Note from Stacey: The following is an excerpt from my interview with Get it Scrapped! founder Debbie Hodge for my upcoming Multi-Passion Mama Productivity System interview series. Debbie and I had a great conversation on families and business (and the ways that the two can successfully be intertwined). The excerpt below is part of a discussion we had after Debbie used the phrase “competitive” to describe her and her business philosophy – she totally turned around the negative connotations that that word had for me! Stay tuned for more information on The Multi-Passion Mama Productivity System and find out more about Debbie below. Enjoy!
Stacey: One of the strongest messages I want to get out on the series is that your business won’t look like anyone else’s business, that’s for sure. And if you want to know other people’s “secret” it’s just that they are willing to just believe – “If I keep at it, and keep submitting, and I keep putting stuff out there, I am going to get traction and I will get to my goal.”
And for me the goal was just doing what I love to do and figuring out how to make time for it, because as a mom there will be so many other requests and demands and so many requests made for your time and so it really is about saying, “Gosh, I value this.” You’re the first person use the word competition, and I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever said that way. I think I found a different way of saying it, like willful or tenacious, but no, it’s good! Saying that, “Gosh, you know, I think that I have good work to put out there and I think I’m as good if not better than someone else.”
Debbie: Right.
Stacey: I mean, why not? Again, I don’t think so much in the competitive sense that “If I don’t do this, then I’m not going to get my chance,” like there is only enough room for one person in the spotlight. I really think that there are just so many opportunities.
Debbie: Like I said, I’m pretty open to all the people who do the same thing I do because my website is pretty narrow in its focus – we’re really practical, we’ve got a small team and really – anytime anybody says “I’d watch out for the other guy” or whatever, I don’t ever feel worried about it because I think it just grows the market. I like to do puzzles. I like to solve things. So it’s a real challenge. I did well in school, why can’t I do well in life?
Stacey: Absolutely! I love it. We have kind of associated that idea of competition with a bit of a negative connotation, but the way that you say it – there’s no negative connotation attached to it! Like “I just really believe in myself, I believe I can do well and it’s going to work out.” I love that, and let’s do that, for sure, because it’s really positive, obviously.
One of the questions that I’d wanted to really ask was, so how do you make sense of all of your passions? I remember you wrote back to me that the scheduling aspect is the challenge. And I get that, and I think all moms do because, again, there are so many requests made of your time. But you also seem to allude that when you do create that list or that schedule, you find that things flow a little bit more easily, is that true?
Debbie: Yeah, I think that’s why I’m having a hard time right now with the summer. It’s so humid, my brain is muddy and everybody is around and schedules keep changing, so it is a little harder. But I get up before everybody in the morning. I was the first to bed last night, and I woke at 2am and my husband was asleep but there was a hall light on. And so I got up; my 14-year old was awake watching TV, chatting with somebody on his Xbox headset. And we had gone to the pool late at night so I guess my 11-year old fell asleep on the sofa so that’s why the light was on, he was asleep downstairs.
But it’s great – I get up at 5:30am and they’re all asleep till like 9:30 or 10 o’clock. So that’s a huge buffer of time for me to get, that’s like my key time to get things done.
Stacey: That’s awesome. So do you that, have you always been naturally an early riser or was that a decision that you made?
Debbie: I think I have, yeah. When I got my MBA many years ago I started for some reason getting up really early because I had a nice little office at the business school, and I think I kind of liked going in there – I had a nice computer! And then when my sons were really young I was working on a novel, and the morning was the only time that my brain would be sort of fresh. But I’m not always well organized. You know, I let my list slip sometimes and then I just end up usually playing catch up. I tell my family that I need, you know, a solid chunk of time, like from 5 in the evening until late the next day. I need like a day and a night.
Stacey: Exactly, but what you’re saying is that in the summer time there may be less concrete scheduling, but your family is so understanding. And I think that scenario only ever exists in a household where everyone’s needs are generally attended to. You can ask for what you need because you’re often willing to give to your sons and husband when they need something.
Debbie: And my 14-year old worked with me this afternoon. He can put posts up on Word Press and I’m working on this theme series, and I needed some quotes about gardening and needed a list of hallmark images and so…
Stacey: And he helped you with that, that’s so great! Have you been priming him for a while or it was this just something…
Debbie: I have! I wish he had a little more ambition and drive, because I feel like I could teach him so much, because I know a lot of technical stuff too. But I don’t want to push him. That’s one worry, as a parent, that I don’t push my kids so much. But as I mentioned, we’re not a family with a lot of routine.
Stacey: But that’s okay! I’m always going to go down saying that that’s how I wanted to live my life. I mean, look at you – gosh, you wrote fiction and you worked in a corporate business and then you created your own business because it made sense and because it was a passion of yours – and so I just think there is no better example to show to your kids.
So again, I would just say more power to you and your family because I love the example that you’re setting. Thank you so much for that.
P.S. from Stacey: I’ll be hosting a free preview teleseminar for the Multi-Passion Mama Productivity System next week titled: “You’re a Great Mom. Now What? How to Get Out of Overwhelm and Get Clarity and Traction on Your Goals.” The call will be on Thursday, September 9th at 1 pm EST (10 am PST) and you can register for it by clicking here.
Debbie Hodge is founder of the scrapbooking website and business, Get It Scrapped! She has an MBA with a concentration in operations management. Combine that skill set with her study and practice of creative writing for almost two decades and you get someone whose passion is showing you how to organize your memories and photos to make great-looking scrapbook pages that tell awesome (and meaningful!) stories.
You can find Debbie’s work in Get It Scrapped! from F+W Media, and e-books Embellishing with Alphas and Every Little Thing at Designer Digitals. She was a contributing editor to Memory Makers Magazine, and her scrapbook pages and articles have appeared in scrapbook magazines that include: BHG Scrapbooks Etc., Memory Makers Magazine, Simple Scrapbooks, Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbook Trends, and Scrapbook Answers.
If you’re looking for some of her scrapbook pages, you’ll find a ton of them in her gallery at DesignerDigitals.com where she’s on the Creative Team.
Debbie lives in seacoast New Hampshire with her two sons and econ-professor husband where she does a lot of writing, scrapbooking, puzzling, and playing Settlers of Catan.
