Caffeinated Chaos

35. Color Coding, Calendar Wars, and the G2 Pen That Got Away with Guest Angel Wilborn

• Whitney Aguon • Episode 35

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In this episode, Whitney and her guest dive deep into the wonderful (and sometimes chaotic) world of staying organized with paper planners, color-coding, and shared calendars. From the trials of getting everyone in your household to update the family calendar to the essential tools and tricks that make organizing life just a little bit easier, they cover it all. We’ll talk about the joy of Sharpie pens, the color wars between siblings, and the one calendar rule that could save your sanity: If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist. Tune in for some hilarious (and real) moments, along with actionable tips for getting your home and business organized without losing your mind!

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • The power of pen-to-paper planners, even in a digital world.
  • How to get your spouse (or kids!) to join your color-coded calendar system.
  • The joy of using Sharpie pens for ultimate organizational satisfaction.
  • Why you should never let anyone touch your whiteboard calendar (unless you really trust them!).
  • How to set boundaries with your calendar and make sure nothing “slips through the cracks” again.
  • The hilarity of sibling color wars and how it will soon be a thing in your house.

Key Takeaways:

  • Use paper planners and digital calendars to keep both home and business life organized.
  • Keep the family involved in scheduling—if it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist.
  • Color-coding is your best friend. Find a system that works and stick with it (even if it means letting your kids claim purple).
  • Planning is easier when you have a designated time every week to update your calendars.

Connect with Angel:

Cheers! Thank you for joining us for another episode. Have a chaotic moment, question, or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message or leave a review! If you loved this episode, share it with a friend who thrives in beautiful chaos too.

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Welcome to Caffeinated Chaos, where business deals happen between diaper changes and friendships are fueled by caffeine. I'm Whitney GaN, your host, and I'm here to talk all things business parenthood, and of course keeping up with the BFFs, whether you're juggling the boardroom, the playroom, or just here for some coffee fuel chaos. We've got you covered. Get ready for real talk, laughs and a whole lot of heart as we dive into the beautiful mess that is entrepreneurship, parenthood, and everything in between. So let's embrace the chaos together. Ated, of course. Today we are joined by Angel Wilborn, who is the host of the Mod Co podcast, the PR Toolkit podcast, and an author. She's also the wife and a mom. And in her spare time, she enjoys organizing, having game nights with her family, trying new restaurants, and most importantly, my favorite thing in the world napping. So let's welcome Angel to the podcast. Welcome to the show, angel. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me, Whitney. I'm so excited to be here. I feel like we've been talking on threads for a little while now, and then we just spent like the last like, I don't know, five, 10 minutes talking to each other before we even hit record. Yes. That seems to happen with me a lot, is like by the time I hit record with someone. I feel like I've already known them for forever, and it's all because of, like you said, talking before the show starts recording or even talking on threads or social media or something like that. Oh my God. Do you love threads?'cause I love threads right now I do love threads and sometimes I forget about it because I'm really big on scheduling, like my social media posts to help me limit my time on social media. And then I'll get a notification. I'm like, oh man, threads, I forgot all about you. And I'll go back and I'll doom scroll on it for forever in a day. And then I'll remember it for like two or three days straight and I'm doom scrolling on it. And then I'll forget about it. And I'm like. Threads, I'm sorry. I don't mean to put you on the back burner like that. I, I really do love you and enjoy you. I recently was like. Doom scrolling like at night too. And I don't know, I was like, must have been like hilariously tired or something. But I thought everything I was posting was seriously funny. And I was just like, I was like scrolling and like, people were like this and that, and I'm like, wow, you people are still up. And so I decided to post. I was like, Hey, hey you. Yeah, I see you doom scrolling right now. I was like, how long have you been quote, going to bed? And then somebody, somebody was like. Two and a half hours and I go, me, I was like, oh dang, you beat me by 30 minutes. I guess you're number one. That is hilarious. It does because it. You don't realize it, that you're like, okay, I picked it up for this one thing, and the next thing you know, you're like, Ooh, this is interesting, and oh, I wanna connect with this person and let me do this. And then you look up and you're like, Hmm. Four hours later. And here, here we are. Like I was supposed to go back to bed there. Or I'll wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and I'll try my hardest to go back to sleep. And finally after, you know, 30, 40 minutes of the whole toss and turn routine, I'll be like, okay, let's see what's happening on Threads or some other social media site and. Then, yeah, you just down a rabbit hole. Yeah, I, I feel like sometimes my husband is always just like, he'll come into bed because usually what he'll do is he'll put the newborn to sleep. Okay. I keep seeing newborn. She's like six months now, but he'll put her to sleep and then he'll come in and put her in a bed and then come into the bedroom and then he'll like see me and I'm just like watching TV and he'll like, pick up my phone'cause I won't have it in my hand by then. He'll pick up my phone, he'll plug it in and I swear he puts it like the farthest reach away from me. And I'm like, oh. I know what you're doing. I get it. And he's like, remember you have an 8:00 AM tomorrow. And I was like, right. Right. 8:00 AM and it's like 1:00 AM I have to go to sleep right now. Right now, right. This. But then when you tell yourself, I have to go to sleep right now, then you don't go to sleep. Yeah. Right now. And so it's like, well, I need that to. Kind of doom. Scroll some more. Or I'll be like, Ooh, this one reel was really funny. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna watch one more. I'm like, Ooh. But that one was funny. Let me see if I get even funnier. Or if I don't know if this ever happened to you, I'll be like watching reels and I'll get one. I'm like, oh, that one wasn't that great. I really wanna end on a high note. So yes. You know, that's trying to end on a high note. Ends up taking me about another 30, 40 minutes to find just the right video to end on. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel you that way. Gosh, I'm glad to know that I'm not alone here. And then I'll send them to, to my husband and I get a little frustrated sometimes.'cause he doesn't really, he doesn't do social media like that. He has a Facebook page and I tell, I'm like, dude, just delete your Facebook page'cause you don't use it. But I'll send him the videos. And at one time he is like, oh, it won't let me see it because it's like trying to make me log in. But then I think he figured out a way to be able to look at it without logging in. And so the next morning I'm like, Hey, did you watch the 45 reels that I sent you? No, no. I, I did and I'm like, oh, are you going to, he's like, prob, probably not. Oh, but I really. I really took time and effort to decide which ones to send you because I probably watched about 200 and I only sent you like 45 out of those 200. So I, I don't feel like you appreciate the fact that I didn't send you every single one that I looked at. Yeah, we are like museum curators. We curated a collection for you. I like really took my time and thought this out here and. Yeah. So I'm glad to know that, you know, I'm not the only one that has this issue here, I feel like so many people are being like, oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. My partner does that too. Mm-hmm. And, and my husband too, when he like, tries to give you to go to sleep and stay away from my phone, he'll be like, Hey, come here. You wanna cuddle? I'll watch all the videos you sent me and I was like, oh yeah.'cause they're hits. I like, let me just watch the hits. Yeah. And so he'll be holding it and be scrolling and I can like see the phone start to tilt'cause he's falling asleep and I'm just like, no, no watch. This is a good one. I was like, pay attention to this. It did crack me up because. Like right before TikTok got banned, or, you know, for the four hours that it was on, I've never really been big on TikTok, but my sister-in-law, so my husband's, sister, she sent him something she needed like some code or coupon or something like that for TikTok. And so since he didn't have an account, he could sign up for it and she would get like TikTok bucks or something. I don't know. She would get more. Okay, so he signed, so he signed up for it so that she could get the point or whatever. And he did that, and we watch a lot of cooking shows. And so he started finding like all these like recipes. So at first he's just sending me recipes and stuff, and the next thing I know he's like sending me like videos. I'm like, Hmm. Still on TikTok over there. I see. He's like, I need to delete it, but it has good recipes on there. And I started saying stuff and he'd be like, oh, well I saw on TikTok and I saw on TikTok. I said, if you start one more sentence with I saw on TikTok, I. Even. Even our son was like, daddy, I thought you said you were gonna delete TikTok. He was like, I am. Today's the day. He's like, I'm gonna do it. I'm like, ah, okay. Now you've been bitten by the bug here and you know what's happening. Yeah, I know. It's so nice when it comes back and I'm just like, yeah. Yeah. Send me another TikTok from the bathroom. That's, I'm like, dude, I get it. I don't need another TikTok. Every time I looked down at my phone, I was like, oh, is this how you feel when I'm sending you all the videos and reels and stuff like that? So, yeah. Payback both ways, I should say. Yeah. Oh my God. Okay, so we went on the. Huge tangent. We did it. But I feel like so many people are like, oh my God. Yeah. Yeah, me too. So before we go any further though, let's tell the listeners about you. Okay. So I am Angel. I am the host of the Mod Co podcast, and I'm also the owner of the Modest Company, which talks about public relations and how solopreneurs and small business owners can incorporate it into their business. My podcast talks. About the realness of organization, entrepreneurship, life in general. We have all types of conversations. We have faith filled conversations, entrepreneurial filled conversations, organization, just all kind of things. As I said, I'm a wife, and a mom. I have a 9-year-old son. And so yeah, that's pretty much me in a nutshell. Wow. You love Instagram and sometimes TikTok. Yes, yes, yes, I do. I do my guilty pleasures. Okay. So you said that you do organization, so like how do you stay organized with, a kid and a wife and a mother and your business and on a podcast? Because I know, like I just started my podcast recently and I'm still trying to fit it in like. Listeners before we even started this, the landscaper, company was here and they were super loud outside that we had to actually wait a little bit before we started recording. And I thought I was being super organized, scheduling it during a time where they're supposed to already be done, but you know, things happen. Yeah. So how do you like. How do you stay organized? Okay, so one, I like planners. I'm very big on to-do list planner, list and planners. Yes, I'm a pen to paper type of girl. I've tried digital planners. I'm not a fan of them. So I have two paper planners. So one is. My everyday like, life is happening, this is what's going on. And then I have my podcast planner as well where I write down my episodes, so I can keep track with like what number episode it is, who was on there, all of that stuff. And then also we have, I have my, I guess like my Google calendar. So it's kind of digital, but not really digital. So my phone calendars where I put, all of the stuff on there and. My husband and I also have a joint calendar and then downstairs, so I have a lot of calendars