Life coaching for entrepreneurs was not something I set out to build.

It became necessary after years of burnout, motherhood, and realizing that a life that looks good on paper can still feel deeply misaligned.

From the outside, everything looked successful. A strong career. A good income. A life I was supposed to feel grateful for. Inside, I felt disconnected, exhausted, and quietly asking myself why every day felt the same. I did not feel like myself anymore.

This post is the real story behind why I started Light Her Up, how burnout forced me to listen before my body completely shut down, and why my work today blends nervous system coaching, NLP life coaching, and Customer Success strategy to help founders build businesses and lives that actually light them up.

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Episode 1 | The Leap of Faith: Why I Started Light Her Up (feat. Maya)

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When Success Stops Matching Who You Are Becoming

I followed the path I was taught to follow:

College
Career
Promotions
Marriage
The House
Kids

I climbed the ladder and checked all the boxes and I told myself this was what success looked like and that I should be grateful.

Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful, and I also felt like the way that I defined success was slightly different than what society was telling me.

And because I wasn’t being honest with myself, and I wasn’t necessarily following what was aligned for me, I started to get symptoms of burnout.

Burnout does not always show up as chaos. Sometimes it shows up as numbness, irritability, resentment. It’s that quiet knowing that something is off, even when nothing looks wrong.

I kept pushing through because that is what capable women do, right? Or at least that’s what I told myself all while my nervous system was living in survival mode, even though my resume looked impressive.

And this is where so many women I work with land. Especially high-achieving entrepreneurs who feel burnt out but cannot explain why.

Burnout is not a motivation problem. It is a nervous system issue caused by prolonged stress without safety or regulation.

Motherhood Made the Misalignment Impossible to Ignore

Becoming a mother stripped away my ability to tolerate misalignment.

Going back to work when my daughter was three months old, pumping in my car because there was no dedicated space for me to pump in the office, sitting in traffic longer than I got to hold my baby each day.

I did not have language for it then, but my body knew. My nervous system was overwhelmed, overstimulated, and constantly bracing and no amount of productivity tips or journaling prompts for stress could fix that.

Motherhood has a way of amplifying what is already misaligned. It forces you to see the cost of staying in situations that drain you.

Burnout Is Not About Pushing Harder

I stayed longer than I should have because fear is convincing when it sounds responsible.

What if I fail?

What if I am not good enough?

What if I leave and regret it?

Eventually, my body made the decision for me. I went on medical leave because I could not bring myself to quit, and that pause gave me the space I had been avoiding.

This is where everything changed.

Burnout does not resolve through more discipline, it resolves through regulation, support, and subconscious reprogramming. This is the foundation of NLP and life coaching. When you change the patterns running beneath your behavior, your choices begin to shift naturally.

The Question That Changed Everything

The moment that changed my direction did not come from a business plan.

It came from my daughter asking me if I loved my job.

When she asked, I hesitated to answer, and in that pause, I saw everything clearly. The example I was setting for her, the identity I was modeling to my kids, and the version of myself I had slowly drifted away from.

Identity shifts create sustainable momentum. When your self-concept changes, your behavior follows. This is why life coach NLP work is so powerful. It is not about becoming someone new, it is about remembering who you were before you learned to settle.

I told her the truth and then I said something that changed how I approach everything now. I told her I was going to change it.

Why I Chose NLP Life Coaching and Nervous System Work

Once I decided I was done living on autopilot, I committed fully.

I trained through the Quantum Coaching Academy, becoming certified across multiple coaching modalities so I could support clients at the identity, nervous system, and subconscious level.

I wanted tools that actually answered the real questions women ask, like how long does it take to reprogram your subconscious mind and why patterns repeat even when you know better.

NLP life coaching, nervous system coaching, and subconscious reprogramming became the foundation of my work because surface-level mindset tips are not enough when burnout is rooted in your body and identity.

The Thread That Connects Everything I Do

At the heart of everything I do is helping founders build lives and businesses that actually light them all the way up.

I work across two worlds, and they are more connected than they might look.

I am a Fractional Customer Success leader and Business Strategist. On one side, I partner with growing organizations and startups to strengthen retention, client experience, and long-term value through thoughtful Customer Success strategy. On the other, I support female solopreneurs and founders through life coaching for entrepreneurs who want to build businesses that support a life they are genuinely in love with.

What connects both is this belief.

Sustainable growth only happens when people actually reach value.

For solopreneurs, Customer Success looks like creating offers, experiences, and systems that support clients well beyond the sale. It is about trust, transformation, and designing a business that feels aligned instead of exhausting.

For larger organizations, it is about building scalable Customer Success frameworks that improve retention, expansion, and loyalty while still honoring the human experience behind the metrics.

The strategy shifts depending on the business, but the foundation remains the same. When customers succeed, businesses thrive.

Building a Life-First Coaching and Business Ecosystem

Light Her Up is not just a podcast. It is part of the ecosystem I am building to support founders at different stages of their journey.

Inside the Light Her Up, I share honest conversations and solo reflections around sustainable businesses, entrepreneurship, purpose, and freedom-based living.

I am also a co-founder of The CEO Besties, where we lead an intimate in-person mastermind in Manhattan Beach, California called The Rocketship Mastermind, along with a virtual community called The Launchpad Society.

Both spaces blend mindset, strategy, and community support in a way that honors real life, not hustle culture.

Right now, I am opening space for a small number of new collaborations across both one-on-one work and organizational partnerships.

For individual founders, this looks like deeply personalized support to refine your business and client experience so growth does not require constant availability or burnout. We focus on building a customer journey that supports both the client and the founder.

For startups and growing teams, it looks like stepping in as a strategic partner to assess Customer Success functions, reduce churn, and create more predictable, sustainable revenue by closing the post-sale gaps where value breaks down.

What I Want You to Take From This

• Burnout is a nervous system issue, not a motivation problem
• Identity shifts create sustainable momentum
• Customer Success is about value, not just retention
• Strategy without regulation leads to exhaustion
• Life-first business design is essential for entrepreneurs and mothers

You Are Not Behind. You Are Becoming.

If this story resonates, it probably means that you’re ready to move from burn out to a lit up life.

Feeling burned out does not mean you failed, it means something inside you is asking for change. You do not need urgency or pressure to move forward, you just need permission to choose differently when you are ready.

Remember this, you are allowed to want more.

You are allowed to build it in a way that feels aligned, spacious, and true to you.

And you do not have to do it alone.