Do the same old thing, get the same old results
In my last blog I talked about my (rather dramatic) decision to close down Freestyle so I can put all my effort into NLP. A ‘close-down’ actually sounds a bit more dramatic than it actually is; until the jobs that we currently have on come to an end, we’re still taking on work if it comes our way, although we’re not actually going out and looking for anything. There are a few leads I think we probably will take on because the clients are going to be fun to work with.
We’ve recently had quite a change in the way we use our premises. Previously we’ve had a permanent space at the Old Broadcasting House, but because we’re closing down Freestyle, that need doesn’t really exist any more. I originally wanted a permanent space because for the last few years we’ve had paper-work and files and so on, and needed space to put everything. I’ve realized now that this isn’t a very flexible way of working; I haven’t even looked at some of the papers for over a year! I’ve therefore made the move to having a paperless office - I’ve cleaned everything out and we can now use the space for whatever we want. This is much better as we’re not a conventional 9am-5pm business. We could be working in the office one day, holding a seminar the next and working from Starbucks or from home the next. An empty space that we can change the use of is really useful to us and by no longer having a fixed space, the costs are a lot lower because we’re not there all the time.
The NLP is going well; we aren’t fully booked yet, but this is the first course we’ve run (and it was scheduled at quite short notice) so we do expect the next one to be better attended than this one. As far as we’re concerned, we’re happy with however many attendees we have as it’s the first course we’ve run in Leeds. To find attendees we’ve been making use of some innovative new advertising outlets like Facebook groups where we post upcoming events; it’s proving quite successful!
Our hook is to run after-hours events that encourage people to divert from the norm and do things a little bit differently, so a few weeks ago we had a Japanese-themed event where we watched a Japanese Anime film and ate Japanese food - it went really well! The philosophy of our company is to do something different - we want to demonstrate that if you always do the same thing, you’re always going to get the same results. If you want to change your job, bad habits or relationship but you keep doing the same thing, then nothing is going to happen. We’re about taking people out of their comfort zone. If you come along to one of our events you’re going to be in different company, meeting new people, doing something a bit different to your daily routine and having a new experience. They’re proving really successful!
