Topic 01
Performance Anxiety
FOR TEST-TAKERS, ATHLETES & PERFORMERS
A former Division 1 soccer player and the founder of the successful tutoring company Growth Wise, James worked for the past two decades helping athletes, test-takers, and musicians to resolve their performance anxiety. Fellow SAT tutors have known him as the go-to referral to send their own test-anxious students for a couple of life-changing sessions with James. James wrote the Amazon internaionally best-selling book Answer to Anxious: A Student's Guide to Resolving Test-Taking, Performance, and Social Anxiety. He teaches students how to master and calm their nervous systems so that they can relax into flow and allow their gifts to shine.
"According to everyone we asked, James was the person to go to [for test anxiety]. My daughter met with him and then came down one night, and she goes, 'Oh God, what James taught me really works!'"
Karen, Mother of a Formerly Anxious Test-Taker
Topic 02
Social Skills for Life
FOR TEENS, 20-SOMETHINGS, AND WORKTEAMS
James' struggled with social anxiety from his teenage years all the way into his late 30s, but resolving it changed his life.
He decided social skills were a more impactful skill to share with students than test-taking, so he gave up SAT tutoring to build his online course Social Skills for Life instead.
James' students claim the social skills he teaches are "like a superpower."
James teaches students:
(1) to make others feel seen and heard
(2) to calm and ground their nervous systems,
(3) to invite the rejection and failure that naturally come with being authentic going after what they want, and
(4) to recognize the unique gifts that they bring to the table.
“My friends and I went out. You should have seen me. I was talking to everybody. I talked to that person, that person, that person, that person! It was awesome. And I used all the skills. It was like the best thing I've ever done… It's crazy. The skills you teach are all you really need.”
Max, 16
Topic 03
"Teen Seen" Parent Coaching
James coaches parents how to repair tense and fractured relationships with their teenagers by looking to make them feel seen in every interaction. Clients are shocked at how subtly yet powerfully James' tips shift the dynamic with their teenager. His tips reverberate in the parent-child relationship long after the teenage years are finished, into the rest of their lives together.
"I am so happy that we get to communicate better now. I was not sure if I had my son, still, because he was so disrespectful. He would close the door in my face. He would dismiss me or walk away. And I would get really angry, and sad.
But even after the first session [with James], he already opened up! He didn't used to touch me, and now he asks me for a hug.
Keep an open mind. You have nothing to lose. It worked for me!"
Joanna, "Teen Seen" Parent Coaching Client
"After James' talk, I called a friend of mine, and after just a few minutes, he started telling me how amazing of a person I was. All I was doing was calling to make him feel seen! These social skills are like a super power!"
Takeaways: in this program, you’ll learn…
The key differences between your sympathetic (stressed) and parasympathetic (calm, grounded) nervous system responses
How to move yourself into parasympathetic state in any moment
How to escape the misleading, toxic thinking that the voice in our heads uses when we slip into a sympathetic nervous system response
Why 99% of society is moving each day towards the stressed and anxious version of themselves as opposed to the calm and grounded version
Why the "parasympathetic self" is the one who performers in flow - on the test, in the game, or at the performance - and is thus 1,000x better at facing life's challenges
Ideal Audience: workteams seeking higher cohesion and performance; teens and 20-somethings looking to improve their social skills
Value: in today’s culture, most people’s habits and mindset around socializing tend to focus on themselves. Questions like do I fit in?, am I good enough?, or are they judging me? abound in people’s minds.
The secret to successful interaction, however, be it socially or at work, is to make the other person feel seen: get curious about how others are experiencing things and then show them that you see them.
Because 24/7, every person you interact with is craving to feel seen by someone who cares.
And most people are terribly un-skilled at doing this.
When you become the person who makes others feel seen, a waterfall of positive responses unfolds: people relax and open up; the best version of themselves shows up (relaxed, funny, insightful, courageous); they entrust you with things they wouldn’t tell others; and they seek your company!
In work-teams, groups who show up with the intent to make each other and clients feel seen unleash a torrent of positive vibes that leads to richer customer experiences and much greater job satisfaction among team members.
People feel safe to share their ideas, and the intelligence of the group as a whole rises substantially.
Takeaways: in this program, you’ll learn…
Simple, practical ways to make others feel seen and heard in everyday interactions. Get ready for every relationship in your life to benefit!
Exactly where conversations with your teen has been unknowingly “going off the tracks” in the past, and how to fix this
James’ famous “stop light metaphor” for how to bring safety and trust into every conversation
How to raise ideas and suggestions with teens in a skillful way that makes them receptive to parents’ guidance instead of closed, shut-down, and resentful
How to have a lifelong fun, beautiful, profound, and connected relationship with your current-day teenager, soon-to-be adult son or daughter