The Guilt You Feel About Growing Your Wellness Business This Summer? Here’s Why It’s Actually the Sign You Should Start

This is a continuation of last week’s episode about growing and how summer is the perfect time to do this. It’s an extension—specifically talking about the guilt you might feel as a practitioner, especially if you’re taking time out of your summer to work in your business.

This episode is in honor of a brother. Today is actually his birthday. He was one of the biggest cheerleaders in the business. He passed away unexpectedly three years ago (actually this May coming up will be the anniversary of his passing).

He is someone who preached—and it meant everything to him—that family is everything. And the whole point of building something is so you can actually be present for the people you love.

So this one’s for him. And it’s also for you. And mental health and getting support—because that is also part of his story.

For a lot of practitioners, there are threads of guilt layered in our work in many ways:

Feeling guilty for wanting to build something bigger, even though what you have right now is amazing—for wanting more
Guilty for spending time on your business when your kids are home
Guilty for investing money and time in yourself when you feel like the money or time should go maybe to your family or your children
Guilty for wanting more when everyone around you is telling you life is already pretty good

You’re not alone. And it’s important to develop a community and a support system.

This episode is going to flip all that guilt on its head because: Your dream, your vision is not only worth it for you—but it’s necessary. It’s required for the people that you can help because you’re the only one that can help them the way that you can.

My brother used to tell me this all the time.

And here’s what his life taught me: Time is not something that you get back. And building a business that gives you the freedom with your family—it’s not selfish. It’s the point. It’s the whole point.

Many wellness practitioners carry deep guilt about wanting business growth while also wanting to be present for family—feeling like these desires are in competition. Understanding that building your online program IS the family decision flips the guilt narrative and creates the freedom you’re actually seeking.

The Very Specific Kind of Stuck That Shows Up in Summer

Want to talk about a very specific kind of stuck seen all the time in summer. It’s not laziness. It’s not ambition. It’s guilt.

Maybe you’re a mom. Summer hits. Suddenly your kids are home. Your schedule is chaos. You’re already behind on approximately 4,000 things.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, you have this quiet voice that says:

“I want to build something.”
“I want to help more people.”
“I want to have an impact.”
“I believe that I can help people through an online program.”
“I want to get out of being tied down in the clinic or in back-to-back sessions.”

And then immediately another voice shows up—louder and meaner—that says:

“Who do you think you are?”
“Your kids need you.”
“Your summer is for family. It’s for rest. It’s for having fun.”
“You can’t spend money on coaching right now. You have to pay for your summer or your kids’ camps. That’s irresponsible.”
“You already have a job that pays you. You should be grateful.”
“Wait until fall.”
“Your partner needs you. You need to be more present at home.”

So you wait. And you feel guilty for wanting it in the first place.

The Truth No One Talks About

Here’s what no one talks about: The guilt isn’t a sign that you want the wrong thing. It’s a sign that you care deeply about the right things.

Your family. Your kids. Your people. Your community. The potential clients that you want to help.

And it can feel like a tug of war between the two.

You’ve been sold this lie that business and family are in competition with each other:

That if you’re building, you’re not present
That if you’re investing in yourself, you’re taking that money from your family
That wanting more means you’re not grateful for what you have

That is the story that keeps brilliant, talented, deeply qualified wellness practitioners stuck at $2,000 months for years—not because of lack of skill, not because of bad timing—but because of guilt.

And summer is sometimes when guilt is the loudest.

The Reframe: Building Your Online Program IS the Family Decision

Here’s a reframe to offer today. Just let it land for a moment:

Building your online program this summer IS the family decision.

It’s the best decision for your family, for your friend goals, for your partner goals.

It’s not in competition with your children.
It’s not taking money from your family.
It’s not irresponsible.

Because let me ask you something: What does your life look like three more summers from now if nothing changes?

Same hours. Same income ceiling. Maybe driving to the same clinic, seeing 20+ patients in a day. Or same massage clinic, back-to-back sessions with very little time to use the restroom or even grab a sip of water (you’re doing it when they’re disrobing).

Maybe driving around from yoga class to yoga class, teaching on summer nights, leading yoga teacher trainings on the weekends.

Same Sunday night dread. Same “I’ll do it next year”—when next year, your kids are three years older. You’re three years more exhausted. You’re still saying summer isn’t the right time.

Been there. Had that download when in the clinic at 8 PM at night—saw self at 55 living that same schedule, and daughter at 18 resentful and hating me.

Been there. And this is what was decided: to do something different.

And you can too.

You Can Use This Summer Imperfectly

You can use this summer imperfectly, chaotically—with kids interrupting your Zoom calls and snacks all over your desk, trying to figure out your schedule, trying to balance all the 4,000 tasks—to start building the thing that eventually means:

You never miss a school play again
It gives you control over your schedule
You can take a family vacation and your income doesn’t stop
Your daughter doesn’t look up one day and say “I missed you, mommy” because you were there—you were able to be there because you built a business that didn’t require your body to be present every single hour to generate revenue

That is what building your online program this summer is actually about.

It’s not about hustle. It’s not about grinding while your kids watch TV. It’s about building freedom while you still have time to enjoy it.

The Truth About Parenting and Business

And let’s also talk about the truth. One coach says this—when she first had her baby, she wanted to spend every minute with him, every minute as he grew older. And her coach told her that wanting to spend every single minute with them—that’s kind of a weirdo, right? It even has a term: helicopter parenting.

We have to allow our kids to… well, this is getting into parenting, so you can have your own parenting philosophies. But wanting children to develop autonomy. Wanting them to develop confidence in their skills and the ability to problem-solve on their own and figure things out and self-regulate and feel in their body the limits of things—and being there for parental guidance, rules, and boundaries. Believing in both.

Stopping the cycle of “I’ll do it when…” Because truthfully, there’s always a reason to wait. Always.

Summer is too chaotic
Fall’s too busy because kids are back in school
Winter is busy because of the holidays
Spring—too much is going on with activities and sports

At some point, you just have to decide that imperfect action beats perfect inaction every single time.

You just have to get out there and plan an hour and protect it like a client call—and that’s where you start.

Understanding that waiting for perfect conditions means waiting forever separates practitioners who build freedom from those who stay stuck in guilt cycles. Learning to start from imperfection is the skill that creates the life you actually want.

What Your Kids Are Actually Watching

You will model something incredible for your kids.

Thinking about this a lot. My daughter is watching me build something. She’s seeing me take calls. She’s been on the podcast. She’s told her friends that she’s famous because she’s on Spotify. She’s seen me create programs. She’s gotten to know some of in-person patients that come to the she-shed over the years. They’ve seen her grow. They’ve brought her gifts.

She’s learning what a woman who bets on herself looks like.

Telling her: “Hey, honey, I’m a little nervous today. I have a big presentation.” Allowing her to help pick out clothes the night before (she’s very much into clothes and fashion right now—actually, what’s being worn today, she picked out). Two presentations today. Already did one. Have one more. And we get to have these conversations.

So she’s seeing all that. She’s seeing me create wealth. She knows that her summer camps are paid for by my business, our family vacations.

And she knows that when she’s home sick—like today, actually—that we have rules and boundaries on screen time and she has to figure some things out herself. And can check on her. Because of getting to work from home (because you all know I love working from home), I am here if she needs anything. Can go in during lunch and be the mom for the sick kid. Can end the day early if wanted and be there for her if she really needs comforting.

Don’t have to beat myself up over it. Don’t have to give myself a guilt trip over it. Can look at all of this in my business as a gift.

Your Online Program: A Way to Get Your Time Back Faster Than You Think

An online program that generates revenue while you’re at the pool with your kids—it’s not a fantasy. It’s a business model.

And summer is exactly when you should be building it.

So many clients keep their one-to-one because they love one-to-one—and they’ve added in various types of online programs:

Membership models (have several that have done this)
Group models
Workshop four-week series
Cohorts that are six weeks long
One-to-one that are three or six months long

And they’re adding several thousands of dollars to their bank account every single month.

That gives them so much freedom, flexibility. And it heals you.

Yes, money sometimes can’t buy everything. But when you’re actually making money in your business and you’re doing the thing that you’re so passionately wanting to do, it can give you so much confidence and it can create generational healing—not just for you, but it can heal generations forward and backwards.

What My Brother Taught Me About Dreams and Family

Have to tell you something about my brother, speaking of that. Think about him all the time. Every time talking about family and time and what we’re actually building toward.

He loved so fiercely. He showed up.

He actually had his own business for a time. He developed his book of business and was really successful. He was a person in my corner who would literally say out loud to anyone who would listen: “Do you know what my sister’s doing? Let me tell you about my sister.”

When I was doing more practitioner side, anytime he had a body issue (we both had scoliosis, so he had some issues—he was very tall and a big guy, so he sometimes had some back issues), he would always be messaging me: “Hey, look what my sister taught me. You should do this. Do you know how good she is at this?”

He was my biggest cheerleader.

And what I know about him, what I carry with me regarding him every single day (and I do feel that he’s coming through this message because he stays in contact with me, because he still wants to make a big impact in the world, and I know this):

He never once thought I should shrink my dreams to make other people comfortable.

He never told me I should feel guilty for wanting to grow my business because I have a daughter and a family. In fact, he told me how important it was to actually be successful in business so my daughter could see that.

And when I was overworking, he always reminded me: “Allie, you need to take time to rest. Allie, you’re overworking. You’re doing too much.”

So I carry that with me all the time.

He never thought that me wanting more was a betrayal to my family. He understood that when I built something sustainable, something that gave me freedom, I showed up better for the people I loved.

He got it. And I want you to get it too.

Find Someone in Your Corner

I want you to have someone in your corner.

Because the guilt you’re carrying about wanting to build this—the person in your life who loves you the most, the one who is really in your corner—they don’t want you to stay small to make them feel better.

They want you to succeed. They want you to be free.

Build it for them. Build it because of them. Build now when you still have time to enjoy it with them, to celebrate with them.

Love taking my family—one of the ways I celebrate successes in my business is taking them to dinner and paying for dinner or brunch or whatever. Or taking them to the zoo and getting some snacks and fun things and saying: “This is on me because of my business.”

There are ways you can do this. Like this summer—taking two trips: a trip to Tahoe and a family camping trip.

And as you know, I’ve gone through hard things—time with my brother passing, my own health diagnosis. And now, just now, keeping a multiple six-figure-a-year business afloat while taking time off—it comes down to systems.

When there’s an online program, when there’s content scheduled, when there’s a VA that helps—I am able to do these things and be fully present.

But had to start from imperfection. And still work through that. Not perfect all the time.

The 100K Online Blueprint—it is growing and evolving. Always looking for feedback and ways to help clients get faster results quicker. My one-to-ones too.

But if I had waited for the right time to build this online side of my business:

I would have been canceling Disney World trips
I would have put my child in camp for the eight weeks of her summer

Instead, now the last several years: she goes into camp for four weeks, we travel usually two or three weeks, and then she’s got one week of autonomy. And it’s a great balance for us.

Yes, that one week where she’s home, it can be a little bit more chaotic. Having to reinforce screen boundaries and iPad rules a bit more. But it’s conversations that her and I need to have.

And this freedom didn’t happen because I waited for perfect conditions. It happened because I started building during an imperfect time years earlier—when I had the guilt and the chaos and zero certainty.

Learning to build online programs during chaotic seasons with imperfect action creates the freedom that waiting for perfect conditions never will. Starting with what you have now is the only path to the schedule and income you actually want.

You Don’t Need to Spend the Whole Summer Doing It—You Just Need to Start

You don’t need to spend the whole entire summer doing it. You just need to start.

That’s what gets told to clients when they come into the 100K Blueprint: You need about an hour a week to attend the call and then an hour or two a week to implement. That’s it.

If you’re having trouble finding those three hours, then the schedule is the problem and we need to work on that—which we work on in the Blueprint and in one-to-one as well.

Strategy 1: Answer the Family Freedom Question First

Before you build anything. Before you go use the Offer Bot Builder ($15, you’ll get your online offer built in 15 minutes). Before you post a piece of content.

Answer this: What does your life need to look like for your family to actually feel your presence?

Not vague—specific.

Do you need to be done working by 2 PM?
Do you need Fridays off?
Do you need your income to not stop when you take a week for your kids?

Write all of this down. This is your north star. It’s your compass. It’s that specific vision.

That specific vision is what your online program needs to fund and protect.

But here’s the thing: Most practitioners build it backwards. They build an offer and then hope it creates freedom.

I want you to design it with the freedom first and build the offer that creates it.

The guilt dissolves when you’re building with your family as a reason—not despite it.

That’s why in the Offer Bot, some of the first… there are very specific frameworks and steps that the bot leads you through. One of the first things: it’s asking you your goals. Are you really needing revenue? Are you needing more free time? Are you really desiring to do one-to-one or group? It helps plan it around your goals—your offer.

Strategy 2: Start With One Imperfect Summer Asset

Not a full program. Not a course with 47 modules. Just one thing.

