Control Your Career: Career Growth and Strategy for Ambitious Professionals

Control Your Career is a career strategy podcast for professionals who want to make better career decisions, navigate workplace challenges, and take an active role in shaping what's next. Hosted by Julia Toothacre, career strategist and creator of the Control Your Career framework, the show explores career growth, workplace dynamics, leadership, career transitions, and the trends shaping today's world of work. Drawing on more than 15 years of experience in career development, Julia combines practical career strategy with a real-world perspective to help listeners navigate today's workplace and build careers they don't leave to chance. Topics include: → Career strategy and long-term career growth → Career advancement, promotions, and increasing your influence at work → Workplace relationships, office politics, organizational dynamics, and difficult managers → Leadership, executive presence, visibility, and sponsorship → Career change, career crossroads, and major career decisions → Aligning your career with your strengths, values, and goals → Hiring trends, AI, labor market updates, and the changing world of work Through a mix of solo episodes, expert interviews, and commentary on current workplace issues, you'll gain practical strategies to navigate your career with greater clarity, confidence, and control. Learn more at ridethetidecollective.com

Questions to Ask Before Changing Careers 08/11/2026

When Work Becomes Who You Are: Professional Identity Purgatory with Geoff Curtis 08/04/2026

When Work Becomes Who You Are: Professional Identity Purgatory with Geoff Curtis What happens when the career you spent decades building becomes part of your identity, and then the role suddenly disappears? In this episode of Control Your Career, Strategic Career Consultant Julia Toothacre speaks with Geoff Curtis about professional identity, high achievement, career transitions, and the uncomfortable space between who you were and who you are becoming. Geoff spent nearly 30 years building a career in corporate communications, eventually serving as Chief Communications Officer at Horizon Therapeutics. Today, he leads Marshall Curtis Communications, where he advises executives and organizations on communication, leadership, and change. He is also the author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory, a book exploring professional identity and what happens when the career you built no longer fits the life you are living. After an acquisition made his executive role redundant, Geoff expected to move toward another version of professional success. Instead, he found himself confronting how deeply his work, relevance, achievement, and sense of self had become connected. Geoff describes this experience as professional identity purgatory: the unfinished and often messy space between an identity that no longer fits and a new one that has not fully formed. Julia and Geoff discuss why high achievers often find emotional comfort in work, how productivity can become a form of avoidance, and why losing a title can feel like losing part of yourself. They also explore the warning signs that work may be taking up too much space in your identity, including missing family events, allowing friendships to lapse, mentally remaining at work during personal time, and measuring your value through external recognition. The conversation also examines relevance, perfectionism, work-life balance, the pressures placed on Gen Z, and the challenge of creating a new definition of success after traditional career metrics stop feeling meaningful. What You’ll Learn How a successful career can become intertwined with your personal identity Why high achievers often use work as a source of emotional comfort What happens when a title, role, or professional identity suddenly disappears Why relevance can become closely connected to self-worth The warning signs that work may be taking priority over your life and relationships What Geoff means by professional identity purgatory Why constant busyness can delay the emotional work required during a transition How perfectionism keeps high achievers chasing the next accomplishment Why an idealized future can become a way of avoiding the present How self-reflection can help you begin separating your identity from your work Why redefining success may require a completely different scoreboard How understanding yourself can make you a more thoughtful leader About Geoff Curtis Geoff Curtis spent nearly 30 years building a career in corporate communications, eventually serving as Chief Communications Officer at Horizon Therapeutics. Today, he leads Marshall Curtis Communications, where he advises executives and organizations on communication, leadership, and change. He is also the author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory, a book exploring professional identity and what happens when the career you built no longer fits the life you are living. Resources Mentioned Embracing Your Own Purgatory Learn more about Geoff’s book and its exploration of professional identity, achievement, relevance, and life’s uncomfortable transitions: Marshall Curtis Communications Learn more about Geoff’s communications, leadership, and executive advisory work: Connect With Geoff Curtis on LinkedIn Control Your Career Resources Read the Blog: Explore All Episodes: Connect With Julia on LinkedIn: Visit the Website: Get Career Resources: /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/42269545

Why Career Development Needs a Different Approach 07/28/2026

What the Hiring Headlines Get Wrong About Gen Z, AI, and Personality Tests 07/21/2026

What the Hiring Headlines Get Wrong About Gen Z, AI, and Personality Tests Hiring headlines about Gen Z, artificial intelligence, the Workday lawsuit, and personality assessments are moving faster than the facts. A study gets published, a lawsuit moves forward, or someone shares a frustrating experience on social media. Before long, a complicated workplace issue has been reduced to a confident headline that may not reflect what the original source actually says. In this Career Trends episode of Control Your Career, Strategic Career Consultant Julia Toothacre looks beyond the clickbait to examine three major conversations happening in hiring right now. Julia explores the assumptions hiring managers are making about Gen Z and early career professionals, including the legitimate concerns employers have raised and the broader realities affecting this generation. She also breaks down what the Workday lawsuit and Stanford AI hiring study do and do not tell us about automated hiring. Finally, Julia explains why personality assessments can be helpful for career development and team communication, but potentially harmful when employers use them to decide who deserves an interview or job. This episode also introduces the new format for Control Your Career. Rather than organizing episodes into seasons, the show will now feature conversations across five collections: Career Clarity, Career Growth, Career Transitions, Workplace Dynamics, and Career Trends. The goal is not to react to every headline. It is to understand the evidence, recognize the realities shaping the workplace, and make better-informed career decisions. What You’ll Learn Why hiring headlines often lose the nuance found in the original research How individual experiences with Gen Z employees can become generational assumptions What employers are saying about communication, professionalism, reliability, and feedback Why the expectations placed on entry-level professionals have increased What early career candidates can do to challenge negative assumptions during an interview What the Workday lawsuit currently alleges and what has not been decided Why the Stanford study was not about AI reading resumes or every applicant tracking system What algorithmic monoculture and systemic rejection mean Why personality preferences do not determine whether someone can perform a job The differences between personality assessments, cognitive ability tests, and skills assessments What job seekers and hiring managers can control as hiring technology continues to evolve Why understanding your realistic reality is an important part of controlling your career Go to the episode Blog Page: Learn more about Julia Toothacre and explore additional career resources at: /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/42145530

Long-Term Unemployment, Employment Gaps, and Today's Job Market 07/14/2026

Career Change Without Starting Over 07/07/2026

Career Change Without Starting Over Are you miserable in your career? If the answer is yes, a career change might be worth exploring. But if the answer is no, that does not automatically mean you should stay exactly where you are. One of the biggest mistakes professionals make is treating career change as something that only happens when a situation becomes unbearable. In reality, many career changes happen because someone wants to build new skills, create more flexibility, increase income, improve quality of life, or move toward work that fits who they are now. In this final episode of Season 13, Julia Toothacre talks about how to evaluate career change more strategically. She breaks down why most career changes do not mean starting over, even when they feel big. You still bring transferable skills, relationships, judgment, leadership experience, industry knowledge, and credibility with you. The question is whether you can clearly explain how those pieces connect to the direction you want to move next. Julia also walks through four types of career change: • Functional change • Industry change • Structural change • Complete career change Each type carries different levels of risk, planning, and adjustment. This episode also explores the part many professionals skip: whether the desired career change is truly about moving toward something better, or whether it is an attempt to escape something that needs to be addressed more directly. Sometimes you do need a new career, but sometimes you just need a new manager, a healthier culture, stronger boundaries, different leadership, or a different company. This episode covers: • Why career change does not always mean starting from zero • How to identify what experience comes with you • Common transferable skills that support career pivots • The four types of career changes • Why financial obligations, family responsibilities, geography, and market conditions matter • How to test the waters before making a major move • Why burnout can make career decisions harder to evaluate • How leverage makes career change more possible Season 13 has been about career leverage, and this episode brings that idea full circle. Skills, reputation, influence, relationships, market awareness, and choices all shape what is possible when you decide you want something different. Read The Blog: Explore all episodes: Connect with Julia on LinkedIn: Visit the website: Get career resources: Remember, you control your career. /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/41849920

The 5 Types of Managers: How to Navigate Each Leadership Style 06/30/2026

Staying Market Ready in an Uncertain Job Market 06/23/2026

Staying Market Ready in an Uncertain Job Market Market conditions can change your career faster than you think. In this episode of Control Your Career, Career Coach and Strategic Career Consultant Julia Toothacre discusses how professionals can stay market-ready, build career leverage, and prepare for unexpected career changes without living in constant job search mode. Over the last two decades, professionals have experienced the 2008 recession, the rise of LinkedIn, remote work, return-to-office mandates, layoffs, and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. These shifts have changed hiring trends, career opportunities, and the skills employers value. The challenge is that most career changes happen gradually, making them easy to ignore until they directly impact you. Julia explores how market conditions, industry trends, technology, organizational changes, and economic factors influence career growth. She also explains why having career options leads to greater confidence, flexibility, and better decision-making throughout your professional life. In this episode, you'll learn: • How market conditions affect your career opportunities • Why career leverage depends on having options • What it means to stay market-ready • Simple career habits that help you prepare for layoffs, career transitions, and new opportunities • How to maintain professional relationships and strengthen your network • Why tracking accomplishments, projects, and career wins matters • Ways to improve your professional visibility without becoming an influencer • Questions to ask yourself to evaluate your career readiness Whether you're focused on career advancement, professional development, leadership growth, or long-term career management, staying prepared can help you navigate change with more confidence and control. Read The Blog: Explore all episodes: Connect with Julia on LinkedIn: Visit the website: Get career resources: Remember, you control your career. /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/41709580

Are Lateral Career Moves Good for Your Career? 06/09/2026

Are Lateral Career Moves Good for Your Career? Career growth is not always vertical. For a long time, professionals were told to climb the corporate ladder, stay loyal, take the promotion, and keep moving up. But that advice does not always reflect how careers actually evolve today. In this episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre explores the value and complexity of lateral career moves. She explains why some professionals resist them, why a move without a higher title can feel risky, and how lateral opportunities can quietly build long-term career leverage. A lateral move may not look impressive right away. It may not come with a promotion announcement or a bigger title. But it can expand your business understanding, strengthen your relationships, build transferable skills, and make you a more adaptable professional over time. Julia also explains when lateral moves can create confusion, especially if your career story becomes hard to explain. Nonlinear career paths can create leverage, but only when you can connect the dots clearly. This episode covers: • Why professionals resist lateral moves • How the corporate ladder mindset still shapes career decisions • When a lateral move can strengthen your long-term positioning • Why cross-functional exposure matters for leadership growth • How transferable skills support career mobility • When nonlinear moves create confusion • How to evaluate a lateral opportunity strategically • Why career decisions based on optics can limit future leverage If you are considering a lateral move, a career change, or a role that does not look like an obvious step up, this episode will help you think about the bigger picture. Sometimes the move that looks sideways now creates more options later. Read The Blog: Explore all episodes: Connect with Julia on LinkedIn: Visit the website: Get career resources: Remember, you control your career. /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/41560075

What Is Career Sponsorship? Why Advocacy, Not Just Hard Work, Gets You Promoted 05/26/2026

What Is Career Sponsorship? Why Advocacy, Not Just Hard Work, Gets You Promoted A lot of professionals still believe career growth mostly comes from working hard, doing good work, and eventually being recognized for it. But inside organizations, opportunities often begin forming before jobs are officially posted. Conversations happen early. Leaders compare notes. Someone’s name comes up because trust already exists. That is where sponsorship starts to matter. In this episode of Control Your Career, Julia Toothacre breaks down the difference between mentorship and sponsorship and explains why sponsorship is one of the strongest forms of career leverage inside organizations. This conversation explores: • Why mentorship and sponsorship are not the same thing • How sponsorship creates earlier access to opportunities • Why visibility and trust influence career growth • How internal opportunities often form before postings become public • Why cross-functional relationships matter more than many professionals realize • How organizational culture and bias influence who gets advocated for • Why performance alone does not always create equal opportunity Julia also unpacks a misconception many professionals have about sponsorship. It is not necessarily manipulation, office politics, or favoritism. More often, it develops through trust, judgment, communication, consistency, and credibility over time. This episode is especially important for professionals who feel confused about why some people seem to move through organizations differently than others, even when performance levels appear similar on paper. Career growth inside organizations is often more relational and more nuanced than people want it to be. Understanding that reality helps you navigate it more strategically. Read the blog: Explore all episodes: Connect with Julia on LinkedIn: FREE Career Resources: Remember, you control your career. /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/41406560

The difference between authority and influence at work 05/12/2026

The difference between authority and influence at work If you’ve ever wondered why some people get pulled into decisions at work while others are told after the fact, this episode is for you. In this episode of Control Your Career, I break down how influence actually works at work and why it has very little to do with your title, even though that’s what most people focus on. You can be experienced, capable, and respected in your role and still find yourself left out of key conversations, and that gap usually has nothing to do with effort and everything to do with influence. We’ll talk through what it looks like to move from executing decisions to shaping them, along with what actually builds trust over time, because it’s not the big wins people think it is. You’ll hear how judgment and consistency shape how you are perceived, and why being “good at your job” is not always enough to be included early. I also walk through how to recognize whether you are being consulted or simply informed, and what that says about your current level of influence. From there, we get into how to build influence without formal authority, along with what might be getting in your way even if you feel like you are doing everything right. We also address the part that often gets overlooked, which is how organizational culture, bias, and power dynamics shape who gets heard and who gets overlooked. If you want to control your career, you have to understand how to read those environments and respond strategically. In this episode: The difference between authority and influence at work Why you may not be included in important decisions How trust and judgment build influence over time What it means to be consulted instead of informed How to expand your influence without relying on a title The role of bias, culture, and power in workplace influence If you want to grow in your career without waiting for a title or promotion, influence is one of the most important forms of leverage you can build. Read the blog: Explore all episodes: Connect with Julia on LinkedIn: FREE Career Resources: /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/41126345

The Truth About Workplace Reputation and Career Advancement 04/28/2026

5 Skills That Build Trust With Leaders 04/14/2026

How to Manage Yourself During Organizational Change 03/31/2026

How to Position Yourself for Promotion 03/17/2026

Hard Work Isn’t Enough to Grow Your Career 03/03/2026

Writing A Career Book: Updates, Breakthroughs & Lessons Learned 02/17/2026

Writing A Career Book: Updates, Breakthroughs & Lessons Learned I'm pulling back the curtain on my book-writing journey! In this bonus episode, I'm sharing an honest update on my upcoming book based on the Control Your Career process: what I've written so far, what I've learned, and why writing a book is WAY harder than I expected. Part 1 is for anyone curious about the book itself: what it's about, who it's for, and why I think it's different from every other career book out there. (Spoiler: it actually meets you where you are, not where some career expert thinks you should be.) Part 2 is for my fellow writers, authors, and coaches: I'm getting real about the writing process, why I needed a writing coach to stop procrastinating, and the breakthrough that changed everything about how I approached writing the first section of my book. Whether you're a potential reader or a writer in the trenches, this episode is for you. What You'll Learn: FOR READERS/POTENTIAL CLIENTS: What the Control Your Career book is about and how it's structured (two-part format!) Why Stage 1 (Realistic Reality) is the foundation of everything How this book is different: it meets you where YOU are, not where career advice thinks you should be Why I'm not using AI to write (and what I AM using it for) FOR WRITERS & AUTHORS: Why I wrote more in 1.5 months than I did in 8 months last year (hint: accountability) The content breakthrough that changed my entire writing approach How to balance book writing with running a business (still figuring this out!) Progress over perfection: why a bad first draft is better than no draft The role of AI in my writing process (spoiler: planning yes, writing no) Resources Mentioned: Control Your Career Process Email list for book updates Book Editor: HeartWorks Writing Codi Previous podcast episodes about the Control Your Career process: Read The Blog A Note on This Episode: This is a transparent, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to write a book while running a business. If you're considering writing a book, working with a writing coach, or just curious about the creative process, I hope this gives you some insight (and maybe some motivation). And if you're excited about the Control Your Career book, subscribe and stay tuned, more updates coming soon! /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/40108570

Financial Control Beyond Your Paycheck and 401(k) 02/03/2026

Financial Control Beyond Your Paycheck and 401(k) This bonus episode of Control Your Career is a little different, and very intentional. Julia Toothacre is joined by financial professional and podcast host Natalie Kime for a real, grounded conversation about money, career decisions, and life transitions. This is not a tactical breakdown of investments or retirement accounts. It is a conversation about how money actually shows up in real life. Natalie brings a deeply human perspective to financial planning, shaped not only by her professional experience, but also by her role as a caregiver to her mom. Together, Julia and Natalie talk about financial control beyond your paycheck and 401k, and why true financial confidence is about priorities, seasons of life, and flexibility. In this episode, they discuss: Why financial planning is about more than numbers How caregiving and life changes impact financial decisions The connection between career choices and financial stress What financial control really means during uncertain seasons How to think about money in a way that supports your whole life This episode is for anyone navigating career decisions while also managing real life responsibilities, changing priorities, and evolving financial goals. Subscribe to Control Your Career for honest conversations about work, money, and life. Guest: Natalie Kime Natalie Kime is a financial professional, podcast host, and caregiver who brings clarity, compassion, and real-life perspective to conversations about money, career, and life transitions. As the host of Chat with Nat: Conversations That Count, Natalie creates thoughtful, approachable discussions that help people feel more confident navigating complex financial and professional decisions. Connect with Natalie: 🎙 Podcast: 📱 Instagram: 🔗 LinkedIn: 📰 Substack Interview: Explore all episodes: Connect with Julia on LinkedIn: Visit the website: Free career resources: Episode Blog: /episode/index/show/ridethetidecollective/id/39950890