Maximize Daily Productivity

Speaker 1: [Music] hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Heather sanker knows following the crumbs in the chaos is a full-time job she's a busy mom of three and runs a household with a system like a well-oiled machine Heather created chaos and cookies to help busy M preneurs stress less and save time through helpful tools and systems Heather teaches her clients to be more efficient in their homes or running their businesses by working smarter and not harder she also has a podcast chaos and cookies that's ranked number 80 in parenting on the USA charts thank you so much for

Speaker 2: joining us today Heather thank you so

Speaker 1: much for having me Heather please tell us more about who you are and about your early career experiences before becoming the founder of KS and cookies and I have to say as a mom of seven-year-old twins I love your name as you know there's always cookies in the house when you have kids or no matter how much you clean there's crumbs no matter what always like the the camera like what the dad sees and then you get real close

Speaker 2: it's what we see I went to college I was a Collegiate athlete and I found out I had a spinal condition shortly after that and so yeah well it's okay I mean hey it's gotten me here and I'm doing well now I wanted to get into Physical Therapy but I end personal training and Kinesiology so I have a exercise science degree in Bachelor of Science I ended up getting into Corporate America and sold Court Reporting which is stenography Services I sold that service for1 plus years I had children at that point and really wanted to stay home with them and of course when you're working all the time get bored what am I going to do all my kids were going to start going to school yes and so then I just started looking around online and got into health and wellness coaching and was able to apply my degree and chaos and

Speaker 1: cookies was born I love that as a career person and then you have kids and then all of a sudden you find yourself at home and we love our kids so much but we need that int ual conversation we got to keep that stimulation going to where we can use our minds as much as we take care of our our family and others 100% And if you're in sales and marketing you

Speaker 2: talk for a living social social exactly and not that I missed the happy hours and go I didn't miss that it was more the drive of being needed being recommended I'm a projector that's my human design so I gain a lot of my

Speaker 1: self-worth from helping others and seeing how they Thrive with my help and so being able to be wanted for service or recommended and being told that you know she'll take care of you it's one of those things that it's fuels you and so when yes your kids need you yes you love your kids yes you're helping them do all the things but they're children and you don't get a break in business development you're helping other people so I see why you would miss that feeling and it's also a little bit of the adrenaline of winning when you're in bus development you're consistently winning and when that goes away because my background is in business development too you feel like something's missing right sure and if you're an athlete like I was all the way to college level you're very competitive I mean you're just built that way right and you want to be the best whether you are or not but you still want to be I played soccer so I was a dancer until I was 16 I'm 5 foot one there was no Prima ballerina my future and I was really good at it but then I started getting really busy because I also played violin and I was part of a very prestigious Orchestra school and the high school that I went to where I live in Texas everything's competitive Big 4 a school so we have 4,000 students at our high school and a thousand students in my graduating class and so Sports was very competitive and I had perfect attendance

Speaker 2: from kindergarten a senior year wow how

Speaker 1: did you do that my sister did did too um I mean I was raised by an educator but at the very end of senior year I had two weeks left of school and it was spring breakish time and it was right during state playoffs for uh High School soccer I got super sick I pushed my body way too far at this point I was already accepted to college at University of Tampa which is a private school in Tampa Florida where I went and I was so sick bronchitis laryngitis couldn't talk I was so sick and my mom had to call the doctor like over the phone when you know it's bad and she's like you shouldn't go to school you're not feverish or anything but you shouldn't go and I told her I will jump out of a window and sneak out I have two weeks left I'm not gonna ruin a perfect scenario I mean yes did I miss school yes for excused absences and sporting events and things but nothing for sick days we didn't vacation off of school time and so I have a certificate on my wall atze

Speaker 2: perfect attendance I love that

Speaker 1: determination it's so great I figured I'd get some money or something for school yeah nothing I was like okay

Speaker 2: resume booster right how has your early career experien has influenced you as a business leader and leading your company and how does that experience help your clients your leadership style and assist

Speaker 1: you in managing your business today I go above and beyond I always have I do my best it's the competitive side of me but it's also the giving side if you're going to do it you have to do it right I mean anything worth having is worth working hard for and I pour into my clients so you know there's a delicate balance there between being a business owner and then being knowledgeable and helping someone with experience everything that you put out is a reflection of you and that's why you have to just be super careful on who you bring into your Vibe is what we call those people that you trust no matter what and they'll always guide you whether you are wrong they'll tell you you're wrong and not tell you what you want to hear because you're just in

Speaker 2: charge it's really important yeah

Speaker 1: someone gave me a of feedback and it was about a podcast they knew I had a podcast and then they said well maybe I shouldn't have said that they were talking about the other person and I said no I always love the feedback right absolutely we want to know what our listeners and our audience and our followers think yes and with my programs and my coaching I will always ask what did you love what could you get more of and every time I don't know if people don't like to offer up negative or just constructive criticism but I know there's places to to grow I know that there's ways to always improve but no one ever answers oh this is great I learned so much I'm that makes me very happy what else can I teach you right tell me tell me tell me what else you need because you can never fully provide them if everyone's being kind of quiet

Speaker 2: at the same time tell us about your

Speaker 1: coaching business and I know when my twins were boring I always thought my organizational skills were pretty good but they took them to a whole other level because with kids you never know what they're going to do and you go through a situation and this drives my husband a little bit crazy but now after every situation I think okay how could I have done that better and it comes from having kids because when you go through an experience you think oo how can I make sure that that doesn't happen again right how can I prep to have the extra clothes and the extra food and the extra whatever is needed and that thinking and I a lot of it came from the twins is in my business now every day and thinking about how to handle situations and I

Speaker 2: assume it's the same based on your name and what you do I assume it's the same

Speaker 1: for you I do I prepare for the worst and hope for the best that is just the way my brain functions and I get made fun of a lot my mom she's just like of course you have that of course you're ready I I said because I try to think of everything that could possibly happen or that you read about because I have this Keen Instinct on being able to see it from all perspectives I think that's also why I don't stay mad at people because I can see where they could be coming from or they're in a different stage of life and so when they get to that stage then they'll really understand it differently and everyone's at a different level and so that that you could not even rationalize with someone that's not even in that moment I had this situation have with my sister once and I said when she's married with kids she will understand right now she

Speaker 2: is single and dating and so now now that she's married with kids I bring it up she's like yeah I see I see why you're really upset with me like yeah but on the other end of it you have to give Grace and so when you're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best you're never going to be upset with yourself overprepared right so true right you'll never be upset that you took the extra step it's so less stressful too being proactive instead of reactive is the name of the game and yes it takes a certain mind to be prepared and having it either ready to or a place where you can snag it I have a Playbook I have a Chaos Control System where it's basically a manual for your home so it makes you go and do these things around your home and helps you maintain it so then when that happens that crisis you're not wishing oh I wish I had that when that happened right and not a lot of people do do that I have a lot of clients that come to me saying this happened to me this would have been really helpful for me things are going to happen and we don't like to think about it we don't like to think that oh that could happen to us because we always like to say that's not going to happen to us but then when it does we have children life doesn't stop especially with kids because something happens in an adult life or World they still need to be maintained houses are like businesses you still have to run them like a business they have they have bills to pay there's food to be replenished and we are have a a meal time cook time sleep time schedule you know homework

Speaker 1: yeah restocks homework yes I mean we run

Speaker 2: our houses like businesses Zoom calls we became we became first grade teachers oh yes we can add that to our resume we

Speaker 1: sure can can you tell us about a particular life or business experience that's memorable to you and that you

Speaker 2: carry with you today I think that my spinal Journey has taken me quite through it when I went to school and to go play soccer I I left home at 18 to go play a sport I settled for a division two school so I could play right away I didn't want to go to a D1 because I didn't want to ride the bench for years and then get to play for 10 minutes in senior year I really wanted to play and then of course preseason I even get into season my back started hurting after doing intensive training because when you go to college level you've got three a days four a days you're training all the time you're going to school it's a whole another level you actually have weight trainers other Trainers for trainers right it's not just coach and when I went and found this I was 18 all of a sudden I'm in all this pain never broken a bone I have always been so active and then not being able to do that and enjoy life in that manner was a really hard pill to swallow and then after having surgery and having all the complications after my first one when I was 19 I was just in chronic pain for 13 years I had sorry my yeah it was not fun

Speaker 1: I can tell you um bummer but you know you you only know what you know and you do your best and because of the situation I just shied away from getting it fixed and I just have a high pain threshold it's one of those just things ingrain just go go go push through maybe the athlete and so after I had kids and I met my husband my husband didn't know me non pain-free he only knew me with the pain and so he wanted to and so after I had my kids I was able to find a surgeon here after five surgeons I told me no like they're not going to touch me they don't even understand how I'm standing up and talking to them coherently on with no pain meds they didn't understand it so it was perplexing to them but now I'm pain free I'm going on four years on the other side of it when you do start feeling a little hint of pain when you feel that twins you're you kind of almost go to that state of is it happening again is this the end of that good run I had and it could be nothing but it just takes you to almost like a PTSD but I've learned that you don't take it for granted I have three children I have help my husband typically travels pre pandemic he'll pick it back up here soon and I couldn't do three kids by myself which is also a humbling thing when you can't bathe your kids every day not because you don't want to but you physically can't because you're in just so much pain it's hard to ask for help too you're an indepent person but when the kids are little is that's the time when when you should feel fine asking for help because how can we care for others

Speaker 2: if we don't care for ourselves too yes

Speaker 1: now that they're older they understand that you can't jump on me without giving me proper warning because I have to brace myself uh they can't tackle me from behind they understand what the scars are about uh now before they would just ask and wonder it also teaches them empathy at a at a younger age it teaches them how to be careful and be mindful and that not everyone is the same I've learned that you take advantage as much as you can because they're only little ones I was sitting at last night with my four-year-old and he was just holding my hand he didn't want me to leave and so much to do at like night time and I'm just like oh I really have to go and I sat there I said you know what it's fine because he's not gonna want to do this

Speaker 2: soon so true you're so right what gave you the courage to make your leap to launch k and cookies and what made you decide to make that career leap so when

Speaker 1: I was looking for something to do writing out my non-compete for the legal industry I found health and wellness and I'm a health certified health and wellness coach through a virtual program and I liked it but being of business mind I wanted to help others more on the mindset as well because there was that piece of people wanted to get healthier but they were having the physical issues or the moms trying to get out of the rut and finding themselves because before we became moms we had interests in likes we like to go to the movies we like to concerts we like to do things for ourself just because we become moms does not mean because we lose all those things it's a title that we wear and not who we are so trying to find that space that a it's okay because mom guilt is a real thing but you have to also put yourself in the space where it's important to that these models up for our children when you are an entrepreneur you work all the time and it never stops you know but 6:00 in the morning and going to bed at 11 or midnight yes yes I have to get that little bit of time to myself after everyone's gone to bed I just need that moment like to myself then I go to sleep

Speaker 2: what is your strategy for management for staying on task to accomplish what you set out to do as well as motivating your

Speaker 1: teams and those around you I have learned that I've gotten to a point where I juggle so much and I'm tired of fighting with my husband about it that I hired someone to come in and revamp my inbox so she cleaned it out for me because I saw that I wasn't being as responsive back when I was running the sales team with the court reporting firm I was on it two seconds like it' come in my inbox and I always kept at zero and I hated missing those emails from others but it was too much to handle and my systems weren't in place and so getting systems and automations are key yes you might have to spend money to get someone to help you set it up or take the time to do it yourself at the front end so worth it on the back end but I would say a good system an automated system some set up the rules that are in your email and then also a nice color coding system in your inbox my VA has been able to put it really nice and neat it's finally all synced a good system a good time block and a timer I have one of these where if you're on the Internet or I mean they're 10 minutes and it's not beeping at you and it's kind of soothing with the sand and you kind of want to think you're on the beach but it keeps you on task so it's like I've got okay I'm flipping this over after the 10 minutes is over I'm going to flip it one more time and that's it move on and it's important to just have a system where you also are holding yourself accountable to it to stay there because if you back to back to back your meetings and you and over

Speaker 2: problem right it's such good advice to

Speaker 1: set that amount of time you probably complete things faster too yes because you don't get distracted if you're on social media and you've got notifications or you refresh your page and then oh whoa what's that I got to go down in deep hole right 20 minutes later you're like what just happened yeah two hours later completely get that my husband's like are you still watching those I'm like I'm research research I'm just looking for inspiration honey right

Speaker 2: right really magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you find and live your joy when you're done with your day yes we have priorities we have tasks we have all these things that we want to get done and so having a system in place I love good system you write down your three priorities maybe for home life and for business if you're a business owner and if you get through what you can and if you don't make it you move it to the top of the list so you're not kicking it down and you make that priority for the next day but what's important is at the end of the day to have a space whether you journal or you write it down in a planner is to look at what you crossed off and accomplished and ask yourself how did it make you feel how did that make you feel was that something that you feel really good about completing is that something where man I have more time that I could do something else with that time I'd rather delegate to somebody else pay someone to do it so look at it and see if it's something that's worth you continuing to do in the future if it's something that's repetitive and if it's a household task say I really want to go empty and clean out my closet and you only set aside 30 minutes not to look at it as I didn't get everything done it's I accomplish x amount I started and so it's on your plate and off your brain about man I wish I could to okay I started it let's work to finish it that's a great way of looking at how can we bring in more joy and how much joy do we get from a clean closet oh so much we just painted our interior and my gosh it's like moving a clean closet a clean computer in box clean everything empty laundry basket that is actually put away after you fold

Speaker 1: it yes lots of Joy from that thank you so much Heather for being with us today and to our listeners around the world Heather can you tell us how and where we

Speaker 2: can find you so I am on Instagram Heather stanker the way it's spelled or chaos n cookies it's just an N there's no a or D in there also on Facebook you can find me and on LinkedIn I'm at Heather stanker as well I'm mostly active on Instagram because I also teach boot camps for my mompreneurs and entrepreneurs that way to start up and then chaos and cookies.com is my website you can find my playbook on there if you wanted to snag yourself a free copy of the Playbook or the pocket Playbook it's basically a 911 guide that it would just life saave everybody especially with

Speaker 1: kids if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer a community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our she built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer Sheil tip business Consulting and the Sheil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined to today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave [Music]