CEO Stories 096: Preparing for Maternity Leave as a Solopreneur

It’s hard enough to go on vacation as a one-man (or nearly one-man) show, but it’s even harder to prepare for weeks or months away and coming back with less capacity than before. Ashley Olivine shares how she prepared and survived the road to maternity leave. Ashley focuses on adapting and flowing with life changes.   Her business has to be constantly changing schedules.  To Ashley, this is a positive. She uses a lot of trial and error.  Things work one day but they may not work tomorrow.  She does not have to stick with the old ways. To stay adaptable, she uses brain exercises to keep her from thinking and reacting out of stress.  She constantly thinks about how to propel forward. To know when to change things up, sometimes is very clear and others you have to think outside the box. For example, Ashley is about to have a baby.  In this next season she is going to need to focus on the programs where people are working through on their own and not a lot of one on ones set up. Allow yourself to have the freedom, especially when you have a business and a newborn. Ashley had a big fear that changing things in each season would look unprofessional.  She has actually learned that her clients support her more when she is real and honest.   Change can actually propel you to a better place with your clients.   Our brains for survival are wired to think about the worst case scenario and the risks.  We think: What are the hazards? What could go wrong? How do I protect myself? In these days in the US, our brains do not need to worry about these things.  The worst case scenario is that the business will not work out and we will end up with some business debt. You are not going to die if your business fails. She knows that she is going to be moving overseas so she is trying to plan for this.  In her world now, everything is in her phone. She is not going to be able to have this.  She is turning to funnels, automated things, and getting all of her business off of her phone.  This is actually going to be good for her business because her clients that suffer from insomnia are awake in the middle of the night.  It may actually be good for her to talk with them at that time. Ashley is also using this to set appropriate boundaries about not being glued to her cell phone 24/7.       Adapting for what is better for her can actually benefit the clients too. Ashley suggests making sure you look at the big picture and the strategies are long term sustainable. Systematizing with the emails has been great for her, but everyone needs to step back and see how their transition will change their life and ability.   Visualize what you like, don’t like, and what you want to change.  Paint the picture you want it to look like and structure your business around that.  Make it fit the first time instead of trying to fix things later. Sit in a chair and visualize or write in a journal all of your priorities and how do they fit into the structure of your business.