#7: Exploring Unique Ability with Julia Waller
Today, we explore discovering your unique ability and how it connects with the universe.
I spoke with Julia Waller, a unique ability specialist at Strategic Coach, who helps individuals uncover and embrace their innate talents. Julia explained that unique ability is present from birth but can be obscured by life’s challenges. Rediscovery is key to aligning with your true purpose.
In this conversation, we discussed the four levels of activity—incompetent, competent, excellent, and unique ability—and how working in your unique ability zone makes work enjoyable. Julia also emphasized that work doesn’t need to be hard to be valuable and shared tips on gaining clarity by stepping back from chaos.
Her reminder: “You are here to be you.” Embracing this is vital for fulfillment.
Topics We Explore:
- The fundamental connection of unique ability with the way the universe works
- The four levels of activity: incompetent, competent, excellent, and unique ability
- Breaking free from the belief that work must be hard; It can be fun too!
- How to gain clarity by stepping back from chaos and observing yourself
Connect with Julia Waller: https://uniqueability.com/
Learn More about The Viking Academy: https://www.vikingacademy.com/scouting-party
Episode Transcript:
Erik Solbakken: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Viking Academy Podcast. So today we have Julia Waller on the show. Now, Julia Waller is a unique ability specialist at Strategic Coach, and she worked with me on a special project, which is what she does at Strategic Coach. She does deep dives into the entrepreneur's unique ability. Now, I know she works with entrepreneurs, but for our non-entrepreneurial listeners out there, don't worry about this. Unique ability is something everybody needs to work on.
Erik Solbakken: This is the reason why the Viking Academy's actually here, to believe it or not. My work with her got me to really understand who I was at my core and what I was here to express. And the cool thing about this interview is that we've talked about unique ability lots of times before in the past, her and I. But this one, we went down a little bit different rabbit hole. We started talking about, you know, the fundamental connection of unique ability with the way the universe works, the fact that unique ability is the underlying thing that you have inside you from birth.
Erik Solbakken: Like from the day you were born, it's there, but what happens is you're born and then life throws all sorts of shit on top of you, and you forget, and then you have an opportunity to refind yourself. It's like rediscovering who you are. And I just love this because this episode really solidified again for me why I'm doing the Viking Academy and why I'm so excited about doing this with you, not for you, but with you, because I'm doing this as well.
Erik Solbakken: I just keep growing my understanding of who I am and why I'm here. She has a, free resource. She's gonna talk about that at the end of the podcast, so make sure you listen to all the way through the end, where you're gonna be able to go and do a little more exploring on your own to find out what your unique ability is. So without further rambling on by me, let's get to the podcast.
Erik Solbakken: Let's go explore Welcome to the podcast, Julia
Julia Waller: Thank you, my friend. Great to be with you, Eric. Any chance to be with you and your energy is a good place for me to be.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah, I'm kinda vibrating like crazy today. When we're shooting the podcast is the day that I've actually launched the Viking Academy. Mm-hmm. So I've been, dialing like crazy to friends and family and to colleagues, and we're spreading the word out and getting subscribers, and it's been, it's been really cool and a lotta great feedback. So, yeah, I'm fired up and ready to go.
Julia Waller: When are you not? But even I think today is extra. It's extra... What an honor to be, on the day of your launch too, and I've already subscribed, watching you on YouTube and listening to you on Apple and Spotify. There you go.
Erik Solbakken: Thank you for doing that. I appreciate that. Of course. Yeah. That's true. I jokingly say, like, I have two speeds, go and stop.
Julia Waller: Mm-hmm.
Erik Solbakken: Those are the two I'm either sleeping or I'm running at 100% or 100 miles an hour. Well, my daughter's like that. Isla's just, like, 100%. She's like go or stop. There's... And she's moving all the time. I'm like, "Where did she get that from?" And my wife Erin looks at me and she goes, "Oh, gee, I wonder." I wonder why.
Julia Waller: Wonder where.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah. Mm. So today I want to introduce the audience to you and all the wonderful things you do at Strategic Coach. Again, the wellspring of all wonderful things is the unique ability and your expertise in finding people's and extracting and interviewing, bringing that unique ability to the forefront so the person can see it, is the reason why the Viking Academy is here.
Erik Solbakken: I'm gonna put the kudos to you right there, because the work you and I did together for me to really understand- What my unique ability was really shone a light on what I am really here on the planet to do, and from there I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm the Viking. I have to do the Viking Academy." Yeah. And of course there was other factors that came into play, but I want to share with everyone what you do and why it's so powerful and I'm gonna share my experience of that process with them.
Erik Solbakken: But can you just give people a quick little rundown on what it is specifically you do? And obviously there's a hidden magic in there because I don't know how you did it with me, but you pulled stuff out of me that I had no idea was there.
Julia Waller: I... Nobody really knows how we do what we do, right? 'Cause we're just being ourselves. But yes, I have a few clues after doing it for a long time. Yeah, so I'm, with Strategic Coach. I've been with Coach for 27 years now, which is so crazy, and for the past probably 25 and 15 with clients, I've been doing these one-on-one, I call them deep dives, where I kinda dive into you, into your brain, into your spirit, your body, your mind, try to figure out who are you and what's so cool about you.
Julia Waller: And so we use a bunch of assessments and profiles. We have a whole process that Dan Sullivan and Bob Smith created and put together, and then I took it and kinda put my own twist on it, my own, Julia deep, depth. I like to go deep on things. So really it's kind of an interview process, like you said, and I ask a whole bunch of questions. We use a bunch of assessments to help get outside ourselves, because one of the issues with unique ability is we're so inside ourselves, we're swimming in our own water.
Julia Waller: We don't know that there's any water around us. We don't even know what we're doing. We take it for granted. We think it's easy. We think it's simple. We think everybody can do it or should be able to do it, which is completely untrue. And as I sit with, you know, person after person, I was talking to, someone that I was working with the other day, it's like if only you guys could sit in my seat.
