Year In Review

One of the biggest complaints that many business owners have is how difficult it is to put together a great team. Balancing personalities, skill-sets and working styles is often a challenge. Yet these challenges are often the catalysts for our own personal growth, as well as opportunities to create ways in which our businesses or careers can be more effortless.

I've been lucky to have amazing people on my team and it's taken me and the business six years to get here. I wanted to reintroduce you to and show my gratitude for the remarkable people in front and behind the scenes at Bill Baren Coaching.

Kris Carey and Alan Roby are the other two amazing coaches. I am continually surprised by their abilities, creative juices and their conscious approach to business and partnership. You will have a chance to get to know them better through the articles they'll be contributing to Coach Talk, as well as their Year-End picks below. Adrian Klaphaak and Eric Rozell, are wonderful coaches in their own right, who have been assisting behind the scenes. I can't even tell you how grateful I am for their contribution and for their loving and positive energy around the office. Arseni & Amy Taggart round out the team. I have been working with Arseni for over 5 years. He is responsible to creating the website and for endless brainstorming session on how to make technology best work for me. I am grateful for his creativity and for his inability to be a "yes" man. Amy Taggart is the Virtual Assistant that could. She has been a present from the gods.  I have thoroughly been enjoying our work together. And last but not least, I want to thank everyone with whom there wasn't a fit on the team. You have taught me to know what doesn't work and allowed me to be that much more grateful for the team we do have.

New Year's Intentions

These past several weeks we've been thinking about what we wanted to say in our year-end message to you. Our wish for you today, and in the year to come, is that you live a life of joy & ease, filled with much love and laughter.

We hope that the exercises below will help reconnect you to all that you are grateful for in 2007, as well as what you are looking to create in 2008. Please set aside a few minutes and give yourself permission to dream big and create wonderful momentum for the coming year.

Take a few moments to empty your mind. Get into a state of being open to allow your inner guide to gently direct your process.
Allow the highlights of the year to come to you. What were your favorite moments? What are you grateful for in 2007? What were your greatest successes? Say "Thank You" to 2007 and all it has shared with you.
Please write it all down.
Transport yourself to December 31st, 2008. Sit a few moments in silence.
Write a letter to yourself or any of your loved ones as if it was written on New Year's Eve, 2008. In it, describe all of the amazing things that happened to you in the last year. Include items about your business/career, your financial situation, your love life, your health and your free time. Make it bold and exciting to you. Feel what it would be like to have lived that amazing year. Please write this letter in the past tense.
The last and a vital part of the process is the sharing. Email your 2007 gratitude list and the 2008 letter to the important people in your life. (Hint:  we'd love to be included on this list)

Best of 2007

Every year, this section gets the biggest response of any Coach Talks. And this time around, there are Top 10 picks from me, Kris and Alan. Yes, I am excited!

Here's a little teaser (See all of our picks here):

Some of Bill's Favorites - The Last Mimzy, Einstein: His Life and Universe and Once Soundtrack

Some of Kris's Favorites - Alias DVD's, Free Agent Nation and Bob Mould

Some of Alan's Favorites - Aaron Neville, Schindler's List and The Art of Possibility