It’s Not Too Late: Get Unstuck and Rewrite Your Story in the Middle of Your Career with Adrion Porter  8|1

What do you do when the career path that once felt clear no longer is? What if that stuck, uneasy feeling in the middle of your career isn’t a failure, it’s information and an opportunity to rewrite your career story.

In this episode of The Radical Candor Podcast, Kim and Jason  sit down with Adrion Porter, founder of Mid-Career Mastery, host of the podcast Gen X Amplified, and a LinkedIn Top Voice to talk honestly about the “Messy Middle” and what to do when your old definitions of success no longer fit. 

Watch the episode:

A Framework for Rewriting your story

Adrion walks us through The Mastery Map, his practical framework for getting unstuck by identifying and letting go of limiting beliefs, finding meaning, and setting new milestones intentionally even when the next step isn’t obvious.  They also discuss how to strengthen intergenerational relationships,  balancing the reality of different lived experiences while releasing the divisive stories we tell ourselves.

If you have ever felt stuck, uncertain about what’s next, or frustrated that doing your best work feels harder than it used to, this conversation offers grounded ways to move forward.

Radical Candor Podcast Resources

• About Adrion Porter⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠Follow Adrion on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠Learn More About Mid-Career Mastery⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen to Adrion's Podcast, Gen X Amplified⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠Explore Adrion's Framework, The Mastery Map⁠⁠

Radical Candor Podcast Transcript

[00:00:04] Kim: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Radical Candor Podcast. I'm Kim Scott.

[00:00:09] Jason: I'm Jason Rosoff, and we're very excited to welcome to the podcast Adrion Porter, a speaker, LinkedIn Top Voice, and the founder of Mid-Career Mastery, a workplace consultancy dedicated to empowering organizations and their mid-career and seasoned talent for today's new world of work. Adrion is the creator and host of Gen X Amplified, a top-ranked podcast featuring conversations with seasoned leaders, which I've now said seasoned twice. And I wonder, what kind of seasoning do we put on leaders?

[00:00:36] Adrion: I love it.

[00:00:37] Jason: Gen X Amplified and our podcast were both featured in a recent Forbes piece for top podcasts for managers and mid-level leaders. Welcome, Adrion.

[00:00:45] Kim: Welcome, Adrion.

[00:00:46] Adrion: Thank you so much for that great introduction, Jason and Kim. I'm honored to be here. I'm a huge fan of your work and love to have this conversation.

[00:00:54] Kim: I am so excited for this conversation. I was excited for many reasons. Right as we were getting on, we discovered that you and I grew up in the same place and worked in the same mall.

[00:01:06] Adrion: The Mall of Memphis, Tennessee, the home of the blues, Elvis Presley, ribs, among other things. Yes, I’m born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, up until I went to graduate school at Vanderbilt in Nashville. But that's crazy. I did not know that.

[00:01:19] Kim: I think I worked at a store called Metal Crafters in the Mall of Memphis. It must have been around 1985. Not a lot of people came in, so I read The Brothers Karamazov while I was working there.

[00:01:39] Adrion: I love it. I worked there from 1990 through ’92. The Mall of Memphis is no longer there, by the way. It got demolished years ago. My family is still in Memphis, Tennessee, so I go home every now and then. That’s a great tidbit. Kim, I’ve been following your work and I’m a fan, but I did not know that we have a 901 connection.

[00:01:59] Kim: All right, Jason, sorry. We’ve excluded you from our trip down memory lane.

[00:02:02] Jason: It’s all right.

[00:02:04] Jason: I’d like to get us started. I’d love to understand a bit more about your origin story. I know you’ve told it before, but I think it’s really relatable. Many of the clients we talk to are mid-career and trying to figure out what comes next. Hearing how you got started on this journey might help them relate to you.

[00:02:33] Adrion: I love telling this story because I’m a storyteller and a fan of stories. I mentioned that I went to undergrad at the University of Memphis and then earned my MBA at Vanderbilt. I tell people I’m a Southern gentleman with a New York state of mind.

After business school, I moved to New York and worked for Citigroup right out of school. Then I worked for HBO for five years in New York, marketing shows like The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and The Wire. At the time, I’m a big Star Wars fan, so this was amazing. Cinemax was part of HBO, and one of the campaigns I worked on was airing all six Star Wars films in HD for the first time ever in 2006.

[00:03:17] Kim: That was something.

[00:03:17] Adrion: It really was. We partnered with Lucasfilm, and my team led that campaign. I learned a lot from incredible professionals.

In 2008, we were about to have our first child, so we relocated to Atlanta. I started working for Turner Broadcasting, specifically Cartoon Network, as a marketing director. I oversaw marketing for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and even stayed at Skywalker Ranch for meetings.

But the year I turned 40, I got laid off. That was my messy middle moment.

[00:03:53] I had a wife and kids, and I started asking what comes next. I felt that malaise many people in mid-career feel. Instead of buying a red convertible—

[00:04:30] Kim: Much better response.

[00:04:36] Adrion: —I became a student again. I started asking whether the messy middle was one of the biggest myths we were ever told.

I rewatched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and a line struck me: “It’s never too late or too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit.” That resonated deeply.

So I created Gen X Amplified to amplify what I call the forgotten generation between the brilliant boomers and magnificent millennials. And I launched Mid-Career Mastery to help individuals rewrite their narratives and become the masters of their journeys.

Mastery isn’t about reaching a final destination. It’s about ownership and authorship of your story.

[00:12:17] Adrion: Eventually I codified my work into a framework called The Mastery Map. When you’re stuck in traffic, you need a map to get unstuck.

It has three pillars: mindset, meaning, and milestones.

Mindset is about reframing limiting beliefs and leveraging neuroplasticity. We literally have people write down five to ten limiting beliefs and reframe them.

Meaning is about narrative identity—aligning your past, present, and imagined future into a cohesive story. Facts alone don’t define you. The story you tell about them does.

Milestones are about setting micro-milestones. Early in life, milestones are externally defined. In mid-career, they disappear. So we intentionally create small markers of momentum.

[00:16:37] Kim: I had a job and two babies, and I felt stuck and filled with rage. How do you help someone who feels trapped because others depend on them?

[00:17:21] Adrion: We start with a self-inventory. Put the pain on the table. Acknowledge it. Then we determine which pillar to focus on first.

One client felt invisible in middle management. She thought her age was a limitation. We reframed that belief and identified her superpower: bridging generational gaps. She launched a mentorship initiative and gained visibility.

Sometimes the work is already there. We just have to slow down enough to see it.

[00:21:00] Adrion: One powerful moment for me came during a Fabulous Over 40 fireside chat. I ask guests for their personal theme song. One executive chose “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield and quoted, “Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.”

That validated my entire thesis. No matter your age or stage, the rest of your story is unwritten.

[00:25:49] Adrion: Milestones are micro markers. The Romans used stones to mark miles. That’s what we need—small markers of progress. Those become motivational markers of momentum.

[00:27:04] Adrion: According to Pew Research, Gen X is 1965 to 1980. Jason, you qualify.

[00:27:05] Kim: Welcome.

[00:28:46] Adrion: Generational differences exist, but I don’t engage in bashing. Each generation brings superpowers. The goal is collaboration.

[00:33:55] Adrion: Every generation critiques the next. It’s been happening forever. But context matters. Gen Z came of age during the pandemic. That shapes how they see work and authority.

[00:37:41] Kim: What’s one thing listeners can do this week?

[00:37:41] Adrion: Reframe one limiting belief. Write it down. Ask if it’s really true. If it’s just a story, rewrite it.

Mastering the middle starts with changing your narrative.

[00:38:21] Kim: Thank you so much. Listen to Gen X Amplified. Join the Radical Candor community at radicalcandor.com/community.

[00:38:38] Jason: For show notes, visit radicalcandor.com/podcast. You can also watch us on YouTube and Spotify. Praise in public, criticize in private. If you liked this episode, follow, rate, review, and share it. Send feedback to podcast@radicalcandor.com.

[00:39:22] Kim: Thanks, everyone.

[00:39:23] Adrion: Thank you.

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Episodes are written and produced by Brandi Neal with script editing by Amy Sandler. The show features Radical Candor co-founders Kim Scott and Jason Rosoff and is hosted by Amy Sandler. Nick Carissimi is our audio engineer.

The Radical Candor Podcast theme music was composed by Cliff Goldmacher. Order his book: The Reason For The Rhymes: Mastering the Seven Essential Skills of Innovation by Learning to Write Songs.