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I started my business in a village of 1,200 people while working 50+ hours a week. I was planning a wedding, training for a marathon, launching a wedding blog, and somehow starting a photography business.

I was burning the candle at every end, but I knew it would be worth it.

Then came the moment: booking 25 weddings, putting in my two weeks notice, walking away from everything to become a full-time wedding photographer who’d never taken an art class. For me, entrepreneurship was about freedom. When I first said “time is your currency,” it wasn’t marketing language. It was truth I’d already lived.

My Boss’s Office: The Hour Before Bedtime

My boss called me into her office to map out my three-year plan. As she talked, I glanced at her desk and saw a photo of her children. I asked her something about them. “If I’m lucky, I get an hour with them before they go to bed.”

I went back to my office and looked at a photo of Drew and me. How do I want to move through life? Am I okay with seeing this guy one hour a night? Time is your currency became the way I moved closer to the life I wanted.

What I’ve Always Been Teaching

Everything I’ve taught centers around three truths: help people get found, help people get off their phones through systems that work while they live, and help people get present so they can do meaningful work from anywhere.

Here’s what I’ve learned: most entrepreneurs pursue freedom, yet most are flat-out exhausted.

They’ve reached impressive milestones but they’re still chained to their laptops. They built businesses that look successful but they’re not actually free.

Standing in the Shower at Six Figures

I hit six figures as a wedding photographer three years in. I remember looking at my bank statement thinking, “I made it.” I went upstairs, got in the shower, and all I could think was: I thought this would feel different.

The cognitive dissonance of success that doesn’t feel successful is something so many entrepreneurs experience. Instead of pausing to ask “Is this actually success for me?” we just define a new mountain to climb.

I asked myself: How do I feel right now? Exhausted. Burnt out. Looking at my calendar made me sick. Revenue without rest is just another cage.

Going Back to $50K (And Making Seven Figures Instead)

Instead of saying “maybe I just need more,” I did the opposite. I mapped out what life would look like if I went back to earning $50K a year. I was happier then. More present. Not missing weekends at the cabin or my friends’ weddings.

I sat down with Drew, nervous. “Do you think I’m crazy if next year I plan for half?” He didn’t look stressed. He looked relieved… like he was about to get his wife back.

Here’s the crazy thing: the year I scaled back from 30 weddings to 15 was the year I finally had time again. I started painting. My paintings became a print shop paying my mortgage. I learned what passive income actually was. The year I scaled back and planned to earn $50K was the year I unlocked my first seven-figure year.

Every time I’ve claimed back more time, I’ve unlocked something new.

When I treat time as my currency instead of money, it unlocks everything.

The Decline Email and Blacked-Out Calendar

When I became a mom after two years of heartbreak and two miscarriages, I shot my last wedding at 20 weeks pregnant. That first year of motherhood, I blacked out my entire calendar. I said yes to what I was building and no to basically everything else. Every yes to someone else was a no to being present as a mom.

I created a decline email that said: “You’re receiving this not because your request isn’t amazing, but because if I say yes, I’m saying no to the thing I prayed for most.” I told my team: send it over and over. Don’t put anything in front of me.

I was not going to teach sustainability while chasing every opportunity. I was not going to preach presence while having my attention fragmented. If the way you’re building costs you the life you want to live, something has to change. Boundaries don’t keep things out. They keep you in your life.

Asking “What Is the Point?”

I got in the practice of asking this question over and over: What is the point? What is the point of a bigger team, bigger business, more revenue, more reach? If you can’t answer clearly what the point is, you’re probably not in alignment.

I recently listened to a podcast where a woman talked about working seven days a week with no hobbies. As she talked about how successful she was, I found myself asking: Does she think she’ll magically someday feel like she’s earned the right to rest? What is the point of building a business if it takes everything away from you that you’re building it for?

There’s a story I heard about two women who take the subway and save ten minutes. When they come back up, one pulls out her phone to catch up on work. The other finds a bench and sits down. “What are you doing?” “I’m enjoying the ten minutes we just saved.”

We spend so much time trying to save time, then we spend the time we saved working harder. The park bench moment? That’s not being lazy. That’s the point. Time isn’t just a resource you manage. Time is your life.

“I Have Met a Relaxed Woman, and It’s You”

I recently interviewed Nicola Jane Hobbs, who wrote The Relaxed Woman. There’s a paragraph that stuck with me: “Growing up, I never knew a relaxed woman. Successful women? Yes. Anxious and apologetic women? Heaps of them. But relaxed women? At ease women? Women who don’t dissect their days into half-hour slots of productivity. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a woman like that, but I would like to become one.”

