She Chose Again

Coach Violetta Pleshakova has a blunt answer for anyone who's been told they can manifest any life they want: "I regret to inform that it is a freaking lie."

She grew up in 90s Moscow as the girl who brought Dostoevsky to parties, moved to Germany alone at 21, and fell into coaching before anyone was selling six-figure programs. Then she got sent to Cape Town, and she says her soul came home there.

What came next was harder. All four of her grandparents died within two years, then she lost her dad. She spent years trying to move to Cape Town on a Russian passport, which got a lot more complicated after 2022.

In this episode of She Chose Again, we talk about the parts of starting over that people usually skip. She grew her business through grief, dated while men assumed she was a flaky digital nomad, pulled the plug on a course right before launch, and spent seven months being "nobody." We also get into faith, and why she thinks manifestation culture leaves so many people blaming themselves when life doesn't go to plan.

If you've ever done everything "right" and still watched the plan fall apart, this one's for you.

Find Violetta: https://violettapleshakova.com/ and @violettapleshakova on Instagram and Threads

Get my Sunday newsletter, Okay, Now What?, about changing your mind and figuring out what comes next: https://letters.outofedits.com/

She Chose Again is an Out of Edits series about women who changed direction and what actually happened next. https://outofedits.com/ | @ooecollective

Megan Czarnyszka took a year away from her business to work as a substitute teacher. When the school year ended and she needed to start earning again, she turned to LinkedIn with what she calls a “desperation post.”

That post helped her find her way back into business. But this time, she had a different idea of how she wanted to run it.

In this episode of She Chose Again, I talk with Megan about the winding road from nursing school to nonprofit work to entrepreneurship, and how her business has evolved through three different names and several versions of what she thought she wanted to do.

Megan is the founder of Anchored Strategy Collective, where she helps purpose-driven founders and nonprofits with operations and marketing strategy. She's also neurodivergent, a mom, and now a full-time finance student at UW-Milwaukee.

We talk about why she stepped away from her business, the difference between staying busy and actually making progress, and how she stopped trying to do everything herself. Her current business model brings other independent service providers into client projects, giving her more room to focus on strategy while creating opportunities for other people.

There's also a great conversation about how much control we really have over our time when we're running a business, and whether the way we've always worked is the way we want to keep working.

CONNECT WITH MEGAN

Anchored Strategy Collective:
https://www.anchoredstrategycollective.com/

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganczarnyszka

CONNECT WITH ELLE & OUT OF EDITS

Read Out of Edits:
https://outofedits.com/

Subscribe to Okay, Now What?, my Sunday newsletter about questioning the default path and figuring out what comes next:
https://letters.outofedits.com/

ABOUT SHE CHOSE AGAIN

She Chose Again is an Out of Edits interview series hosted by Elle Mills. Each episode features a woman who's made a change in her life, career, or business, and the story of what happened afterward.

Ariana Sutton was laid off while living abroad, even though her employer had approved her remote work arrangement. After two years as a digital nomad, she suddenly had to figure out how to support herself without giving up the life she'd built overseas.

Instead of returning to the United States, Ariana stayed in Colombia, took an unexpected sabbatical, and started exploring different ways to earn money.

In this episode of She Chose Again, Ariana joins Elle Mills to talk about what happened after the layoff, from navigating unemployment and living off savings to online English tutoring, freelance UX design, AI training, and eventually building a business helping other people earn income while living abroad.

We also get into her experiences living in Colombia, Vietnam, and Albania, what it's like navigating different cultures as a Black American woman, and why financial security plays such an important role in having the freedom to choose where and how you live.

Ariana shares what worked, what didn't, and how her relationship with work, money, and the idea of settling down has changed.

If you've ever wondered how people actually afford to live abroad, what happens when a remote job disappears, or whether you can build a life without following a traditional career path, this conversation is for you.

CONNECT WITH ARIANA

She Earns Abroad (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@SheEarnsAbroad

Ariventuras (travel YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@Ariventuras

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ariventuras/

OKAY, NOW WHAT? NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to Elle's Sunday newsletter for more stories and perspectives on starting over, changing direction, and figuring out what comes next.

https://letters.outofedits.com/

ABOUT SHE CHOSE AGAIN

She Chose Again is an Out of Edits interview series about women who changed their minds, changed direction, and chose something different for their lives.

These conversations go beyond the finished version. We talk about what happened next, how the change actually worked, what it cost, how they made money, what didn’t work, and the details that usually get skipped.

ABOUT OUT OF EDITS

Out of Edits is a global publication for women who’ve outgrown the default path, exploring choice, reinvention, and the many ways women are building lives beyond the expected script.

