Bragging rights – not

Every entrepreneur wants to share her clients’ massive successes. They want to inspire you with what is possible and make themselves top of mind when you want the same results. It’s business.

What I don’t see discussed very much is down turns.

And, dammit, I’m in one.

Highs go with lows. After 16 years in business, I know this to be an absolute fact. Except this time, I don’t seem to care.

It’s scaring me a bit.

I’m not bothered by anything that’s not working. I don’t feel compelled to create something new and dazzling. I definitely don’t have the urge to do a big launch, splash my face all over social media or find some new platform or app to shake things up.

It’s got me thinking that maybe my time is up. Or maybe I need a very long vacation.

Or both of those may be true.

Over the years, my clients have hired me to build stronger businesses, write books, land speaking engagements, fill client rosters and bank accounts, and more. I help them do it all the time.

Yet I’m finding these days that I’m happier to have people work with me on themselves, on figuring out what they want (you’d be amazed at how many only want something because they think they’re supposed to), and feeling better about who they are. The people who just want to feel comfortable in their own skin, who sometimes simply need permission to feel how they feel.

Money and business-building are so easy, they’re almost boring. Does that mean my career is over, or morphing again? I can’t decide.

Things that light me up:

  • taking clients out to the herd of horses so they can see their own impact and if it’s who they want to be
  • forest immersions and learning via nature (trees talk, btw, and plants share healing energy)
  • normalizing emotions and helping people give themselves permission to live on their own terms

The irony here is all of those things actually make people better equipped to deal with the stress of business and life. They are all modalities that reset the nervous system and show you where you need to shore up your own emotional intelligence.

Obviously, they aren’t sexy 6-figure promises. That generally means people new to coaching have no clue about their value. And those who have been in this industry for a while know they need it, but they also know that’s going to mean getting off the hamster wheel, no longer hustling and changing how they show up. And they’re scared to do it.

Meanwhile, I’m over here – having gone through that entire transformation almost 6 years ago – waiting for the world to catch up.

Spirituality and frequency are the current buzzwords. I figure the next evolution will be serious mental health care. I may or may not be waiting.

Wednesday

Dear Diary,

Today, I did a 90-minute live training for a group I mostly don’t know. I despise video, but apparently they liked it.

Then I watched my friend and colleague, Jenna Faith, blow up the internet with her new series about the coaching industry. Go give her a follow on FB for more. It’s worth it. She’s so fucking inspiring. The world needs more people like her helping others.

I am now comfortably back in my pajamas, behind the keyboard – my most favorite place.

Things I learned today:

  • It doesn’t matter how many times you share the correct link, at the correct time, with the correct description, someone (or several people) will not be able to find it.
  • They will also try to contact you about those issues while you are actively live and teaching, and therefore unable to assist or even see their requests.
  • I LOVE my job. I love supporting women and pushing them further than they believed possible. The look on their faces when they actually do the damn thing is priceless. It is a gift of experience they will have forever.
  • If you ask for help from people who you have helped in the past, and the request is ignored or declined, they are not your people.
  •  The coaching industry may have snake oil salesmen, but there are leagues and leagues of us in integrity who DO give a shit and we are banding together like never before.
  • There are too many individuals and not enough communities.
  • We crave safe spaces, but few are brave enough or energized to create them.
  • Get off your high horse, share your vulnerability and you win. Simple.

I am 51 years old. Read: even less tolerant of bullshit than ever before, and acutely aware of my limited time on this planet. I lack the patience for wannabes, maybes and kindas.

From the bottom of my heart: Be all in when you ask for my help. Or go away.