Life Between Titles: Career Transitions and Reinvention

Savan Kong | Job Loss Recovery and Career Stories
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

What happens to your identity when your job disappears? Life Between Titles is the podcast for anyone navigating career transition, job loss recovery, and the hard work of career reinvention — told through honest, human stories. Whether you are between jobs, titles, or directions, Life Between Titles reminds you that the in-between is not the end. It is where transformation begins. Hosted by Savan Kong, a former federal employee and product executive who has lived through layoff, reinvention, and the question of who you are when your title is gone.

  1. Why Applying to Jobs Is Failing You in 2026

    1d ago

    Why Applying to Jobs Is Failing You in 2026

    Happy New Year and welcome to 2026.If you are starting this year between roles, questioning your job search, or wondering why doing everything right still is not working, this video is for you.In this episode of Life Between Titles, I break down the real cost of being unemployed, not just emotionally but financially, and why the job market feels frozen even when headlines say things are fine.We talk about what low hire, no fire actually means, why mass applying no longer works, and how shifting your strategy toward relationships and focus can completely change outcomes.This is not about working harder.It is about working differently.If you are feeling stuck, you are not broken.The system changed.

    8 min
  2. The Pattern Behind Every Successful Career Change

    1d ago

    The Pattern Behind Every Successful Career Change

    I tried recording a polished version of this update four or five times.It was terrible.So here’s the real one.Since launching in October, Life Between Titles has grown into something bigger than I expected. We’ve published over 25 conversations with people navigating career pivots, identity shifts, burnout, reinvention, and the quiet struggle of being between chapters.The mission has always been simple. Talk about the in between. The part people usually struggle with in silence. And it’s working. People are listening. People are engaging. And for every guest who has trusted me with their story, thank you.The latest episode features Danielle Luhmann, and it might be one of the most fascinating yet. Her path from lawyer to product designer to insurance consultant to entrepreneur to mental health therapist, while raising kids and running ultramarathons, is almost hard to believe. But it’s real. And it’s intentional. We talk about sacrifice, discomfort, and choosing hard things on purpose.I also share a transparent update on introducing affiliate partnerships, starting with Online Therapy. If something aligns with the conversations and genuinely helps you, supporting through those links helps sustain the show at no extra cost to you.You’ll also start seeing curated, tactical videos breaking down tools and techniques. The first one dives into resumes, artificial intelligence, and how AI can help or hurt your job search.And finally, I’m launching a new show under the umbrella called Work, Unscripted. This series will spotlight people with unique, extraordinary, and unconventional jobs. The specialists. The off beat paths. The careers you didn’t even know existed.If you’ve been listening, thank you. If you’re navigating your own transition, hang in there. It gets better.Like, subscribe, comment, or just send me a note and tell me what you think.Let’s build this the right way.

    5 min
  3. Dr. Aaron Dossey | PhD Scientist & Insect Protein Pioneer. On bugs as food, defunded science, and building a company no one would invest in.

    6d ago

    Dr. Aaron Dossey | PhD Scientist & Insect Protein Pioneer. On bugs as food, defunded science, and building a company no one would invest in.

    Dr. Aaron Dossey spent 14 years running a company that was ahead of its time. He was the first in the Western Hemisphere doing insect protein research for human consumption. He had DARPA funding. He had patents. He had products. What he didn't have was investors who believed the market was ready — and in 2024, the money ran out. This one's for anyone who's ever been right about something and still watched it fall apart. ☕ If this episode hit, buy me a coffee and keep the show going. In this episode you'll learn: Why insects are one of the most efficient and sustainable protein sources on earthHow the science career pipeline quietly collapsed — and what that means for the next generation of researchersWhy the biggest insect food companies raised hundreds of millions and still foldedWhat it costs to spend a decade building something the market isn't ready forHow Aaron is still pushing forward through a nonprofit focused on insect genomics and biodiversityThe funding dried up. The grants evaporated. And Aaron kept going. What We Discuss: [timestamps TBD] SUPPORT THE SHOW & TOOLSTeal AI Resume Tool | Online-Therapy Anxiety Assessment | Guided Reflection Journal Some links above are affiliate links. They cost you nothing and help support the show. MORE FROM LBT📺 YouTube | 🟢 Spotify | 🍎 Apple Podcasts | 🎵 Amazon Music COMMUNITY📝 Substack | 💼 LinkedIn | 🎵 TikTok | 📸 Instagram PARTNER WITH LBT💰 Become a Sponsor | 🙋 Be a Guest #LifeBetweenTitles #careertransition #layoff #reinvention #humanstories #nextchapter #leadership -------------If the ISI’s work speaks to you, there is a GoFundMe running right now. Every contribution moves the vision forward.GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-invertebrate-studies-institutes-missionISI Website: https://www.isibugs.orgBook: https://shop.elsevier.com/books/insects-as-sustainable-food-ingredients/dossey/978-0-12-802856-8

    1h 24m
  4. Brett Cohen | Forbes Group VP. On Going Viral Before Going Viral Was a Thing.

    Jun 18

    Brett Cohen | Forbes Group VP. On Going Viral Before Going Viral Was a Thing.

    Brett Cohen started an internet radio show at 15 from his childhood bedroom in Long Island, calling in on his mom's landline because that's how Blog Talk Radio hosts did it in 2005. Nobody at school knew. By the time he was booking Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Jimmy Fallon, he was still doing homework between segments. Years later, as a college intern at Lorne Michaels' production company, he spent forty dollars on Craigslist actors and fake bodyguards and walked through Times Square pretending to be famous. By Friday morning he was on the cover of the Metro, doing Good Morning America, and sitting across from Lester Holt on the Today Show plaza. A week later he was back in class for fall semester. Now he produces the Forbes Under 30 Summit and other flagship events as Group Vice President at ForbesLive.Buy Me a Coffee ☕ if this episode is worth a cup.In this episode you'll learn: How Brett booked A-list celebrities from an AOL email address and his mom's landline phone The PR Newswire playbook that got him Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Jimmy Fallon What made People Magazine cite his high school radio show as a source How a forty dollar prank video shot in Times Square went viral on Reddit and landed him on every major network within 36 hours What going viral before going viral was a thing actually did to his life, his confidence, and his career What it takes to produce live events for Forbes, from the Under 30 Summit to a CMO summit where the power went out mid-sessionWhat We Discuss: 0:00 South Florida, a baby on the way, reconnecting after decades. 3:00 Growing up in Long Island and where the drive came from. 4:30 Starting internet radio at 15 on Blog Talk Radio in 2005. 10:00 Booking Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Jimmy Fallon from his mom's landline. 13:30 The guest booking playbook, PR Newswire, and how to get a yes. 18:00 The Jimmy Fallon sweat glands story and how to surface a newsworthy moment without being obvious about it. 25:30 The forty dollar fake celebrity prank video shot in Times Square. 30:00 Reddit, Good Morning America, and Lester Holt in 36 hours. 34:00 Back in class a week later. 45:00 How he landed at Forbes after years running event activations. 51:00 What it takes to produce the Under 30 Summit and executive level events. 56:00 The night the power went out during a CMO summit in Aspen.SUPPORT THE SHOW & TOOLSTeal AI Resume Tool | Online-Therapy Anxiety Assessment | Guided Reflection JournalSome links above are affiliate links. They cost you nothing and help support the show.MORE FROM LBT📺 YouTube | 🟢 Spotify | 🍎 Apple Podcasts | 🎵 Amazon MusicCOMMUNITY📝 Substack | 💼 LinkedIn | 🎵 TikTok | 📸 InstagramPARTNER💰 Become a Sponsor | 🙋 Be a Guest#lifebetweentitles #careertransition #layoff #reinvention #humanstories #nextchapter #leadership

    1h 20m
  5. Anthony Dyer | Retired Combat Veteran, 14 Deployments. On rock bottom, writing through it, and scars as a roadmap.

    May 27

    Anthony Dyer | Retired Combat Veteran, 14 Deployments. On rock bottom, writing through it, and scars as a roadmap.

    Here's the Spotify description: He joined the Air Force for a paycheck. No direction, a chip on his shoulder, and no real plan beyond getting out of a small mountain town in western North Carolina. What happened over the next 20 years — 14 deployments, a gunship over Afghanistan, a torn pec mid-hoist in East Africa, a waffle man who turned out to be the enemy, and eventually a bottle that almost cost him everything — is the kind of story that doesn't get told enough. Anthony Dyer told it anyway. And he wrote it down. ☕ If this episode hit, support the show → buymeacoffee.com/lifebtwtitles In this episode you'll learn: How to find purpose again after the mission that defined you is goneHow to feed the positive wolf when you've spent years doing the oppositeWhy "we'll see" might be the most powerful two words you carry into uncertaintyHow writing down your trauma becomes the beginning of healingHow to keep your identity intact through every reinvention, not just the ones that workedThere's a line Anthony said that I keep thinking about: scars are a roadmap to perseverance. This episode is that map. What We Discuss: 0:00 Intro | 3:00 Growing up in the Appalachians | 4:45 The two wolves | 7:18 Why he joined the Air Force | 11:05 9/11 and the shift that changed everything | 14:26 What being a gunship operator actually means | 20:09 Afghanistan — RPGs and the Casablanca mission | 22:17 The Waffle Man | 31:20 Hospitalized in Germany and telling no one | 41:46 Rock bottom — the bottle, the pills, and the choice his wife forced | 43:34 Prolonged exposure therapy | 48:00 Writing the book | 54:16 Navajo culture and raising Sullivan with two belief systems | 1:04:45 What he hopes Sullivan finds in this conversation 35 years from now Get Anthony's book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Q8XYAJ MORE FROM LBT: 📺 YouTube | 🟢 Spotify | 🍎 Apple Podcasts | 🎵 Amazon Music. COMMUNITY: 📝 Substack | 💼 LinkedIn | 🎵 TikTok | 📸 Instagram. PARTNER: 💰 Become a Sponsor | 🙋 Be a Guest #LifeBetweenTitles #careertransition #layoff #reinvention #humanstories #nextchapter #leadership

