The Best Books for Connecting to Your Purpose | Episode 1

CAMILLE WALKER [0:00]

Worrying about what could happen in the future and if you're living too much in the future, you're not present and enjoying the space that you're in right now.

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CAMILLE [0:18]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice? How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

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CAMILLE [0:40]

One of my favorites ways to reset my mind and my body through the winter months is to create little staycations or places for me to go, either with my girlfriends or my family for a little time away. And here in Utah, the winters can be very long. That's why I love going to Station Park because it offers a strong sense of community with little weekend events or you can even stay at the Hyatt Place Station Park, which is very close to Salt Lake City, and enjoy the shops, restaurants, and even a spa just steps away at Elase Medical Spa or Massage Envy, which I love both very, very much.

If you're feeling like you need to reset or you want to set some goals for yourself, plan a solo CEO vacation where you can reset your mind, even just take 24 hours alone and reconnect with yourself. Slow down and create some memories. It's great for family. It's great for individuals or even a weekend away with your girlfriends.

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CAMILLE [1:41]

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Call Me CEO. This episode is going to be a little bit different because I am doing a solo show and sharing some of my favorite books that I've been listening to/reading this year. I have decided I want to do a few more personal episodes so that you get to know me a little bit better and also things that are inspiring me outside of this podcast. If you are listening right now, thank you for listening. If you're enjoying this show, please subscribe. Leave a review. That is giving me a virtual hug, high-five, and helps this show to grow. So, thank you so much for listening today.

I think this is going to be a good one because I want you to imagine we're sitting down together at lunch. And I am going to be telling you about all of my favorite things I've been listening to as well as things that I'm working on and some other favorites I'm going to share with you today. So, the topic of today for Camille's favorites is books that have inspired me that are written in an autobiography type manner. What I love so much about this podcast is that I get to hear so much about people's purpose, their why, and in Oprah's terms, their aha moment. And so, personally, I have found books that have been on repeat for me where I am so inspired by some books that I've been listening to this year and I wanted to dive into those a little bit with you.

Some people will call a moment of inspiration or being in the zone tapping into their dharma, which is something that came new to me this year, so I'm going to dive into that one first. And the book I'm referring to is Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty. Now, in this book, he helps you to overcome negativity, overcome overthinking, comparison. How do you use your fear in a way that helps you to be more open?

And I think one of my favorite things that Jay Shetty has helped me learn this year is that if you are living too much in the past, you are either worrying about what could happen in the future. And if you're living too much in the future, you're not present and enjoying the space that you're in right now. So, one way that he says it that I think is really unique is that he says a lot of times, we are at work dreaming and thinking about vacation. And then, when we're on vacation, we can catch ourselves being distracted and thinking about work.

So, what we need to do as a society and as individuals is really create moments where we can be more present in the moment we're in because then we can actually live and enjoy the life that we're living day to day. Now, this is something that I've been trying to work on more this year. And one way that I've done that is I'll give you an example.

So, when I am getting a massage, which I try to do once every couple of months, if I'm lucky. I would love to do it once a month, every two weeks if I could, but it usually ends up being a handful of times a year. Rather than just closing my eyes and thinking about what I'm doing next or what I have to look forward to or what I might be worried about, in a practice of meditation and reflection and being present, as I'm getting that massage, I will actually express in my mind, not out loud, I will express gratitude to the places that the massage therapist is working on.

So, say, for example, I have a massage therapist working on my foot. I will specifically think, "Body, thank you so much for helping me walk and get me where I need to be. My big toe, thank you for helping me to balance and for helping me to run and help my family. Thank you, little toe." I honestly will go through and think of gratitude for each of my body parts as well as what they facilitate for what I can do with my life, for my family, for my health, and for the people around me. And I've found that that is a present practice that has really helped me to feel more aware and grateful for what I have.

That's something that I also learned from Mel Robbins this year is she said oftentimes, people are looking to manifest something in their life. They say like, "I want this or I want to see this happen or I see myself in this large home or I see myself buying the boat or paying off the car or the house." And she said, but that is living in a space of want. So rather than living in a space of want, live in a space of gratitude and think of ways that you can be grateful for what you already have and even speak to gratitude as if the thing that you want is something that you already have because that puts yourself in an energy of receiving and of welcoming more into your life instead of putting a stopper there.

So, this is a side tangent, but I love that idea because it puts so much of our energy towards making what we have enough and also welcoming more with gratitude. And I think both of those different ways of looking at something elevate your vibration. It helps you to be more grateful and welcoming and I have found so much more abundance in my life when I'm thinking that way.

So, back to Jay Shetty. If some of you are unfamiliar with what he does, he is actually a man who went to university and was studying to be, I can't remember if it was a business person or a lawyer, something ambitious, and he had a guest speaker come and talk about the life of a monk and felt like that was his life's purpose was to become a monk. So, he left everything he knew, all of his possessions, and was a practicing monk for three years. And through that process, he learned so much about himself and being able to be happy with stillness and little amounts of clothing, shower time, sleep, and their main focus being on service, not comparing themselves, and meditation and giving back.

And it is such a beautiful journey because he takes you through the process of things that he struggled with and also what he was able to learn along the way. And after about three years, he realized that he would be better off following the purpose of sharing this message with the world, which he's done. And so, you could follow him. He has a podcast called On Purpose and he also has books and different things that he does, but I have loved this book. And it's one that you can pop in and listen to at any time and learn more from it every single time. So, that's my first suggestion is Think Like a Monk.

My number two that I've listened to on repeat that can help you tap into your why and your purpose is a book called The Path Made Clear by Oprah. Now, if you grew up listening to The Oprah Show, like I did, I miss it so much, but I haven't been watching her network show. I just haven't. She actually has a new thing called Oprah Daily where you can get inspiration and lessons and I've thought about subscribing to that. I haven't yet.

But in this book, it takes dozens of guests that she's interviewed over the years and it's grabbed from her new network. It's also grabbed from her Oprah show from years ago and she talks to each of them about the moment that they knew what they were meant for and how they followed that guiding light and what that moment was like for them, so their aha moment. And what's really cool about that is that you learn really unique specific stories from musicians and artists, actors, they're all people you would recognize and it's not just her speaking. It's her interviewing that person.

So, she'll talk specifically about how you can connect with your purpose and specifically, she is looking to help you reach personal contentment and to find the service of your calling. One of the times that I was listening to this book because I've listened to it more than three times is I was at our family cabin and I was listening on audio and doing laps with my kids. Sometimes, I'll run laps with my kids outside and there was this point in that conversation, this was during the pandemic, that height of the pandemic when we were all away from everyone.

And I was having a feeling of like, "Ugh, what am I doing right now? What am I going to push forward with my purpose? How am I going to share my voice?" And there was something that was said specifically and I believe it was someone saying, I should have thought of this exactly how it was, how they said it, something to the effect of, what you wished for could be something you already have and you need to recognize it or the purpose of your calling could be something that you're already in the middle of and you need to take a look around.

And so, for me, in that moment, I think I was so worried about my life's purpose on the scale of a career or in reaching something bigger than outside the walls of my home. Anyway, in that moment, I realized, you know what? Being a mother is my calling and being a mother is my purpose. And I think it's easy for myself to sometimes get distracted and lose sight of that, even though that's something I've always wanted. It's something I've always wanted to do. Something I know I was always meant to do was be a mother. I think can lose sight of the divinity of that at times.

And it was listening to that book where it was all these people talking about incredible amazing things that they've done and taking a minute to realize that the purpose of my calling, that service, motherhood is such a profound space that I am in and will be until I die. But to look around and think, "Yeah. This is what I was meant for." So, love that book.

I feel like it's really beautiful in the way that you can hear different perspectives of people tapping into things that they love like, for example, she talks to Jay-Z talking about how he gets into the rhythm of making music or she's talking to thought leaders that talk about how they changed the world. It's just incredible. So, that is a book that I've absolutely loved. I did buy that one hardbound because I found so many times I was thinking, "I want to mark this page. I want to mark this page." And so, I bought it hardbound after I bought it through audio.

Okay. Another one that I have loved this year is Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. I don't know about you, but I love Matthew McConaughey. I love how down to earth he is. I love that he's a rugged handsome cowboy with really deep thoughts. I think that's the best way to describe him in my mind, but he is so non-Hollywood. And I say that in the way of yes, he's lived that lifestyle, the fast and the girls and all the things, but he takes you to the journey of growing up in rural Texas, building himself a fort in the middle of the night as a kid that he didn't tell his parents about, and then getting into the world of Hollywood, doing an internship he did in Australia as a teenager, that's hilarious.

But through the course of his career, he takes you through how he was given everything he wanted and really needed to connect back with who he was and what really mattered to him. And the stories he has to tell are incredible like floating down the Nile River, having bare-chested fights with people he couldn’t even speak English to in Africa. It's just out of this world. You're like, "How can this even be the real story of his life?" And how he met his wife, it's just beautiful and packed with a lot of life lessons.

Now, warning, there is language in this book. So, if you're sensitive to that, be aware, but it was one that I think both men and women can relate to really easily and also there's just really solid life advice about what to take seriously. And honestly, there's not a whole lot. It's a lot about taking what you're given. In fact, he says, that his book is about getting relative with the inevitable and enjoying a state of success that he calls greenlights. So, from space to space and different levels of his life that he goes through, he wants to share with you how you can listen or pay attention to God's or the universe's way of telling you that you are on the right path.

And I think oftentimes, we can get lost in the shuffle of, "Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path?" And I love that in his book, it's very much about allowing the process to flow with you. Yes, there's hard work, but it doesn't have to be something that you're fighting. It could be something that you're accepting and something that you create stillness for.

