Career Changing Podcast
CAREER CHANGING PODCAST – February 6, 2025 – Eagle Beach, Aruba
Austin was fed up with his job. He had reached the end of his rope. His last nerve was rubbed raw. He was stuck somewhere between acting as a middle manager and an engineer. His good ideas got sucked into a management vacuum that started with the company’s Chief Technology Officer. Austin never knew where his proposals ended up or if anyone liked them.
His company, Epiclear, specialized in skin care products. They sold lotions, makeup, moisturizers, and self-tanning creams and were always on the lookout for beauty trends. The company’s biggest innovation was customer-specific blends and shades. Matches were made based on user questionnaires that attempted to identify skin tones. Austin and his engineering team were sure they could improve precision and customer satisfaction using customer photos and artificial intelligence. The cutting-edge technology would make people more beautiful and lots of money for Epiclear.
Austin made countless Powerpoint slides about the project and passed them up the chain of command. When he asked for feedback and directions, all he got were a few questions about chemical solutions.
“The CTO is a chemist. That’s all he understands. He’s got no vision,” Austin complained to his engineering colleagues.
In contrast to the disillusion Austin experienced, the Epiclear executive team loved sharing inspirational messages about their vision for the company and world. These began as short email blasts to all employees. Then they created a weekly newsletter packed with graphics and quotes taken directly from leadership-themed posters. Their latest communication innovation was a podcast with regularly scheduled content. Austin read a company-wide message describing a new episode called, “Putting pants on two legs at a time: Leadership for a new Millenium.” He mock-vomited and decided he finally had enough.
“Did you see the latest podcast message?” Austin asked a trusted coworker named Klaus.
“You mean the pants thing?” Klaus asked cynically.
“It’s so stupid. I hate this place.”
“I hear they hired a producer just to make all these things. If you listen to one, she’s the voice interviewing the execs as they share their fascinating life stories and tell all us worker bees how to be successful like them.”
“It literally makes me sick. We’re working long hours and watching every penny while they’re spending money trying to sound like there’s something in their empty heads.”
“I’ll bet most of it gets written by ChatGPT. They ask it to spit out as many cliches as possible in a five-minute speech. I listen with the sound turned way down and count it as work time.”
Austin dropped his head to his chest. “There’s gotta be a better place to work than this.”
“Try not to stress about it too much,” Klaus replied. “Or maybe you could start a competing podcast.”
Austin paid no attention to Klaus’s advice. He arrived home in a terrible and frustrated mood. “I’m burned out. There’s no more gas in the tank,” he said to his wife.
“Extra bad day, huh?” she replied.
“I don’t think I can go back.” Austin sighed in resignation and said, “I feel like doing something I’ve never done before. I’d like to just take off for somewhere warm. Totally spur of the moment. Don’t tell anyone I’m leaving until I’m on the plane.”
“So why don’t we? We can leave the kids with my mom and I can take some personal days from work.”
“Where would we go?”
“How about the Caribbean?”
“The Caribbean? You really think we could?”
Austin pulled up a travel site advertising last-minute deals. Possible Caribbean destinations included the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Aruba. “You know anything about Aruba?”
“Only that it’s the first place they sing about in that song Kokomo. ‘Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya . . .’”
Austin quickly fixated on Aruba and the online photos showing pastel colored buildings. Calm and sandy tourist beaches covered one side of the island while on the opposite side a wildly beautiful national park was beaten by untamed waves.
“We would have a connecting flight in Miami. I don’t know, this sounds crazy. Should we really do it?” Austin asked his wife.
“It’s supposed to sound crazy. You better stop thinking and just book it before you change your mind.”
Forty-eight hours later, the couple landed in Aruba’s international airport. They rented a car and drove to their reserved hotel on Eagle Beach. They spent the warm evening walking barefoot in the white sand, surrounded by palm trees and gently crashing Caribbean waves.
“This is one of the best things we’ve ever done,” Austin said happily. “Being so far from home, I’ve got all this new clarity. It’s like I was drowning on the bottom of a pool and all I needed was to kick up to the air.”
“You feel that different?”
“I’ve got to quit my job. I’m not the type to move around looking for something different, but I know there’s something better out there for me. There’s a whole world out there that I don’t stop to see.”
“You know I’ll support you with wherever you decide to go.”
The next morning, Austin decided it would be therapeutic to listen to some of his company’s leadership podcast episodes. They would be fun to mock and help cement his decision to find another job.
“C’mon, listen with me. They’ll be good for a laugh,” he said to his wife. “And help you appreciate the insanity around that place.”
“No thanks. You listen if you want.”
“Please. Sit with me for just a few minutes.”
She sighed heavily but gave in. Drinks in hand, they moved to the balcony of their hotel room where they had a view of the ocean. Austin held out his phone and said, “We might as well start with one from our CEO, Alfonso Olonsky. I see him all the time, but I doubt he knows I exist. He’s a total joke. This should be good.”
Austin pressed Play and a female voice acting as interviewer introduced Alfonso. His topic for that episode was his three principles for corporate success. As Alfonso droned on about synergy and finding win-win solutions, Austin quietly chuckled and shook his head. He grinned toward his wife when he heard something especially ridiculous.
As he was about to shout, “Oh, shut up!” into his phone, a head poked around the wall dividing Austin’s balcony from the one belonging to the adjacent room. The head belonged to a smiling Alfonso Olonsky! Austin assumed he was hallucinating. He looked down suspiciously at his drink before looking back up at what he hoped was an imaginary Alfonso.
Then the face in front of him spoke. “I thought I heard my voice,” Alfonso said with a laugh. “I see you’re listening to my podcast performance. You’re Austin, right?”
“Uh, yeah. That’s right.” Austin leaned over and stopped the audio file on his phone.
“So what do you think? No, don’t tell me. The podcast thing wasn’t my idea. I was against it, but the Comms team convinced me it would be good for morale and productivity. I didn’t think anyone would listen, but I guess I was wrong.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Austin said reluctantly.
“You must be here on vacation.”
“Yeah, it was a spur of the moment kind of thing. I’ve never been to Aruba. Wanted to check it out.”
“This is kind of my secret hideaway. When I need an escape to clear my head, I come down here and don’t tell anybody.”
“Uh huh.”
Alfonso turned his gaze toward Austin’s wife and introduced himself. After some pleasant greetings, Alfonso paused awkwardly before saying, “Sorry for intruding. I’ll let you get back to your vacation.”
“You too,” Austin mumbled.
Before Alfonso retreated, he appeared to have a revelation. “How about the two of you join my wife and me for dinner tonight? I know a great place if you like seafood. My treat and I promise no work talk.”
Austin felt obligated to agree. He did not listen to any more podcasts that day. He seemed to forget his usual job complaints as he and his wife toured the island’s lighthouse and snorkeled offshore. That night at dinner, Alfonso and his wife talked about children and favorite places to visit. The conversation stayed light and pleasant and everyone appeared to have a good time.
Right before the couples separated, Alfonso broke his promise about no work talk and asked Austin’s opinion about a new product line.
“Seems to me like it will hurt some of the things we already sell,” Austin answered frankly.
Alfonso thoughtfully rubbed his chin and asked, “Do you play golf?”
“I’ve been three or four times. I mostly hack at the ball.”
“Me too. I think of it as an expensive walk. But I’ve got a couple of passes to a course nearby if you’d like to join me.”
Austin debated with himself half the night over the golf excursion. In the end, he showed up with Alfonso and they drove a golf cart together and laughed at their poor shots. Alfonso did most of the talking. Before they were done, he said to Austin, “I like having you’re around. I don’t hear any fluff and nonsense.”
Austin wondered whether he should bring up the idea of customizing products based on customer photos. Finally, he could not stop himself.
“Did you ever see my proposal on customer photos and AI?”
“Maybe. But I can’t say for sure.”
“Then I guess you don’t have an opinion about it.”
“Not yet, but I promise to look it up when we get back.”
Austin’s once definite plan to resign grew more wishy-washy the closer he got to home. He returned to his office and a few days later was called to meet with Alfonso.
“I’d like you to be my regular advisor,” Alfonso explained. “With plans to move you into the CTO job. And we need to get moving on your photo project immediately. We’ll find the resources to get it done.”
Austin explained all the exciting changes to his engineering colleague, Klaus. As they spoke, a message arrived introducing the latest episode for the company’s executive podcast.
“Here we go again,” Klaus said sarcastically. “The company’s greatest production since no-wrinkle cream.”
Austin smirked and replied, “I’m not making fun of the podcast anymore. It literally changed my life. Just not in a way anyone imagined.”
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