Untitled - November 26, 2025
00:00:00 Speaker: Hi, I'm Denise, host of the Working Moms Redefined podcast. Let's join together as we lessen the hold of mom guilt in our lives, thrive in our careers, and raise great kids. You are doing enough. Let us boost your confidence today on this episode of the Working Moms Redefined podcast. So many of you understand the pressure that is on working parents, especially like you and today's world. What better person than to have on today's Working Moms Redefined episode than Courtney Cecil? She's the CEO and founder of the Working Moms Movement, and truly a woman that has turned her own season of overwhelm, weighted pressure, distractions into a mission to help moms like you and I reclaim our time, energy, and identity. Doesn't that just sound wonderful? Sign me up. She is a mom of two ten and eight and a half, both boys, and she in herself is a leader that has really navigated that burnout feeling firsthand. Now Courtney gets to equip women like you and I with practical tools, rhythms that are healthier and, dare I say, freedom to define balance in our own terms. Welcome, Courtney. We cannot wait to talk with you today. Goodness, Denise, thank you for such a just glorified intro, but also so customized and real. So thank you for having me. You deserve it. Much like all of our listeners who are very excited to hear what you have to share based on your experience of working through the burnout that so many of us feel, and sometimes from time to time, I even wonder. I'm like, am I creating this story of overwhelm in my head? Maybe it's not that bad for everybody else, but dare I say, community is power. And Courtney, you are going to help us by the end of today's episode. Feel so many things. But if we could say, hey, what are you going to take away from today? What would you say to that? So I would say that the biggest thing that I hope you walk away with is that being clear on what you value is paramount to every decision you make. And I don't just mean I, I value family. A lot of people that you're are listening and tuning in here. Denise probably would raise their hand and be like, I know what I value, I value family, but it's understanding the double click on that. Whether you value family dinners or raising service oriented people or raising kids to be the next scholar, it it doesn't really matter. That's personal to you and that's okay. But when you're clear on what you value, it completely unlocks your ability to make clear decisions, to feel accomplished, to feel at peace and and where you're spending your time, where you're spending your energy and where you're spending your money. So it all goes back to your values, and you will hear me talk about that in almost every single question. I can't wait because the question is coming to the forefront is how many one value should I select and two, how do I start? Right. And before we get there, let's get a little background on your passion, Courtney. So you have built the Working Moms movement to help women really reclaim their time and energy. What does that look like, especially for you now that you're a CEO and a mom of two that maybe so many of us can relate to? No. The first thing Denise and I know you can relate to is how humbling it is to start a business. Look, I spent I think it's important for your audience to know I spent a couple decades in corporate before I fully. I mean, actually, in the past three months, four months, I went fully into this business. So I have been building and growing the brand on the side and really activating what I believe the core infrastructure was for it. But I came from corporate. I spent sixteen years in consulting, um, many of which were in the culture shaping space before going to a fortune fifty to serve as head of culture. And that was a cakewalk compared to starting a business. Um, so balance looks a little dicey, and I'm trying to be very dogmatic about practicing what I preach. So as an example, going back to the value piece, because I value vacations and because I value relationships almost more than anything, I start calendaring those. I know my friends make so much fun of me. I know which vacations I'm going to be taking when and where for the next ten years. I it just it inspires me. It keeps me grounded on how I'm spending my time now to make sure that I'm making the money to make that happen, because those vacations are so important to me. Those trips are so important to me. The same with my relationships. I mean, I value relationships significantly, so I'm scheduling my social life before I'm scheduling my work, and then I figure out how to fit everything else in there, including workouts. As an example, because I value my health, I'm starting with my workouts. So yeah, I mean, it is it is certainly a busier than planned stage of life because, uh, again, entrepreneurship, it turns out, is very, very hard. And I'm at a stage in life where my kids are in the middle of everything. They are very activity driven. So that's got me a little down on time. But I really do try to practice what I preach. So my my system, my podcast, everything I do is called the Life management system, and I believe that it's truly a customized rhythm that you develop around what it is that you value. So I'm just trying to stay really true to that and, and honor what I believe to be such a foundational piece of how I do life and how I encourage my clients to do life. Um, describe to me what the life management system looks like from a very far out scope. So another very important part