"Hey, Kat, how do you juggle it all?!" 😬🤪🙃 I can't tell you how many times this question has come up in my DM's and ya know what?! I'm not superwoman. 💯 I don't have magical powers to get more done in the day than you. In fact, I work from home with a 3 year old + 1 year old and up until this week, was only working 3 days per week!!!!! (Now I have 4 days 🙌) Believe me, if I can "do it all" you can too!!! ✔️ Today on the blog I'm sharing about ONE tip I started implementing over a year ago that's made ALL the difference!!! (@amandahedgepethobx originally taught me this little tip!! She's the QUEEN of juggling it all!!! 👑) Tell me below: on a scale of 1-5, 1 being killing it and 5 being drowning, tell me how YOU feel about all the to-do's on your plate?!? 
When I got the emailed I squealed. Yep, I did a little boogie in my seat 💃🏼 and immediately texted two people — Matt and my mama 😂😆 I’m speaking at @showitunited , friends!!!! 🥳🎉😍 • Since I started by biz almost eight years ago I’ve joked that the photography community “adopted” me. I don’t own a camera. I know nothing of shooting + editing + culling ... yet some of my CLOSEST friends are photographers and now over 50% of my clients are photographers!!! 📷 I might not now the technical side of photography, but I know BUSINESS. And I LOVE talking to photographers about that very thing!!!! 💯 This year, I am HONORED to be keynoting at one of the creative photography communities leading conferences. I’ll be up on that stage talking about one of my FAVORITE things — quarterly planning 🗓— and I’m already looking forward to hugging old friends, making new ones and venturing across the country with Matt (... we might leave the babies behind 😬🙈🙌). I can’t believe I get to share the stage with some of my closest friends and mentors (pinch me) and am ready as ever for in person community + education + connection!!!! 🥰 If you’re a photographer, take a look at @showitunited !!!! Registration opens Friday (5/14) and I’d LOVE to see you there!!!! (PS. Will you be there?! Tell me in the comments!) 🙃 
Unpopular opinion — STOP FEELING GUILTY ABOUT HUSTLING. ❌ . I don’t like the word “hustle” because I think so many give it a negative vibe. 😬 . But in my almost 8 years as a soloprenuer, I’ve learned that hustle is a reality for SEASONS and right now, this is hustle time. 💃🏼 • Late nights, early morning, long work days, refilled coffee, lots of to-do lists on my Trello boards.... but y’all ... I’m EXCITED and FIRED UP about the hustle work I’m doing!!!!! 💯 This is GOOD work for a GOOD purpose. Blessings from God, bounty for my business. • Do I have workaholic tendencies? YEP. Do I have to catch myself from falling prey to a scarcity mindset? YEP. But here’s the thing... not ALL work is bad work. Not ALL hustle is bad hustle. Sometimes it’s just the REALITY of what we do + who we serve + the season we are in. • Here’s a tip — if I see those unhealthy tendencies surfacing.... if I feel the weight of “hustle” and that guilt sink in — I give myself a deadline. 👉 I CREATE the season. I say “this is HUSTLE season and it’s gonna end ____.”. 👏👏👏 I carve out time TO hustle just like I carve out time to REST (or try to 🤪). • Hustle is a blessing. Hustle means HARVEST is coming. Sweat and toil will provide FRUIT in the end. I’m blessed by this work and can’t wait to see the fruit from it!!!! 💗 If that’s you, too, KEEP GOING! Hustle for that fruit. Work HARD and work A LOT when NECESSARY. Let’s stop feeling guilty for good work done. 💗 | 📷 by my sweet friend @valleygardenco !! 
