October 15, 2024 • 30 mins
Welcome to Episode 16!
In this episode, Julie explores the concept of challenging people as "angels in disguise" and shares personal insights on growth through difficult interactions.
Angels in Disguise
- Julie reflects on the idea that difficult people, or those who “push our buttons,” can be seen as disguised angels, helping us learn and grow.
- It’s about reframing challenging encounters as opportunities to understand ourselves better.
Moving into a New Office
- She shares a lighthearted story about recording this episode from a shared office space and being overheard discussing this unique perspective.
- The shared experience adds a layer of humor and connection in unexpected ways.
Embracing Challenges for Growth
- Julie encourages viewing difficult interactions as a path to self-awareness, helping us recognize areas where we can improve or develop patience.
- This approach turns potential frustrations into valuable life lessons.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hello, and welcome to this episode of the podcast. And the title of this podcast was going to be a holes are angels in disguise. And it's something that
I always remember when I run into somebody that personally pushes my buttons and challenges me and, you know, really brings me back to my human nature. And so that was going to be this episode. But then we moved
(00:41):
into a new office, and we're in a shared office space, and one of the ladies overheard me saying, you know, that I was going coming to record this podcast today. And she just, like, said, don't do a negative podcast. She's like, everybody's doing
negative podcasts, and we need something positive and uplifting. So it kind of reframed it. So today we're going to focus on all the positives that come from engaging with those people that push your buttons. But
(01:11):
first, let's start with an update. So this has been a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge last couple of months. You know, we moved our office. We, this is, so
today is the 4 March. And so January 1, we restructured our team. We moved our office. We are 100%
(01:33):
focused on where are we going, what are we doing. We're being very intentional about our growth, where we want to be, who we want to work with, and we've been going through our mission, our vision, our core
values, and we're just basically reorganizing everything. So, and at the same time, I'm doing all these other
(02:03):
side projects. So we're going through the same decluttering of the old office, decluttering of our house, decluttering of my daughter's living situation, where just everything's being decluttering. And then the more we declutter, the more it opens up
energy for where we're supposed to go. And part of the clutter was, how do I communicate what I'm trying to do and where I want to go? So one of the books got five books going. So again, this levels of clutter. We got five
(02:34):
books going right now, and one of them books that we're doing with my EO forum, and that's entrepreneurs organization. With my EO forum is find your yellow tucks. And it's Jesse Cole of the Savannah
bananas. And it's his story and his, and basically guidelines to building a business based on passion, building a business based on your purpose, and bringing out that greatness
(03:03):
and living from that greatness and fully committing, not just, I'm not sure if I want to do this, but really fully committing like I'm doing through this process. And so one. It's an affirmation. Yes. This is exactly what
you should be doing. You should find your greatness. You should find that thing that you're totally passionate about. But really, at the end
(03:26):
of the day, it's more about simplify. So everything's about simplify, simplify, simplify. Simplify it down to
the single message of what you want to communicate. Simplify the ideas. Simplify everything down. And so when I
started unloading on my team about my vision and my mission and all these crazy things I want to do and everything, they came back with the same answer. They're like, we need this. In one sentence, you give us
(03:55):
one sentence of what you want us to do as a creative agency, and you give us what sent one sentence of what you want to do with everything you're trying to do here. So, when I got it from this book
and then I got it from my team, like, that's the world I work in. There's all these synchronicities. And that was what came out was we had to simplify it. So here we
(04:21):
go. This podcast is teaching people how to get out of your head, connect with your true nature, your creative
soul, to untap. Connect and untap with higher intelligence, infinite wisdom, creativity, to drive, to change, to impact the world
(04:51):
you live in. Okay? That's what this podcast is about. It's about taking what we know as human nature and saying, that's a broken processor. I don't have to live this way. I don't have to use it.
I don't have to operate from this broken processor, that it is 100% able to reprogram all your neuro pathways, your responses to just. Instead of reacting with fear or
(05:23):
anger, to just kind of step back and go, oh, the feelings I have are curious. And then just tap into this creative nature and start understanding really what's going on, and not be defensive, not be anger, and
not be driven by human nature. Evolve higher than that and connect with your true nature, who you really are. So that's it. That's what I'm supposed to do with the podcast. The second
(05:49):
thing is the clear thinking channel, and that is just really the programs and their educational programs. And we're starting with businesses to bring a creative culture into
businesses and to understand this program in a very simplified way, but in a way to basically lift up employees. So move employees from, again, very similar to the
(06:21):
podcast, where have employees really understand their true nature, really diffuse situations, have more collaboration, more brainstorming, more ideas. Everybody's focused on problem
solving and creating this culture where you're constantly improving. Everybody feels valued, people come into work and they feel uplifted. So it's just really programs
(06:45):
to have teams, have individuals really connect with their creative nature, be out of their heads and just really move the needle for businesses, and then they take that home and, you know, they move the needle in their personal lives. So it's a way to
have this impact through work. And then the last part is my creative agency, advancreative. And our goal is to develop marketing, develop campaigns that people that
(07:18):
come from this space and that people who view these campaigns are moved. They are moved. The work is inspirational. They are moved to the point
where it's so creative, it's so different, it's so unique that people stop and they take it in and they absorb it. They can't ignore it anymore. So, and it's
(07:43):
impactful, you know, it sticks with you, it changes you, it transforms you. And that level of marketing is what we want to do. And then through our amazing social and SEO programs, that we bring extreme visibility to it. We make
people that wouldn't normally see or hear this. We bring introduce these concepts and these ideas and these ads and this inspirational way of working. So it's been really, it's
(08:09):
been really interesting. So, so we defined, that's what we want to do, and we've got it. And those are a lot of words because I always use a lot of words, but really, it's a very simple concept that we're
just having people get out of their heads, connect with their creative, true nature, and then just tap into this amazing wisdom that can come from that. And so it's defined, it's clear. This is my mission. This is what I'm supposed to do.
