At some point, every GenXer leaving corporate faces the question: "What do you do now?" Without your job title, the answer gets stuck in your throat.

In this episode of Burn the Map, we're tackling the identity crisis that comes after leaving corporate. How do you introduce yourself when the title that made you legible to the world is gone? And how do you explain your pivot without launching into a 10-minute monologue that makes people regret asking?

It's awkward. But it doesn't have to be.

You'll learn:

• How to answer "what do you do?" without your job title
• The And, But, Therefore framework for explaining your career change with confidence
• Why your pivot doesn't need to sound linear to make sense

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

At some point, every GenXer realizes they've been carrying a grudge that only hurts them. The company moved on. The manager moved on. But you're still bitter.

In this episode of Burn the Map, we're unpacking the invisible contract fueling your workplace resentment. The one you created but never told anyone about. The one that's draining your energy and keeping you stuck in the past.

It's uncomfortable work. But it's also liberating.

You'll learn:

• Why GenXers are wired for workplace resentment (and why it made sense)
• How to identify the unwritten contract keeping you bitter
• How to transform that toxic energy into fuel for what's next

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

You’re slogging away in a job that’s slowly draining your soul, but you tell yourself you have nothing to complain about. The paycheck is steady, the benefits are fine… so why does it still feel like something’s dying inside you?

In this episode of Burn the Map, we’re talking about pre-traumatic growth: how to make a change before crisis hits, and how to start designing a life that fits without waiting for a breakdown.

You’ll learn:
• How to recognize when stability has quietly turned into stagnation
• The difference between burnout and “soul rot” (and why it matters)
• Simple ways to prepare for a big life or career shift while you still have options

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

At some point, every GenXer realizes that the people running things aren’t the wise adults we hoped they were. And maybe, neither are we.

In this episode of Burn the Map, we’re unpacking what happens when the pedestal collapses. When you see that leadership, whether corporate or personal, was never meant to make you invincible.

It’s a wake-up call and a relief all at once.

You’ll learn:
• Why overestimating leaders (and yourself) keeps you stuck in outdated roles
• How misplaced loyalty and “fixer” energy disguise fear
• What freedom looks like when you stop trying to hold everything together

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

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 downturns sparked invention, and see how scarcity can boost creativity. 

>>Thanks to Tania P Brown for her contribution to this episode. You can take her financial readiness quiz on her website: https://www.taniapbrown.com/ 

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

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 environment means you get to allow for different things. Like being an actual human.

So let’s pause, look clearly at the systems you developed to succeed at work, and ask: what do I want to optimize for now? We're not talking about comfort or arbitrary preference. This is about aligning your work with your values. 

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a simple way to build around what matters to you, not some shifting company metric.

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

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 so fast, pal. Let’s talk about what happens when you go out on a low note with an abrupt exit. That blank space can be scary, but it also holds the possibility for something beautiful.

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

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 how you treat people. And what you stand for. 

This is part 2 of my series about legacy. If you haven't listened to episode 11, check it out. That one focused on what you inherited and how to release it. This episode is about what to build going forward. 

Now let's look at what it means to craft a legacy on your own terms, starting today.

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

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 other ways to think about legacy that hold clues for what you might build next, and important work you can do before you even figure out what that will be.

The question of legacy will take us a couple of episodes. In part 1, we’ll explore the legacy you inherited–family traditions, career roles, expectations—and how to decide which pieces are actually yours. In part 2, we’ll look at the legacy you get to create going forward.

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website

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 that phase, how to give yourself permission to be unproductive, and why this time isn’t a setback. It’s a reset.

Full transcript for this episode here: https://www.burnthemapcoaching.com/podcast/10

Shelley McIntyre helps GenXers stop slogging through corporate life, reclaim their identity, and build something real. Through her coaching programs and podcast Burn the Map, she guides midlife professionals to design a vibrant, intentional next chapter with clarity, courage, and structure.

🚀 Ready to start your next chapter?

👉 Apply for the Reinvention Partnership Program: Shelley’s step-by-step, personalized coaching framework for post-corporate professionals.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/work-with-shelley

Or jumpstart your clarity with an Own Your Edge Strategy Session: a focused 90-minute conversation to help you move from stuck to starting.
🔗 https://burnthemapcoaching.com/own-your-edge

Let’s connect:
LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Website