Hey GenXer. Remember the dot com bust of 2001 when you discovered you were laid off because your badge didn't work when you came back from lunch? Six years later, you witnessed another economic crash. You survived both of those events through your resilience and ingenuity. You have evidence that you can navigate uncertainty. This episode is your permission slip to start something even while the world feels uncertain. We’ll bust the myth of corporate stability, show how previous downturn...

Hey, GenXers. If you’re on your way out of corporate (or already gone), there’s one thing that can trip you up on the outside: running the same routines you built to survive in corporate life. You optimize your calendar and habits for a performance review, a manager’s quirks, or a schedule you never liked. If you leave your job but keep optimizing for the corporate world, you’ll rebuild the same cage. My friend, we need to do a little deprogramming. Living and building outside of the business...

You didn’t plan to leave. You planned to stay. Maybe you were aiming for one more promotion or just a chance to build something solid again. But then you get called into a meeting with your manager and HR. “It’s not personal,” they say. The layoff hits you hard. The ladder didn’t break. It disappeared. And now you’re staring at the space where it used to be, wondering what to do now that there's nothing to climb. You quickly decide that the job was a failure. That YOU are a failure. Not...

Hey GenXer. Let's say you worked hard to release a legacy or family tradition that kept you stuck. Now you're staring at the blank canvas of your future, and panic is setting in. But starting something new doesn’t erase the past. Legacy is constantly evolving, and it includes how you live forward from this moment. Your life and work history contain ideas. And you probably have a good idea of the type of person you’d like to be as you do that, because you know that legacy also lives in h...

Hey GenXer. Do you ever think about your legacy? Unless you’re a big philanthropist with your name on a building, it might not come up. But it’s hidden in a question I hear a lot of clients ask: “did my work in corporate even matter?” Legacy is the imprint you leave on your kids, your people, and your work. For many, especially GenXers, that legacy is tangled up with family expectations and career traditions. But what if parts of that legacy were never really yours to carry? There are o...

You finally did it. You resigned. Or they finally did it - they let you go. But instead of feeling free, you feel dumb and skittish; incapable of focusing long enough to finish anything. You wonder what’s wrong with you, or if you made a terrible mistake by leaving. You didn’t. You’re just offgassing. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about what happens right after you leave corporate, and why the transition often comes with a mental and emotional fog. I’ll show you how to make sense of th...

You're ready to ditch the slog of corporate. But the next move? Total mystery. So you make deals with yourself: once the idea lands, you’ll get out of there. And then you wait. But ideas don’t chase you down at your desk. They meet you out in the world, when you’re in motion. If you’ve been hoping for a plan to appear, consider this your invitation to take action instead. Not with certainty, but with a willingness to try something, even when it doesn’t obviously lead to anything yet. Le...

You’re on the front lines of a major workplace shift. Mass layoffs, flattened orgs, economic tightening, and now AI replacing jobs. It’s a lot. You may be scrambling to stay ahead of a layoff, maybe even turning to AI to figure out what to do next. And if you’ve already been laid off, the idea of going back to another lookalike company might feel distressing. This episode isn’t a pep talk. It’s a wake-up call and a mini planning session. Because whether you were pushed out or you ...

You might be ready to quit your job. But you're also about to reshape the ecosystem that’s been quietly supporting your life. Your decision to leave corporate isn’t just about your values or freedom. It touches everything: your relationships, routines, roles, and sense of identity. You don’t operate in a vacuum. When you imagine a different life, you activate a ripple of changes across your body, finances, household, and calendar. That’s part of why so many people stay stuck. They’re not just...

To get as far as you’ve gone in the corporate world, you developed some performance skills. Not the jazz hands version of performing, but you learned to play a role that abides by the arbitrary rules of a culture. That type of performance is like protective armor, and it served you well. But now the corporate world is wearing thin. You’re ready to get out of there and build something of your own. And then it hits: you don’t remember what you like, and you don’t care to find ...

Why does it feel so hard to leave a job when you’re dying to get out of there? Financial security is one thing, but even if you figure that out, something is keeping you from making the leap. Sure, there is fear. But you’ve done plenty of hard things in the past, and leaving doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Until you realize you’ll be burning the map you followed for decades. I’ve felt it too. You’re done, maybe even hoping to get laid off so you don’t have to decide. And sti...

If you’re staring into the void of the future and wondering which of your skills might have any bearing on what you’ll do next, you’re in good company. When you leave corporate, by choice or by force, it can feel like your skills don’t matter. Like when you leave the job behind, you let go of all of your niche abilities and have to grope around for new ones. But wandering through the wilderness is not a crisis. You are right where you need to be, because this is where it gets interestin...

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for GenXers here. Do you keep waiting for a moment of sudden clarity that tells you what to do after you leave the corporate world? It sounds cinematic, like it should come with a soundtrack and perfect lighting. But almost never shows up like that. As a good GenXer, you’ve probably been taught to expect it; to believe that being smart and strategic means you’ll earn the perfect plan. So you dither around with job listings, s...

You’ve been telling yourself you’re ready to leave. You’ve imagined the exit: your farewell email, turning in your laptop, and walking out the door for the last time. But if you’re like most GenXers I talk to, you might wonder: What if you finally leave… and end up pacing around your house like a zombie? Even if you’re over it, walking away still feels risky. Not just financially, but emotionally. Because whether we like to admit it or not, our jobs give us more than a paycheck. Jobs gi...

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for GenXers here. You spent decades playing the game, learning the systems and getting the promotions. But now? You’re starting to question the whole thing. That job title you worked so hard for no longer fits. But when you try to peel it back, you wonder: who’s under there? If you’re starting to feel the mismatch between who you are and the role you’re performing at work, you’re not alone. You're a GenXer, which means you've...

Burn the Map is the podcast for GenX professionals who are done following old directions and ready to build something of their own. Hosted by Shelley McIntyre, a certified coach and former corporate strategist, this show is your weekly dose of clarity, courage, and permission to start over—on your terms. Each episode unpacks how to break up with your job title, unmask your true identity, and stop outsourcing your worth to someone else’s org chart. You’ll get no-fluff insights on navigating fe...