From Corporate Executive to Thriving Work-At-Home Mom.  This is a story 22 years in the making.

In 2000, I became a mom.  And from that moment on I knew I couldn’t stay forever in my corporate ladder climbing role.  Motherhood is crazy like that.

For over a decade I tried direct sales, blogging and more.

——– then there was a sudden shift ————-

In 2014 I became a B-School alum and quit my corporate job to work exclusively from home.

——– this is that story and you chance to take the same path ——–

In 2015, as a true success story, I became a B-School affiliate partner….because there is no better framework for getting your “MBA in Online Business” and kick starting (or reviving) your flexible, passionate business.

By 2016 I began to shift focus to my Virtual Professional consulting business.

In 2018 I launched “How She Quits”

In 2019….. I continued as a divorced single mom 100% supporting myself and my 4 kids with my business.

Now here we go in 2020….. not just a survivor but a thriver as a single mom business owner.  (HINT:  I re-applied B-School teachings in 2019…. because they are foundational to every business and the strategy is applicable and timeless for every stage of your growth.)

{scroll down to the 2020 update….. or begin at the beginning and see why B-School, and this free video training series, can do the same for you.}

 

There’s no such thing as an overnight success.   I kept wondering what was that secret that all of these successful business owners were NOT telling us.  My heart wanted to follow my passions and be able to work-at-home but doing valuable, profitable work.  That’s where my family needed me most, and my audience could hear from me best.

Truth is there is no secret.  There was no one thing.  No one big break.  There were breaks but after them came hard work.  And there were great successes and before the victory dance ended they were on to the next project.

Because the secret is that once you do good for people, you immediately want to do more good.   Yes you can create business models with residual income but that doesn’t mean your work ends and that you don’t keep serving your audience.

It took me 22 years to figure that out and finally take the scary leap to running my own business.  I hope you can read this and shorten that cycle by a lot.

As a mother of 4 kids, married to a firefighter with a crazy schedule, and having spent 20 years in corporate America in a very high travel, international executive kind of role, our life was way too busy. And my corporate work, while challenging and profitable, was not fulfilling to my soul. It was boring. I loved the people and the company was so honorable and well run.  But the products, well, industrial and just not so inspiring.  And I needed something more flexible. Where I could be more creative. Be home more for my family. And that meant something more to the world than moving around more spreadsheets and data.

I really craved making a difference in the world in a bigger way.

I was feeding my creative juices by doing side consulting for non-profits helping them setup their websites, social media and marketing strategies. I started FirefighterWife.com in May 2012 as an example platform of my own so I could test out the techniques I was teaching them.

I really thought I’d exit corporate America as a freelance techie business consultant (which is where I am now). But there was an important mission-oriented stop-over.

FirefighterWife.com exploded and the need for this mission became so obvious and so urgent that I knew I had to focus there. The divorce rate in the fire service is quoted as high as 75% and my stories from our early years of marriage were really resonating with people. They wanted to know how we did it. And were so grateful to connect to women (and other firefighters) who understood their life.  Basically, I’d open my email, cry, pray for that couple and immediately think….I can’t keep helping all these people one by one via email.  We really need resources here.

But talk about overwhelm. Now I’m a mom of 4, wife of a firefighter, with a nearly full time corporate gig (I reduced to 80%) *and* a suddenly giant social media platform to manage. And I had no clue how we would fund it, but I knew these people needed a support system no matter what.

When I made this shift to focus on the non-profit, I was already in a very high dollar business coaching program for my consulting work.  You know what happened?    I got kicked out.  They said I’d only make $20k per year as a non-profit and was no longer a match for their program. Ouch. Talk about losing faith and feeling frustrated.

But I really needed structure and a system and jumping into B-School in early 2014 was my “last chance effort” to find that.

What kept me going building Firefighter Wife?

Every single day I was getting emails and messages from wives, husbands and couples that said “I needed this 3 years ago when my wife left me.”

Or “You saved my marriage, how can I help you do more?” or “I thought my marriage was good but we are so much stronger now. I didn’t even know I needed this.” or “I finally have girlfriends who understand my life. ” (and I personally felt that! I’d been praying for a best friend and suddenly I have fire wife friends all over the country!)

And here is my favorite, “Ever since my wife joined the Fire Wife Sisterhood, our sex life has improved.” And it was true!

When girls connect, they talk about intimate things, like mom guilt and depression and anxiety and weight loss struggles and sex. We encouraged each other in our marriages and our sex lives got better (we really think this is why all our husbands let us meet at our first national weekend getaway because they had to meet these friends we were all talking about who seemed to be responsible for the improved sex life.

I truly believed we were onto something incredibly special. We knew how to make a safe, encouraging online community to connect like minded people and improve their lives. There HAD to be a way to make this sustainable. I am a Christian believer and I just didn’t believe God would pull together something so good and let it just not bear more fruit.  But I really needed to find the steps to make this all come together. My whole life balance and this business.

In 2015 we converted to a non-profit called 24-7 COMMITMENT so that we could serve not only the wives (FirefighterWife.com) but also the firefighters.  Because working on marriage takes two people.  And we ended the year just shy of $200K in funding, over 100,000 people on our social media channels and over 5,000 registered members in our online peer support communities.  And over 300 people who have attended our Commitment Weekends.   I hate bragging in any way but want to show you these numbers so see that it’s the real deal.

Do you have a passion to serve and want to turn it into a thriving business?  It is possible.

