Rasheed Ogunlaru's Blog, page 33

“Who am I?” – A question to ask yourself if you’re wise

Many wise people say that sooner or later you will ask yourself this question. At a glance it seems like a stupid question. Surely you are you: your name, your age,at your life stage, with your own life and your own personality and ways. But is that the whole story? And is that story a true story or the whole story. 

Are you your name? – Did you choose it? 
Are you your age or your life stage – will you always be it?
Are you your job – did you start of as it – and have you changed it?
Are you your race, or gender – did you choose it? When people see you as just this do you like it?
Are you your thoughts and ideas – did you start out with any of these?
Did you create these ideas from scratch or even the words?
 (Read on after Rasheed’s ‘Who am I video below)

When I asked myself these questions over the course of a few years in all 10 years ago it was very liberating. I remember a day sat with my best friend; we were both keen to find self, to understand this stuff and to see where this ‘self’ seeking journey might take us. We spent the around 6-8 hours looking at everything that we thought that we knew, and that we accepted or even refuted and looked at where these ideas had come from – if we knew at all where they had. What did we find. Not much to say the most. We realised that none of the ideas we had were our own. We could not directly verify anything ourselves first hand.

All of a sudden our restless minds became restful, lighter, less bothered, less stressed. The seeking sensation subsided and began to be replaced by a feeling of far greater ease – far deeper peace. 

Most of the things we wrestle with our concepts of who we are, what we are, what we should be are just that ‘concepts’ and they are rarely if ever our concepts. They are concepts we have been taught, gathered, become familiar with to the point we think that they our our own. 

But do not take ‘my’ word for this. There’s too much of this. Ask yourself the question: “Who am I?”  Take a look inside and see what you find.  I will say one thing it may not be about what you discover; it may be about what is uncovered, shed, cleared, eased or indeed even freed. 

This process of questioning may be especially worth doing if you feel you are at a point in life where you have been asking yourself questions or where life has seemingly asked questions of you. 

If this article resonates with you you may well find may of the videos on my YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/ogunlaru) very much resonate with you and you may find them enriching. Likewise you may enjoy many of the video, articles and talks on my free self development site EvolvedHeart.com ‘useful’. 

If you’re looking for further talks and tools you may enjoy my ‘Become who you are’ and ‘Space, Stillness Silence‘ talks which are available in my store here on rasaru.com

 

Creating a business you love pt2

In my last blog post (creating a business you love pt1) I was talking about the desire or fire that leads many of us to do our own thing and become our own boss. and some things to think about if that is a journey that you’re starting on or progressing along. One of the things that I really like is when I meet those who do run a business / who are their own boss and they actually do what they love for a living and that they run their business in a way that sits well with their vision, values and what’s true to them in life.With that in mind I thought I’d post the above interview that I recorded a month or so ago with entrepreneur and business mentor Michael Jacobsen. I featured an interview here on this blog a few weeks back on his book The Business of Creativity. 

Australian born, Michael was born into a creative family and became interested in business, enterprise, investing etc at a very early age. Over time he became in business opportunities with his family and enjoyed huge success when he took the opportunity to buy the rights to take the film Dirty Dancing to the stage in theatres around the world. The show became a huge success. But m0re importantly perhaps Michael built a business by bringing all the things he loved together including business and creativity. Today Michael has moved on from that to new horizons as a speaker and business mentor in the UK – where he is especially passionate about helping creative people in business and bringing business and creativity together, which is something that resonates very much with me.  

I’ve always felt that magic happens when you are true to yourself, your talents and your calling. Success, as I often say, will be dependent on all sorts of factors within and beyond your control: you, your skills/abilities, your drive, how hard you work, the resources you have, how resourceful you  are, how good your product or service is, your environment, the people you surround yourself with, how versatile and flexible you are to needs / change, industry factors, political factors, technology and trends and many more things. Fulfilment on the other hand is dependent on just on just one thing: you embracing yourself and life itself.

