For this interview I welcome Alicia Sedgwick. As many of you know, Alicia has had an amazing career as an educator of future entrepreneurs. She is now an entrepreneur herself.

Alicia is also a formidable singer and entertainer. What next? Well, a book! A book into which Alicia has poured her heart and soul to provide solid, workable, motivating advice, a book perfect for the entrepreneur and, well, anyone wanting answers. It’s all very, very exciting. Alicia’s energy and pure joy of life is so evident. Motivated and positive would be two of her main strong characteristics, the perfect profile for an entrepreneur.

Well, first things first, Alicia, what’s the title of the book and when is it out?

The book is titled Communicating Through Change. It will be available to buy from January the 19th.

Wow, so soon! Starting on a business and producing a book at the same time. Why a book now?

I think, Mike, because this year has been one of immense change and uncertainty, and I know that during the year I have been able to help people with their communications skills. I’ve helped them build their confidence and to be able to communicate effectively and with impact, whether it be in person or online. I know that I have done that and I’ve done that particularly this year online, as well as in previous years. It just made me think that I wanted to help people even more and to go deeper. That’s why I wrote the book because I believe that it can really help people in times of immense change and uncertainty and to help them to be able to communicate their way through those changes and the uncertainty just as I have had to do throughout my life sharing very, very personal experiences of change and change challenges.

That’s Interesting. Okay, though, if one was a cynic, I am not, but you could say, “That’s all we need now, another self-help book.” In a nutshell, what is your book doing that other books haven’t addressed?

Well, I think that actually, one of the reviewers of the book, Nancy Heslin, who is the editor in chief of Forbes Monaco said in her review that I have created a new genre and that is self-change, that through sharing my personal experiences written for real people who want to make real changes, it can actually really, really help. So, it is different. It’s different because it’s enabling you and empowering you to get through experiences of the same or similar change in your life and to be able to navigate and communicate your way through that so that you can actually embrace that change, accept it, acknowledge it, recognize it so that you can learn, grow, and move forward to a stronger you.

So in sharing my experiences and what I have learned, it can help you to learn, it can help you to grow and to move forward. Because so very often when we are in these situations, we actually feel that we can’t move forward. We don’t know how to do that and we feel very alone. My book is going to help you to feel that you are not alone. You will feel embraced and you will be able to move forward.

Fascinating. Who is your target audience, or rather who had you in mind when you develop the text?

I actually felt that it was for an audience of all ages because my experience of change has been at all ages for me. And so I really felt that it could help everyone no matter what your age, no matter what your background, because no matter how old or young you are, no matter where you come from in the world, these experiences you will be able to relate to because at some point in your life, you will experience them or you will have experienced them.

When I first started to write the book, I actually spoke to people of all ages to sound them out to see whether or not they did feel that it was relevant and appropriate for them. All of them said that it was because there is something for everyone in the book because they are experiences that are going to happen throughout your life and you will relate to them. Even when you pick up the book in January next year, you may not be going through some of the experiences, but later in your life or later in the year, whenever, you will think, “Ah, Alicia wrote about this, I can go back to it. I can refer to it and it will help me through.”

Excellent approach. The book contains exercises. How do these underpin your advice?

I think that it’s essential always to give people practical and constructive exercises and techniques to be able to deal with whatever they’re going through. Yeah, it’s not just about sharing my personal experiences and what I have learned. It’s helping you, the reader, to be able to then express yourself and to be able to communicate through your experience, and the practical exercises are going to help you to find your voice and your expressiveness through the experience. So the practical exercises, I think, are very, very essential because all of my teaching and training is very, very practical. And so you’ve got to be able to get through these things yourself. And so, finding a way through that with techniques and tips that I give you is really, really very, very positive.

Fascinating. I’m intrigued by the book. You suggest affirmations. Is this a technique that you use yourself in practice?

Yes, I do. I do, Mike. I find that it is, again, very, very helpful to be able to speak out loud in affirmation, which is positive and constructive. Again, in my teaching and training for public speaking or for speaking, I say to my students before they express themselves by going into a meeting or presenting to say something which is really affirming and life affirming for them, or to listen to some music, which is life affirming and meaningful for them, which builds them up and gives them the courage and the strength to be able to then go out there and express themselves and to communicate. So, I think that affirmations can be very, very strong and very positive if you are facing any challenges and it can help build you up and give you confidence and give you strength. So that’s a long answer, but the short answer is yes, I do believe that affirmations can be very, very helpful and very constructive.

A perfect time so. I’m a lazy reader. Any chance for an audio version soon?

I would love there to be an audio version and it’s possible that I will do an audio version, but what I will do in the meantime is to do videos and to do some training and to do some audio speaking of the book so that people can hear and see what I’m teaching and what I’m giving through my book if you don’t want to read it in paperback or on Kindle.

That’s great – I like that idea a lot. Right, tell us the title again and how we can get a copy

Okay. The title is Communicating Through Change. You will be able to buy a copy of the book January the 19th on Amazon. I will be posting videos and lots of posts about that over the coming weeks so that people will be ready and able and prepared to be able to buy it, but January the 19th is D-Day or book day.

Another great interview. Thank you so much, Alicia. We could have talked all day. Well, we usually do. I wish you all success with your book and your business

Thank you, Mike. And I just want to add before I leave you today, people will see when they buy the book that there is a photo of me on the cover. It’s a photo that I think really sums up what I’m all about because it has me really embracing you, the reader. Now, when you look inside the cover of that book, you will see that there is a photo credit and the photo credit goes to one Mr. Mike Colquhoun. So Mike, I want to thank you because not only have you been a tremendous support for me throughout the time that we have known each other, but you’ve also really given to my book by such wonderful photo that really captures what I’m all about. So I thank you very, very much for that, for your support always, as well as for this interview today. Thank you.

Oh, grief. I’m blushing now. Thank you so much, Alicia. See you next time!

Thank you.

All photos courtesy and © Mike Colquhoun