24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Junior investment bankers regularly work 80-90 hours a week.  Many other high profile professions require the same level of commitment.  Often those on the outside claim that working 80-90 hours a week is bad/wrong/terrible/silly/etc but we’ve spoken with so many folks who say working that much has been the best decision of their life – it allowed them to develop a deep and strong skill set far faster than would have been possible otherwise.  In other words, by working 2x the hours, they were able to generate 5x or more the rewards.  And depending on where you are in your career, investing heavily in your skills and competence can pay dividends for a long time.

Jordan Knepper | Executive Director & Role Model for two amazing kid

When you start as a single, unmarried executive director at right around thirty years old, you hear people talk about work life balance, but in that situation, who needs time for a life? It wasn’t until about 5 years in that I felt burnout that I started to realize that work life balance was and I needed to reevaluate how I was managing my time and the organization. These two absolutely amazing kids had some into my life. I wasn’t dating their mother, but she was one of my best friends in high school and we had reconnected about the time I started the job. Since I didn’t have kids of my own and she was a single mom, the kids became one of my biggest priorities. At this point, they were 13 and 16. Read more>>

Courtney and Robert Cannon | Wedding Photographer and Educator for Kindhearted Wedding Photographers

We are husband and wife wedding photographers and our business is grounded in a service meets creativity approach. We are known for our unwavering dedication to our couples and we truly care not only about their photos but that they enjoy their day with their loved ones. Our clients place great value and trust in our process and we walk them through how to have a stress free wedding day. Our photography style is a timeless classic style meets movement and authenticity. Our goal is to always capture all of the photos that you dream to see in your wedding gallery while also infusing the emotional and candid elements throughout your day as well. Read more>>

Sarah Jones | Fiber Artist & Business Owner

Ah yes, balance. Such a simple word to describe one of the hardest parts of life to actually get right. We have gone through stages of spending countless hours working, with little or no down time. Landed on the other end of the spectrum completely burnt out and left with little to give to the business and or anything else for that matter. Finding balance has been hard and honestly, it is something that we are still working on perfecting. Through the ups and downs, we have found that balance does not always mean equal amounts of time spent across all aspects of life. It’s about distributing the weight of your responsibilities in a way that helps you to move forward, avoid falling or to recover if you do. Read more>>

Sarah Pfeifer | Photographer, Content Creator, and Owner of Gym Cow Clothing Co.

Work-life balance was something I struggled with finding for a very long time, and I still don’t have it to a science. During my time in college, I was a complete workaholic. Still to this day, I struggle to say no to any and all opportunities that come this way. However, I have learned taking time for myself is incredibly important, you cannot pour from an empty cup and if you try your body will force you to. Over time, I have learned to set boundaries for myself, so that when I get home from work I don’t check work emails or socials. I try to keep my weekends free for socializing, for myself human connection is important. My home is my sanctuary, I spend my time at home doing things that fill my cup, whether that’s hobbies, or working on a passion project. Read more>>

Chavar Dontae | Artist, Songwriter, Producer, Musician & Entrepreneur

Fortunately, I work in a field I enjoy and work life balance line is blurred a bit. However, I make sure I can spend physical time away from my dedicated work space. As a creator it can be difficult to completely separate due to that fact that I’m always creating. Read more>>

Dr. Melissa Carver | Mindset Practitioner

My work life balance has certainly changed. I’ve always been extremely ambitious, maybe too much sometimes. Definitely too much sometimes. I say this not because goals are bad or you shouldn’t continue to have them but we can become consumed. Especially if you grow up poor. The biggest problem with growing up poor isn’t even the lack of money, in my opinion. It is the lack of resources and knowledge. We hear adults say “work hard and you’ll succeed” but we don’t take the time to see that many of them worked hard too. Yet so often they were still unhappy, sad, broke, broken, and exhausted. Read more>>

Mary Daniels-Walls | Featured Leather Jewelry Designer

Work life balance allows your business to flow fairly smooth or even at a higher level towards success. What I’ve accepted for myself had to be created in the beginning of my journey in entrepreneurship. Did it run smoothly? Was every plan and schedule allowing for progression? No! Despite my efforts to stay balanced with my time and energy professionally and personal I honestly failed by the wayside several times. Sometimes our intentions to remain constructive isn’t always going to cause production. Mentally I would feel ok but physically I was not, that was a spoiler. I was persistent on balancing my personal life from dampening the love I had to design and create beautiful, handcrafted jewelry art. Read more>>

Noah Smith | Country Artist

My latest release Way Back is a song about LOVE and for the longest time in my life I didn’t even give myself permission to write love songs. I started focusing my songwriting and live performances around something I heard along the way that if its not a HECK YES then its a HECK NO. I stopped writing with random people all the time and focused on the people who I care about and they care about me and we love to write together. The music industry can make you feel like theres never ENOUGh but the truth is its all about winning at life and business. I don’t play music and then live life I live my life and music is a part of it. It looks me years to realize that and if you do it the other way it’s a really strange journey. Read more>>

Mary Wiegand | Founder & CEO

I used to think there was such a thing as work life balance. Now, I honestly believe that’s a myth. The concept of balance implies that somehow there will be an even split, or an equilibrium that you reach and then stay in. When I think of how quickly the needs of my family can change or how quickly the needs of a client can change, I just don’t believe an even split on any given day is possible, or that this perfect stability is even the right goal over a stretch of time, or even a lifetime. Instead, I think a coexistence of both personal and work demands is what is possible and the right goal. This model allows for give and take over busy seasons for your business and when life intervenes. Read more>>

Jen Mott | Entertainer | Educator | TEDx Speaker | *Almost* Author

I talked about this exact concept in my TEDx Talk Spring 2023 on Juggling Career & Passion. (bit.ly/JMottTEDX). The idea that my passion did not have to end as my career grew was a game changer. So, the work/life balance always felt natural and non-existent, in a good way, due to feeling like I was living an integrated life of things I was passionate about … all while getting paid! Read more>>

lumi | Musical Artist / Lead Vox & Writer

I think it’s important to go through different levels of adjustment over time. With a band, there are always so many moving pieces that change. In respect to that, you have to really hone in on the idea that this isn’t something that will be built over night. Easy come, easy go — waters get choppy, not always smooth sailing — whatever cliche term you’d like to pin on it, is to be applied and moreover, respected. Creating and crafting intent and establishing a flow will typically prevail in a passionate culture for the brand/ music. Oftentimes, you don’t learn that kind of stuff at the start. Once you begin getting the hang of what you’re doing, and you feel as if you’re ready to “advance” — there’s typically an investment beyond time that has to be made. Read more>>

Kelsey Elizabeth | Content Creator

Work-life balance is actually something I have struggled with quite a bit over my career, but I feel that I’ve really figured out a balance that works for me. When I was first starting out, right after college before I started working for myself, I dove head first into work. I often worked 6 days a week, a full-time and part-time job. I did not take time for myself at all because I was just so driven and focused on making money. In 2020 I was forced to take a step back and examine what truly was important to me. This is when I decided to start working for myself. First with an online English second language tutoring business, then transitioning into full-time content creation in 2022. Read more>>