When I wrote Soul Trader – Putting the Heart Back into Your Business, I was interested in what happens when you follow your heart, your skills and talents and you flow with it. On meeting Michael it was music to my ears to meet someone who was genuinely passionate about what they did and who did business with a raised consciousness of good heart and who is authentically a Soul Trader and who helps those people on their journey. 

Michael’s thoughts and advice in the 30 minute interview above – along with his own journey which is touched on – is well worth a listen if you’re a pre start, start up, a budding entrepreneur or indeed if you’ve been your own boss or run your own business for some time. 

*****

Rasheed Ogunlaru is a leading life coach, speaker and business / corporate coach. He is author of Soul Trader – Putting the Heart Back into Your Business and is  life & business coach partner to the British Library Business & IP Centre where he runs the inspiring Soul Trader workshop each month.

 

Creating a business you love pt 1

As a life and business coach I’ve meet thousands of people who are on the journey to be their own boss, build their own business and follow their own paths over the last decade or so. Making a living from your skills, passions and talents is something that’s very dear to my heart. If that’s a journey that you’re keen to go on then it’s likely to require planning, preparation, research, personal/business/product development and gathering the people to help you. It’s likely to involved a steep learning curve but can be hugely rewarding in all sorts of ways if you put in the effort and you learn your lessons along the way.

So where are you at?

1. What are your skills, passions and talents? write them down

2. What would you ideally like to do for a living – if you had the skills, abilities, resources and opportunities?

3. What skills, training, research, resources, support, development would following your ambitions take? – and how committed to you are it?

4. How driven, resourceful, flexible, hardworking, creative are you and how do you respond to challenges, setback and uncertainty?

5. What steps could you take to test /try out your idea? Perhaps you could do some reading, research?

6. Perhaps you’ve been in business for some time – where are you at now and what help, support and skills do you need for the next stage in the journey?

7. Whatever your sage in business what is it that you want to achieve for yourself, for those you serve (what’s your goal, purpose, mission and vision)

When I decided to change career from having worked in media and then as a singer to becoming a coach I had to go on a log journey that involved re-training, gaining new skills, research, networking, learning about a new industry, learning about finance, marketing and operations, seeking out individuals and organisations that could support me and thats likely to be the case for you.  

 

Support

There’s lots of things that you can do to help you on your way: including: learning about the rules and regulations, joining relevant professional/industry bodies which can support you through, information, resources, events, services and meeting others further down your path. There are lots of resources out there including books, websites, organisations and many more. One such resource is the British Library’s Business & IP Centre which I’ve been proud of being involved in for some time. 

My goal as a coach has always been about helping people to find and be true to true to themselves. It’s what’s at the heart of everything I do. When I wrote Soul Trader – Putting the Heart Back into Your Business I wanted to write an honest, authentic book that would help people to coach themselves to follow their heart and use their own heart, passion, skills and talents to start or grow. But more than it’s about building the relationships with others, customers, experts, suppliers and others that can help you on your way. One of the things that has touched me is hearing stories from people who have said the book has inspired them on their journey.

 

 

Fun, freedom & fulfilment

Last night over on Evolved Heart, my free self-development resource website, we held our latest free Live Chat Free time, me time, we time (see above). These are special live, free talks on video broadcast live online on all sorts of topics. Last night we were discussing how to take time out for you, your loved ones and things you love to do. It’s quite apt now as we’re into the summer, the schools have broken up, you may be heading off on holidays – or be hoping to get some time off. 

Last night, myself, Tum Kazunga and our guest Char Campbell discussed ways of ensuring that you get that time and space. As well as talking about taking time out we discussed the importance of fun, play, creativity and laughter and how it can help. The talk also includes some simple ideas and tips to enhance the quality of your life and relationships and how to perhaps bring in more fun and enjoyment.  I hope you enjoy it.

You can enjoy lots more free talks, articles and videos over at Evolved Heart. 

 

 

Write on track…

Yesterday I was in the recording studio which is one of my favourite places because it means I’m either there to sing and record a song or that I’m there to audio record a new project. Yesterday was largely the latter; a new book I plan to produce.

I do quite a lot of different types of writing in my work including articles for website and magazines, blogging and other writing for my business, and of course the occasional book as well.

