Looking for additional leadership opportunities for your new supervisors and aspiring and emerging leaders? Want to bring training to your team? Join us for our GROW classes, indicted on our Classes & Training page by the icon at left. These affordable courses are designed to help you improve your skills in areas like conflict management, emotional intelligence, delegation, communication, performance management, and more.
Overview
This interactive, science-backed course takes you on a transformative journey, helping you master the art of managing stress and cultivating resilience in the face of everyday business challenges. Our brains, designed for survival, often respond to modern stressors with the same fight-or-flight intensity once reserved for life-threatening dangers, which can lead us to undesirable self-preservation reactions.
If any of the following situations sound familiar, this course is for you!
- Feeling paralyzed by “stage fright” before a presentation or meeting
- Being defensive or withdrawn after receiving constructive feedback
- Keeping quiet during a meeting due to fear of being judged or rejected
- Feeling overwhelmed or distracted when trying to solve a big or new problem
Learning Objectives
In this course, participants will learn:
- practical ways to handle stress and avoid feeling overwhelmed by applying simple brain tools to stay calm and clear-minded in any situation.
- how to rewire their brains to respond positively to challenges instead of automatically reacting with fear or frustration, helping them make better decisions under pressure.
- to recognize when their stress levels are rising and practice quick techniques to keep stress-related reactions in check, avoiding the “fight or flight” response to everyday issues.
- to approach difficult conversations calmly and constructively, ensuring they stay focused on solutions instead of getting defensive or reactive.
- to build resilience, making it easier to bounce back from setbacks and keep moving forward, even in challenging situations.
The Science Behind the Curriculum
Developed by Dr. Niraj (Raj) Nijhawan, this curriculum has a proven track record of translating complex scientific concepts into straightforward tools that participants can apply immediately to improve their focus, resilience, and stress management.
The program’s approach combines the latest scientific insights with hands-on exercises, ensuring participants not only understand the “why” behind each technique but also have the chance to practice and adopt these methods. The curriculum’s science-backed strategies, rooted in research on neuroplasticity, stress responses, and brain health, make it effective, while its interactive design ensures that participants leave with practical skills to create real, positive changes in their professional and personal lives.
Course Details
Your brain has evolved to help you survive; the challenge is that your brain rarely distinguishes physical threats from the everyday – and ever-changing! – stressors of our chaotic and complex modern world. Without awareness and practice, the brain views all threats as triggers survival responses to mundane challenges like a perceived insult (loss of social status?),public speaking opportunities or suggesting a creative new solution to an organizational challenge. Our stress-related neurochemicals can ‘run amok!’; with practice, the brain hacks help you reduce your stress levels, forever.
The good news is that with understanding, intention, and practice, you can reprogram your brain using lessons learned from brain-science studies. In this highly-interactive course, you’ll take a journey that teaches you – through evidence-based techniques – how to shift from the reactionary, survival-focused “Lower Brain” to the “Higher Brain,” – a source of creativity, effectiveness and genius. This shift is achieved through targeted brain hacks that strengthen desired neural pathways over time, empowers leaders to excel, and drives teams to thrive even in the most challenging environments. An end result: fear to fulfillment.
In this rapidly changing world, fostering innovation and agility is key to success, both at work and home. Being in control of the lower-brain’s often-turbocharged anxiety and self-preservation reactions help you boost your mental and physical health while contributing to these in others.
This workshop is an invitation to be a catalyst for transformation and help unlock the potential of your organization’s greatest asset – its people.
Registration for Spring 2025
Location: Grainger Hall, UW-Madison
Date: February 13, 2025
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Fee: WEDC and the Mainstreet Bounceback Program are supporting the $289 cost of this course for operating, for-profit businesses under 500 employees. These businesses should register here:
Businesses <500 Employees, Register Here for Spring 2025
Fee: The cost of this course for nonprofits, pre-venture (not yet started) businesses, and those participants from a company of over 500 employees is $289. These organizations should use the link below to register:
Register here for Spring 2025 or call 608-262-2451 to register. BONUS: Place 2 or more paid SBDC courses in your cart, and use discount code SBDC10 for 10% off. Classes must be purchased in the same transaction.
Registration Deadlines
| Registration type | Date | Fee |
| Earlybird | Earlybird closes: 1/3/2025 | Earlybird Registration Fee: $260.10 |
| Late Registration | Late Registration begins: 2/5/2025 | Late Registration Fee: $317.90 |
| Course registration closes | 2/12/2025 | — |
Registration & Cancellation policies
- Payment will be required at time of registration. You must have either a credit card or valid UW-Madison funding string to be able to register.
- Cancelations at least 24 hours before the program begins will incur a $25 cancellation fee. Cancelations less than 24 hours before the start of the program will incur the full program fee. To cancel, call registration at 608-262-2451. Please note that in the case of a cancellation (by either the participant or the SBDC), participants can only be transferred one time into a new course.
Disability Statement: Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu to request accommodations.
The Small Business Development Center at UW Madison is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.
Instructor
Paul Riehemann, Senior Trainer and Coach, Life Ecology Organization (LEO)
Paul (MBA and Certified Public Manager, UW-Madison) has led public, private and non-profit organizations and is also an experienced wellness coach and workshop instructor. Paul has earned multiple certifications including Emotional Intelligence and Primal Health Coaching, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Project Management. He is a Mechanical Engineer and earned his Professional Engineer license in New York State.
Paul is Founding Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group (ESRAG.org, an international environmental organization through Rotary International), a Past President of the 400+ member Rotary Club of Madison, and has qualified and competed in three Ironman Triathlon World Championships.
He is skilled at interactive/task-based adult learning. His purpose as a trainer is to help others be their best.
The frameworks for thinking about the topic [were really valuable]… I am leaving with practical tools to apply the content.
Founder, Sichi Consulting, LLC.
Being able to identify low-brain ["lizard brain"] moments and how to switch them to high-brain [analytical] moments [was invaluable]. Thank you!
Insulation Specialist, Green Homeowners United
[It was great] Hearing stories and perspectives from the presenter [as well as] real scenarios. The presenter created an environment that facilitated sharing and speaking about our experiences.
Service Manager, Applied Tech
[I really enjoyed] engagement with other attendees and instructor. Paul is great at teaching the content, and his activities were an excellent way to help us incorporate it with our professional an personal lives.
Founder, JBY Financial Planning
The role-playing was surprisingly effective for practicing difficult conversations. Overall, the course had many concrete takeaways that I believe will be effective in both personal and business settings.
Garrett Hughes, Co-Owner, Heartwood Tree Company
[I liked] honing in on navigating challenging situations, with tools to improve [my] communication skills
Owner, Orange Shoe Personal Fitness
The course material was very insightful. There were so many mind hacks that will help me better manage my triggered states.
Owner, Eye of Overview
[I enjoyed the] new methods/techniques to deal with difficult situations. Good course. Paul is very knowledgeable and a good instructor.
Procurement Outreach Specialist, Madison Black Chamber of Commerce
The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Office of Business & Entrepreneurship within the Universities of Wisconsin.
It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact us at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-2221.