Last Saturday I was at a birthday for a very cool little 3-year-old boy, the son of some of our closest friends. One of the other fathers there asked me how business was going. I looked at him with a sincere smile and said “business is Rockin!” He looked stunned and said to me “you’re the first person I’ve heard say that in 2 years.”
I thought, but didn’t say, “maybe that’s WHY I’m the only person who you’ve heard say it in two years.” Instead I said “I changed my business model last year and that seems to have made all the difference.” We talked some more about the changes, but the initial engagement of the conversation stuck with me.
Usually, I consider myself a pretty glass-is-half-full kind of guy. Then yesterday a Facebook friend named Barbara Nelson pointed out that I might not be approaching a very important project from a place of abundance and appreciation. That stuck with me too.
This morning on the drive down the mountain I was listening to an audio book that reminded me to get in synch with the fact that there is way more than enough to go around and to surrender feelings of scarcity and competition.
In my Fuel the Spark books I share a chapter on the importance of “surrendering” limiting thoughts. There is also a full chapter on “paying attention.”
Time to practice what I preach.
If you’ve been paying attention to my blog, facebook posts, and my tweets over the last week, you know that it’s been a bit of a wild ride. Less than two weeks ago I decided to resign from a project I’d been working on with a lot of energy called The Creative Business Lawyer Program. I was working together with one of the hardest working and most creative women I know, Alexis Martin Neely, on that project. The goal was to help lawyers who work with small businesses implement a different practice model that allows real “trusted advisor” relationships to develop between lawyers and entrepreneurs. Alexis and I had different approaches to how the program should be developed and shared, and since that program was part of her Family Wealth Planning Institute, I decided it was best for me to resign my involvement. Alexis will be moving on with the project without my involvement, but more on that below.
I admit I was upset. My ego was involved as one might expect, and when a healthy ego gets involved, things happen – both good things and bad.
The good thing that came out of this situation was that I started thinking bigger than I had before and was inspired to move forward and finally create The Space Between Center for Creative Spirit in Business (sorry, long name…). The Space Between Center is a manifestation of my soul’s purpose on the planet and will be the umbrella organization for many initiatives I’ve been hoping to share with the world. The team of partners I needed to launch The Center appeared as if by magic. Lawyers from around the country approached me to create a program of my own based on the flat fee model I’ve implemented in my practice. I’m doing that, with several folks already committed to becoming members, even before the launch call this Friday, but more on that later.
The bad thing that came out of the situation, and a bruised ego, was that I lost my perspective on the principle of appreciation and abundance. Saturday’s conversation at the birthday party, Sunday’s Facebook conversation, and this morning’s audio book session helped me see that I had fallen into a competitive mode. There was an undercurrent of “oh ya, well I’ll show you!” in my heart.
That’s not who I am. That’s small. And, it’s stupid. It’s stupid for any of us to think “either/or” instead of “both/and.”
Don’t I believe at my core that flat fee billing models and other approaches are able to change the entrepreneurial world and through entrepreneurs, revive our sagging economy and spirit? Of course I do – no matter who is leading the program.
Do I believe my program will be a perfect fit for everyone? Of course NOT, we all have our own paths toward our potential and there are plenty of guides.
I’ve stated before, and it’s true, that I’m on the planet to help as many people as I can reach their full potential through creativity. I believe that aligning one’s personal creative spark with one’s vocation is the secret ticket to a happy, abundant, and wealthy life. That doesn’t mean that I have to be the one leading everyone – I don’t even know if it’s possible (or beneficial) for one person to lead everyone in our world. Especially me.
So, I make the following resolutions:
- I will do my absolute best to support anyone’s efforts to help people reach their full potential through creativity, even if their efforts might be seen by many as “competitive.”
- I will focus only on creating continually increasing value in the programs, services, and relationships I offer the people who come into my life.
What that means this morning is that I’m going to ask all of you who are lawyers and/or an entrepreneurs to do two things.
- Sign up for Alexis’s Creative Business Lawyer informational call happening this Thursday. This is the program I helped create and recently left. See if it is for you. Obviously, this is NOT an affiliate link – I’m no longer associated with The Creative Business Lawyer. There are some very smart people involved in that program and it might be a match for you.
- Sign up for the Space Between Center informational call happening this Friday. This is the program I’m offering. There are some fundamental similarities between the two programs and I’ll share what I believe are fundamental differences between the programs on my call. Since I’ve not been involved with the CBL program for the last week or so, I don’t know exactly what Alexis will be offering. What I AM sure of is that my team has come up with some great value propositions that we’re eager to share.
Is one program “better” than the other? Definitely, but which one that is will depend on your goals, dreams, and life path. I think you owe it to yourself to listen in on both before making a decision which approach might work for you. Maybe neither will be a fit for you. Maybe both.
I appreciate the encouragement Alexis gave me last year to try something new, and I appreciate all the lessons I’ve learned from taking some risks and implementing my flat fee client engagement model. THE MODEL, and my action changed my life – both financially and from a work/life balance perspective.
Finally, I appreciate the opportunity to share what I’ve learned with people interested in helping others reach their potential through entrepreneurship.
Now back to work.
