How To Be Human, by Sarah K Peck: ☼ Advice Columns

📫 "How Do I Juggle Motherhood & Work?"

Sarah K Peck — Wed, 31 May 2023 14:58:48 GMT

This month, Fishbowl, a community of consultants and advisors, asked me to join them for a Mother’s Day Special to talk about juggling career and motherhood. In this episode, I am joined by Emma Sedlak, a senior strategic communications advisor and board member, who interviewed me about what it looks like to take on work and motherhood.

The question I hear all the time from parents is this: “How do I do it all? How do I juggle it? How do I balance it?” This question implies that you're trying to squeeze everything you can out of all the stuff in front of you.

But the harder question is, what is uniquely you? And what don't you give a crap about? When you can define your unique weirdness in work and in life and in parenting, then you can cut out a whole lot more of the stuff you just don’t care about. Caring about everything and trying to be everywhere at once won’t work. Doing it all is not a strategy. Hacks won’t make your life better. Focusing clearly on the few things that really matter to you—that’s the key.

In this conversation, we discuss:

What I’ve learned from having 30+ jobs in my career so far.
How motherhood and work still don’t fit together, and the absurd realities of working parents.
Why “hustle culture” is actually a very old idea that doesn’t fit modern life.
What most companies get wrong about “strategy” and “productivity”
The way that you can apply strategic thinking to your life as a parent.
How to use guiding principles to make your parenting life easier.

Want to submit a question for a future episode?

Got a question you want me to take a look at, or just want to know my opinion on something? Go to startupparent.com/question and submit a question so I can answer it on an upcoming episode. If you’ve got a situation in your life or business that you’d like some attention and feedback on, send me a detailed note using this form and tell me about your current situation. I pick challenges each month to unpack, discuss, and lend my brain to. I sift through the questions and answer as many as I can—and if I can’t answer them, I’ll share them with people I trust to get wise feedback and council.

“Ask Sarah” is a private monthly podcast for you to ask questions about business, life, parenting, or anything you’re curious about. This podcast is one of our perks for paid subscribers. When you upgrade your subscription to go paid, you’ll get access to the previous conversations on parenting sleep, how discipline and willpower change as a parent, how I keep up with habit building when exhausted, a detailed case study on content marketing as a solo entrepreneur, and all future episodes. Plus, you’ll get a private RSS feed, access to private viewings of some of my paid talks, exclusive chat forums and our book club conversations.

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ASK SARAH: IS IT POSSIBLE TO JUGGLE MOTHERHOOD & A FULL-TIME CAREER?

📫 Running Online Group Programs: A Detailed Look at Pricing, Strategy, and Design, Part 2

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:37:45 GMT

When I was in the throes of building the Wise Women’s Council—part leadership incubator, part mastermind, part community—Tara McMullin invited me onto her podcast to talk at length about building mastermind programs.

For an hour and a half, we dig into how we build them, sell them, run them, and what’s worked. We talk specifically about the numbers: how many people we have in the programs, how the pricing breaks down for each tier, and what the value add is.

This episode is a very detailed, behind-the-scenes look at both of our online programs and how we've designed our mastermind communities.

Every month I record a private episode of the podcast that’s exclusively for paid subscribers. “Ask Sarah” is a podcast for you to ask me questions about business, life, parenting, or anything you’re curious about. To get access to all the monthly episodes, bonus episodes, and other perks, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber.

Got a question you want me to take a look at, or just want to know my opinion on something? Become a paid subscriber to get access to the podcast and ask me any questions you’d like.

📫 Ask Sarah: Running Online Group Programs & Masterminds, Part 1

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 15:29:40 GMT

Plus, you’ll get a private RSS feed, access to private viewings of some of my paid talks, exclusive chat forums and our book club conversations. This is only just getting started, so if you’re thinking about going paid, make sure you lock it in during our January Sale which ends in nine days.

