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In 1995 I received my first “real job” paycheck (as a college intern).
In 2020 I received my last.
26 years of searching. One job to the next, never quite finding the right match. 6 different companies — ranging from startups with 4 employees to a Fortune 50 with 70,000.
But 26 years in, I finally knew what I wanted: something small enough to shape and human enough to matter.
And in 2020, I thought I had found it.
But I was wrong.
My career always had a throughline, even though I didn’t always see it. Whether as an employee, a manager, or a senior leader…in companies big and small…I always sought authentic connection. Vulnerability. I wanted to know the human behind the mask.
That’s who I’ve always been. Someone keenly aware of body language and energy. Of what wasn’t being said, underneath what was. Someone highly curious of what was really going on for another person -- and willing to stand in the fire with them to allow the truth to be spoken.
But none of the jobs I ever had truly valued that skill. And so I wore my own mask, to fit what I thought was required of me.
Since I was young, I have always been fascinated by the brain and by human behavior. I considered what kind of career I might make out of that, but nothing ever stood out to me. And I was equally motivated by something else: the times growing up when the answer to something I wanted was simply “we can’t.” To me, money meant freedom. So I pointed myself toward business. That’s where I believed the financial upside was.
I didn’t know then that the thing I was walking away from would be the thing I would continue to yearn for: the conversation. The depth. The vulnerability. The special connection that forms when one person sits across from another and tells the truth.
And so with each new stop, I searched for that true connection: with my teammates, with my bosses, with my clients. It was the common thread. But, from inside the bottle, I could never read that label. I couldn’t see that this is what my career needed to be all along.
In 2020, I finally took a step in that direction.
That was the year I joined a startup in the financial planning industry. We would be smart investors, but that wasn’t our competitive differentiation. What attracted me was the depth of humanity and connection we would bring to the work. The mission to truly know our clients at a deeper level and create the space for them to feel truly supported, not just financially -- but in life.
As a partner in the business, it was both exciting and nerve-wracking. There was no guarantee of income unless the business was profitable.
For me, the opportunity to build something I believed in was the thrill. I was betting on myself, and there would be a payoff if we did it right. But as we got it off the ground, the partners had to sacrifice. Our savings dwindled. We tightened our belts. The lifestyle my family and I had become accustomed to began to look different. A lot different.
And then something happened that I didn’t expect: I found what I’d been searching for all along. And it wasn’t managing people’s money.
It was helping people reclaim their lives.
I knew that some people used coaches, but I’d never even entertained the idea for myself. I didn’t even really see the point. And then I encountered David Bayer, almost by chance. David was on a friend’s podcast and what he was talking about that day resonated in such a deep way, it felt like he was speaking directly to me:* When you learn to stop creating resistance toward what you desire, you achieve your desired result.*
It was neuroscience mixed with spirituality mixed with practical wisdom. And it awakened me to a career that I didn’t know could even be an option for me. But as I learned more, it felt like something I’d known my whole life.
The first clue was my energy. After the podcast, I dug deeper. I took a single course and it lit a fire under me. I made a reading list before I finished the first module. And I signed up for four more courses. I devoured everything I could find on the topics of mindset and transformation. It was like a brand new motor inside of me had been turned on for the first time.
And then it began to form in my mind: a business built to help people get unstuck — to choose themselves in a way they hadn’t yet, to unlock something greater inside. To pursue their own hero’s journey.
I knew so many people who needed this support. And I could also see that my entire life — my upbringing, my love of psychology and human behavior, the wide variety of business experience I’d accumulated, the years of connecting with people deeply and honestly — had been preparing me to be a coach.
This is what I’m meant to do.
Here’s the biggest tell: regardless of what I get paid, the real payoff for me is seeing something shift in someone’s mind, real-time. It’s helping another human recognize their own immense potential — to remove their resistance, and become a newer and more vibrant version of themselves, right in front of you.
I had given up all that was certain and stable to find my Why. My family sacrificed. We whittled away our savings, making decisions that no financial advisor would be comfortable with.
And I arrived back where I always knew I should be.
So if you’ve made it this far, and you’re feeling that familiar nag that there’s more for you to do in this life, somewhere beyond where you are -- here’s my question:
What are you willing to give up -- to finally pursue what has always been waiting for you?
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