Brett Trainor

Build the life you want. Fund it in the fewest hours possible.

Corporate quit on me at 45. Six years later I've made money fifteen different ways, and I'm still figuring it out in public alongside a few thousand other Gen Xers.

Corporate is ending earlier. We're living longer. Nobody wrote a playbook for this part, so I'm building one out loud. Testing what works, sharing what doesn't. In corporate or out.

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Publications that came looking for my point of view

“Top career coach warns Gen X…” Fortune

The Collective

The hard part isn't leaving. It's the money.

Every Gen Xer I talk to hits the same wall. You can picture the life you want. You just can't see how to pay for it without a job somebody else controls. That's the stone everybody has to get over, and it's the one thing you shouldn't try to figure out alone.

The Collective shortcuts the learning curve on making money outside of corporate. Not maximum revenue. Enough, in the fewest hours, so the time stays yours.

Monday Motivation & Friday Finish

Weekly member-led accountability. Commit Monday, report Friday.

Your peer group

Just Getting Started for your first revenue. The $10K Group for scaling what works.

Sales & Marketing 101

One topic a month, then open Q&A. Pricing, outreach, positioning, closing.

Collaboration & Ideation

Where we find revenue streams that repeat, and share the ones that work.

Guest sessions

People who built something, telling you how. Including what failed.

Local chapters

Peers in your city. A coffee beats a Zoom square.

Sales & Marketing Q&A chat

Ask any day. Answers from people who already solved it.

You don't have to have quit

Building income while you still have a paycheck is the easiest version of this you'll ever get.

$149/month

Cancel anytime. Most sessions are led by members and guests, not by me. That's the point.

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The Podcast

Brett Trainor Unplugged

A Gen X quest to build the life we've earned.

No script, no production, no guru voice. I'm figuring this out and I bring in people who can help me, and us. Money, work, health, what the next forty years actually look like. I ask them all if they'd go back. Nobody says yes.

350episodes and counting

110Kacross platforms

6years out, still learning

Listen on Spotify

A few steps down the trail, turning around to tell you what I see. Wins and flops, honestly, as I go.

What I Believe

What I keep seeing in people who figured it out.

Six years in and hundreds of conversations later, the people living the way I want to live all look kind of the same. Not rich, not perfect. Just clear. Here's the pattern.

They keep it simple

They stopped overcomplicating. Fewer goals, fewer moving parts, fewer things demanding their attention. Simple is a competitive advantage most people are afraid to use.

They're intentional with their time

They stopped giving it away by default. They know what their hours are worth and they spend them on purpose, on the people and things that actually matter.

They built work into their life

Not their life around work. The job stopped being the center that everything else scheduled around. That one shift changes everything.

About

Corporate quit on me at 45.

I spent more than 25 years in corporate go-to-market roles. Good jobs, work I mostly liked, paid well. On paper nothing was wrong. But something was off and I couldn't name it. I was high-functioning and quietly miserable. The commute, the endless calls I was done with but kept taking, the grind of looking busy.

Then they made the decision for me. What I decided was that I wasn't going back.

Getting out didn't fix it. I thought the hard part would be replacing my income. It wasn't. When I first went solo I filled every hour, optimized everything, and felt guilty the second I wasn't busy. I'd escaped the grind and rebuilt it in my own house.

The answer turned out to be less, not more. Simpler. More intentional. I got lazy on purpose about everything that didn't matter and ended up happier, healthier, and more effective than I ever was grinding. Six years later I'm still on the quest, and still learning.

We overcomplicate everything, we give away too much of our time, and we keep asking for permission we don't need. I learned that the hard way. You don't have to.

Brett with family at the half marathon finish line — Half marathon finish line. The training happens on a Tuesday morning now.

Brett and family in London — London with the whole crew. This is what the hours are for.

Also

Talks & keynotes.

For events, associations, and companies navigating the Gen X moment. Direct, practical, and built for people who've heard enough motivational speeches.

Check availability

The life you want costs money. Let's go make some.

The Collective is where Gen X figures out how to fund it, without going back.