It’s hard work being a momentrepreneur, and in this episode, Shelby welcomes entrepreneur and strategic business coach Brittney Ashley to the studio. Brittney discusses how she helps clients deal with the all too familiar imposter syndrome that many women suffer from as they begin their journey into entrepreneurship. They also discuss the reasons they started their businesses and the challenges they faced working at a 9 to 5 job while raising a family. 

Brittney suggests that companies offer flexible working options, including hybrid or work-from-home models, to allow employees to balance work with family commitments. In her own business, she provides work-at-home opportunities for Canadian women, employing a team that works from coast to coast. 

As the owner of Creative Dynamics Virtual Services, Brittney understands the need for entrepreneurs to outsource tasks so they can focus on growing their businesses and also benefit from a better work-life balance. She assigns her clients an online business manager whose skills are matched to their specific needs. To save time and streamline processes, Brittney is also a proponent of automating tasks wherever possible through CRM tools such as Dubsado or Moxie, which are invaluable for her business. 

About Brittney Ashley

Brittney Ashley is the founder of Creative Dynamics Virtual Services, a virtual service agency offering specialized services to business owners. Her team consists of virtual assistants, online business managers, CRM specialists, marketing experts, and graphic designers who support business owners in taking their businesses to the next level and improving their lives. 

Her journey to become an entrepreneur was sparked by the challenges of raising her children while managing a full-time career. Becoming an entrepreneur allowed her to manage both her career and home life successfully, and so she set up her company to empower fellow moms to work from home. Today, Brittney manages a highly-skilled,  all-woman team that provides exceptional service to their clients. Brittney is also certified as a Business Coach (ACC Accredited) and an Imposter Syndrome coach and works across various industries, including tech. ​

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Dubsado
• Moxie

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Contact Shelby Joines | Joines Administration: 

• Website: JoinesAdministration.ca
• LinkedIn: Joines Administration
• Instagram: @JoinesAdministration
• Facebook: @JoinesAdministration

Contact Brittney Ashley | Creative Dynamics Virtual Services: 

• Website: https://www.creativedynamicsva.com
• LinkedIn: Creative Dynamics Virtual Services
• Instagram: @CreativeDynamicVirtual services
• Facebook: @CreativeDynamicVirtualServices

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Transcript: 

Shelby 00:46

All right, and I am so excited for today. I have the wonderful, Brittney Ashley, of Creative Dynamics VA, or is it virtual assistants… sometimes you don't know if people actually just use the abbreviation or the full one.

Brittney  01:07

I know, Creative Dynamics for short, but it's a mouthful— Creative Dynamics Virtual Services. 

Shelby 01:16

Awesome. Oh, love it. And she's here to talk about all things VA industry and the struggles that we go through with impostor syndrome on a daily basis, being entrepreneurs, mamapreneurs, female entrepreneurs, whatever you want to call us. But welcome, Brittany, thank you again. I've said this before we started recording so many times, I am so appreciative of you being here today and being our guest and talking on these super important topics with us. I am really looking forward to where this is going to go. It's always such a pleasure to be able to talk to other virtual and administrative personnel and staff, and workers. So, I am truly blessed to have you here.

Thanks. Tell me a little bit about yourself and kind of what got you started on this career journey, where you've been, and all that good, fun story things. 

Brittney 02:16

Yeah, well, Creative Dynamics started with the notion of helping mums work from home, and then it's just kind of built from that. But prior, I always joke that I was a hippie, because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do in life. I came from like the tech, corporate world, it was just very toxic, not really understanding... like, I just felt like I never fit in. Even when I worked in a nine-to-five job, I just never understood why because I did all the things and some. And so, long story short, realized I was never meant to be a nine to five, because I work at 100,000 miles a minute and then get bored really fast. I have self-diagnosed with ADHD, and I do have dyslexia. So my neuro-diverse brain just can't, like, sustain… I'm not allowed to fit in a box, nor should anyone. So that's kind of how I started after my… I went on maternity leave with my daughter. And I realized that I was not happy. I tried to like break myself back into the norm because we're brought up to be told, like go to university, go work nine to five, and all was great. So I was following the trend of what we're supposed to do. And when I was after maternity leave, I just my part of my one brain would be like— you need to go work nine to five. And another side of me was like, I absolutely do not like it. So why am I keep on constantly putting this VA business that I kind of started on the side hustle… why do I keep pushing it off, keep pushing it off. And what actually kind of really pushed me more forward than anything was my stepdad passed. And I was like, You know what, life is too short. Let's just like jump in both feet, like right before COVID. Let's just jump in both feet and see what happens… two months after then COVID hit and I was like, well, I guess it's kind of good that I'm not in the… because I was in the I switched over the tech industry and started working more in the event industry and that went sideways. So yeah, I just felt like everything happened for a reason of my long journey to get me to how I built Crave Dynamics, but I wouldn't change it for the world because I feel that every lesson, like it helped me grow as a person and it's made me kind of who I am today. I'm also a certified business coach, imposter syndrome coach, and along my journey of building Creative Dynamics, like I mentioned that I hired mums to work from home. A lot of the mums that were coming to work with me were coming from a nine to five and struggling with that, that switch and feeling like they weren't good enough to work with clients even though they worked with big corporations and/or in the tech industry. So I ended up realizing I had to be more of a coach/mentor with them, and even work on impostor syndrome, as well, to kind of get some of them to where they are today, and not taking all the credit, because they're the ones who put themselves out there to… assist if they need it.

Shelby 05:17

Ah, and that's so beautiful. And I really feel like the virtual world is such an amazing place, especially for moms that are looking to make that switch. I know, it's, personally, I'm a single mom, for the most part. So I can totally relate to that fear of taking those skills from your nine-to-five corporate kind of service position, and actually, switching gears into being your own boss going out on your own, taking the skills and things you've learned and applying them for yourself is scary, especially because there goes your security financially as well, you don't have that either monthly salary or bi-weekly paycheck constantly coming in, then you're really having to hustle and open up all these other windows and doors to kind of lead you down these paths to success, but no, that is such a great thing to hear that you're in that space to be able to mentor and kind of coach other women through that little phase of— this is something I really want to do, but I'm scared to take that first step into actually doing something for me that will then benefit my family, my household, whatever it may be. But what got you into that kind of coaching? Do you do kind of have some background education that you went and took with that as well? Or… 

Brittney 06:49

Yeah, so I went through a certified coaching program, which made you a certified business coach. And so it was a very intensive program. And then I'm also went through the ICF, as well. So I'm like international, federally, whichever they would like, a lot of people don't really know a lot of… my journey, I really pushed very hard, I'm the kind of person that goes big or go home kind of mentality. And then I actually wrote my paper, my final paper on like kind of what I was building and kind of the symptoms of imposter syndrome and all that, and so I end up doing a lot of research, and I stumbled upon Dr. Valerie Young, who I took my imposter syndrome course seeing with and if you research her, she's just really cool in like digging in deep on impostor syndrome and building the way to help us coaches to work with those who have imposter syndrome. 

Shelby 07:50

Oh, that is so beautiful.

Brittney 07:51

I just find like… impostor syndrome right now, I feel like more and more people are talking about it. And that's what I love. Because the biggest thing to get rid of impostor syndrome is to normalize it and talk more about it. And so I am so excited to kind of jump more into this role as a coach, impostor syndrome coach, to just be more open about it because the more open we are about it, the more I think we're going to start shifting our mindset that we don't have to be perfect all the time.

Shelby 08:20

Exactly. And I feel like that is so key, and having you kind of evolved from where you were, and you started kind of in the tech industry, with your nine to five to where you are now is just such a beautiful, transformational journey, which is just super exciting. I feel like everybody who is in business or is an entrepreneur has dealt with impostor syndrome at some point, whether that's chronic, or it's kind of one of those pops up every once in a while, and some high-stress situations or whatnot, but I think that having somebody who you can work alongside who will be that coach and that guiding light to kind of be that person that's standing there beside you. And being a sidekick. Like you kind of said to guide you through those moments and be able to really see through that it's just… a funny thing that our brain kind of ends up tricking us into, is thinking that, you know, we're not good enough for not well versed or educated on a certain topic to be speaking about it, or if we really have the skill set that we said in our resume that we have, and we know we're capable, but are we capable? Yeah, it just it goes on. So kudos to you for that. That's a big step. 

Brittney 09:46

Yeah, I'm really excited to just be jumping more into it and working with more because I just I, I love to see everybody grow and collaborate and work together. I don't believe in competition. I know a lot of people, especially my marketing friends, I have my BBA in marketing communications, you know, like the whole SWOT analysis, look at your competitors… I really feel that we're all here to come together and collaborate together and work cohesively, and that's how we're all going to grow and thrive. And so if you start changing your mindset on, okay, yeah, sure, that's a competitor, but how can you work together as collaborators to kind of work side by side and grow? That's how my brain works. 

Shelby 10:30

No, I, I love that, because I'm the same way, I feel like— my background, I guess, goes back into like oil and gas administration, so really high stress, really fast pace working situations, and having that little bit of, what do you call it, it was just on the tip of my tongue, I had something so good to say there, then totally lost it. Darn, that was such a good thing I had going, and now it just completely left my brain. 

