Mom Owned in Five Cities and 5 Kiddies with Emily Reynolds Bergh

SPEAKERS

Rita Suzanne, Emily Reynolds Bergh

Rita Suzanne  00:01

Welcome to the mom owned and operated Podcast, the podcast about moms and for moms, where we have candid conversations about running a business, raising a family, and remembering ourselves. I’m your host, Rita Suzanne, a single mom of four, digital strategist and provider of no nonsense business strategies and tactics. Hi, my name is Rita Suzanne. And today I have my guest, Emily with me, Emily, thank you so much for joining me. And please tell everyone all about you, your family and your business. 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  00:39

Hi, thank you so much for having me. My name is Emily, I own our public relations. It’s an online public relations firm. And we serve pretty much every major city in the country and a couple overseas. My background is a writer, I co wrote a book in grad school with a good friend of mine, and my life is a juggle like many of you between momming and mom owning. And that’s what I’m excited to talk about today, along with whatever questions about PR we can come up with. So how many children do you have? My husband and I have a blended family of five kiddos? And

Rita Suzanne  01:31

yeah, that’s it, you’re you’re constantly busy, because you have all the kiddos and then you have your business, which is PR and like I was saying to you initially I’m so excited to chat about more PR, because I think that that’s what a lot of people need, right, they need more exposure they need just to get more eyes on their business. 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  01:55

Absolutely. I mean, the thing about PR is it can help you grow eyes and ears on your business. But the thing that I love the most is even people that might know about your business. When you work in the PR world, it’s often the bulk of PR is earned media. And so what that means is you have your PR team help you get articles written about you, essentially is like nuts and bolts of that. And so even people like my family members that see articles written about our PR, like, oh my gosh, I didn’t know this is what you did. And this is the kind of clients you work with. And this is the type of team you have. And this is the type of mission that you have in your business. Like it kind of creates this relatability which is the relations part of public relations. So that’s really what my company focuses on is not necessarily all about the like Buzz builders, but about the relationship builder so we can keep keep the good things going. Just just like yourself, connecting people and networking and making sure people aren’t just, you know, a name that they have context to what they’re up to. 

Rita Suzanne  03:11

Yeah, I love that. Because I think that that’s the piece that people are missing, right? It’s the relationships, they think that you know, if I just network or like, Have you ever been to one of those events where you know, someone is just like, immediately, like, hey, buy my thing. And you know, you’re like, first of all, or like somebody even on social media trying to like instantly pitch you something and I’m like, even know you at all, like, tell me, you know, so 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  03:44

Yeah, yeah, even if it’s a good friend, and they’re like awkward about whatever they’re selling you or there’s no context to it, it kind of can throw you off and not make you something you might want, it might just give you a turned off by so you don’t actually want to write 

Rita Suzanne  04:01

Because the way that it feels like they feel so it feels so desperate in their attempt to sell that, you know, it is definitely a turn off. And so that’s why I try to tell people’s like, really, you just need to build up relationships. And I think as moms, we are so busy that it’s like okay, well this is my time to sell and I’m just gonna go in here and I’m gonna sell and I’m not gonna really think about, you know, the, the actual long term of building relationships. So I know you have five kids and you’re like, you know, doing running this business and how are you doing like all of that without, you know, losing your mind?

Emily Reynolds Bergh  04:45

Um, the short answer is sometimes I don’t know if I’m actually doing any of it like if like all of us, you know, you feel like you’re really excelling in one area and the other area. Oh my gosh, I like just start today, our two year old. I was like, oh, did I spend enough time with my older kids like I spend with her? I think that’s just like the generic answer that we can all relate to. And I have that as well. I think the best advice that I’ve been given, it’s just time management. Like, this is my time to work. And this is my time for my family. And non negotiables, like dinner time with my family is a non negotiable, like no phones, I don’t have meetings like, nobody, like, oh, wait, I gotta go get this. Like, thankfully, PR for the most part is not like an emergency situation. It’s not life or death. And my husband is a web developer programmer. And so his Isn’t life or death either. So we can like actually unplug when we need to. And I think that just keeps our sanity. Yeah, last year was my first year taking like, one full on like unplugged vacation for a week. And we’re doing it again, this coming Saturday, actually. So I was, it took me 12 years to get to that point, which I wouldn’t recommend, I think that you can like, be your own boss and actually be the best boss you’ve ever had. Or the worst boss, it’s totally up to you. And as women, I’m pretty sure a lot of us are like our worst boss most of the time. And so just to remind yourself, like, what would make me have a healthy work life balance, and then like, actually do it and write it down? Like, look at it, write it down and talk to your friends about it. And hold yourself accountable to it. Yeah. 

