Everyone’s talking about strategy, AI, and tactics. But most people are missing the thing that actually drives Career ReInvention:
Relationships.
In this episode, Todd and Chris turn the lens on themselves – and break down what it really looks like to build something with another person when you have different styles, rhythms, and expectations.
Because collaboration sounds great…until it gets messy.
We talk openly about our own partnership – where it’s worked, where it’s been hard, and what we’ve had to learn in real time to keep moving forward.
You’ll hear:
- The difference between transactional vs. relational thinking (and why it matters)
- How to actually collaborate when people work differently than you
- The power of slowing down, listening, and having the hard conversations
- How real human connection creates opportunities you can’t plan for
This isn’t about “networking.”
It’s about learning how to connect, communicate, and build with other humans – especially in a world that’s pulling us further apart. If this conversation resonates with you, visit ReInvention.biz to explore our guided workbook, learn more about us, and start creating what’s next!
**Subscribe to the ReInvention Podcast to stay plugged into fresh ideas, frameworks, and real-world tools for navigating the future of your work and life.
Episode Transcript
Todd Jason: And that’s the work of being in this world right now of letting go of your own ideas. And just seeing others and honoring their humanity and their authenticity and who they are, and even supporting that while not giving up your own dream and giving up your own mission, this is the dance, right? And a lot of this is communication.
So Chris, my brother, ReInvention, what are we doing today? What is our topic that we’re gonna be picking apart today?
Chris Thide: Today we are using ourselves as the Guinea pigs for this really important concept in reinvention, especially ’cause we’ve been telling people on the episodes in season one, Hey, find collaborators, find partners, don’t isolate, work with others. Well, how do you work effectively with others when they have a different style than you, when they have maybe different priorities or when they work in a different rhythm? You know, life and work are complex and anytime you add in another human being, complexity grows.
So today we’re talking about how you can take an honest look at your own work style, behaviors, orientation towards work and partnerships, and make an honest assessment of like how you can best collaborate, partner, and interact with people in support of, and around your reinvention.
And Todd, I know you and I have learned that we’ve got some similarities and some differences in our work style. Because of the way we came together, like we really didn’t know each other at all. We’re like, Hey, let’s build this business, let’s build this brand together. And we just like jumped right into running this thing, as a paid business from the start. And I mean, there’s lots of people go into business together that know each other for like a decade before they do it. So we kind of did it in a very different way. And we’ve found out about each other’s work styles as we’ve gone and it’s caused some challenges for the both of us.
So, reinventors, I want you to listen closely to this one, ’cause you’re hearing us in real time, very openly and vulnerably sharing how to navigate the challenges of working with a business partner or a collaborator. And this is an absolutely critical skill for successful reinvention. And I’m not gonna say that we’ve got everything all perfectly worked out, but we’ve managed to adjust our systems and rhythm to find a way
I think that mostly works for both of us. So, do you wanna start the airing of the grievances?
Todd Jason: Well, I love the intro and, and actually when you were talking about us being brand new and we went into business together, I went the other way in my mind where I was thinking, well, sometimes when you go into business with somebody or you’re working with somebody for a long time that you know very well. You already have them into a box mentally or emotionally, that actually is very hard to break out of. And there can be an advantage of going into business with somebody brand new. There is a lot of unknown and maybe you’re living in fantasy land or assumption about like the things that they’re good at or the things that you’re good at and how it’s gonna work. That gets uncovered, but you can look at it in both ways. And I also just wanna preface this conversation as well, the need for all reinventors and really everyone in our world to also take a look at how you relate to people you know, in work, yes, and also in life. Because so much focus right now is on AI. Like, how are you using AI? How’s our company using AI? How are we gonna use AI to build our entrepreneurial like this interaction between AI people are dating AI. Like, yes, I get it. But on this episode, we’re gonna talk about the human to human interaction, and, in my view, and hopefully in yours as well. I think we share this as well, that the people that are gonna come outta this chaotic moment in time, and it is chaotic, okay? It’s a chaotic moment. We have no idea what’s gonna happen in the world with money, with business, with work. I mean, it’s all up in the air.
But in my opinion, this is the time to get back to center with ourselves, to look in and ask the questions about what is it that I really wanna do, and then look out into our communities and our networks and start really authentically connecting and building those bridges, human to human. I think that skill is gonna be the one that is relevant for who ends up, I hate to say winning or losing, but in some sense, winning or losing. moment in time that has a lot of uncertainty. Okay, this is the time to connect. Now, with that said, we have challenges in terms of how to connect with people. Like it’s a big thing, like a lot of my coaching, Chris, I help people in communication, like how to actually communicate with people.
And I think with you, I met you on social media famously we’re on TikTok. We were talking about the same things. I reached out, I was like, I like this guy. He’s cool, we talk. All of a sudden we’re in business together. We’ve had some growing pains, like you said, But we kind of like went in this idea of reinvention as a core theme. And in that we’ve been kind of duking it out and trying to figure out what’s our right place, what’s our right relationship?
For me, this whole thing needs to begin with a true intention, that I’m listening to this episode right now to these two guys, Todd and Chris. And I’m listening to reinvention because I want to figure out how I can succeed, how I can find fulfillment, how I can have abundance and joy and like real connections in the world, In this crazy moment in time we’re living. And the relationships are so very important. So it’s gotta start with an intention to wanna build relationships, an intention to want to actually collaborate even when it gets messy. So much of this world right now is being pulled back. We’re so behind the screens, Chris.
It’s like everything screens and younger people aren’t even dating any longer. I think the whole like sex life thing for people in their twenties is like all up in the air right now, ’cause they’re not meeting in bars. Like we need to get off the screens a little bit and we need to connect and be vulnerable.
And I think you and I have done that really, really well. And in that intentionality of saying, Hey, let’s try to build this thing together. We don’t know each other, but let’s try and let’s work on our relationship and like how we’re interacting with each other. I think that’s where you can find some beautiful things. And as an example with me and you, Chris, this podcast wasn’t part of the original plan. This came out because we went in with that intention to get to know each other and to be more vulnerable and authentic with each other. And that’s led here. And so I think for me, as we get into this episode. I want this to be a motivator for people to want to connect with other people, to wanna reach out, to wanna build relationships, to wanna build those bridges.
And I’m not saying don’t do stuff with AI, but I’m saying that’s the human to human thing that I think our biggest success and joy and fulfillment is gonna come from.
Chris Thide: I think it’s great that you brought up this podcast, because, when we were, if you remember right, when we were first sort of meeting and talking, first we met a couple of times just to chat And then we started to conceive of a business and think of it like, okay, well let’s launch this community.
Let’s look at what this looks like. And so we had meetings that were kind of transactional in a sense. Not transactional in the way we worked with each other, but like they were focused on, the business, building the business. But then we also just had some catch ups where we were just like connecting. We only have known each other a little bit, like let’s connect together.
And those conversations were the ones where I think I said like, oh, this is like a jam session, like in a band, we should always record this.
Whenever I get into the room with somebody else and we’re playing music, the first thing I do is I start recording because sometimes beautiful shit comes out in the first five minutes, like before you’re ready.
And so I was like, let’s bring that philosophy to this. So I think you just started like recording our zooms or whatever. I think that was the genesis of this podcast. Right? Those were not conversations that were like, how can we make money? Or like, uh, how can we like sell, those were conversations that were like, who are you? Like, what’s up man? Like, oh, you got a daughter? I got daughters, and like blah, blah, blah. And like, just having that connection. And then we kind of would riff and jam off of that and like maybe get into like philosophy of the way we coach people. And then that was the genesis of this.
So I say that because it was very relationship rooted. When we say partners and collaborators, I think that people might listen and hear that to say like, oh, like how am I gonna find someone who’s gonna accelerate my business for my reinvention? And yes, And: what we’re saying is there’s lots of different people that you’re going to connect with and you can’t go into those or I don’t recommend, and I think you don’t recommend Todd going into those looking at like, how can this person help vault me forward? And I think that’s an axis you’ve talked about, right? Yeah.
Todd Jason: I gotta jump in on this one, because I think what you’re pointing to is like something. That’s so big right now in the world. It’s a problem that I’m seeing and I’m working with a lot of people right now. Like I am very much working with groups and people.
I know you are too. Like, we’re very much helping people in this career, transition, career reinvention, and the energetic sense that I get. it always comes across very transactional, like the way that, people are relating with each other. It just seems that there’s like a lot of these walls up. It’s very transactional and like for me, I’m always trying to get right to the heart of the matter. I’m trying to understand who the person is. I’m trying to share who I am. I mean, we’re all just humans like spinning around this planet for a short period of time and we all don’t really know what’s going on and like we’re doing our best.
Right. And I always try to get there and I know you are like that as well. That’s why we connect so much, ’cause we really share that, more heartfelt, kind of emotional way to do, and like when I’m working with clients or groups, I’m always just trying to get to that place, of being more relational and not transactional. And it’s very hard because the nature of the world in general is just so transactional. People are so slammed. There’s so much to do.
There’s so much going on. There’s so much consideration. Like it’s gotten so complex for us as humans, that we’ve forgotten a lot of just the basic things that we need, which are deep, authentic relationships with other people. And you know, I went to this conference about a month ago, right? And it was great. I had a good time, but like there was so much just transactional nature and I’m just sitting there wanting to connect with people and as much as I can. And I think when you open up those doorways and you say, I wanna relate, I want to connect with my network, I wanna reach out to people, I wanna have conversations with people about my career, and I wanna just find out what they’re doing.
I wanna see if there’s opportunities for me, right outside of just my chats with Chat GPT like who can I connect with? How can I reinvent? You gotta be relational on this Chris. Right, because it’s in the relation that you’re gonna find the magic. This is what we found in throughout history for human beings, whether it’s music, art, building businesses, it’s the relationships that matter.
And I think that you and I coming together and even though we’ve had differences and some of the nuts and bolts of working together have been challenging for both of us. We did find this conversation and we did find this podcast. Which is a through line for how we both wanna show up in the world, which is why it works for both of us to do this, right.
And I think then we just gotta be smart about, well then how do we kind of recreate our individual and business to like match what we’re good at and what we like to do. And when you’re starting with the authentic person as much as you can, you’re gonna be able to make changes and edits faster than if you’re just transactional. We’re not computers. I wanna get that across to people out there so badly that it’s okay to be yourself and it’s okay to share what’s challenging for you. And I know for you, you’ve had some insecurity coming into partnership with me, ’cause you’ve mentioned you’ve had some challenges with ADHD and things like that.
How has that been for you? Like coming in with some challenges, were you insecure?
Chris Thide: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think, reinvention in general, so it’s an interesting thing ’cause a lot of small businesses or solo entrepreneurs. There’s a higher tendency for people like that to have ADHD because it’s like they have this ability to hyperfocus and like maybe weren’t working so well within a system.
And I see that, right? and I can tap into that, but I also, I worked within systems for so long, I mean, I’ve been told that I’m like a hyper coper, like I have taken my ADHD and like, wrangled it in a certain way that I’ve been able to thrive in organizations even when it wasn’t really making sense for me.
But then coming out into the entrepreneurial world, working by myself and partnering with you, it’s a whole different ball game. Like there’s not just this sort of system and structure around me and this conveyor belt dropping off the work on my desk, and then I sort of play whack-a-mole and then the work moves on.
There’s so much structure I’ve had to create around that. And yeah, I definitely feel insecurity around the way I show up as a partner to you in the business element of this, because there’s times where there’s, just a gap in my mind of like, oh, shit, like that thing, I should have been doing that thing or, you know, get that done today.
And that might work within my own solopreneur, but that doesn’t really work in a partnership because I do it and hand it off to you and you do something with it and hand it back to me. Like, there’s gotta be that, back and forth to keep the motor running. What that brings me to in a more general point for anyone who’s listening who might not have ADHD, is just an honest self-assessment of your work style and what you bring to the table and how you best collaborate.
And when you’re looking at working with someone, you know, just being really open and honest with yourself and that person about how you work and, not saying that different styles can’t work together, but there just has to be like an honesty about it to say, okay, well we might have to like tweak this a little bit.
We might have to find our way to something that works for both of us. Which I think is something that we’ve done and, and continue to do, obviously like it’s, we’re evolving and reinventing the way we work together as we go. Does that resonate for you, man?
Todd Jason: Well I remember there was one weekend where I was really just feeling down about our business partnership. The fantasy of kind of who you were and what we could build together was starting to wear thin or something.
Chris Thide: The honeymoon was over.
Todd Jason: Yeah, I was just like, I don’t know, like, I don’t know if this is working, you know? I mean, I’m just being really honest here because this is what we go through as people, like we’re modeling
Chris Thide: Yeah.
Todd Jason: something, we’re just being honest and transparent. Like, I was like, man, there’s a couple of things about the way that I’m working right now and like kind of what I need or would expect in a partner that isn’t really being matched. And you also came to me very vulnerably even before that and said, hey, look, I really do struggle with a couple things. I struggle with ADHD. struggle with these certain things and I do feel like I’m letting you down. You had said that to me and I remember I kind of heard that, but then I was still frustrated. I’m like, well yeah, but whatever. Like in my own mind, my, the ego part of me was like, whatever, like f that, we still have to build a business here. You know, like, alright, that I just had, don’t have a good business partner. You know, it’s kind of like, I had a thought like that.
Chris Thide: Yeah.
Todd Jason: And then I had a weekend where I just was like sitting more in the reflection part of it. Like one of the things that we talk about on this podcast is like the practice of allowing and reflecting. Which is so needed right now in the world. Like, instead of just being transactional with you and just like moving forward without having any semblance of your humanity or mine, I, I allowed and reflected over the weekend.
I thought about it and I allowed it to settle. And in that space I got a different reflection of you and I realized that I didn’t really know you that well. Whatever ideas I had about you and who you should be were completely my own. And I just was able to see that I had my own ideas that had nothing to do with the reality or your reality. I also got into like some real empathy for you about, man, this guy’s really struggled. He had a great career, but he got really burned out and went through a, a big reinvention. This is why we’re doing this together. But still struggles with some of the ADHD stuff and like is really trying and I’m coming in like, a hammer, trying to hammer him in his pain point and it’s not working.
And I have like this big aha moment of like, oh, I need to let go. I need to let go of what I think must happen, of what I think is right. And this is very hard, for people that are entrepreneurial because there’s such a sense of leadership and autonomy and like pushing forward. But when you’re working together, which is the essence of this episode, how do you do this in a way which you can collaborate and actually create something bigger than either one of you might be able to do by yourself, which is the nature of everything to do with partnerships or collaborations, and so I let go of my own idea of what this needed to be or how I thought it needed to go. It doesn’t mean that I let go of my power or my vision, but I wanted to energetically soften up and be more amiable to the way that you are and the way that you work. And it doesn’t mean that I need to be in business with you or not be in business with you. I mean, maybe there’s different ways, different ways to relate and work together. And that’s what I opened myself up to.
So I let go of a lot of like my preconceived attachment to what it needed to be and was like, all right, let me just get to know who this Chris guy is and like what can we do together? And that’s where we started to change things a little bit.
Like what are the actual assets that these two guys, Todd and Chris can do together? ’cause it changed, like, ‘ our first fantasy wasn’t really right. So now we need to recalibrate. What comes up for you on this one?
Chris Thide: Oh yeah. A hundred percent. Right. I mean, I think part of what it is is that I feel that I came into a situation where you’ve done the entrepreneurial thing and you’ve done the coaching thing for much longer than I have both of those things, right? And you had a prebuilt structure in mind, whether you would’ve called it that or not. I know that there’s a lot of things that you sort of had it in your head in a way and, one of my weaknesses or challenges is that I need to see it and I need to understand the why of it, and more than just the how and the what of it.
I need to understand the why of it. If I don’t understand the why of something, I mean, this was like my Achilles heel in corporate. It’s a wonder actually that I’ve not been fired more because I was that guy in the room at all levels when I was junior and when I was senior, who would just be like, why? I understand that we need to do a dog and fucking pony show, but why?
Todd Jason: Mm-hmm.
Chris Thide: I did feel you know, when you went through that kind of reckoning where you’re like, Hey, maybe the thing I have sort of pre-structured in my mind almost isn’t being fair to Chris because it’s like a Todd thing and like it’s not a Todd and Chris thing. You know, to me I felt like that was a shift where we got to a place where we almost took a step back. Let’s build stuff that is more us together. It’s more taking into account that there’s two people at the party.
Right. And I also, I just wanna say, Todd, you said something that I was already thinking from my perspective, and I love that you said it. It’s the balance of saying, okay, I’m learning how to work with this person and it doesn’t mean that I just get to put all my structures on top of them. We have to kind of figure out how to collaborate in a way that works for both of us, but also I’m not giving up the core things that I believe and the core things that I’m like, I think this needs to be done. There is a balance there and I think that’s a really subtle and yet challenging element of working with a partner or a collaborator is like, you do wanna be the leader and say, there’s certain things that I truly, strongly believe we need to do these things. But, also you, you can’t be that way about everything because there’s gotta be some compromise in there. T hat is not an easy balance to build. And I honestly think for the two of us, we’re still tweaking that and working with that. And I think maybe with your partners and collaborators, you always will be, because we’re humans and we evolve in our own ways of working and being.
So It’s like a golf club. You gotta hold it tight enough so it doesn’t fly outta your hands, but not so tight that you can’t make a nice swing.
Todd Jason: Yeah, I love that. I mean, look, a lot of people come to me for relationship advice or coaching as well, because it’s very similar. When you’re talking about, collaboration and business and how do I use my network and all that, I mean, it’s always the same for me.
I’m always starting with the relationship and authenticity first, you know, and like curiosity, like getting to know other people. But that thing that I mentioned before about non-attachment to preconceived ideas, it’s something that we all do. We have these quick judgements around people. You know, it could be relationships, business partners, anything, and like we put ’em into a box very quickly.
That’s us. We do that. A lot of the time has nothing to do with the other person. We have to admit that we’re living in fantasy a lot with the people in our lives and that we meet. When people come to me that just start dating and they ask me for advice, I ask them. How long do you think it would take you dating full on to really know each other, like to really get it, like to really get some semblance of essence and they’ll go, oh, they’ll look at me with these big eyes.
I don’t know. And then I say, two years. It takes two years. In my opinion to really get to know somebody. And I could tell you, I’ve been married, I’ve been with my wife for 14 years, and you know, we got engaged at nine months, but we didn’t really know each other. But we also knew that we didn’t know each other.
We knew enough to say, yeah, we look at things the same way, but we were still uncovering and discovering, and by the way, we still are because we’re changing and evolving all the time. I think we have to let go of these like stories that wanna put people in situations in boxes, and that’s freedom. This is freedom to be able to do that. Now I look at you, I’m like, Chris is like a brother. Like I love doing this podcast with him. He’s got his own journey. He’s got his own things that he wants to do. He wants to focus on his one-on-one coaching. You know, maybe more than some of the things that I might have wanted to do. Like totally good.
How do I support that? And that’s the work of being in this world right now of letting go of your own ideas. And just seeing others and honoring their humanity and their authenticity and who they are, and even supporting that while not giving up your own dream and giving up your own mission and your own things that are important to you. This is the dance, right? And a lot of this is communication, and I think one of the things that you and I do well, and we’re doing it publicly, is that we talk about this stuff to each other. Even the hard stuff even on this call, we’ve had a couple things like, oh, I didn’t know. You know, that’s it.
And this is what AI is just never gonna replace. Like we need to be around other humans and to get that living, breathing, organic interaction between people, it’s one of the core needs that we have as people. And it’s getting harder to do that because it’s so transactional in the world right now.
It’s so tinny, you know? But we need to get back to this. And I think the people that will find joy and happiness and fulfillment and abundance and success will be the ones who understand that and connect and ask questions and really want to dive in with others. And that’s why I want this podcast to be a stand for that, chris, I want reinvention to be a stand for the human to human part of this, as I said before.
Chris Thide: Yeah, I mean, the human relationship wi ll never die and the human relationship is everything. Right. I love the way you connected it to like, dating, uh, or relationships, right? I saw this graphic and I actually shared it with somebody that I was coaching around the people in a relationship, it’s like you, your partner, your projection of your partner, your partner’s projection of you, your projection of your partner’s projection of you, your partner’s projection… like all of those people, quote unquote, are in the relationship, right?
