Shownotes
In this episode, our host shares how having simple systems in the home saved her sanity as a mompreneur working from home with a young child.
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
Join The Mom CEO Suite Email Community
Links & Mentions
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcripts
You are now tuned in to the Mom c e O Suite
Speaker:Podcast. I'm your host, Felicia wife,
Speaker:mom, and entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my
Speaker:mompreneur journey along with strategies that will help you build your
Speaker:online business operations in a sustainable way.
Speaker:The goal is to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as
Speaker:a mom who values putting family first. We will also hear the
Speaker:experiences and expertise of other moms with
Speaker:service-based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys, so
Speaker:you'll know that you are alone. Motherhood gets hard,
Speaker:entrepreneurship gets hard, but together we can
Speaker:do hard things. Welcome to this.
Speaker:Hey friend, welcome to another episode. Thank you for being here today.
Speaker:I'm going to be talking about how systems saved my sanity as a
Speaker:mom preneur. Now we know this intersection of being a
Speaker:mom and an entrepreneur. It comes with its own set of
Speaker:unique challenges. There's ups there's
Speaker:downs. There's joy. There's sadness. There's just
Speaker:so many changes that occur throughout the journey. And
Speaker:so I just wanted to share a little bit of how in the
Speaker:midst of all of those changes. And the challenges
Speaker:that I've been able to maintain my sanity bus
Speaker:for. I say thus far, because you know, my
Speaker:daughter, she's in the toddler stage now, and it's just a
Speaker:new set of things happening, which I'm sure toddler moms can
Speaker:relate to. Male prior to
Speaker:me becoming a mom, I was an entrepreneur. If you haven't heard this before.
Speaker:Just going to share for those who may not know I was an entrepreneur before
Speaker:I was a mom. So I was used to. The hustle, the bustle.
Speaker:Used to just working whenever I chose to. And then I became a
Speaker:mom and I knew things would change. I just did not know
Speaker:how much they would change or in what way that would change.
Speaker:But I, I quickly found out. Now when my daughter was in the
Speaker:newborn stage, you know, during that stage, they're still. Very
Speaker:easy to care for and maintain an M. In my opinion. Let me say
Speaker:that. Because they just eat and sleep a lot.
Speaker:And so I was still able to
Speaker:just still do work as normal. I wasn't
Speaker:doing as much work because I was on my.
Speaker:Maternity leave. But. There wasn't any type
Speaker:of challenge with me doing some light work. If I wanted to.
Speaker:As she continued to grow. And she transitioned into
Speaker:more of the infant stage. She needed more of my attention.
Speaker:And this is where. Some of the challenges began to
Speaker:arise because I was out of my three month
Speaker:maternity leave that I had given myself. And so now I was trying
Speaker:to jump back into work full force. And
Speaker:do it in the same way. And in the same pace that I did
Speaker:before I had my daughter. And I was just trying to kind of bring
Speaker:her along on the journey. And that did not work out, obviously.
Speaker:And. It created a situation where. I was a
Speaker:frustrated mom. And a frustrated business owner. Because my
Speaker:daughter. Also she's seen during this stage to
Speaker:be. Very cranky. At times and I
Speaker:being a new mom, you know, I really didn't know. What I should or should
Speaker:not be doing. I was just doing a lot of things, trial and error. I
Speaker:don't know how I came across it, but I came across some information on the
Speaker:internet. About net times
Speaker:and wake windows. So basically there's this
Speaker:concept. The infants. They still need to have
Speaker:X amount of hours of sleep, but they should only be
Speaker:awake for. These designated or suggested wake
Speaker:windows. Which were like three to four hours. For me.
Speaker:At the time that was like a light bulb aha
Speaker:moment. Because up until that point, I was still just letting
Speaker:her. eat and sleep. Whenever she seemed hungry, you're tired.
Speaker:But not really realizing that she was. probably just cranky
Speaker:because I wasn't putting her to sleep. I was just allowing her to be
Speaker:awake. and letting her take the lead instead of me as
Speaker:the parent taking the lead. So. When I found out about these wake
Speaker:windows. What I did was I created this. Nap
Speaker:time. Routine for her. And let me tell you guys, it
Speaker:was amazing. What it looks like basically she woke up
Speaker:around seven 30 in the morning. She was awake for three
Speaker:hours. And then she took a nap from 10 30.
Speaker:Until new, then she was up for another three hours. And then she took
Speaker:another nap from three until four 30.
Speaker:And then she was up for another three hours until 7:30 PM. When I
Speaker:put her to bed. When I implemented. This.
Speaker:Into our daily routine. This
Speaker:just made things a lot easier.
Speaker:She was less cranky because she was getting her sleep. Obviously
Speaker:right. And. I was able to have
Speaker:designated times throughout the day. Where I
Speaker:could get some work done. And so
Speaker:I, I didn't have these feelings of frustration anymore.
Speaker:I didn't have these, these feelings of, oh, am I going to be able to
Speaker:even do this? Do I need to shut down my business? All of those
Speaker:negative thoughts and feelings that I was having. It went away
Speaker:and it even led me to. Transition into a space where I was more
Speaker:productive, because I knew that. I only had three
Speaker:hours of. On interrupted work
Speaker:time to get things done per day. Yes, I could work before
Speaker:she woke up. Or at night when she went to bed, but most of the
Speaker:time. I was trying to get my restaurant in those times. or in the
Speaker:morning, just waking up early to prepare myself for
Speaker:the day. And so I knew three
Speaker:hours each day. I had. Of uninterrupted work
Speaker:time. It just helped me to be more productive. Now
Speaker:as she got older. The way she operated
Speaker:changed. Then we had to adjust the schedule a little bit. So
Speaker:the schedule that she's on now. her wake windows are
Speaker:longer since she's older and now she only has one nap.
