I’m back in my old stomping grounds, the Hudson Valley region of New York. It’s where I grew up and spent most of my life.
My ex-husband, Jeff, still lives here, though the time when we were married seems like a lifetime ago.
I credit him with how I became an “accidental” entrepreneur, and I’m incredibly grateful. Let me tell you the story.
We met at IBM when I was just 19 years old. He was much older and wiser at 32, was recently separated from his wife and had two young boys.
It should have been a setup for a disaster, but it wasn’t. It was, if I may be so bold, fate.
I knew the week I met him that he was the man I would marry, despite the fact that I was never the girl to imagine marriage and the white picket fence. I just knew.
A few years into our relationship, it became clear that we needed more money. Our salaries at IBM didn’t go far after paying the mortgage, child support and expenses.
Jeff had already owned quite a few businesses, and we started dreaming together. He showed me how it was done.
It began with talking to people. Jeff shared his ideas with everyone he knew. We’d settled on a DJ business, which made sense because he was a musician.
These conversations led to opportunities. One of the guys we worked with was selling his DJ equipment. Another recommended a local DJ we could connect with.
Before long and without much investment – other than Jeff’s gift of gab and a few thousand dollars to buy equipment – we had a business, a mentor, and our first source of referrals.
We had no business plan or launch strategy. Just honest conversations, a few thousand dollars, and a genuine desire to create something.
He showed me how simple and joyful it can be to start a business, and an entrepreneur was born.
I’ve fallen in love with business, which I see as a sacred vehicle for the transformation you’d love to see in the world.
Business is a way to get paid to be you.
It’s creative. It’s connective.
Business creates value and delivers service.
Business creates our world, and when we do it with love, the world it creates is loving, too.
That’s what I’m here for, and that’s what we’re up to in the
IMPACT membership, a community of soulful entrepreneurs
learning how to create clients and money by being unapologetically themselves.
This July, our theme is “Unapologetically You,” and we’re continuing our 90 Day Money Game, a joyful invitation to discover what happens when you playfully align your business with who you really are.
https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/impactinvite/
Yours in love and play,
Steph
