DO IT FOR LOVE: How to find your passion, w/ Jason Skeesick (Financer turned gym owner and entrepreneur)

you look at the life that my boss's, boss's boss's boss had, he was getting up earlier than me. He was getting in his very nice car and he was sitting in traffic for an hour and a half to come in. He was at the office before me. He worked harder than me, and then he left after me, got in his car and sat in the car again, another hour and a half on the way home. And I was like, Wait a second. So if I win at this game, which I'm not, I'm, I'm not the best of my class, I'm not the best of my age group or whatever at the, at the business, but I go, if I win everything for. 10, 15 years. Best case scenario, my life will be worse than it is today.

You've gone to college. Got a very respectable degree and job. And you've reached a stage in your career where you need a change. But you've got a problem. If you've got this far in your career and you're not happy. Chances are you haven't found your passion. Or maybe the only passions you have, you don't consider something. You can turn into a job. I'm Steve O'Reilly. Host and creator of escape, the nine to five. Almost everyone. I went to high school with, went to college. Got very respectable jobs. But then every second person I talked to seemed unhappy at work. I got curious. What makes for a meaningful career and who are these people achieving however, these people managed to escape the nine to five and find a meaningful work. We've all heard the saying. Follow your passion. It's easy to say. But what does it even mean? Some people think this is the best advice in the world. Others say it's the worst advice you can give to somebody? But what if you don't think you have a passion you can convert into paid employment. Jason is a veteran of the United States army. He went to college. Got a finance degree and landed himself a great corporate job. But sitting in a financial meeting. The only person in the room he identified Was the entrepreneur sitting across the table. In our hosts, the spear and Clover podcast. Which is for Renegade entrepreneurs who bet it all on their passion. They tell a story about people who saw the world as it could be. And couldn't help, but take action. You'll learn. Y you need to look in the mirror and really understand yourself before you can figure out your own career. Helping clear about what your future looks like Or make it a lot easier to reach the top of your career mountain. And how to find your passion by trying different things. And paying attention to the strokes. Not the medium. I joined Jason Sheeran, how he went from sitting in a corporate office to bidding at all on his own passions. Fitness and entrepreneurship.

So my whole life growing up, there's been two things going on. There was what I sort of thought. About myself. And then now looking back, there's sort of who I really was, and growing up who I thought of myself. My mom was, I have a mother who is in, I shout out to Julia Ski six. She's a doll. Uh, I have a mother who is like, so supportive. She's like, You're gonna be great. And my grandfather, same thing. Her dad, you're gonna be great. You're gonna be a quarterback, which was absurd. Uh, you're gonna be a, this, you're gonna be a, that, you're gonna be a, a titan of industry. Like you're gonna be great. that's, This whole thing that, I always was so supported and so in my mind I was like, Oh, I'm just gonna, go get a job at a bank, or I'm gonna go get a job at a company and I'm gonna do really, really well. And I never really had any idea what that would mean, But in my mind, growing up, and I remember especially, during college and then when I was in the military reading books about, sales and reading books about, Whatever, Uh, finance and things like that. I had a subscription to Forbes and like, like I thought that's what, what, like, that was what the path to greatness is because, you know, in America, obviously we're in different countries, but here in America that's like, for sure a part of the culture is like, you're gonna go to school, you're gonna then go to college, you're gonna get a, advanced degree and then you're gonna, get promotions every year and become some CEO or whatever. Right.

That's the dream, isn't it?

