#15 - Work and life are interlinked
And how to magically re-energise them both!
What’s on my mind….
I absolutely adore the work I do in the 1 to 1 side of my business and because I tend to work with people for a long time - they get a Coach, Consultant & Mentor all rolled into one depending on what they want/need at the time.
I’m big on integrity & relationships and help clients find that win/win sweet spot for them and their organisations - because I truly believe that’s when the magic happens. And because clients keep turning up month after month, I hope it works for them too! (yes that was a very British “humble mumble” - see the fab Laura Robinson for more on this brilliant phrase!)
But….if you’ve been following my Substack for a while, you’ll know I’ve been grappling with how I design the online side of my business to work for me - AND give an amazing experience to people who don’t have access to or can’t afford that 1 to 1 experience.
I’ve trialled a few different things over the years and while I liked lots of things, it didn’t feel as easy or joyful as my 1 to 1 work. And frankly, it wasn’t scalable enough to keep the price as low as I wanted.
So I’ve been a bit stuck.
💡 The advice I’d give to clients
This post has 2 bits of advice. The first is:
If something feels forced, then stop.
And remember:
Energy is infectious and life and work are interlinked. Creating new energy in one, creates new energy in the other.
I’ve seen this happen time and time again with clients. When they stop trying to force something, their brain slowly stops obsessing. Instead they do something they really want elsewhere - and all of a sudden, the thing they were obsessing about falls magically into place! Yes really.
🎯 Taking my own advice
In in my last post - I wrote about how I decided to mix things up in my life and meet up with different friends in London to do “Tourist Time” - consciously creating more fun and friendship in my life. Just the idea has made me feel great and given me a huge boost of energy!
Then taking my own advice, I decided to stop thinking so much about my online business and told a couple of people who were helping me with the strategy and tech side that I may need to scale back our work while I re-grouped.
This created some much needed space.
Then my wonderful tech sidekick and all round online business sounding board Amy Richards asked me “If you could do anything, what would you love to create?” And I told her, I’d love to:
Create a community outside the corporate world that feels a trusted place to talk about careers. That’s not just me - a real community that gives and gets support from each other.
Have everything happen on a Wednesday because it’s easy for me, it’s easy for people to remember and it feels waaaaay more fun to know people are likely to show up at the same time.
When I create coaching tools for my 1:1 clients, I simply share them with the community - workshop style.
Offer Career SOS support in case of redundancy and severance so people have what they need when they need it (I can do this standing on my head because it blends my 20 years of HR with my coach hat)
Have some set sessions each month to give it some structure but mix up the format to keep things interesting with classes, community co-labs and Q&As.
Be generous - so if I create new courses, I add them to the community (at no extra cost)
Have it be low pressure for everyone (because we all have enough of that!) - people can opt into what they want. Or use it like a bit of career insurance - simply know it’s there when they need it.
And make it super low cost for founding members - and easy for me to administer - so I’m thinking an annual membership fee of £100/yr.
This literally all came out of my head in about 3 minutes flat.....a blend of lots of things I’ve experimented with over the last few years - but with a totally new energy.
So a big realisation again in this blog - that I really should take my own advice more often. I’ve drafted the sales page (get sneak peak here) and now off I go to create my new community “CAREER MOMENTUM”.
👉 Your Turn!
What are you grappling with that you can park for a time? Is it work or is it life? Then do one thing in the other area to make you feel great?
Then simply sit back and see what happens to your energy.
(Coach Tip: Be prepared to truly park the thing you’re grappling with and then be patient! My energetic shift happened really quickly - but I suspect that’s because my brain is very used to switching.)