By far the most common conversation we have with the folks we interview is about work-life balance. Starting a business or pursuing a creative career makes finding work life balance really tough because there is no clear start and end to one’s work day. We’ve shared some of our conversations on the topic below.

Elizabeth Mozer | Founder & CEO of LoCo Food Distribution

Work life balance may be an illusion when a family owns two businesses, so the way we deal with it at our house is to make our businesses a part of our lifestyle. For us, this means that all the things that need to be done for the children, house, spouse and businesses are combined and prioritized according to what needs to happen next. This means that personal stuff is sometimes done at work or during normal business hours and some work stuff is done after normal business hours. It also means that while LoCo Food Distribution is my responsibility and The Lyric is my husbands – sometimes we chip in on projects for the other company according to each person’s strengths. Regarding the work life balance for the members of my team at LoCo Food Distribution, we all recognize that the people we work with do in fact have lives outside of their work and so we are all able to support each other when someone needs to go handle personal matters. Read more>>

Kevin Bolser | Shop Owner & Motorcycle Mechanic

I’m really bad about this; but its getting better! Crazy hours, I learned, rarely equal productivity. For me it was all about finding a rhythm day to day. Once I could be more proactive than reactive, I was able to prioritize a little more clearly. From there my work/life balance & productivity improved dramatically. Win-win!. Read more>>

Tra Urban | Life Coach, Motivational Speaker, Indigenous Healer/Reader

My first 40 year were spent moving forward so quickly I was unable to enjoy or participate in the moment. After suffering paralysis my life quickly shifted to the complete opposite. After surviving the dark night of the soul, I perceived life in a new way. I realized that my emotional, mental and spiritual body were existing separately from my physical body. When I was able to gather my pieces so we all work in harmony I began Living My BEST Life!. Read more>>

Maura Kelpy | Graphic Designer

Balance is an interesting concept — there’s always a slight wiggle to maintain the balance. My goal is to work to live, not live to work, but it’s an ongoing process. I try to prioritize my health first and foremost (we only get one body in this lifetime!) and my personal relationships. After those two, I ride the wave of freelance and work hard when I need to and play hard when the opportunities arise. I also learned years ago that I had to set hours for my business and recognize what times of day I’m most productive. When I first started freelancing, I’d answer emails at all hours and days of the week. Now I focus on a typical work week schedule and put my laptop away over the weekend. When a large deadline is approaching, I’ll hunker down with bars of dark chocolate and do the work, no matter what it takes. But when the workload is lighter, I’ll make sure I spend extra time outside and doing other non work-related activities to help refuel for the next crunch time. Read more>>

Kris and Liese Chavez | Artists/Art Gallery Owners

As a word of warning to anyone wishing to open a small business: Don’t overwork yourself! Okay, that was 3 words. But I stick by them. During the first year Chavez Gallery was open to the public we were open 6 days a week and painted feverishly to have a new themed art show every month. It was a lot of work not just from the art production standpoint, but also from a marketing and customer service standpoint. We were making a profit but we were completely exhausted by the end of the first year. We could have easily called it quits as a brick-and-mortar gallery at that point due to burnout but instead we realized we weren’t stuck with the choices we had made. We reduced our days open to 5 and brought our art production to a more manageable level by doing 6 themed shows a year instead of 12. Read more>>