As an entrepreneur and a mom, I have to wear multiple hats, and both raising a child and growing a company sure do take a village 🙂
A lot of people support and pour their love into your company similarly to raising kids. It's beautiful to think of the people who have helped shape and move forward sapahn. The same goes for my kids—I'm so grateful for the loving, supporting, kind humans we have in our lives. I'm so grateful for having the opportunity to be both a mom and to run a business. And I have to say just how grateful I am for the people in our corner along both these journeys.
Motherhood pulls you in a lot of directions—something in common with being an entrepreneur and owner of a company. Each is good practice for doing both, but man can it be extra hard.
One of the beautiful things about becoming a mom 5 years ago, after already having my business for 7 years, is that it forced me to delegate more—I physically couldn't do it all as I had done in the past, especially as a solo-entrepreneur. One of the hardest things with becoming a first-time mom (and still now) is changing the expectations I had for myself. It was something I deeply struggled with when I was living in Thailand with a 4 month old, still trying to run at the same pace in business and my personal life until I realized I needed to figure out what was truly realistic for me, my family and sapahn. Fast forward a year, I was back in the U.S. visiting and attended an event in my hometown. They invited an amazing female speaker to come talk, Tiffany Dufu, author of Drop The Ball. During her entire talk, I felt like she was talking directly to me! My biggest takeaway was it is ok to drop the ball. You can't juggle it all. It's ok. It was the freedom I needed to hear. The excerpt alone says what we all sometimes need to hear: "In Drop the Ball, Tiffany recounts how she learned to reevaluate expectations, shrink her to-do list, and meaningfully engage the assistance of others—freeing the space she needed to flourish at work and to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships at home." I mean, she was talking straight to me, right? Ha. All the women in the room were nodding.
As moms, we have been conditioned that motherhood should stay at home and outside of the workplace. But what I have found is that there is so much room for both. That motherhood and success in the workplace can be intertwined into something beautiful, sometimes messy (in more ways than one 😉), but beautiful all the same. It's hard for sure, and the saving grace for me has been constantly reminding myself that I can only do so much. The other saving grace is that reminder early on in my motherhood journey—it's ok to drop the ball.
So here is the routine that has helped me keep the sanity and balance. Some days are better than others, and that’s ok.
We usually start our day with coffee for me and cartoons for the kids. In addition to Mills, my 7 month old, we also have Micky, our 5 year old and the best big brother. Some mornings, we even have time for a quick game of Trouble, Micky’s current favorite. As Micky heads off to daycare, Mills settles in for a nap. Then I use lightning focus to achieve my highest priority items for the day in that 1-1.5 hour window. Lists and prioritization have become essential. I also try to follow Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek. When Mills wakes up, I load him into the sling and we either go to the store for team meetings or take zoom calls together.
Throughout his first 6 months, this has been our routine. It has been perfect for us. What was more perfect were all the other people on the calls or in the meetings. Everyone was encouraging and many would comment how they love that he comes to work with me! Customers tell me all the time too .. that they love that I bring him along the journey of sapahn, just as I did with Micky when he was a baby. The most beautiful thing is when he's awake I can be with him—and that is something I will never regret, and something I will never take for granted. I know a lot of women do not get this flexibility in their workplace and I am forever humbled that I get to do both of the things I love—being an entrepreneur and a mom.
