I was 12 years old, standing in my navy and green LL Bean flannel pajamas, clutching my homework.
As a smart kid, I took pride in giving everything my best shot. But this writing assignment had me stuck, and I knew exactly who could help — my mom. She was a former journalist turned marketing pro, after all.
I pushed open her office door around 7:30pm. Papers were scattered everywhere, and she was hunched in the corner, phone pressed to her ear.
“Mom?” I whispered. “Could you help me with…”
“Get out!” she snapped. “I’m on the phone with a client and we’re on deadline!”
I felt it in my gut – that familiar sting of being chosen second. Of coming after the clients, after the deadlines, after the constant pressure to keep her business afloat.
Years later, my mom told me something that broke my heart:
“I thought the only way to make the business work was to prioritize clients first. Yes, even if it meant over you and your sister. I didn’t know another way. I needed to put food on the table.”
She was doing her best. Fresh out of a costly four-year divorce, struggling to grow a new business… but undercharging and overdelivering because she didn’t know how to run a profitable business any other way.
That moment shaped my entire future.
When I became a mom at 41 (after months of trying and hoping), I made a promise to myself: I would build a different kind of business. One that wouldn’t force me to choose between success and being present — whether for my kids, my relationships, or myself.
But here’s the truth — that pull to overdeliver? That tendency to put clients first?
It’s still there. I catch myself sometimes, laptop open during evening downtime with my husband, one eye on emails during my kid’s soccer practice.
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