One Year Ago: Wow, what a ride!
September 18 will always be memorable for me. A date that will stick in my mind for a long time.
First, it’s my grandmother’s birthday. But also one year ago today looked completely different than where I’m sitting right now.
One year ago, I had surgery, and it was definitely the start of a change and a shift for my business where I really saw the value in having support.
Before that, I had several, several health issues, and what led to me being in and out of the emergency room three times. I ended up staying overnight because my blood pressure was crazy high, which really scared my family, my clients, and even the doctors with how high it was.
In the three weeks leading up to surgery, I was given medication to figure out this huge pain. They discovered it was an ovarian cyst that was so large, it had to be surgically removed.
For about 2 to 3 weeks prior and a few weeks after surgery, my team ran my business. Plain and simple, that’s what happened. I HAD to rely on them constantly. I was either medicated to deal with the pain, or unmedicated and the pain was so bad I couldn’t focus.
A HUGE shoutout to Carly, Leslie, Rachel, and Jessica for being an amazing support for me during that tough time.
After that, I definitely had to tell myself something that I tell all my clients: You cannot scale and grow your business on your own. You can do certain things and have an amazing business, but unless you have support, you’re going to be tapped out, not knowing which end is up. You’re going to get to a point where you have to rely — at least some — on other people.
We’ve changed and shifted and grown since then, but I just wanted to take a moment to remember:
I let the health issues get so bad because I felt I had to manage the majority of my business myself even though I had a team. When I had to surrender it all and not be accessible, I saw the value in having other people.
Personally, I had a huge support team as well at home: getting the kids where they needed to be, picking up groceries, making sure I rested and took my medications. My husband is amazing when it comes to taking care of us. He was such a huge support along with my extended family and friends.
It’s crazy to think it’s been a year, but I’m so, so grateful to the people who could support me then and continue to do so now.
My goal with growing my business is to allow my team to keep growing and expanding for themselves, too. Like parents when they send their kids out of the house, it’s with a blessing and a hope for natural growth. I have several VAs on my team who have their own businesses and eventually we’ll have to shift to accommodate their growth, whether it’s less hours or leaving the nest completely!
One year later, I’ve tried to implement some different things for myself. I have hills and valleys of self care, but it’s SO important. I’ve always had the Monday dreads, where I just was paralyzed by having a lot to get done on Monday and being completely unable to enjoy free time.
Since then, I’ve really tried to separate out the things I want to do and the things I need to do to be efficient. I love everything about my business. I’m in a great place with amazing clients doing wonderful things, and I’m so excited to get into whatever work I do. I’m also the person who could work 24/7 if I let myself, but that’s not great for anyone.
It’s all about knowing when to say no for now. When is my team going to shine? What do they do the best for our clients that I can do but they can do better and faster?
And for internal projects, I don’t have to tackle everything myself! My mindset was always it’s my business, so it’s up to me. That’s true to a point, but if we’re all busy, if we’re all maxed out for the week or two weeks, it can shift. It can change.
Personally, I get so in my head about what needs to happen and what I want to do around the house or with the kids. It’s not really about balance because not everything is equal. It’s more about shifting how everything fits together. I want to have that time for myself, for my family. I want to have time with my business, doing cool things alone or with my team.
Biggest advice: Listen to your body. If something is wrong or you feel like something is wrong, don’t wait. My surgery was in September, but I’d had symptoms since at least May. If I had just listened to my body and the advice of those around me to take time to look into my health, we could have caught it possibly before it got really bad in August.
Finding ways to just have the space to be able to make those decisions is critical. In May, when I recognized there was a problem, I should have made an appointment. Had I known it would be a 3-plus week process to get a diagnosis and solution, it would have been done earlier and could have been different.
I do know that you need to make those decisions in the moment for when problems come up. Whether it’s personally or professionally, if you recognize a problem, address it right then. Be honest. Everyone makes mistakes and things happen, and that’s fine, but how do we change and course correct?
I’m so appreciative of all the ladies around the world now who are supporting me and my dream. I’m so grateful for my family, my husband, my kids. We have our own routine and they’re starting to see how they can help with some things, and we’re the Albright team! We’ve been trying to show and share that with our children so they know they have several people to lean on.
Thank you everyone who was here a year ago, and thank you to everyone here now. I’m so, so grateful and thankful and so glad to be here today!