Coaches don't deliver epiphanies. We deliver the tenth repetition of something your spouse has been telling you for six months.
A year or two ago, I was working with a founder and we had one of those sessions where something clicked and his whole face changed.
He went quiet and said, "My wife is going to be so pissed. She's been telling me this for six months and now I have to tell her that I talked to you and am going to do the thing."
I'm like, dude. No. That is not the way to look at it.
Sometimes I'm the first person you hear something from. And you don't believe me. That's fine. A week later, a month later, a fucking year later, somebody else says the same thing. Maybe the fourth person says it. And eventually you go, okay, enough smart people have said this. I believe it now.
Other times, your best friend is the first person who said it. He did the hard work. He acculturated you to the idea for six months while you nodded and ignored him. Then I said the same thing in a slightly different way, and it felt like a bolt of lightning.
It wasn't a bolt of lightning. It was repetition.
Here's what this means if you're the founder: the people closest to you are usually right earlier than you give them credit for. Your spouse. Your cofounder. That advisor you stopped calling because their feedback annoyed you. If you find yourself having a breakthrough with someone new, go back and check whether someone in your life has been saying the exact same thing for months.
Here's what this means if you're a coach: get over yourself. You're rarely the first person to tell a founder the truth. You're just the one who finally got through. That's still valuable. It's just not magic.
The goal isn't credit. The goal is landing the message.
Go thank your wife.