The Show I Had to Build
In 2018, I was strapped down to a hospital bed and sedated. I had recently gotten a puppy, barely slept for six days, tipped into full-blown mania and then psychosis. When my parents showed up at my apartment, I was barely dressed, pacing, completely unresponsive. That night ended in an emergency room, and then I was transferred to a mental health hospital where I received a bipolar disorder diagnosis, and began my three months of medical leave.
You probably know this story if you've been here a while. It's the story that started Bipolar Brought Balance.
What I haven't talked about as much is what that episode actually changed. Not just in how I manage my health, but in how I think about success.
Before 2018, my career was my identity. I had worked at Yelp for nearly five years. I traveled constantly, said yes to everything, slept five hours a night and called it efficiency. When my treatment team told me point-blank that my job wasn't a good fit for someone with bipolar disorder, the time zones, the nights, the weekends, I remember thinking: then what am I?
That question took years to sit with.
I never fully answered it until November 10th, 2025, when I was laid off on my 11-year anniversary at the company. To the day.
The podcast I'd hosted for five years, Behind the Review, was done. 200+ episodes, 1.6 million downloads, and one same-day calendar invite that ended it.
I spent the next two months thinking about what I actually wanted. What kept surfacing was simple: I didn't want to stop making a show. I wanted to make one that was mine. One with room for the parts of the story that don't get told, the pivot points, the things that broke before they got better, the version of success that looks nothing like what you planned.
That's Success, Rewritten.
It's a show about the moments that change everything. Not always the hard moments. Sometimes it's something good, something chosen, something that quietly shifts the whole trajectory. I'm interviewing entrepreneurs, executives, athletes, and leaders about the inflection points in their lives and work. The moments they couldn't see clearly until they were already on the other side.
My 2018 manic episode is the reason this show exists. Not because every conversation will be about mental health. It won't be. But because being hospitalized, diagnosed, and forced to rebuild how I worked and lived taught me something I couldn't have learned any other way: success isn't fixed. It gets rewritten. Over and over again.
Episode 1 is my story, the full version, told with my friend and grief coach Shelby Forsythia, who was kind enough to be the one asking questions for once. It covers 2018, the diagnosis, the layoff, and why I built this show. Watch it below.
You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at successrewrittenshow.com and follow along on Instagram at @successrewritten so you don't miss what's coming.
And if you have a story, a pivot point, a moment that rewrote everything, I want to hear it. Feel free to comment below, fill out the Guest Application form, or reach me directly at emily@successrewrittenshow.com.
