May

Happy May! Each month we strive to provide you with a variety of helpful resources, tips, and practices to support your continued success, both personally and professionally. Because we work with a diverse demographic of clients, industries, and backgrounds, we aim to provide content equally as diverse. If a particular section doesn't resonate with you, that's okay! Our hope is that everyone can find at least one gold nugget per issue. 

Below, you will find information on this month's article from Crum Consulting, this month's development challenge, as well as general wellness reminders. We have a number of knowledge-forward articles available that explore a variety of professional and personal topics, all of which will challenge your current perspective, and push your continued growth. Each month, we aim to provide you with a new challenge to help facilitate your ongoing growth. These challenges will range in topics and applications, in an effort to focus on a variety of aspects of your life. If you are a recurring client with us, we will be following up on this month's challenge with you in session. If you don't currently have any sessions set up with us, and would like to discuss this challenge and others like it, please feel free to reach out to schedule a session with us! You can reply directly here if we have worked together in the past. If you are a new client, please click here to fill out a consultation form, and we will be in touch to schedule a session with you. We also provide new wellness reminders in the form of our stretch of the month, and wellness tip. Regardless of your background, these reminders will help improve your day to day health and wellness.

May Article: This month's article is: Agent of Change. The only consistency in change, is change itself. Meaning, we should always expect change to happen. From there, it is your choice how you adapt and evolve. You can choose to ignore the change around you. However, just because you don't adapt and evolve, doesn't mean the world around won't continue to change without you. If you have any questions surrounding this month's article, or would like to further explore opportunities, please feel free to reach out to schedule a session with us! You can reply directly here if we have worked together in the past. If you are a new client, please click here to fill out a consultation form, and we will be in touch to schedule a session with you.

May Challenge: I challenge you to practice having open ears, and an open mind.

→Network, interact, engage: Determine one new networking event / opportunity for your business. This can be a conference, tradeshow, lecture, festival, etc. The important part is that it provides access to a new audience; whether potential clients, partnerships, collaborations, etc.

→Model continuous learning: Explore opportunities for continuous learning that will enrich your business. This can be a certification, a book, a course, a group, a video, etc. So long as it provides you with relevant new information to enrich and inspire your business, you’re on track.

→Always ask for feedback: Tap your nearest and dearest professional connections for feedback on your role and business. The most important thing here is to simply have a conversation with professionals outside of your immediate work environment for perspective you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

→Meaningful meetings: Are you having regular meetings that recur on the same day and time each occurrence? If you had to rate your meetings on a scale of 1-10 today, what would you rate them? How can you improve the effectiveness of your meetings? When was the last time you asked your team for feedback on your meetings?

→Internal communication standards: Do you have an established turnaround time for all internal and external communication? Are your customers/clients aware of your communication expectations? Do you feel like your email inbox is constantly the bane of your existence? Are there opportunities to onboard new software solutions, such as a project management interface, to help alleviate the volume of emails?

→Interpersonal communication standards: Do you have an established process for internal discipline? Do you have established standards for how to handle a difficult or upset customer/client? Do you have established retention methods and flows? Are there any additional opportunities to improve your communication skills?

Stretch of the month: Lion Pose - this pose relieves tension in the chest and face. An often-overlooked benefit of Simhasana is that it stimulates the platysma, a flat, thin, rectangular-shaped muscle on the front of the throat. The platysma, when contracted, pulls down on the corners of the mouth and wrinkles the skin of the neck. Simhasana helps keep the platysma firm as we age. According to traditional texts, Simhasana destroys disease and facilitates the three major bandhas (Mula, Jalandhara, Uddiyana). Click the (external) link to learn more, or simply google "lion pose"!

Wellness tip of the month: Your journey is your own in every aspect of your life. Just because it doesn't look the way you want it to look, does not mean you have failed, or fallen short, or missed the mark. Goals are nothing more than guidelines, and you are the only one that owns your narrative. A due date is simply an allowance; a milestone that allows the next phase of the project to be initiated. It does not mean that you have to have everything executed on that day, week, or month. It just means the door is open. It is up to you when and how you walk through it. This same logic can be applied forward to any scenario in your life that you feel those self-imposed timelines. Of course, there are some things in life that do actually require timeliness; getting to work on time, showing up for an appointment, meeting a deadline at work. But for those self-imposed timelines, just remember, you are the author....rewrite it!

Thank you for being a pivotal part of our journey here at Crum Consulting. We would be nothing without you, and your continued support. Please feel free to share our content with others to pay it forward. We relish in receiving feedback, so if you have any suggestions or if you'd like to share your opinion on any of the content we have provided here, please let us know! If you have any questions about anything we covered here, or if you'd like to explore potential opportunities with Crum Consulting, we are here for you! Reach out anytime!

Until we meet again, take care of yourself, and others. Thank you.

~Cole Crum, Crum Consulting Founder

"The axe forgets, but the tree remembers." - Akhen Osei