Habits and Practices That Will Change Your Life with Tim Sipprell

Speaker 1: 0:00

You need a why to drive you in the hard times. To me it was always a little bit tricky, especially the what, what do I want? But when I figured out that another way to get at the same thing is to come at it from a different angle of who do you want to become, that made me go. Oh, and that kind of folded into the whole idea of the growth mindset and where are you going? What are you doing? How are you doing? Where are you doing? How are you doing? Where are you at? How are you showing up? How is that affecting the people around you? And you start to realize that it affects them more than you realize it did. We have an enormous effect on people in our world.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Welcome to the whole shebang. I'm Jen Briggs, your host. Let me tell you what you're in for here. Many of us have been running at breakneck speed, functioning mostly in our heads, and we've suffered from disconnection, burnout and lost passions. I believe it's because we functioned in part and not in whole. So we're exploring a new path, embracing intuition, creativity, playfulness and connection in all of life. It's vibrant, powerful and magnetic. So come on with me and buckle up buttercups we're diving in.

Speaker 2: 1:12

Today I sit down with my colleague, my good friend, and now I get to share with the world my business partner, tim Sapral. We are so excited to unveil what we've been working on for a long period of time and you're going to hear more about that in the episode. I actually had shared with a different friend this morning that, um, a little bit about this business, and she said you know, I have to say I didn't see that coming the two of you working together and Tim doesn't actually know. My response to her was that's interesting to me. Obviously, I've gotten to know him much better over the last couple of years, but I think what a lot of people have seen of him in his current work environment is that he's very data-driven. He really parses through the economy. He applies that to people in a very logical way and is a great instructor. And what I think a lot of people probably haven't seen is his passion for personal growth and development and his desire to take that to people in a way that there are things he wished that he would have learned 10 years ago and is excited to give that back. So, anyhow, today you're going to hear us talk about how we followed these signs that led us to launch this business. We dive into what it means to have a growth mindset, how to develop more self-awareness, presence, the power of habits. We get a little nerdy on some neuroscience and how your brain works and kind of how to hack your brain so that you can actually implement change in your life, even though it can be challenging. Let me tell you about a little bit of Tim and then we'll dive in.

Speaker 2: 2:45

So Tim began his career as an accomplished marketer, representing national blue chip brands while working with an iconic advertising agency, fallon. While it thrust itself into the best agency in North America, conversation, innovation and creativity were the norm in those early days. But don't put Tim in a box With a master's in business administration from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Business. Decades of entrepreneurial success in real estate, parsing data and economics. Tim's unique ability to marry creativity and logic has propelled him in success in developing course curriculum and helping others navigate their path on personal development.

Speaker 2: 3:21

He also has two grown sons and, with his hockey playing and coaching days behind him, he's now focusing his spare time on reading, being outdoors, skiing, cycling, running, hike, hiking and, especially, getting his backside kicked by his boys on the golf course. That's his bio from our website, in case you're wondering. It's an understatement to say that I've been excited for you all to learn more about this business, about what we've been up to, about our passions, and I trust that you're going to take some things from today's episode that are going to help you become the best version of yourself. So buckle up. I hope you enjoy. I am going to say thank you for the coffee, though.

Speaker 1: 4:04

You're welcome. We'd be nothing without it. I mean, let's be real.

Speaker 2: 4:09

I know Okay, so I'm glad you're here. Thank you, tim, for joining me. On the whole spang, I appreciate, as I've launched this podcast, that you have been like you've been listening to the episodes, which feels really nice to just be like to have people listening a, but then you give me good feedback. So you're like here's what was good, here's maybe something that you could tweak, and I appreciate that, as we're working together, that we can like give each other that feedback. So thank you.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Yeah, it's been a wonderful podcast. It's very exciting to see you start something that was calling to you and you just felt a pull toward and you went with it my genuine interest in the podcast and kind of the conversations that we've had about it. It's a natural parallel to the process we've been going through for really almost like over a year and a half now. We're starting a company and we've been working on this for a while.

Speaker 2: 5:01

When I pause and kind of pull way back and look at the big picture, it's been clear that both of us have been just sort of following I keep saying breadcrumbs, but like following this path in front of us and just kind of seeing where it leads. And so the birth of this company has been really organic but I also think, very serendipitous. Like you said it once when we were talking. We are exactly where we're meant to be right now and I the timing of, you know, my job position being eliminated with all this reorganization structure, the timing of when I launched this podcast and that it's off the ground now all of the things have sort of perfectly lined up for us launching this business at this time, which I just think to pause and note the orchestration of that is pretty crazy. Yeah, it's wild.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Yeah, it's not like we sat down and and said, let's start a business. What should we do, you know? Should we make cookies now?

Speaker 2: 6:01

I don't know about that.

Speaker 1: 6:02

I mean, this all came about organically and it was pulling us toward it. We weren't really looking for it. You call it breadcrumbs and I think that's a good way to put it. It's or some people might think it's signs. I just think it's naturally what you're interested in and it's. It's always gratifying as an outsider looking into somebody else's journey. It's.

Speaker 1: 6:25

It's always gratifying as an outsider looking into somebody else's journey, people who have found something that really drives them and lights them up and gets them energized and makes them feel like it's not work. And you know they want to show up for people and they want to. You know they want to go head head first into into whatever it is. That's that's lighting their fire. That's so inspiring. And it's it's cool that I think we've both found that this whole personal growth thing. You know, depending on what your social media feed looks like or what have you, it's out there and it's becoming more mainstream and I think Gen Z is particularly interested in leaning into it, but it's very scatterbrained, it's very, you know it's not very organized. It's people are confused about what to do.

Speaker 2: 7:08

There's all kinds of bits and pieces out there and I'm just going to ask you some personal questions. We've like touched on it just in our conversations that I'm curious to dive in a little more. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm going to dig into your brain. Put me on the hot seat.

Speaker 2: 7:21

So you've been following. What lights you up? When did your journey into personal growth and development begin and like, what was the catalyst for it? Can you think of a time or an experience or something that you had that you were like oof? I want to change.

Speaker 1: 7:40

I don't know that there was one particular time or thing, but I do think that it's exactly the moment when you realize that there is this thing called the growth mindset. And the growth mindset is all about recognizing that you're never there and that's normal and that's okay. And that's normal and that's okay. Maybe there was a time in my life where I had a defensive mechanism or, you know, I felt like I'm good, don't question myself or whatever, because that would be hard to do. Um, and when you realize it's okay to question yourself and think more like a scientist, you think you have something figured out. Go try to break it and figure out something new. Always be searching for new, you know information or new knowledge.

Speaker 1: 8:29

And that's what a growth mindset is. It's somebody who wants to continue learning and changing and making themselves better, and that's a and really what that is. I guess there was a little bit of a catalyst. That really changed things for me was when you're in a goal setting or a vision setting environment. They're going to ask the question what do you want, right? Or what's your big? Why is another one? What's your big reason for for life?

Speaker 2: 9:00

for anything. For, for, like, wanting to grow the business or sell more widgets, or whatever it is.

Speaker 1: 9:05

Well and really good and it's a great caution, by the way or another one for making all this money. Like, people have a goal. A lot of times it's financial. They want to make a certain amount of money. Why you need a why to drive you in the hard times is the thought behind it.

Speaker 1: 9:20

But to me it was always a little bit tricky, especially the what, what do I want. But when I figured out that another way to get at the same thing is to come at it from a different angle of who do you want to become, that made me go. Oh, and that kind of folded into the whole idea of the growth mindset. And you know where are you going, what are you doing? How are you doing? Where are you at? How are you showing up? How is that? Then you start to realize how is that affecting the people around you? And you start to realize that it affects them more than you realize it did. We have an enormous effect on people in our world, and just it can be as simple as the energy you bring into a room or any of that stuff. And so that's, I think, what really got me, like you know, um, motivated to to really double down and hit the gas, I think.

Speaker 2: 10:14

Could you, back then, when you were thinking about who you wanted to become, did you have a picture in your mind, or did you have? Did you, were you able to grasp an idea of who you were becoming? And what did you? What did you? Were you?

Speaker 1: 10:25

able to grasp an idea of who you were becoming.

Speaker 2: 10:26

And what did you? What did you see?

Speaker 1: 10:27

Yeah, I mean we're all products of our environment to a great degree and the behavior that's been modeled for us other people we've worked with before family friends, all of it right, we're just a big record book of experiences, along with a certain amount of nature, but a lot of it has to do with what your environment is and who you're around and you begin to realize the effect that's had on you. You're able to look at yourself and take a step back and see and it's not in judgment, it's okay, it is. It's just kind of it is what it is. A friend of mine this morning kind of a mindset mastermind meeting we have every two weeks said I'm just done with the worrying about the past. That mastermind meeting we have every two weeks said I'm just done with the worrying about the past, it's over. All I have, all my power, is now and that's. You know, you embrace that and you realize okay, I have today and in the future and I see these things about myself and and you know how is that affecting other people and what is that doing for me? Is it serving my needs? And that's when you start to realize you know you can model better behavior.

Speaker 1: 11:23

You know, if not for yourself, do it for other people and you know and you can have a lot more production and effectiveness. I think if you clean and sharpen up some of that stuff and really work on it, I think it's worth it. I think the payoff, I think it's an investment If you look at it from a business standpoint um, in your business. I think, if you look at it from a relational standpoint, it's an investment in relationships and it's a way of giving to other people too. It's not just about doing it for yourself although that is huge, we should all do things for ourselves and take care of ourselves but also that the gift that you can give other people. I think if you, if you clean this up a little bit and sharpen up and and you're never done either there's, there's areas and things that we can do.

Speaker 2: 12:06

I like that. You said that it's it's an investment in, and then you listed off a bunch of things, and one of them being business, because it's interesting. With what we're doing, we're going B2B and we're talking about personal growth and development and it's kind of like, well, why, why would I care for myself or maybe for my employees, to invest in learning how to become more self-aware or more present? And I'd love to bring that back and talk about presence for a minute. But it's all connected and if I can learn how to be more self-aware and present, then I'm going to be less likely to react, which I have seen a lot in the workplace.

