Mom Boss Freedom Podcast

30 - Mompreneurship: The Healing Journey You Didn't Know You Signed Up For

• Paige Figueroa • Season 1 • Episode 30

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We explore one of the most overlooked truths about entrepreneurship — that building a business often means doing some of the deepest personal growth work of your life.

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Go follow the amazing mompreneurs who you heard from on this episode!

Podcast recs:

Book recs:

  • The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body’s Fear Response by Dr. Ellen Vora
  • How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists by Dr. Ellen Hendriksen
  • Rising Strong and The Gifts of Imperfection, by Brene Brown 

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If you're reading this, our paths were meant to cross :) I can't wait to support you in starting or growing your business as a busy mom!

SPEAKER_01

Hey mama, welcome to the Mom Boss Freedom Podcast, where ambitious moms come to build and grow businesses that give them the freedom and flexibility that they deserve as both a mom and an incredibly talented human. Whether you're brand new to entrepreneurship or scaling a business you already started, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Paige Figaroa, mom of two and former English teacher turned online business owner. Around here, we talk about making space for both your big dreams and those little moments you don't want to miss as a mom. So reheat your coffee one more time and let's dive into today's episode. Welcome back to another episode of the Mom Boss Freedom Podcast. In honor of it being the beginning of May and the start of maternal mental health awareness month, I wanted to talk about a topic on today's episode that I feel like so many mompreneurs can relate to, or just entrepreneurs in general. And that's this idea that when you become an entrepreneur, you are essentially embarking on a healing journey that you didn't know you signed up for. And so I know in looking back at my own journey of diving into entrepreneurship almost four years ago now, the one thing I didn't realize that I was signing up for when I was like, oh, I'm gonna start a business so that I can make money, not being an employee, I didn't realize I was signing up for all this internal work and like soul searching that I ended up taking on alongside of also growing multiple businesses. And in looking back at these past four years, I've actually found that that aspect of self-healing is equally the most difficult aspect and also the most meaningful aspect of being an entrepreneur in general. And so in today's episode, we're gonna tackle this topic from a couple different angles. First, I'm actually gonna share some snippets from other Montpreneurs who have graciously allowed me to share a little bit of their own journeys with self-healing and entrepreneurship. Then I'll share a little bit about my own journey with mental health and healing as it relates to my journey with entrepreneurship. And then we'll end the episode with a couple practices and book recommendations, podcast recommendations that you might find helpful as you continue your own healing journey as an entrepreneur. So let's dive into these. The first one is from a Montrepreneur named Courtney who owns a custom home renovations company. And Courtney says this about entrepreneurship and her healing journey. Entrepreneurship has been one of the most healing parts of my journey because it's required me to grow far beyond just building a business. It's challenged me to trust myself, to move through fear and self-doubt, and to recognize my own resilience in ways I hadn't before. Entrepreneurship constantly asks you to believe yourself before anyone else does. Building something from the ground up has become so much more than creating a career. It's been a process of rebuilding confidence, strengthening my voice, and stepping fully into who I am. In many ways, entrepreneurship has been both a professional journey and a personal one because as I've built my business, I've been building a stronger, more self-assured version of myself. And again, that was from Courtney. By the way, I'll be dropping the names and social media accounts for all these Montpreneurs who have graciously shared their stories here in the show notes. So definitely check the show notes out at the end of the episode so you can find these incredible women and moms and see all of the amazing businesses that they are building and growing. But the one line that really sticks out to me here from what Courtney said is when she says, entrepreneurship constantly asks you to believe in yourself before anyone else does. I think that is such a relatable line because when you are literally taking an idea that is in your brain and you are trying to like figure out how to put it out into the world, you can't rely on other people's opinions, right? Because they don't, there's no way for them to possibly fully understand what it is that you are trying to create or trying to build or grow. And so that self-belief is so important. It's something that I don't think comes easily to a lot of us in the beginning, and that we really have to kind of cultivate over time. But it's also one of the most fun skills to learn, I feel like as an entrepreneur is that sense of like self-belief and self-trust, and that like you have this idea for a reason and you're gonna run with it. And even if it doesn't work out exactly as you had intended it to, it needed to happen for you to either learn something about