Do you find yourself hustling and juggling even though you hate the hustle? There’s a good reason for that.  Even the people who hate the hustle slip sometimes. Here’s why: Right from the time we’re children, we’re trained to believe that our productivity is the basis of our worth. The more we get done, the more valuable we are. The more chores we do to help out, the more rewards we receive. The harder we...

I was talking with my coach the other day about tracking metrics for better business insights: revenue, external amplification opportunities, sales call conversations, etc. When I was an early business owner, this sort of conversation would have me wanting to burn it all to the ground and run away screaming. Chances are you didn’t get into business to manage your numbers. And if you did, hi, my brain likes your brain. Don’t run away though....

Your life path does not need to be linear in order for it to be right for you. You don’t need to check off boxes on some arbitrary and antiquated list. You don’t need to follow in the footsteps of people you don’t respect. You don’t need to do things the way they said you should do them when you never wanted the same results. Your life does not need to make sense to someone...

Here’s the truth. I put off writing this for nearly a week. So long that my assistant pinged me to see if I’d forgotten. I hadn’t. I just felt…uninspired.  I went back through my IG posts, I looked at old newsletters thinking I might revive something, I looked through my Swipe file for ideas…and…nope. Nothing. Nada. So I decided I would just give myself permission to not write to you this week. I’m on the...

Resistance is real...and far from futile. Resistance will have you scrolling Instagram and calling it outreach. Resistance will have you busy all day so that you don't have to work on the most important thing. Resistance can fool you into thinking it's progress. Your inner resistance wants to keep you safe. It hates the idea of feeling vulnerable, trying new things, feeling stuck in a too-tight schedule, being told what to do. Instead of pushing...

Flashback to week 2 of the most recent cohort of Foundations. We’re checking in, talking about our week, recognizing Aha moments and addressing questions that have come up. I love this program in part because it’s so completely customized to each business owner.  Anyway, here we are, checking in when one of my students jumps in and says, “actually, I want to share a big win”.  Yes it’s week 2 but, you see, we don’t...

My great grandfather was a baker, a really good one. In fact, one of the first to really dive into sugar crafting. Sugar crafting uses a paste-like substance (sugar paste) to mold and form different shapes. My great grandfather then subsequently my grandmother were known for their complex and gorgeous sugar flower bouquets.  Growing up, I would visit my grandma (Granny) and we’d sit together for hours, sculpting roses, forget-me-nots, carnations and more into meticulous...

Less than a month ago I was speaking with a coaching client about her services suite. She had a bunch of brilliant ideas (of course) that she wanted me to co-sign. But I’m just not that kind of coach. I’ll cheer the heck out of your ideas but if it isn’t doable, viable, or realistic, I’ll tell you so. This client was in that situation. She simply couldn’t do all her ideas. Or at least,...

Have you ever had a relationship where you knew you needed to create stronger boundaries but didn’t know how because you didn’t want to lose them?  I know I have. I can think of at least 3 romantic relationships and a good few business relationships where I could’ve maintained better boundaries : for myself and those people. Leaky boundaries are incredibly common, especially in young love and young business.  Here’s the thing though. I think...

“Feelings are not facts”. I overheard myself saying this to a client the other day. Feelings are not facts. It was a full moon. My astrologer has been talking about Mars in Retrograde which has something mucky to do with our feelings and communications. There’s a lot of garbage happening in the world. There’s a lot of real scarcity in many of our social systems. AND we’re in that weird liminal space between US Thanksgiving,...

A long time ago I wrote a blog post where I used the word success and turned it into an acronym. I thought at the time I was super clever. Even then I was questioning the concept of success and how it seems to be an ever-moving target. Clearly we need a  ̶r̶e̶v̶o̶l̶u̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶ redefinition.  When we think of success, most of us picture images of big houses, beach vacations, mega money in the bank, long...

Depending on when you read this, my kid is going to or has just turned double digits. It’s a ginormous deal and unsurprisingly, it has me thinking about growth. Growing is a funny thing, isn’t it? We speak about growth in reference to so many different things. Size, capacity, emotional literacy, revenue, personal development. Some of these are definitive; some of them completely subjective. And that makes it tricky to know what’s true growth.  Early...

It's a cold, grey day. Cold enough that the rain is sometimes snow but warm enough that nothing sticks. It's the kind of chill damp that gets into your bones. Days like this call for more tea, more blankets, and more compassion. Days like this call for reflection... The truth is, it has been a lot. The last 3 weeks, months, years, more. As previously reliable structures crumble. As you're asked to find new solutions,...

You know, the beautiful thing about permaculture is that it can apply to any ecosystem. In one of our most recent certificate classes here on the farm, the students were talking about edges vs. boundaries. When you’re speaking about land, this is very easy to recognize. Edges you can stretch, manipulate, tend, and shape. Think meandering pathways through gardens. Edges. Boundaries however are strict. They’re lines that can’t be crossed - or at the very...

I signed up for TikTok.  The truth is, I’ve been sitting on this decision for a long time. When TikTok first made its appearance, I thought “I’m glad the kids have a place to hang out but it isn’t where my people are” and for a while, that was true. Until it wasn’t.  In the last couple years, I started noticing some of my business friends and clients were spending more time over there.  Ultimately,...

This morning, before coming into the office, I took advantage of the nice weather to clean out the chicken coop. Do you know how long I’ve been putting this off? Weeks. Maybe 6, maybe 8. If this was a procrastination race, I was definitely going to win. The thing is, cleaning out the coop isn’t actually very hard. It’s messy. It takes a couple of hours (at most). But it isn’t actually difficult. It’s just...

I LOVE Halloween. I love the fanfare, the costumes, the pretending. I love free candy day. I love the annual discussion of whether Rocky Horror is a Halloween movie or the ultimate Valentine story. But if Halloween were every day, I probably wouldn’t feel the same way. There would be so much pressure to get the outfit right, the makeup perfect, to stay on trend (or at least retro enough to be cool). Now here’s...

Have you ever met up with someone you knew a long time ago and realized that even though things have changed so much for you, very little has changed at all? I had this exact feeling this week when I connected with a client I worked with over a decade ago. I noticed that even though our businesses (and personal lives) have changed and iterated over time, the work we were doing was more focused...

A very very long time ago — decades before I started doing this incredible work — I was interviewing for a position in a company that I thought “meh” about. A job is a job when you need to pay the bills. What they didn’t tell me was it was to be a group interview. Picture this:I’m dressed up in fancy interview clothes. I’m nervous and clammy. I’m clutching my resume too tightly. I pause...

The other day, I received a message from my team member, Mackenzie, asking about a comment I had made in a newsletter draft. She didn’t know which particular article I wanted her to link to. Is it this one about growth or that one? As is the way of life, the correct answer was actually a third article altogether. The point is: I write about growth…a lot. Personal growth, business growth, growth strategy, plant growth, relationship growth, occasionally even my kid’s...