Reinventure Me

What happens when one looks looks in the mirror and doesn’t see what he sees? In 1985 Patrick Morley did just that and found that success had made him sick. He joins us on this episode to tell us his story of discovery and recovery.

Dr. Patrick Morley is no stranger to success. In the ’80s he built a successful and prominent commercial real-estate enterprise in Orlando, FL. Now, he is founder and co-CEO of Man in the Mirror, a discipleship ministry he began after taking a deep and personal look in his own mirror.

The insights he gained from that inner examination culminated in the publication of the book, The Man in the Mirror, which went on to sell more than three million copies. On October 7th, the revised and updated 25th anniversary edition of that book will be released.

In this episode Leary and Armin talk with Pat about the origins of that book, how he overcame the grip of success sickness and how he transitioned from business to ministry.

Pat has long been inspired by this quote from Hudson Taylor which he offered in this episode’s Inspire Me segment:

“Many Christians estimate difficulties in light of their own resources and thus attempt little, and often fail at the little they do attempt. All God’s giants have been people who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence being with them.”

Pat reminds us that God uses flawed men. That’s by design for He knows we’re all flawed and He wants us to rely on Him and not our own strength. That means our vision also needs to be bigger than ourselves. “Make no little plans,” Pat quoted Daniel Burnham, “they have no magic to stir men’s blood.”

When the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was passed by Congress, commercial property valuations plummeted and with it Pat’s confidence in his commercial real-estate business success. Commitments to investors loomed large, only surpassed by Pat’s persistent worry. Reading Matthew 13:22, Pat knew he was the “one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”

Through that experience, God opened Pat’s eyes to see that he was pursuing worldly gain. He was a materialist, behaving morally but not biblically. He was trying to love God and love money and it clearly wasn’t working. Pat described his condition as success sickness—a disease of always wanting more and not being happy when you get it.

During this time, Pat began to share the insights he was learning with a group of men in the Orlando area. Their response to his candid observations encouraged Pat to begin to write about the 24 problems men face, which culminated in writing The Man in the Mirror and the eventual transition into full-time ministry.

For those contemplating transition from business into ministry, Pat offers three insights:

For this episode’s Challenge Me, Pat shared a thought that he had in the midst of his crumbling business: “There is a God we want and there is a God who is. They are not the same God. And the turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is.” The challenge is to seek that God—the one Who is.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

We run across them every day it seems: stupid ideas. But what’s the best way to tell someone their idea is stupid?

This episode’s Inspire Me quote is from Sir Oliver Wendell Holmes:

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”

Even dumb ideas can stretch our minds. When confronted with a dumb idea, before entirely dismissing it, consider how it might actually change the way you think about something.

Consider the following before you offer that piece of helpful, but critical advice:

When you do give someone feedback be sure you:

The Challenge Me for this episode is to put these ideas to work the next time you see a stupid idea. Leave some of your own suggestions in the comment section below.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

We might like to think we are lifelong learners. But how do we know if we’re are really learning as much as we could be? In this episode we discuss how to create a hunger for learning and how to develop a personal learning plan.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote is from Henry Ford:

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

We can push ourselves to excel in every dimension of life. How do we know, however, if we’re learning more than we did before? How do we know we are stretching ourselves, or settling at a plateau.

Leary ponders Proverbs 27:7, “He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.” Basically, it says there’s great benefit to hunger. We can learn from even the worst situations. And there’s an implied danger to be “full.” ­­In that condition, we won’t even learn from the best of circumstances (“honey”). As Armin noted, that’s pride—and it goes before the fall.

So how do we increase our hunger? As with our hunger for food, we can either lower our intake and starve ourselves (not ideal), or increase our metabolism with exercise. That means we put ourselves on a program of intentional learning.

Leary drew a contrast between, what he called, intentional learning and utilitarian learning:

Neither is better than the other. We need both. The challenge is to not let today’s urgencies trump learning intentionally.

So how do you create a personal learning plan. That’s the Challenge Me for this episode. Leary shares the approach he’s taking. First, create a document and divide your plan into three sections, or areas of learning:

In each section answer the three questions:

The keys to intentional learning are to have a plan, create the space and habits necessary to support it, and to capture key learnings from it.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

You may be ready to leave your job. Before you do, there are three decisions that can make a big difference.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote is from Viktor Frankl:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

The average person will have between 7-11 job changes in their career. How you leave may be even more important than where you’re going. There are three decisions that can help you make the very best of any job transition:

A new job represents a new opportunity to work with people with whom you’ve never worked. You can forge new relationships and have a profound influence on those around you. Intentionally write down the ways in which you will work to improve your game.

If you are contemplating a job change, the Challenge Me for this episode is to ask yourself the questions listed in the first decision above. How might God want to use you were you are? If you’re already in transition, what changes will you intentional make to become a better investor in others at your new company.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

If it’s been more than 5 years since you’ve conducted a job search—a lot has changed. We talk to recruiting expert Richard Yadon about the new search strategies you need to know.

A lot has changed in the way corporations are finding candidates today. In just the past five years significant tools to find jobs and to screen candidates have emerged. Today’s applicants need to be smarter than ever to develop a strategy to land the right opportunity.

