Hey there

A good number of the people I work with privately are up to some pretty big things...

Today I want to share with you how to do the same by...

Wait for it...

#cueevillaugh

Making their problems bigger!

One of my clients is a high powered Coca cola executive who is raising a $100million to build a world class university

One of my clients spent 7 years serving in the White House, with President Barack Obama.

She is now working on a new mission… “to increase Black wealth, elevate Black excellence and amplify Black leadership.” 

These amazing women came to me already engaged on a big mission. 

They left our first meeting with a much bigger mission.

Several of my clients have PhDs.... I don't.

Several are Billionaires....I'm not...

Some are high level politicians....I'm not... 

My private clients already think big.

Like me....

They already think in unorthodox, slightly mad ways. 

But they pay me to mess with their thinking…

And they pay me to help them dream bigger than they’ve ever dreamed.

You know what you main problem is?

Your problem is that you’re not dreaming big enough.

The temptation when you face a roadblock or challenge is to try to make your problems smaller.

But this can result in a focus on addressing symptoms and not causes. 

I regularly spend time making each of my client’s problems bigger…

I learned something called a Problem Magnification Session...

It's not my Technology but it's inspired by this quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower:

“Whenever I run into a problem I can’t solve, I always make it bigger. I can never solve it by trying to make it smaller, but if I make it big enough I can begin to see the outlines of a solution.”

When you try to make your problems smaller, you miss out on innovative solutions.

You are in the land of tips and tactics. 

When you make your problems bigger...

You look at things with fresh eyes...

You open the way to new thinking...

You allow for deep creativity. 

Daniel Priestley helps entrepreneurs grow and scale businesses. 

He once shared 5 provocative statements about Problem Magnification, that I re-read at least once a year:

1. As you “solve” entrepreneurial problems, they are almost immediately replaced with another problem on a bigger scale.
2. The difference between successful entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs is the size of the problems they are facing—not the nature of the problems.
3. Get yourself around people who inspire you to play a bigger game rather than simply try to put out fires.
4. Rather than hoping to solve problems, start focusing on how you can take on bigger problems that will grow and expand as you do.
5. Consider the entrepreneurs you admire most—my bet is that if you look closely you’d discover they have much bigger problems than you.

There’s a well-known parable about two friends walking by a river, who see a child drowning.

They dive in to save him.

But then they see another child in the water, and another, and another. 

One friend keeps diving back in to save each new child.

The other friend says, “I’m going upstream to tackle the guy throwing these kids in the water.”

That’s upstream thinking: solving problems before they happen. 

And it's powerful when you make that happen for your clients.

Ask your clients to tell you the biggest challenge they are currently facing.

What’s the biggest challenge you have right now?

And is this a real problem, or have you dealt with similar problems before?

If the problem feels familiar, it’s a recurring problem.

And you need to look upstream… 

Recurring problems ‘seem’ real.

Their impact can be just as profound.

But the only way to handle a real problem is to go to the deeper underlying cause. 

Unless you are willing to help your clients address their challenges at their deepest level...

It is inevitable that the same issues will keep recurring.

Like I shared yesterday...

If a problem recurs, you didn’t understand its root. You were working on symptoms, not the source. 

By the end of a Problem Magnification session, your clients should have their heads spinning with much grander challenges than they’d ever imagined. 

That's how you inspire greatness in the people you work with.

Don't be one of those people who says...

Tell me your problem and I’ll help you fix it. Then tell me your next problem and we’ll fix that, too…

That's small thinking.

If you want to work with high-performing clients...

You have to relentlessly learn to draw out their genius. 

Your job is to help them upgrade the quality of their problems.

Your job is to help them consider into more powerful questions. 

Are you helping your clients solve their problems or to lean into their true mission?

One way to stop solving the ‘problems’ your clients bring to the table is to assume that the problems they think they have are merely symptoms. 

Be like the massage therapist who, when I explained about my back pain, worked on my ankles for an hour.

I was frustrated because I thought they must have misheard me.

But when I stood up, my back pain was completely gone.

They had worked on the source of my pain, not the symptoms. 

That’s being an expert...

That's being a master of your craft...

Dive deeper into your clients’ dreams and desires than they’ve ever dared to go.

Help them dream bigger than they’ve ever dreamed.

Then help them get there—one tiny step at a time. 

Till tomorrow...

Play a bigger game.

CTM