Burn From Within

In this episode, I was interviewed by the Global NLP Conference about how to make big life decisions you won’t regret. Angela Wells, co-founder of the conference, asks some great questions which allows me to share:What key tools I personally use to make decisions to live a life true to myself and actually do it not just think itHow you can shift from analysis paralysis and being stuck in lifeOne killer NLP strategy to transform your motivation to take action How to take back control when your career or life problems seem impossible to solveHow to not sweat the small stuff and spend your time more wiselyThe commonalities between my guests on the Burn From Within podcast on how they made hugely successful life and career changing decisionsHow Covid has changed everything in people’s minds and why The Great Resignation is happening right nowResources:Use my special discount code MATT10 when you register for the Global NLP Conference (and check out all the amazing speakers and sessions) hereFor those that want a free guide to making big decisions with no regrets, including audio clips sharing real strategies from people I interview as well as clips from Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos who use this framework, go to www.burnfromwithin.com/noregrets and I'll send you my audio guide free today!Connect directly with me directly on LinkedIn here - leave me a voice note to really get my attention (thanks Valerie Mekki for that tip!)Check out Tony Robbins' explanation of the NLP Dickens process here on YouTube - I've adapted this for career and life decisions. The foundational structure is truly powerful for motivation to take action!To book a free 20-min confidential call with Matt to discuss any career or life change challenges you are having, go to www.burnfromwithin.com/call 

On this week’s episode, we have Valerie Mekki who used to be a retail buyer and product developer for major fashion brands for over 18 years and now she is a content writer and loves it! In this interview, Valerie fascinatingly shares her career pivots including becoming an entrepreneur, returning to a 9-5 and a lot more! We discuss:The false security of job securityHow accreditations and side projects can really help in your career transitionsThe mindset to handle your ego being crushed when working more junior roles in a new careerHow to deal with tough times during your career transitionPractical ways to make money from your years or decades of previous career experienceA golden mindset trick to becoming prolific in sharing what you do on social mediaHow to restore balance during your transition so you don't burn outResources:Check out Valerie’s amazing blog about a career change for mid-life professionals at Oh Hello Work LifeConnect directly with Valerie on LinkedIn here - listen to the end of the episode to learn how to send a LinkedIn message that gets her attention!To find out more about prototyping your next career, listen to this episode of the show hereBook a free 20-min confidential call with Matt to discuss any career or life change challenges you are having hereCheck out more inspiring interviews with full transcripts to scan quickly for career and life change nuggets on the Burn From Within website here

On this week’s episode, we have Claudio Antonini who is a career change coach for finance and investment banking professionals. We cover a lot in this interview, from:What prompts finance and investment banking professionals to want to leave their career and what are the challenges in transitioning out of it?Typical routes out and common transferable skills they can useHow to prevent your next career being a bad decisionFinding more suitable roles within your existing bankHow to recognise you are burnt out and what to do about itThe impact of Covid-19 on career change in finance and bankingWhen is the ideal time to leave your banking job or career?The full show notes and videos of other interviews are available at Burnfromwithin.com/interviews, so listen all the way through, and enjoy!Resources:Connect with Claudio Antonini here via his LinkedIn profile and his website is hereTo find out more about prototyping your next career, listen to this episode of the show hereTo hear about long-term career decisions and hear from Jeff Bezon about his regret minimisation framework and how other guests of the show have applied this, listen to my special episode, The Guide to Making Big Decisions, No Regrets hereTo book coaching with me, Matt Garrow-Fisher, check out the Burn From Within website here

