How to Juggle Being a Mother & Building a Business with Brooke Greening

When you’re a mom and trying to build a business, balance can seem like an elusive dream. But it’s totally possible.

In this episode, I’m chatting with Brooke Greening, a Fractional Sales Leader & Marketing Consultant, and co-owner of Building Momentum Resources. She shares how she juggles her packed family schedule, involves her kids in her entrepreneurial journey, and carves out time for herself and her husband. 

We also touch on the importance of self-care, proactive planning, and the grace to accept imperfection in our journey. Brooke's story is relatable and inspiring, especially if you've ever felt overwhelmed by the daily grind. 

So don’t miss Brooke’s insights on balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship. Tune in to catch all her practical tips and inspiring stories.

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

• Balancing business and family responsibilities
• Self-care routines and mental health
• Giving yourself grace & practical advice for moms

Other Mentioned Links & Resources

Get to know more about Brooke Greening:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-greening

Access Brooke’s Daily Five Guide
https://buildingmomentum.info/priority

Visit Building Momentum
https://coaching.buildingmomentum.info

Learn More About Treefrog’s Small Business Marketing Resources & Services:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com

Receive 50% Off Your First Year of HoneyBook:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/honeybook-coupon-code

Save $20 on your first order from InstaCart
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/instacart-coupon-code

Book a Strategic Marketing Coaching:
https://treefrogmarketing.com/marketing-consulting-small-businesses

Join the Priority Pursuit Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426

Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefroggers

Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefrogkelly

Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/victorialrayburn

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:39 About Brooke Greening
• 9:48 Juggling multiple businesses while managing family life
• 15:20 Easing sales for small business owners marketing
• 17:31 Set expectations, be intense, and show grace
• 24:18 Flexible sales coaching with video courses available
• 26:52 Scheduling time together and exercise is crucial
• 30:43 Busy mornings with family, group coaching routine
• 34:55 Incorporating family in sales goals creates excitement
• 39:14 Connect with Brooke Greening

Transcript

Brooke Greening [00:00:00]:
The first thing I just want to encourage moms is just give yourself grace. So just to remind yourself that what you're doing is a great thing. You're trying to help your family, you're trying to move things forward. So just keep going, but give yourself grace in that. But then also set expectations for yourself and for your family. You just have to be pretty intense in regards to what is our day going to look like and inviting your family into that.

Victoria Rayburn [00:00:28]:
Hey there, you're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love. I'm your host, Victoria Rayburn, and today I am so excited to talk with Brooke Greening about something that small business owners don't talk about nearly often enough, at least in my opinion, and that's running a small business as a mom. While entrepreneurs, small business owners and educators are always seemingly happy to talk about business and marketing strategies and tactics, many are seemingly hesitant to talk about what life looks like outside of their businesses. And this includes what it truly looks like to be a mother while also doing all the things you need to do to serve your clients, lead your team if you have one, and run and grow your business. And for this reason, I am so excited for this episode. Now, in the future, we are most definitely going to have to have Brooke back on the show to discuss sales tactics. But today she is joining us to share some motherhood wisdom. You see, Brooke Greening is a sales expert with more than two decades of experience in corporate sales.

Victoria Rayburn [00:01:43]:
She sold everything from senior care to used cars when she worked in the corporate world. Because of this, she has become a trusted source for the latest and best ways to gain confidence when it comes to making sales in your business. Brooks sales ethos is centered around having great conversations, solving problems, and not being salesy. Her signature confidence building sales framework focuses on setting expectations for calls, building rapport, understanding clients, recognizing their problems motivations, verbalizing the value to create urgency, and clearly explaining next steps. Now, this is a framework that works and one that actually helped Brooke make a $100,000 sale right off the bat when she quit her sales job and started her own company. With her extensive sales experience and her passion for people, Brooke has proven that sales can be a success without the factor, which I'm sure all small business owners love hearing right now. Brooke has been featured in authority magazine and enjoys speaking on many different topics. But in addition to being a sales guru, Brooke is also a mom as a mother of three, including a child with complex medical needs, Brooke has learned to balance the stress of caring for her family while growing her business.

Victoria Rayburn [00:03:02]:
And today, she is graciously joining us on the show to share some of her wisdom with us. Brooke, thank you so much for coming on. I'm so excited for this conversation.

Brooke Greening [00:03:11]:
Oh, thank you, Victoria. I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you so much.

Victoria Rayburn [00:03:16]:
Well, Brooke, before we dive in to all of the things, would you mind telling us a little bit more about you and then also what your business and motherhood journey has really looked like?

Brooke Greening [00:03:29]:
No, I would love to. Thank you. So, I am the co owner of building Momentum Resources, and to just kind of give you a little bit of an idea. It's really easy sometimes for small businesses to feel like their growth is being stalled because of the day to day activities that they have to do. And so we have a suite of marketing consulting, sales coaching, and strategic planning services that we use to jumpstart their business so that they can reach their maximum profit. And I am on the sales and marketing side of that. So what I get to do is I get to work with my clients every day in regards to helping them with their marketing and their sales conversations. Before we started our own business, I was in corporate sales and more so corporate training, helping people as they were having those sales conversations.

Brooke Greening [00:04:11]:
And my last role was a sales specialist. And that was when I actually went into senior living communities that were struggling. We were expected to fix it quickly, figure out the problem, fix it, and then train the new team coming in. And so that's what I got to do for a long time, and this is what I get to do with my clients every day, and that is my favorite part. So we just want to try to help them be able to reach their sales goals quickly and so that they can continue to keep growing their business.

Victoria Rayburn [00:04:37]:
I love that. So, Brooke, when did you start your own business? When did you have kids? In relation to all of this, how does the personal side really break down?

Brooke Greening [00:04:47]:
Yeah, so the personal side is, and it's an. It is an incredible story that I'm so thankful for. I'm a certified story brand guide. And so I became a certified storybrand guide in 2021, in December. And then by February, we had landed a contract that allowed me to get completely out of my corporate job, that covered all my corporate salary, my insurance, all of that for a year. And we decided, okay, it's time to go. That was not the original plan. The original plan was for me to learn storybrand so I could help my husband and his side of the business with the strategic planning because that was just getting started.

Brooke Greening [00:05:19]:
And we didn't know that the sales side would take off as fast as it did. Now the mother piece comes in because I gave them a month's notice because I did not want. I wasn't sure. Yes, it's like, okay, I really think this is going to work, but I really don't want to, like, burn all of the bridges because I had been with that company for more than seven years and loved what I did. It just did not give me any life family balance at all. I was commuting 45 minutes a day at the minimum. I was on call 24 hours a day, and I was dealing with crisis situations all the time, and it just didn't give any space at all for that. And so I was nervous.

Brooke Greening [00:06:00]:
I was terrified. I actually broke out in hives when I gave them my notice, but I gave them a month's notice, and then I dove into it. It'd probably be about 30 days later, not very much longer, that my daughter got really sick. Like, not okay, we have a flu, but, like, emergencies, ambulance rides, picc lines, surgeries. It was a roller coaster. And that was about 30 days in to when we. I left my corporate job and started our own business. So that's how it started for us.

Brooke Greening [00:06:34]:
And I'm so thankful that I was not in my corporate job when that happened because I would have been a hot mess and our family would have been a hot mess. And so I'm very thankful that it happened that way. But that's how we started our business. Literally, me in the emergency rooms and in the hospitals.

Victoria Rayburn [00:06:54]:
And, I mean, also, if it's in 2021, like, mean Covid is still very, very much a thing at that point, it was.

Brooke Greening [00:07:02]:
And so my daughter was probably eleven or twelve at that point. So it was tough, like her brother, that she's very close to him. They're three years apart. Born on the same day. Try to try to do that twice. They're not twins. They're three years apart. And he couldn't see her.

Brooke Greening [00:07:18]:
He wasn't allowed to come and visit her. Like, he would wave from the hospital window. But that was it. And that was hard because she was going through a really hard time. I wanted to, like, see my other children. I had a one year old at that point. I had a one year old. I had one in the hospital.

Brooke Greening [00:07:33]:
I had a seven year old. It was just insane.

Victoria Rayburn [00:07:36]:
Oh, man.

Victoria Rayburn [00:07:37]:
So, Brooke, how old are your kids now?

Brooke Greening [00:07:40]:
Yeah. So my daughter is 13. She's going to be in 8th grade. Her name is Tora. She's still very much dealing with all of the things that she did. That was just the start of what was going to be happening. My son is ten. He loves karate.

Brooke Greening [00:07:56]:
His name is Asher. And then my little one is three. Her name is busy. That is her nickname. Her real name is Naomi.

Victoria Rayburn [00:08:02]:
Well, she must be a very busy little girl if she's earned that nickname.

Brooke Greening [00:08:08]:
My children did that. So when we announced that we were pregnant, like, in the middle of COVID and they were thrilled that they were going to have another playmate at that point, they nicknamed her busy, and it just stuck the whole entire time.

