From Burnout to Purpose: Escaping Corporate and Building a Life That Works

John Browning (: 00:05

Hello everybody. It's John Browning with the building your life podcast. We're back for another week and we have a repeat podcast guest because Brett is just too cool not to have on again. And he does some of the things that I get questions about all the time. And I am one of the ones that he speaks directly to a lot of my clients are in this kind of it. I don't know whether it's an age bracket.

Brett or whether it's more of a stage of life or deciding that, Hey, I've chased the corporate dream. I chased the almighty dollar. Not that you're stopping chasing the almighty dollar, but you've decided you want a better life. And that's what the building your life, not just your portfolio podcast and the book and everything that I do is really all about. And I talk a lot about using the tool we call money to do that.

And there's a lot of things that you do need to remember and think about if you're going to jump out of corporate, what kind of tools do you have to make sure you're going to be okay when you do that? But I'm thinking, especially right now with the rise of AI and, and either not creating more jobs or completely laying people off, there's going to be a lot of people that need to hear.

what you talk about, but nobody can introduce you better than you. So I'm to let you introduce yourself, tell people what you do, what your passion is.

Yeah, thanks, John. It's always good to chat with you. I think we have a lot of aligned goals and passions for

Brett. Trainor (: 01:46

you know what we do and who we work with and yeah so just the I'll give you the abbreviated version 25 plus years in corporate America. I a couple of entrepreneurial ventures in that time frame but obviously none was successful enough to keep me from going back to corporate. And you'd mentioned in kind of that intro that we hit that point whether it's age or generational or whatever is around 50. I was in the corporate role I'm like there's got to be more to this right. And so I made the leap into management consulting right.

By the way, if anybody's considering that, talk to me first. You know, not all bad, but man, that's definitely a younger person's game when you get into management. So I'll think, but what it taught me is one, I'm done with corporate. I'm done chasing, you know, the current climbing the corporate ladder, right? We built our lives around those jobs and it was chasing the titles, the promotions, the money. And at one point it just kind of hit me of what am I doing? And again, this is the benefit of hindsight because when I was in it,

I didn't think anything was necessarily wrong, right? Especially when the tail end of my management consulting, right? If you look at it from the outside, good job, right? My three girls, everybody's doing well, two of them, one's married. So on the surface, I'm like, oh, you've got it all together. You know, but it wasn't, you my wife asked me a couple years after I had been out and gone on my own. She's like, what the hell was the matter with you? And again, reflection, thinking back, you're like, you know what? I don't know. It just, I was not happy. And

You know, I think one thing I never did in corporate was reflect, right? Why did this project didn't go right? Whatever. But now as I'm getting definitely more philosophical about this and, life has become the bigger driver than the job. just, wasn't, I didn't, well, it wasn't chasing anything anymore. And you could argue that climbing the ladder isn't maybe what you should be chasing, but it served its purpose for me, right? It got the girls through college, paid for things.

experience there.

Brett. Trainor (: 03:45

I 100 % but I'm like now what? Right? Because I know I'm not going to get in the C-suite and the C-suite takes care of the rest of your life, right? You're paid off the money you make and it dawned on me. I'm like, what is my end game here? Right? Decent 401k but if I live to the age I want to live of 95 and healthy, that's 35 plus years. I need revenue, right? Or money to live off of.

You cash flow. Yeah, we talk about how to create cash flow all the time.

And as you know, my family is big Disney vacation club and that's going to be expensive. So how am going to fund all these things? And it's just, it was interesting that I had never even thought about what the end game was while I was in the game. And I realized that one corporate is not going to do it. So how am going to figure out, you know, what's next? And so I went into solo consulting, did that for about a year because it was in the logical step, right? That's what I was doing.

then stumbled into fractional leadership again, which was a solo business like that gave me some energy. And then over the course of the two years after that, I think when I counted it was like nine different ways that I monetized my corporate experience, you know, from business development to advisory, did some coaching, did these other things. And like, all right, this is starting to energize me. But then I had the idea, the epiphany that there's got to be other Gen Xers like me out there that

or we're feeling the same way. Like, what are we going to do? What is the end game with this? Right? We don't have pensions, right? They're not going to pay us. And at the time I thought you had to start out like a real business. Not that solo businesses aren't real businesses. I've lived it for five years, so I know they are. But I was thinking you had to start a company or open a restaurant or a cafe and these types of things. But when I realized that solo was a realistic path, and quite honestly, one of my taglines, it's easier to find your first customer than your next job, which we can get into later.

Brett. Trainor (: 05:37

Realized that there was a lot of folks in stuck in corporate that didn't even see right this path and for the first six months I'm like fired up. I'm like, let's go. Let's reach you know It was crickets right out my content on LinkedIn was geared towards that I had a few friends and family were doing the rah rah and yet picked up a few, you know sympathy clients and You know, I'd even changed the name of the podcast to the corporate escapee then

but nothing. I'm like, all right, maybe I am the only one or just the only one, know, midlife crisis, whatever we want to call it. And I made the fateful decision to goof around on Tik Tok. And for the first few months I was just apologizing. My three daughters are like, dad, you're an idiot. Tik Tok. Yeah, right. For this one specifically, like, what are you doing? I'm like, you know what? I'm just having fun. It's, I figured it's a, you know, short messaging platform. It's short attention span like me.

always say that.

Brett. Trainor (: 06:34

And right place, right time, right message. And less than, I went from maybe 15 followers to just two weeks ago across 70,000 followers.

That's amazing, Brad, that's amazing.

Crazy and the craziest thing about it is 80 % of those folks are over the age of 40. So it's not the 20 somethings that are burned out from, you know, their two years in corporates. It's the, it is the lifers like you and I that were in there and we're done with it. And so it just connected me with all these people that, and again, I'm like, well, are these really folks that are stuck in corporate? part of my game was, you know, connect with me through LinkedIn so I can at least verify or validate that you were in corporate.

And I promise I'm wrapping up this story. So, but when I started, I had no coaching. I didn't have anything to offer folks other than, you know, inspiration to say, yes, you can do this. And so I offered on TikTok a free 20 minute mini strategy sessions that said, Hey, we'll set up a time. I can share with you what I've learned. Is there life for you outside of corporate how to do it? And over 300 people took me up on that, that offer, which was insane.

That's a lot of phone calls. That's a lot of minutes. I'm doing math on math. That's a lot of time.

Brett. Trainor (: 07:50

Thankfully, it was just 20 minutes and they were structured. It was a six weeks of phone calls. But after the first 100, I'm like, yeah, it took me 100 to realize, I'm like, this is dumb. I'm having the phone calls, but I'll connect with them on LinkedIn and you know how that kind of works. Everybody just kind of disappears. I'm like, so there's gotta be something I can do. That's when I started a free Slack channel. Just said, hey, let's have everybody join here until we can figure out how we can work together on things. We'll grow.

that Slack channel is now at: 1800

Business was coming still through fractional type of opportunities. Now I've gone all in on the escapee ecosystem and building us out and helping people and seeing where it's going. So the beauty, the one last thing I'll say on that is you're talking about generational. think one, I focus almost exclusively on Gen X. I am that. I can speak the language, but when I talk to people, millennials,

They get it, right? They've been in corporate 15 years. They're actually probably a little smarter than I was because they're already seeing now in their mid thirties, what's the end game, right? Where is this heading, right? I can't put enough in my 401k. You'd probably argue you can if you were smart about it, but the majority of us who aren't as disciplined as we need to be, right, probably didn't put enough in there. So, so I think there's this next generation of folks and is heading down a path of

How do I take control? I think that's what I'm finding is the biggest one is everything in corporate is reactionary. You think you're in control, you're not.

John Browning (: 09:49

You're not even close. Yeah, not even close.

I mean, Microsoft reminded us this this week, right? The high stock price they've had and they announced layoffs right after it. So thanks for the effort. We're cutting more people. So.

Thanks for getting us here. You're gone.

Exactly. anyway, so hopefully that did some justice to the intro, but I the context was important.

Yeah, you know, there's probably several dozen or maybe more that just based on that would love to like figure out how is the best way to get in contact with you, which we are going to have down the show notes, folks. It's going to it's right down below. But just how's the very best way for them to get in touch with you?

