🤪 Burnout, Bluey, and Back-to-Back Meetings: A Mom Marketer’s Survival Guide 📖

Feeling the burnout creep in between preschool drop-offs, campaign deadlines, and endless Slack pings? You’re not alone. In this episode of Kids, Chaos & Killer Campaigns, we’re getting real about what burnout looks like for moms in marketing—and how to fight it with practical, guilt-free strategies that actually fit into your life.

Host [Your Name], a mom of two and digital marketing pro, shares her own chaotic week juggling a sick toddler and two campaign launches—along with five bite-sized self-care tips to help you protect your time, stay focused, and survive with style.

You’ll learn how to:  Redefine self-care (hint: it’s not always a bubble bath)  Use automation and tools like HubSpot + Asana to reduce mental load
 Block off focus hours and create quiet-time zones
 Let go of screen-time guilt
 Build a support system of fellow mom marketers

This is your permission slip to pause, breathe, and realize that you’re doing way more than enough. Whether you're working from the couch with a sniffly kid or hiding in the bathroom for 5 minutes of peace—we see you.

Perfect for:
– Working moms in marketing
– Digital marketers balancing parenting + career
– Anyone who’s ever sent a campaign email mid-meltdown (no judgment here)

Hit play now and don’t forget to subscribe for more real-talk marketing tips and motherhood moments.

Transcript

Welcome back to Kids, Chaos, and Killer Campaigns.

Today, we're getting real about something every mom marketer feels but rarely talks about. Burnout.

Let's face it, between deadlines, endless slackpings, school pickups, toddler tantrums, and that never-ending pile of laundry,

we're juggling a lot, like circus level chainsaw juggling it.

Just this morning, my three-year-old refused to put on pants before school. I was trying to hit send on the only email I needed to send out before school drop-off, and trying to negotiate with her was like closing a six-figure deal. My motto may be, pick your battles, but unfortunately for me, wearing pants to school is a battle that I have to pick.

after some forceful negotiations and a couple tears, I won't say whose they were, she had pants on and my email was sent. And with that being said, I was wiped out before my day had even officially started. So today, we're talking about self-care that actually works for mom marketers. Not spa day kind of self-care because honestly, who has time for that?

but the real life micro moments of care that can help us stay sane, stay focused, and avoid crashing into a pile of burnout.

The first thing we need to do is redefine what self-care actually means. Now, let's throw out that Pinterest-perfect version of self-care. For us, self-care might look like eating lunch, not at your desk, saying no to one more request, or hiding in the bathroom for five minutes of peace. Yes, I have been there before.

One of my favorite self care wins is that I started scheduling 15 minute calendar blocks after big blocks of meetings. I used to go back to back all day and by 3pm I felt like a robot. That tiny buffer gives me a breather. Sometimes I use it to refill my coffee and sometimes I choose to just sit in silence because as a mom, we all know silence is something we do not often get.

The next thing for us to do is automate and delegate. You wouldn't run a marketing campaign without automations, and your life deserves that same strategy.

few quick automation wins.

automate things like grocery orders or meal delivery. My best friend has used Instacart for years and she finally got me to try it out. Now let me tell you, this is a game changer. Not having to go to the grocery store with two kiddos in tow has saved me so much time and spares my sanity.

Use a shared family calendar with alerts. Having this calendar helps my family keep on track of pickups and drop-offs when my husband and I are pulled into early or late meetings. It also helps keep on track for when we both want to schedule time or things for ourselves so both of us aren't trying to go out and we don't always have to get a babysitter for one of us to go and enjoy doing something we love to do.

Another tip is to schedule your recurring tasks in tools like HubSpot or Asana. Now, let's be real. Our brains are like my work computer. A million tabs open at all times.

appointments, school drop-offs, different spirit days, snack sign-ups, deadlines, and the mystery of where all of our socks go, you don't need to also remember to send out your monthly newsletter or to follow up with your webinar leads. Let Automation Tools do the remembering for you.

platforms like HubSpot and Asana are lifesavers when it comes to automating and systemizing your marketing tasks.

A few ways I use them in real life. With HubSpot, I pre-schedule my monthly email newsletter, so I'm not scrambling at 9 p.m. on a Sunday while also trying to pack the nap blankets, get lunch and outfits ready for my girls for the week ahead.

I've also built automated workflows for all of our lead nurturing. So new contacts get follow-ups without me having to lift a finger after that initial setup.

I even use task queues to assign myself weekly social drafting or post reviews. So I'm not relying on my memory to make sure that something went out.

In Asana, I create recurring tasks like review ad performance every Friday or check blog analytics on the first of every month. That way, those important but also easy to forget tasks are baked into my schedule.

I also add reminders for campaign planning timelines.

Things like start Q2 brainstorming two weeks out before we have that initial meeting so that I'm not running on fumes or coming to meetings unprepared.

Honestly, scheduling these kind of tasks out is like having a second brain. One that doesn't forget why you walked into a room the second you enter it, or completely forget what you're doing when your toddler starts screaming, Mom, from the bathroom.

I've even taught my oldest daughter to start packing her school lunch. With supervision, of course. It's not always perfect. Last week she did pack an entire can of sliced peaches instead of the tiny snackable ones we have, but she's learning and it's one less thing on my plate.

As a mom marketer, it is important to protect your time the way you do your campaign budget.

You would never blow your ad budget on impulse, and your time works the same way.

block off hours during your most productive times. Not all hours are created equal. If you're anything like me, you're way sharper at 5 a.m. than at 3 o'clock in the afternoon when preschool pickup is looming and snack demands are eminent.

Figure out your golden hours. Maybe it's before your kids wake up. Maybe it's right after school drop off. And block that time like your sanity depends on it. Because honestly, it kind of does. For me, I wake up and get my work day started at 5 a.m. This is wildly early to some people, but for me, I get that solid hour and a half of laser-focused time

before the chaos erupts when my kiddos wake up.

This is when I tackle big strategy work or write that content that actually requires brain power.

Now a pro tip, if you're working in a shared schedule environment, literally mark that time as do not schedule and do not feel guilty about protecting it.

make sure you create quiet time zones, even if it's just during nap or a short time after bedtime.

I get it. The idea of quiet time when you're a mom of young kids is completely laughable. But just 10 to 20 minutes of uninterrupted time for yourself during nap or post-bed can be clutch.

in our house, we started a quiet basket to replace nap time because both of our girls are super hit and miss with nap. Send help. The basket is filled with sticker books, puzzles, crayons, books, and both girls know if they aren't wanting to nap that day,

they have special quiet time. Do they still interrupt me? Of course, but even 60 % fewer interruptions for that 30 minutes of quiet time is a huge win in my

If naps are a distant memory in your household, consider designating post bedtime as your quiet time. Take time to sit and quietly do something for yourself. It can be read your favorite book, some guilt-free Instagram scrolling, or even batch scheduling social content if that's what you like to do, and a glass of wine is optional.

Be okay with screen time. Yep, I said it. This is your official permission slip to let go of the guilt of screen time. Some days, the only way I can finish writing a proposal or record a podcast episode is with the help of little, is with a little help of Daniel Tiger or Sophia the First. And that's okay.

You're not a bad mom for leaning on screen time. You're a smart one.

Screen time doesn't have to be mindless either. We have an entire repertoire of learning shows for moments like this. Things that keep my girls entertained and give me 30 minutes to power through a task while not being mindless TV and making sure they're learning something. That's a huge win-win.

As moms, we put a ton of pressure on ourselves to do it all perfectly. But in reality, giving ourselves grace and support, even if it's in the form of bluey or a quiet basket, helps us show up better everywhere.

Last week, my three-year-old was homesick for three straight days, right as I was heads down finalizing three different website pages and trying to launch two campaigns. Between tears, Tylenol, cartoons, and constant snuggle requests, I had to get creative.

I queued up a few of her favorite episodes of her favorite shows on the TV and gave her a super cozy couch set up. And then I powered through working on the couch next to her with only my laptop during the quiet stretches when she was watching those shows.

No guilt, no shame, just a mom marketer making it happen. Well, also wiping noses and avoiding toddler sneezes.

Tip four in keeping that sanity and avoiding burnout is find your community. Whether it's a Slack group, a LinkedIn community, or a few mom friends in a group chat that you can text memes to when things go sideways, community matters.

We're not meant to do this alone.

group chats, one with my closest mom friends and one with my closest mom marketer friends. We make sure to check in at least once a

part therapy, and 100 % necessary.

If you don't have a group like that, consider this your invitation to start.

So my last tip for avoiding burnout is give yourself credit and grace.

You are doing so much, and maybe not perfectly, but no one is.

Give yourself credit for showing up to work and to bedtime stories. Give yourself credit for launching that campaign and nursing your baby or potty training your toddler.

And also give yourself credit for showing up to that meeting even if it was with a Cheerio in your hair.

Your campaigns don't need to be perfect. And your parenting doesn't either. Both are yours, and that makes them both powerful.

So here's what I want you to remember today. Self-care doesn't have to be grand to be effective. Protect your time like it's gold, because it is.

Find people to learn from and lean on.

And above all, be kind to yourself.

Your challenge for today? I want you to carve out just 10 minutes this week for yourself. Not for the kids. Not for your job. For you. Go take a walk. Scroll in peace. Sip your coffee while it's still hot. You've earned it.

while we're all continually trying to avoid burnout, stay caffeinated, stay creative, and don't forget, glitter is forever.

Thank you so much for checking out this podcast. I'd love to hear the topics that you want to hear discussed, so please drop them in the comments or shoot me a line on LinkedIn.

I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, leave it a review, and share today's episode with a mom or marketer who you think could use some tips on avoiding burnout.

I'd love to connect on LinkedIn to stay in touch through this journey. My LinkedIn will be dropped in the show notes, so you can just click there and shoot me that connect request.

In our next episode, we're gonna be talking about navigating marketing trends, what to adopt and what to avoid.

In the meantime, enjoy the kids, enjoy the chaos, and I'm wishing you all killer campaigns.