Tonya J. Long: 0:07

Welcome home, friends. I'm Tonya Long, and this is RESET, where purpose meets possibility. Each week, we share conversations with thought leaders, innovators and the dreamers and doers who are reshaping the future of work, technology, longevity and purpose. Whether you're navigating AI's impact, reimagining your career or searching for deeper meaning, you're in the right place. So settle in, open your mind and let's explore what happens when purpose meets possibility. Did you realize that seven words can change your life? They can, but only if those seven words catalyze action. Join us today on RESET as we explore how clarity of purpose becomes a powerful force for transformation. How clarity of purpose becomes a powerful force for transformation. Today we have Ian Chamandy, co-founder of PurposeU, and he has built an ingenious couple of decades of experience helping people define their purpose. So today, through real stories of purpose-driven change, including my own journey over the weekend to rediscover my own seven-word purpose statement we'll show how finding your purpose is just the beginning. So let's learn how purpose becomes your decision-making compass.

Tonya J. Long: 1:41

Today on RESET, ian, we are so excited to have you here. You are the co-founder of PurposeU, you're the creator of something called a Blueprint for Purpose system, and when I heard about you, I was so excited to get you on the show. I've always been interested in quantifying and articulating who we are and how we show up, so that we can be focused on what our activities are, and your entire platform is built to do that. We'll talk a lot about it, but you started this with groups of people 15 years ago and during COVID, you realized the value of it for individuals. And now, with AI's onslaught into the world and how we can use it to make things better, you've seen the wisdom of LLMs and how they can help us get to those better words. We've had those conversations, so tell us about your journey. I've just hit the tops of the waves. Tell us more about what purpose you and your journey has led you to.

Ian Chamandy: 2:49

Sure, and thank you very much for having me here. You're welcome. I'm quite grateful for the opportunity to speak to your audience. So my journey started about 20 years ago. My business partner and I developed a process. My business partner and I developed a process. We were both passionate about strategic planning, which is kind of a lost art in business, and but we didn't like we had been involved in the traditional way all our careers and we were frustrated by it. And so you know mission, vision and values and all that crap.

Tonya J. Long: 3:27

It's not crap.

Ian Chamandy: 3:29

Pardon me.

Ian Chamandy: 3:30

It's not crap Well you know, oh good, but hang on a sec. In theory, but it's crap in practice. How people do it? What they decide is their mission and vision, and I defy you to find somebody who can define for me the difference between vision and mission. We decided to create something new, and what evolved over time was a really simple three-step process that was predicated on the idea Now keep in mind, I'm starting with businesses now.

Ian Chamandy: 4:16

It's predicated on the simple notion that your single most important strategic asset as a business is knowing the one thing at your essence that makes you uniquely remarkable as a company. And so we built our system on that. And the idea is that you start out by saying, okay, what is it that makes you uniquely remarkable? Wouldn't it be great if you could articulate it? And then the company could be the best version of themselves intentionally, because they know what makes them uniquely remarkable. And so we decided and this was something that happened over time that that expression of what makes you uniquely remarkable. Our standard became seven words or less. So it's actually or less, and most of them are two or three or four words. For most companies, this is going to be an epiphany. It's like holy cow had no idea to be an epiphany. It's like holy cow had no idea. But now we see ourselves as much bigger than we ever did before, because we realize what our full value is, as articulated by the one thing that makes us uniquely remarkable. And when you know what it is, you're now at the starting line because, as you said up front, putting it into action.

Ian Chamandy: 5:22

What do you do with that expression? Great to know it. What do you do with it? Well, you do two things. If you're a company, you design how you're going to operate. All of the day-to-day machinations of the company, what your problem services are, all that stuff. And then you design how you're going to communicate. And what that means is that all the activities of the company, all the operational activities, all the communication activities, they all low from that one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable. So they are all communicating, either seeping out through their pores or screaming. You know a megaphone?

Tonya J. Long: 6:03

Right.

Ian Chamandy: 6:05

Stuff that is based on what makes you uniquely remarkable totally focused, always, always, always on track. So then, what happened was that was sort of step one. And then, just before COVID, I found this quote by Pablo Picasso. You know the famous artist? Oh, absolutely.

Tonya J. Long: 6:25

Yeah, this great quote and I love quotes. So what did you retain?

Ian Chamandy: 6:31

that he gave you. The meaning of life is to find your gift.

Tonya J. Long: 6:36

Oh yeah, that's his.

Ian Chamandy: 6:37

Your purpose is to share it with the world. So I just rephrased it a bit, because that's what I do, I like to simplify things. And I said your purpose is to find your gift and share it with the world. So I just rephrased it a bit, because that's what I do, I like to simplify things. And I said your purpose is to find your gift and share it with the world. Okay, so that's, that's Pablo's modified quote, right? What I, what I had been doing for the last 20 years, is finding what makes you uniquely remarkable your gift so that sentence can actually be changed one more time to your purpose is to discover that one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable your gift and share it with the world. So, like 17 years into the business, we started wrapping it in purpose. It's still strategic, but we're wrapping it in purpose, and that's how you become a purpose-driven company by discovering what makes you uniquely remarkable and sharing it with, which is your purpose, and sharing it with the world. So then, covid sorry, I'm on a big monologue.

Tonya J. Long: 7:42

You're good, Keep going. You're. This is great. This is great level setting for what we're going to be talking. Through my clients were saying I'm on a big monologue. You're good, Keep going. This is great level setting for what we're going to be talking through.

