Reignite Your Purpose and Motivation—Small Steps to Rediscover Your Why with Mark Aylward, Founder of 7 Pillars Global | Ep 245

Dr Steve Day: If you feel you\'ve lost your mojo and need some direction, need to basically get your shit together, then listen in to this episode because I\'m joined by an amazing guy called Mark Aylward.

He\'s a serial entrepreneur turned business coach who helps people to redefine their purpose and to find meaning in their work, to find a new path that actually serves them at the highest level.

He\'s got some amazing resources and covers some cool topics and simple steps you can take to to take those baby steps forward to move you from whatever place you currently in, however low you currently feel or unmotivated to a place where you are totally motivated and inspired to move forward and become the best version of you you can be.

And hopefully on the path, become super successful as well. And do listen to the end because Mark shares how you can get access to a free workbook called when no One Else is Looking and get a free consultation call with him to start your journey to a better life. Hi Mark, warm welcome to Sysma Success. Thank you so much for coming along and have a chat with me today.

Mark Aylward: Thanks for having me Steve. It\'s a pleasure.

Dr Steve Day: Cool. Very nice to have you on. I\'ve been having a quick look at your website and obviously the stuff you share with me prior to us having a chat and I think I\'m going to enjoy this conversation.

I think that a lot of the stuff you talk about is massively relevant to especially to men, but also just to business owners in general and just the journey that you taught talk about on your website specifically where I was looking just I, I, I relate to it a lot, A lot of the steps and the just that I\'ve taken over the past nine years also the past couple of years I feel just very aligned with what you are here to hopefully share with us.

And so yeah, let\'s get into it because obviously no one else except for me and you know what we\'re talking about. So let\'s kick off. Tell us a little bit about yourself, you know, to a couple of minutes like what? Why is it you are here today? Why did you choose to do what you do? What do you do? And you know, what\'s the big why behind you and your work?

Mark Aylward: Yeah, I gotta cram that into a couple of minutes, huh? Yeah. Long story short, I\'m a single father of three young adult children, two girls and a boy, all three of whom are entrepreneurs now as well.

I have been an entrepreneur most of my life, specifically in the technical staffing business. So I\'ve built and sold a Couple of technical staffing companies helping software engineers and people who touch the software development life cycle find better work, whatever that might mean to them.

That could be consulting work, full time employee work, or starting their own business. And I sold two of those companies. So the process of building and going through due diligence and figuring out what I, in hindsight, what I could have done differently in that process is part of that learning experience. And as I told you in the pregame talk we had there, I\'ve started coaching.

A few years ago when I helped my kids find work after school, all three of them looked at me and said, dad, you\'ve got to share this with others. No one\'s teaching this stuff, you know, stuff I don\'t think you even know what you know that others don\'t know. And it\'s all in the spirit of dreaming bigger, thinking outside of your own personal box that you\'ve constructed over time.

And part of that journey was a very contentious divorce which put me in a position where I had to be mother and father to my three kids when they were young kids, teenagers, and that I needed to be mobile. So I needed to be able to have a laptop and a phone where I could do my work from anywhere.

Gymnasiums, dance recitals, teacher meetings, doctor\'s offices, stuff like that. And that was a 10 year journey where I just kind of cut my teeth on taking the experience of helping people find better work. And all of that goes into that, the preparation, the interviewing, the negotiation and the direction.

Helping people with clarity and giving people confidence. I suppose that comes with clarity. And I\'m now, my challenge now is scaling that so that I\'m not just trading my time for money. So I\'m in the process of automating some things and bringing in some people that I can delegate things to that will do things that I don\'t either don\'t care to do or don\'t want to do, or am not good at.

It\'s a waste of my time kind of thing. So that\'s a couple of minutes on who I am. And I, I just love serving other people because when people come to me, they\'re usually in a state of some sort of uncertainty which makes them less confident, less forceful. The other thing I find, Steve, is most people, they\'ve built their box, their professional box, about their title, their what they do, what they can do.

And most people don\'t understand, I think that you can do a lot more than whatever you\'ve done because 80, maybe 90% of your skills are Transferable into many, many other things. So it\'s a very interesting conversation. It\'s a lot of fun for me. And when you see the light bulb go off, it\'s, it\'s very satisfying.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah, I can imagine. And so many things you just said in, in that intro really resonate with me. Just the journey I\'ve been on. I was a. Came out of university with a good degree in computing, decided to do something else, went into property, decided I wanted to have a career, went into medicine, decided that actually that was the most restricting thing and took away all my freedom, which my highest value, went back into entrepreneurship.

And at each of those stages, reason I tell that story is each of those stages, like everything I learned pretty much in the previous stage in my career, if you call it that, has been massively beneficial going forward. And it\'s just the fear of change, which is often the thing that makes you stick in something longer. Like I think I stuck in medicine too long.

I think I probably stuck in the property at the time too long. It\'s like that\'s, in hindsight what I think that I took from all of that is that a. Actually the change is the fear or change is the challenge, not the actual doing it. It\'s the fear of the change, I should say. Yeah. So massively, massively relate to that.

And yeah, just what do you, what do you primarily help people with now is the other thing I was saying, like who do you help? What is your, I guess your target audience? Like who are the people that you\'re trying out? What challenges do they have that they resonate with you and your work and then what is the, the first step you take them on?

Mark Aylward: Yeah, it\'s as I said to you when, before we started recording, I had to pick a market because essentially what I do is helpful to almost everyone. If you\'re in a state of transition or you\'re in a state of uncertainty and it doesn\'t even need to be professional, it can cause what I do, we dig deep into the personal side of things because everyone\'s motivations are personal, right.

What you want to do, who you want to be. So I picked middle aged men and you know, middle age is a pretty large group of people now. Not because I am particularly fond of them, even though I\'m one of them. I just had to pick a market and I thought, boy, I have a lot in common with that market, so I\'m going to pick them.

But I don\'t limit who I can help I just limit who I market to, if that makes sense. And the first conversation is very simple.

We just dig deep into who are you? You know, let\'s. Why are we talking? Why did you seek me out? You know, what\'s. What\'s the motivation behind that? And most of the time it\'s some sort of level of dissatisfaction with what they\'re doing.

And that runs the gamut, Steve. It could be disenfranchised with their boss, a culture that\'s toxic or. Which is a word I don\'t really care for.

It\'s everywhere now, just aspirations, you know, I want to do more, to serve other people, to find my purpose, to do more than just collect a paycheck. So, you know, those reasons are abundant. And I dig with very simple questions. What does that mean? Why do you say that? Expand on that for me.

And I actually wrote a workbook called \"Find Your True Purpose\" because I was having this conversation so frequent, so similarly and so often, I thought, well, let me jump start the conversation, go do the work in this workbook. It\'s a couple hours, come back with the results, and let\'s talk about that so you don\'t have to do that. But that makes that first conversation much more productive.

And it really is all about getting into, you know, who are you? People want to tell you what they do. I want them to talk about who they are, if that makes sense.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah, makes perfect sense. And I\'ve been through a similar process with one of my coaches over the past 12 months about understanding all the conditioning that\'s coming to my world over the decades that I\'ve been around and how that affects who I am, who I think I am, who I.

What I believe I can do, and then actually taking a moment in this adult stage of my life or middle age of my life, and thinking, okay, great, so what does that all mean? And they came. The question is, like, why are we here? Well, what. What am I doing? What I\'m doing. And these are the questions which you just. Which you\'re alluding to here.

Like, finding the answers to those questions is massively motivational, except you\'ve got, like, took me a long time to. To. To get there and to even think about doing this stuff. So I encourage anyone who\'s at that point.

And a few years ago, I sat there completely despondent with, like, what. Why was I even doing this? I had a family, young kids. That should have been a motivator, you know, brilliant wife. I live In a beautiful place. I\'ve got a, you know, what looks like a great job and like, I created my perfect dream lifestyle, if you like.

And yet still those questions are there. And it\'s because if you haven\'t got a Guiding Star, if you haven\'t got a reason why or even understand and asking yourself those questions, then, then it can be a bit difficult to keep going. So I think like, this work that you\'re talking about is just massively important. How do people get hold of the. Just while we\'re on the subject, how do people get the work but you just talked about. Because I know it\'s a free thing that they can access before.

Mark Aylward: Yeah, it\'s available. If you go to my LinkedIn profile, you can get access to all my free stuff and all my stuff. It\'ll bring you on a.

Dr Steve Day: What\'s your. What\'s your what..Mark, what\'s your LinkedIn profile, so people don\'t know because..

Mark Aylward: It\'s forward slash aylwardmark. It\'s the LinkedIn URL. Forward slash aylwardmark.

Dr Steve Day: That\'s A Y, L, W, A, R, D.

Mark Aylward: It\'s actually an English name, so it might, might be familiar to you. Most people can\'t spell it the first time around. A Y, L, W, A R, D, M, A, R, K. And I think if you typed in Mark Aylward that my LinkedIn profile would pop up first. It\'s a fairly unique name, but yeah. And then my YouTube channel, I mean it\'s, it\'s readily available anywhere you initially touch me online.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah.

Mark Aylward: So website, LinkedIn profile and YouTube channel.

Dr Steve Day: Cool. So let go the. Maybe the detail of everything in the workbook. Like what would be. Like what would be the first steps? Something. I want to get something super practical that people can. Like maybe a mind exercise or some people actually work on if they\'re driving or listening to this while they\'re working. Like, what could someone do right now to start actually taking steps towards a better future for themselves? If that\'s, you know, very well, look at it or how would you phrase that?

And what would be like something that people practically start doing right now with a view to. To creating the. The future they desire?

Mark Aylward: I think it\'s very simple, Steve. I think it\'s just not admitting, but recognizing that it\'s time to have a conversation with myself and it\'s time to have a candid conversation with myself.

And I think the words that jump out to me are self accountability and alignment. You know, is. Is am I acting and, and doing in alignment with who I am. Well, how do I know that? Well, you have to find out who you are first.

And the workbook, I tell people, and it\'s in the introduction to the workbook, is you have to allocate a couple hours of quiet time, which in itself is almost impossible for everyone.

Right. So the simplicity of that is the power of that. And I\'m talking quiet room, no noise, phone off, no dog, no kids. Hey, honey, I\'m going to be gone for two hours. And unless it\'s an emergency, don\'t interrupt me.

And then that process can be excruciating for some people. What do I do? What do I ask? Well, just keep. Keep asking yourself who you are. What do you love to do, what do you hate doing that you have to do, what would you do if you didn\'t need any money, what did you love to do as a child?

It\'s a series of. After you\'re done, you\'ll be like, well, that was simple. Yeah, but it was very difficult. And I think that most of us go to help for that. It\'s very conducive of. Of an agent, if you will.

And that\'s how I operate as an agent. I\'m gonna. I\'m gonna be the person that kind of caresses you through this conversation so you can do it on your own. But I think that admitting that I need to have a conversation with myself is the very, very beginning of that.

So I don\'t know if that\'s as. As specific as you\'d like, but I think that if. If most of us could just go, yep, I have to have that conversation with myself. You\'ve begun.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah. No, I think the acknowled. Acknowledgment of the need is often the biggest or the most challenging thing. It\'s like the admitting you have a problem if you know it\'s that sort of step.

It\'s like the. You\'ve got to. Actually, I\'m not saying this is a problem necessarily. In the same way of, say, you know, addiction, where that term comes from. You\'re like, you\'ve got to admit the addict before you can actually take steps to not becoming the addict.

And one thing, it\'s interesting. One of the things I learned actually, just as a slight side, is like the. The talking specifically about addiction is like the conditioning that we put ourselves in as business owners especially, or just anyone in any position they\'re in.

Like, whatever your behavior has been up till now, like, that is your norm. And if any, moving away from that Behavior or that thought patterns is the same as breaking an addiction.

Because in your, for a medical perspective, like the way you get your dopam now is to, to reinforce the status quo, to reinforce your norm. And if you change that like by doing this kind of work, it could feel really uncomfortable.

I know I, I really push back on this stuff and I needed a coach, I needed someone to guide me through it and they gave me some visualization, visual, I can\'t say the word visualization exercises to help me actually just think about things in a slightly different way because I was really struggling with this.

Is there anything like that you do with your clients that maybe they, they come to you, they just, they\'re really struggling to get started. Is there anything more that people can do to, to overcome those initial resistances?

Mark Aylward: Well, you know, I\'ve tried to set it up so that you can go and like my True purpose workbook and I also have a pardon my French, get your shit together 5 day email course which is specifically focused on helping men, high performing men who have had their confidence shaken by something in life.

And I\'m sure you can think of some examples. We all can is just is go through those courses, go through that workbook and then go, okay, if this method resonates with me, if I like the, the cut of this guy\'s jib, so to speak, I\'m going to call him, you know, I\'m going to get on his calendar.

And then the second step is a 30 minute consultation which is free. And that\'s when I start the. What do you mean by that? Why? And at the end of that 30 minute conversation, I can typically give someone at least two or three tactical things to do that without my assistance.

Moving forward at no cost would be beneficial for them to do. And then a certain percentage of those people say, okay, I want to, I want to hang out with you longer, I want to go deeper with you.

And, and that\'s usually, as I said earlier, I haven\'t fully automated that process yet. So it\'s time with me and it\'s usually somewhere between two and three hours and I\'ll spread it over two or three weeks because in between the two, the second and third hour, there\'s work to do.

I give you instructions to do things and then come back and then we go over that. And I have found historically that with three hours max over maybe three or four weeks, with a couple hours in between sessions, people can just, they wake up. It\'s just like I had no idea. I even had permission to do this.

And I\'m like, you\'re the one that gives yourself permission.

Dr Steve Day: Can I dive into. Because you mentioned something about this get your together email and so can you share with us? You said there\'s five emails in, in the sequence. Share with us.

Like the, the what One of those. Like maybe the, maybe the, the one that is the biggest opening for people or whatever. Or what the one that you feel is the most suitable to share so people can have something to work on and go away and actually think about today and then obviously they like it, they can come and find out more.

Mark Aylward: Yeah, I think again, I keep going back to the fact that if you get yourself to the course and you receive the first email, you\'re halfway home. Most people don\'t take that step, you know, and I\'m certainly, I\'m responsible for that in some capacity because of my messaging. It could be more efficient, I suppose, or more abundant in more places.

But I don\'t know if you\'ve ever heard. I can\'t remember the guy\'s name, but he wrote a book called Tiny Habits. And it\'s this notion of really, the way to make progress of any kind is to start taking baby steps.

And there\'s a couple of spots in the course where just say, look, just pick one thing that, you know, you want to get better at communication. Okay, well, what could you do to do that? So it challenges you throughout the course.

And it\'s, it\'s not a lot of work. It\'s, it\'s not meant to be a solution. It\'s meant to get gas in the tank and, and the ignition started, you know, So I think it\'s the idea that you don\'t have to leap, you just have to take a step. And what?

Well, for instance, what. Have you ever meditated, have you ever prayed, have you ever done visualization work, have you ever done breath work, have you ever done anything outside of your comfort zone? Okay, well, let\'s find that one thing that\'s, that\'s probably the most helpful piece of advice. It\'s not as specific as you may have have preferred, but that\'s really what it\'s all about, is just getting started.

Okay. I\'m tired of being where I am, whatever that might mean. So I\'m going to keep going back to that because I think that the magic is in the beginning.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah, no, I think there\'s some, I mean, there are some very practical, implementable ideas you shared there, even though you were sharing the concept.

I mean, some of the things you said there, like about visualization, about meditation, about breath work, two, 18 months ago, I\'ve not done any of those things. And working with, working with my own coach, that he encouraged me to do all those things and I had huge, huge, like just life changing experiences and I would have never imagined that was even something that would have.

Yeah, I just had no idea what it, what it would be or wouldn\'t be, to be honest beforehand, because I\'d never tried. Yeah, yeah.

Mark Aylward: No one does. I think, you know, I go back to, you know, when, when my divorce was finalized, I had some decisions to make and the children were aging up and being self accountable and self.

They were, they were taking care of things. I was no longer necessarily having to be a dad every day. They still want me around, but they don\'t need me kind of thing. And so I was faced with similar decisions and I was like, well, you could go, like, go to bars and, and drink beers and pick up women and, and live a shallow life, or you could maybe think about going back to church and maybe try yoga like my daughters have been trying to get me to do for years.

So I had, I had all these choices and I recognize that these are, this is entirely up to me and, and, and the challenge that I found, and perhaps you did as well, is most of these things don\'t bring, none of these things bring immediate results.

So there\'s a period of time where you\'re doing the work and, and most of it\'s pretty enjoyable. It\'s pretty peaceful. And I\'m, I\'m a physical, athletic guy, I always have been. So I like moving around. But you don\'t see any results for weeks.

And I think what I found coaching people is most people, they\'ll get into it for a few days, maybe a few weeks, they won\'t see any results and they\'ll just stop. And I\'m like, well, no, you\'ve, you\'ve done all of this work, you\'re getting benefit, you\'re just not recognizing it yet. Just be patient. And that\'s the second piece.

And I\'m sure if you\'re coaching anybody in any capacity, you\'ve seen this. My dog, one of my daughters is a gut health coach. She\'s like, I can\'t help the people that won\'t do the work, that won\'t change their habits.

They, they agreed they were gonna, it made sense what to do. They got the resources in place and then they just didn\'t do the work. And it\'s the most frustrating thing about anyone I suppose that coaches.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah, 100%. And that\'s one of the reasons why, I think, knowing how many things that I started over the years and never continued through, and you kick yourself for it and you feel bad about it, and then you just.

The next day, captains comes on and off you go. And I think that that\'s one of the things about having a framework. Like, I know you\'ve got a framework, seven pillars framework that you talk about, and that\'s kind of stuff that I think is massively beneficial. I know for my clients. I\'m a coach. I\'ve been coaching for nine years now.

And, you know, if it was just me talking to somebody with just my ideas, then you get a very low success rate, a very low traction rate. It\'s when you give people a plan and you give people a formula or a proven framework or whatever you want to call it, that\'s when people got something tangible to actually go, okay, I can see where I am.

I can see where the next step is. They can see where I\'m going. And often that\'s the key to, I think, motivating people past that initial stages of doing the work, getting no results, thinking it\'s never going to happen, and then suddenly, bang, it all can change.

Mark Aylward: Yeah, I think systems and processes and documentation and framework. Anytime you can bring structure to a message, I think it\'s more easily consumable. And we\'re humans, we\'re all the same.

And the other thing that strikes me, Steve, throughout all this is I think it\'s important to recognize that this is not. There\'s no destination here, you know, and. And not to be cliche, but if you\'re seeking a destination, I mean, death is the destination, however, you believe in the afterlife or whatever, but everything else is the journey you just got.

The only way to fail with this stuff is to quit. Right. And I\'ve quit stuff. Yeah, sometimes you have to quit stuff or quit people. But the journey is like, if people can recognize that if I just get rid of this concept of destination, well, then it just becomes a matter of process.

Is your process in place? What is that process? What does it look like in terms of tactics? Is it daily, weekly, a couple of times a day?

If you can get to a process that is enjoyable, simple, perhaps inexpensive, repeatable, that\'s where the work should go. And I think it\'s challenging for most people because we don\'t. We don\'t think that we\'re in control of that.

We cede control of that to Others like our parents, our teachers, our boss, investors, our board, whatever it might be, once you take that back and make it yours, there\'s no limits, you know, and that\'s, that\'s an important part of the beginning of my conversation with anybody is let\'s, let\'s get, let\'s knock that.

The walls down to that box, because I don\'t even know what that box is there for. You know, does that make sense?

Dr Steve Day: It makes perfect sense for me especially, I mean, having been through different, as I said before, stages in my life and now at a point where I feel I have taken back control and crafting.

Crafting a lifestyle that suits my highest needs or meets my highest needs, I should say. And so the work. Work for me was figuring out what those needs were like to live for me, to live with presence, purpose, and freedom.

And it comes off my tongue very easily now because I\'ve said it so many times, but actually, in the initial stages, it felt awkward saying those things. And I thought, am I just saying them because. Because they\'re nice words to say.

But actually the work I did to come up with those three words, this, it\'s. It was a long, hard battle, like, to figure out what it actually means and why those things are so important. But once I really took ownership of them and made them and realized how much authenticity is.

There is. Sorry in those. Those words and the meaning for me, then they have become my guiding star. And for a cliche phrase, it\'s like enjoying, like, enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Exactly what you\'ve just been saying now.

It\'s like, if I can craft a day that serves those three values the highest, then today\'s a good day. Yeah. And that\'s it. And if today\'s been a good day, well, what? Nothing else really matters.

Mark Aylward: Well, and I think the. Maybe in addition to that, because that\'s all I believe 100 correct. Is, you know, you. You have to be able to.

I have to be able to. And I kind of teach this, I suppose, but you have to be able to forgive yourself when you make a mistake or you don\'t have a good day. Because again, it\'s like, that\'s okay. I think I\'ve seen a lot of people.

They\'ll get weeks into a physical routine, and then they\'ll just stop for a day, and they\'ll stop for a day, and then they\'ll stop for two days, and then they just won\'t go back. So when you, when you bump up against a restriction or you make a mistake, or you skip a day or you get, just feel lazy one day, just get back up, just get back up.

Don\'t, don\'t, you know, beat yourself up over that. That just makes you a human, you know. So I think that, that self forgiveness is another thing that\'s kind of facilitated through an agent, you know, if you can\'t forgive yourself. Let me give you permission to do that right now.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah, I think part of that as well is so much about not comparing yourself to others because the picture that other people allow you to see of themselves, their lives and their, their how they are acting is not the real one.

You know, there is so much that people are hiding when they are putting themselves, the mask that they wear in public. And if you believe that that thing you see that the way they, their life is, is a hundred percent reflection of everything they do and think and feel.

And that\'s what we compare ourselves to. Yeah. Whereas no matter how like, like I said, I do live in Sweden, I do work when I want to work and all that stuff, but I also have really shit days and I also work bloody hard sometimes and I also have kids that drive me insane half the time.

And you know, and all these things that everyone goes through and I just don\'t want to tell you that, you know, I had an argument with my nine year old son, I feel really bad about it and I shouted out it when I really hate myself for it.

Maybe I should talk about that stuff, but actually that\'s not related directly to my business. I guess that\'s why I don\'t share that stuff. But it\'s true, that\'s what happens.

Mark Aylward: You know, I think it, I think that the authenticity of what you\'ve just said is beneficial to your audience. It doesn\'t matter what you do.

You know, I benefit from, you know, and I don\'t proselytize, but I benefit from a pretty strong belief in God. And you know, I don\'t know if you know who Jordan Peterson is, but he talks about theology now because he\'s be, I think he became Christian over the last few years.

But he says if you don\'t want to believe in God, just take this last six commandments, forget about the first four and live your life by the last six commands. They\'re secular. You know, don\'t cheat on your wife, you know, don\'t harm your friends, don\'t.

I mean it\'s, if you have a set of rules and you go, okay, if I live by those rules, then I am fully aligned, then it Just becomes a function of, okay, I\'m going to do this.

Now, is that aligned with my rules? Yes or no? If it\'s not, don\'t do it, you know, and then that routine becomes, okay, that. Well, that\'s my process or my framework. Those are my rules. Right.

All I have to do is live my day. Just asking the question before I enact another task. Is that aligned with my rules? And then that becomes very simple. And it\'s difficult to maintain that consistently.

But that\'s no different than exercise or eating well, you know, yeah, it.

Dr Steve Day: Habit, discipline. All these lovely words that are so easy to say and so difficult to do, but they work, you know. So…

Mark Aylward: I\'ve got a routine now that is. I\'m very comfortable with. And it begins when I wake up. And it\'s. There\'s breath work, there\'s meditation, there\'s visualization, there\'s journaling. And then in that, journaling is a to do list for the day. And it\'s usually three or four things. You know, sometimes it\'s categories, sometimes it\'s very specific things. But if I. At the end of the day, if I can look at that and. And the boxes are checked, it doesn\'t matter how I feel. I had a good day. The feelings will catch up. I don\'t like that a lot.

Dr Steve Day: Mark, is there anything else that you wish I\'d ask you that you\'d like to share before we roll this to a close? Bring this to a close.

Mark Aylward: Yeah. You know, I would just encourage anybody who\'s listening if any of that stuff made sense. Start your journey. You know, click. Click on a link and get on my calendar or get the workbook. Get the together course. Just take us. Put your toe in the pool.

You know, that\'s. I can\'t make you do that. I can\'t encourage you to do that other than just ask right now. But no, I, I think that, you know, we covered most of the stuff that. That\'s. That\'s my philosophy on. On getting better, becoming more valuable, getting yourself out of a rut.

You don\'t. It\'s not a huge step. You\'re not. You don\'t have to jump off a cliff. You just have to click a button.

Dr Steve Day: Yeah, no, I like it. Baby steps. Cool.

Mark Aylward: Yeah. Those are easier than the big ones.

Dr Steve Day: Exactly. Exactly.

