Reconnecting With Your Spark: Finding Fun, Ideas, and Joy Again as a Working Mom (with Whitney Baker)

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Somewhere along the way, many working moms lose touch with the parts of themselves that feel playful, energized, and alive. In this episode, I’m joined by Whitney Baker, founder of Electric Ideas, for a deeply honest conversation about burnout, identity shifts after motherhood, and what it really means to reconnect with your spark. If you’ve been moving through your days on autopilot, this conversation will help you pause, reflect, and reconnect. 

In this episode, we unpack:

  • Why losing your spark is common for ambitious working moms 

  • The hidden cost of overfunctioning and living in constant “go mode” 

  • What it actually feels like to be lit up and inspired 

  • Small, realistic ways to invite play and spontaneity back in 

  • Why choosing your energy isn’t selfish—it’s essential

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Transcript

Intro

Rebecca: All right, working moms, I cannot wait for you to listen in on this interview that I am about to have with Whitney Baker. She’s my new best friend. She’s the founder of Electric Ideas, where she helps modern women, especially moms, reconnect with their inner spark and feel alive in their own life.

And I, I can’t even begin to say how important I think this topic is for us as women. We tend to get so lost in the day-to-day life as a mom and taking care of others. Like, when is that moment where we reconnect with ourselves, our joy, and what, like, lights us up?

So can’t wait for this conversation. Thank you, Whitney, for being on the podcast with me today.

Whitney Baker: I am delighted to be here. Thank you for having me, Rebecca.

Rebecca: Yeah. So you are a mom of two. Let’s get some of the basics out of the way, right? You’re a mom of two. So tell us a little bit about you and kind of what you do, family, all the things that we need to know before we get jump in right here.

Whitney Baker: Sure. Yeah. I… what kind of… what can I tell you? I live in Chicago. I have two junior high girls. So I’m kind of in this interesting phase of my motherhood work mix journey where they don’t need me as much in person, but they need me more than ever in some ways.

Rebecca: I know, I know. I can’t even imagine that. I’m not there yet.

“I’ve Tried Every Iteration of Work-Life Balance”

Whitney Baker: Yeah. And from a work, this whole… I love that your audience is working moms because my, this, this has been like a decade actually. Basically, my oldest is 13 since she’s born. I think I have tried every iteration of the work-life balance possible, and I, I feel like I can speak into every situation. And so I’m just excited to connect with your community.

Rebecca: I’m so glad, I’m so glad you’re here. Okay, so I would love to, like, kick us off by talking about kind of how you got into this idea, like this Electric Ideas kind of world, right? I love that, that term. I would love to hear more about what that even means to you. And really, you know, what it looked like for you to kind of reconnect with your own electric idea, your own, like, spark, as you like to say. So can you share a little bit of your story and that journey?

From a “Glitzy” Job to the Reality of Motherhood

Whitney Baker: Yeah. So I guess I will take us back in time. So I was working in a global marketing and PR agency in a creative role. So on paper, it was kind of a glitzy city job. I worked in the Hancock building, and I had my first daughter, and I really just did not know what I was getting into. As nuts of us, nobody can prepare. You can read the books. But I knew that I wanted to contribute outside the home, and I had a master’s degree, and I was invested.

So I went back to work full time, and lo and behold, I got pregnant very soon after and ended up having my daughters 14 months apart. And that was quite a whammy, as everybody who’s listening can imagine.

Rebecca: Yeah. So a bunch of us just went, oh my gosh, can't even imagine. Yeah.

“I Thought I’d Found the Holy Grail of Work-Life Balance”

Whitney Baker: So I just really fell into this. I wouldn’t, I didn’t have the words for it now, but I really, really flipped into this overfunctioning, autopilot, stressed-out mode version of myself. And here I thought I would be a trailblazer.

So I worked with my global company, and I was nervous because agencies, they say it’s kind of like working dog lives, like, or dog years. You know, it’s a pretty demanding, high-paced environment. And so I negotiated four days, and I thought that that was going to feel better.

After my second daughter, I mean, it just, it was still too much. So here I decided, okay, I’m just going to ask. All we can do is ask. I didn’t know any woman who’d ever gone down to three days, but I was willing to just ask, and I was nervous, and they said yes.

So here I thought, oh my God, I’m a trailblazer. I found this holy grail. I’m going to do it all. I’m going to find this mythical balance that we all look for. And it was awful.

That version of me had no boundaries, had no, you know, none of the skills I know now. And I was just trying to take calls with a baby on my hip, get them both down. I wasn’t able to do the jobs I wanted to do because I wasn’t client-facing enough. But I felt like I was failing in both places.

“Flexible Schedules Aren’t the Solution We Think They Are”

Rebecca: Yeah, across the board, right? And I think that’s so common because we, we think that less working, less hours, or getting some sort of more flexible schedule can be, is going to be, you know, the solution on some level. And I think it is for some companies in some ways. You know, I don’t want to discount that.

But for, like, the ambitious, driven kind of woman, all that means is we fit the 40-hour workweek into 30 hours. Ish. Or we take the extra 10 hours and it bleeds out into our personal time instead. And then we, yeah, we feel like we’re failing because we’re never doing enough across anyway.

Whitney Baker: And we’re getting paid less! 

Rebecca: And we’re getting paid less to do it. Yeah, absolutely. It’s like, it’s not, I’m not saying it’s the wrong option. It is for, it is for some people. But we also have to have, like, a real, a real realistic understanding of what it takes to do that well.

Yeah, otherwise, otherwise it just bites us in the end, right? To your point.

“I Was So Eager to Prove That I Still Had It”

Whitney Baker: Yes. And that version of me did not, wasn’t equipped at all. I was just so eager to prove that I still had it and I could still, you know, get on, you know, pitch clients the next day and be on my A-game. I was in a very different mode.

So eventually I hit a burnout point, which was really hard, and I quit. But within a week of quitting, I was putting an insane amount of pressure on myself, if I’m being honest, to begin freelancing. I was updating my resume, putting it out. I just, I didn’t have any language or knowledge about a power pause or designing your life like, I’m glad these conversations are starting to come up now.

I just felt like I was going to lose my footing immediately in the professional world, and I didn’t want to. So I’ve forgiven that version of myself. We don’t know better. We can only learn.

But during that time, I also started to come up for air a little bit. My daughter started to go into preschool a couple hours. I’m sure you remember when it was like, oh my God, I got the 2.25 hours, and I have like 17 things, like, what’s going to win the lottery today of attention.

Rebecca: Oh my gosh, totally.

“I’d Abandoned Pieces of Myself”

Whitney Baker: But I did start to come up for air a little bit, and I realized I’d abandoned a lot of pieces in myself in that time. I realized, you know, I’d always had a soulful side. I’d always had a super creative writing and creative honoring side that, when I was working with creative in my role, in my job title, I didn’t have any juice left for anything playful and personal and creative.

And it was really a time of reinvention. And I finally, well, I’ll let you chime in. But it just was like really a mirror time for me. So I’ll pause there, because I know that’s a lot.

“Sometimes We Have to Hit the Low to Create Change”

Rebecca: Yeah. I love it. I mean, and, and it’s in, you know, I don’t think everybody has to get to the low of the low to make the change. Ideally, that’s why you hire a coach or you do something before you ever get to that point, right?

But sometimes that’s what’s required for us in our humanness, get to the low of the low. And then, yeah. Like, if we segue into what led into, into kind of the Electric Ideas and kind of the spark that you talk about, like, what happened there?

Whitney Baker: Yeah. So I started giving myself permission just to reclaim those, like, those parts of me that I'd not done. I took a writing class for fun. Right. Not because I needed to deliver - just for fun.

Rebecca: Wait…for fun?

Whitney Baker: Yes. I know.

Rebecca: What? What’s that? 

Whitney Baker: Right. I just started doing things like that. But I will tell you, because you mentioned coach. So I had never heard of this whole coaching world.

Rebecca: Yes.

