A Reflection On When I Changed To Leading An Intentional Life

So, this is a Bonus Episode, obviously at the Leaky Bucket Podcast, and it's actually in reflection to the Episode 29 James Bishop interview that you may have just listened to.

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And what I wanted to do is just give some input and thought relating to that and how maybe it reflects back to my own lessons and everything that I've learned.

James is very intentional in terms about the life that he's leading now. The business that he's running, how much that business consumes him.

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I think I sort of reflected back to my own business journey on this and just go,

Actually, I went through that. I had great intentions when I started the business.

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We moved into such a direction that I allowed and probably intentionally had the business consuming me.

‍

My life was the business.

It was everything.

I worked ridiculous hours.

I was just always thinking business.

I was always doing everything relation to it.

I was always worrying about the clients.

‍

The clients were always absolutely a hundred percent first and it took me a long time to realize that that wasn't what I really wanted.

What was I trying to build?

What was I trying to create?

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And it wasn't the case that I was trying to create a world in which business consumed me and did everything.

I had this sort of epiphany moment, if you like:

That was, I went away on holiday...

Amazing holiday over in Spain for three weeks actually, probably because I was kidding myself that I was extractable from the business and I was trying to prove and go,

“Look, I can leave the business for three weeks and everything will be fine.”

And it absolutely was not.

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We were a team of three, so me plus two others, and when I returned, one member of the team had just left.

They’re gone.

They'd worked during the period when I wasn't there.

‍

And when I got back, they were gone and I didn't see it coming.

And it wasn't like they were completely brand new. They'd been there for a period of time or we were having regular interactions and sessions with them.

And Sam, my wife was around within the business at that point, but she really stepped back up and stepped in at that point. Sam and myself, we went to working crazy hours to get by and get through everything, and

‍

we made a little bit of a pact at that moment in time and just went, this is not how things will be.

We will be much more intentional about what we do.

‍

Now, don't get me wrong, we made mistakes, but we started that process of being intentional.

‍

We actually hired two people to replace the one to reduce and spread the workload more significant and they started being more intentional about how does the business work for me. Customers and clients are MASSIVELY, MASSIVELY important to a business,

but actually they're not more important than me as the owner

and that's not disrespecting the clients or anything.

Like I love all of our clients.

They're amazing.

‍

They're amazing people doing amazing things, but ultimately, the relationship we have with them is a business-based relationship. It might be on a human level, but it's based on business.

‍

And if that isn't working for me, one, I'm pretty confident that the majority of our clients would be concerned or disappointed if they knew it wasn't working for us, and it certainly wasn't back then.

And spending all this time ensuring and making other people successful and not doing it to myself and lying to myself and telling myself that I was.

‍

So, actually, it just became really clear just to go, we need to go first.

We need to be first.

‍

And I need to be intentionally building something that I am proud of and I'm not lying to myself that I'm proud of it.

I don't want to go,

“Ooh, it's because we got these many clients.”

‍

I want to be able to go because I get to do what I want, when I want, with who I want. And I do to a degree still working on it.

There's still some way to go, but we're on that pathway and it's in touching distance to be really truly that.

And I think it was interesting that James highlighted that and he go,

I'm so keen in working out, what's the exit?

Where are you heading to?

What are you doing?

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And James posed that question back to me and I commented obviously at the time that,

"Oh, that's embarrassing. I don't know."

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But he asked,

‍

What's the intention?

What's the exit with the podcast?

I don't know.

‍

And I questioned, "Is James, right? Am I okay not knowing or is James, right? "

‍

I do need to know

‍

and I'm still pondering and thinking of that at the moment, but I certainly work on the basis is that James challenged my thinking is what I believe to be true actually.

And am I just doing what we advise other business owners not to do? Which is I'm just doing?

‍

I'm just recording and can I be more intentional about what we're trying to do in terms of a podcast?

So, it's really, really caused me to reflect, and maybe there's something that you guys can do off the back of that as well.

‍

Like, are you being intentional?

What are you building?

What are you trying to exit or finish towards?

Take some time.

‍

Really think because it's got my head spinning and I'm going to spend some time now just exploring what is the real intention or exit plan with the podcast.

Blog

So, this is a Bonus Episode, obviously at the Leaky Bucket Podcast, and it's actually in reflection to the Episode 29 James Bishop interview that you may have just listened to.

And what I wanted to do is just give some input and thought relating to that and how maybe it reflects back to my own lessons and everything that I've learned.

James is very intentional in terms about the life that he's leading now. The business that he's running, how much that business consumes him.

I think I sort of reflected back to my own business journey on this and just go,

Actually, I went through that. I had great intentions when I started the business.

We moved into such a direction that I allowed and probably intentionally had the business consuming me.

My life was the business.

It was everything.

I worked ridiculous hours.

I was just always thinking business.

I was always doing everything relation to it.

I was always worrying about the clients.

The clients were always absolutely a hundred percent first and it took me a long time to realize that that wasn't what I really wanted.

And it wasn't the case that I was trying to create a world in which business consumed me and did everything.

I had this sort of epiphany moment, if you like:

That was, I went away on holiday...

Amazing holiday over in Spain for three weeks actually, probably because I was kidding myself that I was extractable from the business and I was trying to prove and go,

And it absolutely was not.

We were a team of three, so me plus two others, and when I returned, one member of the team had just left.

They’re gone.

They'd worked during the period when I wasn't there.

And when I got back, they were gone and I didn't see it coming.

And it wasn't like they were completely brand new. They'd been there for a period of time or we were having regular interactions and sessions with them.

And Sam, my wife was around within the business at that point, but she really stepped back up and stepped in at that point. Sam and myself, we went to working crazy hours to get by and get through everything, and

we made a little bit of a pact at that moment in time and just went, this is not how things will be.

We will be much more intentional about what we do.

Now, don't get me wrong, we made mistakes, but we started that process of being intentional.

We actually hired two people to replace the one to reduce and spread the workload more significant and they started being more intentional about how does the business work for me. Customers and clients are MASSIVELY, MASSIVELY important to a business,

but actually they're not more important than me as the owner

and that's not disrespecting the clients or anything.

Like I love all of our clients.

They're amazing.

They're amazing people doing amazing things, but ultimately, the relationship we have with them is a business-based relationship. It might be on a human level, but it's based on business.

And if that isn't working for me, one, I'm pretty confident that the majority of our clients would be concerned or disappointed if they knew it wasn't working for us, and it certainly wasn't back then.

And spending all this time ensuring and making other people successful and not doing it to myself and lying to myself and telling myself that I was.

So, actually, it just became really clear just to go, we need to go first.

We need to be first.

And I need to be intentionally building something that I am proud of and I'm not lying to myself that I'm proud of it.

I don't want to go,

I want to be able to go because I get to do what I want, when I want, with who I want. And I do to a degree still working on it.

There's still some way to go, but we're on that pathway and it's in touching distance to be really truly that.

And I think it was interesting that James highlighted that and he go,

And James posed that question back to me and I commented obviously at the time that,

But he asked,

I don't know.

And I questioned, "Is James, right? Am I okay not knowing or is James, right? "

I do need to know

and I'm still pondering and thinking of that at the moment, but I certainly work on the basis is that James challenged my thinking is what I believe to be true actually.

And am I just doing what we advise other business owners not to do? Which is I'm just doing?

I'm just recording and can I be more intentional about what we're trying to do in terms of a podcast?

So, it's really, really caused me to reflect, and maybe there's something that you guys can do off the back of that as well.

Like, are you being intentional?

What are you building?

What are you trying to exit or finish towards?

Take some time.

Really think because it's got my head spinning and I'm going to spend some time now just exploring what is the real intention or exit plan with the podcast.

Where am I going with that?

What am I aiming to try and achieve and therefore can I get there.

Thank you.

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