It was exactly this time of year, about a month after Sydney was born, and Johnny, infant Sydney and I escaped for one night to beach town a couple hours away. We stayed in a
cute inn with a wonderful restaurant downstairs, and let her sleep in her car seat under the table while we ate.
The next morning, we walked down to the beach. Aside from just having a newborn, there were a few things happening at the moment: 1. hormones were surging through my body, 2. It has become clear to me that I was being pushed out of my job, in an industry I had been in since I moved to New York 15+ years prior. The exit turned out to be painful and ugly,
a story I’ve told a bunch of times before.
Sitting on that
rocky beach, my husband asked me a really powerful question: What do you want your life to look like after this?
My mind almost came up blank because I didn’t know exactly what the WHAT of what I wanted to do. But I pushed myself to think of the qualities of the life I wanted. I wanted, specifically:
- To be able to take my kids to school in the morning and pick them up when they were done.
- To do something meaningful that contributes to the world
- To make a significant financial contribution to my family.
In addition, I could picture myself going from school drop-off to working out. I could picture sitting down at my desk and doing some reading or writing or having virtual meetings with people. I could picture myself being part of an entrepreneurial community of women who supported each other. (And, wow, did
that part ever come true.)
I left the beach feeling clearer and more hopeful.
But what came next wasn’t just the magic of saying what you want and watching it come true. What came next was a lot of steps in different directions, some that led me closer to what I wanted and some that didn’t.
One of the biggest things that led me in the right direction was when I put myself in the center of entrepreneurial women/mom communities. I remember accepting an
acquaintance's invitation to an event she was speaking at. I didn't know anyone there, but I knew it was a room I wanted to be in. And now, 6 years later, it's the kind of room
I'm in (and in front of!) all the time.
Also, I found coaching, mentorship, and, yes groups, that I learned from, and that supported me through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. In fact, it was working with my first coach,
Antoinette, that I nailed down that coaching was the umbrella under which all the qualities that I named at the beach fell under.
It wasn’t super fast, but it wasn’t too much longer after that morning on the beach where I looked around and realized that I had climbed to the top of the mountain that I had dreamed up. (And what comes after that? Time to dream up the next mountain. But again, another story for another day!)
I think about this all the time when I’m working with my clients as everyone has a different mountain to climb. For some clients I've worked with, it’s pivoting from a 9-5 to working for themselves. For some, it's jumping out of that toxic relationship into a much healthier and stable one. And for some others, it’s doubling/tripling the revenue in their businesses in order to work less and spend time with their families. Yes, I've seen each and every one of these happen.
Being able to get from point A to point B isn't a matter of talent or luck; it's being able to see it, and then take the steps necessary until it becomes reality.
On that note, I'm working with a really powerful, small group of women starting next week until the end of the year to take steps toward each of their separate goals. Does this sound like it could be you too?
Here is all the information and application to apply. This is the only email that I'm going to send about it, so if you are interested, either click on that link or send me a note to save a seat.
I'm so excited to see what this group can do!
