Reinventing your career is exciting – but trying to do it alone is one of the fastest ways to stall, burn out, or second-guess yourself.
In this episode, Todd Jason and Chris Thide explore one of the most overlooked accelerators of successful career reinvention: collaboration.
This is a grounded, honest conversation about why reinvention isn’t a solo journey – and how the right collaborators, mentors, and partners can help you move faster, smarter, and with far more confidence.
Inside this episode, you’ll discover:
- Why “lone wolf” reinvention often leads to unnecessary struggle
- How clarity attracts the right collaborators naturally
- The difference between collaborators, mentors, and business partners
- How to assess whether you thrive solo or as part of a team
- Why temporary experiments beat all-or-nothing commitments
- How to actually find collaborators and / or partners
- What healthy partnerships actually require to work long-term
Todd and Chris also share the real story of how their own partnership formed – including the skepticism, experimentation, and alignment that made it work.
If you’re a mid-career professional exploring a new path – whether entrepreneurship, consulting, or a redesigned role – this episode will help you stop doing it all yourself and start building the support structure that reinvention demands.
Your next career move can be your best one – when you design it around who you’re becoming, and allow the right people to walk with you.
** Subscribe to The ReInvention Podcast for weekly conversations on career clarity, ReInvention, entrepreneurship, and the future of work.
Episode Transcript:
Todd: And so when you’re talking about finding collaborators and partners, the people that will win, will be those who show up with authenticity. Will be the ones who actually are okay with being vulnerable and revealing who they really are.
Chris: Hey Todd, what are we gonna be talking about today? My man?
Todd: Well, I’m always just honored to be here with you. And as we always say, reinventing your career is synonymous with change. And anyone interested in this podcast and the conversations that we’re having, Chris, are clearly exploring, making money in new and different ways, and also just exploring new professional pathways, and that’s really what’s necessary right now. And in this episode, we’re gonna talk about how to assess your need for collaborators and even business partners as you’re looking to reinvent your career. And this is a really important topic because many of the people that we’re helping come from careers, corporate jobs, and the like, where they didn’t have to think about how to get partners or collaborators for their projects, right?
But given the state of our changing world, this is a moment in time to look at the future of your work differently, and as we’ll talk about today, building networks of people who can help you in your reinvention is so critical to hitting success faster. So we invite you to get out of pen paper, take some notes. Because we’re gonna provide you with a tangible framework to assess yourself and also understand what types of collaborators you may need. And also even a way to think about finding a partner, business partnerships. This is a real accelerator, so that’s what we’re doing today. And Chris, while there can be so much stress baked into the need to reinvent oneself.
The whole point of our podcast and our mission is to help people remember how exciting this can be. Like for many Reinventors, this is the first time that they’ve had some space and freedom to think about, Hey, like what do I really wanna do and how can I make money in ways that match my interests and my talents?
And is there a future for me that is way better than before? Like really good questions. And the answers to all these questions can be of course, yes. And today we’re gonna see how other people can help you do that. And I think the best way to start this one off, Chris, is by talking about me and you and our partnership, because I think we’ve modeled something here in terms of how to like take reinvention to the next level.
Chris: Yeah, I mean, we could start with how we met, which is, you know, I was a successful businesswoman in the big city, and then I had to go back to my hometown Christmas tree farm. Oh, sorry. That was just a Hallmark movie that I watched last night. That’s not how we met at all. yeah, but, I was actually thinking we’re gonna say the word we say on almost every episode, clarity.
Follow me for a second, Todd, because this is gonna tie into how you and I met and started working together.
Todd: Alright
Chris: If you thought you were gonna get through an episode without us saying clarity, you thought wrong. Once I out there as a solo entrepreneur, as a coach, I was kind of a coach who could coach anybody on anything, was sort of the way I was thinking about it.
Once I dialed in with clarity that I was helping people reinvent their careers. And I didn’t say those words then exactly, but that was the messaging I was putting out into the world, and I was putting it on TikTok and Instagram and getting really clear and communicating that clearly. That’s what resonated with you, I believe, and that’s what aligned with what you had been hearing with your clients and you’d been working with people on.
And so I just wanted to put that little seed in this conversation because especially for people who are starting on their reinvention journey that is gonna always be a factor. Clarity is always gonna be a major element that you want to take care of because when you start to get that clarity, that’s when you’re sort of sending the right signal out into the world.