downstairs. We have a big, like it's a whiteboard, but it's a whiteboard calendar. Me too. Yes. It's, oh, I love it. I, I love it. I update it, once a month, every month we update it with the new month. I was looking at one of those, I think it's like a skylight, but I was like, do I want this or do I just wanna keep writing on my calendar? But I think I might do a little bit more research on that and put that on my wishlist. So, one thing that I do is every year with school. I know you said you have a newborn. Is that the only child you have? So I have a newborn and a a three-year-old toddler. Okay. Okay. So, every year, like when we get the school calendar, I automatically go through and on my main calendar, on my paper calendar, I'll write down all the days that they're like outta school and stuff like that. Then I'll put that on. Our joint calendar. So we already know like what days he's outta school. When my son, he plays soccer, so when he gets his soccer schedule, I'm putting all that on the joint calendar so that we can see when soccer practices, when the game is, if it's not on the calendar, it does not exist. To me, it's not gonna happen because I need to be able to see it. And one of the issues that I was running into at first when I first started my business was I didn't have my calendars talking to each other. Mm-hmm. So I would have something on. My business calendar, but then I would have something like maybe on my personal calendar or my joint calendar, like if I was gonna go to my son's school or if I was gonna meet somebody for breakfast or lunch or something like that. And I realized that they were clashing with each other. So what I started doing, just for my own peace of mind and so that I wouldn't have so many calendars on my phone, is that I just started putting, I've started blocking time on my business calendar or like putting in on my business calendar what it was. So that way when somebody went to go book an appointment. My scheduling app that I use is connected to my calendar, so there that time's not showing as available. Even if it would be a time that I would normally be available, it's now not available because I have something else. Right on there. So that helped me a lot. And then every Sunday, sometimes I do on, sometimes Sunday, sometimes I do it on Mondays. It just depends on how I feel. I'll look at my paper planner and I'll look at my calendar on my phone, and I'll write down whatever I have going on for that week. Because most of the time. When you're out, you don't have your paper planner with you. You have your phone. If you're at the doctor's office or you're wherever and you're scheduling an appointment, you're putting it in your phone because I try not to get those cards because that's just extra junk that ends up on the floor of my car. So I'm like, Nope, I'll put it in my phone. So every week I'll sit down and I'll look to see, okay, this is what I have going on this week, and make sure that I have it on my paper planner,'cause that sits on my desk that I look at. So those are some of the ways that I stay organized as like my to-do list. My calendar and just trying to have routines as well for stuff. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So I am very much like you. I have a paper planner. I have my Google, apple, I. I, I don't even know what it's called. The one that comes on the iPhone. Right. I got you. and then I have the big whiteboard one, and I've been trying to get my husband and my housemate on this, like, you gotta update the whiteboard. You gotta update the whiteboard. And sometimes they forget. Right. So like, if you were to give advice to someone who's like us. Who we do our calendars, but they're trying to get more people in their like household. Maybe it's their kids who are old enough to write stuff on the calendar or like a spouse or a partner. What are some tips that you could like. That you suggest for people like us who's trying to get other people around us to kind of come on the calendar journey. So one thing that I'll say is that I don't like for anyone to touch my calendar. My whiteboard calendar is not, is not to be touched. I remember a friend came over one day and I had two friends over one day and we were planning like a get together. And so I said, okay, well just let me know date. She's like, I told you date. Now she's walking out. She like grabs a marker and writes on my whiteboard. I said, did you just touch my whiteboard? I was like, you have lost your mind. Do not write on my board. And I remember when my son wanted to start helping with like when he saw me doing it every month. So he wanted to do it and one day I came downstairs and he is like, look mommy. He is like, I wrote the date and all the numbers on there, the numbers in the month. And I'm like. Thank you, sweetie. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Mommy appreciate that. And he's like, what can I write on this? So then he started like writing his days off from school and I was like, oh, I'm really trying here. But I do not like people writing on my whiteboard. Please just don't touch it. So what my husband does is my husband, actually, he'll put it in our joint calendar. That's on. Okay. That's on the phone because each month I sit down,'cause like I said, it's just a monthly whiteboard. So at the end of each month I'll erase it and I'll put the stuff on there. And when I do that, I sit down and I look at our calendar for like, since March is gearing to come up, I'll sit down, I'll look at our calendar for March, and I'll write everything that we already have on our calendar. Mm-hmm. Onto the whiteboard. And then as we add stuff, you know, throughout, like if my husband comes home, he's like, oh, hey, me and a coworker are gonna go out after work. Okay, cool. Make sure you put that on. The joint calendar in the phone and then I'll write it on the board and usually when he says it, I'll go ahead and I'll write it on the board. Or if something comes up with my son's like school or something like that, an event that we, that I we need to go to, then I'll write that on there as well. So. That's my tips. I don't like for people to touch my board, but, if you're not like me and you don't mind people touching, you, don't mind people touching your board. You just have to like get them in the habit of letting them know that. I try your hardest. Like, if you don't tell me, then honestly it does not exist. Mm-hmm. And I may book something else for that time.'cause I remember one time my husband had told me that I think Kim and his coworkers were going out or something. I said, oh, okay, cool. And then I was trying to remember the date and I'm looking at my phone and I was like, Hey, such and such day, let's do this. And he's like, I, I'm going out, supposed going out today. I was like. Didn't put it on the calendar, it does not exist in my mind. So just kind of getting them into that routine. Maybe asking them like any updates going on, for this week on Sundays. Like pick a, pick a day. Like I said, I do Sunday, sometimes Monday, so on Sundays or Mondays be like, Hey, any updates for this week? Did anything change? You have any appointments coming up? You know, did you have any plans to go out with friends? Just trying to get that conversation going to see, and if they do, you can say, Hey. Go, go write it on the calendar. Make sure you put it on the calendar. So then that becomes a part of that routine that okay, they know on Sundays I need to check my schedule to see, yeah, if anything has came up for this week or if anything's changed and I need to put that on the calendar. I mean, give them breaks because it's going to take time. But that would be my tip. That would be my tip for it. Mm-hmm. I love that. I love the fact that now I'm like, oh, maybe I'm not gonna let anyone touch my board anymore. Because like then the, like the board is like, Ooh, Whitney has seen it and she is aware that that's what you're doing. Right? Right. And so I'm like, okay, if I saw, if they put it into the, electronical calendar, which we just use one calendar that just says home. Mm-hmm. And it's like anything that's our housemate or like the children or whatever. That way we don't have to manage all the different colors and all that. Right. I manage the colors for me, like blues for podcasting and all that. Yeah. But then, yeah, but then that's a great idea.'cause if I have them put them into the electronical one and then I look at it like I always do and update the whiteboard, then I'm like, okay, this is now stone. This is set in. Stone. Right, right. So it's like if you're not, if you don't get it in by Sunday, then you ain't doing it this week. It does not exist. It does not exist all. And I like to color coordinate too. Even with, like in my paper planner that I write in, I'll color coordinate in that. And then also on the planner, I'll color coordinate on that too. Now, I don't use, not so particular that I use the same colors every single month for like the same thing. It's usually just. Whatever color I grab first and the first thing that I write, like if it's a no school or half day, if I happen to grab the red marker first and write no school on this day, then all school activities for the month of March are going to go in red. If I grab the green one first, then all of them go in green. But I know that I. When I look at the calendar, okay, green is this, the only person who I will say that has a color that usually kind of sticks with them is my husband, because his favorite color is brown, which I've just always, he's the o, that's the word. My fa my husband's favorite color is Brown too. Are you serious? Is it a guy thing? It must be Whitney. When I first met him and he said his favorite color was brown, I was like, you're kidding, right? Like, who likes to color brown? That's so, that's so weird. So, well, I, I know guys tend to be colorblind, maybe. Maybe that's it. I don't know. That's weird. But yeah, that's his, that's his favorite color. So his stuff usually gets written in Brown because I, this is weird, but I don't like the way the Brown bar it. They all came out the same pack, but for some reason that one's like thinner than the rest of'em or something. I don't know. I just, it's so weird. Yeah, so the brown one usually gets reserved for him, so he's usually the only one that has the same code. So if I look on the calendar C Brown, I'm like, okay, that's something that he has going on or needs to do. So I love G two pens, right? Mm-hmm. And they have to be the 0.7. Like I just love how they write and they feel. Yeah. Um, maybe,'cause my mom really liked them when I was growing up, so they were the pens that were always around our house. Mm-hmm. So I just like, they just feel right to me. Yeah. It's like when you're like brand loyal, so I have, I found this great thing and people see me all the time with it. I'll bust out my planner and it's a pack of 20 4G two pens and Angel, it opens up like a book and that's how they came packaged. It opens like a book and they're all snapped into place and I just never took them out. And then I just close it and it resnap like Tupperware and then you just go. And I was just like, oh my God, this is the most amazing thing in my whole world and I need this in my life. I know, right? I have to show it to you, when we end. But it's amazing. I feel like I've been using the same color coding system for like, most of my life where I'm just like, okay. I was like, orange is my favorite color, so that is my color. Anything that's personal is orange, and then green was money. Even before I bet my husband, like keeping myself organized, I was like, green is money, money going in, money going out. So I just know where it's going. And then my daughter, once she, I, I did like, uh, like red, no, red is like, red is like important, but then hers was like the hot pink, you know, color that they have, right? Um, but now that she is older, she's like, no, I want purple. And I go, fine. Purple wasn't being used for anything. You could have purple. You could have only because it wasn't being used for anything. If it was being used for something, you're, you're outta luck there. And then, and then she goes. Jasmine, who's her little sister, my six month old, she's like, Jasmine is now pink. And I go, okay, sure. Jasmine's now pink. And I'm like, and so it's gonna be funny if Jasmine decides she wants purple when she gets older too. Oh my God. I'm just gonna be like, no, you guys just work it out. Or maybe purple will just be the kids color, you know? Oh yeah. That could work too. Yeah. Just like you guys just. Take it to the arena first. You last one standing gets purple. Gets purple. I love it. Yeah, I