[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. I’m your host, Jade Boyd, and this is a podcast where we talk about planning and productivity, doing less and living in your season. And it’s been a really long time since I’ve chatted with you all. So today, we are going to talk about where I’ve been for the past almost year since the last episode aired on the podcast, what all has been going on in my life and in my business.

We’re gonna talk about baby number two and what that is going to mean for my business moving forward, and what is on the horizon for this podcast. And if you hear little breathing noises, it’s because there is a little baby strapped to my chest while I’m recording this, and he is being quite the noisy breather right now.

But this is what we got [00:01:00] to work with, so we’re just gonna roll with it. So starting with what happened after the last episode. So last summer, we had thought that when my daughter turned one year old, in the back of our minds, we were just thinking, "Once she turns one, then I’m gonna go back to work more full-time.

Maybe we’ll get more childcare or put her in daycare or, you know, figure out what that’s going to look like," ’cause we had only planned for business to survive the first year of life. But then right after her first birthday, I got pregnant and had a really hard first trimester chasing after a toddler and going through the nausea and the exhaustion that comes with first trimester.

And backing up a little bit, I knew at the beginning of last year in January, I had decided that I wasn’t gonna do any more client work because even with part-time childcare, it was so difficult to serve coaching clients during nap times and after bedtimes [00:02:00] and feel like I was constantly on call to answer messages.

And obviously, business coaching is a highly intellectual, uh, field, and it takes a lot of brain space, and I was constantly thinking about business and my clients- Throughout my day, and then the overwhelm of motherhood and trying to organize childcare when they were sick or when I was sick or when my daughter was sick, it just got canceled, and then we were left kind of flustering.

That was just kind of life, and it was really tiring. So I decided, you know what? This isn’t sustainable. And she was dropping from three naps to two naps, so she was sleeping less and less and being more awake and more active by the week. So I decided to stop doing client work and finish out my contracts with my current clients, and that ended last April.

And then I got pregnant at the end of June. So there was only a couple of months in between figuring out what I was going to do next and then getting pregnant again and feeling like everything was put on pause.

And I had this [00:03:00] pull in the back of my mind for a long time, knowing that I have always been passionate about productivity and planning and just feel like I have been gifted in that area. And systems is something that I incorporated into my business and into my coaching and just naturally that comes easy to me.

And I love talking about it, and I love doing it but have always felt like I couldn’t build a profitable bus- profitable business off of planning and productivity. Or at least that would take a very long time in order to build the audience where that would make sense, because it’s not a high level… at least I would not want to do it as a high level coaching or coaching in any form in this era of my life with kids at home and being a mostly stay-at-home mom with limited childcare.

And I was really struggling with what that would look like. But I decided last year that I was going to do a digital course [00:04:00] called The Seasonal Edit and started packaging this framework for applying all of the principles and philosophy and systems that I had previously taught from a coaching and business perspective and applying that framework to life, specifically home relationships and health.

And I started creating it, and once I got into the weeds, I realized, "Holy crap, this is a lot of work." And I was refining and rewriting, and it took me forever. I had no childcare and limited energy being so pregnant. And I was testing that with some of my former clients and at the end of the day realized that I was passionate about the framework and the content, but I was not passionate about creating another digital course.

And especially in the era of AI, information is so cheap, and it just didn’t seem aligned to me to market a digital course with this specific type of content. [00:05:00] And we’ll talk more about that in a little bit But I kind of fell off the wayside, and then we hit second trimester, and it was the holidays. And then it was third trimester, and it was really go time to finish up all the home projects and the life things that we wanted to have done before baby number two arrived.

And so it kind of fell to the side, as well as this podcast. Because as we’ve talked about a lot on this podcast, when you don’t have clarity for what you want your business to be or where you’re headed or what your ultimate goal is, what your vision is, it’s really easy to not take action. It’s really easy to get unmotivated and just decide that nothing is better than something.

And it’s so funny because having this second child, I feel like my passion for having something outside of motherhood has increased, and my desire to create content, even though I have the least amount of time that I’ve ever had in my life, has only increased. [00:06:00] And so I went back to my own framework for productivity and started with clarifying of like what matters to me in this season of business, knowing that this is the season of life that I’m in, where I have very little kids.

I have two under two right now, which is a lot. And actually, my oldest has hand-foot-mouth right now, and it’s kind of a nightmare. Um, and life is just chaotic and unpredictable. There are no routines because as soon as we settle into a rhythm, somebody gets sick, or nap schedules change, or a very unexpected mess occurs and throws off our whole daily routine and all of our plans get canceled.

You know, there is no routine. Like yes, we have rhythms, but every day is different, and every day is unpredictable.

And so with all of that in mind, knowing this is where I’m at right now and that’s not going to change anytime soon, I started with what actually matters to me in business in this season of my life. And if you’re struggling with clarity or feeling [00:07:00] unmotivated, I would really challenge you to think about this for your own life.

Whatever season you might be in, what actually matters to you in your business in this season? And it’s okay if what matters to you in this season is different than other seasons. In past seasons in my business, profitability mattered a lot. It was one of the most important things to me, and that’s what I coach too.

Like,

I wanted my time spent in my business to pay me a paycheck on a regular basis, on a predictable basis. That was really important to me. In this season of life, it’s not really as important to me as it used to be, and it’s okay if what’s important to you changes.

So at the end of this little reflection exercise, I kind of came Up with four things that really matter to me in this season of business. And I wanted to share them with you in case this resonates, but also just to give you a heads up on what’s happening with this podcast and what can, what you can expect going forward.

Because I know a lot of you have missed hearing these regular episodes, and I’ve missed creating them for you. So I want to let you know what’s been happening [00:08:00] and what’s going to happen in the future, but also just help you see my reflection process in case that motivates you to think about business differently too.

So when thinking about what matters in my business, in my season of life, I came up with four things. First, to do something that I love and enjoy that helps me feel more like myself in the midst of motherhood, which can be all-consuming. Second, to use my God-given gifts to serve others and help more women thrive.

Third, to reduce the stress and pressure and deadlines and the mental load of business while my kids are at home with me full-time. And fourth, to grow my email list and audience in the hopes that maybe sometime in the future I could monetize that and make a profitable business. But right now, just serving my audience is the most important thing.

So I’m gonna talk a little bit more about each one of these four things. So first, doing something that I love and enjoying [00:09:00] business, helping me feel like myself in the midst of motherhood. I’ve just had this really strong desire to do something for myself. And I think a lot of moms feel this way, like wanting to have something that’s your own, something that you feel fulfilled in, something that you feel really passionate about that’s not motherhood.

Because motherhood can be all-consuming if you let it be that and if you don’t intentionally like fight for that time and that space outside of motherhood to do something that really lights you up. And I think I had this vision in my head of what a stay-at-home mom was and what type of person stayed at home with their kids.

And I do not line up to any of my, uh, assumptions about women who stay at home. I feel like in my mind I’m just picturing this person who’s like obviously a childhood educator or a school teacher or something, just loves kids and has always loved kids, always knew that she wanted to be a mom, always knew that she wanted to stay at home, and she just delights in her kids all the time [00:10:00] and has all these special activities and just loves it.

I am not that person. I mean, I love my kids, and I am so grateful that I have the choice and the opportunity to stay at home with them because this is such a short season, and I do not want to miss it. And especially with babies under one, like, man, I just am so grateful that I, that I have the opportunity to be there with them for that time when they really, really do need me, and I want to be with them.

But at the same time, being a stay-at-home mom has been very hard for me. And I don’t think that it’s easy for anybody. And I don’t have a lot of the assumptions that I had before when it comes to stay-at-home moms. But I do think that being a stay-at-home mom for me specifically, based on my personality and my way of operating in terms of loving organization and control, man, it has been a very challenging and refining season in a lot of good ways and in [00:11:00] a lot of really hard ways.

And so in the midst of that, I deeply want to enjoy this season. And I want to find those pockets of things like this podcast or like interior design projects and creative projects that really do light me up to enjoy this season and not just wish it away and suffer through it. I want to make the most of it for what it is.

And like I said, profit isn’t the most important thing to me right now. Really loving and enjoying my business and creating something that I like to create is what’s most important to me. And so I’ve really struggled to kind of let go of that for now because the direction of my business that I’m headed would not be the most strategic if I wanted to regain the monthly income that I was making before I stopped taking clients.

It’s not strategic at all for that purpose. But in terms of creating content I love and feeling like I can’t wait to work and create content, this is really aligned for me in this season. So I’m giving myself permission to [00:12:00] do that. And it’s not going to be forever.

But it probably will be for a while.

Okay, second point, using my God-given gifts to serve others and help more women thrive. I just feel like there’s a lot of purpose in this one. And I have a desire to have, again, that like purpose and fulfillment outside of motherhood right now. And I have so enjoyed listening to other podcasts that have this lighter, more fun vibe that’s not so serious, especially when everything in life just feels really heavy right now.

I don’t know if you feel like that, but I do. And I want to create that space of my own to share with you all too. I just have this desire to create content that feels fun and it does create a little bit of lightness in your day. And it does help you remove some of that overwhelm that comes from managing all of the things.

And take small steps in the right direction, and maybe learn something that you didn’t know before, and improve something that actually has like a, a, an [00:13:00] immediate and drastic impact on your life. What actually helped me, um, come back to podcasting, I was reading some of the reviews and the comments that you guys have made about this content, and just some of the things that you all have said have been so kind, and it really does motivate me to want to show up to create more content because I know that it’s having an impact, and I want to be able to serve people in that way.

