Sometimes what gets you started is not a plan. It is one person who hands you a small first piece of work.

For me, that person was Rachel Flood of Alignment Ops. I had been very resistant to starting my own business, and then Rachel gave me my first small contract. It felt like a sign from the universe that I needed to stop second-guessing myself and take the leap.

Rachel is an operations consultant and enterprise architect with over 20 years of experience in for-profit and non-profit settings, and she describes herself as an adept systems thinker and digital strategist.

Your business has systems for your tasks, your clients, and your money. It also has one that rarely makes the list: your own nervous system, and this system often impacts how well all the others work.

I’ve been exploring that idea in conversation with Tami Schweber of The Knowing Well.