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The Funnel Test & Positive Productivity

So I'm going to talk to you today about the funnel test and how important it is to be productive and be positive, and that a lot of what is about success was when rob was talking about not procrastinating and your mindset and not giving up and being productive, that is part of networking success. This is a foundation that I want you guys to think about. So the funnel test, as you can see here, it has three core circles at the top three passions, so I'm going to be working with all of you, and I want you to identify three things that you're really interested in in terms of your passions, I'm going to give you some examples on the next page what's important to recognize is that this can shift and adapt over time. I'm going to share what my funnel test results are and what's interesting is that, you know, for five years ago, I had very different things in the circle than I do now, so it's adaptable, it really is something that you want to have be a road map and it's really something where...

you just are trying to think about what am I most comfortable talking about? What am I most comfortable? If I'm going to be blogging or writing articles? What are the things that I'm the most interested in? Tone ality will go a little bit deeper in that. But how do you want to present yourself to the world? Think about performers and artists? Lady gaga is one I'll give you an example tone for her. What do we think? Bold, right, eccentric and so people a lot I have kind of atonality. Do you want to be seen us intellectual? Do you want to be seen us creative it's important to think about? How do I want to present myself? I'll give you an example, my tone ality, and I'll show you my funnel is inspirational, so I'm hoping to not only inspire people, but I myself want to be inspired by life. I want to keep doing new activities. I was recently at a retail store, I'm not going to name the name, but I was having very bad service and in my head I thought, I want to go on twitter and I want to start bashing this company, right? I was like, I'm going to go on there and tell them how bad their customer service is. I can't believe they're doing this, and I stopped myself and I thought now is that inspirational, you know, is that who I want to be? And it's not that didn't fit my tone ality so it was a filter for me to say no that's not the behavior that is actually the person that I want to convey so thinking about who you want to be and what you want to convey is really important because it can be a framework for your actions that could be a framework for the events that you're going to the last step of the final test is defining a fifteen words or less purpose this is something that is important sometimes people refer to it as an elevator speech, but a lot of times our interactions with people might be you know, momentarily maybe we're having a conversation on an airplane maybe you do meet somebody at an event being able to articulate what you're interested in you know what things you're passionate about just like rob said he had conveyed that he was interested in animation and was a chuck jones fan verbalizing that changed his life so understanding what your purpose is now we know what some of our networking goals are already because we've talked about it but also it's like what are you trying to achieve? Different people are going to have different goals maybe someone wants to bring a new relationship into their life somebody wants a new career opportunity somebody wants to change jobs it really is whatever purpose is going to help you move forward tow live the life that you want to leave so that you can have more happiness and more protect productivity. So what's great about the funnel is that it really is the filter. What I've found is that of the people that I've interviewed, the ones that are the most successful it's a pretty easy thing for them to do because they're like, oh, I'm interested in photography in cooking and in family, you know, though they will quickly be able to identify it when you start struggling. That basically is a cue that says to me, I need to work on this a little bit. I need to have some more clarity and focus around my purpose in my vision and again, there's never a wrong answer. This is all about just setting some goals to move forward. So again, with this it's going to help you build more authentic relationships and a stronger network and you can start networking around these topics, if you have technology in a circle, you're going to start going to events that are more technology oriented, you're going to realize, ok, this is a good place for me to go to build my network, so this is the core framework of being productive in your networking and focused so sharing my final test with you. Here I am I was going to wear that dress today I might wear that dress tomorrow so you might see that as long as it's fine to wear white um so my my final test I have storytelling, technology and health I was a documentary filmmaker earlier in my career and frankly writing a book is very much like phil making it was about collecting stories and finding the insights and making sure that things were weaving through and educating so to me that's very similar process too filmmaking is all about storytelling and sharing with others you know, I realized this back in the early nineties I did a film on breast cancer survivors that I loved talking to people and it also gave me a way to connect to people because when you start asking them about their story these amazing moments are shared and I found that I really found enjoyment from that so I've got storytelling technology is a circle that I really only filled in with technology about three or four years ago when I was working at virgin america we started partnering with tons of start up companies I was a lot more active in social media and I realized how technology was changing my life and how exciting it was s o if you would have asked me you know, ten years ago if my was passionate about technology it wouldn't have been there so this can change over time health it's something that I've always tried to be as healthy as possible, but you know, I'll be honest, even though I have a goal of saying what let's work out four times a week, there are weeks where I'm like, did I meet my goal? And I have to keep working on that and pretty good with the food and take but there's, it's, something that I constantly have to say to myself, are you getting out there? Are you getting the workups? But I want to be healthy and fit, because I know that when I'm healthy and fit, I have stronger relationships, I have more energy, more productivity on and it's just it's a topic that I like talking about, and I liked doing healthy activities with my friends so inspirational, and my purpose is to inspire others to break down the barriers so that they can live happier lives and connect with others. And so again, that was what I needed to do while I was writing the book was think about what do I really want to accomplish with this book? The book was really about giving people stories and thoughts and advice so that they could live more productive lives, all right, any questions so far, all right, now we're gonna get into the hard work, ok, so using becky and nic as examples here's becky and her funnel is charity, family and health and wellness so those air her passion circles what's important is that this center spot is actually the sweet spot. So where those things overlap if you could start finding activities that combine multiple sections of your your circles that's going to be an amazing place to be so when she's doing things with her family that air health oriented she also donates money to the american cancer society that's a home run she's doing a race said she's doing a benefit and she has her family there she is in her sweet spot, right? She wants to be inspiring and she also wants to inspire others to get healthy and get off the couch so they can be around for their kids. So that is becky's funnel as you'll see it's very different than nick's funnel and what I want to talk about is that a lot of times the ideas in the funnel or maybe ah higher level then the specific task of doing so instead of saying running maybe it's health like you ladder it up a little bit, you go a little bit higher so nick he's working at nike but what he's really passionate about his global affairs helping others and then this is funny and quirky but he is a car fanatic and he loves lamborghinis he loves his vw bus he spends hours and hours tinkering on this bus. It's, probably a nineteen seventies is bus, but he's very into that and it brings him great joy and passion. So it's okay to have something that's different and unique there. It actually gives us personality and interest. He wants to be optimistic again. He is the person that is waving to everyone when he's driving the car. I have never met anyone who is more optimistic. The knicks schwartz so if nick, if you're watching today thank you for that he wants to be a global citizen. He wants to help others and be authentic while doing good in work in his life. He is at a phase in his life where he's really trying to figure out how do I bring my career to the next level? He enjoys what he's doing at nike, but he's recognizing that a certain point he wants to move up from being an account executive. He wants to do something bigger. He needs to look at what are the things that he's interested in. So he is looking, you know, when he goes to change careers at some point in the future, he'll want mohr global opportunities things where he is helping others he's trying to spread his wings, so to speak, which some of us have already talked about here today so we are going to start doing the work. So do you guys have your notebooks and your pens? Yea ok, so the first stage of this is to look at your passion circles, so we've got three rings and as you can tell, I have an empty one here, so one of you is going to come up and work with me and and write your passions down in your atonality. Actually, maybe I'll have one of you come up now and is there anyone that wants to volunteer to do their final test up on the stage to re so that's great that you're raising that you like me now and you want to come on up? Okay, great. So tree sub and all of you don't you don't think that you're off the hook because I'm putting you on the spot to so you know, there's some questions that I have in the book to help you think about this. So what are my strengths? It's really important to think about what are my strengths, especially right now? Maggie, you've talked a lot about a lot of this strength that you have, like knowing what you're good at identifying these like good things, so thinking about what are some of your strength, you are obviously have the photography, but tell me more about strength that you have well, I think currently in this current funnel today right now because I think tomorrow it would change would be able to connect and have heart connections immediately it's really something I'm so proud of and I've worked really hard on this year okay? So connection um health unconditional love go for myself young for others ok greatest strength and we will fill in the circles in a second I want to bring you through all these questions what? What are your weaknesses in the reason again not to be all barrier focused and weakness focus but it's just it's important to know. So what are the things that you're trying tio grow and what are the weaknesses e I think definitely the weakness for me is, um having the tools tio have the self esteem to move this new business for it ok, so it's a new chapter of your life and you want to build some confidence around that's, right? Okay, great. What activities bring you joy? I was saying yoga and hiking all the things that you've mentioned already so okay could now this is a funny question but if you were a super power if you had a super power there was a recruiter that I worked with once and he asked me this question he said if you had a superpower, what would it be um wow maybe wonder woman wonder woman I love it so strong bulls in opposite so let's look at your three circles so I heard connecting and and people and so I'm gonna have you help me fill in these three circles I heard a couple of things I heard connecting I also heard about health I know