Ep. 11 | Rough Job Market? The Truth Behind Morning Brew’s Narrative & The Google Exec Who Walked Away

📖 Episode 11 Summary

In this episode of Game Changer, Amanda Escobedo zooms out from the headlines to ask a deeper question: How are media narratives shaping the way you think, feel, and move through your life?

Amanda opens by revisiting the core purpose of the podcast — not to tell you what to think, but to give you tools for how to think. She breaks down a Morning Brew article on “rough work amid a rough job market,” showing how emotionally charged narratives can be built on thin or mismatched data. Using this as a case study, she teaches listeners to separate facts from tales, spot when fear is being sold as reality, and reclaim their ability to see the world more objectively.

From there, Amanda shifts into the inner game: how frustration and “brick wall” moments can actually be gateways to self-discovery and creativity. She shares how quieting external noise — especially media noise — is essential to hearing your own intuition and recognizing the signs, synchronicities, and inner nudges that are already guiding you.

The episode culminates in the powerful story of Jenny Wood, a former Google executive who left an 18-year career to pursue a more aligned path. Amanda uses Jenny’s journey — and her own layoff story — to illustrate the difference between living by external data (status, security, headlines) and living by inner knowing. Listeners are invited to reframe fear as a signal of growth, view their own career crossroads as part of the hero’s journey, and see themselves as Game Changers capable of transforming frustration into purpose, impact, and legacy.

Referenced Resources

• Morning Brew – “People open to rough work amid rough job market”
• Business Insider – “I quit Google after 18 years on the job. It was scary but I did it well — here’s how.”

Transcript

Amanda Escobedo (00:01.346)
Welcome to the Game Changer by Empower House Coaching, your podcast to master the mental game, elevate your brilliance and build a legacy of progress and impact. My name is Amanda Escobedo. I'm your host and intergame coach here to help you change the game. Wow.

We are at episode 11, folks. It has now been 11 weeks since we have launched this podcast. Thanks for joining, rejoining. If you have forwarded or shared this podcast with anyone, thank you so much. If you have not yet, please share with a friend that you think would maybe gain some value. Again, just as a reminder, a big part of our goal with this podcast is to give you some tools on how to effectively think. How to effectively think, not what to think, how.

to effectively think. And a big part of why I started this podcast, a lot of different reasons. One of the main reasons originally was because I was just so frustrated. That's how good ideas start. All ideas start with the brick wall of frustration. And I have just been so frustrated with just the world. And when I say the world, it's really the media, all these narratives being pushed.

and all these new ideologies and belief systems that are really starting to divide us instead of unite us. And I want to share, introduce narratives that are being pushed onto you. And my goal is make you aware of that so that you can understand what the underlining story is, start to see the world just a little more objectively and filter it through your own value system.

But I will have to say going through this process was starting to, you know, review the news and then pick apart the narratives. It is been a bit draining on myself and I have to like turn off my social media. I like, I get all these things in my inbox for newsletters. like, I cannot read this. It's just mentally exhausting and draining. So, you know, I share all that to say, I think this podcast will continue to evolve because what I mean by that is, you know,

Amanda Escobedo (02:08.494)
Another piece of being a game changer is not only helping you think objectively, but really help you transform some of these things that frustrate you and help you be the solution maker, the creator, the idea to the solution, lead the change, be the change, solve the problem instead of complaining about it and waiting for others to solve it. And so I'm really all about, I believe all of us have deep desires within us and

We have passions and this is the self-discovery journey. And so if I can give you some tools that help you get to know yourself a little more, get to unlock that inner voice, unlock some of your deepest desires, maybe through some of your own frustrations, whether it's the media or other challenges in life, we can transform those into opportunities so that you can be the next game changer. And by continuing to listen to this podcast, again, my goal is to give you some tools

So if you're starting on your journey of being a game changer, or if you're already on it, it's all about really cultivating your creativity. And we talk about cultivating your creativity, it's getting you into this world of flow, this world of serendipity and secretocity, where it just feels like you're always at the right place at the right time, things are just working out for you. And that's you just following your internal notes, your intuitive intelligence. There's all these signs all around you.

And I want you to be a lot more in tune. And in order for you to be more in tune to these signs, we have to quiet the noise. We have to quiet the noise of the media. We have to quiet the noise of all these things that are around us. Even if it's listening to this podcast, we're constantly listening to noise, whether it's our social media, newsletters, whether we're running from one meeting to the other, we're listening to podcasts, we're on the phone all the time. There's very minimal time that we just sit quietly.

And you know, that's one of the reasons I really do love exercising so much. You know, I'm starting to, you know, I've started to get into the running game and I have not been successful with running without headphones. We talk about noise. I'm like, I need a little noise so that I'm drowning out my own breath. If I hear myself breathe, then I'll start to hyperventilate even more because I'm like, dying grasping for air. It sounds even worse and makes me hyperventilate even worse.

Amanda Escobedo (04:29.974)
That said, I had my first experience running long distance with friends with no headphones, and that was a game changer. And so in those long runs, those long distance, even though I'm listening to my headphones, I will say I'm constantly monitoring my critter brain the entire time. And there's generally a point in one of my miles, mostly like towards the end, my brain finally realizes.

We're not going to die. We're still alive and we're not quitting. We're actually committed to what we said. And so it's almost like the critter bait critter brain starts to shut down and then the inner voice, the intuitive intelligence starts to come through. And that's when all my self reflective moments start to really unravel. And we want to give you a lot of more of those moments, but you don't have to go on a long run to get that inner voice. You don't have to go on a long run to

self-reflect to understand yourself to figure out what do you think? How do you want to think about this? What's your next move? You're at that brick wall of frustration. How do I get over it? You don't have to go on a long run, but it can be helpful. So I share all that to say this podcast is here to help you get into your flow. It's here to help you self discover a little more about yourself. Go on that self discovery Germany. It's here to help you unlock a bit of what is your purpose? What is the problem you're passionate about solving? It's here to help you have a paradigm shift.

Work on seeing the world differently so that the world is working for you instead of against you. Right now, my brain, I have to say, is wired in such a beautiful way. There are plenty of bad things that happen to me. ask me to recall them. I cannot recall them for the life of me. Someone can bring it up and be like, yeah, I forgot that happened. yeah, I forgot that happened. My brain is just so focused on all the beautiful things that are happening in my life. It's focused on all these opportunities.

All the brick walls of frustrations. It's so thankful for them because I've extracted gems, learnings that have helped me pivot and take me into a better direction. There is the reality that you're living with and is really just based on how you see the world. So if we can upgrade your thoughts, we can open up the world of possibilities. And that's where the game changer is born.

Amanda Escobedo (06:46.946)
So just wanted to share that, reintroduce this podcast, the purpose, its intent, why we're here for you. And I share this too because I got a question from somebody recently, you're a coach, what does this podcast have to do with what you do? You work with executives, you work with founders. I don't really hear you talking a lot about executives and founders. Well, I think at the end of the day, my tools, I'm working with them already. They're paying high ticket prices. I wanna help everybody.

This is a free resource that I could reach a lot more people, not just executives and founders. So if I can give tools to people that can just take them, run with them and change their lives through listening through a podcast, then that is beautiful. I wish these tools are really taught within a school system. I believe, like I almost feel like I've been gifted with this box that everybody's been looking for, these self-discovery tools.

on who am I, what are my innate gifts, what's my purpose, how do I live a fulfilled life, how do I make an impact, what is my legacy, what's my vision for life, right? These are just life tools that I really fundamentally believe should be taught within school systems. We're not there today, maybe we'll eventually get there, maybe I'll be the next game changer, but today I'm here focused on helping you, the day-to-day person. So that said, let's go ahead and dive into our first topic.

I'm going to review kind of a blend of two different articles today and one of them, the headliner, is People Open to Rough Work Amid Rough Job Market. Now this is coming from The Morning Brew. If you've been listening to these last couple episodes, I've actually been pulling articles from The Morning Brew and I'm starting to see a theme. There's strong narratives and not a lot of facts.

And this is my struggle with a lot of media. Media is supposed to give you news, facts, give you updates on what's happening in the world. And when I'm realizing, at least with Morning Brew, I'm now becoming a strong critic about it. You know, we all know, and this is why I don't really highlight other news places such as like Fox and CNN. We know those are very narrative driven toward the left or toward the right. So that's pretty obvious. I think most people know.

Amanda Escobedo (09:07.276)
I tried and I was talking to chat GBT a while back when I thought about this podcast, you know, what are some objective newsletters I can be a part of that give me updates on just tech, on politics, on geopolitics, business, money, and morning brew was one that came up. And I have to say, it's not very objective. So we're here to talk about the article, People Open to Rough Work Amid Rough Job Market.

This caught my attention because I personally love to focus on business and careers. I help people in career transitions, working to be aspiring entrepreneurs to the entrepreneur executives, leaders of organizations. And this caught my eye because it's talking about the workforce. People open to rough work amid rough job market. And so, you know, right now I'm just a little frustrated. Here's that brick wall of frustrated with the morning brew.

As I saw this article on that headline, I thought, well, this seems an insightful kind of headline. Let's dive into it. But as I'm going through the headline, instantly reading through rough work, what does rough work even mean? I have all these questions that start to come to me. And as I'm thinking through, reading through, starting to scan, my brain goes, here we go again. This is that narrative that the job market is rough. It's always rough. It's always rough.

It's still rough and now it's so rough that people are starting to turn to dirty jobs. That's literally what it references in this article. And so again, if you're new here, just so you know, I've been talking about this habit of the media pushing narratives on us without giving us full context or actual data. And we saw that again, the last episode or two with Morning Brew as I broke down and I was truly curious.

with again coming back into morning brew it is is it the same writer it was not the same writer but i was curious if it's a different writer are we going to have a different narrative are we going to have a different story are we going to have more facts of a story spoiler alert it's not any different so this story just to give you a bit of a summary this story wants you to absorb white collar hiring is slowing down

Amanda Escobedo (11:28.93)
the job market is rough and people are applying to tougher jobs, less glamorous roles because of it. That's the thesis of this article. That's the emotional undertone. That's the energy they're trying to create and look, narratives are powerful. Narratives create meaning, narratives create fear, narratives can create urgency, narratives can influence decisions. And here's the problem.

Again, going back to the data that this article cites does not support this thesis at all. I was laughing as I was reading this article, truthfully. So, you know, if the job market were truly rough, as they call it, you would see data in this article reference to unemployment rising significantly, the labor force participation dropping jobless.

claims spiking hiring declines across multiple sectors, wage freezes, recession-like kind of things, right? Structural displacement. But none of this appears to be within this article, not one. Instead, they reference to support their title of the rough job market and people claiming to have more dirty jobs. They claim correction applications are up by 40 % over three months.

It's a short period. hear me out. Correction applications. Applications are up 40 % over the last three months. Military is now meeting its recruiting goals. Over the summer, they met their recruiting goals early. Waste management applications are rising by 50 % and that's over the last two years. Now, the first thing I noticed with just these key highlights off the bat is these numbers.

don't match each other. What do I mean by that? The timelines that they're referencing in accordance to their data don't even match each other, right? We've got three months, we've got over the summer, we've got the last two years. And then they also don't match unemployment trends, they don't match labor data, they don't even match the job market conditions. And so this definitely does not prove that white collar job market is a rough job market.

Amanda Escobedo (13:50.104)
What it does prove, if you will, is the three unrelated sectors saw increases in applications for totally different reasons across totally different time periods. And that's not even a macro analysis. That is an anecdote-driven story. And this part really made me pause. They say jobs featured in dirty jobs are seeing a surge.

And listen, if you've watched, had to Google this, by the way, I was like, what the heck is dirty jobs? So apparently there's a show, a reality show called dirty jobs, and it's based on people doing more disgusting, messy, physically intense tasks. it's hosted, I think by someone named Mike Rowe. I have not looked into it further than just trying to be like, what is this dirty job reference? And so the writer really lumps these jobs into this dirty job.

market, correction officers, garbage and recycling workers, military, it lumps in construction, healthcare, and calls all of these dirty jobs. And my brain just took a complete pause. was like, healthcare, we're calling healthcare dirty jobs. Healthcare is a highly educated work, credential heavy, often union protected, high paying in many segments.

Skilled, regulated, and extremely specialized. And we're calling this a dirty job. And then military roles. Many of the roles are very prestigious. They're very structured. They've got their benefits heavy. They do require some physical testing. There are screening and clearances. But absolutely, I would not classify these as dirty work in any formal sense.

And corrections, correction officers, well, I'll give it something. It's tough and hazardous for sure. Waste management, hard physical labor, construction, skilled, dangerous, can be very dangerous and essential. Now, from my perspective, these roles really don't have much in common except for the author himself, him or she, they just give me letters for their author name. The author themselves is categorizing these as rough.

Amanda Escobedo (16:08.088)
But this isn't an economic analysis. This is an opinion. This is a judgment dressed as data. And even if these sectors did see increases across applicants, the article never proves that people doing this, people are doing or applying to these jobs is because we have a rough job market. This article does not make any proof of that.

Corrections, there could be many reasons why these applications are up. Corrections could be up because maybe they increased pay, maybe they added bonuses, maybe they ran a statewide recruiting, or maybe it's just returning from pre-COVID numbers. Military on the other side, you know, they have a ton of marketing efforts related to recruiting. Maybe it's because of that. Maybe it's cultural shifts in the politics, geopolitical events could be driving this. Family traditions.

education benefits and then on the other side too you know waste management could be up because of wage increases unions are stabilizing the field better local hiring initiatives there's 45 million different reasons why some of these applications could be up but the author doesn't explore any of these reasons the takeaway they push is people are desperate that is just the narrative they're pushing people are desperate but the numbers do not

connect to that if that is the narrative we are pushing. They throw that in casually with no data, no context, no comparison, just a statement. Slow. The job market is slow, but compared to what? So I did some, I was trying to do some research. My brain goes to like compared to what? 2021, the overheated market. Are we comparing it to last month? Are we comparing?

this to last year? Are we comparing this to the pre-pandemic? Words like slow and rough and surge mean nothing without numbers behind them. And that's the part that gets me with media outlets. They know most people will not ask these questions. Most people will just absorb the fear. But we don't do that here in the Game Changer podcast. No, we don't. Okay.

Amanda Escobedo (18:28.578)
Now, am I bringing this up again? Why am I bringing this up in the Game Changer podcast? Because being a leader, being a founder, being a game changer means learning how to think objectively, not reactively. Everything is neutral until you apply meaning. So just want to pause there for a second. In the coaching world, we're here to teach you how to think, not what to think, how to think.

And one of the things we teach you is how to start to experience the world objectively. Let me repeat that last line one more time. Everything in the world is neutral. Everything is neutral. Nothing is bad. Nothing is good. It is all neutral until you apply a narrative to that. And that narrative is what makes that thing, that circumstance good or bad. This is one of the deepest coaching truths that you can take with you.

that can help contribute to any paradigm shift. A circumstance is just a circumstance. A fact is just a fact. The meaning you attach is the tale, is not the truth. For example, death isn't good or bad until you apply context to it. Money isn't good or bad until you attach your own belief system to it. A layoff isn't good or bad until you interpret it. And here's what matters.

your tail starts to shape your reality. It starts to shape your trajectory. So if your tail is fear driven, I'm not safe. The market is rough. This is risky. You'll start to block your creativity and clarity is the gateway of creativity. Creativity is the gateway to solutions.

and solutions are the gateway to our next evolution. You cannot be a game changer while you are living in someone else's fear narrative. kind of looking through this all through a coaching lens, if you have recently lost your job or maybe you're deciding whether to go left or go right, know, start something new, should you go back into your industry, find a job in the same industry, should you go right?

Amanda Escobedo (20:46.966)
your whole new game changer entrepreneur and like vision that you've been wanting to do. This is your ability to listen and tap into your intuition. But you tapping into your intuition to give you that answer really depends on whether you're living in fear or if you're living in grounded truth. If you're processing your layoff through fear, worrying about timelines, money, survival,

you'll start to lose access to that inner voice that actually knows what your next step is. If your mind is cluttered with narratives like no one is hiring, the economy is collapsing, this is the worst time to take a risk, right? Of course, you'll feel paralyzed. This is why we learn what is separate from a tale, your narrative, to the truth, seeing something objectively for what it is.

This is why we learn separate narrative from reality. This is why we learn separate fear, the critter brain, from intuition. So you can make decisions that serve your vision, not your panic. And let me just bring you home a bit with a specific example, a personal example, talking about the job market, a hard job market, and talking about layoffs and losing your job.

I just like many of you were just another statistic during the pandemic. was an HR director and I got laid off from my job. And during that time, I had already started to discover the world of coaching. I wanted to be a coach and I actually had a previous job that I had discovered the world of coaching. And then I left that job and went to a startup. And if you know anything about startups, they are demanding. They suck your soul.

