The Shoemaker Whose Kids Have No Shoes
I’m recently redoing my website, dougholtonline.com. Now, this was my personal website, something that I threw up years ago as more of a way of exchanging my muses, my ideas, but I also have a backend to the website where I have mastermind groups and clients that I run. Frankly, I’ve never really paid much attention to the website itself. Over the years, it’s gotten outdated and doesn’t really reflect what I do or who I am.
Now, the reason I share this with you is I actually own two marketing agencies. Besides that, I am coaching some of the highest level performers and business that are in the world. I’m working with the best of the best. Yet, my website isn’t reflecting what I’m doing and what I’m up to in the world. It’s not showcasing what I am and what I’m about.
When I looked at this, I started laughing to myself and I actually brought somebody else, a good friend of mine to audit my site, and he was laughing, too. He’s like, “Doug, this is horrible. I can’t believe you’re doing this. You get paid six figures to consult and work with businesses to help them with their website and with their branding. Yet, yours is crap.” When he said that to me, at first, I wanted to get angry at myself. Then I immediately recognized the trigger and switched and started laughing. He was totally right. I was the cobbler, the shoemaker whose kids had no shoes. I was giving people advice, yet, I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t following it for myself.
Now, the reason this is important for me isn’t just for vanity to have Doug Holt Online, my website, representing me. It’s not. It really isn’t. What it is is this is my opportunity, my way of giving to the world. See, I set a goal two years ago to have a positive impact on over one million people, and we are making our way there and I’m so proud of that. My team is doing a great job.
Yet, if you didn’t know me and maybe you don’t, maybe you stumbled upon these daily growth hacks and you’ve gone to Google me to see who I am and what I’m about, you wouldn’t have a representation of what I’ve been doing. You would see what I was doing eight, nine years ago, not today and I would be so upset if I ran into a business and I was consulting with a business owner and they were in the same position. I would say, “Geez, what are you doing? Your website is your modern day front door to the world. You need to be cleaning it up on a regular basis, every quarter doing updates.” Yet, I wasn’t doing it.
It started making me think. How often do we give advice, do we go out there and say, “Hey, I want to be a coach,” when you actually haven’t hired a coach? I get that a lot, too. I get people reaching out to me and saying, “Doug, how can I be a successful coach? How can I be a mentor to people? I really want to help.” The first question I ask is that is awesome, but who’s your coach? I hear crickets. I hear crickets because they’ve never hired a coach or a mentor or especially somebody at the top level and made that investment themselves. How can you ask somebody to make an investment in hiring you as a trainer, a coach, an accountant or anything else if you’re not using the same services yourself? You can’t. It’s just not respectful. It’s out of integrity in my eyes.
See, I was being out of integrity because I get paid to go in and consult with big companies, as well as small ones, people that are making a big change in the world. I help them with their branding and their marketing, yet, I wasn’t doing it myself. Right here, right now if you’re listening to this, you’re going to see a commitment. Go over to the site so you can laugh at it and then come back a month from now. It should be totally different, hopefully, a couple of weeks from now but I’ll give myself a month, a little leeway. I want to play with my family, too.
What I’m going to ask you today is where are you, the shoemaker whose kids have no shoes? Is that in your mind? Are you not doing the work? Are you not reading the books? Are you not taking the courses that allow you to be the author of your own story? Is it in your body? Are you giving people advice on diets that’s so many people do, yet, you have no experience and you’re not doing it yourself? Or workouts. Crossfit is the best. Kettlebells are the best. Pilates is the best. Yoga is the best. But are you doing the work? Do you have the experience? Where are you in the relationship? Are you giving your friend relationship advice? I hear this all the time from many of you. Someone is giving you relationship advice, yet, their marriage is crumbling and they haven’t figured it out or maybe it’s an idea of business. Maybe you’re out there telling people how great your business is, yet, when I peek behind the curtain, I know what your P&L really says and what’s really going on there.
Where are you? I invite you to be like me and laugh at it. Just look at it. Be real, raw, relevant and honest with yourself and then just laugh. It’s okay. We’re human. We’re on this journey together. But once you recognized where you are giving advice, where your pillars aren’t very strong, where you’re giving advice and you’re not doing it yourself, now, right here at this moment, it’s the time to make the commitment and take that first small step, whatever that step is on your journey and make sure you’re doing what you’re preaching.
That’s it for me today. As always, go to authorofyourownstory.com where you get the latest tips, tricks and techniques delivered right to your inbox and of course share this with at least three people that you know that you think would actually get value out of this message. That’s it. Have a great day. I will see you guys tomorrow. Remember to go out and be the author of your own story. Take care.