94. So...August Was Chaos. Here's My Back To School Reset

If you're crawling out of summer feeling tired, behind, or wondering if you even still like your business, this episode is for you!

Every single August, I somehow convince myself that I'm going to get so much done while the kids are home. Then reality hits - kids are home 24/7, capacity plummets, and that perfectly planned summer productivity goes out the window. This year was particularly chaotic for our family, and I'm sharing the raw, honest truth about what August really looked like behind the scenes.

But here's what I was reminded of: August isn't supposed to be a growth season for CEO moms...it's a maintenance season. And if you're just maintaining at minimum viable? That's not failure, that's reality. In this episode, I'm sharing exactly how I'm getting re-inspired heading into September, why simplifying (not adding more) leads to the biggest breakthroughs, and my three-step plan for turning the last four months of 2025 into your most profitable yet.

What You'll Learn:

• The real reason why August can leave CEO moms feeling behind (and why you're actually right on track)
• My secret 3-step formula for reconnecting with your inspiration when you're feeling completely burned out
• Why I can cut what my clients are doing by 50% and get them BETTER results (this mindset shift changes everything)
• The one file every business owner should keep that instantly reignites your passion and clarity
• How to turn the chaos of summer into the rocket fuel for your most profitable Q4 ever
• Behind-the-scenes of my most chaotic summer yet - and the breakthrough that came from it all

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Seen Known Paid Minimind (enrollment closes September 15th)
• $50K Q4 Roadmap Training
• CEO Mom Academy

Timestamps:

• [00:00:00] Why every summer feels like it's going to be different (spoiler: it never is)
• [00:00:43] The guilt cycle every CEO mom knows: working vs. not working in summer
• [00:04:47] Behind the scenes: My most chaotic August yet (no camp, solo parenting 6 kids)
• [00:10:00] The game-changing mindset shift: August as "maintenance season"
• [00:12:00] My 3-step plan for reconnecting with inspiration post-summer
• [00:14:24] The "smile file" that instantly reignites your passion
• [00:16:00] How I help clients organize chaos i

LINKS
📈The CEO MOMS Growth Matrix - feeling stuck or plateaued at your current revenue? Snag your custom roadmap for sustainable growth from $0 to multi-6-figures in this FREE training! >>> yaelbendahan.com/matrix

🔥Join my FREE 3-Day Program, LEVERAGE - the process that’s creating multi 6 figure years working nap times and being a full time mama of 6. Claim your spot here >>> https://yaelbendahan.com/leveragepod

💰Offers in Your Pocket - 11 Offers You Can Pull Out of Your Pocket and Sell This Week! Only $9 - yaelbendahan.com/pocketoffers

💃 Apply for the CEO Mom Mastermind if you're ready to scale sustainably to $15-20K+ months. Read more about the mastermind here OR go straight to the application here.
Want to chat about the mastermind before you join? DM me on Instagram - instagram.com/theyaelbendahan

