At certain restaurants, if you’re in the know, you can ask for dishes that are not on the menu.  These secret specials might be things the chef is testing, or what she prepares for the staff’s meal.  Or just an old favorite whose place on the menu was usurped by something with truffle oil. [Or garbanzo beans.] These dishes are “off menu”.

For about the last year, I’ve been running an off menu program.  Now, there are a lot of coaches who promote every single daggone thing they do (which sometimes involves a plethora of !!!), but you haven’t heard about this from me until now.  I haven’t shouted about it or promoted it in any way.

Because that’s not what it’s about.

It’s about me asking twelve coaches to trust me enough to help them create robust and thriving practices.  It’s been about me mentoring them to success.  It’s been about being open to new ways of doing things, and seeing the future in a different way.  It’s been about slaying dragons and getting on with business.

I called it The Circle of Twelve.

And it’s accomplished what I set out to accomplish – people are thriving.

But, to tell you the truth, it’s really been about love, and creating, and growth, and doing those things you think can’t be done.

And, this week, it ends.

There was a time in my life when everything came crashing down.  Things I thought were permanently certain proved to be less so.  As I began to cast about for what was next, I answered the wonderful question, “What do you do when you lose track of time?”  My answer?  “I network, I problem solve, I mentor. How can I make a living out of that?”

And with all the serendipity that can be mustered in the universe, the next day I happened to open a charity auction brochure which offered “coaching”.  I think my gut response was something elegant like, “Huh.”  But that “huh” turned into fact-finding, which led to important conversations with three wonderful and kind practicing coaches – Mary Abbajay, Debbie Phillips and Lori Hanau.  They each helped me see that perhaps – just perhaps – I was cut out for this work.

Armed with that confidence, I got started and have built a practice which satisfies all that is innately me. And, for that, I am intensely grateful.

The Circle of Twelve has been a place where I can pay it forward. I can be a pure mentor, like Mary, Debbie and Lori were to me.  It’s a place where I can bring a best part of myself.  And, fortunately, I asked some of the most kind, capable and caring people to join in the journey.  When I look at their accomplishments and their growth and all they have created, I am in awe.

People have soared.  Truly soared.

Just thinking about it makes me grin like a goof.

Which is how I know it’s the absolute right thing to have done.

So, my dear Circle of Twelve friends, our work together is not really ending because the depth of our connection endures.  Ever and always.  Amongst and between us, there will always be a powerful connection.  A deep bond you can draw on when times are tough, and you need a hand.

It’s there now, and always will be.

And it continues to pay forward, with a new group of coaches I’ve gathered for their own Circle of Twelve experience.  A line of people mentored and mentoring.  Creating work that matters, touching clients in ways that bring out the best in themselves, making a new way of being for themselves and for others.

I am in awe.