Read Out of Edits: https://www.outofedits.com/

The conversation explores Diamond Garcia's journey from a miserable corporate job to becoming a successful entrepreneur, highlighting her struggles, mindset shifts, and the importance of networking. Diamond shares her experiences with various jobs, side hustles, and the evolution of her business, emphasizing the significance of autonomy and personal fulfillment in her career choices.

In this conversation, Diamond shares her journey as an entrepreneur, discussing the challenges and successes she has faced while balancing her business and motherhood. She emphasizes the importance of consistency in content creation, the evolution of her business strategies, and the significance of investing in personal growth and future planning.

Takeaways

• Embrace autonomy in work
• Networking is the key to success
• Invest in personal growth

Chapters

• 00:00 From Misery to Motivation
• 02:53 The Power of Mindset and Planning
• 05:54 Navigating Career Transitions
• 09:00 The Reality of Financial Runway
• 12:02 Discovering Hidden Skills
• 14:59 Networking with Purpose
• 17:59 Evolving Business Models
• 19:34 Building Consistency in Content Creation
• 22:26 The Entrepreneurial Journey and Adaptation
• 24:59 Balancing Motherhood and Business
• 27:07 Learning from Mistakes in Entrepreneurship
• 29:14 Prioritizing Self-Care and Hobbies
• 32:23 Creating Systems for Business Success
• 35:40 Investing in Future Growth

Subscribe to Okay, Now What?

Okay, Now What? is my Sunday newsletter about changing your mind, choosing again, and figuring out what comes next when the old plan doesn’t work anymore.

Subscribe: https://letters.outofedits.com/

Connect with Diamond Garcia

Website: https://sparkleassoc.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparklebydiamond/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@sparklebydiamond


About She Chose Again

She Chose Again is an Out of Edits interview series about women who changed their minds, changed direction, and chose something different for their lives.

These conversations go beyond the finished version. We talk about what happened next, how the change actually worked, what it cost, how they made money, what didn’t work, and the details that usually get skipped.

About Out of Edits

Out of Edits is a global publication for women who’ve outgrown the default path, exploring choice, reinvention, and the many ways women are building lives beyond the expected script.

Read Out of Edits: https://www.outofedits.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ooecollective/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ooecollective

Monique Brewster is preparing to leave a career in cybersecurity to make Maisha Haus, the women’s wellness brand she built after being diagnosed with endometriosis, her full-time work.

In this episode of She Chose Again, we talk about what it looks like to build the next thing before you’ve fully left the old one. Monique shares how years of debilitating periods eventually led to an endometriosis diagnosis, how that experience shaped Maisha Haus, and why building a wellness business forced her to rethink the way she was working too.

We get into the parts of the business that didn’t work, including trying to follow the traditional yoga-teacher path and realizing one-on-one sessions were burning her out. Monique also talks about balancing Maisha Haus with cybersecurity consulting, bringing in operational support, growing her in-person wellness events, finding most of her clients offline, and the bigger vision she has for eventually creating an actual Maisha Haus women can retreat to.

This is a conversation about endometriosis, entrepreneurship, boundaries, and what can happen when the thing you’re building has to work for your life too.

Subscribe to Okay, Now What?

Okay, Now What? is my Sunday newsletter about changing your mind, choosing again, and figuring out what comes next when the old plan doesn’t work anymore.

Subscribe: https://letters.outofedits.com/

Connect with Monique Brewster

Website: https://themaishahaus.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/maishahaus
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@maishahaus

About She Chose Again

She Chose Again is an Out of Edits interview series about women who changed their minds, changed direction, and chose something different for their lives.

These conversations go beyond the finished version. We talk about what happened next, how the change actually worked, what it cost, how they made money, what didn’t work, and the details that usually get skipped.

About Out of Edits

Out of Edits is a global publication for women who’ve outgrown the default path, exploring choice, reinvention, and the many ways women are building lives beyond the expected script.

Read Out of Edits: https://www.outofedits.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ooecollective/

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ooecollective

What happens when the businesses you built are successful, making money...and you realize you don’t want them anymore?

Cindy Gordon built multiple online businesses, sold four of them, and chose to start over while the businesses were still working.

In this episode of She Chose Again, Cindy takes us back to the food blog that started as a hobby and unexpectedly became a real source of income. From there, she went on to build and run multiple websites, hire a team, create different revenue streams, and eventually make the decision to sell.

We talk about what that process actually looked like, including how the businesses made money, how she found buyers, what went into selling them, and what made her willing to walk away from something that was still successful.

And because Cindy has spent 17 years building businesses online, we also get into what she sees changing now: SEO, AI visibility, personal branding, getting found online, and why sounding like an actual person matters more than ever.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How a hobby food blog became a business
• When Cindy realized the income was becoming significant
• Building and managing multiple websites at once
• Hiring a team
• Why she decided to sell businesses that were still working
• How her businesses made money
• How she found buyers
• Networking, cold outreach, and building relationships
• Starting over with a completely different business
• SEO, AI, and the changing way people get discovered online
• What didn’t work along the way
• What Cindy is choosing now

Okay, Now What? is my Sunday newsletter about changing your mind, choosing again, and figuring out what comes next when the old plan doesn’t work anymore.

Subscribe:
https://letters.outofedits.com/

Website:
https://exclusivelycindy.com/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/exclusivelycindy/

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@cindygordon

She Chose Again is an Out of Edits interview series about women who changed their minds, changed direction, and chose something different for their lives.

These conversations go beyond the finished version. We talk about what happened next, how the change actually worked, what it cost, how they made money, what didn’t work, and the details that usually get skipped.

Out of Edits is a global publication for women who’ve outgrown the default path, exploring choice, reinvention, and the many ways women are building lives beyond the expected script.

Read Out of Edits:
https://www.outofedits.com

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ooecollective/

Threads:
https://www.threads.com/@ooecollective

What does starting over actually look like when it happens more than once?

Usually, I’m the one asking the questions on She Chose Again. This time, my friend Tanisha interviewed me.

We talked about the many times I’ve changed direction...leaving corporate, moving across the country, changing careers, becoming a freelancer, traveling solo, living abroad, and figuring out the money along the way.

This is less of a clean “I changed my life and everything worked out” story and more about what starting over actually looked like for me. The plans that changed. The money decisions. The periods where I had no idea what I was doing. The times I disappeared while trying to figure things out. And why I’ve gotten so comfortable changing my mind when something isn’t working.

If you’re thinking about starting over in your 30s or 40s, changing careers, freelancing, solo travel, living abroad, or creating a life that looks different from what you originally planned, this conversation gets into the parts that usually get skipped.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Career changes and leaving corporate
• Money and preparing for major life changes
• Freelancing and alternative ways of working
• Solo travel and living abroad
• Starting over without having the whole plan
• What the messy middle actually feels like
• Changing your mind without treating it like failure

About Out of Edits

Out of Edits is a global publication for women who’ve outgrown the default path, exploring choice, reinvention, and the many ways women are building lives beyond the expected script.

Subscribe for more conversations with women who changed direction, started over, and figured out what came next.

KEEP READING WITH OUT OF EDITS

If you're figuring out what you want next, Okay, Now What? is my Sunday letter about choice, reinvention, and expanding your idea of what's possible.

Get the letters:

https://letters.outofedits.com/

After a layoff and nearly two years of living on savings, Brandy Savage moved back home at 42 and began rebuilding her life in public.

In this episode of She Chose Again, Brandy talks with host Elle Mills about starting over in your 40s, leaving corporate life, becoming a beginner again, and finding ways to earn money while figuring out what comes next.

Brandy calls this her “midlife alignment era.” We get into what moving home made possible, the pressure to follow a life blueprint, and the question guiding her now: Do you have the courage to make up the rules for your own life?

CONNECT WITH BRANDY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebrandysavage
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrandysavage/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@thebrandysavage
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brandysavage

Get the Sunday letter, Okay, Now What?: https://letters.outofedits.com/

What happens when you know your life needs to change, but you have no idea what comes next?

Ashley Langham has gone from finance and compliance to marketing, copywriting, spirituality and healing, with career changes and moves across five countries along the way.

Ashley and Elle talk about starting over after burnout, leaving corporate, finding freelance clients, building multiple income streams, transferring old skills into new work, and what happens when the plans you make keep falling apart. There’s also a startup job that lasted two months, a spiritual retreat center Ashley later came to consider a cult, and the realization that even after leaving corporate, she was still treating herself like an employee.

For anyone considering a career change, starting over in their 30s or 40s, becoming self-employed, moving abroad, or trying to figure out what comes next without having the whole plan figured out.

About Ashley LanghamAshley is the founder of Thoughtful Thorough and describes herself as a mystic mentor, strategist and psychic healer.

Keep reading with Out of Edits
Okay, Now What? is a Sunday letter about choice, reinvention and the different ways women are building lives beyond the expected script.

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Content note: This episode includes discussion of depression and suicidal ideation.