The Ali Dee Show

Ep 102: Motherhood & Millions: Juggling Kids and Business

• Ali Dee • Season 1 • Episode 102

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As a mom of two under six who's built multiple six and seven-figure businesses, I've discovered that success doesn't require superhuman abilities just smarter strategies.

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Speaker 1:

Hello, welcome to the Ali D show. Today I'm going to talk to you about a topic that comes up a lot with my clients, so I definitely want to bring it to the podcast because I feel like if it's coming up with my clients, it's coming up with you, and what I'm going to talk about is how to run a business as a mom successfully. Okay, because we know sometimes things can get a little chaotic when we're trying to run our own business and be a good mom and a lot of times we just feel like we're just constantly in survival mode and people ask me all the time like, how do you do it? So this is how I run multiple six and seven figure businesses as a mom with two kids under six. Okay, so my kids are three and five. They still very much need my attention, they very much need my help with literally everything. So for me, I'm going to tell you the things that I really feel like made a huge difference in my life, because the first few years of being a mom and trying to juggle running my businesses, it did feel very chaotic. It felt like I was waking up every single day in survival mode just like, oh my gosh, how am I going to get everything done every day? How am I going to get through the day? Am I going to get a chance to sit down and eat my meals, which I still don't really do that, but I guess that's more by choice, because I could be sitting down and eating my meals, but for some reason I just always stand up and just get it done. One of the things I just want to check off my list is eating. Don't forget to eat. But this is really the things that I have felt like have made the biggest difference in my life as a mom who's also running a business.

Speaker 1:

Now, listen, I'm also, in a way, like I'm a work from home mom. So I have a headquarters right, you guys know my pink, iconic warehouse. I have a team that operates every single day, but I spend like probably 70% of my time at my home with my kids. So one is in kindergarten, the other one's still home with me all the time, but it's the kindergarten. It's a very short schedule, it's not a full-time school situation, so I am spending a lot of the majority of my day with my kids as, like the primary responsible care person. Okay, I guess that's how you say it.

Speaker 1:

So the things that I've found were like the magical sauce for me that have allowed me to really get out of that chaotic stage, which was so draining, it was so overwhelming it really was. So I want to share these things with you, because this is what I tell my clients as well. These are the things that really made a big difference for me. Some of them are going to feel very simple. Some may be something you could implement in the future, but I want to make sure you know at least what worked for me, so you could try these things and let me know, send me a DM, let me know have you tried these? Did they work for you? Let's have a conversation, or maybe even DM me some of the things that work for you. We could do a whole podcast about that, like what works for the women in this community, but I'm going to give you mine to start.

Speaker 1:

So the first thing I want to mention is I had to completely quit the idea that multitasking was a good thing. Multitasking is one of the most terrible things that I believe you can do for your business and also in life, and here's why, when you multitask, what you're doing is you're trying to do a lot of things at once, right? And if you're trying to do a lot of things at once, you're not doing anything with 100% of your focus and your effort, right, because you're splitting yourself up over multiple tasks at the same time. That's why it's called multitasking, and I was the queen of this. But what I realized, especially once I had kids, is that when I was multitasking, the output, the results of all of the things that I was doing, drastically suffered, not only in work, but like as a mom too. So this would look like and if you do this, just be like oh okay, let me check myself, because it may be one of the reasons why you're feeling so in survival mode all the time.

Speaker 1:

So for me, for example, it'd be like waking up, trying to make breakfast, answer emails, call my office, you know, put like take care of any issue, that, like, I don't know someone stubbed their toe on a toy, the TV is too loud, like, like doing a lot of things at once. This was a really, really chaotic place to try to operate efficiently from, because, again, I was always in a state of well, I kind of get the email done. It was good enough, right? Like big business things that need your full attention. They kind of just turn to like it's okay, it's good enough. But what I wanted to tell you is, if it's just good enough, it's not great. And we want greatness around here, right, trend setters, we want greatness, or at least we want to aspire to be great.

Speaker 1:

So, instead of multitasking, what I did was I cut that out completely and this was a conscious effort, like this was just an idea that I had. Right, I was just like, let me just try this, let me just try, let me see what happens. Because I think, as women, we have a lot of pressure to be good at multitasking, right? Like, oh, we're women, we can multitask, we can do so many things at once and, yes, we can. But at what cost? Is it our mental health? Is it our kids? Is it our work? So it's kind of like balancing okay, everybody like puts multitasking on a pedestal, like it's something like that they it's like a badge of honor that they wear, but I honestly think it's something that hurts women's businesses and lives.

Speaker 1:

So, instead, what I decided and I just made a conscious decision because I was done with that and I was like let me try the total opposite. Let me just not try to get a million things done at once and let me just maybe I'm not going to get as much done in the day, but what I do get done right. That was my thought process. So I went from having like a sorry, I keep clearing my throat. I think I've got like some allergy thing going on shocking, but it's Texas, it's like allergies 24, 7, 365 days a year. Now, anyways, I digress.

Speaker 1:

So what I did was I cut out the multitasking and I told myself I would give myself. Instead of like trying to get 10 things done in a day, which my my to do list was usually like 10 to 12 things I was like I'm going to do three, I'm going to do three. Well, maybe, like maybe in the beginning it was probably more like five because I was like I'm cutting it in half, but really the sweet spot I've found is three. So having three tasks that are money making activities for my business, instead of just spreading myself thin. So I would when I was doing that task, that's what I was doing. I wasn't doing the task. Let's say it was like emailing a buyer okay for to get my products into their store and answering kind of questions or anything.

Speaker 1:

So I wasn't emailing and making lunch and you know having a chat with my husband about something I was only emailing, which meant come into the room, close the distractions, you know. Make sure someone's you know looking after the kids or even if it was me and they were here, making sure that they were like playing with some little toys or something. Keep them distracted as much as you can and give yourself 10 to 15 minutes of 100% focus on the task. This changed the game for me and this almost sounds silly saying this like duh, but I'm telling you most women don't do this. Especially if you're a work from home mom and you're raising your kids at the same time and you've got a lot going on, most women are going to try to multitask to get more done in a day. This kills your results.

Speaker 1:

So I went from doing that to getting very specific. So when I'm momming, when I'm making lunch, I'm not making lunch and answering an email. I'm making lunch and hanging out with the kids and that's my focus. So they get a lot more. They get A plus effort, right. They get A plus love, a plus effort and A plus attention instead of like C, c minus. So it made me start feeling better too. So not only did my tasks get done better, did I become a more present and focused mom, but I also felt better because I saw the results improve and I saw my kids were happy and I was happy, I was happier and I felt like this is a magic sauce that is not being talked about. Like why is everyone just like championing the idea that moms should be running themselves into the ground, multitasking and doing 800,000 things a day? Instead, let's take stuff off your plate and let's do things right. Okay, so this was a novel idea. So that was a major, major, big thing for me.

Speaker 1:

The second one that I'll talk about and this is when I was like this may be for you right now or not, but I want to put this into your head now, because this will be game changing for you as well is delegation of tasks. Okay, my friend, so many of us business owners small, small business owners think that we are the only ones that can do everything in our business. Okay, we're the only ones that know how to add this stuff on shopify. We're the only ones that know how to ship. We're the only ones that know how to answer emails from customers, because, god forbid, someone says the wrong thing or does the wrong thing, or okay, listen, I was you. I already know how this goes.

Speaker 1:

When I had kids, I was forced to start delegating because I didn't have a choice. Okay, I couldn't be in the office anymore. I had like a baby at home, which I had kids later in life, so I already had like an established work schedule and established like life. Right, I wasn't in my 20s, so I had, like I had already built my businesses. So I realized that I was very involved in my business. When I had my first child, I was still very involved in every single thing in the operation. So when I had a baby and, like I literally physically couldn't go to the office every day anymore, I had to learn how to delegate tasks, because what was happening is I was the bottleneck of the business. Everything having to run through me meant it went slower, less efficient, less sales, because I was slowing down the process of the growth of my business. And I'm saying this to you now because I want to think. I want you to think about this you may be the bottleneck in your business. And I'm saying this to you now because I want you to think about this. You may be the bottleneck in your business. You may be what's stunting the growth. This is a hard realization to make as a business owner because you want to think that you're the end-all, be-all for your business. But I'm telling you, when I started delegating tasks and they were done beautifully by the team, better than I ever could, and it took a while for me to get comfortable with this. But now I have so much trust in them that they literally run the day-to-day operations without me, period Like. I went into the warehouse today at 4.30. I checked on them for 10 minutes. I was picking up a pizza for dinner at the gas station 's a small town. Okay, that's where we get our pizza. Don't judge us. It's freaking delicious. Um, so we're getting a pizza. So I stopped in there. Kids use the bathroom. They played around for a little while. I visited with the employees. We kind of talked about what was going on. We got some new styles going out to some of our major retailers, so it was like a quick 15 minute conversation. But everything is handled. I don't have to spend my time worrying about being a great mom and having everything handled in the business. So this is where I just want to plant the seed for you, because so many women come to me, women that are making like 20, 30, 40k per month in sales already, that aren't delegating tasks, and they're feeling the weight. But they're also wanting to grow right. They're wanting to go from like 20K to 50K a month, and I can clearly see where they need to put their effort and energy and they're like well, should I hire someone to greet people when they walk in the door at the store? I'm like, yeah, you should fricking hire someone. Like that is a $15 an hour, $18 an hour job. Like you, as the owner, you need to be doing like the $1,000 an hour jobs. Like, where are you making the most money? That's what you need to be doing, right. So it's different for each client, but let's just say it's like going live. Let's say, for your business, your boutique, your product-based business, your brand when you go live, you generate a lot of money, but you also have so many other tasks to do, like, for example, if you have a brick and mortar too, like you got to greet people, you got to talk to them. This is a really big distraction from actually growing your business, instead of just hiring someone you're focused on. Oh my gosh, I should be the one to answer the door when I hear the little jingling, right, but it's not the case. You can hire someone to do that and then you'll figure out what other tasks you can do or you can delegate to a team member. You don't have to be shipping every order. You don't have to be doing the post office run every day. You don't have to be shipping every order. You don't have to be doing the post office run every day. You don't have to be, you know, entering your products into Shopify. You don't have to do all of these tasks which I'm telling you. When you start releasing them, you're going to clam up. You're going to be like is this the right decision? I don't know. I need to be in charge. I'm the boss. People are going to think I'm lazy or or not wanting to work. Like. These are the things that went through my head, right, like it wasn't just about giving up the task. I was worried that the team would perceive me as someone who was, like I don't know, irresponsible. Okay, I had all these crazy thoughts that went through my head or that I wasn't serious about my business when actually giving and delegating to the team was the best decision I ever made, because now the business runs like a well-oiled machine. If you can't see me, I'm making like a little loop-de-loop with my hands and snapping along. It runs like a well-oiled machine that is extremely efficient and allows for the business to continue to grow, even though I'm in a season in life right now where I'm wanting to mom life, where I'm wanting to mom life, then business and also I have very limited time to actually give to the business, right, so the time that I do give has to be used very wisely. Again, what I spend my time doing is getting new accounts, big accounts, because that's where I know I shine the most right now. Okay, it's talking to buyers and major retail chains. It's not me showing up at the office and packing an order. Now, do I miss it? Yes, I miss being there, I miss the camaraderie, I miss like knowing all that stuff. But I know that my time has to be spent doing the things that are going to affect the business the most so we can bring in a bigger team. You know we hire new people all the time. The team is growing all the time and it's because I've delegated. People think the opposite is going to happen, like if you delegate it's all going to fall apart. But I'm here to tell you you need to delegate. Delegate to the right people and you will be like oh my gosh. I see now what Allie was saying. I was the bottleneck in this operation and now things are getting done quickly and efficiently and extremely well and you can do the things that make your business more money. Okay, so that's the second thing. Talking about the delegation, now here's another big one that I had to adjust to. I had to become more flexible with my schedule because as a mom, you know things pop up, things happen, kids get sick, they have activities they want to do. You can't be extremely rigid in your schedule. I guess you could be what I'm saying. What worked for me is that not having that schedule very like, very tied down has to be the exact time and like if I don't get it done by a certain time, then I'm a failure like no, you got to let go of those expectations again when you're adjusting your to-do list to be only the important things. Let's say you want to get something done by 11 in the morning and you don't, that's okay. You'll get it done in the afternoon or maybe in the evening when the kids go to bed. And also being more comfortable with that not being so like tied down to the rigid norms of a schedule Okay, it's not normal to be an entrepreneur, a woman doing six, seven, multi six and seven figures in their business okay, and also being a mom and also having all these responsibilities. It is an extraordinary thing. So if you're not, like, done with work at five, you're not a bad mom, because maybe your kids needed you more between three and five and then at five they're gonna take a little snoozy and you could get it done during their nap and that's okay. So it's just really just being more comfortable, more fluid, not so rigid in your schedule and giving yourself a little bit of grace when things pop up and things happen, and not taking it out on your kids or getting angry or getting mad at something in the business and just going. You know what. It's fine, it's not that big of a deal, right? Not that big of a deal, all right. I am dying to know some of the things that have helped you become what you feel like as a better mom slash business owner. So again, shoot me a DM, let's have the conversation. I'd love to bring it to the podcast. I also want to tell you guys I have a four day free challenge that I just launched yesterday. There's already tons of great women inside. It's called Million Dollar Moves. Million Dollar Moves. It's a four-day free challenge. I'll put the link in the podcast notes here so you could just click on that and go to it. Otherwise, go to my Instagram. It'll be in my IG bio and my TikTok bio, which is allydceo. Okay, that's where you'll find the link to this challenge. You could also go to allyceocom slash million dollar moves and that's the link to join the challenge, totally free, four days with me inside October. But we've already got our Telegram channel open. We're already having a little pregame going on. We're already getting into it. So I'm going to be teaching you the million dollar moves that you need to make in order to set your business up to become a freaking seven figure empire. Does that sound good? Or what it's going to be? Epic. So I better see you inside this free challenge. Once you're in there, feel free to DM me and be like Allie. What's up? I heard about the million dollar moves on the podcast and I'm in. We can celebrate you. Okay, join the million dollar moves. I also told you about Trendsetter University, which we are getting started in the middle of October. If you're ready for like a full six month course, support, implementation, support from me and an incredible community, and you're ready to go in, that that is called Trendsetter University. The link is below here in the podcast as well, or you can just go to imatrendsettercom for that one. Okay, thank you so much for joining me in this episode. I really, really hope that this was helpful for you and you could start applying some of these things into your daily life, especially if you're a mom that feels like you know you're just treading water, trying to like stay afloat. Try these, see how they work for you. Okay, talk to you soon.