After 28 years at Microsoft, Joy Chik faces a question most leaders eventually encounter: what comes next?

In this episode, Joy reflects on the final stage of her sabbatical — exploring the startup and venture ecosystem, rediscovering the energy of experimentation, and confronting the emotional weight of leaving a place that has shaped her identity for decades.

It’s a story about risk, belonging, and intentionally designing the next chapter. Because sometimes the hardest decisions aren’t between good and bad — but between what has been home and what is calling you forward.

After slowing down, a new question appears: What do I want to grow into next?

In this episode, Joy Chik reflects on the space between mastery and expansion. After nearly three decades operating at global scale in the tech industry, she begins experimenting with something completely new — launching a podcast from scratch during her sabbatical.

What follows is a humbling shift from enterprise leader to beginner again.

Through this experience, Joy explores a question many professionals eventually face: when you’ve become very good at something, is continuing to optimize it the same thing as growing?

After nearly three decades at Microsoft, Joy Chik finally pauses.

In this first episode of The Knowing Moments, Joy Chik shares the story behind her decision to take a 12-week career sabbatical — not from burnout, but from a quieter realization that something needed to change.

Leading a large team and responsible for mission-critical systems, stepping away wasn’t an easy or obvious choice. Joy reflects on the resistance, the responsibility, and the internal courage it took to pause — and what the first few weeks of slowing down revealed.

From the mental “withdrawal” of constant stimulation to rediscovering curiosity and redefining productivity without constant output, this episode explores what happens when we finally slow down.

Because sometimes the first step toward clarity isn’t action.

It’s creating the space to listen.