I ran my consulting practice for twelve years. For most of them, it looked like this: multiple clients, nothing uniform about them, projects starting at different times and different depths, some ten hours a week, some ten hours a month, billing hourly, spending more energy fitting myself into my clients' working styles than building a working style of my own. There was always a low level of anxiety underneath everything, not a crisis, just a steady hum, the kind you normalize after a while and stop noticing until something forces you to notice. The business was doing well. I had no trouble finding clients, the money was good, and I had every reason to keep running it exactly the way I was running it.
Then my hair fell out, all of it.
That was the moment I stopped running the business I had and started figuring out the business I wanted.
What I found, once I started looking at the levers: my sweet spot was two clients, maybe three. Two meant I could give each of them concentrated time, dedicated blocks for each client's work, without spending my whole day toggling between five different sets of problems and ending every afternoon feeling like I'd moved nothing forward. The back-to-back meetings and constant context-switching had left no room for the problem-solving that was most of the work. I started laying out the terms at the start of every engagement, putting my working days and unavailable dates in writing and making it known that when I was gone, I was gone. Something unexpected happened: clients respected my terms and my hair came back, better than ever.
Last year was probably my highest-grossing year ever. I don't work Fridays. My son is in part-time daycare. That's what the other side looks like.
The transformation didn't happen overnight and it wasn't painless. But it didn't require becoming a different person. It required small, deliberate adjustments to how I worked, how I communicated, and what I decided I was willing to tolerate, one client relationship at a time. That's the work I now help other people do.
I work with consultants, freelancers, and people managing portfolio careers who are good at what they do but exhausted by how they're doing it: the ones answering Slack messages at 10pm, undercharging because they don't trust that clients to see their value, running a calendar they built around their clients instead of around how they work best. We work one-on-one, starting with whatever's most pressing and building toward a business you designed with intention.
There are two ways in.
The Reset is one month, four sessions. For when you have something specific to work through and want intensive support to move on it.
The Architecture is three months, seven sessions including a 60-minute kickoff. For when you want the longer arc and the runway to make new patterns stick.
If you want to talk first, hit reply or book a free 30-minute call here.
And if you're here more as a friend and supporter than a potential client: hi, I see you, I appreciate you more than you know. Please pass this along to someone who needs it. And keep reading. There's a lot more coming on boundaries, emotional intelligence, and what happens when you apply both on purpose. This is just the beginning.
Hi! I’m Carrie. I believe doing good work and living the life you want are not in conflict. If you’re ready to build that way, reply to this email or see how we can work together.
Not subscribed yet? You can change that.
