This weekend was a really big deal for me.
I did something I’ve wanted to do for over 9 years. I started my NLP practitioner training – working directly with the acclaimed Phil Parker, one of the most influential leaders and trainers of NLP in the world.
Living with ME
Around 9 years ago I was diagnosed with ME. Years of working stressful 80+ hour weeks had taken their toll and I’d reached a point where I’d hardly left the house in almost 2 years. (Bravely struggling out to client meetings, appearing “normal” then collapsing back in bed for a couple of days to get over it!)
The diagnosis from the medical experts was clear – there IS no cure, nothing you can do, maybe if you’re lucky, you might feel better in say 20 years or so. You can imagine I wasn’t going to take that lying down, so I researched the hell out of ME until I found The Lightning Process – a powerful NLP program, designed by Phil Parker, that changes your neurology so dramatically and quickly that you can literally overcome the ME and get your life back. I was back at work full time within 2 weeks and I’ve not looked back since.
The trigger for growth
Doing the Lightning Process reignited a passion for learning that I’d lost somewhere along the way of running my business for 8 years. Bogged down with the daily operations I’d lost my vision and viewed spending money on training as something I just couldn’t justify, or even as a waste of money.
I started to get excited again about the possibilities that come from learning something new, from growing new skills, and the impact that can have on your business and your life.
The two days I spent on this first weekend of my NLP training were just incredible. I left feeling giddy with the possibilities I can see in my future as a result of all the new skills I’ve learned and will learn over the next year. And I know they will help my clients make even bigger changes to their financial futures too.
First you have to grow yourself
I really do believe that if we want to grow our businesses, whether that’s financial growth, or being better at what we do, we have to be prepared to invest in ourselves first.
To grow ourselves in order to have the capacity and skills to grow our businesses and lead others. I typically invest around 10-12% of my annual turnover in my own training and it always pays back.
Just imagine who you can grow into through learning, training, and continually stretching yourself and your skills. The thought of remaining the same seems alien to me now, and I know if I want my business to grow then that can only come from me growing first.
Well I would say that….
You might be thinking that of course I’d say that – I run a coaching and training business!
But here’s the thing, my passion for learning and growth IS the reason why I run this business. And helping other people to make these shifts in their business is just the most brilliant thing I’ve done in my career so far. The right training can have a phenomenal impact on you and your business.
And my continual investment in my skills means I always have something new to bring to my clients as well. The financial coaching work I’m doing now is adding several hundreds of thousands of pounds to the bottom line of my clients’ businesses – something I couldn’t have imagined confidently doing 5 years ago.
But you can of course waste money on training …
And many companies do waste a lot of money on training, so how do you know what’s going to make the difference?
Firstly make sure you know what you’re trying to achieve – then you can make a judgment on whether that training is going to move you further and faster towards it. Make sure the training is completely relevant to where you’re going.
Distraction training – where you get carried away by new ideas that take you away from your business focus, and you get a bit lost.
Be prepared to do something different as a result of your training – there’s absolutely no point in doing any training if you’re never going to look at your notes ever again, or be prepared to implement what you’ve learned (this is where follow-on coaching works so well)
Keep raising the bar of what’s possible
Because I work with a lot of businesses I get to see the common denominators that set the successful companies apart from the stuck ones.
The companies that stay stuck think they already know it all. They don’t see the point of new skills, and certainly don’t want to “waste” their time or money on training.
The companies that DO invest in training, the companies I work with, are continually evolving, growing, adapting, and they and their staff keep raising the bar of what’s possible in their business.
They take control of and own their future – and that’s a damn exciting place to be!