because of what you've said about your goals that you really love creativity and photography but have you any thoughts about the three things that you're most passionate about there's some sample passions on the sheet to well I wrote uh basically living healthy so healthy and this is the place in the class where I wish I had calligraphy as my handwriting but I do so healthy, healthy relationship relationships so kind of connecting with another and so people and community maybe yes, I love that ok, another passion could be, you know, creativity or let's use romance, johnny's romance, romance and spirituality and spirituality great work okay, okay, spirituality and were these overlap so things that you feel spiritually and kind of connected with people and you're healthy at the same time those are the places where you're really going to be living your authentic self it sounds like yoga to me that sounds like yoga right there, right? Yeah ok and so what's amazing is if you khun bring some of these things both into your personal life end into your business life you're going to be more passionate about it and so looking at you know not every person can have a job that's based on spirituality or teaching that but looking at what I'm doing does it afford me places to live my passion so that I could be a healthy healthy happy person so this is really great work I love it so we're going to move on we're going to talk about your tone ality stay up here though you're not off the hook yet so defining your tone and your authentic voice again I use the example of lady gaga as being very bold some people were gonna want to be perceived as intellectuals think about your tone and your creative voice how do you want people to perceive you and how do you want to present yourself to the world we've got adventurous ambitious carrying glamorous could be creative wild zany all sorts of things but looking at kind of a word that you feel comfortable with and it might not be on the list I think inspirational inspiration are right inspirational and you're already doing that with your photography and so now you're expanding the business plan okay and you guys working on your tones down there you're working on your finals yeah you reckon picula one word or could you pick to sort of actors complimentary tones yeah that's a great question you know the funnel is to be directional only it is easier if you have one tone of voice that you can kind of focus in on, you know, friendly, smart, but if you're really in conflict in two things are speaking really strongly, too it's fine, this is your funnel it's your direction, and at a certain point, one tone might come back. The thing that's important to do, though, is to recognize that what you're communicating, what, how you're behaving, what you're writing, all of those things are gonna have a tone and that a lot of times we just don't think about it, right? And so you want to have actions that are in an honest and in a way, that's filled with integrity based on how you want to live. All right, so this next section is a little bit harder, it's a little bit more challenging, but it's putting together your purpose, right, and so clarity of purpose again, businesses that have clarity of purpose are going to be more successful. And so what I want to encourage you guys to do is to think about a purpose, and this is what you're going to be using to drive your networking goals, so you obviously want to have a connected life, and you want to be healthy, wannabe, spiritually. Right now it sounds like you're starting this new business that you're starting something where you want to expand your skills passed the photography and being behind the camera and doing more. So tell me about that if you had to say in fifteen words or less what you're trying to do right now your your life purpose how would you describe it? Well, as I wrote down, I meant touring inspiring others teo see their value ok, um, which brought up the hall interesting aspect to failure is where I feel like I've failed in life it's really where I would love to help others ok, where they can shine and so helping people find there is it a creative process value their creativity, whatever it is that they feel and try they've made their life that their lives aren't working, others getting curious about who they are ok, so mentoring others too live with curiosity and authentic in an authenticity yeah, and happiness and are you going to do this through a program or a workshop? Or what kind of processes? And right now it's one on one it's basically invalid under creative consulting your life dot com it's it's coaching okay, it's, business development wherever you feel like you need some progress in your life that I can help mentor um and ask powerful questions okay, great. So right now to start out you're just starting with one on one coaching the business may evolve anymore, but just for the clayton this is sake of having a focused purpose we'll use this and you can alter the words later on so it'sjust directional but mentoring others to live with curiosity and authenticity through one on one coaching right that's very clear defined purpose unified right? All right, so thank you to recent for sharing that. All right? So I don't think that you guys are off off the top spot, but what I want you to do is there are some questions that I want you to think about with your purpose will my purpose bring me happiness now? I've had people in the past that I worked with maybe they've said I want to be an actor and they recognize that sometimes the path to making that in that career that you have to take small steps in other areas and so what I really want you to think about it? Can I earn a living by living my purpose? We have to be realistic but we also want to set high expectations and high bars for ourselves, so in the case of taking the actor example there may be side steps that you need to take him at a certain point you may decide, you know what I want to do this but I also need to do you know, supplemental things for my income so you have to be realistic does my purpose support or conflict with my passions for example, if you have a purpose that is all about, you know, farming and gardening and being involved in the environment but then you have nothing like that in your passion circles there may be a conflict, so is it funneling down? Well, teresa's taking her example people in community, she wants to start mentoring others and build her community, helping people be happier and spiritually sound. It really sounds like this is very much in line of what you're trying to do so what's up at the top of her final works with us at the bottom of the funnel ok makes sense so a couple other questions asked it sounds like we have a question from the online audience has got some people who are sharing their three love that so we have ah gina heart, who says my passions are one health and fitness to fashion and three empowerment and she says, so many people have told me I have to pick one and narrowed down and this finals are really helps good, good well, I love that and, you know, use the funnel and remember like you don't have to feel overwhelmed by it because it can adapt over time yeah, we've got a few more here needy says number one people in networking number to design branding visuals and number three public speaking so sweet spot would be visual communication speaker great I'd love it you know one example of that when we're talking about the introvert question earlier on today there's a gentleman that I met at a conference he saw one of my presentations and he started using the funnel test he was very shy in the past and it was hard for him to connect with people and he recognized that his three passion circles one was entrepreneurialism one was family and one was technology and so when he went to the events if he started conversations in those areas he realized that he was comfortable and the giving back in the adding value which we talk about later on he thought if I just bring value to a conversation and talk about these things I'm going to feel good and now networking has changed his life because he realized what he was comfortable talking about so that's really like that putting a final test into action is really putting it all together so what purpose what's blocking me from living my purpose so I want you guys to really think about it teresa since we've got you here is the example is there anything that's blocking you from doing the one on one coaching or from helping people achieve this? Yes does the old stories minson barriers but I'm working through this okay great through my inspiration to myself through through my own funnel so it's it's interesting to see it I want to take that home and put it on my vision board good because it will help me to remind myself well maybe we could find value somebody might be able to do one later murphy that would look good but that's exactly it's also a reminder and you know I'll be very honest even though I've written the book there are days when I'm trying to make decisions and I think should I go do this and then I'm like am I living what I said I was going to say and I put it in the book I better I better live what I did because I put it in the book right so any other student anyone else want to share a thought in their final or any questions that you have we do have even more coming in okay wanna hear some of those we have juana colombia who says that there's are sustainable lifestyles travel and social media and tech yeah interesting I like that yeah we have yes and girl she heard three our global creativity cross cultural storytelling tech and communication see I love it so even when you hear those three passions together you can start to think about different types of careers and opportunities that would match so, you know, as you're defining your purpose, here are some examples, and I'll just share a couple of other purpose is that people have said, but to have a thriving consulting business that helps nonprofits with philanthropy against some of these air, more specific, but when you do that it's easier to start breaking out the little piece s and say this is what I need to do to move it forward so teresa, you might say to I need to learn anything more about it, coach inc is there anything else I can do to improve my skills in this area? You know, do I need to learn anything about billing people and running a business? You already know how to finance and and have a photography business? What else do I need to do in this space? So you start to break down the little pieces someone else might say. I want to thrive as a creative professional in a photographer, a lot of people that are watching her in the creative space that's a great, very well defined purpose. I want to promote new ideas in the green energy marketplace to reduce pollution in the future that's a very lofty and ambitious goal, but again putting these things down on paper and really having the roadmap starts giving us a plan to say if I'm going to events if I'm trying to meet people, if I'm networking with cos it's much easier to define who you should be talking to when you have this type of road map. So what I would ask you to think about is, you know, sharing your funnel, and we do have a lunch break coming up in what will happen is if you share your funnels together at lunch instantly, you're going to know more about each other, right? You're going to know more about what the person is interested in, what you're involved in there's going to be more connection. So as a group and also online keep sharing in the chat room, I share that information you can get to deeper, more authentic relationships with people when you start sharing on this level. And you actually say, these are the things I care about. These are the things I'm interested in it's very, very powerful. The next thing I want you to think about is if you are cultivating your passions based on your funnel chart. So for example, using my funnel chart as an example, I had storytelling, health and fitness and technology, and so what am I doing to build credibility? David you had said earlier about I want to be more of an expert in a space what am I doing to build the credibility what am I doing to network around my passions so if you break it out break out your funnels you create a little chart like this storytelling I want to finish my book I accomplished that one I have also said I want to take an improv a comedy class that I have not done yet but I do want to do that I think it would be fascinating to take an improv class dick costello, the ceo of twitter was an improv artists before being a ceo and there's a lot of benefit to learning to listen in a room and how did to network and make sure that you're interacting with people my health goals I want to hike and swim with friends and also trained for a running race in my younger years I did marathons and I haven't done one since I had a a daughter eleven and a half years ago I think it's time for me to give up the new mom excuse right get back out there technology goals to consult with tech startups and I read a lot of the online journals those are all things that I do to increase my expert ability in the space but again they're very defined to my passions we do the same thing where we start to define do I have the support in my network? So do I have friends that, like doing health oriented things with may do I have people in my life? Where am I consulting with groups or resource? Is that help me define and build these passions? Because being the best you can be is a constant pursuit, right? If we were happy with just being status quo, we wouldn't be growing, so we want to keep growing. Okay. Any questions about this chart? All right, well, after lunch, I might ask you guys about it. How about, from the online audience? Any questions? I think we're good for the moment. Everyone has fallen along and kind of participating. So good. Great. So I'm going to share one story about michael mina, who is a celebrity chef. Some of you probably heard about him. He's is quite popular in the bay area, but michael, I met him through virgin america, and he was a frequent flyer of ours. And part of my networking at the airline was that I always looked at who the top one hundred fliers were. So again, looking at the people that are, you know, in the network and he want to create stronger relationships, and so what I had done was I sent out if you ever seen this little model airplanes so to the top hundred fliers we sent out model airplanes since I sent michael one I said thank you so much I love that you're flying on us and so now we have this connection of this airplane I kept running into him at events and I said hey notes porter and with virgin america and he stopped me and he said, you know that little airplane that you've sent me it sits next to my little boy he's got two sons six next to my son's bed he travels non stop he has eighteen restaurants whenever he goes out of town he'd say I'm going on virgin america to vegas I'm going to orange county and so we had this bond in this connection because of a very easy gift that I gave him right so michael and I became friends and I ended up interviewing him for the book he was born in egypt his parents then moved tio washington and he was growing up on kind of a a farming area and he started working at a cafe so he was in high school and he realized that he loved being in restaurants when he was very young he loved that intensity he felt connected to the passion of restaurants. Now what do you think happened when michael went back to his egyptian parents and said I want to be a cook what do you think of the answer was from his parents no that's, right? That's what do you think? No, david? Because they probably want to be an engineer or something else. I think a lot of money and be more respected exactly. They have that's exactly right? They said, you know what? We're from egypt. What you need to do is be a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer. You cannot be a cook, but he stayed true to his passions. He ended up going to college, but he said I'm going to keep working at it he worked in the space needle in seattle, a sushi chef, and so he kept focused on his passion for food. So this it is important because a lot of times these miracles don't happen overnight, right? So ultimately, what happened was he kind of negotiated with his dad and he said, you know, after a couple of years of college, if I still love cooking, will you let me pursue it? So he kept trying to build up his passions by networking with the right people and what happened? I remember when he was telling me this story, I actually got kind of emotional. He said that his dad one day he called him into his office and he said, michael, I've been doing some research and I realized that your love for cooking is not going away and if you're going to do this, you need to do it right you need to go to the culinary institute of america let's see if we can get you in and I've already called and I've gotten an application and here it is so his his parents ultimately came around, but he stayed very focused he kept networking and now with this eighteen restaurants, many of the people that work with him I have been with him for years he was one of the youngest chefs executive chefs in san francisco he was executive chef of oc quite aged twenty three so again being focused and you're never too old to focus on something new the fact that I've written a book at my age and I won't tell you my age but you know you're never too old to do something new it's very, very exciting so I think michael is a great inspiration and he's a person that again clear funnel test he is very interested in food in his family and community and he stayed very focused on it and he wants to inspire others to really enjoy food too. So with that I do have one more little exercise for you, but I wanted to just see if any of you would share some of your funnel great that really helped me to kind of clarify some things and it's interesting when you just do something simple like this nearly well, this makes so much sense like it's in your brain but into you like look at it on a piece of paper you're like wag kind of get it so my three funnels one was spirituality slash service, the others creativity and the third is connection relationships I guess I was kind of fighting for the exact, you know, single word and my tone ality was sincerity and my purpose, but I came up with, um to be of sincere service and bringing my creative vision to my business and relationships I'd love it, I love it and I'm so glad you're at creative live todo really I know it's it's destiny wow that's great anyone else when it david so my passions are technology I've loved to program ever since I was a kid. I remember having my first terrorist eighty color compete with sixteen kilobytes around so it's a long time ago um entrepreneurship like building businesses and third, his family because of two kids um and white tonality I'd like to be enthusiastic and that's something people told me before um and my purposes to build successful businesses by developing innovative software solutions I love it it's great and you know, it reminds me of a story recently I was at a dinner with some friends and some teenage age kids and we're going around the table and we were talking and and somehow the gentleman that was with me he's like you a similar profile to you where he's building things and he is doing more engineering type stuff and he said oh I'm a tech guy and all the kids were cheering they were like wow that's so cool where is like in the past you know tech was sena's geeky but now everybody if you're living your true your true thing that's what's cool right and that's really exciting so I love that your final test is really clear in your holster of michael minutes really spoke to me because I actually went to law school and graduated and you know I think parents want me to law school if that's what he did but then that's very left yes totally shifted gears much of start ups and just did that ever since I graduated so much happier yeah good and how how do you I bet your parents are very proud of you they are but they still bother me to take the bar exam take it after fourteen years still haven't taken it yet but they want me to take it yeah, well that may never change right yeah my mom still sees me as a twenty year old so that you know that will never change either anyone else want to shit great I said my passions were community technology and entrepreneurship, huh? My tone ality I'd like it to be collaborative and I said that my purpose was to develop communities and facilitate opportunities for people to connect and build new relationships great it's great and you know a lot of what you're doing now with the events and connecting people so you are you are on a good path but doesn't it feel good to articulate it and kind of see it on paper great um the last exercise that I have for you all to think about and then we'll just kind of review some of the top tips in this section but I am again a big believer in kind of the positive mindset and keeping things very much in the forefront so creating a manifest still here's just one it was a simple when that my sister actually had found online and she gave it to me and I keep this by my work area make your own path never stop learning look at your goals every day collect experiences not things believe in yourself and ignore ignore doubters especially when in your own head, right? So I want you guys to think about if you want to have a manifesto and if that's something that could help you and it's really again positive words repeating things back jeff talked a lot about that about, you know, kind of staying focused he was constantly reading books in the area um it's important because you want to stay on this positive track the next thing I just want to talk about here is that the top tips and they were going to move on to positive productivity before we go to lunch but defining your core passions and the funnel tests what I hope that this will do is help you focus and I really hope it will help you collect experiences I have found that people that are really being more experiential in their life and focusing not just on the money but what they're learning and how they're growing tend to have more success review your strengths and weaknesses make sure that you are setting the stage for having a good tone visualize this funnel test and if you start to get off track you know have that conversation with yourself and it's am I making decisions that are helping me live authentically remember what your passions are but also look give yourself the flexibilities let them change over time and you know be the best that you could be regardless of the tasks or certainly a lot of jobs that I've done that I would say I was side stepping in the right direction and and that's okay we have to be realistic about finances but you always want to bring your true self to the table on dh then also use this for social media which we're going to be talking about later on so the next thing I want you to think about is how important it is to be productive we've talked a lot about pivot points but what's important now this is to start thinking about connecting your purpose to action and again this is going to give you a framework for your networking so just the example of writing my book here's what the book looked like before it was published it was really just you know, a written document it was always on my bucket lists that I wanted to write a book but I was a little overwhelmed it was like how do we do this right? So I sat one day and I had a payout of paper just like you have in your hand and I wrote down what are all the steps that I could do to start moving forward? What steps did I need to use my network to help me learn and help move this project forward? So if you're a photographer you're a filmmaker maybe you need to work on your riel but defining what do I need to do? Maybe you need to work on you know your resume or your online profile? What are the specific concrete things that you need to move forward? Maybe you need some training in another space you know look at what do you need to or want to accomplish? So the book looking at a purpose plan I knew I had a big network unfortunately I had at least five or six people in my network that were writers so I e mailed all of them I made this whole list I'm going to email the writers in my network I'm going to ask for coffee, you know? A couple of them said no they were too busy but end up having coffee at the meetings I asked them for agent recommendations all of the agent recommendations turned me down they all said no, but I kept going, you know? And I had verbalized this already two people I'm going to write a