What if your next chapter isn’t “one job” – but a mix of things you actually care about that together add up to your income and identity?
In this episode of the ReInvention Podcast, Todd Jason and Chris Thide break down the rise of portfolio careers – designing work around multiple income streams instead of a single, traditional role. They talk honestly about why the old “one job, one ladder” model is breaking down, and why now is the perfect moment to start experimenting with new ways to make money.
You’ll hear real stories from their clients and community: former executives turning skills into fractional work, consultants, coaches, creators, and people testing small experiments on the side before they leap. This is not just theory. It’s a practical roadmap for reinventing your career in a world of AI, burnout, and massive change.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What a portfolio career actually is (and what it isn’t)
- How to start making a little bit of money in new ways without blowing up your life
- Why your existing skills are way more transferable than you think
- Smart ways to use your network without feeling salesy or weird
- How to handle the emotional side of reinvention when people don’t “get” what you’re doing
- Why creative projects and “non-money” experiments often lead to real opportunities
- The mindset shift from “I need one perfect job” to “I’m the CEO of my own future”
If you’re burned out, bored, or just know you’re meant for more than another decade of scrolling job boards, this conversation will help you see new options and give you permission to start small but real experiments now.
Subscribe to the ReInvention Podcast for 2 conversations per week providing tools + real talk about designing the future of your work and life.
Episode Transcript
Chris: We all have thousands of transferable skills, and most of us are tapping into such a small fraction of those skills All right, Todd, what is top of mind today? What are we gonna be yapping about today my man?
Todd: Well, we’re talking about portfolio careers, and I think this is a term that’s going to get much bigger over the coming year or two because this idea that as we are looking out into the future of our careers and reinventing, which is of what we specialize in, this notion of looking at things with more of an open mind and saying, how can I make money? How can I create new streams of revenue or even additional streams of revenue to what I’m doing or what I’ve done in the past? Is very, very important, our whole pitch when it comes to reinvention is this notion that yes, times can feel stressful. Like this notion of AI coming in and industries changing, or even if you’re just incredibly burned out from your career and you’re in that mid part of your life and thinking, well, what am I gonna do for the next 20, 30 years?
Portfolio careers is something that we really want you to turn into. Okay? So today we’re gonna explore the definition of portfolio careers, like what does that actually mean? And also we’re gonna help you identify. Are you the kind of person that can succeed that way?
Right? Because it’s really not for everybody. And we’re gonna go into that a little bit. And then we’re gonna talk about some tactics about, well, how can you start to explore and experiment with this idea of making money in different ways and building a career that may be different than what you came from before?
We have a lot of people in our community doing that. Chris, this whole thing starts with being open-minded, right? And really as always, start with the belief set of what can I do for the future?
Chris: Yeah. And I love the, the feedback loop of belief and evidence is something we talk about a lot, right? And I’ll speak from my own perspective that I spent a lot of my life not believing certain things were possible because I wasn’t seeing evidence of them, right? I thought of myself very left brain, very scientific, that sort of concept.
Well, if I’m doing something day in and day out, that isn’t what I want to do and I’m not giving myself the chance to take some experiments and try some new things, where am I gonna get the evidence to support the belief? So there is this concept of starting with belief. Starting with belief that it’s possible, and specifically when we talk about portfolio careers, something that you love to say, Todd, is
it’s making a tiny little bit of money in different ways. Like I know that I’ve made a stupidly small amount of money on Substack, and I believe you’ve made a stupidly small amount of money on TikTok.
Todd: That’s right.
Chris: Those are elements of evidence showing us, oh, this is a channel in which I can make money, and in this realm of portfolio careers, which maybe we should take a second to define that term just in case it isn’t self-explanatory to everyone,
it’s the idea of rather than having one job, that you have three or four, maybe two or three different things that you’re doing, that you’re making money from that cobbled together to be your income. And you know, for us it’s one-on-one coaching and group coaching. And you know, this podcast, when we get sponsored by Squarespace in six months, we don’t even use Squarespace, but they’re sponsor That’s how good this content is. , But that’s what we mean by portfolio career is maybe having multiple things that you’re doing that add up to your income and to what you’re doing for work and in life. You’re only gonna get there through experimentation and you have to start with belief because you don’t have the evidence that it exists until you start trying and playing around a little bit.
Todd: I mean, I’ve seen this so many times when people come to me in this process of career reinvention and I say this, I’m like, all right, I want you to start thinking. With more of an open mind about the things that you could do. Right, and we always start with clarity. I always start there.
You start there. I mean like just dreaming big, right? Reinvention is an opportunity to dream big again, because I believe that even though at times can seem tough, and this is a stressful moment for a lot of people that are reinventing, it’s also like that opportunity of what if I could create a future for myself and a career for myself that I’m actually really excited about?
You know, that’s long-term and sustainable and wow, I could even make not only replacement money, but more money doing that, right? So if you’re in some form of reinvention mindset right now, that’s what our podcast is about. And this notion right now of starting to look at multiple streams of revenue.
you mentioned, making some money, on TikTok, right? I’ve earned like a whole dollar 25, but like, it counts, right? I don’t make money doing this. But point is, is that I can scale that eventually, like if I wanted to. It doesn’t mean that everything that you do to make money is what you need to be doing. But the point is, is to be open-minded right now and to start experimenting with different ways to make money. And what I was saying before is that I’ve seen this so many times that when people start on this path and they take this advice and like, all right, like what could I do?
Ideas are there. I’ve seen people that were corporate CEOs start baking businesses. I had a client from a couple years ago, literally start a bowling alley in his hometown. That has blown up, no joke. They are, I think, in the process of franchising, and it was just more of, let me try this. Let me get into action and let me do a bunch of things. If you’re in that kind of earlier stage of reinvention where you don’t know what to do, this is the moment to be curious. This is the moment to be an experimenter. This is a moment to be open-minded, and I love doing it with this idea of where can I make a little bit of money here and there and just start experimenting so I can see.
And get some data about what the world needs and what the world wants and what I could potentially do that’s reinvention. And so not everybody is gonna be a portfolio career person. But what I’ll tell you and Chris, I dunno if you found this, is that when people start doing this, they get self aware.
It raises self-awareness. Around what kind of person, what kind of worker, what kind of profession or what is my relationship with my professional life that really allows me to thrive? Because some people find that they can do very well with having two or three main sources of income, and that’s often surprising for them.
Some people find that actually I’m the kind of person that does better with having one thing that I need to focus on and grind in. I just need to find what that next new thing is so that way I can blow it up. But that’s why this matters, because when you’re starting to experiment, you start to learn and that self-awareness is the gold because then you can start to make really good decisions that will get you to that success faster.
Chris: I think that what you happen to be doing doesn’t necessarily have any connection to what you want to do or what you could be doing. And I’m not even talking about the content of the work. I’m talking about, if you happen to be a person who has the one traditional job and you sit there and you do that.
You maybe never even explored, maybe you’re 40 years old, you never explored the possibility of having multiple things and putting together a portfolio career. You know, it goes both ways too. I mean, there’s probably people who have, maybe they’re freelancers, they’ve cobbled together a bunch of things.
I’ve heard this story too, where people end up going into a more structured traditional, call it employment environment, and they’re like, oh, this is great. There’s trade-offs around all these things, right? I mean, there’s a lot of stuff that you outsource when you’re in a structured environment that you then, if you’re a solo entrepreneur or hanging your own shingle or a freelancer, you gotta do all these jobs, right?
So there’s always a balance. But the bigger picture takeaway on this is I think that w e owe it to ourselves to experiment a little bit with this and to give ourselves an option, which, this is maybe even a bigger picture reinvention concept than simply talking about portfolio careers, but just the idea that end up on a track at some point and you end up in a place in your life and you maybe didn’t really make a conscious decision as to how you got there and whether that was the right thing for you. And so you have the right, we all have the right to experiment, to step back, to zoom out, and to take a look and say, well, maybe there’s a different way. Maybe it doesn’t have to be just like this. And I’ll add to that, that. The stakes are very low in the beginning for this, right?
Especially again, if you have your current job or role or whatever it is you have and you try some little thing that you experiment with and that you maybe you wanna make a little money with, maybe you wanna do some pro bono free work around this, but what is the worst that happens if that fails?
You learn a little something about yourself, you had the courage to experiment I think that’s the thing that a lot of people get caught up in is acting like the stakes are so high around this. This is why I can’t step off this path. And it’s like, stay on the path, but just try a little experiment on the side.
Todd: So well said. I think this is what stops people is the old trajectory of their previous identity that has been set up over years of understanding and just data and like life path how I made money and how I earn money, right? And so now we’re in this point where a lot of our clients, right, they’re midlife and things are up in the air, right?
Either burned out, been shown the door or their industry is changing, or work is changing, and now it’s like, okay, what do I do? And so the first immediate response is, let me replace that job. Let me go onto LinkedIn and scour LinkedIn. I can’t tell you Chris, how many people come to me and they’re like, I can’t go on LinkedIn any longer.
This is just done. That’s why this reinvention concept is needed right now. Okay? It’s just a needed thing. And it really starts with that internal orientation, like letting go for a moment. It’s like a moment to breathe and be like, okay, what these guys are saying is right.
There’s truth here. Let me breathe for a minute. I don’t need to like make decisions right now that are gonna completely reinvent and change my whole trajectory. That may happen or it may not. I don’t know. But I do need to stop for a minute. Take a breath. And start playing a game with myself.
Okay? I need to start experimenting with different ideas now for a lot of people. The way that we tactically recommend to do this is it doesn’t always mean that you completely run away from what you did before, right? I think that is often a mistake that people make when they come into a conversation around reinvention.
They think, okay, well now you want me to be an author? Well, maybe, but that’s something that you can explore. But you already have a lot of skills and experience doing something, and I think the first step is to take an honest inventory and assessment of what you’ve learned over these last 10, 15, 20 years of your career.
What are the things that you’ve been really good at? And when you do this, you often find that it’s not just the actual job. Like we have somebody in our community that’s an engineer, designing like brain instruments, right? Like, so obviously really smart. But guess what, when we talk to him, he’s also learnt a lot about marketing.
He also learns about how to run a business, you know, from his business unit. He also learns a lot about how to manage a team and communicate. Take assessment of the things that you’ve been really good at and mastered in your career, and start to understand that these soft skills can be used for different outlets.
That’s reinvention. That’s how you start to build a portfolio career. I tell people this all the time, Chris, you have way more skill and talent that you’ve developed than you realize. You’re not so in the weeds here. And so that’s why that open-minded thing and actually saying, yeah, okay, you’re right.
How do I now start to think about different ways to apply these skills so that way I can find my reinvented career?
Chris: I think for this concept too, if it helps people to think of it this way, like the person who otherwise would be scouring for their next job on LinkedIn. When you go find that next job and it has 80% of your skills that are on your resume and your LinkedIn profile, but 20% you don’t have, what do you do?
You don’t just like punt on those 20%. You go back into your mind. You scour your career. You think about all the things you ever did that were like a little bit off piece or whatever they were, and then you write new bullets on your resume and your LinkedIn profile, and you think about how they match to that 20% that you otherwise don’t have covered.
You can do the same thing in these new non-traditional portfolio career elements or whatever it is that you’re exploring, because we all have thousands of transferable skills, if you wanna call them. And most of us are tapping into such a small fraction of those skills, you I wanna pick on LinkedIn.
It’ll, it’ll take us off topic, so I won’t go too deep on LinkedIn. I do see people post on LinkedIn where they’re like, I am so excited to announce that I am the head of corporate compliance for Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. And I’m you’re so excited. That’s so exciting.
Like it’s okay. It’s fine. But I think the thing is, is that it’s this mentality of when people are looking for their next job, they start from LinkedIn or Indeed or one of these job sites, and they’re looking at what’s available. They’re not looking inside themselves as to what they want and what they could do.
And so they get into that loop of just trying to fit into these listings that they see and I think we’re trying to open their mind to think from the inside out as opposed to the outside in.
Todd: Well not only that, if we’re gonna be really just flat out, honest right now, because I’ve worked with a lot of people who have scoured LinkedIn, got that next job. Okay, well now I’m the corporate of development for Dunder Mifflin. They got the next job, but guess what? Six months or a year later, they’re in the same boat.
This is like what’s happening right now. This is really the reality. That the world really is changing, the future of work is changing dramatically. And so people need to be smart and start thinking about reinvention and portfolio careers. When we talk about. Taking your previous skills, right, and doing some fractional work.
A lot of people are now doing fractional work, right? Which means that they’re consulting or they’re even coaching, or they’re starting to take what they did before, but doing it from the outside. We have a lot of clients that go back to their company that they were either let go of or you know, left and start offering services to that company.
