“What is a stereotypical single mom who owns her own business and what are people gonna think about that? I don't really care. I just want them to see me as me. I'm a mom, just like they're a mom. I'm a mom, just like other working moms. I feel like I'm not that different. The thing that I have that most other moms who my kids hang around with don't, is that it's just me.” - Michelle

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It Is Totally Do-able with Michelle Gauthier

Welcome to Imperfection In Progress, a podcast for ambitious women who are people pleasers, perfectionists, or procrastinators. Want to feel less stressed and more joy in your life? Then this is for you. I'm your host, Dawn Calvinisti.

Today I am joined by my co-host for the month, Jeanine Hauck, as we speak with Michelle Gauthier, a single mom of two and a professional life coach who helps busy, overwhelmed women create a more calm and intentional life. 

Whether you are a single mom or not, Michelle’s take on what other people think, self-worth, and facing fear are things we can all relate to.

Episode Transcript

[DAWN CALVINISTI]

Welcome to Imperfection in Progress, a podcast for ambitious women who are people-pleasers, perfectionists, or procrastinators. Want to feel less stress and more joy in your life? Then this is for you. I’m your host Dawn Calvinisti.

[DAWN CALVINISTI]

I love that this month I get a wonderful co-host and friend, Jeanine Hauck, to join me as we focus on the aspect of being a mom and an entrepreneur. Jeanine has been my business accountability partner for almost 2 years now. She is a mom to 3 little ones 6 and under and is also a coach and entrepreneur. Jeanine has made it her goal to help ambitious women discover and create a life on purpose.

Today Jeanine and I have the privilege of speaking with Michelle Gauthier, a professional life coach who helps busy, overwhelmed women create a more calm and intentional life. 

Michelle is a single mom of two adopted kids and used to be an overwhelmed, busy working mom herself. She quit her successful 20 year corporate career to become a life coach in 2017. Since then, Michelle has helped hundreds of women learn to navigate their careers and home lives with ease. 

 When she’s not working, Michelle spends her spare time watching her kids sporting events, going to Burn bootcamp, organizing things just for fun, shopping online and reading self improvement books.

You can check her out at her website www.michellegauthier.com

Jeanine and I get to pick Michelle’s brain on everything from choosing to go it alone, to removing what you do from the value you place on yourself.  Here’s our conversation.

[00:00:00] Dawn Calvinisti: I am so happy to be here again today for this month of August, we are focusing on female entrepreneurs, but specifically in the mom zone. And so I have Jeanine Hauck, my good friend and accountability partner here with me. Again, if you wanna get to know more about her because you're hearing from her each week in August, go back and listen to our first episode in August and it is Jeanine and I chatting about her life and her journey and her place in motherhood here too. So I invite you to do that. But today I am especially excited for us to be able to interview Michelle Gauthier, somebody who I've had an opportunity to work with in the past, on a summit that I did. But somebody who Michelle, you might not know this, but I read every one of her newsletters.

I enjoy them so much. So welcome to the podcast, Michelle.

[00:00:46] Michelle Gauthier: Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me and thanks for saying that. I really appreciate that. I did not know that.

[00:00:53] Dawn Calvinisti: I think sometimes we put things out there and wonder who is actually paying attention. Well, you can know when you put it out. I'm one of them.

[00:00:59] Michelle Gauthier: Thank you, Dawn. I'll be thinking of you. Thank you.

[00:01:01] Dawn Calvinisti: So I know that we've heard a little bit about who you are, but I would love for you to tell us a little bit about your actual journey as a mom, as an entrepreneur, and a business owner, and that area of time where you're trying to figure out all those things. What did that look like in the beginning?

[00:01:23] Michelle Gauthier: Yes. Okay. That's a journey for sure. So first of all, my journey to being a mom. I am a person who always knew that I wanted to be a mom, like, since I was a little girl, I've loved the idea of being a mom, but then when it came time for me to in life become a mom, it was not easy for me. We tried for like seven years to have a baby, did all the infertility things you could possibly do, and then I just realized at one point, okay, this is not the way that I'm going to become a mom.

So we ended up adopting both of our kids. At the time we lived in Texas and we adopted them each as babies and that I mean, I could do a whole podcast on that, but suffice to say that becoming a mom was a very intentional choice for me, and it took a lot of work to get there. It takes every mom a lot of work to have a baby, but it took a lot of work to get there, and I really had to keep the faith and just know that I was meant to be a mom and know that it was coming to me in some way, shape, or form.

And I got to the point where I was really, I mean, we tried so many things and there was no reason it shouldn't have worked. And so I got to the point that I was a little bit jaded about it. And when we actually got our first child, my son Oliver, we got a call at like three 30 in the afternoon and we picked him up that night like he had already been born.

His birth parents had chosen us and we jumped in the car and went and picked him up. It was a seven hour drive each way, and we were like, yes, we'll be there. So that was a journey. Just becoming a mom was a journey. And then we adopted our other child, Josie, my daughter, about three years later, that seemed easy because I already knew how to have a baby.

So by the time we got her and we had like, two or three months warning, that was really so much easier. But the reason why I'm telling that story is because I intentionally wanted to be a mom so badly, and I also loved work. And at the time I was working in a corporate job. And so those two things just started like pulling at me in two different directions and it was really hard to be balanced and feel like I was doing a good job at both of 'em. And I was determined to do a really good job at both of 'em. So I just worked nonstop and tried to do every possible thing for my kids. Like, yes, I can still be the room mom and travel all the time for work and you know, work till midnight and all those crazy things.

So, having those two things together was really hard for me. I know I'm not the only one, but I can only speak for myself. It was really hard for me.

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[00:03:52] Dawn Calvinisti: So in the beginning, obviously you had a partner in your life, I'm assuming. Yes. 

[00:03:59] Michelle Gauthier: Yes. I did. Yep. 

[00:04:00] Dawn Calvinisti: And so some of that changed too, and I think. It's interesting because, you know, I have definitely struggled with the, the whole business end and family end, and how do I make them both work? Jeanine, you've got three kids under six and under.

[00:04:15] Jeanine Hauck: Yeah.

[00:04:16] Dawn Calvinisti: I know that you have had that same issue, but where, where did it go from you know, I'm trying to make this work. I'm in the corporate world. I'm now a mom of two to, I'm starting my own business. And at some point you were a single mom.

[00:04:35] Michelle Gauthier: Yes. Yes, exactly. So I just got to the point when my kids were like probably eight and five or so, where I realized I. From the outside, my life looks like I have everything I ever wanted. And I think if you would've asked me to make a list, I could have checked every box. Like, I've got a great career, I've got kids, I've got a husband.

We live in a nice house. We both have great jobs. You know, all those things. But it just didn't feel right. That's just the only way that I can describe it. It just, it, it wasn't in line with who I really am. And so all within this space of one month, I decided to get separated from my husband, which was not, that was not a quick decision.

Like we, that was a long time coming, years coming probably get separated from my husband. Decided to quit my corporate job. I had already gone through training as a life coach and I was seeing clients on the side, but I was afraid to jump ships, so to speak, because I was so used to that, the money that I was making.

And I knew that I probably wouldn't make that kind of money right off the bat. Just for the record, I now do make, you know, I took me a few years of being in business, but now I do. But at the time, that was very scary. And we also got a puppy and we sold our house and moved into another house, which I renovated.

It was like every change in the book happening all at once. I decided those all at once and then, you know, it took at least a year for all that to play out. So that was probably the scariest part, was just doing that. But I honestly felt like my soul was giving me no other choice.

[00:06:10] Jeanine Hauck: There was a lot of ways you could have done that a lot easier, right? Like you could have held on to some of the familiar for a lot longer.

[00:06:17] Michelle Gauthier: Yes.

[00:06:18] Jeanine Hauck: So why make all of these changes at once? Like often we see people go through these huge transformations at once. Why do it that way?

[00:06:27] Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, that's a good question. In fact, if I had a client, I would ask them that same question, maybe even advise them not to do that. Honestly. The thing I had going for me is I. I just knew, like I had always told myself, I would never be the kind of person who gets divorced. I don't know what I even meant.

I'm sorry to my former self and everyone else who's divorced, but that was what I thought. Like no one in my family's divorced. I loved my husband. I thought we were gonna be together forever. So once I was able to let go of that picture and reimagine that I could still be a great mom even if I was on my own.

