About three years ago, I started doing something that at the time just felt like staying honest with myself. I looked at the career I'd built. The reputation, the roster, the clients, the systems, the revenue. All of it working. And I started asking whether it still fit.
The answer was: not entirely. There's a difference between something working and something fitting, and I'd been confusing those two for a while.
This season finale is the honest inventory. Not a tidy recap. Not twelve lessons in twelve minutes. Just where things actually are.
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In this episode
The identity question, and why I still don't have a clean answer on the title
What the four-hour workday actually looks like in practice
The build: the things still in the notebooks and still on the shelf
What recording twelve episodes actually did, not as content, as evidence
Camp Rover: where it sits, and why years three to five is when it comes back
The permission gap
Redesigning a business that's already working
So I started designing the pivot. Not a rebrand. Not a dramatic reinvention. Just a restructure. A slow and deliberate shift toward the version of this career that actually makes sense. This podcast has been the documentation of that. Twelve episodes of thinking out loud about what it looks like to rebuild something while it's still running.
This year was a lot. There was the business side: the consulting offer, the speaking lanes, Camp Rover being redesigned from the foundation up, and revenue targets I needed to hit while all of that was being built. A year I actually planned by quarter, because I wasn't going to white-knuckle through a pivot on vibes. And there was burnout, which I crashed right into. You don't rest your way out of it. It's more like ripping and growing a muscle. You push too far sometimes, you feel the edge, and you learn where the margin is.
So here I am. On the other side of it. Or the other side so far, which is probably the more honest version. I've planned enough endings to know what comes after the last dance. It's not the absence of the event. It's just the next morning. That's what this episode is.
Where the pivot actually stands after year one
Identity. The identity question is still open. "Event planner" still feels too small. "Consultant" I've grown into a bit. "Lifestyle consultant" still lights me up, and still raises eyebrows. I've sat with that gap long enough to realize the discomfort isn't something I have to solve before I can move. And when people ask how business is going, I can now point them to the podcast.
Time. The four-hour workday is still a goal, not a reality every week. Most weeks I'm getting pretty close, but close can look like eight hours one day, two the next, four the next. I decide based on my goals, client deliverables, my health, revenue needs and the team's workload. Some weeks I'm still back in the relay seat and get to Friday without a single real thought. What's different is I notice it now. I can name it.
The build. The website is still mid-rebuild. The consulting offer is still being refined. My wedding planning education offer is further along, with a beta session date and a full launch date set, but not yet in the world. And that's okay. A clip from a friend on LinkedIn gave me the how: find your first hundred customers first, and build based on what they actually need. There's nothing couples like more than talking about what doesn't work in wedding planning. The four-hour workday gave me the thinking time to catch that.
The season. I was done at episode eight, if I'm honest. Podcasting is a new habit, and I don't take to habits super quickly. I got sick a couple of times, had a big wedding to execute, pushed a week here and there. I said twelve episodes. Twelve came out. Just not on the timeline I planned. I said it once, out loud, and that was enough to hold me to every single one of them.
How the language changes first in a pivot
The language changed first. Before the revenue shifted. Before the website. Before I had a title that fit cleanly. The way I describe what I do in a room. The way I frame a consultation. The way I introduce myself at a meeting where I used to be the coordinator and now I'm increasingly the person asking the structural questions. That's the market learning to see me differently.
And it started in cars. Driving to networking events, practising out loud, trying a new version five or six times in a night, watching how it landed, refining it, doing it again.
The podcast wasn't just documentation. It was demonstration. If you've been listening, you already know how I think. You've heard me chase a squirrel and come back. You've heard me say something I wasn't sure was true yet and then live my way into it. That's a different kind of trust than a portfolio. The right people have started finding me because of it. Not in huge numbers. Quietly. One at a time. I'm for the few, not for the many.
What's next for Camp Rover
Camp Rover was a creative conference I built from the ground up. A hundred and fifty-plus people at the Human Rights Museum. Speakers, sponsors, a ball pit, a puppy corner, a quiet room of tents, people who didn't want to leave. And then I let it sit still, because the version of me that built that conference wasn't the version who needed to build the next one.
Right now it's in a basket with a bow on it, sitting on a shelf. Very much alive. Not yet running. Years one and two of this pivot are for building the foundation underneath it: maybe registering as a not-for-profit, building a committee that becomes a board, establishing governance. So that when Camp Rover comes back, it isn't Amanda-dependent the way the first version was.
Years three to five, it comes back. Clean. Intentional. Grassroots. Maybe smaller. Maybe a week-long camp by a Manitoba lake. But the core stays what it is. Depth instead of networking. Connection instead of extraction. And it'll come back from the architect, not the operator who thought scaling was the only direction.
Closing the permission gap
Episode eleven was about the gap between what you know and what you're willing to claim. It's not a capability gap. It's a permission gap. And the permission is something you give yourself.
What this season did, more than anything, was give me the evidence to give myself that permission. Not because I arrived. Not because everything is built or the title is sorted or the revenue is stable. But because I watched myself think. Twelve times. Out loud. And the thinking held.
There's a line from episode three: "Burnout isn't always about doing too much. Sometimes it's about operating below your intellectual edge." I wrote that line, and then I spent three months recording a podcast that proved it.
The income is still in transition. The old work is still funding the new work. That's the plan. I'm not in a rush. I'm in an architecture.
Key line
Work can be built intentionally. And when it is, it holds.
Reflection question
What are you still waiting for before you start operating from the version of yourself you've already become? Is it a credential? A revenue number? A clear title? The right wardrobe? And here's the real one: is the wait wisdom, or just fear in a responsible-looking outfit?
FAQ
What's the difference between a business working and a business fitting?
A business can be working, with the reputation, clients, systems and revenue all in place, and still not fit your life, your goals, your energy or how your brain works. Noticing that difference is often where a pivot starts.
How long does a business pivot take?
This one started about three years before this season, and year one of the pivot still left things open: the title, the website, the consulting offer. The old work is still funding the new work, and that's the plan.
Is Camp Rover coming back?
Yes. Years one and two of the pivot are for building the foundation underneath it, like a board and governance. Camp Rover is planned to come back in years three to five, possibly smaller or shaped differently.
What is Season 2 of Work, By Design about?
Season 2 is interviews with founders and leaders who are in their own version of this, designing the work instead of just running it.
This post is based on Season 1, Episode 12 of Work, By Design, a podcast by Amanda Douglas & Co. about redesigning how you work.
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Read next: When Your Business Works But Doesn't Fit Anymore
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