Ricardo Brito is not just a work and life coach. He is someone who stands by your side as you navigate your professional development, aiding in your discovery of new paths and opportunities while fostering a healthier relationship with work. His mission is simple: help you discover the path to your 'what's next' in the world of work.
Ricardo Brito, Work and Life Coach
Introduce yourself! Tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I'm a life and work coach with a strong passion for helping people grow. While I'm from Portugal, Berlin has been my home for the last 12 years. This vibrant mix of cultures and my mixed work experience fuels my coaching approach, guiding people to discover their unique routes in life.
Being a part of today's rapidly changing work landscape excites me. It's a time when we can redefine ourselves, get creative, and construct new personal and professional realities. I consider it a privilege to be able to assist others in this exciting transformational process.
My interests extend beyond work. Stories have always had a way of captivating me. I have a deep attraction to stories, whether they're presented in books, films, graphic novels, or documentaries. I especially love using it to aid my clients’ journey.
Throughout the years, I've worked in a variety of roles – from fine arts (which you’ll still find in my newsletters) and branding to product development and innovation. I've dipped my toes into different work environments, small design studios, big corporations, and everything in between.
For the past 2 years however, my focus has been on helping people discover and chase their next big goals – whether that's a new job, personal development, or exploring a burning passion for their next career. My job is to bring structure to what can be an abstract process, by creating an unbiased and safe space for people to explore themselves. I facilitate the discovery of new insights through questioning, reflection, and considering the life of my client holistically – where work fits into their life rather than the other way around.
What do you do and what do you help people with?
There often comes a point in life when people yearn for change, yet they are unsure how to take the next step. This is where I step in.
As a professional coach, I serve as a guide for individuals seeking to redefine their career paths and reinvent their professional selves.
Whether you're dealing with a career/identity crisis, want to transition to a new phase of your professional life, or simply desire a more fruitful and meaningful relationship with work, I'm here to help. I guide you through these transitions by creating and building a reality that aligns with your values, desires, and strengths.
Think of me as a co-pilot on your journey, bringing clarity and structure to the chaotic and often overwhelming moments in our lives where we can't see the right direction. Naturally, so because while we work 1/3rd of our lives, our lives cannot revolve around work.
I equip you with the tools and strategies needed to clarify your career and life ambitions. Together we plan how to overcome any obstacles standing in your path so you can move forward with renewed confidence and intent. Ultimately, my goal is to help you find meaning and satisfaction in both your work and your life - because they indeed go hand in hand.
Why is it important? Why should people care about this?
Let's face it, the majority of our waking hours are often consumed by work.
It's not just about earning a living, but also about finding fulfillment and shaping our own identities. Therefore, establishing a fulfilling relationship with our work is not just wishful dreaming, it's a vital factor for overall well-being.
A lot of us don’t realize this but we have more control over our professional life than we'd like to admit. Taking hold of the reins that steer your professional journey marks that first step towards creating fulfilling careers we enjoy, rather than endure.
As we navigate the journey of life, it's almost certain that we'll have to reinvent ourselves professionally, again and again. Our world is spinning at an exceedingly rapid pace – industries are evolving, job profiles are constantly in flux, and our interests and circumstances trail in this unrelenting rhythm. As such, learning to reinvent oneself professionally turns into a critical skill that enables you to stay resilient in the face of workplace shifts, thus providing you with a safety net for your career.
With the rise of artificial intelligence and automation, the nature of work, the workforce, and workplaces are not just shifting, they are being redefined. Add things such as an unforeseen economic crisis, global pandemics or warfare have shaken up any lingering perceptions of stability. In such dynamic times, it's crucial that we are prepared to bend, adapt, and reinvent our professional selves. We need to master this skill and make it a natural reflex that we can lean on whenever we are affected by change.
The future of work, and our happiness, demands that we morph into professional chameleons, armed with the ability to modify and mold ourselves in line with the changes of the professional landscape.
But remember, this isn't just about the world around us. As individuals, we are always evolving – our aspirations, our interests, and our lifestyle needs. In this constant state of flux, using old methods to build a static professional life in a dynamic world is a one-way ticket to feeling trapped in a role we'd rather not be in.
I have observed that many of us enter autopilot in our careers, we toil away and even get rewarded for it. It’s easy to enter this highway-hypnosis, until something happens that makes us question: Where am I heading and why? Is my destination still valid? Is it still worth it?
When was the last time you paused to question whether getting 'there' was genuinely worth it?
It took me a burnout to realize that I’d built my career on fear and financial anxiety. Ask yourself if you want to wait for the same.
How do you do that?
Every client I coach brings their own unique set of circumstances, strengths, and challenges. Unlike many coaching approaches that use a one-size-fits-all model, I firmly believe in a tailored approach. I mold my strategies, methodologies, and behaviors to meet the unique needs of whoever I'm collaborating with, putting their growth at the forefront of our journey together – through 1:1 sessions over a few months.
Having said that, I've come to realize some universal principles that consistently emerge in my work, regardless of the diversity of the individuals I'm coaching. Let's explore them:
1. Career storytelling: The narratives we share about ourselves shape our identity, molding how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Does your response to the age-old question, “What do you do for a living? Understanding how our career stories limit us allows us to reframe them, shedding inhibiting self-perceptions to give way to opportunities for growth and a fortified sense of self-worth.
If you’d like to create a stronger career story, check out my Career Storytelling Workshop.
2. Transferable skills and experiences: Everyone possesses transferable skills and experiences; they're our inimitable superpowers. Often underutilized or taken for granted, these are key to unleashing new opportunities – including alternate careers. Future-proofing your career is all about identifying how you reuse your skills differently - all of us have skills from old careers that can be used in a different career path. Acknowledge them as your unique intersection of talents that could realize a new business venture, or open doors in your career or personal life.
3. Experimentation: I've observed that strictly conversational or intellectual coaching approaches often miss the crucial action-oriented component. It’s why my coaching process is so action-oriented – all my clients test out new possibilities through real-world experiments (test projects, workshops, connecting with experts, practical experiments, etc). This hands-on approach is not vital to not just conceptualize transformations but to truly feel them with the body, mind, and soul. This allows us to learn faster and move quicker to make an informed decision about the next step.
4. Multipotentialites: This concept embraces those of us with a range of interests and jobs over our lifetime. Multipotentiality challenges conventional wisdom about specialization and argues for authenticity and personal fulfillment over societal norms. But it comes with specific challenges – imposter syndrome, getting a job, and deciding on what’s next. I help them to gain clarity, build confidence, and position in the right way for success.
Do you relate to these struggles? Find what you can do about them in my article about ‘Multipotentialites and Career Choices’.
5. Supporting the Transition: Going through a career transition is an unavoidable 'no man’s land' between the old and the new, the familiar and the unknown. Navigating through these transitions frequently elicits a challenging array of emotions – from fear and uncertainty to excitement and liberation. What we don’t realize is that it’s common to experience identity crises and a sense of chaos. In these times, my role as a coach is to stand beside my clients, to be their rock during chaotic transformations, and to help them carve a path forward, one step at a time.
You define your definition of ‘happiness and success’. I have helped some clients transition from entrepreneurship to full-time employment. I have also helped others do the exact opposite. Creating a work-life balance has been important for some of my high-performance clients – one was a single mother looking to focus on her career and motherhood. And there have been individuals looking to bounce back from burnout, just like me at one point, and create a new relationship with work.
By integrating these pillars into my coaching practice, I aim to help people gain clarity about their next professional step so they can build a life that brings them joy and meaning.
You made a big career transformation. What brought you here?
I’ve always wanted to be one of those individuals who could go in different career directions, yet this brought its own unique set of complications and issues. Multiple career transitions, exploring an array of hobbies on the side, and constantly striving to harmonize them to create the life of my dreams were regular experiences in my life.
After years invested in the tech sector, I began to feel disillusioned with the direction the industry was heading and a personal dissatisfaction with my work (it’s not a good feeling). This, coupled with a global pandemic, set the stage for the impending burnout that would serve as my trigger point.
It was then that I had a deep realization: I never truly had control of my professional life.
While I had tested various paths and was fortunate enough to carve out a successful career in areas I was passionate about, my primary motivation remained rooted in financial security and a sense of worth. During this burnout, my identity felt shattered and I was faced with the task of rebuilding myself and rediscovering who I truly was on a personal and professional level. It was through this process of self-discovery that I was drawn to coaching.
Long story short I studied Transformational Coaching and began exploring how I could help and support people. I’d spent years helping companies and teams solve complex problems by building products, processes and while always being people-centered. So it made sense that the transferable skill I carried forward from my previous careers was this – supporting people’s growth.
If you’d like the longer version, you can read about my painful but rewarding journey here. Now, I find joy (and an income!) in assisting others navigate similar life (and career) challenges.
Where can people connect with you and your work?
You can connect with me on LinkedIn, subscribe to my newsletter Burning Thoughts, find out more about how I can help on my website.
