Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
The Hyphenate Conundrum: Managing Multiple Careers and Identities with Liz Hutson of EGH, LLC 3-19-25
Wed, 19 Mar 2025
In this episode, Liz Hutson, Principal Consultant and Owner at EGH, LLC shares her journey as an engineer-turned-marketer-turned-consultant-turned-speaker, discussing the challenges and rewards of being a “hyphenate”—someone who thrives in multiple professional arenas.
Chapter 1: What is the hyphenate conundrum?
And, you know, oftentimes, Scott, when you and I talk, I'm coming in with definitive ideas and perspectives that I want to share, maybe a path or a process that works. But today I feel like it's going to be a little different in that this is something that I'm actively figuring out, wrestling through, brainstorming through.
And I'm actually really curious about your ideas on some of this, because I don't know that I have a clear picture, but sort of some of the beginnings of some ideas on the matter.
Chapter 2: How do people manage multiple careers today?
No, a hundred percent. And, you know, we talk so much like back in the day when, people had these careers and they might stay with their career for 30, 40 years. And today the world is very different. It's very different both because men, the different gender roles have evolved so much where, you know, men switch jobs, do different things throughout their careers.
They're no longer staying at one place for 30, 40 years. And then women compared to when I started in the workplace, when I started in the workplace 40 years ago, women were just fully being integrated fully into the workforce in a very different way than my parents' generation.
And so many women have been able to manage these careers in their lives so beautifully while performing in different ways. And it's been instructive to men as well as the different ways of sort of creating a life that is very different than the traditional role models maybe 50 years ago. And it's left all of us doing multiple different things in multiple different ways.
And I talk about this with our kids. There's these constant pivots throughout your career in trying to figure out what you're doing for the next several years, but that might not be what you're doing for the next 10 years. Liz, tell us how you're thinking about some of these things.
Chapter 3: What does it mean to be a hyphenate?
Chapter 4: How do gender roles influence career paths?
They're no longer staying at one place for 30, 40 years. And then women compared to when I started in the workplace, when I started in the workplace 40 years ago, women were just fully being integrated fully into the workforce in a very different way than my parents' generation.
And so many women have been able to manage these careers in their lives so beautifully while performing in different ways. And it's been instructive to men as well as the different ways of sort of creating a life that is very different than the traditional role models maybe 50 years ago. And it's left all of us doing multiple different things in multiple different ways.
And I talk about this with our kids. There's these constant pivots throughout your career in trying to figure out what you're doing for the next several years, but that might not be what you're doing for the next 10 years. Liz, tell us how you're thinking about some of these things.
Yeah, it's so beautifully put, those ideas of pivots. So I was introduced to this term hyphenate by a friend of mine, Maura Brinkman, just a couple weeks back. And I said, what is that? What does that even mean, hyphenate? And she said, you know, she described it as somebody who performs or excels at more than one craft or an occupation.
So we know a lot of people that are like that, maybe somebody that started in one area like you described in some certain area of a career, and then all of a sudden they flipped to do something different or they're doing something at the same time. And so that might be someone who started off as like my husband, for example, is an engineer. He worked in that space.
He even joined me in my consulting firm and runs the operations for a business. And then he wrote a book on Chicago architecture. I mean, those are three really completely different areas. And I think sometimes We look at that and go, wow, that's really fascinating. Going from one space to a seemingly totally different area and excelling in those different things.
And a lot like you, Scott, you're a hyphenate for sure, right? Somebody who was in the legal space, a lawyer, partner, an entrepreneur, an author, a golfer, a tennis player. You wear a lot of different hats. That's a hyphenate, right?
Yes, but the constant challenge is it's – and we talk about this often. If I am doing too many things, I end up in the spot where we're okay at all of them versus truly excelling at any one of them. So I look at the legal career versus the entrepreneurial career, and in some ways why that works so well is that I really focused for 10 years building the legal practice and building the team there.
Well, that became 80%, 90% of my time for a very long time. Well, I spent the other 10%, 20% starting to seed the beginnings of the media company, but it wasn't until I was able to transition to the next spot where I didn't have – where the time ended up being focused much more in energy and mental focus on building the media company versus building the law practice.
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Chapter 5: What are the challenges of multitasking?
Chapter 6: How can one excel in multiple professions?
So very much a hyphenate where you – where you are, you know, I view myself as a lawyer, entrepreneur, and father, quite frankly. But it's really, though, you can only do so many things at once well. So for a period of time, it was building the business and really being a father were the two main things.
And one of the great sort of complications, and there's so much written about multitasking, is, like, I know myself, when I'm doing tennis, golf, business,
fitness, business, investing, trying to build another business, trying to pay attention to the two businesses I'm involved in, that at some point you're less effective at everything because you're doing too much, and it's this constant balance of trying to figure out where to focus, how much to focus, how much energy to put into one thing or the other, and how to narrow it down,
Chapter 7: What strategies can help balance various roles?
So you're hyphenated, but not so hyphenated, I think, is a constant evolution and challenge.
Yes. And that, I think, is the conundrum, right? That is it. And I think what you described is important. You weren't jumping from one thing to the next every six months. You spent depth and time. in the legal area and being a dad and then shifting and spending depth and time in the media company and then writing your book and all those kinds of things. For me, it was similar.
I spent a good amount of time in each of those areas and I built a depth. It's not to say that I abandoned those other things. I still have a lot of love and passion for them and I still have a skill set there. But to your point, somebody that's looking on the outside in it can be confusing. It can feel like, well, what's your segment?
You feel like you're all over the place and there's a questionability. Can you really believe it? Is there a believability in that depth? And it can feel confusing. Like you said, jack of all trades, master of none, or you hear the phrase of a mile wide and inch deep, and it can be hard to overcome that. And recently, especially as I've been moving into the speaking space, I know
friends and colleagues, you know, they're watching some of the posts of me on LinkedIn. They're like, you know, sort of nicely, but in a bit of a giggle, what are you up to these days? I'm a little confused on that. And I don't blame them, right? That's confusing when you're looking from the outside. It's chaotic.
Right. But the thing is, like, I'm one that applauds it. I think the reality is at one time, you know, I've seen knee surgeons that all they did for 30 years was knee surgery and or primary care physicians, all they saw for 30 years was patients as primary care physicians. The ones that are burnt out, that's what they did.
The ones that are enjoying themselves had straddled a couple different things. So one's in medical leadership and orthopedics. One's an entrepreneur and orthopedics. And it's exhausting, and it takes energy. But I think it is a prescription against burnout to be doing just a little bit more than just one thing. And I'd look at it and say, like, look, if you're going to be –
professionally, personally, until you're in your 70s, 80s, and that's my goal is active into the 80s. We talk about, you know, and I still got a long time to get there, so bear with me. But the point is you have to be constantly evolving. So when I see you evolving like you're evolving, I think it's, you know, one good thing is you and your family have the luxury to evolve like that.
that you're economically have the will to be able to evolve. And as long as you do so, it's taking on new challenges. Like one of my favorite people in the world is constantly trying to become a public speaker or trying to do other things as well. You know, teaches, has a career, and tries to do other things too. And I just applaud that constant effort to try and get better and to improve people.
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