I could reimagine that I could be successful even in a different business, and I could just, all of a sudden, everything became possible to me and everything became possible to me when I dropped the idea that everything had to be perfect. It actually never was perfect. And what was exhausting was trying to make it seem like it was and I just wanna say on that, I wasn't like actively deceiving to say, you know, to pretend that my life was something it wasn't because I was trying to, I, I didn't have conscious knowledge that I was doing that, but that's what I realized that I was doing. Like, why am I not getting divorced? Because I'm afraid of what other people will think if I get divorced. Why am I not quitting my job? Because I'm so used to other people thinking of me. I have no idea what they were thinking of me, but in my mind they were thinking, oh, she's this big career girl. She's so successful, she's got that going for her. And I didn't like the idea of being thought of as at the time I thought being a life coach was weird.

Now I don't anymore. But I thought they're gonna think I've chosen this weird woowoo out there job when I've been so successful in like a very traditional kind of way. So once I dropped all of that, everything just felt really possible to me, and I don't wanna say that it felt possible and it felt good because I think if anyone's in the position that I was in where they're thinking about making a change, if you wait for it to feel good, you're never gonna do it.

You just have to wait for it to feel like, yes, I have this fear, I'm gonna take that fear with me, but I can see how this could possibly be successful even if I don't exactly see the how. And I just went for it.

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[00:08:43] Jeanine Hauck: And now you've joined the Weird Club of the 

[00:08:45] Michelle Gauthier: Exactly.

I love it. I would like brainstorm things I could call myself besides a life coach. And now that makes me laugh because if you meet me for like two seconds, I mean, even if I'm like sitting next to a mom at a baseball game or something, I'll be like, what do you do? I'm a life coach. I talk about it all the time now, but at the time, I don't know, I, I thought it was weird.

[00:09:04] Jeanine Hauck: I'm so curious because you said previously, like in the other lifetime of you, your goal was really perfection, whether you knew it or not, and that was kind of your striving force. So what is it now?

[00:09:16] Michelle Gauthier: Now, I would say it is just feeling all the feelings, like just being here in life and being present because I. Again, if you're going for, if you're holding it up to the standard of, I want my life to feel more balanced and I want it to feel really good, it does definitely feel more balanced. But there are days, yesterday was one of those days where it's like, this is too much.

I can't do this. I'm so frustrated. And, and I just have to be able to have that day without kind of shaming it away or pretending that I never get overwhelmed and just see, you know, what is this overwhelm trying to teach me? What can I learn from this? And then start fresh the next day. So my goal is just to be in life now with whatever is happening, whatever feelings are going on, just to be there.

And that makes me feel really content.

[00:10:09] Dawn Calvinisti: You mentioned when you were in the beginning of motherhood, that there was that pull between your corporate job and the family time and trying to make that balance. And I'm just imagining that now life has shifted radically. You're on your own, you're starting not a new job, but definitely it's, it's what you're depending on now, and you have children that, although babies take a lot of work, the emotional part of kids that are getting older takes a lot of work and time and being present and all of that.

So what was life like then? Was there a balance? Did you know how to do that? What was the struggle then?

[00:10:53] Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, there definitely was because I think it's human nature for example, if you get divorced and you jump into another relationship without investigating what happened, you're just gonna recreate that same relationship. And so I think what I first started off doing was recreating my corporate job in my own business. As far as saying, well, I need to work this many hours and this is how much money I need to make and this is how I'm gonna do it.

And I realized, because at, at the beginning, I don't know if you ladies experience the same thing, but at the beginning, you know, you do your marketing and you talk to people about your business, but there's not like nine hours of work to do when you don't have any clients. You know, when you have two clients a week or something, it's just, there's not that much to do.

And so the adjustment there. It wasn't that I didn't have the time, but I didn't want to allow myself the time cuz I felt like I should be doing something else. So the balance became not, I have too much work to do, but I'm trying to create too much work to do. And one of the reasons why I got divorced was because I wanted to create this environment in my home for my family, that it was very peaceful and that it was very predictable and everyone knew that this was our safe, not always happy, but like the free place where we can just be ourselves. And so I made that my priority, my number one priority. And both of my kids had a really hard time as kids do when their parents get divorced. And so there was a lot, like they both went to counseling. We had lots of conversations, I spent a lot of time with them.

