creative and enthusiastic with strong technical skills in: User Interface design, Web Site design; Banner design and online and offline advertising; SEO (Search engine optimization); Promotion; Collateral; UNIX system administration; Site and hosting maintenance; Web programming.
Formerly a professional ballroom dancer, Dmitry is currently completing Ph.D. in physics and math.