That’s really smart. I have a former client, I think I mentioned on another episode that went back to his company and started offering workshops, and all of a sudden he’s now the talent coming in to that company, offering a series of workshops based on what he found. It’s just a creative way to think about what services you can provide and to whom, you know, it’s a very good way to think about it.
Another thing, and we’re doing this, we’re modeling this, and by the way, like if you follow us along, like Chris and I are modeling reinvention, this is all new for me, but we believe in this and so we’re, we are now reinventing ourselves to take a stand for something that we believe in.
And when you start to take that breather, right, and give yourself permission to think, you realize that there’s a lot of people out there that need your help. That need your assistance. This is why fractional work or consulting work or even coaching work is going to grow leaps and bounds. Mark my words on this.
I know it feels like it’s blown out that everyone’s a coach, everyone’s a consultant. Uhuh,
Chris: So many coaches.
Todd: There’s so many, like, I get it. And guess what? A lot of people are doing well in it. It’s gonna grow more and more it’s spreading out right now. And so what you wanna look at in reinvention to get even a little bit more tactical as an option is what service can I provide to people in my life where I have done something that can help others and can I start to make a little bit of money doing that thing? This is a very good way to think about a portfolio career, right? It’s not, oh, I’m gonna go write a book, which I’ve never done. I’m actually using what I did.
And that’s just one option, right? It’s just one way to think about it.
Chris: I don’t think I ever told you this, Todd, but my first. gig out of being in corporate. When I first decided to run an experiment and say, let me sell some consulting, was to a person who I used to work with she had changed firms and we had worked together. Whew. It was 20 prior to that.
Right. We had a good working relationship. We worked together and I found out, I saw, I think on LinkedIn or something that she’d joined a new firm and I learned a little bit about them, and I had technology procurement background and I said, oh, they have to buy a lot of stuff. Let me just open that conversation so I say that as an example too for latching onto what you were just talking I think some people will say, well, I’ve been in the same role forever. I don’t have the network to do this. I don’t have the network to hang my own shingle. It’s like, really? haven’t worked with thousands of people over the years that all are in new places your network is probably way beyond the scope of what you could even imagine. We just talked about coaching and how there’s all these coaches out there. There’s a coachee element here that I want to tap into, which is there are bear traps of limiting beliefs throughout this whole thing.
All these elements of you telling yourself. I don’t have the network, I don’t have the skills. I’ve been doing this one thing, there’s nothing else I can do. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. I think that’s the thing is it’s run the experiment and get some experimental data before you tell yourself it’s an impossibility, because I think you’re gonna be very surprised at how many opportunities and possibilities you have on a networking perspective from a skills perspective type of work you can do, especially when the stakes are low and you wanna run a little experiment and try something new.
Todd: And I gotta tell you, like you told me something just now that you know, you never told me before. I’m gonna tell you something. Okay? So I love when you talk about your career technology procurement. I have no idea what that means.
Chris: It’s so boring.
Todd: Your previous job is so perfect for what we’re doing.
Right. Because it’s one of the, it’s like Chandler being from friends, no one really knows what Chandler does.
It’s a little bit similar, but I love that, that you’re now reinventing and doing this podcast, like going out there and doing your thing because it’s so relevant, right?
It’s so different than I would imagine technology procurement
Chris: You can’t say the word, you’re like, procurement.
Todd: I dunno. I’m gonna look it up. But the point is, is that what you’re saying is, is really wise, right?
And so, as you’re going out there, you have these skills and you talked about your network, and I think this is the thing that people are scared of. And we’re gonna do episodes on this. If you love what we’re talking about, subscribe to our podcast. We are literally going to slice and dice how to reinvent your career and how to reinvent yourself in like a thousand different ways.
Chris and I can talk about this and give really good advice and tactics and tools like all day long. That’s why we’re doing this, okay? So make sure that you like follow us along. But this idea of your network, this is a moment in time to be really smart. To breathe and sit. Look at my LinkedIn, look at my Instagram, look at my email list.
Look at my text thread, like who do I have in my network? Who are these people? And as you start thinking about these different experiments that you may run, what can you do and how can you be smart about reaching out to people and having interesting conversations with them reaching out and talking to people.
Guys, this is where the action happens. I can’t tell you how strong it is and how powerful it is. To start using your network, and I hate to say using, but being smart about your network, having these conversations in smart ways and finding ways to do this. And this is really deep stuff because this is like where humans get stuck.
I’m gonna share a secret here. And we’re watching this in our community right now where people have these networks and they’re listening to what we’re saying. But then they’re scared to reach out because it feels weird or they feel insecure. They wanna shield themselves from this vulnerable place that they’re in of having to reinvent their career because their previous identity was so dialed into something.
And at a dinner party and at a family function, they could say so clearly what they did, right? And now they don’t have that and they feel naked. And now they’re like exploring a couple of new things. And what I tell people is, fine. I’m not telling you not to feel that way. It’s a very normal way to feel, to feel a little bit insecure, a little bit vulnerable, but it’s also a solvable problem. As you’re looking at your network develop language that makes you feel good about exploring, there’s ways that you can use language to actually explore your potential reinvention that will get you the data that you need that will open up doorways and create synchronicities and coincidences that are beyond what you could think of happen.
And where you retain your confidence, right? Where you actually don’t feel weird or bad about how you’re sharing. And this is such an important piece to this because a lot of what holds people back from using their network is this insecurity around, uh, like, you did this, right? When you went out and started coaching, you sent out an email to what, 50, 60 people you probably felt that, but you went ahead and did it. And you always say to me, oh, I wish I would’ve known about the reinvention, tennis, ’cause I would’ve done that, knowing that it’s part of a system.
Chris: I remember sending out that message, so it’s really funny ‘ the way I describe it is true, right? I drafted the email, I think I sent it like 45 people or something, to start drafted the email. And it took me like a week to actually send it. Every morning I’d log in and I’d look at it and be like, is today gonna be the day? And then I finally sent it and, you know, what happened? First of all, I was asking for pro bono coaching clients, right? So I ended up getting like 10 pro bono coaching clients out of it. One or two of them converted to paid clients.
Out of that. A bunch of people replied and said, this is so awesome. Like, this is so cool. You’re gonna be great at this. All that stuff. And then a bunch of people didn’t reply and maybe those people laughed and laughed and laughed at how silly I was or whatever it was. I don’t know. Or maybe they just didn’t reply to their email or who cares?
And I think that’s the thing. We’re so obsessed as people with that last group, those 10 out of 40 or whatever it is that are like judging us. We think we project that they’re judging us or whatever. We let them control our lives, our projection of them. We let them hold us back from the thing we wanna try or the conversation we wanna have.
I mean, I have talked about this in another episode, but I will go there for a minute where it’s like, I have had conversations with people where I say, oh, I’m a coach. I help people reinvent their career. And some people will grill me. And they’re like, what does that mean? What do you help them do?
How do you help them? You know, blah, blah, blah. the skepticism is just emanating off of them, like it’s coming out of their pores. Right? And at first I would turn that inward and be like, oh, well maybe, this isn’t a thing. I don’t know.
I had to develop my confidence around it over time from actually working with clients and doing it and experimenting and growing and figuring out exactly what it is. I’ve noticed that the people who have that reaction, it’s grounded in their own insecurity or
usually it’s people who hate their jobs and wish that they could change and quit and like when they see someone doing it, there’s an envy there. I’m not you know, people are, are envying me, but I’m just saying you never hear that from someone who’s passionate about their work.
Todd: No, what you’re saying is so true, right? When people get the confidence to reinvent, right? And they go out there, right? And this is what we’re fueling people to do, right? We are literally fuel for you to go out and experiment with your career and your life. That is the purpose of this.
And you’re gonna go out into the world and you’re gonna have to have conversations with people that you know, people that you don’t know. Use your network as we’re talking about today, and start to look at these different potential portfolio careers and you’re gonna get feedback. And some of that feedback is gonna be, as you said, like negative or questioning.
And the truth is, the people that are most scared of what you’re doing are actually jealous. This is what I found. This is 20 years of coaching. ‘Cause they’re stuck and they don’t really know how to get out of it, and they’re looking at you like, oh my God, you’re breaking free, you’re getting out of prison.
I’m still in prison. Like, why are you getting outta prison? This is actually what’s going on. That you’ve gotta blaze the pathway, and that’s why it’s also really important to find others who are reinventing. That’s why we built a community around this because it is a mindset to explore portfolio careers.
It is a mindset to start making money in different ways, to put out a shingle and do some fractional work and start a consulting. I mean, look, we had somebody yesterday in our community show, two people show us their new websites. It’s a big deal for them to all a sudden have a website, you know, and be like, all right, I’m putting this out there.
