Designed Pause Podcast

Stuck behind a desk wondering if a career pause means falling behind? In this episode, I'm breaking down 5 ways to come back from your pause more valuable than when you left.
In this episode:
Why a hybrid pause is the right time for skill-building (and when it's not)
Remote contract, freelance, and fractional work — how to start without recreating your old workload
Online certifications that actually signal intention (not just badge-collecting)
Why I invested time in learning AI tools, and how to start with Claude or ChatGPT
Writing and thought leadership as a way to stay visible during your pause
The most overlooked (and free) option: mentorship and relationship-building
You don't need to do all five. Pick one or two aligned with where you're headed, and go deep.
If you're ready to get clear on what kind of pause makes sense for you — how long, what type, and what your financial reality looks like — the Designed Pause Decision Kit walks you through it with a clear framework.
👉Designed Pause Decision Kit Link: https://stan.store/designedpause/p/get-my-designed-pause-decision-kit-now-copyUse code PAUSEPOD for 50% off
I'm Deidra Green, and this is Designed Pause. Slow down on purpose.

Sandy Diaz Haley did not leave corporate on a whim. She left when the timing was right, the cushion was there, and nothing on the corporate side excited her anymore. And even then — it was the hardest she has ever worked.
Sandy is the founder of SDH Communications and the creator of the Badass Collective, a community of 3,000 plus communications and PR professionals that started as a happy hour after an unexpected layoff and grew into something she never planned.
In this episode we talk about building something accidentally and intentionally at the same time, what corporate trauma actually looks like and how long it takes to feel it lift, why listening is the foundation of all good communication — including the communication you have with yourself, the job interview that confirmed she was exactly where she was supposed to be, and what she whispered to her daughter at camp drop-off that says everything about how she moves through the world.
Her advice for anyone still in corporate: don't be impulsive, take your inventory, and choose your hard. Both paths are difficult. The question is which one you can make peace with.
Connect with Sandy and SDH Communications: https://www.sdhcommunications.com/
The Badass Collective: https://wearetbcollective.com/
Get the Designed Pause Decision Kit — 50% off with code PAUSEPOD: https://stan.store/designedpause/p/get-my-designed-pause-decision-kit-now-copy
Free journaling prompts: designedpause.com

Kalilah Wright founded Mess in a Bottle in 2016 with less than $500, during one of the hardest seasons of her personal life. What followed was nearly a decade of building something remarkable — national television, major brand partnerships, and close to $10 million in revenue.
And then life changed. The stakes got higher. The hustle that worked at 32 looked different at 42. And Khalilah found herself at a crossroads that a lot of entrepreneurs recognize but rarely talk about out loud.
This episode is that conversation.
We talk about betting on yourself when everything around you is a mess, using skills you already have in ways you never expected, what it means to protect what you have built when you have more to lose, running toward everything at once and not being attached to how it lands, and what she is building next.
Kalilah also shares the resource that has shaped how she thinks about her next chapter — The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran — and drops some breaking news about what is coming up for her.
This one is real. No polish. No highlight reel. Just an honest conversation about what it looks like to keep building when the road changes underneath you.
Check out Mess in a Bottle: https://www.messinabottle.com/
The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran: https://amzn.to/4vfuobE
Get the Designed Pause Decision Kit — 50% off with code PAUSEPOD: https://stan.store/designedpause/p/get-my-designed-pause-decision-kit-now-copy
designedpause.com

Bernadette Smith has been an entrepreneur for 22 years. She didn't leave corporate to start over — she never went in. And what she built instead is a masterclass in following purpose over comfort, even when it means burning it all down and starting again.
In this conversation, Bernadette and I talk about:
How a Supreme Court ruling on the steps of the Massachusetts State House launched her first business
What it actually felt like to walk away from six-figure weddings in New York City at the height of her success
The abundance mindset work that got her through her hardest season — and why it's still a daily practice
How Inclusive 360 was born directly from imposter syndrome
What self-love actually has to do with professional freedom
How she designed a life led by her two core values: freedom and optimism
Get Inclusive 360 by Bernadette Smith: https://amzn.to/4dRfiDo
You're a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero: https://amzn.to/4dzXlI6
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero: https://amzn.to/499yf1o
The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu: https://amzn.to/3RQ0v37
Five Things Newsletter by Bernadette Smith: https://amzn.to/3RQ0v37
Get the Designed Pause Decision Kit — 50% off with code PAUSEPOD

The thing keeping most high-achieving women from making a big life decision isn’t other people’s opinions. It’s the anticipation of them.
In this episode I talk about what it actually looks like to make a decision that belongs entirely to you — without asking for a panel, without defending yourself before you’re ready, and without owing anyone an explanation you didn’t agree to give.
We cover:
Why the imaginary audience is more dangerous than the real one
How to protect a decision while it’s still forming — without being secretive
The three categories of people in your life and who gets access to what, and when
What to actually say when people ask — and how to say it without apologizing
 
Download the free Designed Pause journaling prompts: www.designedpause.com

You know you need to stop. Your body knows it. Your sleep knows it. But you can't quite give yourself permission to do it.
That's not a logistics problem. That's an audacity problem.
In this episode I walk through the four things that make pausing feel impossible for high-achieving corporate professionals — and why finding the audacity to slow down is one of the most strategic things you can do.
We cover:
The permission problem — why you keep waiting to earn rest you were never going to be handed
The identity threat — why pausing feels like disappearing, and what's actually on the other side of that fear
What you're actually afraid of losing — and what I found out when I lost it anyway
Why audacity is a skill, not a personality trait — and how to start practicing it today
 
Download the free Designed Pause journaling prompts: www.designedpause.com

You've been thinking about a career pause for a while. Maybe months. And you still don't know if you're actually ready — or if you're just exhausted.
This episode gives you a 7-day plan to find out.
Each day has one task, built around the same framework inside the Designed Pause Decision Kit:
Take the Designed Pause Quiz
Decode your pause type
Do your financial reality inventory
Map your other obligations
Assess your energy and capacity
Calculate your pause length
Work through your 48-Hour Decision Map
 
Get the Designed Pause Decision Kit — 50% off with code PAUSEPOD
Get the Fast Track Prompt – 50% off with code PAUSEPOD

This is a freestyle episode — an honest, unscripted update on what life in St. Lucia actually looks like right now.
Deidra shares what she's been learning about being intentional with where she is instead of waiting to get back home, the small but meaningful wins (a nail tech who changed her life, a gym she actually walks to), what's happening with her contracts, and how she genuinely feels after making this move.
No sugarcoating. No romanticizing. Just the real update — including why she's not homesick, not lonely, and feels more like herself than she has in years.
If you've been wondering what a designed pause actually looks like from the inside, this episode is it.
Ready to design your own? Grab the free journaling prompts: www.designedpause.com

Someone asks you what you actually want — not your next career move, not your five-year plan — and you kind of freeze.
Maybe you give the polished answer. But inside there's this moment where you think... I'm not sure I know.
That's not a you problem. That's what happens when you spend years getting really good at knowing what everyone else needed from you.
In this episode, I'm walking you through four questions designed to help you find your way back to the answer. They're not easy questions. But they're the right ones.
We cover: — Why high-achievers lose touch with what they want in the first place — Why not knowing is actually an honest starting point, not a failure — Four questions that move from the surface to something much deeper — What to do with what comes up
If something lands for you in this episode, the free journaling prompts in the link below are where this work continues. Thirty prompts, no cost, built for the moment when you know something needs to change but you don't quite have the words yet.
↓ Grab the free journaling prompts www.designedpause.com
And if you're ready to go further — map your opportunities, figure out what to pursue first, build an actual strategy for your pause — the Fast Track Prompt is also available on the site.
 

Every time you think about leaving, you do the math.
Salary. Benefits. What you'd have to give up. And the number stops you.
That math isn't wrong. It's just incomplete.
You've been calculating what you'd lose by leaving. You haven't calculated what you're spending by staying. And those are two very different numbers.
In this episode, I'm walking you through a four-category framework for the full cost of staying — the one that includes everything your spreadsheet has been leaving out.
We cover: — Why the financial calculation alone always makes staying look cheaper than it is — The physical costs you've normalized so completely you stopped noticing them — The identity and relationship costs that compound quietly over years — The one cost category on this list that has no recovery option
This isn't about convincing you to leave. It's about making sure you're working with accurate numbers before you decide anything.
If the honest accounting in this episode brought something up for you, the free journaling prompts in the link below are the right next step. Thirty prompts, no cost, built to help you get underneath the financial math and into what you're actually weighing.
↓ Grab the free journaling prompts www.designedpause.com