And so if you haven’t left a review yet, shameless plug, please do because it is really motivating for me.

But I do just have so much compassion for the weight that comes with running a business and the weight that comes with being a mom and for all of the women who feel like they’re just in the thick of it right now. Like, I want to help so badly, and because I cannot coach in this season of life, it doesn’t make sense for me.

Coming back to the podcast is my small little way in feeling [00:14:00] like I’m able to help people in a way that aligns with the season and the limitations that come with that season that I’m in right now.

Okay. Third thing that’s important to me is to reduce stress, the pressure of deadlines, and the mental load while my kids are at home. So you might be able to tell, but the podcast format is pretty simple. It’s not perfect at all, and it probably won’t be. The audio is probably gonna sound a little weird.

There might be some baby noises in the background, but I’m showing up anyway. And also content might not come on a regular basis. I want to create as often as I can and on as regular of a cadence as I can, but that’s probably not gonna look like every week. It’s probably not even gonna look like every other week.

It might be every three weeks and then one time a month. I don’t know what it’s going to look like. I just know that I want to show up and create content and give this a try. I don’t know how hard this is gonna be and if I’m gonna be able to do it, but I’m gonna try anyway and risk looking a little stupid in order [00:15:00] to start doing something that I really love again.

And I, I know that it’s better, it’s best if I show up on a weekly basis if I want to grow a podcast and an audience and serve you all well. I know that, and I don’t know if I can do it, but I’m gonna try. And hopefully the more content I create, the easier it gets and the more regularly I’m able to show up.

But I’m not sure how much time that’s going to take Or if that’s ever gonna happen. I guess you can follow along and we will see together. But it’s just really important to me that business doesn’t feel like another thing that’s weighing on me. I want it to feel like something that is giving me life instead of taking life.

And not forcing myself to get it done or stay up late when I’m getting absolutely no sleep right now is, is what’s gonna work in this season.

And lastly, what’s important is growing my audience and my email list in order to potentially monetize when I’m able to come back to business in the future.

Like I said, [00:16:00] I was working on packaging the Seasonal Edit course, and I just wasn’t passionate about the framework being packaged into a course or selling a digital course in general with this type of content in it. Nothing against digital courses, but for me, it just didn’t feel right. And honestly, it feels like it should be a book.

And I took all the course content that I had drafted, and I started formatting it into chapters. And again, who knows if this is gonna take me one year or 10 years to write? I have no idea. But I do see it being a book someday, and I would love to share some of these ideas and systems and content and tidbits about the framework with you all through the podcast to get your feedback.

Before I write an entire book about it, I feel like I’m gonna learn a lot from you all along the way as we grow this community and have these important conversations, and I am just really excited for the direction that this is finally [00:17:00] heading.

And will this be a planner or a software someday? I don’t know. But I don’t know if you guys have followed what’s happening in AI very closely. My husband is a software developer, and I feel like they are on the forefront of what AI is actually capable of. And AI for software developers is completely different than the AI that most of us are using.

And it’s pretty insane how easy it is to build a software app at this point in time. And so Caleb and I have been playing around with creating a productivity software app, and that potentially could be something coming down the line as well. Again, any timeline on this, I’m not gonna force myself to put deadlines on anything.

Might not ever happen, and that’s okay because that’s not what’s most important right now.

But all that to say, my main focus right now is serving my audience and growing my audience. And then in the future, maybe other products or services can come out of that. But right now I’m just having fun and creating content that I feel like is [00:18:00] helpful and I really enjoy creating

Okay. In closing, if you got anything from this episode, I hope that you’re taking away that it’s okay to make business decisions one season at a time and not expect something to last for- forever, and that starting where you’re at and starting to take action and taking the pressure off of having everything perfect and have everything be perfectly sustainable for the long term right when you begin, take that pressure off and just start.

Just start in one direction, get a little bit of clarity, and start taking action, and hopefully take the pressure off of having everything figured out. Because business changes so quickly that it’s so unrealistic to expect anything or any decision you make to last forever. It’s okay to just make the decision that lasts for the season of business and the season of life that you’re in right now.

So what’s next for the podcast? Uh, there might be a podcast name change or cover art update [00:19:00] coming, so keep an eye out for that. If you’re looking for new content, make sure you hit Subscribe so that you will be notified of any new podcast episodes that are published. And you can also subscribe to my email list if you wanna get notified when new episodes drop and get podcast summaries and the show notes right to your inbox so that you can access all the information included in the episode.

Those emails I think are gonna be sent about once a month at this point in time.

And I am really excited for the next few podcast episodes that I have planned to come to you. So do hit Subscribe. Thanks for hanging out today. And until next time, I hope you are enjoying the season that you’re in. I’ll see you next time.