Words from Gerard

April, for me -  always a special month ,in my mind it always signifies  the beginning, the start, a new opportunity, I guess it’s because it’s the month that I have my birthday, but also I think it’s because Spring is really under way at this point and there’s a whole feeling of rejuvenation and newness and freshness in the air. A special time of new growth, new life, ( all the newborn  lambs in the fields roundabout where I live)

So for me it is the perfect time to look ahead and plan and think about the future. Both on a personal and business front.

On the personal side it is my aim that by the end of this year I will have changed my role completely into that  of a virtual CEO. Now, that does not in any way mean stepping away from my businesses, it does however mean that I will only engage in the parts of my business that truly empower me and give me Joy. It also means that I need to have the business in a shape that does not require any input from me at all. So, how am I doing?

Well, I’m getting there  I think I’m probably about 75% of the way to achieving this. There are one or two little sticking points that I am having difficulty overcoming, such as, the barrage of e-mails that seem to come in every day, and some of our high profile public events like our ” Introduction to Coaching” days that we run in many parts of the world.

I just need to find a clone !!  Any offers  ????

On the Business Side, things are going rather well at the moment. The aim for the next 12 months is to concentrate a lot of energy and resources on our current international offerings and to develop quite a bit more internationally.

We are so pleased with our wonderful new partners in Poland the IRB, ( Instytut Rozwoju Biznesu  – Institute for Business Development ) http://www.irb.pl/

We really could not have wished for a better relationship or nicer people.

We are now casting our eyes in the direction of Bulgaria, USA, Kenya, Nigeria and Italy .

And also the Ukraine and Belarus together with our new Polish partners.

We have already appointed development teams And Strategic Partners  to start to work on developing a launch plan for each of those countries.

If any of you reading this would like to be involved in any of those particular countries then certainly get in touch, we have room for everyone

We have our first public ” Introduction to Coaching” event in Sofia in Bulgaria  on Friday, 20 May.

Full details are here

http://www.introductiontocoaching.com/

We have also created separate Facebook pages for each of those countries. Please feel free to engage with us here as friends

Bulgaria http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_106756122738932

Nigeria   http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_148420891886730

Kenya  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_140767652655332

Italy   http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507

For those people who want to develop a lucrative business within the corporate world we are launching a very wonderful opportunity in conjunction with a great company called People  Alchemy.

Full details can be found here.

http://noble-manhattan.com/alchemy2.php

I am also planning my next motorbike adventure. As you may know once every year my wife is kind enough to let me go on my own, on my motorbike for a trip somewhere exotic. I usually do this with one or two friends who like to come along.

Two years ago we went down through Spain into Morocco and back again. In the middle of winter !!!

Last year we went all the way across Europe to the Ukraine and Romania and then back again covering 17 countries and 4000 miles.

Now I’m turning my thoughts to this October and trying to work out where to go exactly.

If anyone would like to come, just let me know it will be from approximately 10 October until about 28th of October, the destination is still a little bit up in the air, the original plan had been to start in Romania and go around the Black Sea.But I’m having some logistical problems working out how to get the motorbikes to Romania and back again  !!  Any ideas?

If that doesn’t work, it doesn’t really matter we will still go for a wonderful adventure somewhere else in Europe.

I am also taking a week off at the beginning of June and going on my motorbike to a beautiful villa in France, and this time my wife is actually coming with me as a pillion  !!! The first time ever !!

We also have some sad news, we are losing our beautiful Stacey. Stacey, as many of you know has been a key part of our company for the last seven years and has taken personal responsibility for a large part of the administration division.

For the last couple of years she has been training to be an accountant and is now ready to follow her passion. She has found a position within a local company in that role.

We are on the one hand so sorry to lose her but on the other hand really happy for her.

So, we are now in the wonderful position of starting on the recruitment path to find someone to fill her position.

We are also now about to start recruiting some more full-time IT people to join our existing and quite large IT team.

So all in all a wonderful time of change and growth and excitement.

Lots of love,

Gerard

PS. I forgot to mention my new book gets launched this week.Read the section below to find out all about it. I am really excited 

Attend a Spring  Introduction to Coaching Event

Do you want to find out all about coaching, find out how it can transform lives and experience coaching techniques from our qualified coaches?

Our Introduction to Life Coaching Events are a great way to find out everything to do with coaching and training to be a Life Coach. Gerard is a really inspirational speaker and we know you’ll enjoy listening to him, so do come along and attend! Why not bring a friend or relative as well?

You will learn:

• What is a Life Coach?
• What is an executive coach? What do they do?
• Learn how Life Coaching can transform people’s lives
• The benefits of applying Life Coaching Skills in the home and work place.
• Learn the four pillars on coaching
• Take part in a highly interactive and informative coaching workshop where you will get hands on real coaching techniques.
• Learn how to build your client base.
• Plus much more

Please click here to find out all about this day + book your place securely online now!

Event One
Saturday 7th May – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Two
Saturday 20^th May – 9.30am – 5.00pm – Bulgaria

Event Three
Saturday 4^th June – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Four
Saturday 9th July – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Five
Saturday 3^rd September – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

If you would like to attend an event please visit www.introductiontocoaching.com and we will send you a booking confirmation and a map to you. Places are limited.

Colour Coaching Teleclass

Find out everything that you have ever wanted to know about Colour Coaching!

Have you ever wanted to find out all about Colour Coaching, how it works and how it can dramatically transform people’s lives?

Becoming a colour coach will impact your life and will dramatically transform the lives of others. It is extremely fulfilling to help others build amazing new confidence and self-esteem through the use of colour cosmetics and colour analysis!

Attend our 30 minute live teleclass with top trainer and world-class consultant and coach Mandy Ellesmere.

Colour Coaching Live Teleclass
Date: Monday 11^th April
Time: 4.00pm (UK) time

Please contact the office NOW to reserve your place by e-mailing emmasmith@noble-manhattan.com

If you would like to attend the call there is absolutely no obligation to go on the program.

Build Your Profile by Helping at an Exhibition

Would you like to have the opportunity to build your profile by working with us at a show?

Mind Body Spirit – 25th and 30th May 2011  London, Horticultural Halls

We are looking for people to help out on the stand. This is a great opportunity for you to network and meet new, interesting people. Helping out on the stand is always good fun and would involve handing out brochures, speaking to people who are enquiring about coaching and sharing your own coaching experiences and helping us gain new prospects. You will of course get free entry into the show. You will have plenty of time to look round the event too as we usually work it hour on/hour off so you’ll only be working about 4 hours during the day.

Please visit details of the Mind Body Spirit Show http://www.mindbodyspirit.co.uk

If anyone is interested in helping at this event please send an e-mail to me on emmasmith@noble-manhattan.com stating the day/s you’d like to volunteer.

I only have space available on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday.

Letters to use after your name for NM Qualification

This is really a quick overview and reminder to all of the students and coaches who have trained with noble Manhattan worldwide all 7, 000 +  of you .

As a qualified practitioner coach trained by our organisation you are entitled to put the appropriate letter is after your name on your business cards, websites, literature etc here as a reminder are the details.

If you have done the following courses then you can use these letters.

Certificate courses, to include “Practitioner Coach Certificate”

,”Certificate Foundation Course” Certificate in “Workplace Coaching”

NMP Cert

Practitioner Coach Diploma Course

NMP Dip

Executive and Corporate Certificate Courses

NMC Cert

Executive and Corporate Diploma Courses

NMC Dip

You are also entitled to use the Noble Manhattan logo on your website, literature  etc.

To receive a copy of our logo simply send an e-mail to

info@noble-manhattan.com

Volunteers for IIC

I came across this on the website of David Icke.

It was a voice-over at the beginning of the video which I have transcribed here.

As a life and business coach,and someone who devotes his life to training others to be coaches, I really couldn’t have said this better myself.

we could do a lot worse than take this as a set of guidelines to live by.

I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible. Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not by each others’ misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another.

In this world, there’s room for everyone, and the good Earth is rich, and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities life will be violent, and all will be lost.

The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! Only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world, that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Well, here we are again, the beginning of a whole new year. I really enjoyed the Christmas and New Year break. We closed the offices for 11 days so that everyone in head office could have a well earned break.

Personally, I really do so enjoy this time of year not only because it’s a great opportunity to get together with my close family and friends but I’ve also got into the habit over the last 10 years of using this time to do two things.

First, to reflect (and to do it truthfully and honestly ) on the previous year -taking time to look at what worked and what did not work.

Second, to look ahead, to think, to strategise ,to plan and to set goals. I have set myself what I believe to be a quite an audacious goal this year. I’m almost a little bit scared to reveal it to you because once I say it, it is totally out in the open. !!!!

But, here goes:

My goal is that by the end of this year I will have turned myself into a Virtual CEO.

What does that mean?

It means that I want to get everything in place so that I can run my business from where ever I am in the world, and not have to be tied down to any agenda, schedule, or place. In fact, to not HAVE to do anything except what I want to do when it comes to running the business.

It’s going to mean that I will have to look very seriously at my current way of working and see what new systems need to be put in place, new methods, new technology and new people to support me in this role. It’s quite scary for me but also very exciting.

Gerard's Coaching Blog

Last year I tested this concept on a number of my trips abroad, and to be honest, I feel I’ve probably got about 70% of everything in position already. I will keep everyone updated over the next few months through regular postings on my Blog at http://www.coaching-blog.com. If you haven’t already registered for regular updates it might be an idea to do that and I will keep you in the loop. You can also leave your feedback and comments for me here. You may all be interested to know that this year is actually called the year of communication. And I intend to use my blog as a means of communicating far more effectively with everyone in future.

Looking ahead to 2011. Well it’s already looking as if it’s going to be a massively busy year.
1. USA Here we come – We have made a decision to launch into the USA, in the late spring ( early April) and are now in the process of organising some “Introduction to Coaching” events in Los Angeles and San Diego As many of you will know Noble Manhattan is one of the longest established and largest coach training companies in the world ( in the top 6 out of 675 ) and although we currently trade in 26 countries we never really proactively looked at the United States. Until now. Perhaps it’s time we took really good quality coaching and coach training back home to where it began ( just a joke- don’t get too upset )

2. Romania – as a market for us is growing very rapidly indeed and we now have a most wonderful Noble Manhattan Family there. Made up of our faculty, qualified coaches, students etc . We are now the largest trainer of individual life and executive coaches in the country. We plan this year to launch more of our products and divisions into Romania and are looking seriously at some of the nearby countries like Bulgaria ,Ukraine and Serbia. Would you like to be involved ?

3. Strategic Partnerships and Distributors – a considerable part of our growth over the last 18 months has been because of our close relationship with some of our new partners worldwide. We intend to expand this and open up the opportunity for many of our students and coaches to become partners with us. To that end we have created a special website http://www.noble-partners.com which explains how people can become one of our partners and even fill-in a small application / enquiry form.

4. Poland – a very exciting market indeed for us and we have some incredible plans in the pipeline that I am bound by a promise not to reveal at the moment ???? all will be revealed soon to be honest I find it so difficult to keep my mouth shut and not tell people !!

5. Helping Coaches to Build Their Business – this is something that is so incredibly close to my own heart and something that I will be focusing an enormous amount of my time this year on. Creating initiatives and products and services to do nothing else but help our students and coaches to develop an attractive financially sound coaching practice.

We will be running a special Business Building Day in London on Sunday, 13 March. This will be open to every coach, every student and in fact anyone who is an entrepreneur and building their own business ( not just coaches). Places will be limited because of the size of the hotel room we will be hiring, so if you are interested contact the office immediately. Or go to this link to reserve your place http://www.noble-manhattan.com/building_business.php

6. Adventure and Travel – many of you will know that the Noble Foundation is very close to my heart http://www.noble-foundation.com. One of the ways that we spread the word about the foundation is by running a Noble Quest every year http://www.noble-quest.com. We have two different types -a walking expedition and a motorbike expedition. I myself lead the motorbike expedition.

Gerard With His Motorbike

In the last few years we’ve been to Spain and Morocco, we’ve been through Eastern Europe to Ukraine and Romania, and this year. We are planning to go around the Black Sea. Starting in Romania ( we have a cunning plan to get all the motorbikes there ) we will take approximately 2 and 1/2 weeks going south into Bulgaria through Turkey then into Armenia, Georgia up into the Ukraine, spend a bit of time in the Crimea then into Moldova then back to Romania. Then we fly home.

This adventure will be open to anyone at all who would like to join us. You can either come for the whole trip or just part.

Although we don’t have an exact date yet we are now just beginning to look at logistics etc it will probably be in September 2011. Full details will appear very shortly on http://www.noble-quest.com/motorbike_quest.php. If you would like to be considered, please send an e-mail to my VA at xerxes@noble-manhattan.com

7. Colour coaching – our recently launched initiative to help mainly female coaches ( not Limited to females) continues to grow. We have planned another training course for February and if anyone would like to be considered then please contact Emma at the office. Or if you would like to have a Private coffee on the phone with Mandy to see if this would really suit you then just let Emma in our office know.

First Batch Of Colour Coaches

For more details you can go to http://www.colour-coaching.com or read the blog at http://www.colour-coaching.com/blog

All my love for now,

Gerard

I was trying to think of something to say about the power of our thoughts and then remembered this.
It says it so well.

When you focus upon lack in an attitude of complaining, you establish a vibrational point of attraction that then gives you access only to more thoughts of complaint. Your deliberate effort to tell a new story will establish a new pattern of thought, providing you with a new point of attraction from your present, about your past, and into your future. The simple effort of looking for positive aspects will set a new vibrational tone that will begin the immediate attraction of thoughts, people, circumstances, and things that are pleasing to you.
— Abraham

I lost my beautiful new iPhone yesterday I had only had it for four weeks and had already fallen in love with it.
Yesterday I very stupidly left it in a taxi in Bucharest,and did not realise until the taxi had sped off.
Which then of course accounted for the time spent at the local police station. I have to say, actually they were incredibly good, ever so professional, friendly and caring. I was most impressed.

It’s very interesting for the first few minutes after losing the phone and after the taxi disappeared over the horizon !!! I felt a combination of anger and loss.
However I quickly reframed that ( thank goodness I know these coaching techniques) and actually now I am feeling a huge sense of relief.
Not only can I not telephone anyone ( which is a little bit frustrating) but more importantly no one can call me
And I realized that actually, in the back of your mind all the time when you are carrying your phone you are always aware that it can go off at any time and suddenly you are at people’s beck and call, involved in problems, or having to deal with some situation.
For me, today that has been completely removed, and I have to say, it feels great.
So, although I will probably have to claim on my insurance and set about getting a new phone, I fully intend to enjoy the short time without one. It really is a tremendous relief.

Back at home at last.

WOW what an adventure trip. I arrived back on Sunday night having spent the last 16 days travelling around Eastern Europe on my motorbike.

Went through the following countries

However it has made me realise that one trip isn’t enough I now need to plan for more

Here are our bikes parked outside our Frankfurt hotel at the end of our first long day of riding . Mine is the white Honda on the right-hand side (the mighty Honda !!)

I will upload some photographs and journey details in my next post

Warmest

I came across this beautiful poem and felt compelled to share it with you all.

Success Requires a Willingness to Act

If you want to be successful, you can start at anytime.
But you must start.

Don’t make the mistake of not doing anything
because you can only do a little.
Do what you can do.

It will always be your attitude
at the beginning of any difficult task which,
more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

To be aware of what you want and not go after it,
to spend years wondering if something could have materialized,
and never knowing if it could have been,
is a tragic waste of your life.
The worst thing you can do is not to try.

To reach a port, you must sail.
You must sail, not lie at anchor.
You must sail off in the direction of your dreams, not drift.

A journey of a thousand miles, begins with one step.

Max Steingart ©2002