106. Summer Session 6: Do What Lights You Up: Messages from Snakes & Scorpions with Tab Scott

0:00:02.5 S2: Hello and welcome to fine is a four-letter word. My guest today is Tabitha Scott, and we met in a really interesting way, Tabitha was doing a Google search on the term purposeful transformation, and came across my LinkedIn profile, she reached out to me, and we knew we were kindred spirits from the first moment and so I'm so excited to have to have you on my podcast today. Thank you for joining me.

0:00:32.4 S1: Thank you. And I am all about that purposeful transformation work. I just released a blog today about it, and you know not much was written about that, and for your name to come up and the work that you've been doing, it was fascinating to me, and then the more I got to know what you're up to with this podcast and listen to some of them. It's pretty darn fascinating. And I think a lot of women can relate. Thank you.

0:00:57.0 S2: I like to start out our conversations with a little bit of an understanding of where you came from, in terms of the beliefs that were instilled in you as you were growing up, that possibly had an effect on how your life has played out so far, or from childhood to that point where everything was fine.

0:01:18.1 S1: Yeah, so I had some pretty strong paradigms that were laying into me as a strict Southern Baptist, I was Methodist part of my child raising years and then Baptist, the other part, and it was a no alcohol home, death and damnation and repentance and... Never ask about other religions because they're just all going to hell, it was a very strict upbringing with very clear rules, and I think there were reasons that path was chosen by my parents, they were school teachers, and so structure was very important to them. So I did teach me a lot of things about values and community, honesty, very good things, and it taught me a lot about the Bible. We never missed a Sunday, we were like three times a week, church goers. So it was very active and engaged in the Christian faith, and what I learned as I grew up, and I began studying electricity, electrical energy, and then human bio-field energy, and the more I learned about quantum science, the more it reinforced with the Bible, but also other religions talk about with this source of universal energy and that we are all just vibrating light, that's what we are.

0:02:40.8 S1: And so for me, it was like this Easter egg hunt, and the more I learned, the more I realized, Oh my goodness, this explains the holy spirit, or this explains how Jesus healed people. Or, you know, It was like There's affirmation of what they taught me, but I also through my travels and work experience as an executive in the renewable energy sector and working overseas and in different countries and my travels, I learned a much more broad understanding of different faiths and an appreciation for spirituality and connectedness that I didn't have growing up, and since that time, I'm able to share that back with my family and they're pretty understanding.

0:03:21.0 S2: It's so interesting to me too that you brought up quantum physics and spirituality and how often times it's one or the other, it's like science or spirituality, why can't there be both? 'cause they are really intertwined.

0:03:36.7 S1: That's what cracks me up. It was like, I read this book called Sapiens, and it was like this big light bulb went on... After I read that, I was working in Israel on some net zero housing, and one of the guys at Jerusalem University said, I think you're gonna love this book. As curious as you are and I into energy and physics, you're gonna really like it. And it was so cool because it put in perspective how religions were created as ways to add structure during certain periods of time for certain reasons, and that really put a different perspective, and it was enlightening for me to look at it through that lens. If you look at the King James version of the Bible, for example, God or Christ, they're referred to as the light 272 times, it's because we're made of energy, so it's in the language all around us and in all these ancient religions, so it's just super cool for me to think that, Hey, it's all the same. It's not in conflict.

0:04:35.2 S2: I love that. I love being able to share that with people, to help them see different perspectives.

0:04:42.2 S1: Yeah, I like religion aside for a minute and look at how we are all born into different socio-economic conditions, different countries, different political beliefs or different education levels, all of these things are different and our paradigms are different, but yet we're made of the exact same energy and so are the plants, and so our animals, and we all go through the same growth cycles, even companies go through the same growth cycles, and that's why they use the S-curve. So to me, it all just comes back to energy. It's the source of everything.

0:05:20.5 S2: Right, so you just brought up companies, let's go to where you took these values and applied them to your professional career as a renewable energy executive. Tell me a little bit more about that journey that you were on.

0:05:31.9 S1: I had started out... I grew into an executive early on, so by the age of 30, I was a CEO of my first company, and I thought making money is great, but it feels a little empty, and this great mentor I had, date of ours, she said, You know, I know what you're passionate about... And then figure out how to get paid for it. And so that's what I did, I said, I'm gonna solve the energy crisis and people will care, and renewable energy, that's the future, and I had so much enthusiasm around it, it wasn't even like working... And I spent a lot of years working with companies on business models to adopt renewable energies because they didn't wanna change, they didn't care about climate change like I thought they might... Now, on the coast of the United States, they do in certain areas. But where I was in the Southeast, coal is cheap, and so it was really popular, so it took a lot of thinking about how to approach things from a business model so that people could get into energy and action.

0:06:39.9 S1: So they were talking about renewable energy, but they really just were in it for the money, they were only in it if you could find the money for them, and that was what I did, I found ways to... Like instead of putting a solar array on an individual house, which might take 10 years to pay back, you put a bunch of solar arrays on a bunch of houses like a Fort Bliss, 5000 homes and you make an asset out of it, so it's just investing in real estate assets, who was a separate asset that generated a return for companies, so coming up with these creative models and working with other companies to do that is how... We got it pushed through.

0:06:39.9 S2: You were a living and your whole life at that point, it was... Everything was fine.

0:07:22.3 S1: Oh.Everything was so fine, it was the best fake smile in a selfie like seen at that point in my life. Because my kids were grown and gone. They had just left the nest, everybody, this cookie-cutter life that I had, this Executive and her kids are grown and gone. They're independent and there's 21-year marriage, but that marriage and did the kids left and I was empty nesting at work, it was 17 years in an industry that, like I said, was constantly convincing people that renewable energy is a good idea because it reduces pollution, it helps your health and people just didn't seem to care, and again, in certain places, California or New York, certain places that they did, it was just complete burnout from being that happy, pleasant face and that ball of energy and really encouraging people about what could happen if we did some things that reduced our carbon... And at that time, when I was speaking to groups, I would say, Hey, you know how many people have heard of the Exxon Valdez spill? And everybody would raise their hand... What about the BP Gulf spill? And everybody would raise their hand and then I'm like, What about the TVA spill? That was in Tennessee and Kentucky, and it was 100 times the size of the Exxon, it was 10 times the size of PP.

0:08:46.9 S1: And nobody ever raises their hands because we don't even know what's going on right under our noses, and the deeper you get into that underbelly of the industry, and the more you learn about what we're doing to our health and the death of the animals, the drinking water for seven counties that was affected, it just became overwhelming that I couldn't help, and I felt like I was bringing these little symbols of water on a forest fire, and it just making a difference

0:09:16.4 S2: And so in our call that we did before this interview, you told me about the absolute breaking point. When you just decided, Alright, I cannot do this anymore. Tell my audience, what happened there, in fact, that conversation.

0:09:33.3 S1: The whole thing in the border, it was in a training session with executive leaders from around the country and some from overseas, and I had just weeks prior, had surgery for a breast cancer scare and hadn't told any what at work, because I had been shooting all over myself, what I mean by that is I should not let them see me when I should not tell them about this surgery, I don't want anyone looking at my breast, I don't want anyone thinking about me in that way

In Episode 2, Dara Goldberg talks about shedding the shoulds.

That's what snakes told me in my book, shed your skin, but that's another story. So yeah, I was busy shoulding on myself, you should be able to cope with this marriage that's dissipated after a couple of decades, and the surgery was like... There's so much to process when that happens to you, you're processing... Am I still female? Are people gonna look at me funny or people gonna know... This was scary, but I don't wanna tell anyone, there's so much that you're processing emotionally and mentally, and then physically, I had these tubes running in different directions coming out of my body, and if you've ever had a major surgery like that, you've got stitches going in different places, so all this was going on under my business jacket, I can't even believe you are sitting there to weather on three weeks.

0:11:01.5 S1: Oh my gosh. So we're in this training and it was negotiations training, and again, it was a executive level, and I was doing well, it was a series of competitive things where you negotiated that we would discuss as a group. So I have been doing really well and scored well, and someone piped up and said, Hey, here's what Tab was able to negotiate last night at dinner, she got us all these things, just using the skills we learned in the training yesterday. So the teacher says to me, Tab, why don't you share with the class what your techniques are... Now, I was excited about this because I worked from home, and these people I don't get to see very often, maybe once every other month, so this was an opportunity for me to really shine, and I was one of very, very few females in that industry, so before the words even can come out, this crossed the old guy, pale stale male, right hand and he says, Well, clearly she raised her shirt and used her tits and that's how she got what she wanted and... No words, I could even come to. Nothing Wadia the time.

0:12:10.3 S1: And I leaned over to the Director of HR that was sitting next to me and said, Oh, I guess he missed his sensitivity training this year. You know? Oh yes, yes, I take care of that. But nothing was ever said, so.

Wow, that just blows my mind.

0:12:27.4 S2: Just like, whatever that. That's how we use.

0:12:31.0 S1: So that is a Montford, whatever reason being so emotionally exhausted, I just... I didn't say a word, I just was enough. I can't take it. And quit my job, I gave away most of my things and I went to living Costa Rica and you're in a jungle for three months.

0:12:49.4 S2: So you quit your job. How did you decide Costa Rica? And did you just quit and then in the same moment go Costa Rica. Had you been thinking about Costa Rica maybe for weeks or months before...

0:13:01.2 S1: Yeah, the quit came over a period of time, I had a wonderful boss at the time and was able to work out, hey, I'll go ahead and work till the end of the year. I knew it was gonna be a period of time, and then I knew I wanted to go somewhere. So I started language-ing to friends, I wanna go somewhere, if you know anybody that has a place I could rent if you... And I wanna go somewhere in the middle of nowhere, preferably in the language I don't understand, and I just wanna be away from everything and immersed in nature, and a friend of mine had another friend with a place in rural Costa Rica. It's an hour and a half from paved roads for three months, I got it for about the same prices that we can Disney, so super, I expect. But there's a reason. Wow, scorpion. Scorpion carbines are real.

0:13:53.7 S2: No, thanks. Did you wake up with them... Now that you brought it up, I have to...

0:13:58.4 S1: Now that I brought it up, well, I'm gonna add scorpion wrangling to my LinkedIn qualify, because one of those people that think like, let's take the spider outside, let's not kill it, and so I'm trying to do that with these creatures that... I mean, I'm in Tennessee, in Nashville, the last 15 years in Kentucky, before that, we don't have scorpion, so I didn't know what to do with them. And their little barb tails were all were ready to get me, so I'm putting them in plastic cups and taking them outside, I saw eight of them in a 48-hour period, and it was one of those in book I talk about animals that are answers to what I was asking the universe at the time, I would say, Hey, God, what should I do about this? What should I do about that? And I became very, very attuned to the animals around me, so during that 48-hour period until I figured out what the message was, they kept coming, and then after that, I didn't see anymore.

0:14:57.3 S2: What was the message?

0:14:58.9 S1: Their message was, I was trying to decide whether to invite someone I had been dating down to Costa Rica to stay with me for a week or so, and all of the Should... This guarded hard, I can't possibly let someone in IT, I can't possibly experience love, I was too scared and I had this huge barrier, this hard shell around my heart, if you do, and I kept thinking, Why is a scorpion have to say they have an ex skill it's a slither fierce there into constant defense, and I was okay, like, Okay, fine, just let it go. Take the risk, invite this guy down and stop. Stressing out again, I was raised in this air that what would people think you're not doing to this and people laugh at me when I say that, but if you're raised that way... You get it. Sure, so I didn't wanna disappoint anyone. And finally, I just said, Forget it, I'm gonna have fun, and I'm gonna invite him. And as soon as I did, they quit coming as fascinating to me...

0:15:59.9 S2: I mean, it makes total sense because I believe in... You get the signs, if you're paying attention, which you know so many times people ask for a sign, God universe, whatever, please give me a sign of which direction I'm supposed to go, what decision Am I supposed to make? And they stress and these... Signs are coming to them. They're just not seeing them.

