This post is a bunch of updates on my personal life, my work and Kidney Raffle. I know many of you already follow me on Facebook and Twitter, so you’ve probably got a sense of some of this already. This post is to get us all up to the same page and let you know what I’ll be doing with Agile Living in the future.
What We Learned From KidneyRaffle.com
Many of you here followed and supported our Kidney Raffle in June (big thanks again!), and I know that many of you are interested in ways that you can use the internet to create what you love, to serve others and to make the world a better place… it’s for all of you that we created a full report about what we did to spread the word about Kidney Raffle, what results we got and what we learned from the whole experience.
We’ve created this totally transparent report because we think there’s still too much hype and mystery about what it takes to launch a successful venture using online technologies and tools. We want to share the lessons we learned and invite discussion and more sharing and learning together, so that we can encourage and inspire each other in our social good ventures and adventures. The report includes “teachable moments” selected by Desiree Adaway, Jen Louden, Tayler Conroy and professional fundraiser, Paul McIntyre Royston.
You can download the report free here or click on the image below. (No opt-in required).
If you were one of the few hundred people who supported us at Kidney Raffle, this report is also a big celebration and expression of gratitude for all your support. Thank you for helping us to make it happen and for making a difference with your dollars. So far we’ve raised over $17K for kidney research. You rock!
The 100km march that we committed to walking is coming up soon (9 till 11 Sept). Having done a fair bit of training and experienced what 30-something kilometers feels like, I think we’re all both excited and nervous about it! We’ll be posting about the adventure during and after the march – you can follow us over on our Facebook page.
What’s happening with AgileLiving.net and BottomlineBookclub.com
After many months of struggling with severe fatigue, I’m now feeling healthy and strong again. I have no words for how hard it was to be as fatigued and brain-fogged as I was until a few months ago, or how good it feels to finally have my energy, creativity and brain back! As requested by many of my Facebook and G+ friends, I’ll share more about how I got my energy and brain back in an upcoming post later this week, but first I wanted to quickly update you on the new focus of my work, now that I’m back into work again.
I’m not going to be revitalizing my career coaching business at AgileLiving.net or the Bottom-line Bookclub. These sites will still stay live and continue to tick along though. You’ll always be able to access the archive of free articles at Agile Living, and I’ll add new articles as and when I have something related to general personal development or career development to write about. After this update, I won’t be sending out newsletters to folks at AgileLiving.net anymore.
Members of the Bottom-line Bookclub will continue to have life-long access to the Bottom-line archives at no extra charge ever. The Bottom-line Bookclub archives will continue to be available to purchase and I’ve lowered the price to $47. I may continue adding author interviews to the Bottom-line Bookclub archives intermittently, but I won’t be committing to any fixed schedule for this and all Bottom-line Bookclub members will always get these for free, as and when I add them. I won’t be marketing the Bottom-line Bookcub or sending out newsletters to these folks, but I will let Bottom-line Bookclub members know if and when I add new content for them.
My new work directions
Having learned so much about loss and grieving this past year (it’s hard to believe, but on 7 October it’ll be a year since Juggernaut died), I’m now focusing my work in the area of grief coaching and I’ve launched a new website at www.rememberingforgood.com, where you can find all the detail on who I’m working with, how I’m working now and the beliefs and values that my grief coaching is based on.
“Grief coaching” and “trauma debriefing” are not new areas for me. Most of the one-to-one work I did before taking my business online in 2008 was in this domain, and the child protection social work I did before that involved a lot of work around loss and grief.
Coming back to this work now feels so much richer. Before, I had a solid training in various perspectives and theories on grief, trauma and recovery, but I’d never had a personal experience to enable me to embody my understanding. My experiences this past year have given me a much deeper understanding of the ways that loss and trauma change us and what we need to feel safe, whole and open-hearted again. Through my own journey, I found myself bumping up against a few common myths about grieving and healing and I had to navigate and find more liberating alternatives. I’m really feeling called to be a part of sharing and offering these more liberating perspectives on grieving and healing.
If you’ve lost something or someone that you loved, I hope you’ll find my book that I’m gifting to Remembrance eLetter subscribers helpful. And if you have friends or family (or clients, if you’re a professional coach or counselor) you’re supporting through their grief journeys, please feel free to pass my book on to them too.
I’m once again making myself available for one-to-one sessions. The site I’ve launched at RememberingForGood.com and my one-on-one coaching are just the beginning. I have plans for 3 big non-coaching projects stemming from the ideas that RememberingForGood.com is based in. You won’t see these projects until at least next year – I’ll be quietly working behind the scenes on them. But they’re the reason why I’m opening up only 6 spots a week for coaching. So if you’d like one of those spots, get in touch soon to secure your sessions.
Alongside Remembering For Good, I’ve also started working with the MISS Foundation, a non-profit that supports bereaved parents through volunteer resources all over the world. I’m thrilled to be working with the leadership of MISS to create sustainable systems for recruiting, assessing, training, empowering, caring for and celebrating the MISS Foundation volunteers. I was drawn to the MISS Foundation because they’re very much aligned with the beliefs and values that have underpinned my approach to grieving and healing – especially the ideas of grieving in community and healing through contribution.
If you’re interested in working with a dynamic organization where you’ll be valued and nurtured and volunteering some of your time and skills for a cause that supports bereaved families, then get in touch with me and I’ll help you find a meaningful role you can play. You don’t have to be a counselor or coach (although we have roles that would suit those skills) – other professional skills that we could use include event coordination, public relations, copywriting, tech support, fundraising, legal support, administrative support, SEO and online marketing, and more.
Thank you for everything
This is not goodbye. I’ll still be around, but you’ll find me creating my new work over at RememberingForGood.com. But I just want to say a big THANK YOU for all of your support for both my work and for me. I’ve learned so much from my service here at AgileLiving.net and the Bottom-line Bookclub and been incredibly blessed to have this community surrounding me this past year. I hope that you’ll come on over and join me as I continue building my new body of work.
Big love,
Cath
