YouSaid · the spoken record

Alisa Cohn

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140
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2021-10-19
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2021-10-19
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  1. “And I remember that was sort of the day or the day after in particular that we talked about it. And maybe a couple of things also. I don't think that we were as rigorous about this with you as I typically am with the CEOs I work with, which is to send them back to the stakeholders and to say, here's what I found out and to send back to all the stakeholders because, again, it's anonymous. So you can talk about the themes that I found out. And then here's what I'm going to do about it. And that actually is a connective tissue. Okay, so I got all this feedback. So now what do I do with it? And opening up the dialogue with the stakeholders is actually very, it's very healing. It takes taboo topics off the table. It actually then helps people say in their own words what's going on. It helps the CEO if this was really not a topic for you, but it helps the CEO if necessary apologize to people. Like I didn't realize I was coming across that way.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “Well, there's a lot here. It's fascinating what you're saying. And I, of course, I remember that. And I remember that with a lot of compassion, especially because to your point, it's very confronting for most people and they have their different ways of reacting to it. Many people get quite defensive at first. I remember your reaction was definitely just quite kind of a brought up love of anxiety for you as I recall.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “Question because I was thinking if he goes back to his people and confronts them with, you said this about me or you said that about me, we are sunk. The reason we give confidentiality to people, the reason I say to people, I'm not going to say who said what is for safety so they don't feel like I can, you know, I can talk about the boss and they don't feel like they're going to get fired. So what if he goes out and starts asking people, did you say this? Did you say this? So I did not know what that meant. I was pretty freaked out. I really was like, I don't know what's going to happen now. So I kind of waited. He came back and he said, I just called my wife. And she said, it's all true.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “Was fantastic. And then also the difficult stuff, which was, you know, he was, I remember he was sort of motioning, yeah, yeah, let's let's go. Let's get to the difficult stuff. Let's get to the development opportunities. Okay, so turned out he was kind of a bully at times. He was sort of overreact to many things. And we had a list of things and he listened to me, he looked at the papers and he threw them down and he said, this is bullshit. I'm giving it to the bottom of this. And he walked out of the conference, which has never happened to me either before or which.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “Yeah, so first of all, the most common response is just what you said, which is I don't care about the good stuff. No, no, I don't care about that. And I have to sometimes force it on people. I don't think I had to force it on you all. I think you were sort of like, all right, fine. We're going to do it your way. So you patiently waited for me to get through the good stuff, the strengths. It's very common that people want to just get to the part where they can sort of need to change or fix something. The second is to your point, it's extremely common to be like upset, basically, to be confronted, right? It's very confronting when you see that kind of stuff in black and white. The CEO I worked with in India, we were sitting in a conference room together and I gave him the 360 and he was quite impatient with the strength like, oh, you're good at this and you're smart and you're a great motivator and you're able to lead with influence, which is not always common for a CEO.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Common words. Right. So I gather all that together and I put together common themes and specific quotes from people so people can hear it. So the executives I work with can hear it in their own words and the people around them. And then we sit down and talk through what they found out. So like in your case, we sat down and we talked it through what you found out about yourself, both in terms of your strongest strengths and also your development opportunities. And then I love the suggestions because it really gives you a roadmap about what you should start doing and stop doing behaviorally to make changes in the eyes of the stakeholders”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “Will describe it, and then Tim, I'd love to ask you actually double click on what you just said in terms of valuable, and then also, of course, very confronting. But all it is, is when I'm working with somebody, like in your case for you, I went to a number of your employees and also business associates and I ask people three or four questions. But the basic questions are, what is Tim great at? What is his strongest strengths? What does Tim need to get better at? What are his development opportunities? And then what specific behavioral suggestions do you have for Tim to help him be a better leader, a better professional kind of whatever that is? And then we talk, you know, when I'm talking with somebody, of course, I probe and ask for very specific as I can get because you can say all day long, this person needs to be more collaborative or the person needs to be more strategic or the person should work on whatever. And I'm always interested in what behaviorally would make you think that because people have very different definitions of what we think are.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “And he pretty much said, This is Alyssa, she's going to be working with me, and she's going to be part of the coaching team. So that was the first time I did anything with him. And we worked together pretty closely for a couple of years. And he would bring me into engagements he was working on. And I would do this, we call it stakeholder-centered feedback. So it's stakeholder-centered coaching, which means 360 feedback from the folks around the executive, and I would do that.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “I don't think he quite realized I was only in San Diego for this three month period. So I was like, that's great. He said, okay, send me your resume and wait for further instructions, which I did. And next thing I know, I was in the”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “At some point, he said, Alyssa, how can I make your life better? And I thought, oh, I don't know what, I'm not prepared for this question. I don't know what to say. Oh, Marshall, I just want to spend more time with you. Marshall has himself benefited from a lot of other people taking an interest in him and giving him a chance. So he was talking about that. And it just goes back to your question. Why would he see me? And so I think he sees himself in other people. So he was talking about Paul Hersey and how he'd spent time with him. We get back to the driveway. I'm about to get in the car. And I thought, oh, I know he's the big mentor, but you have to step up right now. So I said, well, Marshall, how can I make your life better? And he said, well, there's a project you could work on with me. I was like, oh, that's fantastic. That's wonderful. I'd love to do that. And he said, oh, but it's in New York. And I said, perfect, because I live in Boston.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “So, with Marshall, we took this walk. He even said, Come early in the morning. So I said, okay, I'll come early in the morning. He also suggested I bring a dog treat for his dog bow, which I follow instructions. Good idea. And he walked me around this lake that they had in Rancho Santa Fe. And it was this beautiful lake and this beautiful day. And we were talking, talking, talking. Marshall's a great talker.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “I think you're right about timing. I think you can catch people in a good window to your point. And probably, I mean, certainly he travels a lot. So as it happens, he was around during this particular period that was going to work for both of us”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “You know, Marshall is indeed a very generous person, and it turns out I'm not the only one who met him through a cold email. It was a short email, and I'm sure I described myself as in, you know, I'm a coach. Oh, I know. I'm sure I said I am a coach. I saw the New Yorker article that was written about you. I saw myself in that. And I'd love to come and meet with you and see you. And then I kind of let him off the hook under any conditions that will work for you. A short period of time. Anytime you want. So I think that that all the combination of those things was probably very helpful.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “San Diego. I had been anyway toying with the idea of going to San Diego and I thought I'm going to find him. I'm going to find him while I'm in San Diego. So I sort of network when I got to San Diego. I was going to be there for three months in the winter. And I networked everywhere to try to find him. Nobody knew him. So I finally just sent him an email. And I said, Marshall, I'm in San Diego for this period. I would love to meet with you, even if it's just for a little period of time, even if it's for a long time away. But I really would love to just come and spend some time with you. And a week later, he emailed me back and I was able to kind of do my pilgrimage to go see Marshall Goldsmith, the great Marshall Goldsmith in his home in Rancho Santa Fe, California.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “So, after I had become a coach and coached all these people in my vendor fairs and finally found someone to sound people to start paying me, I started coaching. I actually started teaching and facilitating inside of a large company. And so from there, I was able to coach a lot of executives inside of this large company. And I was like, awesome, it was fantastic. And I read about this in the New Yorker magazine, this incredible coach Marshall Goldsmith, who is well known as the number one coach in the world and all the trappings that come with that. 16 years ago, when I met him, he was sort of a big deal from this New Yorker article. I was flying to Ireland and I grabbed a book that he had edited and I read the whole book and I was upset about something and I read the book like, okay. And I sort of remembered, oh yeah, this is why I love coaching. Oh, yeah, this is what I can do. And I flipped to the back of the book and I thought, hey, he's.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “I asked my friends, do you know anybody who might want a coach for a period of time? I'm just a beginner, so I'm not going to be charging. And so I got referrals through that. And you get something out of it. First of all, you get the experience, but also if you do a good job with them and they're happy, they refer you to other people, which they did, who ultimately pay, right? Not just keep, you can't make a living actually coaching for free, it turns out. And I went to a vendor fair at my gym. I remember vividly. had people sign up to do an introductory session with me. So a lot of people did this introductory session with me. And that was also to your point getting in reps. It was a feeling of practicing. How do you practice with somebody? That's also when I saw that you can add a lot of value very quickly for people just by listening to what's going on with them and responding and sort of helping them sort out all the things they're struggling with in their lives.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “I coach them all for free. In fact, they did not want the coaching. I insisted on coaching them. I pushed myself on them. So I should have paid them, actually. It's the truth. I got in reps to your point. And then after, I mean, I would say probably was after I became a coach, I began to coach strangers for free. It was no longer friends, it was how do I start with somebody who I've never met before?”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “Exactly, exactly. So everything exploded or imploded, I should say, and they said they shut down the Boston office and they said, come to California. We'll have a job for you here. And I said, no, I'm going to become a coach now. And that was like, boom, I've done all the things. I taken coach training. I'd hired my own coach. I coached all my friends. And it was on Friday. I'm going to become a coach. And on Monday, I became a coach. That was my passion. A couple of things to.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “And be the CFO for a while, you can hire a replacement and then come back here to Boston and be the GM. That was what they hired me for. And I said, all right, that's what I'll do. So that's what I did. So I spent some time there as a CFO. I kind of got things sorted out. And it was, of course, a very good experience. And then I came back to Boston and I was the head of the Boston office. And it was an incredibly good experience because I kept telling myself, you can't be a coach yet. You're too young. You're too young. You don't have leadership experience. Who's going to believe in you?”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “No, in my mind's eye, whether it was conscious or not, I was on the path to coaching. Definitely. And Cheryl, what should I do? I followed around the conference. What should I do? Should I take coach training? So I took coach training. And I coached all my friends. I insisted on coaching all my friends. And I even at some point, I remember exactly when, but I hired my own coach. But in the meantime, I left the first startup. I went to the second startup. I was the CFO of a little while because the CEO came to hire me to be the GM of the Boston office. He was in California. And he saw on my resume, he hadn't seen my resume yet. He saw on my resume that I was a CPA. And he said, I see you're a CPA. And I said, yeah. And he said, you want to be the CFO? And I said, no, I really don't. And he said, listen, I have a rent a CFO. She's robbing us blind. I need you to come to California.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  21. “Do also, I have a proactive nature, and I was able to express my proactive nature, all these things needed to get done. And so I kind of figured a lot of things out by myself and with the company, with the rest of the employees. And so actually it was fantastic. It was so good. I joined Scien Startup.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  22. “First of all, it was actually extremely helpful that he said that to me because I can get this way and I don't think I'm alone. It's like, should I have done that? Should I do that? This was a bad idea. Should I go back? Should I ask him all this questions, which can be kind of geraining? So I was actually very happy and proud of myself that I had gone back and asked. I was disappointed by his answer. I was actually quite crushed. Oh no, what am I going to do? But the clarity was so helpful. I don't have to now wonder, should I have done that? I don't know. Did I make a bad decision? Or also, should I have asked him if I could reconfigure this job offer? It's like, nope, that door is closed. All right. Now I know. So I went back to the startup. And to be honest with you, it was fantastic. It was a great experience. It was interesting and fun and engaging. It was the first time I ever met investors. It was the first time I saw what is a CEO.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  23. “Was just going to say thank you for bringing that up. And I really try to your point give agency to other people. And the truth is inside of you, inside of anybody, there's a whole chorus going on. There's a whole music in your head going on and how you're feeling. And the person across from me, you, whoever it is, knows more than they think they know. And I think people sort of say almost by habit, well, what do you think somehow you're the expert, you're the coach. But actually, you do have a lot more internal wisdom than you allow yourself to express. And I think part of my role is to encourage you to tap into that and not let you take side exits, especially at first. There's a sense of, hey, there's more there. Let's be quiet for a minute and reflect and see what's there if you let it arise.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  24. “And then I followed her around for the rest of the conference, and at some point she was in a room of like 500 people, and she said, OK, who wants to stand up right now and get coached? And I thought, oh, what's going to happen? So someone stood up and she coached this person there in front of everybody for 20 minutes. And I do remember vividly thinking, oh, I could never do that. But I also thought, oh, I could do that. I saw that in myself and I remembered, I mean, I sort of realized that throughout my life, people have come to ask me for advice about networking, about careers, about problems they were having. So I sort of saw myself in that supportive problem solver and definitely to be someone who really makes people feel like you can do it. I sort of recognize that I had that energy inside of me.