On this week’s episode, I have Nishith Shah, founder of Thought Labs, co-founder of the Global NLP Conference India and someone I’ve worked with in training people how to become aware of their own mind’s source code and the structure of our human experience, taking people beyond their comfort zones at retreats in the Swiss Alps and the Indian Himalayas. This conversation is all about dealing with unexpected events in life, like the very present latest Covid strain in June 2021 and lockdowns in India where Nishith is based. And also his own career journey which didn’t go as he expected it would. There is a lot of principles around ways of thinking in this conversation about career change and life change and I hope you gain as much wisdom around how to think as I did from this.Resources:Connect with Nishith Shah here via his LinkedIn profileCheck out Nishith’s training company Thought Labs here for more information about his amazing retreats in Goa, Switzerland, the Himalayas and more hereGlobal NLP Online Summit India - purchase recordings of this year’s insightful presentations, including from previous Burn From Within guests Jamie Smart and Vimala Seshadri and as well as register for next year’s eventJoin Matt and Nishith on Clubhouse with my upcoming discussion around how to make decisions without regrets hereBooks:Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change by Robert E. Quinn – an amazing book on building a business or career by stepping into the unknown. In the process of stepping out of your comfort zone and following what lights you up in life, you bring out more of your true potential and become more congruent with your life as a result.To find out more about designing multiple 5-year life plans (called Odyssey Plans), check out the Designing Your Life book by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans from Stanford University here and their on-demand video workshop course is here.

In this episode I speak with Camilla Sacre-Dallerup, a former Strictly Come Dancing champion who completed reinvented herself to a new career and lifestyle, moving from the UK to LA with her husband Kevin in the process to completely reinvent themselves. This is a fascinating conversation about recognising your ego in your career and life and having the discipline to keep it in check to really be who you truly are, not what is expected of you. We talk about the sacrifices needed during her career transition, accepting that you don’t need anything and the huge implications this had on taking risks to pursue what she really wanted in life. Resources:Camilla’s website with all her meditations, courses, resources and ways to connect direct with her is right here.Camilla challenged me to do her 21 Day Meditation Experience and I’m currently doing it and absolutely loving it - here it is free for you too.Books:I read Camilla’s book Reinvent Me, all about not just career change but identity reinvention. So practical and useful exercises inside - thoroughly recommend this. Camilla has two other books, It’s Not You, It’s Me - about self love to transform relationships and Dream Believe Succeed, filled with actions to actually achieve what you dream about.Her books are available on Amazon or Camilla’s website

This episode is about becoming an entrepreneur and actually the process and life in entrepreneurship.  I speak with James Saward-Anderson,  a co-founder of Social Tree Global with his business partner, Max Hannah. They started their business as a project in a bedroom back in 2016. And it's now grown to become one of the largest dedicated business-to-business, social media agencies, working with leading brands like UBS, IBM and Meltwater. James and Max have also helped educate over 10,000 marketing and communication experts about the latest social media intelligence insights in finance and healthcare.  Both of them ran to Rome together, and after that experience decided to start a business. They now have a team of 11 staff and  a seven-figure turnover.I ask questions around:What made him decide to go into entrepreneurship? What made him choose the business that he was in and pivot to it?What makes a good business partner and the benefits of having oneValues that have helped his business grow and having a mission The struggles actually with balance when you're running a full-time business,  i ask a lot of the questions that you might ask if you are looking to become an entrepreneur and make a career change yourselfWhat's the one thing that made James burn from within?Resources:Social Tree Global - James' 7-figure social media agency he runs with his business partner Max and team of 11 staff in LondonJames Saward-Anderson's LinkedIn profile - connect with him here directly to ask questions about becoming an entrepreneur, social media and to work with or in his agency!

On episode 37 of the show, I have Sarah Gregg, a psychologist, coach and author of two highly-practical books - Find Your Flow and her upcoming book Choose Happy which is being released next month. We talk about the science behind gratitude, what rules and routines can create flow in your work day and how you can actually make decisions to be happier.Resources:Connect directly with Sarah Gregg on Instagram and follow her useful daily tips here @thepowertoreinventSarah's website detailing all her work, coaching and workshops on flow and happiness hereFind Your Flow book - an awesome highly-practical book to burn from within more each day by entering your flow state.Choose Happy - Sarah's upcoming book here.

