Welcome to The Live Free Podcast. I'm your host, Micala Quinn, and I am a mom on a mission to help you launch, grow, and scale a profitable freelance business from home. Join me each week for tangible business advice along with inspiring interviews all designed to help you mom strong, work smart, and live free.
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All right, mama, it's time. Grab your coffee, water, or wine because we are starting.
Hey there, welcome back to the Live Free podcast. So honored to have you here with me today. Today, I wanted to talk about something that I experienced when I first became a mom and something that I've been hearing a lot more in emails and DMs from you guys. So ultimately, if I paraphrase it down, so many of you are sharing that you're in a spot where either you're a new mom, or some of you even have seasoned moms, multiple kids, your kids are older in school and have
Sort of buried this thought but you're facing this dilemma where the job you've
dreamed of and worked so hard for and love and Have loved just no longer works
with your life anymore as a mom
And there's there's been some different variations of this where some of you have felt this But had no option or no clear path out. And so you just sort of have had to bury this and trudge on and now you feel like you've missed out on so much and maybe and kids are older and you're finding that they need you available, more available in so many different ways.
So I've been kind of hearing it from both ends. Moms with brand new young babies that they want to be home with or maybe their second parent And those of you whose kids are in school, maybe they're older, high school, grade school, and they just need you in different ways. And so that job you've had your entire adult life and that career you've worked so hard for, just no longer fits. It's hard, right? I experienced this and it's hard.
But we as moms deserve better options to where we can navigate this dilemma,
this reality that we're facing and find a better option for ourselves. Find something where we can still use our skills, talents and strengths in a way that allows us to support our family, but also still have that family life and have that better balance where we can be there for our kids.
So for those of you who are feeling this way right now, you're kind of stuck in
this dilemma of this is how I'm feeling, what can I do? What are my options?
I'm here to help you navigate that today. And if you know someone who is feeling
this, share this episode with them. If you have a friend, a coworker, a sister,
a cousin, share this episode with them so that they can see, number one, they're
not alone, but also help to see a solution as well.
So first, let's kind of just talk through why the Traditional work model makes it
near impossible to manage while also raising a family. There's so many reasons, but three that I wanna talk about. Number one, rigid schedules. Traditional jobs in most cases lack flexibility. Sure, some of you may work from home, but I hear from women who do work from home in a traditional employment capacity, there's still no way that you can be there enjoying your family or step away to care for a kiddo if they're sick because you're expected to be on and available working explicitly from eight to five. Sick days are hard to manage. If you have kids that are sick,
you have to take off. Some companies understand, but some still don't and make
parents feel guilty about taking time off. I've heard countless stories from women in the Live Free Academy Um, one that sticks out to me recently, there's a mom who had a little, a little child like infant stage, um, who she just got off maternity leave. It was a short maternity leave, by the way. Um, but, and she just got off
maternity leave and was back at work and her child ends up in the ER for RSV and
a coworker colleague was making said comments to her about how she's already used up all her PTO for maternity leave and kind of insinuating like you need to be here, be in the office. And of course she didn't and that caused some issues and also was a wake up call to her of like, yeah, this is not working for me anymore.
And then like with the rigid schedules for those of you that have older kids, once
your kiddos get into school there's so many more volunteer needs during the day that schools are asking for and then no school days and snow days on top of the sick days and then there's extracurriculars that they're involved in and practices and games and so on that you want and need to be available for and sure some companies are flexible but others it just it's it's just a hassle and it's just not worth
that that constant kind of ask and struggle and feeling guilty and feeling like
you're giving your all here and you're not able to give your all to your family or
vice versa and it's so unfortunate that where work is, it's so ingrained that it has to be this completely done in an eight to five setting.
There's, a lot of people are very efficient and spend so much time at their day jobs. There's so much wasted time. Time they're just keeping a chair warm in an office because someone said they need to be there from eight to five. "If work is done, if projects are completed, "if milestones are met, why can't work be done "around someone's schedule?" Changing the entire culture of work in our country and around the world seemed back at the time when I was facing these dilemmas. And of course, there's some careers it just can't work out with.
With teaching, I get, okay, the kids are in school from eight to five. And there were at times where I was like, I love this. If I could just do this around my kiddo schedule and still be at home with them, I would do this forever. But there's some situations where it just doesn't work out. But there's a lot where it could, but trying to change the entire culture of work seems way too daunting and outside my intelligence and my pay grade. So, and it was also one that I didn't have time to sit around and wait for that to be solved. So I created my own path.
The other huge challenge with working traditional jobs that kind of butts up against motherhood is childcare costs. In a lot of cases, the cost of daycare makes it unsustainable for a lot of women to keep their careers. And so they're kind of forced out of working maybe, maybe not like so against their wishes, but it's just like, oh, well, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense. And even though maybe they loved their job. So that I've heard from a lot of women that that's a huge challenge to kind of, you have this career you love and you have this child you love and you're kind of forced to choose to give up your career to stay home while that's awesome. It also messes with you of like, I just gave up, this is kind of getting to the third kind of challenge and identity.
But if we are for focusing on the child care costs, in a lot of cases for a lot of women, the cost of daycare forces us out. Now, it's no surprise, no secret that when I became a first -time mom that I wanted out, that I wanted to be home, but I had to keep working, we needed my income.
And those of you that are in that place, that's a hard place to be too. But when
I quickly became pregnant with my second, McLaren and George were like, gosh,
18, 21s apart. Closer to 20. I absolutely had to get out with just one in daycare.
800 of my $2 ,000 a month check went to daycare. Add in a second kiddo, and I would have made $400 a month after daycare in taxes.
We really needed my income, but I refused to work my butt off 50 plus hours a
week for $400 a month. Plus, I really wanted to be at home. I also didn't want to
just suck it up and not lose out on my career waiting for kids to be in school
eventually because we wanted more kids. We wanted a slightly bigger than average family. And in that case, I would still be busting my butt right now probably for probably losing money because I would have three in preschool at one point.
But either way, I'd still be paying at this point today. I'd be paying daycare for
two while barely making enough and would also have two in older school. It just,
it just didn't make sense. And I'll be in this boat where I have kids in some
form of a daycare for three and a half more years. That would be gosh like 13,
14 years of working your butt off for $400 a month or less or losing money.
It just didn't make sense logistically for our family and I know so many families
face this. But we also really needed me to contribute for kids is a lot of
expenses. Again, this is another major cultural political issue that I don't have the
answers or really any power to do anything about and I certainly didn't have and
still don't have the time to wait around for people to solve the childcare crisis
that's going around. So again, I had to make my own path.
Now, the third reason why traditional employment just really butts up against
motherhood is the identity shift we experience as mom. It's common and normal that when you become a mom, your priorities change. Maybe not for everyone, but for a lot of moms it does. Goals change, priorities change, everything you know and thought you knew just gets shifted. It did for me for sure. This was one of the biggest challenges for me. I wasn't prepared for the strong desire that I was going to have to want to be at home.
Growing up, my mom worked, so in my mind, that was just kind of the norm in what you did. I did have a lot of friends whose moms stayed home, but I really loved teaching and I thought I'd teach forever. And I, you know, my kids go to Catholic schools. I went to Catholic schools. I was teaching in a Catholic schools. I thought I would teach forever and get the teacher discount on tuition and be there while my kids were there. But I was not prepared for how holding my daughter in my arms for the first time would change me. I suddenly didn't want to teach forever anymore. I didn't want to put her in daycare. I didn't want someone else doing all the boring, ordinary mundane things with her on a day-to -day basis. And that was such a weird and hard feeling for me to deal with.
I worked my whole life to be a teacher and was doing it and was pretty good and I
loved it for the most part. Like I was one of those weird people that knew from a
young age what they wanted to do and actually made it happen. I went,
all of the jobs I had leading up to becoming a teacher put me on the path to
land my dream job in the school that I wanted teaching what I wanted. In high
school, I babysat, I nannied, I also got a job in the daycare in the fitness
center nearby us.
When I went on to college, I got a job at the Boys and Girls Club working in the teen program, and then was promoted to being the teen program coordinator while still in college. I then got my emergency sub -license and substitute taught while I was still in college. While then after student teaching, I student taught, still had my sub -license, I did a long-term emergency sub position at the high school I did my student teaching at, and then also set myself up. That was only going to be a month or so. Set myself up to transition to subbing at the school that I wanted that I knew was gonna be hiring for the following year 'cause I graduated in December. And so there was like a full semester where I kind of just had to fill in with odds and ends until I could officially get hired on as a full -time classroom teacher. And I loved it. I was so excited. I got the dream job at the school that I wanted, but Everything changed. Everything changed when McLaren was born.
I suddenly only wanted to be with her. I wanted to be the one to feed her and to
take her to the park to make her breakfast, to put her down for naps, pick her up
from her naps, play with her, teach her her letters, explore our city. I wanted to
be at home with her, but just up and quitting wasn't an option. I still needed to
work. We needed my income. And I think that fact of like, okay, my identity shift, but I couldn't pursue that identity shift fully to just be a stay at home mom. For me,
that was such an incredibly hard season. Because at first it felt like I had no
options. I felt stuck. I felt defeated and depressed.
And I know not everyone goes through that has that like strong pull and desire to be that say at home. Maybe you were the mom that it was kind of just forced upon you because of the logistics of child care and your husband's job and it was just kind of it is what it is and you miss working. I hear that from a lot of people going through that and you've been at home and you miss working and you and you want to get back. But in my situation kind of what I was going through in my heart of hearts when I started to work through some of those feelings of feeling stuck and defeated and depressed and started to explore what else could be out there for me. I knew in my heart of hearts there had to be a better way. And so I was determined to find that.
Determined to find how I can work on my terms, be at home with my family and
still make the money we need. And eventually then some, the solution that I found
was freelancing. And I don't wanna just end this episode on us all being in
agreement that, yeah, it's hard, but I want to show you why freelancing is the
solution, why this is the solution you've been searching for. All those challenges I
just went through, there's a fix in freelancing.
But first of all, quick, what is freelancing? For those of you that are maybe newer, maybe a friend sent you this episode, real quick freelance recap. And I have on my website a really great crash course that will kind of walk you through what freelancing is, what it takes to get started, how to get started, I have, and how, if you're interested in working with me to get started, have that all broken down into a free crash course, you can grab it at mckaylaquinn .com /cc. That's the letter C,
C as in Caroline, Caroline.
Okay, so freelancing in a nutshell is basically, if you think about in your employment role, some of you are doing something in like a business or administrative capacity. Everything you're doing in your day job for those of you, there's potentially a small business out there that needs those same
things done. So it's very similar to traditional employment, but it's also very,
very different.
So freelancing, essentially you are an independent contractor who
offers a specific service to small businesses or solo business owners that helps them either run or grow their business. So similar to like an employment role, you're hired by a company, a business to help that business run and grow.
However, in the freelance capacity, you are not an employee. This means that you get to control when, where, and how you work, including how much you charge. The term "freelance" basically just identifies that the work you're doing is on a contract basis and that you're not an employee. Instead of having one employer, you will have several clients and a lot of times these clients are likely smaller business owners that need help on a smaller scale. Maybe they need 10 hours of support a week or 20 hours of support a month or they need three social media posts a week, etc.
And they will hire you either for a one -time project basis, maybe they just need a
website built or an ongoing retainer basis. And so it doesn't matter when this work
gets done because again, you are an independent contractor, you're essentially a self -employed business owner. And you get a pick when that work gets done on your terms, the client doesn't get to dictate that.
Just like when you hire a plumber, you don't get to dictate, I need you here at this time. They'll give you a range. Okay, I'll be here by this time and this time,
between this time and this time, and I can fit you in on this date. That's kind
of similar to how it works in the freelance capacity. Most freelancers will work
with several clients, three to five at a time to make up the bulk of their income.
Freelancing is not new, It's not a fad, it's honestly the most stable business you
can start. As of, gosh, the 2023 state of independence report,there were 72 .1 million Americans alone that made up their income in a freelance capacity. And in the freelance capacity, there's so many different services that you could offer to business owners. Virtual assistant and social media management are kind
of my two most recommended, but there's also copper copywriting, marketing,
bookkeeping, project management, web design, podcast editing. There's so many, so many different options that you could offer.
And no matter what your background is, there is something you can help a small
business owner out with. At the bare minimum, can you check an email inbox? If you can do that, you can, there's a business owner out there that needs help managing their email inbox and will pay good money for that. Can you post to social media? That's another common thing that business owners will outsource as well. So if you can post to social media and navigate a Gmail account, you have enough experience to get started helping business owners out while making good money.
Now let's talk about why freelancing is different and how it's the solution to
traditional employment. In traditional employment, we just talked about you have this rigid fixed schedule where your employer controls you need to be button seat from eight to five. With freelancing, you get to control that when, where and how you work. You can work when it fits your family, whether that's early morning hours, late at night hours, maybe you want to mimic a traditional work schedule. You can make that choice. Maybe you wanna work half day on Tuesday and Friday only. Maybe you work five hours a week, one hour a day. Maybe you work 50 hours a week.
It truly is up to you and what your needs are. If something comes up and you need to adjust your schedule in the moment, you can. What matters is that projects and deadlines are met. So if you can still meet deadlines and you need to switch up
your work schedule, that's perfectly fine. You just adjust and roll with the changes.
If a kid is sick, can you rearrange your schedule? Absolutely. If your husband earns
a rewards trip through work in the Bahamas and gets a free plus one, you can take
off and pack your laptop if you want, or communicate with clients and say, "Hey, I
will be out of office from this date to this date," and make a plan to get any
stuff done that needs to be done before you leave or do when you leave down ahead of time. No need to ask for permission. See what needs to be done, make a plan, and make it happen.
With The other challenge with traditional employment for a lot of us is childcare.
With freelancing, you have so much more flexibility to be creative with childcare.
For me, in the early days, I only worked what I called the nap time hustle. So
essentially I had no daycare for my kids. I worked early mornings while they were
still napping five to seven a .m. And then during nap time, one to three p .m. Five
days a week, that was 20 hours a week, I was able to work around my kids'
schedule, not have to pay for daycares, and I was able to make way more than I
did teaching.
And I had way more free time. I was at home with my kids,
I had that flexibility to spend our days how I wanted. You could do, you know, other flexible options if the nap time hustle doesn't excite you. You can do a part -time nanny, you could do a part -time child care, you could do, if kiddos go to a small preschool program, just work when they're at preschool. If you have grandparents that help out one day a week or both sets of grandparents
each wanna help out one day a week, that's two days. If you have a friend who
also needs part -time child care, you could do like a child care co -op or swap or
something. There's so many different Options that are available to you when you don't need full -time daycare, 6 .30 or 7 a .m. to 6 p .m. at night. And you get so much more time back with your family. And it's amazing.
And then the third challenge, that identity. When you freelance, you don't have to
be stuck picking one. It is not black and white. It's not a, oh, you can be a stay -at -home mom or you can be a work -at -home mom. It is. 2025 people, you can do both at the same time and whatever capacity works best for you and your family.
If you need help thinking through what your freelancing plan could look like, what you want it to look like, if you're, whether you're like, I'm a stay -at -home mom, I would love to add back in, you know, working, what could this look like for me on a freelance capacity? Send me an email, I'm happy to chat through this with you.
If you're working full -time and you're like, I want this flexibility, but I need to make X per month, what's my timeline Micala, can I make this happen? Is this possible? Reach out to me, send me an email, send me a DM. We will map through your plan together so that you know it is achievable and doable.
In either way, you're the stay -at -home mom who misses work. You can make freelance work for you. You're the working mom who wants to replace your income and quit, but you need to replace your full income. You can make it happen with freelancing too and probably end up working less hours as well.
And I'm not the only person to have done this. In the last seven and a half
years, I've personally helped 4 ,000 women navigate finding their perfect balance
between working and in mom life. It hasn't just been myself that I've helped.
Listen to the student success stories on my podcast. If you scroll through, if
you're new to this podcast, there are so many student interviews where I interview
women from all different backgrounds, experience levels, asking them kind of their journey from what they were doing to freelancing, what challenges they faced, how they landed their first clients, what their life looks like now that they're
freelancing. I think it will give you so much inspiration and insight into if this
is what you wanna do and also what it takes to make it happen.
If you wanna recommend a playlist of those episodes that match your background, send me an email or a DM. And I'll send you a few to start with. There's stay -at -home mom episodes, teacher, corporate, banking, nurse, physical therapist, healthcare, waitresses, all different backgrounds. If you're really considering if this is for you, listen to those episodes. And if you want that recommended playlist, just reach out and more than happy to send that over to you.
Now, for those of you that are looking to kind of explore freelancing more, you want that deep dive into what it takes to get started, start with my free crash course. Just go to micalaquinn .com/cc and grab it. It's about 45 minutes long and will give you a deep dive into what freelancing is, who hires freelancers, why, what they're hiring for, what it takes to get started and how I can help you. Otherwise, if you're ready to officially start building your business, join me inside the Live Free Academy. It will be your cut and step -by -step system to follow, to start making money as a freelancer as soon as possible so you can live your dream life at home with your family and not have to stress about finances.
You can check it out at go.micalaquinn .com /academy. All right, friends, thanks so much for being here.
And again, if you have a friend in mind that is facing this struggle, they're
wanting to be at home. They're just fed up with their working mom life but doesn't
know what their options are or is maybe wanting to explore freelancing, share this
episode with her so that she can learn more about freelancing and maybe find the
solution that she's been searching for as well. All right, friends, have a great
Monday and I'll see you next week.
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