feel like I've been using the same color coding system forever and there are times too where I'm just like, oh man, I only have black. And like if I have the basics just black and red that I always keep in my purse and I'm just like. Okay, I'm gonna flip to the back of my planner where all those dotted extra pages are. I'm gonna write it in there. Mm-hmm. And then when I come back, you're gonna get color coded for the week view, right? So I used to have, I've recently fell in love with the, I used to use the ones that you did, but I've recently fell in love with the Sharpie brand pinned, and so I use their Those are good too. Yes. I love them. So I use their ink pens, and then I also use like. I still consider it a pen, but I guess it's like a pen slash permanent marker type thing. But it's really thin. It writes like a pen, like it doesn't bleed through the page, but the outside of it kinda looks more like a permanent marker. But anyways, huh. So I fell in love with those and I think it's still like a fine point or something like that. So at one point in time I had, I bought a whole pack that was in my purse. So one pack was in my purse. When I worked my corporate job, I brought, bought my own pack for work that I had, and then I had like another pack. Um, at home as well. And the ones in my purse, I started using them so much that they died down and I didn't replace them. And so now I think I'm just down to the orange one and I'm like, Ooh, I really need to replace this. I did the same thing. I went in my purse the other day, think we were at church and I was getting ready to start writing notes for church. And I like, that's probably how most of'em died.'cause I would do my note, you know, into like a different color, whichever color. I pulled out my purse and I went to go pull it out and I was like, all I have is black pens in here. I was like. Well, that's boring. I, I said, well, I guess I don't really have a choice, but how did I get down to three black pens in my purse? And I was like, where are my colorful ones at? So I need to restock so that I can have my colorful pens. Okay. I'm two, my gosh, we're talking about pens now. Two pen stories. Um, those like thin point sharpies that you were talking about. Yes. Mm-hmm. Um, so I actually got like a five pack and what we do is we have it like, rubber band together, and we take them to Disneyland. And my daughter has, um, this like 100 Disney characters book. Oh yeah. Where that has little bios about them. Yeah. So you're not going in just getting like, just the autograph book all the time. And so we use those pens and then the character can pick one of the five and then write. Over the section That's like talking about Mulan or talking about Gean. Oh, cool. And so then like when she learns to read, she can read about her characters, and then there's also like the autograph and then the picture that go with her that goes with it. Like, you know, and we just use them as Yeah. Little bookmarks. Oh, that's really cool. I like that. Yeah. We're such a big Disney family. Um, me and my husband we met at Disneyland and my, my mom and my sisters have both worked at Disney, so it's like. Big old Disney family. Yeah. And then, my husband is into those Sharpie pens. He loves those. Yes. Yeah. They're so amazing. Like, they just write so nice and so smooth and, I'm obsessed. And then I found out that they, because at first I only had'em in, I think like just black and. I found out that they came in like different colors, so I bought like a whole different pack. Not only did they come with different colors, but the outside of the pen also comes in like a different color than just,'cause the first ones I had, I think were just maybe like a standard white on the outside or something. But then I also discovered that they come in like different, colors on the outside and so I bought, yeah, I bought a four pack because it came with my favorite shade of green and I was like, oh, I need this in my life. Like if you could, I know my. My screen's kind of blurred, but you can probably see kinda like the color on my wall here. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that's like pretty much my favorite shade of green. So my keyboard is that color. My mouse is that color. The case that I bought for my computer, that color. And yeah, I found out the sharpie pens had it, that color. I was like. Heck yeah, I'm, I'm on it. So, and listeners, we are not sponsored by these, uh, pen companies, but I mean, come on, Sharpie and, and G two pilots. Our info's down below it is because we can, apparently, we can talk a whole podcast about this. We can. I mean, I'm currently looking at about probably 15 to 20 sharpie pins over here, so we're just saying. Okay, so let's move on from pens, although I know it's gonna be hard. It's okay. So you have a 9-year-old son. Yes. So what is your favorite thing about being a business owner and a parent? Or, or like, what's your challenges? Anything you wanna talk about? It can be hard. I'll say a challenge is that. It can be hard sometime to find that balance between being a business owner and being a parent, because there's times when I'm like, I really need to work on something. Like I really need to do something. And we're really big on, we do like family game nights. We play games almost every night in our house, and we're currently stuck on. Mega monopoly. And I mean, everybody knows Monopoly could take a while. And so Mega Monopoly takes a while as well. And so there's like nights where my husband saying like, oh, you wanna play Monopoly? And I'm like, sure. Yeah.'cause you don't wanna miss out on that family time. And I'm like, okay, I'll just stay up late and get stuff done and then I actually end up not staying up late to get stuff done. So I would say like definitely just trying to find that balance of. I have to work on this stuff. And then I also need to make sure that I'm spending time with, you know, my kid with my family. This summer was a really big learning curve. Um, for me. It was my first summer being home full-time with my son, so he was home full-time. He wasn't in camp or anything like that. Mm-hmm. And I was just like, yes, I'm gonna get so much stuff done this summer. It's gonna be great. Like. We're home every day and I'm just gonna be knocking stuff out. Well, not thinking that I have to entertain a 9-year-old and he's an only child, which there's nothing wrong with that. I, grew up as an only child, and, but they wanna be entertained like at some point in time, you get bored just doing stuff by yourself. Yeah. And it would be like, he's like, so what are we doing today? Mom and I ended up looking up like all these different activities that we could do. Our local park had a lot of stuff going on. We spent, probably every week in the pool between two of his friends neighborhood pools, and we'd be there pool dates that were supposed to last for, two hours end up lasting like five or six hours. We get there like 10 o'clock in the morning and yeah, we're leaving at like four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and so it just ended up being all stuff. So I had to find that fine balance sleeping like, okay, Tuesdays are my day to work. So I'd have to tell'em like, okay. Tuesday, this is what mommy's doing on Tuesday. I have three podcast recordings in, I have this that I have to work on, so you're gonna have to entertain yourself, play with your switch, do whatever. And then be like, Monday and Wednesday are the days that,'cause I think it was like Wednesday. I know for sure on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday we go do watercolor, painting in the park. We would do that. Mm-hmm. And then he'd play around the park for a little bit and we usually go get something to eat. And that was definitely our day to just hang out. And then. Another day of the week, we got scheduled with our swim dates. We tried to keep those on track for the same day of the week. So I think towards the end of the summer I kind of got like my balancing act down a little bit of. Having a day strictly to be like, okay, this is the day that I work on. These are the days that we're doing other things. And when we have some downtime in between doing activities, I'll work some stuff in there or, and I also work really well at night too, and it was easier through the summertime because we're sleeping in a little later. So if I stay up a little later, then it's okay because I get to sleep in a little bit later. So I would say that that. Was one of the challenges. I would say the reward of it is that you do get that extra time to, to spend with them. Being able to like pick'em up from school. It's really cool. Or just like dropping'em off because my husband would always do drop offs when I work, so being able to drop'em off or. Just being able to go to events that he has at a school in the middle of the day without having to worry about taking time off of work, or is somebody gonna say something or have an attitude because I needed to leave early or take the whole day off, especially when. They would have something at the school at 10 o'clock in the morning. Well, I don't wanna get to work at seven o'clock and then turn around and leave two and a half hours later to come to this event at 10 o'clock. That's going to, and usually events at schools is elementary schools. They last like. 30, maybe 40 minutes, so, right. I'm not going back to work after that.'cause my job was like 30, 40 minutes away, so I'm not going back to work after that. So it'd be a whole day that I end up taking off. So now being able to be like, okay, cool. I'm gonna go to this event at 10 o'clock in the morning, or I'm gonna go and volunteer for lunch at his school. That's really rewarding and I'm really happy that I'm able to be able to do that. Yeah. You definitely got through like the chaotic moments of just being like, yeah, full time. Oh wait, hi son. Like, right, right, right. Yes, definitely. I'm like, I'm starting to get back into the rhythm too, so I still work part-time for my old boss. They just, I'm just like an assistant for them getting their stuff up to speed and. Before this, I had just gotten, you know, I'm, I'm still postpartum because, that tends to last for a while, but I feel like now I'm like starting to feel. Fully energized again, and like back in the rhythm of like, okay, I feel good today. You know, instead of just being like, oh my God, the life is being sucked out of me. Like mm-hmm. Every time I'm like, breastfeed. And it just feels like, it's also just like drawing the energy and, my six month old, she's a good 17 pounds and so. You know, and that's a lot of like weight you're holding up and just being like, are you done yet? Are you done? Yeah. Like, are you full? Yeah. Let's wrap this up here, please. I swear we have so many, my daughter has so many of those, like, marshmallows. Marshmallows. Um, yeah. And I'm just like, tuck it under the baby. Like something to help you, like balance it out and take some of the, the weight off of it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, oh, go get Chewbacca. I was like, Mikayla, go get Chewbacca. All right, come on. Okay. Oh, um, a little bit more. Go get Mickey Mouse. Like, come on. Yeah, stick. Just stick them all under here. I listen. I completely get it. My son is almost 90 pounds and sometimes he'll like fall asleep on my arm or something. And one morning I woke up. I was like, why does my arm hurt so bad? I was like, like, I didn't work out yesterday. I don't know what's happening. And then like the next day still. Really hurts what's happening. So then in my mind, still going crazy, I'm like, are these symptoms of a heart attack? What's happening? I was like, and it finally. A 90 pound kid was laying his head on my arm. Mm-hmm. And now, you know, my arm is, I don't even know if it's asleep or what it is that's going on, but I'm like, oh, that's what's wrong with my arm. Not a heart attack. Glad, glad to know that. Just, yeah, just the 90 pound head. Because it's totally, it's totally like arm day, you know, where it's just like, or, or with my daughter too. She's not as clingy anymore when she was then, when her sister was born. But I'm like, okay, I got the baby and then I got the toddler, you know, and then I'm just like, my arms are gonna be like two different strengths. Because one's holding like a 30 pound kid and one's holding like a seven pounder at the time. And I was just like, alright guys, like, okay, can we swap? You know, I gotta, I, you have to like swap arms with'em like, okay, today you get on the right arm, this one gets on the left arm and we gotta balance this thing out here. Yeah. Okay. Like even days you are on the