Finally I am getting this out to you. Many of you had signed up for my Daisy Swan & Associates newsletter in the past, and many of you haven’t but somehow you’re on my email list. Honestly, some of you are on my list and I don’t know how that’s happened so if you didn’t want to be, and don’t want to be, you are welcome to unsubscribe below. I won’t take it personally – well, maybe a little. I do hope you’ll read to the end of this so that you can decide if you want to stay on to see what’s coming up in the next few months. I promise I won’t inundate you with fluffy pieces about my personal whereabouts and chatty pieces about my life. You have enough of your own life to pay attention to – I’m certain you don’t need my stuff too. I will, however, be unveiling my new website featuring new course and event offerings – things I am so enthusiastic about. I will also be introducing the people who are joining with me to create the great team of smart, well educated and trained individuals who will be bringing all of these offerings to life. Teleclasses, live events, and podcasts are on the menu as well as the one-on-one coaching that I and my associates have been offering these past several years.

It’s been a fast 4 years since I officially opened the doors of Daisy Swan, MA, CPCC, which grew to Daisy Swan & Associates in 2005. While I’ve been a practicing career counselor since 1991, and meeting with private clients since 1995, it’s the last 4 years that have been the absolutely most rewarding. Having worked with hundreds of clients in the past 4 years, it’s time for more expansion to serve more clients in more varied ways – hence the expansion that going on quietly behind the scenes here. One thing we’re very clear about is that Daisy Swan & Associates works with proactive people seeking balance in both work and life. We are committed to helping you not just better your career, but better yourself in the process. We’ll help you to realize your potential and accelerate your success according to your life stage and career phase. It’s coaching and strategizing designed to overcome any set of obstacles, for all the range of life stages. Because it’s not just about what’s not working now, it’s about where you’re taking yourself next.

I’m excited for what’s coming next in 2008 and happy with what’s happened in 2007 thus far. This newsletter is partially going out to let you know about one major change that’s transpired this year:

My new office address is 11812 San Vicente Boulevard, Suite 505, LA, CA, 90049 and my phone, which my wonderful assistant Ros answers, is 310-820-8877. I am unendingly grateful to Heidi Tuffias, mediator and attorney extraordinaire, for sharing her office space with me.

While I’m letting you know that expansion is in the works, I also want to let you know where some of my inspiration is coming from that has made 2007 such a treasure of year for me, and many of my clients and associates – so this may start to sound a bit like a blog. I hope you’ll learn of some interesting resources here that are useful for you.

A few high points of 2007 include the launch of a book group for parents of my son’s school. I’ll be using this to tip you off to some interesting reads and how they have raised or answered good questions for all of us. First off, we read Daniel Pink’s smart and clever must-read book about what we have to look forward to in the workplace; A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future. We now live in such a business/arts/technology blended world and this book explains just how join with this blend of facets. Knowing how to read and communicate well with others, and get along in teams is so important in the age we live in – isn’t life all about getting and being connected?

One place I connected with other creative minds this year was at the New Yorker Conference. I had the opportunity to hear the amazing Malcolm Gladwell speak about how genius develops in our times; it is well documented now that this occurs through team and group work – collaboration rules. And given that it takes approximately 10 years to establish expertise in any given area, and that mastery leads to innovation, I am curious about what the twenty-something phenoms in our society have been doing since they were 14 or so? The now shuttered (so sad!), but much loved magazine Business 2.0 showed us just how clever this cohort is. Our world of innovative business is giving us new developments moment to moment. Thankfully Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of the Wall Street Journal has so far proved to be a blessing for the paper – big sigh of relief here. I’m now having so much fun reading the pages of this updated paper. It’s a must read for any breathing, aspiring individual these days. Inspiration and challenge abound here and that’s what I find most people are looking for – whether they know it or not. However, it’s also important for everyone to take a breath and let go of some of the over inflated personal expectations that are potentially crushing important creative spirits and dulling senses and aspirations.

Another important read, John Gottman’s Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children, offers good insight into our and our children’s needs for learning how to effectively listen and hear others. Parenting with Love and Logic by Foster Cline Faye and Jim Fay is an excellent antidote for parents who may be ‘hovering’ just a bit too close. Helicopter Parents have been unfairly maligned, in my opinion (everything in moderation, I say), and which I blogged about a couple of months ago – there are up and downsides to this phenomenon which I’ll be writing more about in 2008. Many of my younger clients who are considered Millenials and Gen Xers are known for expecting and appreciating what we all appreciate…things like recognition for a job well done, flexible and reasonable work hours, and meaningful work, being given challenging and creative work (or the room to create that themselves) that makes a difference in the world. What is wrong with that??