So I was really able to focus on that much, much more and just be much more aware of how they were feeling. And I just did, at that time, I just didn't work when they were home from school, so I worked when they'd be gone outta the house and then when they got home, I just didn't work.

[00:12:44] Jeanine Hauck: How old are your kids now?

[00:12:46] Michelle Gauthier: They are 15 and 12.

[00:12:49] Jeanine Hauck: Oh my goodness.

[00:12:50] Michelle Gauthier: Yep.

[00:12:52] Jeanine Hauck: That is just a completely different stage that I can't even imagine at this point.

[00:12:56] Michelle Gauthier: Yes, yes. In some ways it's so much easier than the ages of your kids. In some ways, it's, it's not. There's, you know, there's some pretty complex issues, but yet also you can be like, okay, I'm going out tonight. I'll be home at midnight. Make yourself dinner. I mean, can you imagine doing that?

[00:13:13] Jeanine Hauck: Like you were saying before, you were worried about what everybody was thinking of you, and now you are a single mom, you're running your own business. What are some of the assumptions that come with that? What are some of the assumptions that people have about you?

[00:13:26] Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, it's interesting. I just was actually writing I wrote an article a couple weeks ago about having a to don't list, and one of the things that I just don't do is think about what other people think about me, so, Not at all. Like a thought might come into my head, but I immediately release it and let it go because I feel like, what is a stereotypical single mom who owns her own business and, you know, what are people gonna think about that?

I don't really care. I just want them to, you know, see me as me. I'm a mom, just like they're a mom. I'm a mom, just like other working moms. You know, I'm, I feel like I'm not that different. The thing that I have that most other moms who my kids hang around with don't, is that it's just me. My ex-husband doesn't live here, so it really is just me and I have them all the time.

So when I become friends with some of the other moms, if there's a day where I can like, Let's say, as an example, drive both ways to cheerleading practice for my daughter and take her daughter too. I'll say, is there any way that I could drive both ways this week? Because next week I need to ask you if you could do the same for me, and I'm just really upfront with people and I feel like I do pull my own weight, so to speak.

But I'm just much more likely to be honest and upfront with I could really use help with this. And it's nice because then they know that they can say that to me too, like, we're gonna be out late tonight is there any way my daughter could come and stay at your house? Yeah, that'd be great. That's no problem.

So I feel like by being open and honest about areas where I need help, other people do it too.

[00:15:01] Dawn Calvinisti: I'm glad you mentioned that because there's a couple friends that I have who are single moms who are running businesses. And I constantly think to myself, I feel overwhelmed at times when you know, a kid gets sick or, you know, my husband isn't available to be able to take somebody somewhere, and I also have a meeting, and this wasn't supposed to happen like that.

What kind of supports did you put in place? What resources did you have in order to help yourself through this?

[00:15:28] Michelle Gauthier: Yes. That's interesting because I just last week I had to cancel my original podcast interview cuz I had Covid and one of my kids also had covid and then one of my kids didn't have covid. So I was like, okay. So basically no one else can come into the house. I was really sick, my son was kind of sick and then my daughter was well, so I just thought, how am I gonna manage this?

But I ended up managing it just like I manage everything else. Just wake up in the morning, see what the situation is. There were a couple days where I felt terrible. And so I, my son did luckily feel better than I did, but I made sure he got his medication. I ordered food for delivery. I asked a friend to pick up a prescription medication for me that I couldn't have.

I didn't have a way to get that delivered. It was funny because I reached out to one friend and she happened to be outta town, and I thought, you know, it's really nice to know that I could, I have several other people who I could ask asking for help. I don't think it's anybody's favorite thing to do, but I always just try to put myself in the shoes of if another mom texted me and said, I'm really sick and I can't leave my house, can you pick up my prescription? There's no way that I would ever say no to that. You know, I might have to say, I can do it in an hour or whatever, but there's no way I would say, no, say no to that. And I would actually feel good that she trusted me and asked me.

And so I have to think about that, like being the receiver of that request. So a friend brought me food, another friend just kept texting me every day and saying, is there anything you need? And I didn't need anything, but it was just nice to know that somebody was there. From the business perspective, I have someone who helps me and works for me, so she picked up more of a load than she normally would.

