Hello Reader,

I’m at a crossroads. I’m debating whether to continue the road I’m on or to take a different one.

Have you been here?

It’s an uncomfortable feeling. I want to get out of this situation. I don’t like being here. But I can’t move forward until I decide what’s next.

Here’s what’s going on.

Current State

I’m starting Year 3 of my business. I absolutely love coaching. It’s all I want to do. My angst isn’t about my career path. It’s about all the adjunct items associated with it.

• Do I persist with lead magnets so I can add subscribers to Life fully loved?
• Should I keep responding to HARO (“Help a Reporter Out”) requests to gain more press coverage?
• What strategy should I pursue with LinkedIn?
• How should I evolve my blog?
• Is it worthwhile to develop another course, write a new (or expand upon my current) eBook, or design another workshop?

Payoff

Because all of the work I do apart from coaching takes time away from doing what I really love. I enjoy my tasks but at the cusp of a new year, it’s time to re-examine them by asking,

What’s the payoff for the work I’ve done?

Am I “making work” because I like being busy and productive and, perhaps, because I’m avoiding the inevitable (more on that last point in next week’s edition)?

Or am I performing “necessary work” as I establish myself in the marketplace as a resource for those interested in nurturing self-awareness, greater insight, and growth?

Maybe it’s neither extreme but somewhere in the middle. My work has helped me gain clarity on who I am and what I represent. As it serves others, it has also served me.

Let the examination begin.

Evaluating Choices

With my blogs, I’ve established the key points around the coaching I do. Now it’s really about colouring in the canvas. ✅

Posting 5x per week on LinkedIn has consumed much time but it has taught me how to shape my content to the medium. The LinkedIn audience skims quickly. They want easy-to-read bullet points, pictures that support the content, and, frankly, they don’t watch the videos.❓

HARO responses are a crapshoot. While I’ve been published 33 times since I started Laura Barker Coaching, I have responded to many more without success. Nevertheless, even when I didn’t get published, I found submitting the responses valuable because I could re-work that content into a LinkedIn post. ✅

Lead magnets are definitely a bust. I don’t think my audience - Canadians - like providing their email addresses in exchange for a PDF or video. I’ve created 11 lead magnets in the past few years with very little success.🚫

Finally, courses, books, and workshops are ultimately supporting characters to the star of the show – coaching. They have diffused my attention by taking time and energy away from what I want to do most. 🛑

The results: two checks, one question mark, one no, one stop.

Crossroads Method

How would this process play out in your own life? Think of where you’re at a crossroads about a person, event, or circumstance.

1. Describe your current state.
2. Identify the payoff(s).
3. Evaluate the choice(s) associated with the current state.
4. Assign values to those choices.

Einstein

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. It’s clear to me that doing the same thing will result in the same results.

If I want to coach, then I need to do something differently.

And that’s where I leave you today, my friends. More on this topic next week.

Love,

Laura

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