Hi there,
Well…that’s awkward.
Ahem.
So the monthly Bright Brains newsletter that was launched in the spring to the sound of victorious drumrolls quickly turned into… nada.
The exact opposite to what I preach to every single one of my clients – as well as my students. “Commit. Deliver. Go beyond expectations.”
SHAME. ON. ME. Shame on me. Shameonme.
But you know what? This is a company of one. Solo. A solopreneur running a micro enterprise. With the French admin to match (sorry – private French entrepreneur joke).
Sure, I have wonderful freelancers that I work with. But they’re experts in their own fields and not Mini-Mes.
As it turns out, I landed more one-to-one clients with full spectrum business development missions than expected.
AND I made sure to clear some time so as to fine tune my skills as a conference moderator (check out the new dedicated page on my website) and online marketer. As a direct result of this commitment to continuous learning, I started to take on a lot more speaking engagements. AND these take time to prepare (yes, I prepare for them extensively. The Universe has yet to surprise me and feed me all the in-depth content regarding my clients’ industries and spot-on “unpleasant but welcome” questions to stir the discussions on stage and keep the audience engaged).
AND I pitched an idea for a book and landed a cool new book deal. With a tight deadline to match.
AND I love that I get to do it all.
AND that’s a lot of work to commit to if you want to deliver top-notch results.
You all know the feeling, for sure. So Shame On Me? Well, not so. I’m back in your inbox, ready to renew my commitment to my initial promise to show up monthly.
Now tell me: what is it that you had proudly committed to and that fell by the wayside because of other more pressing engagements? How can you bring that back smoothly to your list of priorities before year-end?
ICYMI
One of the reasons I’m in a position to write this newsletter now is that I made myself prioritize my workload – and personal goals. I took a full day off (well, I made use of a long and uncomfortable San Diego-Seattle-Paris flight) and sorted it out with the insight gathered from articles, discussions and podcasts. I have a couple of people to thank for that – not that they’re aware of it:
- The Worth Project: love these guys. Personal Development with a no-nonsense and business-orientation. Mixed with real-life family experience (I’m talking toddler waking up super early and ruining your brain just when you needed to be 150% on a client project. You know: real life) and a passion for travel and international relocation to suit their life goals. I binge-listened to their first season of podcast while in the metro. And re-listened to a lot of the episodes while driving to our holiday destination (yes, our kids get to listen to personal development podcasts rather than getting hypnotized by cartoons on iPads. I’m a total snob and I’m ok with that. (Also, fortunately we only ever spend more than 10 mins in a car just during the summer holidays, which really makes my life as a Perfect Mother / French Snob a lot easier)).
- Career Clarity founder Lisa Lewis. The funny thing is that I first came across Lisa on the Worth Project podcast. Ha. And because I’m rather chilled liked that, I e-introduced myself to her on LinkedIn. And next thing you know, Lisa was sitting across a basket of fluffy croissants and a platter of smelly cheese at my Paris table, chatting away with my husband and me while our young kids were playing Mozart on the piano (hey – it’s my story and I stick to it). She coaches clients one-on-one, but also travels the world to work with Big Corporations and help them with their talent retention challenges. Insider pivoting is a thing. A beautiful thing actually. Hey, that’s how I initially went from full-on sleep deprived miserable lawyer to full-on (sleep-deprived) business development & marketing goddess. Sure, it was the beginning of the financial crisis in Abu Dhabi and my firm at the time had no more legal work to feed to their team of lawyers. Sure, it was offered to me as an alternative to terminating my job (as they did with many) because I had been super proactive at chasing leads and promoting my firm to prospects around the region from day 1. Sure it lasted only 1 year until they had to turn to drastic measures. But you know what? That was the opportunity I didn’t know I wanted, and 10 years or so later, I have this forced-insider pivot to thank for where I am now. Well, that and the wonderful managing partner at my firm at the time (I hope that you read this, Andrew R. !)
So there you go. Busy, busy and super inspired. And if you’re finding yourself a bit too busy and not quite as inspired as you’d wish to be, well grab your headphones, a cup of coffee and the chocolate that your office mate hides in the top drawer of her desk. And listen to the intro podcasts of these people.
They’ll make you prioritize and love your (work) days all over again.
Thanks for your time, thanks for your trust. Until next time, spread the good word
