Diversifying Careers and Reflecting on Specialization

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Today's guest is Christina Wallace who is an entrepreneur, author, and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business school. Christina is a self-described "human Venn diagram" who has built a career at the intersection of business, technology and the arts. If you've been a listener of my podcast for sometime or have attended my latest workshops, you will most likely recognize that term as something I highly support.

In our conversation, Christina and I talk about the history of how industrialization shaped the needs of the human species to specialize, but how that shift has now turned against the working class. We also talk about how the pandemic became the catalyst to trigger the rapid shift that made specialization become not only outdated, but the biggest risk in our time. We delved deeper into why the specialization model simply doesn't work anymore given the rapid changing circumstances we're going into right now, and what exactly we need to be focusing on as we move forward.

Christina and I also talk about building The Portfolio Life, which is the title of her book as well as a key strategy to become irreplaceable (even in these rapid changing times when many roles are being rendered obsolete). She takes us through the steps she describes in her book to find the intersection of everything in your life so you can identify what makes you who you really are as well as discover the value you can offer in any industry. Whatever industry you're currently in, this conversation will help shed light on your next steps if you feel you're behind and need to catch up with our constantly evolving world.

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Here's What You'll Learn:

• We thought the pandemic changed everything…but why is everything changing even faster now?
• How humankind shifted from generalists to specialists during the industrial revolution (and this matters so much now)
• Why having one clear speciality might be the biggest risk of our time
• If the business model in our grandparents’ time made them so successful, why can't it work for us now?
• What happened to the career ladder we were all supposed to be climbing…
• The meaning and difference between a deliberate strategy and an emergent strategy (and which one you should be using now)
• The danger of defining yourself by your career or skill set
• The benefits of transitioning to another career (and no, you’re not “starting all over again”)
• How you can use a Venn diagram to build your own Portfolio Life
• Why there is absolutely nothing wrong with failure (unless one of these two things happen…)

Useful Resources Mentioned:

The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card

The Genius Zone: The Breakthrough Process to End Negative Thinking and Live in True Creativity

The Performance Paradox – How Only Focusing On Performance Leads to Performing Worse | with Eduardo Briceño

Becoming a Master of Change in All Aspects of Your Life | with Brad Stulberg

Continue to Listen & Learn

IDENTITY (Weathering the storm…without losing yourself)

This isn’t just an economic crisis…it’s an identity crisis.

The Link Between Telling Your Story & Identifying Your Purpose (And How to Do Both) | with Dan Davis

How to Manage An Identity Crisis (Especially When You Know You’re Meant For Something More) | with Erica Wernick

[BONUS] Mastermind Q&A: How to Successfully Be a “Specialized Generalist” | with Michael Addis

Is Artificial Intelligence Coming for Your Job? Maybe…and Here’s How to Prepare | with Michael Kammes

How to Be an Irreplaceable Creative in the Emerging World of Artificial Intelligence | with Srinivas Rao

Surviving AI requires changing our relationship with the “F-word”

Why Providing Value & Supporting Your Community is Essential | with Shiran Carolyn Amir, ACE

Staying True to Your Core Values (When Hollywood Tries to Steal Your Soul) | with Sean Corvelle

How to ‘Get In the Room’ and Work with Producers Who Will Value & Respect You | with Matt Nix

Terrified to Make a Big Change In Your Life? Start By “Showing Up Small” | with Eddy Roche

Defining Your Purpose and Living Large | with Tony Horton

Guest Bio:

Christina Wallace

A self-described “human Venn diagram”, Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she teaches entrepreneurship and leads HBS Startup Bootcamp. Her latest book is The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card (Hachette, 2023).

A serial entrepreneur, Christina has built businesses in ecommerce, edtech, and media. She also co-authored New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (Penguin Random House, 2019) and was the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, an iHeart podcast with millions of downloads over 3 seasons and 125 episodes.

In her free time, she sings with various chamber choirs, embarks on adventure travel, and is a mediocre endurance athlete. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two children.

Show Credits:

This episode was edited by Curtis Fritsch, and the show notes were prepared by Debby Germino and published by Glen McNiel.

The original music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Joe Trapanese (who is quite possibly one of the most talented composers on the face of the planet).