Mama. Entrepreneur. Dreamer. Founder of Hot Mama. Those are my titles. I started Hot Mama out of my garage and it’s now grown to 20 family fitness franchises, online programming and many, many more exciting things in the works. We’re in start-up mode still so it’s long hours, lots of pressure, no sleep and little money. Living the dream.
With 20 wonderful franchise owners who believed in my dream so much they changed their life’s path to join me on this journey, there comes an immense amount of pressure to be super successful. I fail = they fail. I succeed = well, that’s up to them.
We recently launched an online program called IGNITE and it was absolutely crazy. I’m not sure anyone understands the amount of work that goes into launching an online program. The systems, the files, the graphics, the marketing, the payment processing, the explaining, the fact-checking…and that’s AFTER the program took months to design and develop. I literally did not sleep for 2 weeks (read 2 months) before we launched.
I gave and I gave and I gave it all I had. I slept very little and I worked very hard. I gave and I gave and I gave. And everyone took and they took and they took. And, to be honest, there was a moment when I thought “When do I get? When do they give? Why is all of this not enough”? I was upset and so tired and so…depeleted. I had no more to give.
But, I did. I always do. I always have more. I gave more. I had a big cry and gave more.
On the morning of our launch, I sat back and thought “Wait…they should take and take and take. That’s their job as business owners!”. They want to drive and push and move their business forward. OF COURSE they’re asking for more. They should! Good for you guys! Way to drive me to the edge! By doing that, I just do more. I keep pushing myself and driving myself, progressing my business.
As a Founder in a start-up company, some days are exhausting and you push so hard throughout the day that when someone asks you for “just a quick this” or “a super simple request that”, you literally want grab a bottle of wine, a stack of peanut butter cups, crawl into a hole and fold the entire company. It’s these moments that I’ve learned that, as business owners, they’re excited about their business or their life or their achievements and they also want to drive and dig and push their business. It’s these moments where I’m learning to take a deep breath and appreciate their drive. They’re not against me. They’re with me. They’re SO with me.
Yeah. Being a Founder is hard. It is exhausting and demanding. And your employees or your owners are going to take and take and take. Some days will be hard with all the demands, but more and more I’m taking the time to celebrate their demands. Although I absolutely cannot meet all of said demands (I don’t’ know if they plan to space their demands out as a team over a period of days, you ask this this day, I’ll ask this the next and so on, lol), but I do know that I will give and give and give as much as I possibly can. And, I will celebrate their demands in the hopes that they celebrate my inability to not meet every one! BAM! Go team!
In the end, that has to be enough. That is the give and give of business.
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