Darcy Smyth Case Study
Prepared by: Nathaniel Hodges
Case Study
Case Number 076
INITIAL CONDITIONS | DARCY SMYTH
Overview
Darcy had owned and operated his consulting business for the past 7 years where he individually turned over minimum 10k / month up to 40k / month. Darcy has a wide and trusted network that spread between Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast. When I started working with Darc he had just begun a new venture called. The Sales Game with business partner Steve Claydon that was getting some traction in the US.
Challenges
- Using work as a means to distract himself, this manifested in an inability to switch off.
- Having a hard time with a past loss that was proving difficult to shake and interrupting his quality of life.
- At times crippling overthinking and what felt like an addiction to analysis but this also served his business every well.
- Enjoyed making big sales for his business but found it overwhelming when his clients needed more and more from him.
- Sometimes Darc would experience bouts of anxiety and a need to just get away from it all.
- Darcy has an extremely high level of aptitude when it comes to the psychology of buying and selling which brought up some moral and ethical problems that we had to solve.
Measures (Pre initiative measures)
Mental skills assessment (/10)
Focus -6
Confidence -6
Trust- 9
Calm-3
Mindfulness- 6
Control-5
Optimism -10
Vigour-10
Purpose in life measure (/100)
65/100 (This measure is the the standardised measure for feeling a sense of meaning and purpose for your life, the Australian average is 45. Anything under 50 is a sign for concern and can increase in 3 points shows a noticeable change in your life.)
Project Outline
Listed below are some (not all) of the initiatives we engaged in to move Darcy through the challenges he was experiencing.
- Personal discovery framework
This framework has been purpose built for high functioning individuals that find ‘success’ quite natural but seem to struggle in other areas of life. This framework is like running a punctured bike tyre through some water, as soon as we see bubbles we know where the problem originates from. From here we choose out of our 22 approaches which will be most suited.
2. Complexity management matrix
Outliers specialises in ‘complexity management’ For Darcy this was about understanding the double edged sword of his intellect. When it was with clients he was a gun but when this intellect was turned onto himself it was torture. Because Darcy is in the field of human behaviour lines can be blurred between, work, home, self, social life and boundaries. This can be a major cause of confusion for the individual when it comes to having a stable core identity.
3. Personal Practices
These are designed as we go specific to the needs of the person but they are a mix of the following
– Various meditative techniques
– Various expressive writing techniques
– Various mental skills training
– Various remedial and recovery processors
– Various talk and dialogue therapies
Results
- Darcy now has a much clearer understanding why he is the way he is and where it originates from, providing him much greater personal contentment.
- Darcy now only works with clients he enjoys working with and that greatly appreciate his insight and methods.
- The Sales Game saw great success with an event in Melbourne and a transition to a full online version ready to scale that has investor interest in the US.
- Darcy started a new romantic relationship that is providing much needed balance and grounding away from work.
- The work we have done has translated directly into the further success of his personal clients.
- Darcy is now working much less hours for the same amount of revenue.
Mental skills assessment (/10)
Focus -8
Confidence -9
Trust- 9
Calm-7
Mindfulness- 7
Control-9
Optimism -10
Vigour-10
Purpose in life measure (/100)
72 /100
