» Archive for December, 2007

Inspiration, and the gift of an Old Favorite For Winter Solstice

Friday, December 21st, 2007 by Maryam Webster

I love the Everything Yoga blog. Diane had a great quotation for the Winter Solstice:

Take time to do yoga and meditation on the Winter Solstice,

A moment of time in the midst of your busy holiday schedule,

To acknowledge healing and the possibility of a miracle in every moment.

I’ve revamped my Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tutorial "EFT In A Nutshell: The Quickstart" to make it even easier to understand. For the "knowledge of healing and possibility of a miracle" using only your hands and mind check it out here:

http://maryamwebster.com/eftbasics

Happy Solstice!! 

Warmest Love & Blessings,
Maryam

FREE MP3 Ends Holiday Stress - For Good

Friday, December 21st, 2007 by Maryam Webster

We all decided that it would be a sumptuous holiday gift to offer the audio of our last Everyday Bliss Party as a Holiday Gift to bring Joy To the World. I am so pleased that the Breathing Peace Process has been so well received. You can see just a few of the comments that have come in from people here on how this went for them. Feel free to post your own comments, too!

And here’s the Press Release on this from: http://www.prleap.com/pr/109477/

Feel free to copy this WHOLE thing as free content for your blog and a nice giveaway to your readers!


Free MP3 To END Holiday Stress FOR GOOD

SUMMARY:

Hate the thought of visiting family at the holidays? Does the idea of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year’s leave you stressed and in a tizzy? Well, worry no more, stress management help is here and uncharacteristically at this time of year, that help is absolutely free. In a holiday gift to the world, The Maryam Webster Group and Energy Coach Institute offer a complimentary MP3 audio to help YOU completely END holiday stress - for good.

For quick access: http://www.maryamwebster.com/holidayblissparty/

FULL PRESS RELEASE:

(PRLEAP.COM) December 21, 2007. San Francisco, CA - In a free holiday gift to the world, Maryam Webster, CEO of The Maryam Webster Group and Director of The Energy Coach Institute, offers an MP3 audio of her master class to help END holiday stress, in one hour - for good.

For the investment of a mere hour of your time with no prior knowledge needed, this gentle mental exercise brings uplifting change that will leave you feeling energized and refreshed, and even help you cultivate daily Bliss as a lifelong state of being.

Maryam, an accomplished therapist, trainer and author of the upcoming New Harbinger book "Everyday Bliss For Busy Women" (May, 2008) says of this free class:

"I become dismayed at hearing both clients and friends saying they dreaded going home for the holidays…or for whom the holiday season meant a month or more of depression and unhappiness. With the quick and simple techniques we have today, this is just so unnecessary. I hope everyone who reads this will take the time to give a listen to the audio and work this "Breathing Peace" method to their benefit. It’s wonderfully relaxing and changes relationships, perspective and events like magic!"

The "Breathing Peace" process is additionally good all year ‘round to take care of stress at its source. Though topically framed around the holidays or whenever families and significant others can make everyday living stressful, you’ll be able to transpose the process to many different situations and environments to achieve personal Peace.

No special skills are needed, just sit back, relax and follow the instructions along with Maryam’s able guidance and plucky volunteer client Sabrina, an intern at The Energy Coach Institute. Written instructions on how to perform the method again, plus invitations to monthly telegatherings where similar information is shared, are also included in this powerful gift.

For instant access, catch YOUR audio break for the holidays here:

http://www.maryamwebster.com/holidayblissparty/

The work you’ll experience on this audio is a powerful component of Maryam’s Everyday Bliss Coaching process and her Certified Energy Coach Program’s GAP coaching model - known for its lightspeed transformative power and ease of usability.

Beginning in February, The Energy Coach Institute will be offering Maryam’s personal development program:

"The 12 Keys To Blissful Living"

Taught by Maryam and a a stellar cast of Everyday Bliss Experts, participants will uses methods like you’ll learn in this free audio, to clear the 12 common Bliss Blockers and use the 12 Bliss Keys to generate Peace in everyday life. Plus you’ll learn simple, uncomplicated ways to transform relationships, living conditions, job situations and begin to live a life free of limitation.

You can learn more and register for this unique program (be sure to catch the Earlybird Rate through December 24th!) here:

http://maryamwebster.com/12keys

We at The Maryam Webster Group and Energy Coach Institute hope you enjoy this free peace-bringing method, and wish the world the Happiest and Most Peaceful of Holiday Seasons.

Reference URL’s:

maryamwebster.com
energycoachinstitute.com
everydaybliss.org

The Breathing Peace Process - what happened???

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

I bid you Peace....We had a bang-up call a week or so ago with the Everyday Bliss R&D Party folks. Aren’t a member of the party yet? join at left - you’ll get a hot gift to ring in your New Year!

In this call I shared a process I developed that you WON’T find in my Everyday Bliss For Busy Women book (out in May 2008 from New Harbinger Publishers), but you WILL learn, among many others, in my own lightspeed process, the:

12 Keys To Blissful Living Program


((( I’ll be sharing this program to learn to live in complete Presence  — where NOTHING is truly a problem —  in February 2008. Go ahead, click on the name above, and catch the EARLYBIRD before it goes away on Christmas Eve! )))

Though we only had time to go through HALF the process, people have already written in claiming marvellous results! Gremlins gone, habits busted, relationship weirdness disappearing and crabby parents turned into lambs.

Such heartening news to hear, particularly in the holiday season!

So as promised, after giving you a good space of time to practice the process, here is a place to let us know what happened when you practiced the "Breathing Peace" process.

Simply click here and scroll to the bottom to share your experience of this powerful changework modality.

Weren’t on the call and want a replay? No problem! Get it here:

http://www.maryamwebster.com/holidayblissparty/

Happy Holidays!!!

Warmest Love & Blessings from Maryam
and the whole Everyday Bliss team

Mark Joyner Offers Free Blogging Course

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Now while you know I have preferred and recommended the kick-butt  How-To-Blog training provided by Andy Wibbels, author of Blogwild ….Andy’s a major guru, and you’re not going to get his trainings for free. At a generally great price and with the style, panache and depth of know-how that ONLY Andy can provide, they’re great value for money, and I still recommend his work highly.

But what if you don’t want to spend anything, and just want to dip a toe into blogging to see if it fits as a marketing  venue for your product stream?  (Answer: Yes, it does. Any product, any industry.)

So to check out for free, here’s an interesting new multi-media course on blogging from Mark Joyner over at Simpleology.com. For a while, Mark’s letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Blog on.

For Executives: Why Employees Job-Surf

Friday, December 14th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

This just out from Watson Wyatt Worldwide Research Reports: stress plays a large part in why employees job-surf and high-pressure companies find loyalty difficult to guarantee. Execs, take notice. If you don’t already have one, you NEED a stress reduction program in your company NOW.

Read the below and contact me if your company of 20 - 1500 employees is willing to have:

a) Far fewer collateral sick days

b) Employees able to take pro-active care of self and others

c) A comfortable, respectful work environment

d) Sky-high morale at ALL levels of the company

e) No snags to trip up and derail the workforce (and those few that might happen easily resolved)

f) Serious longterm employee loyalty and support

If you’re willing to do some of the most pleasurable work you’ve ever done as a team, contact me for a complementary prescriptive analysis.

From: watsonwyatt.com/research/resrender.asp?id=2007-US-0164&page=1

Playing to Win in a Global Economy – 2007/2008 Global Strategic Rewards® Report and United States Findings

Executive Summary

The increasingly global market for talent makes it critical for companies to understand the factors that affect employee attraction and retention everywhere they do business. Organizations that do not balance financial imperatives and employee reward preferences risk losing their best talent.

The 2007/2008 Global Strategic Rewards® study examines how companies in Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the United States are tackling attraction and retention issues and reward management. The first half of the report highlights the similarities and differences between the regions, while the second half focuses on U.S.-specific data.