Julia Waller: I would love everyone to sit in my seat for... And watch the different people who come through my Zoom room and see how different that everybody is. Now, I also believe we're all connected and we're all the same in many ways, but to see the uniqueness, and each person is just as adamant that the way they do things is the way that things should be done or things are done best, perhaps.
Julia Waller: So I get to interview people and Put words around it and actually pin it down, which is what we did with you, and then you're the one who took it and ran with it after that, which I'm super like, that's for me, like, the glee, the gleeful moment. It's like, ooh, wow, he's gone and, you know, there's, here's a new distribution channel, a new application, a new contribution of who you are, and then you help us be more ourselves because you're being more yourself.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah. The... Could, can we kinda come back to the basic understanding of what unique ability is for anybody who's listening right now and doesn't understand what we're talking about? Because we're kind of, we have the curse of the expert here, you and Yeah... Because we already know what that means. But can you explain it from the four circles, the four circle kinda diagram that we talked about? Like, what is, what's unique ability and what's not unique ability in those four different levels?
Julia Waller: Yeah. So we've got four... There's a couple ways to look at this. So if we're talking about your activities, let's say, okay, 'cause I was kinda talking about what your unique ability is, but your unique ability activity. So there's a unique ability activity. So if something you're doing is a unique ability activity... Do you want me to go over the four criteria? Yes.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah, that's what I'Okay... I'm after. Let's do
Julia Waller: That. So that means that you have a superior skill. You are darn good at it, okay? High quality, great outcome, okay? Your really superior skill. The big quality with that is passion. You are passionate about doing it. It's fascinating to you. It's motivating, okay? Which ties into the third criteria, which is energy. It gives you energy. This is a big clue as to what we all, quote unquote, "should be doing". If it gives you energy, that might be unique ability.
Julia Waller: If you've got superior skill and you're passionate about it and it's giving you energy, you're on the right track. This is unique ability zone, right? And then the fourth criteria, which is kind of interesting, is called, is never ending improvement. There's a sense of wanting to continually get better and better, but not 'cause you suck at it, because you're already amazing at it and you wanna keep expanding that level of amazingness to the next, you know, dimension.
Julia Waller: So four criteria of unique ability activity. Now, you have these set of talents that are underlying that you apply to these different activities, right? And depending on what activity you apply it to, you know, you may not be so passionate about working with this kind of person. This kind of person, ooh, you love that. Or you may not be passionate about a certain level of, you know, maybe certain problems that you're solving are kinda, like, mundane and boring, whereas other problems, ooh, the complex ones, the juicy ones, those are fun.
Julia Waller: So where you apply your unique ability makes a big difference, okay? But it's gotta have those four criteria.
Erik Solbakken: This is, again, where the Viking Academy was born from because I was, I was thinking about this, that there is a reason why we're here. There is a, there is an intelligence to the universe. You just look at it and you can see it. You can see that there's a function, there's a purpose- There's a puzzle that fits together into puzzle pieces, but for humans, especially this one, I've been constantly trying to figure out where the hell do I fit?
Erik Solbakken: Like, what the fuck is going on here, right? Like, where does Eric fit in a puzzle? And I constantly try and fit myself in... I've been constantly trying to fit myself into the world instead of going, where do I fit that fits for me? Yes. As opposed to me trying to change myself for everybody else and change myself for the world. There's a, there's a balance between being selfish and selfless because that, once you find out what your thing is and how you fit into it becomes your responsibility to do Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: And to become that person. And for that unique ability and that journey for me is, when you think about it, the Viking Academy is kind of a unique ability journey for everybody, 'cause I talk about finding who you are and why you're here and what your purpose is. Unique ability kinda encompasses that ethos. I've just wrapped it in a different blanket. I've wrapped it in a, in a Viking blanket- Yeah... You know, and said, let's explore the three dimensions of who you are.
Erik Solbakken: Because we worked with the unique ability in your mindset, like who you are and how you operate in the world is kind of like a mindset thing. Your spirituality is another connected piece, and then how your body operates and orientates it to the world. So maybe unique ability, we're talking more mindset here with the unique ability. But when I was asking about the fourth levels, what I was talking about, not so about the four aspects of what unique ability is, but the four types of activities you can actually do.
Erik Solbakken: Because that's the one for me, that was like the big aha moment, 'cause there's some things I just, I hate doing. Yeah. I
Julia Waller: Go there next. Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: And I and I completely suck at them. Could you walk through those four levels? Yeah. 'Cause I want, kinda wanna get that framework dialed in so people Yeah Exactly what we're talking about here.
Julia Waller: So if you picture four quadrants, we just talked about the first one, the unique ability one, right? With those four criteria for that, so that's great. So the other one, the next one, would be called an excellent activity, which is where you also have a superior skill, okay? And people notice this, and they think you're really good at it. You got a great sense of teamwork. But the big differentiator between unique ability and excellent activities is no passion.
Julia Waller: You are not passionate. You... It might be okay. You know, you may be, it may be okay for you. Might give you a little bit of energy, but it is not anywhere near the level of passion and energy that a unique ability activity. But you could... You're good at it. You can do it well. Now, a lot of people get stuck there. That's another whole conversation. The next one would be competent.
Julia Waller: Now, competent activities are activities where you're actually not very good at them, okay? So you do not have a superior skill. Competent, though, you can get by, you can kinda meet minimum standards, but there's gonna be some anxiety, it's gonna take up some brain space, you're gonna be worried about it sometimes. You're not gonna be very good at it. If you had a team member who was at this level, you might fire them from that activity.
Julia Waller: Unfortunately, entrepreneurs tend to hang on to these things 'cause they're tough and they're gonna do it themselves, and they're gonna get it done, and-
Erik Solbakken: And they never fire themselves. And they never fire themselves...
Julia Waller: They just fire themselves en masse from those activities. And then the final one, which hopefully most people are not doing these activities, but some people are incompetent activities. This is where you do not have the capability to do these activities. You're terrible at them. You might procrastinate them. You might actually never get them done. They weigh a lot on your mind. And those ones you should definitely be fired from, or in other words, to find who, find someone else to do them, use technology, you know, outsource, whatever you need to do to get out of those bottom two quadrants.