Ian Chamandy: 7:47

My clients were saying I want to live a life meaning purpose. I don't know what my purpose is. I said, oh, I can take this behemoth that I've co-created for companies and I can adapt it to individuals so you, tanya, can define what makes you uniquely remarkable at your essence as a human being and share it with the world. And then I had lunch with a guy who was a five-time corporate client of mine, so I told him about the individual Blueprint Blueprint is the name of my company and he said oh wow, I have an online teaching infrastructure that I can plunk on top of your individual blueprint and rather than you doing it one on one, you can do it one to millions. And I thought that's that's a great idea. So we set out to to create a course and um, and that's where I am right now. That course, uh, did soft launch a few weeks ago.

Tonya J. Long: 8:57

Congratulations.

Ian Chamandy: 8:58

And they did. Thank you, and it is a step by step. I lead you. I think there's what? 27 videos, something like that, and there are AI.

Tonya J. Long: 9:08

Three or four minutes each, so don't panic. Audience 27 seems like a lot, but they're micro nugget lessons.

Ian Chamandy: 9:14

Yeah, they're between two and ten minutes.

Tonya J. Long: 9:17

To me that jumping back and forth made the course so much more engaging, because I don't want anyone to think that you listen to five or seven hours worth of dialogue and you know your purpose, because you don't. It's work. It is work to get there. It's a lot of thinking only you can uniquely do, but I you said it and I and I deeply believe it you get there in a much more meaningful way when you're guided through a process, a process that you know and and and, having done this kind of work a lot in the last 20 years, I could see, as I, as the process uncovered itself in front of me, I was like, oh, you know, because it, it builds it. Well, actually, it, it tears down and goes deeper as it builds um to to your own unique priority. So that was, that was fun, and that was a sidebar, just to just a frame that it's not just you teaching people about purpose, it's you leading people through the exercise of, of uncovering their purpose.

Ian Chamandy: 10:23

So the process is we take two of your accomplishments ideally one from career and one from your personal life and I lead you through the process of examining them and deconstructing them so that, at the end of a seven-step process, you have revealed the beliefs, wants and talents that drive your life. And that in itself is illuminating, because you learn so much about yourself in the process, things that you do intuitively or just. You don't know why or how you do them. You just do all of a sudden you know you understand yourself at a much deeper level. But what you said about deconstruct, you know going down and then building up.

Ian Chamandy: 11:16

So once you, that's the deconstruction to get your beliefs, wants and talents, which are the raw data for discovering your purpose in seven words or less. So once we got to that point where we got your list of beliefs, wants and talents, we move from that table to the purpose table, where you start using that to discover, create graphs, seeing what resonates for you, seeing what doesn't resonate for you, and at the end of that process you are left with your own purpose statement in seven words or less. It's all about you, right, it's all about you. So of course you're going to be fascinated by it and the process, yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 12:02

So my 25 years in the corporate world. I would honestly singly go back to this as to why things lose traction or companies spend way too much time to accomplish things, and in different points in time, I've called it mission, I've called it the why I'm? I'm a simon sinek fan.

Ian Chamandy: 12:29

So so I talk about your seven words or less, your seven words, and less or less and your. Why are exactly the same thing when I pitched my book to cynics.

Tonya J. Long: 12:41

Editor oh, okay yeah, yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 12:45

I sat down with a guy and I said you know, here's what the book is about. And I know you did cynics book and the seven words are less than the wire the same thing. And he said so you know why do I need your book? Then what's the difference? And I said well, cynics book is great and I love that. He has become a very high profile evangelist for what we both believe.

Tonya J. Long: 13:07

Absolutely.

Ian Chamandy: 13:08

But there's no methodology. He doesn't know how to help you find your why there was no method and I said that to the editor. Right? I said what's the difference between you and Cynic? I said said cynic has no methodology to get there and he said I was shocked. He went yeah, no methodology.

Tonya J. Long: 13:29

So that was the difference between our two books if he gets people to focus on it and believe in it, then those people might be more apt to find you, because they're looking to to get better at the mechanics, because there is mechanics. Once you see your system in action, you appreciate the mechanics involved. Yes and the constructing and deciphering, only to synthesize the essence, your words and I love them but the essence of who you are and what makes you truly remarkable.

Ian Chamandy: 14:03

Too much conversation around purpose is just too woo-woo, and I think that that's what scares people off is that it's this woo-woo kind of you know airy-fairy and it's like and if you read a lot of the definitions of purpose, you know they're going to be one of two things they're either going to be really academic and you don't understand what they're saying, or they're kind of woo-woo and you just you don't buy into it. But when the definition of purpose, when your purpose in life is to be the best you, you can possibly be at the root of that is discovering the one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable. So this is not. Yeah, the process is mechanical, but to me that means In a good way, in a positive way.

Ian Chamandy: 14:56

Yes, that's the tangibility of not only the process but also of purpose itself, but also of purpose itself. It is a tangible thing and it becomes a very powerful decision-making tool for you. Maybe I can give you an example of somebody who discovered their purpose and how they used it as a decision-making tool. Because this is really. You know. You talk about being mechanical. This is as mechanical as it gets. Purpose is a decision-making tool. Option A, option B how do you decide which one's more aligned with your purpose? And when you say option B is more aligned with your purpose, what you're really saying is option B is more aligned with my beliefs, wants and talents. It's the component. So your purpose is standing in as a proxy. Make sure it's aligned with purpose and you've got it aligned with who you are, your beliefs, wants and talents, with who you are, your beliefs, wants and talents.

Ian Chamandy: 16:12

So I have this colleague and she was in her third gig as a CEO and this person graduated from high school when she was 16, graduated from university when she was 18, graduated from business school when she was 20. So you know, there's a few brain cells cooking up in her head, right. And, like I said, third CEO gig. She joined this company five years ago. Um, it was in real trouble when she joined and now, five years later, we're sitting sitting having a drink after work and she said company's running itself and I'm kind of bored. I said it sounds like you've got to move on to your next gig. And she said oh yeah, but that just scares the daylight set of me. It's like what? What are you talking about?

Ian Chamandy: 17:03

Well, this is what we call a trigger event, right, and a trigger event causes a chain reaction. There's three steps in a trigger event. There's the trigger event itself and in this case, I think I need to change careers. The trigger event creates uncertainty about your future. If you're not contemplating a career change, you know your career is coming back to this job every day. Now you've got a whole bunch of uncertainty about your future.

Ian Chamandy: 17:36

The middle step is uncertainty and then the final step is that uncertainty causes anxiety or, in the extreme, fear and other examples of trigger events are graduation emptiness, retirement, death of a loved one, career change by choice, by layoff, by firing three different objects so a medical event, right? These are all trigger events that create uncertainty about the future and that uncertainty causes anxiety or fear. And so purpose is like this mechanical device that helps you make decisions. So I said you know what? Let's figure out what your purpose is and see if that helps guide you. So we talked, we talked, we talked, and what she talked about was about how she can't get her brain engaged in something unless it's a pigsty. The bigger mess it is, the more she's able to engage her brain and the more she's inspired by the challenge, which is why, when the company's running itself, she's bored.

Tonya J. Long: 19:00

Right, that sounds like a lot of CEOs, I know.

Ian Chamandy: 19:04

Yeah, sure, sure. So I said to her you know, this is conjuring the image of a whole bunch of soldiers and they, you know, they've been in battle for weeks and weeks and weeks and they've been through hell and back and now they're at the precipice of a minefield and a new leader comes to lead them and she says in a cool, calm voice don't worry, I've been through a million minefields before. I know exactly what to do. Just follow me and I will lead you safely to the other side of the minefield. And you can just imagine these soldiers like, like, oh, thank God, yes, please, just help us get through to the other side in one piece. So her purpose, in the right context, which is leading safely through the minefield, if the right context exists and she states her purpose, everyone goes. That's what I need. That's what I need. My purpose is transforming confusion into clarity. Whenever I talk to a company that doesn't know where to go next or somebody who is troubled by something in their life, when I say transforming confusion into clarity, they say, oh, that's what I need. That's what I need. It doesn't just hit them intellectually, it resonates on a deep emotional level. So when I said to her leading safely through the minefield. She said that's me, that's me, that's who I am, that's who I want to be for people, that's what I want to do in companies. Okay, so let's get to the decision-making tool.

Ian Chamandy: 20:58

A headhunter comes to her and said I've got a great opportunity for you. It's this fabulous company. It's doing really well, it's on a steady trajectory and it needs a competent hand to keep it on that path. Any CEO would give their eye teeth for that opportunity. What does she say? No, not interested.

Ian Chamandy: 21:25

And then he said what are you talking about? She said no, it's not challenging enough. He said well, I have this heaping pile of garbage over here, but I'm embarrassed to show it to you. She says no, no, that's what I want to see, that's what I want to see. And so he shows her this tire fire of a company and there is the challenge that is going to engage her brain, right, and there is the challenge that is going to engage her brain, right.

Ian Chamandy: 21:52

So company A the company 99 out of 100 CEOs would jump at the opportunity to take Company B, nobody wants that one but her, because she's all about leading safely through the minefield, and that company at the moment is a minefield. So that's how purpose works, for you, right and same for me transforming confusion into clarity. If someone says can you help me dig a ditch, and it's like, well, no, that's not my skill, that's not my life, that's not my purpose, someone comes to me and says can you help me figure out this difficult problem? It's like I'm jumping in. Yeah, I love to do that.

Tonya J. Long: 22:30

One of the things when I work with leadership teams and it's frequent that it's clear they don't know their why, that they don't understand their purpose, and I do a micro exercise if it's a team I'm only going to be with for a short time just to get them to focus on priorities. RESET is, of course, as a podcast we're focused on. We understand corporate work, corporate dynamics, sure and work, longevity. And there's that fourth component, purpose that for me, the pillars of this podcast are focused on, as I take things from a company view to an individual view and I think individuals can have just as big of a struggle as leadership teams, especially, I think I want to talk about two segments of the population, those of a certain age. That would include the two of us, and we've done so many things and we enjoy so many things, so narrowing down that purpose and we feel like we're limiting ourselves when we're not. So I'll come back to that because we'll talk about that first.

Tonya J. Long: 23:49

The second one is the younger generation, the early career people who have fewer life experiences to fall back on, to understand what gets them juiced up, and I think they are. We know because of the academic papers out there and the industry papers that they are really struggling with feeling lost and I think that's a product of COVID, it's a product of such a dynamic, changing world out there and they don't know their purpose because they don't have a lot to lean on to know what felt good when they zigged and zagged. So if we go back to the seasoned band that you and I are in and having so many interests, interests aren't purpose. How do you and you are your tool, what you offer and how you help people navigate this? How do you navigate having a really broad set of interests and loves for activity? How do you navigate? Refining that into seven small words?

Ian Chamandy: 25:00

or less or less yeah, or less well, it's, it's the um.

Ian Chamandy: 25:05

So imagine an accomplishment that you're really proud of. Right, you look back say, yeah, it's really a compliment, and it could have been doing it on your own or you could have been a cast of thousands, it doesn't matter. Just it was a great accomplishment. You know, like in your own, in your own, and you're really proud of it. Well, what was likely happening is, as you're working on that accomplishment, you're really excited because you know you want to make it come to fruition. So all the steps involved you were excited about doing and you know, and got to get done. And when you're like that we call that being in a flow state.

Ian Chamandy: 25:47

Yes, you're inspired and it's almost like you've got blinkers on, but you're in a flow state. When you're in a flow state, your purpose is raging, it's. It's working overtime there, right? Because the reason you're pouring your heart into this, whatever this accomplishment is, is because it's aligned with your beliefs, wants and talents. You don't know that yet, but it is, and so what we do is we take an accomplishment and we break it down and we say you know, first of all, tell us about the key components of this accomplishment. What was the challenge? What were you trying to accomplish? What's the barrier that's in the way of that? And then you are proud of it because you did something really good. And so one of the steps in the process and this makes people uncomfortable, but you know you got to do it is you have to describe your brilliance in the process. And again, you could be cast of thousands, but your little piece you did in a way that made you really proud. What made you really proud? What was so brilliant about what you did, so brilliant about what you did?

Ian Chamandy: 27:12

And I make you describe your brilliance and all the characteristics of the human being that exhibited that brilliance and um, and it's from that that we distill, in partnership with ai, which is built right into the tables that you're working through, from your brilliance and the personal characteristics of a person who exhibits that brilliance. We distill your beliefs, wants and talents. So, yeah, you've got a really broad range of skills and interests and experience and that sort of thing. But we have to find we can't deal that big right. So we had to find something smaller, an accomplishment, and say what does this tell us about you? And then in the end you discover your beliefs, wants and talents from that.

Ian Chamandy: 28:10

So that's the process of capturing all of this by focusing on an accomplishment, because you know you focus on the accomplishment, you get your beliefs, wants and talents. You discover your, your um purpose statement. And then you, oh, it doesn't just relate to that accomplishment, it relates to everything. You look around and you say, oh, yeah, yeah, everywhere I'm doing me transforming confusion into clarity. Yeah, no, I'm doing that everywhere.

Tonya J. Long: 28:43

I love it, and what you've described is the value in taking the time investing in yourself to do this, because I like to do a lot of things. Anyone who looks at my LinkedIn profile says, wow, you know, you do so many things, blah, blah, blah, blah. But when you get down to just those few words, then it can really inform what you do. So that's why I think this is also super valuable to people who are just starting their true adulthood, post-university, and who they are. Have you had much experience? But those people are usually not real focused on purpose. I have a funny story.

Tonya J. Long: 29:23

They just want to get a job, get an apartment, get a dog.

Ian Chamandy: 29:27

They do, but I think that they are more inclined to things like purpose and wellness and self-care and, you know, all these sort of things that that the modern day, you know, rapacious capitalist society tries to drum out of us now, now.

Tonya J. Long: 29:43

Now be careful for my 25 year old godson, who you know, that, does he? He has a different set of experiences. Um, his, actually, as I think about achievements, and you know what one of my achievements was we've talked about it. He would have similar, uh, outdoor related interests that I'm sure he would wrap achievements around. It would be like a 10 pound bass out of a certain lake where he's from in Tennessee. So so, but does your tool still work for those who are earlier in their adulthood? Yeah, because I can imagine how valuable this would be if it informed, like it did for your CEO friend.

Tonya J. Long: 30:28

No, I'm not interested in that job. No, I don't want to date that person. No, that trip isn't appealing to me, because people are clear what they want to involve themselves in.

Ian Chamandy: 30:41

That's the thing. That's the end result is the clarity and the confidence that comes from it. So I had a funny experience. I guess it was about a year ago. I'm in a supermarket. I guess it was about a year ago. I'm in a supermarket, I'm standing in line to check out and there are these two mothers behind me who obviously know each other. They're chit-chatting and I hear one of them refer to the crisis of graduation. Oh, oh oh, crisis of graduation.

Tonya J. Long: 31:06

For her or for the child.

Ian Chamandy: 31:09

Oops.

Tonya J. Long: 31:10

Okay, okay, keep going.

Ian Chamandy: 31:12

Because and the crisis is they're thinking about their children. It's like, oh, are they going to, you know, are they going to be able to get a job? Are they going to be able to find a place in the world? Will they get married? Will they be happy? Will they be in all of these things Right, when you leave university? That really really is.

Ian Chamandy: 31:30

You're now making the transition into real, serious adulthood where you're flying on your own right, um, but for the parents it's like, oh, I had an empty nest, for you know, I, I experienced an empty nest four years ago. It was a little traumatic, got my way through it and I developed an affection for the empty nest, and now my child is moving back in. Okay, that's the crisis for the mother, right? And so, um, yeah, so I encourage parents to give the gift of purpose as a graduate, like, what a great graduation gift from a parent to their child. Give the gift of purpose so that you know for the rest of your life what it is that makes you uniquely remarkable.

