Embracing Career Change with Aimee Gindin: From Counseling to Corporate to Entrepreneur

In this episode of Happiness Unscripted, host Kristin DeSouza converses with Amy Gindin, the founder of Full Plate, about her remarkable professional journey and personal transformation. Amy describes her transition from a mental health clinician dealing with high-stress situations to a corporate marketing executive and finally to an intuitive eating counselor. Her path was marked by overcoming personal struggles and career dissatisfaction, combined with a quest for authentic living and fulfillment. Amy shares insights into the importance of following one's energy, rebuilding a healthy relationship with food, and the challenges of making significant life changes. Her story underscores that true happiness comes from aligning one's life with personal values and what genuinely nourishes the soul.

00:00 Intro: Happiness Unscripted

01:52 Introduction to Amy Gindin's Journey

03:16 Early Career and Shifts in Psychology

07:01 Transition to Marketing Executive

14:31 Climbing the Corporate Ladder

19:13 Pursuing Passion and Intuitive Eating

23:52 Reflections on Career and Happiness

28:45 Outro: Happiness Unscripted

Connect with Aimee Gindin of The Full Plate:

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🌐: www.full-plate-nutrition.com

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Hey there friends! Just a friendly reminder that this podcast is all about sharing ideas and having fun conversations. I'm not an expert in this subject over here - just a curious person exploring topics I find interesting. So please don't take anything said here as professional advice. When in doubt, chat with the real pros who know their stuff. Thanks for listening and hope you join us for the next episode! Now, let's dive in and get happy!

Transcript

Kristin - Host.. 0:01

For so many of us, the most rigid script we follow isn't about our careers or schedules. It's about our bodies. We've been told what to eat, how to look, and how to ignore our own hunger for so long that we've lost touch with ourselves. But what happens if you finally decide to stop dieting and start listening? I'm Kristin DeSouza, and this is Happiness Unscripted. Here we stop performing and start living authentically even, and especially, when life doesn't go according to plan. Today's guest is someone who has navigated more than her fair share of unscripted moments. Amy Gindin is the founder of Full Plate, where she provides specialized counseling and support for intuitive eating, but her path here wasn't a straight line. From navigating several distinct career shifts to moving through deeply challenging life experiences, Amy's journey is a masterclass in the Pivot. It was through her own trials that she discovered the transformative power of intuitive eating, not just as a way to eat, but as a way to live. In this episode, Amy is opening up about the moments that led her to rewrite her own story and how she turned those challenges into a mission to help others find peace with their plates. If you've ever felt like your relationship with food is a battleground, or even if you're currently in the middle of your own life transition, this conversation is for you. Let's get happy. Amy Gindin has lived many professional lives from mental health clinician working with vulnerable populations to marketing executive climbing the corporate ladder as chief marketing officer to now founder of The Full Plate where she serves as a certified nutrition coach and intuitive eating counselor at The Full Plate. Amy offers holistic nutrition counseling with personalized care, counselor led community support, including monthly workshops, live chat, and office hours, as well as corporate wellness programs that help organizations unlearned diet culture. Amy's path to this meaningful work hasn't been straightforward. It was forged through personal struggles with food. Complex family trauma, including a decade long estrangement from her mother and years of caring for her father after a devastating stroke. Today, she helps people rebuild trust with their bodies and find peace with food without tracking, restriction, or guilt. I'm excited to explore Amy's journey of building a life centered on compassion and a healthy relationship with food and body, for others as well as herself. Aimee thank you so much for being here today. I'm really excited for our conversation.

Aimee Gindin 3:13

Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.

Kristin - Host.. 3:16

So Aimee you had quite a remarkable professional journey, as I mentioned. You've gone from mental health clinician to a corporate marketing executive. Rising all the way to the CMO and now you're running your own business with Full Plate as a nutrition counselor. So before we dive into where you are today, could you paint a picture of those early chapters?

Aimee Gindin 3:42

Sure. specifically around what I was doing at the beginning of my career?

Kristin - Host.. 3:48

Yes. I'm really curious about, it seems like you've made some very interesting, career evolutions and I think that's something that a lot of people are kind of scared to make, uh, some big changes. So I'd love to hear about what you did and what led you to making these very distinct shifts.

Aimee Gindin 4:09

Yeah. So when I got to college, I wanted to be the next Wes Anderson and be a film director.

Kristin - Host.. 4:16

Ah.

Aimee Gindin 4:17

And I was a film major for a couple of years, but then I took a Psychology 101 class and I absolutely fell in love with it. It was like every question that I had ever asked myself, there just seemed to be an answer, and I had never studied anything that felt so right. And so I knew that I wanted to pursue something in psychology. Um, and so I thought that the best path forward was to become a clinician, possibly a therapist. I can remember standing at my master's graduation and thinking, crap I don't wanna do this.

Kristin - Host.. 5:01

Oh no.

Aimee Gindin 5:03

Because I had loved studying it. But then in practice, in my, um, internships, I really wasn't the energy. I thought, well, I got my master's in this. I know, I've got lots of school debt. I need to, you know, try this out. And at the same time, it was like right during a recession and it was hard to find jobs. So I ended up getting a job at, um, a psychiatric emergency room. And my job was to partner with psychiatrists, to work with people who were having psychiatric emergencies. So suicidal ideations um, you know. Bi, like true bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, drug use, et cetera. And, um, really figure out what they needed and how to get them the help that they needed. And so I did that for three years and, um, it was super interesting, but very high burnout. I mean, I was working day shift, night shift, evening shift, double shifts from 3:00 PM to 7:00 AM

Kristin - Host.. 6:22

Wow.

Aimee Gindin 6:22

and I kid you not as a master's level clinician, I made$16 an hour.

Kristin - Host.. 6:28

Oh my goodness.

Aimee Gindin 6:29

Yeah. So I realized after three years that I couldn't make a living off of this. I mean, I for, well, I took out a lot of loans and paid for school myself and needed to do something that, could really pay the bills and support me and was also, you know, interesting because the emergency room got pretty repetitive.

Kristin - Host.. 6:58

Mm.

Aimee Gindin 7:01

So I went to a pre-med post-BAC program at Harvard University because I thought, well, doctors make pretty good money and they have leadership opportunities, so maybe I'll just go be a doctor as if that's like a thing I can casually do. So I did a program for a year and realized I don't wanna be in school for another 10 years. I don't wanna be moving around the country. I just need to figure something else out. So I very humbly for two years while diving into career counseling books and figuring out what the next thing was that I was gonna do. I took all these self-assessments and over and over the same things kept coming up. Healthcare did that, psychology did that, and marketing. And I was like, I don't know anything about marketing. But serendipitously the two parents of the children that I nannied for were both marketing executives.

Kristin - Host.. 8:08

my goodness.

Aimee Gindin 8:11

so I sat down with them and um, I said, you know, they knew that I was in my late twenties at this point. They knew I didn't wanna be a nanny forever and their kids were gonna grow up and go to school. um, I said, you know, where do I even start? And they gave me the best advice. They said, um, get an unpaid internship and just see if you like it. It, I mean, obviously get a, get any internship. Right.

Kristin - Host.. 8:35

Right.

Aimee Gindin 8:36

paid, that's even better. But, so I went on Craigslist. I don't, is Craigslist still a thing? I don't even know.

Kristin - Host.. 8:42

I am actually not sure. I think it's still out there, but yeah, I think, uh, people are very cautious about what they do with it these days.

Aimee Gindin 8:50

yeah. Yep. And I got an internship and loved it and so that really set me off onto a totally different path into the world of business.

Kristin - Host.. 9:04

Wow, that's, I mean, there's just so many things there. That's amazing. Uh, so let me back up a little bit. And when you were going through, uh, and getting your counseling degree, like, what were you envisioning while you were studying that, that was going to look like, were you envisioning like, oh, I'm gonna be in like a, an office setting?

Aimee Gindin 9:30

Yeah,

Kristin - Host.. 9:31

therapy.

Aimee Gindin 9:33

my program was two tracks. It was community and school. So it gave you the opportunity to go be a guidance counselor or work in a school, and then it also gave you the opportunity to go into the community or start your own practice if you decide to get licensed. And I have always been a little bit more of a one to many person than a one-to-one.

Kristin - Host.. 9:56

Mm-hmm.

Aimee Gindin 9:57

Private practice wasn't particularly interesting to me. So I went the school route, um, hoping that I could get a position as a guidance counselor. I really like little kids, so I was thinking like elementary school you know, at the time the boomer generation was just solidly still working and, you know, maybe one guidance counselor per elementary school, and if you're 10, 15 years away from retirement, you're not going anywhere.

