The Juggle

Today’s episode features Jessica Courtney. Jess is a lawyer in commercial litigation at an international law firm, and mum to 2 year old daughter Elodie. Jess also runs an Instagram account @pumpingmumma which she created to chronicle her journey of exclusively expressing for baby Elodie and to provide support to other mums who needed to express due to breastfeeding difficulties or after returning to work. 

Some of the things we discuss with Jess include: 

The benefits of sharing household responsibilities with your partner and outsourcing to ensure that you can prioritise quality time with your children 

The benefits of having children at an early stage in your career 

The benefits of increasing visibility when you are part time 

The need to put yourself and your health first in order to be able to be a good mother and employee. 

Difficulties of breastfeeding and making the best of the alternatives 

Creating her @pumpingmumma Instagram account and following  

If you enjoyed the episode, please leave us a review and rate the show to help other people find it. 

Links mentioned in this episode

* If you want to connect with Jessica you can find her on Instagram and LinkedIn.

* The Juggle website, where you can find all episodes of The Juggle and sign up to be notified when a new episode is released

* The Juggle Community, our online Facebook group

* You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook

In today’s episode we hear from Meg Burrage, founder of BubDesk.

BubDesk has been described as the Airbnb of childcare and was created to solve Meg’s own experience of struggling to find a reputable day care centre to care for her son when she returned to work.

Meg talks about:

* The need to be constantly listening to your customers and how BubDesk has evolved from being a co-working space with a crèche, to being a co-working space contained within fully operational day care centres;

* The de-centralised structure of BubDesk, with centres located all over the Perth metropolitan area (UPDATE: And now, Sydney*);

* How BubDesk serves as a transitional step for parents who are returning to work;

* The benefit of being on-site with your child to enable you to be available to combat a child’s separation anxiety (or the parent’s!), to allow for continued breast feeding, to really get to know the staff caring for your child, and to have a co-working space where you can network with parents in similar circumstances;

* Her favourite success story of a graphic designer whose son was struggling with separation anxiety, but was able to adjust with her presence on-site. The designer had the added benefit of networking and gaining significant new business;

* Her personal juggle and the difficulties of running your own business; and

* The value of resilience.

Special offer

Meg has generously offered listeners a special offer to trial BubDesk: $10 for 10 days to be used in a 30 day period. Contact Meg at [email protected] to find out more.

Links mentioned in this episode

* BubDesk website and Facebook page

* The Juggle website, where you can find all episodes of The Juggle and sign up to be notified when a new episode is released

* The Juggle Community, our online Facebook group

* You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook

* Update

We mention in the show that Meg has plans to launch nationally this year. We are pleased to say that Meg has already met this goal with the opening of BubDesk in child care centres in Sydney.

In this week’s episode of The Juggle Podcast, Jo and Lucy discuss outsourcing.  We’re often asked “how do you do it all”, but the truth is, we don’t! There are only 24 hours in a day and a good portion of that is reserved for sleeping (we hope!). Instead of struggling to “do it all”, we get help.  We don’t all have the ability to outsource work tasks, but we can outsource many of our family and household responsibilities and free up some of that precious time.

The highlights from today’s episode include:

* Seven family and household responsibilities that you can outsource

* A bonus tip from both Jo and Lucy, because seven things to outsource just wasn’t enough!

We’d love to hear how you handle outsourcing family responsibilities. Join our Facebook group, The Juggle Community, and share your tips with us.

Links shared in this episode:

– Visit our website www.thejuggle.com.au where you can find all episodes of The Juggle and sign up to be notified when a new episode is released

On today’s episode we have the privilege of hearing from Dr Clare Allen, CEO of VisAbility and Guide Dogs WA, iconic charities that are leading the way in transforming workplace culture.

Clare has amalgamated her many years of success as a leader into its core essence which she teaches through training, speaking and coaching.

Highlights from our conversation include:

* The meaning of work life harmony and why Clare feels that this phrase is better to describe the way she fits work into her life.

* The need for everyone to find their purpose in order to always be acting in the state of flow required for work life harmony.

* The benefits of creating a high trust culture and the need for clear expectations around job requirements as a base for successfully implementing a flexible work environment, where employees (within job expectations) can decide their hours, place and way of working.

* The need for senior leadership to be constantly modelling the high trust culture requirements, and recognition from leaders and managers that change won’t happen straight away – it is a gradual process that strengthens over time.

* The need for employers to have real open discussions about a person’s needs for flexibility and what a role genuinely requires – rather than just sticking to the script of a role being full time etc.

* A discussion around the benefits of employing working mums.

Links mentioned in this episode

If you would like to get in touch with Clare you can find her at: www.drclareallen.com

You can learn about VisAbility at: www.visability.org.au

Subscribe to learn when each podcast episode is released: www.thejuggle.com.au

Like our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/managingthejuggle/

If you would like to continue the conversation, come and join us in our private Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thejugglecommunity/

In today’s episode Jo and Lucy interview Sonia Cason, mother of 2, business development manager in the recruitment/labour hire industry, and flexible worker.

Sonia shares her personal experiences of:

* looking and applying for jobs whilst on maternity leave, and not being afraid to ask for what you want

* constantly adjusting work and life routines as children grow and progress (eg. adjusting to the new school juggle after years of day care)

* remaining confident in your skills, experience and overall worth after having children and deciding to return to work part time

* avoiding over commitment and learning to choose priorities.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Subscribe to receive notification of each new episode of our podcast.

Join The Juggle Community on Facebook.

You can contact Sonia Cason via LinkedIn.

Women with professional careers are often advised to hide their families, and specifically to make sure they don’t form any part of your personal brand. In this episode we delve into whether that is good advice, what personal branding is, and how to construct the right one for you.

In this episode, Jo and Lucy interview Julissa Shrewsbury, the Director of New Work Consulting. Julissa is an expert in helping people create their own personal brand. She helps people build and maintain a stand-out professional image in the online space that will draw opportunities to them and help them achieve their professional goals.

Some of the key takeaways from the episode include:

* What is a personal brand? Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. It is formed from lots of different touch points – in person and online.

* Ensure that your online presence (eg. on social media) is consistent with the brand you want to present. Be aware of privacy settings to avoid private content becoming public and negatively impacting your personal brand.

* Should you tell someone that you have a family? You are a whole package. People want to connect with human beings – people do business with people, so it is important to share what makes you human and relatable. But choose how much to communicate and to what audience. You don’t want to use language or act in such a way that others will view you as lacking commitment.

* The benefit of a personal brand is that it demonstrates the value that you bring to your work.

* How to describe breaks from work when drafting resumes or Linked In profiles.

* How what you wear is part of your personal brand as it influences the impression that people take of you. People get more information from what they see as opposed to what they hear or read.

* It is important to feel confident when you return to work after a career break. To do so, take some time to determine what is amazing about you and what you bring to your professional life. Brainstorm what you bring to work, what you are good at, love doing and the change that you like to see that you help to create.

* The 3 key things to focus on for your personal brand:

* Know what makes you amazing and lights you up – knowing that means you know what to focus on in your personal brand.

* Know your current goals and focus on that. Eg. Make sure your online profile highlights your experience and skills and where you want to go next.

* Get your Linkedin Profile refreshed and up to date.

Bonus tip: Linked In is about building relationships. Don’t just set it up and wait for people to find you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Julissa Shrewsbury can be found at:

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julissashrewsbury/

Twitter: @NewWorkAU

You can find more about her offer of a free 15 minute phone consultation to discuss your personal brand at her website: www.newworkconsulting.com.au

You can subscribe to receive notification of each new episode of our podcast at: 

Join Jo and Lucy as they discuss their views on the meaning behind concepts like “the juggle”, “work/life balance” and “boundaries”.

Three key take aways from the episode are:

1. The dictionary definition for juggle is: “continuously toss into the air and catch (a number of objects) so as to keep at least one in the air while handling the others”. (Source: Google dictionary)

2. The four burners theory which describes the four quadrants of your life and raises the question of the need for trade offs in order to be successful (see James Clear)

3. Theming your days as a way to put in place boundaries to prevent your work overly impacting on other areas of your life.

Please leave a review or provide your feedback on an episode or possible future guests by email to [email protected].

 

Links shared in this episode:

– Website: www.thejuggle.com.au [Where you can find all episodes of The Juggle, sign up to be notified when a new episode is released, and find a link to join the facebook group The Juggle Community.]

The Juggle is the brain child of Jo Alilovic and Lucy Dickens. After meeting in early 2018, Jo and Lucy quickly realised that they shared similar values and a serious desire to see the world of work changed for women who want to maintain satisfying professional careers and also have a fulfilling family life.

 

Women are often referred to as circus jugglers – juggling all aspects of life: work, children, health, friends and more. But it is not an easy skill to learn, or to maintain. In fact, it is often so difficult to juggle all these areas of life that women sometimes make the choice to leave (or put on hold) their profession.

 

Jo and Lucy have created this podcast to inform, create discussion and identify success stories that can be shared to improve the situations of others. They will be interviewing women who can share their personal stories of balancing career and the other aspects of life, and employers who have created a workplace that enables more women to maintain a career after having a family, as well as thought leaders to share inspiration and innovative techniques and strategies. Jo and Lucy will also have conversations where they discuss recent media or matters which relate to “the juggle”.

 

Topics will include personal branding, the need for a high trust culture to support flexible work arrangements, seeking new employment whilst on maternity leave, the difficulty of continuing to breastfeed after returning to work, outsourcing, different kinds of child care and more.

 

New episodes will be released weekly on Thursday, and the conversation will be continued each week in the Facebook group “The Juggle Community”.

 

Please leave a review or provide your feedback on an episode or possible future guests by email to [email protected].

 

Links shared in this episode:

– Website: www.thejuggle.com.au [Where you can find all episodes of The Juggle, sign up to be notified when a new episode is released, and find a link to join the facebook group The Juggle Community.]