Underneath The Title: What Comes Next After Success

Kevin Simcock
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Biweekly

You built the business, earned the title and reached the goal. Now you are asking a different question: What comes next after success? Underneath The Title: What Comes Next After Success is a podcast for founders, business owners, executives and accomplished professionals navigating life after selling a business, leaving a leadership role or reaching the point where the success they built no longer feels fulfilling. Hosted by Kevin Simcock, the show explores the personal and strategic questions that surface on the other side of achievement: Who am I without the role? Why can success feel unexpectedly empty? What gives me meaning now? And what do I want to do next? Through candid conversations and solo episodes, Kevin explores founder identity after a business exit, finding purpose and meaning after success, executive and career transitions, redefining success and building a meaningful next chapter. Rather than telling listeners to reinvent themselves, Underneath The Title offers another possibility: reconnecting with the parts of themselves they left behind while becoming the version success rewarded. Kevin brings more than two decades of global creative and corporate leadership experience, along with the perspective of navigating his own major career transition at 50. He is the creator of the RECLAIM methodology, author of Whose Ladder Is This?, and a private advisor to successful founders, business owners, executives and accomplished professionals world-wide. New episodes every two weeks. Follow Underneath The Title wherever you listen to podcasts, or subscribe to the video version on YouTube. Purchase Kevin Simcock's Book: Whose Ladder Is This? Available on Amazon Kindle, paperback and hardcover HERE Barnes & Noble here Indigo Books here  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack: https://kevinsimcock.substack.com Visit kevinsimcock.com for more information LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/

  1. 3d ago

    Finding Your Purpose: Why Success Doesn’t Always Lead to Fulfillment

    What if purpose isn’t something you find… but something you reconnect with? Many successful professionals spend years chasing achievement, believing that the next promotion, business milestone, or financial goal will finally bring fulfillment. Yet after reaching those goals, many are left asking a surprisingly difficult question: “What now?” In this episode of Underneath the Title, Kevin Simcock explores why purpose often becomes a question only after success, and why searching harder rarely leads to the answers we’re looking for. Drawing on his own journey, his work with business owners and senior leaders navigating major life transitions, and a powerful story about an unexpected creativity experiment, Kevin shares a different perspective: Purpose isn’t another destination to achieve. It’s a reconnection with the parts of yourself that may have been left behind while pursuing success. In this episode you’ll discover: • Why the search for purpose often begins after you’ve achieved success.  • Why money, status, and freedom don’t automatically create meaning.  • Why reflection alone isn’t enough to create clarity.  • How meaningful experiences reveal who you really are.  • Why your next chapter should be built on alignment, not someone else’s definition of success. If you’re navigating a career transition, life after selling a business, retirement from leadership, or simply questioning what’s next, this conversation offers a thoughtful perspective on finding purpose, creating meaning, and building a life that feels authentic. If this episode resonates with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who may be asking the same question. Purchase Kevin Simcock's Book: Whose Ladder Is This? Available on Amazon Kindle, paperback, and hardcover Barnes & Noble | Indigo Books 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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/

  2. Jun 11

    How to Choose Your Next Chapter

    Most people design their next chapter using the identity that built the last one. That's exactly why it doesn't fit. In this episode, Kevin unpacks why defaulting to your past self when planning what's next leads so many high-achievers back to the same feeling they were trying to escape: successful on paper, empty underneath. What you'll hear: Why "what do I want to do next?" is the wrong first question, and what to ask insteadThe pattern Kevin fell into after leaving his own global VP role, and what it revealed about identity versus achievementHow mapping who you actually are now, not who you were trained to be, changes every decision that followsWhat it means to build a next chapter that fits the current version of you, not the version that got you hereThis one is for anyone who's built real success and is now wondering why the next obvious move doesn't feel as obvious as it should. Underneath The Title is hosted by Kevin Simcock, author of Whose Ladder Is This? and advisor to people who have outgrown the identity they built their success on. New episodes every week. Visit kevinsimcock.com for more information. Purchase Kevin Simcock's Book: Whose Ladder Is This? Available on Amazon Kindle, paperback, and hardcover Barnes & Noble | Indigo Books Check out more episodes of Underneath The Title on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock Host: Kevin Simcock LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/

