Your Special Offer for January 2011! Be Fabulous All Year!

Dr Richard Wiseman has researched how likely we are to keep our New Year resolutions. Did you know that women can increase their chances of success by telling other people and gaining support and encouragement from them!

But he also found that women were often reluctant to ask for this help, cutting off this source of support. Which is understandable; we don’t always want to share our innermost thoughts and aspirations with people we see every day, it can feel too personal. Which is why working in total confidence with a professional can be so successful in helping you achieve your ambitions for 2011.

January Special Coaching Offer!

Throughout the first month of 2011 I am offering everyone who signs up for my  coaching session a really great deal! If you sign up for my introductory package during January, you will receive an extra session of one hour’s coaching absolutely free! At an agreed time after our first call, (when we will have discussed strategies for your maximum success) I will contact you to see how you are progressing, and to inspire and motivate you to continue!

Make this year the one when you do achieve your resolutions and live life to the full! Sign up now!

In Gratitude

When I first ventured out into the world of  self employment (many years ago now) from the relatively safe haven of NHS/local government, I had a hazy kind of  idea  that the world of business would be full of sharks and charlatans, just waiting to trip me up and capitalise on my ignorance!

I am very happy to admit that I was wrong, very wrong. Instead I have been blessed to have worked with some amazing people, people who are generous, caring and thoughtful and to whom I am very grateful.

Personal Challenges

On the personal front I’ve had a ‘challenging’ year; (professionally it’s been all good, thankfully, or I may have gone bonkers!) On my birthday at the end of October I invited some of my dearest friends and family to share it with me, and to thank them for the support and love they had shown me throughout the year.

However, there have been many of my professional colleagues, most of whom I have never actually met, who have also offered me great support and friendship. As the year draws to a close, I’d like to thank them publicly for their help and many kindnesses in 2010, and also introduce them to you.

Unsurprisingly, most are women, but a couple of special chaps get a mention too!

Supportive Women

First, thanks to all my inspirational women who, as well as inspiring me, have freely given of their time and advice, put up with editing and additional questions and badgering for photos etc!  All of them have been wonderful, but if I may I’d like to give special mention to Sarah Beeny and Maggie Philbin. They are both women with busy and successful careers in the media and I rather expected my request for interviews to be turned down. I was wrong again! Maggie and Sarah were charming, gracious, incredibly helpful and kind. My thanks to them and I wish them much success in 2011.

American Supporters

Across the Atlantic I have some rather special friends too. Yana Berlin is the person behind Fabulously40.com, a social networking site for women over 40. Her encouragement and enthusiasm is boundless and she has been a real friend in promoting my book to her readership, and generally being a good mate. We did actually get to meet, albeit fleetingly, in a London hotel and her energy is most impressive! More power to your elbow, Yana!

And while on the subject of the book, another as yet unmet American friend has been exceedingly generous in that respect. Julie Walraven epitomises American generosity of spirit and I recommend her to you! She runs Design Resumes and I am sure her clients love her! She is always ready to do a good turn if she can and a great ambassador for her country. I salute you, Julie!

Back this side of the ocean, Sarah Pennells has been a great source of advice and inspiration. I have actually met Sarah, at the Everywoman conference last month and she was every bit as delightful in person as in Twitter land. She dispenses great financial advice to women through her company Savvy Woman and she has given me some helpful insights on several occasions. Thanks Sarah! She’s also one of my Inspirational Women.

Twitter

Twitter is a strange phenomenon but I have learned that it is possible to make good relationships. Among the many on twitter who have been incredibly kind and supportive re my professional life are:

The successful novelist  Sara Sheridan – do read her books, wonderful stuff, and who has been most generous with her time. Sara, you are great and i wish i could write like you!

An amazing business woman, Hannah Coleman who runs Dreamwalls, a wall business…yes, I did say walls! Thanks, Hannah!

Ann Lewis, a coach on the Isle of Wight who is quite simply a good woman. Thanks Ann, for all the support.

Dorothy Sanders, is another American friend who is dedicated to the cause of empowering women over 50 ( a topic close to my heart) and has also been very generous to me this year. Thank you!

There are many others but I know they would not wish to be named here so to them my thanks.

The Men in My Life (professionally speaking)

It pains me to say that I really do conform to female stereotype here! I am less than wonderful with both marketing and technology and took professional advice and support in these areas early on in my self employed career.

Coming from a public sector background I was really green when it came to marketing but I was lucky enough to encounter Jim Connolly who has guided me with extraordinary skill! He has taught me more that I ever believed was possible about social media and marketing; I’d like to thank him here for his kindness and support, and for still watching out for the gloopers I commit from time to time! Thanks James, you are much appreciated.

And on the technical side, Mark White is a very patient man! He helps me keep this site running and answers all my questions promptly and with a wry humour. I am forever asking him to try this out, or how would it look if…. True, he sometimes sighs a lot, but he does it all with good grace and never talks down to me! Thank you, Mark!

Thanks to You!

And finally, my sincere thanks to all of you. So many of you have made contact with me, either through the blog, the newsletter, or in person at events. I truly love to hear from you; it makes the world seem a very small place. And when you tell me that something I have written helps you, or that attending one of my courses has helped change your life for the better, I am both humbled and thrilled. Thank you.

I wish you all success in 2011. I wish you good health, and joy in your life. And thank you again for your support in 2010.

Jane

Take a Second Look!

If you are in a part of the UK which is covered in snow you may be cursing or celebrating!

But whatever you feel about it, you have to admit that it changes everything. Of course everything looks different, and also everything sounds different. The quality of the light is different.

Conversely, while looking different some things begin to look the same. A Ferrari covered in snow and immobile is not much different (and as much use) as a Fiat Punto covered in the white stuff!

I am in Edinburgh as I write this and I have never before seen the city looking as it does now. Grand, majestic, yet also somehow vulnerable.

Wherever you are, take a few moments to look at your world in a different light. Try a new viewpoint. See it as if describing it to a stranger, or the opening chapters of a novel. Help someone, talk to someone, try something different!

Photo courtesy of http://www.edinburgh-scotland.net/

Help! I need you!

Thanks for responding! I’m not drowning, but I would very much appreciate your help with a new project I’m planning, if you’re up for it?

If you’re a regular reader of the blog or newsletter, have been coached by me, or attended any of my courses, you will know that I work with tried and tested techniques. No gimmicks and no mad acronyms. Everything I do is based on:

• years of experience of working with others to help them achieve their best,

• respected research,

• my  own continuing studies and evaluations received.

Similarly, my book is full of exercises I have successfully used over the years which I know work for people.

When I launch a new course I test it out first by offering it for free to specially selected groups (i.e. not my friends!), with follow up questionnaires as to effectiveness;  my coaching is based on the professional training I have received and many years of experience.

The Project

My  Renewyou programme has proved itself time and time again to help people make positive CHANGE in their lives. The drawback is I can only deliver it to a limited number of people at any one time …… up until now!

In response to requests from readers unable to attend my seminars in person, I have begun work on turning it into a download/workbook with audio so anyone can do it anytime, anywhere in the world.

Now you know I only deal in what works. I know the Renewyou seminar works because of the many testimonials I have received and because of the feed back from organisations who send staff to it. But I want to know how the programme works in a different format.

User Panel

I am assembling a User Panel to try out (for free) various exercises from the programme and give me honest feed back as to how easy it was to follow, effectiveness, etc. I’m looking for a large cross selection of ages, gender, (this course has worked equally well for men too) nationalities, and backgrounds.

If you are interested in becoming part of my user panel please send me a few details about yourself – I will respond to every person who applies.

Thank you! I am really looking forward to hearing from you!

Where Women Are Oppressed….

Below are three extracts for an article in one of the Sunday papers:

“More than two thirds of the billion people surviving on less than a dollar a day are female”

“Research by investment bank, Goldman Sachs found that women tend to invest their income in their children’s health, education and clothing. Men, the bank found, usually preferred to spend it on themselves, buying cigarettes, alcohol or what it delicately terms ‘female companionship’.”

“More female workers could even help head off the pensions crisis and the problems of an ageing population.”

The article is written by journalist Ruth Sunderland, in The Observer newspaper, and you can read it in it s entirety here. It will make you think…

Market Research!

It’s funny how ideas come at the strangest moments, isn’t it? I met up with a good friend and colleague last week but for various reasons we hadn’t actually seen each other properly for some time. We settled ourselves for a good long discussion about work, life, the universe and anything else that cropped up.

We go back a long way. Debbie and I were child care social workers many moons ago and both of us are now self employed, albeit in differing roles. Debbie reminded me of something I had said to her when she had an important court appearance which was creating huge amounts of stress for her, as child care proceedings always do. I said to her-

” Just remember that every member of the bench was sitting on the loo this morning and they are actually only humans.”

A Course is Born!

I had forgotten saying it but she hadn’t. And so we got to talking about our early experiences of appearing in court, being cross examined, and how our confidence had grown to the point where we were able to totally focus on the matter on the hand, and not on whether we’d fall out of the witness box (yes, I once did that!)

And suddenly the idea for a course to inspire confidence in court was born! There are plenty of courses which explain procedure, the make up of the court, practising cross examination etc (and very good most of them are too) but we are planning something different. Debbie still works in the legal system as an expert witness (among other things) and I coach and train people to be more confident and assertive (among other things)! A perfect combination!

Market Research

And so I need your help please! If you know any professionals who need to be confident in court, possibly those who don’t attend on a regular basis, could you please forward them this post and ask them to get in touch via my contact page. I will then email them a few questions, only a few, I promise!

And if you have any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to comment on this post.