Know Pain No Gain

Know Pain. Know Gain.

I wear this t-shirt to the gym and when I go for my 6 weekly …aaaaah….. painfest with Joe at Optimal Movement.

Blimey, Joe gets deep into those muscles and tendons. Although painful at the time….it most certainly works for me. A few days later, I’m much less tense and am reenergised. Having been with Joe for a good few years, he has kept me doing the activities that I love….white water canoeing, mountain biking and the like. Know Pain, Know Gain indeed.

Know Pain, Know Gain or No Pain, No Gain, was apparently penned by Ben Franklin in the late 18th century and then Jane Fonda used it in her workout videos of the 80’s….not that I ever watched them of course. 😉

Whilst networking recently with Kate Collins, we talked about all sorts of subjects, she mentioned the ‘enriching’ pain of cold water swimming, which she really enjoys. The initial shock, to feeling on top of the world.

As we chatted about business as well as health, it struck me that, whilst we endure pain to be healthy, we also make tough and sometimes painful business and leadership development decisions. Kate coaches leaders and teams to meet their goals, perhaps by making the difficult, painful but necessary decisions.

With TandemComms Ltd my courses are centred around influence and impact. The most important part of that, is to understand your audience and their pains and gains. Why do they behave like they do?

I have been advising a client on just that, around a significant and wide-reaching change, that could affect many. Supporting the client in this case, to reflect on why local politicians and communities react as they do. You need to understand and to do that why not ask them what their pain points are. If you don’t, it is very difficult to reach out effectively, with a positive impact. This might not necessarily be to bring them around to your way of thinking but to aid understanding, clarity and create helpful but not painful discourse. Sometimes the insights you gain from the understanding, is surprising.

Joe has found my pain points through regular asking and checking. Do you regularly ask your customers what their pain points are and how you can you help support to solve? It’s worth doing. A bit of pain to gain some gain 😁