36: COFFEE WITH BURTON-“The Power of the Left Turn: How Small Yeses Can Lead to Big Opportunities ”

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What if the best parts of your life came from the moments you almost ignored? We explore the power of saying yes to odd chances, trusting your gut, and treating detours like design. With my dad, Burton, back for Coffee with Burton, we trace how tiny openings turned into decades of meaningful work and why midlife might be the perfect time to reinvent.

Burton’s journey moves from retail and insurance to commercial sign writing after he watches a painter letter a restaurant door. One $40 sign sold on a cold call replaced a week’s wages and sparked a career. He reimagined “window painting” as window advertising, turning dealership glass into illuminated billboards and using traffic counts as media metrics. That eye for opportunity led to large-scale murals—from a Chilliwack pub’s New York skyline to a Gastown ceiling blooming with roses—paired with clever marketing ideas to draw cruise-ship crowds. We talk about risk tolerance, learning on the job, and the art of letting go when a new owner paints over your masterpiece.

My path follows the same compass in different lanes: a hallway conversation and a cassette audition sent me to LA to study voice. I bootstrapped with side hustles, later pivoted out of real estate, and built a voiceover career from a DIY studio, landing the on-hold voice for the Hard Rock Hotel. Volunteering led to MC gigs; a winery shoot became a tasting room role. The throughline is clear: test quickly, market around your craft, and stack skills so each yes compounds into momentum.

If you’re crafting your next chapter, you’ll hear practical ways to spot hidden opportunities, price your value, detach from outcomes, and build courage through action. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review—then tell us the left turn you’re ready to take.

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