You could just feel the nerves. And they wanted feedback for both people that did it, right?
I’m smiling ’cause I’m like, you guys are so on the right path. ’cause you’re taking action and you’re fighting against the stream to create new pathways for your work, for your money making. And your dreams can come true right now. If you just keep going, then that’s why you gotta be surrounded by people who are in the same boat.
’cause you’re not always gonna get the support. Right Chris? You’re gonna have naysayers. Even people close to you, maybe even more so people close to you. Right.
Chris: Can we be indulgent for a moment and just talk about how great it feels for us? I’ll speak for myself, but I know that you feel this way too when in our community, which is, again, it’s people who are going through reinvention, so it is a safe space, if you wanna look at it that way you can talk about your weird, new, different idea because you’re with people who don’t have a preconceived notion of who you are and what you do, and they’re all in their version of it.
So they’re open-minded about it. Like, let’s go, let’s experiment. But for those two people you mentioned. For me sitting here and seeing over literally the past several weeks, the germ of an idea or this thing that I might be exploring. This is one of three or four or five things I’m doing.
Turn into, yeah, I think I’m gonna actually do something with this. Yeah. I’m gathering some information. Oh, now I’ve got a website. Obviously these things are iterative and we spent. Time with both of those people talking about how we might do some different things with their website, et cetera.
But it’s so satisfying for me to even just be a part of or see from nothing came something, and now they’ve got this real thing out in the world we know in a couple of months if they keep going down this path, we’re gonna get to hear about their first clients it’s so cool.
Todd: We’re really helping people break out of old identities and old trajectories that aren’t working any longer. And let’s be honest, like pounding a square peg through a round hole. To try to recreate the career that they had because it’s safety and security and it may not be there.
There’s a real fear here that people have of like, oh my God, what am I gonna do? And what we’re saying is, this is opportunity and let’s get rid of that fear and start reinventing now. Let’s do this very thing. And then, you know, the last thing I wanna share, Chris, on this topic of portfolio careers, and we talk a lot about kind of fractional work, consulting work, like using your skills.
But this is also a great time, a moment in your life where think of a project that’s purely creative that doesn’t have any money associated with it. We keep poo-pooing, like writing your book, but no, write your book this is a time to take a creative project and spend some time doing it.
You never know where this is gonna go. Not everything that you’re doing reinvention wise. Has to be about making money, or finding these multiple streams of income. What I tell all the people around me is also spend some time working on some projects that are just purely creative that give you joy.
For one of my clients, it’s doing a bunch of volunteer work in their community, right? And so it’s like, get more involved with that volunteer organization. See if you can help out. You just never know. Where the chips are gonna fall. This is going back to what we first talked about, being open-minded.
Which is just a core belief and necessity for people that are reinventing their careers. Like get involved in your community. Like do things that are fun and interesting to you, not because you need to make money, but sliver out some time to do these different activities and wear an open mind that you never know where the opportunities might strike.
This is where the most successful people, this is how they walk around. They walk around always with, I’m open-minded, I’m exploring, I’m doing things that I like, and when I see an opportunity, I go and I strike and I make it happen. That’s reinvention. And so I think that it’s not always about, just tactically thinking about your network and tactically thinking about your potential fractional work and the website that you can build.
Yes, like we do that, but just segment some time to the more creative outlets. To the more creative pursuits. Really important. I found a lot of people just find magic brother, like when they do that unexpected things happen when they take that advice. I would be. remise not to mention that
Chris: This doesn’t have to be a project that you’re like, with attachment, you must have outcome of this. I think it’s almost more just like opening the idea of honoring the more creative part of yourself, or even just following things that you find interesting and attractive and putting yourself in that spot.
Not that everything has to result in an outcome or a client, for instance, for me, I hadn’t even thought about this when we were prepping for this episode, a couple years ago I billion an oyster project in New York City. They’re reseeding oyster shells into the harbor to clean up the water.
It’s this amazing project and I just started volunteering with that and had a conversation with someone else who was volunteering and we’re chatting, and I ended up getting a client out of it. It was one of those things, like I didn’t go there to get a client, but it was just following an interest, something I hadn’t done.
I was always kind of like, well now that I am not in a corporate role where I have to be somewhere nine to five every day, let me try something interesting on a Tuesday. And I went and did that and so it’s just things like that where it’s given yourself a little space to follow something new that just pulls you, draws you.
In terms of the creativity element, I do think that that’s an underutilized or under honored part of our brains and souls and personalities, especially a lot of times when you’re in a very structured nine to five the corporate box as I like to say it. And so I think even just putting yourself into that creative mode and giving yourself some space to explore something new or a little weird or whatever it is, it actually just puts your brain in a different framework.
And a lot of times I’ll find that after doing something more creative, writing, music, whatever it is. The problem solving machine got distracted and it kind of comes up with an answer on something, right? So again, not with the attachment of, I’m always gonna get an answer like I not like I go to play the piano in order to solve an equation.
But it is one of those things where it does tend to happen that rather than banging your head against the wall over and over again, you give yourself the space to explore and expand. And actually, lo and behold, you get some great results from that almost accidentally.
Todd: There is some science to this as well getting into creative mode and what that actually does to you in other areas of your life. And when people come into the notion of reinvention, there’s a lot of, I need to reinvent my career. Oh my God, what am I gonna do? Money’s at stake.
Life’s at stake, lifestyle’s at all. That’s at stake. And it’s like we get it and we’re gonna give you a framework by which you can explore these things. And part of that is to explore creative endeavors. For your soul, for your mind, like, look, this life is short. You know, this life is seriously really short.
So you wanna be able to give yourself that space and look like I just sent an email out to somebody that I interviewed last year, Bill Burnett, he works at Stanford University. He runs the Designing Your Life Institute at Stanford. He’s got a New York Times bestselling book. We’re gonna get him here on our podcast ’cause he’s awesome.
And he talks a lot about what we’re talking about, from a lot of like research science backed stuff. And he says something interesting, that I wanna, we wanna leave you with today. He’s at Stanford, right? Like the creme de la creme of engineering science, in a lot of ways.
And he’s going to the departments, you know, to the students in the PhD programs and undergrad and saying, ringing the bell saying, guys, get out. There is no future in mathematics or engineering. This is the first thing that AI will eventually overtake. And so I said to him well, that must cause a lot of havoc.
And he’s like, well, it does. And I’m like, well, what are you telling people to do? He is like, well, I think there’s gonna be a huge resurgence in the humanities, in the arts, in creativity and literature. That’s what humans are meant to do. And AI will eventually take over a lot of things that were not meant to do.
So there really is something interesting around that. Whether you believe that or you roll your eyes at it it’s a consideration that let’s get back to doing the things that are interesting and creative, because what you find when you start these creative endeavors is your uniqueness what makes you really like fun and unique?
And that’s why we recommend that part to it. As you’re looking at portfolio careers, it doesn’t mean that you need to do that, you’re not the oyster guy of New York City, but you, they get a client out of it, right? And maybe you can be the oyster guy of New York. I don’t know, maybe that’s like what you’re gonna come up with, you know, in this next year of working together is all of a sudden you’re like shucking oysters for a living,
Chris: Sorry, Todd. I quit reinvention. I’m the oyster guy of New York City.
Todd: I’m gonna tell you right now, man, if that made you happy. And you’re like, look, I found oysters. I’ve always had a thing for these things. You know, like everything about it, the texture, the smell is me. You know, even when I get a little chip in my mouth and I chew and I chip my tooth like, like that’s me.
Nothing better than that. I’m down, brother. I will support you because reinvention, you gotta be open-minded going back the beginning and we gotta support people in whatever they need to do. This has been fun, man. I hope that, as you’re listening you’re really getting some value and we have fun on here, but we’re also wanting your wheels to spin.
We’re wanting you to think creatively. We’re wanting you to think about what you can do, over the next six months, a year that can set you up for the next 15, 20, right? And so that’s why we need to be experimenters and curious and to start looking at how we can make money in different ways.
Chris: Yeah, this is a fun one. This is really exciting conversation. I really hope it sparks maybe just a little imagination. Uh, you know, you’re, if you’re with us live or if you’re listening to this, maybe there’s one or two things kicking around in there that you haven’t honored that maybe you could do a little experiment on sometime soon.
I don’t know. Could be fun.
Todd: Let’s go brother. So to be here with you. Everyone subscribe to our stuff, and we’ll be back shortly with some more See you guys soon.
