Sisters-in-Service
Are you a women veteran who feels unseen and unheard? Do you struggle with finding your purpose after service? Sisters-in-Service is a podcast that gives women veterans the platform to talk about those exact issues and more. Hear from other veterans, military spouses and Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) just like you that have overcome their transition from the military. Every Tuesday this podcast encourages women veterans to stand up and be counted because as a group we have a voice. From your host - Cat Corchado - The Voice Connecting Women Veterans
Sisters-in-Service
Finding Her Voice: Jill Olish on Postpartum Anxiety, Healing, and Speaking Out
What if the hardest season of your life became the spark for your life’s work? We sit down with first-time mom and first-time founder Jill Olish, who launched Mama Outspoken during the pandemic while confronting postpartum anxiety, depression, and rage. Instead of waiting for a better moment, she built a platform that helps mothers find their voice, ask for help, and navigate the messy, unspoken transitions of motherhood.
Jill takes us inside the decisions that shaped her path: leaving a rigid job for virtual assistant work, turning lived experience into a podcast and a book, and building a supportive village focused on maternal mental health. We talk about the reality behind the nursery photos—emergency cesarean recovery, intrusive thoughts, sleepless nights, and the isolation of early parenthood—alongside the practices that made entrepreneurship possible with a newborn. Her simple, powerful system “sticky note time” shows how to dump the mental load, prioritize what matters, and create momentum without burning out.
Across the conversation we unpack sustainable growth, boundaries that match school calendars, and why rest is a strategy for resilience. Jill’s mantra you are the mom you were intended to be reframes perfectionism and offers a lifeline to anyone feeling behind. If you’re on the fence about starting a business, craving real talk about postpartum mental health, or looking for practical ways to juggle work and family, this story will meet you where you are and help you take your next small step.
If this conversation helped you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more listeners find these stories.
Hello everyone and welcome to season five of the Sisters in Service Podcast. You guys know me, I'm Pat Cortado, and I want all of you to understand that this podcast is a passion project born out of my own experiences as an Air Force veteran. I understand firsthand the unique challenges and triumphs that come with serving in the military and the transition to becoming a veteran. You know, this podcast is a tribute to all our people that serve. But not just the service member, our active duty people, our veterans, our military bastions, military brats, and of course our veteran service organizations. This platform gives us an opportunity to share, learn, and grow together, acknowledging our shared experiences and providing support and encouragement to each other. Alongside this, most of you probably already know this, but I'm also doing uh the Why Not Wellness podcast. A little snippet, 15 minutes or less, but this is a space dedicated to helping everyone rediscover their fitness fabulosity. It's a journey towards feeling good in our bodies and embracing wellness. Because I believe that our health and wellness are the pillars upon which we build our lives, especially after service. I'm incredibly grateful for the support of our sponsors. The first one is SmallSpace Pilates, which is an online fitness platform offering live classes in strength training, stretching, and of course Pilates. These classes are designed to be accessible and effective no matter where you are in your fitness journey. The second sponsor is the MySexy Business. They offer guidance and help you to own a business that doesn't own you. So let's get started with our first guest for our new season. Hi everyone. Welcome to the latest episode of Stitches and Service, what I like to call the entrepreneurial journey episodes. So I've been speaking to several entrepreneurs who I know. And even though we're all entrepreneurs, I really wanted to find out the why behind their entrepreneurial journey. A lot of people are on the fence about becoming an entrepreneur. And so I wanted to find out why they became entrepreneurs, why they stay entrepreneurs, what kind of advice they would give to people who are kind of on the fence still. And so for today, my guest is the definition of resilience, purpose, and transformation. Jill Olish is a first-time mom and first-time entrepreneur who gave birth to both her baby and her business at the same time. Right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. While navigating postpartum anxiety, depression, and rage, Jill chose not to just survive, but to create. She founded Mama Outspoken, a powerful platform helping moms find their voices, advocate for themselves, and navigate the often unspoken transitions of motherhood. Jill is more than just an entrepreneur, she's a movement maker. She's the founder and leader of the Mama Outspoken Village, a published author, podcast host, summit leader, and the host of the Vision Board Party, which I've been to, by the way. It's a lot of fun. She's also the associate producer and roving reporter for Good Morning Entrepreneurs. Jill shows us that living your dream isn't just about waiting for the perfect time because there isn't one. I'm just gonna put it out there. It's about becoming who you were meant to be, even in the most imperfect circumstances. So please help me welcome Jill Olish. Hi, Jill.
SPEAKER_02:Hi, Kat. What amazing introduction. I don't think I could even come up with something as wonderful as that was. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00:Girl, you're busy. I was like, oh Lord, I got tired just reading it. There was so there was so much there. Oh my gosh. So, Jill, I was really looking at your bio and thinking about, you know, what it was like for me to become a mom. And I was like, oh, you know, you know, having a baby and all those things are, you know, pretty much the same for each woman. Then I said, well, wait a minute. The only so I I was thinking, I was like, okay, getting pregnant, yes, but the term of the pregnancy or even just during the pregnancy is different. Delivery is different for each woman having a child, you know, um, all of these things that women go through and something that is is as I want to say natural, but it's you know, it's having a baby. And you would think that it's not it should be so different, but it is. So you became a mom and entrepreneur during this global crisis. What was that moment like for you that sparked the idea for Mama Outspoken?
SPEAKER_02:Oh gosh. Okay. Um I was in a job, uh, you know, at J O B. Um and it was taking a turn because the world was changing. And while I was pregnant, I was working that job and witnessed many of the changes and knew it was only going to get either better or worse. And I didn't want to stick around for worse. So I had to find something else that was gonna work for me while home. Like, what could I do where I got to work my hours that I wanted to work and still be home raising my child, not work for a paycheck to pay for care, because that's what would have happened.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:My whole paycheck would have just gone right to whoever was watching my child. And I still would have had to jump through hoops to find out that care doesn't last as long as the job would have been calling me to stay at. So there had to be a better way. Did not know that better way, and did some research and found um virtual assistant work. So I was able to take all the skills I already knew and just build a business around it and control my hours, control my clients, the work I wanted to do. And I was like, done deal. That that is the route we are going in.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:That was the start.
SPEAKER_00:Did you during your pregnancy, before mom you founded Mom Outspoken? I think most women kind of fantasize about what it's gonna like be like to be a mom. You know, you're sitting there, you have all these little visions in your head and how wonderful it's gonna be. And it is, don't get me wrong, but what we don't think about are the how can I say this? Not problems, but the things that don't go right. You know, you think, oh, you know, it's gonna be a few sleepless nights, but then the baby's gonna sleep through the night, and then they're gonna take naps and it's gonna be fine. But what happens when the baby doesn't sleep through the night for the first year or two? Or the baby doesn't take naps? That was me. My son did not take naps. So did you romanticize that time? And how different and if yes, how different was it from the reality?
SPEAKER_02:Well, ironically, I never did. My my daydreams went up to my wedding day, and I was always like, okay, we're gonna have the best wedding ever, but never thought past that. I always thought I'd have a family, guess I wanted like a boy and a girl, and just because that's what I grew up not having, you know, how we're like, oh, I wish I had this and not this one. So um, that was the extent. I never once dreamed about my labor and delivery, what it would be like to be pregnant, what it would be like to actually raise those children I knew I would one day have. Um, and it even they they, as you were pregnant and you go through your birthing classes and whatnot, they tell you to come up with a birth plan. And even then, I had such a hard time envisioning how I wanted my labor and delivery to be. So I never once even prepared for postpartum season. It was the hardest thing I've ever experienced in my life. Throw in isolation because the world was isolated.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:We already feel isolated as moms because it feels like the world is on our shoulders when we have someone we have to take care of that has no ability to take care of themselves. Now, throw in the fact that I can't leave my home, that I can't ask someone to come over and without risking their own health to come and help me. Uh, it was hard. It was very hard to go through that and not at all what I would have expected, nor would I have actually heard from friends of mine. That, you know, some of the moms that we know in our lives don't tell you those gory details of the sleepless nights and the soreness that your body feels and recovering from a cesarean. Like there's just so much that goes into it that you you are warned about, but don't really think that will happen to you.