“I Thought a Career Coach Would Fix My Work”

Whitney Baker: And I happened to be at a talk, and I saw, I heard this woman talking about coaching, and I felt frustrated because out of the gate, I wasn’t getting the perfect freelance. They call it, like, permanence, like these nice, long, juicy opportunities.

So I thought a career coach would help me, you know, find these better opportunities, right? So finally I hired someone. Thank my lucky stars. She also was kind of like a career life visionary.

And as she started giving me these assignments, like, basic things, like, go. Okay. I’m sure we’ve all heard the advice, you know, like, find the companies. And then, like, you know. And my energy was just, like, down, like every, I’m just like, ugh. It was, like, punishing.

Rebecca: Yeah.

When You Realize You Don’t Actually Want What You’re Chasing

Whitney Baker: Yeah, and finally she was like, do you even want these opportunities? And I was like, no, no I don’t.

Rebecca: Yeah. I love that. I love the honesty there.

Whitney Baker: Yes. And I think that it's really hard. I think that, motherhood is a portal, and it's an initiation. And sometimes it's like we realize things we've been long committed to and ways of being are just not important to us anymore.

The Motherhood Identity Crisis

Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I call that the motherhood identity crisis that hits a lot of moms, right. The moment you start having kids and you’re like, what the heck am I doing with my life? Is this what I even want to be doing? Who am I anymore? What even, like, lights me up? You know?

And once you kind of finally come up for air from the sleep deprivation and the constant feeding and all the things, and you’re like, wow. Like, wow. Life kind of kept going while I was gone. I wonder. I wonder where I fit in. You know, that’s the motherhood identity crisis.

And I, and so many moms experience that. Maybe every mom does on some level. And for some, it’s just really intense for them, right? It’s, it feels so different. Life feels so different, and their goals feel so different, and what they connect with feels so different. You know, that it’s very confusing, and it makes you feel really lost during this.

“When Gratitude and Guilt Keep You Quiet”

Whitney Baker: Absolutely. I called it my murky middle, but I can only call that now because I didn’t have the words at the time. I was just in this quiet confusion.

I felt deeply grateful that I had the privilege of having worked for so long and saved enough and having the stability of a partner that I could have a little bit of this opportunity to pause or shift or rethink. So that guilt kept me quiet. I was like, who am I to want more?

Rebecca: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so at some point you reconnected with the spark. What happened there?

Meditation, Spaciousness, and Coming Back to Myself

Whitney Baker: Yes. Well, so in parallel path, I was exploring my own creativity. I’ve always been kind of a spiritual seeker, and I started getting very much into meditation. And I will tell you that it’s a practice that really transformed my life and gave me a sense of spaciousness, of, like, what really matters, and being able to pull back and look at things from a way, way, way higher perspective.

As I slowly healed from that rat race nervous system sense of being that I didn’t even realize I was on, I started reclaiming my own creativity and feeling my essence and just feeling like myself again, not constantly under this pressure cooker mode.

“What Are We Doing to Women Right Now?”

And I was like, what are we doing to women right now? And so Electric Ideas was born out of this knowing that there is a different way to contribute to the world.

And I only know now because I’ve researched and discovered it and followed this calling and this knowing that I think we’re working in a lot of outdated structures and cultural expectations that were never built for women, especially moms, to thrive in.

Rebecca: Yeah, yeah.

Whitney Baker: And I felt that and wanted to change that. And it's been so far my life's work for the last several years.

Rebecca: Yeah. So what does Electric Ideas even mean to you?

Whitney Baker: Yeah, yeah. So when I began, it's kind of. It's kind of that moment of aha that sparks a possibility.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Whitney Baker: I think we move, especially as women, we move on such like, got to get this done. We're driven by our, you know, our calendars, our to dos as moms. It's just like we're putting out fires reactively when we pause and we have the visceral, like, whoa, I can operate differently.

Rebecca: Yeah.

“Fueled From the Inside Out Changes Everything”

Whitney Baker: Separately, as my work just becomes deeper and deeper to me, I think at, like, a more profound layer. I see it as truly believing that when we are fueled from the inside out, we’re able to contribute at a higher level, and that’s the biggest pivot.

