Sometimes an extraordinary level of action can create an extraordinary level of results
I was talking to one of my clients about his business. He said something like, 'The thing is, I know I have to be patient. I know this is going to be a long game.'
I said, 'Yes, it is. And yes, you do. AND, sometimes extraordinary levels of action lead to extraordinary results.'
I learned this lesson in my business. About a year into my work as a coach, Joel Monk, my coach at the time, suggested a challenge to me. He said, 'I think you should do an invitations challenge.' Somehow, between us, we came up with a number: 30 invitations over the month of May. (In a coaching business, inviting people into coaching conversations is one of the things you really HAVE to do if you are going to have a successful business. And so, a powerful thing to practice if you want to grow your business.) The rules were that it was just about the invitations, the process, not about the success or what came of them. And that it was playful - a game, not to be taken too seriously.
It felt like an impossibly high number at the start: one a day! And over the course of the month I did it.
The first invitations I sent out over email, practising phrasing and gradually increasing the discomfort level of the people I was sending them to, but the most memorable moment of the challenge was standing in a room at the RSA at an event. I had been talking to someone in the breaks between the speakers throughout the event. We'd been getting deep into detail about his work, and I remember the thoughts in my mind. We are getting on really well. This is exactly the kind of person I should invite into coaching. This is exactly the kind of person I'd love to work with. I know how to do it in a gentle way from the ones I've written. And if I'm going to get to 30, I really can't mess around.
I was nervous and I did it.
It doesn't really matter, for the game, whether he said yes or no (although he said yes), because the game was: practise the invitations. And the challenge helped me: I got very comfortable phrasing invitations and - in situations like the one at the RSA - I got out of my own way instead of what I would have otherwise been doing: thinking A LOT and worrying EVEN MORE. Without the game, the challenge, the playfulness, I wouldn't have invited him into the conversation. We wouldn't have worked together. Both of us would have been worse off.
And of course confidence is a result of taking action, so after I'd done one invitation in person, the next was much easier.
Then, in my next engagement with Joel (of course I did more work with him - the first engagement spawned the invitations challenge and the 12-minute method!), he set me another challenge. A proposals challenge. (Saying 'It costs £x to work with me for £y' is another thing that you really have to get good at if you want to run a successful coaching business). This was even more outrageous. I had to make £80,000 of proposals in 90 days. Impossible. And it was even more playful: it was even called a 90-day money game; it involved creating a visual record (a giant thermometer).
And, actually, I didn't do it. But I got to about £67,000! There were numerous things I had to do to get there. Two stand out: I had to raise my fees. If I'm making proposals at £500 a go, then I have to speak to three times as many people as if I'm making them at £1500 a go. So the fees went up despite my worries and... well... surprisingly some people said yes. And that changed my life.
Then, a couple of big opportunities came along, potentially worth thousands of pounds through associate work. I would normally have worried 'am I qualified? Who am I to do this? Am I good enough?'. But I was playing the game. And I knew this was too good an opportunity, so I said yes, despite my worries. ('Do they count towards the game?' I worried. 'Well, they do if I want them to!'
Those two things between them - raising my fees and saying yes to those two opportunities, where what enabled me to go full time as a coach the following spring. That had been my impossible goal for six months, achieved in three.
This has been in my mind this week, because for the first time since that money game, I've set myself another outrageous challenge: to tell the story of my 12-minute writing practice on 100 podcasts in 2022. As I wrote on LinkedIn earlier this week, my biggest measure of success for my book is to inspire people who have been stuck to start creating something. And I realised I can do that as much by telling the story of the book as by reading the book. And I love having free, present conversations where I share myself, lovingly with the world. That's my zone of genius.
I can feel the impact of the game already. I've asked for help, something I really struggle with, but something without which 100 podcasts in a year is impossible. And already people have shown up - people with friends who have podcasts making conncetions, people with podcasts offering me spots, people making suggestions of how to find other relevant podcasts. I almost can't believe it. (And I still need more hope - post suggestions of podcasts that might be interested in a conversation about productivity, creativity, procrastination, writing, habits or starting when you're stuck in the comments!)
It's got me out of my own way: instead of worrying 'am I a good fit for this podcast?' (and inevitably deciding 'No') I have to engage my creativity and FIND THE REASON why I am. Because there's no messing around. 100 podcasts!
And it's engaged my entrepreneurialism and creativity: if I'm going to play the game I'm going to have to get creative. And, like most people, when I start getting creative, my energy starts flowing.
And who knows, I might even create some extraordinary results.
--
This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.
The first 12-Minute Method Book - How to Start When You're Stuck - is out now!