The Journey Carries On

2020 was the strongest year I’ve ever had with MetaHelm.

Despite the chaos in the world, I was extremely fortunate and grateful to achieve this extraordinary result.

That’s because I got lucky. Just like Thomas Jefferson, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." There might still have been a bit of actual luck involved, but the hard work that I put into starting my independent consulting practice in 2016 definitely paid off.

However, I didn’t really take a break in almost two years. Not so French of me. So, to honor my roots, this past holidays I decided to unplug for a generous one-week unpaid period of time.

My business coach Philip Morgan smiles when he says that “If you’re cultivating expertise, the real work happens when you’re away from the desk”. It turned out to be very true during this break. Once I was out of the office, I just couldn’t stop reflecting on what I do for my clients and the reason behind this work.

I started wondering about what kept me going so strongly, what led me to put in over 2,200 hours of actual consulting work in 2020 for the seven companies I helped.

It hit me a few days after Christmas.

There is nothing more exciting to me than helping people find their Why. I mean by this the raison d’être of their organization or the purpose of their work.

My purpose is people’s purpose.

It might be that I used to struggle myself so much to get clear with this that helping someone or a company with it is just like reenacting my own journey.

Now, here is the problem: this is never in the first place​ what I told my clients I was going to do for them.

I typically get hired with the initial ask to reframe and revive the company story. This work takes various form, but most of the time it involves the creation of a communication asset such as the company sales deck, a high-stakes keynote, or a piece of thought leadership. That’s because building a high-visibility presentation puts enough pressure on you to force deeper thinking.

Discovering the Why of the organization is this delightful consequence that happens when I work with business leaders on their strategic narrative. But again, they never hire me for this particular goal. That’s what they get, but not what they pay for.

That is until now.

I decided that from now on, getting clear on purpose is not going to be a consequence anymore, but the purpose of my work.

If you’re able to hear the call of your purpose, the reason that speaks to everyone, your business becomes unstoppable and things become easy. For instance, competition no longer exists. Your competitors are now potential allies to achieve something bigger than you and them. There are many other benefits that I’ll probably talk about in my next emails.

Purpose was always my thing. I just never said it like this.

You will see me write more about this theme. I’ll see what happens. For now, I already started talking directly to a few of you and I had a chance to share my point of view over a couple of podcasts that should air sometime in the spring. Those conversations felt fresh and liberating.

The journey carries on and I am so glad it’s with you. Thanks for being here.