ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I’m a Boy Mom First

I’ve told this story as a bit of a joke:

“I had my firstborn on a Friday, started my business that Monday…”

It was 2005, and my husband and I were having our first baby.

My mind was set: I was going to be home. However, we needed my income, so I took what I’d learned working for an ad agency and helping a former employer start his company, and started my own remote brand and marketing agency.

I didn’t know much about business, but I jumped in the deep end, working around the clock and around his schedule.

I thought I had the dream work life

A few years later I turned a side hustle into another business, licensing art to commercial retailers. By then we had 2 sons.

I thought I was doing the right things:

  • had location independence

  • freedom to attend class parties, chaperone field trips

  • multiple income streams, from client retainers to passive income

I helped clients generate millions of dollars and solved some pretty complex challenges along the way.

I was proud of what I’d built, but years of waking up at 3 or 4 am to fit it all in were taking their toll.

In 2015, I finally took my first real vacation… without my laptop.

TEN years in.

Shortly after that, something strange happened - it wasn’t your typical burnout.

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Success, Stress & Burnout

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN

Part of it was simple: I needed to streamline.

The other part went much deeper…

For months pain would plague me, then disappear as if nothing had happened.

It started with debilitating back and hip pain, out of nowhere, and unexplainable. As someone who’s danced ballet for 25 years, I have a high tolerance for pain. It made no sense.

Two months later, it disappeared as if nothing had happened.

Another set of problems set in… migraines, back to back.

Then another… adding anxiety and even panic attacks to it.

Trips to the ER, doctors, conversations with my business coach, and a therapist revealed what I didn’t want to admit:

I was burning my candle at both ends.

I’d already started leaning into speaking and workshops and moving in the direction I truly wanted to go…

But something had to give.

I felt like an “ungrateful artist” when I put my licensing business on the back burner.

After all, wasn’t I blessed to make money doing something fun? Wasn’t that the dream?

It was highly profitable (I still make royalties to this day) and had created incredible opportunities for me.

But I found deeper fulfillment helping others solve problems impacting their business and lives.

So I let it go.

It was time to focus on my true passion:

Helping entrepreneurs and business owners grow, simply, successfully, and sustainably.

Outside of business

Family comes first…

You can find me hanging out with them, sharing an occasional dinner with my oldest (who is now in college, and close by - lucky me!) or cheering on the Colorado Avalanche.

I’m a lifelong ballet dancer with a passion for mid-century and vintage design.

Most of my life has been spent in the desert, between Arizona and Nevada. I’m a true desert rat who believes in our country and small businesses as its backbone.

Wherever I am, coffee is. ☕

Think we might work well together?

Drop me a line and we’ll find out!