Reimagining Possibilities: Tamara Loring on Escaping the 9-to-5

Brett Trainor (00:01.332)
Hi, Tamara. Welcome to the podcast.

Tamara Loring (00:04.034)
thrilled to be here, can't wait to explore what's possible.

Brett Trainor (00:07.72)
Yeah, I know this is absolutely my pleasure. I've been excited about this episode for a while. And I think you probably know we had one of your coaches on, seems like recently, but it was actually a long time ago, Mike, so super excited to talk to you. All things entrepreneur source, the work you guys do with coaches and helping escapees figure out the path. And there's just so many good things, the book we can talk about. So.

I don't want to spoil everything, but first, you know, for the audience, maybe just a quick bio on yourself and the company and the work you guys are doing and we'll jump into it.

Tamara Loring (00:39.075)
So.

Tamara Loring (00:43.422)
Yeah, happy to. My name is Tamara Norring. I'm in charge of brand ideology at our organization. And what we do at the Entrepreneur Source is we absolutely obsess over what it will take to help individuals to become self-sufficient. So that is the work we do. And we are on a mission to spark a revolution. So we just recently launched our book, The Your Career Revolution.

Brett Trainor (01:10.188)
Got it here.

Tamara Loring (01:10.282)
you got your copy. I love it!

Brett Trainor (01:13.424)
And we will spend some time getting into that, but I'm going to tell you right now, I wish you would have, or I would have found that book. I mean, I've been on this journey four and a half years. It's two years ago or four years ago. It'd have been super helpful. You probably could have saved me a couple of years on that, on the journey, but better late than never for me. But you know, folks out there are going to get, you know, hear some of this wisdom earlier.

Tamara Loring (01:35.506)
You know, and I'll comment on that too. It's I've been doing this for 22 years and I was telling you, maybe I'm one of the slowest learners on the planet. And sometimes it's not just having the information, because I've certainly had the information around me for decades. At this point in time, I read a book by a gentleman, Brian Klammer, and he said, if how tos were enough.

we'd all be skinny rich and happy. So one of the things that I love about our organization is to help people realize that you are not alone, nor do you need to travel this road alone. So if it wasn't for the mentors and the coaches in my life, oh my gosh, I cannot even imagine where I would be at today. So yeah.

Better late than never, like you said. Always reminds me of the Chinese proverb, when was the best time to plant a tree? How does it go? Maybe 10, 20 years ago. When's the best next time? Now, so when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

Brett Trainor (02:30.1)
Exactly. I love that. And we're so kind of in sync with what our missions are and trying to help folks. And like I said, I was super excited when I started to learn about what you guys are doing as an organization. Like I said, I read the book prior to our conversation today. I'm like, yep, that makes perfect sense. I mean, it's, and again, I think it's the one thing and I know we're off, I'm derailing us before we can get started, but.

Tamara Loring (02:55.534)
That's good.

Brett Trainor (02:55.776)
You know, the one thing that I found surprising just working with folks in the last six months is that they're surprised by how much opportunity that's actually out there beyond corporate. And I guess I was to an extent as well because we're in those corporate walls for 20 to 30 years. You just don't realize that the possibilities that are out there.

Tamara Loring (03:17.214)
Well, if you think about it, our education system really primes us for it, right? Little kids are being asked, what do you want to do when you grow up? And we're all thinking a job, right? I want to be an engineer. I want to be an accountant, a lawyer, a doctor, you name it. And so we are built from the time we were very, very young to work on our resumes, almost thinking that defines us. And one of the things that I'm trying to do, at least with my child, is to help them

him understand that if you're an entrepreneur or if you're self-sufficient, you get to be in any industry that you want to. And this is really what we're doing with adults too, right? Adults, we're just bigger version of the child version of ourselves.

to show them that, you know, okay, you've been down this path, maybe it's served you very well, but there's so many possibilities out there. Just because it's unknown, just because it's out of your current comfort zone, doesn't mean that it may not be the right path for you and your family. So at the very least, give yourself permission to learn about what's out there and what's possible. And I promise you, and Brett, it sounds like you've gone down this path too, is once you know...

And once you see, you cannot unsee it. You feel like there's an abundance of possibilities out there, even in today's world.

Brett Trainor (04:35.016)
Yeah, and it's so funny that once I did open my eyes a bit, right, because when I left corporate, I went and actually corporate and management consulting, because that's what you should do at the end of your career is go into consulting, but then left that and started consulting, but just on my own, but didn't really look at the other possibilities that were out there. And so again, I was on an island by myself doing it probably for the first two years. And then it wasn't until about two years ago, I discovered, wow, there's a whole community of people out here that have left corporate and really are.

trying to help you right? Unlike in corporate work seems like it's every person for themselves, right? It's politically you're trying to climb the corporate ladder. I was surprised on the flip side here, how many people truly do care and want to help you succeed.

Tamara Loring (05:19.358)
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, you and I were talking about the Gallup study that came out, right? It was the Gallup State of the Global Workplace where we looked at how many people are dissatisfied with their current career. They either loudly quit the quitting or quietly quitting, right? Meaning that they're disengaged, but it's basically over 75% of the adult population. I think the exact number works out to be like 77% of the population. And yet when you're the person who gets right-sized, downsized,

Or maybe you're still gainfully employed, but there's a void. You feel like there has to be more in life. Like I should be able to have more control or maybe work on something where I can build equity. You know, when you realize, I looked up how many people are participating in the workforce, and I think it's like 167 million in the United States alone. So that means that over 100 million people.

are dissatisfied with a career and yet they feel like they're all alone, right? We actually, that's why we wrote this book and we coined a term for it and we called it bettered career and bettered investor syndrome where people realize that, oh my gosh, do you know what? I'm not the only one. So many people are suffering from this. It's kind of like the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. But yeah, for sure. If there's somebody listening to this podcast today,

feeling like they must be the only one. Oh no, you're in good company. It's three quarters of the adult population who may feel a similar sentiment as you do, right? Just thinking there has to be a better.

Brett Trainor (06:55.82)
Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, great. Because again, when climbing the corporate ladder, it's what we were expected to do. That's what we did. But I hit the point just before I went to management consulting, because I thought that would be something new and energizing and recharge. I just kind of hit the wall and said, what am I doing? What am I doing this for? Right? And I thought of the old, I don't know if you probably have seen Forrest

when he gets into that stage of his life where he's just running, running. He's running across America. If he was going somewhere, he was running. And then one day he just stops and said, I'm tired and I'm going home. And then, you know, to me, that's the perfect where, at least the people I work with, you're like, I'm in corporate, I'm tired. I want to go home. I want to do something else. I want to take control of it. But man, I didn't realize it was a hundred million. That's, that's a big number.

Tamara Loring (07:44.874)
That is a big number and that's just in the United States. And actually in the United States, when I looked at the Gallup survey, we're actually one of the fortunate one because 23% of our working population are engaged. When you look at it worldwide, that number is actually lower. So it is, you know, globally a feeling that people are feeling today. And the good news is though, right? When you feel like...

revolting, that's what our book is about, right? Looking at your current circumstances, thinking there has to be a better way. The good news is, you know, you can absolutely reimagine and reclaim the life of your dreams. So don't let your past determine your future. As a matter of fact, use it as a springboard so that you can create a better future. I think you were sharing with me too, when you realized that you had all these transferable skills, why not to put it to work for yourself?

versus working on somebody else's screen.

Brett Trainor (08:39.3)
Right. Yeah. And again, it's, I think we're more and more, again, the more we can get people to be aware of the opportunities that are out there, right? I push hard the, uh, the solo path, but again, I think in one of my content pieces, I've got 10 or 12 different paths you can go to replace your income or some semblance of income. But, you know, that's the other thing that surprised me. And I'm curious what you guys see from the data or even from all the folks that have gone through the program is.

Money isn't the top driver. It's important, don't get me wrong, but there's a host of other factors that have become more important and it was kind of the same thing with me. But I'm curious if you guys see a lot of, financial is important, right? But it's a lot of other things too, right?

Tamara Loring (09:24.694)
Well, yeah, you know, I mean other things, you know, actually I'll quote something in that we have in the book also. It was it said that if I can find the page here, it was a quote by Business Insider. And basically, you know what, I don't have it in front of me. But basically it said if you had to work and you could choose whether to work for somebody else or yourself.

Roughly, I think it was 78% of the people answered that question and said they would work for themselves. So then you have to say why is there this discrepancy between what people say they want and what they actually do? One, because many people haven't taken the time to actually create a vision, a north star for their future. So they're just going through the motions day in and day out, right? And if you don't have a direction of where you're going, how do you know if you're even making progress towards that? So

What our program does is we say, let's take a vacation from your current reality and let's dream like when you were a kid and failure was not an option. Imagine this bigger and brighter future. Once we have that north star, then we say, okay, let's explore all the possibilities that are out there. Yes, you can stay in the job market, but from what you're telling me, it's not feeding your soul and it's not giving you, helping you with your purpose.

What other options are out there? And then people will say, yeah, I would like to do something for myself, but. Yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but. So we have these limiting beliefs. And there's a great chapter in our book. I actually like to refer to it as the F words. It's all the things that come up, like fear, false evidence appearing real, fear of success, fear of change, fear of failure. Believe it or not, family and friends. Right?

I don't know how it was like in your family, but if you are known as, let's say, the breadwinner and somebody knows that you have had a successful career path, if you one day come to your spouse and you say, do you know what, honey? I think this is not feeding my soul anymore. I want to go in a different direction. If you haven't shared that this is satisfaction and taking them along the journey, they're going to think you crazy. It's like, yeah, but you know, it doesn't feed your soul, but it feeds the family. What are you doing?

Tamara Loring (11:44.33)
Right? It's like, yeah, but I'm unhappy, you know, but you are messing with somebody's potential security. So people start having these conversations with themselves and they're thinking, yeah, I am gainfully employed. Why am I so unhappy? I should be more grateful, right? So they just end up doing the thing that they think that they're supposed to do and they don't give themselves permission to say, but what could a better and brighter future look like? What if I could still take care of the family?

Brett Trainor (11:44.428)
Right.

Tamara Loring (12:12.638)
and have an amazing NASDAQ and have control over my time and have an abundance of money and maybe create a legacy. Why settle for mediocracy when there could be an even better future out there? But I think many people have become so numb. Right, they're stuck on this hamster wheel that they cannot even think beyond today or beyond tomorrow, beyond next week, let alone the bigger and brighter future.

Brett Trainor (12:39.24)
Yeah, and especially, you know, like, like me, like Gen X. So I was already closing towards the end. And like, what am I going to stay in corporate another 10, 15 years in order to, you know, pay the bills and do this thing. And, you know, within the book, you have a number of, I don't want to call them case studies, but kind of journeys of different folks. And like, Kevin, man, are you sure that wasn't me? Because Kevin was me literally. And I've told the story that I just got to the point, everything on the surface looked

Tamara Loring (12:59.618)
Yeah.

Brett Trainor (13:08.78)
good, right? Man, she made something they pay well. I like the work, the good people that I was on projects with. But it just, if something was missing, and I think it was about a year plus after I had exited corporate, finally got some footing under me and traction on my own, my wife asked me, she's like, what the hell was the matter with you? Right? And because she could see the difference once I was out. And I'm at the time, I didn't think anything was wrong. But obviously, she could tell that there was something, you know, fundamentally

Tamara Loring (13:29.034)
Right?

Tamara Loring (13:35.28)
she can tell them something.

Brett Trainor (13:38.4)
backwards and again to Kevin's case study everything looked good on the surface anybody from the outside like how they're living the American dream But you know, like said the deeper I get into this more I realize there's a lot of us that are Kevin's

Tamara Loring (13:48.194)
or I would realize there's a lot of us there. Exactly. That's, to me, the sound of freedom. Because what happens to many people, especially in a corporate environment, they really have these golden handcuffs. They believe that they cannot leave because of the benefits. People are not staying for the pension anymore, right? That's past. That was the previous generation before us, Gen Xers, right? But they still hold onto medical insurance.

Brett Trainor (14:03.648)
Yeah.

Brett Trainor (14:10.476)
don't exist.

Tamara Loring (14:15.986)
And so when we have these conversations with people, we say, okay, these are your beliefs. Have you actually gone out to see whether you'd be able to get insurance on the exchange? Oh my gosh, Brett, I cannot tell you how many of our coaches say, wow, they cannot believe that they actually held themselves hostage for so long because they believed one thing to be true, that, you know, for instance, they wouldn't be able to get insurance and they find out that they're completely insurable. So that was not the reason to stay in corporate America.

Or they settle for next job, especially the folks who got, I like to call it, right size, down size, cap size, who find themselves looking for another job. Now they feel like they're being aged out. So they take a job at a lower wage than they really are qualified for, but they feel like that beats the alternative. And again, it's because they're looking in the same fish pond.

What if there are many other ponds out there that you could be fishing in where not only would you have to settle for less than what you were accustomed to making, but something where you're actually building equity, something where you're able to do something on your terms, you're working on your dream, not somebody else's.

Brett Trainor (15:27.272)
Yeah, it's so important. And, you know, thinking back, one of the things you said about the F, so one that I guess surprised me and I love to get your kind of breakdown of is the fear of success. Right. That one seems counterintuitive. Can you explain that a little bit? And so people are out there thinking that way that are they just afraid to be successful or they won't know what to do with it? I'm curious.

Tamara Loring (15:49.362)
It is an interesting one and most people, you know, nobody, I think everybody gets fear of failure. I mean, who really likes to fail, right? Even though we learn from our mistakes and that's actually the best way to learn. But how on earth could you fear success? Well, the interesting thing is, is who would we need to become and who would we need to be if we were that successful? Would we need to change our circle of friends? Would our family hold us to higher standards?

would we, let's say you for instance, right? You're a podcaster, you have enough following, you are an amazing influencer. And suddenly if you get in your head that this means I need to travel more and I need to be away from my family more, suddenly you will actually start self-sabotaging even though you say that I wanna be a podcaster and I wanna be more successful, but suddenly you create the story in your head of what you think it means and are you willing to mess with your current comfort zone?

We are creature of habits. As soon as we leave our current comfort zone, the alarm bells go off, right? It must be wrong, it must be dangerous, you know, SOS. And so we end up retreating. It actually takes mental energy and discipline to say, wait a minute, I'm out of my current comfort zone? This is good. This means I'm experiencing new things. I am growing and my comfort zone is expanding.

Few of us actually think about it like that. And I don't know that I would be thinking about it like that if it wasn't for my coaches and my mentors who would say when I'm like starting to do something that's scary I've never done before. And I'm like, ooh, I start to retreat. And they're like, no, this is not the time to do that. You're growing, you're expanding as a human being, your capabilities are increasing, right? So I think that is the fear of success. We don't recognize it, but many of us self-sabotage and we stop short because

It's outside of our current comfort zones.

Brett Trainor (17:44.392)
Yeah, such a good point. It's so true. You know, I had somebody that I was working with not that long ago said I, his realization was I just got to get comfortable being uncomfortable again. And I mean, it's a hard thing to process, but it makes sense. And then even tying that comfort back into corporate, you know, the number of folks, and I'll use me as the example, right? You could drop me into any corporate environment, assuming that it's within kind of what my job, what I've been doing and where my expertise is.

Tamara Loring (17:55.765)
Yeah.

Brett Trainor (18:13.128)
And I'd be comfortable within a week or 10 days and figure out what we need to do, right. And where that, and again, simplifying it a little bit, but you tell me all of a sudden we're going to start a business and I've got to figure out how to get a customer to know that just the unknown of that is super, even though I probably have the skillset and I think we all have the skillsets to do it, but it's just, it's, we don't have the confidence, which is

Tamara Loring (18:31.882)
It's still sensitive, but it's just, we don't have the confidence, we're just kinda in.

Brett Trainor (18:37.064)
Again, counter because of all the experience we have, we think we'd have a ton of confidence, but no, we're just more comfortable than maybe confident. That makes sense?

Tamara Loring (18:43.726)
Well, oh, absolutely. And I mean, the same thing I think was true for me, because we think it's either all or nothing. So for instance, when I was in my previous job, I was actually in hospitality, I realized that if I just updated my resume and sent it to another hotel, that it wasn't gonna change the nature of the industry. And I knew something was wrong. So my parents said to me, just do something for yourself. And I'm like, wow.

I don't have this idea of this product or service that I wanna take to the marketplace. So therefore I made it mean that I need to stay in the job market. I need to work for somebody else. But you know what? Even entrepreneurship and business ownership come in so many different flavors, right? Like you were saying, yeah, could you, or do you have the skills to do all the different things? Well, it's very hard when you have to figure it out all yourself, but.

If you have the right resources, the right mentors, the right coaches, the right tribe that you're associating with, suddenly things become easier because we all have different unique abilities. So even entrepreneurs, I don't think really there's an entrepreneur who's completely, completely self-made. They align themselves with people who know to do things better than they do themselves, right? So, you know, if you were to build a business from scratch, it's impossible for you to be an expert at keeping your financial house in order.

an expert at business development, an expert at actually executing the service or creating the product, right? But if you align yourself with the right people, that's what entrepreneurs do. They align themselves with the right people. And even there, you and I spoke about the different business formats, right? You could be an Elon Musk, but how many of us really identify with being a maverick like that? But that doesn't mean that you can't be a business owner.

Maybe you could invest in somebody else's business or purchase an existing business that already has the system in place. Or you could become a licensee or franchise. You know, there's so many different options. So, you know, don't exclude something completely just because it's out of your current comfort zone, thinking that I've never done that. So therefore I can't do it. I mean, heck, if we would operate like that, none of us would ever learn how to walk or to ride a bike. Right. Because we'd give up. I've never done that before. But we don't give up. We just...

Tamara Loring (20:59.374)
Take it baby steps. And I think that is the other thing to realize, that you never have to go on this journey completely solo. Don't fly solo. There's a great story in our book too about, you know, don't fly solo. So find the people who have either done what you're aiming to do, or people who are growth minded to show you what's possible. So I think you actually referred to it in one of your podcasts, right? Somebody who's ahead of you, somebody who's at the same level, and then bring somebody along.

Brett Trainor (21:25.109)
Yeah.

Brett Trainor (21:29.232)
Yeah, it's just so, it's so important. Again, hindsight's always 2020. But like I said, the first couple of years of my journey was solo. My wife wasn't fighting it because she knew it was something you needed to do, but I didn't really even have her as part of the process. And now we've got a full system that I've shared on the podcast that her and I are working through this together, but it really didn't take off until I started one, telling people what I was doing to including folks and asking.

for the help and just connecting. And again, it's a giving group across the board. But yeah, you can get there, but you're just working twice as hard to get there by trying to do it by yourself, I guess is what my long-winded answer.

Tamara Loring (22:10.502)
When you started even saying involving family and friends, and that is so critical, right? Because earlier in the podcast, we said, if you don't share your aspirations or your dreams with people, if suddenly out of the blue, you want to pivot, it's going to seem like it's out of nowhere. But it's also so important to have their support, right? So that they can, because you know,

Striking out on your own is not going to be easy, and they're going to be hard days, right? And if you have a network that can prop you up and remind you of why you're doing this, it's so much better than somebody who's like, oh, I told you so, right? And if you don't involve people on your journey, that is what's going to happen. And the more you involve people, you'll be amazed at how the resources actually just start presenting themselves, how willing people are to either share their stories.

or point you in a direction that will absolutely elevate you. Our founder has a saying that I've quoted many times. He says, the rising tide will raise all ships. So, you know, whatever circles you're in, right, whether it's entrepreneurial circles or, you know, hobbies and things like that, enthusiasts love to share what they know to help others be better. And that's how we become better ourselves too.

Brett Trainor (23:25.268)
Yeah, it's such a good point. I love that saying. I forgot about that rising tide, but it's perfect. It's a perfect analogy for it. And I'll share it with just, again, on the personal side, because again, until I stopped fighting, I wasn't fighting with my wife, but it was until we did this together. Is that, again, back to the track? And the one thing, and I've shared on the podcast maybe a couple of times, is we do, I set up a formal quarterly business review with her. We just did this the past weekend for fourth quarter.

And I review everything in the business, even though she's not working in the business, she now has transparency to everything that's going on. What are the initiatives? Where are the growth? What were the problems? You know, what am I anticipating coming up? And then we tie that back to what we want to do personally, right? Does it still align with what, right? With I'm going through a little bit of a growth phase now, so probably won't be traveling in the first quarter just because of everything, but in the past, she didn't, she hadn't.

in corporate, she knew the paycheck was coming every two weeks and we had benefits. And that was okay. But now we're in this unknown and she had zero visibility into it other than me just saying it's going to be fine. So if I had any advice to anybody that's worked with family, make them a part of this process. It's it may be highly worth. Yeah.

Tamara Loring (24:25.59)
That's right.

Tamara Loring (24:32.75)
So, bye.

Tamara Loring (24:39.534)
Yeah. Take them along on the journey. Exactly. I think the analogy I heard once, it's like if you're the conductor of your train, and let's say the family members may not be actively involved with what you're doing, but it's almost like you left the train station and you left them behind. How can you imagine that they will support you? In the book, we use the crabs in a basket analogy, saying that if you're messing with somebody's

world, their safety, their security. Of course they will want to drag you down because, you know, they don't want you to mess with their world. But on the other hand, if you could show them the way and have them be part of the dream, then they could absolutely support that. So I'm thrilled to hear that you actually do quarterly reviews and plans. And I'm sure there may even be some thoughts that are shared during that, you know, review session that you hadn't even thought of that will actually help.

Brett Trainor (25:20.129)
Yeah.

Tamara Loring (25:32.162)
build maybe an even better plan for yourself.

Brett Trainor (25:37.292)
Exactly. Now she still has doubts. I'm like, didn't you tell me this two quarters ago? They were going to do this. I'm like, well, it's slightly different, but fair question. And, you know, one of the things that just came out was it just more of a, we're going to do a weekly recap at the end of the week. I mean, it's kind of sounds silly, but she's just, she just wants to know what were the big things that happened this week. Cause it gets busy and I forget to tell her. And then if she has to ask me about something, it's just so I'm like, you know what? Every Friday afternoon, we're going to sit down for 30 minutes. I'm just going to kind of recap the week for you.

ask away and I gotta tell you it's changed our relationship as far as taking that piece of the stress which was a big piece. And anybody that's just starting this journey probably understands that. But like I said, the sooner you can get everybody involved to your point, it's gonna take some of that friction out of it.

Tamara Loring (26:25.75)
For sure, because at the end of the day, for most of us at least, that is who we're doing it for, right? Why do we want to have more time?

so that we can spend quality time with our family. I think in one of your other podcasts, I heard somebody reference that, I forget who they were quoting, but for most of us GenXers, how many summers do we have left? Maybe 2023, so forth. So we really want to make that meaningful. So if we're met with resistance, it just means we haven't involved the other person enough to allow them to see what we see, right? And then get their support on it. So yeah.

Brett Trainor (26:48.113)
Yeah.

Tamara Loring (27:04.238)
The more you can do it, the more frequently so that you can have the support as opposed to them resisting and it would be very, very crucial.

Brett Trainor (27:10.884)
and having to fight the internal and external for sure. Now the one thing in the book that I do wanna talk about cause I use this phrase and I use this phrase all the time with since reading it, I like the way you, it was you 2.0.

Right. Because that's exactly what we're trying to do. I mean, corporate us was this. What is 2.0? To your point, looking forward, what is it you want to be? What do you want to be when you grow up? I mean, it's kind of funny that we're asking that question again. But I love that the visual or the concept of the 2.0 version of you. Not everybody's going to want to do it. Fine. But folks that are tired. I mean, I think this is a great way to think about it.

Tamara Loring (27:22.855)
Yes.

Tamara Loring (27:48.406)
Yeah, you know, if your 1.0 is your present, your 2.0 is your future. And it doesn't need to be an impossible future, right? We're not talking about 3.0, 4.0. It's just the next generation of what you could look like. You only better, right? And you 2.0 is where we get to reimagine what our possibilities are, what our options are, where we can take stock about the things that are important to in our life.

We've got several exercises in the book, as you know, whether it's the possibilities, options, and dream assessment, or the income, lifestyle, wealth, and equity assessment. But I'll focus on that one for a second. You 2.0 can say, what if? Well, we start with a great question on the YouTube.com, is if we were to look at your life a year from today, just a year from today, what has to have happened, both personally and professionally, for you to be happy with your progress?

And then it helps to think about it, okay, do you know what? As it relates to income, what would excite me? As it relates to lifestyle, what would excite me? As it relates to longer term wealth and equity, what am I working towards, right? And so most of what we find is that, especially when it comes to lifestyle, people want more control over their time. It's not that they don't wanna work hard, but they want to work on their terms, right? So income, you may be surprised, it's not necessarily always

more income, more income, more income, but more so, what will that money do for me, right? After it covers the monthly expenses and everything, do I feel like I have control of my freedom? And so the U2.0 is an exercise to really just think about where you are today, your 1.0, where you would like to be, and then what coaching can do is help bridge the gap. Okay, so what can we do to get you from where you are today to where you want to be?

Brett Trainor (29:43.212)
Yeah, it's such a good point. And one of the quotes and I'll mess it up a little bit, but you can always earn back more money, but you can never earn back time. So how do we time rich? We've, you know, the other thing that still, I can't believe it took me forever to think about, but you know, incorporate your design and your life around your job. Right. You're traveling, your vacation, school schedules, you know, with some of the remote work, you had got some of that flexibility back.

Tamara Loring (29:51.498)
Yeah, that's right.

Brett Trainor (30:09.484)
But it was just time to flip the switch and say, hey, I want to design my life, the 2.0 and have work be a part of that. But how do I figure out what that looks like? And again, I think for my journey, I just went, I didn't plan. And I tell everybody in hindsight, I absolutely would have had a plan. Not something you're going to plan where you never do it. You know, there's something to be said for just going and making it happen, but

Tamara Loring (30:25.018)
I tell everybody in hindsight I absolutely would have had my hat so...

Tamara Loring (30:31.502)
Yeah.

Brett Trainor (30:34.124)
But having a plan, going through these exercises, I did it after the fact, and I still go through and say, am I on track with what I wanna do? And what does this look like? Because once you get into the day to day, sometimes you just start to lose track of what you were focused on.

Tamara Loring (30:50.514)
Right, no, it's important to have focus and always kind of revisit your North Star to make sure that you're actually trending in the right direction, otherwise we're just starting to flounder. But I think the big thing, you know, that I love about what you're talking about is when people feel trapped.

stuck on this hamster wheel, feeling like they don't have any options. And so many people, whether it's in corporate America or just stuck with the W-2 mindset, thinking that's the only thing that they can do or that they qualify to do. I mean, how liberating for you, even though you're still learning as you're going along, to realize that there's a whole other world out there. For me, I know it went against common wisdom, right? When I learned, for instance, that, you know,

not only are there so many pathways and so many different entrepreneurial endeavors that I could participate in, a lot of mind shifts had to occur for me. For instance, I've always heard in life, and I'm sure you've heard this too, you know, find something that you're passionate about and then you'll never have to work a day in your life. And so when you have that mindset, when you want to leave corporate America or when you want to leave your traditional job, most people pivot

What am I really passionate about? What could I see myself doing every single day? And I was looking too, and you're looking, it's kind of like looking for that perfect solution, like the stars and the moon and everything needs to be aligned and it will just unveil itself. One day it will just miraculously pop up and you'll be like, I know it when I see it. And the reality I have found is there's so much opportunity out there and you don't know what you will love until you give it a chance. For instance,

The coaching moment that will never be lost on me, and we reference it in the book, was when our founder said to me, "'Ti, you strike me as someone who is possibilities driven, who's open to opportunities. You've got so much zest in you, so much life and vigor. Does that sound like you?' And I'm like, oh my gosh, you have clearly met me. That is me, absolutely. And he said, and it seems to me like you have an open mind. I'm like...

Tamara Loring (33:00.766)
Absolutely, yes. And he said, so what if I asked you to look at things that maybe you've never looked at before? For instance, and he did this on purpose, a little complete setup. He said, for instance, what if I asked you to look at a porter potty concept? I don't know about you, Brett, but my visceral reaction was like, whoa, I thought you were going to lead me to the land of possibilities. You're asking me to look at a porter potty concept? Like, what is wrong with you? Have you seen how I dress? Like, where's the opportunity in that?

Brett Trainor (33:22.951)
Yeah.

Tamara Loring (33:30.602)
And that is because I had a mindset, if you do what you love and enjoy, you will never have to work a day in your life. Immediately, my mind went to going, like, I'd have to clean the quarter parties, I'd have to set it up. I don't even know what it would entail. And he said, okay, what if you realized, or what if you found out by speaking to people who maybe are in that business, that they generate the type of income you told me that you want?

is it still such an excuse the button, crappy business to be in? What if you found out that people who are in a business like that actually have control over their schedule and they hire people to do certain things and they control when and where and how hard they work? Would that still be a terrible opportunity or possibility for you? And then longer term, what if you found out that maybe some of the people in that kind of business

Brett Trainor (34:02.793)
No pun.

Tamara Loring (34:28.318)
had the opportunity to build incredible wealth for themselves and their family and maybe build equity, maybe they build a business that they could sell or maybe something that they could pass on to their family. Do you think those people think it's such a crappy business to be in? And so I've shared the story so many times and many times people tell me, so what did you do? Did you look into a part-time party business? And I always say no, I didn't go down that road. However, the lesson was not lost on me.

Because now when somebody presents an opportunity or possibility to me and they say, hey T, we want you to check this out, that story comes back to mind. And it's, I coach myself saying, what do I know about this? If it checks the things that I value in life, even though at first blush, I may not have thought that I would love it, would I grow to love it over time? Absolutely.

Do I think most people grow up saying, I wanna be in the porta-potti business? No, but I tell you that there are probably people in businesses like that and a bunch of other things, right? Where they didn't know that they would love it, but because it is true to their core, it checks their values, it allows them to have the freedoms that they aspire to, they grow to love that. So it's an absolute myth that you need to do what you know, love and enjoy professionally.

in order to be successful. As a matter of fact, one of the books I love, and I don't know whether you have read it, is a book by Michael Gerber called The E-Myth Revisited, Why So Many Small Businesses Fail and What To Do About It. So he says that there's a great danger when people buy themselves a job or turn their hobbies into a job, because a business has more aspects than just being the technician. You need to make sure that you've got your other

components of the business in order for it to be successful. So you don't want to turn the thing that you loved so much into your biggest nightmare.

Brett Trainor (36:23.004)
Into a job. Yeah, I think that perfectly sums it up, right? In the sense of you end up leaving one corporate job and you just build yourself another job, which I think it comes right back to how do you design that life and figure out how work fits into in the porta potty would be perfect. It's going to fit the revenue piece, I can still do three days of doing X, Y, and Z of what's really important to me. And, you know, it's, it's just such a good reminder. And again, back to what are the possibilities that are that are out there. So

You know, tomorrow I could probably talk to you for another hour and a half. I know I could, but I do want to be respectful of your time. So is there anything that we didn't cover that you think we should still share with the audience? I know we covered quite a bit, but did we miss anything?

Tamara Loring (36:56.302)
special.

Tamara Loring (37:03.966)
Yeah, we went a bunch of different places, but I would just say, you know, if you feeling or have this nagging thought that there has to be a better way, there probably is a better way. Give yourself permission to dream a little and you don't need to go on this journey alone. So, you know, to give a plug maybe for, you know, some of the things that you offer or a book, you know, just.

Give yourself time to think about your thinking, whether you listen to the Audible book of the Your Career Revolution, whether you buy the hard copy version, or maybe you visit our website and you engage with the coach, but you owe it to yourself and your family to at the very least explore what's out there. You don't need to act on it, but once you know what the possibilities are, you will see that there is an abundance of opportunities. I've never seen a case.

where somebody has been completely hopeless. So, you know, just allow yourself to maybe stretch your comfort zone a little bit.

Brett Trainor (38:05.504)
Yeah, 100%. You're right. The possibility, it doesn't cost you anything to educate yourself, right? Take the time, understand you don't have to pull the trigger. A lot of people won't. And again, at least the knowledge is power. They know they have options and figure it out. So, well, Tamara, thank you so much for joining us. We'll put, is the best place through LinkedIn? What's the best way for people to connect with you? We'll obviously put the website in LinkedIn or do you have a preferred contact method?

Tamara Loring (38:09.474)
That's right.

Tamara Loring (38:20.718)
Thank you so much for joining us. We'll put as best place as we can.

Tamara Loring (38:29.91)
The best way would be entr That would be the best place. Then people can explore, they can poke around, look at some of the resources and take it from there. Or of course, if they wanted to, we have a podcast too. It's called Your Career Revolution. Just ask Alexa, say play the Your Career Revolution and take it from there. Or we've got great QR codes in the book too. But the entr would be an easy way to connect with us.

Brett Trainor (38:42.414)
Yeah.

Brett Trainor (38:58.356)
Awesome. We'll make sure it's all in there. And by the way, I didn't want to forget that I thought that the QR code in the book was a nice touch. I'm like, that made it so much easier, right? Because it just popped it up onto the screen. So again, if you guys are again, I know the audience is on that fringe or they're still hanging out in corporate. This is a perfect it's a great book to get started. It'll help you think through the process and again, knowledge is power, a lot of resources on the website. So

Tamara Loring (39:24.318)
site. So, thank you again for...

Brett Trainor (39:26.196)
Thank you again for joining us. We'll again, we'll have to figure out how to make you more of a regular on here and share because I think our missions are definitely aligned and you've been doing this a little bit longer and helped quite a few more folks. But again, the more, the more we can get out of corporate that want to get out, we'll be successful.

Tamara Loring (39:34.913)
and it's a little bit longer.

Tamara Loring (39:45.322)
Now we deal with corporate refugees all the time. Very, very welcome. And like we said, you are in the majority, not the minority.

Brett Trainor (39:53.272)
Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you. Have a good rest of your day.

Tamara Loring (39:55.831)
Thank you.