Chris Walker - How to Get What You Want in Life

In this episode of Help Me Understand, Oli and I sit down with entrepreneur, author, and ENCODED founder Chris Walker to explore a question that sits underneath almost everything we do:

Why is it so hard to create the life we say we want?

I first started following Chris years ago through his work in B2B marketing, where he became known for challenging conventional wisdom and explaining why many of the strategies companies relied on were quietly becoming less effective. After building and eventually selling Refine Labs, Chris turned his attention toward a different problem entirely: understanding how our beliefs, identity, and subconscious patterns shape the results we create in our lives.

That exploration eventually led him to create ENCODED, a platform designed to help people identify and train the beliefs operating beneath the surface of their day-to-day experience.

In this conversation, we unpack the ideas behind that work and share our own experiences using the process. We discuss why traditional self-help often reaches a ceiling, the difference between insight and lasting change, and how small daily practices can gradually reshape the way we think, feel, and show up in the world.

We also dive into the impact artificial intelligence is having on work, creativity, and purpose. Chris offers a perspective that feels both challenging and hopeful: that as information becomes increasingly abundant, the qualities that make us uniquely human—judgment, self-trust, creativity, and clarity—become more valuable, not less.

Whether you're trying to make a big life change, feeling stuck in old patterns, or wondering how to navigate an increasingly uncertain future, this conversation offers a thoughtful framework for understanding what might be getting in the way. 

Key Takeaways:

• Lasting change often requires more than insight; it requires repetition and training.

• Many of our decisions are driven by subconscious beliefs we rarely stop to examine.

• Identity shapes behavior more powerfully than motivation alone.

• Purpose may not be something we discover—it may be something that emerges when we remove the noise.

• Journaling can become more effective when paired with structure, reflection, and clear direction.

• Anxiety, self-doubt, and burnout may be symptoms of deeper patterns rather than fixed personality traits.

• As AI changes the workforce, creativity, judgment, and self-trust become increasingly valuable human skills.

• The future may require us to rely less on predefined maps and more on developing an internal compass.

• Small shifts repeated consistently can create dramatic changes over time.

• The way we think about ourselves influences what we believe is possible.

If you've ever felt like you're doing all the right things but still not getting where you want to go, I think you'll find this conversation fascinating.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about ENCODED: https://www.encoded.ai

Follow Chris Walker:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswalker171

Buy Chris Walker's Book, The Frequency Era