Angela Young’s journey with Evolution started over 10 years ago and, like with many of our colleagues/clients, we are happy to say the relationship is still ongoing today.
My first contact with Evolution was around 10 years ago when I was introduced to Martin through the Walsingham Clinic, a natural health centre and one of several businesses I run. We were developing a range of self-help gift products for high street retailers and I needed an experienced hypnotherapist to write and record the content for a pack to help with sleep disorders. Martin delivered the brief brilliantly and I know people who still use the hypnotherapy sessions we recorded to help them sleep.
Since those early days I’ve received coaching from Fiona and attended an immensely helpful confidence and assertiveness course she ran, both of which supported me as I was made Managing Director of a major company for the first time while simultaneously navigating post-divorce single parenthood. I have also had extensive business NLP training with Martin, and recently worked alongside him on a number of projects, seeing him apply the techniques he teaches first hand.
Not long after I started coaching with Fiona we both realised Cornwall lacked a focused and confidential networking for business leaders like us, so we formed a new networking group together, Cornwall Director Forum. It brought local business leaders and entrepreneurs together in a collaborative and supportive environment, somewhere where we could confidentially discuss the highs and lows of running a business in Cornwall. The group was immensely useful and introduced me to some people who I now consider my closest friends and favourite people, and for whom I have epic amounts of respect both personally and professionally. Martin took Fiona’s place in the group after a couple of years and some of us went on to form a company together, just for the pleasure of coming up with new business ideas and seeing where they led. It’s been fascinating and fun to work alongside Martin and see how he applies the methods he teaches in the real world. We haven’t quite invented the next must-have tech gadget but we certainly thought outside the box (outside the planet on some occasions) and I still think the world is waiting for a specially-designed pasty holder…
While I was in the throes of the NLP Business Coaching course I took with Martin a few years ago I met a man at a party, and in my slightly inebriated state thought it would be a good time to try out some of the techniques I had been set for that week’s homework. I clearly remember the course session immediately after James and I met, recounting the story to my fellow attendees of how I had “NLP’d the sh*t” out of this poor bloke, not fully appreciating just how significant that first encounter would become! The techniques I unleashed on him that day meant we had a really significant connection, despite not being the kind of people who would otherwise have spent much time talking – our communication styles remain very different to this day, but thanks to Martin I understand why and how we can still properly ‘click’. 7 years later we’ve got a 5yo daughter and run two businesses together…
As well as the communication (or as James might claim – chat up) techniques I picked up, a life-changing aspect of Evolution’s role in my life has been the process of effective goal-setting. During the first course I attended with Fiona I was recently divorced and having to rebuild most of my social life from scratch, so I set myself the goal of finding more female friends. The course itself provided several instantly – friends I have kept and maintain now, but also gave me a clear path forward to establishing and maintaining significant relationships. I now have far more friendships, both close and occasional, than I ever did, and far surpassed my original goal. I’ve been goal-setting, and goal-achieving, ever since and the techniques I learnt have taken me from forming new start-ups, dealing with difficult employees, to launching my own large 3-day music festival. I met Bob Geldof, someone I’d always admired, and managed to ‘NLP the sh*t’ out of his manager enough that I landed the job as his booking agent for certain territories not long after. The methods I have learnt thanks to Martin and Fiona mean that I rarely feel overwhelmed by the huge number of plates I spend my days spinning, and ensure that I’m always pretty clear about where I’m heading.
Evolution and the two wonderful people that lead it have been a significant contributor in my own growth as a businesswoman, entrepreneur, partner and mother, and I’m grateful and proud to be part of their story.