I am so excited that this generation may actually force companies to make some of the changes that baby boomers would have enjoyed too. Judith Warner who smartly wrote, Perfect Mess: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety helped me and members of our book group look at the issues of just being a human being in 2007 and what it takes to make life work. While Warner’s book focuses on motherhood, I found it really shines the light on how much pressure we all live with in this increasingly competitive and lightening speed world.

How do we all do what we do? Getting our lives ‘done’ is an amazing feat; having a supportive and inquisitive guide and mentor is becoming an important requirement at some point or another. Starting a new business, or considering the smartest next career move and the one beyond that? This is one of the reasons we at Daisy Swan & Associates are expanding our offerings. My aim is to be meeting the needs of our clients and their family or friends by offering programming that fills a need in the fun and thought provoking way that we have achieved already. If you have a question or suggestion for me about our services, or services you’d like to see offered, please email us through [email protected].

So, Judith Warner is now on my list of smart people to meet one of the days. Others on that list are Nora Ephron, who I have a lot in common with – I’m a (former) New Yorker who feels Bad About Her Neck, and who also thinks a lot of Ken Auletta, who I met when I attended The New Yorker Conference last May at the brilliant Frank Gehry IAC building in the Chelsea section of NYC. When I told Ken Auletta that I am working on a book proposal he laughed and said ‘Welcome to the joys of the journey of going through the ups and downs of working and reworking a book’. I was very hopeful and young in my book proposal process and now, several months along the way, I know the ‘joy’ that he alluded to. OK, back to the list: Oprah is on my list of people I want to meet (she’s on everyone’s list, right?), as well as Katie Couric and Martha Stewart – all of these women have had their fair share of ups and downs this year and have made stunning contributions to the world of communication and commerce. I’d also love to talk with Ben Stein, who’s written stimulating editorials in the Sunday New York Times, Charlie Rose, and Elizabeth Spellings our Education Secretary. I’ll continue to add to my list. Who’s on your list? And be careful what you wish for – it might actually happen…

We have some real celebrating to do for clients and friends who have launched great products like Shampowder from Buttercream Cosmetics, and Joshua Young’s simultaneous release of his CD Arrival Time while transitioning to the world of Wall Street commerce. We’re celebrating well developed services like the one that Julie Gray has created with The Script Department, as well as the clients who secured writing and acting agents and contracts (Good job!) and the companies joined (Match.com, Myspace.com, CAA, Universal, Disney, Corazonas to name a few). I also want to give mention to those some of those who have launched their businesses – check out Modern Nest, 62 Mile Club and Lambent Light. There are also some new businesses that we can’t mention just yet. I’m thrilled to point you in the direction of Chris Steinkamp’s non-profit that you’ll no doubt be reading more about elsewhere; ProtectOurWinters.org and the film related Women’s Independent Cinema that Jen Siebel is working with. Personally, I decided to get involved with the cause related group Step Up Women’s Network this past year. Having written my master’s thesis on mentoring programs and having designed and implemented several of them, I find this organization very much in line with my values and interdisciplinary thinking. This particular organization is designed for girls and women and they do an incredible job of providing services. Los Angeles Team Mentoring also has a wonderful program worthy of note; you can find more information about this, and other important organizations, by going to www.connectinglosangeles.com, which is also a link on my website.

Hat’s off also to those who have begun, or completed, their graduate programs and are forging new opportunities that will have lasting impact. Transitions of any kind can rock your world. The delight of a new baby (real or figurative) means a new identity for the bearers of said baby, and this can be tough and delightful stuff – and we work with a lot of people with new babies! We at Daisy Swan & Associates are here to see you through the transitions you go through at any of the stages of your life that you find yourself at. Whether you find yourself at a stage we call Confusion, Roadblock, Wisdom, or Authentic– the ripple effect of the choices you must make can be positive or negative. We’re figuring you want the former and have new programs to address any and all of these stages to enable you to keep moving forward, getting results you want in your life.
We’ll be rolling out the new website with the new programs and offerings early in 2008 – fun and interesting options for those of you who are creating something new, or just looking for inspiration.

With wishes for an inspiring end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 I thank you for making it to the end of this long, and long overdue, communiqué. If you want to unsubscribe you can do so here, but if you know of someone else who’d like to be kept in the loop about what’s to come here, please forward this along. We’re about doing good things here. Daisy Swan & Associates works with proactive people seeking balance in both work and life. We are committed to helping you not just better your career, but better yourself in the process. We’ll help you to realize your potential and accelerate your success according to your life stage and career phase. It’s coaching and strategizing designed to overcome any set of obstacles, for all the range of life stages. Because it’s not just about what’s not working now, it’s about where you’re taking yourself next.

With gratitude –
Daisy