And that’s gonna make it really clear to the people who are would be collaborators and would be partners that you might be someone that they want to connect with. I just wanted to get that out there right off the bat, because I was sort of floating in space a little bit. I mean, I was doing my one-on-one practice, but in terms of what I was communicating out into the world, it was many different things.
And when I honed in on what I really was focused on, that’s when I started to really make some better connections including you, Todd. Which has been great. ’cause we’ve got a business partnership now.
Todd: I think it’s a really good point. We do talk about clarity a lot because in 20 years of coaching, the number one thing that I found is that most people don’t really know what they want, in life in general, but also related to their career. And when you’re in a moment in time where reinvention is up and you’re attracted to this conversation in this word of like, okay, let me reinvent myself, it’s an opportunity to stop for a moment.
And think out into the future with an idealistic lens about what could happen for your work and your money making, that would be really good and exciting. Matching up your talents, matching up your gifts, and I think you did that naturally. I love how you always say that you wish you would’ve found this notion of reinvention and the six main tenets that we talk about all the time, like seven, eight years ago, because you probably would’ve gotten here, or the levels of success faster.
Than just by doing it alone. Right. But you did the work, right? You did it yourself, and you were iterating, and then you started to hone in on your messaging. Oh, I’m helping people who come from a corporate background, reinvent themselves because they’re miserable, or they’ve just gotten laid off, or they don’t know what’s next.
And then you started talking about it publicly, right? You got out your phone and you started posting on Instagram, and then I saw you. And what I was honed in on was the message. You are passionately talking about something that I am passionate about. And look, I never do this, but I actually sent you a DM on TikTok, right?
It’s crazy. But that’s what I did.
Chris: He slid into the dms.
Todd: It was crazy, man, but I ‘m like, I love what you’re talking about. I love the way that you’re talking about reinventing your career. It’s very similar to what I believe, and maybe we should just hop on a call, you know, and you’re like, okay.
For me on my side, let me give you a little bit perspective on my side. Okay? ’cause I come from a different angle. You weren’t necessarily looking for collaborators or a business partner, right? You were just honing in on what you were doing and you became a lightning rod for somebody else. Me, in this case. Who actually was at a different point in the way that I look about my career, because I’ve come to the realization like as being an entrepreneur for 20 years, that I work really well in partnership and in collaboration with others. And that’s not always a good thing. Like I’ve had terrible partnerships, I’ve had businesses fail, and I’ve also had businesses thrive and projects thrive by being in collaboration.
So I’ve learned a lot about this particular topic, but what I do know. Is that I am somebody that does well when I’m working in a team. Okay. And I do have elements of leadership. I think you’ve got to know me a little bit. I like to lead certain parts, but I also love to let others lead. And that’s just what I found.
And I think that when we’re talking energetically around reinvention, and you’re somebody that’s looking out into the future and thinking, all right, I wanna start some new ideas. And maybe you’re looking to be an entrepreneur or a consultant or a coach and you like this conversation. It starts with self-awareness about how do you thrive best? Are you somebody that is really good solo? Do you work better in a team? And if you do work better as part of a team, which most of us do by the way, right? What role do you typically take on within that team? Because when you start getting really smart about who you are, you can start to build circumstances that will lead you to success faster.
And that’s what we want here. So when you’re starting to think about. Oh, I need a partner, or I need a collaborator. No, at first get self-aware, right Chris, about What situation do you thrive well in? And then you can start to look out into the landscape. And for me, I was already there and you were just kind of like, swimming around, talking about stuff.
Yeah. for it.
Chris: This is apparently a theme of the reinvention community and our podcast, which is that I did everything back asswards and tumbling and figured it out by doing and experimentation. Truly though, you know, and obviously I’ve learned a lot on the way and it’s actually been a great experience because I’ve learned a lot of pitfalls that, a lot of mistakes that can be made and it really informs my coaching.
You hear me say stuff to people in the community. That’s directly from, you might know behind the scenes directly from something that I screwed up or I just did in a suboptimal way in the beginning. But it’s funny ’cause this self-assessing self-awareness, I’ve come to it over time, but when I first decided to leave corporate and hang my own shingle, I think I really had a self-perception that not only that, I didn’t like the corporate structure and the stuff we were working on and bureaucracy and all that stuff, but I was like, I don’t even wanna be part of an organization. I’m a lone wolf. I’m gonna do my own thing and I’m gonna just run with this. I need to change that part too.
