Ken Jensen

EPI-55: Know Yourself: Stay Small To Go Big!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:44 — 29.9MB)

Back Story Development

Done right, the micro creates the macro.

Quantum Physics people!

The small stuff is what builds the big stuff.

I recently bought two courses teaching how to market on LinkedIn, created by Justin Welsh.

As part of the process, Justin had me fine tune my back story.

This is your “elevator pitch” and is to be used any time anyone ever asks, “What do you do?”

Now, the interesting bit here is, I already HAD an incredible back story.

But another one’s been built since.

And my two backstories are intertwined

Briefly: I beat bipolar without using meds. What came before, during and in the handful of years after was all mind blowing.

Then I grew tired of what sharing my story was bringing me.

It’s been over 17 years since I considered myself bipolar. There hasn’t been anything left that in me that could be called that.

And sharing my story was bringing me people who were desperate and broke.

Not the ideal situation with which to build a career.

But I KNEW that the most powerful part of my entire story WAS the bipolar part!

Well, this all got sorted out a couple years ago, when I hired Rhonda Hess to help me see a way forward.

And hence, helping high-functioning bipolar people became the new career focal point.

Fast forward to now: Justin wanted me to fill in a template describing my back story.

And the way he suggested to do it was new to me.

And it unexpectedly helped me clarify, in the deepest, yet most succinct way yet, what my “new” back story was.

This refinement actually improved how I saw myself, sharpened who I already knew my new market to be, and gave me an all-around awareness that even forced a few changes to my website.

I became more aware!

And doing that is something I always espouse to others.

You don’t usually have to change too much to do better, to feel better. You just need a fresh look at what already exists and then act in accordance with your latest priorities.

NONE of that got said in the podcast! LOL

But what I did make clear was, the more specific you can get about who you serve and why (and be brutally honest about this), the bigger the effect will be on your overall attempts at success.

EPI-54: Your Value Is NOT In What You DO!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:30 — 26.8MB)

You’re A Human BEING Not A Human DO’ER!

This’ll be a shorty. I ran out of day hours ago and desire my bed…greatly.

There are 4 things people buy from you:

Transformations
Outcomes
Solutions
and Feelings

These can be applied to the doing of anything.

Your skill level can determine your value in many cases.

Your skill sets might be in great demand.

But what if what you do is a commodity or has great competition?

What if you don’t think you’re really good at anything?

Or don’t know what you’re good at?

I feel many people help drive their own bipolar symptoms just by ignoring the solution to those questions.

One’s inability to live life in accordance with one’s heart can most definitely lead to mental illness.

Ever hate your job?

Ever hate it so much that you had very bad thoughts, headaches, hives, nausea, or some other ghastly side effect of showing up for a day of shit you can’t stand to do?

That is a great example of that I’m trying to say, from the negative perspective.

But if you already know you’re capable of more or better but don’t know how to escape the first scenario…

…or know how to begin the better life, guess what can happen?

Hel-looooo bipolar disorder.

For some of us. Sometimes.

Just be aware.

Then start the Big Dig within your heart and mind.

Start deciphering who you are and how you make people feel, then do your best to match that with a field of industry or career path that allows you to be you.

You will then become unstoppable. And quite possibly, completely healthy!

EPI-53: Mania, Yearning, Desperation, Dreaming: When To Say When On A Project

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:58 — 33.0MB)

“OMG! Will You Just STOP Already?!”

One of the hardest things I’ve routinely faced on my entrepreneurial journey, is knowing when to say when on a failed project.

This could be:

Any business idea that’s simply not earning enough, or any income.
A side gig that helps you survive but keeps you from working on what will make you thrive.
A new business based on a skill you have but don’t enjoy using.
A partnership, in anything at all, that has revealed your partner to be less shiny than originally thought.
A partnership where you end up doing most of the work.
Volunteer work that keeps you from feeding your family better.
The current iteration of whatever message you have and/or whatever people you picked to send it to.
Anything that requires constant outlay for little to no return.
A job you should’ve walked out of long ago but you got comfortable.
Any people in your life whom you pursue, help and fawn over, hoping they’ll one day make it all worth it.

There are more. But You get the point.

I’ve Lived Everything On That List

Humbling but true.

Awareness is what’s lacking when these things run away from you.

You’re in it. You can’t see it. You’re too close. You care too much.

And you’ve laid out so much ass, that it would seem criminal to not try to just push it over the top, by keeping on keeping on.

Get Third-Party Help

Ask anyone in your daily life, whom you trust enough to deliver the bad news with grace, to tell you if they think you’re martyring yourself.

They might be right. They might not be. But consider what they tell you.

Better yet, find a coach or advisor who doesn’t even know you to get your backstory and make that all-important judgment call.

For your own good.

Your heart’s in the right place. But logic matters here too.

EPI-52: Sometimes “Committed” Is A Good Word!

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“No One Is Coming To Save You!”

Once you fully realize that it’s on you to right your ship, you’re on the path to greatness.

Taking this perspective is pure personal responsibility. Although fraught with fear of the unknown, it’s also slathered in the freedom to do things as you see fit.

The way to use your new found freedom and responsibility is by adopting a higher level of commitment about just how it is you plan on saving yourself.

You Will Pass Through Many Iterations

Making up your mind to stay present and agreeing to never quitting is only part of the puzzle.

You’re going to fail at this more than succeed.

Whatever “this” is.

Your commitment to eventually having what you wish to have, come hell or high water, is what will push you through the more trying times.

And MOST of this is going to try you!

You’re being annealed. Made harder. Stronger. Better.

It just doesn’t look or feel that way.

You’re being tested. The cliche “if it was easy everybody would do it” always holds true.

What are you willing to endure to reach your goals?

How much pain and discomfort are you willing to absorb?

How fast can you learn from it all so that it doesn’t REMAIN pain and discomfort-filled?

We’re not looking for martyrdom here.

But “it” will totally look like martyrdom in the beginning.

Can you hang?

EPI-51: LinkedIn Much? (Know Where Your People Are)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:13 — 37.4MB)

Who Are You Looking To Help And Where Do They Congregate?

My ultimate goal, in the broadest sense, is to never be an employee again.

EVER!!!

I aspire to more than this.

But this particular affliction is one I hope to fully be inoculated against as fast as possible and until I’m dust.

I Intend To Own My Reality In Full

This means I must completely own my income source.

This means a business.

And I Want To Work As Little As Possible

To an employee, this sounds like fantastical heresy.

The concept of value vs. effort is a foreign tongue to them.

Fuck that.

Let me clarify:

How you earn income is not the same as “work.”

They do NOT mean the same thing. They can. But that’s not what I’m after.

I want to work with people of my choosing, who can afford to pay me what I need to live life my way.

And who do stuff I am excited to be a part of, not simply stomaching.

If I want to work a long day, or many, I can.

But I won’t have to!

So where do clients who can help me achieve all this hang out?

LinkedIn, for one.

And I’ve recently been on a tear, working my way through paid courses and sifting through free content within LinkedIn itself, to learn how to find people who match my needs.

My folks are not in Facebook looking at videos of God knows what, or bitching about politics, or sharing pics of their meals, or…whatever other inane shit goes on in there.

My folks are looking to excel and that means LinkedIn.

You May Need To Market Somewhere Entirely Different

Possibly even Facebook, my shitty personal views aside.

(I am aware that there’s value in there too. Obviously. But the chatter one must endure to find it damages my chi.)

But whatever you do as a bipolar prone creator, one thing you must do (and I can help you) is learn where your ideal folks are gathering.

Create a “storefront” so they can see what you’re all about and if you can actually help them.

Then go talk to them.