Our community is filled with hard-working, high achieving entrepreneurs and creatives and so work-life balance is a complicated, but highly relevant topic. We’ve shared some responses from the community about work life balance and how their views have evolved over time below.

Brett Seidl | Owner and Principal Designer, Brett Nicole Interiors

Work-life balance … the ever present struggle! After being a small business owner for over 5 years (and also a mom of a 2 and 5 year old), to be honest, I don’t believe there’s such a thing as work-life balance. It all ebbs and flows. I have my priorities and have to keep myself in check, almost daily, on whether what I say are priorities are, in fact, being treated like priorities. There are busy seasons in my business where I’m working crazy long hours and I just have to buckle down and crank through. And, unfortunately, my family time takes a hit during those seasons. The important part is knowing and disciplining myself that the work overload needs to be just that – seasonal. My family is my priority, so I have to put things in place to swing the balance of my time when I’ve been working too much for too long. Read more>>

Jonathan Schubert | Graphic Designer / Illustrator, & Branding Consultant

The balance between my work / life has improved ever since I began working completely for myself – and ironically so did my earnings. This result wasn’t what I expected when I made the leap back in 2017 but I believe it reflects a growing trend in my industry toward better quality of life and more appreciation of the worker vs. the big company owner. My work suffers when I’m burned out and/or haven’t had enough time away from it, as is the standard equation for most creative pursuits and their conductors. Contrast is key for me. The joy of what I do is found, first, in the inspiration to do it – and I can’t get excited about typography, brand storytelling, and authentic influences when I’m sitting at my desk all the time. The best human creation occurs when we are the most human. Read more>>

Meghan Jarrell | Owner & Experience Expert

I’ve more recently come to understand and support the notion that the “traditional” 9 am – 5 pm, Monday through Friday workweek is antiquated and not necessary. Accepting that, and moving away from that concept has brought ALL of the work life balance. I’m only four years into this business owning journey, and still learning things everyday, but this has truly been a game-changer. Being aware of your energy cycles and when you do my best work is key. If you aren’t a morning person, then don’t put pressure on yourself to get up early and make your brain do things! If you can get your work done in 2.5 hours, there is NO NEED to spread it over 8 hours just to say you worked a “full-day”. Read more>>

Colter Doty | Brokerage Owner & Investor

This is a topic I discuss many times with people who aspire to be entrepreneurs. One of the reasons I was so passionate about building my own company was the ability to own my time. As an employee or someone who is self-employed your time is always owned by either a boss or clients. If you build your own company you can put systems, & processes in place to free up your time. Once in place these things allow you to spend your time doing whatever you love most. That way you have a business that revolves around your life not a life that revolves. Read more>>

Jenna Thomas | Professional Makeup Artist & Licensed Esthetician

When I was first starting out I never said no to a client. I would work through lunch, stay late/come early do whatever was needed. I think that is necessary to some extent when you are building a business. But now that I am a mom and a bit more established I have created boundaries and more balance. I read something recently that said “you have to take time away from your business to grow your business” and it really resonated with me. When you work in your business it’s really hard to step away and do the other things needed to grow it; like education, social media, working on your brand and self care. I know it may sound funny to mention self care but in the beauty industry you have to practice what you preach! I now block off my books each week for an hour or two and plug back in to what I need to do. Read more>>

Cameron Sather | Musician & Video Producer

The first 2-3 years after taking my career seriously were a blur. I was working extremely long days and hardly taking any time off. I could see all the results of my actions compounding on each other and this helped motivate me to keep pushing at a crazy pace. I don’t think I really knew any balance at all to start, my work and life were basically meshed together. Eventually I started to notice myself burning out. I hadn’t been paying much attention to my health over those years and it started to catch up with me pretty quick. This last year has been a difficult lesson in pulling back a bit from what I love to give myself time to recharge. In a career that depends on being creative, you have to nurture that creativity and sometimes that means stepping away from a project for a little. I think about balance now as having a creative responsibility to my work that depends on the energy I get from taking time to myself. Read more>>

Dr. Frank Musmar | Faculty | Academic Researcher | Middle East Politics Expert | Best Selling Writer | Advisory Board Member

Work-life balance is the state of equally prioritizes the demands of career and the demands of life. The imbalance reason is poor time management; therefore, we cannot separate the terms of work-life balance from time management. The significant side effect of poor time management is stress, which will eventually affect the balance. My balance changed over time after I reached a balance without stress by prioritizing all my demands and setting a time frame to accomplish all the demands within the time frame (day, week, etc.). Read more>>