I’ve been in huge companies. Now, i’m gonna be a company of one and looking back, I managed to turn the company of one into a business, but looking back, it’s really interesting because I actually function really well in a team, and I just said this to you yesterday. I think the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
When we work together, when we create, when we ideate on things and we go back and forth like this conversation, like this podcast, I’m an improviser, I think well out loud and bouncing ideas off of someone. And then I also get excited in terms of my motivation to like deliver something back to you that we’re working on together.
I’m gonna hand this thing to Todd and he’s gonna run with it and hand it back to me and I get really jazzed by the collaborative aspect of it. And I even said yesterday, when I’ve been in bands, my role in a band as a musician is often not to bring the first thing, but to sort of take the first thing that’s brought and like add flavor to it.
That’s what I’m really good at, shaping it and adding flavor to it. the same thing applies here. But I didn’t go through a conscious process of self-assessment, which I think is very helpful for Reinventors to do at the beginning. As much as you can, like you do, learn some of this through doing and behavior and interactions, but to set aside some conscious focus on, how do I work best? Do I wanna be a lone wolf? Do I function in a team better? Because this feels much better for me as you and I work together and build our business and build our reinvention community. didn’t realize I was missing it in a sense. And I think that I had conflated working with a team with all the things I didn’t like about corporate.
Todd: Right.
Chris: And you know, with all due respect to some people I work with, maybe also the teams themselves were suboptimal and our personalities were not working together. So it’s like, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. I’m a team player and I love working with a team, but I didn’t have to like burn all the boats when I left corporate and say, I won’t do any of that stuff again.
That actually isn’t the right fit for me.
Todd: Right. And I will say this, I’m gonna be really direct on this. None of us can reinvent by ourselves. Do not be a lone wolf, It’s so common. I can’t tell you how many people, Chris, I’ve helped cross the bridge coming from some work situation or some situation that has run its course and then getting to this point of having to look out into the future and for some reason, the initial inclination is to, I’m gonna do this myself. It’s almost like this autonomous thing that you need to go through. Like it’s my turn now. I am gonna build this thing, Yeah. And then what happens is there’s struggle around that because you spend a lot of time tinkering with your idea.
It’s like now your time. These guys are right. I’m gonna get clear. I’m gonna go out into the world and I’m gonna create my thing and I’m gonna have passion around it, and I’m gonna make money around this thing. And then what happens, inevitably is that you run into obstacles because you can’t do it all by yourself.
And what most people realize at some point along the way is that they love being a part of a team. There are aspects about being a part of a team that were really beneficial and they start to miss that. And so why we’re doing this episode is to let you know right upfront that reinvention is a teamwork exercise.
Okay. And even if you thrive really well as a leader and a solo entrepreneur, you need to figure out ways to find collaborators. To create a mastermind to maybe even find a business partner or two. There’s different ways to think about it. So from my example of working with you, and this is really interesting, we’re gonna get under the hood here a little bit in our business, right?
So when Chris and I started talking and meeting, he kept coming back to me. Like, why would you wanna go into business with me? Right? It was like a big thing you kept asking.
Chris: I’m a skeptic.
Todd: You’re skeptical. And for me, I had identified. From past experiences that this business that I wanted to build, this coaching business that was around career reinvention, I wanted to work with somebody who literally was the model of somebody that reinvented themselves pretty successfully.
And I really saw that in you. That could also speak really well on camera, where I could do a podcast episode like this. You know, there was a bunch of things that I was looking for, so I was really aware of what would be a good business model for me or partnership from the standpoint of past experience.
But the general notion is that we all work better on a team. And so as you’re getting this self-assessment about what type of team do you need to create? A lot of people go this route of, well, I just need to do everything by myself. And what we’re here to tell you is no, don’t do that.
Call in a group of people, I love the term mastermind. I’ve done a lot of this and you probably have heard this word thrown around. A mastermind is you just call in some people to discuss your idea and you get feedback from them and you start to get data. That’s teamwork right there.
Then maybe you’re also helping them with project and hearing what they’re up to. But like, getting out of the isolation, getting out of the lone wolf is the number one recommendation here. Okay. And whatever you need to do to be that leader and be that entrepreneur and be that reinventor and all the things that you need to embody.
But do it as you’re motivating and magnetizing teams of people around you will get you to success faster. Right? It just just will.
Chris: Todd, I think I’m gonna be that guy right now and just say the mastermind concept does sound a lot like what happens in our reinvention community when we have people share what they’re working on and get instant feedback from people who might be in their client demo. I’m not trying to plug that, but it is just a really cool thing to see. When somebody’s in our community and they’re talking to you and me, we’re the two coaches and we’re giving them encouragement and we’re saying that, Hey, we think that really is a good idea. And we only say that if we really think it is a good idea, but we’re the coaches.
It’s really especially cool when somebody says their business idea and somebody who they kind of only know through a couple of Zoom calls basically, who’s not a coach, says. Oh yeah, that sounds awesome. Tell me more about that. Like how much is that gonna cost? Oh, that’s really cool.
Like I’m into it. Just getting that feedback and then also once you’ve got that positive feedback, you can get some real constructive criticism. You can do some real market research, just having that conversation live with that person. So you can do a lot of research at home and Google and interact with ai, but connecting with real people who potentially could be like real clients or real collaborators or real partners is so, so, so critical.
Talking about how you and I met, from my perspective, I am not normally inclined to say yes to a collaboration or a partner you saw my skepticism and my pushing back and my sort of like, well, why me? Where is this coming from?
I have my guard and my defenses up and I’m really, really, really glad that I did say yes. As you know, I did my due diligence and I went through, we had a lot of conversations and things like that, but, i’m really happy that I was open to the possibility of partnering or collaborating, and I think that’s something we also just want to encourage for people who are in this new phase. We’ll do a fuller episode maybe around activating your network specifically, but there’s so many people who would love to help you, who would love to learn about what you’re doing. Who would love to just interact with you in some way that’s gonna be mutually beneficial. And Todd, you say this all the time, your enemy in reinvention is isolation. Don’t be isolated. Create and connect with your community around this. And if you have any fear around that, around reaching out, like we said, get that clarity about what you’re communicating.
But you have to reach out and create community around this.
Todd: And actually I wanna share, my own perspective on that piece is that, do you know how, like you got to saying yes all the time, it was because the energy by which I brought the language that I used, it was always a trial. It was always temporary. And I think this is a really important point that I wanna bang home right now.
Okay. So bear with me, but I wanna talk about this because when people start reinventing and they’re putting out their shingle or they’re trying these new things, there’s this tendency to go under the hood like a mad scientist. Go out and create this thing and then you’re gonna reveal it to the world and it’s gonna be your big thing. Do not do that. That is not the way that successful entrepreneurs and reinventors go about it. The mindset of successful reinvention is gotta be around temporary wins, small wins, small experiments. We talk a lot about that. Taking small experiments. And look even our partnership right now, we have a podcast together.
We have a coaching community. We started this three months ago from the time we’re recording this, and we’ve done a lot of work together that has real assets in the world that are happening. Okay. And the reason why that happened is ’cause the mindset that we work together is, oh, this is just temporary.
Like our logistical contract together, my friends, is like a six month trial contract. We don’t have a company yet, and I’m sharing all of this because this is the proper way to do it, right? Cast a wide net, create collaborations that are experiments, create trial programs. Not everything that you do has to be it.
So that’s how you wanna go about finding collaborators and partnerships. Like you don’t need just one person. It’s not the way that it is. Create these like small little experiments, put it out into the world. And then Chris and I are a good example here because we’ve constantly been surprised by the resonance we have around the way that we talk about reinvention.
By the way that we actually coached, there was a lot of unknowns that we didn’t know about it, but because we have this energetic of, oh, we’re just testing this out and we’re just experimenting. As opposed to, this has gotta be it. Our partnership would’ve ended already if we were going that route.
And I think this goes into effect of like relationships dating like this, this applies. Don’t go into it thinking that this has to be it. Go into reinvention in any standpoint thinking this is an experiment. Let me check this out. Let’s play a little bit like don’t create permanent solutions.
Create temporary experiments. I know you have something to share on this.
Chris: No, that’s amazing. That’s such a great point and a great analogy even to, your personal relationships to say, you know, when you hear about somebody bringing the energy of this has gotta be the one, the next one I meet has gotta be the one. And then they’re like scrutinizing every little thing and they’re just, they’re killing it before it even starts.
Todd: That’s right.
Chris: Now for my IT project management nerds, it’s like waterfall versus agile. It’s the idea of building something quietly in your garage for two years and then revealing it to the world versus kind of building on the fly and building in the open. Thank God we have been more agile in the way we have built this Todd.
We’ve come up with so many ideas. Like a podcast wasn’t even on the radar three months ago, and we’re at the point where this is gonna be episode 18 in the can or whatever it is. We’re so into this and it’s been really exciting and powerful and like it also is just I am energized by all the stuff that we’re doing.
If we were just sitting quietly trying to hammer out and solve something that we didn’t even know how to market or anybody interested in it. I would probably be so drained right now from having done that. Maybe not everyone’s like that, and so there is a self-awareness element of it, but I really love the idea of being open to collaboration, seeing where things take you.
Again, like you said, there’s a risk management element in it where we set up a contract and we protected ourselves, and we were really clear about, well, we’re mostly putting in like sweat equity to this, so it’s not like we’re overextending ourselves, but in that framework gave ourselves a platform to experiment and also to play the long game. It’s not like we’re saying, oh my God, we have to recoup this investment as soon as possible, or something like that.
Like We’re like, Hey, let’s serve the people that we wanna serve. Let’s try to figure out the best way to get to the right community and help them the best way possible. And the business success follows from that. It’s not like this mining extraction thing where we’re just trying to like get to the money as fast as possible.
It’s bigger thinking than that. It’s long term.
Todd: What you’re also pointing to is the distinction between what’s a collaborator and what’s a business partner. Right. You and I are business partners and one of the big differences in that is a business partner is in your business, like you’re working together and money’s a very real thing that you have to talk about.
Right. And I think that’s obviously a deeper collaboration. You know, maybe the deepest when it comes to business, right? But before we get into that piece, I think we wanna start defining and helping people here think about dissecting this need for collaborators and then potentially this need for a business partnership.
And so when I think about collaborators, when I’m starting something or I’m coaching somebody to be like. All right. I got this idea and I’m going out there to take some action in the world. And you tell me about finding collaborators, what am I actually looking for? And so there’s a couple different types of collaborators that you wanna look at.
Number one, are people who you might consider mentors. These are great collaborators, people that you can reach out to who are further ahead than where you’re at with your potential reinvention pathway. Mentors, right? And people love to get emails and messages saying, Hey, I love what you’re doing. I see how much success you’ve had.
I would love to get on the phone with you, you know, and like learn more about it because I’m looking to do X, Y, Z, and maybe there’s a way that I can assist and help what you’re doing as well. Those types of messages when you’re talking about reaching out to potential collaborators, really work.
Right. So you’re looking for mentors, you’re looking for people that can help you in some way models, you know, and I’m not talking about fashion models here. I’m talking about people that logistically have succeeded doing the very thing that you’re potentially setting out to do. Right? So we’re coaches, we have community, like we have a podcast.
There’s a lot of people, Chris out there that have done what we’re doing really successfully. I learn from them. I follow their podcast, I read their books. I’ve taken a lot of their courses. We’re not necessarily collaborating with them, but if you look at investing in yourself and investing in your potential reinvention as a mental model of collaboration, then yeah, absolutely.
Like looking at people that you can model from right, is very important to potential customers and avatars of your business. This is really important, right? Who in your network or who do you know out there that would be a potential buyer or contributor to what you’re doing that needs what you have?
Those are collaborators. Like bring them into a mastermind, bring them into a session. This is how you start getting real data. And then the last model of collaborators would be what I call adjunct skill providers. Like those people who have skills that you don’t have that can help a successful reinvention to happen.
Right now, you and I are running a podcast, but behind the scenes we have our own version of Jamie, you know, Joe Rogan’s, Jamie, you know, like thing. Noah, and I know Noah doesn’t wanna come on here at all, which is fine, but Noah, who I’ve worked with has a lot of skills and is on our team, and I’ve worked with him for a long time that helps us do what we need to do in the world. Okay? So you need to start getting tactical when looking at collaborations. And I love looking at it from those very specific lenses of, okay, yes, I need collaborators, but what types of collaborators do I need?
Chris: Yeah,
say, I love the way you just laid that out because it’s almost like through the reinvention journey in time, right? It’s starting with mentors. And getting just general guidance around it. Then moving to models, people who are doing exactly the thing that you wanna do.
Then now you’re thinking about potential customers and your business avatars, and then as you’re further into what we call like reinvention stage two or three, that’s where you’re starting to think about, yeah, I need to supplement. I can’t be the CFO of this. I’ve had this conversation with someone just recently where their business is growing and it’s out ahead of them to the point where they’re like, I’m getting pulled away from the sales stuff that I should be doing because I’m the core engine of this business.
I need a finance operator to do that stuff for me. And that’s a great problem to have. Right. But you nailed it before Todd. We come into this, a lot of us with this idea that like, Hey, I’ll just wear all the hats. I’ll wear all the hats, and that’s the way we’re gonna do this. in the beginning, that’s fine to start with. If you’re starting small and you’re starting from the ground up, and to get awareness around these things, you know, you need to be smart enough about these topics in order to hire good help down the road.
But if you’re banging your head against the wall on something, go get help. Go connect with someone, any of these types of people, mentors, models, anyone that you can find community with and collaborate with.
Don’t put yourself in isolation and just hope you’re gonna magically figure it out or whatever you’re doing. That is just a recipe for staying stock.
Todd: Or just using chat GPT as every potential collaborator. AI is incredible. I use it all the time as you know, like we’re using it and you have to, you know, and it’s an incredible tool that can help Reinventors get to success faster. Can chat GPT be my CFO can chat GPT, be my CMO and do all my marketing.
There’s a lot of things that it can do. But at the end of the day, all that information needs to be filtered through you as the reinventor and then put out into the world in some way right before maybe things like change the ways that we can’t even really imagine right now. But let’s not even go there ’cause we don’t know.
But human capital, human collaboration is where it’s at right now. Okay. I think the biggest trend that’s emerging, Chris, right now, and here’s my kind of a deeper belief that I have and part of the reason why when you and I met and I was like, I want to build community around reinvention. I don’t want to just like you and I sell coaching packages and get one-on-one with people for a high ticket.
I wanna like build a community. Communities are where it’s at. This is gonna be one of the biggest trends that just explodes over the next two, three. It’s already happening. Okay? It’s already happening. Why? Because people need other people. We are energetic creatures that thrive when we are surrounded by family, friends, community.
Okay. And so in this world where we are separated, Chris and I have never even met physically, and yet we’ve done all this. We’re gonna meet soon, bro. I’m coming to New York, we’re gonna hang. Right? Like we got a whole plan. So we are gonna meet, but it’s weird, right? We have not met yet physically. Yet we still feel a kindred spirit and a community around it.
So this does work digital partnerships and friendships and community building can work. But this is the trend. So one of the things that I recommend to people as you’re looking to reinvent is calling these masterminds in calling people, in, build a community on a platform like Mighty Networks or Circle, which we use, right?
Start to literally be that central piece for collaborations that can happen around the ideas that you care about. We have people in our community, for example, somebody that’s thinking about building a gym, like a physical gym. And this is somebody that’s come from a completely different background, right?
Like somebody that was an engineer in technology, and now it’s like, all right, I’m gonna reinvent and this is what I want to do. By getting clarity and having these conversations like got really lit up by this idea of doing something very different. And one of the coaching pieces that we give is get data, but like start to build real collaborations around this, right?
And then the question came up, which was the impetus of this call was like, do I need a business partnership? Do I need a partner? And I think that’s the next and kind of last piece of this conversation is how do I know if I actually need to have a partner or a series of partners where it’s not just about collaboration and getting data, but now we’re talking about going under the hood and making money together and growing together.
From my standpoint, most people that are reinventing will benefit and can benefit by having some form of deeper partnerships. In their business building. Just because I believe we work better as a team. And a lot of people leaving corporate have kind of poo-pooed it.
And what I tell people is, build your own. It’s an opportunity to build your own culture. You and I are building a culture for our reinvention, community and business that we are determining together. That’s fun, that’s juicy. And so you have an opportunity to do that.
So long as you’re conscious about what you actually are trying to create, right? So I would say like business partnerships, Really contemplate that. Like write it out on paper. Right now, Chris and I we’re developing this workbook, this reinvention workbook. It’s not ready right now is the time we’re recording this, but it probably will be maybe by the time you’re listening.
