It’s 9pm on a Tuesday night. My coaching call just finished – 30 minutes late because tonight’s session on founder stories and building genuine brand connections was too valuable to cut short.

For the first half, Jack sat beside me on the sofa. And I let him. I even kept my camera on.

The old me would have hidden that. Would have muted, turned off the video, or shooed him away. Would have worried about looking “unprofessional” to my cohort, the trainer, or even to Jack himself.

Not anymore.

This Is My Superpower

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm, I’m a student again. I’ve been showing up to these ecommerce optimisation coaching calls since October 2024, and missing a session? Just not an option. It’s gold-level learning, and I’m not just supporting a client – I’m fascinated by the random US Shark Tank-type brands in my cohort.

But here’s the thing: it’s 7pm. It’s an international course. Life happens.

And you know what? I don’t want to banish Jack from these moments. I want him to see me working, learning, putting in the hours for things I truly want. I want him to witness that growth never stops, that his mum is always curious, always improving.

We’ve all seen that viral footage of the dad being interviewed while his two young kids crash his home office and his wife desperately tries to wrangle them out of frame. That moment became a meme because we all recognised the panic – the scramble to separate “professional” from “parent.”

But why?

Work-Life Blend, Not Balance

The truth is, work-life balance feels like a myth most days. Work-life blend? That feels more honest.

When you work with me, this is what you get. There’ll be lovely small talk about families, interests, the juggle we’re all managing. There’ll also be heaps of professionalism, strategic thinking, and results that matter.

Being a mum running a successful business isn’t something I need to hide. It’s part of my superpower. It’s shaped how I think, how I problem-solve, how I manage time, how I communicate with empathy while still driving results.

Jack’s little sponge brain might pick up something brilliant from these calls. If he wants to become an AI or optimisation genius, I’m not getting in his way. If he just wants to sit beside his mum while she learns something new, that’s beautiful too.

Showing Up as Our Whole Selves

I think about the women in my audience – the ambitious business owners juggling everything, feeling like they need to compartmentalise every part of their lives to be taken seriously.

What if we stopped doing that?

What if we showed up as our whole selves – the strategic thinker AND the mum making dinner? 

The marketing expert AND the woman learning something new at 7pm on a Tuesday? 

The business owner AND the person whose kid sometimes needs to sit close during an important call?

I’m not suggesting we bring chaos to every professional moment. But I am suggesting we stop pretending our lives exist in separate, perfectly managed boxes.

Because they don’t. And that’s actually okay.

The Lesson in the Living Room

Tonight, as Jack sat beside me listening to discussions about authentic brand storytelling and building genuine connections, I realised something: this is authentic brand storytelling. This is a genuine connection.

This is me, at 7pm on a Tuesday, learning something that will make me better at what I do, with my 7-year-old beside me, both of us exactly where we need to be.

The old me would have worried about what that looked like to others.

The current me knows exactly what it looks like: real life, lived authentically, without apology.

And honestly? That feels like the most professional thing of all.