Our Story

Brief Summary: LearnDoBecome isn’t here because Eric and I have had challenge-free, perfect lives and “want to show you how to do it, too.” It’s quite the opposite, actually. We have lived through being stuck in repetitive cycles of overwhelm and “just getting by” for years, and now that we have learned and grown through those experiences and are able to focus each day on creating an “architected life” we truly love, it is our hope and mission to strengthen YOU in your journey. Below is a little of our story.

Back in 2006, Eric and I had tried to work hard and do everything “right”–and to others it may have seemed that way. College, marriage, work, grad school, three beautiful children, our first house, and a solid job. From the outside, it looked like we had things pretty well together. But on the inside, that dream we’d created at the beginning–that we’d wake up excited and go to bed content while doing purposeful work that actually made a difference–seemed so far away.

My mind was constantly spinning in circles. So many to-do lists, piles of stuff, never-ending housework, thousands of emails that had piled up, and a little home office that we never went inside because it was so full of boxes.

The TV distracted and pacified us for hours every night, but we both felt a constant, quiet ache inside. We, and our dreams, were like those boxes in the dark, cluttered office. Full of potential, with no true clarity or energy to bring them to life.

Then one day, as I was starting to figure things out with our children, I told Eric I wanted to start writing–things that would bring support to other mothers so they wouldn’t need to feel as discouraged as I had been. From 6-8pm on Wednesdays, Eric handled the children’s bedtime by himself, and I’d lock myself in our bedroom and type essays and book chapters on our old desktop computer.

That surge of creativity brought hope and optimism back to my life. And, while I was somewhat devastated when I discovered that no one wanted to publish my work, God said, “You don’t have to wait. You can publish yourself.” So, with Eric’s unfailing support and a few hundred dollars, I hired a friend to design a website to help me strengthen mothers. I was weeks away from delivering our fourth child at the time, and, of course, I wondered if anyone would visit it. But when the website “went live,” so did my vision and excitement for the future.

That first year running my website was FUN. Hundreds of mothers joined the community, I finally had a creative outlet that could make a positive difference in the world, and the power of the internet felt like magic. (I continued to run that community with dear friends for over 10 years!)

Eric and I even decided to start a second website to strengthen husbands (and fathers). That was going to be our business. Our independence. Our stake in the ground to create goodness in the world. We gathered a talented design team, spent a significant portion of our savings creating an A-plus customer experience, and even ordered 50,000 postcards to hand out so we could spread the word. We were building something amazing together, and we just knew it was going to take off.

With the 2008 global recession, Eric’s company started offering some severance packages. The company’s leaders wanted Eric to stay, but we were excited about what we were building and hopeful it would be our future, so he was able to persuade them to let him leave with a generous package (for which we were grateful).

And then…everything fell apart.

After a number of months of trying (and hoping and praying the business would work), we made the hard decision to shut it all down and put the 48,761 remaining postcards up in our attic (and there they stayed until we moved, years later…and taking them to the recycler brought back painful memories).

The global recession continued to weaken everything around us. The value of our home plummeted to half of what we had paid for it (and to a level far below the mortgage on it), and there we were–with four little children, no regular income, a tiny bit of savings (shrinking daily), and no idea what we would do next. I remember sometimes we’d wake up at 4am and just lie there holding hands–fairly worried, clinging to each other, and praying that somehow we’d figure a way out.

There wasn’t a “quick fix” or an “overnight sensation” that saved us, but over the next several years, some amazing things happened–some that we influenced, and some that came from power beyond our own.

As I attempted to calm my own mind and bring some sense of order to the chaos around me, I discovered David Allen’s Getting Things Done® methodology, and the moment I understood that everything in my head (and life) could have a landing place, I was a woman on a mission to build this for myself. My family was fully behind me, and I spent a week in my pajamas and served cereal for dinner every night while I built a simple system of paper sorters, files, and lists on a little card table in our bedroom.