In this episode, Leary and Armin speak with guest Richard Yadon about the new job search strategies you need. Richard is President and CEO of the MMS Group, a talent acquisition firm serving the healthcare industry.

Richard offered a quote for the Inspire Me segment from, former pastor and CEO of Hard Lessons, Dick Wells:

“I have all eternity to do all the things I want to do, but only a few years to help others get there with me.”

Companies are hiring more people today than five years ago. So why is does it seem so difficult to land a new job? Richard points out two reasons for this: Companies are much more selective now than they had been in the past; and, they are looking for an immediate return of the investment of a new hire.

By the time you make it to the interview, Richard points out that most companies assume you’re competent. The primary hiring question is really about how you will bring value to the organization. The are looking for a good return on investment and want to see how you’ve demonstrated value creation in the past.

Knowing these things can help you prepare a more effective resume. Richard suggests that applicants:

The biggest mistakes Richard sees that candidates make are:

For the first time in our nations history, four generations are employed in the workplace. Therefore it’s more important than ever that being good in the aspects of building relationships and technology are vitally important in the job market of today.

Richard offered our listeners an excellent Challenge Me: Write down your best, quantifiable career accomplishment. Use this as the first thing you talk about in your cover letters, your interviews, and your networking sessions. This is what company’s want to hear about.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

What role does confidence play in a successful transition to your next venture? How do you keep from becoming too confident?

This episode’s Inspire Me quote is from comedian and playwright, Woody Allen:

“Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.”

Confidence is a critical ingredient to motivate us to take the risks that a new venture requires. When we display confidence, others see it and mirror that confidence back to us as well. Confident people:

Five ways you can intentionally gain more confidence:

In all times, however, we need to be aware that confidence can bloom into overconfidence. According to Maria Konnikova, overconfidence stems from three things:

We can keep our confidence in check by asking ourselves these questions:

The Challenge Me for this episode is to write out 5 things you would you do if you had more self-confidence?

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

LinkedIn expert Viveka von Rosen shares her top advice about how to use that powerful social networking tool to supercharge your next transition.

This week, Leary interviews Viveka von Rosen to share her tips for using the LinkedIn network to quickly move into your next great beginning.

Viveka is author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day and the CEO of Linked Into Business. She has more than 30,000 first-level contacts on LinkedIn and is has made the Forbes list of top social media influencers for the past three years.

Viveka offered this episode’s Inspire Me quote comes from her mentor, Bob Berg:

“All things being equal people do business with people, and people refer people they know, like and trust.”

In this episode, Leary and Viveka discussed several key advantages of using LinkedIn to help you get to your next transition, whether a new job or an entire career change:

Your LinkedIn profile page is a critical place to start. Here are some of Viveka’s tips to setting up a profile:

If you’re in transition, these suggestions by Viveka will supercharge your next great beginning:

How big is a healthy network? Viveka recommends anywhere from 300-3000 first-level connections. As she puts it, your only as visible as the size of your network.

Be sure you don’t make these mistakes:

Leary and Viveka’s Challenge Me for this episode is to create a list of things to work on with your LinkedIn profile daily, weekly, monthly, etc. If you don’t have a profile on LinkedIn, now may be the time to make that the number one item on your list.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

Your next beginning deserves better feedback. In this episode we explore why feedback is important and how to get it.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote is from Elon Must, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors:

“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”

When it comes to feedback, many of us err in two ways. We may either choose not to seek it, thinking we have to perfect our thinking before we share it; or we seek in indiscriminately from others because we don’t want to do the hard work for ourselves. Allowing ourselves to be overly swayed by the crowd is beautifully captured in this Onion video parody.

Leary and Armin discuss three reasons why intentionally seeking feedback is important:

Five ways to intentionally get great feedback on what’s next in your life:

The Challenge Me for this episode is to write the most challenging and threatening questions you can think of to ask someone about a change you are contemplating.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

The way you’re thinking about your next great beginning may be keeping you frozen in place—and you may not even know it.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote is from William Shakespeare:

“Action is eloquence”

New beginnings are about taking action and we’ve been conditioned from early in life to think in such a way that may actually hinder action. We’ve been taught to think linearly—first this, then that—so well that we may not even recognize its limitations.

Leary and Armin discuss three attributes of linear thinking:

It isn’t that linear thinking is bad and non-linear is good. We need linear thinking every bit as much as non-linear, but we seldom consider whether how we are thinking about something may be hindering our next steps.

Some ways to cultivate non-linear thinking include:

The Challenge Me for this episode pick one of the five ways listed above and give it a try. Or come up with your own and leave a comment about it below.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

How can you possibly start a new beginning while challenged to keep an old one going? We discuss five principles to pivot in place.

This episode’s Inspire Me quote comes from discoverer of radium, polonium and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, Marie Curie:

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”

Do you wait until you have enough resources to make a move, or do it act on it now? How to move from where you are to where you need to be is the ground zero challenge for many people. Is it possible to pivot in place; to start a new beginning in the midst of a heavy current challenge?

Leary and Armin discuss five principles to keep in mind:

The Challenge Me for this episode is simple: Write down a next step. Do it this week.

Resources mentioned or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you: