Welcome to Contributors Corner for November. This month, we explore how to turn ideas into impact and your vision into your mission. We all have ideas and passions, but how do we turn those into fulfilling actions that make a difference in the world?
Our contributors this month are Dan Rogers, entrepreneur and founder of WORKP2P2 (the parent company that produces this podcast); Kristin Graham, word nerd and host of the Fewer Things Better podcast; Dr. Stel Nikolakakis, entrepreneur, coach, and vision therapy expert; and André Brisson, entrepreneur and host of The Impulsive Thinker podcast.
BEATS WORKING host Mark Wright guides this conversation of contributors, each living their purpose through work. You’ll be fascinated to learn how each of them got to where they are today—this episode is filled with nuggets of gold!
Contributors Corner is where we gather past guests of the BEATS WORKING podcast and break down a topic we think will benefit our audience in our mission to redeem work. New episodes drop on the fourth Wednesday of the month.
Resources from the episode:
- Our contributors are on LinkedIn! Connect with Dan Rogers, Kristin Graham, Dr. Stel Nikolakakis, and André Brisson.
- Listen to “This BEATS WORKING,” our episode with Dan Rogers, here.
- Listen to “Lessons From a Word Nerd. My Journey From Expedia to Amazon and Beyond,” our episode with Kristin Graham, here.
- Visit Kristin’s Unlock the Brain website to find video lessons to hack a better work experience and listen to her “Fewer Things Better” podcast here.
- Listen to “Vision Therapy and Turning Personal Challenges into Your Calling,” our episode with Dr. Nik, here.
- Listen to “Working with ADHD ,” our episode with André Brisson, here.
- Listen to Brisson’s Tactical Breakthroughs podcast here and visit Brisson’s Tactical Breakthroughs website to learn more about him and start your ADHD transformational journey.
Share Article on Social Media
Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Speakers: Dr. Stel Nikolakakis, André Brisson, Kristin Graham, Dan Rogers, and Mark Wright
KRISTIN GRAHAM 00:00
As the word nerd, I think I would say write your own story and do it in pencil and let there be a lot of erasers and don’t let other people edit your chapters because you’re supposed to have a lot of rough drafts and alternate endings and dialogues. So write your own story and let it, let it be yours.
DAN ROGERS 00:21
What I want to clearly articulate is, is that you are going to have to be excellent. Like, that’s part of it. Like you don’t, you don’t get to play on purpose if you’re not awesome. Focus on awesome first. And then, if the market or the community that you think you are awesome for agrees, then you get to play!
MARK WRIGHT 00:49
This is the BEATS WORKING show. We’re on a mission to redeem work – the word, the place, and the way. I’m your host, Mark Wright. Join us at winning the game of work. Welcome to Contributors Corner for the month of November. So, Contributors Corner is where we gather past guests of the BEATS WORKING podcast and break down a topic we think will benefit our audience, you, in our mission to redeem work. This month, we explore how to turn ideas into impact, and your vision into your mission. You know, I think we all have ideas and passions, but how do we turn that into action that not only is fulfilling for us, but also makes a difference in the world. Our contributors this month are Dan Rogers, entrepreneur and founder of WORKP2P, the parent company that produces this podcast. Kristin Graham, Word Nerd and host of the Fewer Things Better podcast. Dr. Stel Nikolakakis, entrepreneur, coach, and vision therapy expert. And also André Brisson, entrepreneur and host of the Impulsive Thinker podcast. There is a ton of gold in our conversation. Each of our contributors is living their purpose through work, and it was fascinating to find out how they got there. So here we go. Turning your visio into your mission. Welcome to Contributors Corner on the show this month, turning your vision into your mission. You know, I think all of us have an idea of what our abilities are and what we love to do, but how do we harness everything that we are to truly make a difference in the world to do work that not only matters, but makes us complete. So contributors this month include Dan Rogers, founder of WORKP2P. My boss, for the record. Kristin Graham, founder of Unlock the Brain and host of the podcast, Fewer Things Better. Dr. Stel Nicolakakis, a vision therapy specialist who helps diagnose and treat a range of disorders by examining how the eyes work. And also André Brisson, Engineer, entrepreneur, host of the Impulsive Thinker, a podcast for the high achieving entrepreneur. This is the, I think this is the biggest panel of experts we’ve had on Contributors Corner. It’s so great to have all of you here.
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 03:08
Thanks, Mark.
MARK WRIGHT 03:09
Okay. So from idea to impact, turning your vision into your mission, we’re going to get into the weeds on that one shortly, but I would love for the panel to start out just by giving, you know, give me about a minute of what work is to you right now and what you’re trying to accomplish. So, so let’s start out with Dan.
DAN ROGERS 03:30
Uh, thanks Mark. My name is Dan Rogers. Uh, as you mentioned, um, I am the founder of WORKP2P. Uh, which formerly was Point To Point Transportation. So, uh, what I, what I do for work is, uh, we are, uh, attempting as a, as a group, as a company to demonstrate what we think what redeeming work looks like in 2023 going forward. And, uh, my job is to, to lead that vision.
MARK WRIGHT 04:01
Awesome! And you also identify as a former furniture mover and burrito roller, but we’ll get into that in a little bit. Kristin Graham.
DAN ROGERS 04:10
Guilty as charged.
MARK WRIGHT 04:11
Kristin.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 04:12
My name’s Kristin Graham. I am a recovering corporate person. I spent 20 years doing the good Gen Xer thing, achieving all of the ladders and chasing that brass ring, only to discover that, um, you can have it all and still not be happy. So now I spend my time nerding out loud. I’m a former journalist, so I like to dig into things on the brain and psychology and words. And I like to say I’m the human guinea pig for trying to figure out how to do fewer things better.
MARK WRIGHT 04:42
Awesome. Dr. Stel?
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 04:44
Hi, my name is Stelios Nikolakakis. I’m an optometrist by profession. And, uh, I fortunately, uh, have become a neural visual optometrist because part of my story is I have a son with cerebral palsy and discovered that, um, there’s a portion of our profession that can help kids with, uh, with learning disabilities and, and, uh, brain injury and opportunity has led me now to help, um, high achieving entrepreneurs, uh, discover a vision of their potential in their future because I’m trained in neurologistic programming, hypnotherapy, and, uh, timeline therapy.
MARK WRIGHT 05:20
André.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 05:22
I am Andre Brisson, otherwise known as the impulsive thinker. Um, I’m a recovering engineer by trade, so I do have an engineering company, but lately I’ve been working on tactical breakthroughs from the impulsive thinker where I’m helping high achieving ADHD entrepreneurs, um, understand themselves a lot better in their brain so that I can help them protect their right to be accepted, valued as unique people. And with that, I use my warrior energy to challenge people’s thinking. I learn the facts, I get them to see it. And, you know, I’m starting to call it transformational wisdom and create simple solutions for people. So that’s what I’m at right now and working well. Thank you.
MARK WRIGHT 06:05
All right. Thanks, André. Thanks, everybody. Dan, I’d like to start with you because, um, the journey that you’re on is, is now my journey to an extent. And uh, you and I first started working together at the first of this year. Um, you designed uh, a personal development training that I got to experience last year and really just, um, was impressed with not only your thinking, but what you are trying to achieve in the world. Give us, I’d love just to, an overall picture, Dan, of your early work career. And when you started to crystallize the ideas that you’re now trying to bring into the world about redeeming work.
DAN ROGERS 06:43
I’ll do my best. And I think, uh, uh, when I’ve gone on too long, we’ll just fix it.
MARK WRIGHT 06:50
And there we go.
DAN ROGERS 06:51
Uh, so, uh, I started off as a, uh, truck driver, appliance delivery, installer, furniture mover, that those are my first couple of jobs. And so that literally is moving mass through time and space, like either the truck itself or the stuff on the truck. And, uh, and I was born with the brain that I was born with or whatever, but like, it was a very physical thing. I was, I’m a, I’m a, uh, I’m sort of built for impact. I’m built to move things around. And so that was great. I love the physical challenge of it. I’ve loved the physical opportunity in it and I was good at it. And, um, and then I, so I worked for a moving company and, and so frequently it was just me and maybe one or two other people, and we would like take things down and move them across town or whatever. And then for the company that I worked for, we, we started doing really large office moves. Like we moved the port of Seattle and that was like, you know, 60 guys for 72 hours or something like that. And, and we did the, we did a hotel installation for the Hyatt. It’s like 40 stories. Everything came through our warehouse. So I had first hand experience of like how you walk into somebody’s house, take everything out and put it back to where it’s supposed to go in their new house. And then I also had experience like taking bits and pieces at either all at once or in sequence of like putting things in order. And even though I was still quite young, um, I mean, I was like 18, 19, uh, just based on what I was doing and sort of like the direction that I was giving informally, I got put in supervisor positions very quickly. And I started supervising grown men in on these large office moves. And I didn’t think anything of it because that’s just how it was. And everybody was doing what we’re supposed to do. And so you fast forward a little bit longer. And I decided that I think I want to have, I want to get a college degree because like I can only make a living. You know, with, with, uh, with my back for so long, sooner or later that the job that I was doing, it breaks people down. It’s, it’s a very hard on the body. And so I wanted to get a college degree just to figure out some way to make, make money somewhere other than just carrying stuff around. And, uh, that, that led me into the restaurant business where in very short order, I, I realized that it was just the same game. I was in a, I worked for essentially a company that looked a lot like Subway except it was with burritos. And now instead of like taking someone’s entire house, putting it on a truck, moving across town and putting it all back, we’re just taking the ingredients, putting it in a burrito and handing it to them. It was the same thing. And the restaurant needed to get set up to, like, bring everything into the restaurant that everything go out. And so I’ve been in distribution. I’ve been moving mass through time and space my whole entire life. I had paper out before that. So that’s the one riddle I’ve been on. And, uh, so I, there’s a couple steps in between rolling burritos and here, but more supervisory positions, uh, went back into the moving and storage business, eventually bought the company that I was working for. And when I got officially into quote unquote leadership and ownership, I started trying to put training into place because it was obvious that the people that that we had working for us, meant well, intended well, but they just viewed the world differently and I really wanted him to sort of attack the work that the way that I had attacked it. So we started the development programs that eventually you and I would meet at, uh, you know, 20 something years later, it was just all internal development and there’s iterations and iterations and iterations. So again, it’s one riddle. It’s just moving mass through time and space. I think, arguably, that’s all that life is. It’s a three dimensional navigational game. That’s the way that we see it. And, um, so, uh, I’m trying to do that on some level of scale in everything I do. I try to do it myself with my own work that I’m directly working on. We try to do it as a company with the company. We try to do it with the people inside of the company, uh, individually. And so that’s, it’s just the same principles applied at a different magnitude of scale. Is it an individual? Is it a group of individuals? Is it a group of, uh, a group of groups, uh, like an actual organization? And so that’s, that’s what we’re up against. And so the training that you and I met on was actually our first attempt to share that with somebody that wasn’t on our payroll. It’s somebody, it’s somebody that we weren’t working with, you know, on a full time basis. Uh, and so that, that’s where we are today. I don’t know if that helps answer your question, but that’s.
MARK WRIGHT 11:16
No, it really does, Dan, and it, it speaks to really the evolution of the idea of redeeming work, that you’ve been a student of that process from the very beginning, and the way that you’ve structured WORKP2P, the way you treat, uh, the people you work with now, um, the mission that you’re on to redeem work to show uh, companies and, and managers and owners of companies that you can honor humanity and make a lot of money at the same time.
DAN ROGERS 11:46
Mark, if I can, I’ll throw, I’ll throw in two, two other points. I apologize for cutting you off. Um, and these are all things that actually happen. So I, I, uh, my dad’s long since passed, but I remember I called him uh, I called him when the burrito company, uh, offered me a job outside of the store. They said, hey, uh, you don’t have to be in a store. We’ll have you supervise all the stores. And in fact, you can sort of supervise everything. And at that point, I mean, I was still going to roll a burrito every once in a while, but I basically wasn’t going to be rolling a burrito. I’m like, they’re actually going to pay me to think. And like, they’re not telling me what to do. And, uh, and, uh, he thought that was, uh, he thought that was a really big deal. And I thought it was a really big deal because it was the first time that like my direct physical effort, like the result that I produced in that moment, didn’t decide my check. Because like, make no mistake, if I was on your crew prior to that, you didn’t want to be a, you didn’t want to be my coworker. Like he didn’t, I was a asshole. Now I was a very productive asshole, but I was an asshole. If you were running the crew, you wanted me on your crew, but you did not want to be a coworker, right? So, uh, so it was, uh, it was a whole nother interesting riddle to figure out how could I produce results? Not in my, of my own immediate effort. And that has been an ongoing, that’s a whole, it’s the same riddle, but it’s a riddle that I’ve made far less progress with, but, but it is the same row for sure. And then, um, at that same time earlier to that, I put together that work is in fact, paid practice. And the podcast that we’re on BEATS WORKING is because in 1994, I started saying, um, uh, it, it, it, it pays better to get paid to practice. Uh, yeah, so it just, we look, I’ve looked at work as a place to practice, uh, getting paid for the things that, uh, that we, uh, that will affect, that will allow us to be more, um, effective in the outside world. And the things that we say we really care about, right?
ANDRÉ BRISSON 13:54
Yeah, that’s a bit, like,
DAN ROGERS 13:56
I hammered that, we can let that one go.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 13:57
No, I think that’s a good point to talk about, because you’re talking about the effort you put in has value while I was raised, similar, I think, what I heard from you, Dan, is, I was raised by saying for every hour you put in, you get paid. That’s how you were, that was your value. So, switching that to doing less, to provide more value is a whole new concept for a lot of the, a lot of people to get their head around wrapped around.
DAN ROGERS 14:25
And a conversation, but sorry, Mark, but a conversation that I’ve had with many people who either I, you know, gosh, darn it, I employed them or whatever, but like, I was either their supervisor or not like whatever, but like they were, they were, they were top performers. And I would say to him, like, you have, you have a very classy problem. Um, you are talented enough inside of our system that you could just be a solo contributor and I will be quite happy. Uhm however, because I’m on your side and I might even be a bigger fan of your career than you are yourself. You, you can decide, do you want to be a solo contributor or do you want to take on the challenge of trying to deliver results through other people? Cause that, that’s a way different skill. And if you master it, it comes with a much bigger ceiling than being a solo contributor. Uhm and a handful of people have taken that on. And I think that same thing happens that André was just talking about. In that, in that transition, you must make the transition from, it isn’t about the hour I work. It’s about how can I affect, uh, a different outcome through other people.
MARK WRIGHT 15:37
André, you were working in engineering. You call yourself a, a recovering engineer, which I love, but you worked with undiagnosed ADHD for a long time. And what I think is really cool is you turned that into what you’re doing now with the Impulsive Thinker podcast for high achieving entrepreneurs. Um, talk about that trend, that, that, that realization when you, when you came to the point of saying, wow, this is, this is really something that I need to address in my own life. But then when did it become something that you wanted to share with, with others? And it, it really became a strength.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 16:13
Yeah, so I never realized till recently, um, I was, I was not an engineer to my customers. What I actually did was identified their strengths, their abilities, and how to make them better. And I supported them with my engineering skills. So I always worked around their abilities and I learned what they were and not try to show them how to do it a different way was how to augment their skills. And I’ve always had that interest. I do that with my team, uh, my customers, and then when I got diagnosed and started to understand and develop my ADHD simplified model and the ADHD structure model, it’s, you know, three core things, simplified, and I was doing a presentation during COVID to CADAC, the Center of ADHD Awareness Canada, and they let me speak about entrepreneurship and then how I converted my ADHD symptoms into my ADHD strengths. So I’ve always had a theory overutilized underutilized strengths can be your weaknesses. So how can we just manage it just like I did with my diabetes. And when I was doing that presentation, I had a lot of people wanting to start businesses and dah, dah, dah. And then they start firing back questions at me. And that’s when I realized that was my market. The high achieving ADHD entrepreneur is who I want to help understand their strengths and their abilities with my simplified model. So they can understand how the brain works so that they can be, you know, do what you’re supposed to do and ignore everything else and what everyone else’s story is. So that’s how I came to be to that part And the high achieving part is a lot of the high achieving entrepreneurs we get stuff done. We’re highly motivated, but the traditional ADHD models, we’re not motivated, we’re lazy, and even the coaching is done that way, but I’m motivated, I set goals, I do them, but there is a difference. So I already felt outside of that group. Uhm, and it’s a high achieving side. So there’s not a lot of, um, research or coaching or thinking about that. So that’s why I started the podcast to talk to smart people so I can learn a bunch of stuff about that, the high achiever, how that all intermingles and everyone else gets to eavesdrop on the conversation.
MARK WRIGHT 18:31
Which I loved the episode that we recorded together, André, because it really made me aware of, of the way that you perceive people in the workplace is to truly try to understand neurodiversity, however, that may manifest itself in the workplace and not look at as a weakness or something to be ashamed of, but you look at as, as a way of, of just a difference and maybe we can harness that. And I think that is so freeing.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 18:57
Yeah. It’s all about unique. Yeah. The unique person. So my second strength is you individualization. So I always look for the unique person. How do I make you better? And I’ve always had that interest. So it’s not only neurodiverse, it’s everyone else. Everyone has their own unique. But more socially accepted, I guess, is like a better term, but what makes you awesome? What makes you not and work in the awesome part and have someone else that works in your not awesome while they’re awesome.
MARK WRIGHT 19:26
That’s awesome. Not to, not to, uh, steal your intellectual property, my man. There it is. Yep. Wow. That’s my other word, awesome and wow are my two favorite words. And speaking of awesome, let’s go to Kristin. Kristin, you worked in corporate for a long time and what I love about what you’re doing now with Unlock the Brain and, and Fewer Things Better is that you’re really trying to propose new ideas and new thinking that really benefit people in the workplace. Uh, tell me how that evolution happened in your life.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 20:03
Yeah, thanks That’s such a good way to start the question because I was thinking back to Dan’s story well, first of all because i’m hungry for a burrito, but also because of the ingredients that go into everybody’s story and for me I started out as a journalist and then went into corporate, and when I was paid for the thinking time to build on that story it was to make words pretty, right? That’s a very oversimplified thing. So I was in the commodity of the exchange of information through stories. But to build on what André was saying, as I started to understand the audiences and the diversity in so many levels and layers of that, including, um, neuroawareness, and neuro abilities. I really shifted to understanding that, that it, it was so much less about the ingredients that I put into it and to not being a storyteller as much as holding space for other people’s stories to emerge and to evolve. And I feel like that over the last decade has really had, um, a profound impact. And then coming forward and really looking at that connection point. I mentioned earlier being a human guinea pig. We teach what we need to learn. And so this trying to normalize, um, taking all these high achievers and the society standards for what success looks like, which used to be tied so much to profession and trying to pull that back to being less about achievement and more about fulfillment, which brings in more of the person and the wild world of that person and doing that with respect to who’s going to receive those words and those stories, because, um, it’s one thing to be heard. It’s another thing to be understood. And I think there’s still a huge opportunity for all of us to understand, but then also put forward our own words in a way that helps us feel more authentic instead of polished and perfect and social, social media.
MARK WRIGHT 22:10
Kristin, did this start as a side hustle for you or did you just take, take the leap when you decided to get into this new work?
KRISTIN GRAHAM 22:18
Well, similar to Dan, when I was going through my different roles and, um, successes in the roles, I. I didn’t realize at the time that, and maybe I won’t use the word asshole, but there’s a version of it. When you become really, really good at what you do, you, you have those, uh, standards kind of around you and, and what you can do quickly. Confident. Is that what you said? I like it. I like it. There’s a, there’s a calendar we all need. Um, but I was, I was in, I was in grad school, because why not? I ended up getting, I’m the, the first female on either side of my family to get a college education, period. And then I went on to get two master’s degrees. So I don’t just do it halfway. I like to, to do a lot, but I was, um, I was in grad school, I was, I was getting an MBA through a corporate program and I was, I think, six months pregnant with my second child because, you know, just, just keep going. And I was up at the front of the room presenting because I would always make this deal with people. I was like, you do the Excel spreadsheet. I’ll do the oral presentation because I was the storyteller. And a lot of people take me up on that. I’m a public speaker now as well. And that’s not a stage a lot of people want to be on. But I was up there and I was presenting this project. And afterwards, the professor from the university came up to me and he said, I don’t know what you do for a living, but you need to do this. And I was like, what, what am I doing? And he’s like, this. And he was waving his hands. And that was the first inkling when you talk about from mission to vision. Sometimes we take for granted. What is within us as I love how André said, are our super strengths and our superpowers and there’s this reflection, this mirror that when you see a signal from somebody else, when they can hold up your own potential or to see a vision that sparks your own, that was a profound turning point for me in terms of even seeing how I show up in the world. And I think that that is. It’s fundamental for us to leave fingerprints on other people.
MARK WRIGHT 24:26
I love that. Um, way back when I was in high school, I had a Western Civilization teacher who was more like a college professor. He was a brilliant teacher, but he pulled me aside and he said, Mr. Wright, you should really pay attention to your writing because you write circles around these other kids. And he waved his arms around. And I was, I was really taken aback and I, I didn’t, I was like, oh, uh thank you, Mr. Bentley. And it’s amazing how those seeds that get planted, um, are just so valuable when we’re so blind to kind of who we are and how we show up in the world, that when that outside person says, hey, you should pay attention to this. I love, I love when those moments happen. That’s a, that’s a great story.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 25:12
Oh, and you remembered his name, Mark. I mean, that, that just is such a testament to, um, I love metaphors and I always say you can’t read the label from inside the bottle. And we can be confident, like André says, but you don’t always know what you’re special at. You don’t always know what your gifts are until they’re reflected in some way. And that’s also the point of being understood and sprinkling that around in the world.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 25:38
And then that’s the challenge for you to understand your true gifts. It’s natural to you. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is to a lot of other people. And that’s when you got to listen to get that feedback. Cause yeah, what I do to me is easy with my ADHD entrepreneur clients. Like he’s like, hey, this is easy. And they’re like to them, it’s not, I can decipher. I can devour a lot of information, convert and simplify it. So everyone can have an action plan. It’s easy to me. It doesn’t feel like work. Sorry, Dan had to use that. It doesn’t feel like work, but it’s fun work to do. So that’s where the challenge is to understand what we’re really good at. And then to be able to portray that and repeat it.
DAN ROGERS 26:18
One thing I’d love to throw out there too, we got to get to, we got to get to stealth for sure. But, um, so as Kristin was talking about holding the space. Um, and then also, you know, the reflecting, so the individual training that we’re doing, um, the personal development stuff that we’re doing, um, I don’t think it’ll speak to everybody. I think we’re, we’re definitely, there’s sort of a, uh, we didn’t target a key persona, but based on sort of the response that we’re getting, we sort of have to have the right person in the right space for sure. It’s not for everybody, but there are people that are, I mean, it is not uncommon for someone to say, this is going to, this is going to change my entire life. This is changing my entire life. This fixed this relationship. My family’s doing this. Um, and, and so, and I don’t say that to brag, I say that because this is what they say and they’re glowing and they’re weepy and they’re thanking us for what we’ve done and I’m humbled and I look, my ego like wants to take all the credit. I would happily take it if I actually thought we’re doing something, but really what we’re doing is we’re holding the space for them to uncover their own stuff and then to explore that. And so I think what I would say, based on what I’ve heard is, is there’s an opportunity to help sort of point out and nurture the seed, um, but then rather than tell it a big, long story to hold the space for the seed to grow itself is really, really, really valuable. And that’s, I mean, that’s what. When Kristin was talking about how they fill in the stories for themselves, I’m like, yeah, that’s all we’re doing is asking sequence questions, and they have the courage to answer them as honestly as they can. And then they think we’re wonderful. I’m like, well, no, actually, you’re wonderful. We, we just asked the question. So I think it’s just great for a guy like me to know. And then just a point of clarification, really, just for the editing floor. I was a straight up asshole. Like I can see you being confident, but I was an asshole. I came from a manual laborer, like this is how it happens. Like, yeah, it was not, yeah, it was not. Yeah. So thank you, Kristin. I appreciate it. I can see you being a little confident and a level of standard. There’s other people that were like, I could have lived with that guy. The guy that showed up was a different asshole. All the questions. So anyway, no, just to keep it. Yeah. Hence why we have to ask the questions and hold space.
MARK WRIGHT 28:52
I’m just glad that I work for the new Dan and not the old Dan.
DAN ROGERS 28:58
There are conversations that happen on a fairly regular basis that there are people somewhere in my past going, who is in this call?
MARK WRIGHT 29:07
But Dan, you know, speaking of the training last fall, I was one of those people who came to you and said, this is, this is life changing. And, um, because the, the beauty of the training is, you yourself identify what’s important and why, and then the training just gets you to see how to get it done. And it could be something as simple as repairing a relationship in your family or, um, or whatever. I mean, you decide, and that’s, that is the beauty of that. Stel, you’ve been very patient, my friend. Um, if people haven’t heard your episode of the BEATS WORKING podcast, I highly recommend that. Um, talk about your son, Gabriel Stel, and how hee was an inspiration for the work that you’re doing today and probably a little bit of an explanation about vision therapy because I think the average person, I didn’t understand what that was.
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 29:59
Um, well it’s interesting that this episode’s on vision because that’s who I am and what I do. So um, you know, looking back before Gabriel, way before Gabriel, I always knew that I wanted to help people and you can hear there’s a common theme in, in, in this virtual room. Um, I don’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I thought, hey, this guy, he sits in a room, checks people’s eyes, talks to them all day long, gets paid for it. Who happened to be my optometrist at the time. Um, but it’s interesting because back then, here’s this young guy that just wants to help people and my vision was. As an optometrist, people ask, what do you do? I’m an optometrist, right? It became my identity, right? I am the optometrist, I am an optometrist, I became an optometrist. But my, my view of what was available to me was limited. Because of the way, you heard André say, you know, was an engineer, right? We’re not the label. But what ended up happening throughout my life, looking back, is that I developed, right? So the conversation around who am I started to grow and grow and grow. Obviously, Gabriel was the biggest jolt in order for me to understand that, you know, I am much deeper than a label that existed. And then that led me to a clear vision of what’s possible for me based on my story as Kristin mentioned, right? Um, but I, I owned it, right? Like I owned my story as it was unfolding. So when Gabriel was born, you know, and they told us he’s not gonna see, he’s not gonna walk, he’s not gonna talk, he’s not gonna do all these other things. The asshole in me said, ain’t gonna happen, not on my watch. Um, and I set my vision of what I wanted and what was important to me in terms of my values, right? What my mission was and still is, and how I see the world of possibilities. Which then changes the neurology, and we might get into it a little bit later, but it changes the way that I would look out into the world and all these opportunities that would show up in front of me. Now, as those opportunities show up in front, the challenges show up at the same time. Um, so, I went to learn about neuro visual optometry in the U. S. because we didn’t have any in Canada. And then I learned about vision therapy. I learned about how we can help kids with learning disabilities. 25 percent of every classroom and concussion or traumatic brain injury. Um, and a high level athlete. So the whole combination came in and I want to address the continuum because it’s not just about what we need to fix. It’s about what’s possible and to hold the potential for each person in terms of where they’re at. But in order to know where they’re at, you need to know where you are. Okay, otherwise you can’t hold that space. So you hear it in the room where everybody’s saying, you know. I hold space for people to be listened to. Yeah. That’s because you have an idea of the confident version or the awareness of what makes each of us unique. And it’s an important distinction because the more that we understand the whole I am, the easier it is to understand the potential of who the other person or who the other people are. Okay. And then that’s why I can hold space for anybody in my exam room or my coaching room, because it allows me to always get feedback in terms of do I need to learn more? Am I missing something? Is this something that I can be relatable to? Can I build rapport with what’s happening here? Um, you know, so what ended up happening next uh, which scared the bejeepers out of me was the coaching side, and everybody kept saying oh my god, you changed lives through vision. Oh my god, you changed my life Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god, and I shut it down Because it projected on me something that was really really really really really deep in terms of my capabilities and abilities. Um, and I literally shut it down because it reflected on what I needed to do to grow. Um, but it came to a point where I started discovering what my mission is in this life. And I’m surrounded by unbelievable people. Uh, you know, Kristin, you now, but Dan and André are in my class in an entrepreneurial program called Strategic Coach. Bcause we hold each other, um, we provide, I don’t want to say safe space, although it is, it’s beyond safety now, but we, we provide each other the opportunity to grow to levels that we couldn’t possibly imagine that leads each of us into utilizing our story and providing an impact with purpose. And that’s why even being on this podcast with, uh, with, with Dan and you Mark now, it’s just, it’s adding to that, that capability and, um, you know, the, the coaching part is probably the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever experienced. And the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. Uh, but there’s no stopping. Now there’s momentum. And then this leads me to what the vision of my future is now based on what I’m discovering in terms of who I am now. So, thank you all.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 34:41
Common thing I’ve heard here is it seems like we all made shit happen rather than wait till shit happens to us, right? We all got off.
