20 nlp people RApport 50 Karen Moxom – the Constant Professional behind ANLP and <strong>Rapport</strong> 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 <strong>Rapport</strong> 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 <strong>Rapport</strong>, 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 <strong>Rapport</strong> 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 <strong>Rapport</strong>. 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
nlp people RApport 50 21 Karen was approached to help ANLP which was then in crisis I called everybody together and invited them to be part of a bigger team
Change language