I’ve been enthusiastic about this weblog put up for over a month now.
Regardless of beginning to consider it such a very long time in the past (by running a blog requirements), and regardless of typically being not puzzled, I discovered myself struggling to jot down about this final 12 months in enterprise.
[Note: We celebrate Flow’s birthday on May 9. If you want, read my Year 8, Year 7, Year 6, Year 5, Year 4, Year 3, and Year 2 reflections.]
Ultimately I spotted, Duh, Meg, you’ve had a bodily, psychically, and emotionally exhausting 2025 thus far. You simply don’t have the power to jot down your “normal” weblog put up.
Previous to final December, my enterprise was steady, which was really kinda…uncomfortable for me. My enterprise coach endorsed me to apply “tolerating the shit out of your success.” I used to be busy experimenting with this novel concept when December hit.
In December, my stage 0 breast most cancers—for which I’d had two lumpectomies and radiation in 2023 and 2024—got here again. I had a (single) mastectomy in early March, adopted by convalescence for the remainder of the month. And since then, I’ve been catching up.
I don’t wish to belabor the entire expertise, so let me share one thing necessary I took away from it:
It’s Actually Good to Let Folks Look after You
I usually hear from those that it’s laborious for them to simply accept assist. Once I was making ready for my mastectomy, my OOO, and my restoration, I made a aware resolution to embrace the shit out of letting individuals assist me.
And it. was so. beautiful. (10/10, would suggest)
My colleague, Jane Yoo, stood prepared to assist my shoppers with any pressing monetary planning wants throughout my convalescence. (I nonetheless haven’t found out a thanks reward that displays the massive affect of your help, Jane. Sorry!)
My Shopper Service Affiliate Janice labored diligently to maintain communication going with shoppers and pushing work ahead in my absence.
Purchasers expressed concern in conferences and through electronic mail.
Native colleagues and pals introduced my household meals.
Distant colleagues and pals despatched us meal kits and Door Sprint playing cards. And even the occasional t-shirt with “Thank fuck that’s over” emblazoned, conveniently, proper over the breast that I had eliminated.
(My husband was all, “Jesus, Meg, how many individuals do you know?” To which I responded, It’s good to be a lady. We help one another very well.)
Most necessary of all, my husband. He made the household “run” all through all of it. He made me really feel cherished and supported and not like a freakshow within the aftermath of the mastectomy. (Many components of the entire expertise had been gross, and plenty of extra uncomfortable or painful. However the single worst expertise was the primary time I regarded beneath the bandages only a few days after surgical procedure. It took my breath away, however not in “High Gun” kind of method.)
What Else Occurred Throughout My Ninth Yr in Enterprise?
I feel Most cancers and Mastectomy fairly handily trumps most different issues. However different necessary issues did occur!
We employed our personal planner.
My husband and I employed our personal monetary planner. I had been our monetary planner up till then.
Regardless of having sufficient of the technical data to do the job myself, as I had been doing for years, I wished to work with a monetary planner for 4 causes. I wished:
- a pondering accomplice. Life is difficult, and getting more and more so.
- a backup for me/for my household
- somebody to place me first (as I put my shoppers first)
- somebody to Determine my blind spots
Professionally, the entire technique of interviewing monetary planners and dealing with ours thus far has been instructive to me, unsurprisingly.
Personally, we’ve solely been working with him (sure, a person! <gasp>) since January, and I already really feel the reduction of understanding that somebody is in my (our) nook, keeping track of issues.
I established a proper emergency continuity plan for Move.
One of many largest challenges of beginning an impartial advisory agency is ensuring your shoppers are taken care of if one thing occurs to you (you die or change into disabled).
I had been doing what I feel most small, impartial agency homeowners did: I organized (informally) with just a few colleagues to assist serve my shoppers within the occasion I turned unable to. The association had significant inadequacies:
- These colleagues ran corporations that in all probability wouldn’t permit them to imagine relationships with all my shoppers, in a single day. Which meant that a lot of my shoppers must be redirected elsewhere.
- My household wouldn’t get any financial worth out of this agency that I’ve spent 9 years constructing.
The agency I now have a authorized settlement with is large enough to accommodate all my shoppers, have a plan for the way they’d do this, and ample experience and compassion to serve my shoppers.
This was a really huge deal for me, and I’m very glad it’s lastly carried out.
My Affiliate Planner left.
In mid-January, my affiliate planner left.
This meant I needed to rejigger my plan to help shoppers earlier than and through my medical OOO. ‘Twas nerve-racking, however I bought it carried out, and I’m fairly pleased with myself for the way I navigated the entire thing.
With out an affiliate planner, I’m again into alllll the weeds of economic planning. And I gotta say, it’s enjoyable. I like the method of forming the “picture on the boxtop” from all the person puzzle items of an individual’s monetary life. Diving again into the complete course of has given me extra alternatives to see what may be improved.
Main as much as my surgical procedure, throughout my convalescence, and for these two or three months again within the workplace however “catching up,” I made the aware resolution to not assume (a lot) about what to do about not having an affiliate planner. I merely have to “get via” (i.e., work so much, however it’s work I understand how to do).
As soon as I’m via this crush, I’ll elevate my head once more, like a curious meerkat, have a look at the expanse of my enterprise and my life, and begin pondering Large Ideas once more.
I proceed to fall deeper in love with the Annual Renewal Assembly.
I realized from my former marriage therapist that “there’s freedom in construction.”
After a consumer and I get previous the primary 12 months’s hurly burly, the cornerstone of my client-service construction is the Annual Renewal Assembly. I love this assembly, and I love the construction I’ve created for it. My preparation is structured. My follow-up is structured. Which implies I can discover actual “freedom” within the assembly itself; it may be largely guided by no matter feels most necessary for the consumer.
I really like this assembly a lot, I married it. Wait, no, I imply I wrote a whole blog post about it.
I discovered my skilled residence.
In 2023, 5 girls enterprise homeowners and monetary planners who stay within the Pacific Northwest bought collectively in an Airbnb on the gorgeous, dreary coast of Washington (or Oregon, I neglect…they’re very shut to 1 one other!) for an extended weekend enterprise retreat in January.
In 2024, the group met once more. Alas, I used to be beginning radiation so couldn’t attend. However in 2025, I did! (We had a bra-burning occasion on my behalf—bras burn alarmingly simply—as I knew by that point that I’d should have a mastectomy.)
That weekend was profound. It felt like we’d discovered an actual “residence” within the occupation. Colleagues (and pals!) who may assist one another enhance. Have fun one another’s accomplishments unstintingly. Laughingly demand, “Alright, who farted!” (It was me, okay? You’re the one who fed me lentils!) And likewise merely maintain one another (generally actually, generally metaphorically) as we talked about laborious issues. This business may be stuffed with judgment and hardness. It’s good to have a protected, mushy touchdown spot.
As I left our 2025 retreat, I requested, “If what I’ve already constructed on this enterprise is sufficient to allow me to have weekends like this in my life, why am I so anxious about constructing something extra or totally different?”
Wanting Ahead
Since December, I’ve had my head down and blinders on, intent on getting myself, my household, my shoppers, and my enterprise via the complete surgical procedure “factor.” As such, I don’t have any clear concepts about what’s subsequent… aside from dedicating time to determining what’s subsequent.
Despite the fact that I began penning this weblog put up with out a lot path, now that I’ve written it, I notice {that a} huge theme is connection and relationship.
It jogs my memory of a favourite David Brooks opinion piece, by which he talks concerning the two mountains we climb in life. We climb the primary once we’re youthful, and on that mountain we attempt to obtain all of the issues that “society” tells us we must always: cash, profession, awards, a house, and so on. For individuals on the second mountain, “It’s not about self anymore; it’s about relation, it’s concerning the giving your self away. Their pleasure is in seeing others shine.”
So, I sincerely hope that, no matter comes subsequent, it’ll be much less targeted on measurement and extra targeted on connection.
Are you on the lookout for a monetary planner and don’t thoughts one who, at the least annually, does some critical navel-gazing?
The put up Reflections on 9 Years of Flow appeared first on Flow Financial Planning, LLC.