For the past six weeks, I served as a Senior Mentor for the personal knowledge management course, Building A Second Brain.
It's a program that helps you manage and organize the onslaught of information while intentionally and systematically using that information to create and express your ideas. Whether it's a project for work, a blog or YouTube video, or even better managing your household, Building A Second Brain is a practical and transformative experience.
It's also reduces overwhelm, cognitive load and ultimately your stress levels, which makes it a hidden wellbeing program. I wrote about my experience during the fall cohort in 2020, How Building A Second Brain Triggers Flow and Enhances Wellbeing.
What makes Building a Second Brain, as well as the Be Your Own Best Coach program I co-produce, so transformative is the cohort-based training model. The built-in accountability of fixed start and end dates, active learning, and community support make cohort-based courses (CBCs) a powerful and effective training experience.
This was cohort 12 for Building A Second Brain and it has grown exponentially since I took the course over four years ago. With 1,500 students registered during this cohort, it was insightful to see how to create an intimate experience with so many students from all over the globe.
While there were three main tools, Zoom, Teachable to host the curriculum, and Circle for community, it was the weekly mentor sessions that I saw as a one of the most valuable aspects of the course of this size. Here's a quote from one of the students that attended my weekly mentor session.
"What surprised me was how much this course exceeded my expectations - student experience was awesome, the curriculum was well designed, and the mentors really made this feel like an intimate and welcoming community/experience despite how large the cohort was."
There were 30 mentors in this cohort, with six of us being returning Senior Mentors, which meant we coached all the new mentors as well as gave input into the course curriculum. The mentors are a group of wicked smart people from diverse backgrounds and locations around the world. This diversity allowed students to see how the program methods are used in so many different ways.
Being a Senior Mentor for Building A Second Brain has been one of the highlights of my professional career.
I'm definitely doubling down on CBCs. They’re the future of online education and training, and with new investments in platforms like Maven, it’s a fantastic time to be in this space.
That's why I'm excited about several upcoming projects:
Make Your Second Brain Your Superpower
I've teamed up with two other Senior Mentors from Building A Second Brain to help you achieve your goals one day at a time, design and build smart habits, find the daily experience of flow, and develop a creative mindset and development pipeline. (More to come very soon.)
Be Your Own Best Coach
Along with my colleague, Dr. Deborah Teplow at the Institute for Wellness Education, we are working on major upgrades to our fourth cohort on self-leadership to help free yourself from stress and overwhelm, tackle procrastination, and turn around difficult relationships at work. Get updates on the course and our fall cohort by signing up here.
Improve Your Sleep. Energize Your Life.
Regular readers will know I believe sleep is a superpower, the best performance enhancing drug available, and a keystone habit that improves every part of your life. Working with top doctors in sleep improvement, I'm building a program to help create the habits and routines that will improve your sleep. Get updates and access to the beta course by signing up here.
Well, that's it for now. So much more to come.
As always, thanks for reading and stay well,
Glen Lubbert.
P.S. Here's a great article from a colleague on being a CBC student: 5 Insights From Taking A Live Cohort-Based Course (And How I’m Applying Them To My Own)
P.P.S. If you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole, Building A Second Brain founder Tiago Forte wrote this piece on CBCs: The Future of Education is Community: The Rise of Cohort-Based Courses.