729: How to Leave Corporate and Build Your Own Business Doing Work You Actually Love (A Real Director’s Mid-Career Pivot)

[00:00:00] Scott Anthony Barlow: Sometimes the biggest career pivots don't begin with a burnout or breakdown.

[00:00:04] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I was doing fine with my job, right? Successful, new responsibilities, learning stuff, but there's always been something that felt like it was missing.

[00:00:13] Scott Anthony Barlow: Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak had a career that looked solid from the outside. Biotech, R&D, then regulatory work. Growing responsibilities, real success. But inside, the fit was changing, the work was drifting. And the version of her life that she was building, well, it didn't feel like hers.

[00:00:32] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I started thinking about, like, maybe it's time for me to make a change. Let me start looking around and seeing what's out there. And everything that I was looking at that I thought that I was qualified for didn't give me any excitement.

[00:00:45] Scott Anthony Barlow: What followed wasn't a straight line at all. It was exploration. It was conversations, experiments, surprising feedback from strangers, and the new way to work that finally matched who she is.

[00:00:56] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Don't force yourself to work in your own little bubble. Share your ideas.

[00:01:00] Scott Anthony Barlow: This is Happen to Your Career, the podcast that brings you real people, real transformations, and the courage to do work that truly fits. If you haven't already subscribed, click follow right now so you don't miss any new episodes.

[00:01:13] In this episode, Bre shares what it feels like when the right path stops making sense, and how she built her identity without starting over, and why trusting your gut might be the most practical career strategy that you've never been taught.

[00:01:27] If you've been quietly wondering whether you're outgrowing your work, then this story might just be exactly what you needed. Here's my conversation with Bre after she'd moved from a director-level role to becoming a consulting partner in a way that truly fit.

[00:01:40] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I was first in R&D. So I did a lot on the research side for biotech companies, and then I switched over to the regulatory field. So I was taking those new technologies and putting it into a package that we would submit to the FDA. So I was looking at jobs in both of those areas late last year, wasn't super interested in what I was finding.

[00:02:02] Continued to listen to your podcast, and I came across your 8-day mini course, the free program online, and I listened to all the videos. The exercises seemed simple enough to do, but when I sat down to do them, I kept getting stuck, and I was like, “Okay, like how do I get out of this rut?” So I reached out to you guys, and I was like, “I'm gonna dive in. We're gonna do this.” So, yeah.

[00:02:25] Scott Anthony Barlow: What are some of the reasons you had decided, “I need to move on from where I'm at.”

[00:02:30] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: So there were some changes in executive management and with the team, started feeling that the company was shifting their vision, and it wasn't what I had signed up for. So we just weren't meshing as well. Not that there was anything wrong with the way they were headed, it just wasn't for me.

[00:02:48] Some of the responsibilities that I was being given over multiple years, I wasn't really fond of. They aligned with all my past experiences. So I was definitely qualified. I became the subject matter expert in it, and I didn't want to be the subject matter expert in it. So I would talk to my managers about it, and some of them were really good about trying to find alternatives.

[00:03:12] “Let's justify bringing on another employee where that is their sole job, and you can focus on what we hired you to do.” In the end, it ended up staying with me. So sort of just got a little frustrated with it and wanted to move on.

[00:03:25] So I decided that I was going to resign and had also decided to start the bootcamp program. And my thought was that by the end of the bootcamp program, I would have another position lined up. So I would continue with my past job up until that point and then just switch over.

[00:03:44] And then I started working with my coach, and within just a few sessions, some other stuff was happening in my personal life and at work, and it just sort of all boiled up, and I was like, “You know what? Resigning faster seems better for me.” So I cut it short by three or four months and then just focused on the career program.

[00:04:05] So at work, we had some more management changes, new directions. I was getting more and more frustrated with the responsibilities that I did have. My new manager, she had actually asked for a five-year plan. So I wrote that out sort of with blinders on, right? Like what my traditional career trajectory should be with all my past experience, and where I thought I was supposed to head.

[00:04:30] And we had talked about that. And then with my career coach, we started building out the one, five, and 10-year plans also. I wrote that out, and I put them side by side, and they were so different from each other. And the energy that I felt while putting those together was so different that it made me sort of solidified my idea that I was making the right change by sort of like reevaluating everything. It was my time to leave and focus on me.

