Life in the time of Coronavirus – in Illinois

Damianne: [00:01:40] Let’s get started. Thank you for joining me today, Lindsay.

Lindsay: [00:01:45] Thank you for having me.

Damianne: [00:01:47] So you started Bump Club and Beyond in 2010 and you were looking to create the community that you wanted for yourself. Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Lindsay: [00:01:58] Of course, my company basically services parents and expectant parents connecting them with, as you said, products and resources, but mainly with each other and that is kind of what we drive home. I was pregnant in 2010 and I wanted support and community throughout my pregnancy. At the time, none of my friends were pregnant. We all have third graders. All of my closest friends, we all have the same age kids, I was just the first one. And I just wanted a place where I could find reliable and trustworthy information, but also where I could find like-minded people and connect with other expectant parents. My background is in advertising and marketing. I sold integrated marketing platforms and programs to fortune 500 businesses for 10 years prior to this. And so with my experience through networking and my marketing background, we started involving a lot of different brands and that’s how we started driving revenue. And then from there we started working with Target and with Nordstrom and other large brands who really helped to put us on the map in a national way. And we started adding more content to what we were offering so that anyone anywhere could really benefit from the information that we were sharing and how we were helping parents prepare for and navigate through Parenthood. And last year, actually, we were acquired by a large marketing agency. I’m still at the helm of the business, and that was a large part of the acquisition; that my team and I came along with the acquisition. And so that’s where we are today.

Damianne: [00:03:22] That’s very exciting. It sounds like you had some background that helps you be able to grow the company organically, but if you can think back to when you had the idea to create this community to find all the moms that you can connect with, do you remember what that was like? What was one of the first actions that you took, for example.

Lindsay: [00:03:42] It was very natural to me because I think just naturally, I’ve always been a connector. I’ve always been one of those people that someone says, Oh, I’m looking for someone who does so and so, and I think about who I know. And I’m like, Oh, let me connect you to them. And so this was kind of just doing that on a larger scale. The very first action I took, and I know that action, I know what I did. I sent an email to everyone I knew in Chicago. At the time I was working in advertising and the advertising industry in Chicago is very close knit. It’s very small. Well, it’s very big, but close knit and everyone kind of knows each other. That’s what I mean when I say small. And so I sent an email out and people passed it on to pregnant friends, and then I hosted it on my personal Facebook and we had 50 people show up at our first event. So that was really an indicator to me that this kind of community and support was needed. And when people started asking things like, what’s next? You know, a lot of people always say, well, what was your business plan? And like, I didn’t really have a plan. I was looking for something that was very self fulfilling at the time. I put myself in the shoes of the community members who are joining us at these events and said, well, what do I want right now throughout my pregnancy? And I asked my friends and I surveyed people that came and, that was really kind of how this business started and how it grew very organically. They didn’t have capital behind me. I didn’t fundraise, and like I said, I didn’t really have a plan. It kind of unfolded by the seat of our pants.

Damianne: [00:05:16] It really sounds like you had this strength that you were able to identify, and then you also had this need that you noticed and you took some actions, something happened, then more happened. I mean, I’m really simplifying it, but it sounds like you were able to create this momentum.

Lindsay: [00:05:35] Yes. And everything we do is really momentum based and based on our community, if we do something and it doesn’t work, we ask why and we find out and then we may or may not do it again. We might do it a different way or we might just scrap it. And a lot of what we do and a lot of the information we bring and the type of information we bring to our audience is very dependent on what our audience is asking for.

Damianne: [00:05:55] You pride yourself on being a mother, a wife, a good friend, a daughter, a granddaughter, I read in your bio. How do you manage all those roles with being a founder and a CEO?

