June2008

Well, where did the first half of 2008 disappear to? Business has been booming for Mindworks over the past five months and we have been kept busy travelling all over Queensland and interstate bringing the Mindworks Magic to many happy and satisfied customers. Emergency Services have been keeping Laurie particularly busy with a number of in-house training workshops throughout Queensland including a fabulous bunch of volunteer firemen in Weipa - he's enjoyed meeting you all and has had a fabulous time working with you.

Laurie and I undertook a Priority Management course recently, in an attempt to find a few more hours in each week to cope with the workload - of course, the only problem with that is actually finding the time to find the time to priortise our time. Catch 22 but we've made some improvements already. We like to make things "even better" as often as we can, and try to practise what we preach, though even we suffer from Information Overload on occasion.

We are currently in the process of beginning to upgrade our website (we know, we know, not before time, but TIME is the problem - as mentioned above) and also putting together a series of Mindworks flyers on the various Modules Laurie covers in his seminars - our first is almost ready and we're really excited. It covers the Learning Styles from our "Maximise Your Training Impact" seminar and will be a fantastic, hands-on tool for participants to take away from our workshops, and for past attendees to purchase online as a reminder/guide for their ongoing presentations - all for a very reasonable fee. These will also be available for purchase when our new website is up and running so keep an eye out for these fabulous new pamphlets.

One of Laurie's sons tied the knot this last weekend - the first of his children to marry so everyone enjoyed a wonderful celebration at the wedding, and the Mindworks Team wish both Corrie & SueEllen all the very best in their married life together - and remember guys, marriage is all about compromise - so long as he compromises and lets her have her way in all things, everything should be just peachy. Works for me.

P.S: Need help training your staff in Speaking Skills? Building Rapport? Stress Management? Laurie is but one of a number of experienced and dynamic speakers under the Mindworks banner, experts waiting to assist your organisation - call us for more information - or check this page for areas were we might be of benefit.

P.P.S: Did you know that the number of fibres in a human optic nerve linked to the brain is 1,200,000. A cat, in comparison, has only 119,000. So how come they can supposedly see ghosts, and we can't?

EVALUATION & RESULTS GRAPH

'TRY BEFORE YOU BUY' SHOWCASE

Want to know what it's all about?

Come along and join us for a fun morning introducing you to Laurie Kelly and the Mindworks Magic.

25th July 2008 &

14th October 2008

Our popular Showcases continue this year – a fantastic way to check out a new Trainer or Speaker for your training & conference needs. To date, we have recently held one in Brisbane, two Showcases in Townville and with one to come later in the year in Darwin but our next Brisbane one is scheduled for July 25th. If you’ve witnessed Laurie in action, and know of others that might benefit from using the Mindworks Magic in their organisations, then we would be most appreciative if you would pass on the Invitation attached for their attention – it’s a free morning of fun and skills and calories with our yummy Devonshire tea to tempt you, and are three hours in the morning well spent. And obligation free, of course. There is no hard sell at Mindworks, we allow the quality of our presentations and our Trainers to do that for us.

Our business survives on word of mouth recommendations – and if you feel that Laurie is worth recommending to others, then please do.

Bookings can be made via phone (3289 4977 or 0414 765 108),

email info@mindworksteam.com.au

or via our website at http://www.mindworksteam.com.au/enrolment.htm

And bring a friend, the more the merrier.

TEN TIPS TO BALANCE YOUR LIFE

Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'
Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Dementia.
Enjoy the simple things.
Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the shops, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

Have you ever had a report or assignment to write and didn’t know where to begin? Have you ever tried the “Clustering” technique? At Mindworks we teach you the Cinderella Process – a dump of Right Brain information, followed by a Left Brain ordering technique and before you know it, you have enough information to write your piece, and a fair idea of what areas you may need to research further. It’s simple and effective – here’s how. Your brain stores information like a computer, in little files all tucked away, hyperlinked so that one thought can easily lead to another. I guess Left Brainers are the Microsoft versions while the Right Brainers are the AppleMacs.

Take a piece of paper and write your topic in a circle in the middle of the page. Now comes the fun part. Take a Right Brain Dump. Write down everything you know about the topic, if you are working as a team on something, this is where you can all really be involved and assist each other. Give your ideas/thoughts subject headings – from there you can even Dump sub-headings, grouping similar areas together for consistency. The left brain part comes in when you organise them: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. and so on so that your piece will flow in an orderly fashion. Each idea can form the core issue of a paragraph that you can expand on further to make up your report – each topic or heading should then be questioned, explored in depth, results reported, recommendations made and a summary posted in conclusion. Try it, you will be amazed at what you didn’t know you knew, and how quickly and easily you can come up with content to fill the body of your report or assignment.

Our “Maximise Your Training Impact” seminar is our most successful and popular seminar, and so far has been condensed into one day of training only – and yet… The cry of “we want more” or “this should be a two day course” has been a recurring theme on our collected Evaluations for a few years now. And it’s true: our course could easily extend to two days as Laurie has a wealth of information to share and really has to cut his presentations down to fit into the one day time frame – so what to do about this?

Well, we’ve decided to develop a second day, our Level 2 for those wanting to learn more and extend their abilities further. Make things “even better”.

If you've already experienced this seminar with Laurie, we would love you to pass on your recommendation and comments to your colleagues - as I've said before, 95% of our business is via word of mouth promotion & recommendation!

(All our public courses are $395 per participant which includes welcome tea/coffee, morning & afternoon teas, lunch and take home workbook covering the days programme. Discounts available for group bookings.)

Energy is the key to a successful workshop – energy of the presenter and most importantly, of the participants – but how do you keep those levels up throughout a long day/week/fortnight of intense training? Every trainer needs a store of energizing tools in his toolkit – a variety of tricks to be used in a variety of ways and Laurie has already shared many during his workshops over the years. But we are always looking for more, and always keeping an eye out for the best available in different areas so that Mindworks can offer its clients the most beneficial and relevant Presenters and course

s that it possibly can.

To this end, we are planning on offering a full day of Energizing Tools from an expert in this field, something we would encourage every Trainer to attend. It will be in the Mindworks tradition – a day of fun and learning and incredibly useful skills thatyou can take away and instantly incorporate in to your day-to-day presentations. We want to make you “even better” – so stay tuned, this is a seminar not to be missed.

it's always hard to pick a few relevant comments from the overwhelming responses we receive from participants - here are a few and thank you so much...it was our pleasure doing business with you ...

Looking for fun ways to split up your groups? Then check out these fantastic new cards developed by Bellmetrics. Designed to offer you a myriad of ways to break up your groups throughout the day, this box set comes complete with a set of cards and detailed instructions on how to use them, along with a layout of all the groupings for various sized teams that are possible and ideas for games and energisers. A handy tool for Facilitators, Trainers and Teachers - this has been developed using technology designed to ensure your groups are well mixed, every time. The mix of symbols, patterns and pictures provide you with a tool to develop your own games and educational activities.

Interested? Then just call Mindworks 07) 3289 4977 or email: info@mindworksteam.com.au and we will place your order for you - These retail at $60.00 (plus p&h) and work with all four learning styles : Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic & Tactile.