DTK Blog: Master Life’s Work

Change Your Results With This Single Shift…

Life rhythm isn’t as simple as separating work from personal life.

Learning how to put your LIFE first instead of allowing work to rule is tricky, especially in our present culture!

In this episode of The Blue Collar Culture Podcast, I discuss with host Ryan Englin how a single shift in a leader’s mindset can lead to a series of changes in themselves and their employees that will benefit how they prioritize their life without compromising their work productivity and career goals.

Work culture is dependent on the company’s leader. Leaders make a huge impact by providing motivation. It is a chain of positivity. Listen in and learn how this shift takes place in practice!

In this second part episode, Ken Mossman and I turn to the topic of purpose, and I relate the story of returning to crew in my 30’s – and, after rowing in a winning 4-man Master’s crew, getting launched from a racing shell into water well-stocked with a nasty array of infectious pathogens. That unfortunate dip led to an infection… and the fortuitous intersection of my physical recovery and that of one of my children, who was diagnosed with a severe gluten intolerance.

Far from finding myself on an easy path, I swerved “dangerously close to the edge,” plunging into a deep depression that had me examining the five best ways of killing myself.

I felt rudderless, searching for an anchor, and dug deeply into inner work in a quest to discover my true purpose.

We riff on the irony of our neurodiverse kids learning valuable social skills that everyone could benefit from, yet aren’t taught until folks face the unfortunate consequences of not having developed them.

We bring Act 2 in for a landing citing Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Four Agreements”, calling Michelangelo into the mix, and laying a solid foundation for purpose and “humaning” in fresh, clear ways.

Ken Mossman and I began on Mojo for the Modern Man, walking one very specific tightrope of my childhood: “Dude, it was odd! I grew up a liberal Jew in the South, 20 miles from where the Klan reconstituted in 1898!” I came of age in the midst of the reverberations of the 1958 Atlanta synagogue bombing in the 60’s and ‘70’s.

I can still remember the shocked look on my mother’s face when she heard me say, in a born and bred southern accent “bye, y’all!” as I stepped off a school bus just days after starting school in Atlanta.  Ken and I unpack the influence – and beauty – of navigating life with undiagnosed ADD, highlighting how I developed my own ability to be present by listening.

Being listened to is so much like love that people can scarcely tell the difference.

Listen in to this fun and deep diving episode which offers lessons from history, highlighting the phenomenon of “othering” and objectification – and offering a relatively simple antidote to begin creating connection.

Tune in to this first episode where Ken and I draw a key distinction between bosses and leaders, and share an important step toward “unf$@king” our world.

There is more to life than work/life balance! Learn how to go beyond and get your life back on this episode of Passage to Profit.

On this episode of Humanly Possible, Bryan Kramer and I talk about how, when I was burned out and frustrated, I shifted the language I used to talk to myself, reconnected with who I am and what I wanted, and how that paved the way for my new endeavor; coaching successful entrepreneurs and senior executives to live wildly fulfilling lives.

Coaches who are experts in their respective fields will find it easier to attract clients than those who haven’t yet established themselves as leading authorities in their space. However, expertise isn’t static—it’s something that must be nurtured to grow as trends and best practices come and go.

Follow Industry Credentialing Bodies And Disrupters
“Diversification is critical in staying abreast of an industry such as coaching, which is still emerging, rapidly expanding on a global level, and without licensure. To that end, I follow international credentialing bodies (such as the International Coaching Foundation and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, both industry stalwarts) and disrupters (such as Michael Bungay Stanier, Rich Litvin, Dorie Clark, Whitney Johnson, David Goldsmith, David B. Peterson, Nir Eyal and others). I also attend events such as WBECS each year.”

The best way for any professional to evolve and advance in their industry is to keep an open mind and learn from others. Whether you’re keeping an eye on seasoned coaches who have been in the field for decades or new coaches with innovative visions, if you are a coach, there’s a lot to learn from watching others in your space.

Separate Working ‘In’ The Business From Working ‘On’ It
“In my very first training back in 2008, I learned to separate working “in” the business from working “on” the business. From that day forward, I’ve stacked my client sessions, enrollment sessions and meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I reserve Monday and Friday for working “on” the business—financials, marketing, expansion and so on—and that is how I have grown my business every single year since I started.”

Change your mindset and you will change your life!

During this interview I unpack with Travis Field and Brendan Johnson, hosts of the Right Place, Right Now podcast, the significance of the stories we tell ourselves and how those stories impact our actions and ultimately our results. “The lens through which we see the world colors and changes the way we experience things.”

How do we change our mindset to get the results we want?

I am fascinated by the unwritten rules that shape how we live, think, and show up in the world and for each other. On the Trauma Hiders Club Podcast, Karen Goldfinger Baker and I hashed out how much more time, energy, effort, and attention it requires to conform to these unwritten, and often restrictive rules rather than going after the changes we want in our lives. There is this cultural stain around the word “easy,” we feel like if something isn’t hard then it must be false. My life’s work is to help people dig deep into unwritten rules and rewrite them with attention and intention so that we can live into our own magnificence.

“We act in the fear that not belonging means death, so we conform ourselves—that’s the unwritten rule of all unwritten rules and the lie of all lies.” – David Taylor-Klaus