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Carelle Herrera: The Woman Rewiring the World for Resilience

What began as a personal breakthrough became a global movement. From helping typhoon survivors find hope to guiding CEOs and celebrities toward peak performance, Carelle Herrera has spent the last three decades proving one thing: the brain can be rewired so you can rewrite your story. As founder of TrainStation and creator of the BrainStrong Initiative, she has built a science-based system that blends neuroscience, NLP, and positive psychology to help people move from breakdown to breakthrough — with clarity, confidence, and resilience.


Carelle, what inspired you to create TrainStation International, and how did that journey lead to the birth of the BrainStrong Initiative?

It started with heartbreak — the kind that cracks your identity open. I had just gone through the end of a relationship, but what broke more than my heart was the illusion of who I thought I was. I had always looked confident on the outside, but inside, I was unraveling.

I didn’t come from wealth or privilege. I was raised by a father who barely finished school, yet believed in learning more than anyone I knew. We grew up poor, but rich in grit. My father exposed me to motivational tapes and sales trainings from the time I was a child. He planted the seeds — but it was Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) that changed my life.

NLP was the first time I realized: I could reprogram how I think. That confidence wasn’t something you were born with — it was something you could train. I immersed myself in it. I studied, trained, eventually became a Master Trainer. I built TrainStation International to bring those tools into the corporate world — helping companies transform how their people lead, speak, sell, and show up.

And we still do that. TrainStation thrives. But then 2020 happened.

The pandemic didn’t just disrupt companies — it broke people. I was speaking to CEOs one day and to frontliners the next, and the common thread was this quiet, aching question: How do I hold myself together when the world is falling apart?

That’s when BrainStrong was born.

BrainStrong isn’t about performance. It’s about permission — the permission to feel, to fall apart, and to rebuild. It’s the personal side of everything I’ve taught for decades. It’s for the mother quietly grieving her old life, the immigrant questioning their purpose, the achiever who feels empty even after success.

But BrainStrong isn’t just about inspiration — it’s about implementation. That’s why we built a framework grounded in neuroscience, NLP, and positive psychology. It guides people through five essential shifts:
Insight Ignition (rediscovering your “who”),
Cognitive Compass (clarifying your “why”),
Reality Roadmap (mapping the “how”),
Resilience Rewire (training your brain to persist),
and BrainStrong Flow (building habits for sustainable success).

And at the heart of it all is what we call the Power of One — the belief that transformation doesn’t require a massive overhaul, just one consistent action, done with intention, repeated daily. One decision. One habit. One belief, practiced until it becomes who you are. That’s how you rewire your brain — and rewrite your story.

That’s the work I live for now.

You’ve worked with corporate leaders, high performers, and celebrities—what patterns have you seen in how successful people train their minds differently? 

They don’t just hustle harder — they think smarter. The most successful people I’ve worked with have a kind of purposeful determination. They’re not just busy for the sake of being busy. They know how to focus. They create systems, protect their energy, and understand the difference between motion and progress.

What sets them apart isn’t just discipline — it’s perspective. They train their brains to look for possibilities, even in uncertainty. They don’t just react to circumstances; they reinterpret them. I’ve seen this again and again — they find the angle others miss. They can hold complexity, connect dots, and move forward with clarity. That’s hope in action.

They also have what I call “learning hunger.” They’re constantly feeding their brain — through books, conversations, experiences — not to prove how much they know, but to stretch who they are becoming. They’re not just growing skills; they’re evolving identity.

That’s what mental training really is: not just information, but transformation.

What does it truly mean to be BrainStrong, and how does it go beyond traditional mindset techniques like affirmations or positive thinking?

Being BrainStrong means doing the inner work — not just saying the right things, but training your brain to believe them, act on them, and bounce back when things get hard. Positive thinking and affirmations can be powerful — they prime the brain to notice opportunities and shift your emotional state. But they’re not enough on their own.

BrainStrong goes deeper. It’s not just mindset — it’s mental fitness. Like doing push-ups to build physical strength, BrainStrong teaches you the mental exercises that build neural connections for focus, discipline, and grit. You can’t manifest a new life without moving toward it

Sometimes, we want success — but we’re wired to sabotage it. We believe it’s too hard, or deep down, that we don’t deserve it. BrainStrong helps you identify those beliefs and replace them — not just with words, but with new brain patterns that are practiced daily.

It’s not magic. It’s neuroscience. It’s work. But it’s worth it — because once your brain is trained to think, choose, and recover differently, you don’t just feel stronger. You are stronger.

Your methodology combines positive psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, and NLP. How do these fields inform the BrainStrong approach?

NLP was my foundation. It was the first time I understood that we can train the brain to change — our thoughts, our habits, even our emotional responses. But for a long time, NLP didn’t have the academic backing. It worked, but it wasn’t always easy to explain why.

That’s why I went deeper into neuroscience, behavioral economics, and positive psychology — to find the science behind the transformation I’d seen for decades. And what I found were intersections: what I’d been practicing in NLP for almost 30 years was now being validated through brain scans, behavioral studies, and psychological frameworks.

Neuroscience gave me the evidence. Positive psychology gave me the language. Behavioral economics gave me the structure. And NLP gave me the tools that make change stick — fast, deep, and often life-changing.

BrainStrong brings these together. We don’t just teach ideas — we create interventions. We don’t just hope people shift — we give them the tools to rewire their brain and sustain the change.

You talk about one simple daily practice that can transform how we think, feel, and act. Can you give us a peek into what that looks like?

James Clear in his book Atomic Habits, talks about the power of 1%. If you can change 1% of what you do every day, will it change your life?  I always ask: What if you changed just 1% of your day? That’s about 14 minutes. If you used those 14 minutes intentionally — to train your mind, energize your body, or anchor your focus — what could shift?

That’s the heart of BrainStrong’s Power of One. It’s the idea that real transformation doesn’t come from overhauling your whole life — it comes from doing one small, deliberate action every day that strengthens your brain and sharpens your mindset.

Whether it’s a mindset reset, a gratitude reflection, movement, or mental training — those 14 minutes a day rewire your brain over time. Just like you can’t build muscle without push-ups, you can’t build mental strength without consistent reps.

BrainStrong gives you the tools. The Power of One is how you turn them into a life.

Why do you think so many people struggle with confidence, and how can strategic brain training begin to shift that?

Because most people have never been taught that confidence can be trained. We think it’s something you either have or don’t — but it’s not. It’s a skill. Like a muscle, it grows with use.

What people are missing is a system: how to use their words, body, focus, and mindset in a way that rewires the brain for belief and presence. It takes practice and intention — and that’s exactly what BrainStrong trains. I’m not naturally confident. I learned how to do it. And if I can, anyone can.

What’s a transformation story that stands out to you—someone who used your approach to create a major shift in their life or performance?

I’ve seen many, but some stay with me forever.

One father lost both his wife and eldest son during a typhoon. He wasn’t home — they were swept away while he was at work. He was left with two young daughters but completely shut down. Catatonic. Grief had paralyzed him. During our session, we helped him process the trauma and find a place of peace — not to erase the pain, but to move through it. The moment he hugged his daughters, cried with them, and began making plans again… that’s when he started healing. He eventually relocated them to a new city and began rebuilding. He never went back to that frozen state again.

Another time, after a gunman opened fire in a casino, we worked with the 3,600 employees left traumatized — many of whom couldn’t return to work, even walk into the building. Some froze just hearing a knock. We coached hundreds, one by one, and helped them feel safe again — to walk, to sleep, to simply function. Many returned to work with a sense of calm they hadn’t thought possible.

I’ve also worked with CEOs — high performers on the outside, but empty or angry on the inside. Some needed to reconnect with empathy. Others had lost motivation entirely. I’ve seen leaders transform their teams — and themselves — not because they read a quote or took a seminar, but because they did the internal rewiring. That’s what BrainStrong is built for.

You studied under NLP co-founder John Grinder—what’s a lesson or insight from him that still shapes how you work today?

John once called me out for being too nice. He told me, “Flexibility isn’t about being nice all the time. It’s about having range.” Then he gave me a wild assignment: insult people — but stay in rapport while doing it.

I was shocked. I resisted. But I practiced. And when I finally pulled it off and told him, he said, “Good. That’s not a permanent behavior — it’s a resource.”

That moment changed how I see growth. We’re not trying to be one fixed thing. We’re trying to become resourceful — to access different parts of ourselves, depending on what the moment calls for. That’s what BrainStrong teaches too: not just how to feel better, but how to be more adaptable, more resilient, more you.

What does your mental training practice look like? How do you stay BrainStrong amidst the demands of leading and teaching others?

First, validate what you feel. If you’re stuck, sad, overwhelmed — that’s not weakness. That’s human. Acknowledge it. Sit with it. And then gently ask: What do I want? Then: What can I do?
And finally: What can I do now?

That’s the shift. You move from emotional paralysis to possibility. From feeling helpless to feeling even a little bit in charge. That’s how we build hope — not through big breakthroughs, but through small moments of agency repeated every day.

That’s being BrainStrong.


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