The Brave Blog
I'm documenting a year of being braver in my career, life, and faith. The goal is to write every day, and you can get a summary of brave stories by signing up for my weekly newsletter. Stories I'll share:Being brave in sales and growing a new consulting divisionTraining for a 100-mile ultra raceLiving authentically for Jesus
Scroll down for new entries and sign-up to get the weekly summary!Empty Room Opportunities
Traveling for a meeting that doesn’t happen usually doesn’t seem very brave. But it was just the start of some brave decisions and perhaps divine moments.
1 brave thing: Praying and Prophesying
I went to a prayer meeting today and no one was there. Fortunately I read Ephesians 5 which talks about making the most of all opportunities. Eventually one other person came and I asked if he wanted to pray for one another. And not just pray but to take intentional time to speak words of encouragement over one another- also known as the spiritual gift of prophesying.
Why it matters. I could have been frustrated about traveling to an empty room but I felt it was meant to be. I wouldn’t have had the brave opportunity to have the 1:1 prayer time that seemed to align exactly with my morning scripture reading.
To brave moments in faith,
Justin
A New Guru
Choosing the right voices to listen to in life and in our career is critical. I’ve decided to step forward in my business consulting identity with the help of a new group of mentors.
1 brave thing: Trusting new guru
I once told a first time entrepreneur how important it is to pick the right gurus to listen to. There are so many books, speakers, and voices shouting their thoughts. Who really has the best advice for us to grow versus just their bank account? Well I’m taking a risk and joining a new community specifically designed to help employee benefit consultants like myself grow their knowledge of the industry and their practice to serve their clients by helping to reduce healthcare costs while providing better care.
Why it matters. It’s a financial and time commitment that is not unwise but it’s also not trivial. Hopefully this proves to be just what I need to take the next step in serving more clients and becoming an even more knowledgeable consultant in this space.
Owning this new role. I think the braver moment in all of this is stepping into this new career and being identified as an employee benefits consultant. This group is a brave step for me in this direction.
Let the brave new identity continue.
Justin
Awkward Conversations
Awkward conversations are often avoided like the plague in business. At least this is true for me most of the time, but not today!
1 brave thing: Having awkward conversations
Today I made the brave decision to setup a meeting that had some tense moments. The gist is a client wants to work with me and they need to break up with their current consultant. My awkward conversation was with a 3rd partner who is working with the current consultant and I wanted to see if they would work with me as well. More details that don’t need to be shared but the brave thing to report is I made the effort to have this conversation to help my soon to be client gain clarity on our next steps.
Why this matters. The fact is I should have had this conversation months ago and after today it feels so good to have clarity.
To brave and awkward conversations,
Justin
Summit Facilitator
Another chance to serve as a meeting facilitator presented itself today- this time with the dooable health team.
1 brave thing: Facilitating a Virtual Summit
I’m continuing the theme of brave facilitating! Today our dooable health™️ had a team virtual summit and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge and opportunity to make these fun and effective.
Why it matters. Setting a vision, setting relevant goals, and making meaningful progress does not happen by accident. Hopefully I helped create an environment to help our team do just this.
To a brave year,
Justin
Fellowship Facilitator
Six other guys waiting on my next step to lead them through a structured conversation and experience. It’s go time for the CL Thomas Fellowship experience!
1 brave thing: Facilitating meetings
We had our first official meeting for my CL Thomas Fellowship group tonight. It’s a chance for me to facilitate conversation for a couple of hours to help promote both a positive group culture and individual learning opportunities.
Why it matters. If the meeting flow is not intentional the whole experience can be a bust. It’s a great muscle for me to continue to work on for the benefit of the fellowship and my personal leadership skills.
To brave moments.
Justin
Responding to Clients
Should I rest on the couch or address the time sensitive client question that I put off for two days?
1 brave thing: Sending the email
My brave moment could have been my long run today, but it wasn’t. The brave moment was this evening responding to a client email from a couple of days ago that I should have done before.
Why it matters. If I’m going to grow my consulting business I need to do a better job addressing time sensitive requests like this.
Increasing productivity. Ironically enough the podcast I listened today on my long run was a lab researcher who has intentionally designed her life to be 1 hr of email and social media a week. Thats right only 1 hr/Wk! She is able to concentrate on her lab. For me I have to be more available to clients and yet I want to have deep work time for my clients not just be a customer service contact.
Bravery over tiredness. The thing In proud of her is to say no to the couch and yes to the office. It took more time to write this blog than to address the client issue. A good reminder how bravery is sometimes just prioritizing what should be done versus what I feel like doing.
Cheers!
Justin
Core Christianity
A brave moment presented itself when I needed to pick the next book for the CL Thomas Fellowship. So many options, and so little time. Brave moment of making a selection.
1 brave thing: Picking the next book
I’m leading a small mens group through The CL Thomas Fellowship program. Over 9-mo we will investigate how to provide more like Jesus. One of the responsibilities I have is to pick the book each month for us to read. I made my selection for the next month: Core Christianity by Michael Horton.
Why it matters. I want the fellowship to be an amazing experience for the men. It’s important to faculty’s well and pick the best 9 books. This one is a new one for the fellowship that I hope resonates and builds our faith.
Finding yourself in Gods story. This is the subtitle of the book and it seemed to fit perfectly with our upcoming theme of “Be Known.”
Brave moments seem to happen when your not quite sure if this is the right decision or not.
Cheers,
Justin
Share an Ask
With my startup advisor hat on I needed to make a decision how to engage in an ice breaker moment. To be brave or not to be brave. That is the question….of today and of this year.
1 brave thing: Sharing a real ask
I have the privilege of being on a board of advisors for a first time entrepreneur. He asked what ice breaker he should use for the meeting and I suggested he ask all the advisors to share a brag, a gift, and an ask. When it was my turn I realized I could use this as a brave moment. I chose to tell them about Bull Benefits of dooable health and how I’m focused on growing that division.
Why it matters. It felt brave because I’m supposed to be a startup advisor in this setting and yet here I was talking about my own startup needing more sales.
Sometimes it’s just in our head. Sometimes we make things seem bigger than they are. What seemed like a brave moment to me was just an accepted response from the group of advisors.
To a brave year,
Justin