Finding Your Next Squiggle: Career Moves After a Pause with Renee Ketels

Finding Your Next Squiggle: Career Moves After a Pause with Renee Ketels

Whether you left the workforce by choice or the decision was made for you, knowing what to actually do next is a whole different challenge. In this episode, we're doing something a little different. Instead of hearing about a squiggle in hindsight, we're in it with Renee Ketels in real time. Renee spent years as a Senior Manager of Design Communications at General Motors before stepping away to raise her kids. Now she's ready for her next chapter — and she's targeting a move into philanthropy and nonprofits focused on women, family, and education. She's networking, doing informational interviews, joining groups, volunteering with United Way. She's doing everything right. So why does the next step still feel unclear? Colleen and Ashleigh sit down with Renee to map out the actual next moves. If you've been out of the job market for a few years (or more), this episode is the honest conversation you didn't know you needed.  If you're job hunting, career pivoting, or trying to figure out what comes after the pause — this one's for you. About Renee Ketels Renee is a former Senior Manager of Design Communications at General Motors, now navigating her return to the workforce with a focus on philanthropy and nonprofits in the women, family, and education space. Connect with Renee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneeketels/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneeketels/] Work with Maxady Ready to take your next career step? Maxady [https://www.maxady.com] helps you find the role that actually fits — your skills, your life, your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts * Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-delvecchio/] * Ashleigh Beadle → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighbeadle/] Subscribe & Leave a Review If this episode resonated, please leave us a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it. It helps more people find the show. 🎙️

Crafting Your Million Dollar Message: How to Launch Yourself as a Thought Leader and Turn Words Into Wealth with Aurora Winter

What if the words you use (and the stories you tell) are the currency of your career and business? Aurora Winter has built multiple 7-figure companies, won awards for her books, and been featured everywhere from ABC-TV to Oprah Radio. And her thesis is: communication isn't a soft skill. It's the foundation of everything! In this episode, Colleen and Ashleigh sit down with Aurora to dig into the neuroscience of communication, why your words are quite literally triggering (or killing) buying decisions, and what Steve Jobs knew about storytelling that most people don't. Whether you're trying to grow a business, launch a book, or just get people to actually listen to you, this one's packed! We talk about why thought leaders need to be authors (even in an AI world), how to turn one idea into multiple streams of income and impact, and why Aurora finally sat down to write the YA fantasy series she's been thinking about since she was nine. Aurora Winter 🌐 aurorawinter.com [https://www.aurorawinter.com/] 💼 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurorawinter/] 🎯 Free Quiz — Ready to Launch as a Thought Leader? thoughtleaderlaunch.com [https://thoughtleaderlaunch.com/] Books & Resources Mentioned * Turn Words Into Wealth by Aurora Winter * Magic, Mystery and the Multiverse by Aurora Winter Work with Maxady Ready to take your next career step? Maxady [https://www.maxady.com] helps you find the role that actually fits — your skills, your life, your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts * Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-delvecchio/] * Ashleigh Beadle → LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighbeadle/] Subscribe & Leave a Review If this episode resonated, please leave us a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it. It helps more people find the show. 🎙️

Career Growth and Visibility When You Work From Home: Is There a Remote Work Trap?

You got the flexibility you asked for. But now you're wondering… is working from home actually holding you back? You're showing up, but you're not in the room where it happens. And when promotion season comes around, out of sight might just mean out of mind! In this episode, Colleen and Ashleigh ( just our lovely co-hosts this week with no guest!) get real about the remote work dilemma: the freedom it offers and the specific strategies you need to keep your career moving forward when you're not in the office. From closing the visibility gap with leadership to knowing when hybrid is actually the smarter career move, this conversation is practical and can be implemented to your career squiggle ASAP.  🎯 Want accountability while navigating your career pivot? Maxady's coaching services help you navigate uncertainty, embrace your strengths, and build a career you love. 👉 https://www.maxady.com/coaching [https://www.maxady.com/coaching] Stay in Touch with Your Hosts Colleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/comara/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/comara/] Ashleigh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-beadle/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-beadle/] 🎙️ Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for more conversations on squiggly career paths, mindset shifts, and the courage it takes to evolve on purpose.

What Teens Can Teach Us About Our Own Squiggly Careers with Kristen Peterson

What if the career you never planned for turned out to be exactly the one you were meant to have? And what if the teens in your life — the ones navigating big decisions about their futures — can actually teach you everything you need to know about squiggly careers? We've all had moments where the path we're on suddenly stops making sense. Where the bravest thing we can do is admit it and change course. That's exactly what Kristen Peters-Peterson did, more than once, before finding work that truly aligned with her purpose. In this episode of Embrace the Squiggle, Colleen and Ashleigh sit down with Kristen Peterson, founder of AWren Advisors, an educational consulting practice supporting teens, families, and schools through some of the most pivotal decisions of adolescence. Kristen's career journey — from aspiring wildlife vet to cultural anthropology student to ESPN to boarding school educator to entrepreneur — is an epic squiggle that will resonate with every squiggler listening. Website: http://www.awrenadvisors.com [http://www.awrenadvisors.com] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awrenadvisors/ [https://www.instagram.com/awrenadvisors/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/AWren-Advisors-LLC/61574810956686/ [https://www.facebook.com/people/AWren-Advisors-LLC/61574810956686/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-h-peterson/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-h-peterson/] | https://www.linkedin.com/company/awren-advisors [https://www.linkedin.com/company/awren-advisors] Books & Resources Mentioned 📖 Untangled — Lisa Damour (essential reading for anyone raising or working with teenage girls) 🎯 Want accountability while navigating your career pivot? Maxady's coaching services help you navigate uncertainty, embrace your strengths, and build a career you love. 👉 https://www.maxady.com/coaching [https://www.maxady.com/coaching] Stay in Touch with Your Hosts Colleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/comara/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/comara/] Ashleigh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-beadle/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-beadle/] 🎙️ Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for more conversations on squiggly career paths, mindset shifts, and the courage it takes to evolve on purpose.

The Importance of Brand Photography That Actually Reflects Your Squiggly Career with Heike Delmore

Your brand photos might be the most vulnerable thing you'll ever do for your business. And that's exactly the point. Most women entrepreneurs are walking around with headshots that no longer reflect who they are but images that show who they were three pivots ago. But your photos aren't just marketing assets. They're a signal to the world about who you're becoming, and they have the power to accelerate opportunities before you even open your mouth. In this episode of Embrace the Squiggle, Colleen and Ashleigh sit down with Heike Delmore, personal branding photographer and educator, who helps women entrepreneurs translate their evolving identity into images that actually reflect where they're headed. With a background in international advertising (MasterCard, GM) and a deep study of human behavior and psychology, Heike brings a uniquely intentional approach to the camera. Heike Delmore is the founder of Delmore Personal Brand Photography. She helps women entrepreneurs capture not just where they are, but who they are becoming — combining her background in international advertising and psychology to coach clients through the vulnerability of being seen and translate their evolving identity into powerful visual stories. Website: http://delmorephotography.com [http://delmorephotography.com]  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heikedelmore/ [https://www.instagram.com/heikedelmore/]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heike-delmore-personal-branding-photographer/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/heike-delmore-personal-branding-photographer/]  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heikedelmorecoaching/ [https://www.facebook.com/heikedelmorecoaching/] Books & Resources Mentioned 📖 The War of Art — Steven Pressfield: https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1936891026/ [https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1936891026/] 🎵 Dallylama Playlists on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/ngegi5hi7kn571q5q6phekih8 [https://open.spotify.com/user/ngegi5hi7kn571q5q6phekih8] 🎯 Want accountability while navigating your career pivot? Maxady's coaching services help you navigate uncertainty, embrace your strengths, and build a career you love. 👉 https://www.maxady.com/coaching [https://www.maxady.com/coaching] Stay in Touch with Your Hosts Colleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/comara/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/comara/] 🎙️ Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for more conversations on squiggly career paths, mindset shifts, and the courage it takes to evolve on purpose.