Lessons on Essentialism From My Friend Sneh
I have written enough about my friend Sneh for everyone to know that she's brilliant, right?
Well, brilliant and a street rat…
But we’re not the kind of people who discriminate against street rats, are we? After all, sometimes our brothers are so broke that they have to eat street rats to survive. (Unnamed brother, feel free to share your Venmo in the comments. Your siblings think it’s too funny to help, but maybe strangers will be kinder.)
Alas, let’s steer this back to Sneh’s brilliance. Because something she told me recently stuck with me and I want to share it.
In 2021, Sneh left a high-powered and lucrative global tech career to shift into a more authentic way of living. The career that used to fulfill her began to feel confining, so she responded accordingly. She and her partner, Gyula, first focused on selecting a "this feels right" home base, then she moved from Singapore to Sweden.
She proceeded to sign up for the world's most rigorous coaching training program (CTI). The part of her career that had always been most fulfilling was coaching and mentoring her direct reports, so she decided to double down on that. Because she’s Sneh, the world's most rigorous program was the natural choice.
Now, with that background set, I’m getting to the point.
Sneh, in her brilliance, knew exactly how she wanted to approach her coaching training. And that was in a deeply devotional fashion.
Sneh wanted to devote herself fully to mastering coaching. That meant no traveling and limited side projects. A full, wide open, "this is my priority and, aside from my relationships, nothing is coming ahead of it" year devoted to completing her training and certification. To becoming the kind of coach who is so good at what she does that she can confidently promise, "If you work with me, you will experience a meaningful transformation."
Powerful, huh?
But here’s the specific part that really hit me: in order to devote herself fully to mastering coaching, Sneh intentionally chose NOT to devote herself to other things that she’ll eventually need to do.
Like marketing her coaching practice, for instance.
She hasn’t built a website. She doesn’t have a referral network of helpers who send clients her way. She has a 3-page PDF that says who she is and how to tell if signing up to work with her is a good fit...and that’s it.
Do you know why she did this? Because Sneh, like every wise person I know, understands that NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DONE AT ONCE.
I think we’re not supposed to like Bill Gates anymore (question mark? Are we? I don’t consume a lot of media so I never know who we’re supposed to like or not), but his "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years," quote is one of the most impactful gems I’ve ever read.
Sneh paid a lot of money to learn how to become a really (REALLY) good coach. And, as a result, she chose to focus 100% of her time, energy, and attention on mastering her craft.
Not drumming up business. Not building a waiting list. Not testing the perfect price or figuring out an Instagram strategy or you-name-it.
Because she can do that starting in September when she’s fully certified and no longer has multiple weekly sessions with the world-class master coaches who are teaching her how to become a world-class coach.
This, if you’re wondering, is called essentialism. Greg McKeown wrote a brilliant book about it and, if I ever go beyond solopreneurship in the future, I’m going to insist that every person I work with read it.
Sneh’s lesson – her living embodiment of the power of essentialism – it was so helpful for me yesterday.
As most of you know, I’m currently compiling all of the information that helped me overcome depression and putting it in a shareable format. I would love few things more than to then share this information in an in-person workshop. Like most of us, I have Zoom fatigue. I don’t want more online gatherings. I want more in-person stuff.
However, I don’t know 4-6 people where I live who would sign up for my workshop simply because I asked them to. I am deeply in-person purpose-and-meaning-and-overlapping-interests dissatisfied where I currently live, and it’s something I’m actively addressing.
Therefore, to have my 10/10 "this is what I want" experience, I’d have to shift away from focusing on compiling the information and learning how to share it in an impactful way to focus on marketing the workshop. Not a good fit.
So instead, I put up a post saying, "Hey, do any people who already trust me want to sign up for this virtual workshop?" and, in less than 24 hours, my workshop was full.
This is way longer than I want it to be, so here’s the conclusion – maybe consider doing less instead of more?
Keely
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