Three is Jen Talen's magic number. She runs three companies with her family of three people.
Taleer, 40, juggles on two companies, Akin Cooperative and Market in the Alley, and by opening another, The Dustland, a bar to come this year, all with his 5 -year -old acolyte, Houston, and his partner Michael Stoll. Originally from the namesake of his son, Houston, Texas, Tower came to Las Vegas in 2009 with Zappos as a buyer and helped to found Fergusons in the city center with the former CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh.
From the conduct of his son to school to sales driving, here is how to keep all of this.
Browse me a day of your life as a mother who also runs three companies.
It starts to wake up my child. Prepare my child for school, try to have fun with him, to start his day, then we take him to school. I generally come back to the city center around 8:30 am, 8:45 am (in the morning) depending on the day. I come directly here to Akin, I am prepared for the day and I have meetings.
Otherwise, I am on the ground by Dustland just because we are in the game where we try to open. So, I have a lot of meetings there, walking in space, ensuring that everything is going well.
Around 2 p.m., someone from the team presents itself and I generally go to seek my school from school during the first part of the week. Then, I try to be present and help him with school work, have fun, take him to the park or take him to baseball training, and try to end the day this way. Usually I will come back during the evening, if the service calls. During the back half of the week, my partner will collect our child so that I can spend longer days working on site.
Has there ever been a time when you felt like you didn't really have the best balance between work and life?
Pre-child: never; Personally, I like to learn, like to work, like to do tests and errors and grow. So, during this time, I have never had appropriate work life sales because I always thought of work.
I think that having a child really put things in perspective, in time, energy and where you want to give it. I wanted to make sure that I am always present for my child and that I present myself as best as possible for him. But I would even say this first year after having had it, it was difficult to find this balance, because I did not have the limits before.
I worked very hard to make sure I give priority to the good things you need to focus on getting things done. Sometimes it’s really easy to focus on the little things that just take a long time, a lot of space, and you never really chump big things and make real progress. He fills time. Where now I really focus on looking for my task (list) and what makes the needle advance, and what can sit on the rear burner or wait for it to be more time.
I have a great team of women around me that I can also call very good friends. They were so decisive to give me a better balance in my life, be able to be present for my son and be a little more present for me.
What are the limits you have established or recommend other people to ensure that the balance remains in place?
The most important thing I have learned over the years is the schedules and systems are more liberating than restrictive. Find a flow that works for you and, more importantly, the creation of systems and procedures so that you can capture repetitive work. In this way, you don't try to remember them or do them on the fly.
For me, it document the processes, for example, the launch of the market in another city or another place. Now we have all the steps to get there. Now we can focus on the fun part, such as being creative and making new spaces.
Are there moments when you find your work and your masonry? If so, how do you do it in a way that does you good for you and your family?
It is certainly not separated. I do not really know the right way to express an integration of professional life-life, because I think it can be complicated and misinterpreted so as not to have a real balance
My life is my work. I love supporting small businesses, and I have since I was small. I remember having grown up with my mother in the companies she was doing. She had three of us, and she has always brought us. I have the impression that it is in my DNA, so it's cool to bring it back.
Recently, he said, “Mom, I want to sell on the market”. I say to myself: “Ok, what do you want to sell? Let us build a small brand”, and we have made its flowers. He asked for eight months to sell, so he was able to introduce himself and sell flowers.
The other day, he caught a box and caught things in the house. He says, “I'm going to install a store if you want to come.” So, as, he really wants to do it today. But he is 5 years old, so he has a lot of time to understand what he wants to do.
Has there been a moment for you when there was a family or commercial emergency and you had to put one side? How did you manage this?
I had personal health problems this year, and recently I had to do it. It was during the Easter market. I was able to make the first drop of eggs but I had to leave because I was not going well. I had to leave one of my friends alone with all the children and I was able to confide in some of my sellers. They all intervened, no question asked.
They helped distribute all the eggs, made sure that the drop chaos at 2 p.m. was good, then they continued to register throughout the weekend to ensure that everything was fine.
I think that trusting the team and entrusting them to make the right decision is important. If you do not give that to people and respect them and do not respect them and honor their work, I think it makes it more difficult to achieve these easy transitions during difficult times.
What is the advice you give to an entrepreneur, a business owner and a mother, like you?
Give yourself grace, especially this first year. You just try to understand how to keep this little human alive and what life looks like. You are a mom now, it's a lot and they need a lot of you, but find time to take the breaths deeply and you will find time to manage everything. Some days are easier than others. Sometimes your child is incredible, and sometimes they are little monsters.
Contact Emerson Drewes to edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Emersondrewes on X.
