Business Growth Architect Show

Ep #161: Robin Waite: The Unexpected Diagnosis That Changed My Life

• Beate Chelette • Episode 161

Share episode

Had an AHA or Insight? Share it:

When life throws the unexpected your way, how do you keep going? Robin Waite shares his journey of facing a life-changing brain tumor diagnosis. Find out how you can find resilience in uncertainty. This episode will inspire you to stay strong, adapt, and move forward—no matter what.


What happens when life takes an unexpected turn? For Robin Waite, a shocking Brain Tumor diagnosis changed everything he thought he knew about business, success, and the future. In this episode of the Business Growth Architect Show, he opens up about his journey—how he went from being entirely focused on growing his coaching business to confronting a life-altering challenge that forced him to rethink everything. Hear his story on his fight to not give in to fear, but figuring out how to adapt, realign his priorities, and find a way to cope with this life altering event.


Robin and I discuss what it means to be resilient in business and in life. We dive into the importance of shifting your mindset when faced with an unchangeable and life altering event.How to recognize what really matters, and how to make intentional choices to create a life that aligns with your values. Whether it's a health crisis, financial setback, or any unexpected change, this episode offers deep insights into how to navigate uncertainty with confidence.


Overcoming adversity goes beyond survival. It’s personal growth. Robin shares how his experience led him to rethink the way he runs his business, the importance of asking for help, and why meaningful relationships are key to long-term success. His story is a testament to the fact that even in the face of the unknown, opportunities exist for those willing to embrace change and take bold steps forward.


If you've ever faced a challenge that shook your world, this episode is for you. Tune in now, share your biggest takeaway in the comments, and visit Robin’s Website to learn more about his fearless approach to business and life. And if you know someone who could use this inspiration, be sure to share this episode with them!


Resources Mentioned:

Robin Waite: Website | Linkedin | Instagram | Twitter

_____________________
We appreciate you, thank you for listening. Let us know in the comments what resonated in this episode, we want to hear from you.

Leave a comment, like, share with one person who needs to hear the message our guest shared.

Take our QUIZ and find out what your talent is worth in this market: What's Your Talent Worth (http://WhatsYourTalentWorth.com)

Follow us on Instagram:
Check us out on Tik Tok:
Work With Us

Robin Waite:

Hi. I'm Robin Waite, author of multiple best selling books, including "Online Business Startup", "Marketing machine", and more recently,"Take Your Shot." I'm also the founder of "Fearless Business," which is a business accelerator for coaches, consultants and freelancers. And in my episode for the Business Growth Architect Show, I'm going to be sharing a story about when the unexpected happens. And in my case, my personal journey started back in August when I was diagnosed with a grade one brain tumor. So if you want to know what to do when the unexpected happens, head on over and give the full show a listen. And

BEATE CHELETTE:

hello, fabulous person! Beate Chelette, here. I am the host of the Business Growth Architect Show, and I want to welcome you to today's episode where we discuss how to navigate strategy and spirituality to achieve time and financial freedom. Truly successful people have learned how to master both a clear intention and a strategy to execute that in a spiritual practice that will help them to stay in alignment and on purpose. Please enjoy the show and listen to what our guest today has to say about this very topic. Welcome back. Beate Chelette here, the host of the Business Growth Architect Show. Today is Robin Waite with me, and we are talking about when the unexpected happens and a topic that couldn't be any more relevant, not just to you, Robin, but also obviously to me, as we just faced losing our home in my business office in the fire. So Robin, welcome to the show. I'm excited to have you here. Thank you,

Robin Waite:

Beate. I know as well. Like, I mean, I can't imagine what you've been going through. So for you to still go ahead and actually invite me onto the show to chat, I It's actually it means an awful lot to me. So thank you. Thank

BEATE CHELETTE:

you so much. I appreciate that. So Robin, for somebody who is not familiar with your work or has never heard about or from you, will you tell us what, what do you do and how do you solve clients problems?

Robin Waite:

Yeah, so I run a coaching practice called fearless business, and the concept of it centers around this idea of fearing the things in business and life ever so slightly less that stop you from achieving your goals. So a lot of the clients which I work with are very similar in terms of my background. So they're sort of mid 30s up to sort of mid 50s. They've got families, they've got challenges which they need to get through. I work a lot with very small grassroots businesses, so coaches, consultants, freelancers, people who are just kind of cutting it out there on their own, trying to do something good for their families and get to that six figure mark. My sweet spot, really, though, is helping those types of businesses where they're charging sort of hourly rates, day rates, figure out what their superpower is. So a lot of people are busy exchanging time for money, or very much based on time and materials, and they don't realize that they need to be selling something based on the outcomes and results which they deliver for their clients, because that's really what their clients are buying. So I help to figure out what their superpower is. And then we have the pricing conversation, digging in sort of money mindset and their their core beliefs around sort of money limiting beliefs and various things like that. And then also, because now we've got a better product at a high price, we then have to go through the gears in terms of sales and helping them to articulate their value better so that they can convey that message to their clients.

BEATE CHELETTE:

Excellent. So you really help them to figure out not just what their superpower but also what their super problem is, yes, and then, and then, once they know that, then we can you can help them resolve that. You and I, we had a previous conversation about when the unexpected happened, and how to you face when the unexpected happens. Because when the unexpected happens, there is typically a pivot, a change, some sort of massive impact on the way you are doing things. Do you mind sharing your personal story on what that unexpected was for you? And then we'll dive into it? Yeah.

Robin Waite:

Well, there's actually two, two instances, and they're kind of linked in a way, actually. But the more recent one, which we chatted about earlier on, sort of last year, was in August. After a few health complications, I got diagnosed with a grade one tumor on my brain stem, which, I mean, I've had a long, a lot of time to process it. Now, at the time, it was pretty horrific when you get sort of handed news like that. And thankfully, I'm in very capable hands down at you know, we have South Mead hospital down at Bristol, which are just the whole team there have been absolutely brilliant. But at the time when they diagnosed it, you hear the words brain tumor, and just your world melts. You're just like everything that you thought was important, all of a sudden disappears away. Business has been my passion ever since I can sort of remember, you know, through my my early teens. So for the last 20 or 30 years, I've just been heavily into, like, businesses and entrepreneurship and things like that. And then I got the news, and it's just all of a sudden that was just like, like, is, is any. Of this really important and that. So it was August the I'm trying to think now what the actual date was, but it was mid August when I found out, I think it's August the fourth actually, when I found out the news and I had, I went through all of the phases of, like, grieving. I mean, you've, you've experienced this as well. Now, probably not just with the fire and what's happened with your home, but there will be other instances in your life as well. But the closest level of grief that I could compare it to was when my dad passed away 13 years ago, because in my head, and I've been running businesses, I'm very positive, and I make plans about the future, and I have a young family in my head I'm going to live to like I'm 100 you know, and I got all these years in front of me to build this future, and then all of a sudden they say brain tumor. And you're like, Oh, crap, there's some good news, right? So if there could be, so since I'm speaking to the consultants, I've discovered that what I have is called a sub ependymoma. So if anybody did want to go and Google that, you're welcome to it's quite rare. It's also possibly one of the best kind of tumors that you can get in your head, because it's, it's benign, and it's very slow growing. So it's growing, but it's very slow. And the typical, sort of average age where people get symptomatic with what I've got, there's something called hydrocephalus, where you get brain fluid kind of builds up and nausea, and you fall over, and all sorts of lovely stuff. That's the nice stuff. Typical age is, like mid 50s. So I'm kind of, now I'm 43 and this is where I started to turn around from sort of dealing with that grief and that shocking sort of news. And I was very fortunate. I tend not to work in August anyway, so I was kind of quite in quite a period, quiet period, so far as the business was concerned. So I had a lot of time to process this, but then coming out of it going right? Well, I might not live to my hundreds, you know, my 90s or whatever, but I've got a good stretch in front of me now, at least until my mid 50s, where it might cause me problems. The consultants have also said it might never come to anything. It might have stopped growing, and then we're okay. So, yeah, big, a big shock. So I think

BEATE CHELETTE:

what happens is when we get a diagnosis or a news, you know, and in my case, it was like, I'm on my honeymoon in Costa Rica, and three days later we find out there's a fire. On the fourth day, my office burns. On the fifth day, my house burns. So when you have a message that is life changing, as in your case, as in my case, what did you do that honored that massive change you must make, because I'm sure stress is probably going to be one of the worst things you can do to yourself. Now, and you're going to have to watch your sleep. You're going to have to watch your exercise. You're going to have to really take care of yourself, bring a lot of joy in your life, which is often contradictory to building a business, because you buckle up, get through it, hustle, make it work. How do you manage that? Like, what did you do? What was what are their steps? Did you put a process behind it? How did you manage the emotional side? So I have like, 10,000 questions about

Robin Waite:

this. Yeah. I mean, so, so you mentioned about, like, the exercise and health side of it specifically. So one of, one of the clues that something wasn't quite right was, I'm a very keen cyclist and surfer, and I used to go out on Sunday mornings with my cycling buddies, and we'd do 50, 60, 70, miles in a ride, you know, so long distances. And then from about five years ago, the I used to I got cramp. Now, cramp isn't unusual when you're doing a sport like cycling, and you'd expect to get a cramp in your car for your hamstring or something like that. But one day, several years ago, my whole body just shut down. So I was getting cramped from my jawline all the way down to like, through my stomach, through my arms, my everything, my whole body just went and I had to call my wife to come and pick me up. I was gutted. She was busy. But thankfully there was a chip shot near me, so I just had stuff, my face full of food, and I managed to sort of limp home. I was thankfully not far from home. But gradually I went on this decline with my with my rides where I would I could do 40 miles and then 35 miles, and 30 and 25 and it reached a point earlier on this year, and this is what led me to sort of and I was starting to get headaches and other symptoms so and it got to point where I was doing a five mile bike ride and getting full body cramps, body was shutting down. So the when I when I finally got the diagnosis, that's the point I know now something's wrong, and you kind of have, you're like, right, okay, and I had to let go of that. I'd always had this hope that it might be short term and it might have been a virus or COVID or something that I caught that might have created this. Now I'm like, No, it's a tumor. It's not going anywhere unless I have it removed. I have brain surgery. That's the only option with what I've got. So I just had to let go, let go of my dreams of becoming Olympic cyclist or whatever it is. You know, would never have happened. But just kind of accept that, okay, this is what I've got. And so one of one of. Small changes I've made is I didn't want to go out and be five or 10 miles out in the countryside and then have this episode on my bike, so I've decked out my garage now with a treadmill, some weights. I'm just waiting on a rowing machine, and there's a new static bike, which I want to get in there, so at least I could exercise and stay healthy and as fit as I can. But if I collapse, I'll do it in my garage floor at home, not out in the middle of nowhere. So that was the first thing. The second thing as well is that my, I mean, I'd start already, was on a journey with the business, for example, where I was starting to sort of be kinder to myself. Basically, I've been in business for 20 years, and I had made a pact with myself before this anyway, I wouldn't work on Fridays. So again, things like that just reaffirm this, right? No, not only am I not going to work on Fridays, but I'm also just going to do something nice for myself, you know, treat myself, to go and get my hair cut, or go and have a massage at the local spa, or just do something that was wholesome. It wasn't work that wasn't necessarily family responsibilities, although that obviously is an important part of the journey as well. And those changes, like the biggest thing as well, I realized be that I was saying yes to just too many things that weren't really like lighting me up. So this was, like a big catalyst, more recently, where I'm like, No, I want to, if I want to go on a trip to Dubai, and I and I it's been on my mind for 234, years. This like there was, I've got friends out there, I've got clients out there. I've got, there's a massive scene out there, like an entrepreneur then, and I was like, I want to do that. And I'd been putting it off and putting off because I'm like, I it's not fair on my wife. If I go away for a week, I'll miss the kids. And all the I made every excuse not to go to Dubai and and I got diagnosed in August, and I was like, You know what? Life's too short. I don't want to miss out on going to Dubai, so I booked it. I felt so much guilt, guilty about leaving my wife and kids and but actually it was probably one of the best things I could have done. I did, did a lot of business stuff out there, but I had lovely time in the sunshine just to contemplate and make a plan for 2025 and what changes I need to make and but I was also able to invest, whilst I was out there into two fairly sizeable partnerships. You may or may not have heard of these guys, but they're sort of, they have. They're well known in their own circles, but two YouTubers, one called Simon Squibb, who's kind of really blown up in the last couple of years. For those that know him, he's the I have. What's your dream guys? He goes up and interviews people in the street and asks them what and asks them what their dream is. And then also Chris Doe as well, who's got a fantastic YouTube channel and a brand called The Future Chris. Chris Doe is

BEATE CHELETTE:

a personal friend of mine. There you go. I had, believe it or not, I was one of the first conversations when he first thought about starting his business. And then if you ask him about our story. He'll tell you about the conversation that we have had. He says that there was a pivotal moment in in our conversation that made him really take the leap. So, you know, yes, he's a good friend, a great human being, a phenomenal, phenomenal person.

