When I first started coaching people professionally, I was lucky enough to get a couple of clients at the high-end level right away. Now, these are people that came in from a natural network, people had heard about me and knew just kind of what I’ve been doing and what I’ve been up to in my own personal life as well as my business career. But what always perplexed me why weren’t more people reaching out to me? Why weren’t people reaching out to me to get resources, to get information, I mean I put in my 10,000 hours way over 10,000 ago. In other words, I had all the education, experience and I was ready to help millions of people, I was just waiting for them to knock on the door.
You know, I just simply wanted people to refer. And I started to wonder, geesh is this really going to be the thing that I do? Am I really going to be able to help that many people? And, I started having doubts on the traction, and I started to remember a story, right? I remember a story when I opened my first personal, private training studio in my early 20’s in downtown Santa Barbara, California. I remember a trainer that came in and he worked for me or worked out of my facility anyway and he was extremely educated and so what he did is he set upstairs at the desk and he would sit up there all day.
Now the other fit pros were out hustling, networking, meeting other people as they were building their new business and they were excited and there was a buzz in the air. But he just sat at the desk and after a few weeks he had maybe one, two clients that he’d brought in from his previous job, when I talked to him, he said, “Geesh, I have all the degrees and credentials Doug, people should just be coming in to see me.” Now his goal, or what he wanted to do was sit at the desk and read about exercise physiology, read about training so he could become a better fitness professional, and he was becoming a better one. What he didn’t realize is people weren’t going to walk in the door.
Just like me, you know I thought, man people know that I’ve been investing so much time and reading books and taking courses and hiring coaches and mentors. Naturally, when they have a problem they’re just going to ask me and I can refer them to the right resource, they don’t have to coach with me. I could simply say, “You know what, you need to take this course.” Or, “Oh, that problem, read this book.” “That’s interesting, I recommend this coach to you.” And I do that now today and it’s picked up over time. And recently I was interviewed for a show as a growth expert and I was very proud to be that. On the show, right after it cut out, the person interviewing me, who actually ran the group asked me, he said: “Doug, you know I’m just not gaining any traction.”
You know you think that all of a sudden, you’ll get so many more people, I’m putting all this time and money into this and no one’s coming, you know I’m just not getting the traction. Well, the truth is he had just started, he had only been running this group for several months and already had over 600 members. It was actually an impressive result for such a short period of time. But what he was forgetting is what many of us forget. Was that traction takes time? It’s like that story. The overnight success that you hear on the radio or see on TV, has been working at it, playing music in grungy bars, 365 days a week. Traveling the country in a dirty van for 15 years before they became that overnight success.
Myself, I started my journey in personal and business development in high school and very formally in college afterward. And here I am 41, I’m still on that journey. Even today I dedicate over two hours each and every day to personal and business development so I can teach and help my clients as well as people that reach out to me. And now I almost have the exact opposite problem. I get over 100 messages a day, right, from people all over the world asking for tips or advice or where to go or asking if they can apply to coach with or be a coach, or me to coach them. Right. And so now I have the exact opposite problem, I have almost too many people coming in and I have a team luckily for me to manage that.
It got me thinking of how many of us really look at that or when we start our exercise program and we don’t see immediate results, right, we look at the scale and we say, “Hey, we’ve lost a couple of pounds in the first two weeks.” And then three or four and nothing really moves and we say ah, this doesn’t work. Ah, palates is bad, Yoga, strength training or whatever it may be. Or what about in a relationship, right, what about relationships where we try something new with our spouse. I’ve certainly have done this with my wife. Tried to evoke change by doing something different and then going well you know, it didn’t really work and then I gave up too soon.
So what I encourage you to do is what I do or I invite you to do this. Grab your journals, write out your five to thrive, your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships and your business and look at that. Look at where you’re not getting traction and then ask yourself, “Are you giving it time?” Right, so with these daily growth acts I will reach my goal of 365 daily growth acts in only two months from now. Right, and so when I first started, maybe my mom was even watching me or listening to these on podcasts, you know. It was simply I just put it out there to the world. Now every day I’m getting messages from many of you and I love getting those so please keep them coming letting me know how these daily growth acts impact your lives.
That is what I’m trying to tell you. It’s been way over 300 episodes and it’s just gaining traction. And that’s what it takes. So the key is finding what you love, in any area of your life, right, but finding something you love to do and giving it the time. Giving it at least 90 days, right, but if not 90 days decide how long this is going to take to give it an honest, fair try before you gain traction. In business, we look at things much, much longer, right? Much greater scales. The startup might be six months or a year before you really are going to see solid traction coming in for that. And the same goes with other categories of our life.
So I invite you to grab that journal, write down your five to thrive, look at areas, you know your mind, body, soul, relationships, and business and where are you feeling like you’re not getting traction? And, ask yourself a question, are you truly giving it enough time so you know, if it’s weight loss if you’re doing the right things it’s going to happen. So check in with an expert and reach out to me if you have questions or just want to bounce ideas I’m happy to help out any way I can or at least point you to the right resource. Remember the younger me, many years ago going why isn’t anybody asking me questions? I’m happy to point you.
You know I actually coach some of the world’s best coaches and so I know some good people to direct you too if it’s a good fit for you. But also go to the author of your own story community. So as soon as you’re done listening to or watching this, depending on the medium you decide to digest it. Go over to the Facebook community or you can go to authorofyourownstory.com and just click on community. It’s going to take you to the private Facebook group and share your insights. There’s a lot of experts from a ton of industries. We have lawyers, we have doctors, we have life coaches, we have business coaches and we have ordinary people that will share their experiences and let them know, say “Hey look, I just noticed, I’ve been doing this, I’ve been doing this exercise or whatever it is for X number of times, shouldn’t I get traction, shouldn’t I be getting more traction here?” And just share your opportunities with them and let them share with you.
Now I’m going to ask you to share this with at least three people. Three people so you build your own personal tribe and have conversations that matter. And of course, go out and inspire someone simply by being the Author of Your Own Story. I will see you tomorrow.
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