Find Your Rhythm – Reimagining Hustle with Megan Moran

My big takeaway:

Rhythm over routine

Megan Moran, former stylist and mom of 2, is the owner of The Mompreneur Guide. She helps mompreneurs navigate this crazy lifestyle that is with as much ease as possible, and helps them add hours back to their day through strategy, community and self. 

In this episode, Megan and I talk about mom guilt, white space in your calendar, and finding your rhythm. It’s an episode that inspired me again and again. 

Links from the show:

Show Notes:

[00:00:00] Roxanne: Podcasting from under my blankets. So it’s quiet enough to hear me. This is Reimagining Hustle, a podcast for entrepreneurial parents, creating a life or business and parenthood live peacefully in the same space. I’m your host, Roxanne Merket, a mom of two micro business coach and serial entrepreneur on a journey to prove that. It really is possible to do what you love. Without sacrificing all of your precious time. Let’s do this. 

Welcome back to Reimagining Hustle. I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today. I have Megan Moran. Megan, thanks so much for being with me today.

[00:00:43] Megan Moran: Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here.

[00:00:46] Roxanne: this is going to be so fun. So will you just tell us about you? I know that’s a really loaded question, but will you tell us about the work that you do and your journey to get there?

[00:00:55] Megan Moran: Yeah, for sure. Um, so like you mentioned, my name’s Megan Moran and I’m the owner of the mompreneur guide. And so what I do is I help mompreneurs navigate this crazy lifestyle that is with as much ease as possible, and I help them add hours back to their day through strategy, community and self. Um, and my story is kind of interesting.

So I actually was raised by a mompreneur, which I think our kids are going to be able to say that, and that’s not a big deal, but for our generation, that’s not super common.

[00:01:25] Roxanne: that’s really not. That’s really cool.

[00:01:26] Megan Moran: Yeah, so it’s cool. I was not only raised by a mompreneur, but I was also raised by a family of entrepreneurs. So my dad, my grandpa, my grandma, like my whole family basically ran their own businesses.

And so the beauty of this was that my parents could always be around. My mom was able to pick me up from school, but then yeah, we would have to go back to her office and do some work. And I would help in that. And you know, at times that might not seem like fun as a kid, but what I realized at that early age is that when you figure out what you love and you can turn that into a business.

You have freedom.. You have freedom, creativity creatively. You have it with control over your whole day. You have it with your time and it’s just this amazing experience. And so growing up. I really enjoyed that lifestyle. I really enjoyed having my parents around and being able to ask them questions while they were working and do doing all the things.

And so I knew then that I wanted to start to start my own business and set that stage and have that ready to go when I had a family. Um, so I actually started my business, not this one, a different one, actually. Um, when I was in high school. So all of my family was. You know, do what you love and go do it now and do something productive.

And so at the time people were saying, Hey, you’re really good at fashion. Like everybody was asking me questions. And so that started actually my business as a stylist.

[00:02:50] Roxanne: Oh wow.,

[00:02:51] Megan Moran: So I started it as a blog and then turned it into styling services. And I actually did that for 10 years. And.

[00:02:57] Roxanne: A whole decade!.

[00:02:59] Megan Moran: Yep. Yeah. And so the goal was like I said, I wanted to, to start this business and have it kind of running really well before my kids came around.

[00:03:08] Roxanne: Sure.

[00:03:09] Megan Moran: But then the reality of having kids, like that theory turned to reality and it was a whole different ball game. And so, um, actually this past summer, you know, COVID hit, um, the time right now COVID hit. And then that summer we moved and I had my one son and we were pregnant with our daughter and she was doing November.

[00:03:28] Roxanne: this is all during COVID all during the pandemic. Woo.

[00:03:32] Megan Moran: our kids, we have 2 under 2. We have, um, our son is at the time my daughter was born was 18 months. And so that was November, 2020. Um, and so all of this craziness is happening and my styling business was more in person and I knew I had wanted to go virtual for a long time, but it wasn’t just happening with until COVID.

And so anyways, long story short, I just was sitting there and realized. I think I meant to do more. I meant to do something different. You know, it was great to do styling when it was, but now I have kids and I want something more for them and I want to be more present for them. And. So I really started deep diving and I realized my story of being raised by a mompreneur.

And when people would ask, why did you create your business? It wasn’t the traditional well. I had a problem styling and I figured out an answer. It was, I did it because I wanted to be around for my kids. It didn’t really matter what the vehicle was. It was the structure that I cared about. And so that’s what I want to help mom mompreneurs with now is I’ve lived this lifestyle from the other side.

I’ve loved it so much in creating it for my own family. And so I want to help you do the same with as less as little stress mom, guilt and overwhelm as possible.

[00:04:39] Roxanne: Wow. That’s so incredible. And, and like you said, kind of a non-traditional story into entrepreneurship, which is so fun to, to see. I love that your mom was an entrepreneur that just. As soon as you said that, I was like, oh yes, yes. Here’s where it starts.

[00:04:57] Megan Moran: Yeah. Well, yeah, and I was so grateful for that too, because again, unlike most mompreneurs, like I already had a built-in system, a support system, they don’t quite get it. You know, my mom’s in a product based business and she doesn’t use all the tools that we use as online business owners. And so that’s different.

And same with my dad, he’s in a very, more traditional business. And, and so while I had them around to ask questions, And I, and I had that support that most people don’t, it’s still, you still need to find the community where they can fully get you. But I had that built in to start, which was another huge bonus.

[00:05:31] Roxanne: That’s awesome. That’s oh, that’s so cool. So how, as you’re working with these mompreneurs now, what does working with you look like? I mean, as a stylist, I feel like that’s kind of easy to understand, but like help us understand where you’re at now.

[00:05:44] What does working with you look like?

[00:05:44] Megan Moran: Yeah. So the way that my path of helping mompreneurs works is first I have a workshop and this is going to teach you how to reclaim your time and energy so that you can show up a hundred percent for yourself, your family and your clients. And what that really means is you’re going to come to the word.

And you’re going to learn what to keep cut and get rid of from your schedule. You’re going to learn how to prioritize like a pro. At the end of the day, you’re going to walk out with an action plan and a new flexible schedule that is gonna allow your days to get all the things done that you want to get done, stop doing all the things, but just what matters to you and for you to be able to, you know, know what you’re doing every day and having a calendar that has white space.

Which I think is really important. I’m all about having spacious days. Like I don’t try to, I love a to do lists, but I don’t try to jam pack my to-do list with a million things. So that’s really how I start with people is like, let’s get your schedule in order. Let’s save you some time, add some hours back to your day.

And then we’ll move on to the other two parts of what I love to do. So that’s our strategy. I then like to move into the community and the self care. So making sure you have me time and making sure you have accountability and support to do that. So like I had mentioned, I was raised with lots of entrepreneurs around me that I could bounce ideas off of, but I want to provide that community, um, for other mompreneurs.

And so I actually have a membership. That you can join. You can hop in there, you can, after you’ve gotten your schedule in order, you can learn how to save more time and optimize your time with different trainings from other experts, learning how to save time in your business, in your home. And with me-time. You’ll also be surrounded by a community of like-minded women.

So a lot of women are collaborating in this group, growing their businesses together, hopping in into our group and just saying, Hey, it’s mom guilt Monday. We all have mom guilt. Like let’s share it so that we all feel like it’s okay and everything’s going to be okay. And really just being supported. Um, and that’s, that’s my big goal in this life is to help.

The it’s such an amazing lifestyle to live. And so if we could do it and feel like we’re seen and heard and understood, it just makes such a difference.

[00:07:51] Roxanne: it makes all the difference. I want to ask you a question a little bit out of order for those who are familiar with the podcast. I know that I usually ask this question. But I want to ask you right now, this podcast is called Reimagining Hustle. And I named it that because when I first started my entrepreneur journey, I also was not a parent.

And then I had kids and everything changed. Right. And so I’ve been on this quest to re-imagine what hustle looks like. So how do you reimagine this idea that we’re taught of hustle, hustle, hustle? How do you reimagine it?

[00:08:19] Reimagined Hustle

[00:08:19] Megan Moran: Yeah, we, so, so thinking about what you’re saying and kind of that difference, like, if you think about what you did in your business and like how you would sit at your desk from. I would sit at my desk from like 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM before I had kids. What in the world was I doing? Like, I w like, I must have wasted so much time.

And so for me, it’s not about like the traditional sense of hustle of like, get a million things done. And like, your day is super packed for me. It’s like, high-impact and get in and get out and do a few things that are going to make a difference. For me it’s I don’t like to use the word balance because you know, a work-life balance doesn’t necessarily exist, which you are when you’re a parent.

Yeah. But it’s more of like this ebb and flow. And I like to talk about rhythms instead of routines. And so really it’s just like intuitively feeling through your day. For me, it’s making sure I have space to be present with my kids, which means I need to have space in my office where it’s like, this is my work time.

I have somebody to help me watch my kids so I can get in and out. I only do 15 hours, but I really high-impact with that. So I can still make the money that I want to make to contribute. Um, and so for me, it’s like getting out of the office, make that impact. Then be able to turn off work stuff, be present with my family and then also carve out some me time.

So it’s like the three pillars that for me is like, then you’re really a go-getter overachiever doing it all because you’ve managed to take care of yourself, take care of your family and then do something creatively to help other people too.

[00:09:49] Roxanne: Oh, that’s such a great way to re-imagine hustle. So thank you for letting me throw that one in at you. Now, I would love to know how you define success through all of this.

[00:09:59] How do you define success?

[00:09:59] Megan Moran: So this is going to be a working answer because I really, really have to work on, I am like the high-achiever. I was the, you know, straight a student, get all your homework done, that kind of thing. So for me, really, when I think deep down at the end of the day, success is being around for my kids and helping them.

Grow into these amazing people, but showing them what, you know, hard work looks like and giving them a good work ethic. Um, but always being present for them like that. That’s really, really, what’s important to me. The other overachiever side of me is like, I want to make, you know, make lots of money for our family and like just, I want to be the breadwinner with no real reason to be the breadwinner other than I’m like the go getter overachiever.

[00:10:44] Roxanne: Pride is solid reason.

[00:10:46] Megan Moran: My husband. Yeah.

[00:10:47] Roxanne: that.

[00:10:49] Megan Moran: And so that’s like, that’s the stuff where it can like get me off course sometimes because I want to be so overachiever. But at the end of the day, when they distill it all down, it’s like be present for my family and like, be this, uh, be an individual for myself as well.

So they can see that so that they know that they want to be individuals as well as supporting their families too, when they have them way down the line.

[00:11:10] Roxanne: That’s so great. That’s such a great definition of success. And I, I love asking this question because we all have such a different definition, right? So it’s so fun to, to hear your definition of, of what that looks like. So I want to ask this, you have two kids, right? Okay. If I was like, if I’ve taken my notes, right.

Two kids, if I didn’t miss anything, I would love to know how being a parent during this journey of yours, the parent, to these two babies, having these, the stylist business for a decade, and then shifting into this mompreneur lifestyle business, how has this changed you as an individually?

[00:11:46] How has being a parent changed YOU?

[00:11:46] Megan Moran: For sure. Well, the first thing that always comes to mind with like how I’ve changed since becoming a parent is like twofold. So first thing is patience. I have gotten not, I’m not saying I’m perfect at patience, but I have gotten so incredibly much better at patience than I ever was before my kids. Um, just because it’s like you learn, especially cause my kids are so young, you know, I’ve got an almost two year old and a five month old at this time.

And. And they’re so young and like they’re, they’re learning so much. And like when you read all the science, like their brains are developing. And so things could be really frustrating for them and their learning control and like that to me, like trying to meet them where they’re at has allowed me to just step back.

And learn that patience and like, learn that they’re learning so much. And so how can I help them? Um, so patience for sure, which then has translated, you know, into my business, into making sure that I’m like slowly but surely growing it, instead of always trying to be pedal to the metal. Um, so that, and then I really think that like white space and freedom and like doing things intuitively has more come from becoming a parent than.

I, I certainly think I was trying to do it before kids, but like, then you’re kind of forced to do it because your time is so much more limited because they need you so much. And so that’s another big thing for me is like, I know I want to be in and out of the office 15 hours or less if I can do that. Um, and then I just want to be beat there for my kids and present for my kids and having my phone away and that kind of a thing.

And so before I think I would have, let myself get distracted more, but now you have your little kids looking at you and wanting to color with you and do those things. And so it makes it easier in a sense.

[00:13:28] Roxanne: That makes so much sense. I want to ask you, you’ve mentioned this a handful of times is white space in your calendar. Tell us more about this. Like, what is this? I mean, cause I can visualize, right? Like this is not having stuff scheduled in, but like what does this actually mean? How do you describe this to your client?

[00:13:45] White Space in your calendar

[00:13:45] Megan Moran: Yeah. So I’d say it’s kind of twofold. The first thing is like making sure your days, aren’t back to back to back to back with things, because when you can have that flexibility to move things around, based on what’s going on with. It innately makes your day so much less stressful. So, you know, yes, I will have certain things on my calendar, like our conversation, for example, but then I’m not going to have something before and after it, like today, things actually scheduled might be this.

And one other thing, like a coffee chat. Um, and then the rest of my time in my office, I can plug and play things. I know I need to get done. And so that’s the other side of what I love to talk about is rhythms. So I find routines to be very, um, strict and confining. That’s just me personally. Um, and so I like rhythms better.

And so I have like buckets in work and mom life. And then me time where it’s like things I know I want to get done or things, and me-time example that I know fill up my cup. And then I have lists under that. So for work, for example, I might know every day I need to do something for client acquisition, something for admin, something to fill up my cup creatively.

And then I have a list of things I can plug and play from based on either urgency or whatever I’m feeling that day. And so those to me are like how you can work white space into your life is like making sure you have space to do what works for you in a day. Um, and making sure that it’s not jam packed with a million things to do.

[00:15:10] Roxanne: That makes so much sense. Do you actually write out what’s in these buckets?

[00:15:14] Megan Moran: I do. So actually I’m when I’m working with my clients, they get a list of all the things that I have in each of those categories, their rhythm buckets that they can pick from. So it makes it really easy when we’re going through the workshop. That’s part of the process and the worksheets that they do is figuring out, okay, what are the things I need to fill in, in my list?

And then that way they can plug and play throughout their days without, especially with me time, it’s hard.

[00:15:37] Roxanne: So hard. So what do you do for me time? I’m can I ask?

[00:15:40] What do you do for me-time?

[00:15:40] Megan Moran: Oh yeah. Yeah. So I have like seven buckets to pull from from me time, but some of my favorite things to do, um, which took me some time, because I feel like as a mom, when you finally get that time, you’re like, what do I do?

What music do I listen to? Besides in my case, like Daniel tiger and Winnie the Pooh, like, I don’t even know.

[00:16:00] Roxanne: Caspar Babypants at this house. Yeah, I got you.

[00:16:03] Megan Moran: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s like, what, what do I do? Um, so for me, my favorite me-time things are, I love to take a bath and have a glass of wine and read a magazine. Like I never do that.

And, and I’ve been mailed, um, I don’t even know how I got them, but like parents magazine and better homes and gardens. And so I like stack them up and save them. Um, and, and my husband and I actually put on our calendar. We each Wednesday night is my me night. And Thursday night is his, and then we have our lazy morning.

So Saturday morning is my lazy morning, some days his, um, so those are like, I have that stacked up and ready to go for my me time. Um, I also like to read, that’s been something that like I always wanted to do, but never actually got to it and it really fills up my cup. So I try to do that. Um, I’m also a TV lover, so I’ll, I love to put on a show and just kind of relax in bed and do that.

