One Year In. Here Is Everything Entrepreneurship Has Taught Me. So Far…
In August 2025, I left a full-time, six-figure nonprofit job and walked into the unknown of entrepreneurship.
I never thought I would be here. For most of my career, I assumed I would climb the ladder inside an organization, eventually landing as an Executive Director. Before that, a long time ago, I thought I might end up in politics, maybe even as a high-ranking elected official. Entrepreneurship was never the plan.
But like so many people in 2025, I learned that sometimes the pivot is the plan. This past year taught me more about myself than I expected. It taught me what I value at 40. It taught me what actually matters to me. And it taught me that I have real knowledge worth sharing, and that building a business was the thing that let me finally lean all the way into that.
Here is what I have learned in my first year.
I Love Working Across Different Organizations
One of the most unexpected joys of this year has been getting to work with a spectrum of different teams, sharing what I know about fundraising, marketing, and communications with each one. I get to walk in, share knowledge, and watch teams grow in real time. That is a different kind of impact than sitting inside one organization for years. It might not always be as deep with any single client, but it is broad, and that breadth has been genuinely fun.
I Have Learned So Much About Different Sectors
I started this work in the gender-based violence space. Since then, I have expanded into education, food insecurity, economic stability, and health equity, all while continuing my work in gender-based violence. Learning how to write and win funding across such different sectors has been one of the most rewarding parts of this year.
What I did not expect is how much these sectors talk to each other. A strategy I pick up in health equity might be exactly the angle a gender-based violence client has never considered. That cross-pollination is a win for my clients, and honestly, it is a win for me too. I am a lifelong learner, and this business has turned learning into the actual job.
Professional Development is Not Optional
I cannot teach what I have not learned myself. That means workshops, classes, and continuing to sharpen my own craft, whether that is business operations or the specifics of fund development strategy. If I stop learning, I stop being useful to my clients. So I keep feeding myself the way I ask my clients to feed their own organizations.
I Finally Have Control Over My Life
When you work for a company, you work for a company. Eight hours, ten hours, Monday through Friday, on someone else's schedule. This year, I got to control mine. I can go on vacation with my family without asking anyone's permission. I do not even send a note saying I will be out. I just do not schedule meetings that week and I put up an out of office.
That freedom is exactly what I needed at 40. I do not take it for granted.
But Let Me Be Honest: This is Not for the Faint of Heart
Running a business is hard. I am proud to say mine is profitable, and I have been able to keep my clients genuinely happy, which is not nothing in a service-based business. But I have also had to learn that a service-based business cannot rely on just me forever. Figuring out how to grow beyond my own two hands has been one of the harder, more important lessons of this year.
I loved this year. All of it, even the parts that stretched me. I am proud of what Command Joy Co. has become in twelve months, and I am genuinely excited to see where the next year takes it.
Here is to year two!