I just texted my clients because that's something that, I mean, my clients text me and I text them and told them that I was sick, and they were all very nice about it. So, That's just one example of, I didn't have a plan for that, but if I just apply the way that I live my life every day, like I'm just gonna see what the deal is today.

I'm gonna make a plan. I'm gonna be open, honest, and ask for help where I need it, and it all worked out just fine.

[00:17:33] Jeanine Hauck: I think a lot of that, like listening to what you were talking about before, not worrying about other people's judgments also means you're a person who doesn't judge those around you and doesn't put your thoughts and beliefs on other people around you. So that really tears down a lot of the boundaries so that you can ask for help because you're not worried about what they're think.

If you ask, you're not, you're creating a. Like, it's just so admirable, this beautiful community around you for you and your kids.

[00:18:01] Michelle Gauthier: Thank you. I appreciate that. And I do think that that's true, that I wouldn't have a lot of thoughts if somebody asked me for extra help or I'm also feel like I'm more tuned in to other people and what they might need, because I know what I need, so I will sometimes offer if I'm available. It just makes you, if you're in the position where you're always trying to figure things out.

I just think you can see it in other people more easily too.

[00:18:28] Dawn Calvinisti: So this might seem like maybe a little bit of a, a hot topic, but I'm just curious because there have got to be women listening who maybe are in the midst of separating or in divorcing or maybe have thought about it but they won't do it because of a safety factor or a perceived safety factor of if I stay, then I can continue to grow my business.

But if I don't, I don't know if I can do it. I don't think it's possible. How am I gonna do this on my own? How am I gonna juggle everything? What would you say to women that are sitting and listening to this?

[00:19:05] Michelle Gauthier: That's a very good question. I, a couple different things on that topic, but the first one is when I think about this and when I'm talking with someone who's in that position, I just wish, wish that I could switch lives with them for like one hour because the difference that they will feel when they get there, you know, when they make that choice, if that's the best choice for that family.

A lot of times I just always thought, well, now my kids are never gonna be okay, but I'm gonna just try to make them okay as they can be. It's not true. They're, they're doing great. My business is doing great. I'm doing great. I feel so peaceful and happy in my home. Every night when I go to bed, I go through a list of all the things I'm grateful for.

Like, I just could not ask for more. And when I was first going through this, if you would've told me that, I would've been like, whatever. I, I hope that's true, but I can't imagine that that's possibly true. So I would just say to that woman, I am here to tell you that it can be so, so, so much better. And if your intuition and your real authentic self is telling you this is the direction you should go, you should do it.

And my personal situation, I mean, everyone has different thoughts about money, different ways they've grown up with money, different beliefs in themselves. But my personal situation is that my ex-husband and I made about the same amount of money. So when we got divorced, he doesn't pay me anything and I don't pay him anything.

So when I decided to go on my own with my business, I was really, really on my own. And I had evidence that I could be successful in business, but not as an entrepreneur, not as a life coach. I didn't have any proof that that was true, and I had a certain amount of savings that I had saved from my old job.

So I did have some, some money saved up, but I just really worked on the thought and the belief that if I'm gonna bet on something, it's gonna be me. I don't wanna bet on someone else changing or me being happy at some point in the future. I just wanna bet on me. I'm the best investment I can think of, and that's, that's really the thought that I focused on and the belief that I held out there and that I was always moving toward.

And I still think it all the time.

[00:21:14] Jeanine Hauck: That's honestly so inspiring and I think that really starts with having a good self worthiness and knowing your value. What got you there? Because I know we're so self depravating as women, 

[00:21:29] Michelle Gauthier: Yes. 

[00:21:29] Jeanine Hauck: you get that way of like knowing your value?

[00:21:33] Michelle Gauthier: Yes, absolutely. The first thing I had to do is I had to separate my enoughness from my perfection, my success in business, the, all of those things. I was very confident, but if you stripped those all away from me, it was like, who am I then, you know, if I'm not this, Business woman who has a successful career and you know, married to someone and has this great house and all that stuff.

So then who am I? And so it was really getting down to the bare bones of who I really am. And like, yes, I moved to a much smaller house and I'm a single mom, which I used to think of like a life coach. Like, ooh, people are gonna think that's so weird. Now again, I don't, but it was all these thoughts that I had and I'm almost glad that I lost, by choice in most cases, I lost everything that made me enough in my own mind, and I had to find my enoughness just in being me. So how I did that is I just worked on that, the belief that I'm already enough, I am enough in my first year of business when I'm making, you know, no money and having two clients.

And when I am living in a house, that we were renovating the house, so I had to do like dishes in the bathtub for a while. And you know, sometimes my kids would both be crying cuz they had a really hard day. Like even in all that mess, I was enough and I was worthy and I had value and I have always had the gift of seeing that value in other people and seeing their potential.

And I just had to turn that on myself.

[00:23:13] Jeanine Hauck: It's really funny because like in listening to you say all that, like it's comical how often we actually put our enoughness in relation to something.

[00:23:23] Michelle Gauthier: Yeah.

[00:23:24] Jeanine Hauck: So that we keep pushing that finish line, we keep moving it, and suddenly we're never just, we're never just quite there because it's in relation.

[00:23:32] Michelle Gauthier: Yes, exactly. And I feel like anytime you're saying, I. I will be blank when, like I will be happy when, I will be enough when, that's always, you should always pay attention to that because that means that you're never gonna get there. As soon as you get there, you're gonna make some other, okay, well I'm happy now cause I have one kid, but now I wanna have two kids and I have two kids, but I want them to be in the right school and it's like, just stop.

Just be happy right now. Or don't even put the pressure to be happy. Just be right now. Be where you are.

[00:24:03] Jeanine Hauck: And, and I would say it's not that you can't have that goal. Like you have your first kid and it's like you want a second one. You can still have that goal and want it and be happy when you do that, but it's about being happy now and also, and also enjoying.

[00:24:18] Michelle Gauthier: exactly. Like I think of it as two different columns on a piece of paper. Like, I wanna have a child, I wanna have a second child. I want my kids to go to this school. Those are all things that you want in life. And then the feeling of enoughness is separate. They're not tied together. And a lot of times our brain tries to trick us into thinking, in order to feel this way, I need to accomplish these things.

But you can feel that way now before you've accomplished them, during, while you're accomplishing them after it's, it's possible. And we just have to remember to separate those two things.

[00:24:48] Dawn Calvinisti: It reminds me of one of my friends who always said like, bring out the good China. Not that we, you know, necessarily have good China anymore, but you know what I mean. Bring out the good China every day. Use it to eat your breakfast. Use it to have your snack. Use it to have dinner because otherwise you're waiting for that day that never comes when the queen's gonna finally show up at your 

[00:25:04] Michelle Gauthier: Then you're gonna be like, oh, it's dusty, and I don't even remember where I put it. And yeah, exactly. That's great. I love it.

[00:25:12] Dawn Calvinisti: I always ask every guest that comes on the show, which of the three Ps they relate to the most. I don't wanna assume, although you've mentioned some things, but I don't wanna assume, but would you say you are more of a people pleaser or a perfectionist or a procrastinator?

[00:25:28] Michelle Gauthier: Mm, okay. I'm not a procrastinator. I'm a, my problem is in the opposite direction. I immediately take action so that one I can cross off. I have some people pleasing and some perfection. I've worked more on the perfection. People pleasing, I've let go of with work too, but I'd say perfection is the one that still comes back.

You know how you have those thoughts that you've worked on so much. And then sometimes I'll notice I feel bad about something and when I look into it, it's always like, I feel like I'm not doing this well enough, or people are gonna think whatever. Those are the thoughts that still creep into my head. So I'd say perfectionist is the deepest.

[00:26:08] Dawn Calvinisti: And how does your perfectionism help you in what you do in life?

[00:26:12] Michelle Gauthier: I think it helps me because I really do enjoy, truly enjoy doing a good job, so it helps me get started. I'm not afraid to do things. I want them to be the best they can be. What I've had to add to really make it a benefit is to allow for doing B minus work. Sometimes, like this doesn't have to be perfect.

I'm gonna choose to make this B minus work, and if I, you know, Wrote a email that had a typo in it or something. No one cares like the message is gonna get out there. So I just had to add that part on and then it's really a great trait.

[00:26:49] Dawn Calvinisti: Yeah. Yeah. I know that you're giving all of the listeners a free gift, which is the fresh start morning routine. Tell us a little bit about how this is gonna benefit us.