That's, it sounds like the dream, right? And so in my head the whole time I'm like, This is what I'm gonna do. This is what I'm gonna do. And so I get back from, deployments and get back from, the Army. And I, I, I enroll in school, in finance, and I think this is where I'm gonna make my mark. I'm gonna go into the world of banking and I'm gonna get promoted and yada, yada yada. and what was really happening this whole time, if, when I look back now, is I was always only really able to pay attention to those things that I was super passionate about. And so I was going to school, to become a business person and I was reading things about becoming a business person. But at the same time, I was really interested in snowboarding. I worked at the snowboard hill. I was really interested in cars. I worked at the car wash and the auto shop. I was interested in clothing. I worked at the mall. I was always surrounding myself with things that I was super passionate about. But I would just tell myself like, Oh, that's just, you do what you love on the side. That's the thing you do on the side. Obviously later on in my career, I was interested in fitness and I started CrossFit Gym. Right. But it was never, that was just a joke. That was just a side thing. The real thing is gonna be putting on the Brooks brother suit. I went and spent a bunch of money at Brooks Brothers, I took out a card for them and I spent probably two grand or whatever and, and got a custom tailored suits and, and the jacket and all that stuff. but the whole time there was what I thought that I was. Doing and then what I was actually just doing automatically. And so like what I thought I was doing was getting ready to go be this investment banker and, and to make multimillion dollar deals and do all these things. And what I was really doing was like only could focus on my little CrossFit gym that was in a warehouse that was making no money and, and had 20 clients or whatever it was at the time. And so, over the course of years now, you know, I'm 39 now. I look back on that and I go, Oh, the whole time I was on autopilot doing the things I should have been doing, but I wasn't realizing it consciously.

what sort of got you out of that path, what made you realize that you are not wanting to become a CEO

Well, fortunately I wasn't very good I was okay. You know, I, I typically do pretty well at the things that I put my effort towards, but, I, it was not like school. I couldn't just get by and, and do really well. so I remember a few things. One, I remember being at a table, so I was, in commercial banking. So it would always be, you know, me. My boss, my boss's boss, my boss's boss's boss, and then the entrepreneur. And I remember two things about those meetings. Number one was of all the people at the table, we would all be discussing whatever the pertinent deal was, whether they wanted to buy some equipment or take out some loan or create some new thing. And I could only ever see eye to eye with the. And everybody else was like, Here are the reasons why you can't do this. And then the entrepreneur was like, Yeah, but here's the reasons why I can, and I could only ever see eye to the, with the entrepreneur. So I definitely have, a much more comfort level with risk than you should for somebody in that role. Right? That was number one. And then number two, it was just the writing was on the wall. If you look at the life that my boss's, boss's boss's boss had, he was getting up earlier than me. He lived out in the suburbs. I lived in Chicago. He was getting up earlier than me. He was getting in his very nice car and he was sitting in traffic for an hour and a half to come in. He was at the office before me. He worked harder than me, and then he left after me, got in his car and sat in the car again, another hour and a half on the way home. And I was like, Wait a second. So if I win at this game, which I'm not, I'm, I'm not the best of my class, I'm not the best of my age group or whatever at the business, but I go, if I win everything for. 10, 15 years. Best case scenario, my life will be worse than it is today. And so to me that

of cars, so.

Yeah, the, the I'd have a more expensive car. it was actually ironically that particular boss lived in the suburb that I had grown up in anyways, And so those things where I was like, I'm just gonna end up right back where I started with a monster mortgage and like, just no time for myself, no enjoyment and having to try and eek out, little bits of happiness through, you know, I don't know, my family or hobbies or something.

and you can just sort of see how that, you know, your boss's boss's boss, they can have these midlife crisises. Or even worse, they get so far down the line that they kind of have to justify themselves cuz they've taken this path where they know that they're unhappy, but then they have to justify their job and, and make everyone else feel bad about it.

Yeah. It's funny though, because I wouldn't go as far as to say that It was a bad job. It was a great job. And for those, I remember when I was in school for finance, I was in an honors program, so it was like everybody was very focused, at doing what they were doing. And I remember a few of the kids, Had a subscription to the Wall Street Journal that would show up at their dorms and they would read it and they cared about what was happening in the markets and what deals were getting done. And they cared about those things. And so when they went to work for 12 hours a day, they were in a playground. they were actually doing this thing that they had been wanting to do. And so, I don't wanna say that it was the wrong place for everybody, but it was not the right place for me. And so I, I can think of several people who love their. in the financial services industry or in, in any number of, corporate gigs. But I knew for sure it wasn't for me. And it was pretty obvious because my attention was, like I said, I was, I was working on 10, 15, 20 million deals and I was actually spending a lot of my time, modeling my $9,000 a month business, you know, my tiny little gym that was making no money and was just a hobby. That's where I was spending my time and my effort, and so, you know, in hindsight and now presently, have become kind of like a farmer of my own attention span. And so the things that draw my attention are the things that I really pay attention to now, because I, before I would try to silence that out, and now I find like those are the things that give me energy, and by the way, those are the things that I'm gonna do way better at than my peers anyway.

