Ethan Smith | Competitive Edge

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Wed, 09 Jul 2025 01:23:57 GMT

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AI Thumbnails That Look Like You

Thu, 15 May 2025 19:08:38 GMT

Thumbnails are the noose strangling your creativity, your skill development and the growth of your channel.

I want to be spending my time mastering my writing and getting all my core ideas published ASAP so I at least have some 80/20 version of my work proving I actually am what I say I am.

The main reason they take up so much time, is YOU need to be in them. That cracks open the pandoras box of setting up lighting, staging the set, and getting yourself camera ready.

We’re going to release you from that now, by showing you how to make thumbnails with AI that truly look like you. All while sitting in your pajamas nursing a hangover.

How To

The trick is to train a specific AI to specialize in knowing what you look like.

If you’ve tried using ChatGPT generating an thumbnail from one image of yourself, that’s basically like asking a first day Freshman to be your doctor. We’re going to train a surgeon.

The one we’re going to use is Flux Lora. LORA is a model trained to be a master of one specific object. First step, we’re going to send our AI to school using https://fal.ai/models/fal-ai/flux-lora-portrait-trainer Leave all the settings as they are. All we need to do is feed the AI a lot of good photos of yourself. This is the most vital step and the biggest part of this walkthrough.

Do you hair, get yourself properly camera-ready this one last time. You’ll never have to do it again.

Take 5 pictures of yourself from with no expression. Left, right, above, below and straight on.
Take 5 more of yourself smiling
Take 1 picture of yourself surprised
Take 1 picture of yourself sad
Take 2 pictures of yourself standing full body. Your outfit in each should be different

Make sure they're all in focus and good resolution.

Be warned, a bad picture will screw up your model more than it helps. 8 great pictures is better than 40 good and 1 bad.

Create an account at https://fal.ai/ and buy $5 in credits.

Now zip all those photos into a single archive, and upload it to the trainer https://fal.ai/models/fal-ai/flux-lora-portrait-trainer

Fill ‘Trigger Phrase’ with your first name. This is the term you’ll use to tell the AI when you should be in the scene. Mine is ‘Ethan’

Click start to begin the training. It will take about $2 and 5 minutes for the AI to train deep on the detailed data you prepared for it.

When it’s done, the trainer will output a link to the completed model.

Copy that link and go to https://fal.ai/models/fal-ai/flux-lora This is where the fun begins!

Click + on the Loras field and enter the link you got from the trainer.

Now this image generator is supercharged with knowledge how to make faces that look like you! Type in your prompt, like “Ethan is leaning on a black 1950’s car on a rainy day. It’s night and fog is rolling behind him”

Click Run and wait about 20 seconds.

Bam! You have a picture that doesn’t look like someone, it looks like you!

Each image will only cost a few cents, so you can really dive into getting just the right shot, like you’re a director on a movie set.

When you’re ready to tweak things, you can expand the additional settings to change the resolution and aspect ratio. I like to set Inference steps to 40, and have it generate 3 images at a time to choose from.

Best Applications

AI still has some rough edges, but you will get images that look like you. They will look great, and to anyone not wearing your face everyday they’ll look like the real you. But it will still be obvious this is an AI image.

Lean into that and go skies-the-limit with how you visually express the emotion & idea of your idea. Lean heavy into your visual thinking.

You landing on the moon - Great.

You fighting your way out of hell in the story of Orpheus rescuing Persephone. - Incredible, so much context coming along for free!

Just don't try making images of real events in your life. Me working at a bar in Japan. I forgot to take photos back then, so we’ll just generate one! No- This will look like you’re trying to deceive your audience and they’ll hate that. You’ll hate it too.

That day is coming, but it’s not here yet.

The great news is you’re now on the rocketship, and when AI is able to do that, you’ll be one of the first to know it, and use it in your thumbnails.

Final thoughts

This first experience with a LORA AI showed how huge a difference there is between AIs of this type, than agonizing over the sliver-thin differences between AI models like ChatGPT and Grok. When you want to take things to the next level, use a text specific AI to make the text portions of your thumbnail. Use a cheap general AI to make the background scene. And merge them together with your photorealistic ‘me’ image to get even more perfect thumbnails.

Or slam out a bunch of cartoon style 4:5 ads for your social media account and forget spending time on that ever again.

Finally, since you made it this far, take your favorite image you generated and slap shizz it into https://fal.ai/models/fal-ai/veo2/image-to-video and watch some freaking magic happen.

Never gets old watching your very self do some James Bond action.

Deep Credit

First of all, credit where credit is due. I learned most of this from Anthony Gallo at https://www.contentcreator.com/ from his new AI course . He and his partner Paul Xavier are great guys, appreciate the passion and care for others they put in. I’ve bought all of their courses and recommend them all.

The Power of 'Wasting Time'

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 21:33:44 GMT

‘Wasting Time’ To Live Your Life is the Best Fuel For Your Creations

Just yesterday, the advice paid off to stop grinding, go ‘ waste time ’ and experience life. For nearly 2 years everyone told me to grind weekends, evenings and holidays. Sacrifice socializing, hobbies and anything that wasn’t advancing my goals. The Alex Hormozi path of business. But they forgot to tell me that doesn’t apply to creative work.

For anything creative, the quality of your product, and how relevant it is to your audience, matters 100x more than the quantity. We are reaching minds and hearts, not digging ditches. Exploring new experiences refills the well that you draw from creating. (Thanks, Lucas Rockwood!)

Last night I ‘blew’ an entire Saturday night to hit the Broadway Honky Tonks with a new professional photographer friend. As a full-time entrepreneur and artist, she added an extra layer of fun by freely sharing her knowledge & experience. I smiled hearing “you are the average of the five people you spend time with” echoed in my head. But this also created a cutting edge that felt a hint like an audition.

When our St. Patrick’s green beers arrived, that new advice paid off. I pulled out my phone to take a picture of it, and asked her for hers.

“Here ya go. But why?”

Like I learned in a cocktail photography class I took purely for fun, a ‘total waste of time’, I turned on her phone’s flashlight and used it for a backlight to make the color in the drink pop.”Woaahhh, that looks cool! I’ve never seen that before.”

Instantly, she knew I was someone who had put work into his craft, someone who cared, and had some competency to share. Visible in an immediate way that wouldn’t have been obvious to someone only interested in the visual arts.

From that moment, the tone of our conversation shifted from teacher and student, to two peers who both had something to offer. Not just socially but also professionally. She raised her level of discussion about her work, and I even think we became closer friends.

Today Speaking Pauses Saved Me 6 Weeks Of Work

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 21:29:42 GMT

This week these speaking skills did the heavy lifting for me at work.

I had a long meeting where I needed to get buy in on a plan from my counterpart in another team. I know his personality type needs to feel he’s considered every possible edge case and angle before taking action. “When in doubt, the answer is no”

The problem is I am a fast talking, overactive Irish American. So even knowing this information it is absolutely agony for me to sit in silence long enough for him to fully consider each part of what I’m suggesting. But…

One of the 6 fundamentals of speaking is taking long deep pauses. Practicing this for 2 years now, it’s become much more comfortable when I speak. Turns out this has transferred over to conversations as well.

When I stumbled upon the one point that worried him the most, I just sat in silence, waiting for him to think it through. For nearly a full minute it stretched on , over a remote call, with no facial expression to check how he was feeling. Or if he was evens till on the call. Even asking would interrupt his thinking and stress him out.

But I barely felt any anxiety, or need to rush. I sat quietly. Looked out the window and waited. After an eternity “Ok, I think I got it. This will create some problems for my team, but all of them will be small, and relatively safe. I’m ok with us going forward with this.”

I estimate over 2025 this plan will save me 6 weeks of work.

What Being An AI Scientist Taught Me About Keeping Your Job In The Age Of AI

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 14:44:37 GMT

The edge you need isn’t more technical skill. It’s more visibility. More humanity.

13 years ago I walked through the doors of the towering Miami Beach Resort Hotel, about to achieve a dream I’d worked towards for years. I was presenting my first research as an AI scientist. Nervous but excited, I was about to officially join their world.

Waiting for my session, I watched a variety of scientists, present their research, microphone in hand, to crowded rooms. Listening to this mix of veterans and newcomers like me, there was more going on than I thought.

I’d always thought science was a field where only the facts mattered. But while some sessions felt like just another presentation in a long conference, some speakers made their research sound world-changing.

The way they spoke wasn’t just holding attention, it was shaping reality. Deciding who was believed, who will be funded, and what next research would shape our world. Even in science, how you spoke held the power.

Two hours later, it was my turn. Heart pounding in my chest, I looked down from the stage with disbelief at a room full of scientists. Who was I to teach them? I was still just a university student at the time. I was petrified. But this was the most important speech of my life, and I had practiced the hell out of it.

I took a deep breath and presented my research on using machine learning to detect lung cancer, making it more affordable to diagnose patients. To my relief I didn’t freeze up or forget what to say. People listened. No one left for another session.

But peoples eyes didn’t light up like with the veterans scientists. And none of the words coming out of my mouth carried the excitement for I felt for my research. I had accomplished my dream. And I celebrated. But something gnawed at me, I knew I could have been more.

That thought was replaced by a shock as soon as I stepped off stage to talk with my audience. Away from pens and microphones, I heard things that no one dared to write down. This is where the real education was. And in every conversation, a bone chilling pattern emerged. Not one of these experts asked if AI would replace humans. Only how soon. It was as inevitable as gravity. Some spoke with cold certainty. Others laughed darkly.

But the conclusion was always the same: it was coming.

13 years later we see AI replacing jobs now at a frightening rate. The fact is AI can’t ever replace all jobs, but it doesn’t need to. The competition for the remaining positions is becoming extreme. But what can you do?

The edge you need isn’t more technical skill. It’s more visibility. More humanity.

Since that day, I’ve only found that speaking skills are even more important than I thought. Highly educated professionals don’t lack intelligence, they lack recognition. They know more than their colleagues, but can’t communicate it and their knowledge remains unseen.

I've completed multiple STEM degrees: Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Nuclear Engineering & Computer Science. But after the first one, nothing moved the needle as much as learning to speak in a way that made my knowledge impossible to ignore. This is the bottleneck between the vast amount you know and how much others see.

I learned these skills for myself, to protect my own career. But now I teach them to other intellectual professionals. People busy doing great things for our world, so have very little time to spare. I’ve distilled the thousands of dollars of training I took and years of practice down to the most effective speaking skills, with the biggest return on your time. Techniques that can free the talent trapped inside you, in days or even hours.

You see now how important speaking skills are. If you’re ready to make your expertise impossible to ignore, you’ll want to know where to start. Which technique will increase how intelligent you sound the most.

So in this next article I explain the one change so powerful that turned me from hating the sound of my own voice to actually enjoying hearing myself. In just 2 hours.

Meaning is Power

Video Version Here

Speaking Skills Made My World Beautiful Today

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 18:37:56 GMT

On Monday my new speaking skills brightened a strangers day, and mine.

I was sitting at the bar at my favorite Nashville burger shop , laptop open, working away catching up on my day job. The waitress came back and asked

“Working on anything interesting?”

Caught in the middle of something, I replied overly sincerely:

“No~~~!”

She recoiled, looking like she’d just broken my heart.

I tried to recover, explaining what I was working on, just to make it clear I wasn’t snapping at her for asking and was open to chat.

“I’m writing educational software, but today they have me just adding tools for searching through videos. I’m literally adding filters for filters. Who cares about that?!”

But then something new happened in my brain. The speaking skills I’ve been studying these past 2 years kicked in and I saw something I hadn’t before.

I dove back in:

“If you think about it though… this will save each student 3 or 4 minutes of time. One at a time they wont care? But over the 50,000 students that will use this, that ads up to a huge extra amount learned. Smarter people and a stronger community.”

Her look of ‘oh sorry’ turned into a happy grin.

We had a much better conversation after that. She shared about her struggles in college with time, always desperate for more. It was a nice chat. I got to know a bit who she really is and what matters to her.

Then leaving for my truck I realized I was smiling too. This new level of speaking skills had let me realize something good about my work that I would have never noticed before.

These skills were making my world a more beautiful place.

How to Nail Teaching With a Story on Your First Try

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:10:19 GMT

The 2 Minute Rule Is Your Key To Start Safely

Back in July while preparing to record our podcast, my cohost Ryan listened to me cursing - A LOT, Even for me.

I was losing my mind.

For 6 months I’d been trying to use stories to make my teaching videos better. I was studying Matthew Dicks’ book Storyworthy. And the advice made sense, stories make teaching more engaging.

But every time I tried it felt wrong. Too long. Too emotional. Like I was making the lesson about me, not the part people wanted to learn.

I couldn’t get any story to feel right, so I couldn’t even get started.

Worse, I was afraid I was starting to hate writing , so I asked Ryan for his advice.

His answer? “Don’t overthink it. Just write what comes natural to you”

“FUUUUUUUCK”

This was going to drive me mad, but I refused to give up.

A few months later in October, I found a chance to speak with Matt himself.

I asked him: Why can’t I make this work in my teaching videos? His response?

"Oh, you're teaching? That’s a different genre. You need to tone it down and make your stories shorter. You need to learn sales storytelling. ”

Sales?! I’m not trying to sell , I’m trying to teach!

But I gave it a shot— and holy crap, it worked.

For the first time, I wrote a story in my script and the words felt good. It fit. It felt like it belonged there. This time when I read it to a friend, she didn’t just listen as a favor, I saw her eyes light up, she leaned in. She cared.

Matt was right. Again. The key to better teaching wasn’t where I expected to find it. It was in sales storytelling.

And if you made it this far in this video, you’ve already proved it works.

But it’s scary to get started, so let’s knock down the 3 things that stop most people from ever getting in the ring. So when you take your first shot in public you land it, and walk away with your first win.

1: The 2 Minute Rule

The number one thing that the most people get stuck on is how long the story should be.

This easy to get stuck on. Because you know your story needs to fit in enough things to be effective, but if it’s too long you’ll burn through any good benefits and be worse off than if you’d never tried a story at all.

Looking for advice you’ve probably been told some condescending version of “Your story should be as long as it’s interesting to your audience” and “A good story can be hours long!”

Seriously fuck off.

We’ve got a job to do. People are depending on us to get things done. Every minute counts, yours and your clients.

The answer is the 2 minute rule.

If you watch Steve Jobs’ keynotes that made him famous for being God’s gift to storytelling, each of his hour long presentations started with a simple 2 minute story.

Remember right now your goal isn’t perfection. It’s a first round in the ring guaranteed your audience won’t regret your attempt. You can worry about getting fancy further down the road when you’ve got the basics solid under your feet.

The 2 minute rule guarantees that because is there actually isn’t that much you need to say in a sales story. It doesn’t need to entertain people all night. It doesn’t need to give every piece of information. And it doesn’t need explain the whole lesson. The I told you ended nearly 2 minutes ago.

The only job it does need to do is persuade people to care about what you’re going to say.

People make decisions by emotions. Then look for logic to support it later. So put your short story at the beginning of what you have to say, and it will add a charge to every word that comes after. If you nail the emotion part in your story but forget something later in the rest of your presentation, they will stop you to ask, because now they want to know.

So keep your story under 2 minutes and put it at the beginning, and know you’ll get through your first round in the ring in one piece.

2: What do I need in the story?

With the length sorted out you’ll be all set if you’ve ever told stories to your friends. But what if you’re completely new to telling stories? Then you’re probably getting stuck on what has to go in to be interesting, but not too much that it rambles.

If that’s you, first of all a big hell yeah for being so bold to jump this far into the deep end. Being willing to get this far out of your comfort zone is a huge mark of someone who’s going to succeed in the future.

The first thing you likely did is search online for how to write a good story. Then got bombarded with pretentious artists each disagreeing with each other. 13 point structures. Rising stakes, a climactic change where everything night and day in one brief moment. And oh yeah, it has to all be a true experience that happened to you.

Terrible advice. For us, the right advice is almost opposite.

First of all, all we need to do is set the tone! If your story doesn’t have much drama in it and is just a fun anecdote you like, that will still work great here! In fact it’ll be better because that will be easier to condense into 2 minutes.

Second, for sales stories, less is more. We’re not trying to entertain our audiences, we’re trying to connect with them. So flat out, your story about spilling your coffee is going to be better than a story of surviving an oil rig explosion. Because everyone can relate to the coffee one.

Also, the bar for storytelling in sales is so low, than even a mildly interesting story will feel exciting and powerful.

The only one thing you do need, is to make keep your story relevant to your audience and something that matters to them. No matter how small. Do that and your story will accomplish the one thing it needs to do.

Keep that up during your first fight with storytelling and it’ll keep you getting interested eyes instead of questioning eyebrows.

3: How much emotion to use?

Alright you know what size of box you have and what to fill it with. Telling your first sales story seems so doable now! But if you’re like me, you got stuck on one final thing. Worrying how much emotion should be in your story.

This was the hardest one.

Every scrap of writing advice I found was telling me how to heighten every emotion up to 11. Trying it, it felt corny as hell. I couldn’t imagine telling that story in a video.

In the end Im glad I listened to my gut telling me something was wrong. I avoided making a total fool of myself. It turned out there absolutely IS a level of emotion that’s too much in sales storytelling. It would hurt you by making you feel inappropriate, creepy, or manipulative.

The answer I found in Paul Smith’s book Sell With A Story feels absolutely perfect:

Think yourself how well your audience knows you, then ask how much personal closeness they would be comfortable with?

You go through 3 phases when getting to know people:

Phase 1 - Just introduced

Keep it light.

“College taught me persistence because it was a challenge and I overcame ”

Phase 2 - You’ve met before

Go one level deeper.

“College taught me persistence because since I grew up poor, it was hard to work a job to pay for tuition while doing all the classes”

Phase 3 They trust you

You can share your true struggle.

“College taught me persistence because, when I was a kid my dad passed away, which meant I had to work a job to pay for tuition while doing all the classes”

By asking how well the audience knows you, you’ll always be able to pick the right amount emotion to score hits right on target and never go overboard.

Those 3 tips will get you started.

You’ll be in the ring, growing your mastery, and watching people’s eyes light up.

Once you see how much you hooked their attention with your story, you’ll want to use every story you have. But some are too long and others are too short.

So in the next article I’ll show you how to take any story you love and adjust its length, so it fits perfectly and hooks them every time.

Video version here

My Irish Birthday

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:04:35 GMT

The best of me is only 6 years old ��

Writing Tuesday’s journal entry, I was upset & frustrated that I am so behind at this Content Creation dream of mine. I’m about to turn 47, while most the people I know who have succeeded with the kind of content I want to make are only 35. And my teachers are still in their early 20’s.

Relief from this resentment came from remembering that when I was 25, or even 35 I would have still been too shy to be on camera, or do any of the things needed to learn content creation. ‘But Ethan! You like talking to people so much, I can’t imagine you being an introvert!’ True, I desperately wanted to talk to people my whole life. But I couldn’t. My upbringing had imprinted in me a shyness that was crippling.

This all changed when I took my first trip to Ireland ��. It unlocked so many things in me. Not injecting new influences so much as unlocking the trapped parts of myself I’d always wanted to let out. That first solo trip of my life, because going meant so much to me I couldn’t wait for someone else, unlocked my ability to talk to strangers, and so many other things that I could not begin this current dream of mine without.

So I wanted to recall how long ago that was. Clearly I didn’t have my whole life spent competing with these younger experts, but how long had I been working on this? The fastest way to check was logging into Google Photos and searching for my oldest photo of Dublin. It worked! May 6, 2019

Looking at those photos of my first hours in Ireland, those memories came flooding back and immediately tears started down my face.

With gratitude.

My brain is good at remembering how much this trip changed me, but trash at remembering how intensely it felt. The man who arrived on that island was not in a good place.

Obviously: You can see from the ticket I was coming from San Francisco.

But truly even more than how grateful I was that trip turned around my happiness, that morning I realized I was even more grateful to have been freed from my mental cage and, after decades, finally able to be myself.

Like a fish not seeing water, I hadn’t once noticed how painful that was until I was free of it for the first time. The relief was overwhelming to remember. That trip unlocked so much of who I really am.

So from this year on I’m going to celebrate May 6th as the birthday of my heart.

I’ve told many stories of that trip, but this one is about that morning of realization. Another unlocked skill I now have is listening to myself. Listening then I felt the pull “I should go to McNamaras for lunch. Think over these memories there.” Silly idea, but that trip also taught me to follow such pulls. I don’t require it to present documents and explanations. Again I was glad I did.

Greeted by the warm familiar smells of an authentic Irish pub, even more memories came back. I felt home. I got a working lunch of Irish Breakfast and popped open my laptop. Then merely a few minutes after I took this picture, the man I had missed, in the red pullover at the bar walked over.

”Ethan! I won’t interrupt your lunch but I saw you come in and just wanted to say hi. It has been a while!“

It was John! An old friend I hadn’t seen in 5 years. After he got married and had a kid it was pretty difficult to get in the same room. What were the freaking odds? The man works as a traveling salesmen, the odds of just being in the same part of the state as him were astronomical!

After chit chatting about Titans football for a few minutes he headed back to his seat and I turned back to my laptop. I thought again: “What are the odds of running into him! It had to be… yes, of course. 100%” I looked over to check and yup, he was eating by himself.

This is why I was here today.

I got up and did something I could never have done before that Ireland trip: I put my laptop bag on my shoulder, grabbed a plate with each hand, and despite it being extremely awkward to carry my entire meal, I felt calm as I walked over to ask if he’d mind some company, knowing I’d still feel comfortable if the answer was no.

That conversation over the next hour was one of the best I can remember. The ones where you can feel the other persons attitude is teaching you something even on top of their words. The listening skills and sincere interest in others I’ve gained from this creative work showed up every second in that hour. It allowed us to go into his family life, what got him into his sales career and what that meant about all the rest of who he is. This man who I already had been friends with, was had even more great things about him than I ever knew. Because before, I just couldn’t listen.

When it was time for me to go, he said “Ethan I’m sorry , I just talked your ear off the whole time. Next time I’ll let you talk more”. A statement that made me have to check I hadn’t been swapped out with an alien.

Now you know why Ireland means so much to me. And why I seem like a child, hurriedly trying to figure everything out.

The best of me is only 6. ��

5 Top Tips For Educational Content Creators in 2025

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 13:20:07 GMT

Being a content creator, everyday your life is a struggle to master three things at once: Writer, Public Speaker & Entrepreneur.

Being an educational content creator amps up the difficulty even more!

To lighten your load in 2025, I’m giving you the 5 best tips I found all year, with #5 being my hardest learned lesson, which boosted all 3 areas.

Let’s start with the most essential area. The one that must come before any of the other steps can happen. Writing.

#1 Educational Writer 1: GTFP ASAP

You know that on YouTube, getting to the point as soon as possible is a matter of life and death. People drop off after a minute. Why wouldn’t they? You haven’t proven yet that your video can give them something useful.

This is hard with Educational topics. Complex topics like mindsets, were taking me 2-3 minutes to give enough background to be sure the viewer wouldn’t get lost once I got to the big idea.

I found the solution to this in George Blackman’s educational scriptwriting course: The Board Game Intro .

When you have friends over to play a new board game, you don’t teach them how to play by sitting them down & immediately explaining every single rule in the manual. That’s how you teach your enemies that you’re hoping to get to leave!

No, you’re a kind and wise soul who actually likes people, so you explain the absolute minimum needed to get them started playing practice game, only then explaining the rest of the rules after they’ve had a intro tour to the game, seeing a lot for themselves.

So, instead packing your video introduction with all the info needed to understand your entire video, split it in half. Look at how much is needed to understand your first point, and keep only that info. Then push allll the rest of it to after you’ve completed your first point .

After your first point, when people have a rough guess what’s going on, and now trust that your lesson will be a good one, then give them all that info needed for the rest of your video.

This tip has also had surprise bonus effects on my scripts, raising the emotional charge of simple instructions.

But most importantly, I’m finally able to get to the freaking point within 30 seconds of the start of my video, even with my favorite way out there topics.

#2 Educational Writing 2: Teaching Too Many Lessons

Now that I was explaining my videos in a way interesting enough to watch, it became obvious that I was making a huge mistake about what my videos needed to say.

When I met with Charlie Houpert, he immediately had the answer. But it took a while to understand: YouTube is for Entertainment not Education.

This annoyed me at first. The entire reason I was making a channel was to teach people things I wish I’d known sooner.

Naturally I thought this meant I needed to create excellent lessons . Take these difficult topics and make them easier to understand. More interesting to listen to. If you’re thinking that too, then you’re right where I was.

Finally months later, I realized why Charlie was right. I remembered my own path, and realized that detailed lessons weren’t how I got to where I am today .

It was creators that had slowly built up my trust , like Charlie and Lucas Rockwood. Focusing on convincing me there was value in learning these new things. People like us are smart, and motivated. It’s guaranteed we’ll track down the instructions and learn the how-to part . The sticking point was knowing that these odd and abstract topics had gold waiting at the end of the rainbow .

So I’ve made a big shift in how I teach my topics, and already it feels better. With this clarity it’s both easier to write my scripts, and they feel more packed with truly useful relevance.

3. Speaker: You Should Like Hearing Yourself Speak

With that, people now will want to watch the content you’re making, but your videos will be sabotaged if your speaking skills are shooting yourself in your foot. I’ve clicked off of plenty of guys with an idea I wanted to hear because I couldn’t stand to listen to them.

In fact, one of those guys, was me.

I was determined to fix this , and I spent 2 years and thousands of dollars on speaking training. Finally in October I learned one thing that made such a huge difference, that I finally went from being annoyed by my voice to actually enjoying listening to my videos.

The key was removing a special type of filler words. You already know to remove your ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’. But massively more impactful than that, is removing your Hesitation Words .

These short phrases like “You know”, “Kind of”, and “Like”, are tricky because these words do have useful value sometimes. So a teacher can’t just tell everyone to simply eliminate them entirely. If you haven’t already heard about them, that’s why .

Hesitation words are worse than saying nothing, they actually shout uncertainty & insecurity.

For example if I say “I was supposed to go on a hike but you know I kind of slept in”.

Did I sleep or not? You can’t ‘kind of’ sleep. You either did it or you didn’t!

What the words “you know” and “kind of” tell people, is that you’re embarrassed. That you’re not certain about what you’re saying. It’s a defensive measure to beg the listener to not scold you for wasting their time.

But if you’re not certain your words are worth listening to, why would anyone else waste their time paying attention?

This attitude of hesitation demolishes the audiences interest faster than anything I’ve seen in speaking.

Spend 2 hours to fix that and I guarantee you’ll have a night and day difference. Turning your speaking from an anchor holding you back, to wind in your sails.

#4 Entrepreneur: Education Is Sales

Now that your audience can grow, let’s look at the final end goal of making good videos: building a profitable business from them. The most powerful business skill I found all year , took a winding road through 3 books, multiple webinars, and a whole lot of frustrated cursing (just ask my podcast co-host Ryan).

The skill?

Using storytelling for sales.

But wait, “Sales”? We only care about education! Education is sales . Convincing people your lessons are worth learning, and worth remembering.

The trick with learning to write stories for sales is all the writing advice you find out there is for writing useless entertainment. Advice about writing stories is even worse!

T hat advice is actually the opposite of what you need to do for functional storytelling. The advice I got actually made it harder to write my scripts. This is when the months of foul cursing began. Sorry again Ryan!

But then after months of banging my head on the advice I got from Matthew Dick’s book Storyworthy , I got to talk with with Matthew to ask him why things weren’t fitting. He pointed out that what I was trying to learn is a different style of writing: Sales writing. Things were finally starting to make sense!

So I read his new book on that style, Stories Sell , then followed that trail to Paul Smith’s Sell with a Story . That one’s written by a businessman, and everything fell into place:

How long should an educational story be? 2 Minutes!

In stories for sales, is there such a thing as have too much emotion? Yes!

How can I revise my stories to have the right amount of each? All those answers.

After all this pain, once I got the hang of it, Functional Storytelling added an enjoyable thread of emotion to my explainer video s. It also improved the sales copy on my website, and even morning standup meetings. Sales Writing gives you more than great retention graphs. This gets your ideas remembered, making them spread, leading you to paying clients.

#5 Big Lesson: Write What You Care About So Much It Scares You

Now with all 3 areas are handled, that brings us to the most powerful lesson of last year, which made an immeasurable boost to all 3. But this lesson was more than a little terrifying to learn.

A few months ago I was sitting on my couch, staring at my MacBook screen, fingers on the keyboard. My hands not moving, but my heart racing.

“Crap, What the hell did I get myself into?”

I wasn’t on a couch. I was between a rock and a hard place.

I’d gotten the opportunity to check off one my top life goals: talk with my hero , the man himself, Charlie Houpert. The founder of Charisma on Command had agreed to do a coaching call with me. But I’d realized the script I was planning to review with him was unacceptable.

I’d started my YouTube channel making videos about topics that were easy for me. Like whiskey, or how to build a nice recording studio. But they came across flat. Empty. Because this wasn’t what I truly wanted to teach, it was just the maximum I could make with what courage I had.

Reading the script I had, I was ashamed of how unimportant its goal was. It hit me that if I never got another shot to speak with him, I’d regret wasting it by not working on the the topics I truly cared about.

But that was a much harder topic to write. That was a difficult to explain lesson, that I had learned from trying to connect with my father. One that had changed my life. But one even further beyond my writing abilities. Since Charlie was the #1 person in the world I wanted to make a good impression on, this harder topic r amped up the level of fear from scary to terrifying.

Sitting in front of my keyboard, staring that fear full in the face for the first time, that crucible of fear itself taught me the first half of this lesson:

I realized that no matter how frightened I was, no matter how large the stakes, I would rather go down in flames trying the build thing that truly mattered to me, than win playing it safe hiding behind something else.

That realization felt amazing, and poured a whole new level of fire into my work.

My fingers began to move. The mad dash to write that script began.

By the day of our meeting, just preparing for it had taught me so much, but there still remained the obvious problem that I while I loved this topic, I wasn’t enough of an expert to teach it. And that would take years. But like the expert I expected, Charlie taught me the solution, and only needed 30 seconds to do it.

I started: “Sorry this script is really rough. To tell the truth, trying to teach these things that I still suck at feels pretty embarrassing. But I didn’t want to waste this opportunity, so I had to try”

He told me: “First of all, that was a really good call picking the topic you care about most. Sincerity and vulnerability are the true currency of YouTube. And right now it’s becoming even more so.”

I felt really good about that.

But what he said next stopped me in my tracks.

“But I have to ask, what makes you say you suck at it? That you’re not good enough at it to teach it?”

I’d never asked myself that question. The answer was so obvious, I never needed to.

But it hit me like a punch in the chest: I didn’t have an answer.

I started laughing, with embarrassment and relief.

“I’d been applying these ideas everyday for years. My life had changed night and day different because of it. Each of my friends had pointed out how much I’ve changed. And most important of all, I’d become the happiest & most fulfilled that I’d ever been in my life.”

With that one question, Charlie taught me the second half of the lesson: your topic being the most important thing to you, is itself the very credentials you needed . There’s nothing holding you back.

Today, start working on the topics that matter so much to you they scare you. It’s the most powerful change I made all year, improving all 3 areas of my creator work.

Now if you’re ready to start working on your most powerful topics, you might find that figuring out what topics are most important to you, can actually be pretty hard.

In this article , I show you how get clarity on what your deepest motivations are. And those reveal clearly what topic is most important to you.

The 2 Hour Change That Made Me Like The Way I Speak

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 16:44:55 GMT

Eliminate Your Hesitation Words

Do you hate the sound of your own voice? Is that awkward feeling holding you back from making content?

Or have you bravely powered through it and started creating anyway, only to feel your motivation being eaten away by a constant nagging in the back of your head. Thinking the way you speak is dragging down your engagement?

That one was definitely me.

Then a few months ago, working on my podcast, I sat down to spot check my latest episode before uploading it, to make sure the file had exported correctly.

The episode was about the week long live speaking workshop I had done a few weeks before. Another scrap of kindling on the pile of 2 years and thousands of dollars I’d spent to try to make the way I speak start to be a wind in my sails and not an anchor dragging me down. Well another step taken, keep at it and you get there someday.

I hit the space bar on my MacBook, starting the payback to check the first few seconds. 45 minutes later I realized I was still watching. I was enjoying it! For nearly an hour, I was so completely engrossed in it, I hadn’t even picked up my phone! It hit me:

"Holy hell! I’m actually ENJOYING listening to myself!"

That was about the most relieved and happy I felt all year. And the only thing that had changed from before, the change that caused this, had only taken a total of 2 hours: Fixing your Hesitation Words.

What Are Hesitation Words & Why Are They So Bad?

We all know the first think you must do to hold people’s attention when speaking, is to stop using filler words. The ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’. Words that say nothing. But there’s lesser known type of filler words that actively destroy your impression of confidence.

These are Hesitation words . The ones I was using the most are “Like”, “Kind of” and “You know”.

Example: “Knowing your values is kind of important for excelling at your work.”

Worse than just wasting time & boring people like normal filler words, these actively communicate a message. One you don’t want:

“I’m probably wrong, so please don’t be mad at me when you find out”

Hesitation words make you sound unsure, full of doubt, and incompetent. If you’re not certain about what your saying, why would anyone else give up their precious time to listen?

Getting rid of these made such a night and day difference that I enjoy listening to my recordings, and now look forward to making them.

So if eliminating Hesitation Words does so much, why haven’t you heard about them already?

Secret To Hesitation Words

The trick is unlike filler words, Hesitation Words also have totally legit uses. So a teacher can’t just give every student the same list of words to fix. We have to find out which words you are abusing, turning them into Hesitation Words. Your hesitation words, no one else’s. This makes it harder to teach, but also means some powerful side benefits come with it.

Finding Your Targets

To find yours, we’re going to use a modified version of Vinh Giang’s Record & Review process:

First record a 5 minute video of yourself speaking on a topic.

Speak unscripted
Pick a topic that takes you out of your comfort zone, stretches your muscles. An advanced topic you’re going to make a video about someday

This will generate a lot of uncertainty when you talk.

For example, I’d improv about how learning business storytelling teaches us to understand other people’s values. There’s a lot of reaching needed in that topic to connect those two big ideas on the fly.

Next play back your video, and every time you say a filler word ask:

"Did I say it just to buy more time to think, or did I say it to explain how unsure you are?"

If it’s because you are unsure, those are your hesitation words . Your enemy #1 to destroy, standing between you and oratory greatness!

So how do we get rid of these anchors dragging you down?

How To Eliminate Them

We can free you from Hesitation Words in 2 hours of time. But it’s going to require a mindset shift.

Mindset shifts are emotional shifts, so for maximum speed, it’s best to split the 2 hours up into 20 minutes a day, to give your mindset time to do it’s own work in the background.

First, pick one Hesitation Word to work on

Not two

Not three

One.

Speaking is a giant juggling act, concentrating on many things at once. Running that circus live without a script uses every braincell we have. Trying to improve more than one thing at once is the best way to guarantee you get overwhelmed and don’t learn anything at all.

