I'm not sure if you've heard my story Reader, but I started my business in late 2010 after I quit my corporate job to stay home with my 1st son.

I NEVER thought I would want to be a stay-at-home Mom - heck, for most of my teenage years, I would have told you I didn't even want kids, but, after watching my niece and nephew be born and then watching my sister-in-law be a stay-at-home Mom that all changed.

Somewhere in the back of my head I KNEW I would eventually be able to stay home BUT once we got pregnant, there was just no way we could financially handle it, PLUS, I would be giving up a "really good" job at a "really good" company to do.

You already probably know that I live in a teeny tiny town - well, with living in a teeny tiny town, you have to understand that there are like NO jobs - especially GOOD jobs. There are probably only about a handful of companies to work for here that even provide benefits of any kind (and most still pay pretty terribly) and when people get jobs at those companies THEY STAY FOREVER.

Literally.

So, considering my Mom works at one of them, my husband was working at another, and I was working at one and they ALL had a "we don't hire family members" policy, quitting would mean that IF I ever wanted to work again for any bit of decent pay, I'd likely have to drive an hour+ away.

In other words, quitting was a BIG DEAL.

I was limited on the jobs I could get if I quit.

I was giving up "good" pay (looking back, it definitely was NOT good pay).

We absolutely could not afford it.

We were living in a HUGE house that we had just built, both driving newer cars, and were struggling to buy maternity clothes. So losing my income and company-paid for 100% coverage insurance (yes, it was GREAT insurance), was IMPOSSIBLE.

Except that it wasn't.

I'll spare ya the insane details of my experience at the company but my first day back from maternity leave, I had something happen that made it very clear to myself AND my husband that I couldn't stay any longer and, 2 weeks later, I put in my 2 week notice.

IT WAS TERRIFYING.

But, at that point, I had to do SOMETHING to make money.

I had a background in graphic design from college so I did that and taught myself web design and for the next 5 years, that's what I did - graphic and web design while I had and raised my babies.

HOWEVER, when I tell you that I never made more than $10,000 in a year during that entire 5 year stint, I ain't jokin.

Basically, I was making enough to help here and there with groceries. We had downgraded my car (I even went for several months without one altogether - but that's not practical where I live) and my husband had sold his truck and purchased one older than us with cash from selling some farm animals, we had cut our cable bill, I had given up my smart phone and went back to a pink razor phone, I was making a little money, but we were still having to put groceries on a credit card every once in a while and there were A LOT of days when my husband ate lunch from the vending machine at work.

So, I guess the point here is that, it wasn't sustainable - I could keep "running a business" that made no money. It was fine while our kids were little and I was staying home but we were inching closer to them going to school and I knew something had to change.

And it did.

In 2015, everything changed.

I made $30,000 that year - THREE TIMES what I had made the year before.

Then the next year, I tripled it again.

Then the next year, I hit $100k.

But, what changed?

I had literally went 5 years in the same spot - literally making the same amount of money each year.

LET ME JUST TELL YA!

1️⃣ I stopped treating it like a hobby or a "little business".

Listen, this one probably sounds insanely obvious or like a tip that's not a tip but I had thought of my business as a "side thing" and even referred to it as a "little business" or "something I do to get to stay-at-home" and when you're in that kind of mindset, nothin' is gonna grow!

I would get super irritated when friends, family members, and people I kinda knew demeaned my business - it happened a lot - they'd refer to it as my "little business" or they'd talk to other people about my business and belittle it (of course, it would always get back to me).

BUT HELL...I literally gave them the words to use outta my own face hole.

And, if you looked at my prices, it was SUPER obvious that I didn't take myself or my business seriously.

So, in 2015, I started taking it more seriously.

I talked about it more seriously, I planned for it more seriously, and I increased my prices so I was taken more seriously.

That ONE mindset shift was the catalyst that changed everything.

2️⃣ I stopped trying to keep up with other people.

OMGosh, this is a big one.

Up until 2015/2016, I would see someone doing something similar to what I did and I would instantly run to update my website to incorporate things I saw on theirs that were awesome, or I'd immediately decide to implement things I saw them doing.

I spent so much freakin' time chasing what other people were doing that I didn't have time to even figure out what I wanted to do, where I fit into the puzzle, or what I SHOULD be doing.

So, I stopped. I unfollowed people who made me like I had comparisonitis and I kept my head in my own lane.

I swear by this still today but, honestly, it's probably one of the hardest things to do/not do. But here's a few ways I keep this at bay:

• I don't follow people who make me feel that way anywhere.
• I don't watch videos on YouTube from my "competitors" or people even remotely in my industry.
• I (try to) stay super clear on WHO I'm talking to, WHAT I'm doing, and HOW I help so that even if I see something that makes me feel squirrelly I can center myself on my own mission and goals.

​

3️⃣ I stopped trying to go it alone.

COMMUNITY is so freakin' important. 2015 was the year I discovered both business podcasts and Facebook groups. I had been in a few Facebook groups before and that is definitely where I got a ton of my business from but they were VERY small, very niched groups and I didn't really even think to go out and search for bigger, more broad groups - same with podcasts. I actually had been listening to a podcast for about a year at that point that was not at all business related but something about this woman doing a podcast made me realized that I wanted to do that and that sent me down a rabbit hole of finding business podcasts. Ha.

Not only did I find literal life-long friends from podcasts and Facebook groups (like, a TON of them!), but it also was SO refreshing to not feel like I was alone and to be surrounded by people who mentally pushed me beyond my comfort zone, just by asking questions or posting in these groups.

4️⃣ I stopped viewing people as competition!

Ok, this might be my favorite one.

A few months after I started my business, in early 2011, I found a girl who was doing similar things to me (and refer to #2, I definitely let that affect me in a negative way), but I've never really been a big fan of competition, and we kind of hung in the same circles so I tried to befriend her.

AND OMG, she was not having it.

She gave me terrible advice, would talk about me and make posts about me, and, honestly, made me feel like that's how we had to look at competition.

I can't blame her entirely - living in a small town, competition is REAL. Y'all, I can think of THREE people who won't speak to me or are very rude with me RIGHT NOW when I see them out and about (because you literally see everybody all the time when you live in a tiny town) because they THINK I'm their competitor - I DON'T EVEN OFFER SERVICES OR DO ANYTHING LIKE ANY OF THEM! Anyway, small town mindset around competition is a WHOLE THING and I've lived here my whole life and been around that culture so, between seeing it in real time with that girl online and living it, I had a terrible idea of how I was supposed to view my competitors.

But, somehow (probably from a podcast or Facebook group) I had the realization that competition was a GREAT thing and not even remotely negative.

These people who were my "competition" were actually the ONLY PEOPLE WHO KNEW WHAT I WAS GOING THROUGH.

​

🤯

That's awesome! That is EXACTLY what we all need - friends who GET IT.

They were also my perfect collaborators.

And, still to this day, some of my biggest "competition" are some of my best friends.

---

I'm sure there's 10,000 other things I've stopped doing to grow like woah but those 4 are probably the most impactful and the things I can hopefully pass off to you!

Now, go out there and SMASH this week!