Podcast Episode #66: Essentialism

Overview of Episode #66 --- 

• What is Essentialism?
• How Brand Strategist Catherine Blakemore and Suzie Price are using Essentialism in their personal and professional lives.
• Why Catherine and Suzie are so excited and energized by Essentialism.
• What the benefits and challenges are to becoming an "Essentialist"

Contact Catherine Blackmore:

• Email: catherine@treadaway.co 
• Phone number: 435.671.7668
• LinkedIn: Catherine Blakemore

Timing on Recording: @ 11:15 ---

Topic 1: What Are Your Top 3 Takeaways From the Book Essentialism?

1. “If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will.”
2. Living by design and not by default.
3. You can truly only have ONE priority.

Timing on Recording: @ 16:00  ---

Topic 2: What is Essential Intent?

• If you could be excellent at one thing, what would it be?
• This is where brand strategy comes into play.
• Adopt the essentialist view: There are so many infinite possibilities for a brand, but focusing in on just those vital few is not something people intrinsically want to do.
• Ask yourself, what is the essential intent of your business? It is something businesses know they have to do, but it can be really difficult.
• Essential intent eliminates a universe of other options and strategically maps a course for the next 5, 10 or 20 years of your life and your business future.
• “It's a disciplined pursuit of less.”
• Do a Don’t Do List.
• You have to sacrifice some of what is good to get to what is great.

Timing on Recording: @ 25:57 ---

Topic 3: How Essentialism Has Impacted You? What Changes Have You Made Personally and Professionally?

• It has created a foundational understanding for my intent for my life.
• It gives the best answer, fullest and most intentional contribution to the world around you, but you have to make sacrifices in order to do that
• It is a ruthless, relentless editing of self, of work, focus and of community.
• The first act of the essentialist is to start scanning your environment for those vital few and eagerly eliminate the trivial many.
• You need to spend more time towards your defined purpose.
• Being an essentialist in everything from my personal life, to my work life, to my home, all of these things, they cause a disruption in the natural flow.
• The ruthless editing of my emotional responses to things, I was formerly quite reactive and now very, very proactive.
• Do not gossip, talk about ideas instead of people and things.
• Scan your conversations for value, think about how much time we spend speaking and engaging with things that are more and not better, instead of less but better. 
• Give your highest contribution to the world around you. And if you are giving your highest contribution, it's not with a non-essentialist conversation, it's with an essentialist one.
• Incorporate a Time blocker - 9:00am to Noon on Mondays is CEO time; Wednesday afternoons from 12:00pm to 4:00pm it is content development time; Friday from 9:00am to Noon it is product development.
• Wednesday mornings I like to treat myself to a slow morning.
• For Suzie - Daily tune in time and something physical.
• The essentialist view demands that you know who you are, not just what you're doing.
• Essentialists have to accept that they cannot be popular with everyone all the time.
• If you have a strong enough yes, you will find a way to say the no.
• The preponderance of choice has overwhelmed our ability to manage it, we struggle daily to manage our ability to choose.

Timing on Recording: @ 52:55  ---

Topic 4: What are the Challenges of Implementing Essentialism Into Your Life?

• My enthusiasm and excitement towards ideas and things can sometimes overwhelm my ability to stay essential.
• I try to figure out how to maintain my enthusiasm yet not sacrifice or do an unconscious trade-off of my essentialist intent.
• You get so excited or enthused around something, you veer off a little bit or you commit to things that you would not normally have committed to.
• We live in a world, where almost everything is worthless and very few things are exceptionally valuable.
• Sometimes you don't know what you need to be letting go of.
• Pay attention to how it makes you feel.

Timing on Recording: @ 1:01:07  ---

Topic 5: What Are Some Tools, Resources or Questions to Use When Struggling with Essentialism?

• Set aside time to verbalize or articulate your thoughts.
• The biggest tool is daily tune in time.
• Define your essential intent.
• Do not start with a screen, always start with a piece of paper and write it down and cross it out if it does not feel good.
• List of Values exercise.
• You need to get bored. Getting bored is one of the most creative things we can do.
• List of Six.
• 80/20 rule: You know that we need to spend 80% of our time on the 20% that matters the most OR 20% of our efforts produce 80% of our results.

Timing on Recording: @ 1:10:51  ---

Topic 6: Getting to Know Catherine Blackmore.

• Who is most influenced you in your career? What are some of the things they said or did that matter to you?: So many countless people over the years but they have these principles: A commitment to excellence in all things, an insatiable curiosity and an undeniable work ethic. Also seeking to understand before trying to be understood.
• What are some books you would suggest?: The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle and The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
• What are some of the things you do to wake up eager? Mind - Mental clarity, tune in time; Body – Drink Mud Water and sleep (Protect your assets); Spirit - Morning routines, to be present with myself in whatever way I sense that my spirit needs and cultivate a spirit of generosity in all things for all people the best that I can.
• For Suzie - What are some of the things you do to wake up eager? Mind – Daily tune in time, the commitment to ease happienss; Body – Intermittent fasting, riding my Peleton, walking my dogs, nutrition (Green smoothies); Spirit - Journaling
• If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would it be? What would it say?: A solid color billboard that says, “This is your beginning.”
• For Suzie - If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would it be? What would it say?: “Embrace happiness, create ease.”
• One last bit of advice or wisdom about essentialism?: To become an essentialist requires a heightened awareness of your ability to choose, everything around essentialism is about choice and that you have your ability to choose, but all it takes is for you to be aware of that.

Contact Catherine Blackmore:

• Email: catherine@treadaway.co Phone number: 435.671.7668
• LinkedIn: Catherine Blakemore

Books Mentioned in the Podcast:

• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
  
• The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
• The Compound Effect: Multiply Your Success One Simple Step at a Time by Darren Hardy
  
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

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