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What happens when your life looks full — yet something inside you knows you’re meant for more?

In this episode, Dr. Caroline Sangal talks with author and global speaker Cortney McDermott, whose journey moves from a chaotic childhood in Chicago to London, France, Italy, corporate boardrooms, global stages, and ultimately, a profound internal awakening.

Cortney shares how achievement became a substitute for belonging, why success didn’t feel like success, and what shifted when she finally listened to her intuition.

You’ll hear:

• the inner signals that tell you you’re ready for a new chapter
• how crisis, curiosity, and intuition guided Cortney’s reinvention
• the moment she realized she was “miserably successful”
• why simplicity is often the most powerful form of truth
  
  

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A full calendar can look like success. Sometimes it’s just a belief you absorbed early.

In this episode, Dr. Caroline Sangal is joined by Wes Towers, founder of Uplift 360, to talk about the definition of success he picked up as a kid: busy equals important, and how his perspective evolved into building real value, protecting time for family, and designing work around life.

We also talk about trust in a noisy world, the power of clear communication without jargon, why niching down works, and how Wes is using AI as an assistant to streamline operations while keeping human connection at the center.

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What happens when your career looks amazing on paper and your body keeps signaling strain?

In this episode, Caroline talks with Nataly Huff, executive coach and founder of Inspire Forward Coaching, about the hidden cost of high performance, the “professional face” many of us learn to wear, and the moment values make everything come into focus.

Nataly shares her journey from growing up in Russia during major political upheaval, to immigrating to the U.S., to building a high-growth career in marketing and leadership. You’ll hear how success can feel like a dream… until the culture shifts, the systems scale, and your values stop fitting inside the role. This conversation is about finding your way back to alignment, authenticity, and a path that supports both performance and peace.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why high performance can coexist with chronic stress signals
• How values create clarity around what’s sustainable
• The difference between being respected for results and being known as a person
• What “the wrong ladder” really feels like from the inside
• How Nataly helps leaders grow with both neuroscience and heart

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What changes when you choose your career with real-world exposure and honest insight before you invest years into a guess?

Mike Wysocki spent 30 plus years in tech sales, built stability, and recognized that meaning and alignment shape long-term career satisfaction. He turned that experience into action by creating Careers By the People, an award-winning career readiness resource built from candid input from professionals across dozens of career paths.

In this episode, we talk about career readiness, career exploration, career clarity, networking, shadowing, and the bridge that helps students and adults make confident career decisions that support the life they want.

Key topics

• Career readiness and career exploration that creates clarity
• How environment shapes what feels possible
• Shadowing and informational interviews as a career clarity tool
• Networking as relationship-building with purpose
• Meaningful work and authentic success

Connect with Mike
careersbythepeople.com

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Management is a major career decision and a lot of people step into it without real clarity.

In this episode, Dr. Caroline Sangal talks with Joanne Merrick, founder of The Leadership Recipe and author of Game On! Is Management Your Best Career Play? Joanne shares her story from Australia to Hong Kong to the United States, why neuroscience changed how she sees leadership, and why she believes impact is everything.

This conversation helps you think clearly about what management actually involves before you commit to the role.

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What would you do if you spent years delivering at a high level supporting leaders, carrying responsibility, being the steady presence behind the scenes, and then the promotion opportunity comes up and you’re passed over.

Not only that. You’re asked to train the person they chose.

In this episode of Your Next Success, Sybil Stewart shares what happened when she lived that moment and what it revealed. We talk about the hidden cost of corporate silence, what it feels like when your voice is valuable but not truly valued, and how the body can start carrying what you have been trained to hold.

Sybil is a Christian business speaker and consultant who believes we are meant to do well, be well, and serve well. For more than a decade, she was the quiet force behind influential leaders, global companies, and cultural movements. Today she helps faith led women in service businesses speak and serve at the highest level. And as a TEDx Morgan St. Organizer, Sybil is intentionally creating stages where women can tell their stories in a way that protects their voice and honors their message.

Learn more about Sybil's work and the TEDx Morgan St. event at https://www.sybilstewart.com/

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You can be highly capable and still feel stalled. Sometimes the work speaks for itself and the room still does not move. In this episode, Keith Anderson shares what he learned after years inside big tech watching how promotion decisions are actually made. He breaks down the hidden layer most high performers never get taught: the trust signals leaders look for when deciding who is safe to elevate.
If you’ve ever heard vague feedback like “more presence” or “advocate for yourself” and felt unsure what to do with it, this conversation gives you clarity and a new path forward.

You’ll also hear Keith’s personal story of identity, ambition, and reinvention, including the moment that forced him to stop outsourcing his worth to institutions and start designing a career that matches who he is becoming.

Highlights

• Why praise without advancement keeps happening to high performers
• The trust signals leaders subconsciously look for before promotions
• How to translate your real value into leadership readiness
• A clean way to network that builds momentum without feeling transactional
• A grounded definition of success that starts with alignment

Keith is offering listeners a complimentary Career Growth Strategy Session:
https://www.careeralchemylab.com/calendar

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Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/

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What happens when you do everything “right” and still feel disconnected from yourself. Angie Hawkins knows that experience from the inside. In this episode, Angie shares her path from being a high achiever chasing love and approval, to rebuilding her identity after an emotional rock bottom. You will hear how childhood dreams, grief, nervous system work, and courageous honesty became part of her return to self.

This conversation is for you if you have done therapy, read the books, tried the spiritual path, and you still sense there is more available. More peace. More self trust. More joy that feels real.

What you will hear

• The identity shift from chasing approval to choosing yourself
• How childhood clues point to what is true
• Why stability can look safe and still feel misaligned
• The moment Angie heard “it’s not your time” and everything changed
• Creating your own rules for life, and living with integrity
• What it looks like to shine from the inside

Support the show

Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode.

Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/

Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com