During the last trimester of her pregnancy our Founder, Brea Starmer, has received a number of questions about prepping for her maternity leave. Since there was so much interest, Brea put together a video Q&A of the frequently asked questions.

We hope this will be a great resource for employees preparing for leave, managers and employers supporting staff who will go on leave, or for those curious about how an entrepreneur takes a break.

0:00

Hey, it’s Brea, I am about a week away from having a baby. And I’ve had a number of questions come in asking how I’m preparing for this maternity leave. So I thought I’d make a quick video and answer a few of the questions I’ve gotten. So let’s dig in. First question I got was, how has Matt, leave prep been different for each of my three kids? This is my third. And is that due just being more seasoned parent? Or is it due to the framework that I’ve set up? Okay, so just to recap, for kid number one, I had just been laid off seven months pregnant. So my preparation for that maternity leave was disaster planning, it was making sure that I had health benefits for my delivery, we had to make sure that I could pay a mortgage, and that I could actually take some time off, and possibly have a job to come back to. So those are very different kind of preparation. For my second kid, I had just launched lions and tigers, this business that I’m running now. And for that preparation, I it was my first round of hiring that I did for this business. And we were so brand new, I think I maybe had four or five people at that time. And one part time operations person, Lorraine, who is also my best friend, you know, we were just getting installed payroll systems and some of the really business basics at that time. Post exhilarating. So the preparation for that maternity leave was almost non existent, because I basically worked through that maternity leave. I mean, the day I came home from the hospital, Lorraine sat on my bed, and we work for four hours, just triage and stuff. So that was a very different kind of leave. But my business was so new that it needed me just as much as my baby did. So that was a bit of a juggle. For my third kid this time. So different because this company has grown so much, there’s been so much interest in what lions and tigers is building. And so we have a pretty good sized team now here that run the infrastructure of our business.

2:09

We’ve been working for almost a year to prepare for me to step out. But it’s not a small deal for a founder to step out of business for a period of time, whatever that reason is, for me, it’s having a baby. But that means that we have to have pretty sophisticated policies, systems tools in place to be able to do that. And also a really strong understanding of the values framework for which we make decisions. So we’ve been building that for a long time. So that just feels very different. This round, it feels a lot more organized.

2:45

On the personal front, my husband and I started really early on in the pregnancy, building out this master project plan, we use Trello, we built this board. And we figured out all the stuff that we needed to do to welcome a third human child and to our world. So like get new cars, car seats, get the kids into different rooms, like all that stuff. And I’m really glad we did that. So early on. Because I am so tired. Now, I’m so glad I’m not setting up bedrooms, and folding a bunch of clothes, like we just had, we had prepared for that in advance. And that’s just because I sort of knew what was coming. And this end is really hard. And that reason that you know, this has all been possible is this concept that we’ve really honed in on here at Lions and Tigers, which is called highest and best use. This is a concept that is almost like an energy management concept. It’s an idea or a question you would ask yourself about how do I best serve, and you make decisions on your time and your energy based on that and you sort of outsource the rest wherever you can. And so I’ve used that principle preparing for this third kid. And so that’s really shifted my mindset. So, you know, this looks different over time to I mean, this looks like support like childcare or, or housekeepers, or landscapers or virtual assistants, whatever that looks like for people to be able to operate in their highest and best use and outsource the rest. That’s been a concept that’s really solidified for me this preparation.

4:22

Okay, question number two. What does your work schedule look like now? How do you actually do it? Hmm, this is a big one. I have a friend Carrie, who said to me, I need you to keep working because I can’t right now. And that struck me in such a way that it has really solidified how I’ve made decisions in the last year and during this pandemic and how my family has made decisions because there are so many women, especially that are having to drop out of the workforce to care for children. And I’ve been able to keep going and work to my full capacity, because I feel so motivated by those that can’t, or by those that are under represented, and need an advocate in some way to help them try to gain access to work they wouldn’t otherwise have. So there’s a few things that have helped me consider this question about what is my schedule look like? First is flex working. So a different seasons of my life, I’ve done different kinds of work. So I talked about my first pregnancy, after I came out of that pregnancy, I worked only 25 hours a week for quite a while. During that sort of learning period of my life, that was all I really had capacity for, I then sort of ramped up to full time with my rider and my second kid, and now I’m full time plus, or, you know, I have been full time plus for the last year. But as I’ve gotten into this third trimester, I’ve really wanted to downshift a bit more. So about a month ago, I went down to 30 hours a week. So I’ve really sort of, you know, changed my hours or my capacity based mostly on children, but based on where I need to be serving at that time. And so that energy management piece, and that awareness is pretty important to think about, and then that whole like ability to be flexible, I designed my own career, I’m a freelancer at heart. So I say yes or no to the projects that fill me up. And that fit in my schedule, when I was a full time employee, it was a little bit of a different scenario. I don’t number two, and I can’t underscore this enough for me is that the support systems that I have, are really privileged.

6:39

To be honest, I have a husband that is very flexible, and has taken a step back in his career to enable mine. And that’s a huge, huge advantage. Not only that, we have some childcare help, too. So the capacity that our family has, is really abundant. And I’m aware of how much that allows us to operate at a pretty fast pace, which allows me to work a lot. And luckily, I like to work a lot. I love this work that we’re doing. And so this is where I want to spend my time. And I just say that because I am not Superwoman. And I think there is a perception that women that work a lot are able to do it all. And that’s not true for me at all. I have an incredible support system that enables me to work a lot. And so and like I said, that changes over time, we’re about to shift down and shift into a really insular period, where I’ll be with my husband and my kids a whole bunch and not work a whole bunch. And and that’s cool. Like we’re gonna move into that season for a while.

7:46

So the question about my schedule, when I am working, when I was back over at full time, or full time plus my calendars pretty full, I’m booked about 80% of the time with meetings, those usually look like a combination of business development, marketing, your brand building, I do consult still quite a bit with clients. And then I work with our internal teams to make sure that they’re showing up really well with our clients. And then of course, I’m doing internal planning with our leadership team around where the future of this business is going. So that’s where I spend most of my days, oh, some recruiting too.

8:20

And that night, usually, after the kids go to bed, that’s when I do my bigger thinking work. So I’ll build our sort of vision, you know, boards or our walking decks that help us tell our story. I’ll do some client work at night too. But that’s where I get the space to really research and dream. And so then the last thing I would say in terms of my schedule, is that boundaries have been super important for how I’ve been able to manage this, you know, don’t work weekends, I’m really clear about that. I’m really ruthless about keeping my my five to eight o’clock, or five-thirty to eight o’clock blocked for my kids usually make dinner for the family, and that don’t miss that stuff. So I will happily push back on a timeline or really clarify, when do you need this by to make sure that I can commit to something. And if I can’t, I’m really honest about that. And that’s helped me build trust in my relationships. So that when I say that I’m going to get something done. I really work hard to hit those deadlines. So those boundaries have been another tool that I’ve used.

9:21

Okay, question number three, you can see I’m getting into this is what happens at the end of a pregnancy. . Will you completely disconnect during maternity leave? If so, literally, how can a CEO disconnect entirely? How will you maintain those boundaries? You know, I’m actually pretty excited to log off for a little bit. As I mentioned, you know, we’ve been preparing for a while. And I cannot tell you how important it is that the team that we’ve built here is so good and so trusted, that I absolutely believe that they can make all these decisions without And that the business is going to do well thrive, maybe even grow without me here. And so a few of the things that I’m doing is I’m really stepping out of all of these day to day meetings, and setting up a very light rhythm of business. So this looks like once a week meeting with the executive team, once a month meeting with our division leaders around recruiting and Client Services operations, my hope is to spend about 10 to 15 hours a month on this business for at least December and into into mid January, for sure. The way I have thought about this in the past, someone described this to me as hunger. And so the idea that you might want to jump in and have a snack or have a meal, and to set up your system so that you have the ability to do that, if you feel like you want to do that. That’s been sort of a guide that I’ve used, thinking about how I’ve set expectations for my leave. And for me, I intend to use this time to do some planning 2020 was a bananas year. And in 2021, I’d love to think that we can have more control over our destiny. And so this will be some time that I get to take two, research and think and learn and spend some time really coming back into 2021 with a clear head and a direction for this, this group of people who rely on me for that work.

11:26

Okay, last question. You’ve been building a business around flexible talent, and the ability to scale up and scale down hours without compromising impact. Has navigating pregnancy and prepping for Matt leave helped clarify or create more complexities in this vision? Basically, Did it work? The answer is, yes, it absolutely worked. You know, we’ve thought about part time as an as a strategic advantage for a long time. It’s one of our kind of competitive differentiators and why brands and talent are attracted to us. But to put it in practice for myself, I mean, if you think about this, I’m now a CEO who’s working part time, I’m going to have a baby and step away from this business. And I fully expect that the business will do well, while I’m gone, I have no question that this business will do well, I’m gone. And to say that is, you know, really proving that this model works, that I can be just as impactful by enabling others as doing it myself, and probably more. So I’m able to scale much faster with people I trust, and really, frankly, people I want to work with and that I like. And that’s a pretty big deal. So yeah, I would say that this model has worked. And it’s proven itself during this this preparation period.

12:43

For me. As I think about part time, too. I love the definition that’s defined by WerkLabs, they talk about part time as not being you know, definitely having a reduced workload but not pulling yourself off the advancement track. Instead, employees in this category have the experience and skills to meet their objectives on a reduced hourly schedule. So this does not water down the kind of work that we’re doing. It simply means that we’re focused on the kinds of work that is most impactful. And so we feel passionately about that. I feel passionately about that about Lions and Tigers. And we aim to really work with brands and organizations that have that curiosity going into 2021 that want to think about how their own staff can operate and their highest and best use and leverage outsourced staff like ours to do it.

13:33

So that’s the puzzle I’m walking into this maternity leave with as well as how the heck do you have three children like those are the two things I’m gonna wrestle with while I’m out. So with that, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Thank you so much and I cannot wait to connect with you in the new year.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai