0e9c3e173bddd7bf3bc6db4dfc10961a.m4a<\/p>\n
00:00:00,000 It was an exit strategy and I convinced myself of this good thing, which
\nis I was done with corporate. And I was also slowly becoming seriously burned out.<\/p>\n
00:00:11,480 Like PTSD, I was really done. Quite at the end of my rope, I think for 00:00:23,460 corporate. I couldn’t have signed another contract.<\/p>\n
So it was a bit, I needed an exit strategy to get out. And so good motivation, I want to get back to the US, I want to see my kids, my grandkids, I’m terribly overdone in the corporate world.<\/p>\n
00:00:39,360 I need a serious five year break or something. I’m motivated. So I’m a 00:00:47,400 risk taker.<\/p>\n
I’m super well motivated. I’m going to take some risks. So I think
\nstarting the book was these intentional things and they were supposed to ultimately<\/p>\n
00:00:58,040 help me. But what happened along the way was I started realizing the
\npotential of the idea I had and that it would be more about the people I would meet and the journey and not about me.<\/p>\n
00:01:15,480 Hi and welcome to the Sunday Launch Project Manager podcast. This is your host, Nigel Grease. And today I’ve got the first bar of my conversation with Ken Stearns, the guy with a jar.<\/p>\n
00:01:38,120 Speak, say. So what’s been going on with me? There’s been been 00:01:54,960 quieter at work actually.<\/p>\n
So I’ve been a bit of a time for reflection, kind of looking at a little bit of
\ntraining, a little bit of thinking about how I can change things in the
\noffice and kind of help to other parts of the community, which is quite good.<\/p>\n
00:02:09,160 Give you that little bit of head space so rather than it being full on all the 00:02:19,880 time. We’ve got a bunch of guests coming up. I’ve got a few.<\/p>\n
I’ve had to cancel because I’ve had some problems in my ear. I’ve had
\nto say the story of a problem where I get a block deer and I can’t hear
\nproperly. So having these conversations is rather uncomfortable to try to do.
\n00:02:30,200 So I’ve decided to pull a few of them, which means I’ve got a few in the
\nhopper, backed up and I’ve got two that I’ve got to fix because they
\ndidn’t record right. So we’ve still got lots of people interested coming on the show.<\/p>\n
00:02:43,120 A few scheduled for after my summer break. So it’s great. If you know 00:02:52,680 of anyone or you want to be on the show, just get in touch.<\/p>\n
Be on the show at NigelCruiser.com and I’ll see you. What else has
\nbeen going on? I’ve had a lot of change going on in the family with my eldest having her prom, which all<\/p>\n
00:03:05,680 went well and she loved it and I was taxiing around it. Later into the evening and my little one had her last school performance this week and unfortunately a Reindorf Sports Day, which is interesting.<\/p>\n
00:03:20,560 It’s quite interesting when you go through these different moves,
\ndifferent phases of our life and I was liking it to when I’ve been stepping off out of different areas that I’ve worked in and you move from something that you’re kind of used to, you’ve got the flow<\/p>\n
00:03:38,240 of it and it always, that change, always unsettles. And for us as parents
\nand for the girls, they are also going through that change and dealing with that change and going through it.<\/p>\n
00:03:53,160 So the next few months are going to be interesting from that point of
\nview. Just think, oh yes and what else has happened is that recently I liked playing bass guitar when I was younger.<\/p>\n
00:04:08,600 I’ve had bass guitar and I fixed my bass guitar. If any of you follow me
\non social media you’ll have seen me trying to do some Lutheran on my
\nwooden bass guitar and I’ve started having some lessons which is the first time I’ve messed<\/p>\n
00:04:21,480 around with it for many years. So having some fun with that, with
\nfriends of mine over it, just down the road and it’s with rock music
\nschool and it’s called and we’ve basically spent an hour practicing and<\/p>\n
00:04:36,280 learning a song and then jamming it for the last 20 minutes of that hour,
\nwhich is a really good fun, really enjoyed it and it’s really a real different
\nbrain part of my brain I’m using there and reawakening a lot of my rock star ambitions that I had when I was in my early 20s
\n00:04:58,440 but having a great time with it and even browsing lots of gadgets which
\nof course do with these new hobbies and yeah really enjoying that and
\nthen kind of getting some discipline about the fact that and I interviewed a few, probably a couple of years ago now, a bass player called<\/p>\n
00:05:22,560 Gerald Leonard who is a jazz bass player and at the time I never even
\nthought about getting him to play which was ridiculous and he talked
\nabout how similarly with project management and somely with in music you are a lot of what you do is the fundamentals, the practice<\/p>\n
00:05:44,360 that going through and that we’re not actually performing and getting
\nthat big adrenaline hit from what you do and I kind of like and that’s a
\nproject management with our projects is that we get a lot of the things that we need to do are kind of running the mill if we’re<\/p>\n
00:06:00,000 doing it if the project is going okay but then you get those crazy bits at
\nthe end of the project where you are getting it over the line and going
\non your life or the installation or whatever like that which can be you get that buzz out of it and I think sometimes we<\/p>\n
00:06:14,160 get that and we get post-project blues afterwards because you haven’t
\ngot that adrenaline buzz until you jump onto a new one and you’re all a
\ndifferent ambiguity of that new project of how you start it and how you get it going so I can see a lot of things that I’m trying<\/p>\n
00:06:29,280 to discipline myself to do the encroached boring practice and boring
\nscales and things like that and yeah that’s a little bit about what’s going
\non what’s else I’ve seen around oh yeah congratulations to the guys at Project Chatter who I saw on LinkedIn that they had 150,<\/p>\n
00:06:52,200 150,000 downloads they were celebrating last week so well done those
\nguys they do a great podcast and actually listen to this pop along and
\nhave a listen to one of theirs they’re really good and yeah I’d love to be in that situation myself eventually we will get there maybe I’d<\/p>\n
00:07:11,800 love for you guys to share my podcast out with the brilliant I was asked
\nand recommend to your friends and colleagues to have a listen and the
\nfinal thing was that there is the in the UK the National Podcast Awards I’ll put a link somewhere in the if you if we’re actually<\/p>\n
00:07:35,280 if you go along to NigelCriser.com\/podcastawards I will do redirect on
\nthere safely doing it so just podcast awards all one way and that should
\ndirect you to there there’s a people’s choice area I would not dream of winning it but it would be lovely to get a few votes from a few
\n00:07:54,880 people would be interested to see what it does and maybe get a bit
\nmore visibility for the show as well anyway I’m gonna let you get on and have a listen to Ken and yeah enjoy hello and welcome to the Sunday Lunch Project Manager podcast I’m delighted to welcome Ken Stoon<\/p>\n
00:08:16,640 to the show today Ken is a grandfather, midwestern boy writer speaker
\nphotographer and lyricist in his early 50s he decided to replace his habit
\nof reading with writing while reading with writing while traveling little did he know that the simple change would lead him to a transformative<\/p>\n
00:08:38,160 journey of self discovery and creativity for 20 years he’s lived in and
\nworked in 15 countries across Asia immersing himself in a culture this language is an experiences along the way he found himself consumed by the thoughts inside himself as he thought to be heard writing became an outlet<\/p>\n
00:08:57,120 his way of processing the world around him and sharing his details and Ken obviously you have a background in you insurance career kind of
\nhelped feed that travel and I’m sure we’re going to get into that so Ken
\nthank you for coming on the show and do you want to tell the the the the<\/p>\n
00:09:19,760 the listeners just a little bit more about you yeah Nigel thanks for having
\nme for first off you know it’s kind of when I when I saw the the show and
\nand I saw oh it’s it’s you know it’s it’s project management and I was
\nlike I love I’m I’m all about that but I mean that’s kind of my old life in the way so it’s<\/p>\n
00:09:38,560 kind of as a awkward do I apply for this to talk to this guy or not you
\nknow and does it make sense so and I think I send it by note kind of
\nexactly that which is I’ve got a lot of experience for project management
\ngot a lot of place in my heart for it been involved with it for really the 20<\/p>\n
00:09:57,200 years I was in Asia and so many different PMs coming in going teams
\nand projects and different across markets across countries just crazy
\nkind of fun being involved with it and the energy that you get being
\ninvolved in a project so it was good fun you know it’s good fun I was as the the
\n00:10:18,800 bio kind of says I’m a Midwestern kid a seasoned Midwestern kid kind
\nof which means I’m an old guy and you know like said grandfather and
\nall that good stuff and I left I left for Asia when I was about 40 dragged my family went over to Asia to be an insurance dude after being an insurance guy in the<\/p>\n
00:10:38,080 U.S. and I had some distribution skills so it’s kind of on the sales and sales and management side and found myself with big companies like
\nAIG, Prudential, Prudential UK so I worked for Prudential UK in Asia
\nand they have they’re in about 15 different markets there and just a strong<\/p>\n
00:10:58,960 you know a long old company right a lot of history in doing things and
\nso again you know project management for everything that we would do
\nand that is I shared in our pre-chat I’ve had you know I’m trying to I’m
\njust drawn a blank on these on the titles you know but project owner project sponsor<\/p>\n
00:11:19,840 project manager I’ve been yeah program managers and all those yeah yeah another program manager yeah I mean you know I’ve been I’ve been that person you know and whatever those roles were and they changed the names over the years and those those sheets became more complex right I mean I don’t<\/p>\n
00:11:40,720 we’re an insurance and so we were doing it was mostly IT stuff right
\nwould have been a lot of our stuff IT stuff or process change you know which was relatively like an IT project in a way because it’s that
\nsequential order of things and I’m kind of manufacturing something but you know I’m a different<\/p>\n
00:12:00,320 person now as you can see we’re kind of having that giggle offs offs you know off mic and saying you know I was such a monster in
\ncorporate life and I look back you know like I can’t believe I was that
\nperson you know ungrateful in so many ways and probably the worst if I look back Mike I say a regret<\/p>\n
00:12:21,600 or just looking back and just saying could have been a better person
\nwas was definitely grace giving people grace and I think you know if I
\nlook at you know corporate life and even just for our grace for ourselves
\nright in these projects right we have these unrealistic timelines there’s no real
\n00:12:42,880 usually so there’s no real eminent disaster of you know the earth crashing if you miss some deadlines but the pressure that we put on
\npeople and you know the the just the amount of effort that goes into
\nreporting this stuff you know I can’t imagine the stress and pressure that that people are under<\/p>\n
00:13:07,040 in the PM world you know like you like you were sharing offline you know having some struggles and really burning out because you know
\nit’s just it seems like it’s just one of these things where it’s never over
\nyou know you must feel that right like it’s just you’re on that bicycle every day<\/p>\n
00:13:24,880 and you’re never cross have you ever crossed the finish line now I don’t
\nknow you do I think I think there’s an kind of in the industry now there’s
\na lot of sort of with me I’m in a system integrator so I work for a system integrator so our job is delivering projects for people in<\/p>\n
00:13:43,440 if you’re in sort of end user business there’s always constant change
\nbut there isn’t A yeah is it it I suppose it sees the similar that as a
\nproject manager you are moving from one you just about celebrate the last one but actually typically you’re already trying to use that<\/p>\n
00:14:05,920 energy to start the next one because that yeah you’ve got the kickoff
\nmeeting on the following day after you’ve had a few drinks on Thursday
\nwith the guys that have helped you get this other one over and and I interesting conversations I’ve had with people sometimes is that we have this<\/p>\n
00:14:21,440 concept of a project end to end project manager in in general where
\nyou give a project to a project manager they start it up they work out
\nwhat it’s going to be they’re putting the controls they control it all the
\nway through all the delivery and they use all that energy to get it over the line at<\/p>\n
00:14:37,280 the end which inevitably there’s things you need to do and you’ve got all
\nthese different different intensity of energy that needed all the way through that and we expect one person to have that same skills and energy to go all the way through there and also having used so much energy to get it over
\n00:14:56,160 the finish line we then expect them immediately to stand up and be able to use another and different energy source for that ambiguous
\nambiguous amorphous blob that you’re trying to form into something to deliver and and I think that<\/p>\n
00:15:18,720 that bit of it that that that’s what I see a lot of the time as you say you
\ndon’t you don’t really you cross one line and then you’re into something
\nelse in your you don’t get that re-energization and and it’s different skills and it’s different um behavior patterns and things like that you<\/p>\n
00:15:32,800 have to use in all those different phases of those deliveries yeah it’s
\nhard it’s hard that’s an interesting observation I mean yeah you’re right
\nthrough in the launch it takes it’s one skill set closing takes a different skill set talking to you know getting people to give<\/p>\n
00:15:51,280 you the time getting bosses to give up their staff to give you the time
\nthat’s a negotiating skill set compromising I mean it and then going to
\nget you know and then going trying to not pull everybody’s pants down in the in the update meeting when no one’s given you what they’re supposed to give you<\/p>\n
00:16:08,000 yeah it’s it’s it’s a it’s a yeah I’ve just seen but I’ve seen some amazingly
\ntalented people in that space like some of the names through my years
\n20 years about five companies and I look at the different countries and
\norganizations um some of the the names and faces of people that stick<\/p>\n
00:16:30,160 out are those are the project people interestingly if I look back on my career like yeah I can see that because they from the mainly that there’s so much um uh relationship building needing in project
\nmanagement and the relationships and the people get that work done it isn’t the<\/p>\n
00:16:49,200 processes and procedures and therefore I think it’s it is that is the reason why is because you get those relationships need to be deep hmm yeah more of you think it’s successful yeah yeah the community cross lines across departments across teams um yeah so maybe I’ll share a little bit about<\/p>\n
00:17:09,040 what I’m doing now and you know kind of it’s a kind of a funny you
\nknow a funny side story to it is you know it’s one big project I became
\nthe project sponsor manager owner uh builder deliverable guy I was the everything project manager um you know about when I was 52-ish uh was when I started doing
\n00:17:30,960 this you know started writing stuff and not consuming you know
\neverything on airplanes and airports and trying to write notes and trying
\nto find um you know I just had some inspiration to write uh this to write
\na book and it was it was a book dear dad and it was letters to my father and these were you<\/p>\n
00:17:49,840 know my dad died when I was 28 and I had all these corporate things happen I would love to share with a corporate guy my dad was a
\ncorporate guy you know just wanted to share all this my journey and he
\nwasn’t there so I started writing letters and and then that morphed into another book over time<\/p>\n
00:18:05,200 and all that got kind of put aside because you know there is one thing I
\nthink when you’re in these jobs especially to like the project stuff or or
\neven any work where it’s so intense there’s almost no room for anything
\nelse hmm yeah I like the fact that you start a podcast is impressive because<\/p>\n
00:18:26,560 amongst everything else you’ve got to carve out this mental space to create and to be you know and to come up with something so anyway I was I I started planning about what am I going to do when I grow up what am I going to do when I quit corporate you know when I when I you know what am I going to do<\/p>\n
00:18:43,840 when I’m 70 you know I don’t want to be I don’t want to be dying I don’t
\nwant to be one of those people that retires at 65 and then dies at 66
\nright like this that’s just not the way to go that’s a bad those people
\nplanned poorly oh we’re lucky yeah I’m lucky I don’t want to speak ill of the dead<\/p>\n
00:19:03,440 but I’m just gonna still I’m sticking with mine that was a bad plan that
\nwas a bad plan and so I started thinking intentionally about what I’m
\ngoing to do and and I started this writing I started I picked up a guitar at 52 started playing guitar I dragged my camera everywhere with me I never<\/p>\n
00:19:23,520 left the house without my camera I did shot anything I could shoot just
\nto be creative to look at life through a frame yeah and to try to live like
\nthat and try to see and anticipate you know an image and that that kind
\nof intentionality ultimately gave me this idea for the podcast and so I finished
\n00:19:43,760 a book called Dear God and it’s a kind of a spiritual questioning of ideas with God a conversation having with God about about your past your
\npresent your future your your acceptance compassion forgiveness love
\nkarma service faith hope and prayer so I had this book with 12 topics I was chatting with<\/p>\n
00:20:09,680 God about you know in my it’s letters I’m writing these letters yeah and
\nultimately that led me down to this idea of turning that into a podcast don’t ask God ask your fellow mankind so start asking people these questions about these ideas I’ve got about love about acceptance forgiveness you know I got all<\/p>\n
00:20:30,640 these ideas that I’ve collected from people in life experiences I put them
\ntogether and so I took the book Nigel and I wrote 400 questions so I I
\ntook these letters put on the computer one by one and looked at that
\nand said what is the idea in that letter in this particular letter what am I<\/p>\n
00:20:51,760 asking what am I after what am I validating and then I sat on the side
\nand wrote questions so I ended up with 444 questions print these things
\nout beautiful cards and put them in these giant jars that I had or giant jar that I had made so you can and then I’m gonna I’m gonna<\/p>\n
00:21:14,320 get my butt back to America I’m gonna buy a van put some graphics on
\nit get these jars made get the jar get the questions printed by gear learn how to record remotely in people’s homes and drive around to 111
\ncities and interview 444 people it’s interesting I’m it’s I’m not done with a website<\/p>\n
00:21:44,000 project management yeah yeah I looked on your website yeah there’s a
\nmap you’ve got a map on there of your journey yes which I wasn’t quite
\nin sure whether that journey is still ongoing or whether it’s coming to an
\nend now or is it kind of going out but just mind boggling that map you’ve got<\/p>\n
00:22:03,120 there it’s however many hundreds obviously I live in the UK yeah 50
\nmiles is a long way for me to drive somewhere it’s kind of like with you
\nguys it’s great it’s funny I was listening to something I’d sport the other
\nday and they were talking about people coming over to the UK to come and see
\n00:22:21,360 from the states to watch teams football teams and things like that and soccer teams yeah yeah and and and they were talking to someone
\nabout it about the fact that and and Rexim is not far from me and I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Rexim soccer team they’ve kind of Ryan Reynolds more than that<\/p>\n
00:22:37,440 but it’s you’ve got Liverpool and you’ve got Manchester two the biggest
\nfootball team sort of city in in the country and it’s a half hour drive between them two and then about half hour drive again to Rexim and
\nand then they were talking to go they were talking these people like that and they’re saying yeah<\/p>\n
00:22:54,640 well we we if we want to go and watch an MLS game we’ve got four
\nhour journey or five hour journey to the next team and it’s kind of like ah yeah yeah we can do the whole of the UK here so I’m always I still
\nblows my mind to have big that country yours is so it is there are some I even for me too<\/p>\n
00:23:13,920 I’m driving I haven’t been here in 20 years you know so I’m driving it’s
\nstill and it’s you know it’s so it’s it’s big yeah yeah the map was fun so I
\nhad when I was when all I was crafting everything still in that brain kind of brainstorming stage and building the idea out I had<\/p>\n
00:23:35,200 I had probably the the wet dream for every pro for every PM in the in
\nthe world on in my apartment on one wall I had four whiteboards drilled into the wall yeah so my whole hallway was whiteboards on one side
\nand on the yeah I had so imagine four of those vertically so flip them yeah and just drill them<\/p>\n
00:23:59,280 so it’s you know six but five five foot tall in about I don’t know 12 feet long whiteboard basically and I just stand there every day a cup of
\ncoffee you know in shower out of the shower staring at it wiping it down
\nrewriting and on the other side I had my map I had a plastic a giant plastic map<\/p>\n
00:24:21,360 that I started drawing the rough you know which way by what time and
\nyou know starting to sketch it out before I put it on to the computer and making sure I could follow the sun stay with the summer you know
\nbeing the right places at the right time so you know I tell you man it’s a good thing I had
\n00:24:38,240 a lot of project management skills because I was it was it was it’s quite
\na thing to look back now and to realize what I what I did and what I’ve
\ndone and quite accomplished quite a bit for one and say not one person
\nI have a small team but definitely in the beginning it was just me yeah<\/p>\n
00:24:58,160 so an integrated yeah can you say it it reminds me of a thing I saw not
\nlong ago on on prime I think it was it was I and cowboy the I and man
\ntriathlete and I come in his name who did all the all the states in the US and he did an I and man in every state one day after another<\/p>\n
00:25:24,960 and it’s a kind of similar sort of and I’m when I’ve seen people doing
\nmarathons where they’re running through different states and stuff and
\nit’s kind of plotting out where they go to do it and it’s it’s not always the
\nactual event bit that’s a difficult bit is it it’s getting to the event<\/p>\n
00:25:40,160 bit and getting away afterwards so the room time to get somewhere else and I know there was one with with someone doing marathons where they get into to a carman where it was now but basically they
\nhad a boat that left to this island where they were going to run this thing<\/p>\n
00:26:00,960 and it went once every week so if they missed it oh they missed the
\nwhole the whole thing’s not done or something like that you know what I
\nmean it was that it was that level of thing you just leave no choice yeah
\nno choice make it otherwise you don’t get there to do what you’re going to do<\/p>\n
00:26:19,200 and then come back and it’s kind of I imagine that but that logistics work
\nand event logistics and I had that Jen Santos on recently when she was
\ntalking about big conference logistics and these organizing events I got
\nthis kind of thing for you when you’re doing it on your own and then when<\/p>\n
00:26:37,280 you’ve got groups of people in there involved in these things it starts to
\nexacerbate and kind of it’s not linear in complexity is it you’ve got that multi-communication multi-dependency yeah yeah I mean I mean the goodness was everything decisions started and start with me<\/p>\n
00:26:54,320 right so there was yeah you know it was in I was in a vacuum doing it um god yeah that’s what made you when you start doing conferences
\nyeah well made you do it well what was it that what was in your mind when you sat back and thought I’ve got this idea to do this
\n00:27:11,680 what we what you what did you want to get out of it and what did you
\nwant to give to the world yeah it’s it’s a good it’s a great question and
\nit’s it’s one even I’m still sometimes I come and go on the answer and
\nI’m not sure um it started out being about me getting back to the US<\/p>\n
00:27:34,480 having an exit I called it at the time I was calling it my exit strategy air
\nquotes right you know it’s like how do I get out of Asia and you know it’s
\na particular tough because I was an expert and my skills don’t translate you know I’d never I never could have<\/p>\n
00:27:51,360 gotten an inch I mean I could have got some kind of insurance job in
\nthe US but nothing remotely close to what I would the kind of job I had so why why was that what was the kind of what you do I was a
\ndistribution person so I was you know I was in management um and the executive<\/p>\n
00:28:09,200 leadership you know set at the table and with a lot of it was also
\ndistribution and the distribution model the products the style is so different in Asia now compared to the US and um so is that is that
\nmarket specialty something yeah it was market specialty really it was<\/p>\n
00:28:29,360 market specialty and I think even the general the broad general
\nmanagement leadership thing I could as I could have gone in anywhere any insurance company out of gone and I could add value tomorrow
\nthere’s no doubt but I think the difficulty would be for people to get their heads around that<\/p>\n
00:28:45,600 just looking at my experience right and they’d rather find somebody in
\nthe local market in the American market that had a US experience I just that was my guess anyway that was he was an exit strategy and I
\nconvinced myself of this good thing which is I was done with corporate<\/p>\n
00:29:02,640 and I was also slowly becoming seriously burned out like PTSD I was
\nreally done quite at the end of my at the end of my rope I think for
\ncorporate I couldn’t have signed another contract um so it was a bit I needed an exit strategy to get out you know and and so good motivation<\/p>\n
00:29:27,280 I want to get back to to the US I want to see my kids my grandkids I’m
\nI’m terribly overdone in the corporate world I need a serious you know
\nfive-year break or something I’m motivated so I’m a risk taker you know
\nI’m super well motivated I’m I’m gonna take some risks and so I think you know starting
\n00:29:49,840 the book was was these intentional things and they were supposed to
\nultimately help me but what happened along the way was I started see
