Rapport

20 nlp people
RApport 50
Karen Moxom – the
Constant Professional
behind ANLP and Rapport
When we were putting together the plan for this special issue, it was clear
that we needed an article about the person who has been the constant in
ANLP since 2005 and who has personally planned and managed a small
team to produce every issue of Rapport from issue 6 in 2007. Karen was
initially reluctant but we insisted and Andy Coote spoke to her to produce
this profile.
By Andy Coote
Karen has a background in providing professional services.
Having studied Genetics at University she became
an accountant. In that role, Karen empowered small
businesses to step up and take responsibility for doing their
own accounts, rather than having to pay fees to a chartered
accountant. ‘I did a lot of one to one accounts training and set
people up with their own accounts systems so they could then
run with them. My one remaining monthly accounts client has
been with me for over 28 years.’
Karen was also keen to learn. ‘A lovely lady called Pauline
Newman, who is still a member of ANLP, was running a five
week introduction to neuro-linguistic programming. I did the
course and absolutely loved it. In fact, I’m still friends with one
of the people that were on that course. I’m very good friends
with one of the people that I met on my practitioner course,
and best friends with one of the people I met on my master
practitioner course. So lifelong relationships do come out of
good courses.’
In 2001, Karen qualified as a practitioner with Kathy Strong
and applied to join ANLP. ‘I was told I must join, got sent a
really rubbish piece of photocopied paper through the post and
decided if that was the professional association for NLP, I wasn’t
having anything to do with it, so I didn’t join.’
Four years later, Karen was approached to help ANLP which
was then in crisis. ‘My trainer, who was one of the directors of
ANLP at the time, asked me, ‘do you fancy taking over ANLP?’ It
was about to go bust. All they could sell were their assets and
they’d had an offer from the USA that wouldn’t support the
community in the UK. That didn’t seem fair, so I took it on, paid
off all their debts and found myself with a one-page website,
a database that most of the rest of the country owned already
and a magazine that wasn’t being produced.’
The first year of operation was difficult to say the least. While
still working full time as an accounts trainer, Karen supported
the redevelopment of Rapport, organised a better website and a
conference ‘on the advice of the old directors. It was a mistake,
to be honest, because we held it in October. The NLP Conference
was happening in November and it was a really stupid thing to
do. One of those things where we learn by our mistakes’.
It might have been easier just to write off the investment and
move on, but Karen didn’t choose that. ‘I had a real solid belief
that NLP can make a difference. It had made a difference to my
life even in the short time I’d been doing it. I figured that if I
could support 100 members to support 10 clients each, then,
collaboratively, we’d be making a bigger difference than I could
be making, on my own, supporting 10 clients.’
The early issues of Rapport were a learning ground. Issues 1
to 6 had an independent editor and Karen was involved only
to advise on potential content. From issue 7, things changed.
‘We needed a team of people to put it together. Our designer,
Enzo (Zanelli), had been on board from issue 4. So I just called
everybody I knew together and invited them to be part of a
bigger team so that the magazine can keep going regardless
of what happens to one individual within it. From that point I
brought it all in-house.’ That initial team, with some changes,
still produces each issue of Rapport.
The editorial mix of the magazine has changed subtly over
the years but many of the current sections were there from
the start. Initially covers featured celebrities, always a difficult
slot to fill. ‘As an editorial team, we asked if people on the
front cover had to be celebrities. We concluded that this is the
magazine for our field, so it’s more important to honour the
people in the field rather than chasing “stars.”’
Karen enjoys the process of change and more change came
in 2008 as ANLP became a Community Interest Company (CIC),
then a relatively new company form allowing it to trade and for
the profits to be retained and used to develop the organisation.
‘It was a very new concept. I’m really willing to take a leap of
faith and give new things a go, which is probably why I’m here
now. It was really important to me, especially because of the
personal flack I got in the first 12 months after taking over
ANLP. In that first 3 years ANLP had nearly £100,000 worth of
personal investment so it had to be run as a private company.
However, my intention was always that ANLP should be there
to support the members and the NLP Community. I really
wanted to demonstrate that ANLP was about enabling more
people to make a bigger difference. I figured that people would