Ah I find myself without a job what am I going to do.......

Hi all - It has been a while since I wrote a blog.  I have been very much tied up with a product tour in the UK and US and then I became unemployed.

So what's been going on?

Well essentially, I have left Toby Churchill Ltd to pursue a career in training and coaching.  For me to do this I needed to give myself the space to think this through and start planning.  So here I am two weeks into my non employed life and I thought that it would be a great time to put a stick in the sand and blog about my experiences as things develop.

In the two weeks off I have done the following;

1) I have spent more time with my family!  My family are so important to me.  For the past three years I have been jetting all over the world with my last job and they have always been there for me but increasingly I have taken them for granted.  This is great down time for me to be able to reinvest back into my family.  Diane, Jess and Beth I love you loads!

2) Worked out what it was that I love to do professionally.  Over the past 11 years I have moved between roles that work with clients and I have been thrilled at helping them to overcome challenges through something that I can do or supply.  For me it was always about this and not what the financial rewards were.  What has become harder for me was the transition to management which took me away from working directly with clients.  So I worked out a new track for me to follow.....  I will set up as a freelance training and coaching consultant.  I will work with people, companies and charities to deliver training and coaching that will enable them to achieve great success either personally or corporately.  For more information you might want to follow @spectaclescoach on Twitter which will be my 'corporate' twitter account or check out the Spectacles blog on http://spectaclestrainingandcoaching.blogspot.com/ .I chose the name ' Spectacles Training and Coaching' because people use spectacles to see things with more clarity.  This is the bottom line for me doing this work.  If I can help people view their challenges with more clarity, then I can help them to find answers that will empower them to overcome those challenges.  Often this requires 'time out' to do this and through sessions with me hopefully clients will have the space to take advantage of that time and go for amazing positive change in their lives.  I am 40 this year, I have loads of personal and business experience that I can use to help people to discover the next step for them be it personally, in their careers or in their companies.

3)  Visited a prison!  Not because I have done anything wrong, but I had an opportunity to visit some friends that work in Peterborough prison and I got a chance to just find out more and gain a new perspective.  If you would like to know more about that then go to my Spectacles blog.

4) Working with Amos Trust - Some of you will know about my interest in South Africa and in particular the Street Children who live there.  I found out all about this through the charity , Amos Trust (www.amostrust.org).  A charity that seeks to act as a platform for human rights, hope and justice through the physical support of key worldwide projects such as Umthombo Street Child ( www.umthombo.org ).
So I am spending time with them helping them with their marketing messages as they go through a period of significant change.  It is a fascinating opportunity for me to donate my time to them.

5) Working with Romsey Mill Youth and Community Centre - There is so much I can say about this charity that is good.  For me personally, I met my wife there when I worked as a full time volunteer in 1992.  They do amazing work across Cambridge with young people, young families and schools.  I am currently looking at their young fathers work and hoping to develop work in that area perhaps through social enterprise.

I can't stress how much I am enjoying myself doing things that mean the world to me.  I feel lucky to have this opportunity and I would recommend it to anyone!

My advice to you?  This day is the first day of the rest of your life, so make it count!

Thanks for listening!

John

Edinburgh

Hi all.

Greetings from Edinburgh.  I am here today with my work colleagues promoting our latest Lightwriter product, the Lightwriter Swift.
I arrived last night by plane and was whisked by taxi to our hotel on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.  It seems that I always have fleeting visits to this beautiful city and never really have a chance to look around properly.  My last visit was about 12 years ago with my family.  A friend of ours let us stay in her flat which was on the 5th floor actually on the Royal Mile at the end of August.  A perfect time to be in Edinburgh what with the final happenings of the festival that year.  In the flat when we opened the windows we could hear the plethora of live music and events happening across the city.  A very exciting time.......
However we only lasted a couple of days (should have been a week) as both our kids contracted chicken pox and we had to leave early.  A great opportunity poorly executed!

Last night I made sure that I got to see some of this great city and visited the castle.  Wow, it is massive and very impressive even at night.  On the way up to it we came across lots of people who were conducting ghost tours, however I didn't see any ghosts!

Today, I have been working at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange, a wonderful venue with wonderfully friendly and helpful staff.
We had some great customers who came to find out more about our new product.  It is wonderful to work in a job where you know there is a direct clear benefit for people who use your products.  We all take communication for granted, but when we have it taken from us or we never had it at all then this is a serious disability which unfortunately is not taken overly seriously by our friends in government, leading to poor provision in places across the UK.
I am really impressed by the commitment of the Speech and Language Therapists who work to change the lives of so many people in the UK in order to achieve a positive result.  I am even more impressed by those that do not let their disability affect them negatively.  There is a lesson for all in there somewhere.

Well I have to go and give our last seminar for the day, if you are in Edinburgh and have an interest in what Toby Churchill Ltd then it is not too late to find us Venue – Edinburgh Corn Exchange, 11 New Market Road, Edinburgh, EH14 1RJ - We are hear until 8pm!!

