I am your host, Tony Pisanelli

On this show, we dive deep with our guests to uncover real stories, practical insights, and proven strategies that will help you reclaim your career power, navigate transitions, and design what’s next with confidence.

My very special guest today is Peter Wright

Peter Wright describes himself as a podcast host, writer, speaker, blogger, contrarian thinker.
His topic is inspiring people to Overcome and Thrive on Adversity. He does this by asking questions about, and sharing ideas for, thriving in a changing world.

Born in London, England, Peter spent most of his life in Rhodesia and South Africa. His corporate career included marketing management in large and small companies, starting and running his own businesses. He travelled extensively in Southern and Central Africa, before returning to his roots as a farmer in Zimbabwe.

In 2002 he became a casualty of the government's illegal and violent policy of driving commercial farmers off their farms. He was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned to force him off his farm. He lost the farm and all his assets.
In 2004, Peter and his partner Sue moved to Canada with 2 suitcases and a horse saddle each, 6 cats and enough cash to buy a used pickup.

Peter ran ultra marathons, played Polo and Polo-Crosse. In 2010 he survived a heart attack which stopped most of his farming activities. In 2017 he had bypass surgery which enabled him to increase his physical activity and walk 250 km on the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago
He is a past president of Woodstock Toastmasters.

Transcript

[00:00.980 --> 00:11.960]  Welcome to the Career Advantage Show, where we help you reclaim your career power and design your working life on your terms.
[00:12.520 --> 00:18.640]  I'm Tony Piscinelli, and each week I sit down with leaders who have faced career-defining moments,
[00:19.300 --> 00:26.080]  such as a devastating job loss, burnout, stagnation, or even workplace harassment,
[00:26.080 --> 00:33.100]  and been able to turn these difficult circumstances into powerful and greater opportunities.
[00:33.940 --> 00:42.200]  All right, today I'm joined by Peter Wright, who is a speaker, writer, and a podcast host who currently lives in Canada.
[00:42.880 --> 00:44.220]  Peter, welcome to the show.
[00:44.880 --> 00:47.900]  Thank you very much, Tony. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.
[00:47.900 --> 00:56.660]  Yes, I know you've got a rich background in both corporate, farming, and also all sorts of things.
[00:56.860 --> 01:05.620]  So today's a wonderful opportunity for you to share your story, particularly around the adverse circumstances that have occurred to you,
[01:06.100 --> 01:08.560]  and how you bounce back from that.
[01:08.560 --> 01:18.320]  And hopefully for our audience who are going through their own adversity or have gone through that, let's say, job loss or they're burnt out
[01:18.320 --> 01:29.800]  or they just had enough of that world, how they can draw on the lessons that you came up for yourself as a result of your own challenges through life.
[01:30.260 --> 01:37.340]  So, Peter, I just want to just share, you did spend some time as a corporate marketing executive, correct?
[01:37.340 --> 01:39.740]  Absolutely. Yes, I did.
[01:40.420 --> 01:45.620]  And obviously you learned a lot about how to promote yourself and sell and everything.
[01:46.360 --> 01:49.920]  What was the biggest learning from your time in the corporate world?
[01:51.700 --> 01:56.300]  The biggest learning, and it's not a sarcastic answer, is that I didn't belong in the corporate world.
[01:56.300 --> 02:05.920]  But having said that, I did pick up a lot of very valuable skills, management skills, accounting skills, budgeting skills,
[02:05.920 --> 02:10.220]  which were very valuable when I started my own business and then went farming after that.
[02:12.080 --> 02:13.140]  Okay. Yes.
[02:14.840 --> 02:22.080]  Was your departure from corporate world something of your own choosing, Peter, or was it something forced upon you?
[02:22.080 --> 02:27.740]  It was my own choosing with some influence, if you like.
[02:28.740 --> 02:30.640]  I worked for a very large corporation.
[02:30.980 --> 02:32.220]  I worked for one of the divisions.
[02:32.800 --> 02:39.280]  And the corporation was the result of a merger of two very big conglomerates in South Africa.
[02:39.280 --> 02:44.860]  And I was in the one that was essentially taken over and the culture changed quite a lot.
[02:45.000 --> 02:52.220]  And I was a marketing guy in a very production and accounting oriented business where they really thought marketing people were on a different planet.
[02:52.420 --> 02:57.560]  So I got good promotion over a period and then I knew that I'd hit that glass ceiling.
[02:57.680 --> 03:02.380]  There's no way I was going to get any further as a marketing guy.
[03:02.380 --> 03:05.100]  And I was just enchanted with the whole corporate thing.
[03:05.160 --> 03:06.880]  I was feeling burnout and everything else.
[03:07.340 --> 03:14.500]  So I had an opportunity to join a partnership, which was an export trading house, exporting to various countries in Africa.
[03:15.200 --> 03:18.580]  So when that opportunity arose, I was already thinking of leaving.
[03:18.940 --> 03:19.560]  I did it.
[03:19.800 --> 03:26.140]  That opportunity didn't turn out too well, but that gave me the momentum to start my own export trading house, which I did.
[03:26.140 --> 03:32.500]  So basically you're saying your job loss was more of an opportunity than a devastating event.
[03:32.780 --> 03:35.280]  You'd been tithering with the idea of leaving.
[03:35.880 --> 03:36.200]  Sure.
[03:36.400 --> 03:37.560]  That was not devastating at all.
[03:37.700 --> 03:38.900]  I'd been thinking about it.
[03:39.700 --> 03:40.080]  Okay.
[03:40.580 --> 03:44.040]  Were you fully prepared or in hindsight, if you went back to that, would you have said,
[03:44.120 --> 03:46.720]  I may be able to put a few foundations in place?
[03:47.940 --> 03:48.200]  Yeah.
[03:49.260 --> 03:52.780]  Yes, with hindsight, I think so.
[03:52.780 --> 03:57.140]  But, you know, if you wait to put too many foundations in, you can wait forever.
[03:57.280 --> 03:58.420]  That's the other side of it, right?
[03:58.900 --> 04:08.240]  So the devastating bit came later when after four years on my own with this export trading business, having done really, really well,
[04:09.420 --> 04:12.220]  my civil war broke out in my two major markets.
[04:12.680 --> 04:17.960]  And within weeks, my whole business crumbled because I worked on a bank overdraft.
[04:17.960 --> 04:27.360]  I lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cargo on the ships going up north and on trucks on the road, some of which I salvaged, most I didn't.
[04:27.980 --> 04:31.820]  And I ended up going bankrupt because I personally guaranteed everything.
[04:32.840 --> 04:34.160]  I went bankrupt.
[04:34.620 --> 04:36.880]  And I walked out of that without even a car.
[04:36.940 --> 04:39.160]  The only car I salvaged I gave to my ex-wife.
[04:39.260 --> 04:41.660]  I also was going through divorce at the same time.
[04:41.660 --> 04:44.900]  And that was devastating.
[04:45.700 --> 04:52.640]  Couldn't sell my property because things had changed politically in South Africa and squatters were moving in to where I lived on a country estate.
[04:53.500 --> 04:55.060]  And that was the second time.
[04:55.140 --> 04:59.280]  When I left Rhodesia, I couldn't sell my property because the situation, I gave the keys to the bank.
[04:59.840 --> 05:01.780]  Very small mortgage, South Africa's same.
[05:02.520 --> 05:05.740]  And went to Zimbabwe where my brother was still.
[05:05.900 --> 05:07.940]  And he said it's fairly stable.
[05:08.100 --> 05:08.560]  Come back.
[05:08.560 --> 05:13.620]  And I started yet another business, worked for him for a while, started another business, and then went farming.
[05:14.720 --> 05:17.960]  So that was my first go around of a devastating loss.
[05:18.080 --> 05:19.780]  And that was quite hard to get over.
[05:19.840 --> 05:20.220]  But I did.
[05:20.360 --> 05:22.600]  We can talk more about some of the lessons I learned.
[05:22.720 --> 05:28.400]  But the real crunch was the farming political fiasco or chaos in Zimbabwe.
[05:29.400 --> 05:35.540]  Before we get to that, in terms of lifting yourself out of that devastation of bankruptcy,
[05:35.540 --> 05:39.360]  did you seek counsel or advice or mentoring?
[05:39.540 --> 05:43.560]  How did you work your mentally out of that situation?
[05:45.400 --> 05:50.620]  I'd been very active, an active runner, not at school.
[05:50.740 --> 05:52.300]  I was pretty hopeless at school sports.
[05:52.420 --> 05:53.200]  I played rugby, of course.
[05:53.300 --> 05:56.320]  But apart from that, I was much more interested in equine sports.
[05:56.320 --> 05:59.000]  I had horses as a kid, played polo cross, put a polo.
[05:59.660 --> 06:02.960]  But in my mid-30s, in the corporate world, I started running.
[06:03.200 --> 06:05.520]  And then I got the bug, and I started running marathons.
[06:05.580 --> 06:08.640]  And I started running ultramarathons, 50 milers, 80 kilometers.
[06:09.480 --> 06:12.200]  And that's not – it's fairly tough to do that.
[06:12.960 --> 06:17.260]  And the big lesson I learned from that is no matter how tired you are, you can take one more pace.
[06:17.400 --> 06:21.980]  So when I was feeling really run down on the marathon, I'd think, let me just run one more pace.
[06:21.980 --> 06:25.520]  And then when I did that, I'd say, let me run to the next telegraph pole.
[06:25.620 --> 06:27.080]  I never thought about the finish, right?
[06:27.440 --> 06:31.340]  Let me turn to the next electricity pole, telephone pole, that bush up there.
[06:31.700 --> 06:32.900]  Little steps, little steps.
[06:33.300 --> 06:37.040]  And suddenly, those little steps mount up to 50 miles, and you've done it.
[06:37.220 --> 06:38.000]  There's the finish line.
[06:38.080 --> 06:38.420]  You've done it.
[06:38.880 --> 06:45.480]  So when I was going through all this business and emotional and turmoil, I kept thinking back to that.
[06:45.560 --> 06:49.900]  And I said, you know, at the age of 40, you were running 50-mile ultramarathons.
[06:49.900 --> 06:52.560]  You know, if you can do that, you can survive this, right?
[06:52.880 --> 07:02.940]  And that was a big thing, tying the physical achievement into the – using that to overcome the emotional and mental hurdles.
[07:04.040 --> 07:06.260]  One step at a time.
[07:07.560 --> 07:08.220]  That's it.
[07:09.200 --> 07:09.640]  Perfect.
[07:10.160 --> 07:10.580]  All right.
[07:10.640 --> 07:16.380]  Let's take you into that farm situation and how you lost that and what was the aftermath, Peter.
[07:16.540 --> 07:18.580]  Do you want to just go into that story for us?
[07:18.580 --> 07:18.720]  Sure.
[07:18.720 --> 07:23.820]  Well, so having got back to Zimbabwe, this would be in the early to mid-90s.
[07:24.780 --> 07:26.240]  I'd been divorced for a couple of years.
[07:26.380 --> 07:34.020]  I met a woman that I'd known as a kid and I'd known as a teenager and I'd known as a young adult, and we never really got together for all sorts of reasons.
[07:34.640 --> 07:42.080]  And she was recently divorced, and she was living on a farm, which had been her family farm, where her parents had brought it just after she was born.
[07:42.080 --> 07:47.860]  Well, so we took over the farm, her mother died.
[07:47.860 --> 07:48.920]  Her father was quite sick.
[07:48.920 --> 08:02.040]  And we developed it into a thriving little horticultural production operation where we employed 180 people in summer and we exported peas and granadillas and a few other things to Europe for hard currency.
[08:02.520 --> 08:03.720]  It was going well.
[08:04.400 --> 08:08.420]  It was a bit of a struggle because the farm needed a lot of development and we didn't have a lot of capital.
[08:08.420 --> 08:11.800]  I'd sold my business that I'd started in Zimbabwe to finance that.
[08:12.460 --> 08:15.740]  And then in the year 2000, the politics changed completely.
[08:15.740 --> 08:20.060]  And the government decided they didn't want any more white farmers.
[08:20.240 --> 08:23.900]  They were trying to appease the very poor indigenous population.
[08:24.180 --> 08:30.920]  So they started transporting in trucks hundreds on thousands of tribal people onto the white-owned farms.
[08:31.520 --> 08:32.660]  And these people couldn't survive.
[08:32.760 --> 08:35.560]  The only way they could survive is by stealing off the farm owner.
[08:36.440 --> 08:43.460]  So the intimidation, we went through three years of intimidation, death threats, and the government ordered us to leave the farm.
[08:43.460 --> 08:48.700]  And after three years, we were the second last farm still operating in a district of formerly 43 farms.
[08:49.280 --> 08:53.260]  And the police tried three times to get me, to arrest me, to get me off the farm.
[08:53.300 --> 08:59.320]  And they got me on the third time, put me in jail for three days and three nights under really bad conditions.
[09:00.100 --> 09:03.440]  And I never went back to my home again.
