In this episode of the Where Parents Talk podcast, host Lianne Castelino speaks to Jenna Rykiel, a mindset and business coach for moms, who shares her transformative journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of aligning personal values with professional pursuits.

She highlights how the pandemic served as a catalyst for many to reevaluate their lives, allowing her to recognize the fulfillment she found in coaching others, particularly mothers navigating the challenges of emotional and mental health. Jenna discusses the common obstacles moms face when considering entrepreneurship, such as financial fears and the struggle to see themselves as business owners.

Rykiel stresses the need for discipline and the benefits of surrounding oneself with a supportive community of fellow mom entrepreneurs to foster independence and resilience. With insights on the impact of social media and communication in today's world, she inspires listeners to embrace their potential and create lives they love while prioritizing their physical and emotional well-being.

Takeaways:

• Moms often struggle with seeing themselves as entrepreneurs, which can hinder their progress.
• The pandemic allowed many to reassess life choices, leading to entrepreneurial pursuits.
• Burnout in corporate jobs can reveal the need for a more fulfilling career path.
• Mindset plays a crucial role in entrepreneurship, impacting how challenges are perceived.
• Surrounding oneself with other mom entrepreneurs can provide invaluable support and inspiration.
• Understanding that financial safety in corporate roles is often a false sense of security.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• cbj Coaching

This podcast is for parents, guardians, teachers and caregivers to learn proven strategies and trusted tips on raising kids, teens and young adults based on science, evidenced and lived experience.

In this podcast, we explore the impact of hormonal changes, device usage, and social media on discipline, communication, and independence.

You’ll learn the latest on topics like managing bullying, consent, fostering healthy relationships, and the interconnectedness of mental, emotional and physical health.

Links referenced in this episode:

• whereparentstalk.com

Welcome to Where Parents Talk. My name is Lianne Castelino. Our guest today is a mindset and business coach for moms.

Jenna Rykiel is also CEO of cbj Coaching, a podcaster and a mom herself. She joins us today from Columbia, Maryland. Welcome and thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.

It is an exciting topic in the sense that you decided to leave the corporate world after many years and you decided to move off on your own, which a lot of moms may think about, dream about, but never actually have the wherewithal or the experience to know how to make it happen. Take us through a little bit about your story, Jenna, in terms of what led you from the corporate world to branching out on your own.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I think it starts with, you know, they're always kind of being this feeling that what I was doing was not necessarily what I was, and I won't say meant to be doing, but it, you know, it didn't feel completely aligned. So I originally I had my master's in counseling psychology, and then I got into corporate sales because I had to pay the bills.

And, you know, in the corporate world is. Is a great option, and I loved it until I didn't. Right.

Until I sort of grew out of the benefits of it and really just had this nagging feeling that there was something that my interests, my talents, my skills could be better suited for.

And then, of course, with, you know, having the, you know, wanting to start a family and you think about, you know, the corporate world in general and how it's not really designed for school, let out time and not really designed for daycares. And so really wanting to make the move to shift my lifestyle before starting a family.

I will also say my husband and I have always wanted more freedom and flexibility.

He's always been an entrepreneur, which I think is another, you know, a small reason of why I saw it being done, you know, not by another mom or another, you know, woman close to me, but, you know, seeing it and seeing the benefits of it and seeing the flexibility really was inspiring. And honestly, I was resentful of it, too, for a while. Right.

Like the freedom that he had while I, you know, managed a team and dealt with all the corporate stuff. But, you know, it was seeing a different life that we wanted for ourselves. Right.

It's like we had so many conversations around what we wanted our family to look like in terms of flexibility and travel and. And making our own decisions, and corporate just didn't fit into that plan. And so.

And so it became more and more critical that I start paving the way to create what is now my business.

So the pandemic in your story was quite a moment in terms of your epiphany, in terms of making that switch. Can you take us through what specifically happened during that unprecedented time that inspired you to take action?

It's like you weren't commuting, you weren't going to restaurants, you weren't seeing friends. And so there was so much time to really sit and have conversations at home with my partner about what the future looked like.

So that was the first thing it did. It gave us space to really think about what we were doing and how we wanted it to look different, specifically me.

The other thing was burnout had been building. I won't say that I ever got to complete burnout, because that's a clinical diagnosis. I was never hospitalized, but.

But I was on the road to burnout, you know, giving my all to this company and really caring more about the company than I cared about myself.

And during COVID you know, myself as, you know, this counseling background, this manager who was always more of a therapist, you know, in the best possible way, in my opinion. It was a lot because I was so used to putting everybody else before me.

And so when Covid happened, it was really dangerous to put everybody else before you because we were all going through and navigating such a difficult time in the world for so many different reasons. Right. And so that is where I sort of hit a wall of this needs to happen, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later because I'm.

I'm at a breaking point.

And the other thing that Covid, you know, back to the time element, Covid, since we weren't leaving our house, Covid's actually when I started seeing clients for free on the side. And so I, after my full work day, I would meet with clients in the evening.

I partnered with a low income single parent housing coalition and said, hey, I'm a certified coach and, and would love to donate hours to the women in your facility. And it was amazing because I would end my busy, stressful workday from, you know, 8 to 5, 8 to 5, 30 or 6, and then I'd meet with These women.

And I would do coaching, and I would leave those days feeling so much more energized than the days that I didn't have clients in the evening.

And that's when it really told me it was like, oh, there's a world where I work and I get energy from my work rather than just always feeling so depleted.

I think it's such an important point that you're making because a lot of people don't have that awareness necessarily, because especially moms. We're so put, as you said, used to putting ourselves last or not even accounting for ourselves.

So then it becomes a question of how do I prioritize myself? And the other thing that you said that I think is really interesting is creating a life by design.

When you think about, you know, when you started to think about becoming an entrepreneur, what gave you the belief outside of, you know, having your partner and seeing that experience, but what gave you the belief that you could be successful going off on your own?

Gosh, it's such a good question, because sometimes I think that that ebbs and flows no matter where you're at in your business. Right. I think that, you know, belief in ourself is all that we really need to take action.

But I also think we can take action even when we don't necessarily think it's going to work. We have this part of our brain that wants to protect us and wants to hold us back and keep us safe and keep us comfortable. And, you know, sometimes.

Well, oftentimes we. We all know our brain, right? Oftentimes that holds us back. So, I mean, for me, it was.

It was truly this knowing that I could be doing something that gave me more energy and that I was better at. Right.

It was like, you know, I saw this in the clients that I worked with, that this was more aligned with how I wanted to show up in my work every day. And so that knowing sort of drove me that, like, this has to work because it feels so aligned.

But not everyone has that, and I don't think you need that in order to really put action into place and start building the business or start, you know, putting together building blocks. I will say, you know, I started out coaching leaders to prevent burnout because it was a more, you know, synergistic transition out of corporate.

My entire network was corporate. So, you know, I wasn't going to leave corporate and then coach moms to leave corporate. Right. I would, you know, I.

My whole network was within corporate. So I did a lot of that work that I knew. So well, that. And that was fulfilling, but it wasn't. Again, it was the stepping stone to where I am now.

And sometimes it's more about continuing to take just one step when you're feeling afraid, when you don't necessarily believe 100% that it's going to work. I do think that doing thought work and, you know, really allowing yourself to go with, what if this does work? Right?

We all know how to do what if this fails. We all are pros at that. That comes natural.

But the what if this is successful is so much more important because, you know, the worst case scenario is not failing and going back to corporate. The worst case scenario is truly never knowing whether that thing that felt so exciting and energizing could have worked. Right?

It's like, that's so much worse than just returning to the life that you're already living.

So what then was the tipping point for you that took it from thoughts to actual action to leave your corporate job to start up CBJ coaching?

Honestly, I hired a career coach. So I originally, I hired a career coach.

At that point, I had not said out loud to anyone but my partner that I wanted to start a coaching business, even though I had a coaching certification.

And I remember telling this woman who I trusted and still trust and love and keep in touch with, but I remember telling her, well, I kind of have this idea that I maybe want to start this business. And saying it was like, so monumental because she heard it, she believed any more than I believed in me. And then there was no taking it back, right?

She was like, oh, of course. Yes, we will do this. Let's start here and let's, you know, one step at a time, right?

I think at the time it was like, let's update your LinkedIn profile and then let's reach out to this, you know, organization to see if you can do free coaching.

And so I think having that person and of course my partner, you know, has always been supportive, but, you know, it was this person outside of him to really see potential in me and. And really not let me kind of just hide after, you know, saying this big idea that I had. So it was having that accountability for sure.

And then it was just coming up with a plan and chipping away at it.

And I look back now and of course, the way that I updated my LinkedIn profile, the way that I did things then is like, not even how I work, you know, not what I recommend for my clients, but it was still momentum, right? It was still motion.

And I feel like it can be so hard to get that motion moving when we're feeling so stuck and drained and, like, there are no outlets.

Now, the other piece that's really interesting about your story is that you decided to focus your business on moms. Why did you strategically choose that?

Yeah. So, honestly, before becoming a mom, I had an idea about what it was to be a mom.

I never saw myself as a mom, which I should share, because I think that a lot of people, you know, romanticize wanting to become a mom. And. And. And that's just not what it was for me.

I had a lot of fears around, do I even have the capacity to love something as much as these other moms who are talking, you know, explain it? And I. I had a lot of reservations about the entire thing.

But when I looked at moms from a business perspective prior to becoming a mom, I was like, this is such a great niche, right? Business school, they talk about niches, you know, marketing courses, niches. It's like this subset of women or subset of people.

You know, where to find them, you know, that they are struggling, right? Because there's just a lot of conversations around all the things that moms are going through, right?

And then I became a mom, and it changed everything for me, of course. Changed my entire identity in such a positive way. Showed me so much that I was capable of in terms of love and patience and all these things.

And then I had this new appreciation for this group of people that I wanted to help. Right before, it was like, oh, you know, I hear moms complaining all the time. Like, And. And I know how to coach on burnout.

I can help moms take care of themselves, right? And then when I became a mom, I was like, moms are, like, the most amazing humans, like, in the. In the world, right? It's like we.

We grow humans, we give birth to humans, and we keep them. We sustain them, right? And it's. It's beyond that.

Like, you know, everything that we do for the world and the way that we see the world and what we can contribute from everything that we are just so observant of and selfless. So then it became this very. Then it became this, like, mission, right?

That I not only want moms to tap into what they're capable of, create a life that they love, but also, I mean, moms have so much to offer the world. And so I think, like, we definitely, in my opinion, need more mom entrepreneurs.

And I actually just released a podcast episode this week that's all about why moms make great entrepreneurs. And part of it is because we see problems differently. Right.

Like, we see gaps in society and we've seen over the course of, you know, the last decade or so, so many amazing products, so many amazing solutions come out because more moms are becoming entrepreneurs. Right. So now I'm just inspired to be a part of the conversation of helping moms really step into what they're capable of.

And I'm glad that it shifted from this business. This is just good business to like, oh, my gosh, how can I be a part of. A part of this amazing transition that. That moms are having?

So in the time that you've been running your business, CBJ coaching, what would you say are some of the trends or common stories that you hear among the moms that you meet with respect to, you know, taking that step to be an entrepreneur or getting out of where they currently are?

Yeah. So, I mean, the biggest thing or the first thing that comes to mind are the challenges. Right? I hear constantly about the challenges.

The number one thing is not seeing themselves as entrepreneurs. And truthfully, I don't think that you. Entrepreneur is such a unique word. Right.

We have such an idea of who is an entrepreneur, and I do think that it takes time to really break that apart and to step into that for yourself, decide what it means for yourself, because you can do that and then, you know, align it with. With who you are. Right. And start seeing yourself differently. The other big thing is, you know, not having enough time or energy.

There's so much on our plates. And one thing I love to talk to moms about is my. My experience.

And it's similar for so many others is like, when it's not just adding something to our plate, it's actually making our plate bigger. Right.

It's like when we add in this business and working on the business maybe as a side business first, we get energy from doing something like that.

So even though we feel like we don't have any energy to give, the focusing on this thing that's just ours that energizes us really does make that plate a little bit bigger. The other thing is not having support in whatever way, shape or form, whether that's financial or partner support or, you know, friends or family.

Right. It's. There's some obstacles that. That come up there, and, and those are really the biggest obstacles that I see for moms starting out.

And those are all pretty easy to fix or pretty easy to. To at least start to fill the gaps so that they can start chipping away at. At their business.

So you are both a mindset coach and a business coach.

Take us through how important or what role mindset plays in how you support your customers and clients as a starting point for that relationship that you'll have with them.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, the secret is that I talk about the business stuff a lot because it's sexy.

But the business strategies will not do anything for anyone if the mindset piece isn't there. Because you can have the most amazing plan laid out. And I do that with clients. We have time. We strategically create time in their schedule.

There's a whole time management tool I teach. They find time to do these things. We have a plan, 30, 60, 90 days, what they're doing each week. And I always say that a plan is always.

