A Case Study in Massive Impact

Very few of us go out and attack the dream until it’s done. Many more of us set our dream down every five minutes. It nags at us, so we pick it up. Except now it feels a little harder. Maybe even a little ridiculous.?

I only ask as your coach… Six weeks into 2023, are you still on offense? Are you actively in the game of creating what you want this year to be?

We usually start the year with that creative energy, until it fades.

Have you slipped into defense position??

Defense is protection of what you’ve created so far— at the expense of significant growth.

Defense position looks like:

1. No time to work on the business, or the goals.

All time is consumed putting out fires, helping current clients solve their problems.

2. Staying firmly in your comfort zone...

Doing the things you know will provide steady cash flow.

3. Finding yourself in the same conversation

Week to week with your team, your clients, or yourself. Like deja vu.

4. Sunday evenings are full of anxious anticipation

For the week ahead. As you look over the next month of travel, you’re anxious about the disruption to your routine.

If you’re thinking— But defense keeps the lights on! You are right. It ‘keeps the lights on’ at the expense of making yourself visible from outer space.?

Offense isn’t only moving one ball down the field. It’s moving 3-5 balls down different fields, in bigger stadiums.

Offense position looks and feels like:

1. Working on your rewrite.

Great Paul Simon lyric: “…been working on my rewrite / I’m gonna change the ending / Gonna throw away my title / toss it in the trash / Every minute after midnight / All the time I’m spending / is for working on my rewrite / I’m gonna turn it into cash.”

2. Sacred time each week to revisit your goals.

Reading them aloud. Paying attention to how they make you feel. Do they still feel like a game you will win or, are they a pipe dream? What needs to be adjusted, the goal itself, or your attachment to it?

3. Shaking up the work routine.

Inviting in fresh perspective and inspiration. Handling (or delegating) the work at hand, while heading out for new adventures, and making new allies along the way.

4. If Sunday was the weekend’s last stand in defense— Sunday is now your proactive design and planning mode.

Resetting the table for the week ahead. Fine-tuning the travel schedule. Adjusting your calendar this week to align with your bigger goals.

I tripped over this mention from a former client on LinkedIn. I worked with Netta Jenkins Jenkins in 2017. Her leader hired me to coach them both around thought leadership.

It cracks me up that I’m referred to as a “Speech Writer” because I didn’t write anything. I coached her on using principles of powerful rhetoric to frame her message for the world.

We spent a few months designing an airtight messaging framework. I had learned the power of a messaging framework from some brilliant marketing minds earlier in my career.

I remember thinking, “Netta’s stories are excellent.” Her unique perspective was unlike anything I had heard, and the Big Idea of her message communicated what was at stake.

She was newly married, and had a great mid-level Director job for a tech company.

Netta's X-Factor was that she was willing to live and create every day on Offense.

Over the next few months, I watched Netta explode onto the speaking scene all over New York. She delivered her message everywhere. Her personal brand quickly grew beyond the walls of her company and her current title.

And so did her LinkedIn engagement. Around 285K followers and always climbing. Netta is now preparing for her first book (The Inclusive Organization) to drop on Wiley publications— a major book deal that she leveraged through the building of her massive platform.

She’s also completing her doctoral studies, running her own speaking and consulting firm, and from it looks like: is still holding down her day gig as Global VP of Inclusion.

I love witnessing Netta’s continued success for so many reasons. As?her former coach— she never settled for the ‘defense position’ of what was possible in her many roles and responsibilities.

She lives in the game of her purpose-driven mission— and she never seems to give up the ball! Her ambition, talent, and passion are the quarterback, the running backs, and the full offensive line.

If you're in a good job that gives you plenty of support and freedom to do your thing— keep playing defense. But never at the expense of offense. You are being financed to create tons of impact, and if you keep the communication open, you will create win-wins for everyone along the way. # # # - Kristoffer ?? Carter

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