Thursday, January 26, 2012

Trusting Our Success:An Inside Look at Jillian Michaels' Empire

What does it take before we can truly believe in our success - trust that it is real?  How much do we need before we can finally relax and feel as thought we're safe?   Finally, the trajectory of Jillian's company has allowed her to believe that none of it will be going away anytime soon.

During a recent interview with Forbes, Jillian Michaels and her business pulled back the curtain, and gave us a rare glimpse into the pressures and challenges behind their flourishing company.   They openly admitted to making some mistakes along the way, and with surprising candor referenced Jillian's recent stint on the Doctors as one of them.  Although grateful for the opportunity, they said that they were rushed into a contract without an opportunity to adequately flush out the details - details that included what exactly Jillian would be expected to do.  And clearly, what came to pass was not exactly what she and GC had had in mind.


"...when we got there, they wanted me to do segments that worked for their audience, like segments on cankles, or segments on communicable diseases for dogs....I didn't want to do those type of segments,"  Jillian recently told the reporter.  But she wanted to talk about the quality of food being giving to children in schools. And other topics that were, I suspect, more substantive and closer to her heart.

Lesson learned.  In the future, their plan is to take the time they need to make the decisions that are right for them. They will be ready to decline projects that won't serve their interests, like a recent Kinect deal, that wasn't exactly what they're looking for.  Revealing that they had felt "bullied" by partners and networks in the past, they're now entering "phase two" - a phase that where they no longer will be willing to"succumb"   "It used to be a matter of fear... If we let this go will we get another one?"    They're looking for greater creative control.  And finally, it looks like they have the confidence to ask for it. 

"We don't need to do this anymore....It's not going to go away." 


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