Build your business around your life, not the other way around (my entrepreneurship journey)
2 days ago, I completed my self-imposed 21-day content challenge where I posted every day without using any AI. The goal was to get comfortable with posting again, stop overthinking, and remove the "performance" aspect of it. It helped me produce 3 articles - good start!
Today, I'm joining Corey Wilks' 30-day content challenge (he wrote about it here), but this time it's about thought leadership - writing pieces that will turn into assets and can be referred to even after a long time. Each post will be well thought out, with you in mind: what your questions are, how I can help, and what advice or stories I can share that might help you too.
I thought I'd start this off right by introducing my story, specifically my path to work-life integration.
The burnout loop
I started my career at age 18 when I joined our family business as a marketing assistant, earning $200/month. I was still in college at the time, taking up marketing in DLSU, and I noticed that our own business needed a marketing team to apply the strategies I was learning about. Digital marketing was just starting back then (oops I probably just shared my age).
I worked in our business for a good 10 years. In between, I launched 2 other businesses: LineaOrganica (an organic beauty brand, now a distributor nationwide), and Purple Ant Media (which started as a full-service marketing agency).
Along the way, I was blessed to have gathered multiple certifications in entrepreneurship, marketing and AI. I got immersed in big projects and understood what it's really like to run a corporation - working with clients, suppliers and partners, managing 100+ people across 3 very different businesses, and wearing just about every hat you can think of: sales, marketing, finance, HR, legal, business development, product manager, and many more.
But one thing I constantly experienced was the burnout cycle.
Work hard → Burn out → Take a break → Work hard → Burn out → Take a break
It got to a point where my last burnout was so big that I needed to take a longer break and really ask myself: Am I still on the right path?
My aha-moment
Now you know about my entrepreneurship side. Let me tell you the other side of me:
I love to travel and immerse myself in different experiences. I love to learn, because that's how I grow. I have multiple hobbies, and I want to live my life to the fullest. Memento mori-ing it, for sure.
I started thinking about a quote I wrote on a post-it: Do the work you love, love the work you do. I thought: Love is a big word. How can I love my work?
Then it hit me.
A lot of people talk about work-life balance or work-life integration, but has anyone talked about entrepreneurship-life balance? To be honest, it's challenging because founders often make their businesses their "baby" and build their entire lives around them.
So how do you actually find this balance? How can you build your business around your life, not the other way around?
I believe that life is too short not to have fun, freedom and fulfilment. So now I want to base everything I do around those 3 core principles.
This year, I chose to pivot to completely digital-based businesses. I now focus on helping entrepreneurs with their business and marketing strategy through my consulting work and support them in hiring the right talent through my agency, Purple Ant Media. I work when I want, where I want, and I no longer experience burnout cycles. Most of all, I’m on the journey to loving my work.
What's next
Over the next 30 days, I want to share the strategies I've gathered along the way. I'm still on this path, but here are some topics I'd like to explore with you:
Understanding yourself - what kind of leader or creator are you?
Choosing the right type of business for you
Working on yourself - regulating the nervous system
Understanding business cycles - masculine and feminine seasons
Using frameworks for everything
Focusing on systems rather than goals
Delegation - the secret sauce I've discovered
And many more
Now I have a question for you: What do you want to build your business around?
For me, I want to build it around my life, relationships, traveling, and hobbies.
How about you?
