Nearly 15 years ago, I left my corporate career.
Even writing that now still feels big. Although not nearly as big as it felt walking out of that Docklands, Melbourne office at the time. And I will never forget my EA Katie Higginson holding my hand as I literally took that leap!
At the time, it wasn’t a neat, polished, perfectly confident decision. It wasn’t a move I made because I had everything mapped out or because I knew exactly what the next chapter would look like. I didn’t have a guaranteed pathway or a perfectly formed business plan that made it all feel safe. That was definitely not my style – and still isn’t.
What I did have was a growing sense that the life I was living and the life I wanted to create were no longer fully aligned. I had built a successful career. I was really proud of it. I had worked hard, learned so much, had wonderful opportunities, and developed in ways that shaped who I am today. I will always be grateful for that chapter.
But somewhere along the way, I started to feel the pull toward something different. Not just a different job. A different life. And that distinction was starting to matter more and more to me.
The decision to leave wasn’t only about work. It was about how I wanted to live. It was about what I wanted my days, my energy, my relationships, my contribution, and my future to feel like.
When I look back now, I can see how closely that decision was tied to my values: love, growth, adventure and harmony.
Love, because I wanted a life with more space for the people and moments that mattered most. Both personally and professionally.
Growth, because I knew I was ready to stretch in a completely different way. I had reached a point where staying safe felt more uncomfortable than taking the leap.
Adventure, because there was something in me that wanted to explore what else was possible. To create, build, learn, try, fail, recover, and keep going.
And harmony, because I wanted my work and life to feel more integrated. Less like competing forces. More like parts of the same whole.
That didn’t mean it was easy. There were moments of doubt. Plenty of them.
There were questions I couldn’t answer yet. What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m not good enough? What if I miss the structure, the identity, the certainty, the title, the regular income, the comfort of belonging somewhere already built?
Leaving a corporate career meant leaving more than a role. It meant leaving a version of myself I knew how to be. That was the vulnerable part.
Even by me choosing change, I still had to grieve what I was walking away from. The identity. The certainty. The familiar measures of success. The part of me that knew the rules and knew how to win within them.
Starting something new asked me to be brave in a way I hadn’t been before. Not loud brave. Not fearless brave. Quiet brave.
The kind of brave that got me up the next day to take another step, even when I’m not entirely sure where the path is going. The kind of brave that keeps choosing the life I said I wanted, even when it would be easier to retreat back to what I knew.
But slowly, over time, I began to create a way of living and working that felt like mine.
Work that allowed me to coach, facilitate, write, speak, learn, travel, connect, contribute, and keep growing. Work that allowed me to sit with leaders in real conversations about who they are, how they lead, and what they want their impact to be. Work that has stretched me, shaped me, humbled me, and given me more meaning than I could have imagined.
It has not always been smooth. Of course it hasn’t.
There have been uncertain years, hard decisions, quiet worries, financial stretches, moments of comparison, and plenty of times I had to back myself before anyone else could.
Sometimes, even today, I look at really great corporate roles and think about how exciting it might be to jump back in….
But I can say this with absolute honesty: leaving was one of the most defining decisions of my life. Not because it was perfect. Because it was aligned.
It was a decision made from the deepest part of what mattered to me. It was my opportunity to be brave and create something that allowed me to live my life on my terms.
And nearly 15 years later, I feel deeply grateful that I listened to that pull. The life I have now didn’t happen by accident. It began with a moment of truth.
And one very big leap…
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