Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Francesca Delisle of Small Business everywhere

We recently had the chance to connect with Francesca Delisle and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Francesca, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? When have you felt most loved—and did you believe you deserved it?
My husband is MY person. My ride or die. He is the man that loves me and accepts me in every way, all my flaws and all my love. He is my partner in marriage, in parenting, in life, and in business. He believes in me like no one else does.
We have spent our life savings on MySyde. Put another way we have spent our life savings building my dream. The dream and a vision of a business that would help people. A business to help people thrive! He loves me so much he is willing to stand beside me and risk everything!
I am loved more than I can even imagine and I am so grateful for it. Of course I deserve it. We all deserve love.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello, my name is Francesca Delisle, and I am the co-founder and CEO of MySyde.

MySyde is Community Media. Unlike platforms designed to keep you endlessly scrolling, MySyde is built with intention—we want you to use it when you need something hyperlocal. Whether that’s finding an event nearby, connecting with your community, or meeting a neighbor, MySyde is here to bring people together. At our core, we are about community, communication, and connection.

Building community is what we do, wherever we go. My family has lived this mission at home as well—we’ve hosted 19 exchange students from around the world. It has been a gift beyond words. The love, cultural exchange, and lifelong connections we’ve cultivated are more than I could ever quantify. Today, we have family across the globe, and that spirit of connection is exactly what we’ve built into MySyde.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
By nature, I am an Alpha Female. That part of me wasn’t accepted in my home. Growing up, I was told I was wrong—that I wasn’t acting “ladylike,” that I shouldn’t argue or fight back. As I got older, I was told to marry a man with money so I could be taken care of. Those words placed me in a box—a box that, as an adult, I had to deconstruct.

Thankfully, I married a man who truly sees me—who recognized my strength. When we first got married, my husband told me that he should stay home with our babies because, in the long run, I would make more money. At the time, I didn’t believe him. So I pushed him forward. And I kept doing that—for a long time.

I kept doing that until I found myself. Through coaching, deep soul-searching, and exploring both my light and my shadows, I finally uncovered me. I had to unlearn what I had been told my whole life. I stepped fully into my divine feminine, embracing who I was always meant to be.

And still, I continue to BECOME.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering has a way of cutting deep and leaving an imprint. I have been to hell. I have met the devil. And because of that, there is nothing anyone can do to me now that will break me. I have already been broken. I have already lost everything.

Now, when I work and when I build, I do it with a hunger you cannot imagine. My fear is gone. That fear was born from my desperate need for safety—a safety I never had as a child. It was my ego’s way of protecting me.

But now, I am SAFE. I know that I am the one I needed as a child. I am my own defender. I am my own liberator.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My tribe would tell you that my family is what matters most to me. They would tell you that they matter to me. And they would be right.

As a child, I didn’t feel connected to my nuclear family. I was always on the outside, looking in. Because of that, I spent the first part of my life searching for connection. I would overshare, try too hard, and often come across as plain awkward. So, when it came time to build my own life, creating a family was my top priority.

That’s exactly what I did. I married the most amazing husband, and together we had three beautiful children. From the very beginning, we taught our kids that family doesn’t have to be defined by blood. Family is who you choose.

We opened our home to exchange students and made them part of our lives. We later became guardians of two more children, expanding our family from three to five kids. Over the years, our family has continued to grow and evolve.

The people we now call our siblings are not bound to us by blood, but they are bound to us by love and choice. They are ours. They make our lives whole. We are the epitome of family—continuously choosing one another, again and again.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Nine years ago, my little brother died suddenly from an aneurysm. He was only 36 years old. His passing shocked all of us and completely turned my life inside out.

That loss forced me to rethink everything—my choices, my direction, and the way I was living. I gave myself a couple of years to grieve, to sit in the pain, and to begin healing. And when I finally emerged from that season, I made a decision: I would no longer live small.

Little by little, my perspective shifted. I saw how quickly life can change, and I became intentional about where I spent my energy and time. I asked myself how I truly wanted to live—and then I began to live that way.

I made more deliberate choices with my children, my husband, my friendships, and my business. And the result? I found joy. A deep happiness I never knew was possible.

I can feel it now in the way I carry myself. When someone tries to push or provoke me, I no longer react—I respond. That shift is the gift my brother’s passing left me: the clarity to live fully, intentionally, and with joy.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Jenna Fields Photography
MySyde

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