Life Between Titles: Career Transitions and Reinvention

"Feedback is a muscle. And most people never train it."After 15 years at Netflix — from DVD operations to launching their first post-production team to becoming an HR Business Partner — Tré Wright left to build something that had been part of everything he'd done all along: coaching people to see themselves more clearly. Savan and Tré go deep on what it actually takes to build a career with a thro...

In this episode of Life Between Titles, Savan talks with Jason Briefel about the unseen world of federal leadership, policy, and workforce reform. Jason shares a decade of experience representing senior executives across government, describing how agencies struggle to invest in their own leaders, why civil service systems remain outdated, and how culture often outweighs structure. He also opens up...

In this Thanksgiving reflection, I look back on the first two months of Life Between Titles and the guests who shaped it. I share the lessons they taught me about leadership, reinvention, identity, creativity, fatherhood, and the courage it takes to walk into uncertainty. Each guest left me with something meaningful, from empathy to purpose to rediscovery. This episode is my way of saying thank yo...

In this episode of Life Between Titles, Cheryl Dillon shares a perspective shaped by years of guiding people through major life transitions. She explains why the hardest moments in life often become the catalysts for reinvention and how challenge, discomfort, and uncertainty can reveal the next chapter waiting on the other side. Cheryl also discusses the journey that led her to build Funderful Exp...

In this episode, I sit down with Pamela Davis, a seasoned professional whose journey reflects a lifetime of resilience, responsibility, and renewal. Pamela raised two daughters on her own, guided them through private school, worked long hours to keep them supported, and later stepped into another demanding chapter caring for her mother through ten years of dementia. In her fifties, she returned to...

In this first episode of Office Hours , host Savan Kong talks with longtime HR leader Ringo Nishioka about what really happens behind the scenes when layoffs, promotions, and performance reviews unfold. Ringo shares decades of experience from inside the world of human resources, explaining how employees can protect themselves, how to negotiate an exit package, and what it actually means to be “lay...

In this solo episode, Savan Kong opens up about a recent health scare that forced him to slow down and reflect on what it really means to show up authentically, even when life doesn’t look perfect. After experiencing a seizure earlier in the week, he shares how the moment reshaped his understanding of progress, recovery, and self-worth. This isn’t just a story about setback; it’s about slowing dow...

What does it mean to move beyond survival and start creating something that didn’t exist before? In this powerful episode, Savan sits down with Vanny Whitchelo , host of Khmer Voices and co-founder of the Cambodian Cultural Center of Vancouver , for a deeply personal conversation about courage, community, and the next generation of the Cambodian diaspora. Born in the same refugee camp as Savan, Va...

What if success isn’t about how far you go, but how deeply you listen to yourself along the way? In this episode of Life Between Titles , Savan sits down with Vanessa Okoro, a first-generation Nigerian-American who spent over a decade climbing the ranks of management consulting at firms like Ernst & Young before making a bold shift into federal service with the FAA. Vanessa shares her journey...

Amazon is cutting tens of thousands of jobs. Federal agencies are facing RIFs and shutdown chaos. Two very different worlds — but both are reshaping what work, purpose, and identity mean in America. I’ve lived in both. I worked at Amazon and served in the Department of Defense. In this episode, I share what happens when the institutions we trust begin to shake — and what we can learn about resilie...

What would happen if you sold everything, left your job, and traveled the world for a year? In this episode, Reet German shares how one bold decision transformed her life, her marriage, and her relationship with her mother—whom she reconnected with after more than twenty years apart. Born in India, raised in Canada, and now living in Hawaii, Reet opens up about trusting her intuition, healing gene...

This month marks one of the most meaningful periods since starting Life Between Titles . When I began this project a month ago, I never imagined I would already have recorded ten interviews filled with so much honesty, emotion, and connection. What started as simple conversations about job searching quickly turned into deep reflections about who we are when the titles are gone. Guests opened up ab...

What holds us together when the fabric of our life begins to come undone? In this episode of Life Between Titles , host Savan Kong talks with Anne Gore , a veteran, educator, and single mother who has spent her life piecing together meaning through change. Anne begins with a reflection that lingers in the air: “I think you asked me about where I am right now, relative to the dismantling of USAID.”...

What happens when purpose is born from pain? In this powerful episode of Life Between Titles, I sit down with Katie Spector, an actress, improviser, yoga instructor, and storyteller. We open with the story of her father, a veteran who lived with Gulf War Syndrome, and how that experience shaped her why. At twenty three, Katie filed a FOIA request for his VA medical records, read thousands of pages...

In this deeply moving episode of Life Between Titles , host Savan Kong reconnects with his high school friend Michael Lee for a raw and reflective conversation about identity, fatherhood, and finding peace through life’s storms. From growing up as one of the few Chinese American kids in Wichita, Kansas, to navigating Wall Street, entrepreneurship, and single fatherhood, Michael shares how sufferin...

In this episode of Life Between Titles , host Savan Kong sits down with Phil Reiman , former Department of Defense attorney and lifelong builder of systems, teams, and ideas. Phil shares his journey from architecture to law , revealing how a deep curiosity about how things work led him to one of the most complex institutions in the world—the DoD. Together they unpack what it means to balance innov...

What happens when achievement no longer feels like alignment? In this episode of Life Between Titles, host Savan Kong sits down with Dr. Sarah Johnson, who went from designing marketing campaigns at a fast-growing Seattle startup that went from startup to IPO—to walking away and pursuing a completely new path in occupational therapy. Sarah opens up about leaving a high-performing role, navigating...

What happens when the mission ends, but life keeps going? In this episode of Life Between Titles , host Savan Kong sits down with First Sergeant (Ret.) Wesley Averkamp , a U.S. Army veteran who served multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wes opens up about his journey from small-town Iowa to the front lines of war — and how he learned to rebuild his identity after retirement. They discuss...

Career transition, unemployment, job loss, and identity — Howie Cohen calls himself the Robin Hood of Jobs. He's a strategist, CX advisor, and someone who has spent years helping people find work for free, because helping is simply what he does. This is the very first guest episode of Life Between Titles, and it sets the tone for everything the show is about. Howie and Savan cover a lot of ground:...

I'm 46. I spent 20 years earning titles across government and technology as a GM, CXO, and UX director. The morning I had none of them, I did not recognize myself. This is the first episode of Life Between Titles, a podcast about the space after one chapter ends and before the next one begins, and what it really costs you to sit in that silence. Help LBT by Buying Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee...