Work Hard Play Hard – The Schnooky Pie Story

I am so inspired by the amazing women I have met through Instagram, our friendships have extended beyond just chatting on social media. Their ability to be wives, moms, business woman and everything else in-between motivates me each day. Jaclyn Holmes is one of those moms that takes supermom to the next level, but it’s not always easy and we have to make hard decisions to keep ourselves whole and our family happy and healthy

Read Jaclyn’s journey on becoming a full time Mom Boss.

” When I first started working for a big corporate about 7 years ago, I had a one on one session with my director at the time. He said two things that have stuck with me ever since – although at the time – I didn’t realize just how much they would affect me until I had my daughter. One of the things that he said which really has shaped me today was “Work hard and play hard” – simple but when you actually are able to implement these words properly they are very effective.

When I started Schnooky Pie, I had a full time job in marketing for a big company in Durban – I am sure that you could guess as there aren’t many big corporates in Durban – but I worked at Unilever SA. I was struggling with being a first time mom, working 5 full and draining days a week, and running Schnooky Pie in the evenings, while driving my car, while eating or anytime I could really grab a few moments and I found that I had little to no time to myself.

Fast forward about a year, I had left my fulltime job. Schnooky Pie had started doing nicely and I was honestly not happy with working a full time job and the lack of time that I had with my daughter – even though Unilever were and are making good strides to be more flexible, the beast that is corporate meant that I still wasn’t happy.  I thought that now that I had more time to run my business and more time to be with my daughter that I would have more time for myself as well. This was not the case… I was actually now working even harder and because Schnooky Pie was not able to pay me a salary I had returned to Unilever on a contract basis working 3 days a week.

To be honest at one point I actually had a small melt down – my husband was working 6 days a week about  14 hours a day (and still is), we are busy building our own dream home (and still are) and I was trying to hold down a 3 days a week job, run a business, spend time with my daughter, find time for myself, find time with my husband and all the normal adult things that need to get done like taking and fetching Mia to school, grocery shopping, paying bills, making dinner, cleaning the house etc… it was this little break down and some honest chats with a few friends and my husband that made me remember what my director had said to me “Work hard and play hard”…

These words have never meant more to me than they do now. They are simple but they are something that I now think about on a daily basis. At one point I was trying to do too many things at once – like replying to emails at robots on my way to work or replying to comments or posts on social media while I was trying to make dinner and look after my daughter… it is simply just not healthy. Firstly I was never actually committed to anything properly and I wasn’t focused on what I was doing properly either. I then decided to make a choice – my choice was to work hard and play hard – to me this meant – when I am at work (be it at Unilever or in my office at home working on Schnooky Pie) – I am working and focusing on what I am doing in that moment… and when Mia is home from school I play hard. I give her my undivided attention and leave my cell phone in another room. I made lots of simple changes and I honestly have actually found that even though my work load has increased, I now have more time for Mia, more time for my husband and more time for me because I am not trying to do everything all at once. Work when it is time to work and play when it is time to play – do not always try to do them both all of the time. “

Happy 2nd Birthday Schnooky Pie!

Visit the Schnooky Pie website to learn more