Career Path Of A CEO And Founder At Hit Of Happiness

I started college as an accounting major. My father was an accountant, so I figured it was a logical career path. My first internship was with Ernst and Young, one of the Big Four accounting firms in London.

I had studied abroad in London the summer before and fell in love with the city. I wanted to do whatever I could to get back, combined with accounting roles. The following summer, I interned for PwC in New York City, another Big Four firm.

This role was more in deals consulting, a little different but similar in structure. When deciding where to start my career, it was between EY London and PwC New York. I honestly really wanted London, but my parents wanted me to go to New York, saying I could go to London later. So I listened to them and started my career in New York City. I still feel I need to move to London at some point; there's something about that city.

Fast forward, I started my career in New York City working in deals consulting. This was a pretty glamorous job, given my major. I was really excited and into it for the first year. In the second year, I started realizing this work wasn't exciting. I enjoyed working in teams and traveling, but overall, the environment felt like a burden.

I was working 80 to 90 hours a week, flying every Monday to Thursday. I reached a point where I said this doesn't feel like how I want life to feel. I was getting more of the things society says bring happiness: more money, power, and success. I was promoted early, yet I wasn't that happy. I started questioning what would make me happy.

This led me to question life, and I started reading self-help books and talking to people doing cool jobs. I had a chat with a doctor from Harvard, a professor in positive psychology and leadership, and a leading thinker on the science of happiness. I thought he'd give me 15 minutes, but we talked for three hours. I was inspired and wanted to drink the "Kool-Aid" he was drinking.

After that, I spent the next year while still working at PwC, doing his program to become a certified happiness coach. It was a year-long program, about 10 hours a week, taking a deep dive into the science of happiness. I learned what actually makes us happy versus what we think makes us happy, and I heavily experimented on myself. A year later, my happiness increased dramatically.

The main takeaway for me was that happiness is an inside job. If it could work for me, why couldn't it work for other people? When I say happiness is an inside job, I mean we love to play the victim mentality, saying, "When I get promoted, I'll be happy," or "When I get this house," or "When I get married." The reality is so much of our happiness is within us, through our actions and taking care of ourselves.

I started taking care of myself and prioritizing myself, and I saw dramatic shifts. I knew this could work for other people. So, I started my side hustle coaching on the side, envisioning what my company now could look like. In the beginning, I started a blog and a podcast.

I became really passionate about this, so I switched my job at PwC from consulting to human capital strategy. This role focused on motivating, retaining, and incentivizing employees, which was much more in line with what I cared about. I started building a business case for happiness in the workplace and leading workshops.

Initially, these were small workshops for teams of 10-15. Eventually, I was leading workshops for over 2,000 people in the New York Metro market. This was fulfilling; I felt like I was helping people and making an impact. I found that meaning in work that I hadn't fully had before, along with a little more balance.

At the same time, I thought, if this can work at a large company like PwC, why can't it work anywhere? So, I started thinking about how to build this into a movement and a business. I applied to my MBA at UCLA to spend two years building my business. I graduated last year and now have this business focused on happiness. Does that answer your question?