Welcome back to another episode of The Stephanie Kase Podcast. Today, I’m super excited to be chatting with Elizabeth McCravy, the host of the Breakthrough Brand podcast. I’ve been a guest on her podcast a few times, so it’s fun to be able to interview her today! She is also the creator of the EM Template Shop, which is where we got our website template. Elizabeth is an incredible business owner and a mom, so we’re talking about running a successful business with almost no child care. We hope that this is an honest and real conversation about what it can be like and hopefully you’ll find something to help you!
Tell us more about yourself!
I’m Elizabeth – a Christian, a wife of seven years to my high school sweetheart and mom to a 17-month-old in Nashville, TN. I’m a website designer and sell website templates in my shop. Then, I also teach other designers how to build a successful design business in my course – Booked Out Designer and I’m a podcaster. I’ve had my podcast for four years and my business is about to celebrate 7 years.
What does work/your business look like right now?
I feel like you and I have similar business models at this point – in the sense that I have a product based business now. I still occasionally do some client work, like branding or design clients but I haven’t really done that since my son, Colin, was born. I’ve tried to really scale that back. So, at this point, I’m basically selling my templates and course, as well as creating podcast content, new templates, and things for my students. It’s been a good model to be able to be at home with my son and working.
Last year, I took a long maternity leave and really only did like, maybe 5 interviews. I scaled back on anything that required me to be in a certain place at a certain time. It was just what I needed in that season with my son and it really worked well. For the whole first year, it was not taking meetings, not taking podcast interviews, not in my inbox. I was posting less and recording less – it was really beautiful.
What does your business look like with your baby? How has it changed?
I love talking about this. Women don’t hear enough of what it actually looks like to work at home with a child. For me, Colin’s first 14 months were at home with me and my husband. We did a lot of tag teaming and had a family schedule of who was doing what when. We made it work between the two of us. I’m really grateful we were able to do that because I know it’s not possible for everyone. My husband is in graduate school for counseling and will actually graduate soon, so he has real clients now with a very set schedule. We also had my mother-in-law who lives 2 hours away come to help us, which was such a blessing.
It was definitely hard at times. I was used to doing my work whenever I wanted to. I don’t think I even really realized how much I was actually working. We did try to enroll him in a Mother’s Day out program but the separation anxiety was too much. Eventually, that fizzled out and we began to look at places for childcare.
When did you decide to transition your son to daycare?
Well, he’s in daycare MWF from about 830-3 and those are now my main work days. We always knew we didn’t want him to go full-time. Before Colin even arrived, I had a lot of conversations with my husband about our expectations for his arrival – who would do what? We realized we both wanted to care for him while also having flexible jobs to make money, too. I always knew I didn’t want to be a full-time working mom or full-time stay-at-home mom. I think, as women, it is possible to find that happy middle.
What’s one final piece of advice you have for our listeners about working from home with kids?
Be so gracious on yourself. Whatever expectations you had going into motherhood might be so different than what you’re experiencing. And that’s okay. Our expectations are often different. And every day is so different. Just remember that everything is a season – your kids are constantly changing, there’s so much to figure out in that first year of motherhood. Do whatever you want and whatever you need for your situation. But, just remember to be gracious to yourself!
Elizabeth and I have some other great conversations on the episode about running a successful business with almost no child care – so make sure to tune in! We spent time breaking down more about our days and what things have looked like since having babies. It’s a great conversation so we hope you’ll listen to the whole thing!
Elizabeth’s Resources
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