Robin Waite:

He's just the guy's got, like, so much love to give. And it was so he was speaking out of the 1 billion followers summit in Dubai. And it's so we haven't had a mutual friend, this guy called Matt Etta, who's one of his coaches, and I've done a lot of work with Matt over the years. So Matt was like, Come out to Dubai. Chris is out here as well. And it transpired, anyway, I didn't do a lot of work at the workshop because Chris was doing his thing, but Chris invited me to come and co-facilitate one of the workshops he was delivering for this summit. Was just such an honor. It was a dream for me to be in Dubai working with somebody of Chris's sort of caliber, like that. Yeah, you know, just honestly, it couldn't have been better. So so one of the things which I did, so I'm always looking at opportunities now like that, because life is harder than it was before I got diagnosed and and, like, getting up in the morning is a struggle and various things like this. And I'm like, I'm out in Dubai, Chris is out here. And I'm like, so imagine if you had to spend, like, how much would it cost for three hours of Chris's time? Like, one to one, it'd be like, 10s of 1000s of dollars right to to do it to, you know? So he very generously paid for my summit ticket. And I thought, right, I need to, and he's invited me out here to be in his entourage. I thought I need to repay him. So I don't feel like me sharing this story or not. But I booked a yacht. I think it was like 700 pounds, like eight or $900 or something. But part of my motivation behind that was when I got to hang out with Chris, but also Chris is on a boat with me, like this is such a great opportunity. Can't leave. So it's a great to do networking, right? So, but, but it was just great opportunity hanging out with him, and he told a few stories, and we chatted and stuff like that. He asked him about the business, and his two sons were out there as well with us as well. So they got to join us on the boat, and then a couple of mutual friends. But you asked me before July, if I could have seen myself in January, being out and on a boat in Dubai with somebody like Chris, I'd have been like, no, absolutely no, no hope in hell. Would I have been able to do that? And it's just this realization that life is is precious, and it's very short, and you need to take these opportunities when they do show up.

BEATE CHELETTE:

Yeah, I mean, I absolutely love that. I actually really love that, that Christo is like part of this, this story, that just makes me smile a lot. So now we talked about when the unexpected happened, right? So you have, if I rephrase this, you had to really come to terms with that. This wasn't just something that happened. You know, a cut. You put a bend it on it, it heals. We move on. This is something that you're going to have to deal with from here on out for the rest of your life, most likely. Now, your mindset is clear that self care is important, that there are certain things that you probably should not be doing, that you now need to take care of opportunities in a different kind of a way. So was that a strategy that you implemented where you said, I cannot hustle the way I did? I need to go, let's say, to a place like Dubai, where people that might create opportunity are was this a natural thing? Did you fall into that, or did you deliberately do it?

Robin Waite:

But bit of both. So my my background, I used to run a marketing agency, so I was a very introverted web designer and sort of creator, and it was eight years ago I transitioned into coaching, and that's where I started. You have to go onto podcasts and speak from on the stage and do some what other people would see as very extroverted things. So kind of getting outside of my comfort zone, and probably, like fearless, is probably more of a projection than it is just a brand name. It's kind of like part of me is that I always had this desire to want to be a bit more fearless. And I see all these people having this, like remarkable success, like Chris, Daniel Priestley, Rich Litvin is another guy who's based in LA, I think, who amazing coach, who I really look up to and respect, just doing these amazing things. And it's taken me all of this length of time, plus a little bit of a nudge with what happened in August, to realize that you don't, if you don't ask, you don't get right. And I'd been, I would go to events where I'd see these amazing, creative people, and then I would just be a passenger. I would just sit in the back row and listen to it, and I would enjoy the event. Don't get me wrong, I've learned lots, absolutely, but I was always a little bit, and I'm going to be very honest now, there's a little bit of the green eyed monster, little bit of jealousy was coming out. Like I want to be that. I want to be that guy on the stage,

BEATE CHELETTE:

that person that's so successful? But I'm not, you know, and you're kind of good for them, yeah.

Robin Waite:

And I kind of like hoped that through, you know, I like to think I'm one of the good guys, that somehow I would end up there, but because somebody placed me there, not because I put myself there. And I I've come to realize now that being intentional about who it is that you are and what you want to create for yourself is as important as having a very clear and direct path, if that makes sense. So the so for me, like what that looks like. I wrote down a list of 10 people who I vibed off their content, I loved their values and their message and their mission and everything that they were about, Chris obviously, being one of them. Simon Squibb on that list. Ali Abdul's on that list, another great YouTuber, Daniel Priestley as well. So there's all these amazing creative minds that I thought were just great people, and I would love to hang out with them. And so this, this was where the crossover happens, because there's that point where you can, like, go to these events and be, you know, be a shrinking violet at the back of the room. But then I realized I needed to put myself in the front row. I actually needed to sit in the front row so that I can look into their whites of their eyes, and when they finish their talk, stand up, shake their hand, take a selfie with them, but also congratulate them on the amazing work which they're doing. I know that a lot of these guys get their plaudits and things like that, but also I recognize that I've been in business for 20 years, and they probably do look at me now they know me and see that there's some experience there, which I'm a good person to have around. So actually, but I wouldn't have done that two years ago. I wouldn't have stepped up and had a photo and shook their hand and like congratulated them and added value to their world. So here's a crazy story. One of the things which I did around this sort of notion of choosing the person, putting them on the list, being intentional, and then adding value. Ali Abdel was running an event, and it was about 600 people there, but it was in a university, and it wasn't like your traditional business sort of venue. Everybody lost. So I put down my bag of my coat, and I started directing people. I was like, loser over there, the cafes there, the auditorium is this way, you know, just being helpful. And Ali's General Manager, guy called Angus. He was he came up to me, it's like, Robin, what are you doing? And I was like, well, everybody lost. I thought I'd just help out and just go give directions and stuff. And like, oh, right, okay, you don't have to do that, by the way, Robin, you're a guest here as well at this event, you know. I was like, that's fine, doesn't matter. And he went to walk away, and then he turned, took three steps, turns around, comes back, and he said, Oh, actually, Robin, whilst I've got you there's a product that we're thinking about launching, I'd love to pick your brains on the pricing side of things. So I was like, bang. And so I didn't have to ask for that. I just had to step outside my comfort zone a little bit and do something. Which I did feel a little bit awkward about, but it sparked that conversation. And behind the scenes, I've ended up working with Angus as well as some of the other people within Ali's team. I do that work for free as well, believe it or not, despite the fact I'm the pricing guy. But it's because these partnerships, I've realized the value in, you know, just helping people out. There's a lot of people who get to a certain position with their careers, and it's very hard to know who to trust. And I think it's really important to like when you're building a partnership, that you give enough value to help build that trust up. And then if, so long as, like, a lot of people, when they look at partnerships, are like, they're always thinking about what's in it. For me, what can I get out of this? How can I get referrals and money and commissions, and you name it? Since the tumor, especially that news I've I'm not motivated by money at all. I'm like, if I do a good job on this planet, I'll get the money will come as a byproduct of doing a job well done. But I'm now getting to hang out with some really cool, fun people. And not only that, but I also get to make a much greater impact as a result of that now and reach more people. If I'd just been soldiering on on my little journey on my own, there's only so many, so many people you can reach, so much impact you can have. So I realized I need other people in order to be able to, you know, create more impact and reach more people with Yeah, I

BEATE CHELETTE:

want to add something to that, which is really a learning that I'm going through right now, and it builds up on what you said. So very much like you, I have given, I mean, for decades, decades we're talking about, you know, I just turned 60 last year, and there comes a point where you go, when I look in my bank account, I look at the people that I've helped and their bank account. I do see a discrepancy. I made good money when I sold my business, but the business wasn't generating as much money as I as I thought it should or could have done. But now with this disaster, with this catastrophe, really this apocalyptic catastrophe, it's not just my house, it's my whole community. It's the schools, it's the shops, it's every business owner in the Palisades. It's, I mean, it's wiped from the planet. I mean, there is nothing other than burnt burn structures. But what I have started to see is the outpour of love and support toward me, so the receiving now that I'm getting from, you know, the GoFundMe page to people responding in person is something very simple. I wrote about this yesterday. I was having a really tough day yesterday, and I said, I'm yearning for a fluffy robe to wrap myself in for some comfort. And two people immediately reached and texted me and said, I'll get you the rope right now. Tell me what you want. You'll have it tomorrow. And for somebody who is like you and sort of this giving and understanding, this gratitude principle, but there will come a point where it comes to you, and then the receiving, I think it's twice as hard actually, to receive from from other people, but that's how the infinity loop closes. You have to learn how to do both. So the expectation of the giving. You know, to sum this point up, is to give freely and without an expectation of return, because otherwise it it's quid pro quo. But when you do, it creates a resonance that at some point from somewhere you don't even expect it, something comes to you and you go, How did that even happen? But that's because of the resonance. How do you feel about this? This part of

