Entrepreneurial Journal

This week, something finally clicked—and it didn’t even come from the assigned readings in Intro to Entrepreneurship (sorry about that!). While those were insightful, the real breakthrough came from the  intersection  of my Business Exploration/Orientation and Sales & Customer Relations classes. Specifically, the combined focus on entrepreneurial marketing techniques, promotional strategies, and career paths in marketing opened my eyes to what’s been missing from my own business efforts with NutriThrive Fitness. Looking back, my marketing efforts have been minimal and mostly centered around pouring countless hours into Instagram content. Inspirational posts, reels, stories—you name it. But none of it brought in clients. And honestly, I didn’t have thick enough skin at the time to handle the lack of external validation (likes, shares, follows—you know, the usual dopamine hits). My overthinking brain kept wondering if I was wasting my time. (I wasn’t—but I  was  do...

This week’s  Hero’s Journey  video and the insights from President James E. Faust’s talk on perseverance got me reflecting deeply about what it really means to commit to a meaningful path. The hero’s journey is not a story about quick wins or easy success. Rather, it motives us to embrace challenges and stay faithful to our vision, even when the way forward looks uncertain or exhausting. President Faust’s stories—like Marie Curie’s refusal to quit after hundreds of failed experiments or Elder Lorenzo Snow’s near-death experience and miraculous survival—remind me that perseverance is less about talent or luck and more about grit and faith. Perseverance invites us to get up every time we fall and trust that consistent effort will eventually reap reward. This really hits home when I think about chapters 3 and 4 of  Mastery  by George Leonard. He calls out how our culture is obsessed with quick wins, shortcuts, and instant results—and honestly, that leaves zero room for ...

It has been eye-opening to realize that a key component to my career success lies in finding fulfillment in the things that truly matter—my relationships, the impact I have on others, and the integrity with which I live my life. This week’s readings and videos have prompted me to reexamine what truly defines success and how I measure my own life. Three big questions have been on my mind: How do I define success? What are my most important purposes? How can I spend each minute of my day focusing on the “little things” that truly matter? As I’ve reflected on these ideas, I’ve found myself thinking about how they apply to both my personal values and my work with clients. As a coach, I emphasize the importance of holistic health—physical, mental, and spiritual—because these are the areas that truly contribute to long-term fulfillment. However, the material this week reminded me that I also need to regularly check in with myself about  what  I am measuring my life by. One powerful ...

1.    If you pursue your calling with discipline, intentionality, and the help of fellow travelers, what are the chances that your worst case scenario will really   happen?   My worst case scenarios come, mostly because I haven’t experienced the opposite positive outcome. Enough personal experience has taught me that I have to work extra hard to retain information, stay focused and organized, and have positive executive function because of my epilepsy and ADHD. My brain scares me. But I also have enough evidence that I’m a hard worker, and will always continue to reach high despite the difficulties.    One of my biggest fears is that all the blood, sweat, and tears I’ve poured into NutriThrive Fitness over the past two years won’t result in financial success. While I’m committed to working hard, I tend to work slowly. I get frustrated and stuck when I can’t figure out things like building a sales funnel or navigating new business systems.   I’m terrifi...

I am a perfectionist—which, I’ve heard (more than once), is the enemy of progress. And that has absolutely proven true in my entrepreneurial journey. This week, Frank Levinson’s  Top 10 Must-Haves for a Startup  really showed me some areas where I have let perfectionism get in the way. Some of the items on his list? I felt a little “hey, I’m not doing so bad!” about. I’ve got some decent common sense, my support system is rock-solid, and while I wouldn’t say I have the “pride of a fat baby” quite yet, I’m working on it. Two of his points, however, really hit close to home:  First:  “Comfortable, cheap furniture.”  His point was that how things  look  doesn’t matter—what matters is what you  do .  I realized how often I’ve let the idea of needing everything to be perfect hold me back. I’ve put off creating content because my phone is old and the camera isn’t great. I used to hate showing my face on camera before Invisalign because I was too di...

I don’t know whether Randy Pausch had an innate ability to effortlessly dream things into existence, or if he simply had enough micro-experiences that gave him permission to keep looking higher and dreaming bigger—despite the challenges that stood in his way. But one of his quotes from  The Last Lecture  is incredibly telling. He said: " But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason, right? The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." If Pausch hadn’t believed so strongly in the power of dreams, he might have said something like,  “Brick walls are there to stop you dead in your tracks. To force you to change direction. To show you that your dream isn’t achievable.” I’m so glad he didn’t say that. He was clearly courageous in the face of fear. I’m sure he encountered more than a few brick walls along the way. But what stands out is that he didn’t let them stop him. Instead, I believ...