A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

Hello, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. This week has just been so exceptionally special. I want to talk about the two opportunities I had to support some incredible humans in my world this week. First, yesterday I was on the success panel for Rick Tamlin, whose program I've been in for a couple years now, Produce youe. And I was able to share about all the success that I've seen in working with him. How incredible his. His. I don't even want to call it a service because he goes so above and beyond for his clients and how transform, transformational, if I can even say the word. It's been in my life and in my business. And today I was so lucky to be able to film a testimonial for the LinkedIn queen herself, Leah Turner, who has really changed how my business even runs, has made it far more successful just by training me on how to be myself on, on this incredible platform. And not just that allowed for me to be myself on this platform and make a ton of incredible friends and these connections that I know will last a lifetime, you can't even attach a dollar amount to that. It's just priceless. And it makes me think that, you know, there's this belief out there that to set ourselves apart because these are two people who do similar things to me, right, to set ourselves apart that you have to tear other people down. And it's so not true. It's so not true. A rising tide really does lift all boats. And these are two people who live and breathe by that belief. They are constantly supporting others in their work towards putting themselves out there in their work of being brave, in their work of doing exactly what they want to spend their life doing. And hi whoever's watching, welcome. Seeing the number go up if you're commenting. Just so you know, I'm doing this through Streamyard. It's an imperfect technology. Sometimes, sometimes not. All the comments come through from all the different platforms. So if you're commenting and I'm not calling you out, then it's not you, I'm not mad at you or anything, it's just not working. On the technology side, if you can hear my dogs in the background, they were really fun to try to film around. I don't know what they've been barking at all day. I have a feeling there's a bunny or a squirrel that's tormenting them. So anyway, I've been talking non stop all day, but here's the thing, there are so many people in the world it is absolutely easy. This is something that my clients come to me freaking out about at least once or twice in our work together that they start going online. And it seems like everyone and their mother is a coach, everyone and their mother is a coach that focuses on what they work on. And here's what I have to remind them of, and I'm reminding you of this now, is that if you work in a specific industry, if you work in an industry where you're serving a very specific type of client and you are doing a lot of your marketing yourself, meaning you're writing posts, you're doing videos, you're using hashtags, all the things the interwebs are paying attention. They're thinking that you are looking for those things. So guess what? You're going to start seeing. You're going to start seeing ads for people who are in a similar space to you. You're going to see posts on social media that have to do with similar stuff. And guess what? Your colleagues in that space, I'm calling them colleagues and not competition. They. Their stuff is going to start showing up in your world. And yes, it can get really scary really fast thinking that you are fighting against these people for the same clients. But babes, no, it's so not true. I know. I know just because I'm a human in the world that not everyone is going to like me. And that is a okay with me. Okay. Because I don't like everyone. I don't want to hang out with all of the people out there in the world. I want to hang out with the people that light me up, that, you know, understand my jokes, that, you know, kind of think I'm pleasant to be around, otherwise our lives would be miserable. And these other humans in the world who are doing similar work to me, you know, they have different personalities. They connect with different types of people. There's absolutely more than enough to go around for everyone. I'm very open about my politics. I am a liberal. I'm extremely liberal. A lot of things on the liberal agenda matter a great deal to me. And I'm very open about it because I want to make sure that there's another way for people to sort themselves out of my bucket. They can go find a coach who aligns better with their values. And I'm not making their values wrong. I just have a different opinion on them. Well, some of the value. Well, yeah, let's not get into it in this video. But anyway, you know, if someone's not a Harry Potter joke, I'm sorry. A Harry Potter fan. I'm sorry, Most of my jokes are based around Harry Potter. They're not going to find me funny and that's not fun for me. But the message I want to get across here is that there's a beautiful way where your colleagues and creators competition can actually support each other and it, it makes everyone look better. We've all seen those posts where someone's trying to tear down another person in their space. And here's the impact it has. It doesn't actually tear down that person unless they've done something absolutely egregious. Unless they've murdered someone and then like kidnapped