Episode 4
Balancing multiple passions while dealing with life's curveballs can feel like an insurmountable challenge.
In this episode of The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast, co-hosts Delores Naskrent and Kaylie Edwards explore the art of managing creative projects, careers, and family life. They share their roller-coaster journeys and offer practical tips to keep your passions alive without losing your sanity.
Embracing Resilience in the Face of Challenges
A highlight of this episode is the personal story of resilience Delores shares: Imagine this: breaking your arm right before a craft show while juggling my teaching career and
family duties. Determination to continue despite physical limitations is a testament to the power of resilience and flexibility.
Kaylie and Delores discuss the importance of setting realistic expectations to thrive amidst chaos.
Overcoming Life’s Unpredictable Challenges
They also dive into navigating life's unpredictable challenges. Delores share s how a surprising cancer diagnosis pushed her to prioritize my goals and commit to the Immersion Program, which helped her stay organized and focused.
We discuss strategies like batch creation and automation that maintain a steady workflow, even when life throws a curveball. Kaylie shares her journey of managing her creative business while balancing family life, illustrating the importance of planning and mindset in handling both creative and business responsibilities.
Creativity as a Source of Healing
Kaylie and Delores explore how creativity can serve as a therapeutic outlet during tough times. Engaging in activities like ceramics and digital art provided them solace and emotional healing. They emphasize the importance of setting personal and professional boundaries to avoid burnout.
Both share strategies for maintaining focus, such as making lists, planning ahead, and giving themselves permission not to focus solely on perfectionism.
Strategies for Staying Organized and Focused
For those juggling multiple passions, Kaylie and Delores share several strategies to stay organized and focused. Batch creation and automation are invaluable tools. They discuss the decision to record classes Delores batch produced until April of 2025, ensuring a steady stream of content while freeing up time for other tasks like creating a stand-alone, signature Affinity Designer Course and managing client work.
They also talk about the Immersion Program's role in helping Delores prioritize goals and maintain a sustainable business model despite health challenges.
Creative Resilience: Lessons Learned
Delores and Kaylie touch on the emotional impact of cancer on families, expressing gratitude for recovery while coping with loss. The therapeutic benefits of creativity are highlighted, from ceramics to digital art. Setting boundaries, both personally and professionally, is crucial to avoiding burnout, and practical strategies like making lists and planning ahead help maintain focus.
Conclusion
Balancing multiple passions amidst life's challenges requires resilience, realistic expectations, and strategic planning. Kaylie and I share our experiences and practical tips to help you manage your passions without feeling overwhelmed.
Whether you're facing health challenges, managing a business, or juggling family life, this episode provides valuable insights to help you thrive in your creative journey.
Join Our Creative Community
For more tips, insights, and updates on new episodes, join our mailing lists. Get business advice, learn about new courses, and access resources to support your creative journey. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with others who might benefit.
Let's continue to support and inspire each other in our creative endeavors.
Transcript
Kaylie Edwards:
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy podcast. I'm Kaylie Edwards, your go-to multi-passionate mompreneur from the UK, and I'm here with the wonderful Delores Naskrent, who's joining us all the way from Canada. Today's episode is a topic that's close to both our hearts, balancing multiple passions, Whether it's juggling creative projects, family work or health challenges. We've got some stories, tips and a little bit of wisdom to share with you.
Delores Naskrent:
Kaylie for sure. I think that balancing multiple passions alone is something that is almost too crazy to discuss, but I think we're both cut from the same cloth too crazy to discuss, but I think we're both cut from the same cloth. I am in a constant juggling act and you and I have both talked about this quite a few times with the challenges that we've faced. Surprisingly, between the two of us, despite our you know range in age, we have a lot in common when it comes to that. In the last few years alone, I've had to face cancer, both my own and my husband's, and I've had lots of ups and downs with business and lots of challenges in my personal life. So I totally, totally get it yes, yes, we do.
Kaylie Edwards:
By the end of today's episode, we hope you'll walk away with practical tips, inspiration for managing your multiple passions without feeling like you're constantly dropping the ball. We know it's not easy, but trust us, finding that balance is possible. Delores, let's kick things off by talking about how juggling multiple passions is a challenge that so many of us face. What's your take on why?
Delores Naskrent:
this is such a common struggle. Yeah, it really is a balancing act. I love creating, I love experimenting and coming up with fun ideas and working with all kinds of different software. I really think that that's my forte, you know learning new software and creating projects. Also, something that I'm really passionate about is passing on information to those who need it, and you know I'm sure that just comes from having been a high school teacher for 30 years but I always want to try to make it easy for for people and I can show them because I've done it. You know so many times, and when I know a way to do something, I know that showing somebody is going to help them so much it's going to make a real impact on them. So for me, the multiple passions of creating and of helping are huge, because both of these require so much of my hands-on kind of time. You know what I mean yes, yes, I do.
Kaylie Edwards:
For me, living with chronic illnesses like fibromyalgia, joint hypermobility syndrome and scoliosis adds a whole other layer of complexity. There are days when I'm just not able to meet deadlines or work on my business because my body needs rest. I used to beat myself up about it, feeling like I was failing, but over time I've learned to give myself grace and accept that this is my reality. I'm not superwoman and I can't push through everything, even sometimes I wish I would. Woman and I can't push through everything, even sometimes I wish I would. I have to take the time to heal and get better. And let's not forget about the joys of having a toddler.
Kaylie Edwards:
Aston was just a baby when I started my current business and, as a parent knows, young kids come with their own set of challenges and demands. They wake up in the night, throw tantrums, pick up every bug going around. They want your attention 24 7. Sometimes I can't even go to have a pee without him clinging to me. So I've had to learn to be flexible and not set unrealistic expectations from from my time. Delores, I know you're also had your fair share of challenges when it comes to balancing your creative passions with everything else going on in life. How have you managed to juggle all those roles over the years?
Delores Naskrent:
Oh gosh, Kaylie, that can be such a long story. I can totally, totally relate to all of those things. I can remember one show season when we were doing, you know, in-person sales, so we were traveling to craft shows around the province, so, let's say, within two to three hours of where I live. We were right in the thick of it, like literally my daughter Che, who has helped me with my business for many years, my husband, my kid, everybody in my household when we were in show season, everybody was involved. And I can remember one day I was out in my shop because we were doing our own manufacturing. So I have a giant table saw and I was out there on my own cutting a piece of wood that I used for my plaque mounting and something happened and the plaque that I was working on shot back from the table saw and broke my arm.
Delores Naskrent:
So, yes, can you imagine. So do you think I should have taken some time off? Yes, I probably should have, but literally we were days before a show. I remember going to the hospital, getting my arm put into a cast, going to school the next day, teaching nine to five, and then coming home the next day and doing it all over again.
Delores Naskrent:
So if you can believe that, with a broken arm, working full time, come home at the end of the day and still work, because we had to get ready for a show. And at that time, my eldest daughter she was right in there with me and we were creating all of the product ourselves. But even when she was really young, she was helping me at craft sales, even if it was just to keep an eye on her little sisters, because I had two other girls that would come with us, so she'd be helping me set up the sale, but she was also there to help me take care of my other two kids. I didn't have the luxury of being able to leave my kids with someone when I had to go and do this work.
Kaylie Edwards:
So, yes, just imagine yes, uh, I don't know how you did it with three kids. I'm getting hard to deal with one child at this point. That's why I ended up moving away from physical products, doing my candles handcrafted candles because I, when I got pregnant, I just yeah, I just couldn't imagine trying to do it around a baby as well. Yeah, one of the biggest lessons I've learned that is that you have to be realistic about what you can accomplish, especially when you've got so much going on. For example, I recently had to make a tough decision not to apply for a few collaborations that I was really excited about this month. The deadlines were just too close together and I knew that if even one thing went wrong, it would turn into a stressful, chaotic mess. Instead, I decided to wait until after the holiday to tackle those opportunities. It wasn't easy, but I knew it was the right choice for my own sanity. So what about you, Delores? What strategies have you found most effective in managing your time and energy, especially when everything you've got on your plate?
Delores Naskrent:
Well, you know what I've had to do, Kaylie. I've had to hire people. That's how you came into my life. So I have to structure my days, you know, really carefully. So what I do is I try to do my most important sort of thinking and organizing things in the morning, when my mind is still fresh, because that really is a thing I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older, but, like, really, the morning is when I can really do the important stuff and in the afternoons then I try to focus on catching up with the tasks that I can either pass on to someone else you know, so I'm creating work for you, probably or for someone else can complete the you know instruction and the organizing of what needs to go to whoever that other person is, and also for myself.
