72: The Truth About Quitting Your Business for a 9-to-5 with Jemilla Mills-Smith
The most underrated business strategy nobody wants to talk about...
There are certain opinions on the internet that feel almost illegal to say out loud.
Here’s one of mine: Sometimes the smartest thing you can do for your business... is get a job.
Not because you’ve failed and not because you aren’t cut out for entrepreneurship.
But because sometimes stability is the thing your creativity has been begging for.
That was the biggest takeaway from this week’s conversation with my friend, Jemilla.
She left corporate to pursue acting and run her business full-time. On paper, it was exactly what so many of us dream about.
But then real life showed up, as it does!!
She wasn’t producing the quality of work she knew she was capable of, and eventually she made a decision that the internet rarely celebrates.
She went back to corporate, not because she’d failed.
Because she needed room to breathe.
Rapid-fire squirrel brain questions 🐿️
Here’s all the fun things we learned about Jemilla:
If she could gather “nuts” like a squirrel: TikTok bookmarks (organized into collections she'll definitely look at one day).
If she had to get a phrase tattooed on her face: "Leave this world better than how you found it."
What would be in the museum gift shop dedicated to her: Caramel, oysters, fantasy novels, Tic Tacs, Mentos, and extra butter movie popcorn, which honestly feels aggressively on brand.
Her walkout song: Take Me Away by Fefe Dobson or I Am a Poseur by X-Ray Spex.
The internet has made stability feel embarrassing
I think one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves as entrepreneurs is that going back to a 9–5 means you’ve somehow failed.
Like there’s this invisible hierarchy where running your business full-time is the gold medal, and accepting a salaried job means you’ve admitted defeat.
For Jemilla, the decision had nothing to do with whether she loved entrepreneurship. She loved building Storyteller Studios. She loved acting. She loved creating content.
What she didn’t love was the pressure.
Money had become so stressful that it started affecting the quality of her work. She noticed it. Her friends noticed it. Even her clients could tell she wasn’t creating at the level she knew she was capable of.
And I think that’s the part of entrepreneurship people don’t talk about enough: financial stress doesn’t just affect your bank account.
It affects your creativity.
It affects your confidence.
It affects the way you show up for your clients.
At some point, you’re no longer building your business from a place of excitement. You’re building it from survival mode.
Sometimes your nervous system needs a paycheck.
One thing that really stuck with me was when Jemilla said that going back to corporate wasn’t about taking the easy way out.
It was about giving herself enough stability to actually produce work she was proud of again.
And I think we underestimate how exhausting uncertainty can be.
Your brain never really gets to rest.
The irony is that so many of us start businesses because we want freedom.
Then we accidentally build lives where we’re more mentally trapped than we ever were in corporate.
But, before anyone starts romanticising office life...
Jemilla was also very clear that corporate comes with its own challenges.
She talked about office politics, endless approval processes, navigating spaces where she’s often the only Black woman in the room, and the emotional labour that comes with that experience. She also reminded me that finding a corporate job isn’t exactly as simple as deciding you want one. The role she eventually accepted took six months of applications and interviews before it finally happened.
Sometimes online conversations make it sound like you either “take the leap” into entrepreneurship or “just go get a job.”
Neither path is easy.
You’re simply choosing which challenges you’re more equipped to handle right now.
As Jemilla put it: Pick your poison.
I think that’s one of the most realistic business lessons I’ve heard all year.
Your best work needs room to breathe.
Later in the conversation, I asked how she manages everything she’s juggling now.
A full-time job. Storyteller Studios. Content creation. Acting. Writing. Being a functioning human.
Her answer surprised me because it wasn’t some elaborate productivity system.
She simply said: “I take my time.”
That sentence has been rattling around in my head ever since, because we spend so much time rushing ourselves.
But nobody knows whether it took you fifteen frantic minutes or three thoughtful days to create something.
They only see the finished product.
So why are we always racing ourselves?
Plot your life. Schedule your rest.
Toward the end of the episode, Jemilla shared one piece of advice I think every ambitious woman needs to hear.
She said to plot every minute of your life on a calendar...
...and make sure at least 20% of those minutes are rest.
Not because rest is something you earn, but because it’s something your work depends on.
POINT OF THE STORY
Everybody’s capacity is different, and you don’t have to tough it out just because someone else thinks you should.
Love you, mean it. 🖤
JEMILLA LINKS
— Follow Jemilla on Instagram, Youtube, and Tiktok
— Stalk her website
— Check out her Content Creator Mini Course, Hub, & Idea Vault
—Join her Monthly Content Days (Membership)
— Her walkout songs: song 1 + song 2
BTL LINKS
— All of my website copy resources: betweenthelinescopy.com/web-copy
— All of my email marketing resources: betweenthelinescopy.com/email-marketing
— Take my website copywriting course: betweenthelinescopy.com/sprint
— Sponsor this podcast (or my newsletter!): betweenthelinescopy.com/sponsorships
— Follow me on Instagram at instagram.com/btlcopy OR instagram.com/capecodcierge
— Subscribe to my marketing newsletter at www.betweenthelinescopy.com/subscribe
— Subscribe to my ADHD newsletter at bysarajoelle.substack.com
— Subscribe to my copywriter-only newsletter at btlcopy.myflodesk.com/open-loop
— Subscribe to my designer-only newsletter at btlcopy.myflodesk.com/for-designers
— Check out my website at www.betweenthelinescopy.com
OTHER LINKS
— Point of the Story Guest Walkout Songs Playlist
— Grab my 30-Day Subscriber Challenge
This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.