You are a woman leader who has just turned in her resignation papers. You worked at that corporate for 20+ years.
BUT you know, that at 55, you have alot of knowledge to share. Why not consult through your own advisory and share of your knowledge—but on your own terms.
Great!
BUT— now. Here’s where the panic sets in.
Where are the clients?
The ebb and flow of revenue and revenue certainty is real.
I’ve been there. I left full time on camera television work in 2017 to focus on my business. See, in between my hourly updates on the markets from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, all I did was work on my business. When my TV station was undergoing a merger, I decided—it was time.
Time to stop talking about other people’s successful businesses.
And make my own business successful.
I faced the revenue certainty struggle too.
The mistake we make, as business owners, is to put our certainty at the foot of external factors.
Clients. Budgets. Other people’s will.
I argue, that the certainty has to come from within.
When Julia Roberts goes to India, in “Eat Pray Love” she commits to establishing a regular meditation practice. She struggles. All she wants to do is decorate her meditation room back home.
In this exchange with actor Richard Jenkins, he challenges her.
The ‘decorating’ needs to happen within. See clip.
“If you want to control your life, you have to learn to select your thoughts, the way you select your clothes,” is his good counsel to her.
I have proof of this myself.
I’m almost writing this publicly so I can remind myself just how powerful I am.
On certainty
In 2023, I got a reservation at a restaurant in Girona, Spain, where a reservation had otherwise eluded me for years. “El Cellar de can Roca,” founded by the 3 Roca brothers, had consistently ranked #1 on the World’s Top 50 Restaurants list.
This explained why I couldn’t get in.
I made a reservation in January 2023 for a table of 3 in December 2023.
As a small business owner, I don’t travel anymore unless there is a business component tied to the trip. I would host a VIP Day with a client for 36 hours in Barcelona before hand.
I put that out in the ether.
Now, keep in mind, I had also planned itineraries for Turkey, France and Italy that year too. But I was totally detached from my stay in Spain.
I wasn’t holding on as tightly.
Wouldn’t you know it?
I booked a client who would go on to spend 36 hours with me in Spain.
As Richard Jenkins challenges Julia Roberts character, “Surrender. Still your mind. Just let it be.”
Easier said than done for Type A folks. I know.
The conclusion:
Create the vision within first.
Align with it. You can’t create a life or a business if you see yourself as ‘separate’ from the vision. In other words, a lack mentality does nobody no good nowhere.
So be like my old boxing coach Amanda. When she won the silver boxing gloves, she dedicated time each night, to sitting in a bathtub and VISUALIZING herself, winning the championship. Reallly sinking into the feeling of what it would be like when the medal was strung around her neck.
Visualize yourself, playing out the role of that consultant with a FULL dance card of clients. So much so, that you refer clients to fellow coaches to spread the love. Really anchor into the FEELING of ‘your cup overfloweth.’
For fun, I asked a fellow business owner, who owns two restaurants in NYC, what certainty means to her. See video above
Most women introduce themselves by listing everything they do. But after working with hundreds of leaders and execs for the past decade, I've found that the most powerful introductions come down to this one thing:
Your tagline.
Because when you say something specific, it doesn’t mean you’re excluding the rest of your brilliance.
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