Julia Waller: You do not wanna be there, at least. And often people need to get out of those first- because those things still have to get done somehow, and then we wanna move our way up to excellent. But ideally, we don't wanna be doing excellent activities either, 'cause that's not, that's not where the 10X lies. You know? That's not where the big growth lies. And that's not where the big productivity, the big, yeah, expansion, the fun does not lie in the excellent activities.
Julia Waller: It, lies like you vibrating with energy and fun around the whole Viking Academy notion, right? That's much more exciting than some of the other things you got going on. So you're gonna... Your creativity, that's the other thing. Uniqueness is all about creativity, and I know your uniquability is all about creativity as well, and helping expand your own, which is, in turn, you then help us expand ours. You know, when we're in the Viking zone under the Viking blanket all wrapped up, you know, being our Viking selves.
Erik Solbakken: Yes. The... So those four levels again, for the listener then, is incompetent, competent, excellent, unique ability. And I like to think of it as, like, from the bottom up, 'cause that gets me that ascension model in my head where I'm thinking of this, I'm starting low and I'm working my way up. I like that vision of, you know, again, the Vikings looking to the stars, looking to the gods, growing up Yeah Starting that incompetent, competent, excellent, unique ability in that framework.
Julia Waller: You could also... Well, we do it in these concentric circles, right? But you could also do it as a spiral. I'm just mixing this together, right? Because, you know, the incompetent, there's a lot of those maybe, right? And then there's competent, and then excellent, and then unique. It's kinda like a smaller... There's a smaller set of activities that you're gonna actually be in. You're gonna be more focused on unique ability activities than you are with the other types of activities, right?
Julia Waller: So you're actually honing your in, honing yourself in and focusing on maybe a smaller niche or a, you know, like your Viking. That's... I mean, there's a lot in that obviously, but it's very specific and very focused. And the people who, you know, there's books on this stuff, who do the best actually focus on the fewer, the smaller number of activities.
Erik Solbakken: Right.
Julia Waller: Or a smart target audience that they really care most about.
Erik Solbakken: Right. And The thing that I really noticed for me was once I was looking at those four levels again, incompetent, competent, excellent, unique ability, I kind of likened it... I reflected it on my own life, and I went excellent at activities. When I was a chartered accountant and I was working in public practice and I was a an advisor, a tax planner, and all the rest of that, I was in the excellent zone.
Julia Waller: Yeah. Really good at it, right? Great with the-
Erik Solbakken: Really good at it... Paperwork. And I can still
Julia Waller: Do make mistakes, you know, really good quality, which is also part of your unique ability. But applied to that situation, no fun for you.
Erik Solbakken: But it took me a long time to understand the difference between excellent activity and unique ability. And for me, the simple way of looking at it was what you had said previously, which is it's about the energy.
Julia Waller: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: For me, it's about the energy, the follow the energy. If anybody takes anything- Nothing else... From this podcast, please just take this one golden nugget here from Julia is follow the energy. And I'm not, I'm not a fan of follow your bliss and go after your dreams and blah. Like, I'm a bit of a realist too here. I'm saying once you find the thing that you really love and you're passionate about, like, that's really driving you, and you understand That you're here on this planet to actually deliver that thing, that is a huge aha moment.
Erik Solbakken: And the other big thing that kinda blew my mind when we went through this is you were pointing out things that were my unique ability, and I looked at you and went, "But that's just me being me." Like, how is that me actually working? 'Cause I have this notion people have this notion that work is hard and that Yeah Is difficult, and when you're doing something that's fun and easy and energizing and you wanna keep getting better at it, you're kinda like, "Well, this isn't work.
Erik Solbakken: This is play." This is like being a child. It's childlike. It's playing It is... The universe and having fun. And, when you said, "That's it," I went, "Yes! This is fantastic." I get to play. It feels
Julia Waller: Like you're cheating. It feels like you're cheating the system, right? 'Cause it should be hard. Life is hard, you know? You have to work hard. Now, it doesn't mean we don't work hard. You and I both work hard, right? We l- 'Cause we love what we do and we wanna make a contribution. But yeah, it's the stuff that feels like, "Really? This? This stuff right here?" Everyone used... You know, I used to think people thought unique ability was, like, this shiny, fancy thing way out there.
Julia Waller: I'm like, "No, it's your favorite sweater. It's your favorite necklace. It's your favorite old T-shirt." That's your unique ability. It's you in yourself. It's not out there. And, you know, me being warm and friendly, you connecting things in your head and seeing these orchestrat- You know, that's just normal for you. That's just you being Eric and waking up... Your energy level, right, is normal for you. For a lot of people, that's not normal for them.
Erik Solbakken: No, I tend to walk into a room sometimes and people are like, "Whoa." They just, people are repelled from me because I come in and I'm just, I'I'm vibrating and glowing at a certain level, which is fine because I-
Julia Waller: Or they get attracted to you
Erik Solbakken: They either are attracted or repelled
Julia Waller: One or the other.
Erik Solbakken: Love me or hate me, there's no money in the there's no money in the middle, people. Yeah. Love me or hate me. There's no money in the middle.
Julia Waller: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: And so, that, the interesting thing is I just came up with this thought in my head, and I heard this in, Easy versus energizing. It's not, we think that if it's easy, then we're not working. Like, it has to be hard. We talk, when you, even the phrase hard work-
Julia Waller: Yeah Implies that
Erik Solbakken: It is hard, as opposed to you need to apply effort. Mm-hmm. Effort, I like that. You Yeah... I'll apply effort to it, but it doesn't mean it's hard. It just means I have to apply my willpower- Yeah... To put the effort in to... Like, I play in a heavy metal band. I play the drums and I'm singing. It takes effort, and I have to practice- Yeah And do that, but it isn't hard, but it's effortful.
Julia Waller: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: But it's not hard. Because it, but it gives me energy. Yeah. So it's this, I think we need to take the phrase hard work out of our vocabulary and throw it in the fucking garbage.
Julia Waller: Yeah. I'm with you. I'm with you. It's like focus, I like that, right? We're focused on what we do. We're committed, right? We're engaged with what we're doing. We're giving ourselves to whatever it is that we're into. But the whole notion of hard work, yeah, I'd like to trash that too.
Erik Solbakken: Here's a question for you. You have done this for how many people now, roughly?
Julia Waller: Oh, maybe 1,000.
Erik Solbakken: Okay, 1,000. I'm gonna give you the kudos as an expert here. That's 1,000 people times 10 hours. That's a 10,000 hours. You are now the expert. When you have this experience and all these experiences with these people, is there an underlying commonality within all of them that they all kind of stare at you and go, "I can't believe I didn't see this all along"?
Julia Waller: Yeah. There's, we call it in our book unique ability blindness. People are blind to their unique ability 'cause they just aren't out... They're too inside themselves. That's why I get to be the outside person, right? And I'm and because I happen to be the person who's fascinated by other people's talents, right? If you look at my set of talents, part of it is I think people's talents are fascinating. I find them incredible.
Julia Waller: I think they're magic, and I see them in people, and I love to reinforce them, and I like to have them be clear 'cause I like clarity. So I want you to have clarity, and I want you to be fully expressed in your life, 'cause that's what I want for me.
Julia Waller: So yeah, I would say one of the most common things, I have a client right now I'm working with, and she's like, "You know, Julia, anybody could do this." And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that is not true." Not every, you know, super amazingly or bold courageous decisions, you know, warm heart at the same time, this amazing beautiful combination of all these amazing talents. No, everybody could not jump in and do the role that you're doing.
Julia Waller: They could not be the leader that you're being. Same with you, Eric. Other people could not jump in and be you, right? Well, first of all, nobody could go in and be you. But nobody could go in and be me, and nobody could go in and be Dan Sullivan, and nobody could go in and be Like we are all unique. One in eight billion. There- We're the only one in the whole planet who is us, which we take that for granted a lot.
Julia Waller: So but we don't see, again, because it's natural. It's the, it's the, it's the body we live in. It's the mind we live in. It's the way we naturally feel. It's thinking, feeling, doing, and being. And it's all part of our unique ability. It's who... Unique ability really to me is who you are as a person. It's who you are being, thinking, feeling, and doing in the world that creates value for other people.
Julia Waller: But we do it starting, like you talked about selfish at the beginning, we do it because that's actually what we need to do, be, think, or feel to be ourselves. And people will express it to a varying degree that they're... And the more you're conscious of it, and I think that's what my process does, or our process, is it helps you be conscious of something that's an unconscious process. You are unconsciously just being you.
Julia Waller: You don't know exactly what you're doing. You don't... I know some people know more than others, 'cause they've delved into self-awareness and put personal growth and development stuff, and they've taken various assessments 'cause they're into that kind of stuff, so they're more aware. But the more you're conscious, you can then apply it in a more conscious, intentional way, which is then gonna make a bigger contribution, a bigger impact, and be much more fun for you, right?
Erik Solbakken: So you've talked to and worked with 1,000 business owners to give And team
Julia Waller: Members. Yeah, that's who-
Erik Solbakken: Team members- Yeah... To get clarity on their unique ability. And here's the part that I wanna kinda tie it in with, is once they have found that unique ability in themselves, does the light bulb also go on and go, "Oh my gosh, this is... This unique ability is exactly what my company needs to fit into the puzzle, and then I find the other people to fit it in." Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: They have this aha moment where it's like, "Oh, who I am is who I've always been, and it's exactly what my company," I'm gonna do this in air quotes, "needs for it to function." If we did that as kind of a metaphor of life saying who you are is what the universe needs because it made you to be this way, and you fit into the big puzzle.
Julia Waller: Yes. Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: To be part of the unfolding of manifestation. It's Yeah... You are who you are because you're here because of who you are, and who you are is why you're here. Like, that's-
Julia Waller: Exactly. There's a great quote by Ainsley MacLeod, "Who you are is why you're here." And that's exactly what you just said. 'Cause you're here to be you. These are the gifts that you were given. These are your soul gifts that you were given, whatever you believe, but that's what I believe, that you are practicing in this lifetime, and you're here to contribute and improve and, that's how that's what you're here to do, is to grow and expand your value creation based on who you are.
Julia Waller: So it's about growth and expansion and learning.
Erik Solbakken: So we're been doing a lot of talking here around, you know, the rosy, happy, find your unique ability. There's rainbows and unicorns and, you know-... You're farting candy corn and all that stuff, right? But let's go to the actual terra firma of the fact that most people, or in my experience, don't know why they're here.
Julia Waller: No.
Erik Solbakken: And, you know, I don't know if you're gonna be able to answer this, but I'm very curious into this part of the conversation is, what do you think it is that, and it may be an unfair question- Please... Causes us to not see who we are? I have a quote on my website, The Viking Academy. It says there, and I say it all the time to people, "Who you are is screaming so loudly, I can't hear a word you're saying." I can see it in other people.
Julia Waller: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: I can see it in you. I can see it in my buddy Andre. I can see it in my wife Erin. I can see it in my daughter Isla. I can see it in all my clients. I can see it clearly, especially when I'm coaching, no problem.
Julia Waller: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: But for me, I'm completely blind. Yeah. Why are we blind to who we are and why we're here? That is like, what the fuck?
Julia Waller: Well, I mean, there's all those, you know, you can't read the label from inside the bottle, right? We're too inside ourselves. I think that's really just the answer. You know, people use the analogy of you're the fish in the fishbowl, and you don't... I mentioned water. Like, you don't even know you're in water. You're a fish. You're just being a fish. You don't have the consciousness and awareness that you're a certain unique fish.
Julia Waller: One of my clients, she said, "You help put running shoes on the fish so I can jump outside the bowl and look back and see myself." Right? Because we're busy just being ourselves. Now, if we start to Now, I think if you look around, you see, wow, that person does things differently than I do. Geez, that's different than I do, right? Like, from a, from a logical way, I think we can kinda see that other people are different than we are.
Julia Waller: But, you know, that's a great question. If we could figure this out, Eric, we could solve the world's problems in a lot of ways, right?
Erik Solbakken: I just had an aha.
Julia Waller: Good.
Erik Solbakken: When I finally worked with you and stopped and explored who I was with your guidance and help, I discovered who I have always been.
Julia Waller: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: And it was a rediscovery of who you are always... Who I have always been. The Viking Academy is exactly that. It's a exploration of yourself to explore yourself to get out of the self with the small S to discover the large S Self by, you know, exploring these three dimensions. But that's what I... The work I did with you was getting outside of myself to find out who I was and to look back in and go, "Oh, that's who Eric is," and then I can jump back in and actually be part of the manifestation of Eric.
Julia Waller: Yeah. You can apply yourself more. You can be more of yourself. You can lean... A lot of people after they do the session, they have that clarity. They're like, "Wow. Okay, I'm gonna stop holding back. I'm gonna lean in on all these best habits that I have. I'm gonna be more freely, more unapologetically myself." 'Cause a lot of us don't do that.
Erik Solbakken: This ties into the Buddha's teaching, I think in the most fundamental aspect, is life is suffering, and the Buddha was all about non-attachment, not being attached to the self. The minute you can detach yourself from yourself and observe yourself from outside the fishbowl-
Julia Waller: Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: And look at it, the situation, it removes the energy of the emotion and the noise and the chaos that's-
Julia Waller: Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: That is you, right? Or that is me. I'm gonna just refer to it as myself. Yeah. Once I can get outside of the chaos that is Eric inside and step back and put some distance between me and the self and observe it, that's when I get clarity. Yeah. It's, that's when I see things clearly. That's when I don't react to life as much. That's when I don't get as angry as quickly.
Erik Solbakken: That's when I can see other people's situation. I can empathize with others because I realize I'm... They're a fellow sufferer on this planet just as much as I am.
Erik Solbakken: And so this whole diving into my unique ability with you opened, was part of opening the door opening, and this is all the different facets, and I've been talking about this, and I'm gonna share it openly with everyone about me opening and looking into the spiritual side and opening up and looking into my body and then opening up and looking my mind, and you and I doing that opening up and looking the mind part was part of detachment from the self-known as Eric and inside the chaos to step back and go, "Oh, that's what that puzzle piece is for.
Erik Solbakken: That's where that fits." And then go, "Well, now let's jump back in and put that piece in place and see the cool picture that's gonna get created." And a wonderful thing about life that I've experienced is like I have no idea what the picture's actually gonna look like. I know what I can see the puzzle piece and I can see the pieces kind of around Yeah But you don't see the big picture.
Erik Solbakken: I think that's the ultimate problem is that... And I had Stell on the podcast- Great... And we were talking about vision versus sight, and he was talking about how little we actually process in the back of our brain, how much data actually gets pulled into us, and the minuscule amount that we actually process and, quote-unquote, "have vision on." We don't see the whole picture, and we don't see the whole picture of life, but understanding that unique ability and who I am, and understanding those pieces that fit around it, I'm like, "Oh, that's where I fit." Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: And I truly believe every single human on the planet is a puzzle piece in the big picture. Without everybody else, I wouldn't be here. Like, it's a self-evident fact, but it took me, it's taken me a lot of years to get to that understanding, and I keep deepening it-
Julia Waller: Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: By exploring.
Julia Waller: You will continue to do that, right? And you're explor- see, you have this drive to explore. You're the Viking explorer. I have your unique ability up right here on my other screen, right? So guess what you're helping us do. You're helping us explore 'cause so by, you know, if who you're, who you are is why you're here, by you being more you now, and then you and then let's say I hang around with you, I'm like, "Oh, wow, he's a really amazing explorer.
Julia Waller: I'm gonna go and explore, too." So now you're rubbing off on me, and I'm sort of in a way being more like you in the sense that I'm, you know, learning how to explore 'cause you're... So that's how you create value for other people. The more you're you, the more you create value for other And I was thinking back to your previous, you know, getting outside yourself. Yeah, I'm an objective... I'm not you.
Julia Waller: I'm objective. You're subjective. When you're looking at yourself, you're very subjective 'cause you're inside yourself. I'm this objective outside person, and I can look from the outside in, and then I can see you very differently than you see yourself because you're gonna take yourself for granted, whereas I don't And I can't do any of those things that you do also, right? So I don't, I'm already different. So I can already see there's a distinction and a difference.
Julia Waller: Whereas you can do all those things that you do, so you don't think they're special.
Erik Solbakken: And even when you see someone else doing, quote-unquote, what you do, they still don't do it the way you do it. And that's what I've always coached in my businesses, like the Accountant Success Formula, I'm coaching accountants and I'm telling them, "You have no competition." And they look at me, "No, there's accountants everywhere. I have competition everywhere." I'm like, "You do not have any competition. There is nobody who's gonna talk to their clients like you do." That's right.
Erik Solbakken: You're a completely individual.
Julia Waller: Yeah. Yeah, you go into a restaurant, you know, every restaurant's got a different person who greets you. They greet you in different ways. They got different kinds of food. They got different styles. Every business, they've got a different vibe. They've got a different way of communicating. They've got a different set of talents. Every single one of us does, and I agree, everyone is a piece in the puzzle, and we're all kinda working together, and we, yeah, we can't always see that there's something bigger going on.
Julia Waller: And I think, I think it helps when you can, get a glimmer of that, right? And if you just start, though, by starting in here, starting in what's your internal, you know, we all look outside for things. I think if more, what we look inside and then we're just connected to spirit, which I think, you know, to me, unique ability, one of my clients said once he did his unique ability, he said, "This is like my soul's blueprint." And to me, that's...
Julia Waller: I've always remembered that. So I don't necessarily only think of it as the mind. I think of it as the soul, right? Like, this is, this is what you, this is, these are the talents that your soul has been gifted with. And so then you get to then choose, you know, which ones you develop more, which, how you apply them, and you know, which ones you strengthen and how you learn how to apply those in life, and sometimes they're gonna get you into trouble, and you know, it's gonna be a whole learning opportunity of using them.
Erik Solbakken: Here's the next question I am really interested in asking you, is on your personal experience working with that many people, helping them find themselves, helping them find their unique ability, their soul purpose, which I love how you-
Julia Waller: Mm-hmm...
Erik Solbakken: Phrased it like that. How has that helped you with your own self-discovery of who Julia is and what makes you tick?
Julia Waller: Great question. Well, it's funny 'cause of course the hardest person I've ever had to deal with to help them figure out their unique ability is me.
Erik Solbakken: Do you have a Julia to help Julia?
Julia Waller: I don't really have a Julia to help Julia, which is
Erik Solbakken: Interesting. But you said you did use AI to create a Julia to actually- I did- Do the unique ability of Julia.
Julia Waller: I did do my unique ability. I've done it a couple times, and I did have help. I had help from Babs. Actually, she was great, and some good friends of mine. And I did, I did our process, right? I went through our process. I sent out my letters, and I got my feedback from people, which was just delicious. And then I, you know, said, "Okay, Julia, take this stuff seriously." you know, when...
Julia Waller: 'Cause that's part of our process is to get feedback, and then we gotta take our people's feedback seriously. They're saying these things about me, so, you know, it is my journey, though, to get my own unique ability, and I'm still working on that, and I always will be. And then I... You know, what I get to, I get to see other people's unique ability, and then I'll kind of use that to maximize myself, which is my number one strength on the CliftonStrengths, right?
Julia Waller: So I will use other people's. But it also, I hear feedback from everybody that I meet with usually that, "Hey, wow, thanks for creating this safe space and non-judgmental space and help me see myself and helping me get clarity." So then that reinforces what I'm doing. It creates value in who I am in the space. And I'm getting better. I think I'm getting better at recognizing that, hey, this is a unique ability, and, not everybody can do it, and, you know, I'll do it in my own unique way.
Julia Waller: I'm sure other people could do it in their unique way as well. I'm darn passionate about it, so I love doing it. I think I'm here on this planet to do this with people. I'm pretty clear on that after the few... After all these years. I didn't know that before. I did not know that at all. When I Before I started Strategic Coach, I was a teacher before with kids, and I've always loved kids 'cause I love potential, and I loved helping develop and grow people or help them grow.
Julia Waller: I don't grow them. They grow themselves. But, so that thread has been common. But until I had the words and the language and the assessments, the stuff that we use through coming to coach and immersing myself in a unique ability culture where it was like, "Hey," you know, when I walked in the door, and this was news to me, "Hey, Julia's special. Let's help Julia be more Julia." I was like, "What?
Julia Waller: Who, me?" You know? And I happened to work in the same company as my sister, Shannon. We're very different, we're very opposite, but it was never, you know, "Julia, be more like Shannon." Never. It was always, right away there was an assumption that I had a unique ability. And just living in that culture, which, you know, you go back to your unique ability being at the center of everything as the entrepreneur, your unique ability is at the center of your culture, right?
Julia Waller: Dan and Bob's unique ability is together create our culture. So the more you create the ecosystem, and we can do this as parents, you and I have talked about this too, for our kids. You know, my kid at this point, she says, "Yeah, I know I'm unique, Mom. You keep telling me that." I'm like, "Oh, fantastic," right? Now, does she know exactly how? Maybe not yet, right? But she knows she's creative, and I tell her, I reinforce any time I see a strength or a talent or something she can do, I point it out to her, "Hey, not everybody can do that, you know.
Julia Waller: That's cool." Just a little kinda touch, right? So the more you can create this ecosystem, then people start to wake up to it, and they start to buy into the fact that, "Oh, wow, people are telling me I'm unique and special, so maybe I am."
Erik Solbakken: This brings me to two points that I wanna kinda highlight and talk to you about, is the one is I say, I talk about this at the Viking Academy, don't grow alone. Yeah. Don't grow alone. It's a very personal individual journey to figure out who you are and why you're here. And again, the ethos of the Viking Academy is go explore that. Just empowering people to explore themselves and just create a resource platform so that you can have that ability.
Erik Solbakken: But part of that is it's a very personal journey, but we're social creatures. And Mm-hmm... Interaction with one another is what elevates us up the hierarchical or the, if you wanna call it the Jacob's Ladder, the going, raising yourself upward together. Doing it together is when it really becomes magical, and that's Yeah... I was very curious about to say, you know, how has working with your clients really helped you, and How has those clients talking to each other helped each other?
Erik Solbakken: And I could answer that question 'cause I know what it's like talking- Mm... To somebody else who's done the unique ability deep dive.
Julia Waller: Mm.
Erik Solbakken: And we're like a, like meeting someone from a graduate graduating class. Yeah. Like, "Oh, you graduated in 1988 from Spectrum?" "Yeah, me too." "Okay, great." And then you just chat like crazy. These people that, they're like people that you never went to school with, but you graduated from the same school, and you just hit it off like a house on fire, and you start feeding it off each other. It's this concept of doing it as a group-
Julia Waller: Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: That it's individual, yet it's also social. And so just to hear you have that experience of continually finding more and more, I mean, you're the expert in unique ability, and you'you've done a thousand, over a thousand interviews, or a thousand client assessments, and you're still finding more inside yourself.
Julia Waller: Oh, yeah I, again, I'm the hardest, I'm the hardest client I have, right? But yeah, I love that it's... I love that you're talking about doing it together because I think we inspire each other. I've talked to Stelios about this as well, and, you know, he wants you can kind of play in a different playground, you know? And, you know, he calls it spiritual Disneyland. That's a whole other conversation. But it's like the more you have this level of self-awareness, it's just, it's just different, right?
Julia Waller: There's just this new... These light bulbs go on. And so then when you talk to other people who've gone through that process too, and they're unfolding and growing and expanding, you know, then you have fun talking to them. And it really, I think the word for me is inspiring. And then you're kind of playing the, you know, this growth game of, "Okay, well, what are you gonna do next with your unique ability?
Julia Waller: And what did you let go of, and how did you let go of that frustrating stuff? And how did you give yourself permission?" 'Cause a lot of it, for some reason, we don't give us permission to be ourselves. You know, we're trying to fit into what society thinks or... I mean, entrepreneurs to me are the best people at not doing that, right? That... But even entrepreneurs who have their own businesses, they still have the shoulds of, "Well, I'm, I should be in the corner office." I'm like, "No, you shouldn't.
Julia Waller: You should be out there making sales, or you should be out there designing programs or doing podcasts or whatever." So we all have these shoulds. That's why most of the obstacles to unique ability, and Dan came up with this years ago, is they're mental obstacles. They're not, you know... They're mental. They're up here, and they're in your thinking, and so how do we overcome those, you know?
Erik Solbakken: And ultimately... Oh, there's so much to unpack with what you just said there.
Julia Waller: I know.
Erik Solbakken: What holds us back and keeps us from expressing fully who we are is the conditioning we experience during childhood and our DNA memory from the human race as a whole.
Julia Waller: Yep.
Erik Solbakken: It is a survival mechanism Yeah... Is holding us back from exploring and, or expressing ourselves fully. Because the interesting thing is, it's, I keep talking about the lizard brain, the lizard brain, our brains still think that we're cave people, that we're, you know, the cave people. That we're we gotta look out for the saber-tooth tiger, and Yeah There's gonna be killer, bees coming to get us, and all these horrible things that are out there.
Erik Solbakken: Now, there's still lots of nasty stuff out in the world, but there's minuscule compared to the way it used to be. We've got all this technology, we've got abundance up the yin yang, but yet our brains haven't caught up to the reality of where everything's at. So this there's no reason to feel like you're going to die, which is the ultimate fear, which is why we're afraid to express ourselves, is that somehow by expressing yourself and being an individual, you've hived yourself off from the herd, and you know what happens with an animal when it hives itself off from the Yeah In the Serengeti The Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: The cheetahs are gonna get that one, and they're gonna take it down. So there's this programming in our brains that are telling us to stay safe and stay with the group and stay like everybody else when it logically doesn't make sense, but it doesn't matter, 'cause it's an emotional thing. This-
Julia Waller: Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: Ultimately ties me into where I see the whole the whole human race moving, is to a new level of consciousness. Yeah. And it's happening on all sorts of different planes and different levels. But we need to upgrade our software system. I truly believe that the human race needs a reboot. We need... And not in a, you know, I know what's best for the world, and we're gonna reboot, and we're gonna change the world.
Erik Solbakken: You're gonna own nothing and be happy forever, and all this World Economic Forum horseshit that's out there, which I have no fucking time for, right? Because I'm not interested in-
Julia Waller: No
Erik Solbakken: Tyrannical bureaucratic organizations-
Julia Waller: No...
Erik Solbakken: Telling us what to do. Me neither What I'm talking about is a ground-up change in consciousness, and those conversations that we have at those levels of looking at your unique ability and how you fit into the big picture of the thing opens that up. And all of a sudden you feel this, I think Stell's right, it's like a spiritual Disneyland. You get to actually start realizing that we're here to play and enjoy ourselves.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah. But the heaviness of the world and life and our conditioning, past conditioning and our present emotional fears-
Julia Waller: And society conditioning, right? All conditioning, yeah It's what you have to go to in school and all that crap, right? That if you start to be yourself and then you get made fun of, and you're like, "Hmm, I better learn not to do that anymore," or your mom doesn't, you know, respond to you the right way or whatever, then you're like, "Okay, I'm gonna tuck that part of me away."
Erik Solbakken: But that exact feeling, let's just hone in on that for a second. And the listeners, I really want you to just get this because this to me is, it's been a major aha. Every time I feel embarrassed or I get that feeling like, oh, I did something wrong and mommy's upset with me, quote-unquote, I am feeling that way because my lizard brain is telling me that I better fit in otherwise I'm gonna die.
Julia Waller: Yeah
Erik Solbakken: That simple. When I look back and I see it that way, I'm like, "Well, that's silly."
Julia Waller: Mm. Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: Because what I'm about to do isn't going to jeopardize my life, but in my mental emotional state, that's what it's telling me. That's when my body goes nuts, right? That I'm gonna get attacked, I'm gonna get killed. That's why that's bloody cellphone and all the social media causes so much stress and anxiety, 'cause all these things pop up and I'm like, "Ah. I'm... Saber-toothed tiger, saber-toothed tiger," right? Mm. The body doesn't know any different.
Erik Solbakken: And so, yeah, that we've gone down a whole different rabbit hole here. I'm sorry. This is the best part of these podcasts- No, I know... You never know what, never know what you're gonna get. You just open up a box of chocolates, right?
Julia Waller: And when you talk about, you know, our, the fear of, you know, death, which I totally am with you, and then the other fear is the fear of magnificence, right? If you go to Marianne Williamson quotes or I'm listening to another podcast right now where she talks about really what our greatest fear is of our own magnificence, you know? So that's an interesting one to look at. And she's like, "Don't ask why even.
Julia Waller: Don't even try to ask why. Just really focus on, you know, raising your vibration," which is what you were talking about with energy. And the more you're in your unique ability, guess what? The more you're gonna raise your vibration. Which is then gonna raise everybody's vibration and everybody's consciousness is gonna raise, because we're all vibrating at a higher level, and we're all more in a state of passion and joy and happiness.
Julia Waller: And it's not all rainbows and unicorns, but you're definitely vibrating at a higher level 'cause you're doing something that brings you joy. Unique ability is full of joy, right? It is, 'cause you're, it's fun.
Erik Solbakken: It is. Mm-hmm. It is fun, and this is the other thing that I had written down here as you were talking. I take notes feverishly as you, as I'm with my guests, 'cause I learn so much from you. Like, I'm so grateful to have you on the podcast- Mm... Because I learn so much from you, and then I get to share that learning and that exploration with my listeners and the Viking Academy members.
Erik Solbakken: It's fun and playful, and this is the thing that I had down on my notes, is that you said, "Go back and ask these questions to people." So you gave me a whole list of questions to go to people to ask them to answer on it, and I went back to my childhood friend, my buddy Jeff Renfro. Him and I have been friends since grade school. We're still buddies. We played in a band from grade seven onwards till, like, now.
