Unpopular Decisions: Real Stories of Bold Career & Life Decisions for People Who Were Taught to Play It Safe

Unpopular Decisions | Jameelah Calhoun
  • 4.8 (21)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Unpopular Decisions: the ones nobody claps for in the moment, but feel like they could cost you everything. Unpopular Decisions is a narrative interview podcast hosted by Jameelah Calhoun — an eldest daughter of a Haitian immigrant who spent 20 years building the business school-approved marketing executive career she was taught to want, and is now living her truth one unpopular decision at a time. Each episode is about the moment everything changes. Not the highlight reel. The actual decision — the doubt, the financial fear, the people who stayed and the ones who quietly disappeared when you chose differently. Every person felt the pull between the life they had been taught to seek and the life their heart craved. For some of them, that pull came loaded with extra weight.  The burnt out executive walking away from the prestige and identity they spent years building. Eldest daughters taught to chase someone else's definition of success. First-generation professionals caught between honoring others' sacrifices and honoring themselves. Women told to cling to the relationship your culture said would bring you stability and status.And anyone who has ever had to choose between who they're becoming and where they come from.   Some lost friends over it. Some lost income. Some lost versions of themselves they'd become attached to. All of them did it anyway. This show is for anyone questioning the responsible choices they were told would make them safer or more accepted before they fully understood what it would really cost. Guests include corporate executives who walked away from the ladder, creatives who stopped waiting for permission, athletes who refused their diagnoses, and everyday people who chose meaning over safety when the safer thing would have been to stay. Topics include leaving corporate to build something of your own, the career pivot that didn't make sense on paper, the six-figure salary you walked away from, the relationship you left when it still technically worked, the belief system you quietly outgrew while everyone around you stayed the same, and the quiet work of figuring out who you are when the script runs out. This isn't a success podcast. It's a human one. New episodes every Tuesday If you've ever felt the pull between the life you were taught to live and the one you actually want — you're in the right place. ✨ Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts ✨ Watch episodes on Youtube (@unpopulardecisions) ✨ Follow on Instagram (@unpopulardecisionspod)  ✨ Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter

  1. 5d ago

    Part II: Teen Runaway to Corporate Pivot: A Filmmaker on Healing Generational Cycles, Betting on Yourself, & Belonging

    Note: This episode discusses childhood abandonment, generational family trauma, parental expectations, and creative entrepreneurship. You spent decades operating in survival mode, managing everyone else's expectations, moving from city to city, and trying to prove you were worthy of a seat at the table. Then you become a parent yourself, look at your own children, and realize you are finally safe enough to live the childhood you were denied. Kaycee ran away from home at 16 after a tumultuous childhood where she always felt stuck between worlds. Now she’s finally overcome imposter syndrome and is ready to tell her own story. In Part II of our Season 3 premiere, host Jameelah Calhoun continues her conversation with filmmaker and artist Kaycee Leigh. Kaycee shares what inspired her desire to return to China to search for the biological father who abandoned her at age three. She opens up about the quiet grief of moving nine times before age 12, why the hardest part of her journey was actually understanding the strict mother who stayed, and the difference between assimilation and true belonging. If you missed Part I, you can find it in our feed. If you’re asking any of these questions, this episode is for you: Acceptance vs. Belonging: What is the difference between assimilating to fit into a room versus being truly known and seen for who you are? Re-evaluating Strict Parents: How do you move from resentment to compassion when evaluating the pressure and high expectations your parents placed on you? Building Chosen Family: How do you create an authentic support system when your family of origin couldn't provide emotional safety? Partnership and Risk: How do partners support each other through career pivots, higher education, and entrepreneurship over a multi-decade timeline? Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: How do you give yourself permission to step up as the primary author and storyteller of your own life? What We Cover The Wallet Photograph: Carrying the single photo of her biological father for 30 years and searching for her own traits in his face. Reliving Childhood Through Her Kids: Experiencing play, safety, and joy for the first time by giving her children the childhood she never had. The Real Reason Her Mom Was Strict: Uncovering that her mother was denied high school and college access in China, framing high demands as her only tool to grant Kaycee stability. Chosen Family & Authentic Community: Moving nine times before age 12 and finding deep, authentic belonging in adulthood outside her family script. The Unglamorous Reality of Creative Risk: Balancing film applications, tax credits, and rejection with the conviction to manifest her opening night at TIFF. The Reality Check Acceptance Is Assimilation; Belonging Is Being Seen: Fitting in requires hiding your bumpy edges. True belonging lets you bring your full 360-degree self. Intention Doesn't Erase Impact, But It Grants Perspective: Strict parental rigor often stems from their own unfulfilled dreams and desperation for your safety. Partnership Is an Ebb and Flow: Financial and emotional support in a relationship fluctuates—sometimes you carry the weight, and sometimes your partner holds the net. No One Else Can Tell Your Story: When you doubt whether you're qualified to step into your purpose, remember that no one else is a better authority on your life than you. Connect with Our Guest ✨ Follow Kaycee Leigh @misskayceeleigh on Instagram  ✨ Support her feature documentary, Seeking Why? and production company at klhcreativeco.com Connect with Jameelah ✨ Follow Jameelah Calhoun on LinkedIn  Ready to build your self-trust and feel confident in your choices?  👉 Join The Unpopular Table community through our biweekly newsletter to get off-the-mic reflections and salon invites 🔔 Follow and turn on notifications so you don't miss a single conversation! New episodes every Tuesday.  The conversations on Unpopular Decisions are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. Every situation is different. If you're navigating something significant, please consult a qualified professional who can speak to your specific circumstances.

  2. Sep 29

    Part I: Teen Runaway to Corporate Pivot: A Chinese Woman on the Cost of Tiger Parenting, Layoffs, & Unlearning Survival Mode | S3 Ep1

    Welcome to Season 3 of Unpopular Decisions podcast! You spent your life doing whatever was necessary to protect yourself—building achievement scripts, keeping the peace, and believing that if you just performed well enough, you would finally earn safety and belonging.  In this Season 3 premiere of Unpopular Decisions, host Jameelah Calhoun sits down with filmmaker and director Kaycee Leigh to break down her decision to confront the childhood trauma she spent 15 years running away from. Triggered by a sudden corporate restructuring two weeks after returning from maternity leave, Kaycee walks through taking a Greyhound bus across the country at 16, navigating a home where love felt conditional on academic metrics, battling a decade-long eating disorder in the modeling industry, and what happens when you stop waiting for your family’s rescue to begin healing yourself. If you're sitting with any of these questions, this episode is for you: Uncoupling Worth from Performance: How do you unlearn the belief that you are only valuable when you are achieving, pleasing, or over-performing? Navigating Conditional Family Love: How do you handle growing up in a household where emotional safety took a backseat to grades, reputation, or compliance? Recognizing Expired Survival Tactics: How do you know when the coping mechanisms that saved you as a teenager are trapping you as an adult? Rethinking Corporate "Security": How do you evaluate job stability when an institution can eliminate your role weeks after you give birth? Breaking Generational Cycles: How do you build an environment of unconditional love for your own children when you never received that blueprint growing up? What We Cover The Post-Maternity Disruption: The turning point when her entire corporate team was laid off two weeks after her maternity leave—and why it forced her to rethink "stability." The Greyhound Bus at 16: The exact moment Kaycee realized she had to leave home to protect her sanity and shield her younger brother from family turmoil. Academic Metrics vs. Emotional Connection: Growing up in an environment where report cards and Disneyland rewards replaced simple questions like "How was your day?" Modeling, Control, and Disordered Eating: How a decade in the entertainment and modeling industries turned body image and food into tools for control. The Myth of Being Chased: The quiet grief of realizing your parents aren't going to get on a plane to rescue you—and why self-rescue is the only way forward. The Reality Check Performance Isn't Love: Approval earned through achievement is just a transaction wearing the mask of affection. Survival Mechanisms Have an Expiration Date: Hyper-independence keeps you safe at 16, but it keeps you lonely at 30. Corporate Security Is Comfort, Not Safety: Real stability isn't a job title or salary—it is knowing you can trust yourself when the floor drops out. Nobody Is Coming to Rescue You: Waiting for the people who hurt you to acknowledge what happened before you heal just gives them veto power over your future. Note: This episode discusses childhood trauma, conditional family expectations, running away from home, body dysmorphia, and post-maternity corporate layoffs. Connect with Our Guest ✨ Follow Kaycee Leigh @misskayceeleigh on Instagram  ✨ Support her documentary and production company at klhcreativeco.com Connect with Jameelah ✨ Follow Jameelah Calhoun on LinkedIn  Ready to build your self-trust and feel confident in your choices?  👉 Join The Unpopular Table community through our biweekly newsletter to get off-the-mic reflections and salon invites 🔔 Follow and turn on notifications so you don't miss Part II publishing next week!  The conversations on Unpopular Decisions are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. Every situation is different. If you're navigating something significant, please consult a qualified professional who can speak to your specific circumstances.

  3. Season 3 Trailer

    Season 3 Trailer: The Illusion of Corporate Safety, Quitting the Model Minority Myth, and Airing Your Dirty Laundry

    You spent your whole life checking the boxes—earning prestigious degrees, landing responsible titles, and keeping everyone in your family and community comfortable. But beneath the achievements and polished resumes lies a quiet truth: living someone else's script is just a slow way to erase yourself. In this Season 3 preview, host Jameelah Calhoun gives a sneak peek at what's coming next on Unpopular Decisions. This season features unvarnished, story-driven conversations with high achievers who hit the wall, stopped asking for permission, and made the choices everyone warned them against. From a corporate executive who moonlights as a masked rapper to escape the model minority myth, to an author who ended an engagement after her fiancé spent her ring money on beer, to a NYC public defender who burned out and spent a year working hourly at a farmers market, Season 3 digs into the quiet math of stepping off the default path. Who This Season Is For The High-Achieving Professional who realizes that earning titles and checking corporate boxes isn't buying them peace, autonomy, or purpose. First-Gen & Diaspora Trailblazers struggling against inherited expectations, model minority pressure, or the suffocating fear of "What will people say?" Anyone Sitting at a Personal Crossroads wondering if it’s too late to relinquish credentials, walk away from a bad deal, or rewrite their own definition of success. Questions We Explore This Season Unlearning the Model Minority Myth: How do you break out of the "good pleaser" box when your entire identity was built on being accepted? The Cost of "What Will They Say?": How do you find the courage to cancel a wedding or end a relationship when your pride and community expectations are on the line? Relinquishing Credentials: How do you walk away from years of rigorous schooling or a prestigious legal career when you realize you don't actually want the job? The Power of the Reset: What happens when you trade high-prestige corporate golden handcuffs for an hourly rebound job to find yourself again? Featured Stories Preview The Corporate Masked Rapper: Radheya (Lion with A Mic) on creating an alter ego and using hip-hop to dismantle the model minority myth and escape corporate suffocation. Airing Out Your Dirty Laundry: Author Denise Soler Cox (¿Qué Dirán?) sharing the never-before-told story of ending her engagement after her fiancé spent her ring money on beer. The Public Defender Reset: Author Cynthia Pong (The Career Change Guide for Women of Color) on leaving her prestigious NYC legal career after burning out, then working hourly at a farmers market and reclaiming her time. Relinquishing Credentials: Pearl Cicci on studying six years in a rigorous program to become a dietitian, only to walk away when she realized it wasn't the life she wanted. The Reality Check Sunk Cost Fallacy: Staying in a career or relationship you’ve outgrown just because you spent years preparing for it is a trap. No Permission Needed: You do not need anyone's approval to break a deal that a past version of yourself made. "What Will They Say?" Is Cheap: Other people's gossip has an expiration date; your daily peace of mind doesn't. Connect with Jameelah ✨ Follow Jameelah Calhoun on LinkedIn  Ready to build your self-trust and feel confident in your choices?  👉 Join The Unpopular Table community through our biweekly newsletter to get off-the-mic reflections and salon invites 🔔 Follow and turn on notifications so you don't miss Part II publishing next week!  The conversations on Unpopular Decisions are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. Every situation is different. If you're navigating something significant, please consult a qualified professional who can speak to your specific circumstances.

