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What happens when you reach the career milestone you were certain would settle everything, then find a bigger question waiting at the top? Stan Phelps built a career at the top of sports marketing, running tennis promotions for Adidas and managing the New York Yankees relationship from an office inside Yankee Stadium. Each time he reached the role he had aimed for, the view asked more of him than the title had promised.

Following his curiosity, Stan gave himself one year to write about every part of his field, searching for the single idea to go a mile deep on. That year became his first book, and grew into twenty. He left the stability of corporate work behind, moved his family to the Triangle, and built the work and the life he wanted on his own terms.

In this conversation with Dr. Caroline Sangal, Stan shares the full arc, and what changed when he stopped chasing the next thing and started asking what he truly wanted to build.

You will hear:

• How reaching the top of a field can surface the very question you were trying to outrun
• The moment one word on a conference badge shifted how people saw him
• Why going a mile deep on one idea builds more than spreading wide across many
• The year of writing that became his first book and grew into twenty
• How Stan defines authentic success now, and where he puts his energy today

Find Stan's latest book, Speak Different, and his work at stanphelps.com.

Ready to build a career that fuels the life you want? Explore what's possible at nextsuccesscareers.com.

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You can reach every career goal you set and still catch yourself wondering what it was all for. Patrick Kamba knows that question well. He built the kind of career that looks complete from the outside, leading global programs in pharma, becoming a director, writing a book. And somewhere along the way he started paying attention to a smaller, more honest measure of success: whether he was actually around for the people he loved.

Patrick and Caroline walk through his whole path, from a kid who chose engineering while his family pictured a doctor, to a leader who learned to want less noise and more life. If your work looks right on paper and something quieter has started tugging at you, this one will land.

• What comes up after you hit the title you chased for years
• Why Patrick started measuring success by his weeknights
• How the relationships he built over ten years carried him through a career shock
• What quiet ambition means, and how to chase big goals without performing them
• Success as freedom, with people to share it with

Patrick Kamba wrote Quiet Ambition. Find him at patrickkamba.com.

Ready for a career that fuels your life? Start at nextsuccesscareers.com.

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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

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Nobody trains you to lead. Jen Heemstra found that out the hard way, then wrote the book on it.

She became a chemist by accident. Almost went to law school. Took an industry job that quietly convinced her she was mediocre. And then came the moment most academics dread: the tenure vote where half the room votes no.

Here's the twist. That's the moment she found her purpose.

In this episode you'll hear:

• How a night job in a stockroom turned into an entire career
• What a toxic job does to your confidence, and how she got hers back
• The tenure vote that should have ended her, and the leader who changed everything in one afternoon
• The one question from her husband that finally got the book written
• How she defines success now, and why kindness is the whole point

Chapters:

00:00 The plan, and a mother's advice

03:30 Changing majors and a year of exploring

07:00 Becoming a chemist by accident

23:00 The industry job

30:00 How a bad job shook her confidence

39:00 The tenure vote

41:00 The afternoon that pointed her to leadership

48:00 Writing the book

52:30 How she defines success

Jen's book, Labwork to Leadership: A Concise Guide to Thriving in the Science Job You Were Not Trained For: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674258630

Build a career that fuels the life you want: nextsuccesscareers.com

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