“You’re the business shrink, that’s what you are!”

I was on the phone with a long-time client the other day, and this is what she said to me.

(By the way, “shrink” is slang for “psychologist,” so “business shrink” = “business psychologist.”)

My clients see themselves at, say, 80 on a scale of 0-100, and I see the potential in them to get to 120. The ones I like working with the most get themselves up to, or close to, 120. The ones who frustrate me the most are the ones who stay at 80, never doing more than nodding their heads and agreeing that yes, 120 would be nice.

I see myself at 80, offering a service, yes, but a service at 80.

And then the other day this long-time client goes and calls me the business shrink, and I realize she is seeing me at 120, and I am the one thinking I max out at 80.

So in other words, I am my own frustrating client.

I don’t want to frustrate myself any more, so in recent months I’ve been taking a certification course that forces me to admit to myself that I am closer to that 120 than I like to think.

Last week I finished that certification. The people in that course see me at 120. In my own mind, I have, at best, moved up to 90, so there is still a ways to go, but at least it is not 80.