Create Energy that Serves your Business
- Victoria Hogg
- Mar 28
- 3 min read
Where are you putting your energy this week? Are you using it wisely? Is it being deployed strategically? Paul and Vic are each on event programmes (one business marketing savvy, one facilitation expertise) and making the most of collective energy in new spaces with new people.
There’s always an ebb and flow to these things. The frisson at the start, full of promise and the unknown. The buzz of endeavour and when you ‘get it’. And the slow satisfaction of energy well spent as a group reflects on the previous days’ work and each entrepreneur turns again to their own line of work that’s calling to them with a fresh voice.
Fresh input and expertise is - hopefully - a joyful injection of renewed energy for any business owner. One thing’s for certain, energy is an element to be aware of and to direct in the way that serves you and your business best.
Something that rang true…
Imagine you are giving a presentation to a packed room. The audience are hanging on your every word. You can feel the energy in the room… energy that you created. Sounds like a dream talk. But why is it so difficult to create that ideal energy?
It struck me today while working with small business owners that creating this energy is akin to creating an improvised play. That’s a theatrical play created on stage in the moment - the plot, the script, the characters, the twists, the turns and the finale all invented right there on the stage.
It requires skill to do this, and yet there really are three simple ingredients you need to feed that energy. The ‘a-ha’ moments when the room connects with something. The ‘strong decision’ moments when the audience see an unexpected twist. And the ‘happy ever after’ moment when the audience feel closure to the story. Try putting those into your next talk!
“Energy is the currency of the universe - you get what you give” Oprah Winfrey, US media mogul; multi-billionaire
Something concrete…
I met a guy the other week who’s life is concrete. “It’s duller than watching paint dry” he said. So how did he make the subject so interesting? Passion, that’s how. When someone talks passionately about anything you can hold the room. To prove the point, we tried this simple exercise in a recent practice session.
Two people sit facing each other and just talk about anything. The only rule is ‘it must be dull’. The moment the audience sniggers, laughs, or shows any signs of being interested in the topic the game ends. The next two players take the stage.
I promise you, it was almost impossible to make the supposedly ‘dull’ scene last more than four exchanges - even with the dullest of topics. It seems you can create positive, engaging energy from literally nothing (including concrete). Remember that next time you worry about taking up space.
“Where focus goes, energy flows - and where energy flows, what you’re focusing on grows” Tony Robbins, motivational speaker
Something zombie…
On a recent training in Kent, we had the joy of running a brain-teaser activity called Zombie Walk. Chairs, equal to the number of people, are set across a room in no particular configuration. One person is a ‘zombie’, hungry to sit down. Everyone else must stop that zombie from reaching an empty chair. The group decided we could, in all probability, keep our zombie on his feet for four minutes. Easy, right?
Oh, the energy everyone used! The running, the frustration, the strategy conversations. The room crackled with exertion and endeavour. It was full-on. And the result of using up all this energy? The zombie was comfortably in a chair within four seconds - Every. Single. Round.
It took a full 40 minutes to work out the best course of action. And - as I expect you’ve already guessed - the solution involved less energy. The energy was better directed. The energy flowed rather than exploded. It was so satisfying.
We often deploy so much energy that ‘means well’ but which is misdirected or draining or unhelpful. Creating, directing and redirecting energy - and the correct amount of energy - is a skill to be mastered in itself.
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