Results Will Vary

Moving beyond promises of expected outcomes to trusting in the emergence of what we cannot yet see

Photo by Goran Vučićević on Unsplash

Promises, promises….

We are barraged by them every day ~ some explicit and some implied ~ trying to get our attention and entice us into action.

It’s a simple formula, really.

Buy x and/or do y, and you will get z.

The sales and marketing world, amplified by algorithms and AI, generates many of these promises.

But there are so many more ~ movies, songs, books, diets, Instagram accounts, religion and New Age spirituality ~ all influencing what we want to have, how we think we should be.

Within all of these are woven a subtle assurance:

You can have or be what {we’ve conditioned you to believe} you want ~ you just need to buy this thing, eat this way, take this course, or follow this practice.

Not getting the desired results? Well, you must not be doing it right, or believing strongly enough. Here, just buy or do this thing to fix that deficiency within you.

It’s the same in the business and entrepreneurial world. The coaching and consulting industry has grown exponentially around this simple formula ~ one that is very effective in drawing people in, especially when paired with urgency and scarcity that activates our fear-driven lizard brain.

I was disempowering my clients

When I was a student of information marketing, first building my business coaching practice, I learned quickly how to use the template for success. Speak to the problem they think they are having, point out the underlying problem they are really having, and show how you have a solution to address their real problem.

At first, I told myself I was helping people. A few years down the road, though, I could see the varying degrees of psychological manipulation that were in play.

The core message of my coaching was all about self-empowerment, and yet I was finding myself frustrated by the number of clients who were still looking to me to tell them what to do and how to do it.

When I started to get curious about what was happening, I could see that the marketing template I’d learned to employ really effectively was essentially saying “You are broken. I can fix you. You just need to hire me or enroll in this program and you will get the results you desire.”

How could I expect to see empowered clients when I was drawing them in by subtly disempowering them?

I wasn’t making good on my promises

I was also facing another confronting realization: I wasn’t making good on my promises.

My marketing was infused with assurances that my coaching programs would lead to greater success in business. Because of where I was in my leadership journey at the time, though, I spent a lot of time encouraging my clients to dive deeper into what success really meant to them ~ rather than what the Playbook told them it needed to look like.

The more deeply I went with clients, the more we ventured well outside the Playbook. In fact, several came to the realization that they didn’t really want to be doing what they were doing and decided to sell or close their businesses.

This was a problem for the marketing template: I couldn’t go out there and point to consistent, quantitative metrics like growth in sales and increases in profitability being experienced by my clients through working with me.

I couldn’t in good conscience continue to make these types of promises, whether explicit or implicit.

Once I could clearly see the psychological manipulation and the inauthenticity in the promises, I couldn’t unsee it. And I simply couldn’t participate in it any longer.

This was the point that I put the brakes on all my coaching programs and all my marketing efforts.

It has taken me nearly ten years to come back around to offering my services in a way that feels truly authentic and truly serving to the people who choose to work with me.

View from the Roundtable

I no longer believe in the Playbook. I have stepped off of the hamster-wheel and outside of the conditional paradigm that views people and businesses as machines, where inputs deliver expected outputs.

This is not how Nature works.

We are part of dynamic, living systems of vast diversity and complexity, which are paradoxically operating in universal principles of brilliant simplicity.

No person or business is broken or flawed. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. And we certainly cannot predict nor control outcomes.

In several of the conversations I’ve been having about the 6-month Roundtable experiences that I’m convening, people have asked me questions like:

• what results can I expect from this experience?

• what outcomes are you intending?

• how will you measure those outcomes?

• what are the metrics for success?

This is a perfect opportunity for me to explain how this Roundtable is so different, operating from an entirely new paradigm ~ one that flows from the inside out, rather than working toward expected outcomes and pre-determined promises.

This is where I get to point out how restrictive the old-paradigm approach is, confining one’s experience to a very narrow range of possibilities rather than allowing the spaciousness for something entirely unforeseen to emerge from a realm of infinite potential.

This emergence is part of the magic and mystery that is present when the feminine energies are on board ~ dancing in harmony with the masculine, which remains steadfastly focused on the practical, grounded next steps in fulfilling our mission.

Trusting in what we cannot yet see

It feels so amazing to now engage in conversations and feel no need to make promises of outcomes that are impossible for me to predict, much less influence or control. No need to induce people to act now with countdown clocks, early-bird discounts, or limited availability.

I feel no fear that someone will decline to register, no pressure to convince anyone to participate.

I simply share with them my sense of calm, centered trust in these things:

• the power of resonance and the full-body Yes that is drawing together the “perfect” combination of people, perspectives and missions in the right timing for each individual and the group as a whole;

• the knowing that I hold at a cellular level that every individual who is drawn into this Roundtable will receive exactly the experiences they uniquely need and are calling in at this point along their journey, which is being guided by their unique mission and design for their life; and

• my direct experience of the awe-inspiring power and potential of the regenerative flow of nature that emerges when a group of resonant individuals come together in a field of mutual support around a shared intention.

Through these conversations, I am finding myself experiencing even more inspiration, appreciation and exhilaration as I get to witness the Roundtable arranging itself before my eyes.

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The Regenerative Impact Roundtable is a six-month immersive experience for 6-12 leaders of regenerative initiatives. It’s a unique opportunity for you to sit shoulder-to-shoulder, going deep with other new-paradigm pioneers in a coherent field of synergy and mutual support, as you accelerate and amplify the impact that you and your initiative are uniquely designed to make.

This very special Roundtable experience is by invitation only, intentionally curated to provide the greatest potential for synergy and coherence between the members. If you sense your name is on a seat at the Roundtable, schedule a 30-minute call with me to explore whether it’s a good fit.

Please note: I am also seeing an additional 6-month roundtable shaping up for leaders who do not necessarily have regenerative initiatives but want to deepen their understanding and experience of leading in a regenerative way. If you are drawn to this opportunity and are wondering whether it is for you, reach out and we’ll explore it together.