I made a very intentional decision to pause my first career without a fully fleshed out business plan for what was next. At the time it felt a little wild, but that space is really what led to the birth of ACT Strong.

Stepping away from the safety of a stable and thriving career gave me the mental freedom to follow my curiosities and pay attention to what lit me up. Over time I realized that what I cared about most was helping women feel strong in their bodies and creating a fitness space where they feel seen, supported, and challenged.

My long term vision is to open a gym, a physical space where women can come to work toward their goals and feel genuinely supported in the process. ACT Strong is the first step toward that bigger vision.

Honestly, having starting capital and not needing to take out loans has been huge for me.

When I left my previous corporate career, my husband and I sat down and really asked what it would look like for our family if I took a true career pause and then started a business. We talked through what we were not willing to sacrifice, what we were comfortable letting be a bit stagnant for a while, and what we could cut.

We made a plan to set aside money specifically to fund whatever business came next, even though I did not yet know that it would be ACT Strong. That planning meant I could get started without taking on debt.

I have no shade at all for people who use loans to start a business. It is an important tool and can be the right move. For me, though, self-funding felt like keeping a door open. It allowed me to experiment and grow ACT Strong without the added pressure of immediate repayment.

I have a lot of feelings about the question “What do you do,” especially for women and moms. Usually what people really mean is “What do you do for paid work.”

During my career pause, before I started ACT Strong and while I was shifting into health and fitness, that question felt very loaded. I was doing so many things that mattered and took time and energy, but they were not tied to traditional income. It forced me to think deeply about how we link value and money.

So I feel most confident with money when I am clear on the value I am creating, whether or not it is directly tied to income. Getting paid for that value is amazing and important, but I have had to learn to see my worth in more than one way.

Those years changed how I think about success in business. Now I look at it from multiple angles. There is customer value. There is financial stability and growth. There is personal fulfillment and the impact I have on my clients' lives. When I am holding all of those together, I feel far more grounded and confident than if I only focus on the dollars.

It is such a tough balance. One question I always ask myself about a business expense is what the lifespan of this investment will be. Not just vaguely, but literally how many years I expect to get out of it.

For example, when I was kickstarting ACT Strong I hired a designer to help with branding. She created my logo, color palette, and the core visual identity for the business. That was a big upfront cost. When I looked at it over the likely lifespan of the brand, though, it started to feel like a very reasonable and wise investment. I cannot tie that directly to a specific number of clients, but it is foundational.

At the same time I am constantly toggling between trusting my intuition and checking in with the numbers. Part of me thinks maybe I should just jump in and open the gym now and trust that it will work out. Another part of me says to get more experience, keep building my client base, and be thoughtful about the timing and scale of that investment.

So I try to zoom out. I ask what supports the long term vision for ACT Strong, what will still feel like a good decision in five or ten years, and where I can trust that if I keep doing good work with integrity and clear values, the financial outcomes will follow.