A Year of Change

Betsy Hoover, Constance Slider-Pierre, Shannon Hunt-Scott, Lisha Bell and Tori Horton

Try. Especially when it scares you.

The U.S. is charged with anticipation for the 2024 election. This year has marked an unmistakable season of change in the country, with big stakes requiring even bigger leaps of action, and I have felt those same tremors of change in my own career. After two intense years building Reset Your Nest, I began 2024 knowing my job was changing but not yet sure what that would look like. Spring and summer brought a mix of exploration—a “sabbatical” where I tried on new roles, from helping a friend fundraise for Enelama, a Black-women-founded tequila brand, to working with an independent school to compile research on how to create a community of belonging.

The year has been a series of experiments, each one pushing me toward the unknown. From writing this blog to building my first company to jumping into campaign fundraising for Vice President Harris, I’ve learned one thing above all: You don’t know what you can do until you try.

1. The Long Game: Writing a Blog

When I started Women and Wealth, my goal was simple: learn to write with more confidence. This blog gave me space to take loose ideas and give them structure, permanence. Working with my cousin, Chelsea Simar, for artwork and with my editor, now dear friend, Tamzin Mitchell, I found my voice. Women and Wealth brought me connections and clarity. While I can imagine myself writing more at some future point, my focus has shifted—for now.

2. Re-inventing After a Big Leap: Finding My Next Adventure

After years in more traditional roles, I had the itch to create something of my own. Reset Your Nest became my passion project, born out of a desire to help people value invisible and cognitive home labor. Starting it with my friend, Jen Martin, required both of us to gather our courage: to go very big about our hopes for a national brand and to declare a movement to value what is often discounted as “women’s work.”

Running Reset Your Nest for two years challenged me in unexpected ways, taught me resilience, honed my leadership style, and forced me to be more publicly visible than I’ve ever been before. That journey gave me a deeper sense of purpose and the confidence to tackle even bigger goals. Now I’m leaping into a new role on the forefront of experience management and artificial intelligence, and I’m eager to apply all the skills from my time at Reset Your Nest.

Rebecca Zarate, Amina Razvi, and Tori Horton

3. The Immediate Impact: Raising Funds for the Harris Campaign

This summer, when Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee, it felt like a calling. I wanted to help, to throw myself into the effort to see her win. My involvement began almost accidentally—I was on a flight to Utah, thinking, “Someone should organize a Utah Women for Kamala event.” Then I realized that “someone” was me. Together with Nancy Gilbert, Naja Pham Lockwood, and Lavanya Mahate, I organized a Zoom event that drew over 1,200 attendees and raised $56,000 in one night. That spark ignited something bigger.

Photo by Shellee Fisher at the Oakstop in Oakland

Back in the Bay Area, I found like-minded women through my Chief professional network and Women Executives for Kamala. Our small team began meeting every Wednesday, creating a “$47 for #47” Harris campaign. We hosted nine grassroots events across the Bay Area, bringing over a thousand friends, family, and community members into living-room conversations about the election and our hopes for the future.

In less than a week, this election season will end, and we’ll see the outcome of our efforts. Win or lose, it’s been an experience I’ll carry forward with the impact we created and the friendships we built.

As I settle into my new experience management role, I realize that each project, each leap of faith—from blogging, to building a company, to grassroots organizing—has made me braver, more confident being visible, and more open to the unknown. I’ve learned that growth often happens on the edge of discomfort—where doubts meet action, and fear meets courage. Each project taught me that success isn’t just about the outcome; it’s about the willingness to show up, try, and keep going. If you have been thinking about a change you would like to see in your career or community, this is the sign you’ve been waiting for. Start today, and let me know what leap you are taking. I’ll be cheering for you.

Here’s to doing whatever is in our power to shape the world we want to live in, and here’s to the next adventure!