What Was What Next|Career and Life Transitions

Heena Thaker

Story-led reflections and conversations for leaders, founders, and clinicians navigating significant career, relationship, and life transitions. Welcome to What Was What Next with certified master coach Heena Thaker. This is a podcast for individuals navigating the space between professional and personal chapters. We explore the complexities of executive role changes, relationship shifts, identity evolution, and burn-on, the hidden precursor to chronic burnout where high-achievers keep functioning while deeply exhausted. Whether you are experiencing a season of midlife change, workplace fatigue, or deep life transition, these episodes offer grounded insights to meet you right where you are, before clarity lands. Here's to us evolving together.

Episodes

  1. Jul 21

    Who in My Family Ever Just Quits? | Honouring Family Sacrifice, Choosing To Write Your Own Story

    "Who in my family ever just quits?"When former attorney and professor Asha Wilkerson found herself asking this question, she realised she wasn't simply deciding whether to leave a successful legal career. She was confronting something much deeper: the invisible obligation to honour generations of family sacrifice. Asha's story is about leaving a successful career, navigating family sacrifice, redefining success and finding the courage to choose a different life. In deciding to write her own life story, she doesn't reject the sacrifices her family made. Instead, she comes to understand that perhaps the deepest way to honour those sacrifices is to embrace the freedom they made possible. This episode is for anyone who has reached a point of career transition, career change, reinvention or personal transformation and feels conflicted about choosing a different path, even when the life they have built looks successful from the outside. It is particularly relevant if you are asking: Why do I feel guilty about leaving a successful career? Why is it so hard to walk away from a career I've worked so hard to build? How do family expectations influence career choices? How can I honour my family's sacrifices without living according to their story? What happens when success no longer feels fulfilling? How do I reinvent myself after a successful career? Who am I if I stop doing the thing that made me successful? How do I write the next chapter of my life when the old one still looks successful from the outside? At the heart of this conversation is a powerful question about the stories we inherit and the stories we unconsciously continue. Sometimes, the hardest part of changing your life is not disappointing other people. It is giving yourself permission to stop carrying a story that was never meant to be yours forever. Because perhaps the greatest way to honour the sacrifices that came before us is not to spend our lives repaying them. Perhaps it is to use the freedom they created. Connect with Asha: https://www.ashasplacelisbon.com/ on Threads @AshaWilkersonEsq

  2. Jul 7

    Who Am I Without My Career? Reinventing Yourself After Corporate Life

    For 27 years, Marianne Page built a successful career at McDonald's. Then she left and found herself asking a question that many accomplished professionals wrestle with: Who am I without my career? In this deeply honest conversation, Marianne reflects on the loss of identity that followed leaving corporate life, the dark season that came next, and the slow journey back to herself. Today, Marianne is an award winning motivational speaker, business mentor and bestselling author, but this episode isn't just about business success. It's about identity, purpose and what happens when the role you've worn for decades no longer fits. Together we explore: why so many leaders confuse who they are with what they dorebuilding confidence after leaving a long careerfinding joy again after redundancy or retirementvalues, resilience and creating a life that feels like your ownwhy the season between "what was" and "what's next" can become the making of youWhether you're leaving corporate life, facing redundancy, approaching retirement, or simply wondering what's next after years of professional success, Marianne's story is a reminder that losing your role doesn't mean losing yourself. Connect with Marianne via her official website Marianne Page or on LinkedIn

  3. Jun 23

    You've Built a Successful Business. Why Do You Still Want Something More? | Sarah Clemson

    You’ve built a successful business yet something still feels unresolved. Many founders, entrepreneurs, and leaders reach a point where external success no longer matches internal fulfilment, and the work begins to feel repetitive or misaligned. In this episode of What Was, What Next, I speak with entrepreneur and creative strategist Sarah Clemson, who has built three successful businesses over the years. Sarah shares what it looks like to realise a business has become comfortable but no longer energising, and how she chose to evolve her work to reflect who she is becoming rather than who she once needed to be. We explore leadership, identity, achievement vs fulfilment, self-worth, and reinvention in later-stage business journeys including: Why successful businesses can start to feel repetitive or unfulfillingThe shift from achievement-driven identity to fulfilment and alignmentHow self-worth and “proving yourself” can sit beneath long-term successWhat it means to evolve your business as you evolve as a personHow confidence develops through courageous reinventionRedefining success across different seasons of leadership and life If you are a founder, business owner, or leader navigating a season where success no longer feels like enough, this conversation offers language, reflection, and perspective for what comes next. Connect with Sarah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahclemson/ Website: https://www.tothesummit.co.uk/team/

