PP 312: What Creates Success with Eamon Rooney

Eamon Rooney is an Executive & Business Coach and author. He graduated with an engineering degree but quickly realized this was not the right track for him. When he stumbled upon the coaching industry, Eamon immediately knew he found his path.   

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Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host, Kim Sutton, and I’m so happy that you’re here to join us today. I’m also thrilled to introduce our guest, Eamon Rooney. Eamon, I got that right, right?

Eamon Rooney: You certainly did, Kim. A pleasure to be here today.

Kim Sutton: Fabulous. Thank you. And thank you for being here. As a business and executive coach from business Pathfinder, I want you to go into more detail than that. But thank you, again, so much for being here.

Eamon Rooney: Not at all, Kim, my pleasure.

Kim Sutton: How did you get started?

Eamon Rooney: A long circuitous route, which started when I graduated from college as an engineer, and I shipped myself all the way over to Japan for my first job. A week into my job, I realized I didn’t want to be an engineer. And since then, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what it is that I want to do. And my journey along the path is I worked from an engineer all the way up to becoming a CEO. And part of being the CEO, I had to turn around a number of businesses. And that’s when I learned how business really works. It’s all about the people ,and the rest of the things are necessary, but people are the essential element in it. And I kind of fell into coaching when I was looking for something to do when I moved out to the West Coast, where my now wife was living at the time. She grew up on the West Coast of California, so I moved out to be with her. I was looking for something to do and somebody suggested I get into coaching. And I’d never heard of it before. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear that somebody, actually there was a whole industry around helping business owners or teaching business owners how to run their business more effectively when I just went through this whole turnaround process and realized what I was taught didn’t always work. So it was a delight to be able to help others not make the same mistakes I made, and help them see the mistakes before they see them, and help kind of negotiate around them. They still have to make their own mistakes because that’s what the experience is all about. But at least some of the major ones we can avoid.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, Eamon, I would not have a podcast if it weren’t for all the mistakes that I had made.

Eamon Rooney: Yes, yes. I’ve discovered our relationship with mistakes really determines a lot about how successful our businesses become.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. And this should almost be relationship coaching for corporates, right? Not just relationship coaching between significant others. But more of a relationship coaching. I know there’s corporate coaching and executive coaching, and that helps with being better managers and leaders, and getting along with your team. But I think there needs to be, sometimes an even bigger emphasis on that. How do you feel?

Eamon Rooney: I absolutely agree. I hadn’t really thought about it, specifically relationship coaching. But essentially, that’s really a lot of what I do in terms of, first of all, helping the leader, owner, corporate executive understand who they are first, and how they show up in the world, and how they’re perceived. Because that can alter how they present themselves. As we know, when you smile, people react differently than when you have a frown. Helping them understand how they show up, and then how people that they’re working with are showing up so they can kind of adapt. So that communication happens more effectively, is really at the heart of what I do.

Kim Sutton: Have you ever noticed that you can smile when people are least expecting it? Or have you ever had it happen to you? Maybe I should say. And people just look at you confused, why are you smiling? I love doing that, by the way. People will cut me off on the road when I’m driving, and I’ll smile and wave at them. And they’re just so confused. No, go ahead if it’s that important. I can’t say I’m always like that, full transparency. Okay, that is not always my reaction. But I love the reaction that I get in return when I do that.

Eamon Rooney: I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes, talking with clients and prospects, they describe an area of challenge for them. And I’ll start chuckling mainly because when they’re done, I know exactly where they’re at. I kind of have to catch myself and apologize for chuckling so they don’t feel that I’m disrespecting where they’re coming from. But I do find myself doing the same kind of thing. Just chuckling as, yeah. And they’re a little bit surprised by that reaction, because they’re expecting the usual sympathy.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, yeah. I often find myself saying, I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing because I understand completely.

Eamon Rooney: Thank you. Did you mind if I borrow that one?

Kim Sutton: Oh, please go ahead. Okay, I actually choked on my coffee this morning. Doing that with one of my team members was weird. Okay, full disclosure, because I don’t think either of these families are listening. We were sharing family stories, and she was sharing a story and I choked on my coffee. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing with you because I totally get it. Yes.

