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It’s Sunday night when I write this column. I’ve spent the past two and a half days creating an intensive one on one, deep dive coaching experience for a client of mine. It all started two years ago when we met through a mutual friend.
I’ve been working with Chris “Tatted Strength” Luera, who has a tremendous story of falling into drugs, gangs and prison, but he’s turned his life around and when I met him it was clear he needed a book written and to become a motivational speaker. We started working together and I dragged him to Toastmasters International (Westside club 638 where the “Westside is the Best Side!”) to start the process. Today he’s an amazing speaker, who is confident, motivating and connects with an audience in ways that are beyond impressive. He has traveled to the Dubai on all expense paid trip, and been handsomely paid for his speaking.
Our mutual friend is Rain Bennett, the two-time Emmy nominated, Award Winning filmmaker behind Raise UP! Which features Chris on his path to being a three-time World Calisthenics Organization champion. Rain has seen the work I’ve done with Chris and he wanted to get together to see how I could help him.
In April we chatted and decided that we needed to do a deep dive into Rain’s business life. I suggested that we meet halfway between his home in North Carolina and my base in Santa Monica – which meant Dallas. It’s always Dallas.
But neither of us wanted to be in that heat, but we did want barbecue, so that left us with Kansas City Mo. Home of burnt ends and about a bazillion bbq joints.
We booked a couple of hotel rooms and flights and before we knew it, the weekend intensive was here.
I’ve worked with men for decades now on getting to causes and conditions that block their performance. I’ve helped many businesses develop marketing plans, and come up with development strategies for individuals and this weekend was going to be a deep dive into all of that and more.
We started Friday night at dinner over some amazing bbq ribs with some very personal, in depth conversations that helped to uncover areas of insecurities, fears and uncomfortable truths. Then came Saturday morning – the discovering continued as we really dug in to personal details, wants, needs, fears, and started to determine what are his REAL goals and motivations.
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Bringing light and focus to what was dark and unclear may be my greatest joy. I can’t wait to do this again with another person, and see their life change.
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By lunchtime we had cleared the distractions from the true purpose of his life and decided on a business path that made sense for him. Lunchtime was a working lunch with some deep soul sharing of old hurts that still caused pain, which meant that post lunch was going to be some focused and intense inventory work to clear up and release those resentments. It wasn’t fun, but it was extremely useful.
Sunday was a day of planning. We spent most of the day planning content for an entire digital media and marketing strategy that will take his current skills and knowledge in a direction that plays to his strengths, needs and goals.
This was an intense weekend of emotions, analysis and creative collaboration. I know that he is leaving with an actionable plan for his business, and a lot lighter emotionally with the resentments that we released. For me, the experience of being able to work intensely, for two and a half days with one man, focused solely on his needs, wants and desires – allowed me to be at my best as a coach, multi-media mentor and consultant. We developed an Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and traditional media marketing plan.
I truly enjoyed being able to help someone see their future and help them create it. Bringing light and focus to what was dark and unclear may be my greatest joy. I can’t wait to do this again with another person, and see their life change. I want to do this on a regular basis, in a one on one setting, because it allows for the client to feel safe sharing their dark secrets, fears, insecurities, and doubts without shame or embarrassment. The privacy and the focus I can bring to this one on one situation also made it easier for me to spitball ideas, and we could run through more ideas, faster.
Rain is leaving Kansas City, MO feeling that the weekend was a total win for him and completely worth the time and money commitment. He said he feels empowered to build this and be the man he’s wanted to be as a result of this weekend. I leave knowing that I can help others build the life of their dreams and I look forward to doing more of it in the future. If you want to talk, email me at [email protected].
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Be sure to check out our upcoming class, How to Be a Rising Star in Media. Click below to register!
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Social Interest Groups
Exclusive benefits for The Good Men Project Premium Community Gold and Platinum Members.
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You already know we are The conversation no one else is having.™ Well, that conversation has been getting better and deeper and even more connected to actual social change. We have been rolling out “Social Interest Groups”—groups of people who are coming together to discuss specific areas of interest. Each group has a weekly phone call and then stay in touch during the week Premium Member Facebook community and our Facebook Groups. Each group will create content, interface with other groups working in the area, and forge a path to actual social change.
Each Social Interest Group has: (1) A clearly defined problem that we actually think we can help solve; (2) A clear group of people we want to change; and (3) A way of measuring results.
The groups hold weekly phone conference call for one hour every week, so you can talk to other members of the community and share ideas. Then, in between calls, an email thread will connect the community and allow further ways of communicating with the other members throughout the week.
