From solopreneur to CEO: Guest: Lacey Kempinski

There are a lot of uncomfortable bumps along the way from solopreneur to CEO of your own professional firm: 
- letting go of control as you hire and delegate in a bigger way
- prioritizing what matters to you and being flexible with the rest
- facing your limits and asking for help from your team or outside advisors 

Learning to navigate these (sometimes surprising!) bumps can save you a lot of trouble, time and money. It may even get you where you're going faster and stronger. 

In this episode of Get in the Driver's Seat, Lacey Kempinski , an in-house fundraiser, turned mom, turned consultant, turned CEO, shares stories about the issues and opportunities she ran into on her journey and what ultimately worked for her, her team and her company. 

Lacey is the owner and founder of Balanced Good an organization that provides hands-on parental leave coverage for fundraising professionals. 

If you are interested in learning more about Balanced Good, please go to: www.balancedgood.com or https://www.linkedin.com/company/balanced-good

You're listening to Get in the Driver’s Seat! We’re telling stories about leadership moments in small to mid-sized professional practices. I’m your host, Sandra Bekhor, Practice Management Coach for lawyers, architects, consultants and other professionals at Bekhor Management. 

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. This is get in the driver's seat. We're telling stories about leadership moments in professional practice. I'm your host, Sandra Bekhor, a practice management coach at Bekhor management. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Lacey Kempinski, an in house fundraiser turned mom, turned consultant, turned CEO. She's the owner and founder of Balanced Good, an organization that provides hands on parental leave coverage. For Fundraising Professionals. Balance Good believes that a supportive transition to parenthood benefits both the sector and the parents working in it. Welcome Lacey. 

Hi Sandra. I'm so grateful to be here and to be chatting with you today.

Amazing and today we're talking about owning your CEO role. Navigating the transition from solopreneur to CEO of an organization with a team. 

Yeah, yeah. Even when you say that I feel like impostor syndrome kicks in right. It really is interesting learning to really own that role. And I'm excited to talk about it today because I have a feeling it will resonate with a lot of people.

Well, that's actually what I was going to say. I think this is really relatable to this audience. You know, some lawyers, architects, engineers, and they start working for a firm without necessarily the idea that they want to work for themselves. And then sometimes just circumstances happen like it did with you. And you can talk about that, where you end up working for yourself and then the transition of that early phase to building a team is maybe unexpected, you know, the obstacles that you run into, the challenges you run into. In my business, we call them growing pains. And navigating them is really important to live in a sustainable place. Okay, so I have some questions for you. Of course. Okay, so what drove your decision to reinvent yourself? You know, I know that when you started this business back in March 2019, you called yourself a consultant. So at that point, you were working for yourself, you started a business, you're an entrepreneur now, not just in house fundraising. However, now you're talking about it as owning your CEO role. So that wasn't the same as when you started the business. So when did that happen? That idea of seeing yourself differently?

Yeah, I think there's a couple pieces to how that happened and timing and stuff. And I think the first like, what you said Sandra about starting your own thing, like and not having a plan or not exactly like this wasn't in my career plan to become an entrepreneur. It wasn't intentional, but it was when I became a mother when I realized that I couldn't balance everything that I wanted to balance in life and do it the way that I wanted to do it. I wanted to be a successful professional, but I also wanted to be involved mom and I was trying to figure out and I don't think I've figured out the magic to that. Yeah, but I was trying to navigate that. So I started a business so similar to you know, a lot of the people that you work with and professionals you work with you start out kind of humbly I would say thinking like, Okay, if I can get a couple clients and kind of earn some income and balance all of the other things and the reasons why I became an entrepreneur, that's great. And so that's what happened with me. So it was really just about kind of being humble. Or not being confident enough to own that. Well, I do have this power to be a successful entrepreneur. So starting out as a consultant just felt natural to me. I'm like, Okay, this resonates with the people that I want to work with. I would like to just come in house and do a little bit of work and support organizations and busy parents in the nonprofit sector. But then what happened over the next couple of years is the business grew right and I don't even know if it wasn't intentional growth. Now it is very intentional and I know what I'm doing but when it when you first start growing your consultancy in business, you're kind of I felt like I was a little bit bumbling through it right. So I went from solopreneur to a team of eight in five years. So you know, it's a pretty big growth and I realized that in order to continue this growth, I had to step into more of a leadership type role, like realizing that every team really does need a leader. Even though we have a really collaborative approach, there still needs to be that leadership. Plus the reality is and we talked about this a lot, Sandra, when I was in the ELA program, through York University with you was that I was protecting myself from burnout too. If I was doing all of the roles, you know, I'm burning myself out and that's the whole reason I started my business was to protect myself from burnout.

Well, I'm so glad you mentioned that Lacey, because I think that also is relatable to our audience. And you know, sometimes people are hesitant to acknowledge that and it's inspiring. It's inspiring to hear your story about it. And to also accept that we're never really there. That it's kind of, you know, a work in progress, sort of maybe forever. 

Yeah, totally. I think that is like one of the biggest learnings of becoming an entrepreneur is that it's ever evolving. Your goals are always evolving. How you navigate your work is always evolving. Sometimes you do have to take a step back and can talk about that a bit later in the conversation and do things that you didn't think you were going to be doing again, because you thought you jumped into the CEO role, like there's always shifts and ebbs and flows. And that's the exciting part about entrepreneurship. But once you let yourself kind of release the control and be open to those shifts. It's just a much nicer experience as an entrepreneur.

There's a message about self compassion in what you just said.

100%

Okay, so what kind of obstacles did you run into? Not at the start of your business. I'm sure there were obstacles there. But at the pivot point where you started to see yourself not just as consultant, but CEO of that team. I mean, eight people in five years that is quite a lot of growth in a short amount of time. And so what kind of obstacles did you run into? You know, through that transition from the I'm alone, I'm doing my consultancy, sort of as a freelancer, not that different from what I did when I was in house, to a managing a team.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that has been and continues to be such a challenging transition. I think the biggest thing is letting go of things and learning how to let go of things. For me, my business has been really built in on my passions, so helping working parents in the nonprofit sector, and helping nonprofit sectors or nonprofit organizations really thrive. And so it felt hard to let go of this control around how things are getting done. I built my business from the ground up. I have really strong relationships with my clients. And I was doing basically everything. So letting go of those pieces in some cases was really hard. But on the flip side, like I've been able to attract and work with some incredibly intelligent people on the team, and I'm actually learning way more from them. They're challenging me. They're bringing new perspectives to the team. Like we've just went through the process of creating our employee handbook. And there were conversations and questions that I never would have thought of myself. And so having the people at the team to raise those questions to talk about things like how can we think more progressively about bereavement leaves? Or how can we make sure that our policies are really inclusive and supportive to everybody working on our team or everybody that might work on our team has been such an incredible learning process and that wouldn't have happened if I didn't learn to let go of things.

What you're talking about is leadership.

Actually, what you're talking about is finding your version of leadership.

Yeah, and I think what I've realized in this whole process, and like you said, like I think what you're alluding to is everybody has different leadership styles and for me I'm finding that as a CEO, and as a leader, my leadership style is to let other people shine to let other people lead, to hire and surround yourself with people that trust and challenge you so you can grow further than just yourself. Right? And that has actually been really incredible and really inspiring and scary. But that's okay.

Can you think of any examples where it was hard to let go or hard to trust? You know, I love how you describe that you have these strong relationships with your clients, because that's actually part of what makes it so hard to trust somebody, Oh, are you gonna keep that relationship as good as it is? Can you can you remember any examples where that that was tough, but then you actually did it? 

