You Can't Build a Business You Love Inside a Life You're Enduring
I watched a man answer the biggest question there is in about two seconds.
Simon Squibb stopped him on the street and asked, "What's your dream?" No warm-up. And the man didn't reach for something safe or polished. He said his dream was to help as many people as possible love themselves, especially their bodies.
It came from his years as a wedding photographer. Again and again he'd raise the camera, and before he could take the picture, the person in front of him would tell him how fat and ugly they were. So he built a business around changing that.
What stayed with me wasn't only the dream. It was what came after. Asked what he charges, he named his price plainly, without apology. Handed a surprise gift of money and asked whether he could use it to help two people, he said he'd help ten.
Clarity. A clean price. Generosity. I don't think those were three separate things. I think they came from the same place: a man who knew what he wanted and wasn't at war with himself about it.
When I turned the question on myself, the answer wasn't what I expected.
I've spent years helping entrepreneurs with their businesses. But a few minutes into almost any conversation, we're not really talking about the business any more. We're talking about the marriage that's under strain. The money worry they haven't said out loud. The body that's running on empty. That low hum of something's off that they can't quite name.
The business is where it shows up. It isn't where it lives.
So my dream isn't just to help you love your business. It's to help you love your life. All of it: your work, your family, your relationships, your body, your spirit, your energy. Here's what I keep seeing. Whatever is carrying tension in one part of your life comes through in all the others. It shows in your videos. In your offers. In how you price. In the clients you go looking for, and in the ones who find you.
You might recognise it as:
the price you rounded down before anyone asked you to,
the video you re-recorded five times because something felt flat, and you couldn't say what,
the client you said yes to while your body was saying no.
Or are you the one whose business looks fine from the outside, and you'd rather nobody pointed a camera at the rest?
You can't build a business you love inside a life you're enduring.
Think back to those wedding guests. They'd already decided what the photograph would show before the shutter clicked.
I think a lot of us do the same with our lives. There are things we're not happy with that we've simply stopped looking at. And then we wonder why the business feels so heavy.
So here's the question, the same one the man on the street was asked.
If someone stopped you today and asked, "What's your dream?", could you answer in a heartbeat? And would your answer only be about your business?
Give it a minute. Close your eyes, take a few slow breaths, and let the question land. Maybe it's a business that doesn't run your life. Maybe it's feeling at home in your body again. Maybe it's your kids seeing you happy in your work.
Whatever came up, I'd love to hear it. Leave it in the comments. Let it be said out loud.
💜💜💜
Sometimes the dream is there, but there's too much noise to hear it. That's why I'm building Kenjala, a guided conversation that helps you hear yourself think, all the way through. It won't tell you what your answer should be. It helps you find your own.
Kenjala is coming soon. Join the first-access list to be among the first through the door, and your first Kenjala conversation is my welcome gift when it opens.
💜 Kathryn Gorham Purple Door Entrepreneur Where we explore business through energy, alginment and relationship -- not just strategy.
Comments