Brett. Trainor (: 10:33

Yeah, if anybody's just curious, connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm happy to still offer that 20 minute conversation, share what I know. I'll be honest with you, if corporate's a better path for you. Rarely found those people, you it is, you got to do what you need. if you're, and I say they're probably not reaching out to me if it is. So that way, and then, you know, we call it the escapee collective and we've got three different, I'll send you the link to it, the three different.

kind of tears, because one thing I figured out is the solos are in different stages and I'm sure you went through this. We've got the folks still in corporate that are building. It's a very large amount or want to build. They're preparing for the worst. So we've just added that works track. We've got the recent escapees who are building. They're high energy, highly motivated, consuming everything. And then what I'll call is the established, right? They've been out a year or two or more, but they can get better, right? They want to figure out.

How do I work fewer hours, make more money, find some referral partners. So we've got kind of three work tracks within the community. It's $20 a month, so it's not gonna break you. I guarantee if you come to one of our meetings, we'll save you that much in time. But I found it just having the paid, a little skin in the game helps motivate people to keep coming back. So anyway, we put that in there, happy to have you.

something I learned in business a long long even even not in business. The first time I learned that having skin in the game actually matters and it's actually better for the person that's paying it was we were running a kids club at our church and it was everything was free and we'd have one week we would have a bunch of kids and then the next week we wouldn't have any and you know you did the same amount of preparation and you wanted the kids to get the benefit and somebody mentioned to me he said well

what do you charge for us? Well, it's a church. We don't charge anything for it. You know, you shouldn't charge things for that. He's like, Oh no, charge 20 bucks. And that's what we did. You know, it wasn't, was nominal fee and it was 20 bucks. Suddenly everybody came every week and the kids got a lot more benefit out of it. And the parents ended up liking it better too, because they can drop off their kids and go out to eat or do with things. Everybody was happier and they were paying 20 bucks and it offset some of the expenses of running the club.

Brett. Trainor (: 12:47

Hey!

John Browning (: 12:54

It's not unlike if you like, will meet with just about anybody for I'll do a 30 minute call. And, and I don't think I'm being arrogant when I say this because I've just done this for over three decades, 30 minutes with me, 30 minutes with you on your topic is invaluable. You're not going be able to teach them everything you know in 30 minutes, but you can listen for 15 of those 30 minutes.

and you're going to see things that they just don't see because they're too close to it or they've never experienced what you've experienced. So I think it's really important to throw some money at that. Have some skin in the game, as you say, and that helps keep you dedicated. I paid for this. I better show up and see what I can get out of it. And if you don't get anything out of it, I'm sure they can exit at a certain point, right?

Yeah, well I tell them if anybody doesn't see value in the first month, I'll Venmo your $20 back.

Yeah, it's not gonna hurt you, right?

There's no risk to do it. Again, I think what's been the early community people said that early. He's like, you're never going to be able to convert people, right? If you bring them in for free, it's really hard to convert. And absolutely right, right? was like pulling teeth to get people because you have to show the value more than what they were just getting with the slack. But now I'm getting people that join. I've never seen their name before. I didn't know they were following me along. And so that's been super cool that maybe my

Brett. Trainor (: 14:26

my non-sales sales pitch is getting a little bit better out in the marketing world. But I think people see, one of the biggest things I think is, I don't know about you, but when I started building, I did it for two years by myself. I didn't really tell a lot of people, I didn't tell a lot of family and friends, and for whatever reason, I didn't tell my LinkedIn network, and that's the biggest mistake. And so I think that's what people finding a tribe of other folks, looking in at the same type of.

Crossroads has been super helpful because you can't really talk to your coworkers about this and family probably doesn't understand. And so I think the worst thing you can do is go into this thing solo and isolated, even though the OGs, you probably being one of them, did this a while ago and figured it out. yeah, so it's.

It's, it's just, there's so much to being in a, a real, a true corporate escapee. if you're in your say, I'm just going to stereotype here a little bit, forgive me, but fifties ish, like 50 to 60 right in there. Right. And you, come out and you're somewhat unemployable, right? Because I mean, it's a real thing. Ageism is a real thing. No way. What's that? You don't really want to go back to work at a.

super low level problem, probably because it's just going to drive you insane. And maybe you just don't want to go back at all because the corporate politics and everything else sort of drove you insane. But you have all of this knowledge. And like I made a post today on LinkedIn, because I drove across the state yesterday to Tampa to speak with a group that does something that I don't do a lot of. And I'm certainly not the best expert in it. But I taught them

what I know. And so I spoke for like 45 minutes or something like that. And afterwards they taught me some of what I needed to know. And if you always got to be teaching what you know and always got to be learning from somebody else who's been there, done that. And I really believe that as soon as it just becomes more and more apparent when you're that corporate escapee, you start realizing what you don't know. part of that.

Brett. Trainor (: 16:44

It just happened.

and just accept it and you're so much happier that way.

100 % but you know the thing that's been so interesting is the amount of doubt in people that have you call it highly successful corporate careers you can define success however you want but if you've navigated the corporate politics for two to three decades and provided for your family didn't this you're successful but yet now they're starting to doubt themselves in the corporate world and then even more so doubting that they could

go out on their own and do this. At first I'm like, this is a joke, right? don't have, I'm like, no, it's almost universal that it's just in the bubble or wherever they found success now thinking going on their own. They think, the analogy I use is like, they think it's a tightrope between skyscrapers, right? So you're escaping corporate, you're going to solo, but if you make a misstep, you fall, right? 75 store, no.

you're 16 inches off the ground. If he wobbles a little bit, you step down, either step back on the wire, you keep going or you can go back the other direction. No harm, no foul. And it's crazy to me. And the one story that I tell, and there's more examples of this, but when I was having those free sessions, one of them was from a 24 year old kid who was kind of a CRM specialist in a midsize company. And he's like, you know, I don't

Brett. Trainor (: 18:10

I'm already seeing that I don't think corporates for me. Can I do something with small businesses? like, absolutely. If I was you, here's what I would do. Cause small businesses are terrible with data. If they have a CRM, they don't know how to use it. They definitely know how to do all these reports. I will go to these small business and say, Hey, on a monthly basis, I can clean up your data, run the reports that you need and make sure that everything is set up within the CRM. And he's like, okay, I got it. And so I figured that would be the last I heard from him, right?

About six weeks later, hey, just wanted to let you know I found my first three clients. Thank you. Off and running. I'm like, that really motivated me with Gen X. said, hey, you've got two decades of this experience as small businesses could use. This kid who's got two years of CRM experience is building a business, right? By now, it's probably at least six figures, if not more, doing things that we should be doing, right? Leveraging that spirit. You paid your dues. Now go get paid for.

So anyway, that one gets me fired up all the time when they say I can't do it. I'm like, yes, you can. Don't overcomplicate this, right? It's going to be hard work, but it's not complicated.

But you've done hard work before. understand that some of the skills translate, other skills are going to be different, which is why they need you. And they need to join that community because some of the things are a bit of a shock. When I came out of corporate and started on my own, I had purchased some clients. So I had something, but...

to get your first client, you were just talking about this. Sometimes, as a corporate escapee, you think, well, I just called out the sales department and they get me my first client. Or you're a salesperson and you're like, I'm a salesperson, I know what I'm doing. But suddenly you're not selling with a big corporation behind you, you're selling you and it's only you behind you. That's a whole different ball game. And it's probably, maybe you'll have...

John Browning (: 20:08

some, you know, some sensitive clients, people who know you and love you and they'll be a client. But to get that first, what I call real client is not going to happen in the first three weeks. It might not happen in the first, if it's a high ticket offer, might not happen in first six months. And do you find that?

100%. Right. It's it's and it is in one of the you opened my eyes. I think when you're on the podcast a while ago, it's been too long. We said we got to get you back. But, you know, one of things you mentioned, because you had the book you do your video or your audio.

Podcast it's not podcast. I don't know you call it every morning where you get more updates, which is super cool But yet you said said that 90 plus percent of your business still comes from referrals and networking, right? so even though you've got these other tools and That's the other gap I see we we don't and I put myself in that we don't know how to network right because in corporate it's that looking for that next job when you need it and this is really about building relationships and

are reigniting a lot of relationships because most of us have a lot more than we thought we did. And you'd be surprised where those potential opportunities lie versus it. yeah, it's getting back out and having conversations is the number one thing. And again, introverts can do this 100%. You don't have to be extroverted. Some of our more successful escapees are introverts because guess what? They maximize those networking times because they don't like it. Right?

You come to, there's a really good point. Knowing how to network because most people don't. Most people are like, how do I go get business? How do I go get a lead? So if you're listening to that and you think that is networking, stop for a minute and listen real close. Because networking, true networking and successful networking is, I call up Brett, he said, Brett, what's going on? How can I help you?

John Browning (: 22:09

Who can I introduce you to? Not who can I give you a lead to, go sell something to, but who can I introduce you to? It's the introduction. then, Brett, you're responsible for going to that person, making the introduction, and seeing if you can help them. And it's a little counterintuitive. You're not selling, but in the process of introducing and providing value to others and introducing them to somebody who can help them.

They're going to figure out ways to help you. It just happens. Trust me on this one. just happens. Not everybody and it takes some time, but real networking has nothing to do with introducing, with putting people together to sell stuff to each other. That's just annoying.

Yeah, annoying and it's gonna be a much longer path right because it's no you're right and I think There's a book out there people are unfamiliar with it the go-giver. I don't know Bob Byrd's and It's it's just such a great reminder and a lot of people do this not intentionally but it does pay off right whether you want to call it karma or Just helping people it it pays back in dividends even when you're not when you're not looking for so lest you try

Yeah, okay. I love that.

Brett. Trainor (: 23:28

And the more you give, it's amazing how much it comes back to you. And I think just going in with that mindset of how can I help? What two people can I introduce this person to that it makes the most sense? And that just starts to multiply. And all of a sudden you've got folks that make more more sense for your business. But more importantly, they're now in your network, right? And then I just had somebody that I hadn't talked to in 12 months remembered what I was doing and flipped a business down to me, right? So it was...

Just reestablishing, let people know what you do. The other thing I found is in corporate, when you're looking for a job, people are supportive, right? In the network and they'll try to help you. But man, if you tell them you're going out on your own, you're starting your own thing, people are genuinely excited and will find a way to, try and help you. It just, I don't understand the psychology of it, but people will be super supportive. If they're not, then they're not the right person in your network, to be honest with you. Right. So.

I think most of the reason for that, think, who knows if I'm right or not, is that corporate has really never really helped anyone. Corporate is nothing wrong with it, right? They have to report to their shareholders. They are owned by people like me, and that's who they report to. But corporate has never been in business, big corporate has never been in business to help their employees.

I'd say that.

John Browning (: 24:56

I don't even know if the people say it used to be that way. I don't think it really ever was

I say they used to at least pretend. Now they don't even

Well,

You work for me, you do what I say. And if I don't want you anymore, it's not convenient for me. I'm going to lay you off and good luck.

sound old, but, know, in the: 2000

Brett. Trainor (: 25:40

Now it's a business strategy. were talking Microsoft record highs and guess what? We're more layoffs. So whether performance is good, mean, Southwest just sold their soul, right? They built their business on that free bags and no layoffs. They've just laid off people and now you're charging for bags. that was kind of.

You have assigned seats, I heard too, just the other day. So they've completely changed their whole model. What made them who they are. They just completely changed everything. And we'll see if it's successful for them.

probably pay off for the CEO as far as, because the other thing I'd love your take on this is, you know, just looking at 10 years of CEOs are much shorter now. So what's their incentive for a 20 year strategy? It's not like bonuses and stock price and everything else is, you know, three quarters out six quarters out max. So what decisions are they making for 10 years down the road? They don't care. Right? Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. I'm gonna bet no. I don't want to put everybody that's two broad strokes. Yes, they're probably

Yeah.

But don't fool yourselves that that layoff is not going to hit you because you're doing a good job. It has nothing to do with performance. It's a cost, right? A line item that once you become more expensive, you're going to be moved to the top of the heap.

John Browning (: 26:59

So we talked about the importance of understanding what the struggle is, but also understanding that it is possible. And you have a whole network, a whole group of people who are actually doing that, including yourself. And I've done it. You can do it. And you talked about it not being added yet. There's risk. But it's not a tightrope 75 feet up in the air that if you fall, you're never going to recover ever again.

But what is like, what's another thing that people should know? I I have, I have one because of what I do, but what's like another number one, number two, number three thing that people should know before they sort of start walking across that tight rope. That's really only 16 inches.

Yeah, I I can tell you from hindsight, right? I didn't think about what I wanted right next. Corporate quit on me. I was going to prove them wrong. I'm going to go make more money than I was making in corporate. And that was my sole motivation was to figure out how to do that. But then once I got time back, I'm like, huh.

I kind of like this time thing, right? But man, I am highly inefficient. So I went through a whole journey to figure it out. But take the time to figure out what's really important to you. And depending on what stage you're at, right? If you still have kids in college, you may have some big financial things you have to worry about. Me, right? I've got two weddings, two daughters, two weddings coming. Those are my biggest expenses, at least known expenses right now. So I need to be wary of that. But I want to build. part of now what I'm focused on is

maybe my internal legacy in building towards something, but it's take that step back, what is your financial runway and define what you want. And mine's changed, right? I do this every quarter just to say, I in the right path? And I'll look at it from the happiness score. again, people that knew me in corporate, you have a happiness score. Yes, I do, I'm balanced. Am I still heading on the right track? Because what was important to me two years ago is now shifted as it's going.

Brett. Trainor (: 29:02

So take that and make sure you start trying to build work into your life, which yes, it is possible versus your life around work and take that step. And the other thing I would say is you just go at it with urgency because people get the layoff packages. Well, I'm going to take a month off. Again, that's fine. You should recharge, but attack this thing because the sooner you can get that, the framework I like to use for the new people is bam, like belief, action.

and then momentum, right? The belief, yes, you do have it. You've paid your dues. You've got more than experience. And I tell people, if somebody paid you to do a job in corporate, there's a small business that needs your help. There's different ways to structure and how you can work with them, but absolutely need it. Action, don't plan, right? Overanalyzing is the biggest problem that I see. I need the perfect website. I need the perfect offer. No, no, no. Get out there, start having those conversations. Focus on the problem that you want to solve for these businesses.

And there's ways to do it, right? We don't have to be superstructures. Small businesses aren't expecting a detailed SOW, right? Maybe you spend two hours a month with this business to get started, or you go to eight hours a week, just depending on what the business needs. And then momentum, just build off of it. Hey, you had your first successful networking meeting, you get two new potential connections. Build off that, right? It's too often, to your point, I got the customer, I didn't.

And you know, it's a success or failure. No, I mean, this is going to be the journey. And just if you can start stacking up those wins, it just keeps that the mindset and the momentum going. So I don't know if I actually named one thing out of that, but there was a host of things that.

Bunch of things, right? Well, I'm going to go back through and in the show notes, I'm going to like pick some things out and like bullet point some things. Cause I think it's so important for people not to get discouraged. But you know, my one thing is, is you mentioned the financial run, right? It's a reality, right? Because money is a tool. It's not the thing that you chase the ultimate thing that's going to bring you happiness. just doesn't. Yes, it can buy you a boat. And let me tell you so far of all the boat owners that I know.

John Browning (: 31:11

There's only one that's really happy about it. The rest of them are like, I don't want to get rid of this boat. It's a giant hole in the water into which I pull up poor money. You can only golf so much. can only fish so much or whatever it is that you like to do. So the, that whole understanding your why, like I tell people that I become the why guy before we ever talk about the money and wealth management. I said, well, what do you want to do? And they'll tell me, you know, cause most people at least know what their dream or

thought of retirement, which retirement is not really retirement anymore. It's not the same thing, right? Most people who are Gen Xs are not looking to sit down in a rocking chair and hang out on the porch. You're looking to like, what can I do? I'm interested because we all have a PhD, right? Like, what can I do? I want to do that. I want to do that. I want to try things. I want to travel. I want to do something. Well, why? And they'll give you the first reason that comes to their mind and that's not the answer. But

If you're their friend or their mother, brother, sister, or whatever, you let them off the hook. I understand that's your wife. But if you ask why again, you become the two year old and you ask that four or five times, you get to the real why. And often then the what has actually changed a little bit.

Yeah, I think that's such a good point. And you have one of the interesting things. And again, I'm not an expert in this area, but I think Gen X, we're going to be the first generation that outlives traditional retirement. Because even my wife to this day, she's like, well, what are we going do for retirement? I'm like, well, what is retirement? Because I am not planning on, to your point, I'm not sitting around watching Wheel of Fortune for six hours a day. And I plan to do something like this till I can't do it anymore.

might as well make some money while we're doing it. I just, yeah, I don't, there's just so many people that haven't thought about that. Why I hadn't, right? If you and I probably should, if you could add this conversation with me five years ago, you would have saved me a couple of years off of this journey because I would have started to, now some is still a process. You got to figure out what your why and what you do want, right? It changes. And not maybe not it changes or you start to uncover what really is.