of my background, Denise, is I am a trained industrial and systems engineer. It is what I went to school in. I started out in manufacturing and for those of you that don't know, industrial and systems engineering is essentially how do you maximize anything? Um, how do you get as much bang for your buck out of materials? So, um, if you think about a manufacturing line, I actually worked at a place called. Well, I'm not even going to say the place I worked at, a place we made huge we made huge industrial lights. So think about lights that you're going to see in a sports stadium or in highways like big, big, massive lights. And when those lights came down our assembly line, I was able to say, okay, you know what? If we rearrange this one thing, we could probably save two minutes off the attack time of this process. So industrial engineering as a whole and manufacturing engineering is all about efficiency and effectiveness. So what I do is I smush those basic systems principles, where I am refining processes and routines and making things repeatable like we do in engineering. And I'm overlaying the values work that I've done for the past twelve years in corporate, where values work is all about how do you align what it is that you really care about with your behaviors. And when you smoosh those together, you essentially get a life management system. So it's essentially a way that each one of us can design our lives to be aligned with what it is that we value most. Because when you're clear on what you value, you know what you should be prioritizing. And when you're clear on what you prioritize, you know how you should be spending your resources, your resources being time, money, and energy. So it is essentially like this way that you can make your life more efficient and more effective. So you're maximizing, uh, your, your core resources on what it is that you value. What might be the first step for moms to begin designing this type of schedule that really gets and fits their values or their rhythm or, dare I say, a sense of balance. Yeah, I would say the first step is getting clear on what you value. Um, because when you do, it at least allows you to generate some awareness around how you might be spending your resources. Again, resources being time, money and energy on things that really aren't necessary for you. And again, it's the double click. So if you think about, okay, you value your family, what do you really value about your family? Is it again family dinners and being able to sit down together and and really be basking in that that quality time. Is it creating opportunities for your kids? Is it your extended family or your nuclear family? All of those double clicks will help unpack a decision that you have to say, you know what? It's really this over this because We got what you do. When you start to really understand what it is that you value. It clarifies your priorities and priorities inherently have winners and losers. Just like a strategy, like a good strategy. Not everything can be a winner because then it inherently isn't a priority. It's just a list of stuff. So I think that if you get clear on those values, it unlocks all of your thinking to where now you know how to make decisions, now you know how to align your time. Now you know, um, what to say yes and what to say no to. And while that might not ultimately get you to where you have this refined system that's repeatable and predictable, and everybody in your life knows how and what their role is and fitting into it, at least you now have awareness on what does and doesn't work. What a gift that would be to so many parents out there listening. Because one, it's hard to to take time and set time to be able to identify these, but if you do, it will potentially save you time down the road. I love it. Plus, in my mind there's a little bit of your system background coming out in this that makes me want to have a checklist like, yes, I did this, I did this, okay, now we're moving on. And yet, is it hopeful for us to say, okay, this will allow you as a working parent to feel more work life balance? Or would you say there's a misconception around work life balance that you wish more people would maybe let go of? I think that it's somewhere in between because I do believe balance exists. It's just different for everyone, again, because we all have to set our own priorities. So when I think back to, I don't know, fifteen years ago, Courtney, I would have said that I had work life balance, but that also included saying yes to a lot of special projects that I simply do not value at this stage in life and career. I felt like I had balance, but but today Courtney would think, oh my gosh, girlfriend was crazy because I was working myself ragged. Now, neither of those are wrong. It's just that I have evolved and my thinking has evolved based on this stage in life. And that's why I think a true life management system is so customized to every single person, because our circumstances are different. In addition to our values being different. So, Denise, even though you and I have two kids that are very close in age, it yours are a boy and girl, and that's inherently going to be a different outcome probably than having two boys, yours even being a year behind mine and school same or two years behind. Same thing. Every single. One of the different circumstances we have contribute to something different and the type of balance we have, the type of life that we need to build for ourselves. So it's just I believe it's possible. Um, I also believe that we