Take Time to "Sharpen the Saw"

It is a true gift having the ability to pause from our busy lives and practices, even for just a moment, and take time to “sharpen the saw."

I am coming off such a business high from this week and wanted to share why!

We hosted about 125 ScalingUp Coaches this week in Nashville, TN for our annual gathering. We have, in the past, coupled these gatherings with a bigger client focused event where coaches can bring clients and learn together. This year, however, our client event happened earlier in the year so this was the first time we had a stand alone annual meeting for just the coaches. And it was a smashing success!!

I really feel strongly that content is incredibly important for events, but it is the community that makes or breaks it in terms of the ultimate value.

We had amazing content, more on that shortly, but it was coming together and learning together that really made the difference. It is a true gift having the ability to pause from our busy lives and practices, even for just a moment, and take time to “sharpen the saw."

 Our coaches turned out in force both to better their own capabilities and to raise the standard across the board for their peers. It was a truly collaborative environment and a camaraderie that was both energizing and refreshing to see.

To underpin the importance of continuous learning and improvement, we had some great content as well. Our focus for the short week was creativity, and how I believe that now, in 2023,

creativity is the single most important skill an entrepreneur can possess.

We are in uncharted territory right now, and the propensity to be negative is at an all-time high. It is in the negative states that we tend to get stuck. If you don’t believe me, think of your last heated argument. 5 minutes after it was over you probably came up with the perfect comeback line… and wondered ‘Why didn’t I think of that while I was arguing?’.  Because… negativity blocks creativity and it is creativity that solves problems.  And if you cannot solve problems these days you are at a significant disadvantage.

We were lucky to be hosting the event in Nashville, especially because we had a secret weapon in our local connection to Nashville, Lindsay Lawler. Lindsay is a singer, songwriter, artist, and all around connector, and happens to know most everyone in that large but small town. Add that to an incredible internal team on our side and the genius of Glenda Rossi and Sophia Umanski as outside planners, and the deck was fully stacked in our favor.

We took our coaches on a 3-day journey in the creative process through the eyes of speakers, AI experts, artists, musicians, and each other. Our group left with a new sense of what is possible, and a much greater appreciation for everything that goes into creating art that happens behind the scenes. There are many unsung and undersung (no pun intended) heroes in the music business, and in the business of business (our coaches), and for a few days we were able to celebrate their greatness. In many ways a great ScalingUp Coach is not that different from a great songwriter in that they set the artist, or the entrepreneur, up for success by giving them an incredible set of tools, or insights, or music, or lyrics, to work with.

My suggestion is to find your own time to do two things:

1. Up-level your skills and knowledge. Take the time to get better, to practice, to refine your craft whatever that craft may be… coaching, writing songs, flying airplanes, designing things, motivating people, whatever it may be I suggest that being the absolute best in your field is the ultimate outcome we all seek.
2. Take time to study and nurture creativity. One key lesson that came out of our time in Nashville is that we all have the capacity to be creative. In some it is innate, and in others, it has to be developed, but we all have the skills. It is one of life’s greatest gifts.

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to my Blog to receive new articles as I write them.