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Learning From Your Life Experiences

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Learning From Your Life Experiences




Life experiences are valuable lessons towards personal growth

Since being a Mom is integral to my identity, and the role that I value the most in the entire world, I thought it would be a good day to tell you my story in the hopes it inspires you or someone else in your life.

If I had only had a crystal ball many moons ago.  How many times have we wished for that?

Sharing can be scary, but so important to everyone’s growth as a person, so here goes….

About 21 years ago.  I had two young girls, one 2 years old and the other a newborn.  I had stepped down from my position as First Vice President at the Dime Saving Bank of New York and embarked on full-time, stay-at-home Mom-dom.

Well, kinda… I did become a certified fitness instructor and worked a little.  I had a steady flow of personal training clients coming to my home to train with me.  Moms would bring their kids to play with mine as I’d run them through an exercise routine to help them achieve their weight and fitness goals.

Those were rewarding days!

When my third child, Kevin, was born with a heart anomaly and had to have open heart surgery at 5 days old in 1999, the personal training stage ended for me.

Kevin was sick, needed round the clock care, and was quarantined for 2 years in my home. While managing his medical condition and quarantine, I was also raising two toddlers. Those were not easy years, I was often scared and worried about him, my other two children, and my sanity.

I discovered the kindness of others 

My community, friends, and family came to our aid and helped in so many ways.  The meals, offers of kindness, prayers, desperately needed conversation, and generosity were overflowing.Learning from life experiences are valuable lessons for personal growth.

I finally, at 35 years old, understood the meaning of community.

Those years would have been even tougher had it not been for all the help my family received.

It was a challenging time but my strength and tenacity for efficiency, time management, and problem solving got even stronger than it had been in my corporate life!

Staying positive was tough, but I knew that this was life, and there were plenty of people who had it way tougher than I did.

Always trying to make logic of emotions.  Sometimes successfully and sometimes with setbacks.

Learning from these experiences

I learned all I could about positive thinking, continued to work out, tried having a balanced life, and waited for the day that I could take all my skill, knowledge, and my desire to pay-it-forward and put it into action.

When Kevin was two years old and out of quarantine, I decided to go back into business to keep my mind occupied. 

I brought my own Mother’s passion of being an artist into my life and started selling her watercolor paintings at “Home Art Parties.”

Looking back, I would spend 40 hours a week to make $50 a month but my Mother and I were so close and excited to be working together. That was what mattered to me.

Expressive Living Art Consulting was born!  A shop-at-home for art & framing service serving the Interior Designers here in the New York Tri-State area.

The experiences led me towards more…

My business was a place where I could focus and have some control.  I could control growing a business better than I could control what was happening in my family medically at times!  

All the kids had medical challenges over the years and this work/life balance was imperative to my sanity.  I knew I was a good business women, a great Mom, and I would use all my skills to juggle, grow, raise my family, and be profitable….and I did!

But, I thought to myself one day in 2015, “What now? What is next for me?”  

I sat in my home, managing a profitable business that I had created 15 years ago, providing value to homeowners and interior designers who needed art and accessories, my two oldest were in college, my youngest was in his junior year of high school, and now I was also divorced.

Yup…that’s another story!

I had an introspective moment

I thought, “How can I do more for people and how can I start creating my dream life?”  

Can you relate?

I wanted to use everything I’d learned and survived over the last 35 years to help other women achieve success in business as I had, go through life’s transitions, and become happier!  

Oh, just to complete the story I started before about my kids, fast forward to an update on my kids today:

My oldest child is now happily Caden, my transgender son, and a crazy daring skydiver.  He is also my amazingly smart Virtual Assistant (VA), business strategist, and a true blessing to running my businesses.  I think he enjoys working with his Mom as much as I enjoy working with him.

Lauren, my middle, is a smart, beautiful, retail store Lead Designer and going for her Marketing Degree at college.  She has a small tattoo on her foot that says “Wanderlust” in my handwriting that perfectly describes her incredible dreams to travel the world (which she has already started to do).

My handsome and smart son Kevin is going to college soon –  a healthy, happy & motivated Acting Major.  He loves being on stage and performing.  I think he’s quite good as well and I made him promise he would take me to his first Tony award show, or at least thank me from the stage!

They all have incredible futures ahead and I look forward to watching them all pursue their dreams.  I’m a proud mamma.

Back to business experiences…

Two years ago, I hired an online coach, for a whopping $775 a month (a scary monthly sum for me!) and I leaped (or is it leapt?) into the deep end, my only choice was to swim.

I knew that helping other passionate entrepreneurs grow their own successful businesses and managing life’s changes like I had done was my passion!  I had been sought after and helped so many people over the years – now I wanted to make it official.

There are so many creative, passionate entrepreneurs that have so much talent to share who lack the confidence and business knowledge to grow & sustain a PROFITABLE business long term.

I talked to everyone I knew – friends, family, my network, my family again (My mom always said I had the “gift of gab”) – If only I could find a way to monetize it!

Now, I’m using my “gift of gab” along with my leadership skills, decision making ability, and my business knowledge to help other women achieve their business goals and life dreams.

Over one year since starting my new business, I’m feeling success and so are my clients!  I’m proud of the testimonials that come in…you can check them out here.

The real life learning experience

What caught me off guard was how helping others to achieve what they wanted in life & business changed the quality of my own life.

Sure, the money was a good benefit, but I was looking for something more out of my life, something that energized me and made me want to get up and go go go every morning.

I found it!

I teach busy, passionate entrepreneurs, the formula for growing a prosperous business without overlooking how their life & business strategy must fit together for true overall happiness & success.

My hope is that I have inspired you to keep moving toward your dreams, it’s worth it.  I would never have believed a crystal ball predicting the path of my life anyway so probably better that I didn’t have one!

Overwhelmed growing your business and need help? You don’t have to figure it out all alone anymore. Sign up for a business strategy call and I’ll help you make decisions on the next steps for you and your business. 

Hop into my private FB group, the Interior Design Business Forum to get my daily inspiration, lessons, and thoughts. Let this community help you become an actionable entrepreneur!! 

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for business strategy tips to run a profitable interior design firm.

 

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