I was at a place called Onsite with my roommate Danielle. We kept coming back to this paragraph all weekend. At the end, she turned to me and said, “I’ve been thinking about the relaxed woman thing. I have met a relaxed woman, and it’s you.”

I’ve never felt more seen and successful. It was the moment I realized that presence was the ultimate success metric. Not revenue, not reach, not recognition. Being a relaxed woman doesn’t mean you don’t do meaningful things. It’s the state of being you move through life in.

This is what I’ve been building toward all along. Not a business that produces more, but a life that truly feels like mine. Work isn’t just what you build. It’s the person you become while building it.

My Boring Business Is My Greatest Gift

Everyone talks about slowing down now. But for a lot of people, this shift only happens after severe burnout. What I’ve been teaching is that you can build differently from the start. You don’t have to build something that makes you collapse before you rest. You don’t have to prove your worth through exhaustion. You don’t have to trade your peace for progress.

Hustle got the dream off the ground. But if hustle is the only way to sustain the dream, it’s probably not the dream at all.

What actually works is staying in alignment with what success looks like for you. Building systems that compound results, like I taught you recently in Episode 932. Owning your platform. Being found and having your work work for you.

When you create systems and build infrastructure, it doesn’t kill your creativity. It makes room for it. Structure isn’t the killer of creativity. It’s the foundation that makes room for it.

I’ve built what a lot of people would call a boring business. It runs predictably, rinse and repeat. It’s been the greatest gift of my life. Looking at my last seven years as a mom, I don’t have a single regret. My boring business has given me the greatest joy… It’s allowed me to channel creativity into playing with my kids, my hobbies, my relationships, the garden, the bees, the chickens.

If you could have a business that runs so smoothly it almost feels boring, that’s not failure. It’s freedom. In the last seven years, I haven’t added a new offer. I can schedule my work between fall break and winter vacation. I haven’t missed a single thing. A business that serves your life doesn’t need to be exciting all the time. It just needs to be sustainable.

I’ve eliminated chaos in my business so I can invite chaos into my life in ways that support the greater good. Running a food drive. Managing food donations. Matching families with resources. I’ve created chaos, but it’s the best kind because it’s for the greater good.

The Brake Pedal Is Choosing

Time is our currency. It always has been. You can always earn more money, but you cannot get back your time. When I became a mom, I chose to hit the brake pedal. I trusted myself to remember where the gas pedal was. That was the greatest gift I gave myself.

It’s interesting to be where I am now, with both of my daughters in school. I imagined this era would be one where I came back with a vengeance. But what I want is the opposite. I want to slow down even more. I want to relax. I want presence. I want community roots.

The brake pedal isn’t giving up. The brake pedal is choosing. It’s deciding what matters and protecting it fiercely. Success isn’t measured by how fast you’re going. It’s measured by whether you’re going in the direction of what you truly want in your real life.

What I Hope the Through Line Sounds Like

If there’s a through line in all of this, I hope it sounds like this: I was a woman who showed other women they could build from anywhere. I helped people be seen and heard without burning out. I reminded people that their presence is powerful. I gave others permission to live fully, not just build endlessly.

You don’t have to leave your kitchen table to make a difference. You can be a present mother or partner and a thriving entrepreneur. You can build a business that supports your life, not one that swallows it whole. Sustainability isn’t just a business strategy. It’s a way of being.

A few years ago, I went on a joy journey. I set out to make my work the least interesting part of who I am. I signed up for a sourdough class, joined the local rowing team, started a garden, kept bees, got chickens, started fostering dogs, volunteered at the soup kitchen. I explored out of curiosity: Who am I outside the roles I play? How do I want to spend my precious time? What brings me joy?

When I think about what I want my daughters to remember, it’s not my podcast downloads or business revenue. It’s that their mom was there. She showed up. She built something that gave her the freedom to be present. I was never building a business. I was building a life that could hold everything I love, everything sacred to me.

This Moment Right Here

As I think about what’s next, I keep coming back to this: What if we’ve already built what we need to build? What if the work now is to protect it, to live it, to let it breathe?

The through line has always been this: helping you build something solid, something sustainable, something simple, so aligned with who you are that you can finally put down the hustle and pick up your life. Here’s the truth: You’re probably not just building a business. You’re trying to build a life that can hold everything you love.

Wherever you are right now, take a deep breath. Look around. Feel proud of what you’re dreaming about, what you’re building, but also the life you’re living. You’re probably experiencing things right now you once prayed for. See that. Relish in that.

This moment we’re in together? This is the point. It’s the park bench. It’s the presence. It’s a life that feels like yours. This is what we’ve been building all along.

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