#34 Gary Bremermann: Clarity Over Comfort—Career Change on Your Own Terms
In Part 2 of his conversation, Tokyo-based American Gary Bremermann moves beyond his own story to share the frameworks and realities that shape career reinvention today. From his Seven Steps to Career Clarity to his candid views on Japan’s ageist hiring market, Gary offers a Gen X blueprint for change: slow, thoughtful, grounded in values, and fiercely human. For anyone tired of chasing titles and ready to build a career worth living on their own terms, this episode delivers both the hard truths and the hope.>>Coaching the Opportunity Seekers“Mid-career professionals weren’t asking what they wanted—they were asking what was available.”Gary explains why so many talented people get trapped following default paths—and how coaching helps them reconnect with what they actually want.>>Your Story Is the Starting Point“Your past holds the clues to your future—you just have to read it differently.”He breaks down why career clarity begins with mining your real life for patterns, strengths, and missed signals.>>Values Before Vision“Forget the mission statement—start with your values.”Gary shares why starting with personal values, not corporate buzzwords, is the foundation for sustainable career growth.>>Practical Dreaming“One dream job without limits. One dream job grounded in reality.”He explains how a two-track dream job exercise helps people balance ambition with achievable moves.>>Japan’s Aging Workforce and Recruiting Reality“The labor pool is shrinking, but the hiring practices haven’t caught up.”Gary shares firsthand insights on ageism, cultural resistance to change, and why Japan remains one of the hardest recruiting markets in the world.__________________________Connect with us:Linkedin: Vince Chan and Gary Bremermann
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#33 Gary Bremermann: Hitchhikes, Burnouts, and Building a Career Worth Living
Tokyo-based American Gary Bremermann didn’t stumble into career clarity—he fought for it across countries, careers, and crises. From hitchhiking North America to building and burning out of his first company, Gary’s story is a blueprint for real Gen X reinvention: practical, nonlinear, and painfully honest. In this first of a two-part series, he shares how early travel, entrepreneurial scars, and the brutal experience of misaligned success shaped the recruiter and career coach he is today. For Gen Xers still figuring out their next chapter—or building a life while surviving their own rough drafts—this episode offers both grit and grounded hope.>>The National Geographic Kid“I grew up with every issue ever printed—and a mind wired to explore.”Gary shares how childhood dreams of travel sparked a lifelong hunger for exploration, curiosity, and career experimentation.>>Hitchhiking Lessons You Don’t Learn in Business School“I learned how to talk to anyone, anywhere, about anything.”Gary reflects on how crossing the U.S. and Canada on foot and rail taught him real-world communication skills he still uses as a recruiter and coach.>>Dropping Out—Twice“School couldn’t hold me—but neither could drifting forever.”He talks about his struggles with traditional education, dropping out, traveling the world, and ultimately rebuilding himself on his own terms.>>Entrepreneurial Burnout: The Hidden Cost of Chasing Money“I was expanding globally—and being crushed by my own business.”Gary shares how chasing financial success without personal alignment almost destroyed him—and why selling his first company saved his life.>>Finding Freedom on Different Terms“Money isn’t the goal. Alignment is.”After exiting his business and hiring a life-changing coach, Gary explains how he reframed financial success as a byproduct of purpose, not the point.__________________________Connect with us:Linkedin: Vince Chan and Gary Bremermann
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#32 Erica Sosna: Build the Career You Want—Before Someone Else Designs It for You
In Part 2 of her conversation, Erica Sosna bridges personal resilience and professional wisdom—sharing how The Career Equation helps both individuals and organizations build careers that actually fit. Instead of offering empty advice, Erica gives a practical, human-centered model that empowers people to align their skills, passions, impact, and environment into a sustainable career path. For Gen Xers tired of ad-hoc career advice and vague empowerment slogans, this episode offers a grounded, actionable framework to take back control—whether you’re rebuilding, pivoting, or designing your next decade.>>Turning Recovery Into Renewal“I used the same frameworks I teach—because they work when life gets real.”Erica reflects on how personal recovery deepened her belief that career design must be rooted in human needs, not corporate scripts.>>The Power of Acceptance“Accept it as if you chose it.”She shares the life philosophy that fueled her healing—and how it applies to navigating career setbacks, redundancies, and reinventions.>>Start With the End in Mind“What do you want to experience—not just achieve?”Erica explains how vivid future visioning, tied to emotion not status, creates a powerful magnet for sustainable action and career progress.>>The Career Equation, Demystified“Skills + Passion + Impact ÷ Environment = Career Sweet Spot.”She walks through the four critical elements employers and individuals need to align for lasting engagement, growth, and loyalty.>>Career Conversations That Actually Work“You wouldn’t run 10 accounting systems. Why have 10 ways to talk about careers?”Erica shares why companies like Amazon and Nomura are adopting The Career Equation to bring structure, simplicity, and human connection back into career development.__________________________Connect with us:Linkedin: Vince Chan and Erica Sosna