Global Key Findings

Regardless of region, the study found:

  • The majority of employers have problems attracting critical-skill employees (70 percent) and top-performing employees (67 percent).
  • Employers have an incomplete understanding of why employees join or leave their organizations. For example, employees rank stress as a top reason they would leave, but it is not even among the top five reasons cited by employers.
  • When employees are satisfied with stress levels and work/life balance, they are more inclined to stay with their companies (86 percent versus 64 percent) and more likely to recommend them as places to work (88 percent versus 55 percent).
  • Financially high-performing firms get performance management right. For example, their managers are much more likely to link organizational performance to rewards (51 percent versus 38 percent of low-performing organizations).
  • Clearly setting expectations and delivering on the reward promise is a formula for a more engaged workforce. Sixty-nine percent of employees who say their employers succeed at both promise and delivery are highly engaged, versus roughly 25 percent overall.

U.S. Key Findings

  • Employers report difficulty in attracting and retaining employees — particularly, top-performing and critical-skill employees — for the fourth year in a row. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of employers are having difficulty attracting critical-skill employees, while 60 percent are having difficulty attracting top performers.
  • Consistent with the global findings, U.S. employers and employees have different ideas about why employees join or leave (see below*). As a result, some of the actions that employers are taking to attract and retain employees may be counterproductive.
  • As employers continue to manage their cost structures, they are putting more money into variable pay and raising the bar for performance. As in 2007, more than one in five (21 percent) increased the size of individual target awards for 2008.
  • Merit-increase budgets for 2007 remained relatively stable, at an average 3.6 percent, and are expected to rise only slightly, to 3.7 percent, in 2008.
  • Highly engaged employees are more than twice as likely to be top performers than are other employees.

Interesting stuff, no? It says basically what most savvy execs have known all along - value someone appropriately, keep them engaged in interesting duties that fulfill them and invest them with personal power insofar as possible. Do this and there isn’t anything they wouldn’t do to stay on the job and tout the company and its products to all they meet.

Why employees actually leave is found in another Watson Wyatt report (here and in charts below) of the European market where we learn that there is a large gap between the employee’s values and the employers perceptions of those values.

You can’t market where the market doesn’t exist. Employers wanting to pitch their employees on longevity of their position within the company, need to take a more prosaic set of employee needs into account: people hate long commutes, they don’t want to spend most of their waking hours during the week in a pressure cooker environment with little to no release, and they want to have some security when they finally do decide to take a job. That and a dollop of feeling like they’re in control of their life. From the study:

"…employers need to increase their focus on more immediate needs as well, such as the nature of the work they do now, and the internal and external pressures that affect employees’ working experience, like stress and length of commute.”

What attracts employees?
The three reasons most frequently given
Rank Employers Employees
1 Career development opportunities (55 per cent) Nature of work (49 per cent)
2 Employer reputation (51 per cent) Job security (34 per cent)
3 Base pay (43 per cent) Base pay (30 per cent)
4 Company culture (33 per cent) Length of commute (29 per cent)
5 Nature of work (23 per cent) Employer reputation (24 per cent)
Percentages reporting element as one of the top three reasons European employees consider joining an organisation
Why they leave?
The three reasons most frequently given
Rank Employers Employees
1 Career development opportunities (49 per cent) Stress levels (35 per cent)
2 Promotion opportunities (48 per cent) Base pay (34 per cent)
3 Base pay (43 per cent) Promotion opportunities (27 per cent)
4 Relationship with manager (31 per cent) Career development (25 per cent)
5 Work/life balance (28 per cent) Work/life balance (20 per cent)
Percentages reporting element as one of the top three reasons European employees consider joining an organisation

Found here: http://www.watsonwyatt.com/news/press.asp?ID=18396

Is this you? Your company? Then you may be able to benefit from what I offer executives and their teams. Contact me for your company’s complementary prescriptive assessment.

Join us for our MONDAY DEC. 10th HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY

Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Join Us for a Festive and Transformative Holiday Party!