SPEAKER_00:Like a piece of cake, and then you're like, oh crap, it's not a piece of cake.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And we, you know, we we pump ourselves up. Oh, it's okay. I'll have the people around me to help me, or I I've gotten through this hard thing, I'm sure I can get through this hard thing.
SPEAKER_00:Um I can I can understand that. I think no matter how you deliver, I had natural childbirth and it was let's just say it was I only have one child. Let me just say that. And that is why, folks. But it's but I was fearful, you know, after I had my child was when all the the fears came, you know, all the what am I gonna do? And I was young, I was very, very young. And it's, you know, what am I gonna even with my mom there? You know, it's like, how does this shape my life? And it and it it doesn't shape your life, it changes your entire life. So you're in the middle of this postpartum depression, all of the things that are happening. How did this, I mean, when was that moment when you said, ooh, mom outspoken podcast, mom outspoken village? When did that happen? Or do you even remember?
SPEAKER_02:I do, and you know, a lot of it wasn't even my idea. And Kat, you and I, we have a mutual friend that's you know the behind the scenes on that one.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, you're you're very you're correct about that.
SPEAKER_02:This this friend of ours, she's a visionary and she can see beyond what we can see for ourselves, is exactly how I I explain her to people because she saw that there was more to me than just being a virtual assistant, that I needed to go on beyond how I was helping clients in the industry, because those were my clients, was people, uh, these women who are doulas and wellness centers for moms. I was trying to stay within that business. So she's like, you can do so much more if you would just put yourself out there, put your vulnerabilities out there, share your experience. And I volunteer for the Postpartum Resource Center of New York, who does help moms in New York and their families go through all of this. And I was like, okay, how can I do what I know and build this? And you know, her and I spent a lot of time formulating like what would this look like? And we had an event, she's like, you need to be part of it, so you have to start a podcast. And that's really how Mama Book's podcast started. But I was listening to one during my pregnancy as these two moms having conversations. They they talked about their highs and lows in their pregnancy journey, and then things that they were experiencing and went into details on like the science behind things. And I was like, this is kind of how I want my podcast to be. Who was better to do it than with my husband, bringing in the exact things that we are going through while having these sleepless, sleepless nights, raising an infant with tongue ties and lip ties that wasn't nursing well, the fact that we didn't know about cognitive leaps that babies go through at certain uh progression throughout their lives and what that meant for us and all this stuff that just came about. It's like, well, we can't stop at a podcast, so then I had to write my book, and then I had to start a village, and then I'm like, okay, what else can we do now? Because people need to. What's next? Yeah, it's like sharing my story is healing for others, it's healing for myself, and it's getting others to open up about their stories and kind of get past what I went through and not knowing, not being able to envision what it could potentially be like, even if it was scary.
SPEAKER_00:I agree, you know, I I love books, but reading a book, I would rather hear someone's experience than read a book. And knowing that you live this and you're helping other moms is huge. And I'm sure that other moms are so thankful that you are doing this because I'd never heard of anybody doing this before. So, you know, you're like this anomaly, you know, where people just rush you, going, Oh, can we talk? Can we do that? You're like, ah, wait, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's it's pretty beautiful when I get to go and speak for this resource center when they hold events and I share my story, and people come up to me afterwards, and they're like, I went through the same kind of thing. Like you said in the very beginning, Kat, we all go through the same process to have a child, but we all experiencing it completely different. Different, yes. And there's still similarities that we all share in this the mental health behind it and the physical health and environmental health of what's going on around us. And it's just pretty powerful when we can actually speak up about it, even though it's putting our experience out there when we may not want to.
SPEAKER_00:Being vulnerable, yeah. I think people are attracted to that actually. Yeah, it makes you more approachable.
SPEAKER_02:Sure.
SPEAKER_00:Do you think that you going through all this would have been a lot easier without COVID being part of it?
SPEAKER_02:That is a great question. It is why not that my husband and I discuss frequently, um, because we want to try again. And Kat, I didn't have a natural birth, but it my birth was very traumatic and it made us not want to have another child. And it's taken us five years now to be like, okay, let's get excited and try this again, because I do want to try having it a different way. I want to try the natural route. I want, I'm more empowered. I have better, uh, I have a better village behind me, even if I happen to be isolated for another worldwide pandemic. I am way better prepared. So I don't know. I can't tell what it would have been like then. I just know that I want the opportunities to try a different way this time.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And just to be clear, I did have natural childbirth, not because I chose it, because I definitely would have chosen the drugs. I'm just gonna say. Um, it just happened that way. So people are like, oh my god, you had natural childbirth. No, that wasn't a choice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and the cesarean was not a choice for me. It ended up being emergency, and you know, it yeah, it was crazy. I'm now I'm choosing, you know, I have a bigger problem.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. So, Jill, did becoming a mom change how you view or viewed or still viewing being an entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_02:Oh gosh, I never in my wildest dreams could have again envisioned myself being an entrepreneur. I definitely thought it was like the glamour life that you see on some socials of you know, people vacationing and having all this money that it just like it brings in. Um it was just fantasy for me before I started it. And I ran it to the ground hard when I first started out, trying to take on all these clients with a newborn who was not sleeping, and realized this is not for me. I cannot have this many clients, I cannot be working while my son is awake, and I needed to really flip-flop how I was doing things, scaled back on my clients, stopped working during wake hours and only worked during naps. Um and since then, since knowing some of these tips and tricks on how I want my life to be, rearranging my days to reflect where my priorities are, I learned so much to make this adventure that I'm on of entrepreneurship so much easier and enjoyable. So it changed completely from day one to five years later, and it changes every year as well. Because I definitely have these seasons of like, I can't do this anymore. This is way too much. I say that every day. But then I get to do something really exciting, like host an event or launch a new village, and like okay, this is not so bad. I know I'm making an impact, and people out there need me, or I have a conversation with someone like okay, that just made the whole year worth all of that pain.
SPEAKER_00:So absolutely. So when being an entrepreneur and a mom, how do you and I I'm trying to find a way to figure this out because I don't have a small child anymore, he's now a grown man, but I it's combining the mother and the business part of it. How do you do that? Or is it different each day? Because I get up and I come to my office and do my thing, but you have to work around school schedules, you have to work around lunch and dinner and all this other. I mean, is it just something you're used to doing now, or did you have to, was that difficult for you to find a way?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, so difficult to find a way. I am control freaky. Having a baby made me learn a lot about that. Newborns don't follow anyone else's schedule but their own. Right.
SPEAKER_00:And if you don't know that lesson, you'll learn it very quick.
SPEAKER_02:That was the hardest lesson I've learned in the last five years is that my, you know, my child obviously comes first and their schedule is a priority, not mine. So there was a lot of that shift. And one of the positives of this, and the reasons I I stayed with being an entrepreneur, was that I could involve him in everything I did. You know, I went to a networking meeting for a um a women's business group, entrepreneur group here on where I'm vocally living. And I brought him, he was probably just a few months old, and I nursed him the whole time because he was just unruly and crying. And I I thought when I went to this that they were welcoming in that way, but I was told that if he kept up being unruly, then I'd have to leave. And I was like, oh, this is not what I did this for, so I am going to probably never come back.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:It disturbed me, but then I realized you know, I found my community and where I am, and then I can show up with him in whatever state, and that's what I wanted to build, also was business that I could do that, that I could show other moms that they can do that. I mean, I definitely got a lot more work done when he was napping and not in my arms because he wouldn't uh yeah, of course. Um so yeah, lots of lessons learned in how I can be both mom and business at the same time, as well as find boundaries to separate it for my own well-being, where you know it it is what it is. And I within the last two years, this is very recent because my son is now of school age going to kindergarten in this season right now. Um, and I've always kind of put it off in the summer, not being a time of heavy work, because it is the time that I don't have daycare or that I don't have as much help in watching him. So I had to learn that I just need to mimic my son's school calendar. When he is off, I am off and just allow myself that break. Yes, because one that's gonna make me better mom and better entrepreneur, also is gonna make my son better at respecting our boundaries when I do have them.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I was just remembering, I told you that my son didn't take breaks but or naps. And there were times when he would play so hard that it would be super quiet. Now, anyone listening who has a boy, if it's quiet, that usually means it's bad news. Okay, because they're getting into something. But every now and then it would be really quiet. And I tiptoe in and he had fallen asleep right where he was playing. And I remember I had a friend of mine with me, she goes, Don't you want to wake him up? I go, No, don't you dare. And he would take a 15-minute power break and boom, he was ready to go again. So I have a question for you, Jill. Do you ever get the question of moms who feel resentment? Not from being a mom, but sometimes they just want to take the load and just put it over here for like an hour. Because I can tell you I was a single parent, and it's not that I didn't want to be a mom, but sometimes I just didn't want to be a mom for a day. Like if I could just take all of that and put it in the closet for the day and go out and play like my son did. Do you ever get women who feel guilty about feeling that way?
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh, I love this question because I feel this way. Um, and I don't just have mom outbook and podcasts, but I have another podcast with a girlfriend of mine. It's mucked up my self-care, and we talk all self-care. And I know you have a salty sister, Yvonne.
SPEAKER_01:I do.
SPEAKER_02:You get to hang out with and talk a lot about play, also. To shift my thinking about self-care in stopping worrying about how to fit it in and instead just join my son in the play that he does. Allow myself to feel that story that he does when he's just enjoying my company because it is heavy being a mom and throwing there being an entrepreneur on top of it. That the responsibilities that we hold, we want to just kind of set aside sometimes, but that's all of who we are. Um, one of the things I I usually say to my son is, I'm changing my name. Don't call me mom anymore. Please, I cannot handle the mom, mommy, mom, mom, mama. But pick a new name this time. And that's just, you know, it's because it is heavy to be the one responsible for another human who can't take care of themselves. Right. A lot of responsibility. Yes. And when we are in even our businesses, and we sometimes call them our babies, and there's a lot of responsibility there. And sometimes we're just like, you know what? We gotta close shop for the day, but we can't do that in motherhood. Right. Turn it off. I mean, yes, I can go ahead and have my husband watch them for a day, take them out, but I still have that like thought in the back of my mind when are they coming home? I have to like be here to make sure I can turn right back on, or whatever those thoughts are. So I can't say for other moms who are feeling that way, just know that I can hold space for them because I feel that way. I can relate and I know what's been helpful for me, and really is that self-care. And I enjoy in these little moments of let's just go outside and play in the grass for a little bit, or you know what, I'll take a break from doing what I was doing because you obviously need my attention for a little bit, and we're gonna get on the floor and play. And I'm not gonna try and do my own thing. Instead, let's just be in that moment together. And that's really helpful.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's really helpful resentment shift.
SPEAKER_00:I know there were times my husband always claims that I'm a slob, and it comes from being a single parent, and I would have to get out of my uniform, put my workout clothes on, and go teach a class. I didn't have time to fold them neatly and put them away and everything. But I will tell you that there were times when my son would say, Mom, can you play with me or can you do this? And in the back of my mind, I'm going, I really need to clean, but I chose to play with my son because you don't know how many of those moments you have left with them. And boys are notorious for pulling away from their mom at a certain age, you know. So I wanted to hold that close. And I'm glad that I did. But what's surprising is that my my husband, who was the neat freak, um, has become more like a slob, and I've become more like a neat freak. Go figure, right?
SPEAKER_02:Subject between them.
SPEAKER_00:So Mama Outspoken is all about helping moms find their voice. How did you find your own voice in those early days of building your business?
SPEAKER_02:Um, you know, it really came down to the help that I got through the Postpartum Resource Center of New York. Um, I've been volunteering for that organization since oh my gosh, the 90s, the 1990s. Wow, that's a long time. Yeah, they're they're housed in my church, so it's just been super easy for me to help towards their mission throughout my whole life. Um, and in the 2017, I think it was the year, I became officially a volunteer for the organization and started to really immerse myself in what postpartum mood and anxiety disorders were. And I was embarrassed to call for help in my third week postpartum. My son was only three weeks old when we called for help because it was that bad that I knew things were not okay with him, and I was not okay myself. So that is what I needed to get over to even share my pains. And being that we were in the pandemic, my friend helped me out so much with um professionals who would be able to help me. She was a huge support calling me twice, almost four times a week, just to check in. How are you today? Are you taking care of yourself? And that check-in then turned into, I need you to share this with someone else. You got help from me, you are getting help in this time in a pandemic. Would you be willing to talk to someone? You know, someone was actually doing a um an article about mothers in the pandemic at that time. So I was like, you know what? I've always been up for sharing my why, why I was interested before I became a mom. So nothing's different now as to why I'm still interested in this help, other than now it's personal. Now it's happened to me.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And having to get over that embarrassment of I wasn't strong enough to be able to do this on my own. And that's in my own head. That's not accurate at all. I was stronger for reaching out and getting the help.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Yeah. I think I started advocating for myself by advocating for my son. And I said to myself, if I can if I can advocate for him, because we have this natural mama bear mentality, right? Protect your child at all costs. And I thought, well, if I can advocate for him, why can't I speak up for myself? Because it felt different. Speaking up for a child is just speaking up for you. That's what you do. But speaking up for myself was different. And I had to realize that if I can do it for my child, I I better speak up for myself. And I'm glad that I did. Jill, what is the most courageous or uncomfortable truth you've ever shared publicly?
SPEAKER_02:It might have been what I just shared now. Um, you know, writing my book was probably like letting everyone see the insides of me. And the rage that came with my postpartum, depression and anxieties has been the most uncomfortable to um to be honest and truthful about, but so necessary in the the thoughts that came about because of it. We go through these intrusive thoughts we talk about, and in this postpartum season when we are unwell, it is it's almost disgusting in the moment of I can't believe I thought that about myself, let alone my baby. That's I think uncomfortable. Um, and we do that with our businesses too, saying I'm not good enough to do this, or who am I to go ahead and put this out here? Um and that's exactly what it was, just almost like 10 times louder. And um that that's the hard stuff for me to talk about, but the necessary stuff to share.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I just think that sometimes, you know, books, commercials, they show motherhood as this wonderful thing, and it is. But they but people can get the wrong idea that when you have this idea of I don't want to be a mom today, I don't want, you know, I just want to go out and play like like kids do. People say, oh, how can you think that way? You know, you're a bad mom. And I'm like, I'm just being realistic. I mean, I I got chastised for it. And I was like, okay, I'm not gonna say that again. But it was, it was my truth. You know, I just really wanted to, you know, let go of the have-to's, you know, just for a little while, just for a day. And I think when my mom, um, my son was very close to my parents and to my little brother, and my mom would say, Hey, why don't you send Nate for the summer after school? And I was like, Yes. Oh, I'll miss you, honey. Woo! Because it it just felt like this, this, this weight was lifted off of me, you know. So for anyone listening, yes, I love my son dearly, but you know, there are times when I was just like, oh my God, this is such a lot.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So, Jill, in a world that often expects entrepreneurs to hustle nonstop, how do you define sustainable growth, not only for you and also being a mom, but also for your business?
SPEAKER_02:I think grace is a great word to put in here. That while I tend to think I'm not doing enough in anything, I'm giving myself the grace because I'm also like doing a lot.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:I don't see it. I'm very hard on myself in that I could be doing more. I should be doing more. If you know, you just mentioned, you know, taking the getting someone to help out and take the child, your child off of your hands for a little bit. And you have the decision, am I gonna go work in my business or am I gonna take care of myself? And we get that little bit of feeling of guilt. And it's like, you know what, I have to give myself the grace because where am I at today? Am I capable of moving forward in business, or do I really need to take this moment for self-care? And that's that's what's helping me in that, in in moving forward to grow not just me as a human being, but also my business, to be the example for other moms, because that's really what does come out of this business. It's not that I am producing things, it's I'm really just living my life as proof that someone else can live a life like this, also and grow a business, whatever that might be. And mine is just to help moms, but now I need to be the living proof that I can do both. And when I am not feeling like running my business, I need to honor that sometimes and go ahead and go with what I'm I'm being led to to do, whether that be rest, to have joy in that moment, to go ahead and just be out by myself. Most times it comes down to doing work anyway, because we're never turning our minds off. It's like exactly brainstorming sessions of just being in a fresh new place. So we're just giving yourself the grace that it's not that you have an open moment, you have to be working in order to grow and to have momentum. Those moments of rest also get us there too.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I think I've seen you grow tremendously um, you know, as an entrepreneur. And even for me, and I know we're talking about, you know, entrepreneurship and and babies, and and we had my husband and I had left for a few days to to go see family. And I came back and our flight had been delayed. So I didn't do a podcast, okay, for Tuesday. Flights delayed. You know, back in the day, I would have just freaked out. I would have been like, oh my God, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. And I said, you know what, I can do this tomorrow. You know, so this was Monday. Um, my podcast comes out on Tuesdays, and I said, I'll I'll do it in the afternoon. And I didn't freak out about it. And I was like, is that good or bad?
SPEAKER_02:That's growth.
SPEAKER_00:So growth is good. Um for me, that was that was a growth moment. So, Jill, when motivation, when your motivation dips, what practices help you recenter and move forward?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, all right. So, this is something I haven't talked about yet and is intertwined with everything. That to introduce you to sticky note time, that is my recenter. Um, sticky note time is a process to pretty much sit down and evaluate your priorities and then calendar them so that you can do things the right, the right things in the right order, right timing, all this fun stuff. But it's it's really shifted me from feeling like I have this never-ending to-do list, which does stop motivation, to something I could just pull off and do when I have the time to this week or this day, and gets you to just do a little bit more in a little bit of a different way without the pressure of this long list of things that I just know I have to get done.
SPEAKER_00:And keeping that long list in your head.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, we talk about we have big heads, that's why.
SPEAKER_02:You know, the other thing is um, you know, if you're not keeping it all in your head, you're wearing a backpack, you don't imagine you have to give it all on your shoulders and you feel like you have the weight of your shoulder the world on your shoulders because you know, as moms, as entrepreneurs, as humans in general, we we just carry all of our decisions on us. But to get that down on a piece of paper, to be able to pull off and not feel like I have to get it done now, because now I know, well, it's important, but I don't have to get it done this week. It needs to just be done this month, exactly. So it changes that, and I can literally feel my shoulders just loosen up a little bit, raise up where they're lighter, and stand with better posture and attack the day then in the right way.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. For anyone listening, sticky note time is a chance for you to get everything out of your head personal, um, business, whatever. And what I love the most is when I peel a sticky note off and I put it and I'm like, oh, I still get excited about that. I'm like, yes, I got that one, I got that one, I got that one. So it's it's the equivalent of check marks. You know how you check mark stuff off. You pull that sticky off and you don't throw them away, you put them in a little container. So at the end of the year, you can say, This is all the stuff I got done. You know, so it's it's very rewarding in that way.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, just a different outlook on this to do less. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. So you've created a village and a movement. Um, what do you hope that you can provide for future generations of moms when they see and look at your life that you're building? Are you are you being a mentor? Are you hoping women, you know, pre, post, and otherwise moms, um, you know, trying to be that, I don't want to say role model because that sounds really heavy. But what are you hoping other moms who are moms now, but you know, future moms, what what are you hoping to that they'll see in you?
