Mar 12, 2020
Overview of Episode #66 ---
- What is Essentialism?
- How Brand Strategist Catherine Blakemore and Suzie Price are
using Essentialism in their personal and professional lives.
- Why Catherine and Suzie are so excited and energized by
Essentialism.
- What the benefits and challenges are to becoming an
"Essentialist."
- Contact Priceless Professional Development: 770-578-6976,
suzie@pricelessprofessional.com or www.pricelessprofessional.com
- To see the show notes and get the transcript for this episode,
go to: www.pricelessprofessional.com/essentialism
Timing on Recording: @ 11:15 ---
Topic 1: What Are Your Top 3 Takeaways From the
Book Essentialism?
- “If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will.”
- Living by design and not by default.
- You can truly only have ONE priority.
Timing on Recording: @ 16:00 ---
Topic 2: What is Essential Intent?
- If you could be excellent at one thing, what would it be?
- This is where brand strategy comes into play.
- Adopt the essentialist view: There are so many infinite
possibilities for a brand, but focusing in on just those vital few
is not something people intrinsically want to do.
- Ask yourself, what is the essential intent of your business? It
is something businesses know they have to do, but it can be really
difficult.
- Essential intent eliminates a universe of other options and
strategically maps a course for the next 5, 10 or 20 years of your
life and your business future.
- “It's a disciplined pursuit of less.”
- Do a Don’t Do List.
- You have to sacrifice some of what is good to get to what is
great.
Timing on Recording: @ 25:57 ---
Topic 3: How Essentialism Has Impacted You? What Changes
Have You Made Personally and Professionally?
- It has created a foundational understanding for my intent for
my life.
- It gives the best answer, fullest and most intentional
contribution to the world around you, but you have to make
sacrifices in order to do that
- It is a ruthless, relentless editing of self, of work, focus
and of community.
- The first act of the essentialist is to start scanning your
environment for those vital few and eagerly eliminate the trivial
many.
- You need to spend more time towards your defined purpose.
- Being an essentialist in everything from my personal life, to
my work life, to my home, all of these things, they cause a
disruption in the natural flow.
- The ruthless editing of my emotional responses to things, I was
formerly quite reactive and now very, very proactive.
- Do not gossip, talk about ideas instead of people and
things.
- Scan your conversations for value, think about how much time we
spend speaking and engaging with things that are more and not
better, instead of less but better.
- Give your highest contribution to the world around you. And if
you are giving your highest contribution, it's not with a
non-essentialist conversation, it's with an essentialist one.
- Incorporate a Time blocker - 9:00am to Noon on Mondays is CEO
time; Wednesday afternoons from 12:00pm to 4:00pm it is content
development time; Friday from 9:00am to Noon it is product
development.
- Wednesday mornings I like to treat myself to a slow
morning.
- For Suzie - Daily tune in time and something physical.
- The essentialist view demands that you know who you are, not
just what you're doing.
- Essentialists have to accept that they cannot be popular with
everyone all the time.
- If you have a strong enough yes, you will find a way to say the
no.
- The preponderance of choice has overwhelmed our ability to
manage it, we struggle daily to manage our ability to choose.
Timing on Recording: @ 52:55 ---
Topic 4: What are the Challenges of Implementing
Essentialism Into Your Life?
- My enthusiasm and excitement towards ideas and things can
sometimes overwhelm my ability to stay essential.
- I try to figure out how to maintain my enthusiasm yet not
sacrifice or do an unconscious trade-off of my essentialist
intent.
- You get so excited or enthused around something, you veer off a
little bit or you commit to things that you would not normally have
committed to.
- We live in a world, where almost everything is worthless and
very few things are exceptionally valuable.
- Sometimes you don't know what you need to be letting go
of.
- Pay attention to how it makes you feel.
Timing on Recording: @ 1:01:07 ---
Topic 5: What Are Some Tools, Resources or
Questions to Use When Struggling with Essentialism?
- Set aside time to verbalize or articulate your thoughts.
- The biggest tool is daily tune in time.
- Define your essential intent.
- Do not start with a screen, always start with a piece of paper
and write it down and cross it out if it does not feel good.
- List of Values exercise.
- You need to get bored. Getting bored is one of the most
creative things we can do.
- List of Six.
- 80/20 rule: You know that we need to spend 80% of our time on
the 20% that matters the most OR 20% of our efforts produce 80% of
our results.
-
Timing on Recording: @ 1:10:51 ---
Topic 6: Getting to Know Catherine
Blackmore.
- Who is most influenced you in your career? What are some of the
things they said or did that matter to you?: So many countless
people over the years but they have these principles: A commitment
to excellence in all things, an insatiable curiosity and an
undeniable work ethic. Also seeking to understand before trying to
be understood.
- What are some books you would suggest?: The Culture
Code by Daniel Coyle and The Compound Effect by
Darren Hardy
- What are some of the things you do to wake up eager? Mind -
Mental clarity, tune in time; Body – Drink Mud Water and sleep
(Protect your assets); Spirit - Morning routines, to be present
with myself in whatever way I sense that my spirit needs and
cultivate a spirit of generosity in all things for all people the
best that I can.
- For Suzie - What are some of the things you do to wake up
eager? Mind – Daily tune in time, the commitment to ease happienss;
Body – Intermittent fasting, riding my Peleton, walking my dogs,
nutrition (Green smoothies); Spirit - Journaling
- If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would it be? What
would it say?: A solid color billboard that says, “This is your
beginning.”
- For Suzie - If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would
it be? What would it say?: “Embrace happiness, create ease.”
- One last bit of advice or wisdom about essentialism?: To become
an essentialist requires a heightened awareness of your ability to
choose, everything around essentialism is about choice and that you
have your ability to choose, but all it takes is for you to be
aware of that.