Getting Into Your Zone – Episode 056

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[00:00] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast, fresh alternative personal finance talk for independent thinkers who prosper outside of Wall Street. Here’s your host, bestselling author, Kim D.H. Butler and No BS Money Guy, Todd Strobel. Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of the Prosperity Podcast. This is No BS Money Guy, Todd Strobel, and we’ve got a special treat for you all today. We’re going to be talking with Tammy Brandon of the Instinctive Life Career Development. And just in the interest of full disclosure, I have been through the process and it was an amazing experience. It was about defining what my purpose was and creating ways and strategies that I could incorporate that purpose into more of my days so that more of my work was more satisfying,

[00:56] therefore more profitable. And Tammy was an absolutely amazing person to help me do that. And today we’re going to be talking about attracting more clients by getting into your zone. So first of all, welcome, Tammy. Thank you, Todd. Very happy to be here. Super. Well, I guess maybe if we could, just since you’re new to some of our listeners out there, just talk a little bit about yourself and how you got into this position, how you got into the career path that you chose, because that’s an interesting story as well. Oh, yes, it is. Thank you. Yeah. So I actually was in a very similar place to where you were in terms of I liked my job, but it really wasn’t singing to me. It wasn’t profitable or productive for me.

[01:44] It just kind of felt like lukewarm bath water, if you will. And I got to a place where I recognized I don’t want to spend the rest of my life like this. I want to get into a job, a career that’s very satisfying to me. And I didn’t know it at the time. But when we find a career that’s satisfying for us on a soul level, we actually are much more effective, productive, and profitable. And that’s really what I was looking for. Super. And I think, you know, I’m certainly coming up on that big 50 mark there and a certain amount of dissatisfaction, I think, is expected at that age. But what I found out is that’s really not true at all. I mean, a lot of the things I was dissatisfied with, I’d been dissatisfied

[02:30] with for a long time and really kind of helping me to change directions. You know, it’s not something you have to go out and quit your job overnight or something like that. But defining who I was and being able to move forward on that, just very valuable. Before we go too far, I want to let people know that they can look you up at instinctive life dot com. And is it OK to give your phone number as well? Yes, absolutely. We’ve got a phone number, folks, of five, four, one, five, zero, one, seven, zero, two, zero. And I’m sure we’ll have a link on the website if you all are listening to this as well. So why don’t we jump into how to get your how to get into your zone or to get on purpose? That sounds great.

[03:16] It’s actually a lot simpler than people imagine when people are thinking about changing their career or or making it something that’s more profitable. They see it way out in the distance and they feel like in order to get from here to there, I’m going to have to tread uphill in the snow for like five miles and it’s just going to take forever. It’s not worth it. And they give up before they even began. What I encourage people to do is just like what you were talking about, research yourself first, understand what comes to you naturally and start to live that, use that, work with that, even in your current career. And even if today you think ideally you would be in a totally different career, just start using the stuff that comes naturally into you in your

[04:04] current career and watch what changes. It’s amazing to me when I watch someone start to just be themselves more at work, how many opportunities are attracted to them. It’s almost like when we start to live on purpose and work on purpose, opportunities are attracted to us as if we were a magnet. Super. This very podcast that we’re on today is one of the things that came out of my work with you. So again, I appreciate you for that. And I have to say that appreciating your own talent sometimes is difficult, isn’t it? It is because we are so close to our own talents. We’ve lived and worked with them for our entire lives. And so we don’t see it as all that special. We think in order to get a talent or a skill, we have to go

[04:54] get some training and some education. But we are all built with our own natural set of skills. And sometimes it takes that objective outsider to be able to point them out to us. Super. Well, you wanted to go over, I guess, what have we got? Eight steps or eight questions. What would the first question you want to ask yourself to attract your zone? That’s a great way to ask it. The eight characteristics of purpose are characteristics you can look for when you’re trying to determine your own. And so what you’re talking about there, Todd, are questions that you can ask yourself that point back to these eight characteristics. Because this is how I found my purpose. I just did my own self study. So the very first question you can ask yourself, and this relates

