Ever feel that little spike of anxiety when someone asks: “So… what’s going on with work?”
If your career is shifting, evolving, or in a “between chapters” season, that question can make even the most capable people freeze – not because they’re failing… but because they don’t yet have the language for what’s emerging.
The FIX here is so simple, and instantly adds so much confidence back into whatever you’re doing, but most people simply don’t know the power of crafting communication scripts….
In this episode, Todd and Chris break down a simple 5-step communication framework that helps you speak about where you are right now with clarity, confidence, and authenticity – without oversharing, sounding uncertain, or falling into the “woe is me” trap.
You’ll learn how to:
- Acknowledge your past without getting stuck in it
- Name the transition (without making it awkward)
- Share what’s real in a way that builds connection (not discomfort)
- Shift the conversation toward possibility and momentum
- Make a confident “ask” that can create real opportunities (introductions, ideas, next steps)
This is the kind of small skill that quietly changes everything: your confidence rises, your relationships deepen, and your conversations start opening doors again. Listen to this whole episode as we provide detailed scripts throughout!
If this conversation resonated with you, visit ReInvention.biz to explore our guided workbook and join a community of people just like you – people designing 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: Learning to connect and be emotionally intelligent in your relationships is the thing that can get you to reinvented success way faster. And the disease that we’re fighting against, is isolation and not wanting to have those conversations and share vulnerably, but you can learn how to do this.
Chris: So my man, Todd, we’re back talking about reinvention. We got a really powerful and useful topic today, but what is it, my man?
Todd: Chris, this is one of those conversations that may seem super specific, but what we’re covering today will dramatically increase the feeling of confidence for anyone in the process of reinventing their career or life. Okay? And this topic came up kind of randomly on one of our community calls where several of our reinventors expressed nerves about going home for the holidays and being asked, so what’s going on with work? And not feeling great about the answer.
So one of our members said. I always had a great response to that question, and now I’m not really sure what to say. And she was somebody who was a VP of engineering type at a big tech company in the Bay Area, someone else remarked, I’m losing sleep when I think about talking with my brother-in-law.
So I stopped them in their tracks and I said, do you want me to help you solve this problem? Because it’s actually an easy one to solve. And they were like, yes, please. So the purpose of this episode is to give you a framework for crafting proven confidence boosting communication for wherever you are in the career reinvention process.
And I’ve personally trained thousands of people to use the five steps that we’re about to cover, and it’s actually quite simple and really beneficial. And Chris, this is one of those issues that most people don’t realize holds them back. But when you consciously craft what to say, right to peers, family members, friends to new work prospects, and really to anyone, your confidence increases.
But the real gem is how much having this language can lead to new opportunities. And most people just don’t get that. And so, man, yeah, I’m excited to talk with you about this because I know this is one of those reinvention skills you told me you wished you knew about.
Chris: Yeah, of course. And I think this is something that goes right to the core of reinvention, right? The purpose of reinvention is to realize like that your next career can be your best if you align it with who you want to become, and not who you happen to have been. And when we have those conversations where people are going back for the holidays and they’re like, you know, I’m thinking of my career in a different way and I’m reinventing it, but I don’t know how to talk about it to all these people, who know the old identity of who you were and who you’ve been, and probably aren’t quite ready and maybe won’t understand where you’re going and who you are and who you’re going to be, right? So this is really, really critical and yeah, you’re right, Todd. This is one of those things that, again, there’s a rolling theme through our podcast that a lot of the topics we talk about are things that. I wish I had had our guidance in the past when I was going through it because I stumbled and bumbled and fumbled my way through all this stuff. And yeah, I totally related to the people in our community on that idea of going home for Christmas or even just having, you know, I, I talk to my mom every week right on the phone.
It’s like the first year of explaining what I was doing was just painful and fraught right.
I mean, it was just every time trying to like explain like what is coaching, and some preparation and thinking about it and getting clear about it and the framework that you’re gonna take us through, I think is something that’s gonna help a lot of people bolster their confidence at the beginning stages of reinvention, which is, a really important time to build that confidence so that you can start to build that momentum to make the things that you’re envisioning real.
