Choosing My Calling: Why I Stepped Away from the General Manager’s Role
How I Chose Family Over the Corner Office and Found True Success
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For a long time, I believed that proving myself meant climbing the corporate ladder. In hospitality, that climb often comes with longer hours and a weight that lingers long after the day ends. Becoming a General Manager wasn’t just an achievement—it was a milestone I fought and sacrificed for. I poured myself into it because I love this industry and the people in it. But somewhere along the way, I stopped asking a crucial question:
What is success if you don’t have enough time to experience it?
I spent years giving my best energy to my work—my ideas, creativity, resilience, and leadership. The people I led mattered deeply to me. I wanted to mentor, develop, and empower them to break ceilings without breaking themselves. Yet the more I gave, the less I had left for my family—the people who call me “Mom” and my spouse who calls me partner.
The quiet moments revealed the truth: dinners alone in bed after everyone was asleep, postponed weekend plans, distracted attention during my daughters’ important moments, and phone calls during family time—leadership was filling my cup, but family was lost in the overflow.
The Turning Point
As my daughter packed for college and my youngest entered adolescence, I realized something shifted inside me: they are growing up, with or without my full presence. Titles don’t remember you. Companies don’t sit across from you at dinner. Meetings don’t call you “Mom.” When your child needs advice, encouragement, or a safe space to cry, the only person who can truly show up is you. I didn’t want to be present only physically; I wanted to show up emotionally, mentally, and wholeheartedly.
Redefining Success
Stepping down from the General Manager role wasn’t about stress, frustration, or failure. It was about alignment—choosing a life that matches my values: family, faith, leadership, mentorship, growth, and service. Returning to a Director of Sales role gave me something a bigger title could not: the space to live the life I want to lead others into. A life where success looks like impact, not exhaustion; where I can build revenue strategies and nurture community; where I can create opportunities for others while making memories with my family; where I can serve professionally and love personally.
Expanding My Purpose
This transition allows me to focus on work that truly fuels my heart:
- Pocono LEADS, a mentorship community supporting professionals in our region, and
- TLP Coaching & Consulting, where I teach leaders to develop people, not just systems.
These aren’t side projects—they are the reason I worked so hard to become the leader I am today. They are my way of giving back what I never had: support, guidance, and a voice saying, You don’t have to sacrifice yourself to succeed.
The Hard Truth
Letting go of a title I worked so hard to achieve wasn’t easy. It took humility, honesty, and trust—trust that stepping away doesn’t mean stepping down; it means stepping toward who I am meant to be. I don’t want my legacy to be that I led a hotel. I want it to be that I was a mother and wife and that I helped people build lives they’re proud of.
What I’m Choosing Now
I’m choosing family dinners.
I’m choosing conversations that happen outside of emails.
I’m choosing to mentor leaders who want to lead with heart.
I’m choosing weekends that belong to the people I love.
I’m choosing to give my energy to work and people who matter most.
I’m choosing a life where success and peace coexist.
I didn’t step down. I stepped into purpose.
Into family.
Into balance.
Into impact.
Into who I was always meant to become.
And I am grateful I had the courage, faith, and support to choose it.
