👀 A parent-friendly business note from Amy...

Adjusting my expectations + forever adapting

"I am good at what I love. I don't love all that I'm good at."

– Matthew McConaughey

I'm currently reading the book 'Greenlights' by Matthew McC, while in post-op recovery mode at the Grandparents farm, from a surgery I didn't know I'd be having at the time of recording my last podcast interview in 2024.

Back then, I knew my body was sending me signals but we didn't have the data or information to understand what they meant or where to go from there.

All I knew was, I couldn't keep on keeping on the way I was going up until that point.

But after I had already radically adjusted the way I worked, parented and lived after a car accident in 2023, I thought the tough bits were over.

Turns out, life had other plans!

This is a note from me about all of the ways I've tried adapting without quitting, doubling down on what's working and learned to get better at 'receiving' and 'asking for help'.

✨As Matthew McC writes, "Live your legacy now".

[Scroll for more thoughts on 'Greenlights']

Here's what's changed for me over the past 18 months:

🐌 I'm moving a bit more slowly these days...

Thankfully with some more facts and advice as to why. I thought I had reduced my pace in 2023/24 but I guess the Universe wanted me to drop it into an even lower gear for 2025! Upon reflection, I realized listeners from over 56 countries have tuned into the Mixing Babies And Business Podcast and I feel it in my bones – this is only the beginning.

I examined my work to date over the past 20 years covering flexible work, digital media, marketing and later inclusion, parenthood and social impact. I made a commitment to go all in on digital-first services, products and experiences, something I know well but haven't been doing exclusively since launching this business. I'm now focusing on accessibility, what's worked well for audiences I've spoken to over the years and ways I can reach more people who are also parents, worldwide.

Next month I'll be hosting another FREE webinar titled 'Show Up (With Your Kids) In Corporate Settings' on Wednesday, July 2nd: RSVP to attend the session live with audience Q&A via Zoom, you'll also be able to access the replay and mini guide PDF until July 9th, 2025.

🤳 I adapted to get back online again in creative ways...

After having to pause Season 6 podcast edits and production due to a traumatic brain injury / whiplash flare ups that keep happening... this looked like lots of working from my mobile device and doing shorter stints on the laptop/desktop. Coupled with lots of pacing, light stretching, nature time, physio, supplements and other health modalities.

I set up my office desk to be a standing one (check out this BTS preview of my space), simplified my workflows and am slowly getting back to podcast edits this summer to wrap up my final three guest interviews and solo episodes for Season 6. I'll be recording new guest interviews for Season 7 and plan to slightly alter the Q&A and final episode format to require less editing and maintain more supportive systems for me as a host and producer, getting 'back in the studio' at home.

🚗 I began hosting weekly carpark IG livestreams focused on pitching and presenting (with/without kids) tips...

You can catch 15+ of those on my Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. My most 'successful' one with 1.6K+ views was an impromptu karaoke session I did with our toddler sleeping in his carseat over March Break where I busted out my best Lady Gaga!

But if you're seeking to put yourself out there more in the coming months and years, all of them have practical tips and ideas you can experiment with... the karaoke was just playing around.

🪴 Launched a low-ticket ($25 CAD for 2025) community offering focused on teaching others the rituals, practices and tools as a way to work with me...

All tested and refined by an accidental-turned-intentional activist, creative professional and parent of three kids under the age of 10, in order to continue regulating my nervous system, move past my comfort zone and do big, scary, audacious things!

After December 2025, it will be folded into another online library of tools as part of my social impact work, so you have under seven (7) months to get it while it's available in this format and very accessible price point.

🚥 People still kept finding me and wanting to collaborate...

Even though I radically dialed down the ways I would have traditionally done marketing, PR, events and business (not showing up IRL often, doing less physically demanding activities, getting grants/opportunities to hire three students to help me instead of DIYing it all solo, streamlining and simplifying, saying no lots).

People tagged me on social media and I felt like they were air traffic controllers directing me (like brightly lit and wide open greenlights) to things I should apply for, accept, research or share. I definitely wrote out my gratitudes for that and tried to pay it forward.

🪄 Pre-existing connections and work to date resulted in some amazing serendipitous opportunities...

I was asked to be interviewed on others podcasts, nominated for the Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards in a social change category (I thought it was a spam request, but it was real!).

Startup Canada reached out to connect more parents with FREE conference tickets to their events, former Minister for Small Business Rechie Valdez, a vocal supporter of my social impact work, was elected again in April 2025 and appointed as the NEW Minister for Women and Gender Equality AND Secretary of State for Small Business and Tourism in Canada.

Other organizational leaders I've known for years reached out for me to present to their audiences and discuss their strategic goals. Mostly while I again, worked from my mobile phone or presented from my standing desk, during school hours between physio and many medical appointments, wearing my sparkly sole supporting cushy sneakers and comfy clothes.

⏳ I got better at sitting with the unknown...

Mainly because I need to sit down a lot more often now! LOL. But seriously, I don't have a clue and neither do the health practitioners, as to how long it will take for me to 'heal' and the majority have said it is more about acceptance now.

Like everyone who is a soul having a human experience, I am a work in progress and find myself singing the lyrics to, "Ain't never gonna break my stride, nobody's gonna hold me down, I've got to keep on moving..."

Even when family and friends are saying, "Rest up!"

📈The kids kept growing...

The oldest turns nine this summer and is only a foot shorter than Nana, two can nearly swim independently and do chores around the house. The youngest doesn't realize he's not the same age and is getting really good at dribbling the soccer ball around our local pitch.

I'm starting to see the results of our routines, repetition, practicing self-compassion in front of them (I've had to ask for help more often than I'm usually comfortable with) and they are some really gentle, kind souls. Still daily challenges of course but it's true what they say how time feels like it's speeding up!

Quick recap on the ways I lowered my own barrier to entry for remaining creative in 2025 (and how you can too):

• Showing up online imperfectly and candidly
• Recording solo podcast episodes from my mobile device
• Going back to hosting virtual webinars and workshops
• Focusing on key topics I've presented on to the general public and corporate audiences
• Transitioning my social impact work into a digital-first format
• Taking stock of what I've achieved, remembering who I am and where I'm going next
• All adapted to and centered around my current family life, wellbeing and future of work goals

🐄🚜Remote work x recovery thoughts from the farm fields of rural Ontario

The way Matthew McConaughey (the youngest of three boys) tells stories in his 'Greenlights' book, is making me reflect on this sloooooower pace of life and my upbringing.

Remembering where I came from (a small dairy farm 30 minutes from the New York State border in Eastern Ontario) and where I thought I wanted to go to next after I graduated from college.

The book's title is based on the concept of moving through life, sometimes you catch a lot of greens, other times the yellows and the reds are to alter, redirect or manifest another kind of green you never expected.

I've had my fair share of yellows and reds in 39 years but I'm always zooming out, going back to feeling with my intuition and shifting perspectives to come from a place of trying to live within my own version of 'greenlights'.

It's probably why I'm loving his book! Ever the eternal optimist, this attitude has served me well in life and when coupled with a good work ethic, desire to explore more and the ability to talk to strangers, I believe many things become possible.

BUT I guess you could say, I'm in a yellow-possibly-some-may-say-redlight phase at the moment.

Sitting on the patio at the Grandparents farm, reading, overlooking fields, making cups of tea I can drink while hot, with more time and clarity to organize my thoughts.

I've swapped places with Nana, she's helping my partner look after our three boys in the city, as everyone wants me to follow the Doctor's orders to not lift anything over 10lbs for four weeks.

It's kind of wild I did more post c-section recovery with all three kids as babies than I'm 'allowed' to do now, except I also don't need to rely on my body to be a food source for a newborn.

An oddly confronting place to be in, when others seem more worried for you and your health than you do yourself but I'm trying to heed their advice and good intentions.

I can say, it does helps to have a sense of humour, three kids, murals to paint, pottery to make, books to write and coffee with friends and strangers alike to think about.

Nature to look at, memories to laugh about and always another crop to check, especially if Grandpa is the driver.

This book is also reminding me of all of the greenlights I've been fortunate enough to live through to date:

Moving to four different countries in three continents without relocation support, a job or long-term housing on the other side.

Making lifelong friends who were first strangers, being teammates for a sport I hadn't played before, coworkers I never would have otherwise met.

Working on projects, writing speeches, speaking on the radio, interviewing subject matter experts and calling media outlets in towns whose names I could barely pronounce but did they ever love my accent!

Being asked to train others on digital marketing, public relations, branding and leading virtual professional development programs, fundraising for sports and causes in communities I didn't have roots in but connections I still keep in touch with to this day.

Learning how to become an advocate for myself through pregnancies, deliveries postpartum and through those crucial early years. Sometimes on stages, in medical environments, our own household, at business meetings and government roundtables with other industry leaders.

Taking art courses in different mediums, wheel throwing and handbuilding pottery after a former client-turned-friend asked me to continue working with their business through the lockdowns. I now have a growing collection of ceramic pieces I've sold through markets and boutiques.

I could never have imagined 22 years ago, when I left our small family dairy farm to go study journalism and try to get a job 'in the city', I'd end up living in so many different cities and small towns in four different countries!

Or that I'd be sitting on that same Canadian farmhouse porch, overlooking fields in my late 30s post surprise surgery. Married to someone else from a similarly very rural part of County Galway Ireland, sipping the special brand of Irish tea Nana always keeps stocked for the times when our family of five is at the house.

But also writing these messages, responding to requests and being able to continue maintaining a digital-first business presence thanks to modern technology.

My 'greenlights' have represented many variations of different lifestyles, environments, professions, hobbies, social gatherings and friends of all backgrounds over the past two decades.

Accompanied by the initiation of becoming a parent of dual citizenship kids, raising them from opposite sides of the Atlantic and trying to figure out which parts of myself remain in or travel with me to the places we've lived or desire to go in future.

Settling into being this version of a friend, family member, partner, parent, volunteer, citizen and professional I'm content with.

For each person, your 'greenlights' will look, feel and sound different.

When I do my speaking gigs, trainings, interviews or write these notes to you, I share from my own lived experiences.

And I always invite others to examine where they currently are and what the difference is between there and where they want to land on their own personal and professional spectrum...of parenthood, working, designing and livin' (as Matthew McC writes) a life they love.

💌Get in touch if you're interested 

Parents have reached out to me to learn more about my previous experiences doing freelance / flexible and remote work for clients and contracts over the years.

If you’re looking to explore different ways of working or going out on your own in a way that better suits you, I’m thinking of putting something together this summer to teach a small group how you can also do flexible and remote work in a digital-first way, based on your own skills and experiences.

This would look like training, resources and direct support from me, based on what I've been presenting and facilitating over the years for audiences, small businesses and organizations on remote/hybrid work, digital marketing, public relations, showing up as a parent in corporate settings and validating your ideas.

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in learning more about, send me a 'reply' to this email or contact me via this form, to discuss further.

Until then, let me know:

What does designing a life that works for you and your family look like right now?

✨🌱 From the farm field to your screen, have a great week/end!

– Amy Lynch (+ Family)

Founder + Podcast Host

Mixing Babies And Business™

P.S. Keep showing up (as and when you can). It all matters.

P.P.S. I'm on an early summer break but stay tuned for parent-friendly business, events + funding roundups June 28/29th.

**Thanks for reading, I hope it helps you (share with friends if you think they'd be interested). Please reply if you have feedback or questions about the above! I aim to respond within 72 hours Tuesday–Friday**

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