Unlocking The Difference Between Success And Meaning With Elizabeth Dixon

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Chapters:
00:00 – Cold Start & Intro
06:40 – Is Your Job Borrowing Your Identity?
10:20 – Your Team Needs More Than a Mission
16:40 – Why Purpose Gets Put Off
19:20 – Successful, but Climbing the Wrong Ladder?
21:09 – When Purpose Means Firing a Client
26:00 – Keep the Why. Rethink the How.
33:00 – Can a Paycheck Be Your Purpose?
37:30 – Putting Your Purpose Into Words
42:57 – Don’t Wait for a Crisis to Find Your Why

Elizabeth Dixon (00:02)
From a business perspective, if we don’t have purpose, can we have a meaningful business? Absolutely, we can have a successful business, but it will lack the level of meaning for employees and ultimately customers.

I mean, money is the source or it’s the means in which we barter and trade things. I think that when it becomes the sole focus, we miss out on the deeper, meaningful parts of life, of using our gifts, of being about something that’s bigger than us.

Skot Waldron (00:38)
When I’m not hosting Unlocked, I’m speaking at events all over the world. I’m helping leaders and I’m helping teams communicate better. I’m helping them build trust faster and actually enjoy working together. I’ve spoken for companies like The Home Depot. I’ve spoken at national architectural firms. I’ve spoken for pharmaceutical company offsites. I’ve spoken at associations, you name it.

With 99% of attendees of all those events, over 1800 people have reviewed me at this point. 99% of them saying they got some value. That’s pretty awesome. Even the caterers have thanked me. And if they are thanking me and they’ve heard a lot of talks and they’re busy doing their jobs, that’s saying something. If you’re an event planner looking for a speaker who’s really easy to work with, trust me, I want to be the last thing you’re worried about on event day. I’m going to take care of you. And who actually delivers value for your audience that they are going to use on Monday morning when they return to the office, then let’s talk.

Why do you get up every day and do your job? Why do you get up every day? Period. There is more to what we do than making widgets and doing this one service thing I do every day. There’s so much more to it and that deep seated purpose is what we’re going to talk about today and why it’s so important for you, yes, you as an individual to understand your purpose, but also you as an organization to understand your purpose and what it is you really are here to do.

We’re not going to talk vision, mission, values. We mentioned those things in the show, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about purpose. And how many of you have a purpose statement? How many of you have a why, an understanding of what you do and why you do it? Simon Sinek coined this start with why phrase years ago, and it kind of set off this revolution of understanding your why and your purpose, and his common and famous phrase is people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

And my guest today is diving a bit deeper, and we get into some of the tactical and the ROI of finding your purpose. We actually talk about, and Elizabeth is going to talk about that on the show because she has written a new book and we’re going to talk about that new book. But we’re also going to talk about some of the research and some of the case studies that she has found in this new book of the ROI of having a purpose. Elizabeth Dixon is a rock star. That’s not how her bio starts out. I’m just saying that because I’ve spoken to her now and she’s awesome.

Elizabeth Dixon she is an entrepreneur, she’s a business leader, she’s an author, and keynote speaker who helps leaders find clarity, take action, and make the daunting doable. She is the founder of Possibility Co., a firm that helps organizations turn purpose and customer experience into a business advantage. With two decades of leadership experience at the Chick-fil-A Support Center and work alongside renowned brands including Southwest Airlines, The Ritz-Carlton, Zappos, and Wegmans, Elizabeth brings deep expertise in purpose, customer experience, culture, and leadership development. She’s developed and served as CEO of the Trilith Foundation, a nonprofit focused on inspiring human flourishing. She is the author of The Power of Customer Experience, The Strength of Purpose, and The Advantage of Purpose, a Fellow at Baylor University, and the founder of Slumber Sleepwear. So she’s all over the place. She has a ton of experience in the space, and she has just written this new book that we’re going to dive into just a bit more today. So here we come, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, it is so great to have you.

Elizabeth Dixon (04:49)
Thank you. It’s such an honor to be here.

Skot Waldron (04:52)
Do you smile this much all the time? I’m just curious.

Elizabeth Dixon (04:54)
Yes. Yes, I was applying for a job in DC about 23 years ago. And I remember I was checking in, it was at the White House, and the guy looks up at me and he’s like, whoa, you smile a lot. And I was like, huh. I was like, this might not be the city for me. I do smile a lot.

Skot Waldron (05:14)
Wait, was it a critique? Like was it a negative like was it a thing?

Elizabeth Dixon (05:17)
It didn’t feel positive. It didn’t feel positive. It was kind of like that’s weird behavior. I’m skeptical.

Skot Waldron (05:26)
People in DC do not smile this much. You must not be from here.

Elizabeth Dixon (05:30)
Right. You southerner. You southerner.

Skot Waldron (05:35)
Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. So, were you applying to be president or something? What were you doing?

Elizabeth Dixon (05:38)
Yeah, it was a different process back then. I was an exercise science major, and they had an opportunity at the new executive office building in the gym to train the leaders of Army and CIA. And so, I was there to apply for that job. I know, right? That’s kind of cool.

Skot Waldron (05:59)
That’s not intimidating.

Elizabeth Dixon (06:01)
I know.

Skot Waldron (06:03)
Wow. Goodness gracious. Well, that’s cool. Now, you’re talking to me. I feel so honored.

Elizabeth Dixon (06:09)
Yeah, right. Who knew?

Skot Waldron (06:11)
Full circle. All right. Let’s start out with a little bit of, we’re going to hit on this purpose thing pretty hard today. I think that it’s super important and I think it’s a little bit, I’m just going to say undervalued. I don’t think we talk about it enough. I’m grateful for the work Simon Sinek did in his start with why stuff. I think it kind of catapulted this whole idea of purpose into our corporate world and our corporate language. But I want to get your take on it. You said you had to really learn the difference between, this is cool, extracting your purpose from your work and bringing your purpose to your work. Like talk about the difference in those and like what changed for you.

Elizabeth Dixon (06:58)
When we extract our purpose from our work, when changes happen in the company, you don’t get the promotion, you get moved to a different department, etc. etc. etc., it hits different. It hits deeper. There’s a level of identity that gets intertwined with the work that you’re doing.

On the opposite side, when we bring our purpose to our work, we’re bringing passion, enthusiasm, energy into the work we’re doing. And when changes happen and come, they don’t feel so personal and devastating because we still have our purpose. But when we’re extracting it from our work and something changes in the job or we lose the job, some of these bigger questions suddenly come up and it’s like, wait, who am I aside from this job, which is identity? What am I here for aside from this role?

And that was really personal to me about seven or eight years ago when there was a change where it’s like everyone else got the promotion, felt like, but me. And what hurt most was how much it hurt. And I realized I have started to define my purpose from my work, and I am actually extracting my purpose instead of, and then after a year of work, realizing my purpose can extend beyond the job I’m in, the company I’m working for. And I can choose to bring it to my work. And then I can bring it to my job 20 years from now. Or if I choose to stay at home with my kids for a season, or when I retire, I get to bring my purpose with me through all of that.

So, it’s sneaky. It happens really slowly. And often it happens when we love something a lot. But the difference is really pivotal for what’s going on inside.

Skot Waldron (06:58)
What made you want to harp on that so much? What was the problem you were seeing out there that made you want to distinguish between the two when you’re doing this? Cause I think I have a viewpoint based on what you just said, but I want to hear what you say to that.

Elizabeth Dixon (09:13)
So, when that hard season came for me and I was kind of like scrambling myself out of the rubble that I felt inside, I was reminded that the statistic is that 75% of people can’t define their purpose and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. If three out of four people stand to feel how I feel, then there has to be a better way. And there’s so many great books about purpose, but I couldn’t find any that helped me actually do the courageous thing of putting words to mine. And so that was the opportunity I saw was not why does purpose matter? Check, got that. But how do I put words to it? And then even more, how do I align it within my life? How does it make a difference for me on an average Tuesday or when an opportunity comes along? How do I use it to actually be a filter to help me make better decisions? A root system to help me be grounded when things are hard? How do I actually use it and apply it?

Skot Waldron (10:22)
Okay, let’s flip the script a little bit on company’s purpose. Because is that same idea apply? I mean, if we talk about extracting purpose from the work of the company versus bringing purpose to the work of the company, how does that work?

Elizabeth Dixon (10:43)
Mm-hmm from a company’s perspective?

