In this dynamic episode, Tim Sweet and Elayna Snyder discuss the transformative impact of understanding one's unique perspective in marketing and leadership. Elayna challenges common misconceptions, asserting that the essence of a personal brand lies in understanding one's perspective and creativity. Tim engages her in a thought-provoking conversation that unravels the intricacies of marketing, emphasizing the need to slow down to speed up. Elayna shares her remarkable journey, transitioning from teaching in Japan to becoming a personal brand coach, illustrating the transformative power of articulating one's perspective. 

The episode delves into the concept of "guardrails," exploring their role in authentic connection and effective translation of one's heart across diverse cultural contexts. Tim and Elayna navigate the continual process of calibration, highlighting the importance of validating others' experiences and utilizing insight timelines for personal and professional growth. Elayna's upcoming project, a creativity tracker, is introduced, accompanied by an invitation for listeners to ponder the liberating question, "What if it were easy?" as a catalyst for overcoming obstacles and nurturing creativity.

About Elayna Snyder 

Elayna Snyder, your atypical personal branding coach, is on a mission to redefine how we approach brand creation. Having lived in four diverse countries, Elayna thrives on translating her curious heart and creativity across cultures. Beyond traditional personal branding, she guides individuals to authentically communicate and lead by understanding and leveraging their unique perspectives. A seasoned coach and consultant, Elayna engages in thought-provoking discussions on LinkedIn and shares invaluable insights through her newsletter: thereframenewsletter.com. Passionate about transforming conventional ideas, she's unveiling an exciting project—a creativity tracker that fosters self-awareness and taps into innate creativity.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Marianne Williamson: goodreads.com/quotes
• Julia Cameron: goodreads.com/en/book
• Tim Ferriss: instagram.com/timferriss

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Contact Tim Sweet | Team Work Excellence: 

• Website
• LinkedIn: Tim Sweet
• Instagram
• LinkedIn: Team Work Excellence

Contact Elayna Snyder 

• Website: elaynasnyder.com
• Facebook: Indigocollectiv
• Linkedin: Elayna Snyder
• The Reframe: thereframenewsletter.com

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Transcript:

Elayna 00:01

When we're talking about creating opportunities for ourselves specifically in the marketing space, that truly is a translation. Let's look at LinkedIn for a second, the way that you show up there cannot be the same as the way that you show up in your delivery with clients. And I find that so many people, they're thinking that it's a direct translation, well, I do this with my clients, this must be what people want to hear, or they just have no conception of how we're going to build in those guardrails to create a really powerful translation so that people who don't know them yet know to lean into them.

Tim 00:42

I'd like to ask you some questions. Do you consider yourself the kind of person that gets things done? Are you able to take a vision and transform that into action? Are you able to align others towards that vision and get them moving to create something truly remarkable? If any of these describe you, then you my friend are a leader, and this show is all about and all for you. Welcome to the 25th episode of the Sweet on Leadership Podcast.

Tim 01:13

Welcome back, everybody. My name is Tim Sweet. And you are here with us on the Sweet on Leadership Podcast. Today I am joined by a very special new friend, this is Elayna Snyder. Elayna, you are teaching me all sorts of new things about how to approach myself, and how I represent myself to clients. In the short time since you and I were connected, you've got me thinking in totally different ways about how I need to be presenting who I am in the world. And I have to say, it's helping me feel a lot freer about things. But enough about me. Tell the people who you are. And let's get into this because it's an exciting topic. 

Elayna 01:55

Yeah, Tim, thanks so much. And thank you for showing up to play with me in that way. Because not all of us are for everyone. So, I'm glad that we've had this immediate connection already. And hello to your audience. I'm very happy to be here. In terms of who I am and what I do. I work with top coaches and consultants. And what we're really looking at is this main question around, how do I powerfully articulate what I do to create more of my best clients at the fees that I desire? And there's another question that comes on the back of that, too. And that question is, how do I integrate more of myself into my work? What's that next big idea? Maybe it's a new offering, a book, or even the creation of a movement. So, I want to just preface this just a tiny bit more for us. Before we dive in, Tim because we've already been having so much fun. In both of these questions, what we're really looking at is the idea of truly owning our perspective, and unlocking our creativity, because it's on the other side of that, that those yet to be imagined opportunities exist. And truly, that's what I believe we're really after.

