Impressions after 5TC… July 4, 2011

Most of you already know I am writing on this blog very seldom. I am writing when I can’t share my experiences with my close friends because I am blocked and the only way for me to make a step forward and get over it, is to write here. Today is a blurry day for me…I guess is just now that I realized “it ended” (the conference).

I arrived there last Sunday for the pre-meeting and thanks to Adi who is so calm I became calm too. I was confident the entire team will do a great job (they were hand-picked :P).

Then in the first day I was anxious to start and a bit worried about the GTKEO because I was thinking that the people might not arrive in time but most of them did, so starting the agenda at 10.00 am is not a bad idea (though finishing on Friday as early as possible might be something we should consider…)

The World Caffe worked like a charm and I was pleasantly surprised to see that people were so interested in talking about the topics we chose. I am glad we could afford the luxury to choose these topics thanks to the people we had present. A bitter taste did appear, because I was thinking that next time these people will not be present and I have to figure out a new recipe to make the spell work.

Then the Skills block was phenomenal (I think). It worked so well – it was just what people needed and I think the idea of Oana with  “newbies track” is gorgeous and we will implement it – I hope we will have in autumn participants with different levels of experience and preparation and thus have the need to have a newbies track, otherwise the current concept works just fine. And again the bitter taste told me I will have to figure out a way to find/(re)bring the right, beautiful people to “cook it all” next time. The big question in my mind was “Why can’t I just keep them all in?” Of course I know the answer…we don’t have the needed money because the rest for a great (job) mixture, exists. How would it be to have some or all these people involved full-time (me included) working in youth education projects – GROW mainly but not only. How much would it cost? I will calculate…maybe starting from autumn or spring we will find a solution.

Moving on to the briefings’ day I have to say that I was not perfectly satisfied with this day. Maybe being at the 3-4th review of trainers’ manuals I became too picky, or maybe not. Anyways, my main feeling was that we still need to work a lot on the manuals and I hope I will not be doing this alone but have some ex/current GROW trainers to join me in doing these reviews. I was also a bit upset about how the corporate sessions went, mainly because I could see in the trainers’ style that they were not considering the participants as being adults, they were treating them a bit like kids. Well…they are not kids, they are in their twenties and even though I act like a kid sometimes (and don’t we all do that?), I am an adult (at least supposedly and everyone expects it from me). So long story made short, a great quality standard would be to involve in this 5TC only trainers who have some experience/knowledge/openness to understand how/what working with youth means. A youth trainer is not a corporate trainer. A corporate trainer can become a youth trainer but there are some special ingredients that need to be added to this soup and some people are just not aware of the complete recipe.

The simulations day was according to my expectations (I wish it was better). For the next edition I will create a best-case practice manual for how to run and coordinate the whole process – it will make things happen faster and easier 🙂 – i will have to put this on paper asap not to forget anything 🙂

The last day was torture for me. I didn’t want to say it but the fact that I was in charge of the “impressions” session made it so much more difficult because there were many people I worked with going in front and talking about their experiences and I knew I will never see some of them again/for a long time. So after the session I went away to write some diplomas and to run some interviews (which were again tormenting me because they were about participants’ impressions). I was sad I didn’t find time to make a picture with my group and say good-bye but I might have started crying and I can’t accept crying – it just unbalances my inner peace much too much and if now I am suffering only for 1-2 days, if I was to say good-bye I would have been offbalance for a week. So on one hand is better that I didn’t say good-bye to all at once, but to just a few important ones, one by one. I hope in the future I will get better at “good-byes” though for the moment and for the last few years I have been preferring to think that if you don’t say good-bye you increase the chances of seeing each-other again – it proved true a couple of times but there are still 2 best friends of mine (Martita and Monica) whom I haven’t seen in a while and I miss so much and they seem so far…Dubai and Genova…it might be just in my head and I hope to see them this year and “break the spell” 🙂

I want to thank all of you for a wonderful time. I wish it didn’t end so soon. I am glad I had the chance to see so many cultures together functioning quite well and I was very impressed by Jojo – my dear Jojo, “o plecaciune pentru tine” (I am not sure how to say it in English) – I sincerely hope to see you again, you powerful, fragile girl! You rule!

Thank you Kasia also! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I think I know what you are going through but I was kind of blocked and couldn’t speak directly to you, though I hope I will soon.

The others, you know yourselves and how much I appreciate you and your work. I will not write it here again because I need to close this post and with it, my offbalanced mood – a new week has started and we need to rock again 🙂 – I need to run for the GROW opening in Pitesti to support the team from here…actually I should have left 10 minutes ago already.

One last message from me – Oamenii sfintesc locul, nu Dumnezeu! – Sorry but I truly believe this above all.

PS: I don’t need to read the evaluation forms to know we did a wonderful job. I am not arrogant as some who don’t know me might think …I just happen to know it.

Writing books and Re-designing services December 10, 2010

Lately I have decided that lifestyle entrepreneurship is not enough for me :)) I want even more freedom. Currently I am working 40 hours per month on an average and make just enough to cover all needs. I love what I am doing but what if I worked only 10 hours per month? So I figured I would write the book I have been thinking about for the last two years and sell it on the internet. It’s amazing how the idea came up and how it transformed and transformed in time. Today is definitely nothing like the sketch from 2008…

The “selling books online” idea has been tested by many and it seems it works (at least considering the number of books I wrote as a ghost writer for others – they paid me so…i guess it paid). Then I tested it myself with my father’s book – a present for his birthday – we translated and designed his book and sell it only. The book is quite hardcore and the readers’ niche is very slim but it still sells about 2-3 per month. If the niche would be 100 times the size of his niche and the book would approach a subject that can be understood and liked by anyone between 14 and 38 then the sales should be bigger.

Then I used the Business Model Canvas to make sure that my plan is realistic and as original as possible. I recommend “Business Model Generation” to anyone who is thinking of designing or re-designing his services or business model. I would say that this is advisable every 2-3 years, depending on the industry you are in, maybe  even more often. I found it very useful many times already.

Put some daydreaming time in your calendar November 15, 2010

I started today in an unusual way – I went to a clinic to make some blood analysis – and it went on in an unusual beat. I went for a walk in the sun…the 17 degrees sun of November 🙂

By the way the nurse was the nicest I have ever met – she made my day 🙂

Then I went home and I was planning to have breakfast and start working but…i just “had to” schedule some daydreaming time. I got home with a song in my head and couldn’t get rid of it. I checked my calendar and yes,  there they were 8 hours of work planned and i thought what if…i would just make a big hole in the schedule and put there a daydreaming “session” cause i just felt like eating toast with butter, drink some mango tea and listen to Robin Hood’s soundtrack songs while being creative :P.

I haven’t been daydreaming since I was around 16 or so – around 12 years ago – when I used to do this just because i was in love or with the purpose of writing. So it’s been a while. I just thought that once in 12 years it could be useful especially since I was doing this with a purpose – how to create an amazing conference I will be managing. So I did my peaceful daydreaming and then I got curious – my analytic part just had to know – if anyone else uses it, how and what else is out there written about it.

Not surprising at all,  there is quite some info on the net about this creative, aware process. What is surprising though is that out of 10 links 6 or 7 claim it could be harmful…really? and what could happen with you? become a futurologist or a visionary? And out of these 6-7 links some are opinions of the church…the church? again the church?

Well enough with the politics. What I wanted to say is that satisfying my taste buds with a nice breakfast, my ears with nice music and thinking creative and positively about how this important event will happen, helped me a lot and I recommend it.

Feel like traveling… June 28, 2010

A spirit like mine can resist without traveling just about this much. We have been in Bulgaria for the 1st of May and I really liked Balcic and the way the people treated us around there. They are much nicer than the Romanians working in the hotel industry. It was odd to see that the hotel personnel answered in Romanian when you asked a question in English. Where else in the world people will answer in Romanian besides Romania?!

Anyways it seems like 1st of May is so far and I feel like traveling again. The issue is that there are too many things to be done around here and most of the time until the big day is planned. The big day is our wedding day on the 6th of August.

Maybe we will escape to Austria for a weekend…