Mommy CEO - The Effects of Mompreneurship on my Children

As mompreneurs it's easy to worry about our kids and how they interpret what we do and how and when we do it. But how often do we open the dialogue and ask?

In this episode Erin is joined by 4 of her 6 children as they discuss their take on her job. Insights and perspectives on entrepreneurship and mompreneurship, and lessons they've learned in the process.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the conquering chaos podcast. I'm your host, Aaron[inaudible], president and founder of multimillion dollar e-commerce children's clothing line. Bailey's blossoms. So what turns out I'm pretty good at business, but what really lights my soul on fire? It's providing other entrepreneurs and mompreneurs with the tools they need to truly succeed. So if you have a business or have one on your heart, you're in good company. Pull up a chair or drop in some ear buds and let's conquer some chaos today.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Hey guys, today I have my children, or at least four of my children in the studio with me. I've got Bailey who is 13 hunter is 11 going on 12. Landon is 10 and Peyton is nine. Can you guys say hello? Hi. So today I actually invite them into the studio to be a part of this podcast where we're going to be talking about what it's like to have parents who are entrepreneurs from the view of the kids, all the good things, the bad things, the ugly things, the sad things, um, and everything in between. So, but first before we get started, I want to have each of them tell you something unique about themselves that make sense. Special. So Bailey, why don't you start? I'm Bailey and I really like to run my fastest miles a five 58. I liked to run also, I my fastest time was a six 27 and I collect a lot of Pokemon. That is very true. Okay. Landon? Uh, I love, uh, to play Pokemon and I love sports like soccer ball and dodge ball. Um, I like Soco. What do you guys like about having a mom who was a mom Prenuer or an entrepreneur? I like how you always get to stay home more and you get to play with us or it definitely gives us more freedoms. Um, like vacation, all that. You don't have to stick to a schedule that someone that gives you, you get to make your own. Um, you can also work from home instead of always leaving. So it sounds like with all of these things, it sounds like entrepreneurship is pretty awesome, right? Yeah. But it also comes with its fair amount, right? Challenges. What are some of the challenges? What are the things that you guys don't like?[inaudible] times. I'm like, if something comes up and there's a problem, you always have to go in, you have to fix it. And sometimes I can cause a lot of stress and um, it's sometimes it just comes out of nowhere and the kids have to watch themselves or babysitter. Yeah. Oh, you say the kids, but really it comes down to you are a hunter, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, one thing that is, uh, well you don't really like, although you do stay home, you still have to work a lot. So sometimes I'm occupied with other things. So even though I'm here, I'm not always really here. We met physically here, but not mentally, not emotionally. Right. Okay. You're in a different world. It's a, so sometimes we have to, uh, be quiet. Well, our mom is like, uh, doing a, a podcast podcast or a live video. That's true. And uh, sometimes, uh, if something's bad, like, uh, something happens that's wrong, uh, can lose my temper. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I think every mom struggles with losing her temper, but especially when you're trying to accomplish a lot of things at the same time, it's hard to separate them and create boundaries that create that balance. You know, one of the things that the I love about entrepreneurship is that you guys get to see what it looks like. And I feel like school's awesome. You get to learn about things and read about things. I got kids shaking their head that they're, they think I'm wrong. You can just disagree with me and say no mom school rules not. But there is an opportunity to learn about business there, whereas at home here when we're, we live a life of entrepreneurship, you guys get to see what that looks like and the books don't really tell you about all the pros and all the cons of running your own business. Do they? So what are the things that have surprised you the most about entrepreneurship that may be school doesn't teach you about, uh, that you stay home a lot more? Yeah, I thought you'd be like at the warehouse or work all day long. For me, it really helps me to be able to see a, it gives me another option choice. Like, Oh, you do this, that looks really cool. And if you hadn't been entrepreneur, I would not have wanted to take the business academy at the school that I'm going to go to. That's true. And you know, it's interesting because there is a business academy opportunity at one of the high schools out here where we live, um, that we can, that our kids can elect to go into and we've been really cautious. We want to, we try to teach you guys about business, but we don't want to force you guys to do the same things that we do if you're not interested in them. Hunter, you talked about this, about how I get to stay home a lot, but not all. Entrepreneurship is the same. There's thousands of ways to be an entrepreneur and not all of them look alike. A lot of people do have to go to a warehouse or a store. And I have just created what my entrepreneurship during looks like so that I can also balance being a mom and taking care of you guys too. What about things that you wish that were done differently or that you think would help? Because you said sometimes I am here but I'm not really fully here or I'm, I'm physically present but I'm not emotionally present or I might lose my temper if I'm trying to focus on recording a podcast or doing a live video and maybe people are being crazy in the background. So what are some things that help us to, to not have to get to that point? Honestly, I think that electronics keep us, uh, googled down during, uh, your podcasts and your videos. So when like when you're recording a podcast where you going and like I s I started to get a bit stressed out. I'm like, oh my gosh. Or I'm like, Oh, you're gone all the time when she really aren't. Um, I think just noticing those blessings that we have and that you're able to stay home and you're able to have your own like work schedule, it's like really, it really helps. So keeping a good perspective, you know, and I think that that's a good point too, because it's really easy to assume that, that everybody's life looks perfect and except for your own. But then when you get into it and you realize, oh wow, everybody's life has different blessings and different challenges and we need to keep, and we get to decide what we get to focus on. Do you guys think that communication helps? For example, if I'm going to record a podcast, but I don't tell you guys about it and then all of a sudden now I'm just getting frustrated because you guys aren't being quiet, but I didn't tell you that's not really fair. Right? But if I tell you what my schedule is and I say, hey guys, from this time to this time today I have to go to the warehouse but then I'm going to come back and from this time to this time we're going to do this fun thing together. Whatever. Does that help? Yeah, it definitely helps. Like I don't know the word like boundaries for like okay right now I need to do this but after this we can hang out. Right? Cause if you didn't tell us it definitely be a lot harder and a lot more stressful. So keeping a good like communication and communication definitely helps. Oh okay. I'll do this later or yes. Okay. So life can be kind of hard running a business and being able to juggle and balance it all. Do you guys think it's worth it? Yes. Cause there's lots of challenges. Why is it worth it? Because even though there's some hard times, there still are sort of fun times when we get to hang out. And what does that, do you feel like the good times are more than the bad times or do you think that the hard times are more than the good times? The good times or more than the bad times? Cause, uh, if you do something like a dream quote of my mom shakes love, which is sorta loud after, uh, or you have to tell them what they don't know what one of your mom's shakes is. So what is that? It is where she puts a lot of cla fruits and greens mix together sometimes. Uh, after that she will give us, uh, a tree or something like that. So you're kind of talking about how you got to get, get the gross stuff over with first and then you get the reward. Is that the analogy for, sorry, if I, you didn't offend me. I knew that you didn't like my shakes. Okay. So when you guys grow up, what do you want to be? I want to be probably an entreprenuer or something. Probably a farmer. So I can have like a lot of animals, animals and uh, I don't have to go to the store and buy foods and healthy stuff for my kids. I can just grow it. That'd be cool. Okay. Ever since I kind of got more into the entreprenuer stuff and helping you with some of the designs and kind of learning about it, I definitely want to grow up to run one of my own businesses cause I definitely think that it's cool and it provides a lot of cool learning opportunities. And yes, there may be challenges, but the challenges will help you along the way, not only with business but also with life. I have a question. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. If you're a farmer, is it technically being an entreprenuer cause you yeah. Anytime that you have your own business, where you are creating something to help support your family, that is an entrepreneur. Sometimes we make plans and the plans change. Right. And that can be super frustrating when we're looking forward to something as a family and then the plan has to change because an emergency comes up with an employee. There's always lots of things that can happen when there's a big group of people on a team. It definitely, he definitely causes some like tension, not only like at work, but also in the home. It's like, like let's say you have something fun planned out, but something's serious came up with work and you have to change it. Um, it definitely can cause some stress, but, and disappointment and disappointment. But I think when you communicate with each other and you're able to say, okay, we might do this, or if something comes up and you have to change plans, it's like, so I'm going to have to be gone for a while, but right. Maybe we can do this another day. Right. And you can, and it doesn't make it less disappointing. It's still disappointing, but it does teach us good skills of being able to be flexible because life isn't, doesn't always go the way that we plan. We make plans and we do our best, but sometimes the plans have to be changed, but we have responsibilities to take care of first things first. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that I love about your in school is that they teach the seven habits, which are all fantastic entrepreneurial habits. So do you guys know what all of them are? I actually don't know what all of them are. Selective. Okay. Be Proactive. What else?[inaudible] think win-win news. First things first. The end in mind. Synergize. Sharpen the saw. Oh, did we say all of them? No, that's eight. Oh, there's eight. Not so your voice yet. They put find your voice. Yeah.[inaudible] guys, I want you guys to do, do the whole thing.[inaudible] remember you guys? Yeah, no. And then pay and then you guys will be able to try man, because they'll remind you of what it is. Kay. So how does it go? One PD. Troll active. I am in charge of me. I have it too.[inaudible] thanks for, except for[inaudible] by seek first to 100[inaudible] had six has said sharpen this. Hey fine. Awesome. Okay. So Bailey, if you had to choose your favorite habit, what is it? I definitely like synergize. What does synergize synergize and about? It's all about you working together. And I also really liked the hands on that. They do, cause it's kind of like go away. Oh wait. Yeah. But yeah it definitely helps. It can incorporate with work and family and friends cause if like it definitely helps to know how to work together. Yeah. You also want to be able to work with your friends and your family and to be able to be okay in all sorts of different situations and just really like awesome.[inaudible] is probably a really good, it's my favorite also. How about eight? Which one was eight again? That's actually find your habit. Yeah, it is a really good for entreprenuers uh, because uh, they need to find their voice and know what they're good at to like excited about it. Yeah. And also my favorite is habit seven cause you did read what's habit seven? Sharpen the saw, which means what? When you rest your mind you get a play. Yeah. You like nuts on that. Somethings for you to kind of read. You can refresh balance. Okay. Hunter, what's your favorite show? Running your saw you get a play. Play, play. Okay. And fate. And what's your habit? Seven shotgunning ESOP. Yeah. Awesome. So what do you guys do to sharpen yourself? Ply Paul? Kmart. Play outside. Do a lot of play with the cats. Okay. So[inaudible] house and chores, right? No. Is there a habit for sharpen your mom's saw? Because chores sharpen myself. That's your sharpen. You have to have[inaudible] to like regenerate and to cool down after like a hard day's work. Yeah. And it's like what do I need to feel again? Yeah. And that's hard cause sometimes, especially for adults, the work is never done. Yeah. So it's hard to put the work away when you're like, Oh God, I don't have time to do the fun things. I need to just keep getting work done. And sometimes you guys see that with mom and dad sometimes we're like, oh my gosh, sharpen your saw already. Other habit habit like Mrs Ziegler, uh, made it up. So what was her extra habit? Uh, her extra habit was say no to be oh cause bad. Yeah. Oh we should probably put that in our family. Uh Ooh. That's what we'll say. What's funny? Okay. So we talked about the things that we like about entrepreneurship, which are creating your own schedule, the power to choose what entrepreneurship looks like for you. Sometimes if you're an entrepreneur, there is always something bad. Like, uh, if I was to be a farmer, there would be sad part for losing my animal. There's always going to be challenges. But think about it this way. The first time, the first time you come up with a challenge, let's say one of your favorite animals passes away and that would be really sad. But then as other people start to become farmers and they go through the same challenge, you can give them advice on how to cope with it, right? So there's learning experiences so that you can go from needing help to giving help. So the more that you're educated and the more opportunities and learning experiences you have, even the hard ones, and especially the hard ones, the more hard things you go through, the more help and wisdom that you have to be able to give to other people. But if I become a farmer, I'm not going to be squishing my chickens. That's congratulations. That's good. He's like, fill all the chickens Ed. Oh yeah, like took them dog. I thought you actually miss squishier[inaudible]. You want free raise chickens? Yeah. Like No. Then I'll get my eggs from you or chickens. Okay. And then we also talked about the challenges of entrepreneurship and how we need to overcome them through communication, through being flexible. I think one of the biggest challenges for me and dad, and we've talked to you guys about this similarly where it's a challenge for you guys if we're not communicating with you and you don't know what the schedule or expectations are when when everybody just expects to have fun all the time and doesn't value or appreciate the work. That could be a challenge too. So it also comes down to respect where you guys respect mom and dad for the work that we tried to do, but we also respect you and trying to be present with you guys. Well, if you could give one piece of advice to another mom per newer advice for her and advice for her kids, what would it be? Uh, going back to the communication skills, you definitely want to be able to know, oh this is what I need this at this time. This is what I need at this time. And it definitely helps to create a balance between, okay, we might have to push that back later cause I really have to do this and this is really important because if you wait til the last second, it's definitely going to cause a lot of stress. Right. And having good communication skills can help clear all that stress. And do you think that everybody needs to have the ability to think about not just themselves? Yeah, cause I think that that can produce problems when all we want is what we want. And we're not willing to look at it from other people's points of view. But when we communicate and we all acknowledge and understand one another's points of view, then we can make a wiser decision together. Yeah. That's great advice. Thank you. What other advice would you guys give? Uh, I would, uh, give to the children. Uh, I would say, uh, when your mom is, uh, doing like, uh, a live video or something that requires[inaudible] let her do that. But then when she's done you could probably play with her. Okay. So your advice is be patient because the quicker the, the, the more respect and patience you give, the quicker it's over and you can get to the fun stuff. I definitely learned that the hard way cause I used to always be like, mom, are you done mom, are you done? And sometimes I restart everything. It would like interrupt like your train of thought and like it take a our time and be like, or, and we'd always have car. We'd always have conversations with you. Like why won't you ever play with us? Well as, because you guys keep interrupting me. It's like, and then we don't think it's fair. Yeah, I agree with the line, Jen, that uh, who do you have to be patient in order to get to the fun part. But those are great lessons too because life isn't all just about having fun. Right? And we can have fun during the work, but we also need to learn to get, just like getting first things done first, right? We need to be able to put first things first, get done the important thing,

Speaker 1: 20:17

then you move on to the things that you'd really want to do, which can be the reward. Thank you for taking the time to connect with me here on the conquering chaos podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, will you please take a moment to leave a review? It's the fuel to my fire and lets me know that my efforts to enact change and broaden your perspective of what's possible matter. Thank you so much for your support. If you want more content like this, don't forget to subscribe and connect with me on social media@aaronequallyorataaronequals.com have a fantastic day. Get out there and congress and chaos.