Episodes

  • 🚀 What If Work Was Just… Work? (Issue 650)

    🚀 What If Work Was Just… Work? (Issue 650)
    Oct 8 2025
    Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the pressure to have a distinguished career? * The sense that you should invest in yourself professionally, on top of trying to survive the chaos of these modern times. * The feeling of falling behind if you’re not climbing the career ladder quickly enough. * People being disappointed that you haven’t done more with your professional life. * Friends telling you that you are screwing up if you don’t go “all in.” * Your bank account and retirement account staring you in the face as you worry about the future. It wasn’t always like this. I remember a time long, long ago when I had jobs instead of a career. Work was just work. It was a means to an end, and I certainly didn’t find fulfillment in it. I worked to pay my rent and cover my bills. My enjoyment of life came after quitting time and on weekends. The jobs weren’t stressful. I had friends at work, and we would chat during breaks. I would also hang out with some of them after work, playing basketball, watching shows, going to parties, and going to bars. What is a career anyway? It’s the path your professional working life takes, as opposed to the progression of your personal life (for some reason). The definition of “career” is somewhat vague, but it has become closely tied to the concept of employment and a chosen profession. So, any deviation from your profession’s career progression and steady employment is now viewed as stalling or failing in your career. It’s kind of silly, really. Your working career can be any damn thing you decide to do with it. * You may stick with one profession or choose to explore multiple professions. * You may choose to remain employed by someone else or work for yourself. * You may or may not get paid for what you do. * Your work may have no purpose beyond receiving a paycheck, or it might be your life’s purpose (and even unpaid). I often discuss careers and climbing the ladder in your profession. But not everyone wants that, and that’s okay. Careers aren't predictable. They are rarely linear. They are often full of sidesteps, pauses, resets, and reinvention. Heck, your “career” may not even be the central focus of your life. It isn't where you find meaning and purpose. Sometimes a paycheck funds your real calling or passion that isn’t capable of supporting you. * Travel* Writing* Volunteering* Creating art* Making music* Exploring natureYour heart is in the thing that lights you up, not the job that pays your bills. I recall the moment I transitioned into a white-collar salaried job that put me on a career path. At first, it was exciting. Later, I realized it was all-consuming. Now I’m a coach with my own solopreneur practice. It’s somewhat ironic that I coach people to help them navigate their corporate careers when I no longer have a traditional one myself. The other things I’m very passionate about don't pay my bills. Writing, traveling, working out, hiking, skiing, and spending time with my children. So, guess I’ve come full circle, and that’s more than okay with me. I like the freedom and independence. I enjoy turning my work brain off at night and doing what I want in my personal life. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I hear you when you say you don’t want a career. But you still need to make a living and have the freedom and time to do the things that fulfill you. I can help with that, as well. ➡️ Want to chat with me about your plans? You can schedule a complimentary call.I’m Larry Cornett, an executive coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become more invincible, and create better opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate! 📕 Check out The Invincible Daily Journals! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/subscribe
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    31 mins
  • 🚀 What Are You Willing to Sacrifice for the Life You Want? (Issue 645)

    🚀 What Are You Willing to Sacrifice for the Life You Want? (Issue 645)
    Sep 3 2025
    Have you ever experienced a conversation like this with someone?* “I want wild adventure, but I must feel safe at all times.” * “I want to quit my job, but I can’t give up the nice lifestyle I enjoy.”* “I crave more freedom, but I dread losing security.”* “I hate working for someone else, but I’m too afraid to work for myself.”* “I want a better life, but I can’t change anything.” If it were easy to have it all, you would already have it. Right? Why would you deny yourself a dream life if it were easy to create? Why would you punish yourself unnecessarily? Why would you suffer? The reason you’re feeling stuck is that it is not easy! It’s damn hard to build a life that gives you what you want in balance with what you need. The hard pill to swallow is: Something has to give. You must give up something to gain something. I’ve learned that 99% of the time when people say, “I can’t!” what they really mean is “I won’t.” They could make the necessary changes if they really wanted to, but they don’t. The pain of remaining the same is slightly less than their fear of change and the unknown. When I left my corporate career behind in 2010, I spent the next five years trying to have it all. I wanted the freedom of escaping my old 9-to-5 job (more like 7 AM to Midnight). I wanted the stress relief of leaving behind toxic bosses. I wanted the joy of owning my time every day. I wanted the pleasure of reclaiming my health and rediscovering fitness. However, I also wanted to maintain my expensive home, fancy car, and luxurious lifestyle. I tried really hard for those years, but eventually, the harsh reality came crashing down: I just could not have it all. So, we discussed a new plan. We decided what we would have to give up to create the new life we desired. * We had to downsize our home. * We had to leave Silicon Valley. * We had to sell the luxury car. * We had to live more simply. * We had to make changes.I won’t tell you it was easy. That's kind of the point of this episode. It was hard, but it was worth it. Within a few years, we knew it was the right decision. What we had gained was worth far more than what we had “lost.” Maybe others are telling you that you can “have it all.” I’ve seen plenty of BS posts online about that. But let me be the honest person who will give it to you straight: Make some hard choices. Create a spreadsheet with two columns: A. Gain and B. Give up. Decide what you want most in your life and put those items in the Gain column. Choose what you are willing to leave behind and sacrifice so you can have what’s in the Gain column. Put the items you will give up in column B. Now, create a plan and a schedule to build a roadmap to give up more of column B to have more of column A. This process can take years, by the way. Go slow if you want, but don’t wait long. By the way, column B is a trap. It’s a noose that tightens more with every new thing you add to it. It’s a golden cage that you may never escape if you keep adding more bars. The longer your Column B list gets, the harder it will be to escape later. Column A is a delight. The longer you delay gaining the items on that list, the less time you will have to enjoy them. Sadly, most people wait until retirement to pursue that list. So, they don’t enjoy that lifestyle for as long as they could have. Even worse, some of those items have an expiration date. You will be too old to pursue them anymore, or the opportunity has passed. It’s too late. Want to make this process easier? Here are a few things that can help (I explain them in more detail in the podcast audio, so scroll up and hit play to listen):* Create wiggle room in your professional career. * Become a lifelong learner to avoid stagnation and avoid being left behind. * Develop flexible streams of income outside your primary job. * Build revenue models that aren’t locked into specific locations. * Do not increase the cost of your lifestyle as your income increases. * Aggressively manage your expenses to see if you can reduce them. * Continuously feed funds into your financial cushion for some breathing room. * Get outside your bubble to expand and diversify your network. * Open your mind to unexpected opportunities and new ways of living. * Invest in your physical, emotional, and mental health. * Calculate more realistic risk assessments of what you want to pursue. * Build backup plans for the worst-case scenarios. * Realize that intelligent and ambitious people can bounce back from failure. I recently met with Cory Vinny on my Invincible Life podcast. He shared how he prepared for a life of adventure, and what he had to sacrifice to pursue it. Listen and note the tradeoffs they had to make so they could spend the next year sailing around the world. What do you have in your Gain column? What do you want more of in your life? What is in your Give Up column? What are you willing to sacrifice to acquire more of the ...
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    37 mins
  • 🚀 Too Senior to Be Hired, Too Young to Retire (Issue 642)

