I've Been Doing This All Along

“People ask me that question, and I asked other people that question when I was doing these interviews. Even the people who had the most extreme reinventions didn’t see it as a reinvention. People just saw it as sort of an expression of themselves. Myself, I’ve been a journalist my whole life; I’ve just used those journalism skills in different ways.”

~Joanne Lipman, former editor in chief of the USA Today network

How do you know when it’s time for a change?

It could be prompted by a sense of restlessness, a feeling of bumping your head against an invisible ceiling, wanting to challenge yourself, or simply feeling like you could be doing more.?

Or maybe, predictions of change are closely tied to the intentions and vision we set back at the beginning of the year. Enter Chris Brogan’s annual “3 words” process. My 2023 words are Coalesce, Captivate, and Flow. Best ones yet. Based on the two times I’ve done the process.

I crafted my triad of words (I think of them as one unit rather than 3 separate words) based on the outcomes of my 2022 words and my energetic goals and intentions going into 2023. “Captivate,” as in, my audience, and “flow,” as a visual reminder each day to release perfectionism and generally stress less about things I can’t control.??

“Coalesce” felt different though from the start. It felt like it needed more intentional action attached to it.?

Bringing various threads of my life together began with the grad school enthusiasm and excitement about breaking through old math fears via quantitative psychology last year. Then, through a series of serendipitous connections, ideas, and mentoring conversations with some longtime, loyal clients, a new vision began to form. New possibilities began shifting into focus. A new way to combine the core competencies gained throughout my career, particularly the big 3 - RN BSN, 20 years as an entrepreneur, innovating processes for authors to write books, and now, data analysis.?

This is why my recent expansion into business consulting is not a new book, but rather the newest chapter in an existing one.

In this case, a way to make an even bigger impact by taking the seeds of knowledge and experience from one-to-one client relationships and growing them into a bigger impact.? This feels full circle, since the original tagline when I founded my writing agency in 2003 was “writing with impact.”

Or in the words of one of my clients, “you’ve been doing this all along and are now being pressured by your loyal clients to share your brilliance with the masses.”

That’s very sweet and after pondering it, I started connecting dots between my value to companies as a consultant and one-on-one consulting success stories over the past 20 years.

Nuking Project Management Elephants Before They’re Elephants

Many in business, especially my fellow overachievers, seem to be driven by the thrill of 11th hour adrenaline and crises. I am a proactive planner & strategist, usually well in advance of when others think to put a plan in place.

For example, the high profile author client with a “big 5” publishing deal who had procrastinated on the deadline for so long that their cash advance was now in jeopardy. That particular contract resulted in the invention of my Book Blueprint process for authors, an innovation that would go on to become my agency’s most sought after consulting product.?

“Nuking elephants” for me, means putting systems and processes in place to mitigate risks and costly mistakes and redos. I find great joy in designing risk-reducing systems and habits!?

And yes, when there is an elephant to be nuked, joy spotting for me is - “I need your help on this big creative thing and I have no idea where to begin!” “I’m on it” is my client love language.

Turbo Research, Synthesizing, and Execution of Knowledge

If you want to learn how to research and learn new knowledge in new domains at turbo velocity - talk to a book ghostwriter.?

From AI and machine learning, to the finer points of neuropsychology, to economics, EQ, HR, and a slew of other client-specific topics, asking the right questions, consuming large amounts of research in a short time, and synthesizing it into a book has become second nature over 20+ years.

Concierge Customer Care

Helping clients produce books that produce a major impact on their readers is an intensive, collaborative effort packed with constant tiny details constantly swirling about. One friend likens it to “herding cats.”

Apparently I’m a good cat herder.

My core relationship with each client from day one makes the publishing process go smoothly, especially when the one-to-one relationship becomes one-to-many - publisher, editor, designers, publicist, marketer, internal team members, and more. Without a strong customer relationship and meticulous organization and constant attention to detail holding it all together, the house of cards can fall quickly.?

In my experience, strong, profitable, and risk mitigating customer relationships means the client never having to ask - “now what?”

Conclusion

So this is how I am coalescing my core competencies into a new career chapter to serve one-to-many, specifically in small to medium sized companies (i.e. folks who can catch and run with the creative sparks I toss in their direction!).

How are you drawing from the totality of YOUR career and applying the knowledge and experience you’ve gained across many areas to expand your impact and reach? And on a side note - what were your “3 words” or guiding intentions/goals for 2023? Have this year’s goals spun off any surprises, coincidences, or other magical moments? Comment and tell me all about it!?