F#ck It - I'm Out!

There's a moment - and maybe you know it - when you realize the thing you built is costing you more than it's giving back. Not financially, but personally. You're tired in a way that vacation no longer seems to fix. You're successful on paper but feeling like something is deeply off, doing everything right and still carrying this sense that you're somehow failing. That's exactly where I found myself in late 2019, after 13 years of building a business I once loved.

I started my first business at 27 - a brand and marketing agency that grew from a team of 2 to 10. At the same time, we were growing our family from 2 to 4. I was young and optimistic, and honestly, no one was going to tell me I couldn't have it all.

And for a while, I really did have it all.

But after 13 years, I came to realize I was paying a price that I never agreed to. I was expected to show up for the 7am breakfast meeting like I didn't have kids to get out the door, to be likeable (but not too likeable), competent (but not too competent), and to deliver with excellence while also making sure the kids got to baseball on time. The unspoken expectation was that I'd keep it all together, keep smiling, and never let anyone see the cracks.

Being an entrepreneur didn't really fit neatly into the 9-to-5, and the rest of my life certainly didn't only exist in the hours after. The expectations - some spoken, most not - made me feel like I was always failing no matter what I did. It wore on me over time. The resentment built slowly and then all at once. I lost the passion I once had, and eventually, I was just miserable.

Don't get me wrong I loved building a business, I loved being an entrepreneur, and I loved being a mom. I just didn't love the rules of the game I was being forced to play. So in late 2019, I said: F#ck it. I'm out.

I wasn't giving up. I was rewriting the rules.

Now, if you knew me growing up - and I'm sure my parents would attest to this - you'd know I'm not the kind of person who waves the white flag. I wasn't giving up on entrepreneurship. I was done playing by rules that didn't work for me, and I was ready to write my own.

I started asking myself questions I probably should have asked years earlier:

What would it actually look like to have a successful business AND a life I loved - not one or the other?

What beliefs about being an entrepreneur had I absorbed over time, and were they even true?

How much money did I actually need to fuel the life I wanted?

Who did I want to work with, and how did I want to show up for them?

How did I want to show up for my family, and what did I want our kids to remember about those years?

What needed to change for me to love my work again?

Looking back, the answers painted a very different picture than the one I'd been living for 13 years. So I used that picture to build something new. I walked away from the business that was no longer serving me, and I followed the pull toward helping other women see that there's another way to do this.

What's different now?

That was the beginning of my coaching practice.

Now I work with women who are building businesses on their own terms - not following someone else's formula, not burning themselves out trying to do it all, not waiting for permission to build something that actually fits their life. Here's more about how I work with clients.

The resentment I carried for years has been replaced by something I didn't expect: ease. Not because the work is easy, but because it finally feels like mine. I show up with energy for my clients, I'm present for my kids, and my business fuels our life instead of draining it.

And the women I work with? They're doing the same thing - writing their own rules, building businesses they're proud of, and letting go of what was never theirs to carry in the first place.

Sound familiar?

If something in this story resonates, I want you to know: you're not broken, and you're not bad at this. You might just be playing a game with rules that were never designed for you to win.

That friction you're feeling - the one between the business you've built and the life you actually want? It's not a sign that you're doing something wrong. I might just be a sign that you've outgrown the way you've been doing it.

You don't have to burn it all down. But you might need to rewrite some of the rules.

If any of this is landing for you, I'd love to hear from you. Whether it's just a conversation to talk things through, share my experience with you, or if you're looking for a thinking partner as you figure out what needs to change - I'm happy to come alongside.

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