For many people, discovering their giftedness can open many doors, but when it becomes the center of our identity it can close many as well. In this episode, I share my observations over the years in gifted communities on the journey to self-understanding.

In this episode:

• Stories of gifted discovery.
• Types of gifted communities I've observed.
• Times when focusing on gifted identity can be helpful, and when it can get in the way. 
• My assessment philosophy.
• Knowing the limitations of our assessment tools.
• Upcoming book announcement!

Links:

Free Harness the Power of Your Intensity Workbook

Embracing Intensity Community

My Year in Mensa Podcast

It’s always great to have a good friend visit with me on the show. Join me as I introduce you to my friend, Erika. She’s a ball of energy who focuses on positivity, generosity, and finding workable solutions to everyday problems. Join us!

Erika Laws is a recovering networker, positive thinker, and sales enthusiast. She loves people, self-development, and manifesting. Her goal is to be happy no matter what the circumstances and to put her own “oxygen mask” on before helping others. She has lots of life lived and lessons learned.

Show Highlights:

• Why Erika is intensely passionate about helping people, sales, and her unique form of “matchmaking”
• Why Erika is not too concerned about being diplomatic anymore, asking the tough questions, and being a “say it how I feel it” person
• Why Erika is a positive manipulator to help people to become better
• How Erika’s intensity kicked in when she became a single mom and had to channel her intensity toward getting things done and leading confidently
• How cultural factors influenced Erika growing up because she lived in a world without much diversity but found herself drawn to African-American friends, which isolated her from others
• How Erika’s acceptance of everyone helped her later in her sales career
• How Erika had to suppress her gender and act “more male” by holding back her emotion to succeed in her career
• How Erika’s intensity gets out of control often as she tries to underpromise and overdeliver to customers, which comes across as aggressive and hostile at times
• How Erika will go above and beyond to make sure people are taken care of; she’s an observant, forward-thinking, and solutions-based listener
• How emotional awareness helps Erika harness the power of her intensity
• How Erika follows a process using the acronym SELL in every interaction: show up, engage, listen, and lead
• The best advice Erika ever received came from Jack Canfield: “There are only two things you can change about a situation. Change how you feel about it or change the situation.”
• How Erika helps others see that they are valued, leads by example, and loves connecting people as a matchmaker to help them
• How Erika is committed to holding the line with her boundaries and how she expects to be treated
• Parting words from Erika: “Intensity can be good, but your greatest strength can be your biggest weakness. You have to channel that intensity for good and know when to dial it back. Choose wisely about who you surround yourself with, and choose those who appreciate and don’t just tolerate.”

Resources:

Find Erika on Facebook: Erika Laws or Impactful Sales Solutions

If you’re in the Vancouver, WA, area, go see Erika at Mattress Firm on Mill Plain Boulevard!

For many years I thought I needed more self control to help develop health habits that would help my chronic pain and fatigue, but I eventually came to realize that I was focusing on the wrong thing. Instead of self control, I needed to focus on self-regulation. Self control is about forcing yourself, while self-regulation is about helping yourself. 

In this episode:

• The difference between self control and self-regulation.
• With self control, the focus is often on deprivation and forcing yourself to do something.
• Willpower is a limited resource. 
• With self-regulation, the focus is on setting up tools, environment etc. to help facilitate behaviors you want to change.

Links:

Embracing Intensity Community

Upcoming Group Calls

Embracing Intensity Store

Free Workbook on Harnessing the Power of Your Intensity

Today’s show is about swimming against the current and going against the flow. Listen to learn more about focusing on what feels good at the gut level. 

Matt Zinman is a personal success trainer whose varied experiences as an entrepreneur, athlete, single parent, caretaker, consultant, and nonprofit founder drive him to be a difference-maker. His insights about self-discovery, relationships, mindfulness, and life enrichment led him to write Z-Isms: Insights to Live By and fulfill his goal to positively impact as many people as possible. In addition, Matt is CEO of The Internship Institute, which he established in 2007 to bridge the gap between education, active duty, and employment.

Show Highlights:

• As a Philly area native, Matt is passionate about ice hockey, entrepreneurship, internships, his nonprofit, and his book
• Matt’s inspiration for writing Z-Isms, which contains pearls of wisdom, wit, and insights
• Matt’s personal brand of intensity is channeled through ice hockey and his “relentlessly positive optimism”
• The relevance of earned confidence from what you’ve endured
• Since Matt contended with depression since his early teens, he had to learn how to take care of himself and notice his “mood scale”
• How he became the caretaker for his mom, who contracted HIV through a tainted blood transfusion, and he learned to convert intensity into gratitude
• The cultural factors that affected Matt, who was a Jewish kid in a Catholic high school
• How Matt learned to be an even-keeled person through years of staying in control
• How Matt felt his intensity get out of control as he lost his mom over time to HIV and dementia
• How Matt used his fire for good by pushing through in his career and swimming against the current
• How Matt harnessed the power of his intensity by paying attention to his anchors, like ice hockey, spontaneous connection to others, and positivity
• How Matt created rituals around mindfulness and gratitude
• The best advice Matt ever received was to trust himself and not overthink everything
• A book that helped Matt was Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
• How Matt helps others trust themselves and earn confidence, teaching them to take pride in yielding vs. always trying to win the fight
• Final words from Matt: “Have a positive impact on as many people as possible. Be proactive. Stay upbeat, and take care of yourself.”

Resources:

Find Matt and his tools and resources: www.z-isms.com  

Find Z-Isms on www.amazon.com.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell