The Power of the Pivot: Honoring the Space Between Dreams

Today, I am writing these words to acknowledge the power of being unattached and open to flow, to allow for the untethered space required to pivot.

For the last six years, Crested Butte, Colorado, has been my second home. My husband, Ben, and I first fell in love with these mountains, the abundance of nature, and the small-town character back in 2018. By 2020, we decided to throw caution to the wind and signed a one-year lease on a small apartment in town. At the time, we were still running our small businesses in Arizona, but we craved a sanctuary in the mountains to call home.

During this period, my business partner—and mom—Donna, and I were preparing to sell our company, Goodytwos Toffee Company. This transition allowed me more time to work remotely from Colorado while my mom managed the day-to-day operations as we searched for aligned buyers.

Meanwhile, Ben was co-running Off Camber Studios, a successful salon in Scottsdale with exceptional clientele. He shifted his schedule to make the trek to Colorado twice a month, wonderfully supported by clients who adapted by booking months in advance. To those clients: from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your continued support.

An Experiment in the Unknown

That first year in Colorado was a complete experiment. It tested us financially, relationally, and professionally.

I stayed mostly in Colorado with our pup, Sophie, driving back to Arizona every few months. Ben flew back and forth every other week to serve his clients in Arizona. Somehow, through the discomfort of the unknown, we made it work.

Those pain points created an opportunity for us to deepen our communication and work through old patterns of co-dependency. We built healthier trust and support systems, both together and individually.

Navigating this season was one of the greatest uplevels in our relationship. It would not have been possible without the decade of therapy we had already invested in. We learned that it is one thing to discuss tools in therapy, but another entirely to implement them in real time. We did not always get it right. We sometimes reverted to old patterns, but we chose to ask for help, remember what we had learned, and continue embodying the work of conscious relationship.

Sometimes the unknown is not there to break us. Sometimes, it is there to show us what we are capable of building together.

A New Chapter of Service

In 2021, my mom and I sold Goodytwos Toffee Company to incredible long-term clients who continue to run it successfully today. We spent the next year training them on our recipes, systems, and processes. The company officially opened its new doors in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2022.

During that sale transition, I followed my heart’s passion to be in service to women and enrolled in a life coaching certification. I spent a year cocooning and immersing myself in online education. Crested Butte was the perfect place to tune out the world and tune into myself, nature, and creative flow.

I took that time to nurture and build my brand from a place of authenticity, rooted in my true desire to serve and hold space for others, just as others had done for me. My coaching container and virtual 1:1 services officially opened in 2022.

Watching Dreams Take Root

Since then, Ben and I have continued living between Arizona and Colorado. Ben wanted to spend more time in Colorado, so he chose to open a second Off Camber Studios location with my brother-in-law, Mike, in Crested Butte.

They opened their salon studio to serve clients here in the valley while still being able to play in the mountains. Yet another unknown risk that turned into success. Both Ben and Mike still travel between Arizona and Colorado to serve their salons and clients in both locations.

In 2020 my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Shannon also fell in love with Mike and Crested Butte. She chose to move to CB and open her own successful business here as an esthetician: Lifted MedEsthetics.

It has been an incredible opportunity to watch my loved ones build businesses, create meaningful lives, and become part of the amazing community in Crested Butte.

It is remarkable to see what can flourish when you quiet the noise of the unknown and follow your heart. We all have the opportunity to choose new paths for ourselves, but it takes courage and belief to try something completely new.

What I have found with age is experience, and an innate knowing that anything is possible, as long as I am open to the cycle of trying, failing, and succeeding.

I also know that the time eventually comes when my heart calls for something new once again.

Letting Go of the Dream Home

In the first week of 2026, Ben and I moved into what we considered our dream home: a single-family rental on the river with privacy, mountain views, a hot tub, and space to call our own.

We moved quickly and settled right in. We would wake up pinching ourselves, realizing this was indeed our new reality. It was winter in Crested Butte. We watched snow fall through the big windows into our backyard, with picturesque mountains as the backdrop. We soaked up every minute in our new rental home.

While I was back in Arizona in early this spring visiting family and freinds, we received notice that our landlord was selling the home. We were shocked. We had signed a 17-month lease and had asked our landlord whether she planned on selling. At the time, she had said no. But life happens. We were in a lease, not home ownership, and our reality shifted in an instant.

Answering the Next Calling

As of September 1, 2026, We have to be moved out of our Colorado rental home. I have decided to move back to Arizona full-time.

I have been feeling a calling to transition out of Crested Butte for the past two years, but it is hard to let go of such a beautiful mountain lifestyle. And yet, my heart is pulling me to ground my roots in one place, to expand my online coaching services into in-person 1:1 work and community workshops.

I have an incredible network of successful, inspiring, and empowered women in the Phoenix Valley. I look forward to collaborating with them and incorporating their work and offerings as an accoutrement to my 1:1 coaching.

I am envisioning winter Arizona retreats, where clients can book a stay at one of my friends’ highly curated Airbnbs or one of our many luxury health and wellness resorts. These experiences may include therapeutic modalities such as nervous system recalibration, along with self-portrait sessions with one of the most incredible photographers, Christine Johnson.

There is so much more I am dreaming into. I cannot wait to curate meaningful connections between women fostering a deeper sense of self in worth and embodiemnt.

Ebbing, Flowing, and Moving Forward

It is important to note that Ben will continue working at both Off Camber Studios locations in Crested Butte and Scottsdale. We are simply ebbing and flowing into a new way of living, creating, and being of service, one that feels most true and aligned for us.

We are planning for more travel while having one central home. I am an avid seeker of new lands, food, and communities, and I am looking forward to experiencing new, uncharted adventures.

For those who have known me for a while, you may remember that OnWord Journeys began as my travel blog. I shared unique luxury boutique hotels, restaurants, hikes, and more as a side passion project while I co-ran Goodytwos Toffee Company.

OnWord Journeys transitioned into the name and brand of my coaching practice because the intention still aligns so deeply with my values and purpose. Whether I am sharing personal reflections from my own healing journey, building healthy relationships with myself and entrepreneurship, or stories of places and experiences discovered through travel, my intention remains the same: to offer guidance and support for both inward and onward journeys.

For now, this is my jounral entry, the pivoting. Letting go of one dream that has been fully fulfilled and entering the next, full of authentic expansion.

I would like to leave you with this reflective question:

Is there a dream you are holding onto that has already been fulfilled? What would it look like for you to pivot?

with love and light,

Stacey