Latest / Mama Making Podcast / Alexandra Swayne | From Layoff to Launch: How One Mom Built Three Businesses While Raising Two Kids Under Three

Transcript

Alexandra Swayne | From Layoff to Launch: How One Mom Built Three Businesses While Raising Two Kids Under Three · Mama Making Podcast

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Mama Making Podcast, where we share stories of moms making impact in their own lives and in the world around them.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jessica, and each week I sit down with women for building businesses, leading communities, shaping culture, and redefining what success looks like inside of motherhood.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because motherhood does not have to stop your ambition, it can transform it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's get into it.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Mama Making Podcast.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host Jessica.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new, welcome.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not new, then welcome back.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Today I am so excited to have Alexandra Swain on the podcast.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: She's a mom, an entrepreneur, and a creative thinker who turned the chaos of motherhood into two businesses and a product that is helping moms do the same.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's the founder of Sunkist Media, a marketing firm, and the inventor and founder of Binky Bands, a product born from a real problem in her daily life.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really so honored to be a part of the podcast today.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us a little bit more about you, who you are, where you're from, whatever you are comfortable sharing.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I have been running two businesses for the past year.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I actually launched Binky Bands, which is the product I invented about four months ago now.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And actually within the last month, I started a third business, but I'll get to that later.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, I am definitely juggling a lot these days.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I have two kids, very young ones.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: I have a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Their names are Amila and Owen.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And um actually, while my daughter was, you know, living with me, we had just bought a house.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: She was one year old, and I was pregnant with my son.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I went through a really devastating time in my life.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I ended up getting laid off while pregnant, which was pretty traumatic because I didn't really see it coming.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had great employee reviews.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: I had just gotten a raise, but unfortunately, the company had been struggling for quite some time financially.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like the stock had been down to like a dollar.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, long story short, I ended up getting laid off.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I had always dreamed of working for myself and having the flexibility that comes with entrepreneurship.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I felt like I was kind of like already at my bottom.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, what do I have to lose?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was really my mentality.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I ended up starting my own full service marketing business called Sunkiss Media because I did have over 12 years of experience doing marketing, and I kind of felt like I had enough confidence to now kind of venture off and do my own thing.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: So Sunkiss Media specializes in web design, SEO, social media marketing, paid ads on Google and Meta.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: We do email and text campaigns.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And more recently, we've really gotten into like print and digital marketing collateral.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So graphics, logos, brochures, business cards, that kind of thing.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then I really had no intention of starting a second business.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like it wasn't even on my radar.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: But when I had my son, I nursed him for the first year of his life.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was really struggling to get sleep because he was waking up every two hours looking for me to nurse him back to sleep.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Cause that was like the only way he would, he would wake up every two hours and he just like needed me to soothe himself.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the pacifiers that I would give him would drop out in the crib or in my bed, wherever he was.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that it was just me, really.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like my breastfeeding was the only way he would go back to sleep.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the pacifier just wasn't helping.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Even though he liked it, he couldn't keep it in his mouth.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: So actually, during that weird phase in the morning where you're like half asleep, half awake, I kind of just had this idea pop in my head of like coming up with a product that stays with the baby, like on hand, that would be like a pacifier teether type product.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like basically, I made a bracelet.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: It looks like an Apple Watch.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: It comes in five colors and it has a pacifier and teether connected to it.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: So that the baby always has it on hand when they need it and they don't have to worry about losing it.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And weirdly enough, it actually is beneficial beyond that because the babies kind of lose that scarcity mindset of like worrying they're gonna lose or drop the pacifier.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So it actually helps them gradually wean off over time.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen just from testing it on my kids and other people's kids.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it actually helps reduce the risk of like addiction to pacifiers and helps them gradually wean off because they know it's always where they need it.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it does require more effort to lift the wrist when they're up and about to use the pacifier compared to when they're stationary or like laying down.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about your third business.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I actually had my first event yesterday and it went well.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, so basically, I decided that I wanted to start a networking group for female business owners and entrepreneurs locally.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I live on Long Island, and I know that there's a lot of networking groups out there, but I just really couldn't find what I was looking for.