Avoiding Burnout in Mompreneurship with Jenna Rykiel

Are you on the brink of burnout while trying to balance your business ambitions and the demands of parenthood? Today, I sit down with Jenna Rykiel, a business and mindset coach, to explore strategies for maintaining a healthy balance. Jenna shares her journey from corporate leadership to entrepreneurship, offering insights on setting boundaries, time management, and creating a fulfilling career aligned with personal values.

Through her practical, actionable coaching methods, Jenna guides clients to reimagine themselves, establish vibrant businesses, and shape lives that resonate with their true selves. She firmly believes that when women are equipped with the right tools and empowered to set their own boundaries, they can rediscover joy in their careers, fulfill their roles as mothers, and find fulfillment in every aspect of their lives.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Struggles and strategies for balancing business and parenthood.
• Recognizing the signs of burnout, and strategies to prevent it.
• Transitioning from corporate life to entrepreneurship.
• Balancing business goals and maternity leave.
• Importance of managing emotions and mental health in entrepreneurship.
• Validating children's emotions and allowing them to sit with their feelings.

CONNECT WITH JENNA:
https://www.jenna.coach/
https://www.instagram.com/jrykiel3/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-rykiel/
Podcast - https://www.jenna.coach/podca

RESOURCES FROM ALYSON:

The Kid-Proof Business Checklist
https://alysoncaffrey.com/checklist

Maternity Leave Planning Guide
https://www.mastermaternityleave.com/guide

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Are you juggling the challenges of running a business while raising your little ones? Do you crave more ease in balancing your professional ambitions with the demands of parenthood? Well, sit tight, you're in the right place. I'm your host, alison Caffrey, and I understand the growing pains that come with building a business while nurturing a growing household. Think of this as a soft spot to land when you feel like your ambitions are starting to become just a little overwhelming. Welcome to Growing Pains. Hey, and welcome back to the Growing Pains podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:40

I'm your host, alison Kaffrey, and today I sit down with Jenna Reichel. We had a really cool conversation, all about avoiding burnout. Right Like being in a position where we can really understand what our boundaries are and when we start to reach that burnout point, especially as a professional and a mom. She helps women really navigate that escape from corporate life and build a sustainable business with actionable, practical and results-oriented coaching. So Jenna helps clients reimagine themselves and build vibrant businesses and design lives as authentic as they are. Jenna actually believes that when women have the tools to get out of their own way and the courage to write their own rules, they can enjoy their careers again, be the moms they want to be and actually love their lives. She's actually mama to a toddler named Adley, and then she's got another one on the way later this year, so I love this mom's perspective on business ownership and family.

Speaker 1: 1:37

We talk about so many different things and I cannot wait for you guys to jump in and soak in the wisdom. I hope you enjoy the episode and I'll wait for you guys to jump in and soak in the wisdom. I hope you enjoy the episode and I'll see you inside, jenna. Thank you so much for joining me on Growing Pains. How are you doing?

Speaker 2: 1:55

Oh, I'm doing just great. How are you?

Speaker 1: 1:57

I am excellent. I am so grateful that we got together to record this session and we just had such a great time just now getting to know each other a little bit before we pressed record. But I love to always ask our guests can you tell me and our listeners a little bit about your business and a little bit about your family?

Speaker 2: 2:15

Yeah, of course. So I'll start with my family, because that's top of mind, of course. So it's me and my husband and our son Adley, who is 18 months, and then we have a bun in the oven. So I am due with number two in September.

Speaker 1: 2:34

So the family is growing.

Speaker 2: 2:36

We were talking earlier about season of life and I am in the season of growing my family and simultaneously in the season of growing my business, of course. But on the business side of things, I'm a business and mindset coach and I work specifically with moms who are what I call aspiring entrepreneurs, so ones who want to leave corporate and start their own business, to work on their own terms, but don't quite see themselves as entrepreneurs yet. So I help them in all of the mind management that's needed, all of the how to figure out, how to make the time to do it, how to actually transition out of corporate and, you know, how to make money on their own terms. So I have loved that transition for myself as a mom and you know, I really do think it is and one of the answers for kind of breaking out of kind of a system that isn't really designed for for moms and to support moms, even with all the promises that that companies make.