Lindsay: [00:06:06] I know when to ask for help. And I do ask for help. That has not been something I’ve always been good at, but I would say for like the last three to five years, that is something that I really emphasize, especially when being asked that question and I think help comes in different ways.I asked for help internally, like I had a meeting with my boss – I have a boss now that we are owned by another company – this week and I said, look, I can’t do X, Y, Z all at the same time. I need some help with some of these things, and she was very quick to get it for me so that I could do what was most important. I also early on, very early on, um, I asked my mom for a lot of help and she helped me with my kids. She helped me even before I had kids. When I was pregnant, she would help me stuff, gift bags in my house. She doesn’t live in Chicago, she lives in Detroit. But when she would come into town and I asked my husband, you know, I’ll say to him, like, I have a meeting today at 6:00 PM central time cause it’s with the West coast. And I’ll say to him, I need you to please make dinner. Are you okay doing that tonight? I think a lot of women don’t want to ask for help and they’re not wired that way. We want to do everything on our own and succeed at it, and we can’t. No one can, no one can do everything and be everything to everyone. So I think it’s very important to outsource where you can, and that goes both professionally and personally. I also have amazing childcare. We’ve always had an au pair, and the au pair program only allows you to have someone for two years. But we’ve had some incredible, incredible women in my house who have acted as an extension of me and my husband, and who my daughters just adore. I mean, even last weekend, we had a zoom call with five of our past au pairs at once. And so it’s really finding what works for your family so that you can do all the things that you want to do. So that’s really what has helped me.

Damianne: [00:07:58] As I’m listening to you talk, what’s resonating with me and what I’m hearing from you is the importance of connections as well. That’s a common theme because you’ve built this community, and you also value connections of course, then.

Lindsay: [00:08:10] Yes, I do. And I think that connections are key. I don’t think that my community would be what it is today without me being the forefront of my brand and me connecting with the audience, whether it’s at an in-person event or right now, all of our stuff is online. But I go online almost every single night and talk to the Instagram audience and do Facebook lives. And I have always, for the last 10 years, made it a very big point to connect with my audience. And I think that’s why we’ve been so successful. It’s not just the connections amongst each other, which are obviously what we’re there for, but it’s them connecting with not just the brand, but with the people behind the brand. And similarly in my personal life, I have really worked hard to instill connections from my daughters with like our childcare and making sure that it works for them because I don’t want someone in the house that’s not going to connect with them. Our au pair right now is amazing, and she’s like the third daughter to me, basically, and a sister to my kids. And so to your point, yes, connections are key. Strong ones.

Damianne: [00:09:20] As you’ve gone through this journey. What would you say has been the most difficult lesson that you’ve had to learn?

Lindsay: [00:09:29] When to say no and when to kind of walk away. Um, you know, I think that like most entrepreneurs, I think like sometimes you know, you have an idea in your head and you really want to make it work and it doesn’t always shake out the way that you want it to shake out. And you have to know when to let go and walk away, both from a financial standpoint and from a personal and mental health standpoint. I think that that’s a big thing. And then saying no, I mean, I, you know, early on when you’re starting a company, you want to say yes to everything. Because you just never know when it’s a great opportunity, you know? But I think over time I have started to really figure out what are the things that are important to me and what I can say no to and where to draw the line because you can’t do everything. And you can’t be everywhere. And you know, in the last few years, I’ve really made a conscious effort to be home more in the evening for my kids because I do travel a lot normally, normally outside of COVID. And so, if I, you know, if I’m not traveling, I don’t always want to be at a work obligation. If I’m not at home with my kids, I would truthfully prefer to be with my friends than at an obligation. And so I’ve really started to weigh what those options are and what I can say no to. And I think that it’s helped a lot.

Damianne: [00:10:51] Thinking about the lessons that you’ve learned, if you had to give some advice back to your earlier self, or what’s something you would have told yourself early, in the early days of the business?