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted something that felt more authentic and more rooted in building friendships and relationships and not just swapping leads and like awkward small talk.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I started this Facebook group called She Means Business Long Island about two months ago.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of, I'm gonna be honest, I felt like a total jackass starting it.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, what if nobody's interested?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm just like trying to preach that, you know, I have this idea and nobody, you know, shows interest.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, the really exciting thing is now within the two months that I've been running this, we have over 600 members in the Facebook group.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: The turnout for my first yeah, uh the the turnout for my first event yesterday was 75 people, 75 women and people, and we actually started two one per industry groups.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: So like we have these virtual meetings once a month where we just like talk about what we do, what our business is, and we try to refer business for one another.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's nice because you know, hopefully it'll help me get leads, obviously, to grow my marketing business.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, it's giving me a sense of community outside.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm always home with the kids and working, and it gives me like an opportunity to meet people and make friends.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure these women are also yearning for the same type of connection, which is why they joined in the first place.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's just something that was really needed.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's so amazing.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think what's really cool about this generation of moms is that so many of us are like, this isn't working the way I wanted it to, or I'm missing something or need something.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of waiting for it to come, we just create it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I love about what you're doing is that you're you're seeing a problem or a need.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whether it was self-chosen, like your product, or not self-chosen, like your layoff, all of it brings us to the point of making a decision and whether you're gonna deviate from where your path was to something new.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that you're really going after it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely a lot of work.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm not gonna lie, I'm exhausted.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously taking care of two small children is time consuming and it requires a lot of energy.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And running a business or two businesses or three businesses, you know, is definitely taxing sometimes.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm so grateful.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would trade that nine to five life for this 6 a.m.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: to 1 a.m.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: life any day, because I have like, I'm doing things I care about and that I'm passionate about, and I have flexibility to be with my children.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's just like a lot of good things that came with this.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me a little bit about what your motherhood has taught you about leadership.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, to branch out on your own with your marketing company or start a product or this new women's group, there has to be some type of like leadership bug that you have or personality trait.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: How has that compared or expanded through your experience in motherhood?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: To be blunt, I really feel, and I think this is the case for a lot of women.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think motherhood has made me a better version of myself, not just as a person, but like as a professional and now as a business owner.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like I feel like for a long time I struggled with asserting myself.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: I struggled with confidence.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like I constantly needed to dilute myself to make other people feel comfortable.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: But deep down, I feel like I've always had that interest in leading and initiating and asserting.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: My 20s, actually, before I had kids, like I lived overseas.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I backpacked to 43 countries.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've always been very independent.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I love that I have a family and my husband and my kids now, and my life's definitely a lot different in a lot of ways, good, and even, you know, in challenging ways, obviously, because you know, raising kids could be tough sometimes.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like starting these businesses has given me the chance to like kind of jump back into those leadership and independent type roles.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I think also being a mom has taught me how to multitask better.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: So because, you know, I'm juggling so much between nap time and feeding them and taking them to daycare or, you know, doing the everyday things with both my children, it's helped me to better manage my time in such a way that I can lead these different businesses and I can get these networking groups together because it's kind of forced me to learn, like motherhood is taught me to learn how to balance my time and juggle a lot at once.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I absolutely identify with the idea of motherhood making you more confident.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, there are times that I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was not supposed to be doing this, I don't know what is next.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there is something like innate in us that kind of triggers when we become moms that like I know for me, I just didn't care what people thought about me anymore.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And had the confidence to like go out there and do what I wanted and say what I wanted to say and not kind of hide behind this imposter syndrome.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it is still a work in progress.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've um lacked the self-confidence and the imposter syndrome is is real and something that I have to work on.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I think becoming a mom gave me the permission and authority to feel like I could be in the room and be uh a leader and like go out there and start doing things on my own and myself.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so I totally identify with that idea of like we've always had this, and motherhood just brings it out in us.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the ability to the multitask is is huge.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it definitely instills confidence.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like it is not for the weak.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I agree with everything you said.