PP 210: Put the Heart Back in Business with Paula Brown

Chi-Lightful Website: https://www.chilightful.com/
Picture Storming Website: https://www.picturestorming.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulajbrown
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChiLightful
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/paula-brown/3/670/573
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc5UFedNYd0aXuJs6fItybuOio3YMmJ8v
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/paulabowbrown/

KIM: Welcome back to another episode of positive productivity. This is your host Kim Sutton and I’m so happy that you are here to join us today. I’m also thrilled to introduce our guest Paula Brown. Paula is a Heartist. And is the owner of Chi-Lightful. And Paula, you can describe what you do so much better than I can. So I’m going to pass it over to you. Again. Welcome.

PAULA BROWN: Hi Kim and thank you so much for having me on your podcasts. Productivity is key in my point of view and positive is even better. So I am a Heartist. And that means that I draw out figuratively and literally the heart essence of people’s purpose and their big ideas.

I’m a graphic facilitator. Quick sketch artist, as well as a purpose coach. And I help folks especially leaders get on stock and be able to show their wonderful big ideas. So they can actually succeed them and share them and move forward. So put the heartbeat back into their business by showing and telling. We’re telling today on audio. Can you imagine what I could show in visual storyboard after this interview.

KIM: Well, I can and listeners. I want to invite you to go over to the coaching page on my website because one of Paula’s pieces – amazing pieces is right at the top of the page. And it’s just a – .just a pictorial representation of Chronic Idea disorder. And it’s amazing. I love it. Thank you again Paula. It’s just phenomenal.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah. It’s a – product of finding the essence of what all of myself as a creative solo entrepreneur goes through constantly. Is that bright and shiny new object that we chase all the time. Instead of going and diving deeper for our purpose in our ‘WHAT’. And building our foundation from that and really sticking with it.

So I love the title that you gave to it: ‘The Chronic Idea Disorder’. I just absolutely fell in love with that. And so it’s all the holes we jump into thinking, thinking, thinking. That by doing these things, that everybody else is doing and we’re hearing about: “Where going to succeed and move our business forward.” So I think you’re doing a great job of getting people to run on the surface. And use their foundation of purpose to reach goals with. So thank you.

KIM: Oh. Thank you. And actually I had to confess that Chronic Idea Disorder was the result of Chronic Idea Disorder. I don’t know. But I forgot to even mention, listeners if you haven’t been there before you can go to TheKimSutton.com/coaching to see the image. And also, before I forget to mention but I’m sure I’ll mention it later in this episode. For all the show notes and links in ways that you can get in touch with Paula. You can visit TheKimSutton.com/PP210 for episode 210. And – there you will find the show notes and links in everything. Paula how did you get onto this journey? How did you become a heartist?

PAULA BROWN: I’ve always been an artist, a painter and drawing things. Even when I was little, I was always doodling. Doodling in the sand, doodling everywhere. Doodling, you know, my class notes in physics and pictures and sharing them with people who couldn’t understand things. And I was a brand expert for large ad agencies on the visual side. And creative director for new business. So I found essence and do it out for all a huge huge international brands. I became a solo entrepreneur. Actually, when I was requested to work for private clients, at the start of it really – looking into the heart of things and finding the essence to share.

I started actually with my heart stopping. I actually passed away. I’m one of the 1% of the 1.7% that survive an aneurysm to your stomach, the main artery. And I zipped into the other world and was stopped by my father and said: “You have to go back. You have to find purpose, help people find a purpose.” And so I came back and then I spent ten years looking at what happened to me when my heart stopped. And it led me to a lot of exploration of why and how that happened. And I have this natural capability of finding essence. And the heartbeat of other people. And actually, uniting that and getting their ‘aha’ moments. And getting them unfrustrated because when you’re stuck and you’re frustrated and you’re not communicating your ideas to other people, so you can succeed them. You’re really frustrated and I’ll tell you now: “You don’t have to have your heart stop to find your heart essence.” So you need to find your ‘WHAT’. And that’s my purpose and my passion is to find other people’s ‘WHAT’s’. So I’m back.

KIM: Oh I love that. And I totally agree. It’s so important to find our ‘What’ or find our ‘Why’, depending on who you’re listening to or reading, right? That was a huge part in my business.

Because I was chasing income for the longest time. I was doing things, because everybody else was doing them. Just like as you already mentioned when we’re talking about the Chronic Idea Disorder image. And I found myself – I’ve said it before, I don’t know if I’ve said it on here but I found myself broke and broken. And that is such a hard place to be. Just – I felt like I was a cat chasing my own tail. What the heck am I doing?

PAULA BROWN: Yeah. Yeah. And it took me ten years to formulate what the heck I was doing. And so you know when you really find your passion, there’s many many different vehicles free to you to expressed that. The important thing is you’re saying is: “To find that deep down unique purpose of your ‘What’. Discover it. And then find out how to present it to the world. And then use that foundation to show it.” And the key point is showing it and showing up like Positive Productivity implies. It is a total teamwork to find yourself. And then when you self empower that ‘What’, you self empower many many people around you. So I know what it is like to be broken broken as well. And it’s letting go of all those things, those mind tricks, those ego things that you need to make friends with. And merge it with your heart thing which is your ‘WHAT’. And that’s when you become rich in so many ways. So you’re absolutely correct.

KIM: Paula what was going on in your life when you had your Aneurysm?

PAULA BROWN: I was actually a freelance. I decided to go freelance – creative director. And good old Los Angeles for major major ad firms, And I was  always in the lead of new business. And I was in the middle of a divorce. And I was set to go see my ex-mother-in-law, who was passing away from lung cancer. And flying up to Portland, we hadn’t told her that we were separated. And so I visited her and I was in the middle of a lot of change. Just moved to L.A. and being separated. So a lot of my old world was falling away, wasn’t working full time contract working.

And my message to my mother-in-law the time was, I’m not feeling well I think this one’s just for me. And after my hospitalization period and my recuperation. I just knew deep down in my heart that I wasn’t supposed to be contracting out to the large agencies anymore. But what to do. So it was a huge journey. And I continued on with being a creative director at the same time I picked up my fine art. And at the same time I picked up a lot of invisible tools like Feng Shui. Finding out that I am indeed a telepath and an empath. So I use all those tools to connect my heart, to my mind, to make it all sense for me. And then roll it out for other people in terms of coaching and quick sketch art art. And at the time I was doing a lot of TV storyboarding for conceptual boards for major companies in Japan. And doing a lot of offshore work for them which was all visual communications and showing story without words. So I seemed to fit in perfectly with that. So it just – it was a natural lead in to becoming a graphic facilitator and a quick sketch artist. Telling other people’s stories and a brand and you know, whatever they want to speak. So that’s how it became my life was up here. That’s when I started.

KIM: Oh wow. How did that name Heartist. Listeners that H-E-A-R-T-I-S-T heart ist. How did that name come about. I’m always intrigued by these kinds of stories.

PAULA BROWN: Oh that kept repeating itself when people were coming to me. And they find they found out I was a fine artist and found the heart or the essence of things. And even in my fine art there’s a light source that is the essence and it’s the center of draw for the painting and then it just sort of a magnetic thing. And in my branding situation. I was a brand activist. And I was always told that I go right to the heart of things. ‘Right to the heart’

And so I just became the Heartist. When all this – when all this evolved because I go to the heart of things, in even expressing communications for classes and workshops. I find the ‘Key’ factor. The heart factor. The heart essence of everything that is drawn out.

So you can get to the point really quick so I sort of like – Diana Archer where we hit the bull’s eye right at the heart all the time, right in the heart of the bull’s eye. That’s what I naturally do. So that’s how Heartist came along.

KIM: That’s amazing I love it. We – I started to ask you a question right before we started recording but then I decided, and we talked about it briefly. That it would be great to ask it here. Have you ever dealt with burnout and how do you prevent burnout in your life and business? Because so much of what you do. You are the one – who has to and can do it.. I mean I know you could build a team but this is, I mean you are the Heartist. So how do you prevent burnout?

PAULA BROWN: Yes. I’ve been through many periods of burnouts because when you’re really passionate about something and you know, you just tend to ‘Do it’ ‘Do it’ ‘Do it’. And I have two cats here to remind me to eat. And I just dive into this. This flurry of  drawing and also helping people and asking key questions. And I really rely on a great process’s schedule. I have a set schedule. And that, that satisfies my brain and my logic. It also satisfies my physicality and my spirit. Because you need to have a harmony between play and what we call work. And when you’re passionate about something, it’s almost a play and you don’t define it as work.