Erik Solbakken: Like, we'll get together and we'll still play music, right? Still 87 Mil.
Julia Waller: Mm-hmm.
Erik Solbakken: I sent him the questionnaire, and he responded back and gave me something and said... And I can't remember exactly what it was, but when he, when I read it, he goes, "This is who you are, Eric, and you've always been this." And I shared it with you and I was like, "Holy crap." That, I've always been that way. So if I look back and I go, if that's the way I was as a child- Once I can tap back into that where my unique ability started- Yes...
Erik Solbakken: Where it's always been, life becomes fun and joyful.
Julia Waller: Right.
Erik Solbakken: And-
Julia Waller: You're a child again...
Erik Solbakken: And you're a child again. You're not childish, but you're childlike. You see the world with fresh eyes, and being an explorer is being like a child and going, "Ooh, what's here?" Yeah. "Let's go explore there. Let's find this." And you know, I was gonna write a book called Life is a Playground or like, Life is a Sandbox, let's go play. Like, Yeah... It's a sandbox, just creating temporary sandcastles, and then they get knocked down, and who cares?
Erik Solbakken: It doesn't matter. It's temporary, and just go play. Life's fun and energizing to just go play, but when you're not in a state of mind like you and I are in right now, and if any of the listeners are out there listening to it and go, "Oh, that's great, Eric. You got rainbows and unicorns," and that's wonderful, but I feel like shit right now because I'm feeling heavy and low and tight.
Erik Solbakken: And these are the people I also wanna help, is I wanna help elevate and raise them up and let them know that you are here for a reason, and the stress and the strife and the heaviness that you're feeling right now, you will later find on... You will later find out, sorry, that struggle and strife is your gold mine.
Julia Waller: Mm-hmm.
Erik Solbakken: That is, for me, in my life, I look back on the alcoholism, the losing the partnership, the breakup of a marriage, the breakup of family relations, the traumas and all that stuff. I look back on it now and go, "That was for me, not to me. That was part of what I needed to do to hammer in the metal." That, you know, the metal is in the fire, and then you gotta beat the crap out of it to shape it.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah. That was the shaping of the Eric piece, whatever that tool was to do the job it needed to do, and it's incredibly exhilarating to go, "I've always been this person. I had to experience all this shitty stuff to basically re-uncover who I was brought into this world to be." So it's like you're brought into the world, here you are, this is this person you're supposed to be. Then all the world shit happens to you.
Erik Solbakken: You get all this crap and stuff happen. Mm-hmm. And then you break through it, and you rediscover who you've always been. Yep. And that's what you gave me, and that's why I said Mm, beautiful... Greatest gift that Strategic Coach ever gave me was the green light to be myself.
Julia Waller: I feel the same way. I'm so grateful to Dan and Babs, 'cause that's what I feel like I've been given all these years. And then I get to go and share that because of... You know, I was... Immediately I think I just, my nose was like, "Ooh, the unique ability stuff. This is cool," right? Like, this is really cool. Yeah. I immediately gravitated towards it, and then, you know, because the freedom we have, I created a little niche for my own little niche in the company to help people do that.
Julia Waller: You know? That didn't exist, so I got, had the freedom to do that. It's the coolest thing in the world, so, and I get to help other people, like you. It's super fun. It's super fun. Hey, by the way, heavy metal, eh? It's funny that you're into heavy metal and you're talking about metal and...
Erik Solbakken: Yeah, anyway. I didn't catch that. That was good. Mm-hmm. Oh, it was almost like I planned that.
Julia Waller: Mm-hmm.
Erik Solbakken: Hey, we're coming down to the end of the podcast here. I wanna make sure that any of our listeners can get some access to resources so they can help find their own unique ability. So where can they go to find out more about unique ability? 'Cause I know you have a bunch of resources they can access.
Julia Waller: Yeah, we've got lots of resources. Well, if you're a successful entrepreneur, and you wanna be part of our community, unique ability is the cornerstone concept in Strategic Coach program, so that's the best place. You know, if you qualify for our program and you wanna be part of it, that's where you're gonna go and really immerse yourself in unique ability, and then all of the steps to freeing yourself up to work more and more in unique ability.
Julia Waller: If you're not, we have tons of resources at strategiccoach. Com, and we also have a little website uniqueability. Com where you can get our book. The whole process is laid out. It's actually like a workshop in a book. There's a notebook in it and a book that guides you through step by step this whole process of unique, excellent, competent, incompetent. You can start with your activities. And, you know, for those people who are under the weight of the world of not doing anything that's your unique ability, which I, my heart hurts for you know, just start with one thing.
Julia Waller: Find one little thing that brings you joy, one little thing that gives you energy. It could be playing with your kid. It could be going for a walk in nature. It could be, you know, drawing. It could be anything. Doesn't matter. Just give yourself the gift of, like, doing that a little bit, and then build on it, you know? Little by little by little by little. And then maybe let yoursel- let someone else do that, some, maybe something that you don't like doing, you know?
Julia Waller: Let some, like... You know, either hire somebody if you can or just trade somebody or do something to let go of some of that heavier stuff 'cause you really wanna lighten yourself up, right? You wanna be... I, if we could all live like the life was a, like a sandbox, you know? That'd be, that'd be a pretty cool world, right? So the more you spread that and help us do that more and live with your kind of energy, Eric, like I want more of that 'cause that's gonna help all of us.
Julia Waller: But unique ability is one of the pathways to get there as well.
Erik Solbakken: That is why I created the Viking Academy is so that we could go out and play. Let's grab our swords and go-
Julia Waller: Yeah...
Erik Solbakken: Play.
Julia Waller: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: Right on. Julia, thank you for being on the podcast.
Julia Waller: My pleasure. Thank you. Thanks for creating this awesome space for people to, grow and see themselves and be more of themselves. I love it.
Erik Solbakken: Rock and roll, everyone. Let's go explore. Thanks for listening to the Viking Academy podcast. Make sure to leave us your honest feedback by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode.
