Seeing a 'Vision' for Your Business
“Full-fledged human thought always tries to project new realities. And all knowledge about the past… plays only a subservient role to better project a new reality” - Uktomsky
There’s a short video interview I saw of J.R.R Tolkien, and the guy was asking him about how he came up with The Hobbit.
First, the interviewer asked him if he laid out the whole story, and had it all mapped out?
“The world existed is possé and in a large scale plan before the hobbit was written. The Hobbit was in fact originally an attempt to write something outside of it, and it grew into it. “
“So you invented the world before you wrote the habit?”
Tolkien: “Yes indeed.”
From what I understand, Tolkien had a very energetic mind. Growing up he was already fascinated with different languages. And basically would invent them and speak them at dinner.
And when he was creating his ‘world’, he drew on all kinds of influences and mythology.
Anyway, he did all of this before the story was crafted
When he was building his Ultima series of online games, Richard Garriot did something similar:
“I eventually came to believe that instead of conceiving of a story and then creating a world in which it could be told and make sense, I should create the world first - then let the player have access to all of its capabilities as they negotiate their own story.” - Richard Garriot
The juice for small biz-ness?
A lot of people think about their biz-ness by coming up with an offer that they present to someone, for some cash.
This lets you make money and hopefully build a good life.
And it gives them a solution.
Then, you might want to build more ‘brand’ around your business. So you get some images, or learn to write with more personality. Whatever it might be.
But two problems can come up.
One is the business can always have a ‘self serving’ undertone to it. Which is graspy, and not that attractive.
The other thing, is that the business owner can often feel stuck around what to do next. They spend their time inside of their business, consuming social media, and struggle with new (and good) ideas.
What’s the next offer?
What’s the next move?
And there can be this loop, where they get stuck, because the leading part of the whole thing to begin with was transactional.
And at some point, it is less attractive to clients.
When we create a business vision, we look at it from a different perspective.
We stop thinking about the money in our pocket for a second.
We stop thinking about the offer that we have.
And we think about the world that we want to create. And what that looks like, visually in our mind.
A little while back, I was talking to a woman who runs an NDIS support business. It’s one of the leading businesses in that market in the state, and is growing rapidly.
One thing I noticed, was how many ideas for new offers she had.
There were offers for the client level.
Workshop offer ideas for other businesses.
Training offers.
She had dozens up her sleeve.
I asked her about what kind of future she saw in her mind because of all this? And she proceeded to explain an entirely different world. A world where her clients - people with various disabilities - were participating in life at a deeper level, and doing all kinds of cool things.
Her vision of her world was driving her business and activities.
As the late Jim Camp teaches us, vision drives decision.
Now, this ain’t easy for everyone. In particular, new business owners who are looking for those early clients, because there’s that early focus on money for a lot of people.
But it’s a skill that we can practice, and leads to much more magnetic (and often profitable) services.
‘Thinking visually’, and creating a vision
In the past, we’ve run all kinds of vision activities. Vision boards. Workshops to ‘create’ a vision.
And there are a lot of variations of that which can work.
But the one thing that ties it all together, is that a vision is ‘visual’. It’s something that we can see.
And while this might be different for you, I’ve personally found that there are a few things that can really help to create more ‘vision.’
Step one - Restore energy
When a new business owner comes in, very rarely do they have a strong vision. Usually, they’re burned out, scattered, or bouncing around different offers or ideas. Even if their business is doing well on paper. So the first thing we try to do is, we take the pressure off. We lay everything out, and try to calm things down enough to see what’s going on.
From there, we try to help the business owner see that a) there’s usually time, and b) that the future is bright.
That’s often enough to get a little relief, and take the pressure off themselves for a second. Restoring their own energy.
That sounds corny, I know, but if you can’t restore energy, how can you come up with a vision, given that it demands a lot of energy.
Step two - Have interesting conversation to stimulate the mind
A lot of people don’t know this, but Tolkien was actually close friends with C.S. Lewis. They got together and formed a group called the ‘Inklings’. And Tolkien and Lewis didn’t get along all the time. But still, their conversations would spark more creative thinking, and a deeper vision.
In the end, from what I’ve heard, Lewis was a big reason for Tolkien to actually finish the work.
Conversation with your clients is going to be one of the best options. But also with friends, peers, mentors. Whatever.
Most people stay in their little box way too much, and get stuck behind a screen.
And generally, that isolation combined with scrolling social media ain’t going to lead to a strong vision for the future of a business.
Step three - Look at great old work. Then re-imagine it into something new
I read an article about a guy who started a company that hosts aged care facilities that you can rent out.
So it’s like Airbnb, but for older people who need the aged care side of things.
Anyway, they blew up fast.
The point of this? It’s built on the Airbnb DNA. It’s the same model, resynthesided into something new.
And air b’n’b? A blend of the home rental model, with hotels.
Tolkien’s work?
A lot of his different races and villages, filled with heroes and epic stories, came out of Eddas, a collection of Nordic tales from 1220, by Snorri Sturluson.
It’s new. But it’s build on old work that is great.
We see this with businesses all the time. One guy recently started a business around mindfulness and ‘mental performance’ training for kids. While his new offer saw almost instant traction, it was built on previous work he did with adults, and blended with his personal story as a dad.
How can your vision for your business be ‘augmented’ by looking at what exists, and building on it for something greater and more relevant to today’s world?
Step four - Practice ‘seeing’
A lot of people today don’t see much beyond the feed on their phones. I know that ain’t totally fair. But you’d be surprised, when you meet a lot of different business owners. But that’s a problem, because it takes your eyes off of your own vision.
If you want to learn to do a handstand, one of the big things is to ‘see and believe’ that you can do the handstand.
If you just keep kicking up, you can spend years trying and get nowhere.
When you ‘see’ it, you start to connect with the movement lots faster.
And so it is with your business.
Practice ‘seeing’ the world you want to create.
For us, it’s small businesses that are creative leaders in their niche. They don’t follow the status quo, but rather create a new ‘game’ for their customers to help their customers win in the fast changing world.
They are great communicators, and they take risks.
So I practice ‘seeing’ how that all connects, and what that actually looks like visually.
You can practice this with little tasks, and then it becomes a skill you can carry forward into your overall business.
Step five - Think of exactly what you want to create. Then create that
If you want to create a social media post, create that.
If you want to create a book. Create that.
This sounds almost too simple.
But it’s easy to over-complicate your offers and marketing (and business!).
When you think of exactly what it is that you want to build, whether it’s a project, or your overall business, then you are way ahead.
A lot of people don’t really know what they want to create.
And therein lies the root of the problem.
A successful business needs something to drive it forward.
Necessity can be a driver.
Competition can be a driver.
But one of the most powerful drivers, is creating a strong vision that you can see and believe in.
This doesn’t mean that a vision at any point in time is fixed. Or can’t evolve. But it does mean that there’s an image of a new world that you are creating. One that you believe in, that also helps the people you serve.
Some people tick this box with a ‘vision statement’ up on a website. They tell people what they’re about, or what the mission is.
But it’s another thing to practice seeing and believing in our own vision. And creating the world that we want to build in our mind, before we go out there and start doing it, and ‘show’ people what that vision looks like, and how it helps the people we serve.
Some people are naturally good at this.
Others are more stuck in language, and rules, and may benefit from partnering with a more visual person.
Either way, all of it is a skill we can work on, and apply it into your business daily.
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Spectator to doer: Finding your inciting incident
One of my favourite old TV shows is Seinfeld. It turns out, that there’s a few parts of the show that were totally improvised, or accidental. For example, the way that Kramer comes through the door in a sliding rush was done the first time because Kramer missed his cue. It was such a hit, that it became it’s own sub-thread in the story. He continued to develop it until he could slide from the doorway all the way to the kitchen.
When Kramer missed the cue, it became an ‘inciting incident’ in the story.
It was a catalyst that knocked him off kilter. And shifted the direction of the show in a small, but key way.
In business, we’re often looking for ways to motivate ourselves.
Or ways to stay accountable.
We think that this should be coming from within. From some internal drive that some people have, and others don’t.
But usually, the spark for motivation comes from outside of us. We see something. We hear about something. Or we meet someone, and that creates a vision that stirs enough emotion to create movement.
We have an inciting incident in our lives, that knocks us out of balance, and leads to action.
Successful business owners and creators don’t just sit there with infinite piles of motivation. They are just very good at finding these catalysts.
The root of the word motivate is “to stimulate toward action, act as the inciting cause of”
And later, “inner or social stimulus for action”.
Motivation then, is the starter of action. It ain’t the continuation of action. It’s the catalyst.
How do we get this stimulus to move from spectator to ‘doer?’
Do we need more energy? Most likely. The further we go, the more we learn that more energy at a cultural, or physiological level is at the heart of progress and creativity, with the reverse also being true.
Do we need more information? For most of us, that’s now debunked. While some people still trawl through video courses, they already know that it’s a distraction, and it creates more contempt for the whole thing as the information pours in, and there ain’t any more action on the other side of it.
We need to break routine
In story structure, an inciting incident is the beginning of a story.
Robert McKee outlines this well:
“The inciting incident launches a story by upsetting the equilibrium of the protagonist’s life and throwing the story’s core value either positively or negatively, but decisively, out of kilter. This turning point initiates the events that follow and propels the protagonist into action.”
Prior to the inciting incident, the protagonist, or lead character, is sitting in balance.
They may have problems, desires, or things that they want to do. But those positive forces are ‘in balance’ with the negative forces that stop movement: Perceived risk, fear, comfort, inertia to stay where we are, uncertainty, et cetera.
This is where a lot of people sit. On one side there are dreams and desires. But on the other, narratives from different angles that create a sense of fear and risk. So there is a long term equilibrium, that slowly morphs into groundhog day.
They become spectators.
It’s like Batman sitting in his lair, brooding. Sure he can go save people. But why? There will just be more crime in Gotham. Why bother?
