I'm so fired up right now

I should be exhausted right now, but honestly I am SO fired up right now I don’t even know how I’m going to sleep tonight.

My team and I just spent the entire day mapping out our plan for the next year—and it is sooooooo good.

Like, really good. The kind of good where you can actually see it working, where all the pieces click together, where you think "YES, this is exactly what we should be doing."

And I'm not gonna lie—I needed this.

Because truth be told, this year has been hard from a business standpoint. Really hard. The economy's been tough, sales have been down, and there have been more than a few moments where I've wondered if we were going to make it through.

But today reminded me why I still believe in what we're building.

But I might be getting ahead of myself, so let me back up.

Yesterday, my whole team flew in from all over the country (and Canada) for our annual retreat—the one week a year we get together in person to step back, dig deep, and figure out what's next.

Usually the first day is super low-key. Everyone arrives, we have dinner, catch up, ease into things.

But not this year.

Because yesterday was also the kickoff for our Finish Strong Project—which meant that while my team was traveling, a thousand women were signing up online. All at once. With all the inevitable tech glitches and frantic messages that come with launching anything.

It could have been a disaster.

But my team? They just handled it.

When one person was stuck on a plane without Wi-Fi, someone else jumped in. When the inbox exploded, nobody said "that's not my job." They just figured it out—with grace and even joy.

And that's the thing about my team: they embody our core values (Get it done. Figure it out. Humble confidence. Always learn and grow. Own it.) not because I hired people who already had all the skills, but because I hired people who share the values.

Skills can be taught. Values can't.

By the time we sat down for dinner last night, the chaos had calmed. And then something really special happened.

We started sharing what's actually going on in our lives. Not the highlight reel—the real stuff. Kids who are struggling. Relationships that are hard. The messy, honest truth.

And sitting there, listening to these incredible women be so vulnerable with each other, I felt this wave of gratitude.

Because I realized: I'm not doing this alone.

Then today, we got to work.

And I mean WORK. Hard conversations. Honest assessments of what's working and what's not. Big ideas getting challenged and refined and made actually doable.

My team is so smart. They know me well enough to know when to push back on my big-picture thinking and bring me back to reality. They know how to look at things from angles I don't see. And most importantly—they care SO MUCH about our customers and the results they get.

All day, we kept getting messages from people inside The Finish Strong Project who are already getting clarity, making plans, feeling energized. And we'd stop and read them out loud and celebrate every single win.

Because yes, we want to sell more things—that’s part of owning a business—but the reason we want to sell more is because that's how we help more people. That's how we transform more lives.

And the plan we mapped out today? It's going to do exactly that. It’s FIRE.

Is it going to be hard work to implement? Absolutely.

But it's also going to be so, so worth it.

Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Along those same lines, Helen Keller noted that "alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

In other words? The right people make all the difference.

Hard years happen. Chaos is inevitable. But when you surround yourself with people who share your values, who genuinely care about the work you're doing together, who push you to be better and think bigger—that's when the magic happens.

That's when a hard year turns into a hopeful one.

And so my challenge for you this week is this: look around at the people in your life—your team, your family, your friends—and ask yourself if they're making you better. Are they pushing you forward or holding you back? Are they helping you see possibilities or just pointing out problems?

And if the answer isn't what you want it to be, maybe it's time to make some changes.

Because life is too short to do it alone. And it's definitely too short to do it with the wrong people.

Live with purpose, friend, and have an amazing week!

xoxo, Ruth

P.S. If you're in The Finish Strong Project with us, you're going to get to see it all unfold in real time. If you're not... well, there's still time to join us. Just saying. 😉

This week’s podcast episodes…

What’s cooking in my kitchen…

The latest from my Instagram…

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