326 Giving What You Get
Skills and talents -our “magic”- manifest differently in everyone, but what matters is how we use these abilities to achieve our dreams and to lift up others around us. In helping others we will often find ourselves more fulfilled and happy in our daily lives.
In today’s episode Sarah Elkins and Alicia Branham discuss the importance of loving what you do and giving yourself the same grace you give others while also continuing to strive for the future you want.
326 Giving What You Get
Skills and talents -our “magic”- manifest differently in everyone, but what matters is how we use these abilities to achieve our dreams and to lift up others around us. In helping others we will often find ourselves more fulfilled and happy in our daily lives.
In today’s episode Sarah Elkins and Alicia Branham discuss the importance of loving what you do and giving yourself the same grace you give others while also continuing to strive for the future you want.
Highlights
See every facet of an individual, do not pigeonhole them.
Take a chance on others and let others take a chance on you.
Give back to your team.
It’s normal to doubt yourself, imposter syndrome is very real.
Quotes
“That is one thing that I do with the people that I serve is that I try to be that sounding board, and that support system that you typically wouldn’t find in a marketing firm. Because I really, really care about people and I care about people’s happiness, and if I know you’re frustrated or stressed out about something and there’s something I can shed light on for you to help you see things more clearly, then I’m going to do it. Because that’s what I’m compelled to do, that’s how I serve. I want everyone to be happy and be at their best, so it’s important to me that I actually give back in that way to the people that I work with.”
“I can’t be the only woman on the planet who doesn’t see our worth.”
Mentioned in this Podcast
Dear Listeners it is now your turn,
What is your magic? Maybe it’s time to ask somebody who knows you, that you trust, that really sees the best in you. Ask them what you bring to the table that’s different from other people, find a way to use that every single day. Because the more you work on that the more that gift, biologically, environmentally, psychologically, that was given to you becomes an actual talent. That’s where you find the most meaning and purpose in your days is by using them.
And, as always, thank you for listening.
About Alicia
Meet Alicia Branham, the marketing powerhouse with a story beyond business savvy.
Her journey reflects adaptability and determination, traits cultivated during her formative
years when her parents uprooted her to Uruguay.
Navigating the challenges of a new language and culture, Alicia not only embraced the
unfamiliar but thrived in it. This early experience laid the foundation for her ability to
connect with diverse audiences and approach marketing from a truly global perspective.
Alicia's journey from navigating the streets of Uruguay to conquering the digital
landscapes of marketing is a saga of resilience and cultural fluency.
It's this unique blend of personal growth and professional triumph that sets her apart in
the marketing world. As a speaker and influencer, Alicia not only shares groundbreaking
marketing strategies but also imparts the invaluable lessons learned from her multicultural
upbringing. Prepare to be captivated not just by her marketing prowess, but by the
remarkable journey that shaped Alicia Branham into the visionary marketer she is today.
Be sure to check out her LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram! As well as her website Alicia Branham!
About Sarah
"Uncovering the right stories for the right audiences so executives, leaders, public speakers, and job seekers can clearly and actively demonstrate their character, values, and vision."
In my work with coaching clients, I guide people to improve their communication using storytelling as the foundation of our work together. What I’ve realized over years of coaching and podcasting is that the majority of people don’t realize the impact of the stories they share - on their internal messages, and on the people they’re sharing them with.
My work with leaders and people who aspire to be leaders follows a similar path to the interviews on my podcast, uncovering pivotal moments in their lives and learning how to share them to connect more authentically with others, to make their presentations and speaking more engaging, to reveal patterns that have kept them stuck or moved them forward, and to improve their relationships at work and at home.
The audiobook, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is now available!
Included with your purchase are two bonus tracks, songs recorded by Sarah's band, Spare Change, in her living room in Montana.
Be sure to check out the Storytelling For Professionals Course as well to make sure you nail that next interview!
Episode 180: When You Question Everything, You Can't Help But Create Your Own Path
Laura DiBenedetto goes down rabbit holes regularly, exploring random thoughts that drive her deeply into a variety of questions, leading her to nowhere and everywhere. Her curiosity is what drives her, what has always driven her to question authority, traditional roles, and beliefs. She is one of those people who has always marched to the beat of her own drum, who has chosen whatever path looked less traveled.
What Stories Created Your Most Powerful Personal Narratives?
Laura DiBenedetto goes down rabbit holes regularly, exploring random thoughts that drive her deeply into a variety of questions, leading her to nowhere and everywhere.
Laura DiBenedetto episode 180 podcast cover art
Her curiosity is what drives her, what has always driven her to question authority, traditional roles, and beliefs. She is one of those people who has always marched to the beat of her own drum, who has chosen whatever path looked less traveled.
Her book is a result of her curiosity, her sense of wonder about what happiness is all about, and why some people are happy and others struggle in their search for it.
Our conversation began with a question about whether and how the name we're given impacts our personalities, and continued down the path of personal identity and how it's shaped.
Laura's TEDx caught my attention, and her book of the same title, The Six Habits of the Happiest People made me want to invite her to be a guest on this podcast.
Laura DiBenedetto episode 180 podcast cover art
She is full of energy and ambition in her legacy of guiding others toward happiness, whatever the definition at any piont in their lives.
When you've heard how she got to where she is, you'll want to connect with her on LinkedIn, follow her on Instagram and Facebook, and grab a copy of her book.
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TEDx Speaker, #1 Bestselling author of The Six Habitsand Life Mastery Coach, Laura DiBenedetto teaches how to create the life of our dreams without sacrificing what we love. As Founder and CEO of Vision Advertising, a company that she built aged 19, she has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs build and grow profitable enterprises entirely on their terms.
ABOUT SARAH:
"Uncovering the right stories for the right audiences so executives, leaders, public speakers, and job seekers can clearly and actively demonstrate their character, values, and vision."
In my work with coaching clients, I guide people to improve their communication using storytelling as the foundation of our work together. What I’ve realized over years of coaching and podcasting is that the majority of people don’t realize the impact of the stories they share - on their internal messages, and on the people they’re sharing them with.
My work with leaders and people who aspire to be leaders follows a similar path to the interviews on my podcast, uncovering pivotal moments in their lives and learning how to share them to connect more authentically with others, to make their presentations and speaking more engaging, to reveal patterns that have kept them stuck or moved them forward, and to improve their relationships at work and at home. The audiobook, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is now available!
Included with your purchase are two bonus tracks, songs recorded by Sarah's band, Spare Change, in her living room in Montana.
Episode 103: Good Career Advice Might Not Be What You Think
When Eddie Wilders graduated from high school, all he knew was that he wanted to go to college. He didn’t know which college, or what programs he would be interested in, but he knew he wanted to be the first in his family to get a degree and do something different.
Career Guidance Stories, Reviews, and Regrets
When Eddie Wilders graduated from high school, all he knew was that he wanted to go to college. He didn’t know which college, or what programs he would be interested in, but he knew he wanted to be the first in his family to get a degree and do something different.
Eddie’s guidance counselor in high school was anything but, friendly and open, there for support, but did little to actually guide and help her students with important decisions.
He didn’t have any more success with that kind of guidance in college. When he was about to graduate with his Communications degree, rather than giving him some concrete ideas for jobs to apply for, his counselor said: “You can do just about anything with that degree!” And left it at that.
Eddie and I met in the comments section of a post on LinkedIn, asking about career advice. I responded to his comment on the post that I received plenty of decent career advice, but looking back now, none of it applied to me. All the advice I received was general, not specific to my tendency toward passionately learning something for a while, and then getting bored, self-sabotaging, and then switching jobs.
His questions and concerns were geared toward how he could guide his young daughters, since he didn’t receive useful guidance, and I immediately reached out to ask him about his experience and to record it for this episode.
Our conversation spanned from dressing appropriately for the job you want and for the environment you find yourself standing, to taking a trial and error approach in career decisions from early on. Eddie didn’t feel like he had the luxury of the trial and error system because all he knew was the experiences of his parents: Find a good job, get really good at it, and stick with it because it’s a good job and it pays.
Looking back now, he knows he wants his daughters to feel confident in trying different professional environments until they find one that feels right.
It’s always a pleasure to speak with someone with an important message, and Eddie shares one I’m sure most people can relate to, getting stuck in something because of the expectations and experiences of others.
Connect with Eddie on LinkedIn, and let him know what resonated with you about this episode!
Episode 93: Your Life's Trajectory Can Shift with One Reaction
Aaron Orendorff can look back at the time in his life when he took a complete, 180 degree turn, and know that though the incident that preceded it was beyond his control, his response to it wasn’t. He reacted to that incident with enthusiastic self-sabotage, and his career as he knew it at that point ended in a dramatic explosion.
It’s Not the Size of Your Network That Matters, It’s the Quality
Aaron Orendorff - image from an article on AutoPilot
Aaron Orendorff can look back at the time in his life when he took a complete, 180 degree turn, and know that though the incident that preceded it was beyond his control, his response to it wasn’t. He reacted to that incident with enthusiastic self-sabotage, and his career as he knew it at that point ended in a dramatic explosion.
A delicious Reuben sandwich at Elephants on Corbett, Portland, Oregon (Josh in the background)
What he knows now, that he couldn’t possibly have known then, was that his writing had already caught the attention of a person who would later become a mentor and supporter in his career pivot.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Aaron while I was visiting Portland, Oregon. We met at Elephants on Corbett, a lovely delicatessen in an older neighborhood filled with arts and crafts style homes built in the 30s and 40s. We sat in the upstairs dining room and started to record this episode. In the background, you’ll hear the sounds of a lively clientele of children and adults, enjoying delicious food.
I always look forward to hosting guests on this podcast, and I can rarely guess at the direction our conversation will take. This discussion took a few twists and turns around career pivots, a meaningful network, and the amazing satisfaction he finds when working with people he thinks are much smarter than he is. It came back in an organic, circular fashion to meaningful pivot points in our lives and careers, and the people who show up when we need them the most.
If you’re as intrigued by this guy as I was, I suggest you connect with him on LinkedIn, and visit his website to learn more about his uncanny ability to translate complex technical jargon into meaningful language almost anyone can understand.
After our recording, I decided to stick around when Aaron had to rush off to a meeting, and I’m so glad I did. If you get to Portland, Oregon, you might just want to stop by one of the Elephants Delicatessen locations!
Episode 72: Persistence, Curiosity, and Following Instincts Create Career Resilience
When Bob Musial failed his role-playing test in his first sales job, he was humiliated. He was the only new hire out of seven to fail that session, and that made him even more motivated to prove to himself and others that he would be successful in that job.
Apply All Experiences to Every New Environment
When Bob Musial failed his role-playing test in his first sales job, he was humiliated. He was the only new hire out of seven to fail that session, and that made him even more motivated to prove to himself and others that he would be successful in that job.
He could have given up; it would have been easier in some ways to choose a different path after that dip in his confidence, but he didn’t. Instead, he doubled down on efforts to prove to himself that he could do whatever he set his mind to do. Part of that was trusting his instincts and ignoring a lot of the advice and guidance he was being given. And that aspect of his career resilience, coupled with his sense of humor, stayed with him for his many career transitions through 40+ years.
“Your sense of humor will set you apart. Take your job seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously.”
When it comes to career resilience, some of us take a more zig zag path, what I like to call a “gypsy career.” For those of us who regularly choose to change industries, roles, and environments, career resilience is dependent not only on our curiosity and ambition, it depends on our ability to convey to a potential new employer that we can apply all of what we’ve learned from every experience to be successful in a completely different role or industry.
For people who choose a more linear career path, career resilience depends on an ability to stay curious, and to prove, over and over again, that they will continue to be competent as the organization shifts into the future.
What does career resilience look like for you?
“Be curious about every person you meet. A diverse network is a powerful network.”
Bob & I discussed this topic and agreed that regardless of your career path, your career resilience grows with every opportunity you take to learn, and to build strong relationships across all parts of your life. As I’ve mentioned before, protecting your future income is critical, and two aspects of that are life-long learning in every aspect of life (personal growth/development, skill building), and building your diverse network of people before you need them.
Bob Musial, principal at StreetSmart Business Development, is a coach, humorist and author, with a 45-year background in sales, marketing, advertising and customer experience. His book, “Soft Skills. Hard Returns,” contains humor-laced stories with practical applications of soft skills in situations most people encounter daily. The ebook is available on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and other platforms.
Connect with Bob on LinkedIn to keep up with work!