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April 22, 2025 46 mins

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In this powerful episode of Spark & Ignite Your Marketing, Beverly sits down with Stephen Shortt, a career and talent strategist who’s helped tens of thousands of people find fulfilling, purpose-driven careers. From growing up in a family business to designing a global career matching system, Stephen shares his unique IDEAL framework for discovering the work you’re meant to do and why career clarity matters more than ever for individuals and businesses. Whether you’re struggling to attract the right talent, feeling misaligned in your path, or ready to rediscover your “why,” this conversation is a must-listen.

Three Key Topics Discussed:

  1. The IDEAL Career Framework: Stephen breaks down his IDEAL model as a practical tool for helping people find the right-fit career or role that leads to long-term fulfillment.
  2. From Family Business to Life-Aligned Work: Stephen shares his courageous journey of buying (and eventually selling) his family’s ESL school business and how a kitchen table moment transformed his relationship with his parents and career forever.
  3. The Power of Self-Awareness in Business Growth: Beverly and Stephen discuss how entrepreneurship, like career fulfillment, starts with self-awareness. When you know your strengths and what lights you up, you can build a business around what truly matters.

Follow Stephen:
Stephen Shortt | LinkedIn
Stephen Shortt | YouTube
Stephen Shortt | Website

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P.S. Take the first step (will only take you 3 minutes) to awaken your brand magic with our personalized Brand Clarity Quiz

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Beverly (00:00):
Did you know that 83% of employers say it's difficult

(00:03):
to find the right talent withthe skills they need?
At the same time, over 70% ofprofessionals feel disengaged in
their roles leading to adisconnect between employees and
organizations that impactsproductivity, retention, and
even business growth.
I'm your host, Beverly Cornell,founder and fairy godmother of

(00:26):
Brand Clarity at WickedlyBranded.
I have over 25 years ofexperience helping hundreds of
purpose-driven entrepreneursawaken their brand magic and
boldly bring it to life so thatthey can magnify their impact on
the world.
And today we are talking allabout the world of career
fulfillment, talent strategy,and future proofing businesses

(00:48):
with an incredible guest,Stephen Shortt.
Stephen is a career and talentstrategist who has helped tens
of thousands of professionalsfind meaningful careers while
assisting companies in hiringand developing top tier talent.
He is the author of two upcomingbooks, your Future Career and
the creator of the Happy WorkLife map.

(01:10):
With a deep background in familybusiness, succession planning,
leadership development, andglobal workforce strategies,
Stephen is on a mission to makethe world a better place, one
fulfilling career at a time.
Stephen, welcome to the show.

Stephen (01:25):
Beverly, thanks very much for having me.
It's an exciting time.

Beverly (01:28):
Yeah, it sounds like it.
You've been busy.

Stephen (01:30):
Yeah.
Anyone who knows me well willknow that if I'm not busy,
that's when trouble starts.
People like to keep me busy.

Beverly (01:37):
Just for our listeners, if you hear a little accent,
Stephen is in Dublin, Ireland,and we are filming this the week
of St.
Patrick's Day.
So it's so appropriate thatyou're here this week.
So you grew up in two familybusinesses?

Stephen (01:50):
I was born in the Middle East, born in Saudi
Arabia.
My father worked for an Americancompany in Saudi Arabia.
My sister and I were both bornthere.
And we drove home in the earlyeighties in the middle of an oil
crisis.
And there was days that we hadto sleep in the car while we
were waiting for petrol to bedelivered in petrol stations,
which was crazy.
So grew up in the two familybusinesses.

(02:11):
The one that I was involved inmost from an early age was an
English language school.
We had an ESL school, English asa second language.
And I know you used to teach ESLso we did that.
I bought that from my folks agood 10 years before we sold it.
And then I bought the otherbusiness, which is now what we
do.
'cause I sold the languageschool just before Covid and I

(02:33):
bought this business two yearsbefore that.
And it's all about careerguidance and psychometrics and
selection.

Beverly (02:38):
What was the sparker transition that happened from
ESL or language school to careerdevelopment?
What changed Stephen?

Stephen (02:46):
For me, it was interesting.
We spent a year living in Spain.
My wife is Spanish and we livedin Spain good eight years ago
now.
And then I spent a lot of timewith the start with why I was
just before I turned 40.
I dabbled with a lot of stuff,but because I was day to day in
a lot of the stuff in thebusiness, I'd never had time to
really properly spend timereflecting on it.

(03:07):
So because I had that time, Iwas able to figure out this is
what I want to do.
And there were a lot ofchallenges in the language
travel business.
There were changes in the way itwas, and it really wasn't
fulfilling my why, my corepurpose anymore, even though I
hadn't articulated what thatwas.
But I knew that it just wasn't.
There was something that waschanging, that wasn't the way it
was.
It was more work and study asopposed to helping people to

(03:31):
elevate their careers kind ofthing.
And then I went through thatwhole process and I decided
actually the career guidance andthe psychometrics, that's more
in line with what I want to bespending my energy and my time
doing.
That's what we did.

Beverly (03:41):
Did the psychometrics help you find this particular
career?

Stephen (03:44):
So the psychometrics, so I've grown because I've grown
up with a psychologist as afather, I've always been doing
these psychometrics, so it wasalways like entrepreneurship,
marketing, presentations.
Even we've developed our ownsoftware for career guidance
where anybody can get a list oftheir ideal careers and things
like chacho host or journalistand marketeer and entrepreneur.
All of these things come up inmy assessments all the time.

Beverly (04:06):
We love that you knew that your purpose and your why
was beyond something that youwere at and you weren't willing
to compromise that, which is,it's a hard road.
Was your dad alive when you soldthe business?

Stephen (04:17):
Oh, he is still alive.
My parents are both still withus.
Funny enough you mentionedearlier on about how many people
are not happy in their careers.
The other thing, the otherstatistic, which is really
important in all of thisconversation is if that 60% of
our waking time is spent eitherat work or thinking about
working as entrepreneurs.
It's way more.

Beverly (04:35):
Yes

Stephen (04:35):
but that 40% that also includes like not wanting to get
inappropriate, but bathroomtime, shower time, cooking, time
shopping for food like that 40.
So 60% of your waking time isspent either at work or thinking
about work.
Yep.
So if you're not happy doing it,that's the majority of your
life.
That's the majority of yourtime.
So why spend that doingsomething you're not enjoying

(04:58):
doing?
But to talk about my parents,it's both my parents are the
founders of the business.
So my mother is a strongentrepreneur as well, and they
both founded both businesses.
But before I bought the languageschool I was really going
through a tough timedisagreeing.
We had different vision on whatwe were wanted to do with the
business and we were arguing, wecouldn't agree on the marketing,

(05:19):
the products, the technology,the, this, that and the other.
And there was one day that I satdown at the kitchen table when I
came home from work one day andjust for the first time said out
loud, I need to leave the familybusiness.
My wife was pregnant with oursecond child and my first child
was playing, my wife wasfinishing dinner.
And I sat down at the kitchentable and said, I gotta leave
the family business becauseotherwise my parents will never

(05:40):
be able to spend time with theirgrandkids because we won't be
able to be in the same room aseach other.
And then as soon as I said that,I had a visceral, my whole body
reacted no.
This is not what we want.
This is not the plan.
This is not what we signed upfor.
And that's when I started thiswhole process of figuring out
this whole successfulsuccession.
But if we fast forward, then itwas probably 11 years after
that.
My wife and I, we sold our homeand we moved into my family

(06:02):
home.
So it's a big house because weused to have our offices
downstairs, so my parents nowlive downstairs and we live
upstairs.
So not only, I went from sayingI need to leave the family
business'cause we'll never beable to be in the same room as
each other.
We all now live together.
Yeah.
That kitchen table that I sat atis in our kitchen, and we have
regular dinners altogether inour family there.

(06:23):
Thankfully it came full circle.

Beverly (06:25):
What I've seen is so many second generation or third
generation of family businesses,they struggle because it was not
necessarily their why or theirpurpose.
So I think it takes a lot ofself-reflection and courage,
Stephen, to say, this is not forme, and what can we do to make

(06:47):
this right in this way?
Yeah.
So I don't think you're alone inthat, but I think a lot of
people have struggled with that.
So talk a little bit about howyou help individuals and
companies rethink their approachto career fulfillment.
The 60% of the time that we'reall living in our careers.
And the talent development ofthat, because when you were

(07:07):
talking, I was reallycontemplating, my husband has
said a couple times to me,Beverly, from the time you were
little, you had a career thatyou wanted to do.
Like you had a vision of who youwere and where you were gonna
go.
There was something reallystrong in you that drove you
through your career progression.
And for him, he just had jobs.

(07:27):
Yep.
And he said it's so much lessfulfilling when you have jobs as
opposed to having a career.
So I think so many people arespending the 60% at JOB.

Stephen (07:37):
Yep.

Beverly (07:38):
And not at a career.
So how do you help this careerdevelopment or this career
fulfillment, and even talkingabout it from a career level to
this talent development to getpeople to be more satisfied and
even dare I say, happy at work?

Stephen (07:54):
Yeah.
So there's a couple of things.
I'm a big believer inframeworks, and I use a lot of
acronyms and frameworks to helppeople because it allows people
to hang their life on some ofthe different aspects of it.
So we have this thing calledFinding Your Ideal Career.
And Ideal is a framework.
If you take I-D-E-A-L, sothey're three letters.
So what we need to do first isthe is the I, your interest,

(08:16):
your ability, and the demand.
So that's the a ID bit.
So your interest, what are thethings that you're interested
in?
What are you passionate about?
What are you curious about?
What do you wanna spend yourtime doing?
Then you have the ability, whatare you good at?
What are you naturally inclinedto do?
What are you not so good at?
What do you think you should begood at, but you're not?
And then d, the demand, is therea demand for what you're talking

(08:38):
about?
So if you imagine a three circleVenn diagram if you have the
interest in something and theability for it, but there's no
demand.
That's a hobby.
There's not a demand for you toearn money.

Beverly (08:48):
You have to cross all three sectors in the center of
the vendor

Stephen (08:51):
if you have the ability.
And there is demand for it, butyou're not interested in it.
That's a job.
If you have the interest in itand there is a demand, but you
don't have the aptitude, or theability for it, that's a dream.
Now you can move into each ofthose places, perhaps a hobby
can come become a career if thedemand grows or if you're able
to develop your ability fromyour dream into your career, or

(09:14):
if you're able to develop yourinterest from the job, then that
can become an ideal career.
But actually what we want to dois to help you to identify where
those three circles alreadyintersect.
That's your ideal career.
That's the nucleus of where wewanna start.
Then the e is enthusiasm.
So if you imagine a biggercircle around those three, what
are you actually excited about?

(09:34):
When you start looking at thosecareers, when you start looking
at the description and go,actually, that sounds amazing,
that sounds phenomenal.
In our software, for example, onmy list, when we were testing
this out, I got two that werequite similar.
One is a journalist and one is achat show host.
So you can see where there's anawful lot of overlap in that.
It's talking to other people,sharing their stories, finding
out their stories, but then youhave that extra bit of, do you

(09:55):
wanna be in front of the cameraor the microphone, or do you
wanna be behind the screen?
Like, where do you feel mostcomfortable?
I was much more enthusiasticabout the chat show thing and
talking to people and being oncamera or being on recording and
going with it and feeling theflow of it as opposed to the
really structured area ofwriting.
Then once you have thatshortlist, if you look at it
through four different lenses,each of the careers through four

(10:16):
different lenses, one islearning, are you interested in
learning more about it?
Second is lifestyle.
Is there a big demand on thisthat you're just not interested
in doing, like massively longhours?
Or is it something that actuallyI would love to be making a
difference, or I'd love thisfits into my lifestyle.
Then we have leadership.
Are you looking to developyourself into a leadership
position in this or are youlooking to be a team player?

(10:37):
Are you looking to be, what isit and how important is that to
you?
And then longevity, is this ashort term thing or is a
long-term thing?
Can you see yourself doing thisfor 5, 10, 50 years?
So once you are able to startfiltering down all of the
information through thatI-D-E-A-L ideal, you're able to
find your ideal career.
And that's the framework thatwe've built to help people with
that.
Now, our software will actuallygive you those 16 to start with

(10:59):
the enthusiasm and the lenses.
So it helps you through theprocess, but you can do this by
yourself and listing down allthe things you're interested in,
and having a real objective viewof what you're good at.

Beverly (11:09):
I just wanna really take a minute because it's so
important.
When my husband says I have acareer versus he has a job, I
think about, when I was a kid, Iused to sing jingles around the
house.
And I was actually moreinterested in the commercials
sometimes on the TV show.

Stephen (11:23):
This is something that my wife still says to me that I
pay more attention to the ads atad breaks because I'm interested
in the story.
And I get really annoyed withwith a lot of Netflix shows now.
The really good at reeling youin really good at building up
the tension and then the endingis just such an anti-climax.
You're like, you could havefinished that much stronger.

Beverly (11:42):
Yes.

Stephen (11:42):
Because it's the story arc and it's the storytelling.

Beverly (11:44):
It is, it's the storytelling of it.
I use this example often thatCoke is just brown sugar water,
right?
Like you really break it down.
It's just brown sugar water thathas some fizz in it.
But they have done such a greatjob sharing stories around it
that it makes you feelsomething.
And that powerful feel is whatdifferentiates it from another

(12:05):
brown sugar water.

Stephen (12:07):
Yeah.
But didn't Coke also do thisthing where they had such strong
connection with the sound andthe feeling and the energy of
this, that they could play aradio ad of literally, of Coke
being poured into a glass.
Just the sound of it.
And people recognize it as Coke.

Beverly (12:23):
Yeah,

Stephen (12:23):
as opposed to any other carbonated soft drink.
That's crazy.

Beverly (12:27):
That is insane, right?
There's so much that they havedone.
To tell a story.
They have a long history, abrand they've built over,
decades and decades.
But that is the power of thestory in all of that, right?
Like the whole experience ofdrinking a coke from the
snapping of the tab to thepouring of it, to the what
happens around the table whenyou have a Coke to Christmas

(12:47):
memories.
It's just such a evolved brand.
And, certainly what I thought Iwas gonna do when I was a kid to
what I do now, has evolvedtremendously.
I never thought I was gonna bean entrepreneur.
Some opportunities existed whereI was able to step into that
role and if you have ever beenin marketing, know marketing.
It has evolved tremendously overthe last 25 years.

(13:08):
What I went to school for andwhere it does now is very
different.
Absolutely.
Some of the psychologicaltheories, things like that, are
very much the same, but thetools and tactics we use are
very different.
But I love that.

Stephen (13:17):
To put that in other contexts.
So I, we used to go to a lot ofconferences to promote the
English language business.
And I remember back in the daysgetting a printed copy of the
attendance list and having tosend faxes and say to somebody,
oh, we'd like to meet you atthis slot.
And then they don't reply backto you.
And you go, okay, we'll meetyou.

(13:37):
Somebody else.
Then two weeks later we go,okay, can we meet you at this
slot?
And I remember once my fatherand I were both at the desk and
we both had our agendas out and,we both asked two people and
none of them answered.
And we had an empty slot.
And my father said, he is gonnago get a coffee or something.
And I remember then he had justgone to get the coffee and all
four of the people just showedup and go, oh, we have an

(13:57):
appointment now.
So like before the days of allof these automatic trackers and
gone, yes, I would take it.
And I blocked that slot andeverything else.
I'm a big fan of technology nowthat can make our lives easier.

Beverly (14:08):
I would agree with you.
So speaking of stories, Stephen.
Talk about a story or share astory of how you've really
helped someone find their idealcareer and change their life,
and what does that look like forthem?

Stephen (14:22):
There's a guy who, son of a friend of mine, an
entrepreneur, his father has alogistics company trucks moving
goods all around Ireland and theuk.
And the son had grown up in thatbusiness and knew it and liked
it, but his real passion, hejust loved car racing Formula
One and nascar, anything thathad to do with Fast Cars.
So we were having a conversationand he did our assessments and

(14:43):
sure enough he got logistics wasone of the careers because he
has an interest in it.
He is good at it, and it'ssomething that comes up.
We've got 1,272 careers, I thinkin our database right now.
We do get very specific.
So he did get logistics manageror something like that as one of
his roles, but he also gotformula One something I can't
remember exactly what the titlewas and we were talking about,

(15:04):
and he's oh yeah, I'd love to dothat, but what about this and
what about that?
And then we came to therealization, you know what all
of these Formula One races

Beverly (15:13):
have a logistics,

Stephen (15:14):
they have a logistics company, they have logistics
divisions that moves everythingfrom place to place.
And it was almost like theclouds parted and sunbeams came
straight down on him and hestarted applying and he got a
job working in Europe with oneof the logistics companies that
were moving the pieces around.
And he is delighted withhimself.
I think what a lot of people getas well when they're starting

(15:34):
out is when I was in school alot of career guidance
counselors would give you, likenot wanting to be sexist about
it, but the women would all getlike nurse, teacher, civil
server, like there'd be alimited number of careers.
And for the guys it was, if youlike maths, you should be an
engineer.
If you like science, you shouldbe a doctor.
There was only like 20 careersthat were regurgitated for a

(15:55):
class of 150 people.
Now, 1,270 odd careers, it hasnever been easier to make a
full-time living doing somethingthat you're really passionate
about.
Yeah.
So people now, young peopletoday get a bit of target
confusion because they can do,they have so many options
straight away start.
So actually having that shortlist Yeah.
Really helps'em to focus in,

Beverly (16:15):
I felt overwhelmed with the opportunities at college.
What do I actually do with mylife?
There's so many opportunities.
My mother was exactly that whenshe went to school was nurse,
librarian.
Teacher But for me, I feltactually overwhelmed'cause I was
one of the first generationsthat had so many opportunities.
Yeah.
And I didn't wanna limit myself.
I was like, I don't wanna limit,I wanna try them all because

(16:38):
I've never been able to try themall.
So I think that it can becomevery overwhelming.
So having a testing or to limitand give you a little bit
tighter of a circle to make somechoices from is great.
One thing that I think is reallypowerful and what you're saying,
and it translates really well toentrepreneurship, is we are
living a time, Stephen, whereyou can create a business

(16:59):
exactly that you want.
Yep.
I love the guy who loves FormulaOne is really good at logistics
and decides he can go and dothat job.
So I'm thinking out loud becausemy husband is in the army and
his MOS his job, his logistics,and he loves football, so maybe
he needs to do logistics for afootball team.

(17:19):
Like I could totally see that.

Stephen (17:21):
I have a friend in the US who is a consultant for, I
can't remember how many hundrednon-food based franchises.
And he says an awful lot of thepeople who are really successful
are actually ex-military becausethey're very process driven.
They're able to follow theprocedures and because
everything is laid down.
I suppose the misconception thatpeople have about being an

(17:42):
entrepreneur is you have to be aspecific type of person in order
to be a successful entrepreneur.
But actually.
You can be any type ofentrepreneur, you can be process
driven, you can be thoughtleadership, you can be people
focused, you can be productfocused.
There's all kinds of nuance thatexists now.
Yeah.
And it has never been easier, asI said, to be successful.
Being yourself.

Beverly (18:02):
Being exactly who you are, loving exactly what you
like to do and what you'rereally good at.
And to design your career yourwork around what works for your
life, like to actually balanceyour life in some of that.
So maybe it's not 60 40, maybeit's 50 50, you get some choices
in how you develop yourbusiness.
And when I say that to ourclients, it's like a revelation

(18:22):
for them.
You're right.
Like why have I never thoughtthat I can create exactly the
business that works for me?

Stephen (18:28):
Because the old school thinking on entrepreneurship is
the old school thinking andfamily businesses, it's not
about the impact that you'rehaving.
It's about how many hours you'reputting in.
That's how people value.
And that's just not true anymorein the world we live in now.
That's not the KPI.

Beverly (18:42):
No, I would agree with you.
And especially like the youngergenerations, they don't accept
that anymore.

Stephen (18:48):
Yeah,

Beverly (18:48):
They are very vocal about So you're in an
interesting time for yourbusiness Stephen because you've
gone from I read this, two and ahalf employees to nine
employees.
So first tell me who the halfemployee was.

Stephen (18:59):
She was part-time.
When I took over just duringCovid, we had two full-time and
one part-time employee.
Okay.
The part-time employee had beenwith us for 24 years.
One of the other employees been,she's still with us and she's
been with us, I think it's 20,28 years now.
We have another employee who'sbeen with us six years, seven,

(19:19):
actually seven or eight yearsnow.
She's just on maternity with hersecond child.
And then we have two otherpeople who've joined from the
other business that we sold, thelanguage school who were with me
for 11 years in that businesswho are now here for two or
three years.
So we have longevity, but wealso have people who are a
couple of months old as far aswe're concerned.

Beverly (19:39):
So what's been the biggest challenge in scaling and
how have you navigated that?

Stephen (19:43):
The biggest challenge is, so we use EOS, the
entrepreneurial operating,

Beverly (19:48):
so do we.

Stephen (19:48):
So I'm the visionary and I have, the integrator is
the guy who's worked with me forsame with 14 years in the other
business.
So probably the biggest thing isI have, potentially, two big
plans for where we have now andstretching myself and others may
be a little bit too thin andstretching our finances a little
bit too thin.
So really scaling up is beingable to make sure that we're

(20:09):
able to do things properly andnot go off on these tangents.
Because they're, Ooh, look atthe shiny penny over here.
And keeping focused.
And that's really what EOS helpsus to do.

Beverly (20:18):
Entrepreneurs are notorious builders.
So they, when they see somethinglike, oh, we could build that.
And it's hard not to get pulledinto that idea.
Yep.
And to stay focused.
Yes, indeed.

Stephen (20:28):
Actually, when I spent that year in Spain, going
through the start with whystuff, I had this enormous mind
map of ideas and becauseobviously they're my ideas,
they're all genius, they're allamazing, of course.
But actually, when I startedrefining it through what
ultimately became, and makingthe world a better place with
happy people and fulfilling,rewarding careers, the very
first version of that and theiteration of that was, I want to

(20:49):
help people to help themselves.
I wanna do stuff that helpspeople to help themselves.
And even looking at that mindmap through that lens, which was
the version one of my why, itwas amazing.
I'd say 70% of the ideas werelike, okay, that's a great idea.
Yeah, but it's not for me.
This is what I'm doing.
And then refine and refine andcut down.
And cut down.
Now, because we'reentrepreneurs, that just means

(21:12):
that I'm creating more ideaswithin the framework, which to
push up against it.
But I need to also look at whatour capacity is.

Beverly (21:19):
When you have a right and left limit, it does keep you
more focused on what you shouldbe doing.
With a lot of the clients thatwe work with, we do help them
focus that, like here, if youlive within these six content
buckets, and you can go deep asyou want.
This is gonna make you, I.
Really stay focused, but alsohelp you be known for these
things.

(21:39):
So if you start going all overthe place, people won't know who
you are.
But if you start to really getclear and focused on these six
areas, that is what you'vedescribed to us of where your
zone of geniuses, then we wannareally go and lean hard into
those six areas so that you canbecome known for those things.
So that focus, that left andright limit is really helpful

(22:00):
for helping business decisions.
Does it fit in there?
Yeah.
No.
Okay.
Then we need to move on mind,map it for later when this is
off and running and really supersuccessful.
Then maybe you go over here, butI feel like, it is hard as an
entrepreneur'cause we do love tobuild things.
There's absolutely no question.

Stephen (22:17):
I have this mind map, there's two main nodes on the
mind map.
One is what's on my plate, sowhat's on my plate right now.
And then I have future platters.
So everything that's a futuredish on the other side.

Beverly (22:27):
That's good.
So I do some things with myteam.
They're a younger team and theyare not American.
They come from a lot of thirdworld countries.
So their opportunities arelimited.
And the way I structure mybusiness even is I'm like a real
estate firm or like a law firmwhere I'm the umbrella and they
have their own like microbusiness under me.
And as a leader, I help thempush into the areas that they

(22:50):
would like to pursue.
And one thing that I've donewith them is I've had them write
their eulogy so that they can.
Look and see the kind of personthey want, the kind of life they
want to live, and then workbackwards to how do we make the
changes today, the steps todayto get to there.
And we've done vision boardingand we've done some goal mapping

(23:13):
for this year.
And all the things that need tohappen as you go further out to
this eulogy that you've created.
And every three months we have aquarterly review.
It's not really even review.
They review themselves.
I don't really review them.
They review themselves and theylook at their personal plan of
what they want out of theirlife.
And they have things on therelike traveling to Ireland and

(23:35):
they're like, they wanna getmarried and all kinds of things.
And we talk about what's goingon right now?
Where are you at with this?
Is this is your plan and does itneed to be on there?
Is their core values on There islike a mission statement for
their life.
Like they have some things likethat.
But for me, as a leader of thisparticular organization, it's
really important for me to seethem as humans first and how

(23:58):
this career path helps themfulfill their life purpose.
And to make them happy, secure,adjusted humans so they can
support their families, they cansupport their communities.
What does that look like forthem?
Because this opportunity issomething that they've never had
before.
And so it's life changing andhow do we change their life in a
way that they feel really goodabout at the end of the day.

(24:20):
And that's, for me, has been oneof the biggest evolutions for me
as a leader, is I've, we haveprocesses.
We're EOS, all that stuff isthere, but really leaning into
them as humans has been a hugeshift for me, the last three or
so years on how I approach myteam and their dreams and goals

(24:41):
and things that make them happy.
And I hope the world is movingtowards that more than, like you
said, the productivity of thehours.

Stephen (24:47):
So this is another framework I built called, it's
part of the Happy PeopleProject, so okay.
Happy people.
project.com and happy to me isan acronym.
Again, it's a framework.
So if you're looking out on yourlife in 20 years time, 30 years
time, I do this with a lot ofyoung people as well.
They can't think 20, 30 yearsout, so what's the next 10 years
out?
Think about that and lookbackwards.
H what are the highlights?

(25:08):
What are the things that youwant to have accomplished in
that time?
Whether it's travel, whetherit's business, whether it's
relationship or whatever.
What are the highlights?
What do you want to have done?
What do you want to haveaccomplished in those time?
In that time, when you finishlooking forward, then you need
to look back and a isappreciation.
Who are the people and what arethe moments in your life, both
positive and negative that havehelped you to get to where you
are?
Because tough times teach us anawful lot more about ourselves

(25:31):
and than good times.
So yeah, what are the thingsthat we've come through and
appreciate what has brought usto here.
The first P is progress.
What are the skills?
What are the habits?
What are the trait?
What are the things that youneed to build or you want to
build in yourself?
Do you want to be a publicspeaker?
Do you want to be a marketeer?
Do you wanna be a graphicdesigner?
Do you want to learn how to playthe saxophone?
Whatever it is, what are thethings that you need to do in
order to help you get to yourhighlights?

(25:52):
Yeah.
The second P then is people,because as you say, we're all
about people.
There's two things in people.
One is who are the people thatyou actually want to spend your
time with?
A lot of the time, we spend timewith people who really shouldn't
be spending all that much timewith, and neglecting the people
that we do want to spend timewith.
So who are those people and why?
But second, who are the peoplethat you don't know that you
admire?
Yes.
Because more often than not,when we admire things about

(26:14):
other people is because we wantthose traits for ourselves.
So what do we want to build inourselves?
Yeah.
And then why is yourcontribution?
We're not here to take, we'rehere to be part of society.
So what are you gonna put out ofthe world?
That can be, I'm gonna build abusiness and employ people.
That can be, I want to makemusic, or I want to make art.
That can be, I want to be a teamplayer in this event, or I want
to put food on the table frommy, whatever it, whatever is

(26:36):
your contribution.
That's your contribution.
And then you see the goldenthreads that are running through
it.
And then you create your map,which is your measurable action
plan.
So one year, three years, fiveyears, tenure, years, whatever
it is.
How, what are the steps that youneed to take to get to there?
So that's a happy work life map,which is a, that's so great.
A workshop that I do.

Beverly (26:54):
I love the idea of appreciation as well, being
grateful for the things andexperiences you've had.
'cause I think when you sit ingratefulness, you do more of
those things for yourself.
Like you invest in those thingsbecause you know it's important
to your happiness.
Good reminder, Stephen.