Flex Your First Rep of Speaking With Certainty

Next say a sentence out loud using your Hesitation Word.

Example: “Knowing your values is kind of important for excelling at your work.”

Now say it again eliminating the hesitation word. Say it out loud.

Example: “Knowing your values is important for excelling at your work.”

See how that feels? More certain right? This is your mindset shift.

Did it feel uncomfortable? All growth does.

Maybe you feel suddenly now you’re saying something is more certain than actually is.

“Am I exaggerating the truth?”

“Am I being dishonest??”

That’s the question I grappled with.

The secret here is what you’re saying conveys the truth, even if you don’t realize it yet.

The context of your situation speaks with you. You’re not giving precise battle instructions where lives hang in the balance if they’re not followed exactly. The people you’re speaking to understand that you’re rounding.

They expect it.

They actually appreciate you doing it to respect their time , and mentally add the words your not saying through the power of context. The words “Absolutely” and “Always” exist. Everyone hears you not saying them.

You are communicating honestly.

Time to try it out in battle conditions

Record another 5 minute video of that same topic, being vigilant for that one word. Notice if you’re about to say it with real meaning or not. When it’s only to hedge & hesitate, be silent. Skip to the next word. Keep going. If you end up speaking slower for now, that’s ok.

Now review your recording. See if you managed to eliminate that word, or if you should keep focusing on that one tomorrow.

Once you eliminated the first word, pick your next target and repeat the process, until you are free from all your Hesitation Words.

Because its a mindset shift, improvement will come slowly at first, then all at once. So be patient. Once you get rid of your first word, you’re halfway there.

Start now

Record and review today, before you can back out. Start getting to the end of your 2 hours now. Then watch how much more engaging and enjoyable you sound. Use this new ability to spread your message. And remember, don’t use it for evil ��

I would love to hear how this worked out for you. If you get stuck on anything send me an email at: ethan@ethansmithcoaching.com

Variety

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:44:54 GMT

Is the thrill of adventure what drives you to achieve?

One of the 6 fundamental human needs, Variety is the need for new experiences, surprising ideas, and New changes that captivate your being.

Exactly how much does the need for variety drive you?

Knowing the answer to that question, will put your life on a path where your instincts will drive you to succeed more than others. Without feeling burnout. And truly enjoy what you get, when in the end, you rise to the top.

The deeper understanding you’re about to gain about Variety, will also open your eyes to places in your current job that can tap into your drive, Using it to unlock your competitive edge, right now.

Even if you discover that you don’t care about Variety, that will give you an advantage too. That knowledge will let you avoid years of pursuing work, that would both be harder for you than it would your competition, and wouldn’t even feel like success when you won.

To find out how much you are motivated by Variety, we’re going to look at two legends you know well, who’s pursuit of variety, lead them to lives of fulfillment & success.

Indiana Jones - The Indiana Jones Series

When I think of variety, I think of Indiana Jones.

Indiana is a legend of variety & adventure. Foreign lands, mystical temples, Indiana was constantly pushing into unknown boundaries. Going places and learning things, no one ever had before.

The best part is, Indiana didn’t need to do these things. More than anyone, he had no reason to, Had a tenured job as a professor. The only reason why he did these things was be cause he wanted to. He craved variety.

Shooting Nazis from a biplane?

Because he wanted to.

Collecting a gold idol from a temple in Peru?

He may not look like it, but trust me he wanted to.

Negotiating for diamonds at gunpoint with gangsters in Shanghai?

You better believe it’s more exciting than grading papers.

Not everything about Indiana’s life was comfortable or easy, but he did it for that jolt of novelty.

If you identify with Indiana Jones, you likely have a high craving for Variety. You probably have a strong need for new & different experiences, ideas and adventures.

Movies are packed full of variety. The whole genre of action is based around it. But in our lives, Variety doesn’t have to be danger. Commonly, people satisfy their need for variety, safely from home, by food, video games, and movies.

But watching this video, you’re probably the kind of person happier to get variety in ways that achieve things. Like learning a new skill, doing something outside your comfort zone, or just going to explore someplace where don’t know anyone.

For example, I work remotely, and the productivity gurus advise me to eat every meal at home to save money and time. But I’ve noticed if I don’t physically go somewhere, anywhere, whether I need to or not, my unmet need for variety shuts down any productivity I would have gained by following the ‘right’ advice.

James bond - The James Bond Franchise

James Bond’s entire appeal is based on variety. Exotic cars, dangerous situations, and a new country as often as a new lover. Being a man with few words, but all action makes him the perfect example, since Variety needs no explaining.

It’s clear.

We see it, we feel it.

Bond’s main excitement is often said to come from his wide variety of cars and vehicles.

Let’s take a look.

On foot, In Casino Royale:

He ninja parkours his way through a Madagascar construction site, leaping across cranes, under the hot tropical sun with the ocean behind him, to capture a dangerous bomb maker.

By Car, In Tomorrow Never Dies:

To escape a half dozen hitmen, he drives a luxurious BMW 750IL, through a German parking garage, by remote control. With him in it. Finally sending it flying off the roof as a decoy.

By Boat, In The World Is Not Enough. Sort of:

In London he chases the assassin that bombed MI6 headquarters, by driving Q’s new boat.

Down the river Thames.

Then under the river Thames.

Also by air. Still in the boat!

And… down alleyways… still somehow, by boat.

In Goldeneye, by By Tank:

He races a tank through the streets of St Petersburg to rescue his new Russian ‘friend’ Natalya. Driving over cars and crashing through buildings. Then rams a train with it.

You never get to do that in the office.

Jame’s Bond’s stories are relentlessly focused on the absolute extremes of variety the world can offer. This is what makes them so popular and why they’ve endured for 70 years.

Remembering those stories, how did you feel?

How much do you feel heart pump to find adventure. Experience something new. Go somewhere new.

The amount of variety at work can vary wildly from one career to another. But lets look at some ways to tap into variety at your current job that you might be missing. A few examples will help you start noticing more places everywhere.

Research

At your current job, do you have the freedom if you wanted, to switch to new processes, or tools. Or target different markets?

Research to improve your team’s performance, is an edge sharpening task needed at most jobs. If your team is too small to have a dedicated research unit, taking the initiative yourself is a great way to add variety to your work.

Research is a constant experience of new things, new ideas, and new challenges. This is why Indiana Jones was written as a professor!

Networking

Next, Are there networking opportunities at your job?

90% of all business is human connections. It’s nearly guaranteed that building contacts with buyers in your industry, potential hires, or even your competitors will pay off in future profits.

For those bold enough, Networking opportunities are everywhere, and networking is a never ending source of variety. Every person you talk to has something different about them, and if you’re new at it, Ill tell you the better you get at it, the more you’re able to see those differences.

Plus networking builds heavily valued, top tier soft skills that will aid your career in other ways, on top of being a rare skill that sets you apart from most people in your field. Not many are adventurous enough to take this challenge.

Contracting

Or finally, did you realize you’re strongly motivated by variety? You want the iceberg sized chunk of it?

Contracting is the main-line buckle up and hold on level of variety.

Running your own one man company opens up floodgates of new tasks to connect together, and new skills to develop. You will get a deeper insight into your core work, but you’ll also learn the basics of all the many skills needed to run a business. From schedule planning to sales & marketing, you will learn it all.

And nearly any job can be done as an independent business, in your off hours.

I’m personally working on a one man business and this month I’m learning to use email newsletters to collect leads. Last month it was something else. No joke, I enjoy more variety from my business than I do from most entertainment.

Now after your deep dive with Variety, how much do you feel it drives you?

Do you see any additional places at your current work that can use this drive?

Thinking about it now, do they motivate you more ?

If you are driven by Variety, the more you pay attention to this, the stronger this feeling will increase that edge that it gives you.

You can also gain more of this edge from any other of 6 needs that you resonate with. Find out how strongly you feel about the rest of them. And use all of your strengths unique to you. If there’s any you haven’t explored yet, pick one and learn more.

Or jump straight to Significance. If your strong in Variety, there’s a good chance you have a strong drive for Significance too.

Certainty

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:44:25 GMT

Is the Iron guarantee of success, your fuel to achieve?

Certainty is knowing that you’re not just possibly or probably going to get what you need, but are positive to get wealth, comfort & love.

How much does knowing for sure you’re going to obtain your desires, further enhance how much you enjoy them?

Certainty is needed in many careers, but not all. Understanding how much you have this motivation will lead you to paths where your instincts drive you to higher performance than your competition. Choose work that naturally feels fulfilling, and you will no longer need to burn willpower to rise to the top, which prevents burnout.

The understanding you’re going to gain today about certainty will also open your eyes to additional places in your current job that can tap into your drive, using it to fuel you in your current job, right now.

And if you discover that you don’t connect with certainty, Knowing this will let you avoid years of pursuing work, that would both be harder for you than it would for others, and wouldn’t even feel like success to you when you make it to the top.

To find out how much you are motivated by certainty, let’s look at two legends you know well, who built achievements built from certainty, leading them to lives of success & fulfillment.

Billy Beane - Moneyball

For certainty, it’s only fitting that our first story is about a real life person. Billy Bean was the general manager of the Oakland As. And the one thing he was laser focused on giving them, was certainty.

And through it, victory.

He was a man uncomfortable with uncertainty. Despite being the general manager he refused to watch his team play their games. To him, it was full of things he couldn't control. Too late for him to change.

He was singularly focused on his inputs and the outcomes.

While the team of veteran managers he worked with were enamored with the celebrity, history and glamour of professional baseball, all Billy cared about was the what worked, and what didn’t.

When Billy had a meeting with the Cleveland Indians, he met Peter Brand, who was applying his certainty based field of economics to baseball. It was exactly the approach Billy wanted. He valued it more than the Indians did and hired Peter to join him.

At the time the prevailing practice was to recruit players by looking for nebulous things. Qualities of basically mythical status that were believed to correlate with success, though no one knew why. No certainty in the results.

But Billy went against everyone's advice, and even demands. Believing he knew better than hundreds of years of combined experience, and continued to care about the visible, measurable, certain facts.

This heightened drive for certainty gave Billy an edge over every other general manager in the league. Leading him to do things with his meager budget that the richest teams with triple his budget struggled to keep up with. Billy’s drive for certainty rose the Oakland As to unbelieved heights and made him a Major League Baseball legend.

Certainty is one of the most popular of the 6 Fundamental Needs , but the hardest to show examples in stories.

Movies are about flashy extremes. Daring saves and risking it all on a moment. This makes certainty one of the most powerful things in humanity that’s invisible to our entertainment world.

Certainty is on a quieter, less flashy level, but weaves through every part of life, with great influence on it.

As a kid, what made Christmas so unbearably exiting was knowing it was going to happen. Looking forward to it for weeks. Now as an adult, certainty still rewards me, in dependable relationships and a peaceful home where I know I’ll be able relax and work on my dreams.

Certainty is probably my #2 value. In my late 20s when I was living in Japan, I had a gap between jobs where for a week I couldn’t afford food. I can remember standing at the convenience store, looking at the shelves with my last 200 yen, calculating whether the butter or yogurt would buy the most calories for the week. Ever since then, knowing positively that I have food with me, gives me more joy than it should to any reasonable person.

If you’re also a certainty type person, first of all Id love to hear what your favorite movies or shows are. It was hard to find a single example! Anyway you’ll get more joy and work fuel out of rewards with certainty than others would.

Alright, on to the next hero:

Samwise Gamgee - Lord of the Rings

Sam Gamgee is a hero, make no mistake. But what made him a legend, was something more.

Sam single handedly fought Shelob, the giant spider, saving Frodo’s life. At the very end, Sam carried Frodo like a sack of potatoes up the volcano of Mount Doom. And on top of all that he was an unbending source of dependability for everyone in the fellowship.