[00:05:02] Scott Anthony Barlow: I love the exercise that you're describing, too, where you're comparing these two five-year plans. There is a pretty common technique that we use to evaluate multiple futures, and we might have somebody take two or three or four different futures and just imagine what those would be like 5 or 10 years down the road in pursuing them, and going through that exercise gets often exactly what you described.

[00:05:32] You can start to feel what it might be like for you and start to imagine it at a different level. And although it's not a magic bullet in any way whatsoever, it often can help you assess when something is absolutely not the right path for you. And it sounds like that's exactly what had happened out of that exploratory type of effect. That's really cool that you did that, by the way.

[00:05:54] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Yeah, it was amazing how the timing lined up. My coach gave me the assignment, I don't know, within a week or two of my manager giving it to me, and I was like, “Goodness.” But completely different feelings coming out of both of them

[00:06:06] Scott Anthony Barlow: You're at the point where it became an obvious decision to leave. What did that process look like for you to wind down, leave in the way that you wanted to?

[00:06:17] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: It was a bit of a rollercoaster for me. So even though I knew I wanted to leave, even looking back at my career notes, coaching notes, I would leave notes like, “I'm not sure that I should be doing this.” Or, “Is now the right time to be doing this?”

[00:06:30] So there was a lot of doubt going on. And then other weeks I would feel so confident in my decision, but I guess the process, I worked with my coach to see what the best transition plan would be. If I should just give two weeks' notice, if I should give longer than that, how to set the company up for success with me transitioning out? 'Cause we were a small company, so there wasn't a lot of redundancy with what people did. So I didn't want to leave them high and dry.

[00:06:57] So we sort of built out that transition plan. I presented it to my manager after I gave my resignation letter. She had asked me for a more detailed list. Who are all my contacts at different vendors that I work with? What's the status of all of my projects? And I built out a very, very detailed list of like where everything was, where every folder was, every file, email addresses, phone numbers of contacts. So it was just, I could hand it off to somebody 'cause they weren't able to hire somebody by the time that I left.

[00:07:32] Scott Anthony Barlow: What would you advise other people to consider as they're trying to do that same thing, leave for themselves, but also set up the other people left behind in the organization for success?

[00:07:43] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Making sure you are organized and all your work is organized is really helpful. No matter how much you're working with other teammates, if they're not in the weeds with your projects like you are, they're gonna need help navigating stuff. So, laying out that roadmap as clearly as possible is really beneficial at all levels, right?

[00:08:04] Like your coworkers up through executive management. I was entering the test drive phase, ended up doing the Social Goldilocks exercise, and I was extremely nervous. So at that point, I was thinking that I was looking for a position that would use my science background and weave into animal welfare. So I was looking at a bunch of nonprofit organizations primarily. And my coach and I actually created my own job description while we were working through this.

[00:08:39] Scott Anthony Barlow: For a little bit of context, the Social Goldilocks is where you might reach out to many different people and have a series of conversations. It's often quick conversations in order to say, you know, “This job is a great fit. This corner office is too big. This office chair is too small,” or whatever, in order to identify what is the right fit. So, just adding a little bit of context, but what happened? What were you learning as you were creating that job description?

[00:09:04] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I learned, first off, the Social Goldilocks is not as scary as I thought it was gonna be. I got a lot of feedback. I reached out to 20-some different organizations, and most of them responded that they were willing to chat with me. So I had asked for 15 minutes of their time.

[00:09:22] Most of the calls lasted at least half an hour. Most were an hour or so. And the conversations were easy, like it just came naturally. So we went back and forth about our experiences, and I took notes along the way. After I had gone through a couple different organizations, I looked back at all of my notes, and it was interesting because these people only met me for that little bit of time, but they picked up on things about me that I didn't necessarily realize before. So they were like, “Oh, you know, maybe you should look into careers that do this,” or, “It sounds like you have a really good skill set here, and I think this field might be good for you,” or there might be a need for you here or there. So it was really interesting putting that together.

[00:10:11] Scott Anthony Barlow: I'm curious, do you remember any one of those conversations that stood out to you along the way where you got quite a bit out of it?