You know, people talk about self-care as, like, a bubble bath or whatever. And it’s like, no. When we really deeply tend to ourselves, we can reach our potential.

Rebecca: Yeah. How do women connect with this kind of inside out fuel? Right. This spark that's within them? What are some thoughts or ideas on how to help women do that?

Whitney Baker: Great. Yeah. Well, that’s, we can talk all through December about these ideas. But one thing I guess I’ll say that might feel fresh for your listenership, because I know there are so many women who are juggling and straddling and ambitious, and they want to be a present mother, and they want to be a fulfilled career woman as well.

Rebecca: Yeah.

“Rest Alone Doesn’t Make You Feel Lit Up”

Whitney Baker: And I think that we can all raise our hand that we’re tired. Like, women are tired. However, we’ve all had those weekends where, hopefully, we’re like, okay, we’re intentional. No plan is the plan. We’re going to chill. We’re going to rest. Okay, I’m all for intentional rest.

However, that doesn’t make you feel lit up and energized. And so I think that most of what I teach is connecting with yourself and creating rhythms that allow you rest, but also that allow you to feel energized and lit up and inspired.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Whitney Baker: So it's that combination.

“What Does It Actually Mean to Feel Lit Up?”

Rebecca: I feel like this is kind of a funny question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. What do you think it even means to be lit up? I think so many women lose that spark, right? And they lose sight of what it even means to connect with that spark. So how would you describe that lit-up experience, if you will?

“Inspired Means Being in Spirit”

Whitney Baker: So many women are driven by the doing. Doing. Going, going. Juggling. Juggling. And if you look at the root word of inspired, it literally means to be in spirit.

So when you think about it that way, we all know when we’re in a state of play, we’re in a state of flow, and there’s ease and there’s energy. And that’s what we want to share.

I feel like, unfortunately, in the land of shoulds ruling our lives as working moms, that just doesn’t naturally happen. We almost have to cultivate that intentionally.

The Sensation of Being Lit Up

Rebecca: Yeah, we sure do. And I think the lit-up experience is something that’s happening on the inside of you, right? It’s not something that’s happening on the outside. It inspires the things that you do, but it’s not the things that you do, which I think is a really clear delineation on some level.

It’s an internal, body experience, right? So for me, when I start to think about things that light me up, I literally feel a very different sensation, like pulsing through my body, than I do when I’m productive, for example. And productivity can have its own energy and its own drive and its own satisfaction.

But I think that lit-up space, that spark that you’re talking about, is really a difference in the body. It’s like a different vibrational experience in our body. That’s how we know that we’re lit up.

Whitney Baker: Right.

Rebecca: And it's, we're going to connect with it on all sorts of levels. Like there's a different pace to the light up than there is in other, you know, in other things that drive us and motivate us.

Whitney Baker: I think that's exactly right, Rebecca. I mean, just that, that visceral sense, that embodied sense.

Rebecca: Yeah. So good. Yeah. I want to circle back to like what can women do to try to reconnect with that? What does that look like, to reconnect with that?

Whitney Baker: Sure.

Rebecca: So define it. All new, to be honest. Like sometimes it's like a brand new. Your spark might be way different than it was prior to motherhood. That's great. But how do we find it?

Whitney Baker: Yeah. And I'll definitely speak into both. So it's funny, I've for years have taught this six week program with different, kind of a different theme every week. And I do one on kind of this like play and spark, and it's the hardest one for moms.

Rebecca: Really.

Whitney Baker: It's the hardest one for moms.

Rebecca: That's so interesting!

“A Delight Date: Play With No Outcome”

Whitney Baker: It’s so interesting. There’s a small assignment, and it’s part of a tool I’ll share. And it’s called a delight date. And all that means is you have to schedule half an hour during that week and do something that’s not attached to an outcome, that brings a sense of wonder, childlike play. Go crunch on some leaves.

It can’t be something that’s in your normal routine, like, okay, I’m just going to do my yoga class. You know? It has to be something kind of novel.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Whitney Baker: Every, 50% of the moms are like, yeah, I did that, kind of. But I brought my kid because I thought that she’d really— that’s the only other rule. You have to do it by yourself. It’s just for yourself.

Rebecca: Oh, goodness.

Whitney Baker: Women struggle.

Rebecca: That feels so challenging.

“Why Play Feels So Hard for Grown Women”

Whitney Baker: So much. And it’s 30 minutes. It’s because we’ve been taught as adults that play feels frivolous. And really, when we’re talking about that inspired energy, think about you telling your child to put away her backpack. Maybe that’s the only— oh, maybe that’s the only problem in my house.

But think about you being in a playful state or an inspired state because you created that spark for yourself, and then facing kind of these small things that every mom has, and handling it playfully because you have that energy to share.

Or being the mom that’s trying to get that last thing done, heads down, crunching on her assignment, whatever her work is. They come in the door, and you’re moving from a not playful place.

I mean, it really has a ripple into our work and our family. So I think scheduling a delight date. But sometimes women have such struggle with that that I made it even easier. I think planned spontaneity is a strategy.

Rebecca: Okay. Ooh, tell me more. Planned spontaneity.

“Why We Default to Productivity Instead of Rest”

Whitney Baker: Yes. So women are so used to just running the household, and, man, I don’t want to be presumptuous, but, you know, it’s like we get small chunks of time, and instead of being like, sweet, I’m going to sip my tea and relax on the couch, we’ll be like, oh, okay, I’ve got 20 minutes. What can I get done? That’s like a reflex for a lot of modern moms, especially working women.

Rebecca: Yeah.

“Treat Play Like a Meeting”

Whitney Baker: So instead of putting this forced, like, I’m going to go play pickleball randomly at 10 a.m. because I have a meeting break, fine. Okay. If you can’t get your head around that, fine.

Put a pocket of time on your calendar. Just carve it out and treat it the same way you would treat your meetings. And when it comes to that time, say, what sounds fun? Ask yourself. Check in with yourself that day.

And fun doesn’t have to look like haha fun. I mean, fun for me sometimes is like walking through a plant store leisurely and not feeling a lick of guilt about it.

Rebecca: Yeah. Take a bath in the middle of the day.

Whitney Baker: I do that all the time and love it.

Rebecca: Yes, yes. In the middle of your day. That's craziness to some people. Maybe it's taking a nap in the middle of your day for that matter. 

Whitney Baker: Totally. Or you know, reading your novel before nighttime. You know, nobody ever said that you could only read at night. That's the sort of thing.

Rebecca: yeah, that magazine that has nothing to do with anything. It's the trashiest thing that has terrible news in it, but it's like a guilty pleasure. By all means.

Whitney Baker: I feel like you can like that. That's the. Just removing the should, removing the outcome, not needing to tell anybody about it. But I'm all about energy management, you know?

Rebecca: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tending To The Spark

Whitney Baker: And when you see. Sometimes when you treat that spark, you tend to that spark, it ends up giving you more energy to do all the things you think you want to buzz around and do and you're happier.

Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely. I’m fascinated by this idea of how we talk a lot about rest and the need for rest. You know, obviously as a coach I talk a lot about that with women and the need to not be productive. That’s kind of what I mean by rest. Like purely, literally letting those synaptics in your brain calm down, not thinking so hard, sleeping a full night, you know, whatever. It is super important for us to function at an optimal level.

“Fun Lets the Productive Part of Your Brain Rest”

I love the idea that following spontaneity and fun also rests our brain in a different way. Because by doing almost any of those things, you’re shifting from one side of your brain to the other. The side that’s in super overdrive with productivity and results focus.

When you’re doing something fun for the sake of fun, you are moving into a different part of your brain. So you’re letting the productive part of your brain rest for a while, and you’re lighting up a different part of your brain. It brings you energy in a different way.

So when you return, this is the same thing that happens with rest, right? When you return to daily life and all of the responsibilities and tasks that you have, there’s a completely different motivation, drive, energy, and positivity that comes with that.

And so I love that there's so many ways that we can do that. I mean, this is a challenge for me too. So I just love this idea. So good.

Whitney Baker: Yeah. Well, I'm glad you brought that up, because I know you have a lot of ambitious women in your community, and I'm guessing that they might, some of them fall into that. Like, this sounds. This is hitting me, but I can't really see myself doing it.

Rebecca: I know, I know.

“Your Best Ideas Don’t Come From Staring at Your Screen”

Whitney Baker: The more I work with groups of women and companies, the more I really have to get them to come over to my side, understanding that I also was a creative at a company. And ideas aren’t normally— your best and brightest ideas don’t usually happen when your head’s down at your computer. They need marination.

Rebecca: That’s why we have the best ideas in the shower. This is why. This is where this comes from, right? Or we have the best ideas when we’re playing in the leaves or when we’re doing something fun or creative. Absolutely.

Whitney Baker: And I’ll also say for all the women who are heads-down working at home, because I know there’s so much gray area. I’ve gone out for my little delight dates or whatever, and I’ve bumped into a neighbor, I’ve talked to someone at a store, and I end up having some interesting connection that I could have never come across if I was just heads-down in the name of getting stuff done.

“What Happens When You Lean Into the Silliness”

Rebecca: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love that so much. You know, this is not the same thing, but it’s reminding me of this. I just had one of my cohort calls. So I run a program called Ambitious and Balanced, and we had a call yesterday.

She was talking about how challenging it is when her kids get silly. And she’s just like, will you just please put on your shoes instead of clucking like a chicken? You know? So we were talking about this kind of irritation that comes up regularly.

And at the end of this coaching moment with her, I challenged her to get silly with her kids. I was like, what if instead of trying to move them past these moments, you had 10 seconds of embracing it?

So if they cluck like a chicken, you cluck like a chicken for 10 seconds, right? Because she has two young boys. She’s like, if your boys start burping and trying to out-burp each other at the dinner table, you’re like, hey, let’s all have a burping contest. We’re all going to go around once, and then we’re going to be done. Right? But you participate in the silliness of what your kids are doing.

“Letting Go of Control Creates a Different Kind of Energy”

She looked at me like I was speaking a completely different language. She’s like, I cannot. I can’t even imagine myself. I’m like, I know. That’s what’s so great.

I thought it was delightful. She embraced it. She was like, I’m really going to try, and I’m going to come back and report how it foes, because I see the benefit of it.

But yes, it takes getting out of our box. It takes us getting out of this box that we put ourselves in, the responsibility, the control we feel like we need in order to be successful, productive, move things along, joyful, whatever it is.

And getting out of that, and tapping into other energies that actually light us up.

Whitney Baker: Yeah. I love all of that, and I'm glad that you challenge that. You know, I think kids can bring up weird rules that we've absorbed along the way.

Rebecca: Yeah.

“Play and Lightness Are My Way Back to Connection”

Whitney Baker: And I feel like the healthiest thing—I can only speak to my own household—but I think the healthiest part of my motherhood is when I’m feeling disconnected, or I feel like somebody’s giving me the grump or not listening or whatever.

Instead of doubling down, trying to get into that controller mode, which is the worst version of myself for me—and I’m very aware of that—it doesn’t feel good, and it’s not fun for me. I don’t want to parent that way.

So I look for something to do around play and lightness and connection.

Rebecca: Yeah, yeah. And that looks very different for your kids in middle school—

Whitney Baker: Right, right.

Rebecca: —than it does for toddlers, right? But yeah, absolutely.

Whitney Baker: Yeah, yeah. And that, ah, I wish I would have understood that. I think it was more natural to me, but that has been a pattern interrupt.

“The Improv Rule That Changed How I Parent”

Rebecca: Yeah, I love that. My husband studied improv, something I probably have never shared on the podcast before. Some of my listeners know that I have a theater degree. I have a musical theater degree in performance. It’s what I did many years ago. Whatever. I married a husband who also did the same thing. Neither one of us does that now, though.

