When Motherhood Meets Writing: Surviving Chaos and Rediscovering Satisfaction with Sarah Greesonbach

How do you balance a thriving freelance writing career with the challenges of parenting young children? 

On this episode of The Talk Freelance To Me Podcast, host Ashley Cisneros Mejia sits down with B2B writing expert and fellow mom Sarah Greesonbach to discuss the highs and lows of juggling creative work with raising a family. 

Sarah shares her raw and candid journey of motherhood, from feeling unprepared for the loss of control and dignity that comes with parenting, to learning the importance of balance through trial and error. Listen in as we chat about setting boundaries, coping with comparison, and cultivating satisfaction in both work and family life. 

Plus, get an insider's look at trends shaping the future of B2B content, from original research to leveraging subject matter experts. This episode provides invaluable insights for any freelancer parenting young kids and striving for both success and sanity!

About Sarah;
Sarah Greesonbach is the founder of B2B Writing Institute, a rigorous training program that prepares writers for a vibrant career in B2B. Since 2013, Sarah has operated B2B Content Studio and invoiced more than $1 million as a freelance writer. Writing for agencies and Fortune 500 technology companies in the HR, retail/e-com, and higher education space, Sarah develops B2B content marketing assets like original research, white papers, and more. Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn.

Full show notes here.

Transcript

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Welcome everyone to another episode of the Talk Freelance to Me Podcast. I'm your host, Ashley Cisneros Mejia, and today I have one of my favorite coaches who's coached me from afar and didn't even know it, Sarah Greesonbach, is here. Hello, Sarah! Hello. How are we? It is exciting to be here. I'm so happy you're here and thank you for being flexible and for being willing. I know you're super busy, so thank you. This is really meaningful to me. So Sarah, , Freelance Fam, I'm going to read to you like I always do a little bit about Sarah's bio so you can get to know her more. Sarah Greeson bach is the founder of B2B Writing Institute, a rigorous training program that prepares writers for a vibrant career in B2B. Since 2013, Sarah has operated B2B Content Studio and invoiced more than$1 million as a freelance writer. Go, Sarah! Writing for agencies and Fortune 500 technology companies in the HR, Retail, E Com and higher education space. Sarah develops B2B content marketing assets, like original research, white papers, and lots more. She also hosts the B2B CraftWorks Podcast, where she helps listeners like us make more money in freelance or even in house as a marketing writer. Sarah, thank you for being here today. How's it going? Hey, I'm jazzed. I'm doing surprisingly well. So, I knew I just had to talk to somebody. It's speaking about doing well. It's hard sometimes for us parents, especially the moms. I, I know, you know, every situation is different, but I feel like sometimes a lot of times we, the moms tend to be the default caregiver, whether we have small kids, like, I know you have young children. I have young children. And even some of us that also have elderly parents, aging relatives where it's hard to do everything well or to feel like we've got everything under control. I love how you've talked about this. Anybody that's followed your work for the last couple of years, they would know that you've shared about these challenges of being a creative professional. When you're doing something that requires deep work like writing and parenting. How are things for you currently? How has your approach to balancing work and parenting evolved over the years? Well, I already made this joke in the green room, but have I shared or have I wailed and gnashed my teeth loud enough that enough people are shouting back? I think I've just had to compulsively share about it because becoming a mom has been such a hard introduction to me. I'm trying to think of a way to say this, that my kids could listen to this in 10 years and not have a conversation with me because I love them and they're my soulmates, but it's also like the loss of ego and the loss of dignity and the loss of physical and temporal space has driven me near insanity for the past six years. I have a five year old and a six and a half year old and being able to share about that and just hearing so many people echo that back to me has been, it makes it. Yeah. All of that. Second. I second all of that. I have a nine year old, a six year old, and a four year old. There's so many things about being a parent that you don't know unless you walk through that adventure. Until you're the one trying to brainstorm, trying to figure out if there's a child, I mean, hello pandemic, how do we do our work when everybody's under the same roof. You don't know how hard that is, especially I just I feel like in our creative work where we're creating something from nothing that doesn't exist. I feel like it's even harder, maybe because of the emotional presence that parenting takes. That's something that I definitely did not understand. I was uniquely ignorant about parenting because I wouldn't want to say no one knows what it's like until they do it. Cause that could make people feel like I'm calling them dumb. I specifically was dumb and I thought it would be super fun and relaxing and satisfying constantly. And I'm only recently out of the phase where , at the end of the night, you take your shirt off and a binky falls out and like a hot dog, it's like the amount of chaos and lack of control. I just wasn't prepared for that. And especially just as I've learned, I'm a person who really thrives when I have control, or at least the illusion of it. And it was just a very dramatic change for me. I feel the same way. And I think for me, the lack of control and surrendering. Or maybe it wasn't even me surrendering. It was them taking that control from me and not allowing me to have it. That was a lot. I feel like I've always wanted to be in control and motherhood and parenthood is, you are not in control of anything. If the school says they're closed or if one of the kids gets sick again, that you know, your whole place, if one of the kids realizes their favorite Lego will be home with mommy and suddenly is going to have a tummy ache and can't go exactly, exactly. You have to change. Everything, your whole work schedule, your whole, your whole day. Yeah, my, my four year old told his VPK teacher that he is planning to be tired. That he has planned tiredness. So look out teacher, because he's just giving everybody a heads up. So, I don't know. Yeah, and before we scare everybody away from having kids, I do have to say, Like I was done before and probably pretty intolerable. So the process of surrender, I think that's been a really important personal journey for me. It's just been agonizing as well. So both things are happening. I'm really pleased with the person I am becoming because of this. And also I had no idea. Yeah, I had no idea. I had no idea either. And I feel like there's certain skills that, you know, we all have our gifts in life skills that come naturally to us and skills that we might have to learn and cultivate. And for me, yeah, I have Have you done any Enneagram stuff? I have, years ago, and I couldn't tell you what I am I'm getting a 3 or a 8 vibe. Okay, I'll have to look, that's my homework. much achievement and control. Yeah. And that kind of stuff. That sounds Absolutely. Correct. Well, thank you for that, because I think that your ability to talk about, that as a challenge and how it relates to our work. And arguably we have it. Different, or we have it made. I don't want to say we have it made, but you know, we work for ourselves. And so we have more control of our schedule than say somebody's supposed to be the dream. Yeah. Do you have any aha moments or tips for anyone listening? Like, how have you pieced together a situation that that allows you to do all this amazing creative work that you do, and then also be the parent you want to be. Yeah, I've loved being able to reflect on this, and I certainly wouldn't say I'm the parent I want to be yet, but I am progressing in that direction. So, recently, over the past few months, and I'd say, something that I learned that was interesting was just my response to parenting was to go so hard into workaholism and achieve there, because that was the place where I still felt the same kinds of joy. Like I wasn't bewildered by what was happening every day at work. I could just go be me, absolutely rock it. And I found myself spending more and more time doing that and trying to escape my family life. And I just think that was really unhealthy. So I want to, warn people that. I think balance means it's still 50, 50. And so if you start to be in a situation where you're super high when you're working and then super low when you're at home, even if you're successful, that's not going to lead you to a place of happiness. And so you're going to achieve that dream and then still be burnt out and then be a little depressed that the dream didn't work out the way it was supposed to. So the more I pull back and I try to make work 50, 50, and I try my best to make parenting 50, 50. That balance is coming back and I actually feel, like I felt satisfaction the other day. What? Which is like, I feel like it's been a decade. At least a decade. But I just quietly was satisfied. Like with how home was going and how work was going. And that's such an elusive feeling. And I think it's the balance thing. Cause I, I specifically have been withdrawing from, Work because I don't think that should make you happy 24 7. Yeah personal opinion, but yeah, they're not worker bots was it the feeling of control and being able to percent? Yeah Yeah. Being able to, you know, work a certain definition of hard and then see a certain result financially or with LinkedIn followers or email lists and stuff like that to feel like there's any kind of give and take that you do not get from parenting. Cause it's just give, give, give. That was very satisfying and very distracting. Yeah, I relate to that so much. I think I've, I'm figuring that out. I think the investment that we put in the kids and the giving, hopefully we'll see it later, and then they're these great human beings are great. Older human beings, because I think right now they're probably great too as they are. I had to learn I'm kind of an older kid mom. I think there's a couple of us smattered around the world and it's like every day after five for both kids has been just the joy magnifies and I can really appreciate who they are and spending time with them or just watching them draw something. Is actually a highlight of my day and I think it's just maybe it's a certain personality or temperament where the toddler years are especially difficult. Yeah. Some people are baby people. A friend of mine posted something about that, that she felt like her husband was more of like the baby parent, you know, that was good with the, the physical aspects and that now what you're saying that she's able to relate to her son more. Yeah. As he's grown intellectually, you know, as an older kid, I guess. So yeah, I think there's something to that. And there's going to be some loss if you're a baby parent and your kids keep growing up, like you're going to have maybe that stress on the tail end instead of at the beginning. So interesting. You've given me a lot to think about, Sarah. A lot. Mission accomplished. Boom. Yes. Check it out. I've also, so in addition to your, first of all, you know this craft, you know writing and you know business. I talked at the onset of our conversation about you're talking about the intersection of parenting and in business is so interesting. I also love what you've shared about protecting your headspace. About mindset mindset in terms of like your business, how you want to create it and plan for it. But then also just your mindset as a person. So right now when we're talking it's January 2024 and I always feel. Interesting around this time of year because at the end of the year, you hear everybody doing their recaps and their wins and if you hadn't had the best year, you might feel bad about yourself thinking like I didn't achieve everything I wanted. And then now you have the whole, it's new year, new me and everybody's talking about their goals. And if you're still finding your footing in your business. It can feel you can question some things. How have you taught writers to set goals for themselves, but not get caught up in this comparison trap? Hmm. Well, first I'd say subscribe to my email newsletter because when I share a recap, it's a list of all the ways I've failed and the terrible things that have gone wrong all year. I think that's more my way of processing the grief of every year is what it feels like. And what I recommend for people is just to remember that comparison is the thief of joy and it it's inaccurate and it's a lie and it comes from fear. And all of us feel that fear, but some of us have stronger mental, mental barriers to. To push the fear away and lean into the opposite of fear, which is going to be gratitude and abundance and stuff. Cause I have very similar feelings when I go on LinkedIn and maybe see coaches, you know, going viral or people getting published in the news. And my first instinct is like, Oh, I must be a pack of garbage if they came in packs. I guess it's more like a bag of garbage. I'm some kind of garbage and maybe I should just quit. Maybe this is all over and I have to catch myself and observe that process and then like force it away and either unfollow those people if the feeling comes up too much or just log out of LinkedIn and not pay attention to it. Yeah, that's such good advice. Such good advice. A couple weeks ago, you posted some pictures, some glamour shots, some headshots that you purchased early in your career, and they were gorgeous. You were talking about your posts that went along with it. You were talking about advice that you would have given to yourself at that time. You've also talked in other conversations that I've heard you, maybe it was your podcast, talk about being more vulnerable and finding your voice. What tips do you have for other writers who are trying to find their sweet spot and how they present themselves professionally online, but still remaining authentic? I would point out just to be careful about who you're learning from or who you're modeling yourself after, because for example, my content, I'm really focused on marketing to other writers and building that trust for the coaching relationship, and that's why I'm going to be sharing things about vulnerability and those photo shoots, which I were, I was so embarrassed about 10 years ago. And then today they look fine. So it felt like a, a personal growth thing. And I think for writers, we don't actually have to be as vulnerable as, as other people might need to be. I think it's more about sharing your unique perspective and being willing to be present as a person and connect with other people and have a relationship. Absolutely. That's so good. You talked a lot recently in your podcast about thought leadership and really in the context of doing thought leadership writing for clients, for executives. And you're a thought leader in our space. What are you seeing as trends that we might be able to see in the B2B writing space and content marketing for 2024? I wasn't sure I had any strong opinions until I started jotting things down. And then I totally do, which is really interesting. And I'm biased because I've really built my business around these trends because I believe in them. So I think maybe this is more food for thought. Not knowing that Sarah is super biased about it, but original research stands out. I think the internet is just so saturated with information and content and facts and articles and stuff that anybody who can introduce something that's truly new, truly insightful, truly relevant to whoever their target customer is, I think people are really drawn to that and really attentive to it. So participating in original research, learning how to draft questions. Maybe even running a survey on SurveyMonkey, doing maybe not data analysis, but at least understanding how to look at the charts and stuff. And then writing reports on that. I see that as a big part of my work this year. And then the other part is just turning more to subject matter expert driven content. So really. new, interesting things that aren't already out there that are coming from people who have that daily experience. I think that's going to be really valuable too. Awesome. And what a way to insulate, AI, we were talking in the green room about AI tools, even to just. Produce podcasts. And I remember in 2023, when chat GPT, everybody was talking about that and what it was going to do to our industry. And all of the experts talking about that it's generative AI, that it's creating content based on what it thinks you want, or what it thinks the answer is based on all of the internet that it's read as of what November, 2021. I don't know if that's still the part where it stopped, but to your point, Really honing into that stuff that only we as humans can do, such as going and interviewing a subject matter expert who's drawing on 40 years of experience in a field to talk to them that content, that insight may not already be on the internet. And there's only, the robot still can't do that yet. I love that you pointed to original research and talking to real. subject matter experts. It's very cool. Well, again, we're writers talking about that or were they wailing about that? Wailing and gnashing again. Yeah. LinkedIn was just one long cry. And not a battle cry, just the sad kind. I think AI is really good at checking marketing boxes, but it's not good at connecting with the person who's going to make a purchase decision. Yeah. Marketers see that as a way to be really efficient and cut to the front of the line, but I don't, I just don't see that happening when it comes to taking someone who has 40 years of expertise presenting that in a way that showcases their business value or their insights or what they can do for people and sharing that information publicly. It's just a, I don't know, I could, again, I could certainly be proven wrong, but I'm, I'm placing my bet on more people. Absolutely. I think so. Because even during that interview process, you know, if a subject matter expert mentions this one thing in passing and you as a person, you see the connection between what you're writing and the objective of it and your client, all of those connections together that can help you make a decision to go another way. You see an opportunity. And again, a robot can't, it's not that advanced. We'll see, how, how it continues to learn, right, but right now I think that's such a sweet spot. I love how you brought that out. Yeah. Will we play this back smugly or will we play it back roasting ourselves? Who knows? Hopefully smugly. Please smugly. That would be great. And I know you mentioned doing more coaching for your business and helping other writers and having these conversations. What projects can we look forward to seeing from B2B Writing Institute this year? Well, I'm recently recovered from burnout and some chronic health issues with mold and SERS and just stuff no one should ever have to deal with. And so I'm actually excited to do anything this year. Suddenly I'm, you know, creating a writing challenge to help people with the actual construction and the writing side of B2B. And I'm going to bring back the Subject Matter Expert webinar series for six months, starting in March where I'll, I'll have three or four experts talking about different topics. In freelancing. Oh, that's cool. So, so cool. So where I, I can see that. I love that. So where can folks find you online if they want to learn more about these offerings? LinkedIn has been the place where most people party with me. Surprisingly. So Sarah Greesonbach on LinkedIn. Awesome, Sarah. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for wailing with me about parenthood and creative work. Can we Wookiee wail now? Yeah! It's the outtakes. We can wail. That'll be, that'll be another, another offering. All the moms can just get together and just wail and let it, let it out. Thank you so much.