[00:10:19] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Grant writing for nonprofits, helping shelters get funding, raising more awareness for animal welfare. So, grant writing, which ties in nicely because I love scientific writing and taking like all this messy data and turning it into something else.

[00:10:34] It fit. It just never crossed my mind. We'd made some great connections. Some people, you know, recommended that I reach out to some of their other partners and talk to them. There were a few that said stay in touch, and I would give them like monthly updates on how things were going, and they would give me advice along the way.

[00:10:53] And then around then, my coach had started presenting the idea of a portfolio career to me, and had a really hard time wrapping my head around that, with the idea of not having one full-time job, you know, regular workweek hours. She's like, “No, you can do part-time, you can do consulting and contract work, and put it all together.” And she was like, “I think it might be the best thing for you because of all of your interests, so that you can feel satisfied in all of those aspects.

[00:11:29] Scott Anthony Barlow: It sounds like one of the things that you determined was great for you is being able to have a variety of these interests, I guess, you said satisfied, but where you're engaging with a variety of different levels of interest, not necessarily just one area.

[00:11:44] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Exactly. I feel like I have a lot more flexibility in my schedule. I can balance different hobbies with my work, even looking back on the first two job descriptions that we created. Those positions are out there, but they’re almost a little forced, trying to shove everything into one.

[00:12:07] So it would've been really difficult to find it. And I think in the long run, things would've still been a little unbalanced. So now, with all these different pieces that I get to play with, I can adjust accordingly with where my interests are and if there's a shift or not. So I really like the flexibility of it.

[00:12:28] Scott Anthony Barlow: That's phenomenal. I think that's really fun, too, that series of experiments, which were partially for the purpose of finding out information and learning what could create a great fit for you, also, is now serving you in a very different way with those relationships, that it sounds like you have the potential to become clients and consulting clients. That's awesome.

[00:12:50] Did you ever imagine yourself doing any kind of a business consulting or otherwise? Has that been something that's been in the back of your mind, or…you're shaking your head no. So what did that feel like as you started thinking about that? Do you remember that mind space that you were in as you started considering, “Could this be an opportunity for me?”

[00:13:09] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Exciting and scary. I have friends and mentors that have been consultants, or they're currently consultants, worked with a lot of consultants in my past positions, and I always thought that it seemed pretty interesting and nice that they had this flexibility. But then to bring it on as my own independent consultant was a little, sort of took a leap of faith. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to do it, but it ended up being, knock on wood, easier than I thought it would be.

[00:13:38] And I always doubted myself with all of those ideas. Even though I was excited about it, I doubted myself. And my coach worked me through. We talked through those different ideas, and consulting seems, it seems right for me, so I'm excited.

[00:13:53] Scott Anthony Barlow: Take me through what actually happened to get from where you're looking and considering consulting as a business and as an opportunity for you, and then, you know, what actually took place. You know, step one, step two, step three, for you to make that move to where you have actual, you know, consulting clients that you're working with.

[00:14:14] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I went through and did a lot of the admin work, getting approvals with the state and setting up all my tax information and getting the appropriate licenses and everything, doing all of that. And then we started working on agreements with this one client, and it just, things sort of fell into place timing-wise. By the time my admin stuff was mostly done, I was ready to start working with them, and it just went seamlessly.

[00:14:45] Scott Anthony Barlow: How many clients do you have right now? You have the one. Have you obtained any more than the one yet?

[00:14:51] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I have one. We are actually working on a second phase and hopefully another agreement that'll carry us through most of next year. And three other ones that are really early on in the works. So it's like 50-50 on if they're gonna go through or not.

[00:15:09] Scott Anthony Barlow: That's cool. How do you think about that now that you've sort of gone through the arc of getting your first client and working through what that is like?

[00:15:17] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I would say the anxiety and the excitement are still there every time. I tend to have some confidence issues in myself, and I doubt myself. So I need a friendly kick in the butt and reminder that I can do this. Even my last coaching session, I got really nervous about this being the last one, and “Can I do this? Is this really the right thing?” And she was like, “Are you kidding me? Like, look at everything you've done. Look at all of these people that are talking to you and are interested in partnering with you,” for whatever reason. And she's like, “Come on. You're fine.”

[00:15:52] Scott Anthony Barlow: Let's look at the evidence that is happening right in front of us. Yeah. Which is very hard to do.

[00:15:58] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: I'm a data person, and I forget the data about myself.

[00:16:00] Scott Anthony Barlow: I know, right? Well, I guess that makes you human, so that part is good most days.

[00:16:05] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. None of them feel like a slam dunk to me, right? There's always “I need to prove myself. I hope I'm the right fit for them. I hope they're the right fit for me.” I am trying to be really selective with the projects that I'll take on. I don't wanna fall back into doing the stuff that I was doing just because I know how to do it, if that's not what really lights my fire.

[00:16:30] Scott Anthony Barlow: Because you can, right, does not automatically mean that you should.

[00:16:37] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Yep, yep. Exactly, exactly. So I do try to remind myself of that pretty regularly.

[00:16:42] Scott Anthony Barlow: What surprised you the most?

[00:16:44] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: So this process was not easy in any way, but the way you have your program designed is really simple. It all makes sense. It all slows well. So going into it, I thought it was gonna be this huge hurdle to get over, and it was gonna feel like pulling teeth every time I needed to do something.

[00:17:08] But a lot of it just, it just happened. It was natural. So that pleasantly surprised me. I think another thing that would catch me off guard would be how much I've accomplished. So there were times when, like, I would go back to the beginning of all my coaching notes and reflect on where I was then and where I am now.

[00:17:31] It's amazing how far I've come, but I don't feel like I've come that far. So it's all those little steps in how they add up to these big accomplishments. So it surprised me that I've come this far. And then I think other thing that surprised me was how transferable my skills were.

[00:17:47] Up until this coaching program, I felt like I went through this education track. I selected this field for my job, so these are my blinders. This is where I have to stay. My coach and some of these other people that I met through the Goldilocks experiments, they helped me realize that, like, “No, you can pull this skill from over here and apply it over here, and it's really easy and transferable.” So, recognizing of that, I have all of this to work with rather than this narrow area.

[00:18:18] Scott Anthony Barlow: Yeah. You have this massive amount of experience to be able to pull from, even though when you're siloed in that, for lack of a better phrase, it doesn't feel like that.

[00:18:27] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Yep. Yep. Exactly.

[00:18:30] Scott Anthony Barlow: I think one of the things that I heard is that you did a fantastic job of career experiments in general, and that's meant to be a compliment, but also I understand that there were some volunteer-driven experiments for how you're operating even more recently and now.

[00:18:48] So tell me a little bit about how the experiment has shifted now that you have shifted into this new opportunity, and the experiment hasn't necessarily ended, or the set of experimentations haven't necessarily ended, but continue on.

[00:19:02] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: It was either the first or the second Goldilocks experiment. I reached out to a group and explained what I enjoyed doing, and the lady immediately said, “I have something for you.” And I was like, “Okay.” So turns out they wanted a scientific writer to help put articles together for their members. So they work with different animal behaviorists, so I am currently volunteering with them in putting those articles together.

[00:19:33] So that particular organization also offers different credentials. So, as I sort of worked out this portfolio career and the consulting idea, I now have this idea that I would like to become a certified dog behavior consultant and get this credential through this organization. So with that, I need a lot of classroom hours and hands-on training. So I've been looking at other volunteer opportunities to get hands-on training. So different shelter, local shelters that are here. Tying that to my third Goldilocks, there happens to be a trainer that has an amazing approach to how she handles dogs. So we chatted, we had an hour-long Goldilocks session, chatted, really hit it off, and now there is the potential. She's one of the three where we might have a business agreement put in place, where I can help build up her business as I learn from her.

[00:20:35] Scott Anthony Barlow: Oh wow. Cool. Well, I think that, for me, the really amazing thing out of that is now you've set your life up in a way where you can start saying yes to those types of opportunities, and it still be really valuable to you. And you know, in this case, her too, where it might not have been quite the same possibility in the past. That's pretty cool.

[00:20:57] Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak: Completely agree. Yep.

[00:20:59] Scott Anthony Barlow: By the way, if you're ready to stop believing the stories that are actually keeping you stuck and start creating the career and the life that you want, drop me an email directly, Scott@happentoyourcareer.com, put ‘Conversation’ in the subject line. We'll connect you with the right person on our team, and we'll figure out the very best way that we can support you.