In this episode, host Phylicia shares about real time messiness that occurs when working from home as a mompreneur. She shares why she prefers harmony over balance and gives 7 things that can be implemented to find harmony in life and business.

About Phylicia

Phylicia Pough, MBA is a wife, mom of 1 daughter and an entrepreneur. For over 10 years, Phylicia has been behind the scenes of businesses and ministries, keeping things organized. Her journey started in Administration and developed into Systems & Automation Consulting/Strategy. 

Her latest venture is The Mom CEO Suite which is a community for the modern day mom in business that curates experiences and safe spaces for mompreneurs. The Mom CEO Suite also automates business and podcasting processes for mompreneur service providers.

Connect with Phylicia

Facebook: Phylicia Pough

Instagram: @PhyliciaPough

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/phyliciapough/

Connect with The Mom CEO Suite

Website: themomceosuite.com

Instagram: @themomceosuite

Join The Mom CEO Suite Facebook Group

Hey friends. Welcome to another episode. Welcome to

the suite. So today's episode is going to

be a bit more. Personal a little less of business,

but I think it's a relevant. As we are.

All moms in business and. I just feel led

to share on this topic. I literally had a totally

different. Topic and notes that I was going to

record for this week's episode. Uh, but decided

against it. And I think this is the better direction to go for

now. So today. Today's Tuesday.

I typically release. The podcast episodes

on Tuesdays and I shared over on Instagram.

Earlier today, I was just giving some insight

into the reality or.

The day-to-day of working from home

with a young child and trying to manage

life in business and how sometimes it can get messy. And

so I was sharing. And my stories on Instagram, by the way, if you're not

following me on Instagram, just go ahead and make sure you follow me. My

stories are where I spend most of my time when I'm over

there. But. I was sharing how

typically on Tuesdays I will be coming into the stories,

sharing about the. Hi Cass episode, that

was going to be released for the day, but I had not even

recorded the episode. That was supposed to be released for the day.

And I was sharing that. You know, last week was

just a tough week for me. And so it really.

Hindered my creativity, my productivity.

And just all the plans that I had. Really didn't happen.

Um, I had a plan. I wrote it down in my

planner last week, I was supposed to

record and edit and publish all of the

episodes for August. But again, that just didn't

happen. And today, Tuesday. I thought. Okay, well,

maybe I can wake up early. Before baby girl wakes

up and record the episode. But I overslept. So

that in happened. And so I figured, okay.

Maybe I can just sneak in my

closet for a few minutes because the episode. Is it going to

be there long? My solo episodes are only like 15 minutes.

Maybe I can just go on my closet and record and she

can just be out in the bedroom playing with her toys.

That didn't work because she was screaming and

hollering. Outside of the closet door because she wanted to come in

the closet with me. Uh, so then I thought, okay, maybe

I can put on a show for her and. She can

sit there for 15 minutes while I record this podcast episode.

And again, that didn't work. Either because she wanted to run back and

forth from my desk to, to back to where the TV was.

And so it was one of those things where. I

just had to hold off on recording the episode.

And. Realized that it was just going to get done

whenever it was going to get done. And typically I would

have scheduled to do it during her nap. But I literally just got

finished recording a podcast interview.

For a September episode. And I also have some other things

scheduled, but I canceled them so that I could record today's

episode. And so. Just giving you guys

some insight into the day-to-day like, yes, we can have

plans. Yes, we can be organized.

But every day. Does not always

look like a day where we are crushing our goals.

Where we are checking things off of our to-do

list. Where things are going according to plan.

Um, some days are tough and some days we just have

to put work aside. To tend to.

The needs of the child. And so. I want to talk

today. About. How even in these circumstances,

you can still find harmony in life and in

business. I have seven things that I want to share with you guys.

I'll come back at the end. And I will, share

my lessons learned from this past weeks

and today's circumstances. I'll come back and share my lessons, but

I want to get into these seven things that can kind of help you

to. Find harmony in life and business

as a work from home. Mompreneur now

I'm specifically saying harmony and I'm intentionally not

saying balance. Because for me. Again, this is just my

personal opinion. You know, it's not that I don't believe in balance.

But. When I think of balance, I think of those scales

Where there's two sides. And you have. Items when the

scale and you're trying to get them to even out.

And when I think about balance, it makes me wonder and it makes me

think, am I. Am I placing unrealistic

expectations on myself. And then setting myself up.

For disappointing. in the long run. And so for me, instead of

saying balance, because balance makes me think that, All of these things in

my life need to be even. Instead of saying balance. I

like to think of harmony. And when you look up, what

harmony really means, harmony is defined as the quality

of forming a pleasing. And consistent

whole. It means agreement. And so

you can have harmony. Where. Some of your days

are messy, right? You might have a plan. Some things

might not go according to plan, but in the end you can

still have a pleasing and consistent.

Pole. And it's not like I'm just trying to balance

life and business, but I can have all of these other pieces of my life.

Right. Because. bears motherhood. There's

being a wife, there's being a sister. There as being the

business owner. So it's all of these things that can work together

in a pleasing way. However, I define pleasing.

And be a consistent whole, so that's why I like to use the term harmony

instead of balance. So, let me just get into the seven things really

quick. That I found helpful in my journey. And I know

that this, this resonates because the podcast interview that I just

got out of some of these themes.

That I'm going to share with you all today. Some of these things

came up in her interview today as well. So

I know that these are things that people struggle

with. And that. People will resonate with. so the first

thing. There will be helpful for you in.

Finding harmony in life and business is freedom framing. Now

freedom framing is the first phase in our

framework here at the mom CEO suite.

Freedom framing is really defining what

freedom means for you in your life and in your business.

This really is. Another way of setting goals, but you're

setting goals in terms of freedom, because our whole mission here is

to allow you to have the freedom to put family first without the

business suffering. Right. And so we're thinking about what the

end game for all of this is. Why are you really

doing all of this? And so setting clear goals.

Around those things can help you in the journey,

in the day-to-day as you are working towards that. So that's number

one. Number two is to get

organized. And to plan ahead.

So getting organized can mean. Writing things down in a

planner or using some type of digital calendar.

Or whatever that looks like for you. For me. Clanners are

more effective but getting organized, whatever that means for you is going

to help you along in the journey. Uh, this summer I traveled.

With baby girl. Um, to South Carolina

and I traveled by myself. So I, you know, I got on a

plane, took her with me. It was just her and I, and on the way

back home. There was a lady sitting next to me on the

airplane and. She started talking

to me about. How good baby girl did on the flight. You

know, a lot of times when you, you, you hear kids on the airplane,

they're very fussy. They're noisy, but she did do. Do

well, which I'm glad about. But she

said, um, you know, I don't know if I will be able to do that.

But one of the things that she said was you seem very

organized though, and yes, when it comes

to being able to have harmony in your life and business and just

making all of this work together, there needs to be a level of

organization. I had to plan ahead and I had to think about.

Okay. All of the things that I was going to need for her while we

were in the airport, all of the different snacks. The type of

support and help that I would need once I got to, the arrivals

gate, all the things like I had to plan ahead and be organized.

So that along the journey, I would not be frustrated when

things came up. Okay. So that's number two to get organized.

And to plan ahead. Uh, number three is to manage your

expectations. And managing your expectations

really looks like. Understanding the season of life that

you are in Understanding the season of motherhood that you are

in and really managing.

Your own expectations that you put on yourself.

And that other people put on you and being realistic about what you can

really get done. As a work from home mom, this is

one of those things that came up in the interview that I had today. We

were talking about honoring the season of motherhood that we were in and

how sometimes it can be frustrating. When you

are. Looking at other people.

Doing a lot, or it feels like they're doing a lot

more, but they're in a different season of life and we

have to really just get to a place where we're okay. In

understanding that. Things may be a little bit slower for me. It

may take me a little bit longer to do X, Y, and Z.

But I am just honoring that this is the season of motherhood that I

am, and I'm cherishing the moments and the time that I'm able

to spend with my children in this season.

Number four is to communicate and communicating.

Can look like communicating your needs. And also

communicating your boundaries. And so if you have a

spouse. Communicating what it is that you need, where it is

that you need support. And also communicating those boundaries. These

boundaries can be with family. These boundaries can be with clients.

But communication is going to be essential. In,

minimizing your level of frustration when

things. May not go the way that you expected. If you

communicate them clearly, it can minimize. Those

frustrations. Number five is to get support.

Get support wherever you can get support in life. Get

support in business. Whatever that looks like for you. And

however that can look like for you. Again,

people. We'll be quick to tell you what you need to do, but only,

you know, your circumstance and only, you know, your situation,

Somebody. May say, oh, you need to hire

a project manager. That may not be the best

thing for you. Maybe you just need to Outsource. Certain

tasks in your business, you may not need to hire a

full-time employee. Find support

for your home life as well. What is it in your home life that you

can outsource? What are the things that you are doing consistently?

On a repetitive basis that you can outsource

think cooking or cleaning. Laundry, whatever

it is that you can do. Try to outsource it or get support from

family, friends, or a tribe. That can help you in those

areas. Number six. Is to indulge

in self care. And I think. This is very

important because at the end of the day, if we

are not taking care of ourselves, We are going to be no

good and taking care of. Our children,

our families and our business. And so we really

set the standard for how other people are going to treat

us. Right. And so we have to indulge in caring for ourselves.

And that can look like. The manicures and

the massages and all those things, but on a deeper

level, what does caring for yourself? Look like? Does that look like

Russ, does that look like enforcing the boundaries that you have

communicated? What does that look like for

you in your life? Understand and

recognize what those things are and then indulge in them.

So you can be your best self, not only for you, but for your

family and also for your business. And then finally number

seven is to celebrate. Celebrate

your wins. Celebrate your successes.

Celebrate the milestones celebrate getting through the

day. We need to learn how to begin to celebrate ourselves

as moms and as business owners. We are keeping little

humans alive, right? Maybe you're a little humans aren't so little anymore,

but at some point you did. And so we need to celebrate how

far we have really come. I think a lot of times we.

Are looking at how far we have to go. Not

realizing and recognizing that we have really come.

A long way are ready. And so celebrating the

success that we already have. The

growth that we have already seen as success, doesn't have to be

a monetary number. Or anything like

that, but the fact that maybe you grew as a person.

You gained more patients, you became more loving.

Right. It can be anything, but celebrate your successes

and your wins along the journey. Okay. So

those are just some things that have been helpful for me and finding harmony in

life in business. Now I want to quickly

share. Just one main lesson that I learned.

From this past week and just the messiness

of today. And for me. The lesson was that I

needed to put more white space in my

calendar I need to give myself more time to do the

things that I plan to do. So that when things do come

up, when things do arise, when I do have a bad week,

It doesn't slow down the progress. Or it

doesn't slow down my timeline. So I need to.

Uh, plan further ahead or start things sooner, if

that makes sense. And so I hope that me

sharing this was helpful that you resonated with

something, even if it's just one thing that you take away that you can

implement. Please do that because managing

motherhood and entrepreneurship. It can get hard.

You know, we say here on the podcast, a lot, motherhood gets hard. Entrepreneurship

gets hard, but together we can do hard things. And I

truly believe that. And so. I hope that this gave you

some encouragement. To keep one in the journey, because I know there might be

some days where you're thinking, how can I do this?

Can I continue to make this work? And I believe

that. If this is the path that was destined

for you, then yes, you can. Thank you

guys for listening. Make sure you follow me on Instagram. I would love

to chat with you guys over there. I check out your stories and chat