Lessons from a Quitter

This week, we tackle a big topic in high-achieving communities like this one: Imposter Syndrome. So many of my clients, who have years of experience, degrees, great reviews, insane accomplishments, still believe the lie that they have no idea what they're doing. Why is that? This episode tackles why we hold on to the thoughts causing Imposter Syndrome so tightly and how to start loosening that grip.

This week's episode is a replay of Episode 76: From Lawyer to Chocolate Maker: How Shawn Askinosie Found His Calling.

Sure, quitting is easy if you've always hated your job. But what if you used to love it? What if you loved it for many years? What if you were really, really good at it?

I'm so excited about this week's episode with the amazing Shawn Askinosie. Shawn walked away from a very successful career as a criminal defense attorney, a job he used to love. Until he didn't.

He realized that the career he once loved was putting him into an early grave and that it was time to do something else.

Shawn is now the founder of Askinosie Chocolates, named by Forbes as "One of the 25 Best Small Companies In America." He was also named by O, The Oprah. Magazine, as "One of 15 Guys Who Are Saving the World." No big deal.

He spends his days traveling between 4 continents to directly source his cocoa beans from farmers, where he offers them above Fair Trade prices, open books, and a share of his profits.

He has created an inspiring company that not only gives back directly to the farmers but his community as well.

His book - Meaningful Work: The Quest To Do Great Business, Find Your Calling And Feed Your Soul, co-written with his daughter, Lawren Askinosie, published by Penguin Random House is a #1 bestseller on Amazon.

I got to chat with Shawn about how he walked away from a career he loved and how he figured out what he should do next.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Do the deep work and figure out who you truly are.
• Look for those thresholds.
• Be vulnerable with the people in your life.
• And so much more!

Where to find Shawn:

Book

Business

Blog

TED Talk

One of the skills I see people struggling with the most–and one I struggled with for years–is making decisions. And the reason people struggle is because they're focused on the wrong thing. You're focused on guaranteeing the outcome you want which is impossible. Instead, I want you to focus on the reasons you're making the decision. When you're clear on what your reasons are and you actually like them, it becomes a lot easier to make decisions.

I dive deeper into why knowing your reasons is the most important step and how it can change decision making for you in this episode.

This week, we dive into the new viral trend of Quiet Quitting and why it's a problematic term.

Quiet Quitting is a trend on social media where people stop going above and beyond their job descriptions and instead only do what they're paid to do.

This is, in no way, quitting.

And it's harmful to call it that because it operates under the assumption that the employee is doing something wrong when really they're setting up proper boundaries.

On the podcast this week, I dive deeper into why this is problematic and what we should be calling it instead.

This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on Toxic Work Environments.

The term "toxic" is thrown around so often that it has all but lost its meaning. It's hard to know what truly is toxic and what is something we just don't like.

In this series, I'll dive into how to start discerning what is toxic, what you have control over and how to think about your career in a way that will serve you.

Part 1 dealt with Toxic Coworkers.

Part 2 dealt with Toxic Bosses and other people who have a direct impact on your job.

This episode dives into how you can manage your mind around jobs that have toxic hours, tasks, or conditions that are not ideal.

This is Part 2 of a 3-part series on Toxic Work Environments.

The term "toxic" is thrown around so often that it has all but lost its meaning. It's hard to know what truly is toxic and what is something we just don't like.

In this series, I'll dive into how to start discerning what is toxic, what you have control over and how to think about your career in a way that will serve you.

Last episode dealt with Toxic Coworkers.

This episode deals with Toxic Bosses and other people who have a direct impact on your job.

Next week, we'll dive into jobs that have toxic hours, tasks, or conditions that are not ideal.

This is part 1 of a 3-part series on toxic work environments.

The term "toxic" is thrown around so often that it has all but lost its meaning. It's hard to know what truly is toxic and what is something we just don't like.

In this series, I'll dive into how to start discerning what is toxic, what you have control over and how to think about your career in a way that will serve you.

This episode deals specifically with toxic coworkers. But the principles can be applied to anything that is a part of your work life but doesn't have a direct impact on you completing your duties.

Part 2 will dive into toxic bosses or anything that does have a direct impact on your work.

And Part 3 will explore toxic jobs, meaning tasks, hours, or conditions that are not ideal.

If you only look to your past, at what you've already achieved, in order to determine what you're capable of achieving in the future, you'll only get the same results you already have. That's why so many people limit their dreams. They think that all that is possible are things that they already have evidence for. But–here is the thing–your past only exists in your mind. It does not dictate what is possible in the future. You have to learn to tap into your future self to push out of your comfort zone and dream up a life bigger than the one you can imagine.

This week on the podcast, I'll show you how.

We all know how to work hard to achieve things but we're terrible at actually enjoying them. That's because our society loves to glorify hard work but shame the people who have anything– rest, joy, money, pleasure, food. So we think we want those things, we hustle to get them, and then we're wracked with guilt when we actually have them.

Learning to have is a skill and, on today's episode, I teach you how to start building it.

When we start thinking about career change, we tend to jump into overdrive and want to change everything in the next couple of months. But then we get overwhelmed by all the things that need to be changed.

On today's episode, I teach you how to use 5-year plans to get past that overwhelm and figure out exactly what it is you want to do. When you can slow yourself down enough to see that all you need is baby steps, the change becomes much more manageable.