[05:44] to the first characteristic of purpose, is how were you different as a kid? How did you stand apart from other kids in your classroom, in your neighborhood or even in your family? Wow, that’s a great question, because I mean, if you think about it, school in some ways is stress is conformity. So back in the beginning, we really were a lot unique. And then I think we start covering that up, don’t we? We do. And unfortunately, unwittingly as adults, we cause our kids to conform with the perpetual carrot and stick. We try to put our kids into these little boxes. What’s appropriate? What’s proper in our society? I just was talking with someone this morning about a perfect example of this is when a kid comes into a classroom and wants to to draw

[06:38] his tree in a purple color instead of a green color, as it would be seen in nature. And many teachers and parents would scold the kid. No, no, no, no. It needs to be green. Well, even in that kid’s mind, expressing that tree is purple. That’s a skill. That’s a natural skill. That’s a natural take on the world that that kid has that needs to be fostered. Oh, I think about cell phones and so many things that didn’t exist. The whole Internet and everything when we were children, they were all probably created by people with purple trees. Very well said. Awesome. Well, what’s the next question or the next characteristic? The next characteristic is it’s something that comes naturally to you. So the question would be and this is where sometimes you might need

[07:28] the help of an objective outsider. But what comes so naturally to you that you don’t even realize you’re doing it? It’s almost like breathing. It’s just a natural part. It’s running 24 7. You don’t have to make yourself do it. A good example of this are people who are really good listeners, really good listeners, sometimes in a room full of people crowded with people have a difficult time because they’re wanting to listen to everybody. That desire to listen is just tuned on naturally 24 7. And so they have a hard time choosing which conversation am I going to listen to? And it can actually stress them out. So what you’re looking for, again, is what comes so naturally to you that you’re not turning it off and on.

[08:13] You’re not making yourself do it. You’re just always doing it. Super. And again, that’s something you probably have to almost force yourself to pay attention to, because again, it’s something that’s on an instinctive level that you just ignore. It is. And it’s it’s so commonplace for you. You don’t really see it as a skill. Awesome. Well, what would be the next characteristic or question? The third characteristic is when you’re working in a purpose related activity, it’s like being in your zone. We were talking about being in your zone earlier. Being in your zone is such a profitable way to act. Being in your zone means that you’re operating, again, from that natural set of skills. And a great characteristic of that is when you’re operating

[09:01] with your natural skills, it’s very engaging for you. You are literally all in. You love what you’re doing so much that you’re not distracted at all. You’re not thinking about what happened last night or what you’re going to do in the next five minutes. You’re so loving what you’re doing that your your mind doesn’t have room for anything else. Fully present. Oh, I love that. That’s a great way to say it. And there are certain activities that cause us to be more fully present than others. And it’s those characteristic or excuse me, those activities that you want to pay attention to. Super. All right. Well, we’ve done three so far. What would be number four? Number four is a great one. In our in our efforts to market ourselves,

[09:48] we want to look for the win win. When do we love what we’re doing so much that we don’t mind giving it away? We love working in it. We love offering it. But then the other side, the receiving end, either a person or an organization or a project, they are also getting your best effort, your greatest value. So when you’re looking for your purpose and you’re trying to understand what exactly it encompasses, look for the activities that you do that are a win win where you love what you’re doing and the person or project or activity on the other side is getting a great value from you. And I think sometimes this one takes a little bit of work because not always are you surrounded by people that are a great fit or natural consumers of what you produce.

[10:40] So I would think this one might take a little work. It does, as they all do. I would recommend to people who are taking this research project on, because that’s really what it is, be prepared to take a couple of months. I think it really took me about six months to really get this figured out. And I’m still learning about myself. But back to characteristic number four, a quote that’s really good for this. And this goes back to what you were just saying, Todd. It’s by Steve Farber. He says, do what you love in the service of those who love what you do. You’re looking for your tribe. You’re looking for your natural fan club. And let’s face it, not everybody is going to be your fan, but that’s OK.

[11:26] You want to find just those people that you love working with and who love working with you. And in practice, or I guess of being aware of this now, I have yet to meet a single person who doesn’t have that purpose that there’s other people out there looking for. Now, you’ve seen a lot more people than I have. Would you say that holds true? Oh, absolutely, Todd. I believe we’re all here on purpose. So there’s bound to be a fan club for every single person. You just have to look for it and you look for it by figuring yourself out first. Super. Well, that brings us to number five. Number five is a great one. And all of you can relate to this, I’m sure. What are those activities that you can do for hours?

[12:10] And time just flies by. You don’t feel like time is dragging and you don’t feel like your energy is running out of you at high rates of speed. Conversely, there are activities that you do that you could do them for a very short period of time. And yet it feels like all your energy is draining out and time is dragging. So what we’re looking for when we’re trying to identify purpose are those activities where time flies. Super. And for those activities that are draining to you, that’s not necessarily a bad sign. That’s just something that you need to become the consumer and find somebody who has those talents that gets the same energy from doing those and purchase that product or service so that you can spend more time in yours.

[12:57] Another valuable lesson I learned from you. How about number six? That’s very well said, Todd. Thank you for sharing that. Number six is real, short and simple skill plus desire. All of us have areas in which we’re skilled that we really don’t care about doing. We’re good at them, but we don’t really like them. What we’re looking for in purpose is what you’re good at and what you love to do. Super. And again, that may this may require some thinking, too, because so many times we rely on outside influences to decide what skills we could we should be focusing on versus those skills we want to focus on. That was a kind of a I can remember this being a very difficult conversation with us. Yes, it’s hard to let go of that sense of obligation and expectation

[13:49] because you have people all around you that are asking you to do things. And part of purpose means understanding when to say no. Oh, gosh, that’s a fantastic lesson that needs to be learned and relearned every day. Number seven. I love number seven. I was just talking about this with a client this morning. Number seven is what do you what are you so interested in doing that you’re willing to go outside of your comfort zone? There may be things that you would normally say no way. No, no, how I am not going to do that. But there are certain times, certain opportunities where you’re willing to. You’re willing to bend over backwards. You’re willing to go outside your comfort zone just so that you can express your purpose.

[14:35] So when do you find yourself willing to go outside your comfort zone? Wow, super. Once again, we can look at the podcast we’re on now. I mean, several hundred thousand listeners later, we’re kind of starting to get the hang of it. But in the very beginning, we were just learning with every time we turn the microphone on. And sometimes the microphones didn’t work and we talked for nothing. But eventually, we did kind of figure it out and hopefully it’s getting better each time. So what brings us to our final one? Our final one is probably my favorite because it really shows a difference. When you’re working in your purpose, what you’ll notice is that you may feel tired, grumpy, or even sick. And you start a purpose-related activity

[15:23] and all of those feelings will go away and they will not return. Super. Wow. There’s really nothing I can add to that one. But absolutely, there are moments in my days that I look forward to and more so now than at any point I can say in my life. And you are absolutely right. The opportunities have followed the more I stay true to that and especially the saying no part. That was probably one of the most difficult things for me. Well, Tammy, what would you suggest to our listeners that are hearing this maybe for the first time and they want to start working on these eight steps? What resources would you recommend for them? What should they do next? They really are their own best resource and a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.

[16:15] And sometimes people will take notes on their phone or their laptop or whatever. However you can take notes, pull out that monocle, be prepared to watch yourself, act as the scientist outside of your own self and watch yourself in activities. Look for these characteristics, carry a list of them around in your back pocket and look for how these characteristics play out in your own life and start making a long list of the characteristics of these kinds of activities. Super. Well, once again, this is No BS Money Guy Todd Strobel for the Prosperity Podcast inviting you to get more information at instinctivelife.com or to call Tammy personally at 541-501-7020. And again, Tammy, I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you

[17:09] and look forward to continuing to work with you in the future. Thanks, Todd. I had a blast. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money and have it work for you, visit us at partnersforprosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.