Certified coactive coach and Business Trainer to entrepreneurs
Work hard, play hard?
- Grab ahold of that elusive work-life balance.
Tough decisions?
- Have clarity and peace while making difficult choices.
Grounded...
- Stay connected to what's important regardless of your circumstances.
My Services
Leadership coaching
Are you a senior executive with staff, Board of Directors and investors who all have different agendas? Or have you recently promoted but aren’t quite sure how to shine in your new role? Coaching will help you define your leadership style and hash out choices in a neutral zone where the only agenda is you.
Public Speaking
Anne is known for high-content, entertaining and impactful talks on the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and how to overcome them, business networking and communication. She also trains business leaders on how to improve their public speaking skills with group and one on one training.
Facilitation & Training
With groups come dynamics! Anne is skilled at working with diverse organizations on strategic planning, communication and designing organizational culture. She also trains small business owners in the much needed skills of marketing, planning and business communication.
Latest Blog
Site crash – o my!
The theme my site was using had a security hole – which ended up getting the site taken down. So, please hang in there while I get things back up and running. If you have any questions about current programs or coaching, email or call me directly and I’d be happy to chat with you. anne
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What is your Marketing Plan?
Marketing your business is multi-faceted and can be overwhelming to stay on top of. This 10 week program will walk you through different areas of marketing your business and help you focus on the areas that matter most: ones that create sales opportunities. This is geared for DIY marketing with tips on how to implement low cost strategies into your business.
Starts Thursday, October 3rd, 2014, 8 pm – 10 sessions
Program fee: $149 + GST
Register today and save $50! (ends at Friday, Sept 19th at midnight)
Read MoreReflections on Marriage: From my parents’ 45th anniversary
For my parents’ 45th anniversary in 2012, I threw them a surprise party. I interviewed them ahead of time and told them that it was for a blog post I was working on about tips for a lasting marriage. My secret intention was to read their answers at the party, which everyone enjoyed. However, so that I uphold my word, here is a long overdue but timely post from my amazing parents’ experience, wisdom and humor. I interviewed them separately so the first time they heard the other person’s reply was at the party.
Read MorePerseverance… Steven Bradbury’s Olympic inspiration
When we see Olympic athletes on the podium, we know they worked really hard to get there. But http://www.theessaymag.com/canada/ Steven Bradbury’s story struck me with a sense of awe about his incredible determination and persistence. In 1991, Steven was part of 24cialisitalia.com Australia’s first team to win a championship in a winter sport. They won
Read MoreHow should I structure my speech?
9 Structures for Business Presentations
See that cursor blinking in the corner of your screen… staring at you as you sit down to craft your speech? And I say craft because giving a great speech is more than slapping a few thoughts together. The same content can be presented in different structures and may have completely different impacts on your audience.
Here are a 9 ideas on how to structure your speech:
Read MoreHow to Use Features vs. Benefits in Your Business Marketing
What kind of language do you use to talk about your business? Do you know what is the difference between features and benefits in your communication?
Learn more about how to be more effective in your marketing communications and networking…
Want to be a better public speaker?
Would you like to give business presentations with more confidence? Or just work up the nerve to talk about your business with other people? This course is designed just for you!
Over 8 weeks, you will give 6 prepared presentations, impromptu talks and work on your 60 second introduction. You will get immediate feedback from your co-speakers in training as well as 2 facilitators.
John Nieuwenburg and I want you to be successful in giving business presentations. Find out more info here: http://divafish.com/workshops/
The course starts Friday, September 27th in Vancouver.
What does “Wishing you the best for 2013” mean from your life coach?
As I signed my holiday greeting cards, I usually sign off with “Wishing you all the best for 2013!” It sparked my thoughts about what I really meant by that phrase “all the best”. What am I hoping for my friends and family?
In many ways, they are the same hopes and wishes that I hold for myself and my clients, reflecting the elements in life that I value. Here is the fuller version of what that means to me:
Read MoreEnter our First Twitter Contest!
Enter our first Twitter and FB contest to win a box of Lindt chocolates signed by Olympic gold medalist ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and two time World Champion Kurt Browning. How to enter: 1. Follow @divafish on twitter. 2. Retweet “To connect with others you must first know yourself” via @divafish #Networking”
Read MoreDifference Between Life and Business Coaching
As a certified Life Coach for Entrepreneurs, I am often asked, “What is the difference between a life coach and business coach?” There is some confusion within my profession about this so it is no wonder other people aren’t really sure. Here is how I describe the differences.
Read MoreAnnouncement: DISC Workshops
I am really pleased to announce our next set of workshops based on the DISC behavioural profile in August and September. Communicate with Style: DiSC Basics This 3 hour workshop introduces the DiSC profile of four behavioural styles to help you understand your personal style and awareness of other styles. Dates: August 22nd or
Read MoreCoaching Tools of the Trade
Skilled prescribe viagra online tradespeople have tools that are unique to their industry. Here’s a link to my post on tools that I use in coaching…
Read MoreMay DISC Workshops Registration Now Open
Our April workshops had great feedback and more importantly, impact on how people understand themselves and each other. Our May workshops are now open for registration. Communicate with Style: DISC Basics is all about YOU! Learn about your own behavioural style, strengths and struggles and get some practical tips on how to adapt what isn’t
Read MoreDifference Between Life Coach and Business Coach
Are you curious about what is the difference between a life coach and a business coach? Here is how I distinguish between the two in my guest post on BNI Amplify…
Read MoreAwesome feedback on our first DiSC workshop…
Here’s some of the amazing feedback from our first DiSC workshop:
Mike Snetsinger, General Insurance Broker, AC&D Insurance
I went to Anne’s workshop last week with my daughter. It was a great opportunity to open the communication channels and for both of us to get some insight into one another’s behaviours and personality traits.
March 19th Workshop – Communicating with Style: DiSC Basics
I have two evening workshops coming up on using the DiSC Profile to understand your own style in behavior and communication. The first one is on February 27th.
Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? Or why you click naturally with some people and not with others? This 3 hour workshop introduces the DiSC profile of four behavioural styles to help you understand your personal style. Raising your awareness of your natural preferences will empower you to connect with your innate talent and abilities and use them to connect more powerfully with other people.
Read MoreMarch 6th Workshop – Communicate with Style: DiSC Basics
This is another evening option for the DiSC Basics workshop.
Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? Or why you click naturally with some people and not with others?
Tis the season… to be focused
My TCM doctor and good friend Dr. Melissa Carr said the other day, “The New Year is a great time for me to find referrals for you because people are taking stock of their life, what they want to do, what they didn’t do last year. It is a good opportunity to introduce coaching to
Read MoreTis the season… to be calm
Have you noticed the pace has picked up this month? When you step into a mall, the frenzy is almost palatable. People scurrying around, desperate for the perfect gift, worried that they have forgotten someone, and distracted by the myriad of colors and choices on display. Bright lights, big stress!!!
The holiday season is meant to be about love, joy and sharing. Somehow the combination of generosity, obligation and tradition with a healthy dose of commercialism has created a mindset that is antithetical to the intention behind the actions. There is a contagious element to the frenetic holiday vibe too. The good news is that we get to choose how we will be about the holidays.
Read MoreTis the Season… of Traditions
Our family has some Swedish heritage so our big family event is Christmas Eve (although, now that I think about it, we also have Christmas Day brunch and turkey dinner on Christmas Day. So we actually had 2 full days of activities… Funny how we can tell ourselves something that sets a frame when the reality is actually wider.)
Anyhow, we have certain Swedish things that have always been part of our family tradition on Christmas Eve like sil (pickled herring), potatiskorv (potato sausage) and spritz (little shortbread cookies).
Read MoreProject Clean Sink… Revisited.
Ah Project Clean Sink…. This has been sitting on my whiteboard for a few months now. Here’s the scoop. I wear several hats (don’t we all?) and several of those hats have an email account or list attached to them. Each one has its own bunch of email groups, newsletter signups, account notifications, etc. that accumulate quickly and fill up my inbox. There are a number of reasons why this built up… I had one account forwarding to my main account… I filed one and the other backed up with the duplicate… I switched to gmail and wasn’t familiar with the tagging system vs. my familiar Outlook folders… It has been an incredibly full year… blah blah blah blah blah… Bottom line is this (and it is challenging to write this in public):
I have 15,875 email messages in my inbox and 6,575 unread messages. No kidding. Beautiful divisibles of five at this very second.
Read MoreStop Falling: Make Winter Your Season of Choice
Here is my latest guest post on BNI Amplify’s site: Falling into Winter: a Season for Conscious Choices
Read MoreThe Gift of Pain
Now you may be thinking, “Isn’t that just like a coach to try to spin the good into every situation…” Pain is one way that our bodies communicate with us that things aren’t going well. Regardless of the type of pain – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or how you experience it – there is information there.
Read MoreSchool or career change?
Here is another guest post as part of the BNI Amplify’s Health and Wellness team on the topic of Back to School. If you are thinking of a career change or possibly retraining for a new career, consider how you will be sure you are headed in the right direction. Read my post here.
Read MoreMaking the most of your vacation
Check out my guest post on creating a fulfilling vacation on the BNI Amplify Health and Wellness team blog.
Read MoreStaying in character
Vancouver is known for many things:
– Spectacular scenery (rainforest, desert, mountains, ocean – we have it all!)
– Hosting world class events like the 2009 World Police and Fire Games, the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships and the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics
– Friendly people
– Close proximity to 3 local mountains for after-work ski/snowboarding/mountain biking as well as a quick drive to world famous Whistler Blackcomb ski resort
– Having the busiest sea port in Canada
– The nickname “Hollywood North” for being 3rd largest film production centre in North America
Last week, Vancouver hit the headlines for another reason: post-Stanley Cup riots.
Read MoreMaking decisions: Apples to Oranges
Not all fruit are created equal.
Decisions in grown up life are rarely simple. They tend to be less of “blue cup or red cup” and more like move to Toronto for a great job opportunity or start your own business here. I call these “Apples to Oranges” decisions.
Read MorePractice makes perfect???
Ever listened to a little kid practicing the piano?
