At five months pregnant, Kelly Ehlers thought she was securing her future.

Instead, a Monday morning meeting with her boss ended with a promise to 'get with the guys and figure out how to handle this' - and by Friday, she was out of a job.

Today, Ehlers runs Evoke Agency, a multimillion-dollar marketing firm that has spent the past 16 years working with Fortune 500 brands. Her upcoming book, Nice Girls Win, argues that the 'girlboss' promise that women can 'have it all' without sacrifice is a myth.

But in 2010, none of that seemed possible.

After losing her job during the depths of the Great Recession, Ehlers and her husband were both unemployed, had around $10,000 in savings and a baby on the way. At one point, they were feeding loose change into a Coinstar machine just to scrape together enough money for diapers.

That's when she had a realization. 'Bulls**t. Nobody's going to hire somebody who's five months pregnant,' she told the Daily Mail.

So she hired herself.

Six years later, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission confirmed what she'd known all along: she'd been fired because she was pregnant.

What began as a scrappy social media consultancy during the early days of Facebook and Twitter has since become a successful marketing agency in Madison, Wisconsin, with blue-chip clients like GE Appliances, Kraft Heinz and Henkel.

Ehlers later launched beauty-media platform The Tease, fought off larger competitors and wrote her upcoming book, bluntly titled Nice Girls Win - which explores her rejection of the 'girlboss' fantasy that women can 'have it all' without sacrificing their health, families or themselves.

Today, she's built a multimillion-dollar business from the setback that nearly derailed her career, proving that the biggest turning point came the week she was shown the door.

The timing, Ehlers said, turned out to be unexpectedly perfect.

She launched her business just as Facebook expanded beyond college campuses and Twitter was beginning to gain traction, long before most companies took social media seriously.

'There was no budget for it,' she said. 'I'd go consult with people and they'd say, 'I don't even think this is going to stick around.''

Ignoring the skepticism, Ehlers built a social media consultancy from the ground up, betting the platforms would transform the way businesses connected with consumers.

Looking back, she says the shock forced her into survival mode, but it also pushed her to bet on herself in a way she never would have otherwise.

'I probably wouldn't have left corporate America five months pregnant to do my own thing,' she said. 

'It was a jumping-off point. I had to turn inward and believe in myself first because nobody was offering money, support or a job. It was go time. There was no way but through it.'

While she'd always dreamed of starting her own business, she says being fired accelerated that timeline.

'I was shoved into it,' she said. 'It wasn't the path I planned, but it became the one that changed everything.'

What began as a one-woman social media consultancy has grown into a firm now working with multiple Fortune 500 brands. 

Despite employing just 50 people, Ehlers says the firm competes with the biggest agencies in the country. 'We're Madison-based, and I like to say we play with the Madison Avenue agencies,' she said.

She credits much of that success to a philosophy that one Fortune 500 client dubbed 'smart nice.'

'He said, 'I've worked with a lot of agencies that are smart that aren't really that nice to work with, and a lot of nice agencies that just can't get us over the finish line,'' Ehlers recalled.

That mindset extends to small gestures. 

Since launching the business, she's implemented what she calls 'Project Orchid' -sending orchids to employees after major meetings, referrals or successful pitches as a way to recognize their work and encourage them to enjoy what they do.

That people-first philosophy extends to every aspect of the company. Ehlers says she's obsessed with the small details that turn simple transactions into lasting relationships.

'Our business is almost 100 percent referral-based,' she said, adding that building deeper relationships has become the company's 'foundation of success.'

However, the road to success hasn't always been easy. 

Behind the blue-chip client list was a far grittier reality: no childcare, no safety net and plenty of sleepless nights.

'Oh yeah, it was very, very, very hard,' Ehlers said. 'I would put my son to bed... and work until three or four in the morning.'

She still remembers praying her infant son would sleep through one important conference call because the family couldn't afford childcare. 

'I was just hoping and sweating on that call that I wouldn't hear him crying,' she said. 'It was actually awful.'

Ehlers was building her company during the height of the 'girlboss' and 'lean in' movement, but says the culture's glorification of endless hustle came at a cost.

'I leaned in so far and so fast that it was like self-combustion,' she said. 'That's why the book completely dismantles that whole theory.'

Instead, she argues women should abandon the idea that they can excel in every area of life all at once.

'I don't believe you can have it all the time,' she said. 'Some seasons you're 60/40 or 70/30. It doesn't all happen at the same time, and that's a total myth.'

Behind every apparent overnight success, she added, is 'an absolute grind' and years of sacrifice.

For those looking to start a business but unsure where to begin, Ehlers says the answer is simple: Stop overthinking and start moving.

The real ingredient, she argues, isn't less ambition but more willingness to sit with discomfort. She rejects the idea that success comes from perfect planning or frictionless execution.

When she and her husband launched Evoke after the recession, they had no funding, no safety net and about $10,000 in savings. Her advice now is blunt: start anyway.

'Don't overthink it,' she said. 'Just start. Get out there and put yourself in motion.'

She encourages would-be founders to reach out directly to people already in the industry, even if it feels uncomfortable. 'Slide into their DMs, call them - people will help,' she said.

Looking back, she sees her story reflected in a widening K-shaped economy, where opportunity is increasingly split between those who can absorb risk and those who can't.

Her turning point, she says, came not from planning but from pressure.

'I had to turn inward and believe in myself first because nobody was offering money, support or a job,' she said. 'It was go time. There was no way but through it.'

Today, Ehlers has built a multimillion-dollar company from that forced reinvention - and says the lesson isn't hustle, but ownership.

'You don't have to become ruthless to become powerful,' she said. 'You just have to decide the room you're in belongs to you - and then prove it.'

Preorders for Nice Girls Win are available mid-August.