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What happens when the thing you've built your career on has always been in service of someone else's vision — and suddenly you're on your own?

In Episode 3 of The Last Lift Operator, Sam Kirk explores what it means to be an Enneagram Nine — the Diplomat — in the middle of professional and personal upheaval. He unpacks the Nine/Three/Six triangle, the difference between healthy integration and hollow performance, and the specific cost of spending two years gripping tighter instead of being honest about where he actually was.

This isn't a personality framework episode. It's about learning to stop representing someone else's country — and starting to plant your own flag.

The Last Lift Operator is a podcast about navigating AI disruption in marketing, out loud and in real time. New episodes every two weeks.

Find out more about Sam and The Last Lift Operator on the show website: samuelkirk.com

I went to theatre school. That's not something I lead with professionally — but it's where this episode starts.

Because the thread from music to theatre to marketing to nonprofits is the same thread I'm pulling on right now, trying to figure out what comes next. And when I ran into two former colleagues recently — both copywriters, both recently laid off, both trying to build something new — I drove home with a thought I'm not proud of. And a fear I couldn't shake.

This episode is about a dollar a word, thirty dollars a month, and what happened to the people in between. It's about my coach pushing back on me hard. And it's about what I'm slowly learning — that every regret I have traces back to fear. And every bold choice I've never regretted.

The Last Lift Operator is hosted by Sam Kirk. New episodes every two weeks.

Connect with Sam: linkedin.com/in/samkirk

The Last Lift Operator | EP 1: The Doors Opened By Themselves

I spent 25 years in marketing. Writer. Designer. Strategist. Account director. I was good at it. Known for being good at it.

And then AI arrived. And a significant portion of what I'd spent my career becoming good at got commodified almost overnight.

This isn't a show about how AI is going to destroy everything. I use these tools every single day — including to build this podcast. But I recently found myself unemployed. In my early fifties. In an industry I've given everything to.

And I keep coming back to one image: the lift operator. The only job economists can point to that automation truly, completely eliminated.

Not restructured. Eliminated.

I think about those people a lot lately. Because I think I'm one of them. Or I'm trying very hard not to be.

This show is me figuring that out. Out loud. In public.

You're welcome to come along. New episodes every two weeks.

Connect with Sam: https://linkedin.com/in/samkirk