  3. Jun 1

    The Truth About Building Your Next Chapter

    Most people think the hardest part of leaving an executive role is figuring out what comes next. It isn't. The hardest part is who you are without it. In this episode of Underneath The Title, Kevin Simcock unpacks the realities of transitioning out of an executive career or business ownership, and what it actually takes to build your next chapter. After more than two decades building his global advertising career, Kevin walked away from it to start over in a new industry. This is the honest version of what that journey looks like. What you'll hear in this episode: The grief no one warns you about. Why the empty calendar, the silent phone, and the loss of routine quietly destabilize your sense of self, and what to do when grief shows up in the middle of a professional shift. The role your inner critic plays. A grounded look at the Ego, the Super Ego, and the complex, and why understanding the difference helps you stop letting the wrong voice run your decisions. How to answer the question most accomplished leaders can't answer cleanly: tell me who you are without giving me a title, a role, or describing what you do. Kevin shares the values-based exercise he used to find his own answer, and the one his clients use to find theirs. This episode is for executives, founders, and senior leaders standing at the edge of a major shift, the ones who've built something significant and now find themselves asking what's underneath all of it. Mentioned in this episode: Kevin's book, Whose Ladder Is This? Available on Amazon (Kindle, paperback, hardcover), Barnes & Noble | Indigo Books Connect with Kevin: Website: kevinsimcock.com  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock YouTube: youtube.com/@kevinsimcock If this episode landed for you, share it with someone navigating their own next chapter.

  4. May 18

    Who Is Your Inner Critic?

    There's a voice in your head that shows up every time you're about to do something that matters. It arrives right on cue. You've thought the decision through. The logic holds. You can see the path. And then it starts. What if this goes wrong? What if you're not ready? What if people think you've lost your mind? You've probably spent years assuming that voice is just you. The honest, realistic part of you doing due diligence. The part that keeps you grounded. But what if it isn't you at all? In this episode, Kevin Simcock explores one of the most misunderstood forces shaping your decisions: the inner critic. Not as a concept to manage or push through, but as something with a specific origin, a real psychological explanation, and a much older source than most of us have ever considered. Drawing on the work of Sigmund Freud and Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, Kevin unpacks where the inner critic actually comes from, why it sounds so convincingly like your own voice, and what it's really been protecting you from. You'll learn the difference between the inner critic and the Ego, two things that are commonly confused, and why that distinction changes everything about how you respond to self-doubt. Kevin also shares something personal: the moment he traced his own inner critic back to a locker room at fourteen years old, and how recognising that a voice from the past had been quietly shaping decisions in the present was the beginning of something genuinely different. This episode covers: What Freud's model of the Id, Ego, and Superego actually means in plain language, and which part is responsible for the voice in your headWhy Carl Jung's concept of complexes explains how a single experience can create an autonomous inner voice that runs for decades without your awarenessThe difference between the inner critic and the Ego, and why confusing the two keeps people stuckA simple but powerful three-step practice for working with your inner critic when it shows up at a critical decision pointWhy the inner critic doesn't just affect individual choices. Left unchallenged, it can quietly build an entire life and identity around conclusions that were never fully yoursThis isn't a theoretical conversation. It's a practical one, built from Kevin's own experience navigating a significant professional transition after a 25-year global advertising career, and from the work he does with clients who are rebuilding their identity and direction after their own defining moments. If you've ever felt held back by a voice you couldn't quite explain, this episode is for you. Kevin Simcock is an executive advisor, author, and host of Underneath The Title. His advisory practice works with high-performers who have built success but feel misaligned with the identity and life they've created. His book, Whose Ladder Is This?, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo. Connect with Kevin: Website: https://kevinsimcock.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock Get the book: Whose Ladder Is This? Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=whose+ladder+is+this  Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whose-ladder-is-this-kevin-simcock/1148111984  Indigo: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/whose-ladder-is-this/9781069695413.html

  5. Apr 16

    The Days When Nothing Works

    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 voidWhy flat, uninspired days are a nervous system reset, not a crisisHow your old identity keeps running in the background and misreading the signalThe difference between procrastination and integrationWhy stillness after an exit isn't failure, it's informationOne question to ask yourself on the days nothing worksPurchase 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

  6. Apr 2

    Success Doesn't Prepare You For This.

    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/

  7. Mar 22

    What the Most Cited Career Reinvention Book Gets Wrong

    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/

  8. Mar 5

    The Hidden Cost of Exit: What No One Tells You About Exiting A Business & Executive Leadership

    Everyone talks about the exit. Nobody talks about what comes after it. If you've recently stepped away from a business you built, a company you led, or an executive role that defined you for decades and something feels off, you're not broken. You're navigating one of the most underestimated transitions a leader can face. In this episode of Underneath The Title, Kevin Simcock breaks down the three invisible costs of exit that executive leaders almost never see coming: identity shock, status withdrawal, and routine collapse. These aren't soft concepts. They are real, measurable forces that distort your decision-making, strain your relationships, and quietly erode the legacy you spent years building,  if you don't address them directly. Kevin draws on 25+ years of working with Fortune 500 leaders and founder-CEOs to explain why even the most accomplished executives are blindsided by exit, and what to actually do about it.   IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: Why identity fuses with your role over decades and what happens when that role disappears The three danger responses to status withdrawal that lead smart leaders into bad decisions How to design a new operating rhythm when the institutional structure that organized your life is gone The 90-day rule Kevin uses with every client post-exit Three conversations every leader needs to have before making any major next move   WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR: This episode is for founders and executives who have exited, or are preparing to exit, a business or senior leadership position and are navigating the identity, purpose, and direction questions that follow. If you've ever thought "Who am I, if I don't have my title anymore?" after a successful exit, this one is for you.   CONNECT WITH KEVIN: Website: kevinsimcock.com Purchase Kevin Simcock's Book: Whose Ladder Is This? Available on Amazon Kindle, paperback and hardcover HERE Barnes & Noble here Indigo Books here Interested in working with Kevin visit kevinsimcock.com for more information. Check out more episodes of Underneath The Title on YouTube  https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock Host: Kevin Simcock  LinkedIn Profile https://linkedin.com/kevin-simcock

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You built the business, earned the title and reached the goal. Now you are asking a different question: What comes next after success? Underneath The Title: What Comes Next After Success is a podcast for founders, business owners, executives and accomplished professionals navigating life after selling a business, leaving a leadership role or reaching the point where the success they built no longer feels fulfilling. Hosted by Kevin Simcock, the show explores the personal and strategic questions that surface on the other side of achievement: Who am I without the role? Why can success feel unexpectedly empty? What gives me meaning now? And what do I want to do next? Through candid conversations and solo episodes, Kevin explores founder identity after a business exit, finding purpose and meaning after success, executive and career transitions, redefining success and building a meaningful next chapter. Rather than telling listeners to reinvent themselves, Underneath The Title offers another possibility: reconnecting with the parts of themselves they left behind while becoming the version success rewarded. Kevin brings more than two decades of global creative and corporate leadership experience, along with the perspective of navigating his own major career transition at 50. He is the creator of the RECLAIM methodology, author of Whose Ladder Is This?, and a private advisor to successful founders, business owners, executives and accomplished professionals world-wide. New episodes every two weeks. Follow Underneath The Title wherever you listen to podcasts, or subscribe to the video version on YouTube. Purchase Kevin Simcock's Book: Whose Ladder Is This? Available on Amazon Kindle, paperback and hardcover HERE Barnes & Noble here Indigo Books here  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack: https://kevinsimcock.substack.com Visit kevinsimcock.com for more information LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/

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