right. Odd days you're on the left. And then I'm like, oh, sorry, legs, I guess we're not doing anything unless I walk around holding them at the same time, all your legs, right? You had to like put'em on your legs and like lift your legs up or something like that. Or you could let your daughter like lay across your legs and like lift her up on, on your legs or something. She thinks me sitting at the edge of the bed is me always wanting to play Seesaw and I'm like. I'm like, okay, 1, 2, 3, up, and Seesaws broken. Okay, we're done. Yeah. Toddlers, once you start something with them, you can't, heck, nine year olds, once you start something with them, you, you can't stop. So I, I get it. I would say that it gets better with age, but it doesn't unless it's just a boy thing.'cause I mean, I love my son, but he's definitely a stage five clinger. Like, I'm honestly surprised that he has not come running in here yet. So, yeah, he's, he's attached to me at the hip. I don't know. I think I got lucky. My, my daughter Mikayla, the toddler, she's like, oh mommy, you're back. Like, you know, all sweet. And then, and then the next day or whatever, I come walking and she goes. What are you doing here? And I'm like, I live here. Like I live here, right Mom? I'm like, okay. And then she'll be like, you brought me something. And I'm like, no, your dad just packed my lunch in a target bag and I'm just bringing home empty Tupperware. And some she just opens it up and she goes, Aw, it's dirty. And I was like, yeah, baby. It's just empty. Tupperware, my bad. He was like, uh, I'm done with you. Nevermind. No, no, thank you. Leave, leave me alone. Now, see my son, my son's the opposite. He's like, where are you going? When are you gonna be back? Who are you going with? And if I'm going out with like one of his friend's moms, he's like. Well, are they coming? Like he'll, are the boys coming too? And I'm like, no, it's just the moms going out. It's always just the moms going out. Like y'all are always out. Did you forget about the 800 play dates that y'all had over the summer and on top of that? Two of, because all three of'em used to go to the same school, but now one of'em goes to a different school. But I'm like. You saw'em at school today, you and I. One time we were laughing because one of'em, this was when they were in the first grade, so they were in the same first grade class together. Mm-hmm. They played on the same soccer team, went to after school together, and we also went to the same church. And so like one Sunday after church, they're holding like this 10 minute conversation and somebody was like, what is it that they have to talk about? He was like. They've only seen each other this entire week, like literally every day. This week they have been together. Not sure what this conversation is about or why we have to spend an extra 10 minutes here for them to have this conversation, but yeah, he's like, but where are you coming back? Where are you going? How long can I come with you? I'm like, no, it's for adults only. But please can I just, can I please just come with you though? I'll just, I'll be really quiet. I promise I'll be quiet. I'm like, Nope. For adults, you always have to go on adult only things. Sorry, sorry, my, my once a month of going out with other moms is really putting a damper in your life right here. I apologize. So I, I know that one night is really messing up their social calendar, man. It is the audacity. I mean, when, you know the, I mean, his whole social calendar, my whole calendar is filled up. One time he had two birthday parties in the same day. Like, dude, come on. Two, oh my gosh. In the same day. In the same day. One was from like. 10 to 12 or 11 to one, something like that. And the other one was from like three to five. Same day, like the month of June last year, he had a birthday party every single weekend. Every single weekend, excuse me, for going out to eat once a month. I'm so glad that my kid is. Like, she's not in school yet, but like the only two other kids in our, that she knows is one of our friends has a 2-year-old daughter. Okay. So like, she's like in the middle of my two kids. Right. And, and she's finally, you know, they're finally able to kind of start relating to each other because the two year old's catching up, and like being able to talk and like form sentences where my toddler just like, let's play this. And, and the two year old's like. Nah. You know, like not, not quite interested yet in kind of like the bigger toys yet. Um, and then the other kids that my daughter knows are, twin boys who are also like one and a half, right. She was the first born in our group of friends. Gotcha. And so she's just like, come on, like, you know, to play with people and then. So, but she'll go and she'll be like, oh, uncle, like, you know, come play with me. And he's like, don't you wanna play with my daughter? And she goes. Mm, no, come on uncle, you play with me. It's like, no, thank you. She's not, she's not very entertaining. I don't, I don't wanna do that. And it's a, so then like his 2-year-old and my six month old are just staring at each other at the same LightUp toy and they're just like, okay. And my toddler has taken her dad off and uncle, and they're just like, let's play, let's play Barbies. Or let's play like. What is she into? She's into bluey scavenger hunt. It's this super simple like card game, okay. Where like you spin a little dial and it gives you a color. It's kinda like Candyland. So then you go to that color. Okay. And then that, that color has like a magnifying glass, which means like pick up a card and go find something. So then she'll like go find something red. And my three-year-old doesn't know how to read the room. Obviously she gets the one toy that the two other kids are looking at that happens to be read. And she goes, I got it. And now they're just like, what the, where'd it go? Like it's right now they're crying and they're upset, ed. And I was like, okay, you get a point, but go put it back for an extra points. Right. Oh my goodness. Poor, poor kid. She's just like, I just want somebody to play with and they're just not doing it for me. It is not, it's not working out for me. No. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I've said this, I've said this to like other guests too. Um. Where she'll go and she'll like go into my housemate, he really likes playing magic or like getting like card games, right? Mm-hmm. And she'll, she's super comfortable in public. She'll go out, she goes, hi, I'm McKayla, and that's uncle, and that's mommy, and that's Jasmine and that's daddy. And we're looking for Pokemon cards. And then they're like. Okay. Um, but it's, it's over that in that aisle. And she goes, come on uncle, let's go. And I'm like, and I'm like, dang, she got you by the leash, right? Like, dude. And he's just like, okay, come on, let's, let's go. He, but I mean, it's good that he's like a good sport and he plays along, but yeah, she's definitely, definitely got him wrapped around her finger. Oh, 100%. Yeah. That's gonna be, they're like best friends though. That's cute though. And that's what uncles and aunties are supposed to be. You know, it's like, oh, mommy said no. Okay. Mommy and daddy said no. Okay. Well, call me. I, I got this for you. I'll do it for you. Yep. I suppose my sister-in-law called one Day'cause she's like, my niece wanted some LightUp shoes, and she's like, I'm not paying no money for LightUp shoes. She's like, that's stupid. I was like, if you don't get that baby those LightUp shoes, she's like, I'm not buying them. I said, well then you shouldn't have called me. I said, you need to get her the shoes. And she's like, I'm not getting her. I said, put her on the phone. So I was like, auntie's gonna get you the shoes. I was like, you tell mommy to get the shoes? I said, and Auntie's gonna give you, auntie's gonna give you shoes. She said, okay. But then they didn't have her, my sister-in-law claims they didn't have her size. I was like, mm-hmm. Did they really not? Are you still at the store? Lemme speak to them and see if they actually did not have her size.'cause I don't believe you right now. So yeah. My daughter has taken to, taking pictures of things she wants in the store, like at Target or whatever, and then being like, can you send that to Lola, which is grandma in my culture. And she's like, send that to Lola. And I was like, okay. I was like, Hey mom. Mikayla wants me to send you this. And then, so then my mom would call and she'd be like, FaceTiming. She goes, put Mikayla on. And I was like, okay, here you go, Lola. And she goes, what do you want, baby? And then she's like this, and she's like, holding it up super close that my mom can't and see what it is, right? And then she goes, how much is it? And my daughter, she get, she knows her numbers, right? She knows the individual numbers, but she, she doesn't get reading them from left to right sometimes, or she'll like, just mix them up. Or she'll get sidetracked and she goes, uh, it's 4, 5, 2, 1. And I was like, my mom's like$54 or whatever I said, and I was like, oh, no, no, it's, it's$25, you know, 26 probably. And then she goes, okay, I'll Z you. And I was like, okay, sure. And she goes, go ahead baby, grab it. And she goes, I don't want that. I want this one now. And I'm like. Great. And I was like, all right, five minutes in the target until Lola picks one. Yep. That's sounds about like my son, he still does that. He, he'll say something, I'm like, well, guess you need to call Gaga, which is my mom. I'm like, guess you need to call Gaga or Paul, or Nana because nope, not doing it again. He'll call'em and they'll do it. Or he had this obsession. He went through this phase where he was obsessed with monster trucks. Like he had to have all these monster trucks. So he had everyone like in the store, my mom, my husband's mom, my husband's sister, they're all in the store looking for like these certain monster trucks. For him. He just had to, he had to have'em. So they're all looking for'em. Then when he was really into PJ Mask, they came out with like the water toys or something, I don't know. So, and the toys were. I think maybe like 25,$30 a piece. I can't remember. But he wanted to have them all, I think him and my husband went to the store and I think my husband got'em like two. And he's like, no, we're not buying because there's like, not PJ Mass Paw Patrol. Sorry, not pj. Mass Paw Patrol. Okay. And my husband's like, we're not buying all of these. It's six paw patrols and these things called I, I really think they're like$25 a piece or something like that. He's like, no, he's not, right. We're not. Yeah, yeah. You know, he's like, no, we're not doing it. So I don't know who he happened, who my husband happened to be on the phone with when they were in the store. But next thing we know, we're getting Zealed and Apple pay money from all different directions and they're like, y'all need to take'em back to the store and get it. So took'em back to the store. He gets all six of them, I think like maybe two or three days later. He's like, yeah, I'm over it. I don't want'em anymore. It's like, yeah. Yep. We tried. Yeah, we tried to tell you guys that. So it again doesn't get better as they get older. No, I wish I could say it. We've, we've talked about like so much. I love this. I, I love the fact that we, we started off with talking about social media and threads, and then we went into like pens. Yep. Yep. So good. I've never talked that much about pens ever in my life, but I'm so here for it because I'm like, someone needs to know my love of all these colored pens. Yeah. It's like a special, I don't think people understand it, but it's like a very serious love and it's very important. I don't like when people take my pens. I don't like mm-hmm. Yeah. No, give them back to me, please. So, no, I'm here for it. I, I understand, I understand. It's a very important, it's a very important relationship. Yes. Yes. Okay. But before we wrap up, I wanna make sure that people, get to hear about your new podcast hub. Yes. So myself and another podcast host, her name is, Ellen. She goes by Coach Ellen. We actually, we connected on threads as well. We connected on threads, I think back in like. August or September, and it took us until probably November or December to actually have a conversation with each other. Finally had a conversation with each other. We hit it off much like me and Whitney have, hit it off with each other. We were both on each other's podcast. And then after the podcast we just happened to be talking, about something and was like, let's stay connected, you know, in case there's like any other ideas that come across. And I was like, