[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

Public consulting
I liked the "public consultation" option. I think it'd be great to give people the option of having their consultations recorded and shared somewhere--probably on StevePavlina.com--as a sort of public archive. Not everyone will opt to share their consultation, but for those who do, it seems like it could help a fair amount of people. Steve might say that he doesn't want to share such things, but if people actually want to do it, I don't see why not (it's not like Steve needs to hide his ideas). Of course, I can understand if Steve doesn't want to offer this, since I often opt to do seemingly illogical things because that's the way I want to do them (usually it has to do with a preference or a talent of mine).

I think there are other vehicles that would work better for that, such as a teleseminar, webinar, or video/audio. Coaching/consulting tends to be very personal.

Certified training
Training people to become certified in the things Steve teaches is interesting, but it seems kind of... well, it would take a certain kind of person to be able to do that. You couldn't just go learn some knowledge--you'd actually have to embody personal growth, which would put you on the same path that Steve is on, even if you aren't quite as developed in him in terms of level of consciousness, skills (such as being able to read your intuition), polarisation (i.e. certain people are more effective at working with polarity than others), etc. I'm sure Steve could find such people (although I still do wonder how he plans to hire people for Pavlina LLC; my guess is that he'll draw on existing connections and familiarity with certain people... any other means seems to make it challenging).

I think some elements could definitely be taught by others, especially the material from my book. This may be a ways off, but it has potential.

Internal Pavlina LLC consulting
It might be pretty darn effective for Steve to focus some consulting on his future employees of his company--at least, those who need it, or those who would make significant improvements if they were to get consulting from Steve directly. From what I've seen of Steve managing the moderation team for the forums, while Steve can certainly do a good job when he needs to, either (A) he isn't very good at managing people compared to managing himself, or (B) he doesn't have much time to devote to managing the moderation team (which, essentially, is a team, just like a business team), which gives the illusion of point A. Whichever it is, I think Steve might be wise to direct at least some of his efforts inwards into Pavlina LLC since he has a degree of influence there and enough certainty to know that his efforts will be put to good use. In this case, though, you'd be perhaps trading profit for impact (since Steve wouldn't really make much cash from doing consulting with his own employees, although that may not be the case--it depends on what the employees are doing).

I definitely have too much on my plate, so I'll be delegating more to free up time for different kinds of work. This is already in the works.

Holistic, "effective integration"
Steve is a master planner, and his ability to take everything into account and adapt to things on the fly continues to amaze me (although I've deconstructed his model and am busy integrating it, and I can see how he's able to do it; it's not magic, just intelligent focus and leverage in the right areas), but what I think is most important with this consulting practice is that Steve integrates it effectively with everything else he'll be doing (speaking, blogging, book writing, audio program creation, more large-scale altruistic projects).

My primary business aim right now is to build a platform for taking this work to the next level. As you figured out, that requires some careful planning. Really it's about envisioning the right model and then figuring out how to get there. I know the model I want to reach, so now I'm working on the details of transitioning. Consulting is just one piece among many.

I'm basically thinking in terms of a "surgical team" model, where I build a support staff that can handle everything I don't need to be doing personally, so I can spend my time doing what I'm best at and where I have the most leverage (creating content, sharing ideas, helping people grow). This means offloading admin, accounting, routine communication, web development and maintenance, etc.

This model will require more overhead, and my current business model isn't good enough to support it. The current model isn't bad, but I really need something stronger, more resilient, and more empowering. So I'm shifting to what I feel will be a better model. For starters the new model will allow me to take advantage of a lot more media forms.

I'd love to be doing video, teleseminars, webinars, workshops, seminars, etc. in addition to blogging, speaking, and writing books. But the truth is I don't have the bandwidth to handle all of this as a solopreneur (or a duopreneur with Erin). I had to slow down my blogging just to get my book done. We have plenty of cash coming in, but we don't have the time and infrastructure to grow beyond a few media forms. It would be putting too much on our plates and would ultimately become a mess to manage.

My ultimate goal is really quite simple. I want to help create a more conscious, growth-oriented planet. I think it would be awesome to live in a world where the average person on the street was committed to personal growth... where you might meet someone at a bus stop and ask, "So what's your purpose in life?" without getting a blank stare. Basically I want to see humanity become smarter and more self-aware. To me this is a very interesting and challenging vision to pursue.

As I see it, in order to seriously pursue such a goal, I have to focus my energy where I have the most leverage to push toward a tipping point. I can't just help random people on the street and expect to get there. I have to keep aiming for better and better leverage points. Blogging technology, for instance, is an awesome leverage point because it allows me to spread these ideas to millions of people at low cost. Consulting is another potential leverage point because it can help me reach other people who have a lot of leverage to create change in the world. Writing a book is yet another leverage point because it can impact people for years -- even decades -- to come. Even dietary improvements can be major leverage points if they offer a lifetime boost in energy and mental clarity.

Basically my goal is to substantially infect humanity with the virus of conscious growth... so much so that the virus keeps going even after I'm gone.

What other leverage points am I missing that I haven't already listed?