I Got A Job But Didn't Plan It

Here's what happened

This isn’t a story I was planning to write. I mean that in life.

Rather unexpectedly, your female entrepreneur and coach has started a new job. I am now employed (part time) by the AllBright. There are lots of parts of this tale, mainly, I want to explain how this job happened because something really big didn’t go my way. I was pissed off, but unbeknownst to me at the time, that frustration opened a new door in my professional life.

Let me tell you all about it.

First day threads, before I left for the AllBright office

How far back should I roll? Well, for those who don’t know, I didn’t plan on becoming a female founder. Entrepreneurial life wasn’t on the cards. I was a journalist, all tied up, 10 years of experience under my belt. Happy days.

And then rather accidentally (there is a theme emerging), I was writing a book.

Penguin, the publishers wanted us (I co-wrote the book with my ex-founder Phanella) to sit on some promotional panels and to speak at events. It was fun (a chance to dress up!), more importantly though, these opportunities to interact with our readers revealed a Pandora’s box of demand: hundreds of women coming back time and time again, all with different but aligned needs.

There was more in this Step Up Club bag than we’d first thought.

Fast forward to summer 2023, and I had now been a solo entrepreneur for the best part of 5 years, and a founder for nearly 7. If you had asked me to talk about my business, I may have groaned a bit. It was getting a lot. I was tired of the hustle. Running a small business is hard. Caveat: the women who pass through my business have always been pure joy. They - you - are the reason I didn’t jack it in a long time ago.

If I’m being honest, I think I’ve been carrying around something, let’s call it a dark shade, for a good while now.

I changed the business around towards the end of last year and that was good; things felt clean and efficient I was back on top. Q1 brought in a surge of corporate work. My plan was playing out: a slimmed down Community and energy for the corporate buck (I was bored of underpaying myself).

I had so much work on that some days I was doing back-to-back corporate gigs. Life was good again. I’d found my balance. Running a business though requires life to exist on a precipice. When its good, the wind rushes through: it still takes effort to hold on, it’s good effort though, gripping tight to the crazies.

Rather predictably, this demand became inconsistent. The dark shade moved back over. I networked like a demon. I really did try. And yet the shade grew darker, suffocating my resolve and making it harder and harder to show up at my desk.