“If you don't know where you're going…
Any road will take you there…”
George Harrison
Musician, film producer
Ten days ago, a great group of coaches, therapists, consultants and other transformation professionals from around the world joined me for the Coaching Package Power Summit. We had a wonderful weekend, and I realised that something that started as an idea and an experiment 18 months ago (called Project Glasswing) has grown into a wonderful and supportive community.
It showed me again that when you follow wisdom and intuition, and are willing to take the next step, things can happen that you might never have imagined. This week, I received an email from Emma McDevitt (founder of The Coaching Exchange, an innovative new site that creates a space where coaches can exchange sessions with other coaches to develop their abilities and make a difference. Emma was a member of the very first Project Glasswing I ran at the start of last year, and her email speaks volumes about the impact of following wisdom, and letting it guide you in the right direction. Over to Emma:
When I joined Glasswing last year, insight into the principles that underpin the programme had already had a big impact on my life and I was curious to see more in terms of the implications for building a coaching business.
I wasn’t necessarily looking to increase my income or change the way I worked with my clients, but I had a sense that the whole process of signing new clients could be easier: I didn’t enjoy making proposals and often felt uncomfortable about making myself visible to certain audiences – to the point that all sorts of opportunities that now seem obvious just weren’t visible to me.
During the course of the programme no specific ‘thing’ happened; rather a load of self-generated constraints that weren’t previously visible to me ‘un-happened’ – to the point it’s difficult to remember what my experience was like before. Becoming so much more comfortable with the process of enrolling clients and making proposals seems like a really small part of it now (as does the evaporation of a lifelong fear of ‘public speaking’.)
My experience of relating to people has changed across the board. I always enjoyed being around people, but I felt like I needed to balance being sociable with lots of alone-time to get “headspace” and recharge. And I disliked the idea of “selling,” “networking” and all sorts of other stuff that’s kind-of key to running your own business – until I realised that the only thing that’s ever crowding my headspace is thought. And as I’ve seen this more clearly, I’ve I found myself experiencing more headspace and a greater sense of connection to others, much more of the time. I discovered I love talking with people: throwing ideas around, and seeing what makes sense to them and lights them up, and that’s opened the door for all door for all sorts of projects that I couldn’t have predicted.
Seeing that anything I think about myself (“I’m an introvert”, “I hate selling”, “I’m not an entrepreneur” – to name just a few) is just something I’m making up has freed me up to do all sorts of stuff that hadn’t appeared possible before. And a natural consequence of seeing the inside-out nature of experience more deeply has been much greater freedom to try stuff out: freedom from fear of criticism or negative reactions or stuff not working, and freedom to just go ahead anyway, even when I have those fears. I’ve realised the limitation of analysis as a guidance system (we can only analyse what we already know, but what we already know is usually what’s getting in our way) and found myself trusting my intuition much more.
Since trusting my nose a little more, and being willing to share my thoughts and ideas more readily, and having much less in the way of barriers to action, all sorts of opportunities and projects have started to come into existence in ways I couldn’t have foreseen, let alone deliberately orchestrated. So with The Coaching Exchange, for example, a project I was developing when I started Glasswing: not only has it gone from idea to the live, functioning, reciprocal coaching platform I’d envisaged, with a community of members getting lots of value from it, but it’s started to take on a life of it’s own. I had a realisation about wanting to give more and more value to members, so we’ve got live monthly coaching clinics in place, and we’re about to announce the first mentors for the community.
Discovering what can emerge when you take a step at a time in the direction you actually want to go (rather than the one you think you ought to go in) without a load of thought attached has been a revelation.
If you’d like to try the coaching exchange, you can take a free 3-week trial, and Emma has also kindly offered a 40% discount of the annual subscription to people in our community who join The Coaching Exchange before the end of June. If you want to take advantage of this generous offer, then got to The Coaching Exchange, and enter the code JSCLARITY.
By the way, we’ve just started the latest Project Glasswing, and there are a couple of spaces left, so if you want to get on board and take your practice to a whole new level, pop me an email and let me know why you’re a good fit. Here’s how you’ll know…
– You have at least one year’s experience of working with clients (either paid, pro-bono or both)
– You probably charge by the hour, but want to use a “coaching package” model to increase your income & make it more consistent
– You have space in your practice to work with at least one longer term contract client, starting in June
– You’re an enthusiastic, friendly people-person
– You have a coachable spirit, and are willing to step out of your comfort zone if necessary, and
– You can keep a secret
If that’s you, then just email me at jsmart@jamiesmart.com, and let me know where you’re located and a little about yourself (if you don’t know what to tell me about, look at the list above for inspiration). Make the subject line “Project Glasswing JST”. The train is about to leave the station! 🙂
Big love
Jamie