Real talk for women in leadership—delivered every other Thursday. Short, story-driven notes on confidence, visibility, hard conversations, and building a career you actually want. Expect practical tools, honest takes, and the occasional “wait… I needed that” moment.
The part of a career pivot no one talks about
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Women aren’t simply leaving jobs. Many are reassessing how—and where—they want to work. More than 455,000 women exited the U.S. workforce during the first eight months of 2025, and 58% of those departures were voluntary. At the same time, women started 49% of new businesses in 2024—up from just 29% in 2019. Women may be leaving traditional corporate structures, but they aren’t necessarily leaving their ambition behind. They may simply be redirecting it. It’s no surprise we hear so much about women pivoting. And from the outside, a pivot can sound pretty glamorous: A new company. A new career. Going out on your own. Finally doing the thing you’ve always wanted to do. But career pivots are often much messier than the announcement we see on LinkedIn. They can involve fear, identity loss, financial uncertainty, trial and error, and a lot of second-guessing. I’ve been living this firsthand for the past year and a half. After spending nearly a decade helping lead and grow one company—and reaching the CEO role—I knew how to explain who I was professionally. Then suddenly, I had to figure it out all over again. What do I actually want to do next? Which parts of my experience do I want to carry forward? What am I ready to leave behind? And how do I build something new when the old path was much easier to explain? A pivot isn’t always one bold decision. Sometimes it’s a series of smaller decisions. Trying something. Realizing it isn’t quite right. Adjusting. Learning. Starting again. It requires us to separate what we truly want from what we think a successful career is supposed to look like. And perhaps the hardest part: allowing ourselves to be a beginner again after working so hard to become an expert. That’s why I was excited to sit down with Trish Barber, author of Why Women Pivot. In this week’s episode of Loud & Lifted, we talk about why women pivot, what the process really looks like, and how to move forward when you know something needs to change—but you don’t have the entire next chapter figured out yet. Whether you’re actively considering a career change, rebuilding after one, or simply wondering whether there may be something different ahead for you, this conversation is worth a listen. 🎧 Listen to the full episode with Trish: Stay Loud and Lifted, Betsy |
Loud & Lifted
Real talk for women in leadership—delivered every other Thursday. Short, story-driven notes on confidence, visibility, hard conversations, and building a career you actually want. Expect practical tools, honest takes, and the occasional “wait… I needed that” moment.
I have been thinking a lot about the word loud lately. Which is probably a good thing considering I named a podcast Loud & Lifted. But to be clear: I have never believed being loud means being the person who talks the most, interrupts everyone or pounds her fist on the table until people listen. That is not really the point. To me, I wanted to use the word loud in the title because being loud has always been about using your voice. Speaking up. Sharing what you think. Advocating for yourself...
I’m just going to say it. We spend a lot of time talking about the boys’ club, broken systems and all the ways men make it harder for women to succeed. And yes, all of that exists. But we are avoiding another huge part of the problem: women are tearing other women down at work. They are leaving women out of meetings. Withholding information. Spreading rumors. Questioning someone’s credibility behind her back. Smiling in her face while quietly trying to make sure she doesn’t get the...
What’s for dinner? Where do you want to go to eat? Is it just me, or are those sometimes the hardest decisions of the day? Unfortunately, this newsletter is not going to solve your dinner dilemma. We’ll leave that to the professionals. But it did get me thinking: Why do some decisions feel so hard—especially at work? Should you approve the big project and the large investment? Do you need to change direction? Is it time to let a team member go? Sometimes we’re not actually stuck on the...