The Top 1% Life. Kathleen Black

things that limited me that I dulled my ability to hear my call to arms, to see myself as the warrior, and to honour my real weapons or my ability to walk away from anyone who I perceived to hold power over me. When I finally realized that the odds may have been against me but I was no statistic, victim, or any other label which may have prevented my growth, I also realized that I was strong and could plant, cultivate, and harvest the seeds of my future. I choose to spend the rest of my life nurturing that expansion into leadership, with not only myself, but with everyone around me who will listen and accept the call in themselves.

      It’s why I started working with good people who are very successful, but need time, energy, and health. Frankly, they need a life, and I can say that because everyone who knows me, knows sometimes I need time for a life too!

      These people did not start out with mega teams. They were not teams at all. We built step by step together. Some grew to mega team status, and others just wanted enough help to be organized and take their time back. Now I often work with mega teams, but I started by building them. We built with our clientele to bring our community into existence. We are still building.

      This book is my bridge back to build with some of you. The stories are not identified by my clients’ names, but they are similar to the stories we all know in the team space today, before admins, agents, or any help to expand with the overflowing opportunities we created. At the end of this book, I will invite you to continue our journey face to face, by attending a complimentary webinar as a gift to you, which is located on my thank you page on the last page of this book.

      This journey is for people who are serious about getting strong in any of life’s storms, knowing who you are, what you stand for, and that you are now ready to use this new found clarity and strength to harness methods to expand into a reality where you can thrive in business and live your personal version a Top 1% Life.

      I have spent over 18,000 hours personally one on one with leaders at the heights of their industries who needed a change. In addition, my coaching teams have spent tens of thousands of hours supporting leaders with the same Ultimate Expansion Journey we will take together in this book.

      Achieving what you truly want is not only quicker, and easier, with the support of a proven path, but it also requires a like-minded community around you. That community is a necessity for fulfilling your ultimate expansion. We are not simply who we are, we are the interpretation of our thoughts echoed back to us by those around us. We become what we surround ourselves with, so I highly encourage you to connect with others for a monthly book club, online community conversation, and to compare valuable takeaways that you have committed to take action on in your life. I have needed a team of like-minded people my whole life, so I built one, and I would like to invite you to join us at the end of this book.

      I want you to know that when you accept your call to arms, you will become the warrior you need to be to make the changes you want. You will be able to build a business that is the natural progression of your clarity and choices. Until you choose to arm yourself, you will wait for the world to deliver you an ideal life, you will wait for the promotion, the change, and the acknowledgements that all lie externally outside of yourself. You will be waiting for a while if you choose that path – potentially forever. The world will not even know what you are waiting for because the world responds to who you decide and believe you are. The world cannot promote you. That power only lies in yourself.

      Stop waiting for a promotion to your ideal life, and, instead, build it for yourself. You will have to do the work and fight for it. I am writing this book because I am addicted to leverage as a natural by-product of my fascination with expansion. My niche lives in powerhouse sales teams, and I am excited to arm you with the experience and path of thousands before you in building your very own Top 1% Life.

      Chapter 1

      IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

      Remember that time you hustled to make it to your family dinner on time? Usually, you’re late or miss dinner altogether, but you were determined to make it to this one. You hustled to get there only to be glued to your phone, constantly excusing yourself for calls, emails, texts, and personal messages. The frustration was mounting for everyone. You couldn’t help but feel the shame of a business that was so “successful” it was out of control.

      It is hard to pinpoint the exact moment when things moved from working so hard to build your business, to making enough to support your family, to getting to a place where you just want a break. How does it shift so quickly?

      I remember meeting with clients on New Year’s Day in a snowstorm. It was my first year in the business. Mark and Nancy really needed a place to live. They were desperate, scared, and worried. They had a family and house to look after. They had little children and were going into a brand-new year that should have been full of what all New Year’s days should hold: hope, excitement, and anticipation for the beautiful gifts a fresh start would bring. Instead, they were paralyzed with fear, and I was feeling the pressure. They were given very little notice to leave the rental home they lived in for several years and were never confident enough to buy. They just got by financially with the rate of rent and family expenses. Now, they had no choice but to move, and without the resources to buy, they would once again succumb to a rental market where rates skyrocketed. They would now be further behind with less monthly cash flow.

      Here I was, driving through streets void of cars or people, hoping their vehicle would make it through the snow, that we would find them a place to feel safe and rebuild; and that I could be enough to solve their problem, take care of them, and figure it all out. If this was year two in the business, I would not have been there. A single mother myself with two young children, I knew the pressure of having to make one minute into two. I knew how to get by with not quite enough, and my heart went out to these people. In year two, I was no longer the woman I was in year one. I built better boundaries. The world knew Mark and Nancy needed help, and the world brought them to me. In that first year, in that moment, I could help them. And I did.

      I had this small window where I could help them rebuild, to feel safe, to move forward. And when I did, I completed a cycle that they did not even know existed. This time, I got to be the guide. Last time, I was the desperate one, needing but lacking a guide for myself. I never entertained the thought that I needed a guide, though. Why wish for gumballs without quarters? The desperate do not dream as much as they hustle. Dreaming requires time without urgency or a calm in a storm when you have finally broken from carrying all this world has asked of you. A break in time or a break in spirit—that is where dreaming lives. While some dream of gumballs, we collect change on the floor. Magically, eventually, we have quarters.

      I was relieved to end the cycle I knew so well. Relieved that I got to give back. That is what I believe we were all brought into this world to do. We have moments and experiences where things are taken from us. Sometimes, the cruelest experiences can be out of your control, and life will rip your most delicate gifts from your hands. The loss of time, people, and circumstances carved my life. I have a feeling loss carves the best of us, and it carved the best of my clients that day.

      I did help them find a lease, and once we had a break from the urgency of the situation, I connected them with the resources to build the dream of owning a home of their own. I so wanted them to have the power to choose, to carve out the life that was just beyond the horizon waiting for them. I so wanted them to know that they were worthy and capable. That they, too, could morph from this experience into people who cast a light for others. A gift they gave me.

      A few years later, I would find out that Mark was sick. He was battling cancer and had to step away from his job and income. I would discover later that they saw the decision to lease as a saving grace as they could not bear to find a home only to lose it and have to walk away. Nancy shared the heavyweight of their lives before the illness. She shared the tight rope that was the journey of keeping a broken marriage together to house their children without the means to do so on their own, apart from each other. Nancy would eventually leave Mark after he was well, back to work, and they were on their feet