CALLING OUT THE CR^P!

By the time we hit the end of January my year was in full swing. I literally had days when every time I walked back into the office I had more referrals calling from my inbox, in messenger, and through LinkedIN.

And so to start being able to keep track of everything, I began recording mentoring sessions with some of my larger clients and sending them through.

Then I started to do it with all of my clients, finding that when I forget to do it on the day they now chase me up.

Then I started to do it with my start up / scale up strategy clients and offering them a premium service which included a raw transcript of our session and a debrief report.

Then I did the right thing and outsourced the report drafting, and suddenly disaster struck. I had tried to delegate too early – receiving crap reports that I couldn’t even start to edit and resulting in late delivery of reports to people who were really waiting for them to get moving.

So in the last 36 hours I have torn apart every transcript looking at the commonalities – from the challenges being faced, to the strategies being discussed, and the action points being firmed up – so that I could pull together a report style and content that was consistent, on point, and ran that fine line between succinct and really powerful.

And it ignited something in me that has taken me completely by surprise.

Because now as I took each person’s transcript and moulded their reports I became quietly furious. For a number of reasons.

1. I am really good at what I do. But I am coming out of a period where I have deliberately played small. The transcripts have shown me just how much value I bring to the people who decide to step up and step into the room with me.

2. I should have done this 18 months ago, and you should do it too, right this moment. To really hone your skills even further, to drive self-improvement every single day, and to make my clients as accountable to me as I am to them.

3. Some of my clients are highly visible poster children for and raving fans of what I do, and I am increasingly asked why they are successful? And the answer is not rocket science – it is because they do the damn work. Period.

4. With a completely BS belief that I do not make a great coach or mentor – designed by me deliberately to keep me playing small – I have worked with people in a narrow vacuum, instead of bringing the full strength of my background to the table, to work with you across every single element of your business; to take you through the same 6-9 month system that I use every single time I have to reinvent, reinvigorate, or launch something.

And I am calling you all out. Every single one of you who tells me they think I am inspirational, amazing, and incredible for getting back on my feet – even those of you who have only watched me do it this last time.

Every single one of you have told me that you want to work with me, one day, when you can afford it, but telling people you are getting ready to work with me.

Every single one of you who tell people you are going to my events, even as I know that you are one of the people who will declare this passionately across social media without ever buying, at any stage, a ticket.

Every single one of you who tell me when I do x, then I will work with you. When I get through this, then I will do that.

Every single one of you who will pick my brains over coffee, break down because the most recent course or mentor didn’t deliver, then pick yourself up again and go and pay more money to more people even whilst you keep collapsing back in my zone.

Because until you are ready to invest, until you are committed, until you are going to do whatever it takes, then you will never get off the bench. You will never brush the dust off those plans you wrote and dreams you created when you started your business journey years ago.

And I quite simply am not prepared to put up with that anymore.

Because it takes investment, and time, and commitment. Not one of my ventures, even the one that didn’t work, took any less than 6-9 months of almost obsessive focus to really consolidate. It takes stepping into rooms and spaces you are uncomfortable in to learn about things, and systems, and skills, and perspectives that you don’t already have in your toolkit.

I recently invested in and committed to play all out with a Mentor in the US, and am grateful every single day that I chose to do so.

Because her first call opened with ‘You do know the world doesn’t need another damn speaker trainer right?’ and she has pushed me and challenged me every step of the way since that moment. She has cut through the BS stories in my mind and provided a space in which I am questioning WHY I decided to play small, and backing it up with action to stop doing that. She takes me to the edge of my reasoning and then allows me to settle into a new perspective which has me stepping up more and more every single week.

And I want that for you. More than anything. I want you to play full out. To give it your best shot. To stop falling for the quick shortcuts, the fast fixes, the instant raving fans, and the celebrity associations.

Because you need to be obsessed. You need to be intense. You need to make no apologies for pursuing a dream. You need to build an inner circle. You need to find mentors and strategists and advisors who know what they are damn well doing. You need to stop buying into the fairy tale and create something even more beautiful – something of value and substance.

And when you’re ready to do that, then I am here, right in your corner, and I’ll push you, and challenge you, and love you every step of the way, in the same way that every single great mentor of mine has over the last 23 years – so you can finally stop apologising for having had a dream.