For years, I thought the answer to every challenge was to give more. More hours, more effort, more hustle, more sacrifice. I believed if I just pushed harder, I could carry it all. What I learned is that chasing “more” without defining what was actually “enough” is a recipe for exhaustion and self-doubt.

The truth is, burnout is not a badge of honor. It does not mean you are the hardest working or the most ambitious. It means something in the way you are building is broken. My turning point came when I stopped chasing vague ideas of success and started defining what was truly enough for me: enough revenue, enough progress, enough hours. That shift gave me back my energy, my clarity, and my life.

Now my work is about helping other ambitious women do the same. I created Build Forward with Lisa D to cut through the noise, quiet the doubts, and share tools that actually work in real life. My mission is simple: to remind women that growth does not have to mean burnout, and that it is possible to build something remarkable without losing yourself in the process.

I believe building forward is not about balance, it is about integration. The work you love and the life you love can feed each other if you design them that way. And I believe the choices we make about where we spend our energy, from the way we run our businesses to the partners we share our lives with, can either fuel our ambition or drain it.

At the end of the day, I am here because I have lived it. I have built, broken, rebuilt, and kept going. And I want you to know that whatever stall, setback, or burnout you have faced, you can keep going, too.

Because building forward does not mean burning out.