SPEAKER_02:Well, oh my goodness, this is a great question, Kat. Um one of the things that was told to me throughout my my whole entire since I became a mom in pregnancy till now is I had the support of others who said you are a great mom. And they said it in you were going to be a great mom when I was pregnant, and they just constantly encouraged me and I did not believe them. I didn't believe them for a very long time. But in alongside that, someone said, You were the mom you were intended to be. And that is what had hit me, and that is what I want to show is that I wasn't intended to be somebody else over here, or to look like this or that way, or to be able to actually, you know, I wasn't intended to live this perfect life. I was intended to figure it out. I am figuring it out still every day, and so the message I want other moms to know is you are the mom you were intended to be. Um, and to to be the living proof of that, and to just continue to be my best version of myself and be honest and open about it, I know can make an impact in someone else. And that's that's just the influence I want to have in others, is to be able to make an impact, allowing them knowing that you're the mom you were intended to be.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I love that. So, last question, Jill. If you could go back to the Jill who was just about to launch Mama Mama Outspoken, what would you tell her now, or even other entrepreneurs? What would you say to that, to that Jill at that time?
SPEAKER_02:Um, oh boy. Now I'm gonna think about what I was like then. Um goodness. Well, you're the entrepreneur you're intended to be, no like, and that's the end of the show, folks. Um, no, it's just go ahead and practice and put yourself out there to do it. And I I would have told myself to listen to what the others are telling me when I need to do it simple. Because that's what a lot of the lessons I've learned have come down to be is how would it have been in the my dark days where I couldn't have done something complex? Like if you were to give me simple, how do I make that simple always? And that I think is what I would told myself then is to go ahead and listen. Don't try to make it how I would have made it when I was pre-baby, but simple. Just go back to the simple because if I can't figure it out when I needed simple, then someone else isn't figuring it out when they need simple.
SPEAKER_00:And they need simple, absolutely. Um, I think also just walk getting through the fear of it, and I think fear stops people and then the perfection. People want to be perfect. Nobody wants perfect because nobody is perfect. So when you see, you know, I I still look at Instagram, I see these perfect Instagram posts, and I was like, okay, but I'm not interested. It's too, it's too perfect. I will tell you this. I got an email today, and this is this is proof that this is a real person. It said hi, and it said email first name in parentheses. And I was like, that's from a real person. So before we end, what would you tell anyone who is maybe they're on the fence of being an entrepreneur? What kind of encouragement would you give them?
SPEAKER_02:I don't think it hurts to try. Um, I think we can find something, yes, that we're passionate about and to be able to use as a stepping stone, but you won't know if it won't work unless you actually try. So going first is scary. Like you said, fear is definitely something. Being a perfectionist is another thing. So trying and doing it simple. And that is, I think, the best way to start. And it's the way I wish I would have started.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we all we all want to do it hard. Hard and perfect. That's what we wanted. We we had to do it hard so that we can talk about that. But easy is probably the easy button, as our mutual friend loves to say, is the way to go. Jill, I want to thank you for being on this episode of Sisters in Service, the Entrepreneurial Journey um podcast and talking about this because someone is out there listening, going, wow, she did it as a new mom. Maybe I can do it. So anyone who's out there listening, you know, the entrepreneurial journey is different for everyone. But when you have that passion in your heart to do something and it keeps nagging you, that's a good indication that maybe you need to do something, maybe you need to put yourself out there. So thank you for listening. Jill, thank you so much for being here today. And as always, please stay safe, take care of each other until next time. And always, always remember it's never too late to start your impossible.