I’ll be honest…a year ago I was still secretly looking at LinkedIn for employment. I’d quit my job at the end of 2020 because I decided my purpose was to serve parents troubled with the relationships with their teens. It was probably the worst time I could have quit because we were still entrenched in the pandemic, my husband is a travel franchise owner, and I carried our health insurance. I was looking at LinkedIn because I was not sure I was going to be able to make my dream happen.
It can be an incredibly stressful, scary thing to decide to leave something safe, something you know you’re good at, and a steady paycheck with benefits in order to pursue what you feel is your life’s calling and learn to be an entrepreneur.
It takes a lot of faith.
It takes a lot of energy.
It takes knowing your why.
My why was born in 2008 when my then 20-year-old son became addicted to alcohol to quell his mental health issues. As his mom I was forced to confront that reality, and walk with him through his darkest moments and then into long-term recovery. I say this as if it was an easy process…it was definitely anything but.
However, it led to my why and to what I’m so blessed to be [finally] doing full-time today…coaching the parents of those raising young adults struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues. I help parents figure out how to redirect their struggling 20-something incrementally forward in life.
It isn’t easy.
I think one of the main parts of my job is to be a good listener and to hold space for parent’s emotions. There are a lot of uncomfortable feelings going on when our kids aren’t able to find their independence. Feelings like frustration, sadness, grief, failure. Supporting parents as they sort those through feelings and work on a plan that makes sense for their family. I am their accountability partner as they make the changes they need to make; it is sometimes heavy work.
But I love doing it.
In part because I so wished I’d had that when I really needed it myself, back in 2008.
To get where I am today I had to go through a lot personally, starting with the experience I had with my son. The experience with him led me to question my self beliefs and then begin to redefine who I wanted to be, both for myself and for my family.
To be living my dream today I had to fail a lot professionally. I had to show up to in-person presentations feeling scared of public speaking and not doing well, I’ve had to be rejected over and over again trying to get my book traditionally published, and I had to do almost a thousand TikTok videos to reach the numbers of parents I now touch every day.
If you think you can, you can. If a dream is put into your heart and you can find the strength and courage to keep showing up and giving it your all, if you know your why and decide nothing else will satisfy your need to achieve it, then your dream can become your reality.
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