Are you satisfied with your current job? In this Expert Insight Interview, Misha Rubin discusses career transformation and how to find a meaningful and fulfilling career. Misha Rubin is Mastermind at The Career Leap, helping professionals, leaders, and CEOs to find meaning and fulfillment at their jobs.

The interview discusses:

• Defaulting to a job
• Being aware
• Making a change
• Identifying a career

Default Job

Many people default to jobs because of security, leaving passion and fulfillment for later. From early childhood, we get educated on so many topics, but when the time comes to get the first job, nobody talks to us about which criteria to use in a job search. Indeed, our very first job is when we make the first mistake. Since our first job sets a particular direction for us and gives us our first skills and experiences, it should reflect at least in some way who we are. Once we get skilled and experienced in one particular area, the more we start to invest in it.

Awareness

Luckily, there is a method to discover what career can bring you a sense of meaning and fulfillment. The first step is to get to know yourself and become aware of your values and beliefs. The leaders, the organization, and the industry you work in should align with your values and beliefs. If you are currently not satisfied with your job, then there is a disbalance between your values and your work environment.

Make a Change

There is a belief in our society that a meaningful and fulfilling job does not bring any money. The key is to confront the career mediocrity trend. If your current job is not who you are anymore, be brave to leave it. Once you understand what inspires you, the platform of discovering new opportunities will open up for you.

Some people are particularly reluctant to change because they have people financially relying on them. But, approaching your partner or a family member is essential because you need a support system around you.

The New Career

The second step of the method is exploring and making a list of where and what you could be doing. Nowadays there are so many new jobs created and new demands. Also, the expansion of virtual work created so many opportunities regardless of physical location. Thus, this is an excellent time for taking a leap and changing your career.

Your new career does not have to be in a different industry. There are various aspects of the same industry that can wake up passion in you. For instance, besides working in Wall Street, there are other opportunities to work in financial services, such as small innovative companies which try to reinvent the industry by being more consumer-oriented.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Have you ever thought about what has caused you to react to a situation in a certain way? In this Expert Insight Interview, Dr. James Justin Kennedy discusses his book Brain Reboot. Dr. J.J Kennedy is an author, neuroscientist, executive coach, talent management expert, and TEDx speaker.

The interview discusses:

• Learning how to manipulate the brain
• Emotional triggers
• Brain Functioning
• drChanging the way of looking at things

Self-awareness and Discipline

By training our brains, we can change our minds and be more emotionally in control. The primary factor in doing that is to become self-aware. Becoming self-aware is a long journey of discovering and accepting yourself the way you are. The next thing to do is to stay disciplined in changing the things that we are now aware of that need to change. Not everything in life comes immediately, and sustainable change requires discipline and dedication over a longer time. It is okay to have big goals, but it is crucial to start with small steps. Taking small steps builds momentum, which naturally brings the motivation to push forward.

Emotional Triggers

We all have emotional triggers which hold us back if we do not recognize them in time. There is a difference between emotion and feeling. An emotion is an unconscious reflex in an event. When we become conscious of the event, we get feelings about it. Emotional triggers play a significant role in how we think, perceive, and behave. Those triggers often come from people’s past, but they still manage to influence their present. By recognizing the triggers, identifying the roots, and working on them, we will feel better and be more persistent in making a sustainable behavioral change.

How Brain Works

Neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, and neuroeconomics are three processes related to our brain functioning. Neuroplasticity shows our brain’s ability to grow if we practice it regularly. For instance, to recover from traumatic injuries, store new memories, or learn new skills. With that comes neurogenesis, which is a rebirth of new brain cells. And lastly, neuroeconomics shows us how our thinking is a messy process influenced by our opinions, emotions, and previous experiences. Our brain can make simple errors only because we jump to conclusions thinking that we understand things based on our previous experiences.

Different Mindset

There is a skill set to teach yourself to get in a different mindset from the one in which your bias usually resides. You have to specify what you want to change and start with small steps. Many times those small steps include boring and routine things. However, with the constant doing of things that are for your benefit, you will start to feel pleasure in doing them. That is how you build sustainable habits.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Roseann Capanna-Hodge discusses how to manage the stress and mental strain of working from home, as an individual, but also as a parent and spouse. Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge is a trailblazing psychologist with almost 30 years of experience. She is a pediatric mental health expert and the founder and director of the Global Institute of Children’s Mental Health.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The challenges of isolation and working from home
• The power of structure and routine
• The differences between stress and anxiety

Challenges of the Pandemic

Working from home and adjusting to a whole new virtual business experience can be quite stressful, especially if you have kids and your environment isn’t set up for it. Since this pandemic has started, many people have been forced into this exact position, many of them entirely unprepared.

From a mental health point of view, this has presented many challenges. Dr. Roseann believes that we were at a high-stress point even before the pandemic, and the isolation served as an exacerbator of the already difficult situation.

Having a Routine

We crave routine and structure. Predictability frees our brain from overthinking and continuously working on planning various scenarios, which allows us to achieve at a higher level. This is most apparent in kids. Your kids are stressed out mainly because they are missing their structure and daily routine.

One of the primary mental blocks to developing a routine nowadays is the fact that this is a temporary situation. We are not working on structuring our lives because we expect things to go back to “business as usual” any day now. The hard reality is that we don’t know what the future holds, and the more we delay creating a routine, the more stressful we become.

Stress vs. Anxiety

Many people think stress and anxiety are the same, but there’s a clear difference. Dr. Capanna-Hodge explains that stress is a reaction to something that our body perceives as a stressor. Our body doesn’t know the difference between good and bad stress, so to your body, almost getting in a car accident is the same as witnessing the birth of your child.

Anxiety, on the other hand, happens when something interferes with your daily life. It can result from long-term stress, but it is a distinct physiological process.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Do you put your focus on challenges or opportunities? In this Expert Insight Interview, Ruben Gonzalez discusses how to be mentally tough and overcome challenges when they happen. Ruben is a Winter Olympian, international keynote speaker, and best-selling author.

The interview discusses:

• Embracing the change
• Shifting the mindset
• Focusing on little steps towards the main goal

Embrace the Change

Last year in March, the whole world shut down due to the Covid19 pandemic. Most of the countries were under strict lockdowns, and businesses across all industries suffered consequences. For instance, people who work as consultants or public speakers faced numerous cancellations. But when setbacks like this happen, the key is to be brave, look for opportunities, and take chances. If the whole world is in lockdown, that means that the virtual world will flourish. Thus, the focus should be to figure out how to get the best from the virtual world.

Shift the Mindset

Many people still pine for the past. Also, many still resist accepting Zoom and other platforms as a way to do business now. However, if done right, Zoom can be a powerful tool. When talking online from your own home, it is easier to show your authenticity and creativity. Sales kickoffs were an annual thing in the past, but now they can become quarterly meetings because it is much easier to gather people online. Speakers have the opportunity to give speeches to people all around the world without traveling but through virtual events. Thus, the pandemic is not the barrier to reaching goals, but the mindset is. Shift your mind to the new opportunities and figure out how to get the best from what you have now.

Long-Term Goals in Small Steps

The main reason people get stuck in overcoming challenges is that they focus on the wrong things. They focus on the obstacles, and that scares them. However, to be successful, you should not focus on what scares you but on what comes after. Setting a long-term goal is very important to have a direction in which to move. But then, put your attention on achieving little steps every day to pave the road to the big goal. For example, maybe your buyers do not buy enough from you at the moment. Focus on building a stronger relationship with them now, so that they buy from you later when they start to spend more money again.

And lastly, evaluate which people you let in your immediate surroundings. We tend to pick up on the habits of people with who we spend the most time. Thus, surround yourself with positive people who will support you to push forward when hard times happen.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Mental health topics still have a lot of stigma around it. But, especially now during the pandemic and lockdowns, this topic needs to be addressed more than ever. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Pix Jonasson discusses mental health. Pix Jonasson is an international best-selling author, mindset and resilience coach, speaker, and mentor for healthy living.

This interview explores:

• Spreading awareness
• Acting on first symptoms
• Finding gratitude in small things

Awareness

Suicide is the most common killer among people ages 15 and 45. Thus, it is significant for the issue of mental health to be more accessed in our conversations and education systems. We have to create an environment in which people feel comfortable enough to open up about their depression or other problems. And when they do open up, we have to be educated enough to know how to cope with it. This pandemic showed us the importance of our mental and spiritual health. The worldwide promoted social distancing instead of physical distancing is a wrong approach in terms of wording. People can still be physically distancing but socially close because of online hanging. Being social and feeling close to the people, even virtually, can help our minds.

Take an Action

People who notice that they started feeling more depressed, pessimistic, or any other way they have not felt before, need to act by fully focusing on themselves. Taking time for yourself is not selfish. It is a way to help yourself. There are so many different ways that you can help yourself by going inside your mind to think about what makes you happy, meditating, exercising, finding a psychotherapist, etc. You have to figure out what works best for you. Asking other people for help takes a lot of courage, but it also represents a significant step in addressing your problem out loud to someone. The key is not to give up at any time, because there are ways to make us feel better.

Find Gratitude

Mental health topics need to be widely popular as physical health. But in the meantime, there are so many resources and tools now for people to use. Even for people who are a little bit more on the introvert side, there is so much online material to find for reading and listening. We need to start small with small steps, but even reading one book can help us to change perspective, retrain our brain, and find gratitude in something. There are so many simple things to be grateful for, which sometimes we do not even notice. And lastly, we deserve to be happy, but being happy is a decision that we have to make within ourselves.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.