The Focus Bee Show

(277) Ricardo Brito: Transformation Through The Path Method

July 16, 2024 Season 7 Episode 277
(277) Ricardo Brito: Transformation Through The Path Method
The Focus Bee Show
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The Focus Bee Show
(277) Ricardo Brito: Transformation Through The Path Method
Jul 16, 2024 Season 7 Episode 277

(277) Transformation Through The Path Method with Ricardo Brito

Ricardo Brito, one of the top 15 Coaches in Berlin, shares his insights on the path method and leading an authentic life and business. 

Some of the magic we explored: 

-        Exploration of the four pillars of the path method

-        Your Superpower character

-        How to manage fear

And so much more! 


VIDEO OF THE EPISODE: 

🎬 YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/hUaZ5xJAqD8 


 BOOK:

📖 Check out my book on Focus: The Magic of Focus

📚 If you’ve read the book, please rate it here: Leave a Review

📋 Check out the Substack Blog: https://thefocusbee.substack.com/

 

WATCH NEXT: 

🎬(258) The Three Pillars of Your Transformational Journey

🎬 (246) How to Breakthrough Your Identity Plateau?

🎬 (223) How To Get Unstuck In Your Career with Else Schlassberg

 

EXCLUSIVE: 

🔥If you want to access exclusive VIP High Performance Coaching – contact me here: https://katiestoddart.com/contact/

🎯FREE Weekly Magic & Focus Insights: https://tinyurl.com/WeeklyFocusBee

🚀Download your FREE Full Focus Guide: https://tinyurl.com/TheFocusGuide

 

ABOUT Ricardo Brito:

Ricardo Brito is a career and life coach with a unique approach: helping people pave their way to personal and professional fulfilling balance through what he calls the PATH Method. Ricardo’s journey began back in 2021, when deeply entrenched in the corporate tech world as a UX design lead he found himself battling burnout, disillusionment, and defeat. 

 The turning point came when he reached a breaking point and sought medical help, realizing that something needed to change. This led him on an unexpected path of rediscovering himself through therapy, coaching, and experimentation. As he delved into coaching, Ricardo found a renewed sense of purpose and direction, ultimately choosing to downgrade his role in the corporate world.
 
 CONNECT WITH Ricardo Brito:

✨ GIFT: https://www.ricardobrito.me/gift
📖 BLOG: https://ricardobrito.substack.com/
🌟 LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ribrito/


 CONNECT WITH ME:

✨ LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/thefocusbee

🎤 PODCAST: https://thefocusbeeshow.buzzsprout.com/

🌟 LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestoddart

📝 BLOG: https://thefocusbee.substack.com/


WHO AM I? 

💫 Hi, I’m Katie – engineer turned entrepreneur. High Performance & Leadership Coach, Speaker and Podcaster.

🚀 As a keynote speaker, I frequently speak at summits, conferences & podcasts. For my weekly podcast ‘The Focus Bee Show’, I interview thought leaders, speakers and authors. 

🔥My mission is to empower people to lead with Alignment & Purpose & Joy!

Show Notes Transcript

(277) Transformation Through The Path Method with Ricardo Brito

Ricardo Brito, one of the top 15 Coaches in Berlin, shares his insights on the path method and leading an authentic life and business. 

Some of the magic we explored: 

-        Exploration of the four pillars of the path method

-        Your Superpower character

-        How to manage fear

And so much more! 


VIDEO OF THE EPISODE: 

🎬 YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/hUaZ5xJAqD8 


 BOOK:

📖 Check out my book on Focus: The Magic of Focus

📚 If you’ve read the book, please rate it here: Leave a Review

📋 Check out the Substack Blog: https://thefocusbee.substack.com/

 

WATCH NEXT: 

🎬(258) The Three Pillars of Your Transformational Journey

🎬 (246) How to Breakthrough Your Identity Plateau?

🎬 (223) How To Get Unstuck In Your Career with Else Schlassberg

 

EXCLUSIVE: 

🔥If you want to access exclusive VIP High Performance Coaching – contact me here: https://katiestoddart.com/contact/

🎯FREE Weekly Magic & Focus Insights: https://tinyurl.com/WeeklyFocusBee

🚀Download your FREE Full Focus Guide: https://tinyurl.com/TheFocusGuide

 

ABOUT Ricardo Brito:

Ricardo Brito is a career and life coach with a unique approach: helping people pave their way to personal and professional fulfilling balance through what he calls the PATH Method. Ricardo’s journey began back in 2021, when deeply entrenched in the corporate tech world as a UX design lead he found himself battling burnout, disillusionment, and defeat. 