    🚀 Too Senior to Be Hired, Too Young to Retire (Issue 642)
    Aug 6 2025
    Are you in your late 40s or beyond?If so, you have decades of valuable experience, a powerful network, and a laundry list of success metrics. But lately, you may be feeling stuck in your career. * You’re no longer moving up. * You’re watching your younger colleagues get promoted. * Recruiters ghost you more often now. * Job interviews stall out even when you think you interviewed well. You’re too experienced for entry-level or mid-level roles. And when you aim for more senior leadership or executive roles, you discover they want someone with 25 years of experience who’s only 35 years old. Heaven help you if you get laid off now. It’s not a pretty job market for anyone, especially an older worker. “People laid off at higher ages are less likely to move into a new field than those who quit, said Kevin Cahill, an economist at FTI Consulting. “Ageism and higher compensation expectations can be obstacles to re-employment, he said.” (source)* It takes nearly 26 weeks, on average, for people ages 55 to 64 to find a job, compared with 19 weeks for people ages 25 to 34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.* Older career workers who find new jobs take an 11% pay cut, on average, according to a forthcoming study Cahill co-wrote.So, why not take an early retirement? Well, I bet you’re not there yet. Financially, emotionally, or physically. The sad truth is that people who retire sooner die earlier. Believe me, you’re not alone in feeling this way and facing this issue. This “messy middle” of our professional careers is real, and it’s brutal.But it’s also where your next move can be your most powerful. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but reinventing yourself can lead to living the best years of your life. I’m living proof, and there are lots of us who have done it. It’s been over 15 years since I fled my old corporate career to pivot into something new. I built my own businesses, started working out every day, and reinvested in my most important relationships. My sense of loss and depression shifted into joy and fulfillment. I've never been happier! The Messy Middle You’re not imagining things, and it’s not just you. The job market has shifted under your feet while the economy has been struggling, and political chaos ensues. * Good roles are becoming rarer, and expectations are higher.* Companies are cutting layers of middle and senior management.* They are also eliminating entry-level roles and leaning on fewer employees augmented with AI. * Ageism is real (especially in tech and startups), but hard to prove. * AI is quietly replacing parts of your job.* Younger, cheaper hires are more appealing than the cost of more experienced employees.You didn’t do anything wrong. But the system isn’t built for you anymore.“The tide has definitely turned against tech workers,” said Catherine Bracy, the founder and chief executive of TechEquity, a nonprofit that pushes for economic inclusion in the industry. “Companies have even more leverage to use against workers, and A.I. is supercharging that.” (source)Traditional Career Advice Fails You “Just update your LinkedIn and polish your resume! Start easy applying to hundreds of jobs every week.”Yeah… no. When you’ve had a long, complex career, playing the “cold-apply resume” game is a sure-fire way to lose. The hiring process is automated and biased. Most online applications are dead ends, and older workers are screwed. You need a new strategy for this new game.Your leverage is different nowAt this stage of your career, you have leverage that younger people don’t. Stop being shy about using your advantages!* Relationships: The network you’ve built for decades is more powerful than you think.* Reputation: People know your name. They’ve seen your work. They already trust you.* Experience: You’ve led, built, scaled, failed, recovered, and learned. Your insights are rare and valuable.Three paths out of the messy middle1. Reposition and rebrand2. Redesign your role3. Find more purposeI go into more detail in the podcast audio, so scroll up, hit play, and listen. Real stories of reinvention * David Jesse - Executive Product Leader, advisor, coach, and founder of Crescendo Product Group * Ha Nguyen - Founder and Managing Partner at NextStep Advisors * Maureen Wiley Clough - Host of It Gets Late Early, a podcast and community of tech employees bringing awareness to ageismNone of them waited for someone to “give them a shot.” They stopped playing the game that was rigged against them. They created their next opportunity.You can too.What to do this monthHere’s your 3-step personal challenge:* Rewrite one part of the “Story of You”What’s the outdated identity or job title you’re clinging to? Rewrite your LinkedIn headline and About section to reflect who you are now and who you want to become. * Reignite one dormant relationshipSomeone in your network already knows your value. Reach ...
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    29 mins
  • 🚀 Why a Tech Career is Like Playing Poker (Issue 637)

    🚀 Why a Tech Career is Like Playing Poker (Issue 637)
    Jul 2 2025

    My guest for this episode is Bob Baxley, design advisor, mentor, author, and speaker. He is one of the most familiar design leaders in Silicon Valley, having worked on products you probably use every day.

    Bob and I worked at some of the same companies (e.g., Apple, Yahoo), but only crossed paths once at one of my favorite coffee shops in Mountain View, CA.

    He has strong opinions about design, leadership, creating great products, and crafting a lasting career, so I know you’ll enjoy this episode!