Robin Waite:

it, I wholeheartedly agree. I think life, life is one great big energy exchange, essentially, and kind of the fuel into that is that you give more than you can take. And actually, Simon Squibb is, he's really wonderful because his mantra is give without take. And so I've started to follow that as much as I as I possibly can. It's like give as much as I can. And again, there are some wonderful sort of business events going on and things like that, which asked me a year ago, would I, would I spend five or 10k to, like, sponsor an event? Because, selfishly, no, because I'm like, Well, it's my money, and what am I going to get out of this and things like that. Now I'm like, no, because if I put 5k into an event which 4000 people are going to go to and get to enjoy as a result of my part, I get to play in that, plus I get to attend it, do a bit of networking, have some fun whilst I'm there as well. That's like a really wholesome thing to do, and I hadn't seen that before. It was very much in that sort of one minded, sort of transaction approach. But what you've suggested there is, like, you know, what I always say is, like, the money is a byproduct of a job well done. If you just do a good job on this planet or the best job you possibly can do, people will see that. But I've noticed as well, you also have to be open to receiving it, because there's a lot of people are also very closed off for. From receiving help. And interestingly, that's one thing which has definitely changed for me is is not just, not just receiving the help and being open to that, but actually going out and asking for

BEATE CHELETTE:

it. You have it, ask, yeah, and they're asking. The asking is challenging, especially for if you've never done this before, or if you have childhood trauma and or you've been in bad relationships and other people knowing what you want was weaponized, so there is a lot of cleaning up to do in order for you to receive in a healthy in a healthy way, contributions. But yes, people say, How can we help? How big? How can we help? And your first reaction says, No, No, I'm okay, but this is too big. This is too big. I mean, this is too big even for me, and I do need help. And so when somebody says, Can I send you a fluffy robe, I will say yes, because I don't even have the time the energy to go buy another thing, to go look to to take care of these things, because there's so many decisions I have to make. And I think in your case, when the unexpected happens, it's the same thing. There are other priorities that that are so important and so primarily important, that you do need help with some of the other stuff. So when somebody offers help, figure out how have them, you know, or something simple, we realized that grocery shopping and cooking and cleaning up takes a lot of energy. So we're like, send us meals, because that's one less decision for us to make. And we open the fridge, we can take something, we'll warm it up. We're good to go. So there are so many different ways where, just like, How can I contribute? Where you can also say, What can I ask for? Yeah,

Robin Waite:

absolutely, I'm still in awe of you be in terms of, like, the fact that we're still stood here talking given what you've been through, but it also shows the generosity in that. Because I don't know whether that and you can answer me honestly. I mean, I know for one you, obviously you want to push forward with the podcast and things like that. But was there not like a small part of view, which is just like, just park the podcast, just focus on family and getting our home back together and things like that?

BEATE CHELETTE:

You know, when this happened? Interesting question. We were on a spiritual retreat, and in this retreat, what came up for me was letting go. Now let's just say this is letting go extreme we I could have handled a bit more of an easier version of it, but that was the theme of it. It. You know, there were three things that came up for me. One was rest, the other one was letting go of everything in my past, and really the third piece stepping into wisdom, knowing when to participate, knowing when to facilitate and knowing when to observe, and that I was told that at this point in my life, that I'm asked now to take everything that I've created over whatever the the 37 years I've been in business, all the processes, the strategic facilitations, the workbooks, the how do you make it super simple? The 90 day sprints, the super simple goal setting, everything I have created, I'm asked to make it available to everybody. So the business model is now changing into instead of me looking for clients, is me helping others in the consulting and coaching space on how to perform better by all the things that I have created, and the clock ticking. It's a five year plan, and I don't have any time to waste, and I don't like the dwelling in the inevitable, so I give myself time to fall into these pits of despair and PTSD and full on depression like last night. I had a really, really tough day yesterday, but then I get up in the morning and I go, I have to focus on that the universe is a friendly place, and that what's happening is for me and through me, and not against me. And then the only way I can reframe it is I have to see what it pushes me to do, because within that must be the gift. But I don't see it yet. Let's talk about losing everything you have, every card my daughter wrote, I will never look at a Mother's Day card my daughter wrote when she was six years old. I will never wear the beautiful Garnet necklace that I bought myself when I sold my business in Prague, that I put on when I need to be feeling successful, all of these things. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of dollars, I feel like a yo yo at times, where I keep going up and down, but the only sane way for me, for me to not go nuts, is to sit here to talk to you, to remind myself that my mindset is the key to what comes out of this. Ultimately, when we die, I can't take any Garnet necklaces or Mother's Day cards with me anyway. I mean, I would have liked to have it for another 30 years, but ultimately, this is not ours. We're borrowing everything anyway. So that's what I'm grappling with. But the only way is forward, or I go nuts. I literally will go crazy if I don't do this. Yeah,

