The Deeper Work

What Corporate to Calling Really Means

I talk a lot about exit strategies, networking, skill stacking, and positioning.

And those things matter. They’re the mechanics. The tactics. The roadmap.

But if I’m honest, they’re also the easy part to teach.

The hard part? The part I don’t talk about as much because it doesn’t fit neatly into a framework or a workbook?

It’s this:

Corporate to Calling™ isn’t just a career transition.
It’s an identity shift.

And identity shifts require something most strategic planning can’t touch.

They require surrender.

The Vanity of Titles

I spent years climbing. Building credibility. Earning recognition. Becoming someone whose name meant something in the room.

And then I lost it.

Not because I failed. Because I was laid off at 43. Because the company restructured. Because the game I’d been playing so well suddenly ended.

And in that moment, standing on the other side without the title, without the brand name, without the shortcut. I had to face a question I’d been avoiding for years:

Who am I underneath all of this?

Not “What do I do?”
Not “Where do I work?”
Not “What’s my title?”

Who. Am. I.

And that’s when I realized:

I’d been a passenger in a vehicle I thought I was driving.

I thought I was building a career. But really, I was chasing validation. I thought I was earning authority. But really, I was collecting proof that I mattered.

The title wasn’t the destination. It was the distraction.

Because as long as I had it, I didn’t have to ask the deeper question:

What am I actually called to do?

The Heart + Mind Framework

Here’s what no one tells you about career transitions:

You can strategy your way to the exit. You can network your way to the next opportunity. You can skill-stack your way to credibility.

But if you haven’t done the internal work, if you haven’t shifted your identity from “I am what I achieve” to “I am what I’m called to”… You’ll just rebuild the same cage in a different location.

Corporate to Calling isn’t a formula. It’s a framework that requires both:

• Your mind - the strategy, the positioning, the leverage, the plan

• Your heart - the surrender, the listening, the faith, the courage to follow what’s true even when it doesn’t make sense on paper

Most people optimize for one or the other.

They either go all strategy (and build something technically successful but emotionally hollow).

Or they go all faith (and build something deeply meaningful but financially unsustainable).

But the people who actually make the transition well?

They hold both.

They plan AND they surrender.
They position AND they trust.
They execute AND they listen.

That’s the deeper work.

You Are a Passenger in a Vehicle of Chance and Faith

I used to think I was in control.

I made the plans. I hit the milestones. I executed the strategy.

And then life happened.

A layoff I didn’t see coming (but I felt coming). A parent who needed full-time care. A market that shifted. A calling that wouldn’t stay quiet no matter how many times I tried to logic it away.

And I had to learn something I’d been resisting:

I’m not the driver. I’m a passenger.

Not in a powerless way. In a surrendered way.

There’s a difference.

Powerless means you’re at the mercy of circumstance.
Surrendered means you’re partnering with something bigger than your five-year plan.

Chance brought me opportunities I couldn’t have engineered.
Faith kept me moving when the next step wasn’t clear.

And the transition from corporate to calling? It required me to let go of the illusion that I was ever fully in control in the first place.

The call of your purpose is greater than the vanity of your title.

But you can’t hear the call if you’re too busy defending the title.

The Identity Shift No One Prepares You For

When you leave corporate, people ask: “So what do you do now?”

And if you haven’t done the internal work, that question will wreck you.

I’m in my final year of doctoral work while running a consulting business and caring for an aging parent full-time. On paper, I’m doing more than I ever did in corporate.

But here’s what I’ve learned:

Achievement doesn’t answer the identity question.
It just gives you new ways to avoid it.

The real work isn’t building the next credential. It’s asking why you need it in the first place.

That’s the work.

Not the LinkedIn profile update.
Not the business plan.
Not the website copy.

The work is answering:

Who am I when no one’s watching?
What do I value when there’s no performance review?
What would I build if I wasn’t trying to prove anything?

Those questions don’t have tactical answers.

They have true answers.

And finding them requires you to sit in the discomfort of not knowing for longer than you want to.

This Is Why the Tactics Matter

I teach exit strategies, networking frameworks, and skill positioning because they work.

But more importantly, I teach them because they create space for the deeper work.

When you exit strategically, you’re not scrambling.
When you build your runway, you’re not desperate.
When you position your authority, you’re not starting from scratch.

And that space… That financial, emotional, relational space is where the real transformation happens.

That’s where you get to ask: What am I actually building? Who am I becoming? What is this calling me toward?

The tactics buy you time.
The deeper work gives you direction.

You need both.

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The Call Is Greater Than the Title

If you’re reading this and you feel it, that pull, that whisper, that knowing that there’s something more you’re supposed to be doing… I want you to know:

You’re not imagining it. And it’s not going away just because you ignore it.

The call of your purpose doesn’t wait for the perfect time. It doesn’t care about your vesting schedule or your 401K or your five-year plan.

It just keeps showing up. Louder and louder. Until you finally listen.

And when you do listen?

That’s when Corporate to Calling becomes real.

• Not as a career pivot. As a life shift.

• Not as a strategy. As a surrender.

• Not as something you execute. As something you become.

This is the deeper work.

And it can’t be rushed. It can’t be skipped. It can’t be delegated.

But it can be supported.

How I Can Help

I coach people through The Beautiful Exit™ - the strategy AND the surrender.

If you’re standing at that crossroads right now, you have options:

📘 Start with the books:
Choice Destinations™ - The foundation for portfolio career thinking
The Beautiful Exit™ - Your six-week roadmap to exit corporate smart and enter entrepreneurship with authority. A guided workbook that turns self-awareness into strategy, helping you plan, position, and execute your next chapter with confidence and peace.

💬 Ready for personalized support?
Message me. Let’s talk about where you are and what kind of support would serve you best - whether that’s the full CAPE coaching program, a VIP strategy day, or something else entirely.

I meet people where they are. Not where I think they should be.

If you’re in that space right now, feeling the pull, hearing the call, standing at the edge of who you’ve been and who you’re becoming… You’re not alone.

And you don’t have to figure it out all at once.

You just have to take the next step.

Even if you don’t know where it’s leading.
Even if it doesn’t make sense yet.
Even if you’re still a passenger trying to trust the vehicle.

That’s enough.

— Jraya 🍃

Have you felt the shift from title to calling? Reply and tell me. I read every response.