Latest / All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting / 92. What do art history, marketing and consulting have in common?! Creating your own work story as a parent with Sarah Chapman-Funston

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92. What do art history, marketing and consulting have in common?! Creating your own work story as a parent with Sarah Chapman-Funston · All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the All Figured Out podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Andrea Barr. Thanks for joining me again this
• 0:04
  week. This week we have Sarah Chapman
• 0:08
  Funston who is joining me on the podcast.
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  Sarah has a really incredible story of going from being a
• 0:15
  corporate employee like many of us have been or potentially are
• 0:19
  to becoming a parent and really rethinking the way that she
• 0:22
  works and how she wants to parent, how she wants to raise
• 0:25
  her children and how she wants to work.
• 0:27
  So Sarah actually left her corporate job and she straddles
• 0:31
  being a parent and owning her own consulting business as a
• 0:34
  marketer. She is the founder and principal
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  at C at SCF and like I said, she's a seasoned marketer and
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  she's really built her career in helping brands from a strategic
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  content perspective, brand marketing and everything in
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  between. She works with a lot of small
• 0:50
  businesses and she's a really great person to just, like I say
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  at the end of the episode, really meet you where you're at
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  in all stages of business. So she's just the perfect
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  person, like I said, for that business owner or the consultant
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  who's like, I don't need a full marketing team.
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  I don't need some like massive, massive thing, but I've got some
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  questions about like the order of operations.
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  She's really, really good at that.
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  So I hope you enjoy Sarah's story from going from corporate
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  to consulting. We talk a lot about just the
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  consulting world, what it takes to become a successful
• 1:22
  consultant or just to just to get out there and to make that
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  decision. And we talk about who it's right
• 1:28
  for, who it might not be, why it's good to stay in the
• 1:31
  corporate world for some, and everything in between.
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  It's very casual chat and I hope you enjoy.
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  You're listening to the All Figured Out podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrea Barr. I'm a career coach for parents,
• 1:46
  mom of two, and a self-proclaimed expert at
• 1:49
  winging it. After 10 years in the corporate
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  world, two major career pivots, and navigating life with kids,
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  I've learned one thing. No parent has it all figured
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  out, and that's OK. Here, we're all about growing
• 2:02
  personally and professionally while keeping family time
• 2:05
  sacred. You'll get practical tips,
• 2:07
  career strategies and musings on life, plus guest experts to help
• 2:11
  us fill in the gaps. So grab a coffee or hide in your
• 2:14
  car for some the time. We're about to figure out this
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  work, life and parenting stuff out together.
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  Sarah Chapman Funston, thanks for joining me on the L Figure
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  Out podcast. Hi, it is so good to have you
• 2:30
  here. And I love sharing meat cute
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  stories. I like sharing how I meet a lot
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  of friends on the Internet. You're one of those stories.
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  Your DM so. You slid hard.
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  And you know what? I think I told you when we
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  connected on a Zoom call because we've never met in person, which
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  we will soon. Soon we're going to do some.
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  Sarah is going to help me with IRL podcast recording.
• 2:55
  She'll be my producer for that. So that's gonna be amazing.
• 2:59
  Anyways, Sarah, I told you that you had the best.
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  I don't want to say pitch. It wasn't.
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  You weren't pitching me per se. Like you have a service that I
• 3:08
  could use. So sure.
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  Like it was, it is what it is. But like you were like, hey,
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  like it was so personal. It was so lovely and warm and
• 3:17
  just normal. Like I kept so many annoying
• 3:20
  emails or DMS and it's like copy and paste.
• 3:23
  It's just like all the spam we get on text and you just had the
• 3:26
  most lovely DM and I was. Like, I'm so glad.
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  Love to meet you. Let's hop on a Zoom call.
• 3:32
  So well done. Well.
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  Done. Yeah.
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  Well, I think it's easier when you're you're someone who's like
• 3:38
  like minded like you is in the same kind of space.
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  And also it's not a hard sell. It's like how can we help each
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  other? I think we might have similar
• 3:47
  groups of clients, like how could this work as a
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  collaboration? For me that's a much easier DM
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  to send then the hard, you know, the cold reach outs because it's
• 3:59
  mutually beneficial. So that's part of it.
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  But from a person who's not very salesy being a consultant, it
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  takes practice doing that kind of thing so.
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  Well, you did such a good job and isn't that such a a good
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  reminder? And like in the nation, why you
• 4:14
  should tell your story, why you should niche down and whatever
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  it is, like whether you work in corporate or for yourself, it's
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  so important that people like know what you stand for, know
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  what you do in like a particular way.
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  Because I think you probably reached out to me and you're
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  like, oh, you're also a mom. I'm a mom also our small
• 4:31
  business owner. I'm a small business.
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  So it's like, instead of just being like, I'm a life coach for
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  everybody, you'd be like, I'm probably not going to reach out
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  to you because I don't know what we have in common. 100%.
• 4:42
  Fine, so we are where there's lots we can chat about that we
• 4:47
  will be chatting about today. I want to hear your career story
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  as I do with everybody, because I'm I'm nosy like that.
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  And we're going to be talking about your switch from corporate
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  to consulting. And it's something that I was
• 4:59
  really excited to speak with you about because I believe you've
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  done it quite successfully. And I want you to tell us the
• 5:04
  good, the bad and the ugly. You also are A2 consultant
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  household, which is also interesting and that probably
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  comes with its huge of it and maybe challenges or you know,
• 5:15
  risk. So I'm really excited to to chat
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  about all of that. For those who are listening, who
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  are dabbling and thinking about this, which is a lot of people I
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  work with are, you know, have entertained this idea.
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  So let's go back though. Let's go back to when you were
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  an art history nerd. Like what?
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  Take us all the way back and how the heck did you end up to where
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  you are? Yeah, I think The funny thing
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  about me is I think a lot of people who are in my situation,
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  who start working in a certain field, but then, you know, you
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  maybe grow up with, you know, as millennials, so parents are in a
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  different generation. Like, what do you mean you're
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  not doing what you studied at school, where that's not really
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  how the world works anymore. So that's definitely how my
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  story went and how a lot of my friends and colleagues how their
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  story went too. And yeah, I started, well, I'm
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  a, I'm a Vancouver, Richmond, Steveston, sort of born and bred
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  girl. And I grew up with a lot of
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  influence for my parents, especially for my mom, because
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  my parents did a ton of traveling before I was born.
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  We like to say BC before kids. My parents have a very
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  interesting story. I used to go up to kids in
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  elementary school and ask them, what did your parents do before
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  they had you? And they would look at me like,
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  I don't know, like, go to school where I grew up with a lot of
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  influences from my parents about, you know, the importance
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  of teaching yourself about different cultures and the spark
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  for travel. And I think that's where my love
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  of our history really came from because my parents spent some
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  time living in Saudi Arabia in the 80s, and then they purchased
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  a sailboat, and they sailed around North America for five
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  years before I was born. So I grew up hearing tons of
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  stories about what you can learn from other cultures.
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  And I think that that's where my love really started.
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  I remember, I think probably grade six, the first time you
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  Start learning about ancient cultures.
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  And we were doing a, a session on Rome.
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  And I remember thinking to myself, I just want to go to the
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  Coliseum and I want to touch it. And I want to imagine all the
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  people that were there before me.
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  And looking back now, because I kind of didn't always know I was
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  interested in that. It makes perfect sense because I
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  just love things that are old and have seen a lot.
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  And so when I started my post secondary degree, I started at
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  Langara because I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do
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  and what I wanted to major in. And I started in English because
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  that's when you're not a math and science person, that's what
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  you do. And there was an opportunity for
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  me to do a a term abroad program through Langara.
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  And I really wanted to travel and I wanted to get some credits
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  while I did it. So I signed up and it was in our
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  history program. And it just sparked this huge
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  love in me for learning about history through art and through
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  architecture. And that's sort of when I was
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  there, I, I had this epiphany actually while I was standing in
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  front of the Birth of Venus in the, in the museum in Florence.
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  And I had this sort of moment like, Oh my gosh, this is what I
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  should be doing. Like, I love this so much.
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  And I love being immersed in history in this way.
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  And it was then when I decided, OK, I'm going to go home.
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  I'm going to apply the UPC and I'm going to change majors and
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  that's what I did when I came home.
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  So the following I was gone for about 5 months and the following
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  September I started at UBC and started in my art history
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  program and I loved every minute of it and I knew that.
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  I think one thing that I, I really wish people would know
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  more or feel more empowered to know is that you don't have to
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  go to school and immediately work in that field.
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  That the skills you gain in post secondary, if that's where you
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  choose to go, are skills you can transfer anywhere, especially
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  like in an arts program. And I always kind of knew I
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  wasn't going to be like working in a museum or any of that.
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  I knew that it was always an option for me that I could go
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  back to school. I could get my masters and PhD
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  if I really wanted to. But I always kind of knew that
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  probably wasn't going to be my path.
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  But I wanted to go to school and get an education to prove that I
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  could work hard on my resume. And I loved learning about our
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  history. And so I figured I might as well
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  enjoy myself the most while I'm in school.
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  So that's kind of where I ended up.
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  And once I graduated from UPC, I, you know, started from the
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  bottom at a a media and film company and not really realizing
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  how those skills would follow me.
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  But I think now that we're such in such a visual space and in
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  marketing and and anything really, I think the skills that
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  I learned are not super direct, but they're there all the time.
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  And even just the appreciation for like where we've been and
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  where we're going. So yeah, it was, it was kind of
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  a into, it's not a very direct route to marketing like
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  considering how some people get there, but it's worked well for
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  me. If I was an interviewer and I
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  was asking, well, I am an interviewer.
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  But if I was a job interviewer and I was asking you like, and
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  if you were fresh out of school and you're wanting this
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  marketing job and the person asked you, well, what, what do
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  you see as the transfer transferable skills from being
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  in our history major to, you know, this marketing job, what
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  would you say? I'd say learning how to be
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  inquisitive and how to see things differently.
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  I think 1 misconception. A lot of people think that art
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  history is like, you know, you're just observing the lines
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  on the canvas when really it's a history degree and you're
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  learning about the history of cultures through the art,
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  especially ancient cultures when they don't have as much written
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  material. So it really teaches you to be
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  inquisitive and read between the lines.
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  And we're not given all the information.
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  And I think that especially in my now too, but in my corporate
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  life, that really helped because sometimes you need to really
• 11:16
  lean on your own instinct. You know, someone gives you a
• 11:18
  task and they don't tell you how to do it, and you have to read
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  between the lines. And having that really driven
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  and inquisitive nature, I think really helped me with that.
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  So I think that's the biggest skill I think that I learned
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  and, and you know how to persevere when you're busy and
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  work hard when you don't have a lot of time.
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  And I worked, I worked in the corporate business, but it was,
• 11:42
  it was a small team. There was a time where there was
• 11:44
  only 10 of us. So a lot of us were many hats.
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  So you had to quick, you know, quick thinking and figure things
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  out on the go, which is sometimes how feels when you're
• 11:53
  in university and you're, you know, managing different
• 11:57
  assignments and tests and all of it.
• 11:59
  So yeah, I definitely, I don't always see it every day, but
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  when I take a step back and look at things from a distance, I can
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  see the threads of all of that in any and everything that I do.
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  I think we should all do that so much more.
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  I always try to get my clients to do that.
• 12:15
  It's like the number one, I always say the number one thing
• 12:18
  I hear, but like, I hear a lot of common themes and one of them
• 12:22
  is, but how is this transferable?
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  You know, like I'm a, I always use the example of the woman who
• 12:27
  was a developer that I worked with who then transitioned to
• 12:30
  become a lawyer. And if at the very beginning she
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  was like, what are my transferable skills from here?
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  Like it, you know, it's really hard to see it at the beginning,
• 12:39
  but it's true. When you take a step back or two
• 12:41
  steps back or three steps back, there's so much easier to see
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  those through lines. And a lot of it is just your
• 12:46
  ability to think, right. It's like the ability to always
• 12:50
  talk about my little sister too. She's studied engineering and
• 12:54
  she's now in fintech and doesn't really do a lot with
• 12:58
  engineering. But isn't that totally one of
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  those degrees that people get and they just learn a way of
• 13:03
  solutioning and, and creating And like, it's like this mind
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  building exercise, just, I'm sure like art history, it's like
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  teaching you how to use a thought pattern or use a, a way
• 13:13
  of thinking to find meaning and something or, or, you know, like
• 13:17
  be creative in your problem solving or things like that.
• 13:20
  So it's such a wonderful reminder for all of us.
• 13:25
  A little bit of imposter syndrome.
• 13:26
  I think people who say they don't are lying because we all
• 13:29
  have it. And I think one thing that I've
• 13:33
  learned, you know, just from being in different areas of
• 13:37
  business is to really give yourself that credit.
• 13:39
  Like it's almost like, you know, when you're taught, when it's
• 13:42
  time for a review, where you should write a list of all the
• 13:45
  things that you do that are under your job description, all
• 13:47
  the ones that aren't. And really, even if it's just
• 13:50
  for yourself, if you don't have the confidence to bring it to
• 13:51
  your manager or whatever, to look at it and be like, wow, I
• 13:54
  do all of these things confidently where we, we're so
• 13:58
  hard on ourselves. I think especially like once we
• 14:00
  become parents and we have, our mind is split in different ways
• 14:04
  that we don't give ourselves credit.
• 14:05
  And I am very guilty of it too, you know.
• 14:09
  So I think that we all need to give ourselves a bit of a, a
• 14:13
  break and realize like, yeah, like, you know, even like you,
• 14:16
  like, you have so much experience in so many different
• 14:18
  areas. And I'm sure you see the the
• 14:21
  fruit from those laborers twofold every day, even though
• 14:24
  you're not working in the same field, I'm sure.
• 14:26
  It's so true. It's so true.
• 14:28
  Oh my God. And it's like love the fact that
• 14:31
  he said that everyone has imposter syndrome.
• 14:32
  It's so true. Like I, I think about like the
• 14:37
  podcast for instance, and I freaking love this medium and
• 14:40
  platform and I will do this for free as long as I can.
• 14:43
  And I want to grow it to be massive.
• 14:47
  And there's times when I'm like, but who am I to do this and that
• 14:50
  and that I was a theatre nerd my entire life.
• 14:55
  So many, Oh my God, you know, I take it like a million public
• 15:00
  speaking courses. Like I couldn't have done more
• 15:01
  training in like the yeah, I don't know, the arts and like
• 15:06
  performing and this and that and still I'm like, but who am I?
• 15:09
  Like who am I? You.
• 15:10
  Know that's even how I felt coming on talk to you today.
• 15:13
  I was like to me and then, you know, my friends or my husband
• 15:18
  be like, you look like almost 12 years, years of experience plus
• 15:23
  even like since you graduated more than like you have
• 15:27
  something to offer. I'm like, yeah, like you said,
• 15:29
  you. And you know what, we're such a
• 15:31
  story driven culture too. Like we all, we still learn best
• 15:35
  through stories, right? And like I was speaking with
• 15:38
  somebody was in recently and she was talking about how often she
• 15:42
  gets on a call with people who want to like get her services
• 15:45
  for her public relations. And they'll sit there and look
• 15:48
  at her and be like, I just, I need your help, Like help me,
• 15:51
  you know, create a story because I don't really have one.
• 15:53
  And she's like, by the end of the call, I've pulled out
• 15:56
  incredible stories from this person, but you're just too
• 15:59
  close to it. You just can't see it.
• 16:01
  You know, it's like, and that's why I want this podcast to be
• 16:03
  about too, by the way, it's not about, I don't really care if
• 16:06
  you're the best marketer in the world.
• 16:07
  You're an incredible marketer. But like, I want to know you.
• 16:10
  I want to know your story. Like I want to know Sarah and I
• 16:13
  want to know you're very unique story that nobody else has.
• 16:16
  Because that's, that's what I think it's all about, because
• 16:18
  everyone listening has their own unique stories.
• 16:20
  And people are going to pull, you know, different threads that
• 16:23
  they're gonna, yeah, like, get wisdom from you from your
• 16:27
  stories, not from you teaching them like XY.
• 16:30
  And there's other podcasts for that that that ain't this.
• 16:33
  I think I say that to my clients all the time too, is like,
• 16:36
  sometimes you just need someone who's not so close to it.
• 16:39
  I always use the analogy. I use a lot of analogies with my
• 16:42
  clients, as you know, but I love the idea that like almost like
• 16:46
  when you're in university and you're working on a paper and
• 16:50
  you've been staring at it for two weeks and there's blinding
• 16:53
  grammatical errors that you can't see because you've been
• 16:55
  staring at it this close. You need someone who has a
• 16:59
  50,000 foot view to be like, oh, you want to grow in this way.
• 17:03
  Why don't you try this and this and this in a different,
• 17:05
  slightly different way than you have in trying it.
• 17:07
  And, and I think it's kind of like, I'm sure you probably have
• 17:10
  with your clients too. It's like almost like dating
• 17:12
  like not you might not be the right fit for every person, but
• 17:16
  the ones you are like yes, it works.
• 17:18
  And that's the same for me with my clients.
• 17:20
  Like some people, you know, maybe our vibes don't exactly
• 17:24
  match or I don't have the exact services they want, but guess
• 17:27
  what? Someone else I have the perfect
• 17:29
  services for. And I've really learned I've
• 17:32
  been trying to, I'm not perfect at it and I'm, I'm still trying
• 17:36
  to figure it out. But we're, I've figured out at
• 17:40
  least a little bit that, you know, the things that I used to
• 17:42
  do in my corporate job that weren't my favorite.
• 17:46
  Now I'm in power that I, I feel more empowered now than when
• 17:49
  clients say, oh, well, can you do XYZ for me?
• 17:52
  And I say, well, that's not what I do.
• 17:55
  But how about I can teach you how to do it in this way?
• 17:59
  Because you're going to need to know how to be the leader of
• 18:01
  your own business in this way anyway.
• 18:03
  And sometimes they, you know, they still want to be able to
• 18:05
  hand something fully off. But sometimes, most of the time
• 18:07
  they're, they agree like, Oh yeah, like I should be the one
• 18:10
  who's in charge of my own strategy instead of just handing
• 18:13
  it off to someone junior that I hire.
• 18:15
  And but I, I came from a place earlier in my career where since
• 18:19
  we all wore so many hats, which I'm grateful for because I
• 18:21
  learned a lot, but I, I have to say yes to everything.
• 18:27
  And now it's still foreign to me 6 1/2 years later that oh, I
• 18:32
  don't have to say yes to everything.
• 18:34
  If it you know, I can like I'm sure you tell your clients like
• 18:38
  I can create the work that I love and say no competently to
• 18:43
  things and not feel bad about it, not feel like I'm not people
• 18:47
  pleasing, which I struggle with sometimes and all of the things
• 18:50
  you know. Yeah, but you're also really
• 18:52
  good at at saying no. There's a difference between
• 18:55
  saying no, I don't do that work and Oh my goodness, I have.
• 18:59
  I do a lot of intro calls with people that I want to hire to do
• 19:02
  some work for me or whatever. And there's a lot of people I
• 19:05
  don't end up working with because of just these little
• 19:08
  tiny nuances. It's kind of like an interview
• 19:11
  or if you're on like intro call with a service provider, it's
• 19:13
  like the, well, no, like I don't do that.
• 19:16
  I've actually never heard you say words like that.
• 19:18
  What I hear you say is that's not my superpower.
• 19:21
  That's not in my wheelhouse or that's not what I, you know, I
• 19:24
  actually don't provide that particular service.
• 19:26
  I've got three people that you should reach out like you're
• 19:28
  such a connector though too, and how people find the solution for
• 19:31
  it. And there's such a difference in
• 19:33
  that, right? Or even like when you're at work
• 19:35
  and someone like, can you do this thing for me?
• 19:36
  It's like, well, no, I'm at capacity.
• 19:38
  I always come on at 1:01. It's like, this is what's on my
• 19:42
  plate right now. Do you want to remove something
• 19:44
  like you have to just be like crafty with your words in order
• 19:47
  to create more levity, Make more positive than just just the
• 19:50
  number Sarah, tell us about. I want to hear more about the
• 19:56
  transition from going from your work in creative, the creative
• 20:01
  world, creative marketing. And having having Berbers making
• 20:07
  a family and then deciding to go out and your consulting journey,
• 20:11
  what was that whole arc like? Cause I know there's a lot of
• 20:13
  people that would be keen and maybe are going through
• 20:15
  something similar right now. Yeah, I think it, it wasn't a a
• 20:18
  very like black and white decision.
• 20:20
  I think it was like a slow burn for sure.
• 20:25
  When I was by the time I was nearing my end of my last
• 20:29
  corporate job, it was I had been with them for almost 8 years and
• 20:32
  I had learned a lot and made to good connections and gained a
• 20:37
  lot of great skills. And then near the end, when I
• 20:41
  was around the time I was starting to think about, like,
• 20:43
  you know, when do we want to have kids, I could feel myself
• 20:46
  getting a little restless. Like, I think I've learned
• 20:48
  everything I can learn here. What is the next step for me
• 20:52
  going to look like? And of course, like it has to be
• 20:55
  for us. I had to think about OK well I
• 20:57
  want to keep my mat leave. How does that work?
• 21:02
  It it was all kind of happening around the for about a year, I'd
• 21:06
  say. I was kind of mulling over like,
• 21:08
  should I look for a different job?
• 21:10
  Should I wait? And then, you know, we were
• 21:14
  trying to have a baby and I had a couple of miscarriages and
• 21:17
  then I waited and we had to wait a little bit longer.
• 21:18
  And then I'm really grateful that it kind of worked out
• 21:23
  timing wise. OK, that when I was pregnant
• 21:25
  with my son was around the time I started getting like, really
• 21:29
  itchy feeling like, and I think, like being pregnant, like, as,
• 21:33
  you know, like brings up all these like, sort of big lofty
• 21:36
  feelings about like, where's my life going?
• 21:38
  What do I see for myself? Like these big conversations
• 21:40
  with your partner, you know, financial conversations about,
• 21:45
  you know, what is it going to look like when you're on that
• 21:47
  leave and then after and so on. So by the time I was starting my
• 21:52
  mat leave and sort of a little bit out of the newborn phase,
• 21:56
  like, you know, when you're conscious again and I was
• 22:00
  thinking to myself, OK, like I don't see myself going back to
• 22:03
  my corporate job. I think that I feel like I've
• 22:06
  I've grown out of that and going back.
• 22:09
  So it's a little bit funny to me, especially like, you know,
• 22:11
  when you become a mom, you feel almost like a new person.
• 22:13
  You've been, of course, sort of reborn yourself and I really
• 22:16
  felt like I was ready to let that go.
• 22:19
  And I, it worked out well for me that by the time I Matley was
• 22:23
  Lee was over. The business was also changing.
• 22:25
  So I I didn't feel guilty like, oh, I'm leaving them high and
• 22:28
  dry. Like the nature of the business
• 22:30
  was changing and I knew that they'd be OK without me.
• 22:35
  And, you know, we parted ways great.
• 22:37
  And, you know, have those contacts forever.
• 22:39
  And I think once I've made that decision, when I was, I would
• 22:44
  say I was probably like maybe 10 months into my mat leave, I felt
• 22:47
  really liberated, like, OK, like what do I what parts of my job
• 22:53
  do I love? Like what could Ioffer people?
• 22:55
  And at first it had a lot of imposter syndrome because I
• 22:59
  really felt like I had never worked for myself before.
• 23:02
  I'm like, who's who's going to think I'm great enough to like
• 23:05
  ask me for advice and, you know, ask for help with their strategy
• 23:09
  and this and that. And I, I didn't, the confidence
• 23:11
  was not there in the beginning. I, if I'm honest and I think
• 23:16
  that it's, you know, I'm, I'm grateful at the time, you know,
• 23:20
  my husband is a consultant now, but now he's at the time he was
• 23:24
  still working for a business and I'm grateful that we were able
• 23:28
  to have me start slow to find the right kind of clients.
• 23:32
  So we decided, you know, once my son was about a year old,
• 23:37
  luckily with the help of grandma, we had some support
• 23:40
  where I could spend some time, you know, really starting to
• 23:43
  think about what did I see myself doing for work?
• 23:45
  What kind of clients do they want to work with?
• 23:47
  And I had made some good connections with some people in
• 23:52
  our neighborhood that needed some small businesses that
• 23:54
  needed help. And that's part of my old job
• 23:58
  that I really love is really partnering with small
• 24:00
  businesses, startups, helping guide them to feel empowered,
• 24:04
  like how I like to say like to wear their marketing and
• 24:07
  branding hat and how to do things in the right order.
• 24:09
  And I'm really passionate about saving people time and money and
• 24:13
  getting things done right the first time.
• 24:16
  And I from working with those first few clients, like
• 24:20
  immediately in the beginning, like between my kids, it was
• 24:22
  pretty slow. And I had a, I had a handful of
• 24:27
  like really great clients that I worked with for a really long
• 24:30
  time that kept me going. But my biggest struggle was
• 24:35
  transitioning to being a consultant is that I am not a
• 24:39
  sales person. I am not a salesperson and going
• 24:43
  out there and like, you know, doing cold retails or like going
• 24:46
  to events and meeting people was hard for me because I'm super
• 24:50
  outgoing. But when it comes to like, hey,
• 24:52
  do you want to buy my services? Like felt really uncomfortable
• 24:55
  to me. So that was my biggest place of
• 25:00
  struggle in the beginning. How was that for you?
• 25:02
  Did you feel the same? Yeah, yeah.
• 25:06
  I was just going to say like, why?
• 25:07
  Why do we why do we have that? Or is it that way?
• 25:12
  Why do so many women say that? You know, get the point?
• 25:16
  I don't think it's a bad thing because I don't want to.
• 25:21
  I don't care what people say like, I don't care what people
• 25:23
  are like. You need to like be pushier, put
• 25:26
  yourself out there. Yes, there's always things on
• 25:28
  the list that like could do more of in this and that, but like, I
• 25:31
  want to stay true to who I am. And I think it's just what I've
• 25:34
  noticed. And I definitely felt that.
• 25:36
  I think it was the what I thought the dictionary
• 25:38
  definition of sales and business development was.
• 25:40
  And this is honestly something I'm still trying to figure out,
• 25:43
  of course, but the dictionary definition to me was like not
• 25:47
  going to work for me. I maybe did it for tried it for
• 25:50
  a bit. You know, it was like the Oh my
• 25:52
  God, I'm going to be, I have to admit, something like I
• 25:56
  ambulance chased at one point on LinkedIn.
• 25:58
  This is like horrifying. I knew that a company had done a
• 26:02
  mass layoff. So I emailed a bunch of the
• 26:04
  people who had changed their thing to open to work and was
• 26:06
  just like, hey, I'm really sorry that like, you know, the layoffs
• 26:09
  have happened. Like if you need like a career,
• 26:11
  it wasn't even that bad, but like.
• 26:13
  No, I wouldn't think about that. But I don't.
• 26:16
  I didn't feel like you. It didn't feel like me and it
• 26:19
  was actually through like, I don't know, spiritual readings
• 26:23
  or like reading books on like, you know, by like Jay Shetty are
• 26:25
  like people who are like really interesting, kind of more
• 26:28
  philosophical spiritual thinkers and just like, or understanding
• 26:31
  like just energetics and really realizing like really who I am
• 26:37
  as a person. And like, how do I in life, like
• 26:40
  attract people and opportunities And like, what are the
• 26:44
  situations in which things have just like somehow happened
• 26:47
  really naturally? And that's what I started to
• 26:49
  realize. It's like, what is that?
• 26:50
  And for me it's, it's like gifting a session or like giving
• 26:55
  a freebie and like really being of service 1st and like just in
• 26:59
  it's very light touch. There's some people I know who
• 27:03
  are so awesome that being like doing the big ask because I
• 27:07
  think it comes really naturally and it's just their
• 27:08
  personalities, just who they are.
• 27:10
  And I think that that's perfect. I think it doesn't it?
• 27:12
  There's no one right way. So the person who's like really
• 27:15
  bold and out there and really quote UN quote salesy, as long
• 27:18
  as it matches like their energy and like who they are, yeah, it
• 27:21
  works sometimes, right? We've seen it.
• 27:24
  That's such a good way to put it because I know people like that
• 27:27
  too are like it's totally authentic to them and it fits.
• 27:30
  It just fits. And I think that you're right,
• 27:32
  like if I was to come hard like that, it just wouldn't fit with
• 27:35
  who I am. And I think like I always
• 27:38
  explain to people, you know, like me, who like their
• 27:40
  businesses that like your brand is you and you are the brand.
• 27:42
  You have to, you have to exude that across all platforms, you
• 27:47
  know, an event on your website when you're talking to someone
• 27:51
  like this, like otherwise they're going to see through it.
• 27:54
  People are smart. And I think that I totally agree
• 27:57
  with what you're saying because I have noticed that finding like
• 28:01
  I love all my clients that I've worked with and I have found
• 28:05
  them all through friends, through colleagues and then
• 28:09
  referrals like which is the best feeling ever.
• 28:12
  And it feels like such inorganic partnership in that way, because
• 28:16
  then you know that they trust you and you don't have to like
• 28:21
  prove yourself as much in those first, you know, one or two
• 28:25
  sessions that you know that they've come to you for a
• 28:28
  reason. And you can sit in that
• 28:29
  confidence a bit. And I, I wish I could go back
• 28:32
  and watch myself in like early coaching calls and she would be
• 28:36
  horrific. But because I think that I'm,
• 28:37
  I'm really like have learned how to sit in that confidence a bit
• 28:40
  more, not fully immediately, but it's because this is such a
• 28:46
  different phase of life, especially, you know, being A2
• 28:49
  consultant household, but it's, it feels different.
• 28:52
  But I think that like, even with the support of people like you,
• 28:55
  like other people who are doing similar things, like feeling
• 28:58
  that kinship of like, OK, there's other like young moms
• 29:02
  with little kids who are trying to make this work and who really
• 29:05
  want to help. Like the root of what I think
• 29:08
  what each you and I are both doing is like, we want to help
• 29:10
  our clients. And that's why I think I have no
• 29:14
  problem with passing someone on or like referring them to my
• 29:17
  colleagues and production or whatever because I know like I
• 29:21
  just, I want them to win. And if it's not with me, that's
• 29:23
  OK, because I know that if I support them in that, then
• 29:28
  they'll say my name in a room somewhere else, hopefully. 100%
• 29:33
  it's so true. And you're in like just chatting
• 29:36
  with you in a business context. I find what comes really
• 29:40
  naturally to you as well is not talking yourself.
• 29:42
  What makes you so interesting is like you almost talk yourself
• 29:45
  out of a job sometimes, which you kind of do.
• 29:47
  That's what you say in like your intro call too.
• 29:49
  And we had an intro call. It was like, you were like,
• 29:52
  yeah, I don't want you to be reliant on me for life.
• 29:55
  I actually don't want necessarily want you to be like.
• 29:58
  To work with me for five years. Yeah, which for me, which if
• 30:02
  that's your style, that's also my style.
• 30:04
  Like when I go to my an osteopath, for instance, I love
• 30:07
  that that like modality, like body work is like you go for a
• 30:11
  couple of sessions and then it's maintenance after that versus
• 30:14
  other body work practices where there's like this addiction or
• 30:17
  like you must come biweekly or every single week.
• 30:19
  And that is not my vibe. I do not ever want to be told
• 30:23
  what I have to do. Sustainable like financially or
• 30:27
  no time? No, no.
• 30:29
  And so it's true. And like what you said about
• 30:32
  just about like when you show up authentically, then the right
• 30:35
  people come to you as well. And it's like you by you going
• 30:38
  through referrals or like people saying your name, they're warm
• 30:42
  leads coming to you. You show up more authentically
• 30:44
  and it's just it just feels better and then like you do
• 30:48
  better work. And so it is.
• 30:50
  It's such an interesting, we're kind of jumping ahead into like
• 30:52
  the meat and potatoes of like when you are a consultant or
• 30:55
  working for yourself. But it's definitely, it's a big
• 30:57
  piece of it and I think it's what holds a lot of people back.
• 30:59
  Is that like how will I find clients?
• 31:03
  And. It's scary, It's scary, it's
• 31:06
  scary years into this business and still sometimes I'm like the
• 31:12
  like cyclical nature of it, like summers, nobody wants coaching.
• 31:16
  Totally get that. You know, it's like it's a
• 31:19
  funny, it's funny. How has it been to be in a, in
• 31:23
  A2 consultant household where there is a little bit of, I
• 31:28
  guess at what point did your husband step away from his
• 31:30
  corporate job and like, how did you guys make all these
• 31:32
  decisions that were, you know, how did you know it was right
• 31:34
  for your family? Well, it's fairly new, which is.
• 31:37
  So it's kind of interesting that we're talking about it now
• 31:39
  because we're definitely still in the thick of it.
• 31:41
  I'm sure I would have a different answer in five years
• 31:44
  or whatever, but I'd say he transitioned to be fully a
• 31:48
  consultant in November 2024. So it hasn't been that long.
• 31:57
  And he has some like previous, like you know, his, some of his
• 32:01
  clients are connections he had previously and what have you.
• 32:04
  And he works on a you know, I work with startups and small
• 32:07
  businesses. He works more with them, like
• 32:09
  larger businesses who are going to market.
• 32:11
  And yeah, it was, you know, from we've been together for 15 years
• 32:16
  and that, you know, basically that whole time we both had full
• 32:20
  time salary jobs. So it's, it felt scary at first.
• 32:25
  I think especially like around Christmas time, you know, which
• 32:27
  is like the most expensive time of year for a lot of us, just
• 32:30
  feeling like, OK, like this is going to be so different.
• 32:32
  Like even down to the small details as we get ready for tax
• 32:35
  season now, it's like, OK, we the income tax has not come off
• 32:41
  of our paychecks. Like just even in your mind,
• 32:43
  just looking at your bank accounts thinking like, OK, you
• 32:46
  know, every month that's siphon off this amount that's going to
• 32:49
  be around the amount for income taxes is not our money.
• 32:51
  Let's pretend it's not there. And just even that frame of
• 32:54
  mind, like, it feels weird. It feels a little unsettling at
• 32:58
  first, which I like to think of. It didn't then that would be bad
• 33:02
  because we should feel unsettled.
• 33:04
  But it. Yeah.
• 33:04
  And just little things like, oh, we need to go purchase our own
• 33:08
  medical coverage, you know, for the kids when they go to the
• 33:10
  dentist. Like it, it feels strange
• 33:14
  because it's so new to us. I'm sure we'll get used to it.
• 33:17
  But it has changed, you know, how we've had to think about
• 33:21
  money and time and you know, even like reevaluating like, OK,
• 33:26
  how much is my time worth as a consultant And like standing
• 33:30
  study in that and knowing like, you know, what's market value,
• 33:34
  what's the value of you and etcetera.
• 33:36
  And yeah, it's, I'd say as time goes on, it's feeling more
• 33:41
  steady. And of course, like, you know,
• 33:43
  it's not like we're worried about anything, but it's more
• 33:44
  just like long term planning. You have to really readjust how
• 33:49
  you think about things and yeah, how you think about the
• 33:51
  logistics of it. And you know, I've never had to
• 33:54
  like apply for a business license before, like all these
• 33:57
  kind of things that are just new.
• 33:58
  And thankfully my husband ran his own business many years ago
• 34:01
  during university, so he's had some experience with it, but
• 34:04
  things are so different now. So it's a huge learning curve.
• 34:07
  But I think one thing that we're good at is knowing our strengths
• 34:10
  and our weaknesses and leaning on the experts when needed.
• 34:13
  Like, OK, we're not going to try to do our own taxes like we
• 34:16
  usually do because we want to make sure that we learn how to
• 34:19
  do it properly. Now that we're both
• 34:20
  self-employed, what does that look like?
• 34:22
  You know, what can we claim? Can I claim the square footage
• 34:25
  of this room? I don't know.
• 34:26
  Let's ask. And I think, yeah, being humble
• 34:30
  in the fact that it's OK to ask questions.
• 34:35
  Yeah, I think. And I think finding people who
• 34:38
  also are doing it, like, I know I'll probably have more
• 34:40
  questions for you in the future because I know you guys are the
• 34:42
  same, Like, yeah, what is it? What are the tips and tricks
• 34:46
  that you've learned from, you know, being in the same sort of
• 34:49
  22 self-employed household and all of it because it's, it's
• 34:54
  very new territory. And I think that it's OK for us
• 34:56
  to feel a little bit like, oh, this is new, like whether the
• 35:00
  checks and balances we're going to set up.
• 35:02
  And I think we haven't figured that all out yet, but I'm hoping
• 35:07
  that we can find more people to take advice from.
• 35:10
  And I think we're doing a great job so far, but I think we'll
• 35:14
  just, you know, have to have some more check-ins maybe about
• 35:17
  what's working, what's not. Yeah, it's so it's a tricky,
• 35:23
  we'll definitely have like big chats, but I mean, I think it's,
• 35:27
  I think I'm I'm happy to like be a bit vulnerable here right now
• 35:30
  and just sharing that like one thing that is actually coming up
• 35:33
  right now for us. I just don't know why right now.
• 35:36
  I think there's a couple big purchases that happened recently
• 35:38
  maybe. And we're feeling, you know, you
• 35:40
  feel it. But it's for me as someone who I
• 35:49
  don't know, I like my default not best self trait is like
• 35:54
  shame or like feeling feeling shame about something like
• 35:57
  that's kind of my like, you know, some people go like, yeah.
• 36:02
  So when say like I'm having a month or like my, my business is
• 36:06
  quite cyclical or I'm putting a bit more energy into the
• 36:09
  podcast, of which it's like still a free brand building
• 36:13
  resource, you know, for my community.
• 36:15
  And to say I'm putting more energy there in less time, like
• 36:19
  1 to one coaching, then that's less revenue.
• 36:22
  And if we're having like that type of month, it's like a
• 36:25
  really weird discussion now where you don't have these
• 36:28
  consistent paychecks coming in and saying like, I have to now
• 36:32
  be accountable for what I make and what I bring to the table.
• 36:36
  And then I have to like almost justify it.
• 36:40
  And it's not like I can say like, oh, I'm in sales and, you
• 36:44
  know, we had a bad quarter. And it's like, you know, and
• 36:47
  sometimes it's like it's on you or it's not your fault or
• 36:49
  whatever. Like there's nothing.
• 36:52
  Sure, there's factors, but. Like it's me.
• 36:53
  Yeah, yeah. And I feel shame about that a
• 36:56
  lot. And like, yeah, God, the seasons
• 36:58
  where it's like not working or, or something's not quite like,
• 37:02
  you know, was like fruitful as I thought it would be.
• 37:04
  Or then I have an amazing month and I feel like it's a roller
• 37:07
  coaster. And then I feel like I have to
• 37:08
  come and like, explain myself. It's such.
• 37:11
  A. It's such a weird 1, I don't
• 37:13
  know if the answer. Is yes, I am exactly the same as
• 37:15
  you. That's so funny because and it's
• 37:17
  totally self-inflicted like it has.
• 37:19
  It's not coming from anyone or anywhere.
• 37:21
  Anywhere. Adults.
• 37:23
  Yeah. This feeling of like, yeah,
• 37:25
  like, and it goes, you're right. So up and down there's like,
• 37:28
  like, say this week I have a whole bunch of coaching sessions
• 37:32
  with clients feeling great. You know, it's a great month.
• 37:36
  Yeah. And then sometimes it's more
• 37:40
  quiet and you feel like, oh, am I doing something wrong?
• 37:43
  When really you don't give yourself the credit, as much
• 37:47
  credit during the good month, but you're extra hard on
• 37:49
  yourself on the bad month, which is not fair.
• 37:53
  And it's always yeah, it's easy to, it's easy to to default and
• 37:58
  like. What am I doing wrong when it's
• 38:03
  not necessarily that you're doing anything wrong, but that's
• 38:05
  just the nature of the business, like you said.
• 38:07
  And yeah, like it's, it's, it's reassuring.
• 38:11
  Not that I want you to feel that way, but it's reassuring in a
• 38:13
  way that, yeah, to hear that you still have those feelings as
• 38:16
  you're farther ahead than me in terms of how long you've been
• 38:18
  doing, you know, working for yourself, that those feelings
• 38:21
  are, are still normal and that it's OK to have those feelings.
• 38:25
  And I think even like, yeah, like people who have been doing
• 38:29
  it for 20 years, I'm sure they have those feeling too.
• 38:31
  Like a lot of my clients also work for themselves, obviously.
• 38:34
  And you know, they say the same things to me.
• 38:38
  Yep. And it's so much easier to give
• 38:42
  advice than to take your own advice.
• 38:45
  So. But yeah, I feel, yeah, I feel
• 38:48
  that way all the time. And I, yeah, I wonder if it's
• 38:51
  going to go away or is that just like part of being, you know,
• 38:54
  the adult thing feeling, especially when you have two,
• 38:56
  you know, little kids and. Yeah, I don't know if you felt
• 38:59
  this way when I was in corporate.
• 39:00
  I just fantasize. I always thought that the way
• 39:04
  that I would solve all my quote UN quote problems or like gripes
• 39:08
  with work or whatever it was I was feeling was like, oh, if
• 39:12
  only I just worked for myself. It has always been something
• 39:14
  I've wanted to do. I've always been passionate
• 39:17
  about, you know, coaching and becoming a coach and all that.
• 39:19
  Like this was always going to be my path.
• 39:20
  But I definitely put a lot of stock in the grass being a
• 39:24
  little bit greener. And the grass is like, to be
• 39:28
  clear, so much greener than I could have ever imagined.
• 39:30
  I will say that however, not every you like, you're still
• 39:34
  there. It's like, what's the what's
• 39:36
  that like? Gosh, everywhere I go, I'm still
• 39:40
  there. Whatever that thing is.
• 39:41
  Oh my God, end of the day, you know what I'm saying?
• 39:44
  Yeah, like I followed myself out of Aritzia.
• 39:48
  I'm still here. And I always joke that I'm like
• 39:49
  the worst boss I've ever had in my life.
• 39:51
  So it was a probably meal along even though I left my love, my
• 39:55
  former boss. But yeah, it's just it's funny.
• 39:58
  It's the grass is greener. And like I bring this up because
• 40:01
  I think for this audience of like those who might be
• 40:03
  listening, who are like, yeah, I'm in the corporate job.
• 40:05
  I'm miserable. That's why I often.
• 40:07
  Really, really want to drill down with the clients.
• 40:10
  Like what is really going on? Like I never take the thing at
• 40:15
  face value. And with time and like questions
• 40:18
  and reflection, you can really start to peel back the layers in
• 40:21
  the onion and be like, what's really happening here?
• 40:24
  Is it your schedule that's going wonky?
• 40:26
  Is that you don't have time to yourself?
• 40:28
  Is it that the work volume is too high?
• 40:31
  Like, you know, you're now on a four day work week, but you
• 40:33
  still have the five days worth of work to do?
• 40:35
  Like, yeah, there's so many factors, right?
• 40:37
  And, and it's like a lot of times I do work with people and
• 40:41
  I kind of coach my like, coach myself out of a job where like
• 40:43
  they don't even need more of my time because they're like, Oh
• 40:46
  yeah, I, it wasn't the job. I'm fine.
• 40:49
  I'm actually good. There's just like a few other
• 40:51
  things I need to tweak. And I have to remind myself that
• 40:54
  too. You know, like when I'm in my
• 40:55
  own business, like it's not always going to be sunshine and
• 40:57
  rainbows. Like still have to do taxes,
• 40:59
  still have to do these like kind of annoying things.
• 41:01
  It's not time sheets, but the taxes and it's just, and then
• 41:05
  you've got to like peel back. OK, So like, why is this thing
• 41:08
  causing me frustration and like peel it back.
• 41:10
  OK, what could we do to like fix that or solve that?
• 41:13
  Like what support can you get? Like, who could I trade
• 41:16
  something with? You know, it's like there's just
• 41:18
  there's ways to do it, but it's not the silver bullet.
• 41:22
  And I think you and I were talking about, I've been talking
• 41:24
  about this a lot of people recently about like, I should
• 41:27
  just go work for myself. I should just consult.
• 41:29
  I probably make more money. It's like you could.
• 41:31
  Yeah. But yeah, it's, it's
• 41:34
  challenging. Compared to like, it's kind of
• 41:37
  like what I told my clients, like people think marketing is a
• 41:40
  quick fix. It's not.
• 41:42
  You have to put the work and you have to do the testing.
• 41:44
  And like I say, always say through the spaghetti at the
• 41:47
  wall and see what sticks. Like if you want real success,
• 41:50
  you got to take it slow. And it's the same, I feel like
• 41:53
  with this industry, like I used to, I think to give myself like
• 41:57
  grace. I used to always.
• 41:59
  And I still say like, so my, my oldest son is, he just turned 6.
• 42:02
  He's in kindergarten. My daughter is 3, so she's still
• 42:05
  in preschool and just two days a week.
• 42:08
  And I, ever since I started consulting, I said, OK, I wanna
• 42:12
  slowly build the right kind of clientele so that when I get to
• 42:15
  the point where Sloan is also in school and I have way more time,
• 42:20
  that I can really go for it and be more full time.
• 42:22
  Because at the moment I'm still part time, which was by choice
• 42:25
  because I want to be the one who's, you know, picking up the
• 42:28
  kids from school. And it's it's we're really lucky
• 42:31
  that we're able to schedule our lives and our work that way.
• 42:34
  I know that. And with the help of
• 42:36
  grandparents and everything. But you know, having to decide,
• 42:41
  OK, I'm going to work as a brand and marketing consultant and
• 42:45
  coach part time and then slowly build up my clientele to the,
• 42:49
  to, you know, finding the right clients to partner with and the
• 42:51
  right referrals and everything. So when my youngest is in
• 42:54
  kindergarten, I can go for it. But in a way, I think I'm also
• 42:58
  like, that's a way for me to feel like, oh, I still have time
• 43:03
  to figure it out. And then I just hope by the time
• 43:06
  that I get there that I, you know, I feel like, yeah, like I
• 43:09
  really got it. I, you know, and things are
• 43:12
  definitely, especially in the last year, really like getting
• 43:14
  busier. And I'm, you know, there's some
• 43:16
  weeks where I'm working way more than part time And, but I think
• 43:20
  for a while, like talk about a posture syndrome for a while, I
• 43:23
  think that's something I would tell myself to make me feel
• 43:26
  better, that I wasn't necessarily like working full
• 43:29
  time, even though it's true, but I felt guilty about it when I
• 43:35
  shouldn't because that was a choice that we made as a family
• 43:38
  to do it that way. It's kind of like when you're at
• 43:40
  the park with your kids and you know, someone says like, oh,
• 43:44
  like, what do you do for work? And you know, even if you were
• 43:49
  working stay at home mom, that's 100%.
• 43:52
  That's great that you're doing that or you're a stay at home
• 43:55
  parent. You're being the primary parent.
• 43:57
  My instinct was always to say, oh, I'm a marketing consultant
• 44:01
  first and then say part time after.
• 44:05
  But why? Why can't it just say like, oh,
• 44:07
  I'm really lucky that it gets beat my kids, you know, most of
• 44:10
  the time. And then I'm also doing this.
• 44:14
  Or if somebody OK, but to counteract that, like if someone
• 44:17
  were to ask you what do you do for work, say that was the point
• 44:19
  blank, blank question which anyone ever been asked that
• 44:22
  before all the time. I mean, I love that you throw in
• 44:28
  the fact that your mom and that you're part time work, but do
• 44:33
  you even have to say that part time?
• 44:34
  Like why do you feel like you have to say the part time?
• 44:36
  Yeah, I guess because I, I think probably because we all have
• 44:40
  that bit of like imposter syndrome, like kind of
• 44:42
  confidence piece where I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm still hard on
• 44:46
  myself sometimes like, Oh, well, I maybe I should be working full
• 44:50
  time and maybe I should this and should that and where even like
• 44:54
  my mom is great or reminding me and she's like, well, yeah, but
• 44:56
  Sarah then where would the kids be?
• 44:58
  Like, I can't be here every day. And then you'd be paying for
• 45:01
  full time childcare, which some people have to do, which is, you
• 45:04
  know, totally understandable. But we are we're lucky that
• 45:07
  we're able to do it this way. And I'm like, yeah, like that's
• 45:11
  true. And then and then you have to do
• 45:12
  the math. Like how much full time clients
• 45:15
  would I have to have to counteract the price of the
• 45:18
  daycare? Like it's such a juggling act.
• 45:22
  And I think that that the confidence piece is a big part
• 45:25
  of it is like, yeah, why do I have to?
• 45:27
  Why do I have to say that I don't?
• 45:29
  No. Or how many extra clients would
• 45:31
  your husband have to have in order to balance out the
• 45:33
  childcare cost? Because it's not just your
• 45:35
  paycheck. Right.
• 45:36
  Yes, Yeah, exactly, exactly. So yeah, I think it's it's
• 45:40
  definitely tricky, especially for those of us who are, you
• 45:44
  know, a little more in this phase of life, the primary
• 45:46
  parent. And of course it flip flops in
• 45:48
  all phases of life. But yeah, it's it's a juggle.
• 45:53
  And I think, I think the way that it's going for me, I think
• 45:58
  by the time both of our kids are in full time school that, you
• 46:01
  know, I will have a really great base of clients that I really
• 46:03
  love that equals the full time work.
• 46:05
  And, you know, since there's sometimes right now where that's
• 46:08
  how it feels, but then, you know, like you're saying the
• 46:12
  grass is always greener. Sometimes I even think to myself
• 46:14
  like, oh, remember, you know, when I didn't have to think
• 46:19
  about the income tax coming out of the bank account because it
• 46:22
  was already taken offer. Like we always wish for what
• 46:26
  could be or what was or what's going to be or like, it's almost
• 46:30
  like, I don't know if you ever have this feeling of being a
• 46:32
  parent, like being nostalgic for like the moment that's
• 46:34
  happening, like right now. Yes, yes, like.
• 46:38
  Like my brother just had a baby and like, I like Oh my God, like
• 46:41
  our kids are so big. And like, even now I'm like, Oh
• 46:43
  my God. But one day I'm going to be
• 46:45
  looking back and thinking they're small now.
• 46:46
  Like the moments are so fleeting and I think it's easy to forget.
• 46:50
  Like you can feel that way about work too.