Brittney 11:05

Oh, yeah, just collaboration is… I think every business can grow together, I'm actually just creating a proposal for a potential new client, and I was like, they can totally collaborate with these guys, because of like, it's totally might be left centred, they might be like… this person is crazy. Yeah, I'm thinking of... so I was like, no way, and I think it's like, even though you guys are in different spectrums, in a way, how you guys have your values are so similar. And not to say that you need to go collaborate with all the people, I think you need to go back and really understand who you are as a business, what your values are too, because you want to work with… you started your business for a reason, so you want to work with people that also would work with you, not against you. 

Shelby 11:55

Yeah, 100%. And I feel like that's so valuable, especially in today's age, where it's, business has now shifted from being super transactional to being more those emotional, long-term relationships that you're building within the business or outside of the business aspect. But the thing that I was going to talk about, I finally remembered after you started talking about what you were talking about, but being in the oil and gas industry, everything was just so tight-knit, very closed doors, very secretive on things and just going into business for myself now, I don't want to be that gatekeeper of knowledge. I feel that knowledge shared is knowledge that is valuable to everybody, and being able to support somebody or help somebody or guide somebody in a certain situation or with a certain task or whatever, whatever it may be, is really what does it for me nowadays, like it really fills my cup and just makes me feel so like, I'm doing a little bit extra in the world to make it a better place. Almost. 

Brittney 13:10

So yeah, I actually just went to a reunion, I guess we'd say, so one of my first jobs was in, it's a company called Blackball, if you've ever heard of it was a very tight-knit kind of family when you first start working, and a lot of people are like, businesses can't be family, but certainly it felt like family, like a lot of them came to our wedding… that's where my husband and I met, and so they just did a 50th reunion for Rod because he was working there for 50 years, and also just retired. So they did this huge party, and it was so great to kind of like see familiar faces, and I was just having this conversation with one of the people that I used to work with that Ryan, who owns the business, because I had that such a good experience of working with an owner, made me realize how I also want to be as an owner, because I went from working in a very good business to very corporate tech, like, not great, very toxic, and I saw I was losing sight of like, who I was, who I wanted to be, who I also want other people around me to be, because I really think that everyone should be able to shine no matter what role they're in. And so I think like just going back and having that reflection again too on Saturday was like, even when I was up to Ryan and like… you were always my favorite boss because he just trusted the people to get the work done. And it would excel right and I think that's what as business owners and those who want to outsource and all that, like you have to have that trust. If you don't have that trust, then people are going to start to slowly…   away and not want to really work with you because you can't trust them to execute. So a lot of the VAs on my team have I've had since I started the business, a lot of them, there's a new few ones here, err, but I just I kind of do my random check-ins if they need anything, and I kind of like go away. They probably think it's really weird, like, where's Brittany? 

Shelby 15:13

Here's the Tesla video if you need help, like, text me, message me whatever it is yeah.

Brittney 15:16

Right. I don't like to micromanage. 

Shelby 15:21

Yes, I agree. I have been in far too many positions where I myself am micromanaged. And I'm a firm believer in that whole, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So it's like, I want to treat you how I would expect to be treated if I was in a similar position. And you know, the roles were switched per se. And yeah, it's it's a lot. But how many people do you have on your team currently… that's always exciting. 

Brittney 15:50

Mm hmm. We have about ten, give or take, but then I also know like, we have a pool of others that I can outreach to if need be. Yeah. So it's not everybody on the website, per se. But I do have like a handful that I've kind of like, I don't like calling it the interview process, either. I like to make sure that, you know, at the end of the day, if we want to go meet up to have coffee or wine, we can do that.

Shelby16:17

Oh, I love that. Yes. And are most of your assistants kind of local to you then or do you have a couple that are a bit more on the remote side? And how do you kind of check in with those ones? 

Brittney 16:30

Yeah, so we're all Canadian base. So I'm based in Victoria BC, so some of us are in Victoria. And then the furthest is in Nova Scotia. So we're all Canadian but from across province to province.

Shelby 16:44

I love that you're literally coast to coast. That's amazing. 

Brittney 16:50

Yeah, I love it. Now, that's such an amazing business model to have, is like a fellow Canadian VA, I always love when people like stay within the community, even though like community can be as large as like the province, the whole country, but being able to kind of support local moms and females that are just needing that, you know, extra little bit of income, or they want to make this their full time job. Really, that's, that's what excites me and is my goal one day to be able to build out to be a bit bigger and supporting local, here in Alberta and things like that. So that's so great to hear. 

