Find Your Calling – Steve Olsher
SUMMARY
On this episode with the New York Times Best-Selling author, Steve Olsher, he talks about how you can find your calling.
It’s your responsibility to find your calling because you’re the solution to someone else’s problem. When you play that role, no matter how small that is, you’re creating a better place.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
You are the solution to someone else’s problem.
Passion as a career is overrated.
Whatever you’re doing, it is not for you, but for those who are waiting for you to show up in their life.
What is Your “What” Equation?
- Core gift
- The primary vehicle you’ll use to share your gift.
- People who you are most compelled to serve.
Figuring out your “What”
- What’s that thing you would do every day even if you’re not paid for it?
- What are questions people ask you about all the time?
- What recurring themes come up in your life?
Just because you are passionate about something, doesn’t mean that that is what you should be doing for a career.
There’s a big difference between passion and career and people feel as though they have to be one and the same and they don’t.
Not everything you do needs to be the thing that makes you money.
The first step to find your calling is recognizing, embracing, and understanding that there’s a particular way that you are wired to excel.
List out your attributes, beliefs, and perspectives.
The people we’re compelled to serve are guys like us.
85% of those who graduate with a four-year degree do not work within their field of study within five years of graduation.
Let your kids go out in the world and figure out who they are.
Be the first domino to fall and set that chain reaction in motion.
TRANSCRIPTION: FIND YOUR PASSION – STEVE OLSHER
Kamala Chambers
On this episode, we’re going to be talking about how to find your calling.
Today, we are here with a 25+ year entrepreneur, a New York Times best-selling author, and the host of the number one radio show Reinvention Radio. He’s an international keynote speaker and an in-demand media guest who has appeared on CNN and bunch of other places. We are here with Steve Olsher.
We’re happy to have you on the show.
Luis Congdon
All right. Thriving Launchers, we’re here with Steve Olsher.
I’m excited to have him as a guest. I’ve been on his show, Reinvention Radio. He’s a fantastic interviewer that shows a great resource. But Steve is also a great resource especially on how to find your calling. What is that one amazing thing that you were born to do?
What I like about what we’re diving into today is a lot of us have a lot of passions, have this sense of “How do I figure out what I’m supposed to share with the world and passionate about this and that?” But “How do I turn that into something that can be profitable? How do I find the one thing that I was meant to do and do it for a living?”
Steve, welcome to the show. It’s great to have you hear. Are you ready to launch?
Steve Olsher
Yeah. Appreciate you having me. Let’s do this.
Luis Congdon
It’s a real honor. I always love your energy, and I love how what you bring to the world helps people discover their purpose and passion, and combine that with profits. Figure out who are you being and find your calling.
The first thing I want to ask you is what the thing that inspired you to write this New York Times best-selling book that teaches how to find your calling was?
Steve Olsher
It’s interesting. They say you write the book that you most need. And so, this is one of those things where for my adult life, I was struggling with this question of, “What is it that I’m here to do? What can I do?” And realistically, “How am I going to do something that not only impacts who shared this lifetime with me, but also, those of lifetimes to come?”
I went through all of the available modalities like The Myers-Briggs, What Color is Your Parachute, and all that stuff that people talk about. I think I went through them all. Most of them left me with more questions than answers. It’s all well and good that you’re an ENTF or whatever you work out to be, and I’m just in there going “WTF. What difference does that make? What do I do?”
That was the question that I had. I’ve got this information, so what do I do with it? And the more I went and dug into all of those modalities, the more frustrated I got.
When I couldn’t find the modality that worked to help me hit the ground running, I created it. The result of years of talking to people, and teaching, and researching became the What is Your What Framework.
Kamala Chambers
I would love to hear from you how you even begin the process to find your calling.
Steve Olsher
To find your calling is a misnomer. Let’s not get hung-up on that “born to do” thing because people are like, “Oh. I wasn’t born to do. I’m going not to do that for the rest of my life.” No. It’s not a rest of your life thing. It should probably be called “Discover the one amazing thing you were born to do for now.” Because, the reality is life happens, and things happen.
