Coaching Chronicle by Gerard O’Donovan

Last week my wife and I were in London for the weekend. I had to deliver two different keynote speeches one on Saturday and one on Sunday so my wife joined me,as we thought it might be a opportunity time to spend some time together (away from the children !)

On Sunday morning we went for a walk along Bayswater Road to look at the beautiful Art exhibition which has taken place there every Sunday since 1963.

For at least half a mile the railings on the north side of Hyde Park are sectioned into approximately 10 foot pictures and artists are allowed to license these pitches from the local council.

As we were walking along admiring the huge amount of different art and styles we came to a large pitch actually a triple size one and we were both struck by how beautiful the paintings were.

We all must say to each other at the same time ,” you know, this looks just like the work of David James”

Now David James is an artist that we have both admired for many years. We first came across David James over 25 years ago when I was a Royal Marine grain-based in Poole.we would sometimes go into Poole Art Gallery based on Poole Quay and admire the paintings.they used to display some of the work of David James and we liked it very much however we just could never afford to buy any even a small one of his paintings 12″ x 12″ was in the region of £400 and that was back then.

As we were having this conversation I leaned closer to look at the paintings on the railings and was astonished to see the signature of ” David James” just at that moment a voice from behind and said ” can help you” and we turned around to find the man himself !!!!!

He is very distinctive in his late 60s with a long flowing white beard.

We were so delighted we ended up talking with David for quite some time we told him how many years ago we had come across his work but could never have afforded it back then. He told us where he was living and we spoke about many things.he talked about how the galleries make a lot of money out of Artists and take by far the bulk of all the purchase price.

He gave me his e-mail address and we agreed to keep in touch.

It was quite a coincidence, because he very rarely displays his work now on Bayswater Road, being so internationally acclaimed, and having such little time.

 Gail and I then continued our walk through Hyde Park, stopping for lunch etc. About three hours later as we were heading back to our hotel I said “let’s make a quick detour and see if those paintings are still there”. We got to his pitch just as he was getting ready to pack up and go home.

 He smiled when he saw us and we spoke again for some time. As we were looking at his paintings and he was explaining to us what lay behind some of them he asked ” are there any that you like” we both admitted that there were a couple that really took our fancy. Two beautiful Winter landscape scenes in light brown.

He put them side by side and we admired them and he explained about his use of light etc. Then he said “would you like to buy them” I replied that actually I would love to buy them but I didn’t think that we could probably afford his prices. He paused, and smiled, and thought for a while and then he said ” I tell you what” I will let you have them both for £90. I couldn’t believe it !!!!!!!! I was so incredibly pleased and surprised. Obviously I said yes.

I am now the proud owner of two beautiful paintings done by an artist that I have now come to know.

If you go to this website you’ll see the two that I purchased

http://www.davidjamesart.com/content.php?page=new_work

 Isn’t life wonderful the way it brings you these great joys and surprises

It took me 7 1/2 hours to drive home from London yesterday, I arrived home at 10 minutes to midnight. It should have taken no more than three hours and I left at 3:30 PM in the afternoon.!!!

There was snow and ice everywhere and traffic was moving at about 5 mph. Lots of lorries had crashed into barriers and cars were stranded on the hard shoulder,and the snow was coming down thick and fast.

 To be honest I didn’t mind too much because it gave me some unexpected time to do some extra studying in my Mobile University.(my car)

I listened to quite a few new CD’s that I had recently purchased on the Power of the Mind and the Law of Attraction.

I also listened to some fascinating interviews on ” Group Coaching” something that I personally have been doing for quite some time and achieving a lot of success with some great clients.

It made me realise again just how incredibly effective it can be to coach small groups of five or six once a month for approximately one hour.

Perhaps I ought to do a lot more of this? Just need to work out where I can find the time??

 I had a meeting in London yesterday with our partner from Istanbul in Turkey, what a wonderful guy. I am so lucky to have attracted such wonderful people into my life. It is a real joy to work with such people.

At our meeting we started to put together plans to develop coach training more effectively throughout the whole of Turkey and also in countries like Azerbaijan Kazakhstan, Syria etc

I have to say I’m very excited about the thought of moving into that part of the world and seeing how we can change corporate cultures and give people true power through the use of coaching.

 Today I am back in the office working through a mountain of e-mails and trying to get all of the last-minute work done before we close the office for the holidays tomorrow.

I really am looking forward to this break, time to catch up on some sleep, also time to spend with my family ( if they remember who I am )

I also traditionally use the Christmas break as a time to review this year’s goals and to comprehensively plan all of my goals for the coming 12 months.that always gets me very excited.

Till the next time

Gerard

Writing this from my hotel in Warsaw in Poland.. Had a good meeting today with Lukasz our general manager in Poland.

 It was cold when I arrived at the airport this morning, -6° and has continually got colder throughout the day

.So I did what any good self-respecting life coach would do, I took myself off to my favourite café in Warsaw,

The Karma café just off Konstitution Square and had a couple of hot mulled wines while I read my latest book.

 Come to think of it my meeting today was spent in a nearby Thai restaurant. Does that mean that most of my business life revolves around restaurants and coffee ?? And if it does is that a bad thing ?

It’s snowing outside now, my first snow of the year, in fact it makes it feel just like Christmas. I’m looking out of my hotel room window down the length of Konstitution Square and it looks really lovely and festive with all the Christmas lights.

Tomorrow I’m doing a large introduction to coaching event here in Warsaw, looking forward to it very much.

Just got back yesterday from my two-week trip to Florida. I was there initially to attend a four-day coaching convention run by the ICF.

We usually take a booth there every year

It was held at the Convention centre at Rosen shingle Creek.what a huge magnificent place

I was there with my wife and two of my children who did the usual tourist things ( Disney World, universal studios etc) while I attended the conference.

At the conference when we first arrived it was interesting to see a whole group of SWAT people walking around all with their guns on their hips.

They were attending their own convention.

I found it very interesting that in a convention setting they were all wearing camouflage trousers and boots and carrying their guns, and so different to the UK.

 Later that evening we saw most of them wandering around in the bar drinking beer but still wearing their guns on their hips.( Only in the USA !!!!!)

Now, that’s an interesting combination, guns and beer.

One I don’t really want to see together.

 Coaches and SWAT teams, you really couldn’t get two more different types of people.having meetings in the same hotel.

I have to say the ICF ran a very well organised and structured convention,hats off to them.

 It was great to see a lot of old faces from last year in Montral and from the year before in Los Angeles.

Next year it is at Forth Worth in Texas,looking forward to that

In fact one of the most hectic times in the last year. I am currently at the residential training course at Eynsham Hall near Oxford .(http://www.eynshamhall.com/)  

We have fantastic men and women who have flown in from all over the world, Deborah from Canada Lavinia from Romania, Monica from the south of France,Lukasz from Warsaw in Poland to name just a small few.

As well as our intensive coaching residential program we also have a large exhibition happening at the Olympia in London being run by Emma and her team

while at the same time Vali and her team are running a five day exhibition in Bucharest.

The head office team are also preparing for our five day exhibition in Orlando in Florida which starts the day after tomorrow so I have to fly over early tomorrow morning with Gordon and Christopher and others to oversee that.

I have to say though that I am really looking forward to it. I am bringing my family with me so that we can also have some holiday time together and possibly go to Disney World etc.

We all arrived in the office this morning to find that we have no telephone service at all.

There was a large storm over the weekend and it appears that some of our telephone wires attached to some sort of telephone pole near our office has come down.

So, it looks as if we will be without telephone connections for the next 24 hours.(according to the experts at British Telecom, who are about to leap into action, and come to our aid :-)  )

When it first happened, it was very interesting, I had this mild sense of rising panic, how will I possibly get by without the telephone?? And yet as today has worn on, it has actually turned out to be really nice.

I have managed to get on with my e-mails, some of my writing work and actually founded time during the day to do some proper studying.

The rest of the team have also managed to have quite a productive day. Strangely enough we still have all of our Internet connection, so everyone has been on Skype talking to people that way.

Actually it’s worked out really efficiently. Perhaps I ought to make it a regular thing – No telephone Monday’s ?

A bit like Naked Friday’s but not as much fun !

Gerard

I haven’t stopped working and yet I can’t seem to put my finger on exactly what I have done !!

The e-mails have been coming thick and fast today as soon as I deal with a bunch of 20 or so, another bunch comes in.

 Spoke to Gordon Piggott today, general manager of Westminster Indemnity Insurance, ( http://www.westminster-indemnity.co.uk/ )I’m flying over to Orlando with him at the end of this month.

