Ep. 014: How to Find Your Career “Sweet Spot” — with John Benzick

In your career, do you feel like you’re using your talents and being rewarded for them?  Are you operating in the best environment, with the right people, that will maximize your career satisfaction, growth and income? Listen to John explain how you can find your career “sweet spot” to compete on your terms and on your strengths. Leave a Rating & Review in iTunes for the Product Launch Rebel Podcast Episode Transcript: Greetings Product Launch Rebels: This is John Benzick from Venture Superfly.com, the website that helps you double your entrepreneurial courage, even if you don’t know what you’re doing! Today in this episode I’m going to talk about how you can find the right fit for your entrepreneurial pursuits or career, to find your entrepreneurial or career focus area, or sweet spot. To make sure you’re playing in the right sand-box, so to speak. And compete better on your own terms, and on your strengths. And I’ll start with some questions – a bit of an assessment. Regarding your career, or job, do you feel fully appreciated by others, and rewarded for your talents? Do you even know your top talents? Do you feel like you’re unleashing your talents in a way that is elevating you to a higher level, and will continue to raise you up for the long term, and keep you secure over time? Are you working with the right people, using your best skills, and operating in the best environment that will maximize your career satisfaction, growth and income? If not, in this episode, I’ll introduce to you a very effective – but simple – exercise to help find your direction. To help put you on the right path. And that exercise can be best explained by a personal story. The idea of this exercise that I’ll introduce to you, came to me almost magically, about 11 years ago, at about 3:00 in the morning. I had a terrible time sleeping that night because I was doing some consulting work during that period, and I noticed that I struggled with inconsistency regarding the value I was bringing to clients. With some clients, I did feel like I was adding a lot of value, feeling confident about myself and being well-paid. In fact, in those situations, it felt as if I wasn’t even working hard, my success simply seemed natural and productive and rewarded. It just seemed like I was in a great spot and developing great relationships as well. On other projects, however, I felt less secure. There didn’t seem to be harmony with my role, my expertise, and the people that I was working with. It seemed that no matter what I did, there was something out of sync. I felt like I was constantly treading water, and always on the verge of losing the client – sort of barely holding on. And so that night at 3am, feeling fidgety and troubled, an idea struck me right between the eyes, magically, like a lightning bolt. It was an idea that I absolutely had to get down on paper, fast, before I lost it – do you know that feeling? It was one of those important “aha” moments that you have to act on. So I leapt from my bed and darted downstairs to my home office desk, and foraged for a blank piece of paper and pen. Eyes half-open, I drew a line down the middle of the paper, from top to bottom. At the top left-hand column, I wrote the heading, “Life-Depleting Experiences.” At the top right-hand column, I wrote the heading, “Life-Giving Experiences.” I then reflected on my life history related to each of these two headings. I recalled experiences in my career, in my friendships, in my family, in sports that I played – even in music, volunteer and other experiences. Not just job experiences. In the life-giving experiences column, in bullet-points, I described situations where I felt purposeful,...