Lessons from a Quitter

Goli Kalkhoran

It is never too late to start over. No matter how much time or money you’ve spent chasing degrees and jobs to get to your current position, if ultimately you’re unhappy, then it is time to quit. Each week, Goli Kalkhoran, a fellow quitter, will interview inspiring guests who have quit lucrative careers to forge their own path and create a life they love. Get insight, inspiration, tools, and resources to help you quit what you hate and figure out what it is that you love.

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Top 10 Lessons from a Quitter Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Lessons from a Quitter episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Lessons from a Quitter for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Lessons from a Quitter episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Lessons from romance novels

Lessons from a Quitter

11/07/23 • 27 min

In this episode, I explore the shame and societal judgments around pursuing joy. You know that feeling when you're guilty for enjoying something that's seen as "childish" or not "intellectual" enough? We've all been there. But, I'm excited to share my personal journey of rediscovering joy through romance and fantasy novels and why it's totally okay to prioritize what makes you happy, even if society disagrees. We'll talk about shaking off the shame, embracing new passions, and the flexibility of our identities. Listen to redefine what brings you joy!

How Dona Bumgarner designed a business based on what she needed most

Lessons from a Quitter

05/28/19 • 38 min

Today's episode is a perfect example of how to be intentional in your career. So often we do what we think we should be doing: working insane hours, building the biggest business possible, trying (and often failing) to balance life, etc. We go for the money or the title, even if that's not what we really want. Dona Bumgarner bucked that trend and is building the life, and career, that works for her and her family. Of course, it wasn't always like this. Dona started out in a position that many of us find ourselves in- climbing the corporate ladder. She was working at Apple for over 11 years and eventually landed herself in an upper management job at the company before quitting to pursue graduate school. But as she was starting school, she found out she was pregnant, which changed her priorities. She decided to leave school after one semester to become a full-time mom. Thankfully, she had saved up enough money to have a little bit of wiggle room before deciding what to do next, but not everything was smooth sailing. During this time period, she found herself struggling a bit when her life shifted from a conference room to a changing table. While this struggle led her to try multiple different careers, it ultimately helped her craft the career she wanted with intention. Through a coaching program, Dona realized that her passion was in helping other moms who have lost themselves in motherhood. She now works with other moms to help them unearth their passions and step back into their fierce, powerful selves, so they can live a life far bigger than just being Mom. However, she intentionally has kept her practice small, only working 10-15 hours a week, so that she can be the primary caretaker of her young daughter. Her decision to reject the pressure to build the biggest business possible in order to have the balance that she so deeply wants is inspiring and a great lesson for anyone on their quitting journey.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

Why it's okay to explore and try out different paths until you find the right fit.
The importance of being intentional about how you want your life to look and feel.
How it's normal to experience Imposter's Syndrome.
And so much more!

Where to find Dona:

Website: http://www.nurturedmama.net
Podcast: http://www.nurturedmama.net/podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurturedmama/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nurturedmamablog/

Resources Mentioned:

http://www.nurturedmama.net/quitter

Follow along for more:

Lawyer to Baker: How Sarah Truesdell's Business Began to Boom During COVID

Lessons from a Quitter

10/20/20 • 43 min

This week, we have the incredible Sarah Truesdell on the show. Sarah went to law school with the dream of becoming a public interest attorney and that's exactly what she did. She spent 8 years doing eviction defense and housing rights litigation and, unlike many of my previous lawyer guests, she actually loved practicing law. However, as many women find, she realized balancing her family with the demands of a legal career was near impossible. She took a break from working in 2016 to stay home with her children. While at home, Sarah dived back into her hobby of baking. Friends began asking if they could purchase baked goods and Sarah started charging. In 2018, she opened Sugar by Sarah and turned her hobby into a business.

However, once COVID hit, the demand for cakes declined. After posting some Facebook Lives of her baking, Sarah was hired by her friend to host a virtual baking class. It was a hit, and her virtual baking classes have been quickly growing ever since. Her story is a wonderful example of the fact that obstacles will always be present in our path but so will opportunities.

Find Sarah here:

We are running another round of our 12-week program, Stuck to Strategy! Sign up at https://www.quitterclub.com/group

Part 2: Learning How To Manage Your Mind For Success

Lessons from a Quitter

08/25/20 • 28 min

Big Magic Book Review

Lessons from a Quitter

03/31/20 • 39 min

I’m so excited to jump into March’s book club pick, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. If you haven’t taken the time to read it, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

I think this book is all the more important during this uncertain time of a global pandemic. Many people are rightfully re-evaluating their life and work.

The entire premise of the book is that we need creativity in order to live the rich, fulfilled lives we so desperately crave. And Liz Gilbert gives us the perfect blueprint to get started.

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

Why every human is a creative being
Why we all need creativity for a fulfilled life
How to ditch the tortured artist stereotype
How to pursue creativity even if you’re afraid
How to fold it into your life
And so much more.

How Traci Connell Used Divorce and Death to Fuel Her Drive to Build a Multi-Million Dollar Business

Lessons from a Quitter

02/11/20 • 39 min

Traci Connell is an award-winning creative entrepreneur whose business sense and design skills are combined with a passion for delivering interiors that are at the heart of a livable style. Formally trained as an elementary teacher, Traci enjoyed the creativity and structure of the classroom but knew she had not found her passion. The big “Ah-ha” moment came in 2000, when a dear friend asked, “why can’t you make money doing something you love?” and after careful consideration, Connell Interiors was born. While working to provide a second income, the first decade was spent developing her eye for design, honing her skill for business practices, holding leadership roles within the Interior Design Society, and completing successful client projects as well as many charity opportunities.

In 2011, life threw a curveball and Traci became a single mother with three children. Traci realized and accepted that her business was no longer a second income, but it was the sole source of income. Fueled with pure passion to feed her family and realize her dream, the rebirth of her company was established as Traci Connell Interiors.

During the last eight years, Traci Connell has grown her revenue twenty-fold to over two and a half million dollars, and her net profit grew tenfold. She has gone from running her business from her kitchen table and her car trunk to acquiring a full design studio.

How AI is changing work and how to own the AI revolution with Neil Sahota

Lessons from a Quitter

09/03/19 • 41 min

In honor of Labor Day, I invited Neil Sahota on the show to talk about the AI revolution and how it will affect the working landscape. Technology is developing at such a rapid pace and it is really important to pay attention to how it will change work as we know it.

Neil Sahota is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations (UN) Artificial Intelligence (AI) subject matter expert, and Faculty at UC Irvine. He is also the author of the book:

Own the A.I. Revolution

. With 20+ years of business experience, he works with clients and business partners to create the next generation of products and solutions powered by emerging technologies. If you're a regular listener of the show, then you've heard from many of our past guests that are now doing things that didn't exist as careers 5-10 years ago. These new industries, such as social media manager and online educator, are but a few examples of the changing landscape of work. While most people (or the media) tend to focus on the negatives that can come about from these changes, I think Neil's book does an incredible job of showing all of the amazing things that can happen as a result of these technologies. His book does a wonderful job of addressing important issues like the speed of change that we're experiencing, how to utilize emerging technologies to disrupt our own industries, understanding the kind of careers that are on the horizon, and how we can either rework our skills or come up in a new profession. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity and if you pay attention to what's coming next you have a chance to build the career or business that you want. Neil is just the person to help us figure out what we should be doing with all of these emerging technologies and how we can better prepare ourselves for the working landscape in the future.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

Why it's important to start learning about AI now.
Why you're in the right position to disrupt the system with your current skills.
Why you should learn to embrace change and learn how to better position yourself for it.
And so much more!

Where to find Neil:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-sahota-%E8%90%A8%E5%86%A0%E5%86%9B-028143/
Website: https://neilsahota.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/neil_sahota

Follow along for more:

Why you don’t need passion to scale a successful creative business with Pye Jirsa

Lessons from a Quitter

07/23/19 • 48 min

Since we've recently gained so many new listeners, we wanted to throw it back to one of our favorite episodes! I love this conversation with Pye! It was such a raw and in-depth conversation about the illusion of stability, the origin of most people’s fears, and the importance of developing a learning mindset. What is so fascinating about Pye’s journey is not just that he jumped from being a CPA to becoming a founder of an award-winning, multi-million dollar photography studio, it’s that he did that without having a passion for or knowing the first thing about photography. Like most of us, Pye started going down the traditional path. He became a CPA and worked for Ernst & Young before realizing that he did not like what he was doing. He quit, along with his two best friends Justin and Chris, in order to start a tech startup. When the funding for their startup fell through, the friends took on web development clients. One of their clients needed photographs taken and Pye assured them that they had a photography department that could take care of it! What I love about his story is that most people would not only shirk at taking on a task that they don’t know how to do but also avoid a “creative” profession that they are not skilled in. Pye, realizing that photography was a skill that could be acquired, looked at entering the wedding photography industry as a business and not a passion. That eye towards business has led Pye, and his partners, to create Lin and Jirsa Photography, a boutique Southern California wedding and portrait photography studio composed of an incredible creative team of 50 people that shoots over 300 weddings each year, with nearly 1,000 yearly client commissions. He is also a founder and partner in SLR Lounge, a premium educational community geared towards providing photographers with real-world shoot education with nearly a million monthly readers.

What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

My experience with launching this podcast! Specifically, how taking a risk in my own life led me to realize the opportunity in doing so.
The breaking point that led Pye to quit his job and take a risk on himself
How failed attempts at funding projects and business ventures became opportunities for exploration, self-discovery, and ultimately, success
How he created a multi-million dollar business in photography with a positive “learning mindset”
Why Pye has a “passionate dislike” of the word “stable” and the illusion it creates
Where Pye believes most fear comes from and why it limits your opportunities and potential
How developing a “Learning Mindset” allowed Pye to turn quitting and “failing” into growth, opportunity, and success

Upcoming Events:

Resources from the Show:

Where to find Pye Jirsa:

Instagram:@pyejirsa
Photography Instagram: @linandjirsa
SLR Lounge Instagram: @slrlounge

If you were inspired by this episode of “Lessons from a Quitter” with Pye Jirsa, I know you will find inspiration in other lessons from quitters on my website. Enjoy listening!

You should never stop reevaluating your career choices: How Phil Black went from Navy Seal to Harvard Business School to Firefighter and more

Lessons from a Quitter

05/21/19 • 58 min

The path that many of us have been brought up to follow usually goes a little something like this: take the right classes, get the good grades, get into the prestigious school, graduate, and then find a high paying job. We're taught that it is a linear path that you stick to and climb to the top. Well, in today's episode, Phil Black teaches us why you should buck that wisdom. Phil has one of the most interesting careers we've ever highlighted on this show. His story is a testament to following your curiosities and always re-evaluating what is most important. Among his many accomplishments, Phil played D1 collegiate basketball at Yale, worked as an investor at Goldman Sachs, was a Navy Seal Officer, went to Harvard Business School, is a firefighter, entrepreneur, father, and more. While it wasn’t clear to him during his journey, he was gaining an incredibly useful skill: the ability to find his way into really competitive positions. This is, as Phil calls it, his “superpower” which later led him to create his current business venture, PrepWell Academy. The academy is an innovative approach to preparing high school students (and their parents) for the rigors of the college admissions process. His unique program is delivered online and focuses on the early preparation of students (freshman and sophomore year) interested in attending highly-selective colleges (e.g. Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, etc.), military service academies (e.g. Naval Academy, West Point, etc.), and those seeking athletic or ROTC scholarships. Visit our website to enroll your child in one of our custom programs (Pathway, Ivy, Military, Athlete). Phil’s story is mindblowing and is a real testament to the fact that we’re allowed to start over not just once, but as many times as we want!

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

The process of how Phil reinvented himself multiple times.
The importance of evaluating (and re-evaluating) your life.
How Phil discovered his “superpower” and how it helped him build his current business.
How it’s okay to never settle on the idea of pursuing one thing forever.
And so much more!

Where to find Phil:

Website:http://www.prepwellacademy.com/
Email: [email protected]
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/PrepWellAcademy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prepwell_academy/
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipablack

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Start Up Of You by Reid Hoffman
What Are You Waiting For? by Nickelback

Follow along for more:

Rewriting Your Past

Lessons from a Quitter

02/13/24 • 30 min

In this episode, I dive deep into the power of rewriting your life story. Many of us carry a heavy baggage from our past, defined by a story we've constructed, often filled with shame and self-limiting beliefs. By reframing our stories, acknowledging resilience, and understanding our trauma responses, we can break free from self-imposed limitations. I provide practical steps for you to rewrite your stories and to shape a future you desire. Join me in unraveling the layers of your narrative to design a life you love.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Lessons from a Quitter have?

Lessons from a Quitter currently has 343 episodes available.

What topics does Lessons from a Quitter cover?

The podcast is about Lawyer, Motivation, Career, Selfhelp, Entrepreneur, Author, Selflove, Personaldevelopment, Podcasts, Inspiration, Business, Coach, Careers and Smallbusiness.

What is the most popular episode on Lessons from a Quitter?

The episode title 'Student Spotlight: How Cynthia Went From Overworked And Burned Out To Creating Her Dream Life' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Lessons from a Quitter?

The average episode length on Lessons from a Quitter is 35 minutes.

How often are episodes of Lessons from a Quitter released?

Episodes of Lessons from a Quitter are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Lessons from a Quitter?

The first episode of Lessons from a Quitter was released on Jul 14, 2018.

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Lessons from a Quitter

Goli Kalkhoran

Top 10 Lessons from a Quitter Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Lessons from a Quitter have?

What topics does Lessons from a Quitter cover?

What is the most popular episode on Lessons from a Quitter?

What is the average episode length on Lessons from a Quitter?

How often are episodes of Lessons from a Quitter released?

When was the first episode of Lessons from a Quitter?

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