Transcript
Troy Blaser (00:04):
Hello. Welcome to today's episode of Simply Feedback. I'm your host, Troy Blaser. We're happy to be here with you. I'm excited for our guest today. Our guest is Erin Urban, who partners with people to align who they are with what they do. Erin is a certified coach and the Chief Happiness Officer of UPPSolutions. Erin has over a decade of coaching and consulting successful transformations for leaders and teams. She delivers keynotes and workshops to clients across the globe. Erin is a neuroscience nerd, host of the Career Coffee Chat podcast, and the author of the bestselling book, Elevate Your Career: More Impact + More Income, a guide that transforms your leadership style forever. Erin is a Forbes Coaches Council member, certified in leadership psychology, and a self-proclaimed recovering perfectionist living between Austin and Houston, Texas, who shares her passion for all things outdoors with her husband, Stephen. Erin, it's so great to have you on our episode today. Thank you for joining us.
Erin Urban (01:11):
It's so awesome to be here. Thank you for having me on.
Troy Blaser (01:15):
You bet. It's been great to get to know you just a little bit and maybe to help our audience get to know you a little bit, I wonder if you could tell us about a time that somebody gave you feedback in your life, maybe it had a significant impact or marked a turning point for you. Do you have a story that you could share with us?
Erin Urban (01:32):
Well, do I have a story. As I gleefully rubbed my hand together. Yes. In fact, I do have a story. It's just reason, one of the reasons I wrote my book. So, in my book, I share this story. In fact, I did get some feedback that literally changed my entire life. However, at the time I was not so thrilled about said feedback. And it was a fine February morning, performance review time, and I went into my performance review expecting the usual atta girl, pat on the back and no significant raise. Halfway through said pat on the back, I also heard these words: we have some concerns.
Erin Urban (02:14):
These are not words you want to hear in your performance review. I can tell you that. So while I was sitting there in shock, I also heard additional content that basically shared to me that I was not quite the person I thought I was in the workplace, or at least I wasn't perceived that way. It was unlooked for feedback and at the time quite unwelcome. And while I would like to say that I walked out of that performance review seeing the light of day, and it was a different person. That doesn't really work that way, particularly when you receive feedback from someone A) you don't like, and B) you weren't expecting. And it's a total identity smack, if you will. That's what I thought. I was doing all the right things, you know, working really hard, being super professional, trying to find all the answers, being a perfectionist, you know, all these things you're supposed to do to move up.
Erin Urban (03:09):
Which wasn't happening, and I was confused as why it wasn't Well, I found out that day why it wasn't. So the end of the story is actually quite good. With the assistance of a mentor helped me see the feedback a little bit better and my ability to process that feedback as well as the CEO of the company, now it was a mid-size organization and kind of everybody knew I was ticked off. So, he came to me with my very first self-improvement book. Never had one of these things before. I thought those were for people with problems and clearly, I didn't have any problems, right. But he came to me with this book, and it really helped me understand the value of this feedback was, hey, yes, you see you, you live with you all the time. So we really don't see ourselves quite the way other people do. And how I was being perceived was not in alignment with who I wanted to be, more importantly, who I wanted other people to think I was. I wanted that to be congruent, not at cross purposes. And, in nine months actually, I went from being known as the steamroller, yes, that was my nickname, to being elevated to a leadership position.
Troy Blaser (04:27):
That's fantastic. That is quite a change. And it's interesting, I think, like you said, you didn't walk out of that initial meeting all happy and excited for what whatever was coming next. Right. Especially when that feedback comes unexpectedly you, it takes a while to sort of work its way in. You probably talk about this too, but we talk about at LearningBridge sometimes that fight or flight response that will happen when the feedback initially comes in, especially if you weren't expecting it, or negative feedback that comes. And so the chance for you to kind of let that work its way through your system and then you can sort of take a fresh look at the feedback and say, okay, that's the perception. What can I change? Or how am I going to change? And you got some guidance from the CEO and from other mentors along the way.
Erin Urban (05:15):
Right. Yeah, I did. I was very, very fortunate to have someone come in and intervene on the negative thought cycle because when I walked out of it, I mean, literally it was almost like an out of body experience. I remember my hands being sweaty, you know, all those places being sweaty when you get into the fight or flight situation that you really would prefer not to be, but that's how it was. And I was just stunned. And then of course it went immediately into anger and indignation, you know, I'm, I just felt like unappreciated. Right. I work so hard. Why, you know, what's going on. So it, to see the feedback from the root of what it really was trying to tell me was so important, and it wasn't necessarily the person that gave me the feedback or even the day of the situation, although you do remember these things, but it was the kernel of what had helped me understand was much more transformative than just that little piece of feedback. I mean, it was really interesting because at first I was like, oh, what do I have to become a different person? No, you don't have to become a different person. Actually small yet significant shifts can make a dramatic change. And I had just, at that time, even, you know, when I moved into that leadership position, even at that time, I only just started my path. And that was really cool. That's why it changed the rest of my life because that little grain of feedback had such a ripple effect.
Troy Blaser (06:44):
Quite a turning point, yeah.
Erin Urban (06:45):
And not only did it change like the work environment, how I, you know, was seen at work and all these good things, but it was actually the catalyst for what I do today.
Troy Blaser (06:54):
Yeah. That's, that really was a turning point for you. Not, you know, in how you think, how you show up at work, but then also what you want your work to be. Right? Could be a change. I was thinking too about, you mentioned that, you know, within nine months you had been promoted to a leadership position, at LearningBridge we often talk about the importance of receiving feedback graciously and then acting on it visibly. And it's interesting to me because obviously not in the moment were you able to receive it graciously, but over time you clearly did and you made some changes that were visible to those around you. Right. And so, because they were able to see, oh, Erin is somebody who took this feedback, she incorporated it into how she shows up at work and she's making changes, all of a sudden there's now this opportunity for advancement, for moving in the direction that you wanted your career to go.
Erin Urban (07:54):
Yeah. And what's really interesting is you mentioned, you know, you're taking that feedback and you're making it visibly actionable. And I think when one receives feedback, particularly constructive feedback. And sometimes it may not be 100% in alignment with reality, but in, and chances are there's at least something you can take from that. In order to make that really visible, it's important to also be very clear at articulating what you're doing. Because take for example, one of my clients who she got feedback that, you know, she probably vented a little too much, particularly for an executive leadership position, you know, and also she noticed after our coaching session, she was like, gosh, my team is also complaining a lot too, and they're kind of venting more than, so what should I do? So we brainstormed together and she came up with this complaint challenge. And she shared that, hey, I got this feedback. I'm working on it, and you want to, you know, this is totally optional, but, and everybody jumped on board and they had this big complaint challenge thing, brought up awareness. So sometimes when you bring awareness to it, it's important because if we don't, people have this wonderful tendency to continue to see us the way we were.
Troy Blaser (09:14):
Yeah. They've created a story for themselves about you that they have running in their heads. And even if you actually change, if it's not pointed out to them, then that story continues to play. Right.
Erin Urban (09:28):
Yeah they won't even see it.
Troy Blaser (09:28):
The old story. Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you a question. So, in your book, Elevate Your Career: More Impact + More Income, you, there's a part where you talk about the importance of reflection. That reflection is often overlooked. I don't know if reflection played a role in the story you've just been telling us about, you know, receiving that feedback, how is reflection important in making those changes? And how would you recommend that people incorporate reflection when they receive feedback?
Erin Urban (09:59):
Oh, it's huge. I mean, reflection, it's funny that you bring this up because right now I'm putting together a strategic growth workshop actually for another group of coaches and entrepreneurs. And I put in there it's, and it's true. You don't learn from experiences. In fact, experiences themselves are not the greatest teacher. We don't learn in the moment. We learn in reflection. It's just like when you go work out, you know, you're working out, you're building muscle. Well, the muscle isn't building while you're working it. That's not how it's designed. The muscle actually builds during rest and refueling. The same thing with experiences. And you'll know those people who have experiences and don't reflect because they keep having the same type of experiences over and over and over and over and over again, because they're not pausing to reflect. So reflection is absolutely critical. So I, for anybody that sits still long enough to listen, will share the importance of reflection and certainly encourage everybody to build new what makes sense and authentic to you to reflect whether that's you are reflecting while you're out for a run, or for exercise, whether you actually build time in your day to do that. Journaling, you know, whatever works for the individual, but reflection, reflection is massively powerful.
Troy Blaser (11:25):
I love that. I really liked your point about we don't learn from the experience itself, or rather that's a poor teacher, but it's the reflection afterward is where we can really draw those lessons out. I've shared on the podcast before that as a hobby, I coach my son's mountain bike team at the high school. And what I'm taking away from our conversation is that, you know, when we have a session where we work on a particular skill or we do a particular ride, I need to make sure to stop and give time for reflection on. Or even if it was, hey, we had a race last weekend, what did you learn from it? Right? What, what lessons did you draw out? Let's take just a moment and talk about it and have a chance to reflect on it before we move on to whatever is next.
Erin Urban (12:09):
Right. And I highly encourage everyone, of course, over the holiday period, I will take out some time to reflect on my business, how it's going, plan for the new year, et cetera. I encourage everyone to actually do that more than just once a year. A lot of people will do that over the holiday time or just a once a year or have a performance review, and it's just once a year. Well, time goes quite quickly and it's very, very easy to build up drift in your targets, build up drift in your mental processes, et cetera. So yeah, absolutely. Take time out every quarter, put it in your calendar because if you don't, you'll forget. So put it in your calendar, take time to say, hey, let me check in. We have a pulse check in. How am I going? Whether it's with my professional trajectory or a personal life, whatever's important to you, you can just check in and have some reflection time. And I always encourage anyone, particularly after you've received feedback or something didn't go quite the way you wanted it to, to build in that time for reflection. And here's the other thing, people don't build in time for reflection after a win either. You can totally reverse engineer a win and have that be positive feedback into creating your next win.
Troy Blaser (13:25):
Yeah, yeah, that's really true. Thinking of, you know, as we have a chance to reflect, as we have a chance to receive feedback, how do you help people maintain a growth mindset, maybe in the face of challenging feedback or kind of like you received some challenging feedback? What are some things people can do to kind of maintain that growth mindset?
Erin Urban (13:45):
That's a good point. particularly in the face of unwelcome feedback.
Troy Blaser (13:50):
Yes.
Erin Urban (13:50):
Yeah. So a growth mindset. Now here's something really interesting. So growth versus fixed mindset. Probably those people listening to this will know that's from Carol Dweck and her work. And what's also interesting to understand is, it's not like one has a growth or a fixed mindset, one or the other all the time. That's not necessarily the case. In fact, we have areas and situations where we could be very fixed minded about it and other areas where we're quite a growth mindset, it just really depends.
Troy Blaser (14:20):
That's a good point.
Erin Urban (14:20):
So, typically the human being is not one or the other. It's not a black and white situation. But to facilitate a growth mindset, it's all around challenging yourself and challenging your more animal instincts to defend you and your self-identity and what you think you are right. Because most people think they're right. And what's really interesting is our brains are in the business of proving that we're right, even if we're wrong.
Troy Blaser (14:45):
Yeah, that's a good point.
Erin Urban (14:47):
So with that being said, it's a great idea just to take a step back and if the emotion's really high, perhaps gives yourself some space and grace before you do that, take a step back and challenge yourself. You know, challenge yourself. Even if the feedback, like in my instance that I wrote about in my book, obviously it was unwelcome feedback and in the moment I was in no fit state to reflect. It wasn't until sometime later after the emotion had kind of dissipated. And even if you wildly disagree with the feedback you received, chances are there's a grain of something in there you can take away from it. So even if it's just way off base and the person, which doesn't typically happen, the person's like out to get you, there may be something in there. I often say we get our best feedback for growth from people we don't like.
Troy Blaser (15:45):
Yeah.
Erin Urban (15:45):
Because they're, they don't necessarily have the social contract and they need to make us feel good about ourselves. They, you know, that social contract isn't there because you're maybe across purposes already. So that person doesn't necessarily have the filter of, gosh, I don't want her to be or him to be mad at me. And that's not the case. So often times you receive your best feedback. Yeah. But staying in a growth mindset is really, you know, challenging yourself, challenging your status quo, your set point in a positive way.
Troy Blaser (16:13):
I like that. As you probably know and as other listeners know, LearningBridge provides, one of the things we do is provide survey services, especially like a custom 360 degree multi-rater survey for our clients. If I understand your story right, the kind of the feedback that you received as part of that performance review, was that part of a 360 survey?
Erin Urban (16:34):
It was.
Troy Blaser (16:35):
I wonder if you could maybe talk about 360 surveys for just a minute. Do you find them useful in your practice? What are some of the advantages or what are some of the limitations that you find as you work with 360 surveys?
Erin Urban (16:48):
Yeah, so I do find them extraordinarily useful and just depending on the client and the company that may be, you know, an anonymous 360, like the ones you provide, or it might, may actually be an in-person interview, but feedback is extremely important. And getting that full spectrum feedback is also absolutely critical. Where people tend to get off the bus a little bit on it is they don't necessarily A) either have the training or B) have the finesse or C) can just take a step out of not having an agenda with the feedback. Any of those, if any of those are involved, then it becomes a unwelcome and probably ineffective process in general. So feedback is, can be tremendously helpful. It is not helpful to be used as a labeling system or put people down, that's not what its purpose is.
Erin Urban (17:43):
And it has to be very, very anonymous. Particularly if you are interviewing or giving feedback on someone who is a superior to you. It has to be anonymous. And that's another thing that sometimes derails well-meaning 360 degree reviews if there's not that sense of safety within the organization. If people think, oh, well this says it's anonymous but it's really not. That's the one reason why I would advocate for a third party managed system because when, I know when I do these, I do not allow the client to have any sort of insight into who did what or what said what. And by third party managed systems like LearningBridge provides typically, if I understand it correctly, you can't even get access to that information anyway.
Troy Blaser (18:31):
Right.
Erin Urban (18:31):
So it makes the process much more effective and fair.
Troy Blaser (18:37):
I really liked your point about kind of the importance of using it for professional development without any kind of tied to a performance review or labeling or classifying or sorting. You know, the point is we want to gather this feedback for you as a professional to improve, to develop, to allow you to get where you're trying to get to in your career. Right. Kind of like you were able to do in the story that you shared with us. So I appreciate that, it's useful to kind of get your perspective on how, those 360s can be useful. I wonder, you know, you shared with us a marvelous story about a way that feedback impacted your own career, your own life. You do spend time as a coach. Is there a story that you could share about a time you've seen feedback affect someone else's career or their life been a point of inflection for them?
Erin Urban (19:30):
Sure, sure. I have a positive and a not so positive story, so, yes. I do coaching and consulting or what I call coach-sulting, with an organization then for individuals and teams and focus on helping them, you know, find and exemplify or live their zone of genius. And a part of that process is really understanding self and self-awareness is absolutely critical for anybody to develop themselves, whether it be in leadership or otherwise, you cannot grow something you don't know. So feedback is where it all starts. well, with one of my clients, when he first came to me, he was a very repressed individual. In fact, he was extremely repressed. He didn't know where he was, he was totally lost. And it was because he had received feedback that he was way too aggressive and way, and he was, to be fair, it was, it was true feedback, but it was unmanaged feedback.
