 Hey everyone, so I just came out of the Awaken Your Inner Coach approach when the workshop led by Ian McDermott, a very well-known coaching expert for many, many years. And I've heard a lot about Ian over the past couple of months and I was already very intrigued about his approach, but this is the first time I got to participate in a live Zoom workshop that he was doing. And I just came out of it like 30 minutes ago, it finished 30 minutes ago as a whole day session from afternoon to evening, six hours including the break. And since I still have that fresh perspective, fresh impression, I wanted to just put it on record and let you know what I think about the workshop, what I think about Ian's approach, how I feel after that whole experience. You know, whether I would recommend it to you and also at the very end of the video, I will also share some of the more lines in how this workshop affects my own journey, which this channel is more or less about. But let's start with the workshop. So let me start by saying it was really damn good. And it's not like I had a lot of workshops with coaching or a new or linguistic program. I've read a lot about it. I met coaches, spoke with them. These days I'm receiving coaching therapy pretty much weekly for the past couple of months now. So it's a familiar field. And I've been to various other workshops and this and that. So I do, I guess, what I want to say is I do have what to compare it with. And it's definitely beyond regular standards in my experience, really top notch. Even as an individual, as a coach, you know, not that I'm an expert and I'm like, oh, okay, I can tell you who is good and who's not. But just being myself a professional instructor for a number of years, speaking with coaches and instructors of different fields, it's just so evident that Ian is really good. He knows what he's doing and he has that humility, which comes from that knowledge and experience and wisdom, which is beyond the regular wisdom. There's no, I will prove to you what I know or I will try to convince you. That's kind of like low tier game, but Ian is at that level where it's just so natural for him that whatever he's saying just comes out of him naturally. And you can see, he knows what he's talking about and whatever he's offering is pure refined gold. So I was really impressed. Another interesting aspect of the workshop was that there was quite a bit of back and forth, which was, in a way, was almost surprising to me, but in a very good way. There were 73 participants to begin with, including this couple of people from the staff and Ian himself, so around 70 people. And Ian was always open for questions. He encouraged questions, he encouraged self reflections, sharing, and we also went to groups, to kind of, I don't remember how that's breakout rooms. Yeah, that's probably the name, where we were presented a subject that we discussed. And initially, I've been to some workshops where that doesn't necessarily work. You end up being with people and let's say one person just keeps on talking and talking off subject and eventually you come back and you're like, why did we do this? But that did not happen this time. And I can't say whether that was because probably a lot of people who were participating either are coaches or interested in the approach. So pretty much every group that I had been a part of were good listeners and they offered some brilliant insights themselves. So that really felt like it deepened the experience. And even my own self, I shared some things where I was like, oh, this really helps me digest whatever was presented. It helps me come deeper and then we would reflect all together back with Ian and he would give some insights. So it really felt like a very productive and efficient kind of approach, which again, I was pleasantly surprised. The material itself, it was definitely something I was very interested in already from the get-go. So that may make me a bit biased in that way because I was just intrigued about it already. But I just personally, in general, I believe that the material that was presented is really valuable for anyone. The whole concept of the inner coach, the idea behind it, I wasn't beforehand nobody presented it to me like years ago. I didn't bump into someone specifically saying inner coach. But when I learned about the definition of it, so basically it's the intuition, the subconscious supporting you and giving you information. I realized that really is a close subject to me. But I know from personal experience that is such a huge game changer. There's so many insights and discoveries I've made through exploring whatever is in my subconscious. And part of my journey experience, I did neglect that aspect for a little bit lately and I'm getting back to it again. Again, I'm just at all how much it can give. But then you need tools, you need to understand, it's important to understand how it works. And Ian did such a great job of first of all presenting and explaining what the inner coach is, how that works, and also continuing to give specific tools in a very kind of non-intrusive way. Just kind of presenting the environment, presenting the landscape or it wasn't dry in an aspect of, okay, so the tool A is this, the tool B is this. But it was very organic, very natural, which was very pleasant to be a part of that conversation, to hear about it in that way. But it also felt like you're definitely taking something away, which you can use. It wasn't just a list of items that you listen to and the next day you forget. But it felt like things which you can actually employ and use and take away with you. So that's definitely a very positive experience. The most powerful moment for me most likely was also I wasn't hesitant about raising my virtual hand and chipping in my thoughts, especially when I see that other people at certain times may be hesitant or they're still thinking. I was like, well, I have an idea. I'm passionate about this. So I shared a number of times. And I didn't expect any sort of feedback from it. But there's one point where I shared something which is related very much to my journey. If you're following the journey, if you've seen some of the last few videos, you probably know what I'm talking about. And I shared about the dilemma, encouraged to talk about that type of subject, the dilemma of reading versus exploring. And because these days I'm super passionate about and I'm yearning again. I'm in that yearning state again where I want to know more. I want to learn more. I want to understand how things work and I want to kind of level myself up. And my initial instinct was to go to read more books. But then that's kind of neglecting the aspect which was presented for the workshop. And that is that there is the inner coach where you can discover amazing and profound things within yourself, which some of you will never find in