The Top 1% Life. Kathleen Black

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t see this type of thing. It makes no sense to do this.” It was all taking so much time.

      I was lucky to have a little voice that changed it all. A guide appeared this time with an important message. It said, “If you believe in it, and it is right, you do not need to hide or cower. You bank everything you have on it. You bet your house on it and get the resources you need to make this right.” It was this voice combined with a single self-empowering question, “What would you guide your clients to do in a similar situation?” that convinced me, without a doubt, I would stand for my clients and fight beside them. Now, I had to do the same for myself.

      Finally, I made it in front of a judge and then to mediation. I literally had to bet my house on hiring that lawyer, paying over $800 an hour for my lawyer alone, day after day and week after week went. Having no resolve was terrifying. I was exhausted. The legal bill was mounting. Finally, we got clear direction from our mediating judge that the ownership agreement may not be in the corporate documents, but there was not a judge in the country that would overturn our ownership agreement or turn a blind eye to the fact that I was running the company as the owner for years.

      The tides changed. I accepted an offer to sell my shares, and in an unbelievable change of fate, I also got to keep half of our clients. Both of us were to retain ownership of all intellectual content with the ability to legally start and promote a new company as of December 1st, 2015. The final share exchange and payout would happen January 15th, 2016.

      December 1st, I was able to bill in my own name. I had clients who took a chance on me, but I had no income for two months, a stack of expenses, and was still terrified. I was still in shock and, luckily, too terrified not to hit the ground running. Within three weeks, my coaching schedule was more than full. Within two months, I brought in another coach. He came in with two clients paying in packs of two or four hours and using them as needed over weeks or months. He was now full with ongoing clients and we sought to hire another coach within six months.

      Upon opening Kathleen Black Coaching & Consulting in 2015, we earned 35% more in gross income in our first full operational year followed by approximately 84% more in our second operating year over the 2015 gross income of my previous company. I went from fear and desperation to quickly scaling a company.

      Your Own Face of Leadership

      Most of us know all about unravelling. We went through the blunt transitions that unpack our former lives and try to morph us at a lightning speed into the new version of ourselves now needed by the present and future world.

      I stood with clients during times of unravelling. I watched as changing aspects, often out of their control, impacted their lives, businesses, and even their sense of self in a way that seemed to cripple them with anxiety, fear, embarrassment, self-judgement, and the associated stress from the whole experience. From losing team members, to health issues, to divorce, to teenagers, to having to let people go, so many aspects of life and business can unravel you and leave you questioning your next move. I also watched clients rebuild better, stronger, and faster using the power that comes from pain properly harnessed. Most leaders are said to rise from the ashes. These leaders face the mirror of truth in crisis. They decide to carve their own face of leadership in the place they previously and recklessly left for the world to define. They decided who they were and what they would and would not stand for.

      I know what it feels like to build a business from nothing, the burn when a team member leaves, the shock when you find out someone is sabotaging your business. The deep feeling of violation when someone you supported steals from you or lies to you. The feeling when people leave and use your content, when you find out you were lied to, locked out, and even when others take credit for your work. I know what it feels like, and I know the hardest part is facing it all and moving forward. Because the world needs strong business leaders like you, who are true and spread a different message.

      I stood in these difficult spaces as I built seven-figure companies with countless clients, and as I did the same for myself. I struggled with exactly the best way to transfer what worked for me to my team. I had unbelievably high expectations and little room for lowering them. I had to up my game knowing we would take a hit as a business to make those changes. And I have had to stand for the truth, more than once despite, massive costs. Why did I make the changes anyway? Because a company that runs without an abundance mentality and without aligned guiding principles is doomed to fail. You can take a 75, 50, or 20% hit now or risk losing it all later. I stand in hard decisions because if I don’t, who will? I believe that by standing in hard decisions, I discover exactly who else will. You will, our clients will, and everyone impacted by all of your hard decisions will have the courage to make them too. We live what we see. Doing the hard things right matters.

      It is not if these difficult things will happen. It is when difficult obstacles present themselves in your business. And when these difficult things happen in business that challenge your vision, heart, and soul, I want you to know others went through this, how to keep going, and when to limit your time energy and resources so small acts do not cost you big in the long run.

      Sure, it’s just business, but it feels personal when that business involves people who you helped and the resources sacrificed to build that business. I built my business to systematically reduce the odds of anything negative ever repeating that could compromise my team, clients, or ability to be of service in this world. I also built hundreds of teams and the businesses of thousands of agents and helped them to avoid ever hitting the common pitfalls. If the acts of one sabotage the true gift of helping and serving others on a local or global scale, it is costing us all. We need to build our businesses to protect the people we serve, and in your business, that is you and your team.

      Some things require a burn. Some lessons only happen when the world gets hot enough to forge the lesson in your skin. Then, you get to work building better, and ensuring the small acts of one person never cost you or your team the whole.

      Chapter 3

      HOW DO I GET MY TIME BACK?

      Myth: Teams take too much time and money to develop.

      Truth: The function of a team is to provide more time and money with less expense and effort put in by the team leader. In fact, when done properly, effectively, and systematically, creating and running a team is highly profitable and frees up time for all team members, including you.

      That admin support you hired took more of your time than your clients. I hear this reality every day from people who have tried to get help. Our team hears this hundreds of times a week. Hiring her added to your to-do list because you were walking an uphill battle before you started.

      Trying to hire, build a job description, the systems and tasks associated with that job description, and train, all at once is basically impossible. People are told, every day, hiring support is the answer, and it is when you are prepared.

      The buyer’s agent needs you constantly because he wants you to be happy. He wants the clients to be happy. He wants to know how to win, how to do a good job, and what to avoid, but lacks the deliberate strategy and clarity that duplication of values and standards requires of your team’s business. You’re always trying to keep deals together. You are busy enough. Eventually, if you have tried to hire, you may have decided that it seemed easier to just do it on your own, but now what?

      It is true that it may be easier to run your business on your own in the short-term. Servicing clients yourself in your custom way is quicker than creating the tasks, job description, hiring, and training СКАЧАТЬ