(08:34):
And when you're reading the book from Jesse Cole, he just keeps talking about how it just feels so good. It feels great. It feels great. Feels great. Like, we do this at the end of the day, like everybody's saying
goodbye to all the attendees of the ballpark and how great it feels. And that's the highlight. What you think would be when you're exhausted at the end of the evening,
(08:56):
you know, after a day of an evening of entertaining people that, you know, saying goodbyes to everybody as they're leaving, that that's, even though you're exhausted, it just is so uplifting, and that's every day I'm coming into the office, I'm like, this feels so great. This feels so great. That's all I'm saying. It's my mantra. And, you
know, I did a. I did a check in with happiness this week, and it's like, can I measure how happy this is making me to be on my path, to be figuring this out, to say, this is my greatness, this is what I'm going to
(09:30):
do, this is my journey, and this is the level we want to be working at. So what's really interesting is, so I've been trying to evaluate the level of happiness that you can achieve when you're. You're in this space of.
Of living up to greatness, living up to your path, living up to where you want to go and what you want to do, and then in the process of removing all those obstacles that are stopping you from getting there. So, like, the
(09:59):
happiest times in my life, the absolute happiest times in my life were one when I was pregnant and having children and, you know, when they were first born and everything. And then those moments, um, that was. That was, like, beyond
anything there, um. There have definitely been lots on, many, many times in my relationship with my husband where you felt, this is so right, this is exactly what you're supposed to be doing, and you're really happy. And then those moments where my children
(10:27):
were, like, growing into their human. Humanness, who. Their adultness, their. Their past, where they're supposed to be
there, where they're supposed to be having an impact. So it's like those moments, like, you just felt, like, your soul, like, so happy. Like, this is. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing. This is
(10:49):
where I'm supposed to be right now, and this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And so those are the times that I've experienced it. And this is the first time in my life. I mean, I'm always happy. I'm not, like,
a sad or grumpy person, but there's this level of happiness that's like, this is right. This just feels so right. This is what I should be doing. This is how I should be
(11:10):
doing it. And everything is coming together and aligning and every little bit of alignment, everything that's put in front of me, you know, I didn't pick this yellow tugs book. We had a bunch
of books that were thrown at us, and then the forum, they picked the book. But everything in this book was speaking to exactly where I am right now, which is find your greatness, simplify your message, figure out what you're doing,
(11:36):
and then just really lean into it and do something beyond whatever you thought, whatever idea you had fully commit and then just go beyond that. And so everything's in alignment, everything's working, and there's just this lifted
joy and then the decluttering, everything. The whole energy of decluttering is that you're giving stuff away or donating it or moving to trash, and you're thinking each one of those items for
(12:08):
what it's done for you, and you're getting the energy back from it. Instead of that feeling like, oh, someone gave it to me. I should have used it. I
paid so much for it. I never wore it. All those. All those reasons we have in our head to hold on to nonsense, and then they carry that
weight and that burden, and the idea is just to give it up and gain back that energy. So there's this buoyancy, there's this energy, there's this alignment. There's all this stuff going on at once, and
(12:32):
it's happening in every single world. It's happening in the office, it's happening in my home life, it's happening in my daughter's life. Like, everything is coming into alignment, and it's just lifted and lifted and
lifted, and it just feels so good. So it was great week. The, you know, one of the books, and I think I talked about this, was not living in the gap. So the gap is like the
(12:57):
negative. Like, instead of focusing on everything that's right, you're always focusing on everything that's wrong. And we know a lot of people that live there, and I think human nature is. Yes, but, you know,
yeah, this was good. But, you know, and we always have a tendency to go towards the negative, but if you just choose not to live in the gap, if you choose to focus on the positive. So we have a
(13:19):
leadership meeting every Thursday morning, and the last leadership meeting, I started, like, listing out all the amazing things that had happened over the past week, and I had, like, ten things, and it dominated the whole meeting. Just
one week of talking about all the fabulous things that are happening to us, all the amazing things that are happening. Everything. Good, good, good, good. And there was no room for
(13:45):
any negative. There was no time for any negative, and there was no room for everything negative. And you're like, how can this even be possible? Like, how can everything be going so well and so good? And so you
just start to like, you're like, okay, this is it. I guess it's just another affirmation that we're doing the right thing and we should be moving in the right direction. So, coming back to the topic
(14:06):
of a holes, are angels in disguise. So it's great. Cloud nine and everything now that shows up as a negative, we're now questioning, should that be a client? Should
we take on clients that live in the gap? Should we have clients that align with. We want to explore the potential of what can come out of this versus. That's not what we were looking for.
