Finally, the drama commences. Finally, there’s fantabulous excitement to come soon, soon, soon……and this is how I’m feeling today!:

Top of the World, uploaded by Shekynah & found via kind over matter

I’ll see ya via vlog post tomorrow with something I’ve been longing to say for years!  Hallelujah & amen!

Just a quick reminder that the free info call for Operation: When I Grow Up!  is on for tomorrow, Feb 16th at noon EST. Make sure that Santa knows to come to your house by clicking here, expanding the first section & filling out the super short form. Even if you’re busy prepping the cookies & milk, sign up anyway & your presents (aka the recording of the call) will be thrown down your chimney (aka sent via email) a few hours later. Wait, am I Santa in this scenario? Can Santa be Bat Mitzvahed? I gotta check on this….

Hope to hear you at noon tomorrow!

There’s so much awesomeness going on I just had to create a When I Grow Up Round-Up! Cute title, huh? It’s not alliteration but it rhymes, so it’s OK by me (yes, “up” & “up” totally rhyme- says me).

First up is the announcement of a Free Info Call for Operation: When I Grow Up! on Tue the 16th! I’ve never done one of these before, but thought it would be really useful for anyone thinking of joining my next group session. I’ll let ya know our agenda for each of the 12 sessions, what awesome things you can expect, & answer all of your questions. Just sign up here & even if you can’t make it, a recording will be sent to you via carrier pigeon (or email, but carrier pigeon sounds cooler) a few hours after the call. So join us for some laughs, some awesomeness & a sing-along (sing-along optional).

Second up is that I was quoted in the Careers section of Metro this week! For those not in a major northeast city, Metro is one of 2 free papers that are given out at every subway stop (at least I think they are – I’ve never been able to dodge ‘em!) in Boston, NY & Philly. I was thrilled to see my contributions in the article Let Your Office Creativity Fly Free. Thankfully I refrained myself from standing up in my sit during busy rush hour, pointing to the article, & yelling, “That’s me! That’s me!” Although who am I kidding – New Yorkers wouldn’t bat an eye over craziness like that!

Third up is the new weekly video on Spring! We’re posting a new meaty, juicy video every Tuesday in February instead of one humongous, time-consuming one, & so far the response has been awesome. This week, we talk about how to find your support system (both online & off), how to ask for support,  what to do with those supporters who don’t reciprocate, & even a personal (& scary!) challenge from Jess LC. And we have a new giveaway! So carve a half-hour into your busy day for some support time & watch here! (more…)

Give Me a Hand by Blue Bicicletta

Last month, I got a tweet from Danielle LaPorte alerting me to the Help Haiti Blog Challenge, & it’s been stuck in my mind ever since. I’ve been running it over in my head, trying to figure out how I want to contribute. I’m supposed to add a badge & complete this sentence:

“I will donate ________ dollars to _________ on behalf of the next person who buys _________from me.”

But I don’t wanna. I wanna involve more people than just The Next Person. I wanna give more of myself & the things I can contribute. I wanna donate 5% of my coaching income for February to Haiti. Will you help me make sure it’s a lot? Click on over to my Services page to find out about my private sessions, & over to Events to explore the group sessions I got goin’ on, & know that your hard-earned money will be hard at work for those in need.

Holy crapballs, is this exciting. Maybe even more so because after the video was pushed back for the second time, I resigned myself to seeing it in March. Or May. Or 2011. But not before the week was over!

Put Me In, Life Coach is a 5-minute video on Newsweek.com that profiles me as one of the 15,000 (!) life coaches out there. You’ll hear how I found my way to coaching, how I got accredited, my definition of a life coach, & even see me coaching a client & hear her thoughts about being coached! I stand corrected: holy crapballs, this is super exciting.

Oh, and if you’ve found your way here because of this super awesome video, Welcome! Click around & stay for a while – there’s a ton of neat stuff both on my blog & in my site. This is my home on the Interwebs, & you’re always welcome!

Once more for good measure: holy crapballs.

motivation note cards by watersounds

By now you guys have heard me yammer/exclaim/giddily scream about my new website (& if you haven’t, well, come on over & visit – you’re always welcome!). What I haven’t done yet is pimp out my group coaching sessions, & the first one starts on Feb 9th, with early bird registration ending next week & overall registration closing shortly thereafter! That’s super soon, people, & I wanted to make sure you kids saw what I have to offer because, frankly, my group coaching sessions are awesome. I love doing them like nobody’s business (that’s what she said). Thankfully the feeling’s mutual – here’s what my last group coaching participants (yes, there are just 4 to a group so everyone gets personal attention each week!) had to say:

• “When the recession hit, for the first time in my life I struggled to find a job…and I realized I was struggling because I didn’t know what I wanted. Looking back, I had patiently dated a million jobs, expecting Prince Charming to fall into my lap. When the scheming little bastard refused to show, I decided to get out there and hunt it down. This new goal brought out my demons, but I pushed forward by telling myself that Group Coaching would still be worth it even if I only found a better “date,” and not my elusive Mr. Right. Every group coaching session was fun and energizing, even when all four of us showed up feeling like basketcases! No matter how rough the week, Thursday night had the magical power to lift us all up. Temporary feelings of loserhood shriveled, and with renewed confidence we hashed out concrete tasks to keep the momentum going for another seven days. Instead of just knowing my own story – the anxieties, roadblocks, and triumphs – I had the privilege of witnessing three more. Now that these group sessions are behind me, I am realizing how much I dip into those other stories, searching for and finding solutions, strategies, hope, and inspiration. Happily, Group Coaching resulted in much more than a “better date.” By the end of the sessions I had developed a new professional dream, a personal mission statement to guide it, and an action plan to make it a reality. Many thanks to my Fairy Godmother, Michelle!” – Faith, California
• “The group coaching environment was great! We fed off of each other’s energy, and it helped in feeling like you were not alone in the general struggle of self exploration and needing change in your career. The best thing about group coaching was when Michelle saw my hangups as opportunities to grow and helped me understand and celebrate my strengths. By asking a question or framing the issue I was having in a certain way, she allowed me to break free from what was holding me back. So many times I said something that was important, specifically something that was said with clarity, and I remembered it was recorded and I could go back to it later. It helped having someone else see the strengths and potential that I didn’t see in myself.” – Stephanie Gravalese-Wood, Massachusetts
• “The highlight of my group sessions was when Michelle would listen to what I said when I was really confused & then cut through the mental fog & say something insightful – and then come up with an action plan to fix it! She’s a great listener and summarized our feelings succinctly & with clarity, and she has a super friendly personality that puts people at ease when they might be nervous about revealing their hopes/dreams to a group of people. My group session experience was SO POSITIVE & wonderful! I also got really concrete tips from other group members in my position, & we were able to comment on how we knew what the other people were saying, feeling, going through, etc. My group sessions really gave me the confidence to move forward.” – Charlotte Dauphin, Virginia
• “I decided to sign-up for group coaching with Michelle because I didn’t know what to do with me. I wasn’t feeling happy with my job, I wanted change, but I didn’t know for what. Often, I was feeling stressed and oppressed by my behavior and I wanted to find my path. I was looking for help to organize all my ideas & thought in order to focus on something. Michelle really helped me feel more comfortable with myself. Everything seems more easier & simple with her. She’s funny & friendly & didn’t judge & almost every time she was targeting right. I now know myself more than before, so I can focus on what I’m good at, & make my work more interesting for me. I now have a good subject to start my blog (& express myself & get out there!) & I’ve decided to sign-up in a graphic design school, so I’m happier! I have gained not less than that.” – Julie D., Montreal

While I love my private sessions, whether they’re by phone or email, there’s something about being part of a group of creative people with a similar goal that supports & “gets” each other that gets the breakthroughs broken-through like nothing else. The fact that it’s low-cost, too (just $39/session) allows me to coach a whole slew of people who might not be able to afford my private sessions, while still making sure that they get individual attention. That’s really important to me. (more…)

Thank you all so very much for your support, encouragement, & virtual confetti that you threw my way this week when I announced that I was video interviewed for Newsweek! Unfortunately, we’re all gonna hafta be in suspense for just a week longer, as the live date got pushed back to 1/20. I’m taking the stance that the video was so awesome, the staff knew that it would be another week before they got themselves off the floor. Right? Right? Right.

Thankfully, Spring is here to save the day! While I don’t have a fancy video to show you, I do have 3 fantastic, free downloads from the Spring girls today! Head on over & grab yourself a Goal Game (I provided the text, while Jess Gonacha Swift provided the pretty!), a How to Write Your Annual Letter PDF written by Jess LC (she’s the one that started it all!) & a super-cute, super-bright goal planning & organizing PDF from Carolyn Rubenstein! And if you haven’t already, comment on our latest video for a chance to win a Goal Kit by Jessica Gonacha Swift. I spent real money for mine & it’s worth double what she charges!

I was a super big Facebook & Twitter tease last week, where I got a whirlwind request that blew my freaking mind off. It was Great Big Excitement & yet….I wasn’t excited. OK, I was for a moment or two, & then…..stilted. Stifled. Stuffed in a closet & suffocated. So, why was I acting super cool? I wasn’t sure….but I brought out the video camera anyway to talk about it. And yes, I disclose the Great Big Excitement, which I actually learned will be live to the world this Wed, the 13th. Because of that, we relaunched my site early (a new design! online scheduling & payment! free resources! cartoon people!) & it’s live as of yesterday! With my 32nd birthday on Thursday, all this change & Great Big Excitement might give me a heart attack.

Great Big Excitment & The Vampires That Come With It from WhenIGrowUpCoach on Vimeo.

I can not believe I’m writing this a whole 4 days before schedule (which is actually 6 days before the original schedule, but was adjusted for my Great Big Excitement that I’ll announce on Monday), but the brand new redesign of When I Grow Up is LIVE!! The new version of this site now has:

• a Press page for all my print & radio interviews
• an online scheduler to make your consultation calls & private sessions easy breezy
• a calendar of Events for my group sessions & appearances (now accepting early bird registration for 4 different group coaching sessions!!)
• even more provided Services, like 75-minute catch-up calls for my former clients
• an audio recording of a real live 15 minute session in the sidebar of every page to better explain What is Coaching?
• new questions on the FAQ page
• additional bios on About Me
• my clients looking like cartoons on the Testimonials page (which has less testimonials than the last, but that’s only because we’re busy converting clients to cartoons! Please note that this is not literal.)
• & Free Resources. Yup – you can now download PDFs of all the career change exercises I give my private clients, along with links to everything I bookmark on Delicious & my Google Reader. How awesome am I? (Answer: pretty damn awesome)

More than anything, I have to thank my amazingly fabulously awesome website designer, Bekky Pollock, for, well, her amazingly fabulous awesomeness in knowing exactly what I wanted without me knowing exactly what I wanted. She’s so awesome, & I’m sure that you’re gonna love this design so much, that I made her put a link to her site at the bottom of each page so I wouldn’t get a trillion emails asking me who did my site. I also have to give super big love to my ridiculously awesome husband, who built the whole site from Bekky’s design in just a short few weeks. There was a bunch of stuff that he learned just for me, & that wasn’t even in our vows! Of course, I’m one step closer to being his Sugar Mama now, so at least there’s something in it for him. (more…)

Dear my Wonderful Readers/Friends/Family/Clients/Coaches/Twiends,

I am thrilled/excited/plotzing/jumping out of my skin to share with you When I Grow Up: The Brand. I have been working diligently with Nicole Byrkit of NB Creative for the last 6 weeks to design a logo for the business, plus all the accessories that go along with it. I don’t know if it was good luck or good karma for me to find Nicole painlessly and effortlessly, but either way, I’m counting my blessings! I just can’t thank her enough for all of her hard work and a tremendous finished product.

WIthout further adieu, may I present When I Grow Up: The Logo:

I wanted to show you the whole suite: business cards, letterhead, and notecards, but I’m not blog savvy enough to know how to post anything that’s not a jpeg. I’m hoping to have the blog blanner implemented by my 100th post, on or about Wednesday, February 11th. Can you feel the excitement?*

*Please note that this is not a sarcastic comment. I’ve been emailing Nicole things like “Eek!” for 6 weeks! If you’d like to snatch her up for yourself, you can contact her through her Etsy shop. (more…)