Victoria Rayburn [00:08:19]:
Oh, my goodness. So not only are you starting a business while having. I mean, you already have kids, and then you. I mean, you just have kids. You have a baby. You have a. You have a sick child and a baby, like, oh, my goodness. Oh, so, yes, that's so, so many things.

Victoria Rayburn [00:08:35]:
I mean, I think a lot of people think that, like, oh, I need to start my business before I have kids, or I need to wait for them to be a little bit older, and then I'll do this thing. But you very much figured out in the thick of all of it.

Brooke Greening [00:08:49]:
Yeah, we. Not by choice. We really thought, like, okay, we are set. We are good to go. My children were pretty healthy up until that point, and so that just completely rocked our world.

Victoria Rayburn [00:09:04]:
Oh, my goodness. Well, prayers for her. Prayers for you all. And, I mean, you're clearly all very much thriving these days, which is wonderful. So, Brooke, if you don't mind me asking, what are some of the unique challenges that mothers specifically face when running their own businesses? And this is not to say that dads don't face these challenges, and this is not to say that women who don't work for themselves face these challenges. But I'm only, at the time of this recording, I am only four months into being a mother and running a business, and it does come with some challenges. And you are have much more experience than I do. So, yes, I want to pose that question to you.

Victoria Rayburn [00:09:43]:
What are some of the unique challenges that mothers specifically face when running their own businesses?

Brooke Greening [00:09:48]:
Absolutely. I feel like the best way to explain it is you're not running one business. You're running, like, three, depending on how many kids you have and depending on, like, the extracurricular activities that they have. So you're not only trying to do the things that you need to do to continue to grow the business, for it to continue to thrive, but you are also constantly working on their life and helping manage all of the things that they have. So we're talking about, like, school appointments, doctor's appointments. Not even if you don't have a child with a complex medical condition like Torah has, just regular, like, would you like them to see the dentist in more than three years in a row? Like, you got to get that stuff organized. And so you're running multiple businesses all at the same time. Everybody has different schedules, and then also, it just never really actually goes to plan.

Brooke Greening [00:10:37]:
So some of the things that can happen for moms in particular is if your child gets sick. Okay, now what's happening? Say we have calls going on, we've got Zoom meetings, whatever the case is. But now you have a ten year old that's throwing up. How do you handle those things? How do you deal with childcare? How do you deal with the extra activities, like, when they go to school? It's fantastic. So you have, like, a tiny window to get things done. But what do you do when they start coming back and not having it? Be a. Like, you're in my way. This is a bother to me.

Brooke Greening [00:11:11]:
But incorporating them into your business so they don't, like, have resentment towards it later in life.

Victoria Rayburn [00:11:20]:
Absolutely. So, out of curiosity, obviously, your older kids, when you started your business, they were school age, so I'm assuming they were in school at that point. But then your little one, did you keep her home with you? Did you send her to daycare? What did that look like before she was school aged?

Brooke Greening [00:11:34]:
Yeah. I was so thankful. And we can look. So we can actually look and say, okay, this is what it was like with Torah and Asher when I was in corporate. This is what it's like when we have our own job, and I have so much more time with busy than I had with Torah and Asher. And that's. That's just the way that it is. Even though she continues to go to daycare, so she goes to daycare Tuesday through Friday, and I'm with her on Mondays.

Brooke Greening [00:11:57]:
We did that so that I could have that time. One of the main reasons we decided to start our own business was so that I could have more time at home, because I didn't. I would leave it, like, seven in the morning. I get home at 08:00 at night, and I was on call 24 hours a day. Like, that was literally my schedule all the time.

Victoria Rayburn [00:12:16]:
Yes. I mean, you know, so many of us start our own businesses to have more freedom. And, yeah, when you work in sales on that, in that capacity in an emergency situation.

Brooke Greening [00:12:26]:
Like, you've got hospitals, you've got rehabs, you've got families calling you. Yeah.

Victoria Rayburn [00:12:30]:
Oh, my goodness. Okay, Brooke. So, with all of that in mind, you know, balancing family responsibilities with business demands can obviously be difficult. So how do you manage your time effectively to ensure both your family and your business receive the attention that they need?

