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The inspiration to start your own business is often deeply personal and can come from totally unexpected places. Nine years ago, Chanel Reynolds' husband, Jose, died suddenly in an accident. In the midst of her grief she realized that she was totally unprepared for the new reality in which she found herself; a reality defined as much by loss and mourning as by a mountain of paperwork, guesswork and financial duress.
As she worked her way through it all, she began sharing all that she learned through a blog, Get Your Shit Together. Something about her story, combined with her talent for creating simple, useful tools, struck a chord. She began to hear from hundreds of other people who either shared her experience or were motivated to get their own shit together.
Since that time, Chanel has continued motivating people to take the essential--but remarkably difficult--step of preparing for their own deaths as an act of love and caring for those who they will inevitably leave behind.
She's done this through a business, GYST.com, as well as through her writing, which includes a new book, What Matters Most, coming out next month.
In our conversation, Chanel talks about her own struggle to find the right balance between something so deeply personal that has now also become professional. This is a balance that anyone running a mission-oriented business faces, and as Chanel demonstrates, it takes courage and honesty to get it right.
You can read more about Chanel in this recent New York Times article and pre-order her book at IndieBound and Amazon.
