Transcript of The Second Chapter podcast - Season 7, Episode 10. Released 1.November.2022
[00:00:00] Kristin: Hello, and welcome to The Second Chapter. I'm your host, Kristin Duffy, and I'm here to remind you that it's never too late to start your next chapter and to share stories of interesting and insightful women who may just inspire you in your current chapter.
If you're enjoying The Second Chapter, please spread the word. Tell a friend to listen at the second chapter, podcast.com or wherever they'd like to listen to podcasts.
This week I'm speaking with Mia Moran. Mia is a mom of three and coach who has struck _her_ perfect balance between motherhood, wellness and work. Mia's second chapter wellness adventure began about 12 years ago during a health crisis when she understood the power food could have on her health, her connection with her kids and her productivity.
She now supports high-achieving female entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed with the 'life' and 'wellness' pieces find their version of balance. She's the host of the PlanSimple podcast, bestselling author of PlanSimple Meals and creator of the FLOW Planning Method, the FLOW Planner and FLOW 365.
[00:00:58] Mia: "I had done great, I had done great with my company. I had always wanted three kids. I was happily married, we had bought an apartment, I was like, Oh my God, I've arrived. And yet there was this quality of, But wait, I'm really exhausted and. If I really ask myself and dig deep, am I really happy? it all sort of came to head one day when I did notice seven cups of coffee on my desk and I was just kinda like, Wait, what's going on? "
[00:01:26] Kristin: Hi Mia. Thank you for joining me on The Second Chapter podcast. How are you?
[00:01:30] Mia: I am so good. Thank you so much for having me here this morning.
[00:01:34] Kristin: Oh, I love hearing. I'm so good. And actually it's afternoon for me, so it sounds nice. I would love the extra few hours in my day,
[00:01:40] Mia: Yes it is definitely. Morning here. It's funny though cuz last night I was on a interview at night and I was just a little bit tired and the person who was interviewing was in Australia and it was like her next day morning. So it's so funny how we really are like a global community,
[00:01:56] Kristin: I really love it. It is interesting always for me to talk to someone back in the States as well because I feel like. I don't know, It's like a little touch of home. But then a lot of times people are like, when I, they start talking to me, they're like, Wait a minute, I'm so confused cuz you're giving me London Times and you're opening up your American accent mouth.
[00:02:13] Mia: Yes. So that's where you are. You're in London.
[00:02:14] Kristin: Yeah. In London. So on the second chapter, we always talk about life and career changes and I'd love to know a little bit about your first career, cuz I know you were a graphic designer, so how did you get into that to begin?
[00:02:27] Mia: Yeah, so it goes back far . So I think my dad was an artist and I always loved, like being in his presence, being in his studio, like I was always. Organizing things, doing things. And then I ended up in a very mainstream educational situation, that told me I was supposed to do a certain set of things.
So I did them cuz I was just going with the rules and I was a rule abider and so I ended up at a very traditional high school, which led me to an amazing university in the us. I went to Georgetown first and it was at that point where I just was literally like miserable.
So I left sophomore year. And I took some time off and I ended up applying to art school. And so for some reason at that point I was like like I have to, I still have to be a practical artist, . So that's sort of why I chose graphic to sign.
[00:03:22] Kristin: It's so weird that you say this. This is taking me down such a weird memory lane because first of all, my dad was a graphic designer though back in his day it was called advertising art I think it was probably a bit more creative maybe in the sense that I remember going to his office.
But having the experience that you had with your dad as an artist where everybody had like markers and watercolors and these big desks and it was like this smell of that office alone. If I smelled that smell, I would be right back to being a kid in that office
because of the, and.
And when I, I actually was a fashion designer. But part of that for me was I need a practical artistic career because I wasn't the creative genius that I saw my dad to be. And because I was so concerned about, Oh, I can't be like kooky and not make money.
I was a rule abider too, I guess is my point.
[00:04:11] Mia: Yeah. Yeah. So even though I did that, like for practical reasons also I loved it. So the second I got to art school, so I was like a really quiet student because I hated school and I like made it by, I'm not sure how, but I barely did it Georgetown, but I made it by the whole way, in a way that got me to Georgetown.
And then, When I got to risky, I was like, Oh my God, like I have something to say. Like I don't think I really felt like I had anything valuable to offer the world until I landed there. So that was an amazing feeling.
[00:04:44] Kristin: Say to anybody listening who doesn't know that RTI is an amazing design school as well, so kudos on that.
[00:04:50] Mia: So I did that and then, so then I'm trained as a designer, so I got a job right out of school, and I'm telling you that part because it was interesting, like I worked for a [00:05:00] small firm that just had. A few people, and they were all much older than me, so I wasn't having the normal experience that one has after college where you meet all these people or whatever.
I stayed there for. A little over a year because they put me on projects right away that like none of my friends were on because it was a small firm and at the time, this is gonna date me. At the time, like big magazines, like a lot of places didn't have websites, like websites were just becoming a thing.
That people needed. And because I was young, I was really excited to figure that out. So I took that as far as I could, mentoring myself and with a husband who's very techy. We would stay up all night and make these websites. And then I decided to go to a big firm to learn about websites, and I lasted there for about six months.
And then I just really honored the fact that I'm an entrepreneur, , I opened my own design firm. So I tell you that part because really I've always been an entrepreneur and that's an important part of my story and one of the reasons that You know, one of the big changes that doesn't, I don't think gets talked about a lot is when entrepreneurs change their mind about what they're doing.
So I, you hear so many times the story of like corporate to entrepreneur, but I think there's. Entrepreneurs can change what they're doing too. They can change their whole company and what they're doing and how they're making their money. And so I ended up doing that eventually because now I am not a designer, though design is an important part of our company.
But I'm definitely a life coach.
[00:06:25] Kristin: I think it's really interesting though that. You hear a lot, and this is because of the male filter or because so much is still focused on men. Cuz you hear about, I can't even think what they're really technically called, but about entrepreneurs who start startup people. They're like, I start it, I sell it, I start it, I sell it.
[00:06:42] Mia: Yes.
[00:06:43] Kristin: And I don't know, maybe I'm stereotyping. But I don't feel like that's what most women do. We can change our minds, but we do still feel like there's something about a company we set up that's it's our baby. So you can change what you wanna do within a company, but it's not such a hot sell.
Let's start it. Let's change it. Let's sell it on let's do, am I just talking shit or is that actually something
[00:07:07] Mia: think that's true. And technically those people, what they are is an entrepreneur or a company maker, and it doesn't matter what they're doing as much or that is their role, whereas, Whereas I think a lot of times women are more accidental entrepreneurs because we are so passionate about something and it's the way that we can bring that passion into the world.
[00:07:31] Kristin: I know your design career as an entrepreneur was successful, but it got to the point that you needed to change. You looked at your desk, I think I read seven cups of coffee.
[00:07:39] Mia: Yes. So it was three kids later. So my design company was amazing while I had three kids, cuz somehow, I don't know, it was just a great model for that. And it was a moment when my kids were all under five. So I had three kids under five. It was a busy moment and I just had this epiphany one day.
I had done great, Like I had done great with my company. I had always wanted three kids. I was happily married, I am happily married. We had bought an apartment, I was like, Oh my God, like I've arrived. And yet there was this like quality of, But wait, I'm really exhausted and. If I really ask myself and dig deep, am I really happy? And it all sort of came to head one day when I did notice seven cups of coffee on my desk and I was just kinda like, Wait, what's going on? I thought that cafe was supposed to give you a lot of energy and.
And also how have I been to Starbucks? It was only like 2:30 PM So like, how have I been to Starbucks this many times since I've arrived at work today? What's that say about how I'm spending my time?
[00:08:46] Kristin: Have I made enough money today to pay for all this Starbucks?
[00:08:50] Mia: know and the barista seems to be more important than my team at work. What's happening? So yeah. So it was just this moment where I was like, okay, like something has to shift. But it wasn't necessarily clear to me right away what that even looked like, cuz as far as I had considered, From the life that I was gathering I should have from television and magazines and, my own conditioning growing up, I had that, like I was on track for that.
So it didn't quite make sense to me that something was out of alignment. And so it took me a minute to take that in, but I just started to take one step at a time. And it led me to food
[00:09:32] Kristin: I think it's interesting too that rule abider sometimes as a fellow rule abider, you need a change, but to do it without a really specific plan or to even admit that maybe something you always thought you would do isn't maybe the right thing.
[00:09:47] Mia: Yeah. And at that point I didn't really have The vision, the vision was false metrics cause I was looking to the outside to that point, , the, all the things that I had. But I didn't quite, I hadn't quite [00:10:00] understood yet what I wanted. Like I, I couldn't see what I wanted yet.
I just understood that where I was wasn't quite it.
[00:10:07] Kristin: And what happened with food that made you say, Okay, this.
[00:10:10] Mia: So the most tangible thing that I could put my fingers on in that moment. Was my health. So I had three kids and I wasn't unhappy in my body actually for the first time ever. It really felt purposeful that I had been able to be pregnant and nurse children and all these things. And I was 65 pounds more than I had ever been before.
And so I was like maybe that's what's out of alignment. So I was like, Okay, how can I take care of my body? And the first thing I did, up until that moment, my work head thought Okay, I'm at work doing billable time, or I'm at home relieving the babysitter. So like work life balance was about being a mom or being at work.
There wasn't anything for me necessarily in that moment. Is par for course maybe with little kids in the us. Other countries do it a little bit better, but on that day I was like, You know what? The babysitter can stay for two more hours. It's an expensive yoga class, but I'm going. So I went to yoga and I.
I'm an introvert and a people pleaser in all the things that we've already discussed. So it's not necessarily in my nature to go introduce myself to somebody like in a class, but I loved the teacher. So afterwards I went up and I was like, Oh my God, that was amazing. I'm so relaxed. And I think I told her like the whole saga, the coffee cups, and she was like, I know what you need to do.
Like you just need to change the way. Come to my house tomorrow. And also I need a website . So it was like this whole thing, like I, I must have told her my whole life story cuz the next day I was like making her a website and learning about food. So I just, Kept taking one step. So her, what was interesting about her is she had this very firm way of how one should eat, which isn't what I would share with everybody right now, but it made a lot of sense for me then.
but she wasn't a cook She just had these six recipes for me, and I wasn't a cook. I was married to a cook. But because I was the one in charge of the kids' meals, like things had gotten way outta control by this point in terms of what we were eating. And so it was really simple in the fact that I didn't really have to do much, learn much.
I just had to stick to this plan. And so I did it. And because of what I was eliminating and taking out and adding in and infusing nutrients into my system. Within a week, like I was off medicine, I was taking every day. My hormones rebalanced and things hadn't been working in that department either. I was also taking medicine.
I, I haven't taken medicine since, so that was 13 years ago. So it shifted all that though in like a week, I literally had these, would have these like huge puffy eyes every day. And I would take whatever the over-the-counter allergy medicine was so that like I wasn't crying when I had client meetings, and all that just it just melted away and I had so much energy and sometimes I describe, it was like I had gone to 10 years of therapy in a week.
So I, I kept going with that because it was, The only way that I could make it doable was to keep doing the same thing every day. And I think I did it for three or four months. Like I just ate the same things. I did not even look at what my kids reading yet. Like I just really stayed focused. I still had to go to work, like all the different things.
And then I got sick of it.
[00:13:29] Kristin: I was thinking I would probably get to the point that I'm like, Okay, that is enough of that
[00:13:34] Mia: So then I googled, like cook, like how do I cook this way? So I, I was, it was basically like gluten free and dairy free, and I was eating highly vegan. And so I googled Does anyone teach how to do this? And literally, this cooking class came up at a woman's house like a mile away from me
On, it was like a Thursday and it was on Saturday and it happens to be the last class she ever taught.
So I was like, Okay, cool. So I went there and that's where I really learned sort. The basics. Like it took away all my stress around what would happen if I opened a recipe book cuz I like, that just wasn't even in my repertoire. So it really ended up being the foundation for what I was able to then create, which then enabled me to bring it into my kids and really focus on what we ate together and all the different things.
So it was just literally one thing after another and me staying focused on that one thing. And really noticing how it only positively affected all the other things. It wasn't, I didn't feel like I was sacrificing anything. I just felt like I kept adding these amazing things in.
And eventually people in my company were like, What are you doing? What are you doing all day? Because then I started to get passionate about the fact that There was nothing good on the internet that, like there, Pinterest didn't exist yet. Instagram didn't exist yet, and I was like, why are there all these gross photos of this kind of food?
And you know, Martha Stewart puts out these [00:15:00] amazing photos, but that's doesn't match up with the food that I wanna eat. So I started taking photography classes and trying to take better pictures of food and I started interviewing people, like before I. Way before I had a podcast, I started interviewing people and writing articles just like about the food and what it was.
And I created a magazine and Just like literally is the most expensive hobby ever. While I had a design company, . Um, And then at some point, like there was just a tipping point where I was like, Okay, I guess I'm changing, I guess I'm doing something different now. What does this look like? And, you know, so it was a little, that was a little awkward, but a few things came together at the same time and I was like, Okay I can do this.
[00:15:41] Kristin: Yeah, so there is that moment where it's I've spent more time on this magazine or talking about food or.
[00:15:48] Mia: Yes.
[00:15:48] Kristin: Interesting. So is the first thing that happened after that, when you made a decision, did you write the book or was it like the magazine was going? How did that, what was
the
order of all that?
[00:15:58] Mia: so no. So there was time. So I started this magazine. I started talking to all these people when I was talking to the people at the time, I don't know, I don't really remember what came. Like in my Google searches, but the people who answered me basically were what one might call food gurus at the time.
And they were all older men. They had families. But they would tell me amazing things about the food and then I would translate them and I would always say Martha Stewart asked them in, for the magazine. And then, I would keep asking 'em questions and everyone kept sharing how their kids didn't eat well.
And I was just like, What? how can you share this information and not have your kids eat well? Meanwhile I hadn't started that yet either. So that got me into like then questioning parenting people and asking them like what's the secret? Like, how do you get your kids to eat good food. how do you get them to listen and wanna do things like that? So that's where I actually started really understanding about coaching was actually through the parenting side instead of the food side. And so the magazine became about both things. It became about family and it became about food.
And I was really at that point really practicing. Feeding my family well and doing all these things. So it was like, it was like a merge of everything before I could share all this on Instagram cause it didn't exist. And then at the same time I had let go of my office. So I decided the first step was I could still be a designer, but I didn't need 10 people.
And that was energetically at the time, managing, like I wasn't designing anymore. I was just managing and writing proposals. So what we did, The tech people stayed and they became their own company. And the designers, I gave them some of the clients just to have, and they started, they all had an entrepreneurial like thing, so they all really wanted to do their own thing.
And then I kept my favorite three clients and just, Started working from home, which at that point had moved away. My office had been genius when we lived two blocks away and I had little kids cuz I could see my kids all day and I could nurse and I could do all the things. But once we had moved away, I was like, I don't need to commute right now.
So I had made that change.
[00:18:02] Kristin: And that's pretty early, as far as working from home, it's not, now it sounds like, Oh, working from home, but at
[00:18:09] Mia: was a
big deal. Talk about men and women. Here's a story for you. So we became like the firm who could do a lot of websites, cuz still at this time, even though more and more people had websites, like not every old school designer could handle websites. Like now. Now I think they can, but at the time they couldn't.
And so we were partnering with a lot of the bigger. In a design school kind of way, fa, famous firms and. One of the people, one of the guys who I partnered with was written up in the Boston Globe, which is one of the US' major papers. It was like on the front page of the lifestyle section about how he transformed a brownstone into a design studio so he could be with his family.
And meanwhile, like I was like schlepping, making this office I felt if anyone saw that my family was anywhere in sight, which they were because like it was important to me that they came to visit me, but then I would shoe them out for client. Me, like working from home wasn't even part , that was not okay.
I did not feel as a woman. And yet it was cool. For this guy. So I was like, What is happening? And in some level, I guess that got me pissed off enough that it gave me some permission to like just own it. But it was definitely a different
[00:19:20] Kristin: but even, even now, I do feel like it's if the men stays home to parent, the husband stays home to parent, it's Oh, it's so great. You know that he's doing that. Nobody questions a woman doing that. Or if it's. A woman goes off on a, woman's weekend or a holiday or something, who's gonna take care of the kids?
You still hear that and
[00:19:41] Mia: I know, which
[00:19:42] Kristin: really
so
[00:19:44] Mia: No one. Oh yeah. A dad is not taking care of the kids like they're his kids.
[00:19:48] Kristin: Yeah, exactly. It's not a special thing. It should just be life.
[00:19:52] Mia: a thing, but it is, and we still talk about it, like a special thing, and women do it. So yeah. So that was an interesting inflection point. But basically at that [00:20:00] point I was a designer, so I made a lot of books for a lot of people, and so I, I definitely had this idea, like I had always had this idea that I wanted a book.
Before that, I didn't really know what it was. Now at that point, I was like, Ooh, I know what it could be about. And it wasn't at all what I thought. So I, I feel like I knew that there was a book, but I wasn't actively doing it and I didn't understand how to pull it off.
And I hadn't, I wasn't a writer. So in to do this magazine again, it was pre podcast. So what I would do is I would interview people using Google Voice and we would get it transcribed, but like by a transcriber, which was a ridiculous amount of money.
[00:20:41] Kristin: Yes, Because transcribing is a pain we can all say with podcasts.
[00:20:45] Mia: Yeah. And the reason that it became such an expensive hobby is that I hired someone to write the articles. Because I had associated at that point with being the designer and the designer didn't write I had always hired writers, and I'm a little bit dyslexic, so I just hadn't stepped into that at all.
I was doing stuff more actively. Like I was in both fields. I was both a designer and I was actively seeking out, I was getting certified to be a coach I was taking action over here. I was still doing the expensive hobby of making the magazine, but I was getting clearer about that.
I needed an audience. Like all those things were happening simultaneously. But the bug of the book was getting Stronger and stronger. And then, so probably two or three years passed at that point with this bug of wanting to write a book. And then one Thanksgiving weekend I decided to take my kids skating and I stepped out on the ice skating rink and a another little kid ran into me and I shattered my wrist and my right wrist.
And so I ended up in this huge Cast and like I couldn't move my fingers and I had to get surgery and I was really out and in being out and on the couch, like the bug of the book came in so strong and I was just like, I can't wait for a publisher. Like I, I can't even explain what happened, but I just was like, I need a book like in five months and mean.
I literally couldn't type emails to my list at that point. At that point, my business had gotten a little bit more businessy and I was selling meal plans to people. So like I was making meal plans, I was working with people, I was getting clear about what it is that they, how they were feeding their family.
I was coaching people on that, and all of a sudden this like ad or this email came, I don't even remember how it was, but it was definitely an ad came into my awareness about this guy who. Self-published books and helped you write your book. So that, and you could speak it like you would speak it and he would help you write it.
And I was like, Oh my God, that's perfect.
