Josh Spodek: Bringing Your Passions to Life

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What's working on purpose anyway? Each
week we ponder the answer to this question.

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People ache for meaning and purpose at
work, to contribute their talents passionately

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and know their lives really matter.
They crave being part of an organization that

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inspires them and helps them grow into
realizing their highest potential. Business can be

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such a force for good in the
world, elevating humanity. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration to help
usher in this world we all want

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Working on purpose now. Here is
your host, Doctor Elise Cortez. Welcome

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back to the Working on Purpose Program. Thanks for tuning in again this week.

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I'm your host, Doctor Elie's Cortes. John You live from Dallas,

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Texas, which is home based for
me by waving introduction, I'm a book

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consultant specializing and meaning and purpose,
organizational logo therapists, inspirational speaker, social

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scientist, and author. There are
many ways we can work together. Check

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out at least courts dot com or
Augusto dash now dot com to learn how

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offer my listeners a twenty five percent
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just use the WOOP twenty discount for
that. This is actually sorry,

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it's a twenty percent discount. If
you've been tuning in for a while,

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then you know this program is a
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and viewers with insights from distinguished business
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By listening in, you're part of
the movement to create inspirational leaders and enlightening

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workplaces where we can thrive and do
business that betters the world. Glad you're

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here now. On of this week's
program with us today is doctor Joshua Spodick,

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who is an executive coach, keynote
and three time Teedech speaker, host

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of This Sustainable Life Daily blogger,
and author and teacher of Initiative, a

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proven method to bring your passions to
life and work. We'll be talking about

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this latest book as is Passion for
Sustainability and where we can start to short

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problems in today's education system. You
joined today from New York City, Josh

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Welcome to Working on Purpose. Hey, they are glad to be here.

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Isn't it great? It's so great
to talk with people up to something in

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the world doing amazing things, and
you are certainly one of those individuals.

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Josh, Holy cow, how don't
keep up with you? I love what

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I do and I feel, you
know, there's a big part of my

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life early on when I try to
do everything I could and I wanted to.

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There's a lot of self fike randizement, and there's a big shift in

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my life that happened. I can't
put my finger exactly when when it switched

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to being in service of others,
and that's changed a lot, isn't an

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amazing So of course in my work
on purpose, that's a big component,

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right, it's when we are in
service to others that we really are living

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in service of our purpose. And
that's a key part of it. And

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so and then of course underneath that
is passion, which is one of your

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really important things to talk about.
So I do want to open the conversation,

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since we're talking about passion and just
really living life to its hilt,

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to talk about one of your most
chairs passions, Josh. And then I

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understand to be the environment and sustainability, and you say in your tent talk

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that everyone gets it wrongs. What
do you mean what's wrong? Well,

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since then, I found more things
that I've gotten that people get wrong.

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But one of the biggest things that
people get wrong is it people think it's

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a burden, that it's a chore, that it's a sacrifice, that you

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know, life is really about all
these things that we have to give up

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in order to do for the environment. So, for example, I six

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years ago I challenged myself to see
if I could go for a week without

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eating or without buying any packaged food. And when I challenge myself to do

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that, I thought, surely,
I'm going to be giving stuff up.

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It's going to cost more when I
have less variety, it's going to take

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more time, it's not going to
be accessible for people who don't live,

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you know, in the West village
like I do and have a farmer's market

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right there. All of that was
wrong. And only after I did it

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could I find that I had more
variety, spent less money, spent less

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time, connect more with my community, with my family. And the last

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talk that I gave before the pandemic
was when I went up to the Bronx

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to show people up in a food
desert and I was invited by a single

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mom to show how to do there
what It's totally possible. They just hadn't

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had it done and everyone I ever, when I say, Aaron and myself,

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before I tried this stuff, I
would have thought, ah, I

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don't want to do that. Like
I got how many restaurants within like two

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blocks of here? And now I
mean it's it's easy to say like food

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is a passion mine because I think
it's for most people. But man,

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it's totally changed. And I had
no idea how much more passion and love

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and connection and joy and community there
was that living unsustainably was holding me back

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from That's so great, Josh,
what a great way to start. I

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just had to start with passion,
right, we all love passion and a

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lot of a lot of people.
Oh, you must be in New York.

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It must be in a city.
I love it the sound effects.

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You're great. All right. So
let's talk about one of your tent talks,

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one of your three tent talks.
I do aspire to do one one

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day, so you have to coach
me when I when I get there.

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But the story that I that I
love, and one of them is how

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you came to embrace environmentism and sustainability. So will you tell us just the

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high one mets obviously a longer story, but tell us the high points of

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this story if you will. You
know that one of the high points was

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what I just mentioned, the challenging
myself to go for a week without packaged

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food, and I really thought that
that was a sacrifice. The material change

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that came from it was the increased
variety, the saving money, things like

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that, And by the way,
I made it two and a half weeks

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and kept it going, not at
zero, but the last today's December fifteenth.

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The last time I threw out my
garbage was something like December twentieth,

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December thirtieth last year, so I
haven't yet thrown out my garbage one.

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I'm gonna hit a year in a
couple of days. I have to check

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my calendar to see what it was. But the psychic change, the mental

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change, was much greater because I
came to expect that living by my environmental

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values would improve my life, and
that was the opposite of what I expected.

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So that a couple of years later, when I saw somewhat a scientist

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talking about the effects of global warming, something like that. He said that

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flying New York LA round trip warmed
the globe about a year's worth of driving.

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Now, living in Manhattan, I
don't have a car. I take

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public transportation, and I thought,
oh great, you know I'm not poluting

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that much. And then I realized, oh I am. And you know

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a lot of people will say what
you do doesn't matter, but I it's

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amount of taking responsibility for my actions
and to me, leadership is it's amount

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of credibility to others, but amount
of integrity for oneself. So I challenged

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myself to go for a week would
be too little. A month seemed to

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too little. So I said,
let's could I go for a year without

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flying? And immediately like, like, my my gut is like, ah,

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you know, you gotta make money, you got family, you got

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adventure in cuisine and all these things. And I thought, am I trying

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to live by my values or not? And so I challenged myself to go

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for a year without flying, really
thinking, yeah, the restaurant, maybe

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the food stuff, maybe that would
work. But this is serious stuff.

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And you know, I had to
cancel a couple things I had going on

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in Europe and things like that.
But then a couple months into it,

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I started not thinking about what I
was giving up, but how to get

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the things that I used to think
could only come from flying, so making

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money, connecting with family, adventure, cuisine, things like that, And

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one by one I started filling those
things back in more then i'd given up.

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So two or three months and I
said, let's go for a second

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year. And now I'm soon to
start my sixth year without flying. And

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you know, a lot of people
think, oh, it's easy for you.

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It's just it was just as hard
for me as for anyone. And

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it's I've stopped trying to put this
into a way that people get it.

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I can only I'm not going to
try to get anyone else to think this

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way. Only experience I think into
it. But it's been one of the

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best decisions I've ever made in my
life. That I've really filled back in

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my life with more than what I
thought. It's, yeah, I'm trying

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to think of like how much I
want to go into the change, and

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it's you know, as it's happened. That led to the podcast, that

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led to the TEDx Talks, that's
led to working real as Corporations and the

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Nobel Prize winners and the McKinsey Global
Manager Director and all these people who've been

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on the podcast. People really want
to talk about the environment and sustainability.

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They just don't want to be judged. They don't want to be you know,

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Ah, you're greenwashing. Oh you're
not really authentic. And so I've

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discovered this area of leadership and sustainability
that I didn't realize was there, and

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turns out it's an area of global
demand, including at the highest levels of

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business. So I want to chum
in this quickly because we talked about this

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when we first were talking about having
you come on air. And part of

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the reason that you're fascinated to me, one you're just an incredibly fascinating human

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being who's really up to something in
life. But two we share in the

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sense that I grew up in Oregon, which is known as a tree hugging,

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granola eating state. We do care
about the environment, we do care

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about conservation preservation. And then when
I lived in a real dijoneiro At from

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ninety one to ninety three, I
had the chance to be part of the

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Real Earth Summit and see people from
around the world come together and talk about

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this it was amazing, and then
I wrote my thesis from my masters on

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the deforestation and the economic, political, and social contributing factors to that.

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So I have an eye for this
and I have a heart for this.

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But you have a whole idea that
you. I mean, your commitment to

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sustainability and the stewardship is really pretty
profound. So when you say a bit

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more about that perspective, and also
if you want to talk about, you

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know, the leadership aspect of what's
available there, then two, that's great.

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May I experiment with a wave of
putting it that I haven't said publicly

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yet. I've only said to friends. Please, I'd love to catch that.

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This is what I believe. This
is my characterization of what passes for

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leadership in the area of the environment
and sustainability these days. Okay, I'm

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ready. You walk into an alcoholics
and not on a some meeting, and

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it doesn't have to be alcoholics that's
an incidental to it. But you'll see

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how plays out. And in front
of the room is someone standing there lecturing

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everybody on the science of what alcohol
does to deliver and how dangerous it is

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and how much damage it does,
and telling people and so therefore, this

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is what you should do based on
that science, not connecting with the reasons

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that they do this, not connecting
with the depression or the partying or whatever

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it is. Now, while they're
saying this, they have in their hand

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a fifth to gin, which they
are periodically drinking from. And when someone

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says, wait a minute, you're
drinking, they say, don't pay what

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one person does doesn't matter, don't
pay attention to me. We got that.

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That's just distraction. The government,
the corporations, they're the ones have

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to change and do what I say. And that person thinks that they're leading.

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They actually are leading, but not
to get people to do what they

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say, but to get the people
to then learn about the science of what

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the alcohol, what alcohol does deliver, and then lecture to other people why

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they themselves also drink. And we
have a world full of people saying,

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I'm an expert, here's what you
should do. I'm an expert, here's

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what you should do. I'm an
expert, here's what you should do.

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And the problem with the not stopping
drinking is not that they're hypocritical. That's

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not the issue at all. I
wouldn't even see it that way. It's

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two big things. One is that
they don't have any credibility. The other

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is that not having experienced it,
they don't know one what it takes to

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switch, to change. It's not
a matter of just saying no, just

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say no while the person is drinking. It's when you change a habit.

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And sustainability means not just a habit
here there, but many habits, a

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lifestyle. It's you got to change
your friends, You got to change the

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lay of your house, you got
to change your diet, your sleep patterns,

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all these things, and you need
support, You need lots of people

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around you. And no one's talking
about that. No one's experienced that.

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The other thing that happens when you
stop is that say you drink, and

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it's a big social thing. You're
afraid that if you stop drinking, it's

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not going to be social anymore.
Or maybe you're depressed and you think you're

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going to face these demons. Everyone
sees the withdrawal that they'll what they'll lose

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when they give it up, when
they get up the restaurants of the flying

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or you know, the I don't
know, the polluting cars, all that

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stuff. They don't see on the
far side of that, you know,

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they know the pain that's going to
come, and they know that if they

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all they do have to keep going
back to what they were doing before,

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and the pain goes away and they
go back into having the fune past.

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That is a deeper and much more
rewarding and longer term enduring joy. And

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for me, it's joy, community, connection, meaning and purpose. And

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if you haven't felt it, you're
just academically telling people a bunch of facts.

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All right, Yeah, there's my
description of leadership and commitment on sustainability

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today. That's amazing. Well,
one of the things that you talked about

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and when we first spoke is you
know, we do you said, in

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terms of leadership, we do have
young Greta is it Thumberg or Thumberg,

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But of course we need more leaders
And so what I want to want to

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get from you here before we go
into our first break is briefly, what

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can leaders to help stewart sustainability?
What can we do about this? You

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know a lot of people think you
have to be perfect or else it going

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to be called greenwashing or something like
that. You don't have to be perfect,

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You just have to show that you're
doing your best, but you have

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to do that genuinely and authentically.
If you do it genuinely authentically, you

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will show your flaws. But then
people will respond to your flaws to help

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you, not criticize you because they
have flaws too, and they would rather

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see you make the mistakes and then
they can too then too. If you

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strive for perfection, it's no one
can reach it. This is very hard

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to do, but it's essential for
leadership, and many leaders go if you

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if you go first with say you're
running some company I didn't want to say,

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your company is gonna become more sustainable. If you say here's how great

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we are and then follow it up, it's less effective than if you do

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it internally. First, talk to
your teams, say what what, what's

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in your heart? Why? What's
driving you? Then act? Then start

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sharing. Don't make it a pr
thing that will come if if it's if

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it's essential or important, look in
your heart. I mean, if you

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if you watch my techs talks,
especially the first one I talk about how

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first, what do you care about? How can you act on that even

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if it's small, because if it's
big or small is less important than if

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it's coming from the heart M beautiful
and josh beautiful and I could couldn't agree

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more. Before we we're talking about
the importance of serving other people and help

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fulfilling that is, and the difference
we can make in the word when we're

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actually focused on serving others. So
the caring piece aligns for me with that

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so beautiful way to take us into
our first break, I'm your host,

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Doctor Elise Cortez. We're on the
air of doctor Joshua Spodok, who was

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an executive coach, keynote and three
time tech speaker, host of The Sustainable

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Life Daily, blogger and author and
teacher of Initiative, a proven method to

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bring your passions to life and work. We've been talking about his passion for

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sustainability. After the right, we're
going to talk about some of the problems

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in our educational system. Stay with
us, we'll be right back. Doctor

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Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing
in meaning and purpose and inspirational speaker and

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author. She helps companies visioneer for
greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired

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leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate
fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the

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workforce. To learn more or to
invite a Lease to speak to your organization,

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00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:02.360
please visit her at a lease Coortz
dot com. Let's talk about how

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to get your employees working on purpose. This is Working on Purpose with doctor

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Release Cortez. To reach our program
today or open a conversation with Elise,

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send an email to Elise ali se
at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back

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to Working on Purpose. Welcome back
to Working on Purpose program. I'm very

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excited to share with you that,
thanks in part to the pandemic, I

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got my first book out, Purpose
Ignited is now available on Amazon, and

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I have to say I don't think
that I would have gotten it done in

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the time period that I did without
this sort of force, shutdown and focus.

