Exit

The exit time for A Gutsy Girl has come.

And yet, when I chose my word for 2024: ELEVATE, I never saw it coming.

Here I am, only about a month removed, but this ship has set sail.

It’s not yet landed, but she’s off.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

THIS was the first “blog” post I ever wrote at 6:44am from the first house we lived in California.

Going back and searching for that post felt something magical.

In fact, when I read these words I was bursting with what I didn’t know could be massive tears or an abundance of gratitude:

I had a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy 5 years ago; my problems mostly began after that. I have all stomach and oral problems. I have gone to multiple doctors and dentists, only to be put on more medication, given more tests and no hope. No one knew what was going on and most just thought I was crazy.

Nonetheless, I finished reading the post, and then made note that I stayed on the Blogger platform through Tuesday, August 10, 2010.

That post was very simple,

I’VE MOVED!
Thank YOU for being such a great, dedicated follower of my Blog! I’ve MOVED!!!! As of today, this Blog will no longer be used (except for post-archiving purposes). Come join me on our BRAND NEW SPOT….sarahkayhoffman.com

So We Moved

And I wrote my first post, titled, My First Half Marathon Success Story, on October 18, 2009.

Two things:

1. I have no idea how or why there is this odd timing overlap.
2. In the beginning of moving over to a more professional website and platform, it was sarahkayhoffman.com

But nonetheless, I wrote there from October 18, 2009 until….

A Gutsy Girl was born

Date of birth: April 11, 2012, titled: The End of This Road.

Re-reading that post gives me all the feels. I’m taken back to a time when I couldn’t see all the things I have now today.

The end of this road signified the end to our 4-year journey trying to get pregnant with the culmination of a failed IVF that not only wrecked my heart, but would also continue to see me downward spiral with health issue after health issue.

And in that post, I stated,

By embracing the end, we are also able to welcome a new beginning.

Realizing that the end to one road always leads to the beginning of another reminded me that by the grace of God, in due time….A Gutsy Girl always finds her way.

The team who helped me with all the back end things also helped me move to agutsygirl.com.

[Today I own sarahkayhoffman.com, but it’s my main professional “house.”]

And by this point on the journey, I was personally just getting started, but I KNEW with full conviction who and what the A Gutsy Girl brand was trying to speak to and reach.

I stated,

No matter what you look like, where you come from, or anything else that might make us different, neither digestive disorder/disease nor infertility will discriminate.

This I know for sure.

12+ Years Later

And here we are. 12 years later. What a wild journey it has been!

The highlights:

• Being featured in USA Today
• Partnering with some of the top gut-health brands and experts
• Launching a podcast
• Creating my own supplement line in conjunction with one of the most well-known supplement brands on the marketplace
• Developing and launching my own gut-healing journal
• Speaking to the international Danone marketing teams
• Being invited to join a Mesa focus group
• Getting a book published with Callisto Media
• Self-publishing my signature book, A Gutsy Girl’s Bible
• Trademarking A Gutsy Girl

But honestly? All of those are nice accomplishments, and yet, these are the things I will likely remember most:

• Ryan and I were traveling once and, while in a parking lot, a younger woman came up to me. She said, “Are you A Gutsy Girl?” I responded, “Yes.” She said, “I’ve been following you for years. You have helped me so much.”
• The hundreds (maybe thousands?) of personal emails and private messages women have sent to me from all over the world giving gratitude for how my work has changed their lives.
• Building something from nothing.
• Growing within a topic that women (at least way back then) never talked about.
• NEVER “selling out” or shilling products I didn’t believe in, despite being approached hundreds of times by people and brands – just to make a quick buck.

Ready to Sell

But alas, the time has come.

And A Gutsy Girl is on the market for sale.

Losing my dad to Colon Cancer was really something else that did a number on my entire life.

While his passing due to Colon Cancer and the irony that was is not lost on me, I cannot deny the fact that I changed so much since then.

At this point, I could probably write a book with all that’s happened from then until now. And here’s the thing, the sum of those pieces and parts have nothing to do with A Gutsy Girl.

I’ve disconnected what was once this huge passion for helping and my own journey I’m now traveling.

I was recently talking to another gut-focused entrepreneur.

Her words hit me hard:

I don’t know if you feel the same but I found that the longer I had been healthy, the less I related to the person that had been sick, and it was getting harder and harder for me to be passionate about it.

I am her. And I am there.

I have a whole new world and gamut of current realities where I’m living in the now and honestly? They don’t align any more with the woman I wanted to help most in this lifetime.

I thought I’d always be sick with gut issues. By the grace of God, the health journey I committed to, and the foundations I strive to teach daily to the community, I am not.

But I believe, with everything I have that the work I did was and is so important. And if someone else can take it and run, then surely my work was all worth it.

What’s Next?

I’m only focusing on the sale of A Gutsy Girl right now.

And navigating the emotions that are so tied up in that.

Honestly? I’m not sure who or what I am without “her” – such a huge part of my life.

But again,

Everything is beautiful in its time.

And only time will tell.

Xox,

SKH