Tim 03:07

And I'm really excited for the people that are listening today, not only because this has application when it comes to, you know, marketing a business and the rest of it. But for those that are listening, that are employed, or are in leadership positions, which is a huge part of my audience, this has legs. This idea of being able to articulate who you are and really the essence of that for yourself and others, allows you to lead in really authentic, really powerful ways. And in my experience, that fluency really helps us unlock a pathway to connect with other people and to do really interesting and profound things that matter to us. And through that excitement, are that much higher quality for others. So, I think if you are not solely in the marketing interest or running a business, there's still going to be something here for you. So, hang on, because Elayna has got a lot of good stuff to share. Well, Elayna, perhaps as a way for us to kick off, we were talking earlier around what it means to have a sense of who you are, and we hear a lot of terms kicked around around this. We hear the term, you know, is it your character? Is it a persona? Is it how you have to show it professionally? Is it your personal brand? Can you give us some thoughts about what those terms mean to you? What are the terms that are being used out there? And what do we need to know? 

Elayna 04:38

Yeah, and let's start with that last one that you said, the personal brand because most people are going to call me a personal brand coach, and they come to me to help them build their personal brand and the first thing that I always tell them to do is we're going to throw the idea of personal brand out the door. There are huge misconceptions around what that is. And they end up getting in the way from the actual discovery that we need to explore and really harness who we are. So, the way that I describe personal brands, because I am going to contextualize this in that, that we've got a little bit of a foot in the marketing space. But as we continue our conversation, I think that we're going to see how that dissipates pretty quickly. But when I'm thinking about personal brand, what I'm really thinking about is the way that you see the world. And this is your perspective. And there's this other thing that comes in too, because it's not just the way that you see the world. It's also the way that you express the way you see the world, which I call your creativity. And this is so unique to you, when we really get down into it, that when we lean into those definitions, and when we explore from that side of things, what we discover is truly yet to be imagined just about ourselves, but then that leads to these opportunities that we're looking to harness and yet we don't have the language around what they really are.

Tim 06:17

So, if we have that expression of the way we see the world, and how we express it to others, how do you capture that? What would a term that you would use if not personal brand?

Elayna 06:27

That's a good question. I use personal brand, because it's a catch-all. And we can definitely talk more about that because that is very marketing. I've thought a lot about this for myself. But when I'm sitting on the couch, drinking my coffee and thinking about it, I'm thinking about it strictly as creativity. It's your perspective, and it's your creativity. What does that mean? How do I deepen more into it for myself? How am I supporting my clients to do that? How are we doing that in our communities? 

Tim 06:58

Awesome. When we think about that expression of creativity, and how people experience us, that's really core to some things that I teach around leadership. I do use the term brand and I think we can't get away from that. But for the duration of this podcast, everyone who's listening, please, when we consider this, if we say the word brand, let's keep in mind that we're using it in this evolved sense that it's not simply a tell them who we are set of words, colours, imagery, whatever, we're not trying to manipulate anybody, it's about that genuine article, if they're going to experience our brand, it's going to be tied into how we see the world and how we genuinely express that. So, if we fall into that, that's where we'll continue from. But what's really interesting about that, to me is that if people don't have a handle on this, if they don't understand how they see the world, or at least they haven't articulated for themselves, or they try to be something else, because they're supposed to be, they should all over themselves. Right? If you're not intentional about it, it's going to come out anyway. You can tell people one thing, but through your actions, and through your comments, and through how they experience you, your brand or your viewpoint on the world and how you process things, it's kind of come out. So, the question is, do we want to embrace that? Or do we want to say one thing and do another? And when we miss that, I mean, we can cause all sorts of problems for ourselves. 

Elayna 08:35

Very much so. I think the other side of that, too, is that when we're looking to create something and when we're learning something new, we tend to think that the answer lies outside of ourselves. How do I do that? Where can I learn how to do that better? And this hidden assumption often comes with that. I have this all the time, I check myself with it daily, minute by minute sometimes. And that assumption is that we're adapting something new, what we have is not good enough, or it needs to be changed, or it needs to be filtered in a different way. And the first thing that I am always doing with my clients, and what I am a little bit obsessed about is creating experiences, even in conversations like this, for us to think about that in a different way and to harness the awareness around that piece of it because it gets in the way. It doesn't allow us to see what's already there because it's not just that it's getting out right like it's not just about your brand getting out. It's that it truly is already there. What happens when we look at it and put some intentionality around it and harness it?

