Big Questions, Short Answers with Sian Jaquet
(Feat, Andy's unsolicited advice.)
What are the things that make life, relationships, business and the big picture work?
Andy asks Sian, his wife, these big questions. And with a humorous, light-hearted touch, in 10-15 minutes they will discuss the things that really matter and find short answers to bring us all success and happiness.
Sian is a much sought-after international executive coach, board member and keynote speaker who promotes living and working a values-based life to gain happiness and success. Andy is her husband of 35 years, and the ying to her yang, So the conversation is honest, real and funny.
“I hope you'll be entertained. I hope you have a little smile. And I hope every now and again there will be a thought that you refilter in your head and think: Okay, that resonated.” - Sian Jaquet
For more content, check out Sian's website sianjaquet.com, and her online course: Create The Life You Truly Love
Big Questions, Short Answers with Sian Jaquet
Big Question | How do you navigate feeling stuck in your career? Ep 27
What if you could transform your unfulfilling job into a springboard for personal growth? Join us on Big Questions, Short Answers as we tackle Oliver's dilemma of feeling trapped in a job he despises at a retail distribution company. With financial commitments and few opportunities in sight, Oliver's at a crossroads. Together with Andy, we explore the significance of aligning your work with your core values and offer actionable steps towards self-development.
Through Andy's personal anecdotes from the media industry, we illuminate the struggles of being stuck in a soul-crushing role and emphasize the importance of self-awareness in any career journey. While recognizing the vital role of retail distribution, we encourage listeners to contemplate how they can channel their life energy into pursuits that resonate more deeply with their personal values. Tune in for honest, practical advice that aims to guide anyone feeling stuck in their career towards a more fulfilling path.
For more content, check out Sian's website sianjaquet.com, and her online course: Create The Life You Truly Love.
www.sianjaquet.com
Hey okie doke, okie doke. It's one of those days, eh.
Speaker 1:Aye, aye, aye, aye.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Big Questions. Short Answers. I'm Sian.
Speaker 1:And I'm Andy Sian's husband asking the big life questions.
Speaker 2:And possibly adding a little bit of unsolicited advice.
Speaker 1:Maybe this podcast is brought to you by Sian's value-based online course. Visit SianJackaycom to find out more. Okay, so actually this is rather good. We've had an email from a guy called Oliver and he's asking for a bit of advice here. He says he's been working for a retail distribution company for about two years now and he just hates his job. A retail distribution company for about two years now and he just hates his job and he can't really leave. He's got rent to pay and various other life things going on and there's not that many opportunities out there. So he's a bit stuck. So what?
Speaker 1:does he do. Why are you asking me? Well, actually people do come to you in this scenario, all right, so it's probably worth going through it.
Speaker 2:Hi Oliver, thanks for reaching out. That's the first thing. Clearly you're not a happy bunny, because you've actually spent the time to send us an email. So you know this isn't just a fleeting moment of I didn't like work today. Look, I mean I think, before I start pontificating about what you should do and what you shouldn't do, let's be clear. Right, I've got 15 minutes and this is a little more than a soundbite. But the first thing I would say to you is, in all the years I've worked with people in that space of jobs and careers, unless there is a meeting of your values with the people that you work for, the chances are you're not. You know your heart and mind isn't going to be fed.
Speaker 1:Now, a lot of people are forced into that situation just to pay the rent, aren't they Rhett yeah?
Speaker 2:absolutely yeah. So from a very practical point of view, I would say to you that this is about you probably need to do some self-work and again, you know it's first of all identify what's important to you in life, your values. Yeah, once you've done that piece of work, you then look at what beliefs have you got about yourself? That is either holding you back or not allowing you to create a vision of who you are and how you can live. Yeah, you're. In some ways, andy, you're quite a good example because you worked in the media, news, television cameras, editing production. Quite a good example because I am. You worked in the media, news, television cameras, editing production. It was absolutely your thing and throughout your career, the times you've been spinning out of control was because you couldn't see yourself doing anything different from where you were at that moment well, that's it, because you've got these commitments and family or whatever, you're just trying to make it work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I understand that right and I'm not belittling that. But what I'm saying is, if you put some time, a little bit of time, aside every week, don't try and solve it in a day. Yeah, maybe give yourself a month to do some self-development. What are your values, what are your beliefs and what's the vision of how you want to live and what, what you'd like to use your life energy for?
Speaker 1:it's very difficult and we'd be like stuck in that kind of I don't know retail distribution. Whilst it's very important, it doesn't strike me as something that's particularly fascinating.
Speaker 2:Don't talk about retail. It's a very, very important part of how the world works.
Speaker 1:All those people in retail distribution, no offence.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, your world would come to an end within 24 hours if you didn't have those people.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Very important. But to you boring is back to it. Yeah, a little bit. Same could be said for what you do, yeah probably, but what I'm saying is that we can be very ethereal about these dreams, about what we want to be. I don't want to be in retail distribution, I want to be Well look again.
Speaker 2:It's difficult. I don't know if I was sitting in front of it and how old he is. I don't know what his particular situations are, but what I would say is that you need to look at the bigger picture of what you need, right. And as I say, oliver, I don't know who you are and how old you are, and you know it doesn't matter whether you're 25, 45 or 55. If what you're doing is not floating your boat, which it clearly isn't then there are many, many, many, many other things that you can do, and I'm just going to take this opportunity.
Speaker 2:I don't know whether this is right for Oliver. All right, I'm not trying to fix him from a distance, but what I'm trying to say is that recently, in the last couple of years, I've become aware of a process that is now in place here in New Zealand. I don't know what the story is in the rest of them all, but there are several people over these last couple of years that I have referred to this organisation and over half of them have taken up the opportunity, and that is to go and retrain to be a teacher. But you're older and they pay you to do the training, and the training is on site in schools, with some modular online learning, and you've got a complete support system from an academic establishment, but also from the schools right.
Speaker 2:And I can honestly say the people I've chatted to who have embraced this as an opportunity, every one of them are like some kind of evangelical oh, this is the best thing that's ever happened. They're earning money, they're're contributing, they're developing their lives. I mean, again, there are some practical things here, aren't there? Yeah, I mean, where do you use management experience and people skills?
Speaker 1:I mean, we're better than in school so you know, people really couldn't see that kind of I suppose. I suppose it depends what his education was in if he did a degree, but people don't see management, as I don't know, transferable.
Speaker 2:Well, it's very hard for any of us to see what we're good at. Again, I would have a look at that professional values workbook that I've got up there, because one of the parts of that is looking at what your skills are. Yeah, and usually we don't, unless we need to throw a CV together for some reason. Yeah, we don't look at our skills, and back in ye olden days, skills weren't even part of a CV. It was. I had this job from this time to this time, yeah, yeah. Well, now it is about your core competencies and skills and abilities and again, I can honestly say to you I have never worked with anybody who's done that piece of work that hasn't come out thinking I'm actually quite smart, I can do a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:It's not it's breaking it down, isn't it? We're very critical of ourselves, aren't we, in terms of what we think we're capable of.
Speaker 2:And when you've been doing something in a job for a few years, you're just doing it. You're not even reviewing what am I doing and how well am I doing it? So I would say, Oliver, look, it's evolution, not revolution. I'm certainly not saying to you go and hand in your job, roll the dice something else. You need to do some work on yourself first, because otherwise you may well be jumping from firepan into fire.
Speaker 1:Well, what about if okay, so it pays really well, may obviously pay more than one teacher gets or a few other tools, but outside that just doing, you know you use your work to pay your rent and then you do something outside to float your boat, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, that's an equation that a lot of people live by and it works, and everybody's different. As I say, you know, all of us reached out to ask, but the reality is there isn't enough information there for me to, in a qualitative way, give him some idea.
Speaker 1:I suppose the key is there. Why does he hate his job? Is it the people? Is it the process?
Speaker 2:Well, usually if you ask somebody why they don't like it, they can give you a whole list. It's what you want. That is where it's like I can't find.
Speaker 2:People don't know what they want, exactly Because they don't know what's possible. They don't know if you've never tried it, if you've never experienced it. Hence why I would be saying you know, you have to look at your circumstances. How much money every week, every month, every year do I need to bring in to live at that level? So, if that's the equation, where can I go and earn that money?
Speaker 2:And I know I'm sounding like, of course, but it is what I'm really saying is get out of the emotional motorway lane of I'm unhappy, I don't like this, I want change. Right, get into the motorway lane of okay, what does change look like? What does success look like for me? How much of my life energy am I prepared to put into doing that? Because, let's be clear, I know people who've got three jobs, and it's because they want to earn a lot of money, relative, because they want something. I personally know somebody who is house sitting and dog sitting and travelling all over the country for months at a time, living out of a bloody suitcase right To save rent. So they've got deposits to buy a house. So do you see what I'm saying? It's all about what your motivation is.
Speaker 1:Right, so it's setting a goal, and then, once you've set a goal, you can I hate that word Goal, I hate it. Oh, it's Well. What do you want to call it? Aspiration.
Speaker 2:Creating a vision of who you are and how you want to live. Right, because a goal has that frame around it. You know you, literally you're kicking a goal and you scored. It's great, you've done it. Well, life ain't like that. It's not a goal. You're not going to suddenly reach something when there's this euphoric feeling where you're pulling the shirts over your back of your head and throwing it on. All right, you're my point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's much more to do with creating a vision and let me tell you now, it's hard. It's very, very hard to do it. It takes courage, because everybody around you all of your life, your friends, your family, your schoolmate, bloody everybody has got an opinion on who you are and what you should be, and woe betide you to go and change and think that you're better and think that you want. Yeah. So I'm trying to. I'm trying to just bring out some of the obvious things that usually come up when you have a conversation of that nature. But I would always say to somebody you don't do anything for at least a month. You do the work for a month and just observe what you're thinking and what you're learning about yourself.
Speaker 1:Because sometimes with clients you do a vision board, don't you? And that's actually quite powerful.
Speaker 2:We flick through magazines and see just what images kind of resonate and then put that into some kind of a there was a guy in Australia I worked with some years ago names will not, but he worked in the construction industry, in a very specific area of construction, and he'd done it all his life and he was really good and he managed teams of people and you know he was general manager of a really quite successful company and not unlike Oliver. You know he rang me up and said you don't know me, I've been giving you a number. I don't know what I'm complaining about. I've got a job, I earn money and that's it. But I just the thought of me doing this for the next 20 years. I want to stick a fork in my head.
Speaker 2:And it was through doing a vision board which, again, I've got to be honest. I suggested it to him and I'm used to it now. So I explain. You know you're going to your toes, are going to curl into your shoes and you're going to roll your eyes when I tell you to get magazines, cut them out and create a collage. Anyway, he did it and lo and behold, literally from that which he took a photo somewhere.
Speaker 2:We had the next session. He ended up creating and we started having a conversation about his hopes and dreams, of what he really wanted to do and he now works for one of the largest, very, very successful charities in Australia and he has a senior role there and is contributing and giving of his heart, soul and mind in a way that, yeah, I had reason to speak to him a few months ago and and it was a light. So my point is that it is possible to make change. Of course it is, but it's frightening, yeah, and you need to take time and you need to do the work yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got it isn't?
Speaker 2:a fast forward here. There isn't a. Go on, you know, the internet and find a job. And oh, does that match my salary? Can I get there in a car, on a bus? Right, I'll go and do it. Yeah, that is not. And and the word I use, and I would ask everybody to kind of if you're in this and you're thinking about you know what am I doing with my life energy, the word I I use, which usually shakes people up, but is the core is contribution as human beings, we feel really good when we contribute to something in a positive way.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you very much, Oliver, for your email to spark a conversation.
Speaker 2:Send more.
Speaker 1:Yes, if you have got a question, reach out to us the email's on the site and good luck in your ventures and think about creating that vision. Yeah, if you go to the website actually this programme is sponsored by Create the Life you Truly Love and go online, do the course and hopefully we'll shape your vision. Very posh, back to school. Join us next time on Big Questions. Short Answers with Sian Jacquet and me, andy.
Speaker 2:If you have any questions you want to ask, please send them via the website sianjacquetcom.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and share it with everyone you know we really do appreciate you sharing 15 minutes with us and if you want to do a bit more learning, go on to charles website charlesjacquetcom. There's a course on values to create life you truly love. I did it and it really does do what it says on the can see you next time.
