Your Vision

If you have a moment, I would love for you to go through the following short exercise:

Imagine it is December 2010. A person that has been a client or customer of your business since July 2010 is at a dinner party. They are there with their partner and three other couples, and all have known each other since university. They've just finished their first course and a couple of glasses of wine, and your client has been waiting for 20 minutes to change the topic of conversation onto something that he's really excited about. It's not the new hybrid car he just bought, even though it is eight times more fuel efficient than his last car, has keyless everything and talks to him using his own name. The topic your client can't wait to bring up is YOUR business.

Finally he gets a chance and launch into it with “Everyone, I have to tell you this story about [insert your businesses product/service here]. Just today…”

Over to you. Close your eyes (at the end of this paragraph) and take a couple of minutes to watch and listen to this person speak. What is he saying? What have you or your team just done for him that got him so excited? What product or service have you provided that has him this keen to talk about it? How did you surprise or delight him? A slightly lower price probably won't be it. And unless your clients are already having this conversation, it also probably won't be from you doing what you've been doing up until now. So why is he so keen to talk about what he got from your business and not his cool new car?

Okay, go.

Done? No? Okay, now really do it. It will only take 1 minute.

Now? Okay, thats better!

Now, think again for just 5 more seconds. What would it be worth to you if I could help you build that business?

We'll need help. So we'll get that help from your team, your suppliers and your clients. We'll call in help from people you know and people I know, and from the people they know. You already have a vision that includes a lot of information about what needs to be done – you just described how it looks – and that's an important step. But, at the risk of offending the odd reader, “The Secret” is a lot of rubbish. Imagining something is a good first step, but it's not the main game. (Every professional golfer will tell you that you have to be able to imagine the shot you're about to play before you play it if you want to play at their level. They'll also tell you that if you can't play golf or you don't spend hours practicing, no amount of imagining your shots is going to overcome the fact that you aren't that good a golfer. Being able to picture success is an absolutely vital step, but it's still only a step.) So I'll ask questions, make suggestions, and together we'll make decisions and act on them. I'll provide all the help you need to fill in the gaps within your business myself, and then help you identify any other people we need.

Sound like something worth doing? Is it at least worth talking about (even if just to make sure I'm not channeling Tony Robbins)? The only thing stopping us from taking the first step is you. If you're willing to commit an hour or two to talk about your business over a coffee, I'm willing to do the same. I would love to listen to your story and start talking about how we might make your vision a reality.

The reason I think this exercise is worth doing is because over the last couple of months something (actually some things – books, people and articles) lead me to do something similar, and it has significantly changed the way I look at what I do. If you'd like to read the imaginary dialogue from the 2010 dinner party attended by my hypothetical future client, you can read about My Vision here.