Move on from What's Holding You Back

Two weeks ago, I said goodbye to my downtown studio.

It’s hard to put into words what this studio represented to me.

The studio was more than a building. It was…

Respectability, a white brick beacon announcing that I was a real-deal business with my corner lot on the main downtown square.

Late nights those early business years when Brian and I sorted rentals and steamed linens after the storefront closed for the night.

Security and financial freedom knowing that I could one day sell and have a solid retirement.

The floor that I so often knelt on, forced there by tears, prayers, overwhelm, fear for my husband’s life, and hope for the future.

A reminder of the hours upon hours upon hours my team and I spent designing beautiful weddings, writing The Business Behind the Blooms, and recording countless webinars and online trainings.

This studio was everything.

Some days, even after moving my entire Zimmerman world online, I might have even allowed myself to believe that my building was my business.

For the first five years of my business, I paid the mortgage on that building instead of paying myself. I had bent over backwards to keep this building. This is my retirement, I thought. I’ll never sell.

That’s why, almost a year ago, when I heard a still small voice in me ask, “what if you let it go?” I couldn’t have expected my response.

I felt my entire body…

…relax.

Yupp.

Sometimes, the exact thing that was once life-giving, the absolute right move, can turn into an anchor weighing you down, keeping you from the life you’re mean to step into.

Once I noticed how my body responded to the idea that I could still do what I loved without carrying the weight of a 6,000 square foot building, I knew what I had to do.

We spent the next year emptying the building, moving my office into the kids’ old playroom in our home, and emotionally preparing to let go of the studio.

Two weeks ago, we signed on a dotted line and said our last goodbyes.

And it. felt. great.

I know that there is more joy, growth, and freedom ahead of me than could fill that whole building, floor to ceiling.

I want to end this with a gentle nudge.

If you’re waiting for permission to let go of something you once thought you couldn’t live without…

This is it.

There will come a time when anything that once worked for you won’t work any longer.

That’s called growth.

The faster you can acknowledge and pivot, the sooner you’ll step into the life you’re meant to be living.

So do it. Drop the weight of expectations. Listen to your gut, and start something new.

Trust me, it feels great.