One of the first initiatives the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched in Africa was supplying contraception to women who couldn’t otherwise access it. After distributing a huge number of condoms to the women of the towns and villages in their target locations, they went to check in on how…
6 lessons from going live with Oprah
I was sitting at my computer willing the words to come. I’m creating a workbook/guide for independent professionals and the last 10% of it has proved by far the hardest. Midway through my mid-distance stare into nothing in particular, my phone rang. It was someone I’d spoken to only once…
The Gallery
It’s time for your next show. Take a moment to see in your mind’s eye a spacious, empty room in an art gallery. You choose what gets displayed, but you can only have a handful of things on show. The good news is you can choose any of your projects…
From the Magpie to the Hummingbird
Legend has it the Magpie is a bird that just loves shiny things. It’s renowned to be a greedy beast, stashing the shiny trinkets in its nest. We all have a bit of the Magpie in us. Sometimes they’re relatively docile; other times they’re just inquisitive, and ocassionally they’re ravenous….
A simple way to overcome nerves and anxiety in a first meeting
Some people are lucky enough to be assertive, confident and charming no matter who they’re meeting with. If you’re anything like me, this doesn’t happen anywhere near as much as you’d like. In fact, sometimes it’s the absolute opposite – especially when it’s a meeting with someone successful, important, or…
Getting to grips with my Inner Critic
The inner critic is something we all hear from time to time. During a recent coaching session with one of my coaching program peers, the topic of the inner critic came up. We agreed that it could be an interesting exercise for me to explore in more detail who this…
Why we should think more like Detroit’s techno pioneers
In the mid 80s, a new style of music started emerging from an industrial city at the northern border of the United States. The Belleville Three of Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May are widely credited with being the creators of what became known as Detroit Techno. Although the sound eventually broke…
Managing the feeling of being scattered
A feeling of being scattered is pretty common for people seeking to carve out their own path, especially those with the portfolio career who are juggling and balancing a number of client and personal projects simultaneously. There are usually three elements at play when the scattered feeling kicks in: –…
Tickets Podcast: University Ventures’ Daniel Pianko on new opportunities in higher education
Listen now:Apple Podcasts | Castbox | Overcast | Spotify | Stitcher | Acast | Google Play Believe it or not, some of the key fundamentals of university haven’t changed much in over a thousand years. But with the US student debt crisis continuing to make headlines, employers’ talent needs rapidly evolving, and software still eating the world, traditional higher education – like…
Employee of the Month
It’s really easy to let our inner critic run riot. The negative self-talk, the comparison trap, that nagging feeling of imposter syndrome. Like arrogance, the inner critic can be useful, but only when used sparingly. When we work for ourselves as a freelancer, consultant or other kind of independent entity…