You’re running a business and a household, and everybody brings you their problems. Your team, your customers, your family. A day off feels like a vague memory. You’re not lazy and you’re not failing. You’re just exhausted.

I know, because I’ve been in your shoes. In the early 1990s, there was a long stretch when dinner was frequently fast food at the office with our grade-school daughter. I was out of shape, short on sleep, and wearing too many hats. On the outside, the business looked like a big success.

On the inside I was drowning.

I knew something had to change, so I set about learning as much as I could about running our business a different way. I read books, attended workshops, consulted with mentors, and even returned to college. I was making changes, and things were starting to improve, but we were still in the thick of all the business activities. The major turning point came over lunch in the spring of 1994. A conversation with Robert Kiyosaki sent me to two books, The E-Myth and The Great Game of Business, and they dramatically changed how we ran everything at Hawaiian Vacations. We built better systems. We opened our books to our team. We got intentional about our culture. Five years later, in 1999, we hired a COO and a CFO and stepped back from the day-to-day.

That’s when I got my life back.

After we stepped back, the business ran without us being involved in every detail. We began splitting our time between Alaska and Hawaii, and enjoying cruising Alaskan waters on our yacht. We also loved traveling the world, especially on cruises.

That’s what freedom looks like to me: a business that doesn’t need you in every detail, so you can live the life you actually want.

Now I help business owners do the same, faster than I did. No hustle. Just a clear roadmap for what to eliminate, delegate, simplify, and systematize, so your business can run without you and support the life you want.

That’s what Livin’ the Dream means to me now.