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Want to work with me? Send me a DM on Instagram @JamieMSwanson now! Buy The Power of Moments book by Heath & Heath (affiliate link) Hey, Friend. I just wanted to let you know that I had some audio issues with this podcast, but the content was so good that I wanted to share it anyways. So thanks for your understanding. [00:00:08]if you've got kids who are going to be home for either all or part of their school this year, no matter what kind of school you're doing, and you're trying to grow your business and aren't sure how you're going to do it all. I'm here to help I've homeschooled my six kids four years while also running a seven figure online business. [00:00:30] And I'm going to share my best tips with you in this episode. Good [00:00:34] Okay. Start by acknowledging how hard all of this is, no matter what you selected or have forced on you. I just want you to know that I get how hard this is and I'm here to support you in any choice you have made or whatever situation that you're in. So for a little background, for those of you who don't really know me very well yet, my kids are age 14, 13, 11, seven, five, and three. [00:01:31] And I've got how many years of homeschooling behind me as well as having done some public school. And so I know firsthand how hard it is. To start and grow a business while having the kids at home all the time. I also know that mom guilt feeling like you're never present enough with the kids, but you're not able to work as effectively since your attention is continually divided. [00:01:57] So the first thing before we even get into the tips, just try and let go that don't judge yourself over it. This is a pandemic after. All right. My goal here is to help as many people as possible to learn from my experience. So if you know any other entrepreneurs who are going to have kids at home, and if you find these tips helpful, it means so much to me. [00:02:22] If you could share this episode with them, once you're done, I'd love to help as many entrepreneurial parents as possible, and I need your help to do it. So here are my five best tips to help you grow your business while also doing school from home. So number one know that the first week of school sets the tone for the entire year. [00:02:44] So think of this, like our client onboarding. If you run a membership or you do a coaching program or something, you know that those first impressions after that by really shape a lot of their experience going forward. So spend some time to make this first week really fun and special for your kids. And I especially love to focus on positivity. [00:03:07] [00:03:07] The other thing I'd mention about that first week is if you're able to you ease into it, don't just suddenly go all in. And I have eight hours a day of school, which I never do eight hours a day for the record, in case you wonder, and really start to ease in and think of it as a transition. This is important. [00:03:25] Both for your kids. But also for you, not just easing into the transition, but having this really great first week, because if you can really set that tone for the rest of the school year, if you can get your kids excited about it. And if you can in place some of the things that I'm going to talk about in the next tip, it's going to run so much smoother for you. [00:03:48] Now, if that first week is a train wreck it's Oh, okay. Don't worry about it. Life goes on, but if you can, in any way, go above and beyond to make that first week really awesome for both you and the kids. It's just going to be way easier to keep them going, keep them motivated and to read, really succeed as the school year continues on. [00:04:10] Okay. So one other thing I'm going to mention here here is a resource. It's a book called the power of moments by chip and Dan Heath. And it's all about engineering, memorable moments in a person's life. Now I have found this incredibly helpful and insightful and helping me create moments that my kids will remember. [00:04:31] Forever, but it's also helped me a lot in designing experiences within my business that make my clients absolutely love and adore me and feel incredibly loyal towards me and help spread the word about my business. So it will have a double benefit. If you read the book highly recommended, you will come up with all sorts of great ideas for that first week of schooling from home. [00:04:56] And you'll find it's probably going to be something that changes how you interact with your kids going forward throughout the rest of life as well. And with your spouse or partner or anybody else that you really care about and want to create a moment for it's really awesome. So check out the book, power of moments by chip and Dan Heath. [00:05:14] I'll put a link in the show notes as well. All right. The second tip is to plan ahead and this is kind of like multiple tips all within one. Little heading that I didn't want to have like 13 different tips for you. but all of these are based on the actual school day with your kids. [00:05:34] So number one, create a routine. Now it's really easy when you're doing school from home, especially if you're homeschooling or have a lot of autonomy over your schedule, where nobody's telling you, you have to be somewhere at a certain time. It's really easy to just start that day later and later and later. [00:05:53] And all of a sudden, it's just a mess. It consumes your entire day. So I absolutely believe in starting school at the same time every day. And I even liked to create a school area that is where they just do school. And honestly, it's really beneficial for you to also create a work area. If you're working from home, that is the only place that you, you really work. [00:06:18] And when you're there, the family knows you're working. You know, when you're, and I know if you've got toddlers or babies or whatever, you can't always honor that, but as much as possible, that's where you do your work. That's where you have. this whole environment of productivity around you, even if it doesn't feel that way, cause kids are screaming in the background or whatever, you know, we've all been there. [00:06:38] Trust me. I'm there every day and I'm just. If you can make those spaces, it's especially great for the kids, because then they know that they're kind of quote unquote, going to school, even though it's not going to school. Now, when we first started homeschooling, we didn't have spaces that we could use for their homeschool. [00:06:58] And so our routine was every day to do school around the kitchen table. And so if anything was piled on the table, which I don't know how it's a magnet, but it always is right. So at the beginning of the day, we would make sure that everybody cleaned the table off. We started with a brand new clean table, pull out all the supplies. [00:07:16] We pull out all the stuff we need, and then we'd start our day in school at the table. Now that my kids are older, sometimes I'll let them go and do some of their different subjects in different locations. But generally speaking, it's really helpful to have a specific location for school and it gives them a little bit more of a separation between what school time. [00:07:39] And what's playtime, which is really helpful for kids in staying focused. You may also want to prep a whole lot of snack in advance. I don't know what it is about school starting again, but I swear my kids become bottomless pits. And so when I have, you know, a lot veggies, all cut up and prepped or a lot of crackers and stuff, it's ready to go. [00:08:03] And, you know, I don't have to think about it. I can just pull something out real quick. And there it is. I don't have to be like. Oh, gosh, what are we going to have? You're hungry again. You can't be hungry again. You just ate five minutes ago, , you know, the conversation, right. But when you have that, all those snacks prepped in advance, it's just easier. [00:08:21] And then the other thing I want to mention about this, just from a very practical standpoint, in terms of like planning ahead and how you're going to handle different situations to make it go smoothly, is that some days. How can it be really hard? And so don't be afraid to take a mental health day off. [00:08:40] Now I get the benefit as a homeschooling mama of course, the entire day, without having to be accountable to anyone else. So if you are using some sort of virtual school or there is somebody else that the children are accountable to, you should really view this as like a mental health. They, even if they're doing okay, because, you know, They are not going to learn anything when they are in a certain mood. [00:09:05] And if you can't turn that around, if they can't turn that around, it's just going to be a wasted day with nothing done. And it's going to be full of pain and fighting and arguing and whining, or just difficult stuff that isn't going to actually benefit anybody. And so you might as well take that day, find a way to refresh them. [00:09:24] If you have to give them the day off just to go out and play, whatever. I've just found that it doesn't matter how positive I am and how well I have followed the routine they follow been fed and whatever. [00:09:38] There are just some days that are really hard and they're just over it. And so giving them some space, not, you know, every day, not every week. But having a day here and there, that's really rare and saying, you know what, you're right. Let's turn this off. Let's do something really fun. That's super atypical. [00:09:57] I believe that that can be a really helpful and healthy thing for your kids. And sometimes all you have to do is like an hour or two of this activity, and then they can come back and they're reset and they're ready to go. So don't be afraid to do that when your kids really need it and you'll know, or frankly, if you really need it. [00:10:14] In fact, that's why I did one of my public school years was after we had Olaf, which is my sixth baby. He's three, he's my three year old, the year, right after we had him, I swear he broke my back. Like I love the kid, but something about going from five to six, I just, I was not capable. Of doing school that year. [00:10:35] Like I just knew