A Sustainable WFH Schedule for a Joyful Life with Maddy Fry [Ep. 105]

Click play to learn how to create a sustainable work-from-home schedule:

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Here’s what to expect from this episode:

As educators, we know the importance of inclusion and celebrating diversity. But how good of a job are we doing with this through our podcast? 

Jocelynn Hubbard is on the show today to talk about podcasting through an inclusive and equitable lens. She shares what educational equity means, why diversity and inclusion in podcasting are so important, and some key questions to ask yourself when auditing your podcast and content creation. 

This is an incredibly important conversation that I hope you take some time to reflect on after listening. I know you'll take away something from this episode, so I would love for you to send Jocelynn and me a message on Instagram to share your takeaways! 

MEET Maddy:

Maddy is an online business owner twice over, and she works to support women of all backgrounds to live a life rooted in joy. Through small action steps and mindset shifts, she is on a mission to show women just how easy it can be to live a life of alignment and passion. Her biggest goal is to help women be so obsessed with their lives that they won't shut up about it.

Topics Covered:

• How Maddy created her sustainable work-from-home schedule

• Setting boundaries and knowing when to walk away

• Tips on creating your own dream schedule

• How to be less distracted by your phone

• The power of outside perspective

Resources mentioned:

• Podia

favorite podcasting resources:

• Captivate.fm

• ClickUp Templates

• Join ClickUp

• Hello Audio

• Sign up for my new audio course, Podcast Like You Mean It

• Join the Podcasting for Educators Prep School

• Sign up for my mini-course, Guesting for Educators

Connect with maddy:

• Join Maddy's Sunshine Squad Monthly Membership

• Follow her on Instagram @livingnsunshine

• Check out her website

• Listen to her podcast, Living in Sunshine

• Get your FREE Goal-Getter Guidebook

Connect with Sara:

• Book a free call to discuss how we can work together

• Book a 1:1 strategy call

• Connect with me on Instagram @podcastingforeducators

Related episodes:

• What To Know Before Hiring In Your Teacher Business With Janice Cook [Ep. 87]

• The Teacherpreneur’s Guide To Physical & Mental Health With Andrea Mishio [Ep. 77]

• Is It Time To Outsource? The Scoop On Hiring A Podcast Manager Or VA With Lauren Wrighton [Ep. 49]

• Read the transcript for this episode:

  Sara Whittaker 0:00

  Do you constantly ask yourself I wish I had more hours in the day? Do you feel like you're a little bit obsessed with work and have a hard time pulling yourself away? If you're saying yes, I hear you, because the same. I'm sure you're like me and love what you do as an entrepreneur. But I think it's really important for us to also remember that there's a lot more to life than working, and to give yourself more whitespace in your days. Obviously, that's easier said than done, which is why I have Mattie Frey on the podcast today to talk all about creating a sustainable work from home schedule. I think this is going to be a really great conversation to hear as we head into summer, which for me is the season of being extra intentional about prioritizing what needs to get done so I can enjoy the warm weather and time with my family. And I hope you're planning to do the same. Here's a quick background on who Maddie is. Maddie is an online business owner twice over and she works to support women of all backgrounds live a life rooted in joy. Through small action steps and mindset shifts. She's on a mission to show women just how easy it can be to live a life of alignment and passion. Her biggest goal is to help women be so obsessed with their lives, they won't shut up about it.

  Sara Whittaker 1:15

  Your Podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business. But how do you manage it all bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers. That's what this show is all about. Welcome to podcasting for educators. I'm Sara Whitaker, classroom teacher turn podcast manager, and I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators.

  Sara Whittaker 1:41

  Well, hello Maddy, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for being here.

  Maddy Fry 1:45

  Of course, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat.

  Sara Whittaker 1:48

  I know I'm excited to chat to we're friends on Instagram, and you just seem like such an awesome person with such positive energy. So I'm really excited to talk with you today. I thought before we kind of get into the bulk of our conversation today, I would love for you to tell everybody just a little bit about like where you are in business right now how you help other business owners?

  Maddy Fry 2:12

  Yeah. So that's kind of a loaded question, something that I could turn into an hour long podcast episode, but I'm going to keep it short. So I am the bulk of what I do is essentially a joyful living coach. So I help business owners and women figure out how to run their business or live their life in a really joyful way. I do that through one on one coaching, I have a membership that I have where I do that kind of coaching, but like in a group sense. And then kind of parallel to my joyful living coaching business. I am a service provider, an online service provider for TPT authors. And I help them with their social media, I help them as their online business manager. And I also help them to create products and update their stores and do all those good things. But the bulk of the route and kind of the foundation of what I do and serving others is helping them live a joyful life and figure out what that looks like and figure out how to do that. In both business and in life. That's what I do. That's awesome. I love that you've got like so many different things going on. It's fun to like, have your hands and a few different things. It keeps things interesting on the day, I can remember to relate to that. Yeah. And I mean, it's good to know that you do so many different things, because that's probably why we're going to talk about what we're going to talk about today. Because I mean, I'm excited to talk about this because I know for me like I'm a former teacher going from being in the classroom, being like on your feet all day, and then to working from home and like trying to balance everything is really, really hard. Getting a good schedule is really, really hard when you're working from home. So I yeah, I'm excited to get into it. So tell us a little bit about because it seems like what your schedule and your work life used to be is very different from what it is now. So can you give us a little bit of insight as to like, where you started? Yep. And where are you are now. So for context, I am 28 I do not have kids, which is a huge thing to say. I always say that whenever people are like, Oh my gosh, you do so much. I'm like, I also don't have small children like who need me because I know that that's such a game changer for so many people, women, especially female business owners and entrepreneurs, especially right. That's a huge thing to keep in mind. Right? So two very important things. I'm 28 I have no kids, right. So when I first graduated from school, I actually went to school to be a teacher. And I was 100% that fresh out of college kid who was like, I'm going to be a teacher. I'm changing America. This is my five year plan. Everything's gonna work out and literally nothing worked out.

  Maddy Fry 4:54

  I couldn't get hired. No one wanted a fresh, brand new excited teacher. And it was too only 18. So it was it was a situation of life where my husband and I weren't sure how long we were going to be where we work because of his job. And so I really struggled to find anything any form of employment, right? Fast forward a few years, I was working full time between an online educational company teaching English and network marketing business. And I was really working both of those things. Full time, I worked from home full time, it worked out really well, because that all started in 2020, when the entire world shut down, we were all working from home. And I was really working seven days a week, probably eight to nine hours, every single day. And I, you know, was in the groove. And in the flow of that was just life, that was just how it all had to be. And part of that was, it had to be that way, because I would needed the money, right? Like I really needed to make that money. And then over time, and over a few years, kind of what I did transitioned. And last year, in 2022, I kind of went all in with my virtual assistant business, and living in sunshine, which is my joyful living coach brand. And my schedule was still working six to seven days a week, on the weekends, I would work until probably noon, or one o'clock both days. And I was working until 536, maybe even seven o'clock, Monday to Friday. And it was way too much like the burnout was real. I was working all the time. My husband was like, hello, when are we ever gonna spend time together kind of thing. And I'm like, I have to do this. I'm working toward this goal. Like, once I make, you know, six figures or a million dollars, I'll slow down. And he's like, I don't believe that for a second, right. And it took a lot of a lot of change and shifts and reprioritizing really in order to get to where I am today, which is still working Monday to Friday, right. But I'm usually done working by for 430. I no longer work on the weekends and Fridays are sometimes half days just because of how I've restructured my life. And it's a much better balance. And it's been so much better both of my business, but also me as a human. Because I'm a big believer that we are humans first and business owners second. And it was a change. And it wasn't something that happened overnight. But it was a change that 100% needed to happen.

  Sara Whittaker 7:19

  Oh my gosh, yes. Like such a relatable story. I feel like a lot of people who are listening are probably like, yes, yes, yes. This sounds like me. I know. For me personally, this is something I've been really trying to work on the last few months like, and it's great in a sense of like, great, my business has like evolved and it's grown so quickly, just in three to four years, it's grown into something much bigger than I ever thought it would. But with that comes this like obsession to continue doing the next thing or hitting the next school or for me even like I have a hard time walking away from my computer at the end of the day. And then you think back like wait, why did I start this business in the first place so that I could work less have a flexible schedule be done when my daughter gets home from school? Like it's something that I know I'm constantly working on. And I feel like every entrepreneur that I have ever talked to is also working on this. So I would love to hear a little bit about like how you accomplished changing your schedule, and really being able to not work so much like how have you accomplished having this more sustainable work from home schedule?