On this week’s episode, I have Alice Nettleingham, who has gone through a number of career changes and each time has really enjoyed every career she has been in. Like me, she loves variety and adventure and we met each other in Bansko, Bulgaria. After graduating in psychology, Alice worked as a psychological well-being practitioner for the NHS. Fast forward a few years and she had spent 5 years as an English teacher in Asia and forward some more and Alice is running a hugely popular female solo travel blogging business and now has become a certified hypnotherapist helping other content creators get rid of unconscious patterns of self doubt and procrastination that stops them being successful in their business.In this episode, we discuss:How Alice made the decision to change her career each timeHer approach to transition - jumping in with both feet and how this can really be effective for some peopleHow stories from others can change our beliefs and give us instant inspiration to change careersHow we can reprogram our minds by changing our self-narratives through hypnosisHow does hypnosis work exactly and how can it improve your clarity and productivityWhat’s the one thing that’s made Alice burn from within?Resources:Teacake Travels - Alice's awesome and highly popular solo female travel blog!Connect with Alice on IG here - feel free to ask her any questions in DM - @speaktoaliceBook a taster hypnosis session here - trust me, you have to experience this!

On this week’s episode, I have AJ Mizes, who left his job at Facebook in San Francisco as a Global People & HR Leader to start his company The Human Reach in the middle of the pandemic (talk about taking risks). AJ is a Career & Leadership Coach & HR Consultant and reached out to me as he loved some of the episodes on the Burn From Within show and he shared so many practical tips from real experience in his own career (the good stuff he gives to his own clients), I had to share them with you all. In this episode, we discuss:How to land jobs that on paper you are not fully qualified or have the experience for3 solid tips to prepare for your interview to get hiredTop ideas to consider for a career changeHow to improve fulfillment in your current job before having to quitImproving your chances of promotion dramatically by deciding on one of three buckets for your career growthHow can people at smaller organisations get their managers to take their career progression more seriously rather than just keeping their head down and getting tasks done?How can you work more effectively when remote working and make it actually work?How can you communicate with your employer to create more balance when you feel you need more time for your family or other things in your life?What’s the one thing that’s made AJ Mizes burn from within?Resources:Register for AJ Mizes' awesome free weekly web class hereConnect with AJ via his company at The Human Reach here and his LinkedIn profile hereCheck out the Burn From Within episode I discussed at the end called The Guide To Making Big Decision With No Regrets if you want to learn about taking regrets with no regrets here

On this episode, I interview Fiona Reith, the UK's first Designing Your Life certified coach and a phenomenal career change coach I know from training together.After noticing how practical her approach was to life and coaching her career change clients, I asked what her secret was and what Designing Your Life meant. She recommended I read a book for career and life change called Designing Your Life by Dave Evans and Bill Burnett who are both professors at Stanford University that teach Design Thinking. This was and is an absolute game-changer for me and I’m now training with the authors Bill and Dave directly in becoming a certified Designing Your Life coach in April this year. This conversation gives you a glimpse of why design thinking is so useful, practical and why we both love it so much!In this episode, we discuss:The importance of prototyping your next career Using design thinking methodology for life and career designHow to prototype through conversations and experiencesMy experience in prototyping interviews for becoming an employed podcast producerScales of prototyping and your spectrum of possibilitiesKnowing when you have done enough prototyping to make a career decisionReframing problems with design thinkingNetworking to access the hidden job marketWhat’s the one thing that’s made Fiona Reith burn from within?Books:Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnnett & Dave Evans - this book in my opinion is a total game changer when it comes to career and life design and change. Get it now. I’m serious!Designing Your Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness at Work  by Bill Burnnett & Dave Evans - this book is about making improvements in your existing career to become incrementally more fulfilled and happier, without necessarily doing anything drastic like a career change. Full of practical exercises.Video Course:Designing Your Life video workshop online - this is a live class you can follow on-demand taught alongside other students with the authors of the book to help you really understand and go through the exercises of the book in groups. Definitely worth it.Resources:Fiona Reith’s coaching website and Linked profile - Fiona is a phenomenal career coach so go have a conversation with her to discuss if she is right for you (if you enjoyed her awesome insights in this episode, she might be a good fit to help you in your career or out of it into a new fulfilling pathA directory of certified Designing Your Life coaches from around the world - Fiona is the first DYL coach from the UK and Matt will also be on this list in April!Bill Burnett’s 5 steps to designing the life you want Tedx Talk and Dave Evan’s separate Designing Your Life Ted Talk

