About the episode
In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Jessica Hamlin discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.
Hiya! I’m Jessica and I’m a business and mindset mentor for new and aspiring Virtual Assistants! I started my business back in 2022 because I was on the verge of being a single mom due to a domestic dispute with my partner and I wasn’t going to be able to provide for my son. After starting the business, I was able to make the money I needed, provide for my family and stay at home with my little guy full time. Now, I help other moms do the same!
You can find Jessica on Instagram, and Facebook. Or schedule a free clarity call with Jessica.
Listen to more interviews by visiting momownedandoperated.com and apply to work with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/
Listen to the episode
Show Notes
SPEAKERS
Jessica Hamlin, Rita Suzanne
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, I’m Rita Suzanne.
I am Rita Suzanne, and today I have my guest, jessica, with me. Jessica, please tell everyone a little bit about you, your family and, of course, your business.
Jessica Hamlin:
Oh, thank you so much, rita. Thank you for having me. I’m Jessica and I own a virtual assistant business called Jessica Hamlin Services. I do have a very new two-year-old. His birthday is on Valentine’s Day. So I have a very new two-year-old and he’s the only one that I have currently. I think he might be the only one that I have, because it’s been as a new mom, I think it’s been a lot, but, yeah, so one little guy and I’m originally from upstate New York. I live in Philadelphia. Right now. I work with clients all over the country and one client outside of the country, so I am pretty dynamic with who I like to work with. I started my business almost two years ago. It was in June of 2022 that I started and it’s just kind of funny because, like I said, I didn’t wake up to say like I’m going to be a virtual assistant today. It was a little bit. I was a little bit backed into a corner, I was in a place of desperation and then I found virtual assisting. So just a tiny bit about my background my degree is actually in marine science and biology, so I went to school for the ocean and conservation and sustainability and all of that kind of stuff. That was where my heart was. I spent 10 years as the director of education for a large private aquarium, so I was really involved in high-level management, leadership, training, onboarding, budgeting, all the things. And then fast forward to when I started my business and I was like and I think a lot of people I feel like have this thought but what skills do I have? What does virtual assistant even do? Like I’m just a mom. And when I really started to play it back, like everything that I did for 10 plus years, I was like, oh, this was made for me. And I feel like sometimes at least the people that I’ve come in contact with when I talk to them about virtual assisting, they’re like I have no skills. I’m like that’s not true. That couldn’t be further from the truth. So that’s kind of how I got started.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I think I remember when I was still working in corporate and I was kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to do and this was, I want to say, before I had kids, and I found this e-book and it was called the Bootstrap VA and it was the most comprehensive book on becoming your own, becoming a VA. And the more I read into it, the more I was like, ok, but I was like more technically driven and stuff like that and so. But I always thought like that’s a great starter business to get into, because there’s so many different types of VA’s and you know, like what type of VA are you like? What do you do?
Jessica Hamlin:
Yeah, so I mostly specialize in email marketing and social media. Those are the two, the two biggest ones. I also dabble a bit in copywriting and ghostwriting. I am a crazy, crazy organized person. So I laugh and I say like I’m such a left-brained mama and I resonate with all the other left-brained mamas because I just I have to be organized, so that lends itself very well to a lot of like project management setup, a lot of systems setup. I do that as well, but I kind of stick to those couple.
Rita Suzanne:
Since you. Ok, so I have always been a huge active campaign lover, but I have since switched, which is surprising because I have been recommending active campaign forever. However and I am a current active campaign lover, but they have they increased their prices so much. I was like you are crazy, you know. So there’s that, but so I was going to ask you what is your favorite email marketing platform? So is it active campaign?
