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3 Easy Steps to Getting Our Work Done When Our Kids Are Home for the Summer by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

Whether you are starting your business from scratch, working from home as a freelancer, or have a traditional, full-time job outside the home, there is one thing we all have in common – when the kids are home from school for the summer, we suddenly have much more on our plate to manage.

I have a dear friend who is an Executive Director of Meetings and Events for a national organization and she is one of the hardest working people I know. Not one of the hardest working moms – one of the hardest working people. We often comment to each other that we don’t know how the other one does it. And we always say it with love and affection.

Because while I can’t imagine juggling all we have to juggle as working moms from an office every day, she can’t imagine having to shift her focus between work and kids all day, every day, like I do since I work from home. But when it comes to summer, we are both in the same boat. We suddenly have twice as many people and seemingly an exponential number of activities to manage every day — while still getting our jobs done. And we each have our own way of doing it.

I will preface this by saying this much: We are both at the age where our children are old enough to stay home alone and believe me – that makes a world of difference. Gone are the days of finding back-up daycare or a shared nanny for the summer. Our oldest children are teenagers now (thank goodness and Lord help me), so even if our younger kids aren’t quite old enough to stay home for longer stretches of time, we do have coverage with built-in babysitters.

That said, we both commented last night that we should count the ridiculous number of texts that have already happened between all four parents in our families about who is taking which kids where for early morning swim practice, late morning swim practice, baseball, dance, and evening swim practice. It’s mind-boggling, the amount of coordination that has to happen for two neighboring families with a total of four children while there is an overlap in spring activities ending and summer activities beginning. And that doesn’t even include the social activities that happen in between sports.

Now, I’ve seen the cutesy Pinterest lists for parents to use this summer, in hopes that their kids will get things accomplished before complaining that they are bored or begging to be taken somewhere to meet up with friends. And they are, indeed, super cute. But I am no Pinterest mom.

And I think we can make it even easier.

Here are my three easy steps to getting your work done while your kids are home for the summer:

1. Make a list

By list, I mean one for your kids — not for you. And I don’t mean one of those beautiful, Pinterest-worthy ones that include reading an entire summer reading book for school, cleaning the house, and mowing a neighbor’s lawn every day before they get to do anything else. I mean a nice, simple summer To Do List that any parent can stand behind, even though all children in the house will still grumble and moan about it.

Perhaps one day, you include making their bed, reading a chapter of a book, and taking the dog for a walk. But the next day, it’s empty the dishwasher, do 15 minutes on a math app, and take a shower. (My kids are on summer swim team, so showers become less than a daily habit — and I’m okay with that.)

The secret is to keep it simple. Don’t overwhelm them – and don’t overwhelm yourself with all there is to do every day. Just pick a few things. Also, save the really horrible chores – scooping dog poop and cleaning toilets — for when they are acting especially whiny and bored.

2. Declare this their Summer of Self-Sufficiency!

Again, because my children are 10 and 15, this might work better for me than families with younger children, but maybe not! I swear on my life that if my 10-year-old son can watch a YouTube video while playing a video game and talking to his friends who are also playing the same video game, then he can most certainly make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Even if he “can’t spread the peanut butter as smoothly” as I do. Welcome to the real world, son. Some people are going to spread the peanut butter more smoothly than others. And that’s okay! It’s time to do it yourself. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even come to the realization that crusts don’t taste that bad after all! Or at least not bad enough to have to cut them off every time.

3. If you work from home, get a door with a lock on it.

This was my situation a few summers ago. I had a desk and a workspace that I loved, but it was in an open area of the house. I loved it when everyone else was at school and work all day during the week. But when they all came home – it didn’t work at all.

So I bought an emergency desk. Assembled it myself while they were all gone one evening, and put it in the bay window of my bedroom, overlooking the mountains.

My bedroom with a door.

And a lock.

A lock that works like a charm.

 

Photo credit: energepic.com from Pexels

Career Coaching Ourselves When It’s Time to Consider Plan B – Or C and D by @ChristyCareer

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Career Coaching Ourselves When It’s Time to Consider Plan B – Or C and D

by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

What do you do when Plan A isn’t working out the way you expected it to – or even hoped it would? Go on to Plan B, right? But what if Plan B isn’t working out the way you’d hoped either?

What if all those side hustles you’ve been gathering while you work on the big dream aren’t quite bringing in the income you need to pay the bills? But at this point in your life, you’ve figured out what you love doing – and can’t imagine doing anything else?

A year ago, I accepted my dream job. I left behind a company and people that I loved – and a job I didn’t love – to take the big leap and work as an editor for one of my favorite online publications. And the position itself was, indeed, my dream job – editing articles about mindful, spiritual, environmental, and social justice topics. But for a few different reasons, the position as a whole just wasn’t a good fit.

The biggest reason was my need for flexibility. My kids go to two different schools – neither of which have buses – so I spend an hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon shuttling kids to school. And even more flexibility would be needed in the summers. There was just no way around that simple fact. No matter how much I wanted to make it work, it was clear that it wasn’t a good fit for either of us.

So I moved on after parting ways amicably, and after a few months, landed an editing role at another online publication that I absolutely love. It is everything I could hope for in the work I get to do, the amazing boss I have, and what they’re bringing to the world. But the publication is only a few years old, so it’s a very part-time gig.

