Teaching subtractive psychology to the brass at NATO   Welcome to the podcast; I’m Jamie Smart, and I’ve really been looking forward to this one.  Last summer, in August 2021, I flew to Rome to deliver a keynote speech to 80 military and civilian personnel at the NATO Defense College. My brief was to help them have greater clarity, less stress, more productivity and stronger professional relationships (the college has staff from 20 member states, so good communication is essential). There was one problem: my contact warned me that the military personnel wouldn’t enjoy my talk. He explained these were experienced senior officers (colonels, generals etc) who already felt they had all the EQ they needed. He said they’d likely be checked out and checking their watches during my session. So here’s the thing: I love a challenge. I made it my mission to get everyone fully engaged and have a big impact as I shared the principles with them. The topics we covered ranged from from Napoleon to Netflix, from strategic insight to the unsuspected superpowers everyone has. It was the first live in-person talk I’d done in over 18 months (because of lockdown). For the first 10-15 minutes, you may be able to hear the adrenaline in my voice, but this ended up being a great teaching point when we talked about the link between rabbits and your innate capacity for handling stress    My aim is always to be practical without being prescriptive, leverage spiritual principles without being woo-woo, to have a big impact without being earnest and to share a good feeling in the process, so I hope this keynote meets these criteria for you.   By the way, at the end of this month, I’m going to kick off the only Thriving Coaches Blueprint programme we’re going to be running this year, and the last one I’m ever going to run in the 12-week form we’ve taken over 500 coaches, therapists and trainers through over the past 8 years.   As you may know, I love unpacking what I do; it really lights me up, so for the first time ever, over the course of this month I’m going to be ‘unpacking’ my ‘simple, effective, fun’ launch process and showing you how it all applies to getting clients and growing a coaching business. It’s all free, so if you want to find out more head over to www.jamiesmart.com/business    This is the ‘simple, effective, fun’ edition of the masterclass, and I’m going to be doing my best to embody and model for you the qualities that are at the heart of growing a successful coaching business. These include: - Building relationships by giving people an experience of you - Living and working in the feeling you want to share with others - Doing the things you’re passionate about - Playing to your strengths and creating massive value - Being guided by realisation, wisdom and insight - Being of service to others - Doing all of this with honesty, simplicity and authenticity - Having fun!!!!! I’m going to be doing this all month, and it’s all going to be free of charge. Some of it will be planned, and some will be spontaneous and on-the-fly. You can register for free at www.jamiesmart.com/business  Now here's the episode...