Lindsay: [00:11:03] My strong suit, I guess I would say is marketing and advertising and the creativity and the content part of my business. That’s really where I excel and that’s as we were acquired. I’ve really honed in on being more in charge of that aspect of the business. At the time, I don’t think I realized that it would get as big as it got it. I mean, it never really half ass things. I always put my heart and soul into everything, but early on I would have either taken on a partner who had more of like a financial business sense either to start the business or taken on someone very early who had that kind of background or brought someone in earlier than I did. I brought someone in to help me manage the finances. I would say probably in year six. Five or six, like I had like a, an accountant, but like I really brought in like a bookkeeper and someone to really help me and I think we would have grown a lot faster had I had that person earlier on. That type of stuff I would say like really overwhelms me. And I know from talking to a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of entrepreneurs are either very savvy on like the business finance or very savvy on like the marketing and creativity. And I do wish that I would have brought someone in earlier. I mean, hindsight’s 2020 but when I did bring someone in in that role, it was part time. And I think I was just so desperate to bring someone in that I didn’t, it wasn’t necessarily the right person. And so I think too, like finding the right people is very important. I really look for long term solutions versus like short term fixes. And that is something early on that I wish I would have developed more and practice more, I guess I would say

Damianne: [00:12:51] That makes sense. Because I guess even on a personal level, even when you’re not running a business, when things crop up, we want a solution right now. Right. And so you might know that coming up with the long term solution will be best in the long run, but that problem does need to get fixed right now. And so it’s always a matter of balancing those things.

Lindsay: [00:13:11] Totally.

Damianne: [00:13:12] So there’s been this kind of elephant in the room, coronavirus, that’s affecting all of our lives right now. You mentioned that you recently have gone through an acquisition, so maybe that has kind of changed how COVID and everything else is affecting your life, but how are you experiencing this time in terms of your business?

Lindsay: [00:13:35] So we went through the acquisition in January of 2019 and 2019 was mostly spent like getting kind of acclimated into the bigger business and figuring out how we were going to function in the ethos of this very large business. The interesting thing about the business that bought me is it’s all agencies. It’s a lot of like, marketing, promotion, sampling, retail agencies, and when they acquired Bump Club, they did so because they wanted authority in the baby and child space. But we also are the only brand that they own that has a consumer facing arm. So, you know, in addition to providing B2B solutions, we also have our own consumers. And so we do a ton of B2C as well. So kind of the first year we were dealing with that, and then we finally were starting to pick up some momentum coming into 2020. We have a very large program right now that we are really still currently executing with Target, and we were supposed to have 300 in store events on March 21st across the country leading into the whole COVID-19 we were also hosting a webinar associated with these in store events a couple of weeks prior, and so a week or two before the webinar, which was on March 8th we met with Target and we presented them with some options to do a full 180 and take these events online because in Target, as a corporation, at the time, even before this got as bad as it did, they said, we’re not doing any more in store events. Like we weren’t even able to go in and host our webinars in the store, even though it wasn’t an actual event. So we presented a, online solution to them and they loved it, and the brands loved it, and we made a huge pivot and we took this program that was supposed to be executed in store and we started executing it online. So we had the webinar on March 8th and then we started moving forward with these Facebook live events, like talking about all these different categories within, I guess pre parenting cause it was a lot of baby registry stuff from there. You know, everything started happening with COVID-19, we started locking down and everyone started staying at home. On the very first day of the stay at home, I went online, I went on Instagram and I made a very bold statement and I said we are going to be here with you no matter what. We are going to get through this together and we will be giving you information and resources to entertain your kids, to entertain yourselves. I don’t think at the time anyone thought we would be doing this for two months, let alone, you know, three, four, five. Who knows how long this is going to go on? We just did a giant 180 and we started taking everything online. We have a very robust section on our website now for, dedicated to COVID and it’s filled with everything from like top movies to watch, to great virtual classes, to, you know, replays of talks that we’ve done online with experts. We started taking our expectant parent curriculum, which we normally do in person at dinners throughout Chicago and other parts of the country. We brought them online to webinars. I want to say we had over a thousand people register for the last two webinars that we did for expectant parents. So we are really utilizing technology to continue to get this advice out to our audience who greatly needs it. And you know, back to what I was saying earlier, a lot of what we have done and continue to do really comes back to what our audience asks for. When they start conversations with me or answer me on Instagram or on Facebook asking me for different things, those usually spawn the ideas for the content that we put out. I mean, something so simple like this is so crazy cause this is like, not like COVID, but I have really had a liking as you can see, cause we’re on video right now to tie dye. I’m wearing a tie dye right now and I have been wearing tons of tie dye and I’ve been getting a lot of questions like where can I get some tie dye? And so we did a tie dye roundup on our website the other day. I mean, just really simple things, you know, cause I’m trying to keep it fun. It doesn’t always have to be serious. Yeah. And in turn, you know, we are continuing this program with Target. We wrapped up phase one at the end of the first quarter. We are about to launch phase two, I think it’s mid May, and we’re bringing back three new webinars with Target and another whole host of online live events with Target and a lot of various brands that we’re working with. And we are working with a bunch of other experts in brands as well to execute some really awesome content coming up, because I made a commitment and we will stick to that commitment that we will help our audience get through this.

