Mastering the PIVOT: 5 Steps for an Epic Comeback

Eight months after being named Athletic Director of the Year, Jeremy Capo walked into a meeting and walked out unemployed. It is the kind of abrupt reversal that forces a hard question on anyone who has built an identity around a role: when your title disappears overnight, what is actually left of you?Written for athletic directors, coaches, and high performing professionals standing at a crossroads, Mastering the PIVOT blends memoir level vulnerability with a practical five step framework meant to help readers reclaim clarity, integrity, and momentum. It never pretends the fall did not hurt, choosing honesty over easy comfort at every turn.Drawing on two decades in college athletics, along with the difficult reset that followed his own termination, Capo shows readers how to pause instead of panic, how to recognize the cultural and leadership red flags they may have overlooked for years, and how to rebuild a career grounded in genuine leadership values instead of ego.The book takes shape around the PIVOT framework: Pause with Purpose, Identify What Matters, Validate Your Voice, Own the Shift, and Take the Brave Step. Together these stages turn disruption into direction and reshape a painful setback into a workable strategy for real growth.The comeback described here is not about getting back in. It is about becoming who you were called to be, professionally and personally, in a way that feels genuinely purpose driven.