Crack the Code of Fulfillment with Paul Shepherd

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This transcript was auto-generated from the original video recording using Otter Voice Meeting Notes. While the transcript has not been human edited, we hope it will still help you to quickly find or reference useful information from the interview.

0:05 

Deliberate Leaders I am your host Allison Dunn, Executive Coach and Founder of the Deliberate Leaders podcast dedicated to helping leaders build strong, thriving businesses. Each episode, we feature inspiring interviews to help you on your leadership journey. And today’s guest I’m excited to introduce his name is Paul Shepherd. He is a Sydney based entrepreneur, coach and creator of a unique system that helps leaders to live a life on purpose and meeting meaning. This holistic 360 degree approach it nurtures the mind, body and soul. So he’s got a unique story after making millions of dollars in his early 20s, he discovered that his life needed a change and dispute and despite all the successes, he didn’t feel fulfilled. So he went on a journey to discover himself, his true values, and his calling. And he did. So now for the first time, he’s willing to share his learnings and lessons publicly. Paul, welcome to Deliberate Leaders podcast, it’s great to have you.

1:12 

Thanks, Allison, great to join you here.

1:13 

Thank you. I love to kick these off with a quick deliberate conversation. And so my ask is, is what would be your number one leadership tip that you would give to our listeners?

1:29 

Oh, understand yourself, and be your most authentic self as a leader, and then understand the people that you’re leading cycles. I think it’s a combination of understanding yourself and understanding the people that you’re leading, and being authentic and honoring that.

1:50 

I, I think that that is a fantastic tip. And I think that it also leads into maybe some of the stuff that you help leaders do, right. Is that an element of your consulting coaching?

2:04 

Yeah, absolutely.

2:05 

Yeah. So you, you have terminology. I’ve heard it before, but I don’t want to assume that I know what it means. And it’s, you talk about how to help people understand their genetic code. So can you tell us a little bit about that?

2:21 

Yeah, absolutely. So look, I think, a bit of backstory on that one. First of all, to give some context, I spent 25 years trying to figure out who I am, right. So I had all those jobs and careers and businesses and I just didn’t fit in didn’t feel like I belonged. And there was always this burning question like, why am I here for? Why don’t I feel in your corporate role, and I do some amazing work, but I was never recognized. The job descriptions are given never seem to match up with my skill sets. So I never really stood out. I never shown up in my own personal businesses, I’d have many opportunities, but just didn’t have the drive to take it to that next level constantly. Because those things that things that I couldn’t see, I had blind spots. So understanding that gave me this walk, understanding that there’s something missing gave me all this clarity to keep moving forward and try and find the answers. And it wasn’t until three years ago that I got this, this constant searching and working on many businesses and seeing how different people from all over the world operate, and especially successful people looking for them. And then finding out that there are different ways of doing it. So you know, we have this fractal energetic blueprint from the moment we’re born. And that essentially gives us these unique set of potentials and these unique gifts. And when we understand that, it’s a game changer. You know, I spent 25 years and close to half a million dollars on personal development, but had no idea who I was. And it wasn’t until I had a two hour briefing, an explanation of who I was on a genetic level. That shifted everything my whole life made sense. All of a sudden, I made sense to myself. And I figured out why I didn’t fit into these places, because I was doing what I was absolutely not designed to do. From top to bottom. So certain aspects of me were of course, but as a whole I was I was doing something I wasn’t designed to do. And I was trying to force myself to fit into those roles, judging myself as a result of that, and just not allowing myself to be myself. So that’s a bit of a kind of long answer condensed. But does that kind of answer the question?

4:40 

It absolutely doesn’t. And I know, I know that every single one of our listeners resonates with an element of being in a place or role or position or even in a business that you’ve launched and not feeling like you’re in your in your right place. So most definitely. I love the fact you said you did a briefing and then you you’ve earned some things about yourself. So tell me like, what were your aha takeaways? And specifically talking about, like from Paul, like, what did you learn that made you go like that makes sense?