Ian Chamandy: 32:24

Actually, I want to expand this into a bigger issue. We've got 8 billion people on this planet approximately. A bigger issue. We've got 8 billion people on this planet approximately, and I'm going to venture well over half of those people walk around every day thinking there's nothing special about them and therefore they don't deserve anything special. And I'm here to tell you that, as long as we can distinguish one human being from another, every human being has something that makes them uniquely remarkable. And what a shame. Whether you believe you've got one trip on this planet, or this is just, you know, one in a long string of trips to this planet it doesn't matter.

Ian Chamandy: 33:08

While you're here, shouldn't you know that, one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable? Isn't that the most basic thing you should know about yourself? And when you know there is something right, you now can articulate your superpower in a clear, concise and compelling way, and nobody can take that away from you ever again. So, in the first instance, it elevates your confidence, because, yeah, there is something special about me and I can say what it is. But the other thing is is that, yeah, you use it, as we were talking about this mechanical tool that helps you make better decisions, because they're aligned with your beliefs, wants and talents. Yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 34:00

So yeah, same thing for students.

Tonya J. Long: 34:03

As you talk I'm sure you've been told this before you're very animated. You're passionate about purpose and in an italian way no, well, and I I'm I call it southern because I I'm forever triggering zoom's little gestures, not intending to oh, right, right, right yeah yeah, yeah, but but as you talk, you're passionate about what you're doing.

Tonya J. Long: 34:26

Yeah, um, and it comes out as you as you work through the course and the exercises, that there is emotion and purpose, that there needs to be. As it gets defined I think you called it emotional resonance that that matters more than the intellectual.

Ian Chamandy: 34:46

No, it's not that it matters more, they have to be equal. No, it's not that it matters more, they have to be equal. Okay, okay, thank you. It needs to make logical sense and that's one of the reasons why, you know, we strive for seven words or less, because when it's that short, you know you don't have room for all that, those nonsense words, for all of that.

Tonya J. Long: 35:09

Oh, I can put nonsense words into a seven word scope.

Ian Chamandy: 35:13

Not not in the final product, um, but um, um. Oh, I lost, I lost.

Tonya J. Long: 35:21

No, you're fine. Just that the importance of there being an emotional trigger in there and it not just being something flat or or academic.

Ian Chamandy: 35:28

No, and and the reason for that is you're dealing with two different parts of your brain, right?

Ian Chamandy: 35:33

okay so it needs to resonate, sorry, it needs to make sense on a logical level so that your cerebral cortex the part at the front here it does all your rational thinking, the little voice in your head, lives there and you hear it talking and you think that that's you thinking.

Ian Chamandy: 35:51

But no, the thinking is done, the decisions are made in your limbic system, okay, which is where your feelings and and emotion, your limbic system and simon cynic talks about this in his first ted talk in a really really good way, like he explains it really well but your, not your cerebral cortex, your, I just said it, your limbic system has no capacity for language, so it makes decisions and then your cerebral cortex sort of says, okay, brief me on the decision so I can put it into words and make it longer, right?

Ian Chamandy: 36:38

So the logic will appeal to here and the emotional resonance will appeal to your limbic system. The thing is when you can embed the emotional resonance in your limbic system, that's when it becomes sustainable, that's when you become branded, as opposed to it's a thought that's going through your head, easy to forget, right? So there's two criteria for a purpose statement. That is a correct purpose statement, so that you got it down to the right words. One, is it logical and two, does it resonate on a deep emotional level? But, as I said before, when I was talking about my own, not only with you, with other people as well.

Ian Chamandy: 37:25

So, like I, said when people are confused, when they have a problem that they can't solve, then hearing transforming confusion into clarity, it's like, oh, I want to talk to him.

Tonya J. Long: 37:40

So one of the things that also resonated for me when I was going through the exercises I mentioned earlier how we have so many things that we enjoy doing that it's a little daunting to think about limiting ourselves to just a half dozen words. So I thought I would cut myself off from parts of the world that I enjoyed. I thought it would make me become exclusive, not above, just it would exclude too many things. But you have a definite mindset about how having clarity on your purpose invites collaboration, because and and and the way I see that early into this journey with your materials, is when you're clear on what you enjoy, you can communicate that clearly, and then other people can decide to join you or no no bad reflection. They can decide that that's not aligned to theirs, and so you'll naturally attract more people, projects, things to your life that naturally then are going to become collaborative, because you all want the same things.

Ian Chamandy: 38:49

Yep, we call that the magnet effect. Oh. And what people often forget about a magnet is that it repels as powerfully as it attracts. And so you want your purpose statement to be like a magnet where, in the right situation, it attracts. And here's a situation where you want it to repel. You're hiring and you communicate what your purpose is, and there are going to be people who look at that and say that's me, that's me, that's home, I need to get hired there. Yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 39:35

There are going to be other people who say no, I want to punch in at nine and punch out at five and just do it. No, that's too much work for me. They don't even bother applying. They don't even bother applying. But I think, a better story to show how purpose invites collaboration. So imagine, ken, my business partner and I are working at your company and we've got two offices side by side and on my door it says, says ian, transforming confusion into clarity ken's purpose statement was causing wow oh fun and was like a guy in a blueprint session, client talking.

Ian Chamandy: 40:27

I'd be talking blah, blah, blah, ken sitting there quietly and then ken says, well, you know, kind of occurs to me, blah. And everyone just goes what, where did that come from? That's brilliant, causing, wow. So imagine you're working on some project with your team and you have some intractable problem. You've been working on it for days. You can't figure it out. You walk down the hall. Whose door are you going to knock on? Transforming confusion into clarity or causing what? Well, you're going to knock on the transforming confusion into clarity door. Now, let's say you get the problem solved and now you're running ahead with the project, but you feel that it's got no pizzazz, it's got no appeal. We need to launch. Who do we knock on now?

Tonya J. Long: 41:17

Pardon me. We need to launch, we need to grow this idea. We need to create some excitement around it.

Ian Chamandy: 41:24

So whose door do you knock on to help you out? Well, you walk past the transforming confusion into clarity door and you knock on the closing wow door. Well, you walk past the transforming confusion into clarity door and you knock on the closing wow door. Ken, come help us Inject some wow into our project. Right? So that's how, when you know who you are, you can communicate it better to people, so that they know when to choose you and when not to, and you know when to choose you and when not to, and you know when to choose them and when not to.

Tonya J. Long: 41:55

Well, and I've done some exercises with some executive teams that I've sat with and I think it's super important that everyone understands the labels we each want to wear so that we can do exactly what you've described, so that we can say when I need it organized, executed, when I need to know for certain, with certainty, what's occurring, and for the whole company and distributor network to understand, I need Tonya, but when I want wow, I need to walk down the hall and find ken, yeah, and find ken, or who you know, and and for people to be clear on that, because it also I think it takes it reframes the relationships to be tension.

Tonya J. Long: 42:44

Oh, we're different. He's always disturbing my plan to understanding why he behaves the way he does, because because his, his gift is to create the wow, and maybe and maybe there are times I've had the kins where I've had to say now's not the time to create wow, instead of it just being friction, instead of thinking the other person is wrong. You understand who they are and what they're, what they're contributing, and and we can cut people more slack when we're clear on on what's happening and why it is. So I'm a big, so I'm a big fan of so so absent a tattoo on my left cheek. What are some of the ways that you've seen people use to live their purpose, besides the things they associate themselves with? But how does it work to just walk around saying I catalyze transformation? Um, how do?

Ian Chamandy: 43:49

you see that? Um so there was a university that was my client.

Tonya J. Long: 43:54

Yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 43:55

And the communications guy, right, the EVP of communication, great guy, and he was five years away from retirement. Okay. And he was fed up with 14 to 16-hour days, six to seven days a week, so this guy was feeling like the rat on the treadmill. Yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 44:22

And he needed to change. And so we looked at, we did his blueprint, we looked at his career, we looked at his life, we looked at and how do you end up being a communications guy, especially at a senior level? Well, you've got to have a special talent for making things simple, right. You got to take complex stuff and you've got to figure out how to package it and communicate in a way that people can receive it. And that almost always means simpler, right.

Ian Chamandy: 45:03

And when he realized that his commitment in life was to simplicity, that he was living a life of complexity, he was living a life of complexity, and knowing that he was actually committed to simplicity allowed him to give himself the permission to quit his senior job and take a job for the last five years as a senior writer at a company. Yeah came in at nine and left at five and he had time for the rest of his life. You know, after five o'clock, yep, yep. Writing for him came as naturally as breathing. So he just just wrote all day, wrote all day, all awesome. And then I was recently. I reached out to him recently and the five years was up. He got to 65. So he's working this job. That's much less stress, but it's contributing to. It was five more years of contributing to his retirement fund. Five hit his retirement goal. He and his wife moved to the West Coast. They've got a lovely place on Vancouver Island. And now what's he doing? Writing novels. Written his first novel novels.

Tonya J. Long: 46:34

He's written his first novel, yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 46:35

I love it. He sent me the outline for his second novel and he's living a life of simplicity and he's happy.

Tonya J. Long: 46:44

On his terms.

Ian Chamandy: 46:46

On his terms, living life on his terms.

Tonya J. Long: 46:49

And I love how sometimes we see that transition, those transition steps happen organically and we think people can't cut it anymore, people can't cut the grind and we look down on people who you know. As I get wiser I start to see no, they're just more clear on who they are and what matters. But the part I really loved about your story was, by doing what mattered to him, it set himself up for chapter three, four, seven, not sure for his life, but to be a full-time author.

Ian Chamandy: 47:30

Right, that's what his real passion was was writing novels.

Tonya J. Long: 47:33

And it would have been harder to have just made that transition straight out of an executive level communications role. He had a five year bridge to take him into that. The practice of writing. You and I are both authors, we know it's a practice. Yeah, yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 47:51

And.

Tonya J. Long: 47:52

I love that. I love it. It shows the importance of being willing to live into your purpose.

Ian Chamandy: 47:58

Exactly, and there is one very specific dynamic in there that I want to identify that was very powerful. So, first of all, he was living under the assumption that he was going to keep this senior job and live with this stress for another five years, when he realized that he had spent his whole life striving for simplicity without really knowing it. When I told you the story, I said it gave him the permission. Now let's stop right there for a moment and examine that little psychological dynamic. He never knew that he could do this. He never knew that taking a step backwards or taking a step down in hierarchy was an option for him. He never knew that doing something like that would fulfill his needs. He only knew that taking you know, taking a step backward is as you said. It's looked at as failure.

Tonya J. Long: 49:01

Couldn't cut it yeah.

Ian Chamandy: 49:02

But when he realized that he was committed to simplicity, it changed his brain. It changed how he thought about himself and his life. And he said and it allowed him to say if people think I'm taking a step back, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care what they think, because I'm so grounded now in what I need and want, because I defined my purpose so clearly.

Ian Chamandy: 49:34

I'm confident and clear in who I am yes, and so confident in that decision that he knows there's chatter going on behind the scenes. He doesn't care. This is. He made a power and I'm going to put this in very black and white terms made a powerful decision to demote himself.