Of course, those skill sets came in handy all throughout our adulthood and will continue to. But he really loved improv. And the one rule of improv is that you always say yes. You always accept what somebody says to you, no matter how strange it is. So you say yes, and then you build on it.

That’s where it gets funny. When somebody in improv offers something outrageous and you’re like, yes, I agree with you, and it builds on it, right? So there’s this yes-and mentality that I want working moms to have.

“Yes Mindset Gets You Out of Your Head and Into Possibility”

When your kids offer you something they want to do, something you have no desire to do, an invitation to participate in something that isn’t necessarily your jam, or you’re in work mode and want to do something else, the answer is yes.

It’s like, yes, I will do it. And to challenge this, it circles back around to cluck like a chicken, join the burping contest, right? Or play Uno when your kid asks to play Uno. Or read to them even if it’s inconvenient.

For my kids right now, it’s like, will you come out and play soccer? I’ve got 10 minutes. Let’s do it. Right? It’s a yes mentality that gets us out of this very narrow, one side of our brain and into opening up the path.

It opens up possibilities for who knows what. Joy. Fun ideas. New adventures. Memories. We don’t know what’s going to come until we start saying yes to some of that.

Whitney Baker: Oh, that's great. I love that. I love that.

Rebecca: There's a third challenge I just offered right there. A yes challenge.

Whitney Baker: Yes and no. I like it. And you brought up some really interesting things. for me, like, part of it, I feel like now that, you know, that I've done the whole five days, four days, three days, intentional pause. Freely, I've. Mom guilt plays around no matter where.

Rebecca: Yeah.

“Ten Minutes of Presence Goes Further Than You Think”

Whitney Baker: I will say another lesson that I’ve learned is that 10 minutes of total focus goes way farther than you would ever think. You know, so many moms are like, oh, you know, the statistics bear out—I’m sure you’ve seen them—that we as a generation are spending way more time with our children than previous generations.

Rebecca: Absolutely. Way more.

Whitney Baker: Also working way more.

Rebecca: And we feel more guilt about it.

“Why a Simple Timer Can Change Everything”

Whitney Baker: A timer was my best friend when I had younger kids. Absolutely sounds silly, but it was just like, okay, I’ll do whatever you want, but I’m going to do this for 10 minutes, and then I’m going to do my work, and I’m going to let you see me doing my work. And you can join me or not, or you can keep going.

And it really—just that. But you have to be in that energetic state, kind of like what you were saying. So we have to be aware of our energy so we’re even open to that.

“Using Time Limits to Create Presence Without Guilt”

Rebecca: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think timers are really helpful, particularly for us. It’s not like we’re saying yes to something that’s going to take hours away from your time. I mean, maybe be open to it if you have the space to do that, but most of us don’t. We still have lists to do or work to do or whatever it is.

So fine. Set a really intentional container of space that you are saying yes to. And whether you need a timer or not, for my kids, I’m usually super clear before I start something with how long I have to do it. That way my brain knows I’m not going to do this forever. I’m going to get back to whatever I was doing before.

My kids know, and they have a set expectation. Timers and containers of time are magic when it comes to some of these things. It really helps our kind of type-A brain allow us to have a moment where we’re not being productive, because we know we’re going to get back to productivity. But it still gives us that space, right? There’s nothing wrong with that. I love that.

Whitney Baker: I agree, yeah.

“Why Reconnecting With Your Spark Actually Matters”

Rebecca: So we’ve been talking so much about reconnecting with your own spark and the things that light you up, and talking through some of those tools. Sometimes these sparks lead to much bigger changes or much bigger ideas. I assume that yours kind of led you into where you headed with your business.

Can you share a little bit about your own experience with that, but also where you see this going for women? Like, when you reconnect with your spark, where do you see it go? And why does it even matter to reconnect with this in the first place?

“Choosing Your Energy Is a Radical Act”

Whitney Baker: Thank you. What a beautiful question, and something I’ve been thinking about a lot. I think that as modern women and moms, we were sold a bag of goods that we could do it all. And we’ve briefly touched on the expectations of motherhood culturally, and the way workforces are structured are really not in a place that supports us doing it all without entering complete depletion.

So I think it’s a radical choice to choose your own energy and attention and decide that you are going to design your life instead of just respond or assume. And that’s where that shift comes.

It really has to be felt, like when you decide that you are not willing to routinely sacrifice your well-being in order to be a mother, in order to contribute your gifts to the world professionally. It’s a big shift, and I think that’s what I’m calling for women.

But it’s not selfish. It’s truly a generous act, because we’ve talked about this. It’s generous because it allows you to be grounded and whole in the most important job in the world as a mother. And it’s generous because we need women at every table, in every room of every company, every office, you know, everywhere.

Rebecca: Yeah.

“When Women Burn Out, the World Loses Their Genius”

Whitney Baker: And if women are burnout and can't contribute from their area of genius, we're missing out, we're missing ideas, we're missing the intelligence and the creativity of women. So I'm really calling on this shift. I think it's essential.

“Why One Third of Women Leave or Pull Back After Becoming Mothers”

Rebecca: Yeah, I mean, you’re talking about this from a societal and cultural level, right? And I have something similar that really motivates me in the work that I do, like closing the leadership gap at the top and seeing more women in leadership and the power of more diversity at the top.

What I know is required is that we’re supporting women at the moment they start having kids, because that is where their trajectory drops. I mean, we see it statistically. One third of women change jobs, leave jobs, or pull back in their career within the first 18 months of starting to have kids. That’s a huge number of women who shift, and we lose their trajectory at the top.

And to your point, the more women that feel sparked and alive with their own ideas and creativity and fire, the more we’re going to see the world change through that, right? We have the best ideas. We have creativity beyond belief. We problem-solve in different ways. We think strategically in different ways. We’re empathetic in different ways.

So we need more women to live alive within that spark that’s already in them, that already exists within them, if they tap into it.

Whitney Baker: Yes. And we need female leaders who are willing to model.

Rebecca: I know.

Whitney Baker: Leading without exploiting themselves.

Rebecca: Yes.

“We Can’t Wait for the System to Change”

Whitney Baker: Yeah, I’m still dreaming and figuring this out. I don’t think we’re going to solve decades and decades of cultural, political, structural stuff. But I’m hopeful. And I think in the meantime, we don’t want to wait for these structures. Let’s all advocate. Let’s get these policies changed. Let’s help. But also, let’s not have half the women who are just about to get the biggest promotion of their lives quit. So that’s where I stand, at this immediacy, this intersection.

Rebecca: Absolutely, absolutely. So good. Well, we’ve got to kind of ramp things up here, unfortunately. But I have just loved this conversation around refining your spark. It’s such an important one for us as women. I love what you do. I think it’s such important work as we dive into why this matters. It’s so important in this world, and I’m so grateful for you.

If our listeners want to get connected with you and follow your work, what’s the best way to find you?

“How to Stay Connected and Keep the Spark Alive”

Whitney Baker: Thank you. I keep it playful on Instagram, so you can come hang out there. You can find me at Whitney Woman. My website is myelectricideas.com, so there are ways to connect with me if you’ve got a women’s group, your company, or want to work one-on-one. And then finally, the Electric Ideas podcast is truly a life-giving area of contribution for me, so you can subscribe and check out my work there.

Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely. And if you didn’t know, this is actually how we all connected, because I was on her podcast. And I think this episode is going to come out before mine comes out on yours. So you can listen to me there in the coming weeks or months, whenever that comes out.

But thank you so much for your time. I will put all of your information in our show notes so it’s easy for people to click and find you. I’m actually looking you up right now on Instagram. I don’t think I follow you yet. I want playfulness on my Instagram. Who doesn’t want playfulness on their Instagram? That sounds like fun.

So working moms, if you missed it, there was a challenge for you. Take yourself out on a delight date this week. Plan some spontaneity. Say yes to something you wouldn’t normally say yes to with your kids. All to spark fun, spark adventure, spark ideas, and find that light within you again that we know is already there and that the world needs to see.

And until next week, let’s get to it. 💛

Rebecca Olson