Changing career after 22+ years is not for the faint of heart

Hi, everybody, i'm Rick ✌🏻
Exactly a year ago, I closed my small advertising shop after 6 years of ups and downs.

Of course it was tempting to follow inertia and just go back to what I knew best. 

After 22+ years working in advertising I had some credentials and job offers to go back. 

But, go back to what exactly?

In the last 2+ years we’ve seen a seismic change happening right in front of us. 

Some say it’s pure hype, some say Terminator would enslave us in a few years.

But maybe in the middle of all that noise there is something interesting happening.

Maybe.

So what’s next?

I love creativity, that’s for sure. I think more now than ever. 

I just don’t care so much about the format anymore.

So what did I do? I did what anybody would do with a lot of sudden free time (?)

Went full ahead to learn AI stuff, from vibe coding, to agents, and all the stuff in between.

So, of course, I started from the beginning. 

Being a junior again, a total noob, that had to learn everything from scratch.

And for somebody that has already done design, art direction, copywriting, branding, strategy, client relations, creative direction, chief creative direction and a blah blah blah of other roles at several big agencies, in 3 different countries; just being able to bring something to life that wasn't even remotely possible for me before, it feels awesome.

So this last year I’ve been vibe coding personal apps, most with no plan other than to learn and have fun. But around 4 months ago, with a little more knowledge and when working on another app with the intention of making some money (because yeah, we still need that to live, apparently) and during the branding process for said app, I realized how fragmented it is to actually use all these AI apps to create a brand from scratch.
And I’m not talking about one shooting a logo and we are done. I'm talking about the whole “let’s think about what this thing actually is, what makes it different, who are our possible customers, what the competition is doing” and so on and so on.

Even with all my experience working with small to big clients and knowing what to ask, knowing the actual steps, having adapted and created strategy frameworks before, it’s still kind of a pain in the ass. So I ditched the original app I was working on and changed gears, to something i fell a lot more connected to and to something i think could be really useful.

So here I am, building Garage Exit, a web app that will help first time entrepreneurs to launch their digital products with a solid minimum viable brand. AI assisted from beginning to end, with zero branding jargon during the process, just plain and easy to understand language and an easy to follow process.

It’s not finished yet, but I’m pass the “is this thing actually going to output something usable?”, so I’ll say I’m 82.7% there. 

It's main objective is not to replace a professional strategist, copywriter, or a professional designer. Not even close. That’s where the minimum viable brand part comes into play.

The idea is to help first time entrepreneurs to launch with confidence, guiding them through the branding process, and most importantly, help them launch fast and test fast, but with a very respectable brand that has behind 22+ years of my professional knowledge transformed into easy to use workflows.

Waitlist is open at garageexit.com there are some free spots for first users, so hope you can visit any time soon.
I would also love to hear stories of career pivoting from other people, to know how it went, how you dealt with the doubt and the kind of mourning process, so hope to read your thoughts on the comments.