If you’re staring down “what’s next?” after a solid run in corporate, this episode is your invitation to reinvent from the inside out. Todd and Chris unpack the real engine of lasting career change: identity.
You’ll learn how to define the future-self you want to grow into, gently retire the parts of your old identity that don’t serve you, and build daily practices that make reinvention tangible.
From ‘clarity’ weekends and morning pages to self-talk walks, and crisp new language for “what you do,” this is a practical guide to becoming the person your next career actually needs. No hype-just honest tools, mindset shifts, and stories from the trenches to help you land work that’s aligned, abundant, and way more fun. You’ll learn:
- How to map your future-self identity and use it as a north star
- The allow & reflect method for releasing old patterns without bulldozing your feelings
- Two zero-cost practices: morning pages and self-talk walks (and why they work)
- Crafting a new narrative for “what you do” that feels true and opens doors
- Why non-attachment accelerates reinvention more than white-knuckling goals
**Subscribe to our ReInvention Podcast and stay on the cutting-edge with fresh ideas and practical tools to navigate the future of your work!
Episode Transcript
Todd: as you’re starting to reinvent yourself, you have to literally start telling yourself a new story and a new narrative about who you are in the world or about who you can become. And this is like, so very important
Chris: Alright, Todd, what are we doing today, man? What are we talking about?
Todd: Chris? Man, I am so excited for this conversation and if you’re listening in like this is a big one because we’re talking about identity, so important when you’re at a place in your life where you’re looking out into the future of your work and your career.
And you’re thinking what’s next? And a lot of what I’ve seen in all these years of coaching, and I know you have as well, and I know this topic is just so huge for you, is that we need to start looking at identity from two different standpoints, right? Number one is, well, what is an identity for our future self, our future career that we can start to understand and tap into?
And how do we start to understand our old identity and where that really doesn’t work anymore, so we can start making that shift. Right. So I think when we talk about identity and shifting, this is like the deeper work, in reinvention, and that’s something that I know that you went through very deeply is something that you’re helping a lot of people with right now.
Chris: Yeah. And I think this is one of those things where, like, when we say identity and identity shifting, I mean obviously the word identity gets thrown around a lot, but it’s like asking the fish, how’s the water? And the fish says, what’s water? Mm-hmm. Right.
When we say your identity and shifting to a new identity, that second thing you said the work of, categorizing an identifying like, what is your identity? For me, for 20 odd years, it’s like corporate senior manager. I’m a husband, I’m a dad, I’m a, I’m, all these things, I’m the breadwinner.
Mm-hmm. Right. I think that’s the type of stuff that we get into is like, I’m the capital B breadwinner. What does that mean? Does that mean I must dutifully go to the same place from nine to five every weekday? Or are there other ways to inhabit breadwinner-dom. Or are there other ways to spread the breadwinning among myself and my spouse and my partner like that’s the sort of thing I think we’re talking about here in terms of identity, the identities that we take on and how do we identify them first and then do they still serve us?
Todd: Yeah. What I found in all these years is that most people don’t even understand how they got to where they are right now. And that’s why reinvention is like this word that I really love because a lot of people that I’ve worked with get to the point where like, how did I get here?
I’ve won the game in a lot of ways. Yeah. You know, I’ve, I’ve done the career, I’ve made the money, I have a family or maybe in some areas I’m still working on it, but I’ve, done pretty well, I’ve checked boxes in my life and now I’m here at this point and I’m like, well, this doesn’t give me the level of fulfillment that I thought I would have.
Right? And so now you come into this idea of, okay, well what’s reinvention? In this podcast and in our work, we talk about a lot of tools, like practical stuff, tactical stuff, but this notion of identity is really important. ’cause let’s remember like the whole point of this. Is this notion that at any moment in time you can take a stand for yourself and look out into the future and say, you know what?