Brittney 17:30

As you say, so that you added some services to, to your, your roster, which is awesome, and so exciting. 

Shelby 17:40

Yes. So slowly getting to the point, I've been doing this for almost a year and a half now. And I've finally gotten to the point where I'm like… these are the things that really excite me and like, are things I want to do on a regular basis. They're not just generally just doing emails or just doing calendar management or just doing filing or anything like that, but having that little bit of variety and having a more creative option to kind of express either my work or my client's work with is just really what excites me a lot more recently. But yeah, speaking of services, that was kind of where I was going with my question before was, what kind of services specifically or what kind of a niche do you service client-wise with your business?

Brittney 18:33

 Yeah, so we're service-based businesses, we don't work with E-commerce. We did start that at the beginning and then took that off the list. But really service-based businesses. So we've worked with interior designers, landscapers, construction, to, we had worked with a little bit of restaurant industry before COVID. We work with the chambers here. Yeah, so we've worked a range of industries, service-based ones. And then services that we offer like administration, marketing, CRM setups, we have our own team who also does like logos and graphic design, and we have a few others to assist with website development and branding. So, really a range, I foresee us kind of being like, in a way like your one-stop shop. Instead of going to like Upwork, we're not anything like Upwork, but come to us.

Shelby 19:28

Oh God.

Brittney 19:30

…but then you have access to the team, if you're needing to do an item, so for example, I have like a coach. We also work with a lot of coaches and real estate agents. I paired, that's kind of what we do now, too, is we match you to your perfect VA or online business manager. So then I am pulling away to be more of like the business strategist and coach with entrepreneurs that come in. So I paired one particular coach with Ashley, and so Ashley does all the things in online business management specifically for this particular client, and then outsources some things over to the VA, Ryan. So then it was like online business manager, virtual assistants, which should be, if no one knows what that is, Online Business Manager is like your operations manager, like if you're in the store, overseeing all the things, making sure that the team is running efficiently, and processes are in place. So we offer that as well. It's a variety of things. And I think a lot of people get confused. And so that's why I say, if you don't know, just ask, because what I'm trying to do too is, I don't want the woman on the team to feel like they can't do what they want to do. I want them to specialize in their particular area of expertise and feel comfortable doing it, then not, so we have a lot that are like unicorns, I like to say, we have OBMs, and then virtual assistants who specifically maybe just want to focus on admin work. Yeah. 

Shelby 21:00

Oh, that's so amazing. It's so refreshing to find another VA, that's kind of not specifically one industry, you kind of are open to a lot of different areas, but you've know the services, and you know how to do them well. And you're able to really be in that position to, you know, talk with the new potential client that's coming in and from that, being able to kind of match up specifically to a virtual assistant or an online business manager, and then from that umbrella that roll out a little bit more to any other of the service providers you've got on your team. But, that is so amazing. And when it comes to, I guess, working with new potential clients, how do you make sure that you're matching the correct person to that client that's coming in.

Brittney 21:57

So I listen to the client's needs. And I and then I know everybody on the team, personally and on the business level, of what they like to do, what they don't like to do and have like a, like a spreadsheet in a way. So I review that. And then really, I just kind of outreach to who I think would be the best match if they have availability to take on the client. And if they do, then I would pair them together. It's very, no API's, all me. 

Shelby 22:28

Oh, nice. I know, I feel like sometimes it can get super overwhelming with the amount of programs and apps and systems that you can get running in your business to kind of simplify stuff. And in the end, there's a couple tasks where I'm like, I could get something to do this, but in the end, it's like, it's pretty basic, and I could do it myself, which I should probably start steering away from that mentality a little bit in some areas. But I'm the same in other ways where I'm like, nope, I've got my spreadsheet. I've got my form. We're good to go now.

Brittney 23:03

Yeah, I think, I think all of it's your business, right, so it's, I think some of us are a little bit type A, it's really hard to let go. I know, I'm like that. But it's… just start outsourcing small steps, and then you'll feel more comfortable once you remove those things off the plate. Like right now, what I'm doing is switching CRMs so I'm in I'm using Dubsado, but I'm switching over to Moxie. Oh, exciting. I just kind of like some of the additional features for this, like, why not put more work on my plate. The thing is, what I'm also doing right now, what I've been doing this year, though, is fixing the foundation in my business because I need to practice what I preach. I do, I work with so many business owners, and really I'm very self aware. I know my gaps in the business. And so this year, I've been kind of slowly cleaning it all up. Yeah, because I would like to outsource my stuff, I know to a certain point as well. So I just needed a better CRM to help me to get to that place. And so that's what I'm doing. 

Shelby 24:06

That's always such a big endeavor to take on, especially once you've got a system like you mentioned Dubsado that's all set up, and now it's like okay, I'm going to be starting from scratch, other than the odd little bits and pieces where you can like pull a cvs file or something and just kind of re-upload or move that way. But yeah, I commend you. That is like one of those things that I feel as a business owner it's like setting yourself up or you know, walking or talking your walk, walk, talking your talk, walking your walk, one of the two. But you could be so good at doing a task for your clients, your customers, whatever it may be, but when it comes to kind of doing that for yourself, it can be so difficult to find, I guess the motivation, or the inspiration, some people may say, to really like, make the time, sit down, block out a couple of hours or a couple of days in the week, where you can really like just, nose to the grindstone get stuff done. But I can 100% relate to you with that aspect where it's just like—oh, I am the best at doing this for everybody else, but when it comes to doing it for myself, that's where I'm lacking. And like, you need to get those perfect unicorns to be able to outsource those little bits too.

Brittney 25:35

Yeah, and I find like, we're all sometimes our own worst client. Like, I have a coach, I work with my coach pretty steadily. And they're like asking me all these questions and I'm like, I know I should be doing it. Yeah, it's just… I just need you to coach me, because my brain, the other part of my brain is like, no… 

Shelby 25:57

Yeah, I'll get to it. Or I'm just going to do these dishes first, or this one load of laundry, or focus on this other thing, and then I'll get to it. And I don't know about you, but sometimes my mind just jumps from like, task to task constantly, where I like, never finish anything to 100%. Everything's between like, 80 and 90% complete, just, yeah, going around in circles.

Brittney 26:21

Yes, nope, can relate to that. We're building out the CRM, and it's just gonna know, I told myself, I've been practicing. I'm like, no, like, refocus, you know, this is what you need to do. This is like the missing piece. Not to say Dubsado is not good, but I do like, Moxie is a bit cheaper as well, for what I need. It's very similar to Dubsado, but it has a few extra things that... make sense, like I'm a visual person. And so my biggest thing with like, Dubsado is like when it's in project state, when a lead comes in, it has to be in project state, and like, I can't have that they're like, I can't see it, like I have to archive it, but then I forget that I've archived these people, then I forget. And then it gets lost in the pipeline of not to follow up. 

Shelby 27:16

Yeah. And then one day, you wake up at 2am. And you're like, Oh, my God. 

Brittney 27:20

Yeah. That's why I'm switching it has nothing to do… I'm just a visual person. So I'm very particular on what CRMs look like, and all that stuff. Yeah. So if anyone is looking for CRM, there's so many out there.

Shelby 27:34

So many, and I have been at a state of overwhelm with it. I'm still like, trying things out, because I'm just not finding the one. It's like, I'm constantly loving little bits and pieces. Sounds like you can relate to this too, but it's not the bits and pieces all in one nice app. And I don't want to have to be jumping between two and three, five different apps to get a task done or be able to track things. And fill something out here, then jump to here to get the report and do this. So I'm definitely now going to be checking out Moxie to see what that one's all about. And especially knowing that you're Canadian, and it works in Canada. I don't know. If you found difficulties with some of these programs. It's all ridiculously US-priced per month, and that extra 30% is…can be a killer. Right? 

Brittney 28:40

That's Moxie is half the price, I think and like unless you want to add teams, and it ends up working out to what the full price is for Dubsado, so yeah, it's pretty good. I'm liking it this far that I've seen, and I'm all about like customer service too. And they've only just started I believe, like, this year which usually I don't like to switch to things that… Yeah, right. You just never know but I love that they're so customer service focus like I asked… this is why I don't do things with kids running in the background— I was uploading my contacts, but I accidentally uploaded it into projects, after archive this all and then they're like don't worry, we'll clean it up for you. It's like…  upload to the right section. 

Shelby 29:33

Yeah, it's like please slow down. And I think we just get so hyped up sometimes to where we're just like, okay, I gotta get this done super quick. I gotta move and we ourselves, when it's stuff for us… forget steps, let things slide, hit wrong buttons, make more work than we need to. And yeah, it's one of those… I guess I'll take this as a learning curve, lessons learned.

Brittney 30:00

Yeah right. And then I'm still looking more into this, but has like, request tickets and stuff like that. I thought it was a neat feature to kind of send to clients as well. 

Shelby 30:12

That's awesome. So they can see like status updates and stuff. Yeah, that's amazing.

