CYBLN 035: How To Turn Your Passion Into Your Profession

How do you turn your passion into your profession, is the question on the minds of many men in midlife who want to escape the cubicle life.

In this episode, Ryan Pennington shares his journey of how his passion that has arisen out of his experience of being a firefighter paramedic, is leading him to pursue a new profession. His passion for educating firefighters and family of hoarders has taken him into several countries so far and he has invitation for others.

Ryan Pennington is a Firefighter/Paramedic for the Charleston Fire Department in Charleston West Virginia.  He is currently assigned to Station 8 and is part of the West Virginia Task Force 1 USAR team.  He has over 17 years of combined Fire, Rescue and EMS experience.  Ryan started with a local volunteer department and continued through EMS to spend five years as a Critical Care Paramedic.  Ryan transferred to the career fire service in 2003 and has worked for the City of Charleston since 2007.

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SUMMARY SHOW NOTES:

Here are a few of the thoughts Ryan shared in this episode:

• Choosing your best life is following your heart … if you’re not doing your best and following your heart, you’re doing yourself a disservice
• A lot of us discredit what we bring to the table and we need to put an end to that. 
• A fear that most of us have is that of the voice in our heads that says, “What give you the right or validation to do what you are doing? “Who made you an expert?
• Do not let the voice of one naysayer derail you from your passion.
• Settle the issue that “they” don’t have to like you; it’s okay because others will
• Surround yourself with others who share your energy; intent; similar goals
• turning your passion into a profession 
• [Tweet “The world is yours; it just take you showing up”]
• It’s a disservice to others to know that I have a message and do not get it out
• Don’t assume that someone else knows what you know
• You never know where your message will take you; you have the world at your doorsteps
• It takes a good support system – family, others who share a similar background
• Find a way to leverage your experience to help someone else
• Don’t discount your experience … you have something others don’t

One of the questions that I ask is if he had a 6 month window to make a decision before that window closed, what steps would he take to decide how to live out his dream. Here are some of his answers:

• Gather the information for my topics
• Choose your medium (route of giving that information out)
• Find a specific genre of people to be your audience
• Put that information out there; make mistakes; correct as you go

Quotes that were shared:

• According to his mentor Dr. Gasly: [Tweet “”An expert is someone who know just a little more than someone else””]

  Final word:

• Dare to dream big.  Put your passion out there. Leave it for others to have in the years to come.

Books mentioned:

• Crush it by Gary Vaynerchuck
• Jab Jab Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuck

Tool / App  mentioned:

• His wife Heather 🙂
• His calendar

Where to get in touch with Ryan Pennington?

• www. Viewsfromthejumpseat.com 
• www. Chamberofhoarders.com
• Twitter: @jumpseatviews

YOUR FEEDBACK

This podcast is very practical and inspiring but also thought provoking. Both Ryan and I would love to hear your thoughts on what stood out to you the most within this episode. Leave your comments below.  If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to hear or a question about an upcoming episode, e-mail me.

Also, would you please rate this podcast on iTunes and leave a brief review by clicking on view in iTunes and then click the review tab. Don’t forget to subscribe as well. That would help tremendously in getting the word out! Thanks.