Tag Archives: Graphic Facilitation
The P Words of Your Professional Practice: Process & Positioning
It’s a busy and fun May. My Magic Marker Masterminders are coming for a retreat (as you read this, we’ll be smack in the middle of Day 1). And the week after that I travel to co-host a 2-day retreat for our THEO Accelerator. Both of these programs, in one way or the other, support participants in defining and aligning with their “IT” … most often some sort of helping or process professional venture (be it as a coach, therapist, counselor, consultant, facilitator, trainer, visual scribe, empathy/intuitive or other process oriented role). And, given my visual predilections, some are keen to integrate visual tools into how they work too.
In supporting these folks to be more fully who they authentically are, I find myself in our group and private sessions emphasizing two powerful P words over and over again: process and position.
Basic Definitions:
Process is what are they actually DOING with their clients … as in what is the flow, organization or structure of their work with their ideal clients (be they groups or individuals). And position is the highest altitude or BEING that they occupy or assume given the processes they are qualified to lead.
You May Have Several Process Competencies:
Some practitioners may have several processes that they are competent at (i.e. I am skilled in visual recording / scribing processes (taking visual summary notes), facilitation processes (most often strategic planning, team building and conflict resolution/mediation) and am a pioneer in visual coaching processes (our SHIFT-IT System® with its 17 visual maps is an example of a custom or signature process).
Careful Not to Sell Yourself Short:
It becomes important to position oneself around the highest value process that one is equipped to lead, to not market yourself too low down the value chain (even if scarcity thinking might influence you otherwise).
In the example I gave of myself, it wouldn’t behoove me to position myself as a visual recorder or scribe (even though I did this work for years and am skilled at it) as this would take away from my higher worth as a consultant, coach, facilitator and educator/mentor. Yes, I may occasionally take on work that is lower in scope than I am capable of, but it would be a mistake to strongly position myself in the marketplace at those more junior levels.
I recommend to my clients that they position themselves at the top of what they are capable of and cascade their offerings down from there (with the more junior stuff listed at the bottom or not at all).
Often people (especially women) position themselves too low down the value chain. My job as their business coach is to get them to value themselves and what they do properly. So they aren’t inadvertently shooting themselves in their own foot.
Put In Your Miles (you can’t skip steps):
Let me say that I strongly believe that one needs to put in the time to be decent, good and competent at your craft (read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers).
Often this means mileage, mileage, mileage — putting in the miles (and hours) to get good at the processes you deliver. Then you can ethically position yourself in the marketplace as you go.
I am a BIG fan of doing what you need to, to develop your chops (especially pro bono or lower fee work when you are starting out or adding a new skill to your repertoire). Then adapting your positioning accordingly. The more you do the better you get … and you can legitimately position yourself as an answer to your particular client base’s problems.
To Use Other’s Processes or to Create Your Own:
An issue that often comes up on the developmental path of a Process Professional is what processes to focus on and how to add them to your toolkit. Whether to use someone’s else processes or to go through the developmental curve of creating your own — or both (use others and your own).
Given I’m someone who certifies other professionals to use our own signature process, where it’s a fit, I fall on the side of using other’s processes where you are ethically empowered to. Many professionals and organizations empower others to use their intellectual property through various means. This can be an effective way to quickly and efficiently add a process to your toolkit. To make your segue to being an effective Process Professional a quicker one. And, you can always create your own processes with clear distinctions down the line when you have some more experience under your belt and move into territories where pre-created processes don’t exist yet.
There are many processes on the market that cater to Process Professionals, with various parameters and boundaries attached to them. These, particularly for newer or beginning practitioners, are a great way to get quick understanding and entry into a niche or access to handy tool(s). Here are a few of my favorite examples:
Our SHIFT-IT Visual Coaching System via Visual Coach Certification
The Grove’s Strategic Visioning Process
Global Business Network’s Scenario Planning
Carol Pearson’s Archetypes Methodology
Myers Briggs Typologies
The DISC Assessment
Being Ethical:
I’m preaching to the choir here, as folks who receive my eZine are most likely super ethical people … however an FYI that it is not cool to rip off other people’s processes. Yes, we get influenced by what we read, what we come into contact with and what we experience … that is natural. However, I belief that its not right to copy, mimic or downright borrow (steal) other people’s processes. They went to a lot of hard work, sweat, tears and probably investment to get their processes to where they are. It’s crappy to take without proper compensation and agreed upon attribution. Plus, you shoot yourself in that foot via the funky energy that such actions generate — the Law of Attraction has a way of creating an even score in very fitting ways so be forewarned on the boomerang effect!
Evolve As You Go:
Being a Process Professional is a wonderful adventure … one that can hold you in good stead for a lifetime career. It’s wonderful to have a profession that allows one to follow their interests and to change and adapt one’s work as their personage changes too. And to get better and better with seasoning and age. Wishing you all the best in the evolution of your adventures as an effective Process Professional!
P.S. Are you establishing a new Process Practice? Are you a seasoned Process Professional in the midst of revamping your practice to make it authentic to who you are now? If so, check out our upcoming Outer Work Course: Biz Basics for Process Professionals. 10 Weeks Online, Starts Wednesday, May 22nd!
©2013 Christina L. Merkley
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this blurb and a functional link to my site:
Author’s Bio: Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT System®, is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Visual Thinking and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and conscious businesses to define and manifest what they truly want. And, trains other process professionals in her innovative ways of working. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com and
www.visualcoaches.com
7 TIPS TO BUILD YOUR 50-300K BIZ
I’ve run my own biz for over 12 years now. When I started, I was excited but scared as heck. Along the way I have learned A LOT about not only how to survive but how to thrive doing what I love.
For years I’ve taught and mentored others in how to do the same through private coaching and our various courses, particularly the longer term masterminds.
I want to share briefly with you what I’ve coined my “Outer Work Model” … the seven stages for building an operation in the 50-300K range.
Stage 1: INSPIRATION
It all begins with Inspiration … the idea, hunch or urge that niggles at you … the thing that wants to manifest through YOU. If you are new to self-employment or entrepreneurship, it’s the craft, practice or business that you want to launch (even if you are apprehensive, nervous or downright scared … and don’t know yet how to do it).