Erin Urban (20:22):
And what I mean by unmanaged was a person who gave it wasn't trained, there was no coaching process. There wasn't any way for him to process that feedback in a healthy fashion. So what happened was he was a repressed person because he didn't know how to actually didn't at all. Like, he didn't do anything because he was just so concerned that anything he did would be taken wrong or would, you know, brand him inappropriately. So he was just very repressed. So I, you know, partnered with him to do some work together and help him discover what his true authentic voice was. So he came out of it in a positive way, but the delay was tremendous. It was actually several years had gone by between receiving that feedback and then our partnership. On the flip side, one of my clients, she received feedback that she wasn't executive material. And what was really interesting was she was up for promotion against someone else, very competitive environment within about six months. So she had to turn that ship around in six months but the good news is through that feedback and through acting on that feedback in a very transparent way. So to make sure that her leadership knew that she was working on it. And also understanding what their expectations of leadership material actually is, which is helpful. She was able to get that promotion.
Troy Blaser (21:43):
Oh, that's cool. Yeah, there again, right, like you said, the acting on the feedback visibly, changes a story that those folks have, the narrative that they have. Because they see that you're, it's almost more effective than had she already been "management material." The fact that she received that feedback, acted on it in a visible way, makes a bigger impression to those folks that are considering her for promotion than if she was already at, you know, management material or executive material. So thank you for sharing those couple of anecdotes. I think it's useful to see examples of ways that the feedback makes positive and negative differences. I wanted to go back and ask you about your company UPPSolutions. And of course I'm just saying it, but it's spelled with two Ps, right? U P P solutions.
Erin Urban (22:36):
Oh dear. There we go.
Troy Blaser (22:38):
Is there, is there a history there?
Erin Urban (22:39):
There is a history there, there's a story behind this.
Troy Blaser (22:43):
I love stories. Tell me a story.
Erin Urban (22:45):
Oh, this is a story about how you should seek feedback before you do something really important like, name your company.
Troy Blaser (22:52):
Okay.
Erin Urban (22:53):
So my original company name. Now why I just didn't call it, you know, E. Urban or Coach E. Urban Coaching or whatever, you know, I, who knows. But at that time I was, didn't quite have the clarity of vision that I do now and, have my "zone of genius" that I work in. So, to be fair, so I'm trying to put together a name for a business, which doesn't sound, you know, it sounds easy, but it's not. So my full business name is Urban Professional Performance Solutions because I thought it would be cool to shorten it to be UPPSolutions, you know, going up, we're gonna go up, that sounds great. Right? Yeah. And no sooner had I pressed submit on my LLC for the state of Texas, my husband, who's an engineer, came in and leaned over my shoulder. He goes, oh, U P P Solutions. Okay. I was like, oh no, it looks like I'm selling adult diapers. Oh my gosh. So you'll never forget it. You know, UPPSolutions. Always cringe.
Troy Blaser (23:59):
Just don't spell it right.
Erin Urban (24:01):
Just don't spell it. Yeah. coacheurban.com. Let's just leave at that.
Troy Blaser (24:05):
Well, you mentioned your husband's an engineer. My day job at LearningBridge, I'm a programmer, a database administrator. I work in a lot of technical work, but there's a kind of a famous quote in computer science, about one of the hardest problems in programming is naming things. And you see that here and it's hard to, in your case it was making sure you say it out loud to the right people.
Erin Urban (24:34):
And getting feedback. Yes.
Troy Blaser (24:35):
And yes, getting feedback, and having to name it really before, at the beginning. Right. No experience yet. And you think it's a good idea, but then you hear from others, you get feedback and you're like, we need to tweak it just a little bit.
Erin Urban (24:49):
Yeah. Urban Professional Performance Solutions, what does that even mean anyway? coacheurban.com yeah. You kind of know what that is.
Troy Blaser (24:56):
And I suppose maybe you run into issues with the word urban. If it's, if it's not in the context of oh, that's her name, you know, then.
Erin Urban (25:04):
Well it helps people learn. It helps me remember it actually. Whenever I'm introducing myself and they say, you know, Ivan Irvine, what, you know, like, you know, urban development or Keith Urban, you know, or Urban Cowboy, you know, depends, I'll throw one of those three out people are like, oh, okay. They don't forget it.
Troy Blaser (25:20):
That's awesome. Thinking about the work that you do and we've had a great talk about the name of your company, but what is something that you've learned, maybe some advice that you could share with our listeners in the area of feedback? You've given some great tips already. Is there anything else that you would share with our listeners?
Erin Urban (25:39):
Absolutely. Seek feedback out. Wow. I mean, it's such an important tool for growth and as I mentioned before, you cannot grow something you don't know. And what's very interesting, just like the story about naming my business, woo-hoo. Our perspective is not the same as other people's perspective. For a wild variety of reasons, and some of those being very simple is different work styles, whether someone's introverted, versus extroverted, cultures, you know, all types of things. Because we are a global ecosystem now, particularly in our business lives, it's so important to seek out feedback, to make sure that how other people perceive us, our actions, what we say, how we are showing up, if you will, is an alignment on how you want to be seen as an individual. Whether it be personal or professional. Now here's the deal. We think, oh yeah, yeah, feedback, professional growth.
Erin Urban (26:33):
Sure, got it. Connect the dots. However, we don't do that in our personal life. So I recommend you also bring that into your personal life because it can only help and involve your relationships in a positive way. Now, I'm not a lifey coach. And also to be fair, you know, your career is in your professional life and your leadership development lives inside your life. So the two go hand in hand. Be proactive about seeking out your feedback and also keep in mind people probably don't want to hurt your feelings. So if you were to be really honest with yourself, you probably know where some of your gaps are. And you probably identified with them. Yeah, I'm super impatient or I know I can interrupt people from time to time and we just brush over it. Like, it's okay. It's a part of who I am. No, it super irritates the crap out of someone. I know. So if you're honest with yourself, just go in and go, yeah, you know what, I'm really trying to be a better listener. Do you have any tips?
Troy Blaser (27:39):
I love it.
Erin Urban (27:39):
And people give you tips. Don't rate, don't qualify, don't judge. They'll say, oh, well that's good, bad or indifferent. Just say thank you and take away the ones you feel like you can implement.
Troy Blaser (27:51):
Yeah. I love this idea of seeking feedback and I was thinking about how it ties to what we talked about earlier around reflection and self-reflection. Obviously if you're never taking an opportunity to get feedback from others, you're gonna run out of stuff to reflect on or you're gonna be reflecting on just your own thoughts or your own perceptions and you're gonna miss the perceptions of others that can really play an important part in that reflection that you do.
Erin Urban (28:17):
Absolutely.
Troy Blaser (28:18):
In terms of the direction that you want to go.
Erin Urban (28:20):
Yeah. And in our own heads, which is great to reflect, you know, and have that you time, that me time. And it can also be an echo chamber. So, from a neuroscience perspective, we can build up what's called cognitive drift over time. Which means that our perspective may or may not be in alignment with reality. And it's important to challenge that. And that's one of the reasons why I mentioned challenging yourself, challenge your perspective, judgment, and biases, et cetera, periodically. Because if you don't, that connective drift can build up also extra crud. And in addition to it being off base, you also have extra baggage and it becomes a lot more challenging to try to break through all that.
Troy Blaser (29:04):
Yeah. You know, we talked about your book, Elevate Your Career: More Impact + More Income. Is there a background there? Is there a reason why you decided to write a book?
Erin Urban (29:15):
Well, it's really interesting. So, and if one is a coach-sultant, you do come to a point in your career, your professional development if you will, that, you know, you have to write a book. And it's not that I don't have to write a book. I felt like I wanted to, I just was not sure which one to write. There's so many good topics out there. I could be writing about influence and impact. I could be writing about, you know, your zone of genius, which might be next. I could write about all these, but what do I really want to start off with? Because that's really important. And I have started five books and didn't complete any of them, so it just didn't feel right. But the best clients you learned from, and one of my clients, he said, you know what, how about that story about your pivot point, start and build from that.
Erin Urban (29:58):
I was like, gosh, what a smart idea. And I wrote the book in three months or less. So clearly it was the right book to write. But I love about the book is it's an introduction to developing self and most importantly helping that elevate your impact and income. Because when you start developing self and you start finding that zone of the genius, and you start developing those growth mindset aspects about yourself, and you start becoming more open to feedback and most importantly, focusing on what matters most, what are the key pain points to other people. Because you might think it's one thing, chances are it's your inner critic talking, is actually something else that's the pain point. So focusing on that versus chasing shiny objects is really important. And without feedback you won't have the data. And that's what the book is all about, is how to seek feedback in a proactive way and what to do with it when you get it.
Troy Blaser (30:59):
Fantastic. It sounds fascinating. Sounds like it would be beneficial really to almost anybody who's interested, like you talked about in taking that next step kind of like happened for you. Receiving that feedback and saying, okay, what roadblocks do I need to get out of the way so that I can continue to progress in the way that I want to?
Erin Urban (31:20):
Exactly. Yeah. So very practical, very hands-on and, you know, has my sense of humor in there too.
Troy Blaser (31:27):
I love it. Well, tell me what's next for you? What are you excited about right now? What are you passionate about right now? You mentioned zone of genius. I don't know if that's the thing or if there's something else.
Erin Urban (31:37):
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. You know, I really do after evolving my business over some time, and if anybody's an entrepreneur or not, you'll know that as you evolve, you become more clear on what your purpose is. And aligning what we do with who we are is so absolutely critical because that's how you can get into that state of flow or your zone of genius, if you will, and be able to have the influence that you want. And most importantly, drive your own bus, whether it be in your personal or professional life. So that's what I do, is I help people align what they do with who they are. And that looks like a variety of different things, but finding that zone of genius is truly transformational. I know it's transformed my life and those people that I've coached and getting away from the shoulds and the constrictions and the systematized thinking and getting back in touch with who we really are is extremely powerful.
Troy Blaser (32:42):
I love that. It sounds like that's work that would be very rewarding for you as well. Like you said, you found your zone of genius, which is helping others find theirs, which seems like it would be very rewarding for you.
Erin Urban (32:54):
It's extremely, extremely rewarding. I mean, there's nothing quite like it. It was very interesting. I started off my career years and years and years and years ago, designing homes, designing buildings, commercial office buildings, managed over 3 million square feet of office space, put Chevron in the old Enron buildings in Houston, put over 875 homes in the ground. And that's rewarding in that you see a tangible result of your work. But there's nothing quite like the transformation of a person. There really isn't a feeling to describe what that is like. It's much more rewarding than saying, oh yes, there's a house. I designed the house, whoop-di-do. But when a human being is able to evolve and transform and have that inner brilliance truly shine, yeah. There's nothing like that.
Troy Blaser (33:46):
I love it. Well, Erin, I've really enjoyed our conversation today. If our discussion has sparked an idea in someone or a question for one of our listeners, if there's more that they want to know, are you open to continuing that conversation with them?
Erin Urban (34:02):
Absolutely. Reach out to me at coacheurban.com. You can find me on the internet, you can find me on LinkedIn where I am quite frequently. And you can also find my YouTube channel out there.
Troy Blaser (34:14):
Fantastic. Well, thanks again, Erin. It's been a pleasure to have you on today.
Erin Urban (34:18):
Pleasure's been all mine. Thank you.
