Episode 179: Stop! Stop doing the work for your group with Paul McGregor
Jimbo Clark has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.
I’m excited to release today’s chat with a friend who I met through my private Show.Up community last year. We haven’t spoken in 2021 until today’s conversation and I was just amazed and proud of the progress he (and his company) has made, it’s astonishing!
Today’s guest is Paul McGregor from Business Lab (www.businesslab.co.nz). He’s based in NZ and is a Collaboration Broker (cool phrase!), helping to transform how organisations work with their community.
If you think about it, this is a stunning business value proposition because every organisation has a community - whether that's a council and its residents; A government agency and its citizens; or a business association and its members. By harnessing the power of your community, your organisation can achieve more than if you simply go it alone.
Paul is also the Host of the Beyond Consultation Podcast and in this chat, he shares how he started up a podcast 12 months ago, releasing episodes every 2 weeks, and he shares that having a podcast has created hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting work for his company - HOW GOOD!
When I think of Paul, I think of progress, in today’s episode you’ll hear his candid story about his facilitation journey, both as someone exploring it as a career, and also how he navigates the business side of the work as well.
We have similar backgrounds in how we discovered the work of a facilitator, by being in environments where strangers came together, and walked away as best of mates!
He also shares his lessons learnt from being a first time facilitator, some of his facilitation failures, and shifting the expectations (being okay with giving his group the space to share, to listen, RATHER than having that urge to get in and solve, drive a solution right then and there).
This conversation is brilliantly honest, and Im sure you’ll learn a lot from Paul’s progress as a facilitator and business partner!
About today’s guest: Paul McGregor
People describe Paul as an insightful guide through complex issues.
Paul hosts the Beyond Consultation Podcast, is the creator of the Engagement Canvas and the author of Virtually Productive - your guide to facilitating virtual meetings that create change outside the meeting room.
His career began in public policy with the Ministry of Justice before a life-changing role with Lifehack, a systems-level initiative for supporting the wellbeing of young New Zealanders. He then co-managed the Nelson branch of Literacy Aoteroa before being drawn to the variety of Business Lab’s work.
Outside work, you'll find Paul walking his hipster dog on the beach, mucking around with his young family at home or taking on another community governance role before he knows what’s good for him!
In this episode you will learn:
The magic of starting a podcast to supercharge your facilitation business growth
How Paul discovered the world of facilitation, and quickly stepped into it
How Paul’s expectations of himself, and his work and getting results in his group-work, have shifted over time
A new tool, called Psychodrama, which you can use to create great dialogue, experiences and shared empathy in your workshops.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Visit Business Lab
Connect with Paul McGregor on LinkedIn
Listen to the Beyond Consultation Podcast
About your host: Leanne Hughes
Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.
She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.
Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development. She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.
She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.
Social Media
Thoughts on the episode? Share your comments below!
Episode 177: How to test the emotional temperature of your invisible audience with Nikki Bush
Jimbo Clark has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.
Is it possible to test the emotional temperature of your virtual/workshop group? Today’s guest share her ideas, and fun ways of reinvigorating her virtual sessions. She’s an absolute rockstar and I cant wait to share her facilitation story and experiences on today’s episode.
I met Nikki Bush when I was lucky enough to present a workshop for the Professional Speakers Association of South Africa (Jo’burg Chapter) a couple of months ago. We got along so well (thanks for the intro, Yoke!), I , I love her enthusiasm, wisdom and her energy which you’ll pick up in today’s episode for sure.
About today’s guest: Nikki Bush
Human Potential and Parenting Expert, Nikki Bush from https://nikkibush.com/ empowers individuals, families and teams in business and education to win at work, home and life. She has the knack of putting difficult, complex and sensitive topics on the table (ones we often prefer to avoid), and making them accessible, such as disruption, future-proofing, dealing with loss and adversity, team dynamics, self-leadership, parenting and more.
Nikki’s book on disruption, Future-proof Yourself (Penguin Random House) hits the shelves in July 2021.
(Comment from Leanne - I have a version of this book and the actionable tips across all aspects of work and life are spot on!)
Nikki has also has co-authored four best-selling parenting books with major publishers, including, Future-proof Your Child for the 2020s and Beyond, Tech-Savvy Parenting and Easy Answers to Awkward Questions . She has fielded almost 3 000 media interviews in the past 15 years. You may have seen or heard her on her weekly slots on Radio 702 and SABC3’s Expresso among many others.
Nikki always speaks with energy, passion, self-deprecating humour and a disarming honesty and vulnerability. She packs a powerful sound bite whether from the stage or the 18 different virtual conferencing platforms she has experience with. Your audience will be left with valuable insights and practical solutions to help them to win at work and life.
Nikki is a founding member of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa (PSASA), holds the international Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, and was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame in 2019 – the first woman in South Africa to ever receive it. She was the 2020/21 President of the Johannesburg Chapter of the PSASA.
For more information and a full length bio, visit Nikki’s website.
In this episode you will learn how to:
Use the drivers of human nature to enhance your workshop experiences
Detect the emotional temperature of your audience, even when you’re in a virtual workshop
Boost the interactivity with your audience
Increase your profile, to appear in media outlets (without using a PR agency)
Here are some questions I asked Nikki during the conversation:
Can you tell us the story of how you got here and where you started from?
You talk about getting set up for remote work, you mention that one time you’re in a call, a parrot escaped and landed on your head. Talk us through that, how did you recover? Did you embrace it? What did you do next?
What’s your advice to our listeners to create that engagement?
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Visit Nikki Bush’s website
Connect with Nikki Bush on LinkedIn
Watch the conversation!
About your host: Leanne Hughes
Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.
She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.
Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development. She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.
She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.
