Blazing Moon — Online Training, Soft Skills, Office 365

Once again, it is what's involved and some chilly times, but as always, I have some hot guests for you. And the one guest that I've got up for you tonight, first up, I think they do some fantastic stuff. And if I was clever enough, I would do some of the stuff that they offer. Who am I talking about? I'm talking about Brenda McLaren. She's the founder and CEO of Blazing Moon. What a name. Hello, Brenda. - Hi there, David. How are you doing? - Exceptionally well, thank you, exceptionally well. I don't do winter well, but then I don't know many people who do winter well. But let's move along 'cause I love the name Blazing Moon. So before we get into why Blazing Moon and what Blazing Moon does, tell me a little bit about Brenda. Give me a bit of your background. - Okay, so David, I'm a teacher about profession, having done that many, many years ago in ZIMS. And then obviously, moved to SA in the early 80s.

Joined RBM where I then did, believe it or not, mainframe training from a teacher to mainframe training, which was pretty exciting stuff 'cause I really was thrown in the deep end there. And they were fantastic. They gave me wonderful skills. And I did that for four years. And then RBM pulled out of South Africa in the mid 80s. And I then joined First National Bank. And I started all of their learning centers throughout SA. And that was a very exciting project for me. And then I was poached by a company called Advitec, which is a listed company currently. And I started all of their learning centers. And then I thought, you know what? I can do this for myself. Why don't I bite the bullet and see if I can make it on my own? And I did that in 1990. I actually then started my first company and I did a Microsoft training and did that very successfully. I sold that company to a public company and took a bit of a year off to just sort of regroup myself. And then I started Blazing Moon because I really was interested in offering soft skill training. And that was very new when I started Blazing Moon. So I offered then Microsoft and the soft skill training. So that's really where I come from, is from a teaching background.

It's my passion. - Fantastic. Why Blazing Moon? - Right. So Blazing Moon is a phenomenon. I don't know if you know there is such a thing as a Blazing Moon. - No, I didn't. - It happens four times. Okay, so it happens four times per century where a kind of blazed or red hue actually goes over the moon. And the very clever marketing agency I was working with when we were coming up with names for my new company said, you know, this is a rare phenomenon. Now, I think they were trying to tell me that I was doing something special. I hope so. And that's why we chose the name Blazing Moon so that people will remember that it's rare. It's giving something extra to people that they wouldn't ordinarily get from diamond dozen other training companies that are out there at the moment. - Yeah, 'cause this is something I wanted to touch on as well is, you know, these days, everybody and their dog seems to be offering training. And again, it's hard to figure out whether it's good or not. Full disclosure here. You say you offer office training, et cetera, et cetera. I can't excel, have never been able to excel and refuse to learn how to excel. So I'm a lost cause in terms of that. So you can imagine how popular I am when I need an Excel spreadsheet done.

But anyway, so you say you offer the office training and then you do soft skills. Now, just for those who may not know, talk to me a little bit about soft skills. What would one consider to be soft skills? - Right, so those are, you know, they do encompass, David, some technical skills that one needs in the workplace. For example, you know, if you are writing a business documents like we all do in our everyday lives, you need technical skills and to understand what is the correct format, the right grammar, the right punctuation, you know, how to write a correct email, the right etiquette or netiquette as we call it in our world. So those are some of the technical skills of soft skill. But a large proportion of soft skill is about behavioral changes. For example, like emotional intelligence is really honing in on oneself and learning about yourself and harnessing your potential to be the best version of yourself. So it's looking more at your behavioral skills that you need, David, to become a successful person, not only in the business, but in your personal lives. And particularly now with COVID is that, you know, people are harnessing those skills. We have to be much more aware of others and in tune with ourselves to weather the storm.

- Absolutely, I mean, I've said this numerous times on the show, you know, COVID has definitely devastated a lot of people, but there's also been some gifts in it. And amongst those gifts is the fact that we are becoming more human, I like to say, and more conscious and, you know, worried about our impact on the world, et cetera, et cetera. But, Brenda, just to take a step back though, we talk about, you know, everybody and their dog offering these kind of trainings, you can go online and they pop up all over the place. And I'm convinced that Facebook stalks me as well. But so what makes you guys different? I mean, are you an accredited training institution? - I was just going to get to that. Thank you for reminding me, David. Yes, it is important that, you know, whichever supplier people are using, that they are fully accredited. 'Cause some people are partially accredited, but fully accredited means that every program that you offer has been vetted by the seater. So in our case with the MIC seater, which is the technology seater for all of our Microsoft training. And incidentally, we run learnerships for our technology-based training. For example, in system support, which is a very technical area.

But we've got five different learnerships we offer under the Microsoft portfolio, if I can call it that. And then on soft skills, we are accredited with the services seater. That includes all of our short skills programs, like I mentioned, EQ is a one course. There are lots of different courses we offer. But in addition to that, we are accredited with 14 different learnerships, from project management to generic management to business admin, to new venture creation, lots of different accredited learnership standards. So it is important. We obviously then also accredited with Commensa, which is the coaching and offering society in South Africa.

So that's coaching and mentoring organization. And obviously, under our banner, we offer a Microsoft accredited training. - Fantastic, okay. Quick question, though, in terms of, you know, who you offer these services to, 'cause I was having to look at your websites and everything, and you've got some big name clients there. What happens to me, Mr. Small Business Owner or Mr. Medium Business Owner, or even just as an individual who wants to further my skills? Because that's something, and I need to stress this, that is so, so important these days. Everything's going online. Everything's becoming digital. You need to upskill yourself. So what about us? Do you cater for the likes of me? - We do, definitely, David. You know, you're so right in saying that, is that, you know, everybody needs skills, whether you are part of a large corporation or you work for yourself. There are skills that you need. So we've got a public schedule that's published on our website. I don't know if you noticed that under calendar. - I did. - Where it lists our popular courses. For example, like Excel Intro or Excel Advanced, you know, short programs that we have adapted now to online training. So people can join us in Microsoft Teams or in Zoom to actually partake in those training programs.

They're very competitively priced, David. So they're affordable for the man in the street. And, you know, we then, obviously then in the background, also run projects for corporate clients. So we cater for both, both the individual and the corporate learner, where we would have a project plan for that corporate learner and people would attend training courses as agreed with the corporate. - Okay, now is this purely online? Do you do sort of in-person courses? Or the latest buzzword I believe is blended learning. I use that quite often. - That's right, I'm so glad you used that word. You very well informed, David. So blended learning is definitely our forte. So that, you know, for people who don't know what that is, it's a combination of not only online, but face-to-face learning and digital learning. So, you know, at the moment we're doing all of our programs online with facilitated resources. So they are not self-study courses, they are facilitated sessions, which means that you really interact with the facilitator. And until it's safe for us to go back to the classroom, you know, we're doing everything online, but you know, we're hoping, aren't we, that we will see more interaction face-to-face perhaps in September, October this year, but who knows with the third wave.

But at the moment, yes, we are doing online, but hopefully we'll go back to the classroom as well. And then we'll continue both offerings. We also then, David, offer one-on-one business coaching for people like yourself, or people who own their own businesses or work for themselves, and also corporates, where we can give you tips and tricks in individual sessions with our business coaches. - Okay, wow, that sounds like a lot. I wanna dive deeper into some of the stuff when we come back. We are chatting to my special guest, Brenda McLaren, and we'll be back with more of Brenda and Blazing Moon in just a bit. And we're back with my special guest, Brenda McLaren, from Blazing Moon, founder and CEO of Blazing Moon. So Brenda, just before the break, we were talking about the different approaches that you have in the online, et cetera, et cetera, and wanting, obviously, to be able to move back to face-to-face. I did my first face-to-face sales training a couple of weeks ago in very, very controlled COVID circumstances. And I gotta tell you, I was more than a little scared and nervous and everything, although everybody took the necessary precautions. But it's amazing how used to being online you get, and you almost forget about what to do when you're in front of somebody.

But the important thing is that in terms of the courses that you offer, what does it mean to me as an individual? Because if I go, and I go with Joe Soap Trading Academy around the corner, and I get a certificate from them that says Joe Soap says you've done introduction to Word, for example, as opposed to going to you, and I get one that is certified. Does the one have more credibility? I'm assuming it must have. Yes, yes. So it's important for people to know, David, is that we don't just certify attendance. You have to be competent or proficient. So that is 60% as the benchmark. So we certify you at proficiency, at achievement or merit. So there are three grades of certification that we do. On each certificate, we reflect the CETA accredited unit standards that are applied to that particular program you might have attended. So that's important because then it shows any future employer or your employer that you actually have done something that's really credible and that's accredited. And then if I understand correctly, because I take my hat off to you about getting accredited with all these people, because to me, it's like a minefield, but that then those credits or those unit standards could be put towards some of the NQF qualifications.

That's quite correct. That's absolutely correct. So obviously, if you were, let's take something like, I've mentioned emotional intelligence, so let's take that. If you had attended a separate course on emotional intelligence and you've completed a portfolio of evidence for that particular course and you've got the credits, you can apply that to a qualification such as generic management, which is an NQF level five qualification. You wouldn't have to redo emotional intelligence because you've already got the credits. So that's an example of how the credits would work. - Okay, that makes a lot of sense to me. The other thing that I'm very interested in, because, and you mentioned earlier on that, right back in the good old days, you opened learning centers for a financial institution. What has amazed me with COVID and what's been happening is a lot of these learning centers that people used to have have now closed down or they're not able to run, which means to my mind that somebody like yourselves would be somebody that we would need to speak to. - Yes, yes, definitely. - Because I mean, if I'm thinking correctly, if you, whether you're in your office, whether you do it from home, you're able to attend these courses still, they are accredited.

Let's go through though, Brenda, some of the stuff that you do. So we can get a better idea of what Blazing Moon offers. - With pleasure. - Right, so let's start at the very, very beginning. - Right, okay. So do you want to look at some of our RT courses, David? - Yeah, I'm just, you know what? I looked at your website and I was like, there is so much to do here. I wouldn't know where the heck to start. 'Cause you break them down into business development, interpersonal development, management and leadership, project management, which as I know is quite a big thing these days. - Yes. - And then your CTA qualifications. It's a lot. - Yes, it is, yeah. - Where do I start? Where do most people start? Do they start with office? - You know, office, as you well know, David, is a fundamental skill. I mean, you have to use Outlook or an email program to communicate with people. You have to be able to write correct emails. So that's email etiquette. You know, that's a good starting point. Most people need fundamentals of Excel, which is Excel intro. You would need Word 'cause you need to type and produce documents. So, you know, if we looked at, that would be a good starting point is looked at business writing skills.

I'm just actually opening up the profile now. And in terms of learning about communication, so how do you communicate effectively with people in your organization or online? So that's why when we talk about it a little bit later, David, we're going to talk about managing teams because there's, you know, particular things one can do online to communicate better with each other. So we've developed, you know, we've got our standard courses like communication skills, but what we've done online is we've added in components of how do you harness the technology you're using to communicate better and what are the tools and tips you should use in communication to have a meaningful conversation with someone? So I think communication skills is key, yeah. - Okay, sorry. I was just, it's just me interrupting, don't mind me. But I think-- - Not at all, not at all. - I think that is brilliant. But now we're going to talk about teams in just a bit managing teams, but I thought I'd just share an anecdote with you. Amongst the other bits and pieces that I do, I host an education podcast as well. And I was chatting to the guys from Microsoft just the other day about Microsoft in the use of education and everything.

And I had to admit to them that Microsoft Teams, which is different from what we're talking about, is an absolute minefield for me. And I was wondering if there was training available on Teams. Do you do something like that? - We do, David. We've got a one-day program that's, so if we'd looked at that online, so incidentally, it's facilitated in Teams. - So you gotta, please know how to switch it on. - Yeah, so we would get you to come into the meeting. So we'd send you an invite. And then we're going to explain the rationale of how you use Teams. How do you connect with people? Use all the technical things like whiteboard. How do you go into different rooms? How do you chat to people? How do you send documents in a Teams meeting? So we go through all those technical aspects with you. So it's a three-hour session in the morning. We have a bit of a break 'cause people need a breather to have some lunch or some coffee or tea or whatever. And then we start again in the afternoon. So it's really six hours of training time that we would do with people. And we're quite flexible, David. We can either do that as morning sessions or afternoon sessions. So, you know, we're trying different things at the moment 'cause you know, it's hard to concentrate, isn't it?

For long periods of time. - Listen, I'm the worst person in the world for concentrating. I think I drive everybody in the office mad because I keep saying that I squirrel because I'll see something and I'll be leap off in that direction. And so, yeah, no, look, I totally get how hard it is. But just, I'm fascinated by the online training and maybe I should try the Teams thing so I can make the Microsoft-- - Yes, with pleasure. - I can make the Microsoft-- - You can come for free, David, how about that? - I don't wanna be any student that doesn't make it because the Microsoft people will be quite happy if I learn how to use Teams for when I talk to them again. But anyway, listen, we're gonna talk more about that and we're gonna talk about managing Teams and managing remote Teams when we come back. My special guest, Brenda McLaren, founder and CEO of Blazing Moon. We'll be back in a bit. And we're back with my special guest, Brenda McLaren, founder and CEO of Blazing Moon. It sounds fantastic what you do, Brenda, and I know you guys are on the cutting edge of technology and you've embraced technology. So one of the things that we wanted to do is you mentioned this before the break, I wanna talk about managing Teams because so many people are still working remotely.

And I heard it said the other day, if you're not working remotely, are you remotely working? (laughing) - I love that. - All right, so talk to me about this particular course, this managing Teams. - Right, so what we've done, David, is we've developed a three-hour short program because we believe that three-hour duration seem to work. So tried and tested with our clients is that you're not gonna get much participation after three hours, unless you have an hour break. (laughing) So we've got a program that runs in the mornings or the afternoons called Managing Teams in a Turbulent World. And we've developed this ourselves. So we look at the nature of turbulence and what that means to us right now. And we then look at Teams. So the different types of Teams that we are engaging with. And what we do is we look at current stats in terms of the pandemic and how this has affected remote team working, because that's important to also understand the context. And then we go into transitioning into remote work and how that actually plays out. We've got some lovely tips and tricks there for people to learn. And we look at the four components then, specifically now, of managing Teams remotely. And that's communication, performance management, conflict, and control.

- Oh, control is gonna be a big one. - Control, big one. - Because, yeah, I know some people that are in management positions and the fact that their teams are working remotely does their heads in, because they can't, they are of the old school, you know, it's all about bums in seats. And if you're not sitting there where I can watch you, it means you're not working. - Yes, and there are ways to manage that, David. There are tips and tricks that we give about doing that. And, you know, communication remotely means that you've got to do it more frequently. So those water cooler moments that we're so used to in a corporate environment don't exist anymore. So you've got to create those ways of having water cooler moments with people in your team. Just to, you know, chat and catch up with people. It's not just all work, because, you know, that's not what we do at work anyway. We're not always 24/7 on the job. We've got to connect with people to get the best from them. - Absolutely, in fact, I was just chatting just a little while ago to a lady by the name of Nikki Robotham, who is an author. She's just written a book about finding flow. And she was saying that that's one of the biggest things she's finding at the moment is this connection thing.

