I Don’t Want a Business Coach, I Want a Concierge
Pure Business Coaching is a waste of money. You need a deep generalist who can bring so much more. And that was the subject of my most recent Blackboard Fridays episode, which you can see in full here or watch below. The crux of my position is this: as a business owner, there are a…
Monthly Update April 2019
No, YOU’RE three weeks behind schedule… Welcome to small business ownership with a baby. I can honestly say that right now I’m living my best life – fatherhood, self-employment, some awesome clients. Which is not to say that it’s easy, or that I have the balance quite right. Last month’s post is here; next month’s…
The Blackboard Fridays Management Toolkit
In 125 episodes of Blackboard Fridays, we’ve covered some fundamental aspects of managing your team. These skills are great for new managers to apply, and all managers to review on a regular basis. Filters: Why no two people see the world the same No two people see the world the same way. In business, this…
Monthly Update March 2019
What impact does a long sought-after baby have on our business and family plans…? (Read last month’s update here; and (eventually) next month’s here.) Family Yes indeed, the day we thought may never arrive actually has, and yours truly is a father. Unlike driving a car, or driving a golf ball, or working 9-5 for…
Monthly Update February 2019
Like sand through an hourglass… Firstly, I’ve updated to the new WordPress platform and the block structure behind the scenes is driving me crazy. The first website I worked on used Dreamweaver and an FTP Server – it wasn’t quite rolling my own HTML, but I feel super comfortable doing that to make writing for…
Monthly Update January 2019
Reintroducing a classic blog trope… This was a regular update I used to blog, through 2016 when I left Shirlaws business coaching to set up Real Estate Grow (what eventually became #RealReach). It was an opportunity for me to share progress towards the Personal Vision I had redesigned at the start of that year. The…
IN THE MEDIA: What’s the Difference between Coaching and Consulting?
Source: Coaching Life Magazine by Jacob Aldridge When I started my career in 2006, I had to explain to people what ‘business coaching’ was. Now, I have to explain how I’m different from the dozen shonky business coaches they’ve met at networking breakfasts. I do this by telling them I’m a business coach who doesn’t…
How to Prepare, Run, and Coach an Annual Strategy Day
Great Strategy Days for small business have long been a passion of mine – done well, they start your year with focus and momentum and pay enormous dividends. Of course, most businesses do them poorly (as I wrote about in 2015) – or almost as bad, not at all, preferring to leave strategy and engagement…
Blackboard Fridays Episode 100
Every Friday for the past two years I’ve been releasing a focused, targeted video to my subscribers – which means we’ve reached 100 episodes in total! As I wrote when we introduced these, I do have an enormous amount of fun creating them. More importantly, you all seem to find them valuable and engaging. This…