    About Bob

    Bob Baxley is a designer, executive, and advisor who has built and led UX teams at some of Silicon Valley’s most respected companies, including Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo!, and most recently, Thoughtspot.

    During a career spanning over three decades, Bob has played a pivotal role in the design of the Apple Online Store, Yahoo! Answers, the Apple Store App, Buyable Pins, and ClarisWorks—products that have been used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

    Committed to recruiting and inspiring the next generation of designers, Bob also mentors individuals and advises organizations that are working to improve the practice, craft, and culture of digital product design.

    We talk about

    * His background in tech, starting with Claris

    * The tough decision of moving from Yahoo to Apple in 2006

    * The opportunity to work with a historic figure, Steve Jobs

    * The wild rise of tech companies in San Francisco, CA

    * How he looked for opportunities in his career to “witness history”

    * The concept of getting on the bus with the right people

    * Making decisions at branches in your career

    * How a tech career can be much like playing poker

    * What you can control is placing yourself in interesting environments with the right people

    * Thinking of time with an employer like a “presidential term” and time-boxing your plan for impact

    * Why four years feels like the sweet spot for staying in one role

    * Patterns he’s observed in people who succeed vs. those who do not on his teams

    * How he structures job interviews and what he looks for (especially for designers)

    * Design education, training, mindset, and careers

    * How our modern transactional environment might impact design and design roles

    * Design may become more powerful and influential, but with fewer people

    * The impact of AI on professions and entry-level jobs

    * How to stay relevant in the industry

    Scroll up and hit play to listen to our full conversation.

    Where to find more

    * Bob’s LinkedIn

    * His personal website

    I’m Larry Cornett, an executive coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become more invincible, and create better opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of the work you love and less of what you hate!

    📕 Check out the Summer version of my Invincible Daily Journal!



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/subscribe
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    41 mins
  • 🚀 Ha Nguyen, Founder and Managing Partner at NextStep Advisors (Issue 633)

    🚀 Ha Nguyen, Founder and Managing Partner at NextStep Advisors (Issue 633)
    Jun 4 2025

    My guest for this episode is Ha Nguyen, Founder and Managing Partner at NextStep Advisors. Her company helps early-stage founders become master company builders, operators, and people leaders. They help founders with strategy and planning, operational excellence, and executive coaching. They also provide fractional consulting and advisory services.

    About Ha

    Ha Nguyen has 22 years of deep expertise in building and scaling startups, as well as venture investing. She was most recently the Chief Experiences Officer at Swimply and a Founding Partner of Spero Ventures. She also has 16 years of product leadership experience, having started her early career as a product manager at eBay, where we first met many years ago.

    We talk about

    * Her impressive background

    * How she defines fractional leadership

    * Why she bet on herself to create her current business

    * How and where she finds new clients

    * How she is leveraging AI, personally and professionally

    * The concept of building portfolio careers

    * What work-life balance really means for consultants

    * Why hard work feels different when you choose the work you do

    * How people should think about their careers for the next 10 years

    * The massive disruption of AI in the industry

    Scroll up and hit play to listen to our full conversation.

    Where to find more

    * NextStep Advisors

    * Ha’s LinkedIn

    * Her personal website

    I’m Larry Cornett, an executive coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become invincible, and create new opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate!

    📕 Check out the Spring version of my Invincible Daily Journal!



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/subscribe
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    38 mins
  • 🚀 Special Edition - We Share Details About Our Upcoming Live Course (Issue 630)

    🚀 Special Edition - We Share Details About Our Upcoming Live Course (Issue 630)
    May 15 2025

    🎟️ Get your ticket for our live Job Interview course launching at the end of May. Two ex-tech leaders teach the insider secrets to getting hired, promoted, and staying off the layoff list. The price goes up in 4 days!

    Tim Yeo joins me for this special episode so we can share more details about our upcoming live cohort course, Too Valuable to Lose. We discuss our backgrounds as leaders in the tech industry and career coaches for the past several years, and how this inspired us to create the course.