just have to be realistic and gracious with what we actually consider balance And that balance to me, more than anything, is being able to have a completely fulfilled life that checks all the boxes that I really prioritize. It might not mean getting to sit down and watch TV every day. I don't watch TV. I rarely watch TV. The little bit that I do is sitting with an iPad propped up on my bathroom when I'm getting ready for bed. Like that's as far as I go. But I still feel like I have balance and I'm not sacrificing anything but balance to other people might mean no, I need like my husband. He needs thirty minutes of downtime to sip his tea and like, completely veg. So if he didn't have that, he would feel very unbalanced. So I just, I don't know. I'm sorry, a loaded answer to your question, but I believe it does. It's possible, but it looks a little bit different to everyone. All of this to some like me, sounds great. Like I'm ready. All in. Let's go. And others might think, oh, that sounds like something else that I have to do. I'm not ready for that. I'm already very stressed. I'm, dare I say, feeling alone or exhausted or stuck in the basketball practice schedule or the baseball tryouts or whatever that might look like. What advice would you give to someone who is listening that might feel all of that? Um, first of all, I would start with it not being something you have to do. I mean, that goes back to this notion of it having to be perfect in order to move forward where it's like, no, we're not talking about perfection. We're talking about awareness. So instead of it being this exercise where you feel pressure to carry that, it just becomes awareness as you go throughout your day. So when I work with clients, um, I, I work very small pieces at a time because when you look at the macro, that becomes very quickly overwhelming. But it also means that you're probably not going to have results that stick or become sustainable. So we look at little tiny micro changes at a time. And that's how I would encourage you to think about this whole notion of a life management system, and particularly around thinking what you about, what you value, don't necessarily put the pressure on yourself to make declarative, defined statements where you have this perfect list and said, just treat it as a tool for you to become more aware as you go throughout your day. So as an example, maybe your boss comes to you and says, Hey Denise, I'm really excited to share this special project with you. I think you're going to be great at it. In that moment, say, you know, is this right for me? Does this align with something that I value at this stage in life? Maybe the answer is yes because you're chasing a promotion. Or maybe the answer is yes, because that unlocks your ability to move into a new role or a new service that you've never provided before. Or maybe you're quite content in your career, and what you value is the free time to be able to log off at night without the pressure to log back on. So again, it doesn't really matter what your answer is. It's all about you and what what you value. So just use this as a tool. To inform how you're making decisions in the moment. And slowly but surely you'll start to crystallize your thinking. But I think if you just use those those values as your North star, it will solve for a lot. Beyond that, it's the basic stuff that we know intellectually. We just might struggle to practice things like relaxing your perfectionist standards. I call it a B minus stage in life. How do we and I was a valedictorian. I care a lot about getting good grades, but this is not the time for a-plus-plus standards. Your kids don't care. They care about you being present, not you being perfect. So how can you relax some of your perfectionist tendencies? How can you make sure you're not doing things alone, that you're delegating and outsourcing at home just like you are at work. How do you actually honor your boundaries and say no when things aren't a priority? Because you're clear on what you value? So I think that you know you're not alone. But just as you go through life, if you can start being more aware, it leads to more intentionality. I needed to hear that just as much as our listeners. That B-minus comparative to an A+ plus. And your kids don't care. They want your love. I mean, how life giving is that? To be able to know that you're enough as you are right now, whether you do anything or whether you don't do anything. And I can totally relate on the thought process of I have to do really well to feel success. It's okay to say I'm doing well and change that to a first person. So I so appreciate that and being able to translate that into a calendar system through your life management system sounds really great. I'm also in that stage right now where I am so digging the idea of a skylight calendar, and this conversation might be the one to just push me over the edge, because I love the concept of planning. However, a lot of moms and parents feel that sometimes their calendar might be running them instead of the other way around. What does it look like to maybe start taking back control? You said that concept of decide what to say yes to and decide what to say no to, but do you have any other takeaways that our listeners can really implement tomorrow? Yeah, my my favorite thing. So my boys, um, go to a leadership based magnet school here in Charlotte where I live. And that leadership based school is oriented around Stephen Covey's seven Principles of Highly Effective People. So we use that language a lot in