 

Where Is She Now?  {February 2018}

24-7 COMMITMENT is a thriving non-profit serving thousands of fire families daily.  We are heading into year 7 and sold out our annual Commitment Weekend (marriage event coming up in July!)   That’s huge!  Getting guys, especially firefighters, to go to a marriage get away is no small feat 🙂

My advice:  Stay consistent. Stay the course.  7 years now to get to this point.

We have an amazing team that manages most of the day to day of 24-7 COMMITMENT.  So what am I doing?

It’s been 3 full years since I’ve been full time out of the corporate office.  CELEBRATE!!!

It started with 1 client, then 2, then 5…. and then I had to hire a team of contractors to serve the growing client list.

Where did that first client come from?   They saw my success with Firefighter Wife and literally pulled me into freelancing asking me to do some work on their membership site.

As my Virtual Professional work grew, and I began to look for additional team members, I realized there was a big gap in the market place.   A lot of the VA talent I came across just wasn’t the caliber I needed to get things done for clients.

That’s when How She Quits was born.

I knew a ton of other mom’s like me stuck in corporate jobs with crazy mad skills they could do from home.

They just needed to know the path to get from that cubicle to their home office with a slate of great clients paying them for those skills.

It all started with B-School.  My first big scary course investment that led me straight to meeting Marie and being interviewed by her!

Where Is She Now?  {February 2019}

One more year has passed and now here I am….. divorced.  Yep.  THE firefighter wife, no longer a wife.  But…..still a believer in marriage and helping others and Firefighter Wife and 24-7 COMMITMENT are THRIVING.

{this is what happens when you follow solid business models and build something that is sustainable and life changing}

There is a new leadership team in place.  I continue to serve as visionary and advisor on the board.  The friends and colleagues I gained through the past 7 years of running Firefighter Wife have been my truest, biggest supporters as I enter this new phase.

As a single mom of 4 supporting my family only with my own Virtual Professional Work-From-Home business.

 

Where Is She Now?  {February 2020}

A small story to illustrate best.  My teenage daughter was visiting a girl friend.  Her mom, knowing what I’ve been through asked “How’s your mom doing?” and my daughter answered without hesitation “She’s thriving.”  (and this mom promptly texted me #rockstar props for having such an insightful daughter and being the kind of woman to show my kids how to get thru the hard stuff)

Mic drop.  I didn’t have to hear anything else all year to know that I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing. Building a business to support my family AND building the kind of family bonds and relationships I want for years to come (as I watch them one by one head off into young adulthood)

In November 2019, I expanded my team size and my client list and set my trajectory on scaling for growth.   I am the only income in my household now….. growth is a goal of mine… even if it’s not yours, the methods for building a business are similar.

This Is How You Get Here

Business is really easy.

I (provide this service *or* sell this product) to this kind of customer and it helps them ____________.
Here’s my price. Would you like one?

From there it’s all about finding that person who needs what you have.

Easy peasy. That’s how I start every single conversation with a client or someone who wants to start a business.

But….then it does get complicated.

Because there are a gazillion (official count) ways to:

* package your product or service
* name it
* price it
* sell it
* market it
* deliver it
* and most importantly…..LOVE it and change lives with it!

Most businesses fail. It’s a big giant scary percent but still we try. Because something inside us says….. you *NEED* to do this. You were made for this.

I failed for over a decade before I found my first thing that felt like success.

Now have my own small consulting agency…… as a single mom fully supporting myself and my 4 kids on this income….. also employing other moms to work professionally and flexibly from home.

Dream. Job.

I’m humbled and blessed to be able to stand here (in my kitchen literally) and write this to you.

I know many people desire this same path for their lives and want to know HOW.

First of all, it takes time but don’t let that discourage you. All good things do. You can take actions or you can sit and wait for something to happen that never will.

There was actually one key action that propelled me over that pinnacle in 2014. B-School. I call it an “MBA for Online Business”….. because it isn’t like the other online marketing courses out there slapped up in a weekend.

Marie Forleo has been running B-School for over a decade. It’s so good, I retake the course each year.

I will never be building a program of my own like this because…..her’s is the best.

And as one of her partners, I can offer this program alongside my own flavor of mentorship and business strategy advising. (I can’t talk about those for another week due to the structure of her program which I highly respect. But you will be hearing a lot about B-School partners over the next couple of weeks and I encourage you to watch and learn.)

The free video training is open…..but only until the end of February.

You need to watch this free training if you are any of the following:
* Looking for a way to be your own boss that isn’t direct sales / MLM
* Want to start a blog or sell an online course / membership of any kind
* Don’t know exactly what you want to do but you want to do it from home on your own schedule
* Already run your own business but you are overwhelmed, unfocused and about ready to throw in the towel (Don’t. Reset with this.)
* Are a brick and mortar company who needs more customers, better marketing and to not feel so much “unknown” about this online business world
* Have followed me for any amount of time and know you “want to do what Lori does”

You know me. Efficiency is my love language. There are only 2 steps for you right now.

1. Sign up and watch the free training
2. Ask me anything. Literally anything. Work. Life. Business. It’s during these 2 weeks in February that I open up my heart and my mind to people who want to pursue a business.

This will be the only way to get into my training / coaching programs for the next couple of months. I mentor a tribe of like-minded B-Schoolers through an amazing 8 week journey to get clarity, focus and results on their business.

Can’t wait to see who that 2019 tribe will be!

I’ll be keeping it real, authentic, packed full of information and non-sales pitchy over here.

 

Watch Marie Forleo’s  Free Business Training Series

{access it here – only available thru February 28!}