• 46:55
  However, you, how have you navigated the, um, how do I say
• 47:02
  this? Like the, you know, you're
• 47:03
  ambitious side and the part of you that's like wanted to keep
• 47:08
  going up and up and like you started, I know, I think you
• 47:10
  started in reception at your corporation and you just like
• 47:14
  grew from there and you've gained incredible skills and
• 47:16
  experience and you're so good at what you do.
• 47:18
  But how have you? Do you feel as though I think I
• 47:22
  can ask you this, Like, do you feel as though you've taken a
• 47:25
  step back, a step sideways, a step up?
• 47:27
  Like how does it feel for you? I think when I was back in my
• 47:32
  corporate job, yeah, like I was, it was great.
• 47:34
  I was able to like, you know, create some kind of new rules
• 47:37
  for myself within the business because we were small.
• 47:40
  And I think that's a funny question.
• 47:42
  I have never thought about it that way after I switched to
• 47:45
  consulting. I think it felt a little bit
• 47:49
  like lateral in the beginning, just in terms of like we're like
• 47:55
  if you're just looking at the work stuff.
• 47:56
  But if I really pull myself back, like you said, I would say
• 48:02
  it's a step up because of the life that I'm able to create
• 48:05
  around it now. And I'm, you know, grateful that
• 48:09
  I can schedule my own meetings and not be told where I need to
• 48:12
  be from 9:00 to 5:00, that I can not schedule meetings when it's
• 48:16
  pick up time from school. And I can, you know, do a call
• 48:19
  on the weekend if I choose to and not being forced to.
• 48:22
  And I think stepping up in that way in terms of like feeling
• 48:28
  more well-rounded, Like I, I always think to myself on days
• 48:31
  where I'm busy with meetings and then I'm able to stop and go
• 48:35
  pick up my son from school or, you know, do what I need to do,
• 48:38
  you know, get a workout in. And like, I feel really
• 48:41
  fulfilled because I feel like I'm feeling multiple buckets
• 48:43
  that make me feel like me. Not that I love being on mat
• 48:48
  leave and stuff, but you know, there's always like a different
• 48:50
  side of you. Like I always say it's even
• 48:52
  like, like the kind of like when I haven't been to Europe in a
• 48:56
  while and I feel like my like art historian buckets like
• 48:58
  getting really low and I'm like, I need to go to Europe.
• 49:00
  I'm just like it just for it. So I kind of feel like overall
• 49:05
  like it's been a step up for that reason because like I
• 49:09
  don't, yes, like you said, there's parts of work that's
• 49:11
  needed to not fund the administrative part or whatever.
• 49:14
  But when I'm sitting talking with clients and I get so
• 49:17
  excited and passionate with them, like it doesn't feel like
• 49:20
  work to me. And I not that I didn't enjoy my
• 49:23
  job before, but I enjoy it so much more now because I feel
• 49:28
  like I'm really helping people and I'm connecting with great
• 49:31
  people who are doing great things.
• 49:34
  And if I get to be a little part of their story, then that's
• 49:36
  awesome. And you know, I even clients
• 49:38
  that I have worked with for a year and I'm seeing them succeed
• 49:41
  online and I'm like, yay, like good job.
• 49:45
  So I think that the step up necessarily doesn't come from
• 49:48
  like, oh, I'm like making a crazy amount more this or that.
• 49:52
  It's just comes from like feeling a little more fulfilled,
• 49:56
  I think, and learning how to value that, like equally as
• 50:01
  money. It's almost like time.
• 50:04
  Like we lived in Vancouver, now we live in South Surrey.
• 50:07
  And there was a time where we were trying to figure out like
• 50:09
  when we thought we'd be commuting before the pandemic,
• 50:12
  when we started consulting and we all, we made a spreadsheet
• 50:16
  where we value time as if it was money.
• 50:20
  So like the time, the time it would take for like, say, the
• 50:23
  time when I was on Motley for my husband to drive all the way
• 50:27
  into Vancouver and all the way back and maybe not see the kids
• 50:32
  before bed or whatever. When I was, you know, not
• 50:34
  working at the time and dallying it as if it was money to help
• 50:38
  make that choice. And it really changed how we
• 50:41
  looked at things, which was all him.
• 50:43
  That was his. He loves spreadsheets.
• 50:46
  So yeah, like thinking about and of course the cost of, you know,
• 50:51
  gas and everything, but really looking at it that way changed I
• 50:55
  think, how we saw it. And I think that the way I used
• 50:57
  to view myself, I don't know if you're the same, but like, oh,
• 51:00
  like I need to have this title or work with this big name to
• 51:05
  feel like like I'm a big shot in my jaw when that's kind of what
• 51:10
  the outside was telling me I should feel Where no, I feel I
• 51:15
  can feel just as confident working with small businesses as
• 51:19
  I could for a big brand. It's so true.
• 51:22
  Wow what an unlock that spreadsheet.
• 51:25
  Can he share that as a freebie for the guests?
• 51:29
  I think that's so cool. I think because if you were to
• 51:32
  ask yourself in that moment too, and you're doing bedtime after
• 51:34
  being with your kids all day alone, and then you're doing
• 51:37
  bedtime thinking about doing bedtime on your own, yeah, you
• 51:42
  probably, you're asking yourself like, what would you be willing
• 51:45
  to give up in that moment to have him there?
• 51:47
  Only a lot, right. Like financially, like you
• 51:49
  probably like not like $100 a bedtime at least or something
• 51:54
  like that. And that's, that's massive.
• 51:57
  Massive. That's such a good way to put
• 51:59
  it. Yeah.
• 51:59
  Like, after being like, solo parenting all day, and then, you
• 52:02
  know, yeah, your partner's not gonna be home until late.
• 52:05
  That's a perfect like little snapshot way to put it.
• 52:09
  Yeah, and I think about that too.
• 52:10
  It's like what, you know, there's the there's so many
• 52:13
  reasons why a person might choose to leave a corporate job,
• 52:16
  go into insulting and it's risky.
• 52:20
  A lot of small businesses don't succeed.
• 52:22
  Like, you know, there's things that we do have to talk about.
• 52:24
  We can't just be like, everyone should be their own business
• 52:26
  owner. I don't think everybody should.
• 52:28
  I think that for a lot of people, the stability and the
• 52:31
  comfort of getting that consistent paycheck does wonders
• 52:33
  for their mental health and for their family.
• 52:35
  And it's great And what those people, what I in case you're
• 52:38
  listening to and you're like, look great, like what is this
• 52:40
  conversation all about? But like there's other way other
• 52:43
  levers that you can pull out. It's like really good
• 52:46
  conversations with your managers.
• 52:47
  Is it finding a company that's more aligned with your values
• 52:50
  and what your family needs? Like there's ways to make the
• 52:52
  corporate world work. And I want to continue to say
• 52:55
  that because I think there's two now I'm going on a freaking
• 52:58
  tangent, but like too many people out there online,
• 53:01
  especially you and I are in the, we are entrepreneurs.
• 53:04
  So we get a lot of B to B marketing.
• 53:06
  But man, the messaging out there right now that's trying to get
• 53:09
  convinced everybody to just quit their jobs and work from
• 53:12
  themselves is, is scary. And I think it's really doing a
• 53:16
  disservice to people. I think what it's doing is well,
• 53:18
  is it's making people who are in a job in the corporate world
• 53:22
  that they actually might enjoy and be fine.
• 53:25
  There is like this like Instagram filter reality that's
• 53:29
  being put online and hey, I'm guilty.
• 53:31
  Yes, you're so right. Yeah.
• 53:33
  That's like making people be like, fuck, but I could have a
• 53:35
  better life. Like, yeah, if I quit my job,
• 53:38
  maybe I'm not happy. Like, is that the life?
• 53:40
  And I kind of caught myself doing that the other day being
• 53:42
  like, look at the freedom and, and, and it wasn't, that wasn't
• 53:45
  supposed to be the thesis. And I've kind of caught myself
• 53:47
  to be like, no, no, my message is more about like, you need to,
• 53:51
  you need to really think about the life that you want to build
• 53:55
  and figure out a way to like make maneuvers and small actions
• 54:00
  to get there. My message is not everybody
• 54:02
  should quit and become a coach. Everybody should quit and sell
• 54:05
  things on Etsy because look at this person on TikTok who's
• 54:07
  making $20,000 a month like. Because it's not realistic.
• 54:11
  But hey, it might be if you got the passion for it.
• 54:15
  Oh my God, what would you say, Sarah?
• 54:17
  Like who would you say is the perfect person in your opinion?
• 54:19
  Now that you've been in it for a decent amount of time but you're
• 54:22
  still fresh ish, Who would like which of your profile of your
• 54:27
  friends would you say is most suited to do this work?
• 54:30
  I think the first step is like assessing your life.
• 54:33
  And I think it's funny that you say all of that because you're
• 54:37
  so right. And even like I think about even
• 54:40
  the way like people, you know, I hear my husband working with
• 54:42
  companies, like the way companies have to like date
• 54:47
  their potential employers. Like, oh, you can work from
• 54:50
  home. You can this, you can that.
• 54:51
  Because there's so many different things that people
• 54:54
  depending on the industry, like say you're a web developer where
• 54:56
  you have more jobs at your disposal.
• 54:59
  But for me, and I think for someone who's thinking about it,
• 55:02
  you really need to take a step back and look at your life.
• 55:04
  Like I'm going to be 100% honest, if I was single right
• 55:07
  now and I didn't have the support of my partner, knowing
• 55:12
  that like, you know, financially that we're in it together, I
• 55:15
  don't think I'd be working for myself.
• 55:17
  Like that might sound a certain way, but I don't yet.
• 55:21
  I don't. I think that if if that was the
• 55:24
  phase of life I was in, it would feel too risky for me and I
• 55:28
  wouldn't. Agree.
• 55:29
  I agree. But I think assessing your life
• 55:31
  and looking at, you know, the way that it's set up in that
• 55:36
  point that maybe you decide, OK, like right now I'm saving to buy
• 55:40
  a house. I, you know, this or that.
• 55:43
  I like having my healthcare included in my salary.
• 55:48
  You need to look at all those checks and balances and figure
• 55:51
  out like, yeah, what are the pros?
• 55:52
  What are the cons? And if maybe is it the right
• 55:55
  phase for you to work yourself? And maybe that phase will come
• 55:59
  later. Like for me, with the support of
• 56:02
  my partner and the fact that we're in it together and we're,
• 56:04
  you know, it's not all on me to make sure that the lights stay
• 56:08
  on. That is a huge point of
• 56:11
  relaxation because I know that we can work at it together and
• 56:15
  we can make a plan together. And if it's not working, you
• 56:18
  know, we figure it out like kind of.
• 56:20
  And like I always say to myself, like when I'm feeling like
• 56:22
  nervous, when it's a quiet month or something, you know, I remind
• 56:25
  myself, OK, I have all of these skills.
• 56:28
  If I wanted to go online and start applying to full time
• 56:30
  jobs, I can would I be able to get one?
• 56:32
  Yeah, I think so. And that option, just because
• 56:36
  I've chosen in this phase of my life to be a consultant doesn't
• 56:38
  mean I'm always going to be consultant like we all are.
• 56:41
  Careers are all changing all the time in this day and age.
• 56:44
  So I think that's the most important thing is figuring out
• 56:47
  at this phase of your life, is it going to work for you?
• 56:50
  And if you thought, like you said, that deep desire you have
• 56:53
  to work for yourself, maybe you decide that once these certain
• 56:56
  checks and balances come into play, then you can go for it.
• 57:00
  Where for me, yeah, if it was just me, I, I think I'd be too
• 57:05
  scared if I'm honest, to do it on my own.
• 57:08
  And not everyone has that, you know, luxury.
• 57:11
  Like if you're single and you don't have that support, then
• 57:13
  that that might be harder. But there's ways you can figure
• 57:16
  out doing it on the side to start and testing it out to see
• 57:20
  if you actually like it. You know, just testing the
• 57:24
  waters to figure out if that's something that you can imagine
• 57:28
  yourself doing, even making like making a mock spreadsheet of
• 57:32
  your monthly expenses and figuring out what is the amount
• 57:37
  you need to make to make that happen on your own.
• 57:40
  Can I do that? Can I not?
• 57:41
  Or should I start slow? And then like you said, it might
• 57:44
  make you realize, no, you know what?
• 57:46
  I'm actually OK where I am right now or I just need to talk to my
• 57:49
  manager about hiring support because there's too much on my
• 57:52
  plate or whatever. Yeah.
• 57:54
  But yeah, I think it's, it's not a simple answer.
• 57:58
  I think some people think, like you said, the grass is always
• 58:00
  greener. And I, it's so funny because I
• 58:02
  was never the person who was like, I always want to work for
• 58:05
  myself. There was times in my life where
• 58:06
  I was like, Oh my God, I could never, never, ever would I want
• 58:10
  to do that. No.
• 58:11
  Way. And here I am.
• 58:14
  But I think I also saw it as, like, you know, I'm not managing
• 58:19
  A-Team. Like it's just me.
• 58:20
  Like I am a very, very big empath.
• 58:23
  And I think the pressure of like other people's livelihood on my
• 58:26
  shoulders would be too much. So the way I'm doing it works
• 58:30
  because that's not a factor. There's still my own family.
• 58:34
  But yeah, it's just so funny because if you had asked me like
• 58:37
  10 years ago, like, oh, Sir, did you ever work for yourself, I'd
• 58:39
  say no, you're kidding. No way so.
• 58:44
  So say, Sarah, say somebody just like, you know, is like, yes,
• 58:48
  yes, yes, I can do it. I can swing it.
• 58:51
  It would work for my family. I've been thinking about it.
• 58:53
  I'm sitting on the on the fence, but now this is pushing me over
• 58:55
  and I'm like, yeah, I want to do it.
• 58:57
  How have you navigated? And this will be my last
• 58:59
  question before I let you off the hook, but how have you
• 59:01
  navigated or did you navigate going out and wanting to do the
• 59:05
  work that you wanted to do, but marrying that with the market
• 59:08
  need, like what people actually need and desire and will pay
• 59:11
  money for? And that's something that I
• 59:15
  found really organically, which was great.
• 59:16
  And I, I had, I fenced it when I worked even in my corporate job
• 59:20
  because I got some of our clients who are like startups
• 59:22
  and small businesses. And I really, I found that I
• 59:25
  enjoyed working with them and then the education side of my
• 59:27
  job. But I also started back then
• 59:30
  started noticing the need. And I think that's one thing
• 59:33
  that we always see in marketing too, is like you can't tell
• 59:37
  someone what you need. You have to go and find them and
• 59:40
  ask them what they need. You know, in per se, like go, go
• 59:43
  do your research. And also don't try to sell it to
• 59:47
  them. Don't try to make them come to
• 59:49
  you. Go to them.
• 59:52
  And I think that a lot of people forget, like, yeah, like
• 59:55
  sometimes people think, Oh, well, this pen that I made is
• 59:59
  the best pen in the whole world, so of course everyone's gonna
• 1:00:02
  want to buy it. But it's like.
• 1:00:04
  But do they need pens? And like, Are you sure it's the
• 1:00:06
  best pen in the world? And I think, you know, depending
• 1:00:10
  on on the business, but I think really starting by just asking a
• 1:00:14
  lot of questions and like something that my mom has spent
• 1:00:17
  some time doing like pro bono career coaching growing up.
• 1:00:20
  So I, I watched her do this a lot, but really like the power
• 1:00:25
  of like an informational interview and talking to people
• 1:00:30
  even just to figure out like if they, what kind of service they
• 1:00:33
  would need or what their experience is in a certain
• 1:00:36
  industry. Like, you know, for example,
• 1:00:39
  like one of my clients project, they opened a playspace in
• 1:00:44
  Langley and it's awesome because it's very, it's very cool and
• 1:00:48
  calm. It's not too big, it's not too
• 1:00:50
  loud like like some places, which just some people love,
• 1:00:53
  which is great. But they were trying to cater to
• 1:00:54
  people who wanted a slightly more chill vibe.
• 1:00:58
  And they realize that there's nothing like that around.
• 1:01:00
  And it was, you know, there were two moms starting their
• 1:01:03
  business. And it was scary for them.
• 1:01:05
  But they really searched for the need, which took time to figure
• 1:01:08
  out. And I think one thing that
• 1:01:09
  people forget is like they wanna go go, go, go, go and start.
• 1:01:16
  And that's also like sometimes where even with my clients, I
• 1:01:19
  find them like they realize like a year and like, oh, the name of
• 1:01:21
  my business doesn't work. The logo doesn't work, the
• 1:01:23
  mission doesn't work. Or sometimes it's good to like
• 1:01:25
  take a beat and just take a just even asking your circle of
• 1:01:29
  friends or circles or family, like do you know anyone who does
• 1:01:33
  this or that? Can you connect me to them?
• 1:01:35
  I'd love to talk to them. Or even if it's in a corporate
• 1:01:38
  job, like, oh, I, you know, I work in just because this is the
• 1:01:42
  field. I know I'll say marketing for
• 1:01:45
  moms. Yeah, mom businesses, mom
• 1:01:48
  business. That's, you know, B to B.
• 1:01:49
  But I really want to be marketing in real estate.
• 1:01:52
  But how do I get there? Start asking like ask a friend
• 1:01:56
  of a friend. Oh, I I know someone who their
• 1:01:59
  sister is the CEO of on your who you know, whatever.
• 1:02:03
  And I think that we all, like I always tell my clients, like
• 1:02:05
  even when it comes to PR and like getting going, like you
• 1:02:09
  need to start with your own circle because they're going to
• 1:02:11
  be a real champions. And just like I do, I do for and
• 1:02:14
  I'm sure you do too. When someone says like, oh, I
• 1:02:17
  really wish I could talk to someone in blank.
• 1:02:19
  Like if you ask people they want to help and they're like Oh yeah
• 1:02:23
  I know like 5 people, let me send you some emails and I'm
• 1:02:25
  going to connect them. People love to give advice.
• 1:02:27
  They love to recommend. Exactly, and I think.
• 1:02:29
  They know they're psycho. Yeah, they're gatekeeping.
• 1:02:33
  Yeah. So I think like the power of an
• 1:02:36
  informational interview, even like it might even teach you
• 1:02:38
  like, OK, I think I really want to start my own business doing
• 1:02:41
  blank. Maybe you talked to someone and
• 1:02:43
  they actually say, oh, I actually know someone who's
• 1:02:45
  looking to hire a full time position in this field.
• 1:02:48
  You might realize like like you said, Oh well, maybe I don't
• 1:02:52
  want to work myself. Maybe I need to work for
• 1:02:53
  different business who needs my help in a different way.
• 1:02:56
  Or someone might say oh I know someone who could really use
• 1:03:01
  some help with blank. Maybe you can help them out for
• 1:03:03
  free for a little while and see if you like it.
• 1:03:05
  So if that's something that interests you and then, you
• 1:03:08
  know, that's your first sort of testimonial.
• 1:03:11
  Like I think it's tempting sometimes, especially like if
• 1:03:16
  you're really burnt out to like cut and run.
• 1:03:19
  Hmm. I'm very much a believer of like
• 1:03:21
  let's, you know, test the waters.
• 1:03:22
  Like see try things on the. Side such a cotton right?
• 1:03:28
  Again, it depends on what phase of life you're in.
• 1:03:30
  If you're single and you've worked at crazy corporate job
• 1:03:33
  for 10 years and you built up a huge savings and you're done and
• 1:03:36
  you have that nest egg, then do it.
• 1:03:39
  Take some time off or reevaluate how you're feeling about your
• 1:03:42
  life and figure out what's best for you.
• 1:03:44
  But I think like even sometimes I wonder, like, oh, if I ever
• 1:03:49
  didn't work in marketing, like, what would I do?
• 1:03:51
  And I think to myself like, oh, like I have a lot of other
• 1:03:53
  transferable skills. If I decided I wanted to go back
• 1:03:56
  to school for you and become a teacher, I could do that.
• 1:03:59
  Sounds lofty to go back to school this phase of my life,
• 1:04:02
  but like, it's never too late. Especially like, you know, if
• 1:04:08
  you want to be more fulfilled and happier and less stressed.
• 1:04:11
  So I think my biggest piece of advice would be to just like
• 1:04:14
  start talking to people and like, have it not just live
• 1:04:17
  here. Have it live out here in your
• 1:04:20
  world and let everyone else in your world know this something
• 1:04:22
  you're thinking about so they can have you in mind.
• 1:04:25
  And it can kind of like, it can maybe start organically.
• 1:04:28
  Like I that's how it was for me. I kind of said like, oh, I
• 1:04:31
  really want to start consulting in this way and I'm not sure how
• 1:04:33
  it's going to work. And a friend of mine said, oh, I
• 1:04:35
  have a, a friend who's starting a business who really needs
• 1:04:38
  help. Can I connect to you?
• 1:04:39
  And I'm like, yeah, and I didn't even have a list of services or
• 1:04:43
  anything. I didn't have a website.
• 1:04:44
  I was just figuring it out. Yeah, people don't care if you
• 1:04:48
  have the website like sometimes people have like that failure to
• 1:04:51
  launch to right or they feel like there's like 10-12 fourteen
• 1:04:54
  steps that have to happen first. Like if you're the brand, like
• 1:04:57
  you said, and if unless you have like a product based business or
• 1:05:00
  something like that, like then just start and and you can be
• 1:05:03
  honest too. You can say, hey, like just
• 1:05:05
  starting out would love and like give let me show you what I can
• 1:05:09
  do. Let me like give you an hour of
• 1:05:10
  my time. Yeah, and, and let's go from
• 1:05:12
  there. Like I'm such a believer in
• 1:05:14
  that. Not like working for free, but
• 1:05:15
  like showing people what you can do working with somebody and not
• 1:05:20
  being like, I'm in a creative proposal and I'm going to be
• 1:05:23
  very firm. Like when you're starting out,
• 1:05:24
  you have to be flexible. You have to just like try things
• 1:05:27
  and and see what the market, what the market is, is asking
• 1:05:31
  for and. That's what I've learned too,
• 1:05:33
  that I didn't start out just by coaching.
• 1:05:35
  I started out doing a lot of more like full strategy work,
• 1:05:37
  like delivering huge documents. And I realized that's not really
• 1:05:41
  what people needed help with. What they said they valued more
• 1:05:44
  was the kind of hand holding and the teaching and the sitting
• 1:05:48
  together on calls, making plans, sharing spreadsheets.
• 1:05:51
  And you know, they prefer like I realized that that's they
• 1:05:55
  preferred and I kind of like found myself in this little
• 1:05:59
  niche by accident. So like you said, sometimes it's
• 1:06:02
  not like deciding like what you want to do and being too hard on
• 1:06:06
  that and not being flexible because your clients or your
• 1:06:10
  customers might be telling you they want something else and
• 1:06:12
  you're not listening and then you missed out on a big
• 1:06:14
  opportunity. It's so true.
• 1:06:16
  I would say, like, if I'm to answer the question I asked you
• 1:06:19
  about, like, who would it be that you would say this is
• 1:06:21
  suited for? You have to be, you have to have
• 1:06:24
  a growth mindset and you have to have a flexible mindset.
• 1:06:27
  Yeah, unless you are in a extremely rigid field.
• 1:06:33
  But 90% of the people who might be considering this are not in
• 1:06:37
  some like highly regulated, like drug manufacturing or what, You
• 1:06:40
  know, it's like, yeah, got to be flexible.
• 1:06:43
  You've you've got to, yeah, you have to.
• 1:06:45
  And you have to be willing to grow and to learn and to try
• 1:06:47
  things and be OK. I loved your advice about just
• 1:06:50
  starting to talk about it though, and a lot of people will
• 1:06:52
  say to me yet, but I don't, you know, I've tried something
• 1:06:54
  before and then I've gone back and I've tried something else
• 1:06:56
  and now I'm very embarrassed because I've tried a couple
• 1:06:59
  different things. I don't want to be known as the
• 1:07:00
  person who's flaky or who doesn't follow through on
• 1:07:02
  something. And I totally get that.
• 1:07:05
  I have so much empathy for that. I've been in that position too.
• 1:07:08
  You did my yoga teacher training at one point.
• 1:07:10
  Like didn't do anything with that, but it but now it actually
• 1:07:12
  does work. Like it actually does make sense
• 1:07:14
  later on in my story. But I wish to say to those
• 1:07:17
  people like, OK, for this next thing, do you have to say this
• 1:07:21
  is my five year plan? Or can you say, like you said, I
• 1:07:24
  liked your language. You were like, this is what I'm
• 1:07:25
  thinking of doing. I'm exploring this and like, can
• 1:07:28
  you use language like that to be like, come along the journey
• 1:07:30
  with me on the journey to figure out if this is what I want to
• 1:07:33
  do. Who can you put me in touch
• 1:07:34
  with? Like, instead of being like, I'm
• 1:07:35
  launching this business, this is the five year financial scan.
• 1:07:38
  Like, remember, it doesn't have to be that way.
• 1:07:40
  And there's less risk in that you can change your mind. 100%,
• 1:07:45
  I think, yeah, nothing is set in stone and your life might change
• 1:07:48
  too or your priorities change. Like especially becoming a
• 1:07:51
  parent, I'm sure that's like that's like the whole basis of
• 1:07:53
  your business is like your priority has changed.
• 1:07:55
  How can we make your life work around that?
• 1:07:58
  That's so true. Oh my gosh, I could talk to you
• 1:08:00
  forever. I love like that.
• 1:08:02
  And it's fun that we got to record this one because this is
• 1:08:04
  very much what it is. Yeah.
• 1:08:07
  You know, like pretty much what we talked about the first time
• 1:08:09
  that we started chatting. Yeah.
• 1:08:11
  Oh my God, Sarah, we've talked about a lot of the things you've
• 1:08:15
  been so open and honest about your journey, but what's you
• 1:08:18
  know today, what's striking you is something that you're still
• 1:08:20
  trying to figure out. What am I not trying to figure
• 1:08:22
  out? I think for me, I'm still trying
• 1:08:27
  to figure out what the best balance in terms of work and
• 1:08:33
  parenting is right now to make, you know, our family work as a
• 1:08:37
  unit. And I think I'm still trying to
• 1:08:41
  figure out, yeah, like, how do my kids need to be parented?
• 1:08:47
  How do I work, you know, personal life and my own work
• 1:08:50
  and all of that into it, I think.
• 1:08:51
  And because it changes every day, and I think I'm OK with not
• 1:08:56
  having it figured out because it's mostly working right now.
• 1:09:01
  And, you know, we're happy and, you know, we're healthy.
• 1:09:03
  And I think giving it perspective, you know, but we're
• 1:09:08
  lucky to be where we are. And, you know, things might not
• 1:09:12
  be figured out tomorrow and they might be figured out the day
• 1:09:14
  after that. And trying to, you know, for
• 1:09:16
  someone who's a kind of a type A control freak, trying to be OK
• 1:09:20
  with ebbs and flows takes practice.
• 1:09:23
  But yeah, I think and if, if, if we're talking about like the
• 1:09:27
  consulting thing, like if you were to say, oh, well, of course
• 1:09:30
  notice you're going to be consulting for the rest of your
• 1:09:32
  life, then I don't know, I don't have that figured out.
• 1:09:35
  Like it's working for right now, but I could decide tomorrow that
• 1:09:39
  it's not. And that's OK with me.
• 1:09:43
  I hope to, you know, I like what I'm doing right now.
• 1:09:46
  But yeah, I think that I very much don't have it figured out
• 1:09:51
  when it comes to the consulting fully, but I feel like the parts
• 1:09:54
  I do need to have figured out, I have and I'll cross those other
• 1:09:57
  bridges when I come to them hopefully.
• 1:10:00
  I love it. So Sarah is a marketer.
• 1:10:03
  If you haven't gotten that from this conversation, then that's
• 1:10:06
  OK. You're probably multitasking.
• 1:10:07
  But Sarah is a wonderful marketer.
• 1:10:09
  She works with small businesses and she's such a great person to
• 1:10:13
  just go to. I'm pitching you on your behalf.
• 1:10:15
  By the way, thank. You.
• 1:10:16
  I want to. I want to.
• 1:10:17
  I want to share my love for you. She's so good at just like
• 1:10:21
  meeting you where you're at. Like you can come to her and you
• 1:10:23
  can, she has such a flexible way of working with her clients too.
• 1:10:26
  She's not putting you on this like $50,000 retainer.
• 1:10:28
  Like it's very like meeting you where you're at in your
• 1:10:30
  business. If you've got like questions for
• 1:10:32
  her, you're like, OK, today I just want to jam on this topic.
• 1:10:36
  Like she will meet you there. And so highly recommend.
• 1:10:39
  Sarah. We've worked a little bit
• 1:10:41
  together. I foresee is continuing to work
• 1:10:43
  together. Yeah.
• 1:10:46
  And so reach out to her if you have questions.
• 1:10:49
  She'll do a an intercall. I'm yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:55
  Yeah, they can find me online. My website issfmarketing.ca and
• 1:11:01
  Instagram, the same SF marketing.
• 1:11:03
  Yeah, you can find me either way.
• 1:11:06
  Send me a message if you need some help or some guidance or
• 1:11:08
  someone to. Talk to you about.
• 1:11:11
  Your about your business, but yeah, I think yeah, I'm excited
• 1:11:17
  that we got a chance to chat and that I'm really excited for all
• 1:11:20
  the stuff we have coming up for you too.
• 1:11:22
  Me too. Thank you.
• 1:11:24
  It's so funny how you're such a confident mom and then the
• 1:11:26
  second I made you like try to pitch yourself.
• 1:11:29
  I need so you get a little a little try, but no well done.
• 1:11:32
  I'll put all the Donuts. I'm sure you fell in love with
• 1:11:35
  her at this point and with the beauty of Zoom, you can reach
• 1:11:40
  out to her from wherever we see you Ireland listening.
• 1:11:44
  Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and we will talk to
• 1:11:47
  you very soon. Thank.
• 1:11:48
  You so much. Thank you so much for listening
• 1:11:53
  and since you made it this far, please share this episode with a
• 1:11:56
  fellow parent who you love, respect, and want to support.
• 1:12:00
  And while you're at it, hit me up on Instagram at All Figured
• 1:12:03
  Out. Andrea, I would love to meet you
• 1:12:05
  and hear what you are trying to figure out these days.