children and then started a dog fighting ring. Okay? Like they may have, they may just have like a certain way of doing things, but tearing that person down actually makes the tear downer look worse than anyone else. This is because no one, if you see one person tearing down another person, you're gonna think, oh God, like what's gonna happen if I ever do anything that pisses this person off? Guess what? They're gonna tear you down too. It doesn't create safety. It doesn't create safety with your followers and your audience. One of the beautiful ways to create safety is to not do that, you know, to ensure that everyone knows that no matter, you know, what different opinion you have, that you're not going to have a tear down piece of that person. Especially if it's over something that is within your business and its opinion and you know, in different approaches. There's no, absolutely no reason for that. There's a trend going on in the coaching space and in the coaching adjacent space, let's call it, because a lot of classical coaches who are trained would never do this. It violates confidentiality where a service provider will use an example of like a misbehaving client and we'll kind of shame that client, not naming them, but shaming them to their broader audience. And guess what this does. It tells everyone in your audience that if you become this person's client and you do one little thing wrong or you miss an email or something, that, or if you have a disagreement that you're then going to get shamed. And this actually happened to me back in February. And I'm not going to name the person because it's not necessary. I was in her group and I had a different opinion and she took me down in the Facebook group and you can bet your boots I called it out and I asked for my money back and that was that. And no apology was ever issued. There was. I'M sorry you feel that way. It's not a good look. And a lot of people were paying attention to that situation and they didn't see it as a good look either. It doesn't create trust. It actually creates scarcity in your world. There's this I want you to think of what are the markers for your ideal client and think of like, are they women? Are they between a certain age range? Do they work in a specific industry? And then literally look at the population of the country that you live in and the country where most of your clients are and I apologize to the dogs in the background, people are coming to the house. But anyway, I want you to just figure out like how many people who fit that description are there. And that's just right now because if your ideal client is a specific age range and say 10 years from now, guess what? That changes. You have a whole new population coming up. And then I want you to look at your business and I want you to figure out how many clients you could even possibly serve at max over your lifetime. I've done this. The max amount of people that I could serve with my current business model and is something like 8200 people. Okay. Over the next 30 years of my business. I did the math in a post previously. I am positive. I am 100% positive. What's the population of the US like 3 billion something I don't know. And like, you know, let's just say only I only work with Democrats. Only Democrats want to work with me. Okay. I'm pretty sure I can find 8,000 Democrats in there or liberal leaning people who are trying to build a business and want some support and who think my Harry Potter jokes are funny. I'm certain. 8,000. I don't know what the percentage point is there, but if someone wants to do the math and pop it in the comments, I would really appreciate it. And maybe I'll do that after the fact that I didn't plan on going here. But it's a great exercise. There's always going to be enough. And here's the beautiful thing, especially if you're in an industry like coaching, okay? Because coaching is still a very young industry. There are still people who don't understand what coaching actually is. They think when we say we're a coach, they think we coach sports teams. They only knew how little I know about sports, they would correct themselves very quickly. But it is so young that we don't have to fight each other over clients. We actually the fact that there are other coaches out there who do similar or complementary things to us. It actually creates better awareness of what it is that you do and raises the level of your service. It raises how much you can charge. It raises the conversation around what it is that you do and the results that you get for your clients. There's absolutely no reason why anyone who is in a service based industry should ever tear another service provider down. It's bad form and it actually works against you. It makes your business model on scarcity rather than on abundance. One of the most beautiful things that I've seen done throughout my career is when a professional is talking with a client and says, you know what, I just, I don't know if you and I are the best fit to work together or I don't know if I'm the best. Like our product is the best fit for your needs. Let me refer you to this other person who I think is going to work far better with you or this other company whose product actually has all the features that you are looking for for your company. It's not done often enough. I think one of the reasons we really love that book or that book in that movie, Miracle on 34th street about Santa Claus is that he has this, this sense of generosity. Of course he's Santa Claus, so Santa Claus does. He gives gifts as a job, but he has this beautiful sense of generosity and support for the people he speaks to and he tells them, you know, where they can get the toys cheaper so they can make their child's Christmas that much more special. That and it's also just a lovely story. But I know for me that that part of the story story is so critical that it's one of the things that I've remembered ever since my childhood. Anyway, this week has just been a lovely opportunity for me to be able to be in my tribe of people who also believes this, that a rising tide lifts all boats, that we can support each other and not take away from ourselves. Rick Tamlin. Oh my God. Rick Tamlin. I met him when I worked. I was volunteering as an assistant for a class through the Coactive Training Institute where I'm trained and certified as a coach. And he was a front of room leader for that class. And he just struck me as being so in integrity and authenticity and so open. It just, it drew me to him and I ended up signing up for his project program and I don't know where my business, I don't think my business would even be a thing if I hadn't signed up for his program. I think it probably would have crashed and burned. I probably would have spent a ton more money on stupid online courses that didn't get me anywhere. And he really held my hand through the emotional bits of building my business. I didn't need so much help on the strategy of it, but something wouldn't work, and I'd kind of fall apart because I didn't know what I was doing. And he made that recovery process that much faster to get better on LinkedIn. I know a lot of my connections have actually already worked with her, and a lot of my clients have already worked with her because I've told them to, but she's incredible. She's absolutely incredible. She teaches, like, here's the technology of LinkedIn. She doesn't focus too much on it because it's not that important. She has this beautiful way of focusing on you as the whole person and then, like, showing you the parts of you that other people will actually find interesting. And it's. It's surprising. It doesn't have to be anything dramatic or big. It can be as simple as, you know, what is your Saturday morning routine and what do you appreciate about it and what does that represent in your life? You know, it's. It. Both people are just so lovely in the way that they show that it's okay to be vulnerable and open about who you are and allow for others to feel connected to you. And I. I don't know, maybe it's just that I've spent the last two days just thinking about what they've. How they've contributed to my life and supported me in different beautiful ways, but I'm just basking this. This sense of how lucky am I that I have people like this in my life right now? And also not just them. To all of you who watch and who maybe comment or maybe like, or don't comment, don't like, but you send me little direct messages saying, hey, I just watched your live. It meant a lot. Thank you so much. Or it really resonated or I really needed to hear that today. Gosh. I mean, like, I don't. I'm. I don't say this enough, but those messages mean a great deal to me because, you know, I do this almost every weekday and, you know, it's just me. There's no crew here telling me how I'm doing or if what I'm saying resonates. So I so appreciate you. This is. I mean, this is just turning into a gratitude fest for you in my life, you in my audience, you and my connection pool. Wherever we're, wherever I'm meeting you, I know this is, this is streaming to the Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Thank you for being a part of my world. I'm very grateful from the bottom of my heart for you and for your support. And I hope that what I put out there in the world adds some value and some support to you wherever you are in your journey, whatever you're up to. Yeah, I don't know if I have anything else to say today. It is, it is Friday. It's almost 5 o'. Clock. I'm dressed in real clothes for the first time. I really want to get back in pajamas. It's really weird to have like normal pants on. Like I don't know how I'm going to go back to the real world after this. Just crazy. I know you guys are feeling the same way, but anyway, that's, that's all I wanted to say today. Trust. Trust in the abundance of the universe. Whatever you are trying to create for yourself, there is an abundant audience out there who is ready to gobble it up. And Scott. Hi Katie. There's no shame in being grateful and humble. Rock on. Thank you, Scott. Yeah, no, so great. So grateful. I don't know how humble I am, but yeah, thank you. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know how we're going to go back to the world and get dressed as normal human beings again. I'm very comfortable these days. But anyway, it is five o'. Clock. I'm gonna wrap up a few things before the weekend. And for those of you who are paying attention yesterday, still haven't done the writing that I need to do for my books. That's now a weekend thing. I have a feeling my work life balance is gonna be a little off kilter over the next month as I lead up to my deadline that is self set by the way. I set the deadline. Anyway, that's a story for another day. And Scott, thank you for being you as well. Thank you. Anyway, happy Friday. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week. Bye.