Mojo Wrecking Avalanches & Broke Down Puter Blues

Could it be called fate?

Call it be called divine intervention?

I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t really matter what you call it but there is no doubt in my mind that there are times when we are forced to go inward and deeply look at what we are doing and why we are doing it.

I’ve had two weeks like that recently.

My laptop died the morning I was due to present in Noosa but the show went on (thanks to Sandy and Curly Harris for saving the day and letting me use their laptop).

Two weeks later, a couple of expensive visits to experts and my poor hard working laptop is still trying to restore all the files I’ve dutifully backed up. As they return back onto the hard drive it looks like they probably aren’t going to give me what I expected at the end of the day.

I’m grateful I’m still healthy and I know a lot of people have a lot worse problems than a broken computer but for someone who works with the internet this is like a builder trying to build a house without their tool box and a hairdresser trying to cut hair without their scissors, chefs without knives. In fact it’s a dream stopper because without the right tools we can’t make money and pay our bills. Things can get messy really fast!

This seemingly out of my control incident, along with a few other personal things (you know how everything comes at once) that have caused a great deal of angst have caused me to re-assess where I was with the earth the world and everything.

To be honest I have been close to the brink of giving up.

I’ve taken a fair bit of flack for admitting the fact publicly that sometimes the wheels fall off my life and things are far from “perfect”. I just see it as an honest response when “shift happens”.

I find this “perfect” illusion is created from those on the bottom of the ladder of success who are looking up - not the ones on the top looking down. In fact yesterday each speaker told of their “none to perfect” life before they figured out all the knowledge they needed and then how to get that knowledge and then implement it. After many big bumps they finally got their perfect life which sees them constantly travelling the world, working their butts off in between bouts of extreme luxury. But they are away from family a lot so nothing is ever perfect even at the top of the ladder.

It has been very important for me to not appear as one of those coaches who just pretend everything is lovely and beautiful and create an unrealistic bar for others to jump over. I like to tell it like it really is so you can learn from my journey and not beat yourself up when something goes pear shaped for you.

What you can’t do is just ignore it and pretend its ok – that’s just like waxing over a dirty floor. I find the best and quickest way to get out is to stop for a while and go inward. When you are prepared to go to the honest places, those deep recesses which any wise individual would stay well away from, a message eventually appears. Mine came while channel surfing Sunday morning TV in my pajamas (standard issue uniform for anyone contemplating their naval).

I was drawn into a story of two men who got stuck in a place called Avalanche Alley in North America, known funnily enough for its regular Avalanches. Long and short of the true story saw the two friends pushed to their absolutes limits, without food for days and trying to crawl for their lives. One of them had a broken hip, the other was dragging him out inch by inch through some of the worst terrain and weather conditions imaginable.

The upshot was yet another avalanche swept them into an ice crevice where the inquired man “luckily” was dumped on an ice shelf close to the exit but his buddy landed much further down. Most at that point would have given up because they were seriously stuck.

Instead of giving up he started to shout at the Universe “I CAN TAKE MORE” and he kept manically shouting out “I CAN TAKE MORE”. When his buddy awoke, confused and unsure if he was still alive all he heard was someone shouting “I CAN TAKE MORE!” It gave him the motivation to start climbing up to him.

This extreme reaction to the drastic situation they found themselves in made me realize I too could take more – hell mine was only a broken computer. I jumped up and started to pace up and down the hall shouting I CAN TAKE MORE!

The two men eventually dragged themselves out of a situation that would have defeated many simply by putting one foot in front of the other. Finally a rescue party found them and the real men who actually survived this event were interviewed and described how the ordeal has influenced their lives. Neither has lived their life in the same way once they left hospital because they believed they experienced a miracle that day.

Every time I’ve faced off a “bad” time I’ve also found things changed radically around me and nothing was ever the same again.

As I later thought about why this bizarre response helped spur them out of a place of hopelessness I realized why it probably works.

There is a saying one of my mentors taught me

“The Universe won’t give you more
until you can handle what you already have”

So when you find yourself in a place where you think you can’t handle any more, that’s what you get – nothing more. Our intrepid heroes were only getting avalanches and exhaustion so they kept getting more of that.

But by changing that energy and stating you can take more, suddenly the perspective shifts and new possibilities kick in. Their new possibility was being rescued because they had stated they had room for more.

I’m certainly not recommending this as a long term strategy but I guess the reason I tell you is because things aren’t always easy but the landscape can change quickly once you understand your message. In the climbers case they knew they had to get closer to spirit. In mine I have to "only work with the best" and have the very best tools and people I can.

The journey from good to great can sometimes feel like an avalanche is pushing you down a mountainside but that is just part of the perfection of imperfection.