  4. Sep 15 ·  Bonus

    6 Lessons in 6 Months of Podcasting: How We Optimize the Joy Out of Our Careers

    Six months ago, after 20 years of building spreadsheets, sitting in boardrooms, and navigating corporate marketing, Jameelah Calhoun launched Unpopular Decisions. The problem? You can take the girl out of corporate America, but you can't easily take the quarterly business review out of the girl. In this transparent solo dispatch, Jameelah breaks down 6 hard-won lessons from her first six months of entrepreneurship. She explores how high achievers accidentally "optimize the joy" right out of their creative passions, why social media causes severe "business dysmorphia," and how easy it is to trade a 9-to-5 job for a self-built corporate prison. What We Cover Lesson 1: Joy Is a KPI: Why joy isn't just a fluffy outcome at the end of success. It is fuel, information, and a core metric of sustainability. Lesson 2: Care Matters: Why care is not the opposite of rigor; care is rigor and professionalism in relationship-building. Lesson 3: Social Media Business Dysmorphia: How fake "30k months" posts distort business reality and make genuine progress feel like failure. Lesson 4: Career Decisions Are Life Decisions: Why there is zero daylight between your job and your life design. Lesson 5: Feedback Is a Double-Edged Sword: Why asking everyone for advice is often just a disguised attempt to outsource your own conviction. Lesson 6: Data Needs a North Star: Why optimizing solely for dashboard metrics will send your business down a rabbit hole without a clear mission. The Reality Check You can optimize the joy right out of the thing you once loved if you only measure performance through numbers. Jealousy isn't a character flaw. It's information revealing a suppressed desire or dream. Feedback can sharpen your judgment, but it can never replace your self-trust. The ultimate irony of entrepreneurship is starting a business for freedom, only to build yourself a brand-new corporate prison. The conversations on Unpopular Decisions are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. Every situation is different. If you're navigating something significant, please consult a qualified professional who can speak to your specific circumstances. CONNECT WITH JAMEELAH ✨ Follow Jameelah Calhoun on LinkedIn  KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING ✨ Subscribe and follow to Unpopular Decisions for more stories about authoring your own story, despite the expectations of others ✨ Get our weekly newsletter for reflections and inspiration for making bold decisions in your own life: unpopulardecisions.beehiiv.com ✨Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! It directly boosts our search ranking and helps other bold decision-makers find the show.

  5. Sep 1

    The Danger of Small Betrayals: 4 Career & Relationship Lessons from Belle Burden’s Strangers

    Note: This is a special summer solo dispatch from host Jameelah Calhoun, diving into the core themes of Belle Burden's bestselling memoir, Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage. Sometimes losing your autonomy doesn't feel like losing anything. It feels like being taken care of. For this summer mini episode, we're trying something a little different: book club Unpopular Decisions style. I recently read Belle Burden's memoir Strangers, about the sudden collapse of her 20-year marriage, and I dog-eared half of the pages.  Because underneath the story of a marriage ending is another story: how easy it can be to slowly become a stranger to your own wants and needs. The true horror story of Strangers isn't just the sudden marriage exit. It's the slow, quiet snowball of small self-betrayals that built up over two decades. Whether in a long-term marriage or a high-stakes corporate career, high-achieving women are often socialized to mistake a loss of autonomy for being taken care of. We default to a collectivist "team-first" mindset while operating in deeply individualist systems, setting ourselves up for severe financial, emotional, and professional disempowerment. What We Cover The Snowball of Small Betrayals: How accommodating "small" boundary crosses (like no dancing at a wedding or turning down career offers) conditions us to stay silent when the stakes get high. The Prisoner's Dilemma of Relationships: Why bringing a collectivist "one for all" mindset into an individualist system (like corporate America or a one-sided marriage) is bringing a knife to a gunfight. Generational Grooming: How we unconsciously replicate the quiet shrinking, temper-managing, and peace-keeping behaviors modeled by our mothers and grandmothers. The Seduction of "Leaning Back": Why giving up agency can temporarily feel like comfort—and how to tell the difference between being supported vs. giving away your power. The Reality Check Small betrayals compound over time until you no longer recognize your own voice. Never bring a collectivist mindset to an individualist fight. Giving away control is not the same as being taken care of. The true meaning of becoming a "stranger" is the slow process of becoming disconnected from your own intuition and needs. The conversations on Unpopular Decisions are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. Every situation is different. If you're navigating something significant, please consult a qualified professional who can speak to your specific circumstances. CONNECT WITH JAMEELAH ✨ Follow Jameelah Calhoun on LinkedIn ✨Have a question for Jameelah before Season 3 launches? Submit a Summer Q&A Question here! KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING ✨ Subscribe and follow to Unpopular Decisions for more stories about authoring your own story, despite the expectations of others ✨ Get our weekly newsletter for reflections and inspiration for making bold decisions in your own life: unpopulardecisions.beehiiv.com ✨Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! It directly boosts our search ranking and helps other bold decision-makers find the show.

  6. Aug 18 ·  Bonus

    REWIND: Caught in the Middle: A Black Woman Korean Major on Identity, Cultural Appropriation, and Finding Your Tribe

    Note: This episode is part of our Summer Replay Series, re-anchored around cultural expectations and belonging. How do you handle loving something when it distances you from your own identity? And what happens when you try to build a bridge, only to be accused of cultural appropriation yourself? When Kenyah Calhoun chose to major in Korean, she was simply following a genuine passion for the language and culture. But living out that passion meant navigating a constant minefield of personal conflict. As a fan of K-pop, she experienced the gut-wrenching moments where the groups she loved leaned into caricatures and stereotypes of Black culture. Then when Kenyah stepped into leadership as President of the Korean Students Association (KSA), she faced backlash from people who questioned whether a non-Korean had any right to lead a Korean cultural group. In this Summer REWIND, Kenyah shares her personal, unvarnished story of getting caught in the middle, wrestling with sizeism and beauty standards, and learning how to hold on to her own self-worth when everyone around her had an opinion on who she was supposed to be. What We Cover When Your Favorites Hurt You: The personal gut-punch of being a dedicated K-pop fan in moments when artists indulge in Black stereotypes. The KSA Backlash: What happened when Kenyah became President of the Korean Students Association as a non-Korean foreigner, and then go pushed out. The Sizeism Strain: Navigating the personal psychological toll of hyper-narrow East Asian media beauty standards and body image expectations as a plus-sized Black woman. Caught Between Two Worlds: Feeling misunderstood by family and friends at home for her path, while facing racial gatekeeping on campus. Finding Your Own Anchor: How she stopped trying to explain herself to critics and learned to trust her own intentions. The Reality Check You are allowed to hurt when an artform or culture you love misrepresents who you are. You can devote yourself to a community and still discover you're on the outside You don't owe anyone a simplified version of your identity just to make people comfortable. Maturing can mean recognizing that pure intentions are not enough. Apple/  Spotify The conversations on Unpopular Decisions are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. Every situation is different. If you're navigating something significant, please consult a qualified professional who can speak to your specific circumstances. CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST ✨ Follow Kenyah on Instagram @thecultivatedreader  KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING ✨ Subscribe and follow to Unpopular Decisions for more stories about authoring your own story, despite the expectations of others ✨ Have a question for Jameelah while we're on summer break? Submit your question here! ✨ Get our biweekly newsletter for reflections and inspiration for making bold decisions in your own life: unpopulardecisions.beehiiv.com

  7. Aug 11 ·  Bonus

    REWIND: High-Achiever Anxiety: How to Overcome the Fear of Making a Career Mistake

    Note: This episode is part of our Summer Replay Series, featuring deleted scenes and updated insights for mid-career transitions. Why do the most successful, high-performing professionals freeze when it comes time to make a career pivot? The answer isn't a lack of talent or ambition. It's high-achiever anxiety. When you've spent your entire life getting A's, hitting targets, and winning external validation, the prospect of making an "unapproved" move or taking a calculated risk feels less like a career choice and more like a threat to your identity. In this Summer REWIND, executive coach and Mindful MBA founder Shannon Demko sits down with host Jameelah Calhoun to break down the psychological mechanics of career paralysis. Together, they unpack why perfectionism is just fear giving a TED Talk, how to distinguish intuition from a fear spiral, and why high achievers weaponize their own power to stop themselves from trying new things. What We Cover The "I Could Never" Lie: Why high achievers have an outsized amount of power over their destiny, yet use that exact power to stop themselves. Intuition vs. Fear: Why intuition speaks in succinct words ("yes," "no," "later"), while fear gives long soliloquies and TED Talks. The 90-Second Rule: How neurochemical emotional responses last only 90 seconds—and why we prolong our own suffering by replaying old stories. Corporate Mindfulness Warnings: Why some workplace wellness programs are designed to make "better soldiers" rather than supporting genuine human alignment. Quiet Exits over Drama: Why quietly planning a exit for a year builds strategic leverage without burning necessary bridges. The Reality Check Staying in a job that drains you out of fear of making a mistake is still making a mistake. Intuition is brief and direct; fear gives long soliloquies. High achievers use their autonomy to talk themselves out of taking risks. Emotional chemical transactions last 90 seconds—everything after that is a story you keep replaying. KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING ✨ Submit a Summer Q&A Question: Have a question for Jameelah while we're on summer break? Share it here. ✨ Subscribe and follow to Unpopular Decisions for more stories about authoring your own story, despite the expectations of others ✨ Get our weekly newsletter for reflections and inspiration for making bold decisions in your own life: unpopulardecisions.beehiiv.com CONNECT WITH JAMEELAH ✨ Follow Jameelah Calhoun on LinkedIn  CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST ✨ Connect with Shannon via MindfulMBA

  8. Aug 4 ·  Bonus

    REWIND: The Myth of Startup Wealth: A Serial Career Hopper on Burnout, Career Pivots, and Unlearning Gaman (the Grind)

    Note: This episode is part of our Summer Rewind Series, featuring unreleased scenes and deleted clips from our episode in Season 1. Working 12-hour days, taking pay cuts for startup equity that ends up worth zero, and mistaking toxic endurance for career ambition. When Megumi Calver joined an early-stage startup as an early employee and Head of Marketing, she thought she was checking the "sexy rocketship" box. Instead, she found herself commuting an hour each way, working six days a week, taking pay cuts in exchange for paper equity that never materialized, and navigating a male-dominated culture that her always doing the dishes in the office sink. Before founding Merobebe, a wine community built to empower women in an industry where fewer than 20% of winery owners are female, Megumi's resume looked like a case study in "job hopping": corporate media at Showtime, ad agencies, acting in LA, and tech startups. In this expanded Season 1 replay featuring deleted scenes, Megumi and host Jameelah Calhoun dismantle the myth that startups equal automatic wealth, unpack the Japanese concept of gaman (endurance), and expose what people romanticize about leaving corporate life. What We Talk About The Startup Mythology: Why early-stage tech companies frame exploitation as "sexy opportunity". The 996 Grind & Pay Cuts: Working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week, and taking lower pay for equity that ended up worth $0. The Sunk Cost Fallacy in Careers: Why staying in a toxic role just to "make the invested time count" ruins your net worth and mental health. The Gamung Mindset: How cultural traditions of endurance trap us into steeling ourselves through workplace pain. Decoupling Identity from Job Titles: Why we struggle to answer "What do you do?" when we walk away from corporate labels (and Jameelah's secret past in competitive karaoke). What People Romanticize About Entrepreneurship: The harsh reality of self-paid healthcare, zero PTO, and realizing you didn't eliminate the boss. You just multiplied them. The Reality Check Burnout dressed up as ambition is still burnout. Less than 10% of startup employees ever see meaningful upside from equity. Don't trade your actual paycheck for a lottery ticket. Changing your mind isn't flakiness; it's data collection. Endurance is not a badge of honor if the destination is a place you don't want to be. Working for yourself doesn't mean you don't have a boss. The conversations on Unpopular Decisions are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. Every situation is different. If you're navigating something significant, please consult a qualified professional who can speak to your specific circumstances. KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING ✨ Subscribe and follow to Unpopular Decisions for more stories about authoring your own story, despite the expectations of others ✨ Get our weekly newsletter for reflections and inspiration for making bold decisions in your own life: unpopulardecisions.beehiiv.com ✨Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! It directly boosts our search ranking and helps other bold decision-makers find the show. CONNECT WITH JAMEELAH ✨ Follow Jameelah Calhoun on LinkedIn  ✨ Submit a Summer Q&A Question: Have a question for Jameelah while we're on summer break? Submit here CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST ✨ Find Megumi's newsletter and events at Merobebe.com

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About

Unpopular Decisions: the ones nobody claps for in the moment, but feel like they could cost you everything. Unpopular Decisions is a narrative interview podcast hosted by Jameelah Calhoun — an eldest daughter of a Haitian immigrant who spent 20 years building the business school-approved marketing executive career she was taught to want, and is now living her truth one unpopular decision at a time. Each episode is about the moment everything changes. Not the highlight reel. The actual decision — the doubt, the financial fear, the people who stayed and the ones who quietly disappeared when you chose differently. Every person felt the pull between the life they had been taught to seek and the life their heart craved. For some of them, that pull came loaded with extra weight.  The burnt out executive walking away from the prestige and identity they spent years building. Eldest daughters taught to chase someone else's definition of success. First-generation professionals caught between honoring others' sacrifices and honoring themselves. Women told to cling to the relationship your culture said would bring you stability and status.And anyone who has ever had to choose between who they're becoming and where they come from.   Some lost friends over it. Some lost income. Some lost versions of themselves they'd become attached to. All of them did it anyway. This show is for anyone questioning the responsible choices they were told would make them safer or more accepted before they fully understood what it would really cost. Guests include corporate executives who walked away from the ladder, creatives who stopped waiting for permission, athletes who refused their diagnoses, and everyday people who chose meaning over safety when the safer thing would have been to stay. Topics include leaving corporate to build something of your own, the career pivot that didn't make sense on paper, the six-figure salary you walked away from, the relationship you left when it still technically worked, the belief system you quietly outgrew while everyone around you stayed the same, and the quiet work of figuring out who you are when the script runs out. This isn't a success podcast. It's a human one. New episodes every Tuesday If you've ever felt the pull between the life you were taught to live and the one you actually want — you're in the right place. ✨ Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts ✨ Watch episodes on Youtube (@unpopulardecisions) ✨ Follow on Instagram (@unpopulardecisionspod)  ✨ Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter

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