Find A Career You Love with Zack Ballinger
Zack Ballinger is a motivational speaker, author, and career consultant. He speaks on topics including career development, job interviewing, passion & purpose, overcoming obstacles, leadership, and sales.
For 14 years he’s helped high schools, colleges, non-profit organizations, corporations, and companies to find their direction and discover purpose & passion. He’s spoken to thousands of students and professionals at conferences, colleges, companies, seminars, and training events around the world.
Featured regularly at The University of Tennessee, Zack has also been featured by the Huffington Post, NBC, CBS, Morgan County News, Jane Jackson Careers, and several other key outlets. He is a current contributor to the Morgan County Today Newspaper.
He’s a dynamic speaker that can relate to anyone from students to working professionals needing a boost of energy. From the stage Zack brings a passion that is contagious, an energy that’s undeniable, and innovative ideas that work in today’s new complex world.
Zack holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Tennessee. He has 14 years of experience in sales, leadership, motivational speaking, training, and career development. He resides in Atlanta, GA.
What is the book about?
Don’t be a zombie:
how to find a career you love
WAKE UP! Your life is waiting.
Do you love your job, or merely tolerate it? Are you one of the walking dead in the working world, those people who wander through their career without purpose or passion?
You’re not alone; 70% of working Americans don’t like their jobs. And the stress and unhappiness is taking its toll, diminishing them to a workforce of lifeless, disengaged, underperforming zombies.
In “Don’t Be a Zombie: How to Find a Career You Love”, career consultant, author, and speaker Zack Ballinger guides you through a three-phase process to discover and unleash the passion inside you. Open doors to ideas, perspective, and opportunities to transform your unfulfilled life into one that impassions you, every single day.
Don’t give in to what’s easy by staying in a job or career that is holding you back. Invest in yourself and reshape your future with Zack’s easy-to-follow, and genuinely heartfelt guidance.
Listen to more episodes of The Business of Business Podcast here
Full Transcript Below
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the business of business podcast. I’m Roy. Uh, today we’ve got an awesome guest, uh, just put out a new book. Uh, Zack Ballinger is a motivational speaker, author, and a career consultant. He’s also a TEDx speaker and helps people find their, uh, career direction.
He also teaches numerous career development topics and, um, he brings a passion for, uh, and that is contagious and energy that is undeniably and, uh, innovative ideas that work in today’s new complex worlds. Zack, thanks a lot. And welcome to the show.
Zack (00:42):
Thanks Roy, for having me. It’s certainly, well, sure you bet.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (00:46):
I want to, uh, the book is don’t be a zombie, how to find a career you love. So, um, that is a wide ranging topic. I’m sure we could talk for hours on that, but, uh, yeah, you know, it’s important for anybody of any age to think about that. I mean, we need to find that career where, uh, you want to get up on Monday morning and, and get out there and go to work. I mean, we, we spend the largest majority of our life at work. So why not find one that we feel passionate about and are happy with?
Zack (01:21):
Yeah, Roy, this whole movement started with a TEDx talk and it’s amazing how it spread. So before the pandemic, I was traveling around teaching people about job interviewing and most of the questions that students had or professionals have was, Hey, how do I find a career that I love or, Hey,
I’m miserable my career, but I’m going to have continue on in it in 20 years. And so the pandemic hit and I did my Ted talk and there I had about 2000 viewers on it. And more people were interested in this whole concept of how you don’t have to become a zombie. That phrase comes from the 70% of Americans right now in your audience, out in the United States. Uh, don’t like their job.
And to me, I found that very troubling and the evidence supported that as I was traveling all over the United States and the world, that that was certainly the case. And so then I decided, you know what, I’m going to take time and address this need in the marketplace and teach people how to find a career they love.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (02:20):
That’s important. So I’m going to ask you, can you just say that statistic one more time please? It’s so I won’t be able to like what you to say.
Zack (02:31):
Sure. It’s a Gallup poll done. Um, it was published in the USA today, 153,000 American workers were surveyed and 70% of them did not like their job.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (02:44):
And we can look at that from two perspectives. We can look at that from the point of view of the employee who, you know, obviously they’re going to a job they’re not satisfied with, but we have to kind of flip that over and look at it from the employer’s point of view is that you’ve got 70% of your employees that aren’t happy out there. That’s, that’s a huge tale for me anyway.
Zack (03:06):
Yeah. It’s probably magic because you know, a lot of my speeches when they seem discover your passion. I talk about this in the book that corporations would shy away from having me because they’re like, well, we don’t want people to read this book and leave us. And I said, no, that’s not the attitude you need to have. If they’re disengaged in their work, maybe we can bind them, either special projects, leadership, development opportunities, opportunities, where they can Excel.
In another role. I met so many people in roles with companies that were in customer service, they were in sales and they found their passion to be right in the company, but it was in a different area. Right. We’re not developing them, plead people to move forward. So I think you’re exactly right.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (03:47):
Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about it from the, um, the employee point of view for just a minute in, uh, uh, you told me a great story that I’m going to have you reiterate about the, uh, the gentleman that wanted to open a restaurant. Could you just tell that story again, please?
Zack (04:04):
Yeah. I was speaking at an event and they came up to me afterwards. I, you know, the names get modeled, but I think his name was BA Bob Bob actually. And he came up to me and said, you know, I am tired of my corporate job. I want to own my own restaurant. And I said, that’s great. And we began to have a conversation.
Now I wanted to get the whole idea around his passion for being mid business and the food industry. And he said, well, I’m very passionate about cooking. You know, I’ve never run a restaurant. I’ve never worked inside one. And that automatically sent alarm bells off to me. And so I, some of my advice was I said, why don’t you take a week off, take your own vacation network and find somebody in the restaurant industry shadow them. They probably would love the hell.
Zack (04:49):
You know, let boxes do whatever you want. And they’ll, they’ll be happy to have you. And a few months later he emailed me and we talked and he said, Zack, thank you so much for their great idea. That was awesome. I really, you know, it was a great learning experience.
I decided what to do. And I was like, great. So where’s your next location? What kind of restaurant you could open up? Or he said, I do not want to own a restaurant. And I said, well, wait a minute. What, what happened? He said, well, I don’t want to manage employees. I don’t want to work with numbers. I don’t want to worry about profits and profit margins. He said, I just want to cook.
And so the whole time his passion was not business, but it was cooking. So we decided to do his own resolve one man catering shop, where he cooked mainly, and then his wife ran the finances and he absolutely loves it.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (05:41):
I think that is so important for early career. Uh, people coming out of college or basically while you’re still in college or even those that are looking at making industry shifts later in life is that, uh, we have idea in our mind from what we hear from other people or what we see on TV of what this career or this industry may be all about. But most of the time there’s probably much more to it.
And so that’s something, you know, I kind of recommend, especially to younger people is go volunteer in the industry, go, uh, be an intern. Like you said, even if it’s just mundane jobs, just doing copy. If you just hang around, you will see kind of the interaction of that position of that company, of that industry to see if it’s something that really does interest you. Because a lot of times it’s not, uh, not always as it appears.
Zack (06:40):
Absolutely. You know, I tell people for things to do in the bulk of their think, they’re interested in their brain and they have no experience. Entry-level jobs to get your foot in the door to see if you like it volunteer. Like you said, either at the organization, guess what people like free labor, right?
And if you start hanging around people and networking with people, so then you’re going to be able to find yourself in a volunteer spot, right. Internships. If you’re in college Bidell, I don’t care if you want to do the job or not. It gets you to that experience to see if it’s something you really want to do and then find a mentor in that industry. Yes.
So he, and, you know, LinkedIn and all these sites are spore.com where you can find free mentors. I’m actually one of them. So, you know, there’s no excuse not to have a mentor or their industry. So if you think you want to go with that career, those are the four things that I recommend.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (07:31):
Yeah. And I apologize, I’m not being rude. I’m just taking some notes here because this is, uh, you know, it’s good information. And I think, you know, we can kind of flip that script again, you know, on the employee earth side.
That is something that I always recommend is that mentor is that, you know, when you have somebody new coming in, um, you can actually save yourself a lot of headaches if you kind of pair them up with the mentor, because just like me, uh, you know, I don’t want to come to you and say, uh, Zack, I’m not really sure how to start this program, or I’m doing this and it’s not working. If you’re my boss, uh, you know, there’s a little hesitancy to do that.
But if you’re my coworker, I can lean across the cubicle and say, Hey, can you give me a hand here? And it just, uh, it takes a lot of the inhibition out of asking for help because a lot of times I think, you know, maybe you can agree that employees will sit there and be so frustrated until they finally get up and walk out and they don’t come back.
Zack (08:34):
Yeah. You have to have an open line of communication with your boys. That’s what I’ve found. So important, not just your one-on-ones that you sat every week to, to address them, but you’ve gotta be almost on call if you will, right. Your employees. I say it’s a 24 hour, seven day a week job, a manager employees. You’re always on the clock. Right. And that’s a part of leadership.
And if there’s something that’s bothering employee, instead of blowing it off or not addressing it, I promise you if you blow it off and not address it, it will bubble up and a few months to a year. Right. And that will cause turnover. So it’s really important to address employees, concern and see where their development is and see what they’re frustrated about it and see if we can get on a path to help you improve that performance. Yeah.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (09:17):
So the other thing that, uh, that you mentioned is the, um, well, I think the other thing that’s important, it’s the, the gain, the internships and gaining the experience, but it’s also kind of the things that we may do outside of education or, uh, outside of our work experience. Those can also be very helpful when we go in for an interview.
And I don’t know, I, I assume that, you know, back in the old days, it seemed like we were focused on GPA. What is your degree? Um, you know, they, they didn’t really advise you to focus on what groups are you in, what are your act? So civic activities, what social groups, or, you know, things like that. So how important is that for both young and for those in, uh, you know, middle career that are making changes, how important is that aspect?
Zack (10:09):
Well, let’s talk about it from the youth side at first. So next week I’ll actually be in East Tennessee, given talks all around high schools, middle schools about this idea. So you think about it. We have been so focused as a society about GPA’s and literatures and math and all that makes sense. I get it, but I think we’ve done ourselves, a good service and the common sentences area.
And what I mean by that is finances, personal finances. Most people that come out don’t know what compounding interest is. And for the career side, where I’m passionate about, you know, there’s 821 careers out there at North America. Wow. There’s not enough career development enough going on right now in the middle school level or the high school level to identify careers and think about it. What’s your main goal of graduating high school and college to find a career where I think we forget that behind the scenes.
Zack (10:59):
We’re not teaching people how to do that. We’re not focusing on that. Right. And so get involved in your community. That’s what I tell that’s what I I’m so big about. So if you’re in a small town, you’re in a big town, you volunteer, volunteer starts opening up channels. Guests who volunteers, a lot of times, professionals in the community, you start networking with them.
You can hone in on some of your skills, give back to your communities, start joining these, uh, leadership organizations and student level student, government, student. There’s so many different organizations you can join, take on leadership roles. And then you do. You talked about what about the professionals that are a little bit older that can begin right now? You know, we’re on a post pandemic, but you can begin right now. LinkedIn actually has LinkedIn gathering scheduled any cities, why not hop in their virtual lightly do a virtual coffee date. You know what I tell people to do now?
They’re like, well, you know, I’m a little, I made maybe a compromise. I don’t want to get out of this situation. That’s fine. Guess what? Find a mentor, find a professional to network with. Do Uber eats, schedule a lunch, guess what? Everybody loves a free lunch. Say what day works for you? Send them free lunch and have that ability to talk to people to develop your next connection. Next career.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (12:16):
An awesome idea. I love that having a virtual meeting and you can Uber eat the other participant. I like that. Yeah. And it gives us a another, uh, if we’re getting out there, it not only looks good and it’s good to talk about. But the other thing that we don’t talk enough about, I think, especially for young kids and you know, they look at me like, I’m totally crazy when I say it, but I’m like always have a three by five card in your pocket.
And that’s kinda what I keep my to-do list on. So I’ve always got them around, but when you meet people, write their name down, jot down something about them that, you know, because you want to develop these relationships because not only may you be able to help them at some point in the future, they may be able to help you. And you can always think, Hey, I remember I talked to this guy three years ago and he did this as he’s still doing that and reach out.
And the other thing I think it’s, it’s probably important to say is we need to foster those relationships. Not only build them, but keep them going. You can’t meet somebody three years ago and call them up out of the blue and say, Hey, I really need some help. But, um,
Zack (13:29):
Great point. So two chapters on my book, it’s like, you’ve almost read this and study this. So, you know, you talk about the three by five card. Well, I’ve integrated that where everybody can do it now. Guess what everybody has now almost as a smartphone, right? So, you know, I used to keep a career journal and I’m old school. I like paper and a pen and it to do this, but guess what? Most people are going to their phones.
So I’ll recommend some apps in my book. One is called day one. It is actually a calendar or career journal calendar where you can go into your phones. You can actually take a picture of their business card. It uploads the contact. You can have a plan, start answering questions about your strengths, your abilities, and you have this, like you said, three years from now.
Zack (14:14):
You’re not going to remember that I met Roy on a networking event, but you guess what? You pull up his card, you keep in touch with them, right? The other thing you hit on you, can’t just, let’s say I meet you at a networking event. We talk 10 minutes and their Bible five years later, I’m like, Hey boy, can you endorse me for that job down the street? I’d really appreciate it.
Right? That’s not how it works. You have to cultivate those relationships. And I have to show you my talents and my abilities and my strengths over time. Right? One way I do that is I organized it through LinkedIn and I, and challenge everybody to have a LinkedIn account. What I do, and this is a pain in the rear, but I do it is I have over 3000 connections on LinkedIn. And every twice a year, I touched base with them. Guess how I touch base with them?
Happy birthday and happy anniversary of the job, or congratulate them on a job. And it does. I don’t give the cliches. Congratulations on your work or happy birthday. I give it happy birthday. How are you doing? Yeah. I hope you have a great day. Personalize it, customize it. Stay in touch with your connection, right?
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (15:18):
Yeah. That’s awesome. Advice speak in, um, not only for the, uh, for the networking, but also for the solo preneurs entrepreneurs, I’ve gotten a couple jobs that way, you know, and LinkedIn is great because it prompts you whose birthday anniversary. And so if you send them a little note and I had one guy send him a note that said, Hey, happy birthday, hope you’re having an awesome day.
And you know, he wrote me back and I could just tell by as a message that he was kind of out of breath, like, Oh my God, I’m so glad you reached out. I need you to do this for me. And you know, I’ve got a decent size job off of it. So, you know, keeping those relationships fresh and reaching out, you know, taking the time to reach out when we have a good touch point. Um, you really can’t say enough about that.
Zack (16:07):
Absolutely. I mean, it’s, it’s really important nowadays. And you know, that’s just one of my niches that I do, but you can find other creative ways, you know, when somebody posts content that you like the article, um, you know, like they’re, you know, LinkedIn is based on algorithms, just like Facebook, just like social media.
So the more things you like, the more you’re going to pop up in people’s feeds, guess what they see your name and you want to make sure your comments are positive because I’ve also seen it where people are like, Oh, this is a disgusting company. That kind of negativity will ruin your reputation. And so making sure that you keep it positive, you like an article say, this is a fantastic read, love it on leadership right at that.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (16:46):
Yeah. I don’t want to digress into the negative, but you brought that up and it’s interesting that you see, uh, people being outright rude or ugly to other people in a needless situation. And I always think, gosh, so how can, how would somebody want to do business with them?
Whether they work for a company or whether they’re in business for themselves, uh, it, it’s, uh, sending a message about who you are. If you’re willing to pile onto somebody for some little bitty thing, do you, you know, are people really going to want to do business? So I that’s important that reputation management
Zack (17:24):
Absolutely. You know, um, uh, Warren buffet has a famous quote. Um, it’s kind of leaving me, but I think it says like it takes 20 years to build a reputation, but it can take 20 seconds to ruin it. Exactly. And it’s so true. And so we have to watch what we do on a daily basis and, you know, just be kind, be nice. Um, be respectful. My grandmother always taught me if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say exactly. So that’s kind of the same thing you run LinkedIn. Yeah.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (17:53):
No, those are words to live by too. We just need to be not niceness. Kindness goes a long way. So while we’re on that, uh, LinkedIn subject, um, I noticed nowadays, uh, there’s a lot of people with the green circle around their name opened for employment.
So what is your opinion on that? I’ve heard both. It’s like, yeah, you need to take advantage of your network and advertise that you’re looking or you’re open. And some people are like, yeah, don’t do that because it makes you look desperate. So, um, you know, kind of, what’s your take on that?
Zack (18:26):
Well, I view it from the first, I think, you know, the minute enough, I would become an unemployed. Everybody’s gonna know about it. And I know for some people that’s kind of fear and shame and you know, but guess what, I’ve been laid off twice. So everybody’s might be laid off.
You’re never know when your job is going to end. And the pandemic’s been a great call for that. I’ve been saying it for years. Like you got to have a backup plan. You have to have a backup plan. And then nobody believed me cause they were in secure jobs for 20 years. And guess what happened? Brought a virus. So I am a firm believer of using those tools on LinkedIn, that you are open for work.
Um, letting your network know, you never know how your aunts, sisters, cousins, neighbor as a position, or they may have advice. You may want to talk to them and they’re willing to answer. So I’m all about using green circles. And however else you can to promote yourself that you are available for work.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (19:18):
Yeah. Which is another point about being a good contact referral source networking is if you see that person that you’re connected with and you know, somebody, you know, we don’t have to recommend and say, you know what? I know this, we can distance ourselves a little bit to say, look, here’s somebody looking.
I don’t know them very well, but at least pass their name along and get them kind of in that process. But it’s important. Uh, you know, it’s important that we give, I believe in what we put out. We usually get back. So we, I may not be looking for a job today, but if I can help five people that are, uh, when I need that help, they will be there for me
Zack (20:02):
A hundred percent. That’s so true. You know, when I see the green on their profiles or if I see that they’ve been downsized or I see position, I automatically think who do I know in my network right now. And it may not pop up to you right now, but here’s a good way to do it. Like the button, if you like it on LinkedIn, other people are, if they’re on there looking for jobs, they’re going to see it.
That’s so good. If I see a job in New Jersey, I’m like, Hmm, nobody that I can think of right now, but maybe there’s somebody I’m going to go ahead and like this job, it’s going to put it in the newsfeed at least. And that’s a bare minimum we could do now.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (20:39):
Yeah. So there’s old timers like me that, you know, we, I do know what a resume is and pretty much how to make that happen. But, uh, with these, um, you and forgive me, I don’t, I can’t call the name, but it’s the automated system that we run our, uh, that a lot of companies run your resume through to see if there’s word matches, skill matches. So how important is it to tweak our resumes, to, uh, give us a high ranking on those systems?
Zack (21:10):
You know, I talk about that in my book. Um, I was in pharmaceutical sales and I was working with my manager, a great mentor. He was a great guy. We were talking about, and he said, we were having this big, long conversation. And he said, well, is your resume updated? I was like, well, no, I plan on staying at the company and being in this field, he said, I didn’t ask you that is your resume updated.
And I said, well, no, I just said, I want to stay at the company. He said, is your resume updated? In other words, heap your resume for Ash at least every half year or every four months. When you win something, an accomplishment, you better write that down because guess what? Like you said, old timers, um, I’m, I’m considered in the middle. I forget things all the time.
Zack (21:55):
You think I’m gonna remember a leadership award that I won two years ago. You keep that documentation, write it down in your career journal noted on LinkedIn. So you won’t forget it. You know, I think a lot of us have accomplishments strip out the years we downgrade them. Cause we’re humans. We don’t look at them. If you get an email of crane, graduations, print that baby out.
I, I encourage people to crave a brag book. Yeah. I’m old school print things off, keeping them in a bulk in a binder. And guess what, if you find yourself in five years and you’re like, well, what have I accomplished at my job at IBM or Google your portfolio’s right there in that book. Right. And so, like you said, it’s important to keep up with these type things. Yeah.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (22:37):
Not only because you may, you don’t know when you may be searching for a new job, but also, uh, promotions. A lot of times you, even if you’re being promoted through large companies, you’re really starting over again. They’re going to want to see a resume before they start the interview process. So even, uh, either way, it’s not a bad idea at all.
Zack (22:58):
Yeah. Tweak your resume, proofread them, have a professional look overall. I can’t trust me. There’s not, you can have a hundred people over your resume and you might lose a period or find a different mistake or they might have a different suggestions.
A lot of it’s subjective, but I like feedback on resumes. And I think that’s so important, especially, let’s say you’re a college student, listen to this, you’ve got career centers at your disposable for three, go in there, get your resume tuned up. And though there’s, there are certified coaches. So there’ll be able to help you with that.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (23:34):
Yeah. The other thing that kind of brings up is, uh, you know, we used to bullet point responsibilities that we had, which I think it’s good to talk about those, but we also did, if I’m not nowadays don’t we want to be very pointed with accomplishments. I improve sales by 10% or we cut costs by this, or really, uh, have the data and the numbers to back up, whatever you’re saying.
Zack (24:00):
Yeah. You’re, you’re so right about that. So, you know, if you’ve done a project, the company’s like it specifics. So let’s say, you know, you improve customer service. Well that doesn’t tell me a lot. What, you know, tell me what, how that improved the company.
What did it specifically do? Well, I improved customer service in the sales department that led to a 20% increase in retention and that what companies are looking for, they’re not looking for. Well, I helped on a marketing project. How did the rhubarb and prejudice present a project, improve ROI for the company? Right? Make specific, have specific examples ready to go into resume. Yeah.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (24:41):
So you talked about there’s 821. I think job classifications by the federal government. Uh, they used to have tests that are, uh, I guess, profiles. You could go out and take, do you put much stock in those? Like, uh, maybe if let’s just say, if you got laid off or with this pandemic, it’s a good time to maybe start over and do something different. Do you recommend those? Are they valuable?
Zack (25:08):
It’s first on my list because you have to learn more about yourself. And I don’t think sometimes we spend enough time on ourselves to understand our strengths and I hear it all the time. They say, Zack, well, I’m not good at anything. Well, I don’t buy that. I believe everybody has some innate gift or ability, but maybe we haven’t found it yet.
And these personality profiles, um, there’s so many out there, but our first one is disc. And that tells your personality, who you like to work for? What kind of setting you like to work in? What other personalities you like to work with? I put tons of stock on these and I think they’re very valuable.
A lot of them are free on the internet are available through an app on your phone. Why not take them to see what kind of even one does, uh, um, it’s escaping me the name of it, but it actually links your strengths to possible careers you can do.
Zack (25:56):
And so why not go down that road, learn more about yourself, learn about your strengths. So yes, I do put a lot of stock in these warrior personality profiles now, does that mean that they’re 100% and that, but you can kind of filter through them. So I took one the other day and one of them said that I’m artistic. Well, that’s just not true. I hate this high and I don’t like to do anything, but you know, what could that mean?
That might be a marketing concept that I enjoy doing. So you kind of got to like continue to explore that, but sometimes they’re not always right, but sometimes like speaking, guess what public presentation skills was on there. Well, that’s obvious that’s something that I’m passionate about and that’s my passion. So I think they really do help you and give you kind of a direction that you need.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (26:39):
Okay. Uh, yeah. So, um, I had a good question there and I just totally went blank with it. Sorry about that. But yeah,
Zack (26:51):
That’s a typical day for me. That’s a bad thing.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (26:55):
Cause I’m, I’m passionate about this subject so much. It’s like I got 12 ideas running through my head all, all at one time. Uh, th the, I guess the most controversial thing, and we kind of waited until the end of the, uh, getting close to the end to bring this up. But so let’s, let’s kind of touch on passion versus pay. Um, you know, the, Oh, I think I’ll just speak for myself being younger.
It’s like you chase the paycheck, chase, uh, you know, a little more money as you get older. It’s like, you know, it’s not as important as being passionate and having that, uh, just the really engaged in the, either the job, the company, the product, the service, whatever. And so to me, it’s like, if you can find, uh, you will find happiness faster, finding your passion versus just chasing that next paycheck.
Zack (27:51):
Yeah. I wish we had three hours because you know, this is a big controversy and I I’d say I’d take it on the book. Um, you know, a lot of people think it’s a myth that you can actually live and be happy in a job you like and make a decent income. Right. You know, and I take on a big celebrity. Mark Cuban has some thoughts on that. He doesn’t agree with and I take him on head on, and here’s what I mean by passionate purpose.
So let’s say you’re listening to this. I’m not advocating you to quit your job and go start painting stumps in the backyard for a career. Right? What, what I, and I wanted to be in the NBA basketball player. Well guess what, Roy I’m sick speed. And I’m, um, I was 200 pounds at the time, all fat. So I wanted to guard Shaquille O’Neal and I thought that was my passion, like 15 years old.
Zack (28:39):
It’s not reality. Now there’s hobbies that I might enjoy and be good at. But what I mean by finding your passion is simply this, you identify your strengths, your abilities, your unit, yes. You take those into the marketplace. You align it with a career. Did you enjoy duty? And nine times out of 10 you’ll have enough security financially to make it now, was everybody going to mill million vinegar on that? Absolutely not. Let me give you one example and I’ll close with this.
