No one teaches you how to run a business when your life is falling apart.
Until now.
I help Canadian entrepreneurs navigating separation, divorce and other abrupt life shifts to keep their business alive through the hardest season of their lives.
Based in Ontario. Available across Canada virtually.
WHO I HELP
Does this sound like you?
If you are running a business while your personal life is falling apart — you are in the right place. This work exists specifically for you.
A Story That Might Feel Familiar
She closes the door to her home office. Sits down at her desk. Her chest feels heavy in a way she can't quite explain — like grief has taken up physical space inside her and there's not enough room left to breathe properly. She feels herself start to choke up. The tears are right there.
Her relationship ended three weeks ago. The house is going on the market — which means her home office is going too. Her accountant called last week with questions about the business valuation she couldn't answer. Her therapist is wonderful but doesn't understand the business side of the pressure she's carrying.
She keeps splitting herself in two. The personal stuff goes to therapy. The business stuff she handles alone. And the place where those two things collide — which is basically everywhere, all the time — she handles at her desk.
She takes a breath. Because she can't break down right now. She has a client call.
So she pulls herself back. Opens the camera. And she's brilliant. Because she always is.
But nobody sees what happens at that desk before the camera turns on. And nobody sees the exhaustion her body exhales the moment it turns off.
If you recognize yourself in this story — you are in exactly the right place.
This is for you if …
✓ You are a Canadian entrepreneur navigating a separation, breakup or divorce and you are terrified of losing what you have built.
✓ Your therapist doesn't understand the business. Your accountant doesn't understand the human. You need someone who holds both simultaneously.
✓ You need someone in your corner who has actually been in it — not just trained for it — and who will help you survive the messy middle without losing your business.
✓ You are running your business at reduced capacity and hoping nobody notices while privately managing legal appointments, financial negotiations and emotional overwhelm.
✓ You own a service or product-based business, operate as a solopreneur or with a small team, and you have too much to lose to let this season take everything.
✓ You are ready to stop figuring this out alone and start getting the specific, practical, human support your business deserves right now.
THE REALITY
You are not struggling because you are weak.
The numbers tell the real story. Divorce, separation and relationship breakdown hit business owners harder than almost any other life event — and almost no one is specifically equipped to help them through it.
1 in 20
Business owners close their doors entirely due to the financial strain of divorce, separation or break-ups.
57%
Of business owners going through divorce or separation report their company took a direct financial hit.
70%
Say they could not focus on their work the same way during the initial stages of the relationship breaking down.
$4,000
Average monthly revenue decline experienced during break-up, separation and divorce proceedings.
Source: Clarify Capital Survey of 1,000 business owners
You have worked too hard to become a statistic.
And you do not have to figure this out alone.
MY STORY
I've been at that desk too.
When my own relationship ended in 2019, I had to show up for my clients the next morning like my whole world wasn't crumbling.
I managed lawyer appointments between client calls. I answered emails while waiting to hear back from a realtor. I smiled through discovery calls while my phone lit up with messages from friends who had just found out.
My separation was the hardest chapter of my entrepreneurial life. Not because the business problems were insurmountable — but because there was no one who understood both sides. The business that needed to keep running and the human being who was barely holding it together.
My therapist didn't understand the business pressure.
My accountant didn't understand the emotional weight.
My business coach was still talking about growth goals while I was trying to get through the next hour.
I kept the business alive. But I did it completely alone. And nobody should have to do that.
In the years since, I have also lost my father, become a full-time bonus mom to four girls, taken on caregiving responsibilities for my mother, and navigated more identity shifts than I can count — all while running businesses that still needed me to show up.
That lived experience — all of it — is what I bring to this work.
Not just the training.
Not just the twelve years of business coaching.
The real thing. The messy, hard, human thing.
I became who I needed.
And now I am here for you.
EXPERIENCE & BACKGROUND
25+ Years as an entrepreneur with 11 businesses started
12 Years as a business coach supporting hundreds of Canadian business owners to start, grow and expand businesses
9 Years as a Senior Business Development Advisor — business planning, strategy, financial forecasting — for a municipal Small Business Centre
2 Businesses founded from lived experience — Work Smart Canada and Your Business Executor
THE STEADY FRAMEWORK
When your life is falling apart and your business still needs you — you don't need a growth plan. You need to get STEADY.
The STEADY Framework is the methodology at the heart of everything I do. Built from lived experience and 12 years of business coaching, it gives you a practical structure for protecting your business when you are operating at reduced capacity.
S → SIMPLIFY
Systems & Processes
Strip back to what actually matters. Ruthlessly remove complexity so the business can run with less of you for a season.
T → TRIAGE
Urgent vs. Important
Strategically prioritize what needs your attention right now — and give yourself explicit permission to let everything else wait.
E → ESTABLISH
Boundaries
Create and hold boundaries that protect your energy — with clients, with your team, with your own calendar and with the people in your life.
A → ASSESS
Your Capacity
Assess and honour your real capacity limits. Stop planning like a level 8 when you are running on a 4. Your business can only work with what you actually have.
D → DISRUPT
Decision Fatigue
Disrupt overthinking, destructive behaviours and decision fatigue — reduce overwhelm and restore the clarity you need to keep leading your business.
Y → YOUR
Not-To-Do List
Release what isn't yours to carry right now — because letting go is a strategy too. Build your not to-do list and protect your energy for what truly matters.
Download the free one-page STEADY Framework Guide — a practical tool you can use immediately to start protecting your business and your energy.
Coming Soon!
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
Every journey starts with a conversation.
From there, we meet you exactly where you are. Every program is built around your real capacity — not the version of you that existed before everything changed. Pricing is listed transparently because you deserve to know what support looks like before you reach out.
ONE-TIME SESSION
The Clarity Session
A focused 60-minute session to assess your immediate situation, identify what is most critical right now and create a clear two-week action plan.
If you need clarity fast and aren't sure where to start — start here.
What's included:
60-minute virtual session
Business triage assessment
Personalized two-week action plan
Priority and not to-do list
Follow-up summary document
4-WEEK PROGRAM
Business First Response
Immediate triage and stabilization for the acute phase of a relationship breakdown. Stop the ‘bleeding’, protect what matters and create a survival plan that works at the capacity you actually have right now.
What's included:
4 weekly 60-minute sessions
Full business triage intake assessment
Personalized STEADY Framework plan
Between-session support and check-ins
Communication scripts and tools
Priority and not to-do list system
Weekly capacity planning support
12-WEEK PROGRAM
From Survival to Stability
The full 90-day journey. From the initial chaos of separation through the legal and financial complexity to finding a new operating rhythm. This is the program that walks beside you through the entire acute phase — so you don't have to carry it alone.
What's included:
12 weekly 60-minute sessions
Full business triage intake assessment
Personalized STEADY Framework plan
Between-session support access
Bi-weekly check-in prompts
Full resource and tools library
Communication scripts for clients and team
Capacity and decision-making frameworks
Structured final graduation session
ONGOING MONTHLY SUPPORT
The Recovery Retainer
For clients who have completed a program and want continued monthly support as they rebuild. The acute phase has passed — but rebuilding takes time too.
This keeps you connected and supported as your capacity returns and your business grows forward.
What's included:
2 monthly 60-minute sessions
Between-session messaging support
Ongoing access to tools and resources
Monthly capacity and priority review
All programs are available virtually across Canada. Ontario-based clients have the option of in-person sessions for the first meeting.
ALWAYS FREE
Discovery Call
A free 20-30 minute conversation. No pressure. No pitch. Just an honest talk about where you are and whether we are the right fit for each other. This is where everything starts.
Free · 20-30 minutes · Phone or virtual
FREE DOWNLOAD
The STEADY Framework Guide
The one-page practical framework for entrepreneurs who need to get steady before they can think about getting ahead. Download it, print it, put it on your desk.
Free · Instant download
Not sure which program is right for you? Start with a discovery call. We will figure it out together.
FOR REFERRAL PARTNERS
Do you work with business owners going through separation or divorce?
If you are a family lawyer, accountant, financial advisor, therapist or mediator — I would love to be the person you call when your client needs business support.
I fill the gap that nobody else on their team is equipped to fill.
ABOUT JODI LAKING
I became who I needed.
I have been an entrepreneur for 25 years. I have spent 12 years as a business coach helping hundreds of Canadian and global business owners start, grow, scale and protect what they have built. For nine years I worked as a Senior Business Development Advisor for a municipal small business centre — supporting entrepreneurs with business planning, financial forecasting, strategy, and growth across every industry and stage.
I know business. I have lived it from every angle.
But the work I am doing now comes from something deeper than professional experience.
It comes from my own separation — the hardest chapter of my entrepreneurial life — and from everything that came after it.
The loss of my father. Becoming a bonus mom overnight. Caregiving. Identity shifts.
The seasons of life that nobody warns you about and nobody builds support for.
I am not a therapist. I am not a lawyer. I am a business advisor who has survived the messy middle — and who now sits with entrepreneurs while they survive theirs.
You don’t have to keep
figuring this out alone.
If any part of this page felt like it was written for you — it was.
Book a free 20-minute discovery call. No obligation. No pitch. Just an honest conversation about where you are and whether I can help.