Who Is Your Inner Critic?

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 [https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1069695416?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_G112427YKBF7DGZMYDPM&bestFormat=true] (Kindle, paperback, hardcover), Barnes & Noble [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whose-ladder-is-this-kevin-simcock/1148111984?ean=9781069695420] | Indigo Books [https://www.indigo.ca/products/whose-ladder-is-this?variant=46713459998930] Connect with Kevin: Website: kevinsimcock.com  [https://www.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.

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 head * Why Carl Jung's concept of complexes explains how a single experience can create an autonomous inner voice that runs for decades without your awareness * The difference between the inner critic and the Ego, and why confusing the two keeps people stuck * A simple but powerful three-step practice for working with your inner critic when it shows up at a critical decision point * Why 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 yours This 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 [https://kevinsimcock.com]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/]  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock [https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock] Get the book: Whose Ladder Is This? Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=whose+ladder+is+this [https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=whose+ladder+is+this]  Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whose-ladder-is-this-kevin-simcock/1148111984 [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whose-ladder-is-this-kevin-simcock/1148111984]  Indigo: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/whose-ladder-is-this/9781069695413.htm [https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/whose-ladder-is-this/9781069695413.html]l

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 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 [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 [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 [https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/whose-ladder-is-this/9781069695413.html] Connect with Kevin: Website: https://www.kevinsimcock.com [https://www.kevinsimcock.com]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/]  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock [https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock] Host: Kevin Simcock

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 [https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=whose+ladder+is+this&i=stripbooks&crid=3CUQOCF34279M&sprefix=whose+ladder+is+this%2Cstripbooks%2C104&ref=nb_sb_noss] Barnes & Noble here [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whose-ladder-is-this-kevin-simcock/1148111984] Indigo Books here [https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/whose-ladder-is-this/9781069695413.html] 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 [https://www.kevinsimcock.com/service-page/intro-discovery]. Check out more episodes of Underneath The Title on Youtube [https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock] https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock [https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock?si=mX2fo4xxTeOH4jht] Host: Kevin Simcock  LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/]

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 [https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=whose+ladder+is+this&i=stripbooks&crid=3CUQOCF34279M&sprefix=whose+ladder+is+this%2Cstripbooks%2C104&ref=nb_sb_noss] Barnes & Noble here [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whose-ladder-is-this-kevin-simcock/1148111984] Indigo Books here [https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/whose-ladder-is-this/9781069695413.html] 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 [https://www.kevinsimcock.com/service-page/intro-discovery]. Check out more episodes of Underneath The Title on Youtube [https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock] https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock [https://youtube.com/@kevinsimcock?si=mX2fo4xxTeOH4jht] Host: Kevin Simcock  LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-simcock/]