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Truth and Transcendence, brought to you by BeingSpace with Catherine Llewellyn.
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Truth and Transcendence, episode 118, with special guest Keri-Ann T Powell.
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Now, if you don't know Keri-Ann, she's a global business strategist, speaker and champion of small and medium-sized businesses.
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Keri-ann has very varied experience, including over 20 years as a Washington DC attorney, lobbyist and fundraiser, and this positions her as an authority on what it takes to strategically succeed while confronting difficult obstacles.
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After raising $120 million to build the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, keri-ann launched her strategic business and consulting firm, trafalgar Strategies.
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She and her team advise business owners from various industries and countries on creating the strategies, systems and mindsets to thrive in business and in life.
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Over the years, keri-ann's expertise and speaking have been sought after by international brands, organizations and institutions such as Working Room's magazine, dallas Leadership Foundation, ciee, association of Fundraising Professionals, mogul and Philanthropist Russell Simmons Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.
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That's a mouthful and more, my God.
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So Keri-Ann is committed to spreading the gospel that running a small and medium-sized business is vital and important to our economies.
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Yet it doesn't have to feel like trying to manage a chaotic tornado.
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That's very good news.
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I should think, for some people and business owners will run their businesses smoothly and feel confident that they will thrive.
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So before I really welcome Keri-Ann, just to sort of introduce our theme, which is multi-layered strategic thinking, which is something I've been fascinated by and trying to learn about for decades.
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It's one of those massive topics because I think many of us have a very narrow view of what strategic actually means and that this is really unhelpful and a broader perspective can be so beneficial.
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So Keri-Ann has been consciously practicing this art, this science, however you call it, for many years.
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She has a great deal of wisdom to impart.
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So, keri-ann, thank you so much for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to come on the show.
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Catherine, thank you for having me.
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I am looking forward to this conversation so very much.
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Yeah, me too, I think it's.
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I was just saying, as we were in the Walmart conversation.
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I was just saying I've been having a chaotic day, which fits in with your theme, and it's so nice to take a break and have an adult conversation with.
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Isn't that true?
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You know, just kind of settle in.
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You know, anyone listening to this.
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I hope you found a way to take a break from you know the madness.
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Possibly Do I just kind of tune in and just kind of settle in and soak up what we're going to talk about.
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Yeah, keri-ann, when can you remember when you first kind of noticed that strategic thinking was a thing you know and an important thing?
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Yeah, that's a really good question.
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I, right out of college, I got a gig.
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It was a sort of a full-time temporary role to play in the United Way, in our community and for those of our international listeners.
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The United Way it is an international organization, but I think it's way more popular in the United States than it is in other parts of the world.
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It is an entity that sort of serves the goal between corporations and their employees philanthropic giving to NGOs, nonprofits that are doing work on the ground.
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And so the United Way you know it's been around for a good hundred years now that goes in and sort of works with corporations, asks for gifts through corporate giving and also through to create employee campaigns so employees can give through their payroll.
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Excuse me about that, catherine.
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So I had this great opportunity, to you know, when I was right out of college, to work there for a number of months during their big campaign period and I realized, oh my gosh, here it is a group of professionals that are doing fantastic work in serving the community, but in a strategic and business like fashion.
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And you know, when you're young you really don't know what you're doing, but you think you do.
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So when I was finished with the task, I ran into the VP's office and I said I know that I'm finished with this project and I'm heading out, but I just want you to know that I would be a really great fundraising fundraising director for your company, and so you should hire me.
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I would be the best director ever.
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How old were you?
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How old were you?
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I was 20 years old.
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What I was talking about.
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But you know, you know she didn't.
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What I loved about her was that she didn't look at me and say little child, you know, you don't know what you're talking about, go learn something.
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She says, okay, thank you, carrie Ann, for that, and I appreciate you coming in and I'll let you know.
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Anyway, I moved on and, you know, spent some time sort of.
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You know, I was working doing some things, and she reached back out to me six months later and she says, carrie Ann, well, we have a director position.
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So there was like a couple of directors in the fundraising department, and so they came.
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They range from the folks who managed the very, very large gifts all the way down we call them tiers all the way down to the smaller gifts, and so, you know, we call them the smaller accounts.
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So she said, well, we've got an opening in sort of the middle, the middle tier, and the good news was that particular tier was broken down into two, so there's another director that was managing some accounts, and then I would like to invite you to come on.