Brittney 30:19

Kind of it's the more I've been playing with it, the more I've been pretty impressed, so, and it goes on your phone that the biggest thing for me…

Shelby 30:30

Oh, having a mobile app that I've found is super important. I've ran into a couple programs where it's like, no, we have an app, but you can't do anything in the app, you have to use the desktop version. And I'm just like… what is the point of having an app if I can't do anything in you? Like, I just want to sit at my son's hockey game and like pound something out really quick here, but…

Brittney 30:50

No, exactly. Because I've had some issues, that triggers wouldn't go. And then I'd be out somewhere and be like, Well, it'd be nice if I can just log in and push it out. But yeah, yeah, I like the feature. Anything that is added to your phone is also another win for me. 

Shelby 31:09

Yes, that's definitely on my high, top priority lists of almost must haves when it comes to technology, and there's just so much out there. And being able to find that like, unicorn in the rough and especially depending on what your business is providing, like, if there's VAs out there that do more of the social media aspect, that's a whole another can of worms, when it comes to applications and programs, then you've got the ones that are the website builders, or they specialize in doing those things. There's so many, so many things. But that's why you hire somebody like us to help you out with all of those tasks.

Brittney 31:54

100%. Like, this is the stuff that I do as well. So it's like, it's hard for me to outsource to someone on my team, because I do all this CRM stuff. We actually do a lot of audits with clients as well. And we can see that they're not utilizing their CRM, as much as they should be. 

Shelby 32:14

Yeah, yeah. I find that a lot too. Right? Yeah. Because it can't, some, not everything needs to be fully automated. But you can have things automated in a way that makes sense. So you're coming in and doesn't get lost in the wave.

Shelby 32:30

100%. Like even just those onboarding steps, or just follow-up messages, it doesn't have to be a robotic system by any means and make it feel, I guess, just that virtual sterile, almost robotic, where there's that no personal aspect, it's that obvious copy and pasted auto reply that comes through. So being able to just get those like five to ten key areas nailed down where you can have a really smooth system with that and still be able to add in that little bit of a personal touch. But yeah, I know, there's lots of businesses out there that aren't utilizing their CRMs to their full potential. They're using it just to track, kind of clients or the pipelines, but then they're using a whole different program for email marketing, or just marketing in general, or another program that is tracking their social media analytics when a good majority of CRMs out there from what I've found, I know it kind of varies from what you need, but can do all of that and then some all in one nice, place so you don't have to be remembering all those logins or jumping from app to app and running into that… oh, they don't have a mobile app. Now. I gotta wait till I get home to be able to utilize my desktop and yes, on and on and on.

Brittney 33:54

Yes, we have. Because we are business owners, we wear many hats. So it's nice to get some things off the list, even if it's automated to a certain point. So like, I built, I just knew what a CRM could do. So when I had my daughter, like, while I was building the business, I made sure so much was automated as much as possible to help you kind of get through the process. 

Shelby 34:20

Yeah, and there's always that, you know, a time and a place for that and especially for people who want to go on like vacations and they're not wanting to be involved in the business as heavily as they would if they were at home working, being able to get those like nice automation so aspects can at least run in the background for you and whether that's generating leads and clients or if that's processing the financial aspects such as your invoicing and making sure that everything is kind of automatically flowing that way. It's there's always a time and a place, and especially being a new mom, I if I was in the entrepreneur world back when my guy was born, he's ten now, but, definitely would have been something that would have been my main priority is setting up those automations getting that foundation set so I can put in a lot of time in the beginning to get it set to perfection or as perfect as technology can be, and just kind of set it and forget it in a sense so that I can then buy back my time to be able to spend with my family or with my son and things like that doing other things that I enjoy. 

Brittney 35:44

It’s so true, I have a five and two-year-old so they keep me busy and even too like, I feel like I'm just starting, like I was super pumped that my daughter was going into kindergarten because I was like, oh, yeah, one less bill. But then I didn't really think of like, oh, maybe we didn't need. I didn't realize kindergarten was only from nine to two. So it was like, oh, so only have really five hours on a day to get work.

Shelby 36:00

Yeah. And then you've got the back and forth pickup in the drop off that you take into account too, so it's really like a four, maybe, four and a half. Yeah, so you don't have anything else pop up unexpectedly. 

Brittney 36:15

Exactly. Right. So it's just, it's just a different dynamic. I just, we only just got like, really full time care in January this year, and then it just kind of, I just feel like we were going a little backwards. But I think as a mum entrepreneur, sometimes having like, maybe a different minds switch, when these moments happen, helps you kind of keep pushing forward. Because sometimes these kind of hurdles that might get away can be daunting to a lot. And then a lot may be like, Well, why should I keep doing this? Why am I doing X, Y and Z? Maybe I should go back into nine to five, all these things. But I… persistence is key, and switching your mindset when you have your low moments really helps you keep moving forward. 

