How pursuing joy led this marketing exec to a fulfilling career pivot

Running her L.A.-based flower truck business, Vienna Hintze said, “cannot even be classified as work. It feels like full-time playtime.”

A natural go-getter, Hintze had been running a marketing agency in New York City that she started at 24. “From an outside perspective, I had everything figured out and was super successful,” she recalled. But as the agency grew, she didn’t have time to be as creative and found herself thinking: “I am so far from something that’s lighting my soul up anymore.”

Looking for a change, Hintze put her things in storage and set off traveling, eventually landing in Los Angeles, where she said, “Every single person that I was meeting was following some sort of a dream or some sort of a passion and doing whatever it took to make that come to life. That energy was completely contagious and made me start looking at my life through a much more critical lens.”?

Hintze loved L.A. and decided to relocate there, but it didn’t solve her main problem. “I was still working at a computer everyday, in meetings from nine to six. It was like pulling teeth to wake up in the morning and start working.”

When her therapist asked her what would light her soul up, Hintze made a list: Working with her hands, being outside all day, interacting with people, being heavily rooted in nature, and owning an old pickup truck. That list was “a total wake up call,” she remembered.?

The therapist gave Hintze the assignment of incorporating as many of those things as possible into her life. The concept for a flower truck quickly took root.?

Soon after she got the idea, Hintze spotted a bright green vintage pickup truck for sale and said, “I gasped, my family gasped. I had driven a bright green pickup truck in high school.” Another auspicious sign: The owner called the truck “Fiona,” a name Hintze frequently got when people misheard her first name.?

Hintze named the business after the street she grew up on — a place of fond childhood memories involving her father’s pickup truck and her mother’s garden. “It's all a very direct tie back to home and coming back to who I am instead of who I've tried to fit into being,” she explained.??

Making use of the marketing skills she honed in her previous job has been “one of the most fulfilling parts of all of this,” Hintze said. The experience has also shown her: “When you’re doing what’s authentic to you and what actually makes you happy, success comes and it comes so much faster.”?

Hintze offers this advice for anyone feeling stuck like she was: “I highly recommend making a list of what matters to you in this current moment, not what mattered before, not what you think might matter in the future, and don’t think about it through a job lens. Every skill is transferable. Don’t be afraid of starting over.”?

Do you have a story about leaving a successful career to find more fulfilling work?? Share it with us in the comments!?

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More stories about entrepreneurs who followed their bliss:?Jamelia Donaldson ? ? ? Caitlin Keating ? ?? ? Jenny Nguyen