And part of that, I had no time. I was exhausted all the time doing all of these initiatives. And I remember praying and I was talking to God. I'm a very spiritual person. And I was like, God, I know this whole coaching world that you've introduced to me is a step you want me to take, but I have no idea where to start. I have no time to figure this out. How do you want me to do this? I need time. And I remember praying and asking for time and energy. Be careful what you ask for. Okay.

Amanda Escobedo (23:06.638)
learned that God delivers just never in a way that you expect and never in a way that you want. Because then the gates opened, right? I all of sudden had all the time in the world. I was jobless. And during that time, I was wondering, do I go left or do I go right? And for me, going left and going right was really related to do I go full time HR again? Do I try and get another HR job? Do I go right and go full throttle into this coaching world?

Or maybe there's a middle where I do part-time HR, part-time coaching, and during that time I got a coach. I was looking for clarity and I needed help. So I needed somebody as a sounding board talking through my thoughts. Love my family, but you know their mindset was very safe, secure. know, Miha, you need benefits. Miha, you need to get a job. You want to climb that corporate ladder, right? It was a lot about security. It was a lot about climbing the ladder.

And the venture, the seed that had been planted in my desires, planted in my soul's desires, was not that security venture. But I had a lot of fear because I'm used to the security venture, right? So I'm working with this coach, working to get clarity and talk about rough job market. Everyone was losing their job. So it was like, how was I even going to get another job? How was I going to get another job in HR? How the heck am I going to start a coaching business during the pandemic?

When nobody has money, nobody can spend anything, who's gonna pay for a coach? So I'm just feeling lost in all directions and filled with a lot of fear. Because I'm constantly thinking like, when is my savings gonna run out? And am I gonna start eating hot dogs out of the trash can? Okay? And so I remember there was a specific time when I was working with this coach, I started getting all of these weird bodily symptoms.

I started feeling nauseous. couldn't have any coffee. Anything I ate just made me feel like, my gosh, is this gonna come out? I started getting this pressure in between my eyebrows. And what was I found interesting is I was doing all this research and part of this research I was looking up that was related to my symptoms said it could be related to my chakras. And I'll share just a little more about that in a second. So I'm talking to this coach, I'm in this session, he's helping me find clarity.

Amanda Escobedo (25:22.794)
At the end of this session, I was like, do you know anything about chakras? And he was like, well, sort of. What's your question, Amanda? And I'm sharing all these weird bodily symptoms I'm experiencing. And I was saying, you know, I Googled this and it was like, maybe this could be this pressure between my eyebrows could be related to my third eye chakra. And your third eye chakra is related to your purpose. I said, do you think there's a possibility everything I'm feeling could be related to this lack of clarity? And he was like, Amanda, a hundred percent.

He was like, there are two types of people in the world, Amanda. There are gladiators and there are Spider-Man. Most people in the world are Spider-Man. Most people don't make their next move until they have a secure web. And in this situation, that looks like most people do not quit their full-time job unless they have that secure bag, right? They've got that steady stream of income coming through and now they feel a lot more secure to quit that full-time job. That's your Spider-Man. On the other side,

There are gladiators and gladiators are all in whether they live or they die. And he was like, Amanda, you're in an interesting position because you don't have a job. He's like, you can decide. Do you want to be a Spider-Man or do you want to be a gladiator? And when he shared that and when that story, I just said out loud, I was like, I think I'm a gladiator. And I kid you not folks, when I said that out loud, I think I'm a gladiator.

The pressure in my eyebrows was released. The nausea went away. And I hung up that phone, dropped to the floor and started crying. I like, I knew what I had to do next. I had my clarity, full-time coach. But I just did not want to go down that path. Everything was uncertain. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to begin. I don't know how to start a business. Fear flooded me like a mad woman.

I already had everyone around me painting the picture of uncertainty, painting a picture of fear, whether it was family coming from a loving place, whether it was all the articles of the news talking about the job market and how every company was doing waves and waves of layoffs and nobody could get a job, right? So all the data, if we talk about data, real data, all the data was telling me this was a rough market. But my intuition was telling me it doesn't

Amanda Escobedo (27:47.274)
matter. My intuition was saying this is your time. You asked for time Amanda. This is your time. We are giving you this time and you also have everything you need to figure this out. And I remember in that moment when we talk about you know the tale versus the truth when we talk about viewing the world objectively this means we have a choice on how we think.

And I remember having that strong sense of fear with me and feeling in a panic. And in that moment, I made a decision. I made a decision where I said, you know, in these moments of uncertainty, in these moments where it takes a lot of courage, this is the challenge I've asked for. This is, think, an opportunity to grow me. What if fear is actually the signal to tell me I'm finally dreaming big enough?

What if fear is the signal I need to know that I'm in the right direction? So rather than be afraid of fear, not wanting to feel fear, what if I actually embraced fear as a sense of gratitude because it was a signal I was in the right direction? And I literally had this conversation with myself and I turned to imaginary fear, literally, and I was like, you and I are going to become best friends. We are going to lock.

hands we are going to skip down the path of uncertainty together and You know during that time that reframing of that mindset was the pivotal shift I needed to just start to open my mind to my creativity and Relax that that panic relax that fear It's not saying fear didn't start to come through through every brick wall of frustration and every challenge and everything I was doing that wasn't working

But it's really about, and what I'm also trying to say from a coaching lens, you know, starting to see the world objectively, we're not going to erase the human experience. That's not going to happen. You're going to feel all the emotions. The goal though is how do you start to rewire your brain so that you're feeling on a natural state, more high vibration emotions because you're starting to see all the things going right in your life.

Amanda Escobedo (30:07.81)
You're starting to transform challenges as opportunities. You're starting to transform losses as lessons. The more we start to rewire your brain like that, the more you'll have less lower vibration feelings, the ones that you hate and you're constantly trying to avoid. And you'll have more higher vibration energetic feelings that start to stimulate that momentum, that curiosity, that creativity, that flow state that we're thriving for.

And additionally, when you're at some of those really hard brick wall of frustrations where you don't know what the next step is, are completely uncertain, you're worried you're gonna run out of money, you're just feeling like there is no next step. In that deep dark moment, with these coaching tools, we give you an opportunity to feel all the feels, get through and pass those feels, and then bring your head back up and go back to the drawing board.

give you the tools in the sense that you do not stay stuck. You might have gotten kicked, you might have fallen, but you don't stay down. You have the tools to pull yourself back up. That is the goal. And so this is where, again, what we're talking about, fear, pressure, all of this, this is where the gladiator and the Spider-Man of the evolution really feels like.

What is your decision here? And here's the other thing I want to say that I love that the coach said is, you know, with the Spider-Man and the Gladiator analogy, there's no wrong or right way of living. Like you can be a Spider-Man or you can be a Gladiator. You can be in a season of a Spider-Man and you can be in a season of a Gladiator. So just because you're in the season of Gladiator, your intuitive note might tell you, all right, it's time to get back into our resources, whatever it is, and go back to the season of Spider-Man.

This is where your intuitive notes are constantly guiding you. And so again, when we go back to when headlines say things like rough work amid rough job market, I'm introducing a story like this because I want you to pause. I want you to ask yourself, is this truth or is this a tale? Is this data or is this a narrative? Is this aligned with my inner voice, my intuitive intelligence?

Amanda Escobedo (32:30.464)
Or is this feeding the inner critic, the critter brain? Is it feeding fear? Because being a game changer requires risk. That is the reality. Being a game changer requires risk. It requires courage. It requires you choosing your vision over other people's over other people's narratives, over other people's fears. It requires you to choose yourself. And it requires you to trust that if a desire is within you,

It's there for a reason. Not everyone, as an example, wants to do jujitsu. Okay? Not everyone wants to build a company. Not everyone wants to challenge systems and innovate or create. Mine does. But not everybody's. Your soul wants what it wants because it knows something about you, your future, your destiny. And your job, especially in moments in uncertainty, is to stay grounded

in truth, not in tales, and trust that voice inside of you that is always guiding you forward. Now, this first article is gonna lead just beautifully into the second article that I wanna share. And this second article comes from Business Insider. And this is less about, like, here's a news article highlight, and let's look at it objectively. This is more leading us into the story of a game changer.

which I believe this woman is a game changer. It's an example. This headline here is called, quit Google after 18 years on the job. It was scary, but I did it well, and here's how. Now, this brings me again, I love this feeds into this next story beautifully because this is a game changer story. A woman who was presented.

with every logical data point telling her to stay exactly where she was. And when we talk about logical data points, that looks like money, stability, her executive job title, her status, her dream job, a recognizable brand that most people would never walk away from. All the external data told her to go left, right? Stay, be safe, don't take a risk. But her inner data,

