Let me share the first time I believed being an entrepreneur was possible. I can recall the very moment that a small spark was lit inside me.
You know that moment when you sit straight up, your head spins, and you feel a moment of anxious excitement that is almost nauseating? The moment when an idea washes over you like a chill and you receive a proposal from inspiration?
Something inside of you wanting to bloom asking permission to take root in your soul.
I feel like to really understand our journey we will need to start from the very beginning.
When I met my husband Matt, I was 20 years old. I never really thought about what an entrepreneur was much less what it took to be one. My parents were very conventional, my Mom stayed home and raised her children while my Dad worked and provided an income for the family. I was taught to go to school, get a job and raise babies.
Having a business that you created was a foreign concept. The first time I met Matt he was talking about a real estate course he wanted to buy, I was intrigued. I always felt like there was something more than the little town I grew up in.
There was a purpose for my life bigger than I understood. When I listened to him talk, the passion he had for what he was wanting to do was mesmerizing. To me it felt like our paths collided and I had to hear more about his story.
He was a big dreamer, thinker and doer.
We spent the next few months getting to know each other and we decided to move to Sarasota and start a life together. The journey of being an entrepreneur’s wife began. We moved into an apartment that was way over our budget because they offered the first month free.
I found a job as a personal assistant making slightly over minimum wage and there was no other income coming in. I was not use to this lifestyle, I was being challenged mentally and emotionally.
He was creating and I was working and supporting the family. The roles were flipped from how I was raised, it was very hard to wrap my head around.
We would drive around neighborhoods and write down addresses of houses that looked vacant. He would go home and try to locate the owners and work to put the house under contract to later flip to an investor.
I remember the first house like it was yesterday. After hours, days, weeks of driving neighborhoods and with a notebook full of dead ends we came across a house that was clearly abandoned and he went to work to find out everything he could. The owners of the home lived in Ohio and they wouldn’t commit to anything over the phone.
We believed that if Matt could just get in front of them they would be open to making a deal.
It was a Thursday afternoon, Matt and I were talking about what we should do next and I said, “lets do it, let’s go to Ohio.”
It could have been my desperation, or my crazy talking or maybe divine intervention, who knows. He was surprised at my boldness but didn’t put up much of a fight.
We packed a bag and planned our trip. I got paid on Friday and we figured we could take that money to travel with.
We started the 17 hour drive in freezing cold weather to meet the home owners. We had no idea how they would receive us and if they would sign the contract, but we were moving in faith, believing that this was going to happen.
I was terrified. We were spending the only money we had.
When we arrived in Ohio the homeowners said it wasn’t a good time to meet, but Matt wasn’t taking “no” for an answer. After a long meeting he came back with the contract.
Holy crap!
On the ride home he was making calls to his investors and before we got back in town he already had the house sold.
We invested my small paycheck into a dream, a creative vision and it worked.
This was the first time that I felt the spark. Entrepreneurship was possible!
