Kevin Erickson was working 120 hours a week. Seven days a week. No weekends. A schedule he describes as a recipe for heart failure.
He was a CISO earning top 1 percent income. And he was completely depleted.
In this episode, Kevin sits down with Olivia and Ryan to break down how he navigated one of the most complex and unconventional transitions in Career Evolved's history. Multiple simultaneous contracts. A W-2 and fractional hybrid model. And a potential outcome that could reach seven figures when bonuses and profit sharing are included.
But the real story is not the income.
It is what it took to get there. The resilience. The days he wanted to quit. The methodology he adapted to fit an impossibly busy life. And the moment everything that had been building for months suddenly fell into place in two weeks.
This one is for every executive who is still in the middle of it and wondering if it is ever going to work.
It does. Trust the process.
FULL SHOW NOTES:
Kevin Erickson arrived at Career Evolved in a situation most coaches would not know how to handle.
120 hours a week. Seven days a week. A CISO role that was producing top 1 percent income and costing him everything else. No weekends. No family time. Five Mondays and two Fridays, as he describes it. A life that was, in his words, not even human.
He did not come to Career Evolved looking for a rescue. He came looking for a different model. A way to keep the income, increase it if possible, and get his life back at the same time.
What he found was a hybrid W-2 and contract model that, depending on how the final pieces land, will more than double his income while cutting his hours to 45 to 50 a week.
With profit sharing. With IPO equity. And with the kind of structural freedom that no single employer could have offered him.
In this conversation, Kevin breaks down exactly what the process looked like from the inside. The methodology he adapted using AI to compress the work that his schedule would not allow him to do manually. The open source intelligence gathering he used to build genuine personal connections with every decision-maker he reached out to. The multiple simultaneous conversations he was managing in the final weeks, three organizations, multiple contract structures, and a potential Sword engagement that could change the income ceiling entirely.
He also talks about the days he wanted to quit. The days he looked at the process and said forget it, I accept my fate, this is where I am stuck. And what brought him back the next morning.
Kevin is one of the most humble executives we have ever worked with. He will not celebrate himself. So we do it for him.
This episode is for every executive who is still in the middle of the hard part. Who has not seen the results yet. Who is wondering if the methodology is working or if the silence means it is not.
WHAT YOU WILL HEAR:
How Kevin went from 120 hours a week with no weekends to a hybrid model that could produce seven figures with profit sharing and IPO equity.
The specific way he adapted the Career Evolved methodology using AI and open source intelligence to fit into a schedule that left almost no margin.
Why going deeper on decision-makers as human beings, not just professionals, produced dramatically better response rates.
The moment everything that had been building for months fell into place in the final two weeks, three companies, multiple structures, simultaneous negotiation.
Kevin's honest account of the days he wanted to give up and what kept him going.
Why resilience is not motivational language but a practical, daily, unglamorous requirement for navigating this market.
Kevin's advice to every executive who is burnt out, overworked, and wondering if there is another way.
The Buster Douglas alarm clock and why a ten-year-old video literally saved his life.
What servant leadership has to do with career outcomes.