Um, and then an interesting thing I found when I looked into my personality profile more. With community is something that really fills my cup back up. So I’ll put a lot of like coffee chats on my calendar, or I’ll go to dinner with a friend during one of my me time nights, or like brunch. Um, so sometimes it’s like really, really like me time, typical self care.

And sometimes it’s something that’s a little bit more, um, community or exercise based.

[00:17:20] Roxanne: That’s awesome. Thank you for those suggestions too. I love this idea of scheduling like me-time nights and lazy mornings. That’s brilliant.

[00:17:28] Megan Moran: Yeah, it’s key. That’s that’s what we talk about in that workshop too, is like, you have to put stuff on the calendar because one, it’s a communication thing too. Like my husband, it’s a shared calendar and like, my husband knows that this is my me time night. And like, he has the monitor and takes care of the kids then.

And like, if they wake up, he’s got figured out. Like those mornings, he knows that’s his time. And so that’s something we certainly, our kids are young now. We want to continue on that, that they know that there’s like certain times that we do things and it’s, we’re all aware. It’s a communication thing.

[00:17:59] Roxanne: that’s brilliant. That’s brilliant. Do you ever experience guilt around parenting entrepreneurship, taking those mean nights, those mean mornings? Do you ever experience guilt around it?

[00:18:07] Mom Guilt

[00:18:07] Megan Moran: Oh, my gosh, mom, guilt mom, guilt happens all the time. Um, there are some times that I’ll find guilt because I always, I do a massage once a month. I get a massage and I’ll end up scheduling that during my work time, because it’s just easier with our schedules. And so there’s some times where I’ll have to like sneak out because our two year old will get sad.

If he sees me leave and it’s like, I’m leaving my desk when I probably should be doing more work to further my business and help more people. And then I’m sneaking out and not even getting to give my son a kiss goodbye. And. So, yeah, mom, guilt totally comes all the time, but, but at the end of the day, I come back and I am a better mom for him because I’ve taken that time to like fix myself.

Like I, I need, I need, I need the help to relax more. So.

[00:18:52] Roxanne: Yeah, I appreciate you speaking so openly about it to, you know, to say yes, like you’ve got all these systems in place, all of these things that you’re doing, you’re teaching all these things and yet you’re still experiencing that guilt even though, you know, right. Even though consciously, you’re like, no, I know this makes me a better mom.

I know this makes me a better entrepreneur. It’s that mom guilt. That is so deep.

[00:19:11] Megan Moran: Yeah. Oh for sure. Well, yeah, and even with my schedules and systems, too, that I teach people to put in place. Like I don’t do it perfectly all the time. And like, I love to say I’d rather be a contributor than an expert in an area because we’re always learning. If you listen to Denise,

[00:19:25] Roxanne: I was going to say that’s Denise DT, right? They’re all over it. Yeah.

[00:19:28] Megan Moran: Yeah.

She says that. And like, when I first read that I had always been told, like, be an expert, be an expert. And it was like a weight lifted off of me, like, oh, that is, that is exactly what I want to do. So yeah, I’m not perfect at it. And I can help people. And, and that’s the beauty of having like a system you can go back to again and again, paired with a community that can support you and remind you to go back to things again.

And again. But I try not to beat myself up. I just noticed when I feel friction and I feel overwhelmed, I stop and notice. Do I have enough white space or did I start to overpack my calendar again? Did I do something to fill my cup back up or am I doing too much and trying to take over too much? And so I have to go back and, and stillness I found is a big key for me is like, go back reassess things can be simple.

I just think oftentimes we make them too hard.

[00:20:20] Roxanne: Oh, my

[00:20:20] Megan Moran: So how can I simplify again? Go back in again then again?

[00:20:25] Roxanne: over and over and over

[00:20:26] Megan Moran: Yes. It’s just a big circle.

[00:20:28] Roxanne: my word. It really is. It’s definitely the next question. That was an ask. And I, I actually feel like you just answered this for us is what do you wish people knew and that’s. Is there anything else you would add to that? What do you wish people knew about being a parent and an entrepreneur at the same time?

[00:20:40] What do you wish people knew?

[00:20:40] Megan Moran: for sure. The one thing I always like to remind people about is to stop. And remember sometimes, and this plays into that, like getting overwhelmed and realizing that you have too much going on, is that you, we often forget that you’re in control. Like when you made the decision to be a mompreneur or a parent, who’s also an entrepreneur, you made that decision to have that freedom.

Like my parents did. And so sometimes we get caught up in like, well, I have to do this system just like this, because that’s what they say. And it brings success, but it might not exactly work for you. Or like, well, this client wants to take this call then, and I don’t normally work that time, but that’s their only time and you get to set the rules. And so a lot of times when there’s friction or, you know, you’re struggling with something, if you take a step back and be like, I get to be in charge. I’m the CEO of my company, my life, like everything. Yes. You have to, you know, manage your kids and sometimes things with your clients. But for the most part, you get to set the expectation and say like, this is how it goes.

This is what works for me. You know, if that doesn’t work for you, like, let me, let me help you somewhere else. Um, so I always like to remind people that, cause I have to catch myself sometimes.

[00:21:51] Roxanne: Brilliant. I’m going to piggyback off of that because I actually was coaching somebody else earlier in the week on the same principle of if you’re having a hard time setting boundaries in your business, don’t call them boundaries, call it policy, right. I’m sorry, my policy is this right. And that’s exactly what you’ve just described.

Like, oh, you want to take a call? I’m sorry. My policy is that I don’t take calls outside of work hours, so we’ll need to find a time in the schedule that works and just to say it as policy, cause for some reason, People don’t fight against policy. They’ll fight against boundaries. They will push those boundaries, but people will not fight against policy.

So that’s, I just want to just add that to what you’re saying, because it’s such an important thing to remember that you are in charge. So thank you for that reminder

[00:22:28] Megan Moran: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think the biggest thing that, that too is like priorities. When, you know, when you’re super, super, super clear on like what your priorities are and kind of that idea of like what you stand for and what you don’t like. I know it’s important for me to be impactful, but be around for my kids.

And so like, this is the time I’m in my office and when I’m not like I’ll respond to you later, it makes it a lot easier. I think to them. Go out and share those policies or those boundaries with people. Cause you’re like, well, this like, this is it. This is, this is how it works for me.

[00:22:57] Roxanne: Yes. Yes. That’s a great reminder, Megan, before I let you go, will you please give us a pep talk for other mompreneurs or parents on this journey of entrepreneurship?

[00:23:07] Pep Talk

[00:23:07] Megan Moran: Yeah, for sure. I’d say the biggest thing is like, what you’re doing is amazing and what you’re doing is important. And so while it can be hard and the lifestyle of a mompreneur is just madness, typically know that it’s all for a reason. Go back to the beginning. Remind yourself, what are your priorities?

Remind yourself that you did this for freedom. Creativity creativity, um, with your finances, with control of your life, with your schedule. And so just remember that you did this for a reason, it’s going to have a huge impact on your kids. I can be a Testament to that, and you’re doing great things. So keep doing it.

[00:23:45] Roxanne: Thank you for the pep-talk Megan, we need more of you. Tell us where we can find you online.

[00:23:49] Megan Moran: For sure you can find me at themompreneurguide.com. There there’s a free quiz you could take to figure out what’s the one thing holding you back from this time. Freedom I’m talking about. You can also find my workshop and my membership there, and lots of blog resources and things like that. To get you dip your toes into what I’m talking.

[00:24:06] Roxanne: Awesome. And we’ll make sure that we include the link to that and everything else in the show notes. So make sure to check that out. Megan. Thank you so much for being with us today. This has been a treat for me, so thank you.

[00:24:17] Megan Moran: Thank you. I appreciate it. 

[00:24:18] Roxanne: Thanks for listening to Reimagining Hustle with Roxanne Merket. If you like the show and want more, check out reimagininghustle.com and please leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back next week with another episode. See you soon.