Todd: Yeah, I mean it’s huge. And you know, I just got a chuckle because when we started to get to know each other, and for those of you that don’t know, we met literally on social media like TikTok. I sent this guy the direct message we started talking and Chris’s big question to me along the way was like, why do you wanna go into business with me?
Like, I’m not really understanding, is this some kind of scam? Right?
Chris: Just making sure it wasn’t like a pyramid scheme.
Todd: And what’s funny about it is that I was looking at it from the perspective of when we look at this process of reinvention, look, a lot of people’s careers are ending or coming to an end for one reason or another.
There’s a lot of burnout. I’m dealing with people right now that are dealing with serious burnout and don’t really know how to exit a current situation and aren’t really sure what’s next. Right? And then you have people who have already started reinvention in some way, meaning they’ve started to put out their shingle, their consulting, their coaching, fractional work, or maybe they’re looking at some new creative projects and wondering, well, how am I gonna make money doing this?
Right? This is what reinvention is. And when I looked at you from afar not knowing you, I was like, oh, this is somebody who did this process. This is somebody who over the last several years, went through this step by step. And in this podcast and in our business, you are on the ground, hands on, can talk about your experience, the wins and the challenges in your process.
And I, that’s why I partnered with you ’cause it’s so valuable to understand and look at someone like you who was VP of procurement, right? The Chandler Bing thing, whatever your job was. And no offense,
Chris: Whatever it was I did
Todd: Whatever you did you were making really good money.
You had the title, you had a lot of things going for you. And then you had to go through that process of burnout, dealing with some things that were mental related and then looking at, well, I need to get clarity about what I wanna do. And dealing with these conversations with your wife and your mom, all these things that we talk about here on the podcast you have gone through.
Right? So
Chris: all really
fresh
It’s and you know, when we talk to people in our community on, on our calls, , I really feel like I can relate to them. ’cause it brings me right back. Right? And I’m not that far away from some of those experiences. And I think that is really helpful for people to hear that as well, that they’re not the only ones going through it, right? We always talk about community is so important when you’re going through your reinvention, don’t isolate and communication is one way to ensure that you are creating a community around your reinvention. So I’m really excited for us to share the framework here
Todd: Yeah, on this issue, I told you this before, this one is really in my wheelhouse. One of the things as a coach that I’ve been able to help people with, and I’ve worked with big companies like Kaiser Permanente, a lot of doctors I worked with, DocuSign, big tech companies, executives, and what I’ve always been a stand for is turning towards conscious communication. Okay? And not just because it helps you get your point across, but because it helps to build your confidence, okay? Now, most people don’t realize that they have a tremendous amount of anxiety and stress underneath the radar because they don’t have clear language for where they’re at in their life or their career.
Okay? And that’s a problem. Like I said at the beginning, that’s easily solved and most people don’t realize it. That if you would just, but turn to this notion of I need to communicate really clearly, at least with myself or starting with myself where I am at right now in life and work, and then be able to practice that with my friends, my family, my peers.
It’s a skill. It’s actually a skill. It’s something to do, that once you get that, you’ll always do it. Meaning that wherever you’re at right now in listening to this, and we’re gonna help you develop language on this call that will describe where you’re at professionally or in life right now, that you can use.
Okay? Like literal scripts, okay? And a framework for scripts that you can use that will help you have that confidence and communicate clearly and also be able to ask for things that you may need. Oh my God, think about that. To be able to, actually ask for what you may need. But the key thing in this is that it will evolve and change.
At your next stage when you’re in your next iteration of life or work, you will know and have in your back pocket, these frameworks that you can go back to say, okay, where I’m at right now and how do I communicate myself really clearly right now? Like I am always doing this. I am literally always very clear about what I’m gonna say to people and it’s not artificial.
It’s actually helpful for myself and also for others to understand. How can I potentially assist this guy with where he is at? And I think that’s just a different frame of how you look at effective communication. How does that land for you, man?
Chris: No, that lands great. I mean, I think it’s really important and I, think the evolution of it over time is a great point to bring up because there’s a lot of pressure around this and I think a lot of people who are in the reinvention mode feel a lot of pressure around this.
And one thing we wanna remind people is that in the beginning, the stakes are actually quite low.
