The Career Pivot After Kids: A Conversation with Fiorenza Rossini

"I’ve got the kid. Now what happens to my career?"

It’s the question that keeps many mums up at night. This month, the community at Mums Who Build (the MOB) is bringing in an expert voice to help answer it. We sat down with Fiorenza Rossini, founder of InNow. Fiorenza coaches working mums to thrive at work and in their life. In this interview for MOB, she talks about why the return-to-work narrative is often missing crucial pieces and how she’s helping mums build careers that actually fit their lives.

Fiorenza Rossini, Founder of INNow

Georgie Harris - MOB co-founder: Let’s start with your own big career shift. You moved away from corporate, working in finance in the City, to be a professional coach. Can you tell us more about your story?

Fiorenza Rossini: I didn’t have a dramatic before and after moment. It was much more gradual than that.

What’s important to say is that the seed for change was planted well before I became a parent. Two or three years earlier, I had already decided to train as a certified coach. I started building my business alongside my full-time corporate role, which, in hindsight, was a lot to hold all at once!

Then I had my first baby in 2019. Around the same time, we entered the global pandemic. I found myself navigating my matrescence in what felt like a very heavy, uncertain world. And yet, in a strange way, that period sharpened things for me and it really brought me perspective. On paper, everything in my City job looked great. Yet, I knew there’d be a time where I would switch lane. It was something I had been working hard for, something that was meant to happen. I thought, if not now, then when? That’s it. That was my tipping point. Resigning wasn’t easy. There was a lot tied up in that decision. I still remember how supportive my functional boss was at that moment. It made the step feel acknowledged and respected.

Georgie Harris: You said things looked great on paper, but something wasn’t fully aligned. What do you think people often ignore or override in moments like that?

Fiorenza Rossini: I think many people override their inner voice. A few reasons for it, sometimes it’s too quiet and it doesn’t stand a chance against our logical mind. Sometimes we classify it as a feeling or intuition and we dismiss it. Sometimes we’re not ready because we need a plan, a clear strategy. That makes total sense: we have bills and a mortgage to pay. So for all these reasons, we dismiss our inner voice.

We tell ourselves: it’s fine, this is what I worked for, I should be grateful. All of which can be true and incomplete.

What I see is that people are often incredibly good at building a life that makes sense on paper. They’ve followed the steps, made thoughtful decisions, been responsible.

But it’s less about whether something is objectively good, and more about whether it still feels good or true for you, in this chapter of your life.

And that’s the part we don’t always give ourselves permission to listen to straight away.

Georgie Harris: Many parents find themselves in a similar place, doing well on paper but questioning what they want next. Do you notice patterns in the people you work with?

Fiorenza Rossini: First of all, there’s a tension that people can’t quite name yet. You have on one hand, the years of experience working in the job. On the other hand, there’s a sense that the way you used to operate no longer works. Becoming a parent often changes everything, priorities, goals, dreams, your identity. But most workplaces, and often our own expectations, don’t adjust to that.

Many people try to keep showing up in the same way as before. This can be a lot to hold actually.

I also notice how thoughtful people are about this. They’re not rushing into drastic decisions. If anything, they stay longer than they need to, trying to make things work, trying to honour what they’ve built over the years.

There’s a reflection I invite parents to spend time on: What does growth look like for me now?

Not the version it looked like earlier in your career or what it can look like for someone else. But something that fits the reality of your life today.

Georgie Harris: I feel like the question of “what does growth look like now?” would resonate with a lot of parents. You’ve been invited by Mums Who Build to lead a session on the future of a mother’s career. Why do you think this specific conversation is so urgent right now?

Fiorenza Rossini: I think that the return-to-work has focused on the logistics (childcare and calendars) far too long. It’s quite recently that we started to talk about the identity shift. In my coaching practice, I’ve been helping women navigate professional transitions, and I’ve seen that the ‘now what?’ phase is where most women feel the loneliest. I’m hosting this session to normalise the topic and also help and move from survival mode into strategy mode. It all starts with baby steps.

Georgie Harris: When you look at the title of the event, "I’ve got the kid. Now what?", it feels very raw. What is the biggest hurdle you see women facing in this phase?

Fiorenza Rossini: It’s the feeling that your professional edge is gone while you were away. The reality is that the efficiency, negotiation, and resilience you develop as a parent are honestly elite-level career assets. Often, some mindset work is helpful to help and notice what you’re actually bringing to the table now.

Georgie Harris: You’ve spoken about creating space for reflection, rather than rushing to answers. How does that show up in the way you hold a session like this?

Fiorenza Rossini: I think we’re often encouraged to move too quickly to solutions, especially as parents. Time is very limited, energy is super stretched, there’s this pressure to be efficient with everything, including big life questions. But some questions don’t respond well to speed.

In a session like this, I’m more interested in helping people slow things down just enough to notice what’s actually going on for them. Not what they think they should be feeling, what’s genuinely there. 

Alongside that reflection, I do bring structure. Not something fixed but a way that helps people leave with a clearer sense of what matters to them right now, and where they might want to place their energy next.

I don’t like to add things to long to-do lists. I like to be  intentional with what’s already there.

Georgie Harris: What felt important to you about having this conversation within a community like Mums Who Build?

Fiorenza Rossini: It matters a lot where you’re having this type of conversation. What’s the context and environment? When you’re surrounded by people who are navigating similar realities, you don’t have to spend time justifying or explaining where you’re at. People just get it. It helps foster psychological safety. People open up differently. The MOB community has created a space where ambition and motherhood aren’t positioned as opposites. That feels really aligned with how I see my work.

Georgie Harris: For someone who is recognising themselves in this conversation, but isn’t sure what they need yet, what would you say to them?

Fiorenza Rossini: I would say that not knowing is a very valid place to be. There can be a lot of pressure to define the next step quickly - having a plan, a direction, something that feels certain.

But often, the first step is simply acknowledging that something has shifted. You don’t need to have the answer straight away. You don’t even need to know the right question yet.

What can help is giving yourself a bit of space to think, ideally not in isolation, but in a setting where other people have similar questions.

That’s very much the intention behind the session I’m hosting with Mums Who Build. It’s not about arriving with a fully formed plan, but about creating the conditions to explore what might come next.

Connect & Book

An exciting collaboration between Mums Who Build and Fiorenza Rossini, founder of InNow and professional coach for working mums looking to thrive in their work. This is for you if you’re ready to start reflecting on your next professional chapter.

• Book Your Spot:I’ve got the kid. Now what happens to my career? (Eventbrite)

• Learn More About Fiorenza’s work

• Hosted by: Fiorenza Rossini for Mums Who Build (The MOB)