Building a Business That Celebrates Life, Not Just Livelihood

Lifestyle

Aug 3

I knew early on in my business that hustle culture wasn't going to work for me. I had tried it, only to find how wildly and rapidly I could burn out from it. With ambition to spare and high hopes and dreams, I wasn't lacking drive, but I was definitely lacking time.

People who preached hustle in the 2010s would tell me that I had the same number of hours in the day as everyone else. The "Boss Lady" culture urged me to lean in, face the hardship, and carve out my own space. After all, ambitious women—and ambitious mothers who knew they were many other things—had to show the world what we were made of, to pave the way for our daughters.

Only weeks into being a single mom, I signed up for a web-development boot camp. I wanted to create a better life for myself and my children. But I also went about it with something to prove. I was reeling from years of being treated like I was lesser—not smart enough, tidy enough, good enough, and most of what I worked at would never be enough. I lived a life of vacillating between being seen as too much or not enough in most spheres of life.

It was during a virtual business training, where the mantra was to "go all-in" and "play full out" in business, that I reached my breaking point. My youngest, only four at the time, had already interrupted me several times, seeking attention. Exhausted and overwhelmed, I remember crying out to the screen, "How am I supposed to 'play full out' when I am already giving everything?"

I was exhausted, ready to throw in the towel, feeling like a failure. The dream of working at home with my kids felt like it was slipping through my fingers. Then the pandemic hit. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, with no client work lined up and the world looking bleak, I decided to step off the hamster wheel. I was just there, present with my kids, and in deciding all the striving and stressing wasn’t doing any good, I finally took a deep breath and did something different.

I just started creating—not to appease the algorithm or land deals—but to soothe my soul. My kids and I created box forts, gardens, fashion, paintings, and poems. One evening, I took that creativity and decided to create a website that I thought was beautiful and could be useful. With no real goal or end in sight, I made it in one day. Nothing stopped me; nothing blocked my creating. When it was done, I sat back more proud of it than any project before it.

I posted it to my Pinterest—along with many other little snippets of creative thought—and during the pandemic, my Pinterest views soared to over a million views per month. Then, someone contacted me to buy the site, which I had listed as a template. That was all I needed.

My restart did not come from a place of not enough—of striving or stressing—but from just being. A human being—not just doing. It came from creating and a peaceful persistence over hustling.

This shift didn’t just change my business model; it transformed how I saw my role as a designer and a business owner. I began to see myself as a partner in my clients’ journeys, a collaborator entrusted with their dreams. The projects we embarked on were not just transactions but exchanges of ideas and aspirations. Each design became a celebration of individuality and a step towards personal and collective fulfillment.

Now, Bravely Inspired isn’t just a studio—it’s a sanctuary for those weary of the conventional paths to success. Here, we believe in the power of beauty and the importance of rest. We believe in building businesses that serve our lives, not lives that serve our businesses. Each project is a testament to this philosophy, crafted not just with skill but with heart, understanding, and an unwavering commitment to making each client’s world a little brighter.

To anyone standing at the crossroads, feeling the weight of expectation and the lure of the hustle, I offer this perspective: your worth is not measured by your output. Your ideas deserve space to breathe and grow. And perhaps, like me, you’ll find that in letting go of the chase, you’ll catch up to something far greater—yourself.

Hi, I'm Beth, the creative behind Bravely Inspired.

I cherish spontaneous art projects with my kids, slow, peaceful mornings, and crafting stunning and strategic spaces online for kindhearted business owners.

I love empowering women to build the business that fits your life—not the other way around.

Dreaming of a beautiful online space? Let's create it together!

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