As I walked home from the gym the other morning, I saw that a huge number of the blueberries in our front yard had finally turned blue, at least two or three pints worth. Yum!
That led to a late afternoon extravaganza of blueberry picking with my boys, Sam and David. As is right and proper, not all of the blueberries made it inside, but enough to make blueberry pancakes, and then some.
The thing is, for years we’ve had a carpet of strawberries come up, but no blueberries. Even after putting in blueberry bushes, it took them awhile to be large enough to produce more than a token handful or so.
If you thought I was going to make a point about waiting for the right timing, and being patient with how things grow, you’re wrong.
Because what helped the blueberry bushes bloom? Well, sure, they had to grow. But they also needed the right nutrients. They also needed to be close to one another. The yard also needed care.
Some of it was just work that needed to be done, and some of it was information we just didn’t know. We asked for help with both.
It doesn’t have to be expensive help. It doesn’t have to be “do it all for me” help. Sometimes just a knowledgeable helping hand can make a huge difference. And the result? Pints of blueberries. Or clients.
Take a client of ours who got some help to discern just where in the sales process he was getting stuck. Overnight he went from waiting weeks or months for clients to decide whether to work with him, to clients either making a decision on the spot, or within two or three days.
The cash-flow to his family was more than just blueberries.
One of the assignments in our Foundations1 class is to ask for help before you absolutely need it. And the huge breakthroughs people are getting from doing just that. Even just asking someone to open a door, or pass the salt. Small things opening up big pathways.
You might think this is a good lead-in to invite you to hire us for a little help, and it kinda is, but that’s not what I’m asking you to do right now.
Here’s what I *am* asking: What’s you’re relationship to asking for help, and how can you increase your willingness to ask? Or, to look at it a different way, what keeps you from asking for help, and what is needed to help shift that?
A free home tour coming up, plus a mystery guest.
In 2005 the Business Oasis, our first online community, was a thriving group of heart-centered entrepreneurs. As we’ve grown and learned a lot more about online community, adult learning, and business growth in the age of social media, we’re excited to unveil the next iteration of our online community.
We’re going to be offering a free seven day home tour later this month, so just keep your eyes peeled for that next week.
Plus, we have a mystery guest to announce. Yes, it’s a bit of tease, but we’re just not quite ready, yet I wanted to let you know something, and someone, would be here soon.
In the meantime, have some blueberries and enjoy the beginning of July.
Need a few pints of blueberry clients?
Thankfully we have enough coach practitioners at Heart of Business that there are usually at least a couple of openings with someone if you’re needing that hands-on support.
You know in your heart if it’s time to get help, or to at least explore getting help.
If it’s the right time for your business, it’s the most personal, accelerated, fun and effective way to move your business forward. With the precise guidance of an experienced coach practitioner, you can do just the right things, and ignore all the wrong things, and start helping your business produce more than you need.
Check in your heart- if the time is right for you, schedule a conversation with one of us: Yollana, Steve, Jason, Lincoln or myself.
2 Responses
As someone who has 3 small blueberry shrubs of my own. I totally relate to this! Worse yet, we had one of our shrubs die, so we replaced it with two. What we learned was that if you don’t have enough variety in the plants, you’ll get some seasons that are full, and others that are barren. Variety helps smooth out the seasonal production of the plants.
As a business analogy, when you’ve got some variety (aka different viewpoints) in your business, that can help you weather what could otherwise have been a “barren” season.
Lisa- so true! So helpful, eh? And yes, variety is helpful in so many things.