How can a man write an E-Guide for Busy Women??

I had to laugh today (in good spirit, I hasten to add) when I got an email from a woman (Life Coach) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, who had bought a copy of my Busy Women's E-Guide to Enjoying Quality Personal Time (go to www.workleisure.com and click on the thumbnail). She used the Guide in a recent workshop and was thrilled with the content and the response of her group. Part of the review she sent me said "It’s incredible to believe that it was published by a man". She added : "A man with great insight on Feminine Energy."

I accept both of her comments with pride and humility. I need to make clear a couple of things though. I am 'very male' but have long found my material has great appeal to women generally. The other point is that, while the Guide is totally my own work, I had a whole heap of editorial help from a number of women, all of whom had the best interests of women in mind.

I'm really pleased this opportunity has arisen to clear the air about how a guy comes to successfully write a guide for busy women. I feel sure there have been many women who have visited my website and thought "I'm not going to pay money to be told by a man what to do". (My partner would , at times, agree with you! :) Hopefully this interchange will help you appreciate my respect and sensitivity to the needs of women. And besides , no-where in the guide is anybody told what to do. Enjoyment is a very unique personal experience. I can only offer the benefit of 30 years experience in helping you come to your own well-considered decisions about how you can best enjoy being you.

Cheers,
Peter Nicholls
Adelaide, Australia, 6 June 2007

Watching a Seminar Audience

I went to a seminar today on values in the workplace - personal and corporate. I found myself spending more time observing people than listening to the speaker (who, by the way, was very good and clearly knew his stuff). But it's ages since I have been to what I would call a training seminar - where the trainer speaks to a powerpoint presentation of headings and dot points and everyone tries to keep up. Only late in the hour-long presentation was there a brief table discussion...and boy, what a difference in the audience mood after the discussion. You could feel the sense of engagement rise 1000% for the rest of the session.

I could never run a lifestyle workshop that way. Lifestyle is a very individual issue and requires a highly facilititatory role on my part, with lots of input and discussion from the group. Even when I do a speaking presentation I get the audience involved in lots of ways - and my only use of powerpoint is to graphically visualise the occasional key point.

One of my core messages is that the best way to educate people is to make the process fun. There was all too little fun in the session today. I wondered how many people in the audience really enjoyed what the speaker had to say and how many were there because their job required them to learn it - not quite "or else", but you get my drift. I think the latter people would have struggled.