Hey there, wellness entrepreneur! Welcome back.
Today, we’re talking about how when you create success in your wellness business, whether that’s online, in-person, a hybrid, six figures, multiple six figures, and more, when you create that dream that you really had envisioned, when you help people the way that you desire, when you’re seeing abundance in your bank account and your time, when you’re able to implement your own wellness practices and spend time with your family and just do the work that you love, not only does this create a fulfilling life for you, more time, freedom, more flexibility and freedom of choices, but also you’re influencing the generation behind you.
Your children are watching you and your work not only impacts how they feel and what they think. You’re able to change generational patterns, heal generation patterns, maybe it’s the relationship that you have with your children, maybe it’s just the time you have available for your children, maybe it’s going to influence the work that your children decide to do, their careers, their mindsets, their beliefs and what’s possible for their futures and you’re going to leave a legacy behind.
So this week, the podcast episode, it’s all about how your wellness entrepreneur business is yes, for you, but it’s also for your legacy. So, we’re going to talk about things as a wellness entrepreneur that you can pass on to your children and I have a special guest!
My daughter is home today. She’s on her last day of summer break before she heads off to fourth grade, heads off to school tomorrow, and you can read about her perspective of what it’s like to have her mom work from home, what it’s like to practice yoga with her mom ever since she was in her mom’s belly and experience different wellness practices like body work and seeing her mom work with clients and patients since I do work from home and my schedule and all the things, so you can start to envision what’s possible for you, your children and your legacy.
A Quick Backstory of How My Business Began
So my daughter has been involved with my work ever since she was a born. I actually first started off as a wellness entrepreneur. You may know my story of how I was let go as an employee. I was working for my mentor. Well, my daughter is nine, so nine years ago, and I was fired because, well, for a whole bunch of reasons. We don’t have to get into that right now, but I was let go and I had old patients reach out to me and inquire, “Hey, Alison, I want to drive to see you even though you’re 30 minutes away. I want stay with you, your work, I want to experience your work only.”
And so I started my own business without much savings since I was just coming off of maternity leave. My daughter at that time was about four months old or so, four or six months when I was let go, somewhere in that neighborhood, but she was young and I was just coming off of maternity leave and had used my savings for maternity leave. So I hadn’t planned on starting a wellness business. This would be a thing. If I could do over, I would change. I don’t know if I would have gotten a mill job because I couldn’t see myself practicing in a traditional physical therapy clinic any longer because I didn’t want that burnout of seeing three to five patients all at one time, 20 plus patients a day, not being able to do yoga, massage, coaching mindset, breath work, all the things the way I really imagined.
But if I had a job that really allowed me to practice the way that I desired, or at least a job that I could just hang in while I build up more savings before I started my business, I would recommend to do that if you’re in that position. Build up lots of savings and start hitting the revenue months that you want to hit before you leave your job. But I wasn’t in that position, so I don’t have that opportunity to do over again.
But my daughter started to see my work because here I was, she was a few months old and I started working out of the back bedroom of my house so I wouldn’t have to take on overhead. And I didn’t want to drive in San Diego traffic. That just drives me bonkers. So I didn’t want to be a mobile therapist so I just started working out of the back bedroom of my house.
So my daughter got used to seeing people coming to our house as she grew into a toddler. She would love to welcome people into our house and say hi and bye before we walked into the back bedroom and started our session. So my daughter’s been with me doing this work, seeing this work, practicing yoga, seeing me teach yoga. In fact, she used to come with me when she was just a few months old to maybe 13 months, 18 months in the Ergo backpack. I taught for the physical therapy program at San Diego State University. I taught yoga therapy trainings with her in the Ergo pack.
She fortunately was very, very good and her and I got a good rhythm on I knew when to feed her and when she would get fussy and how to walk around. So I could teach with her in the Ergo pack because my husband and I don’t have any family here in San Diego and I hadn’t found a reliable nanny at the time or our nanny’s hours were maxed out even when we did have a nanny. So she came a lot of meetings, trainings, teachings that I did.
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Lessons That I Want To Pass On To My Daughter
So she’s been involved since the very beginning. And I made it work because I truly love what I do. I love working with my clients whether it’s the wellness practitioner side, the business coaching side. I love to teach yoga in all its capacity. I love to teach workshops. I love to network and meet other entrepreneurs. I love to present all that I do. It really fulfills my soul and my cup and my daughter and my family are so important to me too.
So that’s one of the lessons that I pass on to her. It’s how I can personally love what I do and spend time doing what I do and I love her too. And it doesn’t mean that when I do work, it takes time away from her or when I’m with her I don’t need to feel guilty that I’m taking time away from my business either. I can do both and I know how to set my boundaries. I guess you could call them for my working day and for my time to be with her and at times be present in my business. And times like today where I get to do a little bit of both. And right now she’s actually hugging me while she’s waiting her turn to come on and share her story of what this has been like.
But the other lesson that I’ve been hoping to pass on to her is how she can do what she loves. So for example, there was a time we had five rescue animals, right now we have four. And she loves being with animals and her pets and we’ve had discussions of maybe how she can work with animals in all the various fashions like working in a zoo or possibly being a vet or someone that helps to rescue animals that are stuck on the street and hurt and all these various ways.
And I want her to know no matter what it is that she decides to do, that she can love what she can, she can love what she’s doing and have a passion for it and she can get paid well as well. I want her to be able to have both, especially in the wellness entrepreneur community.
I see so many people who are so skilled at what they do. They help so many people, they change and transform so many people’s health and wellness and yet they’re struggling in some ways themselves, financially or energetically, either they’re just overworking, trying to get everyone in and help everyone and over-serving or they’re not charging, I’m not going to say charge what they’re worth because that’s very elusive and it’s not a great way to set your pricing, but just their business model or their structure of their business isn’t allowing them to have an abundant bank account, which is another energy leak in itself.
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I can tell entrepreneurs who are stuck here and no shame, I’ve been there myself, overworking, hustling, trying to pay the bills and make ends meet because again, I started my business without saving so I’ve been here and that’s I think maybe how I can tell when an entrepreneur is stuck in this way because maybe it’s in their body language. I’m like, “How do I describe this over a podcast?” Maybe it’s just the energy cues I’m picking up but I can detect a note of depletion.
I can detect a note of they’re on the borderline of possibly starting to resent their business or resent their clients and their patients, who they love and who they care about but only because they’re not having their cup filled. They’re not having their own needs met and I can pick up on that and it is a passion of mine to turn that around for people, not only for them but for their children because I truly want my daughter, I don’t want to show her that I’m overworking and hustling and not getting paid and that’s how she should live her life too.
I want to lead by example and show her that she can do the work that she loves and be creative, like here I am, working from a she-shed from home because I love working from home and I get paid. Our bank account is abundant and full and I have time freedom for her too, my family as well, especially her and I want to lead by that example. So that is one lesson I hope to pass on to her.
Another lesson I hope to pass on to her, she’s squeaking me, squeezing me very tightly in a hug and that’s why my voice is shifting right now but another area is I want her to be able to care for herself and spend time and money on her own wellness practices without guilt.
So there has been times where I’ve said, “Okay, I’m going to yoga class,” and she’s asked me to stay home and as much as I would love to stay home for her, I know in that moment if I had stayed home, yes, we would have had a wonderful time, but my cup would not have been replenished or my nervous system might not have been re-regulated because yoga is a nervous system reset for me. So I would feel the negative consequences of that possibly the next day or that night where I don’t fall asleep quite as easily or I don’t wake up the next day feeling quite as replenished, which doesn’t serve her because I could be more quick to get angry at her and have a shorter fuse and or I might not be as a productive in my business.
So at times like that, no matter how hard it is, I always say, “Honey, I love you. I’m going to go to yoga class. Mommy needs this right now. I will be a better mommy if I do and I will come back and we will do something together,” or sometimes she goes to bed. So we plan something the next day.
And recently she’s been coming to yoga class on my Monday night yoga class with me. Not all the time. I let her choose. Some nights she wants to stay home or last week Sean and her did a daddy and daughter date at the beach while I went to yoga and sometimes, she chooses to come to yoga and I just want her to know that these practices, sometimes we talk about getting massages, Sean and I trade massages or we have a massage therapist come to a house and give us massages. She knows that I also go to acupuncture, my doctor’s appointments for my cancer prevention, naturopath, all the things she sees me do it. I discuss it openly with her and why I’m going to these appointments. I talk about my health with her. We talk about diet and nutrition. I want her to know how both A, that caring for herself and health and wellness, she should never feel guilty spending time and money on that. And B, I want her to know how to do that and start to trust her own body of what she needs.
So as a wellness practitioner, we talk a lot, a lot, a lot about this and I hope she carries this with her. But I can get a sneak peek that it is already ingrained and imprinted with her because just yesterday, she had a play date, a friend over at the house and that friend and her, Kaylee wrote a book on her iPad all about dragons, a dragon adventure, and she wanted to print it out for her friend. So our printer is in the she-shed. So all of us walked down to the she-shed and she printed out her book and we started talking about massages and Kaylee wanted a massage and then she wanted her friend to experience a massage. So I know that she does understand so I can see that really blossoming within her.
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Summary Of The Lessons I Hope To Pass On To My Daughter and Create New Generational Patterns of Health and Wellness
Okay, so I’ll just summarize these four areas that I talked about that I hope to pass on to my daughter and create new generational patterns of health and wellness and healing and relationship and bonding and taking care of herself so that she can live the life that she desires to live.
Number one is showing them that they can do what they love and get paid well for that.
Number two is by practicing your own wellness practices guilt-free and explaining what you’re doing and why. You’ll also teach them how to care for themselves and invest time and money guilt-free as well.
You’re also going to teach them how to care for their own health and wellness by leading, for example, and just carving out time in the day to have discussions about ways to care for the health.
I mean, you’re the practitioners so you do know all the things and just having honest discussions about that with your children. And also number four, telling them how much you love them and your work. And when you’re spending time in one or the other, it doesn’t take away from one or the other. You can do both and doing well in both, setting out time to be present as a parent, setting out time to be present as an entrepreneur, as a practitioner. And when you’re doing all of those well, they actually fuel and grow themselves.
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So let’s get Kaylee’s perspective on having a mom working from home and growing her business.
Alison: Okay there, Kaylee, why don’t you introduce yourself here? How old are you?
Kaylee: My name is Kaylee and I’m nine years old. And the school I go to is Paul Ecke Central. We’re getting another cat. We used to have five, but now we have four.
I like my mama because she works from home. And she can give me massages for my friends and me. And we have a playground that’s right out of her shed. So I can just come into the shed when I need. Or I can ask her for help if like one of our animals gets like hurt, especially like our puppy who always gets into trouble.
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Question to Kaylee: Okay, tell them what it’s like to have your mommy working from home. And why do you like that or do you like that?
Kaylee: I like my mommy working from home because if like something bad happens, like my cat Sasha caught a mole and it was very chaotic. When that happened, I liked it. When she worked from home because I went down there and I told her about that problem. And then she said that she could come up and help me about it. And I also like it because when our animals get hurt. Yeah, like when I said, I can come down and tell her about it. And she can come up and check on me. And then from time to time when she has time, we can play with each other.
Alison: I love that. This year, we really started to bring in more independence where I’m able to be down in the shed and Kaylee’s down in the house. And she is just thriving with that setup.
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Question to Kaylee: So Kaylee, tell them what it was like when mommy used to teach yoga teacher trainings on the weekends. And now what it’s like when mommy has the weekends to be at home with you.
Kaylee: Well, when you were gone the house and you couldn’t play with me, I was really sad because I had like nothing to do. And I also really missed you. And I barely got to spend any time with you. But now that you have a weekend that’s free with me, then now we get to spend some time with each other and that makes me happy.
Like over the weekend when we went to a bakery and we got some brownies and we also went to CVS. And my mama was there to have fun and she scheduled a play date for it.
Alison: Yeah, what else did we do over the weekend? Not just treats and CVS. Did we go to the beach?
Kaylee: We went to the beach and I had a movie night dash sleepover. Well, it was supposed to be a movie night. Well, first it was supposed to be sleepover. And then my friend, her grandma was visiting. So her mom said no. But then during our movie night, we asked her mom again on my iPad because my mom’s phone and my iPad are connected. We asked her mom and she said yes. So we had a sleepover over the weekend. I went to the beach with my other friend and I stayed with dinner with her. I had to play it with another one of my friends yesterday and it was a lot of fun this weekend. Thank you, mama.