MARK WRIGHT 34:49
I love how André just says it, how it is that that is absolutely true. I grew up on a farm so I can completely relate.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 34:57
Well, then you’re flinging it too.
MARK WRIGHT 34:59
But flesh that out. That’s perfect, André.
DAN ROGERS 35:05
And then I think it’s just the level of tact and class determines whether you’re confident or an asshole.
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 35:12
Put them together. Put them together and you have.
DAN ROGERS 35:14
Like, I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s really the discernment of the scale here. We’ve got some more polish and some less polish, but everybody is attempting to make stuff awesome. I think that’s, that’s accurate.
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 35:26
Put them together. Put them together and you can, you can, you can add C. A. as a designation to your name.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 35:33
Well, that’s fair.
MARK WRIGHT 35:37
Sorry to derail you, André, but continue with your thought.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 35:41
No, it was just a thought. It’s just, we made, we got to a point in our careers. I think it’s a valid statement for Kristin, Stel, Dan, and myself. And I think you too, Mark. Um, it just after a while, we just got tired of it or, you know, clarity on some, and then we just made it happen rather than sit there and wait. And I think that’s what a lot of people, they may have a vision, but they can’t do anything with it because they’re waiting for that vision to, to activate for them. But we’ve always got to keep doing something and move forward, sitting there doing nothing, just doing nothing and life doesn’t happen to you. You have to make it happen.
DAN ROGERS 36:7
Well, that was good.
MARK WRIGHT 36:20
that, that was, yeah, go ahead Dan.
DAN ROGERS 36:22
Yeah, no, I, I, I would have liked to. I, I potentially, I mean, I’m very happy with how life has turned out. So I’ve, uh, I’ve been asked this a bunch of times. I actually wouldn’t change anything in the past. I mean, there’s plenty of things that I should change and all that, but like, I’m happy with results and I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I don’t want different than what I have. So I’ll just take the good, the bad and all of it. But in theory, I would have liked to maybe have learned this message differently than how it was transmitted. But what I did get in my childhood was the calvary is not coming. It’s not. In fact, there isn’t a calvary. So if you’re hungry, there’s ketchup in the free condiment section, and if you mix that with hot water, it’s tomato soup. Like go make soup like if you want that get a paper route and buy it. So I didn’t necessarily love the installation of the message but the message that I got was is that it was a participatory sport and a participatory experience and it wasn’t about uh waiting for things to be delivered. It was about going out and attempting to do that and that’s what I hear you saying andre and and I will I will say slightly less irreverently, but just as genuinely that I do think that what I am desperately trying to learn and why I’m trying to redeem work is how I can do that in a way that is the most attractive message possible, because I think that’s part of how I personally would like to redeem work, because all we have is work. All we have is effort. So I want to do it in a way that is, uh, is attractive, uh, in its efforts, not necessarily to every single person on the planet, but just in its effort. And when I was being a quote unquote asshole, it was not attractive to other people. And most importantly, when I reflected upon it, I wasn’t attracted by it. I couldn’t, I couldn’t live with how I was messaging, right? If I could have, I would have just kept doing it. So, so, um, yeah.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 38:19
So you want to redeem work, Dan? Kristin, what do you want to do?
KRISTIN GRAHAM 38:23
I want to, to help people do fewer things better, for sure. And to normalize, and to normalize fewer as the accomplishment instead of, uh, and I want to go back Dan to something that you just said, because as, as somebody who’s been a student in your programs, and I want to borrow a phrase from Stel, that holding that space allows people to have permission to see what’s possible. Because otherwise, we adopt the visions of others. And then work steadfastly towards it, thinking that that’s going to be the equal sign to success. And that’s not all just a, a personal, but that’s social conditioning. That’s all sorts of elements. So the, the liberation to have intellectual and emotional recess allows us to find our own vision. And some of it will have ingredients from other people and our, and our cultures and our upbringings. Um, but Dan, I’m looking behind you at that, that picture that says art and just to discover what our art is. And still, when I listen to you, I think about the beauty of neuroplasticity and that we can really change and adapt and become, I, I have a son who has, uh, benefited from vision therapy for a long time. And in the beginning, everybody tells you what you can’t do. What kids can’t do, what you can’t do. Um, all because of different elements, but this, so André, to your question, what I want to normalize is that we are still a blank page and we still get to write a story or change a story.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 40:06
And it always progresses as we move on. And I like the word that you use permission, because I think Dan’s trying to get people permission to work, find the good in work, you’re finding permission for people to be normalized. Stel, what are you trying to get permission to, to people?
DAN ROGERS 40:20
Just a couple, one thing before we get to Stel, because I just want to be clear. It, it technically says make art, just I probably can’t see it in the thing, but it says make art. Um, uh, and, um, in redeeming work, uh, it’s impossible to figure out what to do. And I have nine restraints, which are inactions. And so it’s actually about figuring out what not to do. And, uh, there’s a lot of things that I could throw out here, but the thing that I would just remind folks is if we are not on your intention, which is intentional effort, that would be the result of redeeming work. The by product of that is intentional effort, intentional effort. If you’re not on your intentional efforts, you’re on someone else’s intention, there is no other place to be. You’re either on yours or you’re, you are, you are the, uh, willing, uh, passive participant in someone else’s. So, Sel, what are you trying to redeem?
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 41:17
Well, in short, I would say changing lives through vision. And after this conversation, I’ll, I’ll deepen it a little bit because, uh, most people don’t really understand when I say vision, especially as an optometrist. Like does that mean I say, um, when we’re doing vision training, okay, and whether I’m doing it as an optometrist, as a coach, it’s the exact same thing. Um, the, the, the, the, the foundational work is things like discrimination, attention, right? So ADD, it’s like, how do we attend to different things? Who’s doing this? It’s like, we call it locus of control. Like who’s responsible, I’m responsible. So we get the kid to understand who are they, right? And safety is a key piece when there’s that indication of a what’s wrong or what needs to be fixed or what hasn’t developed properly, right? And we kind of all have it. Um, it’s a safety mechanism, survival mechanism that we all go through. I can talk about it from an emotional standpoint. I can talk from a vision standpoint. I can talk about it from any standpoint, but when I’m talking about vision development, at some point, once you redeem work or discover what that thing is that we are innately born with. Okay, then there’s a shift to another level of awareness where well, we just talked about it now creativity is one of them It’s like what’s the art that we hold within ourselves, right? safety now all of a sudden becomes intimacy or vulnerability where now there’s an opening to really get to the core and be able to authentically express authentic. I think Kristin said it right authenticity. So there’s this movement of understanding self and I’m going to give it just a little bit of a bigger picture and hopefully this makes sense in a little bit limited amount of time, but vision actually the definition came from Dr. Skeffington from a hundred years ago, and he uses four circles to describe it. Okay, and the first circle is the I am circle. So who am I? The second circle is who are you? Okay, the third circle is where are you with respect to me? And then the fourth circle, he calls it the speech language circle. I subcategorize it into speech language, communication, and authentic expression. When all four of those circles merge, okay, it’s, it’s actually called emergence or the emergence of vision, but it comes from within. Okay, vision all comes from within the, hey, that was kind of cool. See, hooray.
MARK WRIGHT 43:46
You have, you have the new operating operating system that graphics up when you make gestures. So that’s awesome.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 43:54
Stop it.
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 43:56
Isn’t that cool?
ANDRÉ BRISSON 43:58
Now we’re distracted.
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 44:00
There we go. There we go. Um, anyway, so the the, the thing, and I could hear it with everyone on this, on the podcast in terms of the passion, uniqueness, uh, intimacy, creativity, it’s all part of a much bigger picture of understanding self and that’s the bubble that we only have that responsibility for, right? Because then what happens is if we don’t understand ourselves, we help everybody else help, help, help, help, help, help, help, and we can communicate. And then we hope that the communication comes back in order to understanding self. And then we hope that our vision starts becoming a reality. The second you understand self. And as all of you, cause I’m integrating everything everybody’s saying is if all of you understand who you are, I understand who I am. Now we can authentically express and communicate where all of us come together and create something big, which Dan sounds like you’re creating with this whole movement that you’re creating with Mark and, and, uh, and, um, you know, it BEATS WORKING the podcast. It’s a much bigger view of what you actually do. It’s a, it’s a thing. It’s the, it’s it, as KristIn said, that guy, what did he say to you? It’s this, right? It’s this is it. It’s a, it’s not usually something you can see. It just emerges through action and through abilities, which André was mentioning. We’re all doing stuff to make it happen, whether we’re comfortable or not, it’s in that direction. So,
ANDRÉ BRISSON 45:21
And by also the other thing we, I think we’re all clear on in this room is we know our limitations. And I think that what helps with our mission vision, like Kristin said, like, I agree. I’m actually teaching what I learned because it’s, I want to learn it for me. At the same time, but to be good at this and to effectively execute a vision or mission to me is you have to know your own limitations, which means you got to be authentically honest with yourself and vulnerable because I like I remember still my first coaching session. Yeah, I felt naked and raw and like, what the hell am I doing? And then they come back. So that was the greatest thing ever. And you’re like, oh what, right? But what can I learn next is what I’m, I really enjoy about this.
MARK WRIGHT 46:06
One thing I’d like to explore now is that when we talk about going from vision to mission, from going from just sort of work to our calling in life, right? I think a lot of us think, oh, but how am I going to pay the mortgage? And the other thing that, that I’m, I’m struck by is that, like I was in television for a long time and got asked to leave, which was the best thing that ever happened to me. But when we have really good jobs and they pay well, there’s not a lot of motivation in our minds to change. And I was reading the news. It wasn’t super satisfying to my soul. I was good at it. Um but I’m doing work now, today, that is the most fulfilling work that I’ve done in my life. And, and it happened because I started asking those questions. Who am I? You know, what do I want to do? What do I want to be in the world? And, uh, it, it’s amazing that it’s not an age thing. This can happen when you’re 20 or when you’re almost 60. Or even later. So, Kristin.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 47:12
And multiple times.
MARK WRIGHT 47:13
Yeah, multiple times. Yeah. Kristin, you sent me some inspiration earlier today. A quote, but I’d love it if you could address that idea of, whoa, I’d love to do this, but I’m kind of scared, or is this really what I should be doing?
KRISTIN GRAHAM 47:30
Yeah. Well, and I think that you can have your signals or you can have your passion, and then we, we wanna put them into socially acceptable boxes. Like, oh, this is my hobby, or I’ll do this on this side. And, and now that there’s this whole gig economy and side hustles, that seems to be where people put their passion after they earn their paycheck. And one of the things that for me, especially when Dan talks about, um, when it stops feeling like work, it’s when the hours go by, I think now everybody calls it kind of flow or I’m in state, but it’s, and, and Mark, that’s why I sent that to you earlier. It’s that, that thing you do early in the evening, late at night when nobody’s watching, you wouldn’t get paid for it. It’s the thing that you think about, you dream about. Um, and I think we, we get introduced to these glimpses of our calling, but we call them dreams or goals or, you know, hashtag goals. Instead of going off the traditional path, especially when you are providing or you’re building an identity of security, comfort, et cetera. And one of the other things I think is interesting about entrepreneurs is the, the commonality of, of risk that has happened. I haven’t met many entrepreneurs who are like, I had a really great childhood and like everything was super easy. And my adulthood’s also going swimmingly. I think there’s something to that grit. There’s there’s gravel that needs to come and that’s almost the seeds. If, if I can mix that metaphor that you have to have the gravel to give you the grit that allows you to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Cause we can all, I used to call it the velvet rut. You know, you’re stuck, but you’re surrounded by that velvet. And sometimes we go buy boxes of it at Costco and just keep wrapping ourselves in it, but you’re never actually satisfied when you’re constantly waiting. I call it the stomach test, right? You’re waiting for the three day weekends and the holidays and, um but your question is such a good one in terms of, are we willing to lose sight of the shore? And I worked in big tech. That’s what brought me out to, and that’s where I made a lot of my financial success. And that is completely built on golden handcuffs, you’re always going to leave something on the table. And so with that, I think it hardwires us differently to always think about what we’re leaving instead of what we’re gaining. And I love Mark, your story about the gift that you were given in shitty wrapping paper, because those become the impetuses for why not? Because we always have the whys, but it’s that why not. And for me, during COVID, a single, a divorced single mother of two teenage boys, I was like, this feels like the time to leave the world’s largest company and go do my own thing. But it was when, when I just couldn’t stand doing the day for someone else any longer.
DAN ROGERS 50:31
So, so, uh, I’m, I, I might’ve invited myself into this, uh, episode had I not been invited in, had I saw it in time. Um, because I have some very, very, very passionate opinions based on, uh, my own personal experience and then based on, uh, restraint number five of don’t be arrogant, cupping off the smartest kids in class. And so I think there is a baked in assumption that might be that when we uncover it, um, it changes the conversation massively. And so, um, uh, I would encourage folks to check out Cal Newport’s, uh, talk. He’s, uh, it’s something like following, following your passion is bad career advice and in it, in about 18, 15, 18 minutes, he completely dissects Steve Jobs. You know, Stanford talk where, where he said, follow your passion, where, and then he, his sort of punchline just to ruin it for you is he even illustrates that even Steve Jobs didn’t follow his passion. And so I hear people like Kristin saying, I just followed my passion. Mark, you followed your passion, but there’s this massive assumption that’s baked in is we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re missing the point that folks were excellent. They were excellent first and unfulfilled. Then they followed their passion. He’ll explain it to you as a theoretical mathematician who does research for fun. We’ll explain to you the science behind what I’m paraphrasing. Is it better to get excellent first? And that will lead to purpose. That is the mastery curve of purpose. Is the passion comes in, in compensatory equivalent value of my excellence. It’s a, it is a by product of the process. It is never present. Ahead of time save for very very rare exceptions. It grows over time. It grew this is the 10 000 hour argument. It’s all of it Like we know this and we just forget because we oversimplify because we’re humans. That’s what we do, right? It’s like Lebron James, Oprah Winfrey, Venus Williams, Michael Jordan. All these people paid in excellence. They paid in excellence first. They didn’t necessarily have a passion for basketball. I know more about Michael Jordan than the other people that I mentioned. That dude is just a straight cold savage competitor. He has a, he has a thirst for excellence. It just turned out that basketball was the quickest way for him to get it, right? So I’m just telling you what we think is mild interest, like this, what he says, and I’ve seen it countless times. And these people come talk to me and they’re like, well, I wanted to be a photographer, but I, I don’t want to run a business. It’s like, well, if you want to be a photographer, don’t become a photographer because you’ll have to run a business in order to pay for it. So become excellent and see if that leads to your purpose, right? I mean, you can encourage purpose too, but excellence has to be part of it. And there isn’t anyone on this call that hasn’t crushed excellence first, and we minimize that because we’re that and I think there is genuine humility on this call, but it’s wildly, wildly different because I’ve, I’ve employed people that are more talented than I am. I’m not going to out in my name. This is a true story. We can edit it later. I had a guy in his late 20s who could type 140 words a minute and was likable. And I was like, dude, if I had your skill set, I could literally, Jeff Bezos would be washing my car right now. Except he had no drive for excellence because he could just show up and be satisfactory. Excellence, excellence, excellence. Excellence, the pursuit of excellence and what you are willing to put that effort in will uncover what your passion is without passion, you won’t be able to get it, but your passion will grow as you get better. It just will. It’s not, it’s not, it’s not as simple. It’s not as simple as just follow your passion. It, that will, that’s a great place to start, but it might lead you someplace else. So check out, the only takeaway really is check out Cal’s talk. He presents it’s about 15 minutes. It will ruin follow your passion. It will, but he’ll tell you how to do it. He’ll tell you how to actually end up with a job and a career.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 55:09
I’m like, no, I’m percolating with this because this now I feel like let’s start this podcast now because Dan, uh, there’s nothing I love more than a, than a juicy animated conversation. I, I love that. I recognize that and I want to offer the yes, and which really goes to, and I was looking for the book here on my shelf cause I want to quote it properly, but I think it’s the big leap and it’s the, the zone of excellence versus a zone of genius. And I, I really recognize what you’re saying when you know that you’re capable of excellence, then you can have that confidence. We talked about earlier to then follow the passion. The challenge I had in finding excellence was because it was excellence as defined by others, performance reviews and, and, and, and lots of elements. And I got very, very good at being very, very good. And the, the 10,000 hours, et cetera, but that became, um, everything and not enough because I got the financial accolades. I got the title and then I got the public recognition. It was like I was one of only 20 women at that level. And then I, there was like awards and, and I kept feeling, um, imposter syndrome on the other side, right? Uh, of that. And so there’s that vulnerability that I think Stel talked about earlier, that leads to that genius and that passion. It’s not because, um, poof, you know, I’m just a really good baker. So I’m going to go to France and make that. It’s really more that element of saying. Um, this, this feels like this feels true, and especially when that’s not necessarily accepted or there’s a space for it, or there isn’t guaranteed comfort in velvet behind it. So I, I really wanna go with that. I like Cal’s work.
DAN ROGERS 57:00
Yeah. So I, I don’t think we’re saying something wildly different. I think I’m just saying that you’re, you’re on, I, I think if I was gonna just keep it very, very, uh, as concrete and tangible. I think you’re on step three and I’m suggesting that there’s two steps prior to it I agree with everything that you’re saying. I just think that there’s a pre baked assumption because of who you are. Like, um, uh, I think it’s, I think it’s insane. I mean, I have children at eight and six. I, I reserved the right that I changed my story when they are 20, but I would tell a 20 year old, I would be like, why in God’s name, do you want to get on your mission at 20. Go do everything because this is the one time in your life that you can be wildly irresponsible and try things that you’re bad at and do all this other stuff and just go experience the data and either, and either do that or commit to a very clear band and gain that reference point, but you are in reference gathering and building of competency. But to commit and think that, you know what you want to do,
ANDRÉ BRISSON 58:15
Maybe from your experience, right?
DAN ROGERS 58:17
The handful of people that know how to do that, that the handful of people that the boss has given that to are just, we’re not talking to those people. We’re talking to the rest of the universe are like, look, man, I don’t know. So I think I agree with you, Kris. I just think there might be, you know, one, or there’s just steps ahead of what you’re saying. And actually even committing to Corporate America and just being successful inside of that structure. You’re going to end up with skills And reference points for then you just say with this skill and reference now I have the courage to go jump, but you have to be excellent. You can’t just serve the time.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 58:50
I know and I love this Dan. That’s all I think step zero Is we also have to recognize the privilege to be excellent and the starting ground of grit and the privilege to pursue passions and all the rest of it. I don’t want this conversation to go without us all acknowledging that grit and all the rest of it comes from an opportunity to play. So,
ANDRÉ BRISSON 59:11
This went off the rails because the wrong word used by Kristin and Mark, they use the word passion, but what they’re actually explaining where they found in their purpose because of those experiences, right? To me, the passion is like, it’s an interest with no action. It’s a dream and all that. While your purpose is an action with direction. So I think Mark, what I heard from you was you got, you got let go. You reevaluate it. Now you found a new purpose on what to do. By working with Dan, by working more your excellence, you had the excellent skills. And then with Kristin, what I also heard was, you know, you decide to get, you know, what’d you say? You were divorced, two teenage kids, COVID, what the hell? Let’s go. I did the same thing too. I did find a purpose when I started my first engineering career, we’re six months pregnant, blew our savings on our house. Why not take a chance? Right? But I think purpose was the actual word they were describing, not necessarily passion, but I agree with Dan and Kristin about the whole passion thing. And it is a misnomer in society that follow your passion, blah, blah. I think that’s just bullshit for people to fall in line with the generalities and the rules of society.
DAN ROGERS 01:00:27
Agreed, and I think if, and this will, because I trust that Tamar and Mark will cut all the other nonsense out, so I think what I would throw out there is, is, uh, I think step zero has been clearly identified. I’m not sure what the other steps are, but somewhere much earlier in the process than I think most of us, uh, not most of us on this, but just most of us on the, uh, the folks on this call, maybe take it for granted because we just did it. I think other people take it for granted, uh, because they just don’t realize it’s supposed to be. So what I want to clearly articulate is, is that you are going to have to be excellent. Like that’s part of it. Like you don’t, you don’t get to play on purpose if you’re not awesome. Focus on awesome first, and then if the market or the community that you think you are awesome for agrees, then you get to play. Otherwise, you have to eat, right? So eat first, and that’s where I just think, and I’m not saying I’ve met anybody, but there’s like, we’re forgetting we’re talking. I mean Mark had four emmys, right? Am I not misspeaking? He had four emmys when he got freed up. This is not some clown that was on regional that was barely hanging on. This is like so again, these are people that are at excellent and then they’re doing another step up. So I just think we have to pay first. Brian Tracy said it buys life is a cafeteria. It ain’t a sit down restaurant you have, you can have whatever you want. You just have to pay first and then you can eat. Then you can eat the meal. You don’t get to eat and then pay after. That’s all. That’s all. But it is a right to go to the restaurant. There’s no question. Step zero. It’s a massive privilege to have the opportunity.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 01:02:17
You don’t have the excellence without the hard work. And that’s, I love that about the cafeteria analogy. And I liked what you said earlier. I wrote it down to how we, we used to lead forward with what we did. You know, I’m a top optometrist, et cetera. And then I see, I see some of the excellence transition of getting away from being the noun and getting into being the verb, right? Just what we’re doing and what we’re living and how we’re doing that work. So I loved how you said that as well.
MARK WRIGHT 01:02:47
Well, this has been, uh, an amazing conversation and, uh, I would love to give each of you just, just a moment to summarize what we’ve talked about today in terms of, uh, that person who’s listening, who wants to turn that vision into mission. And I love what you said about excellence, Dan, because I’m, I’m a big believer that I don’t care. I mean, I’ve had every grunt job in the world, every menial job in the world. And I did, and I did each of those with excellence and I didn’t slack off. And I tried my very best to be the best dishwasher at Johnson’s restaurant in Ferndale. I worked the very hardest to be the best worker in the field at my uncle’s organic farm. And so that excellence, that drive provides that life experience that eventually connects you with your purpose. And, and, but I would love, Stel, give us, give us a summary of what you’d love to leave us with.
DR. STEL NIKOLAKAKIS 01:03:42
Um, there’s a few things. The one I want to leave everybody with is, um, around relationships and relationships of self. And taking an inventory of all the things that happened for you. So in other words, recasting the past in a way of understanding how to create a compelling future. And there’s one question that is posed by, Dan Sullivan created something called the R Factor. Uh, which is a question that is asked in a specific way to then allow your brain to think a little bit differently. And it sounds like this. It’s a year from today, what has happened already that you’re happy and excited about? And the reason why it’s asked that way is to open up the floodgates of understanding what your vision and what’s important to you. When you have both sides of the equation, so you recast the past You have a bit of clarity of what your vision is. Now you can run your mission by being present in the moment in the now. And then it allows you to live in the moment to then move in a direction of what’s important for you. So I want to leave everybody with that because I think it’s the best way to explain how vision mission is connected to me.
MARK WRIGHT 01:04:54
Oh, that’s great. André.
ANDRÉ BRISSON 01:04:56
Well, for me, to go along Kristin’s analogy with, you said grit and sand, um, is in a way, like for me, I discovered my purpose because I had a lot of road rash, you know, skinned knees, bruised ribs, because I was trying something to discover my mission and vision. So trying and failing and figuring out how to prevent future road rash or skinned knees improved my excellence to do better. And then it gave me clarity as I grew to find on what my purpose was, and it takes time. You can’t get it right now. It won’t happen to you. You gotta figure it out and you gotta move, get off your butt and try, because if you don’t try, you failed.
MARK WRIGHT 01:05:39
Kristin.
KRISTIN GRAHAM 01:05:40
Yeah, as the word nerd, I think I would say, write your own story. And do it in pencil and let there be a lot of erasers and don’t let other people edit your chapters because you’re supposed to have a lot of rough drafts and alternate endings and dialogues so write your own story and let it let it be yours
MARK WRIGHT 01:06:02
Wow, I love that. Dan.
DAN ROGERS 01:06:04
Uh, I think this be out of sequence, but I think it’ll go with everybody else but but um, so, uh Pareto Principle 8020. Um, and this has been my experience as a worker among workers and the people that signs the check. If, and just rubbing boss, rubbing elbows with the boss kids. If you ask a hundred people, do you want to be excellent? Do you want to do you want to live? Do you want to live on your purpose? Whatever if you ask them some question like that. Unfortunately 20 out of 100 will say no they’ll just say no and or they just won’t answer they’ll freeze, they’ll do whatever and we just have to we have to pray for them and hope the boss touches them in a different way. Um, so now we’re left with 80 Out of those 80 people, 64 of them will give some version of something that really basically says, I will do that when it shows up. And respectfully, I think we probably need to just hope the boss does something with them because like it doesn’t ever show up. Like it just doesn’t, like it doesn’t show up, but they’re saying like, I would do it if it was present, but I don’t, but I don’t see it present now. Cause I didn’t ask him, is it present? I asked him, do you want to have a wonderful life? Do you want to be an all star? Do you want a life of purpose? Like whatever, if it shows up, I’ll take it. 16 of the 80 that are left, what they do and everything that they do is they show up on purpose as an all star giving excellence, no matter what, no matter what, no matter what, no matter what, because that’s just what they do. What I would encourage you to do is be one of those 16. That just shows up and gives their best effort in that moment and their best effort might be a third one tenth of what it was the day before. But that best effort because, um, you’re not going to get a memo ahead of time that this is, this is your purpose. So just to finish it off, there’s 16 left. So if we get inside of that, there’s 3.2 people that the circumstances are just so that they actually get to be the all stars and they actually get to be world class and everything else. But those 16 people that show up that way, they are the happiest, most successful people that you’ve ever met. And it doesn’t matter what they’re doing. They’re always happy and they’re top performers. So, and there’s a choice that can be made that says, I’m going to show up at that. Um, you, I, I would say, you know, Kristin said, write your own story, write your own story that you show up to be one of the 16. It’s the boss’s, it’s the boss’s call if you get to be one of the 3.2, but I think we can choose if we want to be one of those 16.
MARK WRIGHT 01:08:39
Well, this has been so rewarding talking to each of you. And I think the thing that I’m struck by in each of your lives is just the passion. To not only be excellent, but to create your own story and to create the change in the world that you want to see. It’s, it’s amazing. And you’re all inspiring in each of your own ways. This has been so much fun. Thank you so much. Dan Rogers, Kristin Graham, Dr. Stel, André, you guys are awesome. Thank you so much for joining us for Contributors Corner. Hope to see you guys back for another episode. Thank you so much. I’m Mark Wright. Thanks for listening to BEATS WORKING, part of the WORKP2P family. New episodes drop every Monday. And if you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. Special thanks to show producer and web editor Tamar Medford. In the coming weeks, you’ll hear from our Contributors Corner and Sidekick Sessions. Join us next week for another episode of BEATS WORKING, where we are winning the game of work.
