Launching

This little rocket ship may not seem like much. If it caught your attention, you might look at it and wonder about it. Why does it have a circle on the right upper side? Is that an open window? Why are the letters "L" and "M" on it?
What if I were to tell you that only graduates receive them? That the letters stand for "Launch Me". And that circle on the side, is so that it can be worn with pride.  But no, it has nothing to do with NASA!
However, everything to do with a launch.

Intrigued? So was I!

Here is where it all started:

Was I ready to take my skills to new places?

As an instructor or presenter I know that I can keep refining and fine tuning my presentation skills. So, what would it hurt?!

Sign me up....





So this last week I spent two days in Hutchinson at ESSDACK with two top notch presenters and forward thinkers. One is pictured above, Kevin Honeycutt. The other can be found with all things PBL, but also as co-collaborator with Kevin...Ginger Lewman.

Somehow, I ended up being their only student. These very busy individuals made time for just me. They could have rescheduled me for the next session this summer. Talk about individualizing instruction!

Day one:
We took a good look at what I wanted to get from this experience, my concerns, etc.
"You can't pre-think everything but planning ahead and creating strategies for attaining orbit without falling back to Earth is a good idea."

We discussed expertise and authority.
"Bring your passions to your work, even the ones you're still trying to perfect."
Along with that we talked about "image".

I had known that it was a good idea to "Google myself" to see what came up and the digital footprint that I was leaving. However, I had never considered the same search with images. What images are "out there" of me and what do they say of me?

We talked about branding and the tools/talents that make me. The credibility and trust that is necessary. And owning my name.

Day two:
This held more teaching from our manual, but I want to share the part that was far above and beyond. Day one we had talked a lot about image and they had mentioned taking some photos during our time together. Long story shortened....Kevin made arrangements with a hair stylist he knew for Ginger and I to have hair cuts prior to our photo session. With fresh hair cut and new clothes (previously purchased that morning), I entered a photo shoot. Kevin and Ginger both have photography in their background and add to that a studio with backdrop and lighting! I now have some professional photographs of myself. I look at the difference in what I had and what I am now able to put in place....