089: Self-care for Prolific Living (and Working) with Farnoosh Brock

Pete Mockaitis
Farnoosh, thanks so much for joining us here on the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast.

Farnoosh Brock
Hey, Pete. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Pete Mockaitis
I am so excited to dig into so much of your good stuff associated with prolific living and such, but I want to start off by hearing first, what’s the story with you being Persian royalty?

Farnoosh Brock
Oh, did I say that about myself somewhere? I need to go edit that.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, in the course of our research, we’ve surfaced this. We could totally edit this out.

Farnoosh Brock
No, it’s fine. I think I remember. So my mom’s side, my maternal side, they have this theory that we come from Persian royalty and we are connected. I think somebody in my family has done research, and so my cousins and I laugh about it because we didn’t really inherit anything with all that royalty. I thought I would put it in because that’s my mom’s thing. It was like a little bit of a family joke. I hope she doesn’t listen to this. Sorry, Mom! But no, I am an average Persian person.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Now we know. That sets the record straight. I think we all have our little legends associated with family or how things tend to be the way they are.
I’ve got a cowlick (or is it pronounced cow-lick? I don’t know) on my head, the hair. It kind of does a little bit of the superman curl thing.
I’m not sure if that’s because, as a child, I really wanted to be superman. I kept trying to make it curl that way or if it’s just something that happened at birth. But I like to think there’s a connection there.

Farnoosh Brock
You know what? That just may be.

Pete Mockaitis
Thank you!

Farnoosh Brock
Let’s go with that. Welcome!

Pete Mockaitis
Lovely. Now the record is straight on Superman, royalty, and how that all works.

Farnoosh Brock
That’s right.

Pete Mockaitis
Could you maybe frame us up a little bit? You talk a lot about prolific living, and I think that’s just a great phrase. What does that mean for you in terms of your area of focus and expertise and how that applies to you being awesome at your job?

Farnoosh Brock
Thank you for asking. I think prolific living is more than just being awesome at your job, at your career, at your business, your profession. I think it’s about the lifestyle. I like to think that I embody that, that I live that, and I inspire others to do the same.
To give you an example, my husband and I are in business together now, and we both come from long corporate careers, sort of those rebel employees. We were supposed to be stable, but we just decided to take a different direction.
We wanted a different lifestyle. It wasn’t money. We made a lot of money in our careers, and we were very comfortable. For instance, today, I’m speaking to you from Toronto, Canada. We are here for six weeks. We love this town so much. We are here, living here, but that’s not vacation for six weeks. I am working. I’ve had a couple of calls today, a business meeting in downtown.
I wanted the kind of lifestyle where I feel I am doing something valuable and making a difference, but also living a fun life and on my terms and my schedule, and of health and fitness and taking care of myself, physically, emotionally, mentally, on all levels. It’s really important to me. I transfer that to my clients, to my customers.
It’s holistic living and it’s doing it on your terms and believing that you are capable of creating that for yourself no matter where you are or what your circumstances are.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s fun. It sounds very appealing and prolific sounds like a great way to be.
I really like what you say in terms of the integration of these things. They really are interconnected and related. I actually decline a fair number of guest pitches about health, but I like you.

Farnoosh Brock
Thank you!

Pete Mockaitis
And how you do draw some of those connections between how there really is a clear intersection there. In Episode 57-ish, Jenny Blake said, “Your body is your business,” and I totally think that makes a ton of sense.
Could you maybe link out for us the relationship you see in your work with clients associated with health and job performance, whether it’s creativity or flow or efficiency or just kind of good, smart energy. How do those two link together?

Farnoosh Brock
I’ll start with using myself as an example, because I have done it really well, and I’ve done it really poorly. What tends to happen, Pete, is that when we get busy, especially for the driven ambitious among us (I think that’s some of your audience if not most of it), when you get busy pursuing your career or professional goals, the first thing that drops is the focus on health.
“Oh, I’ll go to the gym later. I’ll sleep later. I’ll eat better later, because now I have to do this.” You don’t realize that overtime, you’re really sacrificing one of your greatest assets because your mental agility, your creativity, your smart decision making, all of that comes from being in a really good, healthy place. As you grow older, you realize this, but it’s better if you’ll do it sooner in life.
For myself, I remember giving this up. That was really my turning point around 2006 or 2007, where I realized all those trips cross-country from North Carolina to San Jose twice a month and business meetings all day and working 12 hours, it might have marginally advanced my career in a direction I didn’t even realize I’ve wanted to go, but it’s really sacrificed my health, mainly my emotional and mental health. I just regret that. I look back and I think, “This is altogether. You need to take care of yourself.”
Now, in my business, to give you the higher part of that example, I work very select hours a day, but I’m very productive during those hours, and I exercise and work out and practice yoga between two to three hours a day.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, wow.

Farnoosh Brock
Let me tell you, that’s not just for fun and of course feeling good and all that, but if I don’t do that, I actually am not at peak condition to deliver to my clients. I know this because I have skipped those and worked 12 hours and I have been less productive and been less than my ideal, perfect condition. You see what I mean?

Pete Mockaitis
Yes.

Farnoosh Brock
I see the same in my clients. I work with executives. I work with very smart, driven businessmen and entrepreneurs. We look at their overall lifestyle, and most of them are working too much anyway.
It’s about working smarter and more efficiently. There are things they need to stop doing, and then there are things they need to add, such as more of a self-care, a practice to help them feel more grounded, whether that is spiritual or religious, whatever that may be. You need a grounding practice every day, a caring for your body.
We do that and then they realize how much more productive they are, how much happier they feel, how much more refreshed they wake up in the morning. It is absolutely and definitively connected. You may choose to believe it or not, but it doesn’t change the fact that the more you take care of yourself, the more yourself gives back to you.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. There’s so much to dig into there. Thank you for that. I’m going to have to prioritize my own questions here.
One of them is you said, believe it or not (and I think you probably see that in your own clients) I’m thinking about the response of the listener right now. It’s like, “Okay, yeah. That sounds good and fun, and maybe that’s theoretically true,” but could you maybe prove it in terms of “Here’s a transformational client example” or “Here’s a study for the American Medical Association” or something like that, that kind of connects A to B in an unmistakable, undeniable kind of way.

Farnoosh Brock
Right. I haven’t done studies and research and data, but every example I have seen where people are not doing it that way, they are miserable and failing. By not doing it that way, I mean when I speak to them, if they are unhappy in their careers or their jobs or their businesses, when we dig in further, we realize that there is also gaps in their self-care.
Self-care is not just your body. It’s everything. Remember, I mentioned it’s emotional, it’s physical, it’s your relationships. But it’s areas where it’s outside of the business and career and those areas of your life you need to be taking care of in order to, then, be your best self in the professional sense.
For me, it’s case by case. Myself and every one I’ve worked with, whenever we have added these components of self-care, their productivity and happiness has exponentially increased, not marginally but exponentially increased to the point where they continue to emphasize that.
I would say that, really, you have to test it on yourself. Even studies don’t give you the answers. Some studies come out and say one thing, and it may or may not work for you. I would say to the skeptical reader, Pete, try it for yourself.
One week, don’t take care of yourself, stay up until midnight, try to get up at 6:00, go to meetings, drink a ton of caffeine, eat bad food, whatever it is you do, alcohol, whatever, over-indulge, and just see how you feel. The following week, do the opposite, take the most care of yourself and observe your productivity, observe how people perceive you, your relationships, the impact of your conversations, your happiness level. Your own results will speak for you, so you don’t have to believe me or the studies.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, all right. Just one more point to drive it home all the more, could you share with us about how maybe you had a client and they had a bad situation and then you did an intervention of sorts and how they saw the translation of feeling good to “Ooh,” producing more fantastic, good stuff.

