Entrepreneurship, Motherhood, and the Vision Behind Hit Handbag Brand, KAEIU: A Conversation with Maria Lee-Heller

In this episode, we sit down with Maria Lee Heller, the inspiring founder and CEO of KAEIU, to discuss her journey as an entrepreneur and mom. We dive deep into the unique challenges of balancing motherhood with business, the triumphs and setbacks she’s faced, and how her vision for KAEIU is not only about creating luxury and sustainable products but also empowering women. From setting boundaries and nurturing your energy to infertility and manifestation, this conversation is filled with valuable insights for anyone looking to create a business that aligns with their values and personal life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Maria, Founder of KU Bags
• 2:19 From Pain to Creation: KU's Origin Story
• 9:26 Fertility Journey and COVID's Silver Lining
• 19:32 The Secret to Manifestation Success
• 22:46 Balancing Entrepreneurship and Motherhood
• 35:07 Structure, Boundaries and Business Growth
• 43:59 Listen to Your Gut and Try Less

Transcript

Jaclyn: 0:02

All right welcome to The Freq Show. Today I have a very special guest on she is the founder and creator of the bag brand KAEIU. Thank you so much for being here Maria 

Maria: 0:15

Thank you Jaclyn, I'm very excited and happy to be here

Jaclyn: 0:19

Well I discovered you I guess it was really a couple of months ago I think I had seen you somewhere a long time ago but a couple of months ago I found you on Instagram I am now 8 months pregnant and I saw your bags and I kind of freaked out because I was like these are so beautiful and they solve my problem. My personal problem of really hating diaper bags and your bags transition from being a diaper bag very kid friendly to. Hey this could be a work bag this could be where I put my laptop and all of my goodies but they are so beautiful and I wanna show the people who are watching our episode 2 of your bags cause I have two of them I may have gone a little overboard but I don't know that you can with these bags they're so beautiful so I have this beautiful like caramely taupe colored one and then I also my husband got me this one for Mother's Day your KAEIU backpack. 

Maria: 1:26

Yeah. 

Jaclyn: 1:28

And what I am so impressed by is the beauty of the leather but the structure of the bag and so now at 8 months pregnant you know I'm nesting I'm getting ready for this second baby and the diaper bag that I bought for my first son was expensive but it was made of canvas so I opened it and I could never find anything and with your bag I feel like the Virgo inside of me is just so happy because it's everything is so beautifully laid out you've got bottle areas you've got a place for laptops you even have a little mat for a changing station you thought of everything so I wanna ask you can you share with our listeners a little bit about the story behind KAEIU and what inspired you to create the brand.

Maria: 2:19

Absolutely and you know that comment you said you have thought of everything I get that comment like literally verbatim from so many people every time they come and see my bags in person.

Jaclyn: 2:31

Well you did.

Maria: 2:33

Yeah and I really did and the interesting part isI I didn't have a child when I started designing the bags.

Jaclyn: 2:41

Wow!

Maria: 2:42

Yeah it actually started from a very painful place in my life um I had suffered a miscarriage when I was 30 and I think the shock of that experience kind of like I think it just prevented my body from getting pregnant again even though I was trying so hard and so from 30 to 34 I was just like in this like stuck place where I wasn't sure I feel like I wasn't progressing I was just like stuck with the whole you know the word infertility I was. 

Jaclyn: 3:12

Oh yeah.

Maria: 3:13

Possibly do and I would wake up in the morning and I would tell my husband I was like I feel like I'm walking through peanut butter and I feel like I'm just stuck in this place that I don't know how to get out of and so I was like in that place and I was like at one point I was just so tired of being there and I was like I need to do something I need to like start being creative and I think in terms of my job also I was kind of in a place where I was also feeling a little stuck and so I'm gonna use this stuck energy and I'm gonna make something of it and I don't know what's gonna happen but I'm just gonna make something that makes me really happy because during that time when you're going through infertility all you do is like you dream. You dream of your baby you dream of like what you would look like how you would feel what kind of clothes you would wear like. 

Jaclyn: 4:04

I'm gonna cry. 

Maria: 4:05

Yeah, it was just like I was just dreaming every day.

Jaclyn: 4:09

Yeah. 

Maria: 4:10

One of the things that I couldn't find in the market was a bag that did what you just mentioned, like that. 

Jaclyn: 4:18

Yeah. 

Maria: 4:18

Beautiful that transition you know that could serve like multi-purpose because we are so much more than just parents mother everything and so yes and you know the job that I was like kind of like feeling stuck in that's the job where I discovered leather early in my career I had designed a leather bags for Rebecca Minkoff but then. 

Jaclyn: 4:40

Oh cool.

