Chief Change Officer
#277 Helen Hanison: Outgrowing the Career Everyone Else Envies — Part One
Sun, 6 Apr 2025
Helen Hanison spent 20 years climbing the ladder in global PR firms. Board-level status, international travel, million-dollar campaigns—on paper, it was a dream. In reality? Not so much. Motherhood collided with management meetings, and suddenly, Helen realized her high-flying career didn’t align with the life she actually wanted.In Part One, Helen shares her pivot from leading global branding campaigns to guiding leaders out of careers that no longer fit. She opens up about the painful years of career confusion, her psychology degree detour, and how she turned it all into her second act: coaching professionals through career redesign.Key Highlights of Our Interview:From Global PR to “Wait… What Now?“I was flying around the world on million-dollar projects and somehow still feeling hollow.”Why success metrics lose their shine when they’re no longer aligned with your real life.Motherhood Meets Management“I was building a family and being promoted at the same time—something had to give.”When personal change outpaces professional structure, the misalignment can’t be ignored.The Pain of ‘Unlit’ Work“I wasn’t unhappy… but I wasn’t lit up either.”Helen explains the subtle but serious signs that your career isn’t working anymore.The Accidental Clues to a Future Calling“I used to take every team member out for coffee and ask them what they wanted next. That was coaching—I just didn’t know it yet.”Sometimes your next career is hiding in the way you showed up for others in your last one.________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Helen HanisonHelen's website: https://www.helenhanison.com --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
What makes a successful career feel like a trap?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. What happens when your shiny successful career starts to feel like a trap? Helen Henderson has the answer. She went from board level PR executive to career coach.
after realizing that the ladder she was climbing was leaning on the wrong wall. In this two-part series, Helen shares how she hit pause, got unstuck, and built a career that actually fits. We'll talk about career detour, tough choices, and why midlife isn't a crisis. is a chance to redesign. If your job looks great on paper, but feels like sandpaper, this one is for you. Let's get into it.
Helen, good morning. Welcome to our show. Welcome to Chief Change Officer.
Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here, sitting in that blue chair behind you.
Let's start with your story. You've gone through quite a transformation yourself, from public relations to branding and now coaching with a focus on career. We'll dive into the why, the how, and everything in between.
Yeah, sure. My name is Helen Hannison. You've already said I'm in the UK. I think what's probably more relevant for your listeners to know about me, though, is that I used to think that I was defined by that thing I did, my PR career. It was a 20-year tour of duty, as I call it now, in global PR firms. So always enormous budgets and global remits and market leading brands.
It was fantastic and I loved it all the way up to when I didn't. And for me, I hit this career crossroads that is a big part of why I now do what I do today. Success is really what it looked like from the outside. I was on the board. I was on and off planes all the time. I know people looking in felt it was successful and glamorous even. For me, I was bumping into a wall.
I don't know how else to explain it. It was very incompatible with becoming a mother for the first time and that junction of mothering and careering was tough to navigate and I hadn't seen it coming, which might be my own naivety, but there you go.
I had thought a lot about replacing myself at home because I assumed in the opposite direction and then found it excruciating not to be present hardly at all for my little one. So what do you do with that? Those jobs are the most important. That's an incredible amount of conflict to live with if you believe you're defined by the one that is less important to you.
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