Damianne: [00:17:54] That’s wonderful. I’ve seen some of the content that you’ve been sharing on Facebook too, story time for children and different activities, which I think is great because I’ve heard so many parents talking about just needing a variety of things and entertaining your children all day is not an easy thing.

Lindsay: [00:18:13] The best texts that I get. I mean, it comes in the form of messages or text messages, but when someone will like message me and say like, who is this woman, like, she is pure magic singing to my child. Thank you for the 20 minute break that you just gave me. That’s what we’re here for. And that’s really what we’re trying to do is, you know, help support parents because most parents right now don’t have childcare in their home and they are working and they’re trying to do a million different things and we want to help make this as sustainable as possible.

Damianne: [00:18:50] What’s it like for your family, for the rest of the members in your family and for the relationships between you and now that everybody’s home?

Lindsay: [00:18:59] Truthfully, I think that it’s been a blessing in disguise for my family. You know, I think that this was a much needed pause. I feel closer to my girls than ever before, my husband as well. I think that we are spending so much more time together as a family. We are, you know, having better conversations. We’re eating dinner together every single night, which you know, my kids are six and nine and they normally have a million activities. This has also been an eye opener for me that, I don’t want them to have a million activities when this is over, you know. And we’re able to go back to everyday living that my husband and I kind of said, we’ll make them pick one or two things and that’s it. But I don’t want to give this up because it’s been really nice and truthfully, I think my kids are pretty happy about it. I definitely think they’re missing their friends and I think that they’re missing like the structure of a school day. But we, we’ve been trying to keep somewhat of a struct, like a loose structure in my house. You know, we do our e-learning in the morning and then in the afternoon we have a variety of art projects, or we’ll go outside or I’ll let them watch a movie. They’ve watched some great movies, like my kids have watched so many movies from my childhood and that’s been a really awesome thing to share with them as well. I’m trying to get them outside as much as possible. It hasn’t been nice here. I live in Chicago and it’s been kind of cold and rainy, so when we do have a nice day, we really want to take advantage of it. My whole family is getting bikes, like the girls have them, and before we hopped on this podcast, I was like on the phone with the bike shop trying to figure out, and I’m going to get my husband one for father’s day and his birthday and like hopefully then we’ll have bikes and we can go on rides this summer. There’s definitely fighting too. No, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. My girls are sisters. They do fight. They do make me crazy. You know, they’ll barge into my office when I’m on a call, and it’s been a lot of teaching them like those parameters because they’ve never had that before. But it’s, it’s okay. I’m really trying to find the positives in this and not focus on the negatives.

Damianne: [00:20:52] So you’re in Chicago and I, I guess the rules are very different in place to place. Typically you work outside the home, so now you’re home. What are you allowed to do or not allowed to do?

