The last time I was in this big a professional transition was the early 2000’s when I declared that I would no longer be decorating eggs. After 30+ years as The Egg Lady – a name I always hated, but respected because it was memorable – I let go of being a craft artist and fully embraced coaching as a business.
My good friend, a professional organizer, came to my space to help me with that evolution. I’d had a wonderful studio designed years earlier that had a division between my creative work area and where my employees sat to assist me. There were bookshelves extending wall-to-wall unifying the two halves of the room. The major step my helper took was to remove all the art books on my side. These I was to give away, donate or sell. The few I deeply cherished were moved over to the workers’ side.
The shelves near my section were now virtually empty. “Betsy!” I implored. “Why are you leaving me all that room?”
“So that you can attract new resources, volumes about coaching, and running this new area of your company.” The thought terrified me. I prefer things bursting at the seams, not empty. But my comfort level of clutter would leave no room for my new vision. I allowed her to do her work and confronted the space that was left there with curiosity and hope.
She was 100% right. In short order, not only did my shelves fill up, but so did my calendar. I never looked back.
Something similar is happening now which reminds me of that time nearly two decades ago. My memoir, Too Much of Not Enough, will be published and available for sale in 30 days. I’m writing quite a bit about it on my blog, social media and newsletters. One reader let me know that although she has followed me throughout my blogging career (over 1000 posts), the current volume was too much for her and she was going to unsubscribe.
I can hear my organizer’s voice saying, “Great, that will help make way for your new followers, the ones who want to hear your current message.”
With each ‘unsubscribe’ I receive, I say a little prayer thanking my former reader and asking for that space to be filled even more abundantly. Amen.
This is a bit remeniscent of my loss of a big client last November. I had him as a bookkeeping client for nearly 7 years. I did books for his 6 companies and saw him through 2 successful tax audits. He was a serious financial stream for me. I quit working with him due to a personality defect (on his part!). Days thereafter, I cried in bed and told myself it was a big mistake to let him go…..boy, was I wrong! I now know that the loss of him allowed me to have emotional energy for other clients. Today, my business is doing better than ever and ALL of my clients are nice!
@Elizabeth What a powerful example! Thank you! It’s always a tough lesson for me, but one I seem to get taught over and over. “Let go of difficult clients” I’m taught.I love how you summarized it, Elizabeth.