yourself or whatever it was that you were trying to put out there, or because it did work out and it was, you know, it was the next thing that you needed to do in your journey to continue to build what you're building. And so I just really love that line that she has there. The next one here is from a mompreneur named Maylin, who is an email marketing strategist. She says, in many ways, creating my business was a healing process all on its own. It was and is not only a testament to what I can do and what my mind is capable of, but also a confirmation that I can do hard things. My business has given me a different level of sense of self outside of being a wife or a mother. It's truly given me an outlet to work creatively as a CEO, as someone creating something out of nothing. And again, that one is from Maylin. I really just love this last point that she makes as someone who's creating something out of nothing, because kind of how Courtney was saying that having that like radical self-belief before anybody else does, like when you are truly creating something out of nothing, there's this sense of like empowerment that comes with that, I feel like, because you're putting something in the world that just simply didn't exist before, right? And that's such a cool thing that I think we get to do as entrepreneurs. The next one is from a local mom business owner that I'm such a fan of, and who actually I interviewed in episode 11. If you want to go back and listen to that one. Um, or if maybe you've already listened to it if you've been around with me for a while. But this is from Ashley, who is a maternity and newborn photographer. And she says this about her journey with entrepreneurship and self-healing. Photography was sorry, photography really was something that pulled me out of a dark time in my life. Prior to starting my maternity photography business, I was battling postpartum depression following the birth of my son. During a counseling session, my therapist mentioned that it would be good for me to find something for myself. Since becoming a mother, you often feel a sense of self-loss. Honestly, I really struggled with figuring out what that was, and photography and photography in that aspect really fell on my lap. My son's cake smash portraits were something I couldn't afford at the time, and so I decided to capture them myself. I studied composition and lighting, designed the backdrop setup, took his first year portraits and edited them. What happened next was something I never would have expected. I became obsessed. I found something that really lit me up and gave me a sense of purpose, and in doing so, helped provide for my family. And such a beautiful share from Ashley. I totally can resonate with this idea of like almost being in like a dark time in your life and having that idea of a business and something that's just for you kind of like come into your world and then you kind of like take it and become obsessed and run with it. That's pretty much how I started my first business when I learned to become a freelance copywriter. But I love the point that Ashley makes here is I feel like it's so relatable. This idea that when you become a mother, you feel such a sense of self-loss because it truly is almost like you can never go back to this version of yourself that you were before becoming a mom. It's just not possible. And you are a different person. And I feel like so many of us find that the work that we were doing before we became a mother in some way, shape, or form just simply doesn't feel aligned with this new version that we are becoming. And I feel like that's why so many moms are really drawn to entrepreneurship because it does kind of allow you to refind yourself and rediscover a version of yourself that needed to happen after you lost the old version of yourself. I guess that's the only way I can really put it. But um, really a beautiful share from Ashley. The next one is from Emily, who is a podcast host and co-founder of the Mom Friends Collective. And Emily says, choosing to leave a stable career in teaching for entrepreneurship really helped me realize what I actually value in life. I've learned and continue to learn how important creative expression is to my well-being, how to trust myself during periods of uncertainty, and why my old definitions of success were holding me back. And I really just love this last line that Emily has here about old definitions of success and how they hold you back. This was something that I found to be so helpful for me in my journey as an entrepreneur as well. I actually had a mindset coach recommend this practice to me. And when I did the processing and reflecting of like what I was viewing, of how I was viewing success up until that point, and then what I actually wanted it to mean for me moving forward, it really unlocked so much more growth for me and allowed me to run my business in a way that felt just better and like gave me more joy and more ease. And I highly, highly, highly recommend if this is not something that you've done at this point in your journey as an entrepreneur, that you take some time, even if it's only like 10 to 15 minutes, to sit down and reflect on how you are relating to the idea of success. If you need help with that, definitely check the show notes. I have a really helpful tool called the success recalibration ritual. And you can use that to help you do this exact process that I have done. And I actually revisit this every couple months, sometimes more frequently than that, if I feel like I need to. But it really just helps you make sure that the story that you're telling yourself about what it means for you to be successful is aligned to what you care about and what you're trying to actually achieve. And it's not based in what, you know, other people have conditioned you into feeling like you need to strive for. Okay, the next one here is from a Montpreneur named Sydney, who is a content strategist. I've also interviewed Sydney on the podcast before. She was one of the earlier episodes. I think it was episode nine, but again, I'll put these back in the show notes for you to look at. And Sydney says this about her journey. I started my business during a season where my husband was deployed and I had three kids at home, six months, two years old, and four years old. Between postpartum anxiety, depression, and solo parenting in a new state where I didn't know anyone, where my closest friend was a seven-hour drive away, my world felt really small. The days felt long and kind of repetitive, and I felt like I was losing parts of myself a bit. I didn't have to start a business, but I needed something that was mine in the middle of all of that. It gave me a way to rebuild confidence and remember I could make decisions for myself again. Even small wins in my business felt big at the time because they reminded me I was still me outside of getting through the day. It also mirrored a lot of what I was working through personally. Learning to trust myself in business carried over into parenting. Letting go of perfectionism in one made it easier in the other. I stopped second-guessing everything so much. And honestly, the community piece mattered more than I expected. Finding other mom business owners, even if they weren't nearby, made me feel a lot less alone in a season where I really needed that. And again, that is from Sydney. I can relate to so much of Sydney's snippet here. Um definitely with the idea of perfectionism, which I'll talk on a little bit more later. Yeah, and definitely the community piece, so important. Um, I found that the people and the humans that I've been able to connect with since becoming an entrepreneur are definitely super aligned with parts of myself that I didn't realize I was like craving to be seen in. And so that community piece and being able to have met other entrepreneurs, especially other mom entrepreneurs in the last couple of years has been really healing for me as well. Because I feel like when we have parts of ourselves that we haven't truly explored yet that are important to us, it makes us feel like we are repressing parts of ourselves or like we're hiding a part of ourselves that we don't feel like other, we don't feel comfortable with other people fully seeing yet or something like that. And so I really feel like that community piece of entrepreneurship can be very, very, very healing. Next one is from a Montpreneur named Megan, and she is the owner of an online slash pop-up thrift shop. Megan is a local entrepreneur to my area, and I'll actually be interviewing her, I think, later this summer. So excited for her episode to eventually come out and to have a chance to interview her and learn more about her journey. But this is what she has to say about her healing journey. Being a business owner has forced me to grow in ways I probably would have avoided otherwise. It's made me face things like fear of failure, people pleasing, and even confidence issues. When you're the face of your brand, there's no hiding. You have to show up even on the days you don't feel 100%. And I think that's where a lot of the healing comes in. I've learned to trust myself more, to make decisions without constantly second-guessing, to realize I don't need to do things perfectly to still be successful. It's also been healing in the sense of identity. As women, I feel like we're so used to pouring into everyone else, like family, work, relationships, and entrepreneurship gave me something that was mine, something I built, something I could be proud of, something that reflects me. And there's been hard seasons too, closing my storefront, pivoting to online. Those moments didn't feel like growth at the time. They felt like failure. But looking back, those were the moments that have shaped me the most. They taught me resilience and that my worth isn't tied to one version of success. And again, that one is from Megan. I think that's such a beautiful thought to end on here when she says, um, they taught me resilience. And I think one of the other Montpreneurs earlier on said this idea of resilience as well, and also that her worth isn't tied to one version of success. And I have absolutely found that as well. I think so many of us have learned to have our, you know, our sense of self-worth wrapped up in, you know, being productive and with the actual work that we do. And we have to really decipher that when we are entrepreneurs and realize that like our work that we do in our business is only one aspect of ourselves. And it definitely doesn't define our value and like our worth to other humans and to like the society and to the world at large. But that's something that is such a hard lesson to learn. It's one of the things that I've struggled the most with in my own healing journey as well. Um, but I think that's just such a beautiful sentiment to to end on here. This idea that, you know, our self-worth doesn't have to be tied to a version of success that we don't want it to be, right? Like we are already worthy, we already are valuable just because of who we are. Okay, so the last one I'm sharing here is an audio from Aubriel, who is a fitness and nutrition coach for moms. And here's what she has to say.

SPEAKER_00

Building my business helped me overcome imposter syndrome, and it helped me trust my own knowledge and intuition. I have a diagnosis of complex PTSD, so it's been pretty normal that I struggle to trust my own judgment, my intuition, and even my abilities. I tended to look for validation and guidance from others. Um in the beginning of my business, I even sought out numerous certifications just to justify myself as a knowledgeable expert that someone would want to hire. Feeling like that external validation was going to make people say yes to me because I wasn't enough. Um, as I've gotten deeper into the coaching part of fitness and nutrition, I realized as I talk to people that yeah, I actually do know what I'm doing, and I'm genuinely helping others, and I have something to offer to the world. Um, and I've also realized that my intuition on how to conduct my business is sound, and that not everyone who thinks that they know what they're doing should offer advice to me, or I should take their advice because we're not necessarily on the same page or in line with the same values. It's been incredibly healing to me to take leadership and ownership of my business and chart my own path, the one that feels authentic to me and in line with my values.

SPEAKER_01

So, the one thing I super relate to with what Abreel says here is this idea of imposter syndrome and the way that it manifests as almost this need to have all of the certifications and all of the qualifications in order to feel like you are worthy enough and good enough to serve other people in the way that you are, you know, meant to serve. And that has been something that I have personally had to overcome. I do have several certifications for things, um, and there's so many more things that I want to become certified in, but I am trying to really um tune into and kind of realize when I am trying to go for learning something or becoming certified in something because I feel like I need it to feel a sense of qualification versus like I genuinely am very interested in this and I think it will teach me something important that I don't have another way of accessing that information. Um, and so I love that Aubriel brought up that point. I think that's something that so many of us can relate to, especially in the earlier years of entrepreneur of our entrepreneurial journeys. Um, and so I'm I'm grateful that she brought that point up. And hearing all of these snippets that uh these incredible Montpreneurs have shared from their own self-healing journeys, I feel like there's three major buckets where there's kind of some overlap in the responses. So the first bucket I would say is this idea of like perfectionism and self-worth. Then there's also this idea of having a chance to have something that is just yours and that reflects what you actually value and care about. And that came up a lot in the idea of like creativity as well as how we spend our time. And then the last bucket I would say here is rethinking through what success even means for us as individuals. I feel like these are some of the common themes that came up here. And I'm really just thinking here, where do I even begin to talk about my own healing journey with entrepreneurship? And I really think it ties into this bucket of perfectionism that was brought up by a couple of the other mamas who shared. So I'll definitely speak to that one because that's been something I've personally dealt with for as long as I can remember. So whether it was in school or sports or speaking a new language fluently, I always wanted to do everything perfectly and be the best at it. I would literally obsess over all the details to make sure that I was kind of like the top person at that, or that the outcome was my version of perfect, which was, you know, including incredibly high standards. And if it wasn't, I would sometimes avoid doing things altogether, or I would beat myself up over it not being good enough. And like this sense of perfectionism goes way back for me. I remember probably even as a six or seven-year-old having this issue when it came to like drawing. I remember specifically one time drawing a picture of a giraffe and getting so frustrated over it not turning out the way that I wanted it to and it not being perfect that I kept, you know, ripping up the paper and throwing it away and trying again. So that perfectionism really went back deep for me into my childhood. And yet in my high school and college years, I actually remember almost taking pride in being a perfectionist. It was kind of cringy. I remember stating in a phone interview once for a job when I was a junior in college that one of my strengths was being a perfectionist, which feels kind of like silly to say out loud now because I would not consider that to be a strength necessarily. I mean, I think there is strength in people who are perfectionists. I think we have to carry a lot of strength in order to be a perfectionist. But being a perfectionist and like the trait of perfectionism itself is definitely a flaw in my opinion. It's like a societal conditioning flaw. But anyway, I would over-practice everything. And I'm just thinking back to like speeches that I would have to do, or like in-class timed essays or lesson plans that I gave when I was a teacher. And I would basically over-practice everything or completely memorize things ahead of time so that in the moment when I was teaching or giving a speech or something like that, I would avoid looking silly or imperfect. And after nearly three decades of my life, I feel like I finally realized that perfectionism and avoidance of trying new things for fear of not being good at them was making me feel stuck and unfulfilled and anxious and completely burned out. Right. I I think I've shared at some point on one of the podcast episodes. Here, that before I left my job in teaching to become an entrepreneur, there was like four years before that where I thought of leaving teaching and doing something else, but ultimately I kind of like decided not to because I was basically afraid to not be good at whatever the thing I was going to do next would be. And so for me, in thinking of my perfectionism, it was very much tied to this story that whatever work I am completing has to be good enough. Otherwise, it means that I am not good enough. And that's like the story that's operating behind the scenes. And if you are someone who, you know, resonates with the idea of being a perfectionist or it's something that you yourself are trying to heal from, you might relate to that story of like your perfectionism being tied to your self-worth and this sense of like if whatever you're doing isn't perfect, that means that it reflects somehow on you and you know your value as a human being. So for me, the start of this healing journey with perfectionism first came about when I became a mom. And that was the beginning of the healing because the circumstances of motherhood made it so that it was truly impossible for me to be perfect, right? With the lack of sleep, having two babies at once who needed me, like I couldn't be waiting around to do anything perfectly. I just had to do it. But even still, after becoming a mom, I really did continue to struggle a lot with perfectionism and anxiety in those early months and even like the first two years, I would say. In the beginning, I remember obsessing over things like the exact amount of milliliters that I pumped during each pumping session, and even like tracking that data way beyond what was actually necessary in the beginning to just kind of like get a sense of like how much was coming out. And then about six months into motherhood, when I decided to start my first business as a copywriter, I had to consciously decide to let go of that perfectionism even more. I mean, I was literally building this business just as my maternity leave was coming to an end. So I was going back to work full-time for eight hours a day with a commute both ways, and having two tiny humans at home to carry for at the same time. And since my goal was to be able to have at least a few consistent monthly clients before I left teaching, so I would feel comfortable, you know, knowing that I had most of the money that I needed to make to help contribute to our family bills, I literally did not have the time nor the energy to have anything in my business be perfect. I just needed clients and I just needed to like get started and start making money. And so that meant for me in letting go of that perfectionism, I had to begin reaching out to potential clients and leads before I even had a website up, which I did get some that way. I also pretty much figured out my contract situation as a service provider the night before I sent out my very first invoice to my very first client, which was a little bit terrifying, but also figured it out, made it happen. The client was happy with the result. And if I made a mistake on a deliverable, like an article that I was writing for someone or an email that I was writing for an email sequence, or my client gave me feedback about something that they wanted to be fixed, I had to learn to not take that personally or make it mean something about my self-worth or the way that they saw me as a service provider. And so I had to get over that very quickly because again, I just did not have the time or energy to be like lingering in that space of like, oh my gosh, like, are they gonna like fire me or like not hire me again? Yada yada yada. I just didn't have time to even worry about that because I was going back, I was going to bed and waking up the next day and going back to work and like doing what I could on my lunch break. And so I really had to let a lot of that perfectionism go. And it was definitely like a bit-by-bit thing. I let like big chunks of it go in certain phases of my journey as an entrepreneur. Um, and then other pieces have been let go like much more, I guess like slowly, I would say. But I definitely began to kind of gain this sense of trust in myself and realize that even when I give like 80 to 85% of my effort, in most cases, it yields the result that I am looking for. And so it's kind of like silly for me to push myself beyond my limits to get to that 100% idea of perfection when it's like the the outcome resulting from that is not significantly different from when I give 80 to 85% of my effort. So it's just kind of like one way that I look at perfectionism from a business and like energy input standpoint. And I wouldn't say that perfectionism is something that I've a hundred percent healed from, but I definitely know that I've made so much more progress with overcoming it than I ever would have had I not dove into the world of entrepreneurship, especially now as a business coach, where the way I coach and support my clients is very much rooted in so many of my own past struggles. Like I have had to learn to be so much more open to sharing the vulnerable, imperfect parts of my journey. And it was really uncomfortable for me to do that at first because I was so used to leaning into my perfectionism to almost kind of control how other people would view me. And through my most recent iteration of letting go of perfectionism, I've come to realize that the more I lean into what I consider to be my imperfections, the more I'm actually able to attract and support the women that I am meant to help through my coaching. And I know I feel so much in this area because I make typos all the time and I rarely go back and fix them now, especially with like emails that I write and sometimes