When success becomes your prison

Find Your Superpower newsletter 109

Read time: 4 minutes

Topics covered: Career transition, executive coaching, Mastermind community

I think I used the word “stuck” at least 10 times in a personal conversation yesterday.

We know it’s bad if we get retrenched or fired, but we seldom consider another equally damaging situation: being stuck.

Here, I define being stuck as Groundhog Day in a job, knowing there’s no future career progression, a high chance of being eliminated by AI, and being in a job for 10 years with one year of experience repeated nine times.

You know your learning curve has tailed off, and you see your colleagues racing ahead of you (whether you think it is justified or not). You know deep down inside that you should be moving on, but yet for whatever reason, you’re stuck. You can’t.

Either because of golden handcuffs, inertia, fear, or lack of internal motivation or drive, you simply can’t move. You create all kinds of excuses for why you can’t or shouldn’t make any moves.

That, ladies and gentlemen, describes a stuck person.

I need to clarify that being stuck is not the same as being contented in a job. Protecting your peace. Feeling secure and comfortable at work.

Being stuck is not the same as finding a stable base and investing your attention elsewhere, like raising a young family, going pro in a sport, or developing a side hustle that balances the energies in your primary job.

You aren’t stuck just because you’re not earning more money or getting promoted annually.

No, my friend, being “stuck” is a much deeper and more philosophical state of mind.

I was stuck before

I was stuck once myself. I was in a job that paid extremely well (by my personal standards) doing something that I was trained extremely well for in the UK and the US for more than a decade.

Yes, it was tough, there were many hurdles along the way, and I had to juggle two kids under the age of three, but I knew what I was doing.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. When I was in that position, I didn’t have the vocabulary to describe that I was “stuck.”

All I could say was something wasn’t right and I couldn’t put a word to it.

I decided to work with an executive coach. It was around $2,000 well invested. Within a couple of sessions, I pinpointed that I wanted a job that aligned more closely with my love for communication and teaching.

My dream job was one that would allow me to tap into my superpower (writing technical subjects in a friendly way for the general public) and that aligned more closely with my ikigai (teaching people and putting a smile on many faces).

I decided to talk to a mentor, a full professor herself, and she asked me to observe someone similar to me but 10 years older, in the same job, and ask myself if that was the life I wanted to live.

That was a terrific exercise as I realized I didn’t necessarily want a tenured job that gave me job security for 30 years.

Instead, I wanted a job that kept me young, that kept me on my toes. I wanted a role that challenged me to change, renew, pivot, grow, learn.

Looking back at my career journey today, writing this newsletter peacefully with a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning, I can only say...

Thank God for my coaches and mentors.

Thank God that I am not too arrogant or conceited to get help when I need it.

Building your escape route

The path out of being stuck does not require dramatic changes like quitting a job or relocating to Bali. It is actually a series of small, strategic moves that must happen first.

Here’s what I would do today if I had to make a career pivot from academia to media entrepreneurship all over again:

1. Start building your personal brand before you need it. When you’re ready to make a move, you want industry leaders to already know who you are and what you stand for.

2. Create signature content that showcases your industry expertise. The best time to demonstrate thought leadership is when you’re not desperately job hunting.

3. Develop strategic relationships within your industry. Your next opportunity is more likely to come from your extended network than from applying cold to job postings on LinkedIn.

4. Invest in executive coaching or mentorship. Sometimes you need an outside perspective to see what’s right in front of you. If I had found professional help sooner, I would definitely have left my previous job earlier. 

Early-bird enrollment for the August 2025 cohort

I thought I’d give you a head start to sign up for the August 2025 cohort of my VIP 12-month Brand Builder Mastermind.

In the Mastermind, we focus on creating your escape route through four strategic pillars:

• BRAND: Build a blue-ocean brand that makes your unique value unmistakable
• SPEAK: Master persuasive communication that commands attention in any room
• WRITE: Develop signature content that attracts opportunities to you
• MONETIZE: Create additional income streams that reward your expertise

This 12-month virtual program gives you access to world-class experts, a community of 200+ growth-minded professionals, and the strategic frameworks I wish I’d had when I was stuck in my academic career.

If you sign up for the Mastermind by 18 July (Friday), we will be able to get you onboarded in time to attend Professor Suzy Welch’s fireside chat in the Mastermind.

Professor Suzy Welch has advised CEOs and taught at the world’s top business schools.

Beyond her own remarkable career, Prof Welch’s personal journey—including her partnership with the late General Electric CEO Jack Welch—has given her a front-row seat to leadership at the highest levels.

And now, she’s joining us inside the Brand Builder Mastermind.

[READY TO GET UNSTUCK IN 2025?]

Your rocketship captain,
Juliana 🚀

PS: The fastest way to get unstuck is to surround yourself with people who are committed to growth and change. That’s exactly what we’ve built inside the Mastermind.