4 Years In. The Truth About Leaving My 9 to 5 w/ Lauren Najar

Four years ago, I made the decision to leave my 9 to 5 and build my business full time. And while that decision changed everything, it didn’t happen the way I thought it would.

In this episode, I’m reflecting on what it actually took to get there and what these last four years have really looked like. From starting with side hustles and trying to find a way out, to building a business while working full time, this was not a quick or straightforward path. It took years of figuring things out, making decisions without a clear plan, and learning how to trust myself along the way.

I’m also sharing what no one really talks about after you leave your job. The freedom, yes, but also the pressure, the identity shifts, and the responsibility that comes with building something on your own. At the same time, this is a milestone I’m incredibly proud of. Four years later, I’m still here, still building, and still choosing this path.

So if you’re thinking about leaving your 9 to 5 or wondering if it’s actually worth it, this episode will give you a real look at what that decision requires and what it can create.

Chapters:

01:00 Why leaving your job feels so far away

02:30 Starting with side hustles and MLMs

05:30 From blogging to social media work

07:00 Hiring a coach and shifting direction

09:00 Building a business while working full time

11:30 The pressure of having a day job

15:00 Getting a new job that changed everything

17:30 When the business slowed down

19:00 Rebuilding confidence with new offers

20:30 COVID and unexpected business growth

21:30 Starting an agency and increasing income

24:00 Deciding to leave and making a plan

26:00 Moving and lowering expenses

28:00 The moment everything became real

30:00 Why setting a date matters

31:00 Life after leaving the 9 to 5

33:30 The hardest parts of entrepreneurship

35:30 Why it is still worth it

37:00 The real way to build confidence

Upcoming Events:

Chicago Retreat - July 14-16, 2026 - https://laurennajar.myflodesk.com/iid9wbr2yc

Napa Retreat - October 5-8, 2026 - https://laurennajar.myflodesk.com/cetj223rsr

Growth & Connect Events - https://laurennajar.myflodesk.com/hb2a0mwbqw

Let’s Stay Connected:
→ Follow Lauren on Instagram: www.instagram.com/laurennajar
→ Learn more or work with me: www.laurennajar.com
→ Follow Business Over Cocktails on IG: www.instagram.com/businessovercocktails
→ Attend Growth & Connect retreats & events: www.instagram.com/growthandconnect

