One of the things that I know is imperative to success in motherhood, womanhood AND entrepreneurship is the ability to trust yourself and take big leaps. Today’s cohosts, Grace Kraaijvanger and Jess Ryan, have such strong beliefs around helping women feel empowered use their intuition and try new things, I think this is going to be a great conversation!
Mama Advantage Moments from this Episode:
What is our Mama Advantage?
- Grace’s Advantage is her ability to pivot, see the impact, and be open to change. As a mom she’s learned things won’t go according to plan and has learned the most when things fall apart, which is what she applies to her business
- Jess is still discovering her mama advantage which seems to change in every stage of parenting, being present has become her advantage: having to be present when things are not always calm and quiet and easy
Let’s Talk about our ability to pivot and be present:
- ‘Pivoting is not failing’: this has resonated throughout my business from the beginning
- Instead of always wishing we are on to the next thing, we need to be present in what’s happening now
- Just when you think you are present and on the path, there are things that come along to pull us off the path, we have to be disciplined as a mom and an entrepreneur to stay true to our path and ideals
- Jess explains how if she wasn’t a parent and and business owner, she couldn’t have done either as well
- Grace is sharing her experiences with jumping into the unknown and how much scarier that can be, but that’s where the real stuff happens
- We have to ‘walk the walk’ of what we are encouraging other women to do, it’s what we believe in so strongly for women but it can be harder to apply to ourselves
We’re talking about the tools we use when we’re not ‘walking the walk’:
- Grace is sharing how her dance background has helped her to feel when she’s not grounded and it’s time to re-center
- We teach what we know, and we also need to know what we teach
- Jess explains what happens when she ignores her signals that it’s time to re-group
- You can’t just ‘muscle your way in’ and jump onto someone else’s path, we’re talking about how to stay on your own path
Jess and Grace are sharing what’s inspiring them right now:
- Grace is deeply inspired by women who use their voices in a purposeful, authentic way. This can only lead to beautiful things for women, whether it’s big and public or in a smaller setting
- Jess has been inspired by her students who are exploring big issues like our environment, portrayal of women, and how to help them and our society to shift ‘out of the box’ and facilitate that space for people
- We’re exploring how there used to be certain things you would do to be a ‘feminist’ and now there is such a range of how we can use our leadership qualities to ignite conversation and change
- There’s a place for all of our different responses and a place for all of us to have a voice
How do we set our kids and our future generations up to make these shifts and changes?
- We’re exploring the idea of ‘living it’ when it comes to making these changes to model for our children
- With Grace’s children being older, she’s been able to really talk to them and share how her path is going, good or bad
- We’re showing our kids it’s okay to fail, it’s ok to fall down, and it’s ok to make our own path
- One of the best lessons we can teach our kids is to just show up, in our business, in our lives, in our commitments
- Sometimes the best things that have happened in our business were the things we never saw coming
Jess and Grace are sharing their advice for other entrepreneurs and mothers:
- We have to be careful in our speech patterns: framing our ideas as ‘little’ pushes them aside and is sometimes the main thing we need or want to be doing, we don’t need to apologize for that amount of passion and heart
- When we are stuck, writing 10 minutes a day can fix it quickly
- We have to try and recognize what we’re avoiding: it may be something asking us to pivot, or asking us to feel an emotion to clear space
- Doing something physical can shift so much with negativity and getting sucked into bad patterns mentally and emotionally
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Links:
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Bios:
Jess Ryan, MS, E-RYT is the Mama CEO of OurRealWork.com where she guides people through major life and spiritual transitions. Using tools from life coaching, Shamanism & energy work, to scientifically proven body- and mindfulness-based practices like yoga, she helps people do the real work of discovering their most authentic self and bringing their soul into their everyday, real lives. She is also the co-founder of dharma. The Institute for Awakened Living and is adjunct faculty at the University of Wyoming.
As a former professional ballet and modern dancer, Grace Kraaijvanger’s career began with the very fortunate experience of doing work that she loved and was passionate about.
As her career evolved from dancer to mother to marketer to founder of a women’s collaborative work lab, The Hivery, she has always been committed to the mission of inspiring women to pursue those things that instill creativity, passion, and purpose.