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I wrote the book related to transform
leaders, the readers into inspirational leaders,

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and then the whole idea is to
help them awaken passionate in a workplace

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and to create a place that people
actually want to come to work. So

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I hope you enjoy it, and
thanks for reading. If you're just joining

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the program. My guest is doctor
Joshua Spoduck. He's the host of This

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Sustainable Life and the author of Initiative
a proven method to bring your passions to

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life and work, among many other
distinguishing contributions and achievements. I'm your host,

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doctor Elis Cortez, So, Josh, amazing man about the planet that

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you are. This next segment,
I wanted to talk about the education system,

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and as we do this, I
want to first call out a couple

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of things about you that I think
make you sort of quite interesting to talk

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to about education. You seem to
be quite qualified to speak on the subject

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in that you have a PhD in
astrophysics. I don't mean that's amazing already,

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and an MBA, and I think
I remember you have some other degrees

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as well, Is that right?
Well, I put that at five ivasily

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degrees, So I've got my undergrad
degree is one other, and then on

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the way to get a PhD,
you get a master's and then something called

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an m phil. So over there
I have my five diplomas well. So

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here's as a person who has been
also going to school my whole entire life,

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I want to know what's behind the
pursuit of all this education. Where

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does that motivation come from it,
where does that first come from? The

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PC in physics was a love for
physics, and the love for physics is

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and a lot of people associate physics
with I don't know, people in lab

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codes with lots of equipment, and
you know, I helped build a satellite

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that's up in orbit right now.
But that's the needs to the end.

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The end is really discovering nature at
a more deeper level. The symmetry is

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the beauties. I love looking at
a rainbow, but I love even more

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knowing how the refraction works and how
the different that to me, there's a

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beauty underneath it. That the more
that I looked, the more that I

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found. And so I just kept
pursuing, pursuing, pursuing. The NBA

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came well. Ultimately, I didn't
like the practice of physics of being a

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graduate student, and then I didn't
want to go to a post doc,

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and besides, I had an idea
for this company. So I went off

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and started a company with a friend
and we were very well. We had

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our ups and downs and ups and
downs, but I got squeezed out by

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the investors during a recession, and
that was very painful, and I knew

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that there was a lot that I
was missing from business. And so the

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NBA was fill in what I was
missing. I just appreciate where your heart

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has led you and all that matter. And regarding educations, and since it

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is a really important part of my
world and what I hope to be contributing

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to it, I wanted to talk
about really what's what's sort of problematic about

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it? And one of the things
I learned in a previous radio conversation with

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Steve Brown, who's the author of
The Innovation Ultimatum, he told me and

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says in his book that our educational
system is extremely outdated and it was actually

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formed to teach people to move from
the farms to factories. What's your perspective

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on our system and does that align
with how you would describe it. Yeah,

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I've certainly heard that description and it
sounds I haven't really looked up the

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history, but yes, a lot
of our educational system was designed to make

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a uniform output of people that could
be productive units in society, and it

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was at a time I think it
came from the German system of making people

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who could effectively work in factories and
before that informed I don't think you really

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needed to know a whole lot of
tricking out. I'm not sure yeah,

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and then at one point they wanted
people who knew roughly the same thing.

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And you know, you wanted factories
with uniform parts, and so the people

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were parts of those factories, so
you wanted uniform that. And then it

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got institutionalized, and so I got
basically the same structure of the style of

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education that I've presumed people did one
hundred years before the world had changed,

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so extremely updated. Yeah, I
mean, now I have to say that

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there were people thousands of years ago
teaching the way I think is effective,

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and there were people today. You
know, at all times people taught unproductively

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and productively. It's just right now. The mainstream American educational system is really

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not about At best, it will
teach you, like to understand Plato's views

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on values and compare and contrast them
with Maya Angelus, but it won't teach

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you to learn your values and how
to act on them yourself. And ultimately,

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one, you don't know what they
are. Two, we have all

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those people who are doing what they're
told and they don't realize. You know,

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as a coach, it's great,
I get a lot of the customers,

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but I'd rather they had the passion
and knew how to act on it

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in their own lives. Anyway.
Yeah, completely agree, And you have

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a very interesting bit in your book. And of course, as you know,

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I read your book cover to cover
and I had loved every single bit

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of it. But I want you
to speak, if you would, to

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this bit in your book where you
say, quote the academic information schools teach

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is nice, but the behavior they
teach is compliance. Writer and former Yale

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professor William Deres of it, so
I'm not sure to say athletes titled to

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his book on what results from Creating
Compliant people filled with facts but not social

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and emotional development, excellent sheep.
Yeah, it's one of the best titles

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for books I've ever come across.
Excellent sheep. Are we producing excellent sheep?

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Or what I had after I graduated
from business school? You know,

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I really had great. It's leadership
classes. I did not expect. I

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never heard them until Business schoo and
I didn't think. You know, I

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saw Hi Moltin Luther King and figured, well, he does that. I

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can't do that. I'm not going
to be a leader. And then I

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learned you could change these things.
Except I learned through case study, reading

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and writing papers, analysis, and
when I went to the world, I

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thought, I'm going to go in
the situation I'm a great leader, and

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I go in. I don't know
what I'm doing because I haven't practiced,

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I haven't rehearsed, I haven't you
learned. And at the time, I

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was watching Inside the Actor's Studio a
lot, mainly because I found it entertaining.

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I really enjoyed watching it. And
then this weird pattern hit me that

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do you ever watch a show and
it's had all the grades of like de

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Niro and inside the actor's studio.
No, I'd love to thank you.

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Oh yeah, it's a it's been
around for a long time, and I

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mean, think of a great actor, producer, director, they've all been

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on it. Okay, thanks,
And I kept noticing and it's very in

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depth. I've actually seen it recorded
live. It's like a five hour event

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that's cut down into an hour maybe
ninety minutes. Over and over again,

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these actors whose social emotional skills were
off the charts incredible. Over and over

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again, they would say they dropped
out of school, they were kicked out

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of school, they ever went to
school in the first place. You know,

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they maybe they didn't even finish high
school. And I kept thinking,

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their skills on things that are relevant
to leadership are way higher than these people

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in the Ivy League business school,
who are supposedly the top of the game.

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How can I reconcile that the people
who are the best at it had

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the least education. And what I
learned was that they didn't stop learning.

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They switched from what you know,
what I would call academic classroom learning into

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this other style of active experiential learning
that developed skill, not just you didn't

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just when I was in school.
I learned about leadership. When I started

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learning that style, I started learning
to lead. It's a difference between art

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appreciation and learning how to make art. I learned leadership appreciation. Yes,

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yes, yes, oh so under
that this is so interesting and I love

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this. I just I was so
looking forward to having you come on and

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talk about the figure. I think
it's so important and it speaks directly to

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what you and I both care about
in terms of what binds us around passion,

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meaning and purpose. But you also
say in your book, and I'd

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like you to speak to this if
you would, you talk about how Greg

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Whitely, who's the director of the
documentary Most Likely to Succeed described an educational

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system leading its most successful students to
choose safe and predictable routes, studying safe

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and predictable subjects, losing touch with
their passions, jeddicining ambition and replacing asking

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what do I love with what does
the teacher want me to do? And

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how can I give it to them? Yeah, I hope you're safe and

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predictable and my word nice. I
hope we're picking up the damning with faint

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craze here, because you're not going
to get any total rejects out of this,

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but you're not going to get any
people discover themselves, people being themselves.

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I think one of the things he
said in the interview where that came

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from, was that there's all these
people come out of the top. I

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mean the people especially come out of
the top schools with the top degrees.

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They know how to do what they
were told, and so when they get

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hired to do something new, he
says, you know, over and over

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again he would talk to people at
the top levels of various companies and they'd

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say, you know, I hire
this person. I'd say, we got

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this project, we hired you do
this really difficult thing, go at it,

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and the person say, okay,
what should I do? And this

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hit me. You know, I
when I was in graduate school, I

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would go to my advisor. You
know, I wanted to be in Einstein.

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I wanted to be the next Richard
Fineman of the next you know,

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Galilet or Newton. All I knew
how to do is to ask my advisor

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what to do, and he would
say, well, do and I'll analyze

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this super overrundment or you know,
analyze this piece of hardware. And I

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would. And then I'd come back
and say, Okay, I did it.

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What next? And you know my
life is total opposite now. I

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mean now people tell me not to
do. What I'm doing is, oh,

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you can't make a difference in the
world on sustainability, and you know

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that ship is sailed too too long
ago. I'm like, I'm going to

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do it, and it's I value
a lot of what I learned in school,

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00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:57.000
but a lot of it was factual
recall and analysis and planning. And

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I've found that I've learned, you
know, I've just changed my model.

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Now. A lot of what I
learned the most is I say, I

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don't know how to do this.
That's why I will do it. Yes,

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00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:11.000
Oh, I love that. There's
I don't know if you saw the

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00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:15.720
movie The Martian, it's one of
my favorite movies for this style of thinking

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00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:18.440
and doing and learning. In the
beginning of the movie, Matt Damon plays

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his character and he's on Mars and
there's a colony there and there's like a

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windstorm or something, and and like
everyone dies and he I'm not giving me

401
00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:30.640
anything way, but it's just him
and his suit is leaking oxygen. And

402
00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:33.079
you know, first he's got to
fix a suit. If he doesn't fix

403
00:26:33.079 --> 00:26:36.079
a suit, he can't do anything. Okay, he fixes a suit,

404
00:26:36.079 --> 00:26:40.279
But now he's got to get somehow
back to the place. And then once

405
00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:41.000
he's there, he's got to figure
how to do it on his own.

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00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:44.839
Now he's got to figure out that
will get him like a week. But

407
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:45.799
then he's got to figure how to
grow food that will get him like a

408
00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:49.480
month. They he's got to figure
figure out that. The way that most

409
00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:55.000
people talk about what I'm doing now
leadership in the air of sustainability, people

410
00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:57.359
say, Josh, you know,
we can't save everything. It's almost as

411
00:26:57.359 --> 00:27:03.039
if someone said Matt Damon or his
character. You got to you don't know

412
00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:07.759
how to get to Earth? Why
bother fixing the suit and you got The

413
00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:10.720
only way you can get to the
next thing is you've got to fix this

414
00:27:10.759 --> 00:27:11.359
thing, and then you fix the
next thing, and the next thing and

415
00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:15.119
the next thing. It's not the
only way to do things, but getting

416
00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:18.839
things In leadership, I mean in
an area where everyone wants clean air,

417
00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:22.759
clean water, clean land, most
people don't know how to get there.

418
00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:26.960
My definition for leadership is help others
do what they want, what they already

419
00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:30.400
wanted to do but haven't figured out
how. That's brilliant. I love that,

420
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:34.119
Josh, say it again, please. Leadership is helping people do what

421
00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:38.880
they've always wanted to do but haven't
figured out how. So it's helping.

422
00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:41.759
I have to listen to them to
find out what they want. In the

423
00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:45.440
area of the environment, different people
want different things, so I have to

424
00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:49.000
ask them, I have to listen. I have to behave and communicate so

425
00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:52.240
that they expect that I will support
them and not judge them, so they

426
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.519
can share what they feel vulnerable about, what they care about, and then

427
00:27:56.559 --> 00:28:00.720
I can help them achieve those things. Different for everyone people. It's mercury

428
00:28:00.759 --> 00:28:04.400
in the fish. Some people it's
global warming. Some people's plastic. Although

429
00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:07.599
once they start acting, they realize
how it connects and then they can do

430
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:14.000
more things together. So it's so
brilliant. By the way, I think

431
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:15.359
you are our next Galileo. So
let's just go with that. Okay,

432
00:28:15.400 --> 00:28:22.359
let's just claim that, all yeah, Well, let's just go with it,

433
00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:25.720
right. I always tell my my
coaching clients, say, there's power

434
00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:27.680
and declaration, right, we're declaring
it into existence. So there it is,

435
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:30.759
and I can argue, right,
I can say it first. It's

436
00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.160
easier if I say it than if
you say it. So you know this

437
00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:37.519
is an outside opinion. Who's who's
judged you and said that you're the next

438
00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:41.400
Galileo. So let's go with it. I word against yours, right,

439
00:28:41.519 --> 00:28:45.000
Okay, good, don't argue with
me? All right? So before we

440
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:47.039
go into a break, I want
to tease this up here and because it

441
00:28:47.079 --> 00:28:48.599
will help us talk about what we're
gonna talk about after the break, which

442
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:52.680
is what you care about in terms
of experiential learning. But you talk about

443
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.559
how classroom learning doesn't help you develop
the social and emotional skills underlying initiative and

444
00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:02.559
entrepreneurship. And entrepreneur success or personal
development. So I want you if you

445
00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:04.799
can kind of queue up for us. Why is this system seemingly so resistant

446
00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:11.279
to change and continue in this thing
when it isn't working? Time? Do

447
00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:14.519
we have? Right? Certainly there's
a lot yeah, I mean, certainly,

448
00:29:14.519 --> 00:29:18.920
there's a lot of inertia. There's
a lot of bureaucracy. I mean,

449
00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:22.640
most teachers at the at the below
high school and below, they learn

450
00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:26.119
how to teach, but they don't
necessarily know the subject. College and above

451
00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:29.640
they tend to know the subject,
but that might might not know how to

452
00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:33.680
teach. And the intersection of these
things is very important. I had so

453
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:37.319
many students who would tell me I've
never taken a class like this. How

454
00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:41.480
much time do I have? About
a minute a minute and a half.

455
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:45.319
So I'll start that. Here's a
pattern that would happened to me, and

456
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:48.160
especially in my initiative class, is
that I would start them off with,

457
00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:51.599
you have to come up with a
project that you're going to work on,

458
00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:53.720
and it has to be in an
area of interest to you. All the

459
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:59.799
time people would pick it's their interest
mixed with what their parents want, what's

460
00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:00.759
in the news, what they think
will make a lot of money with their

461
00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:06.400
friends think is popular, and so
they always they do it for a little

462
00:30:06.440 --> 00:30:10.079
while, and then my rule is
you can switch to something new if you

463
00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:12.319
want, but if you do,
you have to start from scratch. You

464
00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:15.559
have to go back to the early
You have to do all the steps.

465
00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:18.720
Now. When they do those steps
the second time, it's much faster and

466
00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:22.359
they get much more out of it
because it's doing something care about. Always

467
00:30:22.680 --> 00:30:25.960
when they switch, it's always does
something like more, and it's almost always

468
00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:29.480
something that they're like, I can
do that, I can work on that.

469
00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:33.359
But I thought that that wasn't what, you know, what they were,

470
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:36.759
what was expected of them. They
thought it wasn't you know, I

471
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:41.319
can do something I care about.
They never had that, no one.

472
00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:44.519
You know, here's what's important.
Here's how to show it. What's important.

473
00:30:44.519 --> 00:30:45.839
Here's how to show it, you
know, Here's when to show it.

474
00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:51.000
Here's you know, everything's told to
you, and the only way you

475
00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:55.839
can learn your values is to butt
up against you know, everyone values family,

476
00:30:55.880 --> 00:31:02.400
everyone values personal growth. What happens
when you have to choose between family

477
00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:06.079
and personal growth, then you realize
what your values are. If you just

478
00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:07.640
write about that, you can write
a good paper and get a good grade,

479
00:31:08.039 --> 00:31:14.839
but you haven't learned your values.
Beautifully said, and I completely agree

480
00:31:15.319 --> 00:31:18.119
with that. Let's take our second
break. Emileas Cortez your host. We're

481
00:31:18.119 --> 00:31:21.200
on the air with doctor Joshua Spotok, who is an executive coach, keynote

482
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:25.559
and three time tech speaker, host
of This Sustainable Life Daily blogger and author

483
00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:27.759
and teacher of Initiative, a proven
method to bring your passions to life and

484
00:31:27.799 --> 00:31:33.240
work. We've been talking about what's
missing in the educational vein and department.

485
00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:36.480
After the break, we're going to
hear about his approach to learning and development

486
00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:40.599
finding our passions. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Doctor Release

487
00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:45.839
Cortez is a management consultant specializing in
meaning and purpose and inspirational speaker and author.

488
00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:52.359
She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose
among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership

489
00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:59.920
and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce.

490
00:32:00.559 --> 00:32:02.920
To learn more or to invite a
lease to speak to your organization,

491
00:32:04.279 --> 00:32:07.279
please visit her at Eleise Cortez dot
com. Let's talk about how to get

492
00:32:07.319 --> 00:32:20.240
your employees working on purpose. This
is working on purpose with doctor release Cortez.

493
00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:23.720
To reach our program today or open
a conversation with Elise, send an

494
00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:31.200
email to Elise ali se at Elise
Cortez dot com. Now back to working

495
00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:40.640
on Purpose. Thanks for staying with
us, and welcome back to working on

496
00:32:40.680 --> 00:32:44.920
purpose. If you haven't discovered it
yet, We've launched Gusto now, which

497
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:49.519
is a transformation e learning platform featuring
at the signature vitally inspired living and leading

498
00:32:49.519 --> 00:32:52.799
from Purpose program that I created a
couple of years ago, and other professional

499
00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:55.119
development courses. We do them in
English, Spanish and Portuguese, and I

500
00:32:55.200 --> 00:32:59.720
do offer you listeners and viewers a
twenty percent discount. You just need to

501
00:32:59.720 --> 00:33:02.000
be a check out with WOP twenty
when you come out on the on the

502
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:07.119
on the closing end. See you
in class if you're just joining us today.

503
00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:09.759
My guest is doctor Joshua Spotick from
New York City. He is the

504
00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:14.680
host of This Sustainable Life and the
author of Initiative, a proven method to

505
00:33:14.680 --> 00:33:17.720
bring your passions to life and work, among many other distinguishing contributions and achievements.

506
00:33:17.880 --> 00:33:22.799
I'm your host, doctor Elis Cortez. So for this last segment here,

507
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:27.119
josh I really want to dive into
what I really would say is that

508
00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:30.759
is the gist of your your book
and really how it is that you teach,

509
00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:34.799
which I think is just so fresh
and so so profound. So first,

510
00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:37.319
you are a proponent of active experiential
learning, like you said before in

511
00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:40.480
the last segment, So first of
all, what does that mean? And

512
00:33:40.799 --> 00:33:45.079
I also want to know what's missing
in our general education system from that.

513
00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:46.200
So we've already we already served some
of that, but I want, I

514
00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:52.599
want you to distinguish why is the
active experiential learning so different and important and

515
00:33:52.640 --> 00:33:55.839
profound. Well, I have to
say that it's not something I developed entirely

516
00:33:55.960 --> 00:34:00.839
myself. I mean the roots go
back to John Dewey Montessori. So I

517
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:05.200
didn't make this stuff up. And
one of my big influences was a longtime

518
00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:07.639
friend who's the founding principle of a
high school in Philadelphia called the Science Leadership

519
00:34:07.639 --> 00:34:13.320
Academy, Chris Lehman. And you
know he wants when he when he was

520
00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:15.639
a teacher, before he became a
principal, he told me that he I

521
00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:17.360
think he gave one test in his
entire teaching career. I was like,

522
00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:21.639
how can you not give tests?
And I used to think, even if

523
00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:23.880
you even if it's a better technique, you have to you have to prepare

524
00:34:23.960 --> 00:34:27.559
kids to be out in the world. And then it hit me, there

525
00:34:27.559 --> 00:34:30.159
are no tests in the world.
You can't if it's salesperson, you can't

526
00:34:30.199 --> 00:34:32.360
go in and say, oh,
I don't know how to sell this stuff.

527
00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:34.880
Just give me a test, and
if I do well, you'll buy

528
00:34:34.920 --> 00:34:40.119
my products. You have to connect
with people. And this empathy is when

529
00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:45.920
I first started teaching, before I
started developing this and getting what I was

530
00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:47.360
talking about. I would sit down
and I think I did what most people

531
00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:51.679
do. It's like, I know
this information, How do I organize it

532
00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:54.480
and present it to them through lecture
and reading and things so that they will

533
00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:57.760
know the information that I have and
wants they have the information, they will

534
00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:01.159
know what to do with it.
That there's a certain logic to that.

535
00:35:01.239 --> 00:35:07.559
I know you don't I give you
information now you know that theory that hasn't

536
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:12.199
played out in practice. So well, now what I find is much more

537
00:35:12.199 --> 00:35:16.400
important now is I have to imagine
first what could Why are my students here?

538
00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:21.239
What are they looking for? I
happen to teach. They're always elective,

539
00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:24.480
so they've chosen to be there,
and so I think I have to

540
00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:30.679
think of how can I get them
to share what motivates them, what brought

541
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:32.280
them there in the first place,
so that I can deliver to them what

542
00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:37.920
they a way for them to act
on that. Now I have to give

543
00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:39.639
them structure. I have to give
them I would call scaffolding. I have

544
00:35:39.639 --> 00:35:45.360
to give them some basics so that
they can start acting, but then to

545
00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:47.800
combine what they care about with something
that could serve others, so that they

546
00:35:47.880 --> 00:35:52.000
have a project to work on and
start applying those skills on something that they

547
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:55.480
care about. As I said,
usually they pick something that is a mix

548
00:35:55.519 --> 00:35:59.079
of what they care about with what
they think the world cares about. You'd

549
00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:02.719
be amazed at how many of my
students would pick a blockchain app. It's

550
00:36:02.760 --> 00:36:06.559
like the thing that they would work
on, and it changes with time,

551
00:36:07.199 --> 00:36:09.519
and it's possible that like everyone in
the room actually really those blockchain apps,

552
00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:13.320
even though blockchain and apps didn't exist
when they were you know, when they

553
00:36:13.320 --> 00:36:15.280
were growing up. But more likely
you know, it's in the news,

554
00:36:16.079 --> 00:36:21.840
and the second time if they switch, it's usually something that's much more from

555
00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:24.599
their heart and they they go much
more into that, and that's when they

556
00:36:24.679 --> 00:36:29.519
start telling me what they're doing,
and I start learning from them because they

557
00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:32.480
learn more than one of my students. She said, after I took your

558
00:36:32.480 --> 00:36:37.119
class, I didn't want to do
entrepreneurship before, and now I started getting

559
00:36:37.119 --> 00:36:38.679
really interested in it. So I
went to it and took this other class

560
00:36:38.679 --> 00:36:43.039
and entrepreneurship. And she's like,
she goes, this is so flattering when

561
00:36:43.039 --> 00:36:45.719
I hear stuff like this. She
says, they were just telling me stuff

562
00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:50.199
that I learned on the way to
do stuff for your class. I already

563
00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:52.320
knew those answers. I could look
that up on myself. I don't need

564
00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:53.760
to. I don't need to like
an NYU professor to tell me that.

565
00:36:54.559 --> 00:36:59.280
So that was very flattering. If
you motivate them, which you know,

566
00:36:59.519 --> 00:37:01.199
if you connect with something that they
care about, and that means you have

567
00:37:01.239 --> 00:37:07.320
to support them. You have to
empathize then, and I hope if there's

568
00:37:07.320 --> 00:37:09.599
any past students, I hope I
delivered with them. I'm not perfect,

569
00:37:10.639 --> 00:37:15.119
but then they do it for their
own reasons. I want to share with

570
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:17.559
you that after I read your book, I was having a conversation with my

571
00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:21.000
seventeen year old daughter, who's a
senior in high school, and she says,

572
00:37:21.039 --> 00:37:24.000
Noma, this, They've just they've
thrown out the whole all the tests

573
00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:25.719
for the end of this year,
and instead they're going to make us new

574
00:37:25.800 --> 00:37:29.920
projects. I'm like, hooray,
that's fantastic. Who tests are not going

575
00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:31.400
to help you? And she goes, yeah, I agree with you,

576
00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:35.119
except that I don't know what the
projects are going to be. And but

577
00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:37.519
I was just like so excited because
I'd read your book and I'd understood just

578
00:37:37.599 --> 00:37:40.159
kind of what was missing, and
you helped me understand it. And and

579
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:44.840
now of course she gets that chance
to be able to teach through her projects

580
00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:46.920
what it is that she cares about. So thank you, Josh for learning

581
00:37:46.920 --> 00:37:52.039
both of us. You've got You've
got two new people to the movement.

582
00:37:52.639 --> 00:37:54.719
I love when a reader tells me
I introduced it to my kid. I

583
00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:58.920
think as the youngest thirteen have done
it. I have gone through and done

584
00:37:58.960 --> 00:38:01.280
the exercises in the book Focus fantastic. And then that you gave all the

585
00:38:01.280 --> 00:38:07.199
exercises was so generous, Josh,
beautiful, So definitely definitely worth picking up.

586
00:38:07.159 --> 00:38:09.760
And of course, one of the
things that I want to talk about

587
00:38:09.800 --> 00:38:13.280
next, which I think is just
so useful. And how you did this

588
00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:17.800
is you distinguish that life has many
passing fancies, some meaningful interest, and

589
00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:22.320
a few life passions which are rare
and enduring. So, of course I

590
00:38:22.360 --> 00:38:25.239
want to get your perspective. Why
is passion so important to focus on and

591
00:38:25.239 --> 00:38:29.840
develop? I have my own theory, but what's yours? Well, to

592
00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:32.559
me, passion a passion A lot
of people associated with like romance, movies

593
00:38:32.559 --> 00:38:35.880
and things like that, Well,
there's that side of passion, but for

594
00:38:35.880 --> 00:38:38.960
me, it's what you care about
most, what drives you, and that's

595
00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:44.639
what motivates you. If that's what
keeps you going. Passion for me generally

596
00:38:44.679 --> 00:38:51.440
means it's deeper, more complex,
more nuanced, more enduring. And now

597
00:38:51.480 --> 00:38:55.320
it has to merge. It has
to overlap with what someone else finds value

598
00:38:55.360 --> 00:38:59.360
in. Right, So if you're
just doing it for yourself, you're not

599
00:38:59.400 --> 00:39:02.119
going to get very far if you're
But if you're passionate about it and you're

600
00:39:02.119 --> 00:39:05.599
benefiting someone else, and so a
lot of the exercise in it are to

601
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:08.960
get advice from others, get other
people's views, and that changes very quickly.

602
00:39:09.320 --> 00:39:13.400
You start from your passion, but
listening to others and getting advice from

603
00:39:13.400 --> 00:39:20.400
others quickly you find how it's it's
inevitable that we as social creatures, what

604
00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:23.280
we care about will be something and
somehow we're not gonna be the only one

605
00:39:23.280 --> 00:39:28.280
who cares about these things, and
we'll find a community that, you know,

606
00:39:28.320 --> 00:39:30.440
if we're going in the direction of
entrepreneurship, that will financially reward us

607
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:35.039
for these things. But it could
be you know, my podcast is not

608
00:39:36.039 --> 00:39:39.559
it's not a financial thing. It's
it's a huge passion, right, and

609
00:39:40.440 --> 00:39:45.920
people really relate to it, and
that's inevitable, not because they're relating to

610
00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:47.840
your passion. So let's grab a
quick question here from one of our listeners

611
00:39:47.880 --> 00:39:51.599
who's asking what movement is that you're
talking that you were talking about. So

612
00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:53.840
what I was referring to, thank
you listener for engaging engaging with us.

613
00:39:53.880 --> 00:39:59.079
What I was what I was referring
to is what I'm pointing to is Josh's

614
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:01.000
work in active experiential learning. So
do you want to weigh in on that

615
00:40:01.039 --> 00:40:05.639
real quick? Josh, I got
it as a movement, So that's what

616
00:40:05.679 --> 00:40:07.400
I'm saying, Yeah, project based
learning. There's a lot of different ways

617
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:10.519
to put it. I generally think
of his project based learning. And when

618
00:40:10.519 --> 00:40:15.119
I first I remember going to a
conference, an educational conference, and I

619
00:40:15.159 --> 00:40:19.039
was like, what's a project?
What's been carey driven? And the people

620
00:40:19.079 --> 00:40:22.239
started telling me and I had to
learn. I learned actually by my very

621
00:40:22.599 --> 00:40:27.360
I'm gonna tell you story. When
I was at that conference. I was

622
00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:30.320
it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and on Wednesday I was going to

623
00:40:30.360 --> 00:40:35.079
teach entrepreneurship an yu and I'm like, what's a projects? And they started

624
00:40:35.079 --> 00:40:36.760
telling me. I was like,
this makes a lot of sense, just

625
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:39.280
very quickly. And the people there
were all project based educators. So I

626
00:40:39.320 --> 00:40:44.800
thought, I'm going to do it
this way this semester. I got two

627
00:40:44.840 --> 00:40:46.719
and a half days with all of
these experts. I'm gonna find it,

628
00:40:46.760 --> 00:40:52.559
and I'm gonna rewrite my syllabus in
this time. And so like Sunday,

629
00:40:52.599 --> 00:40:54.880
I'm taking the train back to New
York and I'm like filling the details on

630
00:40:54.920 --> 00:41:00.440
my syllabus. Wednesday I taught that
semester. I got almost the highest reviews

631
00:41:00.599 --> 00:41:04.000
from students in the school, and
it was up there with like, you

632
00:41:04.039 --> 00:41:07.920
know, tenure professors who've been teaching
the same course for your decades. And

633
00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:09.119
I would like to say it was
me, but it was really this style

634
00:41:09.159 --> 00:41:14.199
of learning because the students you at
a certain point, I stepped back and

635
00:41:14.239 --> 00:41:19.159
just let them go. And I
can't and I you know, as I

636
00:41:19.199 --> 00:41:21.119
say, I did not create it. This is a movement that began long

637
00:41:21.159 --> 00:41:24.079
before me. It's I'm just swept
up in it. It's, to my

638
00:41:24.119 --> 00:41:28.760
knowledge, is much bigger in K
to twelve than at the university and professional

639
00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:31.679
level. But that's where I'm bringing
it. Beautiful. Thank you for that.

640
00:41:32.719 --> 00:41:36.800
So, No, I want to
talk about how you focus on problems

641
00:41:36.840 --> 00:41:38.559
to be solved. I think I
thought it was really refreshing how you you

642
00:41:38.920 --> 00:41:43.960
told us that you focus on getting
clear in the problem to be solved,

643
00:41:43.960 --> 00:41:47.679
not fix any on creating this solution, and that your system involves soliciting that

644
00:41:47.719 --> 00:41:51.440
the perspective of people who have the
problem you were out to address. I

645
00:41:51.480 --> 00:41:53.719
thought that was just brilliant. Can
you say more about that? Yeah.

646
00:41:53.800 --> 00:41:58.840
In entrepreneurship, the venture capitalists,
they're very happy for ever to come up

647
00:41:58.840 --> 00:42:00.719
with lots of solutions because if they
invest in a lot of them, a

648
00:42:00.760 --> 00:42:04.400
couple will be big hits and they'll
make a lot of money. But wait

649
00:42:04.440 --> 00:42:07.599
a minute, what about the people
whose things don't work out not so great

650
00:42:07.639 --> 00:42:10.639
for them. So my business is
not to make money off of a couple

651
00:42:10.639 --> 00:42:15.239
of big hits. I want to
help my clients, my students, so

652
00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:16.800
I want to help them change as
a person. I want to help them

653
00:42:16.840 --> 00:42:22.239
develop and grow. If you start
with a solution, you get very vested

654
00:42:22.639 --> 00:42:27.719
and you get very attached to it. And sometimes your idea of the problem

655
00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:29.840
is not the other people's idea of
the problem, and so you're trying to

656
00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:31.320
get them to buy your thing,
but it's not. It's square pegs and

657
00:42:31.320 --> 00:42:36.000
a round whole. Whereas if you
focus on the problem, if you understand,

658
00:42:36.079 --> 00:42:39.559
if you're constantly spending your time talking
to people, can you tell me

659
00:42:39.599 --> 00:42:43.880
what this problem is? What's this
problem in your words, what's the emotion

660
00:42:43.960 --> 00:42:47.480
that you feel. Because if they're
desperate, that's different than if they feel

661
00:42:47.480 --> 00:42:51.719
helpless, and that's different if they
feel frustrated, and those could all be

662
00:42:51.800 --> 00:42:54.360
different solutions. And if you work
on those things, then people open up

663
00:42:54.400 --> 00:42:58.639
more and more of what their problems
are. And the more that they share

664
00:42:58.639 --> 00:43:04.440
their problems it you. Basically they
write your sales copy for you, and

665
00:43:04.599 --> 00:43:07.280
all you have to do is repeat
back to them. Is this, it

666
00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:08.280
is this? It is it.
They'll tell you no, no, no,

667
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:10.519
it's this, it's this, it
this, And then they'll start putting

668
00:43:10.519 --> 00:43:14.920
in touch with people who also have
that problem. They'll and because if they

669
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:17.880
if they see you as a problem
understander and therefore a problem solver. I

670
00:43:17.880 --> 00:43:22.000
mean, who doesn't I if you
come into my life and then I have

671
00:43:22.039 --> 00:43:27.000
fewer problems, I want you in
my life. Right. Oh, here's

672
00:43:27.360 --> 00:43:29.400
I say that I'm going to give
away. One of my favorite jokes in

673
00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:35.360
the course is that there's a technical
term in business when you talk to valuable

674
00:43:35.400 --> 00:43:37.760
people in a field, and the
exercise is build up, starting with friends

675
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:40.480
and family, but working up to
how to speak to the most valuable people.

676
00:43:42.559 --> 00:43:45.960
There's a technical term when valuable people
in the field tell you their problems.

677
00:43:46.280 --> 00:43:52.000
Do you know what that? The
technical term is when people when when

678
00:43:52.840 --> 00:43:57.360
valuable people tell you their problems.
Yeah, like people who have founders and

679
00:43:57.400 --> 00:44:01.719
CEOs and uh, it's of corporations. It's a secret, it's a it's

680
00:44:01.760 --> 00:44:07.800
a coach, it's it's a it's
truth. It's the technical term for when

681
00:44:07.800 --> 00:44:09.320
people with resources, for valuable people, when they tell you their problems.

682
00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:14.559
The technical term for that is a
job offer. Oh I wasn't going to

683
00:44:14.639 --> 00:44:17.119
get there, thank you. They
might not they might not have known that

684
00:44:17.159 --> 00:44:22.119
they were saying it, and if
you didn't know how to respond, you

685
00:44:22.159 --> 00:44:24.760
wouldn't be able to turn it into
a job offer. But when they tell

686
00:44:24.760 --> 00:44:28.679
you the problems they want to they
want you to help solve them. And

687
00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:30.280
if you if you can show that
I can solve problems like that, they

688
00:44:30.280 --> 00:44:35.320
want you around. M lovely.
That's just beautiful. That's that's just such

689
00:44:35.320 --> 00:44:37.920
a great way to serve up how
we can be useful to other people when

690
00:44:37.920 --> 00:44:40.320
you get people to talk to about
their about their problems. Absolutely makes so

691
00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:44.159
much sense. And of course I
guess that is what we're what we're up

692
00:44:44.199 --> 00:44:47.039
we are doing when we really peel
back the onion here. Okay, so

693
00:44:47.079 --> 00:44:51.719
now we have to talk about your
your method initiative. You've created this beautiful

694
00:44:51.760 --> 00:44:53.800
program and you've brought several cohorts through
the program. I don't know how many

695
00:44:53.800 --> 00:44:58.000
people have come through, but it
seems that you are doing your part to

696
00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:01.519
give people access to developing their passions
also creating more initiative takers and entrepreneurs.

697
00:45:01.519 --> 00:45:04.880
That's what it seems like to me
from the outside having read your book,

698
00:45:05.400 --> 00:45:07.679
So first, is that right?
And if so, what do you aspire

699
00:45:07.719 --> 00:45:10.760
to do? What do you want
when you're trying to create or contribute to

700
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:15.400
society by doing this? Well,
I could, I could answer generally,

701
00:45:15.559 --> 00:45:17.599
and I'm going to get more specific
because since I've written that book, the

702
00:45:17.679 --> 00:45:27.000
environment has remained front page news.
And from a personal perspective, a lot

703
00:45:27.039 --> 00:45:30.400
of people say, you know,
the governments should do stuff, corporations should

704
00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:34.039
do stuff, but what I do
doesn't matter. I want to unpack this

705
00:45:34.079 --> 00:45:37.159
phrase here for a second. Anything
that has the phrase what I do doesn't

706
00:45:37.199 --> 00:45:42.920
matter. This is a deeply profound
statement. I don't want to like.

707
00:45:44.159 --> 00:45:49.679
It's really a powerful statement. Imagine
your parents saying it to you. It's

708
00:45:49.719 --> 00:45:55.000
okay, what you do doesn't matter. And yet we have a nation and

709
00:45:55.119 --> 00:46:00.960
world full of people feeling what I
do doesn't matter. Now it's in many

710
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:02.119
areas of life. A lot of
people feel frustrated. They feel like,

711
00:46:02.280 --> 00:46:04.880
you know, I just got to
keep my nose down and you know,

712
00:46:04.960 --> 00:46:07.559
do what I can to get my
kids through college. And they feel that

713
00:46:07.599 --> 00:46:12.360
if they do what matters, if
they do what they care about, it

714
00:46:12.360 --> 00:46:15.960
won't matter. And I do not
want people feeling that way. In the

715
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:19.280
area of the environment. I can
tell you I don't know if you can

716
00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:24.559
see on the board. Systemic change
begins with personal transformation is I've discovered that

717
00:46:24.599 --> 00:46:29.880
over and over again. And I
also discovered in the great historical figures that

718
00:46:29.920 --> 00:46:34.519
have done dramatic things like changed entire
nations cultures in very short periods of time.

719
00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:39.360
What I want to bring to the
world is the sense that what I

720
00:46:39.400 --> 00:46:44.840
do matters from experience, not because
I said it, not because you heard

721
00:46:44.840 --> 00:46:49.320
the words somewhere, but through personal
experience of doing something, developing the skills,

722
00:46:49.559 --> 00:46:53.159
not just factual recall or analysis of
planning, but connecting with people,

723
00:46:53.199 --> 00:46:55.800
finding out what they care about,
acting on that so that they you know,

724
00:46:55.800 --> 00:46:59.119
if it's entrepreneurship, they're like,
here, take my money, if

725
00:46:59.119 --> 00:47:02.599
it's changing your community, if it's
with family, that people find you a

726
00:47:02.679 --> 00:47:07.840
valuable person, that they want to
elevate themselves by knowing you, they elevate

727
00:47:07.880 --> 00:47:14.320
themselves. By you knowing them,
you elevate yourself. Maybe this sounds like

728
00:47:14.480 --> 00:47:19.480
high flute and talk, but one
people doing the exercise of my book generally

729
00:47:19.480 --> 00:47:22.840
get hired or at least several job
offers before they get to the tenth exercise.

730
00:47:22.760 --> 00:47:27.679
Wow. I started to record.
When I was doing it, I

731
00:47:28.119 --> 00:47:30.840
asked a friend, can I walk
you through these exercises. I'm gonna record

732
00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:32.559
our conversation so I can put it
in the on the site and so that

733
00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:37.039
people can get these recordings. And
we did, and like the eighth exercise,

734
00:47:37.079 --> 00:47:38.159
you got a job. And I
was like and he's like, I

735
00:47:38.239 --> 00:47:42.400
sorry, I'm not going to finish
the courses the course because I'm already got

736
00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:45.360
the job. And I was like, oh yeah, So I asked someone

737
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:50.239
else to do it, and the
same thing happened with him and one student

738
00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:55.480
an NYU and undergrad. He he
worked at some company and they said,

739
00:47:55.480 --> 00:47:59.239
you know, as an undergrad without
a college degree, there's a limit to

740
00:47:59.320 --> 00:48:04.039
what there's a the next job up
from yours you need a degree for.

741
00:48:04.920 --> 00:48:07.880
And so they voluntarily said, we've
made an extra position, a new position

742
00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:12.760
between those two, so we can
promote you. Wow, that's amazing.

743
00:48:13.880 --> 00:48:15.199
With that, we're really out of
times. Do you do you want to

744
00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:19.119
leave something with the listeners who're saying
about say ten seconds, but such a

745
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:22.719
powerful way to finish right there,
you know, check out the tex talks,

746
00:48:22.719 --> 00:48:25.360
go to Joshua Spodak dot com and
in the upright corner to see tex

747
00:48:25.480 --> 00:48:30.480
or listen to the to the the
podcast, and all my stuff is there.

748
00:48:30.920 --> 00:48:32.480
I'll give that to him as well. Thank you, josh It is

749
00:48:32.719 --> 00:48:37.519
fantastic to have you on the show. You are an inspiration. I'm following

750
00:48:37.519 --> 00:48:38.559
you now. You can run,
but you can hide, but because I'm

751
00:48:38.559 --> 00:48:43.760
after you now, and I'm a
pretty fast runner, So look out listeners.

752
00:48:43.800 --> 00:48:45.280
If you want to learn more about
doctor Joshua spotocus, he said,

753
00:48:45.360 --> 00:48:49.199
his books, his show, this
program, his other works, anything like

754
00:48:49.239 --> 00:48:52.400
that. Start by going to his
website. It's Joshua Spodak dot com.

755
00:48:52.440 --> 00:48:57.360
Let me spell that for you.
It's Joshua josh U A and then Spodek

756
00:48:57.599 --> 00:49:00.480
spodek dot com. Last week,
if you missed the live show, you

757
00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:04.840
can always catch it be a recorded
podcast. We're on their Cynthia Forceman talking

758
00:49:05.199 --> 00:49:08.159
about culture talk, the work that
she does and learning about how discovering how

759
00:49:08.719 --> 00:49:14.320
our archetype as individuals, leaders and
companies gives us clarity and a powerful store

760
00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:16.920
narrative with which to engage relationships of
business and in our personal lives. It's

761
00:49:16.920 --> 00:49:21.079
a really powerful conversation, and she
did talk about all twelve of our archetypes.

762
00:49:21.119 --> 00:49:23.440
You can maybe discover yours in the
conversation. Next week, we'll be

763
00:49:23.639 --> 00:49:28.280
on the air with Tim Spiker talking
about his book called The Only Leader's Worth

764
00:49:28.360 --> 00:49:30.760
Following. See you there. Remember
that work is at least a third of

765
00:49:30.760 --> 00:49:38.320
our life, So let's work on
purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's

766
00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:43.559
program. Be sure to tune in
too, Working on Purpose featuring your host,

767
00:49:43.679 --> 00:49:49.000
doctor Elise Cortez, each week on
the Voice America Empowerment Channel. Together,

768
00:49:49.360 --> 00:49:54.760
we'll create a world where business operates
conscientiously, leadership inspires impassioned performance,

769
00:49:55.199 --> 00:50:00.559
and employees are fulfilled in work that
provides the meaning and purpose they crave.

770
00:50:00.320 --> 00:50:02.880
See you there, Let's work on
purpose.