When Work Becomes Who You Are: Professional Identity Purgatory with Geoff Curtis

What happens when the career you spent decades building becomes part of your identity, and then the role suddenly disappears?

In this episode of Control Your Career, Strategic Career Consultant Julia Toothacre speaks with Geoff Curtis about professional identity, high achievement, career transitions, and the uncomfortable space between who you were and who you are becoming.

Geoff spent nearly 30 years building a career in corporate communications, eventually serving as Chief Communications Officer at Horizon Therapeutics. Today, he leads Marshall Curtis Communications, where he advises executives and organizations on communication, leadership, and change. He is also the author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory, a book exploring professional identity and what happens when the career you built no longer fits the life you are living.

After an acquisition made his executive role redundant, Geoff expected to move toward another version of professional success. Instead, he found himself confronting how deeply his work, relevance, achievement, and sense of self had become connected.

Geoff describes this experience as professional identity purgatory: the unfinished and often messy space between an identity that no longer fits and a new one that has not fully formed.

Julia and Geoff discuss why high achievers often find emotional comfort in work, how productivity can become a form of avoidance, and why losing a title can feel like losing part of yourself. They also explore the warning signs that work may be taking up too much space in your identity, including missing family events, allowing friendships to lapse, mentally remaining at work during personal time, and measuring your value through external recognition.

The conversation also examines relevance, perfectionism, work-life balance, the pressures placed on Gen Z, and the challenge of creating a new definition of success after traditional career metrics stop feeling meaningful.

• How a successful career can become intertwined with your personal identity

• Why high achievers often use work as a source of emotional comfort

• What happens when a title, role, or professional identity suddenly disappears

• Why relevance can become closely connected to self-worth

• The warning signs that work may be taking priority over your life and relationships

• What Geoff means by professional identity purgatory

• Why constant busyness can delay the emotional work required during a transition

• How perfectionism keeps high achievers chasing the next accomplishment

• Why an idealized future can become a way of avoiding the present

• How self-reflection can help you begin separating your identity from your work

• Why redefining success may require a completely different scoreboard

• How understanding yourself can make you a more thoughtful leader

Geoff Curtis spent nearly 30 years building a career in corporate communications, eventually serving as Chief Communications Officer at Horizon Therapeutics.

Today, he leads Marshall Curtis Communications, where he advises executives and organizations on communication, leadership, and change.

He is also the author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory, a book exploring professional identity and what happens when the career you built no longer fits the life you are living.

Learn more about Geoff's book and its exploration of professional identity, achievement, relevance, and life's uncomfortable transitions: https://geoffreycurtis.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Purgatory-Geoff-Curtis/dp/B0GVTY5KS5

Learn more about Geoff's communications, leadership, and executive advisory work:

https://marshallcurtis.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreycurtis/

Read the Blog: https://ridethetidecollective.com/2026/08/04/when-your-career-becomes-your-identity/

Explore All Episodes: https://ridethetidecollective.com/podcast/

Connect With Julia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliakrussell/

Visit the Website: https://ridethetidecollective.com

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