Hey Reader,

I'm writing this from a hotel room near the Cleveland Clinic. It's late. I'm tired. Tomorrow I'll be up at 6 to take my dad to his appointment.

If you're caring for an aging parent, this one is for you.

​Pew put a number on it: 54% of adults in their 40s are helping care for an older parent while still raising or supporting a child. If that's you, you already know this season is not for the faint of heart.

If you've been reading for a while, you know my dad has cancer, and I help with his caregiving. I get to help because I built a business I can run two to three days a week, doing work I love, with enough margin left over to be there for my mom and dad, and for my son Zack, who's a junior in college.

This season has good weeks and bad weeks for everyone. And it seems like the week my dad has a good stretch is the week Zack has a hard one, and the other way around. Steve and I call it whack-a-mole. There's no better word for it.

As tired as I am tonight, the coaching, the writing, the helping women build businesses, it's still the thing that lights me up.

I have a roster full of women building real businesses. Some have young kids. Some are single. Some are in the exact season I'm in. The common thread is that every one of them has a purpose, and a 10% edge in something they know and love, and they want to teach it to other people. They want to make their clients' lives better. So they're building a business around it. And that business buys them two things: financial freedom, and the one that's harder to come by, time freedom.

Time freedom is the reason I can be here this week.

Here's what it actually buys:

- Two days at the clinic without a client roster too full to leave it

- Walking the halls with my dad at 7 a.m., with nowhere else I need to be

- Being fully present for Zack's hard weeks, not just the easy phone calls

- The group chat with two friends who keep me sane, answered in real time

- Rest, on the weeks that flatten me - like this one

When you receive this, my dad and I will be walking the halls of the Taussig Cancer Institute, where the doctors have gotten him into a clinical trial and connected us with specialists for every part of what he needs. I could not be more grateful for them.

I know how this story ends. Eventually the cancer wins. But for now, I get to help my dad have the best quality of life he can, and I get to build a business I love. Both things are true at once.

Financial freedom gets the headlines. Time freedom is the one that lets you show up for the people who need you, while they still need you.

A while back, I made a short video about why I didn't build my business to hustle harder, and what I built it for instead.

👉 I didn't start a business to hustle harder (Watch time: under 1 minute)

If you're building something, build it with margin. You'll be glad it's there when a season like mine shows up.

And if you're in this season too, Gen X, aging parents, a kid still finding their footing, hit reply and tell me what's going on with you. I'll cheer you on. I'll pray for you. We're in this together.

Build a business that fits your life — not one that runs it.

Amy

P.S. If you're trying to build a business that leaves room for the people who need you, that's the whole reason I coach. Book a call with me. Bring the season you're in. We'll build the business around it, not the other way around.