5 years ago my husband and I traveled around the country for his career where he managed professional golf tournaments. We moved every year to a new state but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and with only two dogs, it wasn’t too difficult to load up the car and drive to our new home state. Although, after the second move it was increasingly harder to find a job knowing we would be moving again so I did what I had always actually wanted to do, I became my own boss. I always knew I wanted to create a career for myself while also having the freedom to be with my family whenever I wanted.
In 2018 I started a virtual assistant agency and grew quickly. And by quickly, I mean I was serving over 20+ recurring clients in only 3 months and I needed to hire a team member like, yesterday.
I was in over my head in client work but I also didn’t have a rock solid plan on how much I wanted to make, how much I wanted to work and any boundaries for myself.
I had no issue getting clients, my issue was managing it all without killing myself.
After being in business for only 3 months, I decided I needed to hire a virtual assistant to work under me.
I hired someone who was great, she checked every box that I was looking for but unfortunately it didn't work out.
I was drowning in work and she jumped in to save me but I ended up drowning her too because I didn’t have my own life preserver.
I was working at all hours and saying yes to anyone that wanted to work with me.
More is better right?
And I also just thought that every new entrepreneur was meant to grind and hustle to get to where they wanted to go and that was the only way to excel.
Fast forward a few months, we had family fly in to come visit us for the fourth of July and I had a client calling my phone wondering where I was. We parked in the hotel parking lot where my in-laws were staying and while my husband and his family went for a walk to the beach, I was in the car talking to my client about why I wasn’t in my office on July 3rd and that was the last straw for me and I told her in that moment that it wasn’t going to work out.
At this time we had also begun talking about starting a family and all I could think about was how I could not be present at home with my future kids if this was how my business was operating.
I had finally seen that my work was interfering with my two highest values, family and freedom and knew I had to make some shifts asap to set myself up for success.
I realized that if I wanted to go farther, I needed to do more with less. I needed to get my shit together so I could bring on really awesome team members that I could trust would handle things without me so I could focus on what I really enjoyed.
I started focusing on the foundations that I never built because I grew too fast which included planning my year, managing my tasks, my time and also learning how to say no to clients that I did not want to work with.
After I nailed down the systems in my business, I was able to scale my team to 5 team members who began serving our 20+ recurring clients so I could focus on sales, marketing and having a life outside of work 🙂
Fast forward to 2023, I am making more money than I did back then working only three days a week and I am now a mom of two and started another business. My daily life now looks like:
- Slow mornings with my kids where I can sleep in until 8am
- Working at most 20 hours a week with Fridays off
- Having a schedule that brings me joy and includes self care every single day
- Having a team that I trust will know what I want them to do without them even having to ask
- Having dinner as a family every night
If I can do it, you can too.
That is why I love to help coaches and thought leaders go from feeling held back and spread too thin in their businesses to instead manifesting their big ideas with plenty of spaciousness to foster a lifestyle of fun, joy, and freedom.