This week, Samantha gets to be a “nerd by proxy” with Dr. Erika Michalski, EDD.  Erika is a self-proclaimed nerd, and founder of "Strategically Authentic."  Samantha talks with her about the science behind authenticity and satisfaction.  Erika also runs the instagram site @consultantbarbie, where she wants to encourage people to be a catalyst for their own evolution and then how to coach the people around them.  "Evolution" is her preferred term because it’s all about what you keep as you move forward and what you change, whether by choice or not.  

For Erika, authenticity is understanding who you are in the middle of the chaos and knowing how to stay in alignment with who you are.  But, don’t blindly follow one track and never pay any attention to anything else.  You don’t want to miss any opportunities to evolve!  If you only read things that you agree with, you can’t evolve.  We can’t make informed decisions if we are only selecting information we agree with or align with to be in our space.  

Erika loves to celebrate, too!  Celebration is validation and they work in tandem.  Existing in the moment of the accomplishment is how she defines celebration.  When people have different levels of celebration, it needs to match the magnitude of the accomplishment and it needs to honor the contributor, not the celebrator.

To close, Erika goes into the neuroscience of satisfaction. The crux of all of it is you have 4 neurological channels that contribute to your satisfaction, and they all work independently of each other.  

#1 - Maintenance of Positivity: When we have positive emotions, how do we maintain them?  What do you choose to do to maintain positivity?  How do we invite positive energy to move forward to the next project?

#2- Recovery from Negative Emotions: How do we recover from negative emotions?  Negative emotions are going to happen, so how do we move on and release them?  That is a very different concept.  To quote Ted Lasso - “be a goldfish.”  This means we need to let go of the things that we know we don’t want to repeat.  

#3- Tune Out the Noise: This may be the hardest one.  It’s about your ability to focus.  It is inviting your brain to stop.  For some people, it’s meditation.  For others, it’s the end of a yoga session.

#4- Doing Acts of Service for Others Without Expecting Recognition: This is the idea that when you’re above ground, you get to make another person’s life better.  When you post about something great that you’ve done, you’re already getting that neurological reward.  Then, you don’t get the long-term satisfaction, which has a different depth.  You cannot seek satisfaction from external sources.  It won’t work.  What you can get from external sources is pleasure, but pleasure ends at the completion of that act.

Erik ends the podcast with a thought that we hope every Flusher can get behind.  She says that "everybody should get a license and a therapist when they turn 16."

You can find Erik Michalski on Instagram at:

@consultantbarbie