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What If It works?

For months, I had been mulling around the idea of putting together a mixed-media program with videos, documents, and a mastermind group, all focused on new businesses getting started online.

The process was been fascinating on unexpected levels.  You see, I know the technical content quite well, but presenting it?   Just thinking about putting it in a form that is publicly consumable brought up all manner of fears and doubts.

• “Who am I to do this?” and other fears came up, despite knowing full well that I feel compelled to share this content.
• “It’s not good enough to invite others to see it yet,” despite knowing that it is great content useful, and relevant to my market as well as my fellow coaches just starting out.
• “There’s just one more thing to add” before I go live — despite knowing full well that I can update and expand on the fly.

On and on, the list of reasons to wait continued to grow.  The overarching theme, of course, was that everything I felt about  my product launch was rooted in fear.  It’s the same fear that most of us experience when standing on the cusp of possibility, and the bigger the possibility he bigger the fear.

We stand on the pinnacle between wild success and utter failure.  Instead of taking the next step, we freeze.  We believe that for the moment, there is safety in standing still.  Not only is the safety an illusion, but so too are the dangers we create on either side.

• The danger of failure, we fear, is that it will be permanent — a context rooted in the fear of the unknown.
• The danger of success, we fear, is that it will be short lived, or unsustainable, then we will land back at failure again.

But all of it — the fear of failure, of success, or even the imagined safety of standing still — it is all just a context in our heads.  It is all part of our psychological survival mechanism trying to keep us from living and being at our highest potential.

So I launched my offering.  And I feel great!
Check it out at  That Web Coach -  http://www.ThatWebCoach.com

A Personal Hedgehog Concept

In Jim Collin’s Good to Great, he presents an idea called the Hedgehog Concept – the sweet spot in business at the intersection of three distinct drivers: What the organization can be the best in the world at doing, where the organization has a passion for innovation and success, and where the organization derives its profit.

I was reflecting on an equivalent concept for an individual rather than an organization.  Essentially, this would be an Ontological, or Personal Hedgehog Concept (PHC), focusing on ways of being as a person, rather than ways of operating as an organization.

For each of us, there is one thing that we are better at than anybody else in the world — it’s being our authentic self.  I emphasize authenticity because for most people, it is not our default way of being.  Over time, we have all learned to protect ourselves, to put up various walls and self defenses, and to avoid feeling our fears, disappointments, or sadness.  Yet I assert that our greatest gifts — to ourselves and to others — manifest when we are acting from the core of who we are, at our very best (our essence), and not form who we are being when our barriers and masks are up.  Returning to that place of authenticity is a unique journey for each of us, and is one of the three components of our greatest success.

The second component of the Personal Hedgehog Concept is our “purpose” — the organizing principle around which the major decisions of our life revolve.  To say that our purpose is the reason that we were put on this planet is both an over-simplification, and completely ignores the challenges that each of us face in actually discovering what that purpose is.  As part of a PHC, I assert that those who have come to realize (or declare) their purpose are at a distinct advantage in life as they navigate the permanent white-water of change that so many of us experience in our modern world.

The final component of the Personal Hedgehog Concept is one’s career.  Throughout life, most of us will have a number of different jobs, and those may or may not be tied together in the form of a career.  In the context of the PHC, the work that matters is that which not only puts food on the table, but that simultaneously feeds one’s soul through the alignment it has with our purpose.  Sometimes we may find our self having more than one job – the one that pays, and the one that nourishes us.  To the extent that these are one in the same, I assert that we are closer to our own personal sweet-spot in life.

In Jim Collin’s book, those companies that had discovered and operated from their hedgehog concept significantly outperformed other comparison companies over an extended period of time.  For individuals, comparison with each other is hardly the greatest measure of a human being.  Rather, the comparison is between who we experience ourselves to be, and the joy and fulfillment we are capable of by living in alignment regarding who we are being, why we are here, and how we are making use of the gifts of our time, talent, and life.

In my capacity as a coach, I work with people to be more aware of choices, and to choose that which supports living from their essence – their authentic self, at their very best.  I also work with people to discover what is most important to them, and to close the gap between what one says is important, and how one is actually living one’s life.  Lastly, I also work with people to find greater fulfillment in their work, ideally by aligning what they do with who they are and why they are here.  If you are ready to move into your personal sweet-spot in life, then contact Primary Goals.

Start with Why

There is a video on TED by Simon Sineck, author of Start with Why.  In it, he talks about the fundamental difference in the way leaders and influences communicate, compared with the rest of the masses.  In essence, most people start by communicating WHAT, then HOW, then WHY, whereas those with influence work in reverse.  They start with why.  He gives multiple examples, and also describes what he calls a golden circle, radiating from the center with Why, How, and What.

You can find a link to the video below, and it got me thinking about how that golden circle relates to my own model.

Why I Coach

I coach because I stand for positive transformations in the lives of people and organizations.  This is not just a catchy slogan — it is something I am firmly committed to, whether I am a coach, individual contributor, manager or leader of any group in which I find myself.  Fundamentally, I coach for the purpose of transforming lives.

How I Coach

I coach using a variety of methods and styles, focusing principally on who my client is being.
This is  a fundamental aspect of who we are, how we appear to others, and the way we interact with our environment, jobs, friends, and family.  Typically, people focus on behaviors and what we actually do.  While those are absolutely important, our behaviors stem from who we are, and through an ontological approach, I help clients see that they actually have far greater choices in their lives than they previously thought.

What I Offer

I offer a set of tools to enable you to achieve your Primary Goals.  My biggest tool is actually the relationship that we create together to stand for your greatness.  Make no mistake about it — coaching is challenging work.  If it were only about having somebody to talk to or tell you what to do, you would already get that from friends and family.  No, coaching is about facing the barriers that keep you from being effective, and systematically addressing the beliefs, experiences, and structures that keep those barriers in place despite your best efforts.  I offer a way of being that is rooted in Radiance, Discernment, Love, Leadership, and Power (my way of being).  Together, we will look through the lenses of Teaching, Learning, Creativity, Relationships and Play to consistently move forward towards your Primary Goals.