With my 15 year anniversary in business coming up in a few days (party!), I was actually thinking back over the last ten years as a Mom. Becoming and being a Mom for me today describes not just what I have experienced to be true but what I believe all entrepreneurs must decide to be in their lives, in order to keep charging forward on the entrepreneurial journey: deciding to be the mother of their own reinvention.
[As the business anniversary comes, I’ve been in deep reflection and, if I’m honest, losing my Mom unexpectedly has also launched me even deeper into reflection lately. Thank you again to those of you who wrote me after my last newsletter where I shared of her passing. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.]
For me, entrepreneurship and motherhood have been two of the biggest outpours of love I’ve experienced in life, so, it’s natural that I’d think of both of them today as I reflect on the last 15 years of business. My business has always been intertwined, in the best way, with family, and with my motherhood.
Over the last 15 years I’ve run MGI, 10 of those being mommy years, I have consciously created a business that every day, week and year, more fully supports my desire to be a devoted, “every day” Mom while also being a driven entrepreneur. I have created a schedule that supports this lifestyle, a lifestyle of finding both not only important in my evolution but important in my son’s as well.
And I LOVE mixing business with pleasure too and bringing my family with me when I can.
In fact, I’ve taken my husband and son along with me when I travel for speaking engagement or while I’m on one of my tour workshops.
And, as I’ve shared recently with the women in my six-week Mom Mogul course, this is what we want to do in order to create not just our authentic brands but businesses that support our life (and not the other way around): blur the lines!
We want to work to blur the lines between business and personal to create a humanized business and an authentic brand as well as to increase our happiness quotient! To this end, I talk with Nolan all the time about how much I love him and how much I also love what I get to do for work (a different love, OF COURSE, but love nonetheless!). I love sharing with him how intentional I am about creating or continuing to build a business that allows me to be a present, silly, fun and devoted mother.
And, lucky for me, he gets it.
Here's where my reflection took me a couple days ago. I hope you enjoy the story:
I remember leaving for a trip a couple years ago to speak at an event, and as I was packing, Nolan stopped and asked, but why do you haaave to go? I acknowledged that he didn't want me to go and that I was going to miss him too. I then told him that I didn't haaave to go but that I wanted to go and help women grow their businesses (because, in helping women grow their businesses, I wanted to say, I was also helping them grow themselves. At that very moment, a juicy question landed on my lap. One, I thought, that would help me help him understand why Mama was going to go and why it would be good not just for Mama, but for her client friends AND for him too…
I grabbed his hands and asked, What's your favorite thing to do at school? Without skipping a beat, he said: recess.
Oooh yeah, I squealed, recess! I loved recess too, I responded. Why do you like recess so much? Because I get to play, he said.
I love to play too, I said. I love to play with you. And I love to play with my work and my client friends. I continued… See, Mama doesn't go to school anymore, so she doesn't have traditional recess anymore, but these trips and other things I do for my work ARE my recess and are my play. It's the way that Mama gets to play and come back more playful for you! Don't you notice when I come home that I'm an even more silly mama and that I have more fun ideas around what we could do together after school and on the weekends?
A smile grew on his face. Well, yesssssssss, he said. We sat there for a couple minutes before deciding to have a tickle fest and all was right with the world.
Needless to say, I went on that trip and many more since then, came home and was indeed even more silly and ready to jump into crazy chase games, lego building and tickle fests that normally happen way too close to bedtime.Life is good. I share this story as I reminisce today because regardless of the fact if we are a mama or not, we all have these moments of craving a well-rounded focus, of making a living AND having a life!
As my gift to you for my 15 year business anniversary, I want to gift you my Soulfully Audacious Week fillable calendar. You can download it HERE. My hope is that it will help you prioritize, focus and devote time to what’s really important in both business AND family.
And, here’s an MP3 recording I created for you so you understand how to best use it. Again, whether you’re a mom or not, enjoy not only the calendar and MP3 (LIVE LINK HERE), but the idea that you can create a life that feels good, rich, balanced and supportive to you, your health, your family and to your other passions. Until next time, enjoy your business and enjoy your life!
If you’re celebrating an anniversary of any kind, a birthday or other special occasion too, here’s to you! Now, off YOU go to give of your gifts to the world!
Life is good,
p.s. Mama, grow your silly, your movement and your revenue in our mastermind starting in October (the deadline was yesterday the 15th, however, we are extending it until next week): www.michelleghilotti.com/joinmommogul2