I’m excited to be back for another episode of She’s Busy AF! In today’s episode, I’m sharing my life as a new mom & snippets of my birth story when things didn’t go as planned, as well as exciting things coming up for She’s Busy AF Podcast for 2022!

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• @brandgoodtime
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It has been a minute since I’ve sat down to record. I think since – today is December 6th. I don’t think I’ve sat down to record an episode since like early November, late October?

 

For those of you who don’t know, I gave birth to a very healthy little baby girl on November 12th, and I am currently on maternity leave. I’m actually watching her on her monitor in her room. But since we’ve nailed down this really new fun routine, I’m taking this opportunity to record some podcasts.

 

So this podcast has this title, has a whole new meaning to me now. She’s Busy AF? Oh yeah – me and this little baby are busy. Booked and busy. Between sleeping, feeding, feeding myself, chores around the house, trying to catch up with emails – which all of this, I’m gonna dive into in today’s episode. I definitely plan to get a little bit more raw with this episode, in hopes to not just inspire new mamas, but anyone going through any sort of tough transition in life, childbirth, bringing a new baby into your family. That’s a tough transition.

 

I don’t know how it couldn’t be tough. It’s literally a big life change. So if you tuned into episode 33, you’d know I did a ton of things to prep my business for maternity leave. I just wanna talk about that for a second. I’m so glad I did that. I am so glad I prepped my business. I haven’t really had any fires to handle while I’ve been gone. My team has been able to pick up any slack.

 

I prepped projects for clients in advance by working in advance, and that did absolute wonders. And also I brought on an additional contractor to handle some project requests and timelines that bled into my maternity leave. And all I’ve really had to do is sit and delegate, which is so nice. Like, Hey, can you pick up this? Can you answer that? And then maybe a couple of emails here and there to clients, but for the most part, it has been such a breeze.

 

I felt really good too, going on maternity leave. I felt so good, really good, and really prepared. What I didn’t prepare for, though, was how I would return to work. I don’t know why. I didn’t think this would be necessary. I don’t know that the thought even crossed my mind. I just figured I’m prepping my business to go and then I’ll come back.

 

I put that comeback date as early January for the public, and in my mind, I was like, I’m only gonna need a few weeks and then I’ll be right back. Oh yeah, jokes on me. I didn’t prepare for feeling lost and helpless with raising a new baby, even with the support of so an incredible partner. I also didn’t prepare to have extreme anxiety when nighttimes rolled around. When it came time to get dark, no thanks daylight savings time, that happens at five 30 here in Fort Lauderdale.

 

So like, how could I prepare for this? This is first-time mom stuff. First-time entrepreneur-mom stuff. I just wanna say, if you’re listening to this as a mama to be, whether that’s now, or in the future, I wanna throw out two pieces of advice as I really dive into the nitty-gritty of this episode.

 

You Need More Time Than You Think

 

One is that you should give yourself more time than you think. Find a way to do this if you can, because I truly thought I’d be back to work after a couple of weeks. I’m grateful that I set myself up to not have to go back until January. To be honest, I could use more time. I really thought like, oh, I’m gonna have time to do a couple of little projects here and plan for my wedding next year. Guess what – I have not done any wedding planning at all. I think I’ve sent a few emails back to vendors, and the projects I’ve done are things that like needed to be done, nothing new. So it’s definitely not what I expected.

 

You Need To Be Flexible

 

Number two, I wanna say be flexible – and be okay with being flexible, which is hard for a lot of entrepreneurs. I think we’re all planners. While we say we go with the flow and want to go with the flow, sometimes the structure is really what we need. Not being able to predict that structure, is a challenge.

 

So I want to compare this to my birth plan for a second. I kind of wanted to go this hypnobirthing route, and I’m actually gonna do a whole other episode that explains my birth story because there are a lot of parallels with business and I’m gonna actually share one of them here right now.

 

And that is the birth plan. If you’ve studied hypnobirthing, or if you know anything about how you can bring a piece of paper into the hospital that outlines like what plan you have for your childbirth. If you know about this, then you know what I’m talking about – for those of you who don’t know about that, just know that it’s your body and your preferences. You can dictate that in the hospital, for the most part up until what is healthy for you, and what is healthy for the baby.

 

So with that, I wanted a childbirth with a typed-up document of how I wanted this birth to go. However, I typed at the very top birth preferences and not birth plan. Okay, there’s a reason for this. I knew after all the reading I’ve done – I’m so type A – I have to know everything before I go into it. I’m 100% the person who looks at the restaurant menu and already has my order plan before I even get to the restaurant. So, just so you know what we’re dealing with here. But I knew there are so many variables with childbirth and I knew that if one thing didn’t go to plan, I would lose it, and my cool would go out the window.

 

Guess what happened? 80% of my birth preferences went out the window in order to get my baby earthside safely as possible. Was I upset? Absolutely. But was I able to gather myself after each of those preferences crumbled and remind myself of the bigger picture? Yes. So that’s really important. That’s exactly what I’m doing with my business. If you know me, you know, I wrote a plan for 2022. I actually outlined that plan. I think in that episode or one of my more recent episodes.

