Episode
Leaving Healthcare to Build a Travel Company: Midlife Career Pivot | Melanie Kiss, Chicas Abroad, Ep. 15
- Published
- Jun 23, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3424
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Summary
Melanie had every reason to stay: the title, the paycheck, the 401(k) she’d be walking away from as a single woman with no one to fall back on. Then a mentor asked her one question that made all of that beside the point — how many women are you NOT reaching by playing it safe? ABOUT THE GUEST: Melanie Kiss spent nearly 30 years in healthcare before founding Chicas Abroad, a women’s adventure travel company she built on the side and didn’t go full-time on until 48. Now the author of two books — a practical travel guide and a reinvention memoir, When the Compass Shifts — she walks through the thoughtful, strategic five-year transition: the money math, the mentor question that reframed everything, and the dream she’d buried since she was 16. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: [03:31] Why she launched an adventure travel company in the middle of COVID, when no one was traveling [10:25] The single question from her mentor that flipped her from “I can’t afford to leave” to going all in [29:30] Why she wrote When the Compass Shifts — a reinvention memoir with reflection questions for women rethinking their next chapter [34:26] How she found her direction by noticing where her mind wandered — a dream she’d had since 15 [41:26] Which corporate skills transferred straight into entrepreneurship — and the practical pieces (pricing, profit, contractors) she had to learn from scratch [51:07] Her mantra: get out of your comfort zone — and why she holds her clients to it too GUEST LINKS: Chicas Abroad Website: https://www.chicasabroad.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicas_abroad/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicasabroad LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chicas-abroad/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniekiss/ Podcast: Chicas Chat Book — Adventure More, Worry Less:…