Because we all come to these things where it’s like we saw our dad and mom as kids, and so like that is a model of a relationship that we bring in, and then we look at everything through that lens. We don’t know that we’re looking at it through that lens. I think that is one of the major opening moments for people.
I mean, I know it’s for people that I’ve coached, and it sounds like it’s for lots of people you’ve coached where just revealing that, hey, you’re bringing a lot of baggage to this airport. You are really putting a lot of predetermined expectations on a situation with someone that, you might have met months ago, or you might have just met and now you’re already sort of pigeonholing and expecting X, Y, Z out of this person.
Todd Jason: Yeah.
Chris Thide: And again, this is never to say that you ought not to have your own sort of standards or expectations or what your mission is or what your goal is, and that may match up perfectly, or some of those may match up perfectly with the people that you end up collaborating with and partnering with. But I think there’s an element of being able to say or assess that, Hey, we, we connect on these two things, but these other three things that I want are not gonna come from this relationship.
Todd Jason: Right.
Chris Thide: Right.
Todd Jason: It’s really hard for people. you know, I mean, I love that you just said that. It’s like you expect everything from these other people
Chris Thide: All or nothing.
Todd Jason: one of my guilty pleasures is, I love the show on Netflix, Love Is Blind.
It’s so ridiculous. But it actually exposes what we’re talking about right here, it’s a fascinating social experiment. These people go in and they, you know, they don’t see the other, and then they have to spend three weeks living together.
And then they supposed to get married, and then the end of the show is at the altar where they say yes or no. They do it all over the world. They have, love is blind, Sweden, France, Brazil. And by the way, I love watching the other countries because you get to see the differences in the cultures of how people are interacting in relationship in a dating environment.
Okay, so I love this stuff, right. And the point is there’s so much projection, that you are doing, dear listener, on all the people in your life, that it doesn’t mean that you can stop it all immediately, but just being self-aware enough to know that you are making up a lot of stories around the situations.
And just that in itself is an enlightening moment to really see that. I wanna give a very clear example on this and how it relates to, someone that I’m coaching, and I think this is relevant for a lot of people because there’s somebody that I’ve been working with for a long time and is actually a friend of mine who’s in a situation in his corporate environment where he is got a great, great setup. Really helped to build this business to a very high level, but it’s been really struggling with burnout for years. Okay. Now he’s very close with his CEO, you know, they’re tight in terms of, he really helped to build this business. So there’s a lot of loyalty and friendship that they have intermingled with, like the business of it.
But he’s been struggling with this burnout for years and been unable to either get the courage or understand what to say or how to say it, you know, and what is the solution. Okay. And so kind of came to me and is like, okay, I need you to help me devise this conversation that I need to have. And it’s big stakes for this person.
You know, like there’s a lot at stake here. There’s the identity of building this business. There’s the relationships, there’s just a lot going on in this situation. And you know, came to me and I was coaching him and a lot of what he was saying to me was just very transactional stuff. I said, look, the way you wanna begin this, going back to the original premises, this is a relationship mentioned that you’re close with your CEO. Have a conversation. Let him know what you’re going through. That’s gonna stop everything.
And like, you have to be courageous enough to cross that bridge. And I will tell you, Chris, I’m gonna just tell you how big this was, two years of talking informally, and then about two months of talking more formally, in a coaching situation, like all to build up the courage, and also have the proper language that he felt good about to say what he needed to say, which is really like, Hey man, I just gotta let you know that this has been an amazing thing, but I need to change, you know, and I, I’ve really been experiencing some burnout for a while and. I know that you know that a little bit, but I really need to talk to you about that and see what we can do together. And I don’t want to quit. I don’t wanna leave. I love working with you. I’ve, I love so much about this, but I do need to have this conversation with you. And so it was all that you know, just to do that.
And it stopped the CEO in his tracks and it’s like, tell me what’s going on. And then they had a human conversation for 45 minutes, just a human to human where they opened up to each other about things like the CEO says some things back that were also more personal, terms of maybe some of his own struggles.
