Core Passion: An interview with Lori Palm and Lori L. Lorenz of the Passion Office

For those who know her, Lori Palm is a “modern day muse,” a woman who inspires passion and possibilities. She’s been there and done that, owning her own business, helping others start theirs.

“I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” she says. “I see business opportunities everywhere. I see them even if they haven’t been created yet.”

Now, years after counseling with others who are stuck, who lack direction and seek possibility, Palm has joined her husband, realtor and numerologist Wes Hamilton, and business consultant and technology strategist Lori Lorenz in offering a more comprehensive solution for those who are looking for direction and purpose in their lives and careers. Built around “passion,” their Passion Office website [www.passionoffice.com] mirrors their real-time offerings, with many tools and technological marketing steps designed to better help a client identify his or her core passion and create a vocation in that image.

While Wes Hamilton was out of the office, consulting with Edge Life on its new affiliate marketing plan in partnership with Passion Office, we took the opportunity to speak to Lori Palm and Lori L. Lorenz about core passion and what they do to help people understand and utilize it in their lives.

What is core passion?
Lori Palm: Core passion is what drives you to do what you do. When you trace that thread back to when you were little and you distill it down to its single-most essence, that core passion hasn’t changed. Our core passions have driven every major decision we make in our life – everything.

We’ve identified 12 unique core passions. Each one has its unique gift and its challenge. Our greatest gift is also our greatest challenge, and the lesson is to learn to balance the gift and the challenge.

We don’t have just one core passion. We’re a composite, and that composite of who we are is what makes each person absolutely unique. There is no one else like you. I believe that when you can understand who you are and what you bring to the world – those unique gifts and that mission – then you no longer see others as competition. You understand that you are the only one who can do whatever it is that you do. When you truly know that, you can begin to collaborate with others. Ultimately, it’s peace, because you don’t see a competition and you see yourself as unique.

So that unique energy that each of us has is a holographic blending of the 12 different core passions?
LP: Exactly. And we come in with it and we’re here to learn the lessons around it. We have an assessment tool to help people identify the top core passions that influence their lives. When you measure it in a linear fashion, it comes out as a graph. Out of the 12 core passions, we really look at and study the top five, which we identify as your top five points of power. Those are where all your hot buttons are. It’s where all your lessons are. It’s what you’re here to learn in this lifetime.

This is what I used to do intuitively, only now we’ve taken those intangible driving forces and made them tangible. We’ve discovered the language to passion. And once you can put words to it, then you can start to talk about it and share it and describe it and use it and activate it. One of the definitions in the dictionary for the word “core” is the place in a nuclear reactor where that most powerful force is created. We have that force within us, and that’s why these are called core passions. We create in alignment with those driving forces. That’s how we create our life.

Why do so many people seem to not know their core passion?
LP: We haven’t had a way to assess this in people. Once they see the core passions that they identify, they always agree, “Yes, that’s who I am.”

Will you give an example of the challenge or gift of a particular core passion?
LP: In each one of these core passions, we identify the gift of it and the challenge of it. Our greatest gift is our greatest challenge.

For instance, one of my top core passions is service. The core passion of service is the counselor, the teacher, the caregiver. It’s about giving, giving, giving. The gift of service is an open heart and much wisdom to give to others. The challenge, or course, of giving, giving, giving is that you can’t receive. It’s very hard to ask for help, because we want to just give and give and give.

What we’re talking about is balance – learning balance in our life, in all giving and receiving. Using the core passion of service, as an example, the heart is the gift and the challenge, only you don’t think they’re connected. You think they are opposites, but in fact, they are the same thing. It’s a breakthrough when you understand that not being able to receive or ask for help is exactly the same as giving, giving, giving. Other challenges of service can be martyrdom, doing for everyone, and judgment, thinking that you know what’s good for other people, but when people don’t do what you think they should do, it’s really easy to judge them. Those appear to be two opposites, but they’re exactly the same energy.

Look at the core passion of power. Power is the CEO, the general, the authority. It’s the gift of being able to manage people, places and things. Power is equated with money. If you think of a Donald Trump, the challenge of power is the acquisition of wealth to exclusion of all else. The challenge also can be a poverty mentality, that you can’t make any money. The task is to learn to use power with compassion, to empower people. Power over others and intimidation can look very different than compassion and empowering others, but they are the same energy.

If you have the challenge, you also have the gift. We just haven’t had words to know that they’re the same thing. Think of it as a continuum. If you just move it over a couple degrees, you can change everything. You can change your whole perspective. If you become aware that these are the same energies, then you can do something about it, but if you don’t have a language it’s hard to change it.

Tell me more about these different core passions. Are there more than 12?
LP: I do not believe so. At first, I thought there was going to be nine, but there had to be 12.
Lori L. Lorenz: Each one is a combination of a symbol and the code, the name.
LP: We’re calling them the codes of core passion. We have like a six-page free intuitive assessment on our website. For this, we say, “Intuitively pick your top five.” Inside, we know who we are, and when you look at all of the core passions, you know which ones resonate with you.
LLL: With the intuitive assessment, clients get pretty close. The complete assessment is more detailed and you clearly see which of the core passions are the most dominant. There’s a lot more information in the assessment. You can also do the evaluation with the Quest Deck.

What sparked the idea to create tools that identify core passion?
LP: About four years ago, I said to the universe, “Okay, I want to make passive and residual income.” When you work for yourself, you only make money when you are working. I was looking for a way to create some passive and residual income. When we ask, the answer appears – and Lori (Lorenz) came into my life. I became the subject of her master’s degree thesis. Out of that came the initial tool of the assessment. What she told me was that she was going to standardize, systematize and computerize me, and “and then we’re going to duplicate you.”
I said, “You can’t duplicate me because I’m unique!”
She said, “But we can duplicate your process.”
This approach is what I had been doing intuitively for years with people, helping them find out what drives them and creating a business around it. That’s been the work. Now we have a tool that helps people understand the process.

So you helped Lori Palm to identify what she was actually doing?
LLL: Right. She has a very intuitive process that we converted into knowledge. By observing what she was doing, and following the structure of the questions she was asking, we got down to the essence. Usually when you make an assessment tool like this that taps essence, that goes into the personality, you do five to 10 years of research, you do thousands and thousands of test cases and studies, just to boil it down to what it needs to be. You start with a haystack and you come down to essence. This process was just the opposite. We started with sacred truth. We started with essence, and it came out of the box reliable and valid.

What’s required from the beginning in order to make this process effective for someone? Just a desire to know more about themselves?
LP: A desire to explore who you are, asking that question, “Who am I? Why am I here? And what I am really supposed to be doing?”

So, in terms of tools, the assessment package is the first step?
LLL: Yes, we have the Passion Portal assessment tool. We also have the Passion Portal Quest Deck, with the the companion book, Essence of the Quest.
LP: The online assessment is measuring how you respond to words. It’s very left brain and linear. You’re reading and answering questions. The Quest Deck is much more right brain. You’re looking at the emotions. We’ve created a symbol for each of these core passions. There are 60 descriptive cards, five for each of the 12 core passions, and each contains symbols and shapes and words describing the gifts of the passion.

This morning I was working with a woman who was sorting the cards, and I told her that when you use the cards, you think you’re just reading the words, but the symbols are talking to you on many different levels. They also contain different directions – north, south, east, west. Those also are talking to you on many levels. Even though you don’t know what it means, your soul does. Playing with the cards is kinesthetic. You’re accessing the information differently than with the assessment. It usually comes out very similar.

What other tools do you offer?
LP: Our newest tool is the affiliate program and the “Get the Word Out” campaign. It’s part of the whole collaborative model. As we move into this new millennium of the 2000s, it’s no longer about the One. This millennium is about the Two. It’s collaboration. One of the ways we can move goods and services is through collaboration. It’s very hard to collaborate when you see everybody else as competition. The underlying work to help people learn to collaborate.
We’re also just launching the Wealth Money Machine.
LLL: The Wealth Money Machine is a way to turn your burning desire into gold. Just like we were talking about core passion, it’s that thermonuclear energy that’s just burning inside you. How do you express it? And how do you express it in your business? The Wealth Money Machine gives you something that’s pre-packaged, ready to go out of the box, and gets you into where the new superhighway is.

It used to be the superhighway was running down main street. People would walk into a store. Now, they’re on the internet. In the future, that’s just more of where they’re going to be. Our Wealth Money Machine comes with an assessment tool that helps you get focused on what you love to do and how to spin your business. When people read your message about your product, it resonates because it’s very authentic about who you are. People can connect to you better and collaborate with you better.

So, the Wealth Money Machine helps people market themselves better or more accurately to their essence.
LP: Yes. It’s part of our system of affiliate marketing. We also have some new products that are coming out, hopefully September 1. I have a seminar called “Market Your Uniqueness,” which talks about those unique essences that are you and creating a language, creating what I call magnets, that you imbed in your marketing so it magnetizes people to you. There will be a CD set and home study course. We also are offering tele-seminars
LLL: And in the “Get the Word Out” campaign, there are all sorts of internet marketing techniques. We went out and tried everything and found out what worked, what didn’t work and we boiled it down again to essence. We boiled it down into a Wealth Money Machine with five parts that work.
LP: What we do is help people find what I call their “unique words of wisdom” that they have to offer the world, and then we help them create products. It’s about creating a business based on who you are and what you’re feeling called to do. We also have a training program to train others who want to learn how to use this in their work – coaches, therapists, counselors, business people – and who want to use these tools.
LLL: Our family of brands helps you to understand this. We have the Passion Office, which kicked everything off. Then we have Today’s Camelot, which is all about making tools for business, essence tools that also work in the corporate environment. Today’s Camelot is all about bringing the human energy into business energy.
LP: Human energy being core passion.
LLL: And it’s all done in a language people understand. It’s about the wealth mindset. It’s helping people receive, as well as give. If you’re in a good position and know that success mindset, now you have more to give. It’s a wonderful win-win. We took the language of passion and business and spun it into the language of success. Now more people can hear it. And the Wealth Money Machine is spinning the message of burning desire in terms of internet marketing and promotion – Getting the Word Out.
LP: The message underneath this all doesn’t change. It’s just how we give it to different markets and how we spin it. A lot of people have a hard time making money because they see it as a conflict in doing their service work. The big “ah-ha” for me in the last year has been that if you really have a message to get out, it takes money to pave the way. You can’t go to the world if you don’t have the money to fund it. Also, it’s okay to make money. There is enough for everybody. It’s about creating the win-win for everybody.

Wealth mastership is really about learning how to create whatever it is you want to create – creating your life, creating your business. The bigger question is, “How do you want to create your life?” because your business should support your life, not the other way around.

There are many factors that might limit success in people, like fear, self-sabotage, even karma. How does the process of core passion and your tools work with those?
LP: Fear and self-sabotage are when you’re in the challenge of your core passion. Karma is a piece of that, as well. I believe we are born with these driving forces, with how we choose to use them and how we choose to live them. We have the choice. Do you want to be in the gift or the challenge?

Each of the 12 core passions has a very unique energy, a different frequency. We say that we’re measuring the frequency of the inner spirit. That’s what this is doing. When you understand the frequencies you’re working with, know that this is what you came in with. It’s a lesson you came in to learn this time. But also know that if you have the challenge, you have to have the gift. Most of us didn’t know that. How we get past the fear and sabotage is to know we have the gift, as well. Once you can put words to it, you can do something about it.

It’s also creating a safe space by taking the smoke and mirrors out of it and shedding the light on it and saying, “Oh, look! It’s just this!” You can shift and it’s only going to take you a couple seconds, but you have to change your mind.

Why is the exploration of wealth a part of what you do?
LP: Because wealth, in the broader sense, is in all areas of your life. It isn’t just wealth of money. Mastership is learning how to create wealth in all areas of your life. In my work with people, they think they’re coming because of their business, but we end up working on their whole life. Do you know that bringing in a relationship and bringing in more money is the same process? Bringing in a relationship is no different than bringing in a client. It’s about getting clear about what you want. It’s about living the life that you want to live. So what do you want? What do you really want?” Most people don’t know. Most of us have not even allowed ourselves to think about what we might want, because for whatever reason we don’t feel like we deserve it. We just have not allowed ourselves to go there. We don’t think we have any control over it.

Our message is, “You’re creating your life all the time. Why not create it consciously?”

I can see how you could successfully accomplish your most dominant core passions in a wide variety of different business settings.
LP: That’s part of the message we’re taking into corporate America. When you allow people to stay in alignment with what drives them, they don’t necessarily have to change jobs, but they have to be motivated and be able to work with what’s driving them.

Wes (Hamilton) has had his real estate company for years, but he thought he wanted to do his spiritual work – his meditation, his numerology. Once he saw that he could do all the things that he is feeling called to do in real estate, he had a whole new perspective of his work. Now he buys and sells magical kingdoms and he gets to use all his spiritual language and his numerology with his clients. He didn’t have to change careers! He got to still do what he loves. He just shifted how he did it.

Sometimes it’s about going back into a market that you never thought you wanted to see again, because it was so awful. But you go back in differently. It isn’t as much “What are you going to do with it?” as “How do you want to live it?”

For more information on Core Passion or the Passion Office, visit www.PassionOffice.com