this house. And the one thing that I probably use more than anything with the boys is put first things first. So it normally comes and is applied in circumstances like the morning when they're getting ready to to catch the bus. If they get distracted by their Ranger Rick magazine sitting in front of them, or they get distracted by a news update coming from Alexa. Oh my gosh, I love it. Denise is holding up the seven habits book right now. Yes. So a lot of the culture work that I did in organizations was not covey material, but it it applied a lot of the same principles as Covey does. Um, so that language put first things first shows up with the boys in the mornings where it's like, hey, you need to put first things first. That Ranger Rick magazine needs to sit where it is until you finish your breakfast, put on your shoes, got out your jacket. You know the essentials. But that also very much shows up for me in the way that I apply, uh, my own thinking to my calendar, to what I encourage my clients to do. You. So I said earlier, like my vacations are an absolute priority to me. It is. It's the it's the fun part of my year. I schedule them frequent. I schedule them very far in advance because it is an absolute priority to me. So I'm putting those first things first by scheduling what it is I value, even down to the week to week. Denise. Like, I know what I'm going to work out my I'm with my trainer Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays now, albeit I scheduled them those days because of my shower schedule. Like as somebody with a lot of hair, I'm sure you can relate. Like I got a lot of hair. It's very textured. It's it's very complicated. So like a Thursday workout, like a a big sweat session makes sense on Thursdays because then I get to wash my hair and it's great for Friday, Saturday, Sunday like that. The social life. So I think if you put first things first, it automatically tells you where your white space is in your calendar, that you can then plug with your meetings with the day to day grind. But if you don't do that, you're never going to have to to use your language. Um, Denise, you're never going to have control of your calendar because you will always be a slave to what other people are saying. It should be your priority as opposed to what it is that you actually prioritize. Um, so I think if you if you do that, then let the white space care for itself. And, and as it relates to white space to, you know, let's take take relationships as an example. Because I value relationships, I want to say yes to people a lot, and I am not afraid to make commitments around the things that I know are a priority. So if you come to me, Denise, and you're like, hey, I would really love to see you, let's grab coffee, let's grab a drink. I'm like, yes, let's do it. When are you free? I am free these days. Like I pull out my calendar. Then I am not afraid to commit to to what I care about. But sometimes that commitment might mean, like, I'm looking at my calendar and I don't have any white space left for the next two months, because I've already already committed to all the things I've committed to. Everything I can say yes to. So we might not be getting coffee or drinks for another two months, but I'm going to slot you then. And and I think that again, when you, when you know what it is you value and prioritize, it allows you to know what to say yes to, um, and it allows you to actually commit to making it happen and then just space that stuff out, even if it's two, three, four months down the road, that like that might be appropriate for that person or that activity or that request, that type of request if, um, but again, if you have to know what white space you have to work with in order to even be able to apply that thinking. Yeah. I love the reminder that saying no means you're saying yes to something else. That's such a great, great awareness piece. And for me, I'm very similar with you, Courtney, and relationships are important to me. And yet it's the next question is which relationships. And so with my clients, what I love to do is the circle activity as to how many or which people do you want to be closest to you? So you're in the middle. There's a circle around you that you get to place five people on that circle, and then an outer circle of ten and then fifteen, and you start identifying who it is in those circles, so that when an ask comes or when white space might come up, you're like, oh, I want to spend time with this person because I value them and their values, dare I say, because they're so similar. And it makes saying yes. And dare I say no to the asks that you're like, yeah, that's not going to fill my cup quite as much, but that's a boundary. And gosh darn it, boundaries are hard. I am better at it than I was a year ago, but I definitely have room for improvement. What might you say are some subtle signs or areas of opportunity that a mom might need this set to strengthen a boundary. For those of us who might have it in the blind spot or not even realize it yet. So, uh, I feel like when I hear you talk, Denise, I'm hearing so many of my clients have passed and some of what they've told me where I'm to your point, just as you acknowledged to me where I'm thinking, oh, that's a boundary. So I could like subtle signs you're having a fake argument in your head where you're defending yourself and you're defending yourself because you're tolerating something that doesn't align with you. Or maybe it's the along that same vein, like, oh, it's fine when it's actually not fine at all. You