How to be classy with other people's stuff
Well I was reminded of this excellent speaker, Debbie Howard who spoke at FEW Japan on marketing some years ago when I was the president.
Earlier this year, Debbie, whom I was reconnected with through Catherine O'Connell and JMEC emailed me to ask if I knew the origins of February is the New January! Well YES I declared and after a careful Google search to check my facts - it was me! Don’t you just love that she contacted me before using the phrase? What a class act.
From Debbie's Blog:
"It turns out Tokyo-based Sarah Furuya started her own “February is the new January” movement back in 2016, when she called together about 50 friends to change the image of February (a month that many dislike for it’s gloomy weather, among other things). She’s now starting her fifth year of providing a one-year coaching program around it – go, Sarah!
I’m taking up Sarah’s battle cry – and have found it very useful in repositioning my image of January to being a bonus month in which to “get ready” for the rest of the year (rather than pressuring myself and feeling like I’m running behind before we even get started). It’s serving me well, even here at the end of February!
Read more here.
The origin of the February is the New January Programme: 6 years ago after a particularly painful breakup with a biz partner (Shit happens - so much love still there), I had a brainwave to start a one-year programme of coaching. I kept it as simple as possible - 12 hours of coaching for one year and the rest I developed as we went. No groups, no content just extremely reasonably priced coaching for one year.
8 glorious people signed up - I call them my unicorns because I was and am forever so grateful to them, and because Laura and I love to have fun and weave magic into our world. 3 of them are still with me in FNJ year 5, another takes private 1:1 coaching with me. February is the New January was born and became a mainstay of Tokyo coaching vernacular! FNJ.
So anyway - This women, Debbie was super classy asking me and wrote a Blog about her amazing February is the New January initiative. Her Blog is about caregiving people, especially elderly parents at the end of their life. This is a constant concern for anyone over 40 who lives away from their ageing parents, if they are lucky enough to have them still around.
Hop over to Debbie's Blog and sign up to her newsletter to receive all her wisdom -she even has a book about it. Forever grateful to people who share their wisdom, experience and information. AND who are classy in their use of people’s IP and creations!