3 entrepreneurs share their guidance on building a business as a brand new mom

Listen on your favorite player

Getting a new business off the ground is a big task, as is adjusting to having a brand new baby at home. In today's episode, 3 entrepreneurs share their perspectives and guidance on getting a new business off the ground while adjusting to being a new parent.

In this episode you will hear from:

• Kimone Napier (she/her) who built her recruiting business while on maternity leave.

• Michelle Ward (she/her) who guides entreprenewbies on launching and growing their dream businesses and who also experienced running a business with a baby at home.

• Kirsty Fanton (she/her) who grew her copywriting and launch strategy business with a new baby at home and is expecting her second as we speak!

Watch the Episode:

Listen to the Episode:

Questions answered in this episode…

I’m a new mom with a six month old. I was just starting to build my art career when we decided to get pregnant. Now I don’t know how to balance the demands of brand new motherhood with my passion for my craft and the financial needs of my family (aka millennial housing crisis). I didn’t have enough built before the baby so I don’t have much of a foundation to work with. It takes time to build a business but we have to buy a house! We’ve outgrown our current place. And it goes without saying the prohibitive cost of childcare…. (And why would I want my whole paycheck to go to paying some stranger to raise my kid anyways?) How do new moms who are also brand new business owners balance all their family needs (time with the baby, financial goals, personal passions, etc)? Is it possible to start from scratch during the new baby season? Or do I have to compromise my desire to build the life I want (at least for a season) in favor of the life my family needs?

Do you have a question you’d like to hear addressed on a future episode?

As part of Fruition Growth Network, you can submit your questions related to being a human running a small, lifestyle business and have them answered by one of our expert contributors. You can expect nuanced conversation and expert guidance just for you, and you don’t even need to wait for new episodes to drop. As soon as we record your response you will get access to the full video interview. Join Fruition Growth Network here!

Rate, review, and follow

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, clicking the 5 stars (or however many you see fit!) and telling others why you love the show. It really helps me to get the show in front of more people which is so important when seeking funding for our programming.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to Make Your Business Work for You on your favorite podcast player. This will ensure you get every new episode right to your device as soon as they are released!

Links + resources referenced in this episode

Connect w/ Kimone

Website: https://hirebreakthrough.com
Podcast: https://hirebreakthrough.com/podcast/

Connect w/ Michelle

Website: https://ohhellobusiness.com

Connect w/ Kirsty

Website: https://www.kirstyfanton.com

Transcript

Brooke Monaghan

Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of Make your Business Work For you. I probably sound a little bit different today because I am coming off of being so sick. It's just like one thing after another over here. But here we are. I'm actually feeling okay, but I'm feeling foggy and sound very different.

00:27

Today's episode is a Q&A episode, and this is going to be the first Q&A episode that you're hearing that is of this specific nature, so I just want to give you a little bit of an intro into what you are about to hear. This Q&A session is in response to a very specific question. The person who asked this question gave a lot of context about their identity and about their specific situation. They used the term mom. They called themselves a new mom. They gave a lot of context about the specific situation that themselves and their partner are finding themselves in.

01:05

I say all of this because this is not a Q&A where we are providing guidance to everybody.

01:12

This is guidance that's being provided to this person who asked the question.

01:16

If you've never been in a group coaching program or something like that before, you may not have experienced this before, but something that's so powerful is hearing people ask their questions, hearing the guidance that's being given to that specific person and being able to sit and watch that and then filter, through your own experience and your own lens, that guidance that's being given and taking your own takeaways from it.

01:40

I say all of this because, in order for that to be helpful for you, you do need to know, going in, that it is on you to hear this and pull out the things that work for you and the things that resonate for you and are for you, and leave the things that are not, and understand that this is not meant to be guidance for everybody. With that being said, if you do not want to hear an episode that is full of language about being a mom specifically, or about mothering specifically, this might not be an episode for you. I personally think that the guidance that's given in this episode could be applicable to all parents, but, again, I also know that hearing language like that that is gendered usually usually when people talk about being a mother oftentimes that is gendered not always.

02:32

It can bring some of that up. I'm just saying this because I want you to take care of yourself and choose for yourself if this is going to be helpful for you or not. You're going to hear from three different people today. I pulled in three different people to provide their thoughts on this question because it was a big question. There's a lot in it. Also because I don't think that this is something that there's just one answer to, and I also think that it was helpful to hear different people's perspectives.

02:55

The first person you're going to hear from is a friend of mine, Kimone Napier. Kimone uses she and her pronouns. The reason I pulled Camone in is because she started her business while she was on maternity leave. You're going to hear why this is relevant to this question once we dive into the Q&A. Camone's specialty is actually in hiring and HR. You're going to hear more from Camone in future episodes about team building and hiring, but today you are going to hear specifically about her guidance and thoughts on building a business with a brand new baby at home. Then you're going to hear from Michelle Ward also uses she and her pronouns. Michelle is somebody who helps entrepre-newbies as she calls them bring their dream businesses to life. She has some really great perspective on this early, early phase of business that this listener is in. Then you are going to hear from Kirsty Fanton also uses she and her pronouns. Now you're hearing why I'm saying Just know what you're going into and the perspective that you're going to hear. It is very much leaning in one direction here, right, but that's for a reason. Kirsty is my go-to source on all things copywriting and launch strategy, but she also happens to have a baby at home and is expecting another one. I wanted to have her weigh in as well. Now you can always head to the show notes to find links on how you can connect with anybody who's answering questions on these episodes. You can go to joinfruition.com for the extended show notes and the transcripts. You can also go to to submit questions for future episodes. I hope you find this episode helpful. If this is not an episode for you today, I hope that you listen to yourself and you go ahead and skip past this one.

04:53

All right, here is the question that we got that made me want to reach out to you specifically. I'm a new mom with a six-month-old. I was just starting to build my art career when we decided to get pregnant and now I don't know how to balance the demands of brand-new motherhood with my passion for my craft and the financial needs of my family. I didn't have enough built before the baby, so I don't have much of a foundation to work with. It takes time to build a business, but we have to buy a house. We've outgrown our current place and it goes without saying the prohibitive cost of child care.

05:24

How do new moms who are also brand-new business owners balance all of their family needs? Time with the baby, financial goals, personal passions. Is it possible to start from scratch during a new baby season, or do I have to compromise my desire to build the life that I want, at least for a season, in favor of the life that my family needs? I expect that you're going to have a one-sentence answer that is just going to perfectly give all of the answers that everyone needs to know. I'm just kidding, no pressure.

Kimone Napier 05:54

Well, I wish, but what I will say with that answer, if I was going to say it in a sentence you're going to have to pace yourself with all of what you want to do. I heard a couple of things. You started this business, there's financial concerns, you're trying to buy a house. There's a lot of stuff to try to manage all at one time. You're going to have to pace yourself one step at a time. For me personally, my pregnancy was my green light into entrepreneurship. I started my business when I was pregnant. It was literally I was pregnant and I was just like well, this is green light into entrepreneurship because with my working lifestyle, I live in New York, I worked for the government, I'm getting home at seven o'clock. A baby did not fit into the picture of a traditional work environment, at least the way I was working at that time. This was my green light into entrepreneurship. What I did specifically is that I started to do a lot of research and I started to build while I was pregnant. I even started to get my first couple of clients, because the first ones usually come from your network, people who know you so I could get some experience. When my daughter was born, I built my first website by myself. I did all of that stuff. In terms of figuring out how to work when you have a child.

07:27

I would literally work around my daughter's sleep schedule. Literally, when they're small, when they're babies, all they really do is eat and sleep. Really for the first three to four months they don't really do much. Of course you're going to play with them and stuff like that. I used to work around that. She would literally be next to my desk. I'd have her in her bouncer or her swing or something, occupy her time. I'd take breaks. On my breaks we'd either go out for a walk or something and things like that. I'd find a way to work around it. Then, when I started to really book more clients, and get more busy, I would schedule the calls around her sleep cycle because eventually your child you're going to notice okay, they always sleep at this particular time. You'll schedule your calls around that. It made it quite easy for me at that time.

08:22

In terms of your question about okay, you've outgrown your space, you want to buy a new house, you're going to have to pace yourself with that I don't think it's necessarily the most realistic thing to like. You're like okay, I'm trying to build a business, mom, and buy a house. That's a lot. Buying a house is not like you go out and buy a house tomorrow. It's a process.

08:48

What I would say is figure out what it is that you can do, how you can work around your child's schedule. Try to start getting a couple clients, start to set money aside so you can buy the house. Maybe it's like you're looking at your financials. You can put a timeline on it. Maybe it's like six months, maybe it's a year, just depends on how much money you're bringing in and the whole nine yards. But you have to create a plan. This is going to take planning, because what you don't want to do is stress yourself out. If you're stressed, your baby is going to also be stressed. That's the way that you can work around that.

09:27

Then you need to also ask for help. This is like something that I see new moms struggle with all the times that they think, okay, I'm a new mom, I have to literally do it all. No, you don't have to do it all Now with me. My parents live literally probably like 10 minutes from me. I could walk there on a very nice day and so I would like have my mom like watch my daughter sometimes and stuff, and I'm not saying like abuse kindness or anything like that, but like if you really need some time, because sometimes what it is, you need like a little hour or two like of like undivided attention to get something done, and you'd be surprised how much you could get done in that amount of time. Like, even looking back at it, I I'm just like I don't even know how in the world I did half of the things in the timeframe. But you know like okay, this, this child is going to wake up in like 30 minutes, I've got 30 minutes to try to figure this out and you'll get things done.

10:26

So you have to also ask for help because at the end of the day, as a business owner, you're not going to, you can't do everything necessarily yourself. And it's the same thing because you're in a situation right now where you're business owner and mom at the same time, and so that's give and take. You're going to have to actually get some help for the times when you need it. Now, suppose you book clients. That's the thing you get the clients now. Youyouhave to think about, okay, what's the childcare look like when I'm actually doing the work for these clients, cause that's the thing. Like right now, you're like, okay, I need to make the money. But if okay, you now, if you get like 10 clients, how are you going to make that work? So you have to. I always say plan for what it is that you want your life to look like.

11:15

Because if you keep asking, like you're constantly saying, like, okay, I want to get five clients. Well, you will get them. You're going to get the five clients. It's a matter of when you're going to get them. But when you get them, how is it that you're going to handle the demand of that? So you have to do some major family planning right now to get this in order, figure out what your schedule should look like and the whole nine yards, and you find it it's easier that way. But I think, because you have all these questions and you had your, you know your little stress about that, but I would say this is how I'd recommend to approach business and mom-ing at the same time.

Brooke Monaghan 11:52

Yeah, I think that. So a few things that I'm hearing that I think are so important to highlight. The first is like, sorry, there's some very loud engine outside of my window. I don't really know. I'm trying to film this in the middle of downtown LA, so it's just going to happen.

12:12

The first thing that I'm hearing is like, get specific.

12:14

So get specific about, like, what the balance could actually look like for you, or what the priorities actually are, what the timelines actually are.

12:22

Like you know, if you're saying you've outgrown your current space and you need to buy a house, like if you already have a timeline on that, then that might be something that's not movable and you have to move the other things around it. But if that is movable, right. Like so kind of sitting down and actually getting more specific about what you actually need, how much time you have, if you get the clients or if you get the work, how you're actually going to balance that. And to your point about planning for the life that you want, I love that you bring that up, because what I see happen really often maybe not in this specific type of situation, but people saying I want the clients, I want the money, I want all of this to come in. Also, though, feeling already spread thin with everything else that's going on, and they don't realize that they're actually holding themselves back from getting the work because there's an underlying fear of not being able to handle the work when it does come in.

13:15

And so you've got to create like a clear kind of channel or some amount of space for that work to come into. And one of the things that I did. This is a totally different situation. I did not have a child in the mix. I had the benefit of I mean, I have a partner so, like you know, and he was just moving into a new job at the time.

13:39

But when I first started my business, I realized that I was filling so much of my time with like busy work and I had to actually cut down the amount that I was working to create the space where I would want clients to go, just to prove to myself that I was going to actually be able to handle running the business and also doing the client work. It was like I needed to cut back on all of that like marketing and admin time, so that I actually had the space where clients could actually come in. And I'm hearing some of that in what you're saying, like you've got to create a plan where you know that you'll actually be able to handle the work. And if you can't create that plan, then maybe now is not the time to be putting so much pressure on yourself to be getting clients and you figure out some kind of alternate arrangement. Exactly yeah.

Kimone Napier 14:23

Yeah, because it's every it's all give and take, there's only 24 hours in a day. Like, you have to think about it like that, and you you're not going to be working all of them. Some of it is for rest, some of it is going to be taking care of your child, and if you're trying to do the business, some of it is going to take some time for that. So you have to plan out what it is your day can look like and you're going to also have to plan for, like the non-ideal day, because with children, anything could come up.

14:52

Yeah, like you know, you just have no idea. For example, like I remember, like last school year, I had like a major meeting and then my daughter was sick and I had to go get her from school. But I had a plan B. Right, I couldn't go get her because I had this meeting, so I arranged for somebody else in my family to pick her up. So, like you have to like plan accordingly in that way so you don't overwhelm and stress yourself, because you have very big, ambitious goals and I love that. You have to like work backwards in order to achieve the goals that you want. So maybe what it is right now is you're working on the foundation of your business, like, okay, how am I going to get the clients in? I don't know if you already have your site set up or a page or something. If you have that set up yet and the whole nine yards, and how much clients can you actually take on right now with your current situation with your child?

15:52

I don't know how old your child is, but I think your child is like six months. Six months, yeah, right. And so your child is also becoming a little bit more independent. I hope you also realize that too. I actually feel like it's interesting when my daughter was a baby and I was when I say baby, I mean, you know, from the time of birth up until probably like a little bit before two it was actually easier. It's when they're like walking, talking, like that you can't like as a baby they're just they cry when they want to be changed, they cry when they want to eat or they want your attention, but like a toddler is just going to run rampant and stuff.

16:33

So actually use this time to actually really get the foundational elements done, so like whether it's like you get like your calendar together and stuff. Maybe it's like, okay, I remember with me when I had my daughter. I was like, okay, I could take calls. I had like a block of like three hours for calls a day and that's how I was, like I would take my calls in between that time. The rest of the time I would do some work in between the time. So you just have to figure out what works for you. But it will work. You just have to really just set the intention and figure out like your schedule to actually really help you with this. Otherwise you're going to stress yourself out and that's what we don't want to do.

Brooke Monaghan 17:15

Yeah, because, by the way, stress is going to diminish your capacity for any amount of creative thinking, like it's going to require so much creativity, like when you're starting a business.

17:27

It just requires you to be able to think outside of the box about things, or really think critically about how to solve a problem.

17:33

And, like I cannot stress enough as somebody who's not even had to deal with raising a child, there have been situations that I have gone through that are so much less stressful than that that have totally taken me out in terms of being able to problem solve.

17:49

And so one of the things that's really interesting and I see this with clients of mine is like sometimes getting a part-time job actually can relieve the stress, to free up the creative energy to do some of this stuff. You know, like it might take you four hours to get something done when you're trying to do it while you're also thinking about a million other things and are stressed, whereas if you had gone to work for three hours not had to, you know had a little bit of that stress set aside, you might be able to do it in an hour because you're able to focus. So like part of it, too, is kind of knowing yourself, I think, and when I hear you say what we don't want to do is stress you out, I'm like trying to underline that because I feel like people don't understand how important that part of it is. Especially if the reason why you want to build a business is because you want to have some amount of, like, flexibility and freedom.

Kimone Napier 18:47

100%, because if you I said it before like, if you're stressed, the baby will feel that stress. So that's what you don't want to happen, and if you're stressed, you're not going to be a benefit to yourself or to, honestly, to anybody else. That's the thing I remember. The reason I got into business, too, was to relieve myself of a lot of the stress. I would have been super stressed out if I had stayed in the job that I had prior to getting pregnant with my and having a child. Like I would have been super stressed out, and I know that. And so you have to work to create the kind of lifestyle that you want and you have to ask for help.

19:29

Like it breaks my heart when I see a lot of mothers they'll they feel like they have to do it all themselves or figure it all out all themselves, and it is impossible.

19:38

It's like it literally takes a tribe to raise a child because you're not going to be able to do all of this stuff, even when you know your child is older and your business is flowing and stuff like that. Like you are going to need somebody to help you with homework Sometimes maybe it's like, and you're going to have to clean the house and there's cooking and, of course, if you have a partner, they can help you with that stuff too, but they're also working as well. So it's like it's a give and take, but you have to figure out, like, okay, this is what I know I can do, this is what I need help with and I I tackle that by making a list of all of these things and knowing where it is that I can show up and where I need to show up and stuff Like, for example, you know, like to me cleaning the house. It takes so much time. This is like a whole day affair, yeah.

20:33

Who has the time to do all of that stuff and you're running a business, you have a kid, like there's a lot of stuff that goes into that, so get the help that you need. Now I know you have financial concerns right now, but at the same time you have to plan. So, whether it is like you have somebody come in and help you, maybe once a month, once every two months, whatever it is that it looks like, you have to also create a place for yourself where you're going to be able to get the help that you need and ask for help. Whether it's like you you have, if you have a partner, like I'm so tired but I need to finish this. Can you please handle dinner tonight? Like whatever it is that you have to do. You have to do that because distress is not going to help your business thrive, it's not going to help you thrive, and then you don't want that trickling down to your child. So that would be my, my advice with this question.

Brooke Monaghan 21:27

Awesome, I love it. Thank Kimone. You are the one. You were the number one person I wanted to answer this question because I was like I know someone who did it. I'm going to get Kimone on.

Michelle Ward 21:41

Just holding my heart. I just want to give so much love to this new mama and and their partner it seems like too. I remember those days of, you know, six months of baby hood and just being in that bliss. Alongside the sleep deprivation, alongside the like. Yeah, whoever tells me next I should just work when the baby naps, like I will murder them. Like some of that, some of the advice, you again is like no, this can't actually be done. So I'm just, I'm holding that space so much and I feel like you know, I wish there was a clear cut answer that was like, this is the right thing to do, but there's so many different shades of gray and hopefully there's relief in those shades of gray. Right, like I could tell this mama right now that there is a solution for herself for her business, for her family, and, yes, there might need to be some compromising right now or some prioritizing.

22:53

I so I started my business in 2008, I went full time in 2010. And we got placed with our daughter via adoption when she was five weeks old in 2014. So I had more time and experience under my belt than this mom and obviously the circumstances were a bit different, because I kind of sensed. Like we sensed the placement was coming that summer and I tried to clear the decks as best as I could, but like we literally had four days' notice for the like yeah, and here's your baby. Wow.

23:35

But between my experience and what I've helped my clients with and what I've heard from them too, I think I think what needs to happen is A. you need to just set up a new structure, and that structure needs to be really flexible, because your baby is always changing.

23:56

I joke that, like just when you think your baby's on a schedule, or like you know the routine, haha, that baby laughs at you and is like haha, now you know I'm going to nap, for you know, at this time instead of this time, or for this long instead of this long, or I'm going to sleep this way, or whatever. So I think that there needs to be a new structure and I think this mom and and her partner really sit down and say okay, what are the minimum financial needs of our family right now? How are we bringing in that money? And this might be a season or a time where there is a bridge job at play, and I use the term bridge job just to mean like this is a job that just gives you the money that you need that like totally either takes away or minimizes your financial stress while leaving you time and energy to work on your business.

24:50

So whether that's her doesn't mean she needs to jump into full time employment. Employment doesn't mean she even needs to be a part time employee. Might be a contract job, it might be consulting or something she has an experience. It might be the art business she feels like. You know she needs to bring in $2,000 a month and the art business could do that? Amazing. So, sitting down with her partner, what are the financial needs? How are we going to do that? And then what's the structure for support?

25:20

On that, I always feel like with new motherhood, the less that you could put on your plate the better, because you could always add, but it's much harder to take things away.

25:37

So I think that's really key as well, that this is probably not the time for her to,

25:46

you know we're recording this in September and I want to imagine, with her art business, she's thinking about the holidays and the you know holiday markets and the holiday sales, and you know how much art she wants to make to sell.

26:00

This might not be, and probably shouldn't be, the record breaking year. This probably isn't the year where she's going to create all this product or sign up for all these markets, thinking again like what's the minimal, minimal, viable plan to get what she needs, maybe for the holiday season, and just take baby steps for her business. And I hope she could find comfort in the fact that over the past 15 years of doing this work, I have learned firsthand and through my clients that baby steps build the strongest foundation, and so she shouldn't think of baby steps as something that are less than or that aren't going to get her where she's going to go, or to feel guilty or bad about it. It's like no, actually, in this season, in this moment, taking baby steps and just showing up for her business as consistently as she can in a way that's going to work well for her and her family and her priorities and their financial needs, like, oh my gosh, crushing it.

Brooke Monaghan 27:02

Yeah, I love that. I think that anytime that I hear a question from somebody and this, honestly, I did not even think about this and as you're articulating this, I'm like, oh right, of course, yeah, yeah, right, of course. This is why you have to do this, because I'm like, anytime I hear someone ask a question where there's like so many different parts to it and it's very clear that it feels very heavy and the decision that's made could have these implications on how you're going to live your whole life, because does it mean you have to sacrifice everything that you want? Right? It's like when you can pause and clarify and define what you actually do need, it can take a lot of that weight out of it, because now you actually can create a plan.

27:51

And I also love what you said about like I can't tell you the number of people that I've had conversations with who, not because of this particular circumstance, but they're in a situation where it's like, okay, this is what I want to do, but also, right now we're really pressed financially. And when I ask them, what does pressed financially mean? What's the minimal amount of money that you need to make in order to be okay, it's like that conversation hasn't happened, which no judgment, right. But it's just like clarify what that is, because you will fill in that blank with a story that is probably based on your own money history and then you can't create a plan. And then also, once you do know what the number is, you actually don't need to stress yourself out to figure out how to make your money, how to make your business make that money. You can do some combination of things.

Michelle Ward 28:48

Yes, yes, yes, thank you, thank you, I agree. I co-sign, yes, yes, yes, I talk all the time, especially when it comes to my clients who are looking to, you know, lead their day jobs and when do they officially their day jobs and how much money do they need. They're always running on assumptions about how much money they think they need, how much money they have, what's actually coming in. And when I say no, no, no, you need to have a money date, you need to actually look at the numbers, I would say 100% of the time they come back and they go, oh it's not as bad as I thought, oh it's not as much as I thought we needed.

29:23

And it's stressful to show up and look at those numbers and run those numbers. I know the fear and the stress that's there, but I could tell you it is few and far between where there isn't relief that comes through with actually looking at the numbers and not just running on assumptions. Totally, totally. I wanted to add to this too because, funnily enough, you sent me this question and then, totally coincidentally, one of my clients came into my private community for a program I run called Show Up Squad, and she's like I'm pregnant, having my first baby. Like, please, mamas who had babies while they just started their business, give me help. And I was like this is amazing, amazing.

30:10

Amazing right serendipitous. So, mama who wrote in, you are not alone. And I just got permission to share some of the response from my client, Dr Suset Laboy Perez of alittleawareness.com.

30:25

She had twins two-ish years ago after being, you know, a newish entrepreneur, and I love what she shared. She shared number one take all the leave you can. Number two take all the help you can. Number three, like communicate, communicate, communicate. I think this is also really key. And she also said community, finding community and being surrounded by people who are going through something similar. And I love those kind of four touch points because I think that really sums up what the priorities are and what not to gender stereotype. But I feel like what, as women, we really struggle with, which is putting away the super woman cape, which is asking for help and support.

31:29

I know, for me, my husband and I, by the time our baby came around, I was the breadwinner, he was working as a freelancer and we knew he was going to be kind of the primary caretaker and I wasn't really able to take a full maternity leave, but I was able like I limited my plate, I communicated to my clients when the baby was here Hi, we have this baby. Like, I was able to shuffle some calls around and take some time off, but there was a point I forget how long it was, but we just had a plan that like we couldn't find a daycare in our area that worked for us we lived in Brooklyn at the time. Everything was ridiculously expensive and prohibitive in other ways and what we were able to settle on was after a few weeks possibly. We had a good friend of ours who had like nanny and babysitting experience. We're like can you be our person, I think, two days a week. She just came for six hours.

32:38

It just allowed my husband to take the time that he needed to just have time to himself, do things that he needed. It allowed me to, like go and work a bit more guilt-free than I could otherwise, and that was something that we could afford. So getting that support and she might find you know there is a babysitting situation or can I tap a grandparent on the shoulder to come help me Like there might be other ways to get that. Asking for that help and just communicating her needs in her business and also in her personal life will help her as an entrepreneur too.

Brooke Monaghan 33:19

Yeah, totally. And on that note about community too and like getting that kind of help, I have a client who she does. She has a friend who also has a kid around the same age as hers and they will do a thing where it's like she'll go, she'll take her kid to this friend's house, watch both of them while that friend goes to yoga, yep, and then that friend comes back and watches both of them and then she goes to, like, the afternoon yoga class, and so I know you know I'm hearing in this that there's a lot of financial stress and so, yeah, like if there's any, like if there's other people around where, like you, can lean into each other to help each other out, that could be an option as well.

Michelle Ward 34:03

I love that.

Brooke Monaghan 34:04

Yeah, and the final. The other thing, too, that I do want to point out is that in this question they said is it possible to start from scratch during new baby season? And I would say you're not starting from scratch.

34:18

Yes, yeah, it's so easy to like tell yourself that that, like if you take any time off, then you're going to have to totally start over, but there's so much stuff that you learned that you got out of the way before that you're not going to have to go through now. So nothing is. This is like, yeah, nothing, you're not starting from scratch. So I do not have children. So, in addition to calling in Michelle Ward, who helps people who are at the very beginning of their businesses, I was also like let me also call some people in who know what it's like trying to run, grow whatever a business with babies around, because this is not something that I have experience with, but it is something that you have experience with. Hence why we're here.

Kirsty Fanton 35:09

Amazing, and yes, that's right. So I've got, I'm currently pregnant with my second, who's due in a few months, and my first is what's he now? He's like two years and three months, so I've definitely been in the phase of trying to juggle all the things and I think, particularly when motherhood is in you, it is so overwhelming. Your whole life has just changed, your plate is so full and it's so hard to carve out time for almost anything, particularly if you don't have, you know, support nearby, like family members or, you know, daycare is really expensive. So without that as well, definitely a lot of challenges. Yeah, I should say that I had already got my business set up to a pretty decent point by the time I went off to have my first kid.

35:54

So a lot of my own experiences won't be relevant to this question, but I certainly work with clients who have been in a similar position to this person, right, okay? So my first thought is that, six months in, like it's still. Everything is still so new and I feel like, particularly in that first 12 to 18 months of life with a new person, things are changing all the time and, you know, I found it to be so true that you feel like you finally reach a place where you're like, oh, I've got this down pat, and then something changes, like their sleep goes to shit again, or you know they start walking or like whatever it might be, and you're like, okay, we're back to square one. Whole new set of challenges. I have to adapt.

Brooke Monaghan 36:33

I'm laughing because the first person that I talked to about this question said the exact same thing, so we've reached consensus as far as I'm concerned on this front. Yes.

Kirsty Fanton 36:43

Amazing. So I'm only saying that as a starting point, because I think it is so challenging to try and adapt to that constant cycle of flux and growth and change, while also trying to build a business from you know not from scratch, but certainly from a place where you know the foundations aren't yet set up to support this person to do the work that they want and to earn the money that they want. Like that's a lot of wobbly foundations to try and work with. So I just want to acknowledge that it is really challenging and normalize the fact that this person is finding it challenging and finding it confusing and finding it hard to work out. You know, do I actually pursue this now or do I have to sort of sacrifice this goal for now and focus on other things? You know, it's a really big question. So I just wanted to start there, and it's good to know that the other person you spoke to, Michelle, has also confirmed that.

Brooke Monaghan 37:39

She was like as soon as you think that you've got it down, this child is going to laugh at you and like the next thing is going to come up yeah, so yes.

Kirsty Fanton 37:53

Cool. So with that I think I mean I'm a huge believer that it is so important to build a business that supports the life you want to lead. That's my whole thing, and of course, that will look different in different seasons of your life. So, for example, my business shifted significantly when I had my first child because I had been someone who had built a business based on providing one-to-one services and that really required a reliable well for my time to be really reliable, to turn up to calls, to complete projects on time, to meet deadlines and, of course, my energy to be at a reliable kind of standard. You know, throw a baby into the mix and you know I was getting up six to eight times a night for the first 13 months with my first child. So you know my sleep just wasn't there and he got sick all the time when you first had a daycare as well. So the reliability factor wasn't there either.

38:49

So, just again acknowledging that it's okay for your vision for your business to look different based on the season that you're in, and I would encourage this person to sit down with themselves and also with their partner and have a discussion about, you know, what is the priority right now, what is going to be more supportive for this person?

39:11

Is it going to be that they have time to pursue their passion and get paid for that, or is it going to be that they go into some other sort of work or some other sort of job to really get the financials up and running in order to buy the house and to do other things that they want to do to support their family?

39:29

And I think the key with that is knowing that it is a season. Things will change, there will be time and space for the other stuff. If that time is not now and I also think within that, like holding the fact that even if the decision ends up being really need to prioritise finances right now and maybe that means, you know, less time, energy, devoted to getting a business set up, because you know, often it takes a while for the business to become profitable and to bring in significant amounts of money it doesn't mean that there couldn't also be some time in that person's days and that person's weeks and months to do the kind of projects and the work that they love. And I think, particularly as a new parent, when your whole identity is shifting and you have such little time to devote to the things that make you you outside of being a parent. That can be incredibly important.

Brooke Monaghan 40:24

That's such a good point. That's such a good point because, you know I a lot of what you said was you know has been is echoing conversation another conversation that I'm going to share that we had about this question. With this, you know, get clear on like what you actually need and maybe right now, like understand that this is a season, this isn't a decision that's going to be forever right. Like, just because you're not working on your business right now doesn't mean that you're just not working on your business. You can take baby steps, but I love this point about like using the working on the business almost as like a thing that you get to do for yourself, rather than a thing that you're necessarily relying on, as, like the thing that's going to support you and the family right now.

41:16

I love that concept and I think that the beautiful thing about that, too, is it. I mean this this is an art career, and so I'm always coming back to like why do you actually want to do the work that you do? And if part of the reason why you want an art career is so that you get to do art and be creative and whatever, like, maybe that's the thing to prioritize for right now, knowing that nothing that you do right now is going to be wasted, and maybe later on is the time to go full in on it, but not putting so much pressure on yourself for right now.

Kirsty Fanton 41:49

Yes, exactly Because I suspect that would be potentially the more stressful scenario. If the decision is we really need to focus on finances and the way we're going to do that is build this business up as quickly as possible, given that you're still you know probably still really young, your time probably isn't reliable. Your energy, your resources, your capacity probably also really stretched like to add the weight of that expectation on top, could just be so stressful and so weighty. Your business and your work and your passion and your craft and your creative side can absolutely be self care and I certainly leant on my business for self care too like. Time in my business when Ollie was young was self care and I loved that because I got to reconnect with a part of myself and things that I otherwise didn't have the chance to do in that crazy phase of having a young child.

Brooke Monaghan 42:42

I love that. Oh see, this is why I wanted multiple people to weigh in on this one, because this is a perspective that we didn't get yet, and I think this is such a good point. Is there anything else that comes to mind that you would want to add in response? No pressure to, but

Kirsty Fanton 42:59

Let me think I feel like I'd love to have a conversation with this person and find out more of the nitty gritty details in terms of, like, what is set up, like, is there low hanging fruit that you can monetize or that you can sell, or that you can, something that you can jump into really easily, that you don't have to really work up to Like? I would love to know those kinds of things. I feel like that kind of information might help formulate some sort of plan or strategy or way forward.

Brooke Monaghan 43:26

Yeah, Well, yeah, I mean yeah, no, you're right Like, is there anything that you can do? That's just sort of like is it an opportunity? It sounds like kind of what you would be able to get from that is to maybe just adjust to the way that you're thinking about quote unquote building the business. And is there something easier that you can do right now, rather than going down the road that you've maybe decided you have to go down to quote unquote have to go down to build a successful business? That's like, well, is there something really easy that you could do right now? That's kind of in line, or even as there is something easy that you could do right now that maybe it doesn't even seem to you to fit squarely in the bounds of what you thought your business was going to be, but it's still something that feeds that side of you, you know, or allows you the things that you wanted to get out of building your art career or your art business. Yeah, I love that.

Brooke Monaghan 44:20

So, like the person who asked this question, if you want to send in more questions with specifics, go for it. Yeah, go, nuts, we'll bring people to ask and keep going.

Kirsty Fanton 44:34

Yes, round two. I think the thing that we're both sort of swirling around here is that it would be so helpful, I think, for this person to really define what success looks like for them right now. Yeah, because I think it's so easy, regardless of, like, life stage and business stage, to have this idea of success. So I did my quotation marks then.

44:58

An idea of success that you know is a certain kind of business that earns a certain amount of revenue, that allows you to work a certain amount of hours, and that isn't everyone's version of success. That isn't the business that's going to feel right for everyone, and it's certainly not the business that's going to feel right for everyone at every stage of their life. So I think the clearer you can get on what that looks like for you right now, and that success might be that you, you know, have I don't know four hours a week to create and you know if you earn $1,000 a month from that, that's great and maybe that's what you aim for. And then I think, once you get those goals dialed in, it becomes easier to hatch a plan to work towards that, because you can sort of work backwards Like here's the end, All right. How am I going to get there from where I am now? Like what's the bridge I'm going to build? So I think that's what we're both talking about in roundabout ways.

Brooke Monaghan 45:51

Yeah, totally, totally, I love this.