What price a university education in 2018 in an era when information is free?

Inspired by a post I saw on Facebook from Erica Blair, Nicola and I debate something I already know we agree on, whether or not to get into lifelong student debt for yourself/your kids in an era when information is free. Erica brings up YouTube and iTunes U, and I bring up James Altucher and Nicola Gary Vee. …

This is Question 15 from my book Your Biz Your Way: How Can I Lessen the Feelings of Utter Chaos?

Towards the end of the summer term, a client of mine confessed to feeling “utterly chaotic”. Don’t all mothers feel like that at the end of term? Aren’t we all hanging on to get as much of our work done alongside all the other duties and responsibilities in our lives and businesses, especially if we know we are going to switch off for a couple of months to be with the kids?

Chaotic doesn’t feel nice, I know.

When I was an accountant, December was our chaotic month; not January, that’s for tax accountants in the UK. We had to do 31 days’ work in 21 days and go to all our clients’ Christmas parties as well, and cope with their disappointment if we couldn’t due to pressure of work. And, if we did make it to some or all of the clients’ Christmas shindigs and to all of our own parties as well, some of us would be turning up at work feeling either tired or hungover or both. That is one of the worst ways to start your own holidays I can recall, and we’d usually fall ill during our own eventual time off. The self-employed Christmas bug, I suspect you’ve had a visit or two from that one? …

The full question #14 from my book Your Biz Your Way is “How Can I Step Up to a Bigger Game Without Feeling Exposed?

What if exposure isn’t what it takes, just visibility?

My client who offered this conundrum is on the cusp of playing bigger. She is a woman who has more than enough capacity for that. She has capacity in bucketfuls. Her capacity is full to overflowing. We all have this. We all have the capacity to be extraordinary if we choose.

Her anxiety is around feeling exposed.

This is just a re-frame opportunity. You need never do anything you don’t want to do. OK, you might choose to do some things that stretch you a bit, outside the old CZ (comfort zone, hate that jargon but it had to be said here). …

Some of my clients’ problems are like buses. Three come along at once. And this question is a fabulous example of that.

Three separate clients and colleagues (two teams led by women, and one by a man, so this isn’t a female thing, it’s a niceness thing) are grappling with matters arising from one “troublemaker” on staff. That person doesn’t even need to be causing orthodox trouble. But what they are doing is unsettling the team and using up inordinate amounts of everyone’s time and psychic energy while we all work out what to do about them. …

This is Question 12 of 52 asked and answered in my book Your Biz Your Way.

“A lot of people are afraid because they have never tried anything different. My fear comes from having tried and it didn’t go to plan.”

What your question reminds me of is what they say in the financial world of investments:

Past performance is no guarantee (or even indication) of future results.

My first ever personal development book and one which would still be in my top 10 is Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers and it is still the only antidote to fear, that ghost who visits me in the night but tends to disappear again in the daytime when I feel like I can do something about my nameless dreads. …

The topic du jour today on the podcast is 30 Day Challenges. Nicola’s running one with and for her clients and getting a real buzz from it.

What do I think? I bet she wishes she’d never asked me!

I had to offer a metaphor — she’s on the blue team and I’m on the pink one. In fact, I loathe the marketing concept of a Challenge so much I had recently to ask Facebook to help me come up with an alternative word. I chose Adventure though I realise many will dislike that just as much, not least because — as one of my advisers said at the time — an adventure is risky. Yes, I replied. …

S is a member of Club 100.

“Thank you so much for the call, I feel like a big clump of hair has been removed from the drain! I wrote this as a testimonial in case you want to use it:

During our call this week I had a lightbulb moment when you helped me to identify my ideal client. Since then, working on my content and offers has been like a hot knife through butter. It’s so easy now because I finally know who I am talking to. Thank you for talking me through it. In particular, it was the un-PC nature of the conversation that helped. I felt free to cast aspersions on the people I don’t want as clients and this allowed me to identify the clients who suit me most. …

Author of Your Biz Your Way, Judith Morgan, asked me to write about how I do my business my way as part of her blog challenge.

So as a bit of background for you: I am hugely passionate about helping people to be more assertive and to tell their stories so that they can advance their business, career or just improve their life. I set up The Presenter Coach in 2016, after leaving a full-time job (I burnt out). Having had experience working freelance, and running a similar business with a good friend previously, I knew I wanted to go alone. …