Hello to Full-time Entrepreneurship!

I have fantasized about being a full-time entrepreneur for over six years. The reasons have changed, but the mission has remained consistent. Now that I’ve been living my best entrepreneurial life for the past couple of weeks, it feels surreal.

On my last day, I drove my husband’s Jeep Wrangler to the office to turn in my badge and equipment. The sun was shining bright – a perfect day to have the top off. Driving home, I felt lighter and bolder. I cranked up the tunes! I even made a Hello Entrepreneurship playlist to preserve this feeling. I anticipate this playlist will propel me forward on the days when imposter syndrome creeps in. Here’s the Instagram post I shared on my last day!

 

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A post shared by Hᴀᴘᴘʏ Hᴇᴀʟᴛʜʏ Cᴀʀᴇɢɪᴠᴇʀ (@happyhealthycaregiver)

This decision to quit my job didn’t happen overnight and required input from my family, especially my husband. Resigning would significantly reduce our income and retirement benefits. While money is essential, so is my mental health. I burned out – this time not from caregiving but my day job. Something had to give, again, and it couldn’t be my health and happiness. So, after some tearful discussions and spreadsheets, we put a plan together, which allowed me to resign from my corporate job and invest in my business.

Like caregiving, this business has evolved and morphed into something beautiful. If you have followed my journey and content, you may know I write for many reasons. Writing helps me process, recognize, educate, and in this case, celebrate a milestone!

How It All Started

This business wouldn’t even be a thing without my caregiving story. I was feeling lost and overwhelmed as a working family caregiver in the sandwich generation. My husband was also feeling the squeeze. While my caregiving crisis was escalating, so was Jason’s situation. He was the primary caregiver for his divorced mom living with lung cancer and also juggling his career. Our two kids were in their demanding middle school and early high school years. They also played travel sports and still needed us to drive them places, buy them things, and prepare meals.

I had watched my parents’ physical and mental health steadily decline every year of my adult life. Each of them managed multiple chronic conditions. Both of them were morbidly obese, diabetic, and had sleep apnea. My mom had COPD, clinical depression, incontinence, mobility issues, and edema. My dad had psoriasis and heart disease. I also have an older brother who lives with a developmental disability and has care needs of his own. For many years, my parents would call for reinforcements. One of their six children would assist them with a prolonged illness, hospitalization, or procedure. The length between the calls for help progressively shortened.

Everything came to a boiling point in 2014, which I nicknamed ‘the spiral year.’ Both sides of my family were spinning out of control. My husband and I each lost a parent and my kids two grandparents.

At this time, I was working as an IT Product Manager with two weeks of vacation and three personal days. My mother-in-law lived nearby us in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA. My retired parents lived in Amelia Island, FL – six hours away from the closest family member. For six months, I rotated care responsibilities with my siblings to help care for initially my mom (who miraculously recovered from a near-death scare) and then my dad (who rapidly declined when he contracted sepsis, a blood infection during mom’s rehabilitation).

After a decade of trying to persuade my parents to move back to the Atlanta area to be closer to family, they were finally coming to terms with the idea. They had hired someone to come in and help with housekeeping, cooking, errands, but more help was required – particularly for my mom.

Sadly, my dad did not recover from his 2014 sudden hospitalization. His blood infection compromised his lungs, kidneys, and heart. Within a month, he was no longer with us, spending his last few days in a hospice facility where we celebrated his life.

Moving mom to the Atlanta area where three of the six children could share responsibilities seemed the only viable answer. Mom’s level of care was too much for any of us who worked full-time to handle. We hunted for the perfect senior community. So many details to take care of and decisions to be made. Where would my brother Tom live? What was their financial situation? Where do we have dad’s memorial? What do we do with all of this stuff in their Florida home? The adrenaline just took over, and somehow we survived these intense months. Little did I know way more hard stuff was yet to come. I would learn about advocating for my mom, setting boundaries, asking for help, managing emotions, letting go, and juggling competing priorities.

 

Integrating caregiving into our family and work-life was difficult. I also knew I had to infuse self-care into my day, or I would burn out and be no good to anyone. I was committed to learning how to integrate caregiving into life and not lose my health and sanity in the process. Before I had a website, I started a #100daysofhealthy campaign on Instagram to hold me accountable for prioritizing my health and happiness.

I craved flexibility to be where I wanted to be for as long as I wanted to be there. My job felt like an albatross, and yet we need my paycheck during these prime earning years.

I always had a nudging in the back of my head to start a blog. Now, I possessed something I needed to write about. I just needed a push.

Thanks to You

Several individuals had a hand in pushing me – my two always sisters believed in me. Sisterpower!

My trainer Ashley encouraged me. Ashley heard my stories during workouts and encouraged me not to wait until I felt like I had the time to devote. I needed to share the experience while I was living it to help myself while supporting others. God was putting this in front of me, and I needed to deliver.

Eventually, those planted seeds sprouted. I created a website (initially called Savvy Sandwicher) and published my first blog post in February 2015. Writing is still so therapeutic for me. At first, I was concerned about sharing my written words. I wrote the first few posts anonymously, but I arrived at the place where I felt comfortable and supported to release it into the ethernet in just a short time. Being transparent helped me see myself more clearly.

I started referring to the blog as ‘my business’ or ‘my side hustle,’ Happy Healthy Caregiver. I educated myself through podcasts and online communities like Flipped Lifestyle to grow an idea into a business. I threw lots of spaghetti at the wall with the intent of having a flexible career to allow me to better show up for those I loved.

In 2016, I became a Certified Caregiving Consultant to learn how to coach and validate family caregivers and join a community of like-minded individuals. I’m grateful to Denise Brown for sharing her caregiving wisdom and helping me to refine my business specialty. I’m grateful to my husband, Jason, who encouraged me to invest in myself and attend the first National Caregiving Conference in Chicago.

Throughout these past six years, I’m thankful for all the doors, windows, and tiny cracks in the Earth that have shined light and hope into Happy Healthy Caregiver. Dad always preached that life is a contact sport. No doubt, I had the best business mentor for over 40 years of my life.

In January 2017, I facilitated my first Atlanta family caregiver support group to offer family caregivers an in-person support option. At the time, these support groups were affiliated with Daughterhood under the wise leadership of Anne Tumlinson. I remember when Anne traveled from DC to help kick off our first meeting. After the event, I cried in the parking lot about wanting to quit my job and focus on my business. She encouraged me to keep going and assured me that in 2020 the world would be desperate for these services.

That summer, Chris MacLellan invited me as a guest on his podcast, Healing Ties. After our chat, he shared his business vision of an entire network of care-related podcasts called The Whole Care Network. I was honored to be asked to be a founding member of WCN. In November of 2017, the first Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast episode aired. Now recognized as one of the Top 10 Caregiving podcasts, there are 100 episodes. One of them a celebrity caregiver spotlight with Leeza Gibbons!

The following year, during National Family Caregivers Month, my book was born – Just for You: a Daily Self-Care Journal. Over time, I’ve layered in other products and services, including speaking and sponsored content with brands and partners.

How did I find the time? I didn’t. I created the time for my business, similar to how I coach my caregiving clients to make time for self-care. Twice a week before work, I visited a coffee shop to focus on writing. I devoted lunch hours to my side hustle. During my work commute, I listened to business-building podcasts and audiobooks. I drafted blog posts in random spots while waiting for my kids to finish practice or between games. I parked ideas on napkins, post-it notes, Siri reminders, and Trello boards.

I’d be lying if I didn’t share that multiple times a month, I would consider throwing in the towel on my business. Soon after this thought, something would happen. I would receive a kind email or message about how something I had shared helped somebody. Those divine nudges kept me going, especially those first three years when my business was in the red. I’ve also been part of a fantastic mastermind group that has met monthly for years – we’ve encouraged each other through many pivots and pitfalls. Thank you, Vision Sisters!

In 2016, my sister became the primary caregiver for my mom. They both lived out of state – first in Pennsylvania and then in Michigan. I questioned whether I still had a voice and a story to share. Was I still a family caregiver? Now that the flexibility was not as dire of a need did the vision to become a full-time entrepreneur remain? Obviously, it did. I felt like my content evolved to concentrate more on caregiver advocacy and support. I was able to repurpose my previous hands-on caregiving time to lift others, including my sister, who cared for my mom for over four years. Mom’s bonus years came to an end last September – 2020 was the year of grief and resilience.

Certain business events stick out over these years. The big paychecks and accolades validated my vision. I’m grateful to Bruce McIntyre for hearing me speak and offering me my first out-of-town paid speaking gig at the Parkinson Foundation’s Caregiver Appreciation Luncheon.

I’m appreciative of the reporters at Women’s Day, Health, Marietta Daily Journal, and The Washington Post, who provided media opportunities to boost my confidence and reach. I’m thankful for the brand partnerships needing to reach caregivers and have helped sponsor the work I’m doing through the blog and podcast. I appreciate each of you for sharing my content, telling a friend about the podcast, purchasing the journal, or attending a live or virtual event.

I’m excited about the future for Happy Healthy Caregiver. I’ve contemplated for years what would happen if I had the time to focus on this business full-time. Wonder no more. Let’s watch and see!

I Welcome Your Support