The shifts that scaled revenue while I worked 2 hours a day
It wasn’t that many years ago that I believed the answer to growth was more.
More hours. More output. More doing.
Back then, my kids were in after-school almost every day, and I could stretch work into the afternoons.
But life kept presenting me with situations that challenged that belief.
Last spring, for example, I made the decision to take my youngest out of daycare so I could enjoy a couple of months with her before she started real school.
I went from full days being able to work to working during her nap times.
And guess what? Nothing happened. The business continued to hum along and generate the same revenue, despite me drastically pulling back on my work hours.
This summer, I had both kids home with me for all 10 weeks. I worked 2 hours max, a few days a week, and again, the business continued to grow.
Here’s what these seasons taught me:
It’s not about more time. It’s about better use of time.
It’s about having the courage to let rubber balls drop so the glass ones don’t.
It’s about building scalable systems that don’t rely on endless hours of me.
It’s about having the courage to let some things drop, so the things that matter most don’t.
And over the years, it’s also forced me to build a skill I was able to avoid when I gave myself more hours to work: the skill of ruthless prioritization.
To stop asking what could I do and start asking what must I do?
What’s essential right now?…
Because when time feels endless, you can fill it without really answering that question. But when time is scarce, you don’t get to avoid it. You’re confronted with it every single day.
In those one-hour sprints this summer, I often struggled to galvanize the energy to start working after being out and about with the kids all day and that’s when it hit me.
During the school year, that’s what happens with my kids.
Once I pick them up from after-school at around 4pm as I’m shifting out of work-mode, it’s them that are getting the leftovers.
The business got my peak energy; my kids got the dregs.
Family is one of my core drivers—yet without intention, they weren’t getting the best of me.
So I made a decision that’s wildly impractical on paper and exactly right for this season: we’re not doing after-school at all this school year.
They finish at 2pm, and then they’ll be home with me.
That choice forces me to further scale the systems that allow me to operate only in my zone of excellence.
And it requires me to cut, delegate, and simplify even more, which keeps me honest about where my energy truly belongs.
I have built out so many next level systems and new tech processes that are transforming the back end of our business right now – areas I never would have prioritized if I just had endless amounts of time.
The goal for me now is about seeing just how many people we can serve, and income we can generate, with the same overhead, same small but mighty team, and a really spacious calendar.
It’s just another layer in showing myself that, yes, I’m deeply passionate about where the business is going and am so energized by that vision… but I’m also protective about how I go about it.
And I’m just as excited about showing myself just how much of an impact I can make, as I reclaim more time and bandwidth back for myself (and teach my students how to do the same).
Because here’s the truth: operating our businesses from a life-first lens will always be the first thing to slip if it isn’t the leading factor in your decisions.
If you’re feeling that edge too, here are three questions worth asking this week:
1️⃣ Where is my best energy going — and does that align with my deepest values?
2️⃣ What results am I still achieving by sheer effort, instead of by system?
3️⃣ What can I cut or streamline so the things that matter most never crack?
You can’t hustle your way to a spacious and profitable business.
You have to proactively build yourself there through a solid infrastructure and real systems.
This is the work.
Growth that lasts.
Ambition without burnout.
A business that serves your life, not the other way around.
If you want to see how I structure this in practice, here’s the brand new free masterclass I created where I map out the framework.