And so, it’s more organic. It evolves. Things that you do today, you may not necessarily be doing ten years from now, and that’s the way life is.
The Equation To Find Your Calling
Steve Olsher
There is a particular framework to the What is Your What equation that involves understanding what your core gift is. That’s in your DNA. There’s nothing you can do about it. And then, the primary vehicle that you will use to share your gift with the world, and the third piece of the puzzle, are the people. They are the people that you’re most compelled to serve.
The combination of the gift, the vehicle, and people make up the What is Your What equation. – Steve Olsher
That will help you find your calling.
Luis Congdon
As you’re talking, I’m thinking about how I found my niche and the journey I’ve taken in.
For me, finding my niche was always just asking this one question, “What’s the thing that I love to do and even though I’m not being paid for it, I will still want to do? Somehow, that has always been somewhere where it’s about building relationships and making connections.
Before hosting this podcast, I did relationship work, and then I started the podcast. I started a business podcasting and helping people with that. But it’s always come down to relationships, and that journey hasn’t been an easy one because I didn’t know it all revolved around relationships and making connections.
I’m curious. What do you suggest start asking yourself to figure out your purpose or find your calling?
Steve Olsher
It’s a great point. There are plenty of folks out there who would run through some of those things. It’s like “If you didn’t get paid a cent for it and that’s something you would do every day, what would it be?” What are questions people ask you about all the time or what recurring themes come up in your life? Maybe that’s what it is, and that’s a way to look at it.
I know your story. Like you said, we had you on the show man. It was just unbelievable what you’ve been through to find your calling. I know how important relationships are to you.
In reality, you could have gone one and two directions. You could have loved or hated everybody from that point forward, and you chose the path of love. Not everybody is nearly as mentally, physically, and emotionally strong as you are to be able to find your calling.
Getting Started To Find Your Calling
Steve Olsher
When you look at your life, certain themes come up time and time again, but most of us spent a lifetime in denial about what those things are.
And so, all of those types of questions and looking to recurring themes are great ways to get started to find your calling.
I put people through a process that I call The Seven Seeds of Your Soul.” We don’t have enough time to go through all of that here, but it’s designed to help you figure out how you’re naturally wired to excel.
It’s not about themes, things you would do if you could do it and didn’t get paid a cent but you do it anyway. That’s not necessarily about that.
Being able to find your calling is being able to look within and dig out from what’s already in your DNA.
Your “What” is that which already exists and puts fire in your soul.
Kamala Chambers
I want to throw out a little controversy here because I heard you say that passion, which may be crucial when you want to find your calling, is overrated.
Steve Olsher
It is true.
Kamala Chambers
For me, I only like doing the things that I like doing and I feel like passion is something super important to me.
It’s like I got to love what I’m doing every day or I don’t want to do it, and I won’t do it. And I try to shape my life around the things that light me up. I find a lot of success in that especially with trying to find your calling.
I’d love to hear the other side of that coin around your views on passion being overrated.
Steve Olsher
Just so that we’re clear on as what I mean by passion is overrated. I mean, passion as a career is overrated.
Find Your Calling And Understand The Difference Between Passion And Career
Steve Olsher
There are a lot of hours in the day, and you can do something you may not necessarily love from 9-5 five. But if what you’re doing pays the bills, puts a roof over your head, and it’s enough you can do it without hating it, for some people, that’s perfectly fine.
In those other hours, what happens after 5 o’clock and on the weekends, they can dive into those things that bring them the most joy.
What I find far too often is there’s this pressure to find your calling which is something you love to do, you’re good at, and then someone will pay you. And there’s just a tiny sort of a spot there between the concentric circles, of what might turn as a dream job, and very few people have the ability to do something that they love, that they’re good at and that somebody will pay them exceptionally well for.
You could love and passion for dancing, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to make a living as a dancer and you were able to find your calling.
You could love and have a passion for growing tomatoes in your garden. Just because everybody tells you that you grow the best tomatoes in the neighborhood, doesn’t mean you’re going to be creating a tomato farm where you’re making a living from growing these damn tomatoes.
Kamala Chambers
Dang, I couldn’t agree with you more. That’s too bad.
There’s that real sweet spot that when you try to find your calling which is something you enjoy doing, and it’s something that’s marketable and is going to bring in income. I don’t think everything you do needs to be the thing that makes you money.
Steve Olsher
Yeah. That’s precisely the point. There’s much pressure trying to find your calling and passion.
I know it seems sort of ironic that the subtitle of my book is “Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do and here I am telling you that you don’t have to find your calling.
Naturally Wired To Find Your Calling
Steve Olsher
What I look at it as it’s more a function of understanding how you can find your calling and how you’re naturally wired to excel.
To Luis’s point regarding relationships being just a huge part of his life, his core gift probably lies somewhere in the communicating arena or the healing arena. I bet you. It’s one of the two or maybe a combination there.
Kamala Chambers
It’s a combination, I think.
Steve Olsher
Yeah, but it’s usually one that stands a little bit above the other even if it’s 49- 51.
The question is then once you know that that is the core gift either as a healer or as a communicator, what is going to be that primary vehicle that you use. In this case, it’s the podcast, and the other work that is done regarding writing and so on which leads me again back to thinking that it’s probably communicating that is the core gift.
Find Your Calling And Have Clarity
Steve Olsher
Even if you have those two pieces in place unless you have clarity around the people you are most compelled to serve and help them with Strategic Abandon, then, it’s going to be tough to find your calling. You’re going to find yourself having a difficult time sustaining not only your fire for what you’re doing but from a marketability standpoint.
Luis Congdon
One of the things that I’m taking away from this conversation and it’s an important one I learned early on is I was transitioning from leaving the regular 9-5, managing staff, being managed by someone else, and being paid by someone else. Essentially, having my pay and my hours controlled and dictated by a job.
That sounded harsh too by the way because I know a lot of you guys have jobs and I commend you for that. I think having a job is fantastic and being an entrepreneur isn’t the way to go for everybody, and I’m not one of those people that will espouse “Be an entrepreneur or die.”
I’m more one of this person that espouse “Find your calling. Do what you’re good at. Do what excites you, and hopefully, you can combine all of that so what you are doing a majority of your life to be paid is something you enjoy.
Know Your Expertise And Find Your Calling
Luis Congdon
I learned something as I was trying to find what I can do to make a living outside of being an employee. I remember reading on this board at one time. Somebody said, “Don’t just think what you’re passionate about or what excites you.”
He added, “Look at the things you are good at that you haven’t looked into being paid for or the things people are asking you to do, or you might have a natural inclination towards having expertise or easiness with it. That might not be the thing you are looking at, but it might be the very thing you’re good at.” That’s how you can find your calling.
For me, I initially started in the relationship world. I was good at communicating with couples. I had done that work, so I thought, “I’m going to start a business in the relationship world.” Then I thought, “I have the talents and the skills. I’m going to do it.”
Doing it on my own, I didn’t do very well, but my ability to communicate and connect with people was excellent. That’s when a marketer spotted me and said, “Hey Luis, I’d like to pay you for your communication abilities and for your ability to land fantastic guests. Can you help me produce a podcast that’s doing as well as yours?” And I said, “Sure.”
Then, Kamala came to me and said, “Hey. You should probably switch your niche and start doing more podcasting stuff.” And I went kicking and screaming. I didn’t want to go there. I thought, “I’m not a business person. I’m a relationship expert. This is what I love doing.”
Be Open To Possibilities To Find Your Calling
Luis Congdon
But the offers for me to help with podcasting kept coming in. Had it not been for screaming and Kamala, grabbing me and pulling me with her, I would have stayed back and not had the results.
For a lot of you guys listening, the message here is just because you’re passionate about something, doesn’t mean it’s the thing. Have an open mind to other possibilities because maybe there’s something that’s more lucrative.
It’s perhaps not the most passionate thing you’re about, but maybe it’s the thing that you’re made to do. That’s how you can find your calling.
Maya Angelou said she hated writing poetry. She did not like it. And yet, she’s one of those few poetry writers who has made a huge difference in the world and was also a multi-millionaire.
Steve Olsher
Yeah.
The reality is we often find ourselves doing things we don’t necessarily want to do that don’t bring us joy. So sometimes, we just need to look at it and find things to do that bring others joy. And that’s where the third piece of the “What is your what framework” comes in, which is understanding the people that you’re most compelled to serve.
Find Your Calling And Do Things For Others
Steve Olsher
It doesn’t mean that the work that you’re going to be doing and the activities you’re going to be undertaking are always going to provide massive fulfillment for you. That’s when you have to step back.
Kamala Chambers
Thriving Launchers, you know that I like to take it to the painfully practical levels.
Steve, I’d love to hear from you, to find your calling, what’s something we could do right away like today.
Steve Olsher
Well, the first thing that I recommend people do is to turn on the light switch. That’s always going to be step number one to find your calling.
If you can picture a dark room, and you’re walking around trying to feel your way through in this room, you don’t know what’s what. You’re just banging into things. That is truly how a lot of people go through life.
Turn The Light Switch On To Find Your Calling
Steve Olsher
Once you turn on a light and you can see what’s what, you can then make a conscious choice about “Do I want to turn left? Do I want to turn right? Do I want to exit the room? What do I want to do here?”
That’s how I look it. Step one you need to do to find your calling has to be turning on the light.
Recognize, embrace, and understand the fact that there is a particular way that you are wired to excel. It’s your goal now to decide whether or not you care.
If you care, you’ll move forward, and do what you needed to do to figure what that is. But at least, I’ve done my job, and you guys have done your job of planting the seed, and saying, “There is, in fact, something out there for you that you are very good at, that you do love to do, and that someone will pay you for.”
Now, it’s simply a question of, “The light switch is on. Are you going to keep it on or are you going to turn it off?”
That’s always where I ask people to start which is embracing the notion that there is something that puts fire in our soul. And so, that’s where it all begins.
Once you understand that this “What” exists within, now, the real question becomes, “What do I do with that knowledge? Do I pursue figuring out what that is or do I just continue down the path that I’ve been going down?”
If the choice is, “I want to figure out what that is.” Then, in my way of thinking, the easiest thing to do next is to create what I call an ABP statement, which is your Attributes, Beliefs, and Perspectives.
What the ABP statement does for you is it gives you the opportunity just list out everything that has been a part of your life or as far back as you can remember.
Find Your Calling By Listing Out Your Attributes, Beliefs, and Perspectives
Steve Olsher
Like Luis, we run through regarding your attributes. You know what your attributes are. You’re a survivor. You’re an immigrant. You’re someone who had English as a second language, and all of these things. Those are the attributes that you possess.
Your beliefs are “I believe in God. I believe in love. I believe in abortion,” whatever those things are that you have. You list out your beliefs, and then you list out your perspectives regarding how you view the world in your unique way.
What ends up happening is there are certain things on that piece of paper that you’ll feel a much deeper emotional connection to than others. Often, you may find that is the way you can back into the third part of the “what is your what framework,” which are the people you’re most compelled to serve.
You may find that children who have been abandoned or who have been in foster care are the people that you’re most compelled to help because, often, it’s like looking in a mirror.
The people that we’re most compelled to serve are guys like us but 15 steps back on the path.
Luis Congdon
I like all of that. I think a lot of us don’t take that time to look at finding some themes in our lives and also taking an objective look at who we are, what we’re up to, and translating that into something actionable.
A lot of us mistakenly think “This is who I am,” and that’s it. Somehow, we’re not getting a full snapshot.
To find your calling and your What is interesting. I’m an academic. I love academia. I went to a private Jesuit university, so I have an excellent educational. I love school, but one of the things you say is college one of the worst investments. Don’t do it. And I’m curious about that because I’m very different about that.
I think that college is often the thing people use to find their What or the thing that helps give them a shining force. If it wasn’t for colleges, we might have a lot of people walking around not having a global picture of things, no ability to make an astute observation, and education behind their theories.
I attribute colleges being a great investment. So, we differ here, but I’d love to hear your opinion.
Steve Olsher
What I said and I’m quoting it as being said is that “College is the single worst investment that a parent can make.”
I’m all for education regarding it. You pay for it yourself, go for it. If that’s your thing and you’re going to invest in your future and what not, then, have at it.
Having Or Not Having Formal Education To Find Your Calling
Steve Olsher
What I know is that 85% of those who graduate with a four-year degree do not work within their field of study within five years of graduation. And so, it’s a social experiment gone wrong.
15% of the people who go to college know what they want to do. They know they want to be an architect or a doctor, or be this that and the other.
If you know what you want to do, by all means, go to school. Get that piece of paper if you know that’s how you can find your calling. Do whatever it is that you need to do to have the qualifications you need to make that into your living and career.
Most of the time, parents write these blank checks, and the only return that they end up getting on their investment is the return of that child to the house. I don’t think that’s the return they had in mind when they started forking out 40-50 grand/year to send this child off to figure who they are.
I’ve got two kids of my own. From a parental perspective, if they don’t know what they want to do, give them five grand and a kick in the ass. Let them go out in the world and figure out who they are. And when they’re ready, let them pursue the education they need if, in fact, they need a formal education to do what they want to do.
If your kids figure out that they need a formal education to do it, the best thing of all is to pay for it themselves as you probably heard the expression, “If you don’t pay, you don’t pay attention.” If you put your money into it, you’re going to get the return that’s expected and can let you find your calling.
Kamala Chambers
I couldn’t agree with you more.
Luis Congdon
I’m glad I’m not your kid or his kid.
Kamala Chambers
I just think that college is an overpriced way to figure out what you don’t want to do. If you know what you want to do ahead of time, you’re so much further in the game, and you’re not going to be as in debt as you would be.
Steve Olsher
Yeah.
Kamala Chambers
I love that you brought up that question Luis because I think it’s a fascinating and important topic.
Before we close out, what is the last gem you want to leave the Thriving Launchers on how to find your calling?
Find Your Calling Because You’re The Solution
Steve Olsher
Figure out what your What is and gain clarity on the people you’re most compelled to serve, and how you’re most naturally wired to excel. Then create something around that that most directly reflects who you are and how you want to be remembered, and how you want to be seen in this lifetime and in lifetimes to come. When you don’t find your calling, you not only do a huge disservice to yourself but you’re doing a huge disservice to those who are waiting for you.
Find Your Calling And Set The Chain Reaction In Motion
Steve Olsher
Be that first domino to fall and set that chain reaction on the move.
What you got to try to just get your arms around here is that it’s not just the people that are waiting for you. It’s the people that are waiting for them, and the people that are waiting for them, and so on and so forth.
This is why I give my book What Is Your What: Discover the One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do away for free. I know that if you can figure what your What is and find your calling, you will make this world a better place, which inevitably makes my world a better place. More importantly, it makes the world a better place for my children, for my children’s children, and so on.
We all have a responsibility not only to ourselves but to society to play our part.
You have a role to play. You may see it as this little minor role in this big huge play. Just like a small pebble, dropping in a big body of water. That small stone drop in that big body of water still creates ripples that eventually reach the shore.
You may not be a tidal wave, but you’re still going to be impacting people along the way.
Kamala Chambers
Thriving Launchers, thank you so much for tuning in.
We’ve been here with Steve Olsher talking about what is your What, the one thing that you were born to do and how to find your calling.
I encourage you guys to go out today and apply some of the amazing things that Steve has shared with us.
Keep thriving everyone.
