55: The hidden blockers keeping you stuck

Career Switch Podcast: Expert advice for your career change

Career Switch Podcast: Expert advice for your career change
55: The hidden blockers keeping you stuck
Jul 29, 2025 Season 4 Episode 55

Do you want to make a career change, but you feel stuck? Do you keep procrastinating, thinking you’ll get started next week, month, or year? 

Here to get you going is executive coach and leadership consultant Ellen Whitlock Baker. As the founder and CEO of EWB Coaching, Ellen helps midlife professionals reclaim who they are and what they want to do next in their careers.

In this episode, Ellen shares why it’s so hard to get started even when you know it’s time for a change. She reveals how you can identify those conscious and unconscious blockers that are keeping you from switching to a new career and the tiny, low-risk steps you can take to start anyway—even if you’re scared, unsure, or don’t have a plan yet.


Episode Highlights:

• Why it's hard to get started with a career change

• Your biological wiring that resists change

• Perfectionism and other common blockers that keep you stuck

• How your upbringing and past work experiences influence your thinking

• Taking action even when you don't feel ready

• Small "experiments" to investigate new career paths

• Reframing failure as learning

• Using AI to generate insights for possible next steps


Find Ellen Whitlock Baker at:

Website: https://ewbcoaching.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenwhitlockbaker/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellenwbcoaching

Podcast: The Hard at Work Podcast

Start Anyway Workshop on 9/18/25: https://ewbcoaching.com/startanyway

Discount code for 15% off: SWITCH25


Resources Mentioned: 

Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey

Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra


Want more advice? Check out these additional episodes:

Ep 34: 3 signs it’s time for a career change

Ep 19: Here’s why you’re procrastinating about your career change

Ep 7: Lost with what career change to make?


Music credit: TimMoor from Pixabay


Podcast info:
What's your career switch? What do you think about this episode and the show? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.