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Simon Alexander Ong: Bold Energy- Transforming Potential into Power · The Bold Lounge

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Bold Lounge Podcast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Lee Burgess and I will be your host.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Every week we'll hear from someone who has taken the lead or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Whether they faced challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be freed.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Today I have Simon Alexander Ong.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: He is a best-selling author, international keynote speaker, and business strategist.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: He is the author of Energize Make the Most of Every Moment.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining, Simon.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna jump right in into the bold world of Simon Alexander Ong.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I would love to understand what your definition of bold is.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: For me, bold is defined by the ability to think different and to take action in ways that the majority work.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give an example, and I'm sure we can dive more into this as the conversation develops.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But to give an example, when I was attending events in the early days of my journey as an entrepreneur, I would be bold in the sense that I would get there early and I would make sure that as best I could, I would sit as close to, if not on the front row, because I saw that the people I would connect with on the front row would be very interesting because they would often be those connected to the organizers of an event or even the team of the person or people speaking on stage.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how I got to know Marie Folio's team, Simon Sinek's team, and other incredible individuals simply by acting bold when I went to events and the way I connected with people there.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that analogy too of like sitting in the front row of life.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Go to the front.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like you have to be seen to walk up there.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: You have, you know, usually I ended up sitting there because I was late to something.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know that feeling, maybe every now and then.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I think that's really cool just to hear kind of the boldness of just going up there, not knowing people, but sitting in that front row and then meeting some incredible people because of it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it kind of led to things that lead to the next thing to the next thing.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: So is that your boldest moment, or would you have another bold moment that comes to mind?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've got so many bold moments I can share.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's the many flavors of bold.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's personal, there's adventure, there's emotional.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think the the one that pops into my head as I speak to you now, Lee, is towards the end of 2019, I remember seeing a friend that posted that just got a book deal with Penguin.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought to myself, maybe it's time for me to write a book.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I mean, it was one of those things that I would love to have done at some point, but it was never a top three priority for me.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I started seeing lots of my peers around me writing books, and then just to nudge me even more forward towards writing a book, I got an offer from a boutique publishing house.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it was a win, it was a win-lose deal.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't feel the inclination to want to proceed.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so the bold action I took then was to go to lots of book events where there were authors showcasing their new piece of work.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And just like the example I shared just now, I was sitting at the front, I was connecting to their team, I was connecting to the editors at the publishing houses.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then just before Christmas, I sent messages on LinkedIn to those at a lot of different publishing houses, so editors at Penguin, editors at HarperCollins, at Hay House at Simon and Schuster, and other big names within the publishing world, with no expectation of anything in return.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: As the new year turned, as we enter 2020, I then got a response from Penguin that said, Simon, would you like to come to our headquarters and have a conversation about what ideas you have for a book?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: A few months after that, a book deal was presented.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, fast forward to today, that book is now published.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it has been an incredible stepping stone to some of the opportunities I've now had today.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one of the actions that was bold at the time that popped into my head.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: So the moment of like you never know where something may lead again, I think is a part of your journey for sure.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a part of everyone's journey.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And thinking about, you know, it may seem small in the in today, like your 24 hours of today, but it may be big in the whole span of kind of your life.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes we may minimize those moments, like, oh, it's no big deal.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I would, I can wait, or this can, this doesn't have to happen now.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the things that I hope people get from your book.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And all the information about it, of course, is in the episode notes.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the things that you want people to realize, I think also is making sure that you're curious.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one thing to describe in both of your examples is that there's curiosity in those things.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's learning and talking to people and getting to meet people.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know whether you're an introvert or an extrovert.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I honestly, from a perspective of being curious, it doesn't matter.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: I wondered what your thoughts on curiosity leading to connection, leading to purpose, leading to you know, potentially making some bold moves.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: What's either your thoughts on that, or do you feel like there's a correlation between curiosity and success?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I think curiosity is the first step to discovering what your purpose is.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: It is also the engine for our creativity.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I speak to a lot of clients, I speak to a lot of people, and they often say to me, Simon, you are clearly intent on living your purpose.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But what if I don't know what my purpose is?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know what my purpose is.