So I have to define my work by sticking to a schedule. And this is how I help my clients as well, as I usually find them in a series of burnout. And you can tell that is, as you know, they’re into that Chronic Idea Disorder where they’re just flipping and flopping around and they don’t have any grounding. And it’s really important to have some sort of process set down where you take a day off, you take time off, you take breaks, like I’ll concentrate on something for domestic break and then get back on and just count my 20 minutes, that I spend on each thing. I get up and away from my desk. Go for walks. Call somebody on the phone. I make a break and what I am doing and I almost set a clock by my computer sometimes.

So that’s really important. Yes I just recently went through a little bit of burnout because I was attending the New Media Summit. And traveling a lot. And maintaining my schedule and my work. And finally I just had to come home and to say: “Okay I’m shutting down for two days”, and you have to get some sleep.

PAULA BROWN: So it’s all a matter of setting people’s expectations of return on when you’re going to return calls. It’s all scheduling in my mind. It really is. And I’ve seen it, be magical for my clients as well. You have to know, there’s power in saying yes that there’s a huge power in saying no and setting some boundaries. So I’ve become a very good naysayer so to speak.

KIM: Oh yeah there’s a lot of power in saying no. My husband actually taught me. And I think this is just one of his little ‘Aha’ moments. He taught me be the Bonzai. He’s like, he said: “Cut the weak – cut the weaker branches off your business, so that you can let the strong ones grow.” And that was, let me think – that was in, early 2015 I believe or late 2015 and I was dealing with a very difficult client. And he was right. Sometimes you just need to let, those go and say: “No”. And every time I do, you and I talked about this a little bit before the show. There maybe a little bit of financial uncomfortableness, but everything else seems to soar and then the financial catches up.

PAULA BROWN: Yes. Yes. Because I think what you’re pointing to is, that you’re working with people who are aligned with, what your positive energy is. And that’s a very very good point. And to add to that, if you’re working with somebody or have an associate with somebody from friendship or business or whatever. And you feel really tired, you feel really tired. Every time you engage with them. I call it the: “Don’t go into the sleep zone”, because if you feel really tired, they’re actually draining your energy. And I – call them vampires. And so, you have to get rid of the business and – friend associate vampires that just take everything from you. And usually when you’re a coach or you’re an empath or have sensitive issues, you know, they sniff you out. And so you’ve got to recognize them very very fast. And you know, there’s always other people that they can be resourced by and help by. But they’re just not aligned with you. And so I love the Bonzai analogy and don’t – if you find yourself really sleepy after you talk with somebody or coaching somebody. You’ve got to really look at that and analyze to see if you’re real good match.

KIM: While you were just talking I realize: “Yeah. You’re totally right.” They –  a life sucker.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: And in the latest – thankfully I don’t have any of those now, but I just let one go about three weeks ago. And what I’ve just realized, sort of all while just clicked in my brain while you were talking. I realized that by letting this client stay in my life, in my business, I was not embodying my own brand.

PAULA BROWN: Right.

KIM: So it wasn’t going as well as I wanted it to. And that’s, what I see as a problem sometimes with a lot of my clients. They’re not embodying their own brand, so their brands aren’t growing as much as they should.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah. And my belief is that: “The heart of who you are is the masterpiece of your story.” And your brand is your story. And you need to become that storyteller telling your brand everyday. And that’s why it’s so important to really have your ‘WHAT’ or your purpose as a touchstone. So you can go back and when you feel like you’re off path. When you feel when you’re off a path, you’re full of fear, possibly anxiety, restlessness. When you get those feelings and you know, if you know you’re ‘WHAT’ or your purpose. You can go back and have that as a touchstone and really reignite your story. And that is the heart, that’s the heartbeat of who you are. And your brand, as you are saying – you and pretty soon when you cancel out those things that aren’t going along with your story and it doesn’t mix, you’re filling up your story with all of its mid stories stuff that other people can see and they get confused. And you know it you just have to be with your fellow storytellers that are totally aligned with your ‘WHAT’. So it’s very very important to have that foundation. So when you go off path a little bit, which we all do, you can come back and say: “Oh man! I’ve got this list here. This is the requirement of my story, of my brand, of my heartbeat.” So I think you’re absolutely correct.

KIM: I have to admit that, I don’t always go by all the suggestions that I share on the Positive Productivity Podcast just because: “Hey I’m imper I’m perfectly imperfect.” The 25 minutes of work followed by the 5 minutes of break doesn’t always work for me. Just because I’ll be in the middle of something and I don’t want to leave it. But what I’ll find sometimes is that 25 minutes of work has turned into 3 hours.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: And I’m sorry to you Paula and to all the listeners. I know this is TMI but all of a sudden it hits me. And by ‘It’ I mean my bladder. My bladder is my reminder of: “You need to take a break.” It’s like saying: “Bang! You better run”

PAULA BROWN: Yeah and I do think it’s because you’re so passionate about what you do and I get into the same thing. And Lord I love to follow my schedule. And I know I have it. And I bounce around a little bit because we are – we’re all whole and that means we’re all imperfect and it’s okay. It really is okay. And I think my two cats are my rant reminder. As well as an oncoming – headache from not eating at the right time is my reminder when I get into that flow of being too deep into my flow. Ao we all have our triggers. And I don’t think we have to be so harsh on ourselves for not following our own advice. I usually say: “Hey, you know, when I make mistakes. Hey, that just makes me really sexy you know.” So I just give myself a pat on the back for be aware that I’ve sort of gone off track a little bit.

KIM: When I find myself getting grouchy in my work. That’s when I realized that I need to go eat. And some days, well – there’s a few days a week, during the week that my husband is home with me. And he’ll – he doesn’t share an office with me anymore but he’ll come out and I’ll be very quiet. I am an introvert but I can chat. Like I can talk a lot. And, if I’m quiet. All he says to me is: “What do you want to eat.” Or I’m like I’m like a Snickers commercial. You know, I transform into somebody else when I’m hungry.

PAULA BROWN: Me too. You and I are much alike there. When I was in the editing bay for TV commercials. The editor would come in and I have a little bit of a filing disorder in my brain where I – when I get really hungry and I need some sugar or something. I will start talking in opposites like near is far. And so they sit and then they go to the freezer and they usually took out a frozen Snickers bar and threw it at me and said: “Eat”.

KIM: Oh! That is so funny.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah. You have to have good people around you to remind you sometimes.

KIM: Well, I just feel bad for my husband because not only do I get the hang grease or the hungry grumpies but my daughters and my my youngest son get it to. And actually, now that I think about it. My 15 year old got home from school yesterday and he was mad that somebody had eaten the pizza that was left over from the night before. It was me. It was in the refrigerator. I was hungry, I ate it. But he had not planned his morning well and he had not eaten breakfast, he forgot his lunch in the fridge, and he got home with the hungry grumpy’s too.

PAULA BROWN: Oh yeah.

KIM:  And I just said: “Hold up. Go get something to eat. And then, after the hungry grumpy’s exit your body. May you re-enter the office.”

PAULA BROWN: Yes I do love those, I love those Snickers commercials because I too get that. The issue I have here – the only recipients of my hungry grumpy’s are my two cats. So, they just look at me and run and I said: “Oh! oh! I need something to eat.”

KIM: Paula Chronic Idea Disorder just struck. I think an image on the hungry girl grumpy’s or the hungries would be a great representation – or a great or a great image on the coaching page. “Are you so caught up in Chronic Idea Disorder that you forget to eat? You look like this.”

PAULA BROWN: Yeah. Yeah.

KIM: I’ll be. I’ll be requesting that one next.

PAULA BROWN: Yes. I’d love to do that because I’d be drawing right from direct source.

KIM: Share what’s exciting in your world right now? But actually no. Pause that thought. What are you using for your calendar? Are you using a physical planner? Do you have reminders on your phone? How are you remembering to do these things with the exception of your cat.

PAULA BROWN: I have a giant – printed out desk calendar on my wall. I find that with my energies. I’m a Shaman and Elikai. And I have very different energies coming out of my body than most people. And I tried all sorts of calendars online, iPad’s. I’ve got every electronic device known to man because I love fooling with technology and I have broken every single one of them. Ao I can’t really rely on the electronic ones.

And so I jot down things in a Day Runner. I jot down things physically because when I find out that when I put the pen in my hand and instapaper. And it’s very old fashioned. And I know, it goes into my system and I can remember it. And I can pull it up just know very quickly just in my thoughts, as well as, I can walk into my office and see this big old calendar with all it’s rednotes on it. And I’m a visual person so that that tends to work for me. And it’s a bit old fashioned. I’ve tried everything else. I even, I was a beta tester for the wizard when it first came out. And I froze that machine up and everybody was laughing. So I have this funky energy with machines. All my co – watches stop within two months of the batteries so I don’t trust the machines to the.calendars. Old fashioned.

KIM: Well. I can’t say that I break technology. However my cell phone is currently missing. Because my little squirt watching YouTube Kids on it. And they killed the battery and they can’t tell me where they were watching it.

PAULA BROWN: Oh Geez.

KIM: They purposely hide things. So it’s not like I can call it and find out where it is because it’s dead.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: We have found that they’ve hidden things in their play kitchen or in the little like trunk of their tricycle. Or there was, there was one – there was like three month period where I could not find my car keys like I had to get a replacement made because I had actually left the car keys in the little storage section of the stroller. And it was the middle like, I put it in there in like November and then we didn’t go on a walk for three more months.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: But I just did not remember that. That’s where my keys were. But going back to technology, I actually keep my whole To-Do list like the entire thing everything in my brain in Trello. But I take that yet but I don’t want to see everything is that I’m just going to get way overwhelmed. So I will take the top three out. And put it into my planner. I’m a pen and paper girl myself. Like I journal on a notebook or in a notebook. When I’m watching trainings, I use that same notebook to take any notes. And then not shameless plug but something of 2017. I’ve realized that I cannot be ashamed of promoting my own stuff. I – have the Positive Productive, right? It’s – so hard for me to promote my own stuff but I realize I need to get over that.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM:  I developed a Positive Productivity Planner which has space for me, to write down the top three personal items and the top three professional items. And listeners, if you haven’t gotten your copy yet or requested your copy yet, I guess I should be using proper English. You can go to TheKimSutton.com/7dp to get your copy of – get your free copy of the seven-day version of the planner.

PAULA BROWN: I’m gonna go get one Kim.

KIM: There’s also a 30 day version and just because you are special I’ll submit to you after the show.

PAULA BROWN: Okay, that sounds good because what I liked about what you mentioned is that you had a definite slot for personal and a definite slot for work. And that is what I love to drive home with anybody I talk to. There needs to be a harmony between the two. So I really applaud that.

KIM: Oh thank you. Yeah that’s actually one of the biggest obstacles I faced while building this business. Also while building my first business ten years ago. Is that I was neglecting myself personally. – Just – I recently published an article on Thrive Global about how I spent six days in the mental hospital in 2008. And it was because I had been neglecting my sleep and and also my thyroid. I’ve been – I’ve had hypothyroidism since birth. But nobody had ever actually told me why I needed to take my medicine. And I know that’s a sorry excuse for not taking it. However, I probably went a few months without taking it. And I got severely anxious, I actually started hallucinating.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM:  And I got to the point where I was suicidal. And wound up in the mental hospital. But that little, you know, we can easily shoo shoo the things that, in our personal life that aren’t beneficial financially. Getting our haircut or going to get a massage or even going grocery shopping I’m guilty of that sometimes. But things like getting blood works so you can get a refill on a prescription. That needs to be at the top of our calendar of our personal to do list. So that, we don’t spend another week in hospital.

PAULA BROWN: Yes. And what you’re saying is so important and I find that a lot of people I’m doing work for. I’m really missing that aspect and I just keep saying, keep letting them know: “I want to see. I want to know. I want you to journal, during your lunch, about something other than work. I want you to report back to me that you’re taking care of yourself” Because if you don’t have your health. Let me look at it like Feng Shui wise. There’s you know, nine life paths that you can energetically fulfill. And then in the center of it is health and well-being and balance. And at the center, none of the other life aspects happen career, partnership, you know fame. So you’re absolutely correct. And I just – I think that we need to take more advantage of that to – play more and work less and we’ll probably get a lot more aligned clients to us when we do that. Because when we play, we’re actually getting people and ourselves the opportunity to really know us and to really see us. And to avoid that avoid hospitalization like, all of us go through every once in a while.

KIM: Yeah I completely agree. And if – listeners, if you’re not familiar with anything about the thyroid. It basically takes care of your metabolism for your body like digesting food and keeping your energy up. I really didn’t know that much about it. I was almost 30. I’d been dealing with hypothyroidism for 30 years and I had no idea what it actually meant for myself. But when I was hospitalized they drew blood. And when the results came back the doctor actually said: “Why I’m sort of surprised that you’re even still alive”

PAULA BROWN: Wow.

KIM: Because the year I don’t even I don’t know if it’s T.S.H. or T4? I don’t remember which number they gave me but they said that my number should have been between .1 and .2 and my number came back at 168.

PAULA BROWN: Geez!

KIM: And they said that is at the point of organ failure.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: So, I’m – God gave me – another chance for a reason. He didn’t, you know, have me drop dead then. I mean just like your –

PAULA BROWN: Yes.

KIM: – your aneurysm. I mean there’s a reason why you didn’t die –

PAULA BROWN: Yes.

KIM: – then. You have – you have a message to share and a purpose to do. And I was really embarrassed about my stay at the mental hospital. For years.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM:  But I realize that by sharing that message, that’s that’s a purpose. That’s my purpose. I need to share the experiences.

PAULA BROWN: Yes and I too share the, you know, the embarrassment of dying and coming back. And most people would say: “Why did it take better care of yourself?” I said: “Well, I didn’t even know that was going on in my body.” It was it was just something burst and but it burst because I was under such stress. So, the stress I think brought it on and not knowing is one way of dealing with it. But when you know the things, then you can really learn from them and you definitely are back for – just share your purpose and your experiences because literally you shouldn’t be walking the earth with those type of numbers. And that just gives me chills all over my body that you’re here and you’re sharing this wonderful wonderful – action planned to live a positive lifestyle. And that’s taking care of yourself and acknowledging yourself for that effort. And, you know, it’s sharing your purpose without without apology. So your experiences are your experiences without apology. And that’s so empowering to other people. So I really appreciate you sharing that. Because I’ve always felt like such a small – money mission number to share my experience. And it took me ten years to even talk about it.

KIM: But I think though that we often get surrounded by that in social media.  So many people are sharing what they’ve done and the achievements that they’ve had. And whether or not those achievements are even factual, I mean, because they could be making that up: “Oh I just had a six figure launch. Let me teach you how to achieve one for yourself. Pay me – X figure. And I’ll show you how to make it work.”

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: You know, that’s a lot – there’s a lot of that going around.

PAULA BROWN: Yes. Yeah.

KIM: But what if we just shared experiences to help each other. Paula, I think you’ll appreciate this next part too. It’s so important to take care of ourselves before something like that happens because if we’re hospitalized and this is sad and I’m not trying to cause a debate here but so often we’ll get – especially in America. It’s just the truth. We’ll get hospitalized and the look at the symptoms and they’ll prescribe us medications. And they’re not even looking at the root causes for why something happened. For example your stress. When I was hospitalized they put me on Wellbutrin, Prozac, and Ativan, which are three very powerful drugs. But in all actuality, I didn’t need to be on any of those three. I needed to take my thyroid meds medication, take care of my thyroid.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: By the way, if anybody is listening and has like holistic therapy treatments. I would be so interested in talking to you. And they also needed to sleep. Because I was only sleeping two to three hours a night, consistently. And if I just had been doing those things, then I wouldn’t have been hospitalized and I wouldn’t have had to take – well no – I didn’t have to take them. I actually got fired one by my psychiatrist when I stopped taking them. But I wouldn’t have been prescribed those drugs. The painful part of that whole process was not the mental hospital stay. It was actually those drugs. When I would, when I would look at a white sheet of paper – unlike my previous self, I would see white. And I don’t know if you know this about me Paula, but I was an interior architect for 10 years.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: I went to art school. Yeah. So looking at white paper and seeing white. That was difficult. Like I wanted to know where my ideas went and why I didn’t have anything that was trying to jump out of my pencil. But all of a sudden it was gone.

PAULA BROWN: Yep. Yeah.

KIM: And I couldn’t live like that.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah. It’s – we all get trapped in the doing part and that’s that’s the mind part. And I think that many people just go to the brink – the cliff because they’re being driven by their mind and all of their should’s and their would’s. And it just reminds me so clearly of what you have to let go of. And you have to let go of following all those ‘Do’ things and merging it with what you’re here for. And I think it’s like the hero’s journey that everybody seems to be latching on to now where, you know, you have a very successful career at something and then you just have these moments or crisis that happen and then you either realize what you need to be doing to be a whole self and a healthy self or you or you go down a very miserable path and make everybody else miserable around you. And you can still make a lot of money but you aren’t really all that happy. You’re not happy with your life.

