IAM1680 – Coach Helps Individuals from Alienation to Profound Self-Actualization

Why it was selected for “CBNation Architects”: Scott talked about something that is so powerful during the interview which is that with each iteration in our lives, we get closer and closer to our core. He talked about “individualization” and how that taps into the human side of life and how that manifests itself in organizations and businesses. I also love the lens of “greek mythology” that he spoke about and how that is a tool that we can learn about myths that we are telling ourselves. The realization that we are all in “transition” is so powerful because so often we want to arrive at the destination but it becomes freeing to know that we are always in transition.

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Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/2022/09/18/iam1497-coach-helps-individuals-from-alienation-to-profound-self-actualization/

Transcription:

Scott Mason Teaser 00:00

They need and can benefit from the same sort of tool to connect them to what we mentioned earlier, that core to find the right place for them. We all only get to live this particular life once. If there's a chance for people to move from alienation and to profound self-actualization, I want to share it with them. I want them to live professionally free.

Intro 00:24

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:51

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast, and I appreciate you listening to this episode. And if you've been listening this year, we're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes under certain categories or topics that we think are gonna be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners.

This month is going to be about not forgetting about the human part of business. Often we forget about the human part of life. We often forget about the human part of business. So look for self-care tips, fitness, burnout, purpose, biz, and personal, personal branding, motivation, drive, success, understanding your why, and of course, how important customer service is. But at the heart of it, it's all about, remembering the human part of business. So sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I am CEO podcast.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today, I have Scott Mason, the Myth Slayer. Scott, super excited to have you on the show.

Scott Mason 01:48

Hey, I'm thrilled to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:50

Yes, excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we do that, I wanted to read a little bit more about Scott so you could hear about some of those awesome things. And Scott the Myth Slayer is a speaker, author, podcaster, and coach who works with executives and successful entrepreneurs feeling stuck, stagnant in their career or business, and ready for change.

After graduating from Columbia Law School, Scott worked for over 20 years as an attorney and senior executive with a variety of organizations in the government and nonprofit sectors before growing and scaling a manufacturing company. His insights on leadership and transformation have been impaired in both book compilations and online magazines. He's hosted three podcasts, including one for Toastmasters International's, greater New York District, and another Scott Mason's Purposeful Highway, which was in the top 5% globally.

Scott, super excited again to have you on the show, my friend. Are you ready to speak to the I am CEO community?

Scott Mason 02:43

I am excited to do so.

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Gresham Harkless 02:45

Awesome. Let's get started then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock heat a little bit more on how you got started with all the awesome things, what I call your CEO story.

Scott Mason 02:53

Thank you. So, as you indicated in my bio, this is actually my fourth career. After I co-owned that manufacturing company, my business partner and I had different visions about where it should go in the future. I viewed this as my sort of fourth go around, as an opportunity to really found and create a company that played to my strengths that also could bring some visionary dialogue, discussion, and some new ways of thinking about being a leader or a CEO into that space. And hence the current iteration of my professional life was born.

Gresham Harkless 03:28

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I think one of the beautiful things I think we sometimes forget, is that we don't have to have just one set of career. You get to reinvent yourself. And I think that's tried and true just from a human aspect. The more you learn, the more you experience life, and the more you start to see different problems to tackle, and different ways to reinvent yourself. And I think that in much the same way, it sounds like you've had the career that goes along with it.

Scott Mason 03:48

It is absolutely the best. One of the things I like about doing that is that with each iteration, you move closer and closer to your core. And if you do it right, you move not only closer to your core, but you're able to more and more deeply connect your inner purpose, your values, and the non-negotiables in your life. And once you have all of that tied together, you can find true professional freedom, and that's a position I want anyone and everyone possible to be in, particularly if you're leading any sort of organization.

Gresham Harkless 04:24

Yeah. That's so huge and I love that you said, as each generation gets closer to your core, cause you know, I've heard something very similar around design and I think Steve Jobs has this quote where he talks about design as something you have to work at. And it drew parallels to what you said, where through the process of life you start to get closer to your core, your essence of who you are, and those values and all those things that are, right in alignment with the essence of who you are.

Scott Mason 04:47

Absolutely. It's interesting. My firm belief is that each of us was brought into the world and then through our life experiences develop into a unique combination of native skills and talents, but then also experiences as well as values. Now, no one's life is identical, nor are any of our genetics identical. So with that comes a high degree of individuation within every single person. The beauty of that is that it allows a high degree of individuation as to what we can bring out into the world as leaders, both personally and vis-a-vis the organizations that we work with.

Once we connect with that. If we're able to get right into that core and nail it and then externalize it in a way that's charismatic and magnetizes people, then we have that opportunity to fully actualize what we have been given all of these things for, which is to shift the world in our own ways. Maybe big and maybe small, but a shift is a shift. Ripple effects can end up being gigantic.

Gresham Harkless 05:57

Yeah, absolutely. And when you're able to rip on the right way, obviously, that across, many different lives, humans and so on and so forth. But also those generational ripples as well too. So I absolutely love that.

So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more about your podcast, and all the awesome things you're doing. So could you take us through the different and multiple ways that you serve and work with the clients you have?

Scott Mason 06:17

Absolutely. So as you indicated in the bio, I'm a speaker as well as a coach, as well as an author. And all of the work that I do centers on the theme of magnetizing and monetizing professional freedom. Now, that may be by up-leveling your leadership so that you find exactly what we spoke about a few minutes ago, that core of yours that allows you to electrify the world as a leader. Or it may simply be working with people, particularly in a large organizational context. They feel disconnected from their purpose or alienated from their work. Sometimes it may mean that they need to shift career paths. Sometimes it may mean that they need to move into entrepreneurialism or whatever.

At the end of the day, I want them to find professional freedom. I do that through a signature program that teaches them how to magnetize and monetize, I'm sorry, that teaches them how to dislodge the toxic myths that they might be telling themselves that hold them back, as well as igniting the charisma within. And the lens through which I view that, and the journey through which I take them is all rooted in Greek mythology, which as we know is timeless, universal and if examined carefully in a leadership context, can take people in some amazing, unprecedented directions.

Gresham Harkless 07:32

Yeah, I absolutely love that. It resonates so much with that because I think when you start to get closer to your core, as we've been talking about, and you really can understand that whether you're a leader at a high-level organization or you are a customer or client number 555 at whatever organization you have that purpose. And if you can tap into that and get rid of the stuff that can hold you back from that, then you really can do some remarkable things.

Scott Mason 07:57

Absolutely. One of the challenges that folks have sometimes is recognizing what that stuff is, let alone developing a framework within which they can conceptualize how these things are playing out in their lives. And that, in particular, is where I feel that the Greek mythology is a useful tool for studying Greek mythology, mythology across the board. But Greek mythology in particular I've been able to identify five toxic myth types that are represented in the myths themselves, but also a representative of stories that people tell themselves.

In addition, there are five toxic roles within myths that even if you are living out a myth or telling yourself a story that's neutral, can turn your journey into one that is negative. So one of the very first things that we do is look at the narratives people are telling themselves, what mythological framework is it fitting into? And is it toxic? And what roles are you playing and are those toxic?

There are three positive roles that we can move people into, and once they're into those three positive roles, they can find the power within to rewrite a whole new book of mythology or their future. With that book, the new leg of their journey can begin.

Gresham Harkless 09:12

Yeah, absolutely. I can definitely see that in understanding the holistic aspect of those narratives of the people within the layers not just sometimes that one side of the coin is so powerful.

