When Survival Patterns Become Career Strengths: Knowing When to Let Go

The Money Series | Part 3Knowing where our money beliefs come from doesn't necessarily mean we've changed them. We can understand our patterns, believe we're worthy of more, and still find ourselves overworking, undercharging, deflecting, or pulling back when more actually arrivesIn this episode of Unlearning in Progress, Angela and Jaime sit down with Anureet Kaur, sustainability leader, professor, writer, and keynote speaker, to explore the connection between nervous system regulation, money mindset, self-worth, and our capacity to receive abundance.Together, we explore what may be happening beneath those familiar patterns. Anureet Kaur helps us look beyond what we intellectually understand about ourselves and consider how our bodies respond to money, success, visibility, and receiving, and what it takes to begin creating a different response.In this conversation, we explore:How your nervous system may influence your relationship with money and successThe difference between understanding your limiting beliefs and actually changing your patternsWhy receiving more money, recognition, or opportunity can sometimes feel uncomfortableHow scarcity beliefs and self-worth show up in our financial decisionsWhy building the capacity to receive more requires practice, not just positive affirmationsSmall, practical ways to recognize your patterns and begin responding differentlyAnureet reminds us that awareness alone doesn't create change. Sometimes, we need to move beyond what we intellectually understand and begin experiencing something different.The question we're exploring: What if receiving more isn't just about believing we deserve it, but building the capacity to actually hold it?Subscribe to Unlearning in Progress for honest conversations about money, careers, personal growth, and the beliefs we're ready to unlearn.Connect with Anureet:https://anureetkaur.com/https://www.instagram.com/sustainabilitytoronto/https://www.linkedin.com/in/anureet/

Money Series | Part 2In Part 2 of our Money Series, we sit down with Dr. Johanna Peetz, a professor of psychology at Carleton University whose research has explored personal spending, financial decision-making, financial confidence, and the psychology behind our everyday money behaviors. Her work helps explain something many women experience: the gap between how financially capable we actually are and how confident we feel.Johanna Peetz takes us beneath the numbers to explore how family, culture, identity, and societal expectations shape our relationship with money. We unpack how the meaning we attach to money can influence our behavior, why women may be more likely to question what they know, and why talking about money can be an important part of building confidence. In this episode:Why financial confidence and financial capability aren't always the same thingHow family, culture, identity, and societal expectations shape our beliefs about moneyWhat money can represent beyond the numbers, from security and freedom to status and self-worthWhy talking about money and understanding financial language can help build confidenceHow to become more engaged with your money without needing to become an expert This conversation offers a different way to think about financial confidence, and a reminder that we may know more than we give ourselves credit for.

What if your relationship with money was shaped long before you earned your first paycheck?Welcome to Season 3 of Unlearning in Progress, where we're exploring one of life's most emotional and often taboo topics: money.Recording together in person from Nova Scotia, Angela and Jaime kick off the season by reflecting on their very different financial upbringings and the money beliefs they've carried into adulthood.From growing up with financial scarcity to being raised in a household focused on saving and financial security, they discover surprising similarities in how money has shaped their identities, careers, and sense of self-worth.In this episode, they explore:How childhood experiences shape our money mindset.The connection between money, success, and self-worth.Why we feel guilt or shame around spending money.How career transitions challenge our financial identity.The importance of questioning inherited money beliefs.They also preview what's ahead this season, including conversations about the psychology of money, investing, financial confidence, and what it really means to have enough.Join us as we kick off a season of honest conversations about women, money, and redefining success.Sometimes developing a healthier relationship with money isn't about earning more. It's about unlearning what we've been taught to believe about it.

Career Series | Part 11Purpose, passion and values are words we hear often when talking about career fulfillment. But what do they actually mean, and how do they work together?For the final episode of Season 2 and our Career Series, we sit down with Suchitra Davies-Webb, a leadership development coach, facilitator, entrepreneur and co-founder of One Degree Shift. For more than 25 years, she has worked with emerging leaders across industries, helping leaders grow from the inside out and organizations build more intentional cultures.Suchitra challenges us to think of purpose as our North Star, the enduring contribution and impact that runs through our lives, while our passions, roles and values can evolve with the seasons we're in. Together, we explore how looking beyond your current job can reveal the through line that's been there all along.In this episode:The difference between purpose and passion, and why it mattersWhy your purpose is bigger than your current jobHow strengths, energy and values contribute to career alignmentWhat depletion can tell you about misalignmentWhy purpose needs to include something fulfilling for youHow to start uncovering your own through lineWhy getting comfortable with not knowing can be part of finding what comes nextEpisode 30, our 11th Career Series conversation and the Season 2 finale. Next up: Season 3 and an entirely new conversation about money.Connect with Suchitrahttps://www.suchitradw.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/suchitradw/

Career Series | Part 10What if the person who could change the course of your career is already willing to help, but you're the one talking yourself out of asking?In this episode of our Career Series, we're joined by Alexis Meruelo, founder of Business of Her and author of Getting You Ready for Power: A Woman's Guide to Building Confidence, Community, and Career Success. Together, we unpack the beliefs that keep women from building the relationships that could help them grow. We talk about why asking for mentorship can feel so uncomfortable, what makes a mentoring relationship actually useful, how to know when the fit isn't right, and why one mentor was never supposed to be everything. Alexis Meruelo also shares how a mentor who discouraged one of her biggest ideas ultimately shaped the kind of mentor she wanted to become. The bigger unlearning? Mentorship isn't a box to check. It's a support system to build.Because careers have ups, downs, pivots and moments when we question everything. And we were never meant to navigate all of them alone.In this episode:Why we talk ourselves out of asking for mentorshipHow to make mentorship specific and usefulWhy your mentor network should span ages, industries and perspectivesWhen it's okay to let a mentoring relationship goHow to build your own career support team before you need it

Career Series | Part 9What do you do when the path you planned suddenly disappears? Jaime and Angela sit down with product-development strategist, entrepreneur, and mentor Cydney Mar, whose 45+ year career has been shaped by resilience, reinvention, and a belief that we never truly start from zero.After a life-changing accident ended her career as a Canadian National figure skater, Cydney rebuilt around design, eventually selling her collections on live television across eight countries and generating more than $300 million in global sales. Decades later, a near-death illness forced another unexpected pivot, leading her to found Cydney Mar Wellness and a proudly Indigenous-owned consulting practice that now mentors product founders around the world.But this conversation isn't about titles or accomplishments. It's about how we navigate the moments when life takes an unexpected turn, how we recognize the value of the skills we've already earned, and why starting over doesn't mean starting from scratch.Together, we explore:• Recognizing the experience and strengths you already have• Moving forward when the path you planned disappears• Turning setbacks into opportunities for growth• The power of reflection, journaling, and asking for help• Building your next chapter with the skills you've carried all alongWhether you're considering a career change, navigating a setback, or wondering what's next, Cydney offers a powerful reminder that every chapter of your life has prepared you for the one you're about to write.Connect with Cydney:https://www.cydneymarwellness.com/https://www.facebook.com/cydneymarwellness/https://www.instagram.com/cydneymarwellness

Career Series | Part 8What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't failure itself, but what you've been taught to believe about failure?In this episode of the Career Series, we sit down with Rachel Franco, founder of Fail Smarter, to explore how our relationship with failure shapes our careers, confidence, decisions, and willingness to pursue meaningful change.Drawing from her work in innovation enablement, leadership development, and organizational transformation, Rachel shares what she observed time and again: people often leave workshops, coaching sessions, and planning meetings energized and equipped with new skills, but when it's time to take a risk, try something new, or admit something isn't working, fear takes over.Together, we unpack why so many of us see failure as something to avoid at all costs, how those beliefs become embedded through our experiences and workplaces, and what it means to build a healthier, more productive relationship with failure.Rachel also shares the principles behind her Fail Smarter Framework, a practical approach that helps individuals and teams move beyond blame, reflect more intentionally, capture lessons learned, and turn setbacks into opportunities for growth and innovation.One of the most powerful ideas from the conversation: "Failure is what I did, not who I am."Whether you're considering a career pivot, pursuing a dream you've been putting off, recovering from a setback, or simply trying to build more resilience, this episode offers a refreshing perspective: failure isn't something to fear. When approached thoughtfully, it becomes one of our greatest sources of learning, courage, and forward momentum.In This Episode We Discuss:Why fear of failure keeps us stuckHow our beliefs about failure are formedThe difference between failure and identityPsychological safety and smart risk-takingRachel's Fail Smarter FrameworkTurning reflection into learning and actionCareer pivots, experimentation, and self-trustHow to recover more quickly and confidently when things don't go as plannedConnect with Rachel:https://www.fail-smarter.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelfranco/

Career Series | Part 7In this mid-series check-in, Angela and Jaime get vulnerable about their own career transitions and what they’re learning when there is no clear roadmap for what comes next.One year after leaving the corporate world, Jaime reflects on building a coaching business, rediscovering parts of herself outside of work, and realizing that the next chapter may look different than she expected. She opens up about missing collaboration and being part of a team, questioning what she actually wants from work, and redefining ambition so that her career fits into her life instead of her life fitting around her career.Angela shares what the first five months outside of corporate have revealed about identity, purpose and the masks we wear at work. After years of defining herself through “corporate Angela,” she’s reconnecting with a part of herself she thought she had failed at decades ago: storytelling.Together, they explore career change, purpose, identity, ambition, fear and the uncomfortable unknown between one chapter and the next.Because maybe figuring out your next career move isn't always about finding the perfect job or creating the perfect plan. Maybe it starts with asking a different question: Who am I now and what do I actually want my life to feel like?

Career Series | Part 6You’re driven, capable, and the person people can count on. But you feel stressed, burned out, disconnected, or just generally off.In this episode of our Career Series, Jaime and Angela sit down with Lauren Golen, founder and strategic advisor, to explore the survival patterns and identities we carry into our career. From people-pleasing and perfectionism to control, overfunctioning, pushing through, and feeling like everything depends on us.These patterns aren’t necessarily weaknesses. In fact, they may be part of the reason you’ve been so successful. They can make you dependable, ambitious, hardworking, and someone who always gets the job done. But when those same patterns begin driving how you work, lead, and make career decisions, success can start to come at a cost.Lauren shares how to recognize when an old survival identity is still “running the show,” why feeling off or burned out at work may be telling us something deeper, and how we can begin letting go of the versions of ourselves we no longer need.We also explore the role of intuition in our careers: how to reconnect with your body when you’ve spent years pushing through what you feel, how to rebuild trust in yourself, and what it means to move toward your next chapter before you have the entire plan figured out.In this conversation:How survival identities like people-pleasing, control, and “if I don’t do it, it won’t get done” can fuel career success, until they start costing usWhy Lauren asks women to thank the identity they’re ready to let go of and how separating who you are from who you learned to be creates space for something newWhat it means to move from the constant hum of striving, proving, and earning your seat to leading from freedom, trust, and creative expressionHow to “feel into the vision in the dark” by trusting your intuition and taking the next step in your career even when you can’t see where it will leadIf you’ve been successful in your career but lately find yourself feeling burned out, stuck, stressed, or simply like something is off, this conversation is an invitation to look beneath the job itself and ask a different question: What patterns are you still carrying and who could you become if you finally let them go?Connect with Laurenhttps://www.instagram.com/laurengolen/Still carrying it all? Take the free 3-minute What’s Mine? Assessment

Career Series | Part 5You can change jobs, change companies, earn the promotion, or step into an entirely different chapter, and still find yourself facing the same patterns.In this episode of Unlearning in Progress, Angela and Jaime sit down with executive coach Michelle Scott to explore why career alignment isn’t only about changing what’s happening around us. Sometimes, the most important shift is the one happening within us.Michelle shares her own experience with burnout, first in the corporate world and later as a stay-at-home mom, and the realization that changing her circumstances didn’t change the patterns she carried with her. As she puts it, without doing the inner work, the pushing simply followed her into a new role.Together, they explore what it actually means to feel aligned in your career, why white space and true rest matter, how to recognize the subtle nudges telling you something needs to change, and why solving career dissatisfaction requires looking at both the external realities of work and our internal beliefs, habits, and expectations.In this conversation:* Why changing jobs doesn’t always solve what feels wrong* How our patterns can follow us from one role to the next* What career alignment actually looks and feels like* Why white space is necessary, not indulgent* How to recognize the “nudge” before it becomes a steamroller* The relationship between inner work and practical career strategy* How slowing down can help you hear your own intuition againIf you’ve been wondering whether you need a new job, a new career, or simply a different way of showing up in the one you already have, this conversation might help you ask a different question.Connect with Michelle:https://michellescottcoaching.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-scott-coaching/https://www.facebook.com/michellescottcoaching/https://www.instagram.com/coachmichellescott/