My next career, my next career choices, my next work can be my best when I make a conscious choice to design it around the version of myself that I’m really happy about, that I’m excited about, that matches my money making with my lifestyle, for example, and not who I was in the past. And I think it’s that dichotomy of identity when we’re looking at, okay, there is this past version of me and there’s this potential future version of me.
And when we’re reinventing, it’s an opportunity more than anything else to say, all right, I’m gonna take a stand for creating that vision of my future. And also putting to bed maybe some old patterns or ways of being that really don’t serve me any longer.
Chris: I’ll also offer for me personally, there is an idea of yes, reinvention, but rediscovery as well, right?
As you’re talking about sort of that stumbling into things and not moving with intention, I was just thinking of the talking head song, you know, like, how did I get here? Oh my God, what have I done? Right? This is not my beautiful house.
Todd: Actually, can you sing that for me a little bit?
’cause I, it would be helpful if you Yeah, yeah.
Chris: letting the days go by. I’ll put the big gray suit on. actually everybody should go listen to that song right now, by the way. That’s the dilemma that a lot of us are facing. Mm-hmm.
It’s like, how did I get here? And for me, I made some choices around my mid early twenties where I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do. I was doing the right thing, dutifully going into this work, and it never really fit me, but I did it for a long ass time and I did it successfully. And so for me, when I came out the other side of that and started my reinvention, there was a lot of identifying and shedding layers of that identity that had been built up for that.
And it was bringing me back to really who I was in my core, which, there are elements of that 18-year-old or that 12-year-old in there and what, what that guy wanted. they Surface as part of this?
For people who are listening or watching, I think what that alludes to is that this is deep work and some stuff’s gonna come up as you do this. Yeah, for sure.
Todd: Let’s talk about how do we do it? What I love about this part of the process is there actually is a process here for understanding this new identity and also starting to, it’s not like an automatic thing. Shed the layers, like you said, of this old self.
And there’s just two parts to the sentence, right? Understanding. Who this reinvented version of yourself is or can be. And it’s gotta start, you’ll hear it’s like a broken record of getting clarity, of taking some time to sense into what your life and what your work could be like if you would, just for a moment as an exercise, think idealistically about what’s possible. We always say this this life is so short, right? And we get stuck into these ways of being and ways of thinking, and ways of making money, and ways of earning and all this stuff, and ways that other people view us. And now we get to this point of reinvention and you’re like, well, what would it be like for me to make a shift? What would it be like for me to think more optimistically and more open-minded about what’s possible? And we have to start there because in order to really reinvent, you need that vision. You need that that idea of what’s possible because it serves as fuel for getting you through the harder part, which is the second thing which we’re gonna talk about, about how do we start to heal and move away from some of these old patterns or ways of being, which is kind of the harder work, right?
Of actually changing things that have been ground into our mind in ways of being for 20, 30 years.
Chris: Going back to that idea of the fish in the water, things that are so innate and intrinsic to the way we’ve been for so long that we can’t even notice or name them.
They are just the ecosystem in which we exist. It involves an an element of detachment, of zooming out, of being able to press pause. Mm-hmm. And this is a really hard thing for people. I mean, again, corporate guy here. You’re so busy during the week all day long, and then trying to get through your meetings and then trying to get your work done at night with your kids and all that stuff.
When do you take this time? You know, it’s really important to consciously protect this time, to do this bigger picture, heavy lifting. This is not light stuff, right? We’ve had the privilege to help a lot of people do this and go through it, and it’s unbelievable when, you can do this, but it’s a process, it’s a commitment, it’s effort.
Todd: And I would say to start the process and let’s just say in that first standpoint of let’s spend some time, listening to this right now. This is how I coach people and I think you do something similar. Spend some time, whether it’s a day or a weekend, ideally, and just get out a pen and pad, get outta your computer and limit all the distractions as much as you can in your life and start to think idealistically about what is possible for your life.
What future would make you really excited.
Chris: I’m gonna actually stop you for one second. What is possible. I know what you mean by that, Todd, but I don’t know that everybody else knows what you mean by it, so I want to be clear about it. Mm-hmm. What is possible, but without bringing constraints into the conversation, at least from the beginning.