Speaker 2: 12:46

Something happens and people are, so we I'm going to put myself in that category, I'm not above it are so quick to be reactive or defensive or just without even thinking, we jump. And so if we want to be better off in business, better in communication, better in leadership, so that we can think with a cool head, it does require slowing down enough and working on self. It seems so basic, but I think we jump over that because we want to hurry up, you know. But I just think I like that. You said that it is an investment that impacts every area of life, in addition to giving back to other people.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Yeah, I mean, even before you talked about the react to reacting, I was thinking along the same lines. You know, where does this all begin at? The most basic level is we've got to look at stress a little bit differently. Look at stress a little bit differently. Now, clearly, there's no argument that the pace of change in our world today. We have a graph and it's like the evolution of the human brain right Over millennia. It's just a slowly rising graph. And then you think about the pace of change and the amount of information we take in and it just it's shot up in the last a hundred years and even in the last five years, and it's you know, we have AI coming and it's just a lot.

Speaker 2: 14:10

Our brains have not been made to adapt as quick, nearly as quick as how quickly AI is adapting. And so we're under so much more stress, and it's causing us to get into these fight or flight reactive modes that are not helpful in life.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Right. So the, the, as they say, the struggle is real and we have a choice about how much we want to focus on that. You know, we all have people in our world that focus on it a lot, and and and I've been that way before.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Focus on what.

Speaker 1: 14:50

This is so hard, I'm stressed out. We start talking about self-talk here a little bit, and there's no magic pill to this stuff and no one's saying that. Oh, just stop telling yourself, you're stressed and it's going to be okay. There's a whole chain of things that need to really happen for it to actually manifest and work, and to where people are going to feel like they're less reactive and they're able to be more present and be more effective. It's a process, but it has to start with how we're talking to ourselves and how we are seeing this situation and interpreting it, because if you dwell on circumstances, you're not focusing on the things you can control and you're going to be a victim to those circumstances forever.

Speaker 2: 15:32

So how do you change your self-talk?

Speaker 1: 15:34

Well, it's a big part of what we're doing in our course. Right, it takes a lot of practice, but I think that identifying in the awareness. It starts with an awareness of, okay, this is happening and this is how I'm reacting to it, and we get into the whole thing about. There's an automated part of your mind and a part that's more thoughtful and complex and deals with complex problems and situations. The brain is an organ that wants to save energy. It's very efficient, so it's going to go into automated mode as much as possible, and sometimes we need to short circuit that and stop it from happening, because that's exactly the moments where we just react, we get mad, we get, we let it, and, and, and.

Speaker 1: 16:19

Once you get into those emotions and feelings, it's that's a whole other practice. How do we get used to that? How do we deal with that? Some people are addicted to living in them in emotion, and you see that, and then you see what the results of that are, and that can happen to anybody. By the way it's.

Speaker 1: 16:36

You know it all starts with an awareness and how we're interpreting things and kind of the stories we're telling ourselves, and that's the stuff we talk about and we walk it out over time. You cannot go into a company I don't believe for a day and give them a thing. You might be able to focus on one area and have an impact. But this is a pretty comprehensive, broad sort of endeavor that we're embarking on and realizing that it takes practice, because there's a huge wall and a lot of people will listen to what we're saying and they'll be like I know that, probably true, you've probably heard a lot of this stuff before and there's going to be things you haven't heard. We, you know at least I've speak for us we're learning every day. We still seek to learn um, every day as we're building this out and doing the thing, but, um, the wall between knowledge and action is the problem.

Speaker 2: 17:30

Well, we see that in every facet of life. It's like okay, you want to get fit. I could ask anybody what do you need to do, and they can spit out the right answers.

Speaker 1: 17:38

Like.

Speaker 2: 17:38

I need to go to the gym, I need to get better sleep, I need to eat less sugar, probably need to eat more protein, you know whatever they can list out the things. But then, well, why aren't we doing it? And I just actually talked about this in another podcast interview. I was doing Like I think that's an important question to ask Well, why aren't we doing it? And I think one of the reasons is that we don't have I'm going to use the word accountability, but it's part of what we've built in and I don't mean this to be a pitch on what we're doing, but the reason we're doing it the way we are is because it's what works, which is that there has to be a framework or a sort of way of approaching it.

Speaker 2: 18:17

That is a it's practice, it's all practice. I guess it's something that we are going to fail at and then need to get back up at and and then need, probably, a coach. I mean the best of the best in any facet of life, always have somebody along their side. That's helping them refine, refine, holding them to it, picking them up, pushing them, pulling them and that's a part of what I think needs to happen in order for people to implement anything that's going to be lasting change.

Speaker 1: 18:48

Yes, and also I want to get back to something you said in there earlier too. Um, you know people want to. You know fitness or whatever the goal is, or diet, and you think of all the things. Well, actually a lot of times don't know how to do it. It's the how, and we have a lot of great stuff on habits and how to. How to make habits work. Alert, alert, start really small. Uh, people start small.

Speaker 1: 19:13

That is, there's so much great content that's been written, that's out there and studies that have shown that that's that's what works. So there is a way to, there's a method to this madness and we hit in on all that stuff. And really, habits is fundamental. It's one of the first things we get into because really we are our habits. You, basically you look at a life, a person and their collection of habits. There are studies that show almost half of your um behavior throughout the day is automated just based on habits. And I mean you can think about it for a minute, like we've all lost the power in our house and you walk into a room and you're still doing this, trying to flip up on a switches. You'll do it three hours after the power's gone on, and you've done it like eight times and laughed at yourself. Hopefully, you're laughing at yourself when you do it. That'd be good, you know, and you just keep doing it because we're so wired.