know, if you are sensing that energy, if you're sensing that, you know, it's that energy and you feel like, oh my gosh, it's just this season. But that season has been lasting year after year after year. And you're still pushing through like what? What was it, Jeff Foxworthy? Was he the one that said, there's your sign? I don't know, I feel like I should know this growing up in the hills of, uh, Virginia, that there's, you know, there's some comedian growing up, um, that. Oh, I think it's Jeff Foxworthy. Anyway. You're right. Yeah. Okay. So, um, maybe like other signs going back. Calendar, given that we just talked about calendar, like, if your days are filled with obligations for everyone else but you, there's your sign. Um, or if you were looking at it and you're feeling guilty that you're doing something for yourself, it's probably because you're internalizing expectations that others have of you, as opposed to the expectations that you have of the life you want to create for yourself. So very, very clear signs, um, another like a common sign of burnout that also might show up here is doomscrolling or staying up late to just have me time. Like that's probably because you haven't put boundaries in Boundaries and places that you need to have in order to create the space that you need for you. And that includes sleep. You know, like if you're staying up late because that's the only time you get me time. Like, you're you are inherently disrupting boundaries that you might need for yourself. Um, but the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest. I think that shows up for most of the women that I engage with is just this low simmer of resentment. And the resentment could be at your colleagues because you feel like they're not, quote unquote, honoring your boundaries. Or maybe it's your spouse or, you know, or your partner or your co-parent because they're not pulling their weight. And what you believe they need to or it could be, you know, your your parents and they're them superimposing their own opinions on how you need to parent because it's the way they did things. Um, so those are all boundaries. You know, boundaries are emotional. They're physical, their financial. Um, they don't necessarily have to exist in just time, which is how we tend to treat them. So I would think if you are experiencing that, that lower simmer of resentment where you're thinking, I shouldn't be annoyed by this, but I am. Or hey, I'm fantasizing about forty eight hours by myself. Not necessarily to spa, but just like to be with me. Those are all probably signs that you're not bitter because of the stage of life you're in. You're bitter that you haven't been able to honor the boundaries that you know are really important to you. And guess what, my friends? The bad, the bad news there is that, um, it's it's not other people. But the good news is it's you. Like, that is something that you can control. You can control yourself. You can't control others. So you actually get to influence the outcome and how you how you honor those, and that might be hard to hear for some. I remember the first time that my therapist said to me, who can control that? Like, I can control that. And yet that then means that I have to choose me. And I am a very huge proponent of no, no, no. We say I get to. And yet it's hard to say. I get to choose me when we are consistently serving other people, whether it's our family or at work. And it is hard to set boundaries between work and home life. And so what might you say? Because it's easy for those listening to write off the fact of, oh, Courtney and Denise have their own businesses, they can do what they want. Go back to the very first comment that you said Courtney of corporate work was easier than entrepreneurship. We're not comparing. There are different hardships in each, but what might you say to someone who feels as if they are stuck in their office or at their desk, between an eight to five and don't have the flexibility to set up those boundaries, or so they think that they don't have the flexibility to set up boundaries like that. Yeah, I think that that's a really important word. Probably the most important word in everything you said is think. Um, as an example, one of the clients that I met with on Monday, she, she said that very thing to me around, I can't do this. I'm like, why can't you do that? Who told you what what what is happening in that hour, that magic hour that you think is so critical? And she was like, well, nothing. It's just it's. And as she started talking herself through it, she was realizing it's imposter syndrome. It is her own narrative of what her colleagues are saying about her. It's all of this other inflated stuff, but all of it's in her head. It's not reality. So we had to work through that together. But I think, as with everything we've talked about, um, boundaries are a container to protect what it is that you value. again, like I think the golden nugget is values are at the epicenter or should be at the epicenter of all of our thinking, all of our behaviors. It all goes back to that. So if you think of boundaries as a container to protect those, it makes things so much easier for you to think about. And yeah, that's not necessarily a hard and fast rule, but it's more about a guidebook for you to be able to stay true to what it is that you prioritize based on whatever stage in life you're in now. So it could be that you're not accepting special projects at work, or that you're not volunteering for every quarter at PTA, or that you're trying to save