Since that shouting moment I’ve had such clarity and had the energy to go and hang out with some mad people like me who push the boundaries and hear how sometimes the boundaries have pushed back on them. I’ve gone and inspected the Mac Book Pro and learnt more about what they do. I’ve learnt a new saying from Mac owners:

“when you have a Mac you never look back”

So if you get times when things haven’t been working out or when people upset you or it just all seems way too insurmountable, please know its part of the journey that gives deep meaning to the cliché

“it’s about the journey not the destination”

My puter is now limping along without the hoots and whistles and things aren’t looking as fancy as before but I now have the ability to make the cash flow again. Luckily all my work files are backed up so I haven’t lost anything but it is taking a very long time to get it back to where it used to be and sadly it may never be the same.

So I apologise if you’ve tried to contact me or if I’ve been grumpy or silent and haven’t got back to you or I'm using a dodgy template or if their are spellos. At least I'm back in action.

Just know I strongly believe another saying another mentor taught me

“as low as you can go is as high as you can go”

You can either decide to judge me for my honesty or learn from my experience but for now I’m just excited to see what’s on the up side of the next leg of the journey :-)

Why Do Natural Therapists Get Into Business in the First Place?

As I continue to work with Natural Therapists I’ve come to notice that it is no co-incidence that people have been drawn to natural healing modalities.

The one common thing that I’ve noticed is that natural therapists are often drawn to a modality because it helped them “heal” an aspect of themselves.

Often it’s a health challenge such as cancer or depression. Sometimes it may be the self esteem they lacked after years of physical, mental or emotional abuse. Substance abuse and eating disorders also features highly, often with natural therapies being their last resort before the long arm of the law caught up with them or worse they faced personal harm or death due to their habits.

As the person was “healed”, frequently after failing within the western medicine model before finding natural therapies, they were often inspired to go and learn more about the modality that helped them so much. The more they learned the more inspired they were to help others and hence commenced training, generally in the modality that helped them.

As yet there are no clear guide lines as to what drew them to a certain form of healing but most certainly most therapists I’ve encountered have a really interesting story to tell. Sometimes it takes a little digging to find it, but once unearthed it gives a whole new dimension to who they are and who they can help. It brings clarity and a clear message to everything they do.

I’ve noticed this more as I’ve begun to teach people to speak, specifically using their story as a way to gain credibility with an audience. As I get therapists sharing their story, often the heart wrenching details leave a bread trail right to the source of the reason why they got into natural therapies in the first place.

When that happens something magical kicks in because their story becomes their glory as they realise how much their personal story will cause people to attract to them, knowing they understand.

We all have a story and often the thing that has challenged us the most in life and in time have overcome is the thing we can most help others with.

Sore to SOAR is the program I have put together to help therapists get their message out. You can find out more here: Sore to SOAR

An Unexpected New Outcome from Speaking

The more I teach my Sore to SOAR workshop and help people understand how their story helps first them, then others get a greater understanding of what they do, the more I get an understanding of what learning to speak does for people.

Firstly I thought it was a fluke when practitioners started to report that after having completed the workshop and reported getting the normal things such as:

• more confidence

• greater depth of understanding

• the sense of what it feels like to have a go

• getting more in touch with their message

• overcoming fear

All the rational things you would expect from a speaking workshop.

What I didn’t expect was the intangible reports back the following week of how participants have gone back into their practice only to find their sessions with clients are not only going to a deeper level but clients reporting a greater understanding of the treatment and what it does for them.

This was unexpected and I have developed a whole new respect for speaking as more participants roll through the program and keep reporting the same thing. They are feeling more "heard" in their treatment room and finding that their treatments are going deeper.

This is starting to confirm my belief that our fears not only hold us back on one level – they hold us back in many deep layers of our being.

Because speaking is such a deep fear to overcome (research shows most people would rather die than speak in public) it must correlate that when that fear is released it makes space for a whole new level of good stuff to open up.

I love what I do – every day is filled up with new learning and observation and just when I think I am starting to get to the bottom of the barrel of what is possible, a whole new opportunity to help people grow opens up and a new barrel appears.

www.sore-to-SOAR.com

Sore to SOAR Melbourne
in the Conference Room at Quest

Have You Got A Media Policy?

“Free publicity” are two words that string together almost as well as ‘Free lunch” BUT media can be a lot of work so being prepared is a good thing.

I am often approached to speak or comment about Tree-Change or in my instance the Dark Side of Tree-Change or Sea-Change Adventures. I’ve done brief interviews on Current Affairs TV programs and some of the big newspapers and a little bit of radio.

It all sounds great but....

I can’t say I’ve got a lot of direct clients from this activity but what it has given me is a lot of recognition. I was stunned the first time I mentioned my media when I was speaking and someone from the crowd came up afterward and said they saw the program and they hadn’t immediately joined the dots on me and the program that featured me, but during the talk they did. Suddenly I went from nobody to someone in the blink of an eye and it made for an easy conversation with a total stranger and further established me in her mind.

I have found media gives you credibility and recognition on many levels. Placed in a strong WHO and WHAT situation I have seen clients inundated when their message hit the right spot at the right time. But if you aren’t certain the placement is going to give you new opportunities or recognition or leverage you can use later, then it’s the old story – you might be better to spend that valuable chunk of time at the beach.

Get a Plan

What I’m saying is that like everything in business – you need to have at least thought about it before you plunge in without a plan.

The thing most forget is that media takes time and time is the one thing most people want more of – so to waste your time doesn’t make much sense. You will be interviewed and often a photographer will be sent to film you. The average investment of time is about 30 – 40 minutes for the interview and 30 minutes for the photos but one photographer took over two hours to get the photos and kept me in one pose for over 10 minutes while he got it just right. The photos turned out brilliantly but in hindsight I might have been doing better work on my business somewhere else.

The media is highly alluring and reporters on deadline can be highly demanding and are skilled at pushing you in the direction they want you to go in.

Get Organised

I believe having a media policy in your business right from the start will keep you clear and concise and a good media kit wins the hearts of journos and saves you a heap of time.

I am being featured in a Tree Change story in a couple of weeks and the video below shows a short snap of what you go through to get ONE photo. This was a fun and easy shoot down at The Boathouse on Lake Daylesford but it took about 30 minutes to get that ONE photo and you have to be ok with a camera very close to your face. PLUS I won’t know which one they use until I pick up a copy next week so media also includes a HEAP OF TRUST – but that’s a whole new blog post!

Another Tough Day at the Office

The Importance of Being Media Ready

I had just come off my weekly Teleclass to my clients in London and it was 9.15pm at night. I was washing up the last of the dishes from the celebration of Australia Day with 15 friends in my back yard.

As I was reflecting on just how blessed I was to have friends who fill me with such joy …… when I was startled by the shrill sound of the telephone.

It was a reporter from the ABC in Brisbane apologetic about the time and date but asking for comment for tomorrows breakfast news. Someone has released a study on seachange and treechange and she wanted me to comment.

This is just a valuable example of how important it is to be media ready. The media have no shame as to how and when they will contact you and when they get you on the phone in these odd circumstances, they want your opinion NOW. This is the power of a strong WHO and WHAT and is what happens when your website its keyword rich with the topic they are looking for.

If you haven’t encountered the media yet, what I have found to be most common is that they will tell you their name and the media outlet they are from. Immediately after that they will rocket straight into what they want from you and what their story or article is about.

The big thing to remember is that reporters work to tight deadlines and are constantly stressed and time poor. The easier you can make it for them, the more chance you have of being called for other stories.

Media such as magazines or specialty interest stories have wider deadlines but radio and general news want your comments NOW.

The answer is to have general comments prepared and ready and to be clear which side of a story you are on and be very willing to add value where you can.

To deal with the NOW situation, I recommend the following, assuming you feel comfortable about the story and wish to be quoted.

1. Take control immediately and turn the tables and start asking as many questions as you can think about on the spot about the article or the story they are proposing.

2. Always keep a pad and pen by the phone and scribble down as much as you can

3. Don’t feel pressured to give an immediate response, buy yourself some time by simply asking them to phone you back.

4. Go immediately to your office space or a quiet space

5. No matter what is going on in your life, focus into the NOW moment

6. Quickly decide one or two points you want to get across that relate to the story.

7. When the reporter phones back, be clear and concise with your answers, keeping your comments as relevant as you can to the topic

8. Try to add value to their story and if possible try to give an opposing point of view or a different take on the story

9. Then shamelessly self promote your media inclusion to anyone who will listen!!!

The media are simply looking for content and if you can quickly get to the point they will love you.

BUT be warned - the media can make or break you and you have to be prepared and willing to accept the consequences if they do a bad story. I had an instance where I got a small inclusion in a story about the dark side of seachange and a reader took exception to my circumstances and wrote a damming letter to the editor which got printed the following week. It was so bad my friends encouraged me not to read it and to this day I haven’t but the story itself got me a lot of recognition I could never have achieved on my own.

So tread with caution but also know free pr and free media is one of the quickest ways to get recognition and your name out to many for free.

So you will hear me on the ABC in Brisbane tomorrow commenting on recent research that says Treechangers and Seachangers are changing their behaviors because the nature of some popular destinations like Byron Bay have become over populated. I quickly chose to take the stance that people moving to a new place will always seek things that are known to them and will still seek places like Byron or Daylesford because we have culture such as cafes and restaurants that will help them acclimatize. There were a thousand takes on the story but that was the one I chose after a long busy day.

The golden rule of media from my rock and roll days was: any news is good news and it generally is, so get yourself media ready and get that message out to the world.

Then afterwards you self promote and ensure you are even more ready for the next call.

Do You Have A CHOOSE Day?

The Beatles made a lot of money from a song called Eight Days a Week but to make a lot of money in your small business doesn’t mean you have to work Eight Days a Week.

Work life balance and starting a small business are not often seen on the same page. Somewhere in the “silent code book for small business – author unknown” there is a rule that says you have to work your butt off to be successful and everyone somehow finds that rule and adheres to it.

Most certainly you do need to put in a lot of time and effort in the early days ……. BUT if you work yourself into a burnout frenzy, you are NOT going to be able to work effectively IN your business, let alone ON your business.

One of my fabulous coaches and mentors the lovely Belinda Merry taught me that you MUST have regular time off to rest and recuperate. That message is even more important for health and wellbeing practitioners.


If you aren’t 100% filled up, you can’t give 100% to others.

In the early days of setting up your practice you need to be out and about seeing and speaking with a lot of people and it can be exhausting. If your practice is already full or filling, it can be exhausting just giving as much as you do to your clients so balancing that with adequate rest and down time is vital to your success.

BUT there IS a lot of work in getting any small business working well and sometimes you do have to burn a bit of midnight oil to get all the things done that you’ve got to do. Plus most of us have a home office and the temptation to overwork is generally just a few steps down the hall.

So I’ve come up with strategy that works for me.

I have ONE NON-NEGOTIABLE DAY OFF EVERY WEEK.

That means no matter what is going on I MUST NOT go into my office, nor turn my computer on, nor answer the office phone, nor do filing or paperwork – nothing! One day a week has to be completely for me. That rule never gets broken because I know Belinda has a global tracking satellite at her international headquarters that registers if you work on your day off and she will come after me!

I found if I had two non negotiable days off and there was a back log starting to build in my office, all that would happen is that I’d end up stressing about it.

So I created the concept of CHOOSE DAY

I create a CHOOSE DAY in my diary one day every week. So I cross the day off and write in CHOOSE DAY. It can be any day of the week, it doesn’t have to be a set day each week but it does have to be in your diary every week – months in advance.
So when CHOOSE DAY rolls around I can look at that day and think – is there anything so pressing it can’t wait until tomorrow?
Sometimes there are pressing things that MUST be done so I choose to work part of the day. Sometimes I use CHOOSE DAY as my creative writing day, which I love and it fills me up. Other times I know there is nothing pressing so I have CHOOSE DAY off to dig my garden without guilt, or go shopping or just rest and read a book. What is important is that I get to CHOOSE.

The golden rule is that you NEVER book anything else on a CHOOSE DAY so that when it rolls around you have a true choice in how you spend that day. I find by having a CHOOSE DAY I end up with eight days in a week because I tend to jam everything into the other days of the week so CHOOSE DAY remains free. I find it stops me procrastinating on the other days and I just get on with whatever needs doing so my CHOOSE Day remains a “me” day.

Sacred Tours with Keepers Of Wisdom Jeremy Donovan and Harold Tayley

Amazing opportunities arise every day but the opportunity to experience something this extraordinary with people who hold their land and their knowledge so sacred do not come up every day. Put this on your wish list - I have!

Sacred Tours with Keepers Of Wisdom Jeremy Donovan and Harold Tayley are from the Kuku -Yalanji Nation of Far North Queensland.

After lengthy consideration Jeremy and his family will now open their sacred world up for you to experience the richness of Australia’s Ancient History.

This tour will be a 6 Day Tour where you will be given the opportunity to experience the rich Rainforest cultural beliefs and participate in some of the Sacred Healing Traditions.

The Trip will consist of 2 nights staying at the 5 Star Thala Beach Eco Lodge, on the 1st and last night.

The other nights will be sleeping out on the land beneath the Stars in supplied swags.

Guided by Jeremy Donovan and Harold Tayley, the tour will give you an insight into the Traditional life of the Kuku - Yalanji including Bush Food, Hunting Traditions, Rock Art, Healing and Sacred Ceremony.

Both Jeremy and Harold are well known for there Cultural Knowledge and Healing Traditions. Jeremy has Travelled extensively throughout Australia and Internationally sharing his Inspiring Story, Sacred Music and Healing.

This tour will give people the opportunity to live and experience Australia’s Aboriginal Cultural breaking down the walls of separation, giving each individual a unique opportunity to feel the pride in Australia’s Custodian Culture. The Tour is limited to 10 people per tour assuring an intimate and personal experience.

15th August - 2oth August 2010

Tour Cost $2200.00p/p

all major meals, transport and accommodation will be included. (Flights to Cairns Not included)

Due to the Nature of this Sacred Trip and its location please contact Jeremy for details of the Itinerary: 0410 779 789 or healing@jeremydonovan.com.au
www.jeremydonovan.com.au

Downloadable PDF Brochure click here