Out of the hundreds of clients that I've worked with as a legacy architectTM and marketing coach, I have to say, there are only a handful that I can remember who have been truly consistent in their personal and business growth. They are the types like my friend Christopher Guerriero, one of the experts on the Extreme Business Makeovers 2008 training team, who continually discover and practice daily habits and seemingly small distinctions which pay off in huge dividends over time. I love them and can appreciate them for what they do, but I have a really hard time identifying with them. I'm just not naturally wired that way.
It may be because the majority of my clients have been typical creative, passionate and somewhat scattered entrepreneur types, but in my experience, most growth is not so methodically planned and consistently executed. It's more like an alternating pattern of growth spurts and plateaus. From my experience, most growth takes a catalyst to inspire it and help us change our actions so we can change our outcomes.
These catalysts can vary greatly from individual to individual, but they can pretty much be grouped in one of these three categories: negative, positive and planned events.
The negative catalyst is characterized by taking new direction and action to avoid an undesirable outcome. For instance, someone starts working out and eating better because they are diagnosed with high blood pressure ... a man agrees to marriage counseling when his wife threatens to leave ... a business owner will revamp their marketing because sales keep eroding. While this is by far the most prevalent catalyst for growth, it is also the least effective at maximizing one's potential as it doesn't bring one from success summit to success summit. Instead, the one who seeks growth in order to avoid the negatives merely avoids the valleys, but too often makes their base camp at the foot of the mountain.
The positive catalyst is characterized by taking new direction and action due to a positive event of sorts. This would be the bride or groom who starts shedding unwanted pounds in anticipation of their wedding day... the couple who start going to church to inspire new spiritual depth because they've just had their first child ... the business owner who improves the product line for the company's twentieth anniversary in business. While the positive catalysts can, at times, be effective, it is difficult, in situations when the positive events pass, to maintain the same level of motivation and momentum.
In working with entrepreneurs, I have found that the catalysts which tend to produce the most consistent and long-lasting results are planned events. With this catalyst, an individual may not know the path they need to take, but they have a destination in mind and periodically they evaluate where they are with where they would like to be. When they come up short in any area, they seek out information and take quick, decisive action to get to a new level. This is like the fit individual who may have hit a plateau and hires a personal trainer to have a full day session help them change their workouts and eating plans, or attending a fitness retreat. In business, this could be hiring a coach or consultant for an intense planning day or attending a seminar.
Out of all the possible planned event catalysts, I like attending seminars. Here's why:
1) Even though I prefer to be rather hermit-like and just read a book or watch seminar videos on DVDs, there's enormous energy and power that comes from being at a live event. The information is more dynamic in that the specific information I need to apply personally seems to leap out at me. When I read a book, I feel like I need to apply it all and often come away with a mile long to-do list that never gets done. There is also a great deal of energy, motivation and perspective that comes from the other attendees. I find myself learning from their situations and feeling a certain amount of camaraderie and accountability for making new changes.
2) It's an automatically "NOW" kind of a setting. Unlike a book or DVD which could easily be set aside for another day, week or month, a seminar is date specific. The line in the sand is drawn and by participating you are deciding that you will not be the same person leaving that event as you were going to it.
3) Seminars are incredibly cost-effective. You will wind up investing a very small fraction of what you would typically have paid to have the speaker(s) consult with you individually. You can literally walk away with a world-class education for less than the cost of a typical vacation.
4) Of course, there is also the X-Factor of seminars. We may participate with our particular agenda for growth, but our "Creator" often has something even better in mind. I can't even remember the last seminar or conference I attended where I didn't walk away with a new relationship that ended up being a source of referrals, a joint venture partner or other such person of increase. While I definitely walk away with the growth that I was seeking, the financial increase that has come from this X-Factor has often added 10%, 20%, even 40% to my bottom line - quickly and with zero effort on my part.
There are many other reasons to attend seminars and conferences, but suffice it to say, I recommend that everyone plan to participate in two or more annually to keep your self-development muscles growing.
My only word of caution is to concentrate on seminars that impart unchanging principles and that focus on application, not just information. Short-term tactics come and go and can be easily learned, as needed, through books. True principles are timeless and often need a seminar or other planned event setting to be successfully applied. By focusing on developing principle based skills and character traits, you will continually climb from summit to summit in your personal success journey.
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Hey ... just 16 days till Extreme Business Makeovers 2008. I hope to see you there!
All the Best,
Thom
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