Business owners are special!  We know that because only 3% of the population ever start their own business.  You think differently to most of the population.  You are more open to taking risks, you can cope with lack of security, you are strongly self-motivated, you are happy to work into the small hours when you have a deadline to reach, you are quick at problem solving and you have a creative mind that is always searching for ways to improve your business.

The most successful entrepreneurs have one thing in common – they have no ceiling on what they believe they can achieve.  At Venture Coaching, we encourage more than just positive thinking – we focus on advanced thinking that will permanently change the way you live your life and run your business.

Although we specialise in business coaching, we believe advanced thinking isn’t just for business owners, so this year we are doing something new; we are holding a coaching retreat that is open to anyone with a desire to open a new chapter in their lives.

In May we are joining forces with one of the most highly regarded names in the personal development world, Mrs Diana Nightingale, who will be flying in from Arizona to lead our retreat at the beautiful Lemore Manor in Herefordshire, UK.

Diana is an author, life coach and internationally renowned speaker and is the widow of legendary pioneer of personal development, Earl Nightingale.

In this retreat we will be focusing on developing your mind for success, be that in business or any other endeavour that will take you beyond what you have achieved in your life so far.

The objective of our retreat is to elevate your thinking.  You will identify and overcome the mental barriers that hinder your progress and develop a mind-set that will set you up for continued success in the weeks, months and years ahead.

All to often, we are held back by the subtle negative influences of people around us. If you are in a relationship, business or personal, we encourage you to bring your partner along too! They cannot fail to benefit from what we will cover in our presentations and you will have excitement of supporting each other in your respective endeavours.

To find out more, please request a brochure through our contact page or call us on 01747 821352

Diana, Kevin and Vicki chat most weeks, we talk about all sorts of things and obviously we have been working together to put on our “Nightingale adVenture”.

We have posted information on our retreats page and our blog, and you can also see some video clips from the retreat in Arizona in August 2011 here.

But for those really interested in what we are doing and considering joining us please take some time to listen to this recording.  We hope it will give you a flavour of what we are about and we hope you will request our brochure through our contact page and book your place in good time. Or just give us a call on 01747 821352 and we will be happy to talk to you.

Diana Nightingale is an an author, an internationally known speaker, a life coach and mentor to people around the world.  Through her writing, coaching, speaking and private retreats, she is dedicated to continuing the work that she and her late husband Earl Nightingale began.

Earl Nightingale defined success as: “The progressive realization of a worthy ideal or goal.”

In 2011, “the realization of a worthy ideal or goal” was achieved when a small, select group of people joined Diana for a weekend retreat in Sedona, Arizona.  Under her guidance the group focused on an in-depth examination of their life’s journey to date, explored their present options and considered the possible directions one may take for a continued successful journey.

As a result of the success of the 2011 retreat, Diana was invited to join Vicki and Kevin to hold a retreat in the UK. Together, they have formed the “Nightingale adVenture” whose purpose is centred in bringing personalised, in-depth, life-enhancing information to small, select groups of like-minded people.

The “Nightingale adVenture” has reserved, for private and exclusive use, the beautiful “Lemore Manor” which is located in Eardisley, Herefordshire, UK.  This beautiful, recently restored manor house offers luxurious living accommodation for relaxing, entertaining and brainstorming.  This is a rare and exceptional property providing high quality accommodation, excellent facilities and services.

The event will start on Friday 18^th May 2012 when you will arrive in the late afternoon and quickly be made to feel comfortable and settled.   You will have your own private room and you can also explore and enjoy the whole house as if it where your own, from the kitchen, the cinema room and games room to the gardens and surrounding grounds.  We will create work programmes and provide material throughout the weekend as well as enjoying meals together and becoming better acquainted in this beautiful location.

Spaces are strictly limited so we can provide our best attention to helping you set in motion great plans for your future.

Call us on 01747 821352 or send us an email through our contact page.

When you are looking to make changes in your life there is simply no substitute for fully immersing yourself in a positive, informative environment.

While books and DVD development programmes are all fantastic sources of information you can only concentrate on their contents for as long as your surroundings allow you to.

I first had the idea to run coaching retreats while attending a training course in 2008.  The workshops were fast-paced and full of information and would have been great on their own but the highlight of the experience, for me, was having time away from my everyday commitments to think about what I was learning and to meet new people who were sharing their thoughts and ideas.

It’s all too easy to have your thoughts pulled in a hundred different directions every day.  If you have some serious thinking to do, you really can’t beat shutting yourself away from the rest of the world and focussing completely on what you want to do, whether that is starting a business, changing career, planning your retirement or getting the right work/home-life balance.

Our goal is that you will leave the retreat excited, motivated and energised –  a big kick-start to making the changes you desire!

I believe that the more inspiring the venue, the better your thought processes will be.  That is why Kevin and I are very picky about where we hold our retreats.  We have seen some beautiful venues, but only those who are owned or managed by people who genuinely care about the quality of our guests’ experience have been chosen for our retreats.

Please feel free to contact us and ask questions if you would like to take part, or if you want to read more about specific venues click here:

Nightingale adVenture 18^th May 2012 – Lemore Manor

Bath Lodge Castle

Woodhall Manor

The venue has been booked, the dates are in the diary…

Friday 18^th May to Sunday 20^th May 2012

You are invited to spend a weekend retreat at the exclusive Lemore Manor in Herefordshire, where you will find yourself in luxurious surroundings, spending time with one of the best known personalities in personal development, Diana Nightingale.

Diana will be flying in from Arizona, USA to meet up with Kevin and Vicki from Venture Coaching here in the UK.

Places are strictly limited so early booking is essential.  This is going to be a truly unforgettable event.  Read more about the event here or contact us through our contact page and we will send you the above downloadable full brochure.  Or just pick up the phone and call us on 01747 821352

To read about the benefits of attending a retreat click here

Book your place before 20 February 2012 and save 10% on the brochure price.

Both Vicki and I have had a great summer 2011, including an exciting trip to Arizona to spend an amazing unforgettable time with the legend that is Diana Nightingale.

Diana Nightingale is one of the most highly recognized personalities in the personal development industry.  An author, speaker, life‐coach, seminar leader and radio host, she is also most often thought of as the widow of personal development pioneer and legend Earl Nightingale, who, with the writing and recording of his world‐famous recording of “The Strangest Secret” in 1956, blazed the trail for the authors and speakers of today’s personal development industry.

Diana Nightingale, does not stand in the shadow of her legendary husband, but instead, shines brightly on her own. Prior to meeting and marrying Earl Nightingale, Diana had been a top‐producing real estate Broker and had also worked with inner-city teens, and the Mental Health Association. She recognized the important role that knowledge plays in the making of right choices in one’s life.

Diana wanted to be sure to keep the valuable Nightingale messages pertinent and available to the present and future generations and so in 1987 she and Earl formed a new company – “Keys Publishing”, whose mission statement is – “Unlocking doors through education.” Together they began re‐creating his and her works for the present and future generations. In 1989, Earl passed away, but Diana has continued the work they began, and has expanded Earl’s and her messages and is reaching people from all walks of life all around the world.

Not only was The Nightingale Retreat an experience that we will treasure for the rest of our life, excitingly Diana has asked if she can work with Venture Coaching and put on a “Nightingale adVenture retreat” here in the UK…

See our events page for exciting news of dates and venues…

It’s a well known fact that, as humans, our tendency to order a 12” Pizza on a Friday night rather than tuck into a pile of salad comes from our cave-dwelling ancestors.  For them, food scarcity targeted their preferences towards high – calorie foods.

