Everyone needs a coach.

Bill Gates
Co-founder of Microsoft, entrepreneur, philanthropist

‘Would you like me to collaborate with you on growing your business?’

Pete Bryceland responded to my message minutes after I'd sent it. ‘Yes I would!’ As our conversation unfolded, he revealed that he'd been making a living as a transformation professional (he'd earned a little less than £20,000 that year, coaching people) but was finding it challenging. He wanted to earn significantly more money, enjoy the process more, and feel greater freedom. It emerged that Pete loved coaching, and got great results with his clients, but found charging by the hour frustrating and difficult. He wanted to move to a high-value coaching package model so he could have more committed clients, increase his income and stabilize his cash flow.

But there was a problem: Pete hated selling.

I invited Pete to join the beta-test group for a new programme I was developing, and ended up coaching him in front of a live audience a few weeks later. He explained that when he had conversations with potential clients, they were excited about working with him, but as soon as they started asking about what it would cost, Pete became awkward, disconnected and tongue-tied. He'd lost three sales in the previous few weeks due to this ‘selling-anxiety’. As we talked, Pete started becoming more reflective, and a sense of connection started developing between us. About 20 minutes into the conversation, Pete had a realization, and started to see the situation differently. He got in touch with me a month later to let me know that he'd signed up two clients on packages of £10,000 each since our coaching conversation. He'd made more money as a result of that one insight than he had in the previous year!

Many of the greatest performers on the planet have coaches. From golfer Rory McIlroy to Google CEO Eric Schmidt; from pop diva Beyonce to surgeon Atul Gawande. Why? Because the perspective, understanding and mindset of an impactful coach can unlock your potential and bring out your best performance. A truly transformational coach is able to speak to a person's deepest wisdom and their highest inspiration. They're influential, wise and impactful enough to call forth profound changes and extraordinary results from others.

And what does this have to do with the principles of impact?

It turns out that you can realize the leverage points the world's most transformational coaches use to create massive impact; in your own life, and in the lives of others. You see, the principles of impact apply in every situation, whether you're giving a speech or out on a first date; whether you're parenting your teenager or applying for a job. The principles of impact apply in the domains of leadership, management, performance, innovation, friendship, parenting, public speaking, selling, negotiating and even dating.

The CLARITY^® Impact Model

You know those days where you can't put a foot wrong… When everything falls into place, you get the ideas you need exactly when you need them, and you finish the day feeling productive and fulfilled… And then there are those other days, when it really seems like you would have been better just to stay in bed… The days when everything seems like a chore, and it's tough to find your groove. The difference between those two days is the state of mind you're in… your level of clarity. Your level of clarity determines how you're showing up in the world, and the impact you're going to have. The CLARITY^® Impact Model is a simple way of relating to your innate capacity for learning, changing, growing, communicating and getting results. It applies equally to individuals, 1:1 relationships and groups. You can think of it as a metaphor that points to the principles behind clarity and your innate capacity for having an impact. It consists of the following elements:

1. Clarity of connection
2. Clarity of thought
3. Clarity of understanding

You're going to get an overview of these three kinds of clarity in this chapter, then we'll be exploring each of them more deeply in the chapters that follow.

1.   Clarity of connection

Once again: human beings have a more highly evolved capacity for connection and relationship than any other species. Social groups are a big part of the reality we're built for. The feeling of connection can be a powerful communicator of trust and credibility when it comes to persuasion, influence and leadership. In more intimate relationships, the feeling of love and connection is the rich soil that feeds the roots of the relationship and allows it to grow and evolve. We all have times when we're feeling connected; connected to another person… connected to our true selves… connected to life as a whole. We also have times when we feel less connected, or even isolated. When you're feeling connected, there's a sense of closeness and intimacy that carries its own credibility. When we're hanging out in La-la Land, caught up in contaminated thinking, we lose that sense of connection. The moment you fall out of contaminated thinking and into the reality of the moment, your sense of connection re-emerges.

2.   Clarity of thought

Clarity of thought is a predictor of high performance, valuable insights and impactful communications. Unsurprisingly, clarity of thought is also correlated with a deeper sense of connection. When you've got a clear mind, you're free to give your best, whatever the context. We all have times when we're clear-headed, present and available to the moment. We also have times when we're preoccupied, with a lot on our minds. Clarity of thought is the variable that determines where on that spectrum you're showing up. When we're caught up in contaminated thinking, our clarity of thought is low. The moment you wake up from the outside-in misunderstanding, clarity of thought returns.

3.   Clarity of understanding

Every person on the planet has their own understanding of how life works. In some areas of life, your embodied understanding is closely aligned with reality, and you get good results. In other areas of life, your embodied understanding is adrift from reality, and you struggle. The greater your awareness of the inside-out nature of the mind, the greater your clarity of understanding is. And here's the thing: we all have times when we feel connected; we all have times when we have clarity of thought. But your clarity of understanding is the ultimate leverage point for increasing the amount of time you spend clear-headed and feeling connected. When you do get caught up in contaminated thinking, your clarity of understanding determines how quickly your mind will self-correct.

The principles of impact

The CLARITY^® Impact Model is poly-contextual; it's relevant in any domain that involves people. When I'm teaching coaches, I refer to it as the CLARITY^® Coaching Model. In leadership workshops, it becomes the CLARITY^® Leadership Model. The same goes for parenting, teaching, public speaking, influence and relationships. The reason this model applies across all contexts is simple…

The principles behind clarity are at play in every human interaction…

If a person is having an experience, it's being created by the principles of MIND, THOUGHT and CONSCIOUSNESS.

It's liberating to realize that you're already connected to the principles of impact. The principles of MIND, THOUGHT and CONSCIOUSNESS are creating your experience right now, in this very moment. As you deepen your understanding of the nature of these principles, you'll increase your ability to have an impact with others and create meaningful results.

Exceptional productivity

Mamoon Yusaf reached out to me because he was considering coming on my annual life transformation retreat. We arranged a time to speak so I could find out if he was a good fit for the retreat, and vice versa. During that conversation, Mamoon mentioned that he was struggling over a painful separation he'd been through nine months earlier. He was running a successful business, but beating himself up about the relationship was having a negative impact on his clarity, wellbeing and productivity. During our conversation, Mamoon had a profound and liberating insight. He later wrote, ‘Over the following two weeks, I had a totally clear head and was exceptionally productive with meeting deadlines. I didn't realize until much later that the coaching call with Jamie talking about relationships actually undid habitual thinking patterns and deep-rooted limiting beliefs that had been seriously sabotaging all areas of my life’.

Mamoon's realization resulted in an increased clarity of understanding. His embodied understanding of his mind and emotions became more closely aligned with the one way the mind always works. This ‘jump in consciousness’ had a subtractive effect, clearing his mind of much of the contaminated thinking which had been holding him back. A few weeks later, he joined me on the retreat, and his understanding of these principles now forms the basis of his work as a transformational coach in the Muslim community.

Transformational results

I conducted a case-study interview with Pete Bryceland a year after he joined my programme to document what the impact of this understanding had been for him. Pete's results have been transformational. He now feels a sense of ease and enjoyment about clients, money and selling. Pete coaches business owners, executives and managers who are feeling overwhelmed and under constant pressure to perform. He says, ‘If I want more money, I just go out and get it’. He's increased his income significantly, but he said the biggest impact has been the sense of freedom and security he now feels. This has meant he's been able to spend more time with his family (one of the main reasons he decided to set up his own business in the first place).

My transformational conversations with Pete and Mamoon each started with a deep sense of connection. So how can you start experiencing that kind of connection to help you create the results that matter to you?