MY STORY
Hi, I'm Cheryl Ziegler
For years, I showed up to a job that looked fine on paper. Stable salary. Benefits. A title people respected. But inside, I was quietly suffocating. Not dramatically miserable — just slowly eroding. The kind of tired that doesn’t go away with a vacation.
I’d already survived harder things than a career change. A divorce with two small kids. Moving across multiple states — California to Oregon, and to Arkansas. A failed small business in my 40s. I rebuilt my life more than once. I knew I was capable.
But leaving my job? That was different. Because leaving wasn’t just about me. It was about my family’s financial security. The mortgage. The bills. Every time I got close to making a decision, the same question stopped me cold:
“Can I actually afford this?”
I ran the numbers. I had a direction. I knew what I was going to build. And then I left anyway — before every financial piece was perfectly in place. The toxic environment had become something I simply couldn’t stay in any longer.
It worked out. But not without stress, I could have avoided. There were months where I wished I’d had a complete runway plan, a real pricing model, a cash flow projection I could point to. I had the courage. What I didn’t have was the full financial picture mapped out before I walked out the door.
That gap — between knowing you need to leave and knowing exactly what the numbers look like on the other side — is exactly what I couldn’t stop thinking about.
I resigned with a plan, not a prayer. I started my bookkeeping business in 2020. I launched my coaching practice in 2023. I’ve never looked back.
Now I help other women do the same thing. Not with motivation. Not with affirmations. With a financial plan they can hold in their hands and show their spouse at the kitchen table.
Because the biggest barrier to your next chapter isn’t courage. It’s arithmetic.