The inciting incident ‘shocks’ the character out of balance: The Joker arrives on the scene. Bane arrives on the scene. Batman is suddenly, and necessarily moved into action.
But these events don’t come from a life of routine
In everyday life, with a lot going on, and a fair bit of stress, there’s often no energetic reason to change our path, unless we have a strong inciting incident. Basically, we need to put ourselves in the position to get knocked out of balance in life.
I get to interview a lot of business owners about their backstory
Quite often - not all the time - those who are the most successful have had a strong inciting incident in their past.
They grew up very poor.
Their first business went bankrupt.
They had an injury or illness.
A lot of times they had a strong, negative inciting incident, that knocks the character deeply out of balance, propelling them into a positive action over time. Which, in the case of business, can be a good thing.
Then, as each chapter of their story is complete, or after they reach each goal, successful business owners, and generally the people we look up to, seek out more catalysts to spark the next step of the journey.
It doesn’t just happen. They get out and meet people.
They go travelling.
They have trained themselves to constantly be looking for inciting incidents, or catalysts.
They are trying to knock themselves off kilter, knowing that the next stage of growth won’t just ‘happen’, but will often start from outside of themselves, and then they can create a vision around that, and continue to drive forward.
Do all inciting incidents need to be negative?
We started watching a series called Yellowstone a while back. We haven’t finished it. But basically what happened was, the family on the Dutton Ranch was in balance. Sure there was a mild feud going on. But it wasn’t at a tipping point.
But, in one scene in the first episode, one of the sons was killed off.
This was the obvious inciting incident, which kicked off the main story line of saving the ranch and the family.
Negative inciting incidents like that can be powerful.
But positive can work as well. Getting married. Moving overseas. A holiday, et cetera. Seeing something beyond what you thought was possible.
Either way, an inciting incident always leads to action. Because if it doesn’t it’s not an inciting incident. It’s just an event that leaves everything in equilibrium.
People as ‘catalysts’ or inciting incidents
Personally, my biggest shifts in life have come from people who have been inciting incidents for my life. My mentors and teachers.
People who are very prolific.
Or very energised. So just being around them knocks me out of balance, and gets me thinking about the next idea.
For example. When I left corporate, I had no job but I needed a way to support myself, so I walked around retail stores, and found a part time job moving shoe boxes. The job paid $20 cash per hour. Which was all that I needed then.
But the real inciting incident, was the owner of the store. His name was Luke. He was great at sales, because he was so good at nurturing vision with customers. And he made me ‘see’ that people love to buy, and selling is a good thing.
When we meet someone that inspires us like that, we are shocked into action by seeing what’s possible, and actually attainable. It creates vision, and we can’t help but shift our course.
Finding inciting incidents
One of the hardest periods for me mentally, was actually when we were doing pretty well in business.
We had the gym, revenue was great. We had a pretty good lifestyle.
But I was grinding. I would go from home to the gym, and maybe to the cafe. And just stay inside of those four walls.
I would look on social media for inspiration. But it was just flashy images and people talking.
If you think about this in a typical story arc, the character expanded to reach a certain level of success. But then they started to contract. Instead of seeking more inciting incidents, they start to protect what they have, and remain ‘closed off’.
And what they need, is a catalyst for a second ‘expansion.’
It sounds small, but the way that I broke out of that was, I started inviting other gym owners over to train. We would do a session. Talk about ideas. And it would spark new directions. I started to run some different workshops and then retreats. This led to a coaching program. And eventually, it led to us deciding to sell the gym and move north to where it was warmer.
The reason the first period was so difficult, was because there was no inciting incident. Without a catalyst, or something to spark action, the character just flounders.
Before a story, physically, socially, or otherwise the character rests in a state of balance.
Life is in balance.
Sure the protagonist has her daily ups and downs. But she’s in control of her existence. Something must happen in her world, for a new story to begin. In a way, this forces her into action.
Well, our job then, as visionaries and business owners, isn’t to create ideas out of thin air.
Or to suddenly wake up, and change everything.
Our job is to ‘run into’ catalysts and create vision. Things that spark our thinking, and force us out of equilibrium.
The shift from spectator to doer ain’t about summoning motivation from within. Or getting more hype. It’s rare to wake up and suddenly be motivated in any meaningful way that lasts.
Because as long as life is in balance, and we have control over everything, then there is no story. Rather than beating ourselves up for not having the motivation to become a ‘doer’, what we need to do is put ourselves in a position for a catalyst to happen.
‘Doers’ are constantly looking at this.
They’re talking to people from all walks of life. They are calling people back. They are showing up at events. They lean in. Not because they have to. But because they know that a little moment, conversation or event can be exactly what they need.
And ‘tip’ them into the next leg of their story.
Of course it’s easy for me to say this as a business coach. But an easy option is to enrol in a course. Go meet new people. Travel. Disrupt routine enough to open a doorway for something to knock you out of balance.
This forces you to take action, and a new story begins.