October 12, 2021
We’re doing motherhood, pregnancy, and business Q&A!
Today Lindsey will be answering ALL your burning questions you sent in on ALL things motherhood & entrepreneurship, how she plans for maternity leaves with her business, parenting books she recommends, mom guilt, how she works with kids at home, and how to balance both motherhood AND running a business.
We’re gonna get deep. And real. And raw.
Plan to take off more time than you think you need. For Eloise, Lindsey planned for a 3-month maternity leave and then being almost a month late got more of a 2 and a half month leave. For their second baby, Lindsey is planning on taking off a full 2 months. Being due in early October Lindsey was out of office in mid-September and won’t return until early December.
In general, the most helpful tip is to make sure you don’t have any engagements or events on your calendar at LEAST half a month before your due date.
Things to think about: breastfeeding, any travel commitments, anything you do for work that requires physical labor or you being gone from the baby.
If you’re a photographer thinking, “when can I go back to shooting weddings again”. Lindsey recommends stopping shooting weddings at least a month to a month and a half before your due date. Then on the backend try not to do a big wedding for at least two and a half to three months after. That’s not to say you can’t, everyone is different.
Lindsey didn’t have the luxury to think that far ahead. You truly don’t know how your pregnancy will be. You could be sick. You could not be. For Lindsey, her workloads didn’t change at all with either of her 2 pregnancies. The only thing she did when she knew she was pregnant is stopped booking gigs and events about a month or so before her due date and after to account for maternity leave.
Unless you’re HYPER planning out when you want to have children it’s honestly super hard to plan your workload for DURING pregnancy before it happens. Because what happens then is you put SO much pressure on yourself to get pregnant at a specific time, and then if it doesn’t happen when you want, your timeline is screwed up. Or if you get pregnant when you weren’t expecting it, your timeline is still screwed up. Instead, live your life, be a good business owner, book clients like normal, and when you DO get pregnant, then start planning and dealing with the timeline at that point.
The only other thing you could help with planning for maternity leave is work on implementing team members, get your workflow and automation down, and work on scaling back so that YOU aren’t tied to every single thing that happens in your business. That’s GOOD prep you can do before even trying to have kids. Work on getting your business to a place where if you leave for a few months it can run without you.
If you mean like ready logistically, like sleep train, birth, etc. Lindsey has books for you, but if you mean ready as far as mentally prepared to open up your life and go through the fear of the season of having kids, that book would be the Bible. There is not another book out there that can prepare you mentally.
Here are logistically books that can help with parenting, birthing, etc.
First off, if this is you, you’re not alone. Don’t feel bad for thinking of your business when you’re with your baby. We ALL think about things while we’re doing other things. That’s a part of the human brain and it’s normal. If it’s to the point where you’re so consumed with your thoughts that you aren’t even paying attention to her, then yeah maybe try and fix that. But if you’re spending time with your daughter and an Instagram caption idea pops into your brain or you have an idea for a client gift or an email campaign, just write it down real fast and then get back to playing. You don’t need to feel guilty for that.
You can also try to have dedicated time where you’re truly 100% playing with her and other times where you’re 100% working. If you’re constantly trying to balance both and doing at the same time, you’re going to feel split and like you’re giving each thing 50% of yourself. Implement office hours if you can. If you can’t then use the time she’s napping to chug out an hour of work (plan it so you don’t waste the first 30 minutes trying to figure out what to do) and do the same at night when she’s down for the evening or wakes up early and make it happen. Or get a babysitter or daycare for one day a week and chug out all your deep work that day.
It’s straight-up wonderful when you genuinely have help whether it’s from your spouse or your family or daycare, but there are STILL ways you can make it work even if it’s just you watching your kid.
It’s SO hard to work with kids at home. Deep work is nearly impossible. Here are Lindsey’s tips:
Ask yourself what your purpose for doing what you’re doing is?
Did you start your business to give you the freedom to work whenever and BE with your family?
Do your actions of hustle and your current reality match your goals of why you started in the first place?
If it doesn’t ask yourself why.
The hustle isn’t worth it. When it comes at the expense of your family, your mental health, and your life. Implement boundaries starting now. Shut off your phone when you’re with family. If you get an email at 7 pm does NOT mean you have to answer it then when you’re in the middle of eating dinner or you’re playing with your kids. That client can wait till 9 am the next day. If that stresses you out, it probably means you’ve let that boundary slide too far and your clients have come to expect it.
Put office hours in your email signature. When clients text you, ignore the text and respond to their question via email stating and reminding them that this is your personal work/life boundary that you keep client communication to email during M-F 9-5. When you put up boundaries and stick to them people will respect them. If they don’t, they’re not your clients.
Kindred Bravely: https://www.kindredbravely.com
Use code “HUSTLE20” for 20% off
Gigi Pip: https://ctgro.com/VUumgWLeq
Use code “heartandhustle” for free shipping when you use the link!
Content Creation Guide: www.theheartuniversity.com/content
Baby Wise by Robert Buckman and Gary Ezzo: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1932740139/?ref=idea_lv_dp_
Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537996/?ref=idea_lv_dp_ov_d&tag=onamzmrslinds-20&linkCode=ic6&ascsubtag=amzn1.ideas.131UZBAVO1BCT
Oh Crap Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V3L8YSU/?ref=idea_lv_dp_ov_d&tag=onamzmrslinds-20&linkCode=ic6&ascsubtag=amzn1.ideas.131UZBAVO1BCT
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WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
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