Existentially Speaking: A Comedian's Take on Engagement

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host, Elise Cortes. In our

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program, we provide guidance and inspiration
from those people who have found deeper meaning

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and personal connection to their work life. It's beyond nine to five. It's

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working on Purpose. Now Here is
your host, Elise Cortes. Welcome back

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to the Working in a Purpose Show. Thanks for tuning in again this week.

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I'm your host, Alise Cortes,
joining it from Dallas, Texas,

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which is home base for me.
This program is all about helping people more

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meaningfully and productively connect with their work
and equipping organizations to do the same for

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their employees. So I bring a
guests to a particular perspective or experience that

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I think expands the conversation, and
I often draw on the meeting and work

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research I've been doing over the last
fifteen years, as well as my own

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experience can including the work that I
do today at a Sydnium, which is

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a global management consulting firm. I'll
get to the program and my guest in

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just a second. But first a
thank you to my media partner and sponsor,

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jobbing dot com. They are the
leading locally focused job board in the

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nation and they are dedicated to helping
employers find quality talent in their own backyard

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while geting job seekers control over their
search they can find work close to home.

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Great partnership. Thank you jobbing dot
Com. If you missed the show

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live last week, you can always
catch the podcast. We were on the

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air with doctor Owen Lynch, who
is an associate professor in the Meadows School

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of Arts at Southern Methodist University.
He also serves as a director of Get

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Healthy Dallas, which is a nonprofit
organization he helped form that is dedicated to

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addressing the lack of healthy food options, adequate education, and economic development opportunities

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in Dallas, with special focus on
the South Dallas and the Fair Park area.

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We talked about his passion to address
food deserts and urban areas and what

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he and his students and other associates
are doing to improve economic development along the

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way with us. This week we
have Greg Kite, who is a former

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eighth grade math teacher. Today Where's
the Hats? He is the co host

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of a monthly podcast that you have
never heard of. He likes to say.

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He is a regular blogger for the
Thrive All CPA network and creates a

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bi weekly cartoon for Going Concern,
and over the last twelve years, he

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has established himself as a unique voice
in the world of stand up comedy.

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We'll be talking about the ideas he's
come to develop about the importance of play

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at work and how that translates to
engagement, among other things. Greg Joys

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today from Provo, Utah. Greg, Welcome to Working on Purpose. Thanks

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Alisa. I'm totally excited to be
here and to talk about everything. You

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and I met in a very serendipitous
way, what like almost exactly a month

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ago out yeah, or was it
too much? Maybe it was October?

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I think it was October. Already
was October, that's right, Yeah,

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And so you just kind of crashed
the party of another Voice America show.

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I did write about the time when
I was given my presentation on playing at

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work and we found out that what
you do and what I I'm developing line

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up pretty tightly exactly, and let
me present that for our listeners. And

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by the way, Greg, I'm
happy to share that I do get to

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enjoy listenership all over the globe.
We have a lot of listeners in China,

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Thank you China. We have a
lot of listeners in Japan, Thank

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you Japan, and of course the
United States and all over the rest of

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the world as well, And so
I wanted to be sure that they knew

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how it was I found you,
so listeners, this was really fun.

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I did crash this party. I
was invited by my producer here at Voice

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America to join this Verisage symposium.
And not very long after I arrived,

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who shows up on stage but Greg
and he's talking about this thing that I

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love, which is about you know, how to play at work and how

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to engage ourselves and about meaning and
existential meaning and all this stuff that was

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just yummy for me. And Greg, I will never forget when you said

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you open it up to the audience
and you said, what do you think

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is this just all like ridiculous?
Have you all heard this before? Or

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what is this? And I grabbed
the mic and said, I have heard

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some of this for but the way
you bring it to life is so fantastic.

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Do you remember that? I do? I do remember that, And

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that is that is one of the
things with this and I think, like

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a lot of my thoughts about about
engagement at work, I don't think it's

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like, you know, like I
broke some new code and I found something

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that's brand new, but it's it's
maybe more of a unique shift in how

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you look at work and how you
approach work. But but yeah, and

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yeah, I do remember that,
and that was incredibly uh you know that

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that gave me a lot of of
of courage, I guess, to to

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move forward and to take the take
these take these concepts forward. The other

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weird thing too about it is that
the the so it was, it was

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the what the spirit of enterprise was
the show, which is run by a

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former accountant and a guy who works
for an accounting software company, and their

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main the main goal for them and
for veris Age is to abolish the billable

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hour model in professional service firms.
Here you are coming to like arguably the

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lamest party, well at least on
the surface. They're a great group and

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I love and I get so much
out of the symposiums that they can.

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But if you're just looking at it, going wow, this is a group

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of accounts and lawyers who don't want
to build by the hour anymore. It's

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like yawn path. But that's where
you came. And then I'm I'm a

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fellow with the Verisage Institute, which
is again it's it's devoted to abolishing the

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billble hour and and we all the
fellows when we have these symposiums, we

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talk about basically our latest greatest thinking
that we've been incubating since the last symposium.

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And mine had absolutely nothing to do
with the billble hour model or any

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store accounting at all, and with
totally other things. So yeah, it

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was kind of a strange coincidence,
flash in the pan, lightning in a

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bottle kind of thing. Well,
a couple of things on that kind.

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Man. First, as you and
I have spoken before we were supposed to

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meet, there was kismet. However
you want to say this, if you

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want to say it's God's plan or
the universe coming together, whatever it is

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that you However, people tend to
believe. I am convinced that you and

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I were supposed to meet, and
I had an amazing time. In fact,

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I did also have Kirk Bowman on
the show on December sixth, talking

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about value pricing. We talked about
that very thing. The whole show is

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dedicated to that. So I learned
a ton about that because I missed some

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of that presentation. So that was
fantastic. So I do want to I

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want to hear about this, I
mean, and I also want to talk

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about the fact that, you know, among other things, you're a funny

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man, and I want to hear
about how that, how that experience has

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informed your perspective. But you're writing
a book called Playing at Work, and

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I want to understand where some of
your ideas have come from and what are

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they? What are you? What
are you? What are you conjuring about

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playing at work as it relates to
engagement and meaning? Gotcha? The well,

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the the ideas came from a kind
of a weird place, like the

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inspiration too, for like my muse
for these ideas came from a book that

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I was reading called play Anything.
And uh and it's a book I should

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I should look it up real quick
on the computer. Here it was.

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It was a book that I read
about in a magazine that I was reading,

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and it had a really great write
up. Uh and uh. Yeah,

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the author's Ian Bogost, who's a
computer pro like a video game developer,

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and the idea was that you could
no matter where you're at, no

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matter what you're doing, is that
it's something that you can play. And

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so I read this book, which
is super high hopes that it would be

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this, you know, this great
thing about how how you can take work

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or anything in life and you can
you can change, you know, by

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changing your viewpoint on anything, you
can transform whatever that task is that you're

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working on into play of some kind. And I read through the book and

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honestly, I was super disappointed in
the book because it was not what I

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wanted to read, like I had
this and I realized I was reading through

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this book, I realized that I
had all these expectations for what I wanted

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him to say, which was the
weirdest like realization in the world that It's

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like, I wasn't reading this book
to like, not so much to get

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ideas, but to almost like to
have someone put into words like thoughts and

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feelings that I already had like brewing
up inside of me. So I get

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done reading this book, and funny
thing I was part of why I was

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reading the book is for my podcast
It's called the Thrive Cast, which is

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also part of the thrivle CPA Network. Once a year for our podcast,

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we do what we call Jason and
Gregg's Book Club. Jason Blummer as the

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co host on that podcast, and
so where we just review two of the

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two books that we've read that year. And this was one of the books

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that I had chosen to read and
to to basically give my my review and

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my summary of during that podcast.
And so I was just going, this

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isn't saying what I wanted it to
say. And I have this right when

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I was finished reading it and getting
ready for this podcast, I was like

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going, you know what, I
know what I wanted this book to say.

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Maybe I just need to write a
book that says what I wanted,

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what I need to write the book
that I wish that I had just read.

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Does that make sense? It makes
perfect sense? And how brilliant is

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that? Well, if that doesn't
give the listener some some something to think

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about for themselves, who they might
be considering writing a book. I think

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that's a great idea. You actually
expected to get something from this book,

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did not get it, and so
figured hey, I'll write it myself.

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I think it's brilliant, right,
And that's exactly and So then the funny

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thing is in the podcast what I
did what I did, because, like

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I said, we each have two
books that we review during this podcast,

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we kind of alternated back and forth. So when it came back to me

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to review Play Anything by Ian Bogos, I did not review his book,

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but instead I gave a thorough explanation
of the book that I wish it was

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the book that I'm in the process
of writing. And so the whole time

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my co host is thinking, I'm
telling him about this book Play Anything,

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and at the end I tell him
and actually maybe ten percent of what I

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just said actually came from that book, and the rest of it is actually

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what I wish that the book had
said. And that was sort of the

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launch of these ideas. So that's
not really an explanation of what I'm thinking.

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That's more like the origin story of
these ideas. But to get into

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I guess basically what I mean.
There's a couple of things, and I'll

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get to the existential stuff later,
but really the beginning part of this whole

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idea of playing at work is that
I love to be engaged in what I'm

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doing. You've you've heard of it, and I'm not gonna I have no

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idea how to pronounce the guy's name, but there's the option. Yeah,

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you've got to be talking about Mahaley, right, the flow guy. Yeah,

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the flow guy. I knew it. Sorry, can have you?

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Have you gone into his stuff before? On your on your show, not

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on my show, but I have
read his works over and over again.

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The flow concept. Yes, I'm
completely with you, Greg, see you

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and I can finish each other's sentences. That's a scary thing, totally.

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Well, so with Flow and and
Flow is an interesting book because it's it's

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one of those books that it's like
the the the concepts pretty straightforward, and

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in you know, maybe a brief
conversation, people get that. And that's

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that there's these flow states that we
get into where we kind of lose track

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of time. We're completely engrossed in
whatever the task is that we're working on,

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and we're it's almost like this,
it's almost it's almost I don't know,

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it's not spiritual, it's not mystical, but it's just this complete engagement

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with whatever is happening. You're not
necessarily like feeling euphoric, but you kind

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but but then at the same time, you're working to your strengths, you're

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trying, you're challenged to just the
right amount in this in with whatever task

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you're achieving, flow in And that's
that's like the level of engagement that that

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that we that we want, that
we that we aspire to, that we

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that we want to get to.
And that's why I think flow by the

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imperfe the guy with the imprint name
is so compelling because everybody goes, I've

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tasted that before. Everybody in their
life has been there before, right you,

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Yes, yes, I'm sure every
listener has has been in a place

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where they just go, yeah,
I was working on my strengths and I

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was, and I was, you
know, clim in New Hills and it

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was the best and and I would
have done it forever if I could have,

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I could have, I would have
stayed in that place. And and

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that's where want to be. That's
the level of engagement that we want to

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get to. And so with playing
at work, I specifically look at three

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different types of play that will achieve
that that kind of engrossing engagement that'll that

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will help you get more engaged with
what you're doing at work. So there's

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three types of play that I've identified. One is competitive play, one isn't

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is artistic play, and then the
third is what I call pure play.

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And those are the three types.
So competitive play that's basically like sports,

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and whether it's an individual sport or
a team sport, it's all competitive play

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and and and that, and really
there's not a whole lot I can add

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on to that to increase people's understanding, but I'll explain how we can start

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building competitive play into our workplace.
The second type of play is artistic play,

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which is more like you're playing you're
playing the violin, or you're playing

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the guitar, or you're or even
any kind of fine arts that you're involved

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in. If you're a painter or
a sculptor, that's artistic play that you're

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working with there. And then the
third type of play is what I call

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pure play, and that's just where
you're screwing around and I and with that,

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and that's probably the three types.
That's the most controversial aspect of play

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because I think a lot of people, especially a lot of managers, might

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look at that and go, no, I'm trying to cut down on people

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screwing around at work. But what
they don't understand is with mature people,

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if you have if you hire the
right people and you allow them to the

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freedom to pursue pure play within the
context of getting their work done, that

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that can be an incredibly engaging form
of play for anybody who's at work.

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I like it. I like it. Okay. So those are three types

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of play and then and we can
and the strange thing is is that they're

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all very different. I think if
people think if they if they hear the

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idea of playing at work, they'll
probably gravitate that their mind will just go

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to the pure play to messing around
kind of playing at work. But we

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find that each of these three different
things is very very different. When you're

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in competitive play, you're trying,
you're trying to achieve a very specific goal.

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It's a gloriented thing oftentimes, and
actually, if you're really going to

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leverage this to the best of your
ability, you're going to have someone that

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you're competing against in that often that
whoever you're competing get could against could be

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yourself. But even if we get
back to like some of the basic business

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strategies you know that we learn about
in in you know, in our mba

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school kind of education. One of
the ways to build a strategy is to

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identify a competitor, to basically identify
an enemy that you'd like to beat.

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So competitive play leans into that.
Artistic play is more like you want to

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be a world You want to be
world class at what you do. You

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want to be the best, you
know, just like a violinist wants to

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be the best violinist on the planet. You want to be the best at

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whatever you do. And then and
then pure play, that's where you're just

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trying to find the fun in whatever
task is at hand, whatever's before you,

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You're going to find a way to
and not just to make it fun.

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Because I'm not talking about like Hawaiian
Shirt Day, you know, on

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the on the last Friday of the
month, because that I mean, that

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can be something that does engage people, but typically that's more of a forced

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I mean, I would look at
if if we had Hawaiian Shirt Day at

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my work, I would look at
that as like obligatory fund where I had

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to like fake it to make to
make whoever to make. You know,

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Kevin who thought up Hawaiian Shirt Day
to make him not feel bad about his

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idea that I'm really not into.
But with pure play, the trick there

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is to make it something that you
really are interested in, and that is

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really going to you know, to
to blow your skirt up and make it,

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you know, make work, just
it and it's almost like you're being

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subversive, but not in a way
that's going to blow your company up.

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Mm hmmm. I want to comment
in a couple of things real quick,

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and then we'll have to go on
break here shortly. But Greg, one

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of the things that you said about
the whole uh, I think you said

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artistic was the second kind of play. Is that right? Yep? Artistic?

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Okay, So when you talk about
it, you know, being the

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best at something, right, that's
that's it. What I know from my

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meeting and work research is that people
have there's a way for people to experience

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meaning in their work around competence.
It's this feeling of being competent something I'm

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good at this, And there's something
about that feeling that when we feel that

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it's very it's meaningful to us and
therefore it's engaging. So I wanted to

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connect which the research that I've been
doing. I just wanted to catch that

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real quick. The others didn't stand
as much to me as the research that

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I've done, but that one was
like, Ah, I got that one

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00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:11.960
totally crisply, and here we are
already you ready to go for a quick

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break? Yeah, I think I
think we're kind of where we need to.

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Okay, good they shut you down. If we didn't, right,

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well, that's pretty much a Cortes
stop talking. I'm your host, Alis

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Cortes. We've been on the air
with Greg Kite. He is the co

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host of a monthly podcast and he's
a regular blogger for the thrive Ball thrive

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Ball how do you say that?
But instill Okay, tribal regular blogger for

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the Thrible CPA network and it creates
a bi weekly cartoon for a going concern

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Interested today from pro Vote Utah.
We've been talking a bit about his interest

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in playing at work and how that
translates to engagement. After the break,

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I want to hear more about risk
taking as well as his thoughts about the

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existential piece of it. Stay with
us, We'll be right back. Freend

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00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:11.720
us on Facebook to keep up with
what's empowering the world. Voice America Empowerment

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00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:18.400
certain Alice Cortes is a speaker and
engagement and development catalyst. She designs and

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00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:23.960
delivers professional development, leadership and engagement
workshops and can bring her expertise to your

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00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:30.440
organization. She will help ignite meaningful
development within your workforce that will increase employee

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00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:33.920
engagement, performance and retention. To
learn more or to invite Elise to speak

273
00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:40.480
to your organization, please visit her
at www dot Elisecortes dot com. She

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00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:45.920
would welcome the opportunity to help get
your employees working on purpose. Have you

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It's your world. Motivate, change, succeed. Voice America Empowerment dot

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00:20:51.920 --> 00:21:06.799
com. This is Working on Purpose
with Elise Cortes. To reach our program

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today, please call in to one
triple eight three four six nine one four

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one. Again, that's one triple
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You may also send an email to
Elise A. L Se at Elisecortes

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00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:30.720
dot com. Now back to Working
on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us,

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00:21:30.759 --> 00:21:33.599
and welcome back to Working on Purpose
if you're just joining us. My

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00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:37.680
guest is Greg Kite. He is
the co host of a monthly podcast and

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00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:41.880
he's a regular blogger for the Thrible
CPA network and creates a biweekly cartoon for

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00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:45.559
Going Concern. Over the past twelve
years, Greg has estabbed himself as a

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00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:48.960
unique voice in the world of stand
up comedy as well. I'm your host,

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00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:52.200
Alise Cortes. So, Greg,
before the break, we were talking

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00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:56.599
about your three kinds of play that
you've discovered, and you gave some examples

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00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:59.880
of those. For this next segment, can we start by talking a bit

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00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:03.400
of out the existential piece. I
couldn't resist bringing that in there. That's

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00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:07.400
the meaning piece of what we've been
talking about here. So let's get your

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00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:11.119
perspective on the existential piece of things, and then I've got a couple questions

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00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:15.000
to follow on. Okay, fantastic. Well, the way the existential piece

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00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:22.480
comes into play as this is that
you can look at employee engagement or just

307
00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:26.680
your own engagement at work. I
guess I was starting to look at this

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00:22:26.839 --> 00:22:32.279
from a like, from a managerial
perspective within any organization, and it's like,

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00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:36.920
why would we want to encourage play? What's the purpose of playing at

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00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:41.640
work? Why would anyone want to, you know, have implement these different

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00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:45.599
ways of playing within their job.
What's that going to do? And some

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00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:48.559
of it's pretty obviously, I mean, it's it's going to increase your bottom

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00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:53.279
line if you if you you know, part of competitive play is having very

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00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:59.559
clear goals showing people this is exactly
what you need to do in your position

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00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:06.079
to win. And then actually even
having making whatever you can of the competitive

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00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:07.920
side of your work, make that
public. If you're doing that, if

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you're having public competition and clear goals, you're going to end up reaching your

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company's goals, and then that's going
to make you more profitable, which is

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00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:21.799
fantastic. There's also you know,
I know, my my arena in the

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00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:27.359
world is accounting, and there is
a huge lack of of qualified staff in

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the accounting world. So some of
this you could also say if you're if

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00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:36.519
you're implementing these these different types of
play, you're going to be able to

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attract and retain the staff that you
need with artistic play. If you have

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an entire firm, that's or company
where everyone is trying to become the absolute

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best they can in their one specialty
within your firm. Because again, if

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you're a if you're a world class
violinist, you're probably not also going to

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00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:00.920
be a world class floutist at the
same time. So there's there's this real

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specialization. But if everybody knows their
specialization and is becoming the best in the

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world at that specialty, then your
firm's gonna gonna make a lot of money

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as well. There, So there's
you know, there's plenty of reasons that

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you can come up plenty of business
reasons that you can come up with for

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for implementing play at work. But
for me, that's not that's not really

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what does it for me. What
does it for me is engagement is basically

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engagement for the sake of engagement and
U and one of the things that I

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00:24:32.759 --> 00:24:36.640
do. I mean, I think
if a lot of people were gonna look

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at a kind of my my curriculum
vita and and look at the different things

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00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:44.599
that I do with my life.
I'm an accountant, I do stand up

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00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:49.640
comedy and I and I very much
enjoy reading philosophy and psychology. And uh

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00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:56.200
so, with that philosophy and psychology
side of things, it brought me to

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00:24:56.559 --> 00:25:00.240
an author and his name is Irvin
D. Yallam, and he in a

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00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:07.079
book called Existential Psychotherapy, which sounds
like the worst beat read in the history

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00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:10.799
in the history of the world.
But this book was recommended to me.

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I mean it was it's one.
Well, this is something that we that

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00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:17.480
you and I talked about in Texas
As well, when I was out,

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00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:22.799
it was I went through a divorce
earlier, earlier this year, my wife,

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my ex my now ex wife and
I we spent a couple of years

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00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:30.359
going to a marriage counselor. Obviously
it didn't it didn't salvage our marriage.

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But my marriage counselor recommended this book
to me, and this was actually one

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of the best takeaways I got out
of my two years of marriage counseling was

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this existential psychotherapy book and and what
And basically, so he's coming at it

351
00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:48.839
from a from a psych from a
practicing psychologist standpoint, and he's saying there's

352
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:56.759
these existential problems, you know,
particularly meaning meaninglessness in the world, and

353
00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:00.240
that that's a problem everybody has,
not just crazy p people who need you

354
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:06.559
know, psychiatrists, but it's it's
every single person. It has this problem

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with meaninglessness in the world and finding
meaning in the world. And it's it's

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00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:17.839
fantastic because he says in this book, he says that engagement is the antidote

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00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:22.319
to meaninglessness. He says, so
here's just some of the great quotes that

358
00:26:22.359 --> 00:26:25.000
I have from him. I mean, this it's a long book. It's

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00:26:25.079 --> 00:26:27.119
you know, five hundred and six
hundred pages long, and it's dense,

360
00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:30.720
so there's there's about a billion quotes
I could have pulled out of it,

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but some of them that are directly
tied to engagement. He says, meaningless

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is intricately interwoven with leisure and with
disengagement. And what I love about that

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quote is that if you don't want
meaninglessness, then you should avoid leisure,

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00:26:48.599 --> 00:26:52.640
which means you need to work,
and you need to avoid disengagement, which

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means you need to engage. And
playing is a way for you to engage

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00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:00.480
at your work. He was kind
of saying, just the cost verse of

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00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:06.480
what I'm saying is that through engaged, playful work, you're going to find

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meaning in what you do. And
then later in the book he says meaning

369
00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:17.480
like pleasure, must be pursued obliquely. A sense of meaningfulness is a byproduct

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of engagement. So again, if
you just if you're just going, I

371
00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:22.440
need to find meaning and things I
need to find meaning. What's the meaning?

372
00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:26.640
What's the meaning? You get and
you get locked into that of going,

373
00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:29.759
I don't feel like I have a
meaning or a purpose in what I

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00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.359
do, which is what we talked
about right before the break you're not going

375
00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:37.079
to find that meaning directly. What
you need to do is you got to

376
00:27:37.079 --> 00:27:41.079
go, Okay, how can I
get engaged with what I'm doing right now?

