How to Know When It's Time to Leave Your Corporate Job to Bet On Yourself Instead: a Conversation with Molly Godfrey, LinkedIn Strategist and Founder

You built a career that looks impressive on paper — but lately, something's felt off, and you can't quite name why. In this episode of Twenty 12, Coach Meg sits down with Molly Godfrey, LinkedIn strategist and founder of Molly Godfrey Consulting and the Impressions community, to talk about what it actually takes to walk away from a lucrative, high-status career and start over on your own terms.Molly was on the fast track in tech sales when she hit a wall: the next promotion meant more of a life she didn't want. She'll tell you what it took to quit twice (the first attempt didn't stick), why the people who loved her most called her decision crazy, and how a failed dating coaching business became the unlikely bridge to the LinkedIn strategy work she does now.You'll hear how Molly used "prototyping" — testing small, low-stakes versions of an idea before going all in — to move from the top sales person at her company, to building her own business. And she gets honest about what success looked like to her in her 20s versus now, and why the friendships that come to you in your 30s are worth the wait.If you're a top-performer in your 30s who is starting to really question the path you built for yourself in your 20s, working through burnout, or looking for permission to start prototyping your way toward career reinvention and finding your purpose — this conversation is for you.-------Show NotesLinkedIn strategist Molly Godfrey on quitting a lucrative tech sales career, failing her way into a dating coaching business, and prototyping her way to founding the Impressions community.Molly Godfrey is a LinkedIn strategist and coach, and the founder of Molly Godfrey Consulting and the Impressions community, where she helps founders — mostly women in coaching, consulting, and advisory work — communicate their expertise on LinkedIn. Before LinkedIn became her full-time focus, she built and eventually set aside a dating coaching business for high-achieving women, and before that, walked away from a fast-growing career in tech sales. Her story is a real-time case study in prototyping your way to the right business, one imperfect experiment at a time.In this episode, we learn:Why Molly tried to quit her tech sales job once, got talked into staying, and what finally made her leave for goodThe "prototyping" mindset that took her from a childhood VHS rental business to a dating coaching practice to LinkedIn strategyWhat people actually said when she walked away from a lucrative, high-status career — and why she stopped listeningHow a failed dating coaching business became the surprising bridge to the work she does nowWhy she believes gap years and sabbaticals should be far more normalizedHow her definition of success shifted from external markers to internal onesWhat she's building now with Impressions, and how she's learning to scale without losing what makes it workMemorable Quotes from This Episode"Most people told me I was crazy... but I had to dig deep and just trust that I knew what was best."— Molly Godfrey"I wish I had experimented more in my twenties, if I'm honest."— Molly Godfrey"What a privilege it is to make real money doing what I love."— Molly GodfreyLinkedIn: Molly Godfrey Impressions Community - apply now!Follow Coach Meg on LinkedIn for more on career reinvention, job search strategy, and building a career (and life) that actually fits.If this episode resonated, share it with a friend who's quietly wondering "what else is possible" — and if you've got a minute, leaving a review helps more people like you find the show. 🫶