Delores Naskrent:
I've learned that I have to batch a lot of my work. I didn't know anything about this in in the back, in like back in the day. I wish I had, but an example of this would be that I have right now recorded all of the classes I need until the end of April of 2025, so that I know that sounds crazy, but I literally just worked on projects, created a whole bunch of projects and recorded. So I would probably spend, let's say, two evenings working on and perfecting a project and then I would immediately record it the next day. So I just got on a roll and I felt like you know, I don't know, I guess, because it takes a lot of steps to edit and upload classes and doing all of that creative stuff, it was easiest for me to just hammer them all out one after the other. So that's kind of how I've done it and I've now got all of that recorded. Everything is ready to go.
Delores Naskrent:
Now it's in the process of being rough edited, so my daughter does all the rough editing, rough edited. So my daughter does all the rough editing. Then I get it back, but at the same time then I can do batch creation of all the course outlines and then batch creation of all of the graphics that are necessary, that need to go along with the projects, and I can create all the digital downloads. And of course, having worked with you now, now I do understand also the whole process why this is important, because we're also promoting these classes. So it's important for me to work this way so that you can do your job and then that leaves my evenings free to relax on my iPad. So then I go back, you know, kind of almost through that whole thing again. So you know, learning and creating the projects in this way also then just keeps me really ahead on knowing my software thoroughly, you know. So I don't know, have I answered your question?
Kaylie Edwards:
I mean, I feel like I have kind of yes, um, I think obviously your organization skills surpass mine sometimes. You're way ahead with content till 2025. And I don't even know what I'm posting next week at this point because I'm still catching up with all the other projects. But that is just life and at least reality for me right now, and it's something that I'm working on, and part of this podcast is going to be helping others do the same thing.
Kaylie Edwards:
So balancing all these passions isn't just about time management. It's also about your mindset, and for the longest time, I struggled with guilt whenever I couldn't work on my business because of my health or because Aston needed me, but I've learned that it's okay to put some things on hold. For me, it's been crucial to create a sustainable business model with as much automation and passive income streams as possible. That way, when I'm down for the count with an illness, I'm not losing huge chunks of time and money. Delores, I know you've also had to balance your creative passions with some serious life challenges. Can you share a time when you really struggled to balance everything? How did you get through it?
Delores Naskrent:
Oh gosh, there's so many moments I could choose from that I don't even know where to start. Honestly, I guess one of the things that really comes to mind when we're talking about this. It was really significant, I think, because I think it's really changed the trajectory of my business. Um, I love Bonnie Christine and anybody who knows me knows that I really really think highly of her and considered her to be one of my mentors and I had first heard of her and started to follow her on Skillshare many, many years ago, when she was really quite young and she was just starting out and she was teaching originally on Skillshare and at one point she started the immersion program. So this is several years ago and I really wanted to do it. I said to myself. I said to myself you know, someday I'll do it. And I kept doing this year after year and I knew that she was making a big impact in the industry, but I just could not justify spending the amount of money that her program cost. So it was, it was kind of she she makes a big point about this herself, that she talks about her story of choosing to become a surface pattern designer and she literally said it out loud. She was going to become a surface pattern designer. She wanted to create patterns, woke up six months later and realized that she had literally not done one thing towards her goal and it really, I don't know. That hit me, I guess because at that point I really felt the same way, but I still just couldn't pull the trigger. You know, I just couldn't justify spending the amount of money on the program. I didn't realize how valuable it was. But a few years back now this is what year is this now? So it's probably this is the third year now, yes, it is a third.
Delores Naskrent:
So I guess about three and a half years ago, I went to the doctor with an issue. I was shocked to find out I had cancer. So I felt perfectly healthy and it came as a complete surprise. Believe me, it was just a fluke that my doctor discovered it and you know I it was just so shocking to find out that I had cancer when I felt 100% okay, I went in for surgery which was supposed to be a very minor surgery, laparoscopic.
Delores Naskrent:
I had cancer in my womb, so my uterus, it was uterus, uterine cancer and I woke up in the hospital bed completely like stitched up from my belly button down to you know where and, oh my goodness, it was horrible. It was just unbelievable. There had been a complication and they had nicked my intestines and so what should have been a very minor surgery, I woke up in complete agony. Woke up in complete agony and I know it's going to sound really weird, but that was the moment when I decided I was going to take immersion that year. So I know it sounds crazy, but it was like right then and there that I said you know what? I can't put this off. I can't put this off anymore, I have to do this. So I committed and I was recovering and, believe me, I was in terrible shape the first year that I was in immersion. But I knew that I knew Adobe Illustrator well enough that I could probably get through the course. So, yeah, that was my first year of doing immersion and it was pretty crazy.
Kaylie Edwards:
Yeah, your story just hits. Yeah, it really hits. Obviously, I've got family who've gone through cancer and it's not easy. Uh, I've lost family members to it. I've got family members, luckily, that have recovered and, um, my partner's nan has just gone through it herself. I've had one family member this year well, the beginning of this year I found out actually, that she had cancer and it turns out she's recovered now. But I found that out in pretty much the one sitting from my grandad, which nobody decided to tell me what happened, which sometimes happens in our family because we've got such a big family and unfortunately, yeah, a lot of my, my mum's side is riddled, um, so, yeah, it's, it's difficult. I luckily I've not been through that myself personally and I don't wish it upon anyone and I'm just so thankful and grateful that you're still here thanks so much, kaylee.
Delores Naskrent:
Um, you know what? I'm sure it sounds cliche, but I don't know how I could have made it through at that time if I didn't have Bonnie and if I didn't have this determination to make it work. Like she really made an impact on me. And if any of you know or have been through the immersion program, you know what I'm talking about. If any of you know or have been through the immersion program, you know what I'm talking about.
Delores Naskrent:
Like it still takes a lot of concentration in life for me to focus on one thing. But I think what that whole experience taught me was that life is short and if you want something bad bad enough, you just need to pursue it. So I do whatever I can in the time that I have and I love life and I love my job. So I do everything I can to stop myself from overextending myself, if you know what what I mean. I just try to yeah, I just try to do everything that I can in the amount of time my nine to five kind of a thing.
Delores Naskrent:
I do work a lot. Anybody who knows me knows that I work a lot and I'm already, you know, feeling like I need to slow down a little bit, so I definitely force myself to take more time to like we have a. We make a point of the day stops. At 5 5 30 we have dinner. My mom comes over, has dinner with us. We go and hang out in our tv room, and other Wednesdays, when my husband is out, I always have family dinner, and I just spend my evenings not going back into my office, and I do it on purpose.
Kaylie Edwards:
I really have to force myself, though I am one of those people that if there was nobody else around, I probably would be working on something and trying not to feel guilty about it yeah, um, that's the thing like creativity has like anything to do with creativity, whether that's creating art or designs, pottery I've used to do ceramics, like things like that were the one thing that used to get me through some of the toughest times I've been through in my life myself. I have been through yeah, that's, it's a whole. No, there's whole different stories. I could ask, but I could add to this um, but I'm not going to because I will ramble. Um, but yeah, that's where creativity comes in, and I think a lot of people have that as well, where creativity creating art, creating handcrafted things, digital art all that sometimes comes from and stems from trauma or some bad experience that they're either going through or have been through, and that helps them, and I think that's why a lot end up in business as well, selling their own art because they've got so much that they need to get rid of, like I used to. But yes, and we will move on, and we'll talk about that another time.
Kaylie Edwards:
So another big thing I've learned is the importance of setting boundaries, not just with others, but with myself as well, and Delores is going through the same things as well. It's so easy to take on too much, especially when you're passionate about what you do. But I've realised that it's better to do a few things well than to spread yourself too thin and end up stressed out and burned out. And yes, I am still working on it, and so is Delores, because it is a it's just an ongoing process that you need to work on. So what about you, Delores? How do you decide which passion to focus on when time is limited, and how do you set boundaries to make sure you're not overextending yourself?
Delores Naskrent:
yeah, like I said, it takes a lot of concentration not to let things distract me. I I do make a lot of lists. I try to make an annual plan, which is something else that I have learned, you know, through coaching. So I've been in Bonnie Christine's professional coaching as well, and that's one of the things that I she really stresses is to make sure that you're planning way ahead. So it helps me to not let things distract me, because then I always have this list that I'm going back to and so I stop myself from feeling overwhelmed by doing that. You know, I can look at the list and it grounds me. So I feel like making that sort of a solid plan is the way that I can get ahead, if that makes sense, if that makes sense yes, yeah, it makes sense.
