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"I was able to almost triple my income in just 30 days as a result of working with Christopher Howard. Not only did the work we did together impact my financial future, but he assisted me in finding my life’s purpose. I am more on track and excited about life then ever before."

— Jon Andre Bliss, USA

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This was my first visit to Australia and my first point of contact was the customs officer who checked my passport.

"What do you do?"

"I'm a consultant."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to run a couple of conferences."

"What on?" (Well this bodes well for the standard of modeling skills I thought if the customs officers probe to this level of detail.)"

Coaching skills and leadership (I decided that was easier and probably safer than trying to explain what NLP is).

He looked at me, didn't say another word and waved me through. I filled the gap of his final silence with all sorts of meanings - he doesn't believe me (but then I would probably not be walking on through if that was the case) - he is impressed (he didn't look impressed) - he has established that I am credible - he wonders what right I have to come to Sydney, Australia to teach coaching skills. I thought about the latter one most. What right do I have to come to Sydney to teach coaching skills? After all the Olympics had just finished, the Paralympics were taking place. Sydney had already been hailed as having hosted one of the greatest Olympics of all time. The athletes especially had acclaimed Sydney as having created an environment which had enabled them to excel in their given field. It was a climate that enabled many to achieve their personal best. What did I have to bring?

I had been invited to Australia by Karen Corban of Universal Events. Karen demonstrated to me the skills that really make a difference in this rapidly changing world in which we live. She had reached round the world without having met me to invite me to run conferences on her behalf. She was willing to take the risk to learn about me from afar to have the courage to find a way in which we could achieve a WIN/WIN. That in itself was worth coming to the conferences for. The whole event and the processes leading up to it is a metaphor for the way in which we can and need to operate in this global community of which we are all a part. I congratulate you Karen on your truly leading edge skills and thinking. You deserve to succeed in the way that you do.

I had expected to like Australia particularly the climate having left the wintry gales of the UK. I wasn't disappointed the temperature was a balmy 24 degrees. And I had space to settle in and acclimatise to the time zone. Strange to think that if I looked down at the lace on my trainers that I was probably looking directly at (ignoring the several thousand miles of earth between) my home in the UK. I liked to think that I had a sliver of insight into what those early explorers must have felt on their journeys round the world. I did the tourist bit visiting the Sydney Opera House, the Circular Quays, Bondi Beach and Sydney town centre. It was beautiful and not just the geography and the architecture - the welcome and the service that I received everywhere was beautiful too.

When I arrived to start my conferences I was introduced to the assisting team. I have to be honest and say that I had mixed feelings about having such a team. My past experience of some assisting teams was that they should have been in therapy and had volunteered for the role of assistant as an alternative. I sometimes spent more time coaching the assisting team than I did the participants on the programs! However that belief was to be shattered. I have never met a team of people on this kind of program who were so able and professional in their ability to serve selflessly and simultaneously open themselves to learning. If any of you on that team are reading this now - I thank you for a very humbling experience but one that allowed me to give of my best and to be truly who I am. You have changed my beliefs about the ways in which it is possible to assist and support to the extent that I am now reviewing my policy for this for the programs that I run in the UK and elsewhere in the world.

So back to the question - what did I have to bring? I should have realised that the Australian welcome is independent of context. Their ability to welcome extends to being able to welcome learning on areas in which they already have skills and expertise. That to me is true learning. Anyone who says 'I know how to do this or I have learned this already' is the very one who needs it the most. Similarly anyone who is closed to new ways of learning is also the one who may one day be limited by that blinkered approach to the world. Ultimately it was what we brought each other that constituted the learning. My criteria for success being to have insights and learning from the way in which the groups respond to my trainings were surpassed. We learned together - we modeled each other and we had fun. And to cap it all I started each day overlooking the ocean at Coogee Bay as I anticipated what new learnings were to come sometimes with time to wander on the beach as I collected my thoughts. You might think that the Australian welcome would have become a little jaded after the thousands of visitors that they have greeted over the last few months. Not so. The welcome and the service are a part of who they are. We have a lot to learn and what an environment in which to learn it. I will be back.

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