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Companies I have worked with include

What my clients say about me

  • John Birch - BA
    “I was really impressed with the way Deborah Khan delivered training on the subject of communication skills to us at BA Pensions. She took time to fully research and understand how we worked and what our specific concerns were. She designed a programme that matched not only our collective requirements but was also flexible enough to cover individual development needs. Her methods, being performance based, ensured that even the most introverted of us participated in the programme and our subsequent delivery in formal presentations has improved significantly"
  • Tom Powell - DLKW
    "I participated in a one-day session with Deb Khan last year and would strongly recommend it for both novice speakers and those looking to hone their skills. She (gently) picked apart our strengths and weaknesses and by the end of the day, the results were tremendous. Everyone left with a range of practical skills and it's been a huge benefit for presentations"
  • Kai Vacher - Specialist Schools Trust
    "Deb has incredible foresight, emotional intelligence and a razor sharp focus on specific outcomes to plan programmes/workshops of outstanding quality. Her ability to work with a group of people so that very quickly they feel at ease with each other is unsurpassed in my experience. Deb uses a varied range of interactive strategies to provide the prefect balance of challenge and support for workshop participants. Post event, course participants often contact me to express their overwhelming sense of achievement having worked with Deb, and want more; for themselves and colleagues.”
  • David Mikhail - RHM
    Deborah is fantastic. I’m afraid she had to suffer both of our last pitches – but after her input we just flew, winning really important work from both of them. She is practically our fourth partner now. In spite of all our training (7 years at architecture school) I realise now we were taught nothing about presenting. Deborah helped us to communicate successfully, but she is about much more than communication skills. She goes straight to the heart of what we are trying to say, what are our best ideas, and feels her way into the audience. She works us hard but she’s great fun and our business is booming thanks to her.
  • Simon Beckett - Five TV
    "..this morning was most useful – so often in my experience creative workshops are all enthusiasm and no substance but yours was a refreshing change and I actually had to work at thinking about what you were saying and what I was thinking (I love metacognition)"
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« September 2006 | Main | February 2007 »

January 2007

Are blogs a marketing tool?


(Or how I learned to love blogging and stop worrying)

Yes. Short answer. A somewhat clichéd story but I have been resistant to the concept of blogs (I know, I know). I didn’t get them and found their superficially incestuous references slightly self-congratulatory. Self-Indulgent even. Well, we live and learn as they say in Yorkshire

So…

Completed some work with the lovely people at Channel 4   .Smart, dynamic, creative, related to an immediate business challenge, receptive to learning. What more could you ask from a client? They kindly asked me to submit for a large piece of work around leadership.

Argh-  that’s not me. My work comes via word of mouth. I have a blog that I need to use more, a business card  plus one rather fabulous if slightly obsolete PDF.

I agonised over how to present myself, of course and finally was brave enough to show an ex BBC news journalist, now a coach, my thoughts.   “I don’t market myself” I boasted on the submission. The only answer, quite rightly was  “well why the hell not.”

So here goes. Why the hell not?

  • It is scary

   
a branding exercise is exposing.  Is the work around creativity perceived as smoke and mirrors?  I know it is effective, highly successful and wins pitches, competitions, develops leaders, affects change and moves organisations forward. I am an educational strategist so I know a bit of my work even has a strong moral purpose, for goodness sake. But it is all based around a concept that is shrouded in myth, condones terrible behaviours and is synonymous with elitism. Creativity is a subject many perceive as unfathomable. How do I describe what I do without resorting to hyperbole, nebulous language and a series of processes that sound a bit nuts out of context, quite frankly. Using the blog allows me to do this.

  • People buy from people, surely

Can I develop a tone of voice that sums up why I believe I get work? There are others that deliver workshops and training. It is my  deconstruction and re-presenting of the theory in an emotionally engaging and creative way that is my USP. This is tough to describe on paper. If I can tell you you can question, respond, we can have a dialogue And you see me..

  • What do I do?

The perennial question. Still working that one out. Reading blogs gives my work structure, shape and direction. One day I may be able to condense what I do and produce a snappy mission statement. I am not there, yet.

  • “Conventional” marketing is less and less effective

I might be rejected. And it doesn't work very well. So let’s not play. I don’t know a lot and most of what I do know I learn though the brilliant communications of Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki..And the lovely Mr Creative Inspiration but god forbid we should talk about work at home. He’s a marketing strategist and a prolific blogger. Now maybe that is the real reason I have resisted! Why waste time and emotional effort on something with a high failure rate. Lots of things can look fabulous. Surely it is what people do and their interaction with others that count in my area?

I believe in learning by doing: the only way to learn. Our intelligence is dynamic and multi-faceted. Does conventional marketing capture this?

  • It takes too much time

Indulge me a little. I have children, I live in London, cherish my friends, try to run, cycle, like to appreciate the extraordinary cultural opportunities on my door-step... engaging in a marketing exercise is not top of my priority list.

  • No marketing is a strategy

No it’s not

So- my blog is my marketing. It is my product.  I am developing a product through a medium I feel comfortable with. I am at the bottom of the learning curve, I admit, and already have sharpened up through this great post

The technology will get easier.The images will come. Roll with it.

This is as good as it gets right now. My job now is to not let it be scary, to try to capture an authentic tone of voice, to find the time and to demonstrate through my postings how I have helped people to learn.

What happened?

Blogs now are a vital tool for my work. Not only do I refer, recommend and generally try to impress (as if) my clients with the diversity of my reading but I never cease to be inspired and motivated by their content.

So what does that tell me about the authors? They reference their ideas, they use research and translate this into practical application, they are efficient, they amuse, provoke, challenge and extend my thinking. Would I want to work with them? Of course.

The answers are always inside us if we bother to look.

Does a blog offer opportunities to share your work and wrap a description of what you do around a meme that may be of value to someone else? I hope so. And who really cares about what we did with someone else- it is  what you did that could be of value to them that counts.

So that is my new year’s resolution. Or February resolution at least. January is rubbish enough without giving ourselves extra pressure. To make blogging a habit, therefore I become better at it, therefore it becomes easier…My blog is embryonic. But at least I have jumped off the cliff.

I am mixing too many metaphors now...

I am really looking forward to chatting to Mark, I hope our meeting will confirm that we share similar values, sensibilities and possibly aspirations. And if not we will have a nice cup of tea looking at The Thames.

Mark and I have similar clients, references and I think work in similar territories despite the fact that I am not a coach. We live close-ish to each other in London. And I would never have had the fortune to engage with his work without his blog. His product is inspiring and I would buy him.

It appears I am converted.

January 31, 2007 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Welcome

  • A fresh, raw idea is our most precious commodity. I run workshops aimed at developing the inherent ability we all have to be creative. With 20 years personal experience of the arts, education, lateral thinking, coaching and consultancy I create bespoke, practical sessions tailored to my client’s particular needs. I then deliver support and advice to help practice and inspire creativity in the workspace. I achieve this through active learning sessions. Where people really understand what it means to be creative – a unique fusion of the intellectual, physical and emotional. With the emphasis on active. It’s about learning by doing. For me there is no other way. Getting off your chair, rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in. It’s dynamic, fast-paced and fun. Many workshops on creativity are often more form than content. I hope mine has the balance towards the former but has a great latter. For more information email me and I will send you a full description of what I do.

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