They provide a specialist indemnity and liability insurance to the whole of the coaching world.

 We are both going to the ICF ( International Coaching Federation) annual convention in Florida. We go together every year.

This time I’m taking my wife and children with me so that they can have a good time in Disney World etc while I’m working and at least I get to spend some time with them in the evenings.

The plan is that we will then have the second week together as a family in Florida, although to be honest we haven’t planned anything yet other than booking our return flights and hiring a large seven seater car for the whole two weeks.

So I guess I need some ideas about where to spend week two ??

Anyone got any suggestions – ?

 Looks like I’m going to Cardiff next week to do a special ” Introduction to Coaching” seminar on Tuesday evening. That should be good, haven’t been to Cardiff for quite a while.

 Then I have got the residential at Eynsham Hall near Oxford a couple of days later ( http://www.eynshamhall.com/ )

It looks like we have people coming from many different countries to do their coach training programme.

The only problem is I am also booked to give a talk on both Thur and Friday at the “Business Start Up” at the Olympia in London.

Looks like I will have to split myself in two !!!!!

Not really, thanks goodness I have a really efficient team to do all of the training and administration

I went to a club with Vali called the Clubul Prometheus in Bucharest. There was a very special group on stage. They were a cross between actors/musicians and comedians

They did a most incredible show using a lot of drumming and other musical instruments and heavily involved in the audience.

On two occasions they dragged me up on stage and had me playing drums and percussion instruments, although I was a little bit nervous to begin with I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and ended up having a great night.

The group were really fantastic and did a lot of improvisation on stage, I got to speak to them later and they were a really nice group of guys( despite the fact that they made lots of fun at my English earlier on stage — in front of the audience !!)

 The last few days have actually been very busy indeed.

Yesterday I attended the ARC – Association of Romanian Coaching conference.( www.coaching-guild.ro ) it was very well organized and run and it was great to see lots of Noble Manhattan students and coaches there.

In fact, the session I personally attended on the subject of niching ( whether to or not ) had over 50% Noble Manhattan attendees, it was great to see. A very lively discussion took place on exactly what was a niche and whether a coach should use this as a strategy to build their business and attract clients.

 Today is going to be very busy, something like eight or nine different meetings throughout the day but I’m really looking forward to tonight.

I’m treating about 12 of our great students and faculty to dinner tonight at the restaurant Casa Satya. It specialises in Ayurvedic food, one of the best in Bucharest

All the best for now

Gerard

This weekend we have been running three completely separate events in the same hotel in London, all happening simultaneously.
We had our
1) NLP practitioner programme
2) An Introduction to Coaching day
3) A Business Building day for Coaches

I have to say, I think they all went very well. I am so lucky and blessed that I have such a great team of people to help to organise, administrate and run these events.
We have had some wonderful feedback from all of these events especially the ” Build Your Business Day” which we ran for a number of Noble Manhattan coaches and students, about 35 in total.
Here is just one piece of feedback
”
Hi Gerard
 A huge thank you to you and your team of presenters for giving your time today.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am for all the information.  Before I came along I my head had so many coaching business ideas and questions swirling around… through the knowledge and patience of you and your team I have come away with a clear action plan of how to begin my business and how to begin marketing my services.
Ali”

And from the”Introduction to Coaching”  event here is some more lovely feedback

Thank you so much for Saturday.  The Introduction to Coaching was great.  My husband said I was glowing when I got home and it is now Monday morning and I am still buzzing.  Your honesty and openness was so refreshing and I am sure we all wish we worked for a boss like you.  I am chasing up the resettlement people to get signed up.  I can’t wait to be part of the Noble Manhattan Family and will look for an excuse to be in Weymouth!  I am looking for an opportunity to deliver the workshop at work and have almost recruited one on my colleagues to sign up for the next introduction day!
 Thank you once again.
 Kind regards
 Kirsten

On another front, our new division
” Coach Radio International”

I have to admit to being a trifle frustrated. We are about a month behind schedule and it looks as if it won’t launch for another four weeks, mainly because of unforeseen IT and programming issues.
However, I guess I should be pleased because the final version will be so much better than even we had hoped.

Have to leave the office a little bit early today so that I can go home, pack ,see my family for a couple of hours and then head off for Sunny Bucharest in Rumania
I am looking forward to that, and seeing all my Romanian friends and colleagues again.
Until later in the week
Warmest
Gerard