Alright, so this might be the juiciest blog post I’ve ever written — and I can’t wait to tell you my story of how I quit my receptionist job and started my career as a full-time online business owner.
And hear me out on this — this is a real story. I’m 100% transparent with every detail.
The Exit Date That Changed Everything
In 2022, I was going through a lot. One of those reasons was my father’s passing and around that time, I started going to therapy.
It helped in so many ways but there’s one conversation I’ll never forget.
One day, I told my therapist how badly I wanted to leave my home country, start fresh, and build a new era in my life.
She looked at me and said, “Then choose your exit date.”
It sounded so simple but it was one of the most powerful things anyone ever said to me.
Pick a date, decide when and put it in the calendar (even if it’s after 2 years from now).
So I did. The date sat in my phone for months. July 14th, 2023. That was the day I would hand in my notice and finally leave.
As the weeks passed and the date came closer, I got more nervous — but it was the good kind. The kind of nerves you get when you know something is about to change for real.
I Quit, I Cried and Then I Booked a One-Way Ticket
When July 14th finally came, I did it. I handed in my notice at the hotel where I worked as a receptionist. Saying goodbye to colleagues felt surreal — a mix of relief, excitement, and pure terror all at once.
That night, I cried. Not because I regretted it, but because it was real now.
There was no going back. I was leaving behind a stable paycheck, familiar routines, and a safe little bubble I’d been in for years.
But deep down, I knew it was something I had to do.
The next thing I did was so wild. I booked a one-way ticket to Asia.
Just a simple click on my laptop, but it felt like the most rebellious, freeing thing I’d done in my life. No return date, no plan B, just me and a suitcase full of dreams and questions.
I was scared of failing, of loneliness, of the unknown but also more hopeful than I’d been in a long time.
That moment was the start of everything changing.
Starting From the Messy Middle
Once I was officially without a job, I wasn’t starting from scratch exactly. I had already been creating content and building a little online community since 2020.
I’d launched a course that totally flopped. I had some ebook sales. So, I knew I needed a backup plan if my products didn’t pay the bills right away.
Some of you already know this part of the story — I started freelancing behind the scenes. I designed Canva templates, wrote ebooks for clients, and picked up freelance jobs wherever I could.
It wasn’t glamorous. But it gave me income and space to keep going and build my dream business.
Living the “Dream” (That Didn’t Feel Quite Right Yet)
In theory, I was living the dream. I had flexibility, I was working abroad, and I was earning from my laptop.
But it still didn’t feel right. Why? Because I was still depending on freelance clients — basically working for someone else and the business I really wanted didn’t exist yet.
I didn’t want just flexibility. I wanted ownership.
My own blog.
My own email list.
My own community.
My own brand.
So I went back to my notes and asked myself the deeper question: What do I actually want to build?
Visualizing My Dream Business
This was the first time I stopped chasing random goals and actually wrote down what my dream business looked and felt like.
That clarity changed everything.
I always knew I wanted an engaged email list. A real one — not just for launches, but a space to write like I do in my journal.
So in May, I started Designed By Her Diaries — and within two months, thousands of people signed up.
That gave me the confidence to build more:
→ I launched Her Soft Digital Empire Playbook, my signature course with everything I’ve learned over 4 years about creating digital offers and growing an email list.
→ I rebranded and launched this blog — something I had abandoned years ago, but now felt deeply aligned with.
→ My audience on socials grew to 23,000 in just 3 months.
All of this happened because I finally got honest about what I actually wanted, and how my real dream business would look like.
The Purple Cow Moment
There was a moment where I had to stop and ask myself — what if I just stopped trying to do what everyone else was doing?
I remember sitting in a cafe in Bali, looking at my phone and scrolling past yet another “how to go viral” post on Instagram.
And for the first time, I didn’t feel inspired — I felt exhausted.
I had tried doing all the “right” things: lip-syncing reels, trending audios, flashy graphics, pointing at text bubbles.
But none of it felt like me. It felt like I was putting on a costume every time I posted.
And that’s when it hit me: I didn’t leave my old job to become someone else online. I left to become more of me.
That’s when I remembered something I’d read a while back — about the “purple cow.” If you see a field of cows, and they all look the same, you’ll forget them. But if you see a purple cow? You’ll remember it forever. It stands out. It’s different and it doesn’t blend in.
So I stopped trying to blend in.
I started writing how I actually speak. I stopped worrying about going viral. I focused on connection, not clout.
And little by little, the right people found me. Not thousands overnight — but the kind of people who read my words and replies to my emails, “Omg, this is me, I feel so seen.”
And these people didn’t just follow. They stayed and eventually became my own students.
And that was the turning point. When I stopped building my business like everyone else and started showing up as myself.
What You Don’t See on Social Media
So yes — from the outside, it might look like things just took off.
A growing audience. A program that sells and gets results for people. A dreamy lifestyle.
And in many ways, things have taken off. But what people don’t always see is the behind-the-scenes.
→ The tears no one saw because I cried alone on my bedroom floor.
→ The comparison spirals that made me feel like a failure every time I scrolled.
→ The 12-hour workdays that led to… nothing.
→ The months when it felt like I was shouting into the void, wondering if I should just take on another client project — just to feel safe again.
There were nights when I seriously thought about giving up. I would close my laptop, crawl into bed, and ask myself, Why is this not working? What am I missing? I felt like I was doing everything “right” but nothing was clicking.
And the hardest part? No one could really understand what I was going through. It wasn’t just burnout. It was self-doubt. It was fear that maybe I wasn’t cut out for this.
But looking back now, I realize: I was doing everything right. It just takes longer than we think.
This isn’t a linear path. It’s messy and uncertain and sometimes painfully slow. But if you keep going — if you keep believing — the pieces do eventually fall into place.
If I Hadn’t Jumped
If I hadn’t circled that exit date back in 2023 — If I hadn’t booked that one-way flight and decided I was done playing small — I know exactly where I’d be.
Still behind the hotel desk, checking in guests who didn’t even look up from their phones.
Still folding laundry during night shifts and crying in the break room, wondering if this was all life had to offer.
Still scrolling Instagram, watching other people live the life I secretly dreamed about.
And that thought? It still motivates me on hard days.
Because even now — even with the bigger goals, the income dreams, the pressure to “scale” — I know I’m already so far from where I used to be.
I may not be where I want to go yet — But I’m no longer stuck in a life that made me feel invisible.
Gratitude Is the Fuel
Something I’ve learned over time is that things don’t have to be perfect to be working. Progress happens quietly. A lot of the wins that built my business were small at the time—getting one subscriber, one sale, one reply to an email.
Gratitude helps me stay grounded in that. Instead of focusing only on where I want to go, I try to stay aware of how far I’ve come. Even when a launch didn’t meet expectations or when something I tried didn’t work, it was still part of the process that moved me forward.
It’s not always obvious in the moment, but it all adds up.
Final Thoughts
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from my story, it’s this: You don’t have to have it all figured out to take the leap. You just need the courage to pick your exit date and trust yourself enough to jump.
So if you’re ready to stop dreaming and start building your own soft digital empire, I want to invite you to join Designed By Her Diaries — my weekly email series where I share the real ups and downs.
It’s like having a soft, supportive online friend in your inbox every week — guiding you toward the freedom you deserve.
comments +