I am the youngest business owner on the block. I am learning new things every day and getting exposed to things I didn’t even know existed (did you know nutrition bars without flour are taxable but with flour are not…mind blown). When I was thinking about opening Empowered Living Company I never thought about what I would do when baby birds were born in the bathroom ceiling or how I was going to handle flooding the week before the open house! Nobody preps you for those kinds of things. There is no fact sheet on Minnesota Revenue to help you with baby birds in the ceiling that’s for sure! I am learning. I am allowing myself to be so vulnerable in the sense that I could fail and everybody would be watching. Yet I do not feel scared. I do not feel worried or concerned. I am the janitor, the sales and marketing team, the coach, the payroll coordinator, the front desk, the bookkeeper, the handy women (with some help from my future hubby and future father in law – you guys are the bomb), the schedule maker, the advertising, etc. Now don’t get me wrong, people have helped lots but you want to know what else people don’t prep you for, how hard moping rubber mat floors is. I am getting a reality check of how hard small businesses have to work to function. I am not writing this for sympathy but instead writing this to let you all know that I care about what I am doing. I want Empowered Living Company to grow and work so bad that I am willing to be all of the roles I listed above, I am willing to change my lifestyle to make this place the coolest place ever. I tend to ask myself a lot why I can’t just be OK with working an 8-5 with benefits and consistent pay because some days that would be a whole lot easier but I can’t. I can’t settle for that because I know what I am capable of and I know how powerful this place can be and has already become for others and myself. I have found my fire. I have always had a flame and a burning passion to help others. I worked many difficult jobs so that I could help others but I didn’t always feel a fire. I now feel that fire. I love coming to work every day and I love going to bed at 8:30pm so that I can get up at 4:45am to eat some burpees with my morning crew. I like watching people improve their lives, make friendships, face challenges and conquer them. I like making a space for our community to come together and have fun and reach goals. I like working really hard so that other people can work hard and have success. So thank you. Thank you to everybody who has been a part of Empowered Living Company so far and allowed me to find my fire. Thank you to everyone who has sent positive vibes, helped with random things, come to classes and encouraged me. Thanks Minnesota Revenue Fact Sheets for helping me not fail at taxes 🙂 and thanks Tony for getting the baby birds out of the ceiling 🙂 I am honored to be on this journey as a young business owner in Morris MN and I am so excited to not only grow as an individual but as an empowering space in our community.