So You’re Thinking about Quitting Your Job …

“I am going to change. I am going to leave everything behind. I’m going to burn my bridges. I’m going to follow my heart from now on, even if I have a price to pay. Of course, I was supported by my family and my wife. She said ‘yes, let’s do it, even if everybody tells us that nobody can make a living out of writing. But let’s take this risk, because otherwise, you can have everything, but you will be unhappy.'” – best-selling author Paulo Coelho to Krista Tippett, On Being

If you’ve ever thought about quitting your job, know that you’re not alone.

And if you’ve ever been serious about quitting your job but held on to it anyway, know that a career transition coach can help!

DJ Waldow Quit His Job (To Rediscover His Passion)

Though I’ve left four jobs, I can’t say I quit any of them. Each transition was made to pursue something specific.

For my friend DJ Waldow, though, he walked out of a well-paying job with a cool title without a specific plan. From his “why I quit” blog post: “No, I do not have another job lined up. No, I’m not sure what I want to do next.”

Quick background: DJ worked in email and online marketing for a decade, co-wrote this book, co-hosts a podcast about work, got hired as Digital Marketing Evangelist at Marketo, met me in person (Nov 2013), quit his job at Marketo, and met me in person again (Aug 2014). There’s so much more in there, like running his own consultancy, teaching eighth graders, moving to several different cities, and starting and raising a family with his wife.

Back on track: he’d lost his passion for his work. And DJ’s the kind of guy who needs that passion to be aligned with his gainful employment. So he quit his job to rediscover his passion.

Living Your Passion Podcast

As part of his “what should I do next?” exploration, he started the Living Your Passion podcast. Click here to learn about his motivations and reasoning to start the podcast. To date, he’s got a couple dozen episodes published and enough lined up to release two per week through the end of the year.

Love. Designing physical products. Connecting people with purpose. Pole dancing. Bacon. Making people smile.

Dozens of valuable and interesting conversations about purpose, passion, and what really matters. He even gave me a chance to talk about people and nature.

In that process, he found a direction. In a way, DJ was living his passion through the podcast. But he had to turn it more toward the intersection of “I completely love this work” and “This work can pay the bills.”

Here’s an #LYPpodcast episode in which we flipped the mic and I interviewed him about his podcast, his passion, and his transition (click).

Career Transition Coach – Coach DJ

Who better to help people quit their jobs and rediscover their passions than a) a guy who just did it and b) a guy whose passions are people and passion!?

Like so many things that are right, I didn’t exactly see this coming, but it makes perfect sense.

DJ’s developed a process to help people leave their job and pursue what’s next. He folds in psychology, social media, networking, and other key elements into a unique service. Learn more about the Coach DJ process right here.

If you want to learn more, click here to schedule a chat with him. If not … this was an interesting and inspiring story, yes!?

The Bottom Line

I find DJ’s path and its current resolve fascinating, so I wanted to share this story.

“Life is very generous. It always gives you a second chance. And then it’s up to you to take, to grab this opportunity, or to forget it forever. I mean, you can’t forget it forever. Because there’s always this inner child within yourself saying ‘Hey, I’m here. I had the dream to be something else. But now you’re making money. You have a house here. You have a penthouse there. You have whatever. But you’re not doing what you were intended to do.’ You’re not fulfilling your personal legend.” – best-selling author Paulo Coelho to Krista Tippett, On Being