Run a Life Club

Grrr. For the first time since I started marketing my Life Club, I’ve come up against some real aggressive resistance. Three separate incidents in one day!

1. I found a blog where a guy, professing to be bored and unmotivated with his life, asks for suggestions for making his life more interesting. I sent him a message suggesting LC might be up his street. He sends me an aggressive, rude and nasty email back stating that he’s “not mentally ill”, that he doesn’t “need some happy-clappy New-Age bullshit” and reprimanding me for being “arrogant enough” to think I can “tell people how to live their lives”. I emailed him back, quickly, just saying “Thanks for the feedback. Have fun with the blog.” But I was upset, hurt and fuming and really wanted to let him have it.
2. Paperfaerie kindly posts a link on her Facebook page advertising my club, and her friend immediately posted “cult alert” right underneath. I explained to him that it wasn’t a cult, what it actually is, and we wound up having a nice enough chat.
3. Then a former friend of mine (one of the group who unfriended me in RL) started on in the same thread saying that cult members and those in their pay never call them cults, and it’s best to stay away from all clubs, especially those where people left “grinning like loons”. I had to hold myself back really hard from replying, and I haven’t yet decided if I will or not. Setting aside the weirdness of him chiming in on the conversation when he’s removed himself from my life, he’s self-employed himself and I thought he’d know better than to start publicly criticising someone else’s business, especially when he hasn’t even tested the goods.

But honestly! Why are people so suspicious and defensive when it comes to things like this? I mean, the first guy was asking for help, I offer him help, and he goes “I don’t need your fucking help, I’m not a mental!” It’s OK to get help, it’s OK to want to be happy and to actively pursue it. Why do people think that taking charge of your own happiness is some sort of admission of weakness or failure? And as for the accusation of arrogance, well, if someone studies geography or medicine, people trust them as an expert in geography or medicine. I studied human motivation and personal development, therefore I think I know a little something about it, not to mention the great results clients and clubbers have got. I’m proud of my work. I want to share it.

I am really annoyed at them all for prejudging my work without experiencing it. I’m especially annoyed at them for doing it in public, right in front of potential clients. And I know it’s irrational to do so, and it’s “their stuff”, but I seem to take it personally and I want to lash out angrily at them. I think I’ll email head office and ask them for advice on dealing with situations like this.

Big plus though, today. I emailed all my potential Clubbers with the venue and date for the first club, and got a lovely email back from one of them saying she will definitely be there, is bringing a friend, and is really looking forward to it. Yay!

Two emails from potential Clubbers wanting more info, yay!

Need to write a marketing plan. Then put it into practice. This is the bit that really gives me the shits.

OMGOMGOMG that was so…. GREAT!

I arrived at ChangeCamp nice and early, and when I looked at the sign-up sheets for all the different workshops it became apparent that mine was a big-hitter – 18 people signed up, out of about 120 attending the conference. I was up against four others in the same slot – 18 was pretty good. And I cacked myself a litle bit – I had never presented to that large a group before, let alone in the capacity as expert facilitator. I knew that some of the people I would be presenting in front of were established coaches and leaders in their field, and I was setting myself up as one of them, which felt slightly fraudulent – the pressure, the pressure! All thoughts of attending an early workshop dwindled and I devoted the first two hours to setting up my stall in the hall, practising my elevator pitch on HA and a couple of fellow presenters, and calming my nerves with a last-minute read-through of the order of service.

11.45 rolled around, HA and I laid the room out, and I put my perky head on to welcome Clubbers. It was a real squeeze to get everyone in, and I realised that with so many people in a club I was going to have to adapt the formula creatively or we’d run over time. I impressed myself by thinking of this as an opportunity rather than a spanner in the works – yay me!

And off we went! And it went remarkably well! I felt a bit shaky and nervous, but I was sooooo excited! And of course I had the cheat sheet and stopwatch next to me to remind me what I should be doing and when. I explained the concept of Life Clubs, laid the ground rules, and walked everyone through the mood-lifting exercises which kick each Club off. I calmed everyone down and got them thinking about their lives with a balance chart. By the time we got to the meaty main course of the workshop, the Life Circles exercise, I felt so at home and happy. I looked around the room and saw all my Clubbers in pairs animatedly chatting away, enjoying the exercise and getting loads from it, and I had a huuuuuuuge swell of pride and accomplishment – so awesome! I swear to god it looked just like the Youtube video. I thought to myself “It’s working! It’s actually working!” Happyhappyhappy! I wandered around the room, offering help and guidance where necessary, and I just couldn’t believe how naturally my coaching instincts kicked in. The timing on that particular exercise is very tight and it was quite tricky to keep control of such a large group – each time I needed everyone to come back into the main group I felt like a teacher, yelling at the top of my voice, so that’s something I need to look at if I get a large group again. Perhaps some sort of gong? Towards the end of the exercise I knew we were running short on time, so I asked a couple of people to share their learning for the week with the group, and everyone wrote down what they themselves had learned. I chopped out the part when everyone shares their learning with the group and their weekly goal with a partner, just had everyone set a goal privately and did a couple of commitment/confidence boosts to encourage the group to look at ways they could increase their chances of getting stuff done. The two Clubbers who needed help with the goal looked really delighted and surprised at this idea – helplessness busting! Then it was time to sign off and clean up, so I thanked everyone for coming and for helping me through my first Club without the training wheels on, and I was rewarded with a round of applause and congratulations! I let everyone know that I’ll be starting the club proper in January, gave out newsletters and free membership vouchers, and encouraged everyone to fill in the card for membership – about half of them did, and by the end of the day my box of completed contact cards was 18 deep – some people who didn’t make the Club filled one in anyway. I’ll email them all later on today and thank them for coming to keep them in the loop.

I got such wonderful feedback – at lunchtime people kept coming up to me and saying how much they enjoyed it, and how they were definitely interested and they were sure their friends would be too, and could they take extra leaflets and vouchers to hand out and OMG it was so ACE!!!!! Wowowowowowowowowowowowwww!

I still feel great today, and way more confident and enthusiastic that I can make a success of this. I just can’t wait to let base camp know how well it went. I am quite sure that I will have gained at least a few regular Clubbers from this, and the great news is that ChangeCamp is going to be repeated every six months, so it’ll be a regular opportunity for me to get the word out and about. Yayyyyyyyyy! Go meeeeeeeee! Go Life Clubs!

Squeeeee! I have spent much of today prepping and I’ve just run through the workshop start to finish with HA as my practice clubber – it went really well, so I’m feeling much more positive than I was earlier on, when I was frantic about timing and remembering all the different parts, and radgily annoyed that the Big Box o’ Stuff hadn’t arrived and that a mini version, which is missing some components, had to be sent up by courier. Having run through, I think it’ll be OK. The only thing that’s really irking me now is if anyone actually turns up. I’ve just got an email from a friend cancelling, and no one has confirmed or declined my Facebook invitation (though there’s some doubt over whether the invitations were ever recieved). It would be nice to have the support of my friends but I do understand that what I do is a niche market.

Holy shit, though, I’ve just checked the website and there are 10 people, not including me, signed up and RSVP’d, and that’s just the ones that are members of the ChangeCamp website – there should be more on the day. Eeeeeee!

I’ll be running a sample Life Club a week on Saturday at ChangeCamp, a day of transformative workshops held locally – there are workshops on NLP, EFT, Solution Focussed Brief Therapy, Laughter Therapy, hypnosis…. and me! I’m crazy excited and not a little scared. I’m hoping to run a practice workshop with some friends beforehand.

I’ll be running the Life Circles workshop, which is a fun and creative workshop tapping into the power of doodling. I’ve just blogged about it on the ChangeCamp website – if you know anyone in the north east of England, please send them the link and ask them to spread the word, because it’s going to be a fantastic day.

Going to see a potential venue this afternoon, and I have high hopes that it will be perfect. I’ve just spoken to Base Camp, and my Big Box o’ Stuff (Life Clubs folders for clubbers, leaflets, materials, promotional pencils and so on) is on the way. Squeeee!

I’m on the Life Clubs website!

Life Clubs training is over for now, and the journey is just beginning. This week has been an eye opener. The cumulative effect of spending time each day actively examining different aspects of my life and myself has been massive. I’ve learned so much, not just about myself and the tools I’ve been using as part of the Life Clubs I’ve undertaken during my training, but about the power ordinary people like me have to help others discover themselves, have life-changing insights (lightbulb moments!) and move forwards to greater heights of awesomeness.

I am ready for this. If you asked me right now to run a Life Club right where I am (on the train) with the people I’m with right now (three strangers at my table) I am 100% confident I could engage and entertain them, guide them through the workshop exercises with just the right amount of empowerment and intervention, and send them away feeling more positive and self-aware. I can’t wait to get started! The one fly in the ointment is my anxiety around marketing, and my fear that no one will turn up – there is work to do around this, both internally and externally, but I am confident that I can do that work. I have faith and trust in the Life Clubs format, the support from Base Camp, and the workshop materials. I will build it, and they will come. And it will be awesome!

Ran my first Life Club today, start to finish, for my trainer and a group of fellow trainees, and it went brilliantly. I got awesome feedback too, and enjoyed every second. I wasn’t even nervous. It was about recognising that the qualities we admire (and despise) in others are also present in ourselves, and how to recognise, acknowledge and honour them.

I am screamingly happy I decided to do this! I’m staggeringly tired – I’m learning so much, personally as well as professionally, that I’m waking up at 6am because my brain is buzzing. But it’s so much fun, and so rewarding, and so inspiring to be working with and spending time with such open, intelligent people who are interested in their own self-development. I couldn’t be happier.

Plus... I got accepted into uni today! I’m going back to college to do a part-time foundation degree in cognitive behavioural counselling! I feel like, finally, after years chipping away, things are finally starting to really shift into place for me.

I’ll be in London for training all of next week. I am in the middle of writing a presentation about the importance of core values. OK, I’m using Nina’s pre-written talk as my basis, like I’m supposed to, but the words are flowing from my pen like very very runny water.

I love this stuff! My heart is going “Right life right life right life right life right life rightlife rightlife rightlife rightlife rightlife rightliferightliferightliferightliferightlife!”

I have been invited to train as a Life Club facilitator and start a Newcastle Life Club in January!

I am so very very very very happy!

More info to follow when I’ve knocked a few more things off my to-do list. And when my hands have stopped shaking and when I can sit down without bouncing with joy in my seat!