Lindsay: [00:21:04] Actually, typically I do a mix of working from home and work. I have an office downtown. Truthfully, a lot of times I’ll go to like Starbucks or a coffee shop. I really liked just being around other people. So right now, Chicago, I feel very thankful that I’m in a place where our local government is taking this very seriously, and some people may not agree with me, but that is how I feel. That is my opinion. I feel very taken care of by our government at the moment and not worried about them loosening up the reins too soon or without a plan in place. And I do feel like when we do open up, there will be a plan in place. They have just started opening like a few things. I think state parks are starting to open, golf courses, I heard today that pet groomers are opening, but we are still in a stay at home measure at the moment in Illinois. That’s per our governor. And so I live in a suburb, so I don’t live downtown, which I’m very thankful for it this time. I miss living in the city tremendously, but right now I do not. My friends that are in the city, it’s very different because it’s a much more congested and crowded and so. You don’t have the space to really run and play. You know, my friends in the city don’t have yards. All the parks are closed, so their kids are in a much different situation. A lot of them are looking for rentals, like in the suburbs or in Michigan or Wisconsin, if they can for the summer, because they really just want to have a place where their kids can be outside. I feel very lucky that we have a yard. I’m looking outside right now and I’ve seen, you know, the occasional runner or walker or whatever, but there’s enough space here. That we can leave the house, I don’t have to wear a mask when I’m like walking or riding my bike. If I were doing so in the city, I would have to. It is a mandate right now, starting today actually, that everyone wears a mask in public, and I think that that’s national. So I do feel very lucky. I really haven’t gone into stores. I’ve made a very conscious effort to follow the rules for the health and protection of my family. We’ve been doing a lot of food delivery from Instacart and other delivery sources and Amazon. I have done all of my target runs through curbside and we made a decision very early on. I mean, we locked down a few days even before some of my friends did here, that we were going to stay at home and follow the rules.

Damianne: [00:23:26] It sounds like you have some good strategies in place. What advice could you share for other parents who might be listening to this podcast to help their family stay sane?

Lindsay: [00:23:37] Yeah. I think a lot of that’s dependent on the age of your kids, and it’s interesting because I was texting with a friend last night and her kids are like one and three and I was like, oy yeah, I was like, I feel like, you have it so hard because you’re trying to entertain your kids. And she said, well, I don’t have e-learning though. And so I said to her, you know, I guess everyone has something, right? Like, you know, so everyone has something. So strategies overall, I mean, something that I think works very well in my house. So my au pair, who lives with us, does not work on the weekends at all right now. And so she’ll be with our family, but she’s not helping with childcare. So on the weekends, my husband and I have really tried to make it a point to give each other a break, and one of us will do something with the girls in the morning and one of us will do something with the girls in the afternoon. That’s usually been on Saturday and then on Sunday, maybe a little bit of that, and then in the afternoon if it’s nice, we’ll all hang out outside or I’ll watch a movie together. But I think really if you live in a two parent household and you’re able to give each other a break, I think that that’s necessary. I don’t think you have to do everything together. I think dividing and conquering is probably – if you’re able – the best strategy right now, but it allows everyone a little bit of a mental and physical break from taking care of the kids, and I know I, I welcome that a lot. I also think that it’s very important that you go on walks and to get fresh air, and I was doing that. Even when it was freezing out, truthfully, like I was bundling up. And I think that is something you could do no matter how old your kids are, because put them in a stroller. I mean, kids love being outside. They love going for a walk, you know, put some puffs on that tray and get going. You know, put on some music on your phone. Your child wants to be outside as much as you do. And so even if you do have small children at home and you can’t take a walk alone, put them in the stroller and go, because I think one, it will kill, you know, an hour, even two hours at time. You’re getting some activity and exercise and you’re getting fresh air and vitamin D. And I think that that just, that really just makes your day all that much better. I mean, I’m going to go for a walk when we get off this and even just 20 minutes around the block, it makes a huge difference. And then activity-wise there are a couple of things. One, I’ve heard a lot of people, you know, stressing about screen time and I don’t. Every expert that we’ve talked to through Bump Club, you know, all the child development experts, all the therapists, the psychologists, they’ve all said, don’t stress about that right now. You just need to do what you need to do to get by. It’s kind of like we’re in survival mode. I have started regulating a little bit what my kids are watching because they were watching a lot of YouTube and it was making me insane. But I think it’s okay to put on a show and put out a movie if you need that mental break or if you need that simulation for your kid and you are not able to provide it. I think it’s definitely okay. We’ve been using a lot of apps, like educational apps in addition to the TV and whatnot, but, like GetEpic is actually a great app that’s filled with digital books. And so my kids have been reading books on that and reading books together.

