Coach Express

Last week 51 students graduated from our Certified Professional Coach Program (CPCP). As with every graduation, it is a special time to reflect on our achievements; the achievements of our students, our trainers, our support staff, and the whole ICA community. I welcome each graduate into our Alumni and look forward to working with you.

During our graduation ceremony I spoke about the opportunities for positivity and possibility. I had been watching a documentary on television about a school that had a religious divide. Some students belonged to a certain religion and had certain beliefs and behaviours. One day the school decided to hold a discussion calling in all the students around 18 years of age to discuss this divide. The students entered the room and sat in groups according to their views. The room ended up having one side completely for the religious group and the other opposed to the behaviours of the religious group. The discussion or rather debate went on for about an hour with a great amount of heated conversation. The school had invited a speaker who was of the religious group but had decided to stand out and not follow their behaviours.
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Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc have finally agreed on a 10-year search deal that will help them better compete against the market leader Google Inc. The 10-year deal announced on Wednesday 29th July gives Microsoft access to the Internet’s second largest search engine audience, adding a potentially potent weapon to the software maker’s Internet arsenal as it tries to better confront Google, the leader in online search and advertising. The extended reach will allow Microsoft to introduce its recently upgraded search engine, called Bing, to more people.

Google has a global Internet share of 67 percent compared with a combined figure of just 11 percent for Microsoft and Yahoo.

The partnership deal struck between Yahoo and Microsoft has been in the works for many many years. When we hear about partnership deals we usually hear about the end result – the partnership not the process. The process, as in the case with Microsoft and Yahoo has gone on for years. The process of creating a partnership involves many details and hours and hours of negotiation. So why enter into a partnership?
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We would like to invite you to take a FREE sneak peek into our Certified Professional Coach Program (CPCP). Our coach training is fast becoming the choice for coaches globally as our community continues to thrive with over 60 students enrolling each month and more than 400 professionally certified coaches graduating annually. Our students are located all over the world – in fact, in 90 different countries. This includes United States, Australia, China, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, India, Hong Kong, France, Malaysia, Germany, Taiwan, Portugal and Switzerland…. and, that’s just to name a few.

Our unique, and fully supported, online learning environment delivers an internationally accredited curriculum (ICF) offering a blend of theory and niche specific practicum. With over 60 teleclasses each week to choose from, you will have the flexibility to develop a learning style and pace that best suits your lifestyle. Some students complete within 6 months, and others within 2 years.
The best way to get a feel for our training is to sample it. Register for our FREE preview and receive:

- Module Download: ‘What is Coaching’
- Worksheet: ‘Design Your Life’ Worksheet
- ‘A Day In The Life Of A Coach’ audio and transcripts
- Accreditation / Certification Whitepaper
- CPCP & ACCP Program Brochure
- Graduate Interviews
- Academic Calendar (schedule of classes)

Register for Sneak Preview - > http://tinyurl.com/lta8n6

by Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland

I recently met a person who was interested in becoming a coach. They asked me if I was a coach. Then they asked me why I was a coach. I thought for a moment to ensure I was going to give a clear articulate answer. In this twenty-second moment of thinking through this question I kept trying to drill down as to the reason for being a coach. I was thinking about the coaching process, coaching skills and techniques, the contexts that I coach in and many other thoughts.

Then I realised that the reason why I coach is because I am passionate about people and their capacity to be amazing beings. I love observing someone who achieves their goals, hearing the excitement in their voice. I love seeing how people interact and live out their lives. I love seeing the greatness in others and watching them exploring their greatness more and more each day.
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by Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
I am about to board a plane from Chengdu to Shanghai. I have just spoken to 50 people about coaching and how we need trained up coaches who can speak Chinese.

Last week I was in Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan speaking to 30 coaches, of which most were students and graduates of ICA. We spoke about the future of coaching and business and the nexus between the two.

In June we are planning a trip to Malaysia to speak to students and people interested in coaching and in July travelling to Australia to speak to staff, and more students and potential coaches.

In October a trip to India is planned, again to meet students, graduates and future coaches. In December a trip to the States to attend a coaching conference.

Now to some people this might sound like a lot of travelling and to others it might sound like the dream job.

To me it is the dream job. I decided some years ago that I wanted to travel to many places around the world. I wanted to meet up and connect with coaches and people doing business in this area. So I made it happen.
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by Alexia Michiels

During the week of March 23rd 2009 the International Coach Academy held a “Positivity Week” and invited ICA students and friends to share positive thoughts and stories. The idea was to counterbalance the negative energy surrounding the global crisis and by creating positive energy, take the first steps to regain power!

To continue surfing on this empowering wave of positivity, I am sharing some tips shared by those who joined the first teleseminar of that week “Sharing Positive Tips and Stories About Yourself”.

Alexia recently joined International Coach Academy as a trainer. ICA is a lead provider of coach training in the world, accredited by the International Coach Federation. For more info, visit the website www.icoachacademy.com.

Select the tips that resonate with you and enjoy being positive!!!

• Spine twist to release physical tension - Sitting comfortably, relaxing the shoulders, feet on the floor… Place your right hand behind your back at the base of your spine, place your left hand on your right knee. Inhale, lengthen your spine……exhale, twist to the right and repeat….. Repeat on the other side.
• Breathing - Take a break to center yourself. Focussing on your breath, be fully present “here and now” - even for just a few minutes or a few breathes. Extra tip - smile when breathing.
• Gratitude attitude - Every day, be thankful for what is beautiful in your life.