with some of like the social media posts that I make. And that's really a big one for me since I used to be an English teacher. I like miss this misspelled things is like a big pet peeve of mine, but I've just I've had to even overcome that with my perfectionism. I remember there's this one post where I spelled the word business wrong, where it's almost looks like it says bussiness. And I'm like, I I definitely could go back and fix it, but I have chosen not to do that specifically because I almost want to like test myself with how far I've come in healing my perfectionism. And so it's almost this like when I have typos now, it's like a symbol to myself, like it's okay that it's not perfect, and we're just gonna let it be. So there are so many other ways that entrepreneurship has been healing for me outside of perfectionism, even just in the sense that it's connected me, like I said, to resources and humans and information that I didn't even know I needed in my life. And I could honestly talk about it for days, but I don't want this episode to get too, too long. And so I'll pause here for my example, but I do want to share a few resources and practices that have personally helped me with my healing and mental health as a mom and an entrepreneur, in the case that it helps you find something that is valuable for you in some way. And so, as for resources, first off, if the concepts in this episode resonate with you, three other episodes from my podcast that I suggest you listen to if you haven't already are number 21, which is how to detach from toxic productivity. 25, how you can feel more successful more often. And number five, going way back to the beginning here, understand your relationship with time to unlock your most aligned timeline. All three of these episodes talk about healing in some capacity or other as it relates to productivity, how you're viewing success, and the way that you treat your time and your relationship to time. And so I'll put those in the show notes for you to take a look at. Um, I'm a big book girly over here. I love a good self-help um book. Literally, my all the things I'm reading right now probably fit into that category in some facet. But some book recommendations that I have for this idea of self-healing as it relates to entrepreneurship are one, The Anatomy of Anxiety, Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. That's by Dr. Ellen Vora. If you are someone who has struggled with anxiety or continues to struggle with anxiety in any form, um, I highly, highly recommend this book. It is so helpful in kind of describing kind of the full gamut of reasons you might be experiencing anxiety from the kind of like basic physiological responses that your body has to your environment and to you know the things that you put into your body, you know, when you have like coffee, for example, from like all of the other more deeply ingrained reasons that anxiety could bubble up for you. And so I just think that the way that she talks about anxiety is very a very holistic view and connecting like the mind, body, and spirit. And I think for anybody who has dealt with anxiety at any point, this is a really, really highly recommended must-read book. Um, and again, that's called The Anatomy of Anxiety. The next one, if you are something, or if you are someone who has dealt with perfectionism or you're still healing from perfectionism, I'm actually about halfway through this book right now, but from what I've read so far, I definitely recommend it. It's called How to Be Enough: Self-Aceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists by Dr. Ellen Hendrickson. And I just I think she does a really great job, at least in the beginning, of kind of describing like where your perfectionism may have um come from initially, and so you can kind of look at her descriptions and figure out in your own life where you think it stemmed from for you, because I think that's really helpful to know in which direction you take in your like healing journey with perfectionism. And so I can't say a whole lot more on it because again, I haven't finished reading that one, but I definitely love what I've read so far with that, and I think it's really helpful for those of you who have had any sort of run-in with perfectionism. And then the last two are both by Brene Brown. So Rising Strong, I read a couple years ago. I absolutely love Rising Strong. Definitely deals with um the concept of resilience in so many different facets of life from motherhood and you know, the work that we do and the way that we lead our lives as humans and as parents. And then also her other book, The Gifts of Imperfection. I actually still need to finish reading this one too, because I took too long reading it on Libby and it got returned before I was done. But I do remember some of the uh I feel like Brennan Brown shares so many helpful like anecdotes in her books. And she does so many in this one that just like helps you think about how um perfectionism might be showing up in your life and how you can kind of overcome it. And so I really love that book as well, and definitely plan to finish reading it when Libby gives the book back to me. Okay, outside of book recommendations and podcast episode recommendations, some of the practices that have been really transformative for me that I think um are worth consideration if it's something that you haven't done yet, definitely working with a licensed therapist. Um, you heard from some of the Montpreneurs, even that I shared in this episode, having worked with a therapist in their journey. Um, I've been in therapy for a year and a half, I think it's been a year and a half, a little bit more than that now. And I have found it to be very, very helpful to just have someone who has endless tools and