Okay. So, my last one I'm going to end on with for this series, I'm going to do this again and I want to hear about your comments. If you like this episode, please give me comments below because I love listening and reading books all the time. I'm going to give you this one more. I'm going to end here because there are more, but this is the one I'm going to end with.

Okay. So, the last one that I fell in love with this year was Will by Will Smith and again, this is a story. You can tell that I like listening to people's stories. That's why I love this podcast so much, but this story about Will Smith is incredible. He has such a unique way of bestowing wisdom, but it's also interesting because as a child, he was born in very humble beginnings. He starts the story of by talking about how his dad had him build a brick wall with his brother one brick at a time and how he was able to move forward in his life knowing that things get hard and building a brick wall is hard, but you just move forward one step at a time, one brick at a time. Don't focus on the whole wall. Focus on it brick by brick by brick.

And I think so often for us, it's easy to look at a celebrity like Will Smith, who is a very optimistic person. We see him doing all the things. He's an actor. He's a singer. He's a dancer. He's a comedian. There are so many things that he is. And I think in this book, it's really interesting to see how he was able to work hard for all of the things that he had, but then he gets to a point where he really has to humble himself and his family life and what effects it had on his marriage and with his children and also how he's been able to reflect in a way that has made him a better person.

There are some pretty crazy things that happened in his life too that I'm like imagine having access to the world and being able to go visit Nelson Mandela and visit craters and Aboriginal people. And there's so much that goes beyond what you see on a screen and how he was able to obtain that. But what I love most about his story is that he talks so much about staying true to who you are authentically and your family and he really is a family guy. So, that's a big one for me.

Okay. I'm going to wrap up this episode with a fire-shot idea that I had. This is a quick little what I am watching, eating, loving and working on? So, what I'm watching. I've recently watched Love Is Blind Season 2. I don't know if you guys have seen this. This is on Netflix. It's a Netflix Original. Season 1 aired last year. Season 2 just became live. And by the time you hear this one, most of Season 2 will have been released because they're releasing chunks of episodes at a time. Thank you, Netflix.

And it's all about 14 girls and 14 boys, men and women, who come together and date through a pod. They date blind. They can't see each other. And before they actually meet each other, they fall in love and get engaged. And this is all just within a couple weeks' time. It's very, very quick. And then, once they come together and see each other, they have a month before the actual wedding date and you see if these couples stick together or if they break up.

And if you've been a fan of The Bachelor, I think that that is very drama-filled and it's like junk food TV. You can watch it and laugh with it and have fun or whatever, this one I feel like they've had more successful couples because they start with the heart first. They're not seeing each other. And so, that's a really fun way to be able to connect with these people on a human level and then see how they are together when they interact.

So, last year's season, there are couples that got married and are still together and seem to be doing really well. So, that is what I've been watching. It's a really, really good show. I have really enjoyed it and it's a fun one to watch with your partner because I think communication styles are different and it's interesting to talk about that and that's just a whole other conversation.

Okay. What am I eating? I am loving the Blue Diamond Almonds. Most of you can't see me, but if you're watching this on YouTube, I love the Blue Diamond Almonds, honey roasted. My friend Britney introduced me to these. I usually eat the wasabi kind, which I also like. The honey roasted is amazing. It's a really quick protein snack on the go.

What am I watching in the theater? I watched the recent Spider-Man, I believe it's Homecoming. I might be saying it wrong. I loved that movie. I hope you've seen it. It has reached I think the biggest box office release ever which could also be because there aren't many good movies out right now. So, the fact that we have one is so refreshing. I’m really looking forward to Top Gun. Are you?

And then, what I'm reading is, oh my gosh, I forgot the name of it. Where's my phone? I think it's the Transcendent Self or something like that. And I don't have my phone with me for some odd reason. I will tell you about that book later. It talks a lot about reaching beyond yourself. I just finished The Big Leap. I will tell you about that one next time.

And then, also what am I working on? My latest project that I'm super excited about is getting my Time for Us journals, my interactive journals that I created for parent and child to do together, ages 2 through 12 on Amazon. I’m going to get it on Amazon. I had it fulfilled through a company that was really struggling getting the orders out in time and it was so frustrating as a business owner having customer service problems and not having people get it soon enough. And I thought, you know what? I need to create less of a barrier here for people to access my books and I'm going to put them on Amazon. So, hopefully, they will be up by the end of February which by the time you're hearing this should be about in another week. And it's all about a time for you and your child to sit down together for 5-10 minutes, create moments that matter, doing interactive questions back and forth. And it's not one where you write and then the kid writes, and then you swap it back and forth. It's meant to be done sitting side by side and creating moments that matter.

So, that is all for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. Next week, you will be hearing from my dear friend, Courtney Brown, who has run the boutique Cents of Style and she is absolutely phenomenal. I cannot wait to talk to her. If you enjoyed this episode, please let me know and thank you so much for spending this time with me. I look forward to seeing you next time. Bye!

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CAMILLE [23:04]

Hey, CEOs. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment and a 5-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram @callmeceopodcast. And remember, you are the boss.

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