Herricane Consulting, LLC

I'm officially #OpenToWork. "After years of therapy and a college education, my brain is one of the most expensive things I own and its health is fundamental in the quality of my life. I'll be damned if I let it go to waste just so a bunch of strangers on the Internet don't think I'm a failure. I tried it, I hated it, I don't want to do it anymore. It's that simple. It's allowed to be."

Scientists are thinking of categorizing “giftedness” as a form of neurodivergence. “One thing we know about giftedness,” says psychologist Matt Zakreski in the article, “is that it is quite literally a different brain — it’s a piece of neurodivergence.” This validates conversations I’ve had over the past few months as I did research and interviews for Herricane Consulting, LLC: Gifted people tend to feel different from, or misunderstood by, their peers in a similar way to those with other forms of neurodivergence, such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. Why does it matter? Ever heard of “skipping leg day” at the gym? That’s basically what happens with gifted kids. So much developmental energy is spent on other parts of the brain (the parts that make you test well, retain information, etc) that the prefrontal cortex, responsible for executive function and emotional regulation, gets delayed. This means gifted kids can struggle with emotional development and social interactions in a way their non-gifted counterparts do not. You can check out the article here: https://lnkd.in/eth6wkcW I’ll be making a recap video later in the week, but what do you think? Anyone share this sentiment, or have we gotten too eager to categorize everything? 🤔

Are you tired of me reminding you of our humanity, our need for community, and the value of our unquantifiable gifts instead of the top ten ways to boost your sales pipeline for Q3? Damn, that’s too bad. Hope you heal. Here’s another video from my interview with Melissa Zehner on empathy and good works that go undocumented 🧡

Happy #PhilanthropyWednesday! Flights are booked, hotels are booked, and tickets are locked in for The Last Dragon in Portland, Oregon only FOUR WEEKS AWAY!!! For those who are new here, here’s the TLDR; A group of friends who performed an original rock musical together in 1984 are reprising the same musical 40 years later to raise money for a theater #scholarship for the University of Oregon. Herricane Consulting, LLC took on the fundraising, marketing, and PR work as part of our pro bono projects philanthropy initiative, but also to honor my late father who was a co-composer. Going to be such a trip to see so many people who, as they’ve reminded me, “last saw you when you were just 19 inches long!” If you’ll be in Portland August 8-10, you can buy tickets here: https://lnkd.in/ec9Q7PUQ Otherwise, you can still donate to the scholarship fund here: https://lnkd.in/ecHsndFc Help support the arts! 🎭🧡

Parents: how many of you still encourage your child to handwrite their notes for class? Teachers: How much push back would you receive from parents if you ditched Chromebooks/laptops and reverted back to handwriting? The more terrifying question: how many of your students would lack the ability to effectively handwrite notes if you asked them to? I hated the in-class essay hand cramps as much as the next student, but recent studies have shown that writing notes by hand produces higher levels of electrical activity across several interconnected brain regions when compared to typing. Why does that matter? Not only does it force students to pay attention to what they’re writing/learning, it actually helps them process and grasp new concepts better than absent-minded typing. Further, it more vigorously activates the motor cortex, which uses these signals to help the brain use environmental inputs to make decisions. The same could be said for meeting notes. Sure, it’s easier to blast out a memo when you’ve typed something up, but things are still getting lost in translation because we’re notating but failing to understand context that comes from truly processing the information. Quicker isn’t always better. Technology makes our lives “easier,” but seemingly more and more at the cost of our cognition, imagination, and mental health.

Bigger (and immensely more important) than your top ten tricks to close a sale? The global pandemics of child abuse and trauma susceptibility. In this latest article, I hypothesize what new research from the UQ Queensland Brain Institute could mean for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD. In short: honey, I'm worried about the kids.