Working Towards Our Purpose

Welcome to Working Towards Our Purpose, a podcast that

offers a different perspective on what a job can be. For everyone

out there that's heard that voice in the back of their head asking for

something more, it's time to listen to it. I'm your host,

Gino, and join me as I interview people who have decided to

work in their own purpose. Together, we will learn, become

inspired, and hopefully find our own path towards working in our

purpose. Welcome

back to working towards our purpose. And today I have

another solo episode and, something I'm

still getting used to and, kinda forcing myself to do

it. But, I had a little idea that I kinda wanted to talk about

in this episode. And, yeah. We'll just, we'll get right into

it. So over the past few weeks, I've had,

2 people kinda, like, reach out to me about what I'm doing,

and one of them found me through my podcast. It was kind of an old

friend that we got reconnected with. And then, one of them

was just kind of like a DM on Instagram from somebody I met, you know,

once or twice before. And it kinda got me thinking about

this idea that, like, you kinda get to choose or

decide, like, what you'll be known for or what you are known for.

And I think that that's kind of a cool and

empowering thing to, like, think about. I think for, at

least for me, for a long time, like I was just an engineer

because that was my job and I didn't

really feel proud of that or I didn't feel

like that really meant much to me. Mostly because it wasn't something that I

chose and it was just kind of something that I did. But going to

the idea of like getting to decide what you will be

known for. As I mentioned before in in my last solo

episode, when I first quit my corporate job, I tried to put that

behind me and I tried to not really talk about it or think about

it. And, you know, when I first started networking and meeting

people, I didn't really use that as like

a definition of who I was or like an opener. It was more so

like I'm doing this new thing now. This is my business. I do

podcasting. And I never really talked about my past engineering life

until I met, one person specifically who

found out, like, much after I met her that that I had a

past life of doing engineering and, you know, went to college for it and

everything and she was, like, kinda surprised and was, like, oh, you didn't like, you

never said that. And I was honest with her and I was, like, yeah. It's

kinda something that, like, I don't really like to talk about because I

wasn't proud, I guess, of of that thing that I did. And she was

like, regardless of how you feel about it, when I hear that you have a

college education, I put you in a different category.

And when you think of somebody who went to college, you think of

somebody who was able to complete set amount of tasks in order

to get the piece of paper. And although I kind of didn't really like to

hear that because I didn't wanna be judged for the fact that I went to

college even in a good way. I kinda heard what she was saying and I

was like, okay. Yeah. She's right in the fact that, like, I will probably

get judged in a different way because people know that I did

that. But for me, it was more about like explaining my

story of how I got to where I am. And I think that

in doing that and in being transparent and vulnerable

and authentic with my story, I think that

really what that does for me is it helps me connect with people who

are in similar places. And I think that that's really kind of who I'm trying

to reach with this podcast is people who do feel like they're stuck

or people who are in jobs that they don't care about

and think that maybe there's not another option or maybe they have to be doing

the thing that they're doing. And I don't know. I I think

you always have a choice. And I know that

I'm in a fortunate position to be able to say that. But at the end

of the day, I think you get to decide where you put your energy into

and wherever you put your energy into expands. So that

being said, getting back to the idea of you get to decide what you're known

for is like I get to decide what people know me for based off

of what I do and how I talk about what I do. So

in this podcast, I talk a lot about me leaving corporate and me

feeling like I was stuck, me choosing to pick something different and

to try to figure something else out. And that

has connected with people and it's resonating with people and it makes people

know me for the person that left corporate. And and I think that that's a

good thing because then it helps me connect with the people that I'm actually trying

to connect to. Going back to the specific people that reached out to me, one

of them was a friend from a really long time ago. We we were both

engineers. We interned at the same company together before

I even got into, like, the real world. We were still in college

and I really haven't talked to this person in a very long time. And

somehow he found out about my podcast and he listened to a few

episodes and specifically the first one. And he was like, man, I

completely feel the same way that you did when you were here. And,

you know, he feels stuck and he wants something more. And

for me, it was really cool to get a message from him and be like,

hey, man. I resonated with this. You know, thanks for putting it out there.

And that for me was kinda like I don't know. It showed me that,

like, I guess what I'm doing is maybe helping some

people in in some way, and I I feel so uncomfortable even saying that,

which I think comes from, like, me not wanting to ever talk about

myself. But I think that's if I'm looking at the

facts kind of, like, what happened. I don't know. It it felt

nice to to have somebody be like, hey, I can empathize with,

you know, what you did and and maybe I wanna be doing something similar

or, you know, something like that. And then

what really gave me this idea was when the second person reached out to me

and it was somebody that I met, like, a handful of times before. It was

kind of a friend of a friend And, you know, when I first met him,

I I I don't really remember what I told this person, but I

must have been saying something, like, you know, how I started my business and I

left corporate. And I must have been honest with my story

and, you know, leaving corporate and starting my own business and all that stuff.

Because when he reached out to me, he was like, hey man, I'm leaving my

job next week. We should, you know, we should grab beer and get together.

And for me, that was kinda like, it it's what gave me the idea for

this episode because it was like, oh, this guy who I don't really know that

well knows me as the guy that left his corporate job to

try to start a business and figure it out. So it was kinda

like, again, almost like a cool thing for me to be like, oh, wow. This

is what this guy knows me for. And that was because, like, I made the

decision to talk about that and to be honest with,

like, where I've been and what I'm doing and why I was unhappy.

And yeah. I don't know. It just felt good

to have him reach out to me in that way and also kind of just,

you know, gives me confidence in like what I am doing and the way that

I present myself now a day makes me more confident and more comfortable with how

I'm presenting myself to purpose. And, you know, not that you need

reassurance from other people that you're doing the right thing, but it's nice to

be able to, like, connect, I guess. And even if it's not everybody, you

know, like I'm just giving an example of 2 purpose, but, like,

make it it feels to me that, like, I'm making a difference at

least with those 2 people. And, again, this

is probably my self conscious small mind thinking, but, like, I'm thinking,

like, oh, man. Even if I just was able to help 2

people in one way, like, that to me feels purposeful.

And that to me is, like, almost validation of, like, hey, you're

on the right course. You know, you're on the right path. You're doing something

that resonated with at least 2 purpose. And

that to me is, like, really fulfilling, and I like this path that

I'm going down. So, you know, in in that being said, I

think these solo episodes are gonna be important to push that

further even though they're uncomfortable for me and I and I don't

really like preaching to people.

Hopefully, I'm not coming off as speaking to people and,

I'm more so just trying to share my own experiences in the

hopes that they will resonate or positively affect

others. And I think with the more practice that I do with

these whole episodes, the better I'll get at that. So yeah, just just trying to

push through the uncomfortableness of it and get it out

there. So a few other things that I just wanted to mention too on this

topic, because I noticed another, sort

of correlation in regards to this topic. I I'm not sure if I've

said it much on this podcast yet, but originally, I got into podcasting,

into audio engineering from music because music was, like, kind of

my first passion. And I always just, like, I remember when

I first learned how to play the guitar, I locked myself in my room and

just played it until I figured out, like, how to play songs and,

like, I would just, you know, try to learn from tablature songs that I

liked, and it was something that was, like, very consuming in a good

way. And I've always just, like, told myself,

like, if it's if it's anything music, I could figure out how to do it,

and I've always kinda had that confidence in it. Music was, you know, my

original passion and the reason why I got into podcasting. And I remember telling

myself, like, when I first started my podcast company that once that made enough

money, then I would get into music production and I would work with bands and

kind of, you know, mixing and recording engineering and all that kind

of stuff. So as I was like kind of looking towards 2024

at the end of 2023, I was telling myself, like, you know, why are you

waiting to do that? You should just kinda do that now. And at the

same time, there was a music project that came to me, and there

was a friend who I used to be in a band with, and he wants

me to mix his album. So he sent me a song and I I mixed

the first song and I sent it back to him and,

you know, like, a week after I did that, I got a message from

a friend of his who I met once and I

guess he heard the song that I mixed and he was like, hey, man. I'm

working on this project. Do you think, you know, you can master this for me

when I'm done recording and mixing it? And that for me again was like a

huge thing. It was like, woah. You know, I do I did one thing in

music, and now this other person has seen what I've done, and

now they know me as, like, this guy that does this music. So it's like,

again, just one of those, like, crazy things, like, I I'm not an expert

in music production, but, you know, I guess I have to give myself

credit for being involved with it for the past 10 years at least

and Yeah. It was kind of a validation of like, oh, this guy sees me

as the guy that does music. So I guess really, you know, as I'm thinking

about it now, it's interesting the different

perceptions that, like, you have of yourself versus

the perceptions that people have of you. Because I guess if I were to look

at myself, I wouldn't say, like, I'm a music producer

or a mixing engineer or a recording engineer.

I wouldn't say any of that because I don't think that I'm good enough yet

to be able to say that, but there's other people out there that

look at me as being able to do it better than them

maybe. And whether that's true or not, it's

it's a different perception. So it's interesting to flat out

see that. Like, when somebody messages me and they're like, hey, can you do this

for me? It's like, woah. This guy sees me differently than I see myself. That's

kinda cool and it kinda gives you more confidence in yourself and your own

abilities. So, yeah. Hopefully, this wasn't all over the place,

but the point being, like, now that I'm,

again, deciding what to be known for now that I'm choosing to do more work

in music and I just started and I'm not, like, saying that I'm this

expert or anything, but I'm just doing what I can and helping people out where

I can. Then now because I'm doing it more and I'm investing

more energy into it, more people are going to see that I'm doing this thing

and eventually they're going to start coming towards me and being like, oh, you're the

guy that does this. You did this other project. You know, can you do this

for me? And I think that's just really cool. And again, so

like freeing and motivating that, like, you can

choose to do that thing. Like, you know, you

can go learn how to play the ukulele and a week ago, you didn't

even know what the instrument was, but in 2 weeks, you're telling people you're

playing the ukulele. You're you're learning how to use it. And now all of a

sudden, you're the person that plays ukulele. It's like, I don't know

the the free will of it or the the endless

opportunities. Like you can, you can choose anything and you

can really do anything that you want.

And it doesn't mean, like, you have to quit your job and it doesn't mean

you have to, you know, not be a parent or or any of that stuff,

but, like, you can just choose to also do this new thing.

And I think that that's just really a really cool thing to be able to

do. And, yeah. Hopefully hopefully this

episode made sense. Still getting used to this new solo kind

of format. And, yeah, I don't know. I just wanted to share that thought with

you all and hopefully it resonated with somebody. And if it didn't,

next week I will have another interview podcast for you and we'll

get back to learning from other people and thank you all for listening.

I

If you liked today's episode and are interested in more, you can sign up for

my Substack newsletter with the link in the show notes, where I share

thoughts, tips, and ideas that I'm learning along my journey to help

inspire you. The show was produced by Pleasant Podcast at

pleasantpodcast.com.