Sheryl Sandberg once said that “who you marry is the single most important career decision you make.” And I believe that. I sometimes wonder if I ever would have started my business if I hadn’t had such a supportive husband, who really believes in what I’m doing and me. A study of Harvard Business School grads (where Sandberg went, actually) found that husbands – not kids – were more likely to hold women back from job success. I’m not here to get into a dissertation on that, but I preface what I’m about to tell you with it because this past weekend, I had a very important business revelation, and it was thanks to my husband.

We talk a lot about my business, he and I. He’s successful in his own career and has a gift for sales. He’s basically my mentor in that department, because I SUCK at it. I feel awkward and uncomfortable selling, and maybe that’s why I prefer to sell from behind a computer and through online marketing, instead of face to face. It’s always been a challenge for me, even though I’ve gotten so much better over the years. I admit, there was a time when I first began when I felt like my husband could sell my products 100x better than I could, and I would make him come to every market and trunk show with me. Now I’m pretty well equipped on my own, but he’s still the master in that department.

We were having kind of an intense cuteheads conversation. I was explaining to him how I felt like a lot of things were changing, and that I was on the brink of some big things. He always encourages me to go out and get an order for 100 pieces — selling to stores instead of directly to customers – and while I know that’s an amazing way to grow, I have grown my business in other ways. My retail business is strong, even though it’s taken a long time to get to this point. Probably longer than it should have taken. And through talking to him, I finally realized and even said out loud what was holding me back: fear. I said to him (and didn’t even know I was thinking these things) that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to take an order of that size, or any size, over 1 piece. I’m afraid of scaling up. I’m afraid of having to hire a bunch of employees. Payroll. Operations. The whole thing… it’s really, really scary to me. But mostly, I’m scared I just won’t be able to deliver.

And what he said to me was this: “Whatever orders you get, we will figure it out. I want you to call me one day and say, ‘I just took an order that I have NO idea if I can handle.’ And we’ll handle it.”

That was a lightbulb moment for me. An “Aha” moment, if you’re an Oprah fan (I’m not, but I know she says that, ha). Whatever happens, I will figure it out, just like I’ve figured everything else out with this business. I had no idea what I was doing when I started, and now here I am, 4 years later, still doing it, and things are surely headed in the right direction. If I can figure out some of the things I’ve figured out in the past (and there have been some doozies, believe me), I can figure out whatever else comes my way.

And hey, if it’s an order for a thousand pieces from Nordstrom, we’ll make it work, right? 😉

I ask you: What’s holding YOU back?