How I Went From 50-Hour Weeks to 10-Hour Weeks (And Saved $111K a Year)

Peace.

I didn't burn out.

I woke up.

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In 2021, I got my first Forbes feature.

Not as a contributor. I wasn't even thinking about having a column yet. This was before all of that.

I was just featured. Recognized. Validated.

And I was living in a matrix.

I didn't know it then. But my days looked like this:

5-7 meetings. Every single day.
Launch after launch after launch.
Daily social media posts.
Stages across the country. Social Media Marketing World. Corporate events.
Producer for Think & Grow Rich: Mom's Rising, sanctioned by the Napoleon Hill Foundation.

On the outside: Featured in Forbes. Producer. Speaker. Consultant. Scaling.

On the inside: Performing. Seeking. Proving.

I was building a business that needed constant external validation to function.

And I was very good at it.

My calendar was full. My bank account was fuller than it had ever been. People wanted what I was selling.

But I was living someone else's definition of success.

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What Was Actually Happening

Let me show you what the "matrix" looked like in numbers:

I was building. Fast.

But I was building someone else's dream.

The version of success I thought I was supposed to want. The life that looked good from the outside.

Every new client meant more team management. Every new opportunity meant more overhead. Every milestone meant more pressure to keep climbing.

The contradiction was clear: I help businesses scale. Mine was consuming me whole.

I couldn't tell anymore what I actually wanted versus what I thought I should want.

Every decision was filtered through: "What will they think? What does this say about me? Am I enough yet?"

I was performing success.
Not living it.

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The Medicine That Showed Me the Matrix

I started doing healing work with plant medicines.

And they showed me something I couldn't unsee:

I was living in a matrix of my own creation.

A matrix built on external validation. On proving my worth through achievement. On measuring success by how impressed other people were.

The medicine didn't tell me what to do.

It just showed me what was real and what was performance.

And I realized:

Most of what I was building wasn't for me.

It was for the version of me that needed everyone else to confirm I was enough.

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The Three Years Offline

So I stopped.

Not for a few months. For three years.

I went offline. Disappeared from social media. Stopped performing.

Not because I was broken. Because I needed to heal the part of me that sought external validation like oxygen.

I needed to do inner child work. Highest self alignment. Let everything I was carrying fall.

And I mean everything.

• The business model that required me to be "on" 24/7.
• The team structure that demanded constant management.
• The launches that fed my need for external validation.
• The social media presence that kept me performing instead of living.

I let it all go.

Not to escape. To remember who I was underneath all of it.

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The Rebuilding

Three years.

Not three months. Three years.

Healing. Walking. Sitting with my inner child. Aligning with my highest self. Building my business around my life instead of my life around my business.

I had to heal the part of me that needed external wins to feel valuable.
I had to heal the part of me that needed full calendars to feel worthy.
I had to heal the part of me that needed other people's approval to know I was enough.

Plant medicine showed me the matrix.
Three years offline showed me who I was without it.

When I came back, I came back different.

Not better. Not fixed. Just... true.

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I Used AI to Give Me My Life Back

I recorded myself walking through every process I had. Client onboarding. Delivery. Admin. I used Loom AI to turn those recordings into SOPs. Then I handed those SOPs to AI agents.

• Google Workspace handled client intake and scheduling.
• Claude and ChatGPT Deep Research managed research and content drafts.
• Fathom transcribed all of my meetings.
• My Abacus DeepAgent helped me create AI employees, build landing pages in minutes, and design dashboards to track data.
• HighLevel handled workflows.

My job became: decide what matters. Let AI handle the rest.

The Numbers Changed:

Revenue: Increased 30% with half the clients.

Because I only kept the ones who were aligned. And alignment doesn't drain you. It amplifies you.

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What My Life Looks Like Now

Client meetings: Tuesday through Thursday, 12-4pm. That's it.

The rest of the week?

• I dance in my kitchen while I cook.
• I walk 4-10 miles a day.
• I notice the seasons changing. (I couldn't before. I was too busy to see.)
• I create. Not from obligation. From overflow.
• I process thoughts. Heavy emotions. I don't push them down anymore because there's space now.
• I invest time with people I love. Not the scraps. The good parts.

I make decisions from clarity. Not fear.
I enjoy my business. Not despite it.

Growth feels sustainable.

And here's what I know now: My #1 job is to stay in alignment.

Every opportunity in this season has flowed from that. Forbes. Speaking. Clients who pay well and work beautifully. Partnerships that feel easy.

Not because I hustled harder. Because I stopped forcing.

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The Framework You Need

If you want to do this, here's how:

Step 1: Identify What's Costing You Capacity

Not just time. Nervous system energy. Decision fatigue. Emotional labor. Recovery time.

Make a list. Be honest. What depletes you? Even if it pays well. Even if you're "good at it."

Step 2: Separate "Expensive You" From "Irreplaceable You"

Expensive You: Tasks that cost you capacity but could be done by AI or systems

Irreplaceable You: What only you can do. What energizes you.

Ruthlessly automate Expensive You. Protect and amplify Irreplaceable You.

Step 3: Measure ROI² First, ROI Second

Before any implementation, ask: "Will this return me to myself?"

If it saves money but costs your nervous system: Not worth it.
If it costs money but returns capacity: Worth it.

ROI² (Return on Intention) measures:

• Does this align with who I'm becoming?
• Can my body sustain this?
• Am I choosing from clarity or pressure?
• Will this return capacity or consume it?

Step 4: Build From Regulation, Not Desperation

Never make systems changes from burnout.

When you're dysregulated, you build dysregulated systems. Fast. Complicated. Fragile.

When you're regulated, you build regulated systems. Sustainable. Simple. Strong.

Step 5: Give It 90 Days

This isn't a quick fix.

Most people quit at day 45. Right before it works.

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The Truth I Wish Someone Had Told Me

This transformation wasn't about working smarter.

It was about healing the part of me that needed external validation to feel worthy.

I had to let go of the matrix I built. The one where my value came from full calendars and social media praise. The one where success meant performing for an audience.

I had to trust that I was enough without any of it.

That's not a business strategy. That's inner child work.

But here's what nobody tells you:

You can't build a sustainable business on top of an unhealed nervous system.

You can optimize your funnels and automate your workflows and scale your revenue.

But if you're still seeking external validation, you'll just build a bigger, faster matrix.

The plant medicine showed me that. Three years offline proved it.

I had to heal first. Build second. Not the other way around.

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The Invitation

You don't have to go offline for three years.

But you might need to stop performing long enough to remember what's true.

You might need to let some things fall that you're carrying.

You might need to heal the part of you that thinks external validation equals worthiness.

Because here's what I know now:

The business you build from alignment will always outperform the business you build from proving.

ROI² > ROI. Always.

Not because revenue doesn't matter.

But because revenue built on performance costs you your soul.

And I'm not willing to pay that price anymore.

Are you?

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Your Next Steps

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The life I have now didn't come from working harder.

It came from working true.

You can have this too.

Not my exact version. Yours.

But you have to choose it. And then build it. And then protect it like it matters.

Because it does.

To be continued...