Or what is the. The quote? It's everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face right now. Mike Tyson quote. And it.

It really is like life constantly is throwing punches.

And the punches could be as simple as somebody saying no or getting zero likes on a post or, you know, the kids being sick one week that you had something important scheduled. Right?

It's these punches are constant and without proper mindset work and being able to continue to see yourself as an entrepreneur, see yourself as, you know, being able to not make it mean anything about you when these things happen or when these failures happen is so critical. So I always start, you know, I always say I bring people in with the sexy business stuff, all the tools.

I'm going to teach all the skills, you know, this beautiful business that you'll have at the end, your first client, but then once they're through the door, admittedly, we work on mindset as the first piece. And there's a tool I teach that allows you to really look at your thoughts as stories that you are constantly crafting about any given circumstance.

And it allows you to see exactly how those stories are leading to the current results that you are, that you have. In the case of my clients, you know, when they come to me, they don't have a business, right? So that's the easiest result we can pull from.

They don't have a business. Their current thoughts are definitely aiding in that happening. And we want the results of them having a business.

So we, we use this tool to work through where their thoughts are now, how they see themselves in all aspects of life, really, and then what they need to be thinking and how they need to be seeing themselves in their story in order to create the results that they want. And that's why also, I love what I do because Again, the business is sexy. Designing a life we love with a business is sexy.

But from day one, there's a new way that these moms are seeing themselves and a new way that they are even interacting in their relationships as moms, as human beings that give such. Gives them so. So many results right from the start. Right.

It's like, if you just learn this and if we just talk about mindset, your life's going to be changed. But at the same time, I want you to have this business and, you know, be able to create the life you envision.

And that's so important too, with moms leaving corporate because so much of it is, how do we make work suck less? I talk about all the time, right? Because that's how we're spending our time right now. And it really is.

It's so much better to not wake up feeling resentful and drained and exhausted every day. So. So that's really also where we start to make sure that we're working on where you're at right now in the environment that you're at.

Because you can't make great business decisions if you're miserable and resentful every day.

Definitely not.

Is there a starting point that you think a mother considering becoming an entrepreneur should have some, you know, some foundational criteria in their. In their toolkit that's going to help them along the way?

We talked about mindset and how you can be coached on that, but are there any other characteristics that you would think or suggest would be part of that?

Yeah. So mindset is. Is number one. Right. Just. And that's. That's. It doesn't have to be this full awareness and knowing I.

You can even just on a daily, weekly basis, take out a piece of paper, write down all your thoughts, and then look at each thought as a sentence rather than this truth about you and say, the story I'm telling myself is blank. Right. The story I'm telling myself is I messed up, or the story I'm telling myself is I'm a horrible. Right. So that. That's. That's an easy way to.

To tap in and to not let our brains just take over and lead us down paths that. That are really based on avoiding fear. Right. The other thing, time management is so important.

You have to have a system of how you do things, when you do things. I mean, it's so critical for moms. We all have somewhat of a system, but I think, you know, really recognizing.

Does this system allow me to create the results that I want? And if not, there's hundreds. You know, I teach a system that has changed my life, but there are hundreds out there.

And so it's worth exploring to see if there's something else that fits, that allows you to get things done, organize your mind, and really not feel so burdened all the time by all the things that we're doing. The other easy thing I would say is surrounding yourself with other mom entrepreneurs.

When we're in corporate, we feel like the whole world is corporate, right? We feel like that is the only way.

And I remember when I started attending networking events and virtual networking events and just hearing about other people's businesses and what they do and how they run their business, and it was so inspiring, right? And so I always recommend to people, surround yourself with more mom entrepreneurs. There's a ton of different networking events.

There's organizations. I run a monthly networking event event myself, the Mom Entrepreneur Circle.

And it's really just a place for people to get together, share their challenges, get support from other moms. But once you start seeing that other people are doing it, it becomes less. Less scary, right? You're like, oh, if. And I always say this too.

There's 4.7. I saw a stat somewhere. 4.7 million moms have businesses. And. And so then it's like, why not me?

And when we're talking about the belief piece, it's like, well, I'm a. I'm a, you know, above average human being. I think, like, why not me, right? If 4.7 million other moms can do it.

And so we start to see that when we're surrounding ourselves with moms who are doing the thing, right, we start to get inspired. So I would say that that's another huge, easy piece, right? You just go to those and you just list sin and feel inspired.

And it really does help with the inspiration piece because I think we're all. We can all do it, right? We're all. There's not necessarily a type of person who can and can't.

I think it all has to do with just the momentum and inspiration that we feel to make it happen.

Absolutely. Now, a pitfall or an obstacle, let's say for many people considering this type of career change is weighing the risk with the reward, right?

So the balance or the. The steadiness of a. Of a paycheck coming in every two weeks versus, you know, going out there and not knowing when you're going to get paid.

And it's not. It's anything but steady.

Can this be a factor, in your opinion, that prevents A lot of moms who feel that financial pressure to, you know, to contribute to their family's economy and prevent them from becoming entrepreneurs in the place. And how do they overcome that?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it, it is the number one thing that I think prevents moms because there is such a fear.

And there's also this thought around, you know, you even said it, right, Corporate is this steady paycheck, but it's, it's almost a false sense of safety that we have in corporate, right. You know, we, we do get the steady paycheck, but our decisions aren't, aren't ours. Right.

And we see that so frequently, unfortunately, especially in this day and age with layoffs. That's a perfect example. But also another less maybe triggering example is even with pay, pay scale limits, right?

It's like there's other people making decisions about how much you can make around what you make, what your bonus is. Right. So much of that is out of your control. So whereas it does feel safe to us because this is capitalism, this is the way society works.

And the majority, there are still safety nets within entrepreneurship and within starting a business right now. The, there's no limits to how much you can make, right.

And we've seen that because the entre, you know, we know, you know, entrepreneurs out there who are making way too much money. Right. So there's, there's also this again, coming back to the what if, like, what if I make more than I made in my corporate job? Right? Yes.

We do have to grapple with what steady means and what safety means. And that's why I talk a lot about money beliefs in, with my clients as well.

Because often so much of our fear around money, and not everyone, of course, but is unfounded, right. It's like we have a certain idea of what needs to happen now for retirement based on messages that we get from society.

But there's also this world where, you know, if we sort of cut back on some of the things that are building that safety net in the future to really set the foundation and grow our business, then our business gets to a point by retirement where, you know, we're not really working and the business is bringing in money. Right. Like, those sort of scenarios are very reasonable and very real.

And so it's just worthwhile, like exploring those, exploring the fears, the, the what ifs, the worst case scenario and best case scenario, and really taking a look at those, those money beliefs, I would also say that, you know, one thing I've talked about before is, yeah, corporate salaries and the Majority of the women I work with are six figure salary earners, leaders in, in their corporate jobs. They're, they're big salaries, right? They're, they're cushy salaries.

And, and a lot of that I think is making up for some of the, the elements of corporate that are soul sucking. Right.

So if we talk about, you know, dollar for dollar, of course, yes, you might be leaving some on the table by leaving corporate, but what are you gaining in terms of being able to be there to finally take care of yourself, to go to a midday yoga class, to pick up your kids at 3 without having to ask permission ever again?

My husband and I earlier this year spent a month in Argentina, which was an amazing, you know, we worked and you know, we had, you know, our businesses going, but it was such, we didn't have to ask for permission for anyone. Right.

And, and yes, there's, there's maybe some financial salary that's given up at the start of the business, but so much of what you gain is non monetary and, and I, I think that that is the, the rich stuff of life.

We're almost out of time, Jenna. But I did want to ask you, what would you say that you've learned about yourself as an entrepreneur?

Oh my gosh, I've learned that. I mean, I think I've learned that anything is possible really, you know, because I never saw myself as an entrepreneur.

I still don't see myself as an entrepreneur even though I, you know, support moms to help themselves see it. And that's okay for me. You know, it's like the, the typical entrepreneur in my head is my husband. Right.

You know, in all of his characteristics, the way that he's, you know, risk risky, you know, and the way that he, you know, spends money to make money and all this stuff. And I'm the opposite of him. And still it works. And still, you know, I'm able to achieve amazing things.

And, and so I think that, that that's a beautiful thing that there's no one way to do it. And yeah, we can really pave our own ways in, in the world of entrepreneurship, which has been really cool.

Certainly plenty of inspirational food for thought for moms who may be considering making a career move and becoming entrepreneurs. Jenna Reichel, CEO of CBJ Coaching business and mindset coach and mom of one and expecting another one soon.

Thank you so much for your time and your insight today.

Thank you so much. It's been a fun conversation.