Your Next Success

Caroline Sangal, PhD, SHRM-CP
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Careers

Have you ever looked at your life or career and quietly wondered, “Is this it?” That question isn’t a crisis — it’s a signal. An invitation. A beginning. Your Next Success Podcast with Dr. Caroline Sangal is for students, job seekers, and professionals navigating career transitions, unexpected detours, and the search for authentic success. Here, we normalize questioning your path — because discovering what you truly want begins with letting go of who you thought you had to be. You’ll hear: Honest conversations about layoffs, pivots, burnout, and reinventionGuest interviews with real people navigating career and life turning pointsInsights and frameworks to help you align your work with your purposeWhether you’re just starting out, reimagining what’s next, or simply asking deeper questions — this is your space to pause, reflect, and rebuild from a place of clarity. Stop chasing someone else’s version of success.Start building the career — and life — you were made for. Tune in and begin Your Next Success.

  1. 5d ago

    Sara Skowronski: Betting on Herself

    Send us Fan Mail Starting a business after being laid off is the path Sara Skowronski took. For twenty years she was the person every company leaned on, hired for HR and soon running IT, finance, and whatever else needed an owner. She was let go by a new owner on a Monday, and the first thing she noticed underneath the shock was how much lighter she felt. Now a fractional HR partner and Certified AI Consultant, Sara walks through the pattern that ran through a dozen jobs and the moment she chose to stop repeating it. That moment came in an interview for a job she liked. She asked the woman she would be replacing why she was leaving, heard "if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it," and walked back to the BART station with her own answer. In this conversation: The day a job ended and Sara realized she was freeThe sales job that taught Sara she can only sell what she believes in, and how that became her entire business modelFive coffee meetings a week for six months, and the phone call that brought her first clientWhat a small business owner taught her about HR when he said he simply could not afford the PIPHow AI in her own practice turned three late nights into one hour, and gave her back her eveningsThe success she expected at 25, and the success she chose insteadConnect with Sara at eoshr.com or linkedin.com/in/saraskowronski. She helps founder-led companies handle HR and use AI where it saves time without creating legal exposure. If your career looks right on paper and feels wrong inside, visit 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

  2. Sep 16

    Dr. Kevin Snyder: The Story He Wished He'd Heard

    Send us Fan Mail Dr. Kevin Snyder: The Story He Wished He'd Heard Every choice carries a consequence you can't always see at the time. Kevin Snyder became Dean of Students at High Point University, a role he'd worked toward for years. It came with one condition: give up his public speaking. He agreed, figuring it didn't matter much. Then he realized he'd given up too much. Most of us have made a version of that trade. We take the promotion, the safer path, the thing that looks right, and we quietly set down something we told ourselves we wouldn't miss. Kevin's story is a clear look at what it takes to notice the trade, name it, and choose again. It reaches back further than the dean's office too. After overcoming severe depression as a teenager, Kevin built his whole life around the power of belief, and the message he brings to every stage is the one he needed to hear back then and never did. You'll hear: The one condition attached to his dream job, and why he agreed to it A dean, a withdrawal form, and a refusal that pointed him toward his whole career The early moment a stranger told him his talk had helped her, before he'd ever shared his own story Four questions Kevin asks anyone who feels stuck, and where his own answers led him What he means when he says what you make of your choice matters more than which choice you make Connect with Kevin at KevinCSnyder.com Work with Caroline at 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

  3. Sep 8

    Graham Kuhn: Every Role Was Leading Here

    Send us Fan Mail Career reinvention rarely arrives as a plan. For Graham Kuhn, it arrived as a series of jobs that looked unconnected until the day they became one calling. Graham grew up working farms and wrestling in small-town Wisconsin, trained in opera, sang professionally for years, managed gyms, and eventually landed inside a church making videos every week. He never set out to be a business owner. The videos he made drew the attention of executives sitting in the pews, they started asking who made them, and a company formed around the answer. In this conversation, Graham and Caroline follow the thread that ran through every chapter of his working life and turned a scattered-looking path into Focus Films. You will hear: How a church side project quietly became a full businessWhy every role Graham held was preparing him for the one he has nowWhat it takes to build a company where being fully yourself is the strategyHow his music training became his sharpest tool for connecting with clientsThe moment he chose the work that filled him over the work that simply paidIf your own path has taken more turns than you expected, this one will help you see the pattern underneath it. Connect with Graham: find him on LinkedIn and at Focusfilms.com, where he builds authentic story-driven video for business owners. 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

  4. Sep 1

    Stan Phelps: The Dream Job Wasn't the End

    Send us Fan Mail 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 outrunThe moment one word on a conference badge shifted how people saw himWhy going a mile deep on one idea builds more than spreading wide across manyThe year of writing that became his first book and grew into twentyHow Stan defines authentic success now, and where he puts his energy todayFind 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. 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

  5. Aug 25

    Patrick Kamba: Quiet Ambition

    Send us Fan Mail 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 yearsWhy Patrick started measuring success by his weeknightsHow the relationships he built over ten years carried him through a career shockWhat quiet ambition means, and how to chase big goals without performing themSuccess as freedom, with people to share it withPatrick Kamba wrote Quiet Ambition. Find him at patrickkamba.com. Ready for a career that fuels your life? Start at 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

  6. Aug 11

    She Wrote the Book on Leadership for Scientists: Jen Heemstra on Bad Bosses, Career Setbacks, and Leading with Kindness (Part 2)

    Send us Fan Mail 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 careerWhat a toxic job does to your confidence, and how she got hers backThe tenure vote that should have ended her, and the leader who changed everything in one afternoonThe one question from her husband that finally got the book writtenHow she defines success now, and why kindness is the whole pointChapters:  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

  7. Aug 4

    Achievement Was Her Drug: Dr. Jen Heemstra on High Achievers, Self-Worth, and Finding What Really Drives You (Part 1)

    Send us Fan Mail If you're a high achiever, this one's for you. Dr. Jen Heemstra figured out early that achievement was the one thing she could control. So she controlled it. Grades, awards, being the person who had it all together. She literally calls it her drug, and here's the part that gets you: it worked. It built the kind of career most people chase their whole lives. Then she got to the top, and the drug stopped working. That's where part one begins. In this episode you'll hear: Why achievement became the thing she reached for, and what it was really coveringThe wake-up call that made her question everything she'd builtHow being told she was "bad at science" at fourteen backfired in the best wayThe box of rocks that showed her what actually drives herWhat changes the day you stop performing your life and start choosing itChapters: 00:00 Intro 03:00 The home she grew up in 05:00 Why achievement became her anchor 11:00 The worst day, and the wake-up call 13:00 Deciding to show up as herself 29:00 When we start questioning our lives 35:00 "You're bad at science" 38:00 The box of rocks 42:00 The lab she runs now 49:00 Gratitude, and the people who carried her Jen's book, Labwork to Leadership: 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

  8. Jul 28

    From Nice to Kind | Deidre Beacham

    Send us Fan Mail From Nice to Kind | Deidre Beacham on Nice Girl Syndrome, People Pleasing, and Radical Self-Ownership Nice girl syndrome is one of the most invisible programs a woman can run, and Deidre Beacham ran it for decades before a single conversation finally made her see it. By her 50s she had lived through more than most people face in a lifetime. And still, standing in front of her stepfather when he told her she was not being nice, she felt herself shrink. Everything she had built, everything she had survived, and that one word still had power over her. That moment became the beginning of everything she now teaches. You will hear: The difference between being nice and being kind and why it changes everythingHow nice girl training runs like a program you never agreed to installWhat she discovered about herself that decades of therapy had never uncoveredHow she moved from needing outside validation to protecting herself from withinWhat a lifetime of seeking approval actually costs and how to stop paying itWhat authentic success looks and feels like when you finally stop performingConnect with Deidre and take the Nice Girl Index at deidrebeacham.com Work with Caroline: 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

See All (87)

Trailer

5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Have you ever looked at your life or career and quietly wondered, “Is this it?” That question isn’t a crisis — it’s a signal. An invitation. A beginning. Your Next Success Podcast with Dr. Caroline Sangal is for students, job seekers, and professionals navigating career transitions, unexpected detours, and the search for authentic success. Here, we normalize questioning your path — because discovering what you truly want begins with letting go of who you thought you had to be. You’ll hear: Honest conversations about layoffs, pivots, burnout, and reinventionGuest interviews with real people navigating career and life turning pointsInsights and frameworks to help you align your work with your purposeWhether you’re just starting out, reimagining what’s next, or simply asking deeper questions — this is your space to pause, reflect, and rebuild from a place of clarity. Stop chasing someone else’s version of success.Start building the career — and life — you were made for. Tune in and begin Your Next Success.

Information

  • Creator
    Caroline Sangal, PhD, SHRM-CP
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    87
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Your Next Success, Next Success, LLC. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Your Next Success