And that workbook is a seven day process that asks a lot of these types of questions and prompts. Like, how do I start determining, do I need collaborators or partnerships? Right? Start to get tactical with what you need. Then the answers will come and then the people will show up. Some guy like me will slide into your TikTok inbox and be like, all right, well, I guess I got a business partner.
Chris: Let me just contextualize what you said, ’cause completely spot on, Todd, but it’s also this is a phased process, right? So if you are, let’s say you’re in your corporate job and you’re contemplating reinvention, you’re just starting to think about, ah, maybe I wanna launch a side hustle or whatever.
We’re not saying that you just jump out and look for a business partner at that moment, right? Go back to the very first thing that I said in this conversation. Clarity, right? Get some clarity around what it is you want to do, what it is you’re trying to do, what’s that side hustle or new thing gonna look like, right?
And then also get clarity around what your capabilities are, because, we’ve talked about this on other episodes, you’ve actually got a lot of skills that you probably aren’t deploying on a daily basis in your current role. So like you have to experiment, boy, I’m dropping all six tenets in this sentence, but like, you have to experiment to learn where the boundary of your skills are for the reinvented work that you want to do.
And so that’s a process. But you know, you get to a certain point where you start to realize, I have like a, a weakness or a blind spot. Whatever in operations or in finance or whatever it is. And those are the opportunities. Those are the places where you can start to see like, I need to get some. intelligent mentorship or find a collaborator or even just someone who I can bounce these things off of. With all due respect to chat, GPT and AI, don’t sit there with AI and just go back and forth and think that that’s gonna solve your problems because you’re in an echo chamber a little bit there, right?
So I think this is one of those things where I just wanted to contextualize it for people who are. Considering reinvention that you have to learn a little bit about what your reinvention is in order to feed into this approach to finding collaborators and partners.
Todd: I think like we’re living in this world that is like people are so scared to have real human connection and like to go deep with people. But at the end of the day, our partnership will work best if I understand what your real fears are and what your real hopes and dreams are.
And I’ve had failed partnerships. One of them in particular failed because we were not in deep alignment about what we both really wanted, what we were both really trying to create. Okay. And even though the words that were happening as we were building, seemed like there was alignment, there was misalignment.
One person really wanted something else, and the other person really wanted something else, both of them based on lack. Like, oh, I don’t have that now, so I wanna be able to create that in my life. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? This is normal. We’re all human. There’s an element of striving in being human and because of that misalignment and there wasn’t a communication that bridged the gap between it eventually that business crumbled.
It failed from the inside out because those two things, those two pathways cannot be reconciled.
And this goes for the mentors, the models, the avatars. Like think about potential clients of yours, the people that will eventually pay you money for whatever it is that you’re doing for your work in reinvention. These are real people who have real challenges and real hopes and dreams that you can help.
At the end of the day, it’s what a business is. A business helps, okay? Every business helps somebody do something. Money is the value exchange to get it. But at the end of the day, the more that you can be human with your collaborators, the more that you can be honest and authentic, you are going to skyrocket.
And I think there’s so much fear around that. Fear of being human, fear of being seen, like whatever, we’re all human. This thing’s a blip in the fricking matrix, right? So just show up, be authentic, and that’s how you’re gonna find partnerships that work, right? By being honest with yourself and also being curious about others.
Chris: I’ve gotta talk about our business partnership for a minute in that context, Todd, because the, thing that perhaps I value the most about it is the commitment that we made at some point early on. I think we made a commitment to be very open and honest and owning our fears, our faults, airing anything that we thought we might not be aligned on.
And like, I mean, we literally are doing this every day. Even as we collaborate to build something together, I at least feel so empowered and motivated to be like, let me share what my motivation is behind this. Let me share what the context is behind this. Let me openly share that I don’t like this thing that Todd wrote or did or created here and why, as opposed to like hoping it works itself out and you know, then there’s maybe something under the surface that is not clear and open between us. I feel like I’m really coming into this partnership, or I’ve been in this partnership in a very open way, and it’s been so beneficial. Right. I think it’s also just like you say from a human perspective, forget the business perspective from a human perspective, it’s like such a great experience and it’s a growth experience to be able to be like I’m bringing zero ego to this. I want to serve this partnership. Like the partnership is above all in the partnership. Right.