So, that blank piece of paper is very important to accept, you know. And I look at a blank piece of paper and I go: “Oh! I have to fill it.” Nooo. You really don’t. What fills you up first then you fill up with paper. So, it’s reverse psychology to what your mind says. And, especially with a thyroid, you were probably hypo active. You’re either really slow or you’re really sped up with with the symptoms that you must have had. And go go go all the time and it just reinforces it. No sleep. And when you do sleep, in Hawaii, according to Hawaiian philosophy sleep is really [inaudible] day is the dream. So, in sleep, you accomplish a lot. And if you aren’t letting yourself accomplish a lot in her dreams, defined your dreams and to really listen to what your dreams are saying, then your daytime is hectic and frenetic and frustrating and downright disappointing.

PAULA BROWN: So, I think it all goes back to really paying attention to what your body is saying. Your body speaks to you. There’s tons of holistic books out there talking about energy. The energy that your body gives off that you need to listen to. And I don’t think people are taking time to listen to other people, to their own selves and their own needs. So, I think it has much to do with taking time to listen to your own realities. And then, it’s sort of like putting on the oxygen mask on you before you put it on your child. You gotta treat yourself really really well. So, I agree with coming to the brink and then making these wonderful decisions that that get you into the light again. So, I really commend you on your journey. It’s fantastic.

KIM: Oh thank you. You were talking about, you know, being the hero’s journey where you’re doing something that’s just not working. But I was jumping from one thing that just wasn’t working to seeing somebody else doing something that wasn’t working and jumping to that instead. Instead of taking that time.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: Find my ‘Why’ and my ‘What’.

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: And that’s a miserable pattern to be following. Listeners I want to challenge you today and I’m sure Paula would probably agree, to really do some soul searching and find your ‘Why’ or your ‘What’. And I didn’t intended it to go this way Paula. But I think this would be a great time to tell listeners about your quest map.

PAULA BROWN: Well thanks. It start your Quest. I call it a Quest because it’s a journey. It’s all a journey. I’m offering free PTF a 5 step by step Purpose Quest map for you to start digging in. And just to start your journey or to validate your journey. It’s a neat little tool so you can find it on the links to this podcast. And – it’s called your 5 Step Purpose Quest Map. And hopefully you can take that journey through downloading this and following it step by step. And making a call and discussing it and  see where you want to go. So that leads to a sketch quest that I do for people for, you know, just one place that you’re stuck in. We have an hour long conversation that gives – you a visual summary and a lot of ‘aha’ moments happen from that. And you in your able to see your own voice and your own obstacles and your own solutions. So, but to start you know take advantage of this Purpose Map. So thanks Kim.

KIM: Listeners you know there is no script for the Positive Productivity Podcast and that was not rehearsed at all but we did that pretty perfectly. Yeah Paula? Like [inaudible].

PAULA BROWN: Yeah.

KIM: These is not planned at all. I love it when conversations just go, just like that. That was awesome. Paula where can listeners find you online and connect with you even outside of the 5 Steps Purpose Quest app and one hour sketch best.

PAULA BROWN: Yes. You can find me get a hold of me through my website www.chilightful.com and Paula chilightfu.com. That’s C-H-I-L-I-G-H-T-F-U-L  and also just to see my quick sketch stuff I’ve got another Web site that you can go to picturestoming.com. So that’s a little bit easier to spell. But I’d love to connect up with you and find out where your solutions can be coming from. From your ‘What’ and where your heart is. And so to help you express that ‘What’, you find it. Is so important.

KIM: Oh I love that. Thank you so much listeners if you’re jibing are working out right now you’ll be able to find all of the links that you just mentioned that TheKimSutton.com/PP210. Paula, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us on the Positive Productivity Podcast. Do you have a last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget that you can offer to listeners?

PAULA BROWN: Yes. And thank you so much Kim. It’s such a joy to talk to in a very positive and aligned heart soul. And such as you and I really encourage you, it’s all about your story it’s your heart’s story. Find it. Talk it. Walk it. Lead by it and share it with others. And you find that you empower yourself. And your power everyone around you and you are very special. So find that special sweet spot in your heart.