Speaker 1: 3:43

I wonder, jenna, what was your timeline? Did you leave corporate and then decide to have a little one, or was that kind of flopped?

Speaker 2: 3:50

Yeah, it's a great question too, because I think that that gets confused sometimes. So I left corporate right after COVID. So I sort of hit my breaking point as a corporate leader. You know when, when we were all navigating so much and you know, as a leader in that time and as a manager, it was. You know you are going through so much in your personal life and then you have to support these people and then you have to support the business and the business needs things and the people uh, it doesn't align with with what the people need and it was just a lot. So I transitioned out of corporate in July of 2021. And at that time I had been coaching on the side and sort of starting my business. And then had Adly the end of 2022. So December of 2022.

Speaker 2: 4:46

But initially my business was all about helping leaders prevent burnout for themselves. So I have a counseling background and worked in corporate leadership for 10 years and so I really wanted to solve that problem. And then, when I became a mom, I felt like it was permission to really hone in and help moms specifically. And I figured out very easily I mean very quickly that the answer for me wasn't how do we make corporate work avenue of making money and supporting ourselves and maintaining the ambitious career, woman identity and be able to be the mother that we envision.

Speaker 2: 5:31

So very quickly after becoming a mom I was like corporate's just not going to cut it. There are ways that we can prevent burnout in corporate, for sure, but there's just so much. There's so many more levers when you're running your own business and working on your own terms. So many more options for boundaries, so much more options, so many more options for self-care, all those things. So yeah, then it was kind of like we're just going to help moms prevent burnout by creating their own business. So I'm very big on not trading one form of burnout for another. So that's something that I coach on from the beginning with building businesses.

Speaker 1: 6:15

I'm a big believer that freedom equals options. Right Like being able to have as many open available options that you can basically pursue. Would you say you were burnt out in July of 2021?

Speaker 2: 6:28

I, I use the term burnout you know kind of how, how we use it in society, but I wouldn't say I'm burnt out, knowing it was. I wouldn't say I was burnt out because burnout is like a medical, clinical, you know, uh, diagnosable thing. So you know most people when, when they are burnt out, it's more like they're on the road to burnout. Um, you know, when you're hospitalized, that's, that's when you are like officially burnt out and that's that's a whole different ball game, right, and we definitely don't want to get there. So no, I wasn't burnt out, but I was.

Speaker 2: 7:11

I was on the road to burnout, for sure, and I talk about it a lot.

Speaker 2: 7:15

You know, I was in my job for a decade and six of those years were very much spent questioning what I was doing and knowing that my skills and interests were maybe not meant for something else, but I knew I could be doing something more aligned with me and the value that I could put in the world, just with the counseling background and the coaching background, and so, and and so it was like so many years of, you know, at the end of the year looking at my career and rating it like a two out of 10, basically you know, and then not taking action Right.

Speaker 2: 7:58

So so that happened. That was six years and and really with the work I do now, it's really wanting to give moms. I don't want them to be like past Jenna. I want them to be like Jenna now where it's like we take action and aren't feeling stuck for those six years in corporate. So I wasn't burnt out necessarily, but definitely on the road to it it was a lot of resentment, a lot of just being worn out constantly. You know, at my job, misaligned with the company mission, you know a lot of those things that you just feel so stuck and yucky on a day-to-day basis.

Speaker 1: 8:44

Yeah, I find that burnout in corporate and burnout in entrepreneurship are a little bit different, like the symptoms present, different even, and I think a lot of times and I've personally never worked in corporate my parents both came up in corporate.

Speaker 1: 8:59

My mom still works in corporate and a lot of the times when she tells me she's having a really tough time in her position and she's in a director or no, I think, evp, so executive, vice president, so she's like up there in corporate and it's a lot of pressure and it's a lot of misalignment, like you're talking about right. It feels like you almost don't have a choice, don't have a voice, that kind of thing. But when I experienced entrepreneurial burnout and I have over the years it presents itself a little bit differently because it's all of your choosing, right, like you almost have the full on capacity and the full on decision-making skills and process for every single thing that is happening. And so how do you see those two things present themselves differently with your clients, either when they're working through leaving corporate, or maybe now when they have their own thing and they're like, okay, I'm burnt out for so many different other reasons now that I don't even know about.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Yeah, no, that's such a good point because it is it. It there is a level of control and ownership that you have in entrepreneurship with, which is such a beautiful privilege, and what I always, what I always talk about is you know you leave corporate and then you're working for your most demanding, critical boss that you've ever worked for. Right, it's like no matter how terrible your boss is, like we are definitely more terrible to ourselves.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Most of the time or we can be for sure between our ears.

Speaker 2: 10:25

So that is a reality to you know to be ready for and but it is. There's, like I said, there's so many levers when, when you're in entrepreneurship and so with corporate, it's definitely more of misalignment, I would say, and doing something that doesn't feel not necessarily right, but it's sort of like you're just going through the motions and not feeling connected. And the thing is, too, you have to work with people and clients who you might not like, which in entrepreneurship, sometimes you get yourself into those situations and you have a reckoning and then you can say no, I'm going to start saying no to this type of person or I'm going to start being more selective because I get to choose right. There's sort of this moment where you're like oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:18

I have the ability to say no and make these decisions. So, yeah, in corporate I will say too, like one of the biggest things that I do with clients early on is and I actually have a podcast episode about this is how to make work suck less. And there are so many things that people can do in the confines of corporate and you know, boundaries are probably the easiest one Conversations about what you need, like being open with what you need, you know, saying no to clients or requesting changes and kind of teams, things like that. There are those things that you can do to make work suck less. But with entrepreneurship, it really is having awareness right, because burnout comes more from I need it like scarcity from. I need it like scarcity like burnout comes from scarcity of and just self-worth right Of.

Speaker 2: 12:15

Like I need more clients, I you're making things mean, things I need to push, I need to grind and all of those things just take mind management. So work with how you see yourself, trusting the process, patience, like some of those things that they're really hard to remind ourselves of in the moment, draining yourself that you can kind of pivot and realign with what's important to you and getting back to family and all that good stuff. So both can be mitigated for sure. I think the latter with burnout. You know, I try and make sure my clients have the tools to not even get there right, I try and make sure my clients have the tools to not even get there right, because entrepreneurship is such a beautiful thing, but it can be misused right, and it can be.

Speaker 2: 13:20

we can fall victim to so much of the pressure we put on ourselves, but there are ways to feel better in both work scenarios for sure.

Speaker 1: 13:32

I appreciate that. I love that you kind of. You are that bridge, right You're bridging between the corporate life and the entrepreneur life, or maybe even just the self-employed life or the freelancer life. Right In the very beginning, what kind of? I know you mentioned like a couple of tools and some boundaries that you can put up.

Speaker 1: 13:48

But if I am, you know, the majority of the folks listening to the show are, you know, female entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Right, they work for themselves, they're self-employed and I think a lot of us I mean listen, even if a lot of us have corporate backgrounds, a lot of us are just like super high achievers and type A, and so I actually find that, mom, business owners particularly have probably one of the highest rates of burnout.

Speaker 1: 14:12

And because I think we just put so much pressure on ourselves to perform and, like you were saying, like we're almost our worst boss, because we overestimate how much stuff we can do and we say yes too much and we want to please people often and I know I fall victim to this. But talk to me about some of these tools and some of these boundaries because, honestly, I feel like I'm learning the school from the school of hard knocks over here, like I'm just like okay, it's clear We've overcommitted ourselves here, but we're in the thick of it and we made a commitment, so now we need to just kind of get through this and then learn for next time. So sometimes it feels like that's how I learn almost is like we almost have to get into the thick of it and have really hard weeks and then be like, okay, next time we're not going to just say yes to everybody who wants to get on your calendar. That seems like a good, solid place to start. So what kind of tools or boundaries are most common?

Speaker 2: 15:03

Yes, I mean the first is is kind of like a a a cheap answer. But awareness, you know, and you talked about it there Like, yes, you, if you have a hard week or if you overbooked or overcommitted or forgot to build in lunch and then you didn't need that week, right, like that's the story of my life is not building in lunch.

Speaker 1: 15:25

You have an 18 month old and you're expecting that this is a very, very, I know snake.

Speaker 2: 15:31

I know, and I'm like we call the baby in my belly Pokemon, and it's like Pokemon is like suffering here, you know, like it's not getting the food that it needs. But it's awareness to do it differently the next week, right, and to learn actually learn from we'll call it mistakes, or learn from those experiences and be able to put changes in place, right. It's harder to do that in corporate because there's, you know, people just throw things on your calendar and that sort of thing, but you have control in entrepreneurship, so, or when you're running your own business, so control in entrepreneurship, so, or when you're running your own business. So awareness is the one thing, because it can get really ugly really quickly if there's not that awareness, that stepping back and being like whoa, that didn't feel good. I need to remember to start putting myself first, not setting myself on fire to keep everybody warm, right. It's like, okay, we have like that reckoning, so that's number one.

Speaker 2: 16:32

The other thing, too, is having a system of like a time management system, and that's something I teach my clients and I'm really big on, and it's weekly having a weekly planning period where you look at your week ahead, you write down everything that is in your mind that you could possibly want to do and then you actually see where it fits in and you think about your future self.

Speaker 2: 17:00

You know, not planning too much on Friday, not planning, you know six clients back to back on one day, you kind of have you. You make decisions from your prefrontal cortex of how you're going to spend your time during that week and you do it from this place of self-care and you stick to the plan basically. And again, like you might overcommit the first few times, but you learn pretty quickly where you need breaks, how to build those in, and then you stay committed to that planning process so that the week doesn't get out of hand, right. And sometimes there are just things that have to get pushed to the next week, pushed to the next month or just deleted. I love deleting things Like I'm so big on that.

Speaker 2: 17:47

Just asking yourself like wait, why is this even important? And usually it's not. Or like, why does this need to be done tomorrow? And it's like, well, it actually doesn't. So really big on using planning and time management as a tool, because with that, too, that's where we build in all the self-care stuff too, and I know you know a lot of people are talking about self-care. But it's really also living like a conscious and deliberate life, where your weeks aren't just spent in the throes of your business. It's really like taking advantage of working on your own terms, right. Like staying committed to the boundaries you know not taking clients before a certain time, not meeting with clients after a certain time, and those things like the same boundaries I preach for folks in corporate while they're there during the transition and exit plan. Those boundaries need to be maintained for ourselves too, for sure.

Speaker 1: 18:58

I mean that makes a lot of sense to me and I think it's so interesting. I wonder, from a mindset perspective, I mean from corporate right, women working in corporate and even women working for themselves, like I said, big time type A, most of most women, probably, right, have you ever experienced somebody, either a client or maybe you, who is like having a tough time acknowledging that they need a slower season, like at the current moment? Right, because I personally went through this with both of my kids right After, you know, having our first son? There was like a really slow season there for a while where my boundaries needed to be a little bit thicker because I just felt like I could get way less done and I really struggled with that.

Speaker 1: 19:34

From an identity perspective, I've always been a producer. I've always been really, really productive and I think that like I would make commitments as, like my, my pre baby or, like you know, early stage baby person, and then all of a sudden I'd be like, oh my gosh, who am I If I can't get all this stuff done? Like, am I even worthy of being a business owner? Can I even do this? And so do you find that folks struggle with kind of ratcheting back things and being able to actually plan their commitments in a way that does preserve that self-care.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Absolutely. I think it's like a constant conversation that I'm having. You know, the program that I take moms through is I talk about it as if it's linear and mindset is the first tool that I teach. There's a model, like a mindset tool that helps take it from like our brain and into sorry, there's a spider our brain and into sort of this logical way that we can see how our brain is creating results we don't want, basically, and every session we are in some way, shape or form talking about mindset, mind management and so and so, yeah, I see it all the time. That the interesting thing and I and I don't know I think maybe you've said something about this, whether on the podcast or in social media, but it's so interesting because actually, when you slow down and when you sort of give yourself that time, like either because you know you need it or you're forced give yourself that time, like either because you know, you need it or you're forced right.

Speaker 2: 21:18

Maternity leave. That's actually when we and our businesses tend to excel the most, right after those periods, and it really takes a lot of work to trust that. And constant, constant, you know, kind of managing our minds. And so for me, definitely, I know I had a moment. So my business started in, we'll say when I left. It started a little bit before, but we'll just say July 2021, right, and Adley was born in December of 2022.

Speaker 2: 21:53

So I didn't have I didn't have all of 2021 for goals and you know, financial goals and business goals. And then 2022, I also didn't have the whole year, right, I had the um, the end of the year, where I needed to to have maternity leave. So then the beginning of 2023, I also didn't have the full year. And going into this year, I was so pumped because I had the momentum, I had the business plan, the financial projections, and I was like this is the year that I'm gonna hit my financial goal and my business goals. And then and and we're obviously, you know, we're family planning.

Speaker 2: 22:35

So it wasn't like a surprise that I was pregnant, but it it was like I didn't factor that into my business right, that like there's this chance that the last four months of the year I'm going to be out of commission, right, and my, my business, at least at that time was was just me and um, and it was. It was like a morning that I had which was like, oh, this sucks, like I was so excited to be on you know track for all of these exciting business goals, and then, and then I have to sit with this thing and obviously, like it's the most wonderful thing and I'm so grateful and all of that. And then there was this just like messy feeling of the business goals that I am striving for have to be put on the back burner again, and it took a lot of mind management to be okay with that and then to step into sort of this ease of okay, what can I do in my business to prepare for maternity leave, since you know it's different for entrepreneurs, and you know what can I do to keep momentum during maternity leave, because that's important for me and you know the moms I serve and the moms out there that I don't serve yet for them to stay motivated as well with that. And that's why I think it's also helpful to have some sort of mirror or coach or buddy or mentor who's able to call it out to have like it's okay to slow down, like it is perfectly okay, because sometimes we need permission, unfortunately. And and yeah, like you've said, everybody is ambitious and wants to be productive.

Speaker 2: 24:44

One of my favorite quotes actually is your worth is not determined by your productivity, and it's a hard, hard thing to internalize Like we are just so, especially coming from corporate, we are so trained to believe that our worth is like how much we get done each day, which is is just a shame that that we have to sort of rewire our brain and break that in order to, in order to avoid some of these pitfalls and burnout and that sort of thing that that really hurts not just us but our business and the people we serve. Right, because if if we aren't taking care of ourselves, we can't take care of others.

Speaker 1: 25:33

Yeah, it's interesting. I did a video earlier today, actually, about the importance of health for an entrepreneur. Right, like physical health, mental health, being able to take those breaks, feeling aligned, feeling excited, feeling passionate about what you're doing. And I think, as a you know, a self-employed person, or even you know, if you're running, you know, a bigger shop, like if you're a CEO of your company, that is your chief job is to make sure that you're good, because if you can't do that, then we can't possibly make all the decisions that we need to make in the day and really lead with the precision in our, in our minds and in our hearts that is required to lead a team of you know people that you know look up to us, that want, that are behind our vision. Right. And so I think it's really, really underrated sometimes to decouple productivity from output, right, because being productive for somebody that runs their own company might actually look like going out for a walk and like getting our mind right before our next meeting or, you know, the next big workshop that we have to do. So I think, like, what you're saying is is so, so amazing, and I think that I want to talk to you about, like, how that translates over to our children, because I have two little boys and I try to work with them on like taking deep breaths and being like it's okay to wait for something like this thing is coming.

Speaker 1: 27:11

I struggle with patients quite a bit. I'm one of the most impatient people I know. I'm just going to go ahead and admit it and, honestly, anybody who's listening to the show is probably like yes, allie, we've heard this a hundred times. I'm super impatient. I noticed that too, of course, in a toddler right he's like I want that and I want to go today and I want to go now. And so like, how do you see some of this work presenting itself in you know how you mother, you know your kiddo and how you support the folks in you know your, your programs and in your services around mothering their kids? Do they kind of transfer some of that over to their families and what type of effects does that have?

Speaker 2: 27:48

Yeah, the the first thing that comes to mind. So, uh, in in the coaching I do, you know it's business coaching, but so much of it is managing your mind but also managing emotions. So, because, as we know, there are so many emotions as entrepreneurs like this is, you know there's so much anxiety, overwhelm, you know, fear, like all of these things that we are just navigating each day, right, and you know that's okay. Like all of these messy and yucky emotions that we actually don't really feel like, feeling like we're going to feel them and we have to learn to. Like they can be in the vehicle. They just can't be driving right. It's like we need to be driving Fear and doubt and shame and guilt, whatever they can be in the car and that's fine and we have to be okay with that and we have to be the drivers, and so it's so much of that. I mean Adley can't talk yet. I mean he can communicate a little bit, but you know he's still a youngin, but I see so much of it showing up in the allowance of emotions and really being able to kind of sit with the suck.

