One of my main jobs was managing our email marketing. My job was to write, design and send the emails to our list every week.

That was great! I loved it! Except just one problem. My boss didn’t let me do my job.

He would stand over my shoulder and watch as I clicked every button, designed every section of the email and nervously hover over my shoulder as I prepared the email to send. He was so afraid of me making a mistake.

“Uhhhh, Uhhhh, hold on, hold on. Wait. Are you sure it’s ok? Let me check. Uhhmmmm… let’s see.” Over and over and over.

He would even take the mouse from my hand and scroll through the email checking it before I sent. I mean, I understand checking someone’s work, but this guy was OVERKILL.

He made me dread Wednesdays (the day we sent the emails). He started giving me busy work so that he wouldn’t feel like I could “mess anything up” that had legitimate value or was really contirbuting to anything real. I was designing web pages, and then he was coming in and redoing them.

I couldn’t stand it. Was THIS what I moved to DC for?! Surely not. Was this what everyone was dealing with out here in “the real world”? Was THIS what I was expected to put up with for the next 3-5 years until I could “move up” in the world, and then for 40 more years after that until I could retire?! This didn’t feel like ” real life.” It felt totally and completely fake! Every time I walked into that office, I felt like a little part of my soul die.

And thus began the unraveling of my tiny, recent college grad dreams and perceptions. It had to happen somehow, right? I began to realize my hopes of using my skills to make the world a better place were a little rose-colored for this model of living. How did that fit into my day to day? I wasn’t making the world better or anyone’s life, really. I was using my skills to waste 8 hours a day to earn a salary that allowed me to continue to eek out an existence in a dimly lit office while pretending to build someone else’s dream.  

Seem dramatic? Maybe it is. But that’s how I felt. I began wondering how I could find a way out. I wanted out. 

3 months after that, he moved to Maryland and got his own place. We began planning our wedding.

In the day to day and regular mundane of life, we get comfortable. We get stuck. We often need something to push us out. To shove us out of that comfy every day and into unknown, scary uncertainty.

Sometimes it’s a marriage proposal and planning a wedding. Sometimes its having a baby. Sometimes it’s something at the office that tips you over the edge of sanity and you find yourself thinking and then saying out loud, “I can put up with this. I WON’T put up with this.”

Sometimes it’s financial strain or stress. But whatever it is, I believe everyone who makes a big, risky change has something motivating them. Something behind the curtain that is causing them to ask, “What if?”

I started my firts business on the floor of my apartment floor sewing fake plastic pearls onto cheap silk flower petals I had dismantled. And the rest is history. (But really, if you wanna know the details, listen to this episode!)

At the time I found myself faced with the question: stay in the job I hate, or find another one.

However, I did not feel that either option was right for me. I quickly realized after listing a few items on Etsy, there was a third option. Build a business.

For some of us, this realization comes naturally. Or because we were raised by entrepreneurs and we’ve seen the inner workings of owning a business. Or because our dad asked us growing up, “What could you do to make money some day? What business could you run?”

True story. I grew up with a dad who asked me questions like that regularly. Frequently, even! It built into me this understanding of the world that was not binary and black and white, but multi-faceted and very colorful. The answer to that question was open-ended. And there was no right or wrong.

I won’t go into the story of how my dad’s own story in building a successful multi-million dollar business started with him losing everything, having our car reposessed by the bank and borrowing $20,000 from my grandparents to start his business at 24. That story is for another day. But it was his ingenuity and will to thrive and my mom’s creativity that bred in me the understanding that there was a variety of options and pathways available to me. I just had to imagine them and then pick one to follow.

I found a problem and I solved it.

Granted, the world of Etsy at the time in 2011 was very different and part of my success was due to the fact I was early-ish to the custom bridal accessories game online and so therefore, got a piece of that pie.

So, what? 

Does this story resonate with where you’re at? You’re not alone. My hope is not that this condemns or leaves anyone in a fulltime corporate job feeling less-than. But rather, for those who it speaks to and see themselves in part of my story, that you would see that there is always another way.

To that end, I have created a free guide to help you find your ideal business idea too!

Already have a business idea?

Here’s the long and the short of it.

You can figure this all out on your own.

You can google and test and trial and fail and edit and redo allllll day long. You know the drill.

But I imagine there are many who would rather not guess and check their way to success. Who would benefit from learning what worked for me and what didn’t. So that’s why I created The Busy Mom’s Business Quickstart course. 

This is all stuff I figured out (eventually and slowly) how to do, even with young kids. And it’s totally and absolutely stuff you could figure out too. But I also recognize, not everyone has time or 7 years to mosy their way to success.

You need to take the next step into your dreams and make something happen more quickly. You don’t have time (or money) to mess around. You are willing to work hard enough to create opportunity for yourself.

In this course, I give you everything I learned and used to work my way to success. Business strategy, how to develop effective and clear messaging and a step-by-step plan for how to set up your business in today’s digital environment.

Let’s connect!

I run a podcast called Kindled all about work and motherhood and I’d love for you to check it out.