My Career Journey: How I Built a Life & Business Around Being Myself

I’d like to share my career journey because it’s been a very long one and I’m sure others can relate. So, let’s start from the very beginning.

And I mean the beginning because I was so young, I don’t even remember this myself. My mom has told me many times that when she would ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would respond, “I want to be Shelby.”

I don’t recall that, but my earliest memory of wanting a specific job was in elementary school, when I desperately wanted to be a dolphin trainer. Dolphins were my favorite animal and after a family vacation to SeaWorld, I was sold.

Fast forward to junior year of high school. It was time to start looking at colleges and choose a major. Cue the anxiety attacks and full-on existential crisis. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. At this point there was literally zero job that was like yes that is what I want to do!

At the time college and a standard career seemed like the only option for me. I wasn’t aware of any other ways of creating income, and my parents told me this was what I had to do, so that’s what I did.

I considered marine biology, but I wasn’t interested in the science part (I just wanted to swim and hang out with dolphins), and also I’m a terrible swimmer.

My other option I considered was exercise science. I had played sports and stayed active my whole life, so I thought that might work. So that is what I decided to go with. I earned my associate’s degree, but I didn’t become a personal trainer until years later. When I finally tried it, I lasted 4 months before quitting. I hated it.

As an introverted girl with social anxiety at the time, I didn’t enjoy the constant small talk with clients, or having to approach strangers to sell my services. So, I kept exercising as a hobby.

I continued working for my dad on and off over the years. I have worked about 16 different jobs since the age of 14 and out of all of them, that was the only one I actually enjoyed. I did bookkeeping for his business, so I thought, “Let me go back to school for accounting.”

I went back in 2019, but when 2020 hit, everything changed. Class schedules got messed up, I stopped going, and never finished the degree. I still ended up doing bookkeeping for different companies, but I felt bored and unfulfilled.

Every 9–5 job I had felt like I was a bird in a cage. Not being allowed to leave the building when I wanted to didn’t sit right with me. I thought maybe freelance bookkeeping would be different with more freedom, and variety. But I still felt the same: bored, trapped, and unfulfilled.

Last year I got offered another corporate 9–5 job. I lasted one month before quitting again. I literally could not do it. I felt trapped and surrounded by people who couldn’t see beyond the mundane.

I had a bigger vision. And it did not involve a 30 minute lunch break under fluorescent lights every day.

That was it. I quit and I knew I couldn’t go back. I realized I had to start something of my own. I needed to create my own way to make income, one that gave me the time and freedom I was craving.

I tried so many different avenues, but nothing really stuck. I didn't know how to start a business, create a website, or gain traction. I didn’t know how I was going to make it or what exactly I would do but one thing I did know was that I had a story and insights to share.

So I started a blog, without knowing where it would lead. I just knew I wanted to share my journey and help people along the way.

I slowly started building challenges and guides based on tools and practices that helped me grow. It wasn’t about being perfect or having it all figured out, it was about being honest, intentional, and simply showing up.

At one point, I considered being a life coach but I didn’t feel fully qualified. It felt like forcing myself into a mold that didn’t exactly fit.

Honestly, I didn’t see results in my business for months. But I wasn’t going to give up. I kept receiving ideas and trying to present them into offers I could give to people.

I then asked myself: If I could make money in the most enjoyable way possible what would it be? And I answered passively obviously. I had read multiple books on passive income in the past few years and that was the dream for me. I thought what if I share what I have learned about passive income?

And that’s when it clicked.. I finally started to see results.

It hit me: This is possible. I can do what I love every day and make money doing it.

I’m still fine-tuning things and figuring out the exact message I want to share. But if there’s one thing I want people to know from my journey, it’s this:

You don’t have to follow society’s rules. Do what you want to do, not what everyone else tells you to do. Everyone’s journey looks different, and you can carve your own unique path. You can create a life that’s enjoyable and meaningful to you.

You don’t have to work a job you hate, there are many different routes than a standard career path. You were never meant to live a life that drains you. You were meant to create your own path, your own freedom, your own version of success.

It starts with unlearning everything you’ve been told about what you “should” do and instead learning to trust yourself, your vision, and your inner guidance.

It was a huge process for me to become the person I am today. I had to do a ton of inner work and mindset shifts to get here.

But that is my goal in helping other people. So I’ve created guides to help people break free from old programming, reconnect with who they really are, and start building a life and income that feels good to them.

I’m here to tell you anything is possible when you learn to believe in yourself and back it up with aligned action.

Now I feel as though my life is starting to come full circle. All I’ve ever wanted was to be me, to be Shelby. And that’s exactly what I’m doing every single day.

I get to choose what I want to do. I get to make money being myself.

And to me, that is true freedom.