I write articles and blogs quite freely and easily and intuitively. When it comes to books there are a few more factors involved. My first book A Zest for Business (2007) was fairly easy; I was one of 5 writers and I basically wrote a chapter and then the opening introduction and conclusion of the book. The second book The Gift of Inner Success (2008) was something I was really proud of.I had written an earlier incarnation of the book a few years before which I had sent to a few publishers to no avail. It reminded me of the letters you’d get from sending stuff to record companies back in the days where I was pursing music previously; short, polite, but essentially disinterested. 

In the interim I’d recorded some audio talks for my websites. Then a huge US based self development site at the time had plans to enter the UK market and wanted to use a talk of mine as part of their materials. I wasn’t sure about using my Become who you are talk which was my most obvious choice. So I decided to record something specific with their audience and market in mind – but my style covering some of the themes not always touched on. So I decided to record The Gift of Inner Success.  I wrote the ‘track’ list and spoke the audio as a stream of consciousness… unscripted. Later I had it transcribed and turned it later into an e-book. A while later when I became keen to have my own physical book I took a look at this short book once again to see if it could work. I asked Steve Bryne, a very talented designer friend and former colleague to design the cover – an image which I had seen in my mind from way back when the first incarnation of the book came to me.  I self published this book myself to take the bull by horns which was an approach I had learned through necessity. I tend to be at my best when I just get on a do something, when I just trust what feels apt to do at that time. 

 

My third book Soul Trader - Putting the Heart Back into Your Business (Oct 2012) is the one that has (already in short lifespan since last Oct) changed the game. I’d always wanted a book and products that could have their own life and journey separate from me – especially as my time becomes more in demand by myself and other key projects/clients. As with The Gift of Inner Success I already had the title. In this case my original title was ‘Soul Trader- Building Your Business by Heart’. It was the title of a talk that I’d already given at City Business Library. Then some time later I was at the British Library’s Business & IP Centre, where I’m life/business coach parter and delivering a session during a bootcamp I met Liz Gooster a budding business coach who was also the new Editor-At-Large at Kogan Page. We spoke, I invited her to my workshop at the library and at that workshop she asked me if I planned on writing another book. Having had publicity and promotion in my blood since 18 and always alert to a possibility I said ‘yes’ immediately. At that precise moment I hadn’t been thinking of books or publishers as I had parked it and was focusing on other things.  But I went home and she had a one page outline in her email inbox within the next day or two. That’s how I love to work!   Working with a publisher brought great possibilities – and brought other considerations. The first was a set word-count of 60,000 words. I’m an intuitive and creative. My preferred style was to ‘speak’ the book again. I realised that this word count would mean I wouldn’t probably get the whole book in one stream of consciousness but I could start. So I went in EQ Studios where I do my music recording with studio owner, John Hamilton. I had the list of chapter headings – as always – and spoke it. 

Probably the book is 20-33% that original audio I then worked on it and built on the text. For me it’s essential that the writing is true to the heart so it was a good and rich challenge to write this book that needed to hold up both as a valid business book and if you like a self / personal development book with a spiritual with a small ‘s’ core. It took 2-3 months to write and another month or so to edit – pretty full on. I described it as ‘like being under house arrest with friendly guards’.   

For me the test of a book is when I get the printed copy and I read it back the first time. Does it hold true. It did. Then there was another acid test and that was the feedback of others. I have been deeply struck by how warmly people have felt about this book. The feedback has – to date – been universally positive and that’s kind of apt. I was really wonderfully surprised by people getting in touch from the USA, Australia, Europe, Asia telling me that they had read it, enjoyed it, got the spirit of it and that it has helped, encouraged  them and inspired them. People have come to sessions clasping it. People have told me they have seen it in airport shops and on colleagues desks. It’s been quite something. That said there is still much to do with this book….I will return to that topic again soon I’m sure.  For me I want this book to be one of the titles that people say

So what’s the concept of my next book?

The new book is about leadership. It’s working title is Heart Centred Leadership; (The Art of Inspiring, Authentic, leadership) based on my talk / workshop of the same name. It really picks up on one of the last themes in Soul Trader on leadership and being authentic. I’ve seen how some of the Chief Executives that I have coached grown. I’ve seen some of the entrepreneurs blossom. I’ve seen how people have sung their song. I’ve also found myself doing more work in this area and much of my passion and mission is around helping teachers, healers and leaders to be in the world and authentically. Leaders with all hats from obvious ones like Chief Execs and politicians to those who lead in others ways – in music, entertainment, sport and who have influence. Through to those in management, in community group and those who lead in other contexts; at home, locally, in other fields – and those studying leadership. It is not a traditional leadership book. It is a book of, from and for the heart.  So I’ve recorded it and will get the wonderful Joanne Jarrett of  Totally Typing or one of her team to transcribe it. Then I will have a read and  see where this manuscript is. I will then take it from there so that hopefully it can be published and find it’s way into the world too…

If you’ve read anything I’ve ever written then I’m very thankful and grateful.

 

 

 

 

Rasheed interviewed – Soul Trader

 

This week I was interviewed by David Tovey, author of Principled Selling interviewed about my work and my book Soul Trader. You can see the interview above.

During the interview (above) I talk about what the book is about, how it came about and the 7 Steps in the book that will help you start / grow a business that you and customers love by being true to yourself and those you serve. I hope you enjoy it.

Soul Trader is available from bookshops including Waterstones and Foyles and here on Amazon . If you’re based in London, UK you can also get a signed copy from bookshop at the British Library.

Stay tuned for more news about Soul Trader very soon – and if you’re thinking about, starting out or have been your own boss for a while why not come along to the Soul Trader workshop which I run each month at the British Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Success Stories – Nicolette of SelfLove Yoga

One of the remarkable things about being a coach is that you meet people, you work with them for a while, they may go off and do their own thing, they may come back, they may go off and do their own thing again – and then sometimes you hear about what they’ve done and achieved. Sometimes its by chance, sometimes you drop them a line and sometimes they get in touch with you. But it’s always quite remarkable and humbling.

Sometimes their progress is on a personal or spiritual level; they’ve found deeper confidence or a sense of true self. Sometimes it’s on a career level; a new job, a whole new career, a senior promotion. Sometimes it’s about starting a building your own business or becoming your own boss; doing your own thing. Sometimes it’s about someone having forged greater relationships, having found a life partner.  Sometimes it’s about  being more at peace or raising one’s income – or creating and achieving new things. Over the years I’ve heard all these things and its these stories that make being a coach / speaker so rewarding.  Rasheed.

Here’s the sucess story of wonderful yoga teacher Nicolette Wilson of SelfLoveOnline

“For about 4 years I had been yearning for a mentor.  Eventually, I put it out there and was fortunate enough to be guided to Rasheed. 

As a yoga and Pilates expert, my ultimate objective was to ensure that I was the complete package for TV production companies or TV channels to buy into my expertise and give me the opportunity to share my knowledge via television.

Immediately a plan was mapped out and the following 6 months was about implementing it.  One of the initial main focusses was ensuring that my website said exactly who I was and what I wanted to say.  A further 6 months later, this strategy paid off because I was approached by an established TV production company to appear in a television programme due to be aired in 2014.  They did however choose a man for this show.

Since then I have appeared on The Sporah Show (Sky 182) and have produced a TV concept for a show which I hope to get commissioned.

With the support of Rasheed, I have doubled my income and increased my profit margin since last year.  Without his wonderful guidance and encouragement this would have been a lot more challenging.  I stuck to the plan, never lost sight of the objective (doubling my income) and am now focussing on the coming year’s goals – more television work.”