And then I found another very part-time editing gig for another publication whose mission makes me so proud.

And then I took on another very part-time editing gig for a book publishing company.

A friend of mine would joke with me, “Another new job?! How many jobs do you have?!” And I would laugh and tell her, “As many as it takes to do what I love and pay the bills.” But unfortunately, all of these very part-time side hustles add up to a lot of work – that isn’t paying the bills.

I am constantly telling myself that all this hard work is going to pay off someday soon, but suffice it to say that Plan B isn’t quite working out the way I had hoped. I love the work I get to do, and if I could get paid a living wage for it, it would be perfect. But it just isn’t possible with these particular side hustles. The companies can’t sustain that yet.

So I put on my career coaching hat and started talking to myself about what it is I need right now, what is really just a want at this point in my career, and what I absolutely don’t want. This is what I came up with:

Needs:

  • Remote, flexible work
  • A living wage
  • Something that doesn’t suck the soul out of me

Wants:

  • Working with words – editing or content management, preferably
  • A company I can feel proud of and that is doing its part to improve the world
  • Something in my wheelhouse of articles and online magazines

Don’t want:

  • Corporate America – no technical document editing or gray cubicles. It’s not me, and honestly, it never was.
  • The hustle – I manifested this one right into my life talking about side hustles, but I’ve decided I don’t have the heart for the hustle. I love connecting with new writers and learning if we can benefit from each other. Would publishing on our sites help them grow their following? Would the readers of the sites I edit for want to read their articles? I love sharing their mindful messages with the world. But I don’t like the hustle of trying to find something to publish just to fill a time slot that day. It would be nice simplify and just do work I love.
  • Working for (almost) free – I’ve already got enough of that with all those side hustles.

Perhaps I should have expected this last one in the writing and editing world. Like most other arts, it’s just not valued as much as other professions might be. And I get it. The work we do is not always directly tied to revenue, like a sales position. And I absolutely knew what I signed up for when I went to work for these amazing publications.

But things have changed in my world, and I need to start bringing in a regular, steady income that I can count on every month.

As a career coach, I would recommend that someone in my position who needs to bring in a real salary look for something that is at least somewhat related to my love of words – maybe working in a library or bookstore. Or maybe I could put my marketing, HR, or career coaching experience to use at a local college…a work setting I’ve always thought might suit me. It’s time to broaden my search and start to consider more options than I might have before.

But I will continue to search for that unicorn of a role that allows me to get paid to do the work I love to do – with all the flexibility I need to make it work with my family life.

And whether I find that unicorn role or end up shelving books in a library, I plan on maintaining my writing and editing gigs on the side. Because those who do it, do it for the love of the craft. For the love of words. And connecting with others through those words.

And you know what? That’s exactly why I do it, too.

What about you? Have you found balance in doing the work that you love to do with bringing in a salary that will put food on your table and a roof over your head? What kinds of compromises have you had to make in order to be happy at work and still make money? Share with me in your comments below!

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

The Downside of Figuring out What You Love to Do for Work by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

A young friend of mine just contacted me to let me know that he received two jobs offers before he has even graduated from college — and he picked the one that is what he really wants to do for work instead of the one that everyone thinks he’d be great at.

I am so, so happy for him for working as hard as he has to get to this point – and for going with his heart in making the decision. And I also want to warn him – there is a downside to doing what you love for work.

I have always been that person who wondered why anyone would ever do anything that they didn’t love to do. I figured out as the editor-in-chief of my high school yearbook that I loved putting words and pictures together on a page, so I was one of the lucky ones who knew what they wanted to major in (advertising and communications) before they even got to college.

The hardest decision was whether to focus more on the writing side of things or graphic design. But that was only because of the pressure I got from my graphic design professors. Words have always been my first love, so it was a decision that was already made in my heart.

After a year in an advertising agency in Boston, I realized that it wasn’t at all the glamorous profession it seemed to be – and I didn’t love writing copy for financial institutions. BOR-ING. So I bought a one-way ticket to Colorado and decided to write the Great American Novel. Halfway through writing the book, I met a boy and got a job at a dude ranch. So long, Great American Novel.

I fell back into marketing when I left the dude ranch, and spent many years writing and managing in-house campaigns for international standards, dental products, and health information software before I realized that I was right back where I started. Bored.

A successful career transition into human resources kept me happy for a few years, as I helped employees manage work-life balance, find flexible jobs — and I became a career coach on the side. I had seen so many employees waiting for HR to create their career path for them, when they weren’t even happy doing what they were doing, and it drove me crazy, trying to understand it. But seeing the underbelly of corporate America – as you unfortunately get to see in HR — did nothing to help me feel like I fit in the corporate world.

So again, I came back to my first love of words.

But here’s the thing. The downside of having spent the past few years getting to write and edit articles for a living is that I can no longer pretend anything else will do.

I can no longer settle for anything less.

I absolutely love having the privilege of editing other people’s precious words. Every day, when I open the articles, it’s like Christmas. I get so excited about what’s going to be inside the little presents I receive as submissions.

It’s not perfect. Some days, it’s like unwrapping a present and finding socks. I recently had a day when I had a few submissions that were from writers whose first language is something other than English, and I spent a lot more time editing than I normally do. Sometimes, I feel victorious at the end, like I’ve helped massage the words just enough to let their message shine through without losing their voice.