Transcript

0:01

Every single summer, every single August, I somehow convince myself that I'm going to get so much done. I'm like, I don't have to, run around and get the kids off to school. They can do their own thing. They can go in the pool, they're gonna be able to somehow. Managed to play with their younger siblings without getting into fights. And I'm gonna launch the thing and I'm gonna record podcasts. I'm gonna have my business ticking perfectly along, and then August happens and my kids are home literally 24 7. And then reality looks a whole lot different. And this year happened to be a particularly chaotic summer. And I'll talk more about that in a second, but. The thing about summer as a CEO mom is that there's just a certain amount of natural tension that comes into the summer because when you're working, you feel guilty for ignoring your kids. And then if you're not working, you feel a little bit guilty. Guilty for falling behind and not keeping up. And, you're like, I wanna have, I wanna make memories. And 18 summers, which is actually not true because I live across the street from my parents. I'm 35. So technically you do not only have 18 summers with your kids. So calm down. But just the kind of this feeling of I wanna make the most of it. I wanna make the best of it. I, I want to, I wanna create all these things. I want'em to feel like they had an amazing time and I also want to like, spend quality time with them. And, you have this tug of war the whole time. And if you currently are homeschooling mom, then this is all year round. Your kids are with you all year round. I salute you. I do not homeschool for a reason, but this kind of this push and pull and just like the lack of structure for me and the lack of routine and the, having to find things to do and, Although we had some really fun times together, we we had a really nice week together in Jerusalem. We did a lot of like fun things as a family, but we also had a lot of downtime and that actually was not great for me. It was not great for the kids so much, and. It really made me feel very uninspired, very drained, like very low energy a lot of the time. And so if you are also crawling out of the summer, just feeling tired or behind or wondering if you even still like your business. Okay. I'm gonna share what August really looks like for me, what I learned from it, and how I'm getting re-inspired and how I'm going into September. Welcome to the Raising Your Business Podcast. I'm your host, Al Behan, founder of CEO Mom Academy, mom of Six and Lifelong Reading addict. This podcast is here to empower moms to run their businesses and lives like the powerhouse CEO. They are. I want you to believe that you can have the business success you desire. And be present with your family and to give you my best tips and strategies for how to make that happen. I'll be sharing the honest reality of balancing business and motherhood biz models that work for you. Marketing simplicity, and the mindset of A CEO, mom. Now let's dive in. Before we dive in, I have to tell you about something that came out of all this. My scene, known paid Mini Mind really came out of knowing that. Once the summer is over and once we go into kinda that back to school, back to business mode, that is when we as moms need the most support and clarity because you do not wanna just, jump into the last few months of the year with no no, no direction and no clarity and not really sure what you're selling or what you're doing. And I know again, for me, I wanna have a plan. When I have a plan, I just execute so much faster when I know exactly what I need to do and how I need to do it. And so that's why I created this very specific structure for my mini mind, which is September, which is focusing on audience growth. October, focusing on launching your signature offer. November is your Black Friday and your downsell sales system. And then in December, we are pre-selling your signature offer for 2026. And I decided, I made an executive decision to extend enrollment into the mini mind to about mid-September because frankly August was chaos. And I did not get a chance to talk about. All the things about why this mini mind is so fantastic and why you absolutely need to be in it if you are a business mom, and why this is the place to be if you want an incredible mom community around you. And you also want to take massive action in the end of 2025 without feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. So if you've been wishing, you could have someone help you untangle all the ideas in your head and actually map out your Q4, this is your space. Okay? This is your space, and the link is the below in the description. You can join or if you have any questions, send me a DM and ask. My dms are open, my inbox is open for any questions you have. I'm happy to talk it out with you because that to me is the most important thing that you feel really good about any investment you make and you feel like this is the right decision for you. Okay, so. Just a quick life and business, an August update. So none of my kids were in camp this year because of some last minute organizational issues, which I'm not going to go into. Um, some stuff was supposed to happen, did not happen, did not register them for camp. And by the time, we realized those things were not going to happen. It was already too late. And the truth is, I honestly would not have enrolled my boys in camp because they don't actually like camp. They're not happy campers, literally. But my daughter really. Does need it. She needs to be out, she needs to be with friends. She needs to be like outta the house. Um, especially because she doesn't really have anyone in the house who who plays with her. Like she, she is like four years older, younger than her older brother, and then four years older than her younger brother. And so she's like a little bit like alone, although that sounds funny to say. In a house of six kids, she doesn't really have a buddy. As such and so, um, and so she definitely needs the structure and she needs to be out doing things. So note to self. Camp is necessary for this child. And then obviously we had the baby home and, which I'm used to having. It's, that's not something new. But I, and I enjoy it. I enjoy having him around. I am, he's going to, he's going to, um, to daycare starting next week. And I'm really gonna miss him. Like I'm honest to goodness going to miss him so much. I wish I didn't have to send him out because, but I do really, I would really love to get. More than 45 minutes of work done at a time. And I also think it's gonna be better for him because he just