Who Moved My Career?!?

No One Is Coming To Save You: Navigating Your Next | Julian Lighton

Most executives know how to climb. Nobody teaches them what to do when the ladder moves. Julian Lighton spent decades running P&Ls at Cisco and Hitachi, advising boards, and watching sharp leaders stall out at the exact moments they should have accelerated. He wrote Navigating Your Next because he kept seeing the same pattern: people who were exceptional at progression — titles, influence, external validation — with no real sense of what they were actually good at or what they wanted next. Julian breaks down the four career transitions every executive will face, why most people hit stages three and four completely unprepared, and the distinction between progress and progression that changes everything. He also walks through the competence-context-culture framework he uses with coaching clients and why knowing what you want is the only real prerequisite to getting it. For senior executives navigating career transition, leadership reinvention, or the question of what comes after a big role, this one is worth the hour. The gap between ambition and self-awareness is where most executive careers get stuck. Julian Lighton has spent 30 years working with senior leaders on executive career strategy, decision-making, and the transitions that define a career. Follow Who Moved My Career?! on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and leave a review if this one made you think.

She Quadrupled Her Salary Going Freelance | Satta Sarmah Hightower

Satta Sarmah Hightower quadrupled her salary going freelance. By year seven, she'd crossed seven figures in revenue. By year ten, multi-seven figures. She didn't plan any of it. Two layoffs ended her journalism career during the Great Recession. A cross-country move bought her time. One former colleague hired her for a contract role — and she never went back. Satta is a B2B tech content marketer, 12-year full-time freelancer, and author of The Forever Freelancer, out in June. In this conversation, we get into the myths — no, it's not just for creatives; no, it's not financially reckless — and the mechanics of finding clients without Fiverr. We also talk about the mindset shift that separates the people who make it from the ones who quit: stop thinking like an employee. We get into AI as leverage, caregiving, the broken corporate promise, and why if no one is saying no to your proposals, you're undercharging. For senior executives navigating career transition, Satta makes the financial case for self-employment in concrete terms. Whether you're exploring fractional work, a portfolio career, or a full break from corporate, this episode is a masterclass in career reinvention on your own terms. Follow Who Moved My Career?! on Spotify or Apple Podcasts — and leave a review if this one made you rethink your options.

What 195 Jobs Teach You About Career Decisions | Gabriel DeSanti

He has one question tattooed on his arm: When was the last time you did something for the first time? For Gabriel DeSanti, that's not inspiration — it's infrastructure. He's a full-time content creator and co-founder of Staj who has gone to work across nearly 200 industries, filming two-minute windows into what jobs actually feel like from the inside. Most of our guests figured out their path after a disruption. Gabriel is building the thing that might have prevented the disruption entirely. He went to a trade school that spent a full year letting students try everything before committing to anything. He never got over how rare that was. In this episode, we get into why he walked away from a clear engineering path at 19 because one boss change showed him how fragile job satisfaction is, what nearly 200 jobs have actually taught him about what makes work meaningful, and why the first rung on the career ladder being broken might be the best argument for what he's building with Staj. Every executive we've talked to has a version of the same regret: I wish I'd known sooner. This episode is for that. Follow Who Moved My Career?! on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And if this one landed, leave a review.

Mack Truck Moments: Why The Plan Is Never In Stone & What To Do About It | Omar Garriott

A "Mack Truck Moment" is the thing that hits you out of nowhere and takes the plan completely off the rails: Job loss. A diagnosis. A market that shifts under your feet. Omar Garriott coined this term and...yeah. Haven't we all been there. Omar has spent 25 years building a career around one filter: impact. Through Apple, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Qualtrics, when his Mack Truck came, that filter is what held. His point of view on the power of non profits and their essential place in this world will make you rethink the order of the world. Omar is now Executive Director of the Batten Institute at UVA Darden, and in this conversation we get into what to do when the Truck comes for you. We also debate LinkedIn. He wrote the book on it. I still call it the digital sewer, but will admit he makes some valid points! For senior executives navigating your career, the question isn't whether disruption is coming, it's whether your network and sense of mission are strong enough to hold when it does. This episode covers executive career resilience, mission-driven leadership, and how to really use LinkedIn properly. Follow Who Moved My Career?! on Spotify or Apple Podcasts — and leave a review if this one made you think.

From the Farm to the NFL: Chuck Hutchinson on Reinvention and What It Means to Get Your Hands Dirty

Chuck Hutchinson grew up on a farm in Malvern, Ohio. Baseball was the plan — left-handed pitcher, natural curve — until a fractured elbow at 14 forced a pivot to football. He got knocked around as a freshman. He grew. Woody Hayes showed up at his parents' house, spent three hours with them and five minutes with Chuck, and handed him the 21st — and last — scholarship in the 1966 class. He became an Ohio State Buckeye (and beat TUN). He played (and started) for two teams in the NFL. Then he wrote a book called Getting My Hands Dirty — part memoir, part reinvention handbook. In this episode, Chuck and Nicole dig into what his story teaches about building a career in the dark — when the original plan is gone, when the path wasn't yours to choose, and when the only real option is to focus on what's in front of you and do the best you can with what you can control. He's been running that play since he was a kid. It still works!