How Solo Travel Gave Me the Confidence to Leave Coca-Cola

I had a good job. A really good job.

Four years as a Finance Manager at Coca-Cola. The kind of position people congratulate you for landing. Steady paycheck. Benefits. A 401k. The corporate ladder stretched out in front of me, clear and predictable. My parents were proud. My friends were impressed. On paper, I had it made.

But I also had a secret: I was running out of vacation days.

Not because I was lazy or didn't manage my time well. But because every spare moment, every long weekend, every PTO day I could scrape together was going toward building something else. Something that started as a side project and had quietly grown into a business that demanded more of me than I could give it while sitting in conference rooms and staring at spreadsheets.

Sisters Traveling Solo wasn't supposed to take over my life. It started small—just me wanting to create travel experiences for women who, like me, craved adventure but didn't want to wait for someone else to be ready. That first trip in 2017 was a test. Could I actually do this? Would women show up?

They did. And then they kept showing up.

The Breaking Point

By year four at Coca-Cola, I was living a double life. Corporate professional by day, travel entrepreneur by night and weekend. I was good at both, but excellent at neither because I was splitting myself down the middle.

And then I hit the wall: I ran out of vacation days.

I had a trip scheduled. Women had paid deposits. Flights were booked. And I had zero PTO left. I asked for unpaid leave. The answer was complicated. The message was clear: you need to choose.

Stay in the stability of corporate America, or bet on yourself.

I wish I could tell you the decision was easy. It wasn't. The salary at Coca-Cola wasn't just paying my bills—it was funding the business I was trying to build. Leaving meant no safety net. No backup plan. Just me, a business that was growing but not yet profitable enough to replace my income, and a whole lot of uncertainty.

But here's what I knew: women were trusting me with their dreams. They were sending me messages about how our trips changed them. How they'd never traveled alone before but felt brave enough to try it with us. How they'd made friends, conquered fears, and came home different.

I couldn't let them down. And more importantly, I couldn't let myself down.

The Flight to China

A few days after I turned in my resignation, I boarded a flight to China.

Not for vacation. For work—my work. The business I had just bet everything on.

Sitting on that plane, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, I felt it: pure terror mixed with pure freedom. I had just walked away from financial security to chase something that might fail. But I had also just freed myself from living a half-life. From playing it safe. From waiting for "someday."

That flight to China wasn't just about the destination. It was about the decision. It was about choosing myself, my vision, and my belief that what I was building mattered.

Looking back now, nearly a decade later, I can tell you with absolute certainty: it was the best decision I ever made.

What Solo Travel Taught Me

Here's the thing about solo travel that people don't talk about enough: it's not really about the destinations. It's about what you learn about yourself when you're navigating a foreign country alone, making decisions without a committee, and trusting yourself to figure it out.

Every solo trip I took before leaving Coca-Cola was practice. Practice in betting on myself. Practice in believing I could handle the unknown. Practice in trusting my instincts when things didn't go according to plan.

When you've successfully navigated Tokyo's subway system without speaking Japanese, suddenly quitting your job to start a business doesn't seem quite so impossible.

When you've hiked mountains alone and made it to the summit, suddenly the climb of entrepreneurship feels manageable.

When you've sat alone at restaurants in foreign cities and realized you're not lonely—you're free—suddenly walking away from what's "safe" doesn't feel like loss. It feels like expansion.

Solo travel gave me the confidence to leave Coca-Cola because it showed me I was capable of more than I thought. It taught me that discomfort is temporary but regret is permanent. It proved that I could trust myself to figure things out, even when I didn't have all the answers.

The Risk That Wasn't Really a Risk

People called it brave. Some called it crazy. A few called it irresponsible.

But here's what I realized on that flight to China: staying would have been the real risk.

Staying meant watching my dreams get smaller year after year. Staying meant settling for a half-lived life where I was always wondering "what if?" Staying meant letting fear win.

Leaving meant I might fail. But at least I would know I tried. At least I would have lived fully, gone all in, and bet on the thing I believed in most: myself.

Where I Am Now

Sisters Traveling Solo just celebrated its ninth year in business. We've taken hundreds of women to over 30 countries. We've watched quiet women find their voices. We've seen corporate professionals realize there's more to life than climbing someone else's ladder. We've witnessed transformations that started with a single brave decision to book a trip alone.

And next year, we'll celebrate a decade.

A decade that wouldn't exist if I hadn't run out of vacation days. A decade that wouldn't exist if I hadn't gotten on that plane to China. A decade that wouldn't exist if solo travel hadn't taught me the most important lesson of all: you are more capable than you think, and you deserve to live a life that excites you.

The Question I Want You to Ask Yourself

I'm not telling you to quit your job tomorrow. That's not the point of this story.

The point is this: What are you not doing because you're afraid? What dream are you putting on hold because it feels too risky? What version of your life are you not living because you're waiting for permission?

Solo travel taught me that no one is coming to give you permission. No one is coming to tell you it's time. No one is coming to make you feel ready.

You just have to go.

Whether that's booking a solo trip, starting a business, or making whatever leap your soul has been whispering about—the confidence doesn't come before the decision. It comes after. It comes from doing the scary thing and realizing you survived.

Then thrived.

I had a good job at Coca-Cola. But I have a beautiful life now. And it started the moment I chose myself.

So here's my question for you: When will you choose yourself?