  Maddy Fry 8:37

  Yeah. So as someone who has worked from home since the very beginning, my mom also worked from home all through raising all three of us. I have a brother and a sister. And she always always worked from home.

  Sara Whittaker 8:50

  Like that's so rare.

  Maddy Fry 8:51

  Yes. Yeah. Right. Like very years ago. Yeah,

  Sara Whittaker 8:54

  like now it's normal. But yeah,

  Maddy Fry 8:56

  yeah, yeah, all of us raising all of us, she always worked from home. And so I kind of had that idea as to what that look like, and how to live in that way. Because for a lot of us, it's very jolting to like go from going to like, I know, for my husband, it was very bizarre to go from working in an office to working at home. But the way that I kind of transitioned was I remembered my mom told me when I first started to work for myself and work from home. She said to me, and it's always stuck with me, she's like, there will always be more work. But there will never always be more time. Like you'll never get that time back. And you need to be really aware and cognizant of how much time you're spending on work because you won't get that back. But you will always have more to do. And she's like, that's a really big boundary that I want you to learn and remember, as you step into this work from home, like she's like, it's really great. It's really flexible, but it's really easy to get sucked into working all the time. And so, obviously that's what happened, right? I got super sucked in to work and building a business and doing all of these things, but the thing that really had to happen was I had to kind of have someone hold up a mirror, if that makes sense. And say, do you see all of the hours you're spending on your business? And not using on your life? Right? Like, you're missing out on all of this stuff? Do you? Do you even see that that's happening? And I was like, oh, shoot, no. Like, no, I had no idea. And making that switch really came down to figuring out what my priorities were, and making sure that they were aligned with how I wanted to live my life. And you kind of touched on this, I'm really glad that you did that. I do not want to be a 5 million years old, dusty, crusty, and be like, Wow, I'm so glad I spent 20 hours a day working. Like, no, I do not want that. Now, I'm not gonna remember the fact that I got died. My entire to do list on a Wednesday afternoon, I will remember skipping out of the office and going to the beach with my husband and my dogs, you know what I mean? And it took time, it took that kind of stepping back from all of it, and kind of being shown like, do you see how often you're working, and reprioritizing? What matters to me. And in the season of reworking my schedule, what mattered to me was doing less simplifying and gaining clarity on what I actually wanted my business to look like, what I wanted my, the impact of my business to be, and how could I accomplish those things, while also living a life of joy, intention? And groundedness, right, because those things matter to me. And so I had a conversation with my OBM, who's also been on your show, Janice cook the love of my life. I love her so much. She's a huge reason why I'm in the schedule that I'm in now. She and I had a really honest conversation. And if you're listening, and you don't have a Janice Cook, and it's just you have this open, honest conversation with yourself or your friend or someone that you know, and you trust. And just say like, what's your ideal workweek? Like, what what is your dream schedule? And what small changes can we make now, that will get you to that dream schedule down the line. And probably eight, nine months ago, my husband and I decided to move from Texas to South Carolina, to be close to family. My mom lives here. And I had this conversation with Janice, almost a year ago now. And I said, once we moved to South Carolina, I don't want to have to work on Sundays, because I know, I'm gonna want to be able to go hang out with my mom on Sundays. Like at that point, Saturdays were already my day off, but I was still working on Sundays, because I felt like I needed to, or like I had to. And she and I together we were like, Okay, how can we reconfigure your schedule reprioritize these things. So come January, you don't have to work on Sundays anymore. And we just slowly chipped away at restructuring my businesses to where things either got done by me at a more proficient rate, or I hired people on my team to help me get more done. That's a huge thing that I feel like so many people hold themselves back from for a lot of different reasons that truly changes the game for so many is hiding out. And amazing thing. Yes. And we really just started to make small steps over time to get to the schedule that I'm in now. And yes, it was kind of scary, kind of risky. Because I had to tell my virtual assistant clients, hey, I no longer work on Fridays, which Yeah, in a way, saying no to money, right. And then on Fridays, I had to tell myself, okay, you've got to focus. If you get these things done, you can bounce a two o'clock if you get if you are focused, and you focus on what's the priority, you get to bounce, and then you don't have to work this weekend. And it was really that open, honest conversation, gaining the clarity on the priorities, and then making those small steps and kind of taking a few risks along the way to get to where I'm going, but it's all been worth it. And I would do it a million times over again, if I had to.

  Sara Whittaker 14:14

  Yes, I love that you started out this process of like, envisioning what you wanted that scheduled to be like and like you said, if you don't have a virtual assistant or an OBM, or somebody in your, on your team that you can talk about this with like, talk about it with a family member or a friend and really like say it out loud. I think that just that step or writing it down of like, this is where I want to be in X amount of months. I mean, it's so powerful to do that. Because it does take time to get to that place. Yeah, I don't know if you find this but I know for me, when I really start to think about like, Okay, I am done at 330 today and I am going to walk away. I become more productive in those hours that I'm working because I've set this guideline for myself of like, no matter where you are in your work day, you are walking away at this time. And I tend to get more done in a shorter amount of time because I'm more like, focused, and I'm ready and more like, I don't know, there's just like an incentive at the end of the, at the end of the day.

  Maddy Fry 15:20

  I've heard it before that if you give yourself three days to get something done, it will take three days to get done. But if you give yourself 30 minutes to get it done, it will be done in those 30 minutes. And that's why so often when I work with women who are struggling on getting started, or, or saying yes to a goal or trying to get to the next step, I tell them to set a date to set a date to get started. It doesn't mean you have to be done. Like let's say your goal is to open an Etsy store, right and to sell $500. Maybe your goal is $500 on Etsy, right? Your Step One would be to claim your name on Etsy, right? And you're like, I want to start an Etsy store, I want to start an Etsy store, set a date, right, like put it on your calendar and say, on this day, on this Thursday of the month, I'm going to open my etsy store, I'm not going to worry about my products, I'm not going to worry about getting things into my store. But I'm going to open my store, I'm just going to claim the name that at least gets you started. And it kind of gives you that deadline because whether you believe it about yourself or not. We all do really well under the deadline, right? Like we all do well under pressure to some extent. And when we have that deadline, and we we tell ourselves that it has to get done, then it will get done it really well.

  Sara Whittaker 16:41

  Yes. And what you said earlier is so true about like, there will always be something else that you need to do. Like I struggled with that when I was teaching I've I've always struggled to like be very present in the moment that you are in and get done what you need to get done. And tomorrow, whether you finish everything that was on your to do list or not. There's going to be a whole new set of things to do. Yeah, so call it quits when it's time to call it quits and yeah, move on. Yeah,

  Maddy Fry 17:09

  yeah. And it's okay to do that. It's okay to walk away. I think that's something that people struggle with, which is why you're then working all the time, because we struggle with knowing that it's okay to walk away, even if our to do list isn't done. Because for some of us type a perfectionist, right? Like, it feels so good to cross out every single thing on our toes. And it makes our skin itch when they're not all died. Literally, yes. When we allow this to continue to happen. We wonder why we're burnt out crying into our Cheerios and hate everything that we're doing. Right? Yeah. And that's not what we want. So it's kind of that like, finding the comfort in the discomfort of like, I need to do this, I need to walk away from myself. And knowing that it's okay to do that, even if it's not all finished.

  Sara Whittaker 17:54

  Yes. And even like reflecting on that and acknowledging that like these things do feel uncomfortable is kind of a wake up call that something needs to change because being able to walk away at the end of the day or be okay with where you are and not be working 24/7 shouldn't feel uncomfortable. So if it does, which, like I am raising my hand it does that something needs to change, which is why we're talking to you today. Yeah. So if somebody is listening, who is feeling exactly like how you described you were feeling before, and they really want to take some action to be able to create a more sustainable work from home schedule that they can maintain and be consistent with and then have that whitespace in their life for things that really fill them up outside of work. Like what would you say to them? What can they do to start making that happen?

  Maddy Fry 18:49

  Something that I did that was super helpful was I kind of wrote out and you can do it on paper, you could do it in a digital planner, if you're visual and you want to make it look cute, you can like make a calendar in Canva, whatever, really kind of map out the number of hours that you're putting in a day right now. Be honest with yourself, if you are in your office, or working on your business at 6am in the morning, like you've got to be honest with yourself, and keep it real and say and put it on there. Even though like you know, when you're gonna look back, you're gonna be like, yikes, like this. This is why I'm like wanting to run away screaming into the streets, right?

  Sara Whittaker 19:27

  It's like, when you have the setting on your phone that like tracks your screen time, like you don't want to look at it. Like you don't want to know what that number is.

  Maddy Fry 19:36

  I know that this is a bad habit. But like I just it's like if I ignore it, it's not there, right. So when you are wanting to sort of design a sustainable schedule for work, right, whatever your work is, because this is applicable to non business owners to right, you need to first visualize and give yourself like a visual thing that you can see not just in your head of how often you're working right. And then step two is to map out what your ideal schedule looks like. And for all of us, this is a little bit different. I know for some of my friends who do have kids, they're like, my ideal schedule is 930 10 to three, because that's when my kids are in school. After three o'clock, I'm gonna go and I am not working in the evenings either. For me, it's 8am, to about 5pm, right, and quote, unquote, standard workday, with Fridays being a flex day, because I like to have that flexibility. And then when you have both of those calendars, your next step is to sort of pinpoint which of these tasks are tasks that are actually important in my business and my work, right? And how much of this time am I spending on the stuff that doesn't really matter? Right? Yeah, like scrolling, or going through your email, or just sitting on your phone doing who knows what, right? We sometimes really aren't working as much as we think we're working. And sometimes when we are working, we're not doing the tasks that really truly matter, or the tasks that need to be done by us. Right? Yeah. And this kind of ties back into that offboarding, hiring on outsourcing conversation, right? That might be what you discover needs to happen. In order for you to get more time back, you might also discover that in order to get to that ideal work schedule, is you're just going to have to get some discipline, practice discipline, really get motivated, and put your phone away, right. So often our phones are such a distraction that, like I said, we feel like we're working all the time, when really we're not, we're scrolling on our phones, we're scrolling on socials, and it's wasting so much of our time. And that would be the number one thing that I tell you to start with is get a visual of what you're currently working, create a second graphic visual piece of paper, whatever of what you want to be working, and then try to figure out like, what is not actually considered work, right? What's not moving the needle and your business? Yes. What might be able to if you're in a space, financially, business sense wise, to be able to outsource what can you outsource? And then what small changes could you make in your schedule to get from calendar a, what you're currently doing to calendar be what you want to be doing, and really work from there. And then the last thing that I would just add to that is know that it's not going to happen overnight. Like I said, I did not go from seven days a week, 12 hours a day, to five days a week, six hours a day overnight, like it took several months to get there. But the reason I continued to show up and make those steps take those steps was because I knew that there was the end of the tunnel, right? I knew that there was going to be a time in my life where Sundays I didn't have to work if I didn't want to. And I could leave at two o'clock on a Friday, if I got my work done. So I continue to show up. And that was a really big motivating factor. And so as you go into sort of reworking your schedule, keep that in mind that it's probably not going to happen overnight. And it might take a few months to get there. But once you're there, it's really worth the effort, the time the potential money that you put into getting there.

  Sara Whittaker 23:14

  Yes. And I love that you started this by saying that everybody's schedule like everybody's dream schedule is different. Yeah, just because you hear somebody talking about how they only work three hours a day, three days a week, like, that doesn't have to be what you strive for. That's not realistic for 99% of us. So I

  Maddy Fry 23:37

  always tell people, whatever you see on social including myself, like maybe you follow me, and you're like now you tell us to do these things all the time. Please, for the love of all good things beautiful and wonderful. Take it, bake it and make it your own. Like bake it, try it out in your own life and make it your own make it something that actually brings you joy is sustainable is intentional, actually gets you to where you want to go. Just because some influencer with 1.2 bajillion followers on Tiktok or Instagram is telling you that this is the best morning routine in your entire life. Yeah, homegirl has no kids is making a million dollars and like doesn't have a job because she's doing on tick tock. You are a teacher with three kids and a husband and things. Like it's not apples to apples. Take it fake it and make it your own. Always.

