Who Says You Have to Choose?

The Intentional Next Act with Tabatha Jones

Resources mentioned in this episode:

📖 The Idea to Income Playbook
Thinking about building something of your own while keeping the security of your corporate career? My book helps you get clear on your idea, your audience, and how to build a business with intention.

Order The Idea to Income Playbook on Amazon

✍️ Follow me on Substack
Read the article that inspired this episode and join the conversation about reinvention, career, business, and defining success on your own terms.

https://tabathajones.substack.com

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What if you don't have to choose?

Corporate executive or entrepreneur. Financial security or freedom. Ambition or a simpler life.

Who decided we have to pick just one?

After nearly 28 years at Comcast, I left corporate at 50 to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. I built a coaching business, wrote books, created programs, and discovered a whole new side of myself.

I also discovered something unexpected.

I miss corporate sometimes.

I miss the teams, the camaraderie, the complex challenges, and the opportunity to develop people. At the same time, I still love coaching, creating, and helping people recognize what they're capable of.

For a while, I thought those feelings contradicted each other.

Then I started asking a different question.

*Who says I have to choose?*

A recent Women & Wealth conference, filled with incredible women, audacious goals, and yes, dance breaks, reminded me that we don't all need the same definition of success.

One message particularly stayed with me: Find the thing God hired you to do and do it!

For me, that has always been helping people see possibilities in themselves that they couldn't see before. I've done it in corporate leadership, through coaching, and through writing. The setting may change, but the purpose doesn't have to.

In this episode, I'm sharing why I'm exploring a return to corporate while keeping Empowered Leadership Coaching®, what I've learned about the pressure to pursue someone else's definition of success, and why changing direction doesn't mean you've failed.

In this episode, we explore:

- Why we put ourselves into boxes that no longer fit
- What I loved about entrepreneurship and what I've missed about corporate leadership
- The realization that meaningful work doesn't have to come from one job or business
- Why celebrating other women's success doesn't mean adopting their goals
- How to build a life that makes room for multiple ambitions without creating two full-time jobs
- Why redefining success might be one of the most important decisions we make in midlife

Your One Intentional Hour

Think about two things you want that you've been treating as mutually exclusive.

Ask yourself:

1. Who told me I had to choose?
2. What would it look like if I made room for both?
3. What's one small step I could take this week?

You don't need to redesign your entire life. Start by questioning the assumption that there's only one right path.

One thought to leave you with

I'm not trying to win an entrepreneurship contest. I'm trying to build a life I actually enjoy living.

You can love your career and want something different.

You can be ambitious and want more freedom.

You can change your mind without erasing everything you've accomplished.

Maybe you were never meant to fit inside one box.

Until next time, keep building a life that feels like yours.

Tabatha Jones
Host, The Intentional Next Act
CEO, Empowered Leadership Coaching®