Damianne: [00:26:46] Sorry, which app was that?

Lindsay: [00:26:48] It’s called getepic.com

Damianne: [00:26:50] I’ve used it when I was a teacher.

Lindsay: [00:26:52] It’s great. And I think one of the other things that just with any of these things is if you have two kids or multiple kids, enlist your kids to help each other. I mean, out of nowhere, yesterday, my daughter, my older daughter said to me, I’m going to help Laila with her schoolwork today. And I said, great. And they did the little one schoolwork together. And it was funny because my mom said, well, did you do it with her for her? And I was sitting there and I said, no, no. She like taught her and helped her do it and she was fantastic. And I think that that also empowers the older child, the sense of responsibility and accomplishment as well. They’ve also been reading a lot to each other, both books and on the apps and whatnot. We in my house, have tried to do some of the kids’ virtual workouts. My kids just aren’t into it, but I know a lot of kids who are, so I just caveat that because I wish my kids were into it a little bit more. We have been playing just dance on the Nintendo Switch a lot because again, it’s been kind of crappy outside and I want them to exercise. So instead of just playing like Mario Kart, we’ve been playing, just dance and trying to be active even digitally as well. We have on bumpclubandbeyond.com a whole host of virtual classes, free classes, apps, field trips that you can take online. There are really so many options. When my kids are expressing interest in a topic, I am trying to push without pushing too hard. I’m really trying to encourage them to explore it a little bit more. And so we’ve ordered a couple of books on various topics or watched movies on various topics, and I think that that’s been great as well to get them to decide what it is that we’re watching and learning about. Truthfully, I don’t care what it is that we’re learning about, as long as they’re learning something. One of my daughters has expressed a ton of interest in sharks, so we’ve been doing some interesting things there. And then my other daughter has really taken a very big interest in Anne Frank and learning about Anne Frank. And so we have watched movies, we’ve read various books. She’s a little too young for The Diary of Anne Frank, but she’s read some other books and I’ve just been trying to encourage her passion for that topic, and she can learn more.

Damianne: [00:29:06] Yeah, children have a lot of natural curiosity. And so it’s finding those opportunities and helping encourage those.

Lindsay: [00:29:12] Totally. Oh, and we’ve also been doing so many art projects. I swear to God, I think I have an art gallery in my house right now of children’s art, which most parents probably do. We’ve done everything from at home tie dye on my driveway to canvases, to painting rocks, to making friendship bracelets, to shrinky dinks. I just ordered them Hama beads. Do you remember Hama beads are those little beads that you put them on, like the peg and then like you iron them? I just bought those the other day. They’re actually supposed to be here today or tomorrow from Amazon. So I’m trying to like get them to do some different things as well without spending a ton of money. That wasn’t a very expensive purchase, but it will hopefully keep them busy.

Damianne: [00:29:50] I remember one summer I did a summer camp for kids and they were a pair of brothers there and their favorite activity was anything to do with cardboard. Whenever we brought the cardboard out, they would go and go and go. You could clearly tell that they played a lot with cardboard at home. That also brought home the point that it doesn’t have to be crazy expensive things. Like kids love pots and pans and parents might not, but…

Lindsay: [00:30:18] Well it’s funny you say that because I can’t remember what it was, but it was something pre-COVID that I was working with a child development expert and they were saying to me like, but literally all you have to do is throw a bunch of cardboard boxes in a room and kids will have the best time for hours. And it’s funny because we’ve been getting a lot of packages, both things that we’ve ordered and then like also through my work, I’ve been hosting all these webinars in my house, so things get sent to my house and my younger daughter, the one thing she is asking for is can I have that box for a project? At first I was really apprehensive because of everything they were saying about wiping things down and COVID and now though, everything’s kind of changed and the CDC actually just came out with their new regulations and you don’t have to wipe everything down anymore. So I do think I’m going to rethink and allow them to play with the boxes. The boxes are going to have to sit for at least 48 hours before they touch them. But I do think though, that now I can open that up a little bit more to allowing them to play with some of that. And I think that they’ll probably come up with some great projects.

Damianne: [00:31:22] I typically live alone, but right now my little sister, she’s 18, she’s been living with me and even though there are no kids around, it’s still been kind of very different. Sometimes you can’t quite put your finger on how you’re feeling and you’re like, I’m fine, but something feels a bit off.

Lindsay: [00:31:39] Yeah.

Damianne: [00:31:40] I hear some of my mom friends also talk about the stress and the pressures of this time, even if there are lots to be appreciative for.

Damianne: [00:31:40] There are definitely some times when you might feel some stress or you might need a break. What’s the thing that’s bringing you pleasure right now?

Lindsay: [00:31:53] The thing that’s bringing me pleasure?

Damianne: [00:31:56] Or gives you a bit of a break?

Lindsay: [00:31:58] I will tell you every single night I watch a show on TV. I think it’s important that even though that we’re home right now, to give yourself things to look forward to. And I think you can still do that without it being, you know, something major, like a concert or a play or an outing or a trip. I think you can have little things to look forward to. You know, there’s a lot of TV and a lot of shows that over the years I’ve wanted to watch and haven’t, because I do a lot of work in the evening. I do go to bed very late, but like every single night I have been watching somethings and actually my au pair and I have been dictating what we’re watching in the house. It’s kind of nice to have someone else on my side because then I don’t get stuck watching like, you know, these combat movies that I don’t want to watch. So we’ve been choosing things on Netflix and Hulu and all these shows that I never had a chance to watch before. And that has really been what has been giving me pleasure. And like every day I’ll say at dinner, Oh my God, I’m so excited to like watch the next episode. And like, those are like the little things, right? And it’s just a way to escape at the end of the day and laugh. And not always, because we haven’t watched all funny shows, but I also am feeling very entertained. The other thing too, that we’re doing in terms of looking forward to things as we are, making an effort to go into the city to pick up dinner on Saturday night, which has been really nice as well. Like we love to eat out, we go out all the time. And so that’s been kind of a really big change for us and we’ve been able to try some new restaurants, eat at some favorite restaurants, and that kind of outing is also something to look forward to. Like just to drive into the city and we’ve taken different routes and seeing different things and brought the kids. We pick up a meal and bring it home and we have something great to look forward to. So I think the thing that is giving me pleasure are really finding these little moments to look forward to.

Damianne: [00:33:46] Yeah, I really love that. That’s a great idea. Because I was talking to a friend and I was saying, usually I have a trip coming up. In fact, I had a bunch of trips coming up with some friends and I was really looking forward to them, and now that everything is on a standstill of like, I need to find something that I’m going to be excited about.

Lindsay: [00:34:03] Right now, our big thing in my house and my kids know, but they think it’s in June, but it’s actually next week is we are getting a dog.

Damianne: [00:34:11] Oh. I’ve seen a few friends who are also getting dogs.

Lindsay: [00:34:15] So we had a dog for 14 years and then we had to put him down about 18 months ago. And the opportunity presented itself about a month ago, and I said to my husband, it’s now or never. Yes, we have so much on our plates right now, but we’re home and we can train the dog and be here with the dog and we don’t have to worry about leaving it all day. And I said, I think that this is just a really good opportunity. And like, just actually yesterday and today, like now, a lot of the summer camps are being canceled and camp is a really big thing in my house. And so I think that having the dog here for the summer will hopefully help..

Damianne: [00:34:52] When we’re passed this pandemic and you’ll look back, what do you want to remember about this time?

