How a Nurse Quit Her Job to Start a Business and Work Remotely

• Kathleen Cameron was a nurse for 12 years before launching her coaching business. 
• She teaches clients how to become more confident and manifest wealth. 
• Cameron’s company generated more than $11.5 million in revenue last year.

Kathleen Cameron was a nurse for 12 years, worked her way into managerial positions, and held one master’s and two bachelor’s degrees, but she still felt like something was missing in her career. 

“I was still seeking more outside of me,” she told Insider.

Then, she began to meet other mothers at the bus stop dropping off their kids — except, they were building their own online businesses and enjoying flexible schedules.

“I see them posting that they’re at the gym in the middle of the day,” she said. “Here I am working from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. without a lunch break and sitting in meetings all day.”

She realized she could apply her leadership skills to a service-based business that could earn her more than her nursing jobs, while giving her the flexibility to work fewer hours, travel, and spend more time with her kids.

Cameron left healthcare in 2019, worked in network marketing for six months, and then started her career-coaching business, Diamond Academy, in January 2020. She landed her first 100 clients within six months and coaches about 1,000 people across her programs, which include how to manifest wealth, gain self-confidence, become a millionaire, and coach others. 

“I’m really focused on showing people if you want to create more success in your life, you have to start loving the person that you are first,” she said.

And it’s a good time to be a coach: The “Great Resignation” ushered in a new generation of professionals who are seeking better jobs and starting their own businesses to achieve a greater balance between work and fulfillment. 

Though Cameron doesn’t claim to be a business coach (she prefers “transformative coach”), she’s had many female entrepreneurs enroll in her courses.

“They’ll use the program as a means to build the mindset as they branch out into entrepreneurship,” she said. “We help people shift and realize that they feel more secure owning their business than working for someone else.”

Last year, Cameron published her book, “Becoming the One,” and her company generated more than $11.5 million in revenue, which Insider verified with documentation.

As a nurse, Cameron had to book her vacations six months to a year in advance. Now that she’s her own boss, she’s embracing the freedom of traveling more frequently and working from anywhere. When Insider spoke with Cameron, she was in Miami for an event she was hosting and planned to end her workday at 3 p.m. and walk down to the beach to spend the rest of her afternoon.

“I really want to create a life where I can go and do anything, anywhere,” she said. “The old way that I used to live was very structured and rigid.”

Here’s how she spends her day, as told to Insider.

The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.