Rebecca Whitman is the founder of Balanced, Beautiful, Abundant. She believes that you can grow your dream without giving up your current source of stability. She teaches that ambition and security can live side by side. She is an award-winning life coach, bestselling author, and host of a popular podcast. Her work centers on helping overworked women move away from stress and exhaustion. With her 7 Pillars of Abundance, she shows them how to care for their spirit, body, emotions, love life, mind, community, and money. Rebecca once walked the same path. She built her side hustle while holding a sales job. She grew it step by step until it became her main career.
In this interview, Rebecca talks about the joy of steady progress and shows how abundance starts from within.
Rebecca, you emphasize the importance of stability while pursuing ambition. In a culture that glorifies quitting to “go all in,” why do you believe keeping a job can actually accelerate success and confidence when starting a side hustle?
Rebecca Whitman: Most business coaches say you have to go all in to become successful. This is true for men who work well with cortisol as a motivating factor. When women are stressed, they end up burning out, getting sick, and being exhausted. When you keep your job, you can pay all your bills and use your excess energy to create a business that is sustainable for the long term.
Many people see their full-time job as an obstacle to freedom. How do you help clients reframe their current employment as an asset, providing structure, skills, or financial grounding that can fuel their business growth?
Rebecca Whitman: Your job is what is putting food on the table and paying for your family’s medical bills. Somebody else took a risk to create a framework lease of space, pay for taxes, and all you have to do is show up. You are also meeting people that you would not normally meet, and all business comes from conversation. And you are learning and honing viable skills that will help you and your own business endeavors.
You coach people to build side hustles strategically rather than impulsively. What financial, emotional, and professional benchmarks should someone meet before considering leaving their job?
Rebecca Whitman: You should not leave your job until you feel that you can make at least the same, if not more money, and do it in a way where you can still have all seven pillars of abundance in alignment. The seven pillars of abundance are: spirituality, fitness, emotions, romance, mindset, social, and financial life.
One challenge many face is exhaustion, trying to excel at work while nurturing a new business. What systems, boundaries, or daily rituals do you recommend to stay productive without burning out or compromising quality in either area?
Rebecca Whitman: Time blocking is essential. If you can block out a minimum of 25 minutes up to an hour a day to work on your business, you can make major headway. Even if you only do one power hour a week over a year, that’s over 50 hours dedicated to your own business. Look at your schedule and see where you can fit your own business into small time blocks. If you can do more on your day off, then make that a focus day and really make headway in your own business. But make sure your schedule includes a play day or half a play day so you don’t burn out. On your play day, you don’t look at your phone or computer, and you do something that really creates joy in your life. It could be spending time with your family, taking your dog on a hike, having a spa day, or even having a staycation and just staying at home and watching TV.
You often say abundance is about harmony across life’s pillars, not just wealth. How does keeping a job while building a business encourage emotional security, purpose, and long-term abundance rather than short-term gain?
Rebecca Whitman: Keeping a job while building a business helps you feel safe, not like you’re putting it all on the line. You want to create business from contribution, not from desperation; people can smell fear and will be repelled if you are not truly in it to help them. When you don’t have a consistent income coming in, someone becomes the difference between eating and not eating, and that is not good for you or your potential client.
Finally, for those standing at the crossroads with a stable job on one side and a growing side hustle on the other, what mindset or signs confirm it is truly time to transition, and how can they do it with grace instead of fear or haste?
Rebecca Whitman: If you feel that you have to make a decision between a job and a side hustle, ask yourself if the income of the side hustle is consistent enough to sustain your lifestyle. You should stay at a job until you feel like it’s just not worth the paycheck. Your emotional well-being and inner peace have no price tag. It’s OK to have more than one side hustle if you really hate your job, so that you can leave it faster, too. I encourage my coaching clients to have three to five streams of income.
Conclusion
Rebecca Whitman shows how success should feel calm, not frantic. She encourages women to grow with patience and confidence. Her life shows that dreams do not require sudden action. They grow through small but brave choices. Her 7 Pillars of Abundance give structure to an overwhelming process. With each pillar, the load becomes lighter. The path becomes clear. Rebecca’s influence is massive. People enter her programs in distress. They leave with new habits, healthier relationships, and fresh energy. Some find love. Some find financial strength. Some find both. Rebecca shows you can build your future with love.
