When I found out I was pregnant, I thought it was the end of my business.
I knew I’d lose time.
I knew I’d lose sleep.
And I wondered,
Would I be able to stay committed?
Would I be able to show up?
Would I be able to serve my clients the way they needed me to?
So many things went through my head and I was paralyzed by fear for 4 months.
Then I decided to TRY.
What if I could show other moms just how possible it is to build businesses and raise babies?
The truth is that entrepreneurship is messy. Motherhood is messy. Neither is easy but it can be simple if you let it.
Everyone’s motherhood journey is going to be different just like every entrepreneur's journey is going to look different.
This isn’t a race and you don’t have to be perfect.
When I let go of the idea that I had to mother a certain way and run my businesses a certain way, I was able to see just how possible doing both could be.
It’s so easy to feel like it won’t work when you see people in your industry hitting multiple five figure months while you’re sitting in a spit up filled shirt that you’ve been wearing for 3 days straight.
I started to ask for help and I accepted the help that people offered. I made my needs known. This is important for all moms: MAKE YOUR NEEDS KNOWN.
I had the hard conversation with my husband about how I felt stretched thin. I asked my support system to give me a break every Sunday to work on my business but also to recharge.
To this day, Sunday’s from 10a to 3p belong to me. I can nap, work, or just exist with myself.
Mama, you have to tell people what you need or they will assume that you are ok.
Everyone is winging it. Every mama, every business owner is learning and getting better as they go along.
No one is perfect.
No one wakes up and has it all together.
Your job as mom and CEO isn’t to be perfect but to wake up every day and make it better than the last.
Some days it’s not possible, some days suck and it’s ok to admit that.
The goal is to always make tomorrow better.
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In hindsight I wish someone would’ve told me that not having time was temporary. I spent so much time pushing myself to work in my business when I should’ve just been kind to myself and taken a break.
Sometimes you don’t have time.
Sometimes you don’t have energy.
There will be times where you’ll feel on top of the world and like you have it all together.
There will be times where you’re ready to give up.
No matter what season you’re in, it’s just that… a season. What you are feeling or experiencing right now is temporary. Things will change and get better, just honor yourself and your feelings in this season. Mama, be kind to you. Take care of you.
But it is worth it. All of us are tired, whether you have kids or not - life is exhausting. Adding kids to the mix does add an extra layer of exhaustion, but one thing I know for certain is that I have wasted a lot of time that had nothing to do with my babies and everything to do with numbing my brain with Netflix.
I got to a point where I hated my business, so I burned it to the ground.
Really, I just needed a nice long nap - and by nap I mean 24 hours of sleep.
Everyone struggles with prioritization but one thing I learned is that as a mom, I didn’t have time to not know where I needed to focus.
We don’t have the luxury of infinite time. If I had to say one thing that you absolutely must get a handle on as a mom and entrepreneurship - it would be learning to prioritize your tasks both as a mom and as a business owner.
Oh, and it doesn't make you a bad mom to sometimes prioritize your business. Remember, everything is a season, some seasons your business will require a bit more from you and that is ok.
One thing that changed the game for me was choosing ONE thing I wanted to get done each day. It could be making dinner or writing social media captions but after I do that ONE thing I celebrate myself and if I have time (and feel like it), I work on something else.
Here are 3 final thoughts to help you on this journey of motherhood and entrepreneurship:
“Sorry, my kids are in the background.”
Should never be something you say. You don’t have to apologize for your littles. Most of us work from home, a space that is safe and sacred for our children.
Hearing kids in the background playing in their home is NORMAL. It’s nothing to apologize for.
Teach people how to treat you and never apologize for the noise, crying, interruption, or anything.
I don’t apologize for my kids in the background because I’m not sorry that they are there. That being said,
I like to include my son as “co-coach” in my programs and sometimes my baby boy attends photoshoots.
I have normalized them in my content. My podcast episodes feature the snores of kids.
Unapologetically, I am mama. That is my number 1 role. I have created my business to allow me more freedom and to be there for them.
As moms and business owners we often think that we need complicated funnels, routines, and systems; however, the most effective way to get things done and not want to pull your hair out is to simplify everything.
Even when it comes to your offers, you don’t have to give weekly calls or check-ins. It’s possible to focus on 1-2 platforms to market your business so you don’t have to do “all the things.”
Simplicity is the path to alignment and gives you more freedom as a business owner and mama. If you take nothing else away from this, please remember to keep it simple. Simplify motherhood. Simplify your business.
This will take you far in both areas of your life.
You can complain and throw a pity party about the algorithm changing and your toddler deleting your podcast episode or you can just do what needs to be done.
How can you best use your 24 hours? For me, I’ve learned to just do the hard things no matter what and when something throws off my plans, I cry about it for 5 minutes and then I take action. Just. Get. It. Done. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you just have to do what needs to be done. You know what I’m talking about.
I hope this was able to encourage you in this season mama. You can do this. The days are long, the years are short, but it is possible to create a business that supports the life of your dreams.
xoxo Kay
Kay Hillman is a mom of 2, wife, and two-time CEO. She is the founder of a photography studio (Kay Hillman Photography and a Christian marketing and sales coach. Kay is passionate about teaching service providers and coaches how to create, market, and sell profitable offers to support the lifestyle you want to live. Kay focuses on creating a sustainable business model and selling with integrity. Kay believes that stepping into your calling by SERVING others and providing a deeper transformation through SELLING is the best way to grow and scale a business and is on a mission to help women truly build businesses of impact.
When she isn’t running two companies, you can find Kay sitting on the floor eating cereal with her sons and dog or dragging her husband, Tae, along on a Target run.
