The Career-Integrated Entrepreneur™ Podcast

Ep33. From Career Plateau to Power Move: How to Pivot Without Quitting

• Cindy Excell

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You’ve worked hard, built a solid career, and you’re good at what you do.


So why does it still feel… flat?


If you’ve been thinking,

“I’m doing all the right things - but I’m just not excited anymore…”
 You might be sitting in a career plateau.


In this episode, I’m getting real about:
✨ That weird in-between space where your job still looks good on paper - but doesn’t light you up anymore.
✨  Why jumping to a new job often doesn’t fix the root of the problem
✨  How starting a side coaching business helped me show up differently at work - more energised, more confident, more me
✨  How you can do it too


We’re not talking about burning bridges here. We’re talking about building options.


 So your next career move doesn’t have to be escape - it can be expansion. 


Resource: 

>> Free eBook: Validate Your Coaching Idea in 30 Minutes (With My Free GPT Validator Tool)

>> Connect with me on LinkedIn 

>> Follow me on Instagram 

 Welcome to the Career Integrated Entrepreneur podcast. Lead podcast for corporate women building a side hustle coaching business with intention and creating that financial runway while still thriving in the nine to five. I'm your host, Cindy Excell. Each week we talk strategy, mindset, and the real behind the scenes of what it takes to grow a business in the margins without burning out or blowing up your career.

Now let's dive in. Hey friend. Welcome back to Career Integrated Entrepreneur Podcast. And today's episode is, I think, a big special because we are talking about something that I know a lot of mid-career capital women or men are feeling right now. Even if you haven't said it out loud yet. When I say mid career, I mean.

If you have been working for seven years plus, or even, you know, over 10 years, over a decade, et cetera, and you have achieved a lot in your career and you had a lot of experience and you worked in a lot of places that made you proud, et cetera, but somehow there is this little quiet and a persistent voice that says, I'm good at my job, but I'm not really passionate about it like I used to be.

Or the little voice might say, I've worked so hard to get here, but why I feel so stuck. If that sounds like you, you're not alone. Highly likely you are just hate a career plateau. It's like a wake up call that makes your question if you have even made the right career choices from years ago or why you do what you do.

And sometimes you feel like this is not something you wanted, there is this third path between staying stuck or quitting cold Turkey, and that's definitely not something we want you to do. This is the heart of a career integrated entrepreneurship concept. You know, I'm all about building a financial runway.

I'm all about learning the business building skills while you're in your nine-to-five. So today I want to share what this pivot could look like for you without having to hand in your resignation letter from my own experience. Because you need a smart way to reignite your ambition, your purpose, especially if you're still in your nine-to-five.

Now, let's dive in. There is this weird place a lot of us hid in our careers or some stage in our career where everything looks great on paper, right? You are doing really well. In your job, you are respected by your colleagues. You probably have even made a name for yourself in the industry. You've got the high income, the title, the social status, maybe even managing the team for a while, but inside you feel this flatness as if you've stopped growing, but you haven't stopped working and in your career, they just seems to kind of not going anywhere.

And no one talks about it because it doesn't feel that bad enough to even complain about, but it's not great either. I've kind of experienced this process myself. I've been working in the financial services and the wealth management industry for 19 and a half years, nearly 20 years when I first started my career in my twenties.

I absolutely loved it. I wanted to become financial advisor. I did all the education, got all the qualification, designation, et cetera, and put my hand up for any opportunity that I could get in order to become a financial advisor. Then there was this massive industry change, regulation change the last five years.

There are lots of advisor access the industry. For me, I still liked this industry and I still had so much to give, but I also felt this flatness in me that I've never felt before and a started business that I started initially to create financial security and the options. It then became something also laddered me up that in my corporate career couldn't have give me, especially in the last 18 months.

That type of flatness and emptiness that I felt. It wasn't because I hated my job, but because it felt like I was repeating a version of the same year over and over and over and over. Especially in the work environment, that full of changes and uncertainty that made my daytime job harder and harder. I know there are a lot of, you probably feel the same way as well.

I actually had this lady reach out to me a few weeks ago asking me about how to start a business because she's doing the same role for. Not exact same job, but same role for about 20 years now. And then the word she used is that she just feel bored and she has no excitement every day when she goes to her job.

So this is really, really common, especially if you are in the middle career. Now, when that happens, what most people do next is that you look for another job, you look for a new job because you feel stuck in your current one, right? You take your resume, you scroll LinkedIn, job S at midnight, you ask a friend to put you forward for a role that's, you know, ish.

But the truth is a new job is often not the fix. A new job could be just a slightly shinier version of the same problem. Now, I'm not saying don't explore other roles or opportunities at all. Sometimes that is the right next step, but if you've already switched the jobs, switch the roles once or twice, but you still feel that same.

Kind of lingering flatness. Maybe it's not about the role anymore. Maybe it is the time to build something different, to build something on the side on your terms, because what you are craving isn't just a change of scenery, it's actually growth or even ownership. It's something that can light you up in the way that your current career just doesn't anymore.

Now, I'm not talking about rejecting your career. Instead, I'm actually talking about creating something alongside your career that helps you find that purpose and alignment again, something that can give you momentum, freedom, and creativity. You never need to rule out the possibility of stepping into another role if you are like me for the last five years because I still had so much to give, and you might be the same.

But what you are building is to have a choice and then not have that role as your only option. So instead of trying to run away from your plateau, you ask, what could I build alongside my career? That was me back in 2018. I was working full-time as a private wealth manager in the organization. I actually really liked still deep in family life with two little ones.

There was no dramatic leap. I actually never thought about, you know, taking a leap at all back then. There is no I'm dumb moment. I just started getting curious, what am I actually good at? What should people already ask me for help with? Could I turn that into something valuable on the site? That curiosity turned into a small coaching offer, and then that offer led to real clients.

Before I knew it, I had a five figure start business in fitness coaching, all while still working my nine to five. The thing is, it wasn't just about extra money. It actually gave me back something I didn't even realize that I'd lost, which was that fire in my belly. You know, when you do something you really enjoy doing, the sense of ambition that's yours and yours alone and most of all, the power to choose.

Again. I also want to be very clear that. I wasn't actually building some emergency exit plan. Back then. I was working towards a freedom plan, a way to explore who I was becoming without walking away from what I'd already built. And weirdly, the moment I started building something for myself, I also started showing up differently in my copy role as well.

I was more energized, more confident, more willing to take initiatives, more proactive with everything I do. More willing and enjoying coaching and mentoring the junior team members as well. I had better boundaries. I wasn't hustling for external validation anymore. Because I finally had something that was mine.

My sad hustle journey has given me the growth I've never expected. Also, that allowed me to show up differently at my corporate career, at home, and even in my identity. If there's anything to take away from today's episode for you, I want that to be this. Your next career move does not have to be escaping or exiting.

It can be expansion via turning what you already knew and good at into a study business of your own. Now, I want to share with you this five signs that you probably ready to pivot without quitting your career. Number one is your high performing, but you always feel low on energy. Number two, you're not learning anything new with your job, and it's also slowly draining you.

Number three, your daydream about something more, but you don't know where to start. Number four, you feel disconnected from the version of you that used to feel driven. The last one is you want to feel proud again with your career. Not just being competent If any of those landed, you don't need to touch your career.

You just need to explore your options and create a container for your next evolution. And one of the easiest way, and the best way to start in my opinion, is a coaching or consulting based start hustle because that container can hold your ambition. Can leverage what you are good at and they can leverage your skills and your expertise, your creativity, your leadership, all the things your job probably isn't actually tap into at this stage.

Now, I want to be really practical because I know that how busy you are for anything we discussed there, you do not need to work actual. 20 hours a week. What that could actually look like for you, which is also for me when I started, was that you cover five to 10 hours a week, which means one hour a day.

And if you are able to block out a few hours on the weekend, that's even going to give you a better result. And you choose one platform to solve one problem for one specific type of person, and you use what you already knew. You don't need to take out any new degrees, no fancy tools. Go through your skills, your expertise, your personal experience, your transformation that you've had in the past.

And I promise you, if you really dive deeper, you will be able to find something that what you already have and monetize that, and you start sharing your thoughts online. With your friends and you start inviting a few conversations and that was it. Once you start to take those actions, you will start showing up differently as your work as well.

You will start to have more energy, start to have more confidence, because when you are building something that's yours, it changes your posture. It reminds you that you are not stuck. You are just building your options. I know that you've worked too hard to feel this kind of flatness or emptiness with your career, and you don't need to throw everything away to build something new.

You just need to say yes to the version of you that's being quietly waiting in the background. So this is not about closing the door on your career, on the country, it is actually about opening the door to possibility. And giving yourself the freedom to explore a different side of you, even while still doing good work in your current job.

Now, before I wrap up this episode, here is what I want to leave you with today. You don't need to choose between your career and your calling. The real move is to reclaim your power by creating options. Your startup business equals extra income, plus your identity expansion, plus future proofing. Because you really don't need to burn bridges.

You just need to build your own path on the site. If this episode sparked something for you, I created a free tool to help you figure out what kind of coaching business or ideas you could start on the site. It's a free guide to help you obtain your existing skills into a high ticket coaching ideas that you can run on the site, even if you still have a job, or even if you don't have a niche yet, because this is what this free guide will help you with.

Inside of this free guide, you will also find a customized GPT that are built for you to validate your coaching idea just ahead to the short note, to grab your copy now. And remember, you are not stuck. You are just one decision away from building a version of success that finally feels like yours. And I'm so proud of you for being here.

I'll see you next week. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Career Integrated Entrepreneur podcast. If this episode sparked something in you or gave you the little push you needed, I'd love for you to hit follow, leave a quick review or share it with a friend who's also interested in building an online business on their Your Runway starts now, and I'm so glad you are here.

I will catch you next week.