Speaker 2: 20:00

The cool thing about habits, though, is you can create new ones that'll help you, and we're really into that Relatively new science, which is really interesting to think that not that many years ago we thought that we were hardwired by five and that was it. But, now we know, because of neuroplasticity, that we can break habits, we can build new habits we can. We can essentially change who we are and, to bring a full circle, we can decide to become someone new, which is just fucking amazing.

Speaker 2: 20:31

It's pretty amazing to think, like I don't love my life right now. I don't like that. I don't. Maybe I don't love this thing about myself. Like for me, one of the catalysts was that I was realizing I was impatient with my girls and I would be. I'd be running a loop in my mind having a conversation with myself and they would want something from me and I would be. I'd be like what Cause? I would feel like they were interrupting, they were interrupting me a conversation I was having with myself and I'm like, oh, I don't want to be that kind of mom, I don't want to be that snappy kind of mom, and so to like, well, who do you want to become? I want to be someone that's present and that's patient, and when they say, hey, mom, I go, hey what?

Speaker 1: 21:09

Like.

Speaker 2: 21:09

I want to be. I want them to feel like I'm responding to them with love and patience and kindness and like so when I caught a vision of what that could look like and realized I could change the habits to become that and I think probably 90% of the time I'm that now. Sometimes I'm not cause I'm not perfect, but that's pretty amazing that we can change who we are.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Yes, and we like to say don't let perfect be the enemy of good Right. So it's true what you said. I mean the neuroplasticity thing is very cool. Um, you know, they're finding we can actually change later and later in life. Um, that's very recent too. One of the things that stands out to me is you can scan a brain and tell if somebody plays the violin or if they're bilingual. I mean, they can see that in the way the wiring and you can change the wiring. So, yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 2: 22:00

So, out of all of the content that we're teaching, or the practices that, you like, are practicing yourself what has been maybe most surprising to you? Enjoyed hearing feedback on the most, or experiencing the most for yourself.

Speaker 1: 22:17

There's so much of it. I could go in so many different directions here. I mean, I think the power of being present is huge.

Speaker 2: 22:22

What does that mean?

Speaker 1: 22:24

Being in the now, in the moment, not having your mind in the past or the future. Literally, it's being here now, because we can only really be mentally in one place at a time, and that's, you know, that's how we get productive and how we it's. It gives us other powers too. I mean, that's how we can listen better with people when you're not distracted.

Speaker 2: 22:43

It's um, I mean, it's just all of it you know, have any like tips on how somebody can work on becoming more present?

Speaker 1: 22:52

I think one that I think is really fun is working on something that's kind of not a habit. The example would be if you're right-handed to brush your teeth, left-handed, every day, it forces you to focus on it because it's awkward and you're just, you know you're in the presence of doing that. That's kind of a fun, silly little thing. But think about if you spend a couple of minutes and do that every day for a month or two and you're reminding yourself why you're doing it. I mean, you know, we, we really love journaling too, and that's a struggle for a lot of people to adapt. I will admit it took me probably 10 years by the time I was told I should do it, and when I finally started doing it and we, we've got some ideas about overcoming that too. One thing maybe is to not call it journaling. It's just note-taking note-taking on your life.

Speaker 2: 23:35

Okay, I got some because I'm like what's wrong with calling it journaling. Well, I don't know, does it feel like your diary, my, the?

Speaker 1: 23:42

old me kind of thought it was a little hippie, you know, until I started doing it and I realized how much benefit you get out of it okay, wait, because maybe we're helping somebody today. He's like what was it?

Speaker 2: 23:52

Why did you does it feel like dear diary, like I'm going to take my key out and open up my diary and be like dear diary today? So that was how it felt to you.

Speaker 1: 24:01

I don't think I ever felt like I was worried somebody might read it. But I know I've heard other people say that and so that's a problem. You can use your phone and an app to do it, but we love analog, so we're really big on pencils and paper, because the mind actually learns better that way. So that's, you know. That's not the. That's not my favorite idea but I get personal yes. You're always at your best when you get personal please.

Speaker 2: 24:23

What do you journal about? Is it, is it like?

Speaker 1: 24:29

changed a lot, but usually it has to do with a daily intention. So, like last year, my intention for the year was to try to bring more um positive energy to everybody that I came in contact with, and I shared that with a couple of the classes that I taught and I think people really got excited about. They were like wow, that's cool, you know, and I think some people adopted that too, and um, it's a nice intention on the day.

Speaker 1: 24:51

Yes, it will. Yeah it, I would. I would just talk a little bit about, I would write in there about something that happened where I kind of felt like I just kind of maybe changed the temperature a little bit, or I did something, or I didn't do something I maybe would have done before, or whatever, or being just aware of it, you know, Um, yeah, things like that.

Speaker 2: 25:08

I think it's good to talk about journaling, because I think a lot of people sit down and they're just like I don't what's the point and what am I supposed to write about? Is it just like here's what? Is it just a cataloging of what happened throughout the day? And I would say maybe because you can go back then and read kind of your mindset and see how that's changed and maybe jog your memory of circumstances you were going through. So I think there's some, some benefit to that. I personally. Well, actually, if no, if somebody is listening and you're not journaling at all, the five minute journal which you can get on Amazon for like 15 bucks is a really good just to. It starts out with like a good quote of the day and it's kind of what's my intention for the day. If these things, three, these three things happen today, it would make today really great. And at the end of the day you go back and you write down like what you're grateful for. So it's just a little thought provoking thing, I guess.

Speaker 1: 26:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:03

That's not really how I journal, though, like I, I wouldn't even necessarily call it a journal for me.

Speaker 1: 26:10

Let's do a podcast on journaling.

Speaker 2: 26:12

A separate one. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 26:13

There's so much here.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Okay, cool Okay.

Speaker 1: 26:16

And for anyone out there right now.

Speaker 2: 26:17

We'll stick a pin in that.

Speaker 1: 26:18

Yeah. For anyone out there who would like say I want to do one right now, I would just say yeah, have one intention for the day. Like you said, I'd be like how did I, how did that go?

Speaker 2: 26:30

I think I would add one little thing right what you're grateful for. I just think there's so much power in gratitude and shifting our energy and shifting our perspective on anything Like we can. Always I think I'm going to speak for myself Even when I've been in really really tough circumstances, I can usually find something that I'm grateful for that brings a shift in perspective. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Yeah, I mean, a lot of smart people have given that same advice.

Speaker 2: 26:56

Thank you, Tim. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1: 26:57

No, I mean it's true and and and, and. Yeah, certainly agree with that. Um, I was just going to say, on the intentional thing, every day, I wouldn't even do three things. If three, I would go as simple as like well, like I really did get a lot out of the whole, like I'm going to try to bring positive energy to everyone I come in contact with, and, at the end of the day, I could easily say I think it's just depends on where you are, though, to like what is your specific thing, and it does help to really focus on one thing at a time in a certain season of your life.

Speaker 1: 27:26

And you know, well, let me get to that in a minute. But the energy thing what's cool about that is you're probably going to have a win somewhere in the day, and hopefully more, and as you do it you'll have more, and so that is akin to the gratitude. You'll see something positive and it'll make you feel good. It'll make you realize that, you know, leaning into this work and working on this stuff and being aware of it, it actually feels good and you can see progress. And you're also going to note that you're going to find times where you didn't do it.

Speaker 1: 27:57

You did, you failed to bring the energy or something went wrong, and that's okay too, because nobody gets it right all the time, and I think we need to get used to that. You know, um, we can't beat ourselves up for having bad moments and bad days and bad weeks, perhaps even, you know, depending on what's going on. As long as I think we're working on it, we're aware and we're not giving up and we're trying to our best, you only can bring your best, and sometimes your best is different from day to day, and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 28:23

So I think that's so good, Cause I think the old me was really all or nothing and that was sort of a high achieving mindset. I thought that was the right way to do it, which was like you give it a hundred, a thousand percent, and if you fail, you know, like you're, whatever, I would just beat myself up over it and then I would be more likely to quit, and then I would quit for a period of time and then I would be like, well, let me give this another. You know good college try, and let me give this a go again. And just, instead of being like man, it's the whole, like the turtle wins the race, it's I'm going to just go, maybe a little bit slower than I would have liked, and I'm also going to recognize that.

Speaker 2: 29:04

You know, in neuro-linguistic programming there's a phrase that that we say. That is failure isn't failure, it's just feedback. And so you know, or you've heard of Thomas Edison how many times did he fail at figuring out the light bulb? And it's like it wasn't failure. It was a little bit more information that helped him to make it the right way when it did work. So failure is feedback, it's a little bit more data on what didn't work, so you can make the adjustment next time and then apply that the next day. Like, well, why wasn't, why didn't I bring good energy in that moment at the grocery store? What well I was, my mind was somewhere else. Well, why was my mind somewhere else? And that's back to your point about being a scientist. Like, if we can look at ourselves with some curiosity instead of judgment, then we can learn from it and apply it and then do a little better next time.

Speaker 1: 29:51

And, and and also have some fun with it. And, and, and, and. You know life is supposed to have challenges, you know that's, that's what it is. Think of the challenges that our ancestors had 200 years ago, I mean. You know, ours are different now, but in so many ways, you know, life is full of wonder and it is supposed to be a challenge and we don't have to take it as being so heavy all the time.

Speaker 1: 30:13

That's a choice too. It's a really hard one, and a lot of people will maybe be a little triggered by that. You know, like what do you mean? It's a choice. You know they feel, you know, maybe like they're in a tough spot. And you know, um, everything is just so much and it can be that way. But, you know, on a day-to-day basis, we can, we can try to find a little whiteness in it too, and just realize, you know, yep, this is life and we get to be here to do it and do it together. And you know, and let's, let's just try to, let's just try to sharpen our pencils and do the best we can and enjoy the ride, you know. So, yeah, this content is heavy, it's serious. We're not really like that, um, in daily life speak for yourself.

Speaker 1: 30:52

I'm so serious, we're so interested in learning from our mistakes and being aware and trying to help each other out, and you know um, and having compassion too, and you know.

Speaker 2: 31:01

I did have that thought the other day, and actually the episode I just posted today um, I go through.

Speaker 2: 31:07

I noticed that I go through these cycles of like getting pretty serious about developing a part, an aspect of myself or learning a certain thing, and then I hit what I would call like a saturation point, where I'm like a sponge that's really full and I kind of I'll start to notice myself getting irritated with more, more learning or more content coming in.

