Your Next Big Thing shares inspiring stories of senior professionals making big changes to find more satisfaction from work and happiness from life. Host Neil Metzler (Founder, Principal at Cloud Champions Coaching) welcomes each guest to share why they made this difficult change, how they built a bridge, and what they learned. Our three messages are: 1) Careers are no longer linear. 2) You’re not in this alone 3) There’s a human underneath that armor. Join us to feel inspired, learn something new and connect!
Publisher
Neil Metzler, Founder @ Your Next Big Thing Coaching
Josie McKee, Founder of Mind Athlete, discusses her experiences in Yosemite Search & Rescue and high-performance athletics, revealing insights into mindset coaching and reconnecting with the joy of challenges in this interview.
20 May 2025
Opera to CTO | Sarah Polan
Sarah Polan (Field CTO, Principal Director) completed a major career reinvention from opera singer to IT leadership. Early on, Sarah leveraged a bootcamp and built a bridge into IT by delivering a Novel Project beyond the initial scope of her role. Sarah powered forward when she realized her structured mindset from classical music could translate to writing code. Step by step, Sarah added competencies in DevSecOps, management and organizational leadership, including a CTO program from M...
25 Feb 2025
Surface Warfare Officer to General Manager | Benin Allen, US Navy Veteran
I learned a lot from speaking with Benin about having the courage to think big about careers and plot my own course. As the host of this podcast, I'd like to remind us that the west coast tech ecosystem is NOT the ONLY place leaders are born and developed! There's a lot we can learn by expanding our view. [Leaders] are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” -Invent and Simplify, Amazon Leadership Principles 5 Takeaw...
18 Dec 2024
Full-time Parenting Unlocks Dream Job | Jeana Jorgensen | Your Next Big Thing
Jeana Jorgensen, a former Senior Director at Google, shares how embracing full-time parenting led to her dream job at Microsoft and reveals the surprising benefits of living her values.
26 Dec 2023
Performance with purpose in the AI era | Ugur 'Mik' Catmak, Ümit Uludag
Join us for a special year end wrap-up! My guests are big tech heavyweights, Ugur "Mik" Catmak (Founder, Lean High Performance Academy) and Ümit Uludag (expert on lifelong learning).We talk creating and claiming value in career conversations, self-paced learning, and why we can't forget to decompress!Takeaways:Value Creation: how to create and claim value from your workPersonal Branding: strategies for building and leveraging an authentic, meaningful personal brandDeveloping through disruptio...
2 Sept 2023
Special Episode! Neil talks going solo, stepping back into full time & more
Special episode alert! I had the chance to be interviewed by Deborah Sgro (Global Mentorship Director, Women in Big Data). For the first time, I share:-Why I went solo-How you can launch a solo business-How to succeed fasterThis was recorded for the Women in Big Data Solopreneuer cohort program.Book recommendations:Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri: https://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Build-Trap-Effective-Management/dp/149197379XThe $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau: https://www.amazon.com/...
14 Mar 2023
Social Work to Finance + EMBA | Gabrielle D'Angelo
Today's episode is about finding the courage to make a big change - and continuing that career reinvention curve through partnership, marriage and kids. My guest today is lifelong learner Gabby D'Angelo - MSW, CFP, CAIA, CFA Candidate, Business Student @ The IE Brown Executive MBA. Gabby and I speak about: -Pivoting from Social Work to Finance -Becoming credible, capable and visible in a new industry-Finding the right role & workplace culture -Building resilient ...
21 Feb 2023
Learning in the Cloud | Fred Hoskyns
Welcome to Season 2! My guest is lifelong learner Fred Hoskyns (Sr. Solutions Architect, AWS). In this episode, I ask Fred how he built a bridge into the AWS cloud and created learning and career progression to the Sr. Solutions Architect role. Fred didn't start in tech - he majored in French & Italian and worked abroad in the Oil & Gas sector. Back in London, Fred joined Amazon and progressed to a team lead position with Amazon Global Selling. -Fred describes why he made a ...
31 Jan 2023
Surfing Into UX Research | Chelsea Keaulani Brown
Welcome to our Season 2 Premiere! My guest is avid surfer and children's book author Chelsea Keaulani Brown (YouTube, Looker). In this episode, I ask Chelsea how she built a bridge into UX Research from her original career trajectory in athletics and sports media.-Chelsea describes her journey into startups with Looker and Gametime. -By building Pillars like Well-Placed Mentors and Novel Projects, Chelsea became Credible, Capable and Visible in her space. Chelsea's career progr...
19 Apr 2022
Living Your Values - Surf, Tech and Photography | David Dennis
Welcome to our Season 1 finale! My guest today is David Dennis. David is the son of a successful software entrepeneur, and he originally went in a totally different direction than Dad. David studied Sociology and Political science and his first job was teaching in public schools.During the dot com heyday of the early 2000s, David found himself experimenting with web development. In his free time, he started building websites for schools, and soon David co-founded a tech startup.These experien...
5 Apr 2022
Marriage Broker Auntie to Billion-Dollar Startup VP | Priyanka Bharadwaj
Read more of Priyanka's work on her Substack:https://shapelygal.substack.com/I'm pleased to recognize executive coach Marie-Caroline Chauvet in this episode. Learn more about her work here:https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/mariecarolinechauvetMy guest today is Priyanka Bharadwaj. Priyanka has diverse professional experience as a senior manager at Toyota and Amazon, and as a respected and published thought leader on marriage and dating. She's now a VP at a fast-growing logistics startup with ...
2 Mar 2022
Diplomacy to AI Principles to Tea | MJ Pham
Hello listeners, Neil here. I need to warn you that this episode contains a description of intimate partner violence. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is at risk in the United States, or you'd like to volunteer or donate: https://www.ywca.org/what-we-do/domestic-and-sexual-violence-services/Europe: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/saynostopvaw/helpline.htmlWorldwide: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-womenThis season, I hope you've realize...
14 Feb 2022
Appellate Law to Software Engineering | Josh Stillman
During an 8 year career practicing Law, Josh won multi-$MM victories for corporate clients and immigration relief pro bono. Josh holds a JD from New York University Law School, where he graduated in the top 10% of his class.In the middle of his career in Law, Josh made a big change. He's now a Senior Software Engineer at a fast growing tech company where he leads teams and helps clients build better products and applications.In this episode, Josh and I speak about recognizing what drives you ...
29 Jan 2022
Head of Customer Success to Full-Time Artist | Franziska Raffaël
During her ten year career in business, Franziska developed a side hustle as an artist, painter and muralist.In *2021, I noticed Franziska post a creative and entertaining video reintroducing herself and announcing she was leaving her job to focus on art, full time.Anyone interested in side hustle to full time, hacking a new industry, and leveraging online communities can benefit from her story!With a Master's degree in Marketing and 10 years of experience, you might think her pivot to Art me...
13 Jan 2022
Fashion Unicorn to Enterprise AR/VR | Nassima Filali
Have you found success in your field, only to find curiosity leading you to your next big thing? Nassima Filali (Paris, Berlin) went from founding a fashion startup with her best friend, to joining Europe's largest fashion unicorn, leading teams and signing multi-$MM partnerships. So why did Nassima choose to change?"I reflected on how I need to learn something new every day and have an even greater impact for my clients. A sign it was time for a new path." Nassima recalled her earl...
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