Burn the Map

Episode 50 of Burn the Map looks back at four themes from the first 49 episodes and then ever so slightly shifts the direction of the show. The first half covers the themes. The second half explains what the next ten episodes will be about. What you'll learn: Why leaving a job you hated can still bring months of grief, and what the job was giving you besides a paycheck How the personality you...

A corporate layoff used to mean finding the same job somewhere else. For a lot of niche roles right now, that job doesn't exist anywhere else. This episode walks through why, and what's actually open to you once it doesn't. What you'll learn: Why AI-driven layoffs are flooding the job market and slowing down every search The normalcy bias, and a 2020 motorcycle rally that shows...

Your job didn't just give you a paycheck. It gave you a reason to show up somewhere at the same time every day, even on the days you couldn't stand it. This episode is about what happens when that structure disappears overnight, and why an open calendar is harder to live in than it sounds. What you'll learn: Why the routine you resented was quietly doing more for you than you realiz...

Your title worked as shorthand for years. Inside the building, everyone knew what it meant. Outside it, that shorthand stops working overnight. This episode is about what's actually left once the title's gone. What you'll learn: Why the status you had at work was never really yours to keep What gets lost at the same time as the job: identity, social status, the ability to be underst...

The resume editing is just the surface. Behind the polished gaps and sabbatical euphemisms is a much longer editing project: one that's been running your personality for years. This episode is about what that cost, and what's still in there underneath it. What you'll learn: What the things you left off your resume reveal about what corporate asked you to hide How the adaptive person...

End of summer tends to concentrate change. Kids leaving, job searches ramping up, early retirement decisions. These feel enormous on the inside and invisible to everyone else. And then other changes start piling in. What you'll learn: Why big internal changes attract more change, and the need for visible proof that something is different The difference between additive changes that are overdu...

Not doing something isn't the same as not wanting it. Most of us live in the murky middle (wanting to leave the job, speak up, follow through) and just not doing it. This episode is about figuring out why. There are two categories of not-doing, and they require completely different responses. What you'll learn: Why the gap between intention and action is sometimes environmental and somet...

Between layoffs and early retirement packages, a lot of people in midlife are on the other side of a long corporate career, and running an internal audit that isn't returning comfortable results. This episode is about who's actually keeping score, and whether they earned that job. What you'll learn: Why the grief of abandoning a goal you never worked toward is real and has a name Ho...

When everything feels uncertain (the job, the applications, the new identity you're building), your brain is working overtime on problems with no clear outcome. What it needs is rest that isn't sleep, isn't scrolling, and isn't zoning out. This episode is about finding it in something you're already good at. What you'll learn: Why learning under stress is so cognitive...

243,000 people have already received layoff notices in 2026. This episode isn't for them; it's for the ones who survived and aren't sure how to feel about it. If part of you wanted the package, this one's for you. What you'll learn: Why surviving a layoff you wanted to be included in creates a particular kind of emotional confusion, and why that's harder to name than...

Corporate trains you to perform: polished, error-free, ready for an audience. That training works against you the moment you start figuring out what comes next. This episode makes the case for a different posture entirely. What you'll learn: Why treating your next venture like it needs to be "performance-ready" before launch keeps most people stuck What it actually means to start, a...

Flattery is a destabilization tactic, and corporate environments have had decades to perfect it. When someone tells you you're the only person they trust with this, the request and the recognition arrive as a package deal, which makes declining both at once much harder than declining either one alone. What you'll learn: How flattery bypasses your critical judgment before you've had...

Nearly 9,000 Microsoft employees have about a month to decide whether to take a voluntary retirement package. If this model works, they won't be the last. The financial details matter, but they're only part of the calculation. What you'll learn: What Microsoft's voluntary retirement program actually includes and the fine print that changes the math for most people Why staying f...

Most conversations about being stuck in a miserable job focus on the person who's stuck: their identity, their fear, their eventual breaking point. This episode is about the people in the next room. When you stay in a job that wore out its welcome, the cost doesn't stay contained to you. Partners, family members, and close friends absorb your misery whether you intend that or not. And be...

Corporate culture doesn't make you mean all at once. It happens gradually. The culture of correction, the "well, actually" posturing, the incentive models that reward sharp elbows regardless of what the company values say. At some point, you notice the armor has followed you home. In this episode, I look at what that costs you, and why getting in a room with people who love somethin...

The plan you make to leave your corporate job is not the plan that will survive contact with reality. A layoff, a reorg, a sudden directive from the CEO: any of these can detonate a carefully constructed exit strategy. The question isn't whether a surprise is coming. It's whether your plan can bend without breaking. In this episode, I look at how to build an exit plan that's elastic...

You left the job. So why does it still feel like yours? For many people who leave corporate careers, whether by choice or by layoff, the psychological exit takes much longer than the physical one. You're gone, but part of you is still at your desk. In this episode, I explore why that happens and what to do about it. What you'll learn: Why people who've left corporate jobs often keep...

You've been thinking about leaving for a while. Or maybe the decision just got made for you. Either way, you're about to walk out a door, and how you do that matters more than most people realize. The emotional residue you carry out with you (bitterness, relief, grief, pride) doesn't disappear when you hand in your badge. It follows you into whatever comes next. Which means you have...

You spent twenty years getting good at something. Now a tool can do it faster, and your company is thrilled about the efficiency gains. The loss isn't just about your job. It's about mastery itself. The identity you built around being the person who does this specific thing well. The dopamine hit of solving a problem elegantly. The community of people who cared about the same details you...

Someone I know quit a job after 20 years, then immediately took a contractor role on the same team, in the same building. To him, everything changed. To everyone else, nothing did. "Leaving corporate" doesn't have to mean never setting foot in an office again or launching a pottery business. For most people in midlife, it's about getting specific on what actually needs to chang...

Almost half of you said financial risk is why you stay in jobs you don't want anymore. Here's the thing: most of you aren't broke. You have savings. Maybe severance. You've spent thousands on courses and retreats trying to figure out what's next. You're not too broke to take risks. You're spending money to avoid taking them. The real risk isn't leaving too s...

Follow your bliss. Pursue your passion. Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life. For those of us who never felt particularly called to anything, all of it can be a letdown. You wonder what's wrong with you. If you ever felt punished for not having a calling, this one's for you. Rather than brush it off as the realm of cult leaders and artists, I'll position i...

Are you familiar with the state of wanting to want? It feels miserable and heavy. Wanting to want is the annoying time before you can declare what you don't want and get on with figuring out what you DO want. It's the long middle before change can happen, full of effort, pressure, and constant self-judgment. In this episode, I explore why we get stuck trying to want things that look good...

You've worked through your resistance. You know what kind of entrepreneur you are. Now what? Most people stall here because they're waiting for the complete roadmap. But you don't need the whole plan, just one next move. And that move isn't what you think. Your first move isn't execution. It's learning. In this episode, I walk you through specific first actions based...

After 20+ years in corporate, you already have an entrepreneurial operating system; you've just been using it inside someone else's company. In this episode, we explore the three dimensions that determine what kind of entrepreneur you are: who you work with, what you create, and your risk tolerance. Then we match those dimensions to specific business paths: fractional work, franchises, b...