“Zees is going to be big.” He said in his thick French accent. His eyes as wide as saucers. His face deadpan serious.

Twenty five minutes earlier, he was scared. Freaked out. If I would have given him permission to leave, he would have bolted for the door.

But I sat him down. Hit the record button. And recorded episode 2 of the podcast.

Twenty five minutes later, he had done a 180.

A smile beamed across my face. “He gets it,” I thought. “Message received.”

I belong to this tight, online community of like minded entrepreneurs. Over this last year, I’ve really gotten to know them well.

Jay, who hosts a great podcast out of Conejo Valley, posted this.

This boutique agent in my area has tried to start a video podcast interviewing businesses, etc on FB live.  He tried and tried.  He had been constantly asking me about our show. How we do it.  How it works.  I told him nothing except to go to the website if he wants. I know him pretty well.  Nice guy but I get more emotion from a piece of plywood. He finally admitted to me that he stopped doing it because he doesn’t think he can compete with our podcast.

It took me many moons to figure this out. Two people could start the exact same idea.

One person succeeds.

The other person fails.

The answer is simple yet complex. Purpose.

Over a year ago, it became very important to me. What my “Purpose” is.

I was just starting a “pivot” in my business. Shifting away from the pestering people: door knocking, cold calling, begging for referrals. My pivot was creating a media company as an extension of my business.

I knew that with my emails, and my monthly newsletter, that I would be communicating with hundreds of people.

With the podcast, that would become thousands. In business, this is called “scaling”.

Communication requires a message. A message requires purpose.

The question that haunted me, “If hundreds and now thousands are listening, what is my message?”

But the question that scared the daylights out of me. “If my message is ?, then if I scale my message, what am I scaling?”

To craft a good message, I would need a defined, clear purpose. The purpose eluded me.

Then this caught my eye.

“The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point—ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like What do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.”
– Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life

When I shifted my thinking from me to others, pieces started falling into place. I could see things I couldn’t see before.

Feeling comfortable, I pulled the trigger on the podcast.

I finished interviewing my second guest. He was very nervous. Fidgeted the entire time. A week earlier, he talked my ear off on the phone. Now with a mic in front of him, I was pulling the words out of him.

But I believed in what I was doing. In the purpose. In the message. And if he couldn’t see that, then I would guide him.

When I finished the recording, I grabbed my pen. Started writing down some notes.

Out of nowhere, in his thick French accent, he said, “Zees is going to be big.” His eyes as wide as saucers. His face deadpan serious.

“You think?” I asked.

“Huge.”

I thought to myself, “He gets it. Message received.”

The more of an impact my work can have on others, the better.