Craving Balance: New Business Coaches Work-Life Balance

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/112808_craving_balance_new_business_coaches_work_life_balance/

By Lisa Gates

Craving Balance, a new Santa Barbara-based work-life balance coaching business, now offers half-day workshops for women who want to toss out their New Year’s resolutions and take on goal setting “from the inside out.”

Lisa Gates and Beth Gordon, co-owners in the new venture, say the economic meltdown presents an opportunity, as more people are re-evaluating their careers and lifestyle choices and looking for sustainable ways to create work-life balance. Through group workshops, teleclasses and private sessions, Gates and Gordon set out to address what they say is the issue of our time.

“If you did a Google search right now, you’d come up with no less than 17 million entries,” Gates says. “People are desperate to find a minute to breathe and be present, but relationships and careers are lying in the wake of all this busyness.”

With their practices focused mainly on working women, executives and plate-spinning moms, they began to notice a pattern with their clients. “Week to week they were showing up rushed, tired or missing sessions, and not at all focused on their goals,” Gordon says. “We were just putting out fires. And these are people who are up to big things.”

In response, Gates and Gordon developed a productivity and goal-setting process that helps women prioritize by connecting their core values to their choices. With Gordon’s experience in visual communications, brand identity and marketing, and Gates’ background in business, freelance writing and theater, they are well-versed in work-life issues in the workplace.

“Beth and I both come from work situations in which all the latest gadgets, tools and systems were tried and tested like flavors of the week,” Gates says, “but any productivity system out there will ultimately fail if what you’re actually doing in your everyday life isn’t connected to what’s important to you. And that’s true for families and businesses.”

“After testing the process with many clients individually,” Gordon says, “we realized it was time to bring the learning into a group process where women could learn and implement practical, soul-centered, repeatable goal-setting practices together.” In addition, their work can be delivered in workplaces for employees and teams.

Their blog features interviews with women. From authors to activists, the blog is focused on women who are getting it right.

Craving Balance’s next workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Inn of the Spanish Gardens in Santa Barbara. The cost is $85. Click here to register.

Lisa Gates is a co-owner of Craving Balance.

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/112808_craving_balance_new_business_coaches_work_life_balance/