Ep 31. How Systems Saved My Sanity As A Mompreneur

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You are now tuned in to the Mom c e O Suite

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Podcast. I'm your host, Felicia wife,

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mom, and entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my

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mompreneur journey along with strategies that will help you build your

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online business operations in a sustainable way.

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The goal is to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as

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a mom who values putting family first. We will also hear the

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experiences and expertise of other moms with

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service-based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys, so

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you'll know that you are alone. Motherhood gets hard,

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entrepreneurship gets hard, but together we can

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do hard things. Welcome to this.

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Hey friend, welcome to another episode. Thank you for being here today.

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I'm going to be talking about how systems saved my sanity as a

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mom preneur. Now we know this intersection of being a

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mom and an entrepreneur. It comes with its own set of

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unique challenges. There's ups there's

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downs. There's joy. There's sadness. There's just

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so many changes that occur throughout the journey. And

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so I just wanted to share a little bit of how in the

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midst of all of those changes. And the challenges

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that I've been able to maintain my sanity bus

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for. I say thus far, because you know, my

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daughter, she's in the toddler stage now, and it's just a

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new set of things happening, which I'm sure toddler moms can

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relate to. Male prior to

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me becoming a mom, I was an entrepreneur. If you haven't heard this before.

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Just going to share for those who may not know I was an entrepreneur before

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I was a mom. So I was used to. The hustle, the bustle.

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Used to just working whenever I chose to. And then I became a

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mom and I knew things would change. I just did not know

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how much they would change or in what way that would change.

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But I, I quickly found out. Now when my daughter was in the

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newborn stage, you know, during that stage, they're still. Very

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easy to care for and maintain an M. In my opinion. Let me say

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that. Because they just eat and sleep a lot.

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And so I was still able to

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just still do work as normal. I wasn't

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doing as much work because I was on my.

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Maternity leave. But. There wasn't any type

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of challenge with me doing some light work. If I wanted to.

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As she continued to grow. And she transitioned into

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more of the infant stage. She needed more of my attention.

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And this is where. Some of the challenges began to

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arise because I was out of my three month

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maternity leave that I had given myself. And so now I was trying

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to jump back into work full force. And

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do it in the same way. And in the same pace that I did

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before I had my daughter. And I was just trying to kind of bring

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her along on the journey. And that did not work out, obviously.

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And. It created a situation where. I was a

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frustrated mom. And a frustrated business owner. Because my

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daughter. Also she's seen during this stage to

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be. Very cranky. At times and I

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being a new mom, you know, I really didn't know. What I should or should

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not be doing. I was just doing a lot of things, trial and error. I

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don't know how I came across it, but I came across some information on the

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internet. About net times

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and wake windows. So basically there's this

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concept. The infants. They still need to have

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X amount of hours of sleep, but they should only be

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awake for. These designated or suggested wake

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windows. Which were like three to four hours. For me.

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At the time that was like a light bulb aha

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moment. Because up until that point, I was still just letting

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her. eat and sleep. Whenever she seemed hungry, you're tired.

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But not really realizing that she was. probably just cranky

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because I wasn't putting her to sleep. I was just allowing her to be

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awake. and letting her take the lead instead of me as

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the parent taking the lead. So. When I found out about these wake

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windows. What I did was I created this. Nap

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time. Routine for her. And let me tell you guys, it

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was amazing. What it looks like basically she woke up

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around seven 30 in the morning. She was awake for three

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hours. And then she took a nap from 10 30.

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Until new, then she was up for another three hours. And then she took

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another nap from three until four 30.

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And then she was up for another three hours until 7:30 PM. When I

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put her to bed. When I implemented. This.

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Into our daily routine. This

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just made things a lot easier.

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She was less cranky because she was getting her sleep. Obviously

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right. And. I was able to have

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designated times throughout the day. Where I

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could get some work done. And so

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I, I didn't have these feelings of frustration anymore.

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I didn't have these, these feelings of, oh, am I going to be able to

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even do this? Do I need to shut down my business? All of those

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negative thoughts and feelings that I was having. It went away

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and it even led me to. Transition into a space where I was more

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productive, because I knew that. I only had three

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hours of. On interrupted work

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time to get things done per day. Yes, I could work before

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she woke up. Or at night when she went to bed, but most of the

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time. I was trying to get my restaurant in those times. or in the

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morning, just waking up early to prepare myself for

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the day. And so I knew three

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hours each day. I had. Of uninterrupted work

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time. It just helped me to be more productive. Now

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as she got older. The way she operated

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changed. Then we had to adjust the schedule a little bit. So

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the schedule that she's on now. her wake windows are

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longer since she's older and now she only has one nap.

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And she takes a two hour nap. From one to

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3:00 PM. When she's awake., there are times where I can do

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some light work like emailing or. I'm doing some things on social

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media. That doesn't require too much of my attention,

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but still just having that designated two hours per day.

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Is such a game changer for me as a

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mom who has a child. And is working from home. It's

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just a relief to be able to have that time designated to

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get work done. Now. As. With anything

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you learn as time goes on. And so once we got the

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nap time portion down, It was like, okay, now what do we

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do? What are we going to do during all of these other times

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when she's awake? And so I started adding more

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things to the schedule. That. Outline what we would

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do. During her await time. So there's times where we're outside

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playing. There's times where she just has some free.

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Playtime and she's running around the house. There's time

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where we're doing learning. And reading. And things like that.

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And so. Having all of this. It's really a

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system, right? Having the schedule, having the

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routine. This is a system it's just a system for your

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home. And. It. Outlines. How you're

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going to operate from day to day in your home with

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your child. As a systems person. I don't know why I

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didn't think about it. Right. I, I focus heavily on systems for the

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business, but it did not. Occur to me

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initially, to create systems for the home. But

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once I did. Guys. It helped me. To keep my sanity.

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So if you don't have systems in your home, I encourage you just to

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start create a schedule that's a process, which is a part of a

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system, right? And so having these

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systems in place. It really allowed. First

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of all for me and my daughter to know what we were going

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to be doing on a day to day basis. And

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even now at this point, This just recently happened.

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It was getting close to her nap time. And instead of me,

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Taking her to her neck, she initiated going

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upstairs or wanting to go upstairs to take her nap.

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But that could not have happened if I had not. I

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created this system. And implemented. A lot of

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times in business when it comes to.

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Systems and processes and automations. We'll

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create these things. But then we never. Implement

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them. And if you don't implement, you won't see the benefit of it.

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Okay. So having these systems in my home were

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super beneficial because again, it allowed. She, and I had to know

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what we were going to be doing on a day-to-day basis. It provided

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me with relief. I was able to

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take breaks and I was able to still be able to show

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up. And be productive in my business. Now, along

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with being able to take breaks. This gave me

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peace of mind. That if anybody else was watching her.

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That they knew what the standard was.

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So her dad. my sister's. She went away for a

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week. to stay with my sisters out of town. Her

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grandparents recently came into town

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during my wedding anniversary for the weekends to watch

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the kids. And. They got a document. They

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got some SLPs that I have for my home. They got a

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document that outlined. Her schedule. And it outlined

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what. Things should be done throughout the day. And so

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having that, it gave me a peace of mind. To

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know that in my absence, She would still be

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taking care of. At least to the basic standard that I had

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said. And being able to go away and have that break.

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With that peace of mind. Is priceless. And so

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it's the same thing with your business.

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Right. Having systems in your business. They allow you as the business

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owner to show up and be productive in your zone of

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genius. Because you're not doing all the things. Other

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people are taking care of. Working in the business in some

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capacity, and you're able to stay in your zone of genius and be

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productive in the things that are going to help grow the business. Having

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those SLPs allow you to take the breaks. It

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allows you to step away from the business. With the peace of

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mind, knowing that your business is going to

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continue to operate. Knowing that your business is going to be

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taken care of to the basic standard that you have set.

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Systems can be super simple and I don't want you to

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overcomplicate it. It's literally just. How

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you do. Anything for a particular area. You can

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have systems in your business. And you can have

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systems in your home if you don't have any systems in your home yet. Start

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with the daily schedule. And go from there, but you can keep it

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simple. It does not have to be anything that is complicated.

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I hope that in me, sharing more of my mom preneur

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journey. That something resonated with you that you are

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encouraged to take some action. Maybe you got an

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idea to implement something in your home. Or in your

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business. And so let me know, shoot me a message on Instagram,

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which part? Of today's episode most resonated with you.

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I would love to chat with you. I hope this was helpful. And I will

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see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Mom C e

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O Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a

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favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other

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moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower

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others who are at this intersection of motherhood and