Speaker 2: 31:27

And that's when I know that it's like all right time to let up, be lighter about this, not just live life and let it apply. And, um, and I think that's really important to recognize because it can, it can feel like this sort of grind and, and because we're never done growing and we're never done evolving, then it's like okay, I guess here's the next thing I'm going to work on it doesn't need to feel like that. It can be like it can. It should be, I think, lighter. A lot of the time. There are some I mean, it's tough to look in the mirror too. There's some stuff like in order for me to get to the other side of things, I had to go through some stuff that wasn't easy to look at for sure but you get through that and then it can be lighter yeah, it's just important to note that.

Speaker 1: 32:15

It reminds me of how you've really become aware, of how powerful it is for you to be attuned to your body and kind of listening to your body when you tell that story yeah that's another thing that we get into in our, in our stuff, and you're very well versed on and kind of into that area, and that's another message for everybody out there too is, like you know, when we, when we get those signals, those feelings, pay attention and listen to that, because that's your intuition.

Speaker 2: 32:42

I think it's just a natural cycle, that it's part it's really honestly kind of the main theme behind this pot the whole podcast, not just this episode is that I think for a really long time we have been uh, what's the word I'm looking for Like we've sort of been sidestepping what is a natural cycle. So if you look at nature and we live in Minnesota, it is natural that that things hibernate, that things go dormant, that the leaves fall off the trees, that there is a period of quiet, there's a period of rest and and we should experience that. That's how I think about these cycles of growth and development and transformation. Right now, with our business and with the podcast and everything I'm doing, it's go time for me and I've been resting and taking in for a while. I've been nurturing and feeling that and now I'm like it's go time, it's really exciting and that's a different energy. Yeah, yeah, okay, I want to come back to a question I asked you what's your intention this year?

Speaker 1: 33:45

Oh, thank you for bringing that back up again. Um, it's to ask more questions and to try to be less opinionated. It came from two things, I think, two inspirations. One was something I read in one of Dr Ellen Langer's books. She's kind of a big deal. She's been doing mindfulness studies since the mid seventies and she's been fascinating to kind of track her career and all the things she's done. One of her biggest findings that's useful is people do things because it made sense to them and so your goal should be to really understand people.

Speaker 1: 34:20

And then another one of my favorite authors, david Brooks, came out with a wonderful book last year called how to know a person, and, um, and they and those two know each other and you know, he kind of blew that out a little more in terms of you know it's. It goes deeper than just listening to people. It's really they want to be seen, and so I wanted to ask more questions so I could really understand people better, and I'm working on that. That's a really, really big paradigm shift for me and I'm sure a lot of people out there can relate, because this is just not really naturally how people are showing up these days, and especially with everything is so fast and you know, and we live in such a culture of hot takes, you know everybody's got a hot take and some people have way too many hot takes on things that they're convinced they know everything about and they really the truth of the matter is they don't.

Speaker 1: 35:09

And it can actually be triggering. Actually, it almost I got so tired of just watching people just flat out just spew opinions all the time that it just made me kind of recoil and be like, yeah, there's a part of me that was like that and can be that way too, and I really want to shut it down. I want to come from a different place and just be in a more of an observer and try to understand where people are coming from better. That's probably going to be my intention for 2025 too, because I don't think I'm going to get too far in one year, I think that's a big, big project.

Speaker 2: 35:42

I appreciate you saying that, because I think in also in our society, we obviously are searching for quick results, really quick results, and this kind of thing. And this is meant to be encouraging and not discouraging to people like. To develop this kind of capability and to become someone new in any facet of life takes more than 30 days, 30 days, and so a year or two years of focusing on. Well, I, you know, even my in my work and my last job, like I, was coaching or recruiting or interviewing people, and I knew that that job probably wouldn't be for my forever job.

Speaker 2: 36:24

And my coach at one point said well, for as long as you're here, what, what can you really learn and draw from this experience? And one of those things was like, how can I get better at getting to know people and helping them uncover what it is that they want to uncover? And it was six years of learning, working on asking questions that were meaningful to people, and I still don't feel like I have it nailed. But I think I've come a long way in that. And and now, like little did I know it would help me in this experience with a podcast or different things that I'm doing, but I think that's a really good point to pause and just know like, yeah, I don't know how far I'll get in a year of learning how to ask great questions. So, like a tactical question for you are you, is there anything you're doing in particular to get better at it? Or are you just working at it in each conversation, or how are you? How does that practice look for you?

Speaker 1: 37:23

I think I'm still kind of almost in an awareness phase. I'm pretty early in this, just kind of rolling it out and figuring it out. There's been some ideas that have that have been proposed, like practice writing questions out or focus on a few that you want to try to use a lot. I'm just trying to give people opportunity at this point to explain more, like if they say something or if they have something they want to do or express, I might be like why is that? And I'll just try to like get them to say more, because a lot of times the floodgates open that. Or they'll say something where you'll think and, by the way, how often do we assume we know why they are saying something?

Speaker 1: 38:04

And that's another thing we really want to work on on tangling in our courses too. That's a big part of it is this idea that you know, look, the automated part of your brain just wants to get to a result. Move on to the next thing, because there's so much going on and we do that a lot of times by filling in blanks for other people and our assumptions are way wrong. Their studies have been done on this too, and it's crazy how I think it's in David Brooks's book too, a little bit. He talks about how we are very inaccurate about predicting why people are thinking something and, um, so just giving them the opportunity to, you know, and I needed to keep working on that, that's such a like.