Rita Suzanne  06:40

Right. And I’m like you, it took me eight years to take a vacation. And you know, other than just one or two days off, where I would burn out, you know, because I was working so much. I was working through the weekend, I was working all the time. Like, from the time I woke up until the time I went to sleep. And it was because I was under charging and overworking. And you know, I was just burning myself out continuously. And so one thing that I like to do is just say, Okay, look at your schedule or calendar and say, I need to block off this amount of time and for the entire week, and you know, have that as like your yearly thing. And you know, that way, you know, okay, I want to take three vacations this year or three, three weeks off, right? So then you can look at the calendar and block them off in advance, without it being a last minute spread. Oh my gosh, freaking out trying to get other people to do your work. And so that’s what I started doing going forward. And that really helps. Because now I know that in August, I’m going to take this whole week off because the kids are going back to school or whatever the case is. 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  07:52

Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s super smart to to like, again, time management planning, or we’re often so good at that for our kids and for other people. And I think most moms are not the best at that for themselves. So yeah, if you can just be like, even if it’s not three weeks, even if it’s start with one, then work to two, then like whatever you need to do just kind of give yourself baby steps. My best friend had her 40th birthday last week, and we went to the city and she had an appointment on Monday. So it was like a work day in New York City. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I went with her. And I was like, This feels so strange. I haven’t just like taken a random Monday off. And then I was like, wait, I own my own business. Like I can do that. I mean, again, it was just like reminding myself and I just, like relaxed and enjoyed the day and like, of course caught up with everything the next day. But yeah, I mean, it’s not going away. work isn’t going anywhere. But your kids are third growing. And so, you know, I think that just those unplug moments when you’re actually unplugging, like really allow yourself to and it’s still super hard for me. 

Rita Suzanne  09:09

Well, I mean, I would say that most of us wanted our businesses so that we could create time and financial freedom, right. And if you’re not giving yourself the time, freedom that you need in order to replenish yourself and you know, the rewards, then this is what causes us to like burnout. And I see like with a lot of moms, we are overwhelmed, right? We are trying to juggle all the things and we start to lose ourselves as we become mothers as we become business owners because now we have a business baby that we’re trying to take care of and we put so much effort into both those things, then we stopped really taking care of ourselves. Yeah, we totally do. Yeah. So what are some mistakes that you Oh, have made like since you started your business. Well, how long have you have you said 12 years you’ve been? 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  10:07