 The turning point came when he reached a breaking point and sought medical help, realizing that something needed to change. This led him on an unexpected path of rediscovering himself through therapy, coaching, and experimentation. As he delved into coaching, Ricardo found a renewed sense of purpose and direction, ultimately choosing to downgrade his role in the corporate world.
 
 CONNECT WITH Ricardo Brito:

✨ GIFT: https://www.ricardobrito.me/gift
📖 BLOG: https://ricardobrito.substack.com/
🌟 LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ribrito/


 CONNECT WITH ME:

✨ LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/thefocusbee

🎤 PODCAST: https://thefocusbeeshow.buzzsprout.com/

🌟 LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestoddart

📝 BLOG: https://thefocusbee.substack.com/


WHO AM I? 

💫 Hi, I’m Katie – engineer turned entrepreneur. High Performance & Leadership Coach, Speaker and Podcaster.

🚀 As a keynote speaker, I frequently speak at summits, conferences & podcasts. For my weekly podcast ‘The Focus Bee Show’, I interview thought leaders, speakers and authors. 

🔥My mission is to empower people to lead with Alignment & Purpose & Joy!

Katie:

Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Stoddart here, aka the Focus B. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic. Wonderful to be here today with Ricardo Brito. Ricardo is the career and life coach who uses a personalized method called the path Method. He went through his own journey of burnout when he was working as a UX design lead and transitioned through therapy, coaching, experimentation to his new career as a coach. We'll be sharing on this podcast some essential tools when it comes to transformation, confidence, and leading a fulfilled life. Welcome, Riccardo. It's fantastic to have you on the show today.

Ricardo:

Hi, Katie. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really looking forward for a nice chat today.

Katie:

We both been through strong career transitions, and you also help people I know find their career path and professional path. And you have this method called the path method. I'd be very curious to hear what are a couple of the pillars. Obviously, you don't have to say in huge depths, but just the overview of the path method. What's behind this?

Ricardo:

Yeah, so it's basically the four pillars are perspective, action, transformation, and harmonize. Actually, transition. Pardon? The perspective part is taking stock of what we do, what we did, and the stories to tell ourselves, and also like, getting a location point, where are we now? And getting perspective where we want to go. The part of action is creating experiments. These processes of finding what's next can become very intellectual, very theoretical, and I'm very action driven. Right. Like anything that you can test as soon as possible, test it. So that's the action part. The transition is once you find an answer where you go next, we often forget the strategy, how to get there. A lot is like, I want it now and I want it now. And the transition can be. Can be quite, quite a feather point. So transition and being strategic about it and harmonize is not that much of a pillar per se. It's always kind of a background. Right. Because it's about your relationship to work, your relationship with yourself at work. What. What does work do for you in your life, and what does it contribute? So how can you harmonize work and life together? Because they go intertwined. So those are the four pillars.

Katie:

Interesting. Okay. I'm thinking maybe we can do a brief exercise. Why don't you ask me a few questions so I can explore my relationship with my work. And the people listening can then see what works takes place for them in their life and their heart. I'd be curious to reflect on this myself. And then as we do this, obviously the people listening will also start to reflect. So go on. Let's look at harmonized, just a couple. We won't spend too long on this, but just to have a vague idea of this, I think this is interesting.

Ricardo:

Sure. So there is one question that I really love, which is even if it's, even if normally I have a template for that, so even if it's convenient and I'm able to, I will not do something. So in your case, what is something that would be convenient for you to do? You are able to do it, but you would not do at the moment.

Katie:

Interesting. I mean, I think probably more marketing, though. I'm not sure more marketing is actually that convenient. Not sure if there's something actually convenient that I'm not doing. Choosing not to do. I think for me, the way I look at things is the things I choose not to do are the ones that aren't aligned and therefore things that are convenient and quite easy, I do. So I'm not sure there's something that's inconvenient that I'm not doing that makes sense or convenient that I'm not doing. But it's an interesting question to reflect on. What's something that we could easily be doing but we're choosing not to do and then to explore. Maybe if it's we're doing it, not doing it out of fear, or if we're not doing it because it's not aligned. You know what's one thing that's just come to my mind? I have been thinking about doing some daily lives on YouTube and inside timer, if not daily, every week. And that would be quite easy, to be honest, to set up. And I'm not doing that. I guess it's a matter of prioritization. But that would be one thing. It's true. It's an interesting question because it helps you to think a bit outside the box. Okay. What's another question?

Ricardo:

Another question that. So we are going on a sprint here, right? These normal questions and a lot of time to explore. So I would not test all of that at once, just for reference. But I think another question that is interesting is what would be an evolution in your career and what would be a total revolution.

Katie:

Interesting. Okay. So for people listening, you can either think of this as your career, or you can think of it, like in your business. So what would be an evolution in my business? Some people use the word career generally. If they're more in a company or business, if they're more entrepreneurs, there'll be an evolution in my business and a total revolution. Yes. And that makes me think of what Marshall Goldsmith says. What got you here won't get you there. So the evolution is sort of what gets you here. And you go one step above or so, but then the revolution is, can you ten x? And it's not just ten x income, can you ten x impact? Can you ten x the amount of fun you're having by doing something totally revolutionary? Very interesting. I'm not going to answer this, otherwise they would take up the whole podcast. But I'll take it as a note to write in my journal. But it's a really good reflection point. Last question, and then we'll continue with the core topic.

Ricardo:

Another thing that I like to do, it's not so much of a question, right. But I think it's very hard for us to tap into our own selves sometimes because of fears or lack of confidence and so on. So one of the things that I tend to encourage is to think of yourself in the third person. I come from the fine arts. I love comic books, so I like drawing. Right. So I bring drawing also to this. One of the things that I would like to do is if you think about of yourself as a superhero, as a, you know, a third person character, how does it look? What kind of powers do you have? Where do they come from? You know? And normally there is a template that you can draw your own superhero, you know, and people, surprisingly, even the most innovative, most like, oh, no, I don't know how to pick up a pen out. They go nuts with it, right? They love it. But through the process, and I make them really go through. You need to have half an hour on that, not just ten minutes, and it's going to be uncomfortable, you know, because you really need to hammer it. So thinking like that can, it can be quite an interesting one. But maybe I jump to you and ask, what would your superhero look like? Just maybe focus on one superpower.

Katie:

Well, I was thinking focus with the focus b. That's kind of an obvious one, but also quite spontaneous. So I can quite spontaneously. I went to a pitch event recently, and I didn't realize people were pitching their ideas. And I thought, oh, this seems fun, walk in. And then we had to pitch an idea. So on the spot, I came up with an idea and then pitched it in front of the whole group. So I think spontaneity and focus are probably my strengths. But I think this is an interesting exercise, reflecting on your strengths and skills and not just looking at what's missing and the gap. So I like that. This is excellent. Well, thank you, Ricardo, for, like, this mini, like, reflection time, but it was to give people a sense of what's behind this harmonizing. And I think reflecting on the activities you do at work, but also. And that would be a whole other section, but the place that work takes in your life and how you relate to it, I think it's something that we don't pause often enough to consider, because, after all, most of us spend more time at work than at home. So if we don't know what relationship we have with work, then, you know, it can get a bit in the way somehow, or it can be, it's important. Let's just put it that way. It's important. And I think this comes back to what you were saying with the first pillar around perspective and where you said, being clear on where you're now, but also being clear on maybe where you want to go and this whole idea of storytelling. So maybe tell us a bit more, why is storytelling so important? And more specifically, why is it that the stories we tell ourselves have such an important role in our work?

Ricardo:

Yeah. So we make sense of the world by telling stories, right? I mean, it's a very human thing, and we make sense of ourselves through stories. We tell who we are, we think we are, how we portray the story. We are always constantly telling stories, but especially at work, we tend to not be too conscious about the stories we are telling, or we focus too maybe too much on the facts and the figures and cv based. And this is kind of our story, this big mesh of facts. So I've been both in my personal life and both of the work I did, I realized that there is a component of stories that people are telling themselves in how I see my skills, how I see my confidence, and all of that affects what kind of options we open to ourselves. Or maybe I don't deserve that job, or maybe I'm not, you know, I don't open that business. Maybe, you know, you go through that. So, for example, I give you an example of my life. I grew up in the family business of businesses, and my narrative was like, I will never have my own business. It's just like, I don't like it was too stressed, was too traumatic, and I was not even part of the business. Right. So I went till the age of 35 helping other people, building their own businesses and products with me, I'm never touching that. And then I realized that this is a story that I'm going to telling myself, that I was blocking me while other people like, why don't you do it? I mean, you have all the skills, you have all the power, you have the why don't you do it? And I never believed it. So when I jumped into it, I realized the amount of stories and fear that was coming into that. And this is also I see when I work with people, oh, I don't deserve that job, or I don't deserve that business. All about the stories we tell, all about how we make sense of our identity. That's why it's so important to address storytelling.

Katie:

Often, though, when we tell ourselves these stories, there's some background. Like in your case, it was a background of you having a family business, and it was quite stressful. So let's take the example of someone who wants to start their own podcast, for example. And their background might be that they're very shy and reserved and they struggle to speak in public and they don't know how to ask people to be on the show. They feel afraid of the rejection, et cetera. So there's a lot of stories going on there, but there's also a lot of proof that they've gathered throughout their lives that this is something that's not easy for them. Let's put it this way. How would you help, let's say, someone who wants to start their own podcast, who has these blockages, these fears, and who also has maybe this past that has shown to them that this is something that's, let's say, quite out of their comfort zone and they're not sure that they can carry this through.

Ricardo:

That's very funny that you mentioned that, because I literally had that client two weeks ago that was going through exactly that. And I can take that as an example because it was very much that. And I think one can go into the psychology and all of that and why you're telling those, I cannot go there as a coach. Right. That's the work of therapists and psychologists. So how I helped this person, for example, what was blocking him was two things. Either was the project was too big, so there was way too many things, and there was this fear of rejection, the fear of putting myself out there, and people don't want to hear me or you. So we start slowly, slowly breaking down what's blocking you. Right. And actually what was, what was blocking is the plan was so big and the fear of rejection was so big that you could not even think about the small steps and how to digest this into small, actionable steps. So the overwhelmness headed to the nervous and the shyness. We cannot take away the shyness, but we can build something around that that creates confidence. So you can create a buffer for your shyness. So it's not about putting the shyness away. No, it's there, but how can we buffer it? And in buffering, it's like, what is the minimalist thing that you could do? What is the really tiny steps that you could take that make you feel proud and make you feel you're progressing? And in that case, was just, well, I just need to create a small page, a small description. I need to create a logo and put it out there and tell my friends, and in a week it did that, and it was like, oh, it feels amazing. Now I feel a little bit more confident, and I'm thinking about the guests that I can. The shyness is still there, but you are building the buffer that allows you to deal with that shyness and build the foundation of confidence. And confidence is not the end point. It's something that you build. Confidence is a result of the work that you put in that particular example. That's how we did it.

Katie:

Amazing that you actually had a client that went through this. And for anyone listening now, you know if you want to start your own podcast, little steps, brick by brick, and building up your confidence. And absolutely, it's not about totally changing your personality. There are many podcast hosts, for example, who are very shy or more introverted, and they still host the podcast. So this is absolutely can go together. You're talking right now about confidence. That was a great example with the podcast. But overall, confidence and self esteem, though, they're slightly different, but both are absolutely fundamental. When you're growing a business, starting a business, changing careers, taking on new challenges, what are some of the tools that people could use to increase their self confidence?

Ricardo:

It depends on the person, right? And it depends on the situation. I think a lot of it is gaining perspective where this lack of confidence is, lack of self esteem is coming from. And again, I think the mental model that we use with the podcast, the same applies here. I deal with a lot of imposter syndrome in my work. I deal with a lot of people who have been maybe in toxic environments where their confidence was completely ripped away from. So we build trust, and we build confidence in themselves by revisiting what they did and understanding what kind of stories they are telling themselves. So, for example, even a bad project or a bad business, you might shove it into your emotional, under the rug kind of thing, and you don't want to process, you want to talk about it. But even there, even then, the negative experience, there is gold that you can dig out and feel like, oh, wow, I can see this from a different perspective. So it's really changing that perspective that helps build self esteem and self, and, yeah, self confidence, because it's a result. So a lot of it is exposure. I also have people who never like, oh, I don't want to put myself out there, but at the same time, I need to get clients. So how do I communicate with them? It's all exposure, right? It's all creating this safe space and these safe steps that are tailored to you. For example, networking, that's a topic that is always coming up. I'm not a social person. I don't know, I cannot go outside. Like, networking is super important. And I understand that being an extrovert, I very easily go out and meet people. But I understand that introverts might not feel the same way, but you just need to find what works for you that creates that confidence. I worked with introverts, for example, who doubled their network at home because now they can, oh, I have control of this. The problem is not me, that I have not enough self confidence to not go to an event. It's just an event is not for me. But there is other ways for me to network. So maybe the problem is not really my self esteem at times. Maybe the problem is the perception that I have about my self esteem. Maybe I'm very confident on that. I'm just looking at the wrong side. Does that make sense?

Katie:

Yes. I think that from my experience, I've seen that confidence is linked to self trust, and that when you take these actions, it builds up that self trust and also about monitoring the self talk, and that can help with managing confidence. But all these things, it's an ecosystem, so it's lots of different things come into play and then we merge them all together, and then something magical happens. Sometimes it's hard to know which screw that we turned, that made it all work, because you're playing on lots of different parameters of the psyche and. Yeah, and we can also go through phases in life where we have a bit less self esteem or confidence and we're not sure why. And then it goes back up again. A lot of things can happen in life to tint to that little to confidence. But slightly different. I read one of the articles that you wrote around fear, and I think fear is such an interesting topic. And for all the entrepreneurs, business owners listening, you know, fear is sort of part of the daily work. How do you help people and how do you manage yourself to overcome some of the fears, such as uncertainty, lack of control, financial insecurity, all these sort of fears that come up in business? What are some of the ways that you find to manage them best?

Ricardo:

Let me by telling you a very story. So in Germany, I live in Germany. In Germany, they have a word in Germany that is called briefcast angst. They have a word for everything. And it means, literally fear of the post box because it's such a, based on posts that you always constantly receive, if you open a business in Germany, you're going to have a waterfall of paperwork running through your post box. And I look, before adding my own business, which like two years and a half ago, I always, and I'm a grown up man, I always had to have somebody with me to open the post box because I had so much crippling fear of opening my post box because I was always afraid of taxes or forgot to pay a bill. It was a bit incomprehensible, but I had that fear. So opening a business in Germany was just, how am I going to deal with this? I cannot. This is now, this is for real. So for me, it took me first, and the same system applies to everything. I need a support system, I need a buffer. I need somebody that helps me to do this. So my partner was there with me. He's like, okay, we're going to open the box every day. And then I started to open the box myself every, every second day. And then I started to gain, then things started to switch and I started to, where is the letter? I need the letter because that's the other point. I understand now why facing this fear is important, because the outcome of facing this fear is way bigger than the fear in itself. So that also helped me to motivate, okay, I have a support system for now that is not just continuing my problem, but it's just there to support me. Almost holding my hand for a certain period then was trying to gain perspective of, okay, if I face this, the outcome and the positive outcome is so big, that is worse, to face the fear. So I will continue to expose myself. It's like, I don't know, going to the gym or he's healthy in a way, right. And at a certain point it just became natural. So then the same I try to apply the same systems again. Financial anxiety is the same. I was constantly looking at my bank account, I was constantly looking the numbers. It was just like there's three top drugs in the world. Sugar, cocaine and a paycheck. I was totally hooked to my paycheck. So I was just like I was going to withdrawal, right. So that period was very stressful. So I had to start believing in myself. And that was the self trust was like analyzing. Like look, I have these beliefs around money, I had these beliefs around having a business and this is not contributing positively. I needed to acknowledge where they come from and to say to, I dont know, my herd child maybe, hey its okay that you feel like thats what you lived, but thats not the reality right now. And you have control over this. So its also making peace with your own stories and your own trauma sorts of thing. Because we cannot separate our Persona and our identity as we are as people from our businesses and our jobs. So this all goes hand in hand. So addressing those things is very important.

Katie:

So you said having a support network, exposure to whatever it is that makes you afraid and addressing things, so not leaving them under the carpet or hidden the elephant in the room, but actually facing them and facing maybe the stories, all the traumas or whatever is linked to that. It's true that entrepreneurs are brave. And I forget it, because when you live like that all the time for several years, you're sort of used to that underlying tension or underlying fear or uncertainty. And it's like you said, you almost look forward to it in the sense that it gives a rhythm to your business and your life. And sometimes it's a bit lower, but then you get great projects and exciting things happen and then you high. It's sort of a fun ride. But I like what you said about, well, both actually support and exposure. Support, I think is something that the people forget. And if there's anyone listening here, that is the sort of person who likes to do it all on their own and be the strong one and tough. If you have your own business, actually, even if you don't, it's great to have a support network. But on top of that, if you have your own business, no one just makes it on their own. You know, they have co founders or team, or at least a coach or an accountability partner. And I think for me, having a coach to express the fears, deal with them, go through the ups and downs, shifting the mindset from scarcity to abundance, etc. Etcetera, shifting from victim to ownership. And all of these things. It's incredibly powerful. So support, super important. And I think when we say, how can you manage fear? A lot of people will be like, oh, okay, so here's something I do. Here's something. This and that. And the first thing you said, okay, is have a support network. And I thought, yes, this is true, that we, and I've read this in an article, it's a lot easier for us to deal with tough situations, uncertainty, some fears, if you're not in it alone. This is just how we're biologically wired, so that makes sense. And then exposure, that's how people break fear. And the more you speak in public, the more comfortable you are with it. There was this woman I knew at toastmasters who said that she began her public speaking career hiding behind a sheet of paper, trembling from head to foot. And now she's a public speaking coach. And you think, how is this even possible? Exposure, step by step, little by little. So, yeah, that's also a fantastic one. And sort of deviating here from the topic of fear, because I read this article again that you wrote that I thought was very interesting, which was the difference between problem solving and action. Can you tell us a bit more about how sometimes we fool ourselves that we're moving forward, maybe by taking action, but we're not really solving the root problem?

Ricardo:

Yeah, it's very easy to get ourselves busy. And this is also a way of avoidance. Action. Action. Action gives us a fake sense of purpose or not purpose, a fake sense of progress. And sometimes we are making progress in the wrong direction, or we are not making progress at all. I saw that so much in companies that then it became so clear also on individuals, like, how many companies are out there that are not doing the right thing. They keep doing the wrong actions while the problem is just right in front of them. What needs to be addressed? And if we enter in this wave of having your own business, for example, let's put it like that, having our own business. And you can do a lot of problem solving, and you can do a lot of action. Let's say, well, I need to increase my revenue, or I need to, let's say, increase my revenue. Do you really need to increase your revenue? Or is that coming from a place of fear? Is that coming from a place of financial anxiety? Because I saw it in my business. Do I need to increase the revenue or do I need to be more patient? I could put a lot of action to increase the revenue. And I did. I created the course. Took me months to create a course, recording video never put it down, never put it out there. I created a lot of programs, I created a lot of projects and PDF's and offers everywhere. And then I realized, look what I'm doing, what the original thing I'm doing, it's correct. It just needs time. Putting more action is not helping. So what I needed to solve is my financial anxiety, not putting more action. And I think this idea of problem solving and action is re understanding. Am I putting action in the right thing? Am I solving the right problem? Because on the surface it can feel that you are solving the right problem, but then the deeper level is just no, there is something underlying that you are trying to cater, but you still didn't got it. I'm not sure if this makes sense with this example, but yes, and I.

Katie:

Remember vividly exactly that. Taking a million actions, writing more newsletters, doing more posts, doing all these things. And at the end it's shifting your money mindset, actually. So facing the financial insecurity, but also shifting your whole relationship with money, and then patience, alignment, and that actually works. And now I have this sort of, it's not really a rule, but kind of like a role with myself, which is I don't take action unless I'm 100% clear what's the point of it. So I have literally, you know, deleted my Instagram and Twitter. I just have my LinkedIn. I'm not even doing my newsletter at the moment. So I have as little action, just movement for the sake of movement as possible. So that if I take an action, it's something very specific and aligned, I will, you know, write this specific article because this is a topic that I talk a lot about and it's important and I will publish it in this magazine, or I will prepare the next workshop I'm doing, or I will prepare this podcast, or I will reach out to this specific person because I think this could be a great fit. And so this means when you work super intentionally like this, that sometimes with the ebb and flow of business, sometimes, you know, fully booked from eight till five or

06:

