I Birthed This Baby: Learning How to Build a Business Without Losing Myself

There are days when I ask myself, “How can I continue making Meal Prep by Cort better while staying within my financial boundaries?”

I want my business to remain in the black for most of the year. The truth is, I have not reached that goal yet—and some of that is my own fault.

That is not easy for me to admit publicly.

Meal Prep by Cort has come a long way, but staying afloat is still a struggle. I am learning more about business, and that is one of the positive parts of this journey. I love learning something new and then applying it to help my business grow. But even with everything I have learned, it still feels like something is lingering beneath the surface—something I cannot quite put my finger on yet.

Maybe it is a business decision I need to make.

Maybe it is a habit I need to change.

Maybe it is simply another lesson I have not fully learned yet.

Whatever it is, I am determined to find it.

Yes, I Fail Too

As a business owner, it can be tempting to only show the good parts—the new clients, successful events, beautiful meals, exciting opportunities, and moments when everything appears to be coming together.

But that is not the entire story.

I fail.

Sometimes I fail more than once at the same thing. That does not only happen in my business; it happens in my personal life too.

I make mistakes. I spend money when I should have waited. I sometimes know what I need to do but struggle to follow through. I have received good advice and did not always listen the first time. Then, after learning the hard way, I found myself doing exactly what someone had suggested.

Growth can be funny like that.

The important thing is that I am becoming more willing to look honestly at my decisions. I am learning that building a successful business requires more than passion and a good product. It also requires discipline, boundaries, patience, planning, and the willingness to make uncomfortable changes.

This Time, I Did Not Quit

Meal Prep by Cort is especially meaningful to me because I used to start things and quit when they became difficult.

But I could not do that with this business.

I birthed this baby.

Meal Prep by Cort was born from my personal journey—from weighing 274 pounds to losing 100 pounds, learning how to prepare healthier meals, and eventually competing in bodybuilding competitions. It grew from my desire to help other people eat better and work toward their own health and fitness goals.

If I walked away as soon as things became hard, it would feel like I had given up again. I could not allow this dream to become another unfinished chapter in my life.

So I kept going.

I kept going when the money was tight. I kept going when I questioned myself. I kept going when things did not work the way I planned. I kept going through the failures, changes, disappointments, and lessons.

And I am still going.

The Part of Me I Miss

There is also another truth I have been carrying: I miss competition preparation.

Bodybuilding was my expensive hobby, but it was also a major part of my life. I miss training with a purpose. I miss the discipline, the routine, and watching my body change through consistent work.

I do not work out like I used to because my business comes first. I understand why I made that choice, but if I am completely honest, it is killing me deep inside.

Fitness was not just something I did. It was part of the woman I fought to become.

Now I am learning that growing Meal Prep by Cort cannot mean completely losing Cortrice. My business deserves my commitment, but I deserve care too. I am still trying to figure out what that balance looks like. I may not be able to return to competition preparation exactly as I did before, but I hope I can find my way back to the part of myself that felt strong, focused, and alive.

Still Learning, Still Building

I brainstormed for days about what to write for this blog. I tried to think of different topics, but this is what I kept coming back to. Maybe that is because this is the story I needed to tell right now.

I do not have a perfect ending because I am still living it.

I am still learning how to operate within my financial boundaries. I am still working toward keeping the business in the black. I am still trying to identify what is holding me back. And I am still learning how to build my dream without sacrificing every other part of myself.

But I am no longer the woman who automatically quits when things get rough.

Failure may be part of my story, but quitting does not have to be.

Meal Prep by Cort is still here. I am still here. As long as I am willing to learn, adjust, and keep moving forward, this story is not over.

Sharing this part of my journey may not make me look like the perfect business owner—but it makes me human. Behind every meal, social media post, event, and business decision is a real person trying to figure things out. I have dreams, fears, financial worries, personal sacrifices, and moments when I question whether I am doing enough.

I also have hope.

Maybe success is not about never failing. Maybe it is about becoming honest enough to acknowledge the failure, courageous enough to learn from it, and committed enough to try again.

I am not perfect, and neither is my journey. I am simply a woman who created something special, refuses to give up on it, and is learning how to grow her business without losing herself along the way.

That is what I am doing—one lesson, one meal, one decision, and one very human day at a time.