Business Beats and Baby Steps with Kimberly Tara
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Episode Summary
Welcome to another episode of Project Mom Podcast.
In this episode, we dive deep into the complex dance between motherhood and entrepreneurship. Together with my incredibly insightful guest, Kimberly Tara, we unravel the highs, lows, and everything in between of juggling a growing business while nurturing our children. From late-night feedings to daytime client meetings, is it really possible to find harmony? Spoiler alert: It's not always as clear-cut as it may seem. Join us as we discuss the importance of giving yourself grace, defining your success metrics, and truly understanding the power of choice in business and motherhood.
So, if you've ever felt torn between being present for your child and answering that urgent email, this episode is especially for you. Let's journey together and discover how to keep the essence of ourselves alive in both worlds.
Topics Discussed:
How motherhood completely reworked Kimberly’s approach to business
The importance of aligning your business choices and picking clients that truly mesh with your mom life
A sneak peek into Kimberly's daily routine and how she harmonizes motherhood with business
The significance of drawing boundaries and embracing self-care during maternity
About Kimberly:
I’m Kimberly, your resident tax strategist, mother of four, and financial nerd. Born and raised in the Greater New Orleans area, I’ve been a Louisiana girl my whole life. After graduating from Mount Carmel Academy, I attended Auburn University and received my Accounting Degree from the Harbert College of Business. Pretty soon after, I was up and running, starting my career with an internship at Frazier & Deeter LLC in Atlanta, Georgia. While there, I worked in tax, litigation, valuation, audit, and forensic accounting practices. I am also a member of the AICPA and The Society of Louisiana CPAs.
In early 2016, my husband and I decided to move back home to New Orleans, where we now live with our 4 kids - Hunter, Gage, Beckett, and Vivienne. In May of 2016, I began my practice. Now, I get to work with amazing entrepreneurs every day, helping them maximize their tax savings. After seeing rapid growth over the last 6 years, I’m so thankful for my amazing clients and the strong relationships I’ve been able to build with them.
Connect with Kimberly:
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Emily Gorrie (00:02.782)
Welcome to today's episode of the Project Mom podcast. I'm chatting with Kimberly Tara, a CPA, wife, mom to four little kids, and a multi-passionate entrepreneur. As a tax strategist and business growth advisor, Kimberly and her team partner with CEO mom service providers to maximize revenues, reduce taxes, build wealth, and create a legacy. Kimberly is all about finding the balance to live your dream life and be successful at what matters most.
Today's episode with Kimberly is gonna feel a bit different as we were intentional about recording the interview with the goal of leveraging the bulk of this content for both of our respective podcasts. She is the host of Messy Wonderful, a blog and podcast that touches on the many facets of motherhood and entrepreneurship and the chaos in between. In this conversation, we touch on trusting our own timelines, getting curious about who we are comparing ourselves to and how to ultimately feel good in our own journeys. So with that, let's dive in.
Emily Gorrie (00:00.906)
All right, maybe I should get my microphone. This would be good to cut that out. And that's how we're kicking it off today. So I know we will probably share a little bit about this in our intros, but we are respectively recording for our own podcasts today. And we are just doing the thing, right? So Kimberly and I are fairly new acquaintances through
Emily Gorrie (00:28.194)
the brilliant mompreneurs society community. And we really kicked it off. I have to say, I am a huge fan of like Facebook communities and I'm recently new to them. So I have to give myself a little bit of credit because I feel like it was a huge stepping stone for me to like put myself out there and seek, right? Thank you. I appreciate that. And that's why we're doing this, right? We are...
Kimberly Tara (00:49.57)
That's big credit. Let's give yourself big credit for that because you won't, but I will give you big credit for that.
Emily Gorrie (00:59.242)
starting to build communities for ourselves, supporting ourselves in these journeys and our goals and our aspirations as business women and as moms and as the combo of the two. So for the sake of our busy, busy schedules, we are dual recording this today and hope to talk about a couple of things that really stand out to us in this journey and kind of where our conversation started. And a couple of those points are around kind of our own timeline, right? Do we trust our timeline? Do we trust that our experience is exactly the way that it is meant to be? And maybe let's just start there. I mean, from experience, I mean, what has your timeline looked like? I mean, I think you've been in this space a lot longer than me. You have three kids, correct? I'm like, four kids. Okay. Already getting it wrong. Four kids, right? I'm about to have my second.
Emily Gorrie (01:56.298)
you've been in this space a lot longer than me in that scheme of things. So tell us a little bit about like your timeline on like motherhood and like entrepreneurship and how did they mingle together?
Kimberly Tara (02:08.83)
Yeah. So a great place to start is I didn't know that I was 10 weeks pregnant when I started my business. And I've shared this story. I openly share this story, but I didn't know that I was pregnant when I started my business. And so of course, in that moment, it was like, okay, do I scrap the plans? Do I just go back to working corporate public accounting? But it was like, no, a big reason that I was taking the sleep of faith was because I knew I didn't want to work.
Kimberly Tara (02:38.678)
those hours and that grueling schedule when we did have kids. I just didn't know that when would be sooner rather than later. So I kind of stuck to the plan, the new plan, I guess now, right? And had kept the faith. And so here we are seven and a half years later. Our oldest is about to turn seven as well, right? So I kind of joke that I've been growing a business and growing a family at the same time.
Kimberly Tara (03:07.47)
And what I've learned from my timeline, because I'm an Enneagram 3, wing 2, high achiever. So I really have to watch myself, right? With unrealistic goals and expectations that I set for myself, no one else, just myself. And I've realized that through people asking me questions over the last couple of years, well, why isn't your business bigger? Why don't you have more clients? Or why have you had the same?
Kimberly Tara (03:36.822)
gross revenue for the last couple of years. And what I've realized is because I was doing this family thing and that was more important to me than making more money. And so in the last seven years, I've had a few iterations of my business and I think that we all have that in our business. And so what it looked like for me was, you know, two years in getting more of my time back as we were pregnant for our second child and realizing that this wasn't the dream. The dream was to be home with my child and to be present with them. That wasn't really happening. I was more stressed out and running all over to clients and putting them before my kids. It became, okay, I need more time back, but I'd like to keep making the same money.
Kimberly Tara (04:28.958)
If we don't stop, especially as high achievers, if we don't stop and pay attention to our successes, and if we don't acknowledge that our successes don't always have to be a money metric, which is funny coming from the CPA, right? I get the irony there. But that our successes don't have to be measured in terms of money, we give ourselves more permission to just enjoy and to just do. And so,
Kimberly Tara (04:57.502)
When I made that pivot and I was able to keep my gross revenues and my profit margins where they had been previously, but I got more of my time back with my kids, that's an incredible win. And that's something that means so much more to me in the long run than hitting this elusive seven figures, right? Because hitting seven figures at the expense of spending these formative years with my kids that I can never, ever get back. And that's really and truly how I look at it.
Kimberly Tara (05:27.602)
I have 30 plus more years to work. I'm not a person who's gonna sit idly. So like, you know, people talk about passive income. I want some passive income, but I'm also still gonna work because I just don't sit and do nothing. So I have 30 plus years to work and make money. I get four years with each kid before they go to pre-K. That's it, that's all I get. There's no redo on that. I got years to redo the money. I don't have years to redo this time with my kids. And so I think that
Emily Gorrie (05:38.67)
Sure.
Kimberly Tara (05:56.298)
That's been the perspective that has sort of dictated my timeline for my business and my life and just keeping those perspectives. And so now, you know, our baby's 15 months old and the three big boys go to school from 7:50 to 3:15. It is glorious that they go to school all day. And I do have a little bit more time, not a ton, honestly, but I do have more time. And so
Kimberly Tara (06:22.774)
I am leaning in and making some strategic moves and some marketing moves in my business because it feels right, because the time feels right for me now. So I think that kind of how I want to wrap up my timeline is, you know, it's not all about the money. Don't worry about what everybody else is doing. It's so important to make your business work for you and your family first.
Emily Gorrie (06:29.868)
Yes.
Kimberly Tara (06:46.11)
and let everything else, you know, don't, you can't let your business go by the wayside if you're depending on the income, right? Like we, like we are not a one income family with our student loans and for kids and tuition and all the things. We're not a one income family, but there came a point where it was like, you know what? I'm serving my clients really well. Our businesses provide, my business is providing what we need for our family to contribute to our family. And the rest needs to be spent on my kids in this crucial time that I will just never get back. And that, that has been the guiding light for me in my time.
Emily Gorrie (06:46.186)
Yes.
Emily Gorrie (07:11.563)
Yeah.