Because I think the first thing that comes up for so many people, and you say, what is possible is they’re like, well I couldn’t do that ’cause money reason or this reason or that reason, I’m five 10 and I’m 46. NBA basketball player isn’t on the list.
Right, right. But besides the top things like that, all bets are off. It’s all in the mix.
Todd: You need to give yourself a moment in time to reinvent your permission to dream. Allow yourself to dream just for a moment, just for an exercise, without attachment to any of it having to come true, that’s the key thing. And it’s interesting because some people like really flow into that exercise very easily and they write all this stuff and they have a really clear vision and it’s easy for them. For most people, it isn’t that easy.
It actually takes a little bit of time, which is why I recommend.
Dedicating a day or a weekend or even longer to working on a document or a series of videos or some journaling. Where you’re literally allowing yourself to think idealistically within the frame of some sense of reality, right? Like, okay, I’m not gonna be an NBA basketball player. I’m not gonna go and win a gold medal in the a hundred meter dash.
Okay, that’s not gonna happen. But what would make me really fulfilled? What kind of work? Who am I when I am at my very best, when I’m in flow and I’ve been my best version who is that person and how can I now start to, tap into those qualities consciously and start aligning my money making and my future career decisions based on that guy or woman.
So that way I can really have some deeper sense of fulfillment. And it is a moment to dream. It’s a moment to think idealistically within the context of some sense of reality.
Chris: yeah, and I think to help people frame it up a little bit, in that some sense of reality thing there’s lots of people we’ve both worked with where the thing they said, like, oh, this is just my hobby I could never turn this into something , blah, blah, blah. I’m not telling people that they all have to monetize their hobbies, but I am telling people that we have worked with many people who like, well, in a dream I would be an instructor for whatever pickleball.
And it’s like. That’s the business. That is the business. That’s the real thing. I say to the people I coach, I say, Hey, when the objections are inevitably coming up as you’re trying to do this exercise, I’d like you to move away and not hear them. But actually what might be better to do is to hear them, write them down, put them somewhere else, you know, put ’em on another tab or another page or whatever. But don’t engage with them now. We will in our reinvention community, or if you’re working with a coach, one-on-one or whatever it is, we will get there. We will get to the taking the big picture dream and addressing the tactical requirements and realities, but now is not the time for that.
Todd: it’s exactly right. You gotta start there and, if we’re just gonna speak totally, honestly, just the state of the world as we’re doing this podcast a lot of us are going to be in situations where we really do have to think more creatively and out of the box.
This conversation is an invitation to take this on with some level of intention, some level of, dare I even say it. Fun. Oh my God. Can you imagine having a career that might actually be fun, what are you talking about? Yeah. I mean, this is what I get, this is what I hear all the time.
It’s like people. Well look at me like, huh, I never thought about it that way. And so that’s why it’s so important for this is you gotta start there. You gotta free yourself just for a moment, and then we’ll get to the tactics, like you said. Then we’ll get to okay, well maybe some of this stuff could come true.
I love doing that. People start telling me their dreams and you gave me that exercise, but now I’m interested in , how do I make some of this happen? Hmm. Okay. Well good. You know, that’s the natural next step that we’ll get to. But I think what we wanna focus on today, and I want to hear your story on this, Chris, because I know for you, you really went through this identity shift of moving away from a 20 plus year like big corporate guy, right? Moving over into being a coach and this notion of, getting the vision is great and like taking action, all that, but how about dealing with the reality, which is there’s all these remnants of this old self and this old identity that still probably exists for you and like still are gonna exist for me and others, how do we start to heal and transform these older parts of ourselves so that way we can fully, free ourselves to new possibilities.
Small question, tiny little question.
Chris: How much time you got, Todd?
I like to start with owning it. Owning it. meaning I can look back and say, maybe I’ll put myself back 10 years ago, right?
