Hi ,

Owning your own business is a two-way, multi-laned highway. You do what you do for two reason:

1. It provides some type of help to your customers.
2. It provides you deep satisfaction.

That's the two-way part. The multi-laned highway part is a lot more complicated. It involves our perceptions of ourselves, our perceptions of our prospective and existing customers, our closely-held values, our desire to be seen in a certain way by our family and friends. In other words, owning a business is really a path that never ends. Just like your path for your personal life, your business also has a path that keeps changing, even if you never thought it would.

Back in time I walked away from the corporate world to go to massage therapy school. Which meant that I left a highly paid executive position that gave me financial security, travel, and prestige. I could fly up to DC, walk into meetings, make a pitch, and come home with a million-dollar contract in my pocket - and I did that, many times.

When I decided to leave it wasn't because I hated the work. I loved the work. And I loved my team of 57 people, too. But my own life was changing - I wanted simpler, deeper, richer. I wanted to serve individuals rather than big businesses. I wanted to set aside the world of research and ideas and go deep into the world of energy and touch.

It was a gut-wrenching decision that took me a year and a half to make. But once I started having these urges to change there was no going back - like water dripping on stone the changes were slow and inevitable. Bill thought I was hurting our financial future (I was). Our income dropped by more than half, because at the time I made more than Bill did. I was scared I would hate going back to school. My parents told me I was wasting my entire education.

It was a "take a blind leap" kind of deal, and it all worked out fine but it was not the easiest decision I've had to make, to put it mildly.

The point is, when you want to change you can't ignore it forever. And the reason I am telling you all of this is that I see so many business owners who are questioning what they do, and how they do it, and feeling underneath that they want to make big changes.

If that's you, I invite you to consider becoming a member of the CEO Circle Community. It's a small, tightly knit community of women business owners who get it that change comes, and now they have a place to talk it through, get some perspective, and decide what they want to do. A place to talk about what bugs them the most and ask for help. A place to boast, too, when sometime wonderful happens. Basically, a place to grow and change and make yourself and your business feel better. I've got 3 spaces right now for CEO Circle. If you have questions after checking out the CEO Circle Page please feel free to email me at sue@confidentmarketer.com.

To your sweet success,

Sue Painter