What motivates career change? From disillusionment with banking practices to a cancelled European trip, four Marin residents talk about what sparked their desire to shift industries.
MORE Career Wellness, Adrian Jones
Adrian Jones is lucky to be alive. Jones, a product manager at Charles Schwab for index-traded products, suffered a so-called widow maker (a heart attack caused by blockage of the main artery that supplies blood to your heart) while bicycling with friends near Lake Lagunitas in October 2016. After a stint in the hospital and an arterial stent, Jones had plenty of time off to think. “Why did I survive?” Jones asked himself. “What am I supposed to do with my second chance at life?”
The universe replied: “Use my story to help and inspire people.” Jones, skilled at managing miniscule shifts in financial markets, had no idea how to manifest that. But the universe was not nearly done bossing him around. He resigned from Schwab and began working with wealth managers in Marin. With his former commute time, he started blogging about heart disease prevention and awareness. Then came some public speaking and outreach to his biological family. Heart disease, he learned, runs on the maternal side of the family. He became close with the American Heart Association, began a plant-based diet and launched Profound Awesomeness, a podcast dedicated to telling the stories and insights of trauma survivors. He wrote a book. A genetic genealogist whom Jones met at a party offered to help him find his long-lost birth family. He realized he wanted to do more.
“Community is so important in going through life’s transitions,” Jones says. “It is fundamental.” Could he build a company where community support could help people get more out of life? He began working on a business with a focus on career transitions and purpose-based travel and trips. Community, coaching and curriculum are the main elements of the business he launched in Q4 of 2024 — morecareerwellness.com. The goal? “Take a risk and get out of the known to find something that stimulates you,” Jones says.
He’s developed a curriculum and a platform to create career transformations and wellness. As part of the MORE (as Jones calls it) online community, anyone can take the Reset Seminar which introduces Jones’ methodology. From there, workshops and wellness programs, and speaker spotlights where community members can share their stories, will be offered. As MORE develops, access to partner products and services and retreats with a focus on reset and inspiration are planned. “MORE gives its members the clarity and courage to redefine what is possible,” Jones says. “It’s where careers go to change. Just don’t have a heart attack over it.”
SolGrace Home, Angela Colombo Heckler
A sudden illness and untimely death of her mother-in-law in 2022 caused Terra Linda High School alumna Angela Colombo Heckler and her husband, Django (DJ), to reconsider their priorities. “I had a ‘life is too short’ moment,” Heckler says. At the time, Heckler was working her dream job, advising a for-profit company on their grant programs and other charitable giving. Heckler, who studied theater at UC Santa Barbara, found her work gratifying and successful but lacking in artistic spirit. “I just got this idea in my head that I could be doing things differently,” she says.
A new homeowner, Heckler began posting on Instagram about her own house projects. As a direct result of her social media efforts, paid projects started rolling in. Her side hustle fed her dream to just design, one project at a time. A niche in exterior renovations soon developed. One project turned into 12. Clients with “backyards they never use” sought Heckler out to design outdoor and indoor spaces to reflect their Marin lifestyle. Heckler worked late into the evenings and weekends to fuel her passion project.
The stakes of committing to the fledgling business full-time were high. In consultation with DJ and their two children, Cameron Grace and Logan Solomon, and with the support of her meditation and growth practices, they decided to use their nest egg to provide the business a one-year on-ramp. In June 2023, she left fundraising. “Handing in my letter of resignation…it felt like jumping off a cliff,” Heckler says. Her company’s name, SolGrace Home, is an honorific to the family’s shared sacrifices and support of Mom’s dream.
From outdoor hardscapes to furniture that makes sense for your family, Heckler not only designs the spaces but manages the team of builders and contractors to make each project as turnkey as possible. She’s there with you from idea to realization. Unlike fundraising, SolGrace Home is personal. “My true purpose was waiting for me,” Heckler says. “If I get lucky, I will do this work for the rest of my life.”
Rue de Rêve Apéritifs, Jennifer Kimpe and Jeanne-Marie Hebert
Co-founders and dear friends Jennifer Kimpe and Jeanne-Marie Hebert are not the first entrepreneurs to be inspired by a drive down California’s stunning coast. After the pandemic cancelled their 50th birthday trip, a driving trip substituted for Ireland. And changed their lives. “We were near Big Sur, when we started dreaming up ideas of our future, pondering what we haven’t done yet in life that we’d still like to do,” says Mill Valley’s Kimpe. That conversation proved so abiding, so powerful, the two created a new business: Rue de Rêve.
French for “Dream Street,” Rue de Rêve is part metaphor for Highway One, part reminder for one designer (Hebert) and one brand and marketing pro (Kimpe) that anything is possible. Neither had designed a product before or worked in the spirits business. With a background in home design, Hebert is in charge of operations while Kimpe is the brand builder, both creatively and strategically. “It’s a huge pivot to product from marketing,” Kimpe says.
Three years after that fateful drive, three aperitif wines hit the market — Rue de Rêve Aperitif Blanc, Rosé and Rouge. Infused with botanicals like mint and rose hip, the aperitifs are blended with California wine and brandy, and just the right amount of “dream plant,” (aka artemisia douglasiana or California mugwort), a California native that grows wild on the coast. Blanc is bright and refreshing with a zip of lemon on the nose; Rosé hints of strawberry and the Sonoma Coast breeze from where its grapes were sourced; carbonic zinfandel and notes of citrus and spice define Rouge.
Drink them up with a twist, as you might vermouth or Lillet before dinner. But why not try them in cocktails? Mill Valley’s Corner Bar utilizes Rosé in the bar’s signature Blonde Negroni. Burmatown in Corte Madera has a Rouge Spritz on the menu. All varietals are available at Voyage Wine Bar, Mill Valley Market, Strange Magic in Larkspur and Driver’s Market in Sausalito. With a new distributor on board, how long could it be before Hebert and Kimpe turn their dream from side hustle into full-time reality? “I’m hoping for a full-time sales force next year,” Kimpe says.
Kate’s Single Batch Toffee, Kate Carrier
Kate Carrier is the fourth generation of her family to live in an Eichler in, as Carrier says, the Berry Streets of Marinwood. “My grandma moved there in the 1960s, and I bought the house from my mom 10 years ago and moved here with my kids.” Carrier’s mom, Chris (Cookie) Johnson, a caterer by trade, ran her business out of a renovated garage. Every Christmas since Carrier was 8 years old, the family made toffee on the kitchen stove, handing the small-batch treats out to friends and family at holiday time. “My favorite memories are all in the kitchen with my mom, getting ready for parties,” Carrier says.
Carrier, who built a career in personal banking only to become disillusioned, left banking to build an in-home daycare practice. “I could be home with my son, run a business and be a mom at the same time,” Carrier says.
When 2020 hit, forcing the temporary closure of her daycare, Carrier turned to cooking. In the same kitchen where her mom ran a catering business, Carrier made her toffee. In two-and-a-half-pound batches made in the same All-Clad pot she’s used since childhood, Carrier swirled butter and sugar, slowly stirring until it achieved a dark amber color. Once cooled and layered with milk chocolate and crushed almonds, Kate’s toffee was shipped to family and friends.
Kate’s Toffee launched a Facebook page before Valentine’s Day, 2021. With the help of her daycare moms and others in her core support team, a website was built. When someone posted on Nextdoor about it, Kate’s Toffee was officially in business with Carrier as founder, CEO and head chef.
She applied for a cottage business license and reopened the daycare business, running it with her mom and her cousin, Samantha. Carrier now has four children, ranging in ages from 3 to 10. Industrial shelving lines the Eichler’s living room. She and husband, Chris, have “date moments,” which usually involve working together on the business. Cookie earned a master’s in early childhood education. Silbermann’s Ice Cream launched a toffee bar crunch flavor using Kate’s Toffee. The toffee is now in 22 stores. And Carrier still makes it two and a half pounds at a time in the same All-Clad pot. “I always joke that this is the thing I make better than my mother, so I named it after me,” Carrier says. “It’s proudly made in Marin.”
Christina Mueller is a long-time Bay Area food writer. She hails from the East Coast and has spent way too much time in South America and Europe. She discovered her talent as a wordsmith in college and her love of all things epicurean in grad school. She has written for Condé Nast Contract Publishing, Sunset, and the Marin Independent Journal, among others. She volunteers with California State Parks and at her childrens’ schools, and supports the Marin Audubon Society, PEN America, and Planned Parenthood. When she is not drinking wine by a fire, she is known to spend time with her extended family.
