Meet the #motherhustlers: Rachel Watts

Rachel Watts is a 29-year-old full-time working mompreneur with a heart in customer service and a desire to help women find their place in the world. When she isn’t working in a medical clinic or playing with her husband and four-year-old, she’s blogging away at Planning Mindfully about time management, bullet journals, and personal development.

Tell us about yourself, your business, and how you got started!

My name is Rachel Watts! I’m a 29-year-old wife and mom to a beautiful 4-year-old daughter. I work full time in a medical clinic scheduling patients and running errands for our providers on site.

To add even more madness to my already hectic schedule, I also run a blog called ‘Planning Mindfully’; a personal development site where I love to help intelligent “Type B” women take control of their lives through creativity, psychology, problem-solving, self-care, and time management.

Two years ago, I started my very first bullet journal. As somebody who struggled with organization and lacking purpose for years, it was an amazing way to help me be creative and actively work through my challenges. In late spring of 2017, I decided that I wanted to teach other people how to bullet journal, too! But… it’s turned into much more than bullet journals.

I joke that ‘bullet journals’ are my gateway drug into time management and self-improvement, though!

What inspired you to start your own business?

I got inspired to start my own business because I saw the value of teaching others how to creatively plan their lives. Bullet journals changed my life in ways I can’t even describe; I knew there had to be plenty of other women in my shoes who had similar struggles. I wanted to help people make the same improvements that I made.

What struggles do you face when it comes to balancing your work and family and how do you deal with them?

Considering I work a 40 hour week on top of running a blog, my biggest struggle that I face is time. By FAR. I don’t have enough time to work on my blog the way I want to. I feel like I don’t spend enough quality time with my family. I definitely do not put my best effort into my full-time job. Sometimes I feel like I have to choose one or the other, which causes a lot of guilt and shame.

One way I tackled this was to sit down with my husband and discuss what the ultimate goals of my business are. I’m running a business because I do want to quit the 9-5, spend time with my family, and get to thoroughly enjoy life by going on various adventures. He understands my hard work and dedication are to help find a better balance so I can have more time for my husband and daughter.

What do you think is the secret to raising a healthy business and a healthy family?

Focusing on one thing at a time. If you are with your family, you are with your family. If you are working on your business, all you are doing is business work.

Multitasking not only kills your ability to get things done efficiently and quickly, but I find that it zaps my energy and makes it much more difficult to be a wife, worker, and CEO.

What is one piece of advice you could give to help other mompreneurs out?

Find your tribe. Especially if you are a full time working mompreneur!

There are so many other mompreneurs out there who are in your shoes. They have similar struggles and can completely empathize with you in ways I haven’t always seen in other groups. Full time working mompreneurs know what you’re going through; even if their stories are different, they can still provide empathy, advice, and love.

What words of encouragement do you have for your fellow mompreneurs?

If you have a dream and a desire, you will find ways to make it work. If your life is busy you can create something successful. Remember that this phase is temporary; your hard work will create a life worth living down the road.

Do you have any great / inspiring stories from your own experience that you would like to share?

I knew I wanted to be a mompreneur before I was ready to be one. Because of this passion, I immediately jumped into an MLM company that I never heard of before, and this was a huge mistake I should never have gotten into.

But the desire to do my own thing never left, and not two years later, I was introduced to bullet journals. It was something I loved and was very passionate about, and once I was a bit more experienced, I knew it was what I wanted to share with others.

Once I had the passion, direction, and drive, I turned my creative hobby into a business now making me $1500 per month, not even a year after launching.

When it comes to creating your own business and brand, it’s important to have a passion and idea of what you love and want to spend your spare time doing. If you don’t feel fully confident in what you want to do yet, keep trying new things until you find one that sticks. Don’t expect that ‘thing’ to find you.

Any fun facts you want to share? 

I’m the biggest nerd; I love video games. I actually used to be an avid World of Warcraft player. As silly as it sounds, I fully believe my drive toward competition is a reason why I succeed with my blog! When it came to gaming, eventually it was pretty frustrating to be putting all that time and energy into ‘epic computerized swords’ and ‘raids to defeat electronic monsters’. I decided I wanted to put that energy to good use, and now ‘blogging’ is my version of gaming!

Where you can find Rachel:

Make sure you check out Rachel’s blog, Planning Mindfully, as well as follow along with her on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube!