I Moved For A Promotion And All I Got Was Anxiety And Frequent Flyer Miles | Episode 408

I Moved For A Promotion And All I Got Was Anxiety And Frequent Flyer Miles | Episode 408

Ever wonder why the promotion didn’t fix the emptiness? We open up about chasing titles, relocating for a “dream job,” and discovering that more money and a shinier role can still leave you exhausted, isolated, and off-mission. Justin shares the unseen toll of time-zone expectations, late nights to “prove” worth, and the moment regret arrived with a phone call about a loved one’s passing. It’s candid, vulnerable, and full of lessons learned the hard way.

We unpack how burnout often begins with subtle choices: staying later than the team, answering messages at all hours, letting fear of missing out override what matters. Justin reflects on leaving a supportive role for global prestige, only to find the stress amplified by introversion he hadn’t yet named. The turning point was not a miracle cure; it was a slow shift toward acceptance, therapy, and redefining success from status to service. That shift birthed a mission—Voices for Voices—anchored in mental health advocacy, storytelling, and practical support.

You’ll hear a simple framework to reduce impulsive decisions: pre-plan how you’ll respond to common forks in the road before emotion runs the show. Visualize the tradeoffs around money, titles, relocation, and time with family, so choices align with your values when opportunity knocks. We talk candidly about faith, control, and gratitude—recognizing what we can shape daily, and what we must release. If you’ve felt that ache of climbing and still feeling empty, this conversation offers clarity, comfort, and next steps.

Share this with someone caught between a raise and their well-being. Subscribe for more real talk on mental health and meaningful work, leave a review to help others find the show, and tell us: what does success look like when you design it on your terms?

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome And Global Community

1:51 Setting Up Burnout

4:10 Unwritten Rules And Exhaustion

7:41 Chasing Titles And Money

11:03 Leaving Home For Opportunity

14:07 Distance, Family Strain, And Travel

17:31 Loss, Regret, And Perspective Shift

21:08 Early Layoffs And Fear

23:46 Introversion And Constant Stress

26:11 Calling To Help Others

29:07 Control, Faith, And Gratitude

32:05 Learning From Mistakes

36:21 Plan Before Big Decisions

39:06 Beyond Impulse: Mature Choices

42:23 Mission Of Voices For Voices

46:05 Closing Thanks And Outreach

#PromotionStruggles #AnxietyAdventures #FrequentFlyerLife #WorkLifeBalance #NewJobNewFeels #RelocationReality #CareerMoves #TravelTales #CorporateClimb #MentalHealthMatters #JetSetterProblems #JobJitters #MovingForWork #StressAndSuccess #LifeInTheFastLane #ChasingDreams #CareerAnxiety #WorkTravelDiaries #AdventureAwaits #MilesOfStress #FromHomeToWork #OfficeNomad  #LifeOnTheGo #PromotionProblems #WanderlustAndWorry #StressfulSuccess #JobChangeJourney #FlyingHighButLow #NewCityNewAnxiety #CareerClimb #MilesAndMentalHealth #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices408

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Global Community
• 1:51 Setting Up Burnout
• 4:10 Unwritten Rules And Exhaustion
• 7:41 Chasing Titles And Money
• 11:03 Leaving Home For Opportunity
• 14:07 Distance, Family Strain, And Travel
• 17:31 Loss, Regret, And Perspective Shift
• 21:08 Early Layoffs And Fear
• 23:46 Introversion And Constant Stress
• 26:11 Calling To Help Others
• 29:07 Control, Faith, And Gratitude
• 32:05 Learning From Mistakes
• 36:21 Plan Before Big Decisions
• 39:06 Beyond Impulse: Mature Choices
• 42:23 Mission Of Voices For Voices
• 46:05 Closing Thanks And Outreach

Transcript

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin here at Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We're so glad you are with us. And uh whether you're here watching, listening, here from the United States or uh over a hundred countries, a thousand cities across the world, thank you for being with us. Uh if you can do us a big favor, give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share, you know, reach out to 25 of your closest friends or in your group. Uh, you know, send them a group chat. It's a a you should check out Voices for Voices TV show on podcast. We are the hottest podcast and TV show across the planet. Uh second only to uh I guess third now since Dan Bongino's coming back, uh, but then the Joe Rogan experience. So uh we're in very good company, and it's only because of you, our our loyal uh viewers, our listeners. Uh thank you very much. Uh we send nothing but love to you, and whether you're a believer in God or higher power, or whether or not we still pray for you every single night uh because we can never have enough good vibes. We hope for a happy, healthy, prosperous 2026. And let's get rolling with the show. Burnout is a topic that gets a lot of a lot of airplay for good reason. We find ourselves minds racing, to-do list, and seemingly not enough time to do everything, right? There's you know, day to day, there's 24 hours in a day, we need a portion of that of the rest, uh, to recharge our body. Um and so when we when we look at our to-do list of okay, what do I have to do? You know, everything from you know, setting our alarm, right? So we we set our alarm however we do that, uh, some on our phones, some other ways. Uh, but there's a reason we set our alarm when we set it, because in in reality, uh we we want to make sure that whatever we need to be awake for, uh, that we're gonna be awake. So we need that alarm. And sometimes with these uh to-do lists and these uh competing expectations from literally everybody. Everybody just I think just expects uh things to get done. And we'll get in we'll get into a a pretty pretty good example here. Uh so again, our our minds can only process a certain amount of information a day before it's rendered uh tired, um, you know, taking a time out for a period of time, maybe the rest of the night, rest of the day, just all depends, and that can lead to fatigue and tiredness. And I know I've been at different jobs where I would be leaving work because I felt an expectation that I had to stay either longer than my boss or longer than anybody else on my team. And so there's these unwritten rules that sometimes our mind plays these tricks on us, and so there's been times and that's occurred, and then kind of on that drive home, or one of my jobs, it was my walk home, that I live very close to where I was working. I was already dreading going into work the next day because of how I was feeling. I'm like, I don't have I don't have energy, like yeah, I the weather's great, I should be able to go for a swim, uh, work out. Uh and I I just didn't have the energy. And literally I would go grab a shower some days after work, and then I'd grab something to eat, and because I want I I wanted to stay longer than my local team, because when sometimes you work with companies you know in different time zones, and so my my main manager was in another country that was, I think, seven, seven, eight hours away, six, seven hours away, or six hours ahead, beg your pardon. Uh, so by the time I was leaving work, it was late, you know, midnight, 1 a.m. their time. And and so that was part of it too, that when I came in the next day, I knew I was going to get bombarded with all the things that my boss, who had pretty much a almost a full day, you know, sending assignments and projects my way. And it just it just wore on me. Uh I guess I wasn't ready for that that type of work. I mean, when it when it all comes down to it, I was chasing a title, um, not like a championship, but you know, you you start out, and I never was had an internship. I that's one of the areas I I would uh if I was able to go back that I would have liked to have had an internship prior to uh the the workforce, but I didn't. That's okay. Uh and it just got real hectic. It was not at all really what I expected, and so I was again chasing the title, you know, the intern, analyst one, analyst two, analyst three, senior analyst, uh specialist, whatever, you know, these titles they just go up, and with the thought of like, oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna be paid more money every every run I go up. So every title, every promotion. And so that's what a lot of people and uh when I when I was in a in the corporate space, that was the that was the thing. It was I feel like I'm working at a you know level uh you know one or two above where I'm at, and I'm not getting notice, I'm not getting a notoriety, and and so I uh it just was difficult, very, very difficult for me, uh, for a lot of reasons. Uh because you know I I'd gone through life and I a lot of our loyal listeners and viewers, you know, I'm trying to, I I've gone trying to prove myself, you know, whether that's in school, whether that's at work, whatever that may be. And so I found myself again chasing titles, and it took me a thousand miles away from where I grew up, and and I basically went from a job that it was pretty easy going, pretty casual. The work wasn't like I didn't find myself having to work a bunch of extra hours or to wonder, you know, work with all these different individuals from different time zones because that was new to me. It was something that I wanted, uh, because I I took uh two uh international business courses, one in my undergrad and one in my graduate. That that's what I I wanted because I I felt like I was going to be able to do you know some traveling around the world too by working in a in a position at a company uh that again, I could do some traveling on the corporate you know expense. And that's what this one job I'm referring to. Uh so I left kind of like the easy gone, and yeah, I was upset or frustrated with the pay and that there wasn't a true uh promotion plan or succession planning. And so I got frustrated because I'm like, I just got my MBA, my master's of business, master's in business administration. Um, and there are some quite a few of people that I went to school with for my masters who are getting promotions after finishing their masters, and so there was some of that, and I again I was comparing myself to others, and like, well, he's getting this, and he and she's getting this, and here I am, and it's just like okay. Now the great majority of the schooling was uh was paid for, so I shouldn't have been as complaining as I was as I look back at at things now. Uh so I went from kind of easy going to uh chasing titles, chasing money, and all I found myself was uh pretty much miserable, pretty much miserable. Um my wife now we had just started dating. Might have been within a few months of me taking a job, so of course there was that. I was like, uh again, I thought I knew I thought I thought I knew all the answers. I thought I knew what was what was right, and and I was away from church and I was away from you know the spiritualness, and I would just focus on basically a title, more money, and traveling instead of looking at the the things that really do matter more as I'm now in my 40s, and and that is you know, family and helping people. I didn't know that at the time. If I would have um then that would have been that would have been awesome, but I didn't uh you know for various reasons. A lot of them it was I I did them myself, and so I was you know, my own, like that lit song, my own worst enemy. I I literally was my own worst enemy. And so I ended up finding myself so at this job that I'm so I'm away from home. Yeah, I was able to you know do FaceTime and and that, uh but it's not the same, you know. Being able, you know, I the way I had to travel was I had to if it was a direct flight, which the direct flights usually were better coming back, um, because otherwise, see when you only have a weekend and you have let's say half the day on Friday, and you gotta fly two and a half hours each way, you're trying to maximize you know the time where you're going. And that was whereas I was going to my natural home with my family, and and it was my girlfriend at the time, and my wife. And so uh I usually ended up having to have a layover, a short layover, uh, but nonetheless, because there was basically two airports, one one was closer to the family, and the other one was, you know, about 45-55 minutes. And so coming back, it made, at least in my mind, it made more sense to take a direct flight back. But then going on that Friday, I wanted to be, I wanted to cut that time of travel so that when I was picked up, it was like a 10-minute drive home, uh, my girlfriend's house, now my wife, now my wife's uh parents, and and so there's all this planning, all these extra things that are going on. My my grandma was not doing well, so there's that added, excuse me, that added I the other times I just sat and cried and because I wasn't able to see her that much, and I ended up I knew she wasn't doing very well, and and the reason why I remember this so so crystal clear is because there was a a pretty big world event that it happened, so I was flying back to where I was living, and you know, to that the job chasing the title and the money and and all that. So I was on my way back, so I flew back. I knew my grandma wasn't doing very well. And I think it was I think it was one of my friends at the time, his bachelor party. So I went to I flew to a different airport, so it was in a different state. So uh so what I ended up doing was I would I flew direct, well, as directly as I could. I had to stop some make a make a stop, um, or the plane had to make a stop, and then I'd switch planes to get to where the bachelor party was at, and which is in a different city and state from where my grandma was at and my family and my girlfriend. So my girlfriend at the time on the way back, like I was still in you know that that party and lifestyle to an extent, and so she came on that Sunday, so she drove an hour and a half, two hours just to basically spend a couple hours with me and then take me to the airport, uh which I look back and myself, I such not a good person at those times. Um so I was on my way back on that Sunday, so I was flying back, and I had just landed uh after the the layovers, I just landed back to where the job was where I was living at the time, and I was just walking off the plane, and on the screen, uh TV screens walking through the airport, and we were one of the last planes in it was when uh Osama bin Laden, you know, the raid and and all that happened, and and so that was all on the TVs when we landed. So I was traveling, and and so that's how I remember the time. So I was on way back, I saw that on TV, and then I got a call from I think it was my dad, and basically said that my my grandma passed away. So then I think it was like a day. I I don't I can't remember, so this was on a Sunday, so I don't remember if I flew back home again. Um, you know, for like the services. I don't remember if I flew back on that Monday or that Tuesday, and any of the event, what what am I trying to say here? And what's this have to do with voices for voices? Well, I had a lot to do with my mental health, and I didn't know it at the time, or didn't want to believe it. I I was chasing things that again. Some things like I guess come with time. I don't I don't I don't know. All I know is I wish I would have handled things much differently. Uh not chased the title and more money and and all that because it ended up being more headaches than anything, to be quite quite frank. Uh it has nothing, nothing against the people was working with, uh the you know, the different parts of the world where we had offices and and that. I'm grateful for that time. And I did learn a great deal. Got a lot of experience. I was able to do a little bit of traveling. I think there was I think there was like one trip to uh to the offices where where my management was at, and and so that was I mean that was neat. Uh but at the end of the day, as I as I sit here on this episode and look back, and I haven't looked back that far in quite a long time. Um, I've talked about burnout a lot, but I haven't looked back on that specific time. Uh I think part of the reason why I I even I was starting to have the burnout even whether it's burnout, or I don't even know the right words to say as far as the correct terminology, but it was my first experience with a uh reduction in force. So let's say the company you work at has a hundred people, you come in one day and you leave, and 20 less people are working at the company. So 20 people were said, Hey, thanks for your time. Uh today's your last day, and we're gonna walk you out to your car. And so that had happened while I was at a more casual job. And so here I was like, Oh my gosh, I started cutting my expenses, which I heart I didn't have very many, because I was very grateful to be living at my parents' home, and I was able to save. And uh man, I it's just it's hard looking back at all that time. So I found out, you know, fast forward, you know, because of the bin Laden raid and and that found out that my grandma passed away, and and that I basically missed an opportunity to see her one last time because I was at this bachelor party, which was in a different city and state, and I now feel like I I should have stayed home, my home home, like where I was from, at least another day, so I could at least saw my grandma one more time, at least uh, but uh it it just it wasn't meant to be that that aspect. And so that was just very, very hard. Um it was it was, it was just you know, as I'm turning back the clock in my mind, bringing back some of those thoughts and memories, and what I try to reason with myself, and like, yeah, Justin, this is what you want, you know, this company isn't gonna, you know, have a promotion schedule for you in the next couple of years, uh, then if it means that you have to go to a different company, and even if it's over a thousand miles away, where I knew absolutely no one, I knew zero people. So now knowing what I do know, that I'm an introvert, uh if I would have known that at the time, it made a might have made a little bit of a difference in at least a little bit of my thought process because I was thinking like, oh, right, move to a big city, and I and it it ended up being anything but that I mean, I love the you know the sports and watching them, and not that I needed to get season tickets to the games, but I could have gone to a few more games, but I was so stressed day in and day out that there were many coworkers who were like, hey Johnson, you want to go to the go to the game? And I just didn't go because I was just so it was it was almost just like I was on edge like 24-7. Uh and it was oh my gosh, it so when I look back at that time in my life, I guess it called those growing pains or whatever the terms are. If I would have known at that time what my what I feel like my calling is, like what I'm doing here on earth, why I'm still here, man. I would have loved to have known that helping others was at that time, but again, I knew better. I thought I knew better, right? It's that whole I'm smarter than everybody else. I was still in that mindset, and man, that was ten, you know, that's sixteen, sixteen year, fifteen, sixteen years ago. It's oh my gosh. And yeah, so I I'm just having moment here of like deep reflection oh not even the just the you know we what we feel our you know our life's calling is and what we like to do and what we're meant to do, and but even just I I treated people so badly, so badly, and I know there's I can't go back can't go back and change change the past. I can look back and maybe help help a few of you. Maybe you can pass the message not saying not to just a hundred percent oh you know when when you're growing up, like you're you're molding yourself and with different experiences, and I don't know. I I don't know how I would have known that helping others was as big of a deal to me, and that mental health and mental illness was that big to me, because at that time I wasn't seeking help for it. So I wouldn't have I wouldn't have really started on the bandwagon, I guess, or because I wasn't seeking help, so that part wasn't even there to click for me. And I mean it's like you know everything happens for a reason, okay. I usually that's what I used to believe. Now I I I know that I'm not in control of I mean, um I'm in control of my you know day to day, but in the bigger sense, I'm not gonna live to be three, four, five, six hundred years old. That's just I'm not that power, I don't have that that power to do that. So while I might be able to go, oh well, if I'm still alive, I'll wake up at tomorrow at around this time, and here's what I'll probably eat for breakfast, and and you know, to those extents, we have a little more control, but in the bigger scheme of life, we don't. And so I'm I'm happy that I at least got to a part or a point in my life where finding out helping people and voices for voices, and finally getting help myself, and just going through so much adversity, so much of it is my own doing, my own fault, so much of it. And yeah, there's a lot of pages in my in the book of my life that I wish I was able to go and rewrite. I'm just not able to do that. I I can only just try to do my best to get help get help myself, which I have done. And try my best to be a good parent and spouse. Again, there's there's a lot that I wish I have been able to change over time, and I haven't. I haven't been able to, you know, close my eyes and say, oh, I'm gonna go back to this year and this time frame. Like I again, I don't I don't have that, I don't have that capability, so I can't do that. And so just putting everything, every ounce of my being, professional-wise, into voices for voices, the show, the organization, the books, the media, current projects, future projects, God willing. That at least got to at least got a got to taste the what it taste, what it feels like to find my calling or why I'm still here on earth. It still to me doesn't explain why so many people so much so much more talented and than I'll ever be why people were taken before me. So that's one of the areas that I have to be grateful that I I had this opportunity to do this. So when I wake up tomorrow, I'm able to continue on with the mission and the vision, and then the day after that I continue on until God says, Okay, Justin, this this has been you know, your your time's up. Yeah, and and so in in my head as I think through this having an opportunity to help people so far away from where I live, where I was born, where I grew up, even so far away geo geography, uh geographical from where that job was to I made uh looking back, I made a very poor decision. But as I sit here today, maybe that's part of what molded me, maybe that's part of what my mental health issues or challenges get to be ramp them up even further. I don't know. But what I hope this show, this specific show, this specific episode, is that when you're given a chance, or when you feel like you're given a chance, you're doing something that really gets you in the heart, and I know you see me if you're watching, you see me do the you know to you know the uh you know uh show kind of solidarity uh from my heart to yours, you're watching or listening. It's because I belong from a geography standpoint, from a family standpoint, even going through all the mental health and then all the mental health challenges that I'm still going through, and I'm still having good days, I'm still having not not not so good days, but it's when when the energy's there and I I try to use the time as wise as I can put together as many shows because when I said I wanna I want to help three billion people, at least over the course of my lifetime and beyond, I meant it. So that gets me to where I'm at is doing everything in my being to help. And a high percentage of the help is through my spoken word of events and times in my life where I I've made not great decisions. Some have turned out pretty good, others not so much. But I know that I can't, no matter what, I I can't as much as I want to, I can't go back and fix things in the past you know, said or done. There's so many so many things up to 2017 and even past, I I regret conversations, I regret a lot of things. Even recent things. So it's not like twenty-seventh hit and then voila, um this person that has seen the light. That's not what I'm saying. There's things I Again, we all do things that we're we're happy that we did that we tried and and then there's others that not so much. So if you get anything again out of this this show, it this specific episode I'm talking about that when you get to if you get if you get to that point where whatever that is that you're doing where you really feel it in your in your heart and in your mind keep doing it before big big decisions I actually sit down and and think I thought I did that but I there are a lot of times where I haven't where it was well my mind's made up and this this is what I want to do and so I'm gonna do it if I'm given the opportunity and and it's so many of those decisions are what I'm saying that if I would have taken a step back, I mean I probably wasn't even mature enough to do that, as well as not buying into the mental health, my mental health, and my mental illnesses to be diagnosed and see all those things had to had to have happened before I can come out at least have decent on the other side, like I have. So we have to you know divide it up and figure out what when and and all that, but if we think about what we'll do if event A or B or C or D would happen, then when event C happens, you've already we've already thought through thought through that, and so we've been able to take some of the emotion out of it, which is where I got caught up. I got caught up in the emotion of oh yeah, I'm gonna move and I'm gonna live in this big city, and I'm only making this extra money, and I'm gonna have this title, and I'm gonna get the travel, and I I didn't think it through. I hadn't thought it through. I was thinking it through as it was happening, and while you can't think every single bit of every single opportunity or not opportunity. If we just think a little bit about what if what if something happens like this? What what would I do? So we would at least be a little bit of less we we would have a little we wouldn't be making those impulse decisions, like when we go to a store, right? A convenience store, a drug store, a legal drug store. And you see at the cash register, there's all kinds of sugar and candy bars and twizzlers, and you know, and and none of them are sponsoring our show, so I'm not I'm not sharing their names because they're sponsors, they're not, I'm just thinking to myself of those are impulse decisions, right? You're waiting in line, and then you're looking, and then you're like, oh well, it's only a dollar or whatever your currency is. Uh and then sometimes we're not buying like five, six, seven dollars worth of something that we never we never planned to, it wasn't on the list, but we did it, we bought it. And and so that's that's how I equate, you know, these big life milestone decisions is to be a little bit less impulsive and a little bit more mature. I'm laughing because I I try to even be mature. I don't I even at my age and I I'm still a work in progress. I'll always be a work in progress. So if we can be a little less impulsive when it comes to the big decisions, and I'm talking specifically for this episode about the job and getting caught up in the title being higher than what it was at my current job, making more money than my current job, those types of things. That's what I'm I'm getting at. I've made a a lot of decisions that I am very happy with. Doesn't mean that everybody is, just means that I'm happy I made you know decisions to get married, have a family, and you know, nothing can take any of that away. Yeah, there can be I don't know. I'm not in the least bit talking impulsive about that. But thank you for joining us on this show. This has been this has been uh pretty turning back the clock and then turning it forward. It's been a pretty tough episode because there's a lot that I I can do, and there's a lot that it's out of my hands, and then there's even more that's out of my hands that God or for me, God has the plan, and I'm gonna be here until until I'm not, but I'm gonna try to help as many people as humanly possible through as many different forms and formats as possible. So thank you for tuning in. If you can hit that subscribe button, you can give us thumbs up, like, follow, share, reach out to 25, 50, 100 followers and group chat, or make a social media post, start following Voices for Voices. We're everywhere. We're yeah, if you want to watch us on this episode, and then you decide you're listening, uh, we are everywhere, we are everywhere, and that's because we have a whole lot of helping to do a whole lot of it. And there's a quite a quite a bit that I need to do, that I need to help myself and not be so hard on myself at certain times, but can't really can't really change anything. Can only try and and even that a lot of it's too late. So I'll just keep helping people until my time's up. But we are we're helping a lot of people again. We talked about a hundred countries, a thousand cities. Why stop there? We should be able to help 300 countries and three thousand cities across the world, and with your help, I know we can do it. I know we can do it. I know it. It's free to send those messages, it's free to hit that subscribe button, it's free to do the thumbs up. Uh, it's free to send a text message, a group chat, to do a social media post. So please, if you're able to, we'd be greatly thankful for it. So it's been Justin Alan Hayes with Voices for Voices. Let's celebrate all the voices of everybody in the world. And until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need. We'll see you next time. God bless the United States and God bless you all across the world. We love you, and we hope you are healthy, happy, prosperous, whatever that looks like to you and your loved ones. Take care. We love you.