The Focus and Flourish Workshop: a day of getting very focused and planning to flourish

Yesterday marked the last of our marketing workshops in Guildford for the year. And I like to think that we went out with a bang! Together with the wonderful Elizabeth Cairns a collection of small business owners and marketing executives joined us in the Flourish studio to plan for success in 2011.

Elizabeth kicked off the day with some fantastic exercises to get us all focused. She got us meditating and visualising where we’d like to be this time next year, the successes that we could look back on and what was important to us about next year. What I hope is that the delegates managed to get a great balance between what was important to them in their personal lives as well as their professional successes.

I know I came away with some major lightbulb moments from that session, with some real clarity around where we’re going next year, what I expect of myself and what I expect of the team and the business. In fact, Elizabeth’s session was so powerful for me that I’ll be booking her in to run something very similar for the team in January…

After coffee and homemade cakes (chocolate peppermint and orange and cranberry for the foodies amongst you) it was my turn. Time to get down to the practicalities of how exactly we were going to achieve our goals. I started by getting them thinking about their niche in the market. And out came some interesting stories. What was key was the point of difference – if you constantly find yourself in competition with one other company then you haven’t differentiated yourself enough: which becomes soul destroying and costly to the business. The message of the morning was point of difference! What do you want to be known for? What are you best at? What do your customers want? And can you deliver what you promise?

We then got on to the nuts and bolts: essentials of running a business: pricing; differentiation; having enough services and so on as well as thinking about setting financial goals over a monthly basis.

Food always plays a big role in my workshops – and so back it was to the breakout room for a delicious lunch: beef and mushroom stroganoff with vegetables; vegetable lasagne with salad and a rhubarb and vanilla cheesecake. Much restored we took to the outdoors.

My plan had been to walk along the river, which I always find restorative and inspirational, but a combination of some very impractical shoes on my behalf (honestly, you’d have thought I’d have known better!) and an ice-rink of a tow-path meant that we strode through Guildford – through the castle grounds and down the high street. It was a great way to refresh, recharge and connect with others. And I always find that walking pulls out some great ideas too.

Back in the studio it was back to marketing: strategies to own your niche and build your expert profile and finally campaign planning.

We had some really positive feedback, and I for one really enjoyed the day. I can’t wait for the next one!

If you’d like to attend a future Flourish workshop you can find full details of our 2011 workshop programme here. Based on your feedback I’ve moved back to the more intimate setting of our Guildford studio, which means more personal attention and less available spaces (absolute max of 10). The last two workshops have sold out 3 weeks early, so if something takes your fancy do book sooner rather than later!

Tagged as in Marketing, Workshops