Twenty-Twelve has proven to be the most transitional, upward, forward moving year of my professional and my personal life. Many of you may say, every year is like this and if that is so for you CONGRATULATIONS! So many of you are clients, peers, friends, former clients and new introductions that I just want to acknowledge all of you and tell you the journey and the ride with you has been nothing short of marvelous. For those who have stayed in touch, thank you. I am always so happy to find out what’s going on in your life and to pour into your life and serve right where you are when we intersect! We are all on the highway called life and I never know when I will intersect your life and you mine.
I truly believe in “Leading By Example”. I know this is a long end of the year letter; however, its value is worth millions of dollars for those who care to really understand what you have in your e-mail box. To that end, page 4 on is what I did this year to deepen my serving scope. Take a look and see what you can learn.
Here’s a brief synopsis of 2012 for me. We (my spouse and I) managed to cross the million mile frequent flier mark. We walked our youngest down the aisle and put her hand in the hand of wonderful new son-in-law. We bought a new home in the East Bay, about 50 miles SE of the Golden Gate Bridge and moved some 2800 miles in late July. We are settling in nicely and our oldest is now engaged also and will marry in 2013 and we will have another wonderful son-in-law! Life is good on the personal front. We are thankful to God for his blessings.
2012 was a year of massive professional development and training for me. I felt that the old new technology ways were too disconnected and scattered and that a more integrated approach was needed in my transition from the 1:1 model to the 1:many model. I also have become disenchanted with the idea that authors, speakers, information marketers, mentors, coaches, consultants and the like live and work in their own enclaves and are not held to a high standard as a group. Yes, these individual entities have standards and ethics, but I along with thousands of others saw this gap. To that end, I began to explore the Experts Industry Association and over the period of a year decided to join this group. You can go to: www.expertsindustryassociation.com and look at it yourself. We are all under the umbrella of experts. That is what we are, we are experts in the field of speaking, writing books, consulting, coaching, mentoring, and marketing our information products and services.
As all of you know we lost 3 huge long time “Experts” this past year; Jim Rohn, Stephen Covey and Zig Ziglar. Their collective void will be felt for years, however, their legacy will live on for decades and I dare say a century. This leaves a huge void in our “Expert” industry space. Who will fill it? You? I know I am certainly going to leave my mark in this space.
Every year I tell you about the books I read and that have made an impact with me. This year is no different. In 2012 however, I met someone who reads one book every week and has never missed in 16 years. You know, I thought I was doing well. Apparently not! This year’s list is on page 4. I also have narrowed my reading in the subscription area too. I have become more laser focused, as I see where the deposits of knowledge into my core make a difference in my foundation from which to draw and to serve my clients from. What did you read this year? Where has your foundational knowledge grown?
I have attended and purchased many conferences, programs, and met some amazing folks out there in the “Experts” space and you would know their names. It is amazing how when the time is right, people come together who do not know each other from all over the world to sit down together as equals to build a common industry and to freely share what they have done to serve their clients and what they need to move all the people and their clients forward in one push.
Collaboration is a powerful force when the pretense of “who we think we are” is left at the door! The cool thing with this group of people is that they actually go out and “DO IT”! You know the statistic that 80% of any given audience who pays to attend an event such as a “how to” event; never does anything with what they just paid to learn: not this group. They get together and they map out their strategies right there in the suspension of time and give real time feedback to those in their group. Over the course of 4 days, the groups change and more input and clarity is gained. It is a whole new way of thinking and I for one love it. The high doesn’t die once you leave, because we stay connected in a unique way and recreate that safe space online to continue the forward drive and collaboration. Just writing it lifts me up.
All of this process of learning, equipping and laser focus also has an added by product; a more refined, high level of client with a longer lifetime value. After all isn’t that what we are all looking for? A client which is of a higher caliber who is our perfect client who can afford to pay for what we offer and can be a repeat customer is the pearl we all seek.
This change in my professional thinking from describing myself as a “coach” to saying I am an “Expert”, has shifted everything for me mentally and raised my productivity to an all-time high. The blocked time on my calendar has enabled me to increase my writing 10X. That is huge. The white space I have created, allows my message to literally flow out of me a higher pace and the result is worn out keyboards; in 2012, four to be exact. This in turn raises my enthusiasm, my drive to connect to others and to serve as never before. My customers and clients are getting a whole higher level of service.
Today as 2012 comes to a close, I find myself redefining what we in coaching call “the elevator speech”, although that is so limiting in it phrasing. I feel now that I am called to:
“…serve others, to open their eyes to see, their ears to hear and their heart to open to the possibility that they are worth more than they can possibly imagine and they can live lives rich in relationships through their own powerful decisions…”
My lists will follow after this last bit of coaching from me to you.
What is the lesson that you need to learn from 2012?
Whom did you serve in 2012?
What commitments did you make which stretched you too thin?
What will you decide “not to do” in 2013?
How will your commitments in 2013 align with who you are and what your mission is as an expert in your field?
What do you want to do, to be, to achieve and to experience in 2013?
Our calendars are mirrors of what we value most in our lives; what does your calendar show you value?
You know, for a long time I let “technology” be my reason for not doing something. I can’t believe I let it be my personal Achilles heel for so long. Do you know what jarred me loose from this negative way of thinking? It is so simple, I’m embarrassed to even share it with you, however, I know that when I was in the room with all those well-known people who just wanted to “farm it out”, we were all sitting there and thinking the same way!…It doesn’t matter that any of us doesn’t know how to do something. It is our responsibility to “LEARN” how to do it. I used to say to stay in your strengths and hire out your weakness, but that gives all the power of running my business to someone else who isn’t as vested as I am in my results, so it is up to me to learn how to do the things I fear (yes, we fear the unknown). Our ambition is tied to “what I know”. In order to make a difference, each of us has to get out there. Out there means into the world where our potential clients and customers are. If you are stuck in the knock on one door at a time, you will always be struggling for customers and clients. When your ambition goes away you will stagnate, slow down and stumble and then fall flat on your face. Think about your own business right now. Are you stuck? Have you slowed down in 2012 hoping for some uptick in the economy or election or other source?
It takes real courage to go after what you really want! Being in business requires you to be fearless! On your quest you must also be consistent! Without consistency you will do a face plant. What I have seen over and over again over this past ten years is that people are busy being busy at doing nothing that forwards their passion, their business or their financials. Here’s a thought: what if you didn’t allow anything to intrude on you unless it was making you money. Answering email is not growing your business. Tweeting is not growing your business. Being successful in business is being prolific. Being prolific comes from being consistent. Being consistent produces a high caliber and high quality of work.
I say all of this to get you to begin to understand that you can 10X your business by expanding your learning and being consistent when you pair these two with courageous ambition and do it every day with sheer JOY; you will soar higher than you have ever soared in business.
No one can do this for you. Only YOU can do it for yourself!
I would love to hear what comes up for you after you read this letter. Please write me and let me know: janice@janicebastanicoaching.com
Soaring high with my clients and customers and we all have big smiles on our faces!
Work with a proven winner!
Janice
Janice Bastani Coaching
1-866-534-6755
http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/janicebastani
My New Library in our new home
It is in a semicircle.
Here’s the left side……..
And YES, I have read every book!
TheReading List for 2012
Let It Go, The Divided Mind, John Kralik’s, 365 Thank Yous, The Wednesday Letters,Christmas Jars, Celebrate Today, The Adult Learner, Great By Choice, Understanding and Facilitating Adult, Grace, Learning, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, Team Of Rivals, Eyewitness To Power, Quiet Places: A Women’s Guide to Personal Retreat, As A Man Thinket, Think Out of the box, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty, The Art of Exceptional Living, God Has A Plan for Your Life, Life Is Tremendous, Beyond Talent, The Accidental Creative, Let It Go, The Right Brain Business Plan, Flow, Ten Things To DO When Your Life Falls Apart, Steve Jobs, The Charge, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, How To Write A Book Proposal, The Brain In Love, At First Sight, The Lucky One, The Compounding Effect, The Millionaire Messenger, The Clutter Diet, Admire, Words, The Blessed Life, Shatter Your Speed Limits, The Right-Brain Business Plan.
……..and here is the right side…..
The Professional Growth List for 2012
10X Publishing Maximum Impact Club
Success Magazine John Maxwell Founders Team Audit
Table Talk GKIC
Experts Industry Association Annual Meeting
Experts Academy The automatic millionaire University
Quantum Leap 12 P31 Woman
Expresso Harvard Business Review
Scientific Mind Astronomy
Fast Company Inc
Executive Leadership Write Your Book in 90 days
Maxwell University Training RTIR Interview
John Maxwell Author Day Greatest Speaker Training
Mentorship Think Tank Journey
10X Wealth & Business RTIR Interview
High Performance academy
Interview for Words of Wisdom Book with Brian Tracy & Dr. John Gray
Coaching & Mentoring
7 Private clients
15 Private Mentoring Clients
48 Group mentoring clients
3,800 successful coaching sessions since 2004
Leading By Example
70+ Blog Posts in 2012
Completed 2 full length books
Completed 4 E-Books (each about 14,000 words)
Completed 2 levels of an online program with 12 lessons in each
Wrote 350,000 words of content in 2012
What did you do with your focused time in 2012?
Work with a proven winner…contact me at:
janice@janicebastanicoaching.com
908-229-3797
866-534-6755