Beverly

Taking a step back in your career isn't always a bad thing or an indicator of lack of commitment or drive. Sometimes it's just plain common sense and self-love. 

In this episode, Katie sits down with her self-described "introverted" colleague and friend, Bev — a woman whose career story is anything but quiet.

After 23 years as a labor and delivery nurse, Bev made the bold decision in her 40s to pursue her master's degree and become a certified nurse-midwife. What followed was a masterclass in resilience: navigating the financial shock of a salary reset, struggling through an under-mentored first job at the very hospital where she'd spent decades as an expert, weathering the isolation of a lawsuit and grueling depositions, and surviving 24-hour birth center shifts — an hour from home — until her body finally said enough. 

Just in time, an opportunity presented itself to return back to floor nursing and Bev took it. But this wasn't personal failure, it was growth. You don't un-become a midwife. Now working as a postpartum nurse, Bev uses her midwifery lens to give new mothers something priceless: closure. She bridges the gap between what happened in the delivery room and what her patients thought happened — a quiet but profound act of healing.

This episode features tears, laughter, and hard-won wisdom from a woman who has spent her career listening, learning, and showing up — even when it was brutally hard.

This episode pairs perfectly with a cup of oolong tea.