Author: Leslie B

A year ago this week I quit being an employee.  At the time I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life, I just knew I no longer wanted to waste my hours for low reward, high stress job.  I didn’t want to have to beg someone to let me take a day off so I could do the things I really wanted to do in life.  So here we are, a year later, and things have certainly changed.  I’ve been lucky enough to be in a position where, despite giving up the monthly income, I am not starving or worried about my rent.  That being said, there are a ton of challenges to making a business work.  

By far the hardest thing has been giving up my trusty monthly income.  I’ve been a salaried employee for as long as I can remember.  This meant that even if I took time off, I would still get my paycheck.  Not knowing when or if you are actually going to start making any money has been a huge challenge.  The past few weeks I’ve felt really down about the lack of income coming in but I have to remind myself that it is a journey and it takes time to build client lists.  I need to be at peace with this and not fight it so much, but I do struggle.  

Another challenge is not having a built in set of colleagues you can go to for questions/problems/etc.  You have to force yourself to be more outgoing (if you aren’t, like me.)  It really sucks when you don’ know how to do something and you don’t have a go to person to ask!  

The best part is having my own hours.  So long as I get my work done, I can run errands in the middle of the day, let the dogs out, some days I even sleep in (although not very often as I work out at 7 a.m. three days a week and the other two I’m usually up before 6 to go spinning).  Once in a while though, there is the occasional 9 a.m. wake up.  I treasure those days, because I know I need the sleep when I sleep that long.  I love being able to arrange having coffee with colleagues, lunches with mentors, quiet afternoons if I’m stressed out…. I love being able to challenge myself.  Each day is for ME and not for anyone else.  That really makes a difference emotionally.  When you are invested in what you are doing, you make sure to do the best job possible.  It makes you feel good about yourself!  

Overall, I love working for myself.  It has been an interested six months.  I wonder how the next six will go?  I’m hoping to continue to grow and also have some ideas for expanding my practice.  

Do you work for yourself?  Do you want to?  What is stopping you?  

Well friends, it is now almost the end of 2013.  2013 has been, overall, a fantastic year for me.  Here is a recap:

January:

The year started off with me hating the stress and inability to take any time off from my previous job.  I was really struggling with living the life I wanted to live and living the life that my job made me live.  I rarely worked out (maybe twice a week), gained about 10lbs and was generally rather depressed.  I was searching for something but at the time I really didn’t know what the answer was.  The only thing I had ever known was get up, go work for someone, get paid and come home.  I rather enjoyed the work itself, but the organization I worked for had lost several people and the workload was becoming unmanageable.  I’ve worked too long to continue to take what felt like several steps backward.  I went from being in charge of interns and assistants to being the lowest of the low… a contractor.  This had a profound effect on my desire to put in what felt like a million hours a week.  Who wants to be told they are shit, but work harder?  No, sorry, that does not make me spoiled, that makes me have self worth.  Anyway, the beginning of the year wasn’t all bad.  My best friend was here for New Years and I got to ring it in with her, my fiancé and other friends.  I was so happy to celebrate with her in Seattle!  We met in college but she now lives in Hong Kong.  Not close enough!

February:

By the time February came around I knew I needed to make some serious changes with my life.  I was unbelievably stressed out and making substantially less money that at my previous position.  Some of you might wonder why I would leave a job to make less, but I did it for the “opportunity.”  Basically, I’d been told I would work there for a few months, get offered a full time job if I did a good job, and make almost double what I was previously making.  That, it turns out, was a complete lie.  I also was told I couldn’t take time off for my wedding unless I got the permission of every other person doing the same job I was doing.  Needless to say, there were tons of problems with the way this organization was run and I had to make some changes.  Together, my fiancé and I decided that I would give notice, quit without having anything else lined up, take the next couple of months to regroup and get ready for the wedding and generally figure shit out.  We went away to Whidbey Island for three nights over President’s day weekend.  When I came back I bravely gave notice that I was leaving.  I’ve never felt such a sense of relief even though I was terrified because I’ve never been reliant on a man in my life and I knew my fiancé (now husband) would have to support me until I figured out my next move.