Eamon Rooney: Beautiful, beautiful. I think when we kind of help people understand where we’re at, what we’re thinking, it kind of lessens the, what I’ve discovered is a lot of people will take things personally. So when you explain where you’re coming from and it’s not directed at them, then they kind of lighten up and kind of relax a lot more, and they’re not expecting to be attacked, I guess. Their defenses are not so high, so it’s easier then to have a deeper conversation.

Kim Sutton: Right. I agree. Have you heard the expression, not expression. Regarding authors, I’ve heard people say that authors often write the books that they need the most. Have you heard that before?

Eamon Rooney: Could you repeat that, authors write the book?

Kim Sutton: Authors often write the book that they need. The reason why I brought this up was because I often think of myself as a coach, I coach on things on subjects and on strategies that I needed five years ago because it’s all a learning experience. My cat fame decided that she needs to be part of this conversation. Positive productivity, folks. You think you get all the cats out of your office, and then there’s one hiding. There you go. But yeah, do you see that often in your experience as a coach, as well, that you are coaching on subjects that you knew and you struggled with, or learned from in the past?

Eamon Rooney: Absolutely, absolutely. Certainly. I published a book last year, and as I went back through it, I realized a lot of what I was talking about was the journey I was taking at the time. A lot of the people that I talk with, when you start talking with them and you talk more about their business, and all of a sudden, a little mask drops, and they get really passionate about certain aspects of their business. And they’re the parts where they really, really light up. I got really curious as to why those parts don’t show up more often. And it seems to be that the parts that they’re struggling with are the ones that they focus on, and not the parts that they really enjoy that they focus on. And so similar with other professions, not the frequently the accountants whose books aren’t on, or the cover whose children have no shoes, I think it’s the same sentiment that’s been passed down that we all have our struggles on. And the one that we’re working on is the one that we tend to want to share with the world the most.

Kim Sutton: I completely agree. I want to apologize to you and listeners, while you were chatting, I hope you didn’t hear it, and this doesn’t have anything to do with coaching. But for future podcasters who are listening, get your cat’s out of the room. One of them was on one side of the door, and the other ones were on the other side of the door and they were yelling back and forth at each other. We learned from everything, and I know that I don’t have any, I apologize so much. That doesn’t have anything to do with what you were just saying. But how did you exactly become introduced to the coaching profession? I know you said somebody told you that you should become one. But did it feel like anything when you were introduced to the profession?

Eamon Rooney: It was essentially, what happened was I was looking around for some jobs. So I posted my resume out on job boards, monsters, etc. And somebody called me up and said: “Have you ever thought of being a coach?” And I had never heard of it? What is it? Expand a little bit more and I got more excited. It turned out they were trying to sell me a franchise. However, I got so enamored with the idea of coaching that I did. I bought into the franchise, and that got me started into the world of coaching. And it was a completely different world altogether.  I spent all of my life in the corporate world in different parts of the world, and then stepped into this coaching world where it is smaller businesses. And it’s just a completely different way of thinking that it took me a while to readjust where I was coming from, and how to relate to people who didn’t have the same language that I was taught. And that was a huge big adjustment. Yet, I could see that when we would talk, I could get the right language that they would understand, then things began to make sense for them. And that was a really, really beautiful moment. At least feeling that what I had to say and the experiences I had could help somebody else with what they’re struggling with. I won’t die, and I just explain how I faced a similar situation, or what I did is not the same for you. They kind of make a decision based on that.

Kim Sutton: I had a client who’s a coach, and I don’t know that I’ve shared this on the podcast before. But most of my clients, I would have to say, 95% of them are business coaches. I do automated marketing for them. I had a client who encouraged me to become a coach early on. And I actually said I can’t coach, I talked too much. What are your thoughts about sharing versus guiding in the whole coaching process?

Eamon Rooney: What a beautiful question, lovely. Certainly, I love to learn. And then there’s an enthusiasm to share what I’ve learned when I see that what I’ve learned could help with the particular situation we’re in. What they need to know. And certainly, at the beginning of my tenure as a coach, there was a lot more telling them, asking. And over time, I began to realize that when I’d ask, people would do more stuff. When I’d ask questions and I tell them what the answer was. So I’ve learned to spend a lot more time thinking about what it is directly saying and finding a good question that helps them move in a direction that’s going to be more beneficial, aware of the rot. And it also encourages them to take action, because it’s their idea, not my idea. However, I do love them once they’ve kind of figured things out explaining the principles behind how they got there so they can make the same decision again. So I’ve kind of found a hybrid where I can stop talking. But then when they kind of turn the light on, I can then share some of the principles that they allow them to have. So I get to share what I love to share. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.

Kim Sutton: I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, I can look at how I talk to my children sometimes. And I will ask them, what should you be doing? or How could this have been different? And they look at me just completely puzzled. And that makes me think about my earliest coaching relationships with my coaches, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. Help me out a little bit here.

Eamon Rooney: Yes, yes.

Kim Sutton: And that would puzzled me because I would feel frustrated, because I would feel like five minutes had just been flushed because, I don’t know. That’s why I’m here. So I love how you have mesh them. Thank you.

Eamon Rooney: It’s an ongoing effort. Because sometimes, a good topic for me, I have a hard time stopping.

Kim Sutton: I hear that.

Eamon Rooney: Yes. The other thing I tried to do to make it a lot more engaging is I like to draw some pictures that are models to help them understand what’s going on, but they can take and keep as a reference point. So it allows me to talk a lot more, but they get something that they can keep on reflecting upon.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I like that. Yeah. I’m going to go back to Relationship Coaching just for a quick moment. Often, and I’m thinking about marriage counseling here from personal experience folks, okay. Oftentimes, we don’t actually, let me put in one more disclaimer. My current husband and I are not in marriage counseling. That leads to what I’m about to say. Often, people don’t look for that support until it’s almost too late. We wait, and we wait, and wait because we don’t think we need it. And then all of a sudden, something happens, and we really need it. But it might be beyond the point of no return. Do you find that a lot of business owners and executives fall into that same trap as well?

Eamon Rooney: Absolutely. And likewise, I find it a challenge at times to reach out and ask for help. What I noticed within myself is, it’s a little bit like that story of putting a frog in cold water and adding heat. After a while, the frog does know the waters are getting hot. And then when it is hot, it’s too late. And it’s a little bit like that. It’s knowing, recognizing earlier on for yourself what the triggers are, or when you’re becoming overwhelmed, that is a lot of learning that takes place in order for you to be able to say, yep, this is not my area of expertise. It’s easier for me now to go and get somebody rather than later when we have a lot of cleanup work to do. For me, it’s been getting a lot easier, and it’s a lot more fun. When I acknowledge to myself, yeah, it’d be quicker and easier just to call up whoever and let’s get it done, rather than pretending to myself that I can do it all. And I certainly see that with a lot of my clients. It’s helping them, not so much that they can’t do it, but it’s the best use of their time to do it right now. And I think that’s a lot of it is we want to see yourselves as competent people who can do things, or I’m in charge, I’m supposed to have all the answers. What’s it going to look like if I don’t? These kinds of fears and insecurities pop up. When they’ve no model, nobody has taught them how to say face, I guess I’ve been able to step away and say I need help without feeling that they look incompetent or weak. I think for a lot of–

Kim Sutton: Do you think that struggle is ever completely gone?

Eamon Rooney: No, it evolves into higher levels. You’re faced with different challenges that may push you beyond where you thought you were. So that will always be there. However, you’ve evolved, you’ve grown on the type of challenge that you’re taking on that will certainly always create that sense of anxiety that people may feel about going to the next level, the next stage, or taking on a challenge that they haven’t done before.

Kim Sutton: Amen. I found that I invested in a business coach before I invested in help around my house. We struggled with having our lawn mowed. Okay, simple thing. Yeah, there was just never the time so it looked like a safari out there. I mean, seriously, it was a jungle. And then at some point, it just clicked, oh, my gosh, I could hire a lawn person to come in every week. And there’s no more pain about that. My current dishwasher is actually named Jacob, my 15 year old. It would alleviate a lot of pain. And this is at the top of my to-buy list to actually buy a dishwasher. However, the parallel to business owners, and entrepreneurs, and executives sometimes is we don’t see the value of the investment. We think that we can keep on going with how it’s been going up till now. But using my son as an example, it’s like pulling teeth. I could have put a good expletive in there. It’s pulling teeth to get him to do his chore of washing the dishes. But if I just bought the dishwasher, that would cut the chore time in a quarter, or take out 30, 75% of the time. Don’t touch me on my math skills today people, and the dishes would be done so much faster, and a lot of the pain would be gone. And the same goes for coaching for support and a lot of other areas of our business as well.

Eamon Rooney: I love that analogy. I noticed it with my own daughter. She’s a lot younger, and certainly has her own little chores to do on the speed and efficiency of what she does. It is an open question. Yet from my perspective, having her do something is important for her to learn. Whatever job that you have is a tedious part. And certainly for business, giving away the tedious part is probably the first place they go. However, understanding what the tedium is, why it’s necessary, why it’s important and being able to recognize when it’s done correctly as part of the learning we need to go through. It may be the first thing you drop. But if you drop something and you don’t know what it looks like when it’s done right, you leave yourself open to people taking advantage of you. Particularly in the area of finances, it’s ripe in that area where people don’t really understand what the workers [inaudible] the end product is supposed to look like. Or why they can’t read it well enough to know there’s something amiss. So I’ve kind of gone a little bit of a circle with understanding your offloading work to make yourself more productive is important. Particularly as the business grows, understanding the work that you’re giving up, understanding how quality work looks like and what it is supposed to look like, will save you a lot of time training and reviewing those that you pass to work on to be able to help them grow.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. There’s an expression that I only heard last year, and I wish I had heard it a lot earlier. It goes something along the lines of, rich people spend money to save time. Poor people spend time to save money.

Eamon Rooney: Yes, I’ve heard that one.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, yeah, I found it in my podcast. And this is not Positive Productivity, but I was trying to do everything for the podcast myself. From the editing, to all the communications and emails, and the graphics, everything. And I found that over the course of three months in 2017, I had cost myself over $20,000 in lost client earnings, because of the time that I was putting into the podcasts instead of on client work.

Eamon Rooney: Wow.

Kim Sutton: Whereas it would have cost me maybe $500 to have a team member do what I was doing. That’s done just a little bit.

Eamon Rooney: Yes. I’m curious, as you started some of this work, was it enjoyable?

Kim Sutton: Yes and no. Every single episode that I put out provides a sense of pride and accomplishment just because this is the longest that I’ve ever stuck with any project before besides my kids and my husband. That’s so not fair. I shouldn’t have called them a project. But I think you get what I’m saying.

Eamon Rooney: Absolutely.

Kim Sutton: Just the fact that I’m able to do it as a mom of five with everything that’s going on around here. There’s that pride that comes along with it. I love re-listening to every episode that goes out except with guests, I should say. I could go without my episodes, but the editing and the tediousness work, I know I didn’t say that right, I could definitely do. When I was finally able to get off my plate, oh, it felt amazing.

Eamon Rooney: Yeah, yeah. And I think you are able to recognize when it becomes tedious for you. I think a lot of business owners feel they have to do it, and they don’t recognize the cost of it. I mean, the cost to you versus what you could have paid to get it done. I don’t think a lot of business owners think that way, or examine their own productivity in a way that shows them up as, this is the reality. This is what you’re losing.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. Steve Olsher in Episode 300, he closed out the episode by saying something along the lines of, you can spend your time or you can invest your time. And by doing everything myself, I have to say I was spending my time. Who have been some of your business mentors as you’ve gone along your journey?