Brooke Greening [00:12:47]:
Yeah, I love this question, and it's something I get to work with my clients with a lot because I do, like, individual sales coaching and group sales coaching. And we've created what's called the daily five to be able to help mothers, anyone, actually, with their. With their responsibilities, because a lot of times what can happen is you can focus on doing a lot of things for your business, but it's actually not moving it forward. You're not really doing those sales generating activities. And so that is going to cause a lot of problems. And so even if you have, like, an hour a day, this is where the. The daily five can come into. And so just quickly, with the daily five, we want to, first of all, make sure we're following up with everybody that comes into our world.

Brooke Greening [00:13:30]:
So whether it's a lead or they've called us or whatever, that we're responding absolutely within 24 hours, but more so, like, within two. That's the very first thing we want to do. We want to always be. Have that. Be on our radar. And I do a lot of this in our CRM. So I can see, like, okay, who are my leads? What's happening with that? The second thing is we want to be able to be prepared for our sales conversations, for the proposals that are going out. And so I have a service framework that I use with my clients that we've created, but it's having a pre call plan with every one of the conversations that are going forward.

Brooke Greening [00:14:05]:
You just don't want to wing it. That's not what you want to do. That your customer deserves more than that. You deserve more than that. And so you want to be able to prepare for those. The next thing is, you just want to make sure that the things that are happening, the proposals, the follow up, you have a plan for those. And then the fourth thing is the ones that you didn't get done, the ones that are called, like, our past due activities that we hate, and that it seems like a laundry pile, and it just keeps growing and growing. You want to be able to manage those and have a plan for that.

Brooke Greening [00:14:33]:
And then the fifth thing is, you just really want to be able to focus on as you're developing your business. What? Who do you want in your corner for your business world? The podcast that you're going on, the conferences that you're going to, the speaking engagements. How are you preparing for those and seeking those out? If you do those five things every day, your sales cycle is going to shorten for one. So then it's not going to take forever. And then you're going to be able to make more sales. And if you do it every day, it doesn't take as long. If you don't do it every day, then you're like, oh, I have all of this that I have to do. So that's what I encourage.

Brooke Greening [00:15:07]:
Get those five things done every day and you are going to make sure that you have mass productivity, whether you have like an hour or 5 hours depending on what your day looks like, what's happening with your kids, all of that.

Victoria Rayburn [00:15:20]:
Oh, that's so good. I really appreciate the simplicity of that. And just obviously we work on the marketing side of things. I mean, marketing, sales, and they go hand in hand, but they are very much different. And so it's, I just think it's so easy for small business owners to get intimidated by the sales aspect of things, especially when, you know, they need more business coming in because it feels like this ever loving, overwhelming kind of thing. But when you have a system like that does make it super approachable. And Brooke, I believe you said you have a guide for this. Before we jump on our call that you wanted to share with people, would you mind telling people where they can find that? Because, I mean, honestly, like, yes, we're going to get into more motherhood related things and this is going to help mothers, but I know they want this, so make sure that they can grab it.

Brooke Greening [00:16:07]:
Yeah. So it's going to go to buildingmomentum.info/priority. And so it'll be me explaining it a little bit more and then also giving you a checklist so that you can print it off, put it by your desk every day and make sure that you're working through it.

Victoria Rayburn [00:16:20]:
Oh, wonderful. We will definitely link to that in the show notes. Thank you so much. Again, love the simplicity and the clarity there. But Brooke, moving on to our next question for you. Yeah, motherhood, you know, it often requires flexibility like you talked about. You know, there might be a sick kid and somehow this mom's got to get it taken care of. So how do you adapt your business operations to accommodate your family's needs while maintaining productivity? And I mean, I know that, oh, when you have a kid who's been in and out of the hospital.

Victoria Rayburn [00:16:53]:
I'm sure that you've really had to figure this out.

Brooke Greening [00:16:57]:
That is a great question. So the first thing I just want to encourage moms is just give yourself grace. That's the very first thing. There are some great tips that I have for you, and we're going to be talking about those. But just first of all, give yourself grace. No one is, like, watching you with a note, like with a grading system and giving you an a plus or a b or whatever, it is tough. If it wasn't tough, then everybody would be doing it. And so just to remind yourself that what you're doing is a great thing, trying to help your family, you're trying to move things forward.

Brooke Greening [00:17:31]:
So just keep going, but give yourself grace in that. But then also set expectations for yourself and for your family. You just have to be pretty intense in regards to what is our day going to look like and inviting your family into that. Now, when you have a four month old, you can't necessarily do a lot of that inviting in, but you still have to figure out, and we haven't even gone into nursing. Like, I had to nurse when I was at, when I was at my corporate job and, like, go find a random room somewhere. Like, they didn't have anything for me to do that. And so if you're doing nursing, if you're doing any of those things, you just have to be really clear on what your day is going to look like and then guard it. I remember thinking to myself when it was, and whatever moms choose to do is perfectly fine, but for me, I wanted to be able to nurse my little one for a little bit, so we had to do pumping and all of that.

Brooke Greening [00:18:26]:
And I remember thinking, my job is not going to determine when I'm done. I'm going to determine that. And this is going to be hard and it is going to be uncomfortable and I am going to miss stuff because I'm not going to be able to be there the whole entire time because I need to excuse myself every few hours or 4 hours or whatever it is, but they're not going to determine that. And so just to know what you want and then guard it. Also giving yourself grace, it's this constant balance of. And it's not really a balance sometimes. Sometimes it's, hey, mom has a really important sales call. I'm not going to be able to help you with your homework right now.

Brooke Greening [00:19:10]:
I'm not. And so you're going to have to be okay that you're going to have to wait for a little bit. The world does not revolve around you. And it is okay for you to know that at this moment. On the flip side, okay, my daughter's in the ER. I can't make my sales call at this moment. What are we going to do? And that actually changed a little bit in regards to how we did our business as well. To try to not have all of, like, to have more evergreen type of things going on, instead of, like, I have to be at a certain place at a certain time because that made it difficult.

Brooke Greening [00:19:43]:
And so, yeah, just constantly doing that balance, but bringing your kids into it as much as you can, even if they're little. Like, my little three year old knows. She's like, oh, mommy's. Mommy's on a zoom call, which means she gets to watch bluey. But everybody wins. Everybody wins. Good show. So that's what I would encourage.

Brooke Greening [00:20:02]:
And then just bring people into your world. Like, if you're with your partner, your spouse, whatever it is, that they can also support you and help them. Just very clear expectations. Like, this is what we have going on for the day. This is where I need help. So for my husband and I, that's going on even right now, where he's on busy control so that we're able to have this conversation and then we're gonna. We're gonna switch. And so just really giving yourself grace and setting the expectations and you just have to be proactive.

Brooke Greening [00:20:32]:
That's the thing. You can't just wing your day.

Victoria Rayburn [00:20:34]:
Yeah, I've learned that one pretty quickly. But it is so just bizarre, almost how you have to make that mental switch, at least in my experience, like, when it was just, you know, my husband and I, it's like, yeah, we could kind of go about our days, but I don't think I was mentally prepared for, like, all of the managing of the time and, like, being the one to figure that out. And again, that's not to say, like, please don't nobody listen to this and think that, like, I am saying, my husband does not help with things like that. It's not at all what I am saying.

Brooke Greening [00:20:59]:
No, no.

Victoria Rayburn [00:21:01]:
But it is just a funny mental switch.

Brooke Greening [00:21:05]:
When you're a mom, it's not just a responsibility, especially when they're little, like, you're keeping them alive. That is a very big thing. And so you have to, like, realize, okay, I'm. Sometimes it's just like, one, it's giving yourself grace. And two, a lot of times it's like if you've got it 80% done, go. It is never, ever going to be 100% correct. I don't say that in regards to when I'm working with my clients, because when we're working with our clients, we're working to give them the best experience possible. But in your own building your business, say, okay, I know I should be doing like this social post or I'm going to do this reel or I'm going to go do this video.

Brooke Greening [00:21:43]:
But I don't know, maybe I don't look so great. Maybe like, no, just it's 80% good enough. Go. Because you're never, as a mom, you're never going to get to 100%, ever.

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Kelly Rice [00:22:40]:
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Victoria Rayburn [00:24:02]:
Hey, I needed to hear that today, so thank you very much. And Brooke, I also wanted to ask really quick. You touched on the fact that, you know, you started thinking about more evergreen aspects of your business so you guys could check out a little bit more when you need to. Would you mind telling us a little bit about what that has looked like?

Brooke Greening [00:24:18]:
Sure. So we have a couple of different things. We have different video courses that we have for our sales coaching, and so people can do that at any time. That's fantastic. I don't have to have a conversation with them in regards to them doing that. And then I also have things in regards to my coaching where it's like having a sales coach in your back pocket. And so they can reach out to me at any time and I will respond to them within 48 hours with any of the questions that they have. So if they have a sales conversation coming up, if they have proposals going on, they're trying to launch a new campaign, I'm able to respond, but it's not saying, okay, I have to be there at 03:00 I'm able to do that at a little bit more of a flexible, flexible pace.