Amanda Escobedo (34:49.942)
that inner intuitive intelligence, her intuition, her exhaustion, her desire, her truth said something a bit different. And this is what I want you to hear. Sometimes the numbers will tell you one thing. The world will tell you one thing. Your fear will tell you one thing, but your soul, your intuition, your inner wisdom might be whispering something else. And the difference between someone who stays stuck

And someone who becomes a game changer is the courage to listen and take action on that whisper. So let's talk about Jenny Wood. Jenny Wood, she spent 18 years at Google. Let's say that again. 18 years, almost two decades. She joined when it had 10,000 employees. She rose to an executive level. She bled Google colors all day. She was the breadwinner in her family.

She was well respected, had an impact. She had nothing but opportunity. She had a future for Google. Now, if you were again to look at her life from the outside, you might say, why would you ever leave that? Every column in the spreadsheet that she built, she built a logical risk management spreadsheet, every column in her spreadsheet said, stay, stability, equity, career growth, community, identity, benefits, predictable income.

prestige, safety, all the data said stay. But her life, her body, her heart, her intuition began to say something else. She was exhausted. She was anxious. She wasn't sleeping. And this was during a time she had her son. And with all this exhaustion, she was driving her son home from choir rehearsal one night, exhausted, burdened, overstretched.

and had one of those my eyes just fluttered closed for a moment. And in that moment, she realized this is not sustainable. This isn't who I want to be. Something has to change. She almost fell asleep at the wheel. But like any high achiever, her brain fought her. Fear fought her. Her identity fought her. Her golden handcuffs fought her. So what did she do? Well, she started a separating truth from tale.

Amanda Escobedo (37:13.622)
she learned something powerful. The tale that she had was, if I leave Google, I'll lose everything, my identity, our money, my relevance. My kids will never forgive me. This is the tale she was telling herself. But the truth, what is the objective truth, the objective reality here? If I leave Google, I'm simply no longer employed by Google. That's it. That's the objective truth.

If you leave Google, then you'll no longer be employed by Google. But she rewrote her tale. She thought, what is a more empowering way to look at my transition? Well, if I leave, I make space for the person I'm becoming. The author, the speaker, the coach, the mom who picks her kids up from school, the woman that wants her life back.

She started replacing fear-based narratives with empowering narratives. She started weighing actual risk with perceived risk. She looked at the physical risk, the cognitive risk, the emotional risk, the financial risk, and she realized real danger wasn't in leaving. The real danger was actually in staying. And she started to ask herself, what story am I telling? Does it serve me or does it keep me stuck?

Sound familiar? It's exactly what we've been talking to you about all day, at least in this podcast. This is what I want you to see in Jenny's story. Being a game changer, it doesn't always look like the sexy, glamorous moments of launching a company or raising money or landing a big deal. That's not what the game changer needs to be about. Sometimes it just looks like quietly acknowledging the truth that your life

As it is, right? It's no longer aligned. It's sometimes it just looks like rewriting the narratives that kept you safe, but small. Sometimes it looks like choosing hard, not because you enjoy suffering, but because it aligns with your soul's next steps. She had every reason to stay, every reason to stay safe, every reason to listen to fear, but she listened to truth.

Amanda Escobedo (39:38.156)
She listened to desire, she listened to intuition, she chose the right kind of hard. And that's what makes her a game changer. Because at some point in all of our journeys, we reach a crossroads. Are you going to live by the numbers or are you going to live by knowing? Are you letting fear run your life or are you letting vision lead it? Are you making decisions from scarcity or from possibility?

Are you trusting the tale or the truth? And if you're someone who like Jenny is sitting in that moment, do I stay or do I go? In a job, in a relationship, in a city, in this season of your life, I want you to really listen today because sometimes the world says go left, but your inner voice, your future self, your soul is saying, go right. There's something for you over there.

And that is the moment that separates someone who stays in the predictable path from someone who becomes a game changer. All right, folks, I'm Amanda Escobedo and you've been listening to the Game Changer. If today sparked insights, ah-has, or new perspectives, I'd be so grateful if you subscribe, left a review, and shared this episode with three people in your network who are ready to master the inner game and unlock their

potential. Your support helps others discover this resource and invites them to the next game changer. Join me next time for another conversation on leadership, culture, and creating impact that lasts. Thanks for listening.