I Sold My Company And Accidentally Designed a Life I Didn't Want

I Sold My Company And Accidentally Designed a Life I Didn’t Want

By: Maggie Lord

I had done the thing so many founders dream about:

I sold my company.
I joined the acquirer in a high-level role.
I was earning the biggest salary and making the most money of my career.

And I was deeply, unexpectedly miserable.

It didn’t take long to figure out why: I wasn’t built for corporate life. I’m an entrepreneur to my bones and no title or paycheck can override your wiring.

For twelve years, Rustic Wedding Chic wasn’t just my business. It was my identity, my creative outlet, and the lens through which I moved through the world. I didn’t just build a brand; I built a life that fit me.

When I sold it, I didn’t just give up equity. I gave up my passion.

In the role that followed, I had all the traditional signs of success, income, benefits, structure, but none of the actual things that make me feel alive. No ownership. No autonomy. No creative spark. The machinery that makes big companies operate efficiently drained the very qualities that made me effective as a founder.

I wasn’t burned out. I wasn’t ungrateful.
I was misaligned.

I never once regretted selling my company. I was genuinely thrilled to have exited — especially to such a large acquirer. The issue was never the sale itself. What I wasn’t prepared for was the post‑sale reality.

That realization changed everything. It forced me to zoom out and ask: What am I really optimizing for?

It turns out, I’m here to build. To advise. To connect. To help founders navigate exits and transitions with clarity before they end up stuck in a version of success that doesn’t fit.

That’s why I joined my co-founder, Carrie Kerpen and set out to help as many women as we could, close the exit gap and grow The Whisper Group.

Now, I work behind the scenes with founders and operators at pivotal moments, acquisitions, exits, reinventions. We help them make decisions that aren’t just smart, but true to who they are. Because the real failure isn’t falling short. It’s “winning” the wrong game.

I’m sharing this because I know how easy it is to chase the finish line without asking: What happens after?

If my experience helps even one founder slow down, get clearer, and design a life that actually fits then every hard-earned lesson was worth it.