3 Stages of Change for Rugby Legend

Jonny Wilkinson. Won England the Rugby World Cup. Despite the side, albeit then Number One ranked, never really firing. Against the host side on their home turf. Sealed with a last kick-of-the-game drop-goal. Scored off the foot he never took penalties with.

It seems, as with many a sporting superstar, he's been searching for his purpose ever since retirement. Perhaps he's found it now, if the PR trail is anything to go by, with his current 'sharing' venture.

For he, along with his brother, offer a six-part course in personal fulfilment.

Not so much aimed at 'change', feeling like they prefer to say 'progress'.

Just as the alarm rang for me to switch over, he explained how he was different to the multitude of no-marks peddling their subscription enlightenment with zero backing, apart from that 'guru' course they're also half-way through in a Zeno-sense that tells them how to grift.

At least Jonny made World Champ.

He is though the product of the vanilla-ing of thought that is 'media training'.

Whatever question the host threw at him, he deftly deployed the hand-off of a pre-worked through paragraph, on whatever he wanted to say next.

He'd done some Buddha, but wasn't a Buddhist. Talked the importance of energy. And stated that at the end of each session, he always felt like thanking his attendees, as he was always learning from them.

Yet - and perhaps here's the kicker - Jonny's doing this for free.

Pretty much his first words were to run-through his scripted intro.

The stages you must go through to be able to accomplish something.

It mixes a chunk of change-curving, with a slurp of Sigmoid energy-for-change, shaken with a dash of inter-connectedness.

Although he appears not yet fully formulaic, he seemed to place this foundation into three "blocks";

Awareness, Acceptance, Responsibility.

His particular sequence is broad. Yet it starts off well.

Encompassing the gamut from blissfully ignorant to desperate for movement.

Each holds similar weight. Yet this first step in our Solution world is also pivotal.

Without it, no sale can start.

What I like about his framing, is how we can use it upon initial encounters.

Turn it into a spectrum.

"Where on a scale of awareness is the business on ... "

Where you then refer to the issue of concern.

If your potential prospect suggests they are at zero, then they are possibly frozen. Not the kind of warm receptive approach you're looking for. (Especially with a new product.) If they say any other positive number though then we may well have something to work with. The door truly opened.

And off we go.