Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and then some.

When our dear friend Jessica Ashley announced the winner(s) of the “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award at the Iris Awards Friday night at the Mom 2.0 Summit, I wasn’t expecting to hear – Audrey McClelland and Vera Sweeney.

And I’m not just saying that. Usually I’m prepared for speaking in front of people. Usually I’m calm, cool and collected. Usually I’m excited to get up on stage. Usually I’m in control of the situation.

But that night? It all flew out the window. I don’t remember a thing I said about it… it was 1 minute of my life that happened, but it’s a bit of blur, a good blur… but a blur.

I wanted to take the time today to say a proper thank you… one that I will remember and one that I will not be shaking or on the verge of tears during sharing it.

We all do what we do because we love it, not for any recognition. We were nominated with outstanding women: Abbie Schiller + Samantha Kurtzman-Counter -The Mother Co // Ana Flores – We All Grow // Barbara Jones – One2One Network // Jordan Ferney – Oh Happy Day! // Susan Petersen – Freshly Picked. All of us love what we do and put so much passion and energy and time into building our businesses, so to be among these women was just enough for me. It’s also an honor to call a few of them personal friends, so I knew – firsthand – just how hard everyone works. This award anyone of us could have and should have won, truly.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. There are good days and bad days. There are successful days and non-successful days. There are ups and downs and adventures and mysteries and unknowns. I’ve always said, you’ve got to be a certain person to be an entrepreneur, it’s not meant for everyone. It takes a certain person to get up every single day and keep going… keep hustling… keep chasing the dream. I’m honored enough to be alongside my best friend Vera Sweeney during this journey and it’s one that we jumped in together 8 years ago when we decided to “just go for it” and start Getting Gorgeous Events. We laugh because we didn’t know what we were doing, but we had a goal and we just went after that goal without looking back and by tuning out all the naysayers.

I work well with Vera because we’re both hungry for the same goals and dreams… and I love Vera because we both have the same values about life and our families and ourselves. We’re not looking for fame or to live in the biggest house or drive the fanciest car or to have a private jet (though that would be cool!). We’re looking to provide for our families. We fight hard for work and hustle hard every single day because we know our livelihoods depend on it. I became a better, a greater businesswoman when I became a mom because it wasn’t about ME anymore, it was about my family, my babies. Working hard is a passion because we know a lot rides on working hard, but most of all… we didn’t stop finding what we love to do. I couldn’t wake up every single day and push push push if I didn’t love what I do. And I love doing it with Vera. She makes it fun, she makes it worthwhile. We pick each other up when we’re down and cheer each other on. We’re in it together.

We all work hard.
We all strive to be the best we can be.
We all wake up ready to tackle a to-do list.
We all are passionate about what it is that we’re working on.
We all are entrepreneurs living the dream and trying to make it happen to the best of our abilities.

Accepting this award was humbling because I wasn’t expecting it.

We work hard with our heads down and just trying to do what we can do. We never, ever look for someone to recognize it, just be (hopefully) inspired and motivated.

Thank you to all the entrepreneurs out there kicking butt, making all of us dream bigger and strive harder! And thank you for spotlighting us, it means more than words can express.

We all give ourselves the Permission to Hustle.