A lesser known fact is that you also have your ancestors to thank for your tendency to keep putting things off.  Procrastination is most commonly associated with impulsiveness, a trait that would have aided survival in primitive days.  Early men would be quite inactive for most of the time, preserving their energy for hunting.  Short-term planning ability with quick decision making was the main requisite for survival.  There would have been little point in them wasting mental energy creating long term plans.  Success was all about reacting quickly to whatever life threw at them that day.  If they sat under trees thinking about their life’s direction for the next five years they would most likely have been eaten by a bear…

Man’s progress has been a lop-sided process; while we have raced ahead and created a world where a great majority of us are safe, well nourished and actively engaged deciding what we want from life, we still have the ball and chain of our most primitive instincts encouraging us to eat cake, preserve energy and not bother ourselves with long term consequences.  To survive and thrive in today’s world we must be disciplined and focussed.

Overindulging in the wrong foods starts with an instinct and ends with a habit.  The same is true of procrastination.  The habit persists because there are all sorts of bonuses linked to putting things off; you get to spend hours on You Tube or Facebook.  You get the adrenaline rush of a deadline approaching and the thrill of squeezing five weeks work into five hours. You get to “not fail” which is almost as good as succeeding but with the added benefit of not making a fool of yourself if you get it wrong.  You get to “not choose” which is the ultimate non-action as the choice you make may require further actions which could clog up your action-taking pipeline in a most uncomfortable way!

So what can you do if procrastination is getting the better of you?  The great Earl Nightingale had some very wise words on the subject: CLICK HERE

“Have you ever noticed that the longer you look at something you should be doing, the more difficult it seems to appear?  That the longer you put off something you should do, the more difficult it is to get started?

A good deal of frustration and unhappiness could be avoided if people would just do what they know they should do.

The great newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane once wrote,  “Don’t exaggerate your own importance, your own size, or your own miseries.  You are an ant in a human anthill. Be a working ant — not a ridiculous insect pitying yourself.” Strong language, maybe, but there’s a lot of sense in it.

A person carrying a heavy weight is all right as long as he keeps moving.  The minute he stops, puts the weight on the ground, and sits down to rest, the weight seems to become heavier; the distance to be travelled, greater; and the work, just that much more unpleasant.

Sometimes it must seem to everyone that things have piled up so high that there’s just no way of digging out.  But there is.  Pick the thing that’s most important to do, and simply begin doing it. Just by digging in, you’ll feel better, and you’ll find that it’s not nearly as bad as you thought it would be.  Keep at it, and before long, that pile of things to do that seemed so overwhelming is behind you — finished.

What overwhelms us is not the work itself. It’s thinking how hard it’s going to be.  It’s seeing it get larger every day.  It’s putting it off and hoping that somehow, through some miracle, it will disappear.

The Chinese have a saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step. And that step accomplishes two things.  First, it automatically shortens the distance we still have to travel, and, second, and just as important, it makes us feel better, more hopeful — it strengthens our faith.  If a person will just keep putting one foot in front of the other, he will be taken into new and exciting places, see new and interesting things, and think thoughts that never would have come to him if he’d remained at the starting point.  Then the journey is finished.  He wonders how or why he could ever have sat so long and worried and stewed about the time and trouble it would involve to do what he knew he should do.

If you’ll think back, you’ll remember that you’ve always been happiest, most contented, after having finished a difficult project or faced up to a responsibility you were worried about.  It’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be, and the joy that will come with its accomplishment makes it more than worthwhile.

Work never killed anyone.  It’s worry that does the damage and the worry would disappear if we’d just settle down and do the work.”

In our quest to find perfect retreat venues we came across something special – Woodhall Manor.  Set in the beautiful Suffolk countryside, close to Woodbridge and the Heritage Coast, this is a privately owned country house dating from 1566.

We have already created a number of exclusive events as shown on our retreats page and after spending some time looking around this beautiful property we would love to have the opportunity to take a group of people here. We think it is a perfect venue for a corporate retreat.  We can arrange coaching workshops or assist you with a strategic planning meeting and allow those that attend proper thinking time to explore all the possibilities for creating an action plan to move forward.

Nestling in 9 acres of landscaped grounds and beautiful walled gardens, Woodhall has recently been lovingly restored with exceptional attention to detail.  The house retains all the atmosphere and charm of a 16th century building, whilst the 12 en-suite bedrooms have all been individually decorated to a truly exceptional standard with, every modern convenience.

The venue is booked many months in advance at weekends for the wedding market, but we can secure a retreat during the week at Woodhall Manor at relatively short notice for your company or organisation.

Why not contact us and give us the opportunity to put our ideas forward for providing the perfect launch pad to take you and your business to the next level.  Our Nightingale adVenture is also available until 18 May 2012 Click here for details

Vicki and I have driven past the intriguing looking Bath Lodge Castle hundreds of times over the years.  It is a Grade II Listed building bursting with character, and it is a delightful fortress complete with towers, battlements and portcullis.

It is only about 40 minutes from where we live and, until 2011, we had no idea who owned it or what it was used for. When searching for perfect venues to hold Venture Coaching retreats, we came across the property on the Amazing Retreats web site.

We made our enquiries and went to visit and we were impressed!  The place is beautiful; the great big stone walls seem to hug you as you step into the building.  It only has nine rooms, perfect for a small corporate team event.  Many of the rooms have en-suite bathrooms created within the turrets of the castle.

We took a group of professionals to spend an exclusive evening at the castle and we created a workshop around some specific questions they had about the direction and future growth plans of their business.  The event was a real success, everyone was able to relax and enjoy the sumptuous ground floor lounge and dining areas where we held the workshop.  We were then served a delicious meal with a little wine and the conversation and discussions within the group opened up.

The following morning after a fantastic breakfast we held a conclusion meeting which created an action plan ready for the group to act upon back at their desks.  We have since worked with the group and they are making tremendous progress and excited about the year ahead.

Why not contact us and gives us the opportunity to put our ideas forward to providing the perfect launch pad to take you and your business to the next level.  Our Nightingale adVenture is also available until 18 May 2012 Click here for details

Whilst listening to a track from Earl Nightingale’s Creative Life Library he was talking about the computer and the human mind.

The computer is a powerful machine that is programmed and controlled by human beings; it is a high speed moron, and it can only carry out mechanical instructions.

The human brain, however, can think…

First, how do we think?

Power of Absorption

We gather information which we take in with our 5 senses:

Looking
Listening
Touching
Smelling
Tasting

Power of Retention

We have an ability to retain knowledge and many of us fall very short on the true capacity of knowledge we can retain and recall when we need it.

Power of Judgement

We think logically.  The more information we absorb and retain the better we are able to judge intelligently.

Power of Imagination

We can think creatively

Small children have pure imagination, but as we grow older we forget and seldom use this, we play safe and find it difficult to continue imagining things.  New ideas are often put down by others; people will play safe and say “We always do it this way” or “You can’t do that!”  These people are idea killers, they stifle creativity, but, we sometimes use these negative remarks on others, but worse still we use them on ourselves.

How do we improve our thinking?

The key to better thinking is to use these four switches in your mind:

Absorption – Retention – Judgement – Imagination

Many of us stop using the final one, Imagination; dreaming and goal setting.

Grab a note pad, sit comfortably and write down all your thoughts, all your ideas, all your dreams, ambitions and wants… describe in as much detail as you can.  Dare to do things differently.

Keep the note pad to hand:

Ideas can come from anyone or anywhere – they can be tiny little seeds and easily forgotten.

Ideas demand care and attention – they are easily dismissed or rejected without proper thought.

Ideas need encouragement – by writing them down, you can work on finding solutions to test and explore if it is the right idea.

The full spoken word recording of Earl Nightingale’s Creative Life Library is a rich source of inspiration and is available to download at www.earlnightingale.com