After decades in business, Charmaine Potts has chosen to step into a second act — one built on resilience, curiosity, and the courage to start again. Over the past year, she’s redefined what it means to say yes, trading hustle for balance and rediscovering what truly lights her up.
In this conversation, Charmaine opens up about navigating the messy middle of reinvention, the role of mindset and mental health in her entrepreneurial journey, and the people who’ve helped her see growth where she once saw uncertainty.
You’ve described this past year as one of saying yes and starting again. What inspired that shift, and what did it look like in your everyday life?
The shift came from realising my old version of ‘yes’ was killing my spark. For years, I was the person who said yes to everything — every project, every extra responsibility, every ‘can you just…’ request. I became the go-to person for multiple roles, and while being relied upon felt validating, it was burning me out. My spark was dimming. Making the choice to step down from my role and take my long service leave was terrifying but necessary. That’s when I redefined what ‘yes’ meant to me.
This time, saying yes wasn’t about taking on more work — it was about saying yes to opportunities that could help me grow, change my mindset, and find myself again. Yes to that networking event that scared me. Yes to learning something completely new. Yes to conversations that challenged my thinking. Yes to being visible in my uncertainty. Each yes was intentional, each one chosen because it aligned with rediscovering who I was beyond the roles I’d been playing.
Reinvention can be exciting but also uncomfortable. How did you navigate the messy middle — that space between the old chapter and the new one?
The messy middle is real — and it’s exactly where the magic happens. It’s that space where you’re no longer who you were, but not yet who you’re becoming. For me, it was about accepting that discomfort as proof of growth rather than failure, and learning to embrace it. I had to unlearn the pressure to have it all figured out. Some days I’d lean on my decades of experience, other days I’d feel like a complete novice.
I navigated it by giving myself permission to be both — experienced AND learning, confident AND uncertain. When things felt particularly messy, I’d remind myself: ‘Nobody knows exactly what they want to be, and no job is 100% certain. Learn to take one step each day — just like compound interest, you’ll be amazed how far you can go in a year.’ That became my mantra. Small steps, consistent movement, trusting the compound effect.
You’ve spoken about finding balance between experience and curiosity. What does that balance look like for you day to day?
It’s a dance between knowing and wondering — and learning when to lead with each. Day to day, this balance shows up in how I approach challenges. My experience gives me the frameworks and wisdom to avoid certain pitfalls, but I consciously choose to stay curious about new ways of doing things. Practically, this means I might use my business acumen to structure a project, but I’ll actively seek out other perspectives or new technologies to challenge my assumptions.
I’ve learned to lead with questions rather than answers. Instead of ‘I know how to do this,’ it’s ‘I wonder how this could work differently now?’ It’s holding my expertise lightly — valuable but not precious. The moment you think you know everything is the moment you stop growing.
Entrepreneurship often celebrates hustle, but you’ve focused more on grace and growth. How do you look after your mental health while building something new?
I learned the hard way that hustle without health is a house of cards. After decades in business, I’ve seen where pure hustle leads — and it’s rarely sustainable. This time, I’m building with intention. Mental health isn’t an afterthought; it’s part of the business plan. I’ve structured my days with non-negotiables: my daily walk, proper breaks, and hard stops.
When anxiety, doubt, or depression creeps in — and it does — I’ve learned to pause and ask, ‘Is this real or manufactured?’ I celebrate small wins, not just big outcomes. Some weeks, success looks like landing a client; other weeks, it’s receiving a message from a fellow business person saying I’ve helped or inspired them. Those messages mean everything. Grace means accepting that building something meaningful isn’t a sprint — it’s about showing up consistently, not perfectly.
You’ve said that connection has been a big part of this transformation. How have the people around you influenced your journey of reinvention?
I discovered that vulnerability is a magnet for the right people. This transformation wouldn’t have happened in isolation. Early on, I made a conscious choice to be vulnerable about where I was — in transition, figuring things out, starting over. That honesty attracted the right people. Some became cheerleaders, others collaborators, and many became friends.
They’ve held mirrors up when I couldn’t see my own growth, challenged my limiting beliefs, and celebrated wins I would have minimised. The people around me have taught me that reinvention isn’t a solo journey — it’s a collective experience. Every coffee chat, every ‘me too’ moment, every introduction has woven into this new chapter. Connection isn’t just nice to have — it’s essential to transformation.
For anyone feeling stuck or afraid to start over, what’s one small way they can begin to move toward their own version of a second act?
I get it — the fear is real, but so is your potential. Start with one small yes. Not a life-changing, terrifying yes — just a curious one. Maybe it’s reaching out to someone whose journey inspires you, or attending an event in a field that interests you, or simply admitting out loud that you want something different. The key is to move before you’re ready, because ‘ready’ is a myth that keeps us stuck.
Also, reframe starting over as ‘starting with’ — you’re not beginning from zero, you’re beginning with all your experience, wisdom, and hard-won lessons. That’s not starting over; that’s levelling up with intention.
My philosophy is simple yet powerful: Ask the question. Get the answer. Take action. Don’t be a spectator in your own life.
Trade your vision board for an action board — because dreams without movement are just wishes. Each small step compounds into something extraordinary.
Here’s what I know to be true: Permission isn’t coming. The perfect moment doesn’t exist. But that one small action you take today, it’s the beginning of a story that will astound you a year from now.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. The compound effect of consistent small steps will take you further than you ever imagined possible.