Eamon Rooney: Originally, when I moved to Japan and I realized I didn’t want to be an engineer, I was working for a Japanese company. So I realized that to be able to get out of that world, and I needed to learn the language. So I learned the language, and I got myself a job at a Swiss company. There was a gentleman in that Swiss company who seemed to be very, we got on grave yet he wasn’t very, here’s what you need to do. Here’s what I’m looking for. And he just let me go and figure it out. I ended up building a business from scratch in Japan with his mentorship, and I didn’t realize it at the time that he was actually helping me simply by giving me what he was looking for, rather than telling me how to do it. And that has something that has stuck with me a lot. It’s the way I approach working with my clients in terms of, there’s an outcome, it’s up to you to figure out what works for you to get there. If you need help along the way, certainly, I’m here to help, give you guidance. It’s up to you to find your way to get to the outcome. And that has been one of the biggest takeaways from that particular mentor. Other mentor that I refer, one or two others I refer frequently, Peter Drucker. And his thinking on how we look at, understanding how a business operates, and going back to the heart of how it actually works. As well as another gentleman, Charles Handy who is a similar kind of philosopher, thinker, business thinker from the UK, and he’s a slightly different take on Peter Drucker but very similar in approach. So they would be the two [inaudible]. And then I got hundreds of others on my bookshelf right here at the moment that I refer to frequently as well, but those would be the three that stand out for me.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. I have a whole bunch on my bookshelf as well. What are you reading right now? Or maybe a bigger question would be, can you stick to one book? Are you reading multiple?

Eamon Rooney: I tend to read multiple. I’ll have a topic that I’m interested in, and I’ll find three or four books on that topic. I’ll dive in and I’ll find a nugget, and then I’ll go to the other book and find the nugget, then end up taking those nuggets and trying to meld them into something different. And then I’ll get the answer. I’m looking for a tool and idea concept that I can move forward with, bring to my clients, test with them and see how they react to it. And then I’ll move on to the next topic. So it’s kind of revolving research and reading at the same time.

Kim Sutton: I like that a lot. I just finished reading High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. Maybe you read that?

Eamon Rooney: I haven’t read that one.

Kim Sutton: It’s amazing. It’s not an extremely fat book. It’s definitely not a skinny one, but I was definitely finding insight, tools and strategies to use all throughout the book. But I am not able to stick to one book. I will try very hard. But yes, yeah. What often happens in my house is that a kid, because I’ve switched to reading physical books rather than ebooks is that a little child will pick up whatever I’m reading for some reason. Don’t ask me why. And decide to decorate the pages and then hide it. And then when I find it, I resume reading that one. But I believe that’s just a payback for me, actually. I did the same to my mother. She was receiving her MBA when I was a little girl and I would decorate her textbooks. Appreciated that.

Eamon Rooney: Oh, beautiful. And I’m sure now, she can look back with fondness to those moments.

Kim Sutton: Yes. And to the textbooks because she wasn’t able to trade them in at the end of the semester. My family has invested a lot into the local library just because we have purchased more books, I would like to admit to my child or my children decorating the books.

Eamon Rooney: Yeah, yeah. Have you found a way? I recently purchased an iPad, the iPad Pro, so I can actually write on it, and my daughter absolutely adores painting on it. And that way, I can capture and keep a PDF of her drawings rather than plastering them all over the wall, in the fridge in the kitchen.

Kim Sutton: I love that. But rather than having to tape pictures on our walls or fridge in our house, we have the problem where they’ve actually just decorated the walls. I’m looking around my office right now, and two walls are decorated. And we do such a good job. We think of hiding the Sharpies, and the pencils, and the crayons. But then, this is so inappropriate. I apologize. But after I take a quick restroom break, I come back and find that one of them has decorated another one space with Sharpie that I realized I didn’t do as good of a job as I thought, but such as the life of parenthood and entrepreneurship in our offices at home

Eamon Rooney: Yes. Have you ever thought of a space where they can actually go crazy with colorism materials that are washable?

Kim Sutton: Yes, they do. They do also have washable coloring utensils. However, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser only works a certain amount of time before he starts taking paint off the wall. We just decided, let it be, we will have child decorated walls until they’re old enough to realize that they cannot, I mean they know better. They absolutely do. But until I am confident that I can have paint will be well invested and not have to be painted over again, then no for right now. Especially the four year old has drawn family portraits on a couple of walls, she even put goatee on that.

Eamon Rooney: Wow. Wow.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, it’s amazing. I can’t complain. Positive Productivity is not about perfection. And sometimes, that imperfection comes from beautiful, and I really do consider them beautiful pictures of our family that are on our wall. They’re just not in a frame.

Eamon Rooney: Yes, my daughter, I asked that question because I gave her a space in the shower with waterproof crayons and paints specially for the shower. So she has her own space where she can decorate as she likes. The problem is that when we go in and have a shower, and stuff starts to wash off, she gets really upset that her art or creativity has been washed away. So then she starts all over again.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, that’s so funny. We have bath crayons, but they’re not the kids. They’re actually mine because I get ideas in the shower all the time.

Eamon Rooney: Oh, that’s beautiful. And why do you think that?

Kim Sutton: I have a bad habit of dropping phones. I do not need to drop another iPhone in the shower, so that’s where I would normally record ideas if I’m out and about. But for the shower bath crayons, amazing.

Eamon Rooney: Fantastic. Certainly, I can write it in a space where it won’t be washed off so easily. I like that idea. Oh, dear, yes.

Kim Sutton: Just have to tell your daughter that the blue one is yours.

Eamon Rooney: I will. Yes, I’ll do that. I like that idea a lot. Capturing ideas, being creative and not losing them. Part of the art I guess of staying creative, being productive is windows ideas come to you. How do you capture them? How do you validate them against the reality of what you’re facing? Because sometimes, the ideas can be very, very, oh, I love this idea. And then I try and test it against the real world situation I’m thinking of and they go, okay, it get me some of the way, that’s not the perfect solution that I thought. But it’s a step forward. And sometimes, that’s enough. That step forward.

Kim Sutton: I have a big issue where I do get ideas when I’m out driving or about to go to sleep, and that active recording. I don’t know what joke the universe or God is playing with me some days because it always seems to be when my phone is dead, and I can’t find a pen. So I’ll create a song, like a sing song because I’ll be on the way to the daycare usually to pick up my kids when I come up with the idea. And I had to come up with a song to go along with the idea just to preserve it. Hopefully, I have to say I’ve lost quite a few. But that’s okay. They moved on, and maybe somebody else is acting on them. How do you keep yourself from acting on too many ideas.

Eamon Rooney: I write them down, I draw them. I try to draw pictures of things connecting together. Or I’ll write all the ideas down on a piece of paper. Imagine how they fit together. The different ideas, different words. I know, I tried to visualize so I can. For me, I like pictures. I’m then manipulating the picture to see how it can fit together much easier. So I got stacks of notebooks just filled with notes and drawings that I’ve taken. I move and evolve into something that, oh, that works. And then I’ll use that. So it’s a creative process, I guess, I’ve kind of just learned. If I just leave it in my head, it disappears. And if I write it now, I can come back to it. And sometimes, I surprise myself with how smart I think I am. Did I write that? Wow, that’s pretty cool.

Kim Sutton: I hear that. What happens when you come up with an idea that is completely not relevant to what you’re working on right now, are you able to cast that aside? Or do you find yourself trying to work on it nonetheless?

Eamon Rooney: Yes, there is that temptation to get the bright shiny object on. Over time, I’ve learned to focus my, I guess, internal questioning around the challenge, a problem, an idea I’m trying to develop at the time, and I keep anything that pops up. I’m constantly trying to see how it fits? And if it doesn’t fit, then would it help? And if it seems like a good idea, write it down and maybe come back to it quite frequently. I’ve discovered some of those ideas are mere distractions. Either I’m beginning to feel something deep emotionally, and this is a way that my mind is trying to preserve my sanity, I guess, our safety, our sense of, it feels like some of these ideas might be a threat. And I’ve learned that sometimes to ignore those ideas, because there’s something juicy, or that I need to dive into, or my habits have been to avoid some of these uncomfortable areas. Sometimes, that happens. And I’ve recognized that I need to assess whether the idea is one that’s just purely creative out of the blue, or one that’s going to be a distraction taking me away from what I really want to dive into and get a comfortable resolution.

Kim Sutton: Listeners have heard me talk about two other podcast ideas that I’ve had since I’ve launched this podcast. And I’ve gone so far as to actually have a logo designed for one of them. However, after getting that far, I realize, what are you doing? You’ve got your hands full with this one already in maintaining client work. Do not add something else right now. You don’t need something else right now. It’s a constant struggle.

Eamon Rooney: Yes. For me, that’s a signal as, why do I want to go in this direction and not stick with the one I’m in? What’s wrong with this one? What’s bringing up for me, potentially, is a challenge. I’ve learned to recognize anxiety as a signal that I’m about to learn something rather than something I need to avoid. And it’s been a long struggle getting to that point where I can just like goodies, I’m gonna learn something here. Even though I’m feeling nervous, anxious and worried about some things like, oh, goody, I’m going to learn, and help me push through, and find what it is I’m going to learn rather than what I used to do, which was avoid and find the easy path, and avoid the uncomfortableness or the pain. I don’t know if you’ve had a similar experience.

Kim Sutton: Actually, I was about to say, I’m going to borrow that, wow. No, I find that I’m often chasing multiple ideas when I’m in scarcity mode, rather than sticking with one thing and seeing it through to it working. Maybe just tweaking it a little bit. Instead, a whole new idea will come up. So I’ll desert what I was already working on, and go do something new. But I’m actually writing a book on this called chronic idea disorder. But the problem with that book is that it’s still stuck in my head, because I have all these other ideas. So what I said earlier is that authors write the book that they need the most. Yeah, I need this book. I don’t know how it ends yet, which is why it’s still in my head. I might never know.

Eamon Rooney: Maybe if you just start.

Kim Sutton: Very true.

Eamon Rooney: You will create some ideas that could be used in your current podcast now or in other areas of your life.

Kim Sutton: Yes. Maybe I am getting better considering, one of those podcasts ideas that I was just talking about was just last week. So the fact that it’s only taking me a couple days now to say no, and that’s crazy. Maybe I’m getting better.

Eamon Rooney: Yeah. Or you’re recognizing these other obstacles to overcome first before you can distract yourself with something bigger and better.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. Yeah, I have projects. Well, like this book, I’ve been telling listeners about it since I launched the podcast, but there’s a couple other projects that I’ve been talking about since I launched the podcast. But what I realized was, and I have to thank one of my coaches for bringing this up to me. He said: “I saw that I am watching what you’re doing. And I can see that you are working on 12 different projects right now, we need to cut a lot of this out and get you to finish one at a time.” So it was cut back to four, which is still three more than it probably should be, but I get bored easily. Even if my kids weren’t hiding my books, I can’t say that I would only be reading one at a time.

Eamon Rooney: Yeah. I certainly have had the point I take on for years. Here’s my project, I’ve learned just to notice one theme for the year. And that’s it. And then I may break that down into a specific set of projects for the first quarter and then try and keep it three, more than three, but they’re all linked together. So I’m not working on completely different things. The theme for this year for me is discipline. Maintaining discipline, focusing on the core projects that need to be done rather than getting excited about other opportunities that may distract me from the core projects or what I feel is important to move the business forward. And reminding myself constantly, is this going to move me in the direction I want to go? The first question. Or if it’s not, then stay focused, stay disciplined on what you need to be doing, or what I promised myself I would do more precisely. And that has helped me eliminate a lot of extraneous stuff that would be interesting and exciting, yet doesn’t really help the business or my clients in terms of moving forward or making progress.And it certainly has helped, just go, okay, I don’t need to do that. I can keep it in my parking lot, and I can always come back to it another time.

Kim Sutton: Amen. I might have to borrow that. Listeners, we are recording towards the end of March 2018. A minute ago, I didn’t know what my theme was for the year, and I’ve been struggling with that because I really did want a theme, because I knew that I needed something. Just that one thing, one thing. Discipline is that word that I was looking for because it’s not focused. I’m good at staying focused. But the problem is, I’m focusing on too many things. Thank you.

Eamon Rooney: You’re welcome. Yeah. Believe me, it’s been a long journey to get to the point where I can just focus on one word and constantly remind myself that this is the theme. Because as you say, life happens. So many other opportunities pop up. And part of being disciplined is also being disciplined for what purpose? Now, what direction are you headed in? What’s it all for? Where are you going? What are you trying to create? What value are you trying to create? And being disciplined around adding value and creating value allows one, and myself, to share a lot of stuff that could create value, but not right at this moment. Not with the purpose that I’ve created. This is what is necessary right now. So it helps, as you say, make me keep focus, but the discipline is making sure things actually happen.

