239: Preparing for a Successful Maternity Leave as an Entreprenuer

Alyson: 0:00

On the emotional side of this. We started our business. I mean, it was our first baby some of us, right or it was a baby in between babies, and so, like, emotionally speaking, you are going to feel very tied to making sure the invoices look perfect and making sure the proposals look perfect and double checking every single caption that goes out on social before it's posted, like that is going to happen happen.

Camille: 0:32

So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know this is Call Me CEO. Listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know this is Call Me CEO. Welcome everyone to Call Me CEO.

Camille: 0:54

This is your host, Camille Walker, and we are talking today about how to change your mind around what it means to have maternity leave, especially as a solopreneur or a busy entrepreneur that has a team. There are different skill sets and ways of thinking or deconstructing, rather, what it means to set up a system for yourself, for your business, so that you can enjoy that sweet little baby. And I was thrilled when Alyson Caffrey reached out for being on the show, because this is exactly the kind of thing that I would love to share with this audience is how mothers can be supported and how you can enjoy that sweet little baby. She is the author of the Sabbatical Method and she has an incredible approach to creating a maternity leave that is made for you. So, Alyson, thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you for having me. I am so excited to be here. Yeah, tell our audience a little bit about you. Where do you live? How many kids do you have? We talk about motherhood here too and what your business is all about.

Alyson: 1:59

Yeah, totally so. I'm Alyson Caffrey. I'm married to my best friend of 10 years. We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary in 2024. And I've got two little boys at home, almost three, so he'll be three in a couple of weeks and four years old. So I'm basically a professional referee All the time. We're just making sure that folks aren't hurt and not hitting the walls and honestly, I love the beautiful, upbeat nature of our life.

Alyson: 2:24

I run two businesses. Operations Agency is a traditional operations consultancy. We celebrated eight years last year, so we're in our ninth year of business. I am behind the scenes of structuring some really high growth eight and nine figure companies, most owned by parents and busy moms and things like that. And Master Maternity Leave was born about two and a half years ago on the heels of having my second son, jack, and our big goal at Master Maternity Leave is to help moms create space for this wonderful season to just fully embrace the transformation and snuggle your baby and also create a better business in the meantime.

Alyson: 2:57

I am a systems and process nerd. My formal background is in operations and we actually just moved from Pennsylvania, so my husband and I grew up on the East Coast in New Jersey and we finally decided to kind of take the plunge and go live in this beautiful place. That was kind of a bucket list. Maybe we'll never do this type of thing and it's feeling really surreal. But we live in Colorado Springs and we're enjoying it quite a bit. Being outside hiking all the time as a family and, just like I don't know, embracing the outdoors. It's been really nice.

Camille: 3:28

I bet your boys love it too to be able to be out and run amok. I have three sons and a daughter, so I know about the referee life. It is always it's never a dull moment. In fact, my husband just took our little boy skiing. They've been three or four times at this point and he says, now that our eight-year-old is going so fast he can't keep up with him, which is terrifying to me because I'm just imagining. I know I'm like, oh no, is he like knowing how to weave in and out of people and like not kill himself? It's very frightening to be a parent, let's be honest.

Camille: 4:02

But I love that you are chasing after these dreams and helping redefine what it means to take maternity leave, and you and I both are big on taking advantage of creating a system that works well. That means that you are not running yourself into the ground. So I want to start there. What are some number one pitfalls that you see with entrepreneurs who are maybe trying to do all the things, and what are those first system pieces to put into place before even getting into the space of taking a maternity leave?

Alyson: 4:39

Yeah, this is a great question and I'll say this a lot of us who have started a business, first and foremost likely aren't starting because we're like incredibly business savvy right, like running a business, modeling, structuring systems, all that stuff. We aren't naturally really amazing at that oftentimes. And so when I meet founders and when I meet folks who have grown these massive companies, a lot of times what happens is they start because they see a need and then they have a skill set right. So a lot of times we work with service providers. It's one of the ways that I've worked with most folks who have come through the doors of operations agency or work with us at Master Maternity Leave is they're like, hey, listen, I do this thing and I can't imagine me leaving the business. Like, hey, listen, I do this thing and I can't imagine me leaving the business. And so the business grows around this person with the skill set. And then we have to think about what systems that person keeps, what habits that person keeps, in order to kind of rise above and allow someone else to come in and take that over. So oftentimes I say that the first key systems and, frankly, until you probably hit like 50, 70 people in team.

