You know that business idea that keeps showing up in your mind at 2 AM? The one you’ve been pushing down because you don’t have enough certifications, the perfect website, or the “right” credentials? Here’s what you need to hear: that idea didn’t land on you by accident. It found you because you’re supposed to do something with it. And every day you spend convincing yourself you’re not ready is a day that dream gets closer to giving up on you and finding someone else.

Your Dream Has an Expiration Date

Ideas are like living things, they want to exist in the world. Elizabeth Gilbert wrote about this in Big Magic: if you don’t give an idea attention and love, it will eventually leave you and find someone who will.

Think about it. You’ve had business ideas before that just… disappeared. That photography business you were going to start. That coaching program you outlined in a notebook somewhere. That product you were convinced would change everything.

You didn’t decide to let them go. They left because you never gave them a real chance.

Leah Remillet, host of the Balancing Busy podcast and business strategist for thousands of entrepreneur moms, sees this pattern constantly. “When you have a calling placed on your heart, it’s not on accident, it’s on purpose,” she explains. “Women’s voices are needed. We make the world better. Our impact when we get out there and share is really powerful.”

But here’s the painful truth: women hesitate in ways men simply don’t.

The Gender Gap in “Going For It”

There’s research showing that men will apply for jobs when they meet about 60% of the qualifications. Women? They won’t apply unless they meet nearly 100% of the requirements.

Let that sink in while you think about Silicon Valley, where entire business strategies are built around failing fast. Entrepreneurs know they’ll probably need to launch five to ten startups before one becomes successful. They pivot constantly. They test, iterate, and move on without apology.

Meanwhile, women building businesses from their living rooms think: If I’m not perfect from day one, nobody will take me seriously.

Here’s the truth: billionaires started companies in their garages. They didn’t sit around worrying whether people would trust them. They scrapped together what they had and built something.

But moms? We’re convinced that if we’re not flawless immediately, we don’t have a “real” business. If we’re doing it while watching kids, it must not be legitimate.

That’s not biology. That’s culture. And culture is something we can change.

The Sacrifice Story That’s Killing Your Dreams

There’s a Christmas song with lyrics that essentially say: “Mom, thank you for sacrificing your dreams so I could have mine. You carried so much but were never tired.”

Let’s be honest: she was exhausted. Whatever she showed you was a carefully constructed performance because that’s what the culture demanded. And now you’re doing the same thing—pretending you don’t have dreams of your own because good moms are supposed to sacrifice everything.

Look at Mother’s Day cards. Check out the cultural messaging everywhere: You’re a great mom because you gave up who you were.

Now imagine your daughter in twenty years. Is that what you want for her? Do you want her to believe that motherhood means abandoning every dream she has?

The answer is obviously no. So why are you living that way now?

“I do want to show my girls that they can do big things and that they can do both,” Leah says. “That is the thing that I feel like we have missed sharing.”

You can build a business and be a present mom. You can follow your calling and show up for bedtime stories. But not by doing everything alone.

Strong, Independent Women Love Help

When Leah’s daughter was making dinner and proudly announced she was a “strong, independent woman” who could handle it alone, Leah stopped her.

“I grabbed both of her shoulders and I looked her in the eyes and I said, ‘I know a lot of strong, independent women and they love help. They freaking love help.'”

This matters more than you realize. We’re raising a generation of girls who think strength means doing everything solo. But look at any high-performing team, Navy SEALs, firefighters, football players, successful companies. Everyone relies on teamwork.

Why is motherhood the only role that supposedly doesn’t deserve support?

Leah doesn’t pretend she’s doing everything alone. “AI helps me, my house cleaner helps me, delivery services help me, my husband helps me. When my kids were younger, sitters helped me. All kinds of different help in all forms and varieties.”

When you pretend you’re managing everything without help, you’re not inspiring other moms. You’re making them feel like failures because they can’t figure out what you’ve (not actually) figured out.

The Systems Secret Nobody Talks About

Here’s something surprising: Leah has lots of free time. She works minimal hours and does whatever she wants most afternoons.

The secret? She’s rigid about her time management from 5:20 AM until noon. Every block is scheduled. Every task has a place. And because of that structure, she has complete freedom the rest of the day.

