Embrace the Squiggle: Change happens. Growth is a choice.

Colleen DelVecchio & Ashleigh Beadle
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Embrace the Squiggle is the podcast about navigating change in work, identity, leadership, and life with intention. Because change happens. Growth is a choice. This show explores the honest, human stories behind reinvention. From career pivots and leadership shifts to identity crises, mindset shifts, and unexpected detours, each episode dives into what it really looks like to move through uncertainty instead of waiting for clarity. Our guests share candid stories of obstacles, failures, breakthroughs, and hard-earned lessons. Not because they had it all figured out but because they chose growth in the middle of the mess. Each week, Colleen DelVecchio and Ashleigh Beadle unpack the pivots, pauses, leaps of faith, and “what am I even doing?” moments that shape a non-linear life. This isn’t about chasing a straight line. It’s about building the mindset and courage to evolve on purpose.

  1. 1 day ago

    Stop Kicking the Can on Your Career: Intentional Advancement for Ambitious Women with Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer

    Having your role eliminated at 55 is not ideal. Just when you want the stable paycheck and lifestyle, you are thrown back in AND get to experience ageism, On Embrace the Squiggle, Colleen speaks with Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer about navigating major career disruptions and finding direction when a long-climbed corporate “ladder” disappears. Cynthia recounts a 30-year corporate career (including 13 years in C-suite roles) spanning commercial real estate, HR leadership, and healthcare, shaped early by a pivotal mentor and sponsor. She describes two defining detours: a breast cancer diagnosis at 40 that prompted reprioritization, and losing her role at 55 during a CEO transition, which pushed her into entrepreneurship built from steps she’d already taken while co-writing Now, Near, Next: A Practical Guide for Mid-Career Women to Move from Professional Serendipity to Intentional Advancement.  Connect with Dr. Cynthia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcynthiabentzenmercer/ http://www.dr-cynthia.com https://linktr.ee/drcynthiabentzenmercer Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with your hosts Colleen DelVecchio: LinkedInAshleigh Beadle: LinkedInSubscribe and review Know someone who'd love this episode? Share it with them. If you haven't left a review yet, it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

  2. 21 Oct

    One Side of the Job Hunt to the Other: From HR Recruiter to Job Search Strategist with Carrie Christiano

    The purpose of HR is to protect the company. So when you are working in HR and recruiting, you are on the side of the company, not the candidate. For a while, that worked for Carrie, but a serendipitous layoff led her to discover her true calling.  Getting laid off sucks… but it also tends to be the start of something great! After recording over 100 episodes of Embrace the Squiggle, we have heard a few stories where experiencing a layoff leads to something great. And this episode is no exception. Carrie Christiano, CPRW, CPCC is a certified career coach, resume writer, and AI job search strategist who helps professionals harness tools like ChatGPT to elevate their careers with confidence. A former recruiter for Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Cisco, and LexisNexis, Carrie brings insider expertise and a practical, empowering approach to every session Carrie was laid off from recruiting at a time when companies weren’t hiring, which made being an unemployed recruiter especially interesting. A referral led her to a consulting role helping people navigate career transition. What she thought would be a temporary stopgap turned into the part of my career she loved most: helping people find the value in their own stories and teaching the unwritten rules of job search!  Connect with Carrie:  on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carriechristiano/ Empower Career Studio: http://www.empowercareerstudio.com Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with your hosts Colleen DelVecchio: LinkedInAshleigh Beadle: LinkedInSubscribe and review Know someone who'd love this episode? Share it with them. If you haven't left a review yet, it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

  3. 14 Oct

    How We Act, React, and Interact: Defining Culture at Your Company with Adriana Vaccaro

    Changing the culture of a company is easier said than done. HR leaders may start out thinking they can do it all: hire people, lead retention, deal with everyones issues, AND change culture. But then you realize that HR is a fast paced job dealing with a new issue every day. So changing the culture gets put the the back burner… how do we change that? This episode of Embrace the Squiggle, Adriana Vaccaro, founder of Culture Redesigned, joines us. Adriana built a career in HR from recruiting to VP of Human Resources. Adriana defines culture as how people “act, react, and interact.” https://www.cultureredesigned.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianavaccaro/ Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with your hosts Colleen DelVecchio: LinkedInAshleigh Beadle: LinkedInSubscribe and review Know someone who'd love this episode? Share it with them. If you haven't left a review yet, it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

  4. 7 Oct

    We Need More Discourse: Why and How to Break Outside Your Work Echo Chamber with Kristine Frost

    Have you ever been in a room where your manager suggested a new strategy, and everyone just agreed? And you didn’t agree. But you weren’t sure how to raise your opinion when everyone else was silent. This episode is all about how to bring up and engage in useful discourse. Colleen welcomes Kristine Frost, a labor and employment attorney with 25+ years in automotive manufacturing who negotiated with the UAW, led acquisitions and global teams, and now runs Shattered Glass Advisory. Frost shares her expertise as someone who worked for years as the only woman in the room, and the only person to disagree. She also talks about her squiggly career pivoting from pre-med to law, rejecting patent law and law firm life, and moving into HR to make impact. Connect with Kristine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kfroesq  Shattered Glass: https://shatteredglassadvisory.com/ Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedInAshleigh Beadle → LinkedInSubscribe & Leave a Review Know someone who'd love this one? Share it their way. And if you haven't left a review yet — it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

  5. 30 Sept

    Why Schools Skip Social-Emotional Learning (and What It Costs Us as Adults) with Dr. Lorea Martinez

    Schools spend most of their time on academic skills, but the social and emotional skills that carry us through adult life often get left behind. Why don't schools prioritize social-emotional learning (SEL), and what would change if they did? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Lorea Martinez Perez, a former special education teacher, former Columbia University Teachers College faculty member, and creator of the HEART in Mind methodology. She holds a PhD in quality and innovation in education and is the author of Teaching with Heart in Mind. In this episode: Why social-emotional skills matter more in adult life than schools acknowledgeHow Lorea's path shaped her mission, from teaching Spanish to North African immigrant women in Spain as a teen, to interning in Nicaragua, to special education in the Bay AreaWhat it was like to learn a faster-paced U.S. school system and English alongside her studentsHow the Heart in Mind method brings social-emotional learning into the classroomConnect with Dr. Lorea Martinez Perez Website: loreamartinez.comYouTube: Heart in MindLinkedIn: Lorea MartinezInstagram: @‌drloreamartinezFacebook: Lorea Martinez SELWork with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with your hosts Colleen DelVecchio: LinkedInAshleigh Beadle: LinkedInSubscribe and review Know someone who'd love this episode? Share it with them. If you haven't left a review yet, it helps more people find the show 🎙️

  6. 23 Sept

    Get Promoted Without Playing Office Politics: Asking for a Raise & Salary Negotiation Tips from Jamie Lee

    You have been putting off asking for a raise for months (maybe even years). Today is the day that changes! Colleen and Ashleigh know that squigglers have some excellent skills, but one thing that often scares us all is asking for more money. So this episode with Jamie Lee is here to help you get promoted and better paid without office politics. We discuss starting raise/promotion conversations at least six months before budget cycles, building informal stakeholder relationships, tracking accomplishments, and communicating impact and future value while addressing internalized misogyny and “tiara syndrome.” Work with Jamie Lee: https://www.jamieleecoach.com/ Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedInAshleigh Beadle → LinkedInSubscribe & Leave a Review Know someone who'd love this one? Share it their way. And if you haven't left a review yet — it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

  7. 16 Sept

    Turning Networking into a Good Word: How to Actually Like Building a Network and Transform Your Career

    Want to get a new job? You need a network. Want to hire someone great? You need a network. Want to make friends in your new city? You need a network. You know this is true… but you are still dragging your feet on actually doing it because its just not really your thing! You dread networking events and hate conference happy hours. This episode is for you! Colleen and Ashleigh are natural connectors and ready to share all of the tips for how to turn networking into a good word! Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedInAshleigh Beadle → LinkedInSubscribe & Leave a Review Know someone who'd love this one? Share it their way. And if you haven't left a review yet — it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

  8. 9 Sept

    The Inside Story on Community Banking: Career Growth, Co-Ops, and What Your Bank Choice Actually Means with Courtney Huxley

    Most of us have been to the bank. But how many of us actually know what's happening behind the scenes or what it means to build an entire career there? Courtney Huxley started as a bank teller and squiggled her way through the world of banking to her current role in business development at a Co-Op Bank. In this episode, she breaks down something most people never think to ask: what's the actual difference between a big bank and a community bank and why does it matter for you? Whether you're a small business owner, a first-time borrower, or just someone who wants their money to do more good locally, this conversation will change how you think about where you bank. Beyond the banking insights, Courtney's career story is one for anyone who's built a life by going deeper into one world rather than jumping between many. Her squiggle happened within an industry and it's a reminder that career growth doesn't always mean starting over. Sometimes it means finding new angles in familiar territory. About Courtney Huxley Courtney is a business development professional at Greenfield Co-Op Bank with a squiggly career spanning nearly every corner of the banking world. 💼 LinkedIn 🏦 Greenfield Co-Op Bank 🧘 Yoga of the Valley 📱 Instagram @courtney_elizabeth_huxley Work with Maxady Ready for your next step? Maxady helps you find the role that fits your skills, your life, and your squiggle. Connect with Your Hosts Colleen DelVecchio → LinkedInAshleigh Beadle → LinkedInSubscribe & Leave a Review Know someone who'd love this one? Share it their way. And if you haven't left a review yet it helps more people find the show. 🎙️

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About

Embrace the Squiggle is the podcast about navigating change in work, identity, leadership, and life with intention. Because change happens. Growth is a choice. This show explores the honest, human stories behind reinvention. From career pivots and leadership shifts to identity crises, mindset shifts, and unexpected detours, each episode dives into what it really looks like to move through uncertainty instead of waiting for clarity. Our guests share candid stories of obstacles, failures, breakthroughs, and hard-earned lessons. Not because they had it all figured out but because they chose growth in the middle of the mess. Each week, Colleen DelVecchio and Ashleigh Beadle unpack the pivots, pauses, leaps of faith, and “what am I even doing?” moments that shape a non-linear life. This isn’t about chasing a straight line. It’s about building the mindset and courage to evolve on purpose.

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