Gratitude, learning & feedback in practice.
I had a huge aha moment last week.
Many people enjoy helping. Enjoy giving us feedback.
Enjoy imparting wisdom.
Especially when we follow up with them, say thank you, were are grateful, and here’s what we did with what we learned, rather than crickets after they have invested time and energy into sharing with us.
But when we share back, when we follow up and follow-through, they feel like they are part of our journey.
They can see their time was well invested and are quite often willing to do it again.
Well, the lights went on with that little gem, and I’ve already shared it in my coaching practice multiple times this week. It definitely occurs to me a little-tid bit to embody gratitude—in both a personal and professional context. Image how our customers might respond if they got a reply saying how we implemented what they put in their feedback or surveys?
And where did I learn this? The fellowship I’m blessed to have commenced last week. Going into week one of the Startmate Fellowship was kind of like preparing for Christmas for me.
Anyone who knows me knows this means exciting, but a lot of work.
I mean, even though this is a learning, action and value-creating experience, it’s kinda terrifying going back to a super novice level.
And it is thrilling at the same time.
I was blessed to engage and connect with so many wonderful people from the Startup world last week, so I’ve created this highlight reel of what I learned, applied and more.
Day 1: Kick-Off Day.
Who? 110 Nervous, Excited Startmate Female Fellows at the start of their journey
What? Meet & Greet, Connection, Outlining the Fellowship, Speed-friending & more.
Favourite thing: First-time speed-friending using Gatheround; this was super fun, totally recommend to all!
Gratitude moment: It has been amazing to connect with so many brilliant, powerful women so far; I’m looking forward to meeting more of you!
Thanks, Crista, for being so onto it with everything.
Day 2
Who? Michael Batko
What? CEO’s Welcome to Startmate
Top Lesson Learned: Get customer-obsessed at the embodiment level. Eat, sleep, breathe your customers' problems and how to solve them.
Favourite Quote: “Today is the worst you’ll ever be”.
Action Taken: Added the Experiment, Chaos, Feedback loop into the product owner and customer-journey principles I’m currently learning.
Gratitude Moment: I’m so grateful that you’ve committed to make Australia and New Zealand the best place to build a Startup. I’m also incredibly grateful to be part o this program.
Who? Startmate Fellowship Alumni (from the last cohort)
What? How to Maximise Your Time in the Fellowship
Top Lesson Learned: Ask Questions! All the Questions. Questions Are Life.
Action Taken: Make sure we use the content we learn, connect, and utilise the wider startup community.
Favourite Strategy: The content doesn’t help narrow down industry, company or roles, so this is an area to be your own detective in.
What’s left to do: Create a system, strategies, collaborate, take a whole bunch of action, and loads of research.
Gratitude Moment: Learning from those who have recently done it and can share the tips, tricks and tools of what they wished they had known is amazing; I really appreciate your time ladies, thank you!
Who? Ashlee, Ellie, Sianne, Amanda, Taina
What? Buddies & Squad
Top Lesson Learned: Background about each other, and how we can support one another.
Gratitude Moment: Connecting and having our own little tribe to be on this journey with.
Day 3
Who? Phoebe Harrop
What? Startups and VC 101
Top Lesson Learned: How investments/investors are selected.
What’s left to do: Re-watch the recording and learn more about the stages of startups and funding. Re-read industry lingo and terms.
Gratitude Moment: You made this complicated topic easy, and fun to understand, thanks Pheobe!
Day 4
Who? Sophia Witherington
What? How to Build Your Social Capital
Top Lesson Learned: Do the research, do the work. Be clear, concise, to the point and specific when making requests.
Action To Do: Create a system for tracking and following up on those I’m connecting with (mini-CRM).
Favourite Strategy: 1000% ask for the intro. Make it easy.
Gratitude Moment: This session was amazing. It gave me a point to start networking the optimal way. So often, we can be self-focused, and this was a way to really focus on others, and keep that top of mind. Thank you!
Who? Julie Trell
What? My Wonderful Coach
Favourite strategy shared: The Masters of Scale Podcast
Favourite quote: “Perfection is the enemy of done. Good enough is really effin’ good.” Brene Brown.
What’s left to do: Fingerprint for Success.
Gratitude Moment: I’m so blessed to have Julie as my thought partner.
Who? Maxine Minter
What? How to Maximise Your Coaching Relationship
Favourite Lesson Learned: How to get the most out of my coach relationship, and how to define my coaching relationship — in the fellowship context.
Action Taken: I loved your coaching agreements; they inspired me to update my own.
Favourite Strategy: Staying in ‘unfreeze’ as long as possible and seeing, doing, exploring, hunting while in this zone. Maximise it!
What’s left to do: A lot of exploring and hunting.
Gratitude Moment: You’re an outstanding, clear, concise, engaging coach Maxine. I enjoyed every second of the session.
Day 5
Who? Crista
What? Breakfast Club
Top Lesson Learned: Group journal reflection with music and specific questions are really powerful and effective.
Gratitude Moment: I loved the format — debrief, unwind, connect, reflect, and thinking about the past week and week ahead. These are things I do; however, the group context is a game-changer. I plan on implementing this in my coaching practice in the near future.
Who? May Samali
What? Design Your Life Workshop
Top Lesson Learned: How to bring our values to life—live them at the embodiment level—in business and in life.
Action Taken: I’ve implemented action from the workshop, thank you.
Favourite Strategy: Turning prioritisation on its head and aligning calendar appointments with values.
Gratitude Moment: You’re an outstanding coach who is super engaging and, this was a fun, enjoyable workshop! I created something similar, and it was incredible to be on the other side of a workshop, rather than being the one giving it, and yours was different too. I enjoyed it immensely.
Wowsers! What a week it was. I’m skilled at action, but even I am a little on the OMG side at the moment on how to get all the wheels turning at once.
If you have any models, frameworks, methods or tried & true in terms of action-taking with projects like this, pop it in the comment below. If you have anything to add, pop them in the comments below.