really, like, is a very social child and he needs to be occupied. And he is on the go, he's 14 months old, he's already figured out how to turn on my washing machine, turn on the ovens open up all the drawers in the house. He's running around like, like literally toddling around his little sandals. And he just needs. To be occupied. I know it's gonna be really good for him to be out for the mornings, and it's like a short day. So just comforting myself with that because I think that I know that it's gonna be good for him, but I also am really gonna miss his company. He's just the cutest and I love his company. So we. Had about three full weeks where everyone was home. Okay. The boys have three weeks of summer vacation. My oldest son has a longer summer vacation, so the high school that they're in has a longer summer vacation from the end of June. My daughter has. From about mid July and my younger boys have three weeks of vacation. So we did one of those weeks we did a really fun family trip to Jerusalem. We went and we stayed at my, in my in-laws apartment. They have an apartment there and we stayed there and did kind of day trips. We went to the western wall. And we went to the Western wall tunnels underneath, which were incredible. We saw the most incredible archeological, um, findings, and that was really cool. My kids love history, so they're really interested in that. Um, we went to the Yehuda market, which is, um, like the market in Jerusalem. Very cool. And we basically did a, we just did a food tasting. We just walked around the market, just, um, just tasting different things just going to different little stalls and having a bit of this and a bit of that. And it was really fun. We went to, um, watch How to Train Your Dragon the new live action, which was fantastic and phenomenal. I went with the kids and Izzy stayed home with the baby. And then, um, and then we went to the zoo on our last day and that was really fun. Because my kids are animal experts. The zoo is honestly the place for them. It was just a universally enjoyable trip. Everyone enjoyed themselves from my oldest son down to the baby. And so 10 out of 10 recommend, highly recommend. It was really fun. So. The week after that, my husband was actually away, he got into these helicopter paramedic training that had like very limited spots. It was like, I think 30 spots out of 300 people who applied. And he had to take a whole bunch of tests and things, and he was accepted into the program. He had to take another test at the end of the week, and he was, and he passed that too, thank God. So, I'm really proud of him, but also it was not fun to have a week, solo parenting in the middle of a summer. I, I am married for a reason. I like to parent with my husband. It was what it was. This was the only week it could happen. And um, and then the last week we were all just kinda all together. We, it was just, it was very low key. We did a lot of pool time. We set up our pool. In our garden we had, we, we did some, a couple little day trips. We were getting ready for school, doing a lot of school shopping. And so, um, and it was just very like low key. And then we just had a birthday party for Eliana just now, which was very delayed. Her birthday's in July, but. It is what it is. So this was it was just not probably our most like fun as such. Summer we didn't do like this, we didn't do like loads of trips or anything like that big. That family week in Jerusalem was pretty much our one week of. Trip. But as we know, as as a mom, you're, just because you are going on a family trip does not mean it's actually a vacation. So I definitely feel like I need to recover significantly from this summer. And it was also a very transitional summer because my kids or a lot of them are going through a lot of transitions. I have one kid going into high school. I have another one going into the hardest year of high school. And then I have some other kids who were having a hard time in school last year and were not really looking forward to school this year. It was kind of like emotionally and mentally exhausting. And so I was trying to like be present and be in the moment and also trying to break up a lot of, spats and arguments and manage screen times that they were not like just sitting there all day with their eyes turning square and it was just a lot. Okay. It was a lot. And so I think what we need to do is really normalize, like the exhaustion, right? Um, whether you are going away for the summer or whether you're home or whether your kids are on camp. There, the summer energy is not necessarily like a go out and get it done energy. You might do that if you want to. I know people who do. Um, and I know, uh, definitely there are a lot of business owners who are not moms who are, are like killing it this summer. They're like, oh yeah, I'm this big sale and that big sale and I'm doing this and I'm doing that and I'm launching this and launching that. That is. But it's really important to be in your season. And actually next week I'm gonna be talking about this. I'm gonna talk about how to prioritize in your business and like kind of knowing your season, understanding your season, and taking that into account when you are prioritizing things. But. I have to normalize this idea, right? That August is not necessarily going to be a growth season. It is more of a maintenance season, okay? Um, and when you, if you're just maintaining at very minimum viable, that is not failure, okay? That is reality. When your kids are home, your capacity is going to be lower. And so I felt like, I felt oh no, I didn't do my weekly podcast, or I didn't get the podcast out in time. I just literally didn't have the time. Like I, when I'm doing podcasts, I wanna have a certain energy, right? I wanna feel energetic. I want you to feel that energy. And I was not always feeling that energy, when I wanted to record. And so, um, I was thinking, for the future, maybe, um, having a planned either pre-recording ahead of the summer, which I might do, or even just running kind of like a greatest hits series where I bring back some of my, my favorite episodes or people's favorite episodes that they really loved. So just kind of thinking about how can I. Maintain without having to create too much new stuff without having to constantly produce. Right? Because summer is more of relaxing and enjoying and just kind of like being low key, um, and not doing as much, go. Create do. Okay. And I really felt like going into September, like, I really need to be able to reconnect with. Something is going to inspire me because, my kids are starting school now, which is fantastic. My