The Desert of Arizona
Sunrise 34 Degrees
When’s your next available appointment to speak with a current or prospective client?
Do you know?
When you call a doctor and find out her next available appointment isn’t for 3 weeks, what goes through your brain?
Do you ask the secretary if you can get squeezed in within 24 hours because “this is important?” Do you ask to speak with the doctor directly so you can explain your situation? Do you tell the secretary it’s very important you work with a doctor who can respond quickly to your needs?
Are you kidding? Few people do these things. And if they did, the chances are great that they would meet a “brick wall” pretty quickly.
In other words, the doctor runs the business the way she runs it. You may choose to play by those rules or you may choose to go somewhere else. Have a nice day…
If you’re in a business where you work with far fewer clients than a doctor (i.e. a consultant of some kind), then you have a lot of open time in your schedule.
That doesn’t make it available for business though.
Can you do the meeting tomorrow at 8:00 AM?
I used to look at a request like that as a type of “challenge to please.” If I rose to the challenge and “made it work,” the client would somehow like that.
Bleh.
I used to want to “make it work.” I’d even be willing to inconvenience my entire family just TO make it work.
And for what?
For a feeling. I really have no idea how it made the client feel, but it made me feel good because I was pleasing their request.
This is the way to build a life that is completely out of control.
To avoid this, you need to think through your schedule.
You need to think through what times you choose to make available for business and which ones you do not.
There is no explanation required to anyone about your choices.
The only commitment you should make (to yourself) is that you stick with your plan. Give it some time and see how it feels. It will create calm, it will create confidence. Decision making will become easier. Scheduling will become simple. It will keep you from being run around like a crazy person.
Do you think a doctor feels pressure to “fit you in” to the schedule?
The doctor doesn’t even speak with you!
You can learn a lot from this. The goal here is to live a life where you are operating at your best. And this is just one way to give yourself the time, space and mental calmness to do that.
The magic ingredient in all of this is that you have to stop caring whether any particular client closes.
You have to believe that if it doesn’t work with THIS client, another one WILL come along.
If you have a Platform chugging along, that’s exactly what will happen. But you have to build one. And then you have to work it.