e034 – The Part-Time Jungle Podcast: Flowers & Friendship with Emily MacLellan

04/07/21 • 32 min

Emily MacLellan is a creative. She co-owns Evyrose with her oldest friend and together they create florals that are unique, purposeful, connect their clients to nature and celebrate life in an extra special way! Emily enjoys chatting over a cup of tea or a large mug of coffee, embracing the ways that she can laugh and connect with her clients, and empower them to be their authentic selves in the design process. Emily is most proud of leading her business with an eco-conscious mindset; Evyrose now has a large seasonal growing garden and is adding new plants and flowers each year to use exclusively for their designs and events. As well as being a Mum of 2 small kiddos, Emily is the operations behind Evyrose. This role includes building their website, being the client communicator and all things admin, to running the numbers and keeping their books on target. She definitely wears many hats! In this episode: Building a business with your bestie. Friendship and flowers have been a winning combination for Emily and her best friend Liana’s business! Flexibility in the workplace can be a driving force for creating a motherhood work juggle that works. Creating opportunities for creativity in motherhood can be one way to have that important “me time” and also a way to connect with your kiddos. An eco-conscious mindset can start with taking small individual actions that collectively lead to big changes and a world of difference. Connect with Emily: Facebook: @evyrosedesign https://www.facebook.com/evyrosedesign Website: https://www.evyrosedesign.com Instagram: @evyrosedesignco https://www.instagram.com/evyrosedesignco/ @emilymacflorist https://www.instagram.com/emilymacflorist/ Eco-conscious brands recommended by Emily: Clothing: KOTN - https://kotn.com Frank and Oak - https://www.frankandoak.com Mimi & August - https://mimiandaugust.com Franc - https://wearfranc.com Ten Tree - https://www.tentree.ca/ Other & Skincare: Attitude - https://attitudeliving.com Elate Cosmetics - https://www.elatecosmetics.ca Zero Waste Shopping: The Bare Market (in Easton Toronto) - https://baremarket.ca On this episode of The Part-Time Jungle Podcast, I had a great conversation with Emily about building a business with her best friend that incorporates the flexibility and the creativity that they both value. We also discussed having an eco-conscious mindset and so much more! It was so much fun to have this conversation with Emily! I loved the opportunity to get to know her better and to learn more about her story in motherhood and work. FRIENDSHIP AND FLOWERS Emily’s journey in building a business with her best friend, Liana, has been fun! She and Liana have been friends since grade nine and they have always been creative together. Their business started when Emily and her mom, who is also a florist, did the flowers for Liana’s wedding in 2013. The two friends found themselves in this place where it was just sparking all of these creative ideas. At the time, they were running a separate business doing home decor. Flowers just became the new medium that they loved. This led them to a path of choosing flowers to be their creative place. CHEERING EACH OTHER ON Emily and Liana have always been each other's cheerleaders through life and business. They find themselves saying more now than ever that they would not be doing this without one another. So many people told them in the beginning that you shouldn’t start a business with your friend. Everyone has horror stories of how hard it would be to maintain a friendship. FRIENDS FIRST Emily vividly remembers their first brainstorming session on Liana’s couch. The thing that came out of their mouths at the same time was that they wanted to be friends first. They have really stuck to that motto. Emily and Liana often have to pause their work conversations and ask, “Can I talk to you as my friend”? LIFE AND BUSINESS

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e033 – The Part-Time Jungle Podcast: Launch Your Kid with Jane Kristoffy

