This month…

Our cover this month reflects the best in small business that Greater Edmonton has to offer. The story’s about Jen and Lynn Carolei, the feisty mother-daughter team who own Sublime Swim and Sunwear at St. Albert.  These two gals are swimming in personality and business chutzpa. Their store, only four years old, is bursting at the seams and Sublime needs more space; customers are waiting up to an hour for change rooms. The Big Challenge is they need to secure about $240,000 for a larger facility and the confidence to make the leap. Can these two weather the storm that besets a family-run business? Lynn, only recently divorced, already is exhausted from the added pressures and Jen can’t take on any more responsibilities….she wants a life, too!  These are the very reasons that the Caroleis were invited to be “transformed’ in a print and television alliance with Citytv for Breakfast Television…The Transformers—known to readers of Edmontonians as Tom Bradshaw, Les Brost, Steffany Hanlen, and Colin Williamsen agreed to coach our challengers to the top of their personal podium…as Champions of Business.   And what about Citytv? You’ve known them as A Channel before it sold to CHUM before it sold to CTV.  While station manager Craig Roskin handed out pink slips last summer and tightened operations to work alongside the signature programs of ACCESS, Canadian Learning Television, BookTelevision, and CourtTV Canada, content manager Paul Mennier got the ball rolling on developing a new-style  magazine format. “The derivative is from the print world magazine, which is unlike a newspaper. It can take longer form to cover a specific story…You can direct a little more time…it’s a little more colourful, a little more picture-driven, a little more.”    Some of the “little more” comes in the small package of Marina Michaelides, a multi-talented, award-winning producer, director, and author. Her most recent success is known here in the form of The Family Restaurant which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the Yianni Pisalios clan and its three Greek eateries on FoodTV. Michaelides now throws her attention to the Caroleis…and irresistible television.  That’s not all…Muggsy Forbes talks to Margaret Evans about her working life as a war correspondent; Edmontonians know her parents as the late Journal columnist Art Evans and mother Una MacLean Evans, a former Edmonton city counselor…Erin Rayner meets up with the sales diva Kim Duke who recounts her Top Three Sassy Sales Tips…Don Hill tells corporate leaders why the art of telling stories can help them find the right words when the news is bad…Ron Hiebert asks readers if they’re ready to change their buying habits when it comes to the energy sector. And much, much more!

www.Edmontonians.com ... 9,688 visitors last month…and growing!

This Month:

Stories that breathe.... 

Dancing with a grizzly....

The Transformers....

Renegade Woman...

Stories that breathe - Transforming traditional television news

By Rick Lauber

When it comes to local television stations, Edmonton’s Citytv has long been the new kid on the block—always challenged by CFRN, CBC and Global. Challenge has led to change for the upstart station—a concept that comes in a variety of forms.

Change is nothing new to the fledgling station: First it was A Channel, owned by Craig Media from September 1997 to December 2004… at which time it became Citytv, owned by CHUM which sold to Bell Globemedia 18 months later. Well, sort of…

As reported on-line at wikipedia.com, “In July 2006, CHUM announced it was to be taken over by Bell Globemedia (later renamed CTVglobemedia), owner of the CTV network, pending regulatory approval. The takeover was completed on October 30. Regulatory decisions regarding the takeover are not expected until mid-2007 at the earliest; in the interim CHUM has been placed in a blind trust under lawyer John McKellar.” Locally, there would not be a merger; Citytv and CTV stations would remain distinctively different. Other CHUM operations in Edmonton—ACCESS, Canadian Learning Television, BookTelevision and CourtTV Canada—remain side-by-each with Citytv in the historic Hudson’s Bay building downtown, now being redeveloped as Enterprise Square by the U of A.

On the heels of the take-over, extensive staffing cuts occurred. Station General Manager Craig Roskin refers to those days as “Black July, when we had the misfortune of having to say goodbye to 48 staff members, which was a difficult thing to do.” All were from the news department… all victims of poor ratings. This decision was simply a matter of numbers—professional and not personal.

“We were not garnering the audience that we would have liked to receive,” explains Paul Mennier, station content manager, adding that the cuts included news announcers, editors and camera operators. Edmonton was not the only market affected: Every CHUM-owned television station located in Canada felt this same pinch. In total, approximately 300 jobs were suddenly lost.

Through the darkness of “Black July” came light. The down-sizing provided station management a chance to revaluate their news delivery package and compare it to other local broadcasts. Very little difference was found. “There wasn’t a great deal of diversity in the supper package,” notes Mennier. “If you looked at 6 p.m., the stations signed on at the same time and had the identical stories… Sometimes it was eerie that they ran the same clips, the same pictures at the same time and, so really, if you were looking for diversity, your choices were if you wanted to get the news from a blonde or a brunette.”

Boldly, Citytv management opted to buck tradition… to consciously speak, instead, to the community at another level. They would certainly not ignore the major stories of the day, but would “let the other guys do what they were doing well, and serve the community with those kinds of stories: the ambulance-chasing, the crime, the minor scandal,” states Mennier.

“We’ll break off and do some of the other stories that we’ve always talked about doing … We’ll set the agenda and the agenda largely will be set by what’s happening in Edmonton, and the people that we meet and the interesting things that are happening here.” Such people, “…don’t get the news coverage they deserve.”

Another key difference in the news package is the news magazine format, strongly evident both in Breakfast TV—affectionately promoted as BT—and at 6:30 p.m. with Your City. This differs greatly from a traditional newscast on many levels, explains Mennier, “The derivative is from the print world magazine, which is unlike a newspaper: It can take longer form to cover a specific story… You can direct a little more time… it’s a little more colourful, a little more picture-driven, a little more. Speaking in TV terms now, we let these stories breathe a little bit more…”

Just how does a news story breathe more? It is given the time and opportunity to more fully develop instead of just presenting the quick facts. Unbuckle your belt after gorging down a box of chocolates and you’ve got the idea.

Within the station’s new-found magazine and community focus, the opportunity arose for a collaborative effort: Take the idea of The Transformers— Edmontonians’ innovative feature launched in January—and enhance it. Televise the life and business coaches Tom Bradshaw, Les Brost, Steffany Hanlen and Colin Williamsen as they tutor and counsel entrepreneurs on how to identify and overcome obstacles.

Mother and daughter business team, Lynn and Jen Carolei, were recruited to be the first “live transformees.” They own and operate Sublime Swim and Sunwear (located in St. Albert) and have outgrown their current commercial retail space. Problems are painfully evident in the cramped, small store. Displaying merchandize to its best advantage and giving patrons prompt change-room access have both been a big challenge. Lynn and Jen have plenty of desire and recently secured financing for the move to larger space in April.

And so, the mini-reality series was born. The Transformers was introduced to the station’s viewing audience on Breakfast Television in mid-February, with subsequent progress reports airing twice each Thursday morning through to late April. 

Viewers should not expect just another over-the-top reality show. Marina Michaelides, show director-producer, explains, “You can have those simple makeover shows where it’s easy to transform the way someone looks in a day, but to change habits of a lifetime takes a lot longer. The Transformers is more of a docu-soap where we are going through their own real life soap opera. The Transformers are people doing exactly that… transforming people on the edge of a massive change in their lives… taking them through the dark nights of their souls in order to come back up.”

The Transformers, all in all, is compelling television. Ordinary people—virtually, the folks next door—are featured as they learn some important life and business lessons. In the process, viewers are introduced to situations they can easily relate to and, perhaps, recognize and correct their own shortcomings themselves. As a bonus, they can get more detailed information from the coaches in their monthly Edmontonians’ columns. Everybody wins.

Ironic, isn’t it? Citytv has chosen to air The Transformers even as the station is undergoing a transformation of its own.

The new kid on the block is growing up. √

See what the Transformers have to say .....

Dancing with a grizzly …and other dangerous steps to success

By Les Brost

Managing a start-up business in an overheated economy is like dancing with a grizzly bear. You’re afraid to keep dancing but you’re even more fearful of what Ol’ Grizz will do if you reject him. It’s scary and thrilling and draining all at the same time.

The risk/reward quotient ramps up if it’s a family business, and it increases by 100 percent if the business is owned and managed by a parent/offspring team. Yet this approach to business can pay off in huge personal and financial rewards if the owners put in the up-front work to achieve the clarity required to manage their business and personal relationships.

Lynn Carolei and her daughter Jen, owners of Sublime Swim and Sunwear in St. Albert, are dancing with the grizzly. They are thrilled and tired, buoyantly optimistic and scared spitless—sometimes all in the same day. That’s normal for folks in their position.

Lynn, an experienced businesswoman, and her 25-year-old daughter have had the store about four years. Each has her own responsibilities relative to the store and they’ve hired staff to run day-to-day customer sales.

“Put on your grown-up clothes,” Jen tells her mother who sometimes panics over tough business decisions. They get along well, given the normal ribbing and teasing within families. Recently divorced, Lynn has two other children, an adult son and a teenage daughter living at home.

As a former banker, Lynn manages the books and the financing; she attends networking events at such places as E-women Network, Mastermind Clubs and Powerhouse Boards. Jen generally spends her days dealing with suppliers, shipping and receiving. Both enjoy swimsuit shopping excursions to Florida.

Having successfully established Sublime in a niche market, the ladies faced a new challenge: space. Customers have been known to wait an hour for a change room in their 800-square foot store. That’s not enough room to attractively display their merchandise—roughly 10,000 items, according to Lynn.

Mother and daughter grappled with the idea of either bringing in equity partners or raising enough organic cash flow to ease the transition and make the move happen. Jen recently attended a boot camp on how to put together venture ideas. Having negotiated the necessary financing, Sublime is relocating in April to a space that is almost three times bigger.

Enter Edmontonians Transformers—not to secure financing but to assist Lynn and Jen in developing winning attitudes and presentation skills. √

See what the Transformers have to say .....

Renegade Woman

Her staccato-style speech is punctured by a deep intake of thoughtful breath. You must think fast in the company of this television producer from the U.K. who barely stands over five feet in her boots. She is a pistol. Marina Michaelides is a multi-talented, award-winning producer, director and author. She has 20 years experience creating and running television productions, including numerous shows for the BBC in the UK, and various specialty channels in Canada.

Among her most familiar productions to locals are The Family Restaurant which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the Yianni Pisalios clan and its three Greek eateries in Edmonton on FoodTV; and Very Bad Men, true crime stories investigating serial con men, for Global.

Station manager Craig Roskin agrees snagging Michaelides for Citytv was a real coup. Utilizing her talent to the best advantage falls to Paul Mennier, the station’s content manager.

“In addition to producing Edmontonians Transformers on BT, Marina is responsible for weekly Your City features like Celebrity Chefs and Million Dollar Homes… developing other serials for CityNews, including an exciting food related feature. It stars a high profile, hunky Edmontonian and premieres this spring,” explains Mennier.

“As part of the CityNews team, Marina also contributes to the process of daily editorial development and supervision. So far, no plans to do any additional or ‘full-show shows’… producing five hours of original, live, local television every weekday is pushing our current resources to the limit… However, who knows what the future holds.”

As evidenced in her latest book, Michaelides respects renegade women who shoot for the moon plus “shoot cougars and their husbands in the process!” Renegade Women of Canada— The Wild, Outrageous, Daring and Bold is her third book. Published by Edmonton’s Folklore Publishing last year, the book profiles a number of Canadian women who have pushed the envelope and continually do so. It is an educational, enlightening and entertaining read about women who have helped to reshape our belief systems and brought about numerous long-impacting societal changes. Her other books are The Alberta Book of Trivia and The Alberta Book of History. She wrote them to familiarize herself with the province she had chosen to call “home.”