Speaker:And she takes a two hour nap. From one to
Speaker:3:00 PM. When she's awake., there are times where I can do
Speaker:some light work like emailing or. I'm doing some things on social
Speaker:media. That doesn't require too much of my attention,
Speaker:but still just having that designated two hours per day.
Speaker:Is such a game changer for me as a
Speaker:mom who has a child. And is working from home. It's
Speaker:just a relief to be able to have that time designated to
Speaker:get work done. Now. As. With anything
Speaker:you learn as time goes on. And so once we got the
Speaker:nap time portion down, It was like, okay, now what do we
Speaker:do? What are we going to do during all of these other times
Speaker:when she's awake? And so I started adding more
Speaker:things to the schedule. That. Outline what we would
Speaker:do. During her await time. So there's times where we're outside
Speaker:playing. There's times where she just has some free.
Speaker:Playtime and she's running around the house. There's time
Speaker:where we're doing learning. And reading. And things like that.
Speaker:And so. Having all of this. It's really a
Speaker:system, right? Having the schedule, having the
Speaker:routine. This is a system it's just a system for your
Speaker:home. And. It. Outlines. How you're
Speaker:going to operate from day to day in your home with
Speaker:your child. As a systems person. I don't know why I
Speaker:didn't think about it. Right. I, I focus heavily on systems for the
Speaker:business, but it did not. Occur to me
Speaker:initially, to create systems for the home. But
Speaker:once I did. Guys. It helped me. To keep my sanity.
Speaker:So if you don't have systems in your home, I encourage you just to
Speaker:start create a schedule that's a process, which is a part of a
Speaker:system, right? And so having these
Speaker:systems in place. It really allowed. First
Speaker:of all for me and my daughter to know what we were going
Speaker:to be doing on a day to day basis. And
Speaker:even now at this point, This just recently happened.
Speaker:It was getting close to her nap time. And instead of me,
Speaker:Taking her to her neck, she initiated going
Speaker:upstairs or wanting to go upstairs to take her nap.
Speaker:But that could not have happened if I had not. I
Speaker:created this system. And implemented. A lot of
Speaker:times in business when it comes to.
Speaker:Systems and processes and automations. We'll
Speaker:create these things. But then we never. Implement
Speaker:them. And if you don't implement, you won't see the benefit of it.
Speaker:Okay. So having these systems in my home were
Speaker:super beneficial because again, it allowed. She, and I had to know
Speaker:what we were going to be doing on a day-to-day basis. It provided
Speaker:me with relief. I was able to
Speaker:take breaks and I was able to still be able to show
Speaker:up. And be productive in my business. Now, along
Speaker:with being able to take breaks. This gave me
Speaker:peace of mind. That if anybody else was watching her.
Speaker:That they knew what the standard was.
Speaker:So her dad. my sister's. She went away for a
Speaker:week. to stay with my sisters out of town. Her
Speaker:grandparents recently came into town
Speaker:during my wedding anniversary for the weekends to watch
Speaker:the kids. And. They got a document. They
Speaker:got some SLPs that I have for my home. They got a
Speaker:document that outlined. Her schedule. And it outlined
Speaker:what. Things should be done throughout the day. And so
Speaker:having that, it gave me a peace of mind. To
Speaker:know that in my absence, She would still be
Speaker:taking care of. At least to the basic standard that I had
Speaker:said. And being able to go away and have that break.
Speaker:With that peace of mind. Is priceless. And so
Speaker:it's the same thing with your business.
Speaker:Right. Having systems in your business. They allow you as the business
Speaker:owner to show up and be productive in your zone of
Speaker:genius. Because you're not doing all the things. Other
Speaker:people are taking care of. Working in the business in some
Speaker:capacity, and you're able to stay in your zone of genius and be
Speaker:productive in the things that are going to help grow the business. Having
Speaker:those SLPs allow you to take the breaks. It
Speaker:allows you to step away from the business. With the peace of
Speaker:mind, knowing that your business is going to
Speaker:continue to operate. Knowing that your business is going to be
Speaker:taken care of to the basic standard that you have set.
Speaker:Systems can be super simple and I don't want you to
Speaker:overcomplicate it. It's literally just. How
Speaker:you do. Anything for a particular area. You can
Speaker:have systems in your business. And you can have
Speaker:systems in your home if you don't have any systems in your home yet. Start
Speaker:with the daily schedule. And go from there, but you can keep it
Speaker:simple. It does not have to be anything that is complicated.
Speaker:I hope that in me, sharing more of my mom preneur
Speaker:journey. That something resonated with you that you are
Speaker:encouraged to take some action. Maybe you got an
Speaker:idea to implement something in your home. Or in your
Speaker:business. And so let me know, shoot me a message on Instagram,
Speaker:which part? Of today's episode most resonated with you.
Speaker:I would love to chat with you. I hope this was helpful. And I will
Speaker:see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Mom C e
Speaker:O Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a
Speaker:favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other
Speaker:moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower
Speaker:others who are at this intersection of motherhood and
