BOOKS
A memoir and business reflection for anyone standing at a crossroads, questioning the path they were handed, and learning how to build a life that actually fits.
Louise Bijesse is a talent strategist, HR leader, author, and founder of UpTalent Consulting & Search. She helps companies hire better, lead stronger, and build healthier workplaces through executive search, fractional HR, and leadership advisory work.
Before building her career in recruiting and human resources, Louise began as a chef. That early experience shaped how she thinks about pressure, people, preparation, leadership, and the work it takes to build something that lasts.
This book is for anyone standing at a crossroads
Don’t Follow The Recipe helps readers look at their own life with more honesty and courage.
Through Louise’s story, readers will learn how to trust the experience they already carry, recognize when a season no longer fits, and make decisions without waiting for perfect timing.
The book speaks to anyone who has had to rebuild, redirect, or keep going when life did not follow the plan.
Inside the book, readers will learn:
How to stop seeing past experiences as detours
How to recognize when it’s time to make a change
How to use pressure, loss, and uncertainty as material for growth
How to lead with steadiness when life feels unstableHow to trust their own judgment instead of waiting for permission
How to build a life that fits who they are becoming
This is not a book about following someone else’s formula.
It is a book about paying attention, getting honest, and learning how to move forward with what life has already taught you.
About The Author
Don’t Follow The Recipe
By Louise Bijesse
Don’t Follow The Recipe is part memoir, part business reflection, and part honest look at what it takes to build a life when the plan doesn’t go the way it was supposed to.
Louise Bijesse began her career as a chef, where kitchens taught her about pressure, timing, leadership, exhaustion, and survival. They also taught her one of the lessons that would shape her life: no matter how perfect the recipe looks on paper, real life rarely follows it exactly.
Over the next three decades, Louise built a career in recruiting, leadership, and human resources while raising five children, including triplets, and navigating the real tension between ambition, responsibility, motherhood, marriage, and reinvention.
She went on to lead large talent acquisition teams, earn her bachelor’s degree in business at 44, complete her master’s degree while working full time, and found UpTalent Consulting & Search, her own consulting and executive search firm serving businesses across the country.
This book is for anyone standing at a crossroads.
The person wondering if it’s too late.
The leader questioning the path they’re on.
The parent trying to build something while holding everything else together.
The professional who knows the life they were handed is not the only one available.
Don’t Follow The Recipe is not a formula. It is not a step by step guide. It is an honest story about risk, resilience, work, family, leadership, and learning how to trust the path you have to figure out for yourself.
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