And you don’t have to build everything up to be the perfect, like we’re not trying to get you to perfectly communicate something all time that’s going to be etched into stone, right? We want you to get some structure. We want you to get some confidence. We also want you to think about the audience. I don’t want to give away and jump ahead and stuff like that, but I think it is one of those things where let’s deflate the pressure a little bit. We don’t have to solve every nuance of it for all time right now, in this moment. It will change. It will evolve. You will evolve. That’s the whole point. And you can revisit this and you can flesh this out. And honestly, the exercise of learning how to communicate this, like thinking about going home for the holidays and communicating it to your brother-in-law can also just be a really good exercise in figuring it out, in chipping away at it and getting some clarity about, oh, oh, well, when I say those words, is that really what it is that I’m doing?
Hmm. Next year when you’re going home for the holidays and you have a business that’s evolved and you’ve got a sharper different way to communicate it well, then you’re honing that in that moment. So it’s, it’s always gonna be part of the process here.
Todd: the key thing to remember is that as we go through these five steps, we’re gonna start right now. This applies to all different types of conversations, but the way that you say it will of course be different. you’ll have to work on this.
Okay? I’m gonna give you a framework right now, but then you work on it. Okay? And this is the kind of thing where I have people write it out and say it in the mirror. I have them practice it at home with their partners and you have to get used to saying these things, but the value of it is like beyond I mean, I can’t tell you, it’s like one of those small little levers that people don’t realize that once you solve this problem, it frees you up. And so what you wanna do when you’re communicating where you’re at, you wanna start with this first part of the framework, which is acknowledging. Where you were in the past, right?
And like, what actually happened? So let’s go to the example of our client and our community who’s going home for the holidays. One of the several who was stressed around it. And so people ask them, well, so what’s up with work? You know, and you wanna start with acknowledging the past, and you do it with the element of not woe is me and I’m so down and I’m so depressed.
This is what a lot of people get lost about because the truth is, when you’re insecure about your career and you’re lacking confidence, that’s an internal state. And so the question is, well, do I need to just literally communicate that? I’m like down. That’s where people are scared of, they feel ashamed that they’re not in this great place.
So how do we navigate the reality of maybe you’re not feeling confident while also. Being authentic with yourself and moving the needle forward. Okay. And actually using the language in a way that’s almost like a technology of getting yourself into a better situation. So the way I always teach people is to start with acknowledging the past.
So for this particular person, I said, tell people, look, I’ve been so fortunate, to have had a career where for 15 years or 20 years, I was able to work, in technology and, be a CTO and I learned so much and it was really meaningful. So you wanna start off with acknowledging that there was a past, and then step two, you wanna flow right into it.
And that’s why you don’t need to spend like an hour on each one of these. These each can be around a sentence long, you know, acknowledging that there’s a transition or an impending transition happening. And so you wanna name it. ’cause people know, okay, people know that maybe things have changed, that you got laid off.
People know that maybe that’s coming for you pretty soon. So you wanna start off by saying, look, you know, I’ve had this great career things are changing right now. Things in my industry are changing right now, and actually the truth is, as I’ve self-reflected, I’ve really noticed that I also started to outgrow this position and this job.
And it’s been a humbling moment for me. And I’m in this process of self-reflection and there’s a lot of really cool things emerging right now that I would love to share with you. But yeah, that’s where I’m at right now. I’m in a transition or I’m heading for one, and so I think starting there and coming up with your language that allows you to connect emotionally and purely with another human is where the connection happens. And I think that when you turn to it it just takes everything off the table. It takes a lot of the anxiety off the table. It allows someone to see you a little bit better, right? It allows them to smile like, okay, yeah, you’re human like me.
I’m also struggling. And it opens up doorways. When you develop that language to do that, as we’re talking about here, it’s huge. Chris.
Chris: Oh, I’m smiling. ’cause I think committing to thinking about that and getting that language square and then communicating, when you first say that to someone, honestly, a weight may be lifted off your shoulders. Just saying that part to someone. Right. Because it’s one of those things where, man, we get so tied up, our identity gets so tied up in our work and our jobs and it’s just, you know, there’s such a cultural element especially in America, it’s like you meet someone and the second question is, what do you do?
Right? It’s not even, who are you? you? know, I’m this multi-varied, amazing person, but like, let me tell you about my dumb job in a carpeted warehouse. Where I punch figures into a screen. Once you can actually take on the fact that oh, I’m gonna communicate honestly and authentically that, I think I’ve outgrown this thing it’s been good to me, but I don’t think it’s right for me anymore. That’s like the hardest part of this whole thing.
Once you’ve kind of got that squared and you get that out, now you’re in a human conversation with someone to me, it’s just even exciting to talk about this. ’cause I know that there’s someone who’s gonna take away from this podcast and actually start to think about this and frame it up and maybe even have a difficult conversation and they’re gonna feel that weight lifted.
I know it ’cause that’s exactly what happens is some people in our community
Todd: You turn to it, you turn to it, and you have that challenging conversation for you. It’s challenging because you’re scared to show vulnerability, but what we’re saying here is, is that this framework in the beginning says, turn to the vulnerability. Come up with language that makes you feel okay to say, because some people, when they hear this advice, they’re like, oh my God, you’re gonna make me say, that I’m totally down and depressed and stuck. Like, that’s not what I’m saying. Come up with language that expresses where you’re at authentically allows you to share because everything drops. It’s unbelievable when you do this and you know it’s not one person, Chris, that’s going to hear this and take this around with it.
It’s like hundreds or thousands that are gonna take this advice. It’s game changing to be able to do this because what happens is like people turn towards you and they stop and they look at you. And then they ask you questions sometimes go with those questions. And then the third piece of this, because what often happens here, you know where the rubber meets the road, is that people wanna know what’s the struggle been like?
Or like, how has this been hard for you? And come up with what you’re comfortable to share. Right? And this is where it becomes a little bit circumstantial because talking to your mom might be different than talking to somebody who you might wanna partner with in a new reinvented career.
So you wanna be smart about this? I have people literally come up with different scripts for different avatars who they’re talking to, because you know, if you’re literally out there and you’re building a new business, you’re trying to get clients in. It’s great to have this script and still be vulnerable, but you might wanna not go down certain rabbit holes around what it is that you might wanna accomplish in this conversation.
That’s why there’s nuance to this. This is a technology of communication we’re talking about here. And so getting emotional and being vulnerable. In most cases is a good thing. Like even I saw you when I said it, like you just dropped, your energy dropped. You’re like, yeah, now we’re talking about the real shit.
That was what I saw in you. Okay. Now we’re just having a conversation. And I think that once you get past that, there’s like this relief and then we can go on to these next stages of the conversation. But I just wanted to, to pop in and say, yeah, man, like what you’re talking about here is, so what this is, it’s human.
Chris: You said at the very beginning of this, we’re giving people a framework here,
right? So everybody’s gotta take this and adapt this in the way that makes sense for them. and this applies to many concepts in reinvention, in the way you talk about whatever your reinvented career is in many different contexts and ways. But just think about the audience, right? Think about your relationship with somebody. Think about how you connect with them. I mean, we say you don’t have to go down the woe is me sad sack path. But like if it’s somebody who you’re really close with, who you have a really loving, close relationship with, that is not gonna be a business partner or collaborator.
And that’s something you can get into with them. Awesome. You know, if you share that openly with someone, you could share however you share with them, right? We’re not saying that’s not the right thing to do.
but I think one of the major takeaways here is this is something that you think about proactively beforehand, and you prepare yourself and get clear about it, that way you’re making some conscious choices about how you communicate it in the different forums.
Todd: That’s right.
Chris: Really, if there’s only like one thing you take away, that’s like the thing to take away.
Todd: Well, I’m gonna give you a second one to take away, okay? Because I think people get, I don’t wanna hammer it home, but like, be open, be honest. Come up with a way that feels authentic. But the fourth and fifth pieces of this I think are the real gem, and this is actually where it’s a mindset shift of communication that is so incredibly important and can help you reinvent your career and your life faster if you would just get this.
