Some seasons don’t come with fireworks or fanfare. They come with silence. Blank stares. Pings left unanswered. A heaviness you can feel before it’s ever spoken out loud.

That’s the season my business partner found himself in recently — and whether he knew it or not, I knew it first. You don’t need a press release to recognize when someone strong is slipping. Especially when they’re the one you’re building something with.

And so… I did what leaders do.

I stayed steady.

Not perfect. Not saintly. But calm, clear, emotionally anchored — even as I carried twice the weight for a while. Not because I had to. Because I chose to. Because when one of us is curled in the fetal position (emotionally or otherwise), the other gets to say, “I’ve got this.”

It’s not always easy being the soft place and the strategy at the same time. Especially when the people who raised you have stopped communicating with you.

Not because of anything awful I did, but because I chose to finally leave what was hurting me. And they don’t know how to process that without picking a side. (Spoiler alert: they always pick the other side.)

But here’s the part I want you to hear:

I didn’t fold.

• I didn’t shrink to make them comfortable.
• I didn’t lash out to make my pain heard.
• I just… kept going. Leading. Loving. Building.

And then something happened.

The person I’d quietly been holding space for — the one who hadn’t said much — sent me a message that landed firmly. Right in my chest. Right where I’d been holding everything together.

“You’re amazing.”

That’s all. Two words. But when you know what it cost you to stay strong, those two words feel like a thousand pounds of gratitude landing exactly where they belong — in your chest, in your gut, in your soul.

I’m not telling this story for applause.

I’m telling it for the women like me. The ones becoming unrecognizable to the people they came from — and unmissable to the people they’re called to walk beside.

Keep becoming.

You’re not crazy. You’re courageous.

Lacking that courage? Here’s one way I got mine — join the Master Key Experience in the next class! You can’t buy it. But you can get on the list now for a scholarship for the class that opens this Fall. Just click here to step into the journey of a lifetime.