Nicolette Wilson

 

www.selfloveonline.co.uk

 

3 Steps to career progress

Looking to move forward in your job role or advance in your career? Perhaps you’ve been in your current job for a few years and are thinking about the next steps in the company. Perhaps you’re ready to make that next move in a new organisation. Perhaps for you it’s about taking a more senior role, moving into management or making a bit of a career change. The video below shares three simple steps that will help you to progress in your career:

1) Know who your are.... knowing what’s important to you, your values, skills and talents is really fundamental. The deeper you are in your career the more you need to understand your personal and professional drivers and your purpose, passion and possibilities.  These will help you really understand what you are a about and what you want from your career and how you want it to advance (continued below video of Rasheed Ogunlaru)

2) Know where you’re at: to flourish you need to understand your environment, your sector, your team, your environment, the people, the politic, your customers. As you understand this you can develop the tools, resources, skills, approach that you have and those that you need to develop. This awareness and understanding is key to career advancement be it that you’re wanting to take on a more senior management role in your company or whether you’re keen to advance in other ways. If you’re looking to gain a job in another company or sector researching and understanding the company, the sector, the context and climate is really important. It an separate you from the rest of the pack. It can demonstrate your knowledge, initiative and insight. This isn’t just about knowing it. It is about being it. It is about demonstrating your skills, abilities, commitment, contribution, creativity, reliability, co-operativeness and performing at your best for the benefit of your organisation, customers and your team. 

3) Know where you’re going: Together points one and two above will help you develop insight into where you are going. Knowing yourself an your passion, talents and purpose together with understanding your sector will help you get a sense of where you want to be within it or where you want to move on or branch out beyond it. Developing this sense of vision is a really powerful quality that is very important if you have your sights on being a leader in your field, a manager a Chief executive, and entrepreneur or just top of your game within your realm of expertise. I highly recommend developing an informal supporting team of peers, professionals to help you advance. For you – depending on where you are and where you seek to go – this may be about seeking out a mentor or coach to help you. Or it may be about developing a support group of like minded professionals to share information, advice, tips and expertise and for social or professional growth.

If you’re looking for tools to help you along your path check out the shop here on my website rasaru.com which includes downloadable talks,  videos and books – and there’s free stuff on my self development site www.evolvedheart.com

Rasheed Ogunlaru is a leading life coach, speaker and business / corporate coach. He is author of Soul Trader – Putting the Heart the Heart Back into Your Business.

 

 

Your success stories – Dennis Francis, Education Consultant

By Dennis  Francis , Education consultant

 It is now a little over 4 years that a colleague at the college where I was working introduced me to you by way of high praise,  ‘ he’s a fantastic business coach.’  I was about to leave the college and really needed some guidance as to what employment options were available to me.  We spoke briefly and then arranged to meet in central London.  You spent time listening to the concerns that I had and we discussed my plans for the future.  You made me feel at ease and I was exceptionally impressed by your clear, calm and non-judgemental approach.

 I must say that I really enjoyed the exercises that I had to complete as part of the coaching sessions which were evidently designed to ensure that one clarified one’s goals and then envision the steps to take in order to achieve those goals.  Indeed, one of my goals was to be a consultant.   By attending your sessions and doing some research I was able to start my consultancy company and provide management support for colleges in London.

 My ultimate goal, however, was to go to the States and undertake research on the educational achievements of male students of African heritage.  We talked about how this could be achieved and I decided to take a Master’s degree. I completed an MBA in Educational Leadership at the Institute of Education, University of London while undertaking consultancy work.

And guess what, I am now at Morehouse College, a private all black male college in the US, the institution which Martin Luther King attended.  President Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at the College graduation in May which was fantastic. I am undertaking research on the educational achievements of male students of African heritage.   .

 Your advice was to keep going and be focussed:  this certainly contributed to the realisation of my goals and illustrates that being resilient produces results. 

Success and excellence through knowledge and self-belief

Thank you so much for your support and excellent professionalism,

  Dennis.

 

 

 

Great expectations!

Are you buckling under the weight of great expectations? Perhaps from others, from yourself – or from a combination of both? It’s quite common. I meet and coach many people who feel burdened by all sorts of ideas on what they should be, do and achieve.

Of course there’s also relationship between expectation and disappointments. That’s not to say you shouldn’t have goals, dreams and wishes, but it’s worth noting that if you live life based on how you expect things to be then you may well wish out on the richness, joy, learning and possibilities of life. 

If you’re someone who has great expectations of yourself, others or life generally then this video is well worth a view and the recent blog posts from me on mindfulness – and my posts on inner fulfilment are worth a watch to.