money. So you're not clicking on Instagram ads like, you know, again, there are all kinds of different boundaries. They're not necessarily all related to time. While that tends to be what we think about the most as a as a busy working mom, because it's what our most precious resources, there are all kinds of different boundaries. So, um, going back to that word, think, Denise, very contrarian point of view here, but I really don't believe in firm boundaries at work. And the reason being, it allows me to maximize what I'm getting out of life as a whole. If I think about my life as just one big bucket, I'm able to pull more things out of that bucket than I would if I treated them separately. So I really let my boundaries with work flow together. And I know that's not for everybody. Um, there are some people that are very dogmatic about having hard, hard, hard lines between the two. But when I think about what I'm able to get out of life, like I think about my relationships. Denise, you and I were just talking about my best friend who, you know, grew up in the town. You went to the town, the, you know, city that you went to college. Well, because I didn't put that boundary in place. Now, not only do I have her as my best friend, she is godmother to my youngest. I am godmother to her youngest, I travel with many of my former colleagues. I have frequent every other week catch ups with many of them that I haven't worked with for ten years, and it's all because I didn't treat work as a hard and fast boundary. I let the two flow together. I was able to get so much more out of it because of that. The same with time management. If I treated work and life as a really hard line, then I'm probably having to wake up really early to work out before I get my boys on the bus. But instead, and I'm not a morning person, not even a little bit of a morning person. So instead I wake up, get the boys on the bus, then I work out, then I get myself ready, and then I start work. And by the way, anybody who's listening and thinks I only do that because I am now in business for myself, you are incorrect. When I was head of culture at a fortune fifty, I was practicing the exact same thing. I would, I would, I would once again, I'd. I'd sleep in until it was time for me to get the boys ready and on the bus. Then I'd go to work out, then I get myself ready. Then I'd commute into the office. I was physically going into office then. Yes, of course, that meant that I was having to give up other part like other freedoms. You know, I would have to go back to bed sometimes after I put my kids down to work. But it's what worked for me because I value my sleep, because I'm not a morning person, or I wouldn't do things like I'd schedule my calls or my commute around my calls, or vice versa. Whereas I have one of my clients. She's like, no, I need my commute time to just completely decompress. I respect that, but when you make those decisions to do one thing or the other, again, it's there's priorities. Every priority has a winner and loser. I can't have my cake and eat it too. You just kind of have to figure out what's more important to you. For me, I would much rather give up my commuting time and use those to take calls with my direct reports, and I would prefer to sleep in. That's not my client's story, and that's okay. So if you think about boundaries as access to you. It doesn't have to be hard and fast access if you don't want it to be. I don't believe it has to be, but it's, you know, think about it as access. Think about it as a fence. You can open and close it. However it makes sense for you. And based on that, it allows it informs you of all the things you need to do to put those in place. So those forty five minute meeting blocks. So you have you have transition time or being able to have a device free lunch or a device free dinner with your family, or putting up an out of office on Tuesdays after three o'clock because your child is in some special activity that is inconvenient for anybody else to get him or her to, you know, like, it doesn't really matter. I would just say, don't apologize about it. Show up like a freaking boss. Just tell people that this is what you're doing, because as soon as you start asking permission, people will start negotiating with you. But it's your life. They're going to let you know. Your boss will let you know. Somebody else will let you know if you are crossing a line. Otherwise, don't let yourself talk like don't talk. Let yourself talk yourself out of something just because you're afraid it reflects poorly on you. Like just like I told my client earlier this week, no, you just you show up and you do it. And then if people start asking questions, then you have a conversation. My boss, I reported to, I worked for four different CEO administrations, and one of my bosses that I was chief of staff to, I led work strategy for him. He used to brag about not taking his computer on his vacations. Holy moly, could you imagine a woman ever doing that? Like, that's not how we operate, but we do that to ourselves. So think about your boundaries as a fence that you had to open and close as they make sense for you based on where you are in life. And just stop. Stop apologizing. Stop asking permission. Sorry, Denise, that is like this is a like I just realized how long I talked, but clearly a very big passion of mine that I feel very self-righteous about protecting women in. And what you said is what so many of us needed to hear. So thank you for that. I know I'm not the only one who is very much interested in