(14:38):
And we're like, but what we delivered is amazing. So is there an alignment there, and is there a problem, or can we transform the clients? So in our core values, we have the idea of this,
that our clients are experiencing, what we're selling, what I'm selling here, which is a client comes into a meeting, and even if they're in the gap, even if they're in the negative, even if all they can focus on is something that this tiniest thing that might not be perfect yet,
(15:15):
but everything is amazing, like, or that the shift is something they can't comprehend will actually work, that they're living in the gap. And the idea is, can we lift up clients that they have this experience
where they're coming in, in the gap, and can we lift them up to where we exist, to this positive, to this world of possibility, to this world where your goal is not only to expose your products to your
(15:49):
audiences, but to transform your audiences through this amazing marketing? And so the question is, can we work with those clients? Is this even possible? So this weekend, and still a question we haven't resolved yet. So don't go in thinking this is a great story where
there's a resolution, because this is about us and not about the client. So this week, we had a client that moved into the a hole is an angel phase. And
(16:22):
it was particularly disturbing because this was, you know, they were upset about a project that was their project. It was their brainchild. It was
their. It's something they wanted us to do. It's not normal. It doesn't. It's only. We've only ever seen it
one place. It was really challenging. It will be on our portfolio. But I don't want to say anything yet, just in case they decide to kill the project.
(16:48):
But we had it 90% there, and we put everything we've got into this. So my creative director was coming in at 07:00 in the morning and staying till 530 and just working extraordinary hours,
and we try to work a 40 hours week, so we have time for this recovery. But she was working extraordinary hours to get this project put through. We have not. You know, sometimes you get
(17:13):
so busy that some projects don't get attention, but this project never did, never has not got attention. It's been in the forefront every week. We're pushing it. We're doing something really
creative. It's an amazing project, but it's not. We followed what the client told us to do, and it isn't working. And we're like, you know, and the
(17:36):
client's just really down our throats. As far as, you know, when is this going to be done? And we're like, well, we've never done this before. We're not quite sure what it's going to take to get it over the final hurdle.
We know we can. We're very confident we can get it there. We just don't know if the path you told us you want us to go will actually work and. Or we have to switch gears
(17:58):
and we have to do something else to make this finally work. It works, but it's not a great user experience. And so cleaning that up and making that work, we're not quite sure what that's going to take because it's never been done before. But the
client was just not pleasant and a jerk about it, and I reacted because I felt that the work we'd done had been undervalued and the client wasn't appreciating the greatness of what we were doing and the effort
(18:31):
that we put into it and where we were and the confidence that we had that we would finish it. We will finish it. I'm totally. But the problem is, I can't put a deadline
on it because I don't know what it's going to take right now. I don't know if the solution we're working on right now is the final solution or if we have to come up with another solution. But the client
(18:52):
had no tolerance of that, and they had made me angry. They made us feel small. They made us feel undervalued. They made us feel.
They took away our grace, and they took away our happiness momentarily, and it hung on all of us like a heavy, wet blanket. And so, you know, I've spent the last few days really assessing Juan, should this be a client
(19:23):
moving forward? Two, should we take on these clients, or can these clients actually be, you know, can this be a growth for us and for them, learning how to work with these clients? And again, Eleanor Roosevelt. I had to write this down because I never get it right, but
no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Okay? And we felt inferior, and we felt it was unfair. We felt
(19:56):
it wasn't justified. And so we were in all of those human nature modes attacked, undervalued. All those
feelings came out. And so in this episode, we talk about those people that do that. They knock you off your center. They, you know,
(20:19):
I've described it in the past where my older sister, you know, she referred to myself and my team as bottom feeders. And ever since then, that has been one of my
motivations, to be so phenomenal as an agency, to be so good at what we do, that there is a no way in the world that we represent bottom feeders, okay? We just don't, that's not who we are. There's a level of greatness to what we do.
(20:52):
And so the gift, so when you take this whole concept that a holes are angels in disguise, that they are, these people are coming to you. They're put, there's intention
to everything. It's not being done to you, it's being done for you. And that they're being put in front of you, you, as part of this journey. And there's a gift there. There's a
(21:18):
gift in this interaction. There's a gift in, you know, me developing the greatest agency in the world because my sister called us bottom feeders. You know,
it's one of those things that, you know, there's a gift there. There's a motivation. There's, I'm going to prove you wrong. And, and so it's stepping back. It's one saying, one, I'm not going to give you that
(21:46):
power. I'm not going to react to you, although I did, and I apologize because that was not who and where I want to be because I did get angry because I felt it was unjustified. But moving
forward, I don't want to react. Moving forward, I want to quickly center. I want to be able to tap into that. What's really going on here. And the idea
(22:12):
is that the person on the other end is projecting all their fears on you. And I know from everything, I know
that when you put, like, the energy of fear and you put the energy of love against each other and they do battle and, you know, part of our clear thinking channel courses is to actually experience this. You know,
(22:42):
we do this as a practice. So you can experience somebody putting fear in and somebody putting love in, that love will always win. But when you put fear against
fear, it generates more fear. And so it's the ability to step back to see that really, this is a gift. This is an angel. That this
(23:05):
person that is constantly pushing you and challenging you is an angel that's been put in front of you to kind of direct your path and nudge your path and, and point out something that is touching a part of you that's very, very painful, that's very raw, that you are
reacting to, that they are pushing your buttons, that they are doing things that you are, you're responding to. But it's like, what is the gift there? What am I really responding to? And it's their fear coming at you that you're, then
(23:38):
your fears are activated and you're, you know, you're, this humanness that we don't want to be in this human nature is to retaliate or to run one of the two. And we don't want to be there anymore. We don't want to be operating
in this system anymore. So the question is, can we tolerate clients that are coming at us like that? You know, these past few weeks, I've had several people come at me like this. And my, my
(24:07):
initial reaction is, and then my second reaction is I'm just going to ignore them or avoid them. And then my third reaction is, okay, what can I learn from this? And one, how can I flip the situation? So it comes back to
our whole idea of getting creative, problem solving, and then how can we take control? How can we flip this situation? What do they need to, what does this person need to hear to understand that their perception that they have right now that's creating fear is not real, that these are just stories that are telling
(24:41):
themselves themself. This is drama that they're creating out of some ideas that they're. But it's not real. And the foundation that's real is one.
We're doing this amazing work. We're going to get you where you need to go. This is going to transform your business. Everything we're doing, we're aligned as a team. We all want the same
(25:03):
things, but that just my forcing us in this way from fear and me reacting with fear was not a good situation. So what we did was we started to again
flip the situation and come into it from more of a leadership role where we're outlining, well, this is where we're going. This is where we are so far. And this is where, this is what it's going to take.
(25:33):
That's plan a. Plan b, if this doesn't work, is we're going to do this and then plan c is this so that we have three plans. Unfortunately, we don't
know what it's going to take. We don't know if plan a is going to be successful. There's no way of knowing. This has never been done.
So let's. And then plan B and plan C. And the thing is, the approach is calm, it's measured. We're
(25:58):
in control. We are directing where it's going. And so that's really, that's the flip. The flip is saying,
yes, you made me feel small. Yes, you made me feel inferior. But at the end of the day, we're great, we're magnificent. We're going to show you, instead of showing you our worst side, we're going
(26:21):
to show you our absolute best side. We are going to come into this with, these are all the solutions. This is what we can do. Even above that, this is where we, you know, because all we
are is ideas and ideas and ideas. We're going to take you even step further. This is just the starting point. We're going to do this and we're going to do that and we're going to create this and we're going to make you, we're
(26:42):
going to show the world how amazing your business and your brand is. But you have to trust us. And that really comes down to, can you trust us? And at the end of the day, if that trust isn't there,
maybe that's where the client alignment should stop. You know, like, if you can't trust us, if you can't say, I'm willing to take a chance, then we're not the right agency for you. Because
(27:08):
we don't want to do what everybody else has done. We want to do something completely different. We want to transform the way people think, the way people feel, the way
they connect with their true selves. And if you're not going to give us the opportunity to do that, then you're not the right fit for us. This is a note from our sponsor, me.
(27:29):
And this is coming from one of our amazing clients, treetops. And if you're looking to plan the ultimate family vacation, northern Michigan is definitely where you should go. Treetops can be
your base camp. It's just an amazing resort where nature meets a venture. And whether it's summer or winter with extreme tubing and dog
(27:55):
sledding, or in summer, you can go to the Skybridge, Mackinac island, sleeping bear dunes, every outdoor activity that you can imagine, go to treetops.com. and this is where you're going to plan this incredible vacation and memory for your families. And
get super creative, too. So the moral of the story, what I need to tell you is that these people are put in our lives and it could be something
(28:29):
horrible. That happened to you as a child, it could be something that shut you down. You knew this was your path, but this was the obstacle. This
is the person telling you, you come, you shouldn't, you don't do this. It's stupid, you know, don't listen. Don't listen. Listen to use
that person's angst, that person's fear, use that as your fuel. Use that as what pushes you forward. That says, I can do even better.
(29:00):
I can do even more amazing things than what you're saying I can't do, and use that as the fuel to prove them wrong, to show them that there's. There's something beyond fear.
