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You Only Have One Life - What Are You Going To Do With it?

Any moms out there feel busy? I mean truly busy - like you cannot even imagine putting one more
thing on your plate? That's exactly how Dr. Alise Cortez felt when she started her business a little over sixteen years ago. Her daughter was a toddler, her husband traveled 100% of the time, and she was working on her PhD. Ultimately, though, she knew she wanted something professional for her and for her daughter because as she put it, being a stay-at-home mom wasn't cutting it for her, and her daughter would have fired her had she continued.

Alise began her mompreneur journey as an extension of what she had previously done, helping people find jobs based on her recruiting experience. She made plenty of mistakes along the way, as do most of us mompreneurs, but it's all part of the journey. Since she had recently moved to Dallas, her network was rather small, but she fumbled through growing it at various networking events, and as her business grew, she realized her passion and purpose in life.

Most of us look at the flexibility perks entrepreneurship has to offer and want to dive in head first. But then we think about the realities and worry that going out on our own is not the right choice. Alise felt those fears acutely, especially after her marriage ended in divorce a few years ago. Nonetheless, she moved forward and her business evolved into what it is today - catalyzing purpose-inspired leaders, creating meaning-enriched culture and helping companies visioneer a purposeful future by facilitating productive dialogue among their stakeholders. She has learned a lot along the way, and her greatest piece of advice is to find help, mentorship and accountability groups. For Alise, her readiness to ask for help now even extends to asking neighbors for help zipping up her dress on her nights out.

The best part for Alise about having her own business is the freedom to follow her passion and live
her purpose. Corporate constraints would have never allowed her the ability to seek the path she has followed. Along the way, she has learned so much about herself and being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship has allowed her the flexibility to unequivocally stay riveted on her own specific areas of interest while allowing her purpose to unfold over the years.

As Alise asked me as our interview ended, “You only have one life. What are you going to do with it?” I will throw that back to all of you. What is your passion? What is your purpose? Are you truly fulfilling it by doing what you’re doing? If not, you have the power within you to make a difference. And making that difference for you will truly impact at least one other person in a very meaningful way.

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