Imagine an inverted triangle, with the point of the triangle facing downwards. At the bottom of the Triangle is the letter “V”, which stands for “Victim”, at the top left is the letter “R” which stands for “Rescuer” and the top right is the letter “P” which stands for “Persecutor”. The Drama Triangle starts from the belief that we are all oppressed. This dynamic is built into our DNA. We’ve been raised up with “The Drama Triangle” mentality. Every great movie, every great piece of fiction is based on this concept. You have the damsel in distress, a victim, she's tied down to the train tracks by some villainous persecutor, and she’s waiting for a hero to come rescue her. We know this story in a thousand different ways. It makes thrilling art and beautiful drama on screen or the stage, but when we live that out in our lives, that's where challenges arise. That's where we become completely disempowered. Let’s take a look at each of these three roles.

The next 20 years are going to be radically different than the past 20 years. Every day, we get to choose to be a part of that transformation. As visionaries here at Collegiate Empowerment, we remind you that our future is going to be bigger and better than our present and our past. With this in mind, here are 7 foundational tenets of what it means to be a Collegiate Empowerment Professional.

As you do this work, you may not always feel your best. That’s likely because most professionals in Higher Education feel overworked and overwhelmed, yet underpaid and underappreciated.

In the previous article, we examined the question, “What is Empowerment Education?” Empowerment Ed is all about: Helping People Get What They Want & Need, So They Can Get To Where They Want To Go. Now we’re going to take a deeper dive into the 10 foundational elements of Empowerment Education. We call them The 10 C’s.

In The Industrial Age, you could go to school, get good grades, get a secure job and live happily ever after, retired at age 65. Sounds like a fairy tale, right? Yet, we continue to recycle that story. It’s not only a fairy tale, it’s a LIE. It’s not the story that most people see unfolding in their lives. To combat that lie, we need to take a look at how we initially educate ourselves. But in the rules of the 21st century, there are five types of education you need to give yourself the grace to learn to succeed.

The Commitment Cultivator is about three simple words: Continue, start, and stop. Recall your four-year vision. Think out to May 2024. In order to realize our vision, we need to first ask the X-Factor Question, “What needs to happen over the next four years for you to feel happy and successful about your progress?” Then we need to take it further. What do you need to do right now to work towards that vision? What do you need to continue doing, start doing, and stop doing?

The Empowerment Focuser is built on this insanely powerful concept: Whatever you focus on expands. Do a quick exercise for me. Look around your current physical space, wherever you are reading this, and identify all the things that are the color white. From where I’m writing, I have a piece of artwork, which has a white background. I see a white picture frame. I have a coffee mug here in the studio, and it's white. I am typing on a white screen. White. White. White.

Now let me ask you a question: What do cows drink?

Milk? No, no, no, they drink water! How many of you thought, “milk”? Here’s what happened…

People today are feeling one of four energies or emotions: they feel confused, isolated, powerless, or overwhelmed. You yourself are feeling these at times as well. These energies are out there in your campus community as well. What you need to realize is that people are silently begging for the antidote to these four energies. They're silently begging for clarity, for confidence, for capability, and for commitment. The X-Factor Question will help guide you and others.

The world remains uncertain. As we continue to be in our homes, as we face new challenges, and as our social calendars remain empty, it is tempting to feel stagnant. While you are unsure of the future, you may also feel unsure of your purpose. At Collegiate Empowerment, our mission is to help you get what you want and need, to help you get that clarity and purpose.

We have a mantra: “We always make our future bigger than our past” and “We always make our future bigger than our present.” In all the confusion we are facing, this mantra is even more relevant. Think about a future that is bigger than the current COVID reality.

The essence of this article is to take this thing called COVID and transform what it means to us here at Collegiate Empowerment. It’s about taking the word COVID and reframing it. We’re gonna take COVID, the biggest clusterfuck in modern history, and we’re gonna transform it into an empowering framework to transform our lives in the 21st century. So, what does it mean for us? Today, COVID stands for these five things: C stands for Capabilities, O stands for Obstacles, V stands for Vision, I stands for Insights, and D stands for Decision. We're redefining and owning this virus. How do we live a COVID 2020 mindset? Let’s break it down.

People are feeling confused, isolated, powerless, and overwhelmed. You’re probably feeling this way as well. As you’re reading this, you may be thinking, “I can’t do this on my own.” And you’re right. We can’t lead on our own. The unique aspect about the concept of Core Genius, is that you only have two out of the four: a primary and a secondary. Recall the image of a table from the last post. You only have two out of the four legs of the table. You need a team who have the “other legs” of leadership to balance you out. You must collaborate in order to create value. At Collegiate Empowerment, we are individuals collaborating—“co-laboring”—together in Leadership, Relationship, Creativity, and management.

We create value through a Collegiate Empowerment Concept called Real GPA™, not academic “grade point average” GPA, but your Real GPA. Interestingly is not about why you got hired by your university, but it is why you will stay employed when things get really tough in the coming months. You will have lifetime employability because you are creating value- real value via your real GPA: your real Genius, your real Passion, and your real Achievements.

I want to take this article, both part 1 and part 2 to talk about your real Genius. Now here at Collegiate Empowerment, when we speak about Genius, we’re not talking “Einstein” genius or “IQ” genius. Here are the four pillars of value creation to keep both yourself and your enterprise alive.

You can't just bring in a content expert anymore. You can't just bring in the author of the book. You can't just dump information on the screen and read it to them. That's all available on the smartphone. You need to create a meaningful and memorable experience for your students... and we're here to continue helping you do just that.

Do we get it wrong sometimes? Of course. That's why if your students don’t like it, your school doesn’t pay for it! It’s money-back guaranteed. We learn from our 23 years of experience, and here's some things we've picked up.