Curiosity Can Help Unlock Your Potential
Would you consider yourself a naturally curious person? As children, curiosity is the name of the game, but somewhere along the way, we lose that ever-present urge to know more about everything. Molly Fletcher, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and host of the podcast Game Changers with Molly Fletcher, shares how remaining curious has helped her unlock the career she has today, and how it can help you do the same.
You can listen to more of our conversation with Molly on our podcast, Work, Love, Pray! Listen below or click here to find your preferred listening platform.
You get the chance to interview a lot of just incredible people on your podcast, Game Changers with Molly Fletcher. If you think back through your past guests, who would you categorize as a limitless learner?
That would be an unbelievably long list, to be honest! The first person that comes to mind is Joe Gebbia, the founder of Airbnb, who navigated some pretty severe roadblocks as he was developing Airbnb. Another person that I would say is a limitless learner is Priyanka Jonas who had a remarkable journey as an actor and coming over to America. Some others that I would add to the list:
My list could go on and on, because I really can’t think of a conversation out of the more than 200 episodes that we’ve done where my guest has not been an individual that has a mindset and a belief system hardwired in curiosity, that linchpin for growth.
Curiosity is one of the largest and purest gateways to learning. Do you agree?
100%! Curiosity is a key gateway. When we consider the way that our children are educated today, it’s important that we continue to inspire them to push the limits., right? Children should be comfortable with asking questions and wanting to understand why things are the way they are. As parents, leaders, and teachers, we have to ensure that young people get out into the world and recognize that there’s an opportunity to really push the limits of their own possibility. Think outside of the box and challenge the status quo as a vehicle to fulfillment and pursuing their gifts and what they want most in life. For our three daughters, my husband and I always wanted to make sure that our girls felt safe asking lots of questions and were supported outside of the home in being curious.
Do you think lifelong learners have continued to tap into that childhood curiosity?
They have and to me, holding onto that curiosity makes life exciting and interesting. It was absolutely fascinating for me to spend an hour and a half listening to the gentleman working on our floors share his story about his journey to this country and how he did what he did. Curiosity is just a more interesting way to live life anyway, regardless of the ability for it to drive connection for us to learn and grow and have a sense of another person’s view into the world. It’s just more fun!
How has curiosity helped you in your career?
It’s helped me in enormous ways. I’m so grateful that my parents encouraged curiosity in me. As a sports agent, curiosity was incredibly important because it drove my ability to get inside of the head and heart of the athletes and coaches that I wanted to sign. I had to be curious about the gaps in their life, and be curious about and anticipate the things that they maybe hadn’t thought about yet. I had to be curious about the key moments in those athletes’ lives and how I could show up in those moments and add value.
Curiosity was imperative for me to be able to just show up side-by-side these folks and have a conversation that could create an opportunity for connection. To me, curiosity is kind of a secret weapon to help me act like I have the business before I have the business. When you’re curious about the gaps in the lives of the people that you want to serve or lead, you can identify those gaps and close them—sometimes before they even see them!
I think curiosity really unlocked the career that I’m in now, relative to speaking and our training company. Through curiosity, I began to see, in many ways, the common denominator between a coach, a big league guy, a tour player, a broadcaster, or a hall of fame rocker. They did different things, but the way they showed up in the world was very similar. Matt Kuchar and John Smoltz are more similar than different, right? I began to see that these top performers approach life in a very similar way. As I made these observations, I thought, “I’ve got a book in this. There’s something here that could help other people.” I’ve been blessed with this unique lens that I think can help others, so I wrote a book in the spirit of doing that, which began a domino effect that led to speaking, writing, training, and all of the things that we do in the world now.
Is there anything that you wish you had been more curious about?
I was a good student in high school, but not a great one. School was always hard for me, and I had to work pretty hard in school, which I liked to do, thankfully. I ended up performing really well in college, academically, but I still had to work hard to do it. I graduated with a communications degree, but I think the thing I wish I was a little bit more curious about earlier in my career was the nuance of business—the operational side of any business, or the financial side of a healthy business.
I don’t have an M.B.A, and I think that if I could rewind the tape, understanding and consuming more of that business-side of content would have been a helpful thing for me. Now, I’m grateful to be in an organization called YPO and have unbelievable folks that I lean into that have really been my “M.B.A” and helped me learn a lot of things. Also, my husband is a finance guy and closes that gap for me and supports me relative to his knowledge. But in my 20s and 30s, I wish I’d been a little bit more curious about all of the things that you need to learn relative to business, operations, finance, and all of the important verticals inside of an organization.
Hailed as the “female Jerry Maguire” by CNN, Molly Fletcher made a name for herself as one of the first female sports agents. During her almost two-decade career as President of CSE, Molly negotiated over $500 million in contracts and represented over 300 of sports’ biggest names, including Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, PGA TOUR golfer Matt Kuchar, broadcaster Erin Andrews and basketball championship coaches Tom Izzo and Doc Rivers.
As a World’s Top 50 Keynote Speaker, she delivers her inspiring message to audiences around the world. She is the author of five books, including The Energy Clock and Fearless at Work, and her latest TED Talk, “Secrets of a Champion Mindset,” has more than one million views.
Molly is the founder and host of the Game Changers with Molly Fletcher podcast, where she interviews experts and celebrities in every field including Arthur Blank, Dabo Swinney, John Mackey, Matthew McConaughey, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Simon Sinek.
Molly recently launched her first on-demand course, Up Your Game, to help people unlock their drive and up their game. Her company Game Changer Performance Group helps clients unlock peak performance through training experiences on Energy, Negotiation and High Impact.