I was very lucky to spend time on a film set this week—as a "Supporting Actor" (an "Extra" to you and me!)—and it was such a great lesson in delivery and service.
Now I love my Thing, as I know you do too. And here's the thing about your Thing: when it's brilliant, it's your responsibility to share it—over and over again.
To just do your Thing once isn't going to help everyone who needs your Thing. And every time you deliver your Thing you need to do it brilliantly. This is when you'll get great results and great referrals too.
Just because it's the 100th (or 1000th time) you've done your Thing, it could well be the first time your client or audience or reader has seen or heard or read it.
You need to deliver every single time like it's going to make the final cut.
On set, the same lines were delivered over and over and over again, from different angles and different set-ups in the room (so much so that by the end of each scene I knew all the lines word for word too!). But who knows what's going to end up on the cutting room floor? There's no way of knowing at the shooting stage which of the takes will make it to the final film, so every single time the actors delivered the lines to their best ability.
And this is when I realised that acting is the same as doing your Thing (& obviously for the actors it IS their Thing!). The skill is in making each and every delivery—no matter how many times you do it—as good as you can make it.
Every time you run a workshop, or work one-to-one with a client, speak at an event, share your Thing in any way, always do it like it's the 'final cut' in the feature film. Because for that audience that day (even if it's an audience of one) this IS the final cut of the film they paid to see.
This is also a test of whether your Thing really is your Thing because, unlike a niche that you just picked out, your Thing never gets boring. You love your Thing and want to do it every day. And this is why you never get tired of it.
Now, I'll be honest, while I do my Thing over and over, I don't stick exactly to the script every time (as that would get repetitive!) so when I do deliver the same core content over and over the trick is to find a way to do it so you love it—over and over and over again. If you always tailor your Thing to your audience then it's easy to do. Know who you are in front of and give them the version of your Thing that's perfect for them—this way they get the perfect final cut for them.
So go for an Oscar winning performance every time you do your Thing. The red carpet is always rolled out for business celebrities :)
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I completely agree with you Lucy. I totally believe in high standards which are delivered consistently. As someone who has been in business for 7 years, I am now lucky enough to receive referrals and I believe this is because I have adhered to the sentiments you set out above. It doesn’t matter how often I train or coach, I always aim to deliver a 100% service for my client and I think this commitment to my work has really paid off. Reputation (either good or bad) spreads …
It’s obviously paying off brilliantly for you which it should. An Oscar is on it’s way :)