Kristin - Host.. 10:33

Yeah,

Aimee Gindin 10:33

only was there a recession, but there just weren't any guidance counseling jobs at all. And so that's when I just, you know, applied for whatever I could find and ended up at the emergency room, which was a phenomenal experience, but not a long-term fit.

Kristin - Host.. 10:53

No, I can understand that. And I don't think we've talked about this a whole lot, but I am a scientist as my, day job full, you know, all the training that I've been through and had a role that, I did in two different places for up to eight years. And yeah, one of the most amazing training grounds I think I have ever had. But yeah, there reached a point where, um, the exploration, the self-exploration that has led me to doing this podcast kind of started with burnout from that because it was just so constant, you always were, had to be kind of connected into work at a certain level and yeah, eventually it's like we're not designed to do that. We're designed to need to have that rest and recovery.

Aimee Gindin 11:45

Yeah,

Kristin - Host.. 11:47

Well, and I also find I really connect with your story in terms of what you're talking about, that you did the schooling and, you know, it takes loans for the majority of us to, get any college education. And I feel like, especially when you go on to a more advanced degree,'cause I did that as well and um, it just makes me sad that I think it's such a disservice that there isn't some better, um, counseling and guidance early on about like, here's what you're gonna spend to get this degree and then here's the income that you typically make with it. You know, I feel fortunate that I've now gone into drug development and have reached a level that had confidence, okay, by the time I retire I'll have covered my loans. Um, but, but I have friends who went into genetic counseling and whatnot, and they have very similar stories of the cost of the education doesn't properly align with the salary for that industry. So I wanna pivot to, uh, the more hopeful side of your, previous jobs there. And, I think that's amazing that you got such good advice, as you said, serendipitous And so what was your internship that you did?

Aimee Gindin 13:25

I met a woman who was starting a marketing agency and it was all about working with startups. And this was right at the time when startups started to become really cool. And um, my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time was really into startups and thought, what a cool opportunity to work with companies who. Um, are just starting out and really trying to figure out everything that they need to get off the ground. And so it was her and myself for a year or two and in the

Kristin - Host.. 14:04

Wow.

Aimee Gindin 14:04

it was worked out of her dining room and uh, it was very low key. And I gotta tell you, as a first year marketing professional, I've made a lot more than I did as a master's level clinician, which is really sad for a lot of reasons,

Kristin - Host.. 14:21

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Aimee Gindin 14:23

and I ended up staying at the company and helping to grow it. I was there for almost nine years.

Kristin - Host.. 14:29

Oh wow. Okay.

Aimee Gindin 14:31

Yeah, and then really felt like I wanted to get back into the healthcare space, but I didn't necessarily wanna leave marketing.

Kristin - Host.. 14:41

Okay.

Aimee Gindin 14:42

So that was sort of like my partial permission into doing what I want. So I started looking for, um, companies that were in the wellness space. And from there my kind of just went

Kristin - Host.. 15:00

I say it sounds like skyrocketed from,

Aimee Gindin 15:02

in like a three year timeframe. Like director to to CMO.

Kristin - Host.. 15:08

wow.

Aimee Gindin 15:10

Yeah.

Kristin - Host.. 15:10

So yeah, three years. That is, those are some serious positions to move through in three years. Um.

Aimee Gindin 15:19

a director for a long time, but

Kristin - Host.. 15:21

Okay. Okay. So, okay, so that sounds like I was gonna ask, um, how, how challenging was that? Or was it really just you, you know, you kinda had that solid foundation of the skills in director and were able to quickly really hone them? Or was it a little trial by fire again?

Aimee Gindin 15:41

Yeah, it was challenging. Um, you know, guess one of the themes in my life with careers is have had always made these decisions, but kind of for the wrong reasons. Like, I went into counseling because I was really fascinated with psychology and I loved learning about it, but I didn't love doing it. And then I climbed the corporate ladder because I thought that's what you were supposed to do. And there's, it's more lucrative and there's leadership opportunity. But again, didn't really love the experience because you do less of the things that you love. And you do a lot more management, negotiation, budgeting, um, boundaries, protecting your team. It was like I was just in meetings all day, every day feeling like I wasn't really adding a ton of value anymore. Um, more, and I know it can look different at different companies, but I think there's, from what I've talked from talking to a number of different professionals, it sounds like there is kind of a similar vibe. yeah, I mean, it was, it interesting. I'm really glad I had the experience and I learned a lot, but it wasn't where my energy was at

Kristin - Host.. 17:11

Okay. Okay. I would agree that, you know, even for myself on a much smaller scale, but from, uh, colleagues I know who have climbed the ladder more so than I have that, yeah, it's like the further up you get, the more you move into a completely different set of responsibilities from where you started. And, uh that's something that in the corporate world, I sometimes find sad that, um, there doesn't seem to be, um, an understanding or a tolerance for this is the thing I like to do and I want to continue to do this and do it well for you. Like if you're not promoting, uh, sometimes they think that you're not really interested.