resources to pull from, and also just to have like a consistent container where you show up for yourself to talk through the things that you are struggling through. And so that's very helpful. The next one is finding ways to connect with yourself more. For me, ways that I've done that are through meditation, through journaling, or just kind of like being alone with my thoughts. Sometimes when I go for walks, now my one mom preneur friend, she calls them raw dog walks, but basically, like maybe or like going on a walk and not having um airpods or your headphones plugged in listening to something, which I do that sometimes, but sometimes I intentionally do a raw dog walk so that I can just be alone with my thoughts and like enjoy nature and be, you know, more mindful. And then outside of that, connecting with groups of people who I feel really get me. I feel like one of the ways that entrepreneurship is really helpful, which I think Sydney brought this point up, is when you find a community of people who you feel like can see you. And so maybe for you that means connecting with other moms who are also business owners. Um, I have found that when I find spaces with people who can connect to a specific facet of my identity in some way, that I find it to be really healing because it validates so many of the things that I am experiencing. So, for example, I have twins and I regularly connect with other twin moms. That is very validating for me. I regularly connect um weekly and monthly with other mom preneurs, and that is very healing for me. Um, and that's something that I only just started doing within the last year, I would say. I wish I would have done that so much sooner. Um, but that has been really helpful. And by the way, if you are listening to this the week that it first airs, um, check the show notes. But I am hosting a free virtual mompreneur meet and greet on Monday, May 11th at 8 p.m. Eastern time. And so definitely uh register on the Zoom link that I have in the show notes for that if you are interested in finding other Montpreneurs to connect with so that you can just, you know, share a little bit more about what you're doing and feel seen and supported and everything that you are growing and building. Um, and even maybe potentially find other mompreneurs that you could collaborate with in the future or at the minimum have some more cheerleaders to add to your squad. And then the last one, and I saved the best for last year because if you've been following me for any amount of time or listening to this podcast, I've probably mentioned EFT and tapping at least a dozen times. I'm a little bit obsessed with it. Um, but honestly, tapping uh slash EFT, which stands for emotional freedom technique, it's such a magical, magical tool. I have found it to be beyond helpful because when you tap, um, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, just Google tapping slash EFT and you will get all sorts of videos and explanations. But when you tap, you are tapping on acupressure points throughout like your upper body, and it allows you to somatically kind of like tap into your limbic system, which is the part of your brain that rules your behavior and your emotional responses. So when you do a tapping sequence, you are helping your body to sort of rewire and neutralize your body's triggered stress response. And also through the words that you say as you tap, you are basically reprogramming new neural pathways with more empowering thoughts and ways of looking at a particular situation that's more helpful for you. And so just to share the power of tapping, I will provide a little bit of an example here to go along with my history of perfectionism and trying to heal it. Um, because this is something that I do regularly tap. Um, but within the last week or two, I had this moment where I really, really, really needed to use tapping because I was having like a triggering moment come up for me. So not that long ago, I aired a guest episode on the podcast. And right as I was about to eat breakfast, I realized I had an Instagram message from the guest telling me that I misspelled her name. And immediately I felt so awful, and I found myself pretty much spiraling over it and basically just kind of like shutting down a little bit. Like I could find myself tuning out the kids and what they were doing, and I was really trying to remedy this mistake as fast as I could humanly possibly fix it. And a couple of minutes into this spiral, I consciously was able to name for myself, like, oh, this is my old friend perfectionism coming back for a visit. But even though I was mentally able to have that awareness, my body was still feeling those old stress responses linked to mistakes, meaning that I wasn't good enough. So there was almost this like disconnect between what I knew intellectually and what my physical body was experiencing in that moment. Which, first of all, if you've ever experienced a scenario like that of like spiraling, that's definitely a sign of growth and healing when you're able to kind of point out, like, okay, this is what I'm experiencing. Um, so yay. And I was really proud of myself in that moment for that, you know, that sense of awareness, but I also still felt so crappy inside of my body, like my stomach hurt, and I could feel myself being basically like sucked out of the present moment. My husband was trying to ask me about where we wanted to go for a date night before he left for work, and I could like hear him talking to me, but I also couldn't like hear him, hear him, right? Like my brain was not able to fully focus on what he was telling me because I was like spiraling about this mistake that I made. And thankfully, he realized that I was just having a moment and was being really sweet about it and was like, never