Emily Gorrie (07:15.294)
I love that. I think such a huge piece, it's really resonating with me, is the success doesn't have to equal money, but there's still a priority for you or a value to you in having this business. So it's not about maybe primarily being the sole income, because you said it, you're a two income household. There's a lot of factors that go into what success looks like.
Emily Gorrie (07:43.234)
two in another episode of kind of what is the, what is the baseline for you, right? For your business and for your timeline. And I think about myself in particular. So I started this entrepreneurial journey prior to my daughter being born, but I took a 100% pause when she was born for the first year of her life and completely pivoted after that year. A whole lot of realizations happened. I realized what I was doing was not kind of the path I wanted to take. Absolutely.
Kimberly Tara (08:12.45)
Kids change things, right? They change things. And that's why I don't really, I don't encourage other moms to follow women who aren't moms. And it's not because they're doing anything wrong. It's not because that they are doing incredible things. But the reality is when you become a mom, your life changes and it's not about you and your business anymore. And so that's why like, you can't hold yourself to those standards.
Emily Gorrie (08:37.258)
Absolutely, and we'll definitely touch on that because I think the expectation of what that woman is doing over there versus what we're doing over here does play a big factor. And I think, when I think about the personal experience I've had, it's for me, we are a one income family. I'll be transparent about it. And we are blessed and lucky to be able to do that at this current stage of our lives. At a second, maybe I'm not sure if that's gonna continue to be the case, but.
Emily Gorrie (09:05.802)
You know, so that's a blessing that we have. But for me to start this business, to continue to have this business is a personal motivator. So for me to pause ambitions or aspirations that I've had is really a not negotiable for me. Like I can't and won't do that essentially. And I tried to do that with my daughter when she was born and realized the hard way that...
Emily Gorrie (09:32.666)
a lot of resentment shows up, a lot of frustration shows up, a lot of sadness comes to the surface. I know for me, and I can imagine other women who are starting this journey or have a business and then add motherhood into the factors here, that becomes a big question for them. I should want to be at home with my kids all the time, but I'm missing a piece of me. For me, that was a big piece. I really honor...
Emily Gorrie (10:01.95)
our own unique timelines because I also have to trust that in time, this business will provide me the financial or monetary successes that I would love for it to have. And I know it can have, but it's the trade-offs I'm not willing to make of being present with my daughter, having a second child and growing this family and still pursuing movement, pursuing growth in...
Emily Gorrie (10:31.314)
some capacity other than the finances. And maybe from an accounting perspective, you're like, Emily, you're hemorrhaging money over there, but that's a whole other conversation. Yeah.
Kimberly Tara (10:42.432)
If there's a strategy, but I've been transparent that in this year 2023, I've reinvested a lot into the business, our profit margins. It's almost anxiety inducing for me. I'm bringing on a team, we're making investments in other experts. I've always had really high profit margins and now it's not just me. It's like, okay, but like-
there's like, there's a strategy behind this. There's a means to an end, right? And so I think that as long as you have a plan and you know what you're doing, and again, like, you know, I think that it's okay if you know that you're valuing time and presence with your daughter over higher profit margins. I don't think that there is anything wrong with that. I actually think it's the right decision, but that's just my, that's my personal opinion, not my professional opinion.
Emily Gorrie (11:30.642)
Yeah. I love that. I mean, and that, right? It shows that there is a line, a distinction between the two. And if we can honor both of those, we should ideally be able to find in each season, right? Because the different times of our lives will call for different actions and choices from ourselves. But I think if we can ultimately honor the distinction between where our priorities are lying, then it's a great opportunity we are going to make the right decisions for us in those moments. And ideally, right, we're not looking back with any sort of regret at that point. So.
Kimberly Tara (12:01.462)
Yep, I agree.
Kimberly Tara (12:08.626)
No. But I love what you said. You used the word movement. And I love that. I love how you said the word movement because I think as long as we are moving and most importantly moving in the right direction, right? We don't want to move backwards. But I love that. I love how you said movement because sometimes, and I'm listening to a book right now and it really, and I believe this is why I like it, it talks about like when we are comparing, we're just comparing ourselves to where we were before.
Kimberly Tara (12:38.762)
If you've grown 10% from last year, that's movement. That's movement in a positive direction, right? Who cares that somebody else grew 50%? Maybe they don't have kids at home, right? So I love that you said movement, and I just wanna add, I love that, but movement in the right direction, and movement, find your movement in comparing yourself to only your previous self.
Emily Gorrie (13:03.166)
Yeah, I love that so much. And I really appreciate you clarifying that because I think there's like this whirlwind that we get wrapped up in of like, you're right. Like, oh, I see this woman owned business over here and they're highlighting this how to make X more amount in a month and 10K months and all those things. And there's a lot of that out there. And I think we sometimes get wrapped up in, well, what am I, the market, exactly. What am I doing?
Kimberly Tara (13:28.026)
Mm-hmm. The marketing. It's all the marketing.
Emily Gorrie (13:32.99)
what am I doing wrong or what am I not doing enough of? And it's this lack, right? This like, where am I failing or where am I not doing enough? And it's not, hang on, maybe I should question what I'm actually comparing to or where my metrics are, what my successes are looking like and am I still on my timeline? So I do think it's so important to distinguish that, right? Are you moving against your old self? Are you growing compared to where you were? But I also think it's important to highlight
Emily Gorrie (14:02.862)
growth not monetarily? So like, are you doing things that the you of last year perhaps would not be doing because of fear or lack of perceived time or no help or whatever? Like, I think if there's ways that we can also look at successes in that way of like, did you find some more hours in your day through childcare? And even a year ago, you would never have explored that for yourself. Or, did you...
Kimberly Tara (14:13.054)
Yep. So good.
Emily Gorrie (14:30.818)
Put yourself out there in more Facebook groups or get an extra client because you went on a podcast or are we putting ourselves in situations that grow us as individuals as well? Because I think we get lost in the money piece also.
Kimberly Tara (14:42.186)
Yep, I love that.
Kimberly Tara (14:46.538)
Yeah, I love that so much and that really resonates because obviously I've got the money kind of on lockdown for me, right? But that putting yourself out there really speaks to me because that's something that I've really worked on this year. And when I do reflect back on that, it's like, yeah, Kimberly, you've done a good job. I have to remember to pat myself on the back and be like, you've done this. Even if we were on track to hit our financial goals, but even if we don't.
Kimberly Tara (15:16.31)
I'm so proud of myself for getting out there and being on podcasts and just commenting on random people's posts that I don't know and saying, hey, I think that this could work. What do you think? That takes a lot if you're fearful of it. I couldn't agree with you more. Just giving ourselves the grace and acknowledging how far we've come in not only the financial sense.
Kimberly Tara (15:43.222)
but in those boundaries, in those fear moments, all the things.
Emily Gorrie (15:47.934)
Yes, and oh, boundaries. I feel like those are a big one that we don't give ourselves enough credit for because sometimes with boundaries, right, come we have to enforce them. So we are fully in charge of the boundaries that we set, even if we communicate them. And that's a big thing that I talk about a lot of, like, people can know your boundaries. You can communicate them left, right and center, but they will get crossed. And it is up to us to hold them.
Emily Gorrie (16:17.986)
hold and that firm line comes guilt sometimes of like, am I actually making the right decision here? Or, you know, I made, you know, my client feel bad because we missed a deadline or they missed a deadline. Usually I'm holding the boundary because they missed their deadline, you know, or right. And I don't want to be working at all hours to try and get things done, you know.
Kimberly Tara (16:41.142)
Oh no, we have a big boundary with tax return deadlines. But I didn't in the beginning, right? And so then I'm sitting here in my late 20s, new in business, pulling all-nighters because somebody got me their stuff two days before when you've known about this deadline and we've communicated. I had to put a stop to that. No. Two weeks before. If you can't be respectful of my time.
Kimberly Tara (17:05.846)
to get me, you have months, you have all year honestly to get your tax stuff together, right? If you can't give us two weeks to provide a thorough and accurate return, then you're not a good fit for us because we're not gonna rush. We're not, when we, if you stay up all night, you are not, you're not getting my best work product because I'm tired, right? And so putting boundaries in place is hard. And I wanna add that we need to put boundaries in place at work and we also need to put boundaries in place in our personal lives too.
Emily Gorrie (17:10.4)
I'm going to go to bed.
Emily Gorrie (17:35.13)
Mm-hmm. Totally. Absolutely. I feel like, especially when it comes to having kids at home with us while we're also running a business, my daughter goes to daycare three days a week. But there's a couple other days, and it doesn't always neatly fall into a Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So we do. We have to set some boundaries in the personal life and ask for help and get support for ourselves. For me, I know for a lot of people,
Kimberly Tara (17:35.519)
We sometimes forget those, right?
Emily Gorrie (18:03.842)
to record some of these podcast episodes, I'm trying to find some extra hours in my day to establish a maternity leave so I can get some of these podcasts done, so I can set a boundary that I can be present at home with my kids. So to do that, I had to set boundaries in the other way and say, this is really important to me and ask my husband to step up a little bit more just for a couple of weeks. Can we make some rearrangements happen? Or, you know,
Emily Gorrie (18:33.598)
My mother-in-law, my in-laws live nearby. But I do think too, right, boundaries with support that doesn't work for you, if that makes sense. Also being able to say, no, that actually doesn't work, or I know I can't help you. And that's actually a big one we're working on with my husband right now. Just because if he doesn't have something on his calendar, he's inclined to say yes. He wants to, he's also an entrepreneur. He works for himself, he has a business partner.
Emily Gorrie (19:01.174)
when he doesn't have something on his calendar, like a meeting, he's like, yes, I'll do it. But then he's like, sometimes he's a little bit overextended because he has some deadlines that I don't know about because they're not on a calendar. I can't see them. So we're working on like also empowering him to say, actually, no, I can't today because I have a huge deadline for this investor. So it's working on ways that we can say no that way. And then managing the disappointment that
Emily Gorrie (19:30.126)
comes along with that and, you know, who gets to, yeah.
Kimberly Tara (19:31.166)
Yep. But we usually are disappointing ourselves the most. I learned the art of saying no back in 2020 when I was pregnant with our third child. And with the birth of each child, you become acutely aware of how little time you're actually going to have. It's a very stark reminder. Okay, I'm about to have like, I don't know, eight less hours than a day to myself with a newborn and a little infant. And I still have these other two children who need me. And so I have started saying no to things because I am a yes person. I'm a three winged too. I've got that helper in me and I want to be involved and I hate letting people down and I want to think that I can do it all. But the reality is that we can't. And so I remember something that was really big for me was in August of 2020 when the when the room mom forms came home from school for our two older kids. So I was like, throw them away.
Kimberly Tara (20:25.07)
throw them away before I fill them out and say yes, right? And it wasn't. And so what I did was I sent an email to the teachers and said, I am more than happy to help out. Anytime you need something, whether you need me to buy something or donate something or come give my time, I am happy to help. But I cannot fully commit to being the person that is responsible for all of the things that need to get done because it's a, I can if I'm available, not I have to make sure that I get this done because I've committed to it.
Kimberly Tara (20:53.79)
And that has been a real game changer for me because I was causing myself stress, right, by over committing and trying to be all things to all people all the time. And it's hard, it's a hard muscle to flex, but it actually really does get easier the more you do it. And so I'm getting a lot better at saying no.
Emily Gorrie (21:17.086)
I love that. I mean, you're right, it is a muscle. You have to like strengthen that up and you do get more used to the responses to that. And I like to always remind myself too with that. It's like, I'm the one living my life, not these people who have opinions on the choices that I make or the decisions or the way I choose to show up. Like they'll get over it. And if they don't,
Kimberly Tara (21:42.166)
Yes, they will.
Emily Gorrie (21:45.282)
you don't have to be around. Or you can choose to show up differently. Show up how it makes you feel good like I'm doing the same. And I want to talk a little bit about the concept of these hours in our day because I really truly resonated when you said as you have another kid, you start to become very acutely aware of the lesser hours you're going to have in the day. And I'm feeling that.
Kimberly Tara (21:47.006)
Yep. I love it.
Emily Gorrie (22:15.186)
right now. So I'm just about when we're recording this, this will be out after my son is born, but when we're recording this, I'm about four weeks away from my due date and I am acutely aware of just what my days are going to look like again and or what I think they're going to look like again. Yes, yes. And I'm like, okay, so those times are going to be
Kimberly Tara (22:31.582)
or what you think they're gonna look like. Cause now you have another, cause now it's not just about the baby, you also have another little one at home.
Emily Gorrie (22:44.394)
few and far between that I have that are alone, essentially. So it's how do I make the hours I do have work for me? So I want to talk a little bit about your experience as you grow your business, as you grew your family, how you navigated some of those hour changes, perceived hour changes, and what that really looks like. Because the amount of hours I have is dramatically different than the amount of hours you have, just with the amount of kids that we have.
Emily Gorrie (23:13.83)
if we take into consideration where our businesses are at, number of clients, things like that, how do we navigate and look at that maybe without a level of disappointment or sadness? Because it feels like a little bit I'm losing this.
Kimberly Tara (23:31.602)
Yes. Okay. Wow. I have so much to unpack here. I don't even know where to start. So first, I should say, so when we're recording this, I am 15 months out from having our fourth baby, our last. We're done. It's all I can handle in life. And mad props to moms who have more, because I'm just like, I'm tapped out.
Emily Gorrie (23:53.758)
I'm giving you mad props. I'm like, I'm sitting at two for now. I can't rule out three, but right now we just have to navigate two. So.
Kimberly Tara (23:58.762)
You know, we all do it. I never thought we'd have four. Yeah, you know what? Three really is three really is the hardest. You know how people say like, oh, the first one's the hardest one to two, two to three, two to three really is the hardest. Like that whole being outnumbered. It's very, very real. And four just four just was not as bad. And people are like, oh, so you should just have a fifth. I promise. I'm like, nope, we're not going to find out. We're just not going to find out. We're good.
Kimberly Tara (24:25.494)
So I really realized, so I will say that our first child was not really planned, right? Like obviously I started this business, didn't know, and didn't even find out I was pregnant until I was 10 weeks in. It was like the shortest pregnancy ever because he was also born at 36 weeks. So like I felt like barely pregnant compared to my second child who was born after a miscarriage. And so like I was, you know, we were hoping for another and so I knew it three weeks and I had to be induced at nine weeks, at 39 weeks.
Kimberly Tara (24:53.618)
and he was born in September and it was y'all, it was the longest, I was like, this is never going to end. Like this is, so it's just so funny, all the things. But I realized I was just, so with our fourth, we had talked about, we really went back and forth with having a fourth. That was like really the hardest decision to make. And I remember my husband told me, he's like, whatever you want. And I was like, having a baby is not a whatever you want.
Kimberly Tara (25:19.09)
response like you've got to be on board with this. I love that he's such a laid back personality because I'm not. I'm high strung. So it works for us. We're yin and yang. I was like, yeah, I need you to be on board with this. So we decided that we were going to have another baby the next, but I was like, not right now because I'm really feeling some momentum in my business and I'm so excited about things that are coming down the pipeline the next day. Took a pregnancy test. I was like, oh, okay. So here we are. Decision made. And thankfully like we were, you know, it was all good, but I was like, dang, I was really hitting that momentum.
Emily Gorrie (25:42.506)
Decision made, yeah. Yeah.
Kimberly Tara (25:48.818)
And so here we are, I guess, two years later now, and I'm starting to feel that momentum again. She's 15 months, we're sleeping full, she's been sleeping through the night for a while, but we are just really, I'm hitting that stride. I'm feeling good, we were kinda talking about this before we hit record, it takes your body a year to kind of like.
Kimberly Tara (26:08.714)
really recover for some, like I start feeling more normal around the, and more like myself, again, I don't want to use the word normal, but more like myself around the one year mark. You said for you, it was closer to the two year mark. So we're all different. But here at 15 months, I'm like, I'm hitting that stride again that I lost for the last two years. And like you mentioned, that's really hard because I am very personally motivated as well. I'm a highly motivated person. I love the work that I do. Like sometimes I have to be like, Kimberly, it's four 30. You said you were going to go downstairs at four 30.
Kimberly Tara (26:37.71)
turn the computer off. I really, really love what I do. And so sometimes it is hard to say like, I need to stop working because I need to go be mom, what a blessing it is to be mom. So after saying all of that, the next thing I want to add is it's a juggle and it's a circus around here. There really is no balance. Sometimes we've been in a season, I feel like, for the last, probably the last like...
Kimberly Tara (27:05.582)
three years since having the third baby, not so much the first two, but almost just trying to survive sometimes. There isn't as much structure to my workday as I would like. Sometimes I really just feel like I'm just making it happen and I don't even know how to explain. I feel like a lot of moms, I had a newsletter go out a while back that talked about mamas make miracles.
Kimberly Tara (27:32.466)
because a mom in my son's class had said that when we had their birthday party location canceled, it was like four days before the event, and we had to find a new one because my son wanted a swim party. This is his last birthday year. We don't do birthday parties starting at eight years old. She was like, we're going to help you figure this out. Mamas make miracles, and we do, whether that's in our personal lives, whether that's in our business. That's why I think moms make such incredible CEOs, because we have this unique set of skills that we use for motherhood that is...
Kimberly Tara (28:01.75)
so applicable to our businesses and running a business, growing a business is eerily similar. You can see a lot of similarities to birthing children, raising children, all the things. And so that's one thing that I want to say is like, it doesn't always have to look pretty. It's probably not going to look very pretty for you in the next 12 months. And that's a reality of life, right? So for me, a lot of it looks like getting up before the kids wake up.
Kimberly Tara (28:29.674)
So I'm in my office at 5 a.m., 5 30 a.m. getting my workday because I can get a solid hour of uninterrupted work in. No kids are interrupting me, no emails are interrupting me. And so I really think about like, what do I need to accomplish in that hour? Maybe it is writing my newsletter, maybe it's working on a tech strategy. Like what is that deep thought work that I wanna put an hour into? It also looks like staying up for an extra hour or two after they go to bed, right?
Kimberly Tara (28:57.974)
because I'm really realistically, especially we didn't have childcare for our daughter the last year that we had her. So if I was getting five to six working hours in each day, that was fantastic. And a lot of times it was interrupted. So it wasn't that deep thought work. And so I think that we just need to accept that time blocking and picking your top three priorities and all those kind of BS things, if you ask me.
Kimberly Tara (29:27.198)
aren't going to work for us as CEO moms, especially if you're a CEO mom with little ones at home, it's probably just not going to work. You know how we say like in the beginning, like you're just surviving with a newborn, like you're kind of just going to feel like you're surviving in your business too. And that's okay. Like it's know that it's not going to always be that way, right? Like you're not always going to be just like, you know, the newborn feedings during the night and the cluster feedings and all that. It's not going to last forever. This, this
Kimberly Tara (29:56.346)
schedule and this juggle that you feel isn't always going to be there in your business either. And so giving yourself grace to say, I'm doing what I need to do right now to get through it. I think for me, as long as my clients were served well, that was all that mattered and nothing else really mattered in my business. And that's why we weren't marketing and we weren't spending a lot of time putting SOPs in place. I was just getting it done, right? But now I've come up for air and I'm past that.
Kimberly Tara (30:24.778)
really, really crazy season and I can kind of see again and I am slowly starting to get a little bit of structure to my days, right? My daughter goes to preschool. I get three hours every morning where no one is in the house. No one. For seven years I've had somebody in that, like no one's in the house for three hours now. Sometimes I got to run to school to change clothes from a potty accident or somebody fell and you got to go check because they hit their head. So I'm not saying it's always perfect, but I am slowly getting some rhythm and some
Kimberly Tara (30:54.47)
some routine back. And so I think, no, that it's okay to have seasons where maybe it's not as cut and dry as everybody else on the on the internet streets makes it seem.
Emily Gorrie (31:05.034)
Yeah, I really, really appreciate that because I...
I think there's all these hopes and dreams that we have that we have to have like set working times and set family times. And there should be a way that we can find harmony between the two. And I love the analogy of you're with a newborn, right? I mean, I will actually be with a newborn. It's it won't be an analogy for me, but if we think about it, right? Our goal really for the first year of life is to help this child thrive, right? It'll be.
Emily Gorrie (31:36.91)
crazy overnights, maybe a couple times a night, feeding journeys, sleeping journeys, developmental journeys, you know, we're just trying to navigate the day to day with a newborn. And I think it's so refreshing to think about our businesses in that way of like, and obviously I think every situation is unique. So, you know, everyone should explore their own, you know, kind of environment for if this is feasible. But for me, it's like the success for this business in the next year.
Emily Gorrie (32:06.322)
alongside trying to help my newborn thrive is just to keep this business alive, right? It's like, what little things can I continue to do to keep the door open? Because for me, that's vital, right? That is an identity piece of me. It gives me joy. It gives me light. It allows me to find pieces of myself that I kind of get muddled in. Yeah, I get muddled in the middle of the night. Yeah.
Kimberly Tara (32:30.51)
can't find as a mom. Yeah. I mean, I think we have to admit that, right? That like, it's okay to say that I need more than just being a mom. I think there's this thing out there that like, it's supposed to be enough to be a mom. And look, if somebody made me choose and said, you can only pick to be a mom or to run this business, hands down, I would lay down and pick my kids and being a mom.
Kimberly Tara (32:55.042)
But I don't have to choose and I don't want to choose and I don't wanna keep apologizing for saying I like to work and that this is a part of me that I need to feel whole and to feel like a better mom and wife.