377
00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:48.599
And then by finding that engagement,
you're going to find meaning through engagement,

378
00:27:48.839 --> 00:27:51.720
which I think is a I mean, that was one of the biggest

379
00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:55.200
takeaways that I got from this whole
book. Does that how does that line

380
00:27:55.279 --> 00:28:00.400
up with some of the research and
studies that you've done on meaning? And

381
00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:03.200
it's wonderful and you know this just
jazz is me to no end. So

382
00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:06.000
a couple of things. Yes,
I know Yellam's work as you and I've

383
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:10.440
talked about, and I also get
that meaning as a byproduct of engagement.

384
00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:12.839
And what I want to now recognize
in the three levels of play that you

385
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:15.839
just came up with, I just
kind of put the dots together for my

386
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:22.039
own research is I looked at I
can't remember now how many buckets of meaning

387
00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:26.920
I coded for, but I did
actually look at them along Maslow's hierarchy of

388
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:30.160
meaning. And so you know,
if you look at there's the safety piece

389
00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:33.039
of things of having a stable job
and money, and then there's the emotional

390
00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:37.720
stuff, and then there's you know, esteem stuff how you feel about things,

391
00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:41.480
and then there's you can look at
the value and the purpose set ceter

392
00:28:41.519 --> 00:28:45.839
above that. What I think is
what I see and what you've identified,

393
00:28:45.880 --> 00:28:52.319
Greg, is that you've identified a
set along the feeling spectrum, the emotive

394
00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:57.279
spectrum, So you're competitive alignes of
what I found for my research around winning

395
00:28:57.319 --> 00:29:03.359
and success. I feel success,
and that feeling then is the cascade of

396
00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:07.599
being engaged. Right, that's the
byproduct you were talking about. And the

397
00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:11.119
artistic as who already said, is
the notion of feeling competent. Also,

398
00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:15.480
I feel, so it's still emotion. And then the fun piece is still

399
00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:19.920
the feeling of fun. So you
what I see that you've done there beautifully

400
00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:26.160
is you have you have found a
compliment along what I call again this is

401
00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:30.480
my research. You ask about research
is along the emotive scale. What I

402
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:33.839
also know now when you think about
this, you know, existential stuff and

403
00:29:33.880 --> 00:29:38.559
even all other stuff is that above
that maybe even in a in a in

404
00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:41.799
a deeper vein, you get into
value since people say things like, well,

405
00:29:41.799 --> 00:29:45.599
I joined this organization because it aligns
with my values, and that can

406
00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:52.920
actually be a really really strong,
compelling source of engagement, which then you

407
00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:56.720
know, cascades to meeting and then
above that, of course, it is

408
00:29:56.759 --> 00:29:59.839
purpose. And I know we're going
to talk about purpose a little bit further

409
00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:02.559
here, we'll get into the risk
piece of things. But when you ask

410
00:30:02.599 --> 00:30:06.319
about how does that align, I
think the way that you describe that is

411
00:30:06.519 --> 00:30:10.720
just such a yummy way to situate
it and to be able to bring it

412
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:14.119
to a life in a way that
almost anybody can understand. It was gorgeous.

413
00:30:14.119 --> 00:30:17.559
Greg. Well, thanks, and
I think that's it too, because

414
00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:21.720
like what you were saying is someone's
trying to find a company that the purpose

415
00:30:21.720 --> 00:30:25.640
of the company aligns with their purpose. I mean that really does tie in

416
00:30:25.720 --> 00:30:30.680
both. I mean it can tie
in with competitive play with like like I

417
00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:33.160
think of the Gates Foundation and them
wanting to rid the world of malaria.

418
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:37.319
Well, there you go, that's
an incredibly clear focus. It's gotten incredibly

419
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:42.480
clear who your enemy is. It's
malaria. And you know when you win,

420
00:30:42.559 --> 00:30:48.079
and that's when malaria isn't the thing
anymore. And that's incredibly competitive play.

421
00:30:48.079 --> 00:30:49.240
And so your purpose lining up with
that purpose, you go, heck,

422
00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:52.680
yeah, that's what I want to
play. It's kind of like me,

423
00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:56.839
I really enjoy playing foosball and volleyball, but basketball, forget it.

424
00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:02.720
That's the I'm not I don't enjoy
basketball at all. So you've got to

425
00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:06.680
find the right thing for you to
play at work. And if and if

426
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:11.680
what you're doing right now isn't something
that you can translate into competitive player,

427
00:31:11.799 --> 00:31:15.680
artistic play, everything can be translated
into pure play, I believe. But

428
00:31:17.480 --> 00:31:21.440
maybe it's time to look for a
different position or just to do some soul

429
00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:26.079
searching and figure out a way to
change your your own attitude towards your position

430
00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:30.599
that you're in. One of the
things though, too. You mentioned feeling

431
00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:33.799
successful, and I want to I
want to put a little bit of nuance

432
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:38.599
on that, because everything that we
do, all three types of play,

433
00:31:40.119 --> 00:31:44.759
there is success that's involved in that. But there's also risk that's involved in

434
00:31:44.759 --> 00:31:47.160
that. I know we're going to
talk about risk in the third break that

435
00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:52.240
this is actually a good intersection of
all those things, because when you're when

436
00:31:52.279 --> 00:31:57.440
you play something competitively, there's times
where you are going to lose, and

437
00:31:57.480 --> 00:32:02.359
if you never lose, you're probably
not really playing the game a great If

438
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:07.279
you are an artist and you don't, you have the only way you're going

439
00:32:07.319 --> 00:32:13.160
to become world class at being an
artist is to take risks with your art.

440
00:32:13.240 --> 00:32:16.680
You have to find your own voice. That's incredibly true with stand up

441
00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:22.039
comedy, which is my artistic outlet, but that's true with whatever. You

442
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:27.480
know what, If you're the if
you're Angus Young, Angus Young plays the

443
00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:32.440
guitar in a way that Angus Young
from a CDC. It's his signature style

444
00:32:32.839 --> 00:32:37.039
of guitar playing. He's found a
way to make that his authentic voice through

445
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:42.319
that. But you're going to have
to risk by throwing your authentic voice out

446
00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:45.599
there. There's going to be people
who don't like your music, or your

447
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:49.759
sculpture or your art, and there's
ways where you're going to if you're doing

448
00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:52.200
all this stuff right, you're gonna
fail. There's gonna be ways where you're

449
00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:57.680
going to try to have some playful, subversive things that you do at work

450
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:00.880
and it's just not going to be
funny. It's not to go overwell,

451
00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:04.279
or somebody's going to be offended and
you didn't intend that. And that's where

452
00:33:04.279 --> 00:33:09.720
I live all day long, because
I accidentally pissed people off regularly and it's

453
00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:15.039
never my intent to. But that's
how that's the risk that I take from

454
00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:17.519
playing at work in a pure play
kind of way. But here's the here's

455
00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:23.200
the interesting thing is that I believe
that you can become incredibly engaged in what

456
00:33:23.240 --> 00:33:29.160
you're doing despite whether you are successful
at it or if you fail at it.

457
00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:31.640
And here's and here's the reason I
know this is this is absolutely the

458
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:37.000
case. And it comes back to
stand up comedy. Stand up comedy is

459
00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:45.599
a very very interesting, uh performance
medium to engage with. It has been

460
00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:50.039
for me, and it wouldn't not
everyone to have the same experience. But

461
00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:52.720
let me explain what I what's happened
to me through stand up comedy is that

462
00:33:53.160 --> 00:33:59.799
when I go on stage, either
I either I hit a home run and

463
00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:04.319
I feel fantastic and I go that
was a wonderful feeling. I want to

464
00:34:04.359 --> 00:34:08.400
get back up on stage as soon
as possible to do that again and to

465
00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:14.920
have that, to repeat that wonderful
experience of me expressing some things that are

466
00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:16.880
important to me, things that I
find funny, and an audience to click

467
00:34:16.920 --> 00:34:22.159
into that and to respond in the
moment in an authentic way that makes me

468
00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:27.440
understand that they really are appreciating what
I'm doing. That's a wonderful experience.

469
00:34:27.639 --> 00:34:30.760
The other thing that happens on stage
is I go up and it's and it's

470
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:35.679
horrible, Like I like, for
whatever reason, I don't connect with the

471
00:34:35.679 --> 00:34:37.719
audience. Whether that's because I have
some new jokes that I'm trying out that

472
00:34:37.800 --> 00:34:42.039
don't work, whether that's I'm on
an off night, I'm not in the

473
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:45.519
right headspace. Maybe that's the fact
that this audio. I just did a

474
00:34:45.559 --> 00:34:50.400
show last week for an accounting firm, and right before I get up,

475
00:34:50.599 --> 00:34:54.360
like one of the partners of the
firm basically is yelling at everybody at the

476
00:34:54.440 --> 00:35:00.840
Christmas party to like work harder during
this major transition they're doing house, and

477
00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:02.679
I'm going, that's a horror.
It's like, it's like, so when

478
00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:06.800
you guys are doing file transfers,
you can't just sit there and think that

479
00:35:06.840 --> 00:35:08.880
you're working. You've got to do
something else while the computer's jugging along.

480
00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:13.360
So stop screwing around and work harder. And now welcome to stage. The

481
00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:16.719
guys. Is gonna make us laugh, Greg, Greg, Yeah, exactly.

482
00:35:16.760 --> 00:35:22.239
And now, fortunately I started off
by just basically making fun of him

483
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:25.559
when I went up there, which
also was a risk because I'm going this

484
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:30.519
guy could maybe hate me. But
fortunately I knew that I personally know the

485
00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:32.480
partner who is just up there talking, so I knew he'd take it well.

486
00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:37.639
But but you know, you can
have your audience that. But here's

487
00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:40.519
the thing that happens with stand up
comedy, like if you well one of

488
00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:44.639
the one of the stories I also
have. I got to open for weird

489
00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:49.360
Al Yankovic to a sold out crowd
of thirty five hundred people. This was

490
00:35:49.360 --> 00:35:52.079
back in two thousand and four,
I believe, and I thought that was

491
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:54.840
going to be my big break with
stand up comedy, was opening for weird

492
00:35:54.880 --> 00:36:00.000
Al Yankovic. And I went up
there, and weird Al Yankovic sold out

493
00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:05.400
this thirty five hundred seat stadium to
mostly thirteen and fourteen year old boys who

494
00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:09.880
were dressed up as Jedis. And
they didn't really they're not really my target

495
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:15.199
audience for this comedy that I do. They didn't really have a concept that

496
00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:19.639
anyone was going to be at this
concert except weird House singing as song parodies.

497
00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:22.679
So when I went up there,
I was just something that was in

498
00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:25.960
the way of them and what they
were really there for. And they hated

499
00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:32.239
me at that concert and it and
it beat me up emotionally to have that

500
00:36:32.440 --> 00:36:37.119
bad of a show like it was. I felt horrible about my show.

501
00:36:37.320 --> 00:36:42.559
But here's the thing. So I
was not successful when I opened for weird

502
00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:45.559
Al Yankovic. But what happens to
me with that is I go, Okay,

503
00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:50.760
I wasn't successful. I've got to
get back up and do another show

504
00:36:51.079 --> 00:36:54.199
to be able to like to like
wash the funk off of me of this

505
00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:58.119
bad show. That is so,
whether I'm successful or whether I'm not,

506
00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:02.079
it drives me back into doing what
I'm doing to be the best in the

507
00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:06.760
world at what I'm doing, to
go I'm not going to lose the next

508
00:37:06.760 --> 00:37:08.480
time I get up on stage.
I'm not going to have a crappy show.

509
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:14.639
That sort of stuff, and that
that's where you can get incredible engagement,

510
00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:19.000
regardless of whether you're actually succeeding or
whether you're failing. I know that's

511
00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:22.880
the same case with with sports teams. They can go out there and they

512
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:25.039
can get their butts handed to them
by their opponent, but at the end

513
00:37:25.039 --> 00:37:28.800
of it, they can either go, oh, we stink or you can

514
00:37:28.840 --> 00:37:32.519
go nope. This doubles my resolve
next time to go out and be amazing

515
00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:36.920
and to not ever, let this
happen again. And when you get in

516
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:42.280
that mindset, success or failure doesn't
matter. You're engaged. Okay, I

517
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:45.519
got to say one thing to that
one. That's just gorgeous what you just

518
00:37:45.559 --> 00:37:47.840
said. I completely agree with that, because you know, we as human

519
00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:52.000
beings are meeting makers. We have
the ability to assigned meaning that happens for

520
00:37:52.079 --> 00:37:54.760
us in life. That's just how
it goes. It doesn't just float into

521
00:37:54.840 --> 00:37:59.840
us, right, We create that. So yes, there you have the

522
00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:02.480
and maybe that will change over time. It depends on the situation to be

523
00:38:02.519 --> 00:38:05.599
able to change your mindset, to
be able to say, Okay, I

524
00:38:05.679 --> 00:38:08.679
flopped. However, I'm going to
use that to steel myself and resolve myself

525
00:38:08.719 --> 00:38:13.639
and do something different in the future. For other people, some of us

526
00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:16.119
need coaches. We need help,
right, And I'm a big fan of

527
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:20.519
having coaches, not just because I
provide that service myself, but I have

528
00:38:20.719 --> 00:38:25.000
two coaches myself who work with me, and those people help me resituate sometimes

529
00:38:25.079 --> 00:38:30.119
opportunities or challenges that let me see
it as an opportunity and not as jeez,

530
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:32.880
you know, yeah, Okay,
you really messed up their quretest.

531
00:38:32.960 --> 00:38:37.480
There's no other way to frame that
you really mucked it up. However,

532
00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:43.079
do you realize that there's a whole
arena of possibility that comes with being able

533
00:38:43.119 --> 00:38:45.159
to address that if you're willing to
take quote that risk, and we're going

534
00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:49.559
to talk about that next, I
know, but being able to get to

535
00:38:49.639 --> 00:38:52.679
that place of mindset where we can
turn it on a dime like you talked

536
00:38:52.719 --> 00:38:55.039
about, it might take something.
It might take some outset help to get

537
00:38:55.039 --> 00:38:58.079
there. And I appreciate when we
can do it on our own, but

538
00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:01.920
sometimes we need help, absolutely.
And the funny thing is so again all

539
00:39:01.960 --> 00:39:05.800
of these things, it's it's nuanced. You can't just say go out there

540
00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:08.280
and play work like a sport,
because I remember when I was in fifth

541
00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:12.559
grade, I was on the community
you know, I was on a community

542
00:39:12.599 --> 00:39:16.599
baseball team, and it seemed like
no matter what sport I played, my

543
00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:22.440
team was always like the worst and
like I was never we never went to

544
00:39:22.599 --> 00:39:25.199
None of my teams ever went to
state. We never did anything like that.

545
00:39:25.559 --> 00:39:30.960
And with this baseball team that I
was on in fifth grade, I

546
00:39:30.039 --> 00:39:34.559
remember feeling like it didn't matter what
position the coach put me in, I

547
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:37.760
was horrible at it and I didn't
see a path to getting to a point

548
00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:44.199
where I could be amazing at it. And so you're exactly right. Competent

549
00:39:44.320 --> 00:39:50.119
coaching. If you're trying to implement
competitive play into your workplace, you have

550
00:39:50.199 --> 00:39:53.400
to have coaching in there because people
you'll because you'll get the opposite. I

551
00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:58.880
was incredibly disengaged as a baseball player
because I just didn't know how to get

552
00:39:58.920 --> 00:40:00.840
better. And you're gonna find that
and work is if you're trying to set

553
00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:07.199
up this your job as though were
this competition of people going I'm never gonna

554
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:09.199
win. They're totally going to check
out, and you're going to completely get

555
00:40:09.199 --> 00:40:14.559
the opposite result than what you The
opposite of engage, you're gonna get disengagement

556
00:40:14.760 --> 00:40:16.960
if people just don't feel like they
can get better or they can win.

557
00:40:17.119 --> 00:40:21.039
That was my first year in accounting
at the firm I was at. I

558
00:40:21.119 --> 00:40:23.480
just I didn't know how to make
the partners happy, and it seemed like

559
00:40:23.559 --> 00:40:28.239
I constantly got pulled in and they
were telling me how you know that I

560
00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:31.280
wasn't meeting their expectations, but there
wasn't a clear path of if you do

561
00:40:31.400 --> 00:40:36.320
these things, you will get better. And that made me go, I

562
00:40:36.360 --> 00:40:39.079
need to get another job because life's
too short for this one. I got

563
00:40:39.079 --> 00:40:43.440
that. Okay, hold that thought. We're gonna go on a quick break

564
00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:45.280
here, Greg, I'm Alie Cortez, your host. We went on the

565
00:40:45.320 --> 00:40:49.559
air with Greg Kite. He is
the co host of a monthly podcast and

566
00:40:49.599 --> 00:40:53.440
he's also a regular blogger for the
Thriveball CPA network and creates a bi weekly

567
00:40:53.440 --> 00:40:58.320
cartoon for Going Concern. You joined
you today from Provo, Utah. After

568
00:40:58.360 --> 00:41:00.199
the break, we're going to talk
about intentional taking in some of the merits

569
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:15.159
that come with that. Stay with
us. We'll be right back. Friend

570
00:41:15.239 --> 00:41:19.719
us on Facebook to keep up with
what's empowering the world. Voice America Empowerment.

571
00:41:21.599 --> 00:41:25.320
Alice Cortes is a speaker and engagement
and development catalyst. She designs and

572
00:41:25.400 --> 00:41:30.920
delivers professional development, leadership and engagement
workshops and can bring her expertise to your

573
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:37.360
organization. She will help ignite meaningful
development within your workforce that will increase employee

574
00:41:37.400 --> 00:41:40.880
engagement, performance and retention. To
learn more or to invite Elise to speak

575
00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:46.440
to your organization, please visit her
at www dot Elisecortes dot com. She

576
00:41:46.519 --> 00:41:52.440
would welcome the opportunity to help get
your employees Working on Purpose, We're making

577
00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:57.519
it easier to listen to the Voice
American Talk radio network wherever you go.

578
00:41:57.719 --> 00:42:00.039
In addition to listening live, you
could check out in information about your favorite

579
00:42:00.039 --> 00:42:04.920
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show personalities at shows to your list of

580
00:42:04.960 --> 00:42:08.639
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581
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582
00:42:14.920 --> 00:42:19.639
or Android Market. And get ready
to tune in the Voice America Moblack

583
00:42:19.920 --> 00:42:34.199
powered by air Cast, Looking stocks, bigger th s. Get inspired,

584
00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:39.119
encouraged and connected on our Lively award
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585
00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:45.679
the star you are with host and
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586
00:42:45.679 --> 00:42:49.920
at four pm Pacific on the Voice
America Empowerment Channel. Tune into the Power

587
00:42:49.960 --> 00:42:54.039
Party for positive, uplifting, life
changing talk radio. Visit Starstyle radio dot

588
00:42:54.039 --> 00:43:12.599
com to follow us on Twitter for
more great ideas at Voice America Empowerment.

589
00:43:20.719 --> 00:43:24.599
This is Working on Purpose with Elise
Cortes. To reach our program today,

590
00:43:24.679 --> 00:43:30.480
please call in to one triple eight
three four six nine one four one again

591
00:43:30.559 --> 00:43:34.880
that's one triple eight three four six
nine one four one. You may also

592
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:40.519
send an email to Elise A.
L i se at elisecortes dot com.

593
00:43:40.639 --> 00:43:47.719
Now back to working on Purpose.
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome

594
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:51.840
back to Working on Purpose if you're
just tuning in. My guest is Great

595
00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:54.320
Kite. He is the co host
of a monthly podcast and he's a regular

596
00:43:54.320 --> 00:43:59.400
blogger for the Thrible CPA network.
He also creates a bi weekly cartoon for

597
00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:02.119
Going Concern. Over the last twelve
years, he has established himself as a

598
00:44:02.199 --> 00:44:06.159
unique voice in the world of stand
up comedy. As if that weren't enough,

599
00:44:06.519 --> 00:44:09.320
I'm your host, Alis Cortes for
this last bit here, Greg,

600
00:44:09.400 --> 00:44:14.519
I loved the idea of talking about
intentional risk taking and how that could be

601
00:44:15.079 --> 00:44:19.599
a path to profit, passion and
robust corporate culture. I you had me

602
00:44:20.079 --> 00:44:22.239
right there, So let's get into
it for this last bit here, intentional

603
00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:27.559
risk taking? What do you know? Well, one of the things I

604
00:44:27.599 --> 00:44:30.440
know is that I'm an accountant,
and accountants are known for being very,

605
00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:36.480
very risk averse as a as a
species of human being. This is true,

606
00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:39.280
Yeah, absolutely, And so when
I speak to accountants, one of

607
00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:45.119
the things that I like to tell
them is that we as accountants have we're

608
00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:51.119
amazing at handling change, the change
in complexity, two things that we do

609
00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:59.320
because I mean, just today that
both Congress passed the new tax overhaul bill,

610
00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:06.440
and what with eleven days left before
tax season starts, they're changing the

611
00:45:06.599 --> 00:45:09.440
entire framework with which we do our
business, and we didn't know a whole

612
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:14.760
lot about it, and we definitely
didn't know the final presentation that till today.

613
00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:19.519
But we're amazing at just handling that
and rolling with it. We've got

614
00:45:19.719 --> 00:45:23.159
we have an incredible high amount of
confidence of dealing with change and complexity.

615
00:45:23.840 --> 00:45:29.639
What accountants don't do is we don't
take risks. But what's weird is that

616
00:45:30.480 --> 00:45:37.360
intentional risk taking is just self imposed
change. And so when I enter the

617
00:45:37.400 --> 00:45:40.800
accountants, I go, we're amazing
at handling change. Taking a risk that

618
00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:46.199
isn't being rammed down your throat is
I mean, implementing change that's not being

619
00:45:46.960 --> 00:45:51.559
rammed down your throat is the same
as taking risks. And then I get

620
00:45:51.559 --> 00:45:57.440
into it with them like why why
should we take risks as accountants? And

621
00:45:58.079 --> 00:46:00.719
the three things that you just mentioned, those those are the three things that

622
00:46:00.800 --> 00:46:07.119
I think are incredibly important about about
taking risk and and and the first one

623
00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:10.079
is the easy one, and it's
profit. I mean, that's just the

624
00:46:10.159 --> 00:46:15.039
standard. You know. That's almost
not even noteworthy, is that profit comes

625
00:46:15.039 --> 00:46:20.119
from taking risk. If you that
that's why if you know penny stocks,

626
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:25.639
they're they're not very expensive because they're
a huge risk, but if one hits,

627
00:46:25.880 --> 00:46:30.400
you're doing you're doing amazing. So
so we find that even with pricing

628
00:46:30.719 --> 00:46:35.400
that that the more if you're willing
to take more risk, things are going

629
00:46:35.480 --> 00:46:37.559
to be less expensive and you'll end
up with a bigger profit when they do

630
00:46:37.679 --> 00:46:43.360
hit. So that that's almost not
not that interesting to talk about, but

631
00:46:43.760 --> 00:46:49.400
it's also there because when you talk
to accounts or anyone in business, one

632
00:46:49.400 --> 00:46:52.159
of the main things that they're that
they're trying to accomplish with their business,

633
00:46:52.159 --> 00:46:55.440
not the it shouldn't be the purpose
of the business, but it should be

634
00:46:55.599 --> 00:47:00.599
a function of the business is to
is to turn a profit for yourself and

635
00:47:00.639 --> 00:47:04.599
for your shareholders, and that's only
going to happen with risk taking. But

636
00:47:04.679 --> 00:47:07.400
then some of the more interesting things
that come out of risk taking is that

637
00:47:08.440 --> 00:47:15.400
risk taking is a path towards discovering
what you're passionate about. And we hear

638
00:47:15.559 --> 00:47:21.880
so much and we read so much
about how important it is to be pursuing

639
00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:24.400
the thing, you know, pursuing
your bliss, finding those things that really

640
00:47:24.719 --> 00:47:28.719
make you want to jump out of
the bed in the morning and get going

641
00:47:28.760 --> 00:47:35.119
on your day. The problem is
most people are Most people struggle at even

642
00:47:35.280 --> 00:47:39.920
identifying what they are passionate about.
And what I've found is that if you're

643
00:47:39.960 --> 00:47:45.000
intentionally taking risks, you will discover
your passion. And here's how, and

644
00:47:45.039 --> 00:47:49.079
it's basically what we just talked about
before. Was if you take a risk

645
00:47:49.199 --> 00:47:52.800
on something and you fail at it, but you're still excited to go and

646
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:58.480
do that same thing again, you
just found something that you're passionate about.

647
00:47:58.639 --> 00:48:01.760
I'm passionate about comedy because if I
kill it, I'm excited about doing it

648
00:48:01.840 --> 00:48:06.679
again. And if I totally thank
I'm excited about going and doing it again.

649
00:48:07.559 --> 00:48:10.760
Obviously I want to do it better. But that's how I discovered that

650
00:48:10.760 --> 00:48:15.000
that was something that was a passion
of mine. So if someone has difficulty

651
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:20.280
identifying their passion, they need to
start trying things. They need to start

652
00:48:20.280 --> 00:48:22.760
taking these risks. And if you
take a risk and you fail at it,

653
00:48:22.800 --> 00:48:25.800
but you still are like, I
gotta go do that again, you're

654
00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.599
on the path of finding what you're
passionate about. Oh my gosh, hold

655
00:48:30.599 --> 00:48:34.559
on, Greg, hold on,
hold the phone really great because I hear

656
00:48:34.599 --> 00:48:37.480
it all the time. That was
stellar advice. Greg. My listeners ask

657
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:39.800
me all the time, Alice,
how in the world I want to find

658
00:48:39.800 --> 00:48:43.519
my purpose? How do I do
it? Well? Trying new things?

659
00:48:43.559 --> 00:48:46.039
That makes a lot of sense.
And if along the way of trying those

660
00:48:46.079 --> 00:48:50.440
things that they don't quite get it, but they recognize they want to go

661
00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:53.119
after it again that there's something there. They've hit a vein. You have

662
00:48:53.360 --> 00:48:58.960
really isolated something that is yummy and
gorgeous for our listeners. Thank you for

663
00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:00.280
that. Right well, And i'd
want to and I'd want to make a

664
00:49:00.360 --> 00:49:05.800
very clear caveat because to what you
said, it's not I think I mean

665
00:49:05.920 --> 00:49:08.559
it's it's a caveat, or at
least it's a different texture to what you

666
00:49:08.679 --> 00:49:13.239
just said, because I don't think
it's just trying new things. I think

667
00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:17.519
it's you pushing yourself outside of what's
comfortable. Because I can go and I

668
00:49:17.559 --> 00:49:21.360
could, you know, I could
try the I could try the donut at

669
00:49:21.400 --> 00:49:25.800
the bakery that I've never tried before. But that's not that's not that's not

670
00:49:25.840 --> 00:49:30.079
the same thing. I need to
When you're when you're on the hunt for

671
00:49:30.199 --> 00:49:32.639
passion, you've got to do things
that are making you uncomfortable. You're gonna

672
00:49:32.639 --> 00:49:37.480
go this is kind of stupid,
this is kind of this is this,

673
00:49:37.480 --> 00:49:42.480
this even makes me feel foolish that
I'm going at that's to go try that.

674
00:49:42.880 --> 00:49:45.400
And if after making a fool of
yourself, you're like, I could

675
00:49:45.440 --> 00:49:47.679
do that again, then then you
did it. You found it. You

676
00:49:47.760 --> 00:49:53.519
found something that's gonna that's that's that's
right there for you with passion, that

677
00:49:53.639 --> 00:49:57.719
lines up with your purpose, your
meaning, all that stuff. It all

678
00:49:57.760 --> 00:50:00.840
folds together when you take a risk
and you fail, but you want to

679
00:50:00.840 --> 00:50:06.400
get back up on that horse again
because because something about it speaks to to

680
00:50:06.559 --> 00:50:08.320
the core of who you are.
I love it. Okay, go out

681
00:50:08.360 --> 00:50:10.800
of your comfort zone. Thank you
for that. The donut example was fantastic

682
00:50:10.840 --> 00:50:14.000
because you're right, on any given
day we could probably eat a donut.

683
00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:17.519
You're right, Okay, got it. It's got to make you uncomfortable because

684
00:50:17.599 --> 00:50:21.559
and that's that's the risk. It's
not you know, and I'd say you

685
00:50:21.599 --> 00:50:24.679
know, don't well, I'd say, don't you know don't take risks that

686
00:50:24.719 --> 00:50:29.199
are maybe going to you know,
you've got you've got to choose the right

687
00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:34.119
risk as well. But at the
same time, you know do and that's

688
00:50:34.119 --> 00:50:37.079
the other thing. I just spoke
with a guy and he was like,

689
00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:42.039
you know what, in our age
with the internet and social media, you

690
00:50:42.079 --> 00:50:46.159
can monetize any passion that you have. It might not be something that you

691
00:50:46.239 --> 00:50:52.880
get to immediately, but if you're
consistently putting out content related to whatever you're

692
00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:55.119
passionate about, you're going to find
the other people in the world who are

693
00:50:55.159 --> 00:51:00.920
passionate about that as well, and
they will pay to hear you talk about

694
00:51:00.960 --> 00:51:07.159
your passion that that you share with
them. So it's possible to turn anything.

695
00:51:07.199 --> 00:51:08.679
Even though if you go there's no
way anybody who's going to pay me

696
00:51:08.719 --> 00:51:12.719
for this, that you're wrong,
people will you got to you got to

697
00:51:12.760 --> 00:51:16.119
just be consistent with your content creation
around that thing you're passionate about now,

698
00:51:16.519 --> 00:51:22.480
because I know that our hour has
whipped by then. The other thing that

699
00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:27.639
risk taking can do is that can
help you build a robust corporate culture.

700
00:51:28.119 --> 00:51:32.320
And here's what and this is also
the way to structure risk so that it's

701
00:51:32.360 --> 00:51:38.840
so that's a no fail risk Like
if you succeed, great, If you

702
00:51:38.960 --> 00:51:44.119
fail, that's actually also great.
And what it is is if it is,

703
00:51:44.480 --> 00:51:46.599
you got to look at your core
If you go to your company,

704
00:51:47.159 --> 00:51:53.199
hopefully you've already done the job of
trying to identify your core values as a

705
00:51:53.239 --> 00:51:57.559
company. And if you've got a
list of core values, you need to

706
00:51:57.559 --> 00:52:00.400
go through there and go, do
I have a story that backs up every

707
00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:05.159
single one of these core values?
Because if you don't have a story where

708
00:52:05.239 --> 00:52:08.800
you have, uh you where you
have risked something based on those core values,

709
00:52:08.960 --> 00:52:13.280
then I call bs and that's not
really a core value. Like,

710
00:52:13.400 --> 00:52:20.320
for instance, if you say that
your company a core value is is being

711
00:52:21.119 --> 00:52:24.280
incredibly ethical with everything that you do
in all your business dealings, that you

712
00:52:24.320 --> 00:52:28.239
are an ethical company, and that's
a core value to you, I would

713
00:52:28.239 --> 00:52:31.519
say, tell me a story of
the time where you did you have you

714
00:52:31.519 --> 00:52:37.480
ever fired a client because you thought
that client might be doing something that's that's

715
00:52:37.960 --> 00:52:40.440
uh, you know below board?
Do you think that they did you fire

716
00:52:40.480 --> 00:52:45.480
somebody just because you're like going,
they're not maybe doing anything illegal, but

717
00:52:45.519 --> 00:52:49.119
we just don't feel comfortable with them. I want to know a story about

718
00:52:49.239 --> 00:52:54.199
how you you are how you risk, how you how you intentionally gave something

719
00:52:54.280 --> 00:53:00.840
up because because you because you're so
committed to that core value, So taking

720
00:53:00.960 --> 00:53:06.400
risks that are based on your core
values, any risk that you take and

721
00:53:06.679 --> 00:53:08.159
or you could say, hey,
I risked it with this core value,

722
00:53:08.280 --> 00:53:12.559
but we totally that launched us into
a whole new thing and we ended up

723
00:53:12.559 --> 00:53:15.440
winning. I want to hear those
stories as well. Every single core value

724
00:53:15.480 --> 00:53:19.400
that you have, you should be
thinking, how am I taking a risk

725
00:53:19.800 --> 00:53:22.119
for that? Quore? If innovation
is a core value that you have,

726
00:53:22.400 --> 00:53:25.880
how are you risking on innovation?
Are you still playing with scared are you

727
00:53:27.199 --> 00:53:30.719
are you still like a startup who
is going we got these big ideas and

728
00:53:30.760 --> 00:53:32.320
we're going to throw it out there
and see if we hit a home run.

729
00:53:32.519 --> 00:53:36.039
Or are you're starting to play with
scared money where you're going, well,

730
00:53:36.079 --> 00:53:39.039
we're only going to really throw out
something new if we have focus group

731
00:53:39.079 --> 00:53:43.039
did and if we've if we've gotten
to the point where we're sure where it's

732
00:53:43.079 --> 00:53:45.639
gonna. I mean, those things
are good, but I want to I

733
00:53:45.679 --> 00:53:50.599
want to see how you're risking to
be an innovative company, because that's going

734
00:53:50.679 --> 00:53:52.599
to turn me on, and that's
how you That's how you go. If

735
00:53:52.639 --> 00:53:57.079
you want to have an ethical company, tell all your people about how you

736
00:53:57.159 --> 00:54:00.440
fired your biggest client because you were
worried that they weren't being ethical and what

737
00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:04.840
they were doing and you didn't want
to be associated with an unethical company.

738
00:54:05.119 --> 00:54:09.960
That's a culture that you just built
in a powerful way by taking a risk

739
00:54:10.039 --> 00:54:14.320
by firing them, because that's a
huge risk. They're your biggest I mean,

740
00:54:14.320 --> 00:54:16.519
even if they're not your biggest client. If you fire a client,

741
00:54:16.559 --> 00:54:22.239
that's revenue that you just kissed goodbye
to stand by your principles. So again,

742
00:54:22.639 --> 00:54:27.000
you're you. If you are risking
based on your core values. That's

743
00:54:27.039 --> 00:54:31.559
how you really create those turn those
core values from a document that you put

744
00:54:31.599 --> 00:54:36.119
on a wall that people kind of
look at every now and then to something

745
00:54:36.159 --> 00:54:40.239
that's vibrant and robust and is really
what your company's all about. Oh my

746
00:54:40.239 --> 00:54:45.519
gosh, Greig, that was gorgeous, really gorgeous. Great points. And

747
00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:47.320
here we are close to the end
of the show here and I like to

748
00:54:47.320 --> 00:54:51.920
give you the last word as you
as you probably know, so in say

749
00:54:52.119 --> 00:54:54.000
thirty to forty five seconds, what
do you want to leave our listeners with

750
00:54:54.039 --> 00:55:00.159
today? I think what I'd want
to do is that I want to I

751
00:55:00.159 --> 00:55:06.760
guess i'd want to encourage people in
the area of pure play. And there's

752
00:55:06.800 --> 00:55:09.960
a few ways that people can engage
in pure play at work. So first

753
00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:15.519
thing is, there's three things that
I think you need to implement pure play

754
00:55:16.079 --> 00:55:19.880
in a very engaging way at work. First is, you need courage,

755
00:55:20.320 --> 00:55:23.239
because if you're going to be doing
something where you're kind of screwing around at

756
00:55:23.239 --> 00:55:30.039
work, it's it's it's a it's
a challenge that you may fail, and

757
00:55:30.079 --> 00:55:32.239
you have to have the courage to
do that. The other thing is you

758
00:55:32.280 --> 00:55:37.559
need you need courage. You also
need creativity because I've also done improv comedy,

759
00:55:37.559 --> 00:55:42.719
and we talk about improv comedy finding
the game within the game. So

760
00:55:42.760 --> 00:55:46.199
it's like there's a particular goal you're
trying to get to as a company,

761
00:55:46.679 --> 00:55:52.480
to have fun with that while you're
pursuing that goal. So sorry, and

762
00:55:52.519 --> 00:55:53.880
I just spoke over you. What
did you say that I missed? I

763
00:55:53.920 --> 00:55:58.400
said, just you got ten seconds, okay. And then you also need

764
00:55:58.440 --> 00:56:00.760
to be a little subversive, So
you've got to you've got to be well,

765
00:56:00.840 --> 00:56:04.679
not where you're trying to throw over
the you know, you're trying to

766
00:56:04.719 --> 00:56:07.199
tank your company. But it's the
pure play. There's a there's kind of

767
00:56:07.239 --> 00:56:12.519
an impishness to pure place. If
you've got courage, creativity, and just

768
00:56:12.559 --> 00:56:15.000
the right amount of subversiveness, that's
how you're gonna that's how you're gonna implement

769
00:56:15.039 --> 00:56:19.079
that pure play at work. Way
to finish, Greg, I thank you

770
00:56:19.119 --> 00:56:22.079
so much for being my guest.
I've thoroughly enjoyed you and I'm so glad

771
00:56:22.079 --> 00:56:23.599
our pass acrossed. You will beat
my life for a while. Thank you

772
00:56:23.679 --> 00:56:28.679
for being with me. Thank you
for having me as a blast. So

773
00:56:28.719 --> 00:56:30.880
if you want to learn more about
Greg Kite and all he's up to,

774
00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:34.719
there's much go to his website.
It's Greg Kite dot com. That's g

775
00:56:34.920 --> 00:56:38.599
r E g k y t E. And we'll be on the air next

776
00:56:38.599 --> 00:56:42.679
week. We're another nurishing conversation.
Catch us in and remember that work is

777
00:56:42.679 --> 00:56:51.719
at least one day of our life, So let's work on Purpose. We

778
00:56:51.760 --> 00:56:54.719
hope you've enjoyed this week's program.
Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose

779
00:56:54.880 --> 00:57:00.920
featuring your host Alas Cortes, every
Wednesday at six pm Eastern time three pm

780
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:05.639
Pacific time on the Voice America.
Empowerment channel this week, find your life's

781
00:57:05.679 --> 00:57:06.920
purpose at work.