Coaching Businesses and Life

August 31, 2010

Shop Class as Soulcraft, a worthy read

Filed under: Coaching — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 9:33 am

Once in a while, a great book comes out and profoundly shakes foundations.  Shop Class as Soulcraft; An Inquiry Into the Value Of Work by Matthew B. Crawford is a worthy read.

What is so special about this book?  This book goes right into the heart of the matter that our educational system trains everyone for information management jobs.  What Crawford has done in his book was to show that many inventions do not come from scientists working in labs but astute artisans and craftmen needing to improve their process.  Case in point, the steam engine.  At the time, scientists were engrossed into what is now a dead en theory, caloric value of heat.  The steam engine was invented by craftmen.  The book shows many more inventions.  Also this book takes a stab at the misconception that crafts and artisanal work is low brow.

About the author, displeased and disillusioned with his Think Tank job, he goes on to say he actually used his brains more when he had his classic motorcycle job.

The book is brilliant and a worthy read for those of you frustrated parents and disillusioned cubicle workers.  The book reminds us of the importance of hand eye coordination achieving palpable results at the end of the day creating wonderful brain reactions.

Thumbs up!

For more information, you can check out reviews at Amazon.

August 26, 2010

The wrong marketing approach

Filed under: Coaching — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 10:53 am

Desperate times calls for desperate measures but there are no reasons why you should appear desperate or less then forthright.

I just got off the phone with a lovely lady who approached me to have my articles published.  By the middle of the phone call, the conversation turned into a pitch.  It was let down, no matter how good the service might be.

Many marketers and advertisers have become so desperate they approach you with flattery and bait.  Instead of you receiving compensation for your work, you end up having to pay for free advertising.  It just isn’t the best way to reach out to potential clients.  It’s a turn off and leaves you feeling let down… again.

So what can a smart marketer do?  Be forward, announce it like it is.  Don’t be afraid to say you have a product and would like to know if your potential client could be interested.  By reaching out this way, you not only treat them respectfully and in a mature way, but you don’t risk leaving them feeling like it was yet another disguised pitch call.

Ask the potential client if they are in a position or thinking about advertising.  Ask what have their experience been like.  In other words, don’t just talk and pitch, ask how you can be of service… it goes a long way.

In the end, what we are witnessing is a reluctant sales force to come to terms with the mess they help create in the first place.  By approaching potential clients with detours, they are not only wasting their time and the said potential clients but also perpetuating yesterday’s “business as usual”, have to sell no matter system.  It just doesn’t work anymore.

My generation now looks for actions, not words.

August 25, 2010

Masterful coaching, Zen like state of mind

Filed under: Coaching — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 10:21 am

It is always a wonderful experience when the session flows.  It’s called masterful coaching .  Masterful coaches just dance in a session.  They don’t just ask questions and lead you forward or toward something.  They dance with you until you get the feel of what and where you want to go.

Attaining that state in a session is not that difficult if you remember to use wisely your left brain and let your right brain make the final decision.  Masterful coaches understand how to use enough of their physical senses, sight, hearing and rational deduction by a carefully mixing intuition.  That makes those sessions free flowing where the client is in charge leaving only the coach to ask questions based on listening and intuition…

July 20, 2010

Finding The Right Coach, Who’s Their Coach

Filed under: Coaching — Tags: , , , , , , — admin @ 9:00 am

In this series of posts, we are going through simple ways to determine is the coach you are interviewing is a good fit for you.

Tell-tell signs to look for. A serious coach always has a coach.  This might sound a little strange but a good coach has to have a coach also.  Why?  Simply enough, a coach needs to have another professional in order to bounce ideas off with, think, things through and just raise awareness around issues as only a third party person can do.

July 19, 2010

Finding The Right Coach, Questions To Ask

Filed under: Coaching — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 6:00 pm

In the next few posts, we will look at simple questions you can ask in determining if the coach you are interviewing is right for you.

So what questions do you need to ask a coach to find out if they are right for you? It’s not always easy to find the right coach but asking the right questions will shed enough light to make up your mind.  After all, you should not only feel comfortable with your coach, she or he should also have been professionally trained.

Training, what, where, when and how? This should be you very first round of questions.  Ask your potential coach if they have been professionally trained, where and what they concentrated on.  This will tell you if your coach has active methods to help you on your journey.  Ask them where they were trained in order to gauge the seriousness of the school.  Find out what they are doing to keep up to date.

These simple first set of questions should already give you a profile as to how serious this coach is.  Next, ask them about their coach.

July 12, 2010

Tranquility training Method, Another Binaural Beat Winner

Filed under: Coaching,Coaching - Business,Coaching - Personal,Coaching - Wholistic,binaural Beats — Tags: , , , , , , , , — admin @ 11:00 am

Strong with my binaural beat adventure with the Monroe Institute, I discovered Mark Certo’s Tranquility Training Method.

Mark was Robert Monroe’s sound engineer for decades and decided to start his own venture.  His products are very interesting in the sense that he builds on his experience with the Monroe Institute but adds how own alchemy in the mix.  I particularly enjoyed listening to his Samadhi aimed at keeping lid on the monkey mind.  For those unaware of the term, monkey mind is what happens to almost everyone, that incessant chatter.