Jason is someone who loves fitness. He's the sort of guy who will go on long hikes with a Peck on also known as ruck marching. Just for fitness. You're probably thinking, well, it's all well and good having this hobby on the side. But how did Jason turn the side hustle into a full-time gig? Did he take the leap? Or is there a safer approach to escaping the nine to five

I have so much respect for somebody who can have. A really cushy situation and then just hit the ejector seat and go. And then I slept in my gym. I have a buddy, uh, Mike Bledso, shout out to Mike. he's like, I slept in my gym for a year. My partner slept in the gym. We had nothing. Nah, man, I kept that job for a while. I ended up actually, making kind of a lateral move into what I would call entrepreneurship. And so one of my best friends owns another company. they're a manufacturing company. They do f. and he invited me to come work for him, entrepreneurial. So he gave me a sort of fitness. Subbrand underneath his business, and I was able to kind of work. it was kind of the best of both worlds. I was using the, the knowledge that I'd gained from business school and from being in a corporate structure and things like that. And I was trying to apply it to fitness, which was my passion. And so I did that for a couple of years in transition. And then after that two years, I pulled the cord and, and went full-time entrepreneur. but I will tell you that. That was a much more comfortable, I had a salary. I was actually had people I was beholden to. I wasn't just out on an island. I romantically kind of wish that I was the guy that, that just pulled the ejector button. But frankly, it was, probably the smarter move. I, I don't think I, Yeah, I mean the business didn't take off though. I will say this, the business. Probably 10 Next. When I became a full-time entrepreneur. And so the truth is, if I had put my back to the wall a little bit sooner, it's very possible that I would've done better, quicker. So. Become a full-time entrepreneur. I re, I bought out my two partners because there just wasn't enough room in that business to make it a career with three of us. So I bought them out, made an agreement, and then very quickly from that felt it right. I had no money coming in. very little money coming in, and no prospects. So I invested in, a program called Jim Launch. Shout out to Alex and Lelo Homos, which was fantastic. I was very early on in that organization. I think that was

Hormo.

yeah, yeah. he had just started when I became one of his clients. So I was maybe fifth or seventh or something, person in the door

I was literally like watching him on YouTube

yeah, yeah. yeah. Alex is the shit, man. he's a generational, mind when it comes to the type of stuff that

Pretty cool that you were sort of involved with them so early.

yeah. Uh, great guy. and he's, like I said, he's the real deal. He, he thinks about business in a very unique and very powerful way, and he's very good at communicating, kind of complex ideas, to people that potentially wouldn't go up and pick up a book or, or whatever else. He's, he's, like I said, I think he's a generational talent when it comes to, you know, sales and marketing and structure. he's legit man. So anyway, uh, I'm one of his very early clients and we crush it. I make it a game. Every time I get on one of those calls, I need to have improved, right? And, and every time, I love, talking to, to peers and other entrepreneurs. And so every time I talk to them, I, I'm holding them accountable. I wanna see what did you do better? And, and here's what we did and here's how we solved that problem. And. Really, really got involved in that community, very, very early on. and we, like I said, we 10 Xed. It took me seven years to reach 200 members. It took me six months to reach 300 members. It was very quick. and to me, I figured out that there's a machine that we had built, with their help, where if I put. You know, something like $5 in, I would get like $600 out, right? And so I just figured I'm just gonna stand here and put as much into that machine as I can. Oh, and by the way, we're getting phenomenal results for our clients, which we always had, but we didn't have that many clients. And so now we're getting tons and tons of great results for our clients at the gym. We're getting all these great reviews because people are getting so much more service than they ever could have gotten at our, previous structure. And so I fell in love with it. and then at a certain point, I think it was. A year and a half into that. This is about 2018 probably. they needed help coaching and so they, they brought 30 of us on, I think it was 30, to become coaches for Jim launch. And so I was one of those folks. and I just, just immediately fell in love with that. I've never been on the phone even right now. Right. I've never been on the phone. Another entrepreneur and got off the call with less energy than when I got on. I love it. I love it, I love it. I love it. If, and, and I can prove that because I currently have been, on a sabbatical from what I would call like real work since November, and I do spend almost every single day on a call with an entrepreneur whether I'm recording it or whether I'm just catching up with somebody or helping somebody out with a problem. Like that's the thing that I love to do. So, you know, long story short, at a certain point that organization wanted all of their coaches to be full time, and I just knew I'm not an employee, so I'm not gonna go down that path. and so I ended up not doing that and I accepted an offer to start another company, that did a similar thing, with somebody else that I met there. Joey Huber. Shout out to Joey. and we built a, a business called Fit Biz University. and that business is still going today. did that for a couple of years with Joey and, and helped a couple hundred gym owners, to grow their businesses. Great product. It was a ton of fun. and then at a certain point I just realized, I want to step away from the fitness business, and start to focus on just entrepreneurs working with, with just kind of all entrepreneurs. Uh, and so that's what I do now. I do work with a few clients, that I've chosen, but I've spent since November. I, I planned on this entire year just building a podcast. Cuz for me that, message gets scaled out even more and more The, the more of it I can give away for free. And so the Spearing Clover podcast was born out of that.

We told all our lives to follow the rules. Go down a safe path. And get a solid job. But Jason has followed his own rules. As a result. Here's created his own luck. And now has enough of a financial safety net to do what he wants to Talking to and working with. Other entrepreneurs. He currently doesn't have a real job. And guess what. He's happy. And is still able to support a young family.

I say, if you ever want to know what you really love to do, just like retire for six months because you, it's what you do. Like what do you do every day? Well, I have a daughter, Lucy, who's almost one, I spend hours a day with her. I, I do jujitsu when I'm not sick with covid. I do jujitsu every day, five days a week. and I talk to entrepreneurs every day and we cook and, and have nice dinners. My wife and I. Love, nutrition and food. So, I spend my days doing the things that, that I love to do that give me energy. And I'm very fortunate that one of those things in particular working with entrepreneurs, is a source of, value that I can get, uh, you know, money from. but I would do it anyway, man. I, I, I'm not kidding. I, it's like plugging into the, to electricity when I work with other entrepreneurs.

Yeah, it's, it's funny cuz we've had, very different paths, but, um, what you described in terms of the things you do if you retired now. I still work as a veterinarian three days a week cuz I have to pay the bills. Some of us actually have to work

Well, I'm not retired. I, I do have to work at some point, but I got a little bit of breathing room.

yeah. But, um, we've got a baby daughter, six months old and she's, you know, spent, spent he of time with her as well. And whenever I get the chance I just, love talking to people. About their career journey and where I get a lot of energy is talking to people about their careers and particular people that are challenging the status quo and sort of questioning this nine to five gig. if you were to look, you know, communicate with yourself back when you were working in finance, From where you are now, what would be three tips that you would give to Jason Beck when he was sort of stuck in his corporate job?

When I was younger. I don't think I was able to, and I think this is where like maybe like young artists are, have a huge advantage is maybe they're able to do this, but I wasn't able to really look inside myself at what I actually wanted or who I really was. And so because of that, I think a lot of times, especially young men are looking outward at what they should want. And so I think if I were to tell advice to myself, I would probably advise myself to be still cuz so much of my young male life was spent in action seeking outside, authentication approval. examples of what I should be, right? So it was like reading books, reading magazines, watching, movies and, and, and TV shows and taking a little bit of this person and a little bit of that person and trying to figure out what my reflection should be when I probably could have just turned around and looked in the fucking mirror. You And that's, honestly, that's probably it. Like I don't have a ton of regrets. I don't think I have three things that I would give because I, you know, I, I was doing a lot of the right things, you know, I was, I was taking care of my responsibilities. when I went into the military, I always say when I got out, I was clean, man, I could look anybody dead in the eye. I remember walking around Chicago, like looking for eye contact because I had spent four years. becoming somebody that, only did virtuous stuff. I did what I was supposed to do. I was respectful to people. I, was fit, I was single and had no responsibilities to anybody, and so I was doing the things that I was supposed to do on paper. I just didn't know what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be.

