Picture this: I’m sitting in a cubicle, mascara running, crying at work.

Not because my boyfriend ghosted me or because Starbucks ran out of oat milk. Nope. I was crying because my boss told me I’d never be promoted again.

Why? Not because I wasn’t smart enough. Not because I wasn’t talented enough. Oh no. The crime? I “smiled too much.”

Yes, you heard that right. Apparently, joy is a liability in Corporate America.

So, what did I do? Well, first—I ugly-cried like I was auditioning for a soap opera. Then, I marched back in with the same smile that got me blacklisted, and slapped my resignation letter on his desk.

He looked me dead in the eye and said, “You can’t quit. No one will ever pay you this much money at 40 years old.”

And I—full of sass and zero plan—shot back: “Not only will I replace this income, I’ll DOUBLE it!”

Spoiler alert: I did. But let me tell you, it wasn’t a smooth yellow brick road to Oz.

I tried MLM. I crushed sales records, won awards, took the free trips, but guess what? I barely made enough profit to keep the lights on. Corporate Kathy was gone, but Broke Kathy was very much alive.

So, I followed my husband to Nova Scotia, where I took six months to breathe, reset, and read every self-help book that didn’t throw itself off the shelf first.

That’s when it happened—I helped a realtor fix his website. He paid me. Then he hired me again. Suddenly, I was working from home, running his marketing. And one day he said, “Kathy, you’re a Virtual Assistant.”

A what? I had no idea what that was. So I Googled it. And boom—light bulb moment. I realized I had accidentally fallen into the business I was meant to run.

And because I don’t do anything halfway, within three years I built a six-figure VA business. From a tiny cabin. In the middle of a Missouri national forest. Wearing pajamas. And yes—always my tiara.

That meant I had officially doubled my corporate salary—and done it on my terms.

But here’s the kicker. Women started calling me from all over North America saying, “Kathy, how do I do what you do? How do I escape the cubicle, work in my PJs, and make real money?”

So in 2008, I launched Virtual Expert® Training. I started teaching women how to build their own freedom-based businesses. And it took off. Thousands of women later, I can tell you—this isn’t just a business. It’s a movement.

And let me make one thing crystal clear: the very thing that got me shut down in corporate—the laughing, the smiling too much—that’s my superpower.

Today, I’m laughing all the way to the bank. In my pajamas. With a tiara. Because when you become a powerful woman, you make your own rules. And my rule is this:

Never let anyone tell you you’re too much. That’s exactly how much you’re meant to be.