Shelby 37:06

Yes, 100, 100%. I could not agree more. And I feel that, yeah, just like you mentioned there, having that entrepreneurial mindset that those hurdles that we may come across in the family work life are easier to tackle because we've done similar troubleshooting in our business. And we're able to kind of relate that experience a bit more into our home life. It's not necessarily meshing your work life and upsetting that nice balance that everybody wants, but being able to utilize those skills and those experiences that you use in your business and being able to kind of twist them and play them back in your personal family life, I think makes things a lot easier. I know there's a lot of people where, you know, it takes time, obviously, for that skill to be able to relate those two things together to build on that. But it's one of those moments where once you finally click and like understand that you can take that knowledge and reapply it in different areas that it's completely life-changing for how you deal with situations after that.

Brittney 38:15

Yep. I can't agree more. I just, I finally, the journey of all the things that makes you have a sense, a different perspective on life as a parent, entrepreneur, business owner, all the things that— life is too short, and it's nice to know that I can go pick up my kiddos and drop them off if needed even know right now my daughter is like, I want to take the bus and like

Shelby 38:42

Yeah. The slowly outgrowing your attention phase. 

Brittney 38:45

I was like, You're not even like… you're five going on thirteen already. And like…

Shelby 38:52

Yeah, it's like I'm not mentally ready for this.

Brittney 38:57

Like, I want to drive you and drop you off. Can't you wait to next make me feel like this. 

Shelby 39:08

Oh my god. Kids are so special. And that's one of the beautiful things that I love about being an entrepreneur too is having that, i'm home when my son gets off school, like we're very fortunate his school is within walking distance from where we are— so amazing. Being able to have that. I didn't realize when I was working my nine to five how important that was to me, I think because I was just so hyper focused on… this is the routine, you go home, you make dinner, you clean up, you go to bed, you wake up, you go to work, repeat and just you get stuck in that tornado cycle. But now I don't have to feel that anxiety when I get a phone call from the school saying your son is sick and you've got to come pick him up and I've got to be like, well, I've got to go and I know I've only been here like an hour and a half, but I don't know if I'm coming back for the rest of the week, so I will keep you posted, and that fear of…

Brittney 40:06

…am I going to get fired?

Shelby 40:09

Are the next words out of their mouth… gonna fire me? Yes. So it's like, ah, the flexibility, and he's at a great age, he's super independent now, so it's like I have in that free time and not feeling stressed about, you know, having to entertain him necessarily all the time. He's out there running around the neighborhood with friends, and he can make his own kind of snacks and things, so it's like, this is the life that I love. Yeah, we're in the vicinity. And I love being near you. But I love being able to get my work done at the same time. It's just been such a beautiful opportunity. I can barely put it into words sometimes.

Brittney 40:52

I feel like I had some time to get there.

Shelby 40:55

Yeah, that that will come. But enjoy. Obviously, the moment you have now, as cliche as that sounds, I, there's times where I'm like, I kind of miss when you're a baby, and you like didn't talk and ask me like sixteen million questions a day and… have you had a good sleep schedule, and you didn't argue, but I'm like, I wouldn't change it for the world. But yes, it's coming. And it'll be a glorious moment to have more than five to six hours to do some work. That's kind of been one of my favorite things.

Brittney 41:30

Well, that's like another thing. Oh, just going back to feeling that instant anxiety of thinking that you're going to get fired from a job. I don't think any parent should feel like that. When you're, you're a parent, you have to do, unfortunately drop things to go pick up your kids when they're sick, or whichever. Like, I keep saying this over and over again. I probably would have been fired like 200 times now. For the amount of times I've had to drop what I'm doing to go get the kids from daycare. So the daycare that they're at, like if one kids sick, and both have to come home. And Hudson’s two, so he's still going through the, he's a true COVID baby like born during COVID. So he's like, all the, all the different things that are going on now the world is sick all the time. So I felt so bad for my daughter because he was always sick. So she always had to come home. So they literally were, so technically, they started in daycare, this one in September. Yeah, they were home more than they were at that daycare. That's why I said…

Shelby 42:35

And how frustrating is that sometimes like, just as a parent where you're like, I'm paying for like a month, and you're there for very, very little amount of time unless they give you like little refunds or whatever. But I don't think so. 

Brittney 42:51

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any company to give refunds.Yeah, I don't know. I seriously don't know how parents do it today that work nine to five. I praise you because I know for a fact that, especially if I was at a company, I probably would have been let go within like, oh, you're out? 

