Eps 11. Business Is Hard…Building a Business Without Letting It Take Over Your Life

18 Aug

There’s something funny about owning your own business.

You start because you want freedom.

You want flexibility. You want to choose your hours. You want to be there for your family. You want to build something you genuinely care about.

And then one day you realise you’ve created a job where your boss follows you absolutely everywhere.

Because the boss is you. 😂

Business can be incredibly rewarding. I genuinely love what I do, and I’m grateful for the life my business has allowed me to create.

But I also think we need to be able to admit something:

Business can take a toll.

Not necessarily because something is going wrong.

Sometimes it’s because everything is growing.

And lately, I’ve realised that if I want to keep growing Mamacub Wellness into what I know it can become, I need to become much more intentional about where my time and energy are going.

The Freedom of Business Isn’t Always What It Looks Like

One of the things I love most about working for myself is flexibility.

As a mother, that is huge.

I can structure work around my family. I can make decisions based on what works for us. I’m not asking somebody else for permission every time life happens.

That freedom is something I don’t take for granted.

But there’s another side to it.

When you own a business, there isn’t always a clear moment where work finishes.

You might physically close the laptop, but mentally?

You’re still working.

You’re thinking about the client you need to message.

The email you forgot to send.

The content you want to create.

The website change.

The invoice.

The idea you had in the shower.

The podcast you need to record.

The course you’re creating.

And somehow all of those things are happening in your brain while someone is asking you what’s for dinner.

Sometimes business gives you more time with your family.

And sometimes business is the exact thing taking you away from them.

That’s the part I’m becoming much more conscious of.

I Don’t Want My Business to Own My Life

I’ve been thinking about what I actually want success to look like.

Because growing a business for the sake of saying I have a successful business doesn’t interest me.

I want my business to support the life I’m creating.

I don’t want my entire life to revolve around keeping my business alive.

There’s a difference.

I want to work hard.

I want to build.

I want to earn good money.

I want to create incredible things.

But I also want to sit with my family without mentally running through my to-do list.

I want to travel.

I want to learn.

I want to experience different cultures.

I want to have time for the things that have absolutely nothing to do with Mamacub Wellness.

And I’m starting to realise that creating that kind of life requires boundaries within business too.

Business Is a Rollercoaster

Nobody really prepares you for how emotionally strange running a business can be.

One month you’re thinking:

YES. I have finally figured this out.

The next month?

Absolutely not. 😂

There are months where money comes in beautifully.

There are months where things are quieter.

Some ideas work.

Some ideas don’t.

There are things you spend weeks creating that barely get noticed and random things you throw together that everyone suddenly loves.

Business can make you feel incredibly capable one minute and completely confused the next.

But that’s also what I love about it.

I’ve learned more about myself through business than I ever expected to.

I’ve learned to make decisions.

I’ve learned to back myself.

I’ve learned that failure isn’t necessarily failure — sometimes something just didn’t work.

Change it.

Learn from it.

Try something else.

Keep moving.

I’m Building Something New

One of the reasons I’ve been thinking about all of this lately is because I’ve been quietly working on some new projects.

I’m currently creating two courses.

One is a smaller mini course designed to give women practical education and tools they can use without needing to commit to a huge program.

The second is a much bigger course that will bring together so much of what I’ve learned, taught, and experienced around birth, mindset, confidence, education, and advocacy.

And I am genuinely excited about both of them.

But course creation is a completely different world.

There is the actual teaching, of course.

But then there’s writing, filming, editing, resources, downloads, emails, websites, sales pages, systems and about 400 other little things that apparently appear after you announce, “I’m going to make a course.”

It’s exciting.

It’s also a lot.

And I’ve reached a point where I’ve had to acknowledge that I cannot give everything 100% of me at exactly the same time.

Sometimes Growth Means Doing Less

I think we often associate growth with adding.

Another service.

Another product.

Another platform.

I’m Learning to Build in Seasons

Not every part of a business needs to be growing at the same time.

There might be a season where I’m heavily focused on doula work.

Another where I’m creating courses.

Another where I’m speaking.

Another where I’m travelling.

