352: When Your Career Gets Blindsided: How Sarah White Turned a Job Loss Into Opportunity

What's in this episode

Send us Fan Mail One unexpected phone call can change everything. Sarah White thought she had stability as a restaurant partner. Then she learned her partners had voted without her, planned to sell the business, and were eliminating her role. Instead of scrambling to find her next job, Sarah made a bold mid-career move. She bought them out and took ownership of Westover Taco in Arlington, Virginia. In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I talk with Sarah about what career resilience really looks like when your professional life gets messy. Her story is not just about restaurant ownership. It is about confidence, relationships, decision-making, and building a plan before you need one. Sarah shares the behind-the-scenes reality of running a neighborhood restaurant in a challenging post-COVID economy, including rising food costs, staffing challenges, permits, zoning, licensing, tariffs, and changing wage rules. She also explains the misunderstood reality of tipped wages and how policy changes can affect service, retention, and the customer experience. We also explore how Westover Taco became a women’s sports bar almost by accident. What started as Sarah’s love of women’s sport