My grandmother was in the nursing home the last year of her life and you know, just an amazing girl named Jenna took great care of my grandmother, an RN at the nursing home. We can look at her salary on public. She makes enough obviously to get by and be passionate about it, but she’s never going to be probably a multimillionaire.
Zack (29:30):
But when she went on vacation to Florida, I said, how was your vacation to Florida? Jenna? She said, well, I enjoyed the beach, but you know what? I really miss my patients. Right, right. And how many you could just tell by her passion, she’s living for so much more.
And she makes, she’s not going to be a millionaire, but maybe one day, you know, as she moves up in her career and she starts a career development path, maybe she’s a trainer at a hospital of other nurses. Right. So that’s a great example of how purpose of passion can really help you, um, and have a fulfillment in life. Yeah.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (30:06):
Yeah. And I believe in that wholeheartedly, because just like myself, I’ve been fortunate enough through my life to have always done work that I enjoy. So it’s, and it’s true. What they say, that if you enjoy what you do, you don’t ever work a day in your life because I’m just as excited on Monday morning as I am on Friday morning.
I’m not wasting my, um, I’m not wasting my life away just thinking, Oh my gosh, if I can just make it till Friday, I mean, you got to be in a position that every day is not going to be the best oral, you know, their good days and their bad days, no matter what we do. But if you’re really doing something that you like and feel passionately about, I think you probably will have more good days and bad days.
Zack (30:47):
Absolutely. You know, we’re called unicorns. Now, people that say that because it’s so rare, you don’t see them much for somebody to be able to say, well, I like Monday, just as much as Friday. They’re like, okay, what’d you say again? So you must work. You must have all Monday. You must have. And so they don’t get that. And that’s what I’m trying to spread around the world.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (31:07):
Yeah. Well, Zack, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be with us. Uh, man, this is good information. And I think, uh, you know, we, we can look at both sides of this equation. There’s a lot of good information in here for the job seeker.
But then on the employee side, we have, you know, as employee ORs, we have to look at all of this so we can take it, wrap it all together to make the very best hires that we can. So, um, before I let you go, what is a tool that you use in your daily life? And it can be work-related personal, but a tool, a habit, some kind of a ritual that you just can’t couldn’t make it without
Zack (31:47):
I’m old school. So I still do the journal and I have been at a paper and it’s in my briefcase and people think I’m absolutely crazy, but it’s a calendar. And as my career journal and I write down everything, I write down my contacts, I write down my appointments.
I lay out my day and I also, this is, I talk about this in the book, have goals and a vision over your life. Vision leads to goals, your goals, your tactics. And so I lay out what I want to get accomplished every day. So that night before I go to bed, people can’t believe it, but I actually have a pad. I have a here too of things I want to get accomplished today and I make them stretch goals. And so if I want to accomplish, let’s say, you know, connecting with, by people, their LinkedIn, this is going to be on my list today.
And so I think those that’s a tool. It’s an old school tool, but you can use an app, like I said before. And that’s really what organizes my day gets more contacts and helps, uh, mediator accomplish each goal each day. All right.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (32:53):
I love it. Well, Zack tell everybody, you know, who you work with, how they can get ahold of you and what you can do for them. And also be sure and let them know how they can, uh, get a hold of this. Don’t be a zombie, how to find a career. You love your latest book.
Zack (33:09):
Yeah. The best way they can follow me is through social media. So I talked about the three ones, LinkedIn, um, Instagram and Facebook, and it’s all, there’s so easy. All you have to do is type in linkedin.com, instagram.com. It’s slash Zack Ballinger, tag ZackBallinger. And you can follow me on Facebook, um, Instagram, whatever social media you’re on.
I would encourage your audience. LinkedIn is probably my most favorite because it’s professional and I learned a lot from it. So connect with me on LinkedIn. Happy to accept any contacts. And then the book is on Zack ballinger.com, a Zackballinger.com. And they can find it on Amazon.
Roy – The Business of Business Podcast (33:54):
All right, awesome, Zack. And we’ll be sure and put all that, uh, contact link to the book, everything up on the show notes and the web page as well. So again, thanks a lot. This is Roy with the business of business podcast. Appreciate you listening again. You can find us at www dot the business of business podcast. We are also on iTunes, Stitcher, Google play, and Spotify, as well as we will be putting, uh, the recorded interview up on YouTube as well. So until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other. Thanks.
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