Not an April Fools’ Joke: 😇 Smell the Pivotal Blessing
Issue 2843 — March 31, 2025
The delicately sweet aroma of citrus blossoms brought back a powerful sensation as I stepped outside of my Arizona home this April Fools’ Day.
It was the scent I’d first experienced on this exact date: April 1, 1978.
I had taken a late evening flight from my Odessa, Texas home to Phoenix the night before, following a quick trip to a department store to buy a proper suit for an interview that had come a year sooner than my intentions.
On the morning of April 1, I stepped out into the bright Arizona sun.
The unfamiliar scent permeated the air. It wasn’t harsh or cloying, more like a softly perfumed pillow around me. I thought I had landed in some sort of paradise.
Little did I know my life would take a pivotal turn, which I have ever since associated with the aroma of citrus blossoms.
I had been encouraged via a call from the regional director to apply for the open position of CEO of Planned Parenthood of (then) Central and Northern Arizona. It was a year sooner than I intended to seek a larger affiliate opportunity. But I was intrigued enough to whip up a resume.
A Texan by birth with no intention of leaving the Lone Star State, I had fallen in love with the movement for women’s human rights to reproductive freedom and health care access during the four years I helmed the organization’s West Texas affiliate. It was headquartered in Odessa, my home for 20 years. My children grew up there (yes, Friday Night Lights fans, my kids all graduated from Permian High School, and it is as represented in the book, movie, and television series).
Having had the opportunity to grow a small affiliate into a thriving middle-sized one, I knew I wanted a larger challenge eventually, but thought I wasn’t “ready.”
How often do women feel that way?
I had not planned to start applying for another role for another year in any case, because my son was finishing his junior year in high school, and I didn’t want to take him away during his senior year.
Plus, let’s face it, I had a comfortable place in a community I knew well, a supportive board, and a team that was working productively. I’d had no leadership experience or formal training before taking that position. I’d learned leadership on the job that turned out to be a perfect fit for my willingness to take deep responsibility in order to have the opportunity to make an impact for women’s equality — the theme of my life.
Still, the burgeoning Phoenix metropolitan area signaled possibility. I had already discovered I was skilled at growing the organization, and I loved doing that because it meant we could serve more people.
So I updated my resume and sent it in February. I assumed getting the job would be a long shot and went about my daily work without anticipation.
But come April, there I was, in Phoenix for the third and final interview during the height of citrus blossom season.
(I have to ask—are there smells that conjure for you pivotal times in your life? Drop a comment and tell me about it.)
I don’t remember who drove me to the office where the two other top candidates and I would be interviewed by the search committee that same day — separately, thank goodness. However, they hosted a cocktail party for all of us together later that evening.
That was sort of weird.
But it did give me insights about the organizational culture. It was an underperforming, middle-sized affiliate with an ambitious growth plan despite being so financially strapped they weren’t sure they could make the next payroll.
Sometimes being the second choice isn’t a bad thing.
The other female candidate and I already knew each other. When we arrived back at the hotel after the dinner hosted by two board members for all three candidates together, and were alone in the elevator, we looked at each other knowingly and said, “They’re going to hire the man.”
We’ll call him “Jim.” Sure enough, I later learned, they first offered Jim the job, with a pay rate significantly higher than they would ultimately offer me.
Yes, even in a female forward organization there was gender based discrimination.
I flew home feeling I’d had a good learning experience and went on about my life.
But Jim’s wife didn’t like Phoenix. He ultimately declined.
Fortunately for me, as I also learned later, a search committee member had made a motion that if Jim declined, they would automatically offer me the job.
Which they did on my birthday April 13. They caught up with me to make the offer while I was in Lamesa, Texas negotiating to open our 11th clinic—the thing I liked most to do.
I was surprised and asked for a few days to consider.
As Take The Lead’s current blogpost asks, I asked myself whether I should stay or go, whether to remain where I was comfortable in spite of looming changes in politics and funding, or pivot into the unknown.
Who would have thought I’d be in Vanity Fair Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers?
After all:
>>The timing wasn’t right.
>>I wasn’t “ready” personally or professionally.
>>The risk of failure was high and I had no fallback or financial reserve if it didn’t work out.
>>Moving out of state to a completely new community was scary.
>>I didn’t want to uproot my son’s senior high school year.
All those reasons were about fear of change from a warm place of safety to the energy jolt but chilly discomfort of newness.
I chose to go with what would turn out to be the best pivot of my life.
My son decided to stay with his dad in Odessa for his last year in high school. He grew up a lot that year and learned to take care of himself in ways that hadn’t happened with me as the primary parent.
The man who had made the motion to offer the job to me if Jim declined turned out to be the love of my life, which apparently was what he had in mind all along. We were married two years later.
I had the incredible privilege of growing that middle sized affiliate to one of the largest in the country, building a whole new community of amazing friends and supporters, and after 18 years there, being tapped to become the national president.
That one pivot ultimately led me to where I am today as cofounder of Take The Lead, a national nonprofit organization with the mission I’m most passionate about: advancing women to full equality in all aspects of life including leadership positions.
You could call it the blessing of the citrus blossoms.
And that’s no April Fools joke.
Take The Lead 50 Women Can Change the World in Entrepreneurship cohort
Take The Lead 50 Women Can Change the World in Entrepreneurship cohort
***
P. S. If you’re asking yourself whether to pivot because of today’s economic uncertainty or other reasons, consider signing up for my 9 Leadership Power Tools online course. I’ll help you through.
GLORIA FELDT is the Cofounder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, a global expert in women’s leadership development and DEI for individuals and companies that want to build gender balance. She is a bestselling author of five books, most recently Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. Honored as Forbes 50 Over 50, and Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Find her @GloriaFeldt on all social media.