Hello. This feels like a very weird sort of welcome back video, but you've been seeing me,
but I haven't been seeing you. I am four months postpartum today, as I'm filming this. I had a
baby girl in July, and I haven't made a YouTube video in eight months. So, this feels really good,
and I feel ready and happy and at peace. And I think this may be probably one of
the most important videos I've ever made, and I truthfully was a little torn on making it because
I have learned there is a lot of judgment on moms and what you should and shouldn't be doing.
And as much as I don't really care, I also am in postpartum period, and I can feel that I'm maybe
a little more sensitive. And I'm not going to say sensitive, actually. Screw that. I am probably the
strongest I've ever been. I brought a human into this world. So eff that noise. No, not sensitive,
but just like soft. I'm softer emotionally than I have been in the past, and I'm just
protecting my heart and my head, so that I can be very present and peaceful with my family.
But, at the same time, what I'm going to share in this video, I feel, for me,
overrides any of that. And I think that you or someone you know, needs to probably hear this.
And if there's one person who needs to hear this, then it's very worth it. And it is the
video that I wish that I saw when I was pregnant and in those early days of motherhood, and I'm
still in the early days, but definitely feels like things are becoming slightly more normal-ish now.
So, why am I making this video? Well, first of all, I had a baby girl, and having a
daughter has done something to me, in terms of feeling just this fuel to make sure that she
knows that she contains multitudes, as do I. And when I was pregnant, I noticed something
really interesting. I noticed that I would get really contradictory questions and thoughts from
people, unsolicited. It would be a lot of, "Well, aren't you worried your business is going to break
if you take time off? How are you possibly going to manage being a mom and a business owner?"
And then also things like, "Well, you're only going to take 12 weeks of mat leave? What,
are you crazy? That's not enough time." But also, "Hmm, you should probably get back
to work pretty quickly because you don't want to lose momentum." Which one is it?
I'm confused, as are you, I believe. And so, I think that making this video
and showing up is my way of saying to myself when I was pregnant that, "It's
not as scary as you think it's going to be." Is it the hardest effing thing I've ever done
in my life? Hands down, 100% ... Hard, so hard, so many days crying, so many days and
so many emotions. It's the best of the best and the worst of the worst. I don't know how
else to put it. And it's just kind of like this crazy whew of a new reality and a new normal.
And I knew for myself that it was really important for me in the postpartum period to not only, of
course, care for my sweet little baby, but also to care for me and to take that space to care for my
body in a way that would allow me to feel my best and to feel healthy again, because I literally
couldn't go for a walk for more than five minutes postpartum in that first month. There's things
that they don't tell you, like you're bleeding for six weeks. You feel like you have a freaking
dumbbell down there. It's a wild experience and also incredible. The human body is wild.
So, I knew I needed to take space, and I knew I wanted to do that. And I also know that I
love what I do for work, and I knew that I wanted to integrate both, but I never really
felt like there was anything available to me to say, "Yes, you can do that." It sort of was like,
"Nope. You got to choose one or the other." And I just think, I just think, being kind
of on the other side of this now, being a mom now, and very slowly integrating myself back
into work, I just think it's convenient, real convenient, to have that narrative for moms,
to say ... to make them feel scared, to question how they're going to do both.
I think it's a problem, and I wanted you to see that I'm not doing it perfectly. I don't
have it nailed by any means, and I'm four months postpartum, so I'm not an expert.
But I think it's important to share that I am doing both, and I feel really good, and
I'm really grateful to do both. And also, being a mom is the hardest job in the world. And so,
I just think it's insane that the narrative is really, you're either the super successful, ice
queen loner woman if you run a business or you're dedicated to your career, or you're unfairly
undervalued and kind of unfairly forgotten, if you choose not to work, which is just ridiculous.
Whatever path you choose or you don't choose, because you sometimes can't choose. Maybe you
have to work. A lot of women have to work. They don't have a choice. They don't have more than a
week to take off of work or a few days, which is honestly inhumane. Now, having gone through it and
fully understanding it, inhumane. But some women don't have a choice, and some women don't have
a choice to not work. Circumstantially, it just doesn't make sense. They need to stay at home. So,
whatever path it is, it's hard, long story short, and you deserve a medal and a pedestal.
But I wanted to make this to say that I am doing both. I am just starting to reintegrate
back into work. I took my sweet, sweet time, and I think that boggles people's minds a little bit
because I do run my own business and they're like, "But how are you taking time off?"
And I guess it goes back to what I always say, which is, like, "If you can't take
time off from your business, do you really have a business, or do you have a job?"
And that's a hard truth that even I had to really face when I was taking the time off. I
had to really look at things and go ... I talk about legacy businesses. I help people create
legacy business. So if you were, God forbid, to die tomorrow, your business could still make an
impact and an income without you. And that's what I really had to practice what I preach when I went
on my mat leave and as I was preparing for it. And I really recognized that the business structure
I've created allows for me to do that. And it is what I help people do. I help
them detach their time from their income. If you don't know what I do and you're new here,
I help people package their expertise into online programs that are super impactful and scalable.
So I was able to take months. I took months off from work, although, the way that I say that,
we just need to correct that because it's not months off from work. I was working more than
I've ever worked in my entire life, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with my baby. And
so, it is the furthest thing from a vacation. It is hard, hard. I'm not just saying this to
scare somebody, but I wish somebody was that honest with me. Nobody really told me the real,
hard truth. Hardest, best thing ever, just that's the only way to describe it.
And so, I took the time to be present completely, did not check in with work for months, and yet,
the business ran like clockwork. We got incredible client results while I was gone,
and we generated multiple seven figures in the timeframe of me being gone. And that is proof that
it is incredibly possible. And even for myself, it was like, "Wow, I know what I do works, but I am
now proof of that being something that works." And this is the long game. I've been planning
this for a very, very long time, to ideally be able to start a family when my business
is at a place where I could do this. But we also work with so many people that are coming in when
they're just about to take their mat leave, and they're like, "I don't want to go back to my job,
and I'm really good at what I do, and I know I want to create something for myself."
And I think the biggest answer to inequity, and not even smashing the glass ceiling,
but also just not even having a ceiling, is entrepreneurship. And I'm not saying everybody's
cut out to be an entrepreneur, but I think if you are maybe pregnant or you're thinking about
starting a family one day, or you're just sick of not having any space in your life for the things
that you maybe enjoy doing or want to do more of, I think it's important to know that there
is a way to do it. I just don't think it's made very popularized or, if it is, it sounds like it's
too good to be true or some sort of scam. And I'm not saying that this isn't also a
very real business. I have a team at this point, but I did start as a one-woman show,
and I've made all the mistakes in the book. But I knew, "Okay, one day, I want to start a family,
and I would like my business to be at a place where I can really take a step back."
And so, I think it's important to share a few of the things that I did to make sure that that
could happen. So, one, is creating this scalable structure. So, I have an online program, and that
is my asset. So, really, I took my brain, and I took my method to help people to create business
models that detach their time from their income, and I put it in a step-by-step plan, and that can
live in a curriculum that people can study all over the world. We have clients in 47 countries,
without me being actively involved. My brain is in that program. They don't need to get on a call
with me to go through every step of that process. And that would honestly be kind of silly because
the process is applicable and duplicatable to each person we work with. And then,
we have structured support. So yeah, we do talk to people, and we're able to help them pass hurdles,
but they have what they need to get the result in that curriculum. So, scalable structure.
Team, and I know that not everybody has a team or is at a place where they're able to hire a team,
but my team, we're Swiss Army Knives. And that's really important. And knowing
that every person is very clear in their expectations and their performance metrics,
and that they know what they're there to do, and that I know what I'm there to do,
so nobody's stepping on anybody's toes. But at the same time, we can all hop in for one another.
I have a small team. It's a tiny but mighty team, but it's set up to support one another
and to support a structure that allows freedom and peace for each person in the business. We are an
anti-burnout space. We really value our freedom and our peace, while also just doing really good
work with people that we want to work with. So that's a really important thing to understand
is, you can have a scalable structure, so you're not trading time for money,
and you don't have to be physically present for your business to make a impact on people. You can
create a support structure around you once you get to a place where you're scalable because then you
actually have the income to be able to reinvest back into the business to create that support.
And also, I have never been more thoughtful and intentional in how I use my time than when I
was pregnant and now being a new mom. I will not do things I don't want to do, and I will not do
things that are absolutely freaking 100% necessary to sustaining the business or to our end goal of
the business, to our mission of the business. If it's not necessary, it's a no for me.
So I plan out my year, then my quarters, then my months, then my weeks, then my days. I plan
out my priorities that way. And I don't plan out to-do lists. I just have priorities. And there
aren't that many priorities when you keep things simple in your business. And we've been able to
scale to a very healthy place in our business, multiple eight figures, by doing it that way.
