First published 7 October 2019 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Nigel opened episode 46 by telling us he'd just got back from his specialist and they'd found some brain left. Like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, he said. That was the good news.
The bad news was he was still worn out, and it meant postponing our event on 20 November. We'd already got to the second release of tickets, so anyone who'd bought one should have had an email from us before hearing it on the podcast. The plan was to move it to late January, once people had started 2020. Nigel was gutted. He hates letting people down. But he knew he wouldn't give it 100%, and he reckoned his audience was worth more than that.
That got us onto putting yourself first. Nigel asked if we look after ourselves the way we look after our clients. We ring clients back straight away and leave ourselves till last. I told the story of a coach of mine (now a friend) who, about five years ago, asked me what advice I'd give my number one client in the exact situation I'd just described. I gave her an answer. Then she told me I was my own number one client, so go and do it.
Nigel owned up to the year he did 162 presentations in 35 countries. Prague and Copenhagen in one day. The event had started and he was still clearing customs, so he told the client the taxi was being a bit slow. Trouble was, they could hear his gate number being called in the background.
Near the end I put him on the spot with an idea, a webinar before Christmas for everyone who already had a ticket. He said yes on air straight away. Then he admitted he didn't know what a webinar was.
The bits worth keeping
- Ask yourself if you look after you the way you look after your clients.
- Stuck on something? Work out what you'd tell your number one client. Then do it, because that's you.
- Worry less about what you eat between Christmas and New Year. The other 51 weeks matter more.
- Don't save all your rest for Christmas. Take some time off before it.
Instead of worrying about what you do between Christmas and New Year, worry about what you do between New Year and Christmas.
Neil Martin
I wanna be fit for the next 30 years, not fit for one day.
Nigel Risner