Lindsay: [00:34:58] I want to remember the time with my family and I hope that my girls remember that too. I want to remember becoming closer. I want to remember the fun things that we did and watched. And when I say fun things we did, I mean like remember when we cook that recipe or remember when we made that project or, you know, remember when we got the dog and I want to remember doing things together. I mean, even tonight, my girls asked if they could have a sleep over with me. So they were like kicking my husband out of our bed and they said, only girls, no boys allowed. But you know, I want them to remember like, remember we had that sleepover and we watched the movies in your bed. And like, I want them to remember that too. I want them to look back on this time and, not – I don’t want them to remember me being nervous or freaking out. I haven’t really freaked out. I mean, there are times when I am nervous about things, but usually that happens at night after they go to bed and I’m watching the news and then I have to turn it off. But I really try not to show them or express that to them. And so I just want them to remember this as like a happy time and I do too.

Damianne: [00:36:06] I just finished the science of wellbeing course on Coursera, a few weeks back. And a lot of that is about how happiness is really about savoring the experiences that we have and it’s about how experiences contributes so much more to our happiness than things. And so this really is a precious time for building a lot of experiences and memories that can sustain us through many years. For a mom-preneur or a female entrepreneur who might be listening, what advice might you have for somebody who’s working on a business right now?

Lindsay: [00:36:46] I would say go for it. I do not think you need to dwell on things and get a plan to perfection, especially if it’s a business that doesn’t involve cost of goods. And I think if you are not manufacturing something. If you are manufacturing something that is a whole different ball game and that is actually not my ballgame, but if it is a service based business, go for it. I don’t think you need to have a set plan to a T in order to try it out. I would tell anyone who started a business to try things out, test different ways of doing things. You might be surprised, by how something works well that you didn’t think it was going to work well or something you thought was going to be a home run fails. And I think it’s okay to try different things. And I think you must, must, must listen to other peoples who you trust to their ideas and advice. I don’t think you necessarily have to do them, but I think that you should listen and welcome other people’s opinions because you never know what you might unearth. And I think, like I said earlier, don’t be shy to ask for help if you’re trying to pursue a business and trying to make something happen, but something else in your life is tying you down that you could potentially outsource or get help with, ask for it. I don’t think there’s any shame in it, in asking for help and or advice. And I think that that kind of spans all of those things that I just said. It’s okay to ask for help, to ask for advice, to hear new ideas, to try new things, but really at the end of the day, just go for it because it’s never going to be perfect. And if you don’t try it, you’re never going to know.

Damianne: [00:38:20] To finish up knowing that this podcast is about inspiring people and helping people deal with change to welcome change. Do you have any final advice for listeners?

Lindsay: [00:38:30] Yeah. You know, and I think that this is really important. This goes along with everything you’re all about, is you have to be flexible. I mean really and truly don’t set yourself up for disappointment by thinking that there’s one way and there’s an only way. We stress flexibility across so many different things, both at Bump Club and just in business, but amongst our community, for example, we are always telling you, our expected moms and our moms, you have to be flexible. You’re going to have a baby. You think you’re going to have it one way and things happen. So you have to be flexible. You bring home the child. You have to be flexible. You think you’re going to put the baby down from one to three every single day. But that doesn’t always work that way. And it’s the same thing with business and, it goes without saying in life, you have to be ready to embrace the unknown and to make changes. And I think, this situation, I mean, so I was telling someone recently, no one put a pandemic plan and their business plan, you know what I mean? Like no one was prepared for this. So I think that this is kind of like an, Oh my God, in terms of being flexible, but I just think that the people who are from a business perspective, who are going to come out of this successfully are the ones who are in right now and saying, okay, this is the situation, and instead of dwelling on it, what can I do differently to morph to it and be flexible? For me, right now, I’m working at weird hours because I’m going on Facebook lives all the time and I’m creating content. I think that you have to be flexible and adaptable to any situation in life in order to be happy and in order to come out on top.

Damianne: [00:40:20] Those are great words to finish up. Thank you so much for chatting with me today.

Lindsay: [00:40:24] Thank you so much.