If you were to take a snap shot of your life right now, would the picture show you doing something you truly love? Are you following a path that inspires you? It took me many years to realise that just because I could do something, it didn’t mean I should do something. I first had to learn how to tune into my inner why.  I used to think that being unemployable was a curse, something to be ashamed of. I envied girls who seemed to be able to slot into any job with ease. I’ve realized since that I was never meant to work in a regular job.

Highlights
* Many people see work as functional, a necessity and a chore, but what if you could view work differently?
* It can take a long time to have that ‘aha’ moment, that moment when you realise your life’s purpose was staring you in the face the whole time.
* In school I was never very good at following rules. I didn’t consider myself to be a rebellious child, just a misunderstood one.
* At the age of nine, I started my own business making bookmarks and toys out of scrap felt. What started out as a few cents here and there, quickly became a thriving enterprise that saw profits of up to $20 a week.
* As I grew older, I forgot the joy that came with making something new and lost my entrepreneurial spirit. The outer world took over and I started to follow the same path as everyone else.
* As a teenager, following the corporate mandate to put on a smile every day and serve highly processed food just didn’t inspire me.
* I had a string of jobs ranging from being a silver service waitress at a five star restaurant, to working as an executive at a large international corporation. I was hired and fired, quit some jobs and sabotaged others.
* I was bullied, harassed and labelled emotionally immature, self-centred and unemployable
* Some have said that my inability to conform was partly because I was labelled as having ADHD or being ‘a bit Aspie’.
* I actually prefer the term AHAIG = Accelerated, Hyper-Aware, and Incredibly Gifted.
* As someone who is naturally pretty hyper, I was born with great capabilities; however most employers and teachers saw those capabilities as distractions, faux pas and fundamental flaws.
* I used to think that being unemployable was a curse, something to be ashamed of.
* I simply did not fit into a corporate world where you had to do your time and work your way up the corporate ladder.
* After years of trying and failing to fit in, I quit trying to be employable and started working as a freelance marketing consultant.
* I had no idea that this way of working and collaborating (Freelancing) would become the norm for a lot of people, not just misfits like me.

Mentions: Faster than Normal podcast with Peter Shankman and Unemployable podcast with Brian Clark.

Show notes: http://yourbrilliantuncareer.com/ybuc46-your-brilliant-un-career-snippet-on-being-unemployable/

YBUC46: Your Brilliant Un-Career Snippet – On being unemployable

Connecting with others in the business world can be daunting, especially if you’re an introvert. Today’s guest is one of the most adept connectors of people I know. Ironically his last name is Fairweather, but I would never consider Jock a fairweather friend. Jock shares how making genuine connections has been the bedrock of his success and how it can help you too!

Jock Fairweather grew up between Papua New Guinea and the Philippines before jetting to Europe straight after high-school in Brisbane. The last Seven years have seen him travel across the globe socialising with some of the world's most famous fashion designers and building a women's luxury shoe label that broke records within the Fashion industry. After parting ways with his brand and a Swiss Equity Group - Jock is back in Brisbane building innovative businesses within a collaborative ecosystem where people from all walks of life use his spaces (Little Tokyo Two) to collaborate, innovate and succeed working on their own projects. Jocks life goal is to reinvigorate the entrepreneurial spirit of Brisbane and to take our passionate and talented community to support developing nations ... he's 26.

Website - http://littletokyotwo.com and also www.jockfair.com
Facebook - http://facebook.com/littletokyotwo
Twitter - http://twitter.com/jockfair
Linkedin - http://linkedin.com/jockfairweather

Episode Highlights:
*I’m of the belief that making new connections is worth the effort, even if the people you connect with are people you only see once a year at an event.
*What you don’t need is people in your life who pretend to be genuine but are really just using you.
*It’s important to be clear on your boundaries with others and not allow them to manipulate you to follow their agenda. 
*Tune into your intuition, and if it feels like the relationship is toxic in any way, address it, and if you need to, walk away. 
*Don’t hold on too tightly to relationships that aren’t mutual or that aren’t mutually beneficial.
*You need to be in the right place at the right time, all the time
*The value is in the connections, the community, the events,the education, the emotional benefits and personal development.
*Create as many connections as possible to reduce the friction to success.
*Find someone within the big four, it doesn't matter what position they are, who believes in you and believes in what you are trying to do. Build rapport and a friendship with that person, they can push your idea and make it happen faster.
*Jock shares the story about how he found his initial coworking space, Little Tokyo Two. In that instance, money didn't talk. It was more the value that I could bring to Michiko, why we were lucky enough to have the only workspace in the world that is in a Killbill Style Japanese Restaurant.
*People are very willing to help, and if you reach out to them with your story, your essence, and passion, they are often willing to talk.

Day 5 Challenge: 
What can you do to be friendly and reach out to others today? What common ground do you have? The next time you meet a business connection, look for the common ground and ask them how you can help them?