how we can learn more about you, work with you. What? How can people connect? Give me your little spiel as to what you do, how you do it, how we can get Ahold of you, all of that good stuff. Yeah. Thank you for asking. And again, Denise, for the invitation here. So I in addition to being a podcast host myself, my podcast is called the Life Management System for working for Mom Life, the life management system for working moms. Well, um, I also my program is called the Life Management System. So I work in two different forums. One is with individuals. I invite them into my group coaching program where we spend time together, essentially building your customized life management system around what it is that you value. So that way Your your life is smooth, your systems are in place. You have a rhythm and routine that's predictable. That is not for you to carry all the weight on your shoulders alone. So how do we manage your to do list more effectively? How do we manage your routine more effectively? How do we build your support system so you're not doing it all. So I have that and I also work with businesses. So I um have speaking and I also, um, institute coaching programs with inside businesses or workshops or that sort of thing. So I would welcome anybody that is looking for that type of support to reach out to me at Working Moms Movement on Instagram. Or you can email me at Courtney at. Com. Love it. Before we wrap up our time together, some of my favorite are these lightning round style questions. And Courtney, I have to know where are the top three places that you want to vacation? Oh, so I well, I am thirty nine countries in at this point in my bucket list is four is fifty countries by fifty. So I am my my list is getting a lot smaller on where I want to go. The top is Egypt. I want to do that for my forty ninth birthday. I want to do Israel for my fiftieth birthday. But what's coming up next is my ultimate bucket list. Um, in October of twenty twenty six, I am going to Norway and Finland to see the Northern Lights. Oh, Sokol. Sokol. Love it. Okay, what is one boundary for you that you never let slide? Uh, I mean, the soft boundary is like, I never let people have access to me if they don't live a life of integrity. But I think, um, apropos to the time of year that we're about to go into. Denise, I don't leave my house in December. I love Christmas decorations. I love that season. Just love it, love it, love it. But during December, if somebody wants to come to my house to have cocktails, to sit by the fire and talk, to watch Christmas movies, I'm here for it. But I'm not leaving. So that is a boundary that I'm just steadfast with. I, I give myself away and gladly put everybody else first. The other eleven months. But this is a month where I'm just like, no, I'm going to stay in my happy place. I love that so much. I love that so much. Okay. Uh, what's a mom hack that you swear by? This is simple, but it affects every single freaking day. I buy two lunch boxes, so that way both of my boys always have one that's in use and one that. So I guess the one that's in use, I'm able to pack at night. And by me, I mean my husband. I used to own it, but now that's something that I've given away to him. He permanently owns it, but he's allowed. He's able now to pack it at night, and they can take it to school in the day while the other one's in the dishwasher. So it just kind of leaves things on rotation to where we never have to hand wash. I don't like to hand wash things so brilliant. If it's not dishwasher safe, it's not in our house. If it is in our house and it's not dishwasher safe, it will soon end up in the trash. Like it just doesn't work that way. Yep. Okay. Last one. What is a small luxury that makes you as a woman and a mom feel so put together. Um, right now I am wearing this, like, redness reducer with hoop earrings or like, bigger earrings. And that's that's it. Like, that's that's not even a big luxury. It is just something that allows I put I wear hoop earrings or of some form every single day. And I wear this red reduce redness reducer every single day. So that way I'm not embarrassed if my neighbor see my my redness skin. I can be on camera and take calls like this. And that's really, really small. I mean, bigger luxury is a house manager that's not doesn't cost me a lot, but I get a lot out of it. But I think just the put together part, that redness reducer and hoop earrings. Love it. Courtney Cecil with the Working Moms movement. Thank you for being part of our time together and of the Working Moms Redefined podcast for all of you listening. We have all of her contact links in the show notes as well as a link to her life management system, podcast and coaching opportunities with Courtney. But we so appreciate you taking time so very much. So, Denise, it has been my absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me. You can do hard things and sometimes identifying your values might look a little hard, but you can do it and you can have all of the layouts right here on the Working Moms Redefined podcast. Thank you for listening to the Working Moms Redefined podcast. It is not lost on me that you chose to spend time together. Thank you. Let's connect outside of the space on socials. We'd love for you to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest. We've got it all to connect with you! If you feel as if someone in your life could be impacted by this message, feel free to share it. That is the biggest compliment as we part ways together. Remember, you can do hard things.
