Ep 31. How Systems Saved My Sanity As A Mompreneur

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

Transcript
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You are now tuned in to the Mom c e O Suite

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Podcast. I'm your host, Felicia wife,

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mom, and entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my

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mompreneur journey along with strategies that will help you build your

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online business operations in a sustainable way.

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The goal is to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as

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a mom who values putting family first. We will also hear the

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experiences and expertise of other moms with

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service-based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys, so

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you'll know that you are alone. Motherhood gets hard,

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entrepreneurship gets hard, but together we can

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do hard things. Welcome to this.

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Hey friend, welcome to another episode. Thank you for being here today.

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I'm going to be talking about how systems saved my sanity as a

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mom preneur. Now we know this intersection of being a

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mom and an entrepreneur. It comes with its own set of

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unique challenges. There's ups there's

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downs. There's joy. There's sadness. There's just

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so many changes that occur throughout the journey. And

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so I just wanted to share a little bit of how in the

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midst of all of those changes. And the challenges

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that I've been able to maintain my sanity bus

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for. I say thus far, because you know, my

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daughter, she's in the toddler stage now, and it's just a

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new set of things happening, which I'm sure toddler moms can

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relate to. Male prior to

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me becoming a mom, I was an entrepreneur. If you haven't heard this before.

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Just going to share for those who may not know I was an entrepreneur before

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I was a mom. So I was used to. The hustle, the bustle.

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Used to just working whenever I chose to. And then I became a

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mom and I knew things would change. I just did not know

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how much they would change or in what way that would change.

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But I, I quickly found out. Now when my daughter was in the

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newborn stage, you know, during that stage, they're still. Very

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easy to care for and maintain an M. In my opinion. Let me say

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that. Because they just eat and sleep a lot.

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And so I was still able to

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just still do work as normal. I wasn't

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doing as much work because I was on my.

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Maternity leave. But. There wasn't any type

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of challenge with me doing some light work. If I wanted to.

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As she continued to grow. And she transitioned into

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more of the infant stage. She needed more of my attention.

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And this is where. Some of the challenges began to

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arise because I was out of my three month

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maternity leave that I had given myself. And so now I was trying

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to jump back into work full force. And

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do it in the same way. And in the same pace that I did

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before I had my daughter. And I was just trying to kind of bring

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her along on the journey. And that did not work out, obviously.

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And. It created a situation where. I was a

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frustrated mom. And a frustrated business owner. Because my

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daughter. Also she's seen during this stage to

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be. Very cranky. At times and I

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being a new mom, you know, I really didn't know. What I should or should

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not be doing. I was just doing a lot of things, trial and error. I

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don't know how I came across it, but I came across some information on the

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internet. About net times

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and wake windows. So basically there's this

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concept. The infants. They still need to have

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X amount of hours of sleep, but they should only be

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awake for. These designated or suggested wake

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windows. Which were like three to four hours. For me.

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At the time that was like a light bulb aha

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moment. Because up until that point, I was still just letting

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her. eat and sleep. Whenever she seemed hungry, you're tired.

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But not really realizing that she was. probably just cranky

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because I wasn't putting her to sleep. I was just allowing her to be

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awake. and letting her take the lead instead of me as

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the parent taking the lead. So. When I found out about these wake

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windows. What I did was I created this. Nap

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time. Routine for her. And let me tell you guys, it

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was amazing. What it looks like basically she woke up

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around seven 30 in the morning. She was awake for three

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hours. And then she took a nap from 10 30.

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Until new, then she was up for another three hours. And then she took

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another nap from three until four 30.

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And then she was up for another three hours until 7:30 PM. When I

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put her to bed. When I implemented. This.

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Into our daily routine. This

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just made things a lot easier.

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She was less cranky because she was getting her sleep. Obviously

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right. And. I was able to have

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designated times throughout the day. Where I

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could get some work done. And so

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I, I didn't have these feelings of frustration anymore.

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I didn't have these, these feelings of, oh, am I going to be able to

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even do this? Do I need to shut down my business? All of those

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negative thoughts and feelings that I was having. It went away

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and it even led me to. Transition into a space where I was more

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productive, because I knew that. I only had three

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hours of. On interrupted work

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time to get things done per day. Yes, I could work before

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she woke up. Or at night when she went to bed, but most of the

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time. I was trying to get my restaurant in those times. or in the

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morning, just waking up early to prepare myself for

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the day. And so I knew three

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hours each day. I had. Of uninterrupted work

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time. It just helped me to be more productive. Now

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as she got older. The way she operated

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changed. Then we had to adjust the schedule a little bit. So

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the schedule that she's on now. her wake windows are

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longer since she's older and now she only has one nap.

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And she takes a two hour nap. From one to

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3:00 PM. When she's awake., there are times where I can do

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some light work like emailing or. I'm doing some things on social

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media. That doesn't require too much of my attention,

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but still just having that designated two hours per day.

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Is such a game changer for me as a

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mom who has a child. And is working from home. It's

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just a relief to be able to have that time designated to

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get work done. Now. As. With anything

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you learn as time goes on. And so once we got the

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nap time portion down, It was like, okay, now what do we

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do? What are we going to do during all of these other times

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when she's awake? And so I started adding more

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things to the schedule. That. Outline what we would

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do. During her await time. So there's times where we're outside

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playing. There's times where she just has some free.

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Playtime and she's running around the house. There's time

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where we're doing learning. And reading. And things like that.

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And so. Having all of this. It's really a

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system, right? Having the schedule, having the

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routine. This is a system it's just a system for your

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home. And. It. Outlines. How you're

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going to operate from day to day in your home with

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your child. As a systems person. I don't know why I

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didn't think about it. Right. I, I focus heavily on systems for the

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business, but it did not. Occur to me

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initially, to create systems for the home. But

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once I did. Guys. It helped me. To keep my sanity.

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So if you don't have systems in your home, I encourage you just to

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start create a schedule that's a process, which is a part of a

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system, right? And so having these

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systems in place. It really allowed. First

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of all for me and my daughter to know what we were going

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to be doing on a day to day basis. And

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even now at this point, This just recently happened.

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It was getting close to her nap time. And instead of me,

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Taking her to her neck, she initiated going

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upstairs or wanting to go upstairs to take her nap.

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But that could not have happened if I had not. I

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created this system. And implemented. A lot of

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times in business when it comes to.

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Systems and processes and automations. We'll

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create these things. But then we never. Implement

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them. And if you don't implement, you won't see the benefit of it.

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Okay. So having these systems in my home were

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super beneficial because again, it allowed. She, and I had to know

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what we were going to be doing on a day-to-day basis. It provided

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me with relief. I was able to

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take breaks and I was able to still be able to show

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up. And be productive in my business. Now, along

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with being able to take breaks. This gave me

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peace of mind. That if anybody else was watching her.

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That they knew what the standard was.

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So her dad. my sister's. She went away for a

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week. to stay with my sisters out of town. Her

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grandparents recently came into town

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during my wedding anniversary for the weekends to watch

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the kids. And. They got a document. They

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got some SLPs that I have for my home. They got a

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document that outlined. Her schedule. And it outlined

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what. Things should be done throughout the day. And so

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having that, it gave me a peace of mind. To

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know that in my absence, She would still be

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taking care of. At least to the basic standard that I had

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said. And being able to go away and have that break.

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With that peace of mind. Is priceless. And so

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it's the same thing with your business.

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Right. Having systems in your business. They allow you as the business

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owner to show up and be productive in your zone of

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genius. Because you're not doing all the things. Other

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people are taking care of. Working in the business in some

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capacity, and you're able to stay in your zone of genius and be

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productive in the things that are going to help grow the business. Having

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those SLPs allow you to take the breaks. It

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allows you to step away from the business. With the peace of

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mind, knowing that your business is going to

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continue to operate. Knowing that your business is going to be

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taken care of to the basic standard that you have set.

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Systems can be super simple and I don't want you to

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overcomplicate it. It's literally just. How

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you do. Anything for a particular area. You can

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have systems in your business. And you can have

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systems in your home if you don't have any systems in your home yet. Start

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with the daily schedule. And go from there, but you can keep it

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simple. It does not have to be anything that is complicated.

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I hope that in me, sharing more of my mom preneur

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journey. That something resonated with you that you are

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encouraged to take some action. Maybe you got an

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idea to implement something in your home. Or in your

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business. And so let me know, shoot me a message on Instagram,

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which part? Of today's episode most resonated with you.

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I would love to chat with you. I hope this was helpful. And I will

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see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Mom C e

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O Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a

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favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other

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moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower

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others who are at this intersection of motherhood and

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