What Business School Taught Me About Parenting

While participating in Marie Forleo’s “B-school”, an 8-week program that teaches women (and a few men) how to structure, create, and grow their online business, over and over again I saw parallels between running a business and being a parent.

This was surprising at first, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense.

Isolation

B-school is an online program with ample support. But after it was over, I felt like I was kid standing alone, lost at Disney World, wondering where everyone went and what to do next.

Does that sound a bit like after you gave birth to your first baby? Perhaps you made sure you were as educated as possible. Maybe you went through childbirth classes and breastfeeding classes, read a ton of books, and watched hours of videos.

But as we moms know, nothing can prepare you for the actual real thing.

After all the well-wishers leave, it can be lonely standing there with your newborn, exhausted, sore, and possibly shell-shocked. This is the point when for many women isolation sets in, which is a large factor in post-partum depression.

It wasn’t meant to be this way. You’re meant to have a group of women supporting you physically and emotionally. There’s a good reason for the expression “it takes a village”.

I had signed up for B-school through Jenny Shih’s affiliate link, because I had coached with her in the past and she was offering several awesome bonuses.

As promised, Jenny’s bonuses turned out to be invaluable, because they helped me create that village for myself while I was first entering the business world.

Community

Jenny had several beneficial bonuses, but two that I loved the most were the exclusive private Facebook community and the group coaching calls.

Jenny’s Facebook community was particularly useful because while the B-school Facebook group is active and diverse, it’s huge. It was so helpful to have a smaller group of women I knew I would align with in terms of following Jenny’s building blocks for creating a business. I could escape the “noise” of the larger B-school group and find refuge in Jenny’s.

There’s plenty of noise in parenting as well. Everyone and their dog will voice an opinion about how you should be doing it. It’s critical to have a smaller group of women you can relate to and share your parenting challenges with. It’s critical to find your community.

This is why I hold a monthly event called SPA77.  It’s a Simple, Peaceful, Authentic night out for moms where they can truly be themselves, enjoy meaningful conversation, support each other, develop real friendships, and have fun – everything you want in a community.

Connection

Jenny’s group coaching calls were helpful not only to get answers to my questions, but to hear others’ questions and answers as well, because they almost always applied to me.

This reinforced the fact that, despite how frequently I felt it, I wasn’t alone. We aren’t the only ones having these business challenges and we aren’t the only ones facing these parenting challenges.

It’s so important to feel that connection with the larger collective of motherhood and not to allow yourself to feel like it’s only you who is struggling and become isolated as a result.

Having a place to go to get your questions answered on a regular basis helps you stay connected. I hold monthly calls that act as an open forum for moms to share their issues and get support.

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Thanks to Jenny I’m still enjoying the benefits of B-school. Jenny runs a private Facebook group and, even though we’ve completed all group coaching calls, occasionally she throws one in for good measure just because she’s cool like that.

My experience with B-school and Jenny’s bonuses taught me more than just business concepts. It reminded me how important it is to my parenting to form a community and maintain connection with other moms I can relate to.

If you’re thinking of signing up for B-school through Jenny’s affiliate program, I highly recommend it!