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Content curation is key, be intentional! Charles Hsuan interviews Leanne Hughes #friendsoffirsttimefacilitator (Episode 206)

Charles Hsuan from Flying Kite interviews Leanne Hughes on creating engaging virtual workshops and sessions on his podcast, Candid Conversations.

I'm flying to Las Vegas tomorrow! I booked my flights a few days ago. Why? Life is too short and YOLO. The reason I'm sharing that with you, is because it's a theme that strongly underpins this #friendsoffirsttimefacilitator conversation with Charles Hsuan from Flying Kite.

Charles chats to Leanne about her childhood. She relays how her natural penchant for planning awesome birthday parties as a kid blossomed into a fully-fledged business. Leanne also shares how her mixed upbringing taught her the value of time. She translates this to what she offers her clients in respect to having an intentional plan and design to make workshops 'pop'.

As an avid reader, Leanne appreciates good content. More so, she believes that good content should be packaged in a way that is meaningful.

Leanne also shares her journey from a corporate employee to an entrepreneur. She is a firm believer in dreaming big, embracing serendipitous moments, and taking chances.

This episode is full of book references, sprinkled with mention of Leanne’s sporting background. So, tune in to learn more about the Three C’s and the importance of focussing on results rather than methodology. And along with all the informative tidbits, you'll be treated to Leanne’s zest for life.

About your host: Charles Hsuan

Charles Hsuan from Flying Kite is a StorySelling Coach for business owners & sales professionals, he works with growing businesses with a strong culture of learning.

Charles believes customers buy with emotion and justify with fact. He also believes that every business owner and sales professional can benefit from a simple and practical framework (Micro-Scripts) that can teach them the skills of using storytelling as a sales tool.

Before starting Flying Kite in October 2018, Charles won multiple Sales Performer of The Year Awards as the digital advertising manager of Entrepreneur Magazine SA. It was during this period that he discovered and mastered storytelling as a powerful technique to exceed sales targets.

Connect With Leanne Hughes

About Leanne Hughes

Chief Engagement Officer, trusted advisor, and virtual facilitator, Leanne Hughes is on a mission to stamp out boring workshops around the world. She helps clients maximise their potential by creating influential and contagious experiences. 

She has facilitated and led workshops across the globe.

Jump on the Booked Out Facilitator waitlist to book out five workshops for every workshop you deliver.

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2020 Leanne Talks Virtual Workshop Facilitation with Andy Storch #friendsoffirsttimefacilitator (Episode 205)

Andy Storch interviews Leanne Hughes on creating engaging virtual workshops and sessions.

The legend that is Andy Storch, invited me as a guest speaker as part of his Talent Development Virtual Summit in 2020. I'm sharing this with you as a #friendsoffirsttimefacilitator replay episode because it really captures the essence of that time.

I listened back to this episode and it made me smile and reflect on what we were all going through in 2020 as workshop facilitators and trainers: Making that transition from face-to-face, to virtual sessions. Now, it's second nature. Back then - not so much!

About today’s host: Andy Storch
Andy Storch is an author, consultant, coach, speaker and facilitator specializing in helping clients turn strategy into action and people doing the best work of their lives. Andy’s purpose is to love and support his family and to impact the world by inspiring people to stop drifting, take control and live life with intention.

Andy is also the host of two podcasts, including The Talent Development Hot Seat and Andy Storch Show, and the co-founder and host of The Talent Development Think Tank Conference and Community.
Andy is also the author of book, Own Your Career Own Your Life, published in 2020.

Andy has taught strategy, sales, leadership, finance, and innovation to business leaders all over the world including companies like Salesforce.com, Oracle, Google, Box, Toyota,, State Farm, Red Bull, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, HP, Sony, Bechtel, Cisco, Tiffany & Co and others.

He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business where he served as President of the MBA program in 2008 and a BS from the University of Florida (Go Gators!)

Most importantly, Andy is a husband, father and friend who is on a mission to get the absolute most out of life and inspire others to do the same.
Podcasts and conferences: 

Social Media handles:

About Leanne Hughes

Chief Engagement Officer, trusted advisor, and virtual facilitator, Leanne Hughes is on a mission to stamp out boring workshops around the world. She helps clients maximise their potential by creating influential and contagious experiences. 

She has facilitated and led workshops across the globe.

Jump on the Booked Out Facilitator waitlist to book out five workshops for every workshop you deliver.

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The Ideal Facilitation Space: Leanne Hughes and Lisa Evans #friendsoffirsttimefacilitator #204

Lias Evans interviews Leanne Hughes on creating the facilitation space.

The word facilitation comes from the Latin root “facilitis” which means: something that is done easily.

In today’s day and age where there are more online meetings, workshops, trainings, and webinars, it’s vital to have someone in the room to create engagement and ensure a smooth flow of the program to ensure a great outcome is achieved. 

In this episode, Leanne Hughes – expert facilitator, podcast host, and speaker, shares with us her expertise on what it takes to be an effective facilitator, how to manage expectations when facilitating, and her biggest mistakes and lessons learned.

Improving your own facilitation skills and knowing when to bring in an expert facilitator is an essential investment for participant experience and engagement, and ultimately your company’s growth.

In this episode, we cover:

  • What is facilitation?

  • Creating psychological safety

  • Managing expectations when facilitating

  • Feedback forms

  • Leanne’s biggest mistakes and learnings as a facilitato

  • Self-care for facilitators

Resources Mentioned

Quotes:

  • “The event has begun before it has actually begun.” – Priya Parker

  • “That which you can plan is too small for you to live.” – David Whyte

Connect With Lisa Evans
Your Host Lisa Evans is one of Australia’s leading Executive Public Speaking Coaches and Corporate Storytelling Trainers. If you would like help with training your team in soft skills, public speaking and business storytelling, get in touch with Lisa. Lisa offers a complimentary 30-minute strategy session to find out if you are a good fit to work together.
Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram
Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn

Connect With Leanne Hughes
leannehughes.com
Listen to Leanne’s Podcast
Follow Leanne on LinkedIn
Join Leanne’s Facebook Group: The Flipchart
Connect with Leanne on Instagram

About Leanne Hughes

Chief Engagement Officer, trusted advisor, and virtual facilitator, Leanne Hughes is on a mission to stamp out boring workshops around the world. She helps clients maximise their potential by creating influential and contagious experiences. 

She has facilitated and led workshops across the glob

Are you spending an untold amount of time and money spinning your wheels - yet creating no meaningful change momentum?

Introducing: Beyond Bureaucracy.

Join me for an amazing experience: Virtual, and live (Gold Coast, Canberra, Melbourne.
Join the waitlist for Beyond Bureaucracy

Support the show(https://buymeacoffee.com/leannehughes)

Quick announcements:

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How To Monetise Your Personal Brand: Leanne Hughes and Petra Zink (#friendsoffirsttimefacilitator) #203

Petra Zink interviews Leanne Hughes on how to monetise your personal brand.

Hello friends! Over the next few weeks, I'm sharing podcast episode where I've been the guest! Today, you're listening to an epic conversation I had on my friend Petra Zink's podcast, Your Brand, Your Future.

Quick announcements:

In this conversation, Petra and I discuss:

  • how to identify opportunities that have potential and can be monetised

  • what to do in the lead up to monetising an idea

  • her roadmap and how she prepared for the transition

  • the power (and necessity) of a strong and supportive network

  • ways to turn a conversation into a commercial opportunity

  • ... and a whole lot more!

About today's host:
Petra Zink is a certified Personal Branding & Digital Strategist, Speaker, Coach & Consultant - specialised in helping corporate professionals go from expert in their company to trusted authority in their industry by building strong Personal Brands.

She is the Founder of impaCCCt and The360Talent.Co - both companies are designed to future-proof individuals and organisations through coaching, online courses, training and practical keynotes. 

Petra combines 10 years in Brand and Product Marketing with 5 years in recruitment and has developed a blueprint that 400+ professionals have used to clarify, communicate and commercialise their Personal Brand so they can establish themselves as the authority in their space.

Her programs are designed for busy Professionals who want to learn how to stand out in their marketplace by turning their expertise into real impact.

Clients include industry leading leaders in digital, technology, legal and financial industries, entrepreneurs, and corporates who understand the importance of building strong Personal Brands to heighten their Company Brand. 

Petra is also the host of the Your Brand. Your Future podcast show, a mix of mini masterclasses and interviews with global thought leaders on the strategies and tactics to becoming the authority and using it to drive an industry, a conversation, or a new way of thinking.

Petra specialises in future-proofing individuals and organisations by helping them transform their expertise and authority into compelling Personal Brands. 

Petra Zink interviews Leanne Hughes about monetizing your personal brand

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How to plan an off-site retreat: Behind the scenes planning for The Junket (Episode 202)

In this behind the scenes episode, Leanne Hughes shares how she’s planning her first off-site retreat called The Junket.

What’s The Junket retreat? It’s a small, awesome event I’m hosting down the Gold Coast in February 2022.

After months of thinking and talking about it, I’ve decided to jump right in and host my first, ever off-site retreat!

Planning an event is, as I share in this episode, a decision-making factory on steroids. There are so many decisions, where do you start?

