Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
But it's really important to first knowyourself.
That's, like, sort of the name of happiness.
It's really the name of being authentic andinspired is who are you as a person because
what you bring to a team and to an organizationand to your life is not what someone else
brings.
And we all tend to be looking a lot outsideourselves before we go inside.
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And all the answers and all the inspiration andthe joy is found from within.
Welcome to "The Inspired Choice" today.
I'm your host, Caroline Biesalski, here tobring you authentic stories, surprising
lessons, and powerful takeaways to fuel yourjourney in business and life.
In each episode, I'll take you from oneinspiring guest to the next, blending their
(00:44):
experiences with my expertise to uncoverpractical strategies you can use right away.
Whether you're starting out or stepping up,stay tuned for insights and actionable tips
that make a difference.
And stick around until the end for a specialfreebie just for our listeners.
Hello and welcome, inspired podcast community.
(01:07):
My today's guest is Danielle Droitsch, and I'mso happy you said yes to our interview.
How are you doing today?
I'm well.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited for our interview.
My first question is, how did your experiencewith burnout shape your coaching philosophy?
(01:31):
So I was someone who worked in the nonprofitsector for about over 30 years working on
climate change, and I really had my dream job.
And it still in many ways was a dream job, butI wasn't really fulfilled.
And I noticed going to work and not being happyor satisfied.
(01:54):
And so I, like, continued to struggle with thatbecause I thought, well, you know, this is my
dream job, so I'll just be happy.
But over time, and this may be true for some ofyour listeners, you start to go to work and
you're really drained.
You don't have energy.
You just feel that burnout.
And it doesn't even have to be a toxic workenvironment or a terrible boss.
(02:19):
It's just you're not happy basically at work.
And so my experience was I felt like I might bein the wrong career.
And, essentially what happened was I came backto a whole process of trying to figure out what
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does it mean to feel fulfilled at work.
And so I've dedicated the past decade of mylife to understanding what fulfillment looks
like in the workplace.
And the sad truth is that most of the globalworkforce is actually not fulfilled at work.
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As much as 75% of the workforce are not fullyengaged.
And that's true everywhere.
That's in the United States.
That's in Germany.
That's everywhere.
But there are ways to actually buildfulfillment either in your current job or in
your next career.
And this is what I love to talk about andeducate folks on because it's something you can
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do every day, but we often all do the wrongthings looking for fulfillment.
So that's a little bit about the coachingphilosophy, but there's obviously a lot more.
Wow.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I'm so happy and inspired now.
And, of course, I have another question foryou.
It is, what strategies do you recommend formaintaining balance while striving for impact?
(03:51):
So the interest there's a lot about balance outthere.
We talk about this idea of balance, likework-life balance, and we sort of interpret
that to mean, well, maybe we minimize work andwe have as much time outside work as possible.
But here's the interesting thing is that if youor some of your listeners know about this idea
(04:12):
of flow.
Flow is when you're in that state of justcompletely being deeply connected and
interested in what you do.
You lose time.
You are absolutely in that space, that zone.
And what we understand from the research isthat most people actually end up in flow at
(04:34):
work.
Now, not always.
I mean, you can have a passion or a hobbywhere, and I'm certainly somebody who finds
flow outside work.
But most people actually the flow actuallyhappens at work.
So it's really not about balancing work versusnon-work.
That's just this sort of false dichotomy.
(04:56):
What we wanna do is we wanna figure out energy.
It's really about energy.
Where do we get our energy from?
And you can find energy at work, and you canfind energy outside work.
And it's not necessarily found in the thingsthat you're good at.
This is where this is one of the big traps wefall into.
(05:17):
It's just because you're good at something,that doesn't mean you're in the flow.
It just means you're good at it.
And then people will tell you you're good atit.
Maybe you do more of it, but that does not meanyou're energized.
Balance really comes from investing in thethings that bring you energy.
And the secret sauce behind that is if you'reworking in your superpower space, like your
(05:39):
talents, that's really where you have flow.
That's where you find energy.
So when I think about this idea of balance andhaving impact, ultimately, it's really about
finding the things that you're really good atand that you actually are energized by both at
work and outside work.
(06:00):
And then investing as much time as you can intothose activities.
Then what happens is your energy levels go upand the idea of burnout and lack of balance
ends up getting more resolved.
But unfortunately, most of us spend our timejust trying to figure out how to stop working.
And that recipe doesn't quite work.
(06:24):
Oh, thank you so much for explaining this tous.
Yes.
I heard people say or use the word harmonizeinstead of to balance things like work-life
also to harmonize.
I love that.
And, also, of course, I know this famous bookcalled "Flow" by the author.
No one can pronounce.
(06:44):
I know.
I can't pronounce his name.
I've heard can't pronounce.
It is something like Mihaly and then a long
A very long.
No.
But he coined this, and it's actually reallywhen you're in that secret space of flow.
And you don't have to be in flow if you're youknow, some people imagine, like, oh, Einstein
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working on his amazing, you know, equations.
Like, that's kind of what we sort of go
But flow is much it's really about you.
It's you as a person.
It's about when you are in that space of youcould be cooking, you could be communicating
with someone else, you could be interviewingsomeone, you could be trying to solve a
(07:29):
problem.
You kind of know what it is.
What we mostly end up doing though is we justwe kinda know what our flow is, but we sort of
don't spend time on it.
So that's sort of a key, a key space of what Ido is help people just unpack it.
What is your flow space?
And usually, it's connected back to yoursuperpowers, like, what you're really good at.
(07:51):
And then making time and space for thosemoments, because even if you find one hour of
flow in your day, your energy levels, yourfulfillment, your happiness all goes way up.
And this is not just me talking.
This is the research talking.
So it really is worth finding your flow stateso that all the rest of your other parts of
(08:16):
your life can benefit as well.
Absolutely.
I agree.
And I was thinking about how about combiningthose two things because you said, most of the
time we find the flow in the workspace.
And when you do something you love, as workalso, then yeah.
Perfect.
(08:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Eight hours per day or so.
For me, it would be definitely doing podcastinterviews.
Yes.
Yes.
What I found out, and I think you alsomentioned earlier that people are just doing
what they are good at or something when theyare not necessarily in the flow state.
(08:59):
So finding this is really important, and I'm sohappy that you are offering this.
Of course, I have another question for you.
It is, can you share a success story where aclient rediscovered their strength and
transformed their career?
Absolutely.
I've coached hundreds of people, mostly inthree sectors: government, academia, and
(09:23):
nonprofit.
But I've also coached in the corporate sectortoo.
And what's interesting is I had mentionedthere's all these people who are not feeling
fulfilled.
Usually, it's sort of mid to late career.
You've been, you've put in 10, 15, 20, maybeeven 30 years, and you just kinda find going to
work as the hamster wheel.
(09:43):
Either that or you're going to work and you'vebeen elevating at work and you're getting, like
you're actually climbing up this so-calledproverbial ladder, but you're feeling less and
less strong.
And you may feel like, oh, it's all about myweaknesses.
And so I do have somebody that comes to mymind.
This person was in the corporate sector, andvery much climbing that corporate ladder and
(10:09):
doing very well, and she's very good at a lotof things.
But wasn't feeling that sort of sense of flowor being strong in leading her team and also in
elevating.
It was always just kind of a little bit of fakeit until you make it.
(10:29):
And this client came to me and we workedtogether for a number of years.
And over that time, the first thing we dotogether is really identify that person's
strengths.
So I think about her and her strengths.
She was kind of force-fitting her job intospaces where she was weaker.
And we all have weaknesses, we all do.
(10:51):
But we start to pretend to be something we'renot.
She may have been watching other people andtrying to be them.
But in fact, she had this collection ofstrengths: an extremely strong problem solver,
extremely strong at strategically thinkingabout pathways for success, ideating, which is
(11:13):
generating ideas.
So she had a whole pile of them, and she knewshe had them, but she didn't spend time in that
space.
And so what she did was, and this is somethingthat your listeners can grab onto as a tactic,
is changing her workday to have activitiesaround her strengths.
So it wasn't about leaving her job in thatcase.
(11:34):
It was designing her days around her strengthzone.
And so she did have to do some things that shewas either drained by or didn't feel strong in.
But the way she started to relate with herstaff was around her strengths.
The way she started to show up in meetings withsenior leadership was around her strengths.
(11:55):
And she started to pick at those specificthings where she knew she would be really
strong and really be able to contribute.
She didn't ignore the weaknesses, but shemostly leaned into the strengths.
As a result, she started to grow in the companybecause she wasn't just trying to put a
Band-Aid on the things that she was either okayat or even weak at.
(12:19):
She was actually, you know, coming into ameeting and she said, this is what I know.
And she was confident in those parts ofherself, and people noticed, and then she
elevated and elevated over time.
And now she's in the C-suite.
But what she did was she was focusing on whatshe's good at and what she authentically knew
was gonna be in her strength zone.
(12:40):
What we often do is we look at someone else andwe're like, oh, they do that thing.
Maybe I should too.
And it's always worth experimenting.
I always encourage that.
But it's really important to first knowyourself.
That's like sort of the name of happiness.
It's really the name of being authentic andinspired is who are you as a person because
(13:02):
what you bring to a team and to an organizationand to your life is not what someone else
brings.
And we all tend to be looking a lot outsideourselves before we go inside.
And all the answers and all the inspiration andthe joy is found from within.
So you start there.
Did that help?
Yes.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for your answer.
(13:23):
And I, I perceive this client you described asfocused at the end.
Focused, like, like, she she focused on herstrength.
And when you said she built her workday aroundthat, yes, I totally agree with that.
And it is not enough to emulate someone or, Ithink, to do what they are doing.
(13:46):
We have to find our own strength, and this isthe task.
And, also, you said you have clients in thegovernment, academia, and nonprofit.
And I was thinking about isn't work or a job ina nonprofit more fulfilling than in other, I
(14:08):
don't know.
I don't know how you perceive this.
That is such a great question, because, infact, I went into the nonprofit sector thinking
just that.
Oh, I'm working on climate change.
How important is this an issue?
And why, you know, this was the thing that Iwas really struggling with.
This is about 10 years ago now.
(14:30):
And I was like, I've reached this incredibleposition in this organization that I could only
have dreamed of working for, and then suddenlyI'm not happy.
And I really beat myself up for that because Iwas like, you know, telling myself, you should
be happy.
You should be, you know, grateful for what youhave here.
And yet going to work was a struggle.
(14:52):
And so here's the thing.
And this is the research again.
I'm, like, really steeped in reading about thisstuff because it is sort of complicated.
Just because you work for an organization witha really interesting or a very important
mission does not mean you're gonna be engagedand fulfilled in your job.
It's really not about a mission is important.
(15:13):
It's sort of one of the factors that peoplelook at, but it's actually sort of lower on the
totem pole when it comes to fulfillment.
The real special process of getting tofulfilling work happens with the actual
activities of your day.
It comes down to the hours and minutes of whatyou do.
(15:36):
So you can end up in a job and you go to workfor eight hours.
And in that eight hours, and this is somethingthat you can do to sort of figure out, like,
kind of what's working and what's not working,is journal.
What you know, each hour, you know, was Ifeeling lifted?
Was I feeling drained?
(15:56):
Or was I feeling neutral?
And that's an exercise I actually have my ownclients go through is, you know, am I energized
in this moment?
Am I drained?
Or am I, you know, if it really doesn't matter.
And you do that over time.
And what we start to do is that sort of getsdata.
And what we understand is it's not about themission of that organization, which is usually
(16:19):
very lofty, very high level.
It's about the meeting that you had with agroup of people.
And maybe that energized you because you cametogether with people you really like to work
out a problem.
And then suddenly we have data.
You like to work with a group of people tosolve problems.
But then you go to another meeting, and it wasjust checking off a big to-do list of tasks.
(16:44):
And that totally drained you.
You have to sit through a meeting of tasks andreporting, and you were drained.
And we say, oh, that's, you know, that's adrain.
Doesn't mean we don't do those things in ourjob.
We all have drains.
But what we really want is for 50 percent ofour workday, at least 50 percent of our workday
(17:05):
to be in the zone of our strengths.
And so what we want to do is we want to craftour roles around strengths.
Now it could be that you can make changes andshifts to your current role, and I work with
people all the time who are doing that.
They don't want to leave their job.
They don't want to leave the organization.
They just want to make shifts.
And then as it turns out, most workers, and I'meven including some, I'm even including people
(17:28):
who have a very restrictive job.
have been studies on this where people whohave, certainly white-collar workers, but even
blue-collar workers who have more restrictionsin what they do.
There is a lot of flexibility that we have inhow we deploy our jobs.
We may not be able to choose what we'redeploying, like the tasks or the outcomes, but
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we can choose how we show up to work and how weget something done.
And that flexibility is really wherefulfillment is.
And most people just do things the way theythink they should do them.
But actually, there's actually a lot offlexibility.
So we look at the hours and the minutes of theday and figure out what shifts could be made to
(18:13):
actually bring yourself more into that strengthzone.
And then ultimately, if it doesn't work, thenyou can still shift to another role where that
role has more activities that are in yourstrength zone.
I hope that makes sense.
Yes, absolutely.
And I love the idea of journaling every hourand then to evaluate.
(18:35):
We can also identify what our strengths are,what we love most, and then reevaluate after
making adjustments, I assume.
Yes.
And, of course, I would like to know where canwe find you when people want to reach out to
you after listening to this episode?
(18:56):
So you can find me at my company's name, whichis Time for Well-being.
So it's time, the number 4, well-being dot com.
And you can connect with me.
I have loads of resources.
One of the resources that I offer, I think thatyou'll be able to see from the show notes, is a
(19:19):
training.
And the training, it's a free training.
You just, you know, sign up, and it's a free15-minute training on how to get clarity on
what's fulfilling work for you.
And so you may want to watch that trainingbecause the training was designed to help you
figure out if you're, like, feelingunfulfilled.
(19:42):
These are the actual steps that I use to helppeople figure out fulfilling work.
So I put it together just for your listenersand many others who are like, just give me the
specific steps, please, and that's what thetraining covers.
But I thank you so much for having me.
This has been so great to chat with you.
(20:04):
Oh, thank you so much.
I enjoyed our conversation, and please reachout to Danielle.
She's amazing and shares her knowledge andwisdom with us.
So I am highly inspired.
Thank you so much for our interview.
Now it's time for your final thoughts to theaudience, please.
Well, my final thoughts are this.
(20:25):
You can absolutely have an inspired life, andyou can have inspired work.
It is not that you're broken or thatsomething's wrong with you.
It's that you have a special set of secretsuperpowers.
Sorry.
Secret superpowers that you can bring to theworld.
And it's never about not having them.
(20:47):
It's you.
Every single person has something to offer.
It's just about taking the time to uncover, toactivate them, and deploy them.
That's really what it's all about.
Wow.
That sounds amazing.
Thank you so much for being my guest today.
Thank you so much, Caroline.
I appreciate it.
(21:08):
And I see you in the next episode.
Thank you for listening to "The InspiredChoice" today.
I'm thrilled to have you on this journey ofgrowth and transformation.
Don't forget to hit follow or subscribe to stayconnected and never miss an episode.
And here's something special.
Grab your free 20-minute breakthrough sessionwith me.
(21:31):
It's designed to help you kick-start or levelup your business.
Just check out the show notes for more.
Until next time, keep making those inspiredchoices.
See you in the next episode.