Okay, because the fourth piece, once you’ve had some level of authentic sharing and, okay, this is where I’m at, this is what’s been going on, then you wanna have it written out. Or thought out where I’m looking towards the future with energy and optimism. Okay, and this is where you wanna be really tactical around this, saying something like, well, the good news is that I’m actually a little bit surprised by how much opportunity there is out there and how many people are contacting me.
And actually I have a bunch of new ideas and things that are emerging right now that are surprisingly exciting. So you wanna start to arc this conversation and lead it towards the fifth point, which we’ll get to in a second, but this is what most people don’t do, okay?
They don’t do this. And there’s a reason why you do this change here, because you want, the takeaway of this, of these five stages is that you actually wanna get some information that can be valuable to yourself. Or to another person around this concept of reinventing your career life. There’s a takeaway. There’s information, that every person that you talk to has that can help you or that you can help them. And if you go into it, understanding that this framework gives you the ability to get there, and we start with the human connection, right? We start with being vulnerable and then we go to, oh, well there’s actually things that are emerging now the energy is shifted, right?
Chris? Now we’re in opportunity. Oh, like, well, what’s popping for you? What’s actually happening, you know, here, and this could be with your mom, this could be of course, with a potential partner, a coworker, a former colleague that you’re talking to. This is where you wanna get into the good stuff, right?
So you wanna go through that little bit of a lull, that thing that’s so scary to talk about, that, oh, I’m not feeling so great. It’s everything isn’t perfect in my life like you thought it was. ’cause that’s what it looks like on social media, my resume. And now we get to, okay, we cleared that out, it’s gone, and now we get to this next part where we start to lift out of it and get productive. Does that make sense?
Chris: absolutely. Yeah. Context matters, but this is a real human conversation. I mean, people are interested to hear what’s been going on for you, and they’re gonna be excited about the thing that you’re excited about too, right? When you’re in that phase where you’re thinking about these conversations or you’re preparing this. It’s an opportunity to get excited to remind yourself like, Hey, this is something I am taking on and I’m going towards, and it’s not just running away from a situation that isn’t working for me. I’m also running towards something, right? Maybe I’m not a hundred percent clear on exactly what that is, but that’s why you’re gonna choose language that makes sense for where you are. In the moment, right? Maybe you’re starting to explore hanging a shingle and doing a little bit of consulting in the area that you’ve always worked in. Well, then you can talk about what, what that means for you, right? You don’t have to have this all hammered out and final. Maybe you’re not even there yet and you’re exploring that can still be an exciting conversation, but I think it is really good that you get to a place where there’s clarity. From the other person that you’re talking to about what is going on and where you’re at. And then, yeah, there might be a takeaway. Maybe there’s an opportunity. I mean, listen, when we have these conversations with people, I think back when I was first having these conversations, and I know some of the people in our community are having them, opportunities come out of them. Maybe even customers come out of them.
Todd: Well, that’s the thing about this is that there’s something about integrating your ability to be vulnerable and human and real with people that when you get to oh, like there’s excitement, and now I’m turning into the proactive, what’s next? you set the stage for there to be more information and more connection and more possibility.
I’ll give you an example outside of even career reinvention right now. Right. So as you know, ’cause you just met my sister right about a year ago from the time we’re recording this, she lost her husband, you know, her husband passed at 58 years old. And without getting to that whole story here, this has been a big reinvention.
This has been really, really hard. And part of my sister’s genius is that she does what we’re talking about here really well. ’cause she keeps saying to me, she goes, you know. Everyone told me that it’s gonna be so hard for me to connect with people and that people are just gonna eventually drop me after that initial, oh, I’m so sorry your husband died. You know, thing is over. This is what she heard from other widows. That actually about six months, a year later, it’s kind of like things drop off and then you’re really feeling isolated. And that hasn’t been her experience at all. Meaning that, she’s literally had so many people continually coming at her wanting to be a part of her life, wanting to help in a bunch of ways.
And the reason why is ’cause she’s doing what I’m talking about here. So naturally she is literally so open and vulnerable about her process in her life. Like not to the point where it’s just like, oh, woe is me, but she’s human. And she does that very naturally and she talks and then on the back end when it’s like, okay, what’s up with work?
