What do you do when the organization you've given everything to - the one you helped build from the inside out - is suddenly gone?

Nurit Siegel Smith spent 25 years building a career at the intersection of arts, culture, and social impact. As Executive Director of Music Forward Foundation, she helped 20,000 young people across the country find pathways into the music industry, including building the first federally recognized apprenticeships in music and live entertainment in the United States.

Then, in early 2025, the organization was sunset. And Nurit was the one who had to see it through.

What followed was a year she'll tell you herself took six months just to breathe through. We talk about what it looks like to grieve meaningful work, how to stop chasing the next goal and start building the context of the life you want, and why being an artist and being an entrepreneur might be the same act - just with different tools.

You'll Learn

⭐ What it looks like to stop goal-chasing and start context-building

⭐ How to rebuild your sense of purpose when your identity was tied to your work

⭐ Why presence and joy don't actually require financial security

Key Insights

Either You Take the Pause, Or It's Taken from You Nurit didn't choose to stop. The work she loved was taken away. But what she found in the stillness changed everything.

Stop Chasing the Goal. Instead of asking "what's my next role?", Nurit flipped the question: what does the life I want to be living actually look like?

Purpose and Paycheck Don't Have to Be the Same Thing One of the most freeing realizations of Nurit's transition: she didn't have to find one role that held all of it. She could serve on boards, volunteer, be present for her family - and make money somewhere else.

Timestamps

04:00 Planting seeds: on cold outreach and the slow burn of relationships

06:00 The next generation and instant gratification in the workplace

08:00 Navigating liminal space

09:00 Nurit's path: from gymnast and dancer to nonprofit leader

11:00 Discovering the many career pathways in arts and culture

13:00 Music Forward Foundation and building apprenticeships in the music industry

16:00 Sunsetting an organization you love - and surviving it

21:00 Redefining what it means to be a creative person

23:00 Bundu bashing: what creative careers and entrepreneurship have in common

26:00 The year after: six months just to breathe

29:00 Hibernating, licking wounds, and slowly coming back to life

31:00 Redefining success and flipping the goal framework

33:00 When purpose and paycheck don't have to be the same thing

35:00 What financial insecurity taught both women about baseline joy

40:00 Building vs. reacting: staying grounded

42:00 Women founders, corporate boards, and the environment that needs to change

48:00 What's calling to Nurit now

Resources and Links

Connect with Nurit on LinkedIn

Find host Kristin Belden on LinkedIn or at BeldenStrategies.com

Sign up for Kristin's newsletter Big Deal Energy: BeldenStrategies.com/newsletter

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