Christina: (00:01) You are listening to the Scaling of Freedom Podcast, and if you are an online coach or course creator, you are in the right place. I’m your host, Christina Bernhard. I’m an ads agency owner that gets an inside look every day on what’s working and what doesn’t. In the online coaching space. I’m here to share with you what we see works in our agency as well as what we see happening and changing in the industry. Stay tuned to up-level your coaching business to have the freedom you want. Let’s get started.

Christina: (00:32) Welcome to episode 166. So I’m really excited about this episode. It’s definitely a different kind of episode. Um, so I’m not really teaching anything. I am just simply having a conversation. So this is something that, um, I’m pretty passionate about and something that I love to be a part of because this is a mission of mine and a lot of my clients. Um, so I’m just sharing what I’ve seen and my personal experience. Um, so my clients are women that coach and support other women. So they might be course creators as well, but almost everyone ha like supports women specifically. Uh, and they are women themselves, . So this is a really hot topic in my world. This is something that I’m around all the time. Um, and this concept is very popular outside of my client load as well, just peers, friends, people I follow, um, my business friends and clients, um, things like that.

Christina: (01:31) So it’s a common thing to say when you serve women, but sometimes there are actions that don’t actually follow supporting women. And, um, this became like a personal concept for me whenever I decided to have a baby, because whenever I decided to have a baby, obviously I had to take a maternity leave. And, um, you know, in other countries it’s a little bit easier to do that. In America it’s a little bit more difficult, um, because we don’t really have the, the structure in place for things like that. And, um, you know, I, I won’t even go into that, but, um, I was nervous about how my clients would take it. And I am very involved in my client work, so I play a really big role in our, um, agency services, and I prefer it that way. And I am honestly at this point not looking to like, scale the agency in any other way.

Christina: (02:26) Um, I do have a team that helps me, like I had no way do it on my, my own. Um, so I have a team that they’re, they’re very involved in our client services, but, um, I do the like over like arching strategies and things like that. Um, so I’m very involved. So when I was trying to figure out how I was gonna take a maternity leave, I, at first I was nervous about it because I was like, how are they going to take it? You know, because I’m, again, I’m so involved. What’s it going to look like if I choose to take a step back, um, for a little bit and have more of the team step in for me? And I was just like, you know, what if I lose clients and you know, what is this gonna look like? But then I realized like, no, like this is where it happens.

Christina: (03:10) This is where that work of supporting women comes into play. So if I lost clients over it, especially clients that claim to support women, um, I was okay with that. And I care a lot about the ads that I run. I’m connecting with, you know, people with other people that need them and can help them. So what I do isn’t just running ads. I’m amplifying very important work into the world, and there’s a responsibility to that too. I, I don’t actually want to put work into the world that isn’t authentic. So it was kind of like interesting to see, you know, was I going to be supported as a woman by, you know, these women? Um, and you know, who wasn’t going to actually uphold their end of, you know, that part of their mission. And, um, there are things that I’ve seen in this industry, though I have not personally experienced all of these things.

Christina: (04:07) Um, some of them I have. Um, but I wanted to just go over, you know, things that I have seen and, you know, have everyone just kind of think about it. Like, are you actually, you know, if you’re someone who says that they’re supporting women or supporting this, you know, whatever, um, are you actually upholding that? And some things that I’ve seen is not supporting your team when their family needs them. I’ve seen that. Um, and I understand that our businesses are important and we have things that are like, you know, I’m in client services, so my clients when they need something, if someone on my team drops the ball or they, they need to like, you know, tend to their family or something like that instead, and they have to put their family first. These situations happen all the time, and I have to like, you know, you have to respect that, um, and support that even.

Christina: (04:59) Um, obviously there’s a balance, you know, you can’t just like, you know, pay people to not do what they’re supposed to do, but at some point, you know, I think there’s a, a nice balance where we can support each other. Um, so, you know, not supporting people when their family needs them and not supporting certain out hours or boundaries, um, not supporting maternity leaves. Um, I have seen that, um, when I actually, you know, was preparing for my maternity leave and the conversation came up. Um, I have talked to people who had clients that did not support them leaving for maternity leave and to each their own, but I’m just saying, um, and I’ve seen not obeying contracts. Um, I, I’ve dealt with that myself. Um, there’s a lot of that. Um, not showing up to your scheduled calls, not respecting time, not paying your invoices or, you know, respecting boundaries.

Christina: (05:51) I’ve definitely seen not respecting boundaries. Um, I’m very grateful to not have experienced a lot of this, um, in my business. I have like amazing clients, but this is something that I’ve seen a lot in just even being a part of masterminds and, you know, seeing, like being on the back end of other people’s businesses, seeing what they have dealt with. And so I wanted to bring this up to have this conversation, but also, uh, just again, allow for a moment of accountability and an inventory of ways that we do or don’t act according to our values. Because this isn’t just about women supporting women, but also other values that we might have, um, commitments to be anti-racist, learning our privileges and educating ourselves on systems of oppression. Seeing how we might have practices like that in our business that are a part of that.

Christina: (06:40) Um, especially as business owners that are adopting traditional business practices. Um, maybe you have a value of a love for animals. Like how is some of your consumption or purchasing decisions going against that? Maybe it’s a simple value of being kind and having compassion, you know, in what ways have our actions not upheld that? And so I think this is a really important conversation to have with ourselves and with each other. Um, and it’s very easy for certain behaviors to go against our values and not, and us just like not being fully aware of it. And so I just wanted to open this up, um, about women supporting women because that is the mission for most of my clients, and it’s a big part of what we do. Um, but I just wanted to open this up, just some food for thought this week, um, because it was very relevant to me, especially as someone who is going through maternity leave, um, or went through maternity leave and not in maternity leave anymore.

Christina: (07:34) Um, but I did in, you know, preparing for it. I did talk to a lot of people because there’s not a lot of content out there on there and, uh, or on that topic as a business owner. And I was just surprised at like a lot of things that I came across. And so, you know, if, if you do, um, have anything to add to this conversation or if you want to have this conversation, um, you can go ahead and send me a DM on Instagram at Christina d Bernhard. Um, that is where you can find me. You can send me a dm, um, if you want someone to vent to or whatever, or if you have anything just to add. Um, but I really just wanted to do this episode really honestly, not necessarily to have a back and forth conversation, um, but also just to have the accountability in just a moment where we can all just think of, you know, if I’m out there saying that my mission is to support people or support women or whatever, um, you know, in what ways am I maybe not doing that and is there something that I can do about that?

Christina: (08:34) Um, I think that it’s a really great thing to just have those moments and to have those little check-ins with ourselves because, you know, we all do have values, but it is hard sometimes to, or easy sometimes to get caught up in the ways of doing things just the way that things are done. Um, and not think about, you know, how can we, like, maybe we don’t have to do, do things that way. Um, maybe it is okay if our employee, you know, can’t accomplish something because their family needs her or him, um, you know, like, you know, figuring out where do we fall into that line and if it feels right. Um, but yeah, that is what I have for you guys this week. Um, I hope you’ll have an amazing week and I will see you guys next time. Thank you for listening to the Scaling to Freedom podcast. If you are a seven figure coach, looking for ads management with an agency that partners with you to get your work out into the world and amplify your impact, see if we are a good fit by applying for a spot in our agency@christinabernhard.com/apply. Find the link in our show notes.