Episode 01: Building a Business That Funds Your Life

What We Cover

• The background of my first 6-figure year (in 2018) and how it felt
• The difference between making money and feeling safe with money
• How nervous system work changed my income and my quality of life (and why those aren’t separate things)
• The hardest year of my life and what it revealed about what being resourced actually means
• What Rich + Regulated® is, why it exists, and who it’s for

---

How It Started

In 2015 I started my first business (a graphic design studio) not from inspiration but from wanting out. Out of an unhealthy relationship, out of a town that had nothing for me, out of a job that was going nowhere. My sister and I had been building an Etsy shop and let me keep the name and the website when that had run its course.

The first year was genuinely rough—I accrued debt, said yes to everything, had no real idea what I was doing. I talk about this because the overnight success story is so prominent (you know, the “I did this in three weeks, I became a millionaire”) and, I believe, it flattens something that’s actually useful to say: most people’s first year is hard. Mine was.

And I still made it work.

By 2018 I was approaching my first six-figure year without even realizing it. It only became apparent when my accountant ran the projections and told me I’d be close. I decided to push to $100k and made it happen.

And then, I did it.

And I didn’t really feel… much of anything, tbh.

---

The First Six-Figure Year

My sister asked me around that time: if this is the most money you’ve ever made, why do you still feel like you’re living paycheck to paycheck?

That question cracked something open. I realized I had learned to make more money, but not how to actually have more money. I couldn’t open my bank account without anxiety. When a big invoice cleared I’d find ways to spend it almost immediately. I had built something substantial—significant income, amazing clients, a real business—and I couldn’t hold any of it. The numbers were changing, but deep down, the feeling wasn’t.

I dove into the deeper work—the neuroscience-informed work, nervous system awareness, identity work. In the meantime, I got a coaching certification and somewhat unintentionally started my coaching business. What I started noticing was that the gap between making money and feeling safe with it was a bigger issue for many high-achievers. That we knew how to do but not how to be, and that if we ever wanted true freedom there was bigger, deeper work to do.

---

When Ease and Income Stopped Being at Odds

As I did that work, things shifted in ways I hadn’t expected. I started saying no to clients who weren’t right. I started having boundaries I didn’t used to have. And my income didn’t drop because of it. It kept growing, while my quality of life improved in numerous ways.

I had spent years assuming that ease came at the expense of income. That slowing down meant earning less. That I had to choose. And then I didn’t—because it turned out that building capacity to receive money is also what allows you to make more of it.

Since 2019 I’ve worked with hundreds of clients on exactly this. The testimonials I’m proudest of aren’t the revenue numbers—they’re the ones about relationships repaired, moves made, hobbies started, time reclaimed: The business funding the life.

---

The Year That It All Changed

Fast forward a few years to 2025. Early in the year, my husband and I lost a pregnancy at 24 weeks. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through.

Within 120 days of the worst day of our lives, we had retired my husband, sold our house and most of our belongings, and moved to Spain to begin IVF with a specialist clinic here. We did all of it—in the thick of the most painful grief I’ve ever experienced—because we could. Because we had options.

Because a decade of decisions had built a foundation that gave us choice when we needed it most.

It took almost a year for the full weight and understanding of that to land.

Being resourced—financially, emotionally, in your nervous system—creates choice. And choice is what real freedom actually is. Not the number. Not the milestone. The ability to say yes to a completely different life when you need to most.

That’s why this podcast exists.

---

What Rich + Regulated® Actually Means

Rich isn’t only the bank account (though that’s absolutely part of this conversation.) Rich means a life that feels full. Presence, relationships, joy, time, the ability to do whatever you want with your days and actually feel it while you’re doing it.

Regulated doesn’t mean calm or unbothered. It means having the capacity to hold what’s happening—in your body, in your business—without it running you. Your nervous system isn’t a problem to manage, it’s an intelligent system that can work with you once you understand how.

Together this is the work: building a business that funds your life, and a life you actually want to be present for.

---

Reflection Prompts

1. Think about the last milestone you hit—did you let yourself land in it, or did you move straight to the next thing? What would it have felt like to stay there a little longer?
2. Is your business currently funding your life, or consuming it?
3. What would it mean to feel genuinely resourced—beyond the number in your account? What would you be able to choose, do, or say no to, if you had it?