Beyond the balance

In This Episode We Talk About

Sam Allen and I met in financial services and spent a year trying to get this conversation on the calendar, which is its own working-mom punchline. She went from a town of 300 people and a dream of being the next Katie Couric to EVP of Marketing at Merit Financial Advisors. In this one we skip the highlight reel and get honest about the hardest season of working motherhood: the chronic illness, the sleep deprivation, pumping in meetings, and the postpartum wave no one warned her about. We also laugh, a lot, about bringing a laptop to the hospital, surprise pregnancies with impeccable timing, and why the best thing you can do for yourself might be to burn the baby schedule book. If you have ever felt like the world was not built for working moms, you are going to feel seen.

Key Takeaways

✨  Protect your mornings. Guard your focus time before the day grabs it, and save the draining tasks for when your energy is already low.

✨  Outsource what drains you. Knowing what you’re not good at is a strength, not a confession.

✨  Burn the schedule books. Car-seat naps count. Grace beats perfection, especially in the fourth trimester.

✨  Build the village on purpose. The women who cheer you on and remind you to refill your cup are not a luxury, they’re how you last.

✨  Choose presence over FOMO. When you know who you are, saying no to the room gets a whole lot easier.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the working mom running on three hours of sleep who still showed up. For the first-time mom white-knuckling the baby schedule. For the achiever who needs to hear that the hardest job she’ll ever have is not a sign she’s failing. If you’ve ever whispered “is it just me?”, it isn’t. This one’s for you.

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🎁  The Focus-Time Reset — Comment "reset" and I'll get it over

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram:  https://instagram.com/jessicaperezandbeyond

LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Samantha Allen

LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/samantha-allen 

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In This Episode We Talk About

China Allen walked into COVID almost 300 pounds, in a marriage she describes as abusive, and at the height of a corporate career she had built from a $25,000 recruiting job she took at nineteen. Then she did the thing most of us talk ourselves out of: she changed everything at once. In 30 days she filed for separation, left a seven-year career, and booked weight loss surgery. This episode is a real look at what it actually takes to stop abandoning yourself. China and Jessica get into the cost of being a working mom in a male-dominated industry, raising two sons on the autism spectrum, and why the fear of losing herself finally outweighed the fear of starting over. It is bold, it is tender, and it will make you look hard at the decisions you keep putting off.

Key Takeaways

✨ You do not have to lose yourself to be a good mom. Your kids are part of you, not all of you.

✨ Burnout and tolerating are not the same as trying. Sometimes the bravest move is burning it down and starting again.

✨ Confidence is not a personality. It is a skill you rebuild, on a stage, in a boardroom, or in your own mirror.

✨ The load is real. Moms still carry the majority of it, even when both partners work.

✨ You can be unapologetically feminine and formidable in the same breath.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the mom who already knows what she needs to do and keeps finding reasons not to. For the woman quietly carrying most of the load and wondering if she is the only one. And for every mom raising a child the world was not built for, who needs to hear she is not alone in it.

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicaperezandbeyond

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with China Allen

Instagram: https://instagram.com/china.internationalmsusa26

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chinaallen/

Website: https://www.keyconsultingaz.com/

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In This Episode We Talk About

What does it actually look like to build a serious career and a full family life without burning yourself to the ground? Maryam Houston joins Jessica to talk about the parts of working motherhood nobody puts on a highlight reel: the decision fatigue, the “defend for yourself” dinner nights, the outsourcing that saved her sanity, and the boundaries she wishes she had set a decade sooner. It is equal parts strategy session and reality check, with a few tools you will want to steal before the episode ends.

Key Takeaways

✨  Boundaries are not selfish. They protect the version of you that can go the distance.

✨  Outsourcing is a strategy, not a splurge. Hand off what drains you and buy back your capacity.

✨  AI is a mom tool, not just a work tool. From dinner to journaling, it can carry real weight.

✨  Your ADHD brain is pointing at something. Follow the pull toward your zone of excellence.

✨  Sometimes you have to leave the room to become who you are meant to be.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the mom who is good at everything and quietly running on empty. For the one who says yes before she checks her own capacity, who carries the invisible load, and who is ready to stop giving herself away and start setting boundaries that stick.

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram:  https://instagram.com/jessicaperez1123

LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Maryam Houston

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryam-houston/

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In This Episode We Talk About:

This week I'm sitting down with Maddison Koper, ESQ. the attorney and founder of Sunshine Law Firm who decided she'd be a lawyer at 13 and never looked back. We get into the legal groundwork most new business owners skip, the exact steps she tells every client to take before they build a website or spend a single dollar on branding, and why waiting to protect your name can cost you everything you've made. Then the conversation turns personal. Maddison opens up about the year business went quiet: a new baby, a body running on no sleep, and the sudden loss of the family dog, all colliding at once. This is a conversation about building something the right way the first time, and about what happens when life forces you to stop chasing and start attracting instead.

✨ Your business name means nothing legally until you've searched it and filed it with the USPTO

✨ A newborn and grief will slow your business down, and that is not the same thing as failing

✨ You don't chase the right clients or the right season, you attract them by staying vibrant

This episode is for:

→  The mom building a business on the side who keeps telling herself the LLC and trademark can wait

→  The woman whose business went quiet after a hard season and thinks that means she's falling behind

→  Anyone who has ever felt like being multi-passionate meant she couldn't be taken seriously

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LinkedIn

https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Maddison Koper & Sunshine Law Firm

Instagram

https://instagram.com/sunshinelawfirm

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddison-koper-esq-a1085b129

Website

https://sunshinelawfirm.net

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#Beyondthebalance

In This Episode We Talk About

Shannon Spotswood didn't climb a straight ladder to become CEO of RFG Advisory. She left investment banking and a hedge fund that grew to over thirty billion dollars, walked away from Wall Street entirely to build a luxury children's clothing brand out of a garage with a friend (the one Gwyneth Paltrow made famous), and then walked back into finance to help build one of the fastest growing RIA platforms in the country. This episode is a real look at the power of the pivot, what decisive leadership actually looks like under pressure, and how she has raised three kids while never once standing still.

Key Takeaways

✨  The pivot is not a failure. It's a strategy.

✨  Decisiveness is a skill you build under pressure, not a personality trait you're born with.

✨  “Be where your feet are” beats chasing balance every single time.

✨  Flexibility isn't a perk you hand out. It's how you keep your best women in the room.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the mom who thinks she has to pick one lane and stay in it forever. For the woman in the boardroom quietly wondering if she's allowed to want more than one career. For every working mom who has wondered if walking away from something great means she failed. Shannon is proof it means the opposite.

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram:  https://instagram.com/jessicaperez1123

LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Shannon Spotswood

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonspotswood/

Website:  https://rfgadvisory.com

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#Beyondthebalance

In This Episode We Talk About

What happens when you build a family exactly the way you want it and the whole world has an opinion about it? I sat down with my friend Torie Happe, VP of Business Development at Jump, the AI operating system taking over financial services, for a conversation that goes way beyond the boardroom. Torie and I met on the conference circuit, and I have watched her move with the fastest-growing companies in our industry while raising her son on her own terms. In this episode we get into the one-and-done decision and the guilt strangers love to hand you, the day her water broke at 21 weeks (with a Chick-fil-A craving she still hasn't let go of), and the real systems she and her husband use to keep their marriage, their careers, and their kid all standing. If you have ever felt pressure to have more, be more, or perform perfect, this one is going to hit different.

Key Takeaways

✨ The size of your family is nobody's business but yours.

✨ Send the email. The CEO might actually write you back and change your whole career.

✨ Spend, save, give. Teaching kids to earn beats handing them everything.

✨ You are doing better than you think. Some days winning is just, he woke up breathing.

✨ Be a villager if you want a village. Community is built, not found.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the mom who chose one and is tired of defending it. For the woman who built a career she refuses to lose herself in. For anyone carrying the weight of the perfect Pinterest mom and ready to set it down. If you have ever let a stranger's opinion make you second-guess your own family, this one is for you.

CONNECT WITH JESSICA PEREZ

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicaperez1123

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

CONNECT WITH TORIE HAPPE

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/torie-happe

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In This Episode We Talk About

She rode the bus to college with her baby in a car seat. Twenty years later, she walked away from the firm that changed her life to build her own. In this episode I sit down with my girl Iyana Harris, Co-Founder of Catalyst, and we go deep on what it really takes to bet on yourself. Iyana grew up in Phoenix as a first generation American with a single mom, no car, and no roadmap. She became a mom at 19, earned her degree with her son sitting beside her in lecture halls, and spent 18 years climbing from a customer service desk to VP of Business Development before leaving corporate to co-found her own consulting firm. We talk about the false safety of a W2, the circle of trust every woman needs, why she plans from A all the way to Z, and the season she is in now: the one where she finally puts herself first. This one is honest, bold, and exactly the reality check you need if you have been sitting on a dream waiting for it to feel safe. It never will. Do it anyway.

Key Takeaways

✨ The W2 paycheck is a false sense of security. Your loyalty has to be to you.

✨ Ask yourself: is this a five minute problem or a five year problem? Spend your stress accordingly.

✨ If you are in the room, you are supposed to be there. What is meant for you is meant for you.

✨ Betting on yourself does not mean being reckless. Iyana hired a coach, saved money, and planned from A to Z before she jumped.

✨ Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Ask for help. Vulnerability is earned wisdom, not weakness.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the mom who has been carrying everyone else since she was young and is wondering when it gets to be her turn. For the woman with a steady paycheck and a restless spirit who knows she was built for more. And for every mama who needs to hear that starting over, starting late, or starting scared still counts as starting.

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicaperez1123

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Iyana Harris

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iyanaharris

Website: https://startwithcatalyst.com

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#BeyondtheBalance

In This Episode We Talk About

Sarah Morales did not graduate high school. She was a single mom fighting for her self-worth when a mentor couple hired her to host open houses and refused to let her quit, even after she failed the licensing exam more times than she wants to count. Almost 23 years later, she and her husband Jesse run Morales Group Real Estate, a top 1% husband and wife team serving Arizona’s luxury market, with their adult kids stepping into the business beside them. In this conversation we go deep on the leap of faith that changed everything: selling it all in their best year ever to take a pastor position in Washington, losing it in the pandemic, and rebuilding from nothing. We talk about working with your spouse without losing your marriage, why there is no real 50-50 at home, the art of the win-win negotiation, and the moment Sarah got teary telling her younger self it was okay to heal. This one is honest, faith-filled, and full of the kind of wisdom you only earn the hard way.

Key Takeaways

✨ Self-worth is not a prerequisite for starting. It is what you build along the way.

✨ A business your kids want to join is proof you built something worth trusting.

✨ There is no 50-50 at home. There is communicating before resentment moves in.

✨ The best negotiation is the one where both sides walk away feeling like they won.

✨ Give yourself space to heal. Strong women grieve too.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the mom who started with less than everyone else in the room and wonders if she belongs there anyway. For the woman building a business with her spouse and trying to keep the marriage and the margins healthy. For anyone who has ever felt God pulling her toward something that made no sense on paper. And for every mama who needs permission to heal from who she used to be so she can become who she is meant to be.

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicaperez1123

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Sarah Morales

Instagram: https://instagram.com/sarah.moralesrealtor

Website: https://moralesgroupaz.com

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#BeyondtheBalanc

In This Episode We Talk About:

Lacey Shrum did everything the safe way. Law degree, compliance career, steady paycheck. Then she watched how fast that safety could disappear and decided to build her own thing instead. Today she is the founder and CEO of Smart Kx, a fintech company serving registered investment advisors, and a mom of four running a household on structure, boundaries, and zero apologies. We get into the pivot from lawyer to tech founder, why corporate security is an illusion, how she protects her energy between the work week and the weekend, and the money lessons her kids are learning just by watching her work. If you have ever felt that pit in your stomach telling you there is something more, this conversation is your nudge.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Corporate safety is an illusion. The paycheck feels cozy until the arm gets cut off.

✨ Cut the variables. One sport per kid, one clear plan, and hold the line.

✨ Run the play. Structure makes kids more confident and moms less frantic.

✨ Buffer your transitions. Gentle Fridays and slow Mondays prevent burnout.

✨ This season is short. Saying no right now is not saying no forever.

Who This Episode Is For:

This episode is for: the mom sitting in a corporate job with a business idea she keeps talking herself out of. The one who thinks she needs permission, a perfect plan, or fewer kids before she can bet on herself. Lacey has four children and a law degree she pivoted away from. Your excuses just ran out.

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicaperez1123

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Lacey Shrum

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/laceyshrum

Website: https://smartkx.io

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#Beyondthebalance

In This Episode We Talk About

What happens when an eight-year-old girl makes a promise to herself that she will never be financially trapped? She grows up, builds a SaaS company, helps lead it to a nine-figure exit, and then discovers that the money she chased for safety never actually made her feel safe. Danielle McKinley joins me for a raw, fire conversation about the money stories that drive us, the boundaries we have to enforce to protect the lives we are building, and why becoming a mom was the catalyst that changed everything. If you have ever hit a goal and thought, "This is it? This is what I worked for?", this one is going to hit differently.

Key Takeaways

✨ Your money story is running your life, your marriage, and your business, and most of us have no idea what ours is

✨ The people who push back the hardest on your boundaries are the ones who need them the most

✨ If you are on time, you are late. Arrive early, show up as your best self, and stop letting chaos run your schedule

✨ Entrepreneurship is the biggest personal development journey you will ever sign up for

✨ You do not need to scale and exit to be credible. You need to decide what freedom looks like for you

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the mom who is making good money but still feels stuck. For the woman who keeps hitting income ceilings and cannot figure out why. For the overachiever who built everything she thought she wanted and is wondering why it does not feel the way she imagined. If you are teetering between corporate and entrepreneurship, if your boundaries need reinforcing, or if you just need to hear someone say "give yourself grace," press play.

Connect with Jessica Perez

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicaperez1123

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-perez-consulting

Connect with Danielle McKinley

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifebydanielle

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danielle-m13

Website: https://daniellemckinley.com

Follow & Support the Podcast

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#BeyondtheBalance