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey there, and welcome to Business Over Cocktails. I'm Lauren Najar, your host and hype woman, bringing you real talk about entrepreneurship. This is the podcast where we dive into the bold whys, the messy middles, and the game-changing aha moments that lead to success. You'll hear unfiltered stories from entrepreneurs plus bite-sized solo episodes inside the Business Chaser series, where we cut through the noise and get straight to what actually drives sales, visibility, and growth. So whether you're here to get fired up or finally feel seen in your business journey, pull up a seat, pour your favorite drink, and let's have a real conversation. And today I want to talk about celebrating four years as a full-time entrepreneur. I've had a lot of conversations, especially in the last year, with a handful of my clients and other people I know just in my community where they are leaving their full-time jobs. And I think that it is something that is a huge goal for a lot of people. And it seems very elusive. I wanted to kind of talk about my process of how I arrived to that point. I wanted to talk about how the last four years have been. I will say that the last four years in saying the word four years, I cannot believe how fast it has gone by. It is really wild that it's been four years. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I feel like it really, it really has gone by in a blink of an eye. However, I've had a baby and we moved three times since then. So that is probably adding to how fast things have gone. I wanted to start out by saying that seven and a half years ago when I started my business, I already had it in my head that I wanted to do something to then leave my job. And it wasn't necessarily business coaching, it was just something to find some sort of outlet to, I don't know, like feel better about my job. And I was working at a bank. And at the time that I started having these feelings, the location I was working at was just not fun. I felt very stunted in my growth. I felt that I couldn't grow anymore. And at that point, I was trying to find things to do that were like, you know, side hustles, things like that. I did Beachbody and, you know, just like MLMs and things like that to try and make more money so that I could eventually leave my job. And, you know, there were, you know, things like Beach Body too, when you have those ranks, people are higher than you. You see that those people do that full time. And I'm like, okay, well, if they can do it, I can do it. Right. And I was like so low in the totem pole, right? And that was probably the height of Beach Body, it was like 2016 through 2017. And something happened at my job where I just decided that I needed to take back control. I was being transferred to another location against my, not against my will, that sounds really crazy to say, but they were transferring me out of a branch that I had worked at my whole like time there. And I was so upset. And I was like, that's it. I'm I'm finally done with this place, right? I'm finally done, finally done. And I went home and I applied to like a hundred jobs. I'm not even kidding. I I had vacation. They like told me before I went on vacation for a week. And then that very next day, I went into a Starbucks and I applied to a hundred different jobs. And I was being transferred to another location. And I actually, so one of the jobs I applied to was in Chicago. And the goal was to find a job in Chicago because my husband and I were moving there. My intention was to always work at this bank, it was never to leave. I liked what I was doing, but they decided to move me for reasons that I now know. Really, the reason that they gave me was, oh, you need to help the manager over there to run the branch. Well, that manager informed me why I was actually moved over there because they thought I was gonna leave and they wanted to have someone in place or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know. You know, of course, it was all BS. So, anyways, I moved to a different branch, which ended up being like mentally better because I really loved my boss at that point. And it was a smaller branch, it wasn't as busy. I really liked the people I got to work with for the most part, but I did get an interview and I had several interviews with a job, like right around that time. And I'm like, cool, I'm gonna go work in Chicago and I'm gonna work at this really cool like company. It seems very like startup-ish, and it was like a mortgage company, and I was doing really well and met the owner of the company. And then all of a sudden they're like, Oh, you know what? We don't have any money to hire you. We thought this person was gonna be further along and I was gonna work underneath this person, but then they didn't have a book of sales, or I don't know. They're like, Okay, well, you know, we'll essentially they'll just like call me back, right? They'll just call me back when like they're ready to hire me. Well, that of course I never got that call. And so, like, I remember that was like kind of like in the summer, like July, August. And then come, I don't know, then it was like the fall. I remember like, you know what? I just I need to do something that's like mentally better for myself. So this was like 2017, and I started a blog. And I started a blog telling my own stories and like how I went through cancer, and then I