On this week’s episode, I have Damon Cart, who has a huge career and life turnaround story. Only a few years ago Damon suffered from depression running his own life insurance business as a State Farm agent while his marriage also broke down. Looking for ways to relieve his depression, he found NLP and began a tremendous journey of self discovery over several years training with some of the world’s most renowned NLP Trainers including Robert Dilts and Steve Andreas. He’s now burning from within, recently happily married to the love of his life, fulfilling his dream of being able to travel while running his business and now training and transforming individuals rapidly with some of the most powerful models that have changed his own life, including changing your own self-concept.. In this episode, we discuss:Spotting signals in life that you are on the wrong career pathDamon’s experience of depression from spending all day in a business he hatedLifting depression in one hour with NLP versus over a year in traditional therapyFinding an interest that developed into a passion that became a businessFinally being able to make tough but congruent life decisions by shifting limiting beliefsThe importance of building your life from your own values not ones imposed by othersThe self concept model and transforming your highest values into a quality of who you areWhat’s the one thing that’s made Damon Cart burn from within?Resources:Take the Career Assessment right now from Damon’s Self Concept Research Group hereSteve Andreas’ book, Transforming Yourself, about his self-concept model, now rolling out across the world by Damon Cart and his business partner Hundreds of videos about NLP on Damon Cart’s highly-popular YouTube channel here

On this week’s episode, I have Michael Legge, who is a former actor best known for playing teenage Frank McCourt in Allen parker’s 1999 movie Angela's ashes and you might also know him from other TV shows like Shameless. Since being famous in the acting world for over two decades, he has now transitioned into a new career, having extensively studied self-development, various forms of therapies, and coaching. Now he is the founder of the mind health coach, helping actors and performing artists with anxiety and achieving their peak performance to excel in their career. We actually met in India, a few years ago at a neuro-linguistic programming retreat and got on very well.  I had to get him on the show as he made quite a career change and talks openly about it. In this episode, you will discover:How Michael made the decision to leave his successful career in acting of almost 20 years and the gradual transition to a new passion of coachingHow solving his own persistent level of anxiety in acting fuelled helping other actors with this common challenge in the professionWhat skills from a long and successful career in acting transferred into coaching?How Michael’s purpose changed as his career changed and the realisation of shifting from his ego to operating at the level of contribution to othersHow to tackle anxiety in your career and during Covid-19What’s the one thing that’s made Michael Legge burn from within?Resources:1Michael’s MindPerfect Program - get back in control of your mind in just 10 weeks: https://themindhealthcoach.com/control-mindperfect-program/ Follow Michael’s amazing tips and videos on Instragram @themindhealthcoachAngela’s Ashes - Michael’s first major movie when he was a child - watch it on Amazon Prime nowMichael’s career as a successful actor laid out on Wikipedia

On this week’s episode, I have Lori Ann Arsenalt who is the founder and chief grounding officer of Freedom Within Wellness and certainly has made a huge career transition and life transition story too. Lori Ann was a human resources manager for 18 years over in Canada and in the government of Prince Edward Island and decided to change her life completely, and moved to Thailand and developed a career and business training TRE or trauma and tension release exercises. Freedom Within is a global wellness and coaching services company based in Chiang Mai Thailand, where I lived for about three years and freedom within offers Tre certification and training to people from all around the world.On this episode, you will discover:How Lori Ann made the decision to leave her safe, secure government role of almost 20 yearsHow she not only managed the transition of her career but her country and lifestyle too moving to Chiang Mai, ThailandWhat practice she has developed to fine tune her decision making and make great gut decisions continuously in career and lifeThe concept of grounding and how it can help improve the clarity of your thought and relationships with othersWhat’s the one thing that’s made Lori Ann Arsenault burn from within?The full show notes and videos of other interviews are available at Burnfromwithin.com/interviews, so listen all the way through, and enjoy!Resources:Monthly free TRE Facebook event with Lori Ann Arsenault (next one Sunday January 10th)Freedom Within Wellness: Facebook page and Website -  https://www.yourfreedomwithin.com/TRE founder David Bercili video for you to follow grounding exercises for free on YouTubeContact:Book a free 20-minute laser-focused clarity call to support you in your next major career or life decision here 