Emily Gorrie (33:07.542)
Yes, absolutely. And I think if we can embrace that piece and remove some of the shame and the guilt that comes along with not wanting to choose, right? And you're right, we don't have to choose. That's the blessing of the situation experience that we're building for ourselves. And everyone can build that for themselves. I'm a huge believer in that. And I think if we can use that reframe, I'm gonna use that reframe of like what little things, and if it's not every day, like take the pressure off.
Emily Gorrie (33:37.386)
For me, it's like there, at least through this maternity leave, there's like no active client work that's happening. So it's like, what little things can I do this week? Oh, I have maybe 40 minutes. Like maybe, you know, who knows what his sleep schedule is going to look like. You know, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, my parents will be staying with us for a couple of months. So like, you know, there'll be a huge support team. So being able to like find ways to still give myself that sense of identity.
Emily Gorrie (34:06.13)
is my success metric. It's not, did I sign a client? It's not, did I record a podcast? It's not, you know, did I do an hour of uninterrupted work? Like for me, that metric is going to have to be, did I find a semblance of me in what I chose to do in that time that I did have? And I think that's the huge piece. And it may just be reading a book or, you know, talking with a friend or, you know, whatever it is that works for us. If we can find those
Emily Gorrie (34:36.518)
revise success metrics and still give a semblance of us a chance to show up. That's when we're going to be the best person for our families, for our business, for those around us in our communities. So I am hopeful that will start to happen in some capacity for me in the next couple of months, but we just have to see. We have to see how it goes.
Kimberly Tara (34:59.686)
Yeah. And I love how you said that. And I think that the difference is because, you know, like I don't hide the fact that I worked during my last maternity leave, but here's the whole difference. So I only got one week maternity leave when my first child was born. He came four weeks early, so it was unexpected. I hadn't gotten, I had only been in business for what? Six months at that point and I hadn't gotten everything prepared. So I really, unfortunately did not have a choice. And so
Kimberly Tara (35:26.206)
my last maternity leave. Each one got a little bit longer because I had learned and I had put some things in place. And so I actually got nine weeks of maternity leave with our fourth child. And I worked hard to get to that point, right? To set that up and to prepare for it. And I wasn't client facing at all. No one was expecting anything from me. I was also lucky that it was during the summer, which is, you know, we kind of planned our children to not be born during the height of tax season because that would not be very good for me.
Kimberly Tara (35:56.578)
I kind of like you I chose to work because that felt good for me whether it was sitting on a one hour you know I've told the story I sat on a mastermind call for an hour Vivian was four days old she grew up on this mastermind throughout over 12 months right
it felt good for me. And I also got to sneak away from the other three crazy kids downstairs, right? Like I got to come sit in my office, just snuggling my little newborn baby talking and being Kimberly and engaging my mind even though I was physically resting and physically cuddling my newborn baby and that felt good for me. And that might not feel good for you. And if that doesn't feel good for you, do not do that. Right. But that felt good for me. But the difference Emily was that I didn't have to do any work. And that was such a different
Kimberly Tara (36:39.266)
feeling from the first go round where I had to get work done. So for that maternity leave, it was, I want to be on this mastermind call. I want to start thinking about the back end of my business. I want to refine our offers and I'm going to spend 60 minutes right now thinking about that. And so there's this difference. Really, I think where the difference comes in is the wanting and choosing to spend some time on your business versus feeling like you have to get these things done or you know, this, you're going to lose this client or you're not going to have any money coming in. When you come from that, that place of scarcity and, and have to and need, that's when it doesn't feel good. If you want to do it, then do it. And I promise you it's going to make you feel happy.
Emily Gorrie (37:23.37)
Yes, yes, I love that. And perhaps maybe we wrap it up there. And I think if we think about, and I pose this question to anyone and everyone listening, like how much of your day are you spending that makes you feel good? What are we choosing, whether it's in a newborn, a new motherhood phase, or you're in an infancy stage of your business, or you're in a...
Emily Gorrie (37:47.21)
you know, 10 whole years into your business or into your motherhood journey, like are you spending your days doing things that make you feel good? And are you getting the results that you're looking for? And I wonder if we start pondering those questions, if we can start finding the path that gets us all to where we ultimately want to be.
Kimberly Tara (38:06.552)
Yes, I love that so much. What a great way to end it
Emily Gorrie (38:11.682)
Perfect.
Kimberly Tara (38:13.151)
Awesome.