On Serendipity

Having blogged about my difficulties with marketing, the end of last week saw me attend 2 events that I found really helpful in that regard - proof, to my mind, of the universe conspiring to help me.

On Thursday I went to the monthly meeting of the Gloucestershire Coaches Network. This is a really friendly group, run under the auspices of the CIPD but open to anyone. This month's talk was a presentation by Sharon Gaskin, founder of The Trainers Training Company. Sharon spent an incredibly useful 90 minutes telling us what she'd learnt about how to market a new business effectively - telling us about the mistakes she'd made when she first went into business and giving us her top tips for what to do to build a new business as quickly as possible without wasting time and money. I found Sharon inspirational, and a thoroughly nice person to boot, and I've already started putting some of her ideas into practice.

Then on Friday I spent the day at the Leadership Trust on their annual tutor's day. This is an opportunity for all of their associate tutors, who may not meet up with each other from one year to the next, to get together and do some learning/bonding/generally have a good time together.

Not only did I meet up with an old friend that I haven't seen for 18 years (hello Jean-Luc) and make friends with an adorable 6-week old chap called Iggy (and am alarmed to note that there are still some broody thoughts swirling round my head!!) but I also met a chap called Michael Downey, who has grown his training business Life Changing Activities purely through the use of Search Engine Optimisation, so that from a standing start a few months ago he now has some blue chip clients that have come to him purely through the web.

I'm sure meeting both Sharon and Michael will be of huge benefit to me, and that I bet them both for a reason. I have a real passion for what I'm doing and I am confident that I will succeed, witha little help from my friends...