When you first heard of Anthony Robbins, what did you think of the guy?
For me, it’s around 2009, and I’m looking down the comments thread of the old site ‘Things Bogans Like’. I don’t recall the exact article, but somebody has related a story their brother (then a cabbie) had told them about driving in Sydney late one night and picking a couple up who were headed back to their hotel from a Tony Robbins seminar. They were babbling away at a million miles an hour like a kid who’s had too much Coke (or an adult who’s had too much coke), raving on about how “life changing” and “powerful” it was, and this cabbie had related how “cult-like it seemed”.
So, my initial impression of Tony Robbins was: He must be a quasi-cult leader.
Skip forward a couple of years later, I’m sitting on a plane awaiting take-off. Flicking through the in-flight magazine from the seat-back, I find a full-page advert for an upcoming Tony Robbins seminar in the UK, with a starting price in the thousands of pounds.
Who on Earth would pay thousands of pounds for this sort of thing? I wondered. My opinion of Tony changed to:
Tony Robbins is a guy who can convince people to part with thousands of pounds for a single weekend seminar= definitely a cult-leader!
So a few months later, when an old friend starts raving about this 10-part Tony Robbins series he’d been listening to and saying I should check it out, you can probably imagine how my internal monologue went!
But in the end, I figured I’d shut my friend up and let him follow his offer to download the entire 10-part series, titled ‘Time Of Your Life‘ onto my laptop. Noticing that each episode went for 90 minutes, I put aside some time to listen to the first one. I sat down in my room, hit play on iTunes and started listening.
Within the first hour, I realised I’d been wrong about Tony…
Far from being just 90 minutes of feel-good sizzle with no substance, over the course of the following 9 episodes Tony shared, step-by-step, how changing your thinking and asking better questions could change your destiny altogether. On top of that (as the name of the series suggests) he demonstrated how to make the best use of your time, set goals for the right reasons, prioritise those goals accordingly and create action plans to help transform those written goals into your reality.
Nearly 10 years on, I still use this method to organise every coming week, every new season and every year ahead- and I still swear by ‘Time Of Your Life‘ as a fantastic introduction to this. I’ve listened back to all 10 episodes of TOYL at least 3 times to date- and I say this as somebody who has never attended a single Tony Robbins event nor worked for his marketing department in any way shape or form.
However, I was still wrong about Tony…
See, not long after that first time listening to TOYL, in the midst of all kinds of turnarounds (small and large) manifesting in my life as a result, I referred to Tony as a “guru”-
Which made the title of Tony’s recent Netflix documentary ‘Not Your Guru‘ rather apt. I’ve watched it and heard mixed reviews. Some people affirm how “inspiring” it is, while others are critical of some of the methods used by Tony and his team. I’m not here to discuss that today, but rather to say that watching ‘Not Your Guru‘ reaffirmed that while my previous views on Tony had been incorrect, my newer opinion on Tony (and people like him) is more realistic:
Tony Robbins is NOT a guru. Tony simply combines proven strategies for emotional/ mental breakthrough with concrete plans of action to achieve these, fuelled by a (seemingly) limitless enthusiasm and energy. But this is not original. Tony is not a guru or irreplaceable. Tony is simply a conduit for ways of thinking that have the power to transform- and that goes for all the other coaches and motivational speakers out there.
This is great news for us, because it means that if a certain prominent individual ceases coaching or dies unexpectedly, the principles and concepts remain and can be taught by somebody else. Instead of seeking those who perpetuate a cult of personality, what we need are more conduits- people able to communicate the same tried and tested principles and help us to do what we need to get where we want to be.
So, who are your conduits?
I’m fortunate enough to have business mentors in my life right now, who I catch up with on a fortnightly basis and we share what’s been going on in our lives, what goals we’ve achieved since last time, what we need to keep working on and holding each other accountable for. It’s a more secure feeling, knowing that if there are solutions or plans of action I’m struggling to put together, I have people who can offer their suggestions or criticisms to get me on the right track.
I consider myself lucky to have people who (so far) have been such valuable conduits into my business and my life, and I’d also like to think they regard me in the same way. I would consider it a compliment, not an insult if they referred to me as a conduit!
Because the truth is, instead of seeking a guru, we need a conduit.
Like when it comes to mentoring people regarding their copy, I don’t strive to be their guru, either. They’re clearly grateful for the ways (small and large) I help them turn out top sales and marketing copy, but I admit I’m not the only person who can do this. Sure I strive to deliver the best value and results for them, but when it comes to the feedback I give on their copy and the suggestions I make, I’m not aiming to be their guru. I just aim to serve as the useful conduit that transfers my first-hand experience and knowledge to them in the most effective manner possible…
So if you’d like professional feedback on anything to do with your copy- whether it’s your strategy, the stuff you’re working on or the stuff you’ve already got out there- then I’m confident I’m the conduit you need to make your copy actually start working for you–
You can schedule a time by clicking the link below, filling out the form and telling me what you’d like help with. Now obviously, my time is limited so this consultation isn’t free- but after just one session, you’re going to be rid of that mental clutter from worrying about what copy strategies you need vs. what you can do without-
Instead, you’re going to have new-found clarity about exactly what copy you need in order to discover the untapped money that’s waiting for you:
0 Comments