In this episode of Career Clarity Unlocked, host Theresa White, a career clarity expert and five-time certified career coach, sits down with Carolina Bakker, also known as the Rat Race Recovery Coach. Together, they uncover the path to escaping corporate burnout and reclaiming energy, joy, and fulfillment in your career.

Carolina shares her deeply personal story, from her breaking point in corporate America to rediscovering her purpose as a coach helping high-achieving women step off the hamster wheel. Theresa and Carolina dive into powerful topics like overcoming workplace trauma, using intuition to guide career decisions, and practical strategies for rebuilding confidence and self-worth.

Episode Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Career Clarity Unlocked

00:53 The Corporate Rat Race: A Real Struggle

01:23 Meet Carolina Bakker: From Burnout to Bliss

02:42 Carolina's Journey: Corporate America to Coaching

06:25 The Breaking Point: A Life-Changing Realization

14:24 The Aftermath: Embracing Change and Self-Care

27:46 The Power of Intuition in Career Decisions

31:59 Navigating Growth and Fear in Decision Making

32:42 The Power of Intuition in Coaching

33:48 Introduction to the Sparketype® Assessment

34:58 Rediscovering the Advisor Sparketype®

39:34 Understanding Workplace Trauma

40:09 The Impact of Workplace Trauma on Health

41:08 Real-Life Example of Workplace Trauma

44:09 The Long-Term Effects of Workplace Trauma

48:22 Reclaiming Confidence and Self-Worth

55:17 The Power of Words and Responsibility

56:19 First Steps to Reclaiming Joy and Life

01:00:31 Connecting with Carolina Bakker

01:01:33 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

👉 Ready for career clarity in record time? Request a free consultation with Theresa at www.careerbloomcoaching.com/consultation.

Connect with Carolina Bakker:

• Website: Rat Race Recovery
• LinkedIn: Carolina Bakker
• YouTube: Rat Race Recovery Channel

Connect with Theresa White:

• LinkedIn: @Theresa A. White
• Facebook: Career Bloom Coaching
• Instagram: @theresa_careerbloom
• YouTube: careerbloom
• TikTok: @career.bloom
• Website: www.CareerBloomCoaching.com

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On Career Clarity Unlocked, We're all about those light bulb moments. I'm talking to people who are still trying to figure out what they're meant to do, coaching them life to reach that magical, yes, this is it moment. And we'll also hear from those who've already found their dream careers and figure out exactly how they did it.

Whether you're looking for inspiration or actionable advice on finding a career you love. I've got you covered time to unlock some career clarity

Speaker: Let's dive in.

Reclaim your energy and find true happiness and balance in both your work and your life. So on this episode, I'm going to be joined by Carolina Becker, who knows the corporate hustle inside and out and has cracked the code to escaping it. Stick around to find out how you can take the first steps toward building a life and a career you actually love.

If you're ready to escape burnout, reclaim your joy and build the life and career of your dreams, you'll want to hear Carolina's story. Let's get started. Welcome, Carolina. Hi. Hi, Teresa. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm really excited about this call. I am so excited that you're here all the way from Portugal, right?

Yes, yes, yes. Sunny, sunny Portugal still. It's amazing here. Wow. I, and I, I've been to Portugal once and it is so beautiful. So, no wonder you're feeling lots of joy and happiness in your life, I would imagine. Um, but I'm wondering if this has always been the case for you and Maybe we'll start with the journey.

There was, uh, Skype, there was, , all these competitors with Skype. , there were all kinds of tech companies , that were trying to compete and so it was very easy to find a job. Um, in tech, , even, let's say as, , and inexperienced person, , it was pretty easy.

So, , I worked in, , in technology for a long time, like communications. And, , I slowly made my way up, , and eventually ended up as a program manager. And throughout this whole time, , there was always this, , this feeling inside of me that something wasn't right, something didn't. feel right about my career.

I loved seeing them grow and develop. I loved supporting them with that. , I love building new things and see how the company grew and how it evolved. In, in technology, and, uh, well, and back then already, there was a lot of stress, , a lot of anxiety, a lot of pressure.

, and I started having these really powerful conversations with them, , about how they handled their stress. And, and people really, Found a lot of, , comfort, let's say it first in knowing that they weren't the only one that was experiencing it. But second, also in just having the ability to talk to someone and talk through what was happening inside of them, what they were thinking, how imposter syndrome came up.

So even though I was, I was coaching people on stress and anxiety and an imposter syndrome, I myself was experiencing anxiety and stress and imposter syndrome. Yeah. So eventually, there was a big bang realization. Um, if you want, I can share that. Um, I would love if you step out. Okay. Um, it's, it's, it's a little bit of a heavy story though.

That next position should be yours because it would give you the visibility that you need for the executives to sign off on it. So I had been working like relentlessly so much, uh, for four weeks. I think I reached easily reached 80, sometimes 90 hours per week. I didn't sleep. I skipped most of my lunches and probably most of my dinners.

Um, on that day, it was like everything fell apart. Um, I first heard that my, , project was delayed until further notice. That big project that I put everything aside for, , suddenly was, was indefinitely postponed, , also meant that high visibility that I was supposed to have, that was supposed to get me to the next level suddenly was no longer there or wouldn't be there because I had nothing to celebrate.

Honestly, I was, I was stunned and I was angry and I was frustrated because I really, really worked super hard. And. I like everything. My entire body seemed to somehow, you know, that when you're, when you're so tense that your entire body feels like there's a vibration in it and you can feel that vibration and I could feel that tenseness.

And so I go through my day. Don't ask me how I go through my day. And I. I still had a lot to do, so I again was the last to leave the office, and I got to my car in the empty parking lot, and I sat down in my car, and I just, I started crying uncontrollably.

Um, and you would think, well, that's, that's horrible enough, right? Well, that wasn't the end of my day. So I drove home and in the morning, I had that little light that indicates that you, I do not have enough gas and it was broken already a couple of weeks. Um, but I didn't have time to get it fixed I didn't see the gauge.

It was like, and it was, it was, it was so ridiculous that it, that it was funny. And so I got out of the car, high heels like that, of course, and I had to walk that last. Bit home, which, which, which was like 10 minutes. But at that moment it was those 10 minutes were so intense and we're so, you know, being there in the silence in the dark, , of course there were streets like, but still, you know, I, myself on heels, this high, which are wonderful if you can drive somewhere, but are horrible when you have to walk on them for a mile and with my laptop around me.

It felt like such an easy way out, like that would be the solution to everything. Like the solution to all the stress, the solution to, to feeling that, that huge weight of the expectations that I could never fulfill. At least, that's what I thought. And it just, at that moment, felt easy to just sit down and wait for the train.

Something is not right. And so the next day I went back at 10 30 in the morning and I just, I just slept. I woke up, I think at my normal schedule, like six and I just, I, if my, my bed was so nice and warm and I just turned around and I thought, You know what? I did enough. And so I stayed in bed. And, of course, you open the door at 10.

Yeah. And I always said from, from way back when I said, you know, change starts with you. And so at that moment, I decided I'm going to make coaching my full time business, and I'm going to work on myself a lot. And so I didn't immediately, Leave because of course I had , a salary, but somehow something stops me from, from getting into that high anxiety state.

Um, seven years ago. Wow. Thank you for sharing the story. That is so incredibly impactful to hear what you've been through. And so many people will be able to relate to this. It's Yes. There's so many pieces you touched upon that You already have this feeling something isn't right and something's missing, but what is it?

And then you don't know and you keep moving and then they're dangling this promotion in front of you and I've been there too. Like, okay. If I can just get to this next promotion, everything will be better. And they're dangling this in front of you. And somehow that makes us turn into like, okay, we can deal with all the anxiety, stress, whatever is going on.

That's just that's just crazy. And so I wasn't the only one and people out there aren't the only one. But at that moment you feel like there's nobody else that has that level of stress in the world. Because if you look around people seem to, I don't know, they seem to go through life so easy. And funny enough, when I told people this story, like a couple of months later, because I didn't have the courage in the, in the very beginning.

I don't know how much about neuroscience, knowing all these statistics and, and knowing a lot about workplace wellness and workplace trauma. Now I know what happens. And I was basically in, , in my survival part of the brain constantly. Yeah, it is incredible. Three out of a hundred people. And unfortunately, I'm not surprised.

And I've been exactly there. I know what, I know what it feels like. You have that mask on, you're smiling, but none of that is what's happening inside in your body. But we're so taught because everyone around us does it. We're like, yeah, this is normal. You just ignore everything your body is telling you and you just put on that mask, keep going because it will all pay off in the end.

It's, it's almost like, you know, I didn't get up one morning and, and thought to myself, Oh, you know, let me, let me find a way to have a nice burnout this month. Of course not. So it's, how, how is it, how is it the person's fault and it's always a, I feel it's always like a sort of a joint effort. between efforts in the negative sense of the word, between the person and the environment that the person is in.

Doesn't matter what happens with your mental health or like, don't listen to your body, ignore the anxiety, ignore the stress. It's about working hard and getting good grades in school, making it to that university. Getting that promotion, that's what matters. And when you grow up this way, like, how are you supposed to suddenly know, oh, like, oh, I was supposed to set boundaries.

I do think that for women, especially women, let's say of, uh, my generation , and older, , I remember that, you know, that I had, for example, I had this intuition and, it was quite funny that, , every time , , somebody asked me if I could opinion, , in a, in a company with a lot of men.

And so, A lot of us, because that was expected , when we moved up is like, do not talk about your feelings, put it in a spreadsheet, whatever it is, put it in a spreadsheet. , and so we learned to push our feelings aside, push your intuition aside , and look at the numbers, even if Intuition told us something else.

Now, there was nothing that could have told me that, but it was something that was just a little bit off. And when I said that, I don't know why, but I just feel that something is off. It was like, yeah, but we cannot measure that, can we? And it was like, okay. So I always needed hard evidence to, uh, to suspect substantiate my decisions.

It's the part that, that feeling that, hmm, something is not right in me, but I don't know what it is. That gets, that spikes your curiosity. And then you, if you, if you allow yourself to investigate why do I not feel comfortable with this? What is, what is it that's happening in my body? Why do I have this shoulder pain?

, And when we allow ourselves to feel that, then we get to the reasons of possibly, um, possibly we could prevent. Us from going over those boundaries and stepping into that burnout. What do you think? Intuition is so big. And it's just, while you were saying that it brought me back to my corporate career and I was not.

And I always blamed myself for it. And now looking now where I am now as an entrepreneur, I allow myself to lean into my intuition and Obviously, taking conscious risks, um, but sometimes I just love that I have this gut feeling of like, I want to do this. It doesn't make sense in like financial terms or, but I just feel so drawn.

I can listen to what feels right and wrong to me. And I can express that and not seen as what's wrong with you in that environment. That is really like a difference of night and day to me. Yes, I can imagine. I, and it's, I can so relate. I feel that somehow it's also, we are taught to not listen to the intuition.

But you walk in there and there's like, Oh, something is off here. Now, you cannot see it, , on what's happening in the bar, but you can still feel that atmosphere. And I think it's, it's your, it's your body reacting to it. It's like, Ooh, let me, it's your protection mechanism, your survival mechanism that says, Ooh, careful.

Something is, something is off. And it puts you on higher alert. Or when you walk into this narrow street at night and you think, Ooh, maybe I should turn around. And you do, you know, or at least I do. , so intuition is such a powerful thing and we all experience it. The question is, do we allow it?

That's a little bit where, where the balance comes from. It's a, it's a physical experience. It's your body warning you that you have to pay more attention maybe to something. Exactly. I agree. And it's becoming just. the awareness piece. It's not that we don't want to ever do something that might be out of our comfort zone.

If this is mentally or physically. Yes, exactly. Well, and that's basically , what it comes back to as a, , as a coach. Um, and we should talk about the Sparkle Spark, um, oh, come on. Archetype assessment. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, so, , as a coach, this is one of the things that is, , very easy to, , to use in your practice.

And so that I can support them with. Um, so it's, it's very funny how, , that intuition can be, uh, if you use it well, one of the most powerful tools that we can use as people. Um, and towards ourselves, not only towards others, anyway. That is so true. And I love that you brought in the Spiker type assessment, because I always obviously love talking about the Spiker type assessment for anyone who's not familiar with it.

Both in its unique ways can lead to burnout. Um, but I'll save this for another, for another topic. , but I'm super curious and I think I had to take the spiker type assessment and your primary spiker type showed up as the advisor who is someone who is all about guiding to grow. It's the work of coaching, mentoring, advising that fills you up like nothing else.

Oh, completely, uh, completely. And I, I actually, I think, , entire, that entire thing was in me already when I was growing up. Like I lost it somewhere in the, in the middle. And that was because I got disconnected from myself basically. So if you look at my, my life, I was always the person that people went to when they had, Some kind of issue either because I had practical tools.

I was very creative I was very good listener. And so when people finished talking, I said, do you want to. Work this out. Maybe we can find a solution. And then very often as well, if if there's some kind of solution and we started, you know, I love that creativity of brainstorming together and creating something together that worked for them.

Once I made that decision, as I explained earlier. Um, that's when that part of me started to come back and the part of me of listening was always there, but the whole, uh, uh, the creative part and, , finding , out of the box solutions with people, um, that came back completely. And so, yes, I can totally see how the advisor Spark type is.

But I would have loved in your story is that even in those really high stress situations. You tapped into it by coaching employees on handling their stress and anxiety. And then, through going through a really challenging experience, you were like, Wait, this is the part I love. How can I do more of it?

It's like coaching. I was already in me and it just, now it has a, it had a label, you know, it's like, Oh, that's actually a profession. I, I, that's actually a profession. I cannot believe that, that, that, that, what I love to do is actually a profession. And. So, you know, it's, I don't know. It just, I always say that it kind of merged, but it was more like an awareness that something like that existed, uh, then actually choosing, okay, now I'm going to be a coach, you know, and then, so yeah, it's amazing.

And then when we reflect on it and be like, okay, I want to make a career change. I'm not starting over. I've been coaching, mentoring, advising people for my entire career, even though I never had that title. But I can actually, there is a title for this, and I can do just that piece that I love doing. It's like, wow.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And one topic that I'm thinking is so fascinating that you talk about a lot, and I'm going back to earlier in our conversation, is when you talk about workplace trauma. And I think a lot more people experience workplace trauma than they even know that this is a topic. term, or thus is described what their experience is.

Um, trauma basically means that you had, uh, that something happened that made a profound impact on you. And that doesn't mean that that doesn't mean an impact, like a boom impact. It can be very little things that add up so it can be either something big that happens that you remember and that you that you look back on with a lot of sadness or a lot of grief or a lot of stress or a lot of anxiety or whatever, whatever negative emotion comes up for that.

uh, she's still with me and she was working in the U S she had like a work visa. Now, I'm not entirely familiar with the system in the U S, but she had a work visa and her staying in the country was dependent on that work visa and her family, like her grandparents were living in the U S. And so she had to take care of them.

It happened at least once a week. And so the man eventually, uh, for all other types of reasons, he got laid off and that got her out of that very nasty position. But that whole, I think that went in her body. It went in her, she, she was so, so, so stressed when she came to me because she couldn't escape her situation.

Now for me, that is, besides from the fact that it's a horrible treatment, but that is real workplace trauma. Because even , the guy left, And when he was no longer with the company, she was still experiencing the emotional and the mental effects and the physical effects , of those three months that she had to endure, uh, that type of, I, I call it tyranny because in reality, I felt it was tyranny and she was still feeling those effects and she was still waking up at night.

And, and that's, all those little pieces of trauma all added together become a big piece of trauma. And that will stay with you much longer than you realize. It can stay with you for weeks and, And months after you already left the corporate environment. And trust me, I know because, um, in my, like in my busy days, that was exactly what happened, even though, um, I, I left sometimes I had that performance mindset that I, you know, I have to do this and I have to do that.

I have to do, you know, things like I have to do my website. And then you did your website and there's like the first month, uh, or the first three months, so you have like, yay, five visitors of which three times your mother, you know? And it's like, really? Did I really? Really? You know, so, um, it's these, but that's, that's the, the little bit of trauma that builds up and it becomes a pattern and you keep on repeating the pattern, Tanner, even if you love.

Um, and I still carry them with me work through a lot of that in therapy, but Um, it's still it's still a part of me It's still with me and the most common or actually the two most common ways. I see it impacting clients I wonder if you experience the same is one they lose They lose so much confidence and that happens when over time.

And that's something that's so intangible, but it's that feeling like I can't be myself at work. I have to be Another version of myself and when we have to do that over and over for weeks, months, years, it impacts us so deeply because we lose a sense of self when we just feel like for 40 plus hours a week, we can't be who we really are.

Yes. Yeah. And, and well, and I, I, when you said that you lose confidence, I thought to myself, yeah. And, and it's even that it can be a slow buildup of losing confidence or actually slow break down of, of your confidence. But that also can be because of one event. I mean, I remember that, , we had a new colleague.

And, and it was like, after end of her presentation, it was like, okay, so we have a lot to work on today. And. She, I could see her, she was standing there, she was standing next to her presentation and was like, Oh, and her entire body language, everything, you could see that they just, at that moment, they just took her confidence with that one remark.

And so, at some point, you are, you're bound to think, yeah, so I, I tried everything already, is it me? You know, it must be me. It's, and that hits your confidence like a, like a rock, of course. And it goes even deeper, I would say, because it goes through to our self worth, which is almost the fun. It's the foundation of our self confidence.

And I think in the end, what happens is that we are, in the basis, our own worst critics. Because once that little seed is planted of I might not be good enough, we ourselves, if we are not aware and if we don't control it, That little voice in the back of our heads keeps on repeating over and over and over again, all the ways that we are not good enough.

And it's a, it's a, it's a survival mechanism. So there's nobody out there that's listening that does not have a, I'm not good enough statement. Most people have dozens, you know, I'm not fast enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not knowledgeable enough. I don't have enough. I don't know Uh, uh, I don't have enough resources.

It's, we grow it into a tree. We, we grow it into, Oh, they said I wasn't knowledgeable enough. Let me take every course on the planet to make sure that nobody ever says that again. And then you take a course and you find that your teammates are all much faster than you. And then this, this statement grows.

Okay, I'm not fast enough apparently. And then you grow another tree. You know, and all these little trees. It's it's up to us. That's where where we can take our power. It's up to us to make sure that those little seeds when when they are planted in our brains, and we take that and then we say, Okay, I'm going to work on this now.

Can I keep it a seed? So sorry. Love that. And I'm so glad that you're you shifted into what can we do when we're experiencing this? And I would love to end this conversation that's been so amazing. And I could go on forever. But when you have someone who is experiencing all those negative impacts that we talked about today, what is the first step they can take?

And so I'm not going to explain the entire triangle. But one third of our happiness is, is in the words that we use. So we have to see the world as it is, not better or worse than it is. We have to look at situations as they are, not better or worse than they are. And so what we very often do is, how was your day?

A little while ago already, I think. All good. So, I would say, you shift your words, and you shift your focus, and with that, you already shift a great part, one third, of your state of being. So, , even if it was, a huge, um, problem said, well, I had a problem, not I had a huge problem. No, I had a problem.

And you might even say I had a challenge. Uh, a lot of corporates will, uh, corporate people will immediately, uh, now understand why all their companies started using challenge instead of problems. Um, words have power. Words have power and words have power on our subconscious, uh, have power over our subconscious.

We were able to come together and rally around this or whatever it is. Then you see the positive in yourself and the value that you have that changes so much. I love this conversation and really I could keep going and going. And we might have to continue this, um, another time. But another time. Yeah. Yes.

But for our listeners who want to connect with you, learn more about the work you do, where can they find you, Karolina? So, , if you search on rat race recovery on Google, my name pops up. , also, uh, I am on LinkedIn, Karolina Bakker. , and, uh, also, I think if you would look for me on rat race recovery, you would find me there as well.

Even after having experienced really challenging times at work. So thank you so much for being here with me today. Sorry. Oh, good. I love her. And that's a wrap for today. For today's deep dive on really breaking down what we go through with the corporate grind. Thank you again for joining me. Your insights on reclaiming joy, creating balance, setting boundaries, and , how the words that we say to ourself have so much power can be such a game changer for anyone who's going through those challenges at work.

Schedule your free 30 minute call today on careerbloomcoaching. com. And before you head out, be sure to follow us on Apple podcasts or Spotify. So you never miss an episode. If today's conversation gave you new insights and inspiration, please leave a review. It really helps us reach more amazing listeners like you.