You Got the Dream Job… So Why Are You Still Anxious?
You finally got the job. You negotiated the raise. You said yes to the thing you worked so hard for. And yet… something still feels off.
In this episode, I’m sharing what really happened after I made one of my biggest career pivots, how I advocated for myself, got the role I wanted, and then still found myself wrestling with guilt, anxiety, and a lingering sense of dissatisfaction.
Because no one talks about this part.
We think the leap will solve it all. But what if the real work starts after the pivot?
Here’s what I cover:
✔️ The identity shift that made my negotiation powerful, and successful
✔️ The sneaky ways we self-sabotage, even after getting what we want
✔️ Why I had to let go of the “hard worker” identity to finally feel free
✔️ A reflective exercise to help you rewrite your professional self-concept
This one’s for you if:
You’ve landed your dream role but still feel stuck, guilty, or anxious
You’re afraid to pivot because you think, “What if I still feel the same?”
You’re done with burnout, but not sure how to be someone who doesn’t hustle to exhaustion
Want More Support?
Grab my free resource → The Heart-Aligned Career Transition Starter
DM me on Instagram → @leadintact
Already downloaded the guide? Book a 20-minute call with me at www.leadintact.com and let’s talk it out.
🎧 If this episode resonates, please share it with a friend or subscribe + review, it means the world and helps others find the show.
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You are listening to The pivot point where we unpack the defining moments that shift careers and lives. I'm your host, Laura Dionisio a founder of Lead Intact and my mission is to spotlight the raw real stories behind career pivots, the fears, the hopes. The messy middles and the bold decisions that follow if you're feeling stuck or quietly wondering what's next?
I hope these stories help you see yourself a little more clearly and inspire you to start moving toward your own dream life. Let's begin. Have you ever been going about your day in a career that you have worked so hard for
in a career that you really enjoyed and have been in for like 10, 15, maybe even 20 years,
and then one day was just like, is this [00:01:00] it?
If this is you, man, I feel you so much. It's kind of like, like you see these, if you're watching this on YouTube, you see like these awards, right?
It's like
when you've dedicated so much of your time, your energy, and you're really good at what you do, and for a long time it was aligned with your passion and you were going, and then there comes a time. Maybe this is true for you. At least it was true for me, where it's
kind of
like, what am I doing here?
And then I don't know about you, but when I first got that feeling, I was kinda like, wait, what? I have spent so much time getting to where I am so much hard work and I am happy, aren't I?
I mean, I should be happy, right?] This was a dream at some point. I am literally living my dream life, so why don't I feel like it?
These are things and thoughts that have come to mind for me and a lot of my clients, and that is why I created this podcast, the Pivot Point. I got really curious about if I was the only one who felt this way, and I got really curious about other people's stories, particularly those who have gone through career pivots, whether it's leaving a corporate job and starting their own business or leaving a career that felt so good, they worked so hard for, but then like suddenly the passion was gone and they realized, wow.
This isn't it for me anymore. I got really curious and I started interviewing friends and colleagues and also reflecting [00:03:00] on career pivots in my own life, and that's what I hope to share with you here on this podcast. So what you have to look forward to is some solo episodes with me sharing some of my experiences, some of the things that I wish I knew.
Also some guest episodes where I share incredible stories of people who have done career pivots, whether it's something they had to change because
like
a serious health issue came up and they realized, Ooh, I cannot live this lifestyle anymore. Or something happened in their personal life.
Like I,
I
actually, sadly.
Heard a lot of these stories when I was interviewing,
uh,
friends and colleagues where a partnership, a romantic partnership, is no longer working, and
it's almost like
at the time that moment felt like everything was crashing down and it's like, can't I at least have my career to fall back on? Only to have that fall apart.
I'll have guest [00:04:00] interviews on
like,
what happened after that kind of situation. So I just really want to share these stories, both mine and those of my friends and colleagues and a future friends, so that you don't feel alone if you are feeling this way, if you're in that place where you're just wondering
like,
what have I spent the past 10, 15, 20 years for, and
then like,
how did I.
Get here and what do I do now? Because something that used to fill me with so much passion, something that I effortlessly worked hard towards, no longer makes sense. And I'll share a quick story with you. The most pivotal pivots you like that alliteration, the most pivotal pivots point. Ooh, look at that.
Triple alliteration. The most pivotal pivot point in my career that I remember. It is a time about 10 or 11 years [00:05:00] ago now. At that point, I had just left a job a year prior where I got a lot of accolades. I got the bonus, I got the promotion. I got the
um,
like the handshakes and the head nods of like my boss and boss's boss acknowledgement of
like,
yeah, you're doing a great job.
And I just felt. So burnt out, so, so burnt out. So I had just left that job for a job that also is still fulfilling, but not as crazy.
Um,
I learned a little bit about how to maintain boundaries. I didn't know that word at the time, but I started to figure out like, oh, okay, well if I let them know that I'm okay with working like late into the evening when nobody else is, then you know.
They'll take advantage of that.
And you know,
so I learned those type of lessons and I was one [00:06:00] year into this job. I was so happy. I liked my coworkers and for the first year into the job, I was doing this commute. It was a horrendous commute. I lived in Southern California at the time, so my fellow Southern Californians, you get this, I was living in Los Angeles at the time and commuting to Orange County on a good day.
It would take like 45 minutes. But if I was even like 15 minutes late in the morning, hour and 30, so a year after doing that, I moved in with my best friend. I. Because he did the same commute and so I had just moved into a new place with my best friend. I was super excited. Like we were hanging out all the time anyway, but now we were roomies.
I had just started establishing my community there, like new friendships.
Uh,
specifically at the time I was huge on CrossFit. Not so much these days, but the sense of community was there. I was really excited. I. I felt like I was getting my groove because you know, when you start a new job, [00:07:00] it's
kind of always
like, oh man, I used to be the expert in my other job.
I knew who to talk to, but now I don't.
Right.
And it takes some time to get used to, so
I would,
I was at a point in my life and my career at that point where I was finally getting in the groove.
I, you know, like I said,
starting to
kind of
lay down roots. And then a thought popped in my head like, huh, I wanna move to New York.
And you know what? Immediately I was like, what the hell, Laura? You just moved here. You are just now making friends. How dare you?
Right? Like
I was making myself wrong for it. For a while. I just
kind of
pushed that thought aside, like, no, that's inconvenient. Right? That can't possibly be how I truly feel. It makes no sense, right?
From like a logic perspective. That resonates with you. I just want you to know that, first of [00:08:00] all, it's okay. It's okay to feel that way, and it's okay even if you feel guilty, but here's what I wish I knew then. If I could go back in time,
you know,
from 10 years ago, I would tell myself how you're feeling is valid.
And you can feel that and acknowledge it without deciding to go on up and quit your job and go move across the country or whatever. There's like a space in between, and I think sometimes we forget that. I think sometimes that we think once a thought pops up, if we admit that it's true, then we have to do something about it, not necessarily true.
Now, what ended up happening for me, and maybe this is happening for you too. It was
kind of like
a quiet voice in the back of my mind. You know what I mean? It was just kind of like, wouldn't that be nice if, but I couldn't even let myself [00:09:00] complete the thought because I was so set on
like,
no, enjoy the time you just moved here, blah, blah, blah.
Like, what?
Why are you doing this? You work so hard to
like
get yourself out of the situation. You're finally in a stable place
with a, you know, like
that kind of thing. But that voice was still
kind of
there in the back of my mind, like, Hmm, what would that be like if I moved to the East coast? So finally I quit my job and moved to the East Coast.
I'm just kidding. That's not. That's not what happened. That's not what I'm suggesting you do. But what actually happened was one day, as I was having Sunday brunch on my own, 'cause that was one of my things that I loved doing at the time, was
like
finding a new restaurant and having brunch.
You know, I was like, uh, where was I living?
I was in Lake Forest, which is kind of close to the beach. So I would just drive to the beach,
like
go get
like
a delicious brunch by myself and just
kind of
reflect [00:10:00] and one day. This was maybe
like
several months into having that thought in my mind. I just let myself dream and I was just kind of like, yeah, I wanna move to the east coast.
And once I actually opened my mind and my heart to the idea, I stopped freaking out because I stopped putting any sort of expectation on myself other than to just lean into what I actually wanted. Without feeling like I needed to know how to get there.
Do you know what I'm saying? Like, do you feel that?
Like,
have you ever felt that way? Where
like
you're almost afraid to truly dream because you don't know how to get there,
so you get stuck in this. Like,
it's almost like you shove your desire down because you can't see how it's possible. Therefore, you're not allowed to have the desire. I'm here to tell you, you're allowed to have the desire.
You don't have to do anything about it. You don't have to have the solution. You don't have to have it all figured out. You [00:11:00] don't need to know the timing. I think it's such a gift when you allow yourself to open up to the dreams that you have because you don't know you might like that dream might come true.
And for me, let me tell you, I, it's still, I have had other pivots in my life since then, but this is the first time that I consciously. Chose to say yes to my desire
without,
without feeling, and forcing myself to come up with some sort of a plan. So what ended up happening, so there I was like having brunch, sipping coffee, finally saying yes to my heart's desire, which is I wanna move to the East coast.
And
as soon as I fully leaned into that. I felt like I couldn't have described this at the time. This is me in retrospect, so remember this, I [00:12:00] felt
like a,
like a release, a relief, and my heart and my mind felt open. There was no freak out of, oh my God, I just moved here. Which was what was happening before.
And there al, there also was not like. At the time, I was a huge planner. There wasn't like a, what's the steps to get there? It was just like, oh, okay, cool. I wanna move to the East Coast. And when that happens,
when
when you fully say yes to your desire, your heart opens, your mind opens. This is gonna sound so woo woo and crazy.
I've had enough experience in my own life and through interviewing a lot of people that I know. This is not just like a random thing. It's not like, oh, I'm special. It only happens to me when you fully say yes to your desire and you lean in, you're like, yes, I want the thing, whatever the thing is, and let go of
[00:13:00] like
the how or the guilt or the shoulds or the whatever, certain opportunities will come up and.
They may not seem like opportunities. They only seem like opportunities when you've already done the thing and you're looking back in retrospect. So in my case,
right, so I,
I fully leaned in and said yes to the desire to move to the East Coast. What happened was, it was the end of the year, this was
like
2013 or so, so
like what,
almost 12 years ago.
I was
at the time, it was
like
performance review season for us, like end of the year. I'm sure that's true for a lot of corporate companies. And I remember there was one question there that was something like, are there any other
like
opportunities that you'd like to discuss and for some reason in my mind, pop up, I should put here.
I would love any opportunities to work on the [00:14:00] East coast,
like
it just popped up outta nowhere. And I had no expectation of
like
if it's gonna happen or
like
when it's gonna happen. I was like, let me just put it out there. Let me just put it out there. So I put it on there. I was like, if there are any opportunities on the East Coast, I would love to be considered.
So then my boss reads what I wrote and he calls me into his office and he
like
seemed really concerned. He was like, Laura,
uh,
I just wanna address what you wrote here about opportunities on the East Coast. And mind you again, because I am already fully in to my desire with no expectation of the how and all that, I was calm.
I was just like, okay, let's talk about it. And my boss at the time was like. Well, we don't have any departments on the East coast, and I was just like, I understand. I know. And [00:15:00] then he goes, we also don't have any suppliers on the East coast. And there I go. I was just like, I know, I understand. And he said, okay.
So I also wanna make clear
that,
that this performance review is typically your desire. For the following year. And I said, yes, I understand that. And he said, I really would love to give you opportunities that you're asking for, but it's probably not likely to happen. And because again,
I,
I am fully into my desire with no attachment of how it's gonna happen, whether it's through just this job or whatever.
I was like, I understand. I just wanted to put it there just in case. I just wanna put it out there. And then you know what happened maybe a month or two later, so now this is the beginning of 2014. My boss calls me in his office and he's like, remember what you [00:16:00] put about, if there were any opportunities on the East Coast, how you would take it?
And I said, yes. He said, well, we now have a supplier there, so we would love to send you over there to the East Coast.