You might hate that idea. Some women do. They need flexibility, space to think, room for inspiration to strike. They want three days to marinate on ideas with notebooks spread across the bed.

Both approaches work. But here’s what they have in common: they both require intentional systems.

“We think that balance just comes accidentally,” Leah explains. “Like it’s just landing. Like some women just naturally have it. But I’ve never actually met anyone yet who just accidentally found balance.”

Balance isn’t something you stumble into. It’s something you design. And yes, creating those systems feels uncomfortable at first.

But remember when your kids were learning to read? They were terrible at it initially. You didn’t tell them to quit because it felt hard, you told them to keep practicing. You supported them through the discomfort because you knew it would get easier.

Why don’t you give yourself that same patience?

Bring Your Kids Into Your Success Story

When Leah launched her first course fifteen years ago, she sat her young kids down and told them the truth: “This is what mom’s working on. And I am so excited about it. I think it has the power to change things for us.”

She explained that she needed their help. Everyone would pitch in. And when she succeeded, everyone would celebrate together, each kid could pick any toy they wanted as a bonus.

“I wanted to share that because we don’t tell them,” Leah reflects. “And you know what? They love to step up.”

Your kids don’t need you to be a martyr. They need to see what it looks like when someone goes after their dreams. They need to learn that success requires teamwork, that discomfort is part of growth, and that their mom is a whole person with goals that matter.

Think about what you’re actually teaching when you sacrifice everything: you’re showing them that their existence requires someone else’s dreams to die. That’s not the lesson you want to pass down.

The Permission You’ve Been Waiting For

Nobody is going to tap you on the shoulder and tell you you’re ready. You’re not going to wake up one day with perfect confidence and all the answers.

That feeling you’re waiting for? It doesn’t come before you start. It comes after you’ve been doing the uncomfortable work long enough that one day you realize: Oh, this is easy now.

The dream on your heart found you for a reason. There was a resonance between that idea and who you are, what you’re capable of, what you’re meant to do. It didn’t catch on the bottom of your shoe by accident.

So stop waiting for more certifications. Stop believing you need to be perfect before you start. Stop thinking that wanting to build something makes you selfish.

“When you have that dream on your heart, stop thinking that it is selfish or that it is an accident or that there is something wrong,” Leah says. “Instead, shift and start thinking: this is on purpose. There is a reason. It has been placed on me because I can do something incredible with it.”

Do the damn thing.

Your kids will be fine. Actually, they’ll be better than fine—they’ll have a mom who shows them what it looks like to be fully alive.

The world will survive without your martyrdom. Actually, it needs your voice and your work more than it needs your guilt.

And that idea that won’t leave you alone? It’s not going to get easier to ignore. It’s either going to demand your attention until you finally listen, or it’s going to give up on you and find someone else.

What Happens When Moms Stop Apologizing

Imagine a world where moms build businesses without guilt. Where having dreams doesn’t make you a bad parent. Where asking for help is normal and setting boundaries is celebrated.

That world starts with you. With the decision to stop pretending you don’t want more. With the courage to say yes to the calling that found you.

Every mom who does this creates a ripple effect. You inspire ten women, who inspire ten more, who inspire ten more. Before long, you’ve started a revolution—one where moms have regulated nervous systems, achieve their goals, and raise kids who understand that success doesn’t require sacrifice.

“If we all just built businesses and had regulated nervous systems and actually achieved our goals, we’d have generations that would be very different than we have right now,” says Dana Malstaff, founder of Boss Mom. “But I think it starts with us.”

The current way we structure motherhood is unsustainable. It requires breaking down at some point, disappearing from the world for a year, and coming back stronger only after you realize the old rules were garbage.

But what if you didn’t have to break first? What if you just started building now?

That business idea isn’t going away. The question is whether you’ll do something with it or watch it find someone else who will.

And if you need a community of moms who actually get it, women who are building businesses, chasing dreams, and refusing to apologize for their ambition, download the BossMom app now!. Because strong, independent women love help, and this journey is better with people who understand what you’re up against.

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Ready to stop hesitating and start building? Connect with Leah Remillet at balancingbusy.com or download her free systems at bts.balancingbusy.com.
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