From Musical Theater to Doula to PhD Dropout to Business Consultant: How All My "Detours" Inform the Work I Do Now
People love a linear success story.
"I always knew I wanted to do this, so I studied that, and now I'm here." Clean. Straightforward. Easy to explain at networking events.
That's not my story.
My path looks chaotic from the outside. Musical theater. Barista. History degrees. PhD student. Doula. Death doula. Virtual assistant. Systems consultant.
But every "detour" built something I use now. And honestly? I wouldn't be good at what I do without all of them.
Musical Theater
My first major was musical theater performance. For three years, I lived and breathed it. Spent all my time learning how to step into someone else's experience and make it real on stage.
I loved performing. I loved the craft of it. The way you could embody a character, inhabit their world, make an audience feel something.
What I didn't love: audition culture. The constant rejection. The endless proving yourself. The sense that you were only as good as your last callback.
I left.
What It Gave Me
Confidence and bravery. The ability to show up and be visible even when it's uncomfortable. The skill of stepping into someone else's experience and understanding it from the inside.
I use this constantly in my business. When I'm on a client call, I'm not just listening to their words. I'm stepping into their experience. Understanding what it feels like to be them, in their business, with their challenges.
Theater taught me how to do that. And it taught me the bravery to try things even when I'm scared.
Barista
I started working as a barista while I was in undergrad. Made coffee, learned people's orders, built community in a small shop where regulars came in every day.
I never actually quit. I still do this very part-time because I genuinely love it.
What It Gave Me
Community building. The power of showing up for people consistently, even in small ways. The value of repeated interactions: seeing the same faces, learning their stories, being a small constant in their lives.
My whole business model is built on relationships and community. I don't run ads or funnels. I network like my life depends on it because I genuinely love connecting with people and supporting their work.
That came from years of customer relationships. From learning that showing up consistently, being present, and caring about people builds something much more valuable than any marketing strategy.
History Degrees & PhD
I got my BA in history, then my MA. I graduated my BA pregnant with my first baby and graduated my MA pregnant with my second, so that was... a time. Then I went straight into a PhD program.
I studied American history. My research focused on gender, which opened up levels of compassion and grace in me I didn't know were there. I learned how to teach, how to research, how to synthesize complex information and make it accessible. I got really good at academic tech (which is a whole skillset).
And I learned the value of saying "I don't know."
Why I Left
COVID rearranged everything. My priorities shifted. I started training as a doula in 2021, and suddenly the path I was on (the academic career, the research, the trajectory I'd been building toward for a decade) didn't feel like the path I wanted anymore.
So I left the PhD program.
What It Gave Me
Teaching is at the heart of what I do. I'm not just building systems for clients, I'm teaching them how to use those systems, how to think about their business differently, how to understand their own patterns.
The tech skills I learned in academia serve my clients constantly. Notion databases, automation, complex workflows. I learned a lot of that foundation in grad school.
The research skills help me understand clients' industries, their competitors, their contexts. I can dive into something unfamiliar and make sense of it quickly.
And the compassion and grace from my gender research? That shows up in every client interaction. In how I hold space for people. In how I see their full humanity, not just their business problems.
Also: saying "I don't know" is one of the most valuable things I can do as a consultant. It builds trust. It creates space for collaboration. It models that not having all the answers is okay.
Doula Work
I did birth doula training in 2021 and death doula training in 2022. I still do this work. I still love it.
Doula work is about walking alongside people at major inflection points in their lives. Birth. Death. Transitions. You're not there to fix or solve or control. You're there to be present, to support, to hold space.
What It Gave Me
How to hold contradictions gently. Birth is beautiful and painful. Death is both loss and release. People can feel multiple things at once, and all of those feelings are valid.
Business is full of contradictions too. You need structure AND flexibility. You need consistency AND novelty. You need boundaries AND compassion.
Doula work taught me how to hold those contradictions without trying to resolve them.
It also taught me how to walk alongside people without fixing. How to trust their process instead of imposing my solutions. How to be present without needing to control the outcome.
Business consulting, at its best, is the same thing. I'm walking alongside people at an inflection point, usually when their current systems aren't working and they need something different. I'm not there to fix them or impose a solution. I'm there to support their process.
The Common Thread
Looking back, the thread is clear.
Every job I've had has been about:
Teaching and educating
Understanding people
Seeing them as whole humans
Supporting them through something
Walking alongside them through transitions
Musical theater: embodying someone else's experience, making people feel something.
Barista: showing up for people consistently, building community.
Academia: teaching, researching, understanding complex systems and making them accessible.
Doula work: walking alongside people at inflection points, holding contradictions, trusting their process.
My current work is the same thing, just in a business context.
I'm walking alongside neurodivergent entrepreneurs at inflection points in their businesses. I'm teaching them how to build systems that work for their brains. I'm holding the contradiction of structure and flexibility. I'm seeing them as whole humans, not just business problems to solve.
All of those "detours" prepared me for this.
Why "Detours" Aren't Detours
These weren't wrong turns. They were building blocks.
Each experience added something I use now. The diversity of experience makes me better at what I do. I understand more people, more situations, more contexts. I bring tools from unexpected places.
The theater training helps me understand what it feels like to be in someone else's shoes. The barista work taught me about community and consistency. The academic background gave me research skills and teaching chops. The doula work taught me how to hold space and trust process.
I wouldn't be good at what I do without all of them.
What looks like chaos from the outside is actually just... preparation. Building. Collecting tools and skills and perspectives that all serve the work I do now.
Your Path Doesn't Have to Be Linear
If your career path looks like a tangled mess, you're not doing it wrong.
The "detours" might be the most valuable part. The skills you picked up in that random job, the perspective you gained from that thing you thought was a waste of time, the connections you made in that industry you left. All of it matters.
Diverse experience isn't a liability. It's an asset.
You understand more. You've seen more. You bring more to the table because you've been at more tables.
So if you're beating yourself up for not having a clean, linear story: stop.
Your winding path might be exactly what makes you good at what you do.
What "detours" have you taken that inform your work now? I'd love to hear your winding path. Drop a comment and let's celebrate the chaos.