I knew y’all were my people when my DM’s and inbox started to get FLOODED with questions about the 2022 calendar!!!! 🤣 Yep, you read that right — it’s April and you want NEXT years calendar!!!! LOL! 🗓 Lucky for you, your wish is my command — if you grabbed a 2021 calendar, CHECK YOUR EMAIL!!! 💃🏼I emailed you a special link to grab the 2022 calendar!! 🎉 They aren’t live to the public yet 😉 but if you’re anxious to grab one and don’t see the email, shoot me a DM! 🥳 And be sure to tag me when you frame it — I can’t wait to see 2022 sittin’ pretty beside 2021!! 😍😍😍 
April Showers Bring Mae Flowers 🌸 I’d take a million more showers — dozens of years like 2020 — if it got me YOU, Mae Avonlea. 💗 I fall more in love with you each day, baby girl... what a GIFT you are!!!! A blessing, a miracle, a sign of redemption and love from a good, good Father who’s ways are FAR better than my own!!!! He gave me YOU, Mae! How can I ever thank Him enough?!? • Happy FIRST BIRTHDAY, my sweet little girl!!! 😭😭😍😍 You are full of sass and spirit... but you have to be to keep up with your brother!!! You love dada and it’s the only word you say... yet you’re a mama’s girl through and through and I never want to forget how much you adore me. 🥰 You’ve just recently starting sleeping though the night (praise!), using signs for “more” and “all done” and while you’re not walking yet you love to climb! You’ve figured out how to take your bows off (I fight you daily) and you can’t get enough of music. 🎵 You scoot your booty around and it’s the funniest thing!!! You still crinkle your nose and pant when you’re really, really happy (I love it so much) and you’ve *finally* got more hair! We can’t quite tell if it’ll be blonde or brown but your eyes are the a rich, chocolate brown! Your capsule wardrobe is pink on pink 🌸 you love your Minnie doll (maybe that’s just because Bubba loves Mickey?!) and you sleep with your Bunny lovey every night. You love really ripe bananas, hate milk and like to steal your brother’s water. You recently started putting blankets over your head to “hide” and instead of army crawling you know get up on your hands & knees! You still love to be worn (I will never complain!), go on runs + walks with mama in the stroller and you still sleep in our bedroom closet! 😂 We’ll move you to your room one day — my mana heart is going slow & sweet with it!!!! 💕 I could go on and on about you, Mae Avonlea but words can never express how much you have captured my heart. I LOVE being your mama. Here’s to celebrating you today, (and every day!) baby girl!!!!! 🌸☀️💗 | 📷 @emilygeraldphotography #mylittlemaeavonlea #firstbirthday #aprilbaby2020 
Took a trip to @blairmadeshop yesterday to pick up Mae’s birthday sign (Swipe to see! She turns ONE tomorrow 😭 and while it’s just a small party, I have a few fun details up my sleeve... I can’t help it!!!😍 I can’t believe she’s ONE already!!!!!!🌸😭) Micah decided he needed a side job and I’m here for it if it means employee perks 🤣 Love seeing sweet @abbywoerner and supporting her small biz!! If you’re local, visit the storefront in Staunton! Not local? Shop online!!! 🛍 So many gorgeous home goods available!!! #mylittlemaeavonlea #shopsmallbusiness #shoplocal #virginiamade #blairmade 
Just spent the last few days with my head down and my Trello boards open getting into the weeds of @rebeccaricephotography 📈 it was 👏 so 👏 much 👏 fun!!!! There’s just something about problem solving, troubleshooting and figuring out what’s going to work (and work WELL) in the backend of business!!! • I’ve never considered myself a “systems and workflow” guru. I don’t know *everything* about *every* system... and I’m sure some of my workflow would be questionable to a workflow wizard!! But what I DO know is business. 💪 I know a lot about online business and I LOVE online business — the funnels, the strategies, the “let me pick this vision a part and make it happen day in and day out” kinda things. Systems and workflows are naturally a part of that... you have to know how something works in order or make it work BETTER!!! 💯 As an integrator, I get to do it day in and day out with my clients... and it’s been such a cool pivot for my business!!! (More on the pivot later, I promise!!) • Rebecca and I just spent 2 days at an Immersion Retreat picking apart her business and tackling what wasn’t optimized like it should be. We talked high level strategy about her Team Structure and Digital Product Funnels... and we also got IN the business actually DOING the work (think: optimizing Trello boards, creating new workflows, spending some time in Kajabi and doing some webpage design in Showit!!). It was a FULL yet FUN 2 days and so excited about what we did, and ready to tackle the list of things we made priorities moving ahead!! 😍 • Have you ever done an Immersion Retreat for your biz?! Tell me if you did!!! If you didn’t, would you ever want to do one?! 🥰 
About to click out of this app for the weekend and I am PUMPED👏 FOR 👏 IT!!! It’s been one year since I started taking Social Media Free Weekends and they are a BLESSING to my soul!!! (Tells you a lot about social media world doesn’t it?! 😅) I unplug on Friday’s and step back in Monday AM... spending the weekend focused on what’s right around me, not worried about a scroll!!!! 🙌 In my spare time when I grab my phone I — open up a book app and start reading 📖, catch up on text or vox threads 📱, OR just PUT IT DOWN and sit in silent bliss 🥰 it’s amazing what the QUIET can do, y’all!!!! So much mental + spiritual clarity!!!! 💗 A break from this space has done my heart and my mind so much good, and what started out as a “let’s try it for a month and see what I think” is now an EVERY weekend kinda thing!!! I highly suggest you try it, too!!! (If you do, DM me and tell me what you think!!!) 💕 See ya Monday, IG!!! 🙃 #socialmediafree 📷 @emilygeraldphotography 
Starting a new Work Rhythm this week and I’ve been so, so excited about it!! (I say “rhythm” instead of “routine” because it really is a dance — there has to be some level of flexibility and “go with the flow-ness” that only a rhythm can provide!) • I frequently get asked “how do you do it?! how do you work from home with 2 under 3, run multiple online brands and find time to get it done?!” • 👆 I don’t have all the answers. & I don’t do it perfectly. But over the past year, I’m pretty proud of what Matt and I have established. We are true entrepreneurs— multi passionate and scrappy 🤣 — we do a lot of different things... digital products, coaching, sales consulting for an ad agency, a conference, a membership community, wedding coordination for a local venue we love and (new) now serving as an integrator for two dynamite businesses 🔥!!!! • I love that every day looks different. New biz projects, new clients, new problems to solve... but recently I’ve found myself craving a more solid rhythm in it all. The to-do’s on my plate were becoming harder & harder to tackle during nap time, and with Mae still not sleeping through the night 😴 the early morning hustle was weighing on me. So, we sat down and thought through a new Work Rhythm.⏰ • When it comes to rhythms and routines, I think we’re so quick to try to fit into a box. We see what someone else is doing and try to force that schedule, that rhythm, into our life. And a lot of the time it doesn’t work ... square peg round hole kinda thing. ❌ Truth: This is why I usually *hate* a “time management” conversation... because managing “time” is SO different for every family, business AND personality!!!! ‼️ You need to find a rhythm that works for YOU. If you feel yourself drowning in your to-do’s... if you’re unhappy and unproductive ... evaluate WHY you feel this way. 👉 What can you change? What can you do differently? Assess the root of the problem and create a NEW rhythm that faces it head on!!! Questions?! Send me a DM! I love chatting about this with my coaching clients, and am an open book about strategies & tools you might find helpful!! 🥰 | 📷 my sweet friend @valleygardenco 
Today I was hit with the realization that it’s because of HIM — not me — that my family has the gift of life eternal. ♥️ Maybe it’s because I’m an enneagram 3... maybe it’s because I’m an entrepreneur... but I tend to put the weight of caring for my family (being an attentive mama + wife, understanding their needs, providing financially, etc) on MY shoulders. I want to be their savior. Yet at the end of it all... I am not. I can and never will be the TRUE savior that they need— JESUS is the only one who can!!! I can try to do it all, be it all... and yet NOTHING I can do will save the three most precious souls in my life. ONLY GOD CAN!! HALLELUJAH for that, friends!!!!!! Hallelujah that He gave the most precious gift so that we don’t have to do ANYTHING but accept enteral life offered. Hallelujah for an empty grave... for death defeated... for LIFE!!!! As I lifted my hands in worship this morning, holding my sweet boy and standing beside Matt with Mae, I couldn’t help but cry tears of gratitude that Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again... for you, for me, for ALL. ♥️ Happy Easter, friends! Wishing you a day filled with this beautiful reminder!!