Interview with International Man of Mystery Lodewijk van den Broek

Lodewijk van den Broek is one smooth fella - I’m talking Lando Calrissian smooth.  Why so?  Because he sent me his interview answers already formatted in HTML.  I love it when people save me work.  If I’m ever dropping by my last remaining family members up in the Arctic Circle-area of Sweden, I’ll be certain to take a long detour to your town to say hello.

Dave: Hey Lode, how about an introduction first?

Lode: Yeah, you can call me Lode, since my full name (Lodewijk van den Broek) usually is way too complicated to pronounce for non-Dutchies. So now you know where I come from too.

I’m a thirty-something guy, happily married and a proud dad of a little boy. Furthermore my sign is Aries, my Chinese sign is Dragon (so now you can figure out my real age…), my type is INFP and my enneatype is a seven. That should be a good start to get an idea on who I am.

Oh…and I work too. I have a parttime day-job as an IT project manager, I blog (currently only on How to be an Original, but I’m launching WordpressDIY soon), I’m a DIY guy, and a soon-to-be entrepreneur (in my heart I already am).

I also have a wealth of other interests, often more than I can find the time for. I would love to do more photography, start playing the piano again, start training martial arts again, ride my motorcycle again.

Why do you love what you do?

Because what I love to do is aligned with who I am and what I want. I think that discovering who you are and what you truly want is essential in getting a fulfilling and enjoyable life. It doesn’t finish there of course, because you still have to work hard and give your best to get what you want. This is the central theme of my blog by the way.

It doesn’t mean that I love everything I currently do. I’m working on aligning my activities with my values and mission, but it’s not an easy process and it requires quite a lot of attention and energy. But the return on that investment is great, in terms of fulfillment and energy that is.

What is one of the major turning points that brought you biggest successes?

Well that depends on what you define as success I guess. Major turning points in my life have been moments of profound insight, that made me see things in an entirely different perspective.

One of those moments was just before I graduated from university, and decided to apply for a job as a management trainee at a company that would turn me inside out, four times over in two years. I knew it beforehand, and I had doubts whether I was going to like it but I felt I needed it. Turned out I indeed needed it, but that I also found out that personal development is something I can get very passionate about.

Another turning point was a 3.5 day (non-stop) course I did on Stephen Covey’s 7 habits. The guy who does this course makes you experience the habits, one by one, discovering them for yourself. One of the moments that made a great impression was during habit 2 ‘Begin with the end in mind‘. To experience this Covey suggest you write your own eulogy. But this guy let us do a guided meditation, where we (unknowingly at first) were visiting our own funeral… and listen to the speeches of the people there. What do they say, what do you want them to say? The lessons of that experience are something I feel to this day.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

That starting is the most important thing to do. If you want to do something, decide to do it and take the first step now. By simply starting you enroll yourself in the best school: Reality.

I’ve been thinking about starting for myself for a long time, but didn’t take any step towards getting it realized. Until one day (my birthday one year ago) I simply decided to start my blog and use that as a basis to grow my ventures from. I’m hardly as successful as I like to be, but at least I’m already a lot closer to my goals than I was a year ago. There are many more lessons to learn and challenges to take on.

What are some ways you help keep a work-life balance?

Ouch, this is one I’m struggling with a lot. The balance tips in favor of work that’s for sure. Apart from my day job and my blog(s), I have a big renovation project on my hands.

I have always had a tendency to take on one or two projects too many. But I’ve always been able to handle this pretty well, until we became a family. The dynamics of our life changed entirely, to an extent I couldn’t have imagined beforehand. Having one or two projects too many becomes a problem then, so now I’m actively working on reducing the projects on hand by finishing them and not starting new ones (well no major ones anyway).

I also have one day a week, on which I work from home for my day job. I have freedom to schedule my time that day, so I get to spend quite some quality time with my son. And recently my wife and I set the first steps to get back into a social rhythm as partners as well. Going out and enjoying ourselves, deliberately taking time as a couple.

I love being a dad, but the impact was far greater than I expected. I was warned, but I guess some things are only learned by experience.

What leverage do you plan to use to grow your business over the coming year?

To grow my non-existent business to an existing one you mean? Well, on two things: Network and Value.

For launching new ventures, like a blog or a business, a network is essential in my opinion. A year of blogging has given me a nice network of likeminded people, and I also have an offline network of people willing to help me launch an offline business. After the launch, delivering value is the only way to convince people to do (or continue to do) business with you.

I do have to make choices about what I’m going to do as a business. I have quite some ideas, and need to make decisions.

What blog posts are you most proud of?

It’s not so much blog posts I’m proud of, but the habits I have changed and adopted the past year. I’m proud of adopting the habit of having a weekly review cycle. I’m proud of my Early Bird challenge, in which I changed my sleeping rhythm to match it better to the rhythm of my family. And I’m proud of the mistakes I made (and associated lessons learned) when applying the goal setting techniques.

What blogs do you read to get the edge in your business?

My reading habits are a bit variable I guess. Some weeks I hardly read a thing, other weeks I focus on the blogging blogs (Problogger, DoshDosh, Daily Blog Tips), then I dive into entrepreneurial and freelancing blogs (Self Made Chick, Freelance Folder, Shane & Peter, Men with Pens), I head over to productivity and personal development blogs (Zen Habits, Steve Pavlina and many others), and back down to earth diving into blogs about WordPress (like Lorelle’s).

Of course I check in at Liz Strauss’ place, Brian’s place, Guy Kawasaki’s blog. I’m leaving some out. Oh and I like Presentation Zen too, but you need time to visit that one. Great lessons on presentations and speeches, with a lot of videos that go with it.

Give A Shout Out To Lode For Giving Us His Time

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