Alyson: 5:44

The only four systems that a business really really needs in those early years is a lead generation system, so a way to get eyeballs. The second is a conversion system, so turning those eyeballs into customers. The third is a fulfillment system, so fulfilling the promises that you're making in the other two systems. And then the fourth is an improvement system right, being able to rinse and repeat, refine and tweak and then relaunch again. So I think a lot of folks because the books out there that are written about operations systems, people, replacement, all that stuff they're geared more toward larger companies, our EOSs, our scaling ups, our clockworks, even they are really geared toward teams, big teams and a lot of us either solopreneurs, folks who are taking on their first handful of VAs.

Alyson: 6:33

Under 10 in team, we make up a good majority of small business ownership and there's really not a lot out there for folks who want to start to replace themselves in their business. So whenever I sit down with a founder, I first look at how are we spending our time? Right, business is centered around us and our skillset. Let's start to create some systems around that. What are we doing? And then the second thing is like does the ecosystem of the business work right? Do we have those four key systems?

Camille: 7:07

And if we don't have them, we need to start to build them as quickly as we can and as sustainably, of course, as we can. Yeah, I mean, I love that you break it down so into the four, because I think those things might be happening for some of us, or there are pieces of it that we have. But what about the improvement after the fulfillment? and how do we

Camille: 7:21

fill in those pieces, and that's actually a question I get. A lot is figuring out. First and foremost, where do you start when trying to replace yourself and knowing how to most effectively do that with the resources that you have.

Alyson: 7:36

Calendar All day. I have a mentor and client for a long time, dan Martell. He's super famous. He wrote a book that came out I think it was 2023, called Buy Back your Time, and he talks about the replacement ladder, of basically taking all of the time that you spend as a CEO and replacing and hiring for that time.

Alyson: 7:56

Because I think the number one mistake that we make when we either first start to hire or we start to implement some key systems is we look around, we look at what other people are doing, we see who other people are hiring, we look at job descriptions that other people are giving out and at the end of the day, we might think I've done this probably a dozen times, gone into a business, done an audit of how they're doing things, looked at the CEO's calendar and they're like I just need an executive assistant, I just need a project manager and I'm telling them that the proof is right there on their calendar they need someone to come in and help them build websites, because that's where they spend the majority of their time. So I think when we start to think about the first initial ways of getting yourself out of the business, it's being really real with where you're spending your time, and sometimes that can feel really confronting. I remember when I did this exercise the first time, I was realizing that I was spending half my time in administrative tasks, which was like sucking my company resources dry because I was paying myself a salary to basically do something I could offload for $25, $35 an hour. And I think being really real with yourself through this process is absolutely key. You have to be able to scrutinize your calendar in a way that feels like you can make those tough decisions of being like well, actually, allie, you send invoices for like two hours a day, so like, probably don't do that anymore.

Alyson: 9:17

And that was the time where I had to get really real with myself about what I was doing and the value I was bringing to the company. And then, of course, something that Dan talks about in his book which is a fantastic read, by the way he talks about refilling your time back up. So, of course, when you offload those administrative tasks, what a lot of founders do is they say, oh, I'm going to go kick it and do whatever, or I'm going to go off on maternity leave. That's a different kind of situation off, offload those tasks, right, those administrative kind of baseline things, and then you start going in and either generating new business, building your brand, doing things that are going to invest in the longevity or top line revenue of the company, instead of doing what Allie in 2020 or 2020 or 2018 did, which was send emails and invoices for two hours a day.

Camille: 10:11

Which I think is very easy to get stuck into that loop, especially when you're used to wearing all the hats and you think, oh well, only I can do this. No one's told you that, but you think in your mind that's the situation, when a lot of times it's not. We have to reevaluate, and I think a lot of times it takes an outside perspective like yours for someone to come in and say no, really, how are you using your time? Do you feel like people are surprised by that practice?

Alyson: 10:39

I think sometimes they're surprised and I think there's a handful of folks who have that voice in the back of their brain that's like, oh, I knew that this was an issue and so I just needed somebody external to like help me get there. But I mean, listen, I've struggled with this personally, I've seen clients struggle with this. I mean it feels really good to feel needed in your business. And I think, on the emotional side of this whole thing because we've gotten pretty tactical pretty fast, on the emotional side of this we started our business.

Alyson: 11:07

I mean it was our first baby some of us, right or it was a baby in between babies, and so, like, emotionally speaking, you are going to feel very tied to making sure the invoices look perfect and making sure the proposals look perfect and double checking every single caption that goes out on social before it's posted, like that is going to happen and we need to, at some point, in order to embrace the growth of our business, be able to understand that if we want to build something that lasts, we need to build something independent of us, and so that means letting go, that means pulling back, that means allowing other people, whether that's formal team, vas, contractors, partners, whatever to be able to shine and build things within the confines of the brand, of course, but it's a really solid emotional challenge too.

Alyson: 11:55

So I want to acknowledge that that if anybody listening to is like, oh, I've tried doing this and I've tried delegating and it's always fallen flat, there might be a tactical reason why the laundry list of things that we just talked about, but there also might be an emotional reason. I know plenty of founders who don't want to let go of the reins of their business because they're afraid of what that might mean for either their personal growth or their professional growth. They need to find something bigger now to do. They need to become bigger, and that's pretty daunting.

Camille: 12:20

I agree with this so much because, as you know for those of you listening, that's something I help people with all of the time is hiring virtual assistants to help them do the work that their likeness does not require, which I think, as you're saying, it can be those day in, day out things where the big thinking moments or that growth that really needs to happen needs to be done by the founder, and that can be a growth.

Camille: 12:47

Pain Like that can be really scary, it can be painful, it can be daunting in many ways. So, as you're helping people with taking maternity leave, I'd love to hear what your experience was with this and how it led you to create this program.

Alyson: 13:06

Yeah, so when we got pregnant with our first son, my business was about three years old and I was mostly doing one-off projects and fractional work. So I was very much again business built around the service provider type of person and I was in operations. So I kind of was like, oh, I'll just figure this out. I've got a handful of good teammates. This feels really good for me. And I sat down to kind of plan maternity leave and I just did what every person does when they start a new project go to Google. And I was like how to plan a self-employed maternity leave? And the first result that I got was largely self-employed moms are on their own when planning maternity leave. And this was before the AI synthesis and all this stuff back in 2020. And I was like well dang, nobody's figured this out. I like couldn't believe it, and so I did what anyone does, I think, when they hit kind of a dead end there and they've run a business or like, oh, I'll just figure it out. So that's what I did up until that point. I did the things I should do. I gave people trainings and standards of operating and I told our clients and did all those things. I even hired in a partner of ours in the industry to help white label and take over some of those projects, which felt really, really good for me. But I still was really, really woven into the growth side of the business the marketing and the sales and I could not imagine a situation where the business grew in any capacity without my direct involvement.

Alyson: 14:39

So I decided to press pause during, frankly, a really stressful time on taking on any new clients, which was really really tough for us as a family.

Alyson: 14:48

And I remember when my son came, he was born on a Thursday night, so into Friday morning, and I was actually so grateful I kept telling him in my belly please don't come out until Friday, Please don't come out until Friday, Because I, infamously, have always taken Fridays off ever since I started working for myself. It's always been a non-negotiable. And so he came on Thursday night, born into Friday morning, and we were in the room that we were going to spend the night in. So after we'd birthed him, my husband snaps this picture of me and my newborn son and he's sleeping in my arms and my hair is still super messy from birth. I hadn't even looked in the mirror yet and the picture that he didn't capture was the next moment. I took my sleeping son and placed him in the clear bassinet next to the bed and, like, whipped out my phone to tell all of my clients and my team that I wasn't going to be available because we just had our baby until Monday.

Camille: 15:44

Oh my gosh.

Alyson: 15:46

And honestly, at the time I kind of wore it like a badge of honor. I was like, look how dedicated I am to my business and look how flexible this can be. I can answer Slack messages from the hospital bed. But in the back of my mind I knew I was like there has really never been such a physical representation of where my priorities were. They were clearly still with my business and it made me feel like I was starting off like a really crappy mom. I was like how is this even possible?

Alyson: 16:22

And so I kind of landslowed, slid, landslid, landslowed into being a mom. So I was just like on the roller coaster and I was like snagging time to work in between feedings and at nap time and I just felt like everything was like on my shoulders. I just figured I could do all of it just with a baby on my hip Right. So I kept doing everything. I didn't think about the business and the big picture. I didn't think about the things I could improve. I didn't even think about any new schedule I wanted to keep. When baby came I was just like, oh, I'll just do all the things, but with a baby and nine months postpartum we got pregnant with our second son.

Camille: 17:03

Wow, surprise.

Alyson: 17:06

And you know we had struggled to get pregnant with Frank, which took us two and a half years to conceive him.

Alyson: 17:11

And so Steve and I my husband, we were like we know we want a family close together.

Alyson: 17:15

Let's start trying, let's get ahead of this so that in the next year, ideally, we'll be pregnant and month one I mean by the grace of God.

Alyson: 17:21

I was so excited, I was very happy, I was so grateful and transparently utterly petrified because I was holding on by a thread and in that moment I knew I was like I need to do this better. I really need to figure out a more sustainable way to be able to actually take a leave and actually create a business that isn't totally dependent on me, that can still grow and that still feels fulfilling. And that is how Master Maternity Leave was born from two very interesting experiences, totally night and day different, and I will say that, after going through and writing all the stuff down and being super intentional about that process, that was the first iteration of our curriculum and I was able to take a really solid two-month paid maternity leave with my second son and it really felt honestly like I got a second chance to bond with my two boys at the same time because I felt like I was so rushed through that early stage postpartum phase with my first son and I still am grateful for the gift that that brought our family.

Camille: 18:38

Wow, yeah, I can only imagine that having that experience so close together and figuring that out that quickly is impressive. You know to look at it and say I want to do it differently this time. What were those first initial changes that you wanted to make? Different for this mastermind mastering maternity leave? Let's get your time back and if you need to take it a step further and you decide it is time to hire a virtual assistant, I do have an offer. That is how to hire your first virtual assistant workbook.

Camille: 19:13

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Alyson: 19:50

The biggest thing, honestly, that I didn't know, and I think we just don't know what we don't know before we become parents and my hope, through our programs at Master Maternity Leave, any first time we're trying to conceive moms that come into our ecosystem, I'm like I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm just here to present you with options, because I personally believe that freedom equals options, like being able to have so many different things that you can do, and our big mission statement at Master Maternity Leave is to create space. We just want to create space for moms to be able to figure it out, to be able to snuggle, to be able to do whatever they personally feel like is best for their business and for their baby. And so the big, key, critical element that I tell every single person that walks through the door with master maternity leave is like we have to imagine what our business might be like after baby. So how do we want to spend our days? What type of mom do we want to be? Do we want to have in-home care? Are we sending our kiddo to daycare? Like there's lots of different decisions that we make as first-time parents, but then we don't think about the implications on the business. So for me, I was like it's really important for me to have my kiddos home. I don't want them to be in daycare. That was a decision that we made for our family, but that also meant that I couldn't work for full days every single week, right, it just didn't work out like that. So those types of things I think when we start to think about in future pace, what the business will look like, then we need to kind of work backwards from there. So if I want to only work two days a week, be with my kids three days, five days a week right, my husband, of course, is with them too. But, like, those different things need to be true, I can't be a one-stop shop service provider. Like. I need to grow out of that phase.

Alyson: 21:36

And I think a lot of what happens when we start a company is that we get almost addicted in this really weird way to like that startup mode where like, oh, I always have to be working, I always have to be hustling, I always have to be doing these things, and sometimes the hustle just makes us stay in the same place for too long. So I started thinking about, well, like what if we decided to create something more leveraged Like what might that look like? And so that's when we started to even with our programs at operations agency and our services there I was like, well, what would a knock it out of the park person look like to come in and help me with something like this? And so we started staffing up our team and so I think thinking big picture that way was the number one thing that I started doing.

Alyson: 22:20

The second big thing was saying no to like basically everything. I don't think you internalize this really until you become a parent, but your time is so precious, like your kids grow up so fast. Everybody says the kids grow so fast and the time goes by Three exit, 10 exit, and that's actually how fast it goes by. So my thought process became well, I can't waste all of this time on stuff that I don't love, that doesn't push the business forward, that doesn't bring financial security for our family. We need to just say no to it. And so I got a lot more comfortable.

Alyson: 22:59

Saying no to things and that's another thing I encourage moms with in our programs is like, if we don't love it or if it's not a driver in the business, we got to cut it out. We just have to. And I think, like I've felt, I've felt moms, and they've told me in our Slack channel and all these things like they feel lighter, like going through the process, like their business feels like a weight, something that they feel like they need to be all the things and they wear all the hats and all the stuff. But if sometimes you, just you just say no, right, you're like no, this isn't for me, at least not for this season, right? So thinking big picture about what business looks like after baby, making sure that you say no.

Alyson: 23:37

And then the third thing is just getting strategic with what's available to you financially. So I had no idea that short-term disability could cover a portion of my leave. I had that insurance through the business. It was a missed opportunity.

Alyson: 23:50

Second time didn't make that mistake again. Every state has some kind of program, whether it's specifically for self-employed maternity leave. There's only 13 states in the United States that currently offer some kind of program or they'll do grants and funding and that sort of thing for business growth initiatives that you can use to kind of pad the margins to be able to pay yourself and take that time off. We actually opened up a scholarship fund called the Bond Fund, where we fund maternity leaves for self-employed moms that have businesses that are really tough to separate from. So talk therapy, massage therapy, dentistry, like those types of industries, and I think when you start to see some of the work that's being done although very little, it is really intentional in this way. So being able to take advantage as well of all of those financial resources was a big one for us too, to help us with our second leave.

Camille: 24:41

Wow, I haven't even heard of that. In only 13 states, that is so sad, I know. Even Canada. They take, like what? A two-year maternity leave, where-.

Alyson: 24:51

If you're employed.

Camille: 24:52

If you're employed. If you're employed so if you're self-employed and even paternity leave, that they get a leave too. I feel like the United States is just woefully behind where we seem to be so progressive. We're not. What would you say for people who are looking to take time off? What is your coaching under understanding how much time to take for yourself or how to know how much time to do that?

Alyson: 25:18

That's a loaded question. I always advise to try to take the first two months very, very light. I think there's a couple of ways. I wish that I did it differently with both of mine and my youngest son's about to be three. So it's been a little while since that second at bat and they were so close together that I feel like I just needed to make sure that things felt stable and calm for us at that time. But had I done it a little bit differently?

Alyson: 25:43

We take about 90 days vacation a year, so I spend about a quarter off from the business, which is pretty scary for some people. They're like, oh my gosh, how. And of course we spread it out through the year and it feels nice and digestible. But I've always loved that take a month off in the summer type of business, and so we did that. The last two years I took a month off in the summer and I think that thinking about maternity leave as kind of your first at that, with being able to create a more leveraged business, I actually really encourage my moms to think about like what if you took an additional month, like later in the year within your baby's first year? Because when we were on the heels of our second maternity leave, jack, my youngest son. He was about eight months old but he got a really bad case of RSV and he was hospitalized for five days and it was horrifying, like absolutely horrifying. Didn't know what we could do. We were just in the hospital with him. He was clearly struggling and it was something that we had to drop everything and go. And then afterward I was like, well, I don't really feel like being a business owner right now. I just want to go snuggle my son, who came like so close in so many ways to like not being with us anymore and so it's so confronting sometimes to think about. But like our kids and what we want to build our business and our family right, like they can support each other and I believe it's through you know my work with the sabbatical method and all the different things that we've done, weaving founders out of the business is like, if you take this maternity leave as an opportunity, right, rewrite it right.

Alyson: 27:24

The companies that employ folks that are taking maternity leave. That's kind of how we've preconceived this idea of like what maternity leave should be how much time should I take? When should I take it? Should I get paid? Should I only get paid half? I have moms come through the doors all the time of master maternity leave and they're like, oh, should I only just like pay myself half of my salary? And I'm like, why? Why would you do that? You know what I mean? Because we think that really competitive maternity leave policies in companies are three months or six months or whatever. I told them.

Alyson: 27:55

I told a gal on my program the other day. I was like if you want to take a year off, take a year off. There's no reason why that is unavailable to you. If you can make it work financially, if you're excited emotionally, if your business can stand in, or if you want to shut things down, take a year off. So it really does depend on the family. It depends on their financial situation. It depends, frankly, on whether mom wants to work or not in the business.

Alyson: 28:20

Like when I was on the heels of our second maternity leave, I love writing, just love doing it, and I wanted to write blogs.

Alyson: 28:26

I wanted to write blogs for an hour-ish a day and I told my husband, steve, I was like, can you like bond with him now and then I'll go write some blogs and then I'll come back and I'll feed the baby, and it was really nice. So all I'm saying is the time thing. I think it really does depend on each family. I think giving yourself that first two months to just really be off and like, embrace the new season is a best practice that I've told almost every mom, but really it's up to them. And also, frankly I will say this I hear moms all the time who are like I feel guilty.

Alyson: 28:56

So if baby sleeps a lot, if they're feeling really good postpartum, they're like I feel guilty, working I should be doing something else. This is your maternity leave, your way. You've created something out of nothing when you've launched your business, and so you can do the same thing with your leave. You can rewrite all the rules, you can imagine exactly what you want and then, if it's not working for you in a two-month period, you can always go back early. You can always take more leave or more time a little bit later in the year. So don't be afraid to reimagine and then re-reimagine how this could go.

Camille: 29:31

I like that advice. It's interesting doing what I do and interviewing so many moms. A lot of new businesses are born when women are in maternity leave.

Alyson: 29:41

And I think that you're right, because your mind is just in a new space.

Camille: 29:45

You're thinking about things differently. You're looking at your role now as a mother and what that means for the future. You, or even just giving yourself permission to have different, thinking different yeah, not expecting things of yourself and discovering things about yourself and your new baby, because you really can't imagine what it's like until you're in it.

Alyson: 30:15

Would you agree, totally agree. And I always say imagine meeting your best friend and hugest advocate again and getting to know them again. That's what maternity leave is. You can just kind of re-get to know them again. Like that's what maternity leave is, like you can just kind of re-get to know who you are, get more in touch with, like what you're excited about, create that space to really feel through. And I totally agree with you Just as many businesses are born in maternity leave as they are re-imagined in maternity leave. Like it's such an incredible time. And I fully reject.

Alyson: 30:51

I know there's so many things out there that are like if you're pregnant, don't make any big decisions, don't buy a house, don't move, don't whatever. And I'm like no, this isn't some horrible medical condition, this is a very natural transitional process in our life and to think that we can become a totally different person and birth a whole new human being and our business is going to stay exactly the same honestly is, in some cases, like I felt foolish. Personally, I was like how did I actually think that I was just going to continue doing all the same stuff and then just with a baby on my hip, right. So I think, like power to the moms who are, like, ready to do all the things and have all the energy Like. I will be the biggest cheerleader and supporting every mom through that and any mom that like wants the permission to just like, take a step back and say no to more things and create boundaries and reimagine a business. Like that is amazing too, like it's just. Both of them are amazing in their own way.

Camille: 31:47

Yeah, I totally agree with that. What do you think the biggest hang up is that people have when imagining what that time, because it is, it is kind of the unknown. So there is that in the space where you're like I don't know how am I going to feel and and will my baby sleep, and am I sleeping and what's happening? How do you help people kind of search through that unknown?

Alyson: 32:10

You know, I always tell them that they've already embraced the unknown, becoming a business owner Like we, we have this muscle. And I think um, I heard this quote, I think it was from Steve jobs. He was like most people overestimate what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in 10. And I think about this all the time because I'm like, if you just give yourself some time, like your wildest dreams, absolutely greatest things you want to build, can come true. They might not be exactly in the way that you thought they would come true, but I always say, like, broaden your time horizon, so just give yourself some time to settle in, especially for my moms, who are like very type A.

Alyson: 32:53

I was very anxious new mother like very, very anxious, and I always wanted everything to happen and my baby was a great forcing function to just slow down and be present and just absorb, right. So I think, if you, I heard somewhere also once that anxiety does not live in the present, it lives in the past and it lives in the future. So if you can just try as much as possible to stay present, don't worry about how birth is going to go, don't worry about how if baby is going to sleep right. Just do the right thing in the moment, the thing that you feel most aligned with, and actually it's just about trusting yourself. So really, if you have that self-trust, it's it's you know, a practice, it's work. But if you have that self-trust, I think a lot of moms feel like they can navigate that unknown season a little bit better.

Camille: 33:41

Yeah, ooh, well, that is really good advice. I love that about being present in the moment. I I feel like, well, I, my oldest, is going to be turning 17 soon, so I am like I know, can you believe that?

Alyson: 33:56

That is wild. First, of all no, I can't believe you have a 17-year-old Second of all driving probably your other kiddos around right? How is that with the?

Camille: 34:05

freedom it is so. It's way cool and the best part and I'll be honest about this too it's just like setting up systems and processes in your business. The same rules apply to your kids, where you enable them to have autonomy and trust, and I feel, like.

Camille: 34:23

That's something where I don't know exactly how I did that, but somehow I have succeeded in raising very independent and successful children. But to be honest, I think it's from them watching me navigate, building a business with them as babies and with toddlers, and making them a part of the program where I say, okay, I'm going to be doing this project and you're working on this, and then we'll come together and it's very much open communication about what the goals are as a family, and so I don't know. It's really neat to see that you learn that a lot of things are not emergency and that you what really is important and what you really need to invest your emotional bandwidth into, and so creating systems ahead of time and really creating space for you to have the unexpected happen because it will is so freeing. So I love that you're doing this for young moms from the very beginning, because you have to become comfortable with the unknowns. There's unknowns and that's just a part of being a mom.

Camille: 35:34

So I just love what you're doing. It is so empowering that you saw something that didn't exist and said I'm going to take my strong skillset of creating operations and all the things that need to happen and I'm going to help new moms do this for themselves, so I just love that you're doing this. It's so empowering for our moms and that is very much in line with the Michaels for what I do here. So thank you so much for sharing all of that, and I know that we're just scratching the surface here. Will you please tell our audience where they can find you and your free resources? And then you also have coaching and programs as well.

Alyson: 36:12

Yeah. So the best way to start on this process is to head over to master maternity leavecom slash guide. It's my free guide. It's super comprehensive and it really just kind of walks you through the big things that you need to be thinking about for maternity leave. And I think that a lot of moms are just wondering, like where do I start?

Alyson: 36:30

So if you're listening to this and you're like I know for sure I want to grow my family, there are tons of things you can do while you're still trying to conceive restructuring the business, taking advantage of short-term disability, paying into some of those state programs if that is available inside of your state big, big time benefits from being able to do that. If you're currently expecting and you're just wondering, like, how am I going to hold this all together, Maybe you haven't had a plan yet. We do have some amazing, amazing programs. My roadmap is like a really step-by-step process, especially if you want to get it in and get it quick, if you're like six months, seven months along. But really, master maternity leave is the home for women who just want to be able to grow their business and grow their family simultaneously like really, really, and not sacrifice the quality of either. So, like I said, I think taking advantage of the free guide would be amazing. I would love to have you guys in our ecosystem.

Alyson: 37:22

I'm also super active on Instagram, so at Master Maternity Leave, come on over, give us a follow and if you have like questions from the episode, if you're like hey Ali, what about this? Go ahead and DM us. I answer all my DMS and I'd be happy to connect with you.

Camille: 37:36

Amazing, you're amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your experience and having this available. I think it's really exciting what you're doing and so needed and shocking. We don't have it, but you created it, so how cool is that.

Alyson: 37:50

Yes, I love it.

Alyson: 37:51

Honestly, I wake up every morning so excited about what I'm doing and I've been in business for myself for eight years and professional operations for 10.

Alyson: 38:02

And I will say this if you're really excited to embrace this transition of maternity leave, or even if you're just wondering as a parent or as a you know, as a business owner, like what's next for me, like, I know this might not be it, but I feel like there's a change coming there. I finally feel like I'm like in my zone of genius and in my calling. After eight years time, and there's never, you know, a time that's too late to get into the thing that, like you, were really meant to do and it's kind of all for a purpose. I really believe that my experience in operations agency and all the clients that we support there and currently still support um, have given me an incredible foundation to be able to build this thing and um, it's just been such a fun ride and um, I hope, yeah, that we get to connect with everybody who needs the support. Honestly, like I just want to be like doors open, full resource. Come on everybody, you're welcome.

Camille: 38:54

So cool and no better way than to be written by you. Even just looking at your page of like, this is who you are, this is how I'm helping you and this is how it's going to look. And here you go. I'm like yes, this is all laid out so perfectly and easy to understand, so you're awesome. It was just waiting for you to come along to create such a beautiful resource. So thank you so much for being on the show.

Alyson: 39:16

Thank you, I had a blast. Appreciate you having me you bet.

Camille: 39:19

Hey CEOs, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment and a five-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at callmeceopodcast, and remember you are the boss.