GNT #171: I was in demand

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I had a stretch a few years back where everyone wanted something from me.

Could you build my website.
Could you rewrite my LinkedIn.
Could you set up my newsletter.
Could you get me testimonials from my clients.
Could you implement my CRM.
Could you, could you, could you.

My answer was always yes. I can help you with that. Let me send you a proposal.

I did a lot of stuff for a lot of people.

I was in demand. I was great to work with. And I enjoyed being in demand.

Then one month I sat down with my invoices and thought, look at how many of these I'm sending. Look at this stack.

And right behind that thought, three more.

What am I really earning.

What am I learning.

What value am I creating.

I looked at the stack again with those three thoughts in hand.

The invoices weren't bad. The clients weren't bad. The work wasn't bad. But almost all of it was execution. Carrying out decisions someone else had already made. This was before I'd built out advisory and fractional strategy as an offer. The work I wanted to be doing, the work I was actually building toward, wasn't in the stack at all.

The dollars were fine. The direction wasn't.

That's what the three questions surfaced. 

So pull up your own version of the stack. Last quarter's invoices. The yeses on your calendar. The projects that took the most hours. Look at what's actually there, and ask:

What are you really earning, what are you learning, what are you building?

If the answer to any one of those doesn't line up with where you're trying to go, the demand isn't the problem. The composition is.

I'm always rooting for you. See you next week.

-Colleen

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