"Dear Neil, I just wanted to thank you for everything you have done for my Mum."
That's how the letter starts. It's read out to me at my business networking group one weekday morning. It's from the teenage daughter of one of my coaching clients. A first for me.
By the end of it I've got tears in my eyes, in front of a room full of business owners.
I'm insanely grateful for that letter, and I want to share a few lines from it, with the family's details left out.
What she wrote
She describes what life looked like at home before her mum had a coach.
Before my mum had you as a business coach she would spend hours on end working and feeling stressed, not having enough time to relax or spend time with us as a whole family.
She talks about the clients who made her mum's life harder. And how her mum has learned to let go of the ones who didn't appreciate her and to say no. And here's the line that got me.
This year was the first year (in a long time) that my mum has had a holiday off without taking any work with her or worrying about having work pile up when she gets back.
And she signs off by thanking me for everything I've done for her mum, "and as a result for me".
The ripple
I've helped business owners grow revenue, fix their cash flow, build teams and win back their time. All of that matters. But this letter is the clearest picture I've ever had of what that work actually means.
A business owner who's drowning doesn't drown alone. Their family is in the water with them. The late nights, the laptop on holiday, the phone at the dinner table, the short temper at the end of a bad week. The kids see all of it, even when we think they don't.
When that business owner gets some control back, the family gets something back too. A parent who's present. A holiday that's actually a holiday. Her daughter even works part time in the business now, and says she can't wait to see it grow into a huge empire. That's a teenager who's seen what running a business can look like when it's done well, and wants in.
If you've read why I do what I do, you'll understand why this one is personal. I watched my dad's business swallow him when I was a teenager. I've seen what that looks like from the kitchen table.
So a letter from a teenager saying her mum is less stressed and more present? That's about as close to the point of my work as it gets. It's the opposite of what I lived through.
