Archive for the ‘Growing Thru Experiences’ Category

Posted on August 5, 2009 - by Jus

Six Steps to a GREAT Trial Session

Last week I had a completely inspiring trial session with my new peer coach.  Ruba very politely asked if I could articulate why it was so great and I think that’s a great thing to reflect on in a post… Every new coach would love to be able to nail their trial sessions and turn the coachee that enjoyed their trial session into a paying client, so here is a list of six things that Lauren did (or didn’t do) that won me over…

1. | Pre-Qualification
When Lauren approached me for the trial session, she offered me her two websites to view.  These gave me a really good insight into her as a person and as a coach.  Captivating Life told me that she was a compassionate woman, with a worthy cause.  While her other site told me that she was a woman with sophistication in her approach to business.  I also really loved the fact that she included a profile picture of herself on her sites, which to me expressed an element of approachability and allowed me to visualise her while I was on the phone with her for our trial session.

2. | Efficiency in Appointment Setup
Making a time for our trial session was done within moments, even though we are in completely different timezones.  I had just come off the back of a stream of emails attempting to set a time for a trial session with another peer coach that ended up being placed in the “too hard” basket, so in contrast, this ease of doing business with Lauren was welcomed and noted.

3. | Getting to Know You
At the commencement of the call, Lauren took the time to get to know me a little by asking a few basic questions about Australia and Melbourne, and allowed me to ask her a couple of similarly basic questions which really helped to break the ice and create some rapport between us.  From this 5 minute dialogue to begin with, I established that we shared a similar kind of energy in our voices when we talked, laughed at a couple of the same things and ‘connected’ in a way that felt like a peer to peer relationship, which took some of the formality out of it without losing any professionalism (which for me, can make me feel uncomfortable).

4. | Power Listening
There should be no surprise here for ICA students, but this is a crucial element!  Once we got stuck into it, Lauren asked me what my goals were for the coming year and then opened the floor for me to just talk.  I had just that week discovered a few things about my niche and made some decisions about the business I hope to build over the next year, but I had not discussed it with anyone yet.  Lauren had made me feel so comfortable in that first 5 minutes of rapport building that I literally spilled over with telling her everything that had been going on in my brain that week and what that meant for my short, medium and long term goals for my business.  She made all the right noises as I unloaded my brain into the phone and when I finally paused for breath, she took a few seconds (pause) and then reconfirmed everything she had heard from me in a few short, sharp and succinct sentences.  She then asked some very poignant questions – “how would you describe the target audience for that”, “what kind of person do you want to attract to this business”, “what kind of person don’t you want to attract”, always allowing me ample time to consider my response and always summarising and clarifying what I was saying as I continued to talk.

5. | Down to Business
I am not sure if this is standard practice for Lauren in her trial sessions, or whether she sensed in me that I was an action-oriented person who is always more motivated when I am getting “stuck into the task at hand” rather than just talking about it… if it’s the latter, then even more kudos to her because she read me very well!  The point being that it wasn’t long into the call that Lauren suggested that we spend 15 minutes identifying my ‘elevator pitch’ to help cement some of what I had been saying into a really concise framework of explanation.  She took me straight into action - asking me three ‘formula’ questions for me that allowed her to help me to come up with this elevator pitch… it was so simple and effective that I really could not believe that after such a short period of time, she had helped me to clearly express the goals/purpose of my business idea.  I literally walked away from my trial session with tangible value that I didn’t have before I started the call.

6. | Immediate Follow Up
Interestingly, my trial session was actually interrupted by technical difficulties (thanks Skype), so again I am not sure if this is Lauren’s standard practice or whether it was a function of us not being able to complete our call… but I immediately received an email from Lauren after our session with the notes/options to allow me to construct the elevator pitch of my choice, a direct request to be afforded the opportunity to continue working with me in building my business and three things to think about between now and our next session (again, driving that action that motivates me so much!)

I’m looking forward to my next session and will be sure to keep adding to the list of reflections and learnings…

Posted on July 26, 2009 - by Jus

I [Heart] Contemporary Weddings

I just love this new generation of weddings that seem to be growing in numbers all over the world – the kind that throw tradition to the wind and treat this special day as it should be – a very unique expression of two people’s love for each other.