By the end of that week, I was a new person! The house became and stayed clean, my head was calm for the first time in years, and I found myself walking from room to room–actually looking for something to do because my simple routines were handling everything. One day, our then 4-year-old son asked me if I could play soccer with him in the backyard, and for the first time in his life, I could give an excited and unstressed YES. My brain was finally letting me relax!

Of course I couldn’t keep the excitement to myself. I started teaching friends how to create their own simple systems (customized to how they thought and worked), I wrote about it on my website for moms, and I took photos and videos demonstrating the process. Then people started sending me photos of their systems. It was incredible!

Meanwhile, Eric was building a number of things, too…clearer financial goals and a simple plan to get us there–complete with monitoring our net worth, simpler ways to track and manage our funds (a better approach to budgeting and cash flows), solid, conservative, and well-performing investment practices, new employment and income generation, and creative entrepreneurial ideas to get us completely out of debt.

During this period, he (and we) read many of the classic books on personal finance. On one date night to the bookstore, we bought Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, and when we got home, we created a “debt snowball” chart on the wall. Then, after brainstorming a new platform idea for months, we sat down one evening in July of 2015 and fulfilled a dream by “launching” LearnDoBecome–together. It didn’t look like much, at first, but after all the pain and loss we’d experienced up to that point, we committed to building this online community of new friends and fellow travelers steadily, simply, and with our whole hearts.

My organization system for moms became Steps to Everyday Productivity (the STEP program)–our signature resource that now serves not only moms, but anyone overwhelmed by the details of life. Eric spent some time learning how to run ads online, and together, we have taught over 650 live webinars–and now an on-demand version of that class (How to Finally Stop Drowning in Piles)–to more than a million people around the globe.

Tens of thousands of people have joined our STEP community and become STEPpers, and every day, we receive pictures, stories, and notes from community members who have gotten out of overwhelm and who are feeling their lives unlock. We never get tired of hearing their successes!

But we didn’t stop there. As we watched members of our community build their own STEP systems, we heard them asking the bigger, more important questions: What do I do with my life now that I’m organized? How can I create better balance? How do I create lasting financial independence? How do I make sure my marriage, family, faith, and purpose stay at the center of everything I’m doing? We LOVE these questions–these are the same questions we had been asking ourselves along our journey–and we love the personal introspection, efforts, and results they lead to.

Our ARISE community helps people find their own answers to these questions in an incredibly supportive environment. We dive into monthly topics that blend elements of six core areas of successful living, so we can all truly “wake up excited and go to bed content.” As one example, we often fold in fun ways to improve our personal finances by sharing simple approaches and real stories — from our own lives and those of our children, friends, extended family, and even Eric’s mom, Peg. Peg has become a regular part of our financial conversations since Eric began working with her about six years ago, starting around age 70, to build the strongest financial foundation of her life — proof that it’s never too late! We assure you that you can also make progress in every area of your life. It’s NEVER too late!

Overall, my passion for helping people into more clarity and peace (and out of physical and mental overwhelm)–combined with Eric’s passion for helping people architect their own lives of excellence and meaning as well as achieve their own financial successes–combined with our joint passions for strengthening marriages, families, faith, well-being, and purpose—inspires us every day. We LOVE what we get to do!

Serving this community at LearnDoBecome alongside our wonderful team is genuinely our dream come true. We’re still a work in progress, and there are definitely still hard days (we don’t love those…), but because of the struggle to get here, we promised God and one another that we would never take this gift for granted. We strive to continually invest our best efforts into our people and our work–and we are grateful for how our communities connect and do the same!

And now YOU’RE here…which is perfect. We are so, so thankful that our story and your story have intersected here and now at LearnDoBecome, and we look forward to growing together!

Love,
April, Eric, and Team LearnDoBecome

P.S. If you’re looking for a simple way to get started, here’s a quick overview and some key links!