Running a Business While Pregnant: My 3 Biggest Cash Months Yet [ep. #177]
Hello lovely lady and welcome to Higher Self & I!
Is it possible to keep running your business while pregnant and still smash your cash goals? Yes, it is! Dive into today's episode where I reveal how I navigated my three biggest cash months during the early stages of pregnancy. I pulled back the curtain on the strategic moves and mindset shifts that powered my business forward, even as I was growing a tiny human inside me.
You'll discover the importance of preparation and why having a rock-solid system in place is non-negotiable for any business owner, especially when life throws you a curveball like pregnancy. Also, you'll learn how a crystal-clear vision can not only guide your business decisions but also empower your team to support you through thick and thin. And find out why detaching your self-worth from your business's performance is a must for both your mental health and business success.
Join me as I get real about the challenges, the identity shifts, and the ultimate triumphs of entrepreneurship during one of life's most transformative phases. Whether you're expecting, planning to be, or just looking for ways to future-proof your business, this episode is packed with tips you won't want to miss.
Topics covered on Running a Business While Pregnant:
How do I run my business while pregnant and what were the biggest challenges so far?
How did I manage to have three of the highest cash months in my business while pregnant?
What are the three key strategies that allowed my business to thrive despite personal challenges?
Why is having a solid system and structure ahead of time crucial for business success?
How can a clear vision transform the way you build and run your team?
In what ways does subconscious work help separate personal worth from business outcomes?
What steps am I taking to ensure my business remains visible during maternity leave?
Connect with Bec:
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Quote:
“A sign of a sustainable business is that business, it's still thriving even when you're not." - Rebecca Haydon
Transcription: Our AI tried its best, but expect a few quirky typos in the transcript. Embrace the imperfections and enjoy the read!
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Higher Self I, your go to podcast that will release you of your victim mindset and become your one way ticket towards the mind blowing results you desire in your life and your business. I'm your host, Rebecca Haydon. Mindset Business Mentor, ready to help you unlock your mindset into gear and empower you to step into the person you always knew you were meant to be.
[00:00:37] A badass CEO who is here to claim her frickin millionaire life. Ready to find out what life could be like if you just did the thing? Let's go, baby. Hello, beautiful lady. Welcome back to Higher Self I. Bit more of a personal, vulnerable one for you today, as I know you all love me opening up to my world, what I'm navigating, what I'm doing.
[00:01:03] Going through how I'm dealing with it, and I have been quite open and quite vulnerable about this exact topic. You've probably already seen the title, but today we are actually diving into how I had three of the biggest months in my business, which was January, February, March of 2024. Whilst growing kidneys and a head and a heart, no, growing a baby.
[00:01:34] And I really wanted to kind of dive into this from a logistical point of view, really open up to What I've been going through and how I've been feeling, but also to show you how a business can run and how you can run your business and still have things going on, still being able to navigate things, still being able to show up, still being able to be present with clients, to hold space with clients.
[00:02:02] And I really wanted to spend this time really going back through the last three months, going back through January, February, March of Q1 of 2024. To almost show you that things can be happening and you can be feeling certain ways and you can be navigating things that have nothing to do with business, but still have a very profitable, successful, incredible business.
[00:02:31] And there is, that comes down to really three things that I had during those three months that I'm going to be diving into today. So. Let's set the scene. Obviously, if you've listened to my pregnancy podcast, which I'll tag in the show notes, we were, we had very much planned baby Leanne and, um, we'd spoke about it, we'd spoke about it for quite a long time and then had kind [00:03:00] of scoped out when we thought would be the best time for her, now we know, for her to come, worked out the dates, did all the planning, not going to go any further than that.
[00:03:10] So. We did get pregnant on our first try, which I know is very unheard of, and I'm extremely grateful and extremely lucky that that has happened. Um, but actually that kind of came as a bit of a shock, even though we'd planned it, even though it had happened, even though I knew that that was what logistically it was, I think it didn't really sink in until it kind of happened, if I'm honest, like it didn't really sink in to be like, Oh, right.
[00:03:41] Okay. Like I. I'm going to be on maternity leave in August. I am going to be having a baby. Like things are going to have to look different. My business is going to look very, very different. And it was a real eye opener for me and almost threw me into this. A little bit of an identity crisis, if I'm honest, because the way I have been running and building my business could no longer exist with the baby to an extent.
[00:04:09] I will still obviously have one to ones, etc. But I can't be as involved with one to ones as I am right now. And, uh, I kind of went from this identity of let's grow the business to, you know, I make, creating a million pounds this year, um, in revenue to like, wow, okay, how am I actually going to do that now?
[00:04:35] Like, how am I actually going to step into that and actually thinking so far ahead, which not a lot of business owners do. I don't see everyone. Everyone who comes into my one to one have been running their business flying by the seat of their pants. And if you've listened to many of the podcasts, I've done a lot of podcasts around this, around, you know, having structure in your business, having understanding, everything being linked, everything being very strategic.
[00:05:03] And that's something that I was doing way before I got pregnant, but it's something that I really had to turn up over the last couple of months. So since January, trimester one was not great. Um, I wasn't sick or anything like that, but the hormones and the way that my hormones have shown up in day to day life has been really, really challenging for me.
[00:05:27] And The, the kind of anxiety that I felt and the overthinking that I've had, and this worry that I've had, um, around things that I would never, ever, ever have worried about before, thoughts that I haven't had for a very long time, they all started coming to the surface and it felt really difficult because I kind of like flew out of the gates in January, I just had an incredible November and December.
[00:05:57] That was also like a really huge [00:06:00] cash month, you know, too high, very high revenue cash and revenue months for me, November, December. So I was like, Ooh, okay. Like I'm out the gate, things are happening. We're going, we're going. I had just launched PowerUp, which was my kind of mini mind, subconscious mini mind.
[00:06:18] And things were moving, things were happening. And I was like, let's ride this wave. And that wave carried on consistently because of things I had in my business, but I couldn't ride it the way that I had been riding things in the past because the energy levels weren't there. Literally days I was creating kidneys and brains.
[00:06:39] And we've got this app that we're following at the moment that's called What to Expect. And at that time, like every week. We would like tap in and be like, right, it's Friday. I'm another week on, like, we're in week five now. What's happening this week? And like, we would check what I was doing that week and what I was creating that week, but despite all of this, despite this, these thoughts and feelings and exhaustion and just me not being me, my business still thrived and I get a lot of people who ask me.
[00:07:14] Or say to me, you are literally Superwoman, like, how are you doing all of this? And I wouldn't necessarily say I am Superwoman in the fact of like, you could definitely be doing it too, and you would definitely be able to navigate it too, if you were to have these things in place. And it's only because of the structures and the systems and the operation and the team and the way that I've built my business, that is very strategic, that has allowed me to.
[00:07:48] Have it thrive, like to, to keep it soaring. And I don't want to sit here and be like, look, you've got to hit a kind of like next big month again, after next big month, after again, next big month. Because if you actually look at businesses outside of the entrepreneur space, a lot of them are on like the up and down trajectory.
[00:08:05] Some months are great, some months are not. And that doesn't mean anything to like their worth or their success. Like that's just business. So I think there is a bit of a narrative in the entrepreneur space, but you have to like continuously keep hitting a higher month again and again and again. Um. But it, yes, it did happen January, February, March, but it was because I had these things in place and it's really important.
[00:08:31] Now, it kind of prompted me to do this podcast because one of my clients, and this was just as I was in my launch for Magnet, which is my subconscious marketing course, which you can still buy, I'll pop the link in the show notes. One of them said to me, watching you launch over the last four, three months has Has been tiring.
[00:08:54] Like it's felt tiring for me. So God knows how you feel. And actually when I'd finished that call, like I [00:09:00] didn't really think too much of it, but I started reflecting on that comment and I was almost a little bit like, you know what, I haven't been tired. I've been tired from growing a baby. Yes, but I haven't actually been tired of launching, of putting things out, of being in this consistent launch.
[00:09:21] You know, I've launched three things over January, February, March. So I did power up, I went into the mastermind launch and I went straight into Magnet. But actually the reasons why I didn't. Did that was so strategic and are going to carry the business into maternity leave, and I needed to create in my business because it has been so heavily scaled on one to one, which I am unbelievably proud of.
[00:09:50] So many people said that you couldn't do that. And I have been the anomaly. Like I have scaled my business to multi six figure years, year in, year out, with one to one being the predominant and I'm not working every day under the sun and my clients know that and they know the boundaries and I'm not doing calls eight hours a day anymore.
[00:10:12] I was there, I was there, but. I was the, like, I really was an anomaly with that. And I knew that that couldn't carry on as I was in maternity leave because in maternity leave, I can't swap time, my time for money. So I actually, I actually, from the start of the year had to start to be a little bit more savvy with what I was putting out.
[00:10:36] With what I was launching, with what that was going to look like and what things I'm setting up for maternity leave. So it was never tiring for me because I had a strategy behind it. And I think a lot of the times this is where people fall into launches because you're like, shit, I need to make more money.
[00:10:55] Let me launch this really quickly. And my whole life depends on it. When we launch in that way, of course, that's going to be tiring. Of course it is. If you launch without having a plan or a system or content or emails set up, of course, that's going to be tiring because every single fricking day, you're trying to do something for the launch as you're in the launch, but actually I didn't feel tired over Q1 in the business.
[00:11:23] I felt tired because I was physically growing a human, but posting across social media, managing my team, my business, my one to ones, none of that was tiring. And these are the reasons why. The first thing I have is a solid system and structure in place ahead of time. So never am I ever. Never have I ever.
[00:11:51] Never am I ever running around last minute. And look, this is a huge identity shift for me because I grew up in a [00:12:00] house that, where we were called the last minute Haydons. And I still see my mom and my brother and my dad do this to this day. And I still full fouls, full foul? Yes, full foul to it sometimes.
[00:12:11] And I will be last minute Haydon. And I've spoke about this before. However, I can't run a business anymore, having the kick of doing things last minute, having that, like, Ooh, this was so exciting cause I'm doing it last minute. Like I can't rely on that kick anymore. I can't rely on that hit of dopamine anymore, especially bringing another human into the world.
[00:12:35] So I needed to make sure, and I did this way before pregnancy, but I needed to make sure. That I no longer identify as last minute Hayden , that I no longer have that as part of my repertoire of dopamine hits, because I can't be pulling out 20 launch emails out of my ass when the baby comes. Like it's just not gonna be visible.
[00:13:00] Visible. So I think. Having that system in structure in place, so I'm never running, like, running around last minute truly helps me to not feel tired because it's the decision fatigue and doing things last minute that actually bring in more of the overwhelm, more of the fatigue, more of the stress, which then causes your brain to shut down.
[00:13:23] Your prefrontal cortex is like, I'm not fucking dealing with this straight into the amygdala. Let's go fight or flight. So. I couldn't be in fight or flight in my business because I was in fight or flight in my life with the pregnancy, because I was like, what the hell is going on? So, before every launch, before everything I put out, before everything I did, everything had a reason.
[00:13:47] So there was a reason why I launched PowerUp when I did, there was a reason why I launched the Mastermind when I did, and there was a reason that I launched Magnet when I did. It wasn't because I fucking felt like it on the day and so I cracked it up. There were specific strategic reasons as to why I did those launches and as to why I will carry on doing the launches until maternity leave, because I was setting myself up for maternity leave.
[00:14:14] I'm setting my funnels for maternity leave. I'm setting it to be located into ads for maternity leave. I was doing it. Everything for a purpose and for a reason, which meant that the purpose and the reason was there. And I find a lot of people who you wake up one day and you're like, Oh, that's a great idea.
[00:14:33] Let me crack that out today. Like, of course, that's going to feel tiring because where's the systems, where's the strategy behind it? So all of my content, my sales pages, my emails, my story slides, everything. In the actual container, so say, for instance, Magnet at the moment, it's live and pre recorded. I'm doing a little bit of both.[00:15:00]
[00:15:00] So all of those videos were done, are done. And having that in place means that when I do or did feel really shit, On certain days of my pregnancy, and still do now, that I can go and curl up and sit down or lie down and not have a problem because everything's done. I'm not relying on myself to do it last minute.
[00:15:28] And actually that, lo and behold, Is running your business like a legitimate business, because the marketing team at John Lewis wouldn't be running around on the 4th of December, trying to record an ad for the Christmas video that goes live on the 5th, on the 4th, would they? They wouldn't be planning their Christmas campaign on the 4th of December.
[00:15:56] Like, it just wouldn't happen. So why do we not act like business owners? Because that's what we are. We're not Instagram content creators. That's part of the business, but you're a business owner. You own a business. It's, I have conversations with my brother all the time. So my brother is part of my team and he, Is, uh, he freelances as part of the team.
[00:16:24] So he works with other businesses, um, more in the, um, product space. And he sometimes gets so blown away. He's like, Bec, sometimes these businesses are like million plus Like profit and revenue. And they're sending me Black Friday campaigns like a week before Black Friday, which is ridiculous. Like it's absolutely ridiculous.
[00:16:49] Like they, he cannot get an ad campaign ready with the creatives and everything like that in a week. And it blows my mind that we. In this space have not been taught how to run a business like a fucking business. And I think like, the more that I preach this and the more passionate I get about this, the more people will realize that we don't just have an Instagram account.
[00:17:17] You have a business. So start acting like you've got a business. Start having the structure in place. I have a huge launch SOP. With my team, because there's so many moving parts and I don't care whether you've got a team or not, you can still have a standard operating procedure for each of the things that you do.
[00:17:39] You can still have all of that in place for yourself to follow, for yourself to lead yourself through. And everything happens like clockwork, the same things. And I work back and I work back and I work back and four weeks before this, my team get, five weeks before this, my team get. Like. That's how you, that's how you should [00:18:00] be running your business, which means that, yes, okay, if you do have a random idea on a Tuesday, you can have a look at your business structure and go, does this make logical sense for me to put out right now?
[00:18:13] Yeah. Okay. It kind of does. Right. Let's follow that hit, the glass to the water. But when you're going through things like pregnancy, where I have no creativity, I have no. Drive because I'm that tired. I needed structure in place and that is running a business like a well oiled machine that's organized, that's prepared.
[00:18:37] I literally sat down with the team, the podcast team today, my podcast manager, Nicola, and then here in the studio. And I said, right, like podcast. Up until November. So that means in May, I need to start batching for September, or in May, I need to start batching for November, because there's no way that I'm going to be coming into the podcast studio four days after I've given birth.
[00:19:02] And these things have to be processed. The same as Magnet wasn't a money making, um, A money making launch. Yes, we did make money. Yes, we signed a lot of clients into that. Yes, it was an incredible launch, but it wasn't for that. It was for me to have a passive course that I can sell through a funnel through ads when I'm on maternity leave.
[00:19:26] All of it very strategic and it needs to be that way because then you're following a plan. Then you know where you're going. Then you know, Oh, this is what I want to work towards. Right. What's my steps to get there? What am I doing for that? Which kind of leads me very nicely onto the second thing that's really helped me is building a business with a very clear vision and having that clear vision allows me to grow a team, yes, but it also allows me to lean on them for support.
[00:19:58] Because I've built my vision, my vision, I've built my business with a clear vision from day dot. And sometimes that vision has changed slightly. So I'll always check back in. The vision is changing again. Now I'm having a baby and how I want my life to look and where I want to go next. I'm kind of almost having that moment where I can reset the, reset the button on my business slightly.
[00:20:26] In maternity leave, because I won't have any one to one clients. So I can change the way that I hold Voxer. I can change the amount of clients that I want, et cetera. I can get ready for people to put deposits down, to start working with me one to one when I come back in November. And actually, Having that vision and having that clear goal allows me to reverse engineer what I need to be doing strategically, or what I need to be working on, or what that looks like, and then it allows me to lean on people because they [00:21:00] can bring me back to my vision.
[00:21:02] One of my team members, George, absolute hero in my business. Like, I rely on him so much because he carries a lot of the back end of my business and he knows the vision and he knows where I'm going and he knows exactly how I want maternity leave to be. So he's going, okay, Beck, we need to have this conversation.
[00:21:23] Um, to move into this because of maternity leave. And this is what we need to set up. This is what we need to be doing before that. Like there's conversations constantly with my team members that are all on board with that vision and having that clear plan, you know, a lot of the time we get so wrapped up in what to post on socials, what should I be saying on TikTok, like we get so wrapped up in the tiny little details.
[00:21:46] Details, which yes are important, but actually we forget where we're going and we forget what we're doing this all for, where we want to grow the business to and how we want to do that and actually having that clear vision, where is everything connecting? Where are the dots connecting? And that comes from you, obviously being in the business and finding that out organically, but equally going back to your big vision, going back to that big picture.
[00:22:15] And then the last thing that's really helped me grow, grow a human and have three insanely incredible months in the business is when my personal life does feel hard, when things are going on, I've spoke about this so much, I've done the subconscious work. I've done the subconscious work and I'm able to detach from my business and detach my worth from the business and detach my success from the business and how I feel about myself because of the subconscious work that I've done.
[00:22:48] The first trimester, understatement of the century, wasn't the easiest and it really, um, tested me. Subconsciously, a lot of the tools that I have in my tool belt, trust me, I have a lot, what they didn't work because it was hormonal. I was having to work with not my subconscious, but the hormones in my body, like it was something that I'd never connected with that deeply before or had to understand before, and I had to lean on other people and ask questions and get really curious about it, but none of that energy steeped into my business.
[00:23:28] Yes. And even though I couldn't physically show up on stories and I wasn't doing many talking stories in January, I was still there every day. I was using Past Becky. I was using my podcast. I was using the launches. I was using my content. I was using all the other bits of me to hold the energy so it didn't seep into the business and it didn't affect the business, and that is a sign of a sustainable business.
[00:23:56] Business, it's still thriving [00:24:00] even when you're not, it's still thriving even when you're going through a huge identity crisis and yes, there were times that there was, you know, one of the times for the Mastermind launch, I pushed back the free masterclass that I had launched by a week because I, I physically couldn't show up live on that time, but self regulation, I, I Enabled myself to give myself permission to do that rather than pushing through that really, really allowed me to step into that.
[00:24:32] So I just wanted to kind of talk about this in the way of how I've done it, because I think a lot of people don't have these structures and systems and organization in place. Which really does hinder how you feel and it hinders your business because then your business is solely relying on how you feel on that day.
[00:24:54] And I don't want you to grow a business like that because there are going to be days when life happens, when things get in the way, when you feel like you don't want to show up and what happens then? You just vanish, vanish offline for two weeks because what that's doing is actually that's teaching your audience that you don't have consistency within yourself.
[00:25:17] And the, and the trust starts to break because you're so sporadically on and off. And yes, that's not me saying that you can never take any time off socials, but can you put things in place where you can lean on other things that you've done in the past, or lean on a structure that you could put in place so you could take complete time off?
[00:25:36] And, you know, like even me planning for maternity leave, and I think I'll probably do a podcast about this soon. And how I'm doing that and what I'm navigating around that, one of my biggest missions is to stay completely visible the whole of my maternity leave. Now I'm not going to be online. I'm going to be breastfeeding and changing nappies and being sick on.
[00:26:01] Like I know all of this, but my omnipresence is still going to stay because I'm putting the planning in. I'm still. May, June, July, I'm still four months out and I'm already planning for it now. Not four weeks, like not in four weeks, not in four days, four months. I probably could have been doing it planning before that, but like, it's these little things that's going to allow to keep the consistency, not only for you, but for your business.
[00:26:32] And so I just wanted to bring a little insight in and just start to show you how you can run an actual business. Because that's what you are. You're a business owner. And if you really, truly want to grow a multi six figure, seven figure business, it, it can't just rely on you showing up on stories every day on Instagram.
[00:26:55] It's more than that. And it's such a big Part of what I teach my one to one [00:27:00] clients is such a bigger part of my messaging and my values and my mission and my purpose, because when we don't have that structure, when we don't have that plan, when we don't have that strategy in place, your subconscious, your ego, your parts will be so fucking loud that you'll never get anywhere.
[00:27:19] You'll just go around in circles, which is I, I see it so, so often. And I want you to step into the business owner you want to become. I want you to be the CEO. I really want you to hone in on that and here's your proof and here's your evidence. I can grow a human and have three insanely epic revenue.
[00:27:41] Revenue and cash months in the business. I will see you on the next episode. I'm sending you so much love. If this has fired something in you, if it has triggered you, go and have a look at your strategy. Lean on me, you know where I am. Applications for one to one are in my show notes or drop into my DMs.
[00:28:00] I'll see you on the next episode. Ah, bye. Your love and support means the absolute world to me with this podcast. So if you have enjoyed the episode today, please make sure that you are sharing or reviewing or even rating the podcast because it allows me to get into more ear rolls. Now, if we are not connect.
[00:28:24] Head over and add me at underscore Rebecca Haydon underscore. Come and say hello. I'd love to see you there and I will see you on the next episode.
More about Higher Self & I:
Higher Self & I is the podcast for ambitious female entrepreneurs who are ready to achieve and sustain mind-blowing results in their biz. It’s a show that will release you of your victim mindset and give you complete freedom and energy to jump into the self you always knew you could be. Each week, Rebecca Haydon will help you lock your mindset into gear and empower you to step into the person you always knew you were meant to be – a bad-ass CEO who is here to claim her freaking millionaire life!