Every job I've had has been the same job.
Meet Meaghan
Somebody is overwhelmed, embarrassed or in over their head, and I sort it out without making them feel bad about needing the help. And then, for some reason, they don't leave.
I’ve taught high school for years: thirty people in a room on a schedule with no give in it, plus a whole second group of parents who are emotional and watching closely. I was one of four teachers picked to build our restorative justice program, which is the official way of saying I was the one who could keep things from blowing up. I held kids' confidential medical records and was legally responsible for their accommodation plans. I've cleared a classroom and had security there in under two minutes.
The rest of the time I was building businesses.
I've been a trainer for eighteen years, and one of my clients has been with me for seventeen of them. I’ve taught aerial dance for thirteen. I've run a spray tan business for eight, and those clients still text me directly.
For about a decade I had other people’s dogs living in my house while they were away, and one man trusted me with his dog for almost that whole stretch, right up until she passed away. I set my own prices, filled my own schedule, wrote the cancellation policy, chased my own invoices and handled every unhappy person myself, because there wasn't anybody else to hand it to.
It took me a long time to notice what all of that has in common.
Every one of those jobs put me in a room with somebody at their most exposed. Half undressed in a spray tan tent. Six feet up on an aerial hoop and scared. Handing me their house key and their dog. Fourteen years old and having the worst day of their life.
People are comfortable falling apart in front of me. It doesn't rattle me and I don't repeat it.
That's most of this job. The scheduling and the systems are real and I'm good at them, but anybody can learn that part. The rest is knowing what to do when someone's business is on fire on a Tuesday afternoon and they're not thinking straight.
“I can just trust you to get it done. I don’t have to give you tons of information and instructions.”
Bring your ideas to life.
Women running small service businesses. Studios, salons, wellness practices. Big enough that it's a lot, small enough that there's nobody handling operations except you.
Expand your potential.
I've run businesses like yours, so you won't have to explain to me what a no show costs or why the booking system matters more than it should.