My Surgeon Called While I Was On Stage

We’re fortunate to have new subscribers this week! For those of you who’ve been supporting for a while, you know how I much I care about community. With that being said, I just wanted to start with a warm welcome to our new friends. Let’s get this party started.

This week’s focus is: Priorities.

I had the pleasure spending the last six days in New York City. It’s one of my favorite cities for a multitude of reasons, so I’m always looking for ways to get back. There’s something about the energy of the place that recharges my creative batteries. Each step acting like regenerative braking on an EV, it’s just magic I can’t quite explain.

Nearly all of my trips to NYC are for play. I’ll go for Halloween or the 4th of July, stay with friends, and just do the whole nightlife thing. Last week, that changed. It was the first time I’ve planned a primarily business trip. Granted, my life has changed a lot since the last time I visited. I have a more profound view on how I want to spend my life, knowing how quickly it can be taken away.

Thursday night, I hosted a mixer called “The Rewrite” with two colleagues who have interesting journeys of their own. Pauline, a former executive from L’Oréal and Sara, a broker/realtor from Serhant. The stage was set at Fabrik in DUMBO. Three compelling individuals who’ve had to “rewrite” their stories multiple times in their lives. All we needed was the audience to share our knowledge with.

Insert a rainstorm that no one had seen in NYC in years. I’m talking a downpour that would give Hollywood CGI a run for its money. We had 65 people confirmed on Luma at the beginning of the day. By the time the event started at 6:30p, we were staring at 22 people who had still made the trek through a Jumanji-like environment to connect with us. We kicked off the event by expressing extreme gratitude because they didn’t have to be there on that day of all days.

After our opening statements, it was showtime. Sara and Pauline began by sharing their stories and connecting with members of the audience to warm up the room. As Pauline wrapped up, she handed me the mic to start. As I discussed the last year of my life, I could tell we were really going deeper with our audience. Mission success. How so?

Because I don’t just host events, I aim to host experiences.

As I wrapped up my portion and really started to feel the energy in the room shift into something more intentional than “just another mixer”, it came to an abrupt halt. My phone rang, which meant someone had called me twice and bypassed my Do Not Disturb status. I glance down at my watch and see it’s my orthopedic surgeon.

He began leaving a voicemail stating he needed to speak with me regarding my recent knee MRI scans. Usually, I would’ve just called him back, but he was about to be gone for a month so it was more urgent than normal. I stood up, grabbed my phone from the tripod, and dashed into the hallway. Why? Because my health has become my number one priority, regardless of what I have going on. Even a panel I’m currently speaking on.

What I thought would be a quick 5-minute call turned into 15 minutes. We had to decide what we were going to do about the knee reconstruction we had been planning. The timing couldn’t have been more embarrassing, but I committed to this being my priority when I got off that operating table last year. After going back and forth, we settled on a plan in the near future.

Now, it was time to return to the room I had just Olympic speed walked out of. I apologized to my co-hosts and the audience and filled them in on what happened. To my surprise, every single person was extremely understanding. This honestly meant a lot to me for a very glaring reason.

This was a room full of people, many I was meeting for the first time, understanding and respecting my priorities in real-time. It showed me that we had invited the right type of people to the event. Ones who truly care about others and just get that “life be lifin’” as I always say. These are the type of people that I want to not only surround myself with, but also host experiences for. People who just get it. It was the validation of the market I knew I wanted to target.

Sometimes in life, priority #1 will interrupt priority #2… and that’s how it should be. The big issue I see with people? They don’t know which is which. They haven’t taken the time to sit down and thoughtfully think about what’s most important to them and where they won’t compromise. Without that clarity, every interruption feels like a crisis. If there’s one homework assignment this week, it’s answering two questions:

The last eight weeks of the year are my absolute favorite for one big reason, in particular. Most people take their foot off the gas and lose sight of their priorities. Your subscription to this type of newsletter lets me know that won’t be you!

In the words of the legendary Kobe Bryant, “Job’s not finished.” Now is the time to separate yourself from those who are just about to mail it in until early January. Prioritize ruthlessly and watch how different your life truly looks when everyone is just coming back online next year.

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Have a great week and I’ll talk to you all Sunday 🏁