So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for yourself, the organization, or a combination of both. But I almost feel like the ability to be able to take that Greek history, the narratives, and that information, be able to translate that so people can create that impact and change. Do you still feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

Scott Mason 09:41

I would say that is the secret sauce. It's changed my life and I'm determined to bring the positive impact that it's had on my life out into the world, because there are a lot of folks out there that are feeling alienated, that are feeling disconnected. And that's a situation as the world accelerates from a business perspective more and more quickly into more and more complexity, as well as deeper and deeper levels of specialization and impersonalisation.

Particularly as automation continues to emerge, who and what we work on can be something that folks feel utterly severed from. They need and can benefit from the same sort of tool to connect them to what we mentioned earlier, that core to find the right place for them. We all only get to live this particular life once. If there's a chance for people to move from alienation into profound self-actualization, I want to share it with them. I want them to live professionally free.

Gresham Harkless 10:42

Absolutely. I love that. So, Scott, I wanted to switch gears a little bit. I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So you might have already touched on this, but this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Scott Mason 10:57

I believe in making sure that whenever I communicate, particularly if I am in a public space, i.e. In a leadership space, I am doing one thing in particular, making sure that I am consciously connecting the message in my brain to the purpose-driven space in my heart. When those things connect, a power valve opens and charisma bursts out.

Charisma is ultimately what brings people behind our message. Charisma is the greatest secret that a leader has or might not have, that no one talks about. Building that charisma and being conscious of what it takes to push it out is my answer to your question. We each have charisma within us. You'll hear people every now and then say, oh, I'm not very tall. I have a very small presence and my voice is soft. So what?

Actually, the Greek myths have a lot to say about that in particular. The one lesson that one can take away from those myths without me going through the whole thing, is that it is within every single one of us, and it may manifest differently, but that power is the ultimate, in my opinion, secret leadership hack.

Gresham Harkless 12:19

Yes. So what would you consider to be what I like to call a CEO nugget? This is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I usually say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Scott Mason 12:32

Who and what you are at any given moment, is subject to change. A lot of times, going back to Greek mythology as a metaphor, you'll hear people talk about being on a hero's journey and the journey that all of us are on if we are navigating it ideally, can feel and even be heroic. But let's never forget that the status of a hero is always transitional.

A hero is on a journey from place A to place B. They're not just on the heroic journey forever. Now, in Greek mythology, once a hero takes the actions that transform them from an ordinary being into a hero, then they have an experience called apotheosis. In other words, they become a god. Understand that we all are in transition. As I said earlier, who and what we are today isn't necessarily forever. The goal that I recommend my clients aspire to is not being just a hero, but being an Olympian.

Gresham Harkless 13:43

Absolutely. And I love that you help people to unlock that and you do that so well, with the clients that you work with. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on this show. So Scott, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Scott Mason 14:00

Being a CEO is magnetizing individuals and systems around you so that you can bring change to society to a larger sphere that you are seeking to make. Either through the product that you sell or the service that your organization provides.

Now, I don't necessarily believe that maximizing profit is necessarily a part of that formula because there are CEOs that are of nonprofits. So all of that goes to the importance of making some difference in the world that would not be there, where the product or service that you're providing were ultimately not in existence. Being a CEO is, as I mentioned earlier, the ability to galvanize people beyond, behind whatever that change is.

Gresham Harkless 14:56

Absolutely. Scott, truly appreciate that definition. Of course. I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best people can get ahold of you, find out about your podcast. All the awesome things that you're working on, my friend.

Scott Mason 15:14

Thank you. On LinkedIn, I'm S.Scott Mason. There are a resilient other Scott Masons, but I'm the only S.Scott Mason. And then follow me on Instagram at Scott_Mason. You should feel free to reach out to me at scott@myfreedomrocks.com.

Gresham Harkless 15:37

Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Well, I definitely appreciate that. And of course, to make it even easier, just so there's no confusion with any of the Scott Mason, we're gonna have the links and information in the show notes too so that everybody can follow up with you. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Scott Mason 15:49

Thank you.

Outro 15:50

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe our podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, and everywhere you listen to podcast.

Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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