Kim Sutton: Right. Yeah. I’m not a fly with hundreds of eyeballs. I’ve got to when I need to stay in the same direction.

Eamon Rooney: Yes, exactly. Exactly. And as you travel, other opportunities pop up whether you feel it’s going to help you move in the right direction or something you need to set aside for another time.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, on the topic of providing value, who are you working with right now? And what do you focus on with them?

Eamon Rooney: Right now I’m working with a lot of owner operator businesses. So the owner is the person in charge. And I’m actually, two things, I’m working with the owner, I’m also working with them to develop their internal leadership teams, or helping leaders emerge within their employee ranks. I don’t so much focus on getting more sales, doing mark, better marketing, managing your finances better. It’s more the people, I guess, the relationship side of things. The way you described at the beginning, I guess, that’s a lot of what I focus on. Particularly the relationship with myself or oneself in terms of how do I lead? Who am I? Do I accept myself? How am I able to show? How do I show up, and then help them understand where other people are coming from? 

Well, they should be doing this because that’s the way I do it. It’s easy for us to say, well, this makes sense because it’s the way we think. There are other ways of thinking and helping them understand what they are is a big step towards helping somebody else, developing better relationships and being able to communicate better. And as a consequence, productivity, like his happiness within the workplace, just soars when people understand where others are coming from. And it’s not always directed at them to spite them or to keep them down. It’s like, no, they don’t think that way. Some people are blunt and to the point that others need to have a little bit of socialization before getting to work doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about you. It just means he wants to get to work first. And that can help break a lot of tension in the workplace. And I guess that’s where I spend a lot of my time on helping people understand each other. So that word, they can become a more the performance of the team, the individual can increase simply by understanding where they’re coming from. Now, they can begin to work more as a collaborative endeavor as opposed to individuals just doing their own little thing and staying out of the way for the people. Because we can’t walk on eggshells around in a long winded way. That’s what I’m working on.

Kim Sutton: This is just a mom, but all I could think while you’re describing what that was sounds like you’re coaching a whole bunch of my 15 year olds.

Eamon Rooney: Pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. It’s very similar. I guess we, as individuals, as people, tend to look at the world to our own eyes, and we can only gauge our own experiences. When we understand that other people have different filters and knowing what those filters are allows you to at least, well, okay, they have their anger filter on, I have my happy filter on, I can see where they’re coming from. So it’s not me, it’s them. And that helps shift and allows us to be more adaptable in the environment, because the environment does control a lot of what we do, and at the end of the day is the owner. Basically the businesses I work for, the owner defines the environment within which people are working on that either health productivity or decreases productivity, very simply. So helping the owner recognize what they’re doing to cause stagnation in their workforce is as much helping them, the business grow as it is helping the people become more productive in a given environment.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, and that could lead into a whole nother episode.

Eamon Rooney: Yes, it is fascinating. I get really, really excited and passionate about that whole area. Now, working with people and helping them understand themselves. You mentioned the word transparent earlier, it’s all about being true to yourself and being transparent. And it takes a lot of strength and courage to do that and still feel I’m still a leader takes a lot of practice, and a lot of courage.

Kim Sutton: I agree. Yeah. Amen. Thank you so much for coming on to the Positive Productivity Podcast. This has been a very enlightening and entertaining conversation, so thank you.

Eamon Rooney: Thank you very much indeed. I enjoyed our conversation. I got a couple of nuggets myself. I’m gonna get some Bob Crayons.

Kim Sutton: I actually had to go order some more. Where can listeners connect with you online and get to know more about you?

Eamon Rooney: Listeners can connect with me on LinkedIn, I have Eamon, E-A-M-O-N, Rooney on LinkedIn. Also at bizpathfinder.com, you can find me there. There’ll be the two main places that people can find out about me.

Kim Sutton: Fabulous listeners. The links will be in the show notes at thekimsutton.com/pp312. Do you have a last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget that you can offer to listeners?

Eamon Rooney: I do indeed. And it’s a little bit related to what I was just talking about in terms of productivity or success in life is really people’s experience of you determines your outcomes. How people engage with you, how you show up in the world determines whether you’re going to be successful or not.