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I was like, oh my God, I couldn't believe she had so many.
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But I got the position and you know it, just, you know I, I just melded with it, just like fish to water.
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It was just, it's my thing.
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And of course my parents were quite happy because of the time I was supposed to be going on to get a master's and a PhD in neuropsychology and I decided I didn't want to do it and they were a little bit worried about the direction of my life.
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But when I was there, obviously I thought you know, just looking and observing and acquiring the skills and learning the skills by being paired with the CEOs of various companies, because that's how we operate.
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We were sort of your peer with the, with the leader in the community business leader, and you basically did the rounds.
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You had to be very strategic and I had to learn how to research and make sure that we were.
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What was it that we were actually going to, how we were going to pitch, and what did we think the particular CEO of the company we were going to pitch to was going to be interested in?
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And what are the directions, what are the ostrichic priorities of that particular company?
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And so how do we want to position the ask.
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And that's when I began thinking this is not just going in and you know saying hey, you know want to buy my Girl Scout cookies.
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This is a bit more strategic.
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And that's when I began realizing it's a great deal of work that goes along with this.
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And then we would do annual strategic planning and at first, you know, I was just sort of more like a junior staff observer.
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But the more I realized how much time and resources and energy was put into our strategic planning processes, I began to sort of be really excited about the idea of wait, this is not just some fly by night.
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Oh, here's a great idea, let's go with it.
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It's, there's a way to make, there are ways to make big ideas happen by being strategic.
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So anything you see out there in the world that has happened and it's been successful, like you know, the recording of this particular podcast, you know the Barbie movie.
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I mean, my goodness gracious, what they did with that marketing.
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It was unreal and I still haven't seen the movie.
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I've heard it was a, you know, an okay movie.
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But the marketing that went into that, I guarantee you there was a significant amount of strategy that was put into place in order for that to be such a huge marketing success.
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So that was really where I began to realize strategy was an important aspect to success in any big idea was when I started working at the United.
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Way.
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Wow, what a fantastic entry into that.
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Yes, and that I mean that, also the thing you said about you just walked in and said I would be a fantastic director, fundraising director and you obviously really wanted to do it.
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Yes, and I think I don't know if you agree.
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I think that is an important element in strategy, isn't it?
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But that you've got to actually want to do it.
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Yes, catherine, I will say this.
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It's sort of the timing of this conversation Last week was, you know, I'm going into this week with you know, I have some processes that get me mentally and emotionally focused on the week ahead, but sometimes you have a week prior.
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That kind of is a doozy.
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You know, you have to kind of do a bit more internal work to sort of get you focused.
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Last week I spent quite a bit of time, or it just so happened, that a number of my clients that were, you know, I mean, these are, you know, business owners that are doing big things and they're trying to make big things happen in their organizations.
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And you can imagine it's kind of like, you know, shifting the Titanic a bit when you're trying to make big changes happen in an organization, because it's all these individuals that are part of the organization.
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How I want to do it.
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However, it just so happened that last week there were a number of stumbling blocks and a number of my clients, and so I found myself doing a great deal of hands on work, and one of the things that I began to realize I've known this to be true for a very long time, but when I was faced with the big wall of it.
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Last week I began sort of processing this concept of do you want it bad enough?
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Yeah.
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There's.
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You can do all the things that you say you're going to do to create a good strategy and you can do all the things to create a great execution plan, which, by the way, is, you know, in a very important aspect of strategy.
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Yeah, but the very, very beginning aspect of that, the foundational things that make something work is how badly do you want it?
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Yeah help, Because if you don't have the fire within that says I really want this, whatever the thing is, whatever the big idea is, then when time comes and you hit the obstacles, when you begin to either go down into the, into the darkness of despair, right, or how long you stay there really is motivated by, yes, the tools you use to get out of it, but also to help.
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Badly do you want it?
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And I think that desire I call it the red hot desire.
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If you don't have it, it's very difficult to create a good strategy and execute it well.
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Yeah.
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Why do you think that is?
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Why do you think it is that desire is so important?
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I've got my own thoughts about this, but I just really like to know what do you think is the connection between really wanting it and literally being able to come up with a good strategy?
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Well, you know, not to get too woo-woo, I think if you look at nature, I think that everything is about desire.
