When I became a caregiver again, the question sharpened. What was this business asking me to carry that it should carry itself? I rebuilt around infrastructure. Growth stopped being personal. Stability replaced strain.

After my father passed, patterns surfaced clearly. Family roles, military conditioning, and leadership expectations had followed me into business. Overfunctioning concentrated pressure instead of relieving it. Carrying everything was no longer an option

Getting a divorce after 28 years of marriage and becoming a full-time caregiver for my Father forced a reckoning. More clients did not create ease. Higher-paying clients did not either. Revenue increased, but so did decision fatigue and emotional strain. I wasn’t scaling a business. I was depleting myself.

As long as I stayed on top of everything, the business functioned. When I stepped back, it fractured. Delegation felt unsafe, not empowering. Trust had been broken. What looked like leadership was actually control born from exposure.

Opened my doors 5 January 2005 and proceeded to build a business that worked because I carried it. Every decision, solution, and outcome flowed through me. Growth followed. So did exhaustion. I could see clearly that success tied to one person was not sustainable.