It was a no-plan kind of plan. One I felt in my bones was necessary, even without a defined path forward. I did it anyway.
In the year since quitting my job, I've learned that this deep knowing — I gotta get out of here to do something else — wasn't unique to me. Women, droves of us, are doing the same thing. It's a real shift in how women are showing up in life.
We're tired of the girlboss myth: work hard enough, stay available enough, log the hours, and by our late 30s/early 40s we'll have the title, the money, and the time we deserve.
Then we got here, and turns out it's not true. We've done the work, built the career, and still don't feel complete, satisfied, or like we "made it." We're just tired.
Enter: existential crisis, burnout, isolation.
See also: community, group threads, whisper networks.
I was burned out after years of early-morning and late-night Slack messages, work travel (yes, even for the "cool" trips), and promotions that never came. I didn't know exactly what was next, but I knew it had to be on my own terms. I was desperate to control my calendar and have a tighter grip on my career.
So what did I do? I started calling people.
I told them I was thinking about doing my own thing and asking for advice, intros, thoughts. The second I picked up the phone, I learned there was a whole world of opportunity out there, and a lot of women feeling exactly the same way.
I learned there was a whole world of opportunity out there, and a lot of women feeling exactly the same way.
Without much more thought, I put in my two weeks, launched a community almost immediately, and landed on my feet as a fractional head of brand. I cherry-picked my clients while Re:Brand grew — 500 members in the first few months, then 1,000, now climbing toward 2,000, all through word of mouth (and LinkedIn — love to hate it, amirite?).
And Now, She Births a Podcast
Introducing "It's Called a Re:Brand"
It felt inevitable, honestly. I feel compelled — called, even — to tell the stories of the women blazing the trail, machete-ing their way through the shitstorm that is entrepreneurship, to show the rest of us what's possible. Because every woman I talk to has rebranded her life to get here.
There's a moment every guest on the podcast, every member of this community, has had: looking around and thinking I would do this differently if I could. It matters to tell what came after — who was their first call? Not just why they did it, but how. What was the first step, and every step after that?
So this is a step. For me, for Re:Brand, for the women out there who need some guidance, inspiration, or hype that says: you can do it.
It's Called a Re:Brand is here to remind you that you can.
So let's go do it.
xx,
Cat