For sure. Yeah. I mean, I think basically all the clients I transitioned to somebody else leading was hard, even if I knew their leadership style, even if I knew they were an expert in the field and the work that they were doing, it was those personal relationships, the nuances and in some cases, so we work often obviously with a lot of parents in the nonprofit space. But some of our employees aren't parents. So it was these nuanced conversations I was having with my clients about their kids and their families and getting to know each other on that level. But then I realized that team members can also do that and it brings a deeper connection to Balanced Good as an organization not just to me, which is really valuable. So it was doing things and I would do things gradually, for sure. So you know, me and a team member would, you know facilitate the relationship and that I would step back a bit and the thing was, I was very transparent with my clients, letting them know the business is growing. I'm stepping away from this a little bit more so I can focus on the leadership but the reason I've paired you with this person is because of XY and Z and really tailoring it to them. And you know, what I've seen is that these relationships are, are really growing, they're deepening. And it's just adding an extra layer to the business and then I'm still able to connect like I felt like I was worried I wouldn't be able to connect with my clients when somebody else was leading that relationship. But I think if anything, my connection is more meaningful now because we connect and I just have like an impromptu Coffee Chat or a lunch with our clients and just check in on them versus talking about the nitty gritty details, which actually, strengthened our relationship with our clients.

That's great. And are there any specific cues that you are looking for to tell yourself that this is working because that's part of the continuing to let go that you know, it didn't fail, there's no problem up ahead. Is there anything that you look at on a regular basis so that you know things are things are working? 

Yeah, so there's a couple of things we've set up in place. And again, it depends on your business, but things like I do quarterly check ins with all of our clients, even if it is just like a quick 15 minute zoom chat or virtual coffee. I also, like I check in with the team members and you know we are very we're very transparent team. So I see a lot of the stuff that's happening in the work. So if I ever get like concerned or you know, building that concern in my mind, I just check on the work that's being done and it's not even that I have to maybe check on the team member but I just go into the client file and and take a look and be like, Wow, this is really really great stuff that's happening here. And I'm super proud of the team.

And do they know that you do that? It's like a spot audit? 

Yes, yeah, definitely where again, like we are a very transparent team and like I've brought in people to Balanced Good that I really trust and value their opinion. And so I don't want anyone to feel like they're being micromanaged or anything like that. But I do want to see that the great work that we're so proud of continues to get done.

You know, it's interesting that you've mentioned trust a few times. I love talking about trust. I think it's something that is, the cornerstone of professional practice, really, anything you do is all about trust, right? And I think that what people misunderstand about trust is that it's a two way street. And the way you've been talking about it so far in our conversation totally illustrates that because you can't ask somebody to trust you if you don't trust them.

100% and I think and I talk about this a lot too. I think a good way for people to build trust with their team and as a CEO and in terms of letting go of things is to have strong metrics in place right. I know we talked about this to Sandra when I was getting your coaching through the ELLA program, but it's like, what are the key deliverables that this team member needs to deliver on? Are they doing that and checking in with them regularly. And if we're doing those things it innately builds trust, instead of having to point fingers or ask hard questions. But if you're constantly just looking at performance metrics, and it's not your, you know, month over month, quarter over quarter year over year, you're looking at similar things, you can really build that kind of you know, growth trajectory, you can see the results you can see the patterns of performance and it really helps establish that trust.

Right. And it also helps to continue to let go because what you're doing is you're creating a way to give feedback. Not giving feedback is a real problem when it comes to delegation. So that this part of our conversation is relatable, not just to the audience that runs their own firm, but anybody who's stepping up to being manager. Okay, now you have to not only tell somebody when they did a good job, you also have to handle when they didn't do a good job. And metrics makes it easier to manage expectations so that you're all on the same page. So can you remember Lacey, any situations where you've had to give negative feedback or constructive criticism?

Yeah, and I think that that's so challenging because if you don't have clear metrics, and we're as an organization still working on this and growing this and building out systems for this, but if you don't have clear metrics then constructive criticism, and you know, potentially negative feedback can feel very subjective. It can end up feeling personal so I think again, if you root it in, okay, well here are the expectations with this client work and, you know, we actually were behind on that. And having a two way conversation about why did this happen? How can we support you in the future how, you know, it makes it a lot easier than just saying, I feel like you didn't do this or, you know, this should have been done differently, but if it wasn't outlined at the beginning, we can't hold those expectations for our team. We have to be very clear on the outset.

