The first lady I had the pleasure of hearing from is Kelly of Studio DIY. Her colourful content, Halloween Costumes, Can’t Clutch This, and lifestyle content is the stuff dreams are made of. Have you been following along with their renovations?
Check out my post about my entrepreneurial maternity leave
I sent Kelly my version of the Proust questionnaire, and she provided some interesting answers. I really relate when she said “if we stopped working, 90% of our income stopped coming in too.” While Dan has a very generous paternity leave through the military, I do not. So if I stop working, 90% of my income stops.
Check out my list of Baby & Child Books with a Strong Female Lead
And I’m sure this will happen over here too “Instead of creating content now just to create it, every project I do, while much fewer and farther between now, has a lot of meaning behind it and serves a purpose for my family.”
Arlo, the mini Mindell in question, is adorable and full of life. He looks like such a character, and I have enjoyed watching what they share of him on their social channels.
1. When was your baby due / did you welcome a child?
March 2017
2. What was your maternity leave plan? ex. Did your social channels go dark? did you have a backlog of content? Did you keep creating but at a lower output?
Since we were adopting, I only had about four weeks between being matched and welcoming our son to prepare for maternity leave. I put together a handful of evergreen blog posts so I had at least a couple posts going live on the blog each week and that was about all the preparation I had time for!
3. Did you have a partner that was able to take mat/ pat leave at the same time? Can you describe the type of role they played in supporting you?
My husband and I work together on the business, and he has his own clients as well, so we worked together to prepare for our maternity/paternity leaves. He ended up taking on more of a role of caretaker after the first few weeks as it was more critical, financially, for me to return to work sooner than him.
photo credit Studio DIY
4. What was something you think you did really well during the first few months postpartum, in terms of work-life balance?
I took about two weeks almost entirely off from working which has never really happened before. It was the absolute best and felt like a giant slumber party as Arlo, Jeff and I all hung out in our apartment, learning how to be a family of three and binge watching more shows than I can count. We didn’t have any out-of-town visitors as bonding time is especially critical with adoption. Some of my fondest memories are from those two weeks!
But the best thing we did, though I realize this is not possible for breast-feeding mamas out there, is alternate who stayed up with the baby at night. Since we were formula feeding, one night I would sleep on the couch in the living room with Arlo in his bassinet next to me and feed him every three hours while Jeff got a full night’s sleep in our bedroom and then we would switch. That’s not so much work-life balance, but it really saved our sanity and if anyone has the opportunity to do something similar, I cannot recommend it enough.
5. What’s something you could have done better during the first few months, in terms of work-life balance?
I wish I took more time completely off. After the two weeks fully “off” from working, I started slowly diving back in to work. I really wish I took at least one month completely off to spend more time bonding. But unfortunately, in the work we do, at the time, if we stopped working, 90% of our income stopped coming in too.
6. Did you have a work team to support you during your initial months / year? What kind of role did they play?
I had one full-time employee and a freelance social media assistant helping me keep things running from the administrative side. They made sure social posts and blog posts went up and that the inbox stayed relatively organized during the first few months until I was fully back.
7. Business wise, did you anticipate and plan for a shift in content to reflect your changing situation? Or did your brand not change at all?
My brand has done a complete 180. Becoming a mom zapped my creativity as I knew it would, and it has not come back. I found my creative energy was being put towards finding activities to do as a family and renovating the home we bought three months after our son was born that there was no space left for the DIYs I used to pop out left and right. It’s been a really hard change to navigate but I feel good about where we are headed. Instead of creating content now just to create it, every project I do, while much fewer and farther between now, has a lot of meaning behind it and serves a purpose for my family.
photo credit Studio DIY
8. How did you manage the transition back to “full time” working life once you were ready? (nanny, more studio/work help, shorter work days)
For the first nine months, my husband was the primary care taker of our son until we hired a nanny. I am incredibly grateful that he was able to fill that role, and that I was able to be there as much as possible too. Even after hiring our nanny, we’ve always maintained “family fridays” which is an extra day we take off work to spend solely with our son doing a fun activity together. It’s a privilege that I don’t take for granted!
9. Having done it once, are you considering doing it a second time? *wink wink*
We recently began the adoption process again for baby number two! We learned a lot the first time and will be trying to keep those lessons in mind as we prepare for another little one in our home!
10. Is there one piece of advice you wish other self-employed moms knew about?
When help is offered, take it. And if it’s not offered, ask for it. Motherhood, especially self-employed motherhood, is not a time to be too proud to say you can’t do it all alone. It takes a village so don’t be afraid to lean on the one you have surrounding you!