decided to make connections in the blogging community and highlight other people's stories. And then I was like, okay, cool, like I'm gonna have like a social media account for this blog. And I, you know, over the next year, I started to figure out like more about like starting Instagram and then influencing kind of was a thing, like affiliate codes, things like that. And I was trying to make money as a blogger, and so I started kind of down that path too. And then slowly but surely, then I started seeing like social media managers, and I saw that being a thing. I'm like, okay, like I kind of like self-taught myself as a salesperson, and Beach Body kind of actually helped me with some of the stuff and how to post on Instagram for like sales and things like that. So then I started doing like audits for like $50 on social media, and I would give people like this full-on, like full-on audit report of their Instagram and what I would do to change it. I found my first business coach, which was Kara Baroni, who I just had on a podcast a couple weeks ago. And I joined her group program as a social media manager. And by the end of those three months, I was with her. I decided she kind of like helped me decide this, but I was like, Yeah, I think I want to be a business coach. I like sales, I'm very good at sales at my job. This is what I want to do. So, really, like 2018 was when I started to really like think, like, okay, like I think I want to be a business coach. I also saw around that time, it was one of the bigger coaches here in the industry, but at the time she was charging $30,000 for 12 months to work with her for a 12-month package. And I'm like, oh yeah, that now that makes sense. That's like high-level business consulting, that's what, $2,500 a month, which is not, I mean, it's expensive for certain businesses, right? But not if you're making like if you're making close to six or seven figures or multiple six figures, close to seven figures a year, paying a consultant to help you scale for $2,500 a month, that's not expensive. That's a normal price. So I'm like, to me at that point, I'm like, oh my goodness, that's like so crazy. I just paid $1,500 for a three-month coaching program, a group coaching program. And then I paid, I think my next investment was around $4,500 to work with my first business coach again. So, and that was like a four-month thing. So to me, $30K was like, oh my God, like that's so crazy. I was getting paid, I think, like around $45,000 a year at my banking job. That was the highest I got paid at that time. And so, anyways, my husband and I, during that time too, we moved to Chicago. We finally sold our house in Indiana, which took forever, and it was such a horrible like process. But everything ended up working out. We ended up moving into an apartment that we didn't think we were gonna move into. It became available around the time our house finally sold and we finally moved out. Everything just kind of fell into place a lot better than we thought. So, again, universe is always helping you out, right? If not this, something better. So moved to Chicago, Sylwess Community to Northwest Indiana for my job at that time, and this was going into 2018. And I at that point was starting to sign clients in sorry, this is so 2018. We moved to Chicago. We were in Chicago. I started my business in Chicago, and then I remember like journaling outside on our patio at the apartment and journaling these things about like who's gonna trust me to hire them, or I'm gonna have like Zoom calls with strangers, like that's so crazy. And then also like going into 2018, going into 2019, I was working with like my business coach, and then I hired a second business coach. I just I'll never forget like taking calls with my coaches, like in the car on the way home from my day job. It would be like 6 p.m. And I'm just like having calls in my car on my commute home. And I really just desperately wanted to work because while I didn't mind working at this bank at this point, I know that I didn't want to stay there long term anymore. I already had that decision in my head. And for whatever reason, I was stubborn to the point of like, I want to leave this bank. Like, I want I don't want to go to a different job and find a different job and all the things. Like I felt, I guess, like comfortable that I can handle that. But in reality, you know, I was getting paid only 45,000 a year. We needed like two incomes, right? We were living in a high rise in Chicago. We're living right downtown. And at that point, too, I wasn't like making the sacrifices of like not going out or like working till midnight, right? Like I was still like having a life and going on weekends and did want to work weekends, but my banking job still had me working on the weekends. So I just really, really, really like just was trying to force to sign as many clients as I could, right? And so I only was equating, like, I just need to make a bunch of money. I wasn't actually like putting a plan in place. But also at that point, too, I want to take you back to that. Like, if if you've been around for a while, like you'll know what I'm talking about. But I don't think it's necessarily the case anymore, at least in my perspective. But I always felt very judged that the online space would judge you because you had a day job and you weren't a true like entrepreneur. And I've had a lot of conversations with people since then. And I always kind of equate that to I don't know, like you, it's almost like you have multiple streams of income. Like if you have a job and that that's fine and you can still work on your business and you're making money from it, like, and that's your goal and that's your lifestyle. Like, why not? Like, why not do that? So it was also, it was like shameful to share that I had a job. So, like the idea of me leaving my job also had that added pressure that I was just like, people think that I'm not legit because I saw this day job, or I'm not good enough yet because I saw this day job. So for me, that was a big deal at that time. Like I tried to like hide it and I was ashamed to say that I did that. So then after I finally left, like four years later, it was like three and a half years later, um, I left my job in 2022, March of 2022. And I finally felt like, okay, yeah, I've been working a full-time job this whole entire time. And I was proud to say that, but like I also now when I have conversations with people who still have their jobs, it is yes, it's still a big milestone to leave your job and like work for yourself. Like, how crazy is that? But at the same time, it shouldn't be shameful. So I will say, like, I feel like the internet was a lot louder back seven years ago, six years ago, maybe even five years ago, there's like, oh, if you have a day job, then you're you must not be making it enough money. But it's like my coach that I had for a lot of years had a day job, a very successful day job, in addition to a very successful business. So all of those things to say, yeah, it was really crazy to like be in the internet at that time too. And I just I always felt like it didn't fit into the internet because a lot of times, too, they were like, you need to travel and be location independent. And I'm like, I don't want any of that. I just moved to Chicago and I feel like I'm on vacation every day. I love where I live. My view is the lake of Lake Michigan, uninterrupted. Like it would, there's no buildings in front of us. Like it was just the best view, it was the best situation to be in. And I didn't, I never felt like I needed to be out of there, just needed to be out of my job. So some of the things that I also thought of, I remember so many days. So many days. My husband worked from home. He did travel before COVID a lot. He traveled like 50% out of the year and he would be gone Monday through Friday a lot of weeks. So it was hard. It was hard because he was gone all the time. But then when he was home, I remember like when he would be home. I was like, man, how cool it would be just like work from home with him all of the time. That is different now. That feeling is different now. I do like to leave the house now. However, it would be really hard. And I remember, like, you know, we were in a high-rise apartment. I remember going into the hallway, pressing the button for the elevator to take me down to the lobby, to get to my car in the parking garage, and leave Chicago to drive to Northwest Indiana to go to my banking job that I really hated and didn't have a future at and get paid nothing for, and then drive home to Chicago. And I would be home at like 6 p.m., take client calls until 8 p.m., somehow eat dinner in the midst of all of that, try to work out in the morning or after work if I didn't have calls, walk my dog and all the things. And I just remember like when I whenever I I have this like visceral memory. I have this memory of me pressing the button to the elevator, and I just felt very like emotional and crying and like man, like please God, like one day, one day I want to leave my job. And I had many moments like that. I had many moments like that, or then I was I would listen to music in my car and just like visualize leaving. And I don't know what clicked for me one day, but about let's see, 2019. So 2019 came and it was like spring of 2019. One of my really good friends, one of my best friends, got a job in Chicago at a bank, and that kind of steamrolled into, you know, I'm just gonna apply for a job. And I found one job that seemed really cool, and I was definitely qualified for, and I actually kind of got excited about it. Well, I ended up getting the interview and I interviewed with four people, and I ended up getting the job. And it was at a company which it was a bank, it was a like mortgage and loan company in Chicago, where my walk to the office was 13 minutes from sitting at my desk in my or sitting on my couch, like in my bedroom in Chicago, it would take me 13 minutes from that point to sitting at my desk at my job. So if I like got in the car or gotten an Uber or something, it would take me longer. That's how close I was. My building was like if you look at the skyline, you have these giant ass buildings, right? It was four buildings away. Like it was, it could not have been closer. I mean, I guess it could have, but there were I lived in a sea of apartment buildings. And then if I left my little sea of apartment buildings, the next thing would be I was back in like where all the office buildings were downtown. So, and I was like 13 floors up, so waiting for an elevator. I would even get coffee or like Dunkin' Donuts in the morning. So the walk to the office was a lot easier. No commute, working eight to four every single Monday through Friday, was off on the weekends. And then as I continued, they would give me more time to work from home. It was perfect. I was able to have more calls during the week. And I was able to do more work during the week. And at that point, then I got like a $20,000 raise. So I was getting paid, I think, close to $70,000 a year, way less stress. I didn't have anyone to run or like no one was reporting to me. It was just admin work. It was so simple. And I actually really liked it. And for a moment, you know, they were gonna, they were like, Oh, yeah, we can pay you to like get your master's in certain things so you can move up in the company. I was actually thinking them, like, yeah, I'm not ready to let go of my business. But at that time, in my business, I was making only like $25 a month because in 2019, I was training for the Chicago Marathon. I was really burnt out for my business because it just wasn't working as I wanted it to. And I wasn't working with a coach or anything. And I had like a really low-cost membership that like we were charging maybe $25 a month for. Sometimes it was cheaper than that. Yeah. So it was a moment where I'm like, okay, like things are starting to like maybe make themselves like put into place. Again, I wasn't like letting go of my business. I was still like posting every day and promoting my membership. And I didn't have any like one-on-one clients, but like that was okay. And I was like almost setting myself up. Like I was listening to audiobooks. I listened to like Maria Forleo's Everything Is Figure Outtable. I that's when I found the 12-week year. That book was, I listened to that multiple times. So like I was listening to like these personal development books and really starting to get my mindset around like coming back into business. And I was waiting for the end of the year. I'm like, you know what? It was like December. It's like December 2019. I'm like, I'm ready to come back to my business. And I really did like my job. And it was like paying me money, and that was wonderful. And so then, like, then 2020 came, right? So like early 2020, I signed a bunch of clients. I did like a partnership coaching package where clients didn't pay me up front. It's something where I and I still do this to this day. So I have a partnership coaching one-on-one package that I do at the beginning of every year where it's application only, and I would have people apply, and there's no upfront cost to working with me, but I would take 10% of your sales when you make sales. There's no like maintenance fee usually either. So I think I signed like seven clients, and that really got my confidence back. I'm like, yes, like I'm coaching again. Like I might not be making a lot of money at the moment, but like I got back into the rhythm. Then I started talking to my first business coach, and I was like, you know what? I lost myself last year and I'm really scared to join anything else and work with anyone else. Like I feel very confident in who I am and where I'm going. And then she and I just kind of talked and I joined her mastermind, which ended up being also life-changing to me in 2020. But then 2020 happened and everything was life-changing for everyone. And I say, like, my job wanted us to work from home, like indefinitely at that point, right? So that really worked in my favor of we're not going anywhere, we're not doing anything. Chicago was on super lockdown, no one could do anything. It was cold outside. That year, 2020, really catapulted my business. I went from like 20, it was like August 2018 was when I started my business. All of 20, it was like 2019. I think I had made probably a total of like 10,000 in my business at that point. Then in 2020, I made maybe like 30,000 for that whole year. So I was like, oh my goodness, this is crazy. Most of that happened at the back half of the year because I, yeah, I was just like starting to sign people again, starting to really like do intensives and VIP days, and starting to do like these things that I felt confident to do and was really consistent with my Facebook group and lead generation, all the things. So like I was in a really good place. 2021 came and in February of 2021, I actually started my agency. So I found that I really wanted to do hands-on work, and I really liked having the agency model and the coaching model, which I still have to this day. And that really then catapulted me into making more. So I think it was like, I feel like in 2019, I or 2020, I made like between 20 and 30,000. I forget the amount. But then come the following year, I think in 2021, I made like 50,000. And I was like, This is more than I made at my first baking job. And I was really starting to like make a lot more money because then the agency really helped me do that because agency work and done for you work was more expensive in a lot of times than coaching. So like COVID really helped me again because we were home and doing nothing. But okay, so at the end of 2021, though, I was getting really frustrated because I was so busy and it was a team of one. And I was getting really frustrated and really stressed out, but I was making a lot of money. At the end of 2021, I was making like over $10,000 a month each month. Again, a lot of my income came in those final months of the year. And I was really, really, really wanting to leave my job. I'm like, I know that if I had 40 hours back. And I will say at that time too, like I while I did really like my job in the first place, being home and COVID and not being able to meet up, and I was really like an asset. It was hard to learn anything new. So I will say I might be a proponent for a little bit of go back to office type stuff, especially when you have a new employee. I was a new employee. I was there for eight months. I was only there for eight months before then we were home indefinitely. And so like it was kind of like chaotic with like how they train things. And I would like trying to learn new things when your boss doesn't want to like, I don't know, like train you really properly or doesn't really know how to do that. She was older too. So like everyone's kind of learning things at the same time. And you probably have seen this, like if you have kids and they had e-learning and it was really hard. So to me to catch on to anything, I actually was struggling a little bit because I was making more mistakes and it was hard to like figure out how to do things. So like I really liked my boss at first, but then it was kind of like getting to a point where it was like, I don't see a future here either, and I feel like I can't do anything right, and I'm trying really hard to work, and I just feel like they're throwing things at me and I'm not really getting it. I don't really know what I should be doing like all day long. Like, I think COVID really like took that away. Like it definitely, yeah, that was a struggle. But late 2021, I was like, I'm going to leave my job March 2022. I'm going to wait till I get my bonus, and that's going to help me. I'm going to save money. I'm going to save six months of bills that I pay for our household and I'm going to leave. And at that point, like, I feel like my husband and I, like, we have different visions when it comes to like investments and saving and things like that. And, you know, he will say, He's like, I'm not an entrepreneur, I'm not a business owner. He doesn't really want to do that. So I'm definitely more risky in that regard. And I have more like faith in the sense of like, I know that I have to invest in this and then, you know, pay it back or whatever. So we were kind of struggling to find a date that worked best for both of us because for me, I was like ready to go, right? Looking back, I know that I was like, it was more of an emotional, impulsive thing that I wanted to do and I didn't have a plan. And I think what helped then both of us come to an agreement is I just said, this is my plan, this is the date, this is what I'm leaving. I'm gonna wait until I get my bonus. Thinking my bonus was going to be something significant, which ended up being no, it was not. It was significantly lower than I thought it was going to be, by the way. He was like, okay, so then I got my bonus. It ended up being a lot lower than anticipated, but I'm like, you know what? I'm still going to leave. Now I originally wanted 12 months of bills, it ended up being six months of bills. So I'm like, in six months, I'm not going to be at zero for six months. Like, that's just that's probably not going to be the case. If I work every single day and I have extra 40 hours a week that I can dedicate to my business, to growing my business. And we knew also, so we weren't going to be living in Chicago anymore. We were moving back to Northwest Indiana where our expenses were going to be like cut by 40% or something. Our goal was we were actually trying to also start a family at that point. We didn't want to raise and have a baby in a one-bedroom apartment. Our choices were to move north of the city where our expenses would actually be the same because we would need a bigger space. You know, we wouldn't have covered parking, which we had. You know, we would be kind of like in the north side of the city, but do we want to still live in the city without a backyard and stuff, or do we want to move back to Indiana? So we actually moved back in an apartment in Indiana. We had so much space where we both got our own offices. We didn't have Danny yet, my daughter. I wasn't pregnant yet. I got to live in Chicago for a month where I didn't have my day job anymore. And I got to live out some of my visions and my dreams of like, yes, I get to like be out here and work at coffee shops and just like have my business. Like I don't have to sign in, I don't have to lug two laptops around to work. It was like a dream realized. I got to go to a photo shoot for my brand, which I did a photo shoot like two days before we moved, which was really nice. Yeah. So all of that, like how I came to that realization was like, I think I prolonged my leaving my nine to five because I really just wanted to leave from the bank and just I wanted to give my notice to my toxic boss. But then they transferred me to another branch. I had another boss, but then my friend kind of catapulted me into like, well, why am I just staying here and prolonging my like I can make more money? Let me find another job to make more money. It'll bridge the gap. And I ended up doing that and I ended up saving money faster. But then COVID also happened too. And COVID kept me home and never had to go back into the office at all. Which I wait, side note, I want to tell a story about that. So actually, my job that I had before I left corporate for good, we were working in a high-rise office building. They were actually in the process that year of moving office buildings. So we had to go in, it was like October of 2020, and I went into my desk to pick up all my things. We were able to go back into the office, but we had to like make sure we went, you know, where no one else was going. So we had scheduled time. So like I went into this office, no one else was there. So it was very eerie to go into this, like this building I went into was 80 floors. And when I would go there in the morning, say, you know, 7:30 in the morning, eight o'clock in the morning, it was bustling, right? Like downtown Chicago, right in the heart of the city. You know, you're waiting for elevators, you're squished into elevators. I went back into this office. It was so eerie. It was like right in this elevator by myself. There were some people like working, you know, in the desks up front and stuff, but everyone's in masks. You know, you don't see the people that you see. I see people's like cubicles that weren't cleaned out yet. It was just like left in time. I had a plant that died, but it was just like I got to pick up all my pictures that I had there, all my documents and papers, things like that. And I mean, I I'd only been there for eight months, so I didn't really have a lot of stuff. But I remember like taking a moment and taking some deep breaths and like, this is the last time I'm going to be in a cubicle for a nine to five. And I told myself that. And this was October 2020. I told myself that. I'm like, this is the last time I'm going to be in an office. So then fast forward to March 2022, when I finally put in my notice, they actually wanted me to come back into the office for two weeks. And I said, but I'm not going to come back. Like, why am I going to go through the trouble of getting my badge, getting set up with IT, getting my desk? I'm leaving in two weeks. Like, you're going to give that to somebody else. So I actually like said, like, I don't want to come back. I actually used to have I had cancer previously. I have a compromised immune system. I was pulling the cancer card. And they were like really weird about me like coming back. And I'm like, I'm not coming back. Like, why am I going to come back? I'll actually just leave now. I'm not going anywhere. They're like, are you going to another job? I'm like, no, I'm just moving back to Indiana and doing this thing. And it was just like, all of a sudden, they were like, who's this weird girl like leaving? That's how I felt. So, anyways, I had that visualization too. And so, you know, in March of 2022, I finally left. And that came from making a decision six months prior and made a plan. So if I were to say anything about like leaving your job or like if you have a goal, like you have to set a date. And anytime I talk about to like set a date, like that's the biggest move is like you have to set a date and you have to commit to it. And like visualizing the plan, right? The plan needs to make sense. It's not just like, okay, well, next year, April 20th, I'm gonna leave. It's like, okay, but then what is your plan? You have a date, but what's the plan? Are you gonna save money? Whatever it is. So now I want to get to like how have the last four years have been, right? Like, what are the last four years? So the last four years have been crazy, mostly because of moving and being pregnant and having a miscarriage. I had a miscarriage before I was pregnant with Danny. So like March 2022 left my job. We moved back to Indiana in April of 2022. I got pregnant in June of 2022 and had a miscarriage that month. And then that whole summer was just kind of like blah because we experienced that. And then we started trying again. And then I was pregnant with Danny in September of 2022. So then I was pregnant. I had her in June of 23, took a couple months off for maternity leave, had my team working with like my agency clients at that point and paused with all my coaching clients. And then yeah, Danny's been here since 2023 and figuring out not only how to decondition yourself from the corporate life, but also to work while pregnant, which that was actually really nice. I got to work from bed, right? That was a flex. I got to like take naps in the middle of the day because I was tired from being pregnant. That was huge. And I'm like thinking back to working at the bank and being on my feet all day. And I'm like, how did people do this? Like, that's so crazy. Like, pregnant people did this. Pregnant people do this all the time. Pregnant people work at fast food places all the time. Like, good on them. Like, that's so crazy to me. That's that's so hard. So then I got to, you know, sleep in the middle of the day if I wanted, and that was a huge flux of mine. But then also the ability to just like dictate how I wanted to take leave. And I think if I ever have a second baby, I don't think I'm gonna actually take like a leave. I probably will like work a little bit more. But I was like, again, I had this pressure of like, oh, you have to take a maternity leave. And it was a flex that you got to take your maternity leave and your business could pay you. My business made money, but my I didn't make any money because I had to pay a full team. So I had a lot of expenses during maternity leave. So I wouldn't necessarily do that again, or I would set it up differently. But anyway, so the last four years have been a whirlwind because I think mostly of becoming a mom, but I think like I was learning how to manage my days, my time. And that was new because for my whole life I was dictated by someone else's schedule, right? And I think that's a huge, that's a huge learning curve when you all of a sudden have this like shock that like, oh, I don't have to wake up at seven or six thirty to be at a job at eight or nine. And like I have to have some self-discipline. And that I feel really takes a long time to kind of like decondition yourself of like, no, you don't, you don't have to just work between eight and five. Like you can work in the morning, you can set your own schedule, like you literally can set your own schedule. But then I've realized that now being a mom and having like the hours I can or can't work, it actually kind of works in my favor. So I think I have realized that I do thrive in a routine and thrive in like set working hours. So I do think that that has helped me in a way. I feel like there are days I've had hard days. I've definitely had hard days in the last four years. So entrepreneurship is definitely hard. I think that even now, I will say, like, just to be totally transparent, like I think since the end of last year and now, like I've just been kind of like in this funk of like maybe not like as confident or like truly, like I'm I think that we all go through these phases of like not feeling the best or confident or like mindset-wise or mental health. Like I definitely have good months and bad months. And I feel like there's moments where, especially now, like I've just been, there's a lot of pressure, I think. And this year has is bringing a lot of pressure. And it's something that I want, but it's something that is just new and uncomfortable. And I think that when I think of the bad days I go through as an entrepreneur, they have never been as bad as some of my most toxic days at a corporate job. Because the ability of like, we might go through hard days and there's things that we can't control, but you know, there's clients or co-workers or people, contractors, like we don't have to deal with them. So like we can like leave at any point, right? Like if there's a client that's being rude or toxic to me, like I can cut that off immediately, right? Like that's in my contract. We can end our coaching relationship if it's just not working out. I have the right to reserve that. And they do too, right? You can, I don't have to stay in uncomfortable situations. I don't have to, you know, go to a job every day when I was just like, you know, the night before crying because my boss is so toxic and drama and gossip and all these things. And I have to go back to work the next day. Like I have to work with these people every single day. And that's just so draining. And so, like a bad day at your own business will never, I don't know, never say never, right? But I have not experienced to the level of like just like toxicity because I can design my own day and I can design who's around me. And so when people think about how scary it is to leave your nine to five, it, yes, you leave without that security, but then it's harder to maybe build that security for your own self, but it can be done. It's hard, and you're going to have hard days, and there's going to be tears and stress and pressure. But I'd rather have that than going to a job where I'm my schedule is dictated by somebody else, where I can't just leave when I can, or have to work with people that don't have my best interests, or people that want to gossip over doing a good job, or people that don't value me as a person and my ideas. And you can create your own thing. So those are my lessons from the last four years. Those are my lessons. That's how I arrived to my decision. That's kind of what played into this. I will say that I'm so proud of myself. And I don't say that often, but in the last year to two years, I've never been more proud of myself in my life. And to keep promises to myself is the biggest flex. And I think that's what I want to leave you with is how you build confidence and how you build momentum in meeting your goals is to keep the tiny promises to yourself. That means going for a walk in the afternoon, go for a walk in the afternoon. If that means going to the gym in the morning, go to the gym in the morning. If that means going to bed earlier, go to bed earlier. If that means drinking more water, it's all of these little promises day in and day out and working towards your goal, you're going to create momentum and self-trust. And that's going to take you so much further, especially when you eliminate the noise and you just do what you need to do to get to your goals and you forget what everyone else thinks of you and judges you or whatever it is. Keep those little promises to yourself. And whatever your goal is, if that is to leave your nine to five and you're listening to this and it feels impossible, what are the little steps and the logical steps that you can do right now to get yourself there? Because it can happen. And even before you see it happening, like tomorrow it could be happening, right? Like just keep the path, keep going, and you'll get there. Thank you for listening, and I will be back on Friday with a business chaser episode. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Business Over Cocktails, where real stories and bold business moves come to life. If this episode lit something up in you, share it with a friend, tag me at Laura Najar or the podcast page at Business Over Cocktails. Make sure to leave a quick review as well. It helps more than you know. Until next time, keep chasing what matters and building the business that feels like you. Cheers.