Mm hmm. I love how you added How can we support you in this? Because it's not just about telling them what you didn't achieve the metric we were shooting for, but you're still telling them I believe in you and I'm going to help you get there.

Well, and oftentimes, we've set up organizational barriers for our employees not to be able to achieve or excel, whether it's that they don't have enough time to complete things properly. They're being pulled in too many different directions. So really asking them why do you think this happened? And how can we avoid this in the future? How can we support you? This actually allows you to reflect on your business and organization and maybe that you need to set up something a little bit differently? 

That’s performance management at its best. What you just described there, Lacey is respect. That's respect of the people who work for you, and partnering with them on making things better as opposed to pointing fingers.

Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And I think we've been there, right. Most people have been there. They've had the finger pointed at them. It doesn't feel good. And so that's the fun thing about being an entrepreneur. And becoming a CEO is you get to build your own culture. You get to build a culture and workplace culture you're really proud of and that feels authentic to you. So yeah, that's something I'm really passionate about. 

Well, that kind of answers my next question, which was so you know, you were this successful consultant. Why did you bother reinventing yourself and building this team? You could have just continued right. So why did you bother hiring people and make it bigger?

I think it was like I was. I'm driven by my mission and vision which is to support people working in the nonprofit sector as they transition to parenthood. So providing parental leave coverage, making sure that nonprofits can continue to do the work that they're doing, without being impacted by parental leaves, which are a 100% guarantee is going to happen especially in the nonprofit sector when were 80% women. But then there's parental leaves being taken by fathers and gender diverse individuals. So you know, it was this like, for me, and you know this to Sandra I'm very values driven. Like, I look at my kids, and I don't want them to have the same hiccups. I had when I went on parental leave. And with my career, I want there to be a plug and play model that really is like, oh, this person is expecting, no problem. There's a solution instead of this... Oh, I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't hire this woman. Because she's of childbearing age thought process, right? So having that big vision and knowing that me as a single consultant couldn't do that, that I had to have a team and then we have to have a greater impact is what motivated me to make that change. So I'm really excited about that. And we've been able to expand our services across North America because we have the team in place to do so. I would not have been able to do that on my own.

That's great. So you're very connected to your purpose?

Yeah, definitely. That's what drives the work right?

And it sounds like you're clear that you can go further with the team. And also it allows you to focus on making the vision stronger.

Mm. 100%. Yeah. And that's like, that's the goal of the CEO role, right. And again, like I don't think I'm fully there yet, and I think there's a growing organization, there's going to be detours along the way but focusing on the vision and the growth of that vision is what like, excites me to get up every day.

That's great. Okay, so practically speaking, because it can be a little abstract for people who haven't gone through this process, right. So if you're you started as consultant, then you moved into this idea of a CEO. Practically speaking, if we look at your job description from when you started the business to now managing you said eight people, or eight people including yourself, and what changed about your job description.

Oh, everything. So we did this together, Sandra. It was such a useful exercise. I had never as a solopreneur as an entrepreneur, I had never created a position description for myself. So I did that. And then I created a position description of like my dream role within Balanced Good. And then I looked at the inconsistencies of the two right. It's very clear. There were things that I needed to take off my plate so I could do the things that I wanted to do and love to do.

And it's also just like an exercise of self evaluation, and self reflection of like, these are the things I'm good at doing. These are the things I can do productively. These are the things I'm not good at doing right. So knowing the work that brings you joy. So creating that job description, I realized actually my job description is like three different roles and I'm doing all of them. This isn't helpful. So then I went through and removed the ones I didn't want to do and then that created a new role for Balanced Good. Then I was able to take that leap and that jump and hire that person to do those things, right. And then it was like, okay, how can I restructure some of my teams so they're able to do some of the things that I'm not able to do. My goal when I fully moved into the CEO role was to be no longer be doing client facing work. That's a work in progress, because there are some clients that, honestly I'm so amazed by the work they're doing and the incredible space that they're in that I'm like, I have to jump in and do this and I want to jump in and do this. But then what does that look like? If I'm going to do that, who's gonna do the CEO things? So I did hire a chief operating officer who's able to really support me in a lot of that work. And then we were able to also promote two of our team members to directors to really kind of lead the ship in terms of like the actual day to day client work and making sure that that's getting done in a great caring way.

Okay, so, you know, what's interesting is that one of the biases that we all have, is that when we're hiring we tend to gravitate towards people that are like ourselves in whatever way we you know, identify and so you're describing that growth, you know, changing your job description for yourself, and deciding on which things you need to delegate. So you need to hire. You have these new roles. But the way you describe it is, oh, I'm not necessarily the best person for this because I'm not good at it. Or, you know, I have my eye on something else. That means inherently, that you want to bring on someone who's different from you, which is against that bias. So did you feel like you've navigated that bias and did it come up for you? Can you just talk about that hiring process? 

Yeah. And again, I think I leaned on you quite a bit, as we navigated hiring. We ended up hiring three roles at the same time. We were very intentional about assessing the skills that were currently on our team and the skills that we needed, the work that we were currently doing on the team and the work that we wanted to do and needed to grow, and created descriptions that way. We did things to try to eliminate bias as much as possible. We talked about like, I know you and I talked about like recency bias and stuff like this. So we graded the interviews while we were doing them immediately after we did them. We had a very transparent hiring process to help allow everyone to shine. So by providing interview questions beforehand, we used the same interview questions for all candidates. So it was, you know, fair and equitable, trying to think of what else it was really just being intentional about, like, okay, this person on our team works this way and this person works this way. We need somebody who, who works this way, who works differently, so we can be a full team and complement each other. 

Yeah. It's very interesting way. You just said that because it's not just that they bring different skills to the table, it is that they work differently. Do you have examples of that? 

Yeah. I mean, and that's hard as a leader or CEO, recognizing that people work differently, right. So somebody on our team really is very reflective and needs time to reflect an answer. So like, we know, you don't just ask a question on the spot. But if you ask the question and give time, you're gonna get a very thoughtful response. And then other people on our team are very quick to be like, Yep, this is what I would do. Let's do this. Let's get it done. I think to just even just like, ways of working, we have people on our team who work really well in the morning and then others who are like night owls and work in the evening, right? So we've created an environment where all of those people can shine and you're not forced to work in an environment or timer system that doesn't work for your creativity and, and all of that. 

Well, and that's an example of the benefit of having people who work differently.

And 100% Yeah.

Okay, so you started talking about some surprises that came up, you know, as you're going through this transition, where it's not like a straight line. So you see yourself going through this growth, and you have to take one step back when you didn't really expect to have to take a step back. Can you just describe a little bit those surprises and how did you navigate them?

Yeah, I think the biggest one was that as I've kind of put back on the consultant hat a little bit because I'm leading a client again, and I remember in my leadership work with you, we were like, Okay, I really want to get away from that. But then when I realized this is the right decision for the business, I said, Okay, this is actually my CEO hat telling me to put on my consultant hat right. So it's, you know, shifting a little bit and sometimes being like, Okay, I know that this is what the business needs and we're tryng a different way of supporting our clients in the work that I'm leading with this client, which is, you know, if, I can't do it, or if I haven't done it, I can't ask my team members to do it. So setting that precedence of okay, I'm going to try this and if it works, then we can ask a team talk about rolling it out team wide. So it was just like, this is the right opportunity and timing. And I have people again, I've put people around me in the business that can support other pieces. So the difference between me wearing the consulting hat now and a couple of years ago is that I have the team surrounding me, so I don't have to burn myself out. I won't burn myself out. I'm protecting myself from that because they don't have to do all the things there's other people and I've learned how to trust those people too. And, you know, lean on those people to do the things that need to get done.

And so I love how you came back to the idea of not burning yourself out. That's a big impact of changing your role from that consultant to you know the CEO, and still going for your vision. Still going full force for your vision, and mission. Can you describe any other ways that shifting your role like this has impacted either yourself, your family, your team, your clients. What's the impact that?

