Kim Langenmayr- Career Pivots, Perspective, and Navigating Transition with Clarity

Welcome to the Internal Shift Show, where we

have honest conversations about the moments that

change direction, identity, and perspective.

I'm your host, Debbie Longo. Today, I'm joined

with Kim Langemar. Kim is a veteran former Peace

Corps volunteer and global education leader who

is currently navigating a career transition after

stepping away from a previous role as director

of internal education. This conversation focuses

on career pivots perspective and navigating today's

job market with clarity. Good afternoon, Kim.

Welcome to the show. Debbie, thank you for having

me. I'll start by exploring what career pivot

felt like internally when it first happened,

separate from titles or circumstances and how

that moment landed for you personally. From there,

we could talk about how working globally, serving

the Peace Corps and being a veteran has shaped

your resilience and expectation during this transition.

Starting with this most recent, which is almost

a year ago now in January, most recent separation

from the director of international education,

position. It landed pretty hard on me because

I felt, and I didn't know this until later, until

I did a lot of internal work, I felt like it

was very much tied to my identity. I come from

a generation and a socioeconomic status of people

who have, including myself, I've worked since

I was fourteen years old nearly without a break

vacations here and there but a continuous line

of works from a very young age and so to be in

a situation where even though it was not work

related that I was separated from my previous

position it still felt very much like a threat

to my safety. just to put it that way, because

I have always been fortunate enough to work in

what I'm passionate about, education, culture,

and international work. So to be separated from

my work against my will was a very difficult

thing to come to terms with. At first, it was

like, this is nice. I've haven't had a vacation

in a long time. But as time went on navigating

the current job market, it started to feel more

like a threat to my financial safety. Now that

I am close to a year into it and have started

to interview executive level positions, I have

done the internal work, the meditation, the identity

transformation where I now am operating from

a space knowing I have always been and I will

continue to be more than that. I will thrive.

Another position is going to align with me and

my passion. And when that happens, it will be

celebrated. So it's, it's been a difficult road

to navigate, but now I'm in a place where I am

steady, stable and confident in the direction

and knowing that it will be, it'll be all right.

And that took some time. That took some work.

So that's where I'm at now. That was good. Thank

you. So one of the reasons why I have this show

is for people like you to demonstrate and explain

that you were once in a place and now you're

not there anymore, whether it's negative or positive

or whatever. It's a place that you didn't want

to be in. You are uncomfortable or whatever the

feeling was. Right. And you did something to

change that. You did not sit in it. I mean, maybe

you did for a minute or so, but eventually you

literally did something or a bunch of things

to take yourself out of that. And you talked

about and those things are all good. But the

point is that. And like I said, this is one of

the reasons why I have this podcast is to show

people that they can change that they don't have

to sit. In sick and suffering or anger or crying

all the time. They don't have to sit in that

negativity. That's really the bottom line. Okay.

And that's a big thing. That's the first thing.

So this is like the outline, right? That we're

talking about here. One of the things that I

got out of what you were talking about was that

the stuff that I do, cause I do the same exact

thing that you do. I do internal work and meditation,

but I do a lot of. different things. I don't

do just like one or two things. I really have

a broad range of different practices and the

way that I do the practices. And so one of the

things that I realized is that and this is a

big part of when I teach somebody this stuff

is that this needs to be incorporated into my

schedule every minute of every day. So it's like

brushing my teeth when I wake up. Do i say oh

i have to brush my teeth now no i just wake up

and then i just brush my teeth and that's it

and that's that that's what i wanna. It to become

because all the negativity i've been sitting

in and all the trauma and everything that is

all stuff whatever your issue is that is all

stuff that i have made that a part of me. And

i've complimented my behavior to become that

behavior now right so that is now my behavior

i wasn't this way i mean really i was i wasn't

this way when i was born right so somehow someway.

As life went on or trauma, I became this way.

So this is the thing. So now I want to bring

it back to being positive and doing like you're

saying, how you turned it around and everything.

Right. And I want to make sure that I could do

that. Every day and make it a daily practice

that's that's really the key thing because i

can fall back because what happens is literally

yeah because my brain is trained so my brain

is like a hard drive like on a computer i did

might be a little bit old terms but on the high

we use chips now on the hard drive that's where

the memory is. And that memory will stay there.

And I can bring up whatever type of memory I

want from that hard drive. See, that's the thing.

So it's still there, whether you think or not,

or you don't think it's there or you don't see

it. It doesn't matter because it can still come

up. This is just how the human brain works. I

mean, you can look it up. Anybody could look

it up. You could look it up on the Internet.

It's very easy, very accessible. This this type

of information is not it's not complicated stuff.

Okay, so let's look at how your current job market

feels compared to past career moves and what

is surprised you about the process and where

you're finding friction or uncertainty. The current

market job market has what I think surprised

me most is access to the information that we

have specifically through LinkedIn and other

platforms like that. You can tell how many people

are applying, how long the job has been available.

And so what has come as a surprise to me is many

of the positions that I've applied for, the competition

is definitely out there. There are four or 500

or more applicants applying for the same positions

because the internet has opened up the job search

market to the world. So you're not just in competition

with local Folks in an area you're literally

in competition with the world because these job

markets available to everyone to see who has

internet and linkedin or idealist org or Glass

door, whatever. There's so many out there that

that you can find out job opportunities through

that the competition is nearly limitless the

disconnect between being a Gen Xer, the disconnect

between people and the... Job market and applying

for jobs is what I have found to be most a reality

check because you can't just impress somebody

with what you have to say, your firm handshake,

your eye contact, all those things that we were

taught will get our foot in the door. It's no

longer applicable because you need to make it

past the AI screening. You need to make it past

first round, second round with literally hundreds

of applicants. So that I feel was the most jarring

because I happen to have pretty good self -esteem.

I have my confidence is is in check. And so I

happen to feel and this may sound funny, but

I am the kind of person that I feel like as soon

as I submit, I felt this way. I don't anymore.

As soon as I submit my resume, I expect to hear

back. Like within 24 hours, they're going to

look at my resume and be so impressed and say,

oh man, we got to get her on the phone. And it

just doesn't work that way anymore. There's a

lot of highly qualified folks that are out there

due to the current political situation we find

ourselves in, that there are a lot of folks that

are looking for work. And it's not, it's highly

qualified folks that are out there looking for

work. And so it makes it a little bit more of

a challenge to land that position that you think

I'll put it in my perspective that I think I'm

qualified for and would be a shoe in. They'll

be happy to bring me on board. Guess what? There

are a lot of equally qualified folks out there

that are involved in the same search that I'm

in. And so that's what I found to be most surprising.

Yes, I agree. So I can talk about a million negative

things that clients and past clients and friends

and so many different people have told me about

how they can't find a job because of this, this

and this and this. I was just saying for me,

it goes back to some of those strategies that

you were alluding to earlier, where I've really

I've been a meditator for like 20 plus years.

but I've added on to that understanding your

vibration and your frequency and your thoughts,

the power of your thoughts and your emotions

and what that brings into your experience. So

it's not just about being positive, like, oh,

I can do anything. It really starts with, for

me, being grateful for what I have, being grateful

for the experiences that I've had that led me

to this point, being grateful for the position

that I most recently held because it literally

opened up so much for me that even though I was

separated without having done anything to cause

that, it really has opened up my eyes and opened

me up to a new process of thinking and understanding

that my thoughts, my words, and my actions lead

to what comes to me from the universe, from my

experience. I create my experience through my

thoughts. So if you, like you were saying earlier,

if you sit in the negativity of, oh, boohoo,

I lost my job and this is happening and that

is happening, you're going to spiral and you're

going to get consumed by... pity and negativity.

Kim, thank you for the insight you shared and

for being part of this conversation. And to our

listeners, thank you for joining us in the Internal

Shift Show. These conversations aren't about

perfection. They're about reflection, clarity,

and meeting people exactly where they are. Until

next time, give yourself the space to pause,

reflect, and choose your next step with intention.

Good night. I'm Debbie Longo, Transformational

Coach. Thank you.