Please note that I am well supported in my grief, with family, good friends, an amazing community, and counselling. I only share this as a note to myself, and maybe as a potential spark for those of you reading to examine your remaining time in life.

The question I find myself asking is — when we are gone, what is it that remains?

If I look back over my mom’s and dad’s life, and also take into consideration over 150 interviews I conducted as part of my initial search for meaning, three things stood out as a measure of a meaningful life. Not always a happy one, but one that was meaningful.

Relationships

From the moment you take your first breath, you are in the presence of others. Over the course of a lifetime, you will fall in and out of relationships with family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and even people you pass on the street.

Those relationships, and how you relate to others will define much of your life. They will determine whether your kids will talk to you when you are in your last days, the doors to opportunities others will open for you, as well as the people who will be around you when you go through tough times or celebrate with you when you reach a goal.

Some questions I am reflecting on now are: What kind of relationships am I creating with my closest circle? Who is in my closest circle? Who have I kept out? How do I show up for my immediate family and close friends? How do I support them when they need support? Do I listen when they need me to listen? Am I a safe harbour for them?

Both my parents kept friends across decades and across continents. They formed lasting bonds with good people. My dad would often tell me that he would go for coffee with one of his bosses from 15 years ago, co-workers from 10 years ago, as well as his university friends when he would travel back home.

As I write this, I am thinking about the kind of relationship I want to have with my wife, my daughter, and which friends can I let in some more.

The Impact you’ve had

Stepping back out from close relationships, you will have crossed paths with all kinds of people — in school, at events, at work, through acquaintances. Just by virtue of existing, you’ve had some kind of impact on them. Maybe it was barely noticeable, and maybe it was life-changing. You could have changed someone’s day just by acknowledging them.

My parents would often go out of their way to help others. From donations to various charities, to cooking for refugees, to giving whatever they could to whoever was in need. They would make sure others always felt welcome at our home, and in our lives.

The questions I’m asking myself are: How do I make people feel when they meet me? How do I treat people I work with, people that serve me coffee, people at the service counter when I return something at a store, the other parents I meet at school? What kind of contributions am I making through the way I interact with other people?

My absolutely favourite shirt of all time, which I refuse to throw away, has “Positive Impact” boldly written on the front. It is what I aspire to in all areas of life — to have as positive of an impact as I can on the people and the world around me. 

However, I often fail. I get mired in the unimportant aspects of work and life, and invest time and effort into pursuits that don’t really matter at the end. As I write this, I am looking over the remainder of this year, and into next year — and considering the things I planned, the goals I created, the commitments I made, and whether they align with the impact I want to have had.

Meaningful artifacts

If you ever lost someone close, you likely had to deal with the physical things that remain. Among the linens, dishes, furniture and other things — there are also things that hold tremendous emotional and meaningful value, that may not be measurable objectively.

Meaningful artifacts are things infused with love and essence. For myself, it is things that my parents made or wrote. I still have most of the birthday and Christmas cards they sent me over the years, along with various bits and pieces of advice. 

In her later years, my mom picked up oil and acrylic painting. In my house, we have several of her paintings, and they remind me of the kind of person she was. She would also regularly give her art away to friends, and others who showed interest.

My dad was less creatively prolific, but he did like to build things — from voltage regulators to furniture. He would take on coding challenges, and he loved learning how to fly fish. The artifacts he leaves behind are the memories, photos of our outdoor adventures, and many voice messages he would leave me anytime I didn’t answer the phone.

I hope his advice and support will resonate within me when I face tough times.

Questions I am asking myself are: What kind of things am I creating that will remain after I’m gone? What can I build, write, paint, or record that will have some kind of positive impact on the people in my closest circle, or resonate with those who share similar values? What is something I can create that is a true and honest expression of myself? What is something my daughter might find meaningful when I’m gone?

These are the things that are true for me. Maybe they are true for you as well, and maybe you will look at the rest of your time in a different way. I know I am.

Although I’m not a fan of military analogies, this one is particularly relevant to today’s leaders, founders, and investors.

The term “tip of the spear” refers to the forward-most element of a military force, the one that makes first contact with the enemy. It’s used to describe the most advanced, or cutting-edge unit or individual that is leading the way in a mission. It also implies this unit or individual is taking on the most risk and facing the most danger.

For our purposes, we’ll use it in a broader sense to describe anyone who is leading the charge in innovation, business, politics, or social change. Sometimes, all three at the same time.

You can recognize examples of this kind of leadership in people like Jacinda Ardern, Yvon Chouinard, John Mackey, and Jacqueline Novogratz. If you are not familiar with them yet… take a few minutes to look them up.

They are all examples of the kind of people who are redefining what it means to be a transformative leader in today’s world. If you are reading this article, there is a good chance you are on that journey as well.

I’ve been fortunate to work with founders, senior leaders and investors in sustainability, cleantech, education, and government over the last few years, and I found 7 common qualities among the most innovative leaders I came across.

So, what makes a “tip of the spear” leader?

Seeing over the horizon

First, and perhaps the most formative quality innovative leaders bring to the table is their ability to see beyond the horizon.

Their vision goes past the next quarter, next year, and even a 5-year strategic plan. They are able to imagine and see a future that doesn’t yet exist, and experience it in such a visceral way that it creates a compelling pull forward. It’s almost as if they time travelled into the future and experienced it personally.

That vision then becomes the basis for how they enrol stakeholders, how they raise funding, and how they make daily decisions.

Most of us tend to think in limited time – next month, next quarter, next year. Over a long enough career, the realities of shareholder relations, economic fluctuations, and daily responsibilities degrade this ability to look beyond the next obstacle.

Frankly, most of us lose touch with our imagination. We focus on what’s currently available, rather than what is possible. Innovative leaders on the other hand look 10, 20, or 25 years out into the future, and imagine possible, positive scenarios.

Not just a continuation of the current trajectory, but rather the best possible scenarios. What would the world look like if we solved climate change? If work was fully equitable and inclusive? If we used AI to provide world-class education and health to everyone on the planet? If we created new ways of growing and distributing food? If conflict was eliminated?

If you feel compelled, take a few moments and just imagine a future, 25 years from now. If everything worked out in the best possible way — what would it look like? What would you be doing? What would your life look like? What if you used that as an aim, and then made daily decisions that would help you move the world in that direction, one tiniest step at a time?

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

There is a theme in personal and professional development about the locus of control. I have written and presented about it. Over the years, my views about it have also changed.

For some, the relationship to this concept comes from therapy, coaching, Stoicism, or related books. However, the way it’s interpreted, like many things, leaves a lot out.

Some business leaders unintentionally relate to it as an abdication of responsibility: “these are the things that are within my control” (how I speak, what I think, focusing on making sure we hit revenue targets for the next quarter), and “there are things that are outside of my control” (climate change, political change, societal responsibility, impact of your products or services on the greater world).

It becomes a nicely packaged excuse, falling neatly into a very individualist worldview. However, while our world may have been individualistic, and still is — the way forward requires a different kind of thinking.

Innovative leaders see their scope of responsibility as much larger comparatively.

Their scope of responsibility will scale out from themselves to their team, to their company, to their stakeholders, to their community, country, society, and world at large.

Innovative leaders tend to be global-scale thinkers, some even looking beyond the globe into lunar and space exploration for the good of mankind.

Through it all, they hold a belief that is contrary to the common locus of control narrative. That belief is “I CAN do something about it”.

Once that switch from “outside of my control” to “within my control” is flipped, a new array of possibilities opens up and they start looking for ways to a contribution (however small or large) that would guide the impact of their work.

If you considered this idea, what might be something you could take responsibility for? Within your team? Within your organization? Vendors and stakeholders? Your community? What kind of contribution would you want to make?

Enrolling others

With a compelling vision and a way to communicate it to the right people at the right time, anything becomes possible.

That is one unfair advantage innovative leaders have. They have a high degree of emotional intelligence — in other words, they can empathize and understand others; they are great at deeply connecting with others (they will often have a varied and wide network); and they communicate in a genuine and authentic way.

There is a Silicon Valley fable where Steve Jobs convinced John Sculley to join Apple at a pivotal time. Granted, if you know the rest of the story – you may not be as thrilled with the example, but let’s just focus on that one moment. The moment where Steve enrolled John into leaving Pepsi to join Apple.

They’ve known each other for some time, and the story goes that – they would meet occasionally to hang out. This particular meeting was on the last Sunday of March 1983.

“Steve paused and thought for a while, and then he was about 18 inches away from me — and in those days he was in his 20s and he had jet black hair, very dark eyes and he was right in my face — and he said, ‘You want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?’”

“On April 11, 1983, Sculley joined Apple as the CEO. And from 1983 to 1993, he was the CEO. In that time, Apple went from having revenues of $569 million to $8.3 billion.”

Innovative leaders leverage the power of a compelling vision, express it through their natural ability to deeply connect with others, and enrol them. It’s less about persuading someone to see things your way, and more about seeing a way to this future by working together. Inviting others into your vision, and into making a contribution through your idea.

This is also a skill evident in town hall meetings, where compelling leaders are able to articulate their vision for the future, and how that future connects to each individual contributor’s current activities.

If you reflect on your ability to enrol others in your ideas and projects – if you had no positional power – how might you go about bringing someone on board?

Default to collaboration

When it comes to shifting things at a greater scale, no one does it alone. Even the people most western media look up to as singular, individual examples of genius are backed up by companies, investors, and employees who make their idea a reality.

Terry Rock, the president and CEO of Platform Calgary (you can listen to his interview here) illustrated it perfectly. If we are all moving toward this better possible future – it’s faster and more enjoyable if we journey there together.

His way of building an innovation centre that aims to revitalize not just the city, but also the province (or state if you are in the US), and have a national impact — was to build strong partnerships. Rather than competing over the same grants, funders, and resources, Terry looked at other similar organizations as partners on the same journey. He initiated conversations that eventually led to a large partnership group and the launch of one of Canada’s largest innovation centres.

Innovative leaders will look for ways to accelerate movement toward their vision, by looking at the competitive landscape in a different way. They will look for opportunities to collaborate, share resources, and negotiate ways to accelerate each other’s progress.

At the core of it, there is a belief that a rising tide lifts all boats. This also requires a different kind of conversation with shareholders and stakeholders – where we are no longer looking to isolate, compete, and win – but rather to collaborate and accelerate.

There is a term coined some time ago by Ray Noorda, CEO of Novell in 1992, that redefined relationships in the computer industry at that time. He called it “coopetition” — a way of working together with a person or company who may be your business competitor in a way that benefits both of you.

If you looked at your current situation, where might there be an unprecedented opportunity to partner with someone who you may have seen as competition in the past? How might you propose a mutually beneficial idea?

DrawING out the best in people

Leaders who change things have the ability to draw out the best in people. For some, it’s a natural talent and for others, it’s a learned skill.

Attentive innovative leaders aim to build a culture that fosters open innovation from all places. They do this by prioritizing what most are now calling psychological safety, making open invitations to share ideas, and creating a container where ideas can incubate and develop through conversations without judgment. This approach creates the conditions for ideas to snowball into possibilities and testable experiments.

One way innovative leaders do this is by setting up what I call guardrails and supports. Essentially, giving their teams and employees the ability to dream, innovate, experiment, try things, and share their thoughts and opinions – as long as they are moving toward the outlined, shared vision, with some clear creative constraints.

Complimentary to guardrails are what we call supports. They put systems, structures, and cultural expectations in place to make this possible. They allocate actual time to innovate and think (Google 20% rule). They allow ideas to percolate and tumble. They make it safe to share ideas that might not be great at first glance. They make tools and resources readily available. They simplify processes. They make sure to reinforce a judgement-free environment.

One way to think about it is to act as a shepherd. The leader’s job is to take care of the people in their employ, protect them from outside and inside threats, nurture and nourish them, and also help them move in the direction of a shared common vision.

Interestingly, you can also use this approach to draw out the best in people outside of your organization as well. In an example of open innovation, LEGO created a strategy called Shared Vision, which eventually led to the launch of LEGO Ideas, where consumers can design their own lego sets. The ideas are voted on by the community, and if the idea reaches a certain threshold, LEGO then turns it into a real product and shares the revenue.

These are not hard and fast skills, but rather an art of drawing out the best in people. You do that by taking responsibility for creating an environment that makes that possible, getting to know your team at a deeper level, and removing obstacles out of their way.

How do you go about bringing out the best in your people now? What do your engagement scores and 360 reports look like? Do people actually feel safe to share their ideas, and have their ideas be heard? Do they feel secure in knowing that you have their back? Is your work environment free of judgment and privilege?

LeapING Into Uncertainty

Here is an unpleasant fact — when you set off on an innovative journey, there are no guideposts in front of you. If you follow someone else’s path – it’s no longer innovation, but drafting. Drafting has its advantages, but that is not the MO of an innovative leader.

Innovative leaders seek to blaze a new trail, rather than follow an existing one. Not for the sake of doing something differently, but for the sake of doing something that hasn’t been done before. For the sake of solving a challenge that few are willing to step up to. And there are no guides, manuals, maps, or certain ways of getting there. Only the ones they create.

A way to look at this concept is like setting off on an adventure, exploring uncharted territory. When working with leaders, we often use this metaphor and brainstorm on — if I were to go on an expedition into unknown territory, knowing that what I seek to create is on the other end, what do I require? How will I enrol my team into coming along with me? What do they need? How do they relate to uncertainty? What can I do to make uncertainty feel slightly safer?

When setting off on an adventure, you have so many supplies, so many people, so many capabilities, and so much runway. As you travel, you’ll come across others who may ally with you on that journey and extend your runway. You’ll learn things, you’ll adjust course, you’ll upgrade your equipment, you’ll trade, you’ll meet others, you’ll make alliances, you’ll make mistakes and you’ll make discoveries that will make your adventure faster or your impact even greater than you first imagined.

When innovative leaders leave the comfort of the known and the predictable they know that they will make some less-than-optimal decisions. They’re ready to make mistakes and run into dead ends. Not every decision will be perfect. This leads to another commonality — looking at mistakes and failures as just another turn on the journey. It’s to be expected, and more importantly, to learn from so that you can optimize future decisions.

Given this kind of mindset and a long enough timeline — success is assured.

When I start working with new clients, I often ask them to watch the video below on Hero’s Journey. It’s a great illustration of what you are being asked to do as an innovative leader.

If you choose to watch it, here are some questions to reflect on: How do you relate to the idea of going on an adventure? Are you the kind of person who strives to blaze new trails, and explore new discoveries? How do you go about inviting others on that journey? How do you view failure? What kind of behaviours can others notice in you when you run into a dead end?

What would you do when supplies are light, and you are about to scale your most challenging climb yet? Would you choose to cut staff, or huddle and find another way?

Are you ready to go on an adventure?

CreatING Clarity

The final common quality among innovative leaders we’ll discuss here is their ability to communicate. Specifically, their ability to create clarity for themselves and for the people they serve.

One way we can notice this is in the way they communicate the present as it relates to the future. In other words, they are able to make a clear connection from what each individual contributor may be working on at the present time, to the grand vision of the future they are moving towards. This is often a key element of how they create engagement and commitment in their teams.

In much more granular terms, they also make a consistent practice of clarifying. Ensuring that what was said and meant is what was received, and will be acted on in alignment across the board.

They actively seek out and eliminate assumptions and unspoken expectations. This is one of the secrets of moving forward faster and further.

Here is what happens and why clarity is important.

We all have our own individual stories and experiences. A boss you had when you were 15 that made you shy to share ideas, a book you read on creativity that made you think only some people had a “creative gene”, a course you took on assertive communications that makes you think you should communicate more directly. On top of that, maybe you’ve been fired. Maybe you had an employee that left your organization that you really counted on, and didn’t see it coming. Now you’re reluctant to hire someone with similar credentials. Maybe in your culture, it’s considered rude to challenge authority figures.

That was a very short selection of random experiences that will introduce bias into how you think and how you communicate. These will also add meaning to each of your interactions, often unconsciously.

What happens is that we may hear something — like a goal that the board of directors shares — and those words then go through all of our filters, stories, and experiences. Unintentionally, we add bias and meaning to those words. We interpret what was said. We assume what was meant. We predict based on our past experience. We respond based on our interpretation, not the intended meaning.

If you imagine that happening for each of your team members — it’s easy to see how miscommunication, misalignment and conflict can sprout up.

Astute innovative leaders will go out of their way to ensure all these biases, assumptions, expectations, and interpretations are cleared up before moving forward. They take the time to ensure what their team heard is what they meant, they clear up any misinterpretations, and they make themselves available for further discussion.

To lay these foundations requires a significant initial investment of time. However, once set in place, clarity becomes a cultural norm and progress is made faster with fewer mistakes.

To create clarity, you can start with standard questions like: What do we agree is our next step? Who is responsible for what, and by when can we expect it? What will happen if you run into any obstacles? When should I be notified if we run into problems?

Notice that you are asking, not telling — which is likely to elicit a greater commitment to the work.

In addition, you can also use a trick from active listening and ask your team members to paraphrase what they heard. “You heard what the goals are, and what I believe may be a way forward — so how would you explain it in your own words?”

In conclusion, “tip of the spear” leaders are able to navigate uncertainty with grace and commitment. They see their work as a journey, and they have the ability to enrol others into joining them on that journey.

The specific skills may range from verbalizing a compelling vision and developing resilience to leaning into empathy and intentionally designing a working environment for innovation.

For some, these qualities will come naturally. However, I believe we all have the ability to improve our innovation intelligence by intentionally practicing the kind of thinking these leaders use.