Speaker 2: 38:43

Well, we were just talking about this not too long ago, how we we create so many stories, and I just want to like break that phrase down, because what does it mean for me to create a story?

Speaker 2: 38:54

So maybe we're having a conversation and I perceive that you're frustrated with me. Some content I put on the website, or something that you're frustrated with, and because I've had previous people frustrated with me for X, y, z reasons, I bring that in the back of my mind to the table and I start writing a story in my mind that, well, tim probably doesn't like this kind of content or he doesn't like that. I did this because that is everything I've experienced in the past. And so I start writing this story about you. And then, when I approach the conversation with you, I may be a little irritated, or maybe I'm a little guarded, or maybe I'm because now I've created a judgment in my mind and it's impacting everything that I'm bringing to the table. When, instead, if I were to go, huh, I have this thought that Tim's irritated with me. What if I just went to him and, like Tim, are you irritated with me.

Speaker 1: 39:49

What a concept right and who shows up that way, or look at it from a business perspective. So many people in business are in sales one way or another, whether their title says sales or they're you know our consultants, or they're selling ideas or whatever it is, maybe even somebody in R and D. You're in sales too, because you need to probably convince somebody to go a certain uh track based on something that you found. So you know we're all, we're all kind of in sales at the end of the day. And how often do we um, when what is sales? It's to me it's nothing more than problem solving. It's, in the essence, or maybe opportunity seizing, opportunity. Here's an opportunity, Um, but it's really one of those two things, and mostly it's problem solving.

Speaker 1: 40:30

How are you going to be able to solve somebody's problem if you don't understand it? How often do we go to people thinking, oh well, you know three or four other clients or people I've dealt with. They kind of had the same, they were coming from the same place because of this, this and this. Well, you're assuming you're putting that you know on the next person and thinking you've got it all figured out what the background of the problem is, and if you don't break it down and ask what happens right? There's no, there's no connection there. They're not going to feel like you're putting them first. We just have a tendency to put ourselves ahead of others. You know, I mean, it's the way we're wired and it takes practice to sort of undo that and um, and it's not just personal relationships like your example, but you know it's business to you. It happens every day, all the time out there. So on what?

Speaker 2: 41:14

their problem is, or what they need solved, or what it is that they want to buy or whatever. If you're not able to have like an open, conversation to confirm that.

Speaker 2: 41:36

I think people don't feel seen and we all want to feel seen and connected and heard. That is such an innate human desire. And so I think, in order to be successful in selling the thing or delivering a service and serving somebody accurately, but most importantly to me is making like a really genuine connection, which humans need so much right now we need to ask the questions, and I heard that a lot like when I was selling real estate. It was surprising to me that I would get this feedback and I now I'm like taking it as a compliment. But people would say, like, I just really feel like you understand us and I was like, oh cool, I started to get that feedback more often, but I think it's because I would ask and then I would confirm.

Speaker 2: 42:20

So it seems so cliche, but if people would tell me why they wanted to move or why they wanted to buy, then I would repeat it in a different way to them. So let me make sure that I'm understanding this You're looking to move because X, y, z and this is what the desired outcome for you would be. Is that right? Is this the highest priority to you? Yeah, that's mostly right, but also da-da-da, usually there's more. So now, if you put yourself on the other end of it I'm on the receiving end of somebody that's clarifying and asking those questions and understanding my intention that feels really effing good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I appreciate that you said like this isn't just interpersonal, this is business, this is all of it.

Speaker 1: 43:03

Well, a lot of smart people have thrown around the statement of people who remember not what you did for them but how you made them feel. And that begs the question how do you make them feel that?

Speaker 2: 43:13

Yeah, yeah, you make them feel seen so good job setting. What a wonderful like intention that you've set for this year.

Speaker 1: 43:20

Thank you, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:21

Okay, what else haven't we talked about that you want to talk about anything?

Speaker 1: 43:25

for the people out there. What we've done is we've created sort of three, three courses. That's our core thing at the way foundry, and the first part is a personal development, and we've talked mostly about stuff that kind of lives in that, and that's really the foundational starting piece. We do have two other parts to that. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Speaker 2: 43:45

Yeah, so to reiterate, way, foundry is going to be these three courses. They're eight, eight week sessions each, and this isn't meant to be a pitch, but there might be people listening that want to jump in on this and I think we should come back to that in just a second. Um so course one is really personal growth and development, like a self development. Course two is going to be inter personal communication and development. So conflict resolution, listening to make people feel seen um, rapport building, how to have fierce conversations, things like that.

Speaker 1: 44:18

A little bit of NLP.

Speaker 2: 44:20

Yeah, a little bit of it, so that, for those of you that don't know, that's neuro linguistic programming. So we're going to look at neuroplasticity within relationships and how to how we use our words to communicate effectively, and then yeah it's so good it's so good.

Speaker 2: 44:36

And then course three will be leadership so how to vision cast, how to create strategy, how to you know honestly, I wouldn't have probably added this in but the last several years and then what we've got coming up with AI I don't know if crisis is the right word, but like how to navigate crisis and really, or challenge or change might be another one.

Speaker 2: 44:55

Bringing an organization through change is a big thing. So course three will really be focused on leadership, development and team dynamics, which goes beyond just the one-to-one communication. Um, I love this content and and to bring this conversation sort of full circle, it's been something that I just kind of like can't stop being interested in, that I can't get away from that. I that I love, and I keep saying to people I'm running this experiment in my life right now, where I'm just going to keep doing things that light me up, that I love and and it feels really exciting to me to love the content and also to love being in a room with people that are there to to engage with each other and to learn and to be sponges. I cannot wait for us to be in rooms full of people sharing this content and connecting with people.