You're likely stuck in a nine to five job. You're not enjoying. Or at least considering change. Jason is very sure of himself. It doesn't feel like a young Jason would need much advice. But I asked him to share three tips. He'd give to you. Stuck in a nine to five job. You're not enjoying.

So if, if I'm gonna give three, one would be look in the mirror. Really understand yourself, and you, it really can start, you can kind of fake it till you make it. So when I meet, when I say like, Look in the mirror, understand yourself. Pay attention to how you're breathing. Like, just be still and think about how you're breathing. Think about how your body responds to certain, situations or conversations or when you're doing certain things, you know, what gives you energy and what do you do that you can do that drains energy from you. So I, I'd really pay attention to that. Number two be once you figure out what those things are, paint like the clearest possible picture of what you want your future to be like. I always tell people to try. The more clearly you can describe the mountain that you wanna climb, the easier it is for somebody like me to help you to take only steps in that direction. And so that means I wanna know exactly what the mountain you want to climb is, and then you just take steps towards that mountain and it's incredible how fast you can get there. And then the third thing, and this is for your confidence. Is, I'll never forget, I was living in Chicago. This was before I ever owned any businesses, but I looked down a busy street. It was Broadway. I looked down a busy street and there's all these doors, and each one of 'em was to like a bar or a restaurant or a nightclub or a clothing store or whatever, and I was like, Every one of these doors has somebody who's responsible for paying rent. They have a business that goes on every single day, and I just don't believe that many people are smarter and better. And so like for the confidence thing, I just do that. Go stand at a, at a, at a shopping mall or at a place where there's commerce being conducted. walk in an area that there's high rises and just look at those high rise and realize that it was somebody's idea and their execution that. Built that high rise. And not because they wanted a high rise, but because the idea and the execution and the ultimate team that they have together to execute on it needs to be in a high rise for this thing to work and make money. And so for, for confidence sake, I would just say you're probably not stupider than all of those people behind all of those doors. So I am typically a pretty confident person. I usually assume that I can do something if I try to do it, but I just think, two points. One would be just understanding that. If other people can do it, you can probably do it. I've never met anybody that failed in business because they were. I've never met anybody that failed in business because they were stupid. I've probably met people if I had to think that have done stupid things that maybe catastrophically destroyed their businesses. That's maybe true, but I've never met anybody who like couldn't run a business that they loved because they were dumb. Typically what happens for those folks if they're struggling and not making smart moves, is typically they end up doing all the work, but because they want to be there, you know, that's okay. Right? the people that fail in business are the people that stop showing up.

Yeah.

I have never seen a leading indicator of somebody's success more than somebody who's passionate about the thing that they're doing. if you think that you. Want to maybe start a business, maybe make sure that you're, that you're actually super passionate about it. But if you're like super passionate about, I don't know, like balloon animals and being a clown or something, do it, man. Like nobody's gonna be better than you because if you're really passionate about it, there's just, There's just, I mean, if I go to the city with my wife and we go to dinner and we go out to, a show and we're walking around and we go through stores, I can't tell you how many times it's like the, the bus boy is like the most impressive person I see all day because they really care about like, Hey, how you doing? Oh, excuse me. All the get outta your way. It's the people that really enjoy the things that they're doing that make an impact on you. It's not the people necessarily that, have the most money or, or the biggest building or whatever it is. It's always the people that like really love the thing that they're doing, whatever that is, that make the biggest impact on me. And, and I don't think that's, I think that that's pretty common.

It's a word people love to throw around. But what if you don't really know what you're passionate about? How do you find your passion? In the Ted talk, how to find work. You love. Scott It says become a self expert. As per our previous episode. He recommends reading the book StrengthsFinder 2.0. Which goes into more detail about the Clifton strengths. Identify your unique strengths. What do you wake up loving to do? Next identify your values. Something we'll talk about in a later episode. Finally combine these with your unique experiences. The combination of your unique strengths. Your values and your experiences will be your definition of success. As Scott says. People are giving the middle finger to the scripted life. Where people say what you're supposed to do. In exchange for things that matter to them. That inspire them. The only thing that limits you now is your own imagination. It's not about being the next Steve jobs or Gundy. It's about doing what matters to you. I cannot emphasize the Clifton strengths assessment and enough. If you take only one thing out of this podcast. I would hope you would do the assessment discover your unique combination of Korea strengths. And then better use these in the working world. It's all well and good knowing your strengths, but if you're currently not particularly passionate about anything, Where do you even start? Start with interests.

Find the person who does it the best in your area, whatever that thing is, and go spend a day with 'em, spend a week with 'em, work with them in a menial role, and, and learn from. and you'll know very quickly if you enjoy the day to day stuff of it, if you think you might like woodwork, buy a hammer and some nails and, and some wood and, and start doing that thing. But I, I, it's something that I have not personally had a lot of. I typically, I mean, I could list off 25 things more probably that I've gotten very passionate about at some point in my life. I typically go all in on stuff and to those folks that are. As susceptible to that, I would just say keep trying different things. Try different things and, and pay attention, not necessarily to the medium, but more the, the strokes. Like, so in other words, it maybe you're not passionate about the thing. Maybe you're passionate about consistency and, making people's lives better. Right? Or maybe you're passionate about working on a strong team. I mean, there's folks that sell insurance that are super passionate about Having a great team that they write their paychecks for and helping people within their time of need. Are they passionate about insurance? No, not necessarily. But that doesn't mean that those businesses aren't like virtuous and, and passion driven businesses.

an example of that I can think of is, um, the guy who started Starbucks. I think he famously said that he wasn't actually that interested in coffee. He was interested in developing people and creating a good team.

Yeah, I think that's, I think that's frankly more powerful, right? Cuz that go, that goes, that goes anywhere. That means if, if coffee's outlawed, he can go start a different thing, right? people throw around the word passionate. But I think really it's again, just paying attention to the things that give you energy and just trying to remove those things that don't.

Yeah. I think that that comment you make about energy is such a big one, is once you learn to listen to yourself, cuz I think typically, especially young males, but maybe females as well, aren't taught to listen to their emotions. But then once you actually start to discover that and you know, take a breath as you were saying, and listen to yourself for example, I'm gonna get off this call and I'm gonna be buzzing. I love talking to people in conversations like this where you have real meaningful conversations, but then at work, doing veterinary consults, which is sort of 15 to 20 minute, very short, sharp consults, and you don't really develop a relationship at all, and you give heaps of your energy, but get nothing back. By the end of those days, I'm exhausted, but yet, if I'd spent that same amount of time talking to the five or 10 people and having real decent conversations, I would finish the day being really energized. So it's really important for people to actually listen to. It's hard to explain in words, but it's, you get that feeling like it's in your heart. You finish your day of work and you're either you feel really drained or you feel like, Oh, like just pumped.

Yeah. And I think, we kind of danced around it a little bit, but I'll just say it now, is there's, there's three types of work. There's work that you can do and no matter how much of it you do, you get energy from it. I mean, I would have to do, I don't know, I, I've done it. I've had eight hours of talking to entrepreneurs on the phone before, in certain days in doses. I mean, that's, that's a lot, right? Maybe I'm tired at the end of the day, but I like doing it. Uh, there's work that you can do, but it drains you. So in this case, maybe the veterinary stuff, right? Like maybe you can do it and you're a professional at it but it drains energy from you. Well, maybe you have to do that for a little while, but try to eliminate that if you can. And then there's work that you can't do it and it drains you and just don't, just don't do that Right. Uh, and so those are the three types of work that I'm aware of. and truthfully, I, I mentioned this earlier, like the idea of like, It's not necessarily the medium, it's more like the strokes on the page, right? And so it's like maybe it's not about veterinary, maybe it's not about fitness, or maybe it's not about banking. Maybe it's about like the actual thing that you're doing all day isn't aligning with who you are as a person. I mean, Listen, my wife, she can do sales. She's worked in our businesses and she's done pretty well at sales cuz she's very likable and is, curious and likes to talk to people. But she once told me, she said, Every time the phone is ringing, I'm secretly hoping that they don't pick up. And it's like, Oh, so like you really, really, really shouldn't do sales then? Like not what a salesperson feels like. You either get to do this thing or you have to do this thing. Try to do the stuff that you get to do,

That was finance, attuned, fitness entrepreneur. Jason ski If you want to hear more from Jason. You can check out his podcast, spear and Clover. You can also reach him@spearandclover.com. Or find them on any of the main socials. At spear and Clover. That's one word at spear and Clover. Next week, we'll be releasing an episode of his, on our feed. On the spear and Clover podcast. You'll hear from someone about how to construct your life. Which is relevant to anyone trying to escape the nine to five. If you are specifically thinking about escaping the nine to five to start a business. Here's what Jason has to say.

I am on a shortlist, of people not to talk to, unless you do wanna start a business. Cuz I am definitely the person where if you talk to me, you're gonna be like, All right, we're gonna do it. So if you're, if you're not ready to take the leap, do not reach out. But if you think you might be, Yeah, reach out to me man. I'd love to talk to you.

Three tips from Jason from this week's episode. Number one. Look in the mirror. Begin to understand yourself by identifying what energizes you and what drains you at work. I love this. Understanding your emotions is the first and most important part. To designing a career to work for you. Number paint the clearest possible picture. Uh, of what you want your future to look like. If you can identify the mountain, you want to climb and start taking the steps towards that. It's amazing how fast you can climb that And his final Try different things and pay attention to the strokes. Not the medium. He's not the first guest to suggest trying something different. But only by trying things where you figure out what you want to do. And what you don't like. In this particular case, what he means is don't worry too much about the particular job or activity you're doing. Pay attention to what you particularly enjoyed doing within that job or activity. Somewhere in there. You'll find your passion. This week's challenge. Identify your unique strength. Having completed the Clifton strength assessment. You will have received a report with your top five strengths. For each of these strengths, the report includes a number of statements specific to each of your unique. Strengths. For me, one of my top five strengths was communication. But my unique strength. May have been: you can easily communicate what other people are thinking. So much. So you find yourself finishing off other people's sentences for them. I highlight two or three sentences from each of your top five strengths. That really resonate with you. Things that make you think? Yes. This sounds like me. From these sentences, write down five things you might consider strengths unique to you. These are some of your unique strengths, which you should be actively looking to use daily at work. If you can't use these at work. You've got to start finding other avenues to use your strengths. One of my strengths is having in-depth intellectual conversations. I couldn't do these routinely enough and my own workplace. So I started a podcast. At the time. I only started this as a hobby. But it's become such an integral part to who I am that is forming the basis of the escape, the nine to five community. And which I coach other people how to design a career to work for them. Identify your unique strengths. Use them on a daily basis. And this will begin to open doors. You never knew existed. So this week. Identify your unique strengths. If you need help on your own career change journey. Feel free to join our Facebook group. Escape the nine to five podcast. There you'll join a community of like-minded individuals. On their own journey out of the nine to five job. This week. We'll be discussing ways to identify and use your unique strengths. Using your unique strengths will help you not only find work you love, but you'll finally become one of those people who can say they are passionate about their job. I'm the host and creator of escape. The nine to five Steve early. Thanks as always for tuning in to escape the nine to five. If you need more help on your own journey. Feel free to message me Steve dot O'Reilly. At escape, the nine to five.net. And I'll share with you my framework for designing a career to work for you. See you next week.