Maria: 4:41

I was like, I don't wanna do bags, I don't wanna do bags. I like my background was in apparel, so I shifted to apparel, and towards the end of like my career, like in the industry, I actually ended up designing for Wilson's Leather, and I was doing all their leather gear, like 

Jaclyn: 4:58

That's so cool 

Maria: 4:59

Yeah and I went from like designing like beautiful frolicky dresses to like suddenly doing like hard like leather and like very performance driven and I really fell in love with the material and which is why when I was thinking about like what do I wanna invest this creative energy in like what do I wanna design and I it was like bags bags leather so that's how it started. 

Jaclyn: 5:28

It again well couple notes to touch on there but the bags are so beautiful and they are so structured and that is what I love about them so much because I feel like it doesn't make me like I love being a mom more than anything but I don't wanna feel like a mom when I go out into the world I wanna feel chic I wanna feel put together and that's how this bag makes me feel and then you open it up and it's all these gorgeous compartments but the other thing I wanna touch on too is I'm so sorry for the experience you had I've had a miscarriage too and I know just it's so it’s such a hard thing to walk through. 

Maria: 6:12

Yeah. 

Jaclyn: 6:13

And you created such beauty out of your trauma, and the other thing that I'm reminded of here is a manifestation technique right where they say, like if you're calling in your partner clear out half your closet, make sure you sleep on one half of the bed so you're literally creating space. 

Maria: 6:31

Like, set your table for two. 

Jaclyn: 6:34

Exactly exactly and I feel like that's exactly what you did with these bags, you created it in preparation for the future children that you were going to have 

Maria: 6:44

You know what's funny like I should never made that connection I was like I'm just gonna make beautiful bag that serve other women but I never thought about a beautiful bag that would like serve me in my future self cause I cause you're justdreaming so much that you don't even think that it's impossible like you I wasn't sure if I could get pregnant or not so it was always not like oh maybe maybe not 

Jaclyn: 7:06

Yeah, but it sounds like even if it was subconscious, you created that seed of hope and then fostered it from there, so if you're willing, will you talk a little bit about your pregnancy journey, cause now you have two beautiful boys, right?

Maria: 7:23

Yeah. 

Jaclyn: 7:24

Yes, so how did that change 

Maria: 7:29

So you know I was going through the whole infertility I was also at the same time going through a lot of health struggles like I had a case of eczema and affecting my hands and the soles of my feet it's called dyshidrosis it's a very specific type of eczema so it was like infertility eczema I also was like struggling with alopecia where I was like losing chunks of my hair and I just like my around the same time my brother had moved in with us we had a two bedroom apartment in the city in New York City and he was like very much like into food and like health like he was like trying things and so then I kind of like by watching him I jumped onto this like whole like bandwagon of like health and wellness and so I started I tried like literally everything under the sun to try to heal my body I started seeing a naturopath you would like dothe needles and like burn milk Sebastian 

Jaclyn: 8:29

Mm hmm 

Maria: 8:30

I literally have tried so much but interestingly enough, I think sometimes when you are grasping towards something so ferociously it has the opposite effect and so you know I'm pretty small framed and I had because I was doing so many like healthy diets because I was like I'm gonna be extremely healthy to support this pregnancy but by being so healthy I had lost like and too much weight and when I was seeing my naturopath he was like you need to I was like I'm gonna be vegan I'm not gonna eat gluten I'm not gonna eat this and that like you probably need to nourish your body a little bit more you're like then so I would recommend you eat like meats and other things and I was very against the idea but I slowly 

Jaclyn: 9:18

I went through the same thing 

Maria: 9:20

You did like it's just like you want something so badly you want to be so perfect about it yeah but it like literally has the opposite effect and and so I you know going through the motions and at one point I was like okay this health thing is not working I'm gonna go see um a fertility specialist and so I did and then we started doing cycles of IUI and then we were gonna move to IVF 

Jaclyn: 9:48

Okay. 

Maria: 9:49

And with the IUI, I was going through it, and then Covid happened 

Jaclyn: 9:54

Oh gosh. 

Maria: 9:55

Yeah. 

Jaclyn: 9:56

Just throw a wrench in it. 

Maria: 9:58

Right and I was like really feeling excited about it and I was like ready okay it's time to do this and then Covid happened everything shut down and because of my age they called me my clinic called me and they said you be we're just prioritizing  patients that are over a certain age they're going through because you don't meet that criteria right now they're just like you just we're gonna cancel all your appointments 

Jaclyn: 10:23

Ohh 

Maria: 10:24

Yeah, and so at that point, I felt really upset about it, at the same time, I was just like Oh! 

Jaclyn: 10:32

Yeah. 

Maria: 10:33

There's literally nothing I can do the whole world is shutting down yeah I'm just gonna have I there's nothing I can do like no one is gonna take me and this is just I'm just gonna take a pause yeah and so I think that like release of like there's nothing I can do not by my volition but something else is like you can't just take a pause I think that really just like relaxed me in some way and months later when they started slowly opening up they called me and they said we are starting to take IUI patients do you wanna come in and by then I didn't go with this mindset of like yes I'm gonna do this I was just like oh yeah sure I'll just come in and like whatever you already cancelled my appointments before but I guess I'll go now that you're reopen you know I just kind of went in. 

Jaclyn: 11:25

Yeah 

Maria: 11:26

And that was the third round of IUI, and that's the round that, oh my God, I'm getting so emotional because. 

Jaclyn: 11:32

Oh, it's such an emotional thing, I'm crying right here with you. 

Maria: 11:40

Yeah and that's the round that worked and it was like it's unbelievable seeing the heartbeat on the screen and you go through the fertility you see it early and crazy because I had to do all the appointments by myself because it was still covid but yeah it was such a wild journey to get there it was the the shutdown and like don't do anymore you can't do anymore like just be I think that is what did it is what help. 

Jaclyn: 12:10

Maybe it settled your nervous system enough like you were prepping your body with all of the healthy food but your nervous system was still I mean I can imagine living in New York City your nervous system is just on overdrive all the time and then having that break it's like your body knew I need this break I think everybody's body during Covid like obviously there was so much tragedy that occurred during that time but I think the the silver lining of that is we needed a break like we have been going so hard right and women in our conceiving years we're like we wanna make we wanna have the baby and we wanna have it by this time and then we wanna be able to have this one and we plan it all out but obviously like that's not how life works but then you get to see this beautiful baby's heartbeat and I can relate to that so much I in both of my pregnancies you know that first trimester when you finally hear their heartbeat at the doctor's office there's like such a wave of relief that goes over your whole body and you go Oh my gosh that like this may really come to fruition so can I ask another question about the process of being pregnant with your first did you experience fear throughout that process I know for me after I had my son and then I had a miscarriage in between him and now my current pregnancy and when I got pregnant with my second child the first trimester I feel like I was on pins and needles you know and I really like I really tried to combat that mentally and I think I did as good of a job as I could with the tools that I had but my question for you is like did you experience that fear and how did you combat it or weather it. 

Maria: 14:10

You know I had some fears but around the same time I got pregnant I had also gotten a new job and this job that I really enjoyed doing so much more and so I was like very engrossed in it and I feel like life started happening very quickly so if I went from through peanut butter suddenly I was like sledding so it was just like it was just so fast and so I think initially I felt some anxiety but because I was like enjoying so much more of life at that point I think I just it just like snowballed really quickly and I didn't think too much about it. 

Jaclyn: 14:50

That's so beautiful, you had a positive focus.

Maria: 14:53

I did, yeah. 

Jaclyn: 14:54

What do you think the catalyst was to and I love your metaphors here, moving through peanut butter to sledding. Was there like a thought that you changed? Was it that your job changed was it COVID? What was the catalyst to get you from the peanut butter to the sledding? 

Maria: 15:13

So I think leading up to my pregnancy and the Covid shutdown I was doing a lot of work on myself I started seeing a therapist I started eating you know actually when before like this is maybe two months or a month before my pregnancy my sister and when you're going through fertility you don't want anyone to say like she did you try this or do you want to try something that's the worst my sister was like hey like I know an herbalist who can make a concoction for you do you want it and ordinarily I would say like no I can handle this on my own like I don't need anybody's help but again it was like that I was just in such a relaxed state I was like yes please give me that whatever. 

Jaclyn: 15:56

You were like open to receiving. 

Maria: 15:57

Yeah give it to me and when she brought me it was it was a a 30 a day no it was a 60+ morning and day pack of an herbal mixture based for my body type and I took my P touch and I labeled each one with words of affirmation so I did like love courage like anything I could possibly think of cause I was just like you know I guess also still in like a desperate state and I was like I just wanna drink something that is not like medicine because I can get pregnant but I energy that is like that will nourish me and like give me something really positive so yeah I have like I actually even took pictures of like the things that I did and like every morning I said today I'm drinking love today I'm drinking passion today I'm drinking courage and 

Jaclyn: 16:48

Oh I feel like that could be your second business or like a a thing that you could sell with the bags like some kind of herbal tea or herbal remedy that's love and passion and it's so beautiful so instead of what I'm gaining from that is instead of being in a mindset of lack or fear it was more how do I nourish my body how do I get into a state of gratitude and love and passion and get my headspace there rather than focusing on what I don't have or what I want or what I'm chasing after which is a totally different frequency to be on. 

Maria: 17:27

Yeah, yeah, and I think that just made all the difference. 

Jaclyn: 17:31

Oh, I'm enjoying this conversation so much. I appreciate you being just so vulnerable and so honest because I feel like conversations like this is where our listeners will be able to gain the most insight because it's so raw and so real and so relatable 

Maria: 17:49

Hmm yeah and another thing that I did was I would sit at night and I would envision like a waterfall going through my head just like diamond like sparkling energy just like shh and like just like in circle like my womb and like my womb was golden and I just like imagine that like just go through and like leave my body and I would say like I have this unlimited like not ending energy just like passing through me and I think that really helped too. 

Jaclyn: 18:20

Yeah, and I oh of course, it did, yeah. 

Maria: 18:24

Yeah, and I used to not be a believer of like all the woo woo and the spirituality, but then sometimes you get stuck in a desperate place and you're like I'm so open to trying anything, this makes me feel really great, so I'm gonna keep doing it. 

Jaclyn: 18:40

I think that's where a lot of people find spirituality find God is through those extremely difficult times it's easy to deny it when we're in a good place in our lives we're like we've got it we're good to go in those difficult times that it I mean I'm such a believer so I get exactly what you're saying and I need to have you do a calibration on our freqapp where you come in and teach like a meditation or something. 

Maria: 19:07

Oh my gosh, no, I.

Jaclyn: 19:08

Especially especially with this fertility journey, I feel like you would just touch so many women, oh my gosh, what a story you have.

ADS

This episode of The Freq Show is brought to you by The FreqApp your pocket best friend for calibrating your mind and shifting your mindset if you are ready to transform the way you think about yourself and your life then you are definitely going to want to get your hands on the Freqapp It combines uplifting audio messages with specific frequencies designed to reprogram your mindset and transform your thoughts with our custom calibrations that's what we call these audio messages you'll discover how healing your thoughts can reshape your life for the better whether you're seeking stress relief motivation or emotional healing or any array of high frequency emotional states the freqapp offers tailored support organized by frequency and by activity by frequency for instance we have joy abundance Serenity self-love self-worth by activity we have walking cooking cleaning legs up the wall cold plunging and about 20 other different categories this app is not just about helping you to feel good it's about empowering you to live at the highest frequency daily I created it because I wanted something that would help me shift my mindset easily and quickly whenever I need it the empowering audio messages are amazing if I say so myself, but what really takes them to the next level is the frequency chosen for each message Our bodies are made primarily of water and frequency affects water literally and so when you listen to these messages not only is it helping you reprogram your thoughts by bringing awareness to them it's also shifting the frequency in your physical being we also have incredible plans for the freqapp we wanna do a sleep series so you can listen to frequency while you sleep and sleep deeper and better we wanna do a breathwork series where we bring in breathwork and teach you how to do breathwork combined with frequency we want to do a series for children helping them understand and deal with their emotions so we have a bunch of calibrations already in the app but our plans for expansion are enormous we have a 5-day free trial you can get it anywhere apps are sold whether that's on the Apple App Store or Android it's available everywhere for a very easy way to download it go to thefreqapp.com and there are links right in there and that's T H E F R E Q A P P.com thefreqapp.com and you can get all of the information there Sam and I have put our hearts and souls into app we cannot wait for you to get your ears and eyes on it and give us all of your feedback thank you thank you thank you in advance for trying it out and we hope it will be as transformative for you as it has been for us live on purpose live on frequency

Jaclyn: 22:44

Okay, I'm ready for the next question you ready for the next question? Okay, it's about balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. So now, fast forward, you have two beautiful boys. How old are they? 

Maria: 22:56

I have a 21-month-old and then a 4-year-old. 

Jaclyn: 23:00

Oh okay so as a successful entrepreneur and mom how do you balance the demands of your business and the responsibilities of motherhood cause I watch your Instagram stories and you are you're going every single day taking those boys to the park going to different markets to sell your beautiful bags I mean it from the outside looking in it looks like it's non stop. 

Maria: 23:22

It is non stop and you're asking me about balance which is something that I'm still trying to achieve you know the first three years up until I think this year so I'm on year four of my business the first three years you know I had two kids in between and I'm just taking step by step you know and there really was no balance and I would just kind of work when they napped and just did whatever I could and I didn't have they weren't like with a full time like care of any sort so I was the primary caregiver for most and so yeah I was just just trying to figure out like what is it that I'm working on what am I putting out there and really low planning just trying to make it in the world doing the along the way along just like doing everything that I can but then 2025 started and in 2024 I had early in the year in January I had written a quick little note where I was like this is my sales goal and I had forgotten all about it and then in December I was like oh what's this little note that I made and I looked at it and I was like oh my gosh I met my sales goal for the year and I was like what and so when I started 2025 I was like okay I think you have an actual real business not like I'm working in the spare bedroom of my apartment two kids and so I was like okay what is it that I need I need more care more help with childcare and so my son my older son had started 3k which is I guess just like regular school that most most states kids start in kindergarten but in New York City starts at 3. 

Jaclyn: 25:15

Yeah, my son goes to school at 3 too. 

Maria: 25:17

Oh amazing! 

Jaclyn: 25:18

Yeah. 

Maria: 25:19

And then so for the younger one who's home with me I was like I just need to get more of like a steady um childcare situation so that this year and so that's what I have been doing and so now I have a consistent schedule of like I work in the morning in the afternoon take care of the kids and then I put them to bed and then I work in the evenings as well and so I don't know if that's like work life balance in any sense of the word but it it's what I'm doing right now and it's just that season in my life where I'm like putting in a lot into everything. 

Jaclyn: 25:58

But your energy I mean obviously I'm new to knowing you but your energy seems so high frequency despite all the things that you have going on but that's such a testament to you kind of calibrating your energy on the daily right So you said your son is 4 the business is about 4 years old I know you started the business before you had your son but how did that look like you make your first bag it's a prototype you send it off to have it made or you make it yourself then what's the next step what did you do next. 

Maria: 26:35

So I was designing and prototyping up until my son was born so that means you know I was like sketching up the designs, they would send me a sample so I produce all of my bags in India with an amazing manufacturer. 

Jaclyn: 26:48

Oh, that's so cool. 

Maria: 26:50

Yeah they get the vision and nowadays like when they make a sample a new style I'm like wow we're almost there like 80% and so you I would do multiple rounds of sampling and then I launched the brand I did like a photoshoot when my son was 4 months old and then I launched the brand that month and really I had no idea what I was doing whatsoever cause I'm such a product person like I understand very well because that's that was my entire career I didn't know a thing about websites or marketing or I mean just like nothing and so I launch and then I thought at least my friends would buy something. 

Jaclyn: 27:36

Yeah 

Maria: 27:37

And then the day I launched I sold one bag like a single bag and I was like Oh my God like what did I do I quit my job for this single bag and I because I didn't you know I didn't know how much to produce I had just put in a random number of bags and I had pre-ordered everything. 

Jaclyn: 27:54

Mm hmm. 

Maria: 27:55

I was like What am I gonna do. But then you just keep going, yeah 

Jaclyn: 28:02

What I find so inspiring is and this was a limiting belief I had myself was before I got pregnant with my first son I was like I don't know how I'm going to continue doing the entrepreneurial things that I absolutely love to do that fill me up and be a mom and I didn't realize until after you have a child that like you access a different gear and there's a whole new motivation but what I find so beautiful about your journey is that it seems like from the outside looking in you didn't put a ton of pressure on yourself to have everything figured out right away which is kind of what I do you allowed the journey to be the journey like hey I'm gonna do this step I'm gonna complete this step then I'm gonna move to the next and I'm gonna figure it out very systematically rather than having to have everything figured out all at once is that true. 

Maria: 28:53

That is absolutely true, and I think if I knew too much, I might not have gotten into it because it's very intense. 

Jaclyn: 29:03

I know. 

Maria: 29:04

It's better that you just go in kind of blindly and then be open to learning and also be open to what other people's you know feedback and like help because I honestly like I don't even look for things like these days I'm like okay I'm for example I needed to do online I was like I need to run ads natural step for my brand and I was like okay great this is something that I need to do and then lo and behold I meet someone who's like hey I think you should work with this person because you know I think she really helped me I think she'll really help you and I think when you're just like open to people's like help things just come your way I mean it's really amazing it's like the complete opposite of the way I used to live when I was trying to be the complete reversal and interestingly enough when you are just more relaxed and are just loving what you're doing things just and the only thing you have to do is just open the door that's it just come open the door if it's not right close open the next door. 

Jaclyn: 30:14

I relate to that so deeply, and it's one of the reasons we called The Freq Show. The Freq Show cause freq stands for frequency and I always think of it in terms of frequency like you're a frequency match or you're not and when you open that proverbial door it's like your frequency increases you're open to receiving and then the universe God Jesus whoever you wanna call it however you wanna label it I don't think that it can be fully labeled but it's like the whole thing conspires with you to create what you want to create as long as you keep that door open and you I think too walking in gratitude like every little step I'm like this is so cool this is so awesome I can't like I'm so excited that this happened and focusing on all the good things that are happening versus all the little things in business or you know in my world I do a lot of interior design like construction mishaps rather than focusing on the things that are going wrong focusing on the things that are going right creates so much energy and it creates that snowball effect right. 

Maria: 31:21

I absolutely agree with you. 

Jaclyn: 31:23

And I think too in listening to your story you are so good at manifesting even when you forget that you're manifesting it like writing down your sales goal and then about a year later realizing you had hit it and I think too for our listeners the power in that is there's something that happens when we write down what we want it's like our subconscious mind it tattoos on our subconscious mind and in the day to day we may forget about it may go to the back of the bus so to speak but then again that universal force comes to meet us as long as we're walking forward and taking action it's like it all happens and conspires with us to create that something that I love and listen to a lot is Louise Hay. Do you know who Louise Hay is oh you would love her she wrote a book called You Can Heal Your Life but she has all of these beautiful meditations and she talks about the power of writing down your affirmations and reading them every morning or putting them on note cards and just going through them every morning putting you know little affirmations in your wallet or on your mirror etcand I have probably hmm 20ish affirmations on note cards that I read in the morning and what I'm finding is even if I'm not present with every single affirmation every morning I'm finding areas in my life where those things are coming to fruition so naturally I'm not pushing I'm not trying I'm not hammering anything in they're just happening naturally it's like my subconscious is creating that in my reality. 