Alison: You’re very welcome. Yes, so we get a lot done. We do everything from the chores and errands, which actually I totally appreciate doing with Kaylee these days because when she was younger, when I first started my business, I was leading yoga teacher trainings and workshops most weekends. So like you heard from her, I wasn’t home too much and she missed me, I missed her. And it was, I couldn’t even do running to Trader Joe’s or CVS with her. And now we can do that and we have so much fun doing it plus the super fun things like beach and pool and play dates and all the things.
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Question to Kaylee: Okay, so a while back, I had a commercial office down the road, which do you remember that?
Kaylee: Yes.
Question to Kaylee: And what do you like better, mommy working from home or mommy in that commercial office space?
Kaylee: I like you working from home, because sometimes I would miss you a lot, but now today I can come down and help you or ask for help if I need any. And at the other place, sometimes mama would get locked up and then mama would have to call the owners to unlock it or tell her the passcode. And once when we got in, the siren came on so it was really loud and I started screaming.
Alison: Yes, you see, they’re watching and remembering. I did not remember that at all, but yes, I did lock myself out of my office at one time and Kaylee and Sean, my husband, came to the rescue. So it just reminds us that they’re retaining things that even we might not remember. And what do we want to leave behind for our children?
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Question to Kaylee: Okay, Kaylee, let’s talk about our wellness practices. So tell us about what you feel about yoga and massages and all that kind of stuff. So tell us your version.
Kaylee: Well, I like yoga and the massages because well, like for the yoga, it’s like always something new to like practice and stuff. You always show me like something new and like you’ll help me with some of the poses that I need help with and help me with new poses. And for the massages, like if I have really bad shoulder cramps or leg cramps, like once I woke up with like these two really bad shoulder cramps on both my shoulders, I couldn’t move them. Mama helped me and massaged my shoulders and it made them feel much better. And the next morning I was fine.
Question to Kaylee: So what do you learn about Mommy being a wellness practitioner and a business coach? What lessons do you take away from this? Or what do you feel about this? Or how do you feel about this?
Kaylee: Well, I feel, so I feel, well, I like Mama’s work because she can help me a lot. She can help me when like I need help, like when I fell on my face. She helps me when like, like when I can’t move my, like when I like pulled a muscle or like I have bad cramps. And I like her shed because it’s nice. It’s in our yard. And like I get to come visit a lot of the times. And there’s a whole bunch of plants and crystals and I just get to see my Mama a lot of the time.
Alison: That’s sweet.
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Question to Kaylee: Also, honey, how does seeing Mommy do what she does, her work that she loves? How does this help you decide what you want to do in the future?
Kaylee: It helps me like think of what I should do in the future. Like should I do like what you’re doing? Should I do something similar or should I do something that’s like not similar at all? Or should I try something new? It basically helps me because you like try something new a lot of the times and that helps me try something new.
Alison: I love that. You can do anything you want, honey.
Question to Kaylee: Okay, Kaylee, tell them what it was like to meet some of my patients and clients.
Kaylee: It was fun because I got to meet someone new. I got to say hi to them and watch my Mama do her work and I got to be in her shift and it was fun.
Alison: Yeah, and some of the patients have gotten to know you for several years now and watch you grow up. How do you feel about that?
Kaylee: Good. Good. I like, some of Mommy’s patients, they bring me like, like they have kids and they bring like the things that their kids have grown out of.
Alison: Yeah, you get some special gifts, don’t you?
Kaylee, thank you so much for sharing all your information and taking time to do this with Mommy. It’s been very special. Can you say bye to everybody and say anything else you want to say before we leave here?
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Kaylee: Bye, it was great talking to you all. See you next time.
All right, there you have it. Some inspiration from a nine-year-old on possibly what you can leave behind, what lessons you want to impart and how you want to live your life and spend your time in both your working day-to-day as well as in your business and of course the time that you have with your loved ones because I mean, these days they really do go so fast.
All right, I hope you have a great rest of your week and I’ll see you next week. Bye for now.
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