Transcript: Thanks Allan. This is David Brower with your 20-Minute Podcast. Our special guest today from Gresham, Oregon, Linda Binns. Linda Binns is an introverted, intuitive, highly sensitive person who became a small business owner, author, international speaker, radio and television guest, consultant and coach. Her goal is to guide you to thrive in your own, personal and professional life. That’s what we’re all looking for, right Linda? Welcome to the show.
Linda Binns: Thank you. That is what we’re looking for I believe.
David Brower: No question about it. Reading through your stuff, I was fascinated by everything that you’re doing and was really excited about having you on the show because it goes against what a lot of people think and correct me if I’m wrong but, “Hey, I’m having troubles with my personal life. I’m having troubles with my professional life. I need to hire somebody that can show me how to do it and it was successful for them so it’s got to be successful for me.”
Linda Binns: That’s right. We want somebody to tell us the answer. I understand that, especially in business. I always thought everybody else knew a lot more than I did and I was always looking to someone to tell me, “This is the way to do it. If you do it this way, it will work for you because it works for everybody else.” That’s not true.
David Brower: Right. Everybody’s looking for the magic formula, the silver bullet and you’re teaching them ways to what? Learn how to do it themselves basically, with your help?
Linda Binns: Well, the thing is, we already know. We have the magic answer for ourselves. Each of us has it within it. People used to say this to me, “You have all the answers within you.” I used to think, “Okay, I understand that but please, can someone show me how to get them out?” If they’re in there, I’m not seeing them.
David Brower: Absolutely.
Linda Binns: Yes. If somebody tells you, “I have this blueprint and if you follow this blueprint, you will have the success that you want or you’ll receive the same success as me.” I would run the other way because I know that’s what people want to hear but really, what you want is someone to show you how to access them within yourself, how to access those answers inside you because only you know what is right for you and only I know what is right for me.
David Brower: When you learn that and it’s obviously at least my perception is that it’s not an over-night process but when you learn that, all of a sudden I would think, you learn, feel, sense more control over your life than probably, you ever had before.
Linda Binns: Oh, it’s unbelievable. It is complete freedom I would say because once you … The difference between knowing it and really feeling and experiencing it … because I knew it for a long time. I’ve been studying for years. I guess that you could say I’m addicted to personal growth.
David Brower: Sure.
Linda Binns: I want to learn as much as I can. I had an understanding of these concepts but it became very frustrating because I wasn’t experiencing it, I wasn’t feeling it. I notice that a lot of my clients are in that same situation. They are very aware. They know a lot of that stuff. They could probably teach most of the things I’m teaching but they are having trouble accessing it and really implementing for themselves so they can fully experience it but when they do reach that point, I would say you have a breakthrough. Your breakthroughs come on the inside, before they ever come on the outside and when you start to experience that, you realize the freedom you have and like you said, it’s a feeling that you really are more in control because you don’t have to rely on anybody else, you really understand and feel that you really do have everything you need within you. That is so liberating.
David Brower: Oh man, I can’t even imagine to be honest with you. One of the things I’ve always remembered and I used to train sales people, many, many years ago and one of the things I always said, “Never ask somebody how they think, ask them how they feel,” because you want that emotional response, you don’t want that analytical response and that lets you get inside that person more about what they’re really feeling and that’s what you’re doing basically, right, is helping them access what’s already there, understand how to use it to their benefit?
Linda Binns: Yes. Exactly. Really, that’s the only way you can connect with people, truly connect with people. I think as you said, you were in sales. I think we all experience the salesman that comes up to you and just starts talking at you and telling you how great their product is or their service is and they don’t know anything about you yet. They don’t know if you have a need for this or anything. There’s no connection there. You’ve got to get to know the person before you can ever know what you have and what you offer is the right fit for this person.
David Brower: One of the things that I introduced you was basically describing you as introverted, empathetic, intuitive, highly sensitive, those kinds of things, which is, man, what a gift that is. When you work with people to try to understand and develop and help them be as good as they can be, do they have to have those qualities?
Linda Binns: No. Absolutely not but I think everybody does have those qualities. Its’ a case of how connected you are to it or not and there are different levels of it obviously. I have learned to have a certain level of sensitives and what I mean by that is that I’m very sensitive to environment, I’m very sensitive to energy, I’m very sensitive to people’s moods. I pick up and feel things that many people don’t. I used to think I was alone in that but apparently 20% of the population fall into that kind of sensitive category.
The word sensitive, even the word introvert, those are all terms that have been perceived as very negative in the past. What I’ve learned is that there’s actually great strength in people who are introverted and or sensitive.
David Brower: I am both.
Linda Binns: Yes.
David Brower: I was raised as an introvert, totally. Was always very sensitive, blah, blah, blah and as I got older and I had a career in radio, I learned how to be an extrovert when I needed to be but mostly, deep down, day in, day out, I’m an introvert. My wife gets it, she understands it. I’ve always felt blessed by that, to be honest with you, I always felt unique in some situations but I’ve always felt like that’s who I am so I need to celebrate that.
Thank you, that’s a badge I wear proudly so than you for that mirror.
Linda Binns: Good.
David Brower: If someone reaches out to you, obviously, you don’t know anything about them yet … I don’t know that you can say all this in general terms but are there some aspects of introducing yourself to somebody and getting them comfortable with your approach? How does that all work, from the beginning I guess?
Linda Binns: It’s interesting because, part of the intuitive process is that there’s no set formula. It really is what the person needs. When I’m speaking to someone for the first time, usually, I want to get them talking. I want to hear about what’s going on for them and why they feel there’s a struggle with it. Where are you now and what is it that you want and what’s the struggle? I just, usually, will ask questions and I don’t have set questions. It’s just whatever comes to me.
I’ll just ask them questions that gently probe and guide them and I just listen until I hone in on where we need to go. I just lead it in a direction of where I feel we need to go. I’m looking for the core.
David Brower: There you go.
Linda Binns: The root cause of whatever’s going on so I’ll just guide the conversation until we get there and then once we get there, then we can look at, “Okay, this is the real issue.” That’s the thing, what people think is the problem is never the problem.
David Brower: Never the problem.
Linda Binns: Never the problem. It’s really about, how do we get to that first? What is it really? Then, once we know that, then I can look at, how can I possibly help this person and what is it that they most need? Whether that’s from me or from somebody else. I don’t know that yet until I really access that core problem for them.
David Brower: Absolutely. I think, as we talked early on, it’s so easy for many of us to go, “All right, I want somebody to help me, fix me, they know how to do it, they’ve been successful. I’m cutting them the check.” That’s kind of the turn key thing that I look for once in a while I guess. With the issue of quickly, knee-jerk response of, this is my issue, and it never is.
Linda Binns: It isn’t. If I could share a quick example that might highlight it and explain it better for people. I was contacted by a lady who was frustrated with herself because she’d been running a business for about a year or so but it wasn’t where she wanted it to be, it wasn’t growing and she said her problem was that she was procrastinating. She said that she knew the techniques and things she needed to be doing and she wasn’t doing them. She was in avoidance.
What she came to me for, she was hoping I could help her with her motivation, maybe some time management strategies, that kind of thing. I just started asking her a few questions, just to understand what was going on for her. Within about five minutes it became very clear to me, that wasn’t the problem at all. The problem was that she has several children and many, many grandchildren and these are her life. She loves spending time with her grandchildren. She got into the business she was in, network marketing business, she got into that business because she wanted to have the income flowing into her so that she could spend more time with her grandchildren.
The way she was trying to grow her business was doing the exact opposite. With all the things that she had been told she needed to do, it was going to take more time away from her grandchildren. No wonder she was in resistance.
David Brower: Yeah, absolutely.
Linda Binns: She had a subconscious resistance to that. Once we knew that, that was the real problem, then we could talk about, “Okay, how can you design your business so that it gives you the money and the time that you’ve been looking for so that you can spend more time with your grandchildren?” It was a whole different scenario. It wasn’t anything to do with time management or anything like that. It was going back to basics and saying, “Okay, this is what I want for my life, how can I design my business to give me that?”
David Brower: I think that’s the key phrase right there, right? How can I design my business to get me that? They have to take control and take charge of that with your guidance, right?
Linda Binns: Exactly. Yeah.
David Brower: Wow.
Linda Binns: That’s the big surprise to people. They think, I start a business or go into a career and when I make a certain amount of money or when I achieve a certain level of success, then I will be able to step back and enjoy my life.
David Brower: Good luck on that.
Linda Binns: Yeah, good luck on that, doesn’t happen.
David Brower: What’s Dr. Phil say? How’s that working for you?
Linda Binns: How’s that working for you? Yes, exactly. That’s really what we’ve been told but it’s actually the opposite way around. If you start with, “Okay, what do I want my life to look like? Now, how can I design my business, my career, to give me that life I want? Not at some future date in 10 years down the road but now, how can I be living the life that I want now.” If you start from that place, then you really do have the ability to design and create what you want and that comes as a big surprise to people.
David Brower: I would think so, especially when you get, I don’t know if it’s still this way but back in the day when you would interview people, you would say, “Where do you expect to be in five years? Where do you expect to be in 10 years?” Whatever like that. It puts that burden on you as you’re trying to grow your business. “Well, I can do this in five years.” Why? Why limit yourself like that?
Linda Binns: Right. It is limiting yourself. It is. Because, you really can. I saw a great quote the other day and I wish I could remember it. It was something about … it was about us creating ourselves. That’s it. We don’t find ourselves. We create ourselves.
David Brower: Like that.
Linda Binns: Yeah. I love that. That’s so true. We’re all looking for something. We’re looking for whatever it is we’re supposed to be doing. What’s my passion? What’s my purpose? All of this. Well, what do you want it to be?
David Brower: Well, we’re listening to other people put their things on us. Right? I’m talking to my best, hypothetically, I’m talking to my best friend and he’s going, “Well, why aren’t you doing this?” “Well, why should I do …” “Well, I’ve seen this work in your business. I know it’s a home run. Why aren’t you doing that?” That has nothing to do with creating myself.
Linda Binns: Exactly. Exactly. What I will say to people, I ask them to define success. What does it mean for you? That doesn’t have to make sense to anybody else. It doesn’t. It doesn’t matter if nobody else understands what you’re doing or why you’re doing things the way you’re doing it. Does it feel right to you? If it feels right to you, then that’s what you need to be doing.
David Brower: That’s a hard hurdle for people to accept isn’t it?
Linda Binns: It really is, yeah.
David Brower: I mean, back in the day, I was like the ultimate people pleasure. I was doing everything for everybody except myself and then once I figured that out I’m going, “Oh, that’s an interesting way to look at life.” Yeah, we are our own worst enemy, I think, in this search.
Linda Binns: Yes we are. It’s interesting that people usually know that. When I ask people, what do you think is standing in your way? They usually always say to me, “Well, I know it’s me,” but they don’t know how to change that.
David Brower: Right. Yeah. They see the door in front of them with a lock but they can’t find the key.
Linda Binns: That’s a good way of putting it. Yes.
David Brower: Wow. Fascinating. How long have you been doing this Linda?
Linda Binns: Well, in one form or another, 20 years. I started out, funnily enough, as Fung Shui consultant and holistic health practitioner and energy of the body, energy of the environment. It was very interesting to me because most of my consultations and people would say to me, “Ah, this isn’t what I expected. This is more like therapy.” They’d be looking for the quick fix. “Oh, I heard about Fung Shui and if I move my bed or I hang a wind chime here, that’s going to fix my …” Well no.
David Brower: No.
Linda Binns: Your home is simply a reflection of you, energetically. It’s connected to you so if we make changes in your home, it’s corresponding to your energy and it’s going to have an impact on you. You can’t just make the changes and not make any changes internally, within you. It was going much deeper than that. I couldn’t handle people looking for the quick fix because I could never go there.
David Brower: You’re also a work in progress it sounds like.
Linda Binns: Always. I think we all are.
David Brower: I think so too. Yeah.
Linda Binns: I think the day we stop is the day we die.
David Brower: Could not agree more. Absolutely. Absolutely right. We’re rapidly running out of time. I want to have you tell people how they can get a hold of you, what the process might be to get a sense of if they’re a good match for how you like to work?
Linda Binns: Probably the best way is to go to my website. It’s lindabinns.com. That’s L-I-N-D-A-B-I-N-N-S. Lindabinns.com and there’s quite a bit of information on there. You can access some videos with some free tips on there. You can also contact me through the website. You can also reach out to me on social media too.
David Brower: Nice. Yeah. I was just looking at your website and folks, it is filled with all kind of free information that you could spend some time with and go, “Okay. I am now sufficiently curious to drop her an email.” How fascinating. It’s wonderful work and this has been a real treat for me to visit with you and learn about the things that you do and how you help people. Congratulations to what you do and continued success.
Linda Binns: Thank you David. It’s been my pleasure talking with you.
David Brower: Thank you. Linda Binns. L-I-N-D-A B-I-N-N-S dot com. Change your energy for greater success and she can show you how to help you create yourself.
Alan: Your 20-Minute Podcast with David Brower has been brought to you by Audible. You can listen to any of David’s podcasts, any where podcasts can be found. Including iHeart Radio, the Spotify Mobile app and at davidbrowervo.com/your20minutepodcast. Until next time, thanks for listening.