Page 20 - iNET Magazine April 2022
P. 20
By Jackie Simmons
I’m a hot mess.
Well, not so much today, but a few years ago
that’s how I described myself. And I had plenty
of evidence to support it. Everywhere I looked
in my life things were messy. I walked into my
office and the notebooks piled on the corners
of my desk called for my attention. But before
I could pick one up to see what task I had left
undone, the papers on the TV Tray I had used
for something and that was now just another
surface piled with reminders of what wasn’t
done, called out to me first. I paused my group program.
And then there was the course that I was Kelly, one of my private clients, asked: “Jackie,
teaching without knowing where it was will you teach me how to do what you do?”
leading. I knew what to teach, I just wasn’t I’m forever grateful for that question. In that
sure why. Not knowing why was making it hard instant, I got to see myself through her eyes.
to know what would come next for my
students. Where I saw a hot mess with no clear path for
my business that I was happy with, Kelly saw a
My mentors were insisting that I create and “multi-certified expert” with a skill that she
talk about “what’s next” and I knew that I wanted to learn.
wasn’t ready. After all, how could I be ready to
guide my students to “success” when I was a I believe that her question saved my sanity. It
hot mess? certainly saved me from continuing the
pattern of hiring one mentor after another
The journey to understand that the notebooks hoping that the next process, strategy,
and papers all over the office that had spilled blueprint, or roadmap would be the one to lead
out onto the dining room table were not me to my success.
and really said nothing about me.
I’d like to pay that forward by asking you a
And the course that was draining me to teach question. “How do you describe yourself?”
based on what my “ideal client” told me they
wanted, also wasn’t about me and really told Now that you know that what you say to
nothing about me. yourself about yourself can become a self-
fulfilling prophecy, how will you describe
AND that was the problem. Somewhere along yourself tomorrow?
the way to follow the rules of being an
entrepreneur and create a course that clients If you want help with that, ask your favorite
would buy, I had lost my connection to who I client how they describe you and try it on for
am and my why. size.
I labeled myself a “hot mess” not knowing Author and TED Speaker, Jackie Simmons, believes in
that was a self-fulfilling prophecy. tackling complex and challenging topics and making sense
out of them. Jackie always shares alternatives to get you
Because I didn’t know what I was doing I hired unstuck so that you can have what you want and what you
another mentor and took yet another deserve. She believes you deserve to experience yourself
certification program. I studied, supported, as great even though life often hands us the opposite.
and sang their song for as long as I could, and Jackie imagines a world where emotions are under your
then I stopped. control and what other people say and do say a lot about
them and nothing about you.
Jackie Simmons, Success Journey Academy
iNETrepreneur Magazine | Page 20 http://SJAEventHub.com
Email: Jackie@JackieSimmons.com