The Connect With Purpose Project
Your purpose is not some distant destination reserved for a few—it’s already within you, waiting to be heard. Often, it’s in the quiet whispers we try to ignore that hold the key to our deepest calling. This podcast is about listening to those whispers and taking the first steps, even when it feels scary.
Our guests have faced the same struggles—feeling stuck, unsure, or burned out—but found their way by trusting that inner voice. If you’re alive, your mission is not complete. You’re here for a reason.
The Connect With Purpose Project
Need a Career Pivot—Or a Life Pivot?
Thinking about a career pivot? Maybe it’s bigger than that. Maybe it’s a life pivot. In this episode, Kendall Breitman, Head of Community at Riverside.fm, shares her deeply personal journey of stepping away from a well-established high-profile career in political journalism — where she covered the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a reporter for Bloomberg News and worked in TV production at NBC — to carve out something new in tech.
But making a major career change isn’t just about picking a different job—it’s about unlearning old definitions of success, avoiding the traps of ‘playing it safe,’ and navigating the emotional and practical challenges that come with big transitions. Kendall gets candid about the fears, the doubts, and the surprising moments of clarity that shaped her decision.
If you're questioning your own career path, feeling stuck, or wondering if your next move is about more than just work, this episode is for you. Tune in for a conversation that just might change the way you think about reinvention.
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Know someone who's flipped the table on their career to follow their life's purpose? Let us know at titan-one.co.
I started to see my importance and what interested me and what success was through my eyes, rather than through the eyes of everyone telling me,
Nicole Gottselig:Hello, and welcome to Connect With Purpose, where we uncover the journeys of remarkable people who have turned their passions into a Purpose Driven Life. I'm your host, Nicole Gottselig, and whether you're on your own quest for meaning or simply curious how others have navigated their paths, this show is here to inspire and guide you along the way. Have you ever woken up to a career or a job that just doesn't feel like you anymore? Maybe you're going through the motions, you're followed the path, you're climbing the ladder, but something is still feeling off. Or maybe you're just wondering if there's more out there for you, or if you're meant for something else. That's exactly what we're diving into today. I'm recording this episode today from Ubud Bali, and it's my fourth time here. And the first time I came here was in 2017 I was working full time in an office, but I also had a little freelance writing gig on the side, which was my creative outlet at the time. I had an article due, and one night in my little jungle villa, the words just poured out of me. It took half the time it normally would, and I remember thinking, what if I could just work from here? Maybe not forever, but for a few months out of the year at the time, that felt impossible. Remote. Work wasn't really a thing yet, and working abroad completely out of reach. But everything feels impossible until it's done right. Sometimes it just takes one yes or just one moment, one shift in perspective that can change everything. For you, for me, that moment happened in 2018 at a swimming pool in Berlin. I had just arrived as a tourist, and it was one of the hottest days of the year, so I hightailed it to an outdoor swimming pool. As I sat down, I overheard two men from the UK talking about how they had left their jobs to build a life in Berlin. One was a freelancer, the other an entrepreneur. At the time, I was working for the Ontario government, even though it was a contract job, everyone was telling me I was set for life. In fact, I remember one woman at the ministry saying, I mean, you really have nowhere else to go now. You're gonna retire here. And that thought rattled me to the bone. Is this it? Is this all I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life, clock in, clock out. So I joined in on the conversation, sharing my own fears about leaving security behind. And one of them just looked at me and said, Well, that's the trap. Did I actually trap myself in some kind of self imposed prison just because somebody whom I barely even knew told me it was safe and this is where I should stay. As the conversation flowed, he also told me about a community co working space called factory, where freelancers found work all the time. As I left my tour, I went outside and sat on a bench, I closed my eyes, and I said, universe, if there's a way to get me here, show me the way. When I arrived back in Toronto, I found out a few days later that I would be laid off from my position at the ministry, and I'd be given a small severance package. Three months later, I moved to Berlin and was granted a freelance working visa, and two weeks after arriving, I landed my first writing gig that I got from factory, all because of four simple words. Well, that's the trap, and that's why today's conversation matters, because sometimes career pivots start with a single moment that challenges everything we thought we knew about success. My guest today, Kendall Breitman knows this firsthand. She left behind a high profile journalism career covering presidential campaigns for something entirely different, and her story might just shift the way you think about success too. I am so excited to have Kendall Breitman on Connect With Purpose today. And Kendall is the head of community at Riverside, the platform where we're actually recording this podcast right now.
Kendall Breitman:Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about our conversation today.
Nicole Gottselig:Me too. Today's conversation is really all about career pivots. And after my call with you when we met about a month ago, I was like, hmm, we're doing a show on career pivots. You have a real career pivot. I pivoted, yeah, definitely. How did you get to be where you are now as Riverside Community Manager.
Unknown:I started as a political journalist, actually, so quite the pivot. So my career started in political journalism. At Politico I was a breaking news reporter there out of college, which was fitting, because my degree was in politics and journalism. So seemed like that. College. Education led me right to a career, and it was great. I loved it. I mean, from there I went to reporting for political organizations like NBC News and Bloomberg News. I followed the 2016 presidential campaign for Bloomberg. I, like I lived out of a suitcase for about a year and a half following all the campaigns, and then went over to NBC, to MSNBC as a TV producer, and I really loved, like the day to day. I loved that things were different every day. I loved to follow stories. And then I actually, I started to find some parts of it that I didn't love as much. So, for example, the every day being something different. It was also the everyday being on so having two cell phones being always reachable if there was breaking news, i No matter what I was doing, I was out, so I had to go back to work to do that. And for a while, that drove me, but I found that after a while, it kind of started taking from me a bit too much. And then around that same time, I also met my now wife. And so I thought, I mean, I was in my late 20s, and I was like, Okay, I don't own any property. I don't own a car. I like, if I'm gonna try a life pivot, why not let it be now, what could go wrong? And I mean, if anything did go wrong, I had a lot of confidence in the fact that I could always go back to this. I made a lot of connections and felt pretty confident in myself. So I tried it out. Then went over to marketing, because that's kind of a cliche that journalists will go over to marketing or PR. And so at first I was like, Okay, I'll go to Marketing. I'll be a content writer, because I was a journalist writing. And then I realized that what I loved about journalism was not the writing, it was actually the storytelling. It was hearing what mattered to people. And that ended up leading me into community and connecting with community. So that's kind of my my long and short of it, I guess, about the genesis of what my career has become.
Nicole Gottselig:What I love about that is hearing about what matters to people. So as a journalist, you would have had to do that as well. So you're listening to what matters to people, or what people are saying, and then you actually turn that into a story. So actually, I can almost see the connection now. So it's actually same, same, but different, right?
Kendall Breitman:At first it seems really random, right to go from political journalism to community, but when it's explained that way, it makes it makes more sense. Like I was finding that when I was writing marketing copy, I was like, okay, maybe I didn't love writing. Maybe I loved standing in line of a political rally and hearing why people were standing there, what mattered to them, what issues they cared about, how they got there, and taking all of those different stories and then creating one big story out of it, figuring out what's the headline. And I kind of apply that same type of thinking towards community marketing now is speaking with a bunch of different users, speaking to our audience and saying, like, Okay, what do they care about? What matters to them, what drives their day? That's really what makes me feel excited.
Nicole Gottselig:That's actually almost like a framework that you could put into almost any role that you have, because at the end of the day, we're always selling talking to meeting with people, to people. So I like that.
Kendall Breitman:And yeah, that's why I like community.
Nicole Gottselig:I love this idea, whether you're in marketing, journalism or community building, it all comes back to listening and understanding people. So if you've ever wondered how to pivot careers, or don't know where to begin, maybe it's about thinking less about the job title and more about the skills that actually light you up. What could your version of this look like?
Kendall Breitman:I like to think, and I'm confident in this that like I know people the like Riverside users, like the people that are on our platform every day, better than anyone else at the company, because I speak with them, and I connect with them, and I hear their stories, and then I advocate for them. That's my whole job. And then that bleeds into speaking with product, where we're going to go next, speaking with marketing. How do we speak with those people like that's really what makes me feel good, is feeling like I'm thinking about those people when I'm doing everything during my day. What will they care about? What matters most of them, how will this help their lives? So, yeah, I mean, in a lot of ways, that's also kind of in like a journalist path is remembering those stories and using them to educate what you're writing and doing.
Nicole Gottselig:Let's go back into political journalism. Did you know maybe after or in high school or university? Like, what drew you to political journalism? Like, let's go back to really, what is your like? How does that align with your values and who you are?
Kendall Breitman:Well, so I always love journalism. At first I wanted to do. Features and just kind of do interviews with people. And yeah, that was first the idea. But then I went to school in Washington, DC, and saw how politics was really driving those conversations and driving the entire city and the entire country, and it's also really hard, like at American University, there's a joke that, like, nobody's really doing sports, but everyone's involved in politics. That's kind of the sport. And then I actually got my internship at USA Today, and that was at the politics section. So at first I was just kind of general journalism. And then when I started doing politics the internship with USA Today, I was like, Okay, this is really interesting to me. It started to seem like it almost that I that, I don't mean to I think that this is like politics is extremely important. But you start to look at it kind of in this sports journalism way, who's doing, what to get, what votes? Where are people going? It's even down to like, if a political candidate is going to more of a professional gathering and they're wearing the suit, and then you'll see them the next day in Iowa and they're just wearing a t shirt, or their their sleeves are rolled up. There's so much gesturing, there's so much kind of hidden things that are within politics of how you get people, I think of it kind of as a in marketing, like people in the US only get one vote every four years for who's going to represent the country. So when you think of it from a marketing perspective, what are people doing to take their most important vote out of four years and say that that should be for me? How are people speaking to what people care about? How are they structuring how they speak. How are they even speaking? What words are they using, what phrases? When you start to look at it that way, as kind of this, like psychological type of mindset, of how people are getting those votes, how people are positioning themselves in public, it's just, it's really interesting. So that was one of the things. But second of all, I just think there's nothing more important that touches people's lives. So I felt like it was important to me to know more about politics, but also it was important to me to communicate it to as many people as possible, in ways that were relatable, in ways that were interesting to read and didn't feel kind of out of reach. Because I think that sometimes politics can do that, like, what does this bill even mean? If that makes sense, absolutely.
Nicole Gottselig:And I mean, I'm a journalistic style writer trained myself, so I really resonate with that, because one of the things I love to do is to make stories and language accessible to everybody, right? Someone like me who doesn't really have any interest in politics at all. What you say to me makes me actually want to read what you wrote, because it I feel like I could understand it a little bit more. Actually, I do read anything like reading the New York Times and things like that, because I actually feel a bit more part of the story with the storytelling, and that it's more accessible like that as well,
Unknown:exactly, and when I'm thinking about it also, I mean, it's interesting, because I never thought about this before, but I also feel like that kind of applies to what I'm doing at Riverside now too, because it's making stories accessible. Like, I don't need a million dollar studio to be able to sit down and record and speak with people, you know. And I think that that's one of my favorite things about Riverside, is that, like, you can speak to anyone in the world and get really high quality content. And when we open up that ability for more people, you ultimately get more stories from more people and more perspectives. So that's always been something that I loved about it, but I kind of didn't make that connection until just now.
Nicole Gottselig:I love that C connect with purpose, connecting. Look at this. We are connecting with purpose. Yes, we are connecting with purpose. You know, when you were in your in any role you're you're in, have you always looked for jobs? Or have you found jobs? Come to you. Just come to you, naturally.
Unknown:Most of the time, they've come to me. I mean, it's also with my effort. But for example, when I left politico and went to Bloomberg to cover the 2016 campaign, it was because they were looking for a young journalist who would be able to live out of the suitcase and travel around. And somebody that I worked with at politico recommended me and said that I would be great for the job for Riverside. They actually I had applied for a YouTube creator role, even though I'd never YouTube created in my life, pretty confident with that one so but then when they needed a community manager, my apparent like something in my resume made me stand out for that role that they reached out to me. So it's a little bit of a combination. I mean, there's some roles that I applied for, but then there's some roles that people have seen something in me that they think would work for the
Nicole Gottselig:job I asked that because that was sort of just from hearing you speak, and that's just sort of a sense I was getting. I'm like, I wonder if a lot of roles just came to you, just by just you being, I want to say you just being. You, but that's just sort of, as I look through your career trajectory, that's sort of what I see. And I've also had a very similar experience with my career and my jobs too, and that's one of the things I wanted to bring into this episode, was sometimes it's about just listening and being open and being ready, and less about like pushing and applying and things like that. So maybe you can give us some some tips on that, like, say we have a friend or somebody who's listening here today who is in the midst of a career transition, having a hard time finding a job, doesn't know what to do,
Unknown:I would say, and this is maybe not for somebody that's doesn't have a place or finding a job. What I do early on, before I'm even looking for a job, is, if I like, try to make one friend out of every work day. And if you're at a small office, what that could even mean is, if you have a freelance crew, for example, coming in. Because this happened with me. I was working at Wix as a marketing writer, we had a freelance crew come in for a video that I was doing, and I applied that philosophy, I'm going to make one friend on set today, and that friend ended up being a colleague, Daniel, and when I was going to go to Riverside, he worked at Riverside, or when I was at Bloomberg, and I was making friends of people that were on set there later on, Those are the people who recommended me to come to NBC because they had moved over to NBC. So every time that you're in the position to try to make one new friend, one connection at the place that you're at. So whether that's having a freelancer, whether that's freelancers that are coming by, even those small connections, you have somebody working on a blog for you like making that connection with that person, you never know what that can lead to, and you never know how that can end up creating a new opportunity for you. And also it's just nice to make new friends. So that's kind of how I approach my work day, usually, and it ends up setting me up for success later, so that I don't really get into that zone where I kind of feel like I don't know where to go next, because I have those connections that can at least lead me to a potential of what is next.
Nicole Gottselig:I love that opening the door to networking with friendships versus, you know, something transactional and what can they do for me? Yeah. How often do we think of networking as just a means to an end. Kendall approach is all about real connection. Imagine if, instead of just handing out business cards or cold messaging on LinkedIn, you focused on making friends. How would that change things for you?
Unknown:A lot of the way. And my mother taught me this actually, like there when you're interviewing with people, I think that a lot of people forget that such an important part of interviewing is whether or not that person can see themselves working with you every day. You can be the smartest at what you do, you can be talented at what you do, but what really drives people as what like you have to be talented and good at what you do, but what really also drives people is like, wow, I would love to work with this person. I'd love to have them in my office every day. So I don't I think that you should never underestimate the power of that.
Nicole Gottselig:I absolutely agree. Because, you know, even when I met you, I was like, this is somebody I want to hang out with, right? So this is something you that's the thing. And now we're doing the podcast together too. And yeah, so I really love that philosophy, too, and that really resonates with us to
Unknown:connect with purpose. Yeah, I mean, it's connections with purpose. So it makes sense. So
Nicole Gottselig:I know it wasn't probably like easy to go from political journalism and then into like, Wix and then to Riverside. So there certainly had to be some kind of uncertainty to leave such a like one path and go into another. Like, how did you navigate
Unknown:that? Yeah, so I think, I think a hard part of leaving journalism, especially I was, this was right after the 2016 campaign. And so everybody in journal, when you're working in journalism, especially politics, they're like, You're doing such an amazing thing, you know, like, What an impressive thing to do, but also what an important thing to do, and they're inspired by it. And I think that I was getting a lot of my own feelings about my work and my worth through that mindset of other people, thinking what I was doing was so cool, and thinking what I was doing was so interesting and important. And so it drove me, but I was realizing that I, in my day to day, wasn't as connected to what I was doing. I wasn't as driven by it or happy with it. But I was like, but everyone's saying it's such an interesting job, and it's so cool. So yeah. So I was like, okay, so I just need to suck up the fact that I feel like my personal life is kind of fading a bit. Or I just need to, like so many people would kill to be doing this, that kind of idea. And I felt successful because of that. I must be successful because everyone's talking about that. I'm successful. And then, like I was going to quit my job to be with my girlfriend, now my wife, but that was also this whole mind thing for. Me that, like, I'm gonna quit this interesting, important job to be with a girl that I like. So then I started reframing, like, What is Success to me? Could success also be moving to a completely other country, learning a new language, putting myself out there in a completely new way, and thriving in a completely new environment on the other side of the world, yes, but usually, when we look at what success is, nine times out of 10, a person is going to tell you something to do with their job. You know, success is getting promoted or getting a raise or reaching some sort of level in your career. And I think that sometimes, because of that, we're forgetting what success could be personally. And so it was a bit of a reminder of I needed to remind myself of that, because I started to see my importance and what interested me and what success was through my eyes, rather than through the eyes of everyone telling me how great my job must be.