I think there's a few right. I do think that it's like I've mentioned, it’s to defend our client relations because they have a really strong relationship with both their client lead, the consultant that's leading the project, and myself. From like, a burnout and busyness perspective, my calendar. It doesn't right now, but typically, it feels a lot more manageable. So I have the time and bandwidth and space to think about the big picture things. If you don't give yourself the space and time to do that, you're not going to do that and you're constantly reacting to the challenges in the business or the fires that come up instead of actually thinking proactively, like what's the next step? What's the next thing. From a family impact, I mean, I've always been very intentional about being able to balance work and life and family. I have three young kids. But it has allowed me to navigate that a little bit more because I'm not as client focused. Some of that brainstorming that visioning can happen in the evening when my kids are in bed and just giving myself grace that that's okay that that's happening then, is really helpful.

What about the impact to your team? I mean, I think that when you let go, and you create space for them, something changes for them.

Mm hmm. Yeah. 100% I think it's like just seeing people shine. It was funny because initially when we started hiring people, most people were still reporting to me, and I was realizing that I wasn't giving people the mentorship and support that they needed. And so we shifted our reporting structure, and just seeing how some of our more junior staff have really taken off under like a mentor and leader that has the time to really dedicate to allowing them to grow and, and teaching them and showing them things. It's been really, really touching to see. Again, it's hard to let go of that relationship. Right. That you know, I really enjoyed connecting with that team member weekly. But it was just like I didn't have the brain space to do it thoughtfully.

You're very consistent about returning to your intentions.

Yes, trying to. I think that's what helps make entrepreneurship easier, right? Because you can get pulled in a million different directions. But if you're like, is this value aligned? Is this part of my original intentions? Is this how I want to run my business and you ask yourself those questions. It helps provide like that guiding light to where you should go next.

Yeah, because it keeps changing.

It does. Yes.

So talking about keeping changing. This is not exactly what you envisioned for yourself, right when you started in your fundraising career. I heard you describe on another podcast, how you planned to have a leadership role in hospitals. Did I get that right? Yeah. And so what, what inspired you? Have you seen any role models out there that helped you to shift that view of yourself?

I think, definitely, I've seen like, women taking control of the workplace and their power. And that really allows me to see like, Whoa, I can do things differently in the nonprofit space, especially in healthcare, and I'm going to be pretty frank here. Nonprofits have to report to a board of directors and oftentimes those board of directors are very senior individuals, often men, often maybe not the primary caregiver in the household, and so the demands become quite high. So I think saying no, that's not the status quo that I want to work within. And I learned that that's not the status quo I want to work within, allowed me to change and push on that.

And you're becoming that role model for others. And I'm sure you're aware. Do you hear that from anybody?

I do. And I think that there’s still this like impostor syndrome type thing, right? Like, how can I be a role model to somebody? I'm still figuring stuff out. But really, I think it is about like, Hey, you can carve your own space. You can create your own space and you can take up space for success. And you can bring others along the way and let them shine. And I think you know, in talking with you even just in this podcast, like it's such like an exercise of reflection, I'm like, wow, we've really accomplished some great things. But I wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't step out of that consultant role and jump into the CEO role.

Well, I love your frankness about the imposter syndrome because I think for people who are, let's say, you know, not as far along on the path as you are on entrepreneurship. They have felt those feelings and for them to hear that acknowledged in such an honest but accepting way from somebody like yourself who has accomplished all of this. To just understand that sometimes it's just a feeling. It doesn't mean that you're not successful. It doesn't mean that you can't do something. It's just a negative, you know, self talk. That is part of being human. 

Hmm. 100% And you really can't let that hold you back. Right. So, I mean, I think it's all of the moves I've made to get to the role that I'm in now have been like, leaps of faith or just like, trusting that things will come together. But that wasn't done recklessly because I knew that there was the skills and the talents and we were doing the things right. But sometimes you have to take those jumps. And your imposter syndrome is gonna say like, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't do this. But, you know, remind yourself that it is grounded in the experience you have in the experience you've seen in the sector and the people that are surrounding you and go for those those bigger jumps.