And I say all this, and I recognize I am in a very privileged position. I fully, I fully am
aware of that. But I also say it because I really do believe that entrepreneurship is the answer to
inequity. And it's really interesting, in the time and space that we're living in, that it's not what
it used to be. I think when we used to think of entrepreneurship, it was like you needed capital.
You needed financing. You needed all these things. You don't need those things to start a lot of
businesses today. The online world has created a lot more equity for people in starting businesses,
where you don't need that. If you have a skillset or an expertise, you can start a business and
generate cashflow and have super ridiculously high profit margins and create a major impact
on a global scale because there are no limits. And so, I hope that this helps you understand
that it is possible as a mom to feel really excited about multiple things, and it's okay
to. I almost feel like that's controversial to say, because I feel like I'm meant to be like,
"Oh, no, I'm only going to focus on my family," or "No, I'm only going to focus on my business,"
or whatever that may be. And I feel like it's also kind of like, "Ooh, you're taking care of
yourself, as a new mom? What?" Like it's almost offensive. And I just think it shouldn't be.
If I am not okay, and it is very easy to not be okay during the postpartum period,
and I wasn't on many days, how am I going to feel human and feel seen and feel like myself, which I
think is really important? I am a whole human. You are a whole human, and that's a beautiful
thing. And it's okay to have all of these different multitudes living amongst each other,
and it's doable. And I just kind of wish there was more visibility of that, that it is doable.
So, I hope that you take from this that you can be a mom and have more in your life and more to
you than being a mom, and not feel bad about it. And I know I'm only four months into this, but
I don't know if that's ever going to change for me, and it was very much so the case when I was
pregnant. And that's why I would get so frustrated and why I felt so anxious, because I was like,
I really was like, "How am I going to do this?" And I've talked to so many people that are
thinking the same thing. They're like, "How do you do it? How do you do both? Is it
possible?" Because it doesn't feel like it's possible. Nobody's telling me it's possible,
even though there's so many people in the world who are doing both. But it's just,
again, it's kind of convenient that there's a lack of visibility into doing both.
And success, for me, at this point, has never been more true to say that success is living in
alignment with your values. I don't look like or represent what I think, even in my head, in some
still really effed-up societal beliefs. I don't look like what success looks like. I am currently
in my room. My husband and I, this is our bed. I'm sitting on the floor in my Lululemons, and I
may or may not have showered today. Who knows? But I'm running this business that's having this big
impact and supports a team of people all over the world, and we have clients all over the world.
So success looks like whatever the hell you want it to look like, and your life and your business
look like whatever the hell you want them to look like. Does it take a lot of hard work? Absolutely.
Do you need to go on a specific timeline? No. I think I just wanted to share this, that whether
it's a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, four years from now, that you
don't feel like I felt when I was pregnant. And I am somebody who runs a business and has been for
a long, long time, and I know what it takes to run a successful business. And I knew I could do this,
but I still felt like this is impossible because the noise was getting to me.
And it's easy to let it get to you because, again, it's convenient. It's convenient to
question a mother or a mother-to-be and make her doubt herself. And I want you to know you don't
need to doubt yourself. It's going to be the hardest effing thing you've ever done, the best
thing you've ever done, and you, as a whole human, are worthy of doing it in your way, however that
looks, and at your own pace, however that looks. So, whatever your circumstances are, my hope is
that this just gives you a little drop, a little seed of possibility. That's my help. If you are
pregnant, or you're about to embark on your postpartum journey, I'd love to hear from
you. Or maybe if you've been there and done that and you are somebody who's been able to integrate
all of them, please share in the comments. We need more of that. I needed it. Still need it.
So, yeah, this is a no-judgment zone, and I just have such a deep, deep, deep respect. I always
have, but a deep, deep, deep respect now, even more so, for mamas. Yeah, if you know,
you know. Mamas and women who you've been trying to get pregnant, and maybe it's not happening,
to go through either of those, the mental fortitude that takes, my friend, you can do
it all. You can take that on. You can tackle that. You can do it all. You can. It's going to be hard.
And it's maybe not going to go the way you think it's going to go, or in the timeline that you
think it's going to go in, but it's possible. And again, that's all I wanted to do with this
video. So, I am officially back. And yeah, I just wanted to share that with you. That was what was
on my heart and mind since coming back from my mat leave and integrating again. And yeah,
I hope it resonated with you. Happy to see you. So much love.