Your Next Success

Have you ever looked at your life or career and quietly wondered, “Is this it?” That question isn’t a crisis — it’s a signal. An invitation. A beginning. Y our Next Success Podcast with Dr. Caroline Sangal is for students, job seekers, and professionals navigating career transitions, unexpected detours, and the search for authentic success. Here, we normalize questioning your path — because discovering what you truly want begins with letting go of who you thought you had to be. You’ll hear: Honest conversations about layoffs, pivots, burnout, and reinvention Guest interviews with real people navigating career and life turning points Insights and frameworks to help you align your work with your purpose Whether you’re just starting out, reimagining what’s next, or simply asking deeper questions — this is your space to pause, reflect, and rebuild fro

Your Next Success is a business podcast hosted by Caroline Sangal, PhD, SHRM-CP, with 87 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Caroline Sangal, PhD, SHRM-CP hosts Your Next Success, a business show with 87 episodes published.

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  Episode #87

  Micheal Shaw: Finding Gaps and Filling Them

  Sep 29, 202654 minS1

  Send us Fan Mail Micheal Shaw made his career pivot after twenty-two years of running his own photography studio, when the same digital technology that started his business changed the industry around him. The skill that carried him forward was one he had been giving away for free for fifteen years, because he assumed nobody would pay for it. Micheal grew up in Rochester, New York, raised by his grandparents, and started his first business at eight years old selling frozen Kool-Aid cups out of the family deep freezer. He built a nightclub photography side hustle into a full studio, earned a master's in strategic marketing, and, after his six-year-old daughter's cancer diagnosis, co-founded Team Jenny Bean Childhood Cancer Foundation. That work became his book, The Invisible Currency of Philanthropy, and a consulting practice that has served several hundred nonprofits. You will hear: The shoebox of receipts that revealed a $75,000 weekend business Why "finding opportunities and filling gaps" mattered more than the Kool-Aid The question his daughter asked in the hospital that started a movement What his best friend said that changed how he thinks about asking for help The five invisible currencies behind why people give, and why they keep giving How Micheal defines success now Micheal Shaw helps nonprofits and advancement leaders build brands people want to give to. Reach him at theinvisiblecurrency.com. Caroline Sangal, PhD, coaches scientists, engineers, and technical professionals. Start at nextsuccesscareers.com. Support the show Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode. Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/ Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com

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  Episode #86

  Sara Skowronski: Betting on Herself

  Sep 22, 202658 minS1

  Send us Fan Mail Starting a business after being laid off is the path Sara Skowronski took. For twenty years she was the person every company leaned on, hired for HR and soon running IT, finance, and whatever else needed an owner. She was let go by a new owner on a Monday, and the first thing she noticed underneath the shock was how much lighter she felt. Now a fractional HR partner and Certified AI Consultant, Sara walks through the pattern that ran through a dozen jobs and the moment she chose to stop repeating it. That moment came in an interview for a job she liked. She asked the woman she would be replacing why she was leaving, heard "if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it," and walked back to the BART station with her own answer. In this conversation: The day a job ended and Sara realized she was free The sales job that taught Sara she can only sell what she believes in, and how that became her entire business model Five coffee meetings a week for six months, and the phone call that brought her first client What a small business owner taught her about HR when he said he simply could not afford the PIP How AI in her own practice turned three late nights into one hour, and gave her back her evenings The success she expected at 25, and the success she chose instead Connect with Sara at eoshr.com or linkedin.com/in/saraskowronski. She helps founder-led companies handle HR and use AI where it saves time without creating legal exposure. If your career looks right on paper and feels wrong inside, visit nextsuccesscareers.com. Support the show Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode. Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/ Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com

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  Episode #84

  Graham Kuhn: Every Role Was Leading Here

  Sep 8, 202657 minS1

  Send us Fan Mail Career reinvention rarely arrives as a plan. For Graham Kuhn, it arrived as a series of jobs that looked unconnected until the day they became one calling. Graham grew up working farms and wrestling in small-town Wisconsin, trained in opera, sang professionally for years, managed gyms, and eventually landed inside a church making videos every week. He never set out to be a business owner. The videos he made drew the attention of executives sitting in the pews, they started asking who made them, and a company formed around the answer. In this conversation, Graham and Caroline follow the thread that ran through every chapter of his working life and turned a scattered-looking path into Focus Films. You will hear: How a church side project quietly became a full business Why every role Graham held was preparing him for the one he has now What it takes to build a company where being fully yourself is the strategy How his music training became his sharpest tool for connecting with clients The moment he chose the work that filled him over the work that simply paid If your own path has taken more turns than you expected, this one will help you see the pattern underneath it. Connect with Graham: find him on LinkedIn and at Focusfilms.com, where he builds authentic story-driven video for business owners. Support the show Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode. Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/ Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com

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  Episode #83

  Stan Phelps: The Dream Job Wasn't the End

  Sep 1, 20261h 7mS1

  Send us Fan Mail What happens when you reach the career milestone you were certain would settle everything, then find a bigger question waiting at the top? Stan Phelps built a career at the top of sports marketing, running tennis promotions for Adidas and managing the New York Yankees relationship from an office inside Yankee Stadium. Each time he reached the role he had aimed for, the view asked more of him than the title had promised. Following his curiosity, Stan gave himself one year to write about every part of his field, searching for the single idea to go a mile deep on. That year became his first book, and grew into twenty. He left the stability of corporate work behind, moved his family to the Triangle, and built the work and the life he wanted on his own terms. In this conversation with Dr. Caroline Sangal, Stan shares the full arc, and what changed when he stopped chasing the next thing and started asking what he truly wanted to build. You will hear: How reaching the top of a field can surface the very question you were trying to outrun The moment one word on a conference badge shifted how people saw him Why going a mile deep on one idea builds more than spreading wide across many The year of writing that became his first book and grew into twenty How Stan defines authentic success now, and where he puts his energy today Find Stan's latest book, Speak Different, and his work at stanphelps.com. Ready to build a career that fuels the life you want? Explore what's possible at nextsuccesscareers.com . Support the show Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode. Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/ Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com

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  Episode #82

  Patrick Kamba: Quiet Ambition

  Aug 25, 202655 minS1

  Send us Fan Mail You can reach every career goal you set and still catch yourself wondering what it was all for. Patrick Kamba knows that question well. He built the kind of career that looks complete from the outside, leading global programs in pharma, becoming a director, writing a book. And somewhere along the way he started paying attention to a smaller, more honest measure of success: whether he was actually around for the people he loved. Patrick and Caroline walk through his whole path, from a kid who chose engineering while his family pictured a doctor, to a leader who learned to want less noise and more life. If your work looks right on paper and something quieter has started tugging at you, this one will land. What comes up after you hit the title you chased for years Why Patrick started measuring success by his weeknights How the relationships he built over ten years carried him through a career shock What quiet ambition means, and how to chase big goals without performing them Success as freedom, with people to share it with Patrick Kamba wrote Quiet Ambition. Find him at patrickkamba.com. Ready for a career that fuels your life? Start at nextsuccesscareers.com. Support the show Subscribe to Your Next Success so you never miss an episode. Watch full video episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NextSuccessMethod/ Learn more about Next Success www.nextsuccesscareers.com

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