If you are already in business, it’s the thing that now wants to be birthed … the evolutionary whisper, rumble or shout that urges you to change, transition, or revamp; even though, or sometimes because, you inhabit a nice comfort level … but part of you doesn’t want to stop there because it knows there is more for you to evolve to and it wants you to GO FOR IT!
Stage 2: IDENITY & BRAND
Embedded in Inspiration is rich data about your emergent Identity and Brand – who you are as a practitioner and leader and what your ‘IT’ is. This stage can take some time, so it’s important to be patient and let the creative process do its work. After wrestling (and doing good exercises of assistance) you extract what your business identity truly is (at this point in time) You realize how authenticity, congruency and ‘being who you really are’ serves not only your soul but powerfully attracts your Ideal Client too!
Stage 3: STRUCTURAL BASICS
With a clear identify and brand (or at least clearer … cause you must get used to acting before total perfection sets in) your focus now turns to the Structural Basics that create a secure foundation for your business. The legal, banking, bookkeeping and accounting “Must Haves” … that create a strong girding for the services and/or products that you offer your Ideal Clients.
Decide on a beginning biz structure (sole prop, LLC, Inc.), where to bank, find appropriately skilled bookkeeping & accounting professionals to assist you … all the basics that you’ll need to conduct biz from. Through this process you will develop the sense of your biz being a separate entity from yourself (because it is!).
Stage 4: OFFERINGS
From your identity and brand work you know who you truly are and the clients you serve. Next, you need to get very, very clear about what your offerings to them are (the service or products that you provide as solutions to their needs or problems).
Again, you must exert patience as you likely will not be able to instantly do everything that you want to … building a proper sales funnels takes time. Start with the obvious, low-hanging fruit. What are the one of two services and/or products that you can immediately focus on? Then strategically continue to add to those over time. New offerings emerge from your client base, as knowing your market impacts what you offer them next because you intimately know what they need and want.
Stage 5: SOCIO-TECH SYSTEMS
Yes, you have built Structural Basics into your Business but you also must consider the role of Socio-Tech Systems too — the people (virtual contractors or in-person employees) and technology that help you effectively serve your clients (web tools: sites, blogs, stats, security, software, hardware, payment options, automation aids, etc). Where you play (or want to) on the 50-300 scale determines the extent of the people and tech systems you need.
Like offerings, start simple and build from there. You don’t have to do it all this Red Hot Minute … chill and take an evolutionary approach to your system building. The size of my own operation and team has snuck up on me over time … gently growing alongside my offerings (and very connected to my own personal development as a practitioner and leader … change happens first on the inner then manifests on the outer).
Stage 6: MARKETING & SALES
For some these are dreaded words … and I was a bit leery of them too when I began. But FYI, Marketing & Sales is a necessary part of any business and from personal experience I can assure you it can also be fun and enjoyable (even for those who are naturally shy).
It’s a matter of starting exactly where you are and with those in your immediate network and branching out from there. Plus, in this incredible day and age there are wonderful tools that no other generation in history has had good fortune to have at their fingertips (the internet and social media!). Old school ways still work, however if you have web or tech phobias you must deal with them or at least partner with people who are comfortable in these realms – otherwise you will miss out on incredible ways to link your offerings up with the folks who truly need them.
Stage 7: ADAPT OR CLOSE?
Business is an organic, alive process. You may operate for years but one day reach a crossroads … decide whether to keep going and make adaptations (cycle thru model again with a refined inspiration) or to close shop.
Alternatively, it may be time to bring a ‘conscious death’ to your biz if your inspiration has run dry. Far from taboo, the discussion of the death of your biz could lead to the birth of a new one, or blossom other areas of life instead.
THE SECRET SAUCE:
POSITIVE MINDSET AND RESILIENCE
The seven Outer Work stages I have just outlined are essential and practical … however there is a secret sauce that runs underneath all of the others. And that is the cultivation and nurturance of a Positive Mindset and the stance of Resilience.
Its normal when you are first starting out (or revamping) to be nervous, apprehensive and do a bit of avoidance or procrastination on your biz building.
However, you can’t allow that to fester and keep you from implementing your steps. You must learn the art of emotional mastery … how to accept your emotions yet also how to effectively move yourself up the emotional scale so you don’t take yourself out before you have even begun. Such a shame if you allow your fears, resistance and discomfort to keep you from getting your “IT” out there … as our world needs as many aligned, productive and successful Process Professionals as it can get!
Go For It:
From my own experience I can tell you that nothing beats the sweet feeling of having faced your dragons and done it anyways! There have been many times when things felt scary, confusing and overwhelming, but having this model and consistently implementing it have got me to where I now am (and to the phase my company is now going through … moving from primarily an online biz to brick & mortar (creating an office hub here in Victoria with in-person employees in addition to our wonderful online team). For those that this article speaks to, I say ‘go for it and keep on going’. Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas and some inspiration in these paragraphs to feed you on your path.
New Upcoming Course: FYI, for more in-depth mentorship with me on how to build your 50-300K practice, with the support of other
like-minded people across the globe also doing the same, check out our new Biz Basics for Process Professionals course. Fully online (so you can take it from the comfort of your own home no matter your geography).
Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus … You!
I’m in the midst of fulfilling our fall programs here at SHIFT-IT Coach, Inc. Have completed SHIFT-IT Online Group, and am in the middle of Thrive in the Time of Awakening & The Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals … plus am navigating interesting curriculum and biz expansions for 2013 and beyond.
There is a bit of a theme happening these last weeks that comes to the fore when I sit down to write this ezine. It’s a theme about manifestation and what it takes to create a fulfilling life. And it’s a theme about the balance of magic, wonder and awe with the pragmatics of good old-fashioned hard work, discipline and follow-through.
With Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals I’m guiding process professionals through the ins and outs of learning and implementing visual skills into their own practices. With THRIVE, we’re doing deep inner work (called Soul Integration) to identify and heal fragmented aspects of ourselves that are interfering with our ability to live full Soul-Centered lives.
Procrastination and Other Resistance:
Certified Visual Coach® Alison Crow developing her viz skills.
Banner for THRIVE Class
In both classes the intent is to empower people to take responsibility for their own development. We give them the skills but it’s really up to them to use them and go through the process of integrating them into their own experience. Like learning any new skillset its takes commitment, persistence and lots of application to reap the rewards — to go from being ‘consciously incompetent’ at something to being ‘unconsciously competent’ … on the route to mastery.