    * We’ve seen that the quiet, good people are often overlooked for raises and promotions.

    * Humble people and introverts frequently struggle with selling themselves during job interviews.

    * And talented people sometimes get put on a layoff list because their bosses aren’t fully aware of their value and everything they do for the company.

    Well, Tim and I want to change that! Scroll up, hit play, and listen to us discuss the course in more detail.

    Learn to become so valuable that your employer keeps you happy (e.g., receive raises and promotions, stay off the layoff list), and potential new employers can't stand the thought of losing you (i.e., they make you job offers quickly).

    What you'll get from the course:

    * Practical and doable steps you can take the very next day

    * Access to two live sessions with the instructors and other attendees on May 31st and June 7th

    * Homework exercises to help you put our advice into action between sessions

    * Downloadable templates to help you showcase your accomplishments and talents

    * Scripts you can use during your job interviews and conversations with your manager

    * Techniques for using AI to help you with preparation and practice

    * Q&A feedback from the instructors to help you fine-tune your strategies and materials

    * Lifetime access to our private community for the advice, feedback, and support you need

    What you'll learn:

    * Get better at selling yourself for the jobs you really want

    * Learn how to ask for a raise or promotion the right way

    * Consistently demonstrate your value so your manager can't imagine losing you

    * Become so valuable that your employer fights to make you happy, retain you, and keep you off the layoff list

    ⬆️ Scroll up, hit play, and 🎧 listen to this episode to learn more about the course, what you will get if you join us, and who we are.

    Where to find out more

    * The Too Valuable to Lose course

    * Read more about our backgrounds and see our testimonials

    * The video version of this podcast episode

    I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom Coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become invincible, and create new opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate!

    Tim Yeo has been an introvert for 40 years! He is a design leader, speaker, empathetic storyteller, facilitator from problem to solution, open collaborator, builder of design teams. He spent 18 years in UX & Design. He's now the chief introvert at The Quiet Achiever (TQA).



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/subscribe
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    56 mins
  • 🚀 Steven Puri, Founder and CEO of The Sukha Company (Issue 628)

    🚀 Steven Puri, Founder and CEO of The Sukha Company (Issue 628)
    May 7 2025

    🎟️ Get your ticket for our live Job Interview course launching at the end of May. Two ex-tech leaders teach the insider secrets to getting hired, promoted, and staying off the layoff list. The price goes up again in 5 days!

    My guest for this episode is Steven Puri, the Founder and CEO of The Sukha Company. His mission is to help millions of people find their focus, achieve more, and have a healthy work life.

    About Steven

    Steven's career started as a newscaster/interviewer for the #1 youth news show in the DC/Baltimore market (on WTTG-TV) and then as a junior software engineer and Thomas J. Watson Scholar at IBM. After attending USC in Los Angeles, he began working in film production and produced computer-generated visual effects for 14 movies, including Independence Day, which won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

    Steven’s first tech company was Centropolis Effects, which produced those CGI effects. When he was 28, he eventually sold it to the German media conglomerate, Das Werk.

    Steven then produced some indie films and eventually went studio-side to develop and produce live-action features as a VP of Development & Production at 20th Century Fox (running the Die Hard and Wolverine franchises) and an EVP at DreamWorks Pictures for Kurtzman-Orci Productions, where he worked on Star Trek, Transformers, and more.

    After Fox, Steven returned to building tech companies and founded The Sukha Company. In Sanskrit, “Sukha” means “happiness from self-fulfillment.” The Sukha is a focus app that bundles all the tools necessary for a focused experience and a healthy, productive workday.

    We talk about

    * Steven’s unique background that blended tech and creativity (e.g., his time in Hollywood)

    * How good timing and lucky breaks can guide your career path

    * The good and the bad of our new remote working world

    * The needs we all have for getting into flow state, doing focused work, being more productive, and connecting with other people

    * How the Sukha app helps us all with those needs

    Scroll up and hit play to listen to our full conversation.

    Where to find more

    * The Sukha Company

    * Steven’s LinkedIn

    I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom Coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become invincible, and create new opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate!

    📕 Check out the Spring version of my Invincible Daily Journal!



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/subscribe
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    36 mins
  • 🚀 When to be Patient and When to Pivot (Issue 623)

    🚀 When to be Patient and When to Pivot (Issue 623)
    Apr 2 2025
    “Nothing is working. I can’t find a job!”I was talking with an acquaintance about their job search strategy recently. They complained that nothing they had tried was working. They had written and shared articles on social media, but the engagement wasn’t very good. They had searched for jobs but couldn’t find what they were seeking. * I asked how many articles they had written. * They said, “Two.” * I then asked how long they had been searching for relevant job listings. * They said, “A week.”Okay, folks. I’m sorry, but sometimes, more effort and patience are required! We seem to have turned into an instant gratification nation. Ubiquitous internet access, fast smartphones, thousands of online services, and the rise of AI have made us all expect instant answers and results. But it doesn't work that way. Your easy access is everyone’s easy access. Everyone is posting, sharing, commenting, and competing for attention. I’ve published over 1,000 posts/articles over the past eight years. I started writing on Medium in 2017 and launched my Substack newsletter in 2019. I slowly built a decent number of readers on both platforms, but only in the last three months did my subscriber numbers really grow! I have a lot of failings, but I do have some personality traits that help me. I’m very persistent and patient. I will keep grinding away at something for years and years. * I’ve been working out almost every day for the past 16 years, and it took at least 4 years of lifting weights 5 days/week before I started seeing decent results. * I’ve been building and running my businesses since 2010 (never returned to a job). * I’ve been writing something every single day for years and years and years. I’m stubborn, if nothing else. Perhaps there have been times I should have given up. I know there are times other people definitely would have given up because I’ve watched them do exactly that. When to be patientSometimes, you just need to be patient. Stop expecting instant success! * Networking takes time.* Building an engaged audience takes time. * Looking for a new job in a terrible market in a struggling economy takes time. If you’ve invested many years in your current career, you may need to be more patient. It can often take approximately one month for every year of experience to find a new job (e.g., a full year if you have 12 years of experience). Also, you may need to be patient if you have many commitments and change would disrupt them. For example, your family might depend on your income, and you don’t want to take your kids out of their local schools, so you can’t just quit your job or jump at a new opportunity that would require a move. If you have a job you don’t love but the job market is terrible, you may need to be patient and ride it out. But you should still be looking around. Treat it as a validation exercise. * Are you being paid what you should be?* Are you at the level you should be?* Are you being given the opportunities you could be?* Is your manager more supportive and mentoring than what’s available elsewhere? I guess my early career years are an example of being patient. I worked for almost 10 years before I got my big break and started landing promotions that moved me up the leadership ladder. When to pivotIf you feel you’re spinning your wheels, not getting any real traction, or running out of time, you may need to pivot and change strategies. At some point, more patience won’t help. Also, if you have already been impacted by a layoff or business failure, you may need to make a change to survive. The degree of change depends on your situation, how long you’ve been trying other options, and your desired outcome. How much you pivot your career depends on what’s possible and what’s necessary. * Small pivot - Find a new job with an employer in the same industry and vertical (this is what most people do). * Medium pivot - Find a job with an employer in the same industry but in a different vertical (e.g., ecommerce instead of gaming).* Large pivot - Find a job with an employer in a completely different industry (e.g., transportation instead of tech) or geography (e.g., a different country).* Massive pivot - Change professions entirely using your transferrable talents and skills (e.g., a good manager is a good manager in any business). Or build your own business! The size of your pivot depends on what you do for a living, how deeply your job or business has been impacted, and how serious you are about doing whatever it takes to survive and thrive in this economic downturn.➡️ I go into more detail about these pivots in the podcast audio. So, scroll up, hit play, and listen. 🎧Small pivotA smaller pivot is what most people do when seeking a new job. They stay in the same profession and find a new employer in the same industry and vertical. An example would be a small change from being a designer at Amazon to taking a design job with eBay. ...
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    38 mins