baby and my daughter are starting next week which I'm kind of sad about'cause I'm really gonna miss him. He's, I know it's gonna be good for him. He's going to daycare. It's fantastic. And I know it's gonna be good, but also I'm gonna miss him. I love his company. I love his company. He is the cutest little, he's the cutest little thing ever. I'm just obsessed. So, which is good, I guess, he is supposed to have, he's supposed to have kids and love them, but, um, I know it's gonna be good for him. He's a very social little guy. He's very active. He is really smart. He's already figured out how to like open every drawer in the house and he's figured out how to turn on all these appliances like my washing machine and my ovens. And he just really needs to be occupied with a few little kitties his age. And that is what's going to be happening. And I'm so excited for him. But I'm also gonna like miss him. So I'm gonna probably be doing a little, like a little trip, a little sister's trip out, the first week of school to just celebrate our kids, going back to school with my sisters and just being able to just connect with other adults without having someone attached to me at all times, which will be weird, honestly. So that is gonna be, that is really gonna help me as well. And so that's one way I highly recommend you reconnect with your inspiration is. Doing something just like for you, once your kids are back in school or whatever, backed into their routine, just taking some time to do something like, just for you to like celebrate. Just celebrate yourself. Celebrate the fact that you got through the summer and it was great, or maybe it wasn't great or whatever. Celebrate the fact that you're still here and your business is still here and you're going to kill it.'cause I believe in you, you are going to kill it and. I discussed this la uh, I think it was last week when you were talking about the idea of building your business for 20%. You and I realized that I'm now in the process of doing that. I did not necessarily do that. Okay. I need to build my business for the 20% version of me and not the a hundred percent version of me. Because a lot of times I'm gonna be at 20% capacity or 50% capacity, right? And at the rare times, I'm gonna be at a hundred percent capacity. Watch out world, right? That is one way I'm kind of reconnecting with my inspiration is just like spending some time, just being al being a sister instead of being in charge of everyone or running something or being the CEO. And that was, that's the first thing I'm going to be doing. My second thing is going back to basics and reconnecting with what I'm really good at. Okay, so how do you do this? Well, the first thing is just going, I love to go back and read, go through my smile file, what I call it, my smile file. I forgot who called it this, but I love it. Look, looking through testimonials for my clients and like remembering their, what we did together and how we did it and why they loved it so much, and, how transformational our work together was. And that really just keeps me really connected to to like my mission and to my why. Okay. And we just had our CEO my mastermind call last week when we, like everyone was kind of back from the summer and it was just really fun because just kind of coming back and reconnecting with my clients after the summer, they were all really busy too, so it was a very like low key summer in the Mastermind. And um, so I had one client who came on to share that. That she, she has a membership and she has someone inquire a very big person in the industry who wants to basically send all of her people to this membership. Okay. Like basically just be an affiliate for her membership and just be like, oh, if you want this, if you want to do this, then go straight to there. And that is incredible and that's a huge growth opportunity, obviously. And we kind of brainstorm like the strategy of how she was gonna do it and how and what she's gonna have on her landing page and what the affiliate special should be for this group. And it was just really fun. And then I have another client who came on she came off an amazing launch before the summer and now she's coming back and debriefing and kind of setting goals for the last few months of the year. And she kind of was just like, well, here's all the stuff I wanna do, and I'm not really sure like what to do next. Like, there's so many things and I really like helped her, kind of organize them in order of priority. Um. In order of like dependency, like what needs to happen before that happens. And I'm actually going to be diving really deep into exactly what we did together in next week's episode, so stay tuned for that. But the cool bonus that she already had an incredible course launch and she basically had 80% of an evergreen funnel ready to go. And so I recommended that she spend the rest of this month. Like it was last week, so she had about 10 days left of the month. And I was like, if you spend the next 10 days on this Evergreen funnel and have it set up by September, you'll now have basically just like an income stream where people can come in at any time and buy from you. And that is an amazing opportunity, right? So. She did not need to create anything new really. She just needed to tweak her emails and do like the funnel tech and maybe rerecord the end of her masterclass training with like updated bonuses for Evergreen and not for live. But that was pretty much it, right? So I was like I give this like a week of work if you focus only on this and then we can move on to all your other things. And that really just helped me reconnect to what my zone of genius is and what I love doing the most, which is taking. All like the chaos over the overwhelm and what do I do next? And simplifying it down to what is going to make the most sense for you in your capacity in your season, um, and what is going to make you the most profit in the shortest amount of time. That is literally what I do. This is what I help my clients do, and. My takeaway from this was like, inspiration does not necessarily come from adding more and doing more, but it can come from just reconnecting with your core offers, with your core genius, with your clients, and simplifying down. Okay. And what this helped me remember when it comes to simplifying was that I really work best with one signature space that I move people towards. And I am currently working on what that offer is going to be. Behind the scenes. It's there's gonna be a few little shifts in my offer suite. And when I was talking to my friend about what I love to do and what I help, what I love helping people do, it became really clear to me what path exactly I lead my clients through, and how it can be simplified into one core place to bring people in while still creating those opportunities to make daily instant access sales. Alright, and I got a plan and I'm gonna be working the plan throughout the rest of this year, and I actually booked a coaching call for myself to with one of my coaches to map out the rest of Q4, right? Because even coaches need coaching sometimes. And I kind of wanted to hash this out mentally with my coach. So that I could, I could really just get clarity because I help other people get clarity. But when it's your own thing, when you know you're inside, you're inside the jar, you can't see the label and all that. I know that I also have so many things kind of percolating in my head and I just want to like, I guess brain dump it out and just get it reflected back to me. And that just really helps me process. And sometimes you really just need someone else's brain in your business, right? Because. You have everything inside of you, but you need someone to pull it out, pull out the right things at the right time, and kind of, it's almost like puzzles. It's okay. It's like a puzzle. It is literally like a puzzle. You have a beautiful puzzle, right? You have all the pieces. To make the most beautiful puzzle, but sometimes you need someone to help you be like, oh, why don't you pull out the, oh, are you missing that piece? Um, maybe you should do, you should, do the frame first and, oh, I, that, here's that piece that you were looking for, maybe that you've been staring that puzzle for so long that you just didn't notice that, that one piece that would've, helped you like, finish the puzzle or complete the puzzle. And that's okay because sometimes we just need someone else's eyes on our puzzle, right? It does not mean that you're missing anything. In fact, you probably have everything that you need. You have everything that you need to make the money that you wanna make. Okay? And I'm gonna be talking like this. September is gonna be very heavy on. On prioritizing and sales and how to make more sales and how to grow your audience, get in front of new people. And that is honestly why I created the mini mind. Okay? Because I don't want you to be carrying your Q4 alone, alright? You know your business better than anyone. That is true, but that does not mean that you have to do all the mental heavy lifting all by yourself. And I know that, I have my CEO Mom mastermind which as far as I'm concerned is the place. For moms in a business to be, because I will take everything that you wanna do and I can almost guarantee, I would say 99% because I don't like say a hundred percent, but I can 99% guarantee I'll be able to take everything that you're doing, everything that you're thinking about, doing everything that you're already doing, and cut it down by about 50% with the same results or better results. That is my zone of genius. That is my superpower. Okay. And so if that sounds amazing to you and you're like, oh my gosh, I have so many things that I wanna do and things that I wanna sell and there's this program or that program and I wanna do a website and I wanna do this, and I wanna you might have so many ideas and thoughts in your head, but sometimes you just need someone else to organize them for you and help you figure out, okay, this may make sense. Do this step first, and then this step, and then that step. Okay, and next week in my next podcast, I'll be talking exactly about my order framework, literally order, okay? Um, and exactly how I help my clients do this, how I help them organize their thoughts. But if you take anything away from this episode, number one, you are not behind, okay? August is gonna be a messy month, okay? So accept that, embrace it. We have a few more days of August left. Embrace it. You'll go into September with the best energy. It's gonna be great. The second one is that reins inspiration can come from simplifying and getting back to basics, not necessarily adding in new things. All right? Sometimes the best inspiration comes from just being like, what is my one thing that I wanna be known for? What is my one thing that I'm the best at? What is my one thing that I enjoy the most? Okay? And the last piece is that you don't have to do this alone, okay? Support matters. And when you have that support. That can give you the clarity to take action in half the time and make twice the money, literally. Okay? So if August left you feeling a little bit exhausted or burnt out or like my brain has just atrophied or has just f. Become completely fried. It is not okay. You're not broken. You're not lazy. You are a mom carrying a business in real life, and that is hard, but it's also beautiful. Okay? And September is a fresh start for you, and you can really go into the next four months of the year and make the most money you've ever made with the right plan, with the right strategy. So if you want to do this together, if you want to turn the last four months of the year into your biggest months of the year, the doors are open. Until, when was it? The doors are gonna be open until September 15th. You can join us until September 15th. And I'm going to be talking a lot more about this now that my brain is like back on board and I have a little time to think. Um. We have a very clear roadmap. If you wanna know exactly what the roadmap is, then watch the training at the top of the page. You can hop over to el bend.com/skp pod. And get the four month clear roadmap of exactly what you're going to do in the last four months of the year to make the most money possible. And you're also gonna have this incredible mastermind of other moms who get it. And if this episode gave you a little relief, share it with a mom friend who also needs to hear that she's not behind. Okay? We are in this together, so let me know if you have any questions about the scene. Known Pain, many Mind. It is going to be so freaking incredible together, and I cannot wait to join you in turning these last four months into the best months of the year. I can't thank you enough for listening to raising your business. I hope this episode has inspired you to take another step towards building a business and life that you love, and growing your income in a way that works for you and your family. If you enjoy this episode, please take a second to rate and review and let's connect that on Instagram screenshot and share it on Instagram Stories so we can get the word out to more mom business owners like you. Tag me at the El Behan and share your biggest breakthrough from today. See you next week.