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Right, there's more humans.
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We get a chance to kind of be conscious of our desire and, I think, maybe to decide how much we want something.
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But everything in nature doesn't have that capacity.
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It's either.
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It's life, more life.
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You begin to see, you know, in our driveway at my parents' home it's concrete that's paved right, and the guys that come and do our landscaping, they still have to go through.
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There's cracks within the concrete driveway where there are weeds coming up out of the concrete.
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Like how did you get there?
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I mean, it's concrete, okay, but for the weeds it's all about more life.
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And you can, those landscapers, they come and they do the weed killer thingy-me-jiggie and they come back in two weeks and it's there again.
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Right, it's because the weeds desire is about more life.
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It's like we're gonna grow regardless.
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Yeah, it's not a discussion.
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It's kind of a thing, it's a part of their existence, whereas humans, we have the capacity to determine what we want, which I think is great.
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You know, that's what I guess you know makes us different than the, than other animals and then another species At the same time.
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It is you can always look to nature to determine why things happen.
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If you don't want it, you really there's just no way to fake wanting it.
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There's no way to fake how badly do you want it?
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The other issue along that.
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So there's through that, I think, there's sort of a need within to want it in order to get it.
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The quest, I think, on the other side of it is we have there's one way to do something, there's another way to do something.
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Now, of course, you're trying to cross the street.
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It's kind of easy.
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You kind of just do a thing right, you cross the street, you look both ways and you cross the street.
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If you're trying to cross a, you know, 10 lane highway, then it requires a bit more strategy, okay, because you don't want to die.
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So the ideas that come forth from our minds we have a lot of ideas that come forth there could be oh, just run across and hope for the best.
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Or it could be oh wait, there's like a bridge over the highways.
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Let's go down there across the bridge and do the thing.
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Or maybe we could do something kind of funky and be like do these signs that say you know construction ahead?
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So we stop the traffic and we kind of walk.
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There's many different ideas that could come cross your head to decide.
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Come through your mind and decide how you want to move.
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If you want it bad enough, you will have stronger ideas.
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It will be like your mind will produce more ideas, better ideas, a flood of ideas and give you the confidence to be able to actually think you could implement the idea because you have this desire attracting to the thing.
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But if you have a very low energy around it, a low desire around it, you'll come up a couple of ideas, but they probably won't be that great.
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You know they have the phrase that says necessity is the mother of invention.
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That's really it.
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If you make things in your life in need, if the desire is so hot that it's like I will die without achieving this thing, of course it's being dramatic, but it really is if you elevate whatever the thing is you want to a need.
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Then somehow you're like oh wait, we need to accomplish this, and you have all these great ideas that come forth.
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So I think there's one.
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Looking to nature everything in nature is moving towards something, and moving is mainly moving towards life, and the nature is willing to do some crazy things to make that happen.
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So we're a part of nature.
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We're not like somehow not in nature.
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Okay, just in case I'm thinking, oh, I'm going to look to nature, that thing out there, I mean, we're part of nature.
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And then to the result the cause and then the result.
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When we have a higher need, a higher desire for whatever the thing is, the big idea or whatever, then somehow our mind cultivates better ideas, a better strategy for us to be able to do the thing.
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And I've seen, you've seen it happen in in, you've seen it happen in our history of humanity for a long time.
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Exactly.
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Thank you, beautifully said.
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I think that's absolutely right, and I've been involved in situations where we are trying to implement a strategy and it's not working.
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Sometimes it's because actually we didn't really want the thing, as you're saying, and sometimes because the strategy is not a very good strategy, and I think you're right.
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It's not a very good strategy because because we didn't want it enough, right, exactly?
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Isn't it true as well that if you really want something, you will also make more of an effort to ask for help if you need it to come up with the strategy?
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Yes, because not everyone knows how to make a strategy for, let's say, launching a business, or let's say, right bring out a new product or remodeling a house yeah.
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You know yeah.
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You find, I think asking for help, there's two things that go along with that.
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One is we do sometimes feel like, well, we could do this ourselves.
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Right, there's a certain amount of ego, it's like we could do this ourselves kind of a concept and it's not that hard.
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The other aspect is more like, well, I don't wanna put whatever it takes to ask for help.
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It could be either making yourself vulnerable, whatever, investing the resources, just whatever the thing is that you would need to do to exchange to be able to get the help that you feel like you're giving away the control, whatever.
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So there's that sort of I can do it ourselves.
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Or I don't wanna invest the time, energy, money, be embarrassed that I can't do it.
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But when you want something bad enough and you have the desire for it and you want it to be great, you're like who's the best person that I can get to do this thing?
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I remembered when I was a teenager and at that time there was this haircut thing, sort of like, that I really liked and the person who I knew, the hairstylist that I knew, could do it, was a bit pricey for a teenager's budget.
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And I will tell you what.
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I had all kinds of conversations with my parents to be allowed me to give me the money to be able to go to this celebrity hairstylist.
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And I was, like, willing to wait on the waiting list to be in that in her chair.
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And I wanted it because I knew I wanted that look really badly and I knew I couldn't do it myself Because I knew that time I was like when I was a young kid I was like, oh yeah, this is before YouTube channels.
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I was always experimenting something with my hair, but I knew I couldn't get the look without going, just like I had to convince my parents first of all that they would allow me to do it because it was a little bit weird, plus, invest the money that they thought why would a teenager need to be sitting in someone's celebrity chair and then also to get wait on the waiting list to be able to be in that chair.
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And of course and it was funny, of course, the hair looks great for like two days, and then it just looked pretty different.
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But the point is, though, I was willing to do whatever it took to get that hair style, cause that was to me that was gonna be the changing of my entire life Just getting that.
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Look, I think asking for help or getting the things that are necessary to make whatever the strategy is, or to create the strategy, is motivated by how badly do you want it?
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Yeah.
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I think that's absolutely right.
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Otherwise, I've got an example from when I was much younger.
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I was in my twenties.
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So sometimes.
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I went off and did a transformational weekend.
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Yes, I didn't know they'd done, but when they came back they'd obviously had a transformational weekend, got amazing results.
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Yeah, and they said you should do it.
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I won't know, I can do it by myself and within about three months I so really wanted what they had.
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I really couldn't do it by myself.
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I slunk off and secretly went and did this transformational weekend without telling them, Cause I had to really get over ego and everything.
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But I really wanted it.
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Yes, yeah.
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I really wanted it, but it was interesting, catherine, that the whole ego thing around asking for help.
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I find it to be a very interesting dynamic with humanity.
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Yes, Absolutely.
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Did you study it, cause you were thinking of doing a masters in neuropsychology.
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Had you studied psychology?
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Yes.
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In your first degree.
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Yes, so my focus there was more on how does a brain operate, particularly after it's been injured, sort of this concept of cognitive recognition, but obviously so I spent a great deal of time in neuroscience and that kind of world.
00:23:27.741 --> 00:23:30.523
My research was around brain activity.
00:23:30.523 --> 00:23:58.842
However, I do remember when we were talking a lot about and I spent a lot of time in spaces where people are doing practitioner work around helping people kind of address, because really, at the end of the day, I mean, even though I'm a strategist, I've come if you cannot address the mindset things that keep people from doing the thing, if they want to do a big thing, then it's really for naught, to be frank.
00:23:58.842 --> 00:24:11.044
And so what I have found is we societally I mean there are other there are cultures where asking for help is actually not so, is not a bad thing.
00:24:11.044 --> 00:24:19.022
So I do think that that it is cultural, not just humanity, that has a bit of a problem with asking for help.
00:24:19.022 --> 00:24:37.878
There is, there are some cultures that are more, more not willing to ask for help, or asking for help is kind of a you know there's something that it's looked down upon and so there's, you know, obviously more Western cultures than Eastern, you know.
00:24:37.878 --> 00:24:38.741
That's just to be honest.
00:24:39.474 --> 00:24:52.605
However, there's also, though, something within us that says we can do a thing, and we should be able to do a thing, because the reality is we have the capacity to do a lot.
00:24:52.605 --> 00:24:56.403
We're willing more than we think we can.
00:24:56.403 --> 00:25:30.928
As humans, we are using such a small portion of our capacity mentally, and I'm really personally I'm eager to see how some of the things that keep us from, you know, being very, I don't know, low brow is probably not fair to say, but operating such at such a low capacity as the human race, I'm eager to see those things begin to dissolve so we can really really hit big, big things.
00:25:30.928 --> 00:25:44.983
I feel like some of the small problems, some of the problems we have that we've perpetually dealing with as a human race, are just, you know, they're just like really, are we still dealing with that?
00:25:44.983 --> 00:25:47.320
So, sort of like.
00:25:47.320 --> 00:25:51.441
I just feel like we should be involved in that, but nonetheless so.
00:25:51.961 --> 00:26:04.182
I think it's the greatness within us that's calling forth our greatness, and when we say we need help, it's almost like it's a distorted version.
00:26:04.182 --> 00:26:13.202
I don't think it's the real version, but it's a distorted version of us saying but I should be able to do this on my own.
00:26:13.202 --> 00:26:17.625
It's almost this we have echoes of our greatness out there.
00:26:17.625 --> 00:26:35.381
We haven't quite interpreted what that really means, but we know that we can do way more things than we think we can, and so the idea of having to ask someone for help, I think, makes us feel a bit like we're coming against what our true nature is.
00:26:35.381 --> 00:26:40.640
But I think, again, it's a very distorted, not very healthy place.
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:58.522
Because, you know, there's a proverb that I often remember it's an African proverb, but I don't know who said it and says if you wanna go fast, go alone, but if you wanna go together, if you wanna go farther, go together.
00:26:58.954 --> 00:26:59.818
I've heard that, yeah.
00:27:00.755 --> 00:27:03.163
And that's how I feel we are.
00:27:03.163 --> 00:27:15.921
So back in our ancestors' days, when you know they were operating in tribes and clans and stuff like that, obviously a part of that was just, you know, the fact that they couldn't survive without it, because there's, you know, wildebeest out there.
00:27:15.921 --> 00:27:27.701
But I do think that there was something around humanity where going together does get us farther, and that includes asking for help.
00:27:28.194 --> 00:27:37.817
Yes yes, brilliant, I completely agree with that and I like the way that you framed that as that it's essentially.
00:27:37.817 --> 00:27:47.521
It's a misunderstanding about our nature, and I think that's right because I've noticed that in myself and in clients and friends and other people.
00:27:47.521 --> 00:27:54.382
As people have evolved in their own individual lives, they've become better at asking for help.
00:27:54.382 --> 00:27:55.496
Yes.
00:27:56.694 --> 00:27:57.136
Without.
00:27:57.136 --> 00:28:14.460
Sometimes, at the very beginning they're very good at asking for help as a victim you know whining to be rescued, right but then over time it kind of evolves and they get better at recognizing what help they want and better at selecting the right people and better at asking for it.
00:28:14.460 --> 00:28:15.383
Yes.
00:28:15.383 --> 00:28:22.819
I've noticed often it's the very, very senior people who have no ego or issue about asking for help because they know they've done it.
00:28:22.819 --> 00:28:24.077
That's how they got there.
00:28:24.077 --> 00:28:24.902
Yeah.
00:28:25.434 --> 00:28:31.661
And now they're doing it selectively, they're doing it strategically and it makes all the difference.
00:28:32.795 --> 00:28:38.160
That is so wise that it's such a great observation, catherine, because it is a part.
00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:52.665
Once you do the healing within, you know the ego calms down quite a bit and because you begin to own yourself in a way that you didn't own yourself before.
00:28:52.665 --> 00:29:18.743
Not you, but you know the proverbial us, I guess, so we, when the person who's the most confident in the room, you could tell when someone is quite confident and they are owning themselves, they have a way of being that is very different than the ones who are putting on as if they are confident or putting on as if they've got it all together.
00:29:18.743 --> 00:29:21.598
They are so willing.
00:29:21.598 --> 00:29:30.502
People who have done the work or are very centered and anchored are so much more willing to ask for help.
00:29:31.214 --> 00:29:52.799
You know, oftentimes you hear junior staff, sometimes in organizations, say well, you know what does the CEO do, you know everyone's doing all of his work and we're just funneling it up at the top and that's a lack of understanding about what it means to be a leader and what it means for someone to rally the troops into be a strategic leader.
00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:54.236
I was.
00:29:54.236 --> 00:29:58.962
I don't know if you're familiar, I'm sure, with Outlander the series.
00:29:58.962 --> 00:30:00.156
I haven't.
00:30:00.278 --> 00:30:01.221
I tried to watch it.
00:30:01.221 --> 00:30:04.000
I just couldn't bear it, but I know it exists.