In the world of online business, we’re often told the path to growth is simple: partner with bigger names, promote more launches, climb more leaderboards.
But sometimes the real outlier move isn’t playing the game better. It’s deciding not to play that game at all.
My name was on the leaderboard. Top five. It should have felt like a win.
Instead, it felt like a punch in the gut.
I had played full out in a big-name JV promotion, showing up generously, sharing the offer with my audience, doing everything I could to support the launch.
When the promotion ended, I checked the leaderboard and smiled.
#3 among the top five.
Then I looked closer.
Commissions would only be paid to affiliates who referred 15 or more sales.
Only two people crossed that threshold.
One of them was the host.
The same host whose reputation drew hundreds of partners into the promotion. The same host whose platform we believed would help lift ours.
That’s when the truth hit me.
The leaderboard wasn’t celebrating partners. It was theater.
I remember whispering something to myself that day:
“No more.”
For more than a decade, I had said yes to JV partnerships. I believed in collaboration and shared success.
But cancer had already reset my tolerance for nonsense.
In 2022, after facing my own mortality and hearing the words “no evidence of disease,” I made sweeping changes.
We sold our home in the rainy Pacific Northwest and moved to sunny Tucson, Arizona. We adopted a puppy.
I shut down my low-ticket offers and launched a high-end mastermind rooted in joy, depth, and alignment.
Most importantly, I stopped participating in business arrangements that felt transactional.
I was no longer available for that.
Not in business. Not in life.
When that promotion left such a bitter taste, I made a declaration.
I was going on a JV Diet.
No more chasing the next big-name collaboration. No more promotions that felt like popularity contests disguised as opportunity.
Only real relationships. Only full-body yeses. Only aligned moves from here on out.
Something surprising happened.
When I stopped chasing other people’s platforms, space opened up for something better.
I began receiving invitations to serve as paid faculty inside respected programs. Not because I paid a sponsorship fee, but because leaders I admired and respected valued what I bring to the table.
My own offers began attracting the right clients. The kind who energizes the work instead of draining it.
Turns out, when you stop waiting for someone else to elevate you, a funny thing happens. You start building something of your own.
These days, I’m happily married, debt-free, running a business I love, surrounded by clients I admire, and doing work that feels meaningful.
That’s wealth on every level.
If I could whisper one thing to the earlier version of myself, the one chasing the next big-name collaboration, it would be this:
Believe in your own magic sooner.
Because the moment you stop waiting for someone else to lift you up…
You become the outlier.
Lesson Learned.
You don’t need someone else’s platform to validate your voice.
Create your own opportunities. Lead from your values. Build your business and your life on terms you can feel proud of.
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Author Bio
Nancy Juetten is a messaging strategist, regret prevention advocate, and founder/leader of the Ruby Slipper Collective. This is an intimate mastermind through which accomplished women entrepreneurs design their next magnificent chapters in life and work and bring their new dreams to life together.
