Episode 123: How to Master Your Maternity Leave with Alyson Caffrey
Hey Mamas!
In this episode we talk with Alyson Caffrey about how we can take control of our maternity leave and be more intentional about the time we take off from work. We specifically cover how she helps small business owners along this journey so that they can leave their company for a short period of time without having to shut down anything or feel guilty for leaving in the process. If you are not a business owner this is still a really great episode because you can apply what we talk about here to help structure how your maternity leave may look. from work or even how you will transition at home with a new baby if you’re a stay at home mom or have a side gig you’re working on.
Going through this process of preparing for maternity leave may actually make us realize that there is a lot that we can actually off load not only during this time but moving forward with our business. There is so much connection between how we run our business and how we structure our life and when we evaluate the systems that are in place we can streamline the process.
As moms and business owners our lifestyle looks different and inevitabily we have to take time away from our children. We need to keep in mind that the time we spend away from our kids should be moments that help move us forward and propel us into a more energized and fulfilled state.
In planing we need to set up boundaries for ourselves and for others during leave. In the episode we talk about assigning a direct point person so we’re not overwhelmed with email, text messages, and calls when we’re away.
Including our partner and support team outside of work can help ease the transition as well. It’s helpful to determine what our non-negotiable are and relay them to those around us. Figuring out what we need so we can show up has the ability to make the early weeks easier for all those involved! Maybe it is a shower, a snack, or a certain amount of sleep each night. Treat these tasks as if they are important meetings, don’t skip them.
Having self awareness and admitting that you don’t know what you want or need is okay too. We may not know exactly what will work but planning out our leave and how our business will function moving forward it a process. Alyson has a 4-phase approach to operationalizing the business to take leave and she is ready to help if you are planning a maternity leave as a business owner.
10 Postpartum Tasks - How Others Can Help
Postpartum University - Nutrition Plan
Connect more with Alyson Caffrey:
Website: mastermaternityleave.com
Instagram: mastermaternityleave
Facebook: Master Maternity Leave
LinkedIn: master maternity leave
Podcast: growing pains podcast
Ultimate Maternity Leave Checklist
Connect more with The Entering Motherhood Podcast:
Instagram: entering_motherhood and sarah_marie_bilger
Facebook: EnteringMotherhoodPodcast
Services: Birth and Postpartum Services
Email: enteringmotherhood@gmail.com
Official Affiliates of the Podcast:
Hypnobabies (MOTHERHOOD20 for 20% off)
Made for Mama Shop (ENTERINGMOTHERHOOD for 15% off)
More About Alyson:
Alyson Caffrey is the founder of Master Maternity Leave and the Master Maternity Leave Signature Course. She spent the last five years as a small business operations consultant in her company, Operations Agency, helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands. Since entering motherhood, her mission is to help small businesses and mompreneurs realize maternity leave as an opportunity, not a setback.
Before becoming a mom, Alyson had never taken more than a week off from her business- nor did she want to! However, she knew she had to change something in order to prepare to take some time off and augment her day-to-day to fit her new lifestyle when she returned to work post-baby. Shocked at the lack of structured information available regarding planning maternity leave for female business owners, she decided to lean in and document her experience prepping, executing, and returning from maternity leave - twice in seventeen months!
Alyson found that few small business owners had a plan of action for how they handled tasks, cross-training and shifting responsibilities for expecting parents. They shared that this led to parents returning to work with lots more on their plate than when they left, team members bothering them while out on leave with emails and meetings… and even early returns.
Alyson made Master Maternity Leave, a series of resources for mompreneurs (expecting moms running their own shop) and small businesses with expecting employees. Her goal is to use her skills as an operator to help centralize the company’s procedures and training and create overall transparency internally so that when someone goes out on leave, team members know how to shift and accommodate.
Alyson now runs Operations Agency, a bustling home with two young sons (Frank, 2 years and Jack, 8 months), and helps expecting entrepreneurs prep for this massive shift in life and business.
