Facing uncertainty can be challenging – being a business owner facing uncertainty is tougher.
Red Direction helps you [fast track and] grow your business – authentically, pragmatically, and resiliently.
Starting the conversation…
What are the elements are necessary to create a well-rounded life that build connection, memories, and is rewarding today?
Do you always want to crush it in your work? Are you a Type-A personality? Do you feel responsible to provide for yourself your family first? Do you define yourself by the results you get in your work? The answers to these questions impact the way you show up in the world. You may be living to work … and that is, simply, unsustainable. Jess Dewell talks about working to live with special guest Andrew Zicklin, founder of Zicklin Management Group and Bold Funding Group.
Host: Jess Dewell
Guest: Andrew Zicklin
What You Will Hear:
The atypical path is still a viable path.
Living to work is easier than we think.
The culmination when changing what drove action happened.
We prioritize what we value.
Find what feeds your soul outside of your passion for work.
Let go of the concept of work-life balance.
Interpersonal skills require as much development and business process skills.
Live Audience Question: We spend so much of our time working we are defined by what we do. It seems difficult to make that first step and do something different. How to make that step if we are tied to one place (not traveling) or one specific area of expertise?
There is risk in every decision, and it’s up to us to understand that risk (even when we are comfortable with it).
Embrace we don’t know what we don’t know.
Audience Question: Will Andrew share some self-reflection exercises that he does to help him to stay away from the workaholic way of life?
Flat tire syndrome: embrace the unexpected and allow for spontaneity.
Reflect on working and reflect on living and decided if it works for you.
Live Audience Question: What's the difference between being a workaholic and being “all in – all the time?”
It is BOLD to work to live.
Notable and Quotable:
Jess Dewell 7:55
Feast or famine as a business owner, and as a leader in business, that's something that we all have to work with and accept, is that there are cycles.
Andrew Zicklin 8:37
We all learned the McDonald's franchise story right? Where you have to make everything repeatable, and they talked about that when we were in training at the stock brokerage. Do the same things every day at the same time, and time manage it. One hour for calls one hour for answer. I have not met anybody that can actually do that.
Jess Dewell 9:02
And then there's my friend Susan Finch. This is a shout-out to Susan. She time manages everything. In fact, she puts in her calendar time for spontaneity.
Andrew Zicklin 13:12
I'm not a big believer in this work-life balance thing. You got to just go whole hog, because it [otherwise] becomes compartmentalization gain.
Jess Dewell 13:36
I don't believe in work-life balance either. In fact, anybody who says that it makes me cringe because you're striving for the gold at the end of the rainbow. And it's always just elusive.
Jess Dewell 13:50
I'm more like a tetherball. I am “all in” on something. And I'm like,” oh, other stuff is lacking.” And all of a sudden, whoop. I hit that pole in the middle and then I unwind back out and I'm doing something different.
Jess Dewell 14:04
I'm all in, all the time, and splitting that time can be very difficult.
Andrew Zicklin 14:10
You have a number line as an analogy. If you're always balancing, you're always living in the middle. And you never get to experience going off the edge, one way or the other.
Jess Dewell 18:01
I look at 20-year-olds, and I look at 30-year-olds and I look at some of my peers. I see people who were like,” I am who I am, so there.” And it actually gets in the way, and it becomes an excuse for not learning. It becomes an excuse for not connecting.
Andrew Zicklin 18:22
You come in with a chip on your shoulder, or an attitude, then no matter who you are, what you believe, it's going to get in the way
Andrew Zicklin 18:42
You want to be doing your business. You want to be growing your business. You just want to do it in a way that you don't get stuck worrying about growing your business all the time, without taking time to say, “Oh, for what?” Do I want to make one 5, 10, 20 million dollars? Do I want to have a big house? If you're not money motivated, if that doesn't matter to you, you're doing it to be productive. You're doing it for other reasons, you still want to do it, and you don't want to piss people off. You also want to be true to yourself and say,” If you don't want to do business with me because of who I am? More power to you.”
Jess Dewell 19:35
Show up. Be present. And then let the pieces fall where they may.
Jess Dewell 20:31
Self-development — that interpersonal stuff — starts with us. And it's hard work all the time. And it's worth it.
Andrew Zicklin 22:49
Don't ask people what they do. Just ask them what they do for fun. Ask them what they think about the museum exhibit. Anything other than, “What do you?” That first little step changes the focus, and changes “what you do is what you are.”
Jess Dewell 32:23
There's a part of me that was raised to believe, the harder I work, the more results I would get. And everything in my life has told me the opposite. And I ignored everything in my life for a very long time. When I finally said, “Well, what if this thing that is actually showing me the truth, is actually the truth? What if I thought about that?” My whole world changed.
Jess Dewell 36:43
I get an idea, or I hear an idea, or I'm given an idea, and then all my resources and energy go into that. And then I'm like, “Is this a good idea now that I've started?” So I act and then a plan.
Andrew Zicklin 37:36
It's not the end result. The fun part is doing it.
Andrew Zicklin 39:01
We call it the flat tire syndrome because we were coming home from California and we got a flat tire outside of Reno and found this great little place, and it was spontaneous, and fun, and would have never happened if we were trying to get home
Andrew Zicklin 39:49
To get existential, we're all going to die. And part of being on this earth is choosing to live a life that is meaningful for ourselves.
Jess Dewell 43:17
I'm “all in” when I am present in every part of my being is in that, not thinking about my next meeting. Not thinking about the next email. Not thinking about the next obligation that I have at home, or work, or volunteer, whatever it is. To me, that's the difference between 'all in,” and “workaholic.” That's all I'm thinking about.
Jess Dewell 45:31
The American dream was not making the lives better for ourselves. It was making the lives better for those who came after us. For our children and our children's children.
Resources:
Tags:
lifestyle, market change, productivity, priorities, values, soft skills, risk