Designing online group programs: an inside look at The Wise Women’s Council’s design, structure, and methods

The specific question I got for this Ask Sarah podcast episode was regarding how I’ve designed and built the Wise Women’s Council. This is the sixth cohort running, and I’ve been running masterminds, retreats, and group programs for over ten years now. Running the Wise Women’s Council generates over $200k in annual revenue, and has become an incredible community and alumni network. A few years ago, I had someone ask me all about the program design and structure. Here’s the question I got that prompted me to record this episode:

“How did you design The Wise Women’s Council and why did you design it the way you did? How did you decide on the model for your membership? Have you been in other programs like this structured in the same way?”

The Founder Summit, part of the Calm Company Fund. Photography by Michael Freas.

In this episode of Ask Sarah—our bonus podcast for folks who upgrade to become paid subscribers—I’ll go over how I planned out the group’s structure, created goals, figured out what works for me (and what I hope works for you) and how to get better at creating other mastermind groups over time. Creating a group program is not easy. In this episode, I’ll share:

What it takes to make a group program fit your community specifically
The biggest mistakes people make when designing a program and why it makes your audience feel overwhelmed and drop out (This is not the goal!)
What most people don’t remember to consider in both the design of the program as well as the sales page—and how to make your program stand out.
Plus, you’ll get access to the key takeaways summary, quote highlights, and a written transcript of the conversation.

ASK SARAH EPISODE #04: BEHIND THE SCENES — DESIGNING OUTSTANDING ONLINE GROUP PROGRAMS

This episode was recorded in 2019. While I no longer use Teachable as the platform for my community today, the design thinking concepts, structure, and design principles are very relevant in today’s online-focused world.

📫 Massive Chaos Energy, Surprise Tears, and Holiday Feels (Bonus Episode)

Sarah K Peck — Sun, 18 Dec 2022 18:00:54 GMT

The end of year time and holiday season can create a lot of extra stress. Not only do the days and months get shorter, but the energy and intensity around “wrapping everything up” before the holidays can feel mighty.

December doesn’t have four weeks in it, it has two (if we’re lucky). School is out for two weeks, the kids are most likely snotty, and we’re trying to wade through airports and holiday parties to get to the dessert.

At the same time, employees and bosses (even internally, if it’s us!) can spring a massive amount of work on people by trying to finish projects, do year-end reports, finalize budgeting or taxes, reply to everyone, and… send holiday cards?

Surprise Bonus Episode!

In this episode, I want to chat about stress responses and feelings. Whenever we go through periods of stress—whether it’s acute or prolonged—our body will have distinct physiological responses, and our emotional response will likely be heightened. Stress hormones create a physiological cascade in the body, and our emotions and feelings can dance around in response to heightened stress.

For me, I have to work backwards from identifying both my behaviors and my emotions (am I running around trying to do ten things at once? Do I have a massive amount of extra chaos energy? Do I feel lethargic and sad? Am I craving sugar and crackers?). Once I start to name these specific feelings and behaviors, I can start to understand what’s going on beneath it.

For example, when I have a surge of extra energy, I’ll sometimes begin massively cleaning the house. This means my anxiety has increased, and having a tidy home can soothe me. (It’s totally fine to want to clean to feel better!) What I do alongside this, however, is ask, “What might I be feeling extra anxiety about?” This question lets me get closer to the root.

Naming and then exploring what greater context is creating these emotional reactions. I can start to hone in on my stress level and see what’s going on, and find ways to address it (and cope with it).

As we approach the holidays, I thought I’d drop this episode, because I know have more people around can add to our stress levels, and ALL the feelings can come out with (and at) our various family members.

Got a question you want me to take a look at, or just want to know my opinion on something? Become a paid subscriber to get access to the podcast and ask me any questions you’d like.

IN THIS EPISODE:

📫 Ask Sarah: Navigating Content Marketing Overwhelm as a Solo Business Owner

Sarah K Peck — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:33:50 GMT

If you’re a solo business owner or a bootstrapper trying to get your next idea off the ground, you know how hard marketing can be.

Marketing is so broad and so challenging, and in today’s world, you can throw the kitchen sink at trying to get customers, and still feel like nothing is working.

