My mentality is very much Woo & Do. A combination of trusting your gut, using your intuition and taking bold action.
Alrighty, well sometimes, that’s goes so far and you have to tap into another superpower – your sense of disappointment.
Let me explain.
I’ve been banging on about setting up a business mastermind for ages. I LOVE masterminding. If you haven’t heard of the concept, prepare to be wowed, or maybe not… A business mastermind is a collective of business owners from differing backgrounds who meet up on a regular basis. During the mastermind there is a small pocket of time allocated to each member of the mastermind, usually around 12-15 minutes. Every time they meet each member brings a specific question or topic they want to talk about: it might be a problem they’re currently facing; or they may be looking for ideas as to how to achieve a goal; perhaps they might use the time to brainstorm ideas or some such. Whatever the question, the intention is to use the group’s experience and wisdom to illuminate possibilities and best practices.
It’s like one big hive mind.
The great thing about being in a Mastermind is that it opens up perspectives and illuminates possibilities. If you haven’t already guessed, I’m a fan! Such a fan, that I’d really, really like to run one here in Sheffield.
Just to recap, in terms of Sacred Money Archetypes I’m a Connector, Nurturer, Alchemist. I’m super interested in who you are, what you do and where the gunk is, I LOVE solution finding, I ask insightful questions and I’m basically a total diamond when it comes to holding space and keeping time.
This urge to run a business mastermind cycles up a couple of times a year, and I thank it kindly and my inadequacies pop it to one side (even though I’ve had 7 years of experience at the things!). When the urge to start up a mastermind hoved into view about a month ago, I decided that this was the time – my woo instinct told me so.
So I set off to make it happen. I got Doing.
Okay, so there’s a thing you should know about me, once I have a vision in my head I get a bit dogged about it. There has been a particular hurdle that I’ve had crop up a couple of times around this mastermind, namely where to hold it? Should I commit to setting it up at a cafe or hiring a room? I decided that my studio would be a great venue, which of course set up the next hurdle – what should I do about a table? It had to be something that I can easily store between masterminds, that would be relatively faff free and would look good. Whether the look of a thing is of interest to you or not, for me, aesthetics count.
I decided a reloved drop leaf table with barley twist legs would be the go. I am dogged. I have an aesthetic sensibility. I am my own worst nightmare!
But for me, it’s got to be practical as I haven’t got a lot of space to spare and it needs to be something upcycled because there’s so much quality schmutter furniture out there that’s too good to end up in a skip or on a bonfire, and I REALLY WANT TO PAINT IT’S LEGS GREEN – have I mentioned I’m stubborn to a vision??
There are plenty of drop leaf tables with barley twist legs out there, and of the plenty many of them have the right proportions and measurements. But could I secure one? No.
I got close a couple of times. But on all three occasions the sale was not to be. It was weird. Like really weird. It’s not hard to buy a second hand table surely.
Did I really want to host a mastermind? Yes! Were there any fears holding me back? Nope, none that I could tell.
Then I got woo. I decided to play ‘Show Me Dolly Parton’.
‘Show Me Dolly Parton’ is a game I play when I’m looking for Universal confirmation. If I’m in a dilemma, I state it outloud to the Universe (or the empty room, depending on your point of view) and I say “Okay Universe, if this is supposed to be then show me Dolly Parton” and then I set a time frame.
Over the years Dolly has appeared in numerous guises: she’s been on t-shirts; playing on the radio of passing cars; talked about in documentaries; even reading the bedtime story on Cbeebies. When I have asked for confirmation she has appeared.
This time, I had added an extension to my usual question “And Universe, if I’m supposed to do the mastermind but NOT from my studio but a separate premises, show me Mr T”. Remember him? BA Baracas off of the A Team? I’ve never used Mr T before, but I figured that he wasn’t so likely a public figure that he would appear everywhere, but there was the possibility that he may appear somewhere, just like Dolly Parton.
If you want to try this for yourself, you can substitute any ol’ person or thing.
So there I was, my pact with the Universe set. My only task was to hold the intention lightly whilst remaining alert for the next 48 hours.
Two days passed and no Dolly, no T. Nothing.
I was a little mumfy about it to be honest. I was sure that it was a goer of an idea. Now, old me would have not been able to resist but to reset the parameters in my favour and try and conjure up a Universal yes from somewhere.
But I know that’s not how you’re supposed to play the game.
So I got curious. Apart from feeling a bit put out that the Universe didn’t want to collude with me, how else was I feeling? Most importantly, how disappointed was I?
Disappointment is a really good indicator as to what your next action should be. If you feel truly, truly disappointed then maybe you’re invested enough to go do the thing anyway. And if you’re not disappointed then it’s probably no big thing.
It turns out I didn’t feel too disappointed. A little perhaps, but I also realised that I’m currently in the process of releasing my new book, Hot Mess Alchemist, preparing to launch a podcast, and mentally readying myself for the child care juggle of working through the summer holidays. As much as I do want to facilitate a business mastermind, I’ve kinda got a lot going on already.
But if I do, maybe I’ll call it the ‘What Would Dolly Do’ Business Mastermind. Watch this space.