“I have to say that it was a fascinating and enjoyable experience. To have the opportunity to share my highs and lows as a professional entertainer, with like-minded L&D professionals, reaffirmed my beliefs & values and refocused ‘why I do what I do’ … to engage, inspire and create magic to those around me.
The topic of dangerous thinking provided a great structure to the conversation and for me the key takeaway from the experience was the participants’ engagement and attention. It allowed me to express my story with no fear or judgement.
It’s not often that many people talk about themselves and I am pleased from the experience that so many participants were touched and engaged by my passion that they were empowered to take some thought or action away with them.”
Spring [verb] to move or jump suddenly or rapidly upwards or forwards
Break [verb] to interrupt
In Augustwe usually down tools and focus on keeping ourselves fresh, relevant and suitably diverted. We call it Summer School. It’s a time when we connect with interesting and wonderful people and things.
So…… with things changing moment to moment, and life as we know it on pause, we’ve declared (to anyone listening) that it’s time for Spring Break!
Spring Break Mini Conference #3
As part of our Spring Break, we’ve been hosting a series of mini conferences via Zoom. The theme of the conference series is ‘Being dangerous as a force for good’, inspired by something we did for International Women’s Day some weeks back.
The purpose of each conference is to hear real tales of human endeavour to afford people the time and space to reflect and wonder.
Each week we hear from an amazing guest speaker about a topic that is close to their hearts. This way, our thinking is kept at its freshest and we get to link up & collaborate with some fabulous people.
Our guest speaker for the third mini conference in the series was Ricky Locke, Magician, Pickpocket, Behavioural Trainer and proud member of the world’s most prestigious magic society, the Magic Circle.
[The full video is available only in our private members club]
‘Gives me a lift for the week’
“I really enjoy being part of a shared experience of soaking up a completely different story and perspective from such interesting individuals. It gives me a lift for the week and some fresh ideas about how to tackle things in the future.” – Jo
Insights & Appreciation
At the end of each mini conference we show our appreciation and share our freshest thinking; here are the highlights:
“What I liked about your story was the fear factor and to know and trust that sometimes pushing past that feeling of fear can bring you great success. So that was my favourite takeaway. Thank you.”
“I absolutely loved it. I was mesmerised by the energy that you brought to the whole conversation.”
“hearing you talking about something you’re really passionate about and believe in really comes through and I think that’s what made the whole talk even more interesting. It was super. Thank you.”
“I was really interesting that you can bring those two things together [learning & magic] and improve both of them. That makes sense.”
“the thing for me, bearing in mind that in some ways magic happens by illusion or misdirection…it was great, how incredibly honest you were. There was a juxtaposition there for me. And you were so frank about your experience, and I find that really, really powerful.”
“what was amazing was about Ricky sharing his vulnerability. ….. so it was a really great reminder for me that, even though I’ve had moments where I have the fear, that actually there’s a really good reason for it….. and you can get some positive outcomes.”
“quite often when things go wrong, we spend a lot of time analysing what’s gone wrong and why, and perhaps thinking about where any fault should be apportioned. But you didn’t do that, you just said ………”Let’s just crack on with it and make the best of it” It didn’t matter how it happened…..it’s just a case of making the best of it. And I think that’s a good lesson.”
“I think the lesson [for me] is to resolve to stick to your values and you don’t go far wrong.”
“Recently nobody’s had 100% attention off me [and I hope nobody I’ve been working with sees this] ….. but you have me. You have me totally engaged and switched off from the other stuff.”
“It’s the engagement thing for me. I just love you the way you fill a room. You fill a screen with your energy and your smile….it’s just so, so powerful.”
“I’m thinking about how it is interesting that even as adults, we like to be surprised and delighted. And, you know, as adults, often we think that we need to have the answers. But magic is somewhere we don’t have the answers and actually be quite like it. It’s really lovely to be surprised and have a little bit of mystery in life.”
“I genuinely just have laughed so much to this, which is just so delightful because you create a lightness about something that you feel so deeply about. And I think, you know, it’s so required for us right now, which is beautiful.”
“l love the way you spoke about magic from your point of view….. that you are enjoying the magic as much as you want your audience to enjoy the magic.”
“You were so true to yourself. I’m sure you gave some thought about what you were going to say…. and then it just tumbled out of you in this completely natural, authentic, fun way.”
“I particularly love what your story reminded me about, in terms of having that really ingrained service mentality. It’s not about you, it’s about you doing your absolute best for the people that you make that promise and that commitment to….I absolutely love that message.”
“it’s been absolutely brilliant listening to you….. the word that I wrote down was fascination…. it’s that sense of something that you do that is completely fascinating to other people, and ….. people being so drawn into it, they are curious and want to know more. And it was making me think about how do I do more of that with the people that I work with? So how can I just ramp up fascination because if you’re fascinated, it’s something that you’re not going to let go off, you’re going to remember it and want it to be a part of you. So that was brilliant.”
A final thought from Ricky…….
In terms of my reflection from the experience, I would have to say that it was a fascinating and enjoyable experience. To have the opportunity to share my highs and lows as a professional entertainer with like-minded L&D professionals, reaffirmed my beliefs and values and refocused why I do what I do, to engage, inspire and create magic to those around me.
The topic of dangerous thinking provided a great structure to the conversation and for me the key takeaway from the experience is the participants’ engagement and attention. It allowed me to express my story with no fear or judgement. It’s not often that many people talk about themselves and I am pleased from the experience that so many participants were touched and engaged by my passion that they were empowered to take some thought or action away with them. I am so grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait for the next sessions!
You can connect with Ricky at Ricky Locke Magic
www.rickylocke.co.uk
We’d love to hear how you’ve been inspired by this event. Please get in touch to share.
At the time of posting this we’re six sessions into the series and we asked one of the participants why she keeps on showing up. This is what she had to say:“I think with the all of the crazy things going on currently the sessions are an opportunity to reset your thinking, learn something new and different and share an appreciation of what is good at the moment with some like-minded people. A real opportunity to invest an hour of your time to nurture the mind & soul, thank you for letting me be part of it!”
The Spring Break Mini Conference Series is a collaboration between The Clear Thinking Partnership and Performance Tree https://www.performancetree.co.uk/