My husband and I crafted our wedding exactly as we each wanted it – we debunked so many traditions and wrote our own ceremony and vows. We got married under a gorgeous old oak tree, despite my mother-in-law’s preference for church weddings and had a stand-up cocktail reception so that everyone could mingle and dance together. Next to zero formalities and a choreographed wedding dance to a tune that spoke clearly to the dynamics of our relationship – “You’re The Boss” by Brian Setzer featuring Gwen Stefani. 

So as you can imagine, I was tickled pink today with the latest incarnation of ‘bringing some self-expression’ to a wedding:

Posted on July 5, 2009 - by Jus

#034 | A Course in Buddhism

Starting July 11th, I am going to start going to a weekly class in Buddhism.  All of my learnings thus far have been from books, online reading and trying to remain open to opportunities to learn more about meditation.  So I am really looking forward to seeing what this weekly class, given in English, will hold.  It is also number 34 on my 101 Things in 1001 Days list, so that is just an added bonus!

It’s being held at the Buddha’s Light International Association of Victoria (BLIA) in Yarraville.  I’m really also hoping that I might be able to find something similar closer to my home, but at the moment the one closest to me is only offering beginner classes in meditation (which I may also do in the future, depending on my work/life/study balance!)

Would love to hear from anyone else that attends these classes, or some like them in Melbourne – I’m quite looking forward to seeing what type of people I will meet at them, I think it will be important to my growing in my faith to be surrounded by likeminded individuals on a more regular basis!

Posted on June 30, 2009 - by Jus

#92 – Participate in NaBloPoMo

There seems like no better time to kick off a NaBloPoMo effort than July 2009, and the launch of my new blog here.

The theme for this month is “Routine” but have no fear, I don’t think I plan on boring you all senseless with details of my daily routine, but rather let the theme be the guiding principle by which I will approach my blogging this month – just like brushing my teeth.  Once a day – satisfactory.  Twice a day – ideal.  (Who really brushes more than twice a day, right?)

Posted on June 26, 2009 - by Jus

A New Home

I first started the 101 Things in 1001 Days project on January 1st, 2008. I started that jounrney at a different blog, but since that day a lot of things have changed in my life, so I wanted to clean the slate a little. However, I documented a lot of the experiences that I crossed off my list on that blog, so if you are super keen to see the archives, you may have to wander over there for a moment.

To make it a little bit simpler, if there is a particular experience you’re interested in, you can use this list below as a guide to the archives on my old blog.  Remember that I’ll be posting here from now on though, so please sign up for my RSS or check back again soon!

FAMILY

001 | Write my mum a gratitude letter

003 | Get engaged

004 | Get married

006 | Get my son over his fear of Santa

007 | Take Adam to Paris

015 | Take my son camping (in a tent)

016 | Buy a swing set for my son

017 | Bake a cake for my son’s birthday

021 | Fly a kite with my son

FAITH, HEALTH & WELLBEING

028 | Start a social tennis group

029 | Do a fun run

030 | List 101 Things that make me happy

035 | Touch toes w/out bending knees

037 | Read “Change The Way You See Everything”

038 | Cook one new recipe a month

039 | Detox for six weeks

TRAVEL, ENVIRONMENT & EXPERIENCES

040 | Declutter: get rid of 101 material items

041 | Send an anonymous gift or flowers

043 | Visit Tasmania

046 | Take a swing dancing class

051 | Skydive

052 | Visit Phillip Island

053 | Participate in Earth Hour

055 | Dine at these restaurants

056 | Make a cheesecake

058 | See thirty Best Picture Oscar films

059 | Meet my neighbours

060 | Join We Are What We Do & track actions for 60 Days

061 | 5 things from Future Makers

FINANCES

062 | Write a budget & stick to it

065 | Pay off my personal loan debt

067 | Create kids education savings account

068 | Update my will

JUST FOR ME

069 | Hire a cleaner

079 | Get external hard drive & backup

WORK & CREATIVITY

085 | Read The 4 Hour Work Week

STUFF I WANT

096 | A decent BBQ

097 | New dining chairs

099 | Digital video camera

100 | A shelf for my laundry