\nit realizing that potential of the idea I had and that it would be more about the people I would meet and the journey and not about me<\/p>\n
00:30:09,040 my part would happen as a natural outcome like whatever happens for
\nme from the opportunities will happen not because of something I did
\nfor myself but it’s going to be because I’m focused on the guests the
\nshow the outcome the benefit of the the communicating people’s stories giving people<\/p>\n
00:30:31,280 a platform to tell their story that no one listens to the reality is I just did a show the other day and it just you know some there’s some comments
\nguests make sometimes which just really hit me hard and you know I’m
\nlike damn that’s why I’m so I’m doing this so I had a late young lady<\/p>\n
00:30:53,520 you know I knew when she described her address I knew what I was in
\nfor it’s because she called it lot lot number or plu lot number and a lot
\nnumber is going to mean it’s a trailer park and the town I was in there
\naren’t any real nice trailer parks now I was in a small part in the south<\/p>\n
00:31:15,120 this was going to be you know not a beautiful place but it was going to
\nbe a he was going to be a good human there right but of but it’s going
\nto be a rough neighborhood and sure enough you know not the greatest
\nplace to live but it was her home and her story was pretty powerful and you know<\/p>\n
00:31:34,000 won’t get into the story because it was more about at the end of it when
\nshe finished and we we kind of took off her headphones and sat there
\nand she said no one’s ever listened to me like that before in my life
\nyeah yeah it’s how it broke my heart yes yeah I mean like it partly broke my heart maybe<\/p>\n
00:31:55,600 feel warm and sad all at the same time like I was that guy and I rocked
\nup here in my van and I pulled my jar out we set up and I listened to her
\nas she told her story through the jar and that’s crazy it was fucked up
\ncrazy story too I mean you know man she’s been in prison a few times been on the streets
\n00:32:18,080 since she was 12 I mean running from bad stuff in New York yeah I
\nmean she it was a hard story and for when she finished it and said that
\nI was like whoo you know that’s heavy you gotta carry that around for a
\nlittle while no one that there’s and she’s not the only person like that right I mean<\/p>\n
00:32:38,640 there’s you know so many of us never get to tell our story and to have
\npeople listen to it and be able to share you know what’s what’s gone
\nand I think in the jar it’s what’s gone right what’s gone wrong you know
\nwhat’s been good what’s been bad so it’s an emotional journey through your life<\/p>\n
00:32:57,040 but it’s also with those human filter you know the topics are very human so there are also these very deep human essence of who you are kind
\nof conversation so it is I started for myself long answer long long the answer to the short question I started this really to get back and<\/p>\n
00:33:18,480 for myself and what it’s come to be is it’s not at all about me yeah it’s
\namazing it’s it’s it’s funny I can see some not as extreme parallels
\nbecause I think what I’m doing is very focused on a certain sort of area
\nand stuff but originally when I started it was about talking to project<\/p>\n
00:33:40,640 managers and finding about how they go into project management
\nfinding doing that little back story of them and interviews and there was
\nquite a few things about what people want to do in a kid’s and that sort
\nof thing so and I need to get back to some more of those I just yeah I’ve tended to<\/p>\n
00:33:55,440 kind of gone through into the kind of more tangential stuff as well as so
\nI need I’ve got a few I’ve got a few people who I’ve got lined up I know I want to talk to is just getting diariesing yeah but there was one I remember talking to a gentleman who was based that from Turkey<\/p>\n
00:34:14,880 it’s sorry was it Turkey was it not it was Cyprus originally and and I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and and his answer
\nwas safe because he lived wow all right he was growing up around the
\ntime when there was the trouble in Cyprus with Greece and Turkey and things that and
\n00:34:36,560 I just I was it’s not often that I’m dumbstruck and I said I get wow that
\njust and again we talk we talked before the call about you and I in roles
\nin relatively safe organisations privileged sort of that kind of thing
\nrelative to a lot of people and we don’t recognise it but when you hear those<\/p>\n
00:34:57,360 conversations you have those things spoken to you you realise that
\nkind of has that humbent humility that you have that you can learn from
\nthere and it’s it I don’t know it just gives you a better lens and I’ve
\nlearned a lot from the different conversations about how people have whether they have had<\/p>\n
00:35:18,000 discrimination whether they’ve had opportunities not from them or when and recently I came hammer on yeah Kim Aimeron sorry who was
\ntalking about bereavement and serious illness in the office and how her experience with her husband and then passing away was from a corporate point of view<\/p>\n
00:35:44,240 was a positive one she had someone who was battling for him on his
\nbehalf despite them not being particularly supportive of each other and then when she moved or after that she moved on to another
\norganisation she saw her manager in a place going through the similar thing with their partner<\/p>\n
00:35:58,720 and they had didn’t have any anywhere near the same level of support
\nfrom the organisation and you kind of it shocked you to do different
\nthings and it’s quite a lot of learnt so much on that podcast about how
\nbad I was at dealing with people in those environments and tried to help them<\/p>\n
00:36:15,600 and when I came through some of the things how I could have handled
\nit better and I think this this kind of head into a little rather hold of
\npodcasting is kind of it I think for me it’s surprised me what it’s given
\nand as I said to you I was thinking yes stopping it quite a while back and we’ve got<\/p>\n
00:36:33,200 we both get master classes on humility, on information, on people’s
\nexperience, on what they’ve done and don’t mean we get get that those
\nlessons that actually I think if I went to a on a training course with work
\nwhich would be a hat say a no disrespect to a training because a one hour course
\n00:36:55,520 on dealing with staff with bereavement I wouldn’t have learnt as much as I did listening and talking to King and being able to ask those
\nquestions and it’s just and and I hopefully people get the value from it
\nlistening as well. I hope you enjoyed the first part of that conversation with Ken<\/p>\n
00:37:21,360 come back next week and find out what what the rest of his adventures
\nare. Stop recording night. So this is my final wrap up every week you’re
\ngoing to hear this you’re going to get bored of it but you can always
\nclick next podcast if so if you have enjoyed it if you’ve listened to this podcast<\/p>\n
00:37:50,560 the end of this show and you think that was great I’d love to be able to
\nhelp NideJ out and there are loads of ways you can do it the first and
\nobvious way is to share the podcast send it out to people if you if you
\nknow for colleagues or friends who’ve benefit from it think they’d enjoy it just send<\/p>\n
00:38:11,680 them the link grab one of the links send or send them to www.NideJolcrete.com\/podcasts that’s nigh
\nwww.NideJolcrete.com\/podcasts and that’ll push them over to a link
\ntree link and it’s got all of the different ways they can consume the podcast. If you are feeling generous and have a big bag of cash<\/p>\n
00:38:37,200 you could grab a copy of one of my books obviously they’re available in all the usual places print and digital again jump on the website www.NideJolcrete.com\/shop and that will give you a list of all the
\ndifferent ways that you can contribute and grab copies of the book also got links to all my guests<\/p>\n
00:39:02,640 books on there as well where I get a little bit of a kickback from them. If you are of a sporting mind I have a number through doing some of my
\njudo and running antics I’ve managed to secure a few affiliate links and affiliates there as well so in there somewhere in the sponsors page there’s links<\/p>\n
00:39:26,560 to those as well so clicking on to those and grabbing your if you’re with
\nit if you’re looking to get super fit then that would be fabulous as well
\nand I get a little kickback from those. I have a Patreon account it’s patreon.com\/sundaylunchpm so again you can ping something in there by
\n00:39:48,960 me a coffee or whatever and finally obviously the most important is coming back, coming back, listen again because the more of you that come back the more visibility I get because there’s more times that
\nyou’re downloaded and all the SEO works and things like that so yeah that’s it so<\/p>\n
00:40:09,600 if you can help me out I would be much appreciated if you can’t don’t
\nworry about it thank you very much tisner bye. Well it’s goodbye from me Nigel Kreese and it’s goodbye from him the Sunday lunch pm goodbye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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