Another where I’m spending more time at home.

I don’t want to feel like every single part of my life needs to operate at full capacity all year round.

There needs to be space for seasons.

And there needs to be space for things to change.

Because I’m not building Mamacub Wellness simply for what it looks like today.

I have much bigger dreams for where I want this work to go.

My Dreams Go Far Beyond My Current Business

There are so many things I would love to do.

I want to speak on stages.

I want to educate women.

I want to travel and teach women outside Australia.

I want to work with young girls and help them build confidence, understand themselves and recognise the strength of their own voices before they even reach motherhood.

I want my education and support to become accessible to women regardless of where they live.

And one of the dreams closest to my heart is eventually creating some form of charity or support service for women after birth.

I don’t know exactly what that looks like yet.

But I know why I want it.

Women Need Support After Birth Too

Anyone who has experienced maternity care knows that so much attention is placed on getting the baby here.

Pregnancy.

Labour.

Birth.

And then suddenly…

Here’s your baby.

Good luck.

Those first nights after birth can feel incredibly vulnerable.

You’re exhausted.

You’re learning your baby.

Your body hurts.

You might be recovering from surgery, tearing or a difficult birth.

Your emotions are everywhere.

And depending on where you’ve given birth and your circumstances, you may find yourself without your partner or usual support overnight.

I’ve thought many times about how valuable it could be to have women supporting women during those hours.

Maybe one day that’s doulas.

Maybe it’s volunteers.

Maybe it’s an organisation that doesn’t exist yet.

I don’t have the full plan.

Sometimes the dream comes before the blueprint.

And I’m okay with that.

I Also Want a Life Outside of Work

Part of building this next chapter is making sure I’m actually living it.

I don’t want to spend years telling myself:

I’ll travel when the business is bigger.

I’ll slow down when I make more money.

I’ll spend more time with my family once this project is finished.

Because there will always be another project.

There will always be another goal.

There will always be something I could be doing.

Next year, Insha’Allah, I’m hoping to travel to New Zealand and spend some time learning more about my Māori heritage and reconnecting with that part of where I come from.

I also want our family to spend more time in Lebanon and see family there more regularly.

Those things matter to me too.

They aren’t distractions from success.

They are part of what success means to me.

Maybe Success Needs a Different Definition

I’ve had moments in my life where people didn’t necessarily expect much from me.

Especially when I was younger.

And sometimes I think about that version of myself and everything that’s happened since.

I’ve built a business.

I’ve supported women through pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

I’ve created resources.

I’ve created education.

I’ve started a podcast.

I’m creating courses.

I’m dreaming about speaking.

I’m thinking about ways I could create support that doesn’t even exist yet.

And there is still so much more I want to do.

But I don’t want to measure whether I’ve succeeded purely by how much money I earn or how large the business becomes.

Those things matter.

Of course I want my business to be financially successful.

But I also want freedom.

I want impact.

I want time.

I want family.

I want faith.

I want experiences.

I want to be able to look at what I’ve built and know that it added something to my life rather than slowly taking everything else away from it.

I’m Not Trying to Build a Bigger Business. I’m Trying to Build a Bigger Life.

That’s probably the biggest realisation I’ve had recently.

The goal isn’t simply to make Mamacub Wellness bigger.

The goal is to create something that allows me to do more of the work I believe in.

Support more women.

Educate more women.

Speak.

Travel.

Create.

Give back.

Spend time with my children.

Experience the world.

And, Insha’Allah, eventually create something that continues helping women far beyond the work I can personally do one-on-one.

That’s a big vision.

And big visions don’t always require you to move faster.

Sometimes they require you to become much more intentional.

So that’s where I’m at.

I’m still building.

I’m still dreaming.

I’m still creating.

I’m just learning that I don’t need to do everything at once.

Some things can grow.

Some things can slow down.

Some things can wait for another season.

Because ultimately, I don’t want to create a successful business and then realise I was too busy building it to enjoy the life it was supposed to give me.

I want to build the business.

But I want to live the life too.

And I think there’s room for both.

Insha’Allah. 🤍

Casey El Kalal