Tonya J. Long: 49:58

Yes.

Ian Chamandy: 49:59

He strode into that decision powerfully and confidently. I'm in Toronto and I was pitching we're just littered with golf courses and I was pitching to one of the most exclusive golf courses in Toronto and I was in front of their board and they're all you know. They're all McKinsey and Bain APMG.

Tonya J. Long: 50:25

I know the profile.

Ian Chamandy: 50:27

You know the profile and I'm sitting in front of them and the chair says to me what is it that excites you about getting us as a client? Is that you can then go out and pitch other golf courses. And I looked at him and I said no, no. What excites me about getting you as a client is how I'm going to change you, how you are going to think fundamentally differently about this business and how you're going to see that it has so much more value than you ever realized, that that changes you and that makes you more confident, more excited, more inspired than than you were before, and I love that change, triggering that change by doing what I do. You know most organizations I referred to them as organizations because I'm talking about companies but also you know charities, not-for-profits, all that, all those sorts of things.

Tonya J. Long: 51:34

They're online right, that's right.

Ian Chamandy: 51:39

And oh, where was I going with that? The changing, changing, changing, oh. So every single organization in the world is in a constant struggle to figure out what its true value is, and it comes up with features and benefits and experiments with these ones. It runs with these ones for a while. It does all of that. But what that process is is it's like the old parable about the three people who are blindfolded in the presence of an elephant. One of them grabs the trunk and says, oh, it's a hose. The other one feels the side of the elephant and says, oh, it's a wall. The other one grabs the tail. Third one grabs the tail and says, oh, it's a rope. They've all got a piece of the big picture of the full value. But at no time in that decades-long struggle to figure out your value and express it in terms of features and benefits do you ever capture the full value so I want to hit this as our last segment.

Tonya J. Long: 52:46

The people who are listening to this podcast, um very likely are very interested in purpose. Naturally, it's like you know, I'm a planner, so I I used to carry around the big Franklin Covey system back in the day.

Tonya J. Long: 53:00

You know I'm all in and but I was when I was in their classes. I was always surrounded by people with our big planners and that loved all the tabs and the colors. You know people tend to seek out what they enjoy, so the people listening right now are very likely inclined toward this chomping at the bit, hanging on to. You know everything you've said they resonate with. But we are surrounded by people who are all kinds of things you know, scattered in a fog, executing without clarity, which is chaos. What is your recommendation for how to engage people into seeing more clearly the value of this, of thinking this way, not using your tool, but in getting clear on what am I about, so I can execute to who I am?

Ian Chamandy: 53:51

Well, I think the answer was in your question.

Tonya J. Long: 53:54

Okay.

Ian Chamandy: 53:55

Right, which is how do I become the best possible me? And it's to discover what makes you uniquely remarkable and then be that as much as you possibly can and you will have the thrill of your lifetime being yourself and not eating other things because you're you're. Now, what's a small step that you can take to start to get there? Because I do you know selfishly, I do think that my course is is the way to get there. But here's a little bit of homework you can do in advance. And I say the same thing to companies. Companies say to me what can we do in advance to you and what do we need to do? And I said think about this question.

Ian Chamandy: 54:47

If everything that you do, all of your activities, are a means to an end, what's the end purpose? And for a business, this is a really discombobulating question, because their products, selling of their products, is their purpose. It's like, no, it's just one of your activities. For this exercise, you got to raise yourself above all of your activities and say they are all a means to an end. What's your end purpose? I read this great book in university. It was written by a computer science prof at Northwestern and it was a philosophy book written by a computer science prof and it's called Gödel, Escher and Bach and um. It's called girdle, escher and bach. And girdle is a mathematician who I don't know about 100 years ago, rocked not only the world of mathematics but just the world in general because his theorem was so all-encompassing to all.

Tonya J. Long: 55:49

Escher is the artist you know, the, the optical illusion artist, we all had in our dorm room Clocks melting against a desert mountain kind of yes, Definitely.

Ian Chamandy: 56:00

And then Boff is you know, the guy who's kind of complicated.

Tonya J. Long: 56:05

He's from Chertows.

Ian Chamandy: 56:07

Yeah, and so Gertl Escher and Bach, and he described them as three shadows cast from the same stone, and his book attempts to describe the stone. And I loved that stone metaphor and I've used it. I've stolen it. Right, your purpose? That one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable is the stone from which all the shadows in your life are cast. Whether you're an individual or you're a business, right, everything should emanate from what makes you uniquely remarkable. I'm not sure if I answered your question, but no, you did um.

Tonya J. Long: 56:53

the original question was how to help other people see the value in defining our individual purposes, how to get them to come along for this journey, and I think you did by showing the intrinsic value in using what you know they're going to get those feelings of, oh, I want to live a life of meaning and purpose.

Ian Chamandy: 57:19

I'm not happy doing what I'm doing. Usually when one of these trigger events happens right, so they're in a state of pride for it because they've had a trigger event. It's created uncertainty about the future. They're now living in a stew of anxiety and possible fear and it's like how the heck do I get myself out of this boiling pot? And that's when they start to look for purpose. So they're primed at that point and then the question becomes how do you do it? And I I am convinced that the only reason that most people aren't purpose-driven is because they don't know how to do it. Yeah, I don't know how to figure out their purpose yeah, yeah if you ask 100 people what's the definition of purpose?

Ian Chamandy: 58:14

I think probably 95 of them will say why I exist, right. So then the question becomes why do you exist? How the heck do you answer that question? I don't know, that's too big for me.

Tonya J. Long: 58:26

It's over my pay grade I love it and this has been a fantastic example field conversation. You know, that's the difference in this conversation and a lot of the conversations I have, because all the conversations I have are about future thinking, so there aren't answers yet. There's beliefs and perceptions about how we're going to get there and what the impact will look like, and this has been filled with how people used purpose to make changes they might not have had the courage to do otherwise.

Ian Chamandy: 58:57

Tangible asset. Tangible, it's not this woo-woo thing, it is a tangible asset. When you get to the fork in the road and you got to know, do I take the left fork or the right fork? Purpose will help you Every time you hit that fork, even if there's four roads, it'll help you that fork, even if there's four roads, it'll help you.

Tonya J. Long: 59:19

Well, I do believe you have a good tool to help people look at that, to deconstruct in order to see what the themes are and then rearrange those in a meaningful way. Tell our audience how best to get to that and, if I may, can I tell them your little surprise.

Ian Chamandy: 59:36

Absolutely, absolutely.

Tonya J. Long: 59:38

So Ian mentioned at the top of the call they were in a soft launch. I don't know how long this will last, but Ian has offered for our listeners in the show notes I'll be publishing a 50% off code. So, whatever you see when you log in, you'll be able to get 50% off of the price of the system while they're going through this soft launch because, like all companies, they want to grow their base. They want to get feedback from early users and early users, like us, they really care about this. They're going to exercise the system. I need to let Ian pitch, not me, but I think it's wonderful and marvelous that you have offered to us this gift of an opportunity to incentivize us to try it. Go forward, use something that helps you structure something that has been intuitive until now.

Ian Chamandy: 1:00:28

Yes, make it intentional. And the thing about the fit like if you go to the show notes you'll see that there's a discount code there. And the thing about the fit, like if you go to the show notes you'll see that there's a discount code there.

Tonya J. Long: 1:00:43

And when you register you can see purposeuai on my screen right I can't.

Ian Chamandy: 1:00:45

That's the website. So you go to purposeuai, you register and on the payment screen you enter the discount code and you'll see that your price will drop by half. But not only do you get that discount code, you can give it to other people, you can give the gift of purpose. So if you have a student who is about to graduate because we're coming up to that time and you're worried about the crisis of graduation, give the gift of purpose. If you have parents who are retiring, what the heck are they going to do to keep out of each other's hair? Give them the gift of purpose. Give your spouse the gift of purpose, and so you'll see the code there and you can use it yourself, but also you can pass it on to others so that they can use it as well. You can spread the gospel of purpose.

Tonya J. Long: 1:01:38

And give people something to actually physically, tangibly do something with it, not just think about it, not just listen to a podcast, but actually do something for themselves. And I think it is it's self-care, it's a gift to ourselves.

Ian Chamandy: 1:01:53

It is so self-care. It is so self-care, it's a gift to ourselves. It's so self-care, it is so self-care, right. Because getting back to trigger event uncertainty about the future, anxiety or fear, who wants to feel that anxiety and fear all the time? Right, you've now got a tool to mitigate that.

Tonya J. Long: 1:02:12

Perfect, perfect and thank you. Thank you for the offer that you've given to us. Thank you for creating this tool for us. I can't wait to see how it evolves, um, and I can't wait to see the people that we will hear about over time, that that took this. It's not a leap of faith, because leaps of faith are huge. This is just. Let me get a little more intentional about how.

Ian Chamandy: 1:02:33

I operate using this. Yes, yes, yes.

Tonya J. Long: 1:02:36

This is not a sea change activity of life. It is a let's get focused activity.

Ian Chamandy: 1:02:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you take the course there's you know, the idea is get out of the stands and onto the court. This is how you do it. Stop being an observer, get onto the court and be the court. This is how you do it. Stop being an observer, get onto the court and be a player. Know who you are, figure out what makes you uniquely remarkable, and then you can be a player.

Tonya J. Long: 1:03:05

It's a journey we should all take. Should is a big loaded word, but it is a journey that we should all take. It's a journey we encourage you all to take. Nicely said An award-winning author on the other screen. That is helping me with the language, I agree, but I do think it's important and I again appreciate this opportunity.

Ian Chamandy: 1:03:29

Oh, I'm the one thanking you. I really appreciate it. I loved this conversation.

Tonya J. Long: 1:03:34

It was really fun talking to you and I loved the opportunity to you know, to talk to your audience about something that I think is really important of this podcast and the people that also join us in partnership as they take part in taking the course and growing and learning, and as we bring those back, maybe we'll. Maybe we'll bring you back with someone who made a big pivot because of what they did. That would be interesting to do.

Ian Chamandy: 1:04:06

That would be fun. That would be fun, yeah, fantastic.

Tonya J. Long: 1:04:09

So everyone, thank you. This has been RESET where purpose meets possibility. We did that long before you, Ian, so yeah, that just shows how much we're aligned.

Ian Chamandy: 1:04:21

I'm not the only one doing purpose. It's a big tent, we can all fit inside.

Tonya J. Long: 1:04:26

It is a big tent and we are so excited that you joined us today in our little side tent to have this conversation. Thank you again, Everyone. Have a marvelous day. This is RESET, where purpose meets possibility. Good day, Thanks for joining us on RESET. Remember, transformation is a journey, not a destination. So until next time, keep exploring what's possible. I'm Tonya Long and this is home. This is RESET. Thank you.