How Starting Over Changed Me As A Leader
Five years ago, I exploded my life.
I left an amazing company I had helped scale from startup to national brand, packed up my dream apartment, and said goodbye to the community I had built while living in San Francisco for 12 years.
I set out to launch my own coaching, training and consulting business—driven by a desire to help leaders grow in a deeper, more transformative way. My heart was in people development, and I wanted to make that my full-time focus.
Simultaneously, I lived pretty unconventionally (at least by most US standards for a mid-to-late-30s adult). I spent time with my parents, healing our past and rebuilding our relationships as adults. I volunteered at a mediation and ecological center in Hawaii for a summer. I bought and built out a camper van, then immersed myself in nature and community living. I moved back to Hawaii to live and work on a private organic farm—again, in community.
I spent long stretches of time in silence and solitude, learning to listen more deeply—to nature, to myself, and to the inner wisdom I was once too busy to hear. I asked myself big questions about who I wanted to become, what I needed to let go of, and what it would take to live a life that felt true and meaningful to me.
I became a student again: I earned my Executive Coaching certification from Berkeley. I studied creativity coaching. I trained closely with a master in Nonviolent Communication.
And through it all, my passion for leadership never wavered. What changed was the lens: I became obsessed with self-leadership—the inner engineering, the emotional fluency, the rewiring and unbecoming it takes to lead from a place of deep integrity and joy.
I faced a lot of inner demons. But I realized I’d rather meet them head-on than let them quietly corrode my relationships, my leadership, or my capacity for impact.
This pilgrimage—a full departure from everything known and familiar—is what made me the leader I am today. A more embodied one. A more creative one. A more authentic one.
And now, I’m ready to share what I’ve learned.
This is the first post in a new series about the unconventional path I’ve walked—and how it’s shaped my perspective on what’s possible for leadership, life, and organizational culture.
If you’ve ever made a big leap, felt the call to live differently, or believe that joy and success don’t have to be at odds—I think you’ll enjoy what’s coming.
I hope to see you there.
~Heather, Founder of A Project Called Life