The All-Consuming Experience of Building A Business
I absolutely love Formada. I’m so proud of it. There are times where I still can’t quite believe that Garrett and I quit our corporate jobs nearly seven years ago (!) and turned our idea of what we thought a successful digital marketing agency could be into an actual successful digital marketing agency. We didn’t know how to build a business when we started, but I’m so glad we were brave enough to do it anyway.
It’s a dream come true. We have an incredible, talented team, a burgeoning roster of clients, and plenty of lofty goals ahead of us that we’re building towards. But it’s not without its stress.
I’m consumed by what we do here. The business — its health, its financial state, the opportunities we might be missing, the good, the bad, and the ugly — is always on my mind.
Once upon a time, when I worked for someone else, I thought about how much more I could accomplish if I was given control over what I did. Now that I have it, I have accomplished that much more, but I also was quickly shown all of the things I never had to think about — the specific things like payroll and taxes but also the intangibles like articulating the business’s long-term vision while setting the appropriate tone for the team. These are non-negotiables for a healthy business, and they represent about 1/100th of what a business owner is responsible for.
I’m not complaining. I’m lucky to be in this position. But when you get what you wish for, you often get more than what you wish for: You have to reflect and learn and grow in real time.
Is it exciting? Yes! But is it also exhausting? It sure is.
Sometimes Success Is Measured By The Things You Don’t Do
Formada is incredibly important to me. It’s created a different world for my family. It supports other people and their families. It creates growth for our clients’ businesses.
I’m so proud of all of that. But it’s not my entire life. It can’t be. At least it can’t be for a person who wants to live a life like I do.
I’m all about creating a rich tapestry of experiences that combine my interests and my goals and family and my work. I’d like to think that I’m successfully rejecting the notion that you “can’t have it all” but I’ve also realized that if I don’t take the time to slow down, reflect, and recharge, that I could lose sight of what “having it all” really means to me.
Luckily (or perhaps quite intentionally), this is one of the many areas of business and life where Garrett and I are perfectly aligned.
We both understand that in order to build a business that we’re really proud of, one that will stand the test of time, that we all need to take a step back from it every once in a while in order to take stock of things.
I realize that there’s nothing revolutionary about taking a vacation, but I think that my fellow business owners out there just might deeply relate to what I’m talking about here. When the business is yours — when there are employees and families and businesses who are relying on you to be successful — you never really feel like you can unplug and take a break.
We didn’t aim to create a gilded cage for ourselves. Our vision of success also includes a much-cherished level of freedom. Not just for Garrett and I, but for everyone on our team.
The Healing Power Of Simplicity And Family
These past few weeks were spent where our family often spends the heart of the summer: In northern Michigan.
This is where I grew up. My husband, too. We’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for decades now, but Michigan is still very much home, and as much as we’re surrounded by some of the most beautiful countryside the United States has to offer here in the Vancouver area, there really is nothing quite like Michigan in the summertime.
But it’s not just the lakes and the rivers and the forests. And it’s definitely not the mosquitos.
It’s making the long trek up north to those humble little lakehouses that our grandparents and great grandparents built, and just unplugging from our normal lives for a spell.
No wi-fi. No A/C. Not a dishwasher in sight. And not a lot of space, to be honest. Yet somehow, it’s more luxurious than I can even describe.
It’s early morning paddle board rides, coffee on the deck, and late night games of Yahtzee with my kids. We’re swimming every day. Fishing off of the dock. Having dinner with family and friends that we haven’t seen in ages. Eating a million ears of Bay City corn that my dad has carefully chosen from his favorite produce store.
We’re making memories and spending time together that we’d otherwise never get back. To me, this is why you build a business. This is an essential way of creating growth. It’s not all monetary. It’s also quite personal. And experiencing these moments reminds me that all of the energy we’re putting into making Formada even more successful is absolutely worth the energy.
Where I’ve Been Tells Me Where I’m Going
Leaving Michigan to come back to Vancouver is always bittersweet. Not just because it means our vacation is over and summer is coming to an end, but because, in some ways, Michigan will always be “home.”
Our parents are there. My grandma, too. It’s where Nathan and I first met, and where we both had so many of our formative experiences, the ones that shaped the values we still hold dear, and led us to where we are today.
They filled me with a sense of wonder and curiosity — to take chances, to build a business, and to believe in myself.
Michigan reminds me of where I come from, and heading back west reminds me of the adventure ahead that is still largely unwritten.
I’m so grateful to have a business partner that shares my vision, a team I can trust implicitly while I’m away, and loved ones who know exactly how to recharge my batteries.
Sometimes, a little break is all you need. Give yourself the grace to actually take it. You’ll be glad you did.
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