  4. Jun 9

    The Green Hour: Doctor Career Change and Story Telling with Dr Lalith Wijedoru

    n this insightful conversation, Dr. Lalith Wijedoru shares his transformative journey from paediatric emergency doctor to social health consultant and storytelling facilitator. Discover the profound story behind "The Green Hour"- a single hour of tracking stress markers during an NHS shift that completely altered his trajectory. We dive deep into his medical career transition away from clinical practice and into the world of reflective storytelling. Learn how sharing narratives can enhance social health, improve workplace culture, manage functional burn-on, and foster genuine human connections. In this episode, we explore: Navigating an identity shift during a medical career transition.How to spot the signs of workplace burn-on and chronic exhaustion.The role of storytelling in healthcare and leadership environments.Grounded coaching strategies for clinicians standing in the space between chapters. Guest links LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalithwijedoru/ Instagram- @lalithwijedoru

  5. May 26

    Rebuilding Life, Career and Legacy After Illness

    What happens when an unexpected health crisis forces you to pause your professional trajectory? How do you begin rebuilding your life, career, and personal legacy when your old routine no longer makes sense? In this deeply grounding episode, with Katie Higginson, we explore the messy space of navigating a medical or physical pause and the transition that follows. We unpack what it means to heal, let go of the pressure to instantly perform, and step forward into a new chapter of leadership and life. In this episode, we explore: Reclaiming your professional identity and rebuilding career legacy after a major illness or pause.Navigating the intense life transitions and emotional space between recovery and what comes next.Moving past functional burn-on and learning to listen to your body’s true markers.Practical self-coaching strategies for founders, leaders, and clinicians seeking a fresh alignment. Takeaways Embracing change is part of the journeyCommunity and support are essential during difficult timesYou can connect with Katie on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiehigginson/

  6. May 12

    Embracing Uncertainty: Reclaiming Personal Power and Meaning with Life's Season Changes

    In this episode, Marcela Heime shares her journey through leadership transitions, exploring the grief and rebirth that come with change. Discover how she navigated closing a cherished charity and found self-awareness and growth in the process. Marcela discusses the importance of honouring emotions, setting boundaries, and questioning core values to foster authentic growth. Perfect for those in transition, this conversation offers insights into embracing uncertainty as a vital part of growth and evolution If you want to connect with Marcela her profile on LinkedIn is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcela-heime-msc-0941318

  7. Apr 28

    The Courage of Leaving What No Longer Fits Your Values

    I am joined by Denise Voon, clinical adviser to the College of Optometrists, optometric advisor to the GOC and specialist hospital optometrist specialising in medical retina. Denise shares her  journey of leaving a long-standing career to find true alignment with her values. Discover how she navigated the 'what ifs' of change, embraced new opportunities, and found happiness by bringing her whole self to work. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone facing a season of transition.

    The Courage of Leaving What No Longer Fits Your Values

  8. Apr 16

    Embracing Uncertainty and Doing It Anyway

    I'm thrilled to welcome Priya Davda, a friend and colleague with whom I've shared many years of collaboration. Priya is courageously embracing both her successful career as an optometrist and her new journey as an online business owner. Her story of embracing curiosity without further procrastination following a health scare is both inspiring and relatable. You can find Priya on instagram @itspriyadavda

  9. 07/02/2025

    What comes after the fire

    What Comes After the Fire The fire burns out — but then what? In this episode of What Was, What Next, we explore the uneasy stillness and subtle clarity that follow deep transformation. For leaders and creators navigating this in-between space, it’s a time to hold steady with discomfort, reclaim inner clarity, and listen for the quiet signals pointing toward what’s next.

    What comes after the fire

  10. 06/27/2025

    Loneliness in Leadership

    There’s a kind of loneliness that arrives not in failure, but in success. When the life you built no longer feels like your own. In this episode, Heena explores the quiet isolation leaders face when they choose not to keep pushing, not to fake the fire, and not to rush toward a next thing they can’t yet name. If you’ve ever wondered, “Who do I talk to when I can’t talk to anyone?”, this is for you. Real talk for the season in-between. No fluff. Just truth.

    Loneliness in Leadership

  11. 06/25/2025

    When the fire fades-Recognising the turning point

    What happens when the fire that once drove you… dims? This first episode speaks to that, disorienting space that so many leaders and founders find themselves in. The space after striving, after achieving, when the old fuel runs out and the next spark hasn’t yet arrived. Heena shares a gentle, story-led reflection for those who’ve built, carried weight, and stayed the course, only to wake up one day wondering, Is this it? Or, What now? If you’re in a season that makes no sense, you’re not broken. You’re in transition. You are evolving.

    When the fire fades-Recognising the turning point
  • 11 Episodes

About

Story-led reflections and conversations for leaders, founders, and clinicians navigating significant career, relationship, and life transitions. Welcome to What Was What Next with certified master coach Heena Thaker. This is a podcast for individuals navigating the space between professional and personal chapters. We explore the complexities of executive role changes, relationship shifts, identity evolution, and burn-on, the hidden precursor to chronic burnout where high-achievers keep functioning while deeply exhausted. Whether you are experiencing a season of midlife change, workplace fatigue, or deep life transition, these episodes offer grounded insights to meet you right where you are, before clarity lands. Here's to us evolving together.

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