How I Learned to Build a Business That Works With My Life Instead of Against It

Dec 12

12 DAYS OF BEHIND THE BUILD — DAY 1

When I first stepped into entrepreneurship, I thought the goal was to build the kind of business everyone else seemed to have, the fast-paced, always-growing, always-adding-more kind of business.

You know the type:
The kind that runs on perfectly color-coded systems, endless motivation, and those mysterious “five-minute mornings” I’ve still never experienced in real life.

But the further I got into owning a business and the more life I lived while running one, the more I realized something important:

A business isn’t supposed to swallow your life.
It’s supposed to support it.

For a long time, I tried to squeeze myself into strategies, routines, and expectations that honestly didn’t fit me at all. I’d push harder, work longer, say yes more often than I wanted to, and convince myself that’s just “what successful people do.”

But it always left me feeling like I was running behind my own life instead of building something alongside it.

Everything shifted when I finally gave myself permission to build a business that made sense for me - for my energy, for my season of life, for my family, and for the way I actually work best.

I stopped trying to match the pace of people who weren’t living my life.
I stopped forcing myself into systems that drained me.
I stopped treating flexibility like a luxury and started seeing it as a foundational need.

And little by little, BlakeleeCo began to feel like something I could grow with instead of something I had to keep up with.

Is it perfect? Not even close.
But it feels aligned.
It feels sustainable.
It feels like mine.

If you’re in a season where you’re trying to build a business and a life at the same time, here’s the truth no one told me:

You’re allowed to create something that fits your world, your rhythm, your energy, and your priorities. You don’t have to run your business the way anyone else runs theirs.

The right business for you is the one that lets you be a whole person, not just a nonstop entrepreneur.

Here’s to Day 1 of 12 Days of Behind the Build, and to building something that supports the life you actually want to live.