THe Baby Maven, LLC

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2 Being an entrepreneur, you know what it s like to create & run a business. You know that it takes a vision, dedication, creativity and love. You know that it comes with certain challenges and oh so many perks. You know that it helps to be scheduled and prepared. You ve learned these things. Through intuition. Through trial & error and occasional guesswork. Through the guidance of webinars, mentors, checklists, coaches and courses. You ve seen the cause and effect of all of your hard work. You ve celebrated the wins. Learned from the struggles. And always jumped back in with more gusto, drive and knowledge. At this point, you have a good grasp on how this all works and now, with a babe on the way, you want to make it work for you, right?! First of all, let s start by acknowledging a fact that is far too often overlooked: You, pregopreneur, of all people, are uniquely qualified to be a mama. For real, you have no idea just how much being an entrepreneur gives you a leg up in this brand new role! It s kind of crazy how many similarities there are between building a biz and nurturing a baby through pregnancy & infancy! So, thanks to building your biz, you ve already got all of the tools you need to rock this newbie mamapreneur phase in life. To make the transition from pregopreneur to newbie mamapreneur as seamless as possible, you re going to pull from your biz sense (and your mama instincts!) to create the perfect maternity leave. I mean, hey, you re the boss; so you have the power to make it whatever you want! This workbook is one more tool for you to add to your toolkit. It provides the framework for you to clearly define the maternity leave that you desire and ease through this amazing new phase of life with your baby & biz! You deserve that! Much Love, xx Hannah THe Baby Maven, LLC

3 This is all about you. Your pregnancy. Your biz. Your maternity leave. Your new mamahood. So now, more than ever, is the time to be true to your needs, wants, dreams & desires. This is the time to be a little selfish (in a good way). To make yourself the top priority. To stand in your power and speak your truth. To really get in touch with how you re feeling and create a mindset for success. This time is all about you. Claim it & make it your own! How are you feeling right now about your pregnancy? How are you feeling right now about your business? How are you making yourself, your needs, goals & desires a priority? THe Baby Maven, LLC

4 Visualize your ideal maternity leave. Think about how long it would be, who you d most like to share that special time with, how you envision your days playing out, where you picture your business going during that time. Have fun with it & dream big! Describe your IDEAL maternity leave: (the start date, the length of time, the people, the daily rituals, the energy you feel, your biz, etc.) What, if anything, is holding you back from that? THe Baby Maven, LLC

5 Lists are tremendously useful, especially to help you prepare for big changes in life & biz. Take some time to make up lists of your weekly to do s for your business and for your life in general. Biz To Do s: (newsletters, posts, blogs, advertising, etc.) Life To Do s: (make dinner, laundry, mail, shop, etc.) THe Baby Maven, LLC

6 Now that you have a list of all of your weekly tasks, chores and to do s, it s time to divide and conquer! This is all about taking things off of your plate to make life easier and allow you to focus on what s most important! These people, services & programs will be your Dream Team. Copy & paste your biz to do list in the box below. Then, for each item, think about (and jot down) someone or something that could do that task as well as you could. Example: daily biz posts on facebook Virtual Assistant, high school niece, Hootsuite THe Baby Maven, LLC

7 Build Your Dream Team CONTINUED Copy & paste your life to do list in the box below. Then, for each item, think about (and jot down) someone or something that could do that task as well as you could! Example: make dinner Plated, hubby, take out, friends & family NOTES: It doesn t have to be crazy expensive to hand off some or all of your tasks to other people (and programs/ devices)! You can rely on the help & support of family, friends and neighbors because they will offer to take care of walking the dogs, making food, getting the mail, folding laundry and running to the store. With biz stuff, you can hire an inexpensive VA, reallocate tasks to someone that already works with/ for you, download some free scheduling & marketing programs or create an unpaid internship and offer it at a local college (students can often get credit for it!) Delegate out as much of your list as possible. Since the first few weeks post baby can be a little unpredictable, it s best to give yourself as much cushion time & space as you can! Make sure to save these lists! That way, whenever you have someone offer to help or ask what they can do, you have a go to reference and can easily give them a task! People love to help & support new mamas so take full advantage of their offers! THe Baby Maven, LLC

8 You ve figured out what your ideal maternity leave looks like, jotted down all of the weekly tasks for biz & home and thought about who (or what) could support you best. Okay, now it s time for some action! Based on your lists in the section above, who are the top 5 people that you want on your Biz Dream Team? Based on your lists in the section above, who are the top 5 people that you want on your Home Dream Team? AMAZING! Now, take the action of reaching out to hire them, ask for help and secure the members for each team! NOTES: Seek out & hire help EARLY!!! Like before you feel the need for it. The last thing you want is to be scrambling for support and stressing when you could be easing into newbie mamahood and focusing on you and your little one. Plus, it s better to create a solid relationship with your support before you actually need them to step up and help. Only add members that are truly Dream quality if your Aunt wants to come help for a week but she drives you batty, don t let her make the Dream Team! THe Baby Maven, LLC

9 Plan AheaD CONTINUED Brainstorm: What biz stuff can you, personally, do in advance so you can check it off of your list before you go on maternity leave? Example: record podcasts, write newsletters, film interviews, create posts, reach out to other pros and ask for guest blog posts Give that list another look. What items can you schedule in advance so they ll run on autopilot? DELIGHTFUL! Now take the action to start creating all of that content. Then schedule as much of it as possible! NOTES: The amount of content you create should be based on the biz to do s list you created and how many weeks you would ideally like to take for your maternity leave. Any items that you can t schedule in advance, pop into a Maternity Leave folder on your computer to create an archive of usable content that s readily available. Instead of going crazy creating new content, rework/ update old posts, PDFs, webinars and such to share with your community (you can also pop these up for sale on your website/ facebook as a source of passive income yippee!). THe Baby Maven, LLC

10 Plan AheaD CONTINUED When planning ahead, it s also smart to think about budget! To give yourself an extra cushion money wise during your maternity leave, it helps to start saving up in advance! Brainstorm: What are some ways you could make a little extra, create passive income or bulk up your savings during your pregnancy? Example: bundle up past webinars and sell them on your website, offer short laser coaching sessions at a price that s too good to pass up, commit to only doing take out once a month, list all your unwanted clothes on TradeUp or Poshmark or drop them off at a consignment shop. Since you re planning to transition back to your biz, figuring out childcare also needs to be a priority during your pregnancy. You re going to want to check that off of your list nice and early! What are your childcare options? What are the pros & cons of each option? Example: daycare, part time nanny, family member (Grandma, college niece) Now, fully explore each option and write out the pros & cons: Which one looks like the best fit for your growing family? Now go and secure that option!! THe Baby Maven, LLC

11 Now, this is the fun part! It s time to actually create your maternity leave! You ve figured out the tasks, the team, you ve created content & planned ahead. You ve got everything in place to make this happen! When will your maternity leave start? How many weeks will you take off? When you transition back, will it be part time or full time? Since your biz was your first baby, how much time are you planning to spend tending to that each week? How will you spend that time? (Tip: start SMALL and work up from there...maybe 1/2hr each day to post on facebook/ send your community a baby & biz update newsletter) Who is on your Biz Dream Team? What about your Home Dream Team? THe Baby Maven, LLC

12 CREATE CONTINUED Since you ve created a lovely archive of content, how and when will that be distributed? Tip: divide the content out by week and then by day based on the length of your maternity leave & schedule as much of it as possible or hand it off to someone else to post/ send. THe Baby Maven, LLC

13 Woohoo! You ve created your maternity leave plan! That feels great, doesn t it?! The next step is to share this happy news with your followers and community. They love and admire you. They want to support you. They re curious about your life. So, give them a little peek at what s going on in your pregopreneur life! Trust me, they re interested and they would be just delighted to share and add support during this exciting time! How are you going to share the news about your maternity leave? When will you share it? Example: newsletter, personal s, facebook announcement What boundaries & expectations are you going to set for your community? Example: only answering s 2 days/ per week THe Baby Maven, LLC

14 share CONTINUED Brainstorm: What do you need to share with your community to help them feel supported & loved while you re on maternity leave? Example: a contact instead of you, how long you ll be off work, when & how they ll hear from you Brainstorm: (Just for fun!) How, if at all, can you incorporate your pregnancy/ maternity leave/ self care into your biz? NOTES: People like to know what to expect. There s comfort in that. So share your post baby plan early and often. That way your community can step up and support you, instead of feeling left out or wondering why you disappeared. Since pregnancy, maternity leave and being a mama are very relevant & present in your life right now, it can be nice to integrate it into your biz! Plus your community would love to know more and get a behind the scenes look at your life during this happy time. THe Baby Maven, LLC

15 Now, here comes the best part of all! It s time to breathe, take things down a notch and enjoy the amazing work that you ve done! Here are some final tips & reminders: Maternity leave wise, give yourself a time & money cushion. Add in an extra week or two of time off and budget in a bit extra spending money. That way you can ease back into working instead of being forced to transition back before you re ready. Maintain expectations and make it your goal to hold steady with your biz during your maternity leave. In other words, don t try to expand, launch a brand new program or product or schedule lots of interviews and live webinars right after baby. Plan to coast, not pick up speed, during your maternity leave. Setting the goals at a very attainable/ manageable level will allow you to consistently reach and exceed them! For the last 2 4 weeks leading up to your due date, plan to have a lighter schedule go easy on yourself! and focus on what feels good, lights you up and makes you happy. This is also good because baby might make his debut earlier than expected! Don t plan any major launches, travel, appearances or interviews for 6 8 weeks following your due date. You deserve ample time to bond with baby, rest & recover! Get to know your Dream Team and support EARLY...as in, start building that team RIGHT NOW. You want to have a solid, comfortable relationship with them long before you need them to step up. Keep making lists! It s easy to forget things and, when you hand over tasks and allow others to support you, it s extremely useful to have all of the to do s clearly written out. Clear expectations and boundaries are key to getting the most from your team. Be honest. This time needs to be all about you, so speak up and say what you truly want, feel and need for yourself, your biz and your baby. You do you and make no apologies! THe Baby Maven, LLC