The coolest thing about having your own show and platform is being able to talk to some of the brightest and bravest people in the world. Today’s featured Brave Bear expert is no exception. Sean Howard is one of the most generous and giving people I’ve come to meet in the online business world and, most recently, in person after hiring him to take professional headshots and photos of my keynote speech in Ontario, Canada. You’ll understand what I’m talking about once you hit play.
Sean shares why he left his lucrative career as a strategist in the agency world to become a professional dog trainer (among other jobs he’s had and businesses he’s built) and how the journey has led him back to marketing. Only this time, he was marketing in a way that aligns with his purpose and promise to customers. We talk about fear and the voices in our heads that remind us we’re not enough. And if you listen to the very end of this episode, Sean gives all of us Brave Bears a very special treat: a free lesson on how to craft your own purpose and promise statements!
Episode Quotables:
“When something comes up, I’m very quick to leap–almost too quick. Like no parachute, 30th floor, just jump and pray for the best.” – Sean Howard
“I was at this place where ‘I’m gonna burn every bridge, I don’t want to see this world again.’ I just wanted to walk away, I was dead inside.” – Sean Howard
“Working with animals that needed help was the first time that my heart suddenly started to reawaken. This idea of giving back and filling a need in the world where it wasn’t about the money and it certainly wasn’t about the ego…there was some part of me that was so hungry to do work that mattered to my soul.” – Sean Howard
“I don’t want to throw away the frameworks, I want to throw away the manipulation.” – Sean Howard
“I find it sad that so many of us are afraid of growth, mostly in this community of intentional workers. Because we see the photos of the yachts and it’s this dirty numbers game; that’s not the only kind of growth that exists.” – Sean Howard
“It’s really hard to reframe things like self-worth. I think this is where community is so powerful and so needed and yet so lacking in so many places in today’s world.” – Sean Howard
“Holding space is about recognizing worth in another person. It’s recognizing there’s something to be held for. It’s like saying I believe in you and I believe that there’s a space being held for a reason—you have something that can fill that space.” – Sean Howard
“It’s also about being able to recognize when we are not able to hold space for another person.” – Sean Howard
“The idea that we are answering a hunger in the world and that we are worthy and capable of at least showing up for that—that’s so powerful.” – Sean Howard
“I love seeing that momentum start. Even if it’s wrong, just moving has been so helpful for me. Then we can take another step and another step and learn and grow.” – Sean Howard
“There is no greater fear in any of us than answering our calling.” – Sean Howard
“I’m far more likely to be kind and loving to someone else than I am to myself.” – Sean Howard
Episode Resources:
Mentioned Quotes
“The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“Where your talents and the needs of the world cross; there lies your vocation.”― Aristotle
“Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” ― Frederick Buechner
Crafting Your Purpose (Service) Statement
- On a piece of paper, draw a vertical line down the middle. On the right side of the line, write a list of things that bring about sparks in your life. What gives you more energy than you put in? Recognize that there are things that feed us because it gives more energy to these things.
- On the left side of the line, write a list of things you avoid because you feel unprepared or incompetent or not good enough. These are the hungers in the world. These are those needs that make us cry—that we feel so deeply.
- Now ask yourself, what if the things on the right are put in service to the things on the left? What would it feel like in our heart and soul to use something on the right in service of the things on the left? What aligns from the right to the left? Some things don’t and there are some that will stand out as a strong connection. From there, we can start to write a purpose statement (service statement).
BONUS: Promise Statement
Based on the purpose statement, what is the promise you are going to make from your heart to theirs? It becomes the line we draw in the sand of what being in service means for us—the thing we try to hold ourselves accountable to.
Find Sean:
Sean’s coaching supports people who are starting and launching by helping them gain momentum and to market and launch their dream. For more information, visit seanhoward.ca.
Get your free copy of Creators 2.0: How to Find Your Purpose, Build Sustainable Growth and Change the World at seanhoward.ca/books.
