Career Clarity Through Action with David Prosper

In this episode, we sit down with David Prosper, aka The Clarity Guy, for a conversation on career pivots, overthinking, burnout, and what it really takes to move forward when you don’t have the full plan.

David shares why clarity is not about knowing the entire outcome — it’s about identifying your next right step. We talk about why high performers often get stuck, how overthinking keeps people trapped, and what to do when you’re successful on paper but no longer feel aligned with your work.

We also walk through a real-time example of David’s coaching process, where he helps us break down a press kit challenge into one simple next action. Later, we get into the emotional side of clarity: anxiety, ambiguity, reacting versus responding, and the difference between feelings that are valid and feelings that should not drive your decisions.

If you’ve been waiting for certainty before making a move, this episode is your reminder that progress comes before clarity — not after.

What we cover

• Why the biggest myth about clarity is thinking you need the full outcome
• The question that cuts through overwhelm: What is my next right step?
• Why smart, ambitious people overcomplicate simple decisions
• How to know whether a career pivot is really necessary
• The difference between reacting to pain and responding with intention
• David’s framework for getting unstuck: state, story, and system
• Why overthinking can become a prison
• The meaning behind David’s compass and the idea of finding your north

David Prosper
Instagram: @theclarityguy_

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Work Besties! Theme Song Written by Ralph Lentini @therallyband

Transcript

Clarity Starts With One Step

David Prosper 0:00

The biggest myth is that you have to know the outcome. What is my next right step? We as humans overcomplicate things.

Claude F 0:07

Hi, I'm Clunes, and I'm Jess. We are corporate employees by day, entrepreneurs by night, and work besties for life.

Jess K 0:15

Join us as we explore how work besties lift each other up, laugh through the chaos, and thrive together in every industry. Work besties.

Claude F 0:26

Welcome, work besties. This week we are in reset mode. Career clarity and sustainable high performance.

Jess K 0:34

Polarity comes from action and honest conversations with someone who believes in you. And that's why we're so excited to have David here. Welcome, David. People call you the clarity guy. What happened in your journey to earn you that name?

How David Became The Clarity Guy

David Prosper 0:50

That's a good question, and thank you for having me. How did I get that name? I've been obsessed with human potential. And that's come from being raised in a traumatic background. Like that my upbringing was traumatic. I grew up in the projects at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and seeing my parents, who are two Haitian immigrants, have all these aspirations, but they were stuck in a mindset and a system that continued to allow them to do the same things that didn't yield the results and the intentions that they had. So I've been on this journey for the last decade of what gets people to move from where they are and where they want to be. And I call it now the clarity gap, and is not knowing that next right step because we have all of the amazing aspiration, dreams, goals, and we're like, oh my goodness, I want to accomplish these things. But we get so overwhelmed with the the vastness of it, and that we just don't know our next right step. So as a clarity guy, people often leave conversations with me, like, huh, I got more clarity. And I'm like, huh, interesting you say that, uh-huh. So that's that's where the name came about. People leave feeling like they have this aha moment.

Why clarity is a human need

Jess K 2:02

Well, that that has got to be one of the nicest compliments ever to have someone say that to you. For your journey to get to be the clarity guy, can you give us a background on how you started to really recognize that?

David Prosper 2:17

It was the summer of 2016 when my mother was transitioning from um colon cancer and she was passing away. And I was first I was hurt and I was distraught, and I was like, okay, like what am I here to do? And then I went on a hike and then I was like, God, what's my thing? And I was told do a clarity podcast. And as I started learning more about humans and human behavior, Tony Robbins talked about the six human needs, and all of those things are amazing. And as I started to study more and more about humans and what gets us to move past our limitation, I started to learn that clarity is a human need. We all need clarity, but we don't know how to articulate it. So studying neuroscience, studying psychology, and even studying the Bible, I noticed that there's this theme of how to understand who you are, what you're here for, how you're designed, and how to serve the world. So understanding these things became the benchmark and the framework that has inspired me to create the C5 model in my book, Finding Clarity, and help uh thousands of people through workshops and is as well as my client. Clarity for me is just a human need, but it's a human need that's been gone, that's been so deprived for so long that I'm like, okay, here's where I get to serve the world in a way that helped them know their next right step, um, whatever their journey is.

Jess K 3:43

When you think of clarity, what's the biggest myth people have about it?

David Prosper 3:48

This one right here. I love this. I had I remember there's this troller on Instagram. It was like, you don't need clarity to execute. And I was like, try going on a road trip and not know where you're going. See how how much gas you burn and where you end up, right? But the the biggest myth is that you have to know the outcome. That's a myth. Because I'm in Utah right now and my family lives in Florida. If I have an intention of going to Florida, I'm not gonna focus on the Florida roads while I'm still in Utah. I'm gonna focus where I'm at, and then when I get to Colorado and when I get to Alabama, I focus on my next right step, where I'm at. So Clarity is taking the step of courage. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Martin Luther Keene says, Faith is taking the first step and not seeing the staircase. So Clarity, you only see about 400 to 600 feet ahead of you if you're taking a road trip, but you ultimately know the general destination that you're going to, and then there's times that you have to take pivot. So the biggest myth is you have to note how everything is gonna work out. But clarity is saying I'm choosing progress over perfection, and I'm falling in love with the process.

Jess K 5:02

It's like good quote right there. Yeah, progress, enough processing.

Claude F 5:08

So, who are the people that actually come and see you? And how do you help them?

David Prosper 5:14

Anywhere from a 20-year-old who is on the fence of whether I should go to college or I'm trying to like design my life to I have a client who's 61 years old, who's on a different transition of her life, of being a grandparent and understanding her identity. So it's high performers, it's leaders, it's creators, it's business owners. So it's it's typically people who've seen enough and who are realizing, you know what, this is not for me. And I want to create something from a place from authenticity versus a place that someone's either inherited or something somebody's projected on me. You should do this, or this is the way we've always done it.

What coaching really does

Claude F 5:57

So I love when you say the right step, right? It's all about the right step, but how do you know what are the right steps? And is it like you make the person realize? How do you guide them to find the right step?

David Prosper 6:11

Here's another misconception. Like coaches, there's this thing like, we teach you something. No, like we don't teach you anything, and if somebody's constantly teaching, they're a teacher. But our job as a coach is to draw out what you already have inside of you. You have the answers. So, for example, give me give me something you're working on right now, and we can do this in real time.

Jess K 6:32

Press kit.

David Prosper 6:33

Press kit.

Jess K 6:34

All right, so working on our own press kit.

David Prosper 6:36

All right, so press kit, okay. So, what's what's the biggest mountain right now to accomplishing that or uh fine-tuning your press kit?

Claude F 6:45

Putting all the information in one in two pages or how to start.

David Prosper 6:51

So, how to start and then putting everything in one or two pages. Okay, what are the most important things that you you would think users and people need to know about you in this press kit?

Claude F 7:01

Audience and how many people are following us and etc. And what we bring.

David Prosper 7:06

So, what we bring, the audience, how many people are following you? What's one more thing they need to know about you? Like what's the mission and the vision of this?

Jess K 7:14

What what is unique about us and what do we bring to the table? Which is the work bestie ethos.

David Prosper 7:20

Okay, so what is unique about it? So, given all the things that you shared, what would you think is your next right step to moving this press kit to accomplishing it?

Claude F 7:29

Putting all those information on a piece of paper. I don't know.

David Prosper 7:33

Right there, right? Right, like it's it's so crazy, so crazy how simple it is. Like, and it's the fact that you verbalized it, you had permission to be in a safe space to explore it. And then as you processed it, you started realizing there's noise and then there's signal. There's things that are important, there's things that are unimportant. And my role and coming alongside of people is saying, that's not that's not important, or it may not be important right now, but let's focus on what's important. So the fact we did this in real time is literally your next right step. And then once you finish your press kit, what's the next thing you have to do? Right? We as human overcomplicate things, yes.

Jess K 8:16

I think too much. You do think too much. Yes. I you know what I love that you just did that real time because part of me was thinking when you brought up those questions in the beginning of how you help people. I I had a little bit of like, ooh, those are big questions, and then I don't know that I could articulate right away. But you just kind of showcased, truncated, bring it down to little parts, and then walk through it.

Claude F 8:40

And I like what you said at the beginning. We're going, it's like real life example, right?

Pivoting When Success Loses Joy

David Prosper 8:45

The thing about it, and thank you for that feedback, it's the goal of a friend or a coach or an advisor is to come alongside of taking that same pattern formula that you just did and apply it to something else. So now if you have a big decision, you're moving homes or moving places that you live, uh, let me do my research, and what is the next thing I have to do, right? Or you're deciding what type of tool you're gonna incorporate it in your podcast ether, right? So it's literally those same things, but we as humans, we make the simple complicated because there's a form of control, and it's like this weird disbelief like it can't be this simple. Yes, it can.

Jess K 9:29

One of the the reasons we were so interested in having you on this, and particularly for this month, we have a number of our work bestie community who have come to us that are in a uh high-level position, they're quite successful, but they no longer have joy in it. And they're thinking about pivoting, but they don't know how. And I know this is not an easy one size fits all, and there's no one step that everybody can do to move next. So, from your perspective, what are some ideas they can think of or ways they can test the water if they do want to pivot?

David Prosper 10:06

That's a really good question. You said it so eloquently, you said it is not a one size fit-all, and that is the gospel right there. Here's here's what I've noticed a pattern in humans. Stress is not the absence of the things that we have in our life, the accumulation of things, but it's it's the lack of things that actually brings us joy. And then here's the second thing I learned about humans is we avoid pain and we seek pleasure. So if the current role that these individuals are in, especially in their career, if it's creating some form of pain psychologically, emotionally, hopefully not physically, the natural knee-jerk reaction is to run away from it. So if a relationship is hard, we're gonna find a way to be like, oh, you know, I deserve better. And you know, like I need to increase my standards. Relationships should not be this hard.

Claude F 11:00

Yes.

David Prosper 11:01

But it's so the real question is first starting to do that reflection of like, what are you what is painful in this position? And identifying that pain and then saying, what can I change about this pain? Like whether I change role or I change department or I have a conversation that is difficult. And then it's like, okay, if I can't change anything about this, I have no agency in this space. Uh, how can I change my attitude while I'm here? Because every role is going to present a difficulty, uh a challenge, and an adversity. But if our mindset is still the same, when this is hard, I want to leave, then we're creating a mindset of be transparent. We're running away when things are hard versus facing things, practicing courage. So if I can't change the space that I'm in, all right, I have no agency. And if the changing my mindset is too much of a burden, then and only then, how can I position myself to do the work well, leave well, and then find an ecosystem? Because we often look for roles and titles, and we we have this outcome base. When I hit this role, if I make the X amount of money, I'm gonna feel fulfilled. And that's why, like you said, uh a lot of people are experiencing the burnout and the lack of joy because our focus is wrong, and that's why there's this thing on my hat. Um, our focus is wrong because we're looking. If I hit this title and I make this income and I have this status, then I'm gonna feel significant. And then oftentimes when we get to that position, we don't think about the ecosystem and the space that we're actually entering. So if it's high stress, if it's uh cutthroat, if it's condescending, now we're just like this is now the home that I'm in, and I no longer love this home. So the biggest thing is asking those questions, and once you make those decisions that answer those questions, now you're operating and you will move from a place of intelligence versus a place of survival. So if we're running from something because we don't like it anymore, now the next thing, even if it's a little bit better, but it's still poor, now the novelty of it is oh, this is better than my last thing. But we're just constantly running from home to home and we've never done the work inside.