So I had my daughter, I wrote our I wrote a book with my friend when I was pregnant. And then I had my oldest Laila. And then I started marketing and PR and freelance writing and just like a bunch of different things. And then I actually started our PR about 12 years ago as like a company. Yeah, so um, yeah, I had my like, discovery phase, and then was like, No, I really like this. So yeah, mistakes I have totally done like, the biggest mistake I think I made as a young entrepreneur is just undervaluing myself, like, doing freebies doing trades. Now even like, in, in very, very seldom circumstances, as long as like the hourly is like very similar. I’ll do a trade for service. But I still catch myself like oftentimes undervaluing myself, but it has gotten a lot better than it used to be. Looking back I’d like what I used to do was is like makes me cringe. But that is something I also see with contractors that work for me and RPR. And I hope I help them like grow and value themselves. It’s one of the missions I especially with other moms, I like to help empower. The other big mistake, I would say I made was not valuing my own business sense, my own intuitive business sense, I spent a lot of money hiring a business coach, that I went into debt hiring, because I was like, this is going to save my business and I’m going to be so successful and nothing against him. But I just am not a huge corporation where like, you can kind of outsource and have like coaching for you know, that not that coaching is coaching is great. But like, for me, I just didn’t trust myself. So that was something that I look back on and say like, if you’re going to outsource for things, like make sure that you are ready for that and that you kind of vet the right fit for you and your business. Rather than just like jumping into things without like really putting a plan to it. The other thing I would say is clients like you can fire clients. I didn’t know that when I started my business. I often like with just be like, oh wait, you want to work with me? And so like hungry for any sort of client that I didn’t look at? Like, are you a good fit? Are we a good fit to work together and that kind of piggybacks on my like number two advice about like who you outsource to. And thankfully, my husband can like hear me in the other room and be like, oh, like he’ll hear conversations with like discovery calls, we call them and be like, I don’t know if that was a good better, like that person sounded great. Like you guys sounded really good. And sometimes just having a another person’s point of view. To help you vet that if you’re not good at that I’m not I love every human being I’m an extrovert. So like I can, there’s no such thing as a stranger to me. So I struggled with that immensely. So if you’re somebody who also sees yourself in that way, definitely come up with a system to make sure you’re working with the right people. And like you don’t have to work with everybody. I mean, even if you’re selling a product, make sure it’s somebody who is a good fit for being an ambassador for you. If if you can, you know, I mean, as long as you you can have that. And if you’re like you know, expanding and exploding until like hundreds of grocery stores, like make sure that your brand is a good fit for partnerships and stuff like that. So yeah, that’s those are the three things I would say. And I’m probably going to think of other things, but those are the three for today that I think would be something hopefully people can learn from. 

Rita Suzanne  14:19

Well, I think that there are so many lessons and you know, just business and it just changes and evolves. Right because I could say that some situations that I’ve had with coaches also haven’t been that great, right? But I think what it is is what I don’t like is when they try to give you in like a one size fits all program, you know and don’t really understand your business and don’t really know your business and I think that that’s where the problem lies. And when the clients come in looking for like a fixed it all situation, where it’s like Like you said, like, Oh, my business is gonna be so great once I implement all these things, and it might not necessarily be the case, you know, so, right, I think that that’s a lesson that a lot of us have to learn is like, you know, what is good for somebody doesn’t necessarily mean it’s gonna work for us. And we might have to tweak it and make it work for how we work. And you know how our business is because as moms, what we need might be different than what a single male might need in his business or his life. You know, or even a married guy with kids, like, a lot of times, what I’ve noticed is, you know, they’ll talk about this, you know, hustle mentality, this, that and everything, except they’re not the primary caregiver for the home for the children, and for all the other responsibilities. So it’s easy for them to say work non stop, but at us as, as moms, we can’t we can’t do that we can’t put in that same energy. So that solution is not going to be effective for us. Right? Yeah. 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  16:10

Yeah. And, you know, I think that goes into, I’d say, my number four, as you were talking would be knowing your lane, like, you know, I often would get caught up with my people pleaser, ness, and be like, oh, yeah, I can do this, I can do that. I can do this, I can do that. And then like, before you know it, somebody who hired me and my company to do PR, I’m like, all of a sudden on this other lane, and then they’re like, your PR sucks, when my PR doesn’t suck, it would just be that I tried too hard to fulfill too many buckets. And then I’ve got like, super messy. And, and yeah, I think that’s like self identifying and knowing that like, Hey, this is what I’m really good at, you know, like, I’m really good at this. And, and to be honest with your clients, or customers, or whatever you call them. Like, yeah, I can refer you to somebody who’s awesome. And being okay with that as like being not not being abundant with your referrals, because that’s just gonna make them respect you more and also, like you be happier with what you’re providing. So right, 

Rita Suzanne  17:24

you’ve become focused on this one thing, versus like, Oh, yes, I can do everything. I can do all the things. And maybe you can, but it’s not going to be effective, as effective as somebody who specializes in it. Right? 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  17:37

