I’ve been a business owner for nearly 16 years, and it is simultaneously the most difficult and most fulfilling experience I’ve had in my life. I can say that I’ve had a ton of challenges and a boat load of obstacles, and I’m grateful for them all. Even the painful lessons offered me an opportunity to grow as a woman, as a person, and as a business owner.
I think the biggest obstacle that I had to overcome was ME (I see you giving me the side eye right now, but it’s true). I spent years trying to cultivate business relationships with people who didn’t like me. People who judged me as someone too fat, unpolished or not quite successful enough to spend their money with. Yet for YEARS I continued to morph and change myself to try to become someone they would accept.
One day I woke up realizing how exhausted I was trying to fit all those standards. So I quit those customers and set out to find new ones. Little did I know that there was a whole ocean of people who would come to revere me as a knowledgeable, professional, entertaining, curvy little brand expert.
So when I say the problem was me, it was. You see, I didn’t think I was good enough just the way I was. I thought that the way others viewed me was much more important than how I viewed myself. And I thought that I needed THEM to give me some sort of sign that I was good enough to play on their field. Well, look at me now… playing my own game, my way and my own playing field just keeps getting bigger every day.
I would love to say the story ends here on a happy note. But it doesn’t…. Read part II to get the whole enchilada!
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