 

I did this knowing very well my life was about to change drastically, so I didn’t mentally marry it. Am I sad that I’m going to change this all now? Yes, of course. Did I know this was probably gonna happen? Yes, of course. Now I get to revisit it. For me, I have to put my time – my precious and valuable time – that I have when the baby’s napping, or when the part-time nanny starts in January towards what I know is going to move the needle.

 

I’m actually excited to figure this out. I just need to find the time to do it. I don’t have it figured out right this second, as you could tell. But as soon as I’ve reshaped this business model, I’m gonna come back. I’m gonna share this all with you here. What I could probably say is I wanna keep my one on one time with clients. I’m gonna keep my brand strategy sessions. Those are so important to me to help people move the needle.

 

But what I think I really want to do, potentially, is tap back into done-for-you services. So please stay tuned. Not because I’m like, you should work with me, but because I just love sharing where my thought processes are going, because I know it can help other people out there who might be going through the same.

 

Recognize You Might Need to Pivot

 

I just wanna say like, recognize that it’s for things to change and pivot – what you once thought might be the future projection and trajectory of your business might change, might change with life events. And that is okay. As long as you feel at peace with it, it is okay. I look at the plan I set for 2022 now, and I’m not excited about it. Was I excited about it before maybe? Absolutely.

 

I was thrilled, but I look at it now and I have anxiety about how I’m gonna make that work and still be a good mom, a present mom, a good wife, a good dog mom, a good friend. Those are the things that are important to me. That is what success is defined as for me. Those are more important than my clients to me. So now I need to revisit the plan. What’s gonna make the most sense? I might scale back. I don’t know yet. As I said, I will keep everyone posted.

 

The podcast is definitely gonna stay though, so don’t worry. I have to have this outlet. But I want to wrap this up by saying that being a mother is rewarding. I’m not negating that whatsoever. I’ve always said prior to having a baby, that I didn’t want to lose sight of myself, my wishes, my dreams, all of those things outside of being a mother.

 

I’m really proud to say, I still feel the same. While I want to be present with my baby, I also wanna have something that is for me. Right now that is my business. The first few weeks of bringing a baby home, I’m realizing, can be incredibly devastating to your future wishes, your future hopes, your future dreams. For me, the lack of sleep and the life changing event of now having someone else to care for – the endless chores around the house that stocked up more than before.

 

These are all things that made it really hard for me to imagine, in the moment, how I could work past this. How I could ever fit work back into the picture. For a couple of days there, I completely crushed my spirits. Like I’m sitting there with baby blues thinking, oh my gosh, do I have postpartum? Do I need to see a doctor? That’s because there’s so much changing all at once, then mixed with your hormones, it can be a lot.

 

But then things changed over the last couple days. I’ve gotten to know my baby more. I’ve talked to my partner and friends, and I’ve developed a routine with the baby, and I’m on a better path now. It really is true, when they say that the first few weeks with a newborn are really, really tough, and I wish someone beat that into me a little bit more.

 

I’ve actually gotten a lot of messages on Instagram, cuz I figured something out the other day that was like, I’m having a hard time. The amount of messages I got from mothers who all said your feelings are completely valid, this is a hard time, you will get through this. Just hearing that was so reassuring to me. This situation is not unique to me, and I just want you to know that if you are a mama-to-be that, that situation is not gonna be unique to you and you will get through it.

 

So as of right now, I’ve been able to add in a few hours a day of work. So I check client emails, I’m taking a few client calls and of course I’m hopping back on that podcast game. Yeah, I don’t know quite fully what the next few months will look like for my business, new business. But I’m really excited to figure it out and I’m happy that you are here and thank you for listening and following alongside this journey. It means the world. If you are a mama and have any words of wisdom for me, this new mama, I’d love to hear them. You can hit me up on Instagram @brandgoodtime, or @shesbusyaf, whichever profile you wish, I check both.

 

And if you’re a mama listening to this episode, mama-to-be, or a mama, I’m up at 3:00 AM every night feeding my baby, and will happily chat with you, and support you, if you are too or any other time for that matter (same Instagrams). Mamas are truly a whole different breed of human and I have nothing but mad respect for every single one of you out there.

 

So with that being said, thank you so much for tuning in. I’m really excited to be back. I’m really excited to dive back in and put out more juicy content, more stuff that’s gonna help you as an entrepreneur, and as a mom, if you’re a mom listening. I’m going to be launching some new concepts in season three, which is gonna be next year. Very excited about that because gotta change it up, gotta keep it fresh. Tequila Fridays will be making a comeback here soon.

 

I plan to drop one on Christmas Eve. Let’s see if baby lets me do that, but very excited about that too. Excited, excited, excited, excited. Drink every time I stay excited, we’ll do that one on the Tequila Friday episode, which by the way, I have not had a glass of tequila yet or any liquor for that matter. All I’ve had is wine since the baby was born. So I think that I will use that tequila Friday as an excuse to have a margarita for the first time since February. I’m so excited. I have not been able to drink tequila since starting this podcast and doing Tequila Friday. So that’s gonna be a big deal – but anyways very excited. Again, drink for all of the things that are to come. Thank you for tuning in and I will see you on the next episode.