I share my process for designing this retreat across these topics:

  • Mindset

  • Intention/purpose

  • Naming your event

  • Validating your event: interest vs Interest

  • Structure

  • Food and drink

  • Crafting an invitation letter

  • X-factor

  • The C Word

Your invite to come along: Take a look at The Junket retreat invitation letter. There’s only 7 spots remaining, and I’d love to hang out with you at The Gold Coast.

Resources mentioned in this show

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 is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

Social Media

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The finale with Leanne Hughes + listeners (Episode 200)

The final First Time Facilitator podcast with Leanne Hughes - reflections from Leanne and listeners on 200, amazing episodes.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said?

There’s a temptation because it’s the last show to try to share something that’s the most valuable thing, that summarises the last 200 weeks of my life.

Then perspective hits and I realise, that’s nothing I can really say in “one final episode” to summarise two-hundred weeks of conversations, content creation, Monday deadlines, audio editing, posting on social media, laughs, workshops, travel, Covid, etc.

Some key things:

  • Yes! I will be starting something new, I’m still working my way and deciding what that is. In the meantime, you’ll hear some “From the vault” episodes every Monday (with new intros)

  • The best way to keep in touch with what’s next is to;

Ending a podcast is very different to ending a job. You know when you leave a job, you get all these lovely messages/people who you least expected signing your farewell card?

The magic of hosting this show, is that as the show continued, every week I’d hear from someone who found an episode helpful, or they discovered the show at EXACTLY THE RIGHT TIME for them in their career.

The show couldn’t have got here without you. It’s been a co-creation process this whole time. I’d like to thank the following people who submitted voice notes and emails for the final episode, in no particular order:

Juan Daniel Sobrado, Beth Wonson, Tom Scantlebury, Prina Shah, Garbiel Furman, Jan Szmanda, Tim Ferguson, Tony Brazelton, Julia van Graas, Kevin Meenaghan, Sally Prosser, Paul McGregor, Sean Lavin, May Lee, Lauren Scholz, Ken Burgin, Joeri Schilders, Deanne Gagnon, Gordon Rhodes, Cathryn Lloyd and Thomas Fry.

A reflection question that’s fitting to ask you now is this: Is there anything you need to stop, in order to progress where you’d like to be?

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 is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

Social Media

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Facilitating audio only sessions to give your thoughts an audience with Ronsley Vaz (Episode 199)

Leanne Hughes interviews Ronsley Vaz about moderating audio-only workshops and sessions.

If I were to think of two words that describe this podcast's main themes, they would be "courage" and "preparation".

  • Preparation - so that we can feel ready to adapt to what happens in the room, a feeling of, "I/the group have got this -- Whatever happens!"

  • Courage is about taking the opportunity, saying yes to when we feel like we're not just ready yet. 

With the emergence of Clubhouse and launch of audio-only rooms across platforms like Twitter and Facebook, how do you create an environment where people have the courage to come off mute? How can you create an inclusive conversation, when you can't see people and pick up on their body language?

There's no one better to riff on this topic than the CEO of Australia's first audio agency. Yes, he loves audio more than I do!

My guest today is Ronsley Vaz. Ronsley is the reason I started this podcast.

I went to his We Are Podcast event in Brisbane in Nov 2017, without any intention of starting a podcast. Three months later, First Time Facilitator was launched into the world. 

This interview was a ton of fun to record, at Ronsley's home studio in Brisbane and I'm so glad I could share a full-circle moment with all of you.

Ronsley has recently started identifying himself as a facilitator but I placed him in that bucket a long time ago.  He has an insane ability to connect, bring people together, and make magic happen.

About my guest: Ronsley Vaz

Ronsley is the executive producer of The Psychology of Entrepreneurship, & host of Should I Start a Podcast. He is also the founder of the award-winning audio marketing agency Must Amplify. Must Amplify is best known for helping leading brands, personalities & businesses raise their voice through podcasting, while positioning their message to stand out in a crowded market place. These include some of the world's most impactful actors, entrepreneurs, athletes, artists & politicians. 

Ronsley is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience to those interested in adding a podcast to their business profile. It’s that very passion that helped build his vast network of podcasting professionals all over the planet. Along with his team at Must Amplify, Ronsley produces the unique audio docuseries The Psychology of Entrepreneurship,This innovative podcast dives deep into the minds of creatives using research and data to explore complicated concepts.

As the executive producer and host of the show Should I Start a Podcast, Ronsley offers tactical advice and information to podcasting newbies and those curious about the medium. Along with his first podcast, the mega-successful Bond Appetit, Ronsley has been downloaded more than 5 million times across 133 countries. His TEDx Talk which was made a TED talk in 2020, “The Perfect Recipe for a Deep Conversation”, touches on his passion of exploring the world through his voice, and the voices of others.

