Major life changing news: I’ve decided to take the insane, risky leap to leave the comfort and stability of Riot, and tackle an incredibly exciting opportunity that has presented itself to me. Sorta long post ahead… if you care about the nuances of my life, my professional career, and self growth then read on. If you just want the TL;DR version, well there it was!

I’m now a little over 4 years into my time at Riot, and it has been the most impacting of any experiences of my life in evolving who I am. (Credit where credit is due however, I’m pretty sure Victoria has had a hand in things as well!) This experience has led to amazing opportunities, self growth, friendships, and so much more. Many might think I would be a fool to walk away from that, the extended “family” I have, and the amazing perks that come with working with such amazing and talented people. Honestly, I can’t blame them. This was a terrifying decision that I spent many days agonizing over and talking to quite a few confidants about before making the decision that yes, this is the right path.

I’ve been presented with the amazing opportunity to craft my own role in Partner Relations and BizDev at a senior position at a startup that is doing something that I think has valuable merit, and more importantly… something that will challenge me far more than I am now, with a perfect (for me) balance of risk to reward.

In June I’ll be 38 years old, and Victoria is living halfway around the world for the next 2+ years. If I’m going to take any major chances in life and do anything risky with my career, these next 2-3 years are the best real shot I think I have before I need to really think hard about my long-term commitments in life and listen to the adult voice in the back of my head that I’ve been mostly ignoring until now.

And so that brings me here. Friday, April 27th 2018 will be my last day at Riot. I’ve got a lot of work to do to help prepare my team to be successful without me, though I have the full confidence that they will be able to do so… I’ve spent the last 4 years helping them be ready for that. Still, I felt that 4 weeks through the end of the month was the right way to go here for the smoothest transition, I certainly owe them that.

Riot has treated me well these last 4+ years, and the only reason this opportunity has even been presented to me is because of the investment they made in me as a person. There have been honest efforts made to convince me to stay, but I haven’t been this invigorated, excited, and challenged as I am about this new opportunity since, well… since I first started at Riot, and I want that feeling again. I have faith in this new adventure, but if things don’t work out, well… if they have a need for my particular skill set again, Riot has a bit of a known habit of collecting back alumni.

I am a strange mix of excitement, terror, and anxiety. Never before have I walked away from the comfort and safety of a job willingly like this, to take a chance on something else… but I know deep down it’s the right choice.

Stay tuned, and in future days I’ll share more about where I’m going and what I’m doing! (Oh! And I’m not leaving the Santa Monica area, so I won’t be moving or anything!)