That is so amazing, because I really believe at the end of the day, you taking this higher road, you connecting to this higher intelligence, you operating from this higher place is going to impact that person and lift them up and then bring them up to your level instead
(29:33):
of you going down to the level of fear. So I hope that this has been inspirational and this has been a great show for you, and I will keep you updated on all the amazing transformations that are happening in our
business and our agency as we create this amazing creative culture. Thank you.
Hello, and welcome to this episode of the podcast. And the title of this podcast was going to be a holes are angels in disguise. And it's something that
I always remember when I run into somebody that personally pushes my buttons and challenges me and, you know, really brings me back to my human nature. And so that was going to be this episode. But then we moved
(00:41):
into a new office, and we're in a shared office space, and one of the ladies overheard me saying, you know, that I was going coming to record this podcast today. And she just, like, said, don't do a negative podcast. She's like, everybody's doing
negative podcasts, and we need something positive and uplifting. So it kind of reframed it. So today we're going to focus on all the positives that come from engaging with those people that push your buttons. But
(01:11):
first, let's start with an update. So this has been a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge last couple of months. You know, we moved our office. We, this is, so
today is the 4 March. And so January 1, we restructured our team. We moved our office. We are 100%
(01:33):
focused on where are we going, what are we doing. We're being very intentional about our growth, where we want to be, who we want to work with, and we've been going through our mission, our vision, our core
values, and we're just basically reorganizing everything. So, and at the same time, I'm doing all these other
(02:03):
side projects. So we're going through the same decluttering of the old office, decluttering of our house, decluttering of my daughter's living situation, where just everything's being decluttering. And then the more we declutter, the more it opens up
energy for where we're supposed to go. And part of the clutter was, how do I communicate what I'm trying to do and where I want to go? So one of the books got five books going. So again, this levels of clutter. We got five
(02:34):
books going right now, and one of them books that we're doing with my EO forum, and that's entrepreneurs organization. With my EO forum is find your yellow tucks. And it's Jesse Cole of the Savannah
bananas. And it's his story and his, and basically guidelines to building a business based on passion, building a business based on your purpose, and bringing out that greatness
(03:03):
and living from that greatness and fully committing, not just, I'm not sure if I want to do this, but really fully committing like I'm doing through this process. And so one. It's an affirmation. Yes. This is exactly what
you should be doing. You should find your greatness. You should find that thing that you're totally passionate about. But really, at the end
(03:26):
of the day, it's more about simplify. So everything's about simplify, simplify, simplify. Simplify it down to
the single message of what you want to communicate. Simplify the ideas. Simplify everything down. And so when I
started unloading on my team about my vision and my mission and all these crazy things I want to do and everything, they came back with the same answer. They're like, we need this. In one sentence, you give us
(03:55):
one sentence of what you want us to do as a creative agency, and you give us what sent one sentence of what you want to do with everything you're trying to do here. So, when I got it from this book
and then I got it from my team, like, that's the world I work in. There's all these synchronicities. And that was what came out was we had to simplify it. So here we
(04:21):
go. This podcast is teaching people how to get out of your head, connect with your true nature, your creative
soul, to untap. Connect and untap with higher intelligence, infinite wisdom, creativity, to drive, to change, to impact the world
(04:51):
you live in. Okay? That's what this podcast is about. It's about taking what we know as human nature and saying, that's a broken processor. I don't have to live this way. I don't have to use it.
I don't have to operate from this broken processor, that it is 100% able to reprogram all your neuro pathways, your responses to just. Instead of reacting with fear or
(05:23):
anger, to just kind of step back and go, oh, the feelings I have are curious. And then just tap into this creative nature and start understanding really what's going on, and not be defensive, not be anger, and
not be driven by human nature. Evolve higher than that and connect with your true nature, who you really are. So that's it. That's what I'm supposed to do with the podcast. The second
(05:49):
thing is the clear thinking channel, and that is just really the programs and their educational programs. And we're starting with businesses to bring a creative culture into
businesses and to understand this program in a very simplified way, but in a way to basically lift up employees. So move employees from, again, very similar to the
(06:21):
podcast, where have employees really understand their true nature, really diffuse situations, have more collaboration, more brainstorming, more ideas. Everybody's focused on problem
solving and creating this culture where you're constantly improving. Everybody feels valued, people come into work and they feel uplifted. So it's just really programs
(06:45):
to have teams, have individuals really connect with their creative nature, be out of their heads and just really move the needle for businesses, and then they take that home and, you know, they move the needle in their personal lives. So it's a way to
have this impact through work. And then the last part is my creative agency, advancreative. And our goal is to develop marketing, develop campaigns that people that
(07:18):
come from this space and that people who view these campaigns are moved. They are moved. The work is inspirational. They are moved to the point
where it's so creative, it's so different, it's so unique that people stop and they take it in and they absorb it. They can't ignore it anymore. So, and it's
(07:43):
impactful, you know, it sticks with you, it changes you, it transforms you. And that level of marketing is what we want to do. And then through our amazing social and SEO programs, that we bring extreme visibility to it. We make
people that wouldn't normally see or hear this. We bring introduce these concepts and these ideas and these ads and this inspirational way of working. So it's been really, it's
(08:09):
been really interesting. So, so we defined, that's what we want to do, and we've got it. And those are a lot of words because I always use a lot of words, but really, it's a very simple concept that we're
just having people get out of their heads, connect with their creative, true nature, and then just tap into this amazing wisdom that can come from that. And so it's defined, it's clear. This is my mission. This is what I'm supposed to do.
(08:34):
And when you're reading the book from Jesse Cole, he just keeps talking about how it just feels so good. It feels great. It feels great. Feels great. Like, we do this at the end of the day, like everybody's saying
goodbye to all the attendees of the ballpark and how great it feels. And that's the highlight. What you think would be when you're exhausted at the end of the evening,
(08:56):
you know, after a day of an evening of entertaining people that, you know, saying goodbyes to everybody as they're leaving, that that's, even though you're exhausted, it just is so uplifting, and that's every day I'm coming into the office, I'm like, this feels so great. This feels so great. That's all I'm saying. It's my mantra. And, you
know, I did a. I did a check in with happiness this week, and it's like, can I measure how happy this is making me to be on my path, to be figuring this out, to say, this is my greatness, this is what I'm going to
(09:30):
do, this is my journey, and this is the level we want to be working at. So what's really interesting is, so I've been trying to evaluate the level of happiness that you can achieve when you're. You're in this space of.
Of living up to greatness, living up to your path, living up to where you want to go and what you want to do, and then in the process of removing all those obstacles that are stopping you from getting there. So, like, the
(09:59):
happiest times in my life, the absolute happiest times in my life were one when I was pregnant and having children and, you know, when they were first born and everything. And then those moments, um, that was. That was, like, beyond
anything there, um. There have definitely been lots on, many, many times in my relationship with my husband where you felt, this is so right, this is exactly what you're supposed to be doing, and you're really happy. And then those moments where my children
(10:27):
were, like, growing into their human. Humanness, who. Their adultness, their. Their past, where they're supposed to be
there, where they're supposed to be having an impact. So it's like those moments, like, you just felt, like, your soul, like, so happy. Like, this is. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing. This is
(10:49):
where I'm supposed to be right now, and this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And so those are the times that I've experienced it. And this is the first time in my life. I mean, I'm always happy. I'm not, like,
a sad or grumpy person, but there's this level of happiness that's like, this is right. This just feels so right. This is what I should be doing. This is how I should be
(11:10):
doing it. And everything is coming together and aligning and every little bit of alignment, everything that's put in front of me, you know, I didn't pick this yellow tugs book. We had a bunch
of books that were thrown at us, and then the forum, they picked the book. But everything in this book was speaking to exactly where I am right now, which is find your greatness, simplify your message, figure out what you're doing,
(11:36):
and then just really lean into it and do something beyond whatever you thought, whatever idea you had fully commit and then just go beyond that. And so everything's in alignment, everything's working, and there's just this lifted
joy and then the decluttering, everything. The whole energy of decluttering is that you're giving stuff away or donating it or moving to trash, and you're thinking each one of those items for
(12:08):
what it's done for you, and you're getting the energy back from it. Instead of that feeling like, oh, someone gave it to me. I should have used it. I
paid so much for it. I never wore it. All those. All those reasons we have in our head to hold on to nonsense, and then they carry that
weight and that burden, and the idea is just to give it up and gain back that energy. So there's this buoyancy, there's this energy, there's this alignment. There's all this stuff going on at once, and
(12:32):
it's happening in every single world. It's happening in the office, it's happening in my home life, it's happening in my daughter's life. Like, everything is coming into alignment, and it's just lifted and lifted and
lifted, and it just feels so good. So it was great week. The, you know, one of the books, and I think I talked about this, was not living in the gap. So the gap is like the
(12:57):
negative. Like, instead of focusing on everything that's right, you're always focusing on everything that's wrong. And we know a lot of people that live there, and I think human nature is. Yes, but, you know,
yeah, this was good. But, you know, and we always have a tendency to go towards the negative, but if you just choose not to live in the gap, if you choose to focus on the positive. So we have a
(13:19):
leadership meeting every Thursday morning, and the last leadership meeting, I started, like, listing out all the amazing things that had happened over the past week, and I had, like, ten things, and it dominated the whole meeting. Just
one week of talking about all the fabulous things that are happening to us, all the amazing things that are happening. Everything. Good, good, good, good. And there was no room for
(13:45):
any negative. There was no time for any negative, and there was no room for everything negative. And you're like, how can this even be possible? Like, how can everything be going so well and so good? And so you
just start to like, you're like, okay, this is it. I guess it's just another affirmation that we're doing the right thing and we should be moving in the right direction. So, coming back to the topic
(14:06):
of a holes, are angels in disguise. So it's great. Cloud nine and everything now that shows up as a negative, we're now questioning, should that be a client? Should
we take on clients that live in the gap? Should we have clients that align with. We want to explore the potential of what can come out of this versus. That's not what we were looking for.
(14:38):
And we're like, but what we delivered is amazing. So is there an alignment there, and is there a problem, or can we transform the clients? So in our core values, we have the idea of this,
that our clients are experiencing, what we're selling, what I'm selling here, which is a client comes into a meeting, and even if they're in the gap, even if they're in the negative, even if all they can focus on is something that this tiniest thing that might not be perfect yet,
(15:15):
but everything is amazing, like, or that the shift is something they can't comprehend will actually work, that they're living in the gap. And the idea is, can we lift up clients that they have this experience
where they're coming in, in the gap, and can we lift them up to where we exist, to this positive, to this world of possibility, to this world where your goal is not only to expose your products to your
(15:49):
audiences, but to transform your audiences through this amazing marketing? And so the question is, can we work with those clients? Is this even possible? So this weekend, and still a question we haven't resolved yet. So don't go in thinking this is a great story where
there's a resolution, because this is about us and not about the client. So this week, we had a client that moved into the a hole is an angel phase. And
(16:22):
it was particularly disturbing because this was, you know, they were upset about a project that was their project. It was their brainchild. It was
their. It's something they wanted us to do. It's not normal. It doesn't. It's only. We've only ever seen it
one place. It was really challenging. It will be on our portfolio. But I don't want to say anything yet, just in case they decide to kill the project.
(16:48):
But we had it 90% there, and we put everything we've got into this. So my creative director was coming in at 07:00 in the morning and staying till 530 and just working extraordinary hours,
and we try to work a 40 hours week, so we have time for this recovery. But she was working extraordinary hours to get this project put through. We have not. You know, sometimes you get
(17:13):
so busy that some projects don't get attention, but this project never did, never has not got attention. It's been in the forefront every week. We're pushing it. We're doing something really
creative. It's an amazing project, but it's not. We followed what the client told us to do, and it isn't working. And we're like, you know, and the
(17:36):
client's just really down our throats. As far as, you know, when is this going to be done? And we're like, well, we've never done this before. We're not quite sure what it's going to take to get it over the final hurdle.
We know we can. We're very confident we can get it there. We just don't know if the path you told us you want us to go will actually work and. Or we have to switch gears
(17:58):
and we have to do something else to make this finally work. It works, but it's not a great user experience. And so cleaning that up and making that work, we're not quite sure what that's going to take because it's never been done before. But the
client was just not pleasant and a jerk about it, and I reacted because I felt that the work we'd done had been undervalued and the client wasn't appreciating the greatness of what we were doing and the effort
(18:31):
that we put into it and where we were and the confidence that we had that we would finish it. We will finish it. I'm totally. But the problem is, I can't put a deadline
on it because I don't know what it's going to take right now. I don't know if the solution we're working on right now is the final solution or if we have to come up with another solution. But the client
(18:52):
had no tolerance of that, and they had made me angry. They made us feel small. They made us feel undervalued. They made us feel.
They took away our grace, and they took away our happiness momentarily, and it hung on all of us like a heavy, wet blanket. And so, you know, I've spent the last few days really assessing Juan, should this be a client
(19:23):
moving forward? Two, should we take on these clients, or can these clients actually be, you know, can this be a growth for us and for them, learning how to work with these clients? And again, Eleanor Roosevelt. I had to write this down because I never get it right, but
no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Okay? And we felt inferior, and we felt it was unfair. We felt
(19:56):
it wasn't justified. And so we were in all of those human nature modes attacked, undervalued. All those
feelings came out. And so in this episode, we talk about those people that do that. They knock you off your center. They, you know,
(20:19):
I've described it in the past where my older sister, you know, she referred to myself and my team as bottom feeders. And ever since then, that has been one of my
motivations, to be so phenomenal as an agency, to be so good at what we do, that there is a no way in the world that we represent bottom feeders, okay? We just don't, that's not who we are. There's a level of greatness to what we do.