I don’t even know. He didn’t tell me. The point is, that’s it. Because in that space, they can now have an honest and authentic conversation about what to do, and guess what? It’s a win-win, win. They want each other to win. They don’t want the other person to get burned out, then they want to continue working together and now they’re gonna figure out a way that’s gonna be really great.
And I don’t know what the answer is yet, but I talked to him yesterday and he is like, I’m really excited. ’cause I think there’s some things that are already emerging and popping, but it took two years, Chris, for this brother just to build up the courage to be authentic and like he could have done that so long ago.
But that’s what I’m talking about. I’m giving a very real face to what I said before about everything is so transactional. Everyone is so worried about things that don’t really matter. Identity and appearance, behind the scenes, we’re all human. And when you connect with people at the human level, you’re gonna win.
And if you don’t win, if you, if that person doesn’t come back, then at least you know where you stand, and then you can move on with your life.
Chris Thide: I think it is a win either way. Right? I think I’d rather know where I stand than be living in some projection or fantasy of what the situation is. Right. I have a lot of empathy, you know, for your friend slash coachee there, right, because that really hits me.
It really makes me feel, back in the day when I was in situations that weren’t right for me in the work environment, and I was really, I think it’s the brain wants to keep us safe, wants to keep us stable. You know, the brain is focused on survival, not thriving. Right? Survive, not thrive. And so. I think there’s this fear of like, Hey, if I let them know what I’m really thinking, if I let them know how I really feel, that rocks the boat.
Who knows where that goes? The whole thing falls apart. But I think what’s discounted in that is you’re carrying this around in you all day every day of not letting that out, or not expressing that, or not having that conversation. I mean, that, you’re doing the organization, let’s say, a disservice because you can’t possibly bring your full self if 20% of your system is just trying to like keep this thing held in, right?
And so the openness of that, it’s so admirable to be able to have that open conversation. And the way you describe it, it’s like, there’s a deeper connection that comes outta that. Right?
Sometimes the difficult conversation that you don’t want to have is gonna take you down a path that maybe you were worried about. Oh wow, this isn’t working out, we are gonna part ways. I think that ultimately that’s gonna be for the best. It might not feel like it’s for the best in the shortest term, and you might have to deal with a little bit more nerves or fear or a new world or whatever you want to call it. But rather than carrying around that baggage of the thing unsaid, it’s always gonna be better to let that thing out.
Todd Jason: Yeah. I agree. And I also want to just say one other part to this in terms of a skill to really develop right now for all people that are in reinvention for their careers or their lives. And it’s just so antithesis to what we’re seeing out there, which is why I love we’re doing this podcast. Like no one is talking about this. Like in the way that we should be, this human connection, this authentic. So when I was coaching my friend on this, I didn’t just coach him to share authentically. I also coached him to listen authentically and to slow down and really pay attention to the words that were coming back at him from the CEO. Like what were the words coming back? Not only the words, but the tone of voice and the level of presence, you know? And this was like so mind blowing to him. He never even heard to do this, you know? And he never even thought to really think about, ’cause we’re so caught up in our own drama. That we just are walking around completely shelled up about us, me, me, me. I’m like, no. Like, think about it from his perspective. How is he taking in what you’re saying? Like what kind of person is this, you know, like, is he a good guy? Is he a bad guy? Does he not care? Is it gonna go fully transactional?
Is he gonna care about you as a person? Like it’s very relevant, I told him, like to what he’s saying, like, it’s great for us to develop some script for you to be authentic but it’s equally as powerful for you to learn to listen and, what’s interesting about that is that that was really helpful for him because he’s like, I was really listening to what he was saying to me and that’s where we went off on some threads of conversation that actually may lead to some incredible new ways of working together.
And like, this is just the thing that’s missing in the world, Chris. Like people aren’t listening to each other. It’s so transactional. It’s so non-relational. And like, that’s why you gotta listen to our podcast or you gotta get a coach like you do. You need to slow down.
