There’s a chef at a four-star restaurant that creates beautiful works of art with food for patrons, but with nothing in his fridge at home, eats Cheerios for dinner. An interior designer just finished a photo shoot for Architectural Digest at a show home, but has half painted rooms, fabric swatches everywhere, and mismatched furniture that has been there for years in her own. The content strategist and product developer who helps experts and entrepreneurs share their genius with the world, has held back her own. Oh, wait…that last one is me.
It’s time that this cobbler gets new shoes…sparkly, silvery, glittered stiletto, peep-toe sling backs! I recently celebrated my sixth anniversary in business. While the deliverables of my work have changed over time, (from process to product focused) the core of what I do hasn’t. I’ve always worked with entrepreneurs to capture expertise and create, build or improve something in order to take their business to the next level.
I LOVE working with entrepreneurs of all stripes, raising their platform as an expert, sharing their genius with the world, making a difference in the lives of others, creating revenue streams in the meantime. But have I done it for myself? No.
Why not? Well, for a variety of reasons. I’m not real big on being in the spotlight. I like the mystery of being behind the scenes – the woman behind the curtain. I have always been so focused working in my business doing client work, that I didn’t spend time working on my business to build the same things I create for others. That’s pretty common for entrepreneurs. There are other head games I’ve played that all boil down to fear. Funny…those are the same mindset issues I help clients get through when they’re resisting their genius. I can hear your collective, “Duh!”
Over the last few years I have done the following:
For Clients |
For Me / My Business |
| Orchestrated design/redesign of snazzy websites and content | Hadn’t touched my website in over 4 years |
| Wrote literally hundreds of blogs and guest blogs | Wrote two, 4 years ago, and one this year |
| Wrote dozens of articles and anthology chapters for print media | Wrote three over the last few years |
| Ghostwrote 3 books, edited 3 others (working on a fourth) | Zip, zero, nada |
| Created / co-created dozens of digital and in-person programs and product offerings, inclusive of hundreds of training modules, scripts, workbooks, and specially designed exercises | One beta test workshop earlier this year |
| Written dozens of speeches and/or scripts | Nope |
| Created comprehensive portfolio and product development, and launch strategies | Getting there…for 2015 |
| Produced multi-week telesummits, and multi-day in-person conferences | What do you think? |
| Served as the strategist for content / product, marketing & communications, or just the business as a whole | Focused on the work, not the business |
It’s not that I don’t know what to do or how to do these things for myself. It’s getting past the knowing, then tossing out the mucked mindset stuff and excuses, and carving out the time to DO IT! I’m guessing you can relate in some part of your life, if not your business.
It’s time. It is time that I free my genius, as I do with others, sculpt it into various types of content and product, as I do for others, and share it with the world, as I do for others. It’s time this cobbler not only gets new shoes, but sparkly ones.
So starting now, you can…
Explore my new website.
Sign up for my eZine (at the bottom of the home page).
See how I work with organizations.
Learn all about the Genius Series and how we can work together.
Check out my holiday special on Spark Your Genius power sessions (a mini version of Free Your Genius).
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
I’m excited to step up and into this new era of my business. (Big, deep breath in)… Let’s go!
Originally posted December 8, 2014
