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Ep 276: Philip McKernan | Do Your Inner Work First
Travis Chappell
Podcast

Overview

Philip McKernan is the author and founder of One Last Talk, the book and the movement. Philip helps you turn your mess into your message, find your deepest struggle and turn it into your best story. He works with people all over the world to remove mental roadblocks and see things they aren’t seeing. Philip has worked with the Canadian Olympic team, the Pentagon, and many professional sports teams. In this, the Only Business Networking Podcast on iTunes, Philip talks to your host Travis Chapell about how your pain makes you who you are and allows you to become the best version of yourself, how Philip got his first book deal and takes a new spin on networking.

 

Episode Highlights:

  • At 12 years old it was a time where he was being told what he could and couldn’t do and felt disconnected and lost but couldn’t articulate it.
  • He went to a protestant school but was a Catholic and one class helped him to feel heard and think outside of what he was told.
  • When Philip was 14 years old he went to NYC on his own and it was the freest he’d ever felt.
  • The most courageous part of any change is beginning to question the current reality.
  • After high school, he got a job and was mostly selling consumer products in Ireland.
  • Anything other than the status quo is better if the status quo isn’t working for you.
  • You have to be willing to stop and ask really simple questions.
  • Judgment is the greatest block and inhibitor to growth.
  • The number one challenge everyone faces in the world is self-worth.
  • Where the internal disgust with ourselves comes from.
  • Modelling has some upside but a massive dark side.
  • Every person on earth has done things they’re ashamed about.
  • The thing that you bring to the world is the thing you almost didn’t have yourself.
  • You need to be in touch with the cost of doing something every day that doesn’t bring you joy.
  • If you go and do a job that you don’t love, you have t to manage your expectations.
  • When people do something they don’t love they put undue expectations on the other areas of their life.
  • We’re not practising our gifts because we can’t monetize them.
  • The practice that helps Philip gain clarity:
  • Stop consuming information for a period of time.
  • Create space for yourself.
  • If you chase growth and insights and passion it often runs away from you.
  • There are so many people living in their heads it’s becoming an epidemic.
  • How to cultivate genuine relationships with people better.
  • The most important relationship we have on earth is the one with ourselves.
  • If you feel you need someone on this earth in order to be happy, that’s a flaw.
  • People compartmentalize networking and relationships and there shouldn’t be a difference.
  • If networking doesn’t look the same as relationship building, you’re in trouble.
  • Scarcity is more about you than the world.
  • Who you know is most important because when you’re at your lowest those people will lift you up.

 

The Random Round:

  • What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
    • Full-time writer
  • If you could sit on a park bench with anyone past or present and talk with them for an hour, who would it be and why?
    • His 12-year old self
  • How do you like to consume content?
    • Video
  • Philip’s morning routine:
    • Wake up in the morning
    • Have a cup of coffee
    • Decide what he wants to do
  • What is your go-to pump up song?
    • He doesn’t have one, listens to grounding music.
    • It would be U2 Where the Streets Have No Name
  • What is something you’re not very good at?
    • Managing people
  • What is one place online where we can find Philip the most?
    • Onelasttalk.com or philipmckernan.com

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Don’t be afraid to ask really simple questions with black and white answers.
  2. Be aware of the cost of doing something and then make a conscious choice about whether the cost is worth taking.
  3. The greatest growth comes in the gaps.

 

Tweetable Quotes:

  • “Travel is not the answer, it’s the way you travel.” -Philip
  • “The most courageous part of any change is beginning to question the current reality.” -Philip
  • “In the absence of clarity, take action.” -Philip
  • “The thing that you bring to the world is the thing you almost didn’t have yourself.” -Philip

 

Resources Mentioned:

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