Maria: 33:10

I love that. 

Jaclyn: 33:11

It's so cool, but you're doing the same thing very naturally. 

Maria: 33:15

Yeah without like even thinking about it and you know when I started this year and I was like okay 2025 I need to get some systems in order so that I can you know get more work done and I remember feeling really overwhelmed and my brother had come to help me babysit and I was telling him you know I was like oh I'm I know I have a lot to do but everything is jumbled so I feel very overwhelmed and I want to hit these new sales goals and I'm just not sure what to do and he was like I got you he's like I'm gonna get you something that's gonna change your life and it was a planning journal it's called sprout and last summer he was working with that journal and he actually went viral he's a beatboxer. 

Jaclyn: 34:00

Oh cool! 

Maria: 34:01

I think this help me I think it'll help you and he was like you know what I'm gonna buy one for you I'm gonna send it to your house and then you know a few days later I got it and then I was you know doing the exercises and I just jot everything down and like you were saying there's something to physically writing things down and then because this is a goal setting journal it kind of like help me you know see the macro and then the micro and then just break. 

Jaclyn: 34:29

I gotta get this journal! 

Maria: 34:31

Oh, it's so great, it just helps me feel less overwhelmed because you. 

Jaclyn: 34:35

Yeah, you break it down. 

Maria: 34:37

So yeah it's a it's a 6 months journal and it breaks it down to like three months and then to one month and then to daily and then you rate your day and how it went and you just write like the most important things that you need to accomplish and just it's not like I have more resources it's not like suddenly I had an assistant something like a bag of money fell on my lap like everything is the same but I had this journal where I was like flushing out what I needed to do and like being able to see it and sit down at night and write it what do I wanna do the next day what do I wanna accomplish in a month I mean if I look at where I started and where I am now like I am actually like my mind is blown I'm like oh my God you're the same person but like you're not the same person because like so much during that time. 

Jaclyn: 35:23

That's so cool, okay, so what's the journal called because I know our listeners are gonna wanna buy it, I wanna buy it.

Maria: 35:27

It's a green journal, it's called Sprouht S. 

Jaclyn: 35:30

Okay, and you can always send me a link later, and I can put it in the show notes, oh, cool. 

Maria: 35:36

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 35:38

Oh that's yeah I feel like there's such power to you know I think that having big goals and things that we think are way beyond what we can achieve is how we should live our lives but where I get overwhelmed is breaking it down into the daily steps so I think something like that would be really great for me because I tend to be a very large thinker but in the micro that's not my strong suit so I could definitely use something like that okay I wanna ask you about the highs and lows of being a mompreneur can you share a moment when you felt especially proud of juggling your role as a mother and a business owner and then on the flip side what was like a tough moment and how did you handle it. 

Maria: 36:28

Hmm I think the highs is that early in my business when I was starting to do all these pop UPS well I'm still doing them but when I was doing the pop UPS my husband and my son would come too he didn't also have extra child care and so he would be strapped on me while I was like setting up the tables and so that's definitely like a core memory that's like etched in me and and even these days you know when the kids aren't at home because you know school's closed you know I've working you know they're doing their own thingand so it's like the fact that I can marry being a mom and being an entrepreneur and doing the work that I love the fact that it's together I think definitely such a high and you know I can like you said like I take the kids to the playground in the afternoon but I can work in the morning I can work in the evening find pockets where I can do things that's definitely a high hello ooh hello I mean it's it's tough it's yeah it's tough I mean I have to travel for you know I'm away a lot of the weekends cause I'm doing pop UPS so I don't get with the kids as often there's a lot of sleepless nights I tend to you know the evening hours are so quiet and they're so precious that I tend to work a lot in the evenings but then if you if I stay up too late and then I then the kids are up at 6:30 and then I'm up at 6. 

Jaclyn: 38:03

Oh yeah! 

Maria: 38:04

You know, then you're like not in the best mood and like you can snow the rest of the day, and so like trying to balance that is it's pretty challenging. 

Jaclyn: 38:11

Mm hmm it is really challenging especially you know your business isn't new new but it's not like it's been established for a decade and so there are all those ups and downs and I'm in the same spot our business is like 3 or 4 years old where like we've had some really good successes but we're not there yet and so there's a lot to balance so I completely relate to you is there anything that you do for you daily or weekly to just reset a little bit because I can imagine I mean I know how hard it is being a mom of one I'm about to be a mom of two but the lack of sleep and then that drive that obviously we both have to have successful businesses and to grow and to challenge ourselves but how do you allow your nervous system to just reset a little bit. 

Maria: 39:04

You know I think that's something in area that I really need to work on hmm because I keep telling myself this is just not the season right now because I do have children and because my business is also quite young so it's like having three children I just give myself Grace and say like maybe this is not the season in your life where you have so much time where you can like love to do yoga and especially hot yoga this is just not the season but your season will come and so I would really like to be better at balancing I don't think so yet. 

