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Own Your Impact equips experts and leaders to transform their expertise into meaningful influence. Host Macy Robison reveals how successful thought leaders use deliberate systems—not luck or volume—to amplify their authentic voice and create lasting impact. Through practical frameworks and strategic guidance, you'll discover how to build a self-reinforcing ecosystem of Core Resonance, structured Content, a Central Platform, strategic Connections, and intentional Commercialization. Whether you're just starting to share your expertise or scaling an existing platform, this podcast delivers the roadmap to turn your ideas into purpose-driven influence that resonates far beyond what you might imagine possible.
Principled Practitioner
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to Own Your Impact. I'm Macy Robison, and if the description I'm about to share sounds like you, this episode is for you. You have a natural experimental mindset and a really iterative approach to learning because you embody the principles you teach. There is no gap between what you say and how you try to live.
[00:00:27] You share your implementation journey transparently, including both successes and failures, and you have straightforward evidence-based communication style that people trust immediately. But here's what might be frustrating you people will often push you to teach things , you haven't personally validated, or things that expand beyond your lived experience to appeal to a broader market.
[00:00:49] When you know your authenticity is exactly what makes you powerful. If this sounds like you, but you want confirmation that you are what I call a principled practitioner, [00:01:00] I would love to invite you to take the thought leadership archetype quiz@macyrobison.com slash quiz to see if that is the case. If you have taken the quiz or you just wanna keep listening first.
[00:01:12] here's what I've discovered about the principal practitioner. That frustration that you feel when you know you could have a potentially bigger impact if you would teach different things, but you just can't get yourself to operate outside of your area of expertise.
[00:01:28] Just know that is exactly why people trust you. They can see you walking your talk every single day, and they love watching and learning from you as you do that. And honestly, that's what energizes you. Personal experimentation is that's where you test your ideas through your own implementation before you teach them to other people.
[00:01:49] You love to demonstrate principles. There's a really huge drive to make sure you're being transparent and documenting your learning process. You are [00:02:00] truly energized by being your own best case study, and you just don't feel like you can teach what you haven't personally validated through experience.
[00:02:08] That credibility comes from your lived experience, not just credentials. Not just theory. You're probably always running experiments in your own life and learning from the results, both successful and unsuccessful. Tim Ferris has done things like this, whether that's his primary archetype or not. He is always testing things on himself.
[00:02:26] He calls himself a human Guinea pig. He wants to make sure he's tried the things that he is going to turn around and talk about in his books on his podcast. I think a lot about James Clear and when I was preparing this episode, you know, he came to mind as someone who spent years experimenting with habit formation in his own life, studying it, documenting it, not just wanting to regurgitate the research that was out there, but really trying to apply it, write about it, learn about it.
[00:02:53] Put these actual habits into his life so that he could create the seminal volume on habits before he ever turned it into [00:03:00] any of the methodologies that are in the book. He's a wonderful writer, and he's probably a combination of wisdom writer and principled practitioner, but so much of the credibility that people feel through his writing comes from his personal validation, not just his research.
[00:03:16] If you're a principled practitioner. What drains you, and this is where traditional advice misses your strength, is teaching a concept or trying to teach a concept you haven't validated through your own practice. Theoretical discussions without practical application, just feel like a waste of time and being asked to give advice about things that you haven't actually tried.
[00:03:37] Forget it. If you felt exhausted by that type of pressure, it's because your authenticity and credibility, like we talked about, they come from lived validation. Not from theoretical knowledge, not from borrowed expertise, but from what you've actually lived through.
[00:03:52] And so just lean into that. You don't need to give into that pressure if it's not something you wanna teach and it's not something you wanna test first, [00:04:00] that's okay, but.
[00:04:02] You also need to be aware of the amount of time you wait to perfect something before you share it. Your audience values the learning process as much as you do. They wanna see you walk through what you're learning as much as they want to see the final result. They care about the journey, not just the destination.
[00:04:21] So try to strike that balance between, I wanna make sure I'm walking in my integrity. I wanna make sure I'm putting out the best things that I can, and make sure you're giving people a little bit of a peek into the process, because that is going to be as magnetic as anything else you create. So you know who you are, you understand how you're wired a little bit better.
[00:04:40] Here's where I want you to start, and this might feel vulnerable. If you have felt this way, but maybe haven't created content yet, or haven't created transformational ip. Start documenting. Start documenting and sharing your personal experiences and what you're learning in real time. I see some of the coolest [00:05:00] experiments.
[00:05:00] Documentation of challenges all over social media, and they're really compelling to watch. You don't have to wait until you have it all figured out. That process of discovery is how you learn and it's how other people learn from watching you.
[00:05:13] Start documenting an experiment, you're running an insight, you've gained a principle, you're testing in your own life. Show the successes, show the failure, show what real day-to-day implementation looks like , not just polished results. One of my friends and clients has done a really cool challenge on social media, and he wanted to live out what it looked like to build those small habits.
[00:05:36] For him, it was making sure he moved every day and shared every single day as a way to document. And as a way to have accountability, what it looked like to make sure he did that exercise challenge every single day. And some days that story went up really late at night and sometimes it was perfectly aligned first thing in the morning.
[00:05:57] But just watching him do that over the course of a year [00:06:00] was really instructive for me in terms of how I can do a better job of daily practice. 'cause that is something that is tricky for me personally. One of my favorite people to follow who does this so well, and I've talked about her on the podcast before, is Monica Packer.
[00:06:14] Her handle is about progress. She also has a podcast by the same name, and it's just been so cool to watch her platform develop over the years as she has tried to walk through the progress she's making every single day a. In letting go of perfection and in doing the things that matter most to her.
[00:06:34] She documents all kinds of things. She'll show you her cleanish kitchen. She'll clock in on her exercise, even if it was a shortened. , Exercise session because kids were up all night and she wasn't feeling well. She's just trying to get through the things that matter most to her and establishing those rhythms and habits.
[00:06:56] And as a fellow working mom, it's been [00:07:00] really cool and really inspirational for me and so many thousands of other women to learn from Monica as she does this. There's so much to learn. You don't have to wait till you've proven a process. You just need to start trying and testing and sharing. , The audience doesn't need you to be perfect.
[00:07:16] They need you to be honest about what's working, what isn't, and sharing it with them as you go. So as we look at your resonant thought leadership system, you understanding and strengthening your experimental approach and, and commitment to living what you teach, that experience that you've walked through that is so huge and such a key part of what you do.
[00:07:36] Your content. All of that comes from developing lived experience, transformational IP that emerges directly from your personal practice. That's again, one of the things I love about what Monica does. She teaches really simple, practical workshops. She coaches women on setting up systems like this in their lives so that they can live the lives they wanna live.
[00:07:57] And all of it comes from the things that she's [00:08:00] experimented with and tried that have worked from her. Often those things come from the podcast conversations that she has. It's really a fantastic platform that she's built. And speaking of platform, your website can showcase all of that documentation, all of that real time experimentation.
[00:08:16] Monica does this on Instagram. She also has a podcast. I've seen other people do things like this on LinkedIn. , You could do it on your website as well, just having some sort of documentation of what you're experimenting. , Tim Ferriss's blog, he has a lot of stuff like that, especially when some of his four hour books were coming out.
[00:08:35] Yeah, that is a really great opportunity to show before and after case studies to have a resource library of tools that have worked really well for you, that you've personally tested, that you've refined, that you can recommend. You could even bring affiliate links into some of those things if they're physical products, and honestly, sharing the successes and failures that really just builds incredible trust as far as connecting with others, building your [00:09:00] audience the right audience, that behind the scenes content really is key.
[00:09:04] People are hungry for that level of authenticity. They want to see the real you. So build community with fellow experimenters who are testing approaches, share what you're doing, and that transparent sharing of successes and failures builds trust that just can't be manufactured any other way. But like I said before, don't wait till you've perfected something to share it.
[00:09:24] Your audience really does care about the learning process as much as the final destination. At the same time, you don't need to feel pressure to teach beyond your personal expertise. One of the things that Monica does is if something is outside of her expertise, she brings them in as a podcast guest.
[00:09:38] She's able to learn. She's able to start testing something new, and then that validation becomes part of what she cares about and teaches as well while crediting the person who shared it in the first place. As far as revenue goes, think of primary business models around books. , Resources that document your proven approaches, whether that's a journal or some kind of implementation [00:10:00] focused training program where you can teach what you've lived, any kinds of tools or systems or apps supporting practical application of what you've learned and validated are gonna be a great thing to bring into a business model.
[00:10:11] And what you price those things. Price for the personal validation from you, the proven results that you provide, and then the proven results you start to get with other people. People pay premium for approaches that have been tested and refined through actual implementation rather than theoretical development or borrowed methodologies.
[00:10:30] I mean, think of Cal Newport, , his deep work methodology, bestselling book that developed through years of personal experimentation with focused work practices, his books, his training programs. He speaks all of those command premium prices because he's validated every single approach he teaches, and he can show real results from his own implementation.
[00:10:50] So here's what I want you to try this week. If you are a principled practitioner, start documenting. An experiment you're either already running or maybe just start a new short one. A little [00:11:00] one, just a little experiment. Share what you're testing, why you're testing it, what you're learning so far, including failures and what you plan to try next.
[00:11:07] If you're not comfortable enough to do that online yet, you don't have to do it online, but that's a great testing ground to use. A borrowed platform like some social media platform if that's where you already are spending some time. As you're doing this, focus on transparency about your process rather than trying to present a polished result, because your authenticity in the learning process is what is going to build the trust and credibility that absolutely cannot be faked.
[00:11:32] Now, if you're a principled practitioner, but you also scored high in other experiential or. Analytical archetypes on the test. Understanding how all of these combinations influence your approach, influence your documentation style is really important for your overall platform strategy. I'm teaching a live workshop called Beyond Your Primary Archetype, where we look at these patterns, we analyze them, and we actually dive into an expanded archetype analysis [00:12:00] from my quiz that's only available previously to my clients.
[00:12:04] But now available to people who sign up and attend that workshop. I don't send out recordings. If you sign up, you gotta be there. That's when you get your archetype report and we send that recording so you can review some of the hot seat coaching that we run through in those workshops.
[00:12:18] The ones we've had so far have been really illuminating. It's been fun to hear people have ahas about how they're wired and reflect some of that to each other as they learn about each other in the workshops. Been really cool so far. So if that sounds like something you would want to do, would love to have you register@macyrobison.com slash workshop.
[00:12:39] To get that deeper analysis of how your complete profile shapes your authentic approach to building thought leadership, to expertise that's grounded in lived experience. The dates are there and the registration links would love to see at one of those workshops. And remember, stay grounded in your lived experience.
[00:12:55] People want to experience you and what you're experiencing and your learning, [00:13:00] so make sure you show them.