Speaker 2: 29:11

I talk about a lot of like just allowing it, and this comes to mind too, cause I was just working with a client whose son, I think he was eight, and you know he said something that you know objectively is probably people would feel or moms would feel hurtful from what he said. And it stemmed from this client like he was feeling his feelings and you know she wanted to make him feel better, right and so. But in that process it was a lot less like validation and more like here let's figure out how to help you feel better. And I told her it's like sometimes we don't necessarily want to feel better, we just want to sit with that messy emotion and feel heard and feel validated, and and trying to like run from those messy emotions in entrepreneurship or in life can often create more harm than good.

Speaker 2: 30:12

So you know what her son ended up doing was lashing out and saying you know things that are hurtful, but you know there's ultimately like this way that we handle emotions that's so important, and there's ways that we accept those emotions and use them almost like to fuel ourselves versus to like have paralysis or stagnation, and so that's something I see in my mothering and in you know, the way that I like even just respond to people in my life, right, where it's like there's just an awareness of emotions and the role that they're playing and validation and being seen and making sure that that my son is seen. You know just dropping him off at daycare today. You know he was crying, of course, which, like you know, happens every now and then.

Speaker 2: 31:09

And it was like, no, I'm going to, I'm going to go over there and talk to him about what's happening and it's it's not going to make him feel better, but, like I just want him to know that I see that he's upset and um, and to recognize that and to sit with it for a second. Um, not necessarily that it needs to change, but just that, like, feelings are what they are, um, and I even think too, like when you talk about patience, what came to mind was like I truly believe that everything is a strength and everything is a weakness, right, it's like there's such a duality to all these things. So there's ways of you being impatient that have created the result of you having a successful business and successful life, right, and then there's there's ways that maybe it's gotten in the way of whatever results you haven't created yet, and just giving it space to recognize how it's gotten us where we are is powerful. It's just an empowering story to have about who we are.

Speaker 1: 32:29

I appreciate that reframe everything's a strength and a weakness. I think that for someone like me who's extremely self-reflective, I'm like, if I am my business, I have to be like in in the know about all the things, all my deficits and all my deficiencies. It really played to my strengths and I think it's um, it is probably true that me being impatient in terms of implementation has supported Um, and I really really loved something that you said about just emotions. They just kind of are right, Like they're here, and they're not necessarily good, bad, ugly, equal. And I think a lot of us are told or maybe we've grown up seeing that everything's supposed to be fine, right, Everything's we're supposed to optimize for being fine. And I think it's challenging, especially in certain seasons where there isn't really something that you're supposed to feel right, you just kind of need to like strap in, we're going to feel it and whatever comes up is what's going to come up.

Speaker 1: 33:31

So I didn't know that about motherhood, I thought in the beginning, right, it was very much so.

Speaker 1: 33:36

The measure of a successful or a good mom, right, was one who had really well behaved children, who was put together, whose home was neat and tidy, Like those types of things to me were visual measurements of success in motherhood and I think it's really, really hard to optimize for having it all together in a very naturally chaotic season, Like it's just such a chaotic season and there are so many of them peppered throughout the experience. For us it's been four years so far, you know, if you count maternity and being pregnant and everything a little bit longer, but for the most part, right, there have been seasons of kind of chaos and then there've been seasons of, you know, extreme gratitude and everybody just feels like it's working out. Those are a little bit shorter than the seasons of chaos, at least it seems, but I guess time is. Jenna, I still appreciated this conversation and I, um, I want to talk quickly. So you have a podcast coming out, or it has come out as of the time of this recording. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 34:40

Yeah, I'm super excited about it because it is a it's called how to Quit your Job a mom's guide to creating a life and business you love, and it is me giving sort of like the step-by-step actionable strategies, practical strategies and also really important mindset shifts that moms who are ready to transition out of corporate really need in order to turn someday into done right, someday into done right. So it is a way for me to reach a larger audience and talk about what I talk about with my clients every week, right, and the hope is that it really encourages and motivates moms to take action if this is something that they want, and I'm not shying away from you know, the all of the things within entrepreneurship that can be tough, but there are so many moms out in corporate that could be providing a lot more value if they were doing something that they actually feel fulfilled by and start really living on their own terms in terms of, you know, help kind of in meshing their career with life instead of you know their jobs being kind of this means to an end and and yeah, so I'm really excited about that because it allows me to reach people who maybe aren't ready to invest in coaching and the accountability and the great things that come with that, but it's, you know, it's this free resource that still allows them to move forward and take action and so and so, yeah, that is out and and by at the time of this recording. Also, I believe this recording is going to be released close to my birthday, july 10th. Oh well, happy early birthday. I'm excited about that.

Speaker 2: 36:45

But, yeah, I'm really excited about the podcast, and you know, it's not the podcast isn't something like I. It's been a goal of mine for a while, but not because I feel like I have a calling to do it or because I think I, you know, am good at it. It was really like this is something that feels very scary and challenging and so I need to do this to to really, you know, kind of like I always tell clients, like, if you don't feel sick to your stomach most of the time, you're probably not doing it Right. So it's my uh, it's my version of of feeling, um, sick to my stomach, right and and growing in the process.

Speaker 2: 37:28

Um, so that is something that, yeah, I'd love for for everyone to check out if they're transitioning. I think it's also helpful for entrepreneurs too. Like, certainly a lot of the mindset episodes, because that follows us, right, and it is an everyday. I always say, like you have like 18 reps of managing your mind before you even sit down for your first call at like 9am, Right, it's like a constant. Our brains are the problem and the answer. I always say so. So, yeah, it'll be. It'll be a nice dose for for entrepreneurs as well.

Speaker 1: 38:13

That's so amazing and you know it's work that's never done right, like mindset, work as we learn and grow and, you know, do new things and experience new things. So I appreciate that you're focusing there because over the years of growing a business, I believe that it prepared me so well for being a mom because I had to do things like trust my instincts and take risks and get uncomfortable and, you know, lean on support right In areas where I'm super deficient, like marketing, for example, like I've always been an ops girl and so I'm always just like thinking about optimization instead of, you know, content strategy and all those things, and so it's so interesting to like have that as part of our background.

Speaker 1: 38:53

that leads us into, I think, being really incredible parents and really incredible leaders in our home. Jenna, I love this conversation. I'm going to make sure that your podcast is linked in our show notes that way anybody listening who wants to go check it out can do that. But any final words that you want to share with women listening who are just in the thick of it growing a business and raising a family.

Speaker 2: 39:17

Yeah, I mean the biggest thing, and this sounds probably corny, but if no one has told you because probably they haven't like you're doing a great job, like I feel like it. We don't put words to it, but like we need those reminders right, like we are, we are making things happen, like we are doing the most for everyone and and really like it can be a thankless experience and we need to stop and recognize like we're doing a great job, like it even the smallest things that we do are are the big things for the people in our life and and hopefully making time to do those things for ourselves too, so that we can again like not set ourselves on fire to keep other people warm, but really, you know, warm ourselves up and and then people you know people benefit from that. So I just want everyone to know that they're doing a great job. They really are, even if it doesn't feel like it most days.

Speaker 1: 40:21

Oh, my goodness, that's such an excellent reminder and you are doing a great job.

Speaker 2: 40:24

Thank you. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 40:28

Oh, my goodness, of course. Thank you so much for joining me today, jenna. I had such a blast.

Speaker 2: 40:38

Yeah, I appreciate all the work you're doing, too, to support moms and this podcast, and it has been a delight to sit here with you today, so I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 40:44

Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Growing Pains. I know that you have so many things vying for your attention right now, so I am so grateful that you just spent the last hour or so with me. So I hear all the time from mompreneurs Allie, allie. What systems do I need to have in place in order to thrive in business and in parenthood? If you go over to allisoncaffreycom checklist, you can grab my kid proof business checklist, slash checklist. You can grab my kid proof business checklist and it will get you started in the right direction around making sure that you build a business that doesn't steal all of the time away from your family. If you loved today's episode, I would be so, so, so honored if you would leave a review on the podcast. It helps us reach even more incredible mompreneurs just like you and give them the resources they need to be wildly successful in business and wildly present at home with their families. Thanks so much again and I'll see you next time.