Other times, one whole paragraph makes perfect sense, but the next one is like reading Shel Silverstein’s book, “Jabberwocky”. A struggle from beginning to end, with a whole lot of nothing making sense in the middle.

But most times, it truly is a gift. I will open up a mindful article full of beautiful language and heartfelt thoughts – and it seems like the exact message that I personally needed to hear that day. And I am filled with gratitude to get to love on these words and change them only when I have to in order to make the message as clear as possible for the reader.

There is so much variety in the articles I get to write and edit every day, and I’ve learned that variety is very important for me to have on a daily basis. But then there is a certain amount of routine, detail-oriented formatting that goes along with editing. Making sure I craft just the right title, pick the appropriate tags for the post, and then choose a photo to go with the article that will make people want to click on it even more. It’s a great balance of creativity and routine and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

The downside of knowing all this about myself is that now I know better.

I know what it’s like to do a job I love – and now I refuse to settle for anything less.

When I am looking for more gigs, and a dear friend suggests going back to work in corporate America, I can feel my skin crawl. Or someone else suggests editing technical documents and I can’t help but make a face. And I know they’re only trying to be helpful.

But now I know better.

I know what my soul wants to do for work. What it’s wanted to do all along. And now there’s no going back.

No matter how frustrated I am that I have yet to find that one more gig that will help me pay the bills. Because now it’s all about words, and until I can find that opportunity, I might entertain some other side hustle that has to do with words. A bookstore maybe…or the library. Two of my happy places.

Meanwhile, I will keep my young friend, Jackson, in mind — and the amazing example that he is setting for all of us in doing what he loves.

Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash

5 Co-Working Spaces for Women That I Wish Were in My Town by @ChristyCareer

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5 Co-Working Spaces for Women That I Wish Were in My Town

by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

Working for myself has afforded me a lot of freedom. Thank goodness, because if I were to have a personal tagline, it would probably be, “You’re not the boss of me.”

I love the freedom I have to work from anywhere, and control my own schedule – you know, for taking your freshman to physical therapy once a week for her dance injury. Or when the school calls saying they’ve called 911 for your fourth grader. (Crisis averted…he was simply dehydrated. Although mommy’s heart might be in jeopardy now.)

I absolutely adore working from home. It is such a lower-stress way of life for me. It’s hard enough to leave the house with both kids at 6:40 in the morning, let alone having to worry about getting myself showered and dressed and to an office by 8:00. I honestly can’t even imagine doing that, considering how tired I already am on a daily basis. (Let alone even think about going back to a cubicle situation.)

But if there’s one downside of working for myself, I would say it’s the isolation. There are days when I don’t see or talk to anyone else besides my children and the dog, and even though I need way more alone time than the average person, sometimes, you just want to be around other humans.

In a town like mine, though, that limits me to a couple of coffee shops that are always packed – and cold. There actually is one co-working space in our small town, but unfortunately for me, it’s in the basement of a building, with little to no natural light that I can see. And I need natural light. That kind of environment might help some people focus, but not being able to see outside makes me twitchy. I don’t even like to close the blinds in my house until I absolutely have to, once it’s so dark outside that it feels like living in a fishbowl.

When I started researching co-working spaces, I wasn’t too surprised that there aren’t many close to where I live. There are plenty closer to the city of Denver, but none within a quick commute of my town that would make the drive worth it.

But what I did stumble across in my research made me wish I lived closer to an urban area: coworking spaces created just for women! Apparently, these have been a thing for a while, but like I said, I don’t get out much.

As I browsed through photo after gorgeous photo of the spaces that entrepreneurial women have created for other women, I got jealous. (Well, first I wiped the drool from the corners of my mouth, but then I got jealous.)

Here are the five co-working spaces for women that I wish were in my town:

1. The Hivery

“The Hivery is a collaborative and creative coworking space where you can pursue your work, passions, ideas and what’s next.”

If aesthetics are as important to you as they are to me, then you will love The Hivery, located in Mill Valley, California. In fact, a line from their website even says, “Inspiration comes from the space you inhabit.”

In addition to their regular memberships, they also offer events like new member coffee talks, workshops for topics like the Enneagram, and brown bag luncheons. Be right back…I’m moving to Mill Valley. #womendoingcoolstuff

2. ModernWell

“A women-centered collaborative space that balances independent spirit with holistic well-being, championing a one-of-a-kind, work-life community.”

A writer friend of mine shamelessly flaunted this brand new space in Minneapolis, when she was there during their opening week. And I have been coveting this space ever since.

In addition to their memberships, they offer books clubs, Happiness Hours, a private wellness room for quiet relaxation and pumping for new mothers, and regularly scheduled teen girl empowerment and mother/daughter wellness workshops and events. Sign. Me. Up.

3. The Wing

“A home base for women on their way. The Wing was born out of the belief that women need and deserve a multi-purpose space designed to make their lives easier, and that magic is created when women gather together.”

Of course, co-working spaces for women would be in urban areas like New York City and this one is setting the bar high. With two locations currently and another two opening any moment now, they are one of the originals. (P.S. I love that they call their locations “Covens”…)

Their membership perks include discussions on what it means to be Latina today, their own version of Bingo called Wingo, and a recently held conversation with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

4. RADIANT

“RADIANT is a place to work but at its core, it is a community. We support female entrepreneurs as much as we can to empower our diverse community, and to change our little patch of the world, one empowered woman at a time.”