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think becoming a mom showed me just how much I'm capable of.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have children and a family, you realize at the end of the day, nothing else matters.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care about petty drama.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care about gossip.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care what people think about me.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna lie, you know, every now and then those insecurities creep in.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, I just want to do what's best for my family and what's best for me in this one life we've been given.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not gonna let those intrusive thoughts or that imposter syndrome dictate my life or the decisions I make.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that's the perfect segue to talk a little bit more about kind of trusting yourself and trusting your ideas and kind of going for it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: You are obviously uh an embodiment of that.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what has that process looked like for you?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny because I feel like this has really been like a test the past few months for me in terms of trusting myself.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: I am guilty of like constantly seeking out a million people's opinions when it comes to like life decisions and work and all that kind of stuff.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And what it took really me being like in a bad position, you know, losing my job and kind of having to find my way out to realize that at the end of the day, like it's it's you that has to like carve your own path.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And like you could seek out all the advice in the world, you can, you know, ask people's opinions, but at the end of the day, it's your life and you need to make the decisions that are best for you and your family.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Binky Bands is really like a good example of needing to trust myself.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: So like I came up with that idea, obviously, for the wearable pacifier and teeter.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And there were people close to me that kind of knocked the idea and like I understood their logic on why they maybe thought it wouldn't work or why people might not be interested.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: But one person very close to me actually was like, you're not gonna even be able to sell one of these.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: So if I didn't trust myself and I didn't trust my judgment, I might have let that person dictate whether or not I moved forward with that idea.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, you know what?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna regret it if I don't give this a try.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna invest my own money into manufacturing it, getting the patent.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Granted, I was very smart about it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like I did not dump money into this that I wasn't comfortable investing in it.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: But long story short, it ended up going viral within the first day of launching.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I've sold several hundred, like almost into the thousands of the Binky bands.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I very much did sell one of like I was able to sell one.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I was able to sell a lot more than that.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: So if I didn't trust myself, I wouldn't have been able to achieve that.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: What does that thought process look like?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I'm I also identify with this that I'm always looking for other people's opinions, simply not because I'm going to base my decision off of them, mostly because I'm like, okay, what am I not thinking of?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you take that desire to have other thoughts and opinions on a project or subject and be able to kind of parallel mirror them with what's going on for you?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how did that look?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe specifically to Binky Bands, how did that look from the beginning where you were just like doing RD essentially and then into product launch?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: How did you decide what things were worthwhile to listen to and what things were like, okay, noted, but I'm gonna move on?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good question.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I should give myself more credit.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have been an independent thinker my whole life, but same as you, I know that I'm not perfect.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely have blind spots.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I do try to consider other people's perspectives and ideas because they might see, you know, some logic that I'm missing.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: But basically what I did was I sought out other people's opinions, people close to me, my family.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I considered the pros and cons that came with launching a business such as Binky Bands, because obviously it could do really well, but it could also fail.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I need to, I needed to make sure it was something I was comfortable moving forward with financially and otherwise.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I think for me, I knew that like this was something I believed in and that it was gonna take I needed to take the risk and see if I could really go somewhere with it.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: So after listening to people's ideas and perspectives, um, I did my own research and um, you know, I sought out suppliers and manufacturers and patent attorneys.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: I got pricing for these different things.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I sought out like all the research I needed to do to make sure the product met all requirements, you know, safety and otherwise.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously my time is very limited because I have my two kids, I have my marketing business, and now the networking one too.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: So what I would do is I would wait till my husband and my kids were asleep.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: My husband goes to bed early because he wakes up at like 5 a.m.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's a teacher.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So they would go to sleep and I would stay up late into the night um speaking to different manufacturers, getting quotes, figuring out what I needed to do on my end to make this dream kind of become a reality.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um I was able to work it out in such a way that I really did my due diligence to make sure the price was within what I was comfortable spending.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I also didn't just jump into it blindly.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like I did only buy maybe like 200 big key bands to start.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: I launched it on LinkedIn, LinkedIn.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, this is my story.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I got laid off while pregnant.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: I came up with this baby products idea, you know, the whole thing.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's actually where it went viral, which was wild because LinkedIn really isn't like my target market.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, granted, there's plenty, there's professionals like who admire the ambition, I'm sure, and the entrepreneurship, but these aren't usually moms with babies.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a huge surprise that it took off on LinkedIn the way it did.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: But so many sales, thankfully, came in.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I sold over a hundred of them in a day, and I only ordered 200.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that was like my research.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, there is a demand for this.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like people were like, I wish this existed when my babies were little.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I've been looking for something like this.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Had no one think of this before.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that was super reassuring.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then actually that same day, I went back to the manufacturer.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, we're ordering 2,000 now.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just being logical, like throughout the process, I think, not just going in blindly, but using like a well-thought-out strategy and research to decide what my next move was.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would love to talk about how you had to integrate your marketing business and then this new venture.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: How did that look kind of combining the two?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually where the confidence came from.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I'm not going to say I was like 100% comfortable doing this because I wasn't.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: There was definitely a little bit of fear, but I kind of just did it despite that.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And even though I didn't have any experience whatsoever in the baby product industry or even with manufacturing, I knew that my skills were really rooted in marketing and that it was something I was comfortable with.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So at the very least, I knew that if I partnered up with people who knew what they were doing when it came to like the patent, the design, the manufacturing, I could at least handle the marketing on my own.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I and it's not even just that I had the marketing background.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a mom.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like I understand what moms need, I understand what moms are looking for.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And for that reason, I felt confident that I could sell this product because it has so many benefits that it brings to the table.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: As I said, it reduces the risks of babies losing and dropping their pacifier.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: It doubles as a teether, it keeps the pacifier clean because it's not always dropping on the floor.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: It helps wean them off the pacifier.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then also it I didn't know this when I came up with the idea.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: But a cool thing is a lot of moms and people are actually seeking out the product now who have sensory needs and who sort um who rely on chewing and sucking for comfort.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: So there's even people who aren't babies that are using this product.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: So clearly, like there's a lot of value here.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of pain points this product solves.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that was really what gave me the launching pad to be like, okay, I'm gonna move forward with this because I know how to market it and I believe in it.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I believe in it for me.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: I needed it and I know other moms could use it.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that you were able to kind of um utilize the work that you've always been doing to kind of launch this product.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I I think it's like nice when you're doing like I can market anything really if I know the value it brings, if I know the pain points it solves, but it's a whole different ball game when you're marketing something that you created, like it's essentially your baby and it's something you believe in.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like this isn't me just working a nine of five job in a corporate office trying to sell something that maybe I don't believe in.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not gonna lie, I've worked for companies where like I didn't really see the value as much as I would have liked to.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm trying to market whatever it is they're selling.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: This is totally different because you know, I wouldn't have invested my money or my time or my energy into this if I didn't believe in it.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so, of course, I'm gonna be able to market it.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and one thing that's great is like you're stepping into a very unknown territory.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And once you got that launched and ready to go, I'm sure it was like a breath of fresh air to get back to something that you were like, oh, I know how to do this.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it was nice to really have the chance to connect with moms through this because I feel like, I don't know, I'm at a point now where I'm more confident speaking with people from all walks of life.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've lived in other countries, I've worked in corporate offices, I've worked with men, I've worked with women.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a different level of comfort that comes from getting to collaborate and work with women and moms.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: I just feel like there's more of an affinity.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's also why I ended up starting the networking group because it's just like a totally different feel that comes from those relationships.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's a level of understanding and support that comes from building relationships with other women and moms because we're kind of going through the same things day in and day out.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I can totally agree with there's just something different about working with women and moms.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't, it's it must be like a universal telepathy of like, I get what you're going through.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: With that in mind, what has you're obviously building these three very different um avenues of work while also raising young children.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: What has that like integration looked like?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like what is your average week look like?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: How do you make that all work?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um it could, I'm not gonna lie, it's chaos sometimes, but I really try to get some structure in my life as best as I can.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I do value work-life balance.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: I do value flexibility, and I haven't, I don't have that balance every day.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something I'm working towards improving.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that being said, I do spend the money to put my kids in daycare two days a week because I think it's a nice break for them and it's a nice break for me.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: So those two days are really the days that I get a lot of my work done.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I trust the place that my kids are going to.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love the people that run the daycare.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I I have no guilt whatsoever, truly.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like I know my kids are having an amazing time with their friends there.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're socializing.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're able to do arts and crafts and things at that daycare that I can't always do with them at home.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't have kids for them to play with beyond just the two of them.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: So those two days are like my breath of fresh air.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then the three days that they're home with me, I try to get some work done in the morning when they're kind of relaxing, having breakfast when my son's napping.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the afternoon, I've been making a conscious effort to like step away from my laptop because I tend to get wrapped up in my work.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm a bit of a workaholic.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm making that conscious effort to be like, we're done here.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've worked enough today.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take the kids to the park.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take the kids to the library because I don't want to look back someday and be like, I spent all those hours when my kids were little just sending emails and working on the computer and I sacrificed all the time that I could have been spending with them while they were babies.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to look back and have that regret.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that you brought up the guilt factor and that it doesn't really exist for you.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of that is one, trusting yourself, but two having those strong boundaries around this is the time I work and this is the time I'm with my family.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, similarly to you, also have a digital marketing company and started after I got laid off as well.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And wow.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I have that, and then this podcast and being a mom and having a family.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: My husband runs a small business.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So things are like quite chaos here.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when people ask me, like, how do you guys do it all?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, we don't.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: One one day we're doing everything, the next day we're just focusing in one area.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the idea of having strong boundaries so that you don't feel that guilt.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me, my my son goes to half day school Monday through Thursday.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's with my mom two days after school, he's with my mother in law two days after school.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: All of those areas have so much benefit to my son.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's able to be with kids half the day, he's with his cousins and my mom and my dad, and being able to build bonds with those people and.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then my in-laws, he's with and gets to go on different adventures there.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, and on Fridays, he's home with me.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, I think that building your career in these different lanes, and if you're super entrepreneurial and have several streams that you're focused on, I think having those boundaries is huge.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And knowing that every day is not going to be the same.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some days you're doing it all, and some days you can really only focus on the kids or just one specific project.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I love your honesty that you're like, it's pretty chaotic, but I think the idea of not doing it all is something that I like to hit on.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm so glad you said that because I definitely need to be more adaptable these days.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like I need to realize that not every day is gonna go as planned.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: And there are gonna be days where I'm just killing it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm doing a great job, like juggling the businesses.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Then there's days that like my kids are a little extra unpredictable and I don't get as much done as I was hoping I would.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So there's there's definitely you need to be give yourself grace because you're not gonna maybe achieve everything on your to-do list every day the way that you hope to.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any um like tools that you utilize to prioritize or for time management?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anything that you feel like is super helpful to keeping you in line and getting getting that's a good question.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I'm not utilizing as many tools as I should be.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: The notes in my phone is like my save and grace.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just have like notes split, I need to go through them because it's like overkill at this point, but I have several notes in my phone of just everything that I need to get done each day.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then I just, you know, erase them or I put an X when I've when I've you know finished whatever it was that I set to do that day.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, also I guess like my calendar to like keep tabs on like client meetings and things like that.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know there's so many good tools out there that I should probably take advantage of though.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think you just find them as you need them.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: For me, um, I started to hire on contractors for my marketing business.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I need to get more organized.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it was finding an AI that I liked that would be able to integrate with my my calendar, my emails, and tell me exactly what I needed to do that day and kind of prioritize.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then again, realizing I'm not gonna get everything done that I would like to in that day.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So coming up with like kind of a contingency plan to figuring out what the rest of that week looks like has been key for me.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I have to say, like, I definitely have a love-hate relationship with AI.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I do think it's crazy, and I won't go off on this whole tangent, but like I do have concerns about it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like it doesn't have regulations as much as it should right now.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a total lifesaver.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if it wasn't for AI, I definitely couldn't achieve as much in a day as I do.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it does help me stay organized.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, even with my networking groups, I was trying to like figure out which group each person would go in.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: I have, I think, over 50 people part of the one per industry groups I started, and I needed to try to cater these meetings around everybody's schedules, their availability, what part of Long Island they're on.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I literally did not have the hours to sift through everybody's, you know, spiel.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: So Chat GPT and AI helped me within like 15 minutes figure out what which meeting everybody was gonna be part of.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it definitely helps me go through my it gets it helps me get through my day more seamlessly.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I'm able to be so efficient.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I was just gonna say it's just efficiency, being able to gather information and kind of hone in on a topic without like getting all over the place has been key for me for sure.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so funny, you really relate to me, I'm sure, in so many ways between the, you know, your marketing business, being a mom, dealing with the layoff.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: It definitely was character building.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like I feel like, and I feel like, I don't know, running a business really is like personal development on crack.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and somebody actually used that exact line recently at a networking event that I went to, it really resonated with me because it's like you're forced to face your insecurities, your fears, and just to like tackle them head on.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's just it's been nice to see how much my life has changed over the past year.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: And if I hadn't taken the leaps of faith that I took, how things may have not played out, you know, the way they have.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a year ago, if you would have told me I'd end up where I am now, I would be so grateful.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: But at the and life's not perfect, like, you know, I do still have struggles, I still do have, you know, sources of stress, but I am so much happier overall with how life is now, you know, running my own businesses than I was at the the company I was working at or doing the things that I was doing last year or two years ago.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and that actually perfectly relates to my last wrap-up question of for the moms and women out there who are like, I want to start something, I want to do something a little different, who are kind of on the edge of making that leap of faith.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: What advice would you give to them?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: I really think it takes having faith in yourself and knowing that like you're gonna probably regret it more if you don't try.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the day, I think the reason why a lot of people don't take risks isn't really because they don't believe in themselves.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Cause I think a lot of us do believe in ourselves and you know, we feel like we need to dilute ourselves or shrink down because it's like, who are we to think that we could achieve these big things?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's more, I think, concern of what other people think and how other people are going to perceive what we're doing, or they're gonna think we're delusional or crazy or I don't know.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think any decision in life, you should ask yourself, is this really what I want?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And am I not doing it because I'm worried about what other people are thinking about the matter?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's that your concern is about other people, I think you should do it anyway, but with reason.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think that you need to do your research.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: It needs to be somewhat logical, it needs to make sense, um, you know, get it making sure your budget's in order, making sure that you have your time kind of carved out, that you can, you know, start a business and do the things that are necessary to get something started.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I don't think that you should let fear stop you.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Even as I said, I've never worked in the baby industry, I've never done manufacturing, but I knew that I would do what I needed to do to get up to speed and to learn everything that I needed to.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have that dedication, you could achieve anything.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: I really believe that.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's great advice.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us where we can find your products, your services, website, social media, all the stuff.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: So my marketing business, I'm on Instagram and TikTok.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: My handle is sun.kissedmedia, and then my website's sunkissedmedia.net.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Binky bands, the baby product.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're on Instagram and TikTok.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's just at Binky Bands, but it's B-I-N-K-I, not Y.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Bands, B-A-N-D-S.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then for women on Long Island, if they're ever interested in joining the networking group or coming to some of the events on Long Island, we have a Facebook group called She Means Business Long Island, and then our Instagram is at she meansbusiness.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this has been so great.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to keep up on everything that you're doing.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you for being here and thanks for your time.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciated this opportunity, and it was so nice to speak with you and get to know you.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you again for this opportunity.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to follow the podcast wherever you listen and share it with another mom building something meaningful.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you want deeper behind the scenes reflections that I don't share anywhere else, join my email list at the Mama Making Podcast.com.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here, and I'll see you next time.