What Growth Looks Like Now: A Birthday Reflection from Galena

Hi hi from Galena 💛

I came here for my birthday thinking I’d get a little work done, eat some good food, go to the spa and probably spend an unreasonable amount of time thinking about Myliu. So far, very on brand.

But I’ve also had enough quiet to realize that I’m in a really interesting season with this business. For a long time, growth meant getting more clients. More projects. More revenue. More people finding us. More proof that this little business I started in 2021 might actually work.

But I’ve realized growth looks very different now.

Growth looks different now

It looks like asking whether I should hire someone because the thought of having more help gives me butterflies and also makes me slightly want to throw up. It looks like reorganizing ClickUp for the 400th time because I’m trying to build systems that support the business we actually have, not some imaginary 20-person agency I think I’m supposed to be building.

It looks like realizing there are parts of running a business that are decidedly less cute than branding and photoshoots. Like late S-Corp elections. Back payroll. Accounting decisions. Figuring out who needs access to what. Asking very adult questions about taxes while internally thinking, “How did anyone decide I was qualified to be in charge here?”

And maybe more than anything, it looks like learning that I cannot build the next version of Myliu by continuing to personally hold every single piece of it.

That one has been verrrrry hard for me.

I care a lot. About the work, about our clients, about things being done well, about people feeling taken care of. And sometimes “I care a lot” quickly turns into “I should probably just do it myself.”

I’m slowly learning.

Building a business that fits my life

I’m also trying to build a business that actually fits the life I want. One where I can work four days a week and mean it. Where taking a birthday off doesn’t require three days of extra work to earn it. Where I can take time off next summer or at Christmas without everything piling up behind me.

Where Myliu can grow without my life getting smaller to make room for it.

Because there is a version of ambition where you are constantly looking at what isn’t built yet. The next hire. The next offer. The next revenue goal. The next system that needs fixed.

And there will always be a next thing.

Remembering how badly I wanted this

But I don’t want to become so focused on building what’s next that I forget how badly I once wanted what I already have.

This business supports my life. I get to work with people I genuinely like. I have a team. People refer their friends to us. There are clients who have trusted me through multiple versions of this business. There are opportunities showing up now that I would have lost my mind over a few years ago.

And yes, there are still plenty of things I am figuring out. I have doubts. I regularly wonder if I’m making the right decisions. Sometimes growth feels exciting and sometimes it just feels like a longer list of things I suddenly need to know how to do.

But I think that’s what makes this season feel so special.

I’m not standing at the beginning anymore wondering if this could become something. It already became something even better than I ever imagined it could be.

Now I get to decide what I want that something to become next.

Whatever comes next

So I’m heading into this next year very grateful, a little nervous, extremely excited and trying really hard to enjoy what I’ve built while building whatever comes next.

If you’re building something of your own too, maybe this is your reminder that growth doesn’t always have to mean more. Sometimes it looks like better systems, more support, clearer boundaries and creating a business that gives you more room to actually live your life.

From Galena, with love 💌 Lexi