I remember diligently (OK, that is a rosy reflection. Begrudgingly…) doing my 30 minutes of practice a day. Well, most days. I would play the same song – usually as fast as my fingers would go – until the timer beeped and I bolted off the piano bench to play or read or whatever.
The thing about practicing the same thing over and over is that sometimes I would learn a song and learn one note incorrectly or with a weird rhythm. But I wasn’t able to hear the part that clunked. I bet my neighbors did, though!
Read MoreHighs and lows of Canucks playoffs: Interview with Kiah and Tara Jean
Wow – talk about how things just come together… I’ll have to post later about the back story on this interview with Kiah and Tara Jean on their show on Virgin 95.3.
For now, here’s the clip posted on Tara Jean’s blog.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Read MoreLive on the air…
I had the treat of being interviewed by Caroline MacGillivray of Beauty Night Society on her radio show “Sexy in VanCity”. She had seen my presentation on “Putting the ‘I’ back in Team” and thought it was a timely topic for Valentines Day. We talked about how to put the ‘I’ back into the relational
Read MoreHappy vs. Happy
A few years ago, my friend said to me “Everyone is just trying to feel better.” I was really puzzled. While the answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is not 42, as Deep Thought answers in The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I figured that it was more complicated than a feeling.
Read MoreReach out and nudge yourself…
Although I am allergic to dogs, one of my favorite shows to watch while I knit is The Dog Whisperer. Cesar Millan says he rehabilitates dogs and trains people. As a coach, it fascinates me to watch how he works with the dog owners to be present, aware of their own state and create what they want for their home and their pack. One technique that he uses with the dogs kind of startled me – in fact, it bothered me: sometimes when a dog starts acting up, he gives it a little tap or kick. Yeowch. Cesar explained that sometimes the dog’s brain moves into a behavioral rut and the nudge doesn’t hurt them – it just snaps them out of their current state. Kind of like when my computer gets stuck and won’t respond to what I am asking it to do and I have to reboot it. So I got to thinking about how this applies with people…
Read MoreNew addition to the family: meet Emily
We have a new addition to our family. Her name is Emily and she is a sweet as can be. She has dark, inquisitive eyes and brown and light hair. We weren’t expecting her arrival but now that she is here, we love her to bits.
Read MoreGetting back on the blog wagon
*They* say it takes 30 days to start a new habit. I must admit that it took less than 30 days for good intentions to be displaced by other things that had hard deadlines, were more exciting or were standing right in front of me. Moving and renovating this summer didn’t help… and then I felt so behind in posting that it was easy to get stuck in not restarting.
I have realized (through working with my amazing coach) that I tend to be pretty hard on myself. I have an idea in my head of what I should be doing and sometimes beat myself up about not getting there. The thing about perfectionism is that it takes my professionalism and dedication to excellence and stops me in my tracks. So instead of getting mostly what I want done, I will start lagging behind. Seriously. Check the date of my last post…
Read MoreDo you have what it takes?
Only 1 in 2 small businesses will survive more than five years.
1 in 2.
1/2.
50%.
That is as bad as the divorce rate.
In the face of such odds, fortunately Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute has looked at small businesses and identified six traits of successful owners. Here is what they say are common qualities that may predict small business leaders who will beat the odds:
Read MoreWe’re in the news with BBOT
I recently joined the Burnaby Board of Trade and had a booth at their Business to Business tradeshow. I am so tickled that they chose to interview me for their follow up article in the Burnaby NOW as well as feature me on their business blog. The writer, Heather, approached me and said that it
Read MoreHoarding and Trust
I have emerged from the boxes and dust that seem to have no end to share some of what I am working on. Well, the truth is that my skill in gathering *stuff* has made this move really challenging. There were of course good reasons to keep things: old school yearbooks, furniture from dead relatives, product samples from when I freelanced in marketing… I also have a lot of interests which require equipment or supplies (paper making forms, stamps, clay, renovation tools, snowboard, camping, 9′ 6″ long board – and then there is the yarn. Hey, I run a knitting group!).
I watched an episode of Hoarders – have you seen that show? There are people who are buried in their own homes by their stuff. Or who don’t live in their homes because there isn’t room for them there. My home isn’t falling in on me but it definitely could use some streamlining. I have adopted the “love it or lose it” approach to clearing clutter and that has helped significantly as I sort through things.
Read MoreThe invitation is forward…
A couple years ago, I went to an Argentinian Tango workshop with my good friend Zanna. The instructor was direct from Argentina and had a wonderful sense of humor. He must have – because he picked me to help demonstrate some basics. I was a very beginning beginner and don’t know what I was thinking. I managed to make it through the basic and then it happened— he lead a move I didn’t know. He stopped and said, “The invitation was forward.” The group chuckled. Take 2 – he lead the same move and obviously I didn’t get it because he stopped and said again, “The invitation was forward.” I felt frustrated and foolish and said that I was confused. He told me to stop thinking and to close my eyes and feel the lead. He lead the move again and this time, my leg did a fancy little flick behind the other one. I’m still not quite sure how that happened but I remember that feeling of letting go and listening with my heart and body without overthinking.
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