50. Blending Motherhood and Entrepreneurship

For this, my 50th episode, I'm sharing my lessons on blending motherhood and entrepreneurship. From the start of TTC (trying to conceive), going through IVF, the newborn and toddler days and now the school years, motherhood and business have gone hand-in-hand for me.

This journey has shaped me in ways I never expected, teaching me lessons that go far beyond business strategies or parenting techniques. I’d love to share with you some of the insights I’ve gained from navigating this blend (not balance) of motherhood and entrepreneurship over the years. 

1. Know Your Values - Initially, I thought I needed to compartmentalise these roles, but I've learned that when your values are clear, decisions flow more naturally. It's about recognising what truly matters and letting that guide your choices, even if they seem conflicted.

2. Understanding Different Energies - Work often provides immediate satisfaction and clear outcomes, while motherhood is more nuanced and complex. Acknowledging this difference has helped me approach each role with more awareness and intention.

3. Embracing Support - One of the most profound lessons for me has been understanding that seeking support isn't a sign of weakness - it's essential for growth. This realisation didn't come easily, but it's transformed how I approach both roles.

4. Honouring Multiple Passions - Rather than seeing this as a lack of focus, I've learned to embrace it as a strength that brings depth to both my parenting and entrepreneurial endeavours.

5. Listening to Your Body - The physical demands of motherhood and business are real. Learning to recognise and respect our body's signals isn't just beneficial - it's crucial. 

6. Finding Natural Rhythms - It's not about forcing a perfect schedule, but rather finding flows that honour everyone's needs while moving your business forward.

7. Leading with Strengths - The skills we develop as mothers often enhance our business capabilities, and vice versa. It's about acknowledging these strengths and allowing them to serve us in both areas.

8. Building Meaningful Support Networks - The importance of having people who understand this journey cannot be overstated. 

9. Let Go of Mum Guilt - The weight of mum guilt can be particularly heavy when building a business. Let it go, but also lean in and listen to what it’s saying. 

10. Embracing Creative Evolution - Creativity flows differently in different seasons of life. 

I'd love to hear about your experiences - what lessons have you learned along the way? 

Episodes Mentioned:

11. Karen Brook On Consciously Creating, And Ditching Mum Guilt

39. How to Make Time for Creativity

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Benita: Hello, gorgeous mama. Thank you for tuning in to my 50th episode of me plus motherhood, which I can't quite believe I'm saying, and I'm really celebrating today because you know what? I don't think we celebrate ourselves enough. And it really does feel like quite an achievement to go from feeling terribly scared to launch this podcast to being 50 episodes in.

[00:00:43] And there's a few people I want to thank for that. Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to Jenna Little, who was at first my virtual assistant, who started at the end of 2020 with me. Jenna then became my online business manager, and we just really worked very closely together to, get my business cranking.

[00:01:05] after babies and Jenna was really instrumental in supporting and me to launch the podcast to help with all the mechanics of it initially and just be a really big business cheerleader. So thank you, Jenna. I want to thank Hannah McNulty as well, who did a lot of my graphics on social media for the podcast for about 12 months, um, hands not doing that anymore, but She was just fantastic at what she did with me. And I had think helped to lift the profile of the podcast. I've been working with Bamby media for nearly the last 12 months to help, produce and put the show out there. So thank you to Brianna and her team for doing an amazing job. I love working with you guys.

[00:01:49] So thanks very much to those people and to you as the list. Thank you very much for tuning in for sending me your feedback for following along for your very kind words I [00:02:00] appreciate all of it and it's what keeps me recording these episodes and sharing what I do. So, thank you very much I really am grateful So this is a wrap on this season of the podcast.

[00:02:13] I will definitely be back for another season I'm not exactly sure when yet This has been a season full of solo episodes, which has just felt aligned for me at this point in time to share what I have. And I've really enjoyed it. It's time now to have a little break to regroup and come back with a fresh new season.

[00:02:32] Very soon. Once I get some more of my book written, that's my focus for the next few months. So today's episode is about blending motherhood and entrepreneurship. It's a topic I think about. And I have thought about a lot for many years. It's a big topic of conversation in the world of moms who run businesses.

[00:02:53] Obviously, how do we keep the blend? Where to focus? Where do we put our energy? How do I do it? All those questions. I'm going to talk about some of my learnings today. Before I do that, I want to just do my top five for today. What I'm reading, I have just finished reading a book. called Dear Psychosis by Sarah Martin.

[00:03:16] Sarah is a fellow author of the expert author community. I don't know Sarah, but I heard of her book and I was really intrigued and read it within a few days. It was very well written and gave me a ve a clear insight into. What it looks like to have a child suffering with psychosis, and her daughter was overseas when she had her psychotic episode, her first one, and Sarah needed to go and rescue her from overseas essentially, and it details their journey both overseas and when they got back to Australia and what that's been like, and then how Alice ended up with a bipolar diagnosis as well, um, I really enjoyed the book, so that's [00:04:00] what I've been reading, What I'm listening to.

[00:04:02] I'm not listening to anything in particular at the moment, but I wanted to share how powerful it is for me to record and bounce back and forth audio notes on WhatsApp. Not sure if you do this as well, but I've got a handful of friends and colleagues that I do this with. We, that's how we keep in touch essentially.

[00:04:22] And we just send each other little snippets of. You know, what's going on and basically chatting without the phone call, because phone calls seem to be kind of like this impossible thing to achieve when you're a mom, going in all directions. So these work for me because you can reply when it suits you and give you time to digest.

[00:04:40] But what's powerful for me is being able to hear myself. Talk about something to talk it throughout loud Sometimes I listen back to the audio notes I record because it gives me data for my decision making about what I said and how I said it Well, how did I sound and then sometimes depending on what we're talking about?

[00:05:01] My friend or work colleague will reflect back to me what they heard as well, which is really powerful. So I've been doing a lot of that in the past week. what I'm watching, I haven't been watching much to be honest, but Adam and I did start watching the, we watched one episode of the new season of Jack Reacher.

[00:05:20] It's just called Reacher on Amazon Prime. Doesn't require much thought, bit of eye candy, bit of drama, bit of action. And it is really well made. So we started watching that. What I'm loving, I use some products in our home. I think I've mentioned it before, actually on this podcast, it's not an endorsement.

[00:05:37] I'm not affiliated with them. I just really enjoy their products. The brand is called Zero as in Z E R O. it's a subscription service. I get all my dishwashing liquid, laundry liquid, hand wash, body wash. You can get this washing tablets, but I don't use them anymore. shampoo, moisturizer, cleaning products, all of it comes in a box.

[00:05:58] It's all [00:06:00] sustainable. The products are recyclable and they've just changed how they do things. And. I've created these new, they're called Forever Bottles. So you buy, or you get the Forever Bottle and then you just get refills through the subscription service. So at the moment I'm updating the Forever Bottles because they've had a bit of a product upgrade.

[00:06:21] And I really love them. They're fantastic. And the way that the refills work is, has also just changed. So I'm going through the house, changing over my forever bottles and putting new refills in over to the new product line. And I really liked their products. They're gentle on the skin.

[00:06:36] They smell good. It's easy. And more than anything, it's helps fund ocean cleanups. So that. Ticks a little sustainability box for me. What I'm not loving is mice in our home. It's nearly autumn. The mice are appearing. It's the first autumn we've had here, but obviously there's some cracks somewhere in this house.

[00:06:55] They're getting in which is a bugger. I mean coming from a farm background. It's not something I'm not used to but it's never something you like having in your home. Hopefully you're not getting them as well. So let's get talking about motherhood and entrepreneurship. So, I guess just to give you a little bit of context about my background in business before I start talking about what I've learned, my entrepreneurship journey, some of you will already know this, started when I was a little girl, um, I had guinea pigs for many years and I don't really know what age.

[00:07:30] Breeding them and what age I stopped breeding them, but I'm gonna guess it was a few years around the ages of 9, 10 Maybe my early teens Pretty sure I stopped having guinea pigs when I got more into horses in my teenage years But gosh, I loved them when I was a little girl And it really was my first business when I discovered that I could sell them to the King Arroy pet shop for 2 a guinea pig And I started recording in my notebook, the breedings and when they were born [00:08:00] and how many, and what I sold them for.

[00:08:02] And when I look back now, I think, my gosh, that was really like my first little business venture. And it's when I fell in love with the idea of creating something and earning money from it. That was the first one. The second one was. Feedlotting cattle and I have mom and dad to thank for this because again, I'm not exactly sure when it started But mom and dad would buy A calf or a steer or, and it'd be in the feedlot cause we've always lot cattle we'd sell it the money, the profit would go back in to buy two head and then, then it'd become four and then it was six and so on and so on.

[00:08:37] So eventually we ended up with our own sort of pen of cattle at the feedlot. And when we disbanded it, my brother and I, because we were wanting the money then to go and do grown up things, I think it was in 2006. I was in my. Like mid twenties maybe and it helped me to pay cash for a car upgrade and put money in for a house deposit.

[00:08:59] So I was so thankful to mum and dad for that opportunity and Mum taught me once I finished uni, so I think it might have been running when I was a teenager, even into my, through my uni years. Um, and after uni mum helped teach me how to do the record keeping for it. So I kept the, all the ins and outs, income and expenses, how to, reconcile, how to do a BAS and we did it all by hand at that stage.

[00:09:23] None of it was on the computer. in folders and journals. so, yeah, that was such a great grounding in business, even though at that point in time, I don't know that I necessarily thought it through very much, just that that's just what you did to keep that little thing ticking and that it was earning money.

[00:09:42] But it certainly sparked an interest in me in business and, and in entrepreneurship. the seed was sown very early for me of wanting to be in business for myself and not work for someone else, which that was a product of my parents. And I think I would probably call myself almost [00:10:00] unemployable now for better or worse because I just love doing my own thing.

[00:10:05] I always wanted to just be independent. And now that I understand my human design better these days, it's so clear. And so in alignment with my energy profile that I am designed to work on my own, I'm designed to work independently or in a partnership. And so it all makes sense now. My third business and my first, probably my first kind of grownup business, I would say, or my first real business as an adult was Sunburnt Country Consulting that I started in November, 2007 at the time I was working part time for Sefton and Associates in Tamworth.

[00:10:42] Working in communications and PR, and I saw the opportunity to assist livestock producers with their marketing, their bullsale catalogs, and their advertising, because I had, years of experience working with breed plan and breed societies. And then I had this newfound experience working in the marketing and communications industry, as well as I'd done a graduate diploma in, in business studies in marketing and management.

[00:11:10] So I knew that I could fill a gap that I saw in the market and that ended up running it for eight years. It evolved. A great deal over that time. By the time I sort of hit pause on it in 2015, I went from helping beef producers with their sale catalogs and flyers and logos and, advertising in the land to transitioning through to doing rural marketing campaigns, branding, PR, comms.

[00:11:43] building a team to help me with that and then eventually transitioning into coaching That business journey as well as my current business has been heavily molded by motherhood. so through those years of sunburnt country consulting, I started that business [00:12:00] because I wanted to work part time when I had a baby.

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[00:12:03] Benita: And was 26. We were a couple of years off even being married, but it was so clear to me that that's what I needed to do. I knew that I had to put some years into the business to get it going really well before so that it could provide for us when we had a family.

[00:12:19] Little did I know that it would be six and a half years till we would actually have our first baby at that point in time. but that business journey was heavily influenced by trying to conceive eventually, you know, we did have our first baby and I stopped Sunburnt Country when I was heavily pregnant with our twins.

[00:12:37] So businesses really do evolve as I say, it was shaped greatly by motherhood. I then had a bit of a pause and then restarted my business in October, 2020, which was my online coaching business. As I said, I transitioned to coaching before we had kids, but then when relaunched my business. Benita bench, not as sunburnt country consulting.

[00:13:03] It was really focused on coaching and through all of that, we had our farm business, which. Adam and I, in our own right, started our first farming business, which was a partnership with Adam's brother in 2009 and that, and we have been continuously farming since then, the entities have changed, partnerships and companies and all sorts of things, but that's always been a steady way.

[00:13:27] business as well, running alongside my business. So business has really been there the whole way through for me from thinking about having babies to going through IVF to having newborns to having toddlers and now all school aged children. it has really been quite a journey and I have learned so much along the way and I had to keep stopping myself as I was thinking about what I wanted to share today.

[00:13:57] Stopping myself from talking [00:14:00] about business lessons and talking more about the blend of holding motherhood and entrepreneurship at the same time. For me, entrepreneurship and business, has felt more like part of who I am. then a choice, of course it's a choice, but it has just felt like something that comes through me rather than from me a lot of the time.

[00:14:23] And maybe you feel the same way as well. It's just like something I've got to do because it's kind of part of who I am. Now that's just a story I'm telling myself, but that is how it feels in that. It's felt like, well, it's just something I really have to do. because I want to contribute and contribution is one of my values.

[00:14:44] And it's like this feeling under my skin or this inner voice of like, well, I want to share, create, I want to give, I want to be part of the conversation. I want to see what I can create for my family. suppose it comes naturally to want to do that. As opposed to say, being an employee, maybe you feel the same way.

[00:15:06] Maybe that resonates that, that drive to. To do your own thing, I suppose. So that leads me to my first point, which is knowing your values. Gosh, this is so important at every point of the motherhood journey. And the entrepreneurship journey is knowing your values. And I don't think I really got clear online until the last few years of truly understanding my values and, and actually living in alignment with them rather than just being a.

[00:15:39] thing that's written on a piece of paper or just giving them lip service but not really actually making choices that are aligned with my values. Because at any point in time we are choosing and what we're saying yes to, we're saying no to something else. And at any point in time we're choosing, we're having to kind [00:16:00] of weigh out what is it worth to me to pursue this?

[00:16:04] What am I giving up in the process? What is it worth to me to take on this piece of work or to start this business? or to have this child or to spend time with this child, we're always making a choice. And that's what makes it so bloody hard, right? That feeling of always like, Oh gosh, if I do this, I'm going to let this person down.

[00:16:27] Or if I do this, I'm going to let this workmate down. the choosing part of it is the tricky bit. So when you know your values and when you're anchored in your values and your why, it makes the choices easier. It makes the prioritization easier to go, well, this is really important to me. And I am clear on my values.

[00:16:48] let's just say, for example, if your value is wellbeing or family or contribution or money or success, whatever it is, it helps you to be clear on the next step that you're taking and what it's worth to you to do that. And maybe you could say what you're giving up in the process, or you could say what you're choosing.

[00:17:11] What you're prioritizing, where your energy is going in that decision making process. The second one is, it's funny actually, um, Christy Robinson, who is a business coach. I worked with her several years ago and we talked about this concept that work is like milk chocolate and mothering is like dark chocolate.

[00:17:31] Now, maybe you like dark chocolate better than milk chocolate, but at this point in time, I'm pretty sure I liked milk chocolate better than dark chocolate. And If you're someone who loves your work, and most people in business do it because they love what they do and they want to make a living out of it.

[00:17:47] And for me, I've always loved my work and it's easy to do. It's so easy to spend hours doing my work, sitting at my computer or, you know, whatever my role in the business is in that [00:18:00] time. It's, It's so satisfying. Like I know that if I sit down to achieve this task, I'm going to achieve it. And it's going to feel good.

[00:18:07] And it's going to be in my control. Whereas mothering can just sometimes feel like an out of control racehorse that I don't know what I'm doing with. and it could feel like an endless piece of string that I'm going to go through this phase with the kids. And then we're going to be into the next phase.

[00:18:24] Of course, it's satisfying as well. of course, motherhood is rewarding probably in so many more soul filling ways than work ever will be. But I hope you're getting my drift here that it's like, it's so easy to just do the work and keep doing the work. And it's just like eating milk chocolate.

[00:18:40] You just get the reward for it. Cause you take the task off and mothering is like this thing that I don't, I really know what I'm doing, but I'm going to have to keep learning to do it. And often we go into business. Because we're good at something and we feel like we have something to offer.

[00:18:58] Yes, some continual learning and growth is required, but usually we're good at the thing when we go into business to offer the thing. Whereas with mother motherhood, it's this continual learning curve. And we often don't feel like we know what we're doing. So things feel out of control. We're less likely to want to lean into it because work is easier.

[00:19:15] So, you know, you probably felt the same way. I feel envious of Adam sometimes. He might go away for a couple of days or a couple of weeks, as you know, you know, to do some contract farming, or he's gone from 6. 30 till 7 o'clock at night going to do his work. And I've so many times said, I'm so envious of you.

[00:19:35] You get to go and work all that time, you get to go and do the thing you love. And he'll say to me, well, it's not all that amazing. Like there's parts of the job that are terrible. And I say, yeah, I know. But you get to go and do it without that load of, the challenges of mothering. so, comes back to the good old choice, but then you know, would I want it any other way?

[00:19:55] I want to be there for my children. I want to learn how to be a great mum. [00:20:00] I want to support them in every way I can. So, mothering is the dark chocolate. it takes more effort. Give yourself permission. To get help in the areas where it gives you leverage and or where it feels the heaviest. This has changed for me at different points along the way in what I get help with. In the early days when our boys were little, I used to have more help with childcare. And at every step in the way, might I add, it's taken Um, I think I'm going to need a big permission slip to myself to do this and probably a permission slip from my husband as well to say it's okay to get help.

[00:20:44] In fact, right now, I'm in the middle of it as well, again, of thinking I don't need the help and then you're arriving at a point where I go, I actually need help. I need to get some more support around me. So, as I was saying, I've had help in different ways at different times. When the boys were little, it was mostly having a nanny cause we lived remotely to come and help with the kids.

[00:21:06] At other times, I have got more help in my business with administration, bookkeeping, and I still outsource bookkeeping, but, different functions of the business I've outsourced. And then at this point in time, my boys are all school age. At the moment, the help is more like house help. having a cleaner or getting someone to help with meals because my children just never stop eating and or um, helping to keep things up to date in the home.

[00:21:34] Again, it takes a new permission slip to myself. It's okay to do this. You actually need to do this. Selfish is the new selfless. again, it's a values based decision. Is it affecting my well being if I don't get help?

[00:21:51] Yes it is. Well in that case, it's one of my values. I need to do something about it. And sometimes that flies in the face of maybe [00:22:00] thinking, oh, that's going to cost money, but what does it cost at the other end if you don't do it? What does it cost you in the time you could be spending doing the things that you love or spending time with your children?

[00:22:12] So give yourself permission to get help and have support around you. Gosh, it's so important. It's an investment. Uh, number four is it's okay to be multi passionate and also to evolve. It's also okay if you're the opposite and you are completely hyper focused on one thing and your business stays the same.

[00:22:34] That is completely okay. But I am multi passionate. Several colleagues in my world who I can think of the top of my head, who are also multi passionate and our businesses have evolved dramatically over time. again, it comes down to permission. I've had to be okay with that and say, well, that's just who I am.

[00:22:55] And I'm evolving as a person. And my business is a bit of an extension of who I am and where I'm at and where our family's at. And therefore that's okay. And it has evolved as the stage of motherhood has evolved. And that, as you know, Evolves every few months, every six months, every year looks a bit different.

[00:23:16] So it means in a reassessment of where am I at? How does that reflect in my entrepreneurship journey? Where's our family at wherever I needed? How do I feel? What do I want to focus on? What are my goals? All those questions, but I have at times being too rigid. Or beaten myself up for thinking something's wrong with me because I want to evolve.

[00:23:40] Thinking that I need to keep doing the same thing. But no, you don't. There are no rules. There are no rules in motherhood or entrepreneurship, even though society would tell us there is. You can make your own rules. Number five is to listen to your body. Oh my gosh. This is such a huge one. Listen to your [00:24:00] body.

[00:24:01] Entrepreneurship and motherhood are both demanding. They both require being nimble. They both evolve and change rapidly, or they can, have a big energetic requirement. And your body keeps the score. It will tell you when you need to have a break, when you need to rest, when something's not right, when there's a niggling feeling of an inner whisper, whether that's leading you down a new path or whether it's giving you a kick up the butt to tell you to slow down, there will be a nudge.

[00:24:36] And are you listening to it? Gosh, I was stubborn and resistant to this for so long. I feel like I'm getting better at it because my body really has told me in the last few years that if you keep repeating this cycle, I will keep burning out and eventually you might learn the lesson. So. Maybe that's not the case for you to that extreme, but, um, you'll be getting a message in some way and maybe it's not negative.

