YOUR ENTOURAGE MATTERS.

Today, we are moving on to another category in our Building Your Legacy series: Friends & Colleagues. As we’ve said before, these are in no particular order of importance. We’ll spend plenty of time talking about your Career, your Health, your Finances, your Faith & Love, your Family, and the other categories. But for now, let’s get a few things clear about your friends and colleagues.

If you have not yet read our blog post about “When and How to Un-Friend” yet, now would be the perfect time - check it out on our website.

There! Now that you are clear on that…we’re going to be working on defining the people we chose to be around us. Yes, its a choice, and yes, its an honor and a privilege for others to get to be in your “circle.” Not because you are arrogant- quite the contrary. Its an honor simply because your mission in life truly matters to the world, so today is the day you stop wasting any time with any one who will drag you down or hold you back from making that mark on the world now. The beautifully supportive people around you are protectors and light-shiners. We call them your Entourage.

Your homework for today: CREATING THE TEAM AROUND YOU

Your Entourage is different than your Fan Club. You might have 2,647 friends on Facebook and 79,035 followers on Twitter– those people are nice enough to follow you, but they’re not in your Entourage. Take very good care of your Fan Club, by the way. But also recognize they are different than your Entourage. Tomorrow, we’re handing you the black book to build your personal and professional team, so today, you must define what you need and will expect of your team. A BIG note for you here (we see it coming)- Don’t let the fear of “I’m not ready to hire” get in your way yet. This is a much bigger discussion than that, and we will address ALL of that in the coming days. Promise.

What IS an entourage?

People who do the critical jobs of:

•Lifting you up
•Believe in your mission and goals, including the ones that generate money •Support you in your difficult times
•Celebrate with you in your good times
•Hold you accountable when you need to be held accountable
•Help you re-direct, without judgement, when that is needed
•CRITICAL: FULL ENGAGEMENT of all elements (personal and professional.)

Characteristics of your Entourage: What it REALLY Looks Like
It is time to break down HOW you know who should be in your Entourage, and who should be out. It starts with defining what’s powerful for YOU.

1. Name your favorite teacher, coach, or influential person- someone you knew directly and has influenced you positively in your life.

Favorite teacher, coach, or influential person:

Top 3 Qualities & Character Traits that make the most impact with me:

2. List of qualities of that person that made them so
extraordinary in your life. Possible examples might include “supportive, genuine, driven, positive, etc.”

Qualities and traits that made this person such a powerful force in my life:

3. Put a star next to the top 3 qualities that you find most powerful for you.

4. List the top 3 qualities/characteristics you named in the box on the right. Those are your non- negotiable qualities for entry into your entourage. They are the must-have qualities for people in your close circle of supporters.

5. List the “opposites” of your top 3 positive categories named above, along with any other qualities that people in your life have shown and proven destructive/negative for you. Possible examples might include “controlling, pessimistic, insecure, jealous, etc.”

6. The qualities and characteristics listed above are your EXIT criteria. These are the things that cannot be in your Entourage, and if they are, it’s time to do some re-thinking, re-structuring, or re-prioritizing what is really important for you in terms of getting the genuine support you need.

NEXT TIME: We are naming names! Get ready….we’ll be helping you get clear on: WHO is in, and Who’s OUT? See you then.