How To Take Your Performance To the Next Level, Effortlessly

I Missed Out!

I'm in email conversation with Michaela at the moment, someone who narrowly missed coming to a meetup I'd held. She'd made a huge effort to attend the meeting because she had something specific she want to discuss with me -- she was juggling childcare, and in the end she brought her little ones downtown, only to find that because we were meeting in a bar they wouldn't let her bring them in. Ah, I could feel the disappointment in her words.

Thank goodness for email though, because we're continuing the conversation about how to get to the next level in her business and how to lose the feeling that she's running as fast as she can, only to stand still or even move backwards, failing to achieve what she wants in any area of her life.

As I read what she writes, one thing strikes me that I've found to be true for me and also for people I work with, and it's this ...

Shift Your Focus From the 'Many' to the 'One'

What does that mean exactly?

Focus on one person...

It's something I often come back to. Sure, we can scale what we do, but when it’s about the person in front of us, or in front of me when I’m coaching or teaching, then it’s about that one person. Scale is simply distraction—there is only ever one person in front of you; one reader, one person in the coaching conversation, one person in the room even when you are part of a group.

It applies as much to leadership and coaching, as it does to creativity, parenting and relationships. Anything at all!

Another word for it might be presence.

Presence

It applies to Michaela's business. She's built up a large social media following and a hugely credible personal brand. And she wants to take her business to the next level—better clients, more revenue, more fulfilment in what she does.

Here's what I know to be true: we hear that we have to talk to the masses when we work online—all those thousands of potential Facebook fans, the thousands of people on our email list, selling our courses to thousands of people. And yes, the result of what we do does indeed mean we have connections with many people.

But, to succeed, and to succeed in a way that is fulfilling for you and provides massive value for the person you are connecting with, you have to bring that connection down to just one person.

And focus, really focus and be present with him or her. Whether that's a potential coaching client, whether it's the one person you write that email to (even if you're sending it to everyone), whether it's that one student out of thousands who asks a question in your course.

Because focusing on one person will allow you to understand the challenge they are facing, it will allow you to help that person, the conversation becomes more intimate, even against the wall of noise on social media and emails.

And truly, you only ever build your business, your career or your life one person at a time. That's how you create something magical.

With love,

Cathy