6 Oct 2026
The Career Pivot You Are Afraid to Make with Hannah Nokes: Why Your Next Chapter Starts Small
What if your purpose is not something you have to find, but something that has been quietly following you all along?
In this soulful episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri R. Broussard sits down with entrepreneur, interior designer and Commissioned co-founder Hannah Nokes for an honest conversation about career reinvention, faith, creativity and the courage to follow the quiet voice within.
Hannah built the kind of career many people are taught to want. She attended business school, earned an MBA, worked for multinational corporations, served in the nonprofit sector, led corporate community-impact work and launched a consulting practice. Then the pandemic disrupted her business and left her questioning what came next.
The answer arrived as a persistent inner whisper: do design. Hannah resisted. Interior design did not seem to fit the professional story she had spent years building. It felt too creative, too frivolous and too disconnected from her corporate résumé. Yet saying yes to that small voice opened the door not only to a thriving design practice, but also to Commissioned, a faith-centered community supporting women entrepreneurs in creative fields.
Terri and Hannah explore the pressure to make a career look logical, why failure can redirect us toward work that fits more fully, and how skills from every chapter can become part of a larger purpose. They also talk about motherhood, financial realities, faith in public life, creating beauty as an act of worship and the importance of being present enough to notice the people and moments right in front of us.
This conversation is an invitation to stop waiting for the entire plan and begin with the next honest step.
In This Episode We Talk About
How living in the Middle East expanded Hannah's view of the world
Following the prescribed corporate path and discovering that plans can change
What a 2002 layoff taught Hannah about identity, security and reinvention
Moving between corporate, nonprofit, consulting and entrepreneurial work
The pressures working mothers faced when showing up at work was treated as nonnegotiable
How the pandemic disrupted Hannah's consulting business and created space for a new direction
The quiet inner voice that kept telling Hannah to pursue interior design
Why Hannah feared her career story would no longer make sense to other people
How every earlier skill became useful when she co-founded Commissioned
Talking openly about faith while welcoming women with different beliefs
Why creativity and beauty can be meaningful forms of service and worship
Balancing purpose with the financial realities of raising a family
Building a legacy through presence, relationships and how we make people feel
Coming home to the artistic, playful and joyful parts of ourselves
Key Takeaways
Your purpose may already be visible. The interests and gifts you dismiss as impractical may be clues to the work that fits you most fully.
A career does not have to look linear to be meaningful. Skills from corporate work, nonprofit leadership, entrepreneurship and creative pursuits can combine into a story that only becomes clear in hindsight.
Failure can be redirection. A layoff, a struggling business or an unexpected ending may create room for work you would not otherwise have considered.
Start before the conditions are perfect. Creativity can be introduced into the life and work you already have. Small acts of permission often create the next opportunity.
Presence is part of legacy. Accomplishments matter, but people are more likely to remember how you welcomed them, noticed them and made them feel.
About Hannah Nokes
Hannah Nokes is an entrepreneur, interior designer and co-founder of Commissioned, a faith-centered community created to support women building businesses in creative and often independent fields. Her career has spanned corporate business, nonprofit leadership, corporate social responsibility, social-impact consulting and entrepreneurship. Through Commissioned, Hannah helps women find community, encouragement and the boldness to pursue the work they were created to do.
Resources Mentioned
Commissioned livingcommissioned.com
Commissioned on Instagram @commissioned__
LumenKind mindful marks lumenkind.com
Saalt period care saalt.com
Final Thought: A meaningful career rarely reveals itself as a perfect sequence of logical moves. Sometimes it looks like a layoff, a detour, a business that no longer works or a quiet interest we keep dismissing because it does not match the identity we have built. Hannah's story reminds us that no chapter is wasted. Purpose can gather the skills, disappointments, relationships, faith and creativity from every version of our lives and turn them into work we could not have planned. We do not need to see the entire path. We need enough courage to honor the next true step.
Follow and Connect with Terri! @terrirbroussard | Follow Roots+Rebirth! @rootsandrebirthpodcast
