Bring on the safari

Lynn, from Simply Advanced, had known Matt for a few years before deciding to work with him.  A conversation with one of his colleague piqued her interest and she signed up to attend his seminar in January 2017.

The family business, run by Lynn and Nathan Baylis had already been going for five years, they were always busy, consistently made a profit, and could always pay their bills, but it wasn’t enough anymore.  Neither of them were enjoying what they did, and they were getting fed up of running round like busy fools, trying to fit in all the work and then having to chase hard to be paid.

We had nothing to lose

Discord from the business was spilling in to their home life, and the two were unhappy, frustrated, and worn out.

“We felt so ground down by the business, and weren’t in a great place.  Being told that work and life could be fun again was appealing.  It was a free seminar, so I had nothing to lose.  At a minimum I’d come out having learned something new.

The seminar showed me that we weren’t alone, and other people were going through the same thing, but that it could all be so much better.  I started to get excited again, and booked in for the free hour and a half follow up session.  I went on my own to this too because at this point Nathan didn’t see the value in taking time out just to have a chat about the business.  He had too much work to do.

So pleased I went

The session was great.  Matt was so calm and rational, and has this way of just focussing you.  All that we could see was this massive negative.  Matt could see lots and lots of small things that could be improved, and that all of these small changes would quickly add up to big differences.

My biggest challenge was trying to convince Nathan.  He had a conversation with Matt, and then a face to face meeting, and we haven’t looked back.  We talked with Matt about what we wanted from the future and what our options might be and I could literally see the cogs turning in his mind.

We signed up to PlanningCLUB – two solid days building our five year plan.  I still thought it would be like previous business coaching I’d seen, where you have to follow steps 1, 2 and 3 and come out with the answers.  It wasn’t.  I didn’t imagine it could be as probing or as challenging as it was.  It made us look at things completely differently – how and why we do them the way we do, and how we could do them differently for better results.  There were so many light bulb moments, it was unbelievable.  Just as Matt has promised – lots of small changes could make some big differences.

We can’t wait for the future

As we finished the plan, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off our shoulders.  We know what our goal is, and what steps we need to take to get there.  Lots of baby steps, rather than one giant step.  Before, we might as well have been planning to fly to the moon, it just seemed so impossible to achieve what we wanted.  Now it all seems achievable and manageable.

And it’s not just about business, not for us.  We’ve set personal goals too.  Things we want to experience.  We’re working better together as a team at home, as well as at work, so everyone’s happier, the kids as well as us.  Honestly, our whole attitude to life has changed.  When we’re looking at what we want, we work out how we’re going to do it.  Everything has been impacted by the work we’ve done with Matt.  How could it not?!

We’re going to have the future we want.  So much has changed, and we want to continue to change.  We don’t take anything for granted now.  I feel more in control in every area of my life.

Within the business, we’ve made the decision to continue working with Matt for 121 Coaching.  Want to keep momentum, don’t want change to stop.  It’s brilliant for keeping us accountable, but gives us positive affirmation and reassurance too.  It’s important to have that because we know that there’ll be rocky patches as part of the growth process.

Our goals are bigger because of working with Matt, and they’re changing. 

We didn’t realise how small our goals were before.  Now we’re getting really excited about the things we want to do.  Before, our financial goals for the business were quite hefty, but .  if didn’t meet them, it wouldn’t have been an issue.  Now, we have dreams and things want to do, we HAVE to meet them.  Bring on the safari!  We want to see elephants and tigers!