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just doing this job for now until I know what my purpose is.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe I'll have the same energy as you, Simon, to put into whatever it is I want to do in the long term.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, that's that's a mistake to think like that.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you wait until you know what your purpose is, you will probably wait a long time.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: The best place to begin if you don't know what your purpose is, is simply to ask yourself, what am I most curious about right now?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be anything grand, it could be something very small.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: What are you most curious about right now?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And just to take action on them.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're always curious about something, but we put it off.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We don't listen to our curiosities.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, there is wisdom in our curiosities.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when we begin to follow those breadcrumbs of clues, if you will, it will eventually lead us to our river of purpose.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was curious about working for myself.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was curious about the world of coaching, I was curious about speaking, I was curious about getting to learn from some incredible mentors.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And because I followed those curiosities, it led in part to what I now get to do today, but it led to some incredible relationships in which I've learned so much from very different perspectives that have allowed me to shape what I do and the way I work.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the things, so in my framework, which is the bold framework, so believe, own, learn, and design.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that can hold someone back for even thinking I should think about something is the belief I shouldn't, or that's not for me, or I've been told I can't, or there's fear in that.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything in your life that you can think of that you were afraid of before and you're not now?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you move through that from a belief perspective?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a couple of things come to.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I guess the first is I wasn't sure I had much value to offer.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, when I first entered this industry, which at its core is coaching and speaking, I looked at the industry and there were so many people doing coaching and speaking.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I very quickly realized that whatever industry you operate in, whether you work in a role with a company or you start your own business, whether it is a product or a service, it is always going to be competitive and there will always be other people doing that.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I learned in that moment is that there are always two sales that occur.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: The second sale is selling you to others, and the first is selling you to you.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Until you can sell you to you, the second will always remain the challenge.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: But in order to sell you to you, you have to have some evidence.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where momentum comes into play.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when you have this grand vision or this compelling idea of what you want to achieve, the next step is to break it down into its smallest components and take action on the easiest step that you can put into place today.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as you take small steps forward, what happens is that you build momentum.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And as you build momentum, you gather greater pieces of evidence to support the fact that actually you do have something to offer.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so today, I have this belief that I do have value to offer.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that means I show up very differently to conversations, to meetings, and when I get to meet people further ahead than I am in my journey.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what's interesting about that is there's ownership in that.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the one of the premises, and you'll see this in the book as well, is the responsibility, you know, for where you are and where you want to be.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I if you think about ownership in the sense of the framework that I have, one of the things that we talked about is just owning your successes, owning your missteps, owning it all, but making sure you look at it as a whole package, right?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes I know myself, like I will concentrate on what I didn't do as well or as I had thought it would go, or I move the goalposts and now it's higher than it was, even though I had succeeded.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, I do kind of that stuff to myself every now and then.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So when we think about ownership and responsibility in the connection to energy, what's the connection between our responsibility to ourselves and where we want to go and then how we manage our energy around that?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, when you take responsibility for where you are and where you're going, that is energizing because it shows you that you are the one that can change your current circumstance.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because for so many of us, the reason we are exhausted is not because we are physically doing too much, but one, we are doing too little of the things that bring us joy.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, we are running someone else's race.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And number three, we are giving up control of our future to something or someone else.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we might say we're in this position because the economy is not doing well, we're in this position because I'm being overlooked for a promotion, or I'm in this position because the economy is just really tough at the moment.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: But that's giving up control to external circumstances.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: But when you take control of where you are and where you want to be, that is energizing and empowering because it forces you to focus on what you can control.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we can always control something, even if it's something very small.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we develop experiences, so for me, it was coaching, it was speaking, it was marketing, what I was doing, you're gonna get things wrong.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have setbacks, you're going to have challenges.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in order to keep that energy high, what's important is to focus on thinking that is both positive and productive.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Too many of us, we focus on thinking that actually drains our energy and gets us into a negative thinking pattern.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've just delivered a talk in front of an audience, often when we come down from stage, the very first thing we may say to ourselves is, that could have gone better, or what did I do wrong?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: What did I miss out?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: What we're focusing on things that are not really productive.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: But whenever I finish an experience, or whether it's a coaching session, whether it's a meeting with a client, or whether it is a speaking opportunity, I always reflect on two questions.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: The first is what went well?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: What went well is a great question because it focuses your mind on the things you did great at.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that gives us confidence when we do the next event.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: The second question is what could be better the next time I do it?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason that is also a great question is because it focuses your mind on action.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: It focuses your mind on learning and improvement.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: What could be better the next time?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, next time I could do this, next time I could do that.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now you have a goal to focus on.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're dwelling on what went wrong, why did you miss this?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't audience laugh?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why did someone look at the phone?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did people find it boring?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some of this you will never get answers for.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when you focus on questions that actually make the next step you take more productive, and the next time you do that same experience even better, that's how you focus on progress over perfection.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I think comes into play with that as well is like thinking that how you spend your time or how many hours you spend on something equals it's going to be great, or it's going to, you know, it's going to exceed expectations.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: I even had a conversation with one of my clients earlier this week about she's like, I felt because I had not spent enough time on something, I did not give it its worth or I didn't succeed.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: And instead, she went outside, you know, took a bike ride, took a run, had coffee with her husband.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, those sound like incredible uses of your time.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And what did that do?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: It gave her back energy, right?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: It gave her an oomph.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And even though it was 15 minutes of a bike ride or something like that, it gives you more energy to then get back into some of the work.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the things you say is manage your energy, not your time.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: How does someone begin to understand how they may be mismanaging that?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, to address what I say there, that energy management, not time management, is the key to productivity.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, just to give some context, here's why.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you are time rich but energy poor, you are going to procrastinate and waste the time you have.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's why many of us wish we had more time, yet we waste the time we already have, because we're just low on energy.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you unexpectedly get given a free day off work, most of us will waste it.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if we look at the reverse, when you are energy rich, even if you are time poor, you are going to get far more done in those hours and days than most will in weeks and months.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because the energy that you bring to the work that you do is infinitely greater than the majority.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when I think about energy and how do we manage our energy, I see energy through four dimensions.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's the physical, the mental, the emotional, and the spiritual.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So when you shared the example just now, Lee, uh, about someone preparing for talk, and yes, on the one side you got the preparation, but on the other, you had the person addressing their physical energy.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: They went outside, they went for a bike ride, they disconnected, and they came back rejuvenated and reset.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that speaks to the physical energy part of energy management.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when we think about that, we've got to address these four areas.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us may only address physical energy.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when we feel exhausted or drained, we may say to ourselves, I need more rest, I need to eat better, or I need to move my body to get more energy.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: But that's only one dimension.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've also got to consider mental energy, which is our ability to focus, access our creativity, and also cultivate a resilient mindset.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Our emotional energy, which is awareness of self and others, and the ability to relate to others and experiences when they don't always go your way.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the final one is spiritual energy, which is all about meaning and purpose.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you have clarity on what matters most, you are naturally going to show up with more energy in the form of passion, persistence, and focus.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I mean when I talk about energy.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's really these four areas.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you are reflecting on your own energy right now, you may want to think about those four areas.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: What is my physical energy like right now if I had to score it out of 10?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: My mental energy, my emotional energy, and my spiritual energy.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And which of those needs more love than it is currently getting?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Is it possible for them all to be a 10 out of 10?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: I would think not at the same time.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: But maybe there is that moment that happens.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: For me, there may be times when it can be a 10 out of 10, but it's impossible for that to be sustained every single day.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Simply because as humans, uh, we go through cycles.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: We go through different cycles of life, we go through different seasons of life.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: So there may be some moments where you are lower in one area than you are in others, and there's some moments where you're higher than others.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it all begins with awareness.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you're aware of certain things in your life and the way that you operate, you can plan ahead of time.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, if you know that you've got a deadline coming up and you're working on a very important project, you know you're going to need a lot more energy than usual to focus on that.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So when you know that information ahead of time, perhaps you can block out more time to focus on that project rather than fill up your entire diary with back-to-back meetings, thereby drain your mental and emotional energy.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things I hear over and over is I'm over-scheduled, and then the usually the guidance is to block your time.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then one of the things that you said in there was like, given the time, then you kind of spin.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you've been, you've been there or listeners have been.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've certainly been there.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was there yesterday.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: I had time.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: I am writing a book.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: The manuscript is 60 days away today, it's day 59.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just like tick, I could like to see it.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: But it's very exciting, but at the same time, very stressful.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And as an author, it just never feels good enough, or like you just have to keep going.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: So even with the time that I had, I don't think I used it productively.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I was very low energy, just and I don't know in which quarter, and I'd probably have to think deeper around that, you know, from that perspective.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I certainly wasn't moving a lot.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm someone who does gain energy.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if I'm tired, go work out.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's gonna help.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of that is also being aware of what our body is telling us because our body is an incredible communicator.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: The unfortunate thing is we don't tend to we don't tend to listen to it.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: We suppress what our body is telling us.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: So there'll be moments where your body will say, Hey, you should take it a bit easy today, or maybe you should have a bit more breaks today, or maybe you should go out and just go for a walk and move your body, disconnect for the next hour.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens is when we work against our body, it's only a matter of time before we burn out.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things you say in the book is don't have your health as a side hustle.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so, what do you mean by that?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I mean by that is when we think about productivity, the first thing that tends to be sacrificed is our health.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, when you go for a busy period, what happens is the first thing that goes is very often your sleep.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you sleep later, uh, you sacrifice going to the gym or going out for a workout, and maybe you end up ordering food on Uber Eats or another platform.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you end up surviving on takeaway or junk food.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So health tends to be the first thing we sacrifice when we think about becoming more productive or getting more work done.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I think if we look back at the COVID pandemic, if it's taught us anything, it's that health really is the first well.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: To the healthy individual, you will have lots of hopes, dreams, and goals.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: But to the sick, you have only one.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so without your physical energy, you have no foundation to build the other dimensions.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you take physical energy away, it doesn't matter what other tip, strategy, or hack you have, you simply cannot put it into practice.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, the first step is to stop treating our health like a side hustle.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our health has to be a fundamental component of uh of our personal energy plan.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Of whatever energy plan we put into place, our physical energy has to be the core of that.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: And making again going back to making sure you have enough energy for it and enough time to do that or prioritization.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to prioritization, I think that's something that's challenging for entrepreneurs, for people in the corporate world, but it's probably for lots of people, you know.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: We have so many things happening at one time.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: When if we if it comes to our energy and choosing the priority for our energies, is there a path or a route or process or top three questions we should ask ourselves?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think the best first exercise to do to raise your level of awareness is to get a piece of paper, draw a line vertically through the middle of that paper, and on the left column, write down a list of the things that give you energy, people, places, and things.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: On the right column, write down all the things that take energy from you, that drain you of energy.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the first step to this, once you've written all of those items down, is to ask yourself, right now, where do I spend most of my time in?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do I spend most of my time in the first column or most of my time in the second column?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for a lot of people to do this exercise, often they discover they spend too much time doing the things in the right column that drain them of energy.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so almost the first thing we can do is ask ourselves, what activities can I minimize or eliminate that will allow me to spend more time in the column doing the things and being with the people to energize me?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the very first thing that we can do.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you've talked to large companies, Fortune 50 companies like Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, Barclays, you've been featured in Forbes and Harvard Business Review.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a common question that you get asked over and over?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And what is the answer?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: I would say one of the common questions I get asked, and it's because a lot of people I speak to.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Prioritize their learning and development.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most common questions I get asked is Simon, if I were to focus on only one skill, what would that be?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: That seems to be a question I often get asked because people in this mode to want to learn, they have to be careful not to try and learn everything at once.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: So they asked me if I could only choose one thing to learn, what would that be?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it would be communication in two ways.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's our ability to listen to what people are communicating to us and also our ability to communicate to others.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, I think that is the greatest business skill that we can develop.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we can't truly listen to other people, we cannot lead them because we don't know what matters to them.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know how they receive information and we don't know what motivates them.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: But if we can listen to people about what drives them, uh, what matters to them, what success means to them, that gives us data for us to be a better leader, for us to communicate to them in a way that is much more meaningful and impactful.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And even when we think about communication, if we have the ability to communicate a vision or communicate something that we want from our employees to achieve in a way that brings everyone together, that is a powerful skill.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: That is a powerful and often in in corporate America a rare skill.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's interesting for the way that the book goes, so awaken, rewire, protect, and supercharge in that order.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the things we've we've kind of covered in here and thinking about some of the whether it's time management, energy management, what you just mentioned of what people, what they, you know, where do they focus and focus the most?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking for the secret sauce of something, right?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking to the how do I make it quicker, faster, and better.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the things that I've realized, certainly in my first three years of entrepreneurship, which I still very much feel like a freshman, you you feel like you don't know enough.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: You don't, you haven't learned enough, and you want to do it quicker, faster, better.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that comes just from, you know, inside us wanting to always be doing the next thing.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the things that can be bold is actually doing less, less of something, you know, and it might actually be even easier than, you know, let's say I want to work out more.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe I just need to move in my office, but maybe that means less desk time, you know, I need to get up, take more breaks.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: But if we think of it that way, or I need to eat less carbs, you know, whatever it may be, you know, I'm using a simple health analogy, but you can extrapolate that into other areas of it doesn't always mean more too.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Would you agree with that?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, because I think that the more you have in your life, whether it's possessions you own, whether it's uh tasks you're involved in or projects you've committed to, the less energy you have, simply because you are now diluting your energy across a lot of different areas.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, I I've lived by this less is more philosophy for so long.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's the fact I enjoy living a minimalist life, uh, if you look at my photos and videos on social media, I would say 99% of everything you see were have me in the black t-shirt and jeans.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is pretty much my uniform uh for every day I work, because I don't have to think about what I have to wear each day.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So less is more from that perspective, less is more from what I own as well.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't own a huge amount.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I've learned from the Japanese author Fumio Sasaki, who wrote a book called Goodbye Things, where he gave up over 90% of his possessions is if you end up owning too many things, what happens is the things you own end up owning you.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that drains your energy because then you have to think about how to maintain them, how to renew them.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it just gives your brain so much more unnecessary things to think about.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: When I look at it at a more macro level, the way I see it is that if we want to make fast progress in our life or our career or our business, it is often less about adding more and more about doing less of the things that are preventing us from making the progress we want.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Is there an energy audit or part of something that we can do in the sense of that?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: I guess that is your example of like the you know, line down the center of the paper.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone has a piece of paper, everyone has a pen or a pencil, and understanding kind of what is actually pulling energy and giving energy, and then doing less of what's pulling and more of what's giving.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think for me, and it's it's something I do in the workshops and some talks that I do with companies.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the way I do an energy audit is I create questions based on those four areas.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: But if I look at physical energy, and it's why I always encourage people to journal or to write their thoughts and reflections down, because it helps us to better know ourselves.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you want some prompts, here's some prompts to get you started.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if I think about physical energy, you could ask yourself questions such as how do you feel when you wake up in the morning?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're feeling exhausted and tired before the day's even started, I think that is very telling.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: How much sleep do you get on average?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you move your body?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Does what you eat give you energy or drain you of energy?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: If I look at mental energy, it could be things such as how often do you feel stressed?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you feel like you have the ability to focus on what is most important and follow through with what you told yourself you were going to follow through with?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: If I think about emotional energy, it's how do you react when things don't go your way?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: How do you react when somebody does something that angers you or frustrates you?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is all about emotional intelligence.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritual energies, then do you find meaning in the work that you do?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are you excited on a Monday morning about coming to work?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a great way to audit yourself against those four buckets, if you will, to really see if you have the energy you would like to have in those areas.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: What brings you the most energy?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it kind of a it depends?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it depends on what's happening because you have a pretty laborious schedule and things that you're doing if you're speaking.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, again, do you gain energy like from speaking?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it's like a double-sided, like I love doing it, but it is kind of afterward, I really do need to kind of you know renew and and re-energize, probably in small group.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: So so uh first of all, you're right.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: We we do have to regroup and we have to take time to step back purely because we all have an energetic river.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I mean by that is yes, you will want to have periods where you're in deep work, where you're doing what you love, where you're doing what needs to be done to move forward in your career.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: But on the other side, you need to also have periods built in for intentional rest.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So there needs to be that cycle that you have through your days and weeks.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: A great analogy for this is to think of an athlete preparing for a big game.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, can you imagine what would happen to the athlete if they trained nonstop for the working day every day into the big game?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is they would increase their risk of injury before they even arrive at the big game.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the second is they're exhausting themselves too much.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time it gets to the big game, they're not fresh.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Athletes know that in order to perform at a peak level, they have to find that balance between pushing themselves and pulling back and just completely resting the body.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to do the same thing.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've just got to find what rhythm works best for us.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us are early risers, some of us are night owls.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: We all have different rhythms, but start to understand when you have higher levels of energy, when you have lower levels of energy, and how to work with your body and not against it.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the thing about energy as well is that when you do things that energize you, you get even more energized.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's just part of the experience.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if you enjoy speaking to people and you speak to people, when you come away from it, you're gonna feel a lot of energy.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what gives me energy when I uh do the work I get to do is impact.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: When I see the impact my work has on the people that follow me on social media, the people that come to my events, the people I work with, that gives me so much energy.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then what keeps that energy in a sustained place is being able to share that with my family, with my wife, with my daughter, to show them what is possible when you do something that you love, when you do something that makes you feel alive.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as I see my daughter grow, those are some of the lessons that I want to share with her.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: When did you know?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because you didn't start out as a coach and as a speaker, and not many people do.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think they may start out as a coach, but I mean they don't go right to, you know, penguin author, you know, best-selling wellness book, you know, the book of the year, all of the things that you've done in just a very short period of time.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you were in marketing and you had some moments of like, I'm not sure this is really what I want to be doing.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna be bold, I'm gonna be curious, I'm gonna do some things.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: But how did you go from marketing to coach to now best selling author and speaker?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: So so my background is in finance, actually.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, even though I've always been interested in marketing.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll touch on that in a moment because I think it's a very important piece, how it links to why I love what I get to do.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my background is finance.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I fell into finance mostly because I'm from an Asian background, and Asian families are very strict in the sense that for them, they have a narrow sense of success.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I mean by that is success for them is do well academically, get to a good college, and when you graduate, get a high-paying job in one of the fields of finance, law, accounting, or medicine.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And because I had more knowledge about the world of finance from watching films such as Boilerroom or Wall Street, I ended up falling into finance when I graduated from college at probably the worst possible time, the middle of 2007, a year before the financial crisis.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in that industry for nearly 10 years.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the fact that the financial crisis occurred, for me, it was the beginning of my mental journey of questioning what success meant for me.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And from that point, it was a series of events.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: One of those events being in the very first chapter of my book, the story I share, my second job, where it showed me the importance of physical energy, which I lacked in the early part of my financial career.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as I started to own more of my journey and to take responsibility of where I was, I began to design my days and weeks very differently.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I shifted the environment that I spent time in to open my mind away from the bubble of finance.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw where people were 20, 30 years ahead of me in my workplace.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I just didn't want to be that person.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so that spurred me on to want to do something different.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And where marketing comes in is I understood that I may have the best product or service, but it means absolutely nothing if I cannot market what I do.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I realized just in the same way I shared earlier about communication being such an important skill, I had to understand how to communicate my value, what I had to offer, and why people should work with me in every conversation, every opportunity I had to speak to people and through social media platforms.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: So understanding what marketing was and the importance of that to build a business really helped me to gain traction in the early years of moving from being an employee to an entrepreneur.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things you talked about there is designing your environment.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I want people to understand it's not just your physical environment, it's what you read, it's what you see, it's who you hang out with, it's how you feed probably all the four quadrants of energy that you have.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: What is you when someone's just thinking about, you know, design your environment and understand kind of what the optimal one is for the most energy?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think that's the end goal here.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is like, how do I bank and tank as much energy as I possibly can and and be in that optimal flow?
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because that I hear that a lot.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm in flow.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd be interested to hear about environment and flow and your thoughts on where people begin when they're thinking about their environment and what's the big deal about flow these days?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because it is something that people talk about.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, when I when I think about environment optimization, it's key for energy management because your environment is constantly giving you energy, you're gonna have no trouble focusing on what matters most.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: You will find it easy to avoid procrastination, you will find it easier to avoid distraction when you have an environment around you that makes it impossible not to succeed.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I think about environment, as you said, Lee, just now, it is not just the physical, it's not just who you spend time with.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is what you watch, uh, what you listen to, what you read, even the physical spaces you spend time in, who you follow on social media, all of these things have a huge impact on not just how you see yourself, but what you see as possible.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: So when you start changing and modifying all of these different inputs, what happens is that not only does it elevate the energetic state of your mindset, but what happens is that you find yourself more inspired and motivated than ever before.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that from personal experience because as I started transforming my environment, I realized that each day when I woke up, it was easy for me to do what I had to do to make the progress I wanted.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And on the second question on flow, for me, flow is that experience where when you do work, the time just flies.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't feel like working for 90 minutes or two hours is a chore or it's it's long because for you, it's just you and your element.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're reverse in that activity, and your mind is just thinking about where this is going to lead.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I were to dissect flow into the factors that make it possible, it needs two elements.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: The first element is having clarity on a vision that is compelling and magnetic in nature.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why that is important is because when a vision is compelling and magnetic in nature, it creates a pull, it pulls you towards it.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to feel like you have to push yourself towards it because it naturally pulls you forward.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: The second component is you being happy and content in the now.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you are happy and content with where you are right now.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you are happy and content with where you are now, which is a result of feeling grateful, i.e., understanding that happiness begins with gratitude.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: When you're happy in the now and you've got something exciting that pulls you forward, it's far easier to get into flow states.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if one of those things is not present, you already have a challenge.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you may feel happy and content now, but if there's no clarity as to where you want to be, it's quite difficult to get into a flow state.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you may have a big vision, but if you're angry and frustrated about where you are at the moment, it's going to be very difficult to get into flow.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you need a couple of things in place, plus the environment optimization to really allow you to experience those flow states.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a connection between clarity and then confidence and then action.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's hard to take action without some confidence, although it has to come from somewhere, even though you may feel fearful, you have to believe.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then again, going back to the circular where I think everything is kind of built off of our beliefs.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: We can or we can't, we we do or we don't.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we are, we aren't.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, all those things come from that space.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that clarity piece that you just talked about is really important.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it may take, I think people need to hear that it may take a bit of time to figure that out.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where the learning, the curiosity, and you know, just continuing to go, well, that wasn't the road I wanted to go down to.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, people thinking it's too late to change or to do something different.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, have you ever heard someone say that, well, I'm too old, or you know, that's not what is expected of me, or my parents you want me to do X, Y, or Z.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: I bet you've heard a lot on your book tours.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's funny.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: I had a question from someone who was just about to turn 65 when I was speaking at this particular conference.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: And she said to me, Simon, there's a lot of things I want to do, but I just feel I'm past the age that I can do this.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure if I'm gonna get the hang of everything quick enough to make it a success.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: And she said to me, What advice would you give to me that would help me navigate these concerns I have?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to her something that I've used myself in the past.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I said to her, What I recommend you do after this conference is go online and find somebody who is older than you who is doing exactly the things that you want to do.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because I guarantee there will be someone in this world who is older than you doing the things that you want to do, and use that as your inspiration because that was the very thing I did when I had to overcome those self-doubts, those fears, and those excuses is I had to find somebody who was in a very similar situation to me, but who had done the things that I wanted to do.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there are plenty of examples out there of people who, despite what you believe are the obstacles and limitations, have also had that but have overcome them.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things as we close out, I want to talk about just briefly, because you just mentioned it a couple of minutes ago, was gratitude.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things you talk about in the book is is focus on that attitude of gratitude and connectedness to that, to your energy.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: What is the connection to gratitude and your energy?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, that there's an exercise I share in the book, and I and I can describe it here because when you do this exercise I'm about to share, it is one of the fastest ways to elevate your emotional and spiritual energy.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it probably elevates your entire energetic state.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because what it does is it reminds you of so many things that we easily forget, such as how connected we all are, how blessed we already are, and how much we already have at our fingertips.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the exercise is three steps.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: The first step is to think of the first person that comes to mind that you can be truly grateful for, and write the name of that person down on a piece of paper.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: The second step is to write down why.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why did this person come to mind when you were thinking about who you can be truly grateful for?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you need some prompts, I'll share a couple with you here.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, what did he or she do that made a particular impact on your life's trajectory?
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: What would life be like without them?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: In what ways have they supported you in times of challenge and uncertainty?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: The key for step two is to write this information down in as much detail as possible.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the final step, step three, is to pick up the phone and to call that person and read out word for word everything you wrote down in step two.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if that step is a little uncomfortable, at a minimum, what you want to do is to send a voice note, to send a voice note to that person.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because if somebody gets a text message or an email or a letter, it's very difficult to know what energy you were in or what emotional state you were in when you wrote those words.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody hears your voice, voice carries energy and voice carries emotion.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they can feel that gratitude in the voice that you share with them.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a great example and exercise of how expressing gratitude with intention can transform the way we see ourselves, our day, and our life.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's something that we can maybe even insert into our process or our routine of just regularly doing that.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was just thinking of who I would think of, like my challenge of picking up the phone will be not crying while I was talking.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, because it's like it gets you a little emotional in a good way of just, you know, thinking about it.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: And again, that's energy, you know.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when we think about organizations, it's also something that is a powerful habit to embrace because you know, in the research I did for the book, there were countless studies that were done by psychologists and researchers that showed if a leader was to express appreciation and gratitude for the people beneath them on a regular basis, the average level of motivation would be up to 66% higher.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because just coming up to somebody that you are responsible for leading and saying, Hey, I just wanted to express gratitude for what you did last week and the pitch we had with the client.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: The way that you jumped in and talked about the successes we had and connected with our prospect allowed us to win the deal.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: I would usually stay a little late, a couple of days a month, and I would write notes and then I would stick them underneath door.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: So when they came in, they had the notes and that's something hopefully physical to also actually look at too.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: Cause I think in some organizations, you're a high performer, your team's high performing.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a lot.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's also too to let everyone know they can downshift and they can appreciate and they can take that moment and own, own it, right?
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Own that success.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: Own someone appreciated them.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll end with this question.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you speak on your book in so many places, you're on a lot of podcasts.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a question that you wish you would be asked, but are never asked, and you would you would like to answer?
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is there something that someone, man, I just wish they would ask, or is there something that I could share that you know just never seems to come up that you'd want to share?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm honest, the reason I love having conversations like this, Lee, is I just have no idea what questions I'm gonna get asked.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I just love how every podcast episode I do, every fire side chat I do, there are always different questions that get put my way.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I enjoy because it gets me to talk about my journey, but also add value to audiences in different ways.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe if I cheekily respond to a different question, which is maybe what has been a question I've got asked recently, which was very different to most questions I've been asked.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: One that really got me thinking, but I also thought was a good one, was what was the favorite part of your book that you wrote and why?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: Purely because I think that when when that question sometimes gets asked, as an author, we tend to default to thinking about the chapters we wrote.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, when I got asked that question, I said, actually, you know, thinking about it right now, the part of the book that I enjoyed most writing was none of the chapters of the book.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually the acknowledgement section of the book.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because it made me realize one, just how lucky I've been with all the support I've had over the years.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: But two, the fact we never get to the top alone.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized that where I am today, yes, I've played a role in that, I've worked hard, but also it has been a result of people who have supported me, people who have helped me, people who have referred me to opportunities, and even people who have believed in me enough to have given me some of the uh business that I've had in my journey as an entrepreneur.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's excellent.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being on the Bold Lounge.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: All the information on how to contact Simon, his socials, and his book and you need to get it are in the episode notes.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being on the Bold Lounge.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: Through the continuum of bold stories, vulnerability to taking the leap, you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.