Many websites have an elaborate, half truthful, but exciting "about us" page, and I used to have one too. I believed, as many still do, that to be successful online, one has to pretend to be bigger, more important and more qualified than one actually is. Perception is important, and so is integrity and honesty. I have learned that credibilty can stem from authenticity, and I really like to be as much myself as I can be.

If you're looking for a pompous ass to impress you, I'm not your guy.

Now that I have deflated your expecations of me, let me tell you how amazing I am...

I finished second in my class in Standard 2 and 3. After primary school, I was academically unremarkable, but usually in the top half of the class. When I was 15, I spent a year at a private high school where they taught Transcendental Meditation (TM) as part of the curriclum. The whole school had to meditate twice a day, first lesson in the morning and last lesson in the afternoon. That is probably the most life affirming habit that I picked up at school. After high school I attended Midrand University where I studied computer science, sociology and business management.

In 1999, I decided to take a few years off to travel the world. I lived and worked mostly in England, but also in Scotland, France and Israel. It was during my backpacking years that I developed a keen interest in personal development and psychology. I had frequent bouts of depression and anxiety, brought on by loneliness and poverty. By reading motivational books and listening to tapes by Anthony Robbins and others, I turned my inner mind around and became increasingly confident and happy.

You know how sometimes, people like to share their problems with you? Sometimes my friends would confide in me too, and I found myself spontaneously sharing the wisdom that I had learned from the books and tapes. Getting a good response from that made me want to do more of it.

Around 2001 I did my first therapist training. It was about a month of full time study and practice and I really enjoyed it. The results I got with other students confirmed that I had a talent for this kind of work and I wanted to pursue it to a higher level. I joined the organisation where I studied and worked as a therapist there for about 2 years. I left in February 2003 when I realised it was a dangerous cult, and had to escape, which I did with much difficulty. Leaving the cult was extremely traumatic and was not a good time for me. It took about 3 years to reintegrate into society and several more years to really let it go. I bet you are wondering which cult I was in, aren't you?

A big part of my recovery was regular meditation and Anthony Robbins tapes. I also did as many courses and workshops as I could afford because I wanted to fill my mind with knowledge to help myself and others feel better and become more successful.

Here is a list of some of personal development courses I have completed and subjects I have studied

1. Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) Practitioner

2. John Kehoe's Mind Power course with Robin Banks

3. Quantum Energetix Kinesiology (basic and advanced) with Frans Kromhout

4. Bill Harris's Holosync Program and the Life Principles Integration Processes

5. I have watched at least 50 EFT DVD's by EFT founder, Gary Craig

6. Jack Canfield's Breakthrough to Success 7 day workshop

7. Jerry and Esther Hicks and the Teachings of Abraham Master Course

8. The Sedona Method from Sedona Training Associates and Hale Dwoskin

9. The Breakthrough Experience with John F. Demartini

10. NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming practitioner

11. Eriksonian Hypnosis

12. Transformational Life Coaching with Cherie Carter Scott

13. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

14. The Lefkoe Method - Lefkoe Belief Process Facilitator

15. Brandon Bays The Journey

16. Eric Pearls' Reconnective Healing Level 2

17. Eric Pearls' The Reconnection Level 3

18. Idenics - Identities and how to resolve them

19. Strategic Intervetion - Relationship Breakthrough by Cloe Madanes

20. The Harlequin Experience with the Christopher Neville Foundation

21. The World Alive Transformation workshop with Andrew Harding and Debbie Craig

22. and of course, lots of books and CDs by Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer and others

My meditation histrory, and the developmemt of Optamind Brainwave Entrainment audio

Meditation has been a big part of my life since 1995. In 2006 I was having a hard time in life. I had developed some nervous habits and body tensions that eventually caused me to have a seizure. This was caused by being in a severely stressed state pretty much all the time. I knew that meditation was a good way to de-stress and gain control over the mind and body, but I felt that TM wasn't strong or quick enough. I needed something more to assist me.

I tried various herbal pills, vitamins, minerals, avoiding sugar and caffeine and I admit that it did help, but it wasn't permanent, and required a restricted diet and expensive supplements. When I was living in London I bought a Hemi-Sync tape that used brainwave entrainment (BWE), so I knew that the technology to affect brain waves and create their correlated states existed. I got on the internet and researched the various brainwave programs available. The ones that I would recommend are Holosync, Insight, and Higher Balance.

My meditation experiences with BWE were amazing, enjoyable and I was excited to put my headphones on every day and night. My stress levels decreased dramatically and I felt very peaceful most fo the time. I believe I got great results in a very short time because I was using a real meditation technique and brainwave entrainment together.

As I learned more about the entrainment technologies I discovered that binaural beats, which are the preferred technology, lose their effectiveness after a few months of use. This is because the brain gets better at handling the sounds - so as your brain gets "stronger" the effects of these products get "weaker". Holosync is a multi level program, so as you get used to one level, you buy the next level and so on. I didn't like this very much, as each level costs around $200 and there are 12 levels.

Instead of buying the CD's I researched how the soundtracks were made, and what made each level stronger than the previous one. Bill Harris from Centerpointe is very open about how Holosync works, and why it works so I used his model and created my own tracks based on Holosync. At first they weren't very good but I persisted. I started getting some good results with binaural beats and found a good sound engineer that was reasonably priced and willing to work with me. We put some tracks together and that was the beginning of the Optamind Meditation audios. At the time I just wanted the CD's for myself, but as things go, I found myself self-employment and Optamind Research was created, mostly out of a necessity to pay my rent on time. The first CDs were sold in August 2007, and I made enough to pay my rent on time. I started the business with R2000 capital, a laptop, some basic knowledge and a strong desire. And the rest is history.

Since the first CD's, the Optamind soundtracks have been rebuilt from the ground up, several times. Each time I learn new information to improve the entrainment, I research it, test it and then recreate the soundtracks. The background sounds have also been vastly improved, as has the mixing and general quality of the tracks. Everything gets improved as knowledge and funds become available.

Today Optamind audios make use of several different entrainment technologies, all proven to be super effective. The new tracks take a much longer time to make, as each entrainment track has be carefully positioned so as to be in sync with everything else. Its a labour of love though, because I know that my clients will love it. I use Optamind myself too, so when I spend a 100 hours mastering a new track, I want to create the very best for my personal growth and spiritual development as well.

I am very excited to share Optamind with anyone who is interested in meditation for increased peace, happiness and success. This passion is second only to my desire to work with people, coaching them into the light, therby restoring their personal freedom and true identity. Coaching is what I love to do. Sometimes its hard work, especially when I attract a client that is not reay for the processes I use. Most of the time its awesome, and like I say, its a labour of love. Its not work for me, but fun.

Even though I am qualified to do many different therapies and coaching styles, my favourite ones involve reavealing your true identity, and removing the shadows that frighten you from being your best self. I do not use kinesiology muscle testing or the pendulum to assess anything. I used to do this 2007 and 2008, after completing Frans Kromhouts courses, but I don't aymore. The reason for this is that I cannot guarantee results with that type of work. Its really a hit and miss situation, and I found it was mostly placebo effect or faith healing, neither of which I have any faith in.

In 2009 I graduated into executive life coaching, using business know-how , project managemnet, and leadership and management knowledge, I have coached executives and leaders from FNB, ABSA, MTN and GE.

My business coaching strategy is to enhance the individual so that they may add more value within the team, transforming their ideas and beliefs about themselves, their competency and the company they work for.

I currently work from home, a few mornings or evenings a week. The rest of the time I am a professional dad, hoping to raise a family of world leaders that are sane, healthy and wise. We stay in Fourways, JHB, South Africa.