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  25. “Have to be honest, and I've thought about this quite a bit. I always think what did she say? And I don't know what she said. I have no idea. But she stood in front of the room and she gave out this incredible energy. And you felt like you felt empowered after that energy, after that talk.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  26. “That's good But I do think it's no bullshit. And people say you're very direct. And I don't even think I'm being direct. I sometimes think I'm trying to be less direct. I guess I come across as direct.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  27. “What it is, but there are times that people will come to me, I guess, because of my energy or maybe the way I speak, I'm really not sure.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  28. “I think I have a way of building rapport with people quickly and kind of showcasing, I guess I would say confidence. I still, as I say to my clients all the time, I don't know what it's like to be with me. I only know what it's like to be me. However, I do know that throughout my life I have been able to exhibit a certain kind of energy that makes people follow me. I mean, I remember actually in fourth or fifth grade, we were in homeroom and we were doing a play. So we were just kind of, it's like a free-for-all. And the teacher wasn't really involved. So we, the kids, were all putting together this play. And suddenly everybody came over to me one at a time and said, can I play this part? Can I play this part? Can I play this part? And I was really literally consciously thinking, why are you guys asking me? I don't quite know.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  29. “Gave me two gifts in that call. He said, you know, Alyssa, you have a superpower. Your superpower is that you are very credible. You show up instantly credible. I didn't know that because I was feeling pretty insecure, I'll tell you. And like, I didn't know what I was doing. And the second thing he said was the reason I thought you'd be great for this job is not because of your background, not because of your MBA, but it was because you've done stand-up comedy. And I know that you have had to deal with rejection. And so I thought that that would be a good attribute for this job.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  30. “Yeah, I just want to say that was also before the startup world was so mythologized. It was before the startup world was, oh, the sexy startups. It was a startup. Why would you go do that? Even I didn't know why we would go do that, but I just thought I can't become a coach yet. I'm not experienced enough. I got to take coach training. And I thought, oh, startup, I can make a difference there. A small company, I can make a difference. So week or two went by and I just thought, oh, what a mistake. Such a mistake. So I screwed up. This did not happen easily. I screwed up my courage and I got back in touch with the guy who I talked to at Goleman. And I said, I just said straight up on the phone. I've made a mistake. I should have taken your job offer. This was a bad idea. I would like to now reconsider. And he said, no. He said, no, that was the opportunity you had. You made your choice. And we had actually a very cordial, quite lovely conversation. And he.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  31. “When I met Cheryl Richardson, who spoke to the volunteers, and she just spoke, and she was so dynamic. And I just thought, what's that? I want to do that. I could do that. I saw myself in her. So I was sort of following her around the whole conference and I thought I want to become a coach. And in the meantime, this Goldman thing was still happening. In the meantime, I was being recruited by a startup. And so in the end, I got the offer from Goldman to do private client services or private wealth management or whatever it was called. And I ended up taking the job with a startup. And I was, I don't know, the fourth employee into the startup. And after a week or two, I just thought, oh, this was such a bad idea. It was sort of chaotic. I didn't know what I was doing. They didn't know what they were doing. I just saw, oh, this was like a bad decision.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  32. “Thought it would be helpful. He was a yogi type, my boyfriend at the time. And so he did me the favor of kind of dragging me. Like we should go to this, you know, yoga-e conference. And I'm thinking, oh, this is not my thing. But I was. Know Tim, you get the flu. I realized for me something's got to change. So at that moment, I was more open to something like, yeah, I'm a little, I think I'm more touchy feelie or whatever you want to call it now, more of a spiritual now. At the time, it was definitely not my thing. And I would say it was kind of off plan and off path. But what the heck? He said, we'll go to this conference. Okay, let's volunteer so we can go for free. Okay, that sounds like a great idea. You know, I was sort of in a seeking mode.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  33. “There was three things that happened at once. I interviewed with a number of folks, again, I interviewed a financial planning firm and I got this interview at Goldman and I did that interview. And in the meantime, I had gone to this conference, this body and soul conference as a volunteer. And they said Cheryl Richardson is now going to, we did this orientation. And then, okay, Cheryl Richardson's now going to speak to the volunteers. And I'm like, okay, who is that?”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  34. “Definitely. A tiny slice, and again, there was like a sense of you could only do things which were sort of in some way worthy of all that time and energy you spent in your education. And again, building kind of this pedigree. And so there's a lot of to your point, you didn't always know what was out there, but also if you strayed from this tight, narrow list of things you could possibly do, it felt like somehow you were not being successful. You were giving up. You were not fulfilling the promise that you had thought about in business school. How it felt”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  35. “I went to an Ivy League school. I invested all this time and energy into the MBA. All my peers were like on Wall Street or doing some sort of corporate finance job inside of a company. There wasn't a lot of context for getting off track. And so I didn't know at the time I didn't have a lot of ideas. Like, what are you going to do? I really didn't know what I was going to do. You have a kind of a pedigree, you have a lot of pressure, I guess I would say, to focus your efforts at only a set of things are good enough, only a set of things are the right things. And it's not so easy to go off path”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  36. “First of all, I want to throw out a number of dead ends. I interviewed with Goldman, I interviewed, I was looking for what is the thing that is going to make me happy. I looked into financial planning. I can help people buy a house or go to college. So I went down a number of dead ends and then I went to this conference. And I was a volunteer at this conference. It was not really like me. It's called the Body and Soul Conference.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  37. “Listen to my body as I've sort of head down force march like you can do it because I was very goal oriented and this is one of the first times in my life I just went off my plan and thought well what am I going to do now so I was down for the count for like two weeks and every time I thought about going back to work my fever went back up and you know I thought oh but what am I going to do now like washed up at 27 what am I going to do now But in my head, I kept thinking these words kept coming through my mind to make a difference, to make a difference, that the work of my hands matters in the world. And that's what I set out to try to figure out how can I do something that was going to help me make a difference.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  38. “Firm for people who don't know. Yeah. And I woke up one morning and I just thought to myself spontaneously, I hope I get the flu so I don't have to go into work tomorrow. And life goes on, and life goes on. And to be honest with you, 18 hours later, I was being rushed to the emergency room by my boyfriend at the time with the flu. And I showed up at the emergency room and I was in Boston. And, you know, they took one look at me and they wheeled me into this room and they pumped me up with saline. I mean, I had a really bad flu. I just thought at that time, that night as I spent the night there and for the days that followed, I just thought, I can't do this anymore. It's not me. I can't do it. I thought like I'd rather be a waitress. I can't handle this experience of not feeling sort of nourished and satisfied. I guess for me that moment of realizing I'd actually rather have the flu. Like I'd rather get sick so I don't have to go into work was almost like scary. It was like, oh, my body's trying to tell me something. And I was wondering how often have I not lived?”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  39. “Organizations I was focused on finance and accounting of all things, and also strategy. So I exited business school into PwC, into the so-called advanced development program. It's five years to partner. So fast-track to partner. And I thought, hey, this is great. And as I got into my life, I will say that I told one of my professors, I said, I'm going to PWC. And he said, well, that will be very refreshing for the profession. I didn't quite know what he meant, but as I went through, I just realized this is not necessarily my tribe. And also PWC was so big that I just felt like, oh, I can't really make a difference here. It was a fantastic firm and a fantastic actually experience. But after two and a half years, I had sort of, I'm happy to tell you about it. I had like a dramatic moment that I realized this is not for me. And so I went off to try to figure out what's for me. What do I want to do?”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  40. “I grew up in a small town Holliston, Massachusetts, which is right next to Hopkinton, which is where the Boston Marathon starts. So that's kind of by definition 26.2 miles southwest of Boston. And I barely left Holliston until I went to my undergrad college, Boston University, and I was journalism major. And I worked in the nonprofit world for a little while. So I was the chief of staff to the provost at Northeastern University, and we were doing strategic planning. And the provost at some point said, you can't manage faculty because they have tenure. And even then I was super young and I thought, what do you mean? Like, how can it be that people will only do what you want them to do in like service of the organization? Because otherwise you'll fire them. So I thought a lot about that and I wanted to go explore that. So I did a little stint and strategy consulting at Monitor and then I went to business school and I went to Cornell. And at Cornell, I got all turned around and I was no longer focused on people.”

    2021-10-19 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #539: Alisa Cohn on Prenups for Startup Founders, How to Reinvent Your Career, the Importance of "Pre-Mortems," and the Three Selves · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT