Balancing Motherhood & Entrepreneurship
About the episode:
When I first started my business, I was not yet a mother, but from the start I created it in a way that it would align with the vision for my life for when I WOULD become a mom. Fast forward to today, I’m a mom of two and it’s only made me a better entrepreneur. In this episode, I’m sharing what motherhood and entrepreneurship looked like through my first and second babies, what a typical day looks like for me now, and how I’ve been able to keep my business profitable through it all. I hope this is a fun BTS episode that encourages you in your own mompreneur journey and I’ll be back next week with a new guest episode!
What you’ll hear:
How RuthAnn planned for motherhood as she started her business so that it would eventually align with this vision she had for her life
The way motherhood and business looked for RuthAnn with her first child and then her second and how she knew what she wanted to do differently
What a typical day looks like for RuthAnn currently with her oldest in preschool and her youngest at home with her
How motherhood has made RuthAnn a better entrepreneur
Episode resources:
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Hey guys, welcome back. I'm so excited that you're here. Thank you so much for joining me. Today I'm going on a little bit of a different route. I am talking about motherhood in business and while this may not be necessarily business related, this is just a little peek into my life and a little bit of behind the scenes for how I'm doing all of this motherhood in business thing. And so...
Yeah, I hope you can just be encouraged wherever you're at in your journey and I know for me I always love episodes like this where people are talking about their motherhood journey and they're talking about more by behind the scenes So I hope this is helpful if not entertaining and yeah, just giving you some encouragement and inspiration wherever you're at So when I started my business back in 2016, I always knew that I wanted to be a mom, and I knew that I wanted to not really go into work. Like, I knew I wanted to have something that was fulfilling to me creatively, but I also wanted to be available to my kids. I knew I wanted to be, you know, home with my kids, available to my kids, especially when they were little. That was something that was always really important to me, so that was kind of like my guiding... light is I was doing my business from the beginning, knowing that this is what I wanted to do in the future. That really helped kind of be my vision for what I wanted my life to look like. And so when I started my business, even though I knew nothing about business, even though I was terrified to call myself a business owner for the first two years, I knew that kind of the future I wanted was freedom, flexibility, creativity.
All those things that came with having your own business. So even though I didn't know what I was doing in the beginning, I'm very happy the choices I made back then because it has led me to being a stay-at-home mom and having a business and it's been really great. So even if you, I just wanna encourage you, if you are not sure how you would even get something started, you're not sure how things will all work out, sometimes just taking the first step is all you need to do.
And the rest of the path will make itself clear. So that is a little bit of why I started my business. So fast forward, I went full time in 2019 and back then I was working pretty much a normal, like because I was used to my day job where I worked a nine to five, well, I actually worked 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.
But I was used to working like those full day hours. That is kind of what I did back in 2019. I was pre-kids at that time and I was just working whenever my husband was at work, I would be working like basically all day. And I will say, if you are a service provider, things, I just feel like I have gotten so much better as a designer over the last few years. So things that now don't take me very long. They took me a really long time back then. So I was working like full-time hours-ish, but things were also taking me forever just because I was not as good as I am now. And that's the beauty of being in business for a while. You just get better and better at your craft. And sometimes just sticking with it is the best thing you can do because things just get easier over time. But yeah, back then I was working about 30 to 40 hours a week and I got pregnant with.
Zia my first in 2019 and I had him in March of 2020. So right when the world was shutting down I went on maternity leave and I remember telling my coach I was like I feel like there's a lot going on right now. I feel like I should be online and maybe I shouldn't go on maternity leave and she was like Ruthanne take maternity leave you know you need this time and I'm glad I did take
I think for me personally, I was going through a lot of postpartum depression and just a lot of feelings going through the pandemic and having a new baby and not seeing my family a lot. And there was just a lot going on during that time. And I'm just saying all that to just preface that business was really different for me during that time. And I was not... I wasn't really...
working like how I'm working now, I guess you can say, because I wasn't feeling like up to doing a lot of things. And it's funny because I was never like, I was never diagnosed with postpartum depression, but looking back, I was like, I can see that I was in myself. And I just had a hard time in business as well. My mindset was not where it is today. And I was just.
I wouldn't say floundering, but I was just having a harder time in kind of a lot of areas in life. So business looked a little bit different back then, but you know things just like with anything, you know you go through seasons in life and you know you go through different emotions and you're able to move through them and then you can kind of look back and see, oh wow I was like maybe having a harder time back then.
And that's kind of how I look back on those days in my first year of being a new mom was, wow, that was like really hard for me. And while I loved it and I absolutely adore being a mom and I love my kids, of course, it was kind of hard for me, I think, just with all the emotions and all the things that come with being a new mom. And so it was...
It was difficult, I think, being a business owner at that time, but I'm so grateful I had, I had my coach and, you know, obviously my family and stuff. So I had people in my life who were supporting me and encouraging me. And it was, it was a beautiful time, but a difficult time. And that's just how it is in that first year. Oh, and Zia was not the best sleeper. It's funny because with your first, you don't really have anything to compare it to. But now having my second and she is such an amazing sleeper. Yeah, looking back I was like, oh wow, Zia was really not a good sleeper, which is so hard on you if you do not have a lot of sleep. He took really short naps during the day and he had a really hard time sleeping at night. So it was just a rough year all in all. But the way I made it work was I had my mom helping me.
Well that was more of like a year into him. So like the first year I was pretty much doing work during his naptimes. I would do work in the morning and so that's kind of how I made it work in the beginning. I also wasn't working like as many projects back then. So things were, you know, they were just cruising along. I was definitely trying to, you know, figure it out as I go. I
things were kind of ho-hum, I guess you can say. Fast forward to, let's see, last year, I got pregnant with our second, Sophia, and I felt like, it's funny, when you find out you're pregnant or you have a baby, I feel like sometimes you have these bursts of inspiration, like, oh, this is what I need to be doing next, or this is...
This is definitely the next step I need to take. And so when I got pregnant with Sophia, I was like, oh, I need to hire a junior designer. Like I need to have a designer on my team. Like I just felt like I had clarity and I was decisive about what I wanted to do. I wanted to book out in advance. So when I came back from attorney leave, I would be like all set up with clients. I felt like I was very focused and yeah, just decisive and knew what I needed to do to get to where I wanted to go, which is I wanted to have that feeling of security knowing that I had an income when I came back from maternity leave, knowing that I had clients. And so when I went on, so leading up to going on maternity, I felt like I was very focused, very, I was doing sales actions, I was doing my mindset, all the things that I am doing now, like I was doing and I had the support of
I coach and all the things. So I felt like what I'm saying in all of this is my business has gone in an upward trajectory, slow but steady, and it's been good, but kind of, it's just been like a slow, slow pace for me. And that's kind of how I wanted it to be. So I'm not the type of person to kind of quit everything and not see anyone for six months and go all in on my business. My personality, so I've enjoyed going at a slow, steady pace, but yeah, so things have been slow and steady for me. So having Sophia this year, I had her in March of 2023. I went on a three month maternity leave, and for me, with both of my kids, I gave myself a three month maternity leave, but I ended up coming back a little bit sooner, more like...
two and a half months, so a couple weeks sooner, just because I was feeling a little antsy, I was feeling ready to work again. I also adore my clients and I absolutely love what I do. So coming back to work to me is fun. It doesn't feel like work, I guess. So I was pretty excited to come back after I had her. And so, yeah. I feel like, oh, also this year, we put Zia in preschool for the very first time. We've never had like, we've never had solid childcare, I guess you can say. Like we've had, you know, my mom helps out, which is incredible. I have my husband when he isn't working, he's helping me. And we've had sitters from time to time, but we've never had like a solid childcare situation.
So this year we put Zia in preschool, which has been really great. I am loving it, he's loving it, while he's still a little bit sad when I take him, like it's been so good for everyone involved. And so that's kind of where we are at right now. Like I am working while Zia is in preschool and while Sophia is asleep, I will be working. And right now I have my little monitor with me and she's...
still sleeping. She went to sleep at, when was it, like 9 30 and she's still sleeping. It's like 11 30. So she's my amazing baby sleeper. She's such a good sleeper, which is so nice. And so I'm able to get work done. So a typical day for me, if it's a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, which is Wednesday, it goes to preschool, is we wake up around 7, 7 30, you know, have breakfast.
We get Zia ready for preschool. We go around eight between eight and eight thirty. We go drop him off and then I'm home with Sophia and She takes a morning nap, which today is a two-hour morning nap and she's still going strong So I think part of that is a weighted blanket. We just started putting her in her little weighted blanket I don't remember the name of it, but it's like a zipper she's like in a little sack with her arms out and
I can't think of the name of it. But that has been, we just started using this with her this week and she has been, it's been awesome. She's already a good sleeper and now she's sleeping even better. So highly recommend that if you're having a baby waking up every now and again. So putting them in a weighted blanket gives them really solid sleep time.
So I am working right now during her nap time. I'm recording this. I have client work after that. I have a website I'm working on. I have two other websites launching maybe, let's see, this month, not this week, this month, and then working on logo designs for another client. So I definitely have design work and stuff I'm working on. And so Sophia will take a morning nap. Normally it's a short morning nap. Right now it's apparently long, and then she'll take a really long, epic afternoon nap, three to four hours sometimes, kind of depends, and then, so that's when I'll get the bulk of my work done, and then we go pick up Zia at 3.30, and then he's home with us the rest of the evening. I shut down work after he's home, and I don't work until he goes to preschool the next day, which is, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday for us and on his days off, on Tuesday, Thursday, I am not working. I'm just hanging out with the kids and being available. They are both taking a nap, and I have gotten them down to both taking a nap at the same time. So on Tuesday, Thursday, if they're both napping, I will work, but that's normally just an hour, because Zia doesn't sleep super long, so it's like an hour maybe, two hours at best. So that's kind of where we're at now. I work about 15 to 20 hours a week and I have multiple projects. I do have a OBM who helps me. Shout out to Shelby. And so that's been awesome. And I am looking to grow in new ways. I will leave it at that. I will be sharing more about that soon. Just about like internally like business moves I want to make. But for now it's me. It's me and my OBM and working during nap times, being a mom. I love that I get to structure my days, how I want them to be structured. And if I need additional help, if I'm in crunch time or something, I can always call on my network to help me. My husband, who is super supportive, or my mom, I will say my younger sister and my sister-in-law and I all had our babies within six months.
There's a lot of little babies in our family right now, so my mom is very busy with her business, but also being a grandma to all the little grand babies. But it's so fun for sure. And so yeah, so that's kind of a little bit of background on motherhood, what that's looking like for me right now. And I think when you become a mom, you just are aware that everything is gonna be changing all the time.
I feel like it makes you such a better business owner in a lot of ways because you're open to change, you don't resist it as much, you're open to new ideas, and when you have kids, you have to, for me anyway, I have become incredibly efficient at my work and I'm able to go through things so much faster and I think that's just, you know, whenever, if you give yourself a lot of time to do a task, you will.
you know, take up all the time. But if you give yourself 15 minutes, you can most of the time get the task done in 15 minutes, obviously, depending on what the task is. But that's kind of how it's been with being a mom to me. Like I know I only have an hour here, two hours there, three hours there. And so I'm able to really knock out my work pretty quickly. I will say Sophia was having, before we put her in this little sleep, her little weighted blanket,
She was waking up a lot at night, which was definitely tricky. And yeah, we were just having a little bit of, I think she was going through a regression or something. And so my work was also not compromised, but I wasn't able to get as much done during the day as I wanted to. So I was working at night for a little while. In the last few weeks I was working.
At night, which is not my favorite thing ever, but you just do what you need to do. For me, I almost prefer working at night because I know the kids aren't going to get up and I know that I have solid time to just kind of focus and get in the zone and design. A lot of times I forget what time it is. I'm just happily designing away and then I realize it's 11.30 and I'm like, oh, I need to go to sleep.
So sometimes that happens too, where I'm like, oh, I should, you know, if I'm not getting as much done during the day, sometimes I'll, right now lately I've been working at night. And I remember when Zia was littler, I was working up, I was waking up early and working in the morning time, because that's what felt good. But right now, waking up early does not feel good right now. So I'm either working during the day or working at night. So just figuring out as I go along and just being available to change. For me, my family is my priority and so my goal for my business has always been to mold my business around my life. That's still the philosophy I'm taking now with the two kids. So far so good. I'm really enjoying the rhythm right now. Now that...
you know, Zia's in preschool is working out really well and you know, just having that dedicated time and having Sophia taking incredible naps has been so helpful. So I feel like we're in a good spot. And of course, when I say that, something is bound to change but kind of that's what life is looking for me like so far right now. This is what life is looking for me right now.
And it's been great and it's just a journey that I'm constantly figuring out as I go along and I would love to hear where you are in your business and motherhood journey. I hope you feel encouraged knowing that the beautiful thing about having a business is you can design it however you want it to be and just knowing that you have autonomy and authority to change it up however you need if something should arise. I think that's just
something I'm so grateful for, having my own business, knowing that whatever happens, if things change, or I can always offer different services, I can cut back on my work, I can lean into my work. There's just so much freedom that comes with knowing that you can do whatever you need to do to make your priorities.
Knowing that you can do whatever you need to do to make your priorities happen is really, really nice and fulfilling. And I hope this was enjoyable. I hope you got some tips for maybe how you could do your motherhood journey, especially if you have littles and you're doing your business, know that you're not alone and that we're figuring it out as we go. And it's been a growing journey, so much of a growing journey.
I feel like I did not know how much I would grow in my personal life as I have having a business. You do a lot of personal development when you have your own business. It's been great. It's been fun. I'm here for the ride and I'm glad you are too. I hope this was...
I hope this was helpful. Thank you so much for being here and I will talk to you next week.
