The Truth About: Being an Mom and Entrepreneur

From NICU trauma to a homestead with donkeys—and a construction empire bringing in $6 million in a single month. Angela Artymovich’s story is the kind of entrepreneurial rollercoaster moms rarely get to hear told honestly. In this raw and deeply human conversation, Angela shares how becoming a NICU mom, battling HELLP syndrome, and navigating four miscarriages changed her life, her marriage, and her career path.

She opens up about launching a reselling business with a newborn at home, scaling multiple construction companies with her husband, and eventually walking away from the reselling world to build companies that now  generate more than $6M this month alone.

Angela also talks about the unexpected joy of homesteading, raising two boys, learning to love slowness, and redefining ambition outside the algorithm. Her story is packed with real-life advice for moms trying to build something of their own while holding the tenderness and chaos of motherhood.

This episode touches on: NICU trauma recovery, HELLP syndrome, emergency C-sections, infertility and recurrent miscarriage, navigating identity shifts as a mom, growing a construction business, homesteading life, content creation pivots, and how to trust yourself when your whole life is changing.

Learn more about Angela on  Tiktok

Chapters

• 0:00 From Reselling To Motherhood
• 3:58 Early Birth And NICU Reality
• 11:13 Intuition, HELLP, And Emergency C‑Section
• 19:58 Choosing Home Income And Reselling
• 27:28 Building Fencing, Roofing, And Sport Courts
• 34:48 Content Pivot Beyond A Niche
• 41:58 Warehouse Need And The Homestead Move
• 49:28 Animals, Kids, And New Routines
• 56:58 School Choices And August Birthdays

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:57

Angela, welcome to Do You Want the Truth. Yay. Thank you for having me. I am so excited to have you here. Um, you have been in the reselling space, you've recently pivoted, you're in fencing, construction, you have two boys, and now you are, is it called a farm or a ranch? What would you explain?

SPEAKER_00: 1:13

Like I mean, homestead, rural, farm line, whatever you want to call it. I mean, all welcome here, but yes, a complete 180 to my life. And yeah, we can we can get into it. I'm curious about that. So your kids are how old again? So I have a six and a half year old, they're both boys. I have a six-year-old and a two-year-old.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31

Okay. Um, and one of them recently started school, right? Because mine had to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:36

Yes, yes. So I have, I started reselling when my oldest was three months old. That was the first time I started. Oh my gosh. Yes. As if you didn't have enough to do.

unknown: 1:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:48

I can't keep my hand, you guys, I can't keep my hand out of something, right? I'm always I'm always trying to get into something. But yes, so my it's easy to remember how long I was reselling because it was like the from the start of my parenting journey was the start of my reselling journey as well.

SPEAKER_02: 2:02

Wow. Did you so were you working prior or were you yes?

SPEAKER_00: 2:06

So, gosh, that could be a whole segment in itself. But in a nutshell, because I have done several things, but in a nutshell, I was managing a store. I got my degree in psychology in 2013, and then I worked in financial services for several years. And then my husband and I moved um to Georgia for his job. So that was a very short time before we had kids. And then we came back to the Dallas Fort Worth where we're from. And from there, most people don't do this, but I had had a corporate background and I have never worked retail in like a big capacity. Most people are like scared off or shied off from that. But I was like, you know, I'd love to manage a store, which is interesting later. But so I started managing the Ulta near me. Oh fine. I got pregnant at that time. So once I had my older son, I did not return to Ulta and instead ended up finding reselling three months when he was three months old while I was kind of on maternity leave. I had him really abruptly and early. So my last day of work was my last day of work. It was planned for October and he came in August. So oh my gosh, he was really early. Did you guys have any NICU stay or anything like that? Yes. 42 days in the NICU, so six weeks. So when he got home, he was six weeks old already. And then six weeks after that is when I started reselling. So that really was the first, I mean, of many pivots in my life where it was like just never went back to that job and totally changed my entire career projectory or like projection at that point. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 3:43

I mean, how how can you can't really? I mean, we've talked to people before who have had kids in the NICU, and it's you can't really, I mean, even Zara, you you can't really work. I mean, people do it, but it's like, how do you go to the NICU, take care of yourself? And um, so I'm curious, in Texas, I don't know too much about that, but do you guys have parental leave in there?

SPEAKER_00: 4:06

And so my manager at the time was so sweet and came up to the hospital and had me and brought the paperwork so that I would get six weeks like uh paid leave. And of course, neither of us expected us me to have that baby at that time. So I left my team like high and dry. I was supposed to have my last week in October. So two months early, I just completely left. Like I worked from seven to two, and then I had him unexpectedly that night at seven at night. So oh my gosh, really quick labor. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Emergency C-section, crazy, crazy stuff. So after he arrived, they my boss was so sweet to actually come and to the hospital and have me sign the paperwork so that I could have that. Um my husband was still working and only got two days like remote. So he couldn't take calls in the NICU. So he would have to go to the lobby and like do calls and stuff. It was, it was horrible, to be honest. I'm not, I'm not gonna lie to you. It was it was really hard. And I will say I felt grateful that I was there and that he was my first child and I wasn't navigating other kids at home. Yeah. Or um, I had a lot of gratitude for the other parents I saw in the NICU that were having their other kids, or both of them had to go back to work. I mean, there was there were so many situations that were pretty dire there also. So, as hard as it was, I did feel grateful that I didn't have other kids to manage at the same time as his NICU experience.

SPEAKER_02: 5:38

Yeah, I okay. So I have so many questions about this because birth stories fascinate me in the first place. But okay. So if it's okay, I'm gonna ask you.

SPEAKER_00: 5:46

Like it's yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I did a whole podcast, I had a whole podcast that was birth stories only. So Oh my gosh, how did I not see this and doing research about you? We can talk, yeah, we can talk in post, but like it's I'm very into it, also, is all I'll say.

SPEAKER_02: 5:59

Okay, okay. So you went into labor and then had to have an emergency C-section two months early.

SPEAKER_00: 6:05

So if we have any listeners that are pregnant or going to have kids in the future, I really, really want you to hear me. What happened to me was so, so rare. So I do not want to add to this like, oh, well, this crazy thing happened to me. Because I feel like once women are pregnant, sometimes people just like pile on their hard times in fear. I don't want to do that. So if you're pregnant and you're sensitive to any of that, I do want to just let you know, like, I'm going to tell you a story that's pretty traumatic. Skip ahead if you give you plenty of time to say, nope, I'm gonna listen to that later. Um, but if you if you are still interested, it was extremely crazy. So I was, this was my first time ever being pregnant. I was miserably sick, as several are, but I had that. This is this was really what changed my entire life on listening to my intuition when others have told you that everything is fine or everything is okay. Because I am very glad that I had a provider that did say, okay, let's check you out, because I ended up being right. And there was nothing in my history. I've met none of the criteria of what happened to me. There was truly no rhyme or reason. But I started getting a strange feeling that something was awry. It wasn't rooted in anything. I didn't have any symptoms. I was sick, but I was sick in the first trimester. I felt better in the second. I'm starting my third trimester and I start throwing up a lot more. So I tell my, I tell my OB, I go in a week before that I was gonna have him, didn't know that. I'm 30, I was 30 weeks at the time. And he, they checked me and said, You're fine. And they felt filled me up. I went to the hospital, they filled me up with IV fluids, hydration. They said, You're gonna feel so much better. And when I was walking out of the hospital after getting all of the hydration, the fluids, and the IV, I felt zero percent different. And at that point, I was like, something else is wrong. Something is wrong. So I was crying that whole night and I kept telling my husband, I was like, something feels wrong. So I called, this is just so me, but I called my photographer for my pictures, my maternity pictures. I said, Can you meet today? And I moved them up and then I had him the next day after that. Whoa. So I started feeling sick, just throwing up, and I called my OB and I wasn't supposed to see her for another four weeks because at that point it was like I was gonna see her at 36 weeks, and I'm 31 to the day. 31 weeks, and I'm like, I just can I come and see you? I feel like something is off. And she I'm so grateful that she listened. She said, sure. So she got me in and she was really hard to get into. So she got me in and I worked from 6:30 to 2. I go over to my appointment at four. So I had a little bit of a break, and at 4 p.m., unbeknownst to me, I had a stroke-level blood pressure. And the nurse comes and takes my blood pressure. She goes and gets the OB. The OB comes in. She looks at my feet very swollen. She looks at me and she says, Okay, we're gonna meet at the hospital. Um, I'm gonna see you there. Like I am a little bit concerned about your blood pressure. And she was a little more casual than I realized it was because we didn't really need to. Because she didn't want to make you panic. Yes. So I went home, girl. I got my phone charger, I got my book, and my vision started to go out a little bit at this point. But I live real close to the hospital. So then when I come, my husband's at work. I'm not thinking, I'm like, all right. We go in at 5 p.m., they take my blood, and I had help syndrome, which is the worst, the most severe form of proclampsia that there is. And the reason my vision was going out was because I was going into organ failure. So like my kidney was shutting down, everything was shutting down, and they thought that I was gonna about to have a seizure. So once we found out that I had help, that was at like 5:30 or 6 p.m., we had an emergency C section, and he was here by seven. It was like an hour. So he got rivered, and then that's the rest of what happened. I mean, he was two pounds, 13 ounces, so small, and he spent six weeks growing and he wasn't sick. I was sick. So that also makes me feel reflective when I look back at that, because because of my health, he had to be delivered early.

SPEAKER_02: 10:20

Um so but it's also a testament because I say this about women's bodies, like your body can continue to breastfeed, like at the detriment of your own health. And like he probably felt so good because you felt so bad if that like, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 10:35

Yes. Yes. I was pumping in the hospital, and I mean, my milk came in, although I was I kind of hijacked it to become early. It was it, it did. And I was able to feed him to like he was fed through a tube for quite a while. So I wasn't able to feed at the breast, but I did, I was able to pump and then have that be added to the bottles. And yeah, I mean, talk about anything I cared about before that moment, just gone. Like, yeah. Just like things just don't matter. Things just don't matter. So yeah, that was kind of crazy. And then um so then about six weeks after you brought him home, you decided to start a business. I started reselling. I guess I I will say like I started a new, I didn't know it would turn into what it did, but like I started a new hustle, I'd say like a side hustle.

SPEAKER_02: 11:25

Yes. Was that because you're like, okay, I no longer have this income. I need to do something.

SPEAKER_00: 11:31

It was that I didn't want to leave him. Like I wanted to be at home. So I had to find a way. I had never worked mobile or remote before. Uh when I worked in financial services, I worked at an office. When I was managing the ultimate, I was clearly so it was more motivated by like me wanting to stay home with him and then have something that I could control that I was still making income, but I didn't have to like leave, I wasn't ready to put him in care yet. So he did I mean, yeah. He stayed home with me.

SPEAKER_02: 11:59

Yeah. Yeah. And I've heard that with a uh a lot of parents who have babies who come early, who have premies, they often want to keep them home longer. And I don't know about the health and all of that, but I have heard them say like they are more susceptible to things. And again, this is this is opinion.

SPEAKER_00: 12:14

I am not a doctor.

SPEAKER_02: 12:16

And these are things that I've heard.

SPEAKER_00: 12:17

Yes, absolutely. So yeah, he stayed home with me and then I worked on the reselling for the next two years until I got him in care and then things changed again. And that's when me and my husband started the fencing business um in 2020.

SPEAKER_02: 12:34

So what started that? Because okay, so part of the reason why I was so interested to have you on is because you do so many different things. And I think right now in this economy, people are really like there are so many layoffs. I'm in the Bay Area, and so I'm in tech central where there's just a layoff every week. And I know it's happening around the country too. So I'm, you know, it's like this is a weird time. So what what are the things that like fencing is something I have never heard anyone talk about before? I've heard construction, but I know that is like intensive to get into, and I'm sure fencing is too, but I'm so curious about it.

SPEAKER_00: 13:07

Yes, I knew nothing about it. My husband is a mechanical engineer by trade. Um he has a lot more of a mechanical mind and an analytical mind, and uh building fences to him came natural. At first, we built the first couple ourselves, and then we had a team after that. But I think my husband's very savvy in business, and I think he just likes to watch anything grow, but the product he chose was fences. Whereas I have to be really interested in what it is for me to want to grow. He is like, I will grow this charging company. Like he will do for him, it's more about the build. And for me, I have to have the passion first and then I'll build. So that was just kind of where we landed. Um, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there's a bit a high need for construction and for fences and roofs and things like that. And um, so that's where we started in 2020. And then now this year, we opened a sport court business for pickleball courts, tennis courts, surfacing, running tracks. And that has that has now become the biggest portion of our income.

SPEAKER_02: 14:10

Oh, interesting. So that's big because don't you also have a roofing company? We do. Yes. Okay, so roofing construction, or what what are all the businesses that you have?

SPEAKER_00: 14:19

So we have we have Fence Fanatics, and then with the trade name is Prime Courts. So Fence Fanatics is the fencing, and then under that is the DBA Prime Courts, which is our sport court business. And then separately we have a partner in Built More Roofing. So gotcha. Yeah, so two together, one LLC there, and then um the the partner in the roofing business, yes.

SPEAKER_02: 14:41

And then you just shuttered your reselling because I remember watching that and watching you pack it all up, and it looked so refreshing. And I imagine it felt so light. I'm moving all my stuff into storage right now, and I'm because I'm like, I need space in my house. I cannot handle this anymore. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:55

So then on my side, I was a reseller for five years. I still I loved reselling. I loved it and it kept my attention when most things don't. So like it really did have every aspect of what I like. It was challenging. I was never gonna master it because anything that you learn will then change. Like new brands will come in and new trends will come in. And you can always try a new strategy. It was very experimental for me. I could try a strategy and then immediately see if it was working for me. And then it it required patience and it is laborious. So I do tell people like it is it is heavily heavily manual at some points. I automated where I could, but like I was definitely in the, I was sourcing my own things and I was, you know, steaming and measuring. So you can, there's plenty of ways to cut a cake, but I was definitely like, I felt like uh it was a lot more grit than people realize. I think. Um resellers get a really bad rap, is like as if we're just like kind of flying in and then just like shooting out some listings. Uh, I think it's underestimated often how much work goes into it. But yes, I did that for five years and then I stumbled into making content on TikTok that ended up doing pretty well for me. And then that sort of changed kind of my priorities as well. And I started upping the amount of times I was spending on content and sharing that with reselling. And then I found this place where they were synchronistic. Like I was talking about my sales in my videos, so I felt like I had to make more sales to make more videos, and so they became linked, but I wanted them to not be linked anymore because I liked making content a lot more than I liked reselling. And honestly, I loved reselling. Yeah. So so I didn't want to stop making content, but I did want to stop in the area of what my subject matter was, and I was terrified because I built the entire thing off of reselling. So I was like, all of these people are gonna leave and it's gonna come crashing to the ground. And I was prepared for that, honestly. I was like, it was it's business to me at the end of the day, as far as like if someone's following me for reselling and I stop talking about reselling and they leave, yeah, that makes sense. If you want reselling content and you're not getting it, that's totally like I was prepared for that. But I've been shocked that uh I haven't, it hasn't gone down that way. Like people have stuck around and seen me kind of like I don't really know what my next steps are. Like I'm kind, I'm not gonna say I'm in my flop era, but I'm definitely like question mark, question mark era. Like I don't really know uh what where I want it to go, but I definitely am like warming up and and the response has been pretty comforting. I didn't expect that. I really didn't. I thought it was just gonna kind of like fold in on itself. So yeah, that's kind of the show.

SPEAKER_02: 17:33

I was surprised by this at all. I'm not surprised that people, I mean, I didn't leave. Um people people stick around because I mean there's so we were talking to KJ Miller. I don't know if you follow her, but she was, you know, she's somebody who she runs a beauty company and she also does content. She talks about Taylor Swift and Beyonce and all of these things. And um, one of her things was, I'm not gonna niche down. You can't make me niche down. I'm gonna create content about whatever I want to create content about.

SPEAKER_00: 18:00

Right. Yep, the algorithm hates it. I'm not gonna uh the algorithm hates when you do that. I mean, I definitely saw a huge like dip at first when they when it didn't know how to categorize me. It was like, wait a second, she's usually have, you know, in this one specific thing. And having a niche is so helpful as far as like directing how and where to make content and stuff. So when I took that away and became just a general, like, I'm gonna do some stuff about my donkeys, some stuff about my sewing, I'm redoing my mom's wedding dress. I want to do a series on. I'm gonna redo this whole room and I want to do like interiors. So I have so many ideas and I just they're all kind of half baked right now because I'm really drawn to longer series that take like progress over time. I like it.

SPEAKER_02: 18:43

But also you want to show yours, yeah. You want to show what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00: 18:46

Yeah. And as if it's not clear, I'm very long form. I'm very like sit down and chit-chat, I'm very wine, whined about, and I stopped putting pressure on myself to be faster, quicker, make a better punch, make a bet, because I think that that can get in your head if you're a content creator, is like, how do I make people stay? How do I make people like be quicker with your message? And I can even see from early content, I was like a little bit more like uh slower in my speech and a little, and then I got quicker because I was trying to get my message out faster and I was trying to do bullet points. And I'm like, but at the end of the day, if I'm not that way, you know, there's several people that are craving a slowdown and craving something a little less stimulating. And so if I can offer that, I will, you know, and not have to try to make the content like work, you know, as far as getting too far from who I actually am just to make up have more views, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02: 19:38

Yeah. Don't they call it something like the hedonistic treadmill where it's like you're on this thing and you can't really stop it? So you have to just stop it yourself and get off. Um, you recently moved to homesteading, right? Yes. And what prompted that? Because I know that your businesses have been doing really well. You've talked about that publicly. Yes. I don't know if you want to mention how well they're doing, but feel free to. Um, but I'm just curious about the homesteading part.

SPEAKER_00: 20:01

Yes. So our businesses are doing well enough to where it would make sense for us to have a commercial space. And a big problem we were having with our construction industry businesses was that we had several smaller storage units all over the Metroplex, but they couldn't accept deliveries because it was a locked gate. So once we started getting more into commercial and needing more and more material in bulk and in mass at the same time, we couldn't get them delivered to the res to our different storage facilities. So we would have to break up the delivery. And girl, at points, there was my my entire garage was filled. Like I couldn't walk in, I was trying to walk in to get something in my own garage. We'd have some stuff in the storage facility. We'd have to break it up and be there. And it just was a logistical nightmare. And so our business needs really started to show itself that we need a commercial warehouse, especially the last like this year. I'd say 2025, it really became clear. Uh, we weren't looking to move, but this property popped up that had a warehouse on site in the exact area. Awesome. Yeah, that in the exact area in which we wanted to live. And it's like 20 minutes from our old house. So it's where we want the kids to go to school. It's in the school district we want, and all of this. And it just popped up. We weren't really thinking it was going to be that we physically moved our home as well. We were thinking we'd get the warehouse and stay put. And instead, we found a house, which then led me to give reselling up, I guess like you could say, or like end end that reselling career because I had different plans for the studio I'm in. And they just didn't include my racks of clothes.

SPEAKER_02: 21:39

Yeah. And I as you're describing what you had for construction, that is what currently my garage looks like with just reselling shit and like yeah. So it's having no separation between kind of church and state, if you will. There's no separation between home and work life. And it can really like I have found myself working, you know, with the podcast or with um reselling. You just can work nonstop, and that's like not why you get into this. It's like you want to get into more flexible work when you're a parent so that you can be there for your family more. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 22:12

Yes. And like the way that my life has changed since I met my husband in 2012. I thought So did I. Really? Okay, cool. Yeah. I thought we would just be like, I I guess I didn't want to sell us short, but I I never thought entrepreneurialship was going to take us, take us by the reins in in such a huge way. Like my husband's a very like kind of like practical and like one step in front of the other. I didn't know we had this huge side to him that wasn't explored yet. And once we like were able to both be in the seat of entrepreneurial life, it just like skyrocketed quickly. And so that's been cool because I just I never saw that coming. I really just couldn't have couldn't have seen. I know nothing about construction, by the way. It was like not the industry I would have chosen. So I I just don't, uh yeah, I'm still I still I still marvel at how it all happened. But ultimately, I think Key and I both work best with having several things and several different like fires to stoke. So yeah, I uh I'm happy that we have the warehouse on site. I we joke that it's Severance, where that that show Severance on Apple TV, where you're like, we walk out of our home and then we walk into our office. Because right now I'm in my office that's attached to the shop that has our material and our warehouse or whatever. I'm in that right now. Oh, interesting. I'm not in my house. And then my house is behind me separately. So then when we walk to our physical home, it is kids, our bedrooms, our kitchen, the it that is our home life. So we have created a place where I like can have some distance because the lines of work and home when you work for yourself are so blurred. We tried at one point doing a dinner table, no, no talk of business at the dinner table. Then we tried, don't talk about business at certain hours of the day. I mean, we've tried to take a stab at this. And ultimately, when it's there, physically there, it was really hard for me to say, both of us were guilty of separating from that or like, okay, let me just go check on that, especially when my inventory was there or we didn't have an office. So our employees would be like meeting in my kitchen downstairs. So it was just very, very enmeshed, and we both were craving a little bit more separation. Um, so that we I'm happy we found this because this was again not something that we planned to happen.

SPEAKER_02: 24:36

Yeah. And so now you have like donkeys and stuff. How's it going?

SPEAKER_00: 24:39

We do, gosh, and I when I tell you, I just did think I had it in me. I'm not much of a country girl. Yeah, getting up early. You gotta get up early to feed them. How's that going? Yeah, like it's just not really my speed. I was really honestly terrified. I I don't, I'm not like warm and friendly to the animals like you would think. Well, no, I am now, but like I'm not the person. I have a friend that like, if she saw a snail on the road, like she would just up and kiss it. You know, she's just like, yeah, surprise, she's not a vet. I love my dogs, but I'm not really like, just let me hug all of the animals. I don't know if that makes me sound like a cold-hearted queen, but I I that's just the truth. So I was a little bit, I was a little bit culture shock, a little bit out of my comfort zone, a lot out of my comfort zone. Didn't think I would like it at, but it was just part of the mix. So for me, it was more just like this is part of the bigger picture. And then I ended up loving it. And that was not at all. Like I'm the one that shovels the donkey manure. I'm out there in my rubber boots with my shovel. I love it. I love it so much. And that was again very unexpected. Uh, so I'm telling you what, I just didn't, I didn't know that I would love it as much as I do. So yeah, we've got three miniature donkeys named after our businesses pickle, picket, pitch. So pickle, ball courts, pitch. That's funny. That sounds like a website. Yeah, yeah. So yeah. And then um we have renters. So in the front is a a separate house, a rent house, and we rent to um an employee that works with us, and then they have young children. So we have almost like a compound, I guess, because they have rabbits and compounds are great, and chickens and stuff. So we have everybody, everybody here. And uh yeah, he he meets us at the shop and we get the day going, and it's worked well for us so far. Uh we're we're brand new. I mean, July, we moved in in July, so it's only like two months, I think. Yeah. July it the July 1st. So what day? July first you moved in.

SPEAKER_02: 26:34

And it was kind of an and it was, I mean, I can imagine. How did your kids take it? Like you're just like, we're I know it's only 20 minutes, but they probably had to do that.

SPEAKER_00: 26:42

Did they have friends and stuff? Yeah, my kindergartner was it he took it hard. Um he we were gonna change his schools anyways, because we did decide to do kinder twice. He's an August birthday, and so in Texas, everywhere it's a little bit different. But in Texas, they have to be five by September, either September 6th or September 30th, regardless. He, August birthdays, it's parents' choice. Do you want him to be the oldest or the youngest? So wherever the cutoff was, he was either gonna be the oldest or he was going to be the absolute one of the absolute youngest. And we decided to have him be the oldest in his class. So I was going to change his school anyways, because I didn't want him to have all of his buddies move to first grade and not and then have the same teacher again. Um, but I thought it was going to be at a different school. So he took it hard, but like they love the new house. We have plenty of room to roam. They love the animals. Um, they there's a lot more exploring that we do out here. We're outside a lot more, so they do love it. But yes, my my older had a harder time. My baby, he doesn't. He was fine.

SPEAKER_02: 27:47

He's like, whatever, this is awesome. I bet your older Yeah. Yeah. Is your older kid now just like loving it but wants his friends to come visit? Because I can see that.

SPEAKER_00: 27:57

Yeah, he loves to host, and um, we really haven't lost any of those connections because it's truly not too far from our old house. So his his life with that heart is pretty much the same, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 28:10

In my so my son just started kindergarten and he is an early birthday. Uh he's a July baby, and my husband was like, we are not like he had never heard of people like choosing to start later because our cutoff in California, I believe, is September 1st, maybe September 2nd.

SPEAKER_01: 28:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 28:26

And it's so interesting because in his class, he has a really small class, but about a third of them are very young. One of them just had a birthday like last week, just turned five. Um, I don't know how they got in. I think you have, I think you can apply for like an appeal or something. Um, and then a third of them are like just kind of like throughout the year, and then a third are six. So it's really interesting to see like all the different parenting choices. And, you know, the six-year-olds can read and the other ones can't. And it's so different to be like, oh, this is all I mean, yeah, I I never thought of kids being so like a full year apart within school. But then I remember being in school with people and they were like two years older than me sometimes.

SPEAKER_00: 29:06

Yes, no, I same thing. Like I have a February birthday, and I don't want to be like gendered about it, but I do think it like happens more with the boys because that's more of the conversation. Um, I was gonna be in the grade, I was February's like right in the middle. So there was no choice for my parents. Yeah, I guess in some really extreme circumstances, even when you're not close to the cutoff, I think that you can, I don't know, parent.

SPEAKER_02: 29:27

Yeah, I think you can appeal.

SPEAKER_00: 29:28

I think you can always appeal for it. Yeah, but I never I never gave it any mind until I had an August baby uh and talked to teachers and people that I knew that were August babies and and and this and the younger in their class. My dad's August 12th, and he said he hated having his driver's license, the last one, and feeling like a baby when he's in high school, when like you have your girlfriend and now your girlfriend's older. I mean, that that peer pressure age is like very definitive. And so he remembered not liking that. But, you know, that's one person's experience. But we did decide, yeah, we did decide to um have him start kindergarten again. And so it's been fine because now he's going to be staying in the school system with all of the his classmates and stuff. And yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 30:15

So now he's growing up with them. So yeah, there's no issue. Yeah. I am also a July baby, and so I graduated high school when I was 17. And I remember trying to graduate earlier because and they're like, no, you're like too young. Um, but again, I think girls versus boys, I think it's totally, totally different. And people can say there's not a difference in gender, which I used to think before I had kids. And I'm like, Yeah, oh no, this is like my husband and I joke about it all the time because we tried to do, I did like neutral palettes for his clothing. It was like dolls and trucks and like whatever he wanted. Nope. Zero interest in dolls, always trucks from from like the day one. And I know like we sent him to. Daycare when he was about 18 months. And so I know like there's gendered stuff that happens there, but like he had it even before. He just wanted to play with things with wheels. But like the girls that we've known since birth, it's the same thing. They just wanted pink and dolls. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_00: 31:11

Yep. Yep. Same, same. I mean, they both had the same exposure. Both of them are just so both my boys are just like very rough and tumble, very stereotypical. They have the wiggles. They like my younger one, ball is life, like anything. He wants to. My older one, not so much into the sports, but definitely like robots and things with wheels and like bikes. He loves to bike, like things like that. He loves. Um, and being out, both of them outside wrestling, they're just like very like. Oh, dude, the wrestling. They're swinging from the chandeliers. I mean, they're just they're so active from this moment that they get up. My husband and I joke, we're like, imagine if you wake up and within five seconds, you're in a full sprint. Like, that is what bull crazy, right? Wake up. Oh, they literally jump out of bed. Jump. Some of one of them, yeah. My younger will will quite literally get, I'll come and get him from the crib and pick him up. He'll take off and he'll run into the garage and get on his bike, and then he goes onto the driveway immediately. And I'm like, imagine just hopping on your bike within like you have eye crusts and you like wake up to see the world, and then you're just you are gone, like uh just out into the wind. So both of them, yes, both of them are that way. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02: 32:20

That's so funny. Yeah, you know, and I I can see why like our generation are like not I'm older than you, but like why so many boys were diagnosed with ADHD when we were growing up. For sure. Because I'm like, they just need to move more. Like the girls who we have over, they just like will sit there, they'll color, they'll play tea parts. I'm like, what the fuck is this? Because like my son will do it with them, but if he had his druthers, he would be wrestling, like anything with a ball. Like, yeah, it's it's so interesting. There, it's uh um, are you guys done having kids at two?

SPEAKER_00: 32:57

Um, kind of a hot topic because I want one more, but my husband is content. It was kind of a point of contention. I think this happens in a lot of marriages that one is, you know, possibly wants one more and the other doesn't. So I try to think of it as like I wouldn't want somebody talking me out of having another one. So I'm not going to be the one talking him into having another one. If he comes to his own like own decision, I don't want it to be that he did it for me. That's not a for me, that's not a reason to like expand our family. I want him to want it. So if he doesn't get there, I will work on my contentness about that. Right now, it's not loudly like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be destroyed if I don't have more. Um, it's just sort of in waiting. So we're sort of like TBD. Um, I told him if you change your mind, the door's open on my end about it. We can rediscuss it. Uh, the last time we talked about that was in September, and before that was like six months before that. And both times he's like, no, I'm I'm done.

SPEAKER_02: 33:57

So I think it's really nice as somebody who doesn't want more kids that you're respecting that for your partner because I my husband would have more kids in a heartbeat. And I'm like, fuck no. Like and he's never once tried to convince me.

SPEAKER_00: 34:12

Yeah. A lot of my friends are like, my husband is like begging me to have more. And I'm like, that would make me feel so uncomfortable. Like, so I I try not to do that to him. Now, if we don't have more, there's only one way in that, in that like I could possibly be thinking like there's someone missing into oblivion. Whereas like I don't think there's any world where we're holding our new baby, and he's like, I wish we had done this. So that part is a little bit hard for me to swallow because I'm like, it if there's no, I I just can't see a world where he regrets it if it if we do that, but I also respect that I don't want him to like be pressured. So right now we're just not working that direction. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 34:53

I mean, it's like um getting a this is awful, but it's like getting any new member of the family, getting an animal. It's like you can't convince somebody into it because then there's a resentment. Like I was kind of convinced into having kids. I'm so glad I did now that I'm through like the hard part, you know, like the birth, the all of that stuff. And now I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like I never wanted to be a mom, and this is like the best thing that's ever happened to me as a human. And he is like the best person I know. So yeah, but it was funny the other day, again, I think I just have dogs on my mind because the other day I literally said, Oh, because we sometimes we we have fostered puppies in the past. And I was my friends were asking me if I was gonna do it again. I was like, no, I think I'm done. Like we just have too much going on. And that next day, I got a text from the Golden Retriever Rescue saying, Hey, we have a dog that's four and a half being rehoned because, you know, and I was like, okay, so it's always and my husband's like, yep, let's do it. And I'm like, well, I guess here here we go. Even though, you know, a dog has much smaller stakes though.

SPEAKER_00: 35:54

Yeah. But st but it is a part of the equation because we have two dogs, and then we've got the two boys, and then we have these animals. The donkeys have been very low maintenance. I was really nervous about that, but they've been very low maintenance, easy to take care of, but they do feel like you're anchored here, right? Like if you go and travel somewhere, you've got to have a plan for the donkeys, the dogs that like there's a lot more of that part that you have to think about. So I do think the whole picture of your life is important when thinking about more kids for sure. The dogs are a part of that because my dogs drive me up the wall sometimes. And I'm like, adding another one to this madness, like, right, I have to go get my dog from the groomers, just that BS of like extra stuff. I love them, I love them so much. Like I love my dogs. I know I went on that tangent of like not an animal lover, but I love my own dogs. But like it is a it is something to think about, to be like another thing to have to like mix into the chaos abound. So I hear you on that one.

SPEAKER_02: 36:49

Yeah, am I crazy for so this dog in particular? Uh, the family got him when he was two months old and the son was in high school and he has autism. I I don't know what grade autism. Um, and he has since I think graduated because it's been four years. And so something about the interaction between them, he the the son doesn't want to be near the dog anymore. And so, probably because the kid is home more, right? Or the son is home more, and so it's just like too much. And I'm like, oh, they've already done the hard part. He's been trained, he's potty trained, he's I get to skip all the puppy stage, which I really didn't want to do because but I'm like, is this crazy? I I don't know what kind of dogs you have, but is it crazy to get a dog?

SPEAKER_00: 37:27

I have a cocker spaniel and a lab mix. They're both seniors now, and one of them, so Claire is 13 and then Sonny is 10. So I uh I'm team like no more dogs right now for me. But like I talk, I talk a big game, and I'm gonna have to really like the fact that they're both seniors crushes me. So, like the idea of like Claire, my first baby, who predates my relationship with my husband, like that one is gonna hurt like beyond. And I haven't ever had that. Like, my we didn't, I didn't grow up with animals. So this is this is like going to be my first like pet loss. Yeah. And uh yeah, like I I say that she drives me nuts and they both do, but like, oof, that's that's gonna be rough. So I think that like really paints if I would do that again, if I would like set myself up for that again, because I'm just like 13 years, and then having to watch them leave you like is so painful to me.

SPEAKER_02: 38:31

So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 38:32

Totally.

SPEAKER_02: 38:33

Yeah. Yeah, we have an 18 and a half year old cat, and she has kidney failure, she's had leukemia or like cancer for two and a half years. She was supposed to last like six months. We haven't done treatment because I was like, it made her worse. So I'm like, the only thing I do is acupuncture. She they like said that she had a couple months to live, just like a month or two ago because she stopped eating and then I got her on an SSRI and now she's fine again. So it's like she's she's got all those nine lives.

SPEAKER_00: 39:00

Like, but yeah, the yeah, the idea of just how much life I have gone through with Claire, but I can't, I I I don't have the words to like formulate what that's gonna feel like.

SPEAKER_02: 39:13

So yeah, I was most excited for my cat to meet my son when he was born.

SPEAKER_00: 39:18

Yes, yes, and then as much as she drove me nuts, I also like in every single photo of my newborns, like she's right there, you know? Mm-hmm. So just know how close she was back then when I was just like, Claire, get down, or like she spilled my breast milk one time and I like saw red, like stuff like that. Or she's just she was in the mix, but then I look back and I'm like, oh, how sweet though, that she was just right there. Sunny too, but sunny big and yeah. Big and yeah, labs are a little, a little dopey. Sunny is my husband's soul dog. Sunny is my husband's soul dog. Okay. He got voluntold, so similar to your husband, they're being like, oh, you know, I've we kind of stumbled into getting Sunny was not planned. Yeah. But um, that is his like actual soul dog. So it's very cute because like I feel way more connected to Claire. Sunny is so derpy and cute as well. And Sunny's way more well behaved. Oh my gosh. Sunny, our lab mix, is so well behaved. She was a nightmare. She's smart, right? She's very smart. Uh she was a nightmare to raise as a puppy. She was hell on reels, but now she's the sweetest angel. Whereas Claire, my cocker spaniel, was easier to raise, very smart, very treat-trained, and now she's bad to the bone. I think the older dogs get like or the small breeds, they get like this audacity about them when they're she just doesn't think she has to listen, like straight up. So she's getting worse with age as far as her behavior, but then getting better.

SPEAKER_02: 40:36

So, you know. Is she deaf? I have a friend who had a little dog and it went deaf and yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 40:41

Yeah. Now she is, she just lost her hearing. Um, it's like half, you know, but she wasn't prior to like this year. So, you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 40:49

She's like, nah, I don't want to listen anymore at all. Yeah. Did you have any issues with with your second pregnancy, or did that go kind of smoothly? You did.

SPEAKER_00: 40:59

Yeah. So, oh gosh. All right. Well, the shortened version is that uh we got pregnant with my first very easy, like sneezed and got pregnant. And then we had that. I had him at 31 weeks, six-week NICU journey. Um, I was at high risk to have help again, or at least a form of practical. So there was a protocol for if we were to have more kids, what that would look like. And it just was like more checks. I would, I was supposed to go to an MFM, like a special doctor for it. Um, they never referred me, but that's a whole so, anyways, in between that time, um, when my oldest was a year, we decided to start trying for uh our second and it took gosh, over two years, and we had four miscarriages in between that time. So it was I got diagnosed with unexplained second infertility because I didn't change partners. I there was nothing in my blood work. Every every test I got was normal. My husband's tests, normal. No one could figure out why. And we didn't know if, like, with my first, it was just like we got lucky, and then now this is just gonna be a part of the equation. Like there was no changes to my health besides what happened to me the first time that was pregnancy specific. So that was hard. It was hard to keep the faith and keep going. And um I was already afraid that when I got pregnant, I would also have help again. So even the fact that like there was so much trauma and loss before we even got to the part that was I was prepared to possibly have trauma again was really difficult. Like as far as the overwhelm that I was experiencing, but not enough to not keep me like I it was worth it for me to try still. So that's what told me that I knew I was going to have two. That's what I'll tell you about that. Like I knew I was, I don't know what else to tell you about that part of it, except I just like from my bones knew I was going to have two. Do I know if I'm gonna have three? No, I don't feel the same about that. That's more of like, whereas some of my friends said, like, after they had one, they were like, No, I know that I'm done. Like they just they knew it. And that's how I felt after I had my first. I was like, no, I know that I'm having one more. So that was more crazy because as I was having all these losses, I'm like, but I have one more. Like I I just knew your intuition just knew it. Yeah, I was like, no, I do have, I do have one more. So then I get pregnant with my second boy. Actually, my first told me I was pregnant. So what did he say? Tell me. He was listening in a car to a lullaby like radio song, like an interlude that it and he said, Mama, you rock your baby to this song. And I said, What? And he's like, Yeah, you you rock your baby to this song. And I was like, I don't have a baby. Like, and he's like, Yes, you do. And so that was weird. So then the I tell my husband about it. He's like, I don't know. And you know, he was three, so it's like we were dude's a three-year-old when the the things they say and like yeah, the supernatural kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 44:04

Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:05

Yeah. Lots of stuff like that. And so then I was like, that's kind of weird. Then the next day he again brought it up. He was like, the baby in your belly. And I was like, what? And at this point, I had, I was, I had taken so many pregnancy tests in the past, and like we had gone through the whole like looking to see if I was ovulating. Like, we did all of the noise. I I had two failed IUIs. Like, okay, we did all of the things. And so I was like, no, you know, just so not expecting it. But I was, and it was, it was my second baby, and he was right. So that was interesting, anyways. Yeah, I did not get proclamsia again. And I had a fantastic birth. I wanted to have a vaginal birth. I wasn't allowed to, and I was in a big fight with my opiate, but I was like, oh, but I will be having, they call it a V back, um, vaginal birth after C-section. And I was like, I want to have that experience. And she was like, You're not a candidate. And I was like, Well, I will be having one. Like, I was so, you couldn't tell me. And she was like, Angela, only like 1% of cases are able to have. And I was like, Well, good thing I'm the 1%. I mean, I just would not drop it until we got to the point where she had to basically say, Hey, it's too unsafe for you to do that. And I'm not putting you in a dangerous situation. Like, it's a non-option. And then I was like, not arguing anymore. Because at that point, you feel, I mean, at least for me, I felt like I am a mother to a living child right now. And I can't be rolling the dice for a experience that I'm chasing to try to like have revisionist history about what happened to me where I felt so out of control. It was clearly like a control tactic, like that I like couldn't be talked out of. So once I surrendered to the repeat c-section, it was the best ever. It was the best birth ever. Like, so calm, nothing like my first. The first was so like Gray's anatomy, like trauma, like so severe, so reverent, so serious, so quiet. Oh, the quietness of an emergency c-section is scary. It was so serious, you know, and the vibes for my second were so like lighthearted, and there was music playing, and my husband and I were both there, and it was so different. I we got to do skin to skin, and it didn't hurt. And my recovery was great. Like, I mean, it couldn't have gone better. So if you're scared of a C-section and you're listening, I'm here to tell you I've had two and one of them was like truly incredible. I would, if I could repeat that birth again, I would do exactly the same thing. Like, loved it, loved it so much. So, you know. Why did she say you're not a candidate for a V back? Because it would require me to have delivered, like go into labor on my own. And I got in, I I had my six. Yeah. There was no I've actually never had a um, yeah, I wasn't induced and I've never had yeah, like uh gosh, I'm a contraction. I've never had a contraction. Oh, interesting. Because Yeah, they're not fun. Yeah, they're not. I don't want to want to try to believe. Like I'm I'm all set. I can just imagine. But like, yeah, it it's a strange feeling to know that I birthed two children, I've never had a contraction before. But yeah, they they took him at 36, basically the second that he turned full term for my baby. Yeah. So that's why I couldn't, because they didn't want me to go past 36 and they absolutely didn't want me to just because the increase the intensity or the uh not the intensity, the chance of me developing help or severe is the as you get closer to 40 weeks, that goes higher and higher and higher.

SPEAKER_02: 47:35

So that's why as a C-section mom, I remember feeling so guilty because I also had an emergency C-section and it was awful. But I've heard that if it's planned, it's great. But every time, every person I've talked to who it's an emergency, it's awful. But there was, did you have is is part of the thing you mentioned it was control, but was part of it too just like feeling because I had this feeling where I was like, why couldn't my body do what it needed to do? Like, what is wrong with me? Like, how come everybody else can do this? Like, we've been doing this for so many years. Like, what is wrong? So you had that too.

SPEAKER_00: 48:07

Yeah, I I did. I felt robbed. That's the only word I can feel. I was robbed by myself. Like I robbed my own self. Like I, it wasn't, I didn't feel like somebody else took it from me. I feel like I took it from myself. Like I depressed. Exactly. Like I felt like I wanted to experience the idea, or not even the idea, the whole physical sensation of like my own child leaving my own body in the way that I always thought was going to happen. It was an unmet expectation to have an emergency C-section. Didn't really realize that it was that important to me until it was taken away. And then I was like, oh no, that was important to me. And it only became crystal clear that it was when I got pregnant successfully with my second. And then I was like, it's non-negotiable. I'll be having a vaginal birth. Like I was truly about to fire my OB. Like I was so insistent. God bless, God bless that woman. She was so, I mean, though the people that take on that career, they are just like they can roll with the punches. Cause I was truly serving up some crazy. Like I just was like, I'm having one. Like I just was so argumentative. But then yeah, I got talked into it for a 7-Eleven birthday. Because he 7-Eleven. I got to choose two birthday.

SPEAKER_02: 49:16

I think she was trying to sweep me up. She's like, you can choose. Okay. I have a few more questions though, because typically we we wrap up with two questions, but I have a question more related to somebody who wants to be an entrepreneur or, you know, have a side gig rather than, you know, going to a nine to five. What advice would you give them, especially like moms? What advice would you give a mom looking to start?

SPEAKER_00: 49:37

I'd say hold everything loosely. Let yourself be surprised. Delight yourself in the things that you actually like and the things that you don't, uh, that you don't speak to you as much. And as practical as, oh, I didn't think that I would like running payroll or doing some of the drier administrative things that is required of you as a business owner. And I do, I like it. And I thought I would like more making content in uh for the construction industry because I like making content, but I don't like that part. So allowing yourself to be surprised, and then I mean, this advice is going to hurt your ears at first because it's just usually not an option for 99% of the people. Um outsource as soon as you can. Like delegate as soon as you can. At first, everyone is doing every role by themselves. Like that's just how it is, or it you usually is, or you have a partner, but like everything is homegrown. The second we started getting into the framework of like hiring out, hiring out, the more and more and more we could stay in the part that is our working genius, and the more our business grew and the less burnt out we were. But that's not available at first. So you have to kind of like hold the pose until you get to the point where it makes sense to hire an assistant or hire out a portion of your business that you hate doing. Anything like that takes time, but just know that that relief is coming if you continue like to show up when you don't see the receipts yet and when you don't see the results yet. When you're in the trust fall, it is the hardest. I like to use the like, this is not mine, it is borrowed, but like the bottom of the you. Like when you are crawling down the U, this is somebody else's advice. But like when you are starting a business, you are up here, you are on cloud nine, and then things don't always go as planned, or the bills aren't really getting paid in the way you thought that they were, and things start to feel really low. And once you're in the bottom of the letter U, a lot of people will just climb right back up. Instead of seeing it through to the other side, they continue on this portion. And so having so it's like, no, I'm gonna go back. Okay. Yes, yeah, yeah. It's too painful. It's too painful to not to feel like a failure. It's too painful to what are people thinking of me? It's too painful. Whatever your fear or your block is, whatever that is, it's too painful or too uncomfortable to continue. So people will then start a different business or they will go back to their nine to five. And I'm not, every situation is different. Look, we're I'm not living in like fantasy land of like, well, just like think about it and no money will appear. Like I totally get that, like, we're all just trying to make it. And so sometimes things happen. But if it's a situation in which it you can keep going, like please do, because on the other side of that is the smallest percent of people that actually continued. And then you really see the rest of like that expansion story, in my opinion. So to wrap up the advice, um, delegate as soon as you can, let yourself be delighted by yourself on what you like and what you don't like, and use that as your compass. And then when things get hard and you want to throw in the towel, just remember that all things will come around and keep focused on the fact that like the smallest percentage of people keep are going to continue up that path and go past that uncomfortable stage.

SPEAKER_02: 52:56

I'd say those are the three things. That makes sense. So I'm gonna ask you something about motherhood. What is your advice to your best friend who comes to you and says they're pregnant? What advice do you give them? Or what advice do you wish somebody would have given you?

SPEAKER_00: 53:08

I wish somebody would have reminded or uh really, really sold me on how much joy I was going to experience. There's so much. There's so much fear. There's so much, oh, you're never gonna sleep again. Oh, those first years are hard. Yes, they are. They are hard. And I have never in my life felt feelings that I have felt when I'm holding my baby. I have never in my life felt as proud as somebody as when I see my kids solve something for themselves. I feel more creative, I feel more fulfilled, I feel uh more at peace, I feel more joyful, I feel more calm, I feel more confident all after motherhood, especially after my second, but after my first as well. My first made me a stronger mom, my second made me a softer one. And both both sides of my tenderness needed more place at the table. And I was putting her aside to like only do my business mind of like all I work with all men. So it's just like I would like just very much business minding. What does the analytics say? And I was like tabling my tenderness, which is your motherhood will force your hand. Whether you're a tender person or not, you don't have to have anything except once, once you're holding that baby, something will come over you and there will be a tenderness. If it's small, it's small. If it's huge, it's huge. It will there will be a tenderness. I'd say have that have a seat at the table with you as you're building your business. And don't look at it as like for me to build my business, I have to divorce that tenderness, that softness, that presence that you need, or at least I need to be the type of mother I want to be, where I'm like sitting in the ground and not running. Like I have a really hard time from not running from play. And I'll say that straight out. Like, I don't, I'm not the dinosaur mom, the imaginative play, that's hard for me because I feel like I'm not moving the needle. I have to like, I had I had to work on sitting and being, just being in that moment. And so he's trying to teach them something, right? It's like you can just try to teach them something or not always like be like, okay, well, now I'm gonna be behind on the dishes and then I'm gonna have to talk to Nick about that. Like just that running to-do list, like as as much as you can, like just like yeah, I think I think I wish I would have known how much joy was going to come because I was very prepared for how much, how little sleep I was gonna get and how hard it was gonna be, you know. But yeah, I think that that's undersold.

SPEAKER_02: 55:25

Yeah. Well, following that vein, my last question is what is some of that joy that you didn't that you felt that you didn't expect to feel that like comes to the top of your mind?

SPEAKER_00: 55:34

Um well, breastfeeding was like sometimes joy, sometimes not. That that was a little bit more of like a push and pull. There's times I hated it, there's times I loved it. Um I'd say uh it's hard for me to even really explain how this feels, but uh like raising someone that's so similar to you, but then is also offering different strengths and different like ways of seeing the world that is challenging my own worldview. I think it was really, really exciting to me. And uh and it's been joyful. It's been hard because I've had to like face my own blocks. Sometimes something will come out of his mouth that I know I say to him, and I'm like, didn't like didn't like that at all. So I have to like, you're kind of the your kids hold up the mirror to your strengths and your weaknesses, and that can be really uncomfortable, but it's been joyful for me to be a better person, I'd say, or to like to work to have a I've been motivated and fulfilled by wanting to be better for my kids. And so I think that's been unexpected. Joy is not the word it feels when you're doing the work. It feels hard. It feels embarrassing or vulnerable to be like, oh wow, I want to work on my patience, or I want to work on this, or I want to work on that, or my present, being physically in the room, not somewhere else. Like all these things. And mentally too, mentally there. Mentally there, like fully embodied with what they are doing, you know, painting, drawing, whatever. And and so I think that it's been for all of those times I fought that. There's so much joy when I when I actually like surrender to that. Like when I'm cooking with my son, and it's so much messier than it would have been if I did it by myself, but he's so happy to be stirring. And I'm like, why was I running for this? Why was I running from this to go do payroll? Like it really, in those moments, it really, and I'm not trying to over-romanticize or over-glamorize motherhood either, team. Like, I really it you were in the trenches, like it is hard. We, but like the joyful parts, I they they really will take my breath away sometimes. Like, I'm just really not excited. They're not usually the big stuff in the big kindergarten stuff or the big um awards ceremonies stuff. I usually can keep it together. It's stirring soup and him saying that was fun, mom. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 57:46

Or when he like makes you something. Yeah, my son was cooking the other day, which he doesn't do often, but he was like, No, I'm I'm making a pie. And he made this like veggie pie that would have been really good if he didn't put that extra bit of salt in it. And I was like, Oh, okay. You know, like we're we're experimenting and when they when they feel confident enough to do that. Yeah. I have so many more questions to ask you, but I know we're at time and you have five businesses to run. So thank you so much for taking the time because it's incredible. And where can people find you? We'll also link it in the show notes. But if they want to learn more about you and follow you, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00: 58:19

Yes. So I'm mostly on TikTok at Angela Party Flips. We'll put it in the show notes. But I also have uh Prime Quartz everywhere at Prime Courts is our pickleball business. And then yeah, that's basically I would love to have a website, a landing page of all my stuff, but I haven't really done that yet. Um I do a link tree. You can do a link tree, put it all there. Yeah, I know. I had a link tree. I had a podcast at one point called Debut, and before that, I had one called The Unpolished. Uh, all those episodes are still live wherever you listen to podcasts. So um don't record over there right now. But those are I had that podcast for four years, so there's so much, so much content over there. Um, and yeah, I mean, if if I will link it all. Yeah, I was gonna say at Antill Party Flips is the easiest on TikTok. Okay. Hopefully you get a link tree and then we can go from there. But we'll put all those different things. I have one. I got I'm the worst, like I really am the worst on the back end stuff. I do have one. So I will I'll I'll send it over to you.

SPEAKER_02: 59:13

Just put it in your TikTok. It's fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 59:15

I'm like, oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02: 59:16

Oh yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Angela. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me.