THE FRIDAY FAVS - ARE YOU BEING REAL? - THE MARK SHAPIRO EDITION

business blog Feb 11, 2020

This week's Friday Fav walked away from a six-figure salary to focus on his passion:

MARK SHAPIRO 

Founder of AreYouBeingReal.com & host of The One and Only Podcast, Mark Shapiro has been one busy man for more than a decade.

For over 12 years he was steadily climbing the ranks of Showtime Networks Inc. From intern to Marketing Executive, Mark's goal was a lofty one - to become Vice President at Showtime.

Promotion after promotion seemed to be leading him on that path but when he enrolled in a course on learning how to facilitate & lead trainings, the idea occurred to him that there might be something else out there for him besides Showtime.

A longtime fan of personal development and emotional intelligence courses, Mark was becoming a vocal champion of authenticity so it was no surprise when he decided to launch a podcast about just that.

His goal with each episode and guest? To celebrate and explore ways that we all can be true to ourselves in any situation.

THE ONE & ONLY PODCAST

THERE ARE 7 BILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, BUT ONLY 1 YOU

Flash forward 147 episodes in, Mark's left the corporate world behind to focus solely on his podcast, website and his mastermind program, Winning Weeks, where he gives participants the structure, accountability, and support to create their most productive and satisfying weeks of the year.

 

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO SWITCH GEARS

Having spent his entire career in entertainment at Showtime, Mark could have easily continued on the same path, whether he became VP or not. And he may have been happy doing it. We'll never know but to him, he's never had more fun at "work", gets to be creative and be 100% himself all the time.

Just because you're 5, 10, even 20 years in to your current career doesn't mean that you can't change gears. There's no handbook of what needs to happen and in what order.  There's no rules that say you can't change your mind - at any point - if you find that you're not loving your chosen profession anymore.

Will it be scary to leave the comfort of your day job? Sure.

Can you really make your all your lofty goals a reality? Absolutely!

From Mark to last week's Joy Cho of Oh Joy, every single one of the Friday Favs featured has made some sort of leap and ended up on top.

There's no reason you can't do it, too.

BE OPEN TO INSPIRATION   

When Mark started The One and Only Podcast he knew he needed a solid website to accompany it. Not happy with the options he found for a website name, he spent 4-5 months in ideation mode; researching, sending out surveys, coming up with name after name but not really loving any of them.

It wasn't until he was minding his own business hanging at a jazz club with a friend that it came to him.

A self-proclaimed lover of gettin his groove on, Mark found himself sitting at the club, music playing, tapping his foot to the music and wanting to get up and dance.

Problem was - not a single soul was dancing. It made him question himself.

Why was he not dancing? Was he not supposed to dance? What other reason could it be that no one in the club was dancing? In that moment he asked himself a simple question:

Am I being myself here, am I being real?

And with that, he knew what to do. He and his pal got up, started dancing and before the song ended, not only was the whole dance floor full, but he also had the name to his website.

This random night out with his pal led to him coming up with the perfect name for his website which is why being open to inspiration and ideas is key.

You have no idea where your idea for that next book, that next script or that next business is going to come from so it’s key that you stay open to the possibilities around you.

 

FYI -

Are You Being Real

Winning Weeks

The One & Only Podcast

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