Are you Alpha or Beta? - Paige Zinn (Principal - Jennings & Company)

Paige Zinn is the Principal/Owner of Jennings, a healthcare marketing firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For the past year, Paige has been reading a book called Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. The book is meant to be a daily read and it provides basic reminders of ways to live your life. One of these reminders has been particularly impactful for Paige and it is that reminder that she shares with us in her Paper Napkin Wisdom. In her Paper Napkin Wisdom, Paige says: “Make the everyday sacred.” She says that this could also be phrased as “Make the ordinary sacred.” This idea is one that really stuck Paige when she first came across it because she realized she never did that. For the past year, Paige has made it her mission to try and live up to this goal; it’s something she thinks about every morning. Paige says that she’s a notorious Beta mode person; meaning that she’s often multitasking and taking things off her ‘To Do’ list without really being present or putting much thought behind her actions. Paige says that she was moving through both her professional and personal life this way until she realized she was missing out on life. Life, she says, is in the details. She now makes a constant and consistent effort to remember to stay in Alpha mode; Alpha mode is where the real thinking, listening, and attention to life occurs. Paige is the first to point out that she’s not always successful in putting herself in Alpha Mode, but she’s making progress. Alpha mode, she says, is about being 100% present, no matter what you’re doing. Whether you’re talking to an employee or coworker, or simply writing a grocery list, if you’re 100% present in that moment, you’re in Alpha mode. It’s a state of mind. It isn’t about what you’re doing; it’s about how you’re doing it. Operating in Alpha mode has caused Paige to shift from concentrating on getting her list done to ensuring that she feels good about everything she accomplishes because she’s completely present in that moment. It’s not the big moments in our life that define us, she says, it’s how we act and react to the smaller events. This is something she believes at a visceral level and she’s incorporated it into how she works with her team at Jennings. Before shifting her perspective, Paige said she was standoffish and aloof at work, but she’s working to change that and change the way she moves through life. She’s found it really rewarding and says that it feels like what she should be doing. Like her fellow Paper Napkin Guest, Michael Caito, Paige speaks about the importance of ritual to maintaining these life changes. Before her feet hit the floor in the morning, she says a prayer for what she’s thankful for and does the same thing before she falls asleep. Through these rituals, Paige sets aside time each day to do something that’s important to her. It’s a great way to start the morning and she’s found that it sets the tone for the rest of the day. I personally found this conversation with Paige particularly impactful. I think it ties in really well to the place where I got the inspiration for Paper Napkin Wisdom. Like Paige, I tried to take time each day to read and write good thoughts, but I found it difficult to find things to read that really inspired me. When I found myself in conversation with fellow entrepreneurs, I often ended up jotting down things they’d said or things that had struck me on paper napkins so I could use them for that reading time in my day. It was through going through that process that I discovered the power of a paper napkin and decided to do my part, to share that power with all of you. I hope that it is, and continues to be, as impactful a journey for you as it is for me. Listen to the conversation with Paige here: