As I talked about in my first few posts, Coach Ginny took me through a visualization exercise that showed me and my family by a stream. If you recall, I saw myself sitting, leaning up against a tree. My initial vision was a close-up view, so all I could see was a small portion of the trunk of the tree.
Before I go any further with this, I need to back up and share with you how every day I sit at the bus stop, waiting for the kids, and stare directly at this huge tree. I have been doing this two times a day for six-years now.
I love this tree - in the summer it has lots of leaves, full
of life. In the fall it is absolutely
beautiful with the bright orange and red colors. In the winter you can see all the
limbs and how they intertwine with each other. And in the spring, the tree
"pops" and starts to come back to life.
Other than looking at this tree and watching it go through its seasonal changes year after year, I never really gave it another thought. That was until one day last year it dawned on me - wow! the changes this tree goes through is very similar to what my business goes through. Professionally I am hopping in the summer, really shine in the fall, but start to fizzle out in the winter. Then in the spring, things start to pick up again.
In my second and into my third session with Coach Ginny, I was telling her about this tree and how it was a visual metaphor of what my business goes through. The really cool thing about this is that my stream vision, the one where I am leaning against a tree - well, you guessed it.....once Ginny had me take a look at my vision from a higher view (looking down on the bigger picture) I was leaning against that very same tree. The business component to my vision was there all along - I simply had to look at it from a different point of view.
In my next post I will go into how Coach Ginny and I took the "tree component" of my vision and moved it inside, to a physical office space. And how Thomas Kinkade (yes the painter) has a starring role in my vision.
The BIGGBY Coffee located at 1952 Telegraph Rd in Bloomfield Hills was my host for the day. I was very impressed with the staff; they were friendly, helpful and more than accomodating to all patrons. Great customer service seems to be the norm rather than the exception of this fast growing, social media savvy, homegrown chain of cafes.
Another of the day’s highlights was when Menachem Kniespeck of Operation Kid Equip stopped by to introduce himself. Menachem cofounded OKE to ensure every child has the school supplies necessary to learn and succeed with their educational endeavors. The organization is working hard towards building chapters throughout Michigan and the United States.
