00:00Today's presentations are all about systems and getting to the foundational core of how things work.
00:06For my time with you today, I hope to share with you a system for discovering your life's purpose.
00:12Now, I know what you're thinking. This is a big question, right?
00:16I liken questions like this similar to, what's the meaning of life?
00:20And I know you don't think that there's an answer, but I promise you that there is.
00:25So, I'm going to let you ponder that for a few minutes.
00:27And first, I'm going to share a little back story.
00:34So, I'm originally from Kansas City, born and bred, right here in Everland Park.
00:39I was away for about 10 years.
00:41First, I went off to Massachusetts to go to college.
00:44And then I moved to New York City to become an investment banker.
00:47And don't you worry, I'm in a 12-step recovery program and doing very, very well.
00:51Thank you. Thank you.
00:53Next, I moved to Chicago for business school.
00:55And then, as of about 19 years ago, I returned right here to Kansas City.
01:00I was actually recruited by a little farm down the street that some of you will have heard of, Sprint.
01:06And there I stayed for 10 years and really, really enjoyed myself.
01:10I had a phenomenal experience, a phenomenal job.
01:13But the truth of the matter is that ever since I was a little girl,
01:16what I said I wanted to do was own my own business.
01:19So, in 2008, I decided to hang up my Sprint hat in pursuit of my entrepreneurial dreams.
01:26Now, it's a longer story for a different day.
01:29But the important thing for you to know about it for our purposes this afternoon
01:32is that to determine what I would do next professionally,
01:37I decided to begin networking an artist.
01:39I wanted to connect with as many people in our broad professional community as possible.
01:44And what I discovered, much to my surprise and delight,
01:47is that not only was I pretty good at networking, but I really loved it.
01:51I really loved networking.
01:53And, I don't know, I decided to keep doing it.
01:55So, what happened next was that I continued to build my network
02:00and I continued to build my networking skills.
02:04And, really, I came up with a new definition of networking.
02:06I decided that networking was all about building relationships
02:10without a predetermined outcome in my mind.
02:12I thought that if we could connect with one another
02:15and establish community and deepen our own sense of belonging,
02:19not only would we be happier in business, but we'd be happier in life.
02:23And I discovered that to be the case.
02:24And, in fact, over the years, I've become somewhat of a local authority
02:28on the topic of networking.
02:30In fact, in 2011, I started blogging on the topic of networking.
02:33And then, in 2012, I actually published a book called Coffee, Lunch, Coffee,
02:38a Practical Field Guide for Master Networking on the subject.
02:42And so, that's what I kept doing.
02:45And the next thing that happened was I started connecting
02:48with all these amazing Kansas City companies.
02:50A couple of examples.
02:51One was in Callen Gordon Construction, which is you may know.
02:55Another was the Ewing Marion Coffman Foundation.
02:58What's interesting about those two companies is that the opportunities
03:01that I discovered, I found through networking.
03:04So, that was pretty exciting for me.
03:06And, in fact, it was while I was at Coffman that one of my clients
03:09invited me to visit them for what they called
03:11an Entrepreneurial Weekend Leadership Retreat in Vail, Colorado.
03:15Here's a picture of where they wanted me to go.
03:19Now, I ask you this.
03:20Who would not want to go to Vail, Colorado?
03:23Anybody out there?
03:25Okay.
03:26I hope you're sitting down.
03:28I didn't want to go to Vail, Colorado.
03:30I know it's shocking.
03:32I really didn't want to go.
03:33You see, I was resentful that they wanted me to give up
03:36a precious weekend with my family
03:37to attend what I thought would be some sort of silly,
03:41I don't know, kumbaya retreat.
03:43I thought we'd be hugging it out all weekend long.
03:46And I simply wasn't interested.
03:48And though I'm not a very passive-aggressive person,
03:50I did everything in my power to get out of going to this weekend
03:54in Vail, Colorado.
03:55And that is what it looks like.
03:56That's what I took with my phone.
03:59But, you know, the first thing that I did was I canceled my participation.
04:02So, what did they do?
04:03They scrapped the whole weekend and rescheduled it around my calendar.
04:08The next thing that happened was they sent all kinds of free work.
04:11Well, I just said I wouldn't do it.
04:14And they thought, that's okay.
04:15We want you to come anyway.
04:17And so the appointed weekend arrived and when I showed up,
04:20I found myself flying into the Denver airport
04:22and driving to Vail Valley to this ranch there.
04:26And the truth is that within about 90 minutes,
04:29they had reeled me in, hook, line, and sinker.
04:31You see, we started doing all kinds of different values,
04:34exploration exercises, principles exercises,
04:36determining what was important to us,
04:38identifying our core values.
04:41And none of us left that weekend without shedding a few tears,
04:44laughing quite a few laughs,
04:46and really emerging change as people.
04:48We changed spiritually.
04:50We changed emotionally.
04:52It was a remarkable experience.
04:53And then Sunday arrived.
04:56And I don't know what it was,
04:57but the facilitator gathered us.
05:00Her name is Kara.
05:01She gathered us all together and she said,
05:02okay, team, congratulations.
05:04You've arrived at the final exercise of the weekend.
05:07I'm going to give you 30 minutes.
05:08And in five words or fewer,
05:10I'd like you to state your life's purpose.
05:12Well, had she told us on Friday that on Sunday
05:16we'd be stating our life's purpose,
05:18I honestly think I would have left.
05:20I thought that was such a ridiculous concept.
05:23But again, I don't know what it was about that weekend,
05:26whether it was being there in the Vail Valley,
05:28being with those seven other people
05:30who were so engaged in this process.
05:33It had, I'd gone through this prior 48-hour experience
05:36where we found out what our values were,
05:39what our principles were, what was important.
05:42And when she finished reading the instructions,
05:45it took me about 30 seconds and I was done.
05:47I was done.
05:49And so she finishes her instructions and she said,
05:51okay, hotshot, I can see you finished
05:53before we've even started.
05:55What did you write?
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