I quit my job because of A pizza chef
To Begin, Meet Rafi
My brother-in-law Rafi is one of my favorite people, and unlike anyone I’ve met. It’s also true that we have very little in common.
For example, he’s the kind of person who:
🚴 Biked around the entire island of Puerto Rico last December—just because.
⛷️ Goes backcountry skiing in terrible conditions—alone, for fun.
✈️ Learned to fly a plane in high school—because why not?
He embraces risk-taking and has never followed a formula. Me? I love routine. I love hanging out with my cat. I love reading. I love reading WITH my cat.
Rafi’s Pizza Dream
Right now, Rafi is building a pizza restaurant up in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. But because it’s Rafi, it’s not just any pizza restaurant. It will be an experience—a place where you’ll want to keep coming back to because of the atmosphere (think: twinkling lights and picnic tables outside on an early summer evening), the unbelievable food, and Rafi’s infectious personality.
My Ah-HA moment
I’ve been in awe watching Rafi build his dream and recently realized that it’s never occurred to him to work a typical 9-5 job. Not once. That’s when it occurred to me: It’s never occurred to me NOT to work 9-5. Not once.
Just the initial thought gave me anxiety:
❓ How could that even work?
❓ What would I do?
❓ Could I make money?
❓ Would the lack of structure drive me crazy?
I've always been bad at long-term planning, but suddenly, I started thinking more into the future.
I’ve spent my entire career until this point working in marketing for tech companies. Would I still want to be doing that at, say, 50?
I’m not knocking tech or marketing (spoiler: I’m launching a marketing consulting business!), but I knew I wasn’t interested in climbing the corporate ladder forever. If I wanted something different in the future, it would make sense to lay the groundwork now. That’s when the wheels really started turning
My First Step: Hiring a Career Coach
I didn’t want to make a rash decision, so I decided to give myself 6 months to explore. Step one? I hired a career coach.
That decision changed everything. I’ll dive into why in an upcoming post, but for now, I just want to say—if you’re questioning your career path even the slightest, start testing the waters on what that could look like. Explore, ask questions, read books, listen to podcasts.
Quitting my job
I left my job at monday.com on July 1st to officially launch my content marketing consulting business. I’ll be sharing my journey from corporate to consulting here, with all my real-life lessons and practical takeaways. I’m in the weeds of figuring this out, I’m not a success story (yet!). My hope is that if you’re thinking about making the leap too, we can do this together and learn from one another.
3 takeaways:
✔ Reflect on your career assumptions—Are you working 9-5 because it’s right for you, or because it’s the default?
✔ Explore other paths intentionally—Take thoughtful steps (like hiring a career coach) instead of making impulsive jumps.
✔ Learn from my experience—If you’re interested in making the jump yourself, stick around to see what I’m learning as I transition from corporate to consulting.
Talk soon!
Deborah