00 p.m. and sometimes you've got a bit of a dip. And this always happens because if you fully in the business and it's just you, then there is no space to sort of generate new projects. And so because you're just executing the projects you have, and then when you have a bit less, that's when there's a gap. And in that gap, it's exactly what you said. It's not falling for the trap of let me just take a ton of action, because now there's a bit of a dip. It's let me pause, reflect, learn a bit more, read a bit more, think about my core offer, etcetera, and not just do lots of stuff to do lots of stuff. So I eliminated that from my business. But this means constant, strong proactivity. Or if you're not being proactive on something, the ability to be brave enough not to work. That sounds crazy. But if you suddenly have an afternoon free and you just maybe don't work, because right then, right there, you're not sure what the aligned action to take is. And it's a far better use of your time to go home, read a bit, walk, listen to a podcast, and then your brain starts to go, oh, you know what? Need to reach out to this person can write an article on this, and then everything starts to flow again and you take action. That's very brave. I think that's my perspective anyway.

Ricardo:

No, totally. And I mean, I feel brave when I allow myself to take. To take those, to take those breaks and to take, to take that normal day is my partner that says, I think you don't need to work right now. You can enjoy your afternoons. Thank you for the reminder. But I try also to include two things I learned the hard way, or to include two things that helped me to address that. So one thing is I literally, I can show you. I have no clue. This is my text, literature. I work on paper, and then I have a stamp that says done. Do you know why? It feels very ridiculous. But I need to write this every second day. I need to write a whole page again. But in this process of writing this whole page again, with all my backlog, I go, this is not really needed off. I don't collect them. I don't have a long backlog of Trello's cards. No. If it's not worth it. And I go, no. Gone. It's out of sight, out of mind. I don't have this tendency. Maybe this, I can pick up that. No, this is not a gyro board. So that's one. The second one is the last month I tried to include a strategy week. I call it a strategy week is more than that is a week where I also produce only content, but it's also a week where I actually sit down with myself. What am I doing wrong? What am I doing right? What are the topics that surfaced with my clients? How do I feel? And this mandatory week where I stop, I mean, I don't stop working, but I stop having consultations. I stop having people work with people. It gives me the space to really register where I am, to really be intentional about where I put my time and energy. And that helps. To not doing things that are not truly worth doing or just doing just for the sake of it.

Katie:

Yes. And for everyone listening, I'd invite you to look at the actions you've taken this week or the actions you've taken this month and ask yourself, which ones did you just do for the sake of it or because you think you should or because someone told you you had to versus which ones were truly aligned, and that's how you wanted to spend your time and energy. And this is a very good exercise. Thank you for sharing those tools. We're already at the very last minute of today's episode. This has gone by very fast. Thank you, Ricardo. It's been very interesting hearing about paths and the harmonizing and then shifting perspective. Storytelling, fear, confidence. We've gone through a lot of different topics, and now action versus just, you know, being in movement, but not really problem solving. What do you want to leave the audience with? What are your last few words for today?

Ricardo:

Thank you so much for having me here. Katy. It's been a pleasure. What do I want to leave? I think take stock of where you are. I think that's very important at wherever we are in our careers, in our business journeys. It doesn't matter. Take stock. I think one of the things that I've learned throughout my career, I don't want to be too late to ask certain questions. And I think there are questions that comes when we retire, because we shove it, because we avoid it. It's better to confront your fears straight on. It hurts, but it always pays off because the bill will always come in the end if you don't do it. So take stock of where you are. Take stock if you are heading into the right direction. And, yes, because I love stories. Take stock of what stories are you telling yourself?

Katie:

Yes. Yes. That reminds me, you also have a. A gift, right, for the storytelling pack that I can put in the links, right?

Ricardo:

Yeah. So I developed the storytelling kit for your career. Storytelling comes with a webinar. It's for free. It's just five canvases that you can use to address. You can create your own superhero, which is always fun. So you can put in the fridge, in the door of the fridge. You can take stock of where you are in your career. Like, really make a retrospective what you have done, what went wrong, what went well, and what stories did you tell yourself and also creating a Lego system to reinvent yourself in the future, which in the world we live in today, I think that is going to happen more often than we care to admit.

Katie:

Yes. Yes, for sure. Thank you so much. Ricardo, thank you for being on the show today.

Ricardo:

Thank you so much. Katie.

Katie:

Thank you so much for tuning in today to the focusbee show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an app. Or review or YouTube comment what was. Most valuable for you. And feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member wishing you a wonderful, magical, and focused day ahead.