Why women growing the biggest businesses aren’t working harder – they’re living differently.
Jane was the kind of woman who made everything look effortless.
Single mum. Thriving business. Packed calendar. She was the first to respond to client emails and the last to leave the metaphorical office. She had built something real. Real revenue, real reputation, real results. And she was running on fumes.
When she first came to me, she said what most high-achieving women say: “I just need a better strategy. A clearer plan. Maybe a new offer.”
What she actually needed was something no business coach had ever suggested to her before.
She needed to put herself back on her own list.
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The Truth About Business
Here is the truth that the business world has been slow to say out loud: the biggest revenue leak in most women’s businesses isn’t their pricing, their positioning, or their pipeline.
– It’s the woman running it.
Not because she isn’t capable, she is spectacularly so. But because she has been operating from a version of herself that is depleted, disconnected, and making decisions from fear rather than vision. She is chasing a carrot she inherited (approval, validation, the proof that she deserves to be here) rather than building a business that genuinely serves her life.
This is not a wellness conversation. This is a performance conversation.
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Jane’s Story
Jane told me, in our first session, that freedom was her highest value. It was the reason she went out on her own. The reason she left a corporate salary, a pension, and the perceived safety of someone else’s structure.
So I asked her when she last took a holiday.
– Seven years ago.
She was a freedom seeker living in a self-imposed prison and she hadn’t noticed because she was too busy producing to look up.
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Action Steps
1. We didn’t start with her business model. We started with her values. We wrote them down and didn’t use them as abstract ideals but as operational filters.
– Every client, every yes, every no, would be run through the question: does this align with the life I am actually trying to build?
2. The shifts were uncomfortable at first.
– When I suggested she take Friday afternoons off, she didn’t feel relieved. She felt her heart race.
– There was a visceral, physical resistance and the good girl conditioning that had been running the show for decades.
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New Opportunities
Then came the moment that tested everything.
A significant new client came in. Serious revenue. The kind of number that would have had Jane signing the contract before the call ended. But there were red flags everywhere. The potential client was high maintenance and had no respect for boundaries, a dynamic that would have consumed her.
– Two weeks later, a retainer client twice the size came through referral. Someone who respected her time, aligned with her values, and who she genuinely loved working with.
That is not a coincidence. That is what happens when a woman stops making decisions from scarcity and starts making them from wholeness.
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Final Thoughts
Jane’s story isn’t unusual. It is the story of almost every high-achieving woman I have ever worked with. The details change. The pattern doesn’t.
– The moment she and you choose to put yourself at the top of your own list? That is not a lifestyle decision. It is the most powerful business decision you will ever make.
If this landed somewhere real for you, I would love to continue the conversation in person.
I’ll be speaking at the Women’s Thrive Summit in London – going deeper into the Life First CEO framework, the revenue research behind it, and the practical tools to help you build a business that finally serves your life as much as you’ve been serving it.
Action Step: I can’t wait to meet you there.
Name: Suzanne Acteson
Professional Title: Mentor, Business Strategist + Keynote Speaker
Bio: Suzanne is an executive and business mentor, keynote speaker, and business strategist who works with female founders and leaders to grow significant income alongside extraordinary lives. She is the founder of Life First CEO and has 25+ years of experience scaling global brands. She is based in the southwest of France – proof, she’ll tell you, that the business really can work from anywhere.
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