Aimee Gindin 18:07

interested? Yeah. My husband's done a great job. He has no interest in management. He is a developer. He wants to be the best developer he can be, and I think he's done a really good job of. Say, like being clear about that and not having that, um, you know, reflect negatively on him.

Kristin - Host.. 18:29

Excellent.

Aimee Gindin 18:30

I know, like I just thought we're just supposed to go up and up and up.

Kristin - Host.. 18:35

Yeah.

Aimee Gindin 18:36

just what you do. And so, um, I never even considered the fact that it wouldn't be fun. Just a lot politics,

Kristin - Host.. 18:46

Yeah.

Aimee Gindin 18:47

of politics.

Kristin - Host.. 18:49

So, um, then from there you said, um, the second job you took in marketing was your partial permission. So from there you ended up, um, sounds like giving yourself full permission to then move into your current, uh, passion and career.

Aimee Gindin 19:13

Yeah, you know, it was interesting, we were working on a tagline. We were rebranding our organization when I was CMO and we were working on a tagline and there was something that our chief strategy officer would say over and over when we were working through concepts, which is the idea of following your energy how important that is. And it really stuck with me. It wasn't supposed to be, know, career advice, but it really stuck with me personally. And, I turned 40, two summers ago and, you know, big decade

Kristin - Host.. 19:53

Yes. Yes.

Aimee Gindin 19:56

took the time to self-reflect and I just I was chasing status,

Kristin - Host.. 20:05

Hmm.

Aimee Gindin 20:06

I wasn't doing the things that really fulfilled me. I wasn't chasing my energy. And I thought, you know, will that ever happen? Right? I mean, get one life. I'd never, I don't wanna be retired and look back on my entire career and say like, I waited to do this. Um, and so, you know, I talked to my husband about it and, um, he was surprisingly very supportive and I didn't really even know what the business would be in the beginning. I just knew that I wanted to start my own thing. I knew the types of work that I really enjoyed and I needed to give myself the space to try things and figure it out. And did.

Kristin - Host.. 20:58

Excellent. So. Was that something you, when you were talking about him being supportive, was that something that, um, in order to have the space to work on this business and build it, you had to completely step away from your marketing position? Or were you starting to work on it while you were still doing that role? Like what did that transition look like?

Aimee Gindin 21:23

Yeah, I mean, I was starting to build my own brand on LinkedIn because I really enjoyed the thought leadership and

Kristin - Host.. 21:31

Mm-hmm.

Aimee Gindin 21:31

there and networking with people and having my iDeSouzas public, but it wasn't purposeful. I just was really enjoying the process. And so I did that while I was still CMO, but I was always pretty careful not to say anything that would be in conflict to the organization that I worked for as a public company. Um, but I, I completely left in order to, to figure out what I wanted to do. And I don't think that that is the right decision for everybody. Um, think that you have to figure out what your goals are and what your finances are and what, what exactly you wanna accomplish and how you can accomplish that. Um, for me, there was also a lot of burnout involved. There was like some toxic work culture stuff I just didn't wanna be there anymore. And, we are very fortunate to be in a position financially from both of us working

Kristin - Host.. 22:43

Yeah.

Aimee Gindin 22:43

for many years to be able to have one of us take a risk and be entrepreneurial while the other person has the health insurance.

Kristin - Host.. 22:53

Yep. That's excellent. I love you talking about that, yeah, there was a lot of thought process in this. It wasn't something that you just did on a whim, but at the same time, recognizing that there was, as you said, the toxic work culture that wasn't working for you anymore and having, um, the braveness to step away from that. I connect with that because yeah, that was, I was reaching the point that. The job was starting to impact me, my health, you know, physically, and I was like, oh no, this is this, I can't do anymore. But it makes me sad that that's the level it had to reach before I had the bravery to say, Nope, I've got to, take a risk and do something different.

Aimee Gindin 23:43

You know, sometimes we need to hit rock bottom before we see

Kristin - Host.. 23:47

Mm-hmm.

Aimee Gindin 23:48

what the possibilities are. So understand that. And even when I left to start my own thing, it wasn't intuitive eating counseling right

Kristin - Host.. 23:59

Right.

Aimee Gindin 24:00

It took me a while to give myself permission to do the thing that I really

Kristin - Host.. 24:06

Mm-hmm.

Aimee Gindin 24:08

I know, we're gonna talk a little bit more about this, but I didn't grow up with means I've been financially independent from my parents since I was 17 years old. Work, for a very long time, was what you do to pay your bills. And so the the audacity to that doesn't have an immediately clear return on investment,

Kristin - Host.. 24:38

Mm-hmm.

Aimee Gindin 24:38

immediate clear revenue model, I mean, that felt so irresponsible and so indulgent to me. And I had to unpack that in order to do what I'm doing now, and I don't think I could have done that if I had still been working in corporate.

Kristin - Host.. 24:59

Yes. I think that. It's really hard to find the head space to process those sort of things while you are still in such a consuming position and role. And, um, yeah, I think as you said, we'll get into, um, some of your experiences growing up and whatnot. But yes, I've also had to know that that I need to handle, take care of myself financially from adulthood. And, you know, for me you were talking about your recession experience, some of that, that my parents experienced and, led to them, um, not building the financial safety net and independence that they had expected that they would be able to. And yeah, I appreciate that they always were striving for it, but it just didn't always work out So yeah, that indulgence aspect, um, I think that's something that I definitely also had to work through and still continue to work on that. It's okay to figure out what's right for you and then a lot of times that's how you can get good opportunities to open up because you're lit up by it.

Aimee Gindin 26:27

Yeah. And I also think that you can design your life however you

Kristin - Host.. 26:35

Mm-hmm.

Aimee Gindin 26:36

Like we were going on awesome vacations because we both worked full time. We were looking at 5,000 square foot houses, we were thinking about money in a very different way, and now we are thinking about money very differently. And maybe one day we'll get back to lovely, awesome vacations. But when we really think about our values, it's like, okay, well actually we can afford to see if this is gonna

Kristin - Host.. 27:07

Mm-hmm.

Aimee Gindin 27:08

just means a shift in what we value and what we spend our, our money and our time on, right?

Kristin - Host.. 27:15

Yeah.

Aimee Gindin 27:15

Think sometimes people are hesitant to make a switch because they don't wanna lose that quality of life. But if they're really honest with what matters, the material stuff, it make you happy.

Kristin - Host.. 27:32

Yeah, I think that's one of the the core things I'm looking to explore here is that, um, what does happiness look like to each of us? And it doesn't have to look the same for everyone, and that when you really drill down, a lot of times it has much less to do with the material things than, um, what brings you inner fulfillment and joy with the people that you get to interact with in your life.

Aimee Gindin 28:05

Yeah, a great, um, do you know Dr. Ellen Langer? She's a Harvard psychology professor. Her research is amazing, but one of the things she talks about is you have to have friction in order to be happy. If you just get everything that you want, that's not happiness, you'll actually just be neutral because there's nothing to appreciate about it. And so you want struggle because you don't get to happiness until you have appreciated the other side of it. And I definitely identify with that definition.

Kristin - Host.. 28:45

I am so grateful to Amy for sharing her journey today. It's a powerful reminder that when we stop trying to follow the world's script for our bodies and careers, we finally make room for what actually nourishes us. I'm Kristin DeSouza, and this has been Happiness Unscripted. If this episode gave you a sense of peace today. Please text the link to one person who might be struggling with their own need to nourish themselves. Sharing is how this community grows. Don't forget to subscribe in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss our next episode with Amy! If you're ready to rewrite your own relationship with food and explore intuitive eating. Please visit Amy at The Full Plate on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. There you can find her counseling resources and all the tools she uses at The Full Plate to help you find freedom and joy in your daily life. I've also placed the links in the show notes for you. I'd love to hear your biggest aha moment from today's episode. Come hang out with me on Facebook and Instagram at Happiness unscripted. It's where we keep the conversation going, share behind the scenes moments and support each other through our own unscripted journeys. Hit that follow button there so we can stay connected throughout the week. And as always, remember, you are the author of your own joy. Let's get happy.