People are not able to connect like we used to do, the water cooler moments. In the old days when it was still politically correct, you know, when you went outside for your smoke break, you could connect there. These days, that's not happening. So I think that's vitally important. The other thing that I saw that I'd like to encourage a lot of people to do is something called email etiquette. I mean, that is essential because I don't know. I've been accused of being bad at emails because I normally, you know, write there two bad words and then strongly worded email to follow. But there is such a thing. We can't just be clinical and direct and all those things on email. So that's another one of the trainings that you offer. - Yes, yes. - The bits that fascinate me is obviously your communication. I think that's absolutely brilliant. Communication skills, your emotional, intelligent, goal setting, goal setting. So you cover a whole gamut. So I mean, I could sign up with Blazing Moon and I can start building a resume for myself of courses that I've done, which could help me. - Yes, yes. - I think that's fabulous. I really, really do. - Thank you, David. Thank you. So you asked the question, sorry to interrupt you, but you asked the question early, what makes us different?

What makes us different, David, is the personal touch. You know, I've got a small lean team. I don't have like hundreds of employees and I've done that on purpose. Is it people I employ all have a particular role to fulfill? But it means that I can then also make sure that we're giving people that personal touch. So somebody like you, you said, you know what? Where do I start? Well, you know, let's look at a portfolio for you and do your training over a period of time and then offer you great discounts. - That is amazing. Sorry, I'm just wondering now, 'cause I see something else on the website. So if I'm a little concerned in terms of my skills, do you guys offer sort of assessments where I could kind of go, hello, let me try this. Like, for example, me and teams. I mean, if I tried a teams assessment, I would fail horribly 'cause I'd probably have to sign in to teams. - Yes, we do. We've got what we call a group assessment. So let's say you're not sure whether there's conflict in your team. For example, as a team leader, we could do a group assessment on conflict for all the team members to where they do it online through our website and it's all marked electronically. We then produce a report electronically to you of the particular areas that are glaringly obvious in terms of conflict.

And what's, so in other words, what's working well and what's not working well. We can do that for any subject area. So it could be communication, it could be exile. So you're not sure what level of exile do I need. We'll write an exile assessment. So that's what we offer. That's part of our service. - Okay, that's wonderful. So that's mainly for groups though. So you don't do an individual assessment. - No, no, we do individuals, David, yeah. - Oh, good. - Yeah, so before you book a course, if you're not sure if you actually need the course, you can do what we call a, sorry, the term group assessment is not for groups. It means it's grouping concepts together. - Oh, okay. All righty. - That's the group making exile intro intermediate advanced in a group and asking questions to ascertain your current knowledge levels. - All right, now is there an investment required there for an assessment? - Yes, it's 130 rand per learner. It's not expensive at all. - No, that's very affordable, okay. - So it's, and what we do, David, is if you do the assessment and you then book on the particular course that you need. For example, if you do an exile group assessment, so all the different levels and you book on an exile course, we'll discount the assessment fee for you.

- Ah, okay. - But that's a nice incentive. - You see, if I did an assessment like that, I'd probably get told to stick to my abacus, but, you know, that's just me.

We're gonna come back and we're gonna wrap it up with Brenda, but I wanna ask you a favor, Brenda, a big favor. Because I value my listener and what they're going through. Is there any way that we could maybe give away a course or two? - I would love to do that, David. - Would you be open to that? - Yes, absolutely. - Ah, fantastic. - Absolutely, absolutely. - Wonderful stuff. Well, we're gonna talk more about that when we come back. This is what's involved. My special guest, Brenda McLaren from Blazing Moon, wrapping it up and doing a giveaway when we come back. And we're back with my guest, Brenda McLaren, founder and CEO of Blazing Moon. You can check out what they do at blazingmoon.co.za. Great website, very informative. So Brenda, what are you going to give away for us? Because I like the one course that we talked about. Oh, my brain's gone blank. - Team is one. - Yes, yes, yes, yes. - Yes, the managing teams. - Managing teams. How about that? Could you give away a couple of those? - Yes, with pleasure, David, we would love that. - Okay. - Because we always feel that they would get referrals from people if they are really impressed with our training. So I'd like to, with your listeners, for managing teams in turbulent world.