0:16:21.5 S1: Yeah, you're not seeing them. And going back to the episode you mentioned where your friend was talking about shedding the shoulds, that was the very first animal message that I got, I was asking about the job specifically, and Do I change my name back? What do I do about these things that... I kept seeing snakes for a period of months, and we googled, we said, Is there a snake craziness going on in the navarrese, and finally one day it was like this flash of seder skin and snags them because they can't grow into what they're supposed to be, they're literally, Corti, they keep that skin and so you have to shut it, and then the other reason they shut it is to get rid of parasites and think about all the relationships, the negative self-talk... The pressure I was putting on myself. So shed those shoulds, get rid of them, and he learned from the snakes.

0:17:18.3 S2: Was that before or after you went to Costa Rica?

0:17:20.8 S1: That was before, that was before I quit my job.

0:17:23.5 S2: What were the tools that you used? I think you mentioned journaling, what were the tools that you used to help yourself heal from that, all the pain and everything's fine here, like those years of stuffing everything down to transforming into the person that you then became... What were the tools that you used to do that? Aside from running away to Costa Rica and just hanging out in a jungle for three months.

0:17:51.1 S1: Definitely, I did a ton of journaling, and I am not a journaling person that typically does that, But I documented everything that happened in Costa Rica, how I was feeling. I wrote down some very painful memories and I burned them one evening and then buried the ashes and Costa Rica, so I took some books to read about dealing with emotion and things like that, but mostly I think better after I run of a very active person and so sitting cross, negative breathing techniques, they don't work well for me unless I'm exhausted, so for me, my happy place was getting in the jungle and running on the trails, it was a 100 degree heat, sweating and doing yoga every day, and just embracing the messages from the animals and from nature. So I didn't even have a cell phone service, there wasn't even an address or mail box of where I was staying, which should have been the first clue and... So it was wonderful. I didn't have the option to get online and check anything, I had to go to the nearest village to get WiFi.

0:18:54.1 S2: Now, I have a practical question that came up, and I'm sure that my listeners are also thinking this question, where did you get your food... It's not like you could go to Trader Joes.

0:19:05.3 S1: No, no.But there were small groceries, there were places that you could get food, you just had to go into the nearest village to do that. Okay, so yeah, my first day I forgot about these wild dogs that they were between the grocery and where I was staying, the little place that I was staying, and I rented a bicycle and that's in the town to get around, and I went to the grocery and I had this pot on the front of the bicycle, I had my backpack grocery strapped to this, and it's like this leisure bicycle on dirt roads with pot holes the size of bathtubs, it was insane trying to ride that thing, I didn't do it very many weeks at a car. Anyway, those things were clinging like a monkey with giant symbols really loud calling the dogs, and I'm trying to outrun the dogs, it was quite an adventure go into the grocery, but I figured, you know what, I can drop some margarine or butter or something, and maybe they'll eat it instead of my life.

0:20:06.6 S2: Wow. Okay.Yeah, not many people go to the extreme length that you went to to rediscover your life's purpose.

0:20:15.7 S1: And you know what, I didn't realize it would be that extreme... To be honest, I looked on a map and I was like, Oh, it's near the ocean, how cool it's... You're in the jungle. How cool? How bad could it be? And in my mind's eye, I had a Mountain Home or something, I didn't really realize how remote, but it was wonderful, I was raised, as I said, by two school teachers, and they made us abundantly curious about nature and everything has a purpose. So even if it's scary, don't be afraid, there's a good purpose for it and be respectful, so it was good, and you know what, you don't have to go to the jungle because anybody can tap into their energy, anybody can tap into and recharge and reconnect at any time.

0:21:00.1 S2: It ended up being exactly the place that you needed to be though, is what I was going to say, it was...

