Good Shift

Riki Zahn left finance to build After Hours Club, a mental health-focused art and wellness company in New York. We talk about the layoff that pushed her, the comfort crisis, founder burnout, and why you don't have to turn what you love into your job to have it in your life.

TEDx speaker. Ex-Apple exec. Former director at Europe's largest private equity fund. 

Lamiaa Laurène Daif has walked away from more dream jobs than most of us will ever have — and she can help you figure out when it's time.
If you've ever thought "I should be happy, but I'm just not" — this one's for you.
Lamiaa's first shift was forced: burnout, a health crisis, a life that looked perfect and felt awful. Her second was completely different. After five years leading global strategy at Apple, she left at her peak — on her own terms. Now she's a pivot expert and executive coach helping high achievers do the same, without waiting for the breaking point.
We unpack the three limiting beliefs that keep successful people stuck (sunk cost, the "when-then" trap, and fear of other people's opinions), the question her coach asked that changed everything, her three-stage process for making a shift without blowing up your life, what staying too long actually costs you, and how to find a coach who's worth it.
Plus: her free Career Clarity Assessment — https://lamiaa.com/

I sat down with Kendall Kransdorf, founder of Cotto (a whipped cottage cheese dip), who left a fast-track job at Boston Consulting Group, then left a startup role too, to build the whipped cottage cheese brand she wished she could buy off the shelf. No outside backing, retail experience or founder expertise, just a recipe from her own kitchen and the nerve to hand it to strangers in a park.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How Kendall knew it was time to leave a stable career — twice
How she validated her product with strangers before she had a real brand
The anonymous feedback method she used to get honest answers out of friends and family
How she landed her first retailer with zero prior retail history
Her tips on how to get into and stay in retailers 
What she had to let go of as a self-described perfectionist to actually ship the product
What she'd tell anyone with an idea sitting in their kitchen right now
This one's permission to stop waiting for the "right" moment, and start with what you've already got.

Joe Rotondo (founder of SmearCase) left a corporate job to create frozen cottage cheese (Froco). Stay with me, Joe moves with intention and has a huge amount of wisdom to share for career shifters or early-stage founders. Joe has shifted from exercise science to sustainable denim to bagels to corporate and now to disrupting the ice cream aisle.

This one's about betting on yourself, knowing when to quit versus persevere, and building a business around your life instead of the other way round.

Key quotes
"Your past career isn't a life sentence, it's just market research for your future."

"You don't build confidence by shouting affirmations in the mirror. You build confidence by having receipts of things that you've done."

"The safest bet you can make is on yourself."

📚 Books mentioned
Atomic Habits — James Clear
Awaken the Giant Within — Tony Robbins
Extreme Ownership — Jocko Willink
Alex Hormozi (referenced for the "confidence = receipts" idea)

If you're saying to yourself, "I'll do it when the timing is better " then dive in. 
Megan Black and Eliana Field-Marsham are childhood friends turned co-founders of Sonni, a next-generation mineral sunscreen brand they launched 11 months ago. Before that: Estée Lauder, McKinsey, Little Spoon, and two MBAs between them.
We get into:
what it actually feels like to leave a job you love;
how a solo founder became a co-founding partnership;
the consideration of the female biological clock and career paths; and
why "not now" quietly becomes "not ever" if you let it.
Listen in to the reality of building something from the ground up — in real time.
Find Sonni at https://sonniskin.com/ and @sonniskin on Instagram.