Over recent months and years the focus of my work has broadened and whereas before I let my creative work speak for itself, now I’m the one being called upon to speak. It was those years of hard graft, following my dream and sticking to it, that have given me a platform to speak…
I remember one occasion when I was working freelance for a company that had Nat West as its main client and we had to ‘pitch’ for the work for the government incentive of giving £250 to every new born, otherwise known as The Child Trust Fund.
I spent time working on a creative solution of building blocks and illustrations of what the future could look like for the child if money was saved in the fund. I had a picture of a mortar board to signify university graduation and a yacht to represent holidays. You get the picture.
I art directed, the rest of the team created the Mac visuals and the marketing team headed off to pitch. The scheme was so new that no one on the pitch list had even seen the Child Trust Fund’s logo. At the end of the presentations and the thank yous for the pitches the wait began…
Imagine our surprise when it was feedback time and NatWest revealed the logo. We knew instantly that we had won the pitch. How? Well the logo was building blocks, the same as our creative strategy, so our ‘starting with the end in mind’ concept won, hands down! As the art director I had struck gold, and over the next few days I felt a bit like the Godfather. The agency for whom I was freelancing made me an offer they thought I could never refuse and literally asked me to name my price!
I was shown a brand new sports car being unloaded for another employee (look this is what you could have) and wild figures were thrown in the air. I continued to freelance, stoically sticking to what was in my heart even though my head was being bombarded. I knew that I couldn’t let up and just live in the moment, I had to re remain intent on building a movement.
I continued freelancing with them and I began to make plans to start building Cre8ion, which I then shared with the agency by way of explanation for not joining them on their journey. This was not the last great opportunity I had to turn down to pursue my dream and at times it was hard, but I made a choice to let the heart lead ahead of the head!
I kept going, letting the work speak for itself. I started to notice that not everyone was following the same path as me and I watched other people stick, and not twist. Their way of seeing things was that they weren’t prepared to gamble with their life. I didnt see it like that though, for me staying (playing safe) would leave me feeling unfulfilled.
I couldn’t do it. I wanted to make an impact. I wanted to help people choose purpose over profit. I continued to freelance, and met many people for whom the salary had become their safety, only its security locked them out of living out their purpose.
There’s nothing wrong in itself with taking a salary, don’t get me wrong. Jurgen Klopp takes a salary, a very good one, and is fulfilling purpose, inspiring generations of footballers. Not only does he create winning teams but he makes me very happy (as a big Liverpool fan). Salary isn’t the enemy and not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur, BUT you have a responsibility to take your gift and ensure it gets the maximum impact.
I’ve met hundreds, if not thousands of people, who say YES, when NO would have been the right call. They say YES to the head, but the heart is screaming NO. I believe that the greatest thing you can do to live a life fulfilled is to tell your head to be quiet long enough to hear the heart. Few of us listen to it because once we know what we really want, we have to take the bold step and actually do it.
Over the last few weeks I have been fortunate to teach about HeartSet to university students with Olly Reid in my other business, HUM4NS. Olly does an exceptional job on MindSet and I have been giving them the tools to lead with HeartSet. It’s like this, when you KNOW why you are here and have the MindSet to execute, you become unstoppable.
Seeing students with their whole life ahead of them asking BIG questions now rather than doing a career just to pay the bills will save them years. You see, when you have a clear HeartSet over the right things it gets easier to say yes to the heart and no to the many ‘what if’s’.
I call it alignment for the assignment. When you have your heart and head aligned, you can live life with confidence… and everyone is looking for confident people!
Personally, I have always shied away from building a personal brand but I believe I now have something to say. The life choices I made were seldom fully understood by other people, yet, over time, I have found like hearted people that also dared to be different.
You have to know the difference between those what want to benefit from the gift you have versus those that want to help you grow it and help you gain a bigger platform. I don’t need a bigger platform to give myself value, it’s because I want to help others to be brave too and live the life that they really want!
In the years that I’ve been out and about in the marketplace I’ve carved out my own identity as a missionary in a concrete jungle. I have developed three game-changing tools to ensure that you make the kind of impact led choices that make your heart beat faster, keep your mind sharp and create lasting impact.
My three tools are HeartSet, The Purpose Playbook and The Crisis Catalyst.
Leading with HeartSet, you will be able to purchase a taster of what I have been teaching in university via a video course with the option of going deeper.
The Purpose Playbook exists at present as a dedicated company workshop, but plans are in place for us to create a one to many model, where we will invite 12 people in a group setting and work through the Playbook together.
Lastly, you can order the book online now. HeartSet is about living life with purpose, the Purpose Playbook will help you to build your business with the right mindset and The Crisis Catalyst is about taking the right actions to keep your business on course.
I have just launched my own website, because over the last few months, I have been asked repeatedly to share about my three tools live and on stage, which is really exciting. It seems that the years I spent preaching and teaching have helped me evangelise the message of Purpose more effectively than ever before.
So, if you need a speaker, a workshop, or a course to help your team go next level online, this website is a great place to start – www.darrellirwin.com
Our HeartSet course is coming very soon (by the end of April) so you can start building a HeartSet for purpose.
