This is a bi-weekly series where I share stories from others who are redesigning careers that align to their values, interests, and lifestyle.

Megan and I are both in the community, The Old Girls Club, and when I saw her Slack message looking to interview people building nonlinear and portfolio careers, I had to reach out!

She’s the definition of a multi-passionate, and I love how the projects she’s pursuing all align to her values of impact, connection, and designing work that feels meaningful.

She recently went back to full-time work, which is something I know many people contemplate after going solo for awhile, so her perspective might also help you decide for yourself.

I'd describe it as squiggly, no doubt. I designed my own major in college because I knew my career would encompass several different areas—business, psychology, nutrition. I wanted to get into worksite well-being consulting because work has such an impact on our lives.

For me, it's all connected. My writing helps me reflect and communicate, my work in go-to-market is about building relationships, and wellness is about people. These roles might look different on paper, but they all relate to my core values: impact, connection, and designing work that feels meaningful.

I started Strong Runner Chicks in college after seeing so many of my teammates struggle with mental health and eating disorders. I wanted to create a community that talked about things that weren't being covered—breaking the stigma, sharing real stories. That's often my inspiration—when I feel like a topic isn't talked about enough, I build something around it.

It evolved into its own podcast and blog, and now it's become Evolve Your Path, a podcast focused on exploring winding careers, intentional pivots, and designing a life that's uniquely your own. The through-line has always been the same: creating space for conversations that matter.

I'm all about trying things. I think we can do a lot of deep diving into how we think or feel about something, but until we actually experience it, it's hard to have real data.

We could develop a hypothesis that you might like a certain career path, but until you talk to five people in that field or experience what it actually feels like to coach a client in real time, even in just a small way, there's no way to really tell how much you're going to like it.

So I try to ask clients to design even the smallest experiment for what they might like. Start there. Test it. Then we have something real to work with.

It's twofold: it's painful, but it's also freeing. The cost, initially, is acceptance—from people who used to know you a certain way. It involves shedding layers: who you thought you were, the old stories about where you were headed.

But the payoff is that you get to be truly, uniquely yourself. Living a life that doesn't fit a traditional mold is really just living a life that can only fit your mold.

It's like playing with clay. If we were all creating a clay mug, they'd all look different. It’s really about creating a mug that feels uniquely yours—one that you'd actually want to drink your coffee from.

I set both as possibilities. I was laid off in November and told myself I'd explore the fractional path while staying open to full-time. Honestly, I feel much more focused in a full-time role. It helps me stay focused on one thing without getting too carried away into other areas. And for me, that works well for my lifestyle right now.

I'd also say I don't have a partner who’s providing benefits or saving for retirement, but those things are important to me. A retirement savings account with a company match and other perks that come from full-time work just felt more important to establish for the next few years.

Long-term, I've always identified more as an entrepreneur, but this role allows me to feel like an entrepreneur within a company, and that's what I really love about it.

I look for integration across my life—patterns of community building, empowering and coaching others to achieve their full potential, building and growing and scaling, starting new things from scratch, bringing ideas to life. For me, I look for ways that my work intersects and overlaps across various sectors.

I also see things in seasons of life versus balance. There are certain seasons I lean into something, like a retreat coming up, versus recording podcasts. I look at things in batches and plan accordingly. That's how I approach and manage it all.

That success can also look like moving backwards—almost like returning home to yourself. In the last few years, I've moved closer to my 21-year-old self than I was a couple of years ago. I've let go of timelines and outer expectations.

I also have a new view on stability. To me, it's about living in alignment with my values and having my needs met. It used to sound boring. Now it sounds like freedom.

Definitely the impact it's had on other people. That's really what I strive for and why I do what I do.

Sometimes what's hard about this work is that you don't always see the immediate impact, but the most rewarding parts have been seeing women connect a year later from a retreat, watching friendships deepen from the women's running community I built, having podcast conversations with guests I still keep in touch with, and staying true to myself in the process. 

If I've inspired even one person to live a life that's truer to themselves, I've done my job.

You can listen to the Evolve Your Path Podcast or visit my website, and I really encourage people to reach out directly on Instagram. I love connecting with people who are navigating similar journeys.