entrepreneur

I am fortunate to know many extraordinary women. Single and thriving. Married with children. Single Mom’s. Working Mom’s and stay at home Mom’s…who are working by the way. Some are entrepreneurs, some are beginning a new business venture, some are on the cusp of deciding a side hustle. The one thing they all seem to have in common? They all feel like they could or should be doing more. That they are failing in some way because they see how much others have achieved and they have not. I myself have been, and from to time, still am, guilty of the same thoughts.

A few months ago, while talking with a friend who, in my opinion, is rocking it, was quite down on herself. She couldn’t understand why she wasn’t where she thought she should be. You see, she has a mentor, has been being coached, is following a plan, things just haven’t come to fruition. I reminded her that she has her own business, in her name. That she is a wonderful Mother to adult children who still want to see her and value her opinion. She survived and thrived after a divorce that came out of left field. She still felt like she was failing in some way, because so many others that had taken the steps she had, mentor and coaching, were in a better place financially. Going on trips, renovating houses, etc… . Then I posed and important question. “Are these other women a single income household or do they have other financial means like a spouse, an inheritance or spousal support?” Safe to say the lightbulb turned on.

To be clear, I am not bashing anyone here, so lets take a breath. Another. If you have financial help, good for you! If your partner makes $150000.00 a year, fabulous! What I am saying is this, if you’re coaching/mentoring people to “keep it real”, so should you. I do not begrudge anyone any of their success. Hell, when I see someone succeed, I find myself thinking “Maybe I can too.”. What I do have a problem with is those who are not crystal clear on how they achieved said success. I have personally listened to “mentors” who I knew were married to a high earner, talk about how they became financially independent with hard work and perseverance, without adding that their spouse covered all bills and living expenses for a year. In the spirit of keeping it real, of course your business thrived, you were able to completely focus on it, knowing that there was other financial means to keep your house and food on the table. If you rode the coattails of someone to achieve your success, don’t you think the person wearing the coat should at least be mentioned?

I can hear the opinions and thoughts about what I just said. Again, I am not bashing or begrudging anyone here. I’m just a girl, sitting at her laptop, hoping to turn on some more lightbulbs. Hoping to give perspective to a woman who feels like she’s failing that she is not, or to help a mentor/coach to take a step back and take a hard look at their methods.

Mentor’s, coaches and consultants are needed. I was a Salon retail consultant. One thing to always remember, they are also selling their idea’s, which is great. We all need to self promote, be it for financial means or just to build up our self esteem in front of the mirror preparing for a difficult conversation with your boss, spouse, parent, whomever. ( I do recommend The High 5 Habit created by Mel Robbins… it feels corny at first, but it really does help hype you up.). Here’s the deal, be aware of what you are selling. If your desire is to help women be independent, financial and otherwise, you gotta be crystal clear. If you want them to “keep it real”, you gotta keep it real too. As women, we been misled, out right lied to most of our lives. We’ve been told we’re too much or too little. Too loud or too soft spoken. Not given all the facts because of the bullshit line “need to know basis”. We need to know all the facts and deserve all the facts, so we can make an educated decision and have a firm foundation to set out goals upon.

You are not behind because another is ahead. That’s just a corporate bullshit ideology. Give yourself some grace and remember you are exactly where you are supposed to be. I do not have any science or math to back up this statement, I just know from my experiences, more often than not, we are exactly where we are supposed to be. When it’s time to be somewhere else, the paths will reveal themselves. It’s up to us if we take them or not. Wouldn’t it be reassuring to know if you stumble on the path, to take it easy on yourself because you didn’t have someone there to catch you, you caught yourself.

As I was sitting in my kitchen this morning, staring at my blank screen, contemplating my life, wondering if I was making the right choices, a shadow flickered out of the corner of my eye. I looked out my window to see a bird perched on my rose bush. It’s been blooming for over a month now and until this morning I never noticed the single rose blooming on a branch that was connected to a dead branch. Way up above the rest of the blooms, there it was, a rose blooming from a dead branch that is over 4 feet long, has a rose, in full bloom, it all it’s glory.

That’s when it hit me. If there’s a will, there’s a way. Always. If this rose could figure out a way to grow and bloom from a dead branch, anything is possible.

Since the shop closed, 2 years ago now, I have been trying to figure out my next step. Well, that is what I said I was doing, honestly,I was coasting along hoping my next step would just arrive at my front door along with my Amazon orders. It wasn’t until this past April, when, once again, I was faced with another small business closure and in turn, a job loss. I saw it as a nudge from the universe to focus on my writing,my consulting and my brand. You see, I thought I could only do one or the other, either work or write/consult. Over the past 6 weeks, I have been networking, blogging, making things happen if you will, all the while taking care of everything “household” from dishes to cooking to cleaning the gutters…yes, I cleaned the gutters. I bought a new ladder and everything. A little scared about how excited I was about a new ladder…must have something to do with my forties. I had many job offers come my way, even an old employer asking if I was interested in coming back. I turned down the offers, except one. My old employer’s offer. I met with him and offered my services on a on-call basis. He was happy with that, although it felt he had hoped for more. For the next 10 days, it kept playing on my mind. Last week a situation that I thought forced my hand made me call my old boss and tell him I would take the job, four days a week and gave him the hours I was comfortable with. He agreed and I left the meeting with smiles from employees, the owner and a hug from my old manager saying “So happy to have you back.”. The situation that I thought forced my hand isn’t important. What is important is I realized my hand wasn’t forced, I just needed a big push to make a decision, and that was it. I had been contemplating the offer for over a week, wavering over the opinions of others, fear it would end up being the same experience as it had been 8 years ago, worrying that I would lose myself and in turn my writing. Deep down I knew it was the best move for me right now. Have a job that provides an income for the household while still having 3 days to focus on and build my blog and brand.

When I saw the rose this morning, I literally had an Oprah AHA! moment. Here I was worrying I couldn’t do both, when all the while I have been doing both. Actually, I have been doing more than two things at once. Depending on the day, I can have four to six tasks at hand and sooner or later, they all get done and done well. I started my blog and my brand while working 40 – 44 hours a week running a Salon/retail shop and everything that entailed, running a household and raising a teenage millennial…if I could do that, hell, this will be a walk in the park.

What you want in life comes to you, if you let it. You gotta put in the time, the work, the sweat, the tears. When doubt and fear rear their ugly mugs, tell’em to shove it and keep going. It won’t always be pretty. It may not happen when you want it to happen, it will when you need it to happen. Many times we feel everything is going to pot. It’s not, it’s just that we are in the middle of our story. When there’s a will, there’s a way. If a rose can figure that out, I think we can too.