Just this week, I had a coaching call with someone who has someone working for her who is not meeting her expectations.

Has this happened to you? Perhaps with a client? Or even a spouse or a friend?

You think you have expressed to someone what you need from them. Perhaps you even did so more than once. Maybe it was in conversation. Maybe in writing. It may have even been in an official documented agreement.

And then the dreaded moment comes. You’ve rationalized for a while. Days. Weeks. Months. One circumstantial reason they may not have done it. The season. Big things going on in the world.

Then you check in about something else and hear about another situation going on. Could that be why they aren’t doing what they said? Or is it a bad relationship? Do they not respect you? Are they not what you hoped?

I have coached many writers and other business owners in these situations in their businesses and lives, and there is one thing I’ve learned that I try to put in place where- and when-ever possible to head these kinds of situations off at the past: externalize expectations.

What do you want here? What do you expect to happen? What do you expect to do?

Being upfront about this can help with so much disappointment down the line.

But…I’ve also found something cool.

When you externalize expectations in this way and get ahead of them, the real magic happens. When people get what they expect—especially when most people never do what they expect—they are delighted. They feel supported and valued. And, I think, it starts a chain reaction of good feelings that ripples positively in their other relationships and all sorts of other aspects of their lives.

In short: I want this for you. I want you to experience this delightful cycle.

Will you help me?

We want to meet your expectations. Wait…scratch that.

Actually, we don’t want to meet your expectations. Or even exceed them.

We want to support you in ways that you would never even expect. That you might not have thought someone could.

I, personally, would love if you would just feel like we must have read your mind, because you are getting exactly what you need before you yourself realized you need it.

This is literally why I get certifications, read gobs of books, and am getting a full-on master’s in applied psychology at Penn this fall—we want to find ways to support you to create a flourishing life and business that you didn’t even ever consider were possible.

Might you have a few minutes to help me in this quest?

We’ve put together just a few questions to understand exactly what you need help with right now to get you to the next level in building a flourishing life and business and quitting suffering for success. We want to make sure that all of our time goes to working on the problems you most need help with and finding the best options for you.

You can answer our short questions here.

We Really Want to Thank You!

If you have time to help us help you, we will be so thankful that you dedicated your time and attention to these few questions. Truly. Beyond informing you what we build and spend time on going forward, we’d also like to send you any resources we already have that can help you where you are at to show our appreciation.

If you receive our weekly newsletter on creating a flourishing life and business and have received our $100 thank you coupon code, you can also use that to pick out some video classes from our library for where you would most benefit from tips, tactics, and tangible information right now.

Thank you so much for helping us help you with just a few minutes of your time!