[00:26:58] Michelle Gauthier: Okay. First of all, it's 10 minutes long, so that I think is a huge benefit, especially if you're a mom, business owner, we don't have tons of time usually, so it's something you can do first thing in the morning. I love morning routines. I used to do an hour. I just find this kind of thing fascinating.

So I boiled down all the best things I found from all these different morning routines that I've tried to make it a compact, super efficient way to get your day started off on the right foot. And one of the questions that's in there that makes people kind of squirm is, what do I love about myself today?

And when people first start using it, they're like, I don't know what to say about that. And then eventually they get into the habit. And that's something that really helps build that self-worth that we were talking about, is just realizing that every day there's something I can love about myself.

[00:27:46] Dawn Calvinisti: I'm gonna put this into the show notes. So if you're looking for it, take a look there. I'm also gonna put all of Michelle's contact info so that you can get to know her better, get into her community. Like I said, I listen to her, or I read her newsletter every time. So get into her newsletters so that you can get to know her better and hear what's going on.

And there's always such good tidbits of information where I feel like, oh, I forget that. You know, I need to apply that. And it's always great to have reminders from people who are also experiencing that and helping us through it on the journey. So what would be a really great place if they, you know, can't make it to the show notes right now, but would like to find you?

Where can they connect?

[00:28:22] Michelle Gauthier: Yes. Well, my podcast is called The Overwhelmed Working Woman, so you could search that, but if you wanna just start with. Everything is, you can go to my website, which is Michelle. Michelle has two Ls goth here, G A u t h i e r.com, and that has a link to the podcast, to that morning routine to sign up for my newsletter.

Everything is on my website working with me. If you wanna work with me one-on-one, it's all there. So that's probably the best place to start.

[00:28:50] Dawn Calvinisti: And Michelle, is there anything else that you would like to say to our listeners today?

[00:28:55] Michelle Gauthier: I would just say that if you are a single mom or considering becoming a single mom and a business owner to tell you that it is totally possible. There are days that are hard, but you, you two women have days that are hard too. It's not like single moms are the only ones who have those. And that if you're looking for building your belief, Just search out for evidence for other people who are already doing it, myself included.

Send me a message, DM me on Instagram. If you need some support, you can borrow my belief until you get yours going. But if you think that you can do it and your intuition is guiding you in that direction, go for it.

[00:29:35] Dawn Calvinisti: Thank you so much, Michelle, for being here and a part of the podcast. I think this is an area that needs to be talked about. Not everybody is in a relationship and having that, that type of support as they're building a business. And also I think for a lot of women who just feel like they're doing it all alone, it's important to understand yeah, it is possible. So thank you for sharing that.

[00:29:54] Michelle Gauthier: It is. It absolutely is. And you know, one thing I didn't say but just popped into my mind is, it's such a great example to your kids too.

[00:30:02] Dawn Calvinisti: Absolutely. Thanks Jeanine for being here and a co-host again with me. I so appreciate having you here.

[00:30:09] Jeanine Hauck: It has been a pleasure. I know the biggest takeaway I have from Michelle is it's, it's enough with the enough.

[00:30:16] Michelle Gauthier: That's right. I love that. That's a great way to say it.

[DAWN CALVINISTI]

Thanks for listening to today's show. If you found value in what you heard, please share it with a friend and rate and review us on whatever platform you listen on. It really helps get us out to other women who could benefit from listening. 

Check out our show notes for details from the show and to connect with me or our guests. Want to continue the conversation? My website is www.pursueprogress.com or DM me @pursueprogresswithdawn on Instagram. 

Until next week, pursue progress no matter how imperfectly.

Links from this episode:

CONNECT WITH DAWN:

Website: https://pursueprogress.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pursueprogresswithdawn.com

Imperfection in Progress Podcast: https://pursueprogress.com/podcast

Imperfection in Progress Membership: https://www.pursueprogress.com/imperfectioninprogressmembership

Grab your 200 Affirmations for the 3 P’s here: https://www.pursueprogress.com/affirmationspodcast

CONNECT WITH MICHELLE:

Website: www.michellegauthier.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellegauthiercoaching/

Free Gift: The Fresh Start Morning Routine

Link to Gift: https://michellegauthier.mykajabi.com/goodmorning