S3, Ep. 122- Type-A Entrepreneur Meets Soft Motherhood with Natalie Bacon

Leah Gervais: Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show, Leah here, and today we have a guest, Miss Natalie Bacon. Hi Natalie.

Natalie Bacon: Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

Leah: Thank you for being here. I think you guys are really in for a treat for hearing from Natalie. She’s a friend of mine. She’s a client of mine, and she is the host of Mom On Purpose, the podcast. She also has a membership and she is pregnant with her third in three years, which is maybe the biggest accomplishment of them all . Um, and we are here to talk about the intersection of entrepreneurship and motherhood. So this should be really, really exciting. We’re very grateful that you’re joining us, Natalie.

Natalie Bacon: Thanks so much for having me. Um, as you said, it’s hard to pinpoint, which is kind of the most, um, exciting slash uh, worthy of, of celebrating as an accomplishment. I did not anticipate the three and three years, but here we are and I’m so grateful for it.

Leah: Well, let’s start there. So I, I know quite a bit about you, and we don’t have to go too much into your background, but you’re a very accomplished career woman. You’re an attorney by trade. You also had a career in finance. Uh, we don’t have to go too deeply in there, but I’d love to briefly hear about your road to motherhood.

Natalie Bacon: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, as you kind of just mentioned, I was an attorney for a handful of years, and then I was a CFP certified financial planner at a wealth management firm. And growing up I was really encouraged to go to school and then go to more school. Most of the people in my family and extended family, um, are good at science. And so they did more of the medicine medical route. 

So a lot of physicians in my family, um, the only attorney, but it was kind of set out, um, that mindset from a very young age. You don’t just go to college, you go to more colleges. And, uh, that was something I was up for. Like, I thought that sounded great and I wanted to do that and become a lawyer, but at the same time, I always knew that I wanted to be a mom.

It wasn’t something that I kinda figured out later in life. Um, you know, I coached some clients like that, that’s all fine. But my journey was I’m the oldest of three and, uh, just from a young age, I’ve just been that typical stereotypical, um, firstborn daughter. Like I follow all of those kinds of, um, stereotypes. And I got married when I was like 34, and I am 38 now, and we are pregnant with our third. And I have, uh, always, like I said, wanted to be a mom, but also just never knew what our pregnancy journey would be like. Sure. And since we knew that we both wanted kids, we started right away given, um, that we both wanted kids and my age of course.

And, um, my first two boys are just about 19 months apart. And my third boy is due at the end of November around Thanksgiving here in the United States.

And my second and third will be give or take, 14 to 15 months apart. Um, and so we definitely knew we wanted, um, this many kids and we just didn’t take for granted that you just never know what that pregnancy journey is gonna be like. Um, and so we just kind of let it happen. And it did happen. 

So we are, I just, you know, it’s one of those things where I knew I’d be a mom. I, or at least I, I wanted to manifest that and create that and, and really was committed to that. And, um, it was in my late thirties and it happened later than I thought, but also more quickly it was just, just like amazing, you know? Um, so yeah, I’ll have my third by the end of the year.

Leah: I thank you for sharing that story transparently. I think that, um, I can somewhat relate in terms of, well, let me put it this way. I think it’s so important to share journeys of conceiving effortlessly, not to obviously minimize how very real and challenging it can be for some couples and parents, and women and men. Um, but sometimes I feel like you lose sight of the fact that it can, you can try to invite it in to be easy. 

And I think it’s just important to share both of the stories because sometimes I feel like you only hear that it’s gonna be challenging and that it’s gonna be traumatic and everyone’s journey is so different. So I love that you shared your so, you know, so openly and that it, that it was such an, uh, I don’t know if effortless is the word, you could describe it how you want, but that it worked the way it felt like it was supposed to for you.

Natalie Bacon: Yeah, absolutely. And I do think that just like for some added contrast, right? I got married much later than I thought. I thought I would get married maybe in my twenties and start my family by the third. You know, we all sort of have this made up fairy tale of how it’s gonna be. And that took so much longer than me. 

And I remember I had a coach at the time who told me, like, I really felt like, oh my gosh, I gotta, I gotta meet someone now. There was some urgency and some scarcity. She’s like, no, if it’s not this guy, it’ll be the next guy. Like, you never have to give up trying. And I realized that she was right. Yeah. Like, as long as I wanted to be with someone and wanted to get married and create a family, I could do that. It might look different, right. 

And all of those things. But knowing that really motivated me, motivated me to keep going. And then like, you know, fortunately for us, yes, um, the conception part conceiving did happen, uh, fairly easily and quickly and I’m so appreciative of that. And now it’s, it’s three boys in, in three years, which is, which is really fun and awesome.

Leah: So special. I love, I didn’t know that we were both the oldest of three by the way. That explains why we’re so similar.

Natalie Bacon: Didn’t know that either until this moment. That’s awesome.

Leah: Yes, definitely the oldest of three child characteristics as well, but I love that we’re both boy moms. That’s been so fun to connect over. Um, okay. So shifting sideways a little bit, you shared a little bit about your professional career, but you also have been an entrepreneur for quite some time at this point. 

So I’d love to hear between, you know, your ongoing career in higher education and your professional career as an attorney and then also entrepreneurship. Was there anything about your career that ever made you feel concerned about motherhood or skeptical or like, is this gonna happen for me? Or do you feel like in the back of your mind during all of that you were like, I’m prepared to sacrifice what I need when the time comes because motherhood is my north star?

Natalie Bacon: It wasn’t so much like that. Like I was thinking as an attorney, oh my gosh, I’m gonna be a mom so I can’t be an attorney. But it was a little, it wasn’t so far away from that, right? It just, it wasn’t that far on if you think of it like a spectrum, right? Mm-Hmm. Um, instead it was more like I was looking at the, I, so first of all, I worked at a private law firm, um, a couple of them and had the experience where I was looking at people much senior to me who were partners and managing partners and having the biggest influence and making the biggest impact. 

And what I realized very quickly was that unlike some other professions where the more advanced you are or the longer you’ve been there, then you get to kind of have a more flexible schedule or work a little bit less. Law is not like that, at least my experience of it, particularly in private firms and the partners, the managing partners, they’re working as much as relatively as the associates as I was, right? They’re there on the weekends too, with me.

 And so I just realized that, you know, it wasn’t so much that I couldn’t be a mom if I had this life. It was just I saw my future as an attorney in law and thought that is not how I want to live my life ultimately. Right.

Leah: Period.

Natalie Bacon: Like the things I wanna do, my motherhood aside. Right, right, right, right, right. And I did know, like I wanted a family and to be a mom. So of course that’s factoring into it. But I also just, you know, wanted to not have this mindset of you don’t take vacations, like you don’t, you know, not answer emails or whatever. 

And I’m so grateful for having been an attorney because I do think that so many of the skills that cross over into entrepreneurship that, um, just have been really helpful for me as, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, and as a mom, , like my capacity, I think to, to do hard things and work hard, whether that’s in my business or whether that’s as a mom, I think was greatly expanded, um, by my early career, those kind of first, I don’t know, eight to 10 years.

Leah: That is, it’s such a great point. I’m glad you brought up because I, I, I think you know this about my story, but I was on track to go to law school. I had been accepted into law school. I was a paralegal. My husband is also an attorney, and he has a practice. He’s no longer working for himself now, but he was practicing law when we met. And, um, I, so I, I have worked with a good, a good handful of attorneys over the year at in entrepreneurship, and I always kind of poke fun at them because I do find attorneys are very risk averse, which is not always a great trait in entrepreneurship because you kind of have to do these reckless things some of the time or seemingly reckless things. 

But if you’re an attorney, you’re very trained to look for the worst case scenario a lot of the time, I guess, depending on the kind of law you practice. Um, but now knowing and seeing the inside of your business, I can vouch for how crystal clear you are at everything. And I do think it’s because you’re an attorney, that’s like, nothing falls through the cracks for you.

Natalie Bacon: It’s so funny because I like it’s, it’s all relative, right? Like relative to other attorneys, I don’t think I’m even that. Um, I dunno what you wanna call that, like detail oriented or Right. Like there would be things

Leah: Yeah, that’s totally true.

Natalie Bacon: Miss in like briefs and people who are just like, they nerd out on that and that’s their secret sauce. Right. But I think compared to regular entrepreneurs and just people in the world, I probably, um, very much so fall into the attorney camp. I’m just thinking of a quick, unrelated example where I found some stuff in our closing documents in our house. And it was funny because I was like, I’m not like reading this, you know, line by line, but yet I still found some of the errors there. 

And I do think it’s from being an attorney and, um, kind of back to your point, I do, and for anyone listening, if, if you haven’t left your full-time job yet, I don’t know. Um, I did identify as much more risk averse than I am now. I, but I still identify as kind of risk averse and I think that helped me do my business on the side a lot for a lot longer.

Natalie Bacon: And I actually, looking back, think that was so brilliant, because I didn’t put unnecessary pressure and kinda that scarcity mindset, like this has to work right now. I continued practicing law and then as A-C-F-P-I worked, um, while I built up my business to, um, close to six figures like before quitting. And, you know, I had student loan debt at the time, like a lot of it, six figures, $200, $6,000. And so I was using a lot of that money to pay it off. 

And still, even with, you know, a few thousand dollars coming in every month, I didn’t quit until I really was confident, like this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my foreseeable future. So I think that that risk aversion helped in the career transition.

Leah: Yeah. Well I think that also really speaks to your work ethic. The fact that you were able to get your business to the point that it was around a nine to five job is no small feat, you know?

Natalie Bacon: Yeah. I would get up at 4:00 AM excited,

Leah: I remember those days too. I’d wake up like it was Christmas morning every day and be like, let’s go. It’s wild now. That sounds so tiring.

Natalie Bacon: Oh my gosh. Now if I, yeah, not even, yeah, it’s so different. It’s like the middle of the night now if I, I’m like, I can’t believe I did that.

Leah: I know it is like the middle of the night, but I, I, you know, I’m glad you brought that up because I think that in, uh, the entrepreneurship world, we almost praise like doing things, I don’t wanna say recklessly, but like overly emphasizing the power of manifesting something that I talk about. I mean, I, you know, I don’t talk as much about when you should quit your nine to five job, but I talk a lot about like, plan conservatively for your numbers and don’t hire too many teams, because especially working with a moms team is like more children, honestly. 

Not that they’re not supportive and everything, but it’s more people you have to manage. And I think a lot of people talk differently. They’re like, grow as fast as you can get, you know, hire as much as you can. And sometimes there is a ton in place for just doing things a little bit more on the risk averse side because it’s just less stressful it doesn’t, it doesn’t that you like, don’t believe in yourself or whatever, you know?

Natalie Bacon: A hundred percent. I learned that I should have found you sooner. I learned that kind of the hard way with growing the team too fast. And now I scaled back the team and it’s easier, it’s just easier, right? It’s like having more children and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m all for that. Right? But it’s just a different skill set in your business, a different way of leading. And right now, I’m sure like you, it’s just doing business in a way where I can over deliver to my clients, help them get results and love it and be the primary caretaker in my family and have a third baby in three years and sort of live out that dream. 

It’s, it’s like, um, I’m so grateful to my past self and I kind of call it like front-loading where it’s like I front loaded my business to get it to where it is now, right? Like I got up at 4:00 AM and did all those things, and I kind of feel like that with kids right now. I like front loading, like doing the hard work and then it pays off a little bit, right? It’s not that I don’t work in my business, I do, but I work fewer hours than I used to for sure.

Leah: Right. No, I think it’s a, it’s a very good perspective and that’s a good way to think about it with having kids so close together. It’s, um, a long-term investment . That’s right. That’s right. It will pay off. That’s right. That’s right. Let’s talk a little bit about, um, work and motherhood. So you, yeah, you’re the primary caregiver for your two children and will be for your third, and you have a multiple six figure business, which is outstanding. And I know that the majority of people that follow me have an interest in marrying the two somehow. Um, walk me through a typical day.

Natalie Bacon: Yeah, so it varies so much and I am so grateful for that. Like, but I will say, it’s not like I wake up and think, what am I gonna do today?, I am, uh, that that type A in me is, is still there and I plan, um, I wanna say like religiously is the first word that comes to mind. And so I love G Calendar and I use lots of time management tools. And so every day is a little bit different and I’ll go through a typical day, but, um, I rely so heavily on my calendar. 

So I work with my husband and we will plan when we’re gonna do family things and we’ll plan when I can do my coaching calls. And that kind of happens on a monthly basis, I would say. Or, you know, maybe we’ll check in for the week as well.

And we have shared calendars, which is really helpful, um, for me. And so while every day is different in terms of when I’m working and when I have my calls, it’s planned differently, if that makes sense. So, and, and so I love that because then I can look at my calendar and know, okay, this is what’s happening. And so I, my main program, as you mentioned, is a membership mom on purpose membership, and I have clients, um, since it’s all online, pretty much all around the world.

 And so I am in Chicago central time and my calls that I host coaching calls are, um, on Zoom. And so I tend to have them in the middle of the day, and those are typically once a week. And so I might have one of them, yeah, just once a week, sometimes twice a week, right? Depending, but so doable.

Yeah. So doable. And so a lot of times that’s, I don’t know, between 11 and four or something be, and I, I bring up the client locations because it kind of works well. I have some clients in London and France who, you know, like it on the earlier side. And then I have the west coasters who want it a little bit later. 

And so I try to vary, like if there are four to six calls a month, let’s say, I’ll vary those, um, in different time slots to give different options to the members. And so I kind of bring that back to my own routine. I’ll just look at the upcoming week or the upcoming 24 hours and see, okay, is there a call? And that’s sort of like, or a meeting or something my husband has, or an appointment, like a doctor’s appointment with the boys.

Like anything that’s like a hard appointment, this podcast that we’re doing together. Mm-Hmm. . And so I know, okay, we’re gonna plan our rest of our day around that. And honestly, the night before, I’m checking the weather because I am a huge proponent of, and I know you are too, getting outside. Yes. And, um, just also leaving the house. So like you, um, we are not living in the south. I’m in the north. And so, uh, factoring in weather of course, but we get outside a ton. We go to our local children’s museum and just do activities. 

So I try to do that in the morning. Mm-Hmm.  And, um, and then if there’s any sort of like appointment like this right in the afternoon and then doing lunch and coming back and doing an activity where we might be inside, might be in our backyard, might be, you know, down the street at the park, but we’re typically not driving anywhere.

And then coming back and doing, um, dinner and our nighttime routine. We also have two dogs. And we love, like, it’s crazy. I love it though. It’s like, I remember thinking I want, you know, the babies and the two dogs and I wasn’t even a dog person. So it’s just so fun to see that. And I’m obsessed with them now. Um, we do family walks, um, at least one a day in a kind of, usually after dinner. And it’s so fun too, ’cause I just love mindset, like, kinda like, you like mindset too. And so it’s fun to talk with my oldest who a lot of times now just doesn’t wanna go on the walk. And, um, I’m like, I get it, but we do this for our doggies and it’s okay if you don’t wanna go.

And just kind of helping him learn to not get something he wants. It’s just like, it’s so fun for me. ’cause I like to practice these tools and see the impact of them and just Sure. I’ve always wanted this, um, sense of family that I created and it’s so fun to be living in it. And, um, I will say the final thing I’ll say is a lot of it is kind of like boring, but also so inspiring for me because it’s living out my purpose. Hmm. Like, I am obsessed with purpose because I think it helps you create priorities so much more easily. Mm-Hmm.

So for me right now, my purpose is growing my family and being the best mom I can be. And, and that includes working on my business and includes all the other things. And so, because something like, I’ll use travel right now because that’s not a top priority for us with or the ages of our kids. It’s easier for me to make decisions. I almost use that as a decision filter. Like do I travel from time to time? Yes.

 But it’s not a huge part of the decisions that I’m making because it’s just not a top priority right now. And so, um, while our day-to-day is kind of, um, simple in some ways it’s so aligned with who I wanna be. And I just realized as I’m talking about this, like, I didn’t even mention work because it’s so funny a lot.

 I mean, the appointments and the coaching calls. Yes. But I also, I work really well in the cracks. I just do it because of my time management system. Like I’ll put different things that I need to do at the top. So, um, when I just had one nap time, I would get like, you know, three hours a day of work done. That was, that was a really, really awesome time.

Leah: And with two, I’m about to kiss that goodbye. I know. I was.

Natalie Bacon: Like, I don’t wanna say anything that’s going to shed a negative light on this story. 

Uh, because I, I will say that I do think every family’s transition to a different number of kids is so different. Like, I have a good friend who also is an online creator and has a very successful business. Her transition from zero to one is way harder than one to two. Right. And mine was the opposite. My transition from one to two was way harder. Um, and it, that’s okay. It’s hard. Doesn’t mean bad. It just was hard. Right? Yeah.

Leah: You’re having a third, so it wasn’t so bad. Didn’t wanna do it again.

Natalie Bacon: My expectations are so low now. It’s great. I’m just like, it’s gonna be terrible and hard and it’s gonna be

Leah: Horrific. Yeah, that’s right. Let’s go. Right. 

Natalie Bacon: But it’s so funny because when you know your purpose, it’s not like I don’t question the decision because of that. I’m just like, oh, my capacity to do hard things is expanding. And so, um, I’ll also work on some off hours and sometimes that’s a blessing when my kids go to bed at seven or seven 30 other times it’s the weekend if I wanna record. And honestly, because I plan like, so well, I can change it in a way that’s future focused, but not super rigid. Like, and I, I’m not like floundering the day off. Does that make sense?

Leah:

Yeah. No, I think that this is such a good point and I’d love to actually have you get more detailed on it because Yeah. As you know, I also work, I love how you say it through the cracks a ton. Like if we have an occasional nap time that, you know, ends up working out, or I’ve, I’ve relied on nap times a lot over the last year. It’s gotten harder near the end of my pregnancy because now I have to nap also. But, um, even if I’m at the park with my son and he’s so preoccupied with the water fountain, I’ll pull out my phone and, you know, get a few things done or whatever. 

So I think that the key to that is knowing what you need to work on whenever you have a moment. So you’re not having to make the decision of what is the most important thing right now. How do you from a business perspective stay organized in that way so that you’re not constantly being like, what, what do I do to, you know, what’s gonna move the needle today?

Natalie Bacon: Yeah. That is actually huge what you just said. That’s exactly right. So prior to having kids, I still used my calendar. I just used it differently and everything was kind of in color coded time blocks, and that worked really well. I could be pretty rigid in a way that got me the results that I want. So obviously now, uh, there has to be way more flexibility with kids. 

And so now what, I still have the appointments in those time blocks, but for everything else where it’s more of like a priority list for the day maybe, and I have like three to five things that are kind of top of mind Mm-Hmm. They are pretty small and broken down. Like maybe I wanna do an outline for a podcast. Right. And, and I will just, so the way G calendar works, I’ll view it in a week view and then at the top I’ll make it like an all day event for three things that I wanna just work on.

Sometimes it’s okay, this actually just needs to be my focus for the week, and I’ll just span it the week and say, you know, what that is. And even if it’s something I don’t think I’m gonna forget, I still put it there because it’s so helpful. You know, kids pulling at you, you’re trying to get out the door, just all the things like, or if you have a moment at the park, it’s like, okay, what is it that I’m gonna work on? Do I want to create more Instagram content right now? That’s something that I have set up on my phone just as we’ve been talking because I want to come up with more outlines, more easily versus waiting for this magical perfect time block for me to have the content ideas and record. I’m like, no, I need to break it down like everything else. 

So I’ll use my notes app, I use my calendar and I just put things in order of priority that I know I wanna be working on so that there is no, um, room for making that decision at the moment. I just look and see what’s next and do that. And I think that’s like the secret to that is the secret working in the cracks.

Leah:

Mm-Hmm. I think that is 100% the secret. Especially because as a mom, decision fatigue, you’re already so vulnerable to it. And as a business owner, you’re already so vulnerable to it that if you have a crack and you have to make a decision, the likelihood that you’re making the decision to move things forward is very, very low. And you’re gonna exhaust yourself and then you’re gonna spend more time making decisions that really don’t matter as much as the ones that

Natalie Bacon: Really That’s right. Like busying. That’s right. Exactly.

Leah: Exactly. Exactly. So good. Um, what have you found natural about motherhood and what have you found the most hard?

Natalie Bacon: Oh, that’s such a good question. Okay. So

Leah: Maybe surprisingly natural, like you thought.

Natalie Bacon: Yeah, this is gonna be surprising. I think like the parenting part of it, you know, that it sounds so, um, I don’t know. ’cause I know this is, I coach on it so much. I know it’s so hard for so many people. I don’t know if it’s because I love studying it. Like I love reading books. I don’t do it from a place of like, fear that I’m doing something wrong. I just genuinely am so curious about human behavior and child development. 

And, um, first born of three I am my youngest sibling, my sister is seven years younger, so there was a larger gap then I babysat a ton. And so I just, the parenting part of it, like, and by lemme get more specific with parenting, the holding boundaries and validating feelings. Um, it comes pretty easily to me. And, um, like tantrums don’t bother me. I can, I mean, I’m not like, I hope there’s a tantrum today, right? Like I’m, I’m a human right. 

But Right. But it doesn’t bother me, um, as much as I think it does for a lot of people. And so that has just been like such a treat and a gift I guess to say like that.

Leah:

Like do you feel like you were surprised considering how intense of a person you’ve been in the past, you just didn’t think you’d be so patient? Naturally.

Natalie Bacon: Considering how much coaching I do on it and how many people struggle with it.

Leah: I see. I see. Just seeing yourself, like seeing it in other people and being like, wow, this is not really an issue for me. Amazing. Yeah.

Natalie Bacon: Just even on social media and just, and, and seeing like, oh, this, you know, it’s not that I haven’t yelled before, it’s not that I don’t struggle, but it’s in terms of things that, that I would identify as like hard versus easy or surprisingly easier, um, that has come to me. And it could be as a part of just doing personal development work already on myself, that that’s a huge part of it.

So much of it is managing your own emotions to stay calm and to, to confidently hold the boundary without worrying about what your kid’s gonna think about you. And then not making it mean you’re a bad mom. And so all of that inner work that I like to do already maybe is just, you know, is sort of paying dividends to, um, to how that works, um, in, in parenthood. And so that’s been a little bit more on the easier side. The second part was what’s been harder kind of unexpectedly.

Leah: Yeah. Maybe, yeah, maybe surprisingly hard.

Natalie Bacon: Sleep. Sleep, I’m always, I’m always coaching myself on sleep. I, you just don’t realize how perpetually tired you can be. Mm-Hmm. And I just didn’t think that would be such a big part of it for so long. Like the sleep deprivation and, um, and it, and they’re feeding and like all the sort of intricacies and details that go with that. Um, way harder than I thought.

 And again, like I didn’t really hear anything about that. I didn’t really talk to a lot of people. You know, people say like, yeah, you, you lose sleep, but I didn’t know how much sleep and then I, like the feeding, um, just, it, it goes fine, but I just didn’t know how much went into it. And so for me, um, I know a lot of people love the newborn phase and I, I don’t have any shame or embarrassment saying that is not my favorite phase.

It is. That to me is like one of the hardest, um, phases. And I, prior to having kids and, and still now, like I love babies just in general, I just didn’t know how much it really requires to take care of babies. And so what’s been really interesting and cool to see is like, actually as my own kids get older, I just, I have this thought, it just keeps getting better. 

And for me, I’ve found that to be true. Like, I like the older, um, you know, turning one, turning two, turning three. Like I like that because it’s less, I would say physically demanding. For me at least that’s been my experience.

Leah: I relate to both of those. Interestingly, maybe we just have very similar personalities, but I, as an outsider, I mean, you know, so much more about coaching than like life coaching. But I feel like maybe part of the reason is that the tantrums don’t, they don’t, they’re not fun, but they don’t trigger what I call the domino of doubt, which I deal with, which I work with my clients on in business a lot. Like where they’ll have a bad day or a sale not go through, or a launch that doesn’t go as well as planned. 

And that leads down this domino route of like, should I even be doing this? Should I go? But you know, is this working? Am I gonna fail? Should I go like that? It can go so far instead of just being like, this is just a bad day.

Right? Or like, this launch just didn’t work out. And I feel the same thing about tantrums. It’s like, no, it’s not fun and I don’t like seeing him upset, but it doesn’t send me into this tailspin of like, can I do this? Am I in over my head? I don’t even know if I’m fit to be a mom or like, I need to fix my whole parenting approach. Like it’s just a tantrum. I’m really able to isolate it in that way, in a way that also surprised me because I know for myself, I am not a patient person. 

And I made myself very wrong about that for many years until I became an entrepreneur and I was like, oh, actually not being patient has really served me in that way. And so it’s been cool to see this patience come out with my son that I never have had for anyone else before. That’s

Natalie Bacon: Right.

Leah: But, and on the flip side, I totally agree. Sleep has been by far really the only thing that has sent me in that domino of doubt since becoming a mom. It will, it will really, really trigger me. And, um, I think what you said about the newborn phase is so empowering for moms to just, you cannot love a phase and still love your child and it’s okay. You know, it doesn’t have to be like, you don’t have to make yourself wrong for it. 

And before I became a mom, I didn’t really, it’s not like I, I don’t wanna say I didn’t like toddlers, but like, I just was not, I was not the girl growing up that was like, my goal in life is to be a mom. And so when my son was a newborn and we were not sleeping, I was really struggling with that.

I remember part of the thing that it would trigger is this shame of like, I’m not appreciating what is probably gonna be my favorite part. And I’ve had the exact same experience as you, it just has gotten so much, it’s just getting better.

And it’s been so beautiful to see because I think the first year, maybe even the first 18 months, I would almost mourn him growing up because I think, oh, he’s not gonna be a baby anymore. And now I’m so happy to see what is next because it’s just gotten better every time. It has been a beautiful, um, uh, spin on what is still very hard and frankly, what I’m definitely the most nervous about, which is losing sleep .

Natalie Bacon: That’s right. I’m right there with you.

Leah: So. We’ll see how it goes together. Alright, well, with that, I wanna respect your very precious time. Do you, because we have this in common, what is, what are you going into sleep deprivation? What is it a mantra or a practice or some sort of tool that you wanna leave us with?

Natalie Bacon: Yeah, one mantra for sleep specifically that I love is I will sleep again. It really helps me remember that the feeling that I’m experiencing, the sleep deprivation, the negativity, anything that I’m going through that day is temporary and this will pass. And then when I align it to my purpose, oh, this is really worth it for me. It’s like front loading, even if it’s a whole year right. It’s still worth it for me because I want this third baby. 

And I’ll piggyback off of that with another thought that really helps me. And this could apply not just to sleep deprivation or kids, but everything. This is harder than I thought because it’s one thing to say like, this is hard, but a lot of times there’s like some subtext there, like, this is hard and it shouldn’t be. Or this is hard and I can’t do it. 

Or This is hard and you’re weak, right? And I’m weak, or I should have more help. Or like, what’s the subtext there? Right. But when I say like, oh, it’s almost like, um, oh, I just didn’t know it was gonna be this hard, this is harder than I thought. It’s, um, it just feels very validating to me and I find that to be really helpful.

Leah: I love how you connect everything back to like, is this within my purpose and how that can align you, because I feel like maybe part of the reason tantrums don’t trigger you so much or send you down that doubt is because you can just bounce right off of that and be like, yeah, but this is what I’m here to do. I have a toddler, we’re going to have tantrums. And it just,

Natalie Bacon: That’s the exact mindset.

Leah: Didn’t really need to go that far after that. Right, right.

Natalie Bacon: A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, their brain isn’t fully developed, of course. They’re gonna be completely emotionally dysregulated about, you know, the wrong color cup or whatever.

Leah: The purple crayon. That’s right.

Right. Totally, totally. Well, do you have any final words of wisdom for any mom who is wanting to grow her business or any business owner who’s wanting to step into motherhood?

Natalie Bacon: Yeah, I would just say that you don’t have to figure it all out ahead of time. I remember being pregnant with my first and thinking, oh my gosh, a year from now, like on whatever day it was, I’m not gonna be doing work as I’m doing it right now. And like, there’s gonna be a baby right here or like, you know, whatever month old. 

And I couldn’t figure out what that would look like. And um, and now looking back, I’m so glad that that really didn’t stop me. Or again, kinda that domino effect. It didn’t, you know, I didn’t spin out or thought loop. And I think just knowing that you can handle any challenge that is right in front of you and that it’s your brain’s job to try to prepare for future challenges, but sometimes you just have to wait until you get there.

And you’ll figure it out. Mm-Hmm. So I just remind myself if it’s not a challenge for today, it’s, you know, like, how are we gonna juggle getting outta the house with a third? I’m like, I don’t know, but I know that I have tools, I know that I am supported and I know everything is figure-out-able. Right? Like I will figure it out. 

And so I kind of, um, remind myself of that. Then that gives me that sense of self-confidence and self-trust without needing to know all of the answers right now.

Leah: Aw. Well thank you. Thanks for sharing your stories so vulnerably with us and just having watched you over the years, I’m so impressed with how relentlessly you have continued to chase what you want. I think you’re doing so much good for moms. And where can people find out more about you and follow you?

Natalie Bacon: Yeah, so the Mom on Purpose with Natalie Bacon podcast. And then everything else is just, you can go to mom on purpose.com.

Leah: Amazing. Well, thank you so much. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Go say hi to Natalie and we’ll talk to you soon. Bye everyone.

Natalie Bacon: Thank you.

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