Last week I led my first Mastermind Intensive for the Make Impact Mastermind.
A mastermind is an exclusive group that you meet with on a regular basis to support one another’s growth and success.
This was my first of what I’m planning to be many. When I signed up with my present business development mentor, I told her this was my dream. To which she (very lovingly) said, “You can definitely do that. But you are not ready to do it now.”
A great coach will tell you when you are not ready. She will endorse your dreams while providing you the structure and strategy to move them into reality. She saw I needed more momentum around me – more people to “know, like and trust” me – before I would be able to enroll enough people into one. I had just started my branding business after all. And she also knew that I hadn’t yet proven that I was willing to choose the outcome I wanted to create over the present moment’s “comforts.”
This is the power of having a coach: she can see the path before you and won’t let you drive your ambition into a wall in ignorance or haste.
And I’m glad I waited. In the 2 years in between:
- I became a rock star at selling my work.
- I know immediately if someone is the right fit for me as a client. One-on-one work doesn’t intimidate me because working with my clients is like going to work with friends I can’t wait to talk to.
- I am stronger at marketing and writing copy and know the words to use to make sure my prospects want to buy stuff.
- I know when someone is ready for a mastermind level investment, and when they aren’t based on the language they use – not whether or not they have the money to make the investment. And I’ve since built other programs for people who aren’t ready to invest in themselves in that way and I know all of my programs deliver.
- I learned exactly what types of results I can consistently produce and which ones I can’t. You want a result that’s not my specialty? You can have a referral. I’ve met and built relationships with people who can get you where you want to go.
In essence – I’m a different person than I was then. I am more capable now than I’ve ever been of supporting a group of people to getting the branding and business that let’s them be of service through their passions. I was able to pull this off because I am ready.
Last week was the first intensive in the 9-month program I’m leading, The Make Impact Mastermind I’m so proud of the ladies who joined and how far they’ve come in such a short period of time. And so proud of myself.
What was amazing to me was how fast they grew.
Who they each woman was when she walked in on Tuesday morning was different when she walked out on Thursday night
What previously took weeks to understand about why they were stuck got resolved in days. What took them months to understand about why they needed to be more visible and expose more of themselves they finally understood in 72 hours. I got on the phone today with one of my clients who came to our past sessions with incomplete work. She was in action and had already completed her work ahead of schedule.
And I knew this is what would happen – it’s happened for me. But it only happens when you are ready.
When an entire group looks at you and your progress and reflects back to you where you are stuck and invites you to take the next step, you have no other option but to “get it” and “get on it.”
When an entire group holds the intention that who you are is bigger than the game you are playing now – and calls you out when you don’t show up that way – you have no other choice but become the person they expect you to be.
“People’s lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group. Your life experience will never far exceed the expectations of your peers, because to stay connected to them there is an unconscious contract that says ‘we’re going to stay within this [optimal] range of each other [so we can stay connected].’ Now, on the other hand, if for some reason your friends have a higher expectation for life than you do, just to stay on the team you’ve got to raise your standard.”
- Tony Robbins
Essentially, this is the equivalent of planting yourself as a seed in fertile soil as opposed to “just any soil.” And it’s this choice alone that distinguishes those who are “ready” from those who are not. Being ready is a choice.
To really move yourself forward in any area of life that matters to you – and especially your business – I have found it’s not enough to have 1 or 2 people like this when everyone else is a Debbie Downer or Confused Carrie. Ideally, 100% of the people in your life are committed to up-leveling in the areas that matter to you and are behaviorally engaged in doing so (walking the talk.)
But to move myself forward quickly, I’ve found I require no less than 80% of the people in my life to be headed in the direction I want to go. This meant I had to be ready to let go of spending time with people who weren’t headed to the same destination.
Want a personal brand that lets you make money from your passions and make a difference? Join a pack of women who both have what you want and/or are headed where you want to go.
So my question for you is…are you ready to plant yourself in fertile soil?
Are the people you are surrounding yourself with committed to figuring out who they are in their business and brand?
When they get together do they celebrate their accomplishments? Do they celebrate yours?
Can you share your full ambition for your brand’s reach and impact? With EVERYONE in your life? Or do you need to “tone it down” so that you aren’t “too big?”
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