But, the sad truth is that competence alone doesn’t magically bring you clients or open the doors to your dream job. Competence gets the job done, but it does not get you the job. What does? The ability to build lasting business relationships within a community that fits the person that you are right now, not the person that you think the world wants you to be. For me, I could not build sustainable business relationships for a long time - that is, until I learned how to honor my whole self whenever I walk into any networking space. I went from hiding in bathroom stalls to closing multi-million dollar deals that I generated from my network.

By hanging out with yourself, you’ll spend time learning about the world around you. Once you understand the world around you, only then can you choose how to enter it. Even if what you do is miles away from current events, you should still be aware of what’s going on. By contributing your craft to the world, whatever it may be, you are choosing to enter it, so you need to know the world receiving your craft.

You choose how to enter any space. Of course, your entry may require navigating unfamiliar territory, but you can always control you. You know you, and you can teach people how to handle that which you know the best - you. If someone has a problem with it, that’s their problem. Repeat after me - that’s THEIR problem.