Vision Actualized: "I nailed my vision!"
Sandra, COO: Condensed Story
Operations & Supply Chain Executive | Food & Beverage Industry
Sandra spent nearly 5 1/2 years earning progressive promotions to COO at a high-growth DTC food startup, leading the company through 600% revenue growth during Covid. She was proud of what she built, and the role was close to her ikigai-center. When post-Covid market shifts reduced food delivery demand, she knew her role wasn’t stable and began passively looking for a new role. Three interviews with the same feedback: "This role is below you." When she formally launched her job search the results were worse: 16 customized applications produced zero HR screeners (ghosted or rejected.) A mutual connection referred Maitri, and they scheduled a strategy session.
What She Thought She Needed vs What the Work Revealed
Sandra came in confident about her direction. She wanted resume and LinkedIn help, better personal branding, and to start landing interviews. She did not think she needed vision work.
Her initial ikigai evaluation exercise showed Sandra was close to center in most quadrants, but not quite there. She was 80% aligned in a role that failed around her, and she was grieving.
Once the grief had room to breathe, a dual-track vision emerged:
I. An operations leadership role in a high-growth food and beverage startup.
II. A strategic operations management position in a larger, established food and beverage company.
Specific enough to guide every networking conversation. Flexible enough to catch opportunities from two directions at once. A vision narrative was created, practiced, and became her compass.
The Strategy
Sandra built a targeted networking plan, identified regional food and beverage companies to pursue, and developed a set of questions designed to get her contacts thinking on her behalf. Introverted by nature, she was stretched by the cold outreach, the industry events, and coffee meetings. She did it anyway. Maitri also walked her through setting up a consulting business, a strategic Plan B. It kept her active, visible, and billable while the right full-time opportunity developed. All of this was done before AI. Every edit, every question, every positioning decision was worked through manually, with Maitri’s career coaching with a recruiter's lens and their combined strategic intelligences.
The Outcome
The 1099 consulting path and the full-time W2 employee path converged. A food and beverage operations consulting engagement turned into a permanent role. Within 6 months, Sandra was Head of Operations at a new company, exactly in the industry and function she had named in her vision. Eight months later, she was promoted to COO, where she is today.
When Maitri asked how close her new role is to her original vision after a year with the company, this was her reply:
"Thanks for checking in. Yes, I think I nailed it!"
The shift from applying to open postings and being ghosted, to intentional networking and working two plans in tandem, came from doing the work in the right order: vision first, strategy second, tactics last.
Refusing Panic: A Senior Leader's Transition
Kaye, CFO: Condensed Story
When Kaye came to me in mid-November, she was a CFO / VP Finance-level leader at a $50M company undergoing a merger. She knew her role would be phased out. She had one month of guaranteed pay and a few months of personal runway.
On paper, everything looked strong: 20+ years of progressive finance leadership, a solid resume, and a clear executive track record. She had already spent two weeks applying to about 25 roles with a generic approach. The result was zero interviews. And life was layering on: Thanksgiving, a cross-state move, two weeks of illness, and the holidays approaching.
Instead of accelerating, we slowed down. We clarified what she was intentionally building next. We identified one role that genuinely matched her leadership level, strengths, and constraints. We prepared a single, highly customized application and follow up strategy. We also activated strategic private conversations instead of relying on applications and public 'Open to Work' postings. We practiced how she articulated her value and vision under pressure, and prepared deliberately for both a phone and in-person interview.
All of this happened while Kaye was moving, sick, and navigating the holidays. We did not follow a rigid program. Every step was customized to her current reality.
The result: one application, one interview process (phone interview with the President in mid-December, in-person team interview December 22), and one accepted offer on January 2. Start date January 19.
8 live coaching conversations over 6 weeks, during the most chaotic time of year, an illness, and a household move.
This was not luck. It was restraint under pressure. And it is career actualization in action: fewer moves, made intentionally, producing outsized results.
In Her Own Words:
“Maitri brings clarity, discipline, and strategic perspective to high-stakes career decisions. Her guidance helped me replace reactive tactics with a focused, aligned approach appropriate to senior leadership. The result was one targeted application, one interview process, and one accepted offer within six weeks. I would confidently recommend Maitri to any executive navigating a critical transition.”
Network Announcement:
“I want to publicly thank Maitri Meyer for the way she supported me through a pivotal career transition. When I started working with her, I assumed finding my next role would be straightforward. On paper, everything looked strong. Yet after weeks of applying, I had zero interviews and growing pressure as my role was winding down. Maitri didn't push me to apply more or 'try harder.'
Instead, she helped me slow down, clarify what I was truly aiming for, and align my strategy with the level I was operating at. We focused on vision first, then made very targeted, intentional moves.
Maitri brings a rare combination of strategic clarity, calm leadership, and real-world understanding of what senior professionals face under pressure. If you're navigating a transition and don't want fear to drive your decisions, I can't recommend her highly enough.”