10 Things I Learned in the First Year of My Career Pivot
What I lost, what I found, and why walking away from eleven years of entrepreneurship taught me more than building it ever did.
December 2024. I walked away. Eleven years building an entrepreneurial career—gone. I followed my heart and returned to an operator role to build again. Here’s what I learned in this transformational year.
Flames burn bright, then burn out.
Being a creator may seem glamorous, but it takes a toll. Running a business, community, podcast, newsletter, professional speaker—the grind extracted a price I didn’t calculate until I stopped paying it. Only in stepping away did I see what the machine had taken. Some costs stay hidden until you’re free of them.
Your job is not your identity.
This truth took time to land. When you’re a business owner, podcast host, keynote speaker, author—when all those titles define you—stepping away feels like amputation. Even when the decision is deliberate. I spent months in introspection. Honest conversations followed. What did I truly value beyond work? The answers didn’t come easy, but they’re coming.
Career reinvention is humbling.
Public-facing careers bring audiences. Applause. Recognition. Your flowers feed your ego like candy feeds a child—sweet, instant, but ultimately a short sugar rush. Those flowers build you up, sentence by sentence, keynote by keynote. Then comes the pivot. The job search grounds you fast. Reality hits. You’re starting over, and the world doesn’t care how many podcast listeners you have or books you’ve written when you’re chasing an operator role.
Your body keeps the score.
I didn’t see the connection between physical and mental health for years. Stress manifested as tension. Low-grade entrepreneurial anxiety was omnipresent. Then I realized when I started moving my body intentionally—running, lifting, walking without my phone. Something shifted. The (physical and mental) weight lifted. Mind and body aren’t separate systems—they’re partners. When one suffers, both do. When one heals, both benefit. Simple truth. Took me too long to learn it.
Recruiting remains a craft, even in the age of AI. 🤖
Yes, I’m bullish on AI. It’s transformative. Revolutionary, even. But recruiting? That’s human-to-human connection at its core, and no algorithm can fully replicate the nuance of matching aspirations to opportunities. Sure, AI should and will absolutely play a role - but it will be to enhance, not replace, human capability. It’s a privilege to recruit —helping someone find their place while balancing and aligning what they want with what organizations need. I believed this when I started my career. I believe it more now.
Building with others beats building alone.
There’s an energy in shared victory. A team reaching for something together creates electricity that solo work can’t match. The wins feel bigger. The failures sting less. The work matters more.
Stay curious. Always.
A beginner’s mindset keeps you relevant. I’ve learned much. I have mountains more to learn. That gap between knowing and not-knowing? That’s where growth lives. There’s also something about getting out of the theoretical and into the trenches. Learning by doing. Making mistakes. Piloting. Becoming a better practitioner makes me a better writer.
Your boss matters most.
More than your title. More than comp. More than perks. More than logos. I’ve been so fortunate to have incredible bosses throughout my career—people who empowered me, challenged me, invested in me. This year, yet again, proved the pattern. The right boss multiplies your impact. The wrong one divides it.
You will never get back the time you miss with your family.
As an entrepreneur who hated business development, I spoke at conferences to keep my flywheel spinning. Essential. Exhilarating. Exhausting. Now, as an operator, I can choose differently. Fewer stages mean more time assistant-coaching my daughters’ basketball team. More 6 7 memes that make them cringe. More time with my wife. More moments that matter.
Building from zero is hard.
And incredibly fulfilling. I’ve led scale efforts. Transformation initiatives. Hypergrowth teams. But until this year, I’d never built a true 0→1 talent function from scratch. Doing it inside a mission-aligned global business? It’s everything I hoped for. Everything I needed.
One year in. The pivot was worth it. No regrets. And while I’m still learning and growing, this I know. The best career decisions aren’t about climbing higher—they’re about building something that matters with people who make you better.