Understanding Personality: Unlocking Growth and Success with Eric Gee

Have you ever felt like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole? In this eye-opening episode of the Enlightened Life podcast, we explore the power of embracing your unique personality and how it can transform your relationships and success.

Join me as I sit down with Eric Gee, founder of an education company centered around individualized growth and author of "The Power of Personality." Once a self-proclaimed "charismatic dissident" in school, Eric now dedicates his life to helping others forge a path to success that truly fits them.

In this thought-provoking conversation, we delve into:

• Why understanding yourself is the key to healthier relationships
• How traditional education often overlooks individual personality types
• The importance of finding your voice and embracing your unique qualities
• Practical strategies for navigating a system that doesn't seem to fit who you are
• The transformative power of personality typing in education and personal growth

Eric also shares invaluable insights on:

• Balancing structure and flexibility in learning environments
• Managing diverse teams by understanding different personality types
• The biggest misconceptions about education and personal development

Whether you're a parent, educator, or simply someone on a journey of self-discovery, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on personal growth and success. You'll come away with a renewed appreciation for your unique qualities and practical tools to help you thrive in both your personal and professional life.

About Our Guest

00:00:02
Introduction to Eric G: Transforming Education and Personal Growth

00:01:15
Redefining Education: Challenging Traditional Schooling Methods

00:03:58
The Evolution of Public Education and Its Limitations

00:05:14
Personality-Based Approach to Personal Growth and Education

00:08:31
Navigating Career Changes and Finding Your True Path

00:11:50
Patterns in Human Personality and the Importance of Continuous Learning

00:14:26
Understanding Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Intelligence

00:17:28
Balancing Structure and Flexibility in Education

00:23:11
Leadership and Diversity in Personality Types

00:28:30
The Power of Self-Understanding in Relationships

About Scott

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Want to connect with Spirit, get a private reading, or attend a live event? Visit mediumscottallan.com for bookings, event updates, and more. 

PATREON:
If you love these stories and want to support more episodes, check out my Patreon for behind-the-scenes content, bonus Q&As, and special perks for supporters.

Scott's Patreon

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to the Enlightened Light podcast. I'm so excited
you're here with us. My guest today says he was
a bad student. In his words, he could be a
teacher's best friend or worst enemy, swinging between charismatic participant
and equally charismatic dissident. And so it's not surprising that
for the past two decades he's devoted his life to

(00:23):
helping others forge your paths to success that fits them.
He founded an education company centered around individualized growth. He's
coached teachers and business professionals, and authored the incredible book
The Power of Personality. His mission to help people understand
that our relationships with others are only as healthy as

(00:45):
our relationships with ourselves. So sit back and relax and
get ready for a conversation that just might change the
way you see yourself and the world around you. Please,
welcome to the show, Eric g.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. So tell me. I mean,
you've done so well for yourself, but you say you
were a bad student. How did that early experience shape
the way you approach education and success today?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, you know like I think when we go to
school and it's a good thing, I think we're like
trained like this is important. This is like the most
important thing in your life, and you can't mess it up,
and you know, you have that mindset. But then, at
least for me, like going through the different grade levels,
I started realizing, you know, like this is doesn't feel
right sometimes to me, Like I'm not particularly fond of
doing my homework all the time. And even though that

(01:49):
sounds I mean, you say that to anybody and they're like,
oh my gosh, you can't say that to kids, and
it's like, well, you know, like everybody, like teachers don't
like doing their classwork, they don't like correcting their classwork.
So that's something you realize afterwards, right after the fact.
But as a student, as like a six, seven, eight
year old, nine year old kid, you know, it takes
a while to kind of break through that mold. And
I think that really helped me to understand, like, yeah,
there's different ways that we can all grow, and school

(02:12):
in and of itself is a construct, right, So there's
different schooling that we can get and actually give to
kids based on you know, the different their different needs.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, and who really does like homework? I mean, let's
be honest. I didn't like it, right. You know, I
have a son he's in uh, he's in sixth grade,
and he hates homework. And it's not about not understanding
it or it's just I worked all day. Do I
really have to do this now? And he can sip
through it? And I'm not gonna lie. I mean, you know,
I work all day and I don't necessarily want to
do it all night either. So there you go. What