Cool tools available from Ronsley check them out!

In this episode you will learn:

  • Why it’s important to assess, and choose the people you spend the most time with

  • How Ronsley has successfully confidently navigated career changes

  • How to moderate audio-only conversations

  • Why it’s important to verbalise what’s on your mind

Questions Leanne asked Ronsley Vaz:

  • What do you think it is about your ability to connect with people?

  • How do you see the energy and the way you show up helps in the way you do your business?

  • What gives you the confidence to change careers?

  • How do you make a conscious decision of choosing the right reps?

  • What did you find from the experience when you can’t see people but are able to moderate that? 

Resources mentioned on this show

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 is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

Social Media

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198: Igniting the genius in the room with Shannon Dean Hughes

Leanne Hughes interviews Shannon Dean Hughes about her experience using improv in her workshops to help her clients dream big.

Something I'm pondering right now is how often our ideas are cemented in reality ("How would this actually work?") which can limit our capacity to dream big.

My guest today inspires her guests to go against that inclination, and to start exploring possibilities. We often go through a live role-play on this call to see how we can bring this approach to exploration in our workshops.

My guest today is Shannon Hughes. Yes, you can never have enough Hughes’ in your life!

In this conversation, Shannon shares how she incorporates improv techniques into her work to enliven creativity and collaboration - I like her ideas around making your partner look good. She shares some activities she’s delivered on virtual calls as well - listen in for the activity she delivers using SILENCE.

Shannon’s also offering her free download to you: Tips and Tricks to Enlivened your Virtual Gatherings

About our guest: Shannon Dean Hughes

Shannon  is an experiential trainer with a calling to enliven the innate genius, creative resourcefulness and easeful collaboration in businesses of all shapes and sizes. In her practice, Enlivened Studios, she brings strategic business mentorship and experiential teaching practices to break down cross-team silos and embolden transformational leadership.

With 20+ years of corporate marketing and HR strategy experience, plus a lifetime of proven leadership, performance and creative devotion, her work combines skill + heart into every Enlivened Studios session. Through this work, she’s on a mission to help people live fully, lead consciously and impact the world with joy and collective aliveness.

In this episode you will learn:

  • The value of using AND instead of BUT

  • How you can design your workshop to build psychological safety (and avoid resistance)

  • How to create exercises for workshops that energise and connect your participants quickly

Questions Leanne asked Shannon during the interview

  • How did you discover and bring in your performance side in the facilitation space?

  • How do you get that thinking going, your improvisation?

  • How do you deal with some type of resistance?

  • Have you had those moments where you feel you’re being tested?

Resources mentioned:

Watch the episode here!

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 is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

Social Media

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197: A reflection extravaganza: What happens when you’re no longer a First Time Facilitator? Jan Szmanda interviews Leanne Hughes

Big announcement for the show! In this episode, Jan Szmanda takes over the host seat, to interview Leanne Hughes on her own show where she reflects on 3 years of podcasting and facilitation.

Oooh… this episode is a watershed moment. I make a big announcement.

Back in episode 50, I gave the podcast microphone to my colleague and friend Sean Lavin to interview on the show, to reflect on what i’d learnt both personally and professionally from the show.

It’s now 147 episodes (and weeks!) later. I think I’ve grown up a little. My perspective has changed, so I thought it was a fitting moment to sit back into the guest seat and reflect on that journey, while also sharing a pretty massive update (from my perspective!) about the First Time Facilitator podcast.

This time, I invited a listener to jump into the host seat.

When I was planning this episode and releasing “the news”, I wanted to pull it back to my intention of starting the podcast in February 2018. Back then, I really was a first time facilitator, working in Organisational Development but pulled in to lead workshops with little experience - desperately wanting to get better at creating engaging experiences and group dialogue.

So, I handed the microphone to a listener who demonstrates the values of this show: An energy and willingness to reach out, a growth mindset, someone willing to say yes, accept opportunities..

I’m delighted to announce your host for today’s episode is Jan Szmanda. Jan is based out of Madison WI in the US, he currently has the privilege of running workshops on leadership development and team effectiveness and is excited to continue growing in the field of organizational development.

You can find him most active on Twitter and LinkedIn and he'd love to connect with you!

Jan’s enthusiasm about this podcast shines through, he’s listened to the show since 2019 and taken great notes over the years. Most importantly, he’s taken ideas from this show, tried things out.

As I mentioned, there’s a big announcement in this podcast and if you’d like to help me in celebrating 200 episodes of First Time Facilitator, I’d really love to get your voice on the show.

To share what First Time Facilitator has taught you, has inspired from you, or anything really - head on over to leannehguhes.com/200 to share what the show has done for you!


About today’s host: Jan Szmanda

Jan Szmanda is a facilitator, L&D geek, board gamer, new puppy parent, and long time FTF listener. Based out of Madison WI in the US, he currently has the privilege of running workshops on leadership development and team effectiveness and is excited to continue growing in the field of organizational development.

You can find him most active on Twitter and LinkedIn and he'd love to connect with our listeners.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Watch the episode here!

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 is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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196: Having the courage to facilitate with flair with Suzanne Rose

The magic of this podcast is that I get to connect with amazing facilitators around the world. I met today's guest through the podcast. She also lives in Brisbane and over the last couple of years we’ve hung out at various events, she's hosted some Flipchart meetups at her property and over coffees (and wine!) we've riffed off all of the topics related to group dynamics, learning and facilitation. Her passion simply shines through. So of course, I had to get her on the show!

My guest is Suzanne Rose and she is a Sergeant of the Queensland Police Service, having joined in 1998. She was poached by a spotter in recent years, and landed the perfect role for her personality, running professional development workshops for police training facilitators. This includes her favourite signature three-day facilitation skills workshop - 'Facilitate with Flair'. 

Her role has led her to study the craft of facilitation beyond her organisation, and to learn what is best practice based on research from around the world, including studies from the fields of neuroscience and educational psychology. 

We talk more about her Facilitate with Flair experience and how she navigates the mindset of "doing things differently" when working in an organisation which is hierarchical, and where things are done a certain way.

Suzanne is committed to transforming aspects of police organisational culture around training. She hopes to reduce the mortality rate with the cause of death being PowerPoint, and actively inspires facilitators to be brave enough to try more engaging and fun ways to deliver their sessions - even the heavy, dry and serious policing topics. 

About our guest: Suzanne Rose

Suzanne Rose is a Sergeant of the Queensland Police Service in Australia, having joined in 1998. Most of her service has been in frontline street policing, with a taste of property crime investigation, and years as a Police Operational Advisor in a non-urgent contact centre. When not on COVID Deployments, she is now based at the Police Academy.

In recent years she was rescued from her mundane role of editing e-learning word documents when she was hand-picked by a supervisor who identified her presentation skills and wanted her in his team...to run professional development workshops for training staff. Her favourite is a three-day facilitation skills workshop she calls 'Facilitate with Flair'. The careful design of the content and activities led her to study the craft of facilitation beyond her organisation, and to learn what is 'best practice' based on research from around the world— including studies from the fields of neuroscience and educational psychology. 

Suzanne is committed to transforming aspects of her organisation's training culture. For starters, she hopes to see long sessions morphed into bite-sized 20 minute learning episodes with a short brain break or energisers in between. Also, she wants a reduction in the mortality rate caused by 'Death by PowerPoint' - with more active learning done in its place.

What drives Suzanne is her passion for inspiring facilitators to be brave about trying new, engaging and diverse ways to deliver their sessions (which often cover heavy, dry topics). This will lead to greater participant engagement, retention of information, and transfer of knowledge and skills to the workplace. Connecting with people across her organisation and other agencies through her role lights her up, and she dreams of a world in which all facilitation is 'anti-boring'.

 Suzanne is a full-time working mum who lives in Brisbane on acreage in koala habitat. She lives with her husband and their two young daughters, a Labrador, 7 pet chickens who love cuddles, and an abundance of wallabies, possums, rainbow lorikeets and kookaburras around their bush property. She spends her spare time making fun memories with her girls, and can't wait to take them on adventures through far-away lands abroad where nothing is taken for granted. 

Question Leanne asked Suzanne during the interview:

  • What were you thinking when you jumped to facilitation?

  • What common mistakes do you see some facilitators make and how can you help?

  • Do you believe that any session can be made interesting, interactive, and engaging?

  • How do you develop the confidence and try different things and experiment and push the boundaries?

  • How do you get ready before a session?

  • What are your tips for first-time facilitators?

In this episode you will learn:

  • How to help boost participation in your workshops

  • How to develop confidence in the way you facilitate

  • Some of the common traps first time facilitators make

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Watch the episode here!

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 is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 195: Real recognition is following-up (after the follow-up) with Sarah McVanel

We all know relationships require ongoing maintenance, you can’t just “set and forget”. And that’s the hard part, right? Continuing conversations, staying present in each other’s lives, getting the space to reach out and reconnect with people you’ve met, and clients you’ve previously worked with.

There’s no one better at connecting and staying front of mind (from a place of service) than today’s guest, Sarah McVanel.

That’s right folks, Sarah is back for the third time on the First Time Facilitator podcast! And guess what? A week after we spoke on the show, I received a birthday card in the mail from Sarah so rest assured, she role models every strategy that she shares in today’s episode.

