A MUST READ: Check Out how Jenn Scalia's made $500k In 2 Years from $0

Business coach Jenn Scalia helps female digital entrepreneurs blow up their businesses. They listen to her, not only because she is so effective, but because she blew up her own business– almost overnight.

A little more than two years ago, Scalia, now 34, was a married mom earning $38,000 per year as a social media marketing strategist for an Atlantic City, N.J., casino, when she found herself unemployed, divorced, and living with her strict Puerto Rican parents. “I was miserable,” she says today.

Within two years, some trial and error, and lots of internal work, Scalia this year will bill $500,000 — $400,000 of it profit. Like many women I encounter, she found that her divorce from a toxic relationship was the catalyst for driving her to professional and financial greatness. Here is our conversation:

Tell me a bit about what it felt like during your divorce in terms of money and business. What were your fears? What was the best-case scenario in your mind at the time? When I was going through my divorce, I was also starting my business. Finances were a huge deal on both fronts. Even on the brink of separation, I convinced my husband to let me borrow his credit card to make my first big investment — $2,000 for Marie Forleo’s B-School. I hoped I would be able to make the money back right away but that didn’t happen as quickly as I’d hoped. In the divorce negotiations there was a lot of back and forth over our debts — $60,000 total — and who owed what. It’s actually crazy to realize now that we had no assets together, but we had all that debt. My best hope at that time was that I would be able to earn $5,000 per month so that I could maintain the home my son and I lived in and start paying off some of the credit card and car loans.

How did money and career play out during your marriage? Do you feel your husband and you had the same money mindset and supported each others’ career goals?  Money was always an issue in my marriage, as well as in all of my relationships, including with my parents. Most of our arguments were about money. Money was always a daunting or a negative force in my life. During my marriage, money really was the root of our problems.

In the beginning, we did have the same money mindset – a broke mindset! We literally never had enough money. Even if we would get a Christmas bonus or cash gift, it would be gone instantly. Any significant purchase would be a big deal, and we never went on vacations. When I started to break out of that, and see more possibilities for myself and my future, it drove an even bigger wedge in between us. I would constantly nag at him to get another job because he wasn’t making enough money to support our family. I was taught that it was the man’s job to make the money and provide for the family. Ever since I was a little girl, I was told to find a rich man to marry.

What was the single most important thing that happened after your divorce that turned your career and finances around? To be honest, I hit rock bottom. I was always hanging on a wing and a prayer that things would work out, financially. Because previously, I always had been. But this time was different. I didn’t make a profit in my business fast enough, I could no longer afford to pay my bills and I had to move back in with my parents. Becoming a boomerang kid at the time, was one of my biggest failures. Looking back now, it was the best thing that could have happened. Since I didn’t have to worry about rent, and my parents helped so much with my son, I was allowed to focus 100 percent on my business. It allowed me to be creative, take risks and my business flourished because of it.

Source: Forbes / Personal Finance