0:21:05.7 S1: It was for me, because staying positive and staying happy and going from a fine to fabulous, you do that by following what makes you happy, following what makes your heart saying, what are those things you're doing when you're subconsciously humming, when you lose track of time. When you forget to eat, those are your high vibe activities, love compassion, passion. And doing more of those, and for me, I was feeling those all over the place, because here are monkeys... Oh, I love monkeys. Here are these crazy raccoon-looking things, koeman did that I didn't even know existed. Sea Turtles, it was just... I was in list the whole time because of the animals in my love for them. So wherever your passion is, it might be art, it might be playing an instrument, it might be petting your cat, whatever makes your heart sing, do more of that, and that's what gets you to a place where you can hear your intuition really reconnect

Ssometimes, people need to step back even further though, because I've had so many conversations with people who believe that that is what they need to do, but they don't even know what makes their heart sing, what they enjoy doing anymore, they're so far removed from anything that feels joyous to them, they have to step back and re-discover what is it?

0:22:30.2 S1: That's exactly what I did. And it takes practice, but you can definitely do it. Anyone can do it. What you do first is you start to notice, when do I get that feeling? And by that feeling, I mean that feeling like when you're blowing the candles out on your birthday cake or your favorite team takes the field or a singer or hits this impossibly high note and you get goosebumps, goosebumps are a great indication, double down like whatever the heck, you're doing at that time. That's one of your high vibe activities.

0:22:59.4 S2: Yeah, is paying attention to the energy that you're feeling... Yeah, which comes right back to, what are you doing now?

0:23:08.0 S1: When I eat at my mother's house and she makes BlackBerry cobbler, dad has this organic Blackberry farm in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. It's so yummy. It's almost like very season, I will find myself subconsciously humming and it's not something I'm aware of, but now that I know, Oh, that's a happy place for me, eating cobbler of my mom's table in Kentucky, and so try to notice when you catch yourself subconsciously humming, you might be going to the grocery store, but what exactly are you doing? Is it a song you just listen to, and the more you can start to refine it and keep little list now when you're feeling off-balance, God knows after the last year, we've had everybody as a to go back and reference that list and practice some of those things.

0:23:54.8 S2: That's such great advice, because like I said, it's about tuning into what is it for you? And you mentioned a little earlier that you can't sit cross like it and just be quiet, 'cause that doesn't work for... You need to be moving. And when I do the meditations, there's always a meditation as a bonus to the episode, to the interview episodes, it's about getting comfortable, whether that's sitting, relying down or walking around, whatever works for you.

It's the same concept across the board, that's why your meditations work for more people, because I think we're all absolutely different in the way that we transpose the energy in our lives, but we are all made of the same energy, so we have access equally to tap into it, but we're gonna do it different ways because we're not all exactly alike, right. That expression of energy is going to come out in different ways, it is...

0:24:52.8 S1: It was also funny for me as a... I'm a Certified Energy Manager and demand side manager, so I'm used to working with engineers, very logic-based people, and like you were saying earlier, people think that you can't be logical and spiritual, and in the jungle, it really became profound to me that they are the exact same thing, that energy is the way to describe how we're feeling, it's high vibes and low vibes, think about everything in our language that talks about our condition of being electric. She lit up when she came in the room... Wow, I was really drained after he came in, or I'm spun up today, I'm off balance with covid everything. So many things in our vocabulary are about the words dealing with electricity, I'm transformed... You know. It goes on.

0:25:48.4 S2: So tell us briefly, a little bit more about what you are doing. And I wanted to mention your book too, because I did just start reading it and you referenced it a couple of times already, and it's called Trust Your Animal Instinct.

0:26:01.4 S1: Right? It is Trust Your Animal Instincts Recharge Your Life And Ignite Your Power, so it's about tapping into your instincts, getting rid of your shoulds and the pressures that are holding you back, and then whatever you find once you tap in, taking the risk to move forward with that and that is a huge thing that holds people back, especially business people, are even in our relationships, it doesn't have to be a business, we don't like to take the risk, but it's really important that we do... Right.

0:26:31.3 S2: We don't wanna take the risk because what if I get hurt? What if it doesn't work out the way I would like it to, or I expect it to? Or... Yeah.