In this episode of Ask Sarah—our bonus podcast for folks who upgrade to become paid subscribers—we’re going to dig deep into a topic I love, and that is content marketing.

Today’s question comes from Meghan, a small business owner, who is creating a strategic content marketing plan and is looking for help to attract more high-quality leads to her service offerings.

She helps business owners plan for maternity leave and has a deep dive planner and a coaching offering, but is overwhelmed by the amount of work and time content marketing will take, and isn't sure which avenue to start with first (LinkedIn? Pinterest boards? Blogging? Instagram? Stories?).
Our analysis will look at what she should focus on when using content marketing as a lead generation tool for your business, and I’ll break down exactly how I think about starting with content marketing, and why we need to go back up the chain of marketing questions to get a clear answer.

“Ask Sarah” is a private monthly podcast for you to ask questions about business, life, parenting, or anything you’re curious about. This podcast is available fotor paid subscribers. Upgrade your subscription to get access to all episodes, plus more bonus content exclusively for paid subscribers.

ASK SARAH EPISODE #03

A deep dive case study into Meghan's business as she figures out what how to tackle content marketing.

If you’d like to listen to how I simplified this content marketing challenge, and where I’d start (and why content marketing is so overwhelming), take a listen to this episode.

📫 Ask Sarah: Discipline & Willpower

Sarah K Peck — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 18:11:18 GMT

Here’s a question about habits and health—and willpower—that I got from someone in the Wise Women’s Council, our annual mastermind:

“I have a limited amount of discipline and willpower and I’m spending it all on my family and business. How do I keep some for myself in order to make healthier choices and feel better physically? (No time to exercise because if I’m not working I should be with the kids, and by the time I’m with the kids I’m exhausted).”

ASK SARAH EPISODE #02

How on earth do you sustain healthy habits after you become a parent? For those of you that want to continue to do things that you used to do—whether that’s exercise, eating in a way that fulfills you, spending time recovering, or getting enough sleep—this episode is all about how much our lives can be upended when we have children.

This is not an episode about willpower or discipline. That science is faulty at best, and if you’re a parent, your willpower bucket is used up by the fifth diaper change of the morning or the two hundred cheerios you’re pulling out of the carpet from your school kid’s lackadaisical style.

Every month I record a private episode of the podcast that’s exclusively for paid subscribers. “Ask Sarah” is a podcast for you to ask me questions about business, life, parenting, or anything you’re curious about. To get access to all the monthly episodes, plus our community threads and advice columns, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber.

Got a question you want me to take a look at, or just want to know my opinion on something? Become a paid subscriber to get access to the podcast and ask me any questions you’d like.

📫 Ask Sarah: Getting The 1-Year Old and 3-Year Old to Sleep

Sarah K Peck — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:59:17 GMT

What did I do to get my kids to sleep? Sleep is so hard, and the fighting about sleep approaches just makes it harder. That’s why I don’t judge what method you use—sleep training is beautiful for some people, and co-sleeping is perfect for other people, and everyone parents in the way that fits them best. Here’s what we did in our family, and why I chose the sleep method I did.
Taking time to rest and recharge when you’re in the early years. You asked me how I take care of myself, and what I do to rest and recharge. I cover the specific restorative practices I use in my life, and share a glimpse inside my partnership and how my partner and I try to make time for each other with two kids—not an easy feat.
Staying organized across projects, life, and business. You asked me about my organization systems, if there’s a project management tool I love, and what system(s) I use to stay organized. I give a high-level picture of my systems, including the places I’m still learning how to be more organized.

“Ask Sarah” is a private monthly podcast for you to ask questions about business, life, parenting, or anything you’re curious about. This podcast is available in full for paid subscribers and for paid members of my leadership program. Upgrade your subscription to get access to all episodes of Ask Sarah, edited transcripts of every episode, as well more bonus content exclusively for paid subscribers.

If you’d like to listen to how I approached sleep with two littles, and why I think that the fight around sleep training is problematic, take a listen to this episode.