Stop Planning Your Career. Start Designing Your Life. | Kate Crane

What if, instead of asking “What should I do next in my career?”, you asked a bigger question: “What do I want my life to look like two years from now?” In this episode, I sit down with Kate Crane, whose career has taken her from management consulting to corporate strategy, DoorDash, Flock Safety, OpenTable, and now entrepreneurship as the founder of Direction Over Perfection. Kate has made a lot of pivots—and not all of them worked out exactly as planned. She deliberately stepped off the consulting “rocket ship” after burning out in her twenties. She later joined DoorDash and helped grow its Drive business from roughly $9 million in annualized revenue to more than $500 million. She changed roles as her ambitions changed, reconsidered what work should look like after becoming a mother, walked away from jobs that weren’t the right fit, and eventually found herself drawn toward helping other people navigate their own career decisions. What I love about Kate’s story is that there was never one grand master plan. Instead, she kept paying attention. What am I good at? What do I want to learn? What matters in this season of my life? What am I willing to risk? And perhaps most importantly: Does the career I’m building actually support the life I want to live? We talk about burnout, fear, risk tolerance, identity, parenthood, career experimentation, and why something not working out doesn’t necessarily mean it was the wrong decision. Kate also makes a compelling case for abandoning the traditional five-year plan. Rather than trying to predict some distant future, she encourages people to think about where they want to be in two years—personally and professionally—and then identify the experiences, skills, and choices that might move them in that direction. If you’ve been wondering whether your current career still fits—or you know you want something different but don’t have the whole path mapped out yet—this conversation is a reminder that you don’t need perfect clarity before you move. Sometimes direction is enough. Connect with Kate: Website: directionoverperfection.com Instagram & TikTok: @directionoverperfection Podcast: Direction Over Perfection with Kate Crane — conversations about the often-meandering career paths behind successful people and the pivots that shaped them. Connect with MORE®: bemorealigned.com.