Stuck in Autopilot? How to Build a Career With Intention with Diana Bernal

This week Jannese sits down with executive coach, speaker, and author Diana Bernal to talk about something a lot of us never learned how to do: build a career on purpose instead of just falling into one.Diana is a first-gen success story who climbed the corporate ladder in nonprofit fundraising, hit "senior vice president" energy, and realized the corner office wasn't actually the goal. Now she coaches ambitious women through the exact roadmap she used to pivot, and she just released her book, Career with Intention. This conversation covers the signs you're autopiloting at work, why "loyalty" doesn't always pay off, how to give yourself permission to walk away from a degree (or a decade) without it being a waste, and how motherhood and marriage can completely reshape what ambition even means.

WE GET INTO:

01:32 Diana's first-gen story and career roadmap

04:19 Redefining success beyond the corner office

06:53 The false narrative of the corporate ladder

09:36 Loyalty culture vs. career mobility

09:45 What it means to build a career "with intention"

13:15 Signs you're autopiloting at work

15:12 Overcoming the sunk cost fallacy

16:26 Key questions to ask before a career pivot

18:36 Why high-achieving women struggle to own their value

22:14 Cultural scripts Latinas face at work