“Fabulous 20-minute tune-up.”
“I believe.”
Tap into what
inspires you most.
Leadership genius Warren Bennis said,
“You are your own raw material.
Only when you know what you’re made
of and what you want can you really live
your life. The best way of learning from
and what you believe.”
In this quick tutorial, award-winning
business coach Andrew Priestley
gives you a fabulous 20-minute activity
that will start to tap into what inspires
you. Book an appointment with
yourself, a cup of tea and your voice
recorder and complete this sentence ...

The 20-Minute “I Believe…” Activity
Andrew Priestley is an award-winning
internationally recognised business coach,
mentor, speaker and author.
Through 1-2-1 coaching, workshops and
training he works with owner/managers usually managing directors - running
established mid-sized companies across the
UK, Australia and the USA.
Typical results are certainly increased
revenues and profits and higher performing
teams. And coaching definitely helps you
resolve challenges or problems associated
with business leadership.
Andrew developed this coaching programme
after working with senior managers in highcompliance environments. He discovered
highly effective leaders are doing five things
really well. He now applies what he learned in
those environments to his coaching clients.
the clients I work with who have suffered a
crisis of meaning, feel unfulfilled or feel they
haven’t realised their potential have to a
person overly focused on the What and How
… without fully exploring the Why.
Conversely, taking the time to explore and
create context is what makes life a deeper,
richer and more fulfilling experience.
fulfilling. So …
This is the exercise I get my clients to do at
the start of their coaching programme.
_________________
The ‘I believe …” Activity
1. Schedule 20 minutes
It’s important to schedule 20 uninterrupted
minutes with yourself.
2. Grab a coffee/tea/Bonox …
In this tutorial, you will start to tap into what
inspires you most. Enjoy!
Next, grab a cupper.
_________________
3. Get your smart phone and find the Voice
Recorder app.
Start here
Leadership genius Warren Bennis1 said,
“You are your own raw material. Only when
you know what you’re made of and what you
want can you really live your life. The best
way of learning from yourself is to reflect on
who you are ... and what you believe.”
Simon Sinek2 said, “Most of the answers we
get, when based on sound evidence, are
perfectly valid. However, if we’re staring with
the wrong questions, if we don’t understand
the cause, then even the right answers will
steer us wrong … eventually. I offer you a
challenge. From now on, start with Why.”
This goes along with ‘too busy cutting a path
through the wrong jungle’ and climbing a
ladder against the wrong wall’ and so on. I’m
sure you have your own version.
I learned years ago that working on the
wrong problem … is the problem.
At the heart of it, I discovered that most of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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OK, find the app turn it on, press record.
4. Finish the sentence, “I believe …”
You can decide if your ‘I believe’ responses
are going to be about the whole of life or just
the things you believe about your business,
for example.
Just start talking. Simply finish the statement,
“I believe …”
i) Some people keep repeating the statement
and include different endings.
“I believe … people need a coach.”
“I believe … that working in isolation and
struggling along bravely with problems on
your own is a huge mistake.”
”I believe … people need either help or
distinctions.”
Get the idea?
Bennis. W. (2009) On Becoming a Leader. Basic Books.
Sinek. S. (2009) Start with why. Portfolio Penguin.
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
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ii) Other people expand on their initial
responses and say why they believe what
they believe.
“I believe …people need a coach because …
sometimes … in fact often … you are way
too close to the situation to be objective. A
coach gives you an amazing opportunity to
reflect on what’s happening because it’s a
structured, supportive, non judgmental
conversation … “
5. Keep going for 20-minutes then stop.
For now, don’t do more than 20-minutes.
A big mistake is to get on a roll – and you will
– and before you know it you’ve been
‘I believing’ for an hour or more!
There is another reason.
6. Listen back to the recording with a pen and
paper (at this session or a subsequent
session).
Get the idea?
iii) A really useful format you might try is:
a)
List – generate a list of ‘I believe’
bullet points. For example I recently
did this with a group of 50
delegates. I selected a volunteer and
over 5 minutes he had identified 15
‘I believe’ statements.
For example, ‘I believe you need a
coach if you run a business.’
b) Why – I then went back over the list
and invited him to select one of the
‘I believe’ statements from that
initial list. Then I asked him to say
why he believed that. He spoke for at
least 5 minutes about the item he
selected.
For example, ‘I believe you need a
coach if you run a business because
…’
c)
Case study/example - I then asked
him if he could think of an example
to illustrate. He came up with a
brilliant case study.
For example, I once had a client who
was dead scared of chasing latepaying customers. We resolved that
issue in a 2-hour coaching session
and over the following week he had
collected over USD$59000 in unpaid
invoices. He said that he having a
coach has literally changed the
liquidity of his business.
d) A quick tip - My quick tip would be
to make contact with a coach or
mentor ASAP. Do a search for
someone local or ask one of your
colleagues but take action.
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
Right! Listen to your own voice. Allow it to
sink in. Listen back and make notes. Stop the
recording if you get inspired. (You will get
inspired!)
Most of my clients actually gain new insights
from the playback. Sometimes they are really
important distinctions. Other times you will
realize that you in fact don’t believe what you
just said! This is a time to reflect.
And take action. Many clients arrive at action
points as well. So list any ‘to-dos’ that come
from this session.
_________________
OK. Next steps?
Repeat and Rinse – (as my nana would say).
Do the activity again. Regularly.
Archive – You will end up with an MP3 file.
I recommend you archive these MP3
recordings. They make fascinating listening a
year from today or five years from today.
Transcribe – I recommend you jump on
Elance and get the MP3 transcribed because
…
Collateral/IP – Turn it into collateral. There is a
whole content management argument that
goes hand in hand with social media and the
need to be relational and create digital
downloadable relational content.
Simon Sinek’s argument is that people by
why you sell more than what you sell. You
can edit and top and tail your authentic
‘I believe’ transcript and make it available as a
digital downloadable PDF relational piece on
your website, for example. Most people have
an About page. This is a great About page
piece!
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Repurpose – This is a big discussion for
perhaps another tutorial but once you’ve got
it you can repurpose this content into
reports, tutorials, downloadable PDFs,
embedded email links, YouTube videos,
SlideShare uploads, Tweets, Facebook Posts,
MP3 interviews and so on.
Testimonials and Feedback
I would love to add some testimonials or
feedback to the next revision so please email
me at info@andrewpriestley.com
Big topic for a workshop.
(For your benefit, most online content can be
repurposed into things people can watch,
read, listen to and do.)
There is always a but …
…but …
for now, do this just for you. The big danger
in doing this for a wider audience is that you
cease to be authentic and start saying stuff
you think others want you to say.
You start to spin things. If you sense that you
are spinning, then stop, get another cuppa
and start again or do it later. This is a hand on
heart exercise.
Contact Andrew Priestley
Web: www.andrewpriestley.com or
www.the-coaching-experience.com
Email: info@andrewpriestley.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TCE.HQ
Twitter @arpriestley
Skype: priestley1
Phone: +44 (0) 7879 330060
This is not a Jerry McGuire moment. You do
not have to stay up all night and publish your
manifesto and have it distributed the next
day.
Warren Bennis again on reflecting:
“Faced with your own mortality you realize
that what you’ve been doing, what you’re
invested in is not an accurate reflection of
your real needs and desires.”
So you should perhaps occasionally alter the
statement to read, ‘I really believe …’
(This is a great Lunch and Learn activity to do
with your staff, by the way. You’d be amazed
at what your team might believe about your
business, your customers, the industry, how
customers should be treated etc. But again, a
great activity for another day. Start with you
first.)
Hope this helps
Andrew Priestley
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
Note: I love this shot of The Beatles when they appeared
on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9th 1963. Over 73
million people tuned into that show! No one believed it
possible! The Beatles believed that the world should hear
their music.!
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