In this episode, I talk to Tom Youngs who made the big leap from successfully starting a career in dentistry in a well-respected private practice in the UK, to jumping into entrepreneurship in tech startups. I met Tom over five years ago - a well-respected coach I had hired suggested he meet me and it was at the start of his career change journey. Five years later, after a few pivots,I noticed how happy he was from a LinkedIn post celebrating working with his team in the tech startup world. So I wanted to find out more about how his career change unfolded. This episode is particularly relevant for people who feel they have large sunk costs from being in a career for years or spending many years, and a lot of money, training in a profession. It’s also for those whose families are in the same profession as them. Tom ticks all these boxes and came out successfully in a new career he loves.In this episode we discuss:The moment that hit Tom he was not in the right career for him after years of being focused and dedicated to achieving that goalManaging his career transition working in two tech startups while working at his dental practiceLessons he has learnt in hindsight from making his decision to change careerHow Tom knows this is the right career for him nowHaving a sense of freedom and a bubble bursting connecting him to the worldWhat’s the one thing that makes Tom Youngs burn from within?The full show notes and videos of other interviews are available at burnfromwithin.com/interviews - so listen all the way through and enjoy!Resources:The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss - the book that influenced thousands, if not millions of people, including Tom Youngs and myself to delve into entrepreneurship and be able to do things they loveContact:Here is Tom Youngs LinkedIn profile - connect with him there and feel free to ask any questions or share your reflections from watching this episode directly with him.And if you want to book a free 20-minute consultation call with Matt Garrow-Fisher to help you on the One Thing to focus on next for your career change, click here.

This week, I discuss a topic that for some is taken for granted, for others neglected, and for all of us, whether we are young or old, is the true secret to not only happiness but living a long life.And I’m not talking about anti-ageing creams, botox, ketogenic or paleo diets (although diet is a significant factor in longevity).I’m talking about being involved in your community.Resources: Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life Kindle Edition - the book I recommend you all read detailing interviews of some of the oldest people in the world in Ogimi, Okinawa, JapanTop Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing - Bronnie Ware's book distilling wisdom from hundreds of people in a hospice sharing their biggest regrets when faced with their own imminent mortalityCoworking Bansko - a community of freelancers, entrepreneurs and digital nomads living in the mountains of Bulgaria (including me) that I mention in the episode

Have you ever felt stressed, unhappy or going on an unsustainable path in life or at work?We all have, as humans, at some point in our lives, right?In this week’s episode, we explore 6 levels of human experience which, when we are consciously aware of them, can be tremendously useful when we feel stuck or misaligned in our lives. This is particularly true in our careers when figuring out and trying to pin26point why we are not happy.Matt Garrow-Fisher shares insight from his conversations with Burn From Within show guests, examining their career and also lives at each of the following levels of human experience to identify where we can have misalignment:Level 1 - EnvironmentLevel 2 - BehaviourLevel 3 - Skills & CapabilitiesLevel 4 - Beliefs and ValuesLevel 5 - Identity (a powerful identity realisation is shared by Matt Harry in this episode)Level 6 - PurposeInstead of feeling stuck or unable to pinpoint the source of stress, unhappiness and that feeling that we don't want to carry on the career or life path we are on, we can investigate these levels to make changes so we have a clearer path for peace, joy, security and happiness.Matt Garrow-Fisher examines the model inspired by Gregory Bateson (an English anthropologist) and developed by a pioneer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming Robert Dilts called Neurological Levels of Change.I hope you relate to the conversations shared in this episode and they help you to understand how you can start to use this model at each level in your own lives. Whether you feel internally misaligned in your career or in other life areas, to find opportunities to become more aligned and happy.Resources:Michael Neill's explanation of the Neurological Levels of Change - this is a much more concise explanation of the model from the author of Supercoach and The Inside Out Revolution - Michael NeillNeurological Levels of Change from the creator Robert Dilts - this page goes deep into this model of human experience from the NLP pioneer that developed it. This is heavier reading that the resources below though, so prepare to go deepInterested in group training on this model to make it practical directly to you?Share your interest on our Facebook page here