Stephen (27:09):
One of the things at the end is I challenge people,
especially young people whoaren't maybe as versed in this
kind of stuff, to go, okay, picksomebody from your appreciation
list at the end of our workshop.
Pick somebody and send them amessage that you're thinking of
them.
The amount, I nearly break downin tears every time when people
come back to me.
If we're, if there's a dinner ora lunch after the session go, I
did, I said this to my dad and Ihaven't been able to talk to my

(27:32):
dad in ages about any of thisstuff and we got a big
conversation going on the familyWhatsApp.
And it's so impactful.

Beverly (27:38):
So good.
Stephen, I oftentimes willremind our listeners if somebody
has influenced them positivelyon their career to
entrepreneurship or inspiredthem or taught them or mentored
them or took time for them tosend them a note and tell them,
because so many entrepreneursdon't know that they're making a
difference in people's lives.
And I just a little note ofappreciation.

(27:59):
It can be two sentences,Stephen.
It's just a huge.
Confirmation for them, but alsoa way for you to give something
back to somebody who has givenyou something.
So I have suggested that a fewtimes, but I love the idea of as
a person, just taking that time,that framework is so good.
To my listeners, this is anincredible insight.
If you're loving thisconversation, don't forget to

(28:20):
leave us a review and let usknow how we're doing.
It really helps more peoplediscover the magic of this
episode and what Stephen has toshare, and maybe somebody else
will be inspired to write a noteor to be appreciative of someone
in their life and how that it'sor positive or tag

Stephen (28:37):
somebody in the comments

Beverly (28:38):
that they, yeah, tag someone.
If you're appreciating them, tagthem and let them know you
appreciate them.
It's a great opportunity toshout out to people who have
affected your life.
Okay, Stephenven, this season'sbig question is how did you
awaken your brand magic?
What was the moment whereeverything aligned and you saw
the unique magic you had tobring to the table?

Stephen (29:00):
I dunno if it was a moment, it was more of a
daunting and a realizationbecause like we do the career
guidance, we do the selection,we do the psychometrics, we do
coaching for individuals, we dopersonality profiling.
I do family business coaching,just as a personal thing, not as
part of the business because I'mso passionate about family
businesses.
So there was a lot of things andit felt confusing.

(29:22):
And you talked about it like howdo you put the blinkers on?
How do you be known for onething?
And that's when we startedbrainstorming, because I'm the
face of the company.
I'm the one who does the podcastand the keynotes and the books
and all the rest of it.
So the title that we startedcoming up with was a Career and
talent strategist.
So I help people with careersand help people with talent.
And those kind of overarchingthat's what we want to do.

(29:44):
We want to help people withtheir careers and we want to
help companies with theirtalent.
And that's really where thatbranding came from and that
idea, that title came from.
But really it all stems back tomaking the world a better place
with happy people andfulfilling, rewarding careers.
So long as I can let people knowthat's what I'm about, I think
that then what I do flows fromthat, because that's so core to

(30:06):
who I am and what I do.

Beverly (30:07):
Really understanding your passion and your purpose is
so key to that.
Yes.
So what's the hardest thingabout marketing for you?

Stephen (30:14):
Oof.
The hardest thing aboutmarketing, you might have
guessed at this stage I talk alot.
Being maybe concise and specificin my messaging sometimes can be
a little bit challenging.
So being able to just break downthe core message sometimes to be
able to cut through that noiseto the target market.
And I have a friend who has acommunity called Love, not Fear,

(30:35):
and to do stuff outta love andset outta fear.
And it's a phenomenal community.
And he talks about the fact thathe used to be fearful of when he
was giving a keynote or givingsomething else, but actually
when he looks at it from a lot,he loves the information that he
is giving and he wants to givepeople the opportunity, the
information that you have.
And he loves it.
Now he can get past that and hecan move past it.
So understanding where you'recoming from and why you're doing

(30:57):
something.
I think is a key part of beingable to figure out what your
message is and how you can makeit authentically and uniquely
yours because you're differentfrom everybody else.
You are special in differentways.
I have this is a poster that Ilove.
You might not be able to see itbecause it's slightly blurred,
but it's, everyone is a genius.
But if you judge a fish by itsability to climb a tree, it will

(31:19):
live its life thinking.
It's stupid.
So everybody has differentskills and attributes that are
naturally suited to somethingthat is ideal for them.

Beverly (31:25):
Everybody has a life experience that has helped
prepare them for exactly wherethey are.

Stephen (31:30):
Yeah.

Beverly (31:30):
And I think that includes so much of, like our
childhood and even trauma andthings like that has really
informed who you are and leaninginto all those experiences
holistically to figure out howyou can best serve other people
and be the perfect guide forthem is where your unique value

(31:50):
proposition sits.
And sometimes you have to do alittle bit of work like to get
there.
'cause you might have to look atsome of that trauma and things
like that will help youunderstand exactly how your
niche is gonna feel.
And when you can speak exactlyto how they feel, the same
pains, the same obstacles, thesame fears, the same
aspirations, and you speak theirlanguage.

(32:12):
So here comes the ESL side of itwhen you speak their language.
It connects and they determineat that moment, you are the
exact person who needs to helpme with this problem because you
get it.
So you don't have to beeverything to everyone.
If you have only 100 people whoreally get it and say, oh my

(32:33):
gosh, you're exactly it, you canhave a very successful business,
Stephen.
So there's no question to methat you are exactly onto
something that you really haveto understand who you are, an
awareness of who.
You can be a fish, but if you'renot in the pond, that's gonna be
a problem.
So if you're in the tree and notin the pond to sit exactly in
your unique value proposition,exactly who you are.

(32:55):
And you were made, I don't knowif you believe in God or the
source or whatever, but you weremade to do this thing.
And this thing helps otherpeople.
It helps you serve the world andsolve this problem for people.
'cause these people are havingthe same exact fears you've had.
So helping them solve it is sucha gift.
So it's, that's where the magichappens.
It's just beautiful.

(33:17):
It's beautiful.
So I have a magic hat roundwhere I have all kinds of
questions in the hat, Stephen.
Okay,

Stephen (33:24):
cool.
Okay.
Quick fire

Beverly (33:25):
it's more of a rapid fire.

Stephen (33:26):
No problem.
I'm not shy.

Beverly (33:28):
What core values guide your business decisions,
interactions with yourcustomers?

Stephen (33:33):
We have three core values which again, when we did
this exercise with people whowere in the other family
business and this familybusiness, I was really delighted
to see that they aligned betweenthe two.
So they are actual core valuesof ours.
It's do the right thing,inclusively, empathetic and
humbly proud.
That's how I live and that's howthe companies work.

Beverly (33:51):
So good.
What's a book, a podcast, or anentrepreneur that has made a
lasting impact on yourentrepreneurial journey?

Stephen (33:59):
Oof.
The start with why was one ofthese things like the Simon
Sinek book that's gone back awhile.
There's actually a fantasticbook.
You might not have heard of it.
It's by an English standupcomedian.
He's actually Irish family, buthe's English.
He called Jimmy Carr.
He's a little bit controversialsometimes.
He's a little bit inappropriate.
Makes a lot of inappropriatejokes, but actually his passion

(34:19):
for stagecraft and his passionfor learning everything around
the business.
He wrote a book life andLaughter, I think it's called.
I can't remember exactly thetitle, but it's a phenomenal,
like semi autobiographical, semilife lessons.
Really good.
A recent book.
And I'm in the process offinishing the Elon Musk
autobiography, the one that's127 hours long.

Beverly (34:42):
If you could wave a magic wand and solve one current
challenge in your business, whatwould it be?

Stephen (34:49):
One current challenge in my business.
The age old thing of justresources, to have a bit more
resources to hire a few morepeople.
There's a great book called WhoNot How.
And it's getting who's insteadof how's and having the
resources to be able to take inthat expertise, I think is
really important too.

Beverly (35:05):
What's been your biggest aha moment as an
entrepreneur?

Stephen (35:09):
Having a core purpose, actually understanding what I'm
here for, like what I'minterested in doing, and being
able to shed everything else.

Beverly (35:16):
What's the most WTF thing that has ever happened in
your business?
Good or bad

Stephen (35:20):
Was a bit thrown by whenever the interviewer starts
giggling before they ask aquestion, I'm always a bit, oh,
where's this gonna go?
The WTF I can't think ofanything that's completely out
bounds.
There's plenty of stories aboutstudents in the ESL school with
people who decided they'recoming to a foreign country
without speaking the languagevery well, that's when they
should stop taking theirantipsychotic drugs and things

(35:43):
like that.
So we've had some of those kindof scenarios That was a bit WTF,
but more about pastoral care andlooking after people.

Beverly (35:49):
Yes.
What fear have you had toovercome to grow your business?

Stephen (35:55):
Imposter syndrome.
I think it's so prevalent.
I'm involved in entrepreneursorganization around the world.
The amount of entrepreneurs thatI meet on a daily basis that
suffer from this isunbelievable.
And it's so unuseful.

Beverly (36:06):
It's so unuseful.
It only gets in your own way ofsuccess.
Yeah, for sure.
Yes.
What was the moment, if there'sbeen a moment that you realized
your business was successful?

Stephen (36:18):
Again, with imposter syndrome.
I don't know if I'm able toactually articulate that.

Beverly (36:22):
Thank you for being so honest.

Stephen (36:23):
In my sense, I think, I travel quite a bit for speaking,
for workshops and doing likestrategy workshops and things
like that in differentcountries.
The fact that I'm able to travelso much and still be in touch
and still be like in sync withthe team and completely trusting
the team, I think that's a realmeasure of success for me.

Beverly (36:39):
Agreed.
Technology has changedeverything.
That is my last question in themagic hat row.
Stephen.
I've never actually pulled outthe WTF question before, so that
was the first time.
That's why I chuckled becausethat's a good question.
Sometimes I get the samequestions.
Really interesting.
I get the same question two orthree times in a row.
So it's fun when a new questiongets popped out.
So I actually do have a magicwand today.

Stephen (37:01):
Okay.

Beverly (37:02):
And we're gonna travel through time and we're gonna do
a little bit, I think, like thehappy exercise, just a little
bit like on the periphery of it.
And I'm going to wave my wandand we are going to go back to
the high school graduates.
Stephen, and we're gonna have aconversation with him.
And we're gonna give him someadvice.
What advice would you give to18-year-old Stephen just

(37:25):
entering the workforce career,or maybe not even outta college,
whichever is easier.
What advice would you give himthat you wish he'd known
earlier?

Stephen (37:33):
So the flippant answer is buy all Bitcoin early and
then you never have to doanything again.
The thing that I wish there wasmore of in the world is
curiosity.
Because I think when we'recurious about stuff, we start to
empathize more.
We start to understand more.
So if we had more curiosity andself-awareness, I think the
world would be a better place.
So I would encourage me to be,I've always been curious, but I

(37:56):
think more self-aware what Iactually bring to the table and
what I'm good at, what I'm notgood at.
And owning the fact that I'm notgood at it.
It took me maybe a little bitlonger than it should have to
really come to terms with someof that stuff.
So yeah, I think curiosity andself-awareness are two things
that I would try to instill morein myself because I think it's
something that the world needsmore of.

Beverly (38:15):
What would Stephen think of you now?

Stephen (38:18):
Jesus.
He looks old.
So there's one thing, and I talkabout this in the happy work
life map exercise.
I started off with a phrase thata friend of mine told me a long
time ago, which is thedefinition of hell is on your
last day on earth, you meet theperson you could have become
now.
He has that as a, oh my God,what if I meet the person who's
much more successful, much moreX, Y, and Z?

(38:39):
My argument on that is, if youare actually living the life
that you want, if you'redesigning your own life, because
my wife used to always say, ifit wasn't for her and the girls,
I'd probably be flying all overthe world doing all of these
like talks and success and yeah.
Workshops and everything else,and wildly successful and have a
yacht on a plane.
And, my argument is okay, thestuff that would like more

(39:00):
resources, would like to be ableto build slightly bigger
business, to have more money, tohave more X, y, and Z, all the
the usual kind of trappings, butI'm living my life the way I
want to live my life.
So if on my last day I met thatother version of me that didn't
have my wife and kids and hadall of those successes, I'm not
so sure that I would considerhim to be the better version of

(39:20):
me.
My view on that, of, on the lastday on Earth, you meet the
person you could have been.
It's not necessarily a betterversion of you.
If you're living your life bydesign, if you're living the way
that you want to, their versionof hell is meeting you.

Beverly (39:31):
I think living your life with intention and purpose
being proactive versus reactivechanges everything.
That's an interestingconversation.
For those of you who'relistening, if you're loving this
conversation, please hit thatfollow button so you don't miss
another episode of this kind ofinspiration and wisdom that
Stephen's talking about.
So many entrepreneurs feel soalone in their journey.

(39:51):
These are great tidbits ofwisdom to make us think
differently about our purposehere and the work that we're
doing with people.
Please stay on the journey withus and join us for more episodes
of the Spark Ignite YourMarketing podcast.
Okay.
So I'm gonna wave my wand andwe're gonna go a lot in the
future.

Stephen (40:07):
Okay.

Beverly (40:07):
Decades and decades.
Stephen,

Stephen (40:09):
I thought you were gonna tell me to talk to my
toddler self first further by,

Beverly (40:13):
get that sugar outta your mouth.
No, I want you to go into thefuture.
I want you to be sitting at yourfuneral.
And I want you to listen whatpeople are saying about you.
What is the most significantlegacy or impact that you'll
make in this life?

Stephen (40:26):
So I did an exercise on this as part of the happy thing,
one of the reasons I made theHappy People Project is because
I had a pretty tough time acouple of years ago.
And one of the things I builtthe 20 things that I want to
accomplish in my life and the 20things that I want to have an
impact.
And the first thing was that Iwant to have a loving,
supportive relationship with mywife, my kids, and their future

(40:48):
families.
Everything else is secondary.
Yeah, I would love the bighouse, but again, the big house
only.
So it has space for the familyand friends to come over to
socialize.
It's not to have the big house.
And this is means goals versusend goals.
And my end goal is to beconnected with people that I
love and care about.
Whether that's in a big housein.
Miami on the beach, or whetherthat's in a space that I can

(41:12):
have host people in the back endof Ireland somewhere.
So long as I'm connected withthe people that I care about
that's the most important partof it.
Plus they have a nice house anda nice car.

Beverly (41:21):
As far as your work, what impact and legacy do you
want people to have?

Stephen (41:24):
Really the ultimate future vision for me is to help
millions of people to find theirideal career, and to help people
live a happier life withfulfilling, rewarding careers.

Beverly (41:36):
So I would love a magical tip from you for small
business owners or people whoare aspiring entrepreneurs,
speak to them and give them onetip one actionable step.
It could be a itty bitty step,Stephen that they can put into
action right now to help themfind their purpose, to awaken
their brand magic further todayor this week.

Stephen (41:59):
So to find their purpose.
I think it is really to startthinking about what do you
ultimately wanna do If it's justto help them to be happier, to
be better in themselves.
Take the time to do somereflection, whether that's doing
some psychometrics andpersonality profiling, whether
that's talking with mentors,whatever and being as self-aware
as you can.
What are you good at?
What are you interested in?

(42:20):
That's what you spend your timedoing.
And you partner, hire,subcontract, whatever other
people who are good andinterested in the bits that
you're not interested in or aregood at and build something.

Beverly (42:31):
Stephen, this has been a really incredible
conversation.
Thank you so much for sharingyour journey, your magic with
us.
I know our listeners are gonnawalk away with a ton of things
to do that help them takeaction.
Let everyone know where they canfind you.
Learn more about you and yourprojects and your books.
Where can people connect withyou directly?

Stephen (42:51):
The easiest is probably stephen shortt.com.
And there, there's links toeverything.
Finding your ideal career.com,hiring the right people.com,
happy people project.com, allthe dot coms.
But if you go to stephenshortt.com, everything is there,

Beverly (43:05):
and we'll list that in the show notes for those that
are listening.
So thank you again, Stephen, forspending time with us today.
I really have enjoyed thisconversation so much.

Stephen (43:13):
Likewise, Beverly.
Thanks a million for having me.

Beverly (43:14):
I hope that today's episode little bit of a fire
under each of you, my listeners,gave you some ideas that most of
all inspired you to take someaction, to really lean into who
you are, your life, where youdeserve to be in this world.
Because here's the thing, yourmessage matters and your work
matters.
And the world needs to hear whatyou have to say.

(43:36):
So marketing isn't just aboutvisibility, it's about impact.
And Stephen's making a greatimpact.
It's about connecting with theright people, those most
favorite customers, that feeltrue to you.
So keep showing up, keep sharingyour brilliance and keep making
magic in this world.
And hey, if you ever feel stuck,you don't have to do that alone.

(43:56):
We're here to help you turn thatspark into a wildfire.
Until next time, keep sparkingand igniting.
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