All the magic, all the opportunity, that you want to happen in your life is actually available to you all the time, but you’re running so fast and trying to solve and put out so many different fires that you’re missing the magic. I think that’s the sensation that so many people have right now is that like, yeah, I’m living and I’m working and I’m figuring things out but like am I really joyful? I really connected with myself? Am I really paying attention to this person? Am I really present right now? Am I really having an authentic relationship? I would say for the most part, the answer is no. You know, and like we’re just gonna model something different here, man, and say, Hey, let’s get back to that part and see what happens.
Chris Thide: You’re getting into some areas that are like touching on my philosophy of life in the year 2026. Right? we talk about not only AI, but I mean, everybody’s got their head down in their device. You know, there’s, people just aren’t connecting in the way that they used to connect on a day-to-day basis.
But going back to your story with your friend and also thinking about us and thinking about all of our reinventors. A relationship takes time, it takes energy, it takes nurturing, and I think this is critical. You have two people in a relationship, but the relationship is something that you’re co-creating.
It is a third entity. It is not just, the two of you stuck together or whatever it is, or three or four people or whatever. However you work this out, you’re co-creating it together. And so it’s this thing in the middle that is evolving and then the points that it’s attached to on either side are also evolving.
So, it takes care and feeding and ongoing attention, and I think that is part of why it’s so difficult for people to stay locked in and listen and read tone and body language. And because we’re all just like one notification away from being, not present. Right? And so I think it takes real focus and I will say it’s very rewarding.
And I’ll encourage anyone listening here in any area of your life, lock in with the people and be present with the people, and connect with the people and throw your fucking phone in a lake for half an hour, you know and be there with people I’m on a soapbox now Todd, but like, to me what is life if we are not connecting with other people. To me, that’s the whole fucking game.
Todd Jason: Couldn’t say it better, brother. Yeah, I love this. I mean, I love that we got here and yeah, as we close this one out, I mean, I think easier said than done, but this is why we’re doing this podcast because, you know, reinvention to me is like, it sounds very transactional. Oh, I need to reinvent. Okay, I need to build new skills. I need to figure out what I wanna do. I need to, you know, our workbook, right? It’s very transactional. A lot of the things in there, you know, it’s like, all right, you know, gotta do these things to figure out reinvention. But at the end of the day, and yes, AI is a tool that’s here and it’s very useful for reinvention and we talk a lot about that here.
But at the end of the day, the people that are going to drive you and motivate you. And the big call here for me, Chris, is slow down. Like slow the F down in a world that feels like you can’t slow down, that is picking up so much pace, we need to slow down. Right?
And I know for some of you’d be like, oh my god, yeah, the easier said than done. But slow down and connect. Slow down and listen. Slow down, like literally as a practice, slow your breathing down, allow and reflect. The answers are there for you, right? The answers are there within your relationships right now.
Like your dreams can come true right now. Believe it or not, you’re just in a box and you don’t know it. We all are, I am too. I’m constantly challenging my assumptions about everything that I see. And continue to seek, truth within you, right? And continue to question everything. And I think that’s the answer.
And we’re all in this journey together. This is a crazy moment in time. We’re living like this really does feel like a very, very intense moment with everything that’s happening. 2026, man. I mean, it feels intense, but only way we get through it, Chris is together, you know, is with others, you know? And so we need to stop the disease of isolation as much as we can, so that way we can improve ourselves and also improve the lives of others around us. And that’s the way that we get through it. So that’s, that’s my soapbox spiel brother.
Chris Thide: I love that man. I love, that’s a beautiful message to end on, right? is: Slow down.
Todd Jason: Slow down.
Chris Thide: I mean truly. And the magic of it is, and you have to trust us and believe in this, is that when you slow down and when you connect and when you are relational rather than transactional, that’s gonna speed up your success.
Todd Jason: Yes, that’s the thing, man. It does. It speeds it up. People don’t know it, you know, and they’re spending so much time spending these little wheels if you slow down, big things can happen.
All right, man. Well, I love being here with you as always. This is amazing. So much more. If you love our podcast, subscribe, hit follow. Follow us along. Come to our website, download our workbook, our reinvention workbook. It’s amazing. It’ll help you get clarity about what you want or need to do for the future. We have a step-by-step process in that workbook. It’s really a powerful product, but follow us along because this conversation is needed right now and it’s ongoing, and we look forward to getting to know you.
