How I Make Work, Work
With me, because I was too disorganised to get anyone else
Making yourself the feature of your own column is either a fierce power play or entirely narcissistic. Perhaps it’s both (porque no los dos?).
But, the real reason why you’re seeing my face in this edition of How I Make Work, Work, is because I haven’t been making work, work the past three weeks. This column is meant to go live every second Tuesday, it’s been ridiculously well received so I am committed to keeping it up, this edition is now three days late, and I wasn’t organised enough to make sure one of my interviewees had filed their answers in time.
The other reason is my discomfort with something that keeps coming up from friends and strangers. There’s no sentence more annoying than one that starts with “a lot of you have asked…” but I don’t know how else to phrase it: A lot of you have asked (or commented on) how I’ve been able to keep up the podcast with a newborn, so I’m setting the record straight on exactly what that looks like, how Loz and I planned for my (semi) parental leave, the late nights and early mornings when I really shouldn’t have been working on top of mothering two little people, and the insane amount of support we are privileged to call upon within our families.
Anyway, I could go on and on, but my son just bit me HARD and I nearly cried because it’s been an awful few weeks (I’m also not proud to admit that I muttered “I hate you” under my breath, which of course I don’t mean and he didn’t hear and I really ought to stop saying petty things under my breath as soon he will pick up on it but surely I’m not the only one?), so let’s just hit publish and get on with it, shall we?
And now he’s stroking my face on my lap and WOW I love you so much.
But before we get into it, in light of recent personal events that are not mine to share, this is a reminder that if you are struggling, please talk about how you’re feeling. You are loved and there are people who can and who will help. My DMs are always open.
Please use three words to introduce/describe yourself outside of being a mother and career girlie…
An emotional overthinker.
Now, tell us about who you are as a mother and in business?
I confuse myself as a mother. I am dedicated but a little bit lazy. I rarely make the right foods or set up the right activities and my son’s childcare bag never has what it needs within it. I am attached to my children but I’m quite good at leaving them for a bit of ‘me’ time (not as easy when Posie is refusing the bottle but we persist!). I am obsessed with being a mum but I just can't seem to ever stop myself from opening that bloody laptop.
In business, I’m a freelance producer (predominantly working across podcast and video content, though my first love was the written word), the host of Ready or Not and co-host of Witching Hour. We also just released our first suite of Ready or Not Go To Guides, so the brand is expanding beyond a podcast and that is exciting.
Outside of Ready or Not, I freelance for a few exciting and boring clients. When I’m not on parental leave, the freelance work that takes up the most time and that I enjoy most is my role as a podcast and video producer for Producey. Lucy from Producey! This is a combination of consistent hours where I work on specific weekly podcasts that sees me working from home outside of recording times, as well as one-off projects, like producing the video content for Jess Hatzis and Bree Johnson’s (of Willow and Blake and Frank Body pedigree) recently released brand and marketing course, Of Course.
I also take on copywriting, brand and social media projects, assisting people and brands in navigating branding, social media strategy, tone of voice, website designs and builds and more.
I am privileged that this is mostly done from the comfort of my home, which brings with it its own perks and challenges. But as someone who lives over an hour from Melbourne’s CBD, I doubt I’ll ever commit to working for anyone else on a permanent basis again.
You freelance – what did maternity leave look like for you, if in fact you had one at all?
In terms of my client work, I have kept up one freelance client that I’ve had for years. It’s a well oiled machine that runs seamlessly with little time commitment. I have taken an indefinite amount of time off my Producey work and will return to one-off projects that will require planning and meetings from home and one-off full days of filming and recording. This will work better for me than ongoing weekly work for now.
As for Ready or Not, there’s been no such thing as leave, but I pulled back as much as possible for the first 10 weeks. I have had way too many people wonder how I was navigating this with a baby, so here’s how we were able to keep the wheels turning in the sort of detail that I would’ve loved to read when pregnant with my first:
I bulk recorded episodes when I was pregnant with Posie. I think I had eight guests ready to go. This was tiring but necessary.
While we kept recording Witching Hour (which Loz handles in terms of pre-production and I handle in post-production), I didn’t start recording new episodes of Ready or Not until Posie was about 10 weeks old. Up until now, she’s mostly been on my boob or in the carrier for recordings, which has luckily, been mostly successful.
Loz handles all of the partnerships, which is heaps of work and something I don’t put much into. I only contribute script ideas and recording lines. (I love you so much Loz).
Ready or Not: Ray is at daycare three days a week, so recording episode intros and sponsorship lines, writing show notes and creating social content happens sometime on those days. I am trying to be diligent in batching my time but for transparency, I am normally recording the episode intro on a Tuesday at around 5pm before the episode goes live at 1am Wednesday morning. Ready or Not takes up about eight hours per week.
Witching Hour: Loz and I record Witching Hour once a week. She writes the production schedule and a freelance editor edits for us. This leaves me to review and publish the episode. Honestly, it’s a miracle if I do this before 8pm Sunday night and the show goes live on a Monday morning. Witching Hour takes up about four hours of my time per week.
Go To Guides: These were 50% complete before Posie came into the world, and honestly, the month leading up to releasing these (on the 1st April, when Posie was 2.5 months) was an absolute slog. I worked so many late nights and long days with her on my lap. My husband would take her when he could and he has been the manager of Ray
50/50 Parenting: My partner has had a very quiet start to the work year. He’s a builder and he’s been in quoting and planning mode, not being on site mode. In the four months since Posie has been with us, I’ve been to Ray’s childcare five times. This has been incredible for me. He also takes Ray on every afternoon dog walk and has worked from home a LOT, so even the days that I’ve had solo with both children has been minimal. His work (on site as a builder) is about to ramp up so things will get interesting. I wanted to call this out because this has been very lucky and is not the case for so many. We share everything and I would say the only thing that solely falls on me is the kid’s laundry. So that’s how I’ve been able to do what I do while keeping (some of) my sanity.
Grandparents: My parents live locally and Haydn’s parents an hour away. Both sets have had Ray for numerous sleepovers, send us home with food and offer so much help. This is so incredibly lucky and goes a long way to helping me navigate paid work.
The next few months: I am interested and nervous to see how it all works. The earliest I think I am emotionally ready to send Posie to childcare is roughly 10 months (I know this is a privilege), and we can’t afford a nanny, so I am truly perplexed as to how I am going to make all of the interviews I have planned work as she continues to become more and more alert. Pray for me and that the carrier keeps her asleep while I stand, sway and try to say something smart.
In many ways, experiencing motherhood can make paid work seem easier. In what ways has this been true for you?
This is true in every sense for me. I’m never as proud of thLauren Trend said we move mountains as mums and this is entirely true.
On the flip side, in what ways has paid work remained challenging?
I wasn’t where I wanted to be career-wise before I had children. The goal was to be a journalist but that sort of became derailed in my early 20s when I fell in love with yoga and went down to part time office work (in marketing) so that I could study and teach yoga. Roughly five years into this, I realised I’d sort of got in my own way of progressing my career and I went back to working in media.
So, outside of the logistic mindf*ckery that comes with navigating kids and paid work, my biggest challenges are that I’m not earning what I thought I would be and I’m not as established as I’d like to be. I wish I was somewhat of a Dolly Alderton or Jessie Stephens – writing books, writing columns, producing podcasts and hosting talks – but I am not even close.
Lastly, there’s just never enough time. I have great editorial ideas that I want to pitch to various contacts in the media, but like…when?!
Run us through the day in your life on a paid work day (if you’re okay with it, I want the whole damn thing from waking up that morning to getting home that night)
I’ll give you two options, because pre and during maternity leave are very different beasts.
Before maternity leave, pregnant with Posie
Let’s look at a day where I’d need to be in the Producey studio in Burnley:
Ray wakes up around 6/6:30am and Haydn always gets up with him, makes him breakfast and tends to him before he has to leave for work (usually around 6:45am but sometimes later). He brings me a coffee and toast in bed because I pretend I’m a pregnant delicate flower who couldn’t possibly do that for herself and I sit in bed for a little too long.
Haydn leaves by 6:45/7am and I will myself out of bed and dance around my son while he continues to eat his breakfast. He takes a long time to eat so eventually I’ll jump in the shower. I’ll rush this because is Ray okay or has he somehow managed to climb out of his high chair even though I checked three times that he was strapped in?
I’ll often put on my daggies straight after the shower because Ray is a mess and I don’t want to cry over a stained outfit. After the shower, I get him dressed and then I get myself dressed. I’ll put on a bit of makeup by mixing together a whole lot of things that I don’t understand and slap it on in a rush. Ray will normally watch on, laughing.
Then it’s off to childcare. On the way, I’ll pray it’s a happy drop off and luckily, it mostly is.
From there, I’ll either head back home to work for a few hours before my commute into the city, or get the commute over with and work from a cafe and move my car what feels like every three minutes.
Then, it’s time to head into Producey. After a quick chat with the talent, we’ll get into recording something we’ve already planned in a pre-production meeting the day before.
After recording, I’ll get in the car and head home for the two-hour drive. I used to hate the city to coast commute, but honestly, I love the silence now. So long as I don’t need to fill up my car or wee, it’s happy days.
On that commute, I’ll try to listen to and review either a Producey episode or a Ready or Not episode. Time is money, baby!
I’ll get home around 6pm and Haydn will be on the cooking tools for the night, with Ray already well and truly eating. I would say as a general rule, I sort dinner Monday and Tuesday and he sorts it Wednesday. The rest of the week is a little less planned.
After we’ve all eaten, Haydn is normally on bath duties as tomorrow is my Ray day. I’ll do a bit more work and promise I’m getting off soon.
For the last half hour before Ray’s bedtime, I’ll focus my attention solely on him.
After he’s in bed, I will probably do another hour of Producey work, which is briefing the editor on episode edits as well as social content I want him to cut up.
I go to bed at roughly 8.30pm and aside from teaching yoga the following morning at 6.30am, have the day wide open for Ray time.
During “maternity leave” (AKA now)
Ray is in childcare on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and my work is so spread across the week that I feel as though we need to look at the week as a whole:
Monday:
Witching Hour goes live on a Monday. Because, as you may realise by now, I’m not feeling all that organised, I’m probably furiously trying to create social content as you’re listening to the episode.
Loz and I record Witching Hour during lunchtime on a Monday. She’ll have prepared the production schedule and I try my best to do nothing but record with Loz and stay on top of emails and correspond with upcoming guests, including sending interview questions.
I drop Ray to childcare at roughly 8/8:30am.
Haydn picks Ray up from childcare at roughly 3:30/4pm.
Tuesday:
Every second Tuesday, I get the How I Make Work, Work column up during Ray’s midday nap. I tend to try to have Posie down at this time and I work while they’re asleep.
From 4–6pm, Haydn and I have an arrangement that I can work if I need, and because I’m so disorganised at the moment, that normally means preparing the next day’s Ready or Not episode.
I’ll generally cook dinner while the kids are around me and get them out for a morning coffee, play, whatever.
Wednesday:
If I haven’t prepared social content for the day’s new Ready or Not episode, now is the time and I chastise myself most weeks for not being more organised. I try and batch create and I listen to the episode to make sure there’s no hitches and see if I pick up on any interesting quotes that I missed when reviewing the edit.
I’ll also generally record a Ready or Not interview, and pray like heck that Posie is happy on the boob or in the carrier during it.
I drop Ray to childcare at roughly 8/8:30am.
Haydn picks Ray up from childcare at roughly 3:30/4pm.
Thursday:
I’ll record a Ready or Not interview, and again, pray like heck that Posie is happy on the boob or in the carrier during it.
I drop Ray to childcare at roughly 8/8:30am.
Haydn picks Ray up from childcare at roughly 3:30/4pm.
I’ll spend a bit of time creating and publishing content, brainstorming a million different things that’ll never come to fruition, and track downloads and Go To Guides numbers.
Friday:
I truly try to do no work on this day, but usually, during Ray’s midday nap, I’ll get as much done as I can – a mixture of admin, emailing, and content.
Saturday:
The most I’ll do today is post a silly little meme on the Ready or Not Instagram and check Instagram and podcast I download numbers 5,000 times.
Sunday:
She’s done it again. She promised she’d watch a show that night with her husband but instead she’s bloody reviewing and scheduling tomorrow’s Witching Hour episode.
Each Sunday, I also record all stats relevant to our website and downloads and I’ll probably feel frustrated that we’re not growing as fast as I like while also trying to keep myself under the radar as much as is humanly possible for a podcaster (I know, an absolute paradox).
QUICK FIRE ROUND
Describe motherhood in three words… Wild but wonderful.
Navigating motherhood and paid work is… At times easy, at other times, impossible.
I wouldn’t be able to navigate motherhood and paid work without… Childcare, grandparents and a husband that sees my needs as equal to his.
My go-to mum-friendly work uniform is… Studio Marlene pants that are forgiving for fluctuating waistlines and shirts that are perfect for breastfeeding, my old Alpha60 barrel pants with an elasticated waistline, Deiji studios pants (again, elasticated – you get the drift) for working from home comfort that is a cut above track pants, St Agni pants for when I return to work in a more professional sense but don’t fit into yet, and all the more affordable lowbrow brands (Zara, H&M) that I don’t agree with from a sustainability standpoint that I wish I was wealthy enough to avoid.
The best way to help a new mum is… Offer specific help in lieu of asking her what she needs. She doesn’t know what the fk she needs. She’s forgotten.
The best way to help a mum returning to paid work is… Send her the Ready or Not podcast and tell her she’s doing an amazing job.
If I could solve one problem for working mothers, it would be… To focus more on flexibility in the workplace for dads (paid parental leave that fathers are actually encouraged to take, old white men not turning their nose up at a dad for dropping down to four days… etc. etc.) and secondary caregivers.
To get out of the door in the morning, I need… To put one foot in front of the other.
My biggest current challenge in making work, work as a mum is… Finding the answer to the eternal question: what will I regret in five years’ time? And speaking of time, can I get more of the stuff?!
My biggest focus for 2024 is… To find balance. LOL! She’s feeling ambitious today.