Episode Resources
- Listen to ‘Status Quo’
- Flippen Group
- 16Personalities.com Free Test
- Bruce Campbell (tell him I sent you :)
Welcome back to The Nick Broadhurst Show. I’m your host, Nick Broadhurst, and you can catch all of my work at www.iamnickbroadhurst.com and that includes all my music; my music videos, podcasts, blog posts, social media; everything that I do is on my site.
And if you listen to Spotify and you want to check out my music, please head to iamnickbroadhurst.com/Spotify which will take you straight to my artist profile, but of course, you can check out my music on all platforms under the name Nick Broadhurst. And that song you were listening to today is a song called Status Quo, which you can listen to iamnickbroadhurst.com/Statusquo, and what I’m going to share with you today is definitely about breaking your own status quo and moving things forward.
So, today’s episode is going to be very practical and it’s something which you can apply definitely to your professional life, and for me, this had unexpected ramifications on my personal life, but for my career and just all the different things that I build in life, from music to movies and Melissa’s business, and all sorts of other things that I get involved in, this, what I’m going to talk about today really has helped me in a huge way; and I know it can make a big difference for you as well.
A few years back I had a business coach by the name of Bruce Campbell who is just extraordinary. He’s one of the world’s top business coaches. I think he’s won world’s top business coach four or five times; he’s an amazing man, beautiful man. And Bruce not only taught Melissa and I about many things in business that I neglected, such as knowing your numbers… so, so important; but he also taught me a lot about myself.
And one of his main tools was something called Flippen profiling; that’s F-L-I-P-P-E-N: Flippen profiling. And it’s a system of personality testing that’s been developed over about 40 or more years I believe, and has cost millions and millions of dollars to refine, and it’s been used to even help pick elite sports teams such as the New York Yankees baseball team.
And so for Bruce this was a non-negotiable. If you’re going to work with Bruce, then you do the Flippen profile. That’s it. He reckons, you know, it’s just like flying blind if you don’t have this information, and it’s not just for you, but it’s for your key staff as well and any potential new team members that you may be hiring, which we’ve used in the past to great effect and it’s really helped us make some great decisions.
So, you know, to be totally honest, there are few things I believe that have impacted me more than this and I speak about how our partners in our life, our loved ones become very much a mirror for ourselves; a mirror for our life. Flippen for me is like a mirror to all the parts of myself that I may not have wanted to see. Certainly things that I didn’t see and it resonated once I heard it, but it’s kind of like all the things you don’t want to look at get reflected straight back at you in black and white.
And what’s unique about this is it’s not a profile that’s done just by you; you know, things like Myers Briggs, for example, are a test that you will take yourself, but you also choose six other people who know you personally and professionally to do this profile. So, let me tell you, there is nowhere to hide when you do a Flippen profile.
And in Flippen they talk about number one, to know; and that is to know your strengths and constraints. Number two, to own, so that’s owning your strengths and constraints. And number three is to tweak. So they help you develop a traction plan which really helps you manage those strengths and constraints.
When I did this, how did I fare? And here are my strengths; so one of my strengths is my need for achievement is very, very high, so that just kind of means I’m always aiming big and I always get stuff done, which is a good strength, right? And of course that has a flip side to that and I think that’s maybe why it’s called Flippen.
My second strength was dominance which means I take control, and so again, that helps me get stuff done and take lead; be a leader, be a commander, which is a great strength. The other strength was my need for order and structure was really, really high. So, that means I keep super organized; I’m very ordered and structured, and that helps me keep efficient. And if you haven’t heard my episode on Productivity Without The Push, head to iamnickbroadhurst.com/2 where I talk about how I get lots of stuff done without the stress.
So, you know, that’s all good, but I kind of already knew my strengths and what I was really looking for here was the magic, and the magic is getting to know your constraints, getting comfortable with that mirror that shines back at you once you do this profiling. And I found that whenever I’m out of balance, my constraints become way more prominent which is not a good thing, trust me.
And so, for many, many years, about five or six years, I’ve been producing a feature film, and in 2016 was the most intense year in that production for me and I was really out of balance, like really out of balance. And I’d gone through a period where I really was ignoring what I knew to be true about myself, which was my Vata Pitta constitution. And if you’re not familiar with Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Doshas, I have created an Ayurveda series for you, which you can learn all about, and that is at iamnickbroadhurst.com/21, 22, 23 and 24.
So, moving onto my constraints, this is where it gets super interesting. My top constraint is that I’m highly critical. Now, this may not come across in this podcast because I guess in the podcast I get to sit within my vulnerability, I get to let myself shine, but what you don’t see is me in business and how I can interact with people, and that means that I’m a super perfectionist; like highly, highly, highly a perfectionist which is… it can be super uncomfortable sometimes.
That means that I expect the best from every single person. I basically expect perfection, but unfortunately rarely can anyone meet my own expectations. That doesn’t mean they’re not doing a good job, it just means my expectations are unrealistically high sometimes. So, trust me, that can be a real problem when you’re working with teams and with your partners as well; or with your partner, I should say.
