I’ve been talking about this for ages. How could they not know about it?

They ask you answer marcus sheridan

They ask you answer marcus sheridanPeople hear things when they are ready to hear them. 

This is a little story about someone who recommended a book to me….which I’ve been recommending to, like, everyone all the time everywhere. I thought. 

It’s Saturday morning. My friend James texts me something he’s been thinking about, so i ring him and we chat about it. 

I’ve known James since the day he decided to focus exclusively on accountants with his product GoProposal. He’s not only a colleague in the industry but also a good friend. He rings me every now and then, I ring him, we are honest with each other about things that are tough, we share ideas, books, stages, clients. 

In the course of this Saturday morning conversation (really towards the end, kind of a throwaway comment) he says “yea so I’ve just found out about this book, it’s called ‘They ask we answer’ or something like that-”

And I interrupt him to say “are you JOKING ME??”

James of course says um… no.. why…? 

And I say well, it’s called “They Ask You Answer” and it’s only THE book on content marketing. I’ve read it several times myself. I’ve bought it for the whole PF team and insisted they read it. We buy it for clients regularly, or we tell them to buy it for themselves and their whole team. I give it away as part of the free bonus stuff every time I run the Accelerator programme. 

“How in the world did you not know how much I love and recommend this book?” I ask him.

James started to apologise and I said no no mate, that’s not on you… I’m just wondering how in the world I thought I’d shared this with everyone and somehow I missed mentioning it to you!!

It’s happened a few more times recently as well. A client who didn’t know we were running the two upcoming events on “Accountants are creative too” in Edinburgh & Manchester.  Someone who didn’t realise PF was hiring, or that we’d hired a new person recently. 

“How did they not know?” i wondered. 

I swear i’ve mentioned these things so many times. In the case of They Ask You Answer, I almost feel like people are getting sick of hearing about it. I’ve posted articles, social posts, blogs. I’ve recorded videos. I’ve held up copies in webinars and video calls and sent amazon links. I would love to write a companion volume to it for accountants, but that’s for another day. 

(For the record we do NOT get anything from recommending this book. It’s merely the best one I’ve ever seen for inspiring accountants to create content themselves – maybe because it’s not written for accountants, but just for business owners. Back to my story.)

I shared this on LinkedIn with some thoughts, and we all had a laugh about it, and guess what else happened.

More people saw it and said “oh cool, sounds good, I’ll buy that book too”. 

Not everyone had heard about it yet.  

Then James shared it on LinkedIn with all his peoples. (With a lovely little nod to me, to ask why I hadn’t recommended it before. Cheers James.) I felt a tad justified that there were a number of people who said yea, read it, so good….but again, more people who hadn’t. More people seeing it and saying “oh, I didn’t know!”

Why didn’t they know?

Why didn’t they see it? 

Because they weren’t ready. They were busy or not checking social or focused on other things or dealing with team issues or signing new clients or worried about not signing new clients or at hospital or reading another book or tired or speaking or having a baby or climbing mountains or resting or. or. or. or. 

I don’t know why. 

One of the comments on my linkedin post was from Gail, who asked the question, “You are correct, people hear things when they are ready…how do we get them ready sooner???”

I saw the question and was about to say yea, let’s figure that out….and then I thought hold up a minute. 

I’m not sure that’s the goal necessarily.

Because it doesn’t matter if someone hears something soonerIt matters more if, when they hear it, they are READY. 

So the question becomes… how can we help them become ready to hear?

These Notes aren’t necessarily always written to give you the answer. They’re about what I’m thinking, and to get you thinking. 

So what i’d love to hear from you today is….

….how can we help people to become ready to hear? What can we do (especially as business owners, service providers, accountants) to educate and encourage and listen and support?

And how can we make sure we have the best response? So when someone says “hey I just heard about this amazing concept/book/app/tool/company/product”, instead of thinking “hey i’ve been talking about that for years” (anyone read ‘Ego is the Enemy’? that’s for another time) – instead of that, we say “That’s so brilliant! What was it that really struck you? Why is it relevant now? How can I help you use it and share it?”

I’m thrilled James is reading this book – because he’s got a massive following of accountants who want to run their businesses better (accountants who want to think like a person and a business owner first, and an accountant second). And he’s an inspiring person. People listen to him and well quite frankly they do what he says. So if James says read the book, they’ll read the book.

And they’ll be inspired.

And that, my friends, is absolutely the point.

It doesn’t matter who told them about it. It matters that they discovered it, and better still that they read it.

Or use it.

Or have their life and business changed from it.

Keep being creative!

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ON THE GRAM

Popped into a fave local coffee shop in York this week and this was the mug they gave me. ❤️✨

Wasn’t feeling so superwomanny when I got it - this week was very full, plus period cramps and multiple migraines and my ankle being wonky and more travel than I’ve done in a while. I had intended to get coffee but the cramps were so bad I had to go for mint tea and just sit until they faded enough for me to walk again. 

At the same time, I also had an amazing time during this week with the @weare_pf Board meeting in person for the first time. Getting to know each other better as humans and sharing ideas and making plans and most of all appreciating that the weight of all the business decisions doesn’t rest solely on my shoulders. 

This is just one of your reminders that being a superwoman looks different at different times, and whether you’re striding along strongly or sitting weakly with mint tea, your superwoman status still applies. 

#justkeepgoing #superwoman #muglife #wegotthis #onedayatatime
Every single time I go sailing past this lighthouse on the mull-to-Oban ferry I think “this time I’ll just watch it and not take any pictures” 

And then something wild happens like A SAILBOAT GOES BY and of course I have to capture that, surely I haven’t taken that photo before (spoiler: I have), and then I have about seventeen lighthouse photos to add to my collection of seven thousand lighthouse photos from the last twenty years. 

But, I figure, what’s the harm anyway. It’s my photos and my memories and it brings me joy. I love the lighthouse as a visual of my journey from the mainland to the island (or a reminder I’ll be back soon). 

So, see you soon lighthouse. Thanks for standing there. 

#lismorelighthouse #eileanmusdile #lighthouse #lighthousesofinstagram #oban #ferry #calmac #isleofmull #sailaway #sailboat #scotland #travelscotland
I read. A lot. My list of “books to read” has over 100 titles listed, and every time I mention a book I’ve appreciated, I get another recommendation of a new one and the list gets longer. 

One of the books recommended to me years ago was “The Buddha in Me the Buddha in You”. She mentioned it had some helpful principles about how we navigate life - and whether you’re a buddhist or not, there are principles you can learn from and apply in life.

I wrote it down, forgot about it, and moved on with life. Read lots of other books.

And then when I broke my ankle, and was sitting and resting a LOT, with loads of time for reading, I went back to my list and started reconsidering some of the titles on it.

When I looked up “The Buddha in Me the Buddha in You”, the subtitle was “A Handbook for Happiness”, and that struck me.

Dealing with an injury is difficult. Sad. Wearying. It can be hard to find happiness and every day feels about the same. (Very Groundhog Day.)

So I bought the book, and put it by my bed. I started getting into a pattern of reading a chapter every morning with my coffee.

I thought I’d share some of the principles I appreciated and which are already helping me as I continue to navigate my life right now: 

[the full post on these is too long for an Insta post so click the link in bio or story if u want to read more!]

Thank the spoon - a spoon stirs up the mud in what had appeared to be clear water. Same with life: hard things stir up what you haven’t dealt with yet. So you thank them. “Thank you, spoon”

The Fundamental darkness (FD) - the “Survival Obsessed Self” who responds in a way based on survival but not growth

There’s a gift in the struggle - He describes it visually as “the lotus flower in the muddy pond”. You can focus on the mud, or on the flower, but they’re both there.

Nam - myo - ho - renge - kyo : The happiness soundtrack - I pulled out the core concepts of each of these words as they applied to me, and they are: 

Purpose
Mystery
Potential 
Bloom in the struggle
Flow of life

#karensnotes #buddhainmebuddhainyou #books #reading #happysaturday 

[full note link in bio!]
The snow is swirling the wind is howling IT’S FROZEN OUT THERE 
#snowing #happyspringeveryone #inlikealion