This is the last episode of Season 1. And it felt right to close it out with a story about not having to blow up your whole life to build something new.

Tracy Buikema spent over 20 years as a massage therapist, expert enough that she went on to teach it at the college level for over a decade. But somewhere along the way, her sessions started turning into something more. Clients weren't just talking about sore shoulders. They were talking about their stress, their lives, what was keeping them stuck.

Then one client — someone she'd seen for over a decade — said something that stuck with her: "I would pay double for this session, because I feel like I got so much more out of it."

That was the moment Tracy realized coaching wasn't a departure from what she'd built. It was already happening.

So she went back to school. And found out that starting over, even when you're bringing 20-plus years of expertise with you, is still hard. "It was going from being considered an expert in my field... to then, okay, now I'm going to switch into this coaching aspect," she told me. Even when something comes naturally, learning to be a beginner again is its own kind of hard.

What I love about Tracy's story is what she didn't do. She didn't walk away from massage therapy to become a coach. She built something that holds both — coaching and somatic bodywork, together. She gets to keep what she's always loved, and expand it into something bigger.

If you're sitting with the fear that changing careers means giving up everything you've already built, I want you to hear this one.

Tracy is the owner of Heal(thy) Self Wellness LLC. She's offering a free 30-minute Transition Clarity Session — uncovering what's keeping you stuck, reconnecting with what matters most, and identifying one meaningful next step. She's also offering 20% off a first session for new clients through the end of September 2026 — just mention this podcast.

Website: healthyself-wellness.com

Text: (717) 756-4950

Instagram: @healthy_self_wellness

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-buikema/

Cathy Derksen spent 25 years in medical genetics, in hospital labs and toxic environments. Twenty-five years of trusting the data over her gut.

Then, in one stretch of her life, she blew up almost everything at once: she left that 25-year career and her 23-year marriage, together, with two teenagers watching.

She'd told herself she was staying — in the marriage, in the safety of routine — for her kids. Then she saw what it was actually doing to them. That's what finally moved her.

"I describe it like throwing my life up in the air and reinventing it on the way back down," she says.

She landed in financial planning next, working with numbers and data, but now focused on helping women. A decade of commission-only paychecks in a male-dominated industry, learning as she went. It wasn't wrong. It just wasn't it.

Then, almost by accident, Cathy stumbled into multi-author books — and the scientist who'd spent decades trusting data started trusting stories instead. Today she's the founder of Inspired Tenacity, helping midlife women get published, one chapter at a time.

If you've ever wondered how someone goes from spreadsheets and lab reports to publishing other women's stories, this is that episode.

Connect with Cathy:

🌐 InspiredTenacity.com (free PDF downloads of many of her books + a Zoom accelerator session)

📧 cathy@inspiredtenacity.com

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cathyderkseninspiredtenacity

📘 Facebook: facebook.com/cathy.derksen.3

📸 Instagram: instagram.com/inspired_tenacity

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@inspiredtenacitypublishing

For once, I'm the one answering the questions.

This is episode 10 of Recalculating: Your M.A.P. to Joy, and guest host Johanna Danaher flipped the mic on me to dig into my own career zigzag — the one I usually ask other people about.

I spent 20 years building an IT career. A good one, actually. Started in special education, pivoted to IT help desk because it made logical sense at the time, climbed the ladder into project management. About 18 years in, it was killing me. And not metaphorically, but actually killing me.

The moment I couldn't unsee it: ten minutes into day 2 of a go-live that was falling apart, after sending hourly updates up the entire chain of command, my boss messages me — "How's it going?" Then, immediately after: "Why didn't you do the server evaluation 6 months ago?" It wasn't even my project 6 months ago..

That was it. I couldn't do it anymore.

I talk about the fear that kept me stuck for years before that moment — the belief that you could either have a financially stable career or work you loved, but not both. I talk about getting sick for six weeks after that go-live and almost missing a dream vacation because of it. And I talk about what it actually took, financially and emotionally, to make the leap — and why it took six to eight weeks after I did before I finally felt free again.

If you're sitting in a job that pays the bills but is quietly wearing you down, this one is for you. You can have joy in your career and cash in your pocket. They don't have to be mutually exclusive. But please — don't let work kill you.

Find me at MoveToJoyCoaching.com, where you can sign up for the newsletter to hear about upcoming events and more stories like this one.

Website: movetojoycoaching.com Clarity Conversation: movetojoycoaching.com/claritycall LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mariemclark