Right. Yeah. And I think that then you can say, Oh, I do need a coach to help me with this, like, I do need this to help. Because you’ll have your niche and you’ll have your identity. And then you can kind of put those pieces together. Part of my personality and other moms might relate to this as I’m just like a jump in headfirst. I’m not like a plot and plan for years, and then figure it out. I have had some clients that have planned their passion project that’s now their business for years. And they’re like vetting everybody very carefully and methodically, and I still respect that I’m just not like that, I’ll never be like that, like I’m just always going to jump in. And so knowing that about my personality, I have to kind of create my own barriers to make sure I’m making the best decisions. And then, you know, my advice to my, my colleagues or clients that are more of the methodical type is like, occasionally, like, allow yourself to jump in sometimes, you know, set those up for you just like I have to set my my barriers up. So yeah, it’s like, so much of owning a business is like any relationship we have in our lives is, you know, what are you contributing? What are you getting in return? And how to manage both and you know, make yourself feel fulfilled at it? Yeah, yeah, 

Rita Suzanne  19:00

I had to recognize that I had so much on my plate, right that I Like You I was just continuing to pile stuff on my plate and oh, no, I can handle it. I got this I you know, will give me I got this plate. The plate is just overflowing things are falling off right and left because I my plate was just too too full. And so I had to and even with my business, I had to streamline everything and just like say, You know what, I’m not going to do this anymore. I’m not doing that. I’m not doing any of this stuff. And not even just delegation, but services wise, you know, it’s just like, No, I just, I’m gonna stick with this one thing. Just as that’s it, this is one thing because I could not handle all the things you know, and I think as entrepreneurs, like you said, we’d like to just like, do all these things I want to do you know, it’s like oh, my My gosh, I just saw this, this is a brand new idea. It’s amazing. It’s gonna, you know, it’s gonna take off. Everybody’s gonna love it. And I but you know, there’s so many things, I think that sometimes for us, it’s hard to prioritize which things we should be focusing on. And, you know, because that shiny object comes over here, and we’re like, Yes, that’s what I’ve been waiting for. 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  20:23

Yeah, and I sometimes do get motivated by the end result, like, I’ll just be like, wait, I need the shiny object object, because then it’ll actually help me be more productive. I, I’m, in my husband’s always like, that’s, like, it’s so weird. Like, you really are. Like, that’s what motivates me sometimes. But then again, it’s like, knowing yourself, like, knowing that the way I do things is sometimes like, the end and then working backwards. And then sometimes not like, it’s just not it’s not one way, it’s very circular. It’s very, like, you know, like, you describe, like, how did how to juggle without making a huge mess, right? 

Rita Suzanne  21:05

I can’t, I can’t drop everything. Alright, you know, it’s like, I can Yeah, what things do I need to keep, you know, in this, or, you know, basically on the plate, that’s what I had to really figure out, like, you know, what, what things can I keep it because otherwise, the whole the plate was just gonna fall, everything was gonna fall, right. It’s like, I was, it wasn’t good. So, you know, here, I am now with, you know, a lot of streamline things. And you know, and I think that that helps me, one thing that I like to do when I come up with new ideas is I’ll go put them in, like my little list of ideas. And then I won’t revisit that, you know, like, leave it alone. And then I’ll walk away, that’s my solution to all of my new things, you know, or like taking on new things. So yeah, 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  21:54

that’s such a good solution. And your way might work great for somebody else in my way might work great for somebody else. And then like maybe like the total disaster for somebody else. Exactly. At the end of the day, I’m like somebody who likes to collect different things that people do successfully, and then make my own, which is probably anybody listening, that’s an entrepreneur, you’re probably you. That’s why you’re an entrepreneur, if you want to do it yourself. Yeah. And so it’s, I find myself constantly doing that. And most of the time, anything, I feel like is such an urgent thing when it comes to my business. And like, I’m just like, I’m too hyped up about it. It doesn’t always end up well, and anything that I might take my time and tell somebody, Hey, I’ll get you a proposal in a couple of weeks versus like tomorrow, you know, it’s like, they build more respect for you. You have more time to think about your positioning. And yeah, I don’t think that we need to be like overdoing it. Like, you know, it’s can be a minimalist slash mindful approach to what we do. Yeah, I think that’s it’s so hard for us as moms to even think like that, right? Because we’re like, Oh, I gotta do everything. Since we talked about mistakes. Talk to us about some of your wins that you’ve had over the years. Oh, yeah. So wins, mistakes are so easy, right? And the winds are like, um, I would say, winds would be having gone from a brick and mortar like only word of mouth business to 90% remote. We live on a mountainside right now in the middle of nowhere. My husband and I and my business is still very functioning and fluid and I’m very connected to my clients even though some of them I’ve never even zoomed with. We just have like phone and email relationship, which is crazy to me. Um, so that’s a huge win. Because I’ve love being a nomad like I want to, I think when we first met, we talked about this, like I love travel, my husband and I have traveled almost for two years between an RV experience and Airbnb hopping, we decided to go like, one month here, one month there when our kids were in remote school, to our favorite places in the country. So that was like a huge win, like having that. Pipe Dream turned into a reality was was really awesome. A huge win for me also is being able to pick my kids up to make my dinner to wait for my family to build like a quality of life and run my business and that’s huge, huge props to everybody I work with. I’ve built an amazing team of people that I completely trust and that are very qualified and amazing at what they do. And that’s taken me many years and knock on wood. We’ve been running with this team for over seven years now. And it’s it’s amazing. And if anything, it’s just new people have come on, but the core people have been around. And I think the other win would be being really confident and secure about the product and service that we offer, and fine tuning that, like on a daily basis. We’re always thinking, Okay, what’s our onboarding process? What’s our onboarding process for a campaign that ends and renews? And like, how do we meet people’s goals and understand what they’re hiring us for, and then make sure that we’re a fit for that, and that their their success is being met? And, you know, at a lot of points, it’s always been like, Well, I think you have a successful campaign. And somebody might be like, well, I need this or that. And so learning that to like, on the front end, really provide that. I think we do that really well. And so I think like being excelling at that niche that I’ve like been focused on, even though I am somebody who likes to veer off the path I like still like to stay focused with, with a PR PR, and my kids are like the two things that I like, constants. Right? Yeah, they’re like constants. Yeah, exactly. I’m obviously my husband, but like, he and he’s part of that. But yeah, I think like, those two things I could just talk about for forever, my kids and my profession, and a lot of us probably can relate to that. Being able to like have that I think is huge, you know, being able to, like be passionate about what you do, when you’re not with your family is is a huge win. 

Rita Suzanne  27:03

Right. And I think it demonstrates to our kids that they could do whatever they want in life, right. And I think that this virtual, you know, world has really opened up a lot of opportunities, because I know, when I started my first business, many moons ago, it was, you know, it was all local. And so, you know, you had to find your clients locally. And so now we can work with anybody in the world, we can live anywhere in the world that we want. And I think that that’s a major win for all of us moms who want to be at home with our kids, but still have a business that is thriving, that we enjoy, and you know, that it kind of helps us, you know, have a little bit of purpose, you know, and help other people. 

