There's a version of this story that looks clean from the outside. 21 years in real estate. A brand I built from scratch. A brokerage with my name — well, my ethos — on it. Kids who show up to school on time. A life that, on paper, looks like it's working.
Nobody talks about what's behind that paper.
The 5am emails before anyone else in the house is awake. The school pickups you almost missed because a deal went sideways at 2pm. The moment you realize you've been "on" for 14 hours and you still have a permission slip to sign, dinner to figure out, and a client follow-up sitting in your drafts.
I'm not telling you this for sympathy. I'm telling you because nobody told me — and I think someone should.
— The Decision —
Launching GOAT+DIME wasn't a spontaneous decision. It was 21 years of watching how things were done — and knowing I could do it differently. Better. With more intention, more honesty, and more care for the people on the other side of every transaction.
But knowing something and doing it are two very different things. Especially when you're also a full-time mom. Especially when the timing is never going to be perfect. Especially when the voice in your head is keeping a running list of everything that could go wrong.
I launched anyway. Not because I had it all figured out. Because waiting until I did would have meant never.
GOAT+DIME launched 1.5 years ago. Not because the conditions were perfect — because the decision was made and the work followed.
— What Nobody Tells You —
Here's the truth about building something while raising kids — the parts the highlight reel leaves out.
01. You will feel guilty. A lot.
Not because you're doing something wrong. Because you care deeply about two things at once — and some days they both need you at exactly the same time. That guilt means you're paying attention. It doesn't mean you're failing.
02. The work doesn't stop when the workday does.
There's no clocking out when you own the thing. The ideas come at midnight. The worry comes at 3am. The breakthrough sometimes comes in the carpool line. You learn to work with your life, not against it.
03. Some people won't understand it.
Why you're "always working." Why you can't just take a day off. Why you'd risk the stability of a steady paycheck. Let them not understand. They're not building what you're building.
04. The hard parts are the whole point.
Easy doesn't build character. Easy doesn't teach your kids what resilience looks like. Every time I pushed through something hard — a deal that fell apart, a month that was slower than expected, a moment I seriously questioned all of it — I was teaching myself something. And my kids were watching.
— Why I'm Telling You This —
GOAT+DIME isn't just a brokerage. It's a proof of concept. That you can do hard things. That you can care deeply about your family and your work without one canceling the other out. That "greatest of all time" isn't about being perfect — it's about showing up, at a level 10, even on the days when a level 6 is all you have.
If you're in the middle of building something right now — a business, a career, a life that looks different from what everyone expected — I see you. The invisible hours are real. The doubt is real. And so is the thing you're creating.
Keep going.