And I can say when I was in my mid thirties looking back and saying, oh man, I should have tried music or comedy. I should have leaned in more to that. I didn’t do that, cause I had this corporate stage persona that I was doing, I had my reasons and my moments and there were decisions I was making along the way that whether they were right or wrong, they made sense to me in the context in which I made them.
And I own that. And I accept that and I’m here and process the shame around it. Mm-hmm. Or the guilt or you know, the unachieved potential or whatever baggage I personally had around that. And accept that and, not running away from sort of the guilt or the shame or the regret part of it, accepting it, processing it.
I mean, we could have a whole conversation about just what that means.
Todd: Let’s talk about it a little bit because it goes into the whole notion, the practice that we have in our community of allow and reflect. As you know, I worked with Tony Robbins, Tony is like, you know, one of the biggest personal development gurus out there.
And he’s very, very strong around follow your plan, not your mood. Like you just, you keep going, you keep going like. In some sense, you know, you kind of squash any of the negative thoughts, any of the doubt or limitation that creeps up in our mind, any of the fear. But the reality is in my view, is that when we’re going through a process of reinvention, there is value in allowing these old parts to have their voice and have their say.
And so when we talk about allow and reflect, which is what I think you’re referring to here, it’s kind of like. As you’re doing this work to get a vision and maybe taking some new action and having some conversations and getting a coach, or joining a community or listening to a podcast like this, you do wanna segment some time to the healing process.
and to allow the shame, the guilt, to have a say here is with some context, because that will allow you to move through the process faster as opposed to just pounding it away, which in my opinion doesn’t work because it’ll come out in some other ways that usually aren’t that healthy.
Chris: We’re Todd and Chris, and this is the ReInvention podcast, and we’re here to say you’re wrong, Tony Robbins.
Todd: Man, if he hears this.
Chris: There’s like a Tony Robbins size hole in my door right now. He just crashed through it.
Todd: Oh, yeah. And you don’t wanna fight that guy by the way
Chris: He’s about 40% bigger than me.
Todd: And let me tell you, man, I interviewed him twice and the, first time I interview him, I asked him one question and it was 45 minutes of him going off. And let me tell you, that guy, I love him. He drops gems, but I don’t agree with him in, in that one thing. I think that to really reinvent, you have to be holistic in your thinking.
You have to allow yourself to be your full human. I think a lot of people that are talking about stuff like this don’t allow for that, and I think we have to allow for this old part of you to have its last breath as you’re reinventing and as you’re allowing and putting more energy and attention into this new version of yourself, right?
It’s a process. It doesn’t happen like that.
Chris: That’s such a good way of putting it to give that, voice to it. Let it hear it right. Have it have its last say. I, I talk sometimes around when we have these internal negative voices or even just clinging to old identity, whatever it might be, I kind of like invite ’em to the campfire, right?
And I hear ’em all and I give ’em their say. And I don’t have to take what they say as fact or as truth. I mean, this goes through this idea of all the thoughts we have and how they’re just thoughts. But hear ’em out. Don’t run away from them ’cause they will pop up and, and sabotage you if you try to do that.
Todd: Let’s talk about some tools like to actually do that because I know you and I are both big morning page guys, free writing big time. I know that’s big for you. You’re a writer Julia Cameron wrote this book, the Artist’s Way. It’s a really great book if you’ve never read that.
It’s really good. And in that book she made this practice of morning pages really famous, which is just every morning getting up and allowing yourself to write getting whatever is coming up. It could be good, it could be negative, whatever it is. You wanna be able to allow yourself to be yourself and move through.
And I’ll tell you that in doing this practice for years, I found that if I start off in allowing myself to feel the fear or feel negativity or express something where I’m frustrated or I’m unsure and I just allow myself the ability to write it out or even talk it out, we’ll talk about self-talk as well.
Mm-hmm. It always ends up that that part goes to bed it has its say, and then I get to okay, like that’s done. The little crying baby boy inside of me is done complaining and now I can like be this more sober adult and think, okay, well what’s next?
, What do I need to do now? I found that to be the case when I do this. Have you found that as well, or what’s the process been like for you?
Chris: Yeah, I mean, listen, this is real, real coach stuff, but for me, I really leaned into morning pages and free writing. You know, kind of right around the time I was starting my reinvention in earnest.
Almost always there is, this is where it gets coachy. There’s a somatic clearing, right? If you feel tension in your chest or your shoulders or your neck or whatever, and you sort of let this out in the morning and you just kind of. Whatever’s on your mind. By the way, don’t look at your cell phone before you do this.
Right. Roll outta bed grab your cup of coffee whatever you do. Let it out right off the bat. That’s the way this works. I find that, you give it its voice, you give it its moment. You let it clear. A lot of times I get a lot of great creativity out of this practice.
Mm-hmm. As well. Because you’re just kind of like. Unblocking the gunk that is in there, right, right. Co cognitively and whatever’s accumulated over overnight and when you finally reduce the stimulus outside enough to let your brain process all the stuff it’s been ruminating on. It’s really clearing and freeing, and then now you can just go about your day in a more practical and tactical way without being haunted by whatever that lingering thought.
Todd: Yeah,, it’s a proper way to do it. Otherwise it’s messy and these thoughts pop up all the time and you’re kind of in ambiguous land. I want to talk about self-talk, and I know this is something that I mentioned to you and I’ve coached a lot of people to do this.
The free writing is great, but what I started doing was I’m more verbal if you can’t tell. Yeah. You know, that’s why we’re doing a podcast. But I started to get out my phone and put on my earbuds and go for a walk. So people that see me think I’m talking to like my sister or something. But really what I’m doing is I’m doing this, I’m doing free talk and I’m allowing myself, sometimes if I’m in a bad mood, I’ll just like go and I’ll talk. Whatever wants to come out, wants to come out. And sometimes it’s very creative and sometimes it’s around business, like whatever it is. And I do this almost every day. And it almost always, when I talk it out, lands into optimism, ideas about what I should do next to the point where I started to record these talks every day. I literally hit record and more often than not, I’m so inspired by the end of it that I come back and I’m using AI tools now, and I created a transcript, have it turned into bullet points, and then there you go. Things like this this podcast was probably started from me going out and just talking to myself. And I think it’s almost like self therapy in a way where you’re just allowing yourself to process information. So that way you can get to the juice. If you have the intention to like, oh, well I want to get to a point where I’m moving forward and I’m optimistic, this is a great way to do it.
Chris: I don’t think writing is necessarily for everybody. I mean, I know I’ve sat down with people who I’m coaching and I’ve seen it in their eyes when they’re like you want me to write a journal every day? Mm-hmm. Or whatever it is. I do think the self-talk is great and I’ve actually been doing more of it lately too, because.
It’s faster. Yeah, it is. It is faster and it comes out, but I think a couple keys to it are one, it’s ungoverned. You’re expressing it. You’re not trying to come up with anything. You’re not trying to say something, right, clever or pithy, or smart, or mind blowing. The way I describe it it’s like word vomit.
There’s no outcome that is good or bad or positive or negative about any specific time that you do this. ’cause like Todd, you were saying, and this happens for me a lot. I get great creative ideas from it or I have a breakthrough or whatever.
It is goalless, there is no goal to this except to say it, to express it, to let it out, to write it, whatever your method is. The goal is really actually to give yourself the time and whatever happens, happens. And in the writing, format of it, I tell people, if you are like, I can’t think of what to write. Then write. I can’t think of what to write over and over again until something else starts coming out.
Todd: I’ve totally done that. Where I’m like frustrated. I’m frustrated, and I just keep writing it. That’s, that’s the exercise. Free write
Chris: You just literally just go, I mean, again, Julia Cameron’s is very specifically like the pen is moving on the page the entire time.
Like you never stop. I do think the talking is conducive to that. The same thing as well. I love that. This is a good segue into a bigger element of this identity shifting, which is that approaching whatever this process is for you without attachment.
Mm-hmm. Without attachment to, a lot of us are used to white knuckling and steering our way towards a goal. And what’s really different and scary about reinvention writ large and identity shifting specifically is you don’t know what the goal is, you don’t know what you’re gonna look like and what’s gonna be revealed or created in a year or two or whatever this is.
The mistake we make is to try to sit here and think our way to what that outcome is and then plot our way very meticulously there, there is time for plotting and planning, but when you’re in the beginning. Feel what pulls you and pull threads and explore without attachment.
Todd: There’s so much wisdom in that. To be able to develop this quality of non-attachment or detachment is so very powerful and it sounds so much different than what we were all taught how to do.
We’re going for goals and we need to get those goals, and there is value in that, There’s total value in using willpower and going for goals. We’re just saying that a more holistic approach is to also honor this other side where you are going through your process and you’re not attached to any results.
And the most successful reinventors, the most successful people I’ve ever been around, know how to dance with those two attributes of their humanity. They know how to push, they know when to push, and they know when to allow and reflect. And you’re constantly dancing between those things. And we’re talking about morning pages or self-talk.
It’s a process that you always have access to, to get access to information. And I think another way, another tool here that we wanna also think about, which is hard for a lot of reinventors, is to also ask for and get support from other humans. Right? And this one is a little bit tricky when you’re in reinvention because oftentimes the people that you talk to the most may not be able to give you the mental or emotional support that you need because they may be invested in your old identity. Right?
Chris: Oh, more than, maybe,
Todd: more than maybe like they’re, if you’re married, you know, like going to your partner and saying, I’m not doing that job anymore.
I’m gonna go out and open up this coffee shop, or whatever it might be, well, that causes a big ruckus, right? And of course those conversations may need to happen depending on where your reinvention goes. But the most important thing on this one, on this tool, at least in the beginning, is before you start vomiting all over, people who are gonna have a really hard time with what you are going through right now is to be smart about this and to externalize and find third party sources where you can actually share about what’s coming up for you in a safe environment. Now, that could mean, getting a counselor or even a therapist, right? Or it could mean getting a coach, someone like me and you, or it could mean. Finding a group of accountability partners or a community.
It’s like literally why we built the reinvention community, right? So a safe place for people who are in that moment in time, it’s like, man, what’s the next 20, 30 years look like for my career? Maybe I know, maybe I don’t know, but I need to explore this. It’s a very safe place to do that, but. We’re saying it here because it’s very important for you to look at community or other people as potential tools, and you gotta be smart about who you can trust depending on where you’re at in the stage of reinvention.
Chris: I There’s so much that’s coming up as you say this, right? Mm-hmm. And I, I had a coach tell me this once, which really stuck with me, be careful where you share your gold. I Mean, listen, Todd, let’s be honest, right?
I’m five years into this thing, or whatever it is. There’s still some people really close to me in my life who are kind of like, how’s your little coach thing going?
Todd: Right?
Chris: Is that going okay? You know, and I’m like, thanks so much for your ostensible support. Mm-hmm. But that’s really undermining and negative and not helpful, but it’s actually not meant that way. You have to sort of beware some of the people who love you the most. Mm-hmm. Because some of the people who love you the most. Are most attached to that identity. They love you. They love the you that they know.
And your, by definition, if you’re listening this far into this podcast, by definition, you are interested in the possibility of creating and revealing a different identity in a sense. Mm-hmm. That they do not know. They’re going to still love you, by the way. They’re going to love you now, and they’re gonna love you in the messy middle, and they’re gonna love you when you come out on the other side, but they’re not gonna understand you.
Right? And the way they try to support you and love you may not be what you need in this axis of transformation that you’re going through. One specific thing I’ll mention, I talked about that role of capital B breadwinner that I had and have, right? I have a very supportive wife. I’m, you know, blessed.
We’ve had a lot of conversations. I can only do the thing that I’ve done because of all the conversations we had and the support I got from her. But you wanna be really careful around how you, you might frighten someone, you might really upset someone or, or traumatize them even. I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration to use that word. If you’re are the breadwinner and you’re the solo breadwinner, let’s say, and you just walk in one day and go, you know what? I think I’m gonna go do whatever. I’m gonna be a dance teacher, or whatever it is. That’s like a totally different thing for you. You don’t wanna sort of go into that lightly so that’s where I think having this space where you have a community or where you have a safe space to explore or a coach, or
Todd: especially in the beginning.
Chris: Yeah. when you’re ideating we’re asking you to get a little weird and creative, don’t come home and say to your spouse like, Hey, I’m gonna quit my job at the bank and be an astronaut.
Todd: You gotta be smart around this. And I think I’ve seen this in all my years of coaching. People kind of struggle with one because they don’t know who to share with or how to share, and they go to the people that are close to them, which makes a lot of sense.
This is why in reinvention, you have to be, and it’s not incentive, it’s actually how you love people the most. You don’t wanna put them into a really uncomfortable situation there’s other people we can help you, the other people can help you. You know, there’s other people in the same boat.
Find safe spaces to be able to process, especially in the beginning stages of reinvention, what you’re doing. When you start sharing it also gives them, oh, like they’re thinking this through.
They’re getting support. This is more of a thing now. Like you actually have a different stature around it, which goes to the next point, the next tool actually, in terms of, reinvention and creating your new identity and as you’re going through this a little bit more, and I love this one ’cause people don’t think about it this way.
It’s all around communication, right? Yeah. And as you’re starting to reinvent yourself, you have to literally start telling yourself a new story and a new narrative about who you are in the world or about who you can become. And this is like, so very important and beautiful when people start to grok this, right?
Because you may have a story. Let’s just say, okay, I’ve been, you know, a lawyer for the last 20 years, working, with, the small healthcare startup that was shown to me by a friend of a friend.
It’s kind of a side hustle right now, but maybe there’s some legs there. And when you start to have these new things that are emerging, which is so important, today’s world, I’m a stand for people exploring multiple streams of revenue. Right. And as you’re doing that. I want you to start thinking about what language can you start developing about who you are in the world right?
And I think one of the fastest ways to start to get through your reinvention, it’s to literally start writing down sentences or start practicing speaking when someone meets you at a party. What will you say as this reinvented version of yourself? It’s a real accelerator.
Chris: I was just gonna say, I struggled with this so much. I’m kind of laughing.
Todd: A lot of people do. A lot of people struggle with it.
Chris: I say this all the time. I, the reinvention concepts in the community that we have created Todd, and that we’re running it’s what I wish I had 10 years ago. That’s why I’m so excited for people to get to experience it now. I stumbled and bumbled through all this stuff. Honestly, even the stuff around sort of talking to your spouse or your partner around it. Go, go back one topic. I’m thinking of my wife listening to this podcast being like, Hey, you didn’t do that.
Like you were a little bit, you know, willy-nilly with it in the beginning. And then I think I kind of caught myself and realized, hold on, let me go back to the woodshed and get more clear about what this is before I stress her out with all this. So I learned that through experience. Similarly with talking about what I do.
Again, in the beginning, I didn’t know what I did, right? So I was pulling threads and following threads and I really got to the point where I could crisply talk about what it is I do. But it took a lot of really painful conversations with people where I kind of thought. I was like, I’m gonna say that I’m a coach in this conversation.
And then I would say it, and then I was like, oh, I’m three little kids in a trench coat. Like I don’t have a line behind that when they ask their first question because like, I haven’t really thought it through and I haven’t really been super clear about it. And I like. I can help anybody with anything, I think like it was real ugly. Right.
Todd: It’s ambiguous. It’s like weird.
Chris: Coaching is hard in that way in general, right? People have preconceived notions of what it is, so you really want to have a crisp answer.
But this applies in like so many different categories.
Todd: The reason why we’re going through these tools, right? Self-talk, right? Asking for support, communication is to accelerate your ability to reinvent yourself again, when I have clients in our community, I’m like, the goal for me is always successful reinvention, you’ve created a new career path. Where you make as much, if not more money than you did before, and it’s more closely aligned with the future that really excites you. You know? And that could be because you’re passionate about it or it’s just using your skills, or it’s more connected with what your real purpose here is.
Like, Ooh, dare we say that, that you have a purpose and you can make money doing that thing. And so these tools, when we’re talking about them, the whole point of this is, it’s like what you just said. You said, I wish I would’ve had this 10 years ago. Yeah, now we’re just systematizing it in a way.
And what I love about this idea of reinvention is that it’s actually just a process of transformation or transition that has a predictable nature to it. And you know, as coaches that I’ve been doing this for so long, it’s like. You know the terrain, but you don’t know it when you’re in it. But when you, observe it from that standpoint, and you can say, all right, well here are the tools that will work to help you, understand yourself better to get into a situation or create situations that are more exciting for yourself and make it easier for those around you as you’re changing your life to some extent. These are just tools to be able to do that.
Chris: I love that last part, Todd, and you, you said it before and I’m glad you reemphasized it too. It’s not selfish, right? It’s actually caring for the people that love you the most and care for you the most as well.
Mean one, on a macro level, doing what’s right for you and finding what’s aligned for you. You’re gonna show up in ways that you never did before for the people in your life that really matter to you. Right. And we’ll talk about this at different times, but like, you know, just for me, with my children with my wife, what they get from me now that I am in a more aligned work and space. I mean, unbelievable.
Todd: What do they get from you? More presence? Like what is it
Chris: More presence, more truth of who I am and, they get the fullest version of me.
I mean, they get a more expressive and kind of fun and goofy version of me that that really is me. ’cause I’m not. Sort of having my spirit broken from nine to five, five days a week. Right. My kids can tell you what I do now, right. I mean, they couldn’t tell you what I did before because I got bored even trying to explain it to them, you know?
And I think now they’re like, oh, daddy helps people and he helps them get a job that they like and they can say it ’cause I talk about it at the dinner table with such pride.
Todd: I love that man. It’s so relevant. If you got to this point, we’re gonna close this conversation out right now, we can slice and dice this forever, Chris and I could like talk about this for nine hours right now. But that’s really powerful that your kids can reflect back.
You have done that part we just talked about communication really clearly because when it’s ambiguous to other people, it’s ambiguous, most likely to yourself. That’s why these tools help, spending time to actually get clarity, like we talked about, spending time to get the assistance you need, whether it’s a counselor, a therapist, a coach, our community, whatever it might be.
Finding accountability partners spending time writing out what is your reinvention look like when you’re at your best? And then starting to share that with others. Like, this is how you make it real. Yeah. You’re starting to make it real by taking consistent and constant action. And that’s what we’re stand for, we want people to live their best fricking life, you know? And we’re living in a crazy world that we have no idea what’s happening, but you have an opportunity, you know, we all have an opportunity to reinvent ourselves right now. And so that’s why we’re committed to this conversation.
Yeah, man, I just love jamming with you too, man. It’s like always helpful for me when we do this. Yeah.
Chris: it’s Always so helpful for me to remind myself why I am doing this and get so excited about it. And I really hope that some people who are listening or watching get inspired, get excited, and maybe start taking some action.
Todd: Yeah. And we will see you all next time. Feel free to check out our community, we do a lot of coaching calls, like we love to get on the Zoom with human beings and hear what they’re up to.
Help them, with whatever it is, just the starting part of reinvention. Or it could be you’re hanging your own shingle and you gotta figure out marketing, you gotta figure out naming, like, we’re doing all kinds of conversations, money, a lot of conversations around money and we get real specific with people around this process.
So definitely consider checking that out and getting to know us a little bit.
All right. Until next time, peace out.