9:55

And get other things out of the way. It’s funny because, in a conference last year, I was speaking about the trouble we get into when, this was for startups, and a lot of them are coming from science and technology. And so if you're coming from a STEM background, you tend to think in an additive way we're taught in school, that when we go through learning, or we go through an experimentation, it's about step by step, one thing, complete it, then go to the next step, add another thing, add another thing, and everything is additive. And when we want to bring value, or we have that feeling that we're not enough, it's always well, what do I need to add? What do I need go and get? Because of that, because we're always missing something, there is this subtle scarcity, this, this deficiency that creeps up, where we're always like, what's the next thing I need? If I can just get that I'll finally be good enough. And then you get there. And it's like, well, wait a minute. Now I'm missing this. And I gotta go get that. Rather than taking a reductive approach and saying, What can I give away? What can I end my relationship with, so that everything else can kind of shine through? Coaching the other day, I said to somebody, maybe we don't need to set any more sales on your boat, maybe we just need to cut a few of these anchors loose. Right? So, tell me a little bit more about that feeling about being enough, and how that gets into people's way. 

Elayna 11:21

Gosh, there's so many different ways that we can explore this. And it's funny, I think I'm tripping up a little bit in the idea of it being around being enough. I'm taking a beat here to really let that sink in. I think that sometimes the excitement around it can mean that we're looking for that idea so hard, that we're looking for those ads, we're looking for the next and we don't actually stop long enough to even have the question of, Is this enough? Or am I enough? And yet I love that you've brought that up. Because it's a few layers down, it's just the access to it. We have to be able to slow down enough in order to have that.

Tim 12:16

To sort of take stock. Take stock and say what do I have working for me? Before I go out and gather more? 

Elayna 12:21

Yes. Well, definitely, that is exactly it. Because really what we're talking about, when I'm talking about owning your perspective and unlocking your creativity, what I'm really saying is what's already working for you? That thing that you want to create, that thing, that next big idea that you know, you need to add something or change this or, and you're looking for that coach who might help you or you've just been journaling on it, and you're in that motion, you're in the action. That's all really good. But if we don't have that moment where we can really sit with the process, and slow ourselves down enough to realize that this frustration, this wandering, this need to do more, is part of the process of building into that idea. And so it's that paradigm of slowing down to speed up, which I love how you've talked about what anchors do we need to cut because oftentimes those anchors are more things that we're just doing. So, we're going, we're going, we're going. Slowing down to speed up is a huge piece of how this can all really begin to click in place in a way that we can feel it. 

Tim 13:44

My friend Richard Young always talks about athletes and athletes, when they hit a certain age of 16, 17-18, they begin to question. It's a natural evolved response, they start to reject authority. So, they begin to question and reject the advice of coaches and teachers and parents, right? And then they start to look for those extrinsic things that they need to adopt. And this can be the superstitions, this can be the latest vitamin, this can be the training regime that they need to be on because everybody's doing it. And they begin to add these things on. And so much of what Richard proposes for these teams is get back to a state of what really determines whether or not you are able to express yourself through the sport. And what are the essential parts of that and are you doing those rather than all this getting distracted with all these other things? And so I think naturally as human beings were hunter-gatherers, we go we find that thing and then we store it away. We have to bank all of these supplies, in case we need them. We're loading for bear constantly because you never know when. And that idea of enough is probably too simplistic. It's sometimes you have to go learn something, right? I guess what I'm visualizing there is that we're getting in our own way sometimes. As you say, we need to take time to process to experience that. And calibrate, maybe? 

Elayna 15:26

Definitely, what you're getting into there with the word calibrate is the fact that this is all a continuum. This is all a process and there are different stages of that process in terms of where we're at with understanding our perspective, owning our perspective, expressing that to the world, and creating those opportunities for ourselves. It's never linear. It's one of the most confusing parts about marketing because marketing is all about people. It's all about connection. And what do we know about people and connection? Well, it's messy, it's changing, it's shifting. Our energy is changing and shifting in the way that we're showing up with each other right now. And it could have been different, or it was different 10 minutes ago versus 20 minutes ago. And so how do we harness all of those nuances? And yet, not get caught up in those supposed complexities of that, right, because that we could feel that everything that I'm saying is so complex? Well, what do I do? Is it even worth it? Or, we could slow down to take a minute and realize, well, yeah, I do know I'll to be true.

Tim 16:43

So, let's turn this lens on you for a bit, because I think this is a great time for us to learn a little bit more about how you found yourself here. When I hear you speaking, I would assume it's very important to you that people find that sense of self that allows them to fully express their value, or really feel like they're fulfilling their purpose or those kinds of things. So, that seems like it's a driving factor for you. Would that be accurate? 

Elayna 17:09

Yeah, and I really came to that through feeling like I should be adopting something else to make this business thing work, because I don't come from a business background. 

Tim 17:21

Tell us a little bit about that. Why don't you take us up to now, give us a bit about your history?

Elayna 17:25

I have a track record of doing things that are completely unknown to me. I do not come from a marketing background, I don't come from a business background, I come from a background of teaching English primarily in Japan. So, when I got started with marketing, I was following a system, then changing systems, what I was doing was actually really working, I ran a really successful program all about being authentic on LinkedIn and getting clients. But what I started to realize is that it was attracting a certain kind of people. And it was keeping me and those people in a box. And the reason that it was doing that is because I had a very specific guarantee on my services. It was, you know, work with me and we'll get your next one to three high-paying clients, or I'll work with you for free until we do. Great for sales. But what that ended up meaning is that if they didn't follow these exact steps, they weren't going to get what was promised. And the other thing that I was realizing is that most business owners don't actually know what they do, or who they do it for. And I was also realizing that as a business owner, which I completely fell into, I didn't know what I did or who I did it for. And so I went on this incredible journey of trying to figure that out. And a huge piece of that, that I couldn't name at the time was understanding how my perspective and where I came from with my teaching background and I've lived abroad for the majority of my adult life as well, how that experience perfectly positions me to help tap leaders, coaches, consultants, translate themselves to create new opportunities. So, this looks like marketing, personal branding. But I really want to step out beyond that, because so many of my clients discover things that they didn't know to want in the beginning. Including, I had one client who got so clear on who she wanted to work with. She fired a few clients, had some space, started a new business, and I helped her build the brand of that business. She could have never imagined that when we began together. So, the most important piece of my story for me, which is also the most important part of my story for my best clients as well. It's usually what gets them leaning in. That's the trick, right? Not the trick, the truth rather.

Tim 20:06

That's the key. 

Elayna 20:07

That's the key. I love that. Yes, that's the key. And the key really is, is that for me, because I have spent the majority of my life outside the States, I have always been looking for ways to translate my heart into whatever culture, context or language I was connecting through. And that is a skill that I didn't know that I was building at the time when I went to Japan. I didn't speak the language, I knew nothing of the culture. And I had no idea that I would need it in the way that I did. I lived so rurally, that if I didn't speak the language, I would not have any friends, or just not have any life, right? And so when we're talking about creating opportunity for ourselves, specifically in the marketing space, that truly is a translation. Let's look at LinkedIn for a second, the way that you show up there cannot be the same as the way that you show up in your delivery with clients. And I find that so many people, they're thinking that it's a direct translation, well, I do this with my clients, this must be what people want to hear, or they just have no conception of how we're going to build in those guardrails to create a really powerful translation, so that people who don't know them yet, know to lean into them, know to lean into their perspective and the unique gifts that they have to bring to the world. 

Tim 21:40

Think that idea of guardrails is really interesting. So, what I'm taking from this more than anything, and perhaps the most profound statement that you've made to me, is this idea of being able to translate your heart into other cultures and languages, into other situations. Right? So, that people can appreciate it from their perspective. I love that statement that says, we start where they are, we don't start where we are, right? If we're going to present ourselves to others in order to make a connection that's really clear and help them see us or experience us in the way that we want to be experienced. So, that there's not a lot of noise. We have to be conscious of where they are and how we speak in that moment, or how we act in that moment, or how we convey in that moment. And those guardrails, that idea of having guardrails really takes me back to the statement that said, you know, the human brain is only able to process so much information at once. And when we see people walking down the street, and we're with friends, we can't process everything, the feelings of everyone that's around us, or what's happening. We can focus on our friends as ourselves as the main character, and that's our supporting cast. But everybody else has to remain as background, they’re NPCs, as my kids say. They’re kind of background imagery and noise. We understand they’re people, but they're just figures moving. And in the same way, that guardrail helps people give people something that they can digest that they can get their hands around, that they can conceptualize in sort of a semi-pure form, without being distracted about all these other things that they might have to consider. So, we're helping guide thought, am I on track there with what you're thinking? 

Elayna 23:34

Definitely, definitely. And I find that so many of us, we have this thing that we want to talk about. And that's really good. I would say that when we start to speak, we do want to meet the person where they're at, right? So much of that fuel, though, comes from within us. So, to be able to kind of dance with the within and the connection that we're trying to create at the same time, is so important. And this is one of those weird things that language does is because I know that you agree with that. And sometimes when we try to communicate these ideas, we have to choose almost which one is more important. What I find with myself and my clients ask me this a lot too, is that I have this thing that I want to talk about. I love talking about creativity. But my best clients aren't sitting there thinking about creativity. So, if I want them to listen, I've got to validate their experience right now. And we can talk about that as being pain. You and I were talking about this earlier, right? Like there's a quality of it that yes, it can be pain, but a lot of us don't sit there thinking that we're in pain even when we need help. I don't think that way. So, we're really looking to reach into that experience of these other people, our best people and then look at what's really under that because what's really under that, for me, is almost always creativity. I can take any conversation and show you where the creativity is. So, what is that for you? Right? This is kind of a fun thought experiment for your listeners. For you, Tim. It's like, what is that thing that you can always refer back to? That thing that you want to be known for that thing that you talk about all the time that fuels you, throughout your day? 

Tim 25:25

That question you want to raise in the minds of others that that impression, you want to leave them with that feeling? All of that. That is exciting. And it's funny, when you talk about creativity, my mind always strays back to the idea of flow. And that in a positive direction, when we have a state of flow, we have this creative anxiety that's balanced properly, with a sense of control and a sense of, you know, we’re creative, but we also feel secure, we feel safe enough, right? So, that we're not straying over into fear, and being unnerved. And when we think about trying to control, especially an abstract or an inauthentic message to someone, it just sucks the creativity right out of the experience and slows us right down. And not only that but why are we doing that? We're doing that because we fear not being enough as we went back to. So, we have to be this something else, this thing we're supposed to be. But if we also keep sort of on the flow analogy, doing too much of that control, especially when there's no payoff and no juice in it for us, leads us to boredom and apathy. And one way that I've seen people burn out on their careers, and absolutely cave, when it comes to having to be a solopreneur or a founder and starting something is by chasing somebody else's dream or chasing that thing of what you're supposed to be in, it doesn't feel natural. And after a while, you get kind of bored of it. It sucks the life force out of you. And you're just left feeling unrestored, there's no payoff. Right? And so, when you help people connect, and clarify, what is their source of creativity, even if that's not how, they're saying, you're helping them tap into a fuel tank, you're helping them find their juice in the world, right? So, you've expressed a little bit about how this has led to your own enlightenment or your own your own drive. Could you walk us through a hypothetical or, you know, a name-free case study of what this transformation might look like in practice, how a person may come to you? And what kind of conversations are had so that you can illustrate for us what does this transformation experience actually look like?

Elayna 27:58

I mean, like any, it looks very different for many people. One of my more recent clients came to me, he'd been in business for four years and wasn't making sales. And he knew that there was something that he needed to address. And he just didn't really know what. And so by tapping into his perspective, and looking at what he did through that, it gave him an entirely different way of seeing the need for it, positioning the need for it, and having the clarity and confidence to have those sales conversations. And within six weeks of working with each other, he lined up all different kinds of conversations and got a new client from that. That's a very kind of quick overview. What I'd like to do is actually invite people into some of this practice for themselves right now. 

Tim 28:56

You can use me as a guinea pig if you want. 

Elayna 28:57

Yeah, okay. So, really, when we're starting with looking at your perspective, the most paradoxical thing about this is that your perspective is so close to you, how do you see it? It's not something that you can just look at. And so what I do with my clients is help them tap into ways that they can experience their own perspective. This is something that we're really not taught to think about. And so I invite all of us right now, wherever you're at, to look around you. And this is kind of funny, but like, literally, you are the only person in the entire universe who is seeing what you're seeing, even if you're sitting with someone right next to you.

Tim 29:49

This is just my paradigm and nobody else holds this. 

Elayna 29:52

Yes. And the other piece of that is that we often think about our perspective and talk about our perspective as just being one of many, right? And that we need to be aware of that, we need to be careful of that. And I'm not discrediting that. But that's not where I'm coming from. Where I'm coming from is that your experience, how you've lived your life, all of that is sitting with you right here at this moment, and guiding you to pick up certain things in your surroundings, and that will naturally be different. So, it's not just about the fact that I'm sitting in my sister's living room, I'm in the States right now. But it's what I choose to actually see here. And it's that, that when we're talking about coaches and consultants, it's that, that your best clients want and they need when we're talking about leaders. The people who need you to lead them, they want your perspective, you will help them see there's in a different way. There's fireworks that happens there. That's where new insight comes from and that's really what's going to help us tap into creativity and innovation.

Tim 31:09

When you see teams trying to collaborate, and I've got clients in the throes of this right now that I'm helping on team and departmental levels, organizational levels, is when they misconstrue what a person's motive is either from the service side or from the beneficiary side. It immediately causes consternation, it immediately causes friction and the inability for them to digest each other's values. And to serve properly. They're operating from this space of assuming that the other person thinks the way that they think that they see the world through their eyes, and that they understand what they understand. And just that realization that only we can see the world through this space and time. The implication is, the other person has just a unique of view. And so tell me a little bit about how we bridge that or what's the next step. 

Elayna 32:08

The next step for me and my clients is actually not to look at the other person yet. It's to look deeper into ourselves because now we've seen that we have this unique perspective just because we're looking around ourselves. But how do we actually have that what has happened? What has catalyzed us into this perspective that we have? And so what I do with my clients is we're looking at what I call their insight timeline. It's not the experience that matters, it's the insight that comes from that experience. So, we're looking at what have been those major insights across your life that positions you here today. And how do you understand that better in preparation for the next step, because the next step is to leave yourself at the door, and to look at who you're here to serve as a leader, as a coach. And now we're looking at what I call perspective matching. Where are those ways in which you really connect into the people that you lead? The clients that you serve? What does that mean? What does it mean to connect with them, validate their experience and help them see what they need to see in order to achieve what they're looking to achieve? 

Tim 33:38

I like that, and those insights, I mean, the vernacular that I've always used is, we all go through this life, and we amassed different understandings. So, there's pivotal moments, there's pivotal learnings, there's things that shape us. And we add them to ourselves as a construct. I often use the term you know, this is where we take on new beliefs, and we craft our identity around them. And I like the other term that you use, you said catalyze, but that categorization or that crystallization, or that construction now that this belief or this thing that we feel this identity, we hold this insight that we've taken on it forms us, it becomes part of our understanding of the world, it becomes how we explain things and how we are biased towards one thing or another. So, to back up, the first thing is the basic realization that you are unique. You are the only person that is seeing things through your eye. The next thing is to fully digest that or at least do some work to get fluent on what those things are and bring those into the conscious brain. Only then are you even remotely prepared to go out and say, okay, now I can appreciate or begin to appreciate what the other person is. Am I following? 

Elayna 35:02

Yeah. I mean, of course, this is nonlinear too, right? We need language to give us enough structure to be able to communicate it together here. But there's always going to be that feedback loop between understanding who you are because you're helping me understand how I'm being received right now. And vice versa for the people that you serve. How do these things all fit together? And how do they–

Tim 35:28

–it's not three stepping stones, it's a million different steps where every step brings us a new realization that opens up something else, if we choose to take that opportunity, that then gets us to another position, another paradigm where we can then take on the next piece of information. And it's really organic or nonlinear like that. That you can't just say, Okay, we're going to define all this. And oh, boy, howdy, do certain tools, try to promise you that you can, right? That you can just run I mean, I run, there's a couple of different inventories that I will use around performance and work style and how people find their genius. They're pretty humble in the sense that they don't attempt to explain everything. And do people ever want to have a shortcut towards this stuff? I don't know if it's because it's work or it's scary, or it's almost unnerving to realize that you are as unique as you are because that comes with the with the caveat that all that also means you're terribly alone in some ways. 

Elayna 36:31

Yeah. I mean, we think that we're afraid of the darkness, when truly we're afraid of the light, and there is so much light in each of us to truly bring that to the world is the scariest thing that I think we can ever do. It's definitely the scariest thing that I've done. And it's not something that you finish. That's another piece that I feel like our conversation is going towards is this idea that there are tools to help you do X, Y, Z. Great. And yes, some of those can be really helpful. But this is not about getting to this space where we have everything that we need and we just can sit back and relax and watch everything happen in front of us. I'm sure there are people who want to believe that that's true and those are the kinds of people that I don't work well with. Part of what I love about this kind of work is that once you've done it once, you have a different way of interacting with it for the rest of your life. 

Tim 37:34

When you take on that responsibility, when you don't absolve yourself from that knowledge, then you've come up face to face with the awesome realization that you've got a lot of choice. And that choice then means that there's only so much runway for staying ignorant. And as you were talking here, I was racking my brain trying to find one of my favourite quotes. And we've talked a little bit about all the lists or the records we keep, I have a massive favourite quotes file that I maintain. Because I just don't want to let these things go when I want a man that's pivotal. And I'm always sort of scanning over it if I need inspiration, but one of them was from Marianne Williamson. And she said, Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. And I think it's such a fear because then we have the acknowledgement that we may not be utilizing our brief time on this planet. Well, that's quite an inspiring and terrifying condition for some people. But for those of us, for those searchers, and those people that are looking for you and looking for me, I mean, we do have one thing going for us and that is they are people that are driven to be more or to find clarity or to fully actualize like they are. They're heading in that direction. Searchers is what I like to call them, right, because it's and, you know, being careful not to say that you're always deficient until you're complete. People are complete right now, today. And what can we do with that? So if you were to leave people with one thought, anybody who's listening, they're into a marketing effort or they're into a sort of self-discovery effort. What would be the key takeaway that you would want people to take, from this introduction to the way you're thinking? Which I think is absolutely fantastic, and I can't wait till we can connect because I have some questions. I provide guidance and answers, but I never want it to be thought that great coaches don't have great coaches. Great coaches need, you know, a support system. And as many of the people know, I mean, a lot of the people that are a part of my company, I hold them as counsel. Right? They are qualified in areas that I am not. And they are able to help me see the forest through the trees, you know because you can't see that when you're on a limb of a specific tree, and you are trying to appreciate everything that we are, right? It's just not our business. But what would be the thought you would leave people with? Or the hope, or the wish you would have for them? 

Elayna 40:35

What I would encourage all of us to do, and I'm going to include myself in this because I'm in a constant evolution with my own business, is get that thing that you want, in your mind, like feel that for a second and feel like the should I do this? Or should I do that? What's that next thing? Because we can feel like that kind of shaking energy. If you can see me, I'm kind of shaking right now. Because we, we know that it's there. Right? And that's the key. It's there. So, feel that and really look at what's already happening here. And how do I work with that? Actually, let me rephrase. It's not how do I work with that? It's how am I already working with that? 

Tim 41:27

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's funny when you said that I just had a thought crystallize in my mind. And that was so often I think we are mistaking a feeling that feeling of anxiety as something that is absent because we mistake that for something that's a gap, versus something that is not fully tapped into yet something is going unused. You know, that statement when you're a kid, and you're given some money, and they say it's burning a hole through your pocket, you can't wait to spend this energy on the planet to get something done. Okay, that's a pretty negative analogy in the sense that we're not supposed to spend money, willy-nilly. But when we think about we have potential that's burning a hole in our humanity wallet. And yet we mistake that for a feeling of uneasiness that could be easily misconstrued internally, as I'm not enough right now. Or I'm not I'm missing something. But what we're missing is that expression, that ability to emote or create with that thing, that's that unused tube of paint, it's that palette knife, we need to grab and I'm vibrating with you. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I got I've got something in the basement here. I gotta go. And I've got to get it out. And sometimes it's just, I love the the work of Julia Cameron, right, she talks about unlocking/unblocking writer's block, right? And people who've been part of my morning pages group that's called The Morning Stoke, we go and we do a writing exercise where we journal down all these random thoughts, just so we can get them out of our brain, we spend 12 minutes there. And that for people is often enough to just get those monkeys back in their cage. You know, spiritual windshield wipers is what Tim Ferriss calls it, we just get we get through all that. So, we can go and we can be. So, this is super exciting. What is the most exciting thing you've got on the go right now? What if we're looking at you, albeit through our paradigms, but if we're looking down from space at Elayna, what are we gonna see her doing right now? What's got you excited? 

Elayna 43:46

Yeah, I'm really excited about continuing to reframe all these traditional ways that we look at marketing and business. So, one of the things that I'm working on right now is a way of actually noticing what's already happening, and figuring out how we're already working with that. And that might sound really vague. But there's a few different pieces of it. One is it's kind of an anti-productivity hack of sorts, like we're not, we're not talking about productivity and time management, because those kinds of things just create more space for us to do more. I'm in the process of developing a different kind of tracker, a creativity tracker, although it's not necessarily about tracking creativity. It's a creative way to track and build awareness around what's already happening for you, and how to work with that. So, that's a new offer that will be coming in the new year that I'm extremely excited about. The other thing that I want to leave us with is this question of, what if it were easy? And I'm saying this right now because this idea that I've had, I've been mulling over for like, literally years. And this morning, I finally just sat down and wrote in this notebook right in front of me and wrote down everything that's needed in 15 minutes, using the question, what if it were easy? Moving us into this space of where are we getting in our own way? What does it look like if we just ask ourselves, what if it were easy? And then come from that space? 

Tim 45:32

What if we just did the actions? What if we just went forward with it? And what if it was the easiest thing in the world? I want to invite you back because when that tool is ready, I would love for you to introduce people to it here, as well as wherever else you're putting it out. 

Elayna 45:46

I'm super excited. And just think, as wild as you can, because that's what this is going to be.

Tim 45:53

Wow, love it. Where can people connect with you? Keep you on their radar? What's the best place?

Elayna 46:01

Two places I'm active on LinkedIn, I post often there these kinds of insights, this kind of conversation. I also have a newsletter. And you can find that newsletter at thereframenewsletter.com. So, either one of those places and the newsletter is really all about reframing these usual ideas that’s up. 

Tim 46:22

All right, well, we will put both of those in the show notes. Do you have a title by the way for this creativity tracker? Is there a working title or something? 

Elayna 46:32

Oh, gosh, I wish I could just pull one out of my head–

Tim 46:35

Oh, no problem. Well, let's maybe I can help you workshop it. That would be fun. All right. Well, oh, man, Elayna, thank you so much for taking the time to introduce yourself to a whole new group of people. And I am very excited to see where your own creativity unlocked, helps people that I care about. And maybe even helps me to care about myself once in a while. It's gonna be awesome. So, such a wonderful take on things, and I really appreciate it. So, thanks again for spending time. 

Elayna 47:12

Yeah, Tim, thank you so much. And thank you so much to the ears that are with us right now. It's been an absolute pleasure and reach out if you hear this conversation. I really do just love connecting and having more conversations. So, thank you. 

Tim 47:27

Well, I can't wait to help you spread the word. All the best. We'll talk soon.

Elayna 47:32

Thanks.

Tim 47:37

Thank you so much for listening to Sweet on Leadership. If you found today's podcast valuable, consider visiting our website and signing up for the companion newsletter. You can find the link in the show notes. If like us you think it's important to bring new ideas and skills into the practice of leadership. Please give us a positive rate rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This helps us spread the word to other committed leaders. And you can spread the word too, by sharing this with your friends, teams, and colleagues. Thanks again for listening and be sure to tune in in two weeks' time for another episode of Sweet on Leadership. In the meantime, I'm your host, Tim Sweet, encouraging you to keep on leading.