Moments, Not Years

What does it take to start choosing your life instead of just pushing through it?In this episode I talk with Ariela Picciotto — one of my closest friends — about a path that never really went to plan. She left New York years ago to be closer to the people she loves, traded a planned move to London for an unplanned life in Paris, and eventually followed her curiosity out of the corporate world and into coaching.There was a breaking point along the way: the day she got the offer she'd been chasing, her body finally gave out and she landed in the ER. We talk about what that taught her — about finite time, the choices we make with it, thinking about life in seasons, and what happens when you stop measuring your years and start measuring your moments.About Ariela Picciotto:Ariela Picciotto is a leadership and career coach with 15 years of GTM leadership experience mostly in tech scale-ups, including as General Manager at ClassPass, where she launched and scaled France and Southern Europe into one of the top five markets globally.After building a career that looked impressive on paper, she found herself asking: I built this, I chose it, so why does it no longer feel like me? Those are the questions her clients carry too, and the ones she now helps them answer.She works with senior women in tech who have built successful careers and yet feel unfulfilled, stuck, or quietly wondering if this is still it. Through coaching that combines strategic career thinking with embodied leadership and inner authority, she helps them get clear on who they are becoming so their next move actually fits.She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Certificate in Professional Coaching from New Ventures West, and coaches in English, French, Italian, and Spanish.Connect with Ariela:Website: https://www.arielapicciotto.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielapicciotto/Connect with me:[email protected]: @quitmyjobpodSubstack: https://maricellaherrera.substack.com/Show Notes:00:00 Offer Day ER Wakeup00:10 Podcast Premise Intro00:52 Behind on Episodes03:24 Meet Ariella06:26 Childhood Dream Jobs07:08 Choosing Business Path09:40 Consulting Reality Check11:22 Ballet Studio Role14:34 Leaving New York17:32 Family Time Math20:13 ClassPass Breakthrough23:22 Burnout and Reorg25:30 Getting a Coach26:41 Stress Sends Her to ER27:52 Healing Before Day One29:02 Why Coaching Called Her33:26 Coaching as a Business35:31 Rejecting Hustle Culture38:44 Going All In on Coaching41:29 Redefining Success48:55 Balancing Ambition and Play53:13 Advice to Her Past Self