Yoga For the Mind | Packaging is as Packaging Does

Three years ago at the International Coach Federation Conference, the bookstore was just that, a store filled with books. This year was another story. 

Not only were there many MORE books than in previous years, but there were also significant numbers of:

• CDs, DVDs and a few cassette tapes
• card decks, coaching calendars, gift cards, notepads and stationary
• products that clearly lead to membership sites, workbooks that support group coaching programs, inspirational stuffed toys and even kids coaching book

We’ve come a long way, baby. And oh what fun it is to see all learning styles being catered to with quality stuff. I can tell you, my mind literally whirled with the multiple streams of everything that was in evidence all around. So what can I add to the conversation now, that would be of value? What, over and above ‘there’s more to coaching than 1-on-1?’ Let me give it a try.

In brief, most of the time when we think about packaging coaching, we think bigger. We think programs – 90 days, 6 months, even a year! We may think a 9-CD set. We might think a 4 DVD offering. We aggregate.

It’s my observation of late that it may be worth thinking small. What is the tiniest useful sliver of your coaching services that can be packaged? Of all the value you create, what one question or shift is MOST potent? What little piece is missing from your coaching store, that would make all your other items even better?

And of course, how might you package that – and only that – in a way your market embraces?

Case in point is the modern day pharmacy. Here is something that’s not altogether new, but is recent, pictured at left. The properly dispensed, daily-dose reminder kit in the form of a blister pack – most useful for individuals who have multiple medications to manage.

Note that the mission of a pharmacy isn’t ‘medication management.’ Nor is it selling ‘daily accountability’ or even ‘peace of mind.’ But these are exactly what the blister pack provides.

And the blister pack represents a huge new revenue stream, generated seemingly out of nothing, nowhere. Plucking value out of an unexpressed need in the market, a multi-million dollar service line is born.

This, by the way, was also the story behind the ‘origin’ of coaching. Opening Keynote speaker at the ICF Conference this year was the delightful Julio Olalla, Founder of the Newfield Network. His definition of coaching…

“Coaching is an expression of our love for life.”

And his question for coaches that day:

“What emerging concerns were not being addressed in our society such that coaching had to come into being?”

Subtext: If coaching were not needed, why would it have emerged?

To which I emphasize, what concerns were not being addressed such that the pharmaceutical blister pack was invented?

And what concerns are not being addressed by your coaching clients such that you will invent the next meaningful, wonderful, significant new packaging for coaching? 

I get asked about packaging every day – it’s an occupational hazard. And my answer to ‘how should I package my coaching’ is always: Close your eyes, and imagine your favorite client. Ask what packaging would help him/her immeasurably in a way you aren’t helping now. 

Packaging is as packaging does. There’s no substituting packaging for quality coaching, just as there’s no substituting blister packaging for the medicine contained inside.

But! Big but. The Blister Pack has revolutionized how a certain segment of the population remembers to take care of its health, and adds value to the lives of its users. More so even than the medicine itself because if a person doesn’t remember to take it, the medicine is useless. That’s quantum leap stuff, that.

So now that we’ve mastered this whole Multiple Streams thing, as evidenced by this year’s conference bookstore, what is next on the innovative edge of value-added coaching? 

What will we see in the Coaching Conference bookstores of the future?

Forward Thinking Coaches…comment here. 

“The pitcher cries for water to carry” | A Poem from the ICF Conference

Thank you to Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind and the new Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View for his talk at the ICF Conference this past Saturday. I’m in awe of great deep swaths of thinking behind this work; it echoes of Ken Wilber and Joseph Campbell. Not for the faint of heart.

Here’s a crumb I caught and enjoyed immensely. It’s a poem called ‘To Be of Use’ by Marge Piercey which Richard quoted at the end of his presentation. All ye seekers of money and meaning, I think you’ll find a smile here.

To Be of Use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

Marge Piercy

How are you a Greek amphora, and what water are you crying to carry? Comment below.

Find Andrea, Win a Prize – and – 20 years from now, what will you have done?

I don’t know about you, but I usually don’t plan very far ahead. I mean, I visualize and meditate on the very far-off future. But I don’t plan. Too much ‘life’ can happen between now and 20 years from now, right?

It’s interesting what a 20-year High School reunion did to change my perspective. For the first time, I’m able to look back at a chunk of time and say ‘that’s what 20 years is like’ and actually semi-understand it.
I guess it isn’t surprising that stepping out of High School, nobody asks “What Shall I Do With the Next 20 Years?” No one decides to live a rich and rewarding life so as to have good stories to tell at their reunion.

In the variety of life stories I did hear, I think that was evident. A couple of my classmates even said the words, “It’s amazing but I feel like I really haven’t done much in 20 years.” “How weird that it took me 20 years to do what I just told you in 2 minutes.” “I guess life can go by and you don’t realize it…”

Thankfully, stepping out of the High School Reunion, I felt quite different. All of a sudden I realized, “What Shall I Do With the Next 20 Years?” is just as good a question for now as before! If I missed asking it then, I don’t have to miss asking it now. The next time I see ANY of these lovely ladies, we’ll all be eligible for discounted senior citizen fares for the bus. What stories will we have to catch up on then? Nothing much exciting? Something extraordinary? If something in between, will we be done telling it in 2 minutes?

And wow, you know, we only really get 4 or maybe 5 units of 20 years, each –

I never used to believe people when they said time moves faster as you get older, but now I do. 20 years from now I’m planning to have some GREAT stories to tell.

What would you like to have done in the next 5, 10, 20 years? How much good will you do with your one life in just the next 12 months?

P.S. Yes, that’s my grad class photo. Can you find me? (Click the thumbnail photo to enlarge.) Even some of my non-High School closest friends couldn’t pick me out, they all thought I was Ferida Yang. Hint: After telling Suzanne Falter-Barns which one is me – she said…

“Wow Andrea, what IS that, a Chinese afro?”