Brooke Greening [00:24:58]:
We still have our group coaching where we meet on a weekly basis, but we constantly try to figure out how can we keep things going in a way that it'll still move if I have to go to the erde. That's literally why we did that.

Victoria Rayburn [00:25:11]:
Oh, again, I'm so sorry you were in that position, but that's so an ingenious thing to do on your part. And, I mean, really, when you think about it. So you said you left your full time job in 2021, correct? Is that right? You've had a very busy few years to not only be starting a business. I know you said your husband had his side of things running and you were coming in to aid with that, but then also to have courses and evergreen options available. Just. Oh, man. Round of applause, mama. That's a lot.

Brooke Greening [00:25:44]:
Oh, well, thank you. It is fun when you look back, because just like I think moms think of us all the time, they come back to the end of the day and they're like, what in the world did I accomplish? And I really do encourage, like, do the daily five and you'll feel better about what you've accomplished, and it will move your business forward. But it is good, like, to give yourself that grace and to look back and be like, wow, look at all that we've done in the last three years when it was not easy and it was obstacle after obstacle after obstacle, and you just keep moving forward.

Victoria Rayburn [00:26:17]:
Absolutely. Well, on that note, because, you know, you do need to take care of yourself somewhere in there. What strategies do you use to, like, maintain your mental health and emotional well being while juggling all of these demands?

Brooke Greening [00:26:32]:
Yeah. So a couple of different things. So I've been married to my husband for 17 years. I'm so incredibly thankful for him. I call him the lid to our crazy. He is. We are opposite in pretty much any, any aspect. I'm all excited and all, and he's much more calm and strategic and all of those things.

Brooke Greening [00:26:52]:
But one thing is we need to spend time together so that we're able to continue to build into our family and to build into our business. So we have a date that we go on on Friday mornings, and that is pretty much set in stone. We've blocked it off of our calendars, and we didn't do that for a good little bit, and that made a big difference. The other thing is, like, when we talk about, like, what we need to do, walking is really helpful for me. And so I've realized there are times, and I'm sure a lot of moms feel this way, where they're like, I can't possibly, like, exercise. Like, I literally have to get everybody out the door and make sure that their appointments are set, and then we've got the business, and then we have, like, the clients that we're working with. And you feel like, I just don't have time to do that. But what I've realized is I can't afford not to because you will burn out.

Brooke Greening [00:27:43]:
You can't. Like, you have to get some of that energy out. And so I like to walk. My faith is really important to me. So I like to read and pray. I can do that kind of all at the same time while I'm walking and listening to music. And that is just very refreshing for me. Also, if I'm stuck and just trying to figure out, okay, how do I move forward with this client? Or what am I going to say? Or what are we going to do for this lead generator.

Brooke Greening [00:28:07]:
Whatever it is that we're working through, it really kind of gets those creative juices going. So, for me, walking is that some may want to run, but really taking time to, like, burn energy, because if you're sitting at a computer all day or you're in zooms all day or whatever it is that people are doing for their business, you're just going to burn out. You can't sustain that. And so that's really important. And then sometimes therapy helps. I actually have a master's in counseling, and so I don't counsel myself, but I do. I do you. I help others.

Brooke Greening [00:28:48]:
But so. But that. That's a real thing. Like, we had a huge thing where we were starting a business. I left my corporate job. My daughter got really sick. And all of it hit at the exact same time. On top of, like, trying to learn how to be a mom to a baby again.

Brooke Greening [00:29:06]:
I hadn't done that for ten years. Wasn't, like, super skilled at it at that point. And so all of that was coming in at the same time. And so to realize I need to talk to someone about this was huge.

Victoria Rayburn [00:29:21]:
Absolutely. Brooke, from all your answers, is it safe to say you're a very disciplined person between your top five and making sure that you have a weekly date, is it fair to say, have you always naturally been this disciplined, or is it something you have been working toward?

Brooke Greening [00:29:40]:
I think it is definitely something we've been working toward. The top five. That was what helped me in my sales world before, and so I knew that. So we were able to adopt some of those things. But I do think sometimes as moms, we feel like, okay, I just need to be able to go with the flow and be all right with whatever happens. And I realize that gives me hives. I can't do that. I need to schedule, but hold it loosely.

Brooke Greening [00:30:09]:
So that's what I've learned to do. Like, this is the best plans and the intentions of the day. So I have a plan. So if we don't have interruptions, this is what's going to happen, but also realizing that life is going to get in the way. But if I don't have that, I don't do well. I need, like, that structure for me and for our family. Otherwise, people don't have underwear. They can't find their clothes for school, and it's just a hot mess.