It's this balance between trusting yourself and doing the work, like doing the planning, asking for the help, doing all of that more analytical type of work, but also trusting yourself. 100% Yeah. And you're talking about change, and, you know, the discomfort with change, and I'm just reminded of something that I like to do with clients when we do retreats, you know, about change in leadership. So I'll do one with you now, because it's quick and it's fun, too, but we'll try and describe it for the ones who are listening. Okay, so just fold your arms, just, you know cross your arms across your chest, the way you would naturally, the way it feels comfortable to you. Now, uncross your arms and do it in the opposite direction. So the opposite arm under and the opposite arm on top. How does that feel? Right?

No, I didn't even do it. Right. And I was so resistant to change. I didn't do it, right. Yeah.

Yeah, it feels it does feel awkward. It feels awkward.

Now, do it one more time to go back to the natural way that you do it. And once again, unfold the arms and cross them again the unnatural way and tell me how does it feel?

It does feel better already. Like already? Yeah, yeah. Like it still feels a little bit odd. But I'm leaning into it a little bit more. Yeah, that's so funny.

And that's seconds, repeating it once. So imagine, you know, it's just natural for human beings to resist change. And just to have a little bit of faith that if you do the work, that discomfort will just naturally sort of get easier. 

Yeah, and I honestly think that discomfort is a sign of growth and success, right?

Totally agree. And get comfortable with making mistakes or stumbling or asking for help as part of that. 100% Okay, so you've talked about your sense of purpose several times in this conversation, but can you just share with us how you stay connected to it?

Yeah, I mean, for me, it really is simple. My purpose is to make things easier for the sector to rethink how we tackle parental leaves. I want parental leaves to be a celebrated life milestone, not this feared employment gap. And the way I stay connected to that is I look to my children, and I know that I want them to have, as cliche as it sounds, I want them to have a better experience in the work environment, right. I want them, when and if they decide to become parents to be able to navigate it in a much easier way than I did and not have to step back, give up or sacrifice things. Because they also want to build a family, but ask how can you do it thoughtfully, both.

Well, and that's lovely because it's a very simple but profound way to step back into that sense of purpose daily. 

Mm hmm. Yeah, like some days are harder.

100% Yeah. And I think you know, yeah, and there are days that you maybe forget that sense of purpose or it feels far away, but for me, like it's just like looking at my kids and thinking about it. It reminds me and circles me back to it, which is great. And grounding.

That's, that's great. Um, do you have anything that you want to add before we close today, Lacey?

I would just say like so Sandra, I met you through the YSpace York University's ELLA program. And so for any entrepreneurs that are kind of struggling with how do I do this? How do I build a business? women entrepreneurs specifically, I would say really look into that program. Reach out to Sandra, reach out to me. It really helped frame some of the bigger changes I needed to make in my business to step up to that next piece of success. And also to encourage people that like, it really is helpful to have a coach and an outside perspective to help you think through some of this. I wouldn't have done a lot of this work if I didn't have somebody asking me the right questions.

Yeah, you may find yourself, you know, navigating these changes eventually. But it's a lot harder, and it's a lot longer of the journey if you don't have the community and the support of coaches and mentors to help you along the way. 100% and that accelerator program is amazing. We will include links.

Yeah, that's great. And Sandra, if you could include links just to my LinkedIn and website, that would be great as well because people can certainly reach out to me if they have questions. I'm an open book and love chatting about these things as well. And I know sometimes entrepreneurship can feel lonely.

Yes. 100%. So thank you, Lacey, for your time and for your insights.

Thank you Sandra. I so enjoyed chatting with you today.

Me too and to our listeners, if you're interested in learning more about Balanced Good, please go to balancegood.com You've been listening to Get in the Driver's Seat, stories about leadership moments in professional practice. I'm your host, Sandra Bekhor practice management coach at Bekhor Management. Take care everybody.