Sarah focuses on recognition and using it in a variety of ways - for re-engaging your workforce, to re-engaging with clients, and ultimately as a retention strategy.

Over the last 18 months, Sarah’s business has rapidly evolved to meet her client demands and in this conversation, I ask how she helped recognise her healthcare clients (in particular, nurses) by hosting a virtual Nurse’s Week celebration.

Enjoy the listen!

About our guest; Sarah McVanel

Sarah McVanel helps individuals leverage the exponential power of recognition to retain top talent, fuel healthy teams and sustain healthy bottom lines. She speaks nationally on the topic, leads workshops, coaches leaders, and conducts organizational recognition program reviews.

Sarah is a Certified Senior Organizational Development Professional (CSODP), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL). She is one of 1500 Certified Professional Speakers (CSP) worldwide and Past-President of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS). She has a BA in Psychology, MSc in Family Relations, and Diplomas in Human Resources and Healthcare Administration.

Sarah has 20 years of experience including at a senior leadership level and now owns a boutique firm Greatness Magnified. She is an author of peer-reviewed journals, articles, five books, "Forever Recognize Others' Greatness: Solution Focused Strategies for Satisfied Staff, High Performing Teams and Healthy Bottom Lines" (2015), "The FROG Effect: Tools and Strategies to Forever Recognize Others' Greatness" (2016), #GreatnessBizHacks: 100+ Tips to Grow a Profitable, Service-Based Biz you Love, FLIP Side of Failing: How to Recognize and Leverage Greatness in Work and Life (2019) and ROCKSTAR: Magnifying Your Greatness in Times of Change (June 2020).

Helping leaders leverage the exponential power of recognition to retain top talent and sustain healthy bottom-lines. Curating healthy workplace cultures through FROG - Forever Recognize Others' Greatness - through the modalities of speaking, training, coaching and a range of books and products.

Sarah's insights into how to harness the greatness within yourself and your organization will inspire, challenge and focus you...and leave you with a powerful new understanding of your work, your colleagues and your life!

In this episode you will learn:

  • How to build loyalty with your clients

  • How to create customers for life by appreciating them always

  • How to create content (in a low-friction way) that add value consistently

  • Mindset hacks for facilitators

Here are some sample questions I asked Sarah during the interview

  • What has been going on for you and your business? 

  • Can you please share with us the nurses’ week initiative you’ve done?

  • Can you please share with us how to create loyalty with your clients and spot new opportunities as well and how it applies to us as facilitation business owners? 

Resources mentioned in this episode:


Watch the episode now!

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 is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 193: The Self Employed Facilitator Life with Jeffrey Shaw

When I dropped out of corporate life three years ago, I remember trying to write social media posts, emails, even website copy and I couldn’t break out of that “be professional” way of doing things.

As a result, my messages came across very vanilla and didn’t really attract anyone (let alone my dream clients!).

I’m honestly still trying to break that mindset, that balance between being myself, showing up authentically, and being confident that by doing that, I’ll attract the right people.

That’s the conversation I have with today’s guest, Jeffrey Shaw, author of The Self Employed Life.

He’s a legend in the self-employment game and I’m so delighted to share our conversation with all of you today.

When I dropped out of corporate life three years ago, I remember trying to write social media posts, emails, even website copy and I couldn’t break out of that “be professional” way of doing things.

As a result, my messages came across very vanilla and didn’t really attract anyone (let alone my dream clients!).

I’m honestly still trying to break that mindset, that balance between being myself, showing up authentically, and being confident that by doing that, I’ll attract the right people.

That’s the conversation I have with today’s guest, Jeffrey Shaw, author of The Self Employed Life.

Jeffrey shares wonderful perspectives on our facilitation business messaging (like “Don’t worry about repeating yourself!"), how he gets into state to deliver his sessions, and he also shares his perspective on why the work that we do as facilitators does take its toll on our energy levels.

Speaking of energy, Jeffrey shares a cool tip on how you can boost your productivity by setting different environments, for different tasks.

He’s a legend in the self-employment game and I’m so delighted to share our conversation with all of you today.

About our guest: Jeffrey Shaw

How many people can say they’ve never worked for anyone else? Selling eggs door-to-door at 14 years old began a lifetime of self-employment. As a speaker and small business coach, Jeffrey Shaw helps self-employed and small business owners gain control of their business in what seems like otherwise uncontrollable circumstances.

 Drawing on his experience as a renowned portrait photographer, Jeffrey shows business owners how to see business through a different lens and strategies to compose the often-chaotic pieces of life and business into sustainable success.

 Jeffrey’s TEDx Lincoln Square talk is featured on TED.com, he’s the host of the top-rated podcast, The Self-Employed Life, author of The Self-Employed Life and LINGO, an in-demand keynote speaker at conferences, events and universities, a LinkedIn Learning instructor and contributing writer to Entrepreneur magazine.

In this episode your will learn:

  • How Jeffrey designs his workshop experiences around 7 fundamental shifts he’d like to create for his participants

  • How to consider your facilitation business messaging, using the analogy of stakes (big stake, little stake)

  • How to think about writing your email broadcasts in a way, that doesn’t feel inauthentic

  • Jeffrey’s productivity hack using different work environments around your house

  • How Jeffrey gets into the right energy before he jumps onto stage / in the virtual workshop room

  • The responsibility you have on your shoulders as the workshop facilitator

  • A very cool activity called the “Up it” activity you can use to dream big!

Resources mentioned in this episode:


Watch the episode now!

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 is a finalist in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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First Time Facilitator podcast transcript (Episode 14)

Listen to this episode from First Time Facilitator on Spotify. Hello fellow first time facilitators and welcome to the show this week. This is the first solo episode I'm recording and it's come in response to some feedback I received from a listener, Aminata N'Doye from Toronto, Canada.

Hello fellow first time facilitators and welcome to the show this week.

This is the first solo episode I’m recording and it’s come in response to some feedback I received from a listener, Aminata N’Doye from Toronto, Canada. She asked if I could incorporate listener questions periodically. I think it’s great suggestion, it allows variety for the show and typically, we’ll keep these ones short -they won’t run for longer than 15mins.

If you have a question you’d like answered, there are a few ways you can submit it:

  • You can email me: hello@firsttimefacilitator.com

  • Send me a tweet @leannehughes

  • Message me your question on Instagram and that’s @ firsttimefacilitator

Given Aminata had the idea for this segment, I threw it over to her to ask the first question, and her question is this:

“Along the way, you've seen a number of tricks from fantastic facilitators. What were some of the amazing tricks where you thought, "Wow! I need to add this to my facilitation!"? 

Aminata, thanks for your terrific question. It’s a good one, as it forces me to really reflect back on all those years of sitting in group workshops and taking the best pieces of what they do, into the training room if it resonates with me.

I have put together my six tricks for now. I’m pretty sure I’ll publish this episode and think ‘Ahh!’ I forgot that one time that a facilitator did x, y, z…so we may need a part 2 to this response sometime down the track.

Trick #1: Airdropping notes

The first trick I’ll start with requires a bit of skill and it’s not something I’ve personally used YET… But I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped when this happened in the workshop, in a good way!

I recently attended a three day course on how to write a website landing page.  This course was held in Singapore. It was run by a guy called Sean De’Souza.  He has a podcast called the ‘Three Month Vacation’, is an internet marketing legend, teacher, author and a cartoonist.

On the first day, we worked as a group to brainstorm benefits and features related to selling a public speaking course. 

There were two groups; and after our brain dump, we shared our ideas - a representative from each group spoke through the points. Nothing new, right?

Sean was listening to each point; and questioning any points he wanted clarified further. Again, nothing new.

After the exercise, he asked if we all had iPhones (which, surprisingly, everyone in class did) and then he asked us to turn on our Bluetooth so he could AirDrop an image to us.

It was the coolest drawing of all the points our group had just brainstormed! It was so cool - we immediately had the notes but they were drawn beautifully and a fantastic souvenir of the conversation.

I will link to a couple of these images in the Show Notes for this episode - at firsttimefacilitator.com/episode14.

So, how did he do this? He was using the latest iPad which you can draw on. Plus he’s an amazing artist.

But let’s just say you aren’t a great artist, it’s still something you can do.  Your end product may not look as good as Sean’s, however your participants will have real-time access to your workshop notes.

If you’re like me, you may be thinking, well hang on - I can’t listen to what my participants are saying; and draw at the same time!

Well, maybe you can ask your participants to draw notes on the iPad and share them at the end of each topic.

This also double as an engagement strategy; and everyone has access to the notes. To be inclusive though, each participant will need an iPhone for the airdrop feature and if not, you can share via a Dropbox link or email at worst.

Tip #2: Frequent Breaks

My next tip is also from Sean’s Singapore workshop (I think I’ll have to interview him on an upcoming show). That tip is that we took frequent breaks.  Now, this is more relevant if you’re in the training mode for a workshop that runs over a few days and really building a new skill with your group. So, as an example the workshop ran from 9am to 4.30pm, we broke at 10.30am for around 40mins; broke at lunch at 12.30 for 75mins and then had 30mins for afternoon tea.

This was a tactic from Sean. He believes it’s important to have a break, let the information seep into your subconscious, and attack the topic after the break with a fresh head.

I hadn’t seen this as a strategy used before and I liked it, it worked. I was not tired at any stage over the three day program, even though everything I learnt was all new. We also developed a really strong bond within our group, because we were interacting so frequently. Frequent breaks people - it’s the new black!

Trick #3: Explain before standing

What’s another trick?  Well, on Episode 3 of the podcast, Nikki McMurray shared an awesome tip that I have starting using… the tips is this: When you’re going to break out into an activity and you need to explain what to do; explain it when your participants are sitting down. 

Don’t ever say the words ‘Stand up’ and then try to explain what’s going on, because you’ll lose them.  The second they stand up, they’ll be checking their phones, off to the toilet, off to grab a second cup of coffee.  She said your instructions should go along the lines of ‘In a moment, I’m going to ask you to stand up for an activity…’ THEN you explain how the activity works. If there are any questions, answer them, and then ask them to get into their groups. It’s such a simple, effective hack.

Trick #4: Walk/Stop

Another facilitator I had on Episode 5, our Humour Engineer Andrew Tarvin also runs an excellent icebreaker or energiser if you’re working with a big group of people. I ran this recently for a group of 80 people as part of a leadership day. It also works well for smaller groups.

We did this after lunch. It’s called ‘Walk/Stop’. The instructions are really simple, so I’ll explain them now and also link to Andrew’s video explanation in the show notes.

So you need to be in a room, everyone is standing up; scattered around the room. The rules are - when you, the facilitator says walk, the participants should walk; when you say ‘Stop’, they stop walking.

Do this a few times. It’s pretty simple. 

Then explain the rules are changing - now walk means stop; and stop means walk; try that combination a few more times.

The, add the words ‘Name’ and ‘clap’.  Name means you yell your name out; clap means you clap. Then reverse the order.  So now, Walk means Stop; Stop means Walk; Name means Clap; Clap means Name.

Experiment with those four words and yell out a combination of words. 

Then it’s time to add the final two words - ‘Dance’ and Jump; then you reverse all of them. It’s fun, makes everyone move around, listen in closely and laugh. Like I said, I’ve used it before and it works a treat.

Trick #5: Think, pair, share

When I was working for a TAFE in the Northwest of Australia (for those of you who don’t know what TAFE is, it’s vocational education, similar to Community Colleges in the US).  One of our principal lecturers, Carol Howe wanted to encourage our first time facilitators to stop presenting material all the time and create more interaction in their workshops.

And this trick is an oldie but a goodie. It’s the very simple ‘Think. Pair. Share’ exercise. It takes little or no energy from you and it creates excellent engagement.

How simple is it? Well, you may present content, either through a story, powerpoint, diagram, video, news article etc.  Then you pause, and ask each person on their top takeaways from that information; or what it means for them. You can ask them to write it down if you like. That’s the ‘Think’ part.

Then you ask them to pair up and discuss your thoughts.  That’s the ‘Pair’ part.

The ‘Share’ part is bringing it back as a group and discussing.

By using think-pair-share; you’re giving everyone time to reflect on the question and also the confidence to share their responses to the group, as they’ve had a chance to verify their thoughts with their partner.

It’s simple - quick word of warning, don’t user-use it. You don’t want an entire workshop run on the back of think-pair-share, it could get exhausting for everyone!

Trick #6: Game Show

And finally, a colleague of mine, Phil Woods listens in to the show. Last year he wanted to participate in a welcome day I was hosting. The agenda was full. So I issued him a challenge - I said, ‘Phil, if you can create a fun, amazing, engaging activity that helps pass on information, I’ll let you have 30mins.

Phil was up for the challenge and he delivered.  He used an online tool called Kahoot to run a game-show type quiz for the group. And they lapped it up.

How it works, is you create your free quiz on their website at kahoot.it. You write questions with 4 multiple responses, similar to the ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ type format. There’s a 20 second time limit. 

When you play it, you project the Kahoot website on the big screen; and the answer options simultaneously display on their participants phone; they need to select the right answer within 20 seconds.

It’s super fun, gets that inter-group competition happening and is also a great way to test knowledge.

Great stuff Phil - I did steal this idea for a recent workshop, and the participants loved it, so thank you!

—

So Aminata, those are some neat things I’ve seen quite recently that are cool. There’s a variety of simple techniques, and also ones that rely on technology.

So, just to recap they are:

  • Writing real time notes on an iPad and airdropping it to your participants

  • Giving time for your participants to reflect and absorb information by having regular breaks

  • Explaining activity instructions and then asking your participants to stand up and move (not the other way around)

  • Think, pair, share

  • A fun icebreaker for large groups called Walk/Stop

  • Using technology, like kahoot.it to create an interactive, competitive element.

Catch you next time!

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