The second one was lacking humility, and this is definitely something that I have curbed a lot more over the years. In the past, I definitely used to chase significance and I think that was because I wasn’t living a life that was as of purpose, I wasn’t truly embedded in my truth. You know, I wasn’t on my mission, I wasn’t doing my music, I wasn’t out there, I wasn’t performing.
And I think that when you’re not living your truth, it’s sometimes easy to chase significance because you’re trying to fill a gap within yourself, a void within yourself, and that’s certainly what I did. That was my lack of humility and that really used to shine through before I started to live a life of more meaning and more purpose.
And the third one was a need; a low need to nurture, that is. So basically a low need to nurture means I don’t expect people to nurture me, I don’t need encouragement and support, but that also means that I don’t give encouragement and support to others, which can really suck if you work with me, or if you’re my wife. Sorry, Melissa.
And actually, even just saying this, it makes me think I need send this episode to Melissa’s podcast manager because she does a great job, but I don’t tend to express it as much as I should; so Hannah, I’m going to send this to you today.
So, this low need to nurture is a real problem because when you combine it with the other constraints of being highly critical and lacking humility, it is a perfect storm for being a total asshole. And that’s what I did for most of 2016, is when I was producing this film I was an asshole, and it created a lot of pain for people really unnecessarily, and I’ve definitely moved through most of that, for sure, and becoming aware of these constraints and sharing your constraints with your loved one and your partner is really, really powerful stuff and it’s really shifted my personal life in a big way, which I didn’t expect to be honest.
And you can make it fun. We give some of my constraints and Melissa’s constraints, we give them names. So my highly… just waiting for Instagram Live. We’re back. So, my highly critical constraint we give it a nickname called Nitty Nick. So instead of saying to someone, “Hey, you’re being really critical;” you can say, “Hey, Nitty Nick’s popping his head up again.” So you can sort of make it a lot more fun, and this just allows you to manage your constraints. Once you know them, it allows you to share them with people and manage that.
So, as I said, humility has been something which I’ve definitely toned down and I really don’t think I would have done that if I had not been made aware of this by people that I love and respect, by doing Flippen.
So, that’s kind of how it’s panned out for me and I would love for you to explore this. It’s not a particularly cheap exercise and you can learn more about this at Flippengroup.com. I will definitely link to this in the show notes today. It’s about $795 I think, US dollars, but you do get three personal coaching sessions and they design a traction plan for you, which helps you manage these things.
And you can also go and do a classic Myers Briggs test at 16personalities.com which I’ll link as well in the show notes. And I actually did this this morning and I was really surprised. I came up as a commander, and a commander is people like Steve Jobs and is only 3% of the population, and if you’re watching me on Instagram Live, you’ll see me smiling because me just saying that is me lacking in humility… whoops.
Anyway, so my constraints in Myers Briggs came up as stubborn and dominant… yup. Intolerant… yup. Impatient; incredibly impatient. Arrogant… that’s a word that’s been used over the years. Poor handling of emotions… I’ll let you ask Melissa about that one. Cold and ruthless, and that is my low need to nurture.
So I was surprised at how accurate it was, but there’s something about investing in yourself. It’s all good to go and do a free test, but when you invest in yourself and you spend $795, if you can afford it, then I think you embed that into your life; you take it way more seriously.
So, I will link to all this stuff in today’s show notes, and I highly encourage you to explore it. It’s an amazing, amazing tool which has made a huge difference in my life and Melissa’s life. And many people that we have flipped in our business. One of my good friends and business partner is Tom Cronin as well; we gave him the nickname of Tangent Tom, because during meetings he might just come in with a topic completely randomly and go off topic on a tangent, and they came up in his Flippen, so now we gave him the nickname Tangent Tom and it helps us manage that and make fun of it in a good way.
So, I hope you enjoyed that. Please head to iamnickbroadhurst.com/35 for all the show notes, and please do share this with someone that you think may benefit from this. Maybe your manager at work, maybe let them know about Flippen and how powerful it is.
And if you enjoyed this, please share it with someone. I always say, if you share this with one person, then the listenership of The Nick Broadhurst Show will double overnight, so I’d be super grateful if you could share this with someone that you love, and let me know on social media what you think @IAmNickBroadhurst is my handle and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow.
But today I want to just remind you to look up. Today is so stunning; it certainly was here in Bondi this morning, The sunrise was amazing. But look up and see what’s around you; not just in nature, but see the people. See the beauty in every person around you, see the beauty within you, get to know your strengths and your constraints and own them.
And be love; be love towards yourself, be love towards others, be gentle to yourself, be gentle towards others. Listen to your intuition and have a beautiful day. I love you heaps. Ciao.
I would love to hear from you, so please tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst on social media, and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow, or leave me a comment below (I read every single one!). And if you could take a minute to leave me a 5 star review on iTunes I would be very grateful.