books. It's much more personal. And while Ian himself was very, very clear to make the point that, okay, books are great. He made a great point. He wrote a number of books himself and he loves books. And in the background of him talking, there were a bunch of books. So there's nothing bad about books. But we started focusing on that personal journey, that personal exploration aspect. And it's still fresh. So I can't really put it on paper. But what I want to share is that whatever he shared, and we basically just seemed like a quick coaching situation between Ian and myself where everybody was watching and that doesn't bother me. But we were talking one-on-one and I would express how I feel, what I think. And he was like, you know, let's dig into this. And he shared a number of things. And it was like, damn, was that the right thing to tell me? And for me to hear, it was really profound. And it was basically just, in my words, the way I'd express it, that basically stating that the journey can be, okay, well, to put a step back, I told Ian that I'm very much in the pursuit of offering value to others. And that's, at the moment, I'm considering, you know, what's more valuable? Reading books and expanding my knowledge or exploring myself, what's that ratio? That was my act of contemplation. And he presented really beautifully the understanding or the insight that already by sharing my process, that's also giving, which is kind of what this channel is about. So that was really inspiring for me. That really touched me. And he was so spot on by giving the example of Frodo from the Lord of the Rings, which is basically kind of the hero's journey. And I'm a big fan of hero's journey. I love movies in general, so I could definitely relate with it. And he spoke about, you know, the fellowship of the rings, if you know the context, they're in the meeting and deciding who will bring the ring and arguing. And then Frodo comes up and says, well, you know, I don't have, you know, he presents himself as a humble person and a hobbit. And that kind of creates the respect out of everyone and the belief and faith that, oh, actually, you know what, you know, yeah, he's the right person. And I think what Ian stressed is that Frodo at that moment, he says, I don't know how, but I have faith, you know, I will do this. And people trust his process. And then people decide to follow him and support him. And that's kind of the way of giving. So again, my vocabulary here is a bit rusty, because I'm still kind of digesting that information. But my point is he really put it beautifully, the essence of that the journey is worth sharing as well. And the sincerity, the modesty, the way you do it, and the honest and sincere exploration, may be as valuable as anything else. And that was just so spot on for me. So thank you for that. Ian, if you're watching, just in any case. But yeah, coming back to the workshop, I feel like I wanted to share this story as well, just to show you how impactful this workshop was to me. And I'm sure it was impactful to others as well. It was interactive. It offered a lot of wonderful knowledge. And also the brilliant technical thing I noticed myself personally, or I considered is, you know, when you just listen and listen and listen for six hours and more or less in a row, it may become difficult to keep your focus. But then every time I would feel like I'm having difficulty to keep my focus on, then Ian would say, okay, well, now let's make the break rooms. Or now let's give people some chance to chip in and share, ask questions. And that dynamic really made it more of a sense of flow to the whole workshop. So the six hours was, I think it's six hours. I'm pretty sure it is. So it was ideal. It was the ideal amount. By the end of it, I felt like, especially with that personal feedback I've got, I felt like, okay, I'm done. I'm good. You know, this was just enough. So yeah, I hope that my emotions and my review of this gives you a better sense of what you can expect from the workshop and give you a sense of how I feel after it. So maybe you have a glimpse of, okay. Maybe I want to feel like that too. And then go and try it out. From what I understand, if I understood this correctly, this is the first time this workshop, specific workshop, this format was done. Although Ian has written a book, The Inner Coach, which is out there from what I understand for years now. But if I understood, and I may be wrong, but if I understood correctly, this is the first time this workshop particularly was presented for Zoom. Also in regards to the COVID situation, many people are in lockdown, people have time with themselves. And this is kind of a brilliant way to inspire people to realize, oh, there's so much actually you can discover just by being on your own, by understanding how your subconscious communicates both intuitively through the level of the mind. And also it was really nice because the somatic aspect was touched as well, how our subconscious is expressed through the body and that gives us hints and how to read that information. So just so much good stuff, which I won't be able to put out all on record. But I hope again, I'm getting you a good impression of how it works. Just to be sure, nobody's paying me to say positive things about that. But I am now subscribed, I guess, or enlisted in the Master the Coach approach, which is an eighth month course by the same organization, the ITS, which I believe Ian is the leader of. And so I'm developing a personal relationship with ITS, but this is my very first touch and I'm already in love with it, really interested where everything else we continue to go. But just in case you're also interested in that whole aspect of the inner coach of understanding your intuition, of being able to understand or have a better relationship and communication with your subconscious, this is definitely a course you should check out. So I'll leave the links below, I highly recommend it. And the very last few words, yeah, for my regular subscribers, viewers, I think I actually kind of communicated everything I wanted to say to you directly through what I said that has been an impactful conversation with Ian and it made me reflect about the things which I am exploring together with you. This is the first meeting we had, this is the first contact we had, and I'm planning, I'm going to continue to learn from him and his whole instructor's group through that course and I will definitely share more whatever comes up. But let me know what you think, you know, what's your impression? This is the very first time I'm doing a review of a workshop on my channel and video. Let me know what you think, any feedback from me. Yeah, I enjoy the workshop a lot and it's nice to share with you how it went. So I'm going to be looking forward to hear now from you. So thank you for watching as always and I'll see you next time.