Sam’s dependability is why everyone loves him. There was no dramatic turn where he grew into a reliable teammate. No knifes edge where he almost abandons them and we then have big sign of relief when he doesn't. Sam always was dependable, from the start. Sam always fought. Sam always had their back. Even when he wasn’t supposed to.

But while there’s a lot to be learned from his consistent strength, there is even more to learn from what Sam’s victory was. What he did it all for. The things that Sam did it for, what drove him to have such unbendable will, was certainty.

The simple, everyday certain joys of the Shire.

For others, victory against Sauron meant new status, or growth of their kingdom, but for Sam all he got, all the wanted was:

A return to his farm.

Food & drink he’d loved his whole life.

His friends, Merry. Pippin. Frodo. And Rosie.

He did everything to return to the certain comforts of home he’d always had.

While this quiet motivation for certainty is nearly invisible in our stories, it is a steel hard force that gave Sam a form of strength beyond all others, and makes Mr. Gamgee one of most the relatable & powerful figures of legend.

Remembering those stories, How much do you feel the love for good things that are guaranteed?

To be on a life path with no doubt of obtaining friends & family, the money you need, and a good home

While certainty is an endangered species in Hollywood, it is a critical player in the working world. Many careers are built entirely around making or selling certainty, from home insurance, to wedding planners.

McDonalds skyrocketed to fortune not by selling the best burger, but by selling the guarantee of getting exactly what you expected anywhere you go in the country.

But lets look at what exists already at your current job. Some commonly overlooked places in most careers where there is an opportunity to take advantage of your drive for certainty.

A few examples will help you start noticing more opportunities everywhere.

QA testing

Are there places at your work where occasionally, the things you produce gets returned to your team for fixing?

Look into the numbers, and often it is less labor to double check some or all of your team’s work before it leaves your door, than to correct it later, after someone else discovers it downstream.

For countless teams that are too small to have a dedicated testing unit, taking this step yourself can both raise productivity & eliminate the time delay caused by the back and forth.

On top of financial impact, there’s career benefits for growing the reputation of being the one that always gets it right.

Customer support & feedback

Do you have access to customers or internal employees that use your product, but no one is talking to?

If you take the time to talk to them about their experience, you’ll gain the information needed to guarantee your product is satisfying them. And therefore all your customers, instead of only finding out after cancelled contracts and client turnover.

This route is often higher revenue, and you’ll also enjoy the low drama certainty of getting the job done right.

Planning - Anticipating Future Outcomes

Finally, another source of certainty that your team might just be too small to have a formal unit for: is planning.

On the micro level where you sit, could planning the next month reduce surprise labor shortage? Or missed opportunities?

You can bring a boost to your team’s sales output, and the personal pride of knowing nothing slipped by your watch.

Now after your deep dive with Certainty, how much do you feel it drives you?

Do you see any additional places at your current work that can use this drive?

And Thinking about it now, do they motivate you more ?

If you are driven by certainty, the more you pay attention to this, the stronger this feeling will increase that edge that it gives you. You can also gain more of this edge from any other of 6 needs that you resonate with. Personally I connect strongly with 3.

So find out how much you connect with the rest of the 6 Fundamental needs , and use all of your strengths unique to you. Pick the next value in the list, or jump straight to Variety, the mirror opposite of Certainty.

Certainty and Variety are the most common opposite pair that people are strong in BOTH of them.

Contribution

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:43:34 GMT

Does the reward of contributing to others fuel your greatness?

The need to contribute is the drive to give a positive impact to others. Removing their suffering, or unlocking their potential, allowing them to reach new heights. Improving others physically, financially or mentally.

How much does giving energize you?

Understanding how deeply this motivation runs within you, can lead you to greater achievements while preventing burnout. If you know that contribution is one of your core drives, you can follow it to naturally work where your impact feels fulfilling, and you no longer need to burn willpower to rise to the top.

This understanding will also open your eyes to additional places in your current job that can tap into your drive to contribute, fueling you in your work right now.

And if you discover that you don’t connect with contribution, that is power too. Knowing this will let you avoid years of pursuing work that would both be harder for you than it would for others, and wouldn’t even feel like success when you make it to the top.

Now to find out how much you are, or aren’t motivated by contribution, lets look at two familiar hero’s, who by following a path of contribution, lived a lives of lasting impact and fulfillment.

Oskar Schindler from Schindler’s List

Schindler is example of contribution, in both a movie, and in real life. His story shows the gradual transition of someone rather similar to you and me, connecting to his desire to contribute, more and more until it became his life focus.

Schindler starts as a typical businessman. He begins hiring Jewish workers simply because they were cheaper labor. Not a hero, not a villain, just a person.

As he continues, he starts investing money beyond just the hiring costs, in order to protect them. Then hiring more than he needs. He bribes Amon Göth to keep his workers in his factory, when they were supposed to be transferred to more dangerous sites.

A step further, he starts risking his own safety, directly risking punishment himself in to protect his workers when officials decided to execute them.

In the end, Schindler both sacrifices every opportunity to make money, and sacrifices all the money he did have, in order to run his factory without being productive, so he could keep more workers at his save haven, for as long as possible.

All of this makes Schindler one of the most legendary figures of contribution.

Contribution is helping others grow.

While you may feel both desires, contribution is opposite of the desire to grow yourself.

In movies, contribution is usually shown by an intense drama. Risking your life. Helping thousands or millions. Saving lives. But most contribution in the world is collected from the vast number of daily acts. Aid given in person, face to face, one to one.

Being a mentor to struggling family or friends / skill and advice.

Listening to someone you run into making them feel significant.

Contribution also has a lesser known, but powerful reverse side: Reducing the burdens you put on others. Building your strength when you feel lost. The time when it’s hard to find motivation to improve yourself for yourself, but keep building yourself to reduce the support your loved ones need to share with you.

Or simply leaving room for to be patient with the needs, problems & flaws others have.

Alright, on to the next hero:

Batman

Bruce Wayne From the Batman Franchises is not a real person like Oscar, but Batman’s story, is still Is a story of a flesh & blood person. A person dedicated to contribution. He doesn’t have it easy, no invincibility, no super powers.

Just a willingness to sacrifice any gifts he does have, and the iron determination to work harder than anyone in the way of that. All to help the people of Gotham so they don't also have to go through what he did.

Gives up the comforts of his wealth. Leaving Mansion and lifestyle, to go train for the strength to improve things

Sacrifices his body, through the kicks, baseball bats, knives and more that he endures while fighting to make his city Safe.

Gives away his money, spending it on research & tools to aid his fight.

Harder, he sacrifices relationships, being alone most of his life. Walking away from Rachel, his one relationship he was able to have. Finally giving up any possible future with her when she dies, for the chance to help the whole city.

Finally, he does his all in secret. Giving up even the gratitude. No Fame, no significance. No virtual signaling

Batman’s story is a story of a hero where contribution is the reward itself. That’s why it keeps sticking with us and getting remade over and over.

Remembering those stories, How much do you feel the desire to help others?

To stop their suffering, grow their strength. Give them the piece they are missing and watch them grow?

Of the 6 needs, contribution isn’t very famous for being present in the workplace, but is actually quite widespread .

Since it’s so commonly overlooked, it’s extra likely that for this value, there are places you’re missing at your current work that you could tap into your motivation for this need and gain additional strength from it.

Looking at a few examples will help you start seeing more places contribution exists at your work:

Mentoring

At your job, are there any opportunities to teach, or mentor junior members?

Teaching satisfies multiple needs, but contribution is the strongest. You see their abilities of people you helped improve, their career grow. When mentoring closely, you also create the opportunity to help someone with larger things, accelerate their emotional & personal growth.

This is the one kind of contribution that does resonate with me.

Guess why I'm writing this right now. ��

Office Charity Initiatives

Does your employer have any charity initiatives or public outreach projects?

Every company sees the pragmatic benefits of being seen doing good. But most employees want to do their shift and get out of there. If you ask around, you may find that your company even has a budget for these projects and is looking for someone willing to take the time to make it happen.

I can’t promise this will get a promotion, but this will make you valuable to you company. And increase your work satisfaction, which will improve your performance at the other parts of your job.

Now after your deep dive with contribution, how much do you feel it drives you?

Do you see any places at your current work that provide you with contribution?

Thinking about it now, do they motivate you more?

If you are driven by this value, the more you pay attention to it, the stronger this feeling will increase that edge that it gives you.

You can also gain more of this edge, from any of other of 6 needs that you resonate with. I connect with 3, so find out how strongly you feel about the rest of them.

Or If you’ve realized you don’t care about contribution. You now can recognize jobs pushing contribution as a benefit, and know that for you, it wouldn’t have value, and would just be a trap. Avoid it, and find work that use the needs you do have.

Now Pick the next value you’re interested in and learn how much it drives you.

Or jump straight to Certainty. Certainty is essential in a lot of fields of work that are driven by Contribution.

Use all of your strengths. ��

Growth

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:43:12 GMT

Does the craving for improvement fuel your success?

Growth.

The desire to see yourself become stronger. Physically, mentally, and emotionally.

How much does it drive you?

Knowing how MUCH it motivates you, will make you achieve more, while at the same time preventing burnout.

If it’s one of your primary drivers, your deeper understanding of Growth will begin steering you towards work that you’ll Naturally succeed at. Where you won’t need to use willpower and discipline to outperform others. It'll also reveal places at your current job, that can tap in to your hunger for Growth to fuel you, right now.

And if you discover you’re not driven by Growth, confirming that will let you skip the mistake of years of grinding on work that for you, would be twice as hard, and wouldn’t even make you happy when you the top

To discover much you are driven by Growth, let’s sit with what that desire feels like. Your values are on an emotional level. So we’ll spend a few minutes with that feeling, by looking at two familiar movie hero’s, that lived a path driven by Growth, and it lead them to victory.

NEO - THE MATRIX

Neo’s life is all about growing. About becoming more. In every form.

Neo starts as Mr. Anderson. A mundane 9-5 office worker. Bossed around and no agency of his own

intuiting there's more.

When he meets Morpheus, his craving for growth is what gives him the courage to take the Red Pill.

When Morpheus teaches him kung fu, his data jack is able to to teach him the moves instantly. But he is only able to beat Morpheus because his constant hunger for growth leads him to combine and adapt all the styes together.

When Morpheus is captured by the Agents, everyone thinks it's impossible to rescue him. He's as good as dead. It's Neo's innate life of growth that makes him the only person that believes it can be done, and so tries and does.

And finally allows him to believe he can beat Agent Smith, the most powerful thing in the matrix. And through his growth, puts it everything together and does.

If you haven't guessed, Growth is by far my #1 need and motivator. It drives most of what I have done and accomplished.

In movies growth is usually extreme.

Super powers, magic, an entire life focused on improving only one thing to extreme, but there’s many other forms of growth, that simply can’t be shown with pictures.

Emotional development.

Having the peace and quiet inside to be able to truly listen to the people around you and have a deeper relationship. Or a more spiritual connection. Or simply understanding what you truly like, becoming able to enjoy those things twice as much.

Becoming able to do the same things with less time and effort, creating room to add more things to your life.

In fact, the many of the powerful or happy people in the world actually got that way by gaining moderate ability in a vast range of skills. Giving them a combination of abilities no one else has.

Alright, on to the next hero:

Luke Skywalker in Original Star Wars

Luke is one of the worlds most famous stories of growth, growing physically, mentally, & emotionally, to become a Jedi Master.

He starts as a farm boy in a desert farming water. But after meeting Obi-wan, he immediately begins developing his skills, training with the light saber and the Force on the Millennium Falcon.

By the end of that film, he progresses to using the Force to destroy the Death Star.

But wait there’s more! In the very next film he hears there's more to learn in the Force so goes to train with Yoda.

There, he not only improves his saber & Force skills, but expands his growth into emotional strength, through a fight against the dark side within himself.

The climax of trilogy entire trilogy is about how much strength he has been able to develop. And because he grew enough, he resists dark side, brings his father back to light side, and ends the war.

Luke’s story is about all forms of growth. Which is why his story sticks with us

Remembering those stories, how did You Feel?

How much do you feel the craving to grow new abilities. To become able to do things you can’t do right now? Do them better, and faster than today?

Of the 6 needs, Growth is the most widely valued at the work place . But there’s many more places at work, that you can tap into, that you could be overlooking right now . A few examples will help you start seeing them, drawing motivation more of them, and building a competitive advantage.

Speaking & Writing Communication

Do you ever explain things to people, in groups or 1-1?

Speaking skills - huge growth

Rarely developed

Newbie gains, huge competitive difference - racing a rock

Real high ceiling for benefits.

Learn new AI tools for your work

Have you searched to see if any new AI tools have appeared that may apply to your work?

They’re popping up faster than I could list them, much less have one person skilled at all of them

Open room, find when appear, multiply your time, share

Time Management

Another overlooked but powerful skill to grow

Needed every job

Far beyond procrastination

Pomodoro, 80/20 principle, Awareness of time usage

Unending ceiling

Entrepreneurship

My craving, dip toe, love it

Now after your deep dive with Growth, how Much do you feel it drives you?

Do you see any places at your current work that provide you with Growth?

Thinking about it now, do they motivate you more?

If you are driven by this value, the more you pay attention to it, the stronger this feeling will increase that edge that it gives you. You can also gain more of this edge from any other of 6 needs that you resonate with. Find out how strongly you feel about the rest of them. Personally I connect strongly with 3.

Or If you’ve realized you don’t care about Growth, that is power too. You now can recognize jobs pushing Growth as a benefit, and know that for you, it wouldn’t have value, and would just be a trap. Avoid it, and find work that use the needs you do have.

Now Pick the next value you’re interested in and learn how much it drives you, Or jump straight to Contribution. It’s the mirror opposite of Growth, but you just might be strong in both of them.

Find out how much you connect with all 6.

And use all of your strengths.

Connection

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:42:51 GMT

Does the need for connection drive you to succeed?

Connection. The drive to share experiences with those dear to you. To be appreciated by them, and protect them.

How much does it drive you?

Knowing how much it motivates you, will make you achieve more, while at the same time preventing burnout.

If it’s one of your primary drivers, your deeper understanding of Connection will begin steering you towards work that you’ll Naturally succeed at. Where you won’t need to use willpower and discipline to outperform others.

It'll also reveal places at your current job, that can use your desire for Significance to fuel you, right now.

Even if find you’re not driven by Connection, confirming that will let you skip years of grinding on work that would be twice as hard for you, and even once you reached the top would just leave you feeling empty.

To discover much you are driven by Connection, let’s sit with what that desire feels like. Your values are on an emotional level. So we’ll spend a few minutes with that feeling, by looking at two movie hero’s that lived a path driven by connection, and followed it to victory.

DOMINIC TORETTO - Fast & Furious

Dominic Toretto In Fast & the Furious was fiercely driven by Connection.

Being driven is a something this man knows a thing or two about. But the one thing he loved more than cars was his family
Everything he did was motivated by his love of family and friends.
He always protected them, and brought them together.
FF6 - When Letty was found to be still alive and stuck in a life of crime, Dom gave up life his paradise retirement to fight to help her and reunite with her
FF8 - Another time When Elena and his son were threatened, He agreed to return to crime and work from an enemy he hated in exchange for their safety.
Hell he turned half the people trying to kill him into family too. Ya know, connection is only a medium value for me, but talking about Mr. Toretto even I get all pumped about it.

In movies, the most dramatic form of connection is usually fighting, to protect family

But There’s a lot of different types of connection

Being loved
Knowing them deeply
Protecting them in day to day ways
Simply being together

Connection doesn’t have to be with people ether

Animal. Nature. Ideas.

On to to the next example:

Peter Quill - Guardians of the Galaxy

Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy Also lived his life dedicated to connection, becoming his greatest strength.

Love of Walkman was his love of connection to his mother
Risks life for it after escaping
He Risks his life and gives himself up to capture by to save Gamorra
His irresistible passion for connection drew everyone around him closer, eventually forming a crew, and a family from the people who started as his enemies.
In the end, it was them uniting together that allowed them to hold the infinity stone and defeat the near godlike Ronan
How were these regular schmoes in a super hero movie in marvel with people like Thor & Thanos? It was their exceptional connection

Remembering those stories, how did you feel?

How much do you feel the draw to connect with those around you. To be loved, share things with them, know them, and protect them?

Hollywood gives us extreme examples, but there are opportunities in many Careers to be fueled by Connection. Let’s look at some examples and you will start noticing opportunities you’ve overlooked at your current work, that can tap into your need for connection. Using your gift to be a competitive strength.

Do you have any regular customers or clients at your job?

Retail, Bars / hospitality, higher end sales this is common
Take the extra step to know them, treat them as a friend, like Quill would, more than a customer.
Tapping into your connection motivation will give you more energy at work. And could network into opportunities in the future you cant imagine now.

Are there any places at your current job where you could teach or mentor others?

Teacher student connection is a strong bond
Get a lot of satisfaction as you see them succeed
Its highly valued by your company when you do

Does your company need someone to plan company social events?

This can be the thing that sets you apart as the team member more essential than the others, while fueling you
Edge that company wants you more than the rest

Connection is massive business skill.

Networking, getting clients, hiring, connection is part of every vital thing you need.

Its more than just being good idea on paper. Big business deals are relationships. Forged over time
The company I work at we have a sales team and they spend months

Now after your deep dive with Connection, how much do you feel it drives you?

Do you see any places at your current work that give you Connection?

Thinking about it now, do they motivate you more ?

If you are driven by Connection, the more you pay attention to this, the stronger this feeling will increase that edge that it gives you. You can also gain more of this edge from any other of 6 needs that you resonate with. Find out how strongly you feel about the rest of them. Personally I connect strongly with 3.

Or If you’ve realized you don’t care about Connection, that is power too. You now can recognize jobs pushing connection as a benefit, and know that for you, it wouldn’t have value, and would just be a trap. You can avoid it and find work that takes advantage of the needs that do motivate you.

So find out how much you connect with the rest of the 6 Fundamental needs, and use all of your strengths unique to you. Pick the next value.

Or jump straight to Contribution, It’s the rarest of the 6 values, but people with a strong drive for Connection are the most likely to have it. That may be you.

Significance

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:42:27 GMT

Do you know how much the need for Significance drives you?

Whether its a little, a lot, or not at all, knowing that will help you achieve more in your career, while also helping you avoid burnout.

Today I help you find out exactly how much the need for Significance motivates you or doesn't.

If it’s one of your primary drivers, this deeper understanding of Significance will help you pick future careers that you’ll Naturally succeed at, without needing to stress over discipline.

I'll also help you find places you may be overlooking in your current job, that feed the desire for Significance, allowing you to start you succeeding more with less effort, right now

And if find you’re not driven by Significance, you’ll be able to avoid the trap of jobs that many others are telling you are great, and are for them, but you struggle to perform well and would be miserable.

To find how much you are driven by Significance, we’re going to sit with what that desire feels like. Your values are on an emotional level. So we’ll spend a few minutes with that feeling.

First we’ll walk through through a some paragon examples from movies. Stories of victory through the pursuit of Significance.

Maverick - Top Gun

In Top Gun, Maverick was driven by the need for Significance.

He wanted to be the best. But not by himself like a monk. Or anonymously like a Super Hero. Maverick wanted to compete head to head, face to face and win.

In naval flight school, he competed against his fellow classmate aviators. Then finally competed against enemy pilots.

Celebrities get their significance from their widespread fame. And that can work for a few people. But Maverick didn’t need a lot of people to know about him to be significant, he just needed the combat aviators of the world, the experts in his field, to know he was the best.

Significance is the desire to be important. Feel you matter. Often feeling better than others.

Jordan Belfort - Wall Street

In Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort also loved to compete, loved to be in charge, and most of all loved to show the world his success.

Jordan’s field of competition was sales. A war of words. A battle of ideas, emotions, and desire. At the stock firm he loved competing against his objecting clients. Even at the boiler room where he sold penny stocks for far less money, he still loved the head to head fight with his customers.

Even better, every single broker in his office had their progress publicly measured and ranked. He loved competing against his fellow brokers, and winning.

The biggest sign that Jordan was driven by Significance, is when he abandoned his immunity deal with the FBI. With the deal, he’d still have had everything good in his life he had before. His money, his family, his wild lifestyle.

Everything except his Significance. And that was the one thing he couldn’t bear to lose.

Remembering those stories, how do you feel?

How much did they get you excited to fight your competition and win? To have the world know how uniquely strong & skilled you are.

These Hollywood stories are great at giving us perfect, extreme examples of Significant work. But you don't have to go to the extreme lengths of wall street fraud or military combat to get Significance from your work. This need is a gift in many careers, and may be satisfied by tasks that you have at your current job, but you’re missing out on taking advantage of your gift, because you’re overlooking how they connect to significance.

Are there any places at your job where you’re ranked against your coworkers?

Any task where everyone is measured and ranked give significance. One really widespread version of this is sales. From tracking store membership sign ups as a side part of your job to the entire job focus on it like in medical sales, in any job with sales, they will always be measured, ranked and compared against everyone else. This gives you the opportunity to become #1 and show everyone around you that you are the best.

Other competitions:

Closing the most support tickets
The most leads generated
The least amount of waste materials

Or does your job have focused head to head competitions?

A trial lawyer is a great example. There may not be a leader board, but in a court room, every day it is you against the opposing lawyer. Two battling for one outcome. A fight to win. Significance for the victor..

Other unexpected sources of significance at work you may be overlooking include:

High profile presenting

Politicians do this full time. But at your job are there times when someone is needed to present summaries to the rest of the team? A task many people fear more than death. If you train your presenting skills at all, you’d probably become the only one in your department who ever had, and have everyone see you present it better anyone else could?

Finally, are there any places at work where you mentor junior members?

If you train others, you are seen as the best. You’re looked up to. If you have any of this in your work, you could be overlooking just how much significance this gives you. Becoming aware of it will let you enjoy that satisfaction, and tapping into your desire to be the best will make you perform it better & gain even more respect for it.

Now after your deep dive with Significance, how much do you feel it drives you?

Do you see any places at your current work that give you Significance?

Thinking about it now, do they motivate you more?

If you connect with significance, the more pay attention to this, the stronger this feeling will increase edge it gives you.

You can also gain similar benefits for any of the 6 needs you connect with. So you’ll want to learn how much you connect with the rest of them too. Personally I connect strongly with 3.

And If you’ve realized you don’t care about significance, that is powerful knowledge too.

You now know how to recognize them, and know that for you, they would be a miserable trap. You can save yourself and your career years by finding a job that satisfies one of the other 6 needs that you do connect with.

If learning how much you’re driven Significance helped you, you won’t want to miss out on the benefits of knowing how much you connect with all 6 of them. Pick the next one that interests you and keep going.

Or jump straight to Growth because it’s my favorite, and the Matrix is freaking cool.

Your Career Superpower

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:41:49 GMT

The heroes you love & the stories you remember, tell you what your deepest motivations are.

Your unique needs that drive you work harder than anyone else and succeed. If you’re working on the right things, the ones meant for you.

To get clear on what work you would be better at than anyone else, Pick which of these 6 heroes is your favorite? Who is your guide?

Maverick - Top Gun
Dominic Toretto - Fast & Furious
Neo - Matrix
Schindler's List’s - Oskar Schindler
Billy Beane - Moneyball
Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Last Ark

Who is it? What does he teach you about the work you can do better than anyone else? And how to get the things that matter to you?

Each one is a master of one of the 6 Fundamental Human Needs. Understanding these are key to obtaining the things you want in life. I’m going to tell you about the value & need your chosen guide has mastered, and what careers that satisfy that need. Careers that you’d push harder than your competition, enjoy the fight, and achieve greatness.

6 Human Needs

The 6 human needs are the fundamental desires that motivate all people, everywhere, no matter who they are. They were made famous by Tony Robbins decades ago, and man I wish I had taken the time to learn about them sooner. Last couple years I’ve been recommended more and more strongly by people I respect to look into it. Holy crap this has made so many things work better.

The 6 needs are: Certainty, Variety, Significance, Connection, Growth & Contribution.

We talk about a lot of other values, which makes it seem like we’re all looking for completely different things, but any value you find can be broken down into these fundamental 6.

Like my favorite is Freedom. Charlie Houpert, the guy I learned about the 6 from, has it tattooed on his chest. But Freedom can be broken down into Certainty & Variety.

Since these are the root need & motivation of everyone, understanding them makes you vastly better at understanding other people. My friendships have gotten much better since learning them. Our conversations far more interesting & fun.

Strangers have gotten more interesting too. None are boring anymore. Because seeing their root values, I always find one or two that are my values.

You also become significantly better at marketing & sales, key skills in business.

But today we’re talking how knowing your fundamental values will help your career

By identifying what you’ll most enjoy doing
And also actually happy when you actually get it. Celeb example here
And be motivated to work harder than any other career, becoming the best at it.

Every fraction of clarity more you get on these, makes you a more successful. Let’s get into it.

Significance

Maverick - Top Gun

Our first one: Its big, its loud, we’ve all seen and know it. Its Significance.

Maverick, Top Gun. His need, his value, his motivation was significance. If you picked him, that’s your value too.

He wanted to be the best. But not anonymously, or by himself. He wanted to do it in front. Where everyone could see. He wanted to compete face to face and win. He wanted everyone to know he was the best.

Significance is the desire to feel important. Feel you matter. Often feeling above others.

Usually this is pretty public. Fame is a powerful form of significance. Status works too, being the best gardener doesn’t have much fame but everyone that knows, still knows your the best.

Less commonly you may desire significance with yourself. That’s huge with me personally. I care about always doing what would make me proud of myself.

When I became a music student in college, no one else knew, no one else cared, no one was impressed. But I felt freaking awesome.

Career

If you’re the Maverick, Significance type person, work that brings a lot of significance will energize you, giving you a major edge, and feel good at the same time. So what careers give significance?

We all know these, shouted at us most our lives.

You have High status jobs - Finance, law, surgeon. The ones that are written as glamorous on TV. If your parents pressured you into a career I guarantee it’s one of these. The exact pick is different in different cultures. But you know what they are.

Another route are the high morality jobs. Working for a charity work, a Non profit, or even clergyman in a religion. That route might call to you too.

Connection

Dominic Toretto - Fast & Furious

What is this man all about? He is not keeping it a secret. He cares about family. He cares about connection. And if he’s you’re favorite, that’s probably your core value too.

Connection isn’t only about relatives though. Most of Dom’s family were friends he met. Hell he turned half the people trying to kill him into family too. Ya know, connection isn’t my top value, but talking about Mr. Toretto I get all pumped about it.

Connection doesn’t have to be directly with people, or with people at all. It can be with your pets or nature. With the god or the universe. You know what it feels like.

Personally I really like indirect connection. Plenty of super busy people out there that Ill never get to meet, who are working on great ideas, putting their work into the world. When I work on the things that matter to me, knowing these other people are working on it to gives me a strong feeling of connection.

Career

So what kind of careers does a Connection type person crush at?

Teacher is obvious. Therapist is another obvious one, but probably more appealing can be a coach. Athletic Coach even Business coach.

On the more traditional route, you have event planning, negotiator for law enforcement or for businesses. Or high end sales, always about building relationships.

Duality of Values

We've looked at the first two values, and you might be saying:

“What the heck, Significance and Connection are opposites aren't they?"

And Id say, “Well darn aren't you a clever one”

You’re right. They are in fact complete opposites. Being significant is pretty isolating. We hear celebs complain about it all the time.

All of the 6 needs, come in pairs of opposites.

The kicker is you might be really high in two things that are opposites. This is super important to be aware that this is possible. This normal and pretty common. Get comfortable with it. And not just for this topic but for many other things in life.

It’s flat out a scam, that we’re raised to think we have to be one thing or the other. Be smart or strong. It’s cuts you off from most of your potential and its just not true. So keep your eyes open that you might be really strong in both sides of any of these opposites.

Growth

Neo - Matrix

Speaking of unlimited potential, the next need is growth.

Neo starts of as Mr. Anderson, a mundane office worker doing.. not much of anything. And boy does he feel this is wrong, in every fiber of his being. He knows there's more, not just in the world, but in himself. Growth is Neo’s prime need that drives him as he starts even lower in the real world, struggling to move his eyelids, to mastering Kungfu, leaping over buildings, becoming faster & stronger than the agents, then stronger than the matrix itself.

Neo is driven to learn more, get stronger, and reach the extreme limits of his capabilities. But unlike Maverick, driven by Significance, Neo doesn’t do things for the competitive win. He does them to be able to do it. Does it because wants it to be done.

If you haven't guessed, Growth is by far my #1 need and motivator. And if Neo was your favorite, it’s probably yours too.

Career

Some careers that could make you thrive if your a Growth type person:

STEM - Researcher & Engineer - Got me hard. There's a lot of learning that increases your abilities, and more than most careers that continues after leaving university and work in your career. Especially software. So much new happening so fast there.
Artistic work also gives a strong feeling of growth. It can be slower growth depending on the type, this is why I never felt satisfied as a musician, but that growing noticeably continues for life.
Another super high growth path is Entrepreneur - So many different skills need to be learned and assembled. Makes sense why I'm so taken by Artist Entrepreneur now ��

Contribution

Schindler's List - Oskar Schindler

Now time for the opposite of the ‘me’ focused Growth is Contribution.

Schindler's list is a dour movie and Mr. Schindler wasn't laughing and smiling much in it. Contribution is often pretty hard. It’s usually a life of sacrifice. So not surprisingly people with the need to contribute are pretty rare.

But it’s a very clear and easy to understand value. Oskar Schindler is clearly a hero, who risked and sacrificed much of himself, and greatly helped others. If he is the hero you most resonate with, you’ll both benefit from work and hobbies that contribute to others, and excel highly at them.

Career

For careers that satisfy the need to contribute, these are the hardest ones to find. And they’re the ones that usually require a lot of sacrifice.

As I explained in another article, changing to a different career that suits your values better usually will increase your income because you’ll be such a superior performer. But switching to a contribution career is usually a sacrifice. This effect when changing to a contribution based career is so famous it actually what gives all types of ‘meaningful work’ that reputation.

Some options that you will excel at and feel happy doing:

Teacher, legal Public defender, and working in charity. Non profits.
A different route that doesn’t require sacrificing money or status is being a doctor. But no mistake this is a hard job that requires sacrifices in many other ways in your life. It truly is hard to contribute without sacrificing in some way.

Thank you to all who do so.

Don’t waste your strengths doing things anyone else could do.

There's so few like you.

Certainty

Billy Beane - Moneyball

Starting the last pair we have Certainty.

Certainty is hardest value to explain, and even harder to find examples of in movies. Brad Pitts character in Moneyball is about building guaranteed success. Wealth, peace & comfort he can count on. He has some risky moves, because on its a movie, but his motivations drive him to use probability to pick the players most likely to score runs for his team. Not look exciting, not make his peers or fans love or admire him. Only what works and what will work most often.

The need for Certainty is a drive to have dependable guaranteed good results. No chance of losing your home. Dependable relationships. Knowing the good things will always be there gives it a special quality all its own.

It's hard to make this need sound glamorous but I relate to this value a lot too. If you’re a certainty type person, first of all Id love to hear what your favorite movies are. This was hard to find a single example!

Also you probably get a more joy out of things like TV, hiking, and concerts than average. And peace of insurance might actually be worth it for you, when others say its a bad money move.

Career

Now for certainty career options, it’s pretty much everything we were told to do growing up. There's almost too many to name, and are the jobs our education system naturally shuttles you into.

Go to college
Get 9-5
Funny how that’s so rare in movies but so common in work. What were pushed to is opposite what most people yearn for
Some examples of jobs with extra high certainty are:
Government Job
Tenured professor
Medical - infinite demand
Military

Variety

Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Last Ark

Now our final value, the opposite of the need for Certainty is Variety

What is Indiana doing in an booby trapped temple? Fighting a nazi on a biplane? Indiana has a tenured job as a professor. He doesn’t have to do any of these crazy things. He WANTS to.

If you identify with Indiana Jones, you likely have a high craving for Variety. This doesn’t have to be dangerous thrill seeking, but you have a strong need for new & different, experiences, ideas and adventures.

Career

Careers that a Variety type person will be a natural at succeeding at include:

Marketing
Journalism
Art
Entrepreneurship

Now many of these careers are pretty risky, and some people cant take such risks.

Maybe have a family.

One option that works great to safely get a career that satisfies your need for variety is to switch to working as a contractor in your current field.

Being a contractor, routinely switching from project to project and company to company gives you a lot more variety in what you're working on, who you're working with and what new skills you need polished sharp to get the job done.

Now you should have a real good idea which of the fundamental 6 needs drive you.

If that’s not getting satisfied by what you’re working on now, you will be happier, work harder and be way more successful on work that does. We’re a mix of all 6 so there’s a good chance you connected strongly with a 2nd or 3rd as well. If you apply yourself to things that meet 2 or 3 of your top motivators, you’ll be formidable and significantly out compete other people.

You can do a lot with this rough overview. The more clarity you have the more they help you. Some of these movies were simply made better than others, so not a perfectly fair comparison. In the next articles I go into detail on each value one at a time, so you can get really clear on how much you connect with them. Even pursuing the same ones, having more clarity gives you more intensity, making them even more powerful.

Let me know if I missed your favorite example, or if you have any question about which might be your top value. I personally want to get better at helping people find theirs, so I’d love to answer any questions you have.

Thanks!

The Myth of Sacrifice

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:41:06 GMT

You’re working on the wrong things.

If you’re watching this you probably have achieved a decent amount of success. Which means you must have some amount of meaning in your work. The amount of meaning you feel in the things you work on is the biggest factor in how much success you have. This applies to your personal life too.

So you’re doing well, but you also probably know, that you could perform way better.

You know other people who are top achievers at what you’re doing.

Why not you?

Your values motivate you. They determine how hard you work, and what things you’re willing to do to succeed that others wont. It’s a massive competitive advantage. The amount meaning you have in anything you work on, determines the ceiling for your performance.

But we picked our careers when we were teenagers. Probably from a 1 hr. career quiz from the high school counselor. Personally I barely understood my values back then. But you know a lot better now. You don’t have to let that wisdom go to waste, you can and should take advantage of that.

Naturally, it sounds risky to change. You actually do have a lot of good reasons for sticking with that path that was decided for you by a 17 yr old kid. We expect any changes for more meaning requires major sacrifices. But shifting to more and more meaningful work, improves your performance so wildly. That more times than you currently realize, it will actually increase your status & income. And comes with powerful side benefits.

Changing isn’t a sacrifice, it would be a bigger risk not to pursue it.

Alright, lets get into why the more meaning you have in your work, the more likely you are to be a top performer. A Michael Jordan of your field. Then how that solves the problems that hold most people back from pursuing that work.

More Meaning = More Ability

Now we all know people will put in more hours on work that matters to them.

But on top of that you get more work done every hour you put in. Studies show on average over 60% of time you spend working is wasted doing things like looking at your phone, and talking to people. Things that become invisible even to yourself. The more you care about your work, the more this wasted time gets replaced by actual work. So you don’t just get more hours in, you get more out of each hour.

Next, you have the Rocky Effect: Endurance.

This is what builds Olympians.

Do you know that Rocky 1 wasn’t even about winning? It was about not quitting.

“It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.”

In all competitions in life, and especially businesses, the one who wins is the one that stays in the game the longest. Everything worth doing has hard periods, down markets, boring days. And if you’re suffering for no reason, that pain is intolerable. But when it’s for a purpose that means something to you, all that pain feels like pride.

The more closely your work matches you values, the more it actually raises the bar of what things consume any of your willpower at all. So when the rough times come, your competitors are already at the end of their rope and get pushed over the edge. But you’re arriving fresh and rested with a full tank of willpower to get through it.

Even more powerful, meaning in your work raises your tolerance for getting outside of your comfort zone. And the Comfort zone is where mediocrity lives.

You will be willing to do the powerful but hard things others wont. This doesn’t just add to your performance like more hard work, it multiplies it.

Now there’s some uncomfortable things that are just simply required to even be a low performer at some jobs. Like a surgeon that cant handle blood wouldn’t make it a day.

But far worse are the uncomfortable things that you can skate by without doing. The ultra high ROI things that you don’t have to do, but separate the average performers from the elite.

A Business owner getting just enough customers through word of mouth, but avoiding cold calling to get more
Presenting at events in your field, one of the most uncomfortable things in the world, to get reputation as an expert
Interviewing strangers for market research, refining your product-market fit

I bet your thinking of one right now in your work. One you know would raise your performance, but it’s not worth it to you to do it even once, much less do it day in and day out. The more meaning you have in your work, the more these won’t bother you, and you’ll find yourself doing these high ROI tasks that your competitors don’t.

Finally, the subtle but most powerful of all: working on what you value increases your personal skills. Your social magnetism.

Most high level success comes down to people. And people connect over values. When you are taking action on things that are meaningful to you, both professional and personal, it makes you magnetic. People are drawn to you, and interested in what you have to say.

When I’m at a coffee shop or bar and someone politely asks me “What do you do?”, if I tell them about my safe day job, I get a polite response and we go back to what we were doing. But if I tell them about working on this channel their expression perks up, they lean in asking more questions. People around us turn in their seats listening in.

Most people don’t understand their values much, but everyone has experienced that thrilling, alive feeling they got when it happened. And everyone wants to feel it more. When you are acting on your values, the people around you feel a taste of that feeling again and want to be around it.

This natural magnetism is a massive boost to all your people skills, immediately, and without any training. It makes you a better salesmen, closing more deals. It makes you better at attracting partners, cofounders and mentors. And it makes you a better leader.

Because of all of this, having the most alignment you can between your values and what you choose to work on, significantly makes you a higher performer than others.

So why aren’t you already working on the most meaningful thing possible? Well It’s not so simple right?

Back when we were picking careers with the high school counselor we didn’t have a really clear idea of what our values were. So we wisely leaned on the guaranteed things: status and money. Your job choice can guarantee those two things, and you could be certain those would do a lot of good for you. No lie, that was a pretty good call at the time.

But now you understand the world and yourself a lot better and can see much better what would really be meaningful to work on. But naturally, you don’t want to have to give up the guarantees status and money when switching to something else.

Fair enough. But it turns out that because of your increase in performance, way more often than you think, switching to more meaningful work will actually lead you to more status and income. So it’s really worth investigating to be sure.

As for status, flat out, people always respect winners. You could be the world hotdog eating champion and at a party more people would respect you than an average lawyer. And most of our time is spent working, where as a high performer, you’re surrounded by people who look up to you and respect you. Best of all, you have the respect of the people who understand the topics that matter most to you.

Their respect hits harder.

Now for income, it’s really simple. Being great pays way better than being good. Abnormally better. In many fields the top performers earn 10 or 100 times more than the average worker.

The common trivia fact is that people like to throw around, is that plastic surgeons make 100 to 200 thousand dollars, while the top ones make tens of millions. This same effect applies to a lot of other careers, that just aren’t famous enough for us to hear about them. Some that might be the meaningful career, that would turn you into an achievement beast.

Remember, when looking at options, you’re not comparing your salary to the average salary of a meaningful profession, you’re comparing to the top end.

Also consider that usually feeling rich is more important than being rich. Studies show over and over how wealthy a person feels is almost entire based on how much more they make than the people around them, than how much they earn in total.

So again the Michael Jordan of baking is going to feel more rich than a mediocre investment banker.

Now just in case you want to go hardcore and lean really heavy into the most meaningful work possible for you, and that would require some sacrifice of money and status, there’s some pretty big side benefits to fill that gap.

Status and money were great choices when you didn't know your values well, because those are guaranteed to benefit anyone, no matter who you are. But the fact that they are so generic that they work for everyone, are the very reason they also are kinda meh.

The bonuses you get from working on things that match your values are things specific just to you. Which is why they feel really great to you.

If you could have all the status and money in the world possible, what would you want to do with it? The status and money are pretty boring themselves, you really only want them because you can use them to get something you do want. The time and resources to start a band? Write a novel? Travel the world and get really deep into 16th century samurai history? This could be what you get out of working on the things that matter to you. And Now. Now is better. Waiting 20 years doesn’t pay interest on this stuff.

Also remember how this increases your social magnetism? That doesn’t stop at work. It has a big effect on your personal relationships, which is a great perk. It naturally draws people into your life that are excited about the things you are excited about. You’ll make better friends, and with your existing friends you may end up doing and talking more about the things you love. Every time I lean more into working on what matters to me, I find more casual acquaintances popping their head up saying that's their jam too, and we should have been hanging out doing that stuff sooner!

Its also very attractive in dating. I've seen it make existing relationships stronger too.

And flat out, it just feels good to be good at things. Ever watch a dog running just to run and feel jealous of how happy it looks to be so good at running? Well that's how this feels.

So taking the leap to working on something that matches your values better has a lot of upsides. And you probably have a pretty good sense of what your values are now. Certainly better than when you were in high school.

If you already know exactly where you should be spending your energy, what the most meaningful things for you to work on are, great. I’d love to hear what that is and your experience with it.

For most people though they know more than before, but it’s still just a rough guess. And there’s so much reward for every extra inch of alignment you get.

So if want to to figure out crystal clear what your unique personal values are find the work that would satisfy those values the most, in the next article I use movies to teach you about the 6 fundamental human needs that drive us, which ones drive you, and what kind of work satisfies them

Shadow Learning

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:39:49 GMT

There’s an entire world of secret knowledge that others are using, but you’re missing out on

If you’ve working in a logic based career, you’ve worked hard and became a master at learning things where the end benefit is clear. No matter how hard or complex, for you it’s just a matter of time. But you’re missing out on an entire other half of the world, with skills and knowledge. The dark side of knowledge. The mystery box.

There are powerful things out there that you simply can’t see the end benefit before starting down the road to learn. You have to follow your emotions, trust your gut, and persist a long time in the dark before you see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m going to tell you what this dark knowledge can do for you, and how to learn it.

(THE LIGHT PATH) You’re probably already very familiar with how to learn things through logic. This is how we’re taught from elementary school to university, and we keep learning this way our whole lives. Very likely your career has you learning this way right now. It’s the way that can be taught from one person to another, even in big groups, so this makes sense.

This logical learning is great for building banks and bridges. And it’s really good at making you money to pay rent, and have a comfortable life. Physically.

It doesn’t do too much for your relationships, finding meaning in life, and simply enjoying being you.

The Dark Path

The dark knowledge that only you can teach to yourself, is the expert at giving you those types of comfort.

For most of my life I’ve worked in science and technology. After decades of logic work ranging from nuclear engineering to artificial intelligence, once I finally took the leap on a feeling I’ve always had but never could explain why I should act on it.

I’d been feeling I should do something with my voice. What an odd feeling to have right? I teamed up with a friend and started a podcast. From there I rapidly started encountering new things I was drawn to stronger and stronger. Things I never expected I’d be interested in. I got into videography, and then writing. It felt strange not being able to explain why I was doing this, what I was going to get out of it, but I kept going anyway, just trusting it would make sense someday.

Eventually I started noticing the listening skills I was building were making my relationships with other people better. Hanging out with the same friends was even more fun and meaningful than before. Studying camera angles for videography transferred over into being able to notice more beauty in the world and made every second of my life more enjoyable and happy. And it all got me started on a new path I’d never imagined: making videos like this for people, which fills me with a lot of meaning.

I stumbled on this by accident, and to a certain extend you will have to as well, but I can give you some tips to get you through this faster, and most importantly, get you started today, instead of decades later in life.

1 - Listen To Yourself

The first step that will start everything in motion is listen to your emotions. Really hear them. This itself is a huge lesson, with calming your mind and developing your connection to your body and emotions. We’ll get into that another day, but for now just take some quiet time, un-rushed, and try to listen.

The word emotion comes from the word motion. Motion takes time. Give yourself 2-3 minutes just sitting comfortably, looking out a window and think about what you care about. You’ll start noticing a lot more thoughts and feelings than when rushing constantly from one things to the next. Whenever you think of something new that feels curious, exciting or you’re just drawn to it, write it down. Some of these things you’ll see their end benefit, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Those are your familiar logic skills. You’re already a natural at learning those.

But some things, you won’t be able to see an end benefit to pursuing. You won’t be able to explain why you’re drawn to it. Congrats, you’ve found it, that’s your entrance to the mysterious path of dark knowledge.

2 - Brave First Step Into The Dark

The next step is the most important, because it’s the step most people never do: be brave, take a leap of faith and start taking action on that feeling. This could be starting art lessons, like I studied videography. Or it could be visiting a place you want to go, but can’t say what you’d do once you got there. Or reconnecting with an old friend. This will be very different and unique to you. It’s getting obvious why this can’t be taught in an classroom isn’t it?

At first this will feel very uncomfortable. For me it felt foolish and embarrassing. It could even feel scary. That feeling is the wall that the people who enjoy all the benefits of dark knowledge have learned to overcome. Don’t worry if you can’t explain it to others, or make it sound good. The path to dark knowledge has to be walked alone for a while, so it’s hard to share this part with others, and that’s fine. This is actually a sign you’re doing the right thing. Keep going.

3 - Follow The Trail

As you keep going, keep checking in with your emotions from time to time. As you get closer to your destination you’ll feel a stronger pull to the exact direction you need to go. This means your direction will change. These changes will also look embarrassing to your logic only friends. To them it will look like you’re aimless, starting and giving up on things, making mistakes. Don’t worry about that, it’s another sign you’re on the right track. Keep it up.

4 - Notice When You Arrive

The destination in your search for dark knowledge will be fuzzier than logic knowledge. It won’t smack you in the face, but you’ll start noticing you’ve started gaining benefits. You might find more joy in your life, or be meeting people you connect with better, or simply be more effective at your day job. You have to stop and pay attention to see that it’s happened. For example, if you developed your speaking skills, you will have a lot of improvement in your career and your personal life, but it’d be easy to miss what caused those improvements unless you’re paying attention. For me it was noticing that my friends started telling me deeper more meaningful things about themselves, and our conversations had become massively more interesting.

5 - Repeat For Life

From this new place you’re at, you’ll be able to feel a more precise pull to where you want to be, and pulled towards some new things as well. Just like in University, the things you just learned have unlocked your ability to learn some new things. You’ve successfully stepped foot into the shadowy 2nd world of knowledge. Repeat the process and keep learning more things that you could have easily gone through life missing.

Together, combining all the knowledge you can now learn from both the logic path and the dark path, you’ll become a formidable person. You’ll outcompete your peers, and most importantly, live a happier and more complete life.

This is a little abstract. The purpose of this blog & newsletter is to break down the specific examples of lessons, making them actionable in your life.

Ethan Smith | Competitive Edge

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