Motherhood Masterminding
Episode Summary:
Today I want to talk about motherhood and entrepreneurship. This is a big topic and I want this to be a community huddle and discussion, so I would love for you to submit your biggest tips – what has worked best for you when it comes to balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship? Send it to me via email because I’m going to compile them and share them in my Facebook group and on Instagram this coming week.
In this episode today, I'm going to share some of my own best tips and hacks that I’ve learned since starting my business when I was pregnant with my second kid and fully booking my business after I returned from my maternity leave. A profitable business (while working part time hours) is 100% available to you, mama and you’re worthy of it.
Topics Discussed:
The reminder that you are worthy of part time work with a full time income
Why taking a break in your business will help you scale and streamline
Knowing that you’ll never have a perfect business or be a perfect CEO and always giving yourself grace
Dealing with the identity shifts that happen when you become a mother and then when you become a business owner, too
The necessity of mom friends and cultivating a community
Episode Resources:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
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Anna Rapp (00:00):
Hi friends. Today I'm gonna talk about motherhood and entrepreneurship. Woo. This is a big topic and I kind of want this to be a community huddle and discussion. So I would love for you to submit your biggest tip. What has worked best for you when it comes to balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship? Send it to me via email and I wanna compile them and share them in my Facebook group and on Instagram this week. So I would love if you would do that. I'm gonna share just some of my best tips and hacks. And by the way, if you're not a mama, know that you're more than welcome to still be in this community. But I just wanted to do this special episode because so many of my audience either is moms or aspiring mamas. They wanna be moms someday. And I, it's really the reason I started my business, right?
Anna Rapp (00:54):
I didn't mind my day job And I'm someone that doesn't always, like you might see me as ambitious, but I would say in a lot of ways I'm not that ambitious. I tend to be pretty content with what I have. I'm an Enneagram seven, so that means like I find the bright side of everything <laugh>. And even when I'm in a crappy situation, I'm like Yeah, but at least we can use the crap to build a house, right? Or like <laugh>. And so it really has been, I think God's gift to me that I had kids because it's been the catalyst for so much of my change in growth. I talked about this before about like when I was pregnant. I remember I started taking better care of my body than I ever had in my whole life. And it was because I felt like, Ooh, I really better exercise.
Anna Rapp (01:36):
I better eat clean because I have a baby inside of me that is affected by all of what I eat and how I move. And I think how God made me is so serve as hearted towards others that having babies has actually made me take better care of myself because I'm caring for them. And I think that's okay, right? And I really see so many of the things like the reason that I bought this house was really for my kids. I wanted them to have a big backyard and a place to, to be peaceful and thrive. And so what motivated me to save over a hundred thousand dollars was really for my babies. But of course I love having a house too. I even think about my divorce, you know, and I did that for them and wanted to create a safe and stable home for them.
Anna Rapp (02:21):
But in hindsight, like I'm so grateful that I have a safe and stable home for me too, right? Same thing with starting my business. I really wanted to have more freedom and more flexibility for to be available for them whenever I needed to. My sweet daughter is receiving an award this week and I had some client stuff, but I was able to move it and get it figured out because I have a business I've built where I have clients that are understandable and gracious for my commitments. And so, you know, when I, you guys, most of you know my story, when I was just a few months pregnant, I really decided to go all in my coaching business and you know, start going to work early so I could fit in coaching clients. And I was able to sell out my coaching practice in about three months and I fully booked it for when I returned it for my maternity leave. And that's what gave me the confidence to quit my job. And I'm so glad that I became an entrepreneur because I love it. I am so
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Thankful for the free. Like I just think about now like
Anna Rapp (03:20):
I really work about three days a week. The other two days I have flexibility for like today I spent two hours on the phone figuring out Y M C A aftercare stuff, like figuring out stuff for my backyard. I'm getting a new fence put in like as a mom and as a woman, you know, we have planning to keep ourselves busy with outside of work. We have house obligations and family obligations and even for our bodies, right? I spent an hour this morning dancing salsa 'cause I'm trying to get into a new class and I just wanna let you, I think a lot of women as I help them like grow and scale their business and get more freedom in their time back, they're like, but if my business doesn't need me as much, like what am I gonna do with you? You're gonna find things to do with yourself.
Anna Rapp (03:58):
You'll find things to fill the time with some of my clients too. They even when their kids are grown, they struggle with chronic illness or different things and so they just want time to care for their bodies. They want, you know, and that's what I wanna ask you. Like what do you wanna make your part-time job? Some of my clients, they really enjoy fitness and working out right? That's me. Some of my clients, they really like to spend hours in the morning on their self-care routine, their supplements, getting exercise, right? Like you're gonna, you plenty to do as a woman. And I really feel like owning a business is this great equalizer. Whereas a woman we're able to do it all in some ways. Like have the work, have the business, have the money, but also have time to take care of ourself. So whether you're a mom or not, you are worthy of part-time work and full-time income.
Anna Rapp (04:45):
Maybe you just wanna like put your hand on your heart and say that right now I'm worthy of part-time work and full-time income. I'm worthy of that. It's safe for me to rest. It's safe for me to be, it's safe for me to you know, spend time on my body. I, a lot of times growing up like was encouraged not to like be overly vain or think about my appearance too much, you know what I mean from a good place, right? But it really has been a lot of unwiring for me around like it's safe for me to take an hour to get ready in the morning to spend extra time on my teeth, on my hair, on what makes my body feel good. It's safe for me to really invest. And you guys know I just hired my friend Devon to make over my bedroom and it is
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Gorgeous in there. I feel like I'm walking into a hotel room
Anna Rapp (05:30):
But really feeling safe to invest a lot of money into my house. My happiness, my closet, my bed, my bedsheets feel like butter. I'm gonna link them in the comments 'cause if you wanna upgrade your bedsheets, I
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Have got the bedsheets for you. <Laugh>. So going from my target bedsheets to these bedsheets, oh my lord, all my kids. One downside is my kids. I cannot get my kids outta my bed now 'cause they're like, oh my gosh, this bed is
Anna Rapp (05:53):
So comfy. <Laugh>. Anyway, I talked in a previous podcast episode about creating your happy, boring dream life and I just want to give you permission to lean more into that. Okay, I digress back to motherhood. So motherhood really has pushed me to change things. And so I really want you to see it as that. Sometimes I think we get a lot of, I hear my clients get frustrated or overwhelmed with their kids. But what if your kids or any challenge in your life actually makes you become a better, more efficient you? It's why I was able to scale my business so quickly is because I went on maternity tea leave early in my business. So I had to figure out a way for my business to really operate without me in a lot of ways. I had to figure out how to batch my content and that's why I encouraging my mastermind.
Anna Rapp (06:37):
As those clients are growing and scaling their businesses, the biggest thing I encourage them to do is take a break, right? I have a document, it's basically like a little workbook. It's not little, it's like 15 pages, but it's a workbook that helps you scale your business by taking a break. Because if you take a three or a six week break, whether it's for maternity leave or for one of my clients just did this, she doesn't have kids but she's going on a big European vacation, right? When you step away from your business for a month, number one, you get a break, which you deserve that break, right? Number two, it forces you to systematize and streamline and simplify and trust your team like otherwise you never would have. And I just love that deadline. And I just wanna say like motherhood at least for me, forces me to make my business more streamlined, more efficient.
Anna Rapp (07:26):
When I do work, I get down to business 'cause I'm like I only got 30 minutes to get this done, right? So whatever challenge you're facing right now in your life, I want you to say it out loud right now. Whether it's a big scary diagnosis, whether it is children, <laugh>, whatever, is that thing that you're like, oh my gosh, this is getting in the way of my success. This is getting in the way of me growing my business. What if that thing actually caused you to be more streamlined and efficient in your business, even if it's something that you don't want, right? That, that challenging thing you're facing. What if it is the catalyst to cause you to simplify, to streamline, to make more money and less time? I feel like we need that challenge. I feel like I needed the challenge of having kids or I'd be working 80 hour weeks, right?
Anna Rapp (08:10):
So that's my first encouragement to mamas is really seeing your children as a blessing. <Laugh> always, but as the thing that makes you have your business more streamlined, more efficient, more intentional, forces you to rely on your team. Because I think hon honestly as like high achieving, high performing women, we don't do things until we're forced to <laugh>, right? And so it kind of does force you to limit your hours, right? So I wanna encourage you, that's my first thing. My second thing is really to encourage you to have grace. I'm gonna give you some practical tips, but for all the women that I know that have six figure businesses, multi-six figure businesses, million dollar a year businesses that are also mamas, one thing I know about them is they're as imperfect as you and me. And I think we feel like we hit a mark in our business where we suddenly become perfect and our Google drive is perfectly organized and like there's never a problem or never an issue.
Anna Rapp (09:07):
I don't think that's the case at all. And I think when we tell ourself the lie that we have to have more hours or more capacity or more perfection in our business to make more money, that becomes a slippery slope. I feel like men do not have this problem. They're like I'm happy to make more money while having lots of issues, right? But I think as women we're like, it's because there's something wrong with me that I'm not making more money, right? I'm not saying not to improve yourself. Yes, always work to what are my challenges? What are my rough edges? How do I smooth them out? But what if you could make like for a lot of women I hear like, oh, it's because of how I look or because of this thing about me or because I'm disorganized. What if you looked exactly how you were, you didn't lose any more weight and you made more money, right?
Anna Rapp (09:51):
What if your house was still as disorganized and you made more money, right? How can we separate that and really believe that we're worth making more money right now with the hours of the capacity we have? I want you to write down on a piece of paper right now or say out loud, how many hours do you have to work in your business for this current season of your life and motherhood? And can you believe like I believe that like God gives us all a different set of cards, right? And like with the cards I have <laugh> like I'm gonna be able to figure it out, right? Like yes, I'm a single mama. Yes, some people might have more support or hours or capacity, some people might have less, right? I have got a great support system. So lucky that I have my parents that live next door.
Anna Rapp (10:30):
Amazing babysitters, incredible best friends, right? Like yes, some people have it better, some people have it worse than you. Like that's that right? But can you believe what that the hours that you have to work right now that you can make it work with those hours, right? For me, I have had different capacity in different chapters of my business when I had very tiny babies when I started my business, right? And I feel like what I've seen for me is when babies are zero to 18 months, they just take a lot of care, right? They take a lot of care and there's nothing wrong with that. And then I feel like really from zero to five they also take care but a little less care than zero to 18 months. Now that my kids are six and eight, they're in elementary school during the daytime, right?
Anna Rapp (11:14):
Obviously still more care in my opinion than they'll probably take when they're teenagers. But it is a different ball game, right? And I do have different capacity. And so I think just reminding yourself, especially when you have small kids, everything changes so quickly. Like you get your schedule figured out and then they start napping at different times. You get your schedules figured out and then they get sick for a month, right? I really started making really short term decisions. I try to plan for a year in my business now, but really when my babies were tiny, I would plan for like six months. Six, sorry, six weeks at a time. And with my clients that have tiny babies, that's really what we do. We're like okay, for the next six weeks, what do you wanna sell? How do you wanna get visible? What are your work hours, right?
Anna Rapp (11:56):
And then in the next six weeks, let's decide that again. But I really wanna encourage you to think smaller, right? And don't make your decisions forever. But what feels appropriate for the amount of hours I want to work for the next six weeks? Do I wanna work 10 hours a week? Do I wanna work 20 hours a week? Do I wanna work 40 hours a week at not making yourself wrong? Some of my clients prefer to spend more time with their kids and they would gladly make other sacrifices because at the end of the day they wanna work 10 hours a week and they wanna be with their babies in the other hours. Some of my clients are like, yeah, I'm a mom but I also really love to work and I wanna work 40 hours a week and I wanna have a babysitter or maybe my partner's gonna step in and watch the kids to make that happen.
Anna Rapp (12:37):
There's nothing wrong with you if you are a mom to a small kid and you wanna work 40 hours a week. There's also nothing wrong with you if you're a mom to a small kid and you wanna work 10 hours a week. But it's really putting on your blinders, not making yourself wrong, not making other moms wrong, right? I had so much guilt when I wanted to start working. I had this like existential crisis around like you know, who am I? Am I a stay at home mom? Am I a you know, a professional working mom and really this identity crisis? I even have my clients do an exercise where they like reconcile these two personalities. 'cause I think we are dealing with a different issue than our parents used to deal with because we can work from home and we can multitask, right?
Anna Rapp (13:19):
Our parents kind of had to pick are they a stay-at-home mom or are they a working mom, right? We really can do both, which is a blessing but it's also a curse <laugh> because there is a more melding you can work while your kids are in the room, right? You can be with, you know, the other day my daughter sat at my lap for part of my zoom call and I actually think this is a blessing, but I also think it's like another thing to reconcile in our heads. So I think it's just asking yourself for these six weeks, how many hours do I wanna work? What do I want this to look like and am I okay with changing that over time? Okay. Another thing I wanna talk about is having mom friends and mom coaches, right? I really believe that one of the biggest gifts that I gave myself as a mom was really prioritizing making mom friends and having mom friends and investing in mom friendships because there's just something about other moms that get what you're going through and really normalize that when you're having a hard time.
Anna Rapp (14:14):
I just text some of my mom besties the other day when my daughter was sick and I was like, should I take her to urgent care? Should I leave her home? Right? Like there's nothing like mom friends and if you don't have any right now, don't make yourself wrong. But start friend dating. I've talked about this before, right? Go to a park, ask for someone's phone number, invite someone over, right? Like, and it doesn't mean like will you be my mommy friend forever, but like hey, let's hang out. If we hit it off, let's hang out again. If we don't hit it off, no problem. I'll find a different mommy friend. Right? But really investing your time and energy into those connections and support is so big for me. And for me, a lot of my clients love hiring me as a coach because I get what it's like to be a mom and a business owner and there's nothing like someone that gets it, right?
Anna Rapp (15:00):
I remember early on I was reading all this entrepreneurial advice, like these people that had these like four hour morning routines and I had a newborn baby. I was nursing and I was like, there is no way. Like there is no way, right? And there's just something about another mom that gets it. So I just wanna encourage you to invest your time in mommy friends and mommy community in my mastermind. I would say like that's another big thing that women love about it is they're with other moms that get it, where like there's babies on the call and they understand that you just, there's something about you don't get it till you get it. Okay? Finally I wanna talk about getting support. Getting support. Getting support is the number one thing I continue to do in my life and in my business to have capacity for my kids.
Anna Rapp (15:40):
Number one, because the more support you get and higher, the bigger you can grow your business and then you have more money to hire support and also do fun things with your kids, right? <Laugh> get to take my son to Legoland here in a few weeks and that is a direct result of money I made in my business. And I think for people that say again, money doesn't buy happiness. No, but it does buy resources and opportunities for you and for your family. So you guys know the first hire that I made in my business was hiring someone to do laundry for me, right? Because that's something that whether I did my own laundry or not did not make me a better or worse mom or business owner. And so for me, I've invested heavily in support when it comes to all sorts of things.
Anna Rapp (16:21):
Even like babysitters that I love. Va in my business, o b m in my business designer in my business outside of my business, having a therapist inside my business, having a business coach, right? You know, hiring a designer to help me design my house. Like I have hired people before to help me with groceries and meal prep. Like really asking yourself how can I support and equip myself and what parts of what I do as a mom or as a wife and as a business owner feel like key to who I am in my essence and what can I let go of control over and have someone else do and get support, right? There's nothing wrong with that. I love when my babysitter comes over once a week and she helps me with the kid's homework so that I can help one kid with homework and she can help the other kid with homework, right?