Jess K 13:19

You're making it less of an emotional decision, more of an intelligence decision, and in a way, almost taking some of the science experiment, right? Like if you are saying from an agency perspective, I can't change my ecosystem. So if I take myself to a new one, was it that? I love that you put it that way because I do see a lot where individuals come to you saying that they're very frustrated, they don't enjoy their job, so they just go and take the same role. It's almost the exact same role, but somewhere else, and then you talk to them maybe three to four months later, and they're back in that same mindset, and you realize yeah, it wasn't the location or the it's what you're putting in and putting out. So that changes your decision.

Claude F 14:03

It's like in relationship, right? Sometimes you until you work on yourself, you always end up with the same type. So speak for yourself. I broke the cycle. You broke the cycle to have clarity. No, but it's true, right?

David Prosper 14:16

Yes.

Why people get stuck

Claude F 14:22

And we have to make sure in the future not to go back into the same patterns. Where where do you think people usually get stuck with looking at the clarity and where is where they they get stuck and they cannot reach that clarity?

David Prosper 14:37

That's a loaded one right here. I I would say, I would say they get stuck in three ways. They get stuck in their state. And when I say state, it's their physical state, emotional state. So if we let's say we've been triggered and now we feel less than in our childhood um version of us who was always neglected and never seen, gets activated. We often stay in that state, and now we connect the current story with the past story, and it has this little romance in this shindig, and it's in this hodgepodge of a potluck. So the first step to changing that state is actually just moving. Um, and when we move like physically, then things can start flowing. It's like my mother would say, like, if you feel constipated, move around. And then the second, the second reason why we often say stuck is the stories we're repeating. So um it's this state, and then the stories, it's like, why is this happening to me? This always happened to me. Like, what why it we start we stay in that loop of this happens, and then that story, when it gets replayed over time, it starts impacting our emotions. If we feel that the world is against us, or we feel that things aren't just j there's no justice, then that emotion is gonna make us feel either anger or weariness or discouragement or sadness. And then what happens is we're starting to develop a system, which is the last S state story, and then the system is what gets us back to that state. So if I'm habitually in a victim mindset, then the systems that I have, then I've created is I am looking for people in things that offend me so that it can reinforce my state and I can tell the same story. So therefore, I stay stuck in the default loop. But in order to break that, change the state, okay, I'm physically moving, change the story by reframing it. Bad things don't happen to me, things are happening for my good, and therefore this is teaching me versus why is this happening to me? Or and I've learned what is this teaching me in this moment? So when I feel angry and somebody annoys me, um, I'm like, what is this teaching me? Oh, it's teaching me patience. So I say, Thank you for teaching me patience. Um, and then the system is what do I need to do to operate at a high level? So exercise for me, journaling for me, having good conversations with people, brainstorming, praying. I have systems and rhythms that get me to a state like when I feel stuck, I can move and I have agency versus feeling stuck and now I'm paralyzed.

“Overthinking is a stupid emotion”

Jess K 17:19

I think that's goose guns. Thank you. That was a good answer. David, you have a podcast yourself. What are the most common topics or things your community is asking of you?

David Prosper 17:32

They're asking, this is so crazy. Like, anxiety is a theme, burnout is a theme, and overwhelm. And and this may seem a this may sound a little callous, but I think I think overthinking and overwhelm is a stupid emotion, right? I said it because here we are. Why I think it's stupid.

Claude F 17:52

Oh yeah, now I want to hear it.

David Prosper 17:55

So if we were down the street and you saw somebody holding a saw on the side where you're supposed to use on the for the tree, they're holding it as tight as possible. If you saw that person holding it, what would you say?

Claude F 18:07

It doesn't want to drop it, it doesn't want to drop it.

David Prosper 18:10

And if you see the person bleeding, what would you think about that individual while they're continuing to hold cut himself?

Claude F 18:16

He's kind of an idiot.

