How to tell if an investment is right for you
The word investment can have a lot of different meanings. Today I want to look at investments of time and money into your personal development or your business. And I’m coming at this as someone who’s recently done a fair bit of investing into my business specifically. I haven’t done the maths, but I’ve spent a lot of money on my business since deciding to become a coach, from my…
Looking ahead to 2020
Hello everyone and happy New Year! Welcome to the brand new Blue Jay of Happiness site – what do you think? I’m really happy with it. The colours, the navigation – all of it just flows better and is more functional. While blogging is a key part of my work, so is coaching and now podcasting and I feel this new site communicates this well. I want to say a…
BRB – new website coming!
Hello everyone – how are you doing? I wanted to let you know that the blog is going to go quiet over the next couple of weeks because very exciting things are happening behind the scenes and a brand new website is going to be coming your way in January! Blue Jay of Happiness launched on January 1st 2017 and as it approaches its third birthday I’ve decided it’s time…
5 ways I make life easier
After I graduated from university, I worked in a tiny shoe shop. I was promoted to manager pretty quickly and vividly remember one day when I was doing a stock take with my area manager in-store. After looking at my method and my numbers, my area manager said “You do like making things difficult for yourself, don’t you?” and then proceeded to show me a much simpler way of doing…
Five ways to boost SEO on popular blog posts
This isn’t my usual style of blog post here on Blue Jay of Happiness, but every now and then I really like sharing tips about blogging. I know quite a few of you reading run your own blogs and I personally love reading these types of posts, so I thought – why not? I wanted to tell you about something I did a couple of months ago when I had…
Picking yourself up after a fall
Last month I wrote about some mistakes I made when I first started coaching, sharing the lessons I learnt along the way. Today I want to take a broader look at that situation and talk about how we can cope when something doesn’t go the way we thought it would. Maybe you’re a business owner and your latest offering didn’t do as well as you hoped. Maybe you made a…
Why my first session as a coach ended in tears (and what I learnt)
This is one of those posts I’m scared to share, but I think it’s an important one. When we make career decisions that involve trying something new, there is *always* a learning curve. But I feel like this curve is very rarely talked about or shared. Many of us (myself included) want to give the impression that we’re immediately great at this new thing. We share when things go well,…
My menstrual cup experience
A few months ago I wrote about some of the small steps towards sustainability I was taking, including reducing my meat intake and ditching wet-wipes. One of the areas I said I really wanted to work on was period products and I’m pleased to say I have! There are a few sustainable period options out there, but I’ve gone with a combination of a menstrual cup and period pants (underwear…
How self-care impacts your business
If you run your own business, whether full-time or on the side of a day-job, you’ll know how easily it can consume you. This business, this idea you’ve had, it’s just that – yours. And it’s tightly packed full of hopes and dreams. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that you want to spend a lot of time on it. But this time, is limited. In the beginning stages especially, chances are…
Growth spurt
I’m posting an extra blog this week to tell you about an email challenge I’m running in August called Growth spurt. I feel like August can be quite a quiet month, filled with dappled sunlight and al-fresco dining. It occurred to me that this time of year might be a good one to work on self-belief. The days are deliciously long and give us some space to reflect before we…