A recent guest on the podcast asked me, off air, what my strategy was for the show. I wish I had a good answer to that question at the time.
And I wish I had a good answer to that question today.
What started off a great excuse to purchase a cool microphone and play “radio”, has turned into more that I had bargained.
Listeners in seven different countries, cold inbound connection requests from influencers, and building SOPs and agents to better manage my time.
At the time of this writing, I have enough episodes recorded, and guests booked, to get me through July.
It’s exceeded my expectations in almost every way, and yet I feel like I’m just scratching the surface.
Thanks for taking the time to read my words and listen to my voice. I appreciate it more than you know.
Last month I introduced a concept I called The Comfort Trap.
The slow, almost invisible slide where a career stops moving forward and starts moving sideways. You're still showing up. You're still getting paid. But something's off.
It’s the thing before the thing.
It’s odd. We all search for comfort, and yet that’s exactly what derails our momentum.
I recall an interview with the late basketball coach, Bob Knight. At a press conference, one of his players said he was finally feeling comfortable running the offense.
Coach Knight couldn’t help himself, he interrupted and told the room that he didn’t like it when one of this players says they’re comfortable.
I recall it being jarring, somewhat awkward at the time. But now, I better understand what he was teaching.
In May, I didn't plan for this theme to become a follow-up. It just did.
Four guests. Four different industries. Four different ways of saying the same thing.
The Comfort Trap is real, and according to my guests, here's how you beat it.
See it coming before it finds you. Jack Flaherty — Episode 4
Jack spent years inside the Big 4 consultancies watching the same pattern play out. The problem, he said, isn't that change surprised people. It's that they'd been doing the job the same way for 15 years without realizing that adapting to change was part of the job.
"Every risk is actually an opportunity."
The people who understand that became indispensable.
Know the work you were built to do. Philip Drammeh — Episode 5
Philip knows exactly who he is, and because of that, when the role changed, he could make a clean exit.
Recently, his role had drifted. Gradually, from building new things to maintaining existing ones. For most people, that goes unnoticed for years.
Not Philip.
"The role changed gradually. It moved from building something to leading something which is closer to support and maintenance. I'm primarily a builder."
When the job stopped matching his identity, he paid attention, and he moved on.
Write to think. Adam Graham — Episode 6
Adam has been a film critic at the Detroit News for 24 years. His origin story starts with a lost student council election…in high school!
It opened a slot in his schedule. That slot led to the school paper. The school paper led to his career.
What's kept him sharp ever since is treating writing as a thinking tool, not just a reporting one.
"Without doing the exercise of writing the review, your thoughts can be wishy washy. Writing 500, 600 words on something really helps you clarify your point."
You don't need to be a journalist for this to work.
Write about problems and you’ll find yourself writing about solutions.
Get your hands dirty. Alan DeBekker — Episode 7
Alan started working on a fishing boat at 12. Like most first jobs, he simply figured the rest out as he went. By the time he got to AI infrastructure, the instinct was the same.
His advice to anyone sitting on the fence, about AI or about anything new, don't wait for a perfect plan.
"You can get your hands on it in a minute, in a second if you want."
Dive in. Try a new skill. Figure it out. It will keep you ahead.
The solution to the Comfort Trap is to stay in motion.
Tomorrow is June 1st and as Frank Sinatra defiantly said:
“I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top, back on top in June.”
June 1st is both a poetic metaphor (up in April, down in May), and a true mark of time.
The first day of the month and a clean slate.
For some of us, today we're riding high. For others, we feel shot down.
Tomorrow is a new opportunity to change that tune.
What will you be doing on Monday to get back on top?
Beginning Wednesday, I circle back and speak with professionals who survived layoffs, and came out of it better off. Some took the job search track, others decided being their own boss was worth the risk.
I hope you enjoy the episodes and find some inspiration from their journeys.
The next episode drops on Wednesday, and I’ll talk to you again then.
-Brian
