Designed Pause Podcast

The day after a layoff, most of us do the same thing: we panic-apply to every job that looks like the last one.
I’m in Thailand right now, and at an elephant sanctuary I met an elephant named Dancing Queen. She was rescued from a circus. She’s free now, and nobody asks her to perform. But whenever people come close, she still starts to dance.
That stayed with me, because so many of us do the same thing after a layoff. We keep performing for the paycheck, the title, and the applause, even when none of it is required of us anymore.
In this episode, I talk about why that happens and how to stop. I also walk through five paths you can choose instead of panic-applying:
Return: the same field or role type, chosen on purpose this time
Shift: a different role or field that uses what you’re good at
Prepare: build a skill, credential, or network before you commit
Pause: take real time before you search at all
Transition: a different kind of work entirely
Just got laid off? Designed Pause: Catch Your Breath is a course that helps you use your own thinking, with AI as a thinking partner, to plan your next move. It covers severance, COBRA, your financial and emotional runway, and a 30/60/90-day plan built around you, not a generic template.
Catch Your Breath course: https://stan.store/designedpause/p/designed-pause-the-transition-course
Everything lives at designedpause.com

Last episode, I told you the doctor in Bangkok found something during my full head-to-toe checkup. This is what happened next.
I share what came up, the signs I’d brushed off for years, and what it felt like to finally be heard by a doctor who trusted me to know what I want for my own life. It’s still unfolding, and it may keep me in Thailand longer than I planned.
If nothing else comes from this career break, this alone made the leap worth it.
This is my personal experience, not medical advice.
Book a free Pause Clarity Call at designedpause.com with code SAMPLE100.

I'm in Thailand, and I used part of my career break to do something I never had time for in corporate. I got a full head-to-toe checkup at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok.
In this episode, I take you through the whole experience, start to finish. I'll tell you why I wanted to go beyond a standard physical at 40, how I booked a package with the price listed up front, and how the hospital handled my insurance for me. Then I walk you through a six-hour day that felt nothing like any healthcare I've had in the United States.
At the end of the day, the doctor found something. It's going to change my stay here and the next couple of months of my life. More on that in the next episode.
This isn't medical advice. Talk with your own provider about what's right for you.
Free Designed Pause Journaling Prompts: https://v2.stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts

I spent years with a suitcase that never really got unpacked, for a job I was good at. My guest today knows that life well.
Alana Rollock was a nurse turned director of client outcomes at a virtual nursing company. She flew Monday through Friday, answered emails at Sunday dinner, and loved the work. When she tried to leave, they offered to double her salary. Twice, they convinced her to stay.
She left anyway. Not because she wasn't successful, but because, in her words, "compensation can fix the discomfort momentarily, but it cannot always fix misalignment."
Today, through RLK AI Vision Lab, Alana helps business owners and organizations turn AI into practical business infrastructure. She's also the co-creator of Awaken, an eight-week activation accelerator for people turning their experience into something of their own.
In this episode, we talk about:
–  What her corporate chapter actually looked like, day to day
–  Golden handcuffs, and how she knew there was no longer a price that would keep her
–  Why she treated her employer as her "investors" while she prepared to leave
–  Being happily single and child-free by choice at 40, and what people get wrong about it
–  The stillness nobody warns you about after you leave
–  What she'd do differently
 
If something in this conversation stayed with you, don't rush past it. Start with the free Designed Pause Journaling Prompts.
Free Journaling Prompts: https://v2.stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts
Connect with Alana:
–  Free Awaken AI Masterclass, Wednesday, September 30 at 8:00 PM EST. Text AWAKEN to 888-778-3502 anytime to register.
–  Alana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanarollock/

Since I was a little girl, I had a dream of living on an island close to the beach. I always figured it would happen at retirement. After I had done enough of the other things first.
And then I stopped waiting.
This is a personal episode about why I made travel and a move to Saint Lucia part of my career break — and what that decision has taught me about what luxury actually means, what ambition costs when it goes unchecked, and who you become when you are placed in a completely new environment where nobody knows who you are and there are no expectations of you.
I talk about the sister's trip that first brought me to Saint Lucia, what I had to sell and let go of to make this move, the realization that I was conflating luxury with convenience, and what it feels like to build a business without being crushed by the weight of my own ambition.
And I talk directly to the woman who has a version of this dream but has convinced herself it's only possible later.
It isn't. The road will be different for everyone. But it is worth traveling.
Book a free Pause Clarity Call: designedpause.com use code Sample100
Download the journaling prompts: https://v2.stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts
 

Ten planes in fourteen days. A friend's studio opening. Napa Valley with my sister. An interview on a channel I've watched for years. Time with my mom. A new coaching client whose entire perspective shifted in one conversation.
This is a freestyle episode — no framework, no guest, just an honest reflection on what it feels like when the life you spent so long designing starts to actually land.
I also talk about why it matters to let yourself feel the good days. Because as real as the mental shifts and the unlearning are, the joy is real too. And it's worth naming out loud.
Plus — what's coming next, including an extended trip to Thailand.
Book a free Pause Clarity Call — use code SAMPLE100: designedpause.com
Exodus Summit YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@exodussummit

Career breaks are about more than preparing financially. You need help getting ready for the mental shift too.
Most high achievers who take a career pause are blindsided by two things nobody warned them about. The first is living between identities — the disorientation that hits when someone asks what you do and your old answer no longer fits. The second is letting go of the need to feel productive — the guilt of sleeping, resting, and existing without a deliverable attached.
Both of them can take a pause that was designed to restore you and quietly turn it into another source of stress. This episode is about seeing them coming before they arrive.
I walk through what each struggle actually looks like, what I personally experienced, and the strategies that helped me — before the pause and during it. Because the mental preparation is just as important as the financial preparation. And almost nobody talks about it.
Download the free Designed Pause journaling prompts: https://stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts
designedpause.com

Tarji Carter knew she was leaving corporate. She just didn't know when.
So she started preparing. Two years before she actually left, she was collecting personal phone numbers and email addresses, saving aggressively every pay period, getting her medical appointments done, and quietly building the vision for what would become The Franchise Player — because she knew that when the moment came, she didn't want to leave out of desperation. She wanted to leave on her own terms.
In this episode Tarji and I talk about what intentional exit planning actually looks like, what it cost her to build something that the franchise industry had never prioritized, and why she has no plan B.
We cover:
How she went from knowing nothing about franchising to being promoted to Director of Franchise Sales within eight months
The slow build that led her to leave corporate — and the week in Barcelona that started it all
How she prepared financially for her pause two years in advance
The loneliness of building something nobody around you understands
What franchising actually is — and why it might be the wealth-building tool you never knew was available to you
What she wishes she had known before she made the leap
Connect with Tarji Carter and The Franchise Player: thefranchiseplayer.com
Get the Designed Pause Decision Kit: www.designedpause.com

There is a lot of noise about what a career break will cost you. You'll fall behind. Employers won't hire you. You need to have it all figured out first.
Some of that is true. Some of it is outdated. And some of it is just fear dressed up as fact.
In this episode I walk through three of the most common myths about intentional career pauses — what the research actually shows, and what I experienced on the other side of all three.
Myth 1: You'll fall behind and never catch upA 2022 LinkedIn survey of 23,000 global workers found that 56% of people who took a career break acquired new skills or improved existing ones during that time.🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/product-tips/linkedin-members-spotlight-career-breaks-on-profiles
Myth 2: Employers will never hire you after a gapHarvard Business School research found that 43-48% of applicant tracking systems filter out resumes with gaps over six months. But 51% of hiring managers say they are more likely to contact a candidate who provides context about their break.🔗 https://careerreturners.com/external-research/
Myth 3: You need to have it all figured out before you pause64% of people felt anxious about taking a career break. The anxiety is normal. Moving anyway is the difference.🔗 https://careerreturners.com/external-research/
Book a free Pause Clarity Call: designedpause.com Use code SAMPLE100 at checkout
 

I'm not going to tell you to quit your job.
What I will do is ask you five questions. Because the woman who is privately wondering whether she needs to make a change doesn't need someone to hand her an answer. She needs someone to help her find her own.
These are the questions I would ask if you came to me and said — I think something needs to change, but I don't know what.
Something shifted. What happened — or what stopped happening — that made you start taking this seriously?
If you're being honest with yourself — not the version you'd tell your manager or your partner — how done are you really?
If you stripped away the title, the salary, the way people introduce you at dinner parties — what is left?
If the money was handled and nobody had an opinion — what would you do tomorrow?
Not the full plan. Not the five-year vision. Just the next honest step. What is it?
You don't have to have all the answers right now. Sit with the one that landed. The question that felt a little too close — that's usually the one worth staying with.
Download the free Designed Pause journaling prompts: https://stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts
Book a free Pause Clarity Call: designedpause.com use code SAMPLE100 at checkout