Some days after a big exit, nothing feels right. You're not inspired. You're not productive. You can't make yourself care. And underneath the flatness, there's a quiet question: is this even what I want to be doing?

In this episode, Kevin Simcock breaks down what's actually happening on those days, and why most people misread them entirely.

After leaving a significant role, there's usually a window of freedom. You travel, you explore, you take meetings about new ventures. But at some point, the exploration starts to feel like searching. And the searching starts to feel like something is missing.

That's when the void shows up. Not as a dramatic breakdown, but as a slow realization that none of the new things have filled the space your old identity used to occupy.

Kevin walks through the arc nobody prepares you for: from post-exit freedom, to quiet emptiness, to the flat days that follow real inner work. He explains why your nervous system needs time to catch up to the changes you've already made, why your old operating system keeps telling you that stillness means failure, and why these "reset days" are actually a sign of progress, not a sign that something is wrong.

If you've been sitting in that flatness wondering whether you're on the wrong path, this episode will reframe what's actually going on.

In this episode:

• The post-exit arc from freedom to searching to void
• Why flat, uninspired days are a nervous system reset, not a crisis
• How your old identity keeps running in the background and misreading the signal
• The difference between procrastination and integration
• Why stillness after an exit isn't failure, it's information
• One question to ask yourself on the days nothing works

Purchase Kevin's book Whose Ladder Is This? Available on:

Amazon (Kindle, paperback, hardcover): https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=whose+ladder+is+this&i=stripbooks

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whose-ladder-is-this-kevin-simcock/1148111984

Indigo Books: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/whose-ladder-is-this/9781069695413.html

Connect with Kevin: Website: https://www.kevinsimcock.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock

Host: Kevin Simcock

You built the career. You hit the numbers. And then one day, you woke up and didn't quite recognize yourself anymore.

That feeling has a name. Most people never learn it.

In this episode of Underneath The Title, Kevin Simcock unpacks identity loss, one of the most common and least talked-about experiences among high-achievers who've exited a career, sold a business, or hit a major life transition.

This isn't about motivation or confidence or figuring out your next move. It's about something that runs deeper than any of those things: the story you've been telling yourself about who you are, and what happens when the role that anchored that story disappears.

Kevin explores why identity loss so often gets misread as burnout, restlessness, or a midlife crisis, and why misreading it leads people to rebuild the same thing in a slightly different setting. He walks through the specific ways it shows up, from decision paralysis and comparison spirals to the quiet grief of losing clarity about where you fit.

He also makes the case that identity loss isn't a crisis. It's information. And for the people willing to sit with that discomfort honestly, it's often the beginning of building something that actually fits.

If you've been quietly asking yourself "is this all there is?" this episode was made for you.

Purchase Kevin Simcock's Book: Whose Ladder Is This?
Available on Amazon Kindle, paperback and hardcover HERE

Barnes & Noble here
Indigo Books here

If today’s episode resonated and you’re ready to start asking your own version of that question, you can find Kevin at kevinsimcock.com.

Check out more episodes of Underneath The Title on Youtube
https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock

Host: Kevin Simcock

LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/

Herminia Ibarra's Working Identity is one of the most cited books in career reinvention. It's been assigned in business schools, recommended by coaches, and trusted by high-achievers navigating major transitions. And it gets something fundamentally wrong.

Ibarra's central argument is this: don't wait for clarity. Act. Experiment with different versions of yourself, and let the feedback from those experiments guide you toward the right one. It sounds practical. It sounds liberating. But for the people I work with, people who have already built one version of success and don't know who they are after they have moved on from it, this approach doesn't produce a new self. It produces the same self in a new context.

In this episode, I walk through exactly where Ibarra's model breaks down, why the "possible selves" she encourages you to explore are often unexamined personas built from fear, conditioning, and other people's expectations, and what needs to happen before action becomes meaningful.

I draw on the work of Carl Jung to explain why acting from an unexamined identity isn't reinvention. It's repetition. And I use an example from Ibarra's own book to show that the introspection she dismisses is quietly present in every success story she tells.

If you've read Working Identity, this episode will reframe it. If you haven't, it will save you from following advice that stops short of the answer you're actually looking for.

Action validates direction. But only when the direction is actually yours.

Purchase Kevin Simcock's Book: Whose Ladder Is This?
Available on Amazon Kindle, paperback and hardcover HERE

Barnes & Noble here
Indigo Books here

If today’s episode resonated and you’re ready to start asking your own version of that question, you can find Kevin at kevinsimcock.com.

Check out more episodes of Underneath The Title on Youtube
https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock

Host: Kevin Simcock

LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/