Emily Reynolds Bergh  27:53

Yeah, exactly. I think that, you know, there’s been so many challenges the past couple of years. And just last night, my husband and I were talking about like, the shock of just the world stopping and, you know, all of the changes that we’ve all had to endure and then like a one thing that I think we could all like Everybody I talked it was like, Thank goodness for like the Zoom blow up, you know, the Zoom is like the Uber of our, like, last couple of years, like you can connect with anybody over coffee no matter where they are, and like, have this lifestyle where like now these small communities like the one we live in, has this whole mix of people that have moved from the city that have you know, now impacted the schools and like, you know, people that can now move and I think like moving in, in the literal sense, but then also just like, you know, being able to work from anywhere, like having that as an option. And we were ahead of it right because everybody’s trying to learn all this and we already knew what was you know how to do right you know, zooming and and all of these other things and you know, I think that that’s that’s amazing and one thing I don’t know if this ever happened to you but before it wasn’t as acceptable to have like your kids you know row round while you were on calls but now after everybody got to see what it’s like to work from home with their kids I find it even more acceptable now that your kids might be in the house they might make a noise while you’re here now and before though it was always like Be quiet like I’m on the call you know I’m I’m on my call up you can’t Don’t come in here you know I don’t want anybody to see you as if they don’t already know that you have children you know? Yeah, it’s the world we live in. And and I’m in your right it’s become like socially more more socially acceptable. I would say like I would love it to be Even more, because I can’t tell you how many times people are like, Oh, how do you even like, like the trust that I’m good at my job and have all the kids? It’s like, how do you even function? It’s like, well, I can have children and a profession, like, right there with me constantly, you know, they are interruptions and you know, they do have their own needs. And, and I see, you see that, but even when you work in a corporate environment, you’re still you still have children, you know? Yeah, exactly. And oh, my gosh, my husband would be the first hire who worked in a corporate environment, he’s like, the most distracting I mean, you’re sitting in a cubicle, someone talks to you, there’s the coffee breaks, there’s this, there’s the meeting. Like, he has way more distractions in his work than I do in mine. And it’s hilarious to us. It’s like, there’s so many unnecessary meetings, sometimes in these corporate environments that like, I can get stuff done way more efficiently in between, like, eight and three, then, because I just focus on what I need to do before my kids come home from school. So yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s funny how it’s just, I think we’ve, at the end of the day, hopefully, as a society, we’ve given up the thing, right? Like you need to sit, I need to touch and see and feel who you are, but before I can trust you to do your job, and it’s like, well, I mean, if you kind of still rely on that, you might be missing out on some really great people that you could be working with, that aren’t right next to you, and write great relationships that you can formulate. And I think most people are really open to that, like, wow, why didn’t I think of this before? You know, like, we’re having the I like the split, you know, because I, you know, having worked from home for so long, it can be so isolating. I know, you know that. But you know, I don’t have the split schedule. I you know, I work from home 100% of the time, but if I worked in corporate, I would have I would have liked that split. Whereas like, on Sundays, I want to go into the office and I want to socialize, right? Yeah, I just want to go socialized. I would be not effective at my job. But I would definitely be effective socially. If I went into an office, for my mental, my mental so we had an office at our PR and it was beautiful. Like, aesthetically, like people would walk in and be like, this is like a design studio. Like it was so cool. I love design. So it was super fun. I will tell you, I at the time, got little work done. Like I’d have to go home and my hours were so intense, because we were always like chatting and coming up with ideas. And it was awesome. But then I was like, Oh my gosh, didn’t get my work done. And I’d go home and the kids were going to bed. And I’d have work until like two in the morning. And to get my work done. I got it done. But it was just like, oh, man, I do miss it to what you said like, but Social, I’m way more effective, virtually. So one thing that I always love to ask moms is, you know, as I mentioned earlier, we, you know, focus so heavily on our kids and on our businesses. One thing I like to know is like, what are you doing for yourself?

Rita Suzanne  33:20

You know, to room for yourself?

Emily Reynolds Bergh  33:24

That’s a great question. And again, a tough one to answer. I think the thing that I’ve learned to do for myself is not necessarily like always, like this grandiose thing, like I think it’s just making sure that you know, is something as simple as like, this morning, I just lit a candle, like made this atmosphere and doing that knowing that we were going to have this talk and just made like atmosphere comfortable. And that felt like a contribution to my mental health. And like scheduling things like I love tennis, like a tennis lesson I have this evening and I yeah, I definitely think there’s like sticking to the schedule things for myself, like I do for my kids to make sure that they’re they’re getting their needs met. And you know, for me, it’s like one thing a week. Like for them. It’s like 10 things a day, but that’s okay. I’m happy to provide that for them. And like, yeah, so I think it’s just me, again, putting it in the schedule. I put the things in the schedule, just like I do my meetings, and I used to not do that. I used to be like embarrassed to put that in my schedule. Like, oh, that’s selfish, or I shouldn’t do this. And now it’s just like, No. Well, I’m glad you’re doing that now. Yeah. For you. So where can everyone find you online? So you can find us that’s our PR firm.com and on Insta grammar we’re really active at at our PR firm. And anybody can shoot me an email questions follow up, curiosities Emily at our PR firm.com. Thank you so much for being a guest. Emily, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you. Oh, thank you for having me. Look forward to more conversations.

Rita Suzanne  35:22

And there you have it. I want to encourage you to remember that being a mom who runs her own business is not easy. We all struggle, but just keep moving forward. And don’t forget to make time for yourself. As moms we are usually the first thing to go to the bottom of the list. If your business is overwhelming you and you need real solutions, not just some sugar coated suggestions apply to work with me at ritasuzanne.com/apply