And now… the fourth and final instalment on the oh-so-big but not so common topic of claiming sovereignty in your business, and the clarity of knowing the kind of individual you’re happy to work with, and the kind you’re not.

By the way, here’s the obvious secret that’s not so obvious: in terms of the ideal client you’re willing to work with? You’re looking for you.

And to put even more meat on that bone – someone with not necessarily the same beliefs as you have – I’ve worked with plenty of people who have very different beliefs and views of life than I do – but we share similar values.

Values are not beliefs and beliefs are not values, although many people think they are. There’s a subject for another article or two, for now, to the final three mindsets I won’t work with:

5: The Mind With No Staying Power

Forget quick fixes now. Forget the ever elusive ‘magic pill’ or the latest ‘ninja tactics’ promised by those self-styled, self-anointed success gurus.

There are no shortcuts to becoming an Elite Influencer in the Coaching profession, and there are no shortcuts to the wealth and freedom which play a huge role in making the entrepreneurial path so worthwhile.

Can you accelerate these outcomes?

Of course. Massively, in fact. But the only ‘shortcut’ is the path least taken – the alternative path to the herd – and it’s still got plenty of bumps, plenty of bends and it still has its distance.

Dabblers are two-for-a-penny in this world. We’ve all been guilty of dabbling in something in our lives, and we all know where it leads – disappointment, frustration, and inevitable failure.

If all it took was a one-off workshop, seminar or training course – or one year in mastermind – we’d all be living the dream.

Life doesn’t give you what you want, it gives you who you are. Whatever success looks like to you at a personal and professional level, you’re going to have to roll your sleeves up, put your back into it and stick with it to the point it becomes an integral, habitual part of your day-to-day life.

This is what sorts the ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’ in any walk of life. There’s a very good reason why Napoleon Hill, who spent two decades researching the most successful people of his generation, dedicated an entire chapter of ‘Think & Grow Rich’  to ‘Persistence’. 

It’s not a ‘nice to have’, it’s a must.

Over the decades I’ve been in this game, I’ve watched an eye-opening amount of coaches and business owners join high end programmes and last no more than a year, not because the programme or those leading it weren’t up to scratch, but because the individual concerned wasn’t. 

In other words, they lacked the necessary grit, discipline and commitment to follow through and consistently follow through.

I’ve seen people engage in the same self-sabotaging behaviour time and time again. It’s endemic. Even with the lengths I go to to filter out those I know won’t fit well with me and my community – this series of articles for example – the well-intentioned ‘wannabes’ and ‘dabblers’ still find their way past my barriers more often than I’d like.

Application is a measure of adequacy. Persistent application is a measure of mastery. We’ve already covered how knowledge is of little or no value unless it’s used to practical ends.

If you’re a ‘dip your toe in the water’ kind of person – and there are many – and you expect your results to improve substantially because you read a few self-help books a year, attend a few seminars and trainings, or you’ve watched Pillar 1 in The 4 Pillars of Entrepreneurial Mastery™ series once – you’ve yet to grasp that transformation comes from a process not a singular event…

…  and until that penny truly drops, and you can only know it has when you act in accordance with your new understanding, we’d both be a waste of each others’ time. 

6: The Mind Needing To Be Told The Answers

You and I have something in common; we are products of our environment.

It’s very likely you were programmed, as I was, to look to others for answers.

From the day we become compos mentis, our minds are programmed to get answers from authority figures in our lives: our parents, peers, teachers, bosses, religious leaders etc.

The consequences of this societally-induced affliction are dire. We’re literally programmed to not think into our answers, to not think into our truths, preferring to seek the opinion and so-called ‘truths’ of others rather than think for ourselves.

A relatively small percentage of people wake up to this truth. The vast majority don’t, and it hurts them far more than they’ll ever know. Nothing limits our ability to reach our full potential more than the habit of not seeking answers within ourselves.

Every day, well-intentioned yet none-the-wiser individuals hand over their hard-earned cash to so-called ‘coaches’, consultants and other ‘business gurus’ in the pursuit of getting solutions to their most pressing problems…

… all because their minds have been trained to look for ‘expert’ advice outside of themselves – never trusting in their own ability to think beyond their existing conditions and circumstances.

And so they remain dependant on external ‘expertise’, and in doing so, this crippling myth reinforces the belief which sponsors it.

Worse still, the quality of answer they get from the ‘expert’ will never be as relevant as the answer drawn from the ONLY mind that is an expert on the business and its challenges – their own!

This is the primary reason why so many talented business owners fail to reach the success they deserve. It’s no exaggeration to say the vast majority of human beings live lives shaped by someone else’s habitual way of thinking, and most of the population isn’t even aware of it.

I’m not in the business of giving people answers. I’m in the business of improving how people think. I do that by asking skillfully structured questions. Those questions draw insights from deep within (hence the term insight – revelations the individual concerned was unconscious to until the question compelled the mind to make the answer conscious.

The answer drawn from within is always far more relevant and applicable to the conditions and circumstances of the individual concerned.

Understand this: you know the answers to your most pressing problems and challenges… you’re just not conscious of them…

… yet.

You’ve heard the old axiom of ‘give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?’ It perfectly explains the essence of my work and the work of the Elite Influencers we produce from our industry-leading, award winning methodology at the Conscious Coaching Academy™.

This is why, if you’ve wisely invested in the likes of The 4 Pillars of Entrepreneurial Mastery™, 7 Steps to Success™, or a multitude of other solutions offered in my body of work, you’ll have come across the accompanying Success Implementation Guide™ .

It contains the vital Coaching techniques which elevate consciousness and the quality of thinking it produces.

That’s what has to happen if a life – and a business – is to be transformed.

The Conscious Coaching Academy™ is not for everyone who wants to become a Coach. In fact, it’s not for most. We’re not in the business of creating more typical, average coaches, we’re in the business of creating the Elite Influencers of the profession – the torchbearers – the very best this industry will ever produce. 

And that comes with the responsibility of being fully congruent with your message – to walk your talk – to be the shining example and living embodiment of what you stand for when you look your target market audience in the eyes.

And my entrepreneurial communities are not for every business owner – and again, not for most.

As we’ve already established in this series of articles, if you’re not willing to think into your results, and unlearn the habitual ways of thinking responsible for your existing conditions and circumstances, I can’t help you.

No one can. Not even yourself… until you change it.

7: The Mind Irritated By Consistent Communication

I communicate with my clients and General Inner Circle on a consistent and regular basis, predominantly through email. That means most, if not every day. On occasion, I can even communicate several times a day.

I do this for 2 very good reasons:

1: The beliefs which sponsor your thinking, which in turn sponsor the behaviours which call forth your current results, were built up over a very long time and reinforced by repetition. Consequently, they’ll not come undone easily and overnight.

Hence why the previous mindset I won’t work with – the one lacking staying power – is non-negotiable for me.

My communications have several purposes, one of which is to sell you into programmes, courses and services I know will dramatically transform your life, business and career for the better… but the ultimate driver behind my communication is to awaken the mind of the reader.

Awareness is everything. You cannot manage, modify and improve something you’re not aware of. And what you’re aware of, you control, what you’re not aware of, controls you.

Every time you read a message from me it takes you out of the doing and into the thinking. In doing so, it plays an important part in modifying the programming which is, when you’re not consciously intervening (which is the case for the vast majority of the time) re-creating results you want to change, rather than creating results you want to experience.

Finally, my daily emails, like the various modalities of communications found in the “Naked Coach’ series, are far from typical. They’ve earned a global reputation for a reason; they add extraordinary value to the lives of recipients. 

There’s a very good reason I get complaints on the odd occasion I don’t send one. It’s a privilege to receive my emails. Anyone losing sight of that truth should unsubscribe immediately using the ‘manage my subscription’ link at the foot of every email.

2. Success compounds. Frequency and regularity are key. I’ve never met a highly successful Coach or highly successful entrepreneur who is too busy to find time to think, feed the mind and grow. 

At its most simple level, success is simply a process of replacing habits which no longer serve you with habits which do. 

Reading my emails on a regular basis every day is a habit which has proven, time and time again, to serve the reader. Thousands can testify to that truth.

The non-thinking or hard-of-thinking will be far too ‘busy’ on far less valuable matters to read my emails. They’ll find the consistency, frequency and regularity of my communications off-putting. 

This is why you’ll often witness me doing the unconventional and counter intuitive thing of strongly encouraging people to unsubscribe. Only the kind of mindset I want to work with does… such is the value of crystal clear clarity on the kind of individual you choose to work with, and the kind you don’t.

By the way, I don’t ask my clients and the individuals in my General Inner Circle to do what I’m not willing to do. I’m subscribed to the email broadcasts of numerous individuals who bring value to me. Ninety per cent of them email me every day, the rest communicate at least 4 or 5 times a week. 

I don’t mind one bit. On the contrary, I’m grateful.

Why?

Because I need my thinking to be challenged too; after all, the Coach unwilling to take his or her own medicine is derelict in duty and should be struck off.

And the business owner subjecting his business to the quality of his current thinking is going backwards, dragging his business with him. The proverbial train wreck waiting to happen. 

I’ve said it a million times before and I’ll make no apology for saying it a million times again – your business, and the quality of life it brings, can never outgrow the quality of thinking you bring to it…

… and if there’s no fresh impetus going in, don’t expect much of that marvellous mind of yours. It can’t do for you what it can only do with you.

This ends this four part series on Sovereignty in business, and how it shows up in my business through The 7 Mindsets I Won’t Work With.

Much food for much thought? 

I do hope so… because make my words, the consequences of not being aware of this, and most importantly not putting whatever represents sovereignty in your business to work, is, unquestionably, disastrous.

Warmly,

Christian

P.S. Remember, if you’re serious about enjoying a richly rewarding, deeply fulfilling and highly lucrative career in the Coaching profession, and you’re ready to explore how to make it happen, here are three ways I can help:

1: Watch Elite Influencer, Elite Impact™.

Go to the footer of this post and register for almost instant access.

Elite Influencer, Elite Impact™ is a profoundly powerful, 50-minute masterclass which not only reveals how the very best in this profession enjoy careers of far more influence, far more impact and far more income, it also reveals what you need to know to make it happen in your career.

It’s free to access, and no, there is no “sales pitch” coming your way. Just the eye-opening insight most of this profession will never know, the industry leading, award-winning methodology behind the Elite Influencers of the Coaching profession, and the next step if you’re ready to explore if following in their footsteps is the right fit for you and your career aspirations.

2: Join me live in The Iconic Coach: Become a Highly Sought After Expert in Transformation™

A priceless, unmissable career-defining event awaits you in this one-of-a-kind, globally acclaimed online training experience. 

Discover everything this extraordinary session contains, and join the pre-registration list by clicking this link.

3: Have the Deeper Conversation

If you’re ready to explore the fit between your aspirations and our unique, award winning methodology, let’s have the deeper conversation about you, your career and your future in a personal, one-to-one consultation. 

Find out more by clicking here.