Nicole Gottselig:Wow. So you actually became like you stepped out, and then you looked at yourself like you zoomed out, and then looked at yourself in. Yeah, it was a crazy time, pretty deep, though, because, as you say, a lot of us, even myself included, I was a really big workaholic. Everything to me was defined by my job and my career and what I do. So for you to actually take out of that and just go, okay, maybe. And reframed it. So he reframed it as well. Yeah,
Unknown:like, for me, I was also like, am I going to keep working at this job? And this is not to knock journalism. Like, I really did love it. I just was kind of getting burnt out by it and realizing that I was about to say no to what could potentially be this incredible opportunity. And I mean, now we're married and we have a new baby. So it's like I could have potentially said no to all of that, because I felt so excited by the fact that other people thought I was important because I was doing journalism, you know, and was that going to be what make me happy at the end of my day? And I actually have a little story within that, which is that there was this producer that was at one of the companies that I was working for at the time, and they had worked all of the time. I remember that they were retiring, and we had a goodbye party for them in the newsroom, and we were all gathered around, and we had these, like, plastic champagne glasses or plastics, and we had, like, this bad Prosecco, and we're all just standing there cheersing to and, like, just thinking about the amount of time that they've been there, and the fact that, like, I'm sitting there cheersing to them, and I don't really know them. I met them once, and I was like, What am I doing this all for? What's going to make me happy and feel accomplished? So sometimes that's your work, and I think that sometimes it's about finding the work that makes you feel that way, and finding the people and the other experiences in your life that also make you feel that way. But maybe now I'm getting a little bit too on a side note, no,
Nicole Gottselig:it really touches me. Do you feel like that? Going into that burnout too is a bit of the tipping point, and then it probably helped make your decision easier. Actually, I don't know, did it or Yeah,
Unknown:I was always wonder if like, chicken or the egg, like, would I have felt so burnt out if I didn't meet this wonderful woman on the other side of the world? You know, would I have just been like, would it have been a phase? But I think that it was the combination that pushed me of realizing that I maybe wasn't so happy, but also realizing that something else was making me happy. And kind of the push and pull of that. But I don't know. I don't know if I'd still be in the same I wouldn't be in the same position if those two factors didn't exist at the exact same right? Time,
Nicole Gottselig:it's like patience and timing, right? Alan Watts, philosopher, he always says, like, we never know what our lives are going to change, and we never know when certain people are coming to our lives. And then you never know. And then, but you said yes, right? So it's, it's a yo. You said yes to it, right? You could have been like, I got this job, I got this thing. I can't but then you just picked up and said, Okay, no, I'm gonna go with you and leave my country. And and then it all worked out, right? So yeah, and here we are. So if you're waiting to feel ready, what if you just started? When I sat by that pool in Berlin, I never expected one conversation, one sentence, to change everything. Well, that's the trap. Those words shook me awake. I had been following the safe path convincing myself it was enough. Kendall had her own version of that moment, realizing that success wasn't just about what others saw from the outside. Leaving journalism was a risk, but she stepped into the unknown and found something even more fulfilling. So if you're feeling stuck or wondering if you're meant for something more, maybe you're standing at your own version of that poolside moment, the question is, Will you stay in the trap, or will you take the first step? Because if you're still alive, your mission on earth is not complete. Keep going. Thanks for being part of this episode of connect with purpose. If you found today's conversation inspiring, please subscribe and leave us a review. It helps us reach more listeners like you who are seeking meaningful stories and insights, and remember living with purpose isn't some far off destination, it's a journey that we're all on together. So if you aren't living your purpose fully right now, don't worry. You're still alive. Your mission on earth is not complete. So until next time, I'm Nicole Gottseligh, and this is Connect With Purpose.
Sian Sue:Thanks for joining us on Connect With Purpose. Produced by Titan One. Connect With Purpose is hosted by Nicole Gottselig, Executive Producer, Mark Glucki, producer Sian Sue-- Hey, that's me! Special thanks to Monica Low and Dave Chao design and Charlie, the office dog. Do you have an inspiring story? Or maybe you know someone who's followed their passion to find a new purpose? Reach out on our site. We'd love to hear from you.