book and they were like really you're going to write a book I say yes and then then I couldn't it was like jeff say he was going to lose weight and do the one armed pushup right? You want to put it out there? S o then I you know, I heard that you needed to write a book proposal. So do you have any sample proposal? So these are all little steps? I didn't know what the end looked like, but I knew that if I kept making progress forward that ultimately I'd be I'd be moving in the right direction I rewrote my proposal, I really wrote it again pitched more agents seen I still was working on it got turned down again by more people now I could have given up that could have been it I wouldn't be sitting here today with you having this great experience, but what happened was I kept on the path I spoke at an event spare indep it asl e there was an agent in the room who like the topic we had a conversation he said if you can convince my wife that you've got a good idea, we'll take you on and so I flew to new york and I met with he and his wife they work together as a team they took me on and within a month we sold the book so you know, you never know what person is going to lead you to the interview that's going to be the next job, the person that's going to be the co founder of the next business, a client that you're gonna work with who is going to have a major life change and get out of being stuck because of your service that you're providing them so recognized the power of these relationships don't get overwhelmed by thinking of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in the network individuals can have a dramatic change on your life one person can completely change how you're living and what you're doing so ultimately what happened was we sold the book and you know, I then as a creative person this is another thing that you have to get used to is feedback and recognizing when you need to have growth and so I asked people what do you think a lot of people you know we're like oh that's good or that's not good you have to grow from what you have to learn from it you know, just last night I was having dinner with my daughter and she said mommy, I went on amazon and they're forty six reviews for the book and I was like that's a great she said two of them are really bad on and I said, oh, I know I already read them and she said she goes I wanted to get on there say what are you talking about? That's my mommy that was like I was like, well, what do you know sweetie? It doesn't matter because you're not going to please everybody right? Like it's just never gonna happen and why get into the negative? So take the good learn from the other stuff and you keep moving forward that's what being productive is we've talked a lot about pivot points I want to tell you one story about my own pivot point and how I had to change, but about six or seven years ago I was going through a relationship change and at the same time that that happened the ad agent see that I was managing actually decided to close their office so I had two major things happening at once and you know where I ended up right there on the couch depressed on the couch and I said, you know what? I need to get a new job I need to take care of my daughter I need to get out there and so being productive during that time it was really, really important for me now I had never been a client before, but what happened was I told people in my network I'm looking for new opportunities I took freelance jobs at the same time I started interviewing there were lots of things that I didn't get and then someone in my network said, hey virgin america's looking for a vp of marketing I thought, well, that sounds pretty exciting and a new airline its entrepreneurial it's got this great tailfin richard branson now I could have said I'll never get it I've never been a client why bother going for it? That's the easy way out right? But I also knew that I needed to have income at that time and I needed to move forward so that why not go for it? What I didn't know is that the ceo of virgin wanted someone with an untraditional background with no airline experience because he wanted someone that would look at things differently so you never know what's going on on the other side so I interviewed there and you know ultimately I got the job about a month later surprise. Surprise, right? We can raise our bar and go for things that we haven't in the past. And that changed my life. I met, you know, thousands of people I learned so much, I ended up, you know, really getting a career that had more notoriety I moved from, you know, one one kind of level to the next level and it's because I took a risk and I believed in myself. Was there fear? Yes. Were there times where people are saying, can you do this or that? Well, I guess I can't. I have to now, right? I was knee deep in it, right? So again, these pivot points khun b amazing moments of growth. Another example. Just a quick story of that there's a woman who's in the book rachel masters. She used to work for a company called names and one day, all of a sudden surprise, surprise. The owner of the company said I'm sorry, but we have to let you go. She was shocked. Fortunately, she had saved some money. So she decided to take a little bit of a recharge cycle and she went to bali and she joined a little. Surf camp, it was a goddess surf campbell. And she said that all the women she said, oh my gosh! At night the drinking would start and they'd all be complaining. And she realized her life was pretty good. And that there was a woman who kept saying let's, go to fortune tellers let's go to healers, let's go toe and there's nothing against fortune tellers or healers. But rachel had a moment where she realized she could make decisions for her life. And she didn't need someone else telling her her fortune that she was in control of your own destiny. So all of you it's important to recognize if you want to do something bigger if you want to do something differently. If you want a new career, you can do it. You all can do it. There's nothing that's holding you back. So questions asked with productivity am I good at collaborating? Collaborating is very, very important. There are some career past, like being an engineer, you're probably a little bit more heads is down. But it's, really important to look at success comes out of collaboration and being open and connecting with people. Am I being productive in my a time waster? I think there are lots of places where I have a problem with surfing real estate website I don't know why I haven't bought a house in ten years, and I probably will not buy another one, but I am addicted to looking at little real estate listings online. So, you know, when I started doing that, I called wait it's, like, do not waste a half a knauer looking at these, you should be going to sleep, right? So looking at what are the things were you're wasting time? It could be television watching, unproductive thinking, maybe it's commuting, but what can you get rid of gossiping like what's? What are the time wasters where you're wasting that valuable time? Are you taking steps forward? The purpose plan? I want all of you to think about what is one thing that you've been putting off, that you should be working on to move you towards your goal. David yours because you've already talked about the fitness saying there may be a specific goal around that where you're going to want to set that and start moving forward to it and say, in three months, I want to do x right that's different than your career, but that improvement in yourself in your mind set is going to help you with clarity and decision making around your career. So are you maximizing these pivot points in these changes so even maggie looking at kind of the technology and what you want to do with your career? Maybe you get a little bit deeper and you think about well, what specifically? What are the companies that I'm interested in? What are the specific things around it? And how can I start moving towards that? So another last saying positive productivity, a couple things you know, nick, becky and gen some examples nick, he also you know, even though this is not a weight loss class that's not what it was about that he did do the px p ninety x, and he did that with his community and that was very important they did a lot of sharing. Becky also has been working with a business coach jen has been finding that going to a community garden is giving her a lot of productive mindset, and she likes pulling weeds and that gives her kind of like a meditation so different people are going to find this project productivity in different ways. There is an amazing book that is called little bets by peter simms that I recommend and in little bets it is all about this that miracles and big accomplishments come in small steps he interviewed people like frank gehry and lots of comedians and comedian center on stage, and they're cracking every joke it's not happening overnight you know what they're doing before and they're going to a bunch of small clubs practising things and seeing what works the architect who builds the amazing beautiful building it didn't start that way with one drawing there were probably five hundred drawings so allow yourself to take the steps and it's the same thing with building your network there's going to be some steps so what I want you to think about during the break is what purpose plans can you create to move your passions and your purpose forward? What steps can you be more productive in your life and is there anything you need to eliminate to be more productive? Yeah, we have a question from mary lou who says how do you handle identifying your passion if you don't have the credentials to go with it? What if you only have the experience but no formal education to back it up? Well what's great about that is there so many opportunities for learning so that you can build your credential through online courses online learning you know resource is books and so I know a lot of people that are very self made on dh so I'm not sure what the the the passion is but often unless it's things like being a doctor where you need to go to school but there are lots of ways to grow your credibility in an area and two find out about your passion by just getting involved either through technology or, you know, online groups or communities. Okay, so that almost from mary lou this one's from mary lynn, like, um and it's a little bit of a heavier one, you mentioned you've struggled with depression and the advice for someone who can't define his passions because they're fighting that depression. Yeah, well, thank you for that. And, you know what I would say about depression is that sometimes it's important to seek medical advice? I'm not a doctor, but I do see the benefit in talking to professionals. And so I would just I encourage you if you need to reach out to someone. Mayo clinic website has a lot of great information on it, where you khun like, at least learn and talk about it. But my advice to you is if you feel like you need it, reach out, get some professional support for me. You know, I said I would be honest and transparent, but I have gone through treatment a couple of times in my life for a couple of dish it different topics. So I've obviously had my barriers, and, you know, what I found is that I needed to reset my mindset in that ice. Still have days where I get moody or where I get introverted, and I just want to stay on the couch and I know now that I need to get out there and exercise if I'm feeling down, I need to call a friend, you know, I've got a list of five girlfriends where they're pretty much on speed dial, you know? And then, you know, my reset is I'm going to go out, take a hike, I'm going to go see a girlfriend, I try to eat good food that helps my brain chemistry, but figure out how you can get yourself out of those moods but asked for help if you need it, we get back. We're going to talk about one of my favorite chapters of the book it's called, give give get it's all about helping others. And so what I hope you know, to the online audience and also the six of you here is that this is a day or a workshop that is for all of you, and so we want to help each other, and I want to give us many ideas as possible. So I want you to really speak up and think about how can we help each other, and how can we give and be a great network together here on creative life?