Todd: I love what you’re saying. Look, reinvention is an opportunity to be human.
It’s fighting against the grain in so many ways because like we are more isolated than ever. We are on these zoom calls, like we are being inundated with AI right now. There’s cars driving around without people all over where I live right now. Like it’s real, the world is having us feel more and more isolated.
And that’s why I go back to the human connection as being the through line with what I think is gonna be not only the future of successful business ventures, but also how to be really fulfilled. ’cause it’s not just about making money, it’s also about living a life that you feel is valuable and fulfilled, you know, and deeply enriching for yourself.
And the more that you can get into just like openness and vulnerability. It doesn’t mean that on our first dm I was like, oh man, I’m struggling with all this and I’m looking for a way out, and maybe you can help. It’s not that it’s iterative, right? But
you gotta find your people as you’re reinventing yourself. And I’ve seen unsuccessful reinventions happen. I have one in particular in mind is somebody who I really like, and respect as a person. Like did that thing where they just went into the hood under the thing and spent so much time by themselves iterating and tinkering, and didn’t open themselves up to collaborations, didn’t open themselves up to partnership, and then constantly is revealing things in the world and then feeling disappointed because it’s not landing or working or catching fire.
Of course it isn’t because you didn’t build it in collaboration, you didn’t build it in partnership. This is an opportunity to get out of your own way and build. That’s the message from today, Chris, is build in partnership, build in vulnerability, be human, be curious about the other humans in your field that you’re serving or working with in some ways, and let that drive you.
look, AI’s gonna come and accelerate technology. It’s not going away. Okay. But neither are human beings and our need to be human. Not everybody feels that way, but I know you do. Human beings are really important, When I look at my life. I’m trying to make everyone around me feel fulfilled and successful. That’s my role that’s what I do. you’re that way too. And that’s the basis of our community. Like I care about the people in our group that we’re helping.
I want them to work. That’s what drives it. That’s what this episode is around. Yeah, we can get tactical. And I think we did, but it’s also an energy thing. And it’s a human thing
Chris: mean,
Todd: We went deep. We weren’t expecting to go that deep there. Huh?
Chris: Yeah, but I mean, it goes to the fundamental thing that I think about often, which is like, what are we here for, right? What are we doing? The whole thing for, you know, for me do, I wanna be, uh, abundant in wealth and make lots of money.
Sure, of course. That’s the world we live in, I guess. But I’m really here to have a human experience. I mean, here on the planet, right? I’m really here to connect with people and I love helping people. I am so excited. I’ve found a way to help people through my work. And I think that. Even though we’re in this potentially isolated world where you could just sit in your house and stare at your screen all day or whatever it is, I don’t think that’s what 99.99% of people actually want from their lives.
So if we’re gonna get big and deep on this thing, then this really is a call to say tap into your humanness and really examine what it is you want. Like I bet you want to connect with more people through your work and through your passion and your mission and the things that you do. Right? it’s so exciting.
I think it’s such a, an exciting opportunity at this time in life. Where you can just, like you said, we haven’t met in person yet, right? We have this ability to use the technology to create relationships that could have never existed in the past. How cool is that?
Todd: Yeah. I love it. What a juicy conversation. There’s so many different angles we could go off of, but we hope if you’re listening that you’ve loved what we’ve shared and you’ve gotten some real value out of it, and we invite you, obviously to subscribe to our podcast, follow us along on social.
Chris and I are just. So committed to helping people reinvent their careers and their lives right now in this really chaotic moment in time, if we’re being honest. And there are techniques and there is a process that can help you get there and navigate the murky waters to hit success faster. And starting just with that belief is really important and we’re gonna just gonna be a stand for that.
And so finding partnerships and finding collaborators is a big part of that. Looking at the other humans in your field, in your life and saying, how can I work with people to actually make this stuff happen? Is an accelerator, a big accelerator. So Tune in to what we’re doing, you know, stay a part of these conversations.
Just being a part of what we’re talking about will amplify your ability to see things differently. That’s the whole point of us doing this. And as always, Chris, man, it’s just such an honor to be here with you, you know, and having this conversation. I just love what we’re doing here, man. So let’s keep going.
Chris: Yeah, man, the pleasure’s all mine. I appreciate it. Appreciate you Todd.