[00:22:48] Kristin: can't move my hand. I might. And my wrist. And my arm. I
[00:22:51] Mia: I know. So I was like, That is perfect. So I inquired. It was way more money than I had and I was like, Shoot, But I know that's it. So one thing led to another and I basically launched a Kickstarter and raised a lot more than the amount of money for him.
So like I really validated that this book was needed was able to pay him, made the book. And that was in November and the book was out by June.
[00:23:14] Kristin: I love that too. Cause it's like I want it in five months. Okay. Maybe seven, but still
[00:23:19] Mia: Yeah. It wasn't the three years, the publisher was like, I was like, Wait, what? Like you get the deal and then you take two years to write it. I was like, This feels more urgent. Like I was just, it was feeling really urgent.
[00:23:30] Kristin: We were saying about changing paths and how, I don't even know how I wanna say this, just that figuring it out, but then once you figured it out, the urgency was so strong it had to happen right then.
[00:23:42] Mia: Yep.
[00:23:44] Kristin: I'm approached by a lot of life coaches to come on the podcast and I don't wanna sell. Like, Here's how you change your life. But I feel like you've approached it from such an interesting and different way, which is why I was so interested to talk to you to begin with because it is about, it came from.
But what it's turned into is this whole planned simple method about how to just plan life a little bit better, a little bit easier. Can you don't know, just walk me through planned simple a little.
[00:24:09] Mia: Yeah. Yeah. So first of all, so Plan Simple did come from the book and the, and what ended up being the book tour. So the next crazy move that I made was I took my three kids out of school for a year and we went on a book tour. And so we met like thousands of women and we went on TV and blah, blah, blah.
All the things. It was fun um, and a lot of work and a little bit crazy, but it was a lot of fun. . But one of the, for some reason in my mind I was like, We're gonna. On the West coast. So like we, we be lined it across, We did some talks in Colorado, but we basically be lined it across to California, which of course anyone who's listening, who's in California it's like green smoothies and like all the things that I do end up talking about in my book, they're not really a big deal in California because they've existed there for far longer than they existed in my world.
[00:24:54] Kristin: Yes.
vegetarian sandwich was
nothing new. It was like called the California
sandwich. Growing up
[00:24:59] Mia: Exactly. [00:25:00] But I didn't quite get that. But I land in these rooms of hundreds of women anyway, and I was just, I just remember looking out one day and being like, These people just look like they know more about food than I do. Like I'm just sitting there on stage and I'm like, Why are they here?
And so then I just started getting really curious and going off of the not exactly following my own script. And what I realized is that yes, they knew where their farmer's markets were. They liked to go to them, they knew what to eat. There was a lot that they knew, maybe even more than I knew. At the time, and yet they weren't doing it.
And so we started just taking out phones and being like why? And it was just like all of a sudden it was so obvious to me that we have these work lives and they end up in our phone and are in our calendars, and then we have kids and they end up like on. Printouts on the refrigerator and the meal plan on the chalkboard in your kitchen.
And then any semblance of taking care of ourselves. Like pretty much that was all in our heads. So it was like these silos that didn't, literally didn't go together in time. And so that really got me thinking, Okay How did I change my food? How did I write this book? How did I take these kids on a road trip for a year?
All which everyone was telling me seemed like impossible things. But in all three of those situations, I was the most at ease I think I had ever been. And so I was like, What is that? Why did that happen? So I really broke that down and got to understand it, and that became, The FLOW planning method, which is really about understanding your food and wellness, and that's the f and your lifestyle, which is, home, family, travel, whatever makes up lifestyle for you.
The O is O, which is spirituality, self care, downtime, and work, and how to really think about all of those things together holistically, because they all influence the other things and. We compartmentalize them. And when we compartmentalize them, it's way harder to find that feeling of balance.
[00:27:03] Kristin: Yeah, I feel like I can really relate to that because I'm a freelancer. I do several different, I don't have kids, but I have several d. Career strands, if you will. I'm a fitness coach, I'm an actor. I do the podcast. I do a production company for, theater. And for me it's sort of like, how do all those fit together?
Because even though I do a tria, I'm a triathlon coach, for example, I might have a day where I'm like, Oh, the podcast, I got a lot done today. And it was amazing. But I didn't find time to work out
[00:27:33] Mia: right.
[00:27:33] Kristin: and when I've heard you speak, speak to other people or speak on your podcast about getting these things all together despite not having children, I'm always, it is so difficult to find that balance of like, how do all the strands fit together?
When can, when you finish your day, how do you make every single part of it feel like it is holistically complete? Good
[00:27:56] Mia: Yes. So I think one of the things that I know that for me, and I know with a lot of clients that I work with happens. Just because we're like in charge of so many things and we're taking in so much input from the outside world, that's a lot of things that we end up having to do on a daily basis.
Right? And so in a lot of people's head planning is about putting that, the Jenga puzzle of all of that together into a day. But I. What we're missing in that is that piece of like me knowing that I needed to get healthy, me feeling so strongly that I needed to make this book. Like we all have those things.
We have these knowings that it's like, gosh, this week, even though I'm supposed to do this, I'm supposed to do that. I really need to focus on. This person or this piece of work or whate like we all have that, or, I'm in this, I'm right now in this odd phase of perimenopause and some days I'm like, I'm really fricking tired and I know that I'm doing all the things right.
So sometimes it's just listening. I need more rest. Yes, maybe I have time in my calendar to move my body, but maybe today I'm not supposed to, I don't know, go to CrossFit and I'm supposed to go to yoga you know what I mean? And so really listening to the season that we're in, and that can be of the hour of the week, of the month.
But very often I think we ignore those signals, those inner signals that we're getting that are there to focus us. And when we focus on other things instead what happens is we end up distracted. And so it's really in listening to those things that we can be more focused on all the things in my experience.
[00:29:44] Kristin: I think that makes sense and especially, I mean because I am talking to women all the time for the podcast and because of the theme of the podcast being changes over 35, I do talk to a lot of women that are perimenopausal or menopausal and it is interesting, even before that, [00:30:00] we know that our bodies work on cycles, but we have such a hard time actually listening to that.
And because we live in this world that hasn't taught us that's okay. It's really difficult sometimes to say, You know what? Whether it's intuition, whether it's where I am in my cycle, this is what I can accomplish, this is where I should be working. This is the part of me that needs nurturing. So it is interesting to think about that all together.
Which also brings me to your planner because I love a good planner and I was on the website looking at the flow planner and I just wanna read what it says, cuz I think it's amazing. The first planner actually made for women to create balance while focusing on what matters most, including wellness, family, and work.
Ever wonder why regular planners haven't really worked for. That's because they were originally designed in the 17 hundreds for white men returning from war. That is amazing to me. I was like, oh, because I love a to-do list. I love graph paper cause I love like gritting things down and, But I do feel like there's something so interesting about oh yeah, how do we take those silos and here's a planner that actually promotes.
[00:31:15] Mia: Yeah. And it's true actually. So I was just, going down this track one day of, what's the story of the planner? And I saw the picture of this one, from that some printer made. It was like an advertising situation.
That was the first planner because before we were thinking about the future, it was more like we, It's interesting because actually the way before was a little bit more feminine. It was more we were going by the almanac and we were listening to the earth, and the Earth was telling us, what was possible and it was less about what we thought was possible because we were being born into you.
The family that we were gonna be part of, we were born into the career we were gonna take on. There was like a lot less choice before a planner got made, right? So then all of a sudden we started thinking outward or men started thinking outward cuz women got pigeonholed for many hundreds more years after that.
, but literally the planner that got made, like for this a, advertisement for a hardware company, I think it was, it's not that different than the flowery one at Target that we buy. That says it's for women. Like not that much change, it's just, it's a calendar, but it's not very guided in terms of what we might put on the lines.
[00:32:23] Kristin: Right. Somebody put a flower on it And said, Oh, it's for women now
[00:32:27] Mia: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I was like, this is so weird. We like, this has got, we've got to shift this paradigm
[00:32:34] Kristin: Everybody has to go on the website and look at the flow planner cuz I think it's so cool. I'm ready to order mine cuz I was like, I need the flow planner
[00:32:41] Mia: And one of the reasons that it is different is because it's less about, like a lot of people come into my world and are like, but I'm just like not a planner. And believe me I've told this whole story on here that I like, I'm a creative person, like I'm not naturally a super organized, structured person.
That is not my like natural mo. The planner is it's like. Flow stands for all those topics that I told you about, but it also is about flowing forward and just remembering and just recommitting to what you decided you wanted. And so we don't need to create these like, planning.
It's weird, like I feel like we need, sometimes I'm like, I need a new word because planning comes with so many, preconceptions in people's heads. But it's not about gritting out your life and putting everything in a certain hour, even though actually in the flow planner there is a place every day to put things in hours.
But it's really about making these choices. I'm gonna write a book, or I'm gonna get healthy, or whatever it is for you and. Flowing those forward into your life and recommitting to them on regular increments and really understanding what it means to recommit to them in those regular increments, which as women can change.
So it's about having space to tune into your intuition, tuning into your intuition, and then figuring out how that plays out in time and constantly like circling around that process. You know what goes there. And so it's interesting, like the process is a lot more fluid than I think what a lot of people think of as planning.
[00:34:12] Kristin: So I got really excited about the planner, but then obviously you are coaching people. Them through this as well. So how does the rest of the company work?
[00:34:22] Mia: Yeah. So while the planner does come with a course, just fyi, so when you order the planner, you do get a course of like how to maybe think a little bit differently so that you can fill in the pages in a way that might be different than you would if weren't thinking that way. But, so the rest of the company is really about accountability.
So what I found was in all these different places where I was making changes and noticing this in clients too, it's as a person, we have to decide, right? Like you, you probably couldn't convince me today that I could run a triathlon, but in. Four weeks. If I'm like, Oh my God, I really wanna do that, then I would know to come to you.
But we have to make the [00:35:00] initial choice, I think, for the change that we want. That has to come from us. And I find it's most successful when it literally comes from the inside, not because I see some Instagram post and I'm like, Oh, she's doing that. I should run a triathlon, or whatever
it is
[00:35:13] Kristin: so true. Yes,
[00:35:15] Mia: but the thing that then, you know, just because of the way that all the things we've been talking about how women navigate, like it's not our natural. Way to do things alone. Our natural way when we're left to our own devices is to get come together in community. Like communities of women have been doing amazing things, taking care of children even for forever, right?
But in our modern western society. Somehow we decided we needed to take on everything on our own. And I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that's actually fighting our nature. And which I'm sure you notice too because you're coaching people, you know how to do something that probably a lot of people try to do on their own as well,
[00:35:59] Kristin: And to be fair, I was very successful as a triathlete. Successful as being my hobby. But I loved it so much when I was part of a club that I was training with
and it was all about, it was all about the social thing. I just happened to be swimming, cycling, and running as part of it, and now I coach.
And what I love about it is the bringing people together. Triathlon is just the byproduct of me liking to get together with
[00:36:25] Mia: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's the thing I think that is the feminine nature. It's not doing it alone. That's actually a very masculine tendency is to wanna figure it out alone. So what we do in our company, which was the initial question, was we are the company.
We keep people company. So in the planning process. We create the space for people to come in and create their goals. We do that in the way of retreats that help you set 90 day goals. So we help people set 90 day goals and then every week people are showing up to declare what they're doing that week.
We have co-working sessions so that like you're not even alone cleaning out your closet or writing a hard email for work . You come in and you're like, This is what I'm doing for the next 90 minutes, and you don't have to talk to anybody, but you see that everyone's doing their thing and there's just comfort in that.
And then every Friday we acknowledge who we've become. In leaning into all the things. For the past week, we acknowledged like, How we're in a new place and then we plan for the next week from that new place. So it's really all about bringing consciousness to I can listen to my intuition.
I can take action from that place, which I just wanna be clear about action cuz it's not all doing, sometimes it's more about being in a new energy, right? So I, that's a, that's another is whole issue that we deal with as women. And then practicing all week long and then making a plan again.
So it's really about leaning into this. And our programs do run for a year. Every once in a while we open them for 90 days. I think that's the other thing we do as women is and advertising has done to us, is that we think everything should be fast and something's wrong with us if we can't do it fast and nothing is wrong with us.
Nothing is wrong with you, Nothing is wrong with anyone listening like it just. In order to make something really stick, we have to understand how it sticks in all the different times of year and all the different seasons and all the different circumstances. And I just believe that over the course of a year, where like, All right, when a spouse is sick, this is how I eat healthy.
When I'm working hard, this is how I eat healthy. When it's the holiday season, this is how I eat healthy, right? There's all these different circumstances and to really embrace. Eating healthy or being an entrepreneur or learning how to run a triathlon, we need to understand what that looks like in all the different circumstances,
[00:38:48] Kristin: Yeah, cuz it's really easy if you end up with a perfect month or a perfect even 90 day where it's like, Oh, okay, I've got somebody supporting me. Nothing has, no catastrophe has befallen, but over the course of the year, like you said, whether it's seasonal, whether it's just, speaking from, the perspective of you talking to parents if their kids are starting school or going away to college, or obviously there's emotion, there's
[00:39:13] Mia: Yeah, we, we forget all that. Yeah. We forget all those things that come in and then we're like, What's wrong with me? Like, why can't I do this thing? And it's cause you're sick or you're having your period, or you're worried about your kid or whatever. There's so many different things that come into play.
[00:39:30] Kristin: Exactly. That is a really interesting way to do it cuz I do feel like everybody's like, Come join my community. But it's not, I think you've really gotten to the root of why wanting to be part of community, especially as a woman, is so important to begin with.
[00:39:44] Mia: Yeah. And it's funny, I never say that because I'm not a commu, I'm such an introvert, like I'm not a community person. So that's not at all appealing to me. But it is really appealing to me that I would be supported in. In doing hard things, which seem to be something that come up for me a [00:40:00] lot,
I'm like, I really wanna do that thing and that thing. And it's never, I'm never picking the easy things.
[00:40:05] Kristin: Like I said, I never pick the things I just am like I wanna do everything.
Maybe I should learned to streamline the silos and then put the silos into
[00:40:14] Mia: Oh, I.
[00:40:17] Kristin: Well, As you know, I always ask people to bring a quote from me. Have you brought a quote from me?
[00:40:21] Mia: Yeah, . Let's say do less better,
[00:40:27] Kristin: I like do less better,
[00:40:29] Mia: Yeah,
[00:40:30] Kristin: but you just told me I don't have to put my stuff into less silos. So give me a little explanation behind that.
[00:40:35] Mia: So I think I think we just overcomplicate everything, right? So so to me, do less better, do less is not about, like less things, but it's, it sometimes can be about less complication less steps. It can be about, to me less is about all the noise, right? So many shiny objects, right?
I think less is our just own instinctual understanding of what is meant to be in our lives. Whether that's multiple companies, kids in work, if we have kids, they don't have to do all the activities, unless for some reason that's like our calling. But if we have kids, they don't do all the activities.
If we have a business, we don't have to do all the social medias. That's.
[00:41:19] Kristin: Yes, definitely. It's very refreshing to actually hear someone say that about kids not having to do all the activities as well, cuz I do feel like there's this weird pressure on parents
[00:41:28] Mia: that was my secret to success when my kids were younger.
[00:41:31] Kristin: Just you don't have to do everything.
[00:41:34] Mia: Yeah. And it's funny because actually it has to do around athletics. I don't know if you normally always end on the, quote, but I'm gonna tell you this anyway,
[00:41:41] Kristin: absolutely
[00:41:42] Mia: I feel like there's so much pressure in that whole like, little league thing. So first of all, as you ha now know me, I'm an artist, so like athletics were not my thing. And I married someone for whom athletics were not his thing. We both are active humans, but the whole team thing wasn't either of our experiences in high school
and college and but then you become a parent, it's like your child's two, they should go to soccer, your child's four.
And they're flexible. They should go to gymnastics. It's literally insane. And I, both, my husband and I, thank goodness we're on the same page, but we're just like, We don't wanna spend our weekends doing that. That doesn't even sound fun like we wanna be. . At that point I was like, I need to prioritize meals for the week.
I want a meal prep, I want to be with my kids. I wanna have a clean house. There's things that I wanna be flexible enough to take off for the weekend and not worry that I'm missing a soccer game for a two year old. So we pretty much said no for a very long time. And with my oldest, I have three.
So by the third, I think you let in things that maybe wouldn't. But the oldest that. That he really didn't do anything. And so when he was in eighth grade, he got really into fitness, like just, lifting weights and he just wanted to learn as much as he could. He did a whole, his whole eighth grade project on that.
And then he went to high school and he was like looking for what he wanted to do and he'd always loved the water. So he started rowing for crew and he's like an amazing. He spent all of high school, which at that point I didn't have to drive him everywhere. He spent all of high school like really leaning into this sport for four to five hours a day.
He had an amazing coach and now he's at college. He's rowing at college and he didn't have to do it when he was seven. , it all worked out. When he was younger and it definitely at certain moments, I was like, Are we totally messing up our kids chances of Anything of getting into school of life, like all these things.
And so a lot of my energy was focused on like, how can I just trust that what we're doing is right? I would put time into that instead of going to little League. And it I, yeah, who knows? Maybe he would've been a famous soccer player, but I feel really good about that choice and he is an athlete
[00:43:53] Kristin: And He did it when he was ready, which I think a lot of parents feel the pressure of, I need to put. Kid in something right away. So they're guaranteed success. And you know, I played the violin from a tiny age. I could, I was too young to actually have a real violin yet. We started, but it was I almost feel like in a certain way, it's put me in good stead cuz I've been a violinist my whole life.
I do use that for my acting sometimes . But I also feel like it became, At one point, a real chore for me and not what I wanted to do anymore. Whereas maybe if it was something that I come to on my own, I would've felt like it was my thing, which I do think is another kind of interesting thing.
But then also, parents should get to have a life, and like you said, spend time with their kids, not just shuttle them
[00:44:35] Mia: And each other and their homes. And the shuttling thing, like just don't do it anymore or see if it really sits in your heart as something that you wanna do. But if it doesn't give yourself permission to not do that.
[00:44:51] Kristin: I love it. You just instinctively despite it being a podcast and I'm, not even recording video. You look directly at the camera. do it[00:45:00] So just everyone get that picture in your head.
[00:45:03] Mia: Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes.
[00:45:06] Kristin: To answer your question, I don't always have to end on a quote, but I think that story was also really inspiring to, all of us who have things that we need to let go of and feel like, yeah, am I gonna be okay without that? Probably yes. And you will know intuitively when it's time to pick something back up or you know what to focus your energy on.
So,
[00:45:27] Mia: Awesome.
[00:45:28] Kristin: for that very much Mia
[00:45:29] Mia: Oh, you're
[00:45:30] Kristin: I'll make sure all the links for everything, the plan, simple website, et cetera, are in the show notes so people can find you. So people can see this amazing flow planner that I'm so into.
[00:45:42] Mia: It has 90 quotes in it cuz there's 90 days and there's a quote on every day,
[00:45:47] Kristin: All my listeners know. I love a quote. So I'm looking very forward to that. Thank you so much, Mia for joining.
[00:45:53] Mia: Oh, thank you for having me.