Modern human life for many of us has often descended into a repetitive pattern of school, work, and retirement. Many of us feel chained to a 9 to 5 job that we will probably have until our 60s, and it is completely reasonable to break free from this cycle, but it is terrifying to act on especially if this has been our reality for a long time.

This was true for blogger, coach and entrepreneur Leah Gervais. Before her blog Urban 20 Something popped off, she described it as a rough start with a lot of mistakes and embarrassment, but in knowing herself, Gervais understood the steps she needed to take to be successful.

Originally from Colorado, Leah started her early 20s with a dream to be a corporate lawyer in New York City. And for a young aspiring lady boss, what sweeter fruit to pluck than The Big Apple itself. But later on, that dream seemed less and less appealing to her and she found herself at a crossroads.

“After two years working as a paralegal, and this is so close to being my reality, something in me was like, ‘Hell no, this is not it.’”

Leah had gone through the entire process of enrolling at New York University, from taking her tests, to securing recommendations, but after fighting with what her guts were telling her, she put the dream on hold and received other offers from different schools. She’d gone on-campus tours and measured the pros and cons of each university, but after all that, she had decided to decline them all.

High on life, Leah started her blog Urban 20 Something to document her story of growth and success, in hopes that it would inspire and help others as well, and even though she lacked direction, she was sure this was closer to what she wanted to do.

“The thing I’m sure about is my passion for entrepreneurship and my passion for working with entrepreneurs, but I was so misdirected and unclear in those early days of blogging.”

“The first 2 years looked like a lot of trial and error, a lot of embarrassment, a lot of putting myself out there and hearing nothing in return.”

Reading about other entrepreneurs, Leah felt hopeless for a time in her journey since she had the drive but she lacked the ideas.

“I prayed to God to please send me an idea,” she said, comparing herself to Spanx founder Sara Blakely and LearnVest.com CEO Alexa von Tobel, “It didn’t occur to me that I could be my own asset and I could use what I had gone through to help others.”

This was the direction that she needed and from here she is helping many others listen to their internal compass.

Leah affirms that “In the online business world, we need to collectively put more emphasis on the power of knowing yourself and recognizing that what works for other people may or may not work for you.”

She tells us that instead of listening to other people’s morning routines or productivity hacks, she instead spends more time listening to what her body and mind are saying, and listening to their needs. She notes that this is sustainable in the long term and will work for her more effectively.

The same goes for business, and for breaking away from the repetitive patterns of modern living and the 9 to 5 life. For those who want to leave their work in pursuit of being their own boss, she advises them to ask themselves.

“Is going ‘All In’ gonna’ psych me up? Is that gonna light a fire under me? Or is that just going to stress me out?”

More from Leah:

• Blog –  www.urban20something.com
• Website – https://leahgervais.com/
• Instagram – leahgervais_

How many of us can say that the same things that matter to us now, mattered to us as a kid? Tina Wells can say the same. Her adoration with books as a little girl led her to become an award-winning, bestselling author of several middle-grade series including The Zee Files and Honest June.

In fact, when you visit her Instagram (@tinawells), it would probably still reflect a lot of the same things she enjoys such as consuming culture, creating, travelling and just being with the people she loves.

In her early years, growing up in suburban New Jersey, she shared with us how her parents are very much firm believers in education. She’s the eldest of 6 children in a very active family who spends a lot of time together as she recalls having a fun vibrant household. And even until now, they’d see each other often, travel together and also love travelling individually.

Preparation, Inspiration, Recreation and Transformation

As a business strategist, advisor, and founder of RLVNT Media, Tina has four phases she applies in every book and every project she creates. Everything is going through a cycle called Preparation, Inspiration, Recreation and Transformation.

Preparation is when figuring out if the business, idea or service makes sense. Inspiration is when you ask yourself how do I make it happen? Who’s done it before? It’s all about getting inspired to bring this idea to life. Recreation, it’s where you go out to do something fun and you take a step back so that you can look at your product, and check how to make it even better. And lastly, Transformation is bringing it all to life.

Pairing Creativity and Commerce

Tina is also the Founder of Elevation Tribe, the platform for women of colour who want to launch, grow, and lead businesses. To her, doing all of these different things is her way of existing as a full expression of herself.

One of the things Tina is proud of from Gen Z is the ability to pair creativity and commerce in a really unique way that the previous generations failed to figure out. She is optimistic of many shifts that are going to happen as people realize that they’re able to make money doing the things that they love to do in ways that maybe weren’t available to that previous generation.

Loyalty of Readership

We all have the ability, whatever our idea is, to dig deep and know as much as we can in the industry that interests you. So Tina’s advice is to watch what’s happening, watch how people are moving, watch for pain points and how you get your intended buyers.

And this answers the question of why Tina chose the preteen demographics for her books. She loves the universal themes of that age, the awkwardness, and the fact that they’re still at a phase where they’re impressionable. She wants to grab that opportunity to get some good stuff in there and focus on getting the values there. So for anyone who’s thinking about a creative business, it’s how you focus on your audience and really continue to deliver for that audience.

Tina always believed in making a vision really clear and doing everything she could to get that vision across.

“I am always striving for work-life harmony. I don’t really believe work-life balance exists, but I believe in harmony in creating the life that we want.”

More of Tina:

• Website: tinawells.com
• IG: @tinawells
• LinkedIn – Tina Wells
• Facebook:  Tina Wells
• Twitter: @tinacwells