Lessons from a Quitter

Clearly, we’re on the same page as our guest this week, Sara Bliss. Sara is the author of Take the Leap where she provides both inspiration and advice for transforming your life. Sara features the stories of over 65 people who have taken the jump to completely new careers. She proves that it's not too late to chase your dreams, change up your life, hit it big, and go for it.   Sara has made countless leaps of her own going from short order cook to auction house assistant to magazine scribe to to branding/content advisor to ghostwriter to book author. She has covered a wide range of topics including design, travel, profiles, celebrities, hotels, beauty, health and business.   She is now the author/co-author/or ghostwriter of 11 books including Hotel Chic at Home. She is also a Forbes Contributor covering career pivots.

This week on the pod, I'm reviewing Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star.   If you've ever wondered how you should find your calling or passion, this book is for you. It is a guide to uncovering what has always been there.   In this episode, I discuss: The difference between the essential self and the social self How to start listening to your essential self and why that's so important How to start charting a map to your new life and more...

What if I told you there was a tool that could help you figure out what you should be doing with your life?   Sounds pretty amazing, right?!   What if I told you that tool was the ever-popular personality assessment?!   Before you roll your eyes, hear me out.   I used to laugh at these new-age, woo-woo BS tests. If it wasn't scientifically proven, I didn't want to hear it.   But then I took one...just for fun...and something happened.   It was accurate. Like, eerily accurate. Like, I swore that one of my family members was playing a trick on me and messed with the results because there is no way something can know me to a "T" like that accurate.   And reading about myself for the first time in that assessment changed the way I saw myself.   For so long I had obsessed over my "weaknesses".    ​​Why couldn't I just be more organized?! It's not that hard. Just put things back where they belong!​​​   Why do I care so much about what other people think?! Why do I take on their emotions? Just let it go. For the love of God, let it go, woman!   Stop seeking so much attention! You're not the center of the universe. Sit down!    And, on and on...   I have a feeling your inner monologue is similar. Maybe different in words but the same tone.    But when I read that personality assessment, I realized that I was literally built this way. It's not a weakness. It's not a glitch. This is who I am. This is how I tick. And I can spend the rest of my life ​​​​​​beating myself up for who I'm not. Or I can decide to embrace who I am.  This really started me down a road of self-acceptance and self-compassion. And that is ultimately what led me to do the things that light me up.    And I know it can do the same for you.    So this week on the podcast, I have back my friend, Christine McAlister. Christine is a business coach, the founder of Life With Passion, and the bestselling author of The Income Replacement Formula: Seven Simple Steps To Doing What You Love And Making Six Figures From Anywhere. She helps high-achievers replace their incomes & make 6-figures with businesses they love AND that support the life they want to live.   Luckily for us, she is also a certified administrator of the Myers-Briggs personality assessment.    We'll talk all about how to figure out what your personality type is and how that can help you in a search for the perfect career. ​​​​​​​​

Traci Connell is an award-winning creative entrepreneur whose business sense and design skills are combined with a passion for delivering interiors that are at the heart of a livable style. Formally trained as an elementary teacher, Traci enjoyed the creativity and structure of the classroom but knew she had not found her passion. The big “Ah-ha” moment came in 2000, when a dear friend asked, “why can’t you make money doing something you love?” and after careful consideration, Connell Interiors was born. While working to provide a second income, the first decade was spent developing her eye for design, honing her skill for business practices, holding leadership roles within the Interior Design Society, and completing successful client projects as well as many charity opportunities. In 2011, life threw a curveball and Traci became a single mother with three children. Traci realized and accepted that her business was no longer a second income, but it was the sole source of income. Fueled with pure passion to feed her family and realize her dream, the rebirth of her company was established as Traci Connell Interiors. During the last eight years, Traci Connell has grown her revenue twenty-fold to over two and a half million dollars, and her net profit grew tenfold. She has gone from running her business from her kitchen table and her car trunk to acquiring a full design studio. 

Most people accept the limitations placed on them by society, never questioning how much more they’re actually capable of.  Tasha Cochran is not most people. And that is why I’m thrilled to have her on the podcast today to blow up people’s assumptions of what is possible.    Tasha Cochran is an attorney, co-founder of One Big Happy Life, and a true trailblazer for lasting and effective financial freedom.    However, Tasha began her career journey as a 19 year-old single mother in the military. Wanting to provide the best for her daughter, Tasha set her sights on law school and didn’t rest until she got into one of the country’s best schools, Yale Law. After graduation, she began working as a lawyer in Consumer Finance.    While she excelled at her career, and made valuable connections, she found herself wanting more. Needing a passion or hobby to take her mind of the stress of work, Tasha began creating YouTube videos on a topic she loved to talk about, finances. That hobby eventually led her down a path to create One Big Happy Life where she serves as a wealth expert and strategist to help others find sustainable and realistic solutions to building their wealth and lifestyles.    In under 3 years, Tasha began making multiple six-figures with One Big Happy Life all while still working a full-time job as a lawyer. In fact, Tasha only quit law six months ago in order to focus on and scale OBHL.    Tasha and her partner Joseph have built an empire by accepting fluidity and rejecting society’s standards of the “right” way of doing things. With their Wealth Builders Academy program, they teach individuals to take charge of their finances and stop living by limiting beliefs. Tasha is a shining example of what it is like to craft your own journey and design a life that works for you.    In this episode, we discuss: How building your dreams and having a career aren’t mutually exclusive Why it’s ok to not follow a strict life plan How sharing your story can help you and others grow The value of hard work in a quickly growing online space And so much more.   Tasha’s Links:    Website   Instagram   Wealth Builders Academy 

This week on the podcast, we're kicking off our book club for 2020. One of the biggest tools to achieving the life you want is changing your mindset. Books and podcasts have been pivotal in my own journey and the journey of so many others who have designed a life that they love.   So we're going to spend some time every month focusing on shifting our beliefs about what is possible and what we can accomplish.   This month's book was The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.   This was the first book that I picked up after quitting the law. It was the first book that really changed my mindset.⁠ It opened my eyes to another way of living.⁠ It showed me that it was possible to design my life in a way that I had never considered before.⁠   And even if you don't want to quit your career or travel the world and work remotely, there are so many gems to take away from this book.    I break down all of the incredible wisdom in this book, including - Why you should re-evaluate your life and what you truly want - How to question everything  - How to eliminate tasks so you have time to work on the things that matter - How to get over the fear that is keeping you stuck - How to recognize how much control you truly have  - and so much more!

Are you staying in a job you hate because of money?   The #1 reason I hear from people when they tell me they can't quit is finances.   Whether it is too much debt, not being able to replace their salary, or not being able to cut back, money seems to be a big block from living the life they want.    But when I push just a bit, I realize that most people have no real idea of their actual numbers.   They think that they have a general idea. But specific numbers of how much they bring in and how much goes out...not a clue.⁠   And I get it. Finances are overwhelming. So we just bury our heads in the sands.⁠   And whether we realize it or not, we begin to play the victims in our own lives. We come to believe, falsely, that there is nothing we can do. That this is just the way it is and that we're destined to live this way forever. ⁠ Well, I don't have to tell you that this isn't true. There are tons of resources and plans that can help you tackle any financial situation. ⁠ But, if you want to start creating a plan for how to quit your career, you have to know your numbers.⁠ ⁠ Today on the podcast, I got to talk to Rob Bertman about actionable steps you can take to get control over your situation.⁠   Rob Bertman, CFA, CFP® helps families improve their lives and reach their financial goals by focusing on the #1 key to financial success, managing spending.   Rob is a quitter himself. He left a successful career as a partner and securities analyst at an investment management firm to found Family Budget Expert. He knows first hand the upside and challenges of leaving a stable career to start a business and he's on the podcast today to share how you can get started on your journey to financial control now.   Here is what we discuss: - What the most important step is to gaining control of your finances  - What things you can do to tackle your massive student loan debt  - How much you should be saving for a runway before quitting - How to start saving when you're living paycheck to paycheck - And so much more

On this podcast, we’ve talked to tons of people who have quit careers that they hated in order to find something that they loved. The general premise is that this outside circumstance, namely their stressful job, is causing them to be miserable and so they make the leap in search of a circumstance that won’t cause them to feel that way.   Well, on today’s episode, I am honored to talk to the incredible Kara Lowentheil, Master Certified Coach, and ex-reproductive rights litigator, about why that approach is the wrong way to go about it.    Kara’s own journey is not unlike a lot of our previous guests. Kara received her B.A. from Yale and J.D. from Harvard. She went on to create an impressive legal resume including a clerkship for a Federal Court of Appeals and various jobs in academia. However, when she realized that no amount of accomplishment was going to bring her inner peace and happiness, she turned to life coaching and thought work.    Thought work teaches how to bring awareness to and actively engage with your own thinking in order to help retrain your brain. Kara found that the more thought work she engaged in, the happier she became in her life regardless of the outside circumstances.   After realizing the power of thought work in her own life, Kara decided to become a life coach in order to help other women unfuck their brain from all of the patriarchal programming. As we talk about in-depth, Kara didn’t leave because she hated her job. In fact, she discusses how she could have stayed and loved what she was doing. But seeing the impact that she could make on women’s lives with thought work was more of an exciting opportunity.    In the last three years after pivoting from a legal career, she has grown her life coaching business from 0 to 7 figures. She's the host of the iTunes top-rated self-help podcast Unf*ck Your Brain which has been downloaded over 6M times, and she has been featured in outlets like Marie Claire, Mind Body Green, MSN.com, and The Huffington Post. Kara lives in New York City. Basically, she’s starting a feminist revolution.    In this episode, we discuss: Why you should learn to be happy in your career before making the decision to leave  Why even if you’re happy, change will feel uncomfortable How being happy in your current situation is different than feeling ready to make a jump How thought work can help in any situation  Why we feel stuck in careers that offer prestige And so much more.  Kara’s Links: Website The Clutch Facebook Instagram

This week I had the opportunity to chat with Marc Allen, a strategy consultant to social impact and development funders worldwide, advising them on how to create greater human impact with their investments. We talk all about why skills are valuable. Namely how we can look at the skills we’ve acquired, instead of the career we’ve pursued, in order to help serve us in our next projects.    I love this episode because it is all about self-reinvention and seeking purpose. While those are both tricky paths to navigate, Marc’s own journey shows that with some resilience and open-mindedness, it’s not as impossible as we like to think.    Marc worked as an attorney for four years at one of the top law firms in the UK and Paris. But after taking two thought-provoking trips in 2014 to Iran and New Orleans, it was clear to him that he didn’t want to be a lawyer. He witnessed so many people harnessing their skills to wear different hats and be useful in their communities. It was eye-opening to take note of people who were in very adverse situations making due with their circumstances. They used what they could offer the world in unorthodox and slightly creative ways to get around systems that aren’t always inclusive. The inspiration to quit stemmed from these micro-case studies of progress despite the environment. Marc had to quit. In 2015, he finally did without a real plan or clear idea of what was next.     For the next two years, he tried out different careers and spent time on his passion project, a blog called The Great Everything.    By focusing on the skills he had and the various facets of his personality, Marc finally found a career that he loves. He retrained as a strategy consultant to philanthropies. He is now able to spend his days helping large funders create the biggest impact with their money.    I got to talk to Marc about how the skills he acquired as a lawyer serve him in his new role. We dive into how he first sensed doubt when his work began to feel unimportant. He was not connected to the outcomes of his cases. But instead of spiraling and worrying that his next move absolutely needed to be in law, he opened himself to a ton of new opportunities.    First, he evaluated the skills he built over the years. As an attorney, Mark developed a strong and unwavering work ethic. He also developed a strong backbone and self-confidence. He also navigated difficult internal power dynamics to get to the opportunities he wanted with tact and patience. All of these characteristics aid him in his role as Engagement Manager at Camber Collective. Marc manages strategy and coalition design for companies, countries, funds, and philanthropies looking to outsize their social impact. He has found the perfect fit BECAUSE of all the skills he has acquired through his career.    The thought of starting over is daunting, especially if you are going into a field where you have little to no experience. It’s easy to fall into the trap of self-doubt when you realize that you are starting from a novice level. But, as Marc puts it, take an honest look at your life and think about what you’re going to regret when you’re 75. When you’re in a difficult place, think about, “Would I rather stay here and hope my situation improves? Or am I going to be brave and actually go out and do something about it?” Are you willing to be uncomfortable for a bit and set up challenges and force yourself to rise to the occasion?    When we embrace the idea that we are so much more than one job or one interest, we open ourselves up to immense personal growth. Gratitude for our skills and our gradual evolution will help us push forward and overcome negative self-talk and open ourselves up to different opportunities.    Find Marc here: LinkedIn   Passion Project   Employer