183: How The Intentional Advantage Will Change the Way You Live

Hello. Hello everyone. And welcome to the Intentional Advantage podcast.
Oh my gosh. Let’s just take that in for just a second, because for about 182 episodes, I
have been saying the same intro to this podcast with the same name, Productivity
Paradox. And here we are, Episode 183, and we are making a change. We’re making
a big shift, we’re changing the name and we’re making a few other shifts along the
way,
which I think is really, really exciting. A little bit scary, you know how these things are.
But I wanted to have an episode where I just talk to you about why we’re making
these changes, what we’re implementing, and what it’s going to look like. What’s
different, what’s the same. And just really lean into this idea of why we’re doing this.
And here’s the thing: I never wanted to be one of those people who just spout out
advice, or strategies, or tips, and didn’t actively live that life. I always wanted to be a
person who basically . . . I eat what I cook. I tell you, I don’t just talk about living a
productive life. I don’t just talk about living with intention.
I actively live that way. I actively run my business that way. I actively have
relationships that are based on intention and really, really focused time for the
people that matter most to me. And so, you know, when it came time to think about
how we wanted to ship the podcast, because I had been feeling for a long time, like,
Productivity Paradox just really didn’t fit what we talk about here.
And I just, it kind of felt a little bit like, like a rock in my shoe where it’s just like, it was
fine and it worked, but it just felt not quite there. And now what’s really interesting is
a lot of times people ask me, you know, what do you do for a living or, or what is
productivity? And I tell people that,
yeah, I talk about productivity. People come in the door and I’m like, ‘Hey, I talk about
productivity.’ And then they come in and I go, ‘Okay, listen, it’s really about living with
intention.’ It really is about intentional living. That is truly what I’m passionate about.
That is really what I teach. I’m still a productivity expert because I teach you the

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systems and the strategies and how you can really streamline your life so that you
can focus in on what matters most and what’s most intentional.
But it’s really this very different view of productivity. It’s, it’s very different than really,
almost every expert out there that I see that’s in my space because a lot of them,
they like to talk about productivity in one area and generally it’s work. And it’s all
about like work, work, work, get your work done, do all these blog posts,
do all these, you know, these things. And I think that we are more than just a worker
bee. We have so much more to us than this one aspect. We all have these different
roles that we play, whether that’s wife or mother or friend, or girlfriend or neighbor
or leaders–anything! All of those roles define us. And so it’s this holistic version of
productivity that I teach.
And I, and I like to say about holistic, I like to say that it’s with a W because it’s the
whole self. You are more than just who you are at work. It’s really about creating a life
that feels productive, where we’re focusing in on what matters most; not just at your
career or in your business, but all the time in your life, and how do we really make
that happen.
And so, like I said, this, this idea of, ‘Well, I feel like we need to make a few shifts and
changes. We maybe need to change the name of the podcast.’ It really stemmed
from this idea of, you know, revisiting my North Star. So you’ve heard me talk about
the North Star a lot on the podcast. And I do really actively live by my North Star and I
revisit it every quarter.
So every quarter I take some time and I map out what I want to tackle for the next
90 days. And part of that process is revisiting my North Star–seeing if it still fits, if it
feels applicable or if it’s evolved and changed a little bit. And so at the end of last
year, I took some time. That’s really my biggest planning time in the fall.
I take a couple of days to really dive deep. And I started to feel like, ‘Gosh, you know
what? I really want to go deeper with my North Star. I really want to, to peel it back a
little bit. And I want to dive into that even more.’ And what does that mean? So I
decided this is my year to really ask the fearless question of why,
why, why, why, why? And keep asking why? Because I wanted to dig in and really
get even further into what is my purpose. What is my purpose statement that I want
to have for myself? So you might remember, I talked about this on the podcast
before, but my word of the year for this year is discomfort because I knew that
digging in and asking this question of why and asking it again,
why again and why, again . . . and getting to the heart of who I am was going to feel
uncomfortable. I knew that there would be times where I’d be like, ‘Oh gosh, I have
to make a shift or I have to make a change.’ And that feels uncomfortable. So I chose
discomfort because I knew I wanted to actively choose to change and to evolve and
to grow.

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And I know I could’ve chosen a word like transformation, or I could have chosen, I
don’t know, metamorphosis or something that sounded really nice, but I wanted to
be real with myself because I wanted to realize when I was in the midst of the
discomfort, when I was in that swamp of like, ‘Oh gosh, is this really what I want to
do?’
I wanted to remind myself: I chose this. This is an intentional choice that I’ve made to
really look at who I am and what I’m creating and what I’m putting forth into the
world. And so going out of that comfort zone is uncomfortable, by definition; so I
chose discomfort and it’s been a great word for me this year because I really started
diving into this and figuring out what I need to get rid of.
There are certain things that I’ve said yes to in the past that felt like the right “yes.”
And as I’ve grown and changed and evolved, and as my business has as well, that’s
shifted and changed and evolved. And I need to now say ‘No’ to some of those
things, which can be uncomfortable. But I started to really recognize and realize
what I do with what I create is, I really work to help people shift their mindsets,
reframe their relationships and realign with what matters most to them. And that’s
the message that I’m wanting to send out to the world. You know, not that long ago,
a few weeks ago, we had the episode that special episode, and I talked about this
idea of reconciling your receipts. And that’s really the process that I go through each
night when I go to bed,
I want to reconcile my receipts. And that basically just means I go back through my
day. I think about what I did, what I chose, what I, what decisions I made. And I want
to ask myself, does that feel right? Does that feel good to me? Does that feel aligned
with who it is I want to be, and the impact I want to make on the world?
And that’s what I call reconciling my receipts. It’s this idea of, I want to feel good. I
want to feel satisfied at the end of the day and ultimately through this podcast and
through my programs and through my book, that’s really what I’m looking for, for all
of you is to feel satisfied; to not go to bed at night and think,
‘Oh, why didn’t I get more done?’ Or, ‘Oh, I didn’t do enough today.’ I think that is so
defeating to feel that way. And we all just really want to feel good. We want to feel
satisfied. So it’s this idea of what is it we’re putting forth into the world? What is,
what is at the heart of my purpose?
And so this year I did, I stepped back. I took some time and I listened to the things
that I was questioning and why I was doing it. And I was listening to a lot of you and
what you were telling me, you wanted more of and what you were saying in the
podcast surveys and what you were saying in your emails to me and the DMS and
those types of things.
And I started to realize what is really at the heart of what I do and what I create and
what I offer up? And so I created a purpose statement for myself. And so here’s my
purpose statement. It is: To equip women with the knowledge and the tools to step
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into intentional leadership confidently while working to create a world where they
are seen and treated as equals.
That’s truly the heart of what it is I want to do and why I do the things that I do. And,
you know, one of the things that I did this year is I opened up my Intentional CEO
program and I’m really starting to see these beautiful fruits of that investment. And I
want more of it because I’m seeing these women in this program who are having
incredible wins,
who are making big strides in their business and in their personal lives. And they’re
starting to really see, ‘Oh my gosh, life can be satisfying.’ And the other part of it is
that I wanted to create more of a community of people who want to live with
intention, who are interested in running their businesses with intention, running
their careers, with intention,
living their lives on a regular basis, feeling like they’re doing what matters most and
doing things in a way that feels nourishing to their souls and feels nourishing to the
world around them. And to me, it really is this idea of women linking arms. And I
think we, women are so strong when we come together. It’s not the idea of women
supporting women.
I think that’s great, but it’s not quite what I was looking for. It really is this idea of
women building up women. It’s not just about, you know, coming together and
blindly supporting each other. It’s really about how do we make each other better
together? What can we do together to make us stronger, to make us more capable
of the things that we know here are capable of doing.
And so when I think about that, when I think about this idea and this pillar of having
community and these pillars of intentionality, I just began to realize Productivity
Paradox, as a title, just no longer really fit. It was time to shed that skin and really
stretch and grow into this purpose. And I just felt like the old title just wasn’t
speaking to the range or the depth that I was looking to take these conversations
that I want us to have here on the show.
It wasn’t really taking us in the direction that I want us to go together next. So I want
to talk to you about what does that mean. What does it mean to have the Intentional
Advantage? Because to me it really is about creating a lifestyle for yourself that feels
meaningful, that creates the impact, that helps other people, but also at the same
time, helps you.
And it’s not just about leading, it’s about leading with vision and wanting to take
others along with you. It’s that idea we talked about with women, linking arms and
building each other up. It’s this idea of an abundance mindset where we feel like,
you know what, there’s plenty of pieces of pie for all of us. We can all win together. I
think so often we look around and we worry about what everybody else is doing.
And we think, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m behind.’ Or, ‘Oh, that person’s behind me,’ or, ‘Where
am I in the game of life?’ And it’s not about that. It really is about this abundance
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mindset. It’s looking around you and looking at competition differently and no
longer seeing each other as competitors . . . But as, as people who we are working
alongside.
You know, I like to say it’s like we’re mountains. You know, mountains, don’t just
spring up out of nowhere. Mountains appear because there is a force in both
directions pushing against it. And that’s what it is when you have other women
around you who are pushing you, who are supporting you, who are encouraging you
to go forward.
It’s this idea of we go forward together and we push each other up higher and
higher to make these majestic mountains that really can make a gigantic impact.
It’s, you know, this idea of . . . If we are living a life where it feels like it’s full of
purpose, and truly the impact, the messages that we want to impart on other
people–if that’s the goal,
it doesn’t matter if someone else is in our space talking about the same types of
things that we’re talking about because here’s the thing: People need to hear
messages. They need to hear our messages from many different places, for many
different people to get it, to really soak in. So for me, when I talk about intention, it
doesn’t matter if it’s my message that just like, oh, you know, rings the bell for
whoever it is and gets them just to understand and get the light bulb moment.
It doesn’t matter if that’s me, or if it’s the woman next to me or the woman next to
her; what matters is that we’re making the impact and we’re pulling women
together and making us stronger. And so leading, to me, means making an impact.
And so that’s the Intentional Advantage. It’s really actively choosing to live our lives
differently. Maybe differently than the status quo, differently than how other people
live, because they’re just going through the motions. And you know, that’s fine for
them if that’s what they want, but that’s not for you. And it’s not for me because we
are not just, you know,
everybody else. We have a mission in life and we have a purpose. And I want you to
understand and embrace and step into your purpose. And I want you to step into it,
confidently, feeling good, leading other people. And that’s what the Intentional
Advantage really is. It’s giving you the advantage of living a life that feels wholesome.
And when I say ‘wholesome,’ I don’t necessarily mean like, you know, the Brady
Bunch here.
I mean, it feels whole and full and you feel satisfied. I think just taking a moment to
get that mental picture in your head of what that feels to feel satisfied, to feel
fulfilled, and to feel good: that’s intentionality, that’s the Intentional Advantage right
there. So I don’t want you to feel like the podcast is making this gigantic shift . . .
You know, that we’re totally changing everything because a lot of it is actually going
to be the same. So I want to dive into that just really quickly because I want to make
sure you understand the format is going to stay the same. It’s still going to be the
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20-some odd minutes. I always try to keep it like somewhere between 20-30
minutes, so that way it feels really drive timeable.
You can listen to it on your commute. You can listen to it while you’re working out.
And really, I like to tell people, ‘Hey, here’s the deal. If I’m talking about productivity, I
need to be productive with people’s time.’ So I always like to make sure that when
we have these episodes, they feel meaningful. We get some really good information,
some great strategies, and then you’re on your way and you’re actively
implementing them and you’re taking those strategies even further.
So that’s not going to change. We’re still going to be, you know, having the podcast
go live the same day of the week, every Tuesday, just like always. And we’re still
going to be exploring topics that are related to productivity, topics related to
business, topics related to goal setting, and all those things that we’ve talked about
in the past.
It’s just that we’re going to go even deeper with it. And we’re going to dive even
more into this concept and this idea of intentionality. And we’ll still have guest
episodes. You know, I actually have some really, really incredible guests lined up for
this season that I’m really excited about, but I love having guests on the show
because I feel like they share their experiences and they help open our eyes to new
ideas,
new possibilities and beyond. I love it, too, when we have a guest on the show who
challenges my mindset when we’re talking. And I think that’s really what a good
guest does is they challenge us. They push us just like we’re talking about with this
idea of community. So, and of course, as always, I will still ask you, submit your ideas
for future episodes,
what guests you’d like to see and so on. I think it’s really, really important to me. And
honestly, I mean, that’s one of the reasons for this change is that I saw that you guys
were saying, ‘Listen, we want to hear more about business. We want to hear more
about this idea of intentionality. We love these topics.’ And so really it was this
response of this is what you want . . . this is what I want.
I love that we’re all so aligned. And I think truly, I mean that, that right there, that
word alignment totally fits in with what we’re talking about here with this
intentionality, isn’t it? That that we’re wanting the same things and we’re moving
that way together to make ourselves better and stronger and more confident.
And speaking of confidence, we’ll still be full of actionable tips to make you feel more
productive, feeling like you can walk away from the show, knowing what you want to
do, knowing what you want to try. You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been adding
these momentum builders at the end of our episodes, which are like really quick,
easy, simple tips that you can actively implement right away.
And so I really wanted to continue having those as well. So we’ll keep doing that just
like we did before. Now, what’s different is that it is going to be focused a little bit
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more on stepping into leadership purposefully, intentionally, mindfully. We’re going
to talk more about business because I think that’s really a big place that you can
make an impact and a difference.
We’re still going to be talking about personal life. Of course, because again, it’s this
holistic idea of productivity that I focus on where it is the whole you–not just you at
work or when you’re punching a clock; it’s really you at home with your family or
with your friends and also you and your workspace. So we’re going to talk about
both,
but I am going to focus more on who you are at work, or if you own a business,
where you are in your business, and leading other people. Even if you are not in a
position right now where you are leading, or you’re a CEO, or you’re an entrepreneur,
or you’re a manager of other people . . . you can get there. And this is the thing is . . .
Really, we are always, no matter where we are in life, we’re in a position where we
can impact and help other people. We have the ability to lead no matter who we are.
And again, this is one of the things that you guys were telling me in your survey
results, and in your emails, that you really wanted to see more of . . . You wanted to
know how I was running my business.
My business really is run very much with alignment in mind and making sure that
everything is very purposeful with my North Star. And now of course, with my
purpose statement, I really think it’s very important. And so that’s one of the reasons
why, too, I opened up the Intentional CEO program because I wanted to be able to
teach other people how I was able to be successful while still really focusing in on my
personal life and my home life. Because I think that is really important.
Now we will also still have our Facebook group. And we’re going to make it . . . we’ve
been kind of working on this for the past few months, but we’ve been making it
more of an extension of what we talk about here. I want it to be even stronger, the
connection between the podcast and the Facebook group.
So we’re going to be talking about those momentum builders that we talk about in
our episodes. We’re going to be talking about how are you implementing them?
What are you struggling with? What’s a challenge for you here? What’s a success,
what’s a celebration? What are your tips and idea? Again, it’s this idea of women
coming together, supporting, encouraging, and building one another up.
Women building up women is truly so important to me. And I want to see that even
more in my Facebook group. I’m seeing it right now in my Intentional CEO program
and in the Facebook group that we have for that. And it’s incredible. I have women in
there who are doing incredible things and coming together to help support each
other and to help each other do even more in their businesses.
So that’s what I’m hoping to have more of in that Facebook group. So, I’m going to
be doing some things to change things up just a little bit in there; we’re changing
the name, so it’s more connected with the podcast, and that’s what we’re going to
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be as our hub. So if you have questions, if you enjoy listening to the podcast, if you
feel like, ‘I get good stuff out of here’ . . .
You do need to head over. You need to head over to that Facebook group because
you’re going to find it really helpful because it’s going to be an extension of what we
do here. It really is. So you can go to TanyaDalton.com/group to request to join. There
is a request form, and we ask that you answer a couple of questions.
We’re really intentional–big surprise there, and so we want to make sure that it is
really troll-free. It is, you know, spammer free. It’s a very safe place to share and talk,
and really be honest and real about your struggles. You know, I think one of the
things that’s really important to me with these groups and these communities I
create is that we don’t feel the need to have this wall of perfection.
This facade around us about, ‘Life is great and life is easy’ because here’s the truth:
life is hard at times. Life can be a challenge. And so we need to have a space where
we can feel real and honest with each other. And that’s really what I create when I
create community.
So I really would love to see you there, TanyaDalton.com/group; request to join. And
then let’s talk about the podcast. Let’s dive deeper, together. I don’t know about you,
but I feel like this new change really feels right to me. And it feels like this is a step in
the direction I want us to go together.
So there you have it, a full new season coming your way, which I’ve got mapped out
already. And like I said, we have some incredible guests. I think you’re going to be
blown away from the people that we have coming on. And we have some really
good topics that I am personally really excited to talk about with you.
So welcome officially to the start of Season 15 of the Intentional Advantage podcast.
Over the next several weeks, as we explore season 15, we’re going to be talking about
strategies for success. We’re going to be turning our attention from different ways to
embrace leadership with confidence, to focusing-in on strategies that truly will
propel you as a leader towards the success that you really want.
And I have to be honest, I don’t feel like this episode could be complete without me
saying how incredibly grateful I am to have you here. I am so glad you’re here. And
I’m so glad that you are investing in you, making the changes that you want, living
the life that you desire . . . and living it with an Intentional Advantage.