Are You Ready for 2020?

We are approaching the end of 2019 and I have some simple questions for you to consider.

Does your work make you feel truly alive? 

You know that feeling. The one where you feel inspired, completely aligned, you know what you’re doing and you’re having an impact. And even better, you're getting paid you to feel like that.

That’s what I feel like when I’m delivering training to a group of people or doing a 1:1 coaching call. Even more so when someone has an epiphany or learns something new. That magical moment of transformation. 

But I do remember, all too clearly, what it feels like to be disconnected, stressed, dissatisfied or just in a holding pattern in work that just didn’t seem right. 

Another question.

Do you want to still be doing the work you're doing now, in 2020?

It wasn’t too long ago I realized the answer was no. I was spending more time doing work that made me feel stressed and unhappy rather than work that lit me up. I knew I needed to make a change.

I took some time, reflected on my career to date and used some great tools and resources. I identified that I was most inspired, aligned and alive when I was doing two things. 

Learning and helping others learn. 

I mustered all my courage and set an intention to grow the training part of my business. 

And then I got out there and started doing the work needed to make that a reality. Within a couple of weeks, I had two new clients who wanted me to be an Associate Trainer. I was delighted. 

Being the analytical person I am, I wasn’t satisfied with that reductive way of looking at work. Either I like it or don't like it. It seems way too binary. 

Having spent the last few years with data scientists, it turns out I’ve learned a lot from them. So the first question I asked myself was, what are the factors?

After that it all became clear. There were four main factors that were influencing how alive, inspired and lit up I was by my work

• The level of skill I had to deliver the work
• The positive impact I was having on the lives of others 
• The people I had around me 
• The reward I received for my work, both financial and non-financial

As soon as I realized these were the key 4 factors for me, I suddenly felt compelled to chart these somehow for each role. A visual way of identifying why a role or piece of work hadn’t given me that amazing feeling. 

So this is what training and coaching feels like for me.

High skill, high impact, great people and high reward. 

And a previous role.

The reward was there and the people were great. But I felt I was having a limited impact and I didn’t want to really build skills and excel in that field. 

(As you can see I’m not selling my artistic skills - circles are hard for me to draw! I will be asking a graphic designer to make future versions look better)

When I chart it like this, I can see so clearly why I was unhappy. And for me, there was such a limited positive impact on other people's lives that it wasn’t worth building my skills in that area. 

I must pause here to say something really important. 

THANK YOU. To everyone I have ever worked with, has helped me during my career or played a part so far. Even if the work I was doing wasn’t a great fit for me. I am still so profoundly grateful for the opportunities and projects I’ve worked on.

I could have ended the article here but one thought won’t leave me. 

What would the world be like if more people felt aligned, inspired and enthused by their work? 

Simply, it would be better. For them, for me, for the world.

Obviously, by being a corporate trainer and Belbin Team roles coach, I'm already doing that on one dimension by helping people increase their skills.  

And I’ve been doing that a lot in the last two months since I made this change in my business.

I have been busy delivering face-to-face training in the USA, France, Sweden, Denmark, UK and global audiences online covering Data Science, Consultancy Skills, HR, PR, Social Media Marketing, Leadership and Management, Personal Branding and more. Alongside training, I have been delivering 1:1 coaching calls to support people to work more effectively in their roles and embed their learning. 

I am partnering with some great training companies to partner with who need a trainer as much as I want to be training. This is what lights me up and makes me feel alive, but it is only part of the story. 

When I think back to my model. What about Impact, Reward, and People? I know from personal experience you can be highly skilled at something and still unhappy. 

Impact

I’ve been thinking about what I can offer and I realized in 2020 I could work with a very small number of new people on a 1:1 basis. To has to be a small number because of the limited time I have available and I want to work with people who are really ready to invest in making a change.

I’m designing the offering right now and it’s looking like a 1:1 Career Power Hour combining coaching, mentoring and consultancy with some straight talk to quickly analyze where you are, where you want to get to and the first steps to getting there. 

Right now, I’m pretty much fully booked until early 2020 with the current contracts I have and the conversations I’m having with new clients. So I won’t be opening this as a service until next year. If you’d like to be the first to know when I do, you can join the waiting list here. 

But I need help now!

For those of you looking for someone to work with now. I can highly recommend Amelia. She is unbelievably good and is worth having a conversation to see if she is what you are looking for. I’d be happy to share my experience working with her if you drop me a message. 

Reward

I’m going to write something that some reading might find shocking. 

To be happy in our work, we must feel we are receiving the right amount of financial reward.

Whether you think this is common sense or inappropriate for me to be talking about (so many money taboos!). A lot of people feel like they are not being fairly or well compensated for their work.

From my experience, when this happens, I’ve seen the same problems occurring:

• Not creating a pipeline of potential customers or clients 
• Not pushing for the next, higher-paid role 
• Undercharging 
• Overworking on client contracts or in a current role
• Not delegating low-value tasks to free up more billable or product development time
• Getting stuck in only trading hours for money 

Many of these can be worked on with a money coach. There are some amazing money coaches out there. I don’t see myself becoming one in the near future. 

However, I am looking at what online, self-paced courses I can create in this area based on my experience with all of them! If you have any requests or suggestions of topics for future courses, let me know. If you’d like to be the first to hear about the first course when it launches, join the waiting list here.

People 

Most of us spend most of our waking hours working. The people we spend those hours with are critical to our happiness. 

I can't list all the brilliant, talented, funny and lovely people I've worked with already but if you're reading this and we've worked together, it's likely that you are one of them.

I don’t have any plans to create any services in this area in the near future.

However, I do know I want to bring together people who are wanting to create a career that makes them feel alive. Whenever I’ve wanted to make a change, it has been the communities that I’ve been in that have made the difference.

I am looking at what shape this could take. It could be a Facebook Group, LinkedIn Group, a mastermind group or just a mailing list. I will decide by January. If you have any preferences, let me know in the comments.

At the moment it’s just the same list I’ve mentioned before.

It's Almost The End

Phew, if you’ve got to this point, thank you. I’m impressed that you’ve got through the 1,000 words+

We’re coming to the end of a decade. Knowing that I didn’t want to start 2020 doing what I was doing motivated me to make a big change. Now I feel excited and inspired by the new decade. Are you?