Mark takes a shot at one of the fundamental pillar of success, training the mind to be quiet, to observe and be a working tool for who you are.  I can only highly recommend his work in conjunction with the Hemi-Sync products from the Monroe Institute.

July 10, 2010

When Ethnography Is Backed By Coaching

Filed under: Coaching,Coaching - Business,Ethnography — Tags: , , , , , , — admin @ 12:00 pm

A few months ago, my friend Julie and I were wondering how small businesses could compete against big corporations.  Global and even local corporations have plenty of resources available to them in order to take full advantage of what they can do to improve their bottom lines.  It is not as easy for smaller businesses.

An Ethnographer does consumer insight research in order to understand what the consumer wants and does not want.  It goes even as far as finding why potential clients whisk by businesses’ doors.

Coaching helps business owners developing greater awareness around who they are, why they started their business which leads to understanding why they do the things they do and how they deliver them.

Then it dawned on us that our services were actually complementary.  So we decided to unite and offer Ethnographic-Coaching packages.  Julie does the ethnography research and I coach businesses around her findings with fundamental questions such as: “Now that you know this, how aligned are you with your goals?” or “How close is this form home to you?”, etc.

The best part is that we have found a way to make it financially affordable for smaller businesses without cutting back on quality.  How?  With our very low overhead, we do not need to start our services at $100,000, as is the case normally and can go much below.  Why?  Because we are not only the Chairman, CEO and officers of our companies but every steps all the way down to the janitors.  We do everything and do not require a salary for someone running photocopies, as is the case with bigger organizations.  We do it all and we are passionate about it.

June 25, 2010

Binaural Beats, Bringing Down The Wisdom To Reality

Filed under: Coaching,Coaching - Wholistic — Tags: , , , , , , , , — admin @ 8:15 pm

One of the wonderful thing about my binaural beats and mostly the work I’ve done with the Hemi Sync system from the Monroe Institue is that it pays off in real life also.

If the gateway Experience CD set I have been working on has brought more easily and readily to higher states of consciousness, I find that I can stil reach these states even in normal life.  In other words, I was afraid they would be a crutch, but I can actually take back into my regular conscious life the benefits.

What dies this mean concretely?  I can focus better than I ever had.  I am more present.  Whenever I feel, I can sink into any of those higher states of consciousness and bring about the desired results I have been working on.

Next I’ll talk about what the CDs exercises are about.

June 16, 2010

Binaural beats and coaching, the perfect tool

Filed under: Coaching,Coaching - Business,Coaching - Personal,Coaching - Wholistic — Tags: , , , , , , — admin @ 4:00 pm

Many times coaching is centered on that feeling of being overwhelmed and lack of concentration.  I’m very happy to say that not only coaching is a great solution for that but now you can wake up next morning after your session, put on your executive CD and start working, all focused, fresh and there.

I will be carrying shortly a few CDs from the Monroe Institute, some of which are  perfect matches for our Tap The Source’s clients.  Those with difficulties coping with lack of time for tasks will be happy to put on the Executive CD and find increased concentration.

Those who have a hard time sleeping will be able to listen to a CD and sleep into the arms of Morpheus, the sleep God.

The more I work with these CDs the more I see their intrinsic value in coaching. They are the perfect tools to keep you going in between calls.

May 19, 2010

Online Privacy, Is There Such A Thing?

Filed under: Opinion,Philosophy,Wholistic / Spiritual — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 4:00 pm

These days, it seems you cannot escape the online privacy articles that pop up on a daily basis.  Facebook this, Google that, to name a few.  So I decided to poke around my settings.  And what did I find?

Horror of all horror!  Google Documents had listed in my documents, although not shared all the documents that were sent to me as attachment as far back as 2006.  That is, all documents sent to me even before Google Documents existed.  Facebook is notorious for poor privacy settings, loose agreements and never being upfront about what actually is open to its third party allies.  Facebook applications open up doors into your data on your computer that can be used by whomever Facebook chooses.  Sorry, but considering how corporations treat their users these days, that is a no-no in my book.

So I decided to remove everything.  I have removed all the documents in Google Documents that should be there in the first place.  I am removing all posts and comments on my Facebook profile that is not relevant to coaching.  That is gargantuan task.  It is amazing to see how much you can write and in the end, how much of it is really relevant or even remotely interesting?

This makes me wonder, as I am sure many of you also do.  Why are these company treating people’s private intellectual properties like that when they sue anyone who infringes on their private intellectual properties?  If convenience is the reason, then it is not worth it to me.  Another question that begs to be asked is why are these things done without letting users know clearly they have your information, documents and more on their servers?  Even if they are not set to be shared, the very least would be to treat me as a mature and responsible human being by asking me first.  And this is finally the crux, in the name of convenience, we have accepted much too many things that in the end make our social network… not convenient.

In the end, those who understand the nature of computers and certainly that of the Internet do know one thing without doubt, there is no such thing as privacy on the Internet.  The Internet was created to share information, not withhold it.

Things that make you go: “Hummmm…”

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