Kaylie Edwards:
So at the end of the day, it's so important to embrace all your passions without guilt. It's easy to feel like you're not doing enough, especially when you see others who seem to be juggling it all effortlessly, as we see on scrolling social media. But the truth is, everyone struggles at times, whether they show it or not. The key is to give yourself permission to follow your passions, even if it means not everything gets done perfectly. Delores, what advice would you give to somebody who feels overwhelmed by their many interests and isn't sure how to manage them all?
Delores Naskrent:
I think it's easy to be overwhelmed when you don't have a really solid plan and, like I said, that's I felt that way before I started to really track and write down things. I worked through a couple of workbooks and I started with kind of the main. And I started with kind of the main excuse me, I started with the main, most important goal and then I kind of worked backwards from there. So I I kind of charted it out. So it's almost like if you imagine a wall of sticky notes and at the top is your the ultimate goal of what you want to do and then working your way down from there, all the little steps that you'd need to do in order to get to that big main goal. Because I think what happens is when you focus on the main goal, you can, you could flail around for days doing nothing because you don't, you haven't really mapped out the in between steps that need to happen in order for you to get to that main goal.
Delores Naskrent:
So I believe that mapping it out is what has made the biggest difference for me and it's helped me to formulate that annual plan that I was talking about, which has then helped me to look for supports that I would need you know. So I, I think I've kind of got it figured out. I haven't got it like completely figured out by any means, but it's starting to work for me and I could see a big difference when I compare where I am now with where I was a year ago or where I was two years ago, like such a huge difference. And it's because I'm doing those things like batching my work and, you know, looking at all the things that have to be done and focusing on the one that has to be done right now. First and I agree with you 100%, kaylee it's it's more important to get the thing done than to not do the thing at all. So even if you're doing it at what you you want might not consider it to be 100%, 80% is fine, but at least it's done.
Kaylie Edwards:
Yes, I totally agree. I keep seeing it from other entrepreneurs that what is it done is better than perfect, and I'm starting to use that so much more now. And good, as long as it's good quality. It doesn't have to be perfect. It can have mistakes and you can put it out there and get feedback. Then you can edit it later if you need to. That's right. You can improve it.
Kaylie Edwards:
Yes, and another point um is going on to systems, like you've said, and working your way back with your plans. That is one thing that I've started doing this year more. Um. Yes, I miss days A lot of the time. It's because my toddler decides to jump on me and, yes, doesn't want me to work, and then he'll throw me off for the day.
Kaylie Edwards:
But I'm doing more lists and sticking to tasks and checking them off and it's helped me so much better than before when I was just kind of winging my days and helping you. This past year has helped me a lot more. Get organized, because obviously I have your commitments as well, not just mine, right, but obviously, being a business entrepreneur, you also are responsible for your own time and getting your own things done, and I highly recommend anybody doing business please spend some time and map out what you want and where you want to go and what tasks you want to be working on, and try and work on tasks that move you forward. Try and work on them daily and you will start to see progress with your business.
Delores Naskrent:
Yep, I 100% agree with you there.
Kaylie Edwards:
So there you have it Some real talk and practical tips on balancing multiple passions. We hope you found today's episode helpful and that you're feeling a bit more inspired and equipped to handle your own juggling act. If you're looking for more tips, insights or just want to keep up with what Delores and I are doing, be sure to join our mailing lists. The links will be in the show notes. Not only will you get updates on when new episodes drop, but you'll also receive more business advice, first to know about new courses and resources for your creative journey.
Delores Naskrent:
And all the good stuff we don't want you to miss yes, we both put lots into our, our clients, our people who we are serving. Our main goals are to inspire and, of course, the best place is to be on our mailing lists. That way you'll get everything that we put out there. It's one-on-one. You're not sharing us with all of the social media and everything else that's going on. You're literally right in our inboxes when you reply and when you're there with us. It's really up close and personal. Also, if you could, if you could, if you do enjoy our podcasts, be sure to pass on our contact info to anyone else that you think that we can help and we'd love to hear from you if you've got your own strategies for balancing multiple passions or if today's episode resonated with you.
Kaylie Edwards:
Share your thoughts on social media or in our community. Let's keep the conversation going yeah, yeah, I love this.
Delores Naskrent:
I love hanging out here with you, Kaylie, and I'm feeling like we're hanging out with a bunch of people, so let's keep this going.
Kaylie Edwards:
Yes, let's do that. Thanks so much for tuning in to the Creative Juggle Joy podcast. Make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep juggling, keep smiling and remember there's joy in the journey, even when it's a bit chaotic.