5:13 

Yeah, give you some really basic, there’s like when there’s, there’s so much, but one example would be, you know, the first thing that I need to do in the morning is, is get out of the house and go down to a local cafe and just be around people. Now, I’d haven’t got to talk and interact with them necessarily, but just being around those people. I enjoy the energy exchange, that’s hard to explain if you’re not dialed into that. But I’d had this habit for years where I’ve just got to recap, I have my coffee and just be around people, it’s soak up the energy. And you want to have that explained to me, it’s like, Yeah, I do that, because that’s my own type. My aura type needs to just bounce off other people’s energy. You know, and I never mentioned that. That’s what I do. But the suggestion was, why don’t you go and leave the house first thing in the morning and be around people? So it’s like, oh, my gosh, that’s what I do. Right? So another thing is around rhythm. So I have this thing, a rhythm, I pull people into my own rhythm sometimes. And the suggestion there was that, you know, why don’t I try dancing. It’s like, Oh, my gosh, I’ve been dancing for 15 years. I love it. And my unique trait, within the styles of dance that I do is the rhythm that I have. So it’s not the fancy moves, because I’m not that technical advance. But it’s  this rhythm that I have the port pulls people in so little things like that, that never get articulated to you. And then when you have that explained in such a way, it’s just like, Oh my gosh, like I didn’t even know this existed. And then obviously having that explained and articulated in a way that fits into the business world. And your career is a bit of a game changer. So there’s sort of two big takeaways sort of stood out at the forefront of going through that process.

7:01 

And are you kind of suggesting that maybe we already naturally do things that we that work for our rhythm and what we need? And we so just identify that and then do more of that? Because that’s what you need as far as our genetic coding.

7:20 

Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s, there’s, there’s this intuitive pull that we get pulled in towards, right, there’s things that we were always doing, I think the book called The 11th elements, explains that from the, you know, CEOs perspective, you know, there’s no CEO that’s always kind of guiding us challenges, we just listen to it most the time, right, we’re so practical and logical, and were calculating and analytical, but we’re not really tap into intuition. So we can find ourselves way off path. And once we learn to listen to that, and recognize that we’re always being guided, and tap into that, then we can be like spend more time on our path, experiencing those positive emotions as opposed to being off track in life.

8:09 

I spent a little bit of time on your website, and you have a really cool timeline of all of the various things and just a very honest, raw account of the things that you’ve been involved in. And so that was really fun. I’m it did, it did make me reflect that in looking at your timeline? Like, what were some of those monumental moments in time that made you help to make decisions? To make some of the pivots that you did?

8:43 

I think the my biggest lesson is learning to surrender. You know, so I think that your whole feather pebble rock, brick, Mack truck kind of scenario, and a lot of Mack trucks in my life, right? So I had a lot of what I what I deemed as severe failures, and which, which led to a lot of emotional trauma at the time. Because I didn’t couldn’t comprehend why these things were happening. So when you’re way off your path in life, you just get slapped around the universe slaps you around and tries to guide you back onto the right path. And the time I didn’t recognize that and didn’t have the right mentors around me who could explain all that to me. So I’m early 20s was, was quite intense. First two businesses I’d lost, and investments and mentors and relationships and just everything came crumbling down, go into a lot of debt. And my, I guess my go to was saying, well, I’ve got nothing to lose, what am I here for? What’s something I really want to do for a long time. And that’s when I decided to join the military at the time just as a way to, to focus on something very different to keep growing and learning evolving. And They kind of put the whole business values behind me for a little while, until I came up with some new strategies to navigate that path when I came back. So that’s typically how I do things.

10:11 

And in some of the, your content on your website, it talks about the career and lifestyle changes that we should apply immediately. And I’m super curious, what would those things typically be with someone that you’re working with?

10:27 

So the first thing is to understand someone’s unique design. So your listeners may have heard of human design as a, as a tool. What most people aren’t aware of with human design is it’s actually a, what’s called Big Five, it’s a business and career aspect of that. So I do a combination of Big Five. So getting clear on who the individual is, what their natural gifts, strengths and talents are. And there’s a whole process I take people through around identifying their values. So a lot of people say, Well, you just focus on your strengths. But most people actually don’t know what their strengths really are at the core. Sure, this skill they’ve got that they’re good at, and technical stuff that finds for their career. But where are you going to be most in flow? Where are you going to be in your zone of genius, as you call it, where you’re going to feel fulfilled and accomplished and experienced the signposts of satisfaction or success in your, in your life. So that’s the first step is taking people through their unique design, then going through a process of extracting their values, because most people don’t know what they are. And if you ask most people today, they’d struggle to come up with them. So as part of the whole coaching, it’s, it’s let’s get clear on you. First, let’s get clear on your values. And then as we as you’re going through that, we can shape a career, or a business or a lifestyle around who you truly are, as opposed to trying to make you fit into a corporation or a role or a job title, because the money is good, or because your parents said so or because that’s what you think you must do. So it’s really about getting out of the head, getting into the heart, and just uncovering the uniqueness of yourself. Which is, which is the breakthrough I got four years ago.

12:16 

In some of your content, you were also talking about the idea that working harder does always bring us more fulfillment. So the whole hustle fallacy, and you know, some of I would just speak from the experience that I have with the clients that I work with, and even in my very own life, like the better flow I get into right. And I actually don’t work harder, it actually creates much more success than trying to always, you know, like, just drive it home. Can you speak from your experience on your, your thoughts on the hustle culture that we’re in, in this world?

12:58 

Yeah.

13:01 

I think it’s a fallacy, right? I puzzled for 20 years. And, you know, it just led to frustration and burnout. And I’ve had probably six burnouts in my life. So I have this drive and this passion to just make things happen. But I’ve burnt out every single time, because I’m not doing what I meant to be doing. So I just say you get into your zone of genius, you get into flow. There is no time, you know, you’re just loving what you do. It’s effortless. You know, think about experiences where I’ve been practicing the law of attraction or the law of vibration? And, you know, you just set this intention. Yeah, there’s this world has this. It has an intention deficit, not an attention deficit. So when we focus our intentions on what we actually want, and we’re doing what we’re designed to do, things become effortless, literally. And you’ve experienced that I’m sure everyone’s experienced that at some point in their life. The question is, how do we get back to that? And how do we actually make what how we create more experiences or more time in that zone of genius, where we where things are effortless. So yeah, absolutely. When I’m doing things I hate doing, and it could be technical stuff could be connecting different pieces of software together, which I had to do to run a business. And I’ve done through a digital transformation agency I’ve got, I’m just grinding it out. You know, it’s this much resistance and my body is not in flow when I struggle, and I get headaches and I get, you know, pain in my bag, and it’s just like, Oh my gosh, this is not for me. So I’m completely out of flow. And I create more frustration, and I attract more negative events in my life, when I’m doing those types of activities. But if I’m having conversations with people, if I’m inspiring if I’m doing what I love doing, the bolt opens up for me. And as you say, it’s it becomes effortless. So that’s absolutely been my experience too. Yeah.

15:02 

If some of our listeners may be experiencing a few things that you just mentioned, you know, headaches, you know, the stress, the pressure, the backaches, the, you know, the things that your body is telling you that we need to listen to what would be the next few steps that someone could do to make an adjustment in their life? I mean, you’ve made a number of pivots. So give walk us through some steps on things that people could consider to take as a baby step towards making an improvement?

15:32 

Yeah, good question. The first thing is become aware of it, I think, you know, once you’re aware of how your body’s reacting, that is your compass. Right. So one of the things we teach in BG five is understanding your decision making strategy. And when you clear on that, that’s your compass for everything, every decision about yourself, that’s how you would operate based on your energetic response. So your body’s going to either pull you towards something, or push you away from something. And when it’s when that’s pushing your way, you know, it’s not for you, it could be, could be a lunch date, it could be a invitation to a movie, it could be a certain task at work, whatever it is, start tuning into how your body is responding. start feeling into that energetic response. We’re not taught this in school. We’re not taught this way through our parents, but it’s absolutely one of the most powerful things I’ve ever learned. So start tuning into your body. And, you know, simple technique I often use and recommend to clients is the just the heart brain coherence, right. So get your heart and your brain into coherence, split a three minute breathing exercise, put your hand on your heart, and just breathe deep breaths, sort of five, six seconds, in about three minutes. And that will synchronize the heart and brain waves together. So that takes away all the anxiety and everything else, but also allows you to start to get into your body and start to feel into those feelings. So that’d be the first two things I’d recommend that anyone can do right now.

17:07 

Excellent, excellent suggestions. Do you have a blueprint? for how to how to go about this?

17:16 

For identifying yourself or for myself, personally?

17:20 

For yourself personally.

17:23 

Yeah, of course. Absolutely. So I have gone through many different shamans, astrologers, psychics, Human Design System. I’ve overlaid that with my values. I’ve overlaid that with other tools I use, I essentially create Venn diagrams. He guy, right, then good van, right. So you just overlay them and you try and process of elimination. And that’s essentially how I came to this framework of understanding who I am and then how I can actually replicate the process for the people because the fact that I’d spent, you know, 25 years trying to figure it out was and the pain I had to go through. I thought Surely, like other people are going through this too, right. And that’s what I realized in corporate, most people were not telling what their designs. So yes, I do have a blueprint. And I have a repeatable process to help others go through that. without spending 25 years, I can do it in three weeks. So pretty simple.

18:24 

There’s nothing better than guidance to get you there faster, right?

18:27 

Absolutely. Just save the time, right?

18:30 

Yes. I am super curious, what would be your top few book recommendations that would help people kind of to identify, but the balancing that you’re talking about and really listening that that 360 mind body soul.

18:47 

Before they live in filament, that’s something that it’svery business kind of language, so most people will understand it. It’s not very esoteric, but the concepts he’s talking about are extremely esoteric. And in other words, I think it’s the essence of who we really are. So 11th element, I can’t remember the author’s name at the top of my head. Yeah, awesome. The other one is the surrender experiment by Michael singer. That’s a big one for me. Just learning to surrender when life is getting slower, so difficult. than any time I can think of off the top of my head. I’m listening to a lot of a lot of podcasts and actual my digital courses at the moment, which are different again.

19:32 

Yeah. Fantastic. I always love a good book recommendation, especially anything that brings us more harmony and balance, right. Absolutely. And you are you mentioned so you’ve got your coaching practice, but then you also have this. I’m curious, what is your digital side of your technology thing that you have going on?

19:52 

Yes, that’s been around for 10/12 years. That came about, I think when I was exiting corporate, a buddy of mine was CEO and public companies look, Paul, why don’t we go ahead and just acquire underperforming assets, businesses that aren’t digitized, got poor cultures, we’ll put all the stuff that you do all the stuff that he does in the cultural aspect. And we’ll transform them and sell them. And you know, in two years, and I said, Great, sounds like fun, let’s do it. So that was essentially how I got into my own business doing digital transformation. After having done that for corporations, and working for some, some larger brands, some franchise groups, public companies, and now I really work with entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs who want to, I guess, bring their business to life, and scale that automated step out of their business and work on it. So you know, the combination of the transformation, which is all from marketing, technology, operations systems , and then obviously, the culture around getting the business owner, the entrepreneur aligns to their core strengths, and then obviously reengineering their team around all the core strengths as well. So that’s the synthesis of bringing the two together, and then doing the coaching on top.

21:08 

Fantastic. That is, I’ve seen that model work a lot. That’s a very powerful combination of things. Paul, what is the best way for our listeners to follow or find you?

21:23 

Website, Paubshepherd.com. And there’s a Facebook group, which is set up, it’s called sole purpose mastery methodology, where people come in for free. And we’ll be doing a lot of analysis, essentially just giving, giving away a lot of stuff where people can literally give us their details. I’ll go away, put something together for them, and just publish that in the group. So what a q&a going on. It’s literally in the process of being set up right now. So that’s the two best ways to stay in touch and learn more.

22:00 

Fantastic. Thank you. And thank you for sharing that program option. I just want to personally thank you. I know that you are in Australia that you joined me before the sun rose, and I’ve had the opportunity to watch this kind of come up while we’re on this. This recording together. So well. Thanks so much for joining us here today.

22:19 

Absolute pleasure as you have a fantastic evening.

22:21 

Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai