This is the part of the conversation that hits differently for anyone who has ever felt like they were supposed to want to go back to what they left. Marla is honest that the job itself was not the problem. It was good. It paid well. It looked like the right path from the outside. But somewhere in the years she spent focused on her family, she realized that corporate life was never really her path to begin with, it was just the path she happened to be on before other priorities took over. When the moment came to reenter the workforce, she did not default back to what was familiar or what looked safest on paper. She chose to build something of her own instead, even knowing it meant starting from nothing.
For anyone in real estate, insurance, or small business, this is a moment worth sitting with, because it captures the exact fork in the road so many entrepreneurs face, the choice between the comfortable, proven path and the uncertain one that actually feels like yours. Marla did not frame her decision as rejecting corporate America or proving a point. She simply recognized that once she had space to think about what she actually wanted, building her own business was the only thing that made sense to focus her energy on. That kind of clarity does not always come easily, and it rarely comes without some fear attached to it.
What makes this story resonate beyond the spray tan industry is how relatable the underlying tension is. Plenty of people stay in careers that look successful from the outside simply because leaving feels riskier than staying, especially after a life change like becoming a parent. Marla's decision to walk away from a stable, high performing corporate role in order to build something entirely her own is a reminder that the safest looking choice is not always the right one, and that sometimes the biggest risk is going back to something that no longer fits who you have become. For working parents, career changers, or anyone quietly wondering whether it is too late to build something of their own, this clip is proof that it is never too late to choose the path that actually feels like yours.
There is also a quiet business lesson buried inside this personal story. Marla did not treat entrepreneurship as a fallback or a backup plan while she figured out her next corporate move. She treated it as the actual goal, the thing worth fully committing to, even without the built in structure, benefits, and predictability of the job she left behind. That mindset shift, from looking for a job to deciding to build a business, is often the real turning point for first time entrepreneurs, and it is a distinction that real estate agents, insurance advisors, and small business owners will recognize immediately from their own journeys into self employment.
Watch the full episode of Bricks and Risk to hear more of Marla Cicetta's story, from the exact moment she decided to launch And So It Glows, to the economics of running a mobile spray tan business, the science behind a great tan, and the marketing strategy that has helped her grow a loyal client base for nearly a decade. Find Marla and And So It Glows on Instagram at andsoitglows, on Facebook at Andsoitglows, and online at andsoitglows.net.