(Not just financial growth, this was a season of soul strategy.)

Between 2015 and early 2019, I was building on the outside, but awakening on the inside.

I had just walked out of a toxic marriage.
There were days I didn’t know who I was anymore—
Just a woman trying to keep going, to stay safe, to give herself a chance to breathe again.

I’d given half of everything to my ex.
But instead of staying broken, I took the other half and invested it in my future.

That one belief carried me forward:
If I can survive this, I can build from here.

So I started buying investment properties.
Opened retirement accounts.
Became serious, strategic, even about saving and creating long-term wealth.

This was the beginning of my FIRE journey—not just financial independence and early retirement, but something deeper.
The moment I realized that I didn’t have to live in reaction to the past.
That I could design a future based on vision, not survival.

But even as the numbers grew and the returns came in, something felt off.

Because my nervous system was still wired for scarcity.
Still holding onto the idea that everything could be taken away again.
Even in abundance, I was hoarding.
Even in success, I was scanning for loss.

And this is where many leaders and founders get stuck.

We build systems, businesses, and portfolios—but leave the inner foundation cracked.
We accumulate, but we don’t integrate.
We earn more, but we feel less safe.

So I asked myself:
Am I investing in my future, or still protecting myself from my past?

And that’s when I chose a different kind of investment.

I turned inward.

No more chasing validation.
No more over-performing to prove my worth.
No more prioritizing everyone else’s peace over my own.

I poured thousands of dollars and countless hours into:

• Silent retreats
• Meditation
• Therapy and energy healing
• Reading and reflection
• Coaching
• Strength training
• Ballroom dancing

This was not self-care. This was self-reconstruction.

Because I realized, you can’t outrun fear with more success.
You have to stop.
Turn around.
And face it.

The ROI wasn’t immediate.
But it was exponential.

I started feeling the shifts.

• I began trusting my voice again.
• I stopped apologizing for needing space.
• I let go of “shoulds” and followed my inner truth.
• I redefined what it meant to be powerful.

What this season taught me (and what leaders often forget):

• Emotional healing is a business strategy.
• Clarity doesn’t come from spreadsheets. It comes from silence.
• Building without inner work leads to burnout masked as ambition.
• Your intuition is not soft. It’s the most precise guide you’ll ever have.
• Your relationship with money is a mirror of your relationship with self.

And most importantly:
You can’t create from fear and expect peace as the outcome.

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To the leaders, founders, and builders reading this:

Ask yourself…

• Where is fear still making decisions for you?
• What are you building that your nervous system doesn’t yet feel safe to receive?
• Are you leading from overflow, or from depletion masked as discipline?
• Are you living to protect the life you built—or growing into the one you truly want?

Because for a long time, I thought I was just securing a future.

But really—I was re-learning how to trust it.

And somewhere between spreadsheets and soul work, I came home to myself.

Not just the woman who survived.
But the one who chose to rise.