Speaker #0Hello, welcome back to the podcast. I'm recording on location today. It's been a while since I've done this. I've spent the morning at a small scale orchard called Peaches and Pippins which I've been visiting as part of an agroforestry open weekend and I'm sat now in a little clearing among the fruit trees, there's apples here and pears and damsons and plums and peaches of course and you might at certain points here in the background the chickens that have a very happy life I have to say roaming among the fruit trees and eating the undergrowth and there are lots of birds around, there's so much diversity. and abundance here and it's just so peaceful and joyful to to be sat here and to have spent a morning learning about this way of working with the land and producing food and this morning I was feeling quite despondent actually I guess I was having one of those low points that regularly seem to crop up when you're I think particularly when you're in the early stages of building something and it feels like it's all kind of in your head and you know you're really kind of impatient for it to start being more concrete and there's just a lot more room for self-doubt I think in those early stages where you don't have tangible things to point to and say, look, I built this or I made this happen. And... After this morning's tour and having a lovely long conversation with the owner and farmer here, I feel completely sort of reinvigorated and refreshed. And it's interesting that a lot of the kind of questions that in some ways kind of haunt me have moved more to the back of my head. They just don't feel as important as they did this morning. And I think that's because when I'm meeting with land workers, when I'm in nature like I am now, where I'm in the very place where the work that I am doing, you know, this is who it's for. It's for spaces like this. It's for people like this. Doing the work is what unlocks the energy for me, is what... fuels me to keep going and that's really what I wanted to take a pause and talk with you about today because I had a parallel conversation with a client this week who is doing market research they're in that sort of testing phase for the offer that they've built and I could tell that they weren't feeling particularly joyful about having these interviews with potential clients and partners. And I asked them the question of, you know, what would make you feel really excited at this stage? What would be different? And they said, well, it's doing the work that I feel really excited about. It's not the periphery pieces around the work. And so together we kind of crafted a way that she could make that market research phase feel more like doing the work, because that's really what she wants is to be. you know sat down with her clients doing what she does best drawing on her expertise and in many ways that's what I'm finding as well is that the the doubts get much much louder when I'm sat on my own in my office doing the kind of design part of this where I'm you know writing down all my notes and I'm kind of tackling all the different questions in my head and I'm doing the financial modeling and all of that is important of course have to do that and my ability to do that is you know partly why I am able to build this but but it isn't it isn't connected it's you know it's very heady it's very logical and when I actually get out and I meet with when I meet with people who are farming who are working the land who are building businesses in in partnership with the land and Like when I'm getting my hands dirty, basically, you know, that's when it feels real. Like that's when I feel really connected to it. And it's when I kind of have that knowing. that what I'm doing really matters beyond kind of beyond any benefits that I can write down on paper or any like financial rewards that I can see at this point um you know it's it it comes back again to what I was talking about last week it's making sure that the journey of building this the process of building this are their own reward. a big part of that is just finding a way to do the work that you want to do. And it sounds so simple, but I think I know, in fact, from experience of helping a lot of people to design self-directed work, to build meaningful businesses, that most of us get stuck in the thinking and the planning and the designing and the marketing. You know, we can naturally get into this heady place with it. And we're kind of doing it, probably not on paper, probably doing it, you know, with clawed AI or on a spreadsheet. Or we're, you know, writing and rewriting our pitch deck. And yes, it's necessary, but it's not real. It's not the work. And if we're not doing the work that we want to do and that we love, and we're always making it something like out there in the future that we... will get to once we've done enough design and planning and testing. That's really kind of under-energized, draining place to be, actually. So I really feel that if you're in this process and you know the kind of work that you want to do, just find a way to do it. Like, it doesn't matter. Let go of, you know, being paid. Let go of it being... perfect like let go of needing to be more qualified just find a way to do the work that you want to do and that lights you up and that you love not forever I don't mean that as an end point but just find a way to begin make that a part of the mix get your hands dirty in whatever way makes sense to you because I really believe you will feel the energy that flus from that. I learned more in the last two hours. touring around this incredible orchard and speaking to the steward who looks after it than I could asking you know hundreds of endless questions in AI or doing loads and loads of research or reading all of the papers that are coming out in the space that I'm working in. Getting your hands dirty makes a difference, it connects you to the work, it takes away the barrier between where you are now and the vision that you have for your career or business. You know, it takes those blockers out the way. You just find a way to do the work. You know, today I offered to do some coaching with the person who runs this and bring some of my expertise in terms of making a business case and doing some financial testing and modelling. And that felt really good to me. I'm not going to get paid for that, but I'm going to learn an awful lot from... that experience and it's getting me closer to where I want to be getting my hands dirty um you know and even if it's not like quite so clear for you in terms of there's an opportunity to offer your service to someone or find a customer for your business just find a way to get closer to it like physically how how can you go and be near people doing the same thing how can you be in the right kinds of ways. of places? How can you go and experience businesses that look like the one that you want to build? I think it's so important that we get out of our heads and into our bodies and into experience and connect with other people and connect with places and that's going to look like so many different things for whatever it is that you want to do but there is a limit to what we can achieve Using our kind of intellectual, logical mind, that is a big part of my coaching practice, is helping people shift out of that and into the wisdom of their body and into kind of lived experience. And it's just, it's also just fun and joyful. And, you know, why do we, why do we make the process of building the career that we want so hard? I think a lot of us do that. We f***ed. feel like it should be weighty. We feel like we really need to put the hours in. You know, it probably comes like right back to sort of like. industrial revolution kind of imprinting in our brains that our, you know, our worth is tied to our kind of our effort and our output. But we also just get to go and experience things. And, you know, if we wanted things to be really hard and really heavy, we could just stay in the world of corporate. We could just, you know, work all of the hours and take on all of the pressure and give up. our freedom and autonomy but we're choosing to do things differently so let's really do things differently you know and for me that means sitting in an orchard recording this podcast for you maybe for you it means i i don't know going and spending time by the ocean because it's a source of inspiration for you or reaching out to someone that you really admire whose work you've heard about and like traveling you know traveling two hours just to go and have a coffee with them and just to meet them and learn from their experience or you know going to that conference where you don't really feel like you should be there because you don't know exactly what it is that you offer yet or you don't have an organization to sit behind yet but you just go anyway to be around ideas and inspiration getting our hands dirty like in my case yes that probably means like actual soil But whatever that version is for you, get out there, have experiences, follow your joy, get your hands dirty and just do the work in whatever form you can that you love and that you want to do. And it will lead you more quickly and more sustainably down the path to the career or business that you're dreaming of. That is what I believe. Right. I am going to make my way through the orchard, past the chickens. I'm going to take my bottle of apple juice pressed from these very trees with me and yeah, take this glowing feeling that I have from this experience this morning into the next stage of my building journey. Thank you as always for coming along from the ride. If you want more updates and behind the scenes, do sign up to my emails. where I will be sharing all of that with you. The link is in the show notes. And thank you as always for listening and see you again next week. If this episode of From Corporate to Calling was helpful or inspiring, follow the show so you don't miss an episode. And if you know someone who's questioning their career, send them this podcast. Lifelines are meant to be shared. Remember, you don't have to tolerate... burnout or misalignment, you can redirect your skills into meaningful work that brings back life to you and to the world around you.