When we work on these qualities with executive clients, we notice a measurable improvement in their work, output, and impact. It’s entirely possible, and my hope is that you will take some of these qualities on in your leadership practice.

If this is our first time connecting for an executive preview session, or if we are about to start a coaching program, or if you are just curious about this work — there are 21 ways you can prepare to get the most out of your investment.

What I’m sharing with you below is specific to how I approach our work, presented in no particular order.

Enjoy!

Coaching is like riding a bicycle

I can tell you all about how to ride a bicycle – to move your feet, to balance, to keep your eyes up – but until you actually experience what it feels like to ride, it won’t make any real sense. Coaching is similar – I can tell you about the benefits, the results, the tools, and the client stories – but it won’t make real sense until you experience it for yourself. Instead of talking about it, let’s set up a call and see what kind of difference we can create for you.

Investing in yourself

This kind of engagement is for people who are ready to own their authentic place in the world, perform at their best, and make an impact with their work. To make transformational change, or to significantly improve your performance requires commitment and investment in yourself. Most clients invest $10,000 or more over the course of our work together, on top of the time for our calls, and the implementation of the insights we discover.

You have to do the work

Much like fitness — I can’t do the hard work for you, eat healthy for you, or exercise for you. You have to do the work, and there has to be a reason powerful enough that will keep you going when you face obstacles and setbacks. My role is to help you discover that reason, the future you want to create, and support you along the way.

I am in your corner

Studies show that more than 50% of CEOs experience loneliness, and 60% of those also find their performance suffers as a result. What I found is that high-performing leaders often don’t have a support structure they can lean on. They can’t share their true thoughts and feelings with their employees, their team, their peers, friends and quite often – their spouses. Our work creates a safe container where you can be truly yourself, and work through your challenges without judgement. I am in your corner.

Coaching and therapy

While there is overlap between coaching and therapy, the simplest explanation I came across is that therapy tends to deal with healing the past, while coaching deals with creating the future, from the present. Each is powerful in its own way, and you may want to leverage both. Sometimes, in coaching sessions, we’ll dig into your past to discover the roots of your behaviour or worldview today.

The thing is rarely the thing

Rarely have I had a client who came to our work with the “real” challenge. Most often, there is a challenge behind the challenge — the real reason that led them to seek out support. Sometimes it’s conscious and often it’s not. That’s where our work takes a transformative turn. You might think that your team is underperforming, and they should just do better — and we might discover that you’re the cause of the dysfunction. A couple of years ago, I worked with an extremely successful entrepreneur who had communication issues with her team, and we uncovered that the real challenge was her relationship with her life partner. If there is a reason behind the reason, I will help you reveal it.

What got you here, won’t get you there

You may have heard that statement before, and I found it to be true. What got you to this point in your life and career — your childhood, schools you attended, friends you made, lessons you learned, experiences you had, positions you had, teams you led — often create an invisible ceiling that’s exactly what’s holding you back. Our work shines a light on your current worldview, behaviour, and the impact of both on your success. We then make purposeful changes to help you unlock the next level of your authentic performance.

This is a 200% relationship 

I remember reading this the first time and thinking it was a silly statement. After working with dozens of leaders, it started making sense. A coaching relationship requires both of us to be fully present and fully invested. That’s how I show up to our calls, and I hope you do as well. The best results occur when you show up at 100%, and I show up at 100%. When we come to the work from that perspective, we can create transformational results.

Insights and action

You’ll find that you will often discover an insight. A new perspective that shifts the way you look at the world. Sometimes they’re mind-blowing (“Wait, I am responsible for how our COO treats their team?”), and sometimes they’re subtle (looking at client meetings like a game of golf was a recent one). One single, powerful insight can change your professional trajectory. And… an insight alone isn’t enough. We need to put it into action to create the results you’re seeking. It becomes a cycle of insight > action > insight > action > insight > action. That is what actually gets you to an intentional, created future.

Allow things to simmer

Sometimes there is a question, or an idea, or an insight that doesn’t occur to you until days, or weeks after the call. Sometimes you might feel like nothing happened in a session, and you may wonder if it’s working. Let things simmer. Tumble them over in your mind. Reflect on the conversation. Journal on it. Notice what thoughts or feelings you might have. How do those serve you? Where else do they show up? YOU can create incredible value out of any session if you choose to.

Sometimes all you need is one 

I’ve had a number of calls where the client was complete in one conversation. Something shifted, they got what they needed, and went off on their way. I don’t put any pressure on you to work with me. You may only need one call, and that’s perfect.

Nobody needs coaching

Nobody NEEDS coaching. You are absolutely fine just the way you are, and you will get the results your current trajectory allows you to create. You can read books, take courses, or find a mentor who is further along than you are. There are lots of options available. Yet… some people WANT coaching. They WANT someone to walk with them, to be a stand for their own brilliance, to reflect who they really are, to remind them of their purpose when times are hard, to push and to challenge them, to support them through doubts, fears and questions, and to celebrate their success. They WANT to reach a new level of performance, success and impact — and they’re ready to make the necessary commitment. Unfortunately, I can’t want your success more than you do. That never works.

This is a workout

One of my mentors tells all of his clients to look at their sessions like a workout. It’s like going to the gym and working out with a trainer. They’ll push you, they’ll challenge you, they’ll support you and spot you on your last rep. Think of a coaching session as a workout. We’ll get in, do the work, dig deep, and with intent and consistency — craft the results you’re looking for. Come ready to work out.

We are friends off

A client I coached years ago told me “Man… for that hour, we were friends off!”. Ever since then, I set the same context for every coaching conversation. We’re not here to make you feel good or liked. You are not here to have a nice conversation and leave the same way you came in. I’m not here to be your friend. I AM here to serve you. Professionally. To tell you things other people won’t tell you. To reflect to you the impact of your thinking, feelings, and behaviour. To see the best parts of you, and challenge you to rise to that version of yourself.

Reserve time to reflect on the call

Timing coaching calls can be challenging. Sometimes they happen in the middle of your day, in between calls or meetings. Give yourself the gift of reflection. Strike while the iron is hot. Set aside 10, 15, or 20 minutes after our call to reflect on what worked for you, on your insights, and the actions you will take as a result. You will receive a post-session form to lock in your learning. While that form helps me keep track of our work, it’s meant for you to clarify your thinking.

Push back and shape the conversation

I will often check in with you during our session, to make sure we’re where we need to be. Sometimes I may notice something worth exploring and follow the thread in a specific direction. If that is not serving you, push back. You are an active participant in this process, and you get to shape the conversation so it serves you best.

Create the value

Just like the fitness analogy from earlier, I can not create value for you in these conversations. You have to take responsibility and create value for yourself. I will bring my coaching and consulting expertise, tools, frameworks, resources, connections, and experience. Come into the conversation with an open mind, and look for ways to create value out of the experience. How can you apply your insights in a way that creates generous ROI for you?

Please don’t try to be “good” or impress me

I remember holding back a lot when I hired my first coach. I wanted to impress them or have them not think less of me if I shared something vulnerable, or exposed a deeply held weakness. That only slowed us down, and I got less value from my investment. I invite you to not hold back. You don’t have to be “good” for me, you don’t have to impress me, you don’t owe me anything. There is zero judgement with whatever you bring to the table. If we are talking, I’m already impressed. Let’s put that aside and get to work.

Bring something real

If you want to get real value from our time together, bring a real challenge to the table. What’s keeping you up at night? What’s your greatest challenge right now? What’s the real issue you want to work on? What do you want to create next? Sometimes it takes a while to draw this out. The sooner we get to the real crux (or cruxes), the sooner you’ll generate meaningful results.

I’m not a fit for everyone

My coaching clients have transformed their lives, their teams, and their organizations. They’ve broken through glass ceilings, earned executive positions, and led companies through significant changes. Some have called me “the CEO whisperer” and said they should pay me double … AND … sometimes it just doesn’t click. I’ve had calls where we couldn’t create forward momentum, and I’ve had calls where all they wanted were simple tactical answers I didn’t have. It’s not always a match, and that’s perfectly fine – there are thousands of other coaches, consultants, books and courses to choose from.

Remedial and generative experiences

There are generally two modes for our work. Remedial — when we need to address a blind spot, a challenge, a performance or a communication issue. Think of this as clearing obstacles out of your way. The second mode is Generative — when we are exploring what’s next for you, the future you want to create, the bold new ideas you want to pursue, the next level of your performance and what it requires of you. This is where really exciting change can happen. Expanding what’s possible for you, and throttling up.

If that didn’t scare you off, we’ll get along just fine! If it did, you would have missed this awesome dad joke:

What did the ocean say to the beach?

Nothing, it just waved.

Are you interested in exploring how we might work together? Write to me. Tell me about what you want to create, what you want to change, what’s your greatest challenge? Let’s have a conversation.

If we are soon to have a call, know that I love this work and I am so looking forward to it!

– ernest

How do you find your purpose?

I wish I could give you a 5 step strategy or a worksheet you could fill out. I tried all of those, and none of them worked for me. I read the books, went to seminars, and tried to find my “why”. Nothing really stuck for longer than a couple of weeks, and then it was back to feeling lost.

Instead, it was going through a tough experience that held the answer I was seeking. I never shared this story before, and maybe it will inspire you to reflect on your own experiences and unearth something that’s true for you.

There were a few pivotal moments that guided me to the work I do now. One of them came from a particularly dark time in my life and gave crystal clarity to my purpose – to make the world a better place tomorrow than it is today.

One Morning In 2017

By any external measure, it should have been a great day. My business was doing really well, I loved the clients I was working with, my family was happy and healthy, we were going on tropical vacations, and almost every other external marker was positive. However… on the inside, it was a different story.

I still remember this specific morning like it was yesterday. It was a warm summer day, and the sun was beaming into the living room of our old house. My wife left for work, and I dropped our daughter off at daycare. It was a beautiful morning, but for me, it didn’t feel like it.

After returning home, I laid under covers on our living room couch with a slight shiver. My hands were clammy, my legs hurt from being so tight, and I was in a cold sweat.

I didn’t have the will or the strength to get up, answer the phone, or reply to e-mails. I felt like there was no point. I just laid there for what seemed like hours.

This was the first time I experienced something this heavy.

A Look Into The Future

A few hours later, I had enough. I didn’t want to feel this way anymore, and I knew I had to do something.

My natural response to tough situations is to research and “figure it out”. I summoned up enough strength to peel myself off the couch, pick up my laptop and start looking for an answer.

That afternoon and the few days that followed, I read hundreds of journal articles on anxiety and depression. I watched videos, TED talks and found books on the subject. I looked at the causes, the treatments, the symptoms, and everything else I could possibly find that may help.

In one of those articles, I came across a statement that resonated deeply.

It said if you don’t see the future being better than it is today, it may not be just a symptom of depression but also a cause.

At that time, I held a negative view of what’s ahead for us as a society. That summer was particularly active with wildfires, the news of melting ice caps, impacts of climate change, political turbulence, and job losses. Zooming out, I saw rising inequality, shrinking access to good food and clean water, restriction of opportunities and diminishing health and quality of life for many around the world.

It was a bleak future ahead.

Uncovering my purpose

Suddenly, it was clear. That single note reignited something inside of me.

If our current trajectory led us toward a dystopian future, then it would be my work to bend that trajectory toward a better one.

To stand in the perpetual purpose of making the world a better place tomorrow than it is today.

That was the inflection point that illuminated the path ahead. Since then, I dedicated my efforts to support leaders, entrepreneurs, and founders who are contributing to solving challenges in education, health, food, energy, climate change, and economic growth.

Whether it is a company building renewable energy infrastructure, a health tech startup using CRISPR to improve cancer outcomes, or an entrepreneurial venture that’s investing in their community – as long as they are making a contribution toward a better future, I will be there to support their work.

Onward,

– ernest.

PS: Please note, if you are experiencing anxiety, depression or other mental challenges – reach out to a professional. I worked with a therapist for a few months and they helped me sort some of these things out.

—

Related articles and resources you may enjoy:

• How your view of the future can make you depressed. (Psychology Today)
• From Purpose To Impact. (HBR)
• 17 Sustainable Development Goals. (UN)

Leading a team or an organization while experiencing anxiety can be a hell of a challenge.

A common thought pattern might sound something like: “I’m worried. I don’t know what to do next. I’m not sure how we’ll navigate this year, and… I can’t let my team see me like this.”

If that rings true in any way, know that you’re not alone.

Below you’ll find three simple ideas about understanding anxiety, dealing with it, and operating with it.

First let’s have a brief, very simplistic look at where anxiety comes from.

Where Anxiety Comes From

Anxiety is part of all of us, by the virtue of how we evolved.

Many generations ago, our ancestors would go out into the wilderness and hunt for food. Let’s say we had one tribesman who was fearful enough to be very cautious in the wilderness, and another who was brave and walked into the wilderness thinking they could easily overcome a bear, or tiger, or a wolf.

One of them had a lower probability of returning home if they did run into a dangerous animal. In case you’re guessing, that would be the fearless one.

So… with the fearless one now acting as bear lunch, the cautious one would come back and propagate. 

[EB: And that my friends, is a short, very accurate lesson on history and evolution.]

By the virtue of genetic propagation, we’re predisposed to be cautious. We are wired to predict and avoid danger. It’s literally in our DNA, and at the core of what anxiety is.

It’s a feeling – a pattern of thought meant to protect you from possible harm.

Somewhere along the line, our brains learned to predict other dangers. Instead of looking out for dangerous animals, we now think about social status, financial stability, career progression, economic opportunities and dangers, what shareholders think, and so on.

It’s perfectly natural, and having this biological understanding of where anxiety comes from can be a game-changer.

overcoming anxiety in the moment

A common manifestation of anxious thinking is negative scenarios that spiral out of control. For example, one morning you’re looking at projections and things are not looking good for this year. So you start thinking: “How much of a runway do we actually have? What if we have to lay people off? What if we can’t make it to the end of the year? What if it’s my fault? What if I have to change careers at 45?” You get the idea.

Staying in this pattern of thinking fester doesn’t put you in a creative state of mind to solve problems.

There are many ways to deal with this moment. I’ll share one simple and actionable approach that works well for me and some of the clients I worked with.

The idea is to re-assert control of your thought process by hyper-focusing, bringing the timeline way back to the present moment, and taking very small, meaningful actions.

That might mean something as simple as organizing your desk. It might mean cleaning up your inbox. It might mean sending a meeting invitation or changing your environment by going out for an intentional 5-minute walk. 

Tiny, meaningful, actions focused only on the present moment. This practice helps you pull back from a million possible future scenarios that will most likely never happen, breaks you out of inertia, and starts building momentum again.

How to practice leadership while experiencing anxiety

Anxiety impairs our judgement, scatters our focus, it can mess with our memory, as well as our decision making. All of those are mission-critical qualities of a good leader.

One powerful way to lead while experiencing anxiety is to lean into vulnerability and to share what’s happening for you.

Right away, you may think: “How can I be honest and open with my people in a way that it won’t make them anxious?”. Or you may think: “Maybe they’ll think less of me because I’m supposed to be the leader, and I’m supposed to be the one who can handle this.”

How much you choose to share with your team and how will depend on your level of comfort as well as the culture you created by the way you lead. 

The reality is unless you are fantastic at compartmentalizing your feelings, your people easily pick up on your energy. It might manifest as being short in your answers, poor listening, distraction, or irritability.

Instead, here is an example of what leaning into vulnerability may sound like. Let’s imagine you’re starting a meeting, and you’ve had an anxious morning worrying about a new competitor that is going after your customers.

Opening the meeting with “I’m feeling anxious today” or “I haven’t really slept well last night” is one way to release tension, and for your people to see you as human. All it needs to be is sharing where you are right now, without adding unnecessary details.

Then, start by saying “Obviously, we lost a few clients recently, and there is some pressure on our sales. However, for the next hour, I would like us to put those feelings aside and focus on looking forward. Let’s scan the horizon for other opportunities that we may not have seen before”.

Being open helps you and the team acknowledge your feelings, and allows you to focus on positive next steps.

Dealing with anxiety as a leader is not easy. However, like any other aspect of leadership, it is a skill you can develop with practice and repetition. Please note: if you are experiencing anxiety on a chronic basis, make sure to talk to a mental health professional.

You may be surprised at what kind of performance you can unlock.

However… even with luxurious vacations, a beautiful home, and a dedicated team – he’s was riding the razor’s edge of burnout. 

His family finally forced him to visit a doctor because “he just wasn’t himself” anymore. Aside from the stress factors that you could have guessed – he also learned that he had high cholesterol and hypertension. Both of which are precursors to stroke.

This was a red-flag reality-check he’s been avoiding for years.

Here’s the thing. Most high performers have a recovery blindspot. They expect to run at 100% all of the time. If that sounds like you – it might be time to think about designing a recovery practice.

Just like you wouldn’t expect a sprinter to run a marathon at sprint speed – we can’t expect ourselves or our teams to perform at top levels 100% of the time.

We need time to rest and recover.

Those who ignore recovery, often end up with all kinds of mental and physical issues later on. From heart attacks and strokes to broken relationships and depression.

For more data and science behind this assertion, you can read through this 2018 study on Physiological Load of Stress and Recovery in Executives, and this interesting article about executive resilience.

Having experienced burnout a few times, and seeing my clients and friends experiencing the same – I have been experimenting with recovery routines.

My goal is to be fresh and perform at my best as often as possible, and help my clients do the same.

I split them into daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual practices. I’ll share those ideas with you below, but keep in mind that it is nearly impossible to do all of these on a regular basis. 

These are my personal practices, so think of them as a resource you can pull from and design your own.

DAILY

• Exercise – I start every day with a 20-60 minute exercise session. Either weightlifting, running, or indoor biking. Cardio, in particular, has been proven to improve brain function. 
   
• Meditation – Every evening, I sit for 5 – 20 minutes of meditation. The benefits have compounded in calmness and the ability to deal with stress more effectively. Here’s a great study on the neuroscience of meditation.

WEEKLY

• Tech-Free Sundays – A result of my experiments in digital detox. Most Sundays, we try to have a 100% digital and tech-free day. No phones, no laptops, no internet, no tv.
   
• Jar Of Good – Usually, on a Sunday, we’ll write down a couple of good things from the previous week and how we’re feeling. Those go on a small, dated piece of paper and into a jar. It’s part of a gratitude practice and a way for us to reflect on the year as a family.

MONTHLY

• Mastermind – I’m part of an amazing peer group that gets together once a month. Our time together allows us to share our challenges and wins with a trusted circle of friends. We all leave energized after every meeting.
   
• Meet & Greet – At least once a month I make it a point to attend a networking event, an interesting conference, or a class I’m interested in. This helps create distance from my regular day-to-day and exposes me to new experiences. It’s also a great mental health practice.

QUARTERLY

• 90 Day Reflection – Every quarter, I try to set aside a day to reflect on the previous 90 days, and set actionable goals for the next 90 days. For me, that means driving out to Banff or Canmore, going for a walk or hike, and then finding a cozy coffee shop to review and think.
   
• One Hobby Thing – I picked up watercolour and urban sketching a few years ago, so now I try to find a class, a meetup, or even just schedule a morning to go out and paint. If you have a hobby, set some time aside for it! For more proof, check out why CEOs dedicate time to hobbies.

ANNUAL

• Off-grid Sabbatical – Once a year (with the support of my incredible wife), I go on a 3-7 day off-grid trip. Often, it’s in the BC mountains where there is no cell reception. This time allows me to think and the forced disconnection creates time and space to listen and reflect. This January, I was in an off-grid cabin for three days to map out 2020. 
   
• Operating System Upgrade – Once a year, I reflect on what I want more of and less of. Out of those ideas, I create an “operating system” that gets me closer to where and who I want to be. These three videos will give you an overview of the process I use.

I hope you found that list helpful in designing your own recovery practice. It’s an important and often overlooked part of maintaining high performance in our work.

What would it be like to go for a week without watching any TV, taking in any news, and being completely off social media?

A month ago, I gave myself that challenge.

As a result, some of my core behaviours changed to the point where friends, family, and colleagues noticed a significant, positive shift.

During the experiment, I kept a log of thoughts, habits, and energy in a pocket notebook. You can listen to the full experience with daily summaries on episode 44 of Art Of Meaningful Work, or scroll to the end of this post.

Here are the 5 main, actionable takeaways:

1. Eliminate Negative News.

Most of the news we are exposed to is negative. It’s a tactic used by networks in order to exploit our negativity bias – an unfortunate evolutionary trait that kept us safe from danger, and that now keeps us glued to the news.

Going a week without news had a significant impact on my mood and energy levels. This has now become a daily (non)practice.

2. Replace TV and Netflix.

It’s easy to get sucked into a show or a newscast, as they are seamlessly engineered to keep you entertained and glued to the screen.

On social media, we have autoplaying and pop-out videos. On Netflix, a series will automatically play the next episode. On TV, news and shows are structured to leave you hanging.

Leaving TV and Netflix off created space for reading, writing, and journaling, which I find incredibly rewarding. In addition, keeping media off in the evenings allowed my wife and me to reconnect on a deeper level every day.

3. Pay yourself first.

As part of this experiment, I scheduled creative time in the mornings. Since I have control over my schedule most days, this meant starting the day with breakfast, a 10-minute meditation, and then a 2-hour time block for creative work.

I found doing creative work as the first task of the day built momentum with writing, research and project work.

Just like the financial concept of paying yourself first, depositing an hour or two of creative work into your brand or projects begins to pay dividends and they only increase over time.

4. Be a positive force on social.

Lately, social media has become more links than conversations. So when you actually start a conversation, it’s a novel experience. Like a modern day version of receiving a handwritten letter.

On top of that, recent studies have found a negative correlation between mental well-being and social media usage.

So instead, my approach became to ask questions, start actual conversations, and promote the work of interesting people. The idea is to create a positive moment in someone’s day.

5. Schedule checking times.

The urge to keep “checking” things is strong. We’ve built it over years of conditioning though social media, apps, and devices.

And each of these “checks” can result in a 15 – 20 minute distraction, taking away from your creative and productive output.

To make a middle ground, I schedule checking times when all e-mail and social media activity happens. That usually means mid-morning after the creative time block and mid-afternoon after lunch.

This allowed me to create two intense, deep work sessions on most days.

If the idea of unplugging sounds interesting, check out Analog Camp.
Wilderness retreat for professionals and entrepreneurs. Launching in fall of 2017.

It’s a strange luxury to go offline in a connected world, especially for people like us.

This experience illuminated the impacts of social media, news-exposure and screen time on creativity, productivity and overall well-being. It brought to light my own ingrained behaviours and habits, which I am now working on improving.

After coming back online, I asked other professionals in my network about their thoughts on doing a digital detox. And I was surprised by so many responses from CEOs, Directors, Entrepreneurs, and other professionals from a variety of industries.

You can have a look at some of these on LinkedIn. To get their take on unplugging, I interviewed 5 or 6 of these folks and will cut together a podcast episode.

I’d recommend giving it a try. If a week seems too long, try turning your phone and laptop off for a Sunday. It might just make you more creative, productive, and happy.

Full Week Digital Detox log

Day 1 – Muscle Memory

• My fingers are automatically opening new tabs – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Gmail – within a split second of opening a browser. I tap specific spots on my phone after unlocking it, where those same apps are located.
• There is a strong urge to “check” social media for comments and likes. Accidentally opening up Twitter resulted in a small dopamine hit before I quickly closed the tab.
• I reach for the phone at any hint of idle time to fill in the void, with a “slap your pocket to check it’s still there” move.
• There is also less rushing because TV and Netflix are not coming back on. Normally, we may watch a show in the evening, which created this weird sense of rush to get through our evening routine.

Day 1 was hard. Because I had this urge to check my phone so many times, I removed all social apps from it. It was also odd to catch myself opening a new tab or tapping an app, without thinking. This pattern of behaviour seems ingrained on a muscle memory level.

Day 2 – Engagement & Distractions

• Caught myself listening to The Daily, a podcast by New York Times that I love. But it’s news, so it had to go. I unsubscribed right away and deleted it from my podcast app.
• I would like to share what I’m working on, or a clever marketing joke, or @-reply someone I want to connect with – but the way I normally do that is through social media. So rather than posting, I decided to collect these thoughts in a draft for a new article.
• I noticed myself waiting for, or rather expecting, notifications. Someone engaging with something I posted. This feeling stayed with me while I read a book, and it would chirp at me sporadically like a blinking light out of the corner of your eye.

Today, I reaffirmed how much time gets diverted from real, creative work by indulging in distractions. Whether that means Facebook, or Netflix, or an engaging podcast. These activities fill in time and condition us to give them equal priority as productive work.

Day 3 – It gets easier.

• Still experiencing urges to share thoughts and ideas. However, by remembering it’s not an option – I’m starting to feel less… rushed?. There is no need to “check” anything because there is nothing to check. This is turning into a boon for creative and productive work.
• Last week, if I got even a little bit stuck in my work I would often alt-tab into Chrome and do a quick scan of social media. Depending on what I see there, it may turn into a 5 or 10-minute session. What I’m noticing are pretty significant time savings, which now allowed me to catch up on all projects.
• There is a guilt about not “working”. It feels odd to be fully caught up on work, and even ahead of schedule. There are now periods of idle time between tasks that were previously filled with social, news, or TV depending on the time.

I noticed that by eliminating these distractions, my creative and productive output soared. There is an artificial sense of rush – to check e-mail, look at Instagram, catch up on a Netflix show, or see what’s happening in the world. Removing this created more ease in the day, and resulted in better task-focus.

Day 4 – A Different Start

• I usually check my phone upon waking up. Since there is no real reason to do so, I replaced that morning routine with a 5-minute journaling session.
• After lunch, I had a meeting with the new CEO of a radio station to talk about PodSummit 2018. When I got up to shake their hand, I knocked over a glass and spilt beer all over my laptop. So… that was a thing that happened.
• Strange timing. Today, I received e-mails from Twitter, Yelp and LinkedIn all saying that I haven’t been on there for a while, and offering latest updates from friends and contacts.

How you start your day can define how the rest of it will go. Experiencing a couple of quick dopamine hits from notifications, likes, and e-mail puts me in “busy” mode immediately. Starting slowly, knowing there is a dedicated check e-mail time later on in the morning, made for a much more enjoyable day. Even a quicker emotional recovery from facing a $2000 new laptop bill.

Day 5 – Lighter.

• Not having access to news, TV, or social is becoming less of a bother. It’s just a way to be. Mornings feel easier, days feel more productive, and evenings feel less rushed.
• Today, I had to run a webinar for an online class. As part of it, we do a live B2B business case study on Twitter. It was difficult to see the notification numbers and not click on them.
• For the last couple of evenings, after putting our daughter to sleep, my wife and I would spend quality time together. We played crib with cards we bought on our backpacking trip to Costa Rica almost a decade ago. Both of us lead pretty busy lives, and this was such a nice way to reconnect some more.

Habits form through repetitive behaviour, and they are reinforced by interaction-triggered rewards (like when you get a notification or an e-mail and you experience that little hit of dopamine). There is also inertia to them – the longer you reinforce a habit, the harder it is to break. Having done this for 5 days now, it feels easier, and I feel lighter for lack of a better term.

Day 6 – The Pocket.

• Normally, my phone is in my pocket at all times, always within reach. This is partially to serve the need to check things, and partially to be available for calls from clients and family. I started pre-empting these calls by scheduling them earlier in the day and taking the initiative to make the first move.
• Since I was able to get ahead of schedule with work and projects this week and made the pre-emptive calls in the morning, we spent the day outside, enjoying the warm weather, and left our phones at home.
• The time that would normally be filled with social, or TV is now filled with books, games, and time outside. In the last few days, I managed to get through 3 books.

In an effort to enrich our lives with connectivity, we created an invisible tether. At any point in time, I’m able to research anything, order anything, and connect with anyone by pulling an electronic rectangle out of my pocket. This creates a tension between the world that is happening right in front of you, and the virtual world available at your fingertips.

Day 7 – The End.

• We spent so much time outside, that I didn’t even bring my log book with me. Phones stayed at home most of the weekend as well.
• We were invited to a colleague’s house for a farewell party, but the address and timing details were on Facebook. So it was up to the ancient phone and email technology to find out the details. And it worked!
• In the evening, we sat down to research anti-inflammatory diets, and made a meal plan for the following week. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the detox, but we are now thinking about health a lot more.

Now that the experiment is coming to an end, it didn’t really feel that long. The first few days were tough, but once those behaviour triggers began to weaken, everything just got easier. Now I’m thinking about launching a project with zero social presence, just to see what would happen.

End of log.

 
The Speedup was a practice in the early automobile industry, where factory owners would aim to increase productive output per worker, without increasing wages, to generate higher profit margins.

Factory managers would use tactics like setting ever-higher daily production goals, increasing line speeds, retiming jobs, and even using foremen to intimidate workers to extract more production.

“Under the Speedup System, each time a job is made slightly over 100 percent efficiency, it is retimed. Speed, more speed, and the impossible is expected”. — Automobile Labor Board, 1934

Fast forward to today.

A New Kind Of Professional

I believe we are in the middle of another speedup. One of a more technological kind.

Rapid development of software, machine learning, and artificial intelligence on top of new apps, platforms, and devices is creating a dynamic, but unpredictable work environment.

And this environment requires a new kind of professional.

Think about it. Has your work changed over the last couple of years?

New demands, new processes, new technologies, new skills — all of which you are now required to know, and use on a daily basis.

I see this often with students in my marketing courses. The vast majority are well-experienced professionals whose jobs now demand knowledge of the latest digital marketing practices, tools, and software. From influencer marketing and predictive analytics to IoT and marketing automation.

Some of these didn’t even exist five years ago (at the time of this writing).

And so it comes down to making a decision.

Some will choose to think “I know enough,” and try their best to keep things stable and safe. Specialists with deep knowledge of a single subject, experts with years of experience, leaders invested in stalwart industries.

Others will (perhaps reluctantly) embrace change, new ideas and reinvent themselves. They will scan the environment, culture, society, and technology. They’ll notice what needs to be done and get started. These are the futureproof, adaptable professionals.

5 Traits of Adaptable Professionals

About six years ago, I planned to interview one hundred people over the age of 75 to preserve and share their stories, knowledge, and insights.

Project fizzled out due to lack of funding… but we did get to interview Jack, an 83-year-old who was an English pilot in WW2, then became a doctor, then moved to Canada, then became an associate professor of medicine, then retired, and then wrote three books.

Here was someone who experienced extreme changes in the world. Going from The Speedup to Tesla and Mars One.

The reason I want to point your attention to Jack is that he is over 80 years old, and is more adaptable than some of our business and political leaders today.

There are five common traits that Jack and others with long, productive and meaningful careers share:

1. Lifelong learners. Driven by personal and professional curiosity, they continually seek experiences and opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. This often means reading, taking courses, and discussing ideas with a circle of like-minded friends.
2. Problem solvers. They believe every obstacle has a way through, and every problem has a solution. It’s an unshakeable core belief that makes them invaluable as professionals, entrepreneurs, and visionary leaders.
3. Quitters. One of the ways they adapt to change is by letting go of thinking, technology, and processes that are no longer useful. When there is a better solution, they let go of the banana.
4. Cross-disciplinarians. They will often have side-projects, passion projects, hobbies and interests that allow them to expand their knowledge and skill-set laterally. They are often seen as innovative because they cross-pollinate ideas and approaches from different industries.
5. Ruminators. There is a strong element of self-reflection. They will often pause to review progress, limitations, advantages, and learnings in the spirit of constant, continual improvement. After every reflection, the bar is set higher for the next day.

Change Is Coming Fast

A month ago, I spoke at a university about future technologies, and what I believe their impact will be on our workforce, economy, and everyday life.

We talked about Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, Privacy, Security and a few other ideas.

These are just a few disruptive forces coming to shake up stalwart industries, completely redefine what work is, and what skills we will need as professionals in this new, modern environment.

Industries will fold. Businesses will get more lean and agile. Economies will have to bend to the forces of innovation and necessity.

You and I will have to make a decision.

Try to prevent and manage change, or embrace it, adapt, and thrive.

 
 
 
Photos by Ayo Ogunseinde on Unsplash

If you ever thought to yourself: “There’s got to be more than this…” read on.

Chances are, at some point along the way, you thought what you were doing didn’t really matter.

Sometimes it’s a fleeting moment, and sometimes it festers for a while. It makes you question all your decisions, and what the future holds if you continue on this path of inconsequentiality.

There comes a point when making more money, getting a promotion, or spending more on frivolous things doesn’t add any more satisfaction or happiness to your life. It’s a boiling point when you realize that you’ve been chasing someone else’s definition of success. And you start thinking “Is what I spent my life doing… worthwhile?”

It turns out there a lot of us wondering the same thing. Almost every day, I meet someone who is asking the same questions, from veteran entrepreneurs and tenured professors to tradesmen and C-level leaders.

My moment of truth came in late 2012. Since then, I invested significant time and effort to find ways to make a positive, lasting impact with my work. To leave a legacy of some kind. This investigation led me to interview over a hundred entrepreneurs, professionals, authors, and regular folks like you and me — about legacy, life, joy, and fulfilling work.

This is the first set of findings from that original research.

The pattern was impossible to miss.

Meaningful work exists at the intersection of Values, Talent, and Service.

#1: Values

We look at values in different ways.

For most organizations, it’s a thing you put on a plaque on a wall in the office. It stays there, largely ignored by the leadership and employees, because the management team is only interested in meeting quarterly budgets.

On a personal level, it means being clear on who you are, and what you stand for. Our personal value system guides our actions and decisions. For example, if one of your primary values is family — that means if you have to make a decision between working late in order to finish a project or going to your kid’s soccer game — you will be on that soccer field without hesitation AND it would feel like you’ve done the right thing.

People who do meaningful work understand their core values, can clearly articulate them, and consciously use them to guide their decisions.

This is something I’m still discovering for myself. Just the other day, I came across a great article on MindTools that walks you though the process of determining your values. I will be working through it next week, and share the results on the podcast.

#2: Talent

Almost every single person that is at the top of their field identified their natural talents, and invested the time to develop them into a unique ability. It’s immediately clear when you talk to someone like that, they’re tuned in and they know exactly what their gift is.

Most of us (at least those of my generation and older) have been taught to work on our weaknesses and build up a well-rounded skill-set. This came at the cost of dulling our natural advantages in order to fit into a more “standard” role at whatever company.

The more contemporary school of thought is to develop your strengths. As researchers studied top performers, they found that instead of working on their weakness, they would focus on their strengths, develop them even further, and eventually rise to the top of their field.

Talent is a core element of strength. It’s a unique gift that only you have, a natural aptitude for certain things. It’s encoded in your DNA. Sometimes it’s evident from activities you excelled at as a child, and sometimes you discover it later on in life.

For a lot of us, this mean rediscovering those natural talents we suppressed for years.

Here is how to go about (re)discovering your talents:

• Take the StrengthsFinder test (use a new e-mail if you’ve done it before).
• Take the DISC test (here is a free version).
• Notice what your friends and colleagues come to you for advice on.
• Look for patterns.

You can take a million more tests, like Myers-Briggs, Kolby A, or whatever kids are doing these days, but these two along with some awareness, will give you enough actionable insights to start.

Once you discover what your talents are — the question becomes how do I use this unique gift to make a meaningful contribution?

#3: Service

When you think of high performing, high impact individuals, people you look up to (living or dead), people who are genuinely happy and content doing what they do — chances are their work helps someone, and most likely a specific group of people.

Almost uniformly across the board, there is some kind of an emotional connection between them and their group. It could be by a shared experience, world-view, or a particular purpose.

If you were to think about this as a marketer, this would be your target market. People or organizations whose lives you want to improve. People you want to see benefit from your hard work.

It might be the elderly, young entrepreneurs, middle managers, or it could be coal miners in Pennsylvania. You get to decide.

These are people you naturally emphasize with. You understand them. They could be a past version of you that you want to help so they don’t make the same mistakes you did. Or it could be a group of people from all over the world who need your specific talent to help them take the next step.

I struggled with this until last year, when I decided to start tracking who I enjoy working with, and who genuinely benefitted from our work together. I thought back through the last 5 years, and noticed the clients, friends, and acquaintances I enjoyed spending time with, and I wanted to help succeed. I thought about their personalities, and traits.

I ended up building a profile to represent the group. Here are some of the highlights:

• Experienced professional or entrepreneur.
• Held or currently hold a leadership position.
• Lifelong learners.
• Generally over 35.
• Want to make their mark, and leave a legacy.
• They read a lot, and listen to podcasts.
• At this point in their lives, they prefer unique experience over stuff.

This might change over time, but it really helps clarify who I write for, and build projects for.

I would encourage you to do the same. Think back through the last couple of years, and identity the people you most enjoyed working with, and for. Then look for patterns: what do those people have in common?

—

I hope you found this article helpful. This was the first concrete set of findings from interviewing and having conversations with over a hundred people from a variety of industries, backgrounds, and experiences.

Meaningful work is something we all want on some level, As organizational and psychology researchers are starting to find out, meaningfulness is more important to workers and entrepreneurs than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions.

This doesn’t mean marching into your office tomorrow and quitting your job to go build orphanages in South America.

But if you currently feel like you’re not doing fulfilling work, try starting small. Think about what your core values are, what your natural talent is, and who you would like to benefit from your work, and build a small passion project, that meets those criteria.

Maybe that means writing about something you know, printing it off, and shipping it to a few colleagues. Maybe it means taking an afternoon with your family to go clean up a local park. Maybe it means going to a local Maker shop and 3d printing a prototype for a prosthetic you designed.

Doing small projects like this on the side, will help you figure out what meaningful work is to you, what you enjoy doing, and what you find fulfilling much more reliably than any other method.

In a lot of cases, it can lead to promotion, career changes, and new business opportunities.

We touch our phones 2617 times a day, according to a recent study by Dscout. Heavy users, like you and me, click, tap, or swipe on our phones 5427 times a day.

And I caught myself doing that. A lot.

I feel compelled to touch it — to check e-mail, see who followed me on Twitter, and what the open rate was for that last e-mail newsletter.

However, over the last couple of years I started noticing it didn’t feel right.

I found this compulsion to keep “checking” things was starting to affect my ability to stay focused, pay attention, and spend quality time with my daughter. Even more than that, I started feeling unhappy, which was affecting all of my relationships.

It turns out I’m not alone.

You might feel the same way. As did most of the entrepreneurs, friends, and parents I talked to.

So I decided to investigate why this happens. Here is what I found.

Why We Get Addicted To Our Phones

When you receive a like, or a reply, or a new text – your brain interprets that interaction as positive stimulus, and it releases a burst of neurotransmitters.

Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Serotonin. These are chemicals that make you feel love, happiness, and joy.

They are also the same chemicals that make you feel motivated to want more of those feelings.

You unlock a new level of Candy Crush, you get a hit. You post a photo and someone likes it – you get a hit. You check e-mail before going to sleep, you get a hit.

With every one of those interactions, especially if you unlock some new content as a result of it, you are rewarded by a tiny fountain of joy that floods your brain.

As this continues to happen: Stimuli, reward, stimuli, reward… a compulsion loop is created.

This is why people can’t stop using their phones while driving. Or at the gym. Or at the dinner table.

It is the same kind of behaviour seen in nicotine and heroin addicts.

Here are the three simple practices I adopted over the last 6 months, that have allowed me to fight back.

Practice #1: Block

This is a simple practice of setting aside time to do important work.

The first element is to remove distractions.

This means setting your phone on airplane mode, blocking out time on your calendar, and if you happen to be working on a computer exercising your willpower NOT to open a new tab and start perusing Facebook or checking e-mail. There are apps that can help. For Mac there is Self Control, or if you use Chrome, there is Stay Focusd — a plugin that has similar functionality.

The second element is dedicating the time.

Great thing about a block of time is that it has a start and an end. So if you crave that Instagram dopamine hit, you’ll still get it, but with a slight delay. This allows you to break the pattern of compulsively checking things, and at the same time retrain your brain to concentrate, and reject distractions.

I use 2 hour blocks. That is enough time to move the needle on a project. Time that would otherwise be spent scrolling through screens, or binge watching a Netflix series.

You have to to remember that saying that “you don’t have time” to invest a couple of hours of work on your side project, on your novel, or even to play a board game with your family, is an excuse that keeps us stuck. It’s an excuse that leads to regret later in life.

If you want to do meaningful work, you have to fight for time to do things that matter.

Practice #2 (dis)Connect

You see it all the time. A family rolls into a restaurant, they sit down, and while they’re waiting for their food to arrive everyone is on their phone, in their own world, somewhere else.

You see it at conferences, and at business meetings. The phone, or the laptop, becomes the awkward third wheel cajoling you steal a glance.

When I meet with someone, I want us to be present, pay attention, and have a productive use of our time. And you can’t do that while compulsively checking your phone every five minutes. It breaks the conversation, and interferes in the relationship we’re building.

So I often ask that we turn our phones off, put them on airplane mode, or at the very least put them somewhere out of sight.

When you do that, it becomes a promise: “I promise to respect your time and I promise to be right here, with you.”

The conversation immediately becomes deeper, and more meaningful. To truly connect to the person across the table from you, you have to make a decision to disconnect from the world that is available at your fingertips.

It can be as simple as moving your phone out of sight when spending time with people that matter to you.

Practice #3: Immerse

To break a pattern of automatic behaviour, I found that we need to experience something of greater magnitude. Something that demands our undivided attention.

It turns out that if you engage multiple senses with an activity, your brain has to dedicate more of its resources to process all the information and movements you are tasking it with.

When I was younger, I trained MMA – and let me tell you – there are few more immersive experiences than trying not to get punched in the face. While we sparred, nothing else even had a chance to enter my sphere of attention. I didn’t think about my job, sales quotas, and certainly didn’t think about my phone.

I imagine skydiving would have a similar effect.

Now, maybe you’re not into dodging kicks and punches, or jumping out of a perfectly good plane… and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve taken on some less risky hobbies.

A couple of years ago I picked up urban sketching. It’s drawing or painting on location of whatever you see: people, houses, coffee shops. I found the process of translating what you see to paper, mixing colours, and recreating a scene on a page equally as immersive as MMA used to be.

It appears that acts of creative expression can be very immersive. They require most, if not all, of your attention. And that makes it a lot easier to start breaking that compulsion to check your phone every 5 minutes.

My advice is to find something that you can get lost in. Maybe try the Japanese practice of forest bathing, picking up a brush and learning to paint, or if you feel adventurous – take a martial arts class.

—

These three simple practices: block, connect, and immerse have allowed me to fight back against the compulsion to “check” my phone every 5 minutes. I hope they inspire you to do the same.

Because, here’s the kicker.

While I was researching for my TEDx talk, I came across studies by PEW research that found that an average smartphone owner spends about 2.5 hours on their mobile device every day.

If you take into consideration the average lifespan of 81 years, and assuming that you sleep at some point — on average, we’ll spend about 13 years of our lives staring at a phone.

That doesn’t take into account computer, tablet, or TV time.

My hope is that you’ll use some of what you read here today to take some of that time back for yourself – and do things that matter.

Try writing a book. Go out and take photos. Start a passion project. Fix a broken relationship.

We only get one run at this.

Featured image used by permission from Steve Cutts (Amazing Artist!)

The Collapse.

Minutes after my TEDx talk in Canmore, I collapsed into my wife’s arms behind a fridge in the backroom kitchen. Weeks of preparation, days of practicing and memorizing all culminated into a 12 minute thing that happened. I didn’t remember what I said, or how – it was a blur.

In my mind, this was the pinnacle of my speaking journey. Even though I’ve been incredibly fortunate to speak at many conferences – sometimes in front of more than a thousand people – this felt different. It was TEDx. It was a big deal, and it was a goal I wrote down in a letter to myself back in 2004.

And now it was over. And with it, everything was over.

By this time, I reached most of the goals a younger version of myself set out to achieve. This talk was the cherry on top.

Now what?

Standing there in the back, away from everyone, this was one of those existential crisis moments I’ve been reliving for the last couple of years while trying to figure out what to do next.

It turns out there are two ways to deal with it: do nothing, or do something — continue the routine and settle into a monotonous comfort, or rekindle that fire within and take a leap into uncharted waters.

Walk the walk.

In 2012, I had the opportunity to speak at an entrepreneurship and marketing conference that featured Gary Vaynerchuk and a bunch of other million-dollar-plus business owners. I made the least amount of money out of everyone by at least a factor of 10, but somehow I ended up on stage.

Just before going on, I hung out with Gary for a little while (you can see the video here). Until then I had a love / hate relationship with the Garyvee brand. He swears a lot on stage, his parents already had a successful business before he started Wine Library, and I didn’t think Crush It was all that great.

I didn’t get what his deal was – until we had a chance to speak and he shared something that stuck with me since.

He wanted to show everyone he could build a successful company from scratch. That he wasn’t just a Mr A-Lot-Of-Twitter-Followers.

And he was doing it. VaynerMedia was about two years old at that time, and it was growing rapidly towards his vision of 200 employees, and $20 Million in revenue.

He talked the talk as a social media and branding personality. Now he was walking the walk as a business owner and investor.

For years, I spoke and wrote about trends, helped companies improve their marketing, and taught students about strategy. I built a business serving great organizations – while putting my own ideas and projects on the back burner.

I talked the talk. Could I walk the walk?

It’s a question that’s been in the back of mind since 2012.

Testing the waters.

Like most marketers and entrepreneur types, I’m a fan of Seth Godin. Not just because of his books and insights, but because of his projects – The Domino Project, AltMBA, Krypton Community College – just to name a few.

I was never attracted to building a large business – it’s why I keep my consultancy small (just me, plus a contractor or two if needed). But I LOVE the idea of project-based entrepreneurship, and I keep a notebook of content and business ideas I’d love to try someday.

A couple of days after Canmore, I felt like a ship without a captain in the middle of an ocean. I could go anywhere, but couldn’t make a decision where. I had a list of ideas I wanted to build eventually, but wasn’t sure which one to tackle first.

I even stopped taking on client work the year before to make room for building these “projects”.

One evening I had a sudden spark of motivation and decided to run a quick and simple test. Would anyone come if I built a podcast conference?

I asked on Facebook, Twitter, and reddit.

What came back was surprisingly positive. It could have been due to timing, supportive friends, or just luck. I don’t know.

But it was enough to make a decision. This will be the first project I dedicate myself to.

It might not work.

Risk is hard. We don’t like to think about it.

We tend to look at risk as an adventurous, desirable thing. It’s what all the entrepreneur porn being peddled on the internet promotes. People instagramming flashy cars, sharing motivational memes, humblebragging about meeting Gary Vaynerchuk backstage, or posting pictures of themselves working in a cozy chair with a cup of coffee on the side of a laptop.

We like to gloss over the fact that every new venture is a risk, and with every risk there are potential downsides. Risk means this MIGHT work, not this WILL work. You own the rewards if it does, and you are left holding the bag if it doesn’t.

And that endless moment, in that space, is everything.

To try something new, you have to let go of the old, familiar, and comfortable. And that becomes much harder with kids, a mortgage, and other responsibilities. The punishment for failure is much higher than before.

And yet – you only get one life to live. So the tension grows between who you are now, and who you would become after taking the leap.

For a long time, I chose to stay inside my comfort zone. And for whatever reason, that changed this year.

This podcast conference is just the first step in a new direction, and the truth is… I don’t know if it will work. This is my first time trying to build an event, and even though I understand the marketing side of things, I have only instinct and some friendly advice to run on in terms of organization, logistics, and event planning. I know the kind of event I would want to go to – and that’s what I’m building.

For the first time in years, I wake up excited, and can’t wait to get to work! I am ready to own the outcome, however it turns out.

All of me.

Over the years, I’ve had a number of different interests ranging from calligraphy, podcasting and black & white photography to random things like restoring straight razors and making furniture from reclaimed wood. These were always side projects and hobbies on top of my regular work that includes marketing, business strategy, curriculum development, teaching, and speaking.

What’s interesting about this particular project, is that it pulls all of those interests, skills and talents together. It feels like an engine firing on all cylinders. It feels like diving into a deep, warm pool of immersive and joyful work.

In 2013 I started focusing on the idea of meaningful work, and finding ways to do more of it. By now I interviewed dozens of entrepreneurs, authors, and thought leaders about doing work that matters, and within those I discovered a common thread.

Their work exists at the intersection of three key elements: values, service, and competency.

Values – They are clear on who they are, and what they stand for. Their values serve as a guidance system for clients, businesses and projects they take on.

Service – Their work benefits many. It is designed to serve a specific audience, solve a problem, and every project adds to their body of work. Their legacy.

Competency – They leverage their unique ability. I found that almost every impactful leader has a different, unique combination of strengths and talents they put on full blast in their projects.

PodSummit has all those elements for me. It aligns with my values of learning and sharing. It serves a passionate group of people sharing their voice with the world. It allows me to fully leverage and test my skills in marketing, building, audio, video, and design. It is all of me.

 
This is my fire, rekindled. A leap into uncharted waters. And I don’t know if it’s going to work.

But it’s worth trying.

So, what are you holding back from?

At the time of this writing, I am in the first stages of building a new venture. Here are 5 of the most valuable books I am re-reading before launching the project.

Book Selection Criteria

When it comes to books, there are tens of thousands of choices. Here is the criteria I used for selecting, and recommending the following 5 to you:

• Pragmatic. As little fluff as possible. The ideas should be realistic and actionable.
• Mindset. Skills are easy and cheap to acquire. A strong mindset is required to take consistent, focused action.
• Concise. Each book is either the source of original ideas, or curates the best thinking available.
• Quick. With a toddler at home, I don’t have time to waste. Each book should be a quick, densely insightful read.

Based on those parameters, here are the reading recommendations, with summaries for each:

4 Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris

A classic in the digital nomad and startup community. This book vaulted Tim Ferris to the top of the business thinker heap. I am specifically interested in revisiting the concepts of:

Business Idea Testing — Tim used Google ads and landing pages to test product ideas. Before we launch our project, I want to make sure there is a viable market.

Selective Ignorance — Too many inputs are grinding productivity to a stop, and introducing unnecessary anxiety. This idea helps create time and focus for the important work.

Mini-retirements — We’ve been chasing growth for years, and even though I have more control over my time than a 9-to-5 worker, my work / life balance is still not where I would like it to be.

If you are interested in the book, I would suggest checking out your local used book store first. Chances are they will have at least one copy. Alternatively, you can order a copy from Amazon, or watch the summary below:

ReWork, Jason Fried

This book summarizes business lessons from the founder of 37 Signals, an insanely popular software company that built tools like BaseCamp while doing the exact opposite of every other Silicon Valley darling. In our recent podcast interview, Justin Jackson mentioned it was one of his most influential books. Here are some of the key concepts I plan to revisit:

No Growth Plan — We plan to keep this new venture very small (myself and my wife, with a little bit of hired help).

Success And Failure — Jason’s recommendation is to focus on learning from success. Failures teach us what not to do again. If something succeeds, you can dissect what worked, and focus on repeating it.

No Time — as someone who is balancing a teaching, speaking, and consulting schedule on top of podcasting, writing and a few other pursuits, this should be a great reminder to focus on what matters, and to eliminate distractions.

You can order the book from Amazon, or watch the summary below:

Managing Oneself, Peter Drucker

Even though I’ve “read” Peter Drucker, it was mostly skimming because I never looked at myself as a manager. This book comes as a recommendation from Darius Foroux, who used these ideas to build a strong personal brand, focus his efforts, and amass a loyal following of close to 20,000 subscribers. Some of the key points I want to rehash:

Focus On Strengths — Rather than trying to equalize your skill set, focus on building on your strengths. Peter’s recommendation is to create a personal feedback loop by writing down what you plan to accomplish in the next 9 – 12 months, then monitor what you ACTUALLY accomplish. That will provide clues to where your strengths lie.

How Do I Work —Building on strengths, be mindful of how your perform. Are you better as a leader, or a manager? Independent, or part of a team? Do you need structure, or prefer to be left to your own devices? Knowing this allows you to amplify your strengths.

What Are My Values — When your value system is aligned with what you do, and how you do it, it creates space for maximum effectiveness. In a recent interview with Kylie Toh, she revealed her top 5 values and how they guide her work. I plan on revisiting and clarifying my value set.

This is another old book, but it may be harder to find used. I found an audio version on iBooks for $1, and that is what I would recommend. Alternatively, you can read a copy of an article the book was based on here or watch the summary below:

22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing, Al Ries

Published in 1993, this book stands the test of time. It’s short, concise, and actionable. It is a great reminder to build a strong marketing foundation. It’s easy to get lured into Facebook’s latest ad units, or think about how to infiltrate a virtual reality world. This brings the conversation back to the basics. Stuff that really matters. For example:

Law Of Perception — Reality is only a story we tell ourselves. As marketers, we have the ability to weave a story that will build perception about our products and brands.

Law Of Opposite — If you can’t beat the market leader, position your brand as the antagonist. Become the opposite choice, and angle for a strong second place in the market.

Law Of Success — Reminder to not let success go to your head and inflate your ego. If it does, that leads to arrogance. And arrogance leads to failure (remember BlackBerry?)

This is another book I would recommend looking for in your local used book store. Alternatively, you can find it on Amazon, or check out the summary below:

Trust Me, I’m Lying, Ryan Holiday

Another recommendation by Darius. I read this book a while ago, and dismissed it as manipulative and simplistic. However, individuals and brands who put some of these techniques in practice were able to build their authority and position themselves as market leaders. Ryan shares some of his battle stories as the director of marketing for American Apparel and marketing manager for a few popular authors. He shares specific advice on how he was able to get his clients into national media.

Here are some of the insights I want to revisit:

Headlines — how to structure headlines in order to capture the ever diminishing slice of attention. This works when pitching articles as well as writing them for your own blog.

What Sells — Although I’m not a big fan of using what could be called the Freudian approach to capture attention (sensationalism, extremism, sex, scandal and hatred), it does provide a good insight into what actually captures and holds the attention of today’s readers.

Free Content — Most bloggers and publishers who live and die on advertising are constantly in need of fresh content. Help them (and yourself) by writing for their publication.

Even though some of the practices in this book are borderline manipulative, it contains plenty of actionable advice on how to build a media presence, and in turn authority. Here’s the Amazon link, and a summary:

At this time, there are too many books to choose from (over 73,000 in Small Business & Entrepreneurship section on Amazon alone). Some will argue these are not The BEST 5 to choose, and will probably mention other classics like E-myth Revisited and Lean Startup. And that’s fine.

The secret to progress is to pick a direction and take action. These 5 will provide more than enough actionable insights for anyone considering starting a side project or a small business. Probably more than you could implement in a lifetime.

Big thanks to Justin Jackson and Darius Foroux for sharing their most influential books!

Happy reading,

– ernest.

Originally published on the Art Of Meaningful Work podcast. Listen to it below and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

A few months ago I gave a talk on digital marketing trends, at a digital marketing conference in Calgary. We talked about marketing automation, working with influencers, and artificial intelligence. Then things took a darker turn, into the phenomenon of smartphone addiction and how it affects our lives.

By now, there are numerous studies on the topic of digital distraction, and specifically how that applies to phones. I found this one particularly interesting. It is from the August 2015 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Researchers studied 212 undergraduate students, and exposed them to different phone-based stimuli and notifications, and here are the findings:

“It is well documented that interacting with a mobile phone is associated with poorer performance on concurrently performed tasks because limited attentional resources must be shared between tasks. However, mobile phones generate auditory or tactile notifications to alert users of incoming calls and messages. Although these notifications are generally short in duration, they can prompt task-irrelevant thoughts, or mind wandering, which has been shown to damage task performance. We found that cellular phone notifications alone significantly disrupted performance on an attention-demanding task, even when participants did not directly interact with a mobile device during the task. The magnitude of observed distraction effects was comparable in magnitude to those seen when users actively used a mobile phone, either for voice calls or text messaging.”

Derailed by a notification

What this means for us, regular plebs, is that focus, attention, and concentration are significantly impacted by the presence of a phone. I’ll share a personal example, and you can let me know if you can identify with it.

While I was reading the study, and sketching out an outline for a podcast episode, I kept receiving messages from my wife who was away with my daughter. She would send me a photo or a short video of what they were doing. And I couldn’t resist looking at it. I would see the screen light up out of the corner of my eye, and as much zen-monk focus I like to think I have, I would relent and look at it.

Add to that a quick reply, and the next thing you know, I’m back to the computer. But now… I am looking at pictures of what Kimberly looks like (it’s beautiful, by the way). Then, a quick glance over to Twitter and LinkedIn.

Next thing you know, it’s almost 30 minutes later from the time the notification set off. It is also a loss of productive time, very much in line with what the researchers found.

I just happened to be sitting down at my desk during this time. However, with 3G, LTE, and large data plans available to anyone with a cell phone as well as plentiful WiFi hotspots, this easily applies when you are out of the office, going for a walk, at the gym, or listening to a podcast.

A simple notification can derail whatever task you are focusing on, effectively killing your productivity.

Addicted to distraction

We are not even touching on the addiction element of all this. Apps, websites, games and social media networks are leveraging some very sophisticated methodologies, and smart people from psychology, neuroscience, and biometrics in order to create hooks, or addictive behaviours to their products.

That is why you will often see people thumbing through their phones without being prompted by any notifications. They are “checking”. Looking for social signals from their networks, about something they may have posted. They’re hooked on the idea of social connection through the device. This is something we will discuss another time, but here is a great article to get you started.

Battle distraction with habit change

What is the takeaway?

You have a black rectangle in your pocket, with access to all of the world’s information, your friends, family and colleagues. It gives you news and celebrity gossip. It lets you collect Pokemon while walking. All of that is amazing. And all of that is engineered to capture a slice of your attention.

Each slice of attention that is taken away from your important work – tasks that require focus and concentrated effort – affects your productive output negatively.

To solve this problem requires behavioural and habitual change. To get started, put your phone on airplane mode when you are working on something important. Even when you need a small mental break in order to absorb and process your thoughts. Your brain needs rest in order to replenish attention, exercise focus, and generate creative juices.

See if you can leave your home without it. Go for a walk phone-free. See how that feels. Trust me, for those 30, 40, or 60 minutes – the world won’t blow up because you weren’t able to check Twitter.

They are not your usual, flash-in-the-pan tactical types, but rather reference-level materials that can help you build a stronger company, and better relationships with your customers — all on your own terms. Here are my five picks – as of fall 2016.

Winning the Story Wars – Jonah Sachs

This book is a great resource for marketers and entrepreneurs who want to build a strong and memorable brand. It focuses on narrative and using stories to empower your audience by making them the hero. For me, it was incredibly useful to learn about the essential elements of a good story by making it: Tangible, Relatable, Immersive, Memorable, and Emotional.

This book also presented a fresh take on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and how that idea interlaced with Carl Jung’s archetypes. As much as I like to think of myself as a Rebel, it turns out my personal brand archetype is more The Oracle – which is fine I guess, but not as cool…

Here is a brief video that will walk you through the Hero’s Journey.

For additional story building worksheets and archetypes, click here.

[Amazon link]

Originals – Adam Grant

It was the subtitle (How Non-Conformists Move The World) that sold this book for me. I bought the audio version, and couldn’t put the headphones down so to speak. It is a deep look into individuals who have redefined industries, technologies, and themselves. Individuals who push the world forward.

Adam covers both entrepreneurs who make ideas into reality and intrapreneurs who change organizations from within by building alliances, winning support from leadership and navigating office politics.

Another great thing about this book was a section on raising an Original. As a father, I plan to use some of the questions Adam outlined to encourage my daughter to think critically, and take action.

One of my personal favourite takeaways was the notion that “When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality.”

I have spent years trying to figure out The Thing. The one amazing project that would combine all my talents and provide an endless stream of joy and fulfilment. I spent most of that time planning, designing, and questioning — rather than building and shipping. I was procrastinating under the guise of perfectionism.

You can hear all about that on episode #26 of the Creator Podcast.

[Amazon Link]

Life is Good – Bert & John Jacobs

If you don’t own one of their t-shirts, chances are you know someone who does. This is an amazing story of two Boston brothers who built a multi-million dollar company from scratch. The book follows their humble beginnings of travelling between university campuses and peddling t-shirts out of the back of a van, to now donating millions of dollars to Kids In Need every year.

I am not naturally what you would call an optimist… and this book managed to put some chinks in the “realist” armour I wear. The story of their family, and specifically their mom connected with me deeply. She instilled a sense of optimism, and hope in the brothers — which allowed them to power through obstacles and build an amazing company. It inspired me both as a father, and an entrepreneur.

I took many ideas away, but the one we practice every day at our dinner table is to ask ”What is one good thing that happened today?” before we start eating.

Out of all these books, I bought multiple copies of this one and gave it to friends and clients. It is really that good.

[Amazon Link]

War of Art – Steven Pressfield

If you ever felt stuck on a project, or maybe you weren’t sure how to get started — this book will give you a proverbial kick in the ass. It will identify the source of all procrastination, and unfulfilled ideas that never see the light of day, as “The Resistance”. It is your duty to fight against it, and conquer the demon through work.

Steven Pressfield notably wrote “The Legend of Bagger Vance” and “Gates Of Fire”, on top of 14 other fiction and non-fiction books. This one was the breakthrough in business publishing. Even though he uses writing as a theme, it is equally applicable to any entrepreneurial or business venture.

This book will help you face down fears, perfectionism, and inaction. It is full of terse, to-the-point, quotable paragraphs that get to the heart of the issues we all face.

“Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”

This is a very short read that you will likely refer back to many times.

[Amazon Link]

Anything You Want – Derek Sivers

Probably the shortest read of the bunch — you can finish it in one afternoon. Written by the entrepreneurship icon, Derek Sivers, it’s a collection of 40 short lessons from launching CD Baby (remember CDs?) and selling it for $22 Million in 2008. He then went on to found a couple of other music and entrepreneurship related companies.

It is an unorthodox look at building a business by accident. The lessons however are applicable to regular people like you and I. This little book has almost half the pages earmarked and is full of philosophical and practical insights. Here are some of my favourites, as they apply to marketing:

“Any time you think you know what your new business will be doing, remember this quote from Steve Blank: No plan survives first contact with customers.”

“When you make a business, you’re making a little world where you control the laws. It doesn’t matter how things are done everywhere else. In your little world, you can make it like it should be.”

“Business is as creative as the fine arts. You can be as unconventional, unique, and quirky as you want. A business is a reflection of the creator.”

And here is a summary of the book:

[Amazon Link]

Those are my 5 picks at this time.What are some books that influenced you, or your thinking? E-mail me (hello [at] ernestbarbaric.com), and let me know!

– ernest.

Part 1 (symptoms) – Part 2 (causes) – Part 3 (solutions)

Over the last few months, I researched over 200 articles and studies, interviews with anxiety experts, therapists and physicians, and related books.

After all that, and after testing a few things for myself — I looked for the best and easiest-to-implement solutions that would provide immediate relief, and long-term return to a normal non-anxious state.

It turns out you just need to know and implement the following two things:

DARE to stop

Half-way into my research, a friend posted about a book on anxiety, DARE by Barry McDonagh. After listening to the first 5 minutes of the audio version, it felt like he was speaking to me directly. All the symptoms, worries, and effects I have experienced.

Barry did a considerable amount of research, which resulted in a simple 4-step methodology to overcome anxiety. It’s called DARE, and it had an immediate impact for me.

Here is the premise:

Stress, left unchecked, can quickly spiral into anxiety. And if you get anxious often enough, it can develop into a depression (which currently costs the US economy over $70 Billion).

The best thing to do is to get it under control before it spirals into a monster. Here’s how, with an example (I realize this may read a little cheesy, but stick with me).

Let’s say you want to start a side project. Immediately the “what ifs” kick in — you start feeling like there was no way it would work, and who are you to build something that anyone would pay attention to, and if you dedicated your time to this, you’d probably lose your job, your clients would drop you, and you’d end up living in a van down by the river.

D (defuse)

First ask yourself “What is the worst that can happen?”. Then address the feeling with a dose of humour: “So what if I end up living in a van down by the river. At least I’ll have a chance to enjoy nature and go fishing whenever I feel like it. And really the chances of that happening are almost non existent”.

Starting with a “So what” statement, followed by a bit of humour and a “whatever” statement takes the wind out of anxiety’s sails.

A (accept)

Fully and completely accept the discomfort of the feeling and thoughts — realizing that is all they are. Thoughts and feelings. Not your reality. Say to your self: “I accept and allow these anxious feelings. That is all that they are”.

This step re-engages your neocortex, and takes back control from your impulsive fight-or-flight limbic system. It reframes the fear and anxiety from a potential reality, into what it actually is — a thought or a feeling.

9 times out of 10, this is all you need to get anxiety under control.

R (run towards)

Face your anxiety down. Dare it to do it’s worst. Say to yourself “Is this the worst you can do? This feeling excites me. Give me more of it!”. If you’re feeling a pit in your stomach, ask your anxiety to make it bigger. If you’re jittery, ask your anxiety to make you more so.

This step further re-engages your neocortex, and starts the process of reframing anxious energy into excited energy (because that’s what it actually is).

E (engage)

Now engage in an activity. Do something that fully immerses you in an experience. Get to work on whatever you have in front of you. There’s an article you have half-finished — finish it. There’s a run you’ve been putting off — put on your shoes and go now.

This step allows you to redirect your newfound energy towards something more productive. So find something that envelops your attention and get to it. This will also allow you expend that built up energy rather than allow it to control you. It’s very similar to Behavioural Activation Therapy – which has proven very effective for anxiety sufferers.

Do this enough times and you WILL get anxiety under control. Since I started implementing this, it made a HUGE difference. With practice, you can move through the stages pretty quickly, and stop it before it spirals out of control.

Simple Mindfulness Practice

This is a longer term solution, meant to get your neurochemical balance back in check, and your brain and mind back to functioning normally.

There have been thousands of studies on the effectiveness of mindfulness practice on health, cognition, and well being.

In fact, by starting a super simple mindfulness meditation practice, you can get anxiety under control, improve your creativity, and actually grow your brain. Pretty cool!

Here is how to start a simple 5-minute-a-day meditation practice (or take this 10 day meditation challenge)

Sit still

Sit comfortably with your feet on the ground. It could be an armchair, couch, or an office chair. You don’t have to sit on a special cushion, but if you want to — all the power to you. Sit straight. As if someone connected a piece of string to the crown of your head and pulled it straight up. Try to sit as still as possible.

Focus on your breath

You can close your eyes, or focus on a single spot in front of you. Now notice how it feels when you breathe in and out. Pay attention to the air moving through your nose, through your body into your lungs. Feel your chest expanding. One trick to calm your mind is to count your breaths. For example, counting every exhalation. Try counting to 10 (most people never get there!).

When your mind starts wandering, just bring your focus back to the breath.

Observe

Chances are, thoughts and ideas will pop into your mind — especially if this is your first time meditating. Allow yourself to notice the thoughts and emotions that arise. If you start thinking about a meeting you have coming up, or a looming deadline — gently bring your attention back to your posture (sit straight), and breath (start counting again).

That’s all there is to it.

I currently do this for 5 to 10 minutes, once or twice a day, keeping time with an app called Insight Timer. It’s free and simple to use. I set the starting and ending bell to Kangsé, without interval bells or ambient sound. Then I set the duration to whatever I can do that day.

As the habit starts forming, feel free to increase it to 15 – 25 minutes a day. If it ever becomes too much, drop back down to 5.

That’s it. With these two things in your toolkit – you can get anxiety under control and get back to living and creating!

Additional Resources

There are literally thousands of studies, articles, and books on anxiety. During my research, I came across two great, easy-to-follow books that summarize what I outlined here.

DARE: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks by Barry McDonagh. This is the book my friend recommended. It has over 300 5-star reviews on Amazon, and this approach has helped thousands of people get anxiety under control. I would highly recommend buying the audio version because just listening to Barry is soothing enough to calm you down :)

10% Happier by Dan Harris — an ABC anchor who had a panic attack on live TV, putting him on an investigative path eventually leading to meditation. The book follows his journey from an anxiety sufferer, to a skeptical spiritual explorer, to a 10 day silent meditation retreat, to conversations with Harvard researchers, and into a meditation practitioner that largely has anxiety under control. His book has over 2000 positive reviews, and is a fantastic read!

You can rip through these in a couple of weeks.

I sincerely hope this series was helpful to you. If it has, please share it with your networks so that more of those suffering in silence can get back to building and creating.

Part 1 (symptoms) – Part 2 (causes) – Part 3 (solutions)

There are many different causes of anxiety. They could be medical (diabetes, heart disease or issues that stem from drug abuse), psychological (genetically predisposed to it, or you may have a personality type that is prone to anxiety) or emotional (losing a loved one, or being in an accident). Left unchecked, these cause a stress buildup that eventually creates a new homeostasis of your hormonal make up. From chronic stress to anxiety, and from anxiety to a panic attack.

I uncovered three common causes when looking specifically at the leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs of today. People like you and me.

The technological, societal, and business environment we are in today is quite unique. Unlike anything we have experienced before – which is why some of the solutions that used to work, seem to be less effective.

Tech Addiction

Almost everything we are surrounded by today is engineered to avert and keep your attention. There’s even a name for it – “share of attention”. It’s what people like me will use as a metric when designing advertising and marketing campaigns.

“I want YOU to pay attention to MY stuff. I want you to believe you NEED this thing I’m promoting. I want you to NOT pay attention to your spouse or kids at the dinner table, your credit card debt, or that half-finished painting you started a couple of weeks ago, and instead keep watching TV, or incessantly thumbing through your phone.”

For decades, marketers have been harvesting psychological and behavioural research in order to find a way to capture your attention, and influence your behaviour. Going so far as putting focus group participants into an fMRI machine to measure and map their brain activation when shown certain images, or exposed to certain smells or tastes.

Over the years, this has crept into product and service design, and into our every day existence.

Smartphones, Tablets, Smart TVs, Wearables like FitBit, Apps, Games, Social Media, Netflix, Websites like Buzzfeed, Ask.com or PornHub (don’t kid yourself by the way, that is an industry that makes billions, and is often on the vanguard of technology and innovation).

How addiction is created

Most North Americans average 2.8 hours of mobile use per day. For most of us, it’s actually more. Let’s take the conservative average of 2.5 hours per day. Over the course of year, that comes out to 912 hours per year. Which is actually 38 DAYS PER YEAR where we have our noses buried in a smartphone.

It’s such an addicting platform, that we now have new names for related anxieties. Anxiety of being without your phone is called Nomophobia.

It’s resulting in a rise of obsessive compulsive behaviour in teens and adults. In fact, HALF OF ALL smartphone owners say that they couldn’t imagine living without it.

Let me illustrate this with Candy Crush.

You may have played it, you might still play it, and if not – you probably heard about it. Same goes for FarmVille, and Pokemon Go. Pick any of them.

As you play, you get small wins. Maybe you unlock a new level. When that happens your brain sends out a burst of neurotransmitters – dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. this is what makes you feel happy. It’s what drives your motivation.

As new content or levels get opened, you get these little bursts of happy chemicals. Which make you want to do it more. Going so far as paying for additional content or options.

These little bursts of happy chemicals are the exact same ones that get released, in the exact same way – with people who get a hit of nicotine, or cocaine.

They create a compulsion loop, and the behaviour reinforces itself.

This knowledge guides some of the product and service developers of today, and it is why most apps have notifications – you are trained and looped into watching for the little red circle to pop up with a number in it. It is designed to reinforce that compulsion loop. And it’s also the reason why almost half of smart phone owners will compulsively “check their phone” even through there were no auditory and physical notifications.

Inputs

In a study by UC Irvine, researchers attached heart rate monitors to office workers. They found that people who checked e-mail frequently were consistently in a “high alert” state. They were less productive and experienced more stress, while those whose e-mail was disabled for 5 days had natural, variable heart rates and got more done.

That’s just e-mail…

On top of that, we are exposed to a shit-ton of new stimuli that we never experienced before. From the ability to binge watch House of Cards on Netflix, to searching for home-reno ideas on Pinterest, to always being available by phone or e-mail. You don’t even get a break when you’re buying groceries, because now you can listen to a podcast (like this one), or thumb through your Instagram feed while waiting in line.

To put things into perspective, if you only had three apps on your phone – let’s say Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. The average user (don’t you love being called and classified as a user) – follows 822 people on Instagram, has 338 friends on Facebook, and 393 connections on LinkedIn – for a combined total of 1553 of your FRIENDS vying for your attention, on these three apps alone.

That excludes brands, advertising, and a million other apps and things like TV, billboards, websites, or email (of which the average person has at least two accounts).

We have never been exposed to this wide of a variety of stimuli – and it’s an ever expanding universe of options available at our fingertips.

There is an overwhelming amount of information coming at you – from all angles and devices. And it is impossible to keep up – and yet, if you do not – it may make you feel like a less competitive professional. In my opinion, anxiety grows in that gap. The need to keep up with all mental, digital and analog inputs – and the physical inability to do so.

Root Cause: Fear

This brings us to the final and root cause of it all. Fear.

Fear is the sole activating mechanism that causes our brain to spill out the hormones that make us impulsive, irritable, angry, sad, resentful, unfocused, uncreative, and unwilling to take necessary personal and professional risks. Fear causes our limbic system to flood our brains and f**k up the day.

It all stems from the way our brain and bodies evolved over thousands of years of self-preservation. Physical danger, like a pack of hungry hyenas running at you. However, in modern-day living we don’t often have to run away from wild animals,  but the basic function of fear never received a forced OS update from Microsoft. And just like US Nuclear Program, we’re still running off 5 1/4 inch floppy disks.

There are many different types and causes of fear which can trigger stress, anxiety, and possibly a panic attack. For us as entrepreneurs, creatives and professionals, there are two main categories:

Irrational Fears

We are not taking about phobias like Asymmetriphobia here.  We are talking about the fear of losing your WiFi connection at a coffee shop while you’re trying to send an important e-mail to a client.

We are talking about not calling a client after they didn’t pay their bill for the fear of losing them as a source of income. In reality, maybe an e-mail may have gotten lost. Maybe they just forgot. It’s irrational to be afraid to talk to someone, especially if they’re a client. Just because it is irrational, and just because you may be smart and logical, it doesn’t mean you are free from the stress and anxiety this kind of fear can create.

Public Speaking is an irrational fear. It’s one of the highest rated fears in the western world. When you speak in front of a group of people – they’re not going to burn you at the stake if you do poorly. You won’t be stripped, tarred, and feathered for not making the most amazing presentation anyone has ever seen. Your career won’t go down in flames even if you deliver a bad presentation. This fear is not a rational fear, and yet it still affects most professionals. Myself included. I’ve spoken at hundreds of conferences and workshops in front of anywhere from a dozen to a thousand people. And I still get anxious before stepping on stage.

The What Ifs

These are more common to chronic or general anxiety sufferers, but these are often the causes of all sorts of stress in creative and entrepreneurial types.

Just before you sit down to write an article, a thought creeps into your mind. “What if nobody likes this article? What if a potential client reads it, and they don’t hire me because they don’t agree with what I wrote? What if nobody ever hires me again? What if I end up living in a van down by the river – all because of this terrible article” … that I didn’t even start writing yet?

Your mind seeks out and evaluates all possible future threats – things that might happen, things that have a logical possibility of happening, and things that may be completely unlikely to happen. But… like we said earlier, our limbic system doesn’t discern between what IS a threat, and what WE PERCEIVE to be a threat. Even if it’s something we completely made up in our mind – an eventuality that may or may not exist sometime in the future.

The issue with the What Ifs is that we’ll often focus on the negative possible outcomes. Most of the time the What Ifs are all bad. This is a natural thing. They way we are wired – for self-preservation. If something bad may happen – I better not do that thing.

If you let the What If scenarios spin, it will stop you from taking action. This is why there are so many people that would love to start a business, or a side project – but don’t. Because what if it doesn’t work? What if you lose all your money? What if you end up homeless and unable to provide food for your family? What if you end up a massive failure and all your friends abandon you?

Fear is a mechanism for behaviour control. It makes you act out of a place of self-preservation, where you’re willing and likely to do anything so that you don’t get hurt, or die.

—

Those are, in my opinion, the three major drivers of stress and anxiety in professional. Tech Addiction, Inputs, and Fear. Now would be a good time to ask yourself:

• Am I dependent on technology? Do I control it, or does it control me?
• How many inputs am I willing to let into my life? How many social media platforms can I keep up with? And does it bother me if I can not?
• What irrational fears are influencing my behaviour? Do I ever run “what if” scenarios? And do they stop me from taking action?

In Part 3 of the series, we’ll go over some of the research, studies, findings, books and resources that I’ve come across since starting this journey. And I can tell you right now – there are a lot of half-truths, empty arguments, and money-making schemes aimed specifically at anxiety sufferers.

I’ll share with you the the most effective and easiest-to-implement solutions that have helped thousands of people get rid of anxiety and take back control of their lives.

Thanks for reading – I sincerely hope it helps!

Part 1 (effects of anxiety) – Part 2 (causes of anxiety) – Part 3 (solutions)

What started this investigation was a recent trip. On my way to speak at a conference about a month ago, I started experiencing some weird pains in my left arm. Kind of like growing pains, but stronger. Shortly after, chest pain followed, which unleashed a very uncomfortable thought spiral. As you may know, these are often signs of an oncoming heart attack.

I’ve been under high degrees of stress for prolonged times before, but never experienced symptoms like this. As my mind raced to detect any burning toast smell, I was also actively looking for which ditch I would swerve into in case this goes down.

Long story short, the heart attack never materialized — but this experience led me to investigate the cause. On my way home I made an appointment with my physician. After a thorough examination, blood tests, and even seeing an optometrist — the doctor concluded it may have been a form of a panic attack. Which, as it turns out, has similar symptoms…

I’ve never had this happen before, or since. And I had no idea I was under that amount of stress.

Armed with that knowledge I reached out to a few friends, both in the working and entrepreneurial worlds — and it turns out quite a few were experiencing some form of anxiety on a somewhat regular basis. This, in turn led to a few long nights of reading medical and psychology journals, as well as trends analyses and popsci articles.

Some of the data I came across was terrifying (see the video below), and some offered reprieve.

The causes will vary. From financial worries, economy and climate change, to crime, terrorism and wondering if you will have enough of an impact in your lifetime. It’s real. Anxiety, depression, and even mental illness in children is on a 80 year upswing.

For those of us, who as professionals get affected by it (knowingly or otherwise) — the effects come multi-fold:

Hormonal Overload

Stress has a profound physiological effect on our body and brain. In case of a threat, we are hardwired to bypass the neocortex (your reasonable and logical mind) and give full control to the sympathetic nervous system (the reptilian brain) which operates compulsively and is meant to keep us alive.

A few hundred thousand years ago, this served us well. You would see a Sabre-tooth Tiger eyeing you up, and your brain would flood your system with noradrenalin and cortisol — all meant to prepare you for “violent muscular action” (running, or fighting). After the threat subsides, hormone levels would retreat back to normal.

That was then.

The unfortunate reality is that our sympathetic nervous system doesn’t discern between real and perceived threats. In modern professional life, this system can get triggered by someone cutting you off on the way to work, a heated customer service discussion, or even an ill-timed WiFi outage.

In modern life, it’s easy for us to careen from one perceived threat to another. Constantly priming the “reptilian brain”, and flooding our body with stress-hormones. It’s like seeing a Sabre-tooth Tiger every 15 minutes, and also expecting one to be in your closet, car, and office — waiting to attack.

The problem is, when there is no threat, when all is going well, work is flowing, and your business is doing amazing — there still may be an underlying sense of dread. Just waiting for the next stressful event to occur. Your body gets used to heightened hormonal load, and expects more of the same. This can often result in adrenal fatigue, insomnia, and even panic attacks.

Cognitive Impairment

Operating out of a stressed state has a significant impact on critical and creative thinking. Due to the way our brain is constructed, during stressful periods reason and logic give way to emotion and impulse — which may work well for expressive art, but inhibit our ability to solve complex problems and come up with creative solutions.

In this state, stress-hormones flood the neocortex, which is where new information is processed and retained — and this in turn affects our ability to focus, concentrate and remember. It’s basically like experiencing symptoms of Alzheimers.

At this time, you should also be aware of “cognitive load theory”. This is a term used in instructional design that refers to our brain’s ability to utilize working memory, process information, and learn (all functions of the neocortex).

Let’s go on a little trip down memory lane.

Recall the last time you went to an all-day conference.

In the morning, you were probably excited, caffeined up, and ready to suck in a vast amount of knowledge. The first speaker was great — you jotted down a few great insights into your notebook and got ready for the breakout session. This speaker was great, but tended to drone on a bit and never varied his voice. You got a couple of ideas.

Now the second breakout. This speaker is smart… but you’re starting to get hungry and text a friend to figure out where you’ll go for lunch, while half-listening to the talk. After lunch there are still two more one-hour sessions to go… and then you’ll have to battle traffic out of the venue, feed yourself, and get ready for the next day.

You can probably relate to how that day will roll out. By the time you’re going to the fourth or fifth session, chances are there is less note-taking. Chances are, fewer afternoon ideas will stick around in your long term memory.

This is because your cognitive load has reached its limit somewhere between the second speaker and lunch (I’m making a very sweeping assumption here). There was just no juice left to take it all in and retain the information.

In a stressed state, our cognitive load capacity gets significantly impaired. It’s like starting your day of decision making, after having attended an all-day conference.

The Domino Effect

When combined, two effects above have the power to trigger an avalanche of other symptoms and effects — each of them working against you. Your productivity, creativity, communication, relationships, behaviour, mood… you get the point. It sucks.

I don’t need to get into much science here. You know as well as I do, when you’re already stressed out, it’s much harder to have a nice, rational conversation. And the unfortunate truth is summed up in a quote by Warren Buffet: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”.

A terse statement, spoken or written while in a stressed state can have a significant impact on your relationship with employees, peers, clients, friends and family — or increase the possibility for a very public PR Fail, which have sunk companies and their reputations.

Further, operating out of high stress often leads to disengagement with work and reduced productivity. As much as I’m not a fan of Freudian psychoanalysis, he does bring up a valid point. We instinctually seek pleasure, and aim to avoid pain. If work is painful, we’re less likely to want to do it.

This is part of the reason we procrastinate, abandon careers, and often don’t start new projects.

Well then… isn’t this just a peachy article?

I wanted us to get started here. With a good understanding of the effects stress and anxiety can have on your work. But there is still more to come. And in season finale Game of Thrones fashion, we’ll stop here :)

In the next two articles, we’ll dissect the common causes of “professional anxiety”, and explore some amazing resources and techniques to start conquering this demon. I sincerely hope this will be of some help, as I will be going through this journey with you.

Although we can’t all be Einstein, what is interesting about his life (and how that applies to us mere mortals) is that he seems to have reached peak creativity pretty early on in his life.

While he published more than 300 scientific papers, and 150 non-scientific ones in his lifetime – the work he is most well known for, was published early on in his career.

You can find similar parallels with most professionals and entrepreneurs. Just out of school, and entering the workforce – most of us have grandiose ideas about how we’ll change the world, or what kind of life we’ll make. Early on in our careers, we’re full of ideas. Challenging the status quo of whatever industry we enter with fresh, and perhaps naive, ideas.

And then a few things happen:

1. In most organizations, younger people are seldom listened to, given attention or provided guidance. And so they toil, settling into a well-trodden climb up to decision maker status.
2. Steeping in a culture of “this is how it’s done” over the course of years, they start losing their creative edge and stop sharing “unreasonable” ideas.
3. As life’s pressures start mounting, the elements of “play” and “creative thinking” give way to car and mortgage payments, what furniture to buy, and what diet to follow.

As time goes along, we start setting our assumptions, preferences and worldviews in stone. This often happens in the early to mid-twenties (great article on this). By the time most us hit the big 3-0, we have a set taste in music, books, and politics. We stick with the familiar. It becomes a dogma of sorts. It’s part of the reason it becomes harder to change, and reinvent ourselves as we age.

And therein lies the problem.

By this point in time, most of us have the resources and a body of knowledge to make a much more significant contribution. But we don’t stop to ask “is this the right way to do things anymore?”, “what if I had to start from scratch?”, or “if I could travel back in time, what would I do differently?”.

We stop challenging our assumptions, familiar preferences and worldviews. We don’t break the pattern, resulting in a slow, but steady decline into inconsequentiality.

And so I believe we have to bring some of that creative edge, naive thinking, and a beginner mind BACK to our work. By challenging our assumptions, and those made with our work. It is a simple idea that can be incredibly hard to executive – but is necessary to keep growing and evolving.

Here are a few pattern-break questions you may consider asking yourself:

• If you absolutely HAD TO make 10X what you make right now – how would you do it? (borrowed from Dan Sullivan)
• If you had to start from scratch with a laptop and a $1000, but no contacts or other equipment – what would you do?
• Write down your top 25 professional or personal goals. Circle the TOP 5. Do not work on the bottom 20, until you’ve achieved the top 5. (borrowed from Warren Buffet)
• If you could travel back in time to when you were 23 – knowing what you know now –what’s the first thing you would do?
• If you could only accomplish ONE THING in the next 30 days, what would it be?

The way to growth and getting the creative edge back in your thinking is to ask challenging questions, to learn new things, and find ways to reinvent yourself.

This especially applies to those of us with family and other responsibilities. I am now a one year fatherhood veteran, and we are in the throes of insomnia, “Will She Eat It?” and “Don’t Touch That!”. Free time is a luxury we have lucid dreams of, while riding the fine line between Advil and caffeine.

Enter: A One Day Project

In an effort to stop overanalyzing everything to hell and back, I came up with this One Day Project concept, or ODP. Like the name implies, it’s all about asking: What is the One Thing you can do start-to-finish in one day? And how does that One Thing contribute to your overall goals or direction in life and business?

Yesterday, I decided it was time to take action. For a while now, I’ve been meeting interesting people and entrepreneurs — and I wanted to share their stories to inspire and inform others who may be thinking about starting a business, or reinventing themselves. I titled it Creator MiniDoc Series in a moment of creative clarity, with some help from a (now famous) friend.

And while I have a laundry list (this will be much funnier in 2 paragraphs) of names and contacts, I’ve been hesitant to make appointments — thinking how big this project has to be in order to make an impact. Well, you could have a cure for cancer, but if no-one knows about it — it doesn’t save any lives. Just because I came up with a name and a logo, it doesn’t serve anyone. Some forward movement is better than none.

On Friday evening, I booked a meeting with a local entrepreneur who makes t-shirts with neighbourhood logos to inspire neighbourhood pride. They donate 10% of their profits to local charities and have been growing steadily. All this, while he still has a regular day job.

We met at 11:30am, started filming at 11:45am, and finished by 1pm. I then edited for about 2 to 3 hours in the afternoon, uploading the video by 7pm. And below you will find the first Creator MiniDoc with Connor from Local Laundry (told ya it would get funnier) Sometimes it blips out of focus, and the colours are a little bit off, but it now exists!

Done.

In one day.

Creating forward movement.

Motivation to keep creating

On top of that, I made an agreement with a friend of mine who is much more action oriented than I — that he had permission to come over and kick me if I don’t get my new podcast up and running in the next couple of weeks.

So, guess what I am going to be doing for my next one day project?

This may not be the best method for you (I wouldn’t recommend it), in which case you may consider finding an accountability partner, or organizing a mastermind group.

Or you may consider an app like Chains that uses Jerry Seinfeld’s “Don’t break the chain” methodology to keep your momentum. It’s a habit forming technique that makes you accountable to yourself – by completing a task you set for yourself, every day (or week).

It’s the same technique he used to develop better jokes, while grinding it out as a working standup comic before the massive success of the TV show. Hey, if it worked for Jerry – it may just work for you.

What if you have no time

If you are strapped for time, like most of us are, consider reading How to find time and space for meaningful work. In my case, I made an agreement with my awesome wife, to have Saturdays for my projects. Of course, this will depend on what is happening in our lives, but that day is now set aside for things like podcasting, writing, and MiniDocs.

Alternatively, start with an hour a week. Block it in your calendar, and plan around that time limitation. What can you accomplish start-to-finish in an hour that will move you one step closer to your personal or professional goals?

I wish you the best of luck with your ODPs! If you come up with something interesting, shoot me a note. I’d love to hear from you.

A couple of years ago I read Die Empty, and had a chance to interview Todd Henry. Among the ideas he shared, this one stuck with me:

“In my first book, “The Accidental Creative,” I recounted a meeting in which a friend asked a strange and unexpected question: “What do you think is the most valuable land in the world?”

Several people threw out guesses, such as Manhattan, the oil fields of the Middle East, and the gold mines of South Africa, before our friend indicated that we were way off track. He paused for a moment, and said, “You’re all wrong. The most valuable land in the world is the graveyard. In the graveyard are buried all of the unwritten novels, never-launched businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all of the other things that people thought, ‘I’ll get around to that tomorrow.’ One day, however, their tomorrows ran out.”

An entrepreneurs, marketers, parents… as human beings — I believe we have a responsibility to create, and share our best ideas so that we leave this world a better place than we found it.

From Consumer to Creator

Consuming is easy.

Creating on the other hand takes considerable effort. You have to defeat an incredibly powerful enemy… The inertia of doing nothing. Apathy. Going though the motions. Feeling helpless to change things.

It’s easier to do nothing than get up and write a great article, set up a meeting, record a piece of music, or launch a website.

And yet, most are content with maintaining this inert status. Sure, we’re busy… but are we busy with creating something meaningful? Or just filling in time until our journey ends?

We admire people like Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk or Casey Neistat for their ability to create fascinating content. Their efforts have paid off in dividends — with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, global impact, and a legacy that will remain in some form or another.

But it was the continued effort, and more importantly — GETTING STARTED — that made their success possible. Seth Godin started with one blog post, Gary with one video.

Making a switch from consumer to creator, is both very simple and remarkably hard.

The Creator’s War Chest

There is a movement afoot.

The technology needed to craft and share ideas digitally is more democratized every day. Cheap. Accessible. With any kind of internet connection, you have the ability to reach billions of people and make your own dent in the universe. With only a minimal investment, you have the ability to create amazing photos, your own video show, or start a podcast.

The tools are here. It’s no longer a question of whether CAN YOU create something, but rather WILL YOU?

About a year ago, a friend of mine had an epiphany, and what he calls an “out of body” experience. One morning, he woke up feeling the need to get out into nature. A short drive later, he ended up in the woods having an eye-opening visceral experience.

Seeing nature with different eyes — he wanted to capture that moment, and share it. He started taking photos with a cell phone. HTC One, to be specific.

This became his passion project, which has now led him to collaborate with international brands like Ford, Travel Channel, and the Matador Network. He inspires people all over the world to get out and explore nature. This is all within about a year of starting… and starting with a phone.

Here is a MiniDoc I shot with Dax as he was getting started on his journey.

Naked and Vulnerable

One of the most menacing hurdles we face when switching to creator mode is the fear of friction. What if nobody reads this article? What if no-one likes our videos? What if the idea fails?

When you share your work and your ideas, you expose them to the world. With or without a loyal audience, every thing you create and share is a risk. Even as I write this article, I know it will turn some readers off. So why do it?

Because this is what I love. Because this is how I feel I can make a contribution at this time. Because it may help one person overcome the inertia of doing nothing, and turn their unwritten novel or business idea into reality. Or turn their entrepreneurial anxiety into a creative force. I don’t know.

You know, EVERY TIME I send a newsletter I lose subscribers. Sometimes it’s just a couple, other times it’s 10 or 12. And it hurts — like a throatchop to my ego.

But then again, every once in a while, an e-mail will come back from someone who was inspired to take action. The message just happened to reach them at the right time. So, when I hear that someone was inspired to shoot an indie documentary, or launch a side business, or even start a reading habit — the impact of those far outweighs the downside.

And to really put things into perspective, an idea from the late Steve Jobs may strike a chord with you:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.”

The Creator Ethos

Without creators, innovators, and risk-takers there would be no Apple, no Pride and Prejudice, no Civil Rights Movement. There wouldn’t be tens of thousands of videos meant to empower young girls. There wouldn’t be heartbreaking stories like this (have a look – it’s really worth it) to remind us to love, and live fully.

We need you.

We need your ideas, your art, and your work.

My ask is that you don’t waste your limited time slipping into a consumer coma — but rather challenge yourself to create something worth sharing. It may just change someone’s life.

I come back from my sketch-walks rejuvenated, often with new content and business ideas. It’s like having a happiness stimulus package delivered right into the brain — elevating mood, reducing stress and boosting creativity (without the political consequences :).

Dr. Rex Jung, assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico, has been studying creativity and the brain since 2008 as part of the Mind Research Network. His studies show that one of the key elements of creativity is a “loose” frontal lobe — down-regulation of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine that drive our fight-or-flight response. [source]

Research finds that unusually creative people have the ability to shut down the brain’s habitual responses, and let go of conventional solutions. This allows them to come up with new, creative thoughts — including those sudden flashes of insight and Aha! moments, when you come up an amazing marketing or business idea.

It turns out that all of us have the ability to induce hypo-frontality and take the brakes off our creative inhibitions with immersive experiences — activities such as warm baths, long walks, exercise, meditation, art, alcohol, and drugs. It’s why sketching and painting work for me, and some of my marketing friends.

I believe that creative expression such as drawing, playing an instrument, photography, painting, or improv is a great way to combine a few of those immersive activities. These activities are incredibly important for us as marketers and entrepreneurs, because they allows us the ability to step out of our own heads, shift our thinking and replenish our creative juices.

If you would like to give your brain a creativity booster shot, read on for some suggestions and resources.

Learn something new

I never painted before in my life, until a few years ago when I came across a traditional Japanese style of painting called Sumi-e. It involves grinding a stick of ink on a special stone called Suzuri, and using elegant, minimalistic brush strokes on rice paper to capture the essence and energy of your subject. Already sounds cool, right?

This was my first foray into art since high school art class (which I didn’t do that well in, by the way). It was also incredibly immersive. Learning how to grind the right amount of ink, how to use water to mix shades of black, and how to move the brush with my whole body to create expressive lines. I would sit down in the evening after my wife went to sleep, and paint. An hour or two would go by without me even noticing — I was in state of flow.

This happens when you are open and devoted to learning something new. For me, it was painting — for you it might be photography, riding horses or taking a cooking class.

In order to generate the best creative juice, I would encourage you to explore an art form that captures your attention.

With that, you are combining the experience of learning something new and the act of creative expression. Check out your local college for art classes, or a local art meetup group and just give it a shot. At worst, you’ll have an ugly painting of a horse for your garage. At best, you’ll create some new neural pathways in your brain and solve world hunger :)

Be present

When I sit down to sketch a street scene, everything else slowly fades away. In order to transfer my visual experience to paper, I start noticing things like the colour of brick, the shade of green on a Starbucks cup, and which way the shadows lay. This process requires me to be present, and I’ve come to look at it as a meditative practice.

Being present means not thinking about your to-do list, the e-mail from yesterday or the grocery list for the upcoming weekend. This is an incredibly hard concept to grasp for most marketing and business professionals — and yet it’s incredibly important if you want to get out of a rut or elevate your thinking. Creative expression such as art-making essentially forces you to focus on the present moment as you have to co-ordinate your senses, mind and body to create a doddle, or a strum out a guitar tune.

I would highly suggest reading James Altucher’s “How do you live in the present?” article, for some more interesting (and esoteric) thoughts about living in the NOW.

On top of all this, you’ll find that most top performers in any field have some kind of regular meditation practice. Art is one way of doing so, while also having some fun.

Get outside, live longer

Another reason I like urban sketching, is that it forces me to be outside — to get out of the computer chair, and get off the couch. It’s bad enough that our spines are degenerating with every hour on the computer and with every text we receive, but we also tend to have weak immune systems due to self-imposed office-arrest, and are for the first time in human history expected to have shorter life expentancy than the previous generation.

A recent piece of research, published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at the lifespans of 661,137 adults over 14 years to determine the ideal level and type of exercise that lowers mortality. The studies found that the sweet spot for a long and healthy life is about an hour of walking per day. The subjects who averaged 450 minutes of moderate exercise (walking) per week were 39% less likely to die prematurely than people who never exercised.

The benefits to walking and being outside are too many to mention, so I would encourage you to take your creative endeavours outside. Get some Vitamin D, while you cook up some creative juices for your next idea.

I hope this was helpful, and that you will take some time for yourself, and give your brain a creative break. You never know what kind of insight you may come back with :)

PS: and if you really have no idea how to get started, check out these awesome colouring books for adults!

PPS: As I hit publish, I came across this video titled Why We Should Draw More (and Photograph Less). Timely and fitting :)

It’s also the cause of burnout, fatigue and anxiety. This is why good ideas die before they see the light of day. Our minds are too busy dealing with these stressors, to muster enough power for creative thought and meaningful action.

I don’t talk about it much, but I often battle anxiety, fear and melancholia even after 8 years of running a pretty successful business. Just two weeks ago, we had another bout.

I spent almost a week worrying about my business for the next year, finishing the basement before our baby arrives, why I haven’t published a podcast in a while, my dad’s health, my chances of getting cancer, and on and on… And it crushes me.

It’s hard to function at a high level, when you bring all of that with you, every day. So productivity suffers, new article ideas weren’t coming, not to mention poor gym performance and overall sense of exhaustion.

Turning The Tide On Stress And Anxiety

But now I know how to turn the tide. There is one thing that always brings me back to balance. Even though it may not be immediate, a simple meditation practice is indispensable in my arsenal of life tools.

And there is plenty of medical evidence to support it.

Get anxiety under control

Earlier this year, researchers from John Hopkins University analyzed almost 19,000 meditation studies and found 47 clinical trials that passed very specific criteria for well-designed studies. They found a direct correlation between mindfulness meditation (similar to 5 minute meditation below) and reductions in anxiety, depression and pain. These findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine Journal.

Dr. Elizabeth Hoge, a psychiatrist at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders, says that mindfulness meditation makes perfect sense for treating anxiety. “People with anxiety have a problem dealing with distracting thoughts that have too much power,” she explains. “They can’t distinguish between a problem-solving thought and a nagging worry that has no benefit.” (source)

That is definitely something I’m guilty of.

Turn up creativity

How about if you wanted to give your creative muscle a shot in the arm? Well… a 2012 study by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato found that meditation has long-lasting influence on cognition, how we think and how we experience the world around us.

The study, published in Frontiers of Cognition, found that different types of meditation had direct impact on convergent and divergent thinking – both of which are essential elements of creativity.

“Open-monitoring” meditation helped participants perform better in divergent thinking, generating more ideas than previously. In open-monitoring, the participants would use breathing to “open the mind”, and let any thought, sensation or emotion arise naturally. The participants would then observe and acknowledge the experience without judgement.

The method used was based on Transformational Breathing, developed by Dr. Judith Kravitz.

Build a bigger, better brain

It turns out your brain acts like a muscle… and it grows given the right stimulation. Which (you guessed it) is meditation.

In 2009, UCLA researchers used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of people who meditate and compare their scans to a control group.

Using three-dimensional MRI, researchers measured the differences in brain structure and found “significantly larger cerebral measurements in meditators compared with controls, including larger volumes of the right hippocampus and increased gray matter in the right orbito-frontal cortex, the right thalamus and the left inferior temporal lobe.”

The test group included various types of meditation (Zazen, Samatha, Vipassana, etc.), and most meditated between 10 to 90 minutes per day.

5 Minute Meditation

So, how do you get started with meditation?

I have been practicing Soto Zen sporadically for about 6 years — big part of which is Zazen, or seated meditation. I found the traditional 45 minute sittings hard to incorporate into my daily life, so I fell off the wagon many times.

Recently, I came across a wonderful book by Kelly McGonigal which included a very simple meditation practice anyone can incorporate in their life and still reap the benefits outlined above. It goes something like this:

1. Sit still

Sit comfortably with your feet on the ground or with crossed legs on a cushion. Try to sit as still as possible, without fidgeting. (This also helps build your willpower, as you learn not to chase every impulse, like an itch for example).

2. Focus on your breathing

Close your eyes or focus on a single spot, like a blank wall. Notice your breath. In your mind, say “inhale” as you breathe in and “exhale” as you breathe out. When your mind starts wandering, just bring your focus back to the breath. (This stimulates the prefrontal cortex).

3. Empty your mind

Allow yourself to experience the breathing, and the thoughts and emotions that arise without judgement. Just notice them. After a couple of minutes, try focusing on the sensation of breathing, without thinking inhale/exhale. If you mind wanders, bring it back to the breath. If you have to refocus, think inhale/exhale again.

I currently do this for 5 minutes, once or twice a day, keeping time with an app called Insight Timer. As the habit starts forming, I will eventually increase it to 15 – 25 minutes a day. If it ever becomes too much, I’ll drop back down to 5.

After years of failing, I learned that a consistent 5 minute practice is much better than none at all.

Copyblogger COO on meditation

While I was preparing to write this article, I asked my social circles if they knew any business professionals or entrepreneurs who meditate. Through a Twitter introduction, I was able to connect with Tony Clark, the COO of Copyblogger, an awesome marketing platform that offers Synthesis WordPress hosting, Genesis WordPress Themes, as well as a ton of free digital marketing advice.

Here is what he had to say about his meditation practice:

1) How and why did you get started with meditation?

Around 2003 the consulting practice I built (and later sold) before Copyblogger got pretty stressful. So I thought some type of meditation might help. Someone recommended I try the Sedona Method for stress reduction, and it worked well.

Then after a few months of it, I had an experience that changed my perspective on everything. I realized that I had a glimpse of what these guys were *really* talking about, and it sent me on a search to cultivate it. I moved into Vipassana and mindfulness, then later to Dzogchen and emptiness/no-self/awareness practice.

2) What does your meditation practice look like?

My current practice is an Awareness practice. I only do a formal sit for about 20 minutes in the morning now, because most of my practice is focusing on Awareness and bringing my attention back to it throughout the day.

3) How do you make time to meditate?

I get up pretty early, so I always have time in the morning. But once I had the realization that mediation isn’t something you do on a cushion at a specific time, but an ongoing practice to return to throughout the day, it made the practice much more fruitful.

4) Have you noticed any benefits or changes due to meditation practice?

Only everything! :)

Seriously, it completely changed how I see, act in, and experience the world. And as an entrepreneur, it has made me much more successful, productive, and effective, with less stress and angst.

5) Do you ever “fall off the wagon” and forget to meditate for a while? If so, how do you get back into it?

I used to way more than I do now. Meditation is a lot like building a muscle. It’s harder in the beginning, but gets easier. And when you lose your center, it becomes easier to get it back over time.

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When I’m in the throes of anxiety, when creativity suffers and work is overwhelming, I do my best to create time and space for myself. To breathe. And regain balance.

I hope it helps you as well :)

– ernest

And that is how I came to give the most naked and vulnerable talk of my speaking career. In front of about a 100 bloggers, developers and entrepreneurs.

Instead of preparing one of my usual strategy and principle loaded presentations, I gave an honest, unrehearsed account of 6 years of failure to find my voice – and three defining moments that allowed me to find it for the first time.

If you are struggling with being your authentic self, or sharing that authenticity with the world – I hope this talk helps you on your journey.

Here are a bit more details on those three defining moments that changed everything for me:

A September Morning

I woke up one September morning, after months of taking personality tests, reading about authority and authenticity, and trying to figure out my WHY. Something changed during the night.

All this time, for over 5 years, I’ve been creating content I thought others would like. I would come up with the same tired titles as everyone else: “5 Best tips to…”, “Marketing trends for 2010″… and so on.

I got no joy from writing those posts and it was a purely mechanical activity. Come up with a title that’s about a popular marketing or social media topic, add three to five subheads and fill it in. Repeat.

This morning was different. The evening before I read an article by Sir Ray Avery where he talks about his approach to life. He calculated he has about 30,000 days of life in total – and based on that, he prioritizes certain things in his life and business.

Based on my own calculations, I came up with 26,000 days of life in total. And so, 26K was born that morning – a podcast where I interview people who I find inspiring, who I believe are doing meaningful work and building an extraordinary life.

FIRST REVELATION: Write, record, draw, design and create content that moves YOU. Ideas you are genuinely passionate about.

Website Designer Named Paul

One of my first 10 interviews was with a Victoria-based designer named Paul Jarvis. I first came across his name because someone happened to share a Fast Company article on my Twitter feed. It was about how marketing should stand for something. The article resonated strongly with my views so I reached out to Paul to see if he would hop on a podcast with me.

In our conversion and my research, it turned out that Paul didn’t write about the same things as other website designers would, like “What website colours are popular this year” or “5 Tips to make your logo stand out”. Instead, he wrote about fear, and creativity, and focus, and expressing yourself. In fact, he now has 5 books – the first of which was a vegan cookbook.

His content was coming from a different place. It was coming from passion and the willingness to share his most personal insights into struggles and learnings from life and business. His content allowed him to build a subscriber base of over 13,000 (and steadily growing) professionals. And I am happy to be one of them – his is the ONLY newsletter I subscribe to.

SECOND REVELATION: Create what you’re genuinely passionate and excited about. Share your journey and insights. Some people will like it – others will not. The ones who don’t are NOT YOUR PEOPLE.

Taking a leap of faith

After recording about 15 interviews for the podcast, along with some of the reading I was doing at the time – I started noticing patterns. It seems like people who do meaningful work have certain common habits and behaviours.

So, I began writing a new article on December 26th, 2013. It would not be about marketing, or sales, or social media. It would be about some of those habits I found so fascinating.

I wrote the article in one sitting – experiencing one of those flow moments, where I didn’t notice the time, the need to eat or even go to the bathroom. And that was the easy part.

The next part was an immense amount of irrational fear. I questioned and doubted myself: What if nobody likes this? What if my clients read this and drop me? What am I doing writing about anything but marketing? How much traffic will I lose if I post this? What if other marketers think I’m a weirdo for writing this kind of content?

It took me two days to muster up the courage to hit “publish”. The article was published sometime in the evening of December 28th, 2013.

And it was my most popular article to date. My Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn shares went up by 400%. It was picked up by Good Magazine. At one point, the traffic I received crashed my server. I got my first genuine thank you e-mail from a reader in Maine.

I thought… this must be a fluke. So, over the next couple of months I wrote about marketing topics as well as things that genuinely interested and moved me. Every single time, the articles that were about meaningful work, passion projects and making a difference outperformed all others in all metrics, by a wide margin.

THIRD REVELATION: Dare to be vulnerable. Open up the kimono to your life, your interests and your passions – and write from the heart. Write about things that move you.

I still struggle with sharing my insights and passions – as evidenced by my lack of posting this year. There are over 20 posts and 10 podcasts ready to be edited and published waiting in the wings. Waiting for the moment when fear of failure and vulnerability lowers its defences.

These were three moments that allowed me to begin my journey to being my authentic self – and sharing that with you. And I hope this helps you on your journey as well.

Be well and create from the heart,

– ernest.

Hunters build a box with open wooden slats, and place a banana or a piece of similar sized fruit in it, and make sure it’s clearly visible. They also cut a hole in the box, just big enough for the monkey’s open hand to reach through and grip the bait.

Inevitably, a passing monkey smells or sees the banana and reaches in to pull it out – and the trap is sprung. You see, the opening is only big enough for the monkey to put it’s open hand through. Once he makes a fist or tries to grab something and pull it out, the opening is too small for his closed fist to pass through. So the monkey pulls, thrashes and struggles… to no avail. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, but he never lets go of the banana.

Eventually the hunters come back to check on their trap and collect the exhausted monkey. You see, there is nothing physically holding the monkey there. He is just not willing to let go of the banana and escape with his life. He’s been conditioned to not let go. [African version of the trap]

If you’ve heard this story before, thank you for sticking with me :) I only use it to bring up the next point.

Just like the monkey holds onto the banana, we also hold onto definitions, judgements, job titles and place far too much value on what others think of us. Often, it’s only in our twilight years that something finally snaps and we make a decision to do something meaningful, something that makes us happy and fulfilled. Maybe that’s painting, or opening a bed & breakfast, or building a cabin, learning to code or fixing motorcycles.

You may call it a mid-life crisis, but what we are talking about is much more than that.

A second act is a powerful moment in time, when we make a transition from doing a “job” to doing meaningful work. It’s a moment in time when we redefine who we are. At a deep, internal level.

Your job vs your work

When someone asks “What do you do” – how do you answer? Do you say that you’re an accountant, or an engineer, or a geologist? Maybe that you work for an oil and gas company, or an investment firm, or a startup?

I was once proud to say I was an interactive account manager for one of Canada’s largest media companies (who shall not be named). It sounded impressive and looked good on a business card.

Only now, that I’m entering the early waters of my own second act, do I finally understand what that line on my business card meant. It’s a job title – a construct someone created out of thin air when they thought they could make more money with one of those – it’s not Ernest, or Chris, or Katherine. It’s a cog. A part in the machine that can be replaced, forgotten, or discontinued. And what then? What am I, if not an account manager?

You see, for most of us that job title is a trap – much like the monkey’s banana. We’re afraid to let go, because we would be naked, lost and vulnerable without it. We would have to be something more than a job title.

Your work, on the other hand, is a very different place. It’s an expression of you, of what fires you up when you wake up, of what will remain when you’re gone. It comes from a different place. You feel it in your chest when you’re doing it, and it feels good. You can wholeheartedly say I do this “because it’s IMPORTANT to me”.

Maybe it sounds corny, but on some subconscious level you know when you’re not doing the work – when you’re just going through the motions. It feels like a bad relationship you’re still in because you’re afraid you’ll otherwise end up alone.

When I mingle at conferences, other attendees often ask what I do, or even worse “who are you with?”, like my value is associated with the name of the company that happens to employ me at this time.

I don’t even know how to answer that question anymore. There is so much more to me then “digital marketing consultant”. I paint, I fix and ride motorcycles, I work with leather, I host a podcast, I speak, I study Zen, I teach, I design courses… how do you say all that in a cohesive answer? It’s impossible. At least I haven’t figured out an answer. So I immediately turn the conversation around and ask about their life, what inspires them, what’s important to them, and why. And we connect on a much deeper level than “who we are with”.

There is so much more to you then your job title. Once you realize that, everything from that point forward changes. The way you look at the world is different. The conversations you have are more meaningful. You feel freer – even food tastes better :)

What triggers a second act?

So, what must happen to make someone start thinking this way? About their second act. About their contribution and their legacy.

Sadly, most often it’s a tragedy. Someone close to us dies in an accident, falls ill or experiences incredibly hard times. It’s in that moment we’re reminded how short life really is, and how today may be the last day we have left. So we start thinking… what have I done with my life? What have I achieved, and what do those achievements really mean?

Will finishing that report on the weekend, filing the taxes a day early or checking e-mails at 6AM be something my children, or my community will remember me for? Is this what will remain when I’m gone?

These are the types of questions that trigger second acts.

Some, on the other hand, wait until the “encore” part of their career. Once they’ve retired… THEN… they’ll have time to do something meaningful. They’ll finally spend more time with their family, go fishing and hiking, write, build or paint something.

The retirement age in Canada averages 65 and rising. In the US, it’s 61 and rising. Due to financial and economic circumstances most people find themselves in these days. Are you really willing to wait until you hit your 67th birthday to finally do something meaningful? To awaken and rekindle a passion that’s been laying dormant for over 60 years.

Considering the average life expectancy in North America is about 80, that is like buying a really nice Armani suit for “special occasions” when you were about 14, only to be buried in it.

Poverty to honey empire

Steve Jobs is often credited with the biggest second act in business history, with his triumphant return to Apple after being ousted from the company. (I’m about half way through his biography by Walter Isaacson, and it’s fascinating!).

It’s wonderful and inspiring to read about business leaders like this, but I’m not Steve Jobs. You are probably not either. So what about normal, everyday people like us?

In late 2013, I started recording interviews with regular people I found inspiring. From authors and entrepreneurs to artists and monks. One of the patterns that quickly emerged, even after recording the first 10 interviews, is the power of the second act. Let me tell you just one of the stories.

Stella Sehn was backed into a corner. Their family farm in Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan just wasn’t producing enough to sustain her growing young family. They’ve struggled with repaying agriculture loans and making ends meet. Eventually, Sheldon (Stella’s husband), had to take up job up north, on the oil rigs to meet their responsibilities.

One day, while driving to the city to escape their reality of life in a small town an idea was born. They would take a leap of faith on a honey farming opportunity that came up. They had to do something.

Sheldon still went up north to bring in the funds they desperately needed, while Stella rolled up her sleeves and started building a brand. Even that early on, she had a hunch there was more to this honey business than just selling it to wholesalers, at wholesale prices. And so Sweet Pure Honey was born.

Stella would take their honey, hand pack it into jars and then drive 8 hours to farmers markets and sell it one jar at a time, winning one heart at a time.

That was the beginning of their second act. A brand that stands for family values, organic products and produces incredibly delicious honey (trust me, I have two jars in our cupboards, and often sneak a spoon or two while nobody’s watching). At the time of this writing, Stella negotiated a deal with a brewery in Washington to supply honey for their Vulcan Honey Ale (Star Trek Fans – rejoice!).

Her business and brand are gaining fans internationally. People from as far as Japan order honey jars from Sweet Pure Honey.

It’s never too late to start your second, third or even fourth act – to do something meaningful. This is just one story, from a regular person like you and me. If you’re looking for more inspiration, CNN Money has a whole section on second acts.

—

So, only one question remains… Is it your time to let go of the banana?

We’re all waiting for you :)

– ernest.

However, I’m seeing a really interesting social dynamic developing there, which presents a great opportunity for the right kind of small business to connect with customers and grow their brand.

Aside from running a couple contest campaigns, I haven’t had much of a chance to use it in the marketing mix for most of my clients. So I reached out to a few Instagram rockstars for some tips and advice. I asked why they chose Instagram to be one of their marketing channels; do they consider it to be a success; and what are some techniques they use. Here’s what they said.

Outdoor Lifestyle with Camp Brand Goods

When I started planning this article, I asked on Twitter for Instagram Rockstars to connect with. Within a minute or two suggestions started rolling in for Camp Brand Goods. Here’s what Leslie McNeilly had to say about their business and Instagram. – eb

Camp Brand Goods is completely inspired by our outdoor lifestyle. We can really paint a full picture of what we’re all about by posting photos of our road trips, hiking & fishing trips. I can see how other businesses would really get a lot out of Twitter, but for our brand a photo is a much more powerful marketing tool. Besides… on a personal level, it seems like everyone I know is now using Instagram!

Our Instagram is a work in progress. We’ve seen impressive growth over the last several months. Instagram is our purest form of social media interaction with our customers in the sense that it’s less about the product than it is about sharing good times. We tend to post an even mix of scenery shots and product shots. Sometimes we get lucky and strike out in both categories. A large chunk of our followers don’t own any of our products yet but often times I will notice a new follower making a purchase several weeks after they start following us. Because our Instagram isn’t super sales driven, it’s opened up a lot of relationships with other Instagram users. It’s based on our lifestyle so people are excited to share our Instagram feed with their followers.

Our approach is not that unusual. We created our own hashtag (#keepitwild) and we award a t-shirt weekly to an Instagram user who is caught keeping it wild. We’ve seen our hashtag being used in conjunction with a slew of others like #campvibes, #wildsights, and #greatnorthcollective, to name a few, so I don’t even know how many people associate it with Camp Brand Goods at this point, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s all just for fun and for creating a community of like-minded outdoor enthusiasts.

We’ve done some collaborations with other Instagrammers – for example, the guy who just shot our Winter Lookbook (@marvinchagler aka Mike Seehagel, who is INSANELY talented) we met after he won the #keepitwild contest in the fall. We’ve also called on a few Instagram friends to create photo essays for our online journal called Good Company. We try not to take ourselves or Instagram too seriously, leaving lots of time for jokes.

Leslie McNeilly — Camp Brand Goods.

Forget Facebook. Instagram #honey instead

I met Stella Sehn at an economic development conference in Medicine Hat in 2012. She built her business up by herself, from literally nothing, and now has customers all over the world. In fact, she is the featured guest on the second episode of the 26k podcast: “From poverty to a honey empire – story of Sweet Pure Honey”. So maybe give that a listen as well. – eb

Facebook started pissing me off. All the ads, sponsored posts, girls, etc… I also noticed my posts were not being seen as much. It was not effective as a business tool any longer. Combined, I still had over 1000 likes so I could not just leave it altogether as people still contact me via Facebook.

So on to Instagram. It was coming up on my twitter feed a lot, and most importantly it was free. I knew this could would be a great visual representation of me and my business… and in a chronological order! Plus, I was getting more of my content online. I post most of my Instagram photos to twitter and Facebook, so now I’m hitting all 3.

I am still new to Instagram but I feel a greater connection to people when looking at photos rather than reading posts. It is sooo easy and quick to keep up to date with daily activities if you are a personal brand. With one search entire world comes up on your phone. I often just look at others Instagrammers all over the world to see what is out there, visually. Those that interest me, I follow. I also keep track of who is looking at my photos. Eventually, you figure out which hashtags bring new followers, so that is part of the formula for sure.

To keep things unique, I take photos in groups of 3 so when a new follower goes to check out our story, it has a running theme. If they follow me because I used the hashtag #honey, I better have some honey pics as well!

I’m also into music, so I show bands and art. I like that Instagram allows me to be a brand, but also to show my life and lifestyle. Anyone who wants to follow, can.

Another fun thing I am doing is going back to the beginning and taking a screen shot of my Instagram page so it will have like 9 pics. I hash tag all the pics so new followers who do not want to scroll all the way down to my beginning will always have a glimpse of where I came from. Plus it is way to get plenty of hash-tags in and still have a common theme :)

Stella Sehn – Sweet Pure Honey.

Instagram Jedi Master – Lori Andrews

Aside from the marketing angle, the underlying reason I got this interested in Instagram was a conversation I had with Dax Justin, who is an identity designer and a friend. Out of nowhere, he started posting these incredible Instagram photos and getting a ton of likes and comments. I told him about the idea for this article and he immediately put in touch with Lori Andrews, whom he calls his “Instagram Jedi Master”. -eb

I got invited to join Instagram from Flickr friends fairly early on as a fun new app. Like most of my online pursuits I don’t think marketing first, but rather I consider if the app seems relevant to me. Previous to Instagram I was a bit of a film and digital snob who considered filters a rather unsophisticated response to lack of in-camera skills. Never mind that though… as I quickly succumbed to the lure of the filter. Actually I filter most of my commercial work now a bit! At the time I joined, Instagram was not yet a proven app but now has become so prevalent that even my parents have accounts now. I happily early-adopt new photography and social media venues whenever presented. Sometimes they don’t go anywhere, sometimes they take off.

I consider my Instagram activity to be a success for several reasons. First and foremost is the fact that I am able to share my work with a wide audience on a daily basis with little effort. My Instagram is one part lifestyle blog and 3 parts photography blog. I might put more effort into my images than the average user (an hours worth of shooting and editing is not unheard of) but for the most part I feel free to create and display a variety of lifestyle images to my followers and I don’t take myself too seriously.

My follower numbers grew rather rapidly early on, but I have never really “tried” to grow that in any contrived way. It’s fun and I would likely stop the moment it wasn’t. Interestingly, just by presenting myself and my work in this relaxed manner, I have a following that surprises me. Many of my interior and photography clients in the past couple of years have hired me because as they said “they like my instagram headless photos”, or simply – “they like my Instagram”. I rarely ask my clients who referred me, so the simple fact that this is often the opening statement is testimonial to the marketing appeal of the medium.

Instagram techniques hey? This question always leaves me flummoxed. Well, I am a photographer and I prefer well lit interesting images that have both my personal stamp and appeal to my followers. I assume my followers are mostly like minded individuals who are also interested in well crafted images and awesome lifestyle trends.

I don’t hashtag, I don’t do collaborations because this is my personal take on my personal world. If I had any advice for aspiring Instagramers it would start with: just be yourself. Don’t chase followers. Just like chasing friends, this rarely works out. Authenticity and a genuine love of the social media relationships is how you grow your circles. It’s about them as much as you. As an early adopter of social media through sites like Flickr so many years ago, I quickly realized the friendships you make by interacting online are in fact just as real as the ones you already have in your city. Interaction is the key. It’s not about me, it’s about how we relate to each other really.

Lori Andrews – The Original 10 Cent.

My Instagram Journey

We loaded up and went out in our winter boots, gloves and coats – driving for about 45 minutes to a place called Bragg Creek. I even busted out the DSLR to take some shots. This is serious business, Instagramming.

We spent the day hunting for good lighting, interesting subjects and cool natural backdrops. I learned more about Instagram hashtags, contests and guest-editor campaigns, while we snapped away. At one point, Dax was literally dangling off a branch just skimming the surface of a glacier-fed river below to get this shot.

That evening, I went back to my profile and cleaned up my feed (read: deleted old, totally crappy photos) so it would better represent me and my brand. I also spent some time studying Instagram specific hashtags and looking for people with similar interests (mostly art, nature and motorcycles). Just last night, I posted some photos of sumi-e paintings I made for a friend and connected with a few new, interesting people. A win in my books. Maybe you could do the same, and see where it takes you.

I’m still figuring it out, and things are sure to change but I hope this article was helpful in giving you some ideas on how to get started on your Instagram rockstar journey :)

– ernest.

cover photo by: John Biehler