Brett. Trainor (: 33:24

important, right? It's, you know, like I said, my, we have our first grand daughter, she's six months old. Holy cow. That just changes. It changed everything, right? mean, everything you're building this way. And all of a this little one comes to you like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. Right. And so spending time with her just, it rooted me back into, you know, what's going to be really important. And how do we, I actually had a post this morning where I talked about where I was

chasing that corporate ladder, right? The titles, the promotions, the money. Now I'm chasing the experiences, right? Or the moments, right? Because I also mentioned they're having their house fixed up so they're living with us, which is awesome. My son-in-law may disagree with that, but for the most part, but it's been awesome. So, you know, at eight o'clock in the morning, I can go hang out with her for a half an hour or, you know, get her up for a nap or those things. And I just, those little moments, if I was still in corporate and Zoom calls from 8 a.m. to...

It wasn't, it's not going to have more or even worse. I'm back in the office. Oh my God. No. Right. So, so it's again, if you would have asked me a month or a year after I left, I wouldn't have had the perspective of what I'm chasing, but it is the, how can we build more and more of these experiences that we did while the girls were young, but we did those experiences around the job, right? When you had vacation or you had asked for time off and you know, so we were able to do some of those things, but now I'm

Again, it's unfortunate enough to go the next 30 years and be super intentional about building as many of these things as possible.

And it's not that you don't work as much. actually, I'm going to warn you, if you're a corporate escapee, you'll probably work more. You'll work harder, but you're going to be working for you. And you're going to be able to have, I talk a lot about creating financial flexibility to be able to be a corporate escapee and how to do that. But you also in doing that, you create time flexibility, like you're saying.

John Browning (: 35:24

You decide when you're going to work. decide whether or not you're going to purchase the, maybe the tool that's going to make you more effective and be able to work smarter, not harder or whatever. And rather than trial and erroring everything, you're still going to have to do some of that. If you're part of your group, if you just take a few minutes and talk to somebody like me on the financial side.

There's so much out there that people just don't know because they don't do what I do every single day. And I'm a nerd about it. And I actually like doing it. Same thing with you. There's not that many people who really concentrate on helping people do this. And you don't have just your own experiences. You've got your own community's experiences that they can build off of. They can massively accelerate their success.

And again, try it, right? Because I think that's the biggest thing, at least in my perspective, would be the regret if I wouldn't have at least tried something. And again, you can always go back to corporate. It's going to be harder. It's going to get at some point, you're not going to go back to corporate because they're just not going to take you at any level at entry entry agent is absolutely real. And corporate's going to be a dumpster fire, right? AI is going to disrupt this. And the

big corporates not going to be able to take advantage of it. Small businesses are, mid-size companies will if they stay out of their own way. But guess what? Even with all these automations, what AI needs, it needs experience that you have. If somebody's going to build a financial model, I mean, I'm not going to trust a 20-year-old kid just pulls data from the model that's pern. I'd want somebody that's been doing this for 30 years to influence and drive it.

I think we as GenX is set up really well to take advantage of these opportunities because even these small businesses, if they're going to automate everything, which they should, they still need the wisdom to pump into this thing. so again, we over-complicate it way too much and there's money to be made and you can decide how much you want to make and how much to your point I'm working more now than I have been, but I want to.

John Browning (: 37:38

But you want to. yes, you said it for the first time, like ever. I think you said you're excited to work. Every morning, here's and I feel the same way, you know, maybe not every morning. There are some mornings that are harder than others, but it's you know, I just I really enjoy what I do.

And there's other.

Brett. Trainor (: 37:49

every morning, right?

Brett. Trainor (: 38:00

and there's no dread to it and you get to pick and choose, right? Now, early days, you're gonna have to make some sacrifice. You're gonna do some jobs that you may not work, work with a client you may not want, but if you stick with it, you will get there. And there's another book that I was reading, The Art of Taking Action, because part of me was like, God, I'm seeing, like I said, with 1800 people in the community, I was seeing like there's a percentage of folks, very small percentage, that we talk or they get involved.

they're off and running, right? They're building, they're going, they're having conversations. Then there's a group, I'd say about 30 % that are into it. They wanna do this, they're a little hesitant, they need some nudges, need some support. They're there, they're gonna get there. But then there's like 60 % that just won't take action, won't do it. I love the idea, I forget who was telling me, they kind of twirl and swirl around and they like the idea of everything but just don't take action. The people who are winning,

depending on how you define winning, are taking action. So if you're one of these folks that's not afraid to just go with a little structure, do these things, I'm not saying be reckless, you don't have to. You can literally do this while you're still in corporate. But I don't know where we lost that gumption somewhere of just, I think while corporate beats it out of us, right? Don't rock the boat, don't take chances, overanalyze. And so this is, I'm encouraging you to go back to your roots when you were young and...

exploring and figure things out, that's exactly what we're doing again. And guess what? People will pay you for it. And if that engagement doesn't work right, there's another 30 million small businesses that need your help. it's a whole mindset shift that you need to get over. But my long-winded answer to that is if you're willing to take action, you will be successful. I will bet money on you that you will be successful if you're willing just to go do it.

Yeah, yeah, I 100 % agree. And the value of experience, know, that I know that there are some people out there that disagree with me on this, but the value I have just found in 34 years of being involved in corporate and, you know, six years now being out on my own and being independent experience.

John Browning (: 40:17

Trump's knowledge every single day of the week. And wisdom is different than knowledge. And you as a Gen Xer or maybe even a boomer, you know, some of the boomers, might be a little bit older, but that wisdom that they've gained, if they've kept up with things, sometimes the boomers just, they, they stop keeping up with things fine. But, but if you've kept up with things as a boomer, the experience you have, I want to talk to you.

Yeah.

Brett. Trainor (: 40:47

How do I know?

Brett. Trainor (: 41:01

100 % get it. And you know, it was interesting too, because when I started, I started the podcast before I left corporate. And I think that was kind of part of the wake up call I needed. I needed something to energize me again. And I didn't know it at the time again, I'm talking like I had this perfect plan. No, there was no plan, but it challenged me. I mean, hitting record for the first time in the podcast, I don't know about you, but it was terrifying. And it was a friend of the probe, somebody I knew very well, it was doing me a favor. Then after I recorded, it took me another month just to hit.

published for the first time. But then that's kind of started a journey of learning. I got connected with folks like you, authors, business people. All of a I've learned, I can guarantee you, I've learned more in the last five years than I did in the last 25 years combined, easily. And I think that's part of what the enthusiasm. Now, if you don't want to learn anything, you're not curious, probably not going to be the best path for you, but I would also challenge you to test it because you may just be, what's the word, dormant.

that you need to be challenged a little bit again to wake up. And once you do...

Brett. Trainor (: 42:26

And I hear that from a lot of people too. So I think there's something, I haven't done the research behind it, but I do think there's something that's what's kind of triggering people. One, they're just done with corporate. They don't want to return to the office maybe, but it's deeper than that. know, we have a whole episode on that, but it's, again, just search inside. Are you truly happy with what you're doing? And if you're not, man, life's too short to be miserable. I get it. You have to pay bills and you got to figure that out. But if you're going to work hard, do it for you.

Right? It's gonna be hard no matter what you do.

Brett. Trainor (: 43:36

Yeah

Brett. Trainor (: 44:48

And John, that's why you're coming back on the podcast to educate the next generation of escapees that are out there because that's definitely one thing 90 % of our folks aren't well versed in is exactly what you do, right? Because in corporate, you've got deposited, it went into the 401k. I didn't have to think about it. All of sudden now you got cash flow. It's a good problem, by the way. But yeah, it's 100%, right? So.

You're going to be super busy, think, over the next couple decades, or as busy as you want to be.

Brett. Trainor (: 45:24

awesome. Congrats. How many is that now?

Brett. Trainor (: 45:32

Now we're just the younger generation that's having, that's what I said when I first, I'm like, my God, my daughter's pregnant. Now I'm like, it's the greatest thing. And I'm like, all right, I can see. I don't have to rush through the net to get to four, but I'm completely on board with this thing now. So yeah, so awesome. That's congrats on that.

Brett. Trainor (: 46:29

It makes sure and subscribe to John's monthly or week or daily market updates, man. I'm not a financial big, but it's part of my morning routine now. And if you're a few minutes late, I'm like, where is he?

Brett. Trainor (: 46:51

But then the other morning you were like at 3.40 a.m. I'm like, whoa, somebody's up early or?

Brett. Trainor (: 47:00

I'm like dang. Okay, that's good. Anyway, if you don't subscribe you absolutely should because it'll keep you up to date on what's going on and knowledge is power. So Anyway, thanks John. Thanks for having me. I appreciate this