Taking the Leap to Learn... all over again

March 31st, 2026
Women's History Month

Wow. it may not have been the perfect month (when it came to writing nor when it came to living), but it came pretty damn close thanks to the people, the yoga, the learning experiences and the LOVE i encountered.

So much has happened, not only in March but thus far in 2026 and the Year of the Fire Horse - a time for sprinting head first into life and the potential for adventure that it holds. We rang in the new year, barely stayed up until midnight if i recall, and welcomed michelle and seb to be our first visitors of the year around our dining table. We went to phoenix, we celebrated my birthday, we took time off and did Disneyland! We took mini adventures often, including but not limited to San diego and Equinox for couples yoga.

We got a new job! i got an interview IRL and i got a verbal offer and i got a true offer. i negotiated my compensation and gave notice to the company that raised me from a girl and a student and a CSM and an expat to an adult, a teacher, a professional and an auntie. I applied my new name to nearly all of my records and then i entered a new career chapter in enablement. Enter: Gainsight. A portfolio company managed by majority private equity, it's a customer intelligence platform that helps power insights, customer learning, community and product intel for other B2B companies. 

The new job feels like merely a tiny tip of the iceberg of true transformation that i have undergone in 90 days. At the end of 2025 -- the year having been a glorious season of adventure and trust and taking the leap, thanks to my wedding to mike -- i was at a low point of professional confidence due to feedback from my manager. Despite positive career experiences and learnings over the course of the prior year, i felt criticized and dismissed, often isolated and abandoned. Looking back, I see that I internalized the feedback and dynamic both as reflective of not just my quality... but my WORTH at Linkedin and as a professional.

Many said i shouldn't let this happen. Friends reasssured me that this treatment and these feelings should NOT discount my contributions, my talent nor my capability. Somehow, i still felt broken & inadequate. i couldn't muster the clarity of action needed nor embody the character of the consultant i know that i am. I dreaded work some days; I wasn't sleeping well or at least -- wasn't falling back asleep when i was ruminating in the wee hours of the morning, work on the brain. Ultimately, my manager's suggestions that i wasn't in the right role (and that i was somehow similar to her the year that her boss told her SHE wasn't in the right role and "just couldn't win" no matter how hard she tried) -- led me to get help, reach out, and start making moves.

What did I do? I confided in a first-friend from my company that i was struggling; I got mentorship and perspective from another director and the aforementioned friend, who told me to start aggressively looking. While the reasons she encouraged this are "neither here nor there," i feared being fired or offered a performance management plan that would damage my chances to excel at Linkedin. I leaned back into the advice I had learned from my coach months prior and sought out times I had felt in my self-energy: when had i last felt both creative and calm, curious AND confident? Talking to my community helped remind me of those times... 

I interviewed for an internal role in a new business unit, energized by the idea of returning to customer advisory. Next, i reached out to friends and former colleagues who had open roles at their companies. i received referrals from numerous friends, former expats and simple colleagues from LI who knew my positive perception and a bit of my work. i went on to interview for two new companies after applying to many. i became excited by the idea of a new opportunity and a new challenge -- and i realized that i was invigorated by the business "case" scenarios that were put in front of me for my interview assignments.
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i couldn't have guessed that after two interview processes at Christmas time, i'd end up conducting final interviews (both to a panel) at two interesting tech companies. One was in person at the intersection of analytics and real estate. One was virtual, fully remote at an insights platform targeting those in my former role: customer success. More important than any of the steps in these interviews, i was busy cultivating a new mindset around my value throughout the process. i was meditating more often, returned to journaling and reflecting hard in order to anchor on my past experiences and accomplishments. I spoke positive affirmations. I practiced my "elevator pitch" which required me to practice & rewire my internal self-talk. I refreshed my resume, wrote cover letters and let AI help me curate my top achievements in the recent six years of doing sales and revenue leader enablement.

The end result? Besides the job change, I remembered what i'm good at it, what i love and what lights me up. <-- These ARE NOT in order of importance, I realize now. I realized that what energizes me most are the same tasks and projects that i love: assessing skill gaps, architecting learning experiences, and building first time stakeholder partnerships from the ground up -- through trust-building. i love thinking about sales, about our products and about the customer journey. i love centering everything i build and do around "customer value" and how we can identify+articulate it. Call me cheesy, but i think it's the Apple loyalist in me that was transformed into a real customer advocate; that and our amazing products' capacity to change other's ability made me BELIEVE in a technology's potential to change a company or personal trajectory. I believe. So i have conviction. My conviction helps me know deeply; my deep knowledge helps me teach.

The things i forgot about? The things that helped me teach (and build) like nothing else included my network! My knowledge network and the people who know things -- from over 10 years at the same incredibly tight-knit company -- were the ways through which i could always be a CONDUIT of peer and social learning. Starting over has shown me the power of ones network... not just her knowledge or "know how." The book by sally helgesen and marshall goldsmith calls it the "perfection trap" and several other phenomena; all that matters is that we recognize the risk of waiting until you've attained all the knowledge you can before you act, build and cultivate collaborative partnerships.

Now that i've taken the leap and been in role six weeks? It's time for me to settle in and form a point of view. i've asked questions and i've listened; i met with partners and now need to broaden my network to those on the "front lines." i need to humble myself, listen to calls and make time to observe our customers in "the flesh." that means shadowing sales, setting up more coffee chats and never forgetting: to have a growth mindset, i must commit to always be learning.
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How? The only way to always be learning is by forming a habit. The only way to build a habit is to set intentions, establish clear goals, and create the conditions for attainable action steps (all according to my takeaways from "atomic habits" and anything you read about building a culture of learning). People need access, permission, time, and exemplary role modeling. i can be that role model. i can block time to learn. ​

Here's to learning all over again. 

XOXO, 
Abroad Down in SoCal