The One You Feed - Bonus: Eric Interviewed on Awesome at Your Job Podcast

Episode Date: August 13, 2017

Eric is interviewed on Awesome at Your Job podcast.  Lot's of the key ideas from the show are discussed here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hi, friends. What you have here is someone interviewing me. It's Pete from the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast. And I thought this one came out well and occasionally I'll drop an episode from someone else's podcast where they interview me in the feed just to allow you to get a little bit more of a sense of me when I'm doing more of the talking. So hopefully you enjoy this. We'll have another interview out on Tuesday as always. Take care and appreciate you listening. Bye.

Welcome to the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast, the show where brilliant professionals share how to sharpen the universal skills required to flourish at work. Enjoy more career fun, wins, meaning, and money with your host, Pete Mekitas. with your host, Pete Mekitas. Hello, and thanks so much for joining us here for episode 122 with fellow podcaster, Eric Zimmer. He really brought it when it comes to the audio quality and more importantly, some killer content. So you're gonna learn one,

pro tips for wisely allocating your time and energy among all the roles you play. Two, an effective means to sustain your good habits when you feel like quitting. And three, how being more yourself at work can in fact make you more awesome at your job. So if you want to check out the show notes or the transcript or the links to items mentioned here, you'll find that over at awesome at your job.com slash F one, two, two. And while you're there at awesomeatyourjob.com, I do recommend you check out some of the cool stuff we've got from the 10 days to winning at work email course, which helps you slash waste to the gold nugget email summaries, which share the wisdom of each guest in a digestible email you can read in under two minutes in the morning.

So here's Eric's story. Eric is the host of a podcast called The One You Feed. It has been named the best of 2014 podcasts by iTunes and has gotten over a million and a half downloads to date. He's been helping build startup companies for 15 years, been involved in technology for longer than that. Recently, he's been doing e-commerce consulting for Fortune 500 companies, and he started a solar energy company called Tipping Point. Here's Eric. Eric, thanks so much for joining us here on the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast. Thanks, Pete. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. Well, I think it'd be fun if you maybe kicked us off by telling us a bit of the story with your partner in crime,

Chris Forbes, on the show, The One You Feed. How did you get to know each other and end up with a hit show? Chris and I've known each other a long time now. I hesitate to even say how long, because that will tell you how old I am. But we're upwards of 20 years that we've been friends. And so, you know, when I got the idea for the show, I don't really know quite how it came to me, but I had been interested in online marketing because I'd owned a solar energy company that I was thinking of trying to totally change what we did and do more things online, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I just got the idea for the show somewhere. It just kind of hit me. And then from there, I called Chris and I just said, you know, are you interested in doing this? And he was like, sure. And we kind of started the next day.

Chris used to be an audio engineer, so he's kind of responsible for how good the show sounds. And part of my motivation in wanting to do it was I figured we'd spend more time together because, you know, as you get older, the busier your life gets, the less time you carve out for friendship. At least that can happen. out for friendship. At least that can happen. And so I was like, this is a great way to like do something that I want to do that's productive. And, you know, you spend more time with a friend that I really like being with. So it kind of worked out great in that way. That's great. And so tell us a little bit about the title of the show and what do you mean by the good wolf and the bad wolf? Yeah. So the show is called The One You Feed and it's based on an old parable of unknown origin, although most people attribute it to the Cherokee Indians,

but I don't know that that's correct or not. No one really knows. Anyway, I'll just read the parable because otherwise I'll end up saying it in many more sentences. So, you know, the parable, basically, there's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson. He says, in life, there are two wolves inside of us

that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love. And the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandson stops and thinks about it. And he looks up at his grandfather. He says, well, grandfather, which one wins? And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So that's the kickoff point for the show is I read people that parable and I ask

them kind of what does that mean to you? How does that apply to the work that you do? How does that apply to you in your life? So that's the parable. And I liked it because I thought it was a nice jumping off point to be able to talk to a lot of different people. I have wide ranging interests, but be able to at least tie it back to a common theme or at least a common jumping off point. So that's sort of the parable. And I think you then asked me kind of what it means to me, right? Oh, yeah, please do. You know, I think for me, what makes something a parable is usually you hear it and you immediately know what it means. And it conveys a lot of

information in a very small space. And so I think it's kind of obvious on one hand, like, oh, okay, well, we all have different inclinations inside of us. You know, we have good and bad, or you could use a Buddhist term if you wanted. If you don't like good and bad, you could use skillful and unskillful, right? But we have differing urges. And the one that you give more attention and energy to is the one that's going to come out on top or the one that's going to, you know, reflect your life better. And so I think the parable talks about just doing that at a very simple level. That's what it is at a slightly deeper level, because I've had to read this thing at least, you know, 150 times, if not more, and talk to people about it. At a deeper level, I think it

conveys a couple other things that I think are really interesting. And one of them is that the grandfather sort of says, you know, we all have this inside of us. It's between, you know, a good wolf and a bad wolf and which one wins, you know, so it's set up as if it's a close battle, right? Like this isn't like it's a close battle and, you know, the one you feed wins. So I like that because I think it normalizes the human condition to some degree, right? We live in a culture that is so focused on perfection in so many ways and a culture that says, you know, like if you're not in a great mood, there's something wrong with you. Or, you know, there's this pathology towards always being perfect or always being happy or always being in a good place. And we're not that way as people. And I like that the parable normalizes that and says, what you're going through, the struggles you're

having are what everybody goes through. That's part of being human. So I like that part of it. And I also like that it doesn't talk about starving or caging the bad wolf, right? Right. Those are parts of us, right? We have, you know, Jung called it the shadow side. I mean, there's different ways to look at it, but it doesn't talk about having to do that. It just talks about encouraging the good parts of yourself. And I found that to be a much better way to make changes in my life, encouraging good things in myself versus trying to eradicate or stamp out things I don't like about myself. So there you go. Oh, that is good. Thank you. Yes. Well, it does feel like you've found something that is an excellent launching

point and interesting and has some real depth to it. And so, you know, I'd love to hear during the course of your own experience and all of your guests, you know, what are some of the best practices or key ways that you can feed your good wolf? I mean, I think that there are so many different, I guess, you know, subsets or factors or components that we could say the good wolf encompasses. So if you had to prioritize a bit, I would say elements of the good wolf that could help one become more awesome at his or her job. I think awareness is the number one thing. Because if we're not aware, we're not even necessarily conscious that we're making choices. You know, it's perfectly possible to live a human

life on what I would call autopilot, where we just kind of follow what gets put in front of us. Yes. And we follow our moods. You know, I'm in this kind of mood, so I do X. And when I'm in Y kind of mood, I do Y. So it's perfectly, you can do that. I think it's awareness that allows us to switch from that to looking and being conscious of the choices we make, whether they be about how we behave towards other people, whether they be about how we talk to ourselves, whether they be about how much effort we put into our job, what things we should give effort to, all that takes awareness of what we're doing. And so I think that's kind of the key unlock there for everything else that follows is to become more aware of where we are,

what we're doing, and what are the stories that are going on in our heads. Eric, I love what you're saying so much here. And I'm thinking right now, I've been reading Dr. Robert Cialdini's most recent book, Pre-Suasion, which is excellent. And he talks about sort of the media, that they're not so great at telling us what to think, but they are great at telling us what to think about.

And it so happens in just the case of our sort of human psychological brain workings, that what we pay our attention to, we tend to naturally just sort of infer that that thing matters, that it's important, that it sort of grows and there's an upward sort of cycle that's occurring there, which is why I love the wolf metaphor even more as I think more about it right now, is that it's, you're feeding it and it's growing. And so if you put your attention on something, you think that thing is important and you tend to put more attention on it. And I've gotten caught up in, what's the humidity level in my humidor? This little box that I smoke like

two cigars a year. It so doesn't matter. But you know, it's kind of interesting and engaging and I'm getting close and I'm dialing it in. And then I'm reading things. I was like, time out. Like, this is unworthy of my limited attention. that book too. And I was struck by that part also about how, you know, the media focuses on, you know, what we give attention to. We can think about that thing how we want, but it really frames the debate. And so I thought that was fascinating. And I think it's great the way you're applying it to what we're talking about. I think that, yeah, awareness of how we're spending our time is important. I think that we also have to be careful and I will fall into this trap of like every single minute has to be spent in the ultimately productive way. And that is another trap. And so I think there's some degree of how do I allow some being, you know, to do what I want to do, what interests me in the moment, sometimes I think is

a good idea. So you may be interested in your humidor and maybe spending a little time on that is okay. What I'm really after and what I work with a lot of my coaching clients on is you can spend your time any way you want. There is no right or wrong answer to this. Just be conscious of it. Be conscious of what you're choosing to do with it. Because most of us aren't and the time just flies by. And the next thing we know, you know, two, three weeks have gone by and we're like, what have I done? Well, I watched a lot of Netflix. And again, that might be fine, right? That might be okay. It's just about being conscious of it. And I can almost feel it in myself now when I'm more

conscious of how I'm spending my time and other times where I feel like I'm just kind of more like under, it feels like I'm underwater in some way. Like I'm not really seeing the bigger picture or I'm not thinking clearly about what I'm doing and I just kind of go through things. So I really think it's the awareness of it and then making choices, realizing because a lot of times the bad wolf, at least in my experience, is simply just not making a good choice, just following the default pattern that comes up. Because, you know, to your point earlier about what we think is important is what's presented to us. You know, I watch very, very little TV. I'll watch Netflix or I'll watch movies, but I watch very, very little TV. And the reason I do is a, I have way too much to do to

spend much time on it, but B I'm very susceptible to the commercials right now. I don't rush out and buy the thing, right? It's not like I see that stuff, but I just keep getting presented. the thing. It's not like I see that stuff, but I just keep getting presented the message that I get from commercials over and over is how I look makes a tremendous amount of difference to everything and how much money I make also makes a tremendous amount of difference. And I don't have enough of either. That's kind of the message that I get when I unconsciously consume a lot of advertising, which is exactly the message they want me to get, by the way. And so I stay away from it because I recognize how susceptible I am to it. Back to the media, you know, the media tells you what to focus on. That's where my focus

goes. And I suddenly start believing that everything on the outside is what's important and not necessarily the good things on the outside, like my relationship with my mom or my relationship with my friends, but the things on the outside, like my clothes or, you know, how clear is my skin or what car am I driving or how many great vacations am I taking? And that's when I personally, again, nothing wrong with any of those things, but for me, they get me in trouble because at least the way I'm wired internally, there's not a lot of substance there. Those things don't really make me happy. They are a substitute for what's really important.

But I can chase them for a long time if I'm not careful. You know, I think it's powerful language when you talk about substitutes and whether that's, you know, fast food or pornography or whatever. It's like they tend to leave folks unsatisfied, you know, like the quality real stuff. And so it's potent. So, you know, I'd love to talk a smidge more about when you mentioned following the default pattern. judges and how it turned out that their decisions to sort of grant release of prisoners was very predictably related to sort of what time of day was it like toward the beginning of just after having rejuvenated with a break or toward the end. So the default judgment for parole judges, you stay in prison. And more and more of those decisions get made when the judge is just tired. Like, yeah, I don't know. We're not going to risk it. That's why I always bring a Snickers bar when I'm

on trial. Give it to the judge. Here you go, buddy. I know you're feeling a little low. Oh, that is perfect. You know, hungry? Well, it could result in your freedom. That's exactly it. Yep. Yep. I'm not trying to bribe him. I'm just trying to get, trying to get his mood up to a level where he can think. Oh, that's so money. Well, so now I'd love to hear then sort of, so what are some of your practices or maybe things you've learned from your guests associated with being prudent to make sure your attention doesn't get hijacked, to make sure that you don't end up making the low energy default decisions, but rather the optimal decisions.

Yeah, I think there's a variety of things that go into it. Again, to be repetitive, it's about awareness. And so for me, I train awareness by meditating. That seems to be the thing that helps me to be more aware. And then just practicing being aware when I'm out and around. You know, I have a little thing where I try as often as I can, and I don't do it that often, but to stop and sort of just ask myself, like, where am I? What am I doing? And why am I doing it? And is it what I want to be doing? Just, you know, pausing and asking those kind of questions has a lot. I mean, I think planning out a schedule is very, very useful. I think spending time to

reflect on what's important to you and what your goals are is important. And there's so many different ways that you can do that. A really simple exercise that I love that I don't know where I got it from, probably Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which is a masterpiece. One way you can do this is to start your week by looking at all the roles that you play in your life. So in my case, I am a father, I'm a son, I'm a brother, I'm a podcast host, I'm a consultant, I'm a dog owner, I mean, just so on and so forth, right? And if I do that, then I can look at each of those things and try and plug in how I do something for those roles each week. Now, they're not going to be equal. The amount of time that I spend on certain of

my roles, like being a brother, is not nearly the time that I put into being a father, as an example. But if my relationship with my brother is important, then as part of my conscious planning, I'm looking at that and going, okay, well, I want to make sure I get some time in there for him. And if this is important, I want to make sure I'm getting some time. So that's a very easy way to make sure that we're spending time on the things that matter by being very thoughtful about the roles we play in life and what we want to do with them. So I found that to be a very simple, very helpful practice that doesn't involve sitting down and writing long mission statements and clarifying your values and lots of other things that can be good and can also just be a rat hole.

I find that one to be imminently practical as a way to, you know, direct my attention in the right way. Oh, that is powerful. Thank you. And it's interesting. I find that lately as I've been doing things, some of those questions have followed up in terms of, you know, what am I doing? Why is this optimal? Is this pointing me to the path that I want to be? And I find that most often my answer is, I can't think about this right now. I just got to get this done. Yep. Yep. Well, you know, I really do highly recommend Seven Habits of Highly Effective People because it really put a couple things in my mind early on when I was young that I think helped me with my whole career. There's just some key concepts in that book. But another one of them

that I'm pretty sure this is where I first heard it. And it's such a true statement and it makes so much sense. And it's about managing time. And the story is, you know, you've got a professor sitting up in front of a class and he's got a big glass bowl, right? You've probably heard this one. And he puts a bunch of big rocks in and, you know, until he can't get any more of the big rocks in. And he asks, is this full? And everybody goes, yeah, it's pretty full, right? But of course, it's not because then he dumps in a bunch of smaller rocks. You know, he puts all the small rocks in he can and you go, is that full? Well, it looks like it, but no. Then he starts pouring all the sand in and then finally he pours water in, right? So you can get a lot in there.

The moral of that story or the learning of that story is that if you put the big rocks in first, everything else will find a way to get in there and get done. The big rocks being the things that are important to you. But if the other hand, you go the other direction and you start and you fill that up with water, which is the unimportant stuff. You cannot get big rocks into that thing. And so that's really about time. And I think what you just said points to some of what we get into, which is that whatever shows up in front of us is what gets our time and gets our energy and gets our attention. And by doing that, we're giving all our time to things that are, you know, maybe not that important, but appear urgent. And they appear urgent because they showed up. It doesn't mean they are, but they appear that way versus spending a lot more time thinking about the big rocks, getting those in, and then allow the other

time to filter around those. And I found that's an incredibly helpful way to live a life that you're accomplishing the things that are important to you is to get what's important to you scheduled, know when you're gonna do it, have it all in there, and then let life mix around that versus the other way around. Oh, absolutely.

That's so on the mark. And the lesson, the moral of that is not, you can always cram something else in there. Right, right. Exactly. Exactly. It's not, but it does say that if you, you know, yeah, I think it's a parable. People get it, right? Make sure you put things that are important to you. You schedule time for them. Otherwise, they're not going to get done. schedule time for them. Otherwise, they're not going to get done. Understood. And so, you know, I'd like to hear a little bit in terms of with all the guests you've chatted with and their means of feeding the good wolf. I guess I've just been on a kick lately thinking about BJ Fogg's tiny habits and just an amazing TED Talk. And sort of when it comes to, you know, things you've discovered from folks and the means by which they're feeding the good wolf. What are a number of sort of your favorite tidbits, maybe tiny habitable kind of activities that have really struck a chord with you and seem to have your guests say,

this is one of the best things I've ever done for myself? Well, I think BJ Fogg, we had BJ Fogg on the show and I agree very much. I mean, I think that guy has refined and shaped how I look at changing behavior a great deal. So I think that very idea, but you know, it was interesting. It was our, I don't know which, it was one of our first few interviews. We had a guy named Dan Millman on who wrote way of the peaceful warrior. And he said it right then, you know, like start small and connect the dots. And that's BJ Fogg with tiny habits, right? Start a habit so small that you can accomplish it and build from there. And so that's a theme that's been running through the show so far. A guy named James Clear writes about habits on the web. And he has a phrase that

I used to say it is a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing, which meant do something. If I've got a habit that I'm trying to run every day and I can't run, well, at least walk around the block. James says it much more eloquently, which is reduce the scope, stick to the schedule. And so for me, that's a huge one in staying on track with the behaviors that I want is, okay, I wanted, I was going to go to the gym for an hour and I've got, it's not going to work. I got out of work late. I got 10 minutes. Most of us just say, F it, right? Forget it. But we can do something with that 10 minutes for our physical health. We can, like I said, walk around the block a few times. We can do 50 pushups

or a hundred pushups. And that is so important, not because walking around the block or doing the 50 pushups makes a huge deal of difference in our physical health over a long period of time. It's negligible, right? But we're keeping the habit going. One of the things BJ Fogg talks about, and I use this all the time with people that I coach, is he makes the analogy of a plant. And a habit is like a plant. And there are times that you're giving that plant lots of attention. You know, so if it's working out, you know, you're working out and you're tracking your workouts and you're getting all your protein and you're just crushing it. Right. Oh yeah. And then there are other times where the goal is just

not to kill the plant. Right. It's you go on vacation. That's a time for a lot of people where the habit or the plant gets killed, right? You go on vacation, you stop doing what you're doing. And when you come home, you've lost all your momentum and you're done. Or something happens in your life. Your kids get really sick. You get really sick. You have to go to the hospital with your mom for three days. Those are the sort of things that during those times, you can't devote the time to your habits that you want. Or I guess you can, but it's probably a fairly selfish thing to do, right? So you can do it. But what you can do is find what is the little thing I can do to keep this habit going. So I've got to be here at the hospital with mom for the next three days.

I'm not going to leave her and go to the gym. But you know what? I am going to walk up and down the hall and the stairs 20 times. You know, I'm going to give something to this habit to keep it alive until I'm back in a position where I can really nourish it and grow it again. And I think that's another version on, you know, James Clear's stick to the scope, reduce the schedule, or as I say, a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing. Oh, I love it. That's how you keep habits alive. It is those places that most of us come unglued when it comes to habits. Most of us are able to start a habit and do okay with it for a while, but inevitably life starts getting in the way. And instead of adjusting the habit so it fits within what life is and is not ideal, but keeps us going, we usually just give up.

Then we take another one of those moments where we go, I can never stick with anything or I'm the kind of person who always quits. Or, you know, we start to have these thoughts about ourselves that really aren't true. We just don't know necessarily how to navigate the challenges that come along. Oh, thank you. That's so good. Well, you've already sort of teed up the next question I'd like to hear. And that is, so with my guests, often they'll say things that just really have stuck with me and transformed the way I think and behave in a lasting way. So I'd love it if you could reflect back on 160-ish guests, if a couple big ideas leap to mind that you haven't already mentioned that could really be transformational for those looking to

be more awesome at their jobs. That's a great question. And yeah, I'll use one that I think can make people better at their jobs. So we had a guest on, her name's Glennon Doyle Melton. She's been getting a lot of attention lately for a new book she wrote. You know, she's been on Oprah and different things, but we had her on before all that occurred, although she was pretty popular at that point too. But she said something that kind of blew me away and she has a tendency to way overshare, right? Like hilarious examples of this, right? And that, you know, when she goes to a cocktail party with her husband, she'll see him across the room giving her the like cut sign

across her neck, like, nope, too much, right? So that's the tendency she goes to. But what she said was, and this just kind of stopped me in my tracks when she said it. And she said that if you stick to surface things, when you're talking to people, you're going to have a harder time connecting to people because there's so many different surfaces out there. But if you take the time to go deeper with people, if you take the risk to go deeper with people, you connect with many more people because you go a few layers down, we're all the same. And that just kind of blew me away. And the way that has applied to me in my work, because I own a solar company, I've been in lots of startups, I do consulting for large retailers. The way that's played out in my own life is that when I was younger,

I tried to bring the version of myself that I thought fit best there. Now, I wasn't being someone I wasn't, but I was being a very reduced version of who I was. This is the part that I think is acceptable to show in this situation. And, you know, I'm not suggesting that we abandon that completely and start showing up to meetings and tank tops and, you know, with our dog, although I used to bring my dog to work a lot. It was a great job. But what I realized is I got a little bit older and I got a little bit more comfortable with who I was. When I started letting the parts of me show,

it's a big word these days, right? Vulnerability. But when I started being more myself at work and taking a few chances to sort of not say what everybody else is saying or to show that I think differently about certain things. What I found is I got way better at my job. And the reason was so much of being successful in a professional career is about the relationships you have with other people. How well do you work

with other people? How persuasive can you be? You know, all that stuff. Connection is what builds that. And what I realized was that when I was bringing only a little bit of myself, I could only make a little bit of a connection. Yes. But when I started bringing, again, don't go to the extreme with this, but when I started bringing who I really was and taking chances at showing that to people, the connections deepened because there was more of me there to connect. And as those connections get better, I get better at the work I do because the work that I do with folks is largely, it's not about can I write good code,

it's about can I get groups of people working together very well to accomplish things and can we figure out what's most important and can we communicate? And that helps in that way a ton. Oh, absolutely. And just that notion that now they like you and they are more

engaged. You know, they don't want to disappoint this person who's like a friend and then they trust you. So they're more able to speak their mind and say, hey, I have these concerns. And so you're less likely to have some blow ups down the road because they were holding on to, you know, a spooky indicator early, but didn't say anything. So that's so good. Thank you. Yeah. Will you tell me, Eric, is there anything else you really want to make sure that you put out there before we shift gears and talk about a few of your favorite things here? I don't think so. You'll probably link to us in the show notes. You know, I'm proud of the show

that we do. You know, it won a 2014 Best of iTunes award. You know, we've been listened to over 5 million times. So I'm really proud of the show. So I love people to just check that out. And then from there, if the stuff we're talking about resonates, I do offer coaching programs and we have a Facebook group and la la la. But the show is really, for me, it's the thing I'm most proud of. Oh, that's fantastic. We'll definitely link to all that good stuff. So could you start us off by sharing a favorite quote, something you find inspiring? Yeah, I probably won't get it right, but it's start where you are, do what you can use what you have. I think it's by Arthur Ashe, although with quotes,

you can see them attributed to lots of different people. And I may have the order wrong there, but that's the essence of it. Start where you are, do what you can use what you have. of it. Start where you are, do what you can, use what you have. And I love it just because it says wherever you are, you can start right now on making progress towards a thing that you have. And you have enough to start. You may not have everything you think you need to get to the finish line, but you have enough to start. And so do it. Thank you. And how about a favorite study or experiment or or piece of research? Boy, that's a good one. I do like the one you quoted about the judges. The one I heard most recently that fascinated me, and it's one of those that I go, well, is that true? But I'll share it anyway, because it appears to be peer verified work. It talks about the power of our

mind to affect what happens. And it's a study that followed a group of hotel maids. And so they divided them into two groups and they said to one of the groups, hey, the work that you do every day is really good for you. You know, you're doing exercise, you're in good physical shape, you're exercising, all that, right? And then they just said nothing to the other group, right? Well, the group that was told that they were getting benefit out of their exercise that they were doing, when they followed up later found, sure enough, those people were getting more physical benefit out of it. Their blood pressure was better. The various indicators of health were all better. And so that's kind of a fascinating study. It points to one of two things, and it's probably a combination. One is our brain's ability to sort of do things beyond what we think it can

do. I had a guest on last week, we talked about the placebo effect, and it's insane. It's insane what our brains can do. Or those people just suddenly started going, well, boy, if this is exercise, maybe I take another step here or another step there. But I love it because it shows without changing much of anything except the way they viewed what they were doing, they started getting different results. And I'm a big believer in you do need to change your behavior and your action, right? But I'm an also big believer that how you think about what you're doing matters too. Oh, so good.

Thank you. And how about a favorite book? Well, we talked about seven habits for highly effective people. So let's run with it. Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I've got like three or four top books, depending on when you ask me is the one you'll get, but that's the one for today. I'll take it. And how about a favorite tool, whether it's a product or service or app, something that helps you be awesome at your job? I love Evernote. Evernote was a big deal for me because I am absent-minded on a level that is difficult for me even to conceive. It's, you know, I think we all have strengths and weaknesses. Mine is I am absent-minded. I mean, I'm the kind of person that will walk away and leave my phone

sitting where somewhere, you know, three or four days a week. I mean, it's just terrible. But Evernote for me, once I finally made the decision that, you know what, everything is going in here. Once I did that, my life got so much better in so many ways because everything that I need, whether it's for home or the show or the consulting work that I do or whatever other weird thing I'm interested in, all goes in there. And then it's all available to me whenever I need it. If I've got my phone, it's got Evernote on it. My computer's got Evernote on it. If I'm at your house, I can get on the web. It has helped me so much to be able to find and get to things that are important to me, whether it be I put down the parking place I am

where I parked at the airport or whether it's the fact that all the questions I've asked every guest are all in Evernote. And I can go back and look at that stuff or all the notes I've taken from all the books I've done with guests are all in Evernote. You know, so from the simple to the really important, it helps me. Oh, that's good. Thank you. And how about a favorite sort of resonant nugget, something that you share in Eric Original that really seems to get folks nodding their heads, retweeting and connecting with folk. That's a good one. I know there are those. So I'll go with one that's a little bit off topic, but it's the one that I think I have talked about lately with certain people and really seems to resonate, which is that

depression hates a moving target. And so, you know, I wrestle with depression. I think a lot of people that I know, you know, entrepreneurs. I think a lot of people that I know, you know, entrepreneurs tend to be a group of people that wrestle with depression, but it doesn't even have to be severe depression. But I've just found that when I've got a low mood, that if I can get moving, that helps so much versus being stuck in my brain, wherever I am. And environmental change often can unstick my brain. So even getting from inside my house to out walking can often cause that uptick where I go from being sort of stuck to feeling better. Oh, thank you. What would you say is the best place for folks to reach out or

learn more about you? Oneufeed.net. So it's all spelled out O-N-E-Y-O-U-F-E-E-D.net. From there, all spelled out O-N-E-Y-O-U-F-E-E-D.net. From there, you know, everything else is there. Shows, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera. So that's the place to go. All right. And do you have a final parting word, challenge, or call to action for those seeking to be more awesome at their jobs? I think, yeah. You know, one of the things that I think I have gotten into in the past is looking at, we were talking just a minute ago about how the way you look at something really matters. It's very easy if you have a job, as an example, to get into a, I have to, I have to, I have to. I have to go to work. I have to

go to work. I have to do this. I have to do that. And the truth is, no, you really don't. I have to go to work because I've got kids to support. Well, you don't really have to support. I mean, you could get on a train tomorrow and go to California. You might get some child support bills, but you know, we can choose to do anything we want. Now, the consequences of those choices, most of us don't really like, but it helps me enormously when I realize that like, I don't have to go to work and earn this money so that I can pay for X, Y, and Z for my son. I choose to do it because it's important to me. And so that really helps me with, you know, cause I've got the show that I do. I've got the coaching I do that I

deeply love. And then I do some other consulting work, which is really great work. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's not my passion though. And if I'm not careful, I can get stuck into resenting that work and feel like I have to, I have to, I have to. And the truth is I don't have to, I'm choosing to because what it gives me. And so anytime I can make that switch in my mind, it helps me so much get out of this stuck victim mode mentality and realize that I really am to a great degree sort of the author of my own life. Beautiful closing thought. Eric, this has been such a pleasure.

I wish you tons of luck and keep on feeding the good wolf. Yeah, thank you, Pete. I really enjoyed the conversation too. You do a great job. All right, well, I hope you're feeding the good wolf and putting the big rocks in place and following other wise metaphors along the way. And once again, if you want to check out the

show notes or the transcripts or the links to items mentioned, you'll find that over at awesomeatyourjob.com slash ep122. And I do recommend you push the subscribe button so you don't miss folks like our next guest. Adam Hansen is talking about his new book, all about innovation and overcoming cognitive biases. So I hope to catch you then. Peace. Thanks for joining us for today's episode. To get the most out of this conversation, visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com to find today's show notes, transcript and infographic summary cheat sheet. For more entertaining professional skill sharpening, be sure to subscribe to catch the next episode of How to Be Awesome at Your Job.