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#31 Erica Sosna: Walking Again, Working Again—Redesigning Life on New Terms
Erica Sosna was already a respected career strategist, author of The Career Equation, and founder of a successful consultancy. But when a near-fatal accident left her paralyzed in 2022, everything changed. In this first of a two-part series, Erica shares how she rebuilt her life—and her career—on new terms. From learning to walk again to rethinking the purpose of work itself, she offers a blueprint for reinvention that doesn’t rely on hype or hashtags. For Gen Xers who know real change isn’t a pivot—it’s a practice—this episode delivers both grit and guidance.>>The Moment Everything Changed“One minute I was driving. The next, I was under a car, paralyzed from the waist down.”Erica recounts the life-altering accident that fractured 15 bones—and forced her into a physical and emotional rebuild.>>The Career Equation: Born from Personal Experiment“I had to use my own frameworks to get unstuck.”She shares how the same career model she teaches—the Career Equation—became her personal blueprint for choosing how to work, live, and heal after trauma.>>Reinvention Isn’t Always Glamorous“Returning to work was like returning to solid ground.”Erica explains why work—done right—became a pillar of stability, not just a paycheck, during the chaos of recovery.>>Three Days, Full Impact“I rebuilt my business on a three-day workweek.”Balancing parenting, rehabilitation, and entrepreneurship, Erica redesigned her career around what mattered most—without apology.>>Podcasting as Healing, Not Hustle“The podcast wasn’t a brand move. It was a way to reconnect with my purpose.”Launching her show was less about expansion—and more about returning to her original mission: helping others design lives worth living.__________________________Connect with us:Linkedin: Vince Chan and Erica Sosna
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#30 Nina Sossamon-Pogue: Build a Life You’re Proud Of—Not Just a Career You Survive
In Part 2 of her conversation, Nina Sossamon-Pogue moves from storytelling to strategy—offering real-world tools for navigating change, resilience, and reinvention. From building a reverse resume to mapping your own success timeline, she shares frameworks that help Gen Xers (and anyone feeling stuck) turn lived experience into a launchpad. Instead of chasing corporate validation or viral moments, Nina reminds us that real success is slow-built, self-defined, and deeply human. For those designing their next chapter, this episode offers not just hope—but a real blueprint for building forward.>>Your Reverse Resume: What You’ve Survived Matters“It’s not just what you’ve achieved—it’s what you’ve overcome.”Nina introduces the concept of the reverse resume, helping people recognize the hidden strengths built through life’s hardest chapters.>>You Are Not Your LinkedIn Headline“We are so much more than our last job title.”She challenges the conventional resume model, urging listeners to view their lives as full stories—not highlight reels.>>Resilience = Adaptation, Not Just Persistence“Grit keeps you going. Resilience changes you.”Nina explains why true resilience requires positive adaptation, not just stubborn endurance.>>The Successful Timeline: Redefining What Really Counts“A career milestone isn’t the same as a life well-lived.”She shares how mapping your life as a timeline of both triumphs and setbacks can reframe your sense of success.>>The Lego Mindset“We each have a unique set of building blocks. The masterpiece is yours to create.”Using a brilliant Lego analogy, Nina shows how your skills, experiences, and choices can assemble into something no one else can replicate.__________________________Connect with us:Linkedin: Vince Chan and Nina Sossamon-Pogue
We’re not the lost generation. We’re the underestimated one.While the internet obsesses over Gen Z and glorifies Boomer dominance, Gen X remains the generation history keeps skipping. This show changes that.Hosted by Vince Chan—Global Top 1.5% podcast producer and host of the U.S. #1 careers podcast Chief Change Officer—Gen X Legends features real Gen Xers: coaches, creators, founders, executives, and reinvention artists who’ve outgrown the old playbook and designed careers worth living.Forget the hype, the hustle-posting, and the midlife glow-up myth. This is the generation that weathered dot-com crashes, financial crises, and digital disruption without performative reinvention—and came out smarter, sharper, and still in motion.We don’t chase virality. We design for longevity.If you’re tired of the noise and hungry for honest, grounded, human wisdom…You’re in the right generation. And now, you’re on the right show.
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