Skot Waldron (10:43)
Yeah.

Elizabeth Dixon (10:51)
So, I think there’s a nuance that’s different from the companies I’ve worked with, the ones that don’t define purpose, they’re just missing out on an opportunity with their people. So, it’s this other side of the equation that when a company doesn’t answer the question of why we exist. So, if we say, vision is where we’re going, mission is what we do, strategy is how we get there, they’ll answer those really easily and very well but the question of why does it even matter? That question is the one that when crisis comes or when employees are tempted to disengage, the answer to the question of why it engages them, and you mentioned Simon Sinek’s book, that’s why he said start with why, because people are compelled and drawn to the why we do what we do, not just what we do.

So the business has an opportunity to unlock, the reason I called it the advantage of purpose is it’s an advantage that every business has access to, it’s just do they choose to use it and then engage their employees in something that’s bigger than themselves. So, the magic comes when the company says, “hey, we’re going to define why we exist and we’re going to align it into the decisions we’re making.” And then the individual, the employee, says, “I’m going to bring my personal purpose into my work to help bring this to life.” That’s the magic when purposes for business and individuals collide.

Skot Waldron (12:27)
There’s alignment right between the people and the teams and especially when you have giant organizations. I mean, I was working with the CDC a bit, and we, I mean, not working on the agency purpose as a whole, I don’t have access, and nor does this team that I’m working with have access or can impact that, but they could impact their own purpose within that 20 person team that they were doing and really define what that was, make sure it aligned with what they did. Because the problem I saw there was, they felt so out of touch with, like, the bigger overall agency impact. They couldn’t see the day-to-day thing that they were doing, the impact they were having. So, they were getting lost in the work a bit. I mean, have you seen that happen?

Elizabeth Dixon (13:19)
Absolutely. And now we have such rapid change. And so, when you feel like you don’t know how your work impacts something bigger, and then it all changes, it can feel so disorienting as an employee where you’re like, I just spent eight months of my life contributing to something that now is gone. And so that’s where if purpose is truly aligned, it makes the blow a little easier because you’re like, okay, but this is why we are doing all this. This is why this change is happening. And at least we can reconcile it better and feel like we are engaged with the bigger purpose of why everything’s happening. It doesn’t make it easy, but it gives us perspective to go rapid change is going on. It might impact me in ways that I might not like, but at least I understand why? It’s no different.

We have two teenagers in our home, and they want to know why. And a lot of our generation grew up with the answer of because I told you so. And that didn’t give us anything to go on. But when we can explain why we’re choosing not to go to that event or why you can’t play Fortnite for seven hours on end, or why we are going to have this dinner as a family, it at least it gives them something to go, okay, I get that. And then I can walk into this decision with a perspective. I think it’s the same thing in business. We have a curiosity to know why. And I think as leaders, we have to take the time to explain why that is.

Skot Waldron (15:06)
First of all, I want to know if your kids know how cool, if they know how cool you are. Do they know that? Have you told them?

Elizabeth Dixon (15:15)
No. They golly, I try to pepper in the lingo, like that’s cap, you know, and they’re like, Stop mom.

Skot Waldron (15:25)
You sounded so cool just now. You totally did. And now that you’ve been on my podcast, you’re going to like be, hey, I was on this podcast with Skot Waldron, and they’d be like, What? You just got raised a level, Mom. I know. And you use the word chat with all these people.

Elizabeth Dixon (15:27)
Did it sound?

Skot Waldron (15:29)
You totally did. And now that you’ve been on my podcast, you’ll be like, “hey, I was on this podcast with Skot Waldron,” and they’d be like, What? You just got raised a level, Mom. I know. And you use the word chat with all these people.

Elizabeth Dixon (15:42)
I just offered my son, he was looking for a book to read, and he’s 13, and he’s read about a third of Patrick Lencioni’s books. He finished Mark Miller’s Great Leader Serve. He’s reading Truett’s book of Mor Chikin. And I said, hey, you know, my new book’s out. I’ll give you $10 to read it. And he’s like, I think it’s $15, Mom. Like, I think you have to pay me $15 to read your book. So that’s where we are, is that I have to pay my children to read my book.

Skot Waldron (16:14)
Well, I’ve given my book out to my children’s friends, although my book and they even want me to sign it, which is pretty funny. But my kids won’t read it. It’s okay though. That’s fine. They get to hear, they’re like dad, you’re using your coaching voice. And I’m like, sorry. You know? So, oh gosh, how did we get off, I hate when I get off topic, although it’s kind of fun sometimes too. Let me go back on. What do most people, I think, well, not what I think. I think there’s some things I think, but I want to hear what you think about what do people misunderstand about purpose?

Elizabeth Dixon (16:47)
Hmm. It’s easy to feel like it’s fluffy. It’s easy to feel like it’s not that important because it’s often not urgent. There’s so many things coming at us. There’s so much change coming at us. There’s fires to put out, there’s issues. And purpose is one of those things that doesn’t fall into the urgent category that’s screaming at you. It falls into this category, like all things that matter deeply over time, like investing in our marriage, investing in our health, investing in our relationship with our kids. It’s when we put the effort in early, it pays out over time. And so, as an organization, when we know our purpose, in good times, it’s helpful because we’re able to say yes and no better and where we want to grow better. But it really shows up, or the lack of it shows up in crisis and when things are hard because we naturally go to why are we even doing this?

And so, when we load that in on the front end, it gives us that strength to weather those seasons. And we’re not, we’re not pivoting and stopping in the middle. There’s a great leader, Mike Pereyo. He and his business partner, Tom, started a company called OOBE. And they over the years have provided uniforms to Chick-fil-A. They’re amazing guys. And Mike says it so well. He said, you have to build the bunker before the war. And if you’re in the war and you’re trying to build the bunker, you’re taking your attention and your sights off where your energy needs to be placed. But if you build that bunker before the war is coming, then when chaos comes, you’re ready. Again, it doesn’t make the chaos less. It just prepares you to be able to face it, give it the energy that you need when that season comes. Cause it will. Like crisis, it’s just a part, it’s the cycle of the economy and industries. Crisis and challenge is going to come. It’s just, are you ready for it?

Skot Waldron (19:02)
Yeah, I don’t have any challenges in my life, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Dixon (19:05)
That’s amazing.

Skot Waldron (19:06)
Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I don’t know how all of you do it. That’s pretty amazing.

Elizabeth Dixon (19:10)
So, we’re going to take the rest of the time to learn how to not have challenges.

Skot Waldron (19:14)
Well, that’s behind my paywall. You have to pay more for that. Can you have a meaningful career without a purpose, without defining your purpose?

Elizabeth Dixon (19:28)
I think you can have an extremely successful career without defining your purpose. But what purpose does, well, answer it both ways. As an individual, what purpose does is it helps you prepare for the hard seasons. If you’re doing big things, you’re going to face obstacles, you’re going to have criticism, you’re going to face challenges. Are you ready for that? Like, do you have the inner foundation to face that? And I think that’s where I like how you use the word meaningful. Can we have a meaningful career? I think we can be very successful, but we risk putting our ladder on the wrong wall and that’s what I realized those seven years ago. When I was climbing well, but I had it on the wrong wall. And that really stings to hit that moment.

I think from a business perspective, if we don’t have purpose, can we have a meaningful business? Absolutely, we can have a successful business, but it will lack the level of meaning for employees and ultimately customers because we were designed and wired to want to be a part of something bigger and to be a part of something good. And when we define where we’re going and how we’re going to get there, it’s very transactional and it’s not as deep and meaningful. So, we miss out on the opportunity to engage our employees and our customers in a way that taps into something that’s meaningful for them.

Skot Waldron (21:09)
Do you have any examples of companies that have made, I mean, it could be a difficult decision or just a decision based on their purpose? Like how did their purpose impact the way they operated or the way that they developed culture, the decisions they made about going after certain work or different clients?

Elizabeth Dixon (21:32)
Yes, I’m going to give you a few. So back to Mike and Tom. One night they were walking from dinner in downtown Greenville back to their office and they saw the lights on. They’re like, who left the lights on? And they went upstairs to the office, and the team was working vigorously. And they’re like, what are y’all doing? And they talked about this client had changed their mind again, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Mike and Tom said, “Go home.” Like, this is not the culture that we want, and they fired the client the next day. They called him up and they said, hey, this just isn’t working out because they heard the stories of how the team was getting treated and mistreated. And they said, absolutely not.

Our purpose is to love and serve. And if we’re not being treated that way by the clients that we’re working with, they don’t need to be a client of ours. Miren Oca, who founded Ocaquatics Swim School in Miami, the largest swim school in South Florida, she in the last three years decided to instead of selling her business to the venture capitalist firms that were interested, she sold her business to her employees. And she’d already become a B Corp. And then she sold this back because a part of her purpose was wanting to create lasting impact, ripples of impact. And now she helps businesses consider how they can do the same and then, also, I think this one’s unique.

Doug Augustine, he had one of the best performing Taco Bells in the franchise. And he had, I think it was 27 in his portfolio. But when he was young, I think 26, his father died of a heart attack. And I believe they had less than five restaurants at the time. And they were of the lowest performing Taco Bells in the entire franchise, and the brand was talking about like, do we close these down? They were so bad. And in this crisis, his father dies of a heart attack. He’s left to run this business. And for a while, it’s all about being operationally excellent. And then he realizes this is very transactional. There has to be more. And so, he does the hard work with his leadership team and they put words to their purpose and the growth that happened as a result of putting words that they didn’t just want to be about the profits, they wanted to also be about the people and the investments that they would make into the people changed everything. And it grew them from around 5 to you know almost 30 restaurants. And then they became overtime the highest performing and most profitable of all Taco Bells.

And so, whether it’s about what we say no to, whether it’s about what we say yes to, like Miren, or whether it’s about how we grow and focus on what’s next, purpose is one of those pieces that can bring everybody in alignment for again, why it matters. And then you add to it vision and mission. It gives everyone that clear path of how we’re going, where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, but then the deeper piece of why it matters.

Skot Waldron (24:48)
Where do you feel values fits into your purpose and how do those fit? I know the vision mission; you’ve explained that pretty well. What about the values piece?

Elizabeth Dixon (25:01)
I think for some organizations, they’re really close crystal clear on values, and the values can help them define purpose. Some people are really crystal clear on why we exist, and therefore the purpose can help define the values. But either way, chicken and egg of how you get there, the purpose answers why we exist. Values become those markers for what our culture is going to stand for, what is in or out. They become those, the words that we can use to say this is how we will and won’t behave. But there has to be a beautiful alignment and symmetry between all of those things. Same thing in our personal lives as with business, but with the business, we’re bringing tens, hundreds, thousands of people along to accomplish this goal, you know, not just ourselves.

Skot Waldron (25:55)
Let me ask you this one. Can purpose become a trap? Let me explain this. How do you, I wonder if people can stay committed to a purpose without becoming attached to a particular way of fulfilling it. Like they get it so stuck in their head that this is the way we have to fulfill this thing, and they get stuck in either weaponizing the purpose of saying, hey, this is our purpose and this is what we have to do now and then it kind of undermines the business model or what they were there to do in the first place.

Elizabeth Dixon (26:38)
Mm-hmm. Truett, who founded Chick-fil-A, used to say, marry the mission, date the methods. And so, I think you said something really important. You said the way that we do this. And I think there has to be a distinguishing of okay, our purpose needs to transcend seasons. Our purpose needs to be for the good of our employees, our customers, the community, the business itself. So, it has to be big enough and broad enough that it can go through decades with you. And then we have to have that awareness to be like, okay, date the methods, date the strategies, date the priorities of right now. Because they’re with, again, the amount of change going on in our world, we have to be open to letting go of what was and being open to what is. But the purpose should be able to be large enough that it can ride those waves with you.

Skot Waldron (27:39)
I like that. I think, well, I think that we argue too much about the how’s. And this is where a lot of conflict comes into play. And I think a lot of teams, a lot of individuals will just, I think we do this in marriage too, right? We bicker about the how’s and the methods of the way we do things. And instead of understanding the big picture, and when I’m talking to people and obviously, I don’t necessarily always take this advice for me and my wife when I’m doing it, but like stepping back and looking at the big picture of like, hold on a second, what are we all trying to do here again? Like back up. Like, forget about the blah stuff. What are we here to do? Then let’s talk about the how’s. Let’s get alignment for a second. Let’s go back to where we’re aligned and then we’ll go down to the stuff that we need to work on.

Elizabeth Dixon (28:34)
And I think as leaders, that helps us be better leaders. Because sometimes the how’s I come up with are far inferior compared to the how’s that my team can come up with. And so, if I think I’m the best how maker, then I am the ceiling for my business. But if I can keep everybody aligned to the why and hold on, let’s pull back. What do we need to edit about these ideas? Then that actually helps me be a better leader because I’m lifting the ceiling to be way higher than where I am. And when you said that it reminded me of a story.

When John and I first got married, we were cooking spaghetti together and we were co-cooking. So, it’s like we weren’t talking about how we were going to cook this spaghetti because it’s spaghetti. We’re making the sauce. And all of a sudden, he goes over to the sink, and he fills up the jar with water and pours it into the sauce. And I audibly was like, oh, like, what are you doing? Like you’re ruining this sauce. And he was like, why are you freaking out? Because we had two very different ways to make this sauce. What I learned was when you let the sauce boil off some water, the flavor locks in even better. We walked out of that situation with a bit of a fight and a principle for our marriage, which was, there are two ways to do things right.

And as leaders, I think the more that we create freedom for our teams to be critical thinkers of how are we going to accomplish this? What is our strategy to get there? Bringing their ideas to the table. And we stay in the, hey, how, like, is this aligned? And why are we doing this? And being more crystal clear on where we’re trying to go, then that helps our businesses grow and it keeps us from being crotchety that’s like there’s only one way to make spaghetti sauce. Hey, there might be a few different ways to do it. Let’s try it and see what happens.

Skot Waldron (30:36)
Did you just call yourself crotchety?

Elizabeth Dixon (30:38)
No, I’m not crotchety because I’m open.

Skot Waldron (30:39)
Now you are.

Elizabeth Dixon (30:47)
I was.

Skot Waldron (30:48)
Now, you graduated from your crotchety self. That’s fantastic. Congratulations. you’ve come so far.

Elizabeth Dixon (30:51)
Yeah. Thanks.

Skot Waldron (30:53)
Can purpose change? Can purpose change over time?

Elizabeth Dixon (30:56)
We have to be willing that it could, but when we craft it, let’s believe that it won’t and believe that it, like, put words to it where it can be enduring enough for what we see. But the reality is, you know, Dan Cathy is so great. I loved the last three years working for him, learning this. You can only see until the next vista. And he would say, “We’re at the top of this vista and we’re looking out. We can’t see the whole thing. We can just see this next phase.” That’s reality but let’s put purpose of why we exist to something that is so meaningful and compelling that it has a chance to last us. And if we find that we need to rewrite it and draft it, then let’s have the courage to do that.

Skot Waldron (31:41)
Okay. How about this one? Wait, go ahead. You want to ask me?

Elizabeth Dixon (31:46)
I was going to say, what do you think? Do you think it changes?

Skot Waldron (31:49)
I think it evolves. I think that if you, I used to say this when I ran my design agency, I would come to clients, I say, do you want an evolution of your brand image or do you want an evolution or do you want a revolution, right? And I think that if you’re revoluting your purpose statement, then you probably miss the mark at the beginning. I think it’s going to always be an evolution as you learn and graduate through different stages of life. And I don’t know. I think that’s part of it. I think that it is about the courage of saying, I am more than what I was, or I am different than who I was, or I am– I have been exposed to more information than I was, or I don’t know. I think there’s something about that.

Elizabeth Dixon (32:37)
There’s a humility in there that it’s like the courage to move forward, but the humility to be willing to shift and change.

Skot Waldron (32:47)
This is one I come up with or come across a lot when I’ll ask, talk to people about their purpose and what they’re doing stuff for. And some people will really get into, you know, I’m just here for the paycheck. Like this is a good, solid job. It’s reliable. I’ve been doing it for 30 years and it supplies a good life for my family. So, I mean, I just come here and I clock in, I clock out, because that’s what I do. And I do my work and I’m good at it. So, it almost becomes like money is, they’re like, I just, I do it for the paycheck. It’s for the money. Can money be a purpose?

Elizabeth Dixon (33:24)
A weak one. I think it’s a really one-dimensional weak one. I mean, money is the source or it’s the means in which we barter and trade things. I think that when it becomes the sole focus, we miss out on the deeper, meaningful parts of life, of using our gifts, of being about something that’s bigger than us, being on, contributing on a team that brings life and energy.

Life is short. And if we’re spending 60% to 70% of our waking hours working with people and for something, then why not make it meaningful and make it great? And you talk to folks who are decades older than us and you read the books about what people regret most in life. And I think if our purpose is just about making a paycheck, I think we’re missing out on an opportunity to let our life be richer and about something greater and bigger.

Even if, and here’s a shift I had when I realized, oh wow, I’m making, I’m extracting my purpose from my work. So did the hard work, took a year, defined my purpose. Bringing my purpose with me to my work, I was in the same role, but I viewed it and behaved in it totally differently because suddenly there was a bigger reason and there was an opportunity for me that was within the exact same tasks with the exact same people and the exact same role. And I think even when we make that switch for ourselves, it brings greater meaning and richness into the time that we’re spending at work.

Skot Waldron (35:15)
I have seen and I think we all have the people that just value the paycheck. And this is where we sit there and say, oh there’s no loyalty anymore and people just jump and we saw it during COVID a lot of like, let’s throw more and more money at people and then they’ll just leave. And we found that the rate of happiness at these jobs was not great. I mean, it was like, sure, the money got them there, which was I guess the goal, but then they probably didn’t last. I saw lots of that turnover happening. And you’re right. And I agree in the sense that it’s kind of surface level because when you wake up in the morning, one day that paycheck is not going to be enough. One day the paycheck is going to be like I was relying on that to get me out of bed every day. Like it’s got to be something else. And then some people will say, “Well, it’s my family. My family’s my purpose.” And I’m like, okay, I think you’re getting closer, but I still think it’s more.

Elizabeth Dixon (36:20)
Someone was telling me the other day, he’s like, my daughter is my purpose. And similar to you, I’m like, that is deeply rich and meaningful. But she’s going to leave your house. So, like, she’s going to probably get married someday. Is your purpose then over? And I think having putting those words to, it can include these roles that we have in life but ideally it translates in any season, whether it’s retirement or it’s having young kids at home and everything in between, where we can bring our purpose toward however, we’re choosing to spend our time, whether we’re compensated for it with money or not. And the other thought that I just had when you said that one day we’re going to wake up and the money won’t be enough, all you have to do is compare yourself to one other person. And it’s so easy to be like, my paycheck isn’t enough. I need to be paid more and so it’s, yeah, I feel like it’s a dangerous one to make the center focus point of why we do what we do.

Skot Waldron (37:29)
Would you, I didn’t ask you this before the show. So, sorry about putting you on the spot here. Sorry, not sorry. Would you share your purpose? I’ll share mine. Would you share yours? Right. So let me share mine first so that you can one-up me. Because I think that’s very important. I’m going to give you the light.

So, I’ve always walked around and my purpose has really become helping people be who they were designed to be. And I think going with your kid purpose, like if I look at this book I’m writing, my wife the other day, and this is kind of, I hope she doesn’t, you know, come and give me a lecture after I say this, because she listens to all my shows, is that she came up to me like a couple of weeks ago and say, Skot, I think you’re writing this new book to fix me. And I was like; ohhh, that’s not it at all. But when I have seen you struggle with certain things, my heart hurts for you, just like it hurts for our kids or like it hurts for some of my clients that come to me with this same thing.

So, are you an example or another confirmation that I should write this book? Yes, you are. And I hope I write it in a way that you feel seen, like I hope these other people feel seen. And it gives you permission to be the superpower person that you are, just like I want my kids to have that permission. Just like I want these people to have that permission when they venture off into what they do. So, sharing that part of what I do and who I am.

Elizabeth Dixon (39:07)
When your wife said, “Are you doing this to fix me?” I thought, man, what a gift that book is going to be. Because what you shared about the book is it’s going to, I think it’s going to create freedom and peace for so many people of, like, how we’re wired and what that means and what we need. But I haven’t read the book yet, but I’m excited too.

Skot Waldron (39:36)
Well, I haven’t either ’cause it’s not totally written. But one day. One day, Elizabeth. We are bringing this home. Please share your, will you share your purpose with us?

Elizabeth Dixon (39:46)
Yes, I will. So, through that year, what I landed on is to reflect Jesus by galvanizing people and ideas for good. And those two components put together helped me go back into the role that I had and go, how can I do this? How in this situation can I be a reflection of my creator and savior and galvanize people and ideas for good? And the reality was I could do it every day. And I didn’t have to have a promotion for that. I could actually be a part of doing that every day in my work.

Skot Waldron (40:26)
Galvanize. That is such a good word.

Elizabeth Dixon (40:28)
Yeah, it’s a very Patrick Lencioni word, you know. I feel like, with the working genius, galvanizer, I am one. So, I really resonated with that word.

Skot Waldron (40:40)
Yeah. Ok. Alright.

Elizabeth Dixon (40:42)
I think working genius came later. Yeah, I think it came later, but I still, I credit.

Skot Waldron (40:48)
So did Pat steal your word then? Pat stole your word.

Elizabeth Dixon (40:50)
No, no, no, I think it’s his word.

Skot Waldron (40:57)
Yeah, okay. We’ll let him have it. It’s okay. It’s cool. Well, thank you so much. This is awesome. And your book, The Advantage of Purpose, is out now, How Leaders Create Clarity, Build Alignment, and Unlock Growth in a World of Constant Change. I mean, we need this. We really do. And it’s hard to want to need it right now because we’re in such a rapid reward, instant gratification, fix the problem, the fire on my lap right now. And this is not going to do that. But down the road, you’ll recognize the impact of when you have a purpose versus when you don’t. And I’ve seen that in my own life. I’ve seen it with my clients, and you have too. And I’m grateful that you wrote the book. Thanks for doing that.

Elizabeth Dixon (41:48)
Thank you, and thanks for having me today.

Skot Waldron (41:52)
Yeah, where people can get in touch with you though? People get in touch with you, hang out with you, see you speak on stages wherever you speak. Like what’s that look like? Where do people go?

Elizabeth Dixon (42:01)
Yes, elizabethdixonspeaks.com. And you can sign up and get monthly content from me. And then Instagram and LinkedIn, both at ElizabethDixonspeaks and /ElizabethDixonSpeaks for little blurbs of content around customer experience, purpose, culture. And then you can invite me to speak to your next event at elizabethdixonspeaks.com. Tell me about the event, how I can add value. And that’s such a gift to help groups that are gathering together, think differently, and have really practical ways to move forward inspired.

Skot Waldron (42:41)
You’re a rock star. You’re good at what you do, Elizabeth Dixon speaks. Keep doing it.

Elizabeth Dixon (42:48)
Thank you. I appreciate you, Skot.

Skot Waldron (42:53)
We just spoke about it in this interview that this isn’t an urgent thing, which is a problem. It’s a problem because you don’t feel the sense of urgency to build your purpose. I actually think that maybe when you’re in the depths of despair, when you’re feeling like you don’t want to get up every day and go do this job, when you feel beat down, when you feel just that weight is probably the time when you’re going to go, why am I doing all this? Why does this even matter? Those can be answered once you discover your purpose.

Let’s not wait until we’re in the depths of despair, y’all, to figure out what our purpose is, to understand what drives us, what motivates us, what gets us up every day. And yes, your family is there. And yes, money is an outcome of your purpose and things like that. But those aren’t the real reasons. Because if you had no money, if your family is gone, why then? What do you have to live for? What then? I’m going to push you, and I know Elizabeth would too, to find something beyond that and look for what you really want to do and the impact you want to leave.

Purpose, y’all, we didn’t talk about this on the show, but purpose has two things in it: a contribution and an impact. And it’s really an outward-facing thing. It’s not about you. Your purpose is not about you. Sure, it motivates you, but that’s because what motivates us is others. And when we do for others, we feel fulfilled. I guarantee you that if you search outside of yourself for what that purpose is and the impact that you can have, you will find something that pushes you, that inspires you, that urges you on to that next moment when you just feel like you can’t go any further.

Skot Waldron (44:54)
If you want to find out more information about me or check out the show notes where there’s going to be more information and links to the things referenced in this episode, visit skotwaldron.com. And lastly, I’m asking for a little bit of love, just a little bit. So please take a moment, follow, rate the show. The algorithm is like that; it helps me get the word out. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. And until next time, stay Unlocked.