It's running on the 16th of June from nine until 12. - Okay. So if you want something to do on your public holiday, that is something that can help you. Wonderful. - Yes, so we're running that. And the value of that offering is 1,380 per person. So it's quite a nice prize to win. - That's wonderful. So are we going to give away two of those? - Yes. - Fantastic. Now, what about people that are Office 365 challenged or Excel challenged? Can we offer something to them? 'Cause I can't be the only one in the world. There must be other people who need help. - Yes. - David, I think we should do the Excel intro, maybe. I was thinking about the advanced, but you know, if people don't have Excel skills, why don't we offer something on the introduction? Are you happy with that? - I'm very happy with that. Can we make it two of those as well? - Yes, we can make two of those with pleasure. So we're running that, David, on the 23rd of July. - Okay, perfect. - That is a four hour program. So it's from nine until one. - Okay. - We do have a few little breaks, you know, so people won't have to concentrate for four hours solidly. We have little breaks. So that's Excel introduction. So that's 365, that's the version of Excel.

- Yeah. - On the 23rd of June, we can give two slots there. And the value of that, David, is 1,725 rand. - Wow. Awesome. Thank you, Brenda. Now, there are some T's and C's in all of those things. Number one, you've got to be employed, okay? 'Cause otherwise, why do you need Excel? Over the age of 18. And can we ask people to email you, Brenda, if they want to take part in this course, bear in mind, okay, how long are we gonna keep this open for? 'Cause I'm gonna put this out as a podcast as well. So today is, so where are we, where are we gonna, oh, hang on, I'm gonna get into, I know how to open my diary, which is quite clever. So we're gonna make this available to people from the seventh, the eighth. Let's make it from the eighth. The eighth of June until the 15th of June. No, let's make it until the 14th. That gives you-- - The 14th of June for them to book, yes. - So that is your opening to send your entries in if you are listening to this podcast. And if it's after the 14th of June, somebody else won, okay? But you can still mail Brenda, tell her David sent you. I'm sure she'll give you a special price. Right, now that we've gotten that out of the way, if somebody wants to win, so you've got a chance to win either that Teams course, managing Teams remotely or the introduction to Excel course, you've got an email, who can we send the email to?

- I think let's make it our general bookings email address because then one of my staff will pick it up and if I'm not available. So it's bookings@blazingmoon. Can I spell it? - Yes, please. - L-A-Z-I-N-G moon. So it's one word, so bookings@blazingmoon.coza. - Fantastic stuff. And what we're gonna need from you is, obviously your name, we've got your email address. We're gonna need name, telephone number and ID, please. Name, telephone and ID. And to make it stand out in the subject line, please put what's involved, okay? So that's your subject line, what's involved and send those through. Brenda and the team will then randomly draw our four winners. So that's two for each course. Brenda, I think that is absolutely fantastic. blazingmoon.co.za to find out about all your other courses. You've got the calendar up there, which I think is brilliant as well. And yeah, so once again, two courses up for grabs for managing teams, two up for grabs in terms of an introduction to Excel. And all you gotta do is email your name, ID. That asked me on an ID, telephone number, name, ID and telephone number. Let's do that, to bookings@blazingmoon.co.za and the subject line needs to be what's involved.

If you are one of the winners, you will be notified by the team at Blazing Moon. I'll also give some feedback as to who those winners were. Brenda, thank you. I know you are a very, very busy woman. So thank you for taking the time out and having a chat to us. - David, it's been an absolute pleasure. I really thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. - Well, it's an absolute pleasure. And listen, go and check it out, Blazing Moon. Well worth you guys having a look at it. Excellent training provider and accredited. So that wraps it up for this edition of "What's Involved" to each and every one of you. Take care of yourselves, look after yourselves and thank you for listening.