Mark Aylward: Give yourself permission.

Dr Steve Day: Thank you very much, Mark. Before you do go, I have a couple of questions I\'d like to ask you.

Mark Aylward: Sure.

Dr Steve Day: Everybody, these questions that comes on the show, I\'m a bit of a tech geek. I like anything gadgetry or technique technically on the computer. And so tell me, what are a couple of your favorite apps or gadgets that you\'re using at the moment that you can. Well.

Mark Aylward: Gadgets. I just started working with Go high Level, the. The CRM platform that\'s getting all the buzz. And it\'s, it\'s, it\'s way more capability than I can handle, but the facility of it and the ease of use is. It\'s pretty astounding. You know, and I, and I\'ve also. I\'m a Chat GPT guy.

I\'m not technical, but I think one of the interesting things, Steve, that I found is I am ideal in context. I don\'t, I don\'t accept things that I don\'t understand. I investigate. And what I discovered a couple weeks ago was that\'s what prompting is all about. Context. You need to be more specific.

And because I lived my life, that\'s my profession, I seek context. I need to get to the bottom of this. I\'m pretty good at prompting. The challenge with it is it\'s a rabbit hole. And if I accept the next request, now that you\'ve done this, do you want me to do this, this, and this? I just got to say no, not right now.

Dr Steve Day: Scrolling on your social media, you need to know when to stop.

Mark Aylward: The same thing. Yeah.

Dr Steve Day: Just because you bought it. If anyone\'s interested in Go High Level, then go and check out our tools page, which is sys.academy/tools. There\'s a link there for GoHighLevel, which I think is an awesome CRM.

And I\'m actually going to do an episode in the very near future talking all about why I moved off our old CRM onto GoHighLevel and my journey through. The second thing is ChatGPT is part of my world every single day now. And so again, just future casting. I\'ll be doing a session in the next couple of weeks, so do hit subscribe all about prompt engineering. And we\'ve actually created a new.

Well, I\'ve created, I should say a Prompt Engineer prompt. So something actually helps you craft and write professional prompts. I\'ll be showing how to get access that in a couple of weeks. Cool. Thank you for letting me say that. And so the last question, the title of this podcast is systemize your success, but what does success mean to you?

Mark Aylward: I think of the words that you used. I think that being able to spend time with the people that I love, being able to be happy about the work that I do. And I, you know, the first placement I ever made when I was 26 years old, Steve, was an electrical engineer. A single father of three young children.

And he was about to lose his house, and he said to me, I saved his life. And I thought, I think this is what God wants me to do. Help people move from being stuck professionally to a better place. And so that\'s what success looks like to me, the ability to help as many people as possible move from a place that\'s not satisfying to a place where they\'re perhaps also serving the world.

And as cliche as that sounds, if I could do those things, have that freedom and that level of service, I\'m sure I would consider myself successful.

Dr Steve Day: As I do, I don\'t think it sounds cliche at all. I think it sounds very wise. So we\'ll finish on that very wise note. So thank you very much indeed, Mark. Been a pleasure.

Mark Aylward: Yeah, me too, Steve. Thanks for having me.

Reignite Your Purpose and Motivation—Small Steps to Rediscover Your Why with Mark Aylward, Founder of 7 Pillars Global | Ep 245

What I love about Mark’s approach is its simplicity:

KEY TAKEAWAYS: Small Shifts Toward Finding Purpose and Motivation

BEST MOMENTS: Inspiring Insights on Finding Purpose and Alignment

TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW: Finding Purpose — Rediscover Your Why with Mark Aylward

Episode Transcript

VALUABLE RESOURCES

LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE GUEST

ABOUT THE GUEST

LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE HOST

ABOUT THE HOST

For more articles related to finding purpose and motivation, you may also like:

The Only 8 Apps and Services Needed to Delegate Almost Anything to a VA

SYS 203: Achieve Balance: Systems and Accountability for CEO Success – Tobey Wyatt’s Insights, Founder of Motherlode Consulting

SYS 057: Who Runs the World? – Interview with Kevin Brittain

Discover How Small Business Owners Leverage The SixR System To Achieve Time Freedom In Under 90 Days

How Small Business Owners
Leverage The SixR System
To Achieve Time Freedom
In Under 90 Days

Free On-Demand Masterclass