  Sara Whittaker 24:21

  I love that little phrase all the time now. Oh, true. Yes, I love it. And yeah, I mean, I know so many people listening are in the classroom and running a business and their moms or dads like that is so much to balance and I love that you acknowledge that you don't have kids. So maybe you are gonna work a little bit more than somebody who has five kids and yeah, two full time jobs like there's only so many hours in the day. But I love the idea of actually tracking how much time you are working. There's so many websites that you can use where you can like literally time yourself start a day and do a little time on it on yourself because I did that back at the beginning of the year and it's so eye opening. It really is. And you have to be honest. Yes. 20 minutes scrolling on social media, I find that for me like, I'll put my phone in another room yet when I'm working because I just it's such a habit I just picked up for no reason I actually have it next to me right now. Yep. But we all do it. It's such such a distraction.

  Maddy Fry 25:27

  I keep mine I have a little drawer in my desk. And when I'm like really focused, I stick it in the drawer and I put it on Do Not Disturb. If it's out of sight, it's out of mind. And that's really a huge thing that if you're someone who is distracted by your phone, put it behind you put it in a drawer, turn it off, whatever, out of sight out of mind, you'll get so much done.

  Sara Whittaker 25:45

  Yes, it's one one if you walk away with like one big tip today, try it. But you're I've actually I've heard a lot of people recently say how they, they'll have like a special box that they like put their phone in in the end of the day too. And they don't bring their phone into their bedrooms anymore. And they get like, do you do that? Yeah, I did

  Maddy Fry 26:07

  not sleep with my phone in my bedroom. I haven't done it for two years now. changes your life changes your life by school $15 alarm clock on Amazon or target. It changes your entire life. I promise. If you have anxiety, or if you wake up feeling behind or hurried. It's because you are on your phone first thing in the morning, you do not need to sleep with your phone under your pillow. And like your phone should not be the first thing you've touched in the morning. Kiss your partner drink some water, pet your dog, get your feet on the ground. Like your phone does not need to be your number one priority and six in the morning when you wake up. It just doesn't. And it's okay to have it not in your room. Like, I don't mean I don't want to like get too far down this rabbit hole. But I hear from people all the time. They're like, what if something happens? What if there's an emergency? And I'm like, do we not remember that like not even 20 years ago, phones, there was one phone in the house. And it was on a wall in the kitchen. And things still happened? Emergencies still got solved. We still made it through like, it's okay, I understand that anxiety, especially if you're a parent like I get it. But it'll change your life. It really well. It'll change your life.

  Sara Whittaker 27:12

  I've heard amazing things. And I can't believe I haven't tried it yet. I have one of my Sarah, if you're listening, one of my clients does this. And she's like, you need to do it. And I told her I would do and I haven't tried it yet, but maybe I'm gonna buy my alarm clock this week because I need my alarm clock. But I mean, it's also great for your relationship. Because when you both have your phones, what are you doing? You're like sitting on your balls to each other, which is so stupid.

  Maddy Fry 27:35

  Yes. Yeah, yeah. 100%. And it's one of those things if you are someone who is an entrepreneur, I don't know if anyone's like me. I checked my email 50 times an hour, like no joke. It's more than I check Instagram. So if I have my phone next to me in bed, I am like checking my email multiple why no one's emailing me. Literally, no one's talking to me.

  Sara Whittaker 27:57

  I'm like expecting this big emergency. Like sometimes I get like anxiety to open my email in the morning. I'm like, what? And then you have to you have to think rationally? Like, how many times have I opened my email? And there's been something there that like five thinking is gonna be there never literally never. So why do we have these thoughts? I don't know.

  Maddy Fry 28:16

  I'm with you. I get it. I really do. It's a common thing. It's a common.

  Sara Whittaker 28:21

  I'm not the only one. And I mean, we work on so many podcasts. So what do I do right? When I wake up, I like frantically make sure that everybody everybody's gone out, even though I've

  Maddy Fry 28:31

  stopped it 10 times. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I get it.

  Sara Whittaker 28:35

  I blame. I blame all of this technology for so many of our problems. Yep, I guess well, is there anything else that you want to add that we haven't touched on?

  Maddy Fry 28:47

  I would just say that if you are currently in a spot where you are struggling with your schedule, or getting organized or productivity, or whatever it is, the number one thing that I can suggest that you do is talk about it with someone else. And know that there's no shame in having that conversation. And there's, there's no lack of success or ability or skill or intelligence, and having to have that conversation with someone else. Right. I think we oftentimes get stuck in our own brains about if I ask for help, or if I say I don't know how to do this, or if I you know, show my weakness show that I'm struggling, it means that, you know, this person is going to think that I'm not smart enough or successful or whatever it might be. No one cares. This sounds really negative and I'll get to where I'm going. If no one cares. Like no one cares about that. Right? What they care about, is that you are okay and you are doing good. You don't care about your business, they really don't. Right. And so ask for that help have that conversation, hire an expert. If you feel like you need to do that. And know that by putting in that effort and putting in that time, so much good will come out of it and you deserve to get that support and get to that schedule that feels good and brings you joy, and makes you happy, right, we do not continue to do things that don't feel good or don't make us happy. And if your business or your schedule your work life, isn't making you happy or make doesn't make you feel good, you're not gonna want to continue doing it, which doesn't lead to sustainability, around something that you might actually really love, whether it's being a teacher, or owning a TPT store, or working as a service provider, or podcast editor, whatever, you might really enjoy that thing. But your current schedule, is making you think that you don't because you're consumed by it, right. And all it takes is having that conversation sometimes to unlock that aha moment that you need to realize, oh, I can fix this, oh, I don't have to live like this forever. Oh, I can actually do life in a way that makes me happy. What a foreign concept, right? Have that conversation and be really real in those conversations that you have, because so much good comes from them, when you when you open yourself up to having them. That would be what I say.

  Sara Whittaker 31:05

  I love that so much. I think a lot of times we forget, especially if you're an entrepreneur, like you really are in control. Like if you don't like the way that something is going, you don't have to do that thing. Or you don't have to do it the way that you've been doing it. And love the advice about talking it out with somebody. And I find like for me, there's kind of like two layers of like, I love talking about this kind of stuff with like minded people like like, yeah, you're talking right now. And you'll find that it's very validating, because so many people have the same feelings that you do. But then it's also awesome to talk to somebody like your husband or a friend who's like totally removed from your business, because they can also be the people to hold you accountable and be like, Get off your computer. You said you wanted to get off your computer at five o'clock. It's time.

  Maddy Fry 31:52

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. And again, it's one of those things that it's a hurdle that feels so hard. But once you start to do it, it does get easier.

  Sara Whittaker 32:01

  Yeah. I love it. Love it. Well, thank you so much for being here. Can you tell everybody where they can find you online? And I meant to ask you this earlier. Yeah, I'd love to know, I want you to tell us about your membership. And I also want to know, I'm asking you like five different questions here. But I meant to say this earlier, did you start your membership as a way to be able to kind of like reach and impact more people at once? Rather than like working one on one?

  Maddy Fry 32:27

  Okay. Yeah. So the the ascension squad community started as a brainchild of mine, it was one of those things that I had in my brain for probably like, a year before I actually like was like, I'm just gonna do this. Like, I'm the kind of person this is really important to know, I'm the kind of person who will try everything at least once, just to see what happens.

  Sara Whittaker 32:46

  Like I'm the same way. I don't think too much about it. I don't really sit like I don't psych myself out. I just don't. There's pros and cons to that. Yeah,

  Maddy Fry 32:55

  for sure. Yeah, I have metaphorically jumped off the cliff with no parachute multiple times in my life. And I'm glad that I do that I really am. But my membership is an online community. It's hosted through podia, which is a Online Course Platform, they have memberships, it's really user friendly, for women to come and get the guidance that they need. Each month, we have a different focus. So in the month of April, when we're having this conversation, we're talking about organization. So organization in business and life around our home, and our relationships and our head, right, talking about these different themes, like organization or growth mindset, setting goals, casting intentional visions, dealing with past trauma, and how we can not let that hold us back those types of things. And we have twice a month coaching calls with me, we have a community checking space where you can hop in, you can check in with other members. And really what it is to its core is this really magnificent magnetic community of women who are so rad, who are from all different types of walks of life, we have women who are younger than me in their early 20s. We have women who are 55. Plus, we have business owners and moms and dog moms and single women and married women. And it's just this really cool melting pot of people coming together to support and guide one another and get continued coaching and mentorship from me to live a joyful life. And the transformations happening in that community are huge. I have women coming to me saying, I'm not sure how to prioritize my business, so I can scale it so I can support my family. And weeks later, they're like, oh my gosh, I I'm living in this schedule that feels so good. And I'm making more money in my business all because of what we talked about in this community or, Hey, I'm feeling really stuck and not motivated to be healthy or to to work on my relationships. And a month later, they're like I made this small tweak that we talked about on our coaching call and my husband and I have never been closer. And it's these small transformations in different pockets of life that are happening. That Make the sunshine squad so, so special. And I actually started my membership. Before I started working with people one on one, which is not very often how it works. A lot of people start with one on one coaching first. And then they move into a membership to be able to impact more people. But I started the membership first because living in sunshine as a whole is a community based business and brand. And I was just having a conversation earlier. Technically, yes, legally, yes, I own living in sunshine. But living in sunshine is not mine. Right. I truly believe that. It's Our Community. This is our membership, our podcasts, our all of the things. And that's what the sunshine squad is. It's just an extension of that online community that I've created. And that we've created over time on Instagram, for these women to get more tailored support, and guidance. And honestly, connections. So often nowadays, I hear from women. I wish I had more friends. I wish I had people in my corner who who understood what I wanted from life who understood my vision, who didn't question why I wanted things, right. And that's why the sunshine squad, which is the name of this community was boring, just to give people the space to know that they had someone in their corner because there have been time and time again. And I come from a very supportive family. Really, really my husband is incredible. My mom has never asked questions, she's always been like, Okay, if you're like, Hi, I'm gonna stand over here and like silently Pittock in the background, but two thumbs up, I love you. But I know that that's not the case for everyone. And I've always kind of said, something that I say a lot on Instagram is that I'm in your corner, I see you and I hear what you want, so badly. And I want you to know that you have someone in your corner. And so that is really what this community is is a space for you to come to know that you have people in your corner who are cheering you on and want to see you win. And it's just this magnificent place that I could talk about forever but that's really what the membership is and my my one on one coaching kind of stemmed from that because I had people who said I love what you say I love what you share on but I kind of want more. And I want to work with you one on one can we do that? And that's kind of how my one on one coaching services have come to me too.

  Sara Whittaker 37:21

  I love it. It all sounds amazing. And I love the name the sunshine squad. That's yeah, that's where we

  Maddy Fry 37:27

  are. Squad man girl squad sunshine squad. Like we're getting jackets.

  Sara Whittaker 37:32

  Yeah, you need merch. Do you have other?

  Maddy Fry 37:35

  I don't. It's been in my brain. I'm very much like, like you said, I'm a I'm a oh my gosh, I have this idea of let's do it right now. Yeah. I had people in my life who are very much like No, no, no, no, no, hold on. Remember these other things that you came up with last week? Like let's focus on those first. We'll save these ideas for a different time. But yeah, I thought about it.

  Sara Whittaker 37:56

  Six months down the road maybe? Yeah, probably. Awesome. Well, thank you so so much Maddy, this was really fun chatting with you. And I just super appreciate you spending some time with us.

  Maddy Fry 38:09

  You are so welcome. If you are listening. You have any more questions, feel free to send me a message over on Instagram. My handle is at living the letter N sunshine. I'd love to chat. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. Thank you for for letting me on.

  Sara Whittaker 38:22

  You are so welcome. And we will put all of Maddies info and links and everything in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. To keep this conversation going connect with me on Instagram at podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support and launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my online course the podcasting for educators prep school at podcasting for educators.com/prep school. I'll see you here next time.

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Podcasting for Educators is the podcast for TpT authors and other online educators. It's a show that will help you get your podcast in front of those who need it most - teachers, counselors, literacy specialists, SLPs, parents, and more! Each week, Sara Whittaker and her guests will share top tips and actionable strategies that you will need in order to launch, manage, and grow your podcast. You’ll learn how to leverage your show to build long-lasting relationships with your audience and promote your TpT resources, courses, and memberships, all while providing valuable and accessible content!

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