Jaclyn: 39:39

And you know I sometimes think balance is a myth and I love the idea of breaking things down into seasons one of my best friends has four children and she has this massive cleaning business that she runs and she home schools her children and like makes everything homemade yeah yeah I know I know but she talks about seasons too and it makes so much sense and I think in some ways just that perspective shift of putting things in terms of seasons can help our nervous systems relax a little bit where we go you know what it's not that I'm never gonna be able to do this it's just that in this moment right now I don't have the capacity for it or my life doesn't have the capacity for it but it doesn't mean that that's six years down the road it could be next month it could be next week but for right now this is where I'm at and that's okay I don't have to be everything to everyone and do everything all the time I'm just gonna do what I can in this moment. 

Maria: 40:39

The pressure is not there cause you know it's like, how are you balancing everything, how are you doing everything? Well, I'm not. I'm just not. 

Jaclyn: 40:46

And thank you for your honesty in that because I feel the same way I think you know sometimes I get that question like how are you able to do the podcast and do all the interior design work and run the business and I'm finishing up writing a book right now and I'm like I'm not doing everything I have the same amount of hours in a day and I just structure it I go okay I'm gonna write for an hour now I'm gonna work on client work for an hour then I'm gonna take a 30 minute lunch break and just breathe for a second and eat my food then I'm gonna exercise for an hour and I just kind of take it day by day and take like you said take that pressure off to have everything done exactly when it's supposed to be done I'm gonna do my best but if this book isn't done on the day that it's supposed to be done I'm also not gonna beat myself up because I have a billion other things going on. Oh okay so setting boundaries and we talked we touched a little bit about this in the last question but how do you set boundaries to ensure that you are nurturing your business and your family without completely burning out and it doesn't mean it's perfect it doesn't mean you're happy all the time or you're like making these elaborate homemade meals but in sitting with you during this time you're relaxed you have this beautiful light energy there's obviously something that you're doing that's working. 

Maria: 42:16

How do I set boundaries I think maybe this year because I started with the more structured schedule with the more consistent help with the children that like from you know 8 to 1 this is your work these are your office hours this is where you're gonna work I think that is what's helping me I guess though my I guess my hours are my boundaries and that's a great way of looking at it yeah when I'm outside of those hours then I can just relax and be with the kids and I'm notoriously known for not checking my phone especially in the afternoons cause I you know I'm just like okay I'm just with the kids now like I don't even know where my phone is probably somewhere in the stroller yeah so I guess those are my boundaries. 

Jaclyn: 43:00

I love that though because that's so simple I think often we overcomplicate things unnecessarily and just to say hey here's my work block and then when the work block is done it's done and I love that you said I'm notorious for not checking my phone in the afternoon I think that's so healthy because then you're able to be present with your kids who are growing and growing fast I mean I think about my son Roman he's three I feel like yesterday he was born and now he's 3 and we're having full on conversations and I don't wanna miss that and I don't wanna be the mom that is sitting on my phone and he's begging me for attention you know I think like the idea of like I'm in office at this time I am very not in office at this time and having that clear delineation is just so healthy okay so last out of the box question and then I wanna do some rapid fire questions for you if you could give your younger self one piece of advice about your path in entrepreneurship and into motherhood what would it be and do you think your younger self would have listened. 

Maria: 44:13

I'm not sure if my younger self would have listened cause she's quite opinionated but I think everything that you want will come your way if you just relax and also listen to your gut cause I'm the way I make decisions sometimes people are like nothing makes sense but it makes sense to me so an example of this is when I was launching my business I decided to quit my job because I was I decided not to come back to work so I gave birth on a mat leave and I just decided I'm gonna launch my brand instead of going back to work and at that time I was the breadwinner and so. 

Jaclyn: 44:53

Wow, so that was a big risk. 

Maria: 44:56

Huge risk I was a breadwinner the health insurance was coming from me we had to pay for the apartment and I was just like I my gut is telling me something and I think I need to listen to this and it's telling me to go pursue something else and everything will fall into place and it doesn't mean that like you know you don't have money to eat tomorrow and you should just quit everything and do it just like your worst case scenario my worst case scenario was we're gonna move in with my in laws who live about they live a 10 minute walk from where we're living they have a big apartment where they're you know they're empty nesters so they can house all of us and that's the worst case scenario and I was like if that's the worst case scenario it's not that bad we're still gonna eat you know our kids are gonna be fine we're gonna everything's gonna be okay and so I listen to my God and everything did fall into place and now it's like we have the role reversal with my husband where he is like supporting all of us while I go and do my business and try to build this from the ground up so I would say this is something my husband tells me he always says like try less he goes like just try less so I guess maybe that's my advice to my younger self like try less. 

Jaclyn: 46:10

Oh that would be something I would tell my younger self too cause I feel like I was banging my head against the wall trying so hard and exhausting myself and burning myself out and then when I started listening to my gut and also listening to my body and like resting when I needed rest and going when I was ready to go and of course like none of that is perfect but at the same time tuning in like that it makes all of the difference again like going back to frequency it creates a frequency match for what we want if we're trying too hard it's like the magnet repels. 

Maria: 46:50

Yeah. 

Jaclyn: 46:51

When we go in in a state of ease and relaxation and without a tight grip on the outcome it's like an open handed like hey this is what I would like to happen but if it doesn't happen like this I'm also okay with that the frequency just changes in the room it's like the atoms and the neurons and the whatever they all shift and go to a higher frequency when we're not grabbing so hard so I love that okay couple rapid fire questions before we wrap up what is your go to self care ritual.

Maria: 47:27

Oh, if I could YOGA.

Jaclyn: 47:30

Yeah oh yoga is the best right I feel like I used to do yoga very regularly lately because my stomach is very large it's becoming a little bit hard so I've been doing pee valve which kind of incorporates some yoga moves and I love it so much but I always used to say big soul little body and yoga makes me feel like I can expand so that my soul can expand inside of me right it's just such a spiritual experience okay what's your favorite KAEIU product and why. 

Maria: 48:04

So my baby, because this is the first product that I designed, was the loop tote 

Jaclyn: 48:09

Oh, this one right!

Maria: 48:12

That's where like it all was all born, but then I think right now is the Cooper backpack because I wear it every single day and it just does everything that I needed to 

Jaclyn: 48:21

And that's this one right so I have both of your favorite products haha I mean I went through your website and I was like I want this and I want this and I want this and I want this but I chose the two that I was like I think I will wear these all the time and use them all the time and again they're just so beautifully built I feel like they're also going to age beautifully okay one thing you couldn't live without as a mompreneur. 

Maria: 48:51

One thing I couldn't live without, I mean like my family and my husband or like a thing. 

Jaclyn: 48:59

I would say a thing in this case, but I love that your family and your husband is the first thing that you said. 

Maria: 49:07

I'm gonna say my phone because I do so much with my phone when you're a solo preneur you have to do all the social things and be on your phone like doing you know just everything so when I do pop ups like my phone is also my cash register so I had to do all the checkouts so yeah it's a. 

Jaclyn: 49:31

I think it's much needed yeah and I love that like I have a love hate relationship with my phone cause I hate that people can get a hold of me whenever but at the same time I love that it creates such efficiency too and I'm not having to log around an iPad and my laptop and multiple things it's just all right there okay last question since this is The Freq Show. What is one thing our listeners could do on the daily to raise the frequency that they live on? 

Maria: 50:03

I would say if you have a moment just sit and listen to your gut it's a very distinct feeling that you get and it pulls you in different directions and you learn to listen to which direction it pulls you towards that's the way you're meant to go and if you go to where you're meant to go as a person and as a being I think that automatically elevates your frequency. 

Jaclyn: 50:30

Oh 100% oh I love that so much and I would add to that that voice that gut feeling is one of encouragement and hope and excitement not fear or negativity I think sometimes people confuse that a little bit like well my gut is terrified of this there are moments I think where our gut warns us but I feel like our gut warns us in a very calm collected manner not in like a manic way so. 

Maria: 51:01

Also because like my desktop screensaver and like the motto for me for this year is do it scared and it's not the thing that you don't want to but like there's like a distinct feeling that you get and like you said it's very calm but like when you're like oh right sometimes trying to tell you something you maybe have to you know go in the direction that you may not feel the most comfortable in but like your body's trying to tell you something.

Jaclyn: 51:28

It is our bodies are always speaking to us well Maria thank you so much for your time how can people connect with you because I know they're gonna wanna connect with you I know they're gonna wanna know where they can buy your bags and then is my code still working too that you gave me perfect okay so we can give them the code too but please drop all of that information here and then I'll also link it in the show notes so people can come follow you and connect with you because you are such a beautiful human behind this beautiful brand. 

Maria: 52:02

Thank you so much, it was a pleasure being here and speaking with you. You can find me on kaeiu.com, that's my website K A E I U .com, and on Instagram at K.A.E.I.U with periods in between, although you will find me anyway with just KAEIU

Jaclyn: 52:21

Okay good to know good to know and my code I believe is Jaclyn J A C L Y N and so if you guys have any questions look in the show notes they will all be there but again Maria thank you so much for this beautiful conversation you are so raw and real and vulnerable and I know people are gonna relate to your journey but they're also gonna feel so inspired that you can be a mom and still create this beautiful business that is full of passion and creating such value for people. 

Maria: 52:24

Yeah, absolutely, I hundred percent agree, I think it's just if you feel the pull to go on this adventure and journey, just take the first step. 

Jaclyn: 53:03

Oh, that's the perfect way to end it. Thank you so much!

Jaclyn: 53:12

Thank you so much for listening to The Freq Show with Sam Thurmond and me, Jaclyn Steele Thurmond. We would love to connect with you via our website, beckonliving.com, and on social media!

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