(02:45):
do you think it's the biggest Yeah, go ahead, were
you going to say something? I was gonna everyone in Turchy.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh no, I was gonna say my favorite. One of
my favorite quotes of all time is from Nietzche and
he says true maturity consists in regaining the seriousness one
had as a child at play. And I think that's
so true. We think school is so serious, but it's like,
you know, what we find as adults is the things
that really we had a passion for as children and
they're really enjoyable to us now are probably things that

(03:10):
are going to be the most likely to lead to
our success.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
So yeah, it's true, and you know it will have
already come out by then, but there is a there
is an episode that's actually coming out next week, which
will be out long before this episode comes out. But
it's really about how you measure success, and it's not
always in the money or the job or how busy

(03:33):
you are. It's it's there's so many different ways to
measure success. I think that's great.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, we all end up in the same place anyway, right,
like when they say that eventually after the game of
chess is over, the king of the pond go back
into the same box, and so, you know, it's just
really how we play.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
The game, you know, absolutely. So what do you think
is the biggest misconception that people have with education with
traditional school and with traditional school, I.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Would probably say that we're with kids, it's the assumption
that this is education has always been there, it's always
been this way, and whatever they're told from their teachers
is absolute, and I think that's probably the biggest miscoss
And then you know, in reverse, like I think parents
automatically are like, oh, well, I put my kid in this.
This is like a surefire way for them to get
where they need to go, and they all have to

(04:20):
follow the rules otherwise I'm failing as a parent. And
I feel like that is all one big assumption. You know,
public school wasn't around like one hundred and fifty years ago,
and it was really just a way to give people
in control. Right, They didn't want this is gonna sound terrible.
They didn't want the masses to be like the uneducated
masses that might overthrow the elite. And so the elite

(04:40):
were like, well, how are we going to like control this. Oh,
let's like give them something to do. We're not gonna
allow them into our private schools. We're just gonna have
these public schools that they can kind of do stuff
and not like misbehave. But of course the coolest thing
is like the power of the human spirit and the
power of human intellect. You know, doesn't matter what kind
of education you get, public or private or however, you know,
restrict it was back in the day people overcome.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
So tell us a little bit about what you do,
because I know your business is it's sort of centers
around that a little bit. What is it that your
business actually does?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, you know, I wrote a space in the book, right,
I wrote does about my own personality typing methodology. So
I help. Okay, long story short, I actually started first
as a writing coach, and what I found as a
write because that was my background. I studied screenwriting, I
wrote my entire life, and what I found out was,

(05:33):
you know, in terms of writing, it's not about grammar,
it's not about sentence structure, it's not about any of that.
It's about finding your voice, right, like helping people find
their voice. And I realized is you can't help people
find their voice if you they don't know who they are.
And I had always studied personality theory I'd used in
my education company. So I just started blending the two
together and it just came to a point where I

(05:54):
helped people figure out what personality type they are because
based on your personality type, your growth arc is going
to be determined by that. So that's pretty much what
my company does is I help people find out who
they are so that they can know where they're going
or at least the best version or the road at
which they're going to become the best version of themselves.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
And what age are we looking at? What do you start?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
You know, I start as early as like nine or ten.
You know, I've worked with students that are really young,
but my preference is usually nine or ten, and generally
that's when I get them, specifically ten or eleven. Actually,
I should say, because I think any parent would know,
that's like the moment where their kids start hating them
and they stop listening to them, and they're just like,
what happened to this cute little kid that used to

(06:37):
like just want to get ice cream and stuff? So
that is that's the age that I start coming in
and like, Okay, I'm like the honest person who's going
to joke around, but also get them to ideally find
who they are. And you know, because kids will talk
about things that they might with me that they might
not talk with their parents about right at that age,
you know, adolescence. But that's the perfect time.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
And so what do you do with that information once
you have that? You know, how do they use the information?
I guess I should say.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
You know, I had a student jest the other day,
asked me, so, I'm a dolphin. So my personality typing
methodology uses animal types. Right, It's very easy to remember.
There's sixteen of them, and you can find out about
all about that in the book. But I had a
student say she knows she's a dolphin now because they
told her that after meeting her. They're talking with her,
and I've been working with her for maybe a couple

(07:28):
of years now, and you know, she's around twelve now,
and she's just she originally wanted to be a vet.
But I realized that in her, you know, very early.
I was like, okay, I think someone, maybe your grandparents,
maybe your parents told you, okay, like you should be
a vet because you like dogs, you know, you like dogs. Doctor,
what's the doctor animals?

