ONLY GIRL ON THE JOBSITE™

By Renée Biery

listen on apple

listen on spotify

listen on google

Add-on’s, renovations, and new construction homes can seem intimidating to take on. How do you even get started? How do you find and manage contractors? What surprises should you anticipate coming up? How long do these things take?

In this podcast, you will learn all that and so much more!

FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE

INTERIOR DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THE EPISODE:

WHAT I’VE LEARNED ABOUT WORK/LIFE BALANCE

WHY WORK/LIFE BALANCE IS POSSIBLE BUT NEVER PERFECTED

THE FEELING OF BEING OUT OF BALANCE IS COMPLETELY NORMAL


Years ago, I was attending a walk/run at my daughter’s school. The kids ran around the track, and the moms walked, ofcourse. I had scheduled it into my day because it was important for me to do these activities and one of the reasons I work for myself.

So I was catching up with some of the moms, and a woman came running up to me saying Renee, I had been meaning to call you! I’m not going to lie, I hear that quite a bit, and typically, it leads into, I need free design help or, want construction help, or, oh, you won’t believe this contractor. 

This one was different. This woman wanted to pick my brain about how I had achieved work/life balance because she had taken a leave of absence when her children were born and now was about to go back into the workforce. 

She caught me so off guard! I was expecting her to ask for free advice or bitch and moan about something. I did not expect to hear that she thinks I have cracked the code in work/life balance. The fact that I was portraying this couldn’t have been further from the truth.

At any given time, something is falling through the cracks. And I am not telling you this to depress you. I’m just telling you my experiences and the experiences I’ve been hearing from other designers. 

By the time I had children, I had a solid career, and I knew I wanted to keep it both – I wanted to be a mom and keep my thriving career going. 

And I couldn’t have been more naive.

Don’t get me wrong, I tried. I tried a lot of different ways. And I repeatedly failed.

I eventually got sick when my son was in preschool and was forced to take a step back from my business.

Now, I imagine the woman who stopped me on the runway knew none of this. 

It wasn’t until I took the time to step back, evaluate what truly was important to me, and built my health back up that I became ‘successful.’ 

But don’t read ‘successfull’ as work/life balance perfectionism. Because that just doesn’t happen.

I do have a much better work/life balance than I ever have before, but I have no goals of perfecting it because that will never happen in my experience. 

Work/life balance is possible but not perfected. There will be days, weeks, or months where nothing is going right. And I’m here to say I think that’s normal. 

I think there are ways you can help yourself, but just knowing this can be normal and doesn’t last forever, I hope, helps you.

follow the podcast

want to be a guest?

Fill out the form on the inquiry page under the podcast tab and we'll get in touch with you!

leave us a review!

We love hearing from you about your thoughts on the podcast, you can leave a review on apple!

You can find us anywhere! Click the icons to find us on the podcast platform you use!