The Romance Vs. The Reality Of Pivoting: Lindsey Bell Returns To JUST PRESS RECORD

Switching up what someone is doing can feel and look so easy. And then you start thinking about doing it for yourself. Next thing you know, a few years have slipped by, you’ve slipped into low-level depression, and… am I speaking from experience already? Yikes. At least it’s not just me.

When Julia Carreon came on Just Press Record, she took Hal Hershfield's idea that 'You don't know what you don't know' and made it personal (as only she can do). She told the raw story of leaving her prestigious job to join a startup she deeply believed in - only to discover she hated the actual work. “I love the mission. I hated the work,” she said with that characteristic Julia Carreon honesty. Meanwhile, Hal represented the mystique - the romantic notion of unknown possibilities waiting on the other side.

What do you do when you know it’s not you but then changing feels more like a bunch of faceplants and stumbles trying to kill you?

It ain’t easy. Culture has romanticized “the pivot.” But it still sucks in real-time. It’s about how you get through it. Which is why I wanted to talk to Lindsey Bell about it.

Not just because Lindsey has been through it more than a few times herself, but because she’s done extensive work on the topic, not to mention, she has a whole TEDx Talk on it. 

Lindsey parsed apart the messiness of what really goes down in a pivot. The stress, the anxiety, the uncertainty. The way real change happens but for two reasons alone. Because “your back is against the wall and you have no other choice but to make change, OR you’re fed up and you’ve reached your tipping point.”

The pivot isn’t romantic. It’s ridiculous and rebellious. Pivots are raw.

I didn’t realize it until I started unpacking it more with Lindsey, but Hal represents the mystique of change with his future self work, Julia represents the brutal honesty in how she shares her experience, and Lindsey gets the framework for how we understand it.

It’s like I knew why I wanted to ask her about this clip before I knew it - which is all too fitting. Watch our conversation now on Cultish Creative YouTube (or wherever you get your podcasts):