    1h 8m
  6. Hon. John Sherman on Leading with Kindness, 9/11, and a Life of Consequence

    May 14

    Hon. John Sherman on Leading with Kindness, 9/11, and a Life of Consequence

    Here's the full Spotify package. SPOTIFY EPISODE TITLE Hon. John Sherman on Leading with Kindness, 9/11, and a Life of Consequence SPOTIFY DESCRIPTION I've known John Sherman for years. He gave me ten minutes when he didn't have to. That turned into one of the most consequential relationships of my career. What I didn't know until we sat down for this episode was that the man who led the largest technology enterprise in the country once described himself as beyond intense, often aggressive, and ready to conquer the world when he left college. That's not the John Sherman I know. Which means somewhere across three decades of federal service, something changed. I wanted to know what. Support the show and keep it going: Buy Me a Coffee In this episode you'll learn: How to lead with kindness without losing your edge or your accountabilityHow to stay mission-focused across Republican and Democratic administrationsHow to get up to speed on technology you don't understand yetHow to make the call to cancel something big before it takes everything with itHow to build a career of consequence, not just a career of titlesWhy being on duty in the White House Situation Room on 9/11 still shapes how John leads todayJohn Sherman spent 30 years in federal service, including time as a White House Situation Room duty officer on September 11th, 2001. He served as Intelligence Community CIO overseeing 17 agencies, and as Senate-confirmed DoD Chief Information Officer, the largest technology enterprise in the country. He's now Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. What We Discuss: 0:00 Intro | 2:00 The LinkedIn post John almost forgot he wrote: "I wasn't always like this" | 7:00 Kindness as honesty, not softness | 14:00 Coming out of the Corps of Cadets aggressive and ready to conquer the world | 22:00 What the White House Situation Room actually looked like on 9/11 | 32:00 Crossing the Roosevelt Bridge and seeing smoke from the Pentagon | 35:00 Working across administrations: what actually connects them | 39:00 How John got into technology leadership without being a technologist | 44:00 Canceling JEDI and the IC Common Desktop | 50:00 How to hire for character when resumes can't tell you who someone is | 54:00 A life of consequence SUPPORT THE SHOW & TOOLSTeal AI Resume Tool | Online-Therapy Anxiety Assessment | Guided Reflection Journal Some links above are affiliate links. They cost you nothing and help support the show. MORE FROM LBT📺 YouTube | 🟢 Spotify | 🍎 Apple Podcasts | 🎵 Amazon Music COMMUNITY📝 Substack | 💼 LinkedIn | 🎵 TikTok | 📸 Instagram PARTNER WITH LBT💰 Become a Sponsor | 🙋 Be a Guest #LifeBetweenTitles #careertransition #layoff #reinvention #humanstories #nextchapter #leadership

    58 min
  7. Gladdys Uribe on Immigration Law, ICE Raids, & Building a Practice on Your Own Terms

    May 5

    Gladdys Uribe on Immigration Law, ICE Raids, & Building a Practice on Your Own Terms

    ICE raids. Deportations. A system moving faster than families can react. Immigration attorney Gladdys Uribe sees it all in real time — and she decided at 16 she'd be the one standing between her community and the worst of it. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, trained under one of LA's top lawyers, she built her practice on her own terms — as a working mom, in the middle of the most chaotic enforcement era in decades. In this episode, we talk about what it actually looks like to say yes when fear is the loudest voice in the room. If this show has helped you, consider buying me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/lifebtwtitles ————————————————————— In this episode you'll learn: * How to build a career around a mission you committed to before you knew what it would cost * How to navigate a field that wasn't designed for you — and build a practice on your own terms * What ICE enforcement actually looks like on the ground right now, and what families need to know * How to use fear as information instead of a reason to stop * What it means to practice immigration law as a working mom without apologizing for either role The immigration system didn't get more forgiving. The enforcement didn't get quieter. Gladdys built her practice anyway — not in spite of the pressure, but inside of it. This is what it looks like when someone says yes to the thing that scares them, and keeps saying it for 26 years. What We Discuss: 00:00 — Introduction 02:00 — Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants and deciding at 16 to become a civil rights attorney 08:00 — Getting into Occidental College and UCLA Law — and what no one tells you about being first 16:00 — Training under Enrique Arevalon, one of LA's top immigration lawyers 24:00 — What Trump 2.0 enforcement actually looks like: ICE raids, detention, daily policy shifts 34:00 — The moment she decided to build her own practice instead of fit into someone else's 42:00 — Building a working-mom-friendly firm — and why that design was intentional 50:00 — What saying yes instead of no out of fear actually changed 58:00 — What she wants families to know right now ————————————————————— SUPPORT THE SHOW & TOOLS Teal AI Resume Tool Online-Therapy Anxiety Assessment Guided Reflection Journal Some links above are affiliate links. They cost you nothing and help support the show. ————————————————————— MORE FROM LBT 📺 YouTube 🟢 Spotify 🍎 Apple Podcasts 🎵 Amazon Music ————————————————————— COMMUNITY 📝 Substack 💼 LinkedIn 🎵 TikTok 📸 Instagram ————————————————————— PARTNER WITH LBT 💰 Become a Sponsor 🙋 Be a Guest ————————————————————— #LifeBetweenTitles #careertransition #layoff #reinvention #humanstories #nextchapter #leadership #immigrationlaw #ICEraids #Trump

    1h 21m
  8. Ann Dunkin on Reinvention, Grit, and Breaking Into Rooms That Weren't Built for You

    Apr 28

    Ann Dunkin on Reinvention, Grit, and Breaking Into Rooms That Weren't Built for You

    Here's the Spotify title and description: TITLE:Ann Dunkin on Reinvention, Grit, and Breaking Into Rooms That Weren't Built for You DESCRIPTION: Ann Dunkin has been in rooms most people never get into. Former CIO of the Department of Energy spanning three presidential administrations, HP veteran of 20 years, and now back at Georgia Tech as a professor and external fellow. She didn't get there by playing it safe. She got there by never getting too comfortable. We talked about what grit actually looks like when you've had every advantage stripped away. About being a woman in engineering in the South when the professors in the room didn't think you belonged there. About leading teams full of people smarter than you, and why not knowing everything is sometimes the best management tool you have. About the Boys Club, Gen X getting squeezed out, and what it costs when diversity gets treated as a threat instead of a strategy. Support the show: Buy Me a Coffee In this episode you'll learn: How to know when comfort is actually holding your career backHow to lead highly technical teams when you're not the most technical person in the roomHow to build a career across sectors without losing yourself in the processHow to navigate being the only woman in rooms that were never designed to include youHow to think about grit, privilege, and what it actually takes to build something that lastsWhat We Discuss: (0:00) Introduction (1:18) Georgia Tech, industrial engineering, and the world it dropped her into (5:23) How video games shifted the gender balance in computer science (10:40) What Georgia Tech raw material actually means (16:20) Building grit in yourself and your students (18:02) Why immigration raises the bar for everyone (25:51) The phone call from HP that changed everything (30:23) How one recommendation shaped how Ann pays it forward (36:40) Leading technical teams when you're not the most technical (39:07) Trust over micromanagement (41:02) Being the woman in the room and the most senior one (42:40) Gen X, the Boys Club, and what still needs to change (46:03) Keeping girls engaged in technology early (54:16) Change management at the Department of Energy (58:15) Why F1 is a technical sport disguised as racing (1:02:03) Advice her father gave her that she had to unlearn (1:10:42) The thing she's most proud of that isn't on her resume SUPPORT THE SHOW & TOOLS: Teal AI Resume Tool | Online-Therapy Anxiety Assessment | Guided Reflection Journal Some links above are affiliate links. They cost you nothing and help support the show. MORE FROM LBT: 📺 YouTube | 🟢 Spotify | 🍎 Apple Podcasts | 🎵 Amazon Music COMMUNITY: 📝 Substack | 💼 LinkedIn | 🎵 TikTok | 📸 Instagram PARTNER WITH LBT: 💰 Become a Sponsor | 🙋 Be a Guest #LifeBetweenTitles #careertransition #layoff #reinvention #humanstories #nextchapter #leadership

    1h 10m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

What happens to your identity when your job disappears? Life Between Titles is the podcast for anyone navigating career transition, job loss recovery, and the hard work of career reinvention — told through honest, human stories. Whether you are between jobs, titles, or directions, Life Between Titles reminds you that the in-between is not the end. It is where transformation begins. Hosted by Savan Kong, a former federal employee and product executive who has lived through layoff, reinvention, and the question of who you are when your title is gone.

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