And it could be just deciding: “Okay, I’m going to do a six-week cohort, a group program, and there’s going to be no deliverables.”

Client Betty—this is how she started. She had no deliverables. She sold it out. She wanted 10 people. She got 15. And she just showed up to the group calls live. She just made that decision and she started.

Client Sharon with her knitting course—same thing. Four-week series, just showed up live.

So you don’t need to build out 47 modules.

If you really want to have something, just pick three modules to start. One client—she’s developing a pelvic health program and was thinking she had to build out 47 lessons and modules. No. We just picked out the most important three videos that she finds herself repeating over and over again (like a birth prep video, or post-labor video, how to care for yourself). So she has three videos—that’s all she needs.

Or one workout. One workshop. She realized: “Oh my gosh, I have all these prerecorded workshops that I did from virtual workshops that I did. Those can also go in.”

You don’t need a bunch of different prerecorded lessons, modules, and deliverables. Remember—it comes down to the result that you’re helping people to achieve.

You also don’t need:

A perfect website
A fancy tech stack

You just need:

An offer
A way to take payment
The reason why they should work with you (what’s the problem that you’re going to solve?)

And remembering: Summer is the reason. Your family is the reason. Your brother, your sister, your daughter, your partner—will get the version of you who is present.

That is the reason. It all starts with just imperfect action.

If You Feel Guilty Spending Money on a Coach When You Feel It Should Go to Family

Hear this so much. And want to be honest with you.

The investment you make to build this online program—if you make your money back from investing:

The six-month 100K Online Blueprint is $2,000. But let’s say you decide to do one-to-one online and you’re offering two calls a month instead of weekly sessions (so that gives you some time back) and you sell three clients in your first month—that’s $6,000.

So you’ve already gotten time back. And now you’ve created—not only have you just made your money back so that $2,000 never left your family, but now you have an additional $4,000.

Finding safety and security and confidence in your ability to generate consistent revenue—that can be really healing, not only for you, but your family as well.

Guilt around investing in yourself almost always has to do with a scarcity story. It’s not a truth. And you really want to track down: What is your scarcity story? Where does it come from? To understand why. And then you can problem-solve for that.

Because you don’t need 40 hours a week—especially if your kids are home all summer, if you literally don’t have the time. You just need focused, intentional pockets of time:

One hour when they’re at camp
DM conversations with people in the pickup line
One nap time
One evening after bedtime

The practitioners worked with are moms, a lot of them, who built their programs in margins of time—not ideal conditions—because when, truthfully, is life ever ideal?

The Flip: What You’re Building Now Means Less Working Later

And if you already feel guilty for working, building something new feels like more working.

Here’s the flip: What you’re building right now means less working later.

The guilt you’re feeling is about your current model—the one that requires your body and for you to show up for every single session. Sessions built most of the time week by week, one by one—instead of an online program with other ways to help clients achieve results where it’s not dependent upon session by session.

So the work you do this summer is actually the last season of that kind of overwork.

And can’t tell you—when summers started to change, how freeing that is.

If You’re Feeling Nervous or Uncomfortable to Start

If you’re feeling nervous or uncomfortable to start, or maybe overwhelmed—just know that you’re not alone. All of that is normal. And you just have to take things step by step by step.

I’ll be here for you every step of the way. Got you. And will be here to cheer you on when you create that success—so you can build something for those that you love as well.

So happy birthday to my brother. Miss him so much. Know that he’s come through in this episode.

Thank you for listening.

Your Summer to Finally Start

If this hits something real—if you are someone who does feel the guilt and wants more—this is the summer. It’s finally your time.

Find me on Instagram at IgniteYourWellnessBusiness (with “UR”). Send a DM, let me know how this landed for you. We’ll just stay in contact.

And can’t wait for you to have the best summer season yet.

Ready to Build Freedom for Your Family This Summer?

If you’re a wellness practitioner carrying guilt about wanting to grow your business while also being present for family—book a consultation to explore how to build an online program that creates the freedom your family actually needs.

Or join the 100K Online Practice Blueprint to design your offer with family freedom first—not hoping it creates freedom after the fact.

Building your online program this summer isn’t in competition with your family. It IS the family decision. It’s the decision that creates the presence, flexibility, and financial freedom your family deserves.

Your brother, your sister, your daughter, your partner—they don’t want you to stay small. They want you to be free. Build it for them. Build it because of them. Build now.