Hello there,
I have had several people comment that they cannot find anything about me on my site. I realise that I have written a lot of stuff for my site but have not spent any time explaining who I am. So here we go.
Family
Firstly, I am married to Naomi. We got married in 2003 and have been journeying life’s most dynamic relationship ever since. We have one child and two fur babies. One doggo and one cat. They don’t like each other. My daughter is 14 years old. OMG – how did that happen? I come from a family of 10. Two parents, two brothers, two sisters, three cats and a dog. Well, not so many cats nowadays. I was the first child, so I taught my parents how to parent and my brothers how to grow up. Not because I knew how to do it, but because it was their first time being parents and my first time being a kid, so we all learnt together, really.
Life as a kid was pretty tough for me. My parents were learning how to be married and how to parent all at the same time and I was a redhead (ginga!) so I got picked on at school. Also, in retrospect, I was probably a bit of smarty-pants, so I probably had it coming some of the time.
One of the things that ‘picked me up’ in life was David Riddell’s seminar at our church in 1996. It made sense of life. I saw how my theology (understanding of the bible), philosophy (the way I thought about life), and psychology (my deep mind) interacted and how I could change and grow by examining my assumptions. It gave me more tools for life.
Helping people
It was then that I got my appetite for helping people reach their potential. I saw how I could change and how I just needed some more tools. I didn’t go straight into counselling from there as I was only 18 and had other things to do (aka I didn’t know what I wanted to do with myself yet). So, I studied half of a NZ Certificate in Engineering (Electro-technology) part-time while self-employed in the security industry. I enjoyed a few different jobs in technical fields including some work on telemetrics for the America’s Cup in 2000. My entrepreneurial passion drove me to own my own security business for a couple of years which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I soon realised that I was more into helping people with their inner security. Cheezy but true 😀
I then sold my business, did the School of Living Wisdom again (to muster up the courage to enrol at uni) then enrolled at uni to study counselling. I studied for 2 years at Weltec (aka Wellington Institute of Technology) which actually has a campus in Auckland. Confusing I know. Then finished my studies on-site in Tauranga at BTI (Bethlehem Institute of Technology).
Catching The Learning Wave
I am now living back on the ‘Coast with the Most’ in Whangaparaoa. After 10+ years in the counselling world, I have actually taken a sabbatical from people helping to move into people GROWING. I am doing leadership development work, embedded literacy and numeracy facilitation (with the Learning Wave) and when I’m completely sick of people, I hang out with computers. I make websites and repair laptops, PC’s, and macs as well as maintain small office networks all for my JoelwillFixIT business. Bit of a mix huh!
I enjoy surfing, football, mountain biking, nerding around on computers, guitars and music. I don’t like dressing up fancy for work, being too hot, or wearing shoes. I was born in January 1979 which makes me 4x years young. I hope you feel you know me a little better, and for those of you that were wondering, ‘Who is Joel?’ I hope this has answered your questions!
Nice talking,
Joel Young
P.S. I have recently done the Clifton Strengths Finder and have discovered a few clues about myself. You may find this gives you some insight into what you can expect from me also. It’s a great resource and I recommend it!
Qualifications and Experience
- High-Performance Learning Journey Practitioner
- Certificate in Adult Learning
- Bachelor in Counselling
- Managing Director of New Insight – Consulting & Training.
- 2500+hrs of counselling & coaching
- 4000+hrs of training/speaking/facilitation
- 20 years of learning design experience
- Authored hundreds of workshops and programmes across various applications. Passionate about strategic direction, finance, analysis, marketing, and team leadership.
Joel Young’s Strengths
(According to Clifton)
Individualization
Your Individualization theme leads you to be intrigued by the unique qualities of each person. You are impatient with generalizations or “types” because you don’t want to obscure what is special and distinct about each person. Instead, you focus on the differences between individuals. You instinctively observe each person’s style, each person’s motivation, how each thinks, and how each builds relationships. You hear the one-of-a-kind stories in each person’s life. This theme explains why you pick your friends just the right birthday gift, why you know that one person prefers praise in public and another detests it, and why you tailor your teaching style to accommodate one person’s need to be shown and another’s desire to “figure it out as I go.” Because you are such a keen observer of other people’s strengths, you can draw out the best in each person. This Individualization theme also helps you build productive teams. While some search around for the perfect team “structure” or “process,” you know instinctively that the secret to great teams is casting by individual strengths so that everyone can do a lot of what they do well.
Strategic
The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.
Ideation
You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.
Responsibility
Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help—and they soon will—you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.
Command
Command leads you to take charge. Unlike some people, you feel no discomfort with imposing your views on others. On the contrary, once your opinion is formed, you need to share it with others. Once your goal is set, you feel restless until you have aligned others with you. You are not frightened by confrontation; rather, you know that confrontation is the first step toward resolution. Whereas others may avoid facing up to life’s unpleasantness, you feel compelled to present the facts or the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be. You need things to be clear between people and challenge them to be clear-eyed and honest. You push them to take risks. You may even intimidate them. And while some may resent this, labelling you opinionated, they often willingly hand you the reins. People are drawn toward those who take a stance and ask them to move in a certain direction. Therefore, people will be drawn to you. You have presence. You have Command.