Why it never was just about Social Media – Julian Summerhayes

It seems like an age now that I stopped practicing as a lawyer and made the decision to go solo.

The transition has been hard at times – not in the sense of running my own business, but in unscrambling a lot of the traits, cynicism and awkwardness that went with a risk averse mindset.

In the early days, I had a vision that I would assume the business franchise model for my work and focus on offering affordable consulting/coaching to my clients.

Call me naive, but things haven’t worked out in that direction. Instead, I have worked closely with my clients to understand their business(es) with a view to tailoring the offering to fit the brief.

Perhaps I am my own worst enemy but I have a tendency to go deep on a subject – social media being no exception!

I want to know everything.

It has its place when you have to leave no stone unturned in advising on the law, but when you are running a small business it can be a real handicap. But I want to make one thing clear: despite my love affair with social media, my schtick is not social media!

Now, I am quite prepared to be shot down saying this – heck, look at all the ‘stuff’ I have produced on a plethora of platforms – but I am clear in my mind what is my thing: To help you or business become the most of anything.

For some that may sound preposterous, but in my mind it means wringing every last ounce of your capability, talent, and potential as human beings. Social media is one aperture but it is narrow in its compass, particularly when you are having to work with people who have lost their sense of identity.

The problem for many of us is that our work has come to symbolise who we are but it leaves us exposed on so many fronts.

As I have said before, none of us was born to one thing over another; and the focus should be on developing our full potential in every area of our life:

It’s a tall order, and making progress can be hard, particularly when we are hard wired in a lot of cases to look for a comfort zone. But our life is not what we make it in one area, but as the complete package.

Of course, there is no shortage of self help material extolling the brilliance of one uber programme or another, but the truth of the matter is the only way to change our lives, is to do something different each and every day. In E-Myth speak, to go to work on your life not in it. Of course, for many of us, it is stupid advice to talk about starting with the end in mind, when we have no idea what today will bring, let alone the next 10 or 20 years. In truth the only moment you have is now. And that is where all your supreme effort should be devoted.

My work with brand you is focused on incremental change, rather than the big leap stuff. I know from personal experience that we too often bite off more than we can consume in one or 10 sittings, and instead we need to decide what today will be different by just 1% and focus on getting better in an area that we believe will have the biggest impact in our lives.

I feel over the last few months I have started to think differently, and for better or worse (depending which side of the fence you hang out), I feel more alive than ever. In time I will write more about the journey but for now I just want to put down my little marker concerning social media before things got to a point where the label has stuck for all time.

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