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by Robyn Logan

A Lifestyle Entrepreneur is someone who has managed to work out a way to combine a successful business with a meaningful personal life. You are a lifestyle entrepreneur when your business is a reflection of who you are.

Now, I don’t know about you, but where I grew up, having a business was something people did to make money, whilst the “more worthy” among us went to university to train to be Doctors or Lawyers or Teachers, or some other professional. This kind of thinking was so ingrained in me that I can remember feeling almost embarrassed when, years later as an adult, I told people I had thrown in my job in the Adult Literacy field (now there’s a worthy cause) to start a business.

Now, 20 years and 3 successful businesses later, it is clear to me that, rather than feel slightly guilty, I can be proud of my choices. I can do so much more to contribute to the world now through training coaches in over 70 different countries than I ever could sitting on my local Adult Literacy committee of management. In fact coaching is one of the most effective ways I know of making a contribution and making a difference. And the thousands of coaches enrolled at ICA are each individually, every day making amazing differences in people’s lives.

So if you are anything like me then what you learnt in school was wrong. What your parents or your church may have told you is wrong. What you have been led to believe about the work/life relationship is wrong.

1. You CAN spend your life doing something you feel passionate about.
2. You CAN make a contribution.
3. You CAN earn a decent income.
4. You CAN have more freedom in your life.

It’s almost like a magic formula:

Passion + Contribution + Income + Freedom = Ideal Life

So how do you know if you are a Lifestyle Entrepreneur (or one of its close cousins, a social entrepreneur)?

I have created this quick quiz - 3 or more “yes” responses and you are a Lifestyle Entrepreneur waiting to happen.

*****

1.) You hate your job, but can’t bear the thought of finding another one (Yes/No)
2.) You drag yourself out of bed each morning and stay up too late each night (Yes/No)
3.) You spend your spare time thinking about new business ideas, products and services (Yes/No)
4.) You have bits of paper lying around everywhere with scribbled ideas (Yes/No)
5.) You would do just about anything to be in control of your own destiny (Yes/No)
6.) You can’t believe the paperwork you have to fill out just to get an extra blue pen (Yes/No)
7.) You are sick of not being able to make your own decisions at work
8. You want to spend more time with your children/family (Yes/No)
9.) You want your income to increase, not decrease – or all 3 (Yes/No)
10. You want to make a contribution, make a difference with your life (Yes/No)

***

So how did you go? More than 3 “yes” responses? Great! Now you just need a career choice that will give you all of the above and more. I know I’m biased and this seems a totally predictable thing to say - but coaching really is one of the all time greats for Lifestyle Entrepreneurship. You can choose your hours, choose your clients, set your fees and still make a huge contribution.

To find out more about becoming a coach (and therefore a lifestyle entrepreneur) join this FREE Information Call

http://www.icoachacademy.com/fc/freecall.html

The whole notion of a balance sheet is to ensure things, from a financial perspective, don’t get out of balance.  Companies have a balance sheet to make sure that their assets are greater that their liabilities.  Then if our assets are greater than our liabilities it gives us our equity or what we are worth.

Let’s apply a balance sheet approach to our life so we can see how balanced our life is:

Owns(assets) - owes(liabilities) = self worth(net worth)

There are times where our balance sheet or life balance gets a little out of balance.  We start to owe more than we own and our self worth starts to diminish.  To achieve success and fulfilment ensure your life is in balance.  Think of your life as a balance sheet.  If we paid as much time to a balance sheet  on our life as we do to a financial balance sheet we would live in a totally different world.  Complete the balance sheet below and see what your self worth is or create your own balance sheet to achieve a healthy well balanced life.

Balance Sheet

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Join us for Positivity week!

The ripple effect of the huge economic crisis impacting our globe has presented many with difficult or challenging times. We wanted to do something to acknowledge and support our global community and are excited to pronounce next week as Positivity week.

Our aim is that during the course of the week, with your help, we will bring about as much positive energy as we can. We will be opening our virtual doors so that the world can come in and share their positivity intent during live teleclasses.

Read more - > http://tinyurl.com/daf63b

by Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland

It is time to take back the power. The only way to feel strong and certain is to follow your own sense of security. The greatest and only thing you can totally trust is yourself. Everything else is outside of your control.

Over the last couple of decades we have come to believe that large institutions such as banks and governments are the best organisations to invest in, be employed by and to uphold as pillars of society. But now in 2009 this notion has changed. Banks have crashed, governments have lost money as a result of the crash and now are having to support and fund banking institutions. The very basis or core of our societal underpinning, that we felt we knew, has been removed. The western world has been focused for some time on gaining more and more financially. Some say that as a society we have sacrificed family, friends, independence, and a sense of self all in the attempt to gain personal wealth.

Now after giving up everything the very last pinnacle of our existence has been removed from us as well. This is serious stuff. This feels like the end of the world. This is a world crisis. The media reports on the financial status of the world minute by minute, day by day. We all feel the crisis. It is huge. The crisis scares all of us. We are fearful of what will become of our properties, wealth, employment. How will we manage with less? The greatest fear is of not knowing, not knowing who will be able to provide the stability in our society for us. We thought it was the banks and the government departments. Employment in these types of companies was secure and gave you status. If these companies are no longer secure then what do we have to feel secure about? How will we find employment or investments that are secure and a sure thing?
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