Anna Rapp (17:08):
And then homework is peaceful and not chaotic, right? It is safe for you to get support as a mom, right? I love that. My mom watches the kid kids once a week, sometimes twice a week. And like I think when I first sent my son to preschool, well number one I cried for the first 30 days of dropping him off, but I, his preschool teacher, sweetest woman in the world, just kindest woman and my son loved her. And I think I had a moment where I realized like, okay, my job is my kid's mom isn't necessarily to be with them 24 7 or have control over them 24 7 or dictate like it's my job to be the c e o of their life to make sure they're always loved and taken care of and safe and fed. But I don't always have to be the one to care for them or feed them or teach them.
Anna Rapp (17:57):
What if other people in their life actually gave them unique perspectives, right? Like I really didn't leave their side when they were tiny. And so I think letting go and like letting my son go to preschool was like, wow, this teacher is teaching him things in those three hours when I'm gone that I wouldn't be able to teach him. She has different perspectives and it's safe for me to let go and to trust and to always be super involved 'cause I'll always be that type of mom, but also to let go in a way that feels good to me. So getting support with my kids for myself is, is huge. Oh, I kind of missed what I was gonna say back on another point too, but just as like all the moms that I know with massive businesses, like they also have problems and they like for me, like I think I told you guys I had two weeks last month where my kids were super sick and so fortunately he was on one of my like coaching weeks, but it did feel a little bit chaotic, right?
Anna Rapp (18:52):
But I think it's just reminding yourself that you can keep growing your business, you can keep making more money even if things come up right, it's okay for it to feel and for it to be imperfect. This is related to another point too, but I do feel like there was another game changing moment where I, when my kids are super tiny, I did multitask a little bit more and then I realized like, oh, you know, when I'm with my kids, I'm not even being present with them. And then when working in my business, I'm not being efficient 'cause I'm thinking about my kids. So I think when I did allow myself to hire a babysitter for 10 hours a week, that was a big game changer because it really allowed me to like work when I was working and then when I wasn't working I could really unplug and not have to like multitask it or not have to be like mad because my son didn't take a nap when he was supposed to.
Anna Rapp (19:40):
So I would just say like even though we started our businesses to be moms first, most of us, it's safe for you to have help and to hire support and to have a nanny or have a babysitter. I'll link the podcast episode below to where I talk about my mom guilt when it came to hiring a nanny for the first time. But again, it doesn't negate why I started a business and that is so that I have ultimate flexibility, right? To always take the day off for the field trip or for whatever. But it doesn't mean that I don't have childcare for my kids now they're in school so it's different, right? But I just wanna say like, just because you hire support or have a babysitter, right, and you work doesn't make you a bad mom. In fact, for me, the fact that I work and get to coach and get to have white space and quiet space like means that I'm a better mom when I do return to my kids and I am more present in that way.
Anna Rapp (20:29):
So anyway, that's what I have to say. Those are my di give yourself grace. Also the dollar store for a practical tip. On times when, like during the pandemic, I had to do more multitasking. I would buy my kids like little gifts from the dollar store and wrap them so they could open them while I was working, create some novelty there. I also like let myself spend money when it comes to occupying my kids. My kids, I don't, we don't do a ton of screen time in our house. And so sometimes if I do have to coach, I'll let them watch a movie and then they're super into it because they lo like, they're like, oh, screen time, right? But I, for women that do more or less screen time than me, obviously no judgment, but I would say like another fun thing is like little dollar store gifts or for me, I'm like, okay, if I can like spend some time and make $500, it's okay for me to spend $10 on a new Lego set so that my kids are occupied or whatever.
Anna Rapp (21:22):
And just again, all the grace. Okay. I would love to hear whether it's more existential like some of this advice or whether it's some practical tips. Like let's do some mommy masterminding and brainstorming. And I would love to hear from you via email. What's your number one tip when it comes to balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship? And let's brainstorm. Let's grab ideas from each other. I would love to hear what it is and just mama sending you so much love. My favorite affirmation that I say to myself almost every day is, I am a patient and present mom. I'm a patient and I'm a present mom. 'cause Sometimes I don't feel very patient, sometimes I don't feel very present. But that is something that I'm always working towards and is always my biggest priority. So if that's it for you and if your kids are your number one even above your business, I just wanna say, I get you. I feel you. You got this mama.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.