You Don’t Need to Work Harder to Grow Your Retail Business (But You’ve Probably Been Told You Do)
There was a time when I thought being stressed all the time was just part of being successful. I owned a boutique for six years. I was ambitious, I worked hard, I was good at what I did.
And no matter how much I accomplished, there was always something else: another goal, another problem, another number I wanted to hit, another thing I should be doing.
From the outside, I had built a successful business. From the inside, I was stressed every fucking day. And I thought that was normal. I thought that was entrepreneurship. I thought that was the price you paid when you wanted more than an average life.
Turns out, it wasn't. And that realization eventually became the reason I created the Time of Your LIFE.
I Know This Pattern Because I Lived It
Back then, I didn't know that so much of what I called my "work ethic" was actually a collection of patterns running the show. I didn't know that constantly achieving could be a way to prove I was good enough, that controlling everything could be an attempt to create safety, that perfectionism wasn't just having high standards, or that being unable to shut my brain off wasn't proof that I cared more than everyone else.
I just knew how to work. So I worked. And when that didn't make me feel better? I worked harder.
There was always this sense that if I could just get the business to the next level, then I'd be able to relax. Then I'd feel successful. Then I'd enjoy it. Then I'd have the life I was supposedly building all of this for.
Except "then" kept moving. Every milestone just created another milestone. Every problem solved made room for another problem. And nothing ever really felt like enough.
Then I Found Somatic Work
I didn't go looking for any of this. I joined a program because I thought it would help me grow my business. Instead, I started learning about the nervous system, somatics and the unconscious patterns underneath the way we operate.
And when I started applying the work to myself, things began changing in ways I wasn't expecting. I slept better. The anxiety I'd gotten so used to started disappearing. I felt calmer. More creative. I wasn't white-knuckling my way through my business anymore.
And the wildest part? My sales tripled.
Not because I added another strategy, worked more hours, or finally found the magical fucking funnel I'd been missing. I changed the woman running the business. And the way I ran the business changed with me.
That experience completely altered the trajectory of my life. I eventually became a certified somatic coach and breathwork facilitator and trained in hypnotherapy. And for years, I helped other entrepreneurs do the same work.
But there was another chapter coming that I couldn't have predicted.
I Went Back Into Retail
Years after leaving my boutique, my husband and I bought an archery shop. And suddenly I was back: employees, inventory, customers, payroll, sales goals, decisions that actually have consequences, problems that need answers today. All the things that used to activate the absolute shit out of me.
Except this time, I was different.
That has probably been one of the most powerful confirmations of this work I've ever experienced. Because I didn't build a life where nothing stressful happens, eliminate responsibility, become less ambitious, or stop giving a shit about making money.
Quite the opposite.
We built a seven-figure retail business. I still have big goals. I still work hard. I still deal with employee issues, shitty sales days, expensive mistakes, uncertainty and the thousand tiny fires that come with owning a business. But they don't own me anymore.
I can have a bad sales day without making it mean something about me. I can leave the shop and actually leave the shop. I can let someone else handle something without obsessively checking whether they're doing it exactly the way I would. I can make a decision without mentally putting it on trial for the next three days. I can enjoy my life while I'm still building it.
My businesses are no longer who I am. They're what I do.
The Real Problem Isn't Always Time
One of the things I hear from women all the time is: "I just don't have time."
They don't have time to work out, take the day off, create the thing they've been thinking about for six months, sit down and actually think about where they want this business to go, or do anything else right now.
And sometimes? They're right.
But it's not because they need another time-management system, they're lazy, or they need more discipline.
They don't have the capacity.
Because while they're trying to run their business, there are 47 other tabs running in the background:
Replaying the conversation with an employee.
Wondering if sales are going to pick back up.
Mentally checking whether everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing.
Second-guessing the decision they made yesterday.
Thinking about the thing they should be doing instead of the thing they're currently doing.
Feeling guilty because they're working when they should be with their family, and guilty when they're with their family because they should be working.
That shit takes up bandwidth. You're using so much of yourself to hold everything together that there isn't much of you left for anything else.
So no, sometimes you genuinely don't have the capacity to add one more fucking thing. The answer isn't figuring out how to squeeze more into your day.
It's creating more capacity.
And That's Where the Patterns Come In
Because all of those tabs aren't open for no reason. There's usually something underneath them:
The Achiever who keeps moving the finish line because accomplishment has become connected to being good enough.
The Control Freak who keeps mentally checking on everything because control creates a sense of safety.
The Critic scanning for what's wrong before anyone else can find it.
The Performer figuring out exactly who she needs to be in every room.
The Giver carrying everyone else's needs, feelings and expectations.
The Avoider burning mental energy thinking about the thing she's afraid to actually face.
These aren't personality traits. They're coping behaviors. They're Protectors. And they require a shitload of energy to keep running.
That's why changing the behavior alone rarely works. You can tell yourself to delegate, force yourself to rest, set another boundary, create a better schedule, or promise you're going to stop checking Slack after dinner. But if the thing underneath the behavior hasn't changed, the tab stays open.
Maybe it looks slightly different. But it's still running in the background.
This Is What Creating Capacity Actually Means
A huge part of the RARE Formula is closing those tabs. Not so you can take all that newly available bandwidth and cram even more productivity into it. So you have more of yourself available for your actual life.
You have capacity to:
Think creatively instead of constantly reacting.
Make a decision without spending three days second-guessing it.
Let your team figure something out.
Experience uncertainty without immediately trying to control it.
Take care of your body.
Be present with the people you love.
Pursue the next big idea because you're genuinely excited about it, not because you need the achievement to prove something.
Hold more success without creating more pressure to go along with it.
I didn't need to become better at handling more. I needed to stop using so much energy to handle everything.
And that's a huge part of what changed the way I run my businesses today.
The Business Was Never the Whole Problem
This is what I see now in so many incredibly successful women. They think the problem is the business. They need a better team, more consistent sales, better systems, more time, or a clearer strategy.
And sure, sometimes you need those things. But none of them can fix the patterns you're bringing with you.
You can hire the best team in the world, but if safety comes from control, you'll still find something to control. You can hit the revenue goal, but if achievement is how you prove you're good enough, you'll immediately create another one. You can finally take the vacation, but if your brain is still running 47 tabs from a beach chair, you're not actually experiencing the vacation.
At this level, the business doesn't always need another strategy. The woman running it does.
I Don't Want You to Care Less About Your Business
I fucking love business. I love making money. I love building things. I love having big ideas and seeing what I'm capable of creating.
The answer was never to become less ambitious. And I don't want that for the women I work with either. I don't want you to step back from your business because someone told you that's what a successful CEO is supposed to do. I don't want you to lower your goals so they're easier to hold. And I definitely don't want you spending your life waiting for some imaginary future version of your business to finally give you permission to enjoy yourself.
I want you to build the thing, make the money, take the risk, lead the team, and go after the giant fucking vision.
And have the time of your life while you're doing it.
Not someday. Now.
That's Why I Created The Time of Your LIFE
The Time of Your LIFE isn't about escaping the business you've built. It's about changing the way you operate inside of it.
We get underneath the behaviors you've probably spent years trying to change and work with what's actually driving them. We close the tabs that have been sucking up your mental and emotional bandwidth. We create more capacity, not just for your business to grow, but for you to actually experience your life while it does. And we work with the Protectors and unconscious patterns that keep pulling you back into the same ways of operating, no matter how many times you've promised yourself you're going to do things differently.
This isn't about getting rid of parts of you. It's about getting to the root of why those parts had to work so fucking hard in the first place.
And eventually? Putting them out of a job.
The RARE Formula
The work inside The Time of Your LIFE follows the framework I developed through years of doing this work myself and coaching other entrepreneurs through it:
Reawaken. Align. Renovate. Expand.
Reawaken gets you out of mental overdrive and back into your body so you can actually recognize what's happening instead of automatically reacting to it.
Align gets you clear on what you actually want, not what you've been told success is supposed to look like.
Renovate is where we get to the root of the old beliefs, coping behaviors and patterns taking up all that bandwidth and start clearing what no longer needs to run the show.
And Expand is where you build the capacity to hold more: more success, more visibility, more money, more leadership, more life, without needing the old patterns to manage it for you.
And we do it in your actual life: when an employee fucks something up, when sales are down, when you're about to make a huge investment, when someone is disappointed in you, or when you take a day off and your brain starts listing everything you should be doing instead.
That's where this work becomes real.
Because I Know What's Possible on the Other Side
I know what it's like to build a business you desperately want to succeed and still feel miserable inside of it. And now I know what it's like to build one without sacrificing myself to it.
That's the part I want more women to experience. I want you to leave work mentally, not just physically. I want you to trust the people you've hired without needing to hover over them. I want you to take the vacation without checking sales from the beach. I want you to have dinner with your husband without half of your brain still sitting at work. I want a slow sales day to be information, not an indictment of your worth as a business owner. I want you to celebrate what you've built without immediately moving the goalpost. I want you to stop feeling guilty when you're working because you're not with the people you love, and guilty when you're with the people you love because you're not working.
I want your business to be an incredible part of your life. Not the thing preventing you from actually living it.
This Is the Future I'm Building Toward
I want women to be rich and happy. Successful and deeply fucking satisfied. Ambitious without being consumed. I want more women building extraordinary businesses without treating their lives like collateral damage.
Because you don't need to earn the right to enjoy your life, hit the next revenue goal first, have the perfect team first, or get through this season first. You don't have to choose between wanting more and enjoying what you already have.
You get to keep building. You get to keep expanding. You get to want the giant fucking life. But you also get to live it while it's happening.
That's why I created The Time of Your LIFE. And that's exactly what we're here to do.
The Time of Your LIFE
If you've built a successful business but you're starting to realize you don't want to keep operating this way, The Time of Your LIFE was made for you.
This isn't another place to collect more information about what you should be doing. It's where we change the patterns running you while you run your business, create more capacity for the things you actually want, and stop making your life wait for some future version of success.
