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Welcome to Joyful Ambition. Every Thursday, this letter is our session: one idea you can implement, from a three-time founder with 18+ years of entrepreneurship and $280M+ in client results, for women entrepreneurs who run expert and service-based businesses.

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Hi Visionary,

When I was 23, I was asked a very simple question.

I was working in commercial real estate, and a colleague and I had gotten onto the subject of cleaning.

She asked me if I cleaned my home.

I told her yes, of course. My home was spotless, and I was slightly offended that she had to ask.

What she wanted to know was whether I did the cleaning myself or had someone who did it for me. She had a cleaning product she loved and wanted to pass along.

My offense rapidly evaporated into astonishment. 😊

It had never occurred to me at 23 years old that I could have a housekeeper. Paying for help at home had simply never registered as something available to me at that age, given my humble background. Ten years earlier, at 13, I had left home and was sleeping on my sister's sofa.

It was more than a decade, and a business of my own, before I paid for help at home. Today I have had help for close to 15 years: housekeepers, a lawn service, grocery delivery. I still do my own laundry and cook. I am also blessed to have a husband who shares the household chores and errands we keep, and he cooks too.

She was asking who does the work in my home. I heard a question about how clean I keep it, and maybe you would have too.

Every hour that keeps a home running comes out of the same week as the hours that grow your business, and who gives those hours is a choice you get to make.

Help at home was always capacity. It took me years to believe I was allowed to buy it.