Travelling experiences

I always thought that it would be good to put thoughts to paper erm screen on my travels around the world whilst doing my job.
It has been very busy recently with the launch of a new product in the UK and then in the US.
A number of weeks ago, I travelled with a number of colleagues to Birmingham in order to be ready for the first of four product launches in the UK.  After Birmingham, Bristol, London and then this week, Edinburgh.
The events were interesting and I learnt a lot about launching a new product in the assistive technology industry, however what I was surprised at was how well everyone got on travelling in a van between all these different venues.  I work with some great people and this had become apparent more so whilst being with each other for many hours.
The following week, the team went to Orlando for a conference called ATIA 2012.  This is just possibly the biggest assistive technology industry conference in the US and a great opportunity to launch our new product.
I was thrilled at the interest that we received and at the level of commitment of the team in achieving this.
A highlight of the week for me was going on an airboat tour locally trying to spot alligators in Kissimee, FL.
Orlando is a very built up place and after a week of being in a hotel inside, for me, I need space and I need to get out there and see something that is unusual.
We certainly did this with the airboat tour and it struck me how rich Florida is from a wildlife perspective.  It is a shame then that lots of this wildlife has to take second place whilst people enjoy theme parks and hotels.  It is a strange place, but I certainly want to take my family over to see more wildlife!  An ambition of mine is to swim with Manatees, those weird 'sea cows' local to Florida (and I think Mexico).  One day it will happen.

Inspiration hits you right between the eyes!

It is days like today that remind me as to why i do my job!
It is not every day i get to meet a para Olympic swimmer and hold her silver medal in my hands!
Whilst i wont go into detail as to who i met, it is enough to say that i was struck by the determination of this lady who battles with many challenges in order to get to where she wants to be.
10 weeks before she won silver she dislocated her shoulder and was told that she was not going to the games by the Olympic team managers. Undeterred she carried on with her training, swimming with only her arm to propel her (she is paraplegic) and she proved her fitness right up to the last minute and obtained a silver medal for her efforts.
What an inspiration!
It seems that us Brits moan an awful lot about what we don't have when really we have it, whilst there are people out there who are perceived to not have anywhere near the opportunities that we have but obtain and achieve so much more through sheer guts and self belief despite the most difficult physical or mental challenges.
I hope that i never forget the memory of holding that medal, particularly if i am feeling hard done by!

World’s smallest text-to-speech device - Business - Cambridge First

What a great day we had on the 17th October.

Read all about it below!!!

World’s smallest text-to-speech device - Business - Cambridge First

Inspiration!

What an amazing day.

I visited some potential customers today and I had a trip down memory lane which allowed me tom see another side of a customer from my previous profession and I then met an inspirational guy who despite the fact that he is living with a condition which is debilitating, lives independently and knows what he wants in life.
One sad point was that, this customer is disabled and doesn't go out as there is no one out there to go out with.

I feel privileged that he le me into his home and gave me a glimpse of his life.
I feel humbled, that despite any stresses I may be feeling at the moment, I am extremely lucky to have wife and kids that love me and supportive friends.

I hope that perhaps that customer could have the same one day.

Hi Blogger Readers! It's been a little while since I last wrote anything so I thought I would collate some thoughts. It's been a tough week this week but hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel! On Tuesday morning I decided that I would take 'Milo' our foster dog for a walk at stupid o'clock in the morning. It is always refreshing to go for a walk first thing on the morning, however half an hour in I heard a buzz near my head. This buzz then turned into a vibration in my hair just behind my ear and then, yep you've guessed it resulted in a sharp sting. So as you can imagine my hand went up to admonish the small vicious creature which resulted in a further buzz, vibration and sting just next to the last sting. Then as you can imagine I ran like hell to get away from what clearly must have been a swarm, screaming like a banshee only to be rewarded for my 200 metre sprint with a sting to the back of my ribs. I then bravely started to rip my clothes off in an attempted to get shot of the little bugger. Thankfully this shedding of clothes was abruptly halted when I found the violent wasp stinging my forearm at which point he had clearly had enough and fell off my arm exhausted! Meanwhile Milo, my loyal foster dog, was leaping like a gazelle through the stubble on the freshly harvested field on a promise with another golden retriever (or Labrador, I never know the difference). The day progressed with a further 'highlight' being the removal of one of my team from my company. This was the first time I have ever had to do this, it was not pleasant despite how amicable the process was with the person involved. I do sincerely wish him all the best for the future. To add to this I messed up making a bowl of Oats so simple this morning! I guess I failed that intelligence test! So what's been good about this week? I think that despite how busy work is, working at the limit of my comfort zone with endless meetings designed to prevent me from working at the limit of my comfort zone, I feel that I am on a healthy learning curve again, I feel that my staff's jobs will become more interesting and engaging and I appreciate every one of them. I came away from a positive meeting yesterday with the two working women in my life thankful for their support and abilities with great expectations of what we will be able to achieve together in the near future. How lucky I am to be supported by a great team! So lots of stress this week, mixed with poignant positives. Maybe this is progress?