While Michaelides struggles to call herself a renegade woman, she truly admires such women who are “willing to push the barriers… who basically aren’t scared… who aren’t run by fear.”

Brave... but lost

By Steffany Hanlen

“Are you a business owner... or did you buy yourself a job?” This is the first question that popped into my head when I met Lynn and Jen Carolei. Neither statement is necessarily right or wrong: such questions simply challenge thought processes. Partnerships are often difficult. Throw a mother/daughter dynamic into a business mix and you could have a recipe for disaster. That is, unless they share a common vision, and have the discipline to move past ingrained patterns of behaviour commonly associated with family matters. Without a vision for their lives and business, they will move from one conflict to another.

The nature of great partnerships is that one person challenges the other to bring their best self to the game each day. In an ideal world, partners support each other’s personal and professional growth so that when it is applied in business, results become bigger and better than what would be if done alone. 

Lynn and Jen are brave women and, unfortunately, also quite lost. Sublime Swim & Sunwear started out giving these two powerful, yet very different, women a purpose, a goal and a reason to get up in the morning. Now, what seemed to be ‘a good idea at the time’ is a hot little business in St. Albert that has grown beyond their current personal and professional capabilities. So instead of building and following a well laid out business plan, they have been ‘reading and reacting’ as we say in sport from a place of survival. In business, this is often referred to as ‘management by fire.’

Without a clear, written vision for Sublime—and an understanding of their own common values and tangible goals—the business still may experience more growth. However, they will become increasingly re-active. The ongoing growth and balance they seek is best attained by being proactive.  

VISION

Having a vision for Sublime Swim & Sunwear is crucial. It is imperative that Lynn and Jen have a clear picture of where they see the business in one, five, 10 or more years. It means answering several compelling questions—questions more significant than “How many bikinis do we want to sell next month?” or “Should we go to that buying show in Miami?” I am talking about questions that are designed to get to the heart of the vision very quickly.

A vision is created when the parties are able to see clearly what the business represents. It’s also about asking yourselves how you want your life to be, look and feel. Some of the questions I ask are: How does your business support your life outside of it? What do you picture your clients, suppliers, community and bankers thinking or saying when the name of your business comes up?

A vision is about creating beyond the self and beyond what you believe to be realistic. When you have a vision for your life, it becomes the link to creating one for a business. Because Jen and Lynn are so close, they will need two very different and powerful personal visions. So after answering these questions and before they even begin to write their visions, I suggest they first ask themselves and each other “Why we are doing this?”… and “Why we are doing this together?” Next question” ‘What do we want to achieve personally and professionally from this partnership?”

It may sound easy, but honest answers will push the limits of mother/daughter intimacy, because both women may have to delve deeply into things that, in a business not run by relatives, are normally out of bounds.

VALUES

Personal values determine the who you are in what you do. Business values give you the outline or the framework to make any decision regarding the business. From banking to marketing, a decision either supports the values of the business or it doesn’t—it’s either in line with your personal values or it’s not. Simple.

Well, not so much. As family members, we assume that we share common values, but that’s often not the case. Ultimately, we create chaos and stress when we impose our own values onto the other person… we each become defensive and reactive when we are not supported by the other individual. Clear as mud, right?

Jen and Lynn have to explore what their personal, current and truthful order of values are. It is essential that they learn, appreciate and support their similarities and their differences. Only by sharing these values openly with each other is it possible to learn to communicate in each other’s values which is respectful and takes a high level of understanding. It also creates the quickest way to agreement.

A values exercise is an important step in self awareness. From this, Lynn and Jen can acknowledge the values they share—and more importantly don’t share. (View Values exercises at www.steffanyhanlen.com)

The power of any business comes from clarity in a common vision created by a clear understanding of personal and business values. Sublime Swim & Sunwear can grow strategically based on the true values of each partner, and how the business can support those values.

GOALS

Here is where it gets tricky. Goal setting, in the traditional form, is about identifying measurable and/or tangible steps toward achieving a result. After they have an understanding of a bigger picture, I will ask Jen and Lynn to work these steps ‘backward’ from their Common Vision, and base their goals on their personal values, not the other way around. Once established, we can move into creating a vision for their lives and business based on their current business and personal values. Their goals become a simple to-do list—not a checklist of pass and fail.

By creating a common vision based on their shared true values rather than working from a base of perceived and assumed conversations between a mother and a daughter fighting for survival, Lynn and Jen automatically create a much more powerful business.

From Values to Vision

Sublime Swim & Sunwear can be a business that supports each partner and enlivens their lives outside of it. It can become a vehicle that supports two women in achieving their individual dreams instead of just a job. As they each come into alignment with their true selves, inside and out, the scope of the business will very naturally become an extension of them, and the lives they want to create.

Life is short. The mother-daughter relationship is forever and needs to be honoured as the business relationship grows.  Not understanding the basic values and goals of the other person and not creating a path as to how this growth can and will support them at work and at home comes at a very high price.

My intention is to help them slow down… to help them look inside themselves and stop the panic… and to belay, as Lynn says, “the fear of eating cat food in retirement.” Lynn and Jen will soon see they are in an amazing stage of growth, both as a team—and more importantly—as mother and daughter.

This is going be a great story to share with the grandkids one day. √

Steffany Hanlen is a personal performance coach who conducts “The Champion Seminars.” Contact shanlen@edmontonians.com

Separating Mother and daughter  By Les Brost

Lynn and Jen Carolei have chosen to dance with the grizzly. They are following the intricate dance steps that go with owning and operating a business as a mother and daughter. Both sense intuitively that they have a chance to build the kind of relationships—business and personal—that will give them the satisfaction and success they seek. This puts them at a pivotal point in the business development cycle. Unlike many families that are “dancing with the grizzly,” Lynn and Jen are prepared to take difficult steps today to position themselves for success tomorrow.

So what steps can Lynn and Jenn take to safeguard their business and personal relationships? Can they find strategies to manage the inevitable conflict?

They have already taken a huge first step by recognizing that they have problems. It takes courage to acknowledge there are difficulties, and even more courage to reach out for help.

Lynn and Jen have also recognized that transforming these problems into strengths is a journey that requires a guide. It takes hard, sometime painful work, to rethink old assumptions, unlearn old habits and replace them with new realities and actions. I will be the “guide” who will work with them to keep them on track.

Parent-adult child partnerships can carry a lot of old baggage. There is a lifetime of “stuff”—the large and small hurts that come with family living—that can impact the business relationship. A skilled conflict management specialist, experienced in family business, guides the process and provides a safe and secure environment.

The biggest challenge facing Lynn and Jen is to establish and maintain new and clear boundaries for their business and personal relationships. Things can get messy when the mom and daughter stuff spills over into the business side of their relationship … or when business issues impact their personal relationship Their chances for a satisfying, long-term personal and business relationships increase dramatically when they learn to separate the two.

How do they accomplish this separation? The process begins with a guided conver-sation between Lynn and Jen about the current reality of their personal and business relationship. They will honestly and respectfully address these key questions: What’s happening with regards to your relationship at work and home? What’s not? What’s working? What’s not?

I will also be working with Jen and Lynn to enhance their communication skills and to ensure that each really gets what the other is saying. At this stage, it’s not about what’s right or wrong, it’s simply about under-standing and respecting each partner’s perceptions, perspectives and values.

The next step is for them to come to agreement on how they want the relationship to work. They will explore important questions: What would a successful business relationship look like? How would it feel for each of you? How would a successful personal relationship look and feel? This discussion will set outcomes for their personal and business relationships. I will guide the discussion and capture those desired outcomes.

Once Jen and Lynn have agreed on their current reality and desired outcomes, they can begin brainstorming alternative strategies to achieve their outcomes. I will be capturing the alternatives for this dynamic duo as they begin to chart a pathway to the future.

When the brainstorming is completed, Jen and Lynn will discuss the positives and negatives of each alternative. They will agree on specific strategies for achieving the desired results for their business and personal relationships. These strategies will have timelines and check points. Both will then contract in writing to work toward achieving those future outcomes and “sign off” on the agreement.

What will be the result of their work? They will have a plan for managing their professional and personal relationships, complete with strategies, timelines and accountabilities. Best of all, they will own this agreement—a product of their own hard work. √

Les Brost is head of Southern Star Communications. Contact: lbrost@edmontonians.com

Take a deep breath by Tom Bradshaw

We’ve all heard that one. Heck, even our moms have extoled the virtues of deep breathing. 

Here is the catch: 80 percent of the population does not know how to take a simple deep breath. Like so many others, if Jen and Lynn can master the process, they will receive the full benefits that come from deep breathing.

So where do we go wrong? To start with, breathing is something that most of us do not think about until we have a breathing problem like colds, allergies, asthma, even fears or stress. Then there are the misconceptions—the lungs are muscles… breathing through the mouth is better for deep breathing.

Let’s look at how you breathe. Stand in front of a mirror with one hand on your stomach. Take a deep breath and see what happens. Are those shoulders moving up? If they are, you are an upper chest breather. You probably find people asking you to repeat yourself because they didn’t hear you. Deep breathing for relaxation purposes does not work and, as the day goes on, you probably find stress growing. Trying to speak in this stressed existence causes you to shallow breathe, feeling like you are drowning in front of your audience.

Try that deep breath again, but focus your attention on keeping those shoulders down and moving the hand on your stomach out. It might not look flattering in today’s world of ripped abs and flat stomachs but that expanded space is where your power comes from. By building this power base in Lynn and Jen, we can correct some of the vocal issues that are holding them back.

Jen has a young almost “little girl” voice that does not serve her well. A potential client could easily assume she is speaking with a high school intern and not the owner. Adding to this youthful “hit” is the tone or pitch of her voice, which is just slightly high. Add the stress of runaway business success and her voice can slip into stridency. Those with strident voices are often perceived as overly aggressive. Jen is very knowledgeable and experienced in her field but the voice is sending a contradictory message.

Focusing Jen’s breathing along with some resonance work will move her voice on to its natural pitch. From there, we can build a powerfully centred voice that people will find easy to focus on and trust, increasing her credibility. This will result in a shift in the customers thinking from “She’s too young to have this much knowledge” to “How did someone so young get so much knowledge?“

Lynn has a wonderfully mature voice that should serve her well in business as well as life. However, her voice is not being supported by that deep breath. This allows her voice to travel into her nasal passages, increasing nasality. Nasality will often be heard by others as a whiny quality. Once again, the customer’s mind becomes confused by those mixed messages. While Lynn is talking about the quality of the product, her voice is not supporting the claim. A customer wonders, “Am I getting the truth or is this a scripted, sales pitch?”

Focusing her breathing, along with the same resonance exercises as Jen, will draw Lynn’s voice out of the nasal resonators. This will reduce the negative qualities, increasing her credibility and allowing the full potential of her voice to be achieved. √

Tom Bradshaw is the head of the Academy of Voice & Speech. Contact: tbradshaw@edmontonians.com

When fire collides with fire - By Colin Williamsen 

Success in today’s tornado-like business world is dependent upon one main factor: the establishment and maintenance of long term relationships. Relationships are challenging at the best of times but, for Jen and Lynn Carolei of Sublime Swim and Sunwear, they are especially so. This mother-daughter team is running a business that is barely able to keep up with the consumer demands for their products.

Understanding their unique mind-body types will assist each of them to effectively engage and connect with one another on a personal and professional level.

Interestingly, Jen and Lynn have the identical primary influence—Fire. As the saying goes: Like mother, like daughter. The only significant difference, other than their stages of life, is that their secondary mind-body-type influences—we all have them—are polar opposites.

Jen’s secondary influence is Wind and Lynn’s is Earth. Wind types are doers, Fire types are natural leaders, and Earth types are lovers of the world. So the daughter is a Fire-Wind type… a leader and a doer. Mom is a Fire-Earth type… a leader and a lover. The impact of their secondary influences is clearly evident when Jen rolls her eyes in response to something her mother says.

FIRE TYPE CHARACTERISTICS

Jen, who turns 26 this month, admits she is “a self-help junkie.” She is challenged on a daily basis with keeping her “poop in a group,” quite literally. 

Lynn, who turns 51 this month, is experiencing a major transition in her life. Having recently entered menopause has created a whole new set of challenges. For the first time in her life, she made a conscious choice to focus on health and well-being. As Lynn shifts her attention to self-care, understanding her Fire-Earth mind-body type will assist her to move gracefully through the many transitions in all areas of her life while also raising Jen’s teenage sister.

Primary characteristics are a medium cadence metabolism, medium build, and a sharp, orderly and decisive mind as well as a forceful manner.

When Lynn and Jen are balanced, they will be warm, intelligent and good leaders, displaying a love for life while enjoying strong digestion, which Eastern philosophy considers the key to healthy tissues and a strong immune system.

However, if they are out of balance, clear the path. When the flame starts to rage, the mental and behavioral characteristics are anger, aggressiveness… being compulsive, excessively critical or harsh, hostile, intimidating, irritable, judgmental and a workaholic. Common physical signs of too much fire are acne, indigestion, skin inflammations and ulcers.

SEASONAL INFLUENCES AND BALANCE

Each one of the different mind-body types also has a direct correlation to a particular season: Earth is spring, Wind is fall and winter, and Fire is summer.

For Jen and Lynn, their primary season is summer. The main precaution is to avoid over-heating… whether it is by spending too much time in the sun without maintaining adequate levels of hydration, or participating in movement or physical activity that is too intense. Both can create too much fire internally.

This is the time for both of them to decrease the level of intensity in all their activities to a moderate pace in order to achieve and maintain balance.

During the fall and winter season—pertaining to Jen’s secondary influence of Wind—the key for her will be to put more focus and attention on flexibility. The influence of cold, windy and dry weather puts additional stress on her internal organs and causes her muscles and connective tissue to contract and shorten, increasing the amount of tightness in her entire body. The most effective strategies will be to stretch for longer periods of time during her movement or workout programs, and participate in various forms of yoga: Bikram or Hot Yoga is done in a heated room; Vinyasa is a steady flowing form; Ashtanga or Power Yoga is an intense athletic based type.

During the spring season—pertaining to Lynn’s secondary influence of Earth—the key for her will be to increase the intensity as much as her level of vital energy will allow. This is the time when the very heavy wet and cool qualities of Earth can cause her to become lazy. Having the assistance of a workout partner or working with a coach will be of particular benefit in keeping her on track.

The main strategy for Jen and Lynn in achieving and maintaining balance will be to decrease the raging fire—the pace at which they are currently living—so the flame is burning at a moderate-to-steady rate consistently. This can easily be achieved with the right amount of movement and a nutrition program for their primary and secondary mind-body type influences, with the appropriate seasonal adjustments.

Jen and Lynn will be performing their exercise program which has a mix of cardiovascular and resistance/weight training components, twice per week. The focus will be on stretching and strengthening for healthy posture. Jen will be doing yoga four times a week with a mix of either Bikram at a yoga studio or Yoga for Flexibility with Rodney Yee on DVD at home. Lynn also will be doing yoga three times per week with Level 1-Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss with Suzanne Deason on DVD.

Understanding each other’s genetic uniqueness will  provide them with the ability to approach all aspects of their lives with more mindfulness and a higher level of awareness. It will assist them in achieving their goals while maintaining balance on the journey. √

Colin Williamsen is the president of The Wellness Coaches Inc. Contact: cwilliamsen@edmontonians.com

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