Jane Kristoffy is an educational strategist who helps students find their academic direction. She motivates tweens and teens to unleash their potential by helping them develop their learning and life skills, and find their passions and strengths. Jane lives in Toronto, Canada with her Labradoodle and two teenagers and has been a teacher and guidance counsellor for over twenty-five years. Jane founded Right Track Educational Services in 2012, and works closely with students and families, virtually and in real life. She’s a popular speaker on a variety of education and parenting topics, as well as a regular guest expert on national television news programs. Jane is the author of Launch Your Kid: How to Promote Your Child’s Academic & Personal Success (without being a helicopter parent), which is jam-packed with no-nonsense tips for parents about how to get their kids through school and ready for the real world! In this episode: Launching our kids. As parents, we can do little things each day to give our kids the learning & life skills that they need to be prepared to launch into the real world! Building resilience in our kids involves letting them face the consequences, normalizing failure & struggle, being a good listener, & providing opportunities for responsibility. Nurturing 21st century skills prepares our kids for the changing world that they will be launching into. These skills include grit, growth mindset, self-advocacy, collaboration, communication, creativity, citizenship, character, & critical thinking. There are three chapters in the motherhood journey but we often don’t think about or prepare for Chapter Three. Chapter 1: Before having your family; Chapter 2: Raising your family; and Chapter 3: Launching your kids. Connect with Jane: Instagram: @jane_right_track https://www.instagram.com/jane_right_track/ Facebook: @RightTrackEducationalServices https://www.facebook.com/RightTrackEducationalServices Website: https://www.righttrackeducation.ca Book: Launch Your Kid: How to Promote Your Child’s Academic & Personal Success (without being a helicopter parent) https://www.righttrackeducation.ca/product-page/launch-your-kid LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janekristoffy/ YouTube: Career Stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL30tjlBKtji20-6vX2VmpfLgfbcH6Za4N On this episode of The Part-Time Jungle Podcast, I had a great conversation with Jane about her motherhood and work journey as a mom of two kids working in the field of education. She talked about launching our kids into the real world, strategies to build resilience in our children, the importance of nurturing 21st century skills, the three chapters in the motherhood journey, and so much more! I really enjoyed my conversation with Jane. She is incredibly personable, warm, and engaging. I love how Jane gets us thinking ahead to that third chapter of our motherhood journey when we are launching our kids into the real world. With our oldest heading child heading into high school in the fall, suddenly this doesn’t feel too far off! Where has the time gone? MOM & EDUCATOR HATS It is hard to juggle the educator and mom roles. Jane says that our kids get annoyed by the “teacher voice” in anything to do with teaching. As a rule, she has outsourced a number of things. She also tries to model and not directly teach a lot of the time because it can become like that voice from the Peanuts cartoon when mom is teaching “again”. STAY-AT-HOME MOM When Jane first became a mother, she stayed home with her kids. She is currently divorced but at the time, she and her husband decided for the family's sake that she would stay home. This was a decision that she never looked back on and she loved every minute of it. When her kids were school-aged, she started going back into the educational system on a part-time basis. This still allowed her to be very hands-on and engaged with her family. She also was very involved in her community as a volunt...

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e035 – The Part-Time Jungle Podcast: Carry On with Chiara Fritzler

Chiara Fritzler is a 40-something single mom of a dynamo toddler who is feisty, loving, and hilarious... just like her mom. Chiara has found her passion and life’s purpose in writing, and is a ghostwriter, author, and blogger. Her eBook and workbook about supporting those going through a tough time sold out in 24 hours, and has since helped so many who struggle with the “right thing to say”. She is a contributor to Mama Brain magazine, is currently co-authoring two books that will be released in 2021, and is a consultant. She has an unhealthy obsession with Hawkins cheezies and gummy coke bottles, only drinks red wine, coffee and water, and loves playing soccer. In this episode: Unfortunate blessings are the challenging times & circumstances that can provide clarity & positive change. Successful co-parenting, for Chiara, is based on her daughter knowing that both of her parents love her. All of your baggage should be carry on. We all have baggage but have you dealt with it enough that you can manage it? Post-traumatic growth. With the proper supports in place & the proper outlook, we can discover things about ourselves that we wouldn’t know otherwise. Connect with Chiara: Instagram: @carry_on_chiara https://www.instagram.com/carry_on_chiara/ Website: https://www.carryonchiara.com Facebook: @carry_on_chiara https://www.facebook.com/Carry-On-Chiara-116952140148720 On this episode of The Part-Time Jungle Podcast, I had a great conversation with Chiara! We talked about unfortunate blessings, co-parenting, post traumatic growth, how all your baggage should be carry on, and so much more! Full disclosure, Chiara and I have been friends since we were 7 years old and best friends for most of that time! We have literally been through all the ages and stages of life together. This episode doesn’t divulge the many adventures we have shared together or the memories we have made. That’s for another time. However, I know you will be inspired by Chiara and her story, her authenticity, and her heart of gold. A CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVE Chiara is a single mom and someone who works part-time and sort of full-time. Before becoming a mom, she never thought that if she had children, that she would want to stay at home with them. Chiara was so career focused and so oriented on climbing that ladder. She didn't understand why women would give up their careers to stay at home with children. Chiara felt that she always had the best advice and the most keen insight on being a mom and parenting before she actually became one. UNFORTUNATE BLESSINGS Chiara had some unfortunate blessings come through her life where she actually was headhunted by a company that seemed really great at the time. They hired her for a director position and then, they laid her off three months later. This was right when the oil and gas industry started to crash and work was really hard to find. At this time, Chiara and her now ex-husband were also going through fertility treatments. A LACK OF IDENTITY Chiara felt like she had no identity. She didn't have a career and she didn't have a child. Chiara plunged into a deep depression and didn't know what to make of herself. She calls this an unfortunate blessing because it forced her to figure out who she was, aside from all of the definitions and titles that we give ourselves and other people give us. Her husband would tell her that she was his wife and he loved her. For Chiara, that wasn’t enough. She didn’t want just that to be her thing. Chiara needed to figure out who she was aside from what other people said. BECOMING A MOM Chiara ended up getting pregnant and had a daughter who's now two and a half years old. At the time she was working part-time doing some consulting on and off in the field of occupational health and safety. Becoming a mom really changed her world and the person she thought that she wanted to be. PERSPECTIVE SHIFT All of a sudden, she was a mom.