Speaker 1 (07:47):
A vet?

Speaker 2 (07:48):
You know? And I'm like, okay, maybe that's not exactly
what you want to do. And so she started asking
me just the other day, like what do dolphins, you know,
what should a dolphin want to do? I'm like, well,
you can't really just go for a specific job, but
think of the spark specific skills that you can work
on as a twelve year old, and then if you
can just pursue those things, they're gonna lead to certain jobs.
And I think for dolphins specifically, I was like, well,

(08:10):
dolphins love working with people, they love leading people, but
in a very safe space, so obviously that might lead
towards counseling education. Maybe working, owning your own nonprofit things
of that nature. So yeah, your personality can very lead
to like different careers and different paths of life.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
I would say, do you have any suggestions for people
who feel like you're stuck in a system that doesn't
fit who they are? What should they do? Like, you know,
you realize you're there, what do I do now?

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Oh, that's a good question. And you know, I have
a couple of clients to get who are in that spot,
and I always I'm also pragmatist, so I'm always like, well,
don't just leave. I know you're unless you really have to,
unless you feel like you're gonna get so depressed that
you can't handle anymore. But generally it's more like people
are feeling that slow burn right where they're like, I'm
not feeling that great, not terrible, but I'm feeling like
a three or four in my job, not a one,

(09:03):
but a three or four. M Like, Okay, that's when
you need to start planning for the future and just
start thinking of a way out. I would definitely recommend
finding what your personality type is, because I think I've
had a lot of clients who you know, they're in
their forties, the mid forties, mid fifties, and they're just like, Wow,
I've never really had to think about this, and I
probably should have, But now you know, it's never too

(09:23):
late to start find out what you are. Because you
find out your personality type, you can actually find out
probably what you truly want out of life, and then
that'll help you decide what's the next path, right, Like,
where do you go from? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Exactly? Do you find that it's easier to grab them
as children? When I say easier, I mean, you know,
you get someone who's fifty, let's use as an example,
who sort of said it in their ways. They have
their family, they have their life experience. It's difficult to
just leave a job that pays well when you have
all these other responsibilities to you know, to pursue something
that may or may not give you immediate gratification. But

(09:57):
when you're catching them at you know, ten years old,
it's almost like you have all this time to sort
of figure it out. Even if you don't really get
the right answer at ten, maybe you'll get it by twenty.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah. No, I one hundred percent agree. It's so much
better working with, you know, the young age. Even though
I once again, it's never too late. But you know
what's the Yoda statement, You have to unlearn what you've learned.
And I think when we're adults, and that goes for
me as well, we have all these assumptions in our
mind that have been built up over these years of experience, right,
and that can be hard to break. So of course

(10:30):
with kids, you know, it's a little bit easier to
do that. You know, even like I have like a
fifteen year old student, and even then, there are a
lot of assumptions that I have to break because they've
been built up. And not just it's not anyone's fault,
it's just like the whole system.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
You go to school and all your classmates want to
do this thing, and they're saying how important this is.
So of course you think this is like the most
important thing in the world. But at the end of
the day, like you said, like even if you don't
like even though they don't change or grow at ten,
eleven or twelve, by the time they're nineteen or twenty,
you know they're going to get it, you know, or
ideally get it. One of my favorite quotes from Twain

(11:06):
is when he says you know, my dad when I
was twelve, like I had no use for the old man,
But by the time I was turned eighteen, it was
amazing how much he had learned in the last six years. Yeah,
you know, and obviously it's not not the dad he's learning.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, And you know, it is funny you see that
with kids. You see this you know, cuddly, affectionate. We
want to be just like dad, you know, and then
they go to this whole period and they kind of
come back around. Hopefully they come around and understand all
that they learned and have gained from their experience, which
I think is fantastic. You've personality typed over fifty thousand people,

(11:41):
which is a lot of people. Have you noticed any
patterns that maybe surprised you about the human personality?

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, you know. I mean my book is essentially like
the whole pattern like drawn out right in terms of
like how do you figure out what these different personality
types are? And I think a lot of people don't
love the idea of like categorizing, but my feeling is
like we all categorize, right, Like we're always like, oh, yeah,
that person's a type A, or that person's quiet, and
that person's introverted, and I'm just like, well, you know,

(12:09):
like everybody type casts, everybody does all those kinds of things.
But I think my whole philosophy is maybe we can
make that a little deeper, a little bit more complex,
and also a little more open to change, right Like,
because I think my whole point is, like what I found,
like you know, typing fifty thousand people, is our idea
of people changes, right, And it's not like they themselves
haven't changed. We've probably just learned or I have just

(12:31):
learned more about them, which is great. And so my
idea for the book is just encourage people to be
on that constant, lifetime goal of just learning more about
the people in their lives, especially the ones closest to us, right.
And I think the more information we get, the more
things change, where we're not assuming, oh, my kid's going
to be exactly like me because I'm me, you know.
I think that's the one thing I really got a
lot working with. You know, a lot of those fifty

(12:53):
thousand people were parents and students, right and you know,
my company worked with maybe one thousand students a year,
so that makes you know, pars parents a year, and
we get to see the interaction, and a lot of
those parents, of course, were like assuming that their kid
was going to be exactly like them, which you know,
obviously you have a son, you know, it's probably not
always like that percentages are it's not going to be

(13:13):
that way. So we just got to like understand it.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
They are their own people, and you know, you realize
that from a very young age. My son is more outgoing,
he's more athletic, he's more uh, you know, he's certainly
a lot more social than I ever was at that age.
In fact, he kind of drags me along with him,
which you know, I don't love sitting at the birthday
parties with the you know, twenty something year old moms.
You know, that's just kind of how it is. But

(13:40):
don't expect it. Don't expect it. They'll be like you,
I'm not like my parents, and I'm sure he won't
be like me. But raising to be good people, that's
all that matters, you know.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Right we don't have parents, Yeah right, so yeah, yeah,
you know, we know, we know that we're not like
most people are, Like, I'm nothing like my parents. It's like, well, yeah,
if you're nothing like your parents, then why would you
expect the kids.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
To be like you? That seems Yeah, it doesn't. It's
not realistic. I mean, it happens, but I would count
on it, you know, I would think too that understanding
personality type. You know, yes, it does help your career
and your life path, but it's going to also be
helpful with relationships and a sense of purpose for yourself,

(14:18):
you know, just in here and understanding who you are
and how you relate to people and what you want
out of life.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Right. I think Gardner in his like seven intelligences, well
I guess it's eight now, but like those are the
two ones interpersonal and interpersonal that are like interns, Like, yeah,
understanding people around us interest understanding ourselves, And that's pretty
much what personality typing helps us do, is like it's understanding, okay,
like you know, my mom or my dad is like this,
and this is what they want and these are their values,
but this is my value. And obviously we have conflicting values.

(14:48):
Then clearly there's going to be conflict, right, And it's
really just knowing that we can't change that. You can't
change with someone values. And if you do that, then
you're really trying to change them, and that's never going
to be healthy. Right, So unless you're planning on giving
them shock therapy, it's it's probably not going to take
and that's also not good.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
So I wouldn't either. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
So yeah, it's all about intern interpersonal intelligence. Understanding different
personality types helps us just get along better with people
and understand that you can't change them.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Can you share? I mean obviously you know you wouldn't
do it of it, but anonymity and no names or anything,
but can you can you share what's one of the
most powerful transformations you've witnessed?

Speaker 2 (15:30):
You know, let me do a generalization, not because I'm
trying to hide names or anything, but actually this is
probably my I wouldn't say my ideal student, but the
student I'm probably best with. So you know, as everyone else,
you know, we have our limitations. There are some students
that I'm probably not the best with. And you know,
the nice thing about owning the education company for a
decade is I had a lot of teachers, so we
really placed teachers with specific kids that we found that

(15:52):
they would work best with. And I'll do that for myself.
I'm not going to be great with everyone, so my
ideal student would probably be so I'm gonna be saying
an animal type, and that's going to be like keep
them like what is that? But if you look at
the book or you go on my website, that the
panda personality type and specifically or I'm sorry, the grouping
is what I call shaman types. And within that pack

(16:14):
of types, there are four personalities and the panda is
one of them. And that's probably my ideal student. And
that with that is it's someone who wants to find
themselves but has always felt like they don't belong, but
they want to try to assimilate. And that can be
a really dangerous thing, right when you're in a situation
where you feel less of yourself because everyone around you

(16:34):
is telling you things that you are not right, but
you want to be. And I think I've seen that
transformation quite a bit where I've had students from age
ten all the way through in their mid twenties and
and they see still keep in touch with me now
in their early thirties where they're just like, hey, like
I just want to let you know like all the
things you taught me and that really meant something to me.
And that's the best feeling because really, what I was

(16:56):
just teaching them is like, there's nothing wrong with you,
You're totally cool. Well, you're totally fine being the way
you are, and just like go for it. But the
specifically the pandetype needs that constant reminder because they're constantly
feeling like these pangs of self doubt. And I think
for me, my personality type is one that can understand them,
but is a little bit more aggressive, and I'm just
more like no, no, do go for a, go for a,

(17:18):
go for it. I think I work best with them,
and I've been able to see that type really transform
and gain confidence throughout their life.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well, you know, it's funny though, that you say that,
because I can see it even in me as a
person that you know, I'll be around people who I think, gee,
you know, maybe I should think that way, or maybe
I should feel that way or do things that way
instead of the way that I'm doing them. That sometimes
is hard. I can imagine, you know, being a child
and feeling like that. You really have the peer pressure,

(17:48):
whether it's intentional or not, to change who you are
and how you think.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, one of my students, he asked me the other
day she said, uh, or she didn't ask me. She
told me, you know, I don't want to grow up,
and I was like, I know exactly how you feel,
and I know exactly what you mean by that, and
I just told her, like, you know, we all have
to grow up, but you don't have to grow up
in the way you probably think or you have been
told that you need to grow It's a totally different mentality.
And she's a shawman type as well, so I totally understand.

(18:15):
And by the way, I'm gonna gues Scott, you also
are a shaman type. I'm gonna guess a humpback whale
would be my guess.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
What is that tell me about that?

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Humpback whales are soul searchers. I always feel like if
you have the the stereo of theoretical or hypothetical village,
if our community or society is a village, the humpback
whale is like the soul of the village. Oh okay, yeah,
So they really take things on themselves kind of like
where you said like, they are a shawman type, and
shawman's in general are going to want to like they're
always gonna feel some self doubt because they're alwaysnna fel

(18:45):
am I doing the right thing because these other people
want this and that don't seem like I want to
do right and and but like you said, as comparing
yourself to your son, humpback whales are a lot more reserved.
They're more inward. Like the archetype is like Luke Skywalker,
Harry Potter that you know, Campbelly and Joseph Campbell hero type,
where like they bring to themselves and they tend to

(19:08):
be very spiritual. I don't know if you like nature,
but oftentimes humpback was also like commune with nature because
that's the way that they find themselves.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
I am very much one with anything that allows me
to reflect inward, whether you know nature. You know, I'm
not into loud music. I'm into you know, more refined
but just sitting out and being alone and with myself,
whether it's on the deck or out you know, for

(19:35):
a walk or something in the in the you know,
in the nature. You know that that that's where I'm
most at peace. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Humpback whales are often like a students. They're the daydreamers.
So they're the ones who like if you're in class
and the just kind of they start zoning out. I've
had a student zone out whenut there in front of
me is one on one and like, are you like
daydreaming right now, aren't you? And they're like, oh sorry,
it's just like you know, and it's not a bad thing,
Like it's just because one sets them off. And I
don't know if you have ever had that experience where
you just hear something or hear a music or something

(20:04):
sets you off and you just kind of like almost
meditate for ten minutes off to the side where people
are like, where'd you go?

Speaker 1 (20:11):
True, it's true. Now you don't teach them. I mean,
they don't come to you for their schooling, right, They
still go to school school, their regular school, right, right. Yeah,
So how do you balance the need for structure with
the deep of flexibility, you know, when they go back
into the classroom.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
That's a great question because that's always that's always super difficult,
right because I don't want them to like, I'm not
the type of person like everything you're doing there is terrible,
because it's not. I'm super honest though, I always tell them, hey,
you're gonna have great teachers and you're gonna have bad teachers.
I also had that, and I think it's important to
be honest because when I'm honest with them, that means
that when they get like a homework assignment, because sometimes

(20:51):
they'll bring ask for help or they'll mention things, and
if they get a homework assignment that I really think
is helpful, I'll say it and it's almost like, well,
I think even if they don't like doing the homework assignment,
they have to believe that it's important to them because
I said it. And I wouldn't lie because I've also said, oh, yeah,
that's kind of just tedious work. So you know, you know,
you can put minimum effort into that, but I would
put maximum effort into that. And sometimes I'll help them

(21:13):
with their schoolwork and try to integrate that because often
depending on the personality types, some personality types really really
do you want to do their school work? And I'm
just like, no, I'm this is this is what's important.
I need to focus on this. I don't want to
work on any of this holistic stuff. And those are
the types where I want to like kind of like
get them from this and slowly move them towards the
holistic stuff. I don't think you can kind of the

(21:33):
they're in a bubble, and you can't pop the bubble, right,
you got to expand it right, slowly, right, But they
still have to do the work right. So it's part
of the school and they have to fit in with
the structure and they have to follow the rules and
they can't just get up and walk around and just
daydream because that's where they're.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Because they're a humpback. Well, hell, the teacher's going to
look at them like, sit your hump down, yeah, do
what you need to do. So it's like trying to
assimilate into that but understanding who you are.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Oh right, yes, yeah, you know. The funny thing is
I had a friend who was talking to me about
his son, and you know, he asked me some advice
for advice because you know, that's obviously what I do.
And basically his son is in sixth grades, so that's
like eleven or twelve, and he's like, yeah, he just
stopped doing his work completely stop. He's like just completely
for the last month, he has not done any work.

(22:20):
And his son's really smart, is really really smart, and
it's just if he's bored and he doesn't think it's important,
and it's beneath him is how he feels. And I
told him, well, you just got to tell you your
son looks at the world this way, but in that way,
he's also pragmatic, so you know he's not going to
sacrifice himself on principles. So you gess what you gotta do.
Just tell him, hey, like you know something my dad

(22:41):
told me. He's like, hey, you know what, I agree
with you completely. Your teacher is not as smart as you.
Totally understand that. That's totally reasonable. But they're the person
who's in charge of your grade. They're the ones you
have control over you and the power over you. So
until you get that leverage, then you just got to
do just migdo with what you got. Just be pragmatic
about it. And I think people.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Just take their way. Yeah, that's good advice. So what's
the biggest mistake you know, leaders make when managing a
diverse team of personalities.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Oh, I think it's definitely thinking that the way their
ideal especially their ideal leader, is their style, right, because
I do think it doesn't mean that they shouldn't lead
that way. You got to lead with You got to
lead it with your style, right, that's the way you
are that's okay. You got to be yourself, especially in
your leadership position, but also understand that not everybody is
going to respond to that, and you might have to

(23:31):
adjust your style in a way that works best with
everyone if you want, like the whole unit to work properly.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
And I almost feel like what you do could be
really wonderful on a uh on a larger level, say
within a school district, you know, where the teachers get
together and learn what you have to teach them so
that they can better understand who they have in their classrooms. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
You know, it's funny with my teachers when I had
my education company, the ones that took to it the
quickest were the ones who actually had children, And a
lot of teachers have children. So it's great because they
were just like, oh, now I'm getting it, because there's like,
I wonder why I I say, no, wonder why I
love all my kids equally, but this kid I really
dislike sometimes they really pissed me off sometimes, and this
is this is my favorite, right, yeah, yes, And they

(24:21):
started really saying, oh, it's just because our personalities are similar,
so we're on the same wavelength, we're communicating the same
and then this person, I'm just fight my son or daughter.
I'm just fighting them the whole way tooth and nail,
Which is cool that you understand. You know, You're like, oh,
my son's totally different than me, and that's totally cool.
Just the way you described him sounds a lot like
a fox type. But that's just a total me thin

(24:42):
slice there, but sounds.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
A little bit a fox. Yeah. And he's a good kid.
He's smart. He's just insanely outgoing, and you know, and
he's got you know, just for example, a few weeks ago,
he had a party. It was a basketball end of
season party, and he's excited all week and I'm thinking, man,
I hope it's rained out so I don't have to go.

(25:04):
You know. It's that kind of you know, the week
it comes around, I just thought it to be left alone.
You know. But it's just, you know, it's just the
way it is. It's just how it is we all manage.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Oh yeah, well, Foxes are natural networkers, so that's their strength.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
That's me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
You know, I got an uncle who's a Fox, and
he's like connects this person, this person that's I love.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
It's unbelievable. Yeah, I actually admire, and to be perfectly
honest with you, it's just God who I am. Yeah,
So I want to switch gears just a second, because
you know you've worn a lot of hatch your pianist,
barbecue enthusiasts, fantasy football champion, mentor how do you stay
connected to all these different sides of yourself? You know,

(25:44):
because of my personality type that that one's actually easy,
and it's not necessarily a great thing. It's not interestly
a great thing because my the weakness of my I'm
a baboon type, and.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Baboons we love. We get super enthusiastic about stuff. We're
Shawman's as well, and so our ning goal as Shawman's
and that goes for humpback whales, baboons, pandas and dolphins
is to discover ourselves, right, like find out more about us, right.
So baboons were the most like aggressive in terms of like, oh,
I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna
try this, and you know, in terms of finding ourselves. However,

(26:15):
we don't always finish what we start, and so we
can get really enthusiastic about something and not complete whatever
the project is, and we met like twenty different projects
going on at one time. So I do know knowing
that has helped me because I need to be conscious
of that, and I have to be like, Okay, I
need to finish some of the things that I start,
knowing that that is a weakness of mine. But the
actual starting is not a problem. But the finishing was

(26:39):
somewhat of a problem. But I got through it. You know,
I'm a pianist. I started really young, but I probably
did not practice as much as I probably should have.
So I always say, yeah, I played for fifteen years,
but you know, I don't know, I probably practice like
a twenty percent of what I should have, So I
probably would have been a lot better if I had
actually been more committed.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
It's it's always the way, you know.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
So do you feel that your creativity played any role
in your journey of personal professional growth?

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah? You know, like obviously writing the book. You know
it it's a nonfiction book, but you know, I wrote
it in a way that's it tries to me fun
and engaging. And once again, I was a screenwriting major,
so I kind of took that kind of like because
I don't understand why things have to you know, school
teaches us that or tells us or tries to train
us that only boring things are important. I think that's

(27:28):
what kids get. Now. I don't think that's what teachers
are explicitly saying and trying to do, but I do
think that's what we interpret. Only boring, serious things are
going to be important in our life, and the fun
things are great, but you know they won't be important,
you know, and I totally don't understand that. So in
terms of the creative aspect, for sure, Like I've always
tried to, like even the way I try to talk
about this particular subject, because it can get kind of wonky,

(27:50):
is in a way that's ideally somewhat engaging and fun
where I'm just like, why take it so seriously? Yeah,
you're like Luke Skywalker or you're like Harry Potter. You know,
like that's fun. You know, people like to hear that
can connect with it, and they can read the person
who's like Harry Potter or Luke goywerck Walker. It's probably
Watch Stars and has had some kind of connection with
that person. So it's a very easy connect, you know.
And I try to make it as fun as possible

(28:11):
and I think that is where the creative side comes in.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
That's great. Can you talk about well, you had mentioned
that that our relationship with others is only as healthy
as our relationship with ourselves. Can you just maybe just
talk about that just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I think in general, we, especially
depending on the personality type you are, you tend to
like see the outside as a big influence, right, like
this is what I should be like, right? But yeah,
really it's about finding yourself and that's your relationship with
yourself and the stronger relationship you have yourself. I always

(28:49):
say find your anchor first. It's okay to try different things,
but you got to know who you are, because if
you don't know who you are, and then you're constantly
going to be like adjusting for every single person around you.
And that's not even fair to that, right, Other people
need to know who you truly are, right. So I
think our relationship with other people are always improved when
we have a stronger idea of who we are as
a person, because then we can communicate with them better.

(29:10):
We're not feeling insecure. We can go, hey, this is me,
and you know this is me. But I also appreciate
what you are.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah. Perfect in your book The Power Personality, it represents
decades of work. If readers could walk away with one
lesson from that, what do you hope that would be?

Speaker 2 (29:31):
I would say, everything that you've learned so far in
your life might not necessarily true and best for you,
and find out what's.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
True and best for you. The beautiful it's the one Leston. Yeah.
On that note, if you could go back and talk
to your younger, charismatic, dissident self, way back when, what
advice would you give yourself? I would say that wearing
jeans like ten sizes too big and sagging them is

(30:02):
a terrible fashion statement. That's exactly what i'd say. I
grew Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what i'd say. Yeah, you know,
I think every era I grew up in the eighties primarily,
and they were wearing their sweatshirts inside out, and the
hair was about three feet wide, and you know, it
was crazy everywhere.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Thin tie, like a really thin time.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yes, yes, yes, the thin tie, the parachute pants, the
members only jacket, Yeah, none of it was good.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
You know I still have them. I still have a
member's only jacket that I will wear my father's I
had one of a child. I had one as a child.
We had matching members only jackets, and I still have.
Obviously I inherited my dad's members only jackets. I still
wear it just because obviously it makes me feel closer
to him. And I also had one obviously not that size,
but yeah, I still wear it.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
I moved about four years ago and throughout two of them, well,
because I was like a never wear well, first of all,
I don't think I could because it probably would only
butt to about here, you know, alo on God, So
that's what happened anymore. But yeah, it's so funny those
things we used to have. Oh yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Eric, Oh, I was gonna say. I was just gonna say,
I still have those size uh thirty eight jeans that
I used to thirty eight guest jeans that I.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Used to say, yeah, you know, praise everybody much. Wait, yeah,
don't do that yourself. Yeah, but you're right, you're right.
I mean it's funny. Everything had to be oversized and baggy.
I wanted to track something fun with you. I just
have a few little questions. We do like a rapid
fire thing, just so people can get to learn a
little bit about you. Early Burden, night Owl, Night Out.

(31:47):
Favorite eighties Yeah, favorite eighties or nineties TV show?

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Oh well, that's a god. I love TV. That's super hard.
I'm gonna go. This is the first one that popped
in my head.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Small Wonder, small Wonder. Okay, well wonder.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Vicky Vicky the Robot.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. If you could master one
new skill instantly, what would it be?

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Juggling?

Speaker 1 (32:05):
For sure?

Speaker 2 (32:06):
I got that one. Really, I do not know to juggling.
I'm terrible at it, but I would. I would trade
every skill I have if I could just juggle.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
That's that's also seems so cool. Piano or fantasy football?
Which one wins? If you had to pick only one forever, I.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Would say, I'd say the piano because I think that
can give joy to other people as well, whereas fantasy
football is only giving it to myself. If I win,
if you win, if I win.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Right. And lastly, best piece of advice you've ever received.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Ooh, I got that one. So my dad. When I
was sagging my jeans and wearing those thirty eight's, I
was a bit of a poser, and my dad finally, well,
He actually would say this when I was six or
seven as well, but he finally just said, you know what,
at the end of the day, nobody gives a ship,
So you got to do what works for you, you know,
because you are not the You're not the main character

(32:55):
in anyone else's story. You're only the main character in
your story. You're just a psidecarecharacter in other people's maybe
a cameo in other people's story. So why worry about
what they think? You just got to do what you
feels right for you. And that it took a while
for that to really sink in, because of course when
you're fourteen or fifteen year like, what.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
You know anything? You know, I'm being cool and you know,
I'm just trying to like not feel like garbage.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
But yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, good for you. Eric.
Is there anything you'd like to share with the listeners
that we haven't talked about. This is your time to kind.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Of oh, just you know. The only thing is a
shameless plug of my book, The Power of Personality. You
can get it anywhere on Amazon, or if you want
to give Jeff Bezis your money, or if you want
to just go support your local Big Story. You can
order it from there or Boo Bookshop.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, beautiful, beautiful, And that brings us to the end
of today's episode. I hope you found as much inspiration
and wisdom in this conversation as I did. And if
you'd like to learn more about Eric and the incredible
work he's doing to help people tap into their true potential,
be sure to visit his website at www dot project

(34:01):
at utopia dot com. Utopia is y ou c O
P I A project u topia dot com and now
you'll find more about his programs, his book, The Power
of Personality, and how you can work with him directly.
And if you're interested in connecting with me learning more
about Mediumship, upcoming events, or other inspiring guests we have

(34:23):
lined w you can visit my website at www dot
medium Scott Allen dot com. Thank you so much for
spending time with us today, and remember the path to
your best life starts when you honor who you truly are.
Until next time, stay inspired, stay curious, and keep living
your best entire enlightened life. Have a good day, everybody,