Jessica Hamlin:
It is active campaign. Yeah, I have used a couple of different ones, but I just find that, you know, especially when I was a beginner I mean, now I’m a little bit more experienced, but as a beginner I felt like active campaign was very, very user friendly. And you know people that kind of say like I’ve never done email marketing, like I have no idea, it literally walks you through it and, of course, nowadays, like there’s tutorials for everything. So I feel like you know, even if you don’t know something, you just kind of Google it, you chat, gpt it and you can figure it out.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I think that that way. I remember everybody was going when I everybody, a lot of people were pushing convert kit a long time ago and I kept on. Still sticking with active campaign is my favorite because it is easier to customize and I felt like the segmentation was really good, easy to create forms and integrate super, super simply. I started, yeah, when I started with selling my like digital products and stuff. I actually this is why I switched I switched from Active campaign over to mail poet because it integrates on the back end of Woo commerce, which is what I used to sell my products, and I liked that. It integrated so seamlessly that I didn’t have to do like any, like saps or any other type of Add-ons and order to make it. Yeah, and you can still do tagging. I mean, what I loved about active campaign was obviously the tagging and all of the more Complex funnels that you could create. I still feel like I could create that. Now. I feel like a lot of other platforms are starting to catch up to those. You know the offerings of them, but just active campaigns price point was starting to be outrageous.
Jessica Hamlin:
Yeah, it is. I agree with that.
Rita Suzanne:
And I remember you know other people like with entrepreneur, and have you worked with entrepreneur or Infusion software? Keep is what it’s called now I Haven’t. No, they’re very complex, that’s. That’s the thing. So when you’re doing and I’m harping on email, marketing and stuff so are you, are you like creating funnels for your clients or are you just kind of setting up the Forms and things like that for them?
Jessica Hamlin:
So I’m doing a couple of different things. One of my clients is an influencer, so we are setting up a lot of A lot of funnels, a lot of automations, a lot of forms, just really trying to, really trying to grow her her email list, because we haven’t she hadn’t really been sending anything out before we started working together and we’ve really ramped that up. So mostly, that.
Rita Suzanne:
I Love that, because then it gives you more experience and you know things that you can use to To continue to grow and because she hadn’t really used it too too much before we started working together.
Jessica Hamlin:
We’re able to Really test, test, test things together and just see like, because we didn’t know what worked, you know before anyway. So it’s really a blessing to start at that point with someone, because you kind of have that autonomy to be like let’s try this, let’s see if it works. If it doesn’t work, we pivot. So that’s been really great.
Rita Suzanne:
So because you’re kind of newer and in your business, have you pivoted at all, like, have you started? Because what I see happening a lot of times is when people first start, they kind of stay. They have this idea I’m gonna focus on this, I’m gonna do this thing, and then you know, as time goes on they’re like you know, I hate that thing, I don’t want to ever do that again. Have you seen any pivots?
Jessica Hamlin:
Honestly, I haven’t, because in the beginning, when I decided to start, I I kind of told myself, like really don’t waste your time Offering things that you don’t enjoy doing. You know, like I kind of that internal monologue was like this is your chance to do Exactly what you want to do, so take it and offer the things that you want to do. So I really haven’t had to to pivot too much, and One of the things that I always say like it’s an unpopular opinion, but I never niched down which is what they do tell a lot of VAs to do, and in some cases I find it to be totally beneficial. If you’re, you know you want to only work with wedding photographers or you want to only work as a medical VA, like go for it. For me, personally, I really enjoy working with different types of people. It doesn’t bother me to To pivot as far as industry goes, so I really like learning about all the different industries. So, like one of my clients is a she was a fashion designer and now she owns a kid’s Sewing studio and she’s teaching, she’s promoting confidence and sewing skills and stuff like that. I find that to be so, you know, inspiring. One of my other clients, like I said, is an influencer and like a business growth strategist and a real estate agent, like it totally varies, but for me it keeps me like on, it keeps me going. So I would say, for me that’s the way to go.
Rita Suzanne:
Well, I think that you know, maybe you’re not niching down to, like the specific person, but you’re niching down to the specific offers, which is a little bit, you know, different, which is a strategy, and I think you know that that’s completely possible. The only thing that I would say, as someone who’s, like you know, obsessed with branding, is that, you know, just having your target audience in mind is really super beneficial, because it helps you to write Easier, it helps you to create products easier, but, like I said focused in on your product or service offer as your target Point right, yeah, the particular industry Then I think that that that’s easy to write for as well, and maybe a lot of people don’t think that that’s you know the same thing, right, because they think, like, I need to write this in mind, to write in. Obviously, I Think that that’s one of the hardest things to do, like we’re we’re so, we’re so lucky because now we have AI that helps us write things. Right, yeah, helps you, helps you get to a point faster.
Jessica Hamlin:
I don’t like to you say I was gonna say we say take it. I always tell my students, take it 80% of the way, 70, 80% of the way, and then you fill in that last percentage. So it’s never gonna take you 100% of the way. If you want it to, you’re gonna be disappointed.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, no, I mean, I think that that you know AI is great. I just don’t think that. I think that some people rely on it too heavily. I like to use it just for outlines and and basic stuff like that, but when you start, you know, totally relying on it, then it just will and you can tell like you get.
Jessica Hamlin:
You can tell it’s no secret like yeah, you’re like.
Rita Suzanne:
You don’t sound like a human.
Jessica Hamlin:
Now I know I did quickly want to say so that of course the way that I like haven’t niched down, that’s for the client side of my business. So the coaching side of my business I have absolutely niched down, and that is right. I’m talking to moms. I’m talking to Moms that feel Stay at home, moms that right now aren’t making their own Funds and want to be contributing to their family. I want to talk to single moms. I want to talk to, you know, and we can get into it, but moms that were in a similar situation that I was in, those are really the, the people I’m trying to, you know. I’m trying to talk to now because I want them to know that there’s an option.
Rita Suzanne:
But oh you, so you’re doing some. You have like a group coaching program or some type of group offer? Tell us about that.
Jessica Hamlin:
Yeah. So right now I’m just doing one-to-one coaching. So it’s three months of one-to-one coaching. I help you set up your business from the ground up. You know everything from Making sure that you’re getting legal registering with your state, making sure that you have the proper software in place and guiding you to not have to pay for that software when you start because A little bit of market research and people are saying, you know, like well, it’s too expensive to start and I can’t start a business. You know, and I’m like, literally almost none of the programs I used when I started were paid versions. They were all free versions. They can get you right, like they can get you so far. Don’t let them make you think that you have to pay for all these things because you don’t. So I kind of walk them through that. We go through this kind of step by step of, like your social media optimization, making sure that your content is planned, you know, trying to figure out who you’re really talking to and what you really want to offer. So we kind of do it all. To begin with, we pack it in and then we start looking for clients and so far we’ve been. You know I’ve been really successful with my students have been able to find clients. So it’s wonderful. We do a lot of mindset work also because you know, speaking personally, from when I started, it was very like Imposter. You know like how I’m a virtual assistant because why like? Because who said, and so we kind of go through the mindset work of like you know you’re a virtual assistant because you said I am a virtual assistant and this is what I’m offering and this is my business, and kind of getting through those imposter syndrome roadblocks. We talk about services and pricing. We craft a really great offer. So that’s one of the options. We have a three month coaching. I also have like a really quick kind of seven day coaching. So if you’re like I don’t need the mindset work, I don’t need any of this other stuff, I just want to get it set up and do it, we can do that also. And sneak peek, my boot camp will be opening in the next couple of weeks, so that’s going to be a two week program where people get you know one on one time with me to get daily videos, daily worksheets, daily support.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, that is awesome. I love that you have, you know, almost I would say, kind of immediately pivoted from not just offering, being a service provider, but also to educating and kind of helping other moms and, you know, inspiring and empowering them and helping them to know that you know they also can do this, because I think that oftentimes we get, like you said, stuck in our heads a little bit too much. So, since you mentioned it a little bit, let’s talk about what kind of prompted you to start, you know, to start your business.
Jessica Hamlin:
Yeah. So through COVID sort of was a little bit of a tumultuous time. Just to give you a little bit of I say tumultuous time, like it was that way for everybody, but to give you a little bit of background, I never thought that I could get pregnant. I had had a surgery some years back. There were some other factors that really were leading me to believe that I wasn’t going to be able to get pregnant. So during COVID, my partner and I had decided we’re going to move out to Portland, oregon, and we’re going to start a food truck and we’re going to have this cool like boho hippie life. Well, four days before we were set to leave, I found out I was pregnant, and it changed the entire dynamic of everything. Hindsight, we should not have still moved, but we did still move, and so during that time, my relationship and, honestly, my mental health, just went downhill. I wasn’t prepared to be a mom. I never thought I was going to be a mom. Now I was across the country from my family and so, anyway, all this to say, my relationship really suffered. We ended up coming back to the East Coast and in May of 2022, I had a dispute with my partner, so it was a physical altercation and I’m going to start to get emotional. I never thought that I would be in that situation. So at the time I had a three-month-old and a particular moment that I remember is my partner saying, you know, holding the baby and saying I’m taking him and I’m leaving and my mama bear, you know, kicked in and I was like, first of all, not that you could do this to me, you know, physically Not going to let that happen again, but also I’m not letting you leave with my child and I think a lot of moms, you know that mama bear would come up in that situation. But anyhow, I made him leave and you know it was a very scary time for me because now I had this three-month-old and I did have a W2 position that was remote, I was making $16 an hour and prior to that I want to mention that, because I had never had a child before I didn’t realize that sort of what they say is true about when you’re looking for jobs and you’re pregnant, and I encountered quite a bit which it blew my mind quite a bit of people saying, well, are you going to be able to fulfill this role? Like, maybe you should call us after you have the baby. And I was like you can’t even legally say that. But okay, you know, and it happened a couple of times. So you know, fast forward to May, when this all went down and I was like nobody’s going to hire me. Now I’m a single mom with a three-month-old. I have to work from home because I can’t afford child care. I’m making $16 an hour. I was spinning yeah, that’s how I can put it. I was spinning and I was like what am I going to do? And you were alone, right, and I was alone.
Rita Suzanne:
And emotional, I’m sure just very much like going through it.
Jessica Hamlin:
And now I’m like I brought this child into this world and I can’t even support him. What the F? Am I going to do, you know? So I started immediately. I, like jumped into action. I started immediately. What can I do from home? What jobs can I do from home? I have to be able to support my son and myself, and I came across virtual assisting, which was so strange.
Rita Suzanne:
Through a Google search or whatever Through a.
Jessica Hamlin:
Google search, and then also one of the women that I had worked with previously in a corporate 9-5 setting, she started her business, her online business. She was an online bookkeeper and she grew this amazing business. So, funnily enough, because it was COVID and I didn’t do like a baby shower, I did like a virtual thing and she sent me something off the list. I hadn’t talked to her in years and so it sparked a conversation and we started talking about what she had been doing and she told me that she worked with one of the girls from the free mama movement and it kind of got me thinking like what, okay, what can I be doing now? So from the time I decided to do it to the time that I was looking for clients was like seven days. I was like I still have the original note in my phone of like what I need to do to be a virtual assistant and I was like, okay, google, microsoft.
Rita Suzanne:
Office.
Jessica Hamlin:
I need this, I need that and I just made a list of the things that I needed and just bam bam bam, everything started falling into place. I signed my first client in June of 2022, towards the end of June, with a July start date, so it took me less than 30 days to find my first client, and then after that, it was just like get your confidence up, you can do this. You are a virtual assistant. Well, you are a graduate client.
Rita Suzanne:
So that’s your confidence pretty quickly, I’m sure yes it did and you know all that to say.
Jessica Hamlin:
It was just such a blessing. It came out of this place of desperation and like what am I gonna do? And it blossomed into this beautiful business that now I’m like. You know that’s the goal. Right is to tell other moms that are sitting at home on social media or they’re scrolling at the end of the night and they’re saying, like I need more, I need something, a way to bring in money, or, you know, to be really, to be really frank, like I ended up not wanting to be Financially dependent on anyone. You know, like I, at that point I was really nervous like, well, what would happen if, you know, the next person left or something happened. Like I have to be able to stand on my own and, coming from, coming from the high-level management and and stuff that I had been in before, I would like really get on to myself about like you you’ve done, you’ve supported yourself before, you’ve done this before, like don’t get freaked out, and you know. So that was really the, the driving force and and what I’m trying to help other moms with.
Rita Suzanne:
I Love that, because it was because of other mom that you actually got into Starting your own thing. And that, to me, is like the one of the questions I used to ask all the time, like in the previous seasons, was If another mom came to you and said I want to start my own business, what would be your advice? And I feel like you kind of lived that because this other mom, she pumped you up and she told you like listen, you could do this. And you know Just out of her pep talk and your desperation and need to be independent and you know, take care of your son. You just took action and I think that that’s the most important part is really knowing, like if I take action, I don’t even know what the end goal is. Right, I got only to know the destination. I just know I need to do put one foot in front of the other, yeah, go, and I think that take messy.
Jessica Hamlin:
Take messy action. You know so that you don’t. You don’t take no action at all. Take messy action, it’s fine, like it’s. If you do it wrong the first time, it’s fine, but doing something is better than doing nothing.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I think that oftentimes, especially when you come from a corporate environment, we are kind of Made to think like things have to be perfect. At least, I used to think that everything had to be perfect, and so I know that I was stuck in a pattern of perfectionism, and I see a lot of Women being like that when they start their own businesses. That, and also not establishing boundary boundaries Quick enough, and but I feel like once you start doing things, then you become more confident and that’s when the boundaries start kicking in, because you’re at a point where it’s like, okay, yeah, I can’t do this for it and X is not happening again.
Jessica Hamlin:
Yeah, no, I fully resonate with that. That was something that was an obstacle that I had to get past in the beginning, because you are so desperate to get those clients and keep them happy, because now you’re making money and you know so it was. I was giving away a little too much of myself, like being available all the time, like trying to turn around projects in a Ridiculous amount of time, like I was just trying to be on and you’re right, it didn’t take very long before my confidence was there and I was like Hold on, hold on, you don’t. You don’t get a hundred percent of my time, you don’t get a hundred percent of me. You know in the times that we’re not, you know after hours or on the weekends or something. I am very clear about my boundaries now because you know the the flip side of that is that’s the whole reason that this is so attractive To to moms and stuff is you can do it on your own time. There is a flexible schedule. You don’t have to be available 24 7, and so really living by that, you know, or rather not living by that in the beginning felt like kind of a fraud. You know what I was like. You have to enforce your boundaries.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I remember saying before, before I started doing, you know, because I started out doing web design and branding together, and then I remember saying because I was so burnt out that I had given up one boss and then had 15 bosses and you know I had set my bit and I had set my business up incorrectly. So instead of my, I, like you know, my business revolving around my life. It was the other way around. My life was really revolving around my business and I was stuck in this pattern for a very, very long time and I regret it. And that’s another reason why I continuously am trying to help other women, you know, not make these mistakes, because you know it really Helped me back. And I say I regret it because I have picture you know how well, you don’t know yet but when kids get in, like kindergarten and stuff like that, I’m sure you’ve seen it where they, the teacher, will ask the kid to like fill out this paper and like what’s your mom’s favorite thing to do, especially for like Mother’s Day and stuff like that, mm-hmm, my kids would literally always say that my favorite thing to do was to work or be on my phone and. They would draw pictures of me with my laptop on my lap or my phone in my hand, and the thing about it is I don’t even know why my phone would be in my hand, because I had taken off email off of my phone After the first year of the flu was even finished. Because I couldn’t. I was, it was too. I was too reactive. You know, because they incorporate, you’re kind of taught to have your email open all the time and be Responsive when someone is emailing you, but then when you’re doing this, you need to not be so responsive and available, right, because you will never get it done.
Jessica Hamlin:
No, yeah, it’s definitely hard to unlearn that.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, it is. I just keep mine closed and I probably only check it once or twice a day at this point. And I’m the same way with social media I keep all of my notifications off and so oftentimes I will mispost or somebody will text me and be like, hey, I just tagged you in this, go check it out. That’s like the only way I’ll know to go. Yeah. So, speaking of how you got your first client, I would love to know how you were able to get a client so quickly, because I think that oftentimes people feel like that’s probably the hardest stuff is getting the clients consistently.
Jessica Hamlin:
So in the beginning I did spend a lot of time on social media. All of my clients have been found through Facebook groups and through LinkedIn. So I really haven’t done you know I hate to say I haven’t done a lot of like searches for clients. But really if you’re, if you’re active in social media on your choice of platforms, so I wouldn’t suggest being on all the platforms because then it really is going to eat up a lot of your time. But you know you’re not going to be able to choose your top. You know, two platforms and Facebook groups are an incredible way to make those connections and, you know, and not even in a place of looking for clients like I don’t think that new VAs should go into it with that expectation but you know you’re not going to be able to create relationships like you’re wanting to. You know, engage with a couple new people a day, like follow people that are doing what you’re doing but they’re 10 steps ahead of you and learn from them and really just be active in it. You know, and tell them and I feel like that’s one of the, you know, the biggest things in the beginning to that that we have to kind of get past is like announcing your business on your own Facebook page, telling your friends and family hey, this is what I’m doing now and if you know anyone, please send me a message. Like that feels really scary. But the amount of people that that you know personal friends that shared my posts and we’re liking it and we’re getting out there and we’re tagging people really allowed me to get myself out in that space. So my my biggest, you know form of finding clients is definitely Facebook groups and choosing. You know, oh sorry, I’m just choosing like a couple of them that you like to be in. Don’t choose like 10 or 15, because it gets very overwhelming, but choosing a couple that work for you, like wherever you think your potential clients going to hang out. Be there.
Rita Suzanne:
Exactly, I think that that’s, you know, that’s really important, and I used to do the same thing with a Facebook group, so I would be very active in there responding to questions that people would ask. You know, I never really got traction from, hey, I need a web designer, and everybody, like literally 10,000 people, are replying me, me, me, me, me, and the same thing, I’m sure, whenever somebody says I need to be a and. So I think that really showcasing your knowledge by answering questions is the better way to engage in a Facebook group.
Jessica Hamlin:
Right, I agree, and yeah, and, and obviously referrals, like that’s the number one, yeah, and also take a minute to like that extra five seconds that it takes to check out the person who’s putting the job off, like check out their profile, check out their website, check, you know, just do a little background research. It really helps you to stand out because they are looking, you know, like you said, I mean 50, 100 people will be like me, me, me, choose me, and you have to find a way to stand out. So, just taking that extra couple of seconds to do a little research on them and then you know, mentioning, like oh, I see that you’re a you know a part of this group. Or oh my gosh. Like I see that you got a new puppy on your you know Facebook or whatever. It is just like making that personal connection is so incredibly important.
Rita Suzanne:
I agree. I think that that’s super important as well. Okay, so my last and very favorite question is Because you are, because you are juggling, you know, being a mom and running a business, oftentimes, as moms, we will start to forget ourselves and not really take care of ourselves the way that we should, and so I always like to ask my guests what are you doing to take care of Jessica? That is a fantastic question.
Jessica Hamlin:
The truth of the matter is it’s still a very difficult thing for me to do Because and I think a lot of moms you know will resonate with this I do have that mom guilt that I’m trying to like actively squash when I feel it, which is, if I’m not working and if I’m not helping with my son, like what am I doing? It’s just like I’m not helping my son. What am I doing, you know? So what I try to do to combat that is I put time in my calendar, like I live and die by my calendar, and so you know it’s not a novel thing to do, but it’s something so simple. Like I need to go to the gym twice to three times a week to keep my head straight. So the gym is in my I look for that day. 10 o’clock, you’re going to the gym, you’re going to the gym. My pedicures have suffered greatly, but I put in my chemical appointment, I put it in my calendar, I keep it and for me it’s really the only way that it works. It has to be scheduled and then I have to stick to it and not say, well, no, it’s in my calendar. I could, I could go to the gym, but also I have this other work to do. So just really, you know, sticking with that and I think in my situation so I don’t think I mentioned this, but my my from growing my business. My partner is a stay-at-home dad and so he takes care of our son for most of the day and then I fill in throughout the day and in the afternoon. But I try to really listen when someone’s offering me help. You know like I’m going to take the afternoon. You need to go to a coffee shop, you need to go. You know, take a walk, you need to go do something for yourself. At first I was very resistant to that, like no, it’s fine, no, I’m good, I’m good, I got it. And you know just what’s the point. I stopped doing that and I started saying thank you. I will take this time to myself, but I think scheduling just a little bit of time for yourself makes all the difference when balancing all this stuff.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I think that it’s important too, I think, and also to reg it, recognize your patterns, right. So I go to the gym six days a week, and so Girl get it. So, and if it wasn’t for so, what I’ve noticed is, on the days that I go to the gym early in the morning, I’m like that day is gone, I’m not, I’m not going to come back and do work, and so I recognize that, that that’s going to be kind of like an off day, and so I will just keep that in mind. And I’ve only realized that just from seeing my pattern over time and recognizing because I’ve always, you know, I would have the intention oh, I’m going to come back, I’m going to work, it’s not late, I’ll come back, but I would always get distracted and always end up doing other things and just like this is my free day, I can do anything or nothing at all, and just making sure that I’m, you know, like realizing that this is what I do, right, yes, but I remember, you know, saying before and it still holds true that sometimes, just sometimes, locking myself in the bathroom or my bedroom or in my you know office space, just to be by myself, is a form of self care, right, like that is a form of self care, because I need time to do that, to reenergize myself and not feel reactive to some of the things that might be going on in my space.
Jessica Hamlin:
You’re totally right, and there have been many times where I always laugh when I talk about this. But so I use those, those like scent sticks if you’ve ever used those and I have like a ton of lavender scent sticks. And so when I’m taking my moments to myself and because I resonate with you, like sometimes I just sit in the bathroom, I’m like this is my five minutes and I breathe in my lavender and I’m like, okay, here we go, like you can take on the rest of the day, but those couple of minutes here and there they make a difference.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, yeah, especially. You know, toddlers are just very active and very needy, so I completely understand what’s going on, so okay. So where can everyone find you online? Where are you at? Where are you living?
Jessica Hamlin:
So mostly I spend my time on Instagram and Facebook. So on Instagram I am Jessica underscore, hamlin underscore services, and I provide a lot of mostly free content you know around starting your business and how to find clients and all the things that we talked about today. So I show up pretty consistently on Instagram as well as Facebook and I’m always available for you know, just a conversation. Like I think that that’s one of the things that people are scared about too to reach out because everybody charges for something and, like you’re almost scared to ask questions to people. But my inbox is open, my DMs are open for any questions that anybody has.
Rita Suzanne:
Yeah, I love that. And then, so don’t you have a Facebook group? I think you mentioned that, or do you not?
Jessica Hamlin:
I don’t have a Facebook group yet, but there will be a Facebook group, a private Facebook group associated with the boot camp, when we release that information here in about a week or two.
Rita Suzanne:
I don’t know why. I just assumed maybe that you do. However, there is a link like if someone does want to schedule a call with you, I’m going to provide the link for them to be able to schedule a call and get in touch with you. And it’s been such a pleasure getting to know you. I appreciate you coming and sitting down with me, especially with the short notice that we had for this call. It was such a pleasure and I really enjoyed it.
Jessica Hamlin:
Ah, me too, and thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity and I love getting to meet new people, and now I feel like you know, I’m so happy to have met you.
Rita Suzanne:
And it was your first podcast and you did amazing.
Jessica Hamlin:
It was my first podcast. Thank you so, so much.
Rita Suzanne
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