March:

March was fairly uneventful in 2013 as far as travel.  However, it was jam packed with wedding planning.  There were all kinds of last minute details to put together and it really ramped up this month.  Truthfully, March is somewhat of a blur!  At the end of the month I was approached to take a contract position.  I tried it out but it wasn’t a good fit.  Truthfully, I didn’t like working in a dark, windowless basement.  There was something a bit Manson-esque about the whole thing!

April:

April was a great month.  My husband and I (weren’t even looking) and found a new house we fell in love with.  We decided to put an offer in and it was accepted!  Then of course we had to put our house on the market, which was a fiasco in and of itself.  More about that later…. In the middle of the month the hubs and I flew to Oahu to attend one of my really good friend’s wedding.  She had it on the North Shore but we go there a few days early and decided to stay on the Ko Olina side of the island as it is sunnier.  We had a GREAT trip, got up and worked out every morning, made sure to get all of our steps in, and relaxed.  We then stayed at Turtle Bay for the night of her wedding (do NOT recommend at all, way too overpriced for what you get despite it being a lovely resort.)  We then headed down to Waikiki for the last night and stayed at the Royal Hawaiian.  Words cannot express how much I love that hotel.  I’m spoiled for life!

After we returned from Hawaii, I had a short turn around and then headed off to Vegas with three of my best girls for my bachelorette party!  OMG that was a fun weekend.  I think I did a post on it after but needless to say, we had a blast.  I’m so thankful for my girls putting that together and coming along!

May:

Wedding month!!!!! May was an amazing month.  Amazing and totally insane.  Seriously, wait until you hear what we did….. So, I mentioned earlier that we had to put our house on the market.  Well, we lived in a craftsman foursquare built in 1904.  It was a beautiful house, but we just wanted something with a little more outside space.  It has beautiful cherry hardwood floors (when we moved in) but our dog had scratched them terribly.  So, while I was in Las Vegas, my husband decided he was going to have them refinished.  Ok, no big deal, we would go stay in a hotel for two nights while it was done.  Except the guy he hired had no clue what he was doing, completely ruined the floors and we had to have someone else come in to fix them… What would have been a fun couple of nights at the W turned into a week at the Residence Inn.  Great place to stay, but it was not my home and it was less than a month before the wedding!  I was a tad bit stressed.  Turns out, having the floors refinished was a good idea and the house sold the first weekend it was listed for full price.  We were able to convince the owners of our new house to move out a week early and we decided to move the weekend before our wedding!  Who does that?!?!  We hired movers and got all moved in that weekend but things were hardly put together by the time the wedding rolled around.  But really, who cares?

Besides the house drama, I did have a lovely bridal shower and great time with my friends.  We had a Mexican food and drinks and sat outside on my friend’s deck overlooking the entire city.  And, the highlight of the year was our wedding.  I loved it so much I cannot even express it.  We got married at the Four Seasons Seattle and that venue is first class.  The day was magical!  I’m still obsessed with my dress, the decor, everything.  I loved it.  And I love love love being married.  That is the best part!  After the wedding night we stayed home for two nights before flying out to Cancun for our honeymoon.  We stayed at Excellence Playa Mujeres and the hotel is gorgeous.  It is an all inclusive resort and so all food is included.  The food is OK.  I love eating (I can’t help myself) and it all starts to taste the same after a while.  We spent the first two days lounging on our rooftop pool and sleeping.  Seriously, we slept so much.  Exhaustion from moving and the wedding.  The third day we went to Chichen Itza for the day.  It was interesting but truthfully, I’ve never been so hot in my life.  I felt like I was melting and I lived in New Orleans for three years!  We were supposed to stay there for eight nights but there was a hurricane in Chiapas and we were getting the outer bands by day four.  The weather was horrible, pouring down rain and wind.  We couldn’t even leave the room!  The next morning my husband was kind of in a tizzy (he hates being contained in a room with nothing to do!)  He called American Airlines and got us on a flight to LA at noon that day.  (PS, I kind of love American because they are so good about changes).  So, our unplanned part 2 of the honeymoon commenced.  We got into LA and decided to stay at The Peninsula for one night and then go to Disney for the last two nights of our honeymoon.  The next morning we walked around Beverly Hills, had lunch at Mr. Chow and then had a drink with a good friend in the afternoon.  We then went to Disney and checked into our hotel and had dinner.  We stayed at the California Adventure hotel and it was very nice, although they were ridiculously strict about check in/check out times!  The most fun part was, of course, Disneyland!!!!!!  We had a blast.  We got there as soon as the park opened (7 a.m. for those staying at the hotels) and knocked out a bunch of rides.  After we were pooped, we headed to Main Street USA for lunch then back to the hotel for a quick cat nap.  I napped and the man worked, then we went back to the park to get as many rides in as possible.  What an amazing day! The next morning we again headed to the park early, but this time we went to California Adventure.  My favorite ride was the California Screamer!  We only stayed for half a day and then had to pack and head to the airport for home.  Overall, it was a great save to an otherwise rained out honeymoon!

June:

June was total recovery month.  We focused on putting our house together and I struggled with what I wanted to do now that the wedding was over and I no longer had a way of making money.  I bummed around most of the month but I did find a new training studio and started lifting weights (I lifted weights weekly up until the wedding but then took about a month off.)  I also took my first spin class (well, first stadium style spin class) at Flywheel Bellevue.  It was so fun, but I waited another three weeks before I went again.  Don’t ask why, I’m now completely addicted to Flywheel.

July:

July brought a couple of trips, one to Oregon for a horse show and the other to Vancouver BC to see Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z.  I also decided this month that I might want to get an MBA so I signed up for a GMAT class and began attending.  The most exciting part of the month, though, was getting my new baby girl, Ninabelle Von Schraderhaus, a German Shepherd Dog.  She was seven and a half weeks old when we picked her up, but we met her two weeks before that.  She has been the greatest addition to our growing family (um, two cats and two dogs!  yikes!)  We love her dearly and she continues to grow every day!

August:

August brought the weddings of two more friends.  One involved a trip to Pendleton, Oregon for the weekend.  I had a great time seeing old friends and reconnecting.  Also, Pendleton is pretty cool.  I grew up not far from there but never spent a ton of time in Pendleton. Great Pacific has amazing pizza and Northwest wines!

September:

In September we had another trip to Hawaii, this time to Maui for a friend’s 40th birthday.  We stayed five nights and had two sets of friends there at the time.  It was a great trip.  Also, this is the month that I decided to open my own business.  I’d been debating doing this for years (I actually started a business plan for this about three years ago but didn’t think I could make a go of it at  the time, now I regret waiting so long!)  I found an office, wrote a check, and bought the basic supplies (computer, printer, etc.)  While we were in Hawaii I put together a business plan and it has continued to evolve.  I bought a domain and started working on a website.  This is all still a work in progress but it feels so good to have something to call my own!

October:

The beginning of October brought another trip, this time a girls trip to Scottsdale.  We spent two nights at the W there and had an absolute blast.  October is also my birthday month and, like any girl, I prefer to celebrate it all month 😉  We didn’t do anything too wild, went to dinner at Canlis in Seattle.  The view there is amazing and it is super old school.  Men have to wear jackets and everyone actually does dress up (very unusual for Seattle.)  The rest of the month was spent watching the Seahawks on the weekends, working out, and working on my business.

November:

November was a fairly low key month.  We both were working really hard and just trying to enjoy the weekends.  I also discovered low carb this month and finally made progress on some of the weight I gained at the beginning of the year.  Losing is so hard, especially when you are hungry because you work out.  I work out because it makes me feel mentally and physically great, but I’d like to be back to my “normal” size (the size I was for about 20 years!)  My parents visited for Thanksgiving and we went to Woodinville for wine tasting.  If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it.  Great wines, beautiful scenery.  Also, Nina passed her AKC Puppy STAR training class!

December:

Once again, December was much like November.  We were both working extremely hard and that took up the vast majority of our time.  Ninabelle was spayed and we’ve had to keep her quiet for two weeks at this point.  (She has a vet appointment tomorrow and I’m hoping she can resume normal activity!)  We went to Hermiston for Christmas and took the entire week off.  And that brings me to now….

I have some big plans for 2014.  Some to do with my career, some to do with some new projects and a lot of traveling!  I’ll work on a separate post on what’s in store as far as goals go for 2014.  One of those goals is spending a vast amount of more time on this blog.  I love writing and really would like to do something great with it.  🙂

XOXO

LB

Life is all about choices.  Do I wear this shirt today or that dress?  Do I get up and work out in the morning or do I spend more time in bed?  Do I choose this career or do I try to get out of it?  I am the classic Libra.  It pains me to make decisions and I agonize over them until the bitter end.  For years I regretted going to law school.  I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to achieve this education that, until recently, I believed had failed me.  I wanted the big firm job, to pay off my student loans (and of course, acquire a new host of loans like a mortgage, car payment, luxury goods, etc) and “be happy.”  Whatever that meant.  I never did get that job.  I still haven’t paid off all of my loans (and likely won’t for another 20 years) and never did buy my own house or condo.  Sometimes things have a way of working themselves out.  Either way, all of those choices I made lead me to where I am now…..

Which is sitting in my own, corner office in my own law firm.  Happily blogging away because work is a tad bit slow at the moment, and not feeling one ounce of guilt about using “company time” or what have you.  Life changes.  Some things I swore I was done with I’ve gone back to.  Some things are different.  I love running my own business.  I love being in charge of my fate. Granted, that fate is tied to getting clients and being able to put together a functioning business while maintaining an outside life.. That sounds like a challenge, but one I’ll gladly accept.  

Life is too short to spend any longer trying to undo 11 years of history.  I’ve decided to embrace it and move forward.  Be the best me I can be in every way, and part of me is tied up in my attorney persona.  11 years is 1/3 of my entire life.  1/3 of my life I’ve spent chasing this.  I like to think of this as a culmination of my experiences instead of going back to something I’ve long since passed.  It is a new dream.  It contains all of the success I’ve had with a future that is entirely mine.  Not many people can say that.  Everyone should say that.  I wonder what life will be like in a year?  The best thing to do is make all of the best choices I can at the time.  Every day.  

I have some big big big news to announce! Stay tuned for more info…. Sorry to be such a tease 😉

LB

Over the weekend my husband and I attended a rehearsal dinner and two weddings. It was such a fun weekend and I just love weddings but I’m feeling it today! I’m pretty sure that I haven’t partied this much in a LONG time!! But, that being said, it was so fun and I thought I’d share my outfits!

 

Friday night, green skinny jeans, Manolo’s and a black tank. 

Saturday night, DVF dress and Frye platform sandals.  Note the big hair 🙂

Sunday night, DVF dress, Via Spiga platforms.  I have a DVF obsession right now.  

I purchased the second dress on sale from Nordstrom last week.  The first dress I wore to a wedding in Hawaii in April (and sadly wasn’t on sale.)  The second wedding was on a Sunday so I decided to be a tad bit more casual.  It still looks great and I wore a white blazer (wish I had a pic!) over both dresses.

Plans for the weed include spinning every day (I am obsessed!) and dog training.  I also need to do some soul searching to figure out what I am going to do with my life (aka getting a job!)  It has been an interesting journey the past six months, to say the least.

 

Workouts:  2 spinning classes

This weekend was about as uneventful as can be.  The hubs went out of town for a bachelor party so I was home along taking care of ALL of the damnimals.  Seriously, I woke up to two animals puking both Saturday and Sunday.  It wasn’t exactly how I pictured my weekend.  

Saturday I was supposed to go on a hike but the weather crapped out and it rained.  We ended up canceling and I basically did nothing the rest of the day, except make this amazing dinner:

Basically, I thawed some halibut we had frozen earlier in the week, baked it at 400 for about 30 minutes and seasoned it with Johnny’s and olive oil.  The really amazing part was the side dish I created.  I sliced up baby potatoes, mushrooms and a clove of garlic. I also tore up some kale and threw it in there.  Seasoned with sea salt and olive oil.  Bam, sometimes the simplest things are the most amazing.  Let me tell you, I felt about a million times better after eating that than I did after eating BurgerMaster the day before.  Sometimes a girl needs a cheat.  Or two….

Last night after L got home we needed a “date night” so to speak.  I made reservations for Daniel’s Broiler and had decided before getting there that I would get the amazing lobster club salad….. Well, after not eating for about 8 hours (NOT recommended) I decided to order the filet mignon….. And I don’t regret it.  I had a fabulous work out this morning, in part because of all of the extra protein before dinner.  That being said, it is always good, when you are trying to cut fat and going out to dinner, to plan on what you will eat in advance.  Clearly that doesn’t always happen.  I probably should have taken some Carb Ease also….. sigh.

This week looks to be more of the same.  Studying for the GMAT, dog training, more Flywheel (I convinced two of my friends to go with me tomorrow!  yay!), and my goal is to get at least one yoga class in.  

Do you plan your weeks out in advance?  Go with the flow?  I’m more of a “planner” but that doesn’t always work out.  Sometimes life happens and we end up adjusting.  Like right now, I’m blogging despite my schedule telling me I should be studying.  I was supposed to blog earlier but ended up working on some Advocare stuff!  

I also have a LOT of job applications to complete this week….. And definitely some Seahawks watching this weekend!  Go Hawks, the fact that football is back makes me ridiculously excited!  

I’ll leave you with some motivation:

To achieve anything in life you need to believe that you are worth it.

Are YOU worth it?  I sure hope I am.

XoXo,

LB

Ninabelle in the motor home

BC Place

My beautiful friend in her wedding dress

Today’s workout:  60 minutes with personal trainer

Last week:  Two PT sessions, one spin class, 3 days of horseback riding

I may, or may not have, mentioned what a whirlwind the last 10 days were (or were going to be in anticipation.)  Today I feel like I am going to crash at any moment.  It is 2 p.m. and I am running on fumes.  Fumes and cheese.  What else is new?

Last weekend I went to my final show with my horse, JJ.  We went down to the Oregon Morgan Classic in Salem.  The show was smaller than usual with only about 100 horses there.  So, there wasn’t a ton of competition in my classes except from another lady in my barn.  My parents drove their motorhome and met me down there.  We both got in Friday and left Sunday afternoon and Ninabelle, the GSD, accompanied me while Beau stayed at grandma’s.  On the way home on Friday I encountered the worst traffic I’ve ever been in in my life.  It took nearly twice the time it should have taken to get home.  I almost cried and didn’t get home until nearly 8p.m.  Sooo….. there is about 500 miles.

Wednesday my girlfriend and I headed up to BC to see the Justin Timerlake/Jay Z concert in Vancouver.  Traffic on the way up wasn’t too bad.  We had about 45 minutes at the border but we didn’t make it up with a ton of extra time.  I found a little Mexican place (of course) and we ordered some tequila and nachos.  I wish I had pictures.  The nachos were GIANT and pretty damn good.  We then went to the show, had a few more drinks and rocked out.  JT is a’ight but Jay Z was absolutely AWESOME.  Totally one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while.  After the show I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed but my girlfriend insisted we go out for more drinks.  I lasted about 30 more minutes before heading back to the hotel.  Hell, I had to drive the next morning!  On our way back we somehow managed to leave without having coffee or food.  Then had to wait 75 minutes to get across the border.  I was dying.  We ended up at Burger King.  I’m still not sure that is real food.  Regardless, I made it home Thursday afternoon.  Another 350 miles….

The next morning I got up, packed for another friend’s wedding, and hubs, Ninabelle, Beau and I left Seattle about 1.  We made good time to Hermiston where we stopped at my parent’s house to drop off both dogs.  We then headed to Pendleton where we were staying for the wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding on Saturday and then we got up at the crack of dawn Sunday and headed back to Hermiston.  We stopped and had breakfast with my parents and picked up the dogs.  Then, back on the road again to head home.  Another 600 miles….

Needless to say, I’m exhausted and really don’t want to drive anywhere ever again.  So of course I’m going to head directly into traffic to go to my GMAT class tonight.  It is really weird because I feel like, because I’m not working, I shouldn’t be tired or just want to lay around at all.  Given all I’ve done over the past 10 days, it is probably OK to chill for a couple hours, right?!?!