The story of how I came to be in a position to own The Well Lived woman is a long one. It involves seeds that were planted years ago, a tumultuous Saturn return, tests trials and tribulations, and finally, finally a return to flow. 

Four years ago I was living a different version of my life. I was a runner and loved lifting weights, going out with friends, traveling, and – for a stint – renovating homes on weekends. Career wise, I wasI’m a management consultant specializing in enterprise technology and analytics strategy. In the years after graduating from college, I found solace in being great at my job - it felt like I finally fit in, I was valued, and the more extroverted side of me blossomed with this validation. 

Yet, I had always been called to creative endeavors and, unknowingly, spirituality. In 2021 I made the move from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, and I had an agenda: work less, enjoy life more, and explore the things that I had long felt drawn to. 

I started taking steps towards those goals, but disentangling myself from the allure and urgency of the consulting lifestyle was not so easy. And life had other plans. In 2022 I contracted COVID for the first (and only) time. Later, in the fall of that year, hit really hard — I had long covid. 

It feels complex to talk about. There are a variety of presentations and there is still so much unknown about the nature of the disease. Put simply, I lost life as I knew it. It hurt to breathe, to move, to think. It felt like my personality, my soul, had left my body and were inaccessible - I was living in a fishbowl looking out at my life but unable to engage with it. 

As my symptoms evolved and eventually slowly improved, losing my sense of self was the hardest part. In mid 2025, I finally started to feel like I was over the worst of it. All the while, I had been thinking about how I could take a different path in life and spend my time on things that I care about. When I had bursts of energy, I was exploring options from real estate investments to other career paths to creative projects. Some of these panned into wonderful opportunities - financially viable, people willing to support me, and, on paper, clear steps towards the life I wanted to build. Yet, somehow, none of them felt quite right. I didn’t feel energized at the thought of shifting my life around to fully pursue them. Many times I questioned if this was just a lack of confidence or self-esteem or even self-worth — whether I should push past those feelings and go after something anyway. Two things kept me from doing that — one being my health. I could no longer just push through the way that I had when I was younger. And two — I was, and am, trying to learn to trust. To trust in the timing of my life and trust in the potential of something that is so aligned there is absolutely no question. 

When Jaimi told me that WLW was for sale, it didn’t immediately occur to me that I could buy it. I’m a naturally curious person, I have plenty of experience in brand positioning and strategy, and most of all I cared A LOT about the future of the Well Lived Woman. I started asking questions and wanted to champion Jaimi in the process any way I could. In a follow up conversation,it hit me - I’d previously thought about buying small businesses or starting my own. Maybe there was potential alignment here. It would be a big jump from thinking and dreaming about something to owning a fully functioning business on my own. I think the first thing I asked was if I could buy into the business and be partners. Butbut Jaimi was very clear that she wanted to focus her energy elsewhere, so that didn’t seem like a feasible path… - but more on that later. In the following weeks and months, I had to really sit with myself and consider: Could I do this on my own? Was I ready for such a big undertaking? Could I handle it health-wise? Could I handle it financially? Could I play all the different roles that would need to be played? 

What was clear was that I wanted to continue exploring the opportunity at every step. I wanted to explore the possibility of taking on a partner to share the undertaking. Although I had logistical reservations, I felt excited on gut level. The Well Lived Woman encompasses what I personally want more of and what I want us all to have more of: Opportunities for growth, connection, exploration. Resources for different seasons. Reminders of the importance of joy. I knew that going through the process was opening my mind to real possibilities and that, in and of itself, was a gift. I was thankful for the experience and honored that Jaimi was considering me as one of the potential buyers early on in the process.

This is where things really got interesting. As mentioned, I had been participating in WLW group for about a year at that point, so Jaimi and I had established a real and transparent way of relating. This led us to be truly honest and forthright with each other. We talked through my hesitations, and she shared with me the more structural parts of the process that felt overwhelming to her. Funny enough, those were the parts that felt easiest to me. 

The truth is, there are very few hard rules in business, and often, in life. There are many standards set by precedent or designed for specific situations, but for the most part, those are just ideas. In the corporate world, it’s common for people to rewrite or ignore these as it suits them. Those people are primarily men.

As women, we were taught to want to do things the “right” way. There can be comfort in having a standard to follow, but we go too far in adhering to them as if they are rules and requirements. 

So Jaimi and I rewrote the playbook of how to buy and sell a business as we went. I am particularly proud of the fact that we both acted in each other's best interest. Jaimi wanted what was best for me even if that meant not buying the business. And I wanted her to feel empowered throughout the sale and to feel that the work she had put in over the years was valued. 

Rather than negotiate in the typical sense, we worked through the transaction as a shared goal. We talked about what we each wanted out of the sale and came to an agreement that worked for both of us. We discussed financial and contractual details with each other first - no surprises through lawyers. We found ways for things that felt important to be preserved in the transaction and live on in its future state. 

Jaimi had planned to rename the WLW Group after the sale. Knowing how special the group is, it was an important resource that I wanted to continue to be available as part of The Well Lived Woman. There was an easy solution: Jaimi kept the rights to use the WLW name for the group and for a book; she owns the groups, and they will continue to be promoted through the WLW. 

With plans for our Topanga location to close, the business was not at its strongest, and would require additional investment to be transitioned into a new space. This reality affected the valuation as well as what I could feasibly offer. But I believed in the value of what Jaimi had built, the ability for it to grow and serve a wider community, and I wanted her to be rewarded when that larger vision comes to fruition. I asked her to maintain a 10% equity interest in the business, in part as a concession in lieu of a higher asking price. It also felt important to me symbolically. It feels important as women to pick up each other’s work when the time comes to set it down and to honor the cycles of our contributions.  

After three months of discussion and consideration, we were both ready to go forward. I took the leap, trusted myself, and became the owner of Well Lived Woman. And that story is just beginning. 

Petkana Vatchev is the new owner of The Well Lived Woman! You can learn more about her in her Living Well Interview, and follow along with her on Instagram.