Your Next Success

Caroline Sangal, PhD, SHRM-CP

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

    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

  2. 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

  3. Jul 7

    Cameron Magee: Backstage, On Purpose

    Send us Fan Mail How to Build an Event Production Career From Curiosity and Calling, With Cameron Magee Building an event production career from scratch looks a lot like Cameron Magee's story: a curious kid, a mentor who pulled up a chair, and 20 years of showing up and giving more than he took. In this conversation, the founder and CEO of avad3 shares how a small-town Arkansas boy with no entrepreneurial family background launched a company from his dorm room and grew it into a national production firm trusted by Walmart and the White House. More than the growth story, this is a conversation about identity, service, and what it takes to build a place where people actually want to stay. You will hear: How a mentor at a church sound booth gave Cameron three years of patient instruction and changed the entire arc of his lifeThe vending machine principle: give $1.10 back for every dollar someone gives you, and they will send three friendsHow he launched avad3 in college, nearly skipped college entirely, and graduated with the company logo on his capThe question at 25 that redirected everything: not "is this it" but "what could this become for others"Why avad3 collects next time notes from every crew member after every event, and how 1,400 moments of honest feedback a year drive their cultureWhat a mentor told him about having a vibrant personal life that changed how he leads and how he livesConnect with Cameron: Visit avad3.com to learn more about the team and how they serve event planners nationwide. Connect 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

  4. Jun 30

    Doug Lynam: From Monk to Money Manager

    Send us Fan Mail Money Mindset, the Enneagram, and Why Your Financial Patterns Go Deeper Than Money, With Doug Lynam Money mindset work rarely begins with a monastery in the New Mexico desert, but Doug Lynam's story does, and that is precisely what makes his insights so hard to forget. Doug is a former Benedictine monk, Marine Corps Officer Candidate, bestselling author, and financial advisor who built his practice around a single conviction: the way you handle money has almost nothing to do with math and everything to do with the wounds you have been carrying since childhood. In this conversation, he traces his own path from a home where money was weaponized in a bitter divorce, through two decades of monastic life, through a monastery bankruptcy he helped reverse, and into the world of wealth management. Along the way, he developed the framework that now anchors his books, his TEDx talk, and his work with clients: the money monster map. You will hear: How growing up in an affluent home where money was used as a tool of control shaped the origin of Doug's own money monsterWhy taking a vow of poverty led him directly into the most intense financial education of his lifeWhat the Enneagram actually is, and how Doug combined it with Attachment Theory to identify 18 distinct money patternsWhy capable, intelligent people keep repeating the same financial self-sabotage, and what actually breaks the cycleHow the pain of staying in the monastery finally outweighed the pain of leaving everything behind after 20 yearsWhat authentic success looks like after that many complete reinventionsConnect with Doug: Visit douglynam.com to explore his books, TEDx talk, coaching, and speaking work. Connect 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

  5. Jun 23

    Chanoa Inez: Dream On

    Send us Fan Mail How to Dream Again and Rebuild Your Life After Grief and Loss, With Chanoa Inez Rebuilding your life after grief and upheaval is possible, and Chanoa Inez has lived the full arc of what that actually takes. She followed her instincts toward beauty and meaning through fashion, copywriting, and entrepreneurship until the kind of loss that changes everything arrived suddenly. What followed were years of pushing through without tools, a body that started carrying what her heart could not release, and an inner transformation that became the foundation of her book and her work. Chanoa is the author of Dream On: How to Create the New Life of Your Dreams After Upheaval or Loss, and the creator of the Magnetize Your Personal Brand program, which helps business owners develop their presence from the inside out. You will hear: How Chanoa built her copywriting business from genuine love of words, starting with her CEO boss as her very first clientHow sudden devastating loss quietly cost her years of health, confidence, and the capacity to imagine forwardHow changing her environment began healing her body, and the deeper realization about her own patterns that changed everything elseWhy she waited to write Dream On until she was genuinely on the other side, and what that patience made possibleHow her personal brand framework helps business owners attract from who they genuinely areConnect with Chanoa: chanoainez.com, her book Dream On and all programs. 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

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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.