(20:52):
And so the gift, so when you take this whole concept that a holes are angels in disguise, that they are, these people are coming to you. They're put, there's intention
to everything. It's not being done to you, it's being done for you. And that they're being put in front of you, you, as part of this journey. And there's a gift there. There's a
(21:18):
gift in this interaction. There's a gift in, you know, me developing the greatest agency in the world because my sister called us bottom feeders. You know,
it's one of those things that, you know, there's a gift there. There's a motivation. There's, I'm going to prove you wrong. And, and so it's stepping back. It's one saying, one, I'm not going to give you that
(21:46):
power. I'm not going to react to you, although I did, and I apologize because that was not who and where I want to be because I did get angry because I felt it was unjustified. But moving
forward, I don't want to react. Moving forward, I want to quickly center. I want to be able to tap into that. What's really going on here. And the idea
(22:12):
is that the person on the other end is projecting all their fears on you. And I know from everything, I know
that when you put, like, the energy of fear and you put the energy of love against each other and they do battle and, you know, part of our clear thinking channel courses is to actually experience this. You know,
(22:42):
we do this as a practice. So you can experience somebody putting fear in and somebody putting love in, that love will always win. But when you put fear against
fear, it generates more fear. And so it's the ability to step back to see that really, this is a gift. This is an angel. That this
(23:05):
person that is constantly pushing you and challenging you is an angel that's been put in front of you to kind of direct your path and nudge your path and, and point out something that is touching a part of you that's very, very painful, that's very raw, that you are
reacting to, that they are pushing your buttons, that they are doing things that you are, you're responding to. But it's like, what is the gift there? What am I really responding to? And it's their fear coming at you that you're, then
(23:38):
your fears are activated and you're, you know, you're, this humanness that we don't want to be in this human nature is to retaliate or to run one of the two. And we don't want to be there anymore. We don't want to be operating
in this system anymore. So the question is, can we tolerate clients that are coming at us like that? You know, these past few weeks, I've had several people come at me like this. And my, my
(24:07):
initial reaction is, and then my second reaction is I'm just going to ignore them or avoid them. And then my third reaction is, okay, what can I learn from this? And one, how can I flip the situation? So it comes back to
our whole idea of getting creative, problem solving, and then how can we take control? How can we flip this situation? What do they need to, what does this person need to hear to understand that their perception that they have right now that's creating fear is not real, that these are just stories that are telling
(24:41):
themselves themself. This is drama that they're creating out of some ideas that they're. But it's not real. And the foundation that's real is one.
We're doing this amazing work. We're going to get you where you need to go. This is going to transform your business. Everything we're doing, we're aligned as a team. We all want the same
(25:03):
things, but that just my forcing us in this way from fear and me reacting with fear was not a good situation. So what we did was we started to again
flip the situation and come into it from more of a leadership role where we're outlining, well, this is where we're going. This is where we are so far. And this is where, this is what it's going to take.
(25:33):
That's plan a. Plan b, if this doesn't work, is we're going to do this and then plan c is this so that we have three plans. Unfortunately, we don't
know what it's going to take. We don't know if plan a is going to be successful. There's no way of knowing. This has never been done.
So let's. And then plan B and plan C. And the thing is, the approach is calm, it's measured. We're
(25:58):
in control. We are directing where it's going. And so that's really, that's the flip. The flip is saying,
yes, you made me feel small. Yes, you made me feel inferior. But at the end of the day, we're great, we're magnificent. We're going to show you, instead of showing you our worst side, we're going
(26:21):
to show you our absolute best side. We are going to come into this with, these are all the solutions. This is what we can do. Even above that, this is where we, you know, because all we
are is ideas and ideas and ideas. We're going to take you even step further. This is just the starting point. We're going to do this and we're going to do that and we're going to create this and we're going to make you, we're
(26:42):
going to show the world how amazing your business and your brand is. But you have to trust us. And that really comes down to, can you trust us? And at the end of the day, if that trust isn't there,
maybe that's where the client alignment should stop. You know, like, if you can't trust us, if you can't say, I'm willing to take a chance, then we're not the right agency for you. Because
(27:08):
we don't want to do what everybody else has done. We want to do something completely different. We want to transform the way people think, the way people feel, the way
they connect with their true selves. And if you're not going to give us the opportunity to do that, then you're not the right fit for us. This is a note from our sponsor, me.
(27:29):
And this is coming from one of our amazing clients, treetops. And if you're looking to plan the ultimate family vacation, northern Michigan is definitely where you should go. Treetops can be
your base camp. It's just an amazing resort where nature meets a venture. And whether it's summer or winter with extreme tubing and dog
(27:55):
sledding, or in summer, you can go to the Skybridge, Mackinac island, sleeping bear dunes, every outdoor activity that you can imagine, go to treetops.com. and this is where you're going to plan this incredible vacation and memory for your families. And
get super creative, too. So the moral of the story, what I need to tell you is that these people are put in our lives and it could be something
(28:29):
horrible. That happened to you as a child, it could be something that shut you down. You knew this was your path, but this was the obstacle. This
is the person telling you, you come, you shouldn't, you don't do this. It's stupid, you know, don't listen. Don't listen. Listen to use
that person's angst, that person's fear, use that as your fuel. Use that as what pushes you forward. That says, I can do even better.
(29:00):
I can do even more amazing things than what you're saying I can't do, and use that as the fuel to prove them wrong, to show them that there's. There's something beyond fear.
That is so amazing, because I really believe at the end of the day, you taking this higher road, you connecting to this higher intelligence, you operating from this higher place is going to impact that person and lift them up and then bring them up to your level instead
(29:33):
of you going down to the level of fear. So I hope that this has been inspirational and this has been a great show for you, and I will keep you updated on all the amazing transformations that are happening in our
business and our agency as we create this amazing creative culture. Thank you.
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