mind, we're gonna talk about this later. But I knew in that moment that I needed to do something to pull myself out of this like perfectionist spiral. So a half hour later or so, after I dropped the kids off at daycare, I sat in the car for an extra like 10 minutes and I guided myself through a tapping sequence. And it absolutely took me from like a spirally eight to more of like a neutral five. And I could feel my body become so much more relaxed, and I could feel some of that anxious energy just kind of like dissipate and like be released from my body. And I was able to pretty much move on with my morning then and be productive because I was no longer operating in that perfectionist spiral that I found my body in. So I know that's a bit of a lengthy example to close out this episode here, but I hope it really does give you an idea of just like the power of EFT and tapping and how you could potentially use it in moments where you find yourself bumping into a not totally healed story or stress response that you are trying to heal. All right. I hope that you found this episode. I feel like it's a little bit of a hodgepodge of an episode with all the shared responses and then my all over the place examples here. But I hope that you find one of these practices or recommendations to be helpful or even just one of the stories and the ways that the other moms described their experience with healing and entrepreneurship. I hope you find that like a part of you is being seen in one of those stories because I feel like, you know, you're not in this journey alone, even though sometimes it feels like that when you're working behind a computer all day long, or you know, you have a long day with your kids and you don't have the amount of energy that you want to put into doing what you're trying to do in your business, it can sometimes just like feel like you're floating out in space by yourself, but you're not. There are so many other mompreneurs out there who get it. And so again, just another little plug for that upcoming live Mompreneur Meet and Greet that I'm hosting on Monday, May 11th. If you find that you want to connect with other moms who are building businesses and have a chance to network in like a very informal, pressure-free way, um, and kind of like just talk through some of the things that you're dealing with as a mompreneur, the good, the bad, and the ugly, definitely sign up for that link to register for the meet and greet, and you will be able to join us on Monday, May 11th. And again, that's at 8 p.m. E.T. I just want to give a final shout out to all the incredible Montpreneurs who were brave enough and um gracious enough to share parts of their journeys with us. I feel like the more honest we are about sharing, you know, the not so pretty parts of our journeys as mothers and as business owners, the more it helps the rest of us feel a little less alone, a little more seen, and a little bit more validated in the experiences that we are going through in our own journeys. And so I'm very, very grateful to all of these incredible women who, you know, opened up on here and were willing to say, hey, this is what I went through. Um, and to give a little extra shout out to them, definitely go check the show notes so that you can find them on social media and go follow them and go support them and see the incredible businesses that they are building. Um, I have had the chance to connect with each of these moms individually, whether on the podcast, in person, or um just in the world of social media, and they are all doing so many incredible things and so worthy and deserving of support. So definitely go find them. And as like a final little practice, I guess, for those of you listening, I would say make some time this week or this month to kind of sit down and basically do what I had asked these other Montpreneurs to do and almost write just like a little paragraph about your own journey with entrepreneurship and self-healing to kind of give yourself a chance to reflect on how far you've come. Because if there's anything I have learned in my own experience of self-healing and entrepreneurship and what I've seen in the moms that I've coached, it's that we do not give ourselves nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly enough credit for all of the things we are doing, for all of the ways that we have grown, and just for the incredible human beings that we are. And so go be your own biggest cheerleader. Take 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever, get out your Journal, write down reflect on all of the ways that you have grown and healed since starting your business or since growing your business. And I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how far you have truly come and also of like the little bit of an energy boost and pep in your step that you get when you look at yourself from this, you know, this supportive lens. And so I hope that doing that at some point this week or at least during this month, um, just pull something up for you that is enlightening or encouraging or empowering. And that is the last and final thing I promise that I will leave you with for today. Um, thank you again for listening to this podcast. It means so much to me that you take time out of your week to listen to the incredible moms that come on here to share their stories, as well as to listen to um my philosophies about entrepreneurship and the ways that you can grow in a way that feels super aligned. As always, check the show notes for all the things we talked about inside of this episode, as well as some extra goodies and freebies and ways you can get additional support. And I will meet you inside of next week's episode with an incredible guest. And I hope you have an amazing day and amazing week.