Social Media
Thoughts on the episode? Share your comments below!
Episode 174: Out of the box facilitation + business building with Jimbo Clark
Jimbo Clark has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.
What I love about my conversation with today’s guest is his knack and ability for jumping in, trying things, being open for the possibilities.
I think that’s an incredibly important facilitator skill and he demonstrates it, not only with the way he runs his business and facilitates workshops, but his life as well!
My guest today is Jimbo Clark from Innogreat.
When Jim Clark arrived in Shenyang China in 1987, he had no idea that he would settle in Asia, that he would start a consulting company focusing on creative innovation, that he would live in Taiwan for more than 25 years, or that his name would change from Jim to Jimbo. If he had known any of these things, he probably wouldn’t have gotten off the airplane. Luckily, he didn’t and he has been living, working and innovating in Asia since, working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years.
I think when we’re starting anything new, we always want to know - where will this go?
We want to have all the answers: What will I offer, how will I do it… Well, all if this can change in an instant!
It did for Jim when when he used the resources that he had available to him in a workshop and spun an entirely new idea, service, product offering off it, which continues to grow today - and you’ll hear more about!
In this conversation, Jim also shares how he got started in facilitation and pretty much self-funded his experience, how he facilitates mindset change and really values connection over content in his workshops. Probably
As you’ll hear, Jimbo’s goal is to be a catalyst of creative change, to support those he comes in contact with, to become who they need to be, to answer the burning questions of their lives.
Jimbo is also offering listeners 50% off his book titled In and Out of the Box, scroll down to find out more.
About today’s guest: Jimbo Clark
Jimbo has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.
His goal is to be a catalyst of creative change to support those he comes in contact with to become who they need to be to answer the burning questions of their lives.
Psst…Jimbo is sharing TWO amazing offers for First Time Facilitator listeners - yeaaah!
20% off Upgrade your B❒X: The Hybrid Experience
This session combines:
a) what we've learned from running hundreds of face to face B❒X sessions, and
b) what we learned in the last 18 months running more than 100 virtual sessions
into a bundled hybrid product that kicks box.
This hybrid program includes:
❒ The B❒X Book (digital download)
❒ E-learning pre-course
❒ Your very own B❒X (shipped)
❒ The Virtual B❒X Experience (a 2.5 hour virtual workshop)
❒ E-learning post-course
Jimbo is offering 20% off the already discounted pre-release price
How to claim? Navigate to: https://box.innogreat.com/upgrade-your-box/
Use coupon code: upgradel2
If you can't attend a session, Jimbo is also happy to provide 50% off his book, which is also available here.
Coupon Code: boxbook50
In this episode you will learn how to:
Create shifts in our own mindset
Create connections between content and participants
Jump in and be okay with learning as you go!
Start building your brand and business, paying attention to what clients actually want
Here are some questions I asked Jimbo during the conversation:
How did you feel, how did you feel that first time you tried it so there was no real process, it was like I just gathered these materials? This anticipates it's going to be 45 minutes and now you've just extended it to three hours?
How did you start training and facilitating? What drew you to this profession?
Is there anything that we can do as facilitators to help instill mindset shifts, with our participants?
How did you start building your brand?
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Jimbo Clark’s Email - jimbo@innogreat.com
Visit Jimbo’s website
Watch the conversation:
About your host: Leanne Hughes
Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.
She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.
Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development. She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.
She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.
Social Media
Thoughts on the episode? Share your comments below!
Episode 173: To stand out, you have to stand up with Mark Garrett Hayes
Mark specialises in working with inside sales teams (telesales / digital sales) in technology businesses and has collective experience in working with professional services (legal / finance) and online retail business.
It’s funny what ideas you get in your head when you put pressure on yourself to grow your training or facilitation business. For me, this looks like cold calling people, have the best one-liners, and being on social media all of the time. Horror!
Mark Garrett Hayes is my guest today and he shares that there are other ways you can build your training business, which doesn’t rely on what we think we should do.
Mark is the founder of TrainingBusiness.com, a Media and Education platform serving facilitators, trainers, coaches, consultants, learning & development consultants and human development experts around the world, to start, scale and grow their business!
I was a guest on Mark’s show last month and loved our conversation around building a business, and wanted to continue it and hear his strategies for outreach and connecting with clients, to create a profitable training business, his podcast, Training Business is a fantastic source of inspiration to help you out with this, too.
What I love about this conversation is how we can use our masterful skill of facilitation to grow our business. It really is the best skill around.
Mark drops some fantastic, memorable one-liners too, some of my favourites include:
Acronym BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing)
Sales - reframing it, calling it a service, making it fun, more accessible, and creative, too
References, referrals and recommendations - the difference and which ones you should pursue.
About our Guest: Mark Garrett Hayes
Mark specialises in working with inside sales teams (telesales / digital sales) in technology businesses and has collective experience in working with professional services (legal / finance) and online retail business.
His team works with business internationally and the beauty of working with telephone sales people is that we can deliver sales training / sales coaching online remotely whether your business is in the US, UK, EU and APAC.
In this episode you will learn:
Easeful systems and frameworks for generating and qualifying leads
A realistic timeframe for building your business
How to promote yourself without talking about yourself!
Knowing your ICP - Ideal Customer Profile
Here’s a sample of questions I asked Mark during the interview:
What’s your approach to word of mouth vs. outreach?
How did you capture your IP in this type of work?
What are your tips for people who do not like to take phone calls?
Resources:
Connect with Mark Garrett Hayes on Linkedin
Visit Mark’s website Training Business
Listen to Mark’s excellent Training Business podcast here
Watch the video interview below:
About your host: Leanne Hughes
Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.
She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.
Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development. She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.
She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.