Date:
Monday, December 10, 2007

Call Time:
9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm UK

(To translate correct time for your area, check the Meeting Planner link at: www.timeanddate.com)

You’ll learn a technique never seen before…

You’re going to learn a special part of The Everyday Bliss Process -  how to make situations, memories, even objectionable family members bearable and even blissful for the holidays…and onward. This technique is a blend you’ve never experienced before - no one has. And it will be yours from now on.

But there’s also a higher purpose to this telegathering.

"The opportunity for us to grow exponentially as individuals  and community is already present." Join Us!

Many people are feeling the pull towards a new dimension of being, thought, and freedom from limitation. 

How will you leverage this  opportunity as an individual? As a member of a community?  

And how can you maximize your growth while remaining relaxed, present and in bliss?

Let’s discover how together, using what we’ll learn on this call.

We will be discussing precepts rooted in the teachings of Abraham-Hicks, Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer and The Dalai Lama on how to remain Present when all around you dissolves in chaos. And further, on how to use that chaos as a personal  path to Bliss. Simply enter your name and primary email below and I’ll whisk the details right to your inbox

12-15-07: Sorry, the time for this offer has passed.  We run this offer every year though in December. Look for it to open back up again then!

Pumpkin Apple Crumblebutter Gluten-Free Recipe

Thursday, December 6th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

 WIth this dish you’ll never miss pumpkin pie at the holidays. The "crumblebutter" portion is great for an Apple Brown Betty, cobbler topper or with spicing amendments, a spice cake or coffee cake streusel. You’ll have to fight even the kids off to finish this one. It is a foregone conclusion that as with all my recipes, this calls for all organic ingredients, or as many as you can find.   ;-)

The Pumpkin - Apple

1 baked squash of any kind. Pumpkin, obviously, but butternut, acorn and banana squash work just as well

Bake small, cleaned and quartered pumpkin in oven in a traditional manner or in glass dish with 1/4 c. water, covered with a towel for 6 - 8 mins in the microwave. For extra added goodness, toast the pumpkin seeds with a little good olive oil and sprinkle to top the dish. You have to chew these up and spit out the hull, but the meat of pumpkin seeds has too many vitamins, minerals and precious natural oils to simply throw out. Enjoy.

Scrub one firm fleshed organic apple such as Fuji, Jonathan, Gala or Granny Smith and slice into eighths, removing core, stem and seeds. Set aside.


The Crumblebutter Streusel

This is where the gluten-free gourmet gets to haul the sorghum flour out from wherever it’s been stashed for the last six months and really go to town. This crumble can be used as noted above for a variety of dessert toppings, just vary the fruit underneath. Or beans, if you prefer. The local mosque in my hometown made a mean navy bean pie that rivaled pumpkin in its taste, smoothness and protein count. Be creative with it!

4 tbsp sorghum flour
1tbsp + 1 tsp tapioca flour
8 tbsp finely ground coconut meal
8 tbsp finely ground almond meal
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp cinnamon or 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 tbsp Blue Agave syrup
4 tbsp softened organic butter

Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a fork until they form a crumbly mash. It’s okay to leave a few large pieces, it doesn’t all have to be uniform. Set aside.

The Puttin’ It All Together Method

Arrange large chunks of cooked pumpkin in an oven or microwave safe bowl. Drizzle the tops lightly with Blue Agave syrup which is very low in glycemic value and can be eaten safely by those with sugar issues. You may wish to substitute honey - either will do. Sprinkle the crumblebutter streusel over the pumpkin. Arrange slices of apple atop the pumpkin in a nice circular pattern. Sprinkle this with a little extra cinnamon or a light dusting of pumpkin pie  spice.

Drizzle a few extra teaspoons of Blue Agave syrup over the top. I like throwing a handful of pecans, broken into tiny pieces over the top for added protien and to round out the "brown betty" type of taste. So much the better if you’ve first roasted them with a little olive oil, but raw works just as well.

Broil on medium heat for a few minutes until the butter melts and apples go soft. Watch carefully - the baking time will depend on your oven. Alternatively, microwave uncovered for 2 minutes. If you microwave, the crumblebutter streusel will not brown, but will otherwise taste just fine.

Serve immediately. The decadent may wish to pour a dollop of heavy cream over the top, but artificial whipped toppings are absolutely verboten. This dish is remarkably low in sugar, high in fiber and protein. If you have it with a side of yogurt, (or mix a little honey and cinnamon into the yogurt and use it as a topping) Pumpkin Apple Crumblebutter makes a nourishing, hot and filling treat for winter morning breakfasts. A dish similar to this has long been our home’s standard Solstice and Christmas morning fare.

Enjoy!

Why Women In Middle Managment Need Leadership Coaching

Saturday, December 1st, 2007 by Maryam Webster

As  business demographics face shifts in North America and Europe, many women are moving up in rank from middle management to executive leadership positions. The baby boom executives are nearing or already in retirement. Smart companies are focusing on internal promotion rather than external recruitment. Promoting from within can have great advantages for the company, while sometimes leaving the new leader and their team with gaps in their knowledge and process. 

Whether you are currently in a leadership role or ready to become the leader, if you work in a group, manage a team, multi-task in your department, oversee projects, deal with multi-national contractors or adjudicate between colleagues, you need Leadership Coaching. You may be a brilliant negotiator, financial whiz or a technical genius. But do you have what it takes to manage other high-level employees? Particularly if you’re coming up from middle management to fill slots left by retiring executives as is currently happening in the American workforce.

Get Leadership Coaching, Below



Forbes magazine
puts it this way:

"There is going to be a real premium for companies to try to retain talent," says Mark Marcon, an analyst with Robert. W. Baird. "And the talent out there to replace the people retiring is going to be scarcer and scarcer."

As a result, companies will have to rely on younger people to take on management roles, says Gary Burnison, Korn/Ferry’s chief operating officer. And they will have to identify candidates who might have been overlooked in past years. "What we see is a war for talent," Burnison says. "Despite all the technological innovations of the past century, a simple truth remains: people make businesses successful."

Leadership coaches aren’t just for executives who are struggling to get the job done. Those overlooked middle-managers, in fact, might be prime candidates.

Leadership coaches often work with managers who have been highly successful, but see barriers preventing them from reaching the C-suite. Some are technical whizzes who don’t have the interpersonal skills to manage a large staff.

In other cases, coaches are called in when there has been turnover on an executive team, and the senior officers need to get to know each other. Leadership coaches can help a new CEO adjust to his or her position, or aid a board trying to develop a succession plan.


Do you realize what opportunities are now opening up for women in business? Barring the women’s work movement during WWII, we have never had such corporate opportunities like this before. And yet, many of us are blocked from achieving the positions and opportunities that they see in their own companies.

Why?

What I see commonly in the women I coach is perception of the invisible "glass ceiling" barrier preventing their upward momentum. While we know much of the glass ceiling is perceptual, some of it is actual. Barring real covert discrimination however, persevere without exception and believe deeply in yourself.

Leadership Coaching For You

If you are a woman in middle management and  leadership positions are opening up that you would really like to acquire, don’t allow this to stop you. Here are some coaching tips to help pull you forward:

1) If nothing stood in your way, no glass ceiling, no discrimination, no derailment - what could you accomplish?

Hint: Using only the skills and talents you already have, where you sit at present.

2) If you are short political savvy or knowledge of corporate culture, how can you acquire it in the swiftest, most comprehensive way possible?

Hint: This is the time for corporate mentorship. If you don’t already have a senior mentor in your company, now is the time to cultivate one.

3) If your communications, people management or interpersonal skills are off, or you have personal barriers to leadership success, get leadership coaching while you’re still working in lower or middle management. It is imperative when such opportunities as executive retirement open up spaces for others to advance, that your skillset be in place.

Hint: If you’re a woman in management looking for leadership coaching with cutting edge blockage removal tools, see who I coach here.