Productive Flourishing Charlie Gilkey

Key Takeaways:
[3:24] Charlie’s background and why he decided to become an entrepreneur.
[9:16] It typically takes 18 months to 36 months just to figure out what you're doing as an entrepreneur.
[13:13] Mark talks about his career journey from going to film school to going to a corporate company at a franchise company making videos. There, he started to look at which projects he enjoyed the most and which ones had the highest profit margins that he could deliver.
[14:01] The lowest point in Mark’s business and how it changed.
[16:13] Mark’s story of using his high intelligence, talent, and energy in a way that served himself and others.
[23:47] Asking for help is one of the greatest things we could do.
[24:15] When you accept the gift of not knowing, it opens up all these possibilities.
[24:20] It’s okay that you don’t know, and you don’t have to fight that.
[31:42] What path will get your message in front of the people you want to speak to, and then once you are there, how do you build an experience better than your competitors?
[33:16] The principles of marketing and sales haven’t really changed since 2000 years ago. We’ve just gotten better at implementing those principles.
[45:28] Mark’s decision to stop running his business.
[1:04:11] Doing our best work requires us to center ourselves on our dreams and our passions.
[1:11:05] Ask yourself: what’s the smartest thing you can do next, and then, what’s the most courageous next step you can take on that project?
[1:19:38] Mark’s Challenge: Let him help you.

 
Mentioned:
Mark Drager: Website | Podcast
Richard Branson
Fast Company
Breakthrough Advertising


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Key Takeaways:
[2:57] Ruby and Eric discuss some of the unique delights and challenges of being part of a writing trio.
[7:45] What is the bridge between this book and Morag’s book Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationship?
[8:05] What are the intentional choices you can make to build ally relationships?
[12:44] Ruby and Eric break down the five components of an ally mindset:
abundance and generosityconnection and compassioncourage and vulnerabilitycandor and debateaction and accountability[13:23] In order to get more allies, you have to be one yourself.
[25:43] How can we start with small ripples of joy in our own lives and have that branch out to help others?
[28:12] Are two-hour staff meetings really necessary? And if so, how do we make them more efficient and profitable for everyone involved?
[34:13] If you’ve invested in your relationship, it’s going to withstand weird moments. In the meantime, what should we do when a sideways moment occurs?
[59:54] Challenge: lean into having the hard conversations. Keeping your head down isn’t going to change a damn thing. And, check out the Ally Mindset Profile to give you some insights into what comes naturally to you, as it relates to the five practices.
Mentioned:
You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work
Ally Mindset Profile
John Gottman


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Key Takeaways:
[6:20] We are in a media environment that is saturated with messages about how much more we could be doing.
[7:27] Charlie, Jenny, and Tara define capacity and what that means to them.
[10:51] What are some of the things that can make working in a team overwhelming?
[14:17] When our world gets too big, we tend to get disengagement and boredom.
[15:38] The difference between rigidity and rigor in goal setting.
[17:09] Why is it important to bring in conversation about rigidity versus rigor as it relates to capacity and the ambitions that so many of us have, especially for creative pursuits?
[21:55] How do you effectively and professionally communicate when you’re overcommitted?
[29:07] Just be honest about what you can and can't do.
[32:07] Yes, technically we all have the same 24 hours as Beyonce, but we have different 24 hours.
[45:34] At the heart of hustle culture is a solution to a substantially larger problem that we have in the 21st-Century economy. Charlie, Jenny, and Tara discuss how hustle and bro culture is a larger sign of a patriarchy and white male privilege.
Mentioned:
Jenny Blake
Tara McMullin


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Key Takeaways:
[3:13] Jennifer discusses finding her voice in the workplace equality movement as a professional, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and someone who recognizes their privilege.
[5:25] Jennifer talks about carrying the LGBTQ identity as a source of challenge, and using it as a vehicle to transform her own leadership.
[12:22] When getting leaders and insiders to enact lasting change, we need to focus on DEI efforts on the moral case, just as much, if not more than, the business case.
[15:43] If you are an insider, you can push on other insiders to lead differently.
[17:40] Up to 75% of change management efforts fail, especially the top-down-led ones.
[21:01] We can find core issues that we can focus on, which will then create ripples of change. One example of this can be toxic masculinity.
[33:01] We should recognize that the differences between us are ones we should face and name, rather than sweep them under the rug.
[38:11] The journey of understanding others is challenging and may reveal things about ourselves that we never expected. It’s important to be patient, humble, and transparent about our experience. Humans don’t learn by shaming one another.
[1:01:28] Leaning on others within your community is super important, and Jennifer talks about the profoundness of an ally showing up to help speak for someone who can’t.
[1:09:49] Jennifer’s challenge: get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
[1:10:44] DEI is a laboratory for human evolution, and it challenges us at the deepest level in the not knowing.
Mentioned:
Jennifer Brown
How to Be an Inclusive Leader
DEI Deconstructed: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Doing the Work and Doing It Right, by Lily Zheng
bell hooks


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Can magic strike twice? As we learn in this episode, it most certainly can. Charlie welcomes Jadah Sellner, best-selling author, business coach, and the host of the Lead with Love podcast. Jadah shares wisdom from her own experience of going from the “green smoothie girl” to an anti-hustle and pro-sustainable leadership business coach. Jadah talks more about her #shebuilds movement, which helps founders build sustainable businesses without burnout, some tips on moving forward when you feel like you’ve outgrown your current situation, and how we can apply anti-hustle productivity in our personal and professional lives. Jadah and Charlie talk about their creative process of book writing, moving from fear to love, and how we can define our “enough” to move through the world more intentionally.
Key Takeaways:
[3:41] Jadah talks about co-founding Simple Green Smoothies with her then-business partner Jen, and the interesting journey to have the conscious uncoupling not only with a business partner but with an identity of a body of work that she built.
[5:20] Can magic strike twice? The answer is yes.
[5:58] What should you do when you feel stuck in a pattern, yet your heart and soul call you in a new direction?
[10:08] Sometimes we need separation to rebuild on our own and find our way.
[10:52] Jadah shares a few people and situations that helped her create her own skill set and tools to pull from in her current life.
[11:13] How is She Builds different from anything Jadah has done before?
[12:17] Pay attention to where your natural curiosity and interest lie.
[14:31] Jadah is an immersive creator, and she talks about giving herself the space to process and creatively cocoon while she is going through the process of creative writing and output.
[17:41] Things flow much more easily when we embrace the fact that each project brings a new creative process.
[23:15] The core message behind She Builds is that hustle culture isn’t working for women.
[32:51] Sometimes advocating for yourself also means having to push back deadlines and be honest with yourself and others that things may not happen on the exact day you plan for them to happen.
[38:55] How can we move from fear to love? Jadah breaks down her definition of “L.O.V.E.”: lead, optimize, visualize, and expand.
[41:23] In a world where your to-do list can be a bottomless mimosa, it’s important to have an intentional and practical relationship with your to-do list.
[48:47] Jadah’s growth edge now is being in a creative process with her book.
[50:43] Jadah’s challenge: define your “enough” number. It is personal for everyone and can help move you out of hustle culture.
Mentioned in this episode:
Productive Flourishing
Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done, by Charlie Gilkey
The Academy
Momentum App
Jadah Sellner
@jadahsellner
Lead with Love Podcast
She Builds: The Anti-Hustle Guide to Grow Your Business and Nourish Your Life
Elizabeth Gilbert
Neil Gaiman
Toni Morrison


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Key Takeaways:
[4:36] Tara talks about what led her to create the What Works book, a blend of her own personal quest to re-establish her relationship with work and goals, mixed with conversations with people who had all sorts of different relationships to productivity and goals.
[6:08] In the process of Tara’s research for the book, it brought up a deeper conversation of how much culture, family, and upbringing have on our identity, which makes an impact on how we structure our work and the goals we set.
[6:49] We are bombarded by marketing and societal messages that make us feel like we aren’t good enough, or aren’t doing enough.
[7:22] Tara and Charlie discuss why we don’t do the things we really want to do, and why working on teams can be so hard, even though we are primed to work with others.
[12:25] We unpack the validation spiral, and why it’s so common.
[16:21] Externally, one of the ways that we play into the validation spiral is by saying yes to things, taking on projects, and spreading ourselves too thin to do anything impeccably.
[20:23] So many of us are socialized to be the supporting actor when really we can be the lead actor in our own story.
[24:01] Ask yourself: what resources do you need, and where might they come from?
[33:15] When “shoulding” and “supposed to-ing” yourself, get clear and concrete about what exactly you are looking for. Try to get specific about numbers and benchmarks.
[40:15] Why don’t we ask for help before we absolutely need it?
[45:10] Get a support team together before you need the help.
[52:12] As a community, we can learn to break down resistance to ask for help and more openly offer help to others without expecting much in return.
Mentioned in this episode:
Productive Flourishing
Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done, by Charlie Gilkey
The Academy
Momentum App
Broken
Down Girl
Tara McMullin
What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal Setting
What Works 
What Works Network


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