Right now, the call to practice self-care and the allure of self-employment are playing out on our timelines. And it’s not a huge coincidence these two are happening at the same time: Those of us who are trying to become our own bosses by having a side-hustle along with our 9-5 need to make room for self-care to manage the craziness that comes with trying to do numerous full-time jobs in 24 hours. (That load gets even heavier when you’re a mom.)
Anthonia spoke to Erica Nichole Harris, freelance writer and creator of the 2014 Black Weblog Award winning personal blog EverythingENJ.com, and Kweli Wright, parenting editor at Madame Noire and creator of a forthcoming interior design project, about how they incorporate self-care into their busy schedules as writers, creators, and mothers, as well as got their thoughts on how they make their side hustles work. (You can follow them on social media @edotnichole and @KweliWright.)
What We Talked About
First Topic: Why Self-Care Matters For Us
“Self-care for me is listening to my body’s wants. Honing in [on] that and honoring that.” —Erica Nichole (Click to Tweet)
Doing self-care for our ancestors sake. Taking care of yourself wasn’t a focus when our mothers and grandmothers were coming up.
How the urge to document our self-care doesn’t allow for us to be fully present.
Why self-care becomes more important the older we get, and even more so when women become mothers.
It’s ok to say no to yourself and others to practice your own form of self-care, no matter what that looks like. (In Anthonia’s case, it’s self-care through reality TV.)
What happens to our world’s—both personally and professionally—when we don’t practice self-care
Second Topic: Do The Side Hustle!
The importance of consistency, according to Anthonia’s interview with the patron saint of boss blogging Luvvie Ajayi
How Erica and Kweli fit their side hustles into their 9-5 worlds
Anthonia tells her story of quitting her full-time job to work on mater mea full-time, and her return to freelancing to support herself
“It’s not sexy at all. It’s waking up at 4:30 in the morning to get things done before you go to your job.” —Kweli (Click to Tweet)
“Focus on the word: side hustle. You still have to hustle for yours.” —Erica (Click to Tweet)
Their advice to people who are considering doing a side hustle: “Is this your passion or are you passionate about leaving your job?” —Erica
How their 9-5s support their side hustles—and why companies should support their employees’ other endeavours.
The trend of everyone wanting to teach everyone how to brand and market their business. (P.S. The people Anthonia trusts when it comes to branding and monetizing your business advice: Marie Forleo, Mattie of Mattieologie, and Melyssa Griffin.)
“It just takes putting in the work; it’s not a quick fix, pop it in the microwave: You’re a brand!” —Kweli (Click to Tweet)
What does putting in the work for your side hustle look like?
What does being your own boss look mean for each woman?
“When I lay my head down at night, am I happy? And am I more than satisfied with what I’m doing? That’s being a boss to me.” —Erica
Our origin stories: Taking it back to the beginning of our side hustles to explain how we started our websites and found our whys
The challenges that come with starting your own business and how we handle the fear of doing our own thing
What’s the end goal of our side hustles?
Things That Gave Us Life
Erica: Having her son explain the process of life through a class project on hatching baby chicks. “It’s mind boggling to me but it’s beautiful to me at the same time as a parent to have my son tell me about the creation of life. I’m sitting here watching chicks, but it’s nothing like seeing him grow up and having conversations with him.”
Kweli: Visiting family in Texas with her mom and daughter. “It was great to get away and out of New York…”
Anthonia: Anthonia’s friends threw her an engagement party that became a teary “I love you” fest as everyone went around the room sharing what they loved about her, and she in turn shared what she loved about her friends. Then they all got drunk and danced to Lemonade.
The mater mea podcast is executive produced by Anthonia Akitunde, O. Valerie Nicolas, and Kimson Albert. Our associate producer is Isaro Carter and the podcast is edited by Ty Worell.
You can subscribe to mater mea’s podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please leave us a 5-star review and positive rating—it helps us reach a wider audience.
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