[00:25:05] Like maybe it's positive. Maybe you're full of energy and happy and glowing. Then that's a nudge. That's perfect. Maybe it's the opposite, but listen to your body either way, because it always knows it has so much wisdom.

[00:25:20] Number six is to look at the rhythms. and the flows of your calendar year and design around that. This was a big turning point for me, I think, a few years ago when I started to think about rhythm and flow within my body, within myself, within our family, within our home. within prep school, all the things that happened during the year and also the farming seasons and cycles, because we're obviously we're farmers.

[00:25:58] I started to [00:26:00] stop fighting the flows and actually look at a calendar at a 12 month period, whether that's a calendar year or a financial year or some other block of time, it doesn't really matter. But where are the ups and downs? Where is the space? Where is there not much space? So for me, even though sometimes it frustrates me so much that I have to design my work around this.

[00:26:25] And I just said that I've stopped fighting it. I still do fight it a bit. it still does kind of get at me sometimes that for example, this month, February, I'm recording this on the 24th of February, I have done so much admin and paperwork for school things for start of term things, start of school year things.

[00:26:43] We obviously we've just moved. There's lots of setting up admin and it has really annoyed me. I'm like, I want to be doing. productive, interesting work, not doing this stuff. but I had a friend say to me, basically, February is just a setting up month. And I thought, Oh, you know what? I'm just fighting something that is, it just is what it is.

[00:27:04] Either I outsource the admin and I can make the choice to do that. Or I do it and just accept it and get on with it. So maybe my work year becomes March to September in my business. And maybe I need to design my goals around that because once we get to October, we go into harvest season, Adam's not around.

[00:27:24] And then we get into end of year things, end of school things. And it is just hectic, as you know, totally depending on what the style and nature of your work is. It might be constant all the time, but in, in my 

[00:27:41] wherever you see the rhythm in your world, in your family, in your businesses, step back and have a look at it. Like, where are the troughs and the peaks? And how can you work to that? so that it's to your advantage. How can you design life and business [00:28:00] around those things? Number seven is to focus on your strengths and what you love.

[00:28:06] So what you're really good at and what you love and know that being a mom is a strength. I think we try to hide it at times. We don't want for it to appear that motherhood is affecting us or means we can't do something or that it might impact on our ability to deliver. Being a mom is like a professional development course and personal development course all in one.

[00:28:37] I think the skills that it gives you is. Astronomical in project management, time management, negotiation, practical skills, problem solving. I know it has heightened my problem solving so much. My communication skills, my empathy, my emotional intelligence. So many skills and I think we all need to get better at putting them on paper and recognizing them and celebrating them.

[00:29:09] I think things have improved a little bit. Like at least we're all a bit more honest about kids being behind the scenes on zoom calls or not apologizing so much. When our child speaks, when we're recording a podcast, like let's just stop pretending that things are different to what they are because these little beings are part of our world and we're always blending.

[00:29:29] So hone in on what it is you love and what you're really good at, including. The skills and the talents and the beautiful things that you've gained through motherhood and the things that have challenged you that have led you to learn and grow as a person and lean into those things and think about what, you know, what you're not so great at, what you don't love doing, how you might be able to get some support with that outsource it or delegate it or just stop doing it or [00:30:00] lean in and get it done if, if it's not going to hold you back too much and making progress in what it is you really want to do.

[00:30:06] because you have unique gifts, potential strengths that this world needs. And when you're making a choice all the time for your precious time and energy, where to put that, keep that in mind. That if you don't allow any space to express what's really within you, then you are doing everyone a disservice, including yourself.

[00:30:31] Number eight is to find help until you know better. Whether that is someone teaching you something, doing a course, having a coach, having a mentor, being part of a mastermind group. Don't be afraid to show up and ask questions and seek guidance. from people who've done it before you, who've got to where you want to go, who've walked in your shoes or walked the path before you.

[00:30:58] And I'm talking about motherhood and business here, both separately and together. Finding the people who've done it before you and ask them or learn from them, how do you do it? How did you get there? What do I need to do? Can you help me? Those sorts of questions until you, until you level up and until you get to a point where you know that, Okay, I've got this now.

[00:31:24] to a new level and a new vibration and I don't feel like that's a thing for me anymore. I've got a new challenge. It's different. And then find the next person to be three steps ahead of you for you to follow along. Number nine is to ditch mum guilt, but also to explore mum guilt. And ask what it's telling you.

[00:31:49] When you are at your highest vibration, you are at your best for yourself, for your family, [00:32:00] for your business. that is the greatest gift that you can give because, gosh, it's easy just to feel like you're constantly letting people down. Whether you're focusing on your work or focusing on mothering, it's easy to feel like at every turn I'm failing. I'm not doing a good enough job. I'm letting people down. That story is really unhelpful and it's also really debilitating. As in over time, if you, if those thoughts and feelings associated with that state of mind just eat away at you.

[00:32:37] So getting to a point of being okay with wherever you're at. If you're going to be sitting at your desk doing your work, be there. If you're going to be with your kids, be there. I know this is easier said than done. And sometimes there is this in between where we're on our phone when we're with our kids, or we've got kids coming, interrupting us when we're trying to do a work thing.

[00:32:57] and you know what? That's all part of the blend and being learning to be okay with that is part of it, I think. But as far as possible, just letting go of the guilt and making clear choices. To do what feels good in the moment, because when you feel good, when you're on, when you're on a high vibration, whether it is with your kids, with work, wherever, that is where you're at your best and where everyone gets the best of you.

[00:33:25] I recorded an episode, episode 11. It is from March, 2023 with Karen Brooke on consciously creating and ditching mum guilt. That episode's got some gold in it around this topic, actually. Um, I'd recommend you go and find that episode because we talk a lot about following your bliss and being okay that that looks different for everyone.

[00:33:49] For you, you might absolutely thrive when you're working five days a week. And then the next person will want to work two days a week. [00:34:00] however it looks for you, design it however it feels best for you and ditch the guilt around it and just love yourself for it. We're all different. Some of us love being at home full time with our babies.

[00:34:14] Some of us don't. Some of us are really good at juggling somewhere in between. be okay with whatever works for you is what I'm trying to say. number 10, uh, and I'm going to point you to episode 39, which is how to make time for creativity because whether you identify it or not, entrepreneurship is a creative game and we are all creative beings, naturally creative beings, inherently creative beings.

[00:34:44] And. Our businesses is just an expression or a way we express our creativity. And now or later there is something within you that is wanting to be brought forth. So, you can choose the timing of things. And we do have to ask ourselves, is this a now thing or is this a later thing? So many times I've jumped the gun and, and gone full hog into something and realised I actually can't sustain it because motherhood requires more of me than I.

[00:35:16] anticipated and my business has ebbed and flowed because like at times I've had to put it on hold because we're going through an IVF cycle. I've ramped it up again when I've had a nanny.

[00:35:30] I've put it on hold again when I had a newborn. I've ramped it up again when I've had more support in the home. I've put it on hold again when my children are needing more from me because they're going through tough things. Ramped it up again when I've felt like I've had more space in my husband's home more often.

[00:35:46] And again, the nature of the business, your business might be different, but it's, but it's just knowing that that's okay. And that it's so important to me that I'm contributing and that I am [00:36:00] expressing what it is that's within me, whether it's this podcast or whether it's a project or a client or a writing or doing the books for our farm business or what, you know, whatever it is that.

[00:36:13] It's, it's part of expressing my creativity. It's part of who I am. and it's part of the contribution I want to make. So whether you're doing a little bit or a lot that can go up and down, but if you have this urge within you to bring something forth, then make sure you listen to that and you can dial it up and dial it down as motherhood allows.

[00:36:37] I hope there's something there. It's supportive for you. I'd love to know what that is. I'd love to know what your lessons in entrepreneurship and motherhood are. I'm sure you've got many as well. I hope this resonates. Thank you again so much for listening into this episode and all the others. so there's 50 for you to go back and listen to if you're only tuning in as a new time listener.

[00:37:00] Uh, I hope you can find something there that you enjoy while I take a break from the podcast for a while. I will be back. before you know it. And in the meantime, I wish you the very best, big hugs, go and shine your light into the world. There is no one else like you embrace your gifts. Lots of love.