The Question Nobody Asks Before You Leave Corporate: Who's Coming With You?

I met up with Lori Seaman today. We connected through Trielle Collective, and what a treat!

She recently left the corporate world and decided to start her own digital agency (INFLECTION), and about twenty minutes into our conversation, I realized something: I hadn't felt this energized talking to someone in a while.

Not because Lori had it all figured out. She didn't. She's a couple of months in, still building, and still a little unsure of what comes next. But she was lit up. She'd been great at her corporate job. Successful, respected, good at the work. Just not energized by it anymore. And now, walking away from all that certainty into something entirely her own, she was more herself than I'd seen her in years.

I know that feeling. I lived it too.

The part nobody warns you about

Here's what people don't tell you before you leave corporate: the hardest part usually isn't the leap itself. It's what happens after you land.

You go from a calendar full of meetings to a calendar full of white space. From a Slack channel that never stops pinging to a silence you have to sit in. From a title that told people exactly who you were to explaining, over and over, what you're doing now (and watching their face try to figure out if that's a step up, a step down, or a midlife crisis).

And underneath all of it, there's this quiet, sneaky loneliness. Not because you don't have people in your life. You probably have plenty. But the specific kind of people, the ones who get what it's like to walk away from something that worked, on purpose, without a map? Those are harder to find.

I remember thinking about stepping out to do something different and feeling like people would judge me for it. Like I was giving up something I was supposed to want. That fear is real, and it's one of the biggest reasons people stay in rooms that have stopped fitting them.

Why Trielle Collective Started

That loneliness is exactly why I started Trielle Collective, a local women's group for seasoned professionals. I kept meeting incredible women, smart, accomplished, mid-career or beyond, who were quietly looking for the same thing: support, encouragement, and other people who understood what it feels like to be figuring out your next chapter without a script.

We didn't need more networking events where everyone hands out business cards and talks about their org chart. We needed a room where it was safe to say "I have no idea what I'm doing, and also I've never been more sure I'm doing the right thing."

Turns out, that room was full the moment we opened the door.

Your network needs two kinds of people

Talking with Lori, one thing came up that I think about a lot: when you leave corporate to build something of your own, you actually need two different kinds of people in your corner.

The first kind is the one I just described: people who get it emotionally. The ones who won't ask "so when are you getting a real job again" over the holidays. Your tribe.

The second kind is more tactical. When you're building a business, you're suddenly the one person responsible for skills you may not have. Maybe you've never had to price your own services, negotiate a contract, or figure out sales without a brand behind your name. Or maybe it's not even about you, it's about your clients. They need something you can't fully deliver on your own, and you need to know exactly who to call.

Both of these are network gaps. Both are solvable. But only if you go looking on purpose, instead of hoping the right people find you.

The intentional part is the whole point

Here's the honest truth: nobody builds this kind of network by accident. I didn't. Lori isn't either. It takes deciding that isolation isn't a badge of honor and reaching out anyway, even when it feels a little vulnerable to admit you need people.

This is a lot of what I think about with Find My Chapter 3. It's not just a tool for getting clear on who you are and what paths might fit your next chapter, though that clarity matters enormously. At its core, it's also a support system. A place to land when you're in the messy middle of figuring it out, surrounded by people doing the same thing at the same time.

Because clarity helps you know where to walk. But community is what keeps you walking.

If you're in this stretch right now, whether you've already made the leap or you're just starting to imagine it, do yourself a favor: don't wait until the loneliness hits to go find your people. Start building that network while you're still in Chapter 2. Getting clear about what Chapter 3 could actually look like is what tells you who to go find, so you can start expanding your network before you need it, not after. It will make Chapter 3 so much easier to step into.

Who's one person in your corner right now who truly gets what you're building? If you can't think of one, that's worth sitting with. And if you can, tell them thank you. They matter more than they probably know.