Victoria Rayburn [00:30:36]:
More than fair.

Kelly Rice [00:30:37]:
Okay.

Victoria Rayburn [00:30:37]:
Well, with that in mind, Brooke, I'm curious. What does day to day life look like for your family?

Brooke Greening [00:30:43]:
Oh, yeah, for our family during the school year, we get up in the morning, and we get everybody where they need to go. So busy needs to go to daycare. Tor and Asher need to head to school, and we're able to do that. So in the school year, that works out really well. But it's. It's early. Like, everybody's out the door by, like, 7715 or so. Then we start trying to figure out, okay, what are we doing with the business today? I have group coaching that I do on regular basis.

Brooke Greening [00:31:08]:
I have other clients that I work with. There's a university that I work with for their sales team. So we have those things going on and then continuing to build our business, our pipelines, our videos, all of those things. And then to add just one more piece to it, my husband does do strategic planning for churches and organizations. He's also a pastor, and so.

Victoria Rayburn [00:31:29]:
Oh, goodness.

Brooke Greening [00:31:30]:
Let's just add one more thing. And so there's different things going on in the church and with the ministry and all of that. And so it is a day to day process. It's very helpful when busy is at daycare, because then, like, Tuesday through Friday, we know. Okay, we got eight to, like, five. Let's go. Time to dive in.

Victoria Rayburn [00:31:52]:
So are you all. I mean, you and your husband trying to do most of the work while the kids are at school, at daycare, do you work in the evenings? What does that part look like?

Brooke Greening [00:32:01]:
Yeah, so we do work on the evening sometimes, because sometimes, you know, like, with your clients, they may need something a little bit different. And so we need to be able to fix something or something along that line. We try not to do evenings all the time, because, again, our goal is that this is the long run. My mother in law and I think my mom told me this, they're like, Brooke, you are not in a sprint. You are in a marathon. And if you're in a marathon, you have to kind of gauge yourself. And so, in the beginning, we were kind of doing nights and everything because we just didn't have any time during the day because of what was happening with Torah. But as we've continued to grow from that, it's really important to, like, give our kids the time that they need on Saturday.

Brooke Greening [00:32:43]:
Like, we try to have that be family day also, moms. This is what we do because it was just getting a little nuts. We have screen free Saturday. So that means, like, you can't have your iPad or your switch or whatever. It's just sometimes what would happen is they would get so zoned in on their screens forever, and then they're all cranky when we want to do something else. And so we were just like, okay, it's, it's Family day. It's screen free Saturday. This is what we're doing.

Brooke Greening [00:33:10]:
So, yeah, we do try to get those things in there, but obviously the business continues to grow. And so there are times where we need to do things on different days.

Victoria Rayburn [00:33:19]:
I appreciate the honesty there because, I mean, I think a lot of people will they tout the, like, oh, yes, we have this perfect work life balance and everything fits into these compartments.

Brooke Greening [00:33:30]:
No, I think it's very important to include your family in it as much as you possibly can. That's when there's not, like this. You're over here, we're over here, and, like, maybe we'll see you in an hour. There are times like, we have to do that because we have a call or we're trying to video something. There are times for that, but a lot of times we want them to be involved as much as possible. And the other thing is, I do, to encourage moms, like, block times off in your schedule. Truly, like, block it off, say, hey, okay, we're not able. So that people can't schedule things with you on Saturday or Sunday or in the evening.

Brooke Greening [00:34:05]:
Like, just make it so that when people are wanting to reach out to you or doing sales calls or whatever it is, like, you can orchestrate that to fit your needs so that people aren't scheduling things and then you're just scrambling all over the place trying to figure out how you're going to meet those expectations.

Victoria Rayburn [00:34:22]:
Absolutely. Well, Brooke, this is kind of a nice segue into the next question I wanted to ask you, but, yeah, because you said, you know, make your, make the business part of your family so they can really see this happening. But how do you involve your kids in your business? And are there any valuable lessons or experiences they've gained from being a part of your entrepreneurial journey? I mean, it's such a, it's such a cool way to grow up. I mean, my husband and I both have, like, long history to small business owners and our families. And, I mean, I say all the time very much like, if my grandparents didn't do what they did, I don't think I would do what I'm doing today. So, yes, tell us how you're doing this.

Brooke Greening [00:34:55]:
Yeah, I would say so the first thing is, because you said, like, how do we incorporate our family? This is what we love doing. So they give us sales goals and then they get, like, the gift for it. So we work through and we're like, okay, we need this many in our coaching class and we need this many new clients, and then we work together in regards to what those goals are going to be and that are going to benefit them. Like urban air, Disney Wildlife Lodge, all those different types of things for them to be able to get excited about. And that's fun because then when I'm on a sales call, they're like, come on, come on, come on. Because they're like getting closer, getting closer. And so that's one thing that we do. And I really appreciated this question when you're saying, how has it affected your kids? My kids saw me in corporate world and there is nothing wrong with that.

Brooke Greening [00:35:51]:
I have great friends and family who do that and they do an incredible job. And I did it for like twelve years. And so it's not that, it's not a, it's not a bad thing to do, but they have been able to see, wow, when mom chose to do this, when mom and dad chose to do this, this is what we got. We got to be with mom more and now we get fun trips, but this is, this is what we were able to do. And so even for my daughter, she wants to be a nurse because of all of the insanity of all that she's gone through. And she has such a compassionate heart and she wants to help kids, literally, who are going through what she is. It's helping her to know, like, well, we have to plan, we have to figure things out. We have to do things one by one.

Brooke Greening [00:36:36]:
So, like this weekend, she got CPR certified. Just helping her to know, like, this is one step closer. I know you don't have to be CPR certified to go to nursing school, but helping her to see, these are the steps to move forward with your goals. And that's what they're seeing. They're seeing it all the time. Like, mom and dad have goals. This is what they're doing to accomplish those, and they're including us in that. And I think that's really, really important for them to be able to see.

Brooke Greening [00:37:02]:
And for busy she. This is, this is probably just going to be her normal because she doesn't know any other life at this point. But you're absolutely right. The flexibility that you can have, the fact that I get to go to the zoo with my daughter because it's in the middle of the day, and that's just what they're going to do for the end of the school year trip is amazing. Like, I would have had to take time off and make sure everything was okay. And, like, I probably just wouldn't have even done it when I was in the corporate world. And so the amount of flexibility it gives you. Yes.

Brooke Greening [00:37:34]:
Are there long nights? Is it crazy? Is there, like, the reality that you don't necessarily have stable paychecks in the beginning because you're. You're it. You're generating your leads, you're closing your sales. You're the ones working with your clients. But the flexibility is just absolutely incredible. And there are still days I wake up, and I am just so incredibly thankful. I'm. I'm just thankful that I don't have to get in the car and drive 45 minutes today.

Brooke Greening [00:38:00]:
I'm just thankful.

Victoria Rayburn [00:38:02]:
Oh, I love that. And, Brooke, I really love how you make your kids part of your goals. I have never heard that before. And, I mean, I think so many people when they grow up, you know, with entrepreneurial parents, a lot of times, it's the, like, more so the, hey, kid, you're gonna help me with this? And then they were like, why? Like, because you have a roof over your head. Like, there isn't. Like. I mean, I remember being told things like that as a kid and not caring at all. So yay for Disney World.

Victoria Rayburn [00:38:28]:
And being. I think that's amazing.

Brooke Greening [00:38:31]:
Well, and there is truth to that. Like, we talk about, like, okay, this is expendable income. This is, like, it. Those are good conversations to have with them, but absolutely, like, yeah, kids, pray for the sales calls and pray they go, well, absolutely. Knock yourself out. I'll tell you how it goes when I get back.

Victoria Rayburn [00:38:48]:
Oh, my goodness. That is wonderful. Well, Brooke, thank you so, so much for coming on the show today. Thank you for sharing tactical things and mindset shifts that we can make. I mean, this was just, like, the epitome of a Priority Pursuit episode and that, you know, really did dive into how to build a life and business that you love, specifically as a mom. And, Brooke, I know that people are going to want to hear more from you, so where can they find you, connect with you? And, again, we will definitely put the guide you mentioned in the show notes. But if you have anything else you want to share, please. Please.

Brooke Greening [00:39:23]:
Oh, absolutely. So you can feel free to go to buildingmomentum.info And so that's where our website is at. And then I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, so you can feel free to join there as well. And then I give daily weekly sales tips and marketing tips. So if that's something people are interested in, they can sign up for that, too.

Victoria Rayburn [00:39:42]:
Love it. And yes, Brooke, eventually we're going to have to have you back on the show to talk sales, y'all. I love that Brooke sent so many great topics, and I think that I selfishly was like, I'm a new mom before a month old. I picked that one. But yes, Brooke, thank you for. Thank you for being here. And for those of you listening, thank you for tuning into another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.