that I wouldn't be able to do it well. And so we put the kids in public school for a year and it was totally fine. It was actually really validating because it showed me that they were way ahead, even though we do so much, many fewer hours than the public school. And, then the next year we went back to homeschooling. [00:10:51] So, you just know yourself, know what you can handle and not. And if you need to call them for a day, call it for a day. There's no shame in that. Okay. So the third thing piggybacks right off of that is to prioritize self care daily and even more regularly like quarterly. Okay. So this was really hard for me. [00:11:16] In fact, I didn't know, do self care for probably a good solid 10 years, maybe 13 years, because I always felt like it was really selfish. I always felt like my family had to come first. And my, you know, we had to make money. We had to pay the bills. I was super responsible person. All these things just sucked all the life out and I felt bad any time for myself. [00:11:41] And I've completely shifted that 180 degrees. Now I make sense of care, the most important part of my day. And I've had to figure out how to fit it into my schedule. I do it daily and sometimes it's just a few minutes here and there, sometimes it means taking a longer chunk of the day and getting out into the world, whatever it is for you. [00:12:03]honestly, sometimes for me, it's grabbing like a snack or some candy or a doughnut, which I'm not a big sugar person, but every once in a while, I love to have something like that. Something I enjoy and going and hiding in the closet in my bedroom and eating it alone. So I don't have to share it with my kids, which sounds crazy, but that can be self care too. [00:12:23] Like it's okay to have something you love. That's just for you, you know, maybe it's meditation or contemplation. I do that in the mornings. Maybe it's exercise for you every day. Getting out for a run. I know that's been a huge part. Of my self care this year in particular, especially as I've been training for an ultra marathon, whatever it is, try and get them daily. [00:12:45]you know, but also think about what can you do? We do weekly, monthly, quarterly. That really is going to help you be your best self. Because when we are rested, we can give from such a better place than we, when we are continually exhausted. And I especially want to speak to the moms out there. I know that. [00:13:05] There's this , weird, weird conditioning out there that says good mom is always, you know, selfless. We give to everybody, we are servant leaders and I fully believe in serving and I fully believe in being generous, but there's almost the shame around giving ourselves that same care and courtesy. [00:13:28] Can you imagine? How it would feel if somebody even cares for you one 10th of the way that you care for your children, right? Do this for yourself, make this a priority, do not feel bad about doing this. The thing that really got me started with self care, and it's not just going to a spa all the time or whatever, it can be all sorts of things. [00:13:49] I'll give you a couple other ideas in a minute, but the thing that really drove this, Tom for me, was thinking about my daughters one day. What I want them giving to such an exhausted in an overwhelmed level, what I want them living their life like that day in and day out, day in, day out. Okay. All for other people and never ever for who they were created to be what I want them to sacrifice their gifts and their passions and their talents so that they could be, something they feel like they should be, but that's completely draining them. [00:14:26], I would never want them to feel bad, taking a little bit of time to do the activities that they love. They bring them life and that make them a better mom that make them a better partner, whatever it is, make them a better person in general. Right. And so when I thought about it, that way, it's just like, Oh, why would I go way out of my way to do this for my kids, but never myself. [00:14:48] And so once I got over that, it changed everything in my life. It's been one of the best things I've ever done. you know, maybe for you, it's weekly wine with your girlfriends or a monthly or quarterly getaways, you just have to figure out what the, this means for you, but, okay. Do you know that one of the most, supportive things I have in my life that I consider it self care in some ways is connecting with a group of friends. [00:15:14] And I don't even need to have lots of time with them. I don't even need to see them every day or talk to them every day or whatever. But knowing that I have groups of friends that I can just send a quick little message over to and say, Oh my gosh, I'm struggling today. How are you doing? Or, you know, send help. [00:15:30] This is what's going on, craziness or whatever, and just have the empathy and the compassion and have them speak truth back into me and encouragement. It's so. Amazing. And I really did not pursue building friendships for years cause I was just too busy and I d…
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