Leap And The Net Will Appear

This is one of my favorite sayings in life.

Here is how it has played out for me:

1. In 2003, I moved from Chicago to Michigan after college without a job. 
2. In 2004, I left a full-time job to take a part-time job that only paid $10 an hour for 18 hours a week! I had no idea how I was going to support myself. 
3. 10 years later, in 2014, I left a career I had loved without a job or a plan. 
4. In 2015, I left a job I loved at a company I didn’t love, again, without a next step.
5. And, now 9 years later, in 2023, I did it again…walked away not knowing what was next or where or when I’d safely land.

Seems risky, doesn’t it?
So, the questions are: 

• Why take these risks?
• How do I know the net will appear? -and-
• What if it doesn’t? 

Chapter #1: When I was 25 (in 2003), moving to a new state to start life after college was really not a big deal. I was in a relationship, so there was a soft landing in Michigan. I was a 5-hour drive from home. My parents helped me with a down payment on a new car. I started the monthly payments, and as soon as I felt that financial pressure, I walked into a staffing agency looking for temporary work and was hired as their Front Office Coordinator. I learned an important lesson about my internal motivation:

When I feel impending financial strain, I will act very quickly to resolve it. Without it, I’m less motivated to take action. 

The other four examples of leaping and waiting for the net to appear all come from a different place, and different internal motivation.

I’m just going to say it.

I find it VERY difficult to work full time, stay committed to my job until the end, transition work, and think about anything that comes next with a clear mind.

I suppose I can compare this to romantic relationships. I feel it’s much better to leave a relationship, take some time to reflect, and then start another one with a clear head and heart. It’s the same with jobs for me. 

Chapter #2. It was March of 2004. It was also one of the few times I said “no” to Maury Okun of Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings (DCWS). His offer was to join DCWS as an Administrative Assistant for $10/per hour and 18 hours a week. I felt it was silly of me to leave a full time recruiter role for a part-time job making less. 

One week later, when I was still thinking about the possibility of entering into a “career” instead of a job, I decided to make the jump. I called Maury back and said I’d changed my mind. Luckily, they still had the position open. 

My internal motivation this time? 

That feeling inside when something pulls at your heart. This just feels right, even though it doesn’t make sense yet.

So, I drove 40 minutes from Macomb to Southfield and back 3 days per week. It wasn’t a week before I got my third job as a server at Macaroni Grill up in Auburn Hills. What was my second job? Well, I also worked in the flower shop of Nino Salvaggio’s at the time. Between these three, and later, a part-time teaching job at Macomb Community College (teaching Music Appreciation), I was able to make the finances work.

Those who know me, know that this decision was the best one of my career. 

[PHOTO: An early team picture my first year at DCWS. ⬇️]

I met my mentor and my soon-to-be best friend, Maury Okun, DCWS’ Executive Director. He helped me grow for a good ten years. Today, he’s still my best friend in the world. 

While I started at DCWS as an Administrative Assistant, I very quickly moved up the ladder, helping the organization grow from from 5 to 14 employees in that decade. I ended up as the COO & Vice President for Development. 

Through this work and this organization, I made more lifelong friends than I can possibly count. I also learned so much about marketing, development, budgets, human resources, operations, event planning, capital campaigns, and starting something from nothing. 

I saved enough money during this time to buy my first house when the housing market crashed. I learned about house hacking, and later, about being a landlord. I started my yoga practice about halfway through my time at DCWS. I learned to love cooking and gardening, and to double down on traveling. Professionally, I discovered I loved networking, connecting with people, public speaking, influencing people, mentoring others, helping people grow, managing, and leading. 

This decade of my career was magical. 🦄 Countless musical performances of the highest caliber, trumpet playing experiences with incredible players, so many high-end events, hundreds of board meetings, new music brought into the world, trips to New York, and just one amazing human after another showing up in my life. 

This time, making the leap when the path was unknown allowed the largest net of my life to appear. Even if I hadn’t learned it the first time, there was no doubting it now:

I would always leap when I felt I needed to, and I would know for certain that the net would indeed appear. 

But, as the saying goes, “All good things must come to an end”. [ PHOTO: Final holiday party my last December at DCWS. ⬇️ Maury plans the best, most secretive holiday parties!]

Chapter #3: After a good 10 years of giving my all to DCWS, and about 1.5 years researching and contemplating a career change, I still had not quite landed on what I wanted to do next. It wasn’t until I gave notice that my mind could relax and consider all options. What prompted me to leap without the net this time?

Twice before, I had proven that once I take the hardest step, the Universe will know that I am ready, and the path forward will become clear.

I was exploring a wide range of things. At dinner one night with a friend, I talked through what I love the most and what I’d miss the most when I left. “I love managing people. I love having a team. I love helping people grow. I love thinking about professional development opportunities for them. I love hiring. I even love having really hard conversations. If I could just do that, I think I’d be quite happy in my work.” 

One thing that happens when you leave without knowing your next step is that people ask this question: “what’s next?”. The only answer I could give was, “While I don’t know for sure, I know that I want to work for an entrepreneurial company in a very unique role.” No one knew what I was talking about. I really didn’t either.

Until….

Just a few days after it was official, but still a long way from being announced, I got a call out of the blue from a man named Adam Kaplan. I can still remember the call after all these years. Following some pleasantries, he said, “I want to talk to you about a very entrepreneurial company where they take a unique approach to HR - It’s a Director of Talent & Organizational Culture role, a people-focused HR role. Do you know anyone who might like this?” Well, of course I told him my news. When I read the job description that night, I nearly cried. I loved it so much, I couldn’t believe someone would pay me to do that job!

It was a lengthy interview process at Mango Languages, but I had the job 6 weeks before I left DCWS. My new colleagues were invited to my going away party hosted by my soon-to-be former colleagues. 

[PHOTO: In my first week at Mango Languages, we dressed in Mango gear and showed up at a U of M recruiting event! From arts and culture to language and culture, a wonderful bridge to my first entree into the business world!] ⬇️

I learned yet another really important lesson almost instantly when I started at Mango Languages. I was quite burned out from my 10 intense years at DCWS, but once I was in my new role, doing the work that I love, ALL of my energy came back at once. No more burnout. 

That is the power of doing work that you love. It energize you rather than depleting you!

It can absolutely galvanize your work, your productivity, and your spirit. I loved everything about the actual work. I also loved many of the people. And, I learned that the for-profit environment wasn’t so different from the nonprofit environment.

Chapter #4: This time, the net that appeared was a not as wide as the last net. After 7 months of doing amazing work to support the people and the culture, my partner crime (my manager at the time) the COO, left. This changed the game. I found I could no longer do the servant leadership work I was doing. I had to support decisions and behaviors I just couldn’t support. This was the phrase running through my head:

Life is simply too short to stay in situations that don’t serve me

I gave notice at the one-year mark. I gave an open timeline and didn’t have a next step lined up. Would the net appear this time? 

[PHOTO ⬆️ Mango Languages colleagues at an event hosted by DCWS. Worlds collided beautifully!]

It would, but the net looked different this time. As I was leaving Mango, Maury Okun called and said the two people he hired when I left were both leaving. He asked me to come back. I agreed to work 32 hours per week from January through June. 

Sure enough…the net appeared. 

Working only 32 hours allowed me time to continue my job search. I took a few interviews here in Michigan, but felt an urge to move west. I booked a trip to San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. I held a ton of meetings with people and companies out there. I saw friends, visited beautiful places like the Golden Gate Bridget in San Fran, Chihuly’s blown glass art in Seattle, and Portland’s rose garden. I had a blast. 

When I came back, I also had a new HR contract in place from a friend of mine who was running a health start-up in Seattle. I helped this team write their core values and build their culture deck. 

Throughout this year, I attended many events, and took on 5 different consulting clients. I also met with over 200 business owners and we shared our philosophies on how to lead people and set culture. It was casual, yet intentional networking. 

Between the consulting work and my savings, I made it one year, which is when I found my next job in HR. An important point from this leaping experience is that two things really mattered to make this fun gap year work: 

I had to have enough savings to be able to a risk, and my network had to be strong enough to open many doors.

[PHOTO: Colleagues at Vectorform dressed up for Halloween. Lauren Pardy (left) as the inventive creator! ⬆️]

The next HR job brought me back to doing the work I love day in and day out. Another tech company, this time an invention company, rather than a SaaS company. 

Another fun culture, many more great work friends, but it was clear pretty quickly that what I was brought in to do - help get the company to the next level on the people front - was not the situation at hand. Our company contracted from 125 people to about 88 people over the next 1.5 years. My team went from 4 to 1 by the time I left, so I looked for an opportunity that would mean true growth this time. Nothing quite like joining a start-up to experience true growth. 🤣

Although I don’t list this at the top of this post, some people may describe leaving a job with a company that’s been in business for 20 years to work for a tech start-up as the first employee as an absolute “leap and the net will appear” moment. But, I didn’t.

I did, however, exchange some portion of my salary for equity, move from Berkley to Ann Arbor, and take the risk of joining a very early stage start-up. But, hey, I’m used to walking away with no next step, so having a next step felt to me like a net, thin as it might have been!

[PHOTO: The early Jottful team - Year 2 - Christine (website builder), Jordan (engineer), Dawn (founder and CEO), and me (sales and customer lead).] ⬇️

Chapter #5: I’ve already written quite a bit about the Jottful journey, and this post is a about one thing - how the approach of “leap and the net will appear” is one that not only works; it creates adventure, growth, fun, and a colorful life. It is a mantra I hope will be adopted by more people, because flying (or leaping) is so much fun!

So, just a few words about this adventure: There is nothing like joining a start-up in terms of learning and growth. You just have to figure shit out. You have to do whatever is necessary, and learn a ton of things along the way. 

There is also nothing quite like being able to establish an amazing culture from the ground up, hand-picking the people to join the team, and building on that culture. 

However, the risks of joining a start-up are well-known and well-documented. Will it survive? If it does, will it grow fast enough to keep its earliest employees? 

The decision to leave Jottful after 5 years was as hard as the decision to leave DCWS after 10 years, and maybe harder. 

Living and working for 5 years doing work I’d transitioned away from made me forget what it feels like to do work I actually like to do. That was a weird feeling. Perhaps more than any other moment of leaping, I was confused about the next step. But…

I knew from past experiences that if I trust the leaping process, my mind would clear, and the path forward would be revealed. 

It was. You can read that story in my next blog post. For now I’ll close with these tips.

If you want to live your life with a “leap and the net will appear” approach, here is the formula that has worked for me: 

1. Build amazing relationships. (friendships, mentor relationships, networking and professional relationships, and family). These are gold. They are a critical part of making your nets appear. 

2. Build your financial reserves. I have a great friend who calls this my “fuck you” money. It’s a bit crass, but the concept is right. Start saving as soon as you start working, and set an amount for saving that you won’t go below, so you always have enough to take risks and get yourself out of any situation that doesn’t serve you.

3. Listen to your heart. I talk about it a lot in this story. There is always a “feeling” before I make a leap. Something feels off, something feels right…I feel my way into knowing when it’s time to take a leap. Whether you journal, meditate, run, talk to a coach or therapist, listening to your heart will guide you to take the right leaps. 

4. Believe in nets. I’m a firm believer that the Universe has our backs. I put these four tips in order. If you simply believe a net will always appear, but you don’t have great relationships in your life, or ample financial reserves, your nets may not be as readily available. But if you have put these things in place, and if you listen to your heart, just believe that the Universe is on your side and marvel at the nets that appear when you take a risk…and leap!