San Francisco-based RADIANT offers an impressive variety of membership bonuses, including classes about Fashion Writing, Make-Your-Own Bath & Body products, wardrobe styling, and learning to code!

5. Circle + Moon

“We dreamed of a place where girlcode is honest, real, true and legit. Where women really do support one another and celebrate each others’ successes and joys. We believe this is not only possible, but vital for our future. This is why Circle+Moon was created. To provide a safe place for women to find their voice and shine their light. We envision a community of girlbosses and change makers working along-side each other for a more beautiful future.”

Based in Roswell, Georgia, this quaint, historic space offers events like Pop-Up Success Café, Female Rebels, and Nurture your Essence.

Are you drooling now, too? Well, while I start dreaming of creating one of these amazing spaces for my own area, here’s a great resource to help you find a coworking space of your own!

Photo credit: The Hivery/Pinterest

Meaningful Work We Can Do From Home? This Entrepreneur Is Making It Happen—And Saving the Environment at the Same Time by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

She’s been called the queen of remote work.

And she knows that finding meaningful work that actually fits in with our lives and allows us the flexibility we need on a daily basis can feel almost impossible.

She would also be the first person to tell you that it’s not.

Sara Sutton Fell is the founder and CEO of FlexJobs. And this woman is fierce.

She has founded not one, but four companies—one of them when she was eight-months pregnant with her first baby. And she does it all with a constant focus on the “why” behind what she’s doing.

If there is an entrepreneur who inspires me to focus on my “why” and do what I can for others, this woman is it.

For those who may not have heard of the website, what is FlexJobs?

FlexJobs is the leading online service for professionals seeking telecommuting, flexible schedule, part-time, and freelance jobs. With flexible job listings in over 50 career categories, and opportunities ranging from entry-level to executive, freelance to full-time, FlexJobs offers job-seekers a safe, easy, and efficient way to find professional and legitimate flexible job listings.

What makes FlexJobs different than other job search websites?

First, FlexJobs’ mission is to help people find jobs that make their lives better, jobs that specifically offer flexible work options.  And we are committed to doing this with integrity, intelligence, balance, communication, and care.

Secondly, we pre-screen every job and company before posting them to our site. This allows us to weed out the scams, shady business opportunities, and other less-than-ideal jobs that are so pervasive on other job boards.

Also, our primary clients are job seekers—not advertisers or employers—and so our goal is really to create a better job search experience for them. In order to do that, we are a membership site, so job seekers pay a small subscription fee to access our database of clean, flexible jobs. In return, we offer a top quality, clean, friendly site with great flexible jobs, excellent customer support, and a satisfaction guarantee.

What, in your own life, led you to come up with the idea for starting FlexJobs?

I founded FlexJobs in 2007 while I was pregnant with my first son, after I experienced first-hand the frustrating search for professional jobs that also offered flexible work options. I knew that I wanted to continue on my career path, but it was important to me to have more flexibility than a traditional full-time, on-site job would typically allow, so that I could better juggle the responsibilities of work and a family.

I wished that a trustworthy site existed that would have done the legwork of screening these jobs!  But in looking thoroughly through the competitive landscape, I realized it didn’t, and so my wheels started turning.

But starting a company with a newborn wasn’t to be taken lightly, and in my own soul-searching, I just realized that I so deeply believed in the importance of flexible work—and having a baby simply reinforced that in a powerful way.  Overall, I believe that a modern workplace should address the needs of today’s workforce, and that utilizing workplace technology to support telecommuting and flexible work will achieve societal, environmental, and economic benefits for both employees and employers.

How do you think flexible work can help people to create meaningful work in their own lives?

Flexible work can allow people to live lives where their responsibilities aren’t constantly in direct competition, and it enables people to have more control over how best to accomplish their goals. For example, for me, working from home and having a flexible schedule has allowed me to be more fully present with what I am doing at the moment—whether it’s at work or at home—because I don’t feel as anxious, stressed, or even angry I’m missing out on the other.

I believe flexible work options can help empower people to be more honest with their priorities, and that honesty, in turn, supports being mindful of what makes us happy, fulfilled, and proud of our decisions.

What does meaningful work look like in your own life?

I believe that no matter what job I have, or anyone has, that you can have meaningful work, at least in elements.  I’m lucky in that I believe in the mission of my job, and I love what I do.  But I also try my best to make my colleagues and our customers happy—as well as try to improve my abilities and skills to continue to do both better. So having meaningful work means choosing to put good into the world in whatever ways you can even if it’s not obvious.

As a side note, these videos highlight that what I’m talking about can be done in all kinds of ways!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLIdz_Zl1zQ

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr4vO2ri1yw

 

When you were formulating the idea of FlexJobs in the beginning, did it occur to you that helping people find flexible work could also have a positive impact on our environment, or was that just a welcome side effect?

That was definitely part of my thinking when I founded FlexJobs. I hold a BA degree with the focus of Society, Technology, and the Environment from the University of California at Berkeley, so I’ve long thought about ways to have a positive environmental impact through my work, and I knew the environmental benefits of flexible work, as well as the many societal and personal benefits.

Flexible work can be inherently environmentally-friendly. Telecommuting helps people consume less gas or oil, put less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and better control their own home’s environmental impact because they aren’t commuting to an office every day.

Flexible schedules also reduce commuting times, helping people avoid peak rush-hour traffic jams. And flexible work helps companies reduce their environmental impact by reshaping the way business is done: less office space, less equipment, and less energy to heat, cool, and maintain the infrastructure that traditional offices require.

As a 100% virtual organization, and one that is committed to environmental sustainability, how do you support and/or encourage your employees to commit to that sustainability, too?

FlexJobs is dedicated to making environmentally aware decisions for how we run our company and our individual home offices. We consider the environmental impact that our decisions have, and we commit to trying to lessen the impact wherever reasonably possible.

One initiative we have helps employees maintain a green home office by reimbursing them for houseplants to offset VOCs and CO2, and for CFL or LED light bulbs used in their home offices. We are also a carbon-balanced company through TerraPass. Through this partnership, FlexJobs has reduced its carbon emissions by sponsoring clean energy and carbon reduction projects.

As an entrepreneur and busy mother of two young children, how do you stay mindful and find balance on a daily basis?

Practicing mindfulness is definitely something I try to do daily, starting with the simple moments. Whether it’s feeling the sun on my face as we walk to the car to take my kids to school, taking an extra deep breath before responding to one of them asking a question for the 3rd time (without listening to the first or second response!), or hugging them for an extra few seconds before bed. I always try to be mindful that every moment has meaning, and that I have the opportunity to appreciate that in a way that makes me happier rather than unhappier.

Also, although it’s not daily, I practice Bikram yoga, and have for almost 20 years. Doing Bikram has grounded me incredibly in my life as a busy working mom, and quite honestly, is a sanity-saver for me. I also try to meditate regularly, either when I wake up or before I go to sleep.

Finally, I try to be very mindful of my focus during the day as it relates to whether I’m working or whether I’m with my kids. Because I work from home, it’s easy to blur the lines between work time and personal time, letting them creep into each other, which I don’t believe is a good thing. So I aim to have clear boundaries on when I’m working, as well as to give myself permission to unplug from work when I’m done and focus on my family and personal life.

As a successful entrepreneur and founder of several different organizations, what’s next for you?

In addition to FlexJobs, over the last few years, I’ve founded 1 Million for Work Flexibility, which is right in line with my belief that everyone should have access to flexible work options, and that both companies and individuals (and the environment!) benefit from work flexibility. I’ve also started Remote.co, a one-stop resource for people and companies to learn best practices for remote work so that we can all benefit.

We also recently hosted our second annual TRaD*Works Forum, which brings together the best and brightest minds in the telecommuting, remote, and distributed (TRaD) work community. It’s a great gathering of individuals from the corporate, government, and nonprofit worlds who all see remote work as a huge opportunity with awesome social, business, and environmental benefits.

If you could give our readers one piece of advice for finding or creating their own meaningful work as entrepreneurs, what would that advice be?

Trust your instincts as a very valid part of the equation. It’s important to be responsible and consider your instincts along with other priorities, information, and factors. But I have learned that my core intuition is often a more reliable guide to how I can find my own happiness and authenticity in my career (and life), and so I am very conscientious with it.

Sara and FlexJobs would like to offer you a chance to try their service and find your own meaningful work that you can do from home in your pajamas. As a reader of She Owns It, please use the code SAVE30 to receive up to 30% off your subscription to FlexJobs.com.

Photo credit: Sara Sutton Fell/FlexJobs

It’s 2018, Corporate America—Why Aren’t There More Flexible And Remote Work Options? by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

I am shocked that we still don’t have more flexibility in America in 2018.

Maybe my head has been buried in the sand. Or maybe it’s just because I’ve worked for a company that is so committed to helping people find the flexible jobs they need, that I thought there was more flexibility out there than there really is.

But my experience as someone who is currently looking for that additional side hustle is that there is still a limited amount of flexibility to be had.

I’ve written before about how I would really love to work full time at this point in my life, but I simply can’t within the rigid parameters of a 9-5 workweek. Two kids at two different schools with no busing means I just don’t have enough time that fits within the confines of a super-structured day.

Do I have enough available hours in my weekly schedule to work a full-time job? Absolutely. But some of those hours would have to be nights or weekends. That’s simply what my family’s needs are right now.

But there have been a few organizations that have especially surprised me with their lack of flexibility. They are women-owned, small businesses that are focused on helping women find career opportunities. And within the last several months, three of those organizations have been recruiting for positions that I would be well-suited for. Full- or part-time writer/editor for a career-based website and online service, focused on women. Ummmm…check, check, check. I have experience in all of the above.

So what am I missing? Geographic location.

These organizations are based in Los Angeles and New York, and want someone to work at the office with them. And actually, the company based in New York even said the job could be done remotely after a few days of training at the office, but they still want the candidate to be based in New York.

Now, again, maybe it’s because I have experience working for a completely distributed company where we all worked from our home offices—but I just don’t understand the reasoning behind this.

When I worked at this company, we had a number of communication tools available to us that we all used on a daily basis. Slack, Yammer, and Sococo were among the platforms we would use to communicate with each other every day.

We even had team-building activities using these programs. Once or twice a month, we played trivia as a company on a Friday afternoon, where we all grabbed an adult beverage of our choice and broke up into teams to play. So much more fun than any standard team-building activity in an office setting.

And the funny thing is, I feel closer to that family of co-workers I only knew virtually than I do with any other company I’ve ever worked for face-to-face in a central location. Bar none.

So why are so many so-called modern, progressive, “cutting edge” companies still not embracing more flexible work options—at least more than just your basic flextime?!

I first became a flexible-work evangelist when my boss at the time adopted a new baby and wasn’t able to take any paid time off to be with him. That was in 1998. 1998! That was 20 years ago!

Shouldn’t we be further along as a country than we are right now?!

That position I mentioned in New York? This was the second time it has been posted since September. So that only leads me to believe that either the first applicant hired just didn’t work out, or that they are still looking after months of recruiting. Either way, they could expand their field of applicants exponentially by opening up their search—and their minds—to remote applicants.

As someone with human resources experience, I am well aware that they might not be set up as an employer in my state. But perhaps it’s worth considering whether it would be cost-effective and appropriate within FLSA guidelines to have the company be set up as an employer in additional states—or even to consider if the position could be a contractor role.

But more importantly, there is a robust workforce out there of educated women who are interested in careers that fulfill them, but corporate America is missing out because an entrepreneur’s schedule can (sometimes) be more flexible. While I have always been a huge supporter of entrepreneurs and women starting their own small businesses, I also wish that employers—especially women-owned businesses—would start embracing more flexible work options.

If we are going to change the culture of our male-oriented workforce, it is going to have to come from women. Yes, there are a lot of men in leadership who are aware that our workforce needs have changed as women have become a bigger and bigger proportion of corporate America—and as men have stepped up like never before in sharing the parenting responsibilities at home.

But we still have a long, long way to go.

At least from where I stand.

And I’m looking at all you women-owned businesses to do your part in this cause. A cause–and responsibility—that will only benefit us all in the long run.

 

Image: Photo by Christy Williams

How many Side Hustles does it Take to Make a Career by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

Five, that’s how many.

No—six! Because I’m still looking for one more.

Have you seen those articles? The ones that encourage you to pick up a side hustle while you’re working your main job?

It could be that you are still in the beginning stages of working towards your dream career while working your steady 9-to-5 job, and your side hustle is the passion project you do on the side. Or it could be that you’re already working your dream job, but you need a side hustle to keep things afloat while that dream career starts to pull its own weight in the payday department.

Either way, that side hustle helps you make it through until you can do the one thing you really want to do full time.

Or—maybe not.

Maybe you’re like me and you have so many passions that you’re not really sure you want to do just one thing.

I certainly felt that way in the majority of the jobs I held in corporate America. Proofreading direct mail campaigns for an advertising agency my first year out of college certainly didn’t offer the variety I needed. Maybe it would have helped if the clients had some of the more “sexy” products, like the Reebok pitch I got to work on as an intern during my senior year spring break. But the rest of our clients were mostly banks. And I’m not sure anyone cares less about money than I do, so it wasn’t the greatest fit.

As I progressed through my career, I learned that as soon as I ramped up in any new position and learned how to do the job, I got bored. I am so thankful for the people out there who can do the repetitive tasks that are needed in any company, because I am not that person.

And I am definitely not that person who stays with the same organization for 20 years—or even 10 for that matter. If I’m not learning something new or being challenged, then I start watching the clock—and that’s when I know it’s time to go.

So it is so thrilling for me to have five different passion projects that I can jump between. I can imagine that it gets confusing for my connections on LinkedIn. Every time I start writing for a new publication, I get all the same people sending me messages congratulating me on the new job. They must think I’m changing jobs every month!

I even had a girlfriend shout her congratulations to me across the parking lot a few weeks ago before asking, “Exactly how many jobs do you have?!” And the truth is that if they went out to my profile, they would see that I am doing all of these things at the same time. And happily so.

Because here’s the thing. I would work ten side hustles or passion projects if I needed to, in order to be doing my soul work.

At this point in my life, not only do I need massive amounts of flexibility in my schedule to do the three hours of school carpooling I need to do every day for my kids—but I also can’t not do my soul work anymore.

It is so fantastic to be able to write an article about current events or some cause that I am passionate about, and then be able to switch gears and edit articles about sparkles and magic. To then decide I want to write about careers and helping people find their own soul work. And then write a piece about my encounter with a homeless man for a publication about enlightened masculinity.

Every day, I have the luxury to choose what I want to focus on that day—depending on my mood, my schedule, and what’s going on in the world. And I’m not sure I can think of any one job that will allow me to do more than I am doing now.

I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t get frustrating some days, because that certainly comes with the territory. When you are cobbling together a career from all your different passions, you don’t have a consistent paycheck and a theoretical pat on the back from your boss.

But then again, I’m my own boss. I am the one who gets to decide when I take time off, and whether or not I want to look for another side hustle. Like I do now. Because as any writer or editor knows, we get paid mostly in peanuts and bylines. Which I will take, gladly. But a cash-cow side hustle that allows me to pay for my daughter’s dance, my son’s sports, and, oh yeah—food? I would gladly take that, too.

Just as long as I have variety and you know you’re not the boss of me, we’ll get along just fine.

 

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

A New And Unexpected Season of Work-Life Balance by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

I have come to a season in my life where the phrase “work-life balance” has suddenly taken on a whole new meaning—one I never expected.