Speaker 1: 45:51

Yeah, yeah, I mean there's two parts to this. I mean we both love this content. We did this because we feel the pull, but also I love the idea of bringing this out to people because this is for them. We're finding that people want this. They're really hungry for it and we're putting this out in the universe and and we're going to you know, we're going to have as many conversations as we can about what we can contribute and see if there's win-wins out there.

Speaker 1: 46:16

During our brand identity work with Sarah Schultz, we she talked about like who's your dreamy client, and I mean I think you know the way I look at it. As you know, anybody could be who has a growth mindset and is learning based and has a group of people in their talent pool that they want to offer something to that can help them at work and outside of the organization in all aspects of their lives, and I think I see that being a really powerful tool for them where they could really engender a new level of fealty with their people toward the organization and their leadership.

Speaker 2: 46:49

In the last organization I was in, we talked a lot about like how do we teach people to become more self-aware? Because it was a lack of awareness that was getting in the way of the business development. It was a lack of their personal skills to, to listen, to make people it's all of the stuff we just talked about but it was getting in the way of them being able to effectively lead a team, to effectively navigate um conflict, to effectively sell anything, recruit anybody, to interview people. Like all of this stuff, it needs to be um embodied.

Speaker 1: 47:23

Yes.

Speaker 2: 47:24

Yeah, right. Like in order for for the people to develop in the business develop, and we say this in our, in our website, in our content better people built better businesses people built better businesses. That's what this is.

Speaker 1: 47:37

We know that. We know that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We know that, um, steve jobs famously said you know you spend the first, like 21 years of your life being rewarded for your individual accomplishments and then, ironically, the rest of your life. It all boils down to how you work with others. And even our personal development section of our course it really is focused on the individual, but to what end?

Speaker 2: 48:01

right.

Speaker 1: 48:01

It's how you are showing up in the world and interacting with each other, and so it's all boils back down to that. Steve Jobs quote, not to go on a tangent about our education system and all that stuff there's. You know, I don't have an opinion on it, about that, except for to say that observation is is that maybe there isn't enough of this being taught in prepping our kids to going into the world and you know, and getting you know and getting away from their phones and getting with people in community again, which has really been, you know, lacking for a lot of people for various reasons in the last five to 10 years. But I think they're up for the challenge, they want this, they want people like us to show up and, I think, start to become a catalyst for this, and I'm so here for it, and I'm so here for it with you. We're going to, we're going to do this. It's going to be super powerful, it is.

Speaker 2: 48:54

I'm excited, okay, so for anybody that's listening that wants us to come into their organization, they can reach out to us. We've got our website at thewayfoundrycom and that'll be in the show notes, and then also our email will be in there as well. We'd love an opportunity to sit down and chat with you about how we can serve the needs of your organization and your people. One thing we didn't talk a lot about, but all of this is also going to create more connection within the people of your organization, so that there's even more stickiness there for you with your people. And I'm going to just add a second part to this that we didn't talk about before. We did today. I'd love us to offer a class for individuals or maybe small teams or entrepreneurs that might not be a part of an organization, that they can come into our course one and do that. So if people are interested in course one and want to learn more about that, they can email us there too.

Speaker 1: 49:53

Totally, and if you're just curious and want to have a coffee or whatever, reach out. You know, I mean this is all going to be kind of a rollout of building more community and connections with people over time, and you know, yeah, yeah, and I feel like right now my heart feels really full.

Speaker 2: 50:12

This is about helping people become who they want to become, and I'm glad we sort of started and stopped on that note. But I think I just want to say that, like, I believe in people and I believe that everybody has what they need in them to become who they want to become and live the life they want to live, and I believe that everybody has what they need in them to become who they want to become and live the life they want to live, and I think we are going to be aids in helping them uncover that and that feels so good to me. Okay, that's it.

Speaker 1: 50:41

That's all I want to say Well, I'm going to add to that. Okay, it's also potentially one hell of a competitive advantage for an organization to have a bunch of people that are in that place. So, yeah, and both things can be true at the same time. Yes, let's do that.

Speaker 2: 51:00

Yes, let's do, it All right.

Speaker 1: 51:03

Thanks, tim. Thank you, I was on your podcast you are it's awesome.

Speaker 2: 51:09

Yeah, so glad you're here. Yeah, it was fun, okay, later.

Speaker 1: 51:13

Later.

Speaker 2: 51:16

Hey you, yes you. Thank you for tuning in today. I hope this episode is supporting you on your path to becoming the strongest, the shiniest version of you. My goal and hope is to continue helping people through this podcast, so if you've enjoyed this episode or taken anything that's helped you out, the best thank you would be to join me in moving this forward by doing two simple things. If you haven't already following the podcast is very helpful. Also, apparently, the algorithms really like reviews. If you can take a minute to leave a review, artificial intelligence would love it and I would be so grateful. Feel free, of course, to share an episode with someone who you think may need to hear what you heard today. Thanks again, everyone. I genuinely appreciate you and I'm so thankful to be building a community like this together here. I'll catch you later. In the meantime, have a banging day.