0:26:39.1 S1: What if it hurts? I use the old samurai warrior technique. They used to think about death before battle, they would imagine that they die and they go through that process mentally before they go into battle, so they're free to fight and be free of that, and so I say If you have a decision and you're weighing whether to take the risk or not ask yourself what is the worst thing that happens? And if the answer is something that you still... If you're still excited about going forward, then do it... Stop thinking about it and just do it. And if you think the worst thing that happens is I get fired and you're not willing to take the risk, then don't know.

0:27:18.6 S2: I'd go so far to say, if it doesn't result in physical death, do it right again. What's the worst thing that could happen? Because you make a decision, people get stuck on again, being afraid to make a decision, but almost no decision, there are a couple of decisions that you could make that are irreversible, but 99% of them are maybe not reversible, isn't the right word, but changeable. You make a decision, it turns out not to be what you are expecting, you make a different decision, right, and you move in a different... Down a different path, right?

0:27:55.4 S1: And that's so important, I call it... If you de-couple people's opinion from you, if you call it The Show monster, all that pressure off and say, No, I'm not disappointing my dad with the same disappointing the show monster or my boss or my friend or whatever, and it gives you a different language in a different way to process it... Yeah, what is the worst thing that happens? You fail and you learn. The no’s in life for me have been equally important as the yeses, because you learn what doesn't work and you just go faster, you have to...

0:28:31.6 S2: And you use the word fail, and I would challenge that in terms of... Well, first of all, redefining what is failure, it's just getting to an outcome that wasn't what you wanted or expected, but it's not a judgment, it's...

0:28:46.0 S1: Yeah, I totally agree. And redefining success in addition to failure, this mass exodus of people from the workplace that we're seeing now because people are burnt out, they don't wanna go back to the same hour long commute to sit in a concrete box all day, and you know what they have redefined success and success is about a balance, successes about connection, and it's about well-being, so somewhat with your job, find something that you love, redefining what... Again, what is success for you? Because it's gonna look different for you, then it looks for me, then it looks for 17 other people, everybody has to define it for herself himself, and once you do that, and you kinda have this freedom to say, live your purpose... Purpose is such a big thing. People are always looking for What is my life purpose? And that seems so daunting, but

0:29:42.2 S2: Finding, again, finding the thing that lights you up, to use an energy term.

0:29:47.7 S1: Yeah, and you know what, Lori, I like to say, find a little way point instead of going through life on cruise control trying to find that perfect destination... What is my purpose? Holes, tell me my life purpose it... I can tell you my purpose changes three times before breakfast in the morning, and so find a way point that makes you feel a little better, so maybe you hate your job today, but you really like mentoring the girl that sits across the pipe from you, then start mentoring her once a week, and then maybe twice a week, and then ask your boss if you can mentor others, you see what I'm saying, find these ways that make you happy and to start adding more of them into your life, and what you see happening is you'll see, this purposeful transformation, you're gonna be going from miserable to at least doing more things you like and more things you'd like, and over time you'll find yourself in that state where, Hey, I'm in touch with my intuition, I'm going places, and I'm embracing the journey that's such a fantastic place to stop here, but before we actually stop recording, I gotta ask you about the hype on...

0:30:56.7 S2: That's the song that charges... We'll continue with the energy, what's the song that charges you up when you need... An extra boost of energy.

0:31:05.9 S1: My song would be, I get knocked down, but I get up again. You know, like that's me, and that's what we're talking about, jumbo. Gonna go, Yeah, but just get up and find another way point and just go a little distance further, quit trying to figure out your whole life, it's just gonna stress you out. Just go a little further in a direction that makes you happy.

0:31:27.5 S2: How can my listeners get in touch with you if they want to get a copy of the book, reach out to you, find out more about what you're doing, you connect with you about your journey.

0:31:38.8 S1: I am all over social media, Tabitha-A-Scott, you can go to powering, potential dot com. So Powering with a dash in the middle and the word potential dot com, and it has information about the book and some of the other fun stuff I've been up to.

0:31:55.9 S2: Excellent, and we'll put that in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for joining me today. Tab on fine is a four-letter word.

0:32:03.4 S1: It's been so fun. Thanks for having me.

0:32:05.7 S2: My pleasure.