What happens when the role you have built your identity around no longer makes sense, but nothing has replaced it yet?

When your work has shaped how you introduce yourself and how the world sees you, loosening your grip on that role can feel deeply unsettling. Instead of clarity or excitement, you may experience doubt, a drop in confidence, and a strange sense of emptiness.

In this episode, we explore the overlooked phase of professional transition where old identities fall away, familiar measures of success stop working, and you find yourself between who you were and who you are becoming.

• Understand why disorientation and low energy often follow the decision to step away from a long held professional identity.
• Recognise the quiet loss that comes with leaving a role that once provided certainty and status.
• Learn why this in-between phase is not something to fix, but something to move through.

Listen now to make sense of the space between identities and to understand why you are not meant to feel finished yet.

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Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.

Ever feel like your career transition is “going nowhere”… even though you’re doing all the right things?

If you’re in that messy in-between of job loss, burnout, values mismatch, or a pivot that’s taking longer than you expected, this episode will feel like a deep exhale. Michelle Schafer (two-time restructuring survivor turned career coach) breaks down why this phase feels so uncertain, why confidence takes a hit, and what to do when the “sprout” hasn’t shown up yet… even though growth is happening under the surface.

• Learn practical ways to manage the emotional rollercoaster of uncertainty (without pretending you’re fine).
• Discover simple, repeatable actions to rebuild confidence, especially if job searching feels harder than it used to.
• Get a clear career-transition strategy: how to define your target, create a plan, and stop wasting energy on unfocused applications.

Press play now to get a grounded, step-by-step approach that helps you regain clarity and confidence, so you can move toward work that energises you and aligns with what you believe.

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KEY POINTS AND TIMESTAMPS:

01:40 - Michelle’s background and restructuring experiences

03:30 - The planted seed: discovering coaching

07:00 - The seed and gardening metaphor for career transition

09:48 - Navigating uncertainty during transitions

13:54 - Emotional regulation and building supportive practices

16:18 - Confidence dips and practical reflection strategies

21:10 - Strategy, clarity and planning your career direction

27:45 - Resources, final questions and concluding insights

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MEMORABLE QUOTE:

"Use your network more. Look through your network, not just at it, because every connection opens the door to many more."

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Michelle's website: https://mschafercoaching.ca/

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Coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

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🎙️ Want to be a guest on the podcast?

Message Agi on PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/personaldevelopmentmastery

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Conversations and insights on career transition, career clarity, career change and career pivots for midlife professionals, including second careers, new ventures, leaving a long-term career with confidence, better decision-making, and creating purposeful, meaningful work.

˚

Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.

Are you stuck in a career that no longer fits, but still haven’t taken a real-world step to change it?

If you’ve been quietly contemplating a career or life transition for months (or years) without moving forward, this episode will speak directly to you.

It’s not about confusion. It’s about why high-achieving professionals often stay silently stuck, even when clarity has already arrived.

Discover why your current approach might be the very thing keeping you circling in place.

If you’ve been carrying this quietly on your own, listen now to discover a new, more sustainable way forward.

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Book a 1:1 conversation with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

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Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.

Are you a midlife professional feeling a growing disconnect between your career success and your personal fulfillment?

Many Generation X professionals reach midlife with impressive achievements, yet silently struggle with a deep sense of dissatisfaction, identity confusion, or the haunting feeling that time is running out to live a truly meaningful life. This episode offers a compassionate, insightful roadmap for those questioning their current career path and seeking a purpose-driven reinvention.

• Discover why high performers often feel disconnected at midlife, and what to do when the “mask” you’ve worn at work no longer fits.
• Learn practical ways to explore new possibilities through tiny experiments, identity redefinition, and values discovery.
• Hear a deeply personal story of transition from corporate leadership to purpose-led coaching, with actionable advice on navigating financial fears, identity loss, and uncertainty.

Listen now to learn how to begin designing a life and career that reflects who you truly are – not just the role you've always played.

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KEY POINTS AND TIMESTAMPS:

00:41 - Introducing Shelley McIntyre & the midlife disconnect

03:04 - Masks, midlife reckoning and inner identity

06:53 - Options, evidence and experimenting with possibility

09:17 - Values, meaning and redefining what work must provide

11:18 - Shelley’s personal transition story

16:26 - Practical first steps: finances and portfolio careers

19:33 - Challenges of transition: uncertainty, off-gassing and relationships

24:14 - Identity, masks and rediscovering what you love

30:16 - Professional identity, caring professions and essence work

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MEMORABLE QUOTE:

"All knowledge is rumor until it is in the bones."

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Shelley's website: https://burnthemapcoaching.com/

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Coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

˚

🎙️ Want to be a guest on the podcast?

Message Agi on PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/personaldevelopmentmastery

˚

Conversations and insights on career transition, career clarity, career change and career pivots for midlife professionals, including second careers, new ventures, leaving a long-term career with confidence, better decision-making, and creating purposeful, meaningful work.

˚

Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.

Are you feeling the weight of the new year already, wondering if you can keep going in a role that no longer fits?

If you're in your 40s or 50s and standing at a crossroads in your career or identity, the return to routine after the holidays can reignite a quiet inner pressure: the sense that something needs to change, but you're unsure where to begin. This episode offers a grounded path forward.

• Discover the power of a simple 90-day map to help you transition with clarity and confidence.
• Learn how to move from overthinking to meaningful, focused action with just three essential prompts.
• Understand why a small, real-world experiment can be the key to unlocking your next chapter, without the overwhelm of long-term planning.

Start your year with clarity. Press play now and map your next 90 days with purpose.

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Book your Midlife Transition Map session: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

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Conversations and insights on career transition, career clarity, midlife career change and career pivots for midlife professionals, including second careers, new ventures, leaving a long-term career with confidence, better decision-making, and creating purposeful, meaningful work.

˚

Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.

Are you navigating a major life transition, especially in midlife, and struggling with uncertainty, identity shifts, or unmet expectations?

In this heartfelt and deeply insightful episode, Hans Wilhelm returns to explore the spiritual perspective on transitions, especially during midlife. If you're facing change and feel lost without a clear direction, this conversation offers both comfort and guidance. Whether you're leaving a long-held career or questioning your next move, Hans shares timeless wisdom that helps you reconnect with your inner joy and higher self.

• Discover how following your inner joy can become your most reliable compass through uncertainty.
• Learn why unmet expectations create suffering—and how to reframe them to regain emotional freedom.
• Embrace practical techniques to shift from self-pity to empowerment and align with your soul’s purpose.

Tune in now to uncover how life transitions can become profound spiritual awakenings when you listen to your inner guidance.

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KEY POINTS AND TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction, podcast mission and welcoming Hans Wilhelm

02:11 - Setting the theme: midlife transitions and lack of clarity

04:11 - Following inner joy as guidance from the higher self

11:57 - Joy as a beacon and introducing expectations

13:50 - Turning painful expectations into preferences and trusting life’s plan

20:29 - Escaping victimhood: silver linings and the three-positives practice

25:41 - Midlife transitions and loosening the grip of old identities

28:16 - Gratitude for past careers and letting go of professional labels

35:06 - Service as the highest form of love and purpose in later life

39:07 - Karma, everyday service, and closing reflections on gratitude

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MEMORABLE QUOTE:

"Unfulfilled expectations are the basis of all our physical pain, our mental pain, anything that doesn’t work the way we expect it to.”"

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

First conversation with Hans Wilhelm: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/520

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Coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

˚

Conversations and insights on career transition, career clarity, midlife career change and career pivots for midlife professionals, including second careers, new ventures, leaving a long-term career with confidence, better decision-making, and creating purposeful, meaningful work.

˚

Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.

If you are in a midlife transition and still finding yourself second guessing every step, you might be stuck waiting for the “right” answer before you move.

In this personal reflection, I share what I have seen in my own journey and in the people I work with: how easy it is, once you have left the old structure, to start treating every decision in your new chapter like an exam you can pass or fail.

We look at why that old way of deciding made sense in your previous career, and why it quietly keeps you frozen now, even though you have already done the brave thing and stepped into change.

• You will hear a simple mindset shift that turns decisions from pressure-filled tests into chances to build self trust.
• You will get three practical tools to help you treat your choices as experiments instead of life sentences.
• And you will start building your own evidence that you can handle what comes next, so you feel less afraid of “getting it wrong” and more grounded in who you are becoming.

Press play to sit with me for a few minutes, and learn how to move from chasing certainty to trusting your ability to respond with clarity, courage, and self respect in this next chapter of your life and work.

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

˚

Conversations and insights on career transition, career clarity, midlife career change and career pivots for midlife professionals, including second careers, new ventures, leaving a long-term career with confidence, better decision-making, and creating purposeful, meaningful work.

˚

Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.

Feeling reflective between Christmas and New Year? In this solo episode, I share a simple end-of-year ritual I use myself to clear mental fog and choose the next direction with intention.

If you are in midlife and already in a career or life transition, this quiet season can stir up doubt and overthinking. In this personal reflection, I guide you through a calming, structured way to make sense of where you are and what comes next.

Gain insight into your year without judging it, using a 4-part clarity ritual you can complete in around 20 minutes. See what to leave behind, what to carry forward, and how to set a grounded intention for your next chapter.

Listen now and follow along with the ritual to turn festive overthinking into clarity, confidence, and a simple next step for the new year.

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

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For an A4 printable page of the exercise in this episode, click here:
https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/566workbook

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Conversations and insights on career transition, career clarity, midlife career change and career pivots for midlife professionals, including second careers, new ventures, leaving a long-term career with confidence, better decision-making, and creating purposeful, meaningful work.

˚

Support the show

Career transition and career clarity podcast content for midlife professionals in career transition, navigating a career change, career pivot or second career, starting a new venture or leaving a long-term career.

Discover practical tools for career clarity, confident decision-making, rebuilding self belief and confidence, finding purpose and meaning in work, designing a purposeful, fulfilling next chapter, and creating meaningful work that fits who you are now. Episodes explore personal development and mindset for midlife professionals, including how to manage uncertainty and pressure, overcome fear and self-doubt, clarify your direction, plan your next steps, and turn your experience into a new role, business or vocation that feels aligned.

To support the show, click here.