The Resistance Wall
At around the half way mark of both programs what I call ‘The Resistance Wall’ starts to predictable show up. The early glamour wears off for some folks, when they realize that visual work and spirituality work … well, they are ‘work’. That a magic wand doesn’t magically anoint them with new skills or a new state in life just by signing up … they have to commit to their development process to reap the rewards. If they do, they get awesome results. If they don’t … they won’t.
Doing and Being:
The development process is not only an outward one of taking action, but also an inner one of softening resistance, frustration and negative self-talk. The learner follows instruction and completes recommended exercises and processes but also has to concurrently manage their emotional landscape. Learning how to ‘allow’ their process as it is … to not demand instant results but make their natural unfoldment ok, good and perfect. The ‘being’ is just as important as the ‘doing’ … in fact without more relaxed being the doing can often get stopped in its tracks. This is where folks start falling of the radar screen … getting busy in other things, deciding they don’t want it after all, or my personal favorite … blaming the teaching or container and other forms of acting out.
You Are Your Own Santa Claus:
I love magic and wonder … and I love creativity, flow and synchronicity.
And I also love things being ‘easy’. And am a big believer that when there is passion there is easiness or at least pleasure and enjoyment.
All the fabulous right brain stuff!
You are probably aware of the famous “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” New York Sun editorial. It’s a lovely sentiment that continues to stand the test of time. However, I would put a twist on it: Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus … and it’s an energy that resides in you! Magic is not some outside force that grants good stuff to some people and not to others. It’s the natural effect of lining up your internal energy in such a matter that you become a Vibrational Match to the things that you say
Alignment is An Inside Job:
A good teacher, coach or mentor can certainly help you in reframing your thoughts into more productive patterns. But they can’t be there with you 24/7. Eventually you need to take more and more of that job on yourself. And, it’s not really about thoughts at the deeper level anyway. It’s about the feelings that those thoughts activate in your physical and emotional bodies.
Soothing Thoughts for your Development Path
So, if you are an Interactive-Visuals or THRIVE student, or anyone who is in the process of becoming your Next Self, here are some soothing statements to reassure the negative beast within … and hopefully bring some stabilization and calm to your development path:
- Any new skillset takes investment in time and resources to develop, that is normal and ok.
- Nobody is perfect to begin with (in fact what is perfection anyway … its more about ‘good enough is good enough for now’).
- Anyone who is good at something went through an awkward growth stage at some point in their development, so why should I be an exception?
- I’m good at lots of things, its just going to be a process to over time get good at this too.
- Most people aren’t savants … they don’t magically wake up being exceptional at something – like Malcolm Gladwell writes about in Outliers,
the research shows that it takes 10,000 hours to reach mastery.
- Thankfully I don’t have to reach mastery in order for my new skill to be of good use.
- Comparison is only useful to a certain level, if its not making me feel good to look at other people’s output, then I can stop doing that and focus on, accept and love my own unique journey.
- There are learning curves for everything. Training wheels are normal to start with. Eventually I’ll move through my mimic stage to develop my own signature style. For now the mimic stage is fine granted I give credit where credit is due and respect intellectual property boundaries.
- My teacher’s responsibility is to provide a useful and well organized curriculum, its my responsibility to implement it.
- I’m doing great. I’m proud of myself. This is a journey that I can relax into. I don’t have to have it all figured out and implemented this red-hot minute!
- I trust my process. I trust life. Life is good. I’m fortunate to live in this time and space and have the access that I do.
- I’m really appreciative of this experience I have drawn to myself. Its fascinating, I’m learning a lot. I’ll figure out how to apply it all as I go along.
- For now, I can enjoy my process. It’s uniquely mine. Nobody else in the multiverse is me. I’m contributing to the whole by just being authentically me.
©2012 Christina L. Merkley
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this blurb and a functional link to my site:
Author’s Bio: Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT System®, is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Visual Thinking and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and conscious businesses to define and manifest what they truly want. And, trains other helping professionals in her innovative ways of working. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com and www.visualcoaches.com
Trust Your Rapid Acceleration
The Siren Call of Paper, Markers, Color!
Do you feel a vague or constant sense of pressure? Is there anxiety but not necessarily a sense about what (or about everything)? Do you have part of the picture but not the full puzzle figured out yet … but feel frustratingly compelled to do so? If so, you have the signs of being in the midst of a creative acceleration. Your life is SHIFTing … you just haven’t reached a fuller awareness yet as to what.
Many of the people who find their way to SHIFT-IT Coach, Inc. exhibit those symptoms. Often its instinct that is driving you … something in the visuals, color, energy, emotion, tone and feel of who I am and what I (or one of my students) do, resonates with you. That’s because you too are a cultural creative … and we are talking your language … a language that you need to speak more.
The Leap:
So, you take the leap. You register for some sample, program or product that I offer (some of you suspiciously wary about the kooky lady on the internet … while others more confident in your selection, due to knowing someone who’s had a good experience). And then you dive into your outer and inner work (if you don’t put it off for months or years or self sabotage somehow in the first few sessions … unfortunately that happens for some).
Exposure and Exploration:
Once you have taken the leap, you enter into a new phase of exposure and exploration. I have two tracks at SHIFT-IT Coach … one is an outer world track and the other is an inner world track — and they intertwine (because both outer skills and inner alignment is needed to succeed with anything). For when you take a holistic approach (using both your left and right brain) your development accelerates
Image Source: www.cartoonaday.com (from Facebook)
Outer Work Track: (left brain):
Our Outer Work track is skill based — I teach you solid, practical, useful interactive-visuals and business development skills to enhance your existing work and/or to create a new livelihood. If you are new to the visual way of working you begin with Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals, then work your way into Magic Marker Mastermind and/or Visual Coach Certification.
You are attracted to the visual way of working because it’s highly effective and puts your process work on high octane fuel (plus the visual way of working is FUN — for your clients (87% of which are visual thinkers) AND for you!). Helping you become an effective visual practitioner serves my life mission of provoking societal change (every visual practitioner I mentor, who does good work, helps change the world). And I serve your life purpose by helping you find, develop and express your innate talents in an accelerated fashion. It’s a win/win … for you, me and our world.
Inner Work Track:
The Inner Work track is about your internal clarity, feelings and commitments. Some of you who find your way to us are clear the SHIFTs that you want to make in your professional and/or personal life. But some need assistance in that department. Or, you want to learn how to be of assistance to others who are in that sacred confusion zone.
My SHIFT-IT System® is the place you start — 17 visual maps that work you into clarity and alignment (you can do it on your own through a Home Study Kit, join me in a facilitated SHIFT-IT Online Group or work privately with me or one of my Certified Visual Coaches®).
Through SHIFT-IT you define your Next Self, address your resistance, organize your steps and COMMIT to the process of actualizing yourself. Your Next Self may or may not involve interactive-visuals (as people who use SHIFT-IT as a clarity tool come from all walks of life, ages, industries, professions and niches).
One of the modules of The SHIFT-IT System is called “Trouble at the Border”. It is a module designed to identify and work through your resistance … the negativity, blocks and fears that you may have about what you want. My advanced work at SHIFT-IT Coach, Inc. is deep congruency work — helping you SHIFT your internal belief system and energy so you are a match to what you want.
Thrive in the Time of Awakening and The THEO Accelerator (info coming soon), plus Private Coaching is where this deep congruency work is done – breaking through your blocks so you manifest what you want.
Integration and Life Launch:
After completing your Outer and/or Inner Work with SHIFT-IT Coach, Inc. you enter into an integration phase … where you take what we have taught you and integrate it into your own unique circumstances. Many are embedded in organizations throughout the world, doing internal change agent work. Others are independent professionals and small business owners getting your own ‘it’ into the world. Often there is a mirroring or duplication phase where you mimic what you have learnt from us … but as you keep with it in integrity … your own authentic and original style and offerings emerge. Our courses accelerate your learning and development … however it’s you and your Higher Self who emit your own special flavour, expression and tone out in the world. All of us doing our part we form an international community of process professionals who mid-wife change in its many levels.
©2012 Christina L. Merkley
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this blurb and a functional link to my site:
Author’s Bio: Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT System®, is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Visual Thinking and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and conscious businesses to define and manifest what they truly want. And, trains other helping professionals in her innovative ways of working. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com and www.visualcoaches.com
[SHIFT-IT School] Two Diverse Online Courses Launching Now
The fall season has begun here at SHIFT-IT Coach, Inc. with two more online courses about to launch … both with distinctive flavors.
One a spiritually-oriented experience that helps you do deep integrative work to actualize your authentic self.
The other a skills training for Process Professionals to add the power of working visually with groups and/or individuals to your own toolkit.
1. THRIVE IN THE TIME OF AWAKENING
12 Online Webinars: Tuesdays, Oct. 2 – Dec. 18, 2012, 5-7pm PST
Thrive in the Time of Awakening is a spiritually-oriented experience co-lead with my friends and collaborators Sheila and Marcus Gillette and THEO (a non-physical intelligence that Sheila, a skilled trance medium, has channeled for the last 40 years). In this special 12-week community, you learn and implement THEO’s “Soul Integration Process®” (with the aid of custom visual tools) to resolve blocks, resistance and negativity to stand proudly in your Authentic Self. For people willing to responsibly work with triggers, activations and conflicts in order to attract more peace, harmony and happiness in life (and the world at large).
Here’s a quick overview of the agenda
Class 1: Welcome & Orientation
Class 2: Meditation and Body Care
Class 3: Soul Integration Process
Class 4: Soul Integration for Relationship
Class 5: Soul Integration for Health
Class 6: Soul Integration for Money
Class 7: Mid-Way Calibrations
Class 8: Connectivity to Guides
Class 9: Expression of Authentic Self
Class 10: Vision and Action Plans
Class 11: Vision and Action Plans
Class 12: Launch and Acceleration
Starts Tuesday, October 2nd
For More Information and Online Details:
http://www.asktheo.com/thrive2012
2. FUNDAMENTALS OF INTERACTIVE-VISUALS
18 Online Webinars: Monday & Wednesday, Oct. 15 – Dec. 18, 2012, noon-1pm PST
Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals is geared for process professionals who wish to add the power of working visually to their own client work and content (consultants, trainers, authors/speakers, facilitators, coaches, therapists, educators, scribes/graphic recorders, etc). With an emphasis on PROCESS (not wowie but irrelevant flourish) we cover the full spectrum of visual applications (custom chart work, recording, visual facilitation and visual coaching) and how you can quickly integrate the visual medium into your own toolkit.
Attraction to image, color and creativity but no artistic training or ability required. Anyone can learn to use visuals to assist their process or content work!
BASIC OVERVIEW:
*** Learn the historical story of the interactive-visuals field and what the four main applications are (so you can decide which suits you and your practice best);
*** Hear what the needed and best supplies are and where to source them;
*** Receive icon libraries, visual resources and step-by-step directions on how to integrate visuals into your own practice (no matter where on the visual spectrum you fall … no, you DO NOT need to be an artist to use Interactive-Visuals techniques);
*** Get precise, gentle, connect-the-dots instruction on how to ‘draw’ … I sneak it up on you so get beyond any ‘art phobia’, fear or comparison problems you might have about your creative abilities (this work is really about PROCESS not art);
*** See varied examples and hear detailed explanations of real client work (culled from two decades of working nationally, internationally and digitally with corporate, not-for-profit, governmental and individual populations);
Visual Supplies
Visual Recording
*** Practice your new skills and receive detailed feedback (the online experience enables us to create a real learning lab over 9 weeks … post your work and witness the work and feedback others receive too – very valuable!);
*** Receive supportive coaching on which steps to take to build or enhance your visual recording, visual facilitation and/or visual coaching career (I’ve successfully mentored hundreds of people from around the world and YOU CAN do this work too … just put one foot (or hand!) in front of the other!
*** Connect with individuals from diverse backgrounds and locations also interested in this visual niche — your global visual tribe! (private online forum where you virtually meet one another, upload your work, share tips, resources, etc).
FOR FULL DETAILS AND ONLINE REGISTRATION:
http://www.visualcoaches.com/training/fundamentals/
VISUAL COACH CERTIFICATION PRE-REQUISITE:
This program is a pre-requisite for
Visual Coach Certification® (if you are interested in being accepted into the 2013 cohort and do not want to travel to Victoria, BC, Canada it is your ONLY way this year to secure the pre-requisite without travel).
I look forward to assisting you with your visual and personal expansion!
Christina Merkley
The SHIFT-IT Coach
and Interactive-Visuals Mentor
P.S. Already have basic instruction in visual facilitation? Ready for immediate/advanced mentoring? FYI, 6-month Magic Marker Mastermind now accepting applications.
P.P.S.
For a full overview of 2012-13 courses, see: http://www.shift-it-coach.com/courses/.
Create Your Signature Style
As the SHIFT-IT Coach, I help fascinating individuals get their ‘it’ into the world. Your ‘it’ may have a visual component or your creativity may be expressed in other ways. Whatever expression your creativity takes, our work together is a process of helping you discover your innate signature style. Your own unique way of being the kind of professional you are and representing that to the marketplace … whether you are internal in an organization or participating externally as a solopreneur or business owner.
Pursue What Attracts You:
The first step in creating your signature style is to be courageous and follow the beat of your own drummer and pursue what attracts you. What attracts you may be very different from the environments you come from. Put aside what other people think and have the confidence to trust your own intuition and where it is leading you. You don’t have to have it all logically figured out to begin with (I didn’t), just follow your hunches and have faith that the logic will reveal itself later.
When my journey began in 1994 I followed the impulse to go to the San Francisco Bay Area and apply for a leading edge university (some would say flakey-edge!). While in school I stumbled onto the visual way of working and did an internship with The Grove Consultants (pioneering Group Graphics firm founded by David Sibbet). I built my thesis around visual ways of working and despite lots of skepticism, criticism and jests I doggedly pursued my visual interest.
Now, with the roots of those early choices bearing such ripe fruit (the visual way of working is much more mainstream) I’m having the last laugh at those who chuckled at my supposed folly back them. Other people, even if they care a great deal about you, can’t know what your soul’s path is. But your Inner Self does and is guiding you every step of the way … if you will only listen and put one foot in front of the other and follow your clues. Later those clues will weave together in a way that makes logical and even financial sense.
Mimic Phase:
In creating your own signature style you will likely go through a mimic stage. Whatever your interest is, you will begin to seek out people who know about it and are further along the path than you. This stage will likely include a lot of reading, research, study and experimentation. In the early stages of developing your ‘it’ it will look a lot like others ‘its’. It’s important to be ethical in your choices about how you model yourself after others. Give credit where credit is due and cite your influences. And be mindful of where intellectual property and other boundaries are. And in this world of global communication, transgressions are usually noticed which can impact your fledging reputation in detrimental ways. Nobody likes a plagiarizer.
| “Mileage, Mileage, Mileage: The true road to your own signature style is mileage, mileage, mileage. As Malcolm Gladwell highlights in his Outliers book, the magic number for true expertise, whatever your avocation, is 10,000 hours. I remember as a 20-something the hubris I had to think I could just jump in and become an Organizational Development professional overnight. As a 40-something my humility is legions deeper. It has taken many, many, many hours to develop my particular ‘it’ and many, many, many more will be needed for the next phase of things. |
“In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”
Malcolm Gladwell |
Expertise and wisdom comes with the passing of time and with the weathering of many different experiences. Seasoning is king. If you stick with it and put in the mileage, your own unique signature style will slowly but authentically emerge. One can’t skip steps. However one can learn to enjoy the journey along the way with its natural evolution.
©2012 Christina L. Merkley
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb and a functional link to my site:
Author’s Bio: Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT System®, is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Visual Thinking and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and conscious businesses to define and manifest what they truly want. And, trains other helping professionals in her innovative ways of working. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com and www.visualcoaches.com
THE IMPORTANCE OF A SAFE HAVEN FOR YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF
As I end a busy season and prepare for the next one, and sit down to write this eZine … my mind wanders over the terrain of the last while. The people I have worked with, the dilemmas they face … and my own journey in continuing to keep up with who I now am and what now wants to emerge in my work and life.
One of the consistent themes I witness is the beauty, the dogged persistence, and the stubbornness of people’s creative path. Their Authentic Self wants to come out and it plows through things that stand in its way. But the plow is not without its challenges, angst and tribulations. As old ways of being and thinking … and even people, places and things … often need to fall by the wayside in order for the next level of order to emerge.
1. ENVIRONMENT
One of the things that helps authenticity thrive is having an environment that is conducive to the creative process, with its ups, downs and all arounds. This environment is everything that surrounds us. Our home and space, our geography, our climate, the prevailing energy and atmosphere. Whether we are out and about in the real world and/or wandering around online. The same principles apply to both realms – our day-to-day environment is VERY important as it imprints us. We want to make sure it is as healthy, happy, positive and as supportive as possible, especially in consideration of what it is that we want to create in the world.
In the pursuit of actualizing ourselves and bringing our gifts, talents and aptitudes more fully out into the world … my clients (and myself) often have to take a look at what we have around us.
Is our environment supportive of who we now are? Will it assist us in going to our next level? Or will it act as an anchor or drag … resistance that interferes, clogs and slows down our journey?
2. HIDDEN or KNOWN COACH
I have the honour of working very deeply with my clients. Getting to know them in many aspects of their lives. Mostly they engage me to help build their creative-based careers. I help them clarify what they next want to do, provide education and training, then define and implement their next steps. Lately I have been noticing an interesting wrinkle in my work with clients — the ones who are ‘out’ about our coaching and the ones who aren’t.
When I mean ‘out’ …. I mean to their significant other or other important people in their life (business partners, collaborators, employers, employees, etc). Some partners know of my alliance with my client — I’ll even be introduced when they are in the background of our video chats or when they are in Victoria for a visit. Others don’t. It’s the latter that I find interesting. Why is coaching with me a secret? Why can’t it be shared with the partner? What would happen if it were?
3. LARGER TRANSITIONS
I help people become their authentic selves. Help you be who you really are and develop and bring your talents out into the world in a robust way. For some clients, the exploration of authenticity and innate creativity is in baby-step stage. They need a private, safe incubator in which to explore and that is why they have engaged me. Hopefully, when their explorations are a little more definite they will share their discoveries with their partner – and they will be well received.
For other clients, our explorations are part of a much bigger exploration — an exploration that might lead to SHIFTing their lives in a BIG way. They hide our coaching alliance because for various reasons it doesn’t feel safe to share it with their partners, at least at this point in time. Maybe the investment is secret (the partner feels they have already invested too much in personal growth). Or, their partner wants things to remain in the status quo. Or, even more challenging, the partner belittles or undermines what the client wants to create and puts up blocks, challenges and ultimatums.
4. SUPPORTIVE PARTNERSHIPS
In my client roster there are several clients who have lovely relationships. Their partners not only know of their coaching with me but fully support and encourage it and the SHIFT we are working towards. Some of these clients came fully loaded this way … their relationships were secure, safe and supportive partnerships long before they started coaching with me. Other clients have SHIFTed their relationship over the course of our coaching alliance (either the original partnership improved or they created supportive partnerships with different people).
However they got there, these clients have the following traits in their relationships:
- their partner fully knows about their coaching alliance with me and is supportive;
- their partners is on point with the goals of our coaching (even if it means that the change may impact them in some ways);
- their partner wants them to be happy, even if it means pursuing something that the partner themselves doesn’t quite understand;
- their partner trusts them, their instincts and their judgment;
- their partner has optimism and general good cheer in their ability as a couple to help my client get what s/he wants.
5. THE ENORMOUS VALUE OF A SAFE HAVEN
The nature of these relationships can be defined as a ‘safe haven’. Each person in the couple is valued as a unique human being with loads of intrinsic value. And the atmosphere is one of emotional safety, connection, love, support and security. These qualities and these kinds of relationships help so much when one is making a career transition or building a specialty business or practice, especially a creative or unique one. When I take on a new client I’m always curious about the state of relationship in their life. Not because I’m inherently nosy (and I am!) but because I know from decades of change management work that its easier for happily coupled people (and satisfied singles) to make SHIFTS. Things take on an added layer of complexity when an unsupportive or reluctant partner is in the mix. Its soooooooo much easier when the foundational area of relationship does not also have to be addressed.
If you are interested in learning more about safe haven relationships, I highly recommend the work of pioneering couples therapist, Dr. Sue Johnson (she’s a fellow Canadian based in Ottawa, Ontario). Dr. Johnson’s work is based on Attachment Theory … the study of what all humans inherently need to feel secure in the world (whether they are children, adolescents, or grown adults). For years she has run clinical studies on relationships in distress — and what creates relationships that meet our deepest intimacy needs.
“Hold Me Tight” is her book for the non-clinician. I also recommend her training DVDs and nuts-and-bolts academic texts for process professionals who want to learn more. I’ve been blitzing through this material the last few months and find the Emotional Focused approach utterly fascinating. And very compatible with Law of Attraction premises (what you focus on and habitually feel is the reality that you will ultimately create).
A Related P.S:
While I’m not sure if she in a Safe Haven type relationship (I suspect she is) … a recent Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals student, Leena, has been writing a blog about her transition to a more integrated life after voluntarily leaving corporate work. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading her thoughtful reflections. You can check out her Inspiring Adventures here.
©2012 Christina L. Merkley
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb and a functional link to my site:
Author’s Bio: Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT System®, is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Visual Thinking and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and conscious businesses to define and manifest what they truly want. And, trains other helping professionals in her innovative ways of working. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com and www.visualcoaches.com
Keep Perspective on Your Developmental SHIFT
I’m right smack in the middle of running my spring programs, including Magic Marker Mastermind (for intermediate visual practitioners) and Thrive in the Time of Awakening (metaphysical offering with The THEO Group). Although they have different focuses, both groups are all about helping people manifest their next ‘it’ … in essence becoming ‘their Next Self’.
As The SHIFT-IT Coach, a significant part of what I do is help people get clear about their desired destination — and then coordinate their outer actions and internal feelings accordingly. Sometimes this process goes smoothly and sometimes there are a few bumps along the way. Here are a few thoughts about making your developmental shift a little smoother.
1. REGROUP AND RECOVER
Sometimes in the process of becoming Your Next Self one needs to first go through a regroup and recovery phase. For some people the circumstances that provoked their SHIFT were negative in nature. The tension, frustration and toxicity of their environment gave birth to their new desires. This chaos served a really great purpose (it eventually got them focused on what was better for them) however it often needs to be recovered from too. Sooooo, just a little reminder. If you are emerging from trying circumstances you will likely need some good old-fashioned self care before you can fully turn your focus to building your new work and/or life.
FYI: Check out Certified Visual Coach® Allison Crow’s upcoming Renewal Retreat in Texas for a great way to recharge your batteries with helpful self.
2. FRUSTRATION PHASE
In crafting your new world, also be gently warned that you will likely go through a sometimes intense frustration phase. Of not knowing, getting excited then dashing your hopes, feeling clear and then feeling murky and unsure. Getting pissed off at yourself (and perhaps others). Big sigh! You have my condolences. I have gone through this many, many times as I manifest my next chapters too and so do a lot of my clients. If this is you … please lean in and listen up … psssttttt, this is VERY normal! There is nothing wrong with you or your ideas. This is just often the nature of creativity and manifestation.
Don’t worry … it will eventually become clear. You may have several so-called false attempts. But none of them are a waste. They all help you get to where you need to be going. Trust your process. Trust your inner wisdom (its working away!) and trust yourself!
3. HOLD THAT VISION STRONGLY YET LIGHTLY
I had a cute and funny thing happen with Jill one of my masterminders which helps me illustrative my next point. Jill wrote in to compliment me on one one of my taglines. The tagline reads: Draw Your Vision and Erase Your Resistance. The ‘funny’ thing was that in referring to it, Jill quoted it as "Draw Your Vision and Raise Your Resistance"! LOL!!!! When I pointed that out we both had a chuckle about what Freud would think!
Unfortunately, whether or not that is true for her personally, it can be for others. When we go through the process of crafting a vision for ourselves it can sometimes RAISE our resistance rather than dissipate it (FYI, the visual tool I have created to help build your Vision is called a Magnetism Map … below is an example of one I created for myself recently).
Creating your vision ideally should be fun, enjoyable and exciting. There may be some resistance about whether or not you can do it or should do it (what I call ‘Trouble at the Border’ and we work on that). However, if the act of creating a vision gives you the heebee jeebees (technical term that!) then you need to learn to hold that vision lighter and have more fun with it. Don’t choke the heck out of it and turn it into something that feels unpleasant or pressured for you. You also might be getting too specific too soon. Try going more general in your wording instead. Remember – to quote Abraham-Hicks … you ‘don’t have to have it all figured out this red hot minute’! Focus on what feels good (otherwise put it away and focus on things that do).
4. APPRECIATE WHAT YOU HAVE MANIFESTED
It can sound like a cliché in Law of Attraction circles (and it is) but please, please, please focus more on what you DO have rather than on what you don’t yet. My mentees often lose sight of what they have accomplished, and often in a short period of time … cause they get so focused on more, more, more that they lose perspective and patience. All your goodies can’t all happen at once … you’d be squished by the density of them if they did!
One wonderful client manifested a visual recording gig with a top-rated speaker with glowing accolades about her work (something she would have jumped to the moon about not that long ago). But in reporting out on it to her masterminders she focused more on what she thought she didn’t do well and on what she should improve on. Arrggghhhh (that is yours truly pulling her hair out!). I teased her on this too. And she got laughing about how right I was. When she lightened up and appreciated herself and the successful experience she HAD attracted, her energy really shifted (and as a result more good feeling stuff is on its way to her!).
Write lists of Positive Aspects and appreciations. Draw out your path so you can appreciate that milestones you have already done. Appreciating what you do have and softly reaching for more is what the game is all about!
5. PERFECTION DOESN’T EXIST
In manifesting your Next Self you will make so-called mistakes. You will most likely have challenging experiences at times and things that might even make you cringe. Don’t worry about it. SH#T happens when you are on a SHIFT-IT path. Brush yourself off and figure out what you can do now. There is no such thing as perfection. But there is our own individual journey … which is perfect with its warts and all (at least from the bigger, more spiritual perspective).
Cut yourself some lack. Allow yourself to be goofy at times and make booboos. Don’t idolize people out there you admire — if you were more privy to their true inside story rather than your projections you would hear all sorts of stumbles, mistakes and goof ups mixed in with their successes, wins and direct hits. Success can have lots of winding roads and tributaries instead of a direct highway. And, that is totally ok!
©2012 Christina L. Merkley
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb and a functional link to my site:
Author’s Bio: Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT System®, is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Visual Thinking and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and conscious businesses to define and manifest what they truly want. And, trains other helping professionals in her innovative ways of working. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com and www.visualcoaches.com
[Visual Coach Certification] Last Chance to Use My Custom Visual Coaching Methods in 2012
As you might have spotted in the SHIFT-IT e-Zine and blog … the 2012 deadline for empowering coaches, therapists and other helping professionals to use my custom Visual Coaching methods is fast approaching (this weekend!).
If you are a process professional who wants to add the power of working visually to your own work with individuals, couples and teams … The Visual Coach Certification gives you:
A thorough, step-by-step mentorship in the niche Visual Coaching methodology … based on my pioneering work over the last decade;
Instruction in my SHIFT-IT Visual Coaching Process® with its suite of 17 visual tools … plus a lifetime license to use these powerful tools with your own clientele;Support in ‘template-izing’ your own intellectual property to create your own signature systems and visual tools (should you have a specialty niche or process(es) that lent themselves to the visual way of working);In-depth marketing guidance and tools (agendas, contracts, logos, models, suggested sales copy, etc) to successfully add visual coaching to your offerings (as a full-on brand or as a complementary addition to your existing menu);Active participation in a supportive, communal network of smart, seasoned, successful, kind-hearted professionals using Visual Coaching across the globe;
Visual Maps & Instruction Booklets
The 2012 Cohort now forming has fascinating participants from North America and Europe …
Visual Coach Certification is an application-only entrance process — and requires two pre-requisites: SHIFT-IT Online (or private SHIFT-IT work with me or one of my Certified Visual Coaches) and Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals (or proven equivalent experience). This program is offered only once a year … the deadline for applying for 2012 ends this weekend (as we start April 10th) so apply now to catch this year’s training.
Why would you want to be trained and licensed in my custom Visual Coaching tools?
My SHIFT-IT System® is an excellent, proven system that works in its entirety or in standalone exercises – it harnesses the power of visual thinking … a mode that 87% of your clients prefer to think and learn in;It’s perfect for both seasoned helping professionals (to lend a visual element to activities that you might already do) or for newer coaches who can benefit from an organized structure and flow that is proven to work;These visual tools make coaching tangible – greatly increases the ease and efficiency of your client intake process (your clients literally see what they are signing up for … unlike other more amorphous ways of coaching – which results in increased biz for you);
Small Size Templates
Wall-Sized Charts
The tools can be used either in-person (large wall size murals or small size templates), virtually and/or as homework assignments between calls (makes your coaching time very effective … you and your clients hit the ground running right away);Each license is for life and you are given the rights to distribute and print as many copies as you like within your own client base (heck of a deal!);Using visual coaching tools differentiates you from the pack – as Visual Coaching is a new and exciting emerging niche in the coaching field … gives you a distinctive edge. Plus, it’s a really fun and creative way to work (so its as enjoyable for us as it is for our clients);Click here to more about Visual Coach Certification: what’s included (what’s not), how its conducted, dates, the kind of professional I accept in this program (and the kind I don’t) and how to apply before the MARCH 24TH DEADLINE.
If you are resonating with this opportunity and feel you are a fit – I look forward to interviewing you. Remember … there are 2 required pre-requisites (if you don’t have … prepare this year and apply for the 2013 cohort instead)
Yours in visual expansion,
Christina Merkley
The SHIFT-IT Coach
& Interactive-Visuals Mentor
P.S. May’s Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals workshop has one spot still available. There will be an online version in the fall (stay tuned for dates). Private and in-house options also available.
P.P.S. Ready for your own SHIFT? The SHIFT-IT System® is an ideal companion during times of transition and confusion. Use it to chart your next chapter and SHIFT your life for the better (available via SHIFT-IT Online Group, SHIFT-IT Home Retreat Kit and via a Certified Visual Coach).
How to Successfully Launch a Visual Practitioner Career or Hobby
I’ve been in the Interactive-Visuals field for going on two decades now … and the field just gets richer, deeper and more known every year. It’s truly an exciting time to enter into the field, however there are a few things you should know if you are contemplating developing a career or hobby in the visual way of working. As a mentor who has coached hundreds of people in successfully developing their visual craft … here are my tips on how to have a successful entry.
1. GET GOOD BASE TRAINING
One of your first steps (after browsing the internet and reading books) is to get yourself to a decent basic training. For good and for bad, there are now a plethora of beginning level visual scribing and visual facilitation trainings popping up. Good – because there may be an offering closer to home or cheaper than there used to be. But bad – because the quality of some offerings leaves much to be desired, so as a consumer you must do your due diligence in finding a good one.
I’ve offered my Fundamentals of Interactive-Visuals training for over a decade now. It thoroughly covers the basics and how they can be applied to the four main ways of working visually (custom chart work, visual scribing, visual facilitation and visual coaching). Lots of marker work and practice in a safe environment with other visually interested participants from across the globe. My course is offered twice a year (in-person in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in May and online for 9 weeks in Oct.-Dec.). I also offer private and in-house trainings.
Basic Icons and Wall Work
Your Visual Tribe
In addition to my own trainings, I recommend the trainings at The Grove Consultants International in San Francisco (David Sibbet was my first mentor and a true founding father in the visual way of working) and Crowley and Associates in Maryland (Deirdre is a good friend who shares my same philosophy about the work being about PROCESS first and foremost not art). There may be other good trainings out there but at this time I’m not prepared to back them publicly due to needing to know more about their structure and philosophy.
2. DECIDE ON YOUR PRIMARY INTEREST AREA
As I’ve written about extensively before, in my opinion there are four main applications in the Interactive-Visuals genre (custom chart work, visual scribing, visual facilitation and visual coaching). See 4 Ways of Working Visually for more details.
After receiving good basic training, your next task in becoming a functioning visual practitioner (whether for work or fun) is to decide upon your primary area of interest.
Which genre do you want to commit to as a starting focus? My suggestion is that you pick one to start with, then you can add others as you go along.
As of late, more and more formally trained illustrators, artists and designers have been getting turned onto this niche. If you come from this background, a natural place to apply your skills is in Custom Chart work (including the time-lapse recording videos that have become all the rage) and visual scribing/graphic recording. Should you wish to enter into true visual facilitation work, you’ll most likely need to hone your understanding of facilitation and process before you can effectively work on that side of the spectrum.
If you aren’t an artist (and don’t want to invest heavily in becoming one) but do have facilitation, coaching or other process experience then visual facilitation and/or visual coaching are going to be your starting places. You can take your basic visual skills and start applying them to processes that you already design or lead. And/or you can learn handy ready-made visual processes like The Grove’s Strategic Visioning Process (for strategic planning work with groups) and/or my SHIFT-IT Visual Coaching Process (deep personal thinking for individuals, life and business partners). I believe Global Business Network has also template-ized their Scenario Planning.
If you aren’t already a facilitator, but are interested in becoming one, then a basic facilitation and/or strategic planning course will serve you well. Then you can start adding in visuals to the way you facilitate (or act as a visual scribe in settings where someone else is doing the lead facilitation role until you are ready to start co-facilitating or taking on the lead role). This work is about PROCESS not art, so you really need to know and hone your process abilities in order to effectively perform visual facilitation.
3. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
Once you have determined your focus area, you will enter an extended practice period. Please note, you will not become a skilled Visual Practitioner overnight (no matter who you are). You, like all of us who have become proficient in this work, will have to enter into a sustained development period in order to hone your craft and your internal confidence.
It takes chutzpah to draw, doodle and format thinking publicly. You may have early wins right off the bat, but please be prepared that it may take months and even years to fully stand tall in this work. You may need to take on pro bono work to begin with and lower rates as you build your portfolio, contacts and network. There is no shame in this. Its realistic and a fact of life. Committed people who maturely accept this do well … folks who have immature expectations don’t. While this is a captivating, fun and even glamorous field … it is a skilled craft and a business like any other. So you must be prepared to put in your mileage to reap the rewards.
4. BUILD YOUR BRAND
Speaking of business, concurrent to honing your skills you will also be building your practice (if you intend to do this work beyond a general interest or hobby). One of the reasons I have been success in this work is because I invested extensively in business development and marketing training, particularly online methods. Moving back to Canada (after years in San Francisco) and living on a beautiful island, it was a necessity that I learn how to market and promote my visual work effectively (at that time there were few practitioners in this country, let alone the world).
Nowadays, given the global interest in working visually, it is easier (cause early adopters like me have paved the way for you). However, due to increased volumes, you will need to learn how to differentiate your offering and yourself – from others in the field. And learn how to effectively attract the kinds of clients you care to work with (see my How to Effectively Select a Visual Practitioner article for the client’s perspective in all of this).
5. NETWORK FOR ONGOING SUPPORT
Even though the visual way of working is growing in leaps and bounds, it’s still a unique niche and as such it can be lonely at times. As you continue to develop your craft and yourself, it will become increasingly important to surround yourself with like-minded and hearted people … to build community via your Visual Tribe.
Not only is ongoing networking and community good for business, it is good for the SOUL. In order to be successful at this work (or any work for that matter), it’s important to strongly believe in what you are doing and to rejuvenate and keep things fresh. To keep an excited, motivated, and energetic vibe within yourself and your work. Its imperative to befriend others and find qualified mentors who can assist your ongoing evolution.
As you progress, you will grow out of early visual interests, friends and mentors and into new ones. This is a natural and healthy process, as you change and morph to new levels. We all stand on the shoulders of folks who come before us. And we all have opportunities to give a leg up to others who are coming after us. That is the natural evolution of a field. And the visual field is no different.
Good places for continued networking and mentorship are Magic Marker Mastermind, Visual Coaches, Forum for Visual Practitioners, VizThink, Center for Graphic Facilitation, Facebook Graphic Facilitation Group and Neuland. I’m sure more will emerge as this wonderful field continues to morph and SHIFT.
©2012 Christina L. Merkley
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb and a functional link to my site:
Author’s Bio: Christina Merkley, “The SHIFT-IT Coach” and creator of the SHIFT-IT System®, is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Visual Thinking and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and conscious businesses to define and manifest what they truly want. And, trains other helping professionals in her innovative ways of working. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com and www.visualcoaches.com
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