A lot of people don’t even like that phrase, work-life balance, since the word “balance” can make it sound like the ultimate goal is to achieve a perfect balance of both work, and the rest of our daily lives. But anyone who has spent any amount of time juggling the different areas of their life, learns very quickly that there will never be a perfect balance.

Either work is taking up a little—or a lot—more time and effort, or family and our daily responsibilities and commitments are. It’s just the way it is.

I think the most that we all hope for is that when we step back and look at the big picture of our lives, there is some semblance of equality overall.

If that’s even what we choose.

Fourteen years ago, I chose to focus solely on my family. It was something I never expected to do, but with a husband who traveled most of the week every week, a lack of flexible work opportunities, and corporate America fatigue, I opted out of the workforce.

I’d like to think that if I had flexible work options, that maybe I wouldn’t have made that same choice. But maybe not—those babies sure were cute. And it was easier. No juggling meant no mommy guilt, and we were blessed enough to have the luxury of even having that choice in the first place.

A choice I wouldn’t trade for anything. Certainly not for any setbacks it has resulted in for my professional life.

So most people, when they think of work-life balance, are trying to figure out how to spend more time enjoying their life—and perhaps work less.

But this season I have recently entered? I find myself in the surprising position of wanting to work more.

I imagine I am not alone in feeling this way. For any parent who has devoted many years to raising their children, I imagine that it’s only natural. After giving so much of ourselves and doing everything for those little humans that we’re guiding, it seems like basic human nature to want to now spend some time creating something for ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong…I’ve been working part-time for several years now.

But I want more.

Maybe it’s because I am finally getting the chance to do my soul work.

Maybe it’s because, as someone who has always kept on top of the career opportunities that are currently available, I see amazing opportunities that require more hours than I have available, and it’s disappointing.

Maybe it’s because I am ready to dive back in full-time and I know that I just can’t right now.

I have one child in fourth grade, and the other is a freshman in high school. And when I decided to stay home with them as babies, I remember people telling me that as much as they need you as babies, they need you even more in middle school and high school. In very different ways…but they still needed you just as much.

And they weren’t kidding.

So, as much as I am ready to shift that work-life balance in favor of my soul work, I also know that I have no desire to miss out on any of these days with my kids.

This is simply a new, different season in my life, and with them.

And again, I have the luxury of making a choice that allows me to drive them to and from school and football games—and even to take them a forgotten lunch or homework assignment, while I ignore the lovingly admonishing looks from the front office administrators.

Because even if it’s just spending time with them in the car—for hours a day—it’s still time with them.

And that work-life balance scale? It’s still shifting. It might be in teeny-tiny increments, but it’s still shifting.

And for now, that’s enough for me.

 

Image: Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash

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5 Inspiring Social Entrepreneurs who are Making the World a Better Place by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

I’ve always been especially inspired by entrepreneurs who have an undeniable urge to make the world a better place. Socially-conscious business owners who are driven more by being of benefit to others than they are by the the bottom line. Who know what their “Why” is and are compelled by it so much so that they develop their career—and sometimes even their lives—around that mission.

I recently went on a web-quest to find some of those socially-minded people who are changing the world, and was so inspired and uplifted by their stories, I wanted to share them with you.

1. Jessica O. Matthews, Uncharted Play

In 2008, while Jessica O. Matthews was working on a class project at Harvard University, she invented SOCCKET, a soccer ball that harnesses energy. Realizing that she had the opportunity to bring this unique combination of play products and clean energy to communities worldwide, Matthews founded Uncharted Play.

With a mission of “Democratizing energy access worldwide,” Uncharted Play has developed what they call their Impact Vision around four pillars of: Inspire Through Play, Teach STEM, Create Social Solutions, and Scale Impact.

Not only has Matthews created a company where “doing good and having fun” go hand-in-hand, she is teaching others to do the same with her example.

https://youtu.be/kErtBVfp66I

2. Denise Paredes, Equal Uprise

Denise Paredes combined her passions for accessories, responsible consumerism, and quality craftsmanship to create this unique brand of modern home décor and accessories.

But Equal Uprise is more than just its one-of-a-kind pieces. Paredes created Equal Uprise with the goal of empowering and investing in the artisans from rural communities in Tunisia and Ecuador.

So not only does Paredes create jobs for the artisans in their communities, she also invests back in their businesses through their Business Development Program.

3. Doniece Sandoval, Lava Mae

We all know how soul-nourishing a hot shower or bath can feel after a long day. So imagine how it would feel to go days or even weeks without one. Doniece Sandoval came up with the idea for Lava Mae after seeing a young homeless woman on the street crying that she’d never be clean again.

Sandoval founded Lava Mae in 2013, and set to work converting public transportation buses into mobile toilet and shower units for the homeless in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Not only has Sandoval created a business that provides sorely-needed hygiene services, she has also offered our homeless friends the dignity they deserve with the “Radical Hospitality” of Lava Mae.

https://youtu.be/yc921UM1IZY

4. Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah, Studio 189

Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah founded Studio 189 with a mission of using “fashion as an agent for social change, turning challenges on the ground into opportunities.” The artisan-produced collection of ethical fashion and accessories are all African and African-inspired.

The artisans use traditional techniques in crafting their wares, and oftentimes they are techniques that have been handed down from many generations. In turn, Studio 189 offers their artisans in Ghana empowerment, education, and opportunity. Fashion with a purpose, for sure.

5. Komal Ahmad, Copia

A lot of us grew up being told to clean our plates because there were starving people in the world. And now that I’m a mom, I absolutely cringe every time I scrape uneaten food off our plates, thinking of who that could have fed. Well, Komal Ahmad is putting all that uneaten, leftover food to use.

Copia is a tech-enabled service that redistributes food surplus to nonprofits in need. Once signed up, organizations can simply schedule a pickup of surplus food using the app, and one of Copia’s Food Hero Drivers will pick it up and deliver to an nonprofit in need.

Ahmad came up with the idea when she was at the University of California, Berkeley. She met a homeless veteran who had recently been discharged from Iraq but was still waiting for his benefits to kick in, and he hadn’t eaten in three days.

Meanwhile, across the street in Berkeley’s dining hall, Ahmad knew thousands of pounds of food were being thrown away. It became clear to her that lack of food wasn’t the problem—the logistics of distributing uneaten food was the problem. And she invented Copia to solve that problem.

https://youtu.be/e71oH8vZVoE

For more inspirational stories about and resources for social entrepreneurs, visit Social Enablers.

 

Image of Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah of Studio 189: YouTube

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How Sheryl Sandberg can Help us all Learn to Lean into the Suck by @ChristyCareer

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by Christy Williams | Featured Contributor

Is it time for you to lean into the suck?

I have been wondering about that for myself recently.

Things have been…hard. This is one of the most challenging times I’ve experienced so far in my life. I suppose some of it comes as a natural by-product of my age and the stage I’m at in life.

I have one child in elementary school and one in her freshman year in high school. Both schools start at the same time, eight miles apart, and neither school has buses. So I have suddenly found myself in the car for an hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. And that doesn’t include any time spent carpooling kids to extracurricular activities or running errands.

It’s been an adjustment, to say the least.

And that’s just logistics. That doesn’t even include the overwhelming amount of mom-coaching involved in the realities of a new school, teenager life, and all that goes with it—new friends jockeying for position with old friends, technology safety worries, a slew of new activity opportunities, and simply learning a new school’s layout and schedule.

My daughter and I joke that we are already on Plan F for how we are going to get everything handled, Plans A through E having already been thrown out each time a new curveball is thrown and we have to readjust. But we are passionate about these schools, and we are committed to making the logistics work.

And at the same time, here I am.

Wanting more for myself.

I’ve worked hard to build professional momentum over the past few years and I don’t want to lose any of it. I am feeling impatient and more than ready to grow my own soul work. And it’s frustrating when there are only so many hours in the day in which to get everything done.

To be really honest, it kind of sucks.

Feeling back-burnered.

Feeling like I have to wait some more.

And then feeling bad about feeling that way! Because I “have it all” (whatever that means) and nothing is more important to me than my children’s health, happiness, and education. I was feeling like I had no right to feel this way.

Until I saw an interview that Oprah Winfrey did with Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, that helped me start to think about things differently.

Sheryl’s husband, Dave, passed away at the young age of 47 while on vacation with their family in the spring of 2015. She has since written a book called Option B with psychologist and friend, Adam Grant, about resilience and facing adversity in our lives.

In the interview, she recounts the advice that her rabbi offered her soon after her husband’s death. He told her to “lean into the suck.”

That phrase has stuck with me ever since I saw the interview.

Lean into the suck. I love that.

By no means am I comparing what I am currently experiencing to anything remotely similar to what Sheryl Sandberg has experienced. Not even close. But I still think this phrase is something helpful to remember when we’re experiencing the suck in our own lives.

Because the hard times are going to come. In Sandberg’s case, it was knowing that the unimaginable grief was going to come—and learning to just allow it to come.

As entrepreneurs, our hard times are obviously much different than the ones faced by anyone confronting a tragic loss like Sandberg.

But how can we as entrepreneurs learn to lean into the suck?

1. Acknowledge the suck.

As entrepreneurs, we are used to powering through and doing whatever it takes to get things done. But there will be times when things are just sucking. Either we don’t have enough time in our day to do what we want to do, or we’re struggling to get our work out there as much as we want, or we’re even just having a difficult time working with a business partner. There are times when it’s just going to suck. And that’s okay.

2. Don’t try and squash the suck.

One of my favorite parts of this interview was when Sandberg laughed at how she not only felt bad—but then she felt bad for feeling bad! That set off all kinds of bells and whistles for me. That is exactly how I was feeling! But we are allowed to have these feelings. Just because we chose these schools for our kids doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to feel frustrated that I don’t have as much time to write as I would like. And just because you chose to be an entrepreneur and pursue your own soul work doesn’t mean you won’t have bad days. Allow yourself to feel those sucky feelings. And don’t beat yourself up over it.

3. Do what you can while you’re in the suck.

This is where Option B comes in. When things don’t look like you wish they did, or when Option A is no longer an option, we have to do the best we can with what we have. Maybe that means adjusting our business plan to make changes we weren’t anticipating. Or maybe it means making some tough decisions about no longer working with partners or clients that aren’t benefiting our business. Or maybe it’s simply accepting that we only have a few hours to write today instead of full-time. But I will find the time in bits and pieces and make it work, because it’s the only option I have right now. As one of Sheryl’s friends said to her, “Option A is not available. So let’s just kick the sh*t out of option B.”

Or if you’re anything like me, option F.

 

Image and Video: YouTube

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