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Welcome to Amplify with Jess Ekstrom, A show designed to help women get out of their head and into their zone of influence. Happy Monday everyone. Here’s some food for thought to start your week.

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Okay, so when I worked in Disney World’s for the Disney College program, many a moons ago, I was a photo pass photographer, but I got to meet a lot of other cast members who had a bunch of different roles. And two people I met both worked in maintenance and custodian. So it was their job to keep the parks clean, pick up trash and everything else. And I thought it was so interesting because one of them, when I would talk to them, I’d be like, well, how’s your day going? And she was like, it is so much fun. I get to greet people when they walk through the parks. I get to help them plan their day, show them the map. I get to do magical moments for some of these kids. And I absolutely love working in maintenance and custodian. And then I met someone else who had the exact same role, exact same job, and he was like, this is the worst job ever.

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I am picking gum off of the bottom of benches. I am using my little clipper to just walk around the park and click trash and put it in the trash can. I am constantly just looking at the clock and waiting for the day to end. And so that’s what kind of posed this question to me. I was like, how do both of these people have the exact same job and one of them loves it and the other person hates it? So I started to do some research and I found this study at Yale and they interviewed hospital custodians, so kind of a similar thing that we’re talking about. And they interviewed one pool of people who absolutely were dissatisfied in their job, and they said, okay, well what is it that you do every day? One of ’em said that they just pick up the trash.

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One of ’em said that they clean the sheets, sanitize the equipment, and then they were asked, well, why do you do it? Well, I need a salary, I need benefits, and I need to support my family. Okay, well, what is your job title? One person said, maintenance worker. Another person said, janitor. And then another person said Custodian. And then in this study, they found another group of people who had the exact same job title, same role, same job description, but they loved their job. They couldn’t wait to come into work every day. And they said, okay, well what is it that you do? One of ’em, she worked in hospice care and she would shuffle around the artwork from room to room to make sure that all of her patients had something different to look at. Another person carried a notepad on their belt and would tally which rooms got visitors that day, circle the ones that didn’t so he could make it a point to spend more time in rooms that didn’t get visitors that day.

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And when they asked them what their job titles were, one person described himself as an ambassador for the hospital, and another person described herself as a healer. And so all of these people had the exact same assigned work. But what this study showed is that the people who were truly satisfied and fulfilled in their job chose not to look at their job as a job, but as a service to humanity. So meaning in our lives isn’t found from what we’re doing, but rather classifying why we’re doing it. The people who are truly fulfilled are able to connect the dots between the task at hand and the person that is benefiting behind it. So I like to ask this whenever I speak, or to anyone who’s maybe struggling with fulfillment in their job, who do you serve and how can you serve them better? This is the question that I help audiences and companies answer whenever I speak. How do we make our work right now as it exists? Our job description, meaningful and fulfilling, I’ll leave you with this. Meaningful work isn’t something that is assigned to you. It is directly created by you. Thanks for listening to Amplify. If you are a fan of the show us some podcast love by giving us a rating and review and give us a follow at mic drop workshop and at Jess Ekstrom coming up on Amplify.

(04:36):

The number one mindset a speaker has to have is for whatever reason, the stars are in line that I have been given an opportunity to impact them. And I’m telling you, if you are a speaker right now listening to this or want to be, and you really don’t care about the audience and I’m being real, then you’re not going to make an impact. It was a beautiful line I once heard more than an audience will ever care how much they want to know, how much you care.

(05:06):

This episode was edited and produced by Ear Fluence. And I’m Jess Ekstrom, your host. Remember that You deserve the biggest stage. So let’s find out how to get you there. I’ll see you again soon.