Robin Waite:

I think that's one of the things. I couldn't have sat still in August and I got the news, and it sounds like you're in a similar sort of space. Sometimes doing things can be a much needed distraction, actually, from from that and give you that sense of purpose and staying on that mission, which you've got in order to help other business owners. But I, I'll again, I'll share something. It's a little bit personal. I don't want to go too, too deep into this, but I was having a tough day this morning because just I was tired, my daughter's like, I'm so proud of her. She's got into county finals with her swimming. You're sat by Paul cheering your daughter on things like that. Literally, it's like, I haven't had a break in two or three weeks now, and I kitchen, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to replay it. This won't work for the audio version of it, but I went to do a video this morning for my YouTube channel, and I for 10 minutes, that was the position I was in.

BEATE CHELETTE:

So for those of you who can see him, his head is like literally resting on the microphone tip. And

Robin Waite:

then do you know what happened next? Right? So I'm already feeling a bit rubbish my I'm just kind of like, okay, right? Come on, pull yourself Yes, the weight of the world, yes, not, not defeated, just just like, I mean, it was just coming to terms. I've got responsibilities. I have a group coaching call. I've got a couple of client calls in the afternoon, things like that in this podcast as well, which mean a lot to me. And pull yourself together, Robin. And then I recorded the video. It's like, super proud of myself. Sent it off, first message I get back, within 10 seconds of my team receiving it. Robin, have you got the audio to go with the video? I was just at that point. I was like, brilliant, brilliant. You can't do anything else, though, can you? It's kind of like, you can't change the past. You just got to keep on, like, having that slow march forward. Who I think is a major part of this, business owners and entrepreneurs especially, I think, get very attached to outcomes. They get very stuck with this. Like, I believe if I do this, then this is going to happen, and then when the unexpected happens, they can't rationalize it. They can't deal with it, and they feel is Simon Sinek puts it really eloquently. He talks about in his book The Infinite game, people assume that business is made up of like, short term wins and losses, and they can't really rationalize the losses. But actually the goal in business is actually to stay in business for as long as possible, win, lose or draw. It doesn't matter, but the goal is to stay in business. So

BEATE CHELETTE:

Robin, we're going to wrap up this interview for somebody who's now interested in your coaching services and maybe wants to figure out how you can help them. Where do we send them?

Robin Waite:

So I have a gift for everybody actually be so it's a signed copy of my book."Take Your Shot." So and there's a there's a story in there as well, which is actually quite right. I won't do a spoiler alert, but relevant to what we've been discussing. Been discussing today, it's a it's actually written as a parable, a story about Russ, who's a golf pro, and he's going on this journey with this business. But I won't say any more than that, but I've got a copy. I'll send them anywhere in the world, but fearless.biz/tys for take your shot, and we'll send that out there.

BEATE CHELETTE:

Sounds good to me. Well, thank you so much. You've been amazing. I really appreciate you being on the show. I will be following your journey, and I'm sure you and I will be in touch in the

Robin Waite:

future. Likewise. Thank you.

BEATE CHELETTE:

All right, and that's it for us, for today. If you know somebody who is facing an unexpected challenge, something that has derailed them or is very difficult for them, feel free to share this episode with them, and let's help more people to really manage some of life's unexpected turns, so that as we help you, we can help more people. And with that, I say goodbye until next time. So appreciate you being here. Thank you so much for listening to the entire episode. Please subscribe to the podcast. Give us a five star, review, a comment and share this episode with one more person so that you can help us help more people. Thank you again, until next time bye, bye.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Beate Chelette

Host
Head Shot

Robin Waite

Guest