So.
I have
like
a whole other story that I'll share in a different episode. But all that to say like at the time I had no idea I was gonna turn out that way.
Right.
And really looking back like what is the one thing that I did that really led me
to,
to this opportunity, to the confidence to ask for it, right?
It's,
it's the fact that I fully leaned in to my desire. And when I was doing interviews with my friends and colleagues and like other people, acquaintances that I met about their career, p pivots, that is what I noticed we all had in common. It was like just
[00:17:00] a,
a full Yes, it was a full yes. To their desire
and,
and sometimes I have to say, like on the interviews that I've had, sometimes the desire was, I just don't wanna do this anymore.
Like,
I am done with burnout. I've heard that a lot. I'm just done with burnout and I would like a life of ease. That was me too, by the way. I'll share that in another episode. So if this resonates with you or maybe you feel inspired by this story. Please follow for more. I am so excited for this podcast because what happened was when I interviewed my friends, and I'll have them on this podcast as well, I just felt so inspired by them, and even though their story from the outside looked completely different from my situation or anything that I've been through in the past.
The [00:18:00] things they were feeling, the thoughts they were having at the time, right before they got to their pivot point, I resonated with so deeply. So
my,
my desire is to bring you these stories so that you won't feel so alone
if you,
if you realize, wow, that's exactly how I'm feeling. And hopefully it'll inspire you to take some sort of action so that you too can have a pivot point in your life.
Whether it's your, in your career, your personal life, or more than likely both. And so if this is something that resonates, please like, please subscribe. And if you're like, Laura, I've got an awesome pivot point story, shoot me a DM on Instagram.
My tag is leadintact L-E-A-D-I-N-T-A-C-T or you can shoot me an email at laura@leadintact.com
and oh my gosh, you can tell I'm a, I'm a podcast newbie [00:19:00] because I realized I never even like introduced myself.
Sorry, I just got so excited about this podcast that I forgot to do that so better late than never.
Oh man, that just froze. Better late than never. Right. So,
hi, my name is Laura Dionisio I am the founder
and owner
of Lead Intact and our mission
at Lead Intact
is to change the world one leader at a time.
I find that like
a true, great leader,
which to me how I define that
is someone who is aware. of Who they are, who takes accountability for their part in situations and for their actions, and one whose actions align with their values.
So to me, that is like a true, good leader. What I have found is that
when we see ourselves as an empowered leader
in our [00:20:00] whole life, okay,
not just because somebody gave you the title, just in your presence alone. You start to empower and inspire others.
And so
I envision a world where
most, if not all people are in their empowered leader state.
And then the generations that come after us and after them are in turn.
Empowered leaders
who then
empower others.
And so that is why Lead Intact Mission is really, uh, centered around leadership. Now,
my specific niche is working with people who have been
working
in their fields for like 10, 15, 20 years, and they're looking for a career pivot, hence.
The pivot point. So if any of that resonates with you, if you're like, actually, I really want to do a transition now. I actually have a free resource. It's called [00:21:00] the Heart Aligned Career Transition Starter. You can find that on my website at www@leadintact.com Now, again, I'm a podcast newbie. Let me consult my very high tech notes on if I said everything that I was supposed to.
Okay. I think that's it. I hope you stay in tune. I have so many great guests and so many great topics to share with you on my solo episodes because my true desire is
like,
it took me probably like four pivots and 10 years before I kind of figured out
like
a faster way to ease into the transition.
Um,
so my desire is that in this podcast, through these episodes and these stories I share and some of the tips and tricks, it maybe won't take you as long as it took me to go through each transition.
And also, once you finally get to that transition, how can [00:22:00] you then embody the version of you who is living the life that you want? So with that, I will talk to you next time. Bye for now.
All right, friend. That's it for today's drop. If this episode hit something deep. Don't just sit with it, act on it. Share this with a friend who needs to hear it, and then head to www.leadintact.com to grab your free heart aligned career transition starter, or book a free 20 minute call with me. I'm here when you're ready to stop feeling stuck and start moving toward what you really want.
Catch you next time.