[09:03.720 --> 09:07.920]  They let me out after three days on condition that I didn't go back home.
[09:08.500 --> 09:13.380]  So Sue, my partner, had three days to move all our personal stuff off the farm.
[09:14.060 --> 09:15.520]  A lot of stuff had been stolen.
[09:15.680 --> 09:17.780]  I'd managed to get a little bit of equipment off beforehand.
[09:18.500 --> 09:19.780]  But we lost our crops.
[09:19.980 --> 09:25.860]  We'd been locked into our security fence for days at a time by a mob of government supporters threatening to kill us.
[09:25.860 --> 09:29.920]  And what we could salvage, we moved to my mother.
[09:30.080 --> 09:33.760]  My mother had moved to England, but to the cottage she used to live in on my brother's place.
[09:33.760 --> 09:39.120]  So when I got out of the prison, the police cells, I got back to the cottage.
[09:39.120 --> 09:44.400]  And there's all the contents of a four-bedroom farmhouse spread on the lawn of this tiny little two-bedroom cottage.
[09:44.820 --> 09:50.200]  What I could salvage of my fertilizer and farm chemicals and equipment strewn all over the place.
[09:50.900 --> 09:55.160]  And my first thought was, how are we going to survive without all this stuff?
[09:55.340 --> 09:56.700]  That's all I could think about.
[09:56.780 --> 09:57.440]  What are we going to do?
[09:57.440 --> 09:58.940]  We were 54 at the time.
[10:00.400 --> 10:03.860]  Inflation there was running in the thousands of percent.
[10:03.980 --> 10:08.100]  It was even worse than Germany after World War I.
[10:08.100 --> 10:13.480]  So we had to sell everything we could to survive, paid off our bank loan.
[10:13.860 --> 10:20.220]  And my eldest son had moved to Canada a few years before, and he said, come and look at Canada.
[10:20.300 --> 10:20.880]  We had no money.
[10:20.960 --> 10:25.940]  We would have liked to come to your country, but at our age and with our skills that weren't in demand,
[10:25.940 --> 10:28.920]  we would have had to put up a huge bond, and we couldn't do that.
[10:29.300 --> 10:32.700]  We couldn't go to America because we couldn't afford a lawyer or a green card.
[10:32.700 --> 10:39.780]  So we came to Canada, and I had to take a job as a farm laborer doing work that I used to pay people to do
[10:39.780 --> 10:45.060]  and working longer hours and under worse conditions than any of my black guys in Africa ever worked.
[10:45.240 --> 10:48.040]  So talk about pride before a fall.
[10:48.220 --> 10:49.540]  That was a real wake-up call.
[10:50.140 --> 10:53.460]  But we survived, and I'm still here 20 years later.
[10:55.720 --> 10:59.520]  So certainly you've hit rock bottom, Peter, a number of times.
[11:00.220 --> 11:00.480]  Yeah.
[11:02.700 --> 11:07.700]  Three days and three nights in prison seems like a short time, relatively speaking.
[11:08.160 --> 11:10.580]  But what were some of the thoughts going through your head?
[11:10.620 --> 11:14.220]  I just couldn't even contemplate the thought of going into prison, to be honest.
[11:15.140 --> 11:20.600]  Well, the start was when they arrested me, they interrogated me for five hours.
[11:21.120 --> 11:23.420]  They were trying to find something to pin on me.
[11:23.860 --> 11:27.700]  So they accused me of being – trying to overthrow the government.
[11:27.860 --> 11:29.420]  They accused me of collecting arms of war.
[11:29.660 --> 11:30.640]  We all had guns.
[11:30.640 --> 11:31.960]  I had licenses for my gun.
[11:31.960 --> 11:36.980]  And they dragged me back to the farm and searched the farm, confiscated my guns and licenses,
[11:37.160 --> 11:39.080]  which I got – my wife got back the next day.
[11:39.080 --> 11:43.400]  They couldn't pin that on me.
[11:43.400 --> 11:46.300]  So – but they were – I thought they were going to beat me up.
[11:46.380 --> 11:50.080]  And a lot of farmers did get severely, brutally attacked and beaten up.
[11:50.120 --> 11:50.660]  A lot were murdered.
[11:51.120 --> 11:51.640]  They didn't.
[11:51.720 --> 11:56.900]  But I had five security policemen in a little room threatening to beat me up and accusing me of all these things.
[11:56.900 --> 11:59.320]  And I managed to hold my ground there.
[11:59.840 --> 12:01.240]  But then they shoved me in the cell.
[12:01.300 --> 12:02.660]  It was 12 foot by 12 foot.
[12:02.820 --> 12:05.040]  And on one night, there were 27 of us in that cell.
[12:05.640 --> 12:06.720]  You couldn't lie down.
[12:06.800 --> 12:08.300]  There were so many – and I was the only white guy.
[12:08.300 --> 12:15.880]  And I thought that they were going to come back and either kill me or sort me out because, as I say, many farmers have been murdered.
[12:16.000 --> 12:16.380]  They didn't.
[12:17.020 --> 12:18.840]  Conditions were not good.
[12:18.980 --> 12:20.920]  But the black guys were fine.
[12:21.340 --> 12:22.340]  They were really helpful.
[12:22.740 --> 12:23.740]  They asked my advice.
[12:23.940 --> 12:29.200]  I had to be careful because the police used to put plants in the cell to try and get you to incriminate yourself.
[12:29.200 --> 12:33.080]  And I got through it by playing a game.
[12:33.400 --> 12:36.720]  So we weren't allowed to smoke in the cell, but everyone smoked.
[12:36.860 --> 12:42.320]  So I smuggled a whole lot of cigarettes in in my jacket, gave all these other guys cigarettes, and we smoked away.
[12:42.600 --> 12:44.860]  And I kept demanding stuff from the police.
[12:44.960 --> 12:47.280]  I said, I've got to be allowed to clean my teeth in the morning.
[12:47.360 --> 12:53.640]  I didn't have a toothbrush, but they took me to a garden tap outside, and I could get some water and rinse my mouth out.
[12:53.980 --> 12:56.440]  And then I kept demanding this and that and the next thing.
[12:56.440 --> 12:59.620]  And every time they gave in, I said, well, I've got a point.
[13:00.260 --> 13:01.680]  And that was it.
[13:01.760 --> 13:02.740]  I turned it into a game.
[13:03.300 --> 13:14.180]  And I let my anger at the injustice and what was happening to the country, that prevented me from being paralyzed by fear.
[13:15.800 --> 13:16.800]  That anger helped.
[13:17.840 --> 13:23.740]  And then I kept thinking back, as I said earlier, to the marathon, thinking, well, I got through the marathon one step and one kilometer at a time.
[13:23.780 --> 13:25.300]  I can get through this at an hour at a time.
[13:25.300 --> 13:27.260]  So I just focused on getting through the next hour.
[13:28.380 --> 13:29.540]  And I did.
[13:29.620 --> 13:40.280]  Peter, would you say going through these setbacks, devastating events, are actually battle-hardening you for life?
[13:40.860 --> 13:43.760]  You become a tougher individual.
[13:44.900 --> 13:45.260]  Absolutely.
[13:45.600 --> 13:46.040]  Absolutely.
[13:46.300 --> 13:46.640]  Absolutely.
[13:46.640 --> 13:55.060]  And here in Canada, which is a fairly peaceful, although it's changing very rapidly recently, people tell me, oh, we're so concerned about this, that.
[13:55.120 --> 13:58.180]  And the next thing I said, you don't know what you're talking about.
[13:58.240 --> 13:59.740]  You've got nothing to worry about.
[14:00.000 --> 14:01.500]  You're living a sheltered life.
[14:02.160 --> 14:05.160]  Believe me, I know what it's like to have things to worry about.
[14:05.160 --> 14:09.080]  People worry here because they can't get a new car this year.
[14:09.140 --> 14:14.940]  They've got to wait until next year and they can't get a bigger TV and they can't afford a ticket to the football game.
[14:16.080 --> 14:22.440]  Get some perspective on life because you can lose everything like that and you're worrying about nothing.
[14:22.440 --> 14:27.340]  Yes, we can lose ourselves in the materiality of life, can't we?
[14:27.500 --> 14:28.700]  Yeah, absolutely.
[14:29.080 --> 14:29.480]  Absolutely.
[14:30.460 --> 14:30.740]  All right.
[14:30.800 --> 14:36.140]  So today, if you'd like to share with our audience what you do as a podcast host.
[14:36.980 --> 14:37.380]  Sure.
[14:37.580 --> 14:42.560]  So before COVID and the lockdown, I was doing quite a bit of public speaking and some internet marketing.
[14:43.320 --> 14:46.640]  And then, of course, when that came, public speaking just stopped completely.
[14:47.600 --> 14:52.920]  So I had a business partner in another business venture, a woman, younger woman, and we said, let's start a podcast.
[14:53.280 --> 14:53.740]  So we did.
[14:54.100 --> 15:01.260]  And we initially started to help out other small businessmen who'd lost the ability to network and all these events we used to go to.
[15:01.820 --> 15:04.000]  We didn't get a lot of traction on the business side.
[15:04.200 --> 15:10.580]  So we switched to health and wellness about two years ago and then we rebranded to, we call it Health Declassified.
[15:10.820 --> 15:12.260]  It's all about holistic health.
[15:12.260 --> 15:19.000]  So we interview guests once every two weeks and then we do a wrap-up video, a wrap-up episode every week, just the two of us.
[15:19.120 --> 15:24.300]  We pick a health topic and we research it and we explore it and then we talk about it on the show.
[15:24.540 --> 15:25.800]  So that's what we do.
[15:27.280 --> 15:27.800]  All right.
[15:27.860 --> 15:34.300]  And obviously, you are an author and you've got your book there over your right shoulder.
[15:35.440 --> 15:36.120]  I wrote a book.
[15:36.220 --> 15:37.160]  Yeah, it's on the back.
[15:37.220 --> 15:38.700]  You can see it there and I have it here.
[15:38.800 --> 15:40.760]  It's called Five Steps to Thriving on Adversity.
[15:41.540 --> 15:47.280]  The reason that I wrote the book is when I was doing the public speaking, everyone kept saying, wherever I went, you've got to write a book.
[15:47.340 --> 15:47.860]  You've got to write a book.
[15:47.940 --> 15:48.240]  So I did.
[15:48.340 --> 15:48.900]  I wrote a book.
[15:49.500 --> 15:53.860]  And I mainly sell it when I do a speech.
[15:54.900 --> 15:56.600]  People at church ask me for the book.
[15:56.860 --> 15:57.760]  It's not on Amazon.
[15:57.760 --> 16:03.220]  I had it listed and they dropped it, presumably because I didn't let them do the facilitation.
[16:03.400 --> 16:04.600]  I wanted to distribute it myself.
[16:04.660 --> 16:05.340]  I don't know, whatever.
[16:05.920 --> 16:09.180]  But it's on my website, PeterWritesBlog.com.
[16:09.180 --> 16:13.000]  It has its own website, FiveStepsToThriving.com.
[16:14.280 --> 16:19.360]  Or people can email me at Peter at HealthDeclassified and I can do that.
[16:19.880 --> 16:21.140]  That's the background to the book.
[16:21.340 --> 16:24.200]  And what it is, it's a whole lot of stories of my life.
[16:24.400 --> 16:30.720]  But there's five steps to how I thrived on the adversities I've been through, illustrated by a couple of stories from my life.
[16:30.880 --> 16:31.440]  It's all in there.
[16:32.020 --> 16:32.260]  Okay.
[16:32.380 --> 16:32.620]  All right.
[16:32.620 --> 16:36.080]  Well, you've given the details of where people can find that and find you.
[16:36.240 --> 16:48.880]  So if anyone there is listening or watching today, then they've got the opportunity to reach out to you because obviously you've gone through a hard road and you've come through the other side, Peter, to tell the stories.
[16:49.880 --> 16:50.240]  Absolutely.
[16:50.240 --> 16:53.660]  And I'm so grateful that people say, what would you change?
[16:53.700 --> 17:04.580]  I say nothing because as tough as some of those parts where I wouldn't be where I am now physically, emotionally, and I had a heart attack a few years ago, got through that as well.
[17:05.140 --> 17:08.420]  And it just helped me get through everything else in life, right?
[17:10.040 --> 17:10.480]  Yes.
[17:11.320 --> 17:18.160]  Everything, as I say, is a bit of an apprenticeship for us to become stronger figures in life.
[17:18.720 --> 17:18.960]  Yeah.
[17:18.960 --> 17:28.200]  And if you look at some of the most successful, sorry, successful people, most of them have been through some unusual level of adversity.
[17:29.100 --> 17:29.500]  True.
[17:29.740 --> 17:30.040]  Yes.
[17:31.020 --> 17:33.100]  Challenge is what makes us grow in life.
[17:34.260 --> 17:34.620]  Absolutely.
[17:35.660 --> 17:35.960]  Okay.
[17:36.160 --> 17:36.600]  All right.
[17:36.680 --> 17:39.900]  Thanks for joining us, Peter, and I hope people want to reach out to you.
[17:39.940 --> 17:40.680]  They've got the details.
[17:40.960 --> 17:43.480]  So by all means, reach out to Peter.
[17:43.560 --> 17:45.100]  He's a wealth of experience and knowledge.
[17:45.260 --> 17:45.680]  Thank you.
[17:46.760 --> 17:47.440]  Thank you, Tony.
[17:47.440 --> 17:47.520]  Thank you.
[17:48.960 --> 17:52.360]  Thanks for tuning into the Career Advantage Show.
[17:52.920 --> 17:58.200]  Visit thecareeradvantage.show to subscribe and claim your free career confidential toolkit.
[17:58.200 --> 18:06.520]  If you've enjoyed today's episode, I'd truly appreciate a five-star review on your favorite podcast app.
[18:07.240 --> 18:13.280]  And don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues who might need a little career inspiration.
[18:13.280 --> 18:13.820]  Bye.
[18:13.880 --> 18:14.080]  Thank you.
[18:14.140 --> 18:14.860]  See you next time.
[18:14.860 --> 18:14.920]  Bye.

About The Show

Too many smart professionals feel powerless at work—burned out, boxed in, and living by someone else’s rules. But here’s the truth: no boss, no company, no system owns your power. You gave it away—and you can take it back.

The Career Advantage Show exists because the world of work is shifting faster than ever. People everywhere are questioning their careers—feeling vulnerable, uncertain, and searching for real answers.

Each episode will show you how to reclaim your power, redesign your career story, and build a future on your terms. Because in today’s world, if you don’t take control of your career, someone else surely will.

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I am your host, Tony Pisanelli

On this show, we dive deep with our guests to uncover real stories, practical insights, and proven strategies that will help you reclaim your career power, navigate transitions, and design what’s next with confidence.

My very special guest today is Warrick Bishop ...
 

Warrick Bishop is a cardiologist with special interest in cardiovascular disease prevention incorporating imaging, lipids and lifestyle.

He is author of "Have You Planned Your Heart Attack?" with over 20,000 copies in print; the book is a discussion for patients and doctors about how we can be most precise about cardiovascular risk and save lives! He has recently released "Atrial Fibrillation Explained", a resource relating to a common cardiac condition affecting over 1% of the entire population.

Graduating from the University of Tasmania, School of Medicine, in 1988. He worked in the Northern Territory and South Australia before completing his advanced training in cardiology in Hobart, Tasmania, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians and Member of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand in 1997.

Working predominately in private practice. In 2009 Warrick undertook training in CT Cardiac Coronary Angiography, being the first cardiologist in Tasmania with this specialist recognition. This area of imaging drives his interest in preventative cardiology. He holds level B certification with the Australian Joint Committee for CCTA and is a member of the Society of Cardiac Computed Tomography.

Warrick is also a member of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society and regularly contributes to education, guidelines and industry in this area. He has also developed a particular interest in diabetic-related risk of coronary artery disease, specifically related to eating guidelines and lipid profiles.

Warrick has acted as an accredited examiner for the Royal Australian College of Physicians and is regularly involved with teaching medical students and junior doctors. He has worked with Hobart's Menzies Institute for Medical Research on projects in an affiliate capacity and is recognised by the Medical School of the University of Tasmania with academic status.

For more than a year, Warrick has been a member of the Clinical Issues Committee of the Australian Heart Foundation, providing input into issues of significance for the management of heart patients. Warrick has been a member of the HFA expert writing group to produce a position on coronary imaging with CT and also a member of the CSANZ/AAS writing group to produce the Australian/ New Zealand lipid guidelines.

In his free time, Warrick enjoys travel and music, he surfs and plays guitar with his children.

Transcript

[00:00.980 --> 00:11.960]  Welcome to the Career Advantage Show, where we help you reclaim your career power and design your working life on your terms.
[00:12.540 --> 00:18.640]  I'm Tony Piscinelli, and each week I sit down with leaders who have faced career-defining moments,
[00:19.300 --> 00:26.080]  such as a devastating job loss, burnout, stagnation, or even workplace harassment,
[00:26.080 --> 00:33.100]  and being able to turn these difficult circumstances into powerful and graver opportunities.
[00:33.660 --> 00:40.100]  Welcome to today's Career Advantage Show, where I'm joined by my very special guest, Warwick Bishop,
[00:40.500 --> 00:46.900]  who is a cardiologist, an author, and a podcast host. Welcome, Warwick.
[00:47.580 --> 00:48.880]  Thanks for having me, Tony.
[00:49.920 --> 00:55.760]  Now, Warwick, as I've just briefly mentioned, that is a very interesting set of capability sets.
[00:56.080 --> 01:04.920]  How does a cardiologist who specializes in a particular field, and without doubt is an extremely busy person,
[01:05.480 --> 01:09.920]  find time to also write books and host a podcast?
[01:10.240 --> 01:12.060]  How did that journey all come about?
[01:13.920 --> 01:16.340]  Well, thank you for asking, Tony.
[01:16.340 --> 01:27.360]  Basically, a decade ago, I had the opportunity as a cardiologist to look at some emerging technology,
[01:27.520 --> 01:34.520]  and the technology that I went to go and find more information about was a technology
[01:34.520 --> 01:42.500]  which we could loosely call cardiac CT imaging or coronary artery calcium scoring.
[01:42.500 --> 01:50.320]  And a decade ago, I was the first cardiologist in Tasmania, which is where I'm based, to have done that training.
[01:51.160 --> 01:59.340]  And I was really taken by the value that this information, this new technology could give us.
[01:59.340 --> 02:10.120]  And in a nutshell, Tony, to be fair to say that if we could take an individual before they've had a heart attack
[02:10.120 --> 02:14.680]  and look at their heart, we could, by using cardiac CT imaging,
[02:14.820 --> 02:21.120]  identify those people who are at unacceptably high risk in the future and implement therapy,
[02:21.120 --> 02:29.100]  which could, I believe, be life-changing, but we could also identify people who are at low risk or risk somewhere in between.
[02:29.280 --> 02:33.260]  So it was really a crystal ball into someone's future heart risk.
[02:33.340 --> 02:35.180]  Well, I got super excited about that.
[02:35.240 --> 02:41.840]  I saw this as a holy grail, and to a large degree, as I started to share this with my colleagues,
[02:41.840 --> 02:48.720]  the old story of the pioneer gets the arrows, the settlers get the pastures,
[02:49.340 --> 02:53.400]  really applied in my local environment here.
[02:54.180 --> 02:56.440]  There was a lot of pushback to change.
[02:57.080 --> 03:04.540]  And honestly, I ended up very frustrated and wanting to empower patients
[03:04.540 --> 03:11.380]  to have the conversation with their specialist, their cardiologist, around this technology.
[03:11.840 --> 03:17.040]  And so I wrote a book about it, and that first book was called Have You Planned Your Heart Attack?
[03:19.620 --> 03:21.700]  Right, that's an interesting title, Warwick.
[03:24.080 --> 03:29.020]  Also, the reason for the title, of course, Tony, is no one actually plans a heart attack.
[03:30.540 --> 03:38.640]  Historically, we all go along on our day-to-day, and then when a heart attack occurs,
[03:38.640 --> 03:42.620]  we either die, one in six chance, or we get taken to hospital,
[03:43.140 --> 03:46.500]  and we just sort of accept that as a way of life.
[03:46.920 --> 03:53.100]  And you will know, and your listeners will know, of people where we say things like,
[03:53.160 --> 03:57.960]  well, he just had a heart attack, he had a bad family history, or he died too young,
[03:57.960 --> 04:09.720]  all these sort of things, which obviously the title of the book was an irony around that idea
[04:09.720 --> 04:14.120]  of having no ownership of what can happen to your heart health.
[04:14.240 --> 04:19.560]  So I think the title probably did scare off some people, but that's where it came from.
[04:19.560 --> 04:32.520]  So it's interesting, like yourself, in particular fields, and I'm very big on the preventative dynamic.
[04:32.820 --> 04:34.320]  In your case, it's the heart attack.
[04:34.420 --> 04:39.180]  In my case, it's devastating job loss that a lot of people never get over,
[04:39.320 --> 04:42.160]  and it's something that stays with them forever.
[04:42.160 --> 04:49.740]  As a society, have we come further along that journey in terms of managing things like diet,
[04:50.880 --> 04:56.740]  exercise regimes, and managing our stress to better look after our heart health?
[04:58.080 --> 05:05.280]  I think that's a great question, Tony, and I think there's probably two components to that.
[05:05.280 --> 05:11.820]  I think there is probably a greater awareness of health, well-being,
[05:11.920 --> 05:16.460]  and there's certainly a subgroup within the population who are interested in
[05:16.460 --> 05:22.880]  how to maximise current science to get the best out of their health journey.
[05:24.300 --> 05:27.860]  But there's also a lot of people who have a lot of awareness and don't take action,
[05:27.860 --> 05:37.920]  and so we see both, and my own experience in that space of imaging the arteries
[05:37.920 --> 05:45.120]  has been one of recurrent frustration, actually, Tony, because as I share with people
[05:45.120 --> 05:50.320]  the value of getting a calcium score, coronary calcium score, a CT scan at their heart
[05:50.320 --> 05:56.240]  so they can see what's going on, people seem to push back.
[05:56.240 --> 06:01.080]  People seem to say, well, you know, I feel well, my cholesterol's okay,
[06:01.200 --> 06:08.960]  there's no family history, or I ride a bike, and they'll deflect, and it challenges me,
[06:09.060 --> 06:13.640]  and yet I get people who will contact me, want to find out what they can do,
[06:13.680 --> 06:14.680]  and they will action it.
[06:14.780 --> 06:22.160]  So I'm still on the journey of trying to understand how to really find
[06:22.160 --> 06:28.320]  what motivates those people who seem to have an inertia around being truly proactive.
[06:28.900 --> 06:30.440]  So it's a complicated space.
[06:31.960 --> 06:32.200]  Okay.
[06:32.460 --> 06:38.040]  So we've discussed that cardiology aspect, but in terms of you stepping
[06:38.040 --> 06:43.400]  into this entrepreneurial world of the books and the podcasting,
[06:43.400 --> 06:51.900]  is that why it all come about, because you felt that there was an important message
[06:51.900 --> 06:53.320]  you needed to get out in the world?
[06:53.420 --> 06:55.400]  Is that what was the driving force behind that?
[06:56.100 --> 06:59.240]  Well, as I said to you, Tony, the book was a stone in my shoe,
[06:59.320 --> 07:03.980]  and I really felt obliged to write that book to put good information
[07:03.980 --> 07:06.680]  into the hands of patients.
[07:06.680 --> 07:15.080]  When I wrote this book, the standard practice of care was if someone like you
[07:15.080 --> 07:19.560]  and I at our age were concerned about our risk of heart attack,
[07:20.460 --> 07:24.800]  we would go and talk to our GP who'd send us to a specialist, a cardiologist,
[07:24.940 --> 07:28.660]  and that cardiologist would put us through a treadmill test.
[07:28.660 --> 07:36.940]  Now, a treadmill test is a really good way to find out if you've got narrowed arteries,
[07:37.900 --> 07:40.400]  and it's a good way to get a feel for how fit you are.
[07:40.940 --> 07:44.360]  But a treadmill test doesn't tell you if there's rust in the pipes
[07:44.360 --> 07:49.760]  that might cause a problem in the next 3, 6, 12 months or beyond.
[07:50.480 --> 07:52.600]  All it tells you is if there's a narrowing.
[07:52.660 --> 07:55.320]  If anyone's interested, I've actually done a TEDx on this.
[07:55.320 --> 08:02.120]  So if you look up Dr. Warwick Bishop, TEDx, and the heart, you'll find it.
[08:02.740 --> 08:05.740]  And there's diagrams and all sorts of things associated with that.
[08:06.760 --> 08:16.080]  But the occurrence of cardiac CT, Tony, meant that if you or I went and saw a cardiologist
[08:16.080 --> 08:17.580]  and said, what's our risk of heart attack?
[08:17.580 --> 08:26.120]  And they suggested a treadmill test that as soon as cardiac CT imaging became available,
[08:26.280 --> 08:32.340]  that treadmill test became redundant and not the test that answered the question about your future risk.
[08:33.060 --> 08:39.600]  And so I felt compelled to give people that information so they could have the right conversation
[08:39.600 --> 08:44.740]  because it was taking time for my colleagues to swap over.
[08:46.060 --> 08:53.680]  Well, as part of that, I realised fairly quickly that I was getting really nice feedback from the books.
[08:53.800 --> 09:01.320]  I was having individuals from other parts of Australia and even other parts of the world
[09:01.320 --> 09:09.440]  letting me know that that information had led them to have testing that had changed their lives.
[09:09.680 --> 09:14.520]  And that sort of feedback from people you don't even know is extraordinary.
[09:14.840 --> 09:22.220]  So I felt very humbled and motivated by that and felt like it was the right thing to do.
[09:22.220 --> 09:32.260]  And that really, really gave me the momentum to look at podcasting again to try and share information
[09:32.260 --> 09:38.720]  in a way that was balanced and thoughtful and potentially applicable
[09:38.720 --> 09:45.800]  because those listening and yourself might be aware that these days there's so much information
[09:45.800 --> 09:54.580]  on Google and ChatGPT and various other social media platforms that you can be overwhelmed
[09:54.580 --> 09:57.320]  with the amount of information that's available.
[09:58.320 --> 10:03.760]  And so I started to move to bring balance to that information,
[10:04.620 --> 10:07.740]  give people what I thought was really useful information,
[10:08.860 --> 10:13.620]  a bit filtered and a bit contextual from a professional,
[10:13.620 --> 10:16.040]  not someone with necessarily an axe to grind.
[10:17.300 --> 10:21.120]  And I realised there were some other areas of medicine which were super important,
[10:21.320 --> 10:23.500]  particularly in cardiology, where I could contribute.
[10:24.500 --> 10:31.100]  And there was a lot of opportunity to help educate patients
[10:31.100 --> 10:33.100]  through their best healthcare journey.
[10:33.240 --> 10:37.280]  So I wrote a book on atrial fibrillation, which is a very common condition,
[10:37.740 --> 10:41.800]  a book on cardiac failure, a book on cardiac rehabilitation.
[10:41.800 --> 10:47.520]  So for people who've had a heart attack, a stroke, bypass grafting or a stent,
[10:48.260 --> 10:52.520]  I've written a book on 10 commandments of heart health,
[10:52.640 --> 10:56.540]  so how to keep fit and well and avoid problems in the first place.
[10:57.000 --> 11:03.100]  And I'm currently right at this very moment, I have a copy of Cholesterol Explained
[11:03.100 --> 11:05.900]  sitting on my kitchen table and I'm editing that.
[11:05.900 --> 11:07.940]  It's the final edit before it goes to the printer.
[11:09.500 --> 11:09.940]  All right.
[11:10.020 --> 11:15.200]  That is a massive work undertaking that you've gone on.
[11:15.500 --> 11:22.900]  So Warwick, it sounds like you're not just in the business of operating
[11:22.900 --> 11:24.820]  and working on people's hearts.
[11:24.880 --> 11:27.680]  You're trying to advance the field, correct?
[11:27.680 --> 11:33.260]  So, look, a while ago when I started this journey,
[11:33.360 --> 11:36.900]  I had the chance to work with a coach, who I still do.
[11:37.220 --> 11:39.400]  I work with a coach and a business manager.
[11:40.200 --> 11:44.660]  And one of the things that he got me to do, his name is John,
[11:45.300 --> 11:48.300]  he suggested that I try and figure out my why,
[11:48.500 --> 11:53.900]  which obviously for someone who's near, I was in my early 50s,
[11:53.900 --> 11:57.600]  had been a cardiologist for my whole career.
[11:58.180 --> 12:02.560]  Someone suggesting that I figure out my why made absolutely no sense at all
[12:02.560 --> 12:05.580]  because I knew what I did and it was pretty simple.
[12:06.880 --> 12:11.080]  But it was, as it turned out, Tony, a really valuable exercise.
[12:11.640 --> 12:13.500]  And as I worked through the process,
[12:13.540 --> 12:17.840]  and it was a process that's been constructed by a guy called Simon Sinek,
[12:18.200 --> 12:19.580]  who you may or may not have heard of,
[12:19.580 --> 12:28.220]  what I got to was a final distillation of my why,
[12:28.640 --> 12:32.780]  and that was to help people live as well as possible for as long as possible.
[12:33.800 --> 12:39.460]  And that really informs what I do these days.
[12:39.560 --> 12:40.960]  And it works really well.
[12:40.960 --> 12:45.500]  I'm now with my wife, run two businesses in Hobart.
[12:45.500 --> 12:50.160]  One is a wellness centre for strength, balance and bone health.
[12:50.640 --> 12:56.220]  And we're just building a business upstairs where we're doing breath work,
[12:56.380 --> 13:00.280]  meditation, hot and cold exposure, IV therapies.
[13:02.720 --> 13:10.120]  It's a really nice way to feel that I'm staying within my why and contributing.
[13:10.120 --> 13:18.760]  I, Warwick, add another element to people's heart health,
[13:18.820 --> 13:23.360]  which I don't believe is well understood or fully recognised,
[13:23.880 --> 13:26.340]  which is a little bit out of left field.
[13:27.720 --> 13:31.800]  I believe if a person loves the work that they do,
[13:32.400 --> 13:34.920]  that makes a massive difference to their heart
[13:34.920 --> 13:37.140]  versus someone who hates what they do.
[13:37.560 --> 13:39.960]  Would you agree or disagree with that, Warwick?
[13:41.060 --> 13:45.680]  Look, I think what you're basically saying is that stress, anxiety, depression,
[13:45.680 --> 13:50.480]  which is associated with being caught in an environment such as a work environment
[13:50.480 --> 13:54.320]  or even a marital environment or whatever,
[13:54.980 --> 13:57.100]  can be detrimental to heart health.
[13:57.220 --> 14:00.300]  And, Tony, there's absolutely no question that that's the case.
[14:01.000 --> 14:05.280]  We have the benefit of the Harvard Longevity Study,
[14:05.580 --> 14:08.020]  which is now several generations.
[14:08.020 --> 14:10.640]  I think it's run, I could be wrong,
[14:10.740 --> 14:14.400]  I think it's run 80 years, four or five generations.
[14:14.860 --> 14:19.960]  And that Harvard Longevity Study boiled down to two things
[14:19.960 --> 14:28.080]  that are clearly associated with a long, healthy life or a long life.
[14:28.080 --> 14:33.800]  The first is, or those two things are health and relationships.
[14:34.540 --> 14:36.580]  And when they drilled down on that, Tony,
[14:36.740 --> 14:40.160]  it was relationships that drove good health.
[14:40.400 --> 14:44.460]  So absolutely key to our wellbeing is relationships.
[14:44.640 --> 14:46.520]  And because we spend so much time at work,
[14:46.640 --> 14:49.640]  if we don't have a good relationship at work, it's toxic.
[14:49.640 --> 14:56.320]  And through my own experience, I've had times in my own work environment
[14:56.320 --> 15:04.080]  where I've been very aware that it's not been as comfortable as I'd like it to be.
[15:04.140 --> 15:08.640]  It's fantastic at the moment, but you're absolutely right.
[15:08.640 --> 15:16.060]  If your work environment is not good, it will lead to stress, anxiety,
[15:16.840 --> 15:21.060]  and it will have detrimental effect on your heart health without question.
[15:22.480 --> 15:24.200]  And as we wrap this up, Warwick,
[15:24.200 --> 15:29.180]  if you, in terms of where you sit today,
[15:29.780 --> 15:34.440]  were to have a conversation with Warwick 20, 30 years ago,
[15:35.060 --> 15:37.820]  what would be the number one piece of advice
[15:37.820 --> 15:40.600]  that you would partake to a younger Warwick?
[15:43.840 --> 15:44.980]  That's a great question.
[15:44.980 --> 15:55.460]  I think what I would share is to try and get a better understanding
[15:55.460 --> 16:01.180]  of personal growth, balance.
[16:02.640 --> 16:06.380]  And I guess in my own experience, my last five years,
[16:06.380 --> 16:15.900]  I've been working really hard on things like meditation,
[16:17.040 --> 16:24.920]  control of stress, an attitude which is more open
[16:24.920 --> 16:29.840]  to the challenges that confront us on a daily basis.
[16:30.160 --> 16:34.540]  So my last couple of years have been around personal growth
[16:34.540 --> 16:37.780]  and connection with others as well and valuing that.
[16:38.240 --> 16:42.960]  I think my younger me was hardworking, very focused, very determined.
[16:43.240 --> 16:44.700]  I didn't have time for gratitude.
[16:45.340 --> 16:48.600]  I didn't have the time for relationships that I should have.
[16:49.060 --> 16:50.600]  I don't think I was particularly wise.
[16:50.740 --> 16:54.480]  I was strong-willed and determined to a fault, actually.
[16:54.480 --> 16:59.060]  So to quote Billy Joel, I probably would have said something like,
[16:59.220 --> 17:01.260]  slow down, you crazy child.
[17:01.460 --> 17:02.500]  You're so ambitious.
[17:02.500 --> 17:06.200]  So I think I'd...
[17:06.200 --> 17:09.420]  But it's much easier to be older and wiser because you do slow down
[17:09.420 --> 17:10.780]  and you have the chance to do that.
[17:10.920 --> 17:14.080]  So my younger self probably wouldn't have listened, is the truth, Tony.
[17:15.540 --> 17:20.220]  That's a brilliant piece of wise advice to pass on to people, yes.
[17:21.400 --> 17:24.440]  You see a lot of people today in a rush, in a hurry, and I'm thinking,
[17:25.200 --> 17:27.940]  you know, so you get to the set of traffic lights
[17:27.940 --> 17:30.540]  and you're just waiting at the red light for a little bit longer.
[17:31.100 --> 17:32.020]  What was the point?
[17:32.560 --> 17:36.900]  And unnecessary stress, I would call that, Warwick.
[17:37.060 --> 17:39.000]  So, yes, that was a beautiful piece of advice.
[17:39.260 --> 17:39.660]  All right.
[17:39.780 --> 17:43.680]  Warwick, if people would like to know more about you and what you do
[17:43.680 --> 17:47.440]  and your books, where can we direct these people to?
[17:47.440 --> 17:51.320]  Look, the easiest place, and thank you for the opportunity to share, Tony.
[17:51.440 --> 17:55.420]  The easiest place to find me is on my website,
[17:55.700 --> 18:00.560]  DR for Dr. Warwick, W-A-R-R-I-C-K, Bishop.
[18:01.120 --> 18:03.660]  If you search Dr. Warwick Bishop, you'll find me.
[18:03.720 --> 18:09.260]  If you want to find my TEDx talks, just Dr. Warwick Bishop TEDx.
[18:09.260 --> 18:12.120]  If you'd like to find me on YouTube, I'd love you to do that.
[18:12.200 --> 18:15.960]  I've got hundreds of clips informing people.
[18:16.060 --> 18:17.700]  I'd love you to subscribe and share,
[18:17.860 --> 18:21.820]  and my podcasts are available on every podcast station.
[18:22.120 --> 18:23.940]  If you want to get a heart scan,
[18:24.200 --> 18:27.420]  I've got a website called Virtual Heart Check.
[18:27.980 --> 18:29.900]  You can go there, put in your details,
[18:30.160 --> 18:32.960]  and book a heart scan anywhere in Australia
[18:32.960 --> 18:35.780]  without the need to see a GP or a specialist,
[18:35.780 --> 18:39.500]  which I believe is an Australian first and quite possibly a world first.
[18:39.660 --> 18:42.060]  So there's lots of ways to get hold of me,
[18:42.160 --> 18:46.120]  and I'm pretty sure that even if they reached out to you
[18:46.120 --> 18:48.520]  to get in touch with me, that would work as well.
[18:49.800 --> 18:50.240]  Brilliantly.
[18:50.440 --> 18:51.360]  Yes, indeed.
[18:51.940 --> 18:54.380]  Don't underestimate the importance of your heart health.
[18:54.520 --> 18:55.920]  You may only get one chance.
[18:56.780 --> 18:57.560]  Oh, you've only got one.
[18:59.560 --> 19:00.160]  All right.
[19:00.220 --> 19:01.360]  Thanks for joining me today.
[19:01.500 --> 19:02.160]  Thanks, Warwick.
[19:02.800 --> 19:03.500]  Pleasure, Tony.
[19:03.500 --> 19:04.620]  Thank you so much,
[19:04.620 --> 19:07.660]  and I'm really happy your listeners got something valuable from this.
[19:08.060 --> 19:08.860]  I'm sure they did.
[19:08.940 --> 19:09.460]  Thanks, Warwick.
[19:12.000 --> 19:14.840]  Thanks for tuning into The Career Advantage Show.
[19:15.400 --> 19:18.180]  Visit thecareeradvantage.show to subscribe
[19:18.180 --> 19:21.160]  and claim your free career confidential toolkit.
[19:21.940 --> 19:23.800]  If you've enjoyed today's episode,
[19:23.800 --> 19:29.000]  I truly appreciate a five-star review on your favourite podcast app.
[19:29.740 --> 19:32.760]  And don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues
[19:32.760 --> 19:35.780]  who might need a little career inspiration.
[19:35.780 --> 20:05.760]  Thank you.

About The Show

Too many smart professionals feel powerless at work—burned out, boxed in, and living by someone else’s rules. But here’s the truth: no boss, no company, no system owns your power. You gave it away—and you can take it back.

The Career Advantage Show exists because the world of work is shifting faster than ever. People everywhere are questioning their careers—feeling vulnerable, uncertain, and searching for real answers.

Each episode will show you how to reclaim your power, redesign your career story, and build a future on your terms. Because in today’s world, if you don’t take control of your career, someone else surely will.

👉 Subscribe now—and start taking your power back.

Also, visit https://thecareeradvantage.show  to subscribe and to grab your free "Career Confidential Toolkit"

Subscribe and get immediate access!

Want to be a guest on the show?

Apply here:   https://thecareeradvantage.show/page/guest-application

Sponsored by The Career Advantage learn more at https://thecareeradvantage.com/

I am your host, Tony Pisanelli

On this show, we dive deep with our guests to uncover real stories, practical insights, and proven strategies that will help you reclaim your career power, navigate transitions, and design what’s next with confidence.

My very special guest today is Henry Wong ...

Henry Wong is an award-winning advertising professonal, author of Telling Your Story, Building Your Brand, and sought-after speaker on Narrative Intelligence. Formerly EVP, Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, he’s helped shape some of the world’s biggest brands. Now as a brand strategist, board advisor, and keynote speaker, he helps leaders and organizations find clarity in their own stories. His journey reflects a shift from chasing success to designing significance and helping others do the same.

Transcript

[00:00.000 --> 00:11.960]  Welcome to the Career Advantage Show, where we help you reclaim your career power and design your working life on your terms.
[00:12.340 --> 00:26.060]  I'm Tony Piscinelli, and each week I sit down with leaders who have faced career-defining moments, such as a devastating job loss, burnout, stagnation, or even workplace harassment,
[00:26.060 --> 00:33.100]  and being able to turn these difficult circumstances into powerful and greater opportunities.
[00:33.800 --> 00:39.560]  All right. Welcome to the latest Career Advantage Show.
[00:39.860 --> 00:45.080]  Today I'm speaking to Henry Wong, all the way from Toronto, Canada.
[00:46.040 --> 00:51.960]  Henry is a brand strategist, author, and speaker. Welcome, Henry.
[00:51.960 --> 01:00.800]  Thank you, Tony. Thanks so much for having me. Actually, I wish I was in your country hanging out because the weather is quite cold here.
[01:01.260 --> 01:07.080]  So hopefully send some warm vibes my way and we'll have a good session today.
[01:07.940 --> 01:14.700]  Yes, indeed. There's plenty of sunshine in Melbourne, Australia at the moment, so we've got a perfect 20-degree type day.
[01:14.700 --> 01:28.640]  Wonderful. All right. Henry, personal branding has fascinated me now for a number of years, and it did because I started to appreciate as a career coach
[01:28.640 --> 01:41.760]  that people should start identifying less and less with some sort of company title and start connecting to their own personal brand.
[01:41.760 --> 01:50.180]  So I want to explore that in our conversation today. So firstly, let's take you back in your career, in your early days.
[01:50.660 --> 02:00.340]  When did you come across the idea of the importance of a personal brand and storytelling and how those two elements fit together, potentially?
[02:00.340 --> 02:08.580]  You know, I think it was probably in my mid-career, a political group approached me.
[02:08.760 --> 02:16.920]  They had a candidate that they were hoping to put front and center, and they loved the campaigns I was working on for Toyota.
[02:17.560 --> 02:24.360]  And they said, can you do this same sort of idea or notion for our candidate?
[02:24.360 --> 02:29.680]  And I gave it some thought, and I realized that people and products are pretty much the same.
[02:29.840 --> 02:35.660]  So I began structuring a lot of my thinking around people brands as much as product brands.
[02:36.180 --> 02:40.440]  And the answer was, yes, I could. And I helped develop a brand around it.
[02:40.460 --> 02:43.120]  And I realized the commonality was very much the same.
[02:43.180 --> 02:51.540]  And I think it's what you were alluding to, Tony, that a lot of brands are based on a story, some sort of way of connecting with people.
[02:51.540 --> 02:58.060]  So that's really how I got started in this whole area of helping people manage their personal brands.
[02:59.300 --> 03:09.200]  Okay. But was there, before then, was there an experience either very early days of your career or childhood even,
[03:09.780 --> 03:14.820]  where stories started to become seeded or anchored in Henry?
[03:15.620 --> 03:19.880]  Yeah. I mean, I didn't realize it until I connected the dots later in life.
[03:19.880 --> 03:22.620]  But I grew up in the back of a Chinese restaurant.
[03:22.720 --> 03:24.860]  My parents didn't speak a word of English.
[03:24.860 --> 03:30.500]  So I was thrust to front of the house, you know, with barely a command of the English language myself.
[03:30.500 --> 03:40.040]  But I found that by sharing stories, by talking to the customers, not only did I find out a lot about life and people who surrounded me,
[03:40.040 --> 03:49.760]  but the more I shared stories, the more I shared stories, the more personable I was, the more I filled that tip jar that was on the counter.
[03:50.280 --> 04:02.400]  So it was a little bit of an eye-opener for me that stories could lead to better things or a way of shaping even my job and later on my career, of course.
[04:02.400 --> 04:12.980]  I worked in the world of advertising for well over 25 years, and we know the best commercials, the best advertising, the best communications are often story-based.
[04:13.140 --> 04:24.340]  So little did I know back then how much that would inform the career and the life that I'm now leading based on just simple storytelling.
[04:24.340 --> 04:32.780]  So back to that childhood event, they used to tip you when you shared a story.
[04:34.540 --> 04:40.300]  Is that because they really appreciated the story and got something out of it and they connected with you?
[04:40.780 --> 04:42.560]  Because stories do that, don't they?
[04:42.580 --> 04:45.940]  They form a connection, a trust connection, ideally.
[04:46.880 --> 04:48.080]  Yeah, very much so.
[04:48.080 --> 04:57.000]  And I think the ability to share some, I guess, insight into my life opened up that empathy on the other side.
[04:57.060 --> 05:03.720]  Because there are a lot of people who tell stories, and they're not often good stories, but the good stories are the ones that can connect emotionally.
[05:04.440 --> 05:11.180]  And by, I guess, intuition or a heightened sense of EQ, I mean, I was all of 11 back then.
[05:11.180 --> 05:20.440]  And so I just knew by sharing certain elements, I could, you know, connect well with people, and they would like me as a result of that.
[05:20.860 --> 05:31.480]  I could see, and later on in life, as I began dissecting and deconstructing storytelling, I realized these are often the skills that even con artists use, you know, to try to connect people.
[05:31.480 --> 05:38.780]  So I was just using it as a way of, hopefully for good, as opposed to something nefarious.
[05:39.640 --> 05:43.700]  Yes, ethically rather than mischievously, obviously, Henry.
[05:45.100 --> 05:55.960]  Were there TV programs that you were drawn to as a child that, again, reinforced and gave you this story theme for your career journey?
[05:55.960 --> 06:04.220]  Yeah, you know, I think as a child, I mean, just even now to this day, I simply love film, I love movies.
[06:04.580 --> 06:17.320]  And there's a very common structure within movies that I've always applied to helping people and products with their brand, which is there's a problem that's put together that is thrust to the main character.
[06:17.560 --> 06:22.080]  It puts them into a journey, what we often refer to as a hero's journey.
[06:22.080 --> 06:34.600]  They overcome that obstacle, and in doing so, there's a wonderful resolution that is enacted, and people wonderfully identify with it.
[06:34.940 --> 06:42.700]  So it's a very common structure in terms of a story where problem, solution, and then resolution or answer to it.
[06:42.700 --> 06:52.600]  So if you can sort of capture that, even as a person or even as those within business, a case study, it connects well with people.
[06:52.780 --> 06:58.200]  How you do it, how the style of it is enacted really is the magic behind it, of course.
[06:58.340 --> 07:11.820]  But I was very, you know, to answer your question, I was very much influenced by all those wonderful adventure movies, the James Bond movies, the sort of superhero movies of the past.
[07:11.820 --> 07:16.540]  They were just sort of wonderful ways of lighting my imagination up.
[07:16.840 --> 07:21.800]  And I could see it as I trace back in my career and many of the commercials that I created.
[07:21.920 --> 07:35.160]  I could see sort of send-ups or imitations of those James Bond movements, you know, and things of that sort that helped to propel my career, but at the same time helped me structure a story.
[07:35.160 --> 07:44.260]  Yes, on that, I was really captivated by the Indiana Jones movie series.
[07:45.520 --> 07:50.000]  They were very much around the hero's journey aspect of that.
[07:50.340 --> 07:56.620]  I mean, you talked about and led me to my own childhood of that, you know, that little boy behind the counter talking.
[07:56.620 --> 08:05.620]  I was very much like that short-round character, very fast-talking, animated, and was very keyed into what was going on.
[08:05.720 --> 08:12.520]  But I was a little bit of a character for a part of my life as a little Chinese boy growing up.
[08:13.400 --> 08:13.920]  Perfect.
[08:13.920 --> 08:34.240]  All right, so if I was to go back and look back in my corporate day, I rubbed shoulders with a lot of engineering, IT, technology people, finance people, and I would attend presentations about whatever was going on in the company.
[08:34.240 --> 08:49.980]  And, Henry, I would have to endure these presentations that were dry, factual, a lot of PowerPoint slides that really put you to sleep, to be honest.
[08:49.980 --> 09:03.940]  How do we get these people to appreciate the importance of stories and develop the ability to share them?
[09:06.080 --> 09:10.460]  You know, it's very much based on who the audience is.
[09:10.460 --> 09:30.660]  And it can be difficult simply to manifest a story when you're just showing facts and figures and that where the story can come from is a little bit of the behind the scenes, the backstory to it, the background, why it's important for the audience to pay attention to.
[09:30.760 --> 09:34.460]  So there's a context for which it can be presented.
[09:34.460 --> 09:46.440]  But I think as people become better and acquire the skill of storytelling, they'll find ways in which they can make these drier presentations a little bit more friendlier.
[09:46.700 --> 09:52.940]  A lot of it, as you know, particularly where it becomes a lot of data-driven things, it's often top line.
[09:53.600 --> 10:02.400]  People would often gravitate more to what is the essence of what you're presenting, and that can be much more interesting than the facts and figures.
[10:02.400 --> 10:11.280]  Those can be presented later in a structure of telling a story or when you're making a claim through a lot of the work I've done.
[10:11.420 --> 10:15.720]  I find that it's important, but it supports what the main story is.
[10:16.120 --> 10:24.880]  So I think the key to answer your question is really to find the thread by which this information is important and how that story might be weaved in.
[10:24.880 --> 10:41.740]  And that data, that information can be the hero to it, but what brings people along that can help support it would be a terrific way of breaking it down and reconstructing it as a narrative and something that people will be a lot more interested in.
[10:42.600 --> 10:42.780]  Okay.
[10:43.080 --> 10:43.860]  It's interesting.
[10:44.680 --> 10:50.820]  Stories have many uses in a person's career, not just presentations.
[10:50.820 --> 11:08.660]  I remember many years ago working with a younger gentleman, and he was about to go for an interview to be a salesman for a luxury car manufacturer, car dealership.
[11:08.660 --> 11:21.420]  And I knew that at some point in the interview, Henry, they would ask him the question, well, why do you want to, you know, sell cars?
[11:22.400 --> 11:24.220]  And you better have a very good answer.
[11:24.220 --> 11:33.700]  Not only a good answer, preferably a story of why this gentleman was passionate about cars.
[11:33.700 --> 11:40.600]  Because a lot of people now are looking for your passion, not just your skill of being doing anything or something.
[11:41.080 --> 11:43.280]  Because when you're passionate, you're totally committed.
[11:43.600 --> 11:47.080]  When you're committed, you're connected, and you're actually invested in that job.
[11:47.800 --> 11:57.780]  So he, during my conversation with him, our coaching session, he shared a story of as a 17-year-old, his father took him to the Australian Grand Prix.
[12:00.080 --> 12:01.160]  Oh, that's really wonderful.
[12:01.160 --> 12:08.360]  And he had the opportunity to sit behind the wheel on one of the practice days of a Ferrari.
[12:11.060 --> 12:14.160]  And that's where his love of cars came from.
[12:15.440 --> 12:17.700]  So I said, you've got the story.
[12:17.860 --> 12:19.660]  How about you share that at the interview?
[12:20.980 --> 12:22.980]  And I think that's a wonderful take, Tony.
[12:23.040 --> 12:25.540]  I think that was just terrific advice.
[12:25.540 --> 12:32.220]  I've found with many of the people I've worked with, a story really is that conduit to getting to know people.
[12:32.380 --> 12:35.660]  Because I can share with you a resume, which just has facts and figures.
[12:35.660 --> 12:40.200]  But if I told you a little bit more of a tale, like your client, that would be quite wonderful.
[12:40.560 --> 12:43.300]  If I was doing that interview, I'd share a similar story.
[12:43.400 --> 12:48.100]  Mine was really based on all these wonderful road trips that my father used to take the family on.
[12:48.100 --> 12:52.760]  So I have this love affair with cars because it represented a great feeling to it.
[12:53.000 --> 12:59.500]  And this is the sort of feeling that I would bring to the job and help pass on in an infectious way.
[12:59.500 --> 13:10.560]  So as much as story is important, and hopefully what he shared demonstrated his passion and enthusiasm for cars and that,
[13:10.620 --> 13:16.020]  but at the same time translated into what it means for this audience, in this case, the employer.
[13:16.320 --> 13:21.460]  What would it mean to him if he took on that job with that level of enthusiasm?
[13:22.020 --> 13:25.140]  And this is, again, how story comes to that conclusion.
[13:25.140 --> 13:30.140]  And if he can find the right way of doing it, then you can connect very well with people.
[13:31.020 --> 13:35.700]  Yes, no doubt he went on to win that interview.
[13:35.820 --> 13:41.720]  And that story was a key part of it because he was someone who recognized, Henry,
[13:41.840 --> 13:45.700]  that people just don't buy cars for the car just to get around him.
[13:45.920 --> 13:48.180]  There's some deeper meaning to it.
[13:48.460 --> 13:50.520]  Yeah, it fits within the story.
[13:50.860 --> 13:52.600]  Exactly, very much that.
[13:52.600 --> 13:55.140]  For you, it was time with the family.
[13:55.420 --> 14:01.580]  For him as a seven-year-old, he came away and stepped out of that Ferrari feeling more confident
[14:01.580 --> 14:04.860]  that, hey, I've just been behind a Ferrari.
[14:05.520 --> 14:14.680]  And some people derive confidence and status and a feeling of success because they drive a particular car.
[14:16.280 --> 14:17.320]  Very much so.
[14:17.320 --> 14:25.080]  And I think, I mean, to your point, the whole idea of a story is just to unveil an element of yourself.
[14:25.400 --> 14:33.840]  So for those listening, it is really important to have a stable of stories and a way of demonstrating your skill,
[14:33.980 --> 14:41.020]  not simply by saying, yes, I'm a very organized, detailed person or I lead with strong authority.
[14:41.020 --> 14:46.000]  It's having those examples, those little stories, those little stories are really case studies,
[14:46.120 --> 14:50.000]  but told in such a way that they're engaging, told in a not engaging way.
[14:50.080 --> 14:57.260]  They simply become facts and figures and nothing more than data on a screen or rhyming off traits.
[14:57.260 --> 15:08.660]  So the ability to storytell is very paramount to many leaders trying to move a group or lead a organization
[15:08.660 --> 15:12.860]  or simply to connect with people in a more profound way.
[15:13.660 --> 15:14.340]  All right.
[15:14.380 --> 15:20.280]  So just as we wrap up, Henry, if you were working with someone who's listening to this,
[15:20.280 --> 15:27.220]  who says, look, Henry, I'd love for you to sit down with me and unravel my brand story,
[15:28.280 --> 15:33.360]  what would be the three key areas that you would look at to help him do that?
[15:34.380 --> 15:40.980]  You know, I think the most important thing is to be able to stand for something, represent something.
[15:40.980 --> 15:47.860]  And the work I do often delves into very deeply how, what that person stands for.
[15:47.920 --> 15:50.700]  Because once you work out what your unique positioning in the market,
[15:50.700 --> 15:54.560]  then hopefully you have an advantage over your competition,
[15:54.560 --> 15:58.140]  whether it's in the job market or whether it's in the business market.
[15:58.580 --> 16:04.980]  From there, you center on what that key message is that revolves around that positioning.
[16:06.000 --> 16:09.380]  Once you have that key message, then you can build the story around it.
[16:09.380 --> 16:12.600]  So it's a little bit of a process at the same time,
[16:12.600 --> 16:19.840]  but it's going through very much what a product does in terms of unveiling what it stands for.
[16:19.840 --> 16:26.900]  If I said to you, Volvo, you would probably think safety, Apple, you might think innovation.
[16:27.280 --> 16:30.820]  Each of those have a very strong key word in which it stands for.
[16:31.180 --> 16:36.480]  But all the stories that wrap around those key words, that key message, that key position,
[16:36.980 --> 16:39.340]  often will emulate from that.
[16:39.380 --> 16:46.660]  So anybody who is trying to determine what they stand for can create a story once they arrive
[16:46.660 --> 16:50.300]  to what that position and key word and message will be.
[16:50.940 --> 16:53.520]  And is the other element in that the who?
[16:53.860 --> 16:59.620]  Because a lot of these professionals identify with a title rather than with themselves.
[17:01.360 --> 17:01.880]  Yes.
[17:02.400 --> 17:04.580]  How would you bring out the who element, Henry?
[17:04.580 --> 17:13.400]  I think that can be often not dangerous, but confining, because if you are only represented
[17:13.400 --> 17:20.920]  by your title, then if you lose that position or you move on to another one or you're assigned
[17:20.920 --> 17:24.740]  another position, then are you still the same person?
[17:24.860 --> 17:26.200]  Are you still Henry Wong?
[17:26.280 --> 17:28.120]  Are you still Tony Pisanale?
[17:28.120 --> 17:34.160]  What is it about you that can carry forth to each of those positions?
[17:34.320 --> 17:36.860]  And that's really what the personal brand is, because it's portable.
[17:37.360 --> 17:43.900]  You may be defined by a new job, a new company, but your brand should stay the same, which is
[17:43.900 --> 17:49.120]  often based on the things you stand for and the personality that supports it, of course.
[17:49.120 --> 17:50.760]  Well put.
[17:50.900 --> 17:51.300]  All right.
[17:51.640 --> 17:56.720]  So, Henry, you've shared some very powerful insights during our conversation.
[17:56.720 --> 18:02.540]  If people want to find out more about you, and as I mentioned earlier, you're also an
[18:02.540 --> 18:08.500]  author, do you want to just share with people how they can get access to your book and what
[18:08.500 --> 18:09.560]  the book is about as well?
[18:10.340 --> 18:10.760]  Well, sure.
[18:10.760 --> 18:20.280]  Yeah, so I actually have a book that I wrote during the COVID years when I had some downtime.
[18:20.500 --> 18:22.700]  It revolves around storytelling.
[18:23.040 --> 18:25.840]  It's titled Telling Your Story, Building Your Brand.
[18:26.000 --> 18:30.600]  So, it's a playbook for people looking to bring their personal brand to life.
[18:30.800 --> 18:32.260]  It's available on Amazon.
[18:32.580 --> 18:36.480]  Happy to share a link if you have a means to do that.
[18:36.480 --> 18:42.300]  But a lot of what I do these days is talks and keynotes.
[18:42.620 --> 18:48.240]  So, I'm a speaker as well as an author around these very topics in terms of leadership brands,
[18:48.340 --> 18:49.400]  in terms of storytelling.
[18:50.000 --> 18:53.880]  You can find out more about me on henrywong.co.
[18:54.240 --> 18:56.740]  And there's a link to my book there as well.
[18:57.860 --> 18:58.200]  Perfect.
[18:58.360 --> 18:58.760]  All right.
[18:58.940 --> 19:00.580]  Thank you for joining us, Henry.
[19:00.660 --> 19:01.400]  Much appreciated.
[19:01.620 --> 19:02.000]  Thank you.
[19:02.760 --> 19:03.380]  Thank you, Tony.
[19:03.380 --> 19:05.200]  Really great spending time with you.
[19:06.480 --> 19:10.400]  Thanks for tuning in to The Career Advantage Show.
[19:10.960 --> 19:16.740]  Visit thecareeradvantage.show to subscribe and claim your free career confidential toolkit.
[19:17.500 --> 19:24.560]  If you've enjoyed today's episode, I truly appreciate a five-star review on your favorite podcast app.
[19:25.280 --> 19:31.320]  And don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues who might need a little career inspiration.

About The Show

Too many smart professionals feel powerless at work—burned out, boxed in, and living by someone else’s rules. But here’s the truth: no boss, no company, no system owns your power. You gave it away—and you can take it back.

The Career Advantage Show exists because the world of work is shifting faster than ever. People everywhere are questioning their careers—feeling vulnerable, uncertain, and searching for real answers.

Each episode will show you how to reclaim your power, redesign your career story, and build a future on your terms. Because in today’s world, if you don’t take control of your career, someone else surely will.

👉 Subscribe now—and start taking your power back.

Also, visit https://thecareeradvantage.show  to subscribe and to grab your free "Career Confidential Toolkit"

Subscribe and get immediate access!

Want to be a guest on the show?

Apply here:   https://thecareeradvantage.show/page/guest-application

Sponsored by The Career Advantage learn more at https://thecareeradvantage.com/

I am your host, Tony Pisanelli

On this show, we dive deep with our guests to uncover real stories, practical insights, and proven strategies that will help you reclaim your career power, navigate transitions, and design what’s next with confidence.

My very special guest today is Marques Ogden ...
 

Marques Ogden Bio

Marques Ogden is a former NFL player who is now an inspirational keynote speaker. He's also the founder and CEO of Ogden Ventures LLC, three-time best-selling author (Sleepless Nights; The Success Cycle), business coach and consultant and the podcast host of Authenticity With Marques Ogden; although his journey didn't come easy or without unrelenting adversity.

After retiring from football, Marques pursued a career in construction and contracting. At 27, he founded a construction company with fast growth but eventually went bankrupt, losing almost two million dollars on one project in 90 days. He pulled himself together during his darkest hours and got a part-time job as a custodian.

Marques rose to the top again with hard work and determination, using his struggles as inspiration to blaze his own trail forward. Now, he shares his powerful story to help others learn how to fail forward and achieve success in their lives. Marques' story and insights as a thought leader have been featured in top publications such as USA Today, Forbes, News Nation, Cheddar News and Authority Magazine. As a speaker, he's landed jobs with over 80 Fortune 500 companies and over 20 Fortune 100 companies like Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Intel, JPMorgan Chase and Home Depot.

Marques hopes to continue reaching new levels in his professional career and positively impacting as many people's lives as possible through doing what he loves; speaking on stage and sharing his experiences and knowledge with others.

Transcript

[00:00.980 --> 00:11.960]  Welcome to the Career Advantage Show, where we help you reclaim your career power and design your working life on your terms.
[00:12.540 --> 00:18.640]  I'm Tony Piscinelli, and each week I sit down with leaders who have faced career-defining moments,
[00:19.300 --> 00:26.080]  such as a devastating job loss, burnout, stagnation, or even workplace harassment,
[00:26.080 --> 00:33.100]  and been able to turn these difficult circumstances into powerful and greater opportunities.
[00:33.340 --> 00:40.180]  On today's Career Advantage Show, I will be having a conversation with Marcus Ogden,
[00:40.760 --> 00:48.980]  former NFL player, business owner, and today a speaker and business coach,
[00:49.280 --> 00:53.640]  all the way from North Carolina, from the US. Welcome, Marcus.
[00:53.640 --> 00:56.940]  Why are you, Tony? Thanks for having me on, my friend.
[00:58.160 --> 01:00.020]  Likewise. Thank you for joining us.
[01:00.840 --> 01:11.260]  In looking at some of your story, Marcus, you're big on systems and the importance of systems in terms of winning the game.
[01:11.700 --> 01:17.660]  Now, can you take us back to your NFL days and share with our audience
[01:17.660 --> 01:26.160]  how you first came across the importance of systems, how it was applied at the game level,
[01:26.620 --> 01:34.060]  where you potentially went from a defeat scenario to creating a victory because everyone followed the system.
[01:34.060 --> 01:37.740]  If you can share a story from that history of yours,
[01:37.780 --> 01:43.860]  and then we can look at how people need to apply the importance of system in the way they live their lives.
[01:43.860 --> 01:50.520]  I remember when I was playing for Baltimore, we were playing one of our rivals in our division,
[01:50.620 --> 01:54.460]  the Cleveland Browns, and we were down, I think, 14 to 10 at halftime,
[01:54.620 --> 02:00.180]  and we were really just not executing at a high level that we should have been.
[02:00.580 --> 02:04.620]  I remember our head coach, Brian Billick, talked to us about,
[02:04.620 --> 02:12.020]  hey, you all, you guys are out there working hard, you're playing hard, but you're not following the system.
[02:12.340 --> 02:16.460]  You're not doing the plays the way that we design them during the week,
[02:16.460 --> 02:22.700]  and you're not executing at a high level because you're not really doing the system effectively.
[02:23.220 --> 02:27.160]  So for about 10 minutes, he kind of talked about getting back to the basics,
[02:27.160 --> 02:32.880]  getting back to the systems, how we all need to work together, how we all need to have continuity,
[02:32.880 --> 02:39.500]  and that really got us thinking about how we would practice hard and do well with systems,
[02:39.500 --> 02:45.220]  and when we don't play well without systems, the missing link is the systems.
[02:45.680 --> 02:46.980]  So we were able to turn it around.
[02:47.160 --> 02:51.540]  We won that game 28 to 14 against Cleveland,
[02:51.540 --> 02:57.840]  and I just remember Coach Billick talking about if we're going to win this football game,
[02:57.960 --> 03:03.000]  we got to get back to the basics and we got to get back to utilizing the systems
[03:03.000 --> 03:07.840]  that we've been really working on all week here in the game in the second half.
[03:07.900 --> 03:09.440]  And again, when we did that, right, Tony?
[03:09.580 --> 03:12.100]  We had a positive outcome in that game.
[03:13.140 --> 03:17.920]  What was a key component of what was happening in the first half?
[03:17.920 --> 03:22.940]  For example, was everyone just doing their own thing rather than following the system?
[03:23.040 --> 03:27.000]  And what specific element in the system turned it around, Marcus?
[03:27.740 --> 03:35.480]  So in reality, Tony, we just were not executing the system as far as being all working together.
[03:35.660 --> 03:38.160]  Like, again, people weren't doing their own thing.
[03:38.520 --> 03:42.360]  The timing of what they were doing was not in rhythm, right?
[03:42.360 --> 03:48.840]  So if you're playing a game, especially a game of football, timing, rhythm, and execution
[03:48.840 --> 03:54.340]  really is the makeup of the system, the plays you call against the defense.
[03:54.440 --> 03:55.480]  I'm an offensive lineman, right?
[03:55.720 --> 04:00.260]  But as a whole, the offense and the defense are going to have great timing,
[04:00.760 --> 04:02.820]  great rhythm, and great execution.
[04:03.080 --> 04:05.160]  So our timing was off.
[04:05.340 --> 04:09.420]  Guys weren't doing their own thing, but they were doing it a little bit slower.
[04:09.420 --> 04:12.440]  They weren't doing it, like, you know, at the speed that was needed.
[04:12.740 --> 04:18.260]  And when your timing's off and the rhythm is off, then you're going to play off.
[04:18.420 --> 04:19.580]  I mean, that's just the way that it is.
[04:19.640 --> 04:22.120]  I don't care how much you're trying to do that, right?
[04:22.180 --> 04:25.820]  Tony, but if your timing and rhythm is off, you will be off.
[04:26.000 --> 04:30.540]  So what happened is, in the second half, our timing got better.
[04:31.000 --> 04:32.420]  Guys were running faster.
[04:32.740 --> 04:36.840]  They were actually moving at the right speed and routine that.
[04:36.840 --> 04:42.300]  And then our rhythm being in sync or being aligned, things got better.
[04:42.600 --> 04:43.660]  And we were able to execute.
[04:43.820 --> 04:47.800]  We actually ended up scoring, like I said, about, what was that, 18 points, you know,
[04:47.840 --> 04:50.600]  in the second half and winning that football game.
[04:50.720 --> 04:53.440]  So, you know, when it comes, I can always speak for football.
[04:53.620 --> 04:54.680]  I mean, I love basketball.
[04:55.340 --> 04:56.180]  Baseball's okay.
[04:56.320 --> 04:57.460]  But football's my game.
[04:58.240 --> 05:04.000]  Rhythm, timing, execution, all these things are critical to your long-term success
[05:04.000 --> 05:08.240]  and winning, you know, a sustainable amount of games throughout an NFL season.
[05:09.280 --> 05:09.880]  Okay.
[05:10.000 --> 05:17.880]  So, Marcus, moving on from that, we know that systems don't just play an important part
[05:17.880 --> 05:19.540]  on a football field.
[05:20.440 --> 05:23.400]  They're also very important in business.
[05:23.400 --> 05:30.720]  Did you carry that on in the business world or did you forget that and then something happened
[05:30.720 --> 05:35.180]  in the business world where you thought, you know what, I need a system.
[05:35.760 --> 05:37.280]  Can you share that with us?
[05:37.740 --> 05:37.980]  Yeah.
[05:38.080 --> 05:43.720]  So what happened is, Tony, from my construction company, we actually, when I started out, I
[05:43.720 --> 05:47.060]  was starting in, like, concrete, small concrete work.
[05:47.060 --> 05:52.900]  And then we ended up getting pushed into large earthwork and dirt work and utilities, which
[05:52.900 --> 05:58.320]  is like earth grading, digging up, dirt removal, hauling, all those things.
[05:58.620 --> 06:00.240]  And we really didn't have a system.
[06:00.380 --> 06:04.500]  And then we put one in place and the company grew substantially.
[06:05.160 --> 06:13.460]  The problem I had was the company did not sustain itself because my ego got so massive that I
[06:13.460 --> 06:20.700]  forgot my system, I forgot my people, I forgot how to actually do the things that got me to be a
[06:20.700 --> 06:23.020]  $25 million a year company.
[06:23.620 --> 06:30.860]  And as a result of my ego, see again, right, Tony, my rhythm, my timing, how I was doing was off.
[06:30.860 --> 06:39.220]  And because of that, it caused the system to break down because my key team members, employees,
[06:39.220 --> 06:46.640]  they were feeling off, they were kind of vibing off my rhythm, off what I did or what I didn't
[06:46.640 --> 06:47.000]  do.
[06:47.160 --> 06:52.360]  And as a result of that, that's when I ended up losing everything in that construction
[06:52.360 --> 06:58.620]  company in 2013 and having to move from Baltimore down to Raleigh, North Carolina.
[07:00.460 --> 07:00.940]  Right.
[07:01.080 --> 07:06.300]  So how did, obviously losing a lot of money, Marcus, is never a pleasant experience.
[07:07.200 --> 07:07.640]  No.
[07:07.640 --> 07:10.540]  So how did you pick yourself up off the ground?
[07:12.220 --> 07:17.760]  So when I got down here to Raleigh, right, Tony, I was feeling sorry for myself from April 2013
[07:17.760 --> 07:19.900]  until September 2013.
[07:19.900 --> 07:27.500]  And what happened is I ended up having a rock bottom moment where I ended up having someone's
[07:27.500 --> 07:35.320]  spoiled milk and nasty protruding garbage in this horrible, rotten smelling meat all over me.
[07:35.320 --> 07:43.460]  And that made me realize that I was the one that put myself on this curb, on this corner.
[07:43.660 --> 07:47.020]  And if I'm going to get my life back, it's going to take accountability.
[07:47.440 --> 07:48.640]  It's going to take responsibility.
[07:48.760 --> 07:49.740]  It's going to take humility.
[07:50.020 --> 07:55.200]  Like, I got to stop thinking that the world owes me something because the world owes me nothing.
[07:55.200 --> 08:02.240]  And so once I had that mindset shift, I started to work towards getting my life back.
[08:02.540 --> 08:05.020]  Now, I'm not going to tell you it was easy because it sure wasn't.
[08:05.400 --> 08:09.680]  But that shift happened as a result of my rock bottom moment.
[08:09.680 --> 08:15.960]  And once that moment really hit me like a ton of bricks, right, Tony, that's when I said,
[08:16.080 --> 08:20.040]  okay, if I don't change, I'm going to be here for the rest of my life.
[08:20.160 --> 08:22.940]  And that's when I started to make the change at that time.
[08:24.880 --> 08:32.000]  It's interesting, Mark, is because that moment is obviously a catalyst for throwing us into
[08:32.000 --> 08:40.880]  the world of I'm a victim, and I see that when someone loses that all-important job.
[08:41.600 --> 08:47.600]  And a lot of people stay there for a long time, years if not decades.
[08:47.980 --> 08:53.960]  You were able to lift yourself up in months because you realized, hey, no one's going to
[08:53.960 --> 08:54.840]  come and rescue me.
[08:58.300 --> 08:58.860]  Correct.
[08:58.860 --> 09:04.540]  So that's an important lesson for those listening to this from a career perspective who lose
[09:04.540 --> 09:05.980]  their job or become burnout.
[09:07.040 --> 09:09.380]  Staying in victimhood doesn't pay.
[09:10.540 --> 09:12.540]  You need to wake up and move on.
[09:13.220 --> 09:21.700]  Tony, nobody cares about your hardships, your failures, your problems.
[09:21.820 --> 09:22.860]  They have their own.
[09:23.320 --> 09:28.200]  And so I tell people all the time, if you aren't going to help yourself,
[09:28.200 --> 09:30.420]  why would anybody else?
[09:30.420 --> 09:36.740]  So you have to take the mentality, you have to take the disposition that if you want your
[09:36.740 --> 09:44.760]  life to come back from a hardship or adversity or a struggle, that you have to be the one that
[09:44.760 --> 09:47.600]  gets the train rolling down the tracks.
[09:47.980 --> 09:52.480]  People don't mind helping you, but you have to help yourself first.
[09:52.480 --> 09:58.440]  I don't mind helping people who are struggling as long as I know they're trying to help themselves.
[09:59.320 --> 09:59.960]  Perfect.
[10:00.640 --> 10:10.720]  So, Marcus, we're going from NFL player, business owner, and now a speaker and business speaker and coach.
[10:10.720 --> 10:15.600]  How did that transition occur?
[10:15.800 --> 10:17.440]  Was there someone you met?
[10:17.860 --> 10:20.960]  What was the motivation for that career shift?
[10:20.960 --> 10:30.040]  So what happened was, Tony, I was actually listening to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts by a guy named Tony Robbins.
[10:30.420 --> 10:36.800]  So I said, wow, if Tony Robbins, who was a janitor at some point in his life, he met Jim Rohn,
[10:36.800 --> 10:42.460]  he turned his life around, he became this world-renowned, inspirational speaker.
[10:42.960 --> 10:45.780]  If Tony Robbins could do it, so could I.
[10:45.920 --> 10:55.760]  So in reality, right, Tony, it was just me at that time being open to something different that I'd never done before.
[10:55.880 --> 10:57.940]  And I heard about it through podcasts.
[10:58.280 --> 11:02.180]  And again, I really fell in love with Tony Robbins and his message of, you know,
[11:02.180 --> 11:06.600]  make the mindset shift, the power of the mind, things of that nature.
[11:07.180 --> 11:13.000]  And once I decided I was going to pursue that, I didn't let anything stop me.
[11:13.080 --> 11:19.240]  And again, like I say, it took me two and a half years to get my first paid speaking job, but I never gave up.
[11:19.540 --> 11:21.660]  I never stopped pursuing it.
[11:21.760 --> 11:22.560]  I never quit.
[11:22.980 --> 11:25.340]  And I got my first paid job.
[11:25.520 --> 11:27.580]  I started September 2013.
[11:27.580 --> 11:30.980]  I got my first paid job in April 2016.
[11:30.980 --> 11:35.980]  And that began the journey to where I'm at today.
[11:37.140 --> 11:41.980]  What's the greatest satisfaction that you get out of speaking?
[11:43.800 --> 11:50.280]  Tony, the best thing is when I see people and they're like, have like that aha moment,
[11:50.680 --> 11:54.580]  that light bulb moment that they can do something better.
[11:54.720 --> 11:56.320]  They can be something better.
[11:56.460 --> 11:58.080]  They can achieve something more.
[11:58.140 --> 11:59.780]  They can be something greater.
[11:59.780 --> 12:08.880]  When people have that moment, that is satisfaction to me because I remember when I started speaking,
[12:08.880 --> 12:10.460]  it was really hard to get started.
[12:10.780 --> 12:17.000]  But for me, I had that aha moment when I met Mel Robbins in 2018.
[12:17.000 --> 12:22.180]  And when I met her and she was like, motivation is garbage.
[12:22.540 --> 12:25.520]  Inspiration is long and everlasting.
[12:26.100 --> 12:28.300]  That was my aha moment.
[12:28.600 --> 12:35.120]  So I love to see people develop and or have that light switch turn on in their brain.
[12:35.340 --> 12:37.740]  And they say, yep, I can do this.
[12:37.820 --> 12:38.720]  I can be more.
[12:38.780 --> 12:39.760]  I can achieve more.
[12:39.760 --> 12:40.920]  I can go for more.
[12:42.420 --> 12:51.860]  Isn't it interesting, Marcus, that we reach a point in our lives where it's not our own success that gives us our greatest joy,
[12:51.860 --> 12:57.820]  but it's how we trigger the success in others where the true satisfaction comes.
[12:57.820 --> 13:01.720]  Is that a fair call as we wrap up this interview?
[13:03.100 --> 13:09.500]  Absolutely, Tony, because to me, when other people are doing well, are being great,
[13:09.620 --> 13:14.340]  then at that time and that moment, to me, that's what matters most.
[13:15.520 --> 13:15.840]  Perfect.
[13:16.320 --> 13:22.520]  All right, Marcus, if people listening to this want to reach out to you and know more about what you do,
[13:22.520 --> 13:23.840]  where can they find you?
[13:24.660 --> 13:35.360]  They can find me on our website, www.MarcusOgden.com.
[13:35.480 --> 13:36.820]  You can go to our app.
[13:36.900 --> 13:40.360]  We have an app that's on an Android or an Apple phone, Marcus Ogden,
[13:40.580 --> 13:46.220]  or just shoot me an email, Marcus at MarcusOgden.com.
[13:47.880 --> 13:48.600]  Thank you.
[13:48.600 --> 13:53.500]  All right, well, that's been another episode of the Career Advantage Show,
[13:53.880 --> 13:56.620]  where we had a conversation with Marcus Ogden.
[13:57.100 --> 14:05.300]  If you got a lot out of today's session, please leave us a five-star rating,
[14:05.940 --> 14:11.760]  and don't forget to subscribe and share this communication with others.
[14:12.300 --> 14:12.860]  Thank you.
[14:12.940 --> 14:17.400]  Until next time, make sure you're always reclaiming your power.
[14:17.400 --> 14:18.260]  Thank you.
[14:18.600 --> 14:22.720]  Thanks for tuning in to the Career Advantage Show.
[14:23.280 --> 14:29.060]  Visit thecareeradvantage.show to subscribe and claim your free career confidential toolkit.
[14:29.820 --> 14:36.880]  If you've enjoyed today's episode, I truly appreciate a five-star review on your favorite podcast app.
[14:37.600 --> 14:43.640]  And don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues who might need a little career inspiration.

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I am your host, Tony Pisanelli

On this show, we dive deep with our guests to uncover real stories, practical insights, and proven strategies that will help you reclaim your career power, navigate transitions, and design what’s next with confidence.

My very special guest today is John North ...
 

Transforming Entrepreneurs through Cutting-Edge Publishing and Software Solutions...
John North is a 9 Time #1 Best Selling Author (Amazon,USA Today and Wall Street Journal) multifaceted and seasoned entrepreneur, boasting a robust background in Accounting, Banking, Business Management, Finance, Personal Development, IT, Software, and Strategic Marketing..

As the CEO of Evolve Systems Group, John has earned a reputation as a serial entrepreneur by spearheading numerous innovative products and services aimed at empowering business owners and entrepreneurs.His diverse ventures focus primarily on Book Publishing and Software Systems, which are designed to make a tangible difference in the lives of entrepreneurs.

Fueled by a passion for enhancing the marketing intelligence and strategies of business owners, John consistently pushes the boundaries of what's achievable in today's fast-paced world. He is widely acclaimed among his contemporaries for his inventive and highly creative approach to problem-solving.

Transcript

Tony Pisanelli: Welcome to the Career Advantage Show, where we help you reclaim your career power and design your working life on your terms. I’m Tony Pisanelli, and each week I sit down with leaders who’ve faced career-defining moments—devastating job loss, burnout, stagnation, even workplace harassment—and turned those challenges into bigger opportunities. You’re listening to the Career Advantage Show. I am your host, Tony Pisanelli.
My mission is to help professionals reclaim their career power and design a working life on their terms. Today’s special guest is John North. Welcome, John.

John North: How are you doing?

Tony: Great, thank you. John, you’re a best-selling author.

John: Yep—nine so far.

Tony: And a seasoned entrepreneur. You worked extensively in finance and banking. How did those early days shape what you do today?

John: The funny thing about working in a bank is they make you follow a process. You can’t just do whatever you want. You balance the cash a certain way, speak to customers a certain way—everything has a process. That gave me a solid grounding in systems. Handling customer complaints was another big one.
The bank also kind of convinces you your skills are only useful there because they trained you. What I realised was those skills—trustworthiness, keeping confidences, operating professionally—are incredibly valuable in the broader marketplace. I joined the bank at 15, so I got an education in how business actually works that school never gave me.

Tony: Can you pick one defining moment in your banking career that you still carry today?

John: I worked in the bank for about 12 years. Toward the end I was building a side business. I’d landed my dream role—one of the youngest manager’s assistants in Queensland, a couple of years earlier than the age-based system would normally allow. The trouble was I didn’t get my dream manager.
He was terrified of lending money. As a commercial lending manager, he wouldn’t lend. He was always checking, second-guessing—drove me mad. We called him “Bladders” because he behaved like an old woman, writing the address on every side of a parcel “just in case.” In the end I quit and started my IT business.
People say you join for a manager and you leave for a manager. As the manager’s assistant, I spent 90% of my time with him. If you can’t work with that person, it’s untenable. His focus was: no risk, don’t lend, refer everything up so it’s not on him. That’s not banking—that’s career protection.

Tony: So the bureaucracy got to you?

John: The people did. I’d had my share of bad managers; he was the worst for me because he blocked the very work we were meant to do.

Tony: For someone listening who feels constrained in their job and is thinking about jumping ship—what’s the number one piece of advice?

John: Stack as much cash as you can before you start. Cash flow is the single biggest stress in business. Whatever number you think you need, double it—you’ll burn through it.
With less money, you’re more likely to take misfit clients. That creates more problems. If you’ve got cash, you can be fussy. The more successful you get, the more often you say “no.”
Two more tips:

1. Make the reserve a little hard to access—so you have to think before tapping it.

2. Pay yourself first. Don’t live out of the business. Put yourself on a wage and manage your personal life separately, then gradually increase it to apply healthy pressure to sell.

Tony: The place I’ve burnt the most money is marketing. Agree?

John: Yep. You can blow a fortune there. Strangely, the cheapest marketing often works best—low-risk, guerrilla tactics. Referrals are gold, but you only get them if you serve the first client brilliantly. Do what you say you’ll do, keep the client number one, and protect the relationship. That’s straight out of banking—more accounts, happier clients, longer tenure.

Tony: Is it easier to keep an existing client than find the next one?

John: Absolutely. And you can sell more to existing clients. We’ve had authors do second and third books with us—one did four. That happens because the first job was done properly.

Tony: You help authors become best-sellers on Amazon. Is that what gives you the most joy?

John: Partly. As a kid, aptitude tests said “policeman or journalist.” I liked finding things out—so publishing scratches that itch. But the real joy is when a book sells and someone reads it—someone’s helped, maybe even changes their life. A book is also a legacy. And if you’re starting a business, write the book now. It becomes your marketing, your system, your processes—your proof of credibility.

Tony: You’re big on building assets. A book is a key pillar, right?

John: 100%. Think of renting vs owning. Social media is renting—they can evict you any time. Own your website. Own your content. Too many business owners build funnels and sites, then tear them down every six months and start again. Build on what you’ve built.
And don’t host your entire programme on platforms you don’t control. Running your whole community on Facebook? That’s… unwise. You can be locked out for months over a password reset. Same with course platforms—stop paying and your catalogue disappears. Own your assets.

Tony: So the core advice is: own and control your asset base?

John: Own your stuff and focus. Stop chasing shiny tangents that don’t fit your core. Learn to say no—even when the money is tempting. I started my publishing business with a free project (terrible idea—free clients are the least appreciative), then charged a little, then more, until we priced at the value we deliver. It took a year or two to get traction; now we’ve produced hundreds of books. Persistence, aligned to your core, pays.

Tony: So pick your core focus and stay with it—even through a bad month?

John: Ask: did you make a good decision at the start? Do you believe in it? Until you believe in it, no one else will. There has to be a market—or you create one—but keep it tied to your core. I’ve launched offers I thought were brilliant that landed to crickets. That’s fine if it still strengthens the main business.

Tony: How important is knowing your ideal client?

John: Vital—but you often learn it in market, not on a whiteboard. When I sold accounting software, I assumed the buyer was the bloke who owned the business. In reality, the decision-maker was often his wife doing the books. Once I started addressing her needs, sales moved.
Ask clients what they really want. With authors, I always ask: what do you want from this book? Some just want it published—no sales goals at all. Good to know before you map an elaborate marketing plan they don’t want.

Tony: In my case, it wasn’t just about the book—it was the business behind the book.

John: Exactly: the “why.” The money isn’t usually in the book—it’s beyond the book. For non-fiction, build the business in or behind the book. One client gave away thousands of copies at conferences—the book built instant credibility, and the services made the money.

Tony: Do years in organisational life translate into a consulting or speaking business later?

John: They can—if you’re thoughtful about it. You may not see it at 15, but your career builds capabilities you can package. Look at what you do now: what piece could you break off that you enjoy and others value? Don’t start a firm in something you already dislike—you won’t have the energy.
Also, be honest with yourself: if you wake up several days in a row dreading the work, do something about it. Change the business, sell it, or pivot. Nothing’s set in stone.

Tony: If someone wants to write or publish a book, or build and own their platform, how do they find you?

John: The best way is johnnorth.com.au—my personal site that links to everything I do. Whether you want to publish a book or build a platform, it’s all there. Connect on LinkedIn and I might even send you some books for free.

Tony: John, thanks for joining me and sharing the journey from banking to running your own business.

John: My pleasure. If listeners take just one useful idea and act on it, that’s a win.

Tony: There are definitely a couple of gems in there. Thank you.

That’s a wrap on another conversation here on the Career Advantage Show. If you enjoyed this episode, we’d be grateful for a five-star review. Share it with a friend or colleague who might need a boost, and make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Visit thecareeradvantage.show to subscribe and claim your free Career Confidential Toolkit. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d truly appreciate a five-star review on your favourite podcast app—and don’t forget to share it with friends and colleagues who might need a little career inspiration. Thanks for listening.

About The Show

Too many smart professionals feel powerless at work—burned out, boxed in, and living by someone else’s rules. But here’s the truth: no boss, no company, no system owns your power. You gave it away—and you can take it back.

The Career Advantage Show exists because the world of work is shifting faster than ever. People everywhere are questioning their careers—feeling vulnerable, uncertain, and searching for real answers.

Each episode will show you how to reclaim your power, redesign your career story, and build a future on your terms. Because in today’s world, if you don’t take control of your career, someone else surely will.

👉 Subscribe now—and start taking your power back.

Also, visit https://thecareeradvantage.show  to subscribe and to grab your free "Career Confidential Toolkit"

Subscribe and get immediate access!

Want to be a guest on the show?

Apply here:   https://thecareeradvantage.show/page/guest-application

Sponsored by The Career Advantage learn more at https://thecareeradvantage.com/

I am your host, Tony Pisanelli

On this show, we dive deep with our guests to uncover real stories, practical insights, and proven strategies that will help you reclaim your career power, navigate transitions, and design what’s next with confidence.

Welcome to the Career Advantage Show, where we help you reclaim your career power and design your working life on your terms.

I'm Tony Piscinelli, and each week I sit down with leaders who have faced career-defining moments, such as a devastating job loss, burnout, stagnation, or even workplace harassment, and being able to turn these difficult circumstances into powerful and greater opportunities.

The 12 words that empowered my career.
It was 6.30 on a Tuesday evening, after a long, gruelling day in Corporate Australia.
I was walking down a narrow corridor from my office toward the elevator.
I exhaled. I'm finally going home.
Home to my family, a warm, delicious meal, and a moment to breathe, after a day of following one order after another.
Then, a voice cut through the silence behind me.
Where do you think you're going?
I haven't finished with you yet.
It was Doug, the Deputy Chief Finance Officer.
Doug was ambitious, desperate for the top job.
He worked long hours and expected everyone beneath him to do the same.
So, instead of stepping into that elevator, I turned around.
It felt like I was being pulled by an invisible chain.
I sat down at my desk, fired up my computer, and gave Doug another hour of my life.
And in that moment, it hit me.
I was powerless.
A servant to someone else's demands.
You felt it too, haven't you?
Maybe your Doug is your boss, your company, or the system itself.
Someone else decides how late you stay, how much you give, and how much of yourself is left at the end of the day.

Welcome to the Career Advantage Show.

I'm Tony Piscinelli.
If you are facing a major obstacle in your career, a demanding boss, impossible deadlines, burnout, or even the looming axe,
this show is about rising above it.

Here's the truth.
If you don't manage your career, someone else will.
And their plan will not be about your growth, your freedom, or your future.
It will be to serve their agenda.
That's why so many people become trapped, burnt out, and powerless.
Living someone else's story instead of their own.
There is another way.
Most people think the only way out is to quit and find a new job, a new boss, a new company.
That's what millions did during the pandemic.
The phenomenon was called the Great Resignation.
But for many people, the Great Resignation turned into the Great Regret.
Because they traded one employer for another.
The poor problem never changed.
Someone else still held the power.
So I took a different path.
I stayed.
But I changed how I operated.
I asked a career advisor one powerful question.
Who stole my power?
His answer stopped me cold.
No one, he said.
Not even Doug.
You gave it away.
And he was right.
We all do it.
We trade power for a paycheck, for benefits, and for our security.
If I had given it away, then I could take it back.
That's when everything began to shift.
I accepted responsibility.
I stopped seeing myself as a victim.
Because in the victim chair, you're powerless.
Instead, I moved into student mode.
And Doug became my teacher.
That extra hour I gave him, that was my wake-up call.
From that night forward, I refused to be a passive player in my career.
I would begin to manage myself, my career, and most importantly, my life.
That was the turning point.
And years later, it became the foundation for my coaching system.
Helping others reclaim their power.
Because I believe power, or the lack of it, is the core issue underlying almost every career problem.
When you reclaim your power, the dugs of the world no longer control your destiny.
So how do you start reclaiming your power?
Firstly, recognise who holds the power right now.
Is it you or someone else?
And secondly, if it is another person, begin to take it back.
Because it won't be simply handed back to you.
And thirdly, stop seeing yourself as an employee trapped in a system.
So, start becoming the leader, the designer, and the owner of your career story.
Because if you don't, nothing changes.
You'll keep living under someone else's rules, sacrificing your nights, your energy, your future, for their ambitions.
But if you do reclaim it, everything changes.
You create leverage.
You attract opportunities.
You'll live a career that serves you, and the life you want to build.
If this story resonates, don't let it fade.
The first step to rewriting your career story is reclaiming your power.
Download your free Career Confidential Kit.
You'll find the link in the show notes.
It's your starting point for designing a career on your terms, not Doug's.
I'm Tony Piscinelli.
Subscribe, share this with a colleague who's stuck, but more importantly, he's smart enough to know they need to do something and leave a review so others can find the show.

Thanks for tuning into the Career Advantage Show.
Visit thecareeradvantage.show to subscribe and claim your free Career Confidential Toolkit.
If you've enjoyed today's episode, I truly appreciate a five-star review on your favourite podcast app.
And don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues who might need a little career inspiration.

About The Show

Too many smart professionals feel powerless at work—burned out, boxed in, and living by someone else’s rules. But here’s the truth: no boss, no company, no system owns your power. You gave it away—and you can take it back.

The Career Advantage Show exists because the world of work is shifting faster than ever. People everywhere are questioning their careers—feeling vulnerable, uncertain, and searching for real answers.

Each episode will show you how to reclaim your power, redesign your career story, and build a future on your terms. Because in today’s world, if you don’t take control of your career, someone else surely will.

👉 Subscribe now—and start taking your power back.

Also, visit https://thecareeradvantage.show  to subscribe and to grab your free "Career Confidential Toolkit"

Subscribe and get immediate access!

Want to be a guest on the show?

Apply here:   https://thecareeradvantage.show/page/guest-application

Sponsored by The Career Advantage learn more at https://thecareeradvantage.com/