Show Notes: http://yourbrilliantuncareer.com/ybuc51-31-days-to-biztopia-day-8-make-genuine-connections-feat-jock-fairweather/

* How to Convert Through Content Workshop: http://bit.ly/hctc2016
* Create Your 12 Month Content Calendar in Just 7 Days Challenge by Writally: http://writally.com/challenge

YBUC51 - 31 Days to Biztopia - Day 8: Make Genuine Connections, feat. Jock Fairweather

There are simple things anyone can do to make a difference and as a business owner, you don’t need a lot of money or even time. Just look for the small opportunities to give and pay it forward all around you. In today’s episode, Khierstyn Ross and I talk about making a difference through crowdfunding. May today inspire you to see where you can pay it forward to a new startup or a cause that matters to you! Don’t forget to check out today’s challenge in the show notes.

Highlights:

Part 1:
-When money is tight and people are cynical about giving money to big charities, it can feel hard to give or that your giving will make a difference. Yet, giving is in your nature. 
-Neuroscience studies show that when you give to others, it releases feel-good hormones into your bodies and the atmosphere around you.
-Author and researcher Peter Singer identified 6 reasons why people don’t give in his book The Life You Can Save: How to do your part to end world poverty (2010). 
—-People don’t like to give to strangers. 
—-People tend to give more to causes closest to home.
—-A sense of futility. 
—-The assumption that someone else will take care of it. 
—-A sense of fairness. 
—-Ironically, being wealthy. 

Part 2: Interview:
-There are better tools available now to make it so that anyone can launch something online
-Crowdfunding levels the playing field. Crowdfunding allows you to do a marketing campaign on a crowd funding platform and if people love your idea they can support your product.
-Raise money around a goal
-Mentions Tesla car launch
-Mentions the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
-Khierstyn’s first crowd funding campaign was a disaster but they rejigged the campaign and the second time around it was a huge success, raising $600K.
-Just don’t quit.
-Mistakes— we made a bunch of assumptions. We didn’t talk to people and get their perspective. We alienated a lot of people.
-We didn’t get enough eyeballs on the page. We had no audience to launch to.
—It’s important to develop your audience early
—You have to start somewhere. Start building your audience now.
-You have to prove that people will have a need for the product you will sell
-Define what you want to do with a crowd funding campaign
-Be specific.
-Next question: Why would people support something like this? Why would someone care about it?
-Has anyone else done what you are doing? Analyse their campaigns.
-Cas Mentions the crowdfunding campaign that saved the Tivoli Drivein (a community-run driven in her hometown)
-Crowdfunding can help put pressure on funding bodies to back your cause and it makes them look really good so it’s win win.
-Khierstyn says that if she could change anything in the world, she would make entrepreneurship more attainable so people could be happier in their work life.

Connect with Khierstyn

http://crowdfundinguncut.com
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/khierstyn-ross-b6804b12
https://www.facebook.com/khierstyn.ross
https://twitter.com/khierstynross

Show Notes: http://yourbrilliantuncareer.com/ybuc52-31-days-to-biztopia-day-9-make-a-difference-crowdfunding-magic-with-khierstyn-ross


Your Brilliant Un-Career Podca

YBUC52 - 31 Days to Biztopia - Day 9: Make a Difference — Crowdfunding magic with Khierstyn Ross

Today's show is about choosing happiness, even when you don't feel happy, even when you don't want to be. The reality is, though, happiness is not defined by your circumstances or by what happens to you, and nobody knows this better than today's guest, author of bestselling book The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod. Hal and I dig deep into happiness and Hal shares his amazing and inspiring journey with The Miracle Morning. This was one of the most inspirational interviews I've done on this show. If you're in a funk or you just could use a little inspiration, listen in now!

Highlights:
-Happiness is an emotion. There are many thought leaders that would say that the ultimate purpose of life is happiness. I don’t necessarily disagree with that but I think there are lots of layers.
-The greatest lesson I ever learned was what was the fundamental cause of our unhappiness.
-They are all self-created. Any negative emotion we’ve ever felt, they are all self-created.
-It’s not the thing that causes emotional pain, it is our level of resistance to that thing.
-Hal shares about the time he died in a car crash at 20.
-It’s okay to be negative when things go wrong, but only for five minutes. After that, there’s no point because you can’t change it. You can’t go back in time and change it.
-You get to choose what your emotional response is from that point on.
-If you can’t change something, you put yourself through self-torture if you spend your time wishing things were different.
-What’s your wheelchair? What is the circumstance that is out of your control but you allow it to cause you to feel negative emotions.
-I learned that you can be the happiest you’ve ever been, even amidst the most difficult experience of your life.
-Acceptance is key.
-Hal shares about his rock bottom — it wasn’t dying.
-It’s hard to accept things when they spiral downwards.
-I didn’t know how to accept the worse case scenario and then have it get worse.
-Hal shares about how thrown into the mix was an addiction to Adderal, which he was prescribed for ADHD.
-Your success rarely outstrips your level of personal development. Quote from Jim Rohn
-By applying the Miracle Morning practice, in one day he turned his depression around.
-If you’re not a morning person it’s only because you aren’t used to it. You’re not born one way or another.
-Hal walks us through the six things you can do to get started.
-There are six practices (SAVERS):
--Silence (meditation/prayer)
--Affirmations (written statements that affirm what you want… don’t lie to yourself. Focus on what you’re committed to doing--why, how and when.
--Visualisation
--Exercise (get your heart rate up)
--Reading self-help books
--Scribing - articulate your thoughts (journaling)
-Any one of these is a game changer. Do all six and it’s really powerful.
-43,000 people are in the Miracle Morning group on Facebook.
-Commit to a 30 day challenge to get started.
--Set your alarm clock for 30 minutes earlier.
--Do one of the SAVERS for 30 minutes.
--Join the Miracle Morning Community on Facebook.

Show notes: http://yourbrilliantuncareer.com/ybuc53-31-days-to-biztopia-choosing-happiness-with-hal-elrod/

YBUC53 - 31 Days to Biztopia - Day 10: Choosing Happiness with Hal Elrod

In today’s episode, the Merrymaker Sisters Emma and Carla Papas share their take on making healthy choices. Startup founders are used to pushing themselves to the limits, but are you making healthy choices. For your mind to work at peak capacity, your body needs some lovin’ as well! The Merrymakers share how to get started and how to make it easy and fun! We even do a plank live on the show!

Highlights

Part 1: 
-Do you struggle with making healthier choices? If you do, you’re not alone.
Even the way you get out of bed in the morning can influence how you feel.
-According to an article in Psychology Today, you are more inclined to make less healthy choices when you know what’s in your food, when government campaigns and fitness experts try to convince you of the error of your junk food eating ways and when you’re hungry and the options before you are less healthy ones.
-The article also points out that if you make the default choices healthy ones, you will be more likely to make healthier choices.
-Every time I go into the kitchen I take something out of my cupboard that doesn’t need to be there and put it in the box.
-If you just park a little further away from the shops and take the stairs instead of the elevator, that will help to get you started in changing your exercise habits.

Part 2:
-“high vibes” — new term for me
-Changing our lifestyle changed our lives in so many ways
-Our overall message is everyone’s healthy is a little bit different. Feel empowered not guilty.
-Find a healthy choice that is energising, fun and brings joy to your life.
-When you remove the friction from a decision, it’s an easy decision. One is the food that we eat. We believe that healthy food should be delicious, and easy to make.
-Set yourself up for wins. When you achieve it you’ll feel so good.
-You can start really basic: meat and vegetables and gradually add variety and spice.
-For exercise, we just make sure we love what we do.
-A lot of the time people think there’s a right way to exercise. What’s the point in doing something you hate.
-What if you don’t enjoy exercise?
-Start with really small goals. Start with a 5 minute walk and you’ll feel better.
-It’s about reframing your feelings around exercise. If you can connect exercise to another one of your values or goals, that’s another thing you can do.
-Connect exercise with another value or goal to motivate you.
-If you meet a friend for coffee, how about you meet a friend for a walk.
-Merrymakers take the stairs.
-Choose where you go and stay, so that you can stick to your good decisions.
-It takes practice, but it’s always really empowering.
-There are going to be people who interrogate you.
-Empower yourself. Be assertive. Own your decision and surround yourself with people who are going to support you.
-You’ve gotta think also about mindset.
-If you have a positive mindset, implementing changes will be easier.
-Teach yourself to flip your mind when you notice negative thoughts creep in.
-We all grow up thinking thin is what we need to be.
-10 minutes is better than nothing.
-Even if you’re too busy, include five minutes of exercise to keep the habit going.
-Once you’ve created that habit, it’s the easiest thing ever.
-Everyone can find 3 minutes to do some form of exercise.
-There’s so many points in the day where you’re waiting and you could do some exercise.
-It’s fun doing exercise in weird places.
-Do not dwell on the past. Those guilty feelings aren’t serving anyone.
-Stress is a no. 1 killer. We’re all about less stress is best.
-It feels really good to be able to do things. You want to be able to live your life to the fullest.
-Correlate healthy decisions with a healthy life.
-The more healthy choices you make the more you can live a full life.

YBUC54 - 31 Days to Biztopia - Day 11: Make Healthy Choices feat. The Merrymaker Sisters

An Un-Career is when you abandon the corporate ladder to create your own path! Your Brilliant Un-Career follows the journey of author and startup entrepreneur Cas McCullough, a single mother of 3 homeschooled kids who is rebooting her un-career as a tech entrepreneur in the content marketing space, with her startup Writally. In each episode Cas and her guests share candid and raw "making the leap" and marketing stories, tips and insights to help startups, corporate escapees, mumpreneurs, wantrepreneurs and entrepreneurs shift from stuck to inspired, from dreamers to doers. Get the real, no-holds-barred story on what it's like to startup and scale a business. 

Proudly brought to you by Cas's Amazon bestselling book: Your Brilliant Un-Career: Women, Entrepreneurship, and Making the Leap, available on Amazon, and of course, http://writally.com - helping business bloggers create high quality blog posts in half the time!