Why?
Put simply, it is a life skill we need it in all aspects of life, in work, in business. Difficult situations arise and if we don’t have the skills we can lose the job, alienate friends, colleagues, family members, damage our most important relationships.
This episode I am joined by Riana Avis, an expert of Taming Tough Conversations, who shares with us the 3 keys to the whole thing –
- Purpose
- Perspective
- Process
Riana Avis
I grew up in the fairest Cape in South Africa, moved to Sodom and Gomorrah, as my grandmother called the fleshpots of Johannesburg, and became mum of two, a boy and girl.
I put my children through a lot. Changed career when they were 2 and 6, divorced their dad when they were 10 and 14, moved to the UK when they were 14 and 18. It was tough years for all of us.
We somehow managed to build a life in the UK and we did very well thank you.
My business started after I was made redundant. I was determined to be a Life Coach and work with normal, ordinary people. I had had it with corporate life, big business, change for the sake of change, being a cog in a wheel that was going nowhere. The Baobab Way was born.
To my surprise I discovered that I was pretty good at getting people on track with their business, cutting through the overwhelm, getting to what was really important, so they could focus on what mattered and get stuff done. In hindsight, I recognise it as my many years in IT solving business problems, digging for what really matters, designing, building and implementing solutions, playing out in a different way.
My client base is varied: engineers, managers, coaches, family therapists, financial advisors, entertainers… They’re all ‘a bit different’, want to make a difference in the world and experts in their field. I seem to be the ‘organiser’ in their life, the ‘left’ brain to their ‘right’ brain, or as one client put it, ‘you pick the diamonds from the ashes.’
I was a contributing author, in fact, the most prolific contributor, to a book called Communication Impact by Tracey Huish.
I was interviewed for psychology magazine on the topic of difficult conversations some years ago.
Where to Find Riana Online
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Award-winning coach, international speaker, multi-time best-selling author, hypnotist, occasional magician, and writer of this post, Keith spent his first 40 years suffering from several phobias including being terrified of speaking with strangers. After one incident too many, he started studying and training in NLP & hypnosis to conquer his own issues, found he was rather good at it, and changed careers (aided by redundancy at just the right moment after 20 years in IT). He helps people transform their deepest fears into their greatest strengths, and having helped over 5,000 people across 5 continents, he is the UK’s #1 Fear Strategist.