Farnoosh Brock
Right, yeah. Let me think of a good example because to your point earlier, I have had skeptical clients. I work with some really brilliant, smart people who are like, “You know that’s great. Yes, exercise, eating good, but I really want to know what you do to make that next leap in my career,” or, “Make that next leap in my business.” I have to get very creative in how I bring about those other interventions you called it in a way that they can get on board with it, that the technical or the logical mind can get on board with it.
To be specific, I’ll use a business owner in Singapore, Taisuke. We’ve worked together for well over a year now. He started out just on the verge of burnout. He was working really, really hard. Super smart guy, running a tech company out in Singapore. We worked together and he is very open to feedback and coaching. That was great.
But he also needs proof. As we would introduce one concept after another, taking care of yourself, integrating the things that you’re passionate about again, such as running and sports in his case, giving up smoking and drinking. That was very hard for him because he would go out with his clients, and drinking was a very accepted social norm. We found a way for him to drink pop soda or whatever.
And the effect on he felt the next day and how he led his business the next day just by removing alcohol, smoking, a little bit less on socializing and more on sleep. In his case, he was not sleeping. He’s very young, so sometimes it’s a pride thing, “I only get by with five hours of sleep.” I was right there with that club. No, that doesn’t work.
Taisuke has come a long way from where he was. Now, he’s proud of his health habits, and he is by far a much more effective leader at his company, and he feels better about himself. He works less hours now because on the hours that he works, he’s sharper and more productive, because he’s taking better care of himself.
There you go.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s fine. So you say he’s producing the same or more in fewer hours because each hour is better due to his enhanced energy, clarity, etc.

Farnoosh Brock
Yes, definitely.

Pete Mockaitis
All right, that sounds lovely. Let’s get into it a little bit in terms of if you had to do some prioritization, you’ve looked at a lot of clients and a lot of behaviors associated with how they can get an upgrade to their health and their energy and focus and such, if you had to prioritize in terms of the things that give you the biggest bang for the buck or return on your hour of time or energy, effort, attention invested, what would you say are some of the top practices for unleashing more good, healthy, productive energy?

Farnoosh Brock
I’m not big into quick advice, quick tips. I would want to say, “What is it that makes you think you’re not productive now? Let’s explore what’s going on with you right now.”
Let me go along with that and think where would I go first. I would really look at someone’s approach first. As you’re listening, think about how you’re approaching your two hours of productivity in the morning. Are you just like getting up, and if you’re working from home, you’re just kind of rushing and opening your computer and starting? That’s one way to do it, right? You’re going to be productive. There’s nothing wrong with the way you’re doing it.
But how can we do it better? Observe how you feel as you sit down and you’re working. If you are thirsty or if you haven’t taken care of yourself, if you haven’t eaten, if you haven’t stretched your body, if you haven’t taken care of any of that, as you are going through that couple of hours, look at how you’re feeling, look at how your throughput per hour of productivity is. What are the results you’re creating? Just observe that.
The next day, before you open your laptop, give yourself 15 minutes of self-care, and that can be anything. It could be stretching. It could be meditation. It could be walking if you’re in an area where you could go get some fresh. It could be some quiet time. It could be reading.
Before that, before you start work, try to kind of get a head start or (I don’t have a good phrase for it) a whole routine I go through before I do work. I do a quick scan of my emails, but I have a whole routine to go through before I’m mentally ready to attack what I call “other people’s problems,” people who are coming to me and it’s not my agenda.
I would say experiment. I know I’m kind of skirting around Pete’s question here. I know. It’s probably what he’s thinking.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, no. I hear what you’re saying. It’s working for me. Keep going.

Farnoosh Brock
Okay. I really think experimenting because there is no “universal tips.” Because I do so much tailoring and customization in my coaching work, what may work for you—
Meditation may not work for a lot of people. In fact, I don’t meditate. I do hours and hours of yoga and some breathing exercises, but meditation is still a challenge for me. But I do the grounding practice that I talk to you about, where I feel I am grounded before I go and read a customer problem, because I know that I will be in a better place to help someone else if I have taken care of myself first. That’s the bigger concept.
Really, the question is before you get to work, whatever your work is, have you taken care of yourself? Sacrifice, as much as we glorify sacrifice, doesn’t really work well in the long term, because sacrificing your health, your well-being, whatever you need first, it’s against the concept of being in a good place to take care of others.
When you take care of yourself, how you treat yourself and how you’re in a good place before you sit down and help others, whatever the case may be, your cup will be full. Let’s put it that way. You can help others.
Whereas if you’re drained and you have all these needs but you’re pushing them back, “I’m thirsty, I want some caffeine or I want some of this, but I’m going to do it later because my boss needs this,” yes, there are times when we have to put our needs on hold because we’re in a crunch, it’s deadline time. If that’s your norm over the long term, what I’m saying is it will not sustain itself.
If you’re in a position in your job where you’re operating from that place of rush, rush, rush, and you want to go into a leadership position at some point, that’s not how leaders act. You need to come from a very confident place, I mean controlled, and you have the practice of taking care of yourself before taking care of others so that you are setting an example, being a role model.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, thank you. I like that, and I found that to be the case myself with regard to the morning pieces. I’ve kind of experimented and fine-tuned and dialed-in and replaced this thing for that thing in terms of my morning time. It’s probably just about 15 minutes actually.
I like what you’re saying in terms of everyone’s different, you got to do some customization. Maybe instead, we’ll redirect to say, what would you say is the menu of options, what’s likely high-potential things you might do in your 15 minutes of morning self-care time that pack a punch, things like maybe stretching or drinking some water or breathing or prayers. What’s sort of the menu of likely winners?

Farnoosh Brock
Right, very good. That’s a long list. Some of my favorites, and everything I’m telling you is from my experience, and also I’ve assigned it to all my clients so I have all these case studies, and they’ve been wonderful to cooperate.
For instance, writing, especially if you are mentally agitated about anything. If you’re going through a stressful period, if you have issues, relationship stuff on your mind, writing is extremely important for you before you start to dig into your day.
Journaling whatever is on your mind, it stops the thoughts before you get to work. That is sort of like the mental release. You can do that in a notepad or whatever. And so the writing practice is important.

Walking can be a sort of meditation. 15 minutes is not quite enough. It doesn’t have to be your whole exercise, but either walking or seated meditation for a few minutes, or quiet time.
Quiet time can also be you’re alone, there isn’t all this chaos in your house, and you can make a cup of tea for yourself and just going through those motions. But a little bit of quiet time.
If you are going to be on the phone or speaking to people, I would say warming up your voice, having some warm up exercises. I was doing that before our call today.

Pete Mockaitis
You sound warm.

Farnoosh Brock
Thank you! You can look up YouTube. I had a voice coach for a long time, so being able to take care of your vocal cords before you get on the phone, and to go further there, drinking some hot water with some tea or maybe some lemon. Really just taking care of what you need for what’s coming up. In your case, lots of conversations.
If you’re going for a long commute or something, maybe just kind of preparing yourself mentally for going into the crowds, especially if you’re an introvert. I would say the quiet time in the morning is extremely important.
I would say you need more than 15 minutes to take care of the physical activity aspect. I set aside two to three hours, but that’s just because I am fanatic about my yoga. I would say you want to set aside maybe 45 minutes or something, during the day, maybe in the morning, maybe later, to take care of your body and to have a routine that works for you, whatever that may be. You have so many options there.
I just started something brand new this week called “Pure Barre,” which is strength building. Fabulous, right? I mean I didn’t even know it, and I’m going to integrate that into all my work.
What other morning routines? I think what you eat or not eat is really important. Having some kind of a good, healthy approach to eating, usually making your own food, which is also another way that makes you feel like you’re taking better care of yourself, in the morning and planning for the rest of the day. What you eat can nourish you and help you be prepared for the rest of the day. The food aspect can be part of your routine.
I think if you’re going to be in a stressful situation, stressful meetings, either meditation or some breathing exercises. If you do any type of yoga, then it makes sense for you to look into pranayama, which is the breathing techniques. You could do five minutes of that which will really mentally prepare you for going in to give a presentation or maybe dealing with customers or a tax report situation. Heavens forbid, I was there. It’s a very stressful job.
Depending what you need for your day, Pete. I think that your morning routine needs to adapt to that.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s lovely. So there’s maybe some standardized, just basically get the body going and mind operating, and then there’s the customized to give the unique challenge of the day covered. That’s a lovely menu.
I did want to talk a bit about breathing as I’ve become more and more fascinated by a variety of breathing approaches and prescriptions, and different styles of breathing produce different kinds of results. I bet we could talk for hours about this, but could you give us a few minutes in terms of—you listed out one kind of breathing, pranaranada. Did I say that right?

Farnoosh Brock
No.

Pete Mockaitis
I don’t know how to say that.

Farnoosh Brock
That’s okay. It is pranayama. Pranayama is really the study of breath. That is multiple disciplines of breath under it. Did you want me to speak to that? Was that your question?

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah. I’d like to hear a bit about that breathing and then even to the extent that there are other forms of breathing to meet other circumstances and could comment on those as well. It’d be kind of fun to be conscientious about our breathing approach.

Farnoosh Brock
So true! I mean I had no idea breathing was—it’s a science. You can get a PhD in just understanding the breathing techniques. It’s very powerful.
I would say, for the absolute beginner—again, it helps to have a little bit of yoga background in order to better understand, in order to become more aware of your breathing. The simplest breathing, which you may hear when you’re at the doctor or what have you, is take a deep breath, deep inhale, deep exhale.
If you want to take it further, the simplest practice I would give you is sit on the floor or in a chair, but on the floor is just more grounded. The ground is more firm, so you have a better grounding. Sit up tall and simply do 10 breaths and just make sure you count the inhale and match the exhale. You pick. Maybe you could do a five-count inhale, which is pretty advanced. Let’s do a three-count inhale. You inhale on one, two, three. You exhale on one, two, three. You do this 10 times.
If you want to take it a little bit further, you could do a little bit of retention. That means very little. We do inhale of one, two, three, hold the breath for say two counts, and then one, two, three, exhale. The holding or stopping, that’s what one of my yoga teachers said. You inhale, one, two, three. Stop. Then you exhale, one, two, three. Then you’d repeat that.
You cannot believe the calm just that little stopping at the end of the breath will produce. Very simple. Absolute beginners can do this. As long as you match the inhale and the exhale, and you do it at your own pace.
Simplest, simplest technique that can create really powerful internal calming and also makes you a lot more patient and resilient and help you breathe in the stressful situations. That’s really what you’re training your body to do because we hold our breath when we are anxious or upset or annoyed. If you can breathe in those situations, you will act smarter, I promise you. Personal experience.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, I hear you. That’s so good. What you’re saying is matching the counts in term of the inhale and the exhale. And so the holding, you say between the inhale and exhale or after the exhale? Both? Neither?

Farnoosh Brock
No. Inhale, hold, exhale. Inhale, hold, exhale. Inhale, hold, exhale. Very simple.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Now, I’d love to—geez, there’s so much to go after. I’m curious. I’ve been reading a bit from Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement and some of his work over at The Energy Project. Hope we’ll have him later. He says that if you breathe in for a count of three and exhale for a count of six, it is possible to rapidly clear your bloodstream of cortisol. What’s your take on this?

There is breathing exercises that can cool you, that can warm you, that can clear your digestion, so I am not surprised, but I am not familiar with that particular one. I would say you can try it.
The one thing I would say with the pranayama and the breathing (and I am not a teacher. I am not a yoga teacher. I’m not training to be one. I’m just fascinated by all of this so I practice on my own) is that I gave you something very simple to do.
The breathing has nervous cleansing abilities. I would say it’s really good if you’re going to really get into the breathing to work with a teacher.
Because the breathing is really powerful. It can… not mess you up, but if you do a lot of it and especially the retention stuff, it’s going to have some—I don’t know, like open up certain channels, etc. You just want to make sure that if you’re going to get really into it and do it every day and study it, work with a teacher.
Including you, Pete. I can see you’re very excited about this.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, it’s just one of my latest discoveries. It’s like, “Whoa, something’s happening here,” and I’ve never thought about it much before. So it’s like a new toy.

Farnoosh Brock
Exactly. We don’t use our lung capacity. We don’t use a fraction of it. You’re really learning to use fuller and fuller capacity of your whole system, and it’s powerful, and that’s probably what you’re experiencing, right?

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, yes. And so could you speak to a little bit just like through the nose, through the mouth, the diaphragm, the shoulders. How do we think about some of that stuff?

Farnoosh Brock
It’s all through the nose, pranayama. Unless otherwise stated, your mouth is closed and you’re breathing through the nose. If that’s hard for you, I would say just practice a regular breathing, 10 counts. Just sit down and do regular breathing, inhale, exhale. Try to match the length. If you need to open your mouth, that’s fine.
Some people have difficulty breathing through their nose, including my own husband. We’re working on it. Overtime, you really want to close your mouth and breathe through the nose. That’s really where you want to make sure it’s all through the nasal passages.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Mouth breathers is even like a derogatory term.

Farnoosh Brock
That is true. That is not what I meant to mean at all!

Pete Mockaitis
I know.

Farnoosh Brock
English is a funny language, yes.

Pete Mockaitis
I don’t know. It seems as though a recent phenomenon, like that mouth breathing. I was like, that’s a mean thing to say to people now?

Farnoosh Brock
Actually, did you watch…? This is really derailing. You may want to cut this, but I don’t watch much TV, but Stranger Things on TV.

Pete Mockaitis
Everyone’s raving about it.

Farnoosh Brock
Oh, it’s phenomenal.

Pete Mockaitis
I haven’t yet, but I want to now.

Farnoosh Brock
Okay. They use that term, “mouth breather,” as an insult. I just remembered. So you’ll have a good laugh about when you see it.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh fun. Well shucks, we’ve had a lot of fun here. Maybe I should just ask, you’ve also got some great perspective when it comes to confidence, finding it, building it, growing it, and why that really matters. What are some of your, I guess you don’t like quick tips, but the key things you’d like to share when it comes to confidence?

Farnoosh Brock
Confidence, yeah. That’s a big one. I think this is across the board, Pete. I work with individual contributors, and I work with, like I mentioned to you, executives and senior leaders. Confidence is ever present because what I think is a really important thing when you look at confidence is that at every stage of your career, your profession, at every level of success in life, to go to the next level, you actually need a whole new level of confidence.
Confidence isn’t binary. It’s not, “Yes, you have it,” “No, you don’t have it.” You are always developing confidence.
I had to develop a lot of confidence today. I had a call with a prospect to position a new offer that I have. I really feel good about it, and we really connected. But because it was a new offer, I had to raise the bar on my own confidence.
So when you think about yourself, don’t ever use the phrase, “I am not confident.” Never say that about yourself.
Another way to say it, you can be honest with yourself, is “To do that, to go for that interview, to go ask that person out, I am not confident enough yet,” which means you have confidence, but to do that particular task, to meet that challenge, your confidence isn’t there yet. That means you have to raise the bar on your confidence.
Depending on what you’re going to be doing, think about what you need to be more confident. Do you need to be taller? Do you need to be prettier? I’m being honest. Maybe you need to stand taller. Maybe you need to dress smart. Maybe you need to speak more resonantly. Maybe you need to be more skilled in a particular area, because all of that can add to your confidence.
To me, confidence is not only in different levels but also it’s the result of things you do. It’s not something you do. It’s the outcome of the things you do. When you learn more skills, it makes you more confident. When you practice something over and over, you become more confident at performing. It’s the outcome of the process.
You need to focus on the process. What is it that you need to be more confident for? Figure out what activities you need to do in order to make yourself as a result or confident.

Pete Mockaitis
It’s interesting to think about that because I think you made the distinction perfectly. It’s like, “Oh, I’m not confident.” Instead it’s like, “I’m not confident enough yet, so what do I need to do?” Sometimes, that might be “I’m going to get some custom-fitting clothing so I look fantastic.”

Farnoosh Brock
Yes!

Pete Mockaitis
“I’ve realized I don’t know the answers to five follow-up questions they might ask me, so by golly, I’m going to go figure that out first,” and then now I feel bulletproof, like, “Bring it on! Whatever you want to know, I can tell you.”

Farnoosh Brock
Yeah, I mean preparation for what you need basically, preparation for the task at hand, for your particular goal or challenge, because usually, it’s a circumstance that’s making us question our confidence. What is the circumstance? What is the outcome you want to create for yourself? What is missing? What could be helpful to you there?
If it helps to talk to someone, maybe you can get someone to help you, maybe you can work with a coach or a mentor or a smart friend, and then figure out what are those gaps you need to fill. As a result, you will become confident.
I think one thing that I see a lot when I work with people and they haven’t been confident in years is because they’re stuck. They don’t take action, and that inaction, that place of inaction, that’s where low confidence lives. Just by taking action, I can see them feeling more confident because it gives them a sense of accomplishment, a sense of progress, and it builds and builds until they get to a tipping point where they feel confident enough to do something and they go for it.
If you find yourself in really low self-esteem, low confidence, look at how much action you’ve taken. I’m willing to make a safe bet you may not have been taking a lot of action. You may have been worried and really like in a low place, but the actions you take will really help you build that confidence.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, beautiful. Thank you. There’s so much good stuff. I want to make sure that we get a chance to do some of the fast faves. Is there anything else you want to make sure you just put out there before we hear some of your rapid-fire favorite things?

Farnoosh Brock
No, I think we covered quite a bit, and I hope that your readers took some useful insights away. So let’s go for it.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh yes, me too. I’m sure it will be the case. First of all, could you share a favorite quote?

Farnoosh Brock
A favorite quote. I think this is the one I’m going to say to you. I put this on my Instagram the other day. “You have to believe it before you see it.”

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Great, thank you. A favorite book?

Farnoosh Brock
Oh, gosh. I don’t know. So many, many, many, many favorite books. I just finished a book by a Swedish author, and it was so good I ordered it for my father-in-law. It was called A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Phenomenal book. I read a ton of fiction, and that was simply beautiful, loved it. There you go. I’m going to go with that.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, thank you. How about a favorite tool that you use often that’s helpful in your effectiveness?

Farnoosh Brock
Gosh. I do love Todoist these days. A few months ago, I did some research. I actually did some research by asking my Facebook friends, “What is your favorite productivity tool?” I started using Todoist, and I love it! I think I’m 10 times more productive. I have projects under Todoist. I have daily habits. I have priorities. I start by looking at that every day. It keeps me on task, and it’s very user-friendly, so I love it. It’s working really well.

Pete Mockaitis
Great, thank you. How about a favorite habit?

Farnoosh Brock
Yoga.

Pete Mockaitis
All right, yeah. Hours of it. That’ll do it.

Farnoosh Brock
Hours.

Pete Mockaitis
Is there a particular thing that you share in your writings or speaking or work with folks that particularly seems to resonate, a little gem or a nugget or a tweetable tidbit that you’re known for?

Farnoosh Brock
Yes. I would say it’s the work we do around mindset, how you think about something and your belief system. The mindset. That comes down to questioning your current beliefs around something and whether those are true or not, and if they’re not true, then exploring a better belief system that can help you be successful.
I would say it in one word, Pete. It’s mindset, having the right mindset, whether it’s around business, profession, leadership, relationships. The foundation of that is your belief system.

Pete Mockaitis
Thank you. What would you say is the best way to find you if folks want to learn more and see what you’re up to?

Farnoosh Brock
Oh, you can find me anywhere on Prolific Living. I have that on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. You can just come to ProlificLiving.com and contact me, and I would love to speak to you. You can tell me you heard about me on Pete’s awesome podcast. I’d love to hear what was your one takeaway from this wonderful conversation that we had today.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, beautiful. Thank you. As we part ways, do you have a sort of final call to action or challenge you’d send forth to those seeking to be awesome at their jobs?

Farnoosh Brock
I want to leave with a very simple note, which is to trust yourself or trust yourself more. Maybe you trust yourself a little bit, but we often seek so much validation, and it can be confusing because people can send you different signals. I would say just go into your day and your company, your work, trusting yourself more and believing that you know what you’re doing.
Maybe you need to get more skills here or build more experience. Sure. But deep down, trust who you are. It doesn’t mean to be arrogant. It just means trust your intuition, trust yourself, and perhaps see that you can come from that place and make good decisions for yourself. You don’t need the whole world’s approval to make decisions for your life.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, perfect. Well, Farnoosh, thanks so much. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m eager to go try out some breathing things, and I wish you tons of luck over there.

Farnoosh Brock
My pleasure. Thank you, Pete. Thank you for having me. Cheers!