Kolby built the life she always wanted—but never thought possible.
Kolby Moser, Aria Studios
Honolulu, HI
A business that consumed her life.
Kolby never thought she wanted to be an entrepreneur. But when circumstances in her life inspired her to pursue a career doing something she really loved—connecting with people through storytelling—she started a video production company. And immediately, the work started rolling in. But without any systems in place, her entire operation quickly became dependent on Kolby being there to make sure things were done right.
My comfort zone was to be busy all the time, and that’s how I ran my company. It was chaotic, but I didn’t really see a problem with it…because that was my life, my whole life.
Kolby Moser, Aria Studios
Starting a family changed everything.
Kolby loved her business and felt like a big sister to her entire team, including her younger brother, who she’d hired to help. She took on full responsibility to care for her team—which meant working 80–100 hours per week. Then, she and her husband had their first child, and everything changed. It quickly became clear that this way of working wasn’t sustainable with a young family. She couldn’t put the same hours into the business she was used to, and as a result, everything started falling apart. Kolby wanted her business to survive, but she also wanted to give her little girl—and eventually, her second little girl—the childhood she deserved. So something had to give.
I knew I needed to get my life together for them, because I’m their ultimate role model. I’m a mom to these precious girls and they didn’t ask for a stressed out mom, a mom who is always on her phone. They just wanted me and they just wanted me to be happy. I needed to figure out how to do that.
Kolby Moser, Aria Studios
Creating freedom through structure.
Kolby’s EMyth Coach, Rachel, helped her see how most of her business issues stemmed from her underdeveloped leadership. Working 100 hours a week was actually hurting Kolby’s business, not helping it thrive. Together, they built the systems that freed Kolby from her business’ dependency on her and allowed her team to grow into leaders Kolby could trust to do things her way.
We kept coming back with the same issues—we want to make more money or we’re not happy with this other person’s work—and during my first few talks with Rachel, I realized that it was because my team didn’t have a manager. I’m their leader, but I was expecting them to manage themselves.
Kolby Moser, Aria Studios
Three factors for success
Create a team you can trust.
Kolby always treated her team like family, which is an incredible value but isn’t effective if you can’t also provide the clear management structure a team needs to succeed. Kolby realized that in order to build a team she trusts, she had to become a leader they could trust. So she focused on being the leader and mentor her team needed to do the work without her.
Structure leads to freedom.
In order to get free of her business’ dependency on her, Kolby had to build clear systems that would allow her team to replicate her way with or without her there to help them. But this structure didn’t just free Kolby—it also allowed her team to feel confident in producing the results expected of them.
Decide what matters.
Success is subjective. Kolby needed to define what success meant to her to get clear about how to achieve it. She realized that what she really wanted was to be present for her children and provide them with the life she’d always dreamed of. So she built a business that allowed her to do that.
Proud leader and mother.
Today, Kolby lives a life she never could have imagined. She and her family moved back to her beloved hometown of Wimea, Hawaii. She travels once or twice a month to visit Aria Studios in Oahu and focuses on the work she’s passionate about. She spends the rest of her time being a mother to her two girls, giving them the childhood she always wanted for them.
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