What’s up with life? What’s up with whatever’s next in her life? She has all these people supporting her and she told me that there are other people in her situation that are widowed that coming up to her and be like, how are you doing that? How are you creating this environment where you have so much continuous support? It’s because of what we’re talking about right here.
Okay? It’s literally the same thing. She is literally a master at being human and sharing openly and vulnerably, and then she’s really good at naturally framing it out as, well here’s what’s next in my life. Here’s what I would like to see or create or do at all these people wanna support that because they feel emotionally connected with her because of her authentic and vulnerable communication.
And it’s the same thing, Chris, like literally, it’s the same thing. Learning to connect and be emotionally intelligent in your relationships is the thing that can get you to reinvented success way faster. And the disease that we’re fighting against, and I think you did this too. Is isolation and just not wanting to talk about it and not wanting to turn to the communication and not wanting to have those conversations and share vulnerably, look, my sister’s just that way naturally, but you can learn how to do this and you can turn to and say, all right, I’m gonna take these five steps here and actually start playing with them.
It’s gonna feel awkward to start, it’s gonna feel a little bit weird to start writing out scripts of what to say to people. I get it. It becomes more natural and you’ll start to see how much benefit there is by doing this.
Chris: That’s a really heavy life thing and it’s a share that is something that goes way bigger than the scope of some of the stuff we talk about here. And when we think about how these can be challenging or awkward conversations or as tough to get vulnerable, I do think some perspective is valuable. The stakes of our careers, we rate them as very, very high, but in the grand scheme of life, we might give them a little bit of outsized importance and put a little bit too much pressure on them in terms of identity because, they serve what really matters in our life and they are important to us and our work is important to us.
But there are much bigger, heavier issues in this life. And so let’s not build the pressure around ourselves on this. Let’s realize that when we are contemplating what we think might be a difficult conversation, or it’s challenging to get vulnerable about this, or to reveal that my corporate identity is potentially going away or changing, let’s put this in the proper perspective.
Right, let’s realize every day that we wake up, that we’re blessed and that we have a beautiful life that we get to enjoy for however long we get to enjoy it, and let’s not get so caught up in having to have it perfect and having to protect this perfect little image that we think people have of us, which they don’t even really have of us.
I could go down a whole rabbit hole of life stuff here and you know, you brought me there, Todd, and I appreciate that. ’cause I think it’s really important sometimes to remind people, yeah, your work’s important, your career’s important. It might not be quite that serious sometimes in the grand scheme of things.
Todd: I’ll even go further and say, you know, the thing about this, having authentic conversations with people about where you’re at in work and life, the truth is, is that you have a lot of stress and worry and concern about not looking good and looking like things aren’t great.
Here’s the truth. People don’t care as much as you think they do. They’re dealing with their own stuff. That’s why the authentic conversation works. It’s a bridge to deeper connection, which is your bridge to faster fulfillment and success in the future. And so all this worry about not looking good to your mom, to your former colleagues, to anyone in your life that is what needs to be lifted and put aside here and look, I’m saying this very directly, and I know this is hard for people to do, which is why we wanted to give a framework a five step framework of how to do this right, of actually how to think about this. And it’s really, really valuable to be able to do that. But this is the real stuff right here because when you’re isolated and you’re scared and you’re in your own head and like feeling really stressed out and looking bad, that is going to delay your future success.
Trust us on this. I’ve coached thousands of people on this process and getting through this part of it faster is absolutely essential.
Chris: Listen we’ll just keep doubling down on each other here, Todd. get comfortable looking bad.
Whatever you think bad is, right? I’m not talking about people that like go send a yard sale in front of everybody or whatever it is. It’s like get comfortable with the idea that whatever sort of pristine structured picture of yourself that you think people see or are looking at, or whatever you’re comparing it to. God forbid it’s my most love hated place on earth, LinkedIn, that you’re thinking about or something like that. There’s a segment of every episode where I pick on LinkedIn, so
like, let’s just make that an official segment.
But it’s like, who cares? Like really, who cares? If you are worried about looking bad, you’re never gonna really be able to grow. You’re gonna have to make some mistakes and misspeak and say some things that maybe six months later you change and they turn out not to be what your business is at all or whatever it is.
And you know, to think that that stuff follows you and there’s somebody who’s like taking copious notes on every little thing you say and making sure that they hold you accountable. That is your own inner demon and procrastinator trying to keep you from actually going out there and doing something and saying something. Get comfortable taking some chances here in a way that’s not gonna expose you and make
you, completely lose your career or whatever I mean, again, the stakes are really not that high in this moment.
Todd: I love what you just said, it’s a science of how to communicate this with vulnerability, but also not going down some rabbit hole that isn’t gonna help you or someone else. Right? You know, yeah, be vulnerable, but you don’t have to frame it out oh my God, woe was me.
Finding that middle road to do it. But yeah, like this is what it is. At the end of the day, in 20 years from now, you’ll look back on this moment in time and you want to think about what you would regret about what you are doing or not doing right now. You know? And having authentic conversations with people is something that you will regret not doing.
I can tell you that straight up because you might as well. And I wanna get to the last point, the fifth point. ’cause this is actually really important ’cause there is an arc on this technology of how to communicate and have these conversations go in with some semblance of, what could you ask of the various people that you’re talking to, what questions could you ask that could help move you forward in your reinvention?
you know with someone like. Parents or people close to you? How can they help you? Hey, do you know anybody who’s doing X, Y, Z? Do you know how I would be able to, make a financial plan that would allow me to segregate six months or a year of time?
People have all kinds of expertise that you don’t have, you are surrounded by resources that you are not acknowledging, and when you’re going through this framework, I want you to start thinking about the people in your life not as like pawns in your game to be successful and invented.
That’s what I’m talking about. but when you’re being vulnerable and like when you’re doing this, what can you ask? What can move you forward? And that’s why the end of this arc is questions, conversations, like show them, who can you introduce me to? Do you know anyone that does this? I’ve seen the people who reinvent successfully do this part so well. And it always ends on a high where now you feel like we went through a real conversation. I understand where you’re at. You heard a little bit about me. Let me see if I can help you. This is how you get to that next success really fast, Chris.
Having an idea of what questions you can ask and where you wanna lead the conversation is like the end of this, and it’s so powerful.
Chris: Yep. You know, again, if you’re hanging your own shingle or you’re doing something that’s entrepreneurial and you’re going out there and you’re growing business and you’re developing business and making sales. All of this is practice for that, right?
Because it’s gonna tap into your humanity and your ability to connect with people.
And that’s a little sample of the close in a way, right? That is something that, that, could be a more tactical takeaway from this for people who might even be a little further along in the reinvention journey.
Todd: I’ve trained salespeople for 15 years of my life, and the process that we just walked through is the exact same process that somebody goes through to make a really great sale. It starts with rapport. That’s how a salesperson thinks about this building rapport. Rapport means having a real conversation with somebody.
That’s why it works. ’cause if you start with rapport and then you get to this kind of next phase of, all right, now I’m gonna be more intentional with this conversation and I’m gonna set the stage for what I potentially want to happen. And again, this is gonna be the case with your mom, but in general, that’s what it is.
And then you’re gonna go for the close or the ask. Right. It’s the same thing, and most people are walking around going home for the holidays, like having conversations with people without an understanding that each conversation is an opportunity to deeply connect and to share yourself authentically and move the needle in your life, and also maybe even potentially help other people.
The thing about this system is that oftentimes you end up helping someone else. And that counts in such a big way. Like you end up actually being of service to them and then things happen that are very unexpected, which is why this technology of communication is so very important, right? So I hope that you all got out of this something really valuable and that you’re gonna be motivated to go ahead and start writing your own scripts. We’ll write this out in the description, like what these steps are, but listen to this one again, right? Because it’s a very important one that will move the needle faster. And we hope that you subscribe to this podcast ’cause we’re gonna go over the reinvention process, right in so many different lenses. And you know, Chris, with me and you, I always just love, I feel like we could jam for like two hours on each topic and go off on tangents. And I’m just grateful to be doing this with you.
Chris: Yeah, man, this was a great one. I think this is really gonna be helpful for a lot of people and I appreciate walking through this. This is something I wish I had when I was doing it, but I’m glad we get to share this with the people we work with and the people we communicate to now.
Todd: Let’s go. Yeah. Thanks again. Until next time.
