the bossbabe podcast - 302. Deep Dive Into Motherhood, Rhythms That Run My Life, Family Schedules + My Personal Operating System

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

From her motherhood journey + postpartum lessons to the specific rhythms that run her Monday-Sunday, Natalie goes deep in today’s episode on all things systematizing your life + business. So many of you have written in asking how Natalie is able to effectively show up as a 7-figure business owner + Mama - without burning out + feeling constantly pulled in a thousand directions… and today, she’s sharing exactly how she created her “Life Operating System” to create a schedule that works for her. So if you’ve ever felt anxious, overwhelmed, or stressed by what’s on your plate - today’s episode is going to give you the practical tips you need to take back control and start to create your life + business by design.  HIGHLIGHTS From specifics around meal-prep, errand runs to grocery orders - Natalie shares her specific daily routine (day by day through the week) The systems + rhythms that support Natalie in working just a few days a week, all while running a 7-figure company + showing up as a present mama  BTS of the schedule + playbook Natalie created for her nanny for running her household (+ how it’s created such ease and consistency for their family) The first thing you need to do to take back control of your life + create your own playbook  LINKS DM me “SYSTEMS” on Instagram @iamnatalie FOLLOW bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie

I just want to take all of the chaos and guesswork and like dead time out of my life. I don't like standing in a queue or a line and you call it in America. I'm like standing in a line wasting my time. Okay, I've got this 30 minutes. What can I do? And that's just kind of how I've thought about life like sitting for 30 minutes deciding what movie we're going to watch like no that's dead time to me. Can we just go the list okay great let's go a boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise keep going and fighting on she is on a mission to be her best self in all areas it's just believing in yourself confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success.

Welcome back to the Boss Babe podcast. Oh, this episode feels like, you know, when you record something that's a bit vulnerable and you're like, is that a bit too much to share? And whenever I have that feeling, I'm like, no, this means that I should be sharing it. This is the exact reason that I should be sharing what is making me uncomfortable, because there's probably someone out there that really needs to hear this. So feels important, feels scary, and I really hope it serves you. So I was recently a guest on a podcast called Trust Issues, which is a brand new podcast. And this was a few months ago that I did the interview, which I think is great to re-listen to. Now I've re-listened to it. I could really see the place I was in then. I was really coming out of that postpartum fog and what I've shared very openly here. And the way in which Erica and Kyle asked me questions, I think

got me to open up a lot more because I know Erica has gone through something similar in her postpartum journey. You know, we've gotten to know each other well over the years, but especially because Erica is part of my CEO mama mastermind. And so we've gotten to spend time together and really realize how much we have in common. And so in this episode, we talk a lot about postpartum realness, you know, anxiety, depression, the effect that it had on my marriage and my approach to my business. And then we move into what's really exciting me right now, which is, you know, life operating systems and processes and building a business that feels really freeing. And you'll hear on

the podcast, I was mentioning, I think what I'm really excited about is releasing something on systems. So if you are listening and you get excited about it and you want more information, DM me on Instagram at I am Natalie with the word systems and I'll send you some information. So with that, I hope this episode speaks to you if you really need it right now. And yeah, let's dive straight in. Thanks so much for being on the show. Welcome to Trust Issues.

Yes. Thank you. We're so excited to have you and to dive into just I think you are so incredibly gifted at so many things and someone that I have admired for so many years and just seeing you step into motherhood too is something I'm excited to talk about but I think just kicking it off with you know how you are approaching this new season of your life being a mom being a CEO how is it going? Oh my goodness. I mean, postpartum is a wild ride. I think I'll start there. I will say, I think, I feel like I'm approaching the season with grace and all of this kind of started for me during my pregnancy, because listen, I am, and I definitely

was the biggest control freak you've ever met and I wanted everything to go my way and it feels like God was like well no I'm just gonna give it to you a different way and I had no control over it I mean I was sick for 17 weeks finally started enjoying my second trimester and then my baby was frank breach she was just stuck in the most uncomfortable position and my entire pregnancy had always said I'm never having a cesarean. That's not my path. I don't want that. And it got to a point where, you know,

we did so many things. And I had a conversation with my doctor that I really trusted. And he said, look, the safest way to get this baby out is to have a cesarean. And that for me was just the biggest, okay, I'm listening.

I need to let go and loosen control and know that I'm going towards a certain outcome. But the way in which I get there, I need to be more flexible with, which just in my life, I wasn't the most flexible person. I was rigid in so many ways. I love doing things my way. I loved having control over them. And so I went through my cesarean. It was meant to be a regular scheduled

cesarean it did not go as planned there was some complications it was really difficult as I think almost all births are and so as I came out of that one thing I committed to myself was I'm just gonna go through this with grace and that'll start for me with my breastfeeding journey I said to myself you know what if I if I breastfeed for a month, amazing. I think that's so incredible. That will be me like done if it feels done. And I've kind of kept that up my entire way through and I'm still breastfeeding now at 10 months, but I'm not putting that pressure on myself. And that's just, that's just one way in which I'm approaching things differently to in the past, because it would have been okay. I am breastfeeding for 12 months and three days. And you what i mean and so definitely with grace definitely with a lot of

self-compassion slowing down listening a lot to my intuition and holding some really strong boundaries i would say is summing up how i'm navigating this season you are doing it so beautifully and i couldn't resonate more. We were literally saying this yesterday. Yes. We used to be the biggest control freaks. And I think becoming a parent, becoming a mother, you literally have to let go of so much and what a journey it has been to just learn a whole new way of living because you can't control like you used to. You're doing such a good job. I'm learning so much from you in this season. And I want to know, you know, after I know, obviously having Noemi, who is the

cutest little girl ever, you were taking some time off, but then you came back into work. How did that go? What is that looking like? How is work different now than it was before? Yeah. So I'd always planned to take a three-month maternity leave and my three months was up and I went back to work. And truthfully, I was navigating some PTSD from my birth, anxiety, depression, things that I just never experienced before. And I almost had this mentality of, I've got the mindset tools. I can just push through this. And if I get some semblance of my old life back, all of this will go away.

And so I threw myself back into work and it was almost like I was trying to do work as my old self. I was giving it 100%, but then at the same time, I was trying to give my baby 100%, my husband 100%. And it just felt like at the end of every single day, I felt like a failure.

I felt like my mindset was getting worse and worse. I had this dark cloud over me. I was just crying constantly. I really felt like I had no interest in doing anything. There was days I didn't even want to get out of bed. I couldn't sleep. It was just awful. And so I made the decision, actually, I'm going to step back. This isn't worth it to me. Had this conversation with myself of like, Natalie, you've worked so hard to get where you are. You're 30 years old with your first baby. You have created so much financial abundance, so much success as how I defined it. What more do you want? Like really, what more do you want? And I had to have that conversation with myself. And I realized I literally have everything I've ever wished for. What am I still pushing so hard for? What is this hungry ghost that I'm trying to feed? Because I have it all

right now. And actually I'm not even allowing myself to enjoy it. And instead I'm almost not enjoying any of it because I'm not allowing myself to get better and heal. And that was a place where I drew a line in the sand. I stepped back from all my businesses and I just leaned so heavily into motherhood and into myself and then eventually into my marriage. And it changed everything for me. And I honestly, that's my thought self for the longest time.

Like, will I ever feel like myself again? Will I ever get my energy back? Will I ever get my ambition back? Truthfully like will I ever feel like myself again will I ever get my energy back will I ever get my ambition back truthfully will I ever feel happy again and that was a really hard question to ask myself because I'd look at everything I've built and I'd sit sometimes looking at my husband and my baby I'm like how am I not happy like what what's wrong here and actually all I needed to do was step back and heal. And all of those things did come back and they have come back. And I'm now getting back into work in a way that feels really good. But I want to be honest about asking those questions. And I know some people might look at that and say, oh, you know, such easy problems to have. And sure it might be, but it

didn't feel like it. Right. And any of us who've navigated a difficult postpartum period, which I think is probably most of us will resonate with there's, there's a lot of things come up and you just need to deal with them. Cause if you keep pushing them down, they're going to get louder and louder and louder. Yeah. Yeah. No, that, I mean, listening to you right now, everything you're saying it's in a way, I guess, is her husband very refreshing because hearing what you've gone through, it's literally like the same battle, same thing she's gone through. So it's like you start to feel like, is this just us? Are we are we crazy for feeling this way? Is this, you know, and it's like sort of I mean, her joining your group, you guys doing this together with mamas, it's it's incredible. So like which we were going to talk. Yes,

absolutely. But it's just like to hear you speak like this, it's very refreshing. And it's like to normalize obviously birth and postpartum. Cause it's like, it was postpartum was something I feel like she wasn't prepared for. And as a husband, I was not prepared for it. Was it like pregnancy for us was much, much easier. It was, you didn't get sick that much. It was an easier road. And then postpartum hit us, hit us hard. So it's refreshing to hear others talk about this. I'm just glad that we're having the conversation. Yeah. I'm glad that as women that people follow and look to, I'm glad that we're just being really honest because I know during my pregnancy, even before that, when I was planning to get pregnant,

I was following a lot of women that I really respected and they weren't sharing so much of what was going on for them. And that might be because it was private to them, which is absolutely fine. It might mean they actually weren't going through it. But I feel like because I didn't find those people who were, it hit me like a ton of bricks. And I was exactly the same, Kyle.

I was like, what's wrong with me? Like, how am I doing this wrong? And just having the conversation and normalizing it just, I think it just allows your entire nervous system to be like, oh, it's part of the process. Yeah. It's truly part of the process. And you are, I think the thing is, is that when you were in it, you totally feel that you feel like something must be wrong with you. You feel like you are the anomaly. You feel like you must be the only one in the world struggling with it because everyone makes it look so beautiful. And we have to know

that social media shows a tiny inkling, you know, a 10 percent, perhaps maybe not even of the whole picture. But I'm so refreshed by this conversation because I would have loved to hear this when I was pregnant. I would have loved to know, OK, here's some ways that I can prepare that I can just prepare myself to take a step back because, I mean, I had such a similar experience. So that led to CEO Mama being birthed. And I will say that I'm so grateful and honored to be a part of CEO Mama, your mastermind that kind of birthed out of this new season that you stepped into, which is where I learned. I'm learning so much from you. But can you talk a little bit about CEO Mama and like where that came from and this new mission that you're on to support mothers specifically? Yeah, I feel like it was the most organic thing ever.

When I was really, really deep in postpartum, I was getting constant voice notes from other mamas, some of them who are actually in the CEO Mama Mastermind now, but moms who'd been there and done this and navigated it, especially having successful companies and experiencing postpartum, I would have women checking in with me on a daily basis and just asking. It wasn't, can I see pictures of the baby? It was real questions like, how's your mental health? how's your anxiety feeling today how are you those kind of questions and it's it felt it started to make me feel like I wasn't alone and so I got a couple of friends together who had babies similar age to me and I was like can we just meet up on a Friday on Zoom and just have 15 minutes each to talk and support each other

and so we did that and I was expecting you, us to get on a call with a coffee and just drop in and you know, how's feeding going? How's all that going? And actually, we'd all get on a call and cry. And that for me was, wait, I have the support. There are so many women out there like me that don't have the support and need a place to get on a call and cry, laugh, ask for advice, share wisdom. I want to create that. And so that's really where it came from. And it's funny because I didn't, I went into this so differently, which I think just speaks to the kind of season I'm in. You know, I love launches. And in the past, a launch for me is a sales page and a funnel and a team and all those things.

None of it. It was me, no team. I put into a google doc what my vision was and I just put on Instagram and I reached out to a bunch of women you included saying hey I'm putting together this thing I really want to make it amazing here's what it is are you interested and it was really important for me not to like sell it you know what I mean like really have to enroll women I didn't want to do that because I felt like if the women that I really am looking for are called to this they'll be in right away and that's how I know I've got something that's interesting and is valuable. If I have to really sell people into this, then I think it's probably not the right fit for me right now. And that's kind of how it started. I mean, a waitlist is crazy. Like I'm,

I'm really realizing there's a big need for this. And it just felt good to be led by intuition and none of the like fancy stuff that quite frankly me as an online marketer has taught for so many years. It's like, let me just do it a different way, my own way. And it worked. And I mean, you know, when we get on these calls, it's just a peer group

where we all teach each other so many different things and we hold space in such a beautiful way and we get to meet up. And I have not seen something like this before and maybe it exists, but I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it i haven't seen it no i mean the literally the first day that you were like talking about i told him i was like i don't know what she's doing but i'm gonna be a part of it so whenever this launches and it's so true because our first call we had our little well maybe not our first call but we had our little virtual

retreat so our virtual retreat I remember the first time I shared, I cried. I was like, this is what I'm going through right now. And every single person was like, yep, I've been there. I'm navigating this too. The container is so valuable. I think that it was something that I didn't even know that I needed, but it's, it's supporting me in like such an incredible way. I mean, even when you brought it up to me, I was like, you know, I was like, yeah, absolutely. This is something that's going to, you know, aid you on your journey right now. It's like a group of people who are going through the same exact thing. And it's like, honestly, I think one of the last calls you guys just had together, I was in the other room with Dawson and like, I could feel like the good energy coming from

the bedroom. Like, cause I could hear all of you guys talking and I could just feel, it felt like a very healing conversation. And I was like, this is so worth it. Like, this is amazing. So yeah. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all in one platform, Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped

us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to Kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's Kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. So we're going to take a little bit of a turn because it was in the mastermind. And I think this is such a beautiful setup because, you know, when it comes to being a mother, being a business

owner, there's so much that I think in the industry that is not addressed the mental health piece, the community, when you're a mother, there's so many things that you're just expected to just pick right back up, get back into work, get back into the flow. It's pretty much virtually impossible as we have both discovered to do that. And if someone is out there doing that, they're probably not well, because I know I tried to do the same thing and I was not okay. But one thing that I want to turn into and kind of guide this conversation into talking about your gift, which is systems. And I think this is probably something that also, when I look at my season that I, you know, am in now one year postpartum systems, while they sound to most mothers, very masculine are actually so supportive of the season that we both have been

in because it allows you to have things flowing ease in your life, less, you know, putting out fires and more like, oh yeah, this is just how that goes. This is, this is where that resource is. And you've put together the most incredible like hub that you've been teaching us. But I would love to know before we get into this whole idea of how you run your life with systems as a mama, as a CEO, as an investor, as a business owner, as a wife, were you always this person who was like very systems driven? Was this always you? Because it blows my mind and I learned so much from you. Yes. I'm not even embarrassed to admit, yes, this has always been me. I was the person that had spreadsheets and

systems for even my schoolwork in high school. And I'd print it out and give it to my friends. Same thing at university. Everyone wanted to be in a group with me because they knew I had like all of my notes categorized like you could ask me what happened in lecture three I'd click on set like I had it there's always been me it's always been the way in which my brain has worked because so much is going on in my brain and I'm actually a really creative flow flowy person. But I know if I have a system kind of holding the structure of my brain, it just allows me to perform better. So I'm also a Capricorn, which I think contributes to that. So yes, I've always been this person.

I would say meeting my husband has really put this on steroids. So we couldn't be more of a perfect match. I'm a Capricorn. He's a Virgo. We both live for a system and so it's almost like when we met we kind of were merging our systems and we wouldn't it's like foreplay for us no not really but we would like we'd be like i have a better system for this oh my god we could upgrade it by this way and so we kept taking on more and more projects together

as a couple like house builds and things like that and we would nerd out on systems and so what i've created really came from the two of us just supporting each other with that and leaning into where like our strengths are i live for this stuff oh we need to take our life to the next level like we are the antithesis we're two pisces okay so we're just like we're just like, we're just floating. And we're like, no, you need to teach us about these systems. So tell us what are some like keystone systems that you have as a wife, you know, in your home?

So you and Steven, but also like maybe business wise, what are some top systems that are like, these are my go-tos. I live and breathe by this. Yeah. So I feel like I have kind of like a bunch of, I want to say rules of just things that I stick to that really support me. One of them is a rhythm. I run my life on a rhythm. And what I mean by that, it's not a very rigid schedule, but it's, I see my days and I generally have certain things that I do every Monday, every Tuesday, every Wednesday,

whether that's work, personal, you know, whether that's meal planning. And so to some people, this is so repetitive and so boring that they're not interested in it. But for me, I just like to be prepared. Like I know on a Friday week at takeout, I'm not even thinking about what meat I'm getting out of the freezer on a Thursday night. Like I know those little things. When we get takeout, we have a system that we know what time we order it. We just go into our little sheet. I know what Stephen's order is. He knows what mine is.

There's no kind of guessing games. So we've kind of scheduled everything like that. And even down to, you know, when I was thinking about creating a rhythm for my life, I was thinking about what makes me my best self. And I kind of did a brain dump. And this is something everyone can do when they're listening. I did a brain dump of the things that make me feel good. And it's things like taking my supplements, working out, going on walks, really connecting in person with my friends, getting time solo with my husband, getting quality time with my daughter, eating home-cooked meals majority of the time.

So I started to just do a brain dump of all the things that really mattered to me. And then I also did another brain dump of all the things that I know I get to do in business, whether it's recording podcasts, coaching, writing, leading my team. And so I ended up with just all of these things. And so from those lists of things,

I start to pull it into a rhythm and a structure. So, okay, on a Monday, how do I structure half my Monday on my energy? So making sure I'm getting my energy right for the week, I'm working out, I'm gonna go get an IV or a supplement or something like that. And in the afternoon, I do some meal prepping for the rest of the week.

On a Tuesday, okay, how am I being really focused with my work? And doing that allows me to then plan for childcare and plan when I'm feeding and my schedule and things like that. Wednesday, like, so I really plan everything out like that. And what it's meant is I do a lot of habit stacking. So I do a lot of things at the exact same time. So I'm getting four things done at once which really is only happening because I've prepped for that if I'm trying to do those four things without prepping that's very difficult but if I'm you know lying on my PEMF mat with my red light and I'm meditating

that's three things all at once and I'm doing it because I planned it and also I'm not context switching so I do all of my podcasting in one day I do all of my coaching in one day I do all of my podcasting in one day. I do all of my coaching in one day. I do all of my writing all in one day. And that's really helpful for me because I'm just in the zone. Same with meal prepping. You know, we just keep things running on a great system. And it means that we're not going and reaching for like snacks that are unhealthy or ordering takeout when we know we feel good when we cook at home. And so little things like that just allow me to run my house better run my business better run my life better and I'm not feeling like I'm constantly dropping the ball somewhere because I can take the ball and if I'm going to punt it great but I know where it's

going to sit until I do that versus you know honestly me 10 years ago would I remember a time when I had collected over 10 parking tickets and I kept thinking, honestly, like out of sight, out of mind, they don't exist. But in fact, they did exist. And it's little things like that that I won't allow to build up anymore. You know, the returns of I ordered a bunch of clothes. I only liked half of them. I need to send them back. Am I going to let them just sit in my room for three weeks and then not be able to get a refund? Or am I going to schedule that into my rhythm so that taking care of that stuff becomes effortless? And it feels more feminine than masculine to me, honestly. It feels like having that rhythm in place allows me to show up very carefree and very flowy and very open and happy. And that just really works for me.

Wow. That's really good. Yeah. I feel called out. I do too. And, you know, I think that that's like where as a mom, you realize now how much time you used to have. For sure. Because you can really fly by the seat of your pants. You can really like, you can get by for a good amount of time until you become a parent and then you're like oh shit like we're literally now not just us but it's this little child that is on their they can create their own rhythms too you know they're yes suddenly they're not sleeping and you're like so how do how about motherhood and systems you know have you implemented anything like that with Noemi?

And what does that look like with your daughter? Yeah. I mean, we had to. That was actually one of the things that I think supported my mood was getting Noemi on a schedule. That was incredible for us. So I got Noemi onto a schedule. I started doing it around the eight-week mark.

Kind of wish I'd started earlier. But I remember around that time, my mom had came out and I just wasn't in a good place mentally at all. I was really, really struggling. And we were starting to talk about different things that I could do. And she'd suggested, you know, it would be really helpful if you knew when she was going to be taking a nap. And then you can go get your shower. Then you can go get your lunch. Cause right now I'm looking at you, you haven't washed your hair in days. You know, you are barely eating. Your breast milk's going to drop.

You are really not showing up as the person you want to be showing up as. And it was, that was a really interesting turning point for me because I realized, wait, in my old life, I did have schedules for myself. So why would I not introduce it with my baby? So putting her on a schedule

around the eight week mark changed everything. It was really great for me to just have some predictability of what my day looked like and then we also have a full-time nanny she's absolutely incredible and when she first joined the family I create a rhythm for her too because you know in the beginning babies sleep a lot and she is always like she's like I want to roll my sleeves up and just support you in running this house how can I be most helpful and we all know we like our house right in completely different ways we have our own ways of doing things and my experience running a team taught me hey people love clear direction and so when she joined us I create a rhythm that was you know Monday to Friday and I would theme each day and map out what happens on certain days. Monday, meal prepping, grocery delivery,

laundry, Tuesday, organization, things like that. And so what it's meant is everything in the house is kept on top of because I know every week it's flowing through a rhythm. So that's been really, really incredible. And I think it also really helps. I mean, it definitely helps my nanny to have that. She knows like, she knows what her days look like,

which I think is really important for happiness is to, know what you're walking into each day. And also, Noemi loves having a schedule. I mean, she can't tell me that. But I can guess based on just how much she thrives on it and how much she craves, you know, when we're late for a nap, or we're kind of pulling her out of routine, you can see it in her energy. And I think she also loves the predictability of it. So it's been an absolute game changer. So good. That is. Yeah. So good. Every mother business owner can benefit from that. What about like, I think the idea that you talk about, I've seen you post about this, that systems help you work less, you know, and ultimately one of the most beautiful things when I joined the mastermind i don't remember which call it was but ultimately we all agreed you know the reason we're here was so that we can work smarter and we can do what we love but we can work less so that we can really

spend our time doing what it is that we want to do i mean nobody dreams of just working non-stop so when it comes to systems can you give us some examples of how they've supported you in working less or maybe some of the women that you work with? Yeah, 100%. So I only work a couple of days a week, which people think is crazy to have like a multiple seven figure business and a whole team and work a couple of days a week. And I honestly do. Systems are everything. So kind of a high level, you know, a system is not just a spreadsheet, right? A system, I call my way of doing things, having an operating system for life. And to have an effective operating system, you need to plug in values. You need to plug in kind of a framework that this thing's going to run on. And so the way that I start with any of this is I think about what my values are. I think about what's really

important to me. And so that's kind of my North star. And it's like the lens that I run everything through. If I have a question, you know, should I take on this partnership? Should I get involved in this venture? Should I say yes to the speaking engagement? All of that runs through my values. Is it going to take me away from this? Is it going to support me in building this? And so just getting that down somewhere, somewhere that you check in regularly, first to see if it's still aligned, but second, see if you're still living it is really important because I can attest to special entrepreneurship being a bit of a magic carpet, right? Because I know when I first started my business, I can't say that I really scaled intentionally. I'm really good at

what I do. And the business scaled because of that. I did not decide I'm going to double my business next year. I'm going to triple my business next year. I just kept following this magic carpet ride. And before I knew it, I created a job for myself, a job in a very successful company, but a job nonetheless. And I didn't really want one. And as I've done a lot of reflecting,

I've thought about, you know, I think there's something to be said for scaling very intentionally and deciding, you know, how big you want your company to get, what kind of role you want to have. Because I didn't realize that not having this system in place had me go from a very creative person to being a people manager. And all of a sudden I went from loving my work to absolutely hating my work. I am not a natural people manager. I'm a natural creative. And if I'm sat in the seat of people managing, I am not doing my best work and I'm really not happy. So again, having all of that in your value system, really important. Second thing, I do things once.

And so part of having a system is having a playbook within the system. And what that means is if I'm doing something that I know needs to be done on an ongoing basis, maybe it's uploading call recordings after a mastermind call, maybe it's sending out emails, whatever it is, in our business, we generally run on a set of repetitive tasks. I will not do the same repetitive task over and over and over again if it's the kind of thing I can delegate. But what's important to me is that delegation is easy and what I've came across a lot of times myself included is often when you're at the point you need to delegate you are so swamped you do not have the time to delegate you want to bring in support but the idea of onboarding and training

them is so overwhelming you say to yourself I'm just going to keep doing it myself and great another six months go by and you're even a worse position than you were when you started. So I do things once. I love Loom. I have Loom on my laptop. Whenever I'm about to do a new repetitive task, I click record and I record myself doing it. Now, if there is someone on my team that I can hand this off to, I will go put it into my playbook. I'll label it.

I'll describe it. I'll tag the person saying, hey, can you add this into your rhythm that you do every Wednesday? If there's no one to delegate it to because you don't have a team, just put it in your playbook. You don't know when your team member is going to come along,

but when they do, it's there, it's recorded, it's ready to go. I don't just do this with business, by the way. I do this with life as well. When my nanny came in, I already had a playbook of how I run the house. I'm very specific about laundry detergents. life as well. When my nanny came in, I already had a playbook of how I run the house. You know, I'm very specific about laundry detergents. I'm very specific about the way in which we prep vegetables. Like I don't like toxins. Like I'm very specific about the way I do things.

And so whenever I noticed that kind of nuance in the way I do something, I wrote it down in a playbook. I didn't know who I was writing this playbook for. I just knew I was putting it together because at some point I would need it. And when she joined, I printed this thing off. I give it to her in a file folder. And I was like, hey, this is how I do things around here. And she was able to pick up. She had a lot of clear direction.

So I do it once. And then the third thing I'll share is this life rhythm that I've talked about. You know, I have my days structured. You know, the days I do interviews, the day I do coaching, the days I do certain things. And so if someone asks me to go and coach in their program, if someone asks me to go meet them for coffee, if it doesn't work in my schedule, one thing I will not do, you know, if I can't see it working in the next couple of weeks,

I will not say, hey, let's book it seven weeks from now. Because I can tell you, if I'm not willing to put it in my calendar in the next couple of weeks, I sure as heck don't want to do it in seven weeks. And that thing is going to come up in my calendar and I'll be like, Natalie, why did you schedule that? You didn't want to do it in the first place. Why did you put it in your calendar?

And now it's in my calendar and I either have to cancel and let someone down or I have to go ahead and do it and I didn't want to do it in the first place. So if it doesn't fit into my rhythm then it's a boundary and I don't care how that makes people perceive me because the right people will love it and the people that aren't meant for me won't yeah but those little things have changed the way I do everything and quite frankly there is very few things too important that I am willing to sacrifice the time that I get with my family

and the time I get with myself and so it's changed everything for me being able to run like that. So good. I feel like the definition of happiness in life and fulfillment is actually doing what you want to do with your life. Yes. committed to something that you don't actually want to be committed to. And if you would actually, I think what you said was so beautiful at the beginning of it all is like, what are your actual values? Cause that determines everything in terms of where you're actually going to spend your time, what you're going to put in your playbook. You talked about your life operating system. Can you, I'm like, give us the D the details on this. I'm like, what, can you tell us even more about what that looks like for you

and how you have created even more systems with this system that you've created? Yeah, so I have a hub where kind of everything is stored. I call it like a filing cabinet for my entire life, my brain, everything. So it kind of starts with just anything I might ever need to reference is all in one place. If I need a copy of my driving license, if I need my social security number, if I need my frequent flyer number, if I need my husband's TSA pre-number, whatever it is that I might need, it is all in one place. And I know where to get absolutely everything at any given point in time. That, first of all, saves so much stress of wondering where things are it goes even

further into a lot of detail on just the way in which i run my business and my house you guys know as homeowners there's so many things that need to be done in a house like oh my god even down to the details of like getting your air conditioning vents looked at everything that needs to happen in my life is in this operating system. And I'm reminded, well, me and my husband run it together. We are reminded when we need to schedule the vents to be looked at, when we need to schedule a touch up of the paint, when we need to schedule a check of, I don't know, he deals with this stuff,

but all the boring house stuff, like whenever it needs to be looked at, it's there. So that's kind of the life thing. I do the exact same thing with business. If I need to reference anything, it's all in one place. I know where everything is. I get certain reports sent to me on an ongoing basis. So I know how it all runs. So that's kind of like the hub of everything. It's all in one place. And then beyond that, I have a productivity system where it's all in one place. You know, my to-do lists, which aren't like a conventional type of to-do list. It's very much structured in a way where my brain can effectively work on it. I have to-do lists, which aren't like a conventional type of to-do list. It's very much structured

in a way where my brain can effectively work on it. I have to-do lists sectioned out based on whether it's being done in a session of deep work, whether it's being done in a 30-minute slot of me making phone calls, a 60-minute slot of me doing errands. Everything goes in the respective area of my to-do list so that I'm not context switching. I also have a section where I put anything that I, you know, want to reference or come back to an idea that I might get in the shower, a screenshot that I take when I'm on Instagram and I get an ad served to me, a book that someone tells me at dinner that I should really read. I take all of those things and I have a different section in my operating system that I put it because, you know, it might be three months down the line. I'm like, which book did Erica say I

should read? Because I finally have finished my reading list. I want to go check it. I can just hop into my operating system and I've got an entire reading list there. I mean, I'm, I'm nuts. I do it for like Netflix shows too. People like, did you see this show? No, I'll add it. And so I've just always got a list running. Like I'm never like, oh, let's spend two hours picking a movie. No, I've got a list of them that I'm never like, oh, let's spend two hours picking a movie. No, I've got a list of them that people have said we're going to pick. You know what I mean? Like I just want to take all of the like chaos and guesswork and like dead time out of my life. I don't like standing in a queue or a line and you call it in America.

I'm like standing in a line, wasting my time. Okay, I've got this 30 minutes. What can I do? And that's just kind of how I've thought about life. Like sitting for 30 minutes, deciding what movie we're going to watch. Like, no, that's dead time to me. Can we just go consult the list? Okay, great.

Let's go. Like we're on it. It just makes my life so much easier. It's like- How much dead time do we do? I mean, that's like, yes. I mean, we'll sit there on the couch and it's like an hour passes and it's like forget it let's just go to bed you know what are we doing it's

like what are we doing when you have a baby to watch tv you really don't yes and that time is so precious it's like after bedtime and you have you've got like we know it's like the timer because we want to go to bed early so because if baby wakes up in the middle of the night baby wakes up at 6 a.m like okay we gotta go to bed yes so we got a little bit of time that time is so precious it's so important so yeah sitting there and wasting your good old time picking a freaking netflix show what are we doing people it doesn't feel good because i could have literally got one more episode in in the time it's taken us to pick yes like i just want to sit in silence and watch the show before this is efficiency like this is life hacking yes at its finest wow so for someone who is

listening to this and their life is you know they would say maybe my life is a shit show, Natalie. I don't have one system in place. Every day I'm weighing it. I feel super overwhelmed. My brain doesn't work like yours. I've heard it all. And I used to self-identify. I think there's an element, too, is like you have to stop identifying as a procrastinator.

You have to stop identifying as someone who isn't good with time, who isn't good with systems because you can learn anything and in my experience as someone who used to self-identify that way we very much were by nature more i'm very much more spontaneous he's so disciplined he's so consistent i'm like it's a tuesday let's do something crazy like that's so much more me and he'll just roll his eyes at me like you are literally nuts. But I have learned to change my identity by how I speak to myself, how I speak about myself, number one. But also, I think when it became time to actually learn a whole new way of operating, it felt super daunting for someone like me who is not necessarily he is like he doesn't even have it written down it's just like in his dna he's like oh i work out at this time i eat at this time i go it's so just in him me it was never something that i learned but i'm gonna say i will tap into that right there

because i was gonna say yes i used to be like a steel trap with things but now it's like the dad brain the mom brain i feel like you start to forget things because you're you know focusing on the child and other things and it's like oh i can't believe i forgot that so i'm like five minutes ago i asked you to bring a diaper up and you're like oh i totally forgot we should have had a system already for the diapers to be where they needed to be that's the answer i'm definitely on board with more systems like this now yes yeah like so for someone who's listening and they're like where do i start what do they do where do they start what's the number one like go do this today or something that they can do to start getting a control on their time well firstly follow me because i'm gonna release something on this soon it's going to be epic it's going to be good i know i have so many people like

come on let's get this out so um it's going to be good I know I have so many people like come on let's get this out so um it's going to be different for everyone right because everyone needs a different kind of system in their life so I would say for the first week become an observer of all the places in your life where you think a system could make things easier for you and just write it down you know if you've got your phone just write in the notes app on your phone just something you said there was you know can you bring a diaper and I've forgotten it would be easier to have the diapers there, right? Make a note of that. So one thing that we did to make this easier for us, we have a diaper caddy in the playroom, in the trunk of our car. We obviously have Noemi's diaper station in her room. So at

all places, we have duplicates of things. And I know that's also a very privileged position to be in. Not everyone can have duplicates of things, but if that's the situation, just make a note of it. And after the week, you'll sit down and start to go over this list and think, okay, what's one thing I can pick from this list that I'm going to implement this week to make my life easier? Because you might end up with a list of 15 things. And I promise you, if you try to do all 15 things at once, you will really become overwhelmed. And I love what you said about identity. You you, if you try to do all 15 things at once, you will really become overwhelmed. And I love what you said about identity. You know, if you start to change your identity and tell yourself you're an organized person,

but then you try and do those 15 things at once, and ultimately you end up failing on doing those things, you'll then tell yourself your identity as a productive person or an organized person isn't working. And so you'll still hold that identity of i'm chaotic i'm forgetful i'm all those things whereas what we're doing in this sense is really training your brain and your identity to acknowledge you're capable of it so okay next week i've made a note there's 10 things on here next week one thing that i'm going to do is i'm going to categorize my screenshots when they come in, right? Simple thing. We all screenshot so many things,

whether we're on Instagram, whether, you know, someone texts us, I'm going to categorize my screenshots. And you think of a way that works for you. And I'm not saying go back and categorize your entire back catalog of screenshots. Just start from now. Just start now.

Because if you start now based in four weeks, that's way more organized than you would have been a month from now. And then a week later, go back to the list. Okay, I've got this thing down. What's another thing I can add in? And just taking it slow and having grace with yourself and know that, you know, I'm not perfect.

I still, you know, forget things and I still mess it like none of us are perfect. And the goal is not to be perfect with any of this, but it's just to be a little bit better than before. It's just to free up a little bit more brain space than before. It's just to make us feel like we've got our shit together a little bit more than we did beforehand. So you're kind of conducting like a life audit, a systems audit. And I guarantee you'll find something that would make your life so much easier. You might find like, you know, write everything down. You might find at 3pm every day, you're finding yourself exhausted and you're going to grab something really sugary and it's making you

feel worse this is something my husband was facing and so he knows after his meeting that finishes at like 1 p.m he comes down he makes protein shake and a snack and that's like actually part of his routine now and the 3 p.m thing doesn't even become an issue and so it's just being able to catch things that could be more systemized in your life that's so good that's so much self-awareness yeah you know i think what you said about just audit yourself for watch yourself for a week let's watch each other for a week no it's i will watch you watch me i'll watch you that's so funny because as like my background as a trainer that's advice i give to people i'm like write write down what you eat what are your habits and it's like those are things at times i don't even apply to daily life you know so it's like that you saying that is a perfect

reminder to me to be like so genius observe you know your own habits and what you're doing and what i love what you said too is like give yourself time you know when i joined the mastermind you gave us this whole life operating system that we're implementing and we're working through and you said take 30 minutes that you're gonna put specifically into your calendar to start actually creating the system for yourself and maybe a couple times a week or something but put it in your calendar and it's like you cannot expect to have it all suddenly tomorrow you are this systems girl like look at my life it's like, you cannot expect to have it all suddenly tomorrow. You are this systems girl. Like, look at my life. It's all perfect now. It's like,

it's such a journey. It's such a process. So giving yourself that that's so beautiful. So where can people come to find you? How can they follow you? What's coming next for Natalie Ellis and give us your handle and everything for IG. Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram at I am Natalie. And you can join my mailing list there while I'll be posting about this stuff. But what's coming next, I'm going to start releasing this stuff so that people can have templates. Because I think for some people listening, it might feel really overwhelming.

And so I want to just be able to make it as easy as possible. And it's almost like, why didn't I do this sooner? Honestly, I thought it was really nerdy that and I thought outside of me my husband no one's really interested which is also just proof that so many of us you know are sitting on something that would be of value to so many other people but we like tell ourselves these stories that it's not and so let that be a reminder like if you're listening you're like are you crazy natalie this is so valuable there's probably something that you're also sitting on that is so valuable to someone else. So that's coming. I'm really, really excited about that. And you know, I don't know. I'm open to what this year is looking like. I'm loving my podcast.

I'm loving my newsletter. I'm loving just putting stuff out into the world and being a lot more honest than I feel like I've been able to be in the past. And it feels really good. So who knows? Follow along for the ride. We'll see together. I love it. I will say that I'm subscribed to many newsletters, but your newsletter is like opening up

a friend's text message. And it just feels like that. What you said of just the honesty and the vulnerability. And I think it's so refreshing and you're nailing it. So if you're listening to this, go sign up for her newsletter because it is incredibly valuable. We value you so much. We thank you so much for being here on the show. I know our guests are going to love this episode. This was absolutely unreal. And if you're listening and this overwhelmed you, just go follow Natalie because as soon as she releases those templates, I'm telling you, especially if you're a visual person like me,

it helped me so much for me to be able to see it, to say, oh, this makes sense to me. I can start implementing this and start taking control of my time and my life.