Shelby 43:13

Yeah, exactly. And it's, I'm sure it's like this huge fear of like other people as well. It might not just be like family, like they've got a child that's sick, they may have a parent that is aging that they have to take care of outside of like their nine to five, where something may come up there or, you know, heaven forbid that something happens at home and just that dread at overwhelm of guilt, I guess, because you're not performing and not able to do what they hired you to do. Regardless, if you love or hate your job, I guess you know, you want to make, you want to complete your work, or I'd hope you do. But then that internal battle of like knowing family is number one and making them that one, number one priority, and not feeling guilty about saying, you know, I've gotta go, I've got to deal with this. And I think that's something that a lot of women struggle, I'm sure that men struggle with similar situations as well. But it's a sad place to be that we have to like, feel that we need to have that guilt in order to kind of move through that situation almost. Yeah, exactly. I really hope things change differently in the world of a regular nine to five. I personally just think I keep saying this. In the, in the next generations to come, we're just going to see more kids wanting to be entrepreneurs and doing their own thing than working in nine to five corporate lifestyle, like that the life of a corporate style. It's dying. It's dying. Yeah. So for those who are employers just listening, change your mindset a little bit, because they already, you can already see people are saying it's a hard time to hire employees. It's because we're tired of being treated this way. So that's why we're now doing our own thing, because we were never able to be in a flexible place, so if you're in the corporate world, I think they need to have that change of how can we make this more flexible? Because as long as your work is being done, you shouldn't have to question if the person…

Shelby 45:32

100%. I agree so, so much with that. I feel it's all about the performance, and if the work is getting done, why should it matter if you are sitting in an office that's 15 kilometres away from your house, or if you're sitting in your bed, working on a laptop doing the exact same thing? I think that one benefit of, I guess the pandemic and COVID period that we kind of got was the fact that it took a real shift in the workplace, where we went from being that nine to five, you're in the workplace for Monday through Friday, for the next 35 years of your life, maybe 45 now, because of the way pensions and everything are going. But it really pushed the virtual hybrid working experience, and it really, I think, showed a lot of people that I don't need to be in this big building with all these random people doing this work, when I can easily do it at home, like technology got such a big push at that time. Like Zoom, for instance, I didn't even know that was a platform until like COVID happened, and all of a sudden, everybody in their mind has a Zoom account. That was just wild. 

Brittney 46:52

I think it also pushed people's perspective too, in just the, the trust that employers had maybe on their employees, and it was kind of given to them and then taken away in some kind of capacity. And I think it's just to the point where we all had enough… we're just going to do our own thing, because you promised X, Y and Z, we went online, you can see that we can do work online, and then you, now that the world's open up again, you switched it, that we have to be in office, because of… I think people are just fed up, and they just want to do their own thing. I know so many people that are looking for jobs in nine-to-five, but they have to promise them that they can work from home to a certain capacity. 

Shelby 47:37

Yeah, it's either remote work 100% or remote hybrid with favouring more stay-at-home opportunities, maybe come into the office one day out of the week, for four or five hours. It doesn't have to be a full day. But yeah, it really did push a nice flexibility and kind of a woke people up into technology, workspace revolution, I guess in a sense, where people are like, You know what we can 100% do this from home. We're living in 2023, 2020 to 2023 at that time, but we have the technology, and now we're finally starting to like, be more vocal about it, express how it is improving mental health in the workforce, like there are countless positives that have come through with this. And in the end, it's beneficial to not only the employees or the workers, but also to the corporations and big companies. As you know, you can then downsize a little bit on what you're paying on office space that you're either leasing or renting or using. And from that comes a lower power bill or energy bill or heating bill because everybody is just responsible for their own because they’re working at home like the, I could go on and on about the cost-saving measures of this virtual world we're living in because it's just so powerful. But… yeah, it's been amazing to see like, those little positive notes that came out of that little chapter in the world. It's one of the things that I try and bring up as a positive— the whole thing can be seen on multiple sides on positives and negatives, but always bring it back to that little positive— it’s nice. 

Brittney 49:30

Yes, yes, definitely. Oh, yes. 

Shelby 49:35

What a great conversation we have had. I am just, uh, I could honestly keep going for another several hours Brittany, honestly, it's been so fabulous talking to you today. Again, I appreciate you so much for being my guest on She's Got This: A Journey to Success, and I cannot wait to see what the reaction for this episode is and to see where you take your business and kind of where you go in the future. I'm really looking forward to staying in touch with you and, yeah helping each other out later down the road. So thank you. 

Brittney 50:12

Thank you. Thank you for having me.