Driver’s seat vs passenger seat

David Prosper 18:26

But but he's holding it, right? And so a lot of people are coming alongside and saying, hey, let it go. And then just like, no, I have to hold on to it as long as possible. So overwhelm, overthinking is a stupid emotion because here's why because we have the ability to release it, and when we're constantly holding on to it, then therefore we're creating a prison for ourselves. And when we get to the end of our life or get over that situation, we realize there's no guard, there's no executioner, there's no judge. So the prison of public perception, the prison that we create, it's all within our control. And we get to say, you know what? I am choosing not to live in this prison anymore. And even though I'm not sure what's gonna happen next, I'm still going to flow with it. It's just like a bird, right? A bird is not worried about if the branch breaks or not, but it believes in its ability to fly. So if we're hyper focused, if we take all that energy we use for overthinking and put it into self-reliancy, resourcefulness, resiliency, consistency, collaboration, curiosity. I promise you, whatever adversity comes your way, you'll be like, you know what? I'm gonna be curious about this. You know, I'm resilient, I'm resourceful, I'll figure it out versus what if it doesn't work? What are they thinking about me? Oh, I see.

Jess K 19:51

I'm asking for a friend. I've I'm with your train of thought. I I have a more similar, like, just let it go, think about other things. There's your energy can be expelled in other ways. Not everyone can do that very quickly, and andor at all. So when someone does come to you and says, that's nice for you, you can do it.

Claude F 20:09

And then okay, that friend is also saying the the roof is going to fall on my head, but guess what? I'm still resilient and I'm still curious. So you can still have those emotions, but one is stronger than the other one.

David Prosper 20:24

Yes. Yeah, one is in the driver's seat, the other one's in the passenger seat. So it's not to say those emotions aren't real and they don't have a place. I joke, so it's it's not that callous.

Claude F 20:36

Because now I can't say myself, oh, I'm overthinking. Oh, well, the friend. Yeah, the friend is like I'm overthinking, and I can't say myself now it's a stupid emotion.

Jess K 20:44

I'll just keep saying the let go of the thaw.

David Prosper 20:47

Let go of the saw.

Claude F 20:48

Yeah, that is a good one.

David Prosper 20:50

And it doesn't, and it doesn't drive your decisions, right? So usually when it's in the driver's seat, now we're really reactive. And again, going back to clarity, clarity is responding to life versus reacting to life. So when overwhelm is there, knocking on the door, it's like, hey, sit in the passenger seat. I'm gonna focus on what's in my control, and I'm gonna actually process it. Because when the gift of coaches and therapists is when we actually process what we're dealing with, we realize it wasn't that big of a deal. Or even if it was a big deal, it's like, okay, what's in my controllable? Like when my mother was diagnosed with stage four cancer and she had three months to live, I cried and then I was like, okay, this sucks. And I was like, but I can't control anything. I literally saw the life go from my mother, who's this hero of mine. And every time I would take her to the doctor, I was like, she's literally dying in my arms. Now I can't control whether she lives or dies, but I can control the time that I have with her. So when I was with her, we were just laughing, I'm making jokes. So I was like, mom, you stink. Did you put the odor in on? And she's like, that's rude. And I was like, You remember you used to tell me that as a kid, right? So it's just like And it becomes these memories of yeah, she's passed on. And when I even read her eulogy, as I'm crying, I'm thinking about the things that I could control. It's the conversations, hey mom, tell me your story. I know you don't have a lot of time, versus focusing on what's out of my control, like a lot of my siblings who struggled with her death, who's just like, she's going, she's dying, and they're constantly thinking about her death, versus she's currently still here.

Jess K 22:25

Yeah. Yeah.

David Prosper 22:26

What do I do with that?

Jess K 22:28

That is a great reminder of it and a really great example of living in the present is so critical and important. Thank you for sharing.

Claude F 22:36

And yeah, and I think that if you can't even switch your mind for something so important, so emotional, so terrible, you know, when someone like overthink for something so pitiful, you're like you can put everything in context.

Jess K 22:54

Context, right? Right. So maybe the the reasons why you're holding on to the saw aren't so important.

David Prosper 23:00

Exactly. No, it's not the practice invalidated. We need to validate your feelings or your feelings are real, but they're not fast.

Living in ambiguity and finding your due north

Claude F 23:08

Oh yeah, they don't need for sure. They are there. Let me tell you something. But they can be like you say, and I like that. Go on the passenger scene.

Jess K 23:18

Some of the things our work bestie community have come to us about and are around like living in ambiguity. From that perspective, what would be the first step they should take if they're in a work situation that they feel like they don't know what's what is their due north?

The compass story & Finding Your North

David Prosper 23:35

That's a really good question. And it's a it's a very healthy thing to start processing and reflecting what's what's next for me, what's in store for me, because that clearly echoes the fact that they're they're high performers because someone who's complacent would typically be like, I'm just gonna continue to show up and get paid what I get paid. When it comes to ambiguity, that's a unique emotion for everyone. So I want to hold space for that. When there's ambiguity, focusing on what is in my control. One of my favorite books by uh Stephen Covey, uh, you talk about the sphere of influence. And there's things in our controllables, and there's things there's things out of our controllable. And when I played college football, our coaches would always tell us is we can only focus on our preparation, our execution, and our game day activities. When the score is the score, we can't control those things. So I believe a lot of anxiety and ambiguity become more prevalent when it's things that are out of our control to a point. So if someone is in that space of like, what is my next step career-wise? I would present the question, what's the next right step? Has that person have a conversation with their leaders and created a blueprint of what that looks like, taking action versus taking inaction? And then if they have had that conversation and it's not the most colorful and rewarding, then they have the agency to say, now I can pivot to something else that aligns to where I'm at and where I want to go, making it practical. Most of us get on airplanes and we don't know how to fly a plane. So if we're able to practice that level of faith in the pilot, in the flight attendants, right? We place so much faith in all of that, it's going to work out. So what if we took that same level of mindset and say, you know what, I'm unsure, but I believe whatever is supposed to be is going to work out for me and move into that possibility versus just staying in that state of reality of this is where I'm at. So I'm gonna spiral and look at all of the negative things that could happen versus I'm gonna sit in here and what if all the positive things happen? What what would life look like?

Jess K 25:53

You made a comment on it for those that are listening and not watching about your hat. Can you describe your hat and what the symbol on it means?

David Prosper 26:01

Yes, it is a compass and it's the it's it's pointing north. And the compass always moves when you take your next right steps. I remember making a joke before my mother passed. She would use a compass to get around town, like in the car. I am not kidding you. I'm like, Mom, a real compass that moves. And she we lived in Fort Lauderdale. She was like, I'm going to Miami and I'm using a compass to get there. I was like, Mom, this is 2016. We got GPS. But my mother used a compass and I used to roast her. And I'm like, mom, this is laughable. And full circle moment. Now the logo is a compass because my mother always knew where the north was. So despite however she turned and navigated, she knew where north was and she knew where south was, and therefore she could always find herself, even if she got misguided or went on a wrong turn. So the hat is an embodiment of my mother, first and foremost, of encouraging people to find your north. And when you find your north, you inspire others to find their north as well.

Jess K 27:05

Beautiful. I thought it was really beautiful. I love that. That in and of itself, I think, describes why or how you became a clarity guy. It sounds like your mom was quite um empowering as well.

Where to find David

David Prosper 27:16

Yeah, she was awesome.

Jess K 27:17

And David, how can our viewers find you?

David Prosper 27:20

Yes, I'm on all social media platforms at the clarity guy underscore. I'm on all of all the platforms, but I live on Instagram.

Jess K 27:28

We've so enjoyed this conversation. Personally, I got a lot out of it. I feel like a friend of mine may have too. Having an idea of not just what clarity is, but how to truncate it and take steps to incorporate it into your life. And you so succinctly established that. And I understand now why you're being called the clarity guide. So we're besties. If this episode resonated with you as much as it did with us, share this with your friends. And don't forget to like and subscribe. See you next week. Bye.

David Prosper 28:00

Thank you.

Jess K 28:01

Remember, whether you're swapping snacks in the break room, rescuing each other from endless meetings, or just sending that perfectly timed meme. Having a work bestie is like having your own personal hype squad.

Claude F 28:14

So keep lifting each other, laughing through the chaos, and of course, thriving. Until next time, stay positive, stay productive, and don't forget to keep supporting each other. Work besties.