The Life-Changing Magic of Showing Up

A woman I had known for a matter of hours invited me to stay at her house in LA for a week. She wanted to throw a dual birthday party for her and me.

Sounds like an odd situation, right? I mean, she was friendly enough, but I wouldn’t exactly call us close. Especially not close to the point of merging our birthdays.

There were, of course, other reasons she invited me to stay with her. I was going to be in that area for a conference, and she was generous enough to open her home to me. And it just so happened that our birthdays were a day apart.

It was all very spontaneous.

I decided to say, “Yes.”

I jumped through whatever hoops I had to—changed my flight reservation, canceled my hotel, and so on.

That simple decision I made in 2011 changed my life.

At the party, I met Nicole Dunn, of Dunn Pellier Media , who subsequently introduced me to Vince Del Monte. Vince engaged me to help him with his book, Living Large: The Skinny Guy’s Guide to No-Nonsense Muscle Building. A couple of years later, I hired Vince to coach me to scale my business, and he helped me grow it 5X in a mere 18 months!

Nicole also has introduced me to others who became clients since then, and I have sent clients her way as well.

This isn’t the only time I’ve had this kind of experience. In fact, it happens so often, I call it “the life-changing magic of showing up.”

Borrowing from the KonMari Method popularized by the book The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo, I use the same test.

“Does it Spark Joy?”

If an unexpected opportunity comes up that sparks joy at the thought of participating, even if it’s inconvenient, and even if it’s expensive, I always do my best to go.

Another example, I received an invitation (very last minute) to a wedding of a friend in Austin, Texas. Once again, I wouldn’t say we were super close. The invitation surprised me, but I had always wanted to go to Austin. So, I decided, eh, I’ll go.

I got a plane ticket and bought a gift. I booked a hotel room and a car. And with a couple thousand bucks in, I showed up.

And I happened to meet Bree Argetsinger, whom I later helped to formulate a book concept.

Also, in 2020, just before the travel ban, I did a spontaneous trip to Belize with my good friend, Samantha Bennett and a small group of women CEO’s, and I met a woman who introduced me to a valued member of our team, Sharon Washington.

A huge life-changer happened back in 2010

When I lived in Colorado, an old friend from middle school reached out to me and asked if we could meet for lunch. I was busy that day, but I carved out time to meet with him. We had great fun re-connecting and catching up.

Shortly after, he went to a middle school reunion in Boston, where he happened to see another classmate of ours, Dr. William Li. He told Will that I was helping people write books. Shortly after, I got an email from Will saying he was thinking about writing a book. We got together and brought to life his New York Times Bestseller, Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself.

The age old saying, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take” rings true.

I’ve come to learn that life-changing opportunities abound, and they always come through people. So, if you want to grow your life to new levels, you must be open to…correction!…intentional about putting yourself in situations outside of your norms.

The Bottom Line is this:

When you embrace the life-changing magic of showing up, you won’t know ahead of time which connection you’ll make–for your business, or even your social life. But you’ll never know if you don’t go.