🌴290. Exposure

Hey, thanks for tuning in today. I’m talking about exposure — and not the kind you get warned about when it comes to sunburn or dodgy business deals.

You can read the article here.

Exposure is a word that gets a bit of a bad rap. It can mean risk, vulnerability, or danger — “limit your exposure to the sun,” “you’ve been exposed to a virus,” etc. But there’s also this beautiful, positive flip side to it — when exposure means access, visibility, learning, and growth.

I’ve been working with a client lately on redefining how we build capability, and it reminded me of the 70:20:10 model of learning — 10% formal training, 20% social learning, 70% on-the-job. Most people make the mistake of obsessing over the 10%, but today, I’m focusing on the 20% — that social learning, the exposure to how other people think, lead, and live.

When I think about the biggest turning points in my own life, they’ve all come from exposure:

• Seeing someone live or work differently from me
• Watching how they made decisions
• Realisng that the way I thought “the world worked” wasn’t the only way

When I worked at Wicked Campers, my boss John Webb shattered all my rules about how business “should” be done. After coming from Accenture, where process was everything, it was like walking into the Wild West. No rules. No forms. Just creation and action. Being exposed to that mindset completely changed me.

Same thing when I joined the mining industry — suddenly, colleagues were casually mentioning trips to Mongolia. MONGOLIA! That kind of global exposure normalises things you used to think were out of reach.

Or when I joined Alan Weiss’s mastermind — it wasn’t the formal learning that moved me most, it was hearing what my peers were doing: what they were charging, how they ran proposals, what they believed was possible. Exposure makes you raise your own standards.

So if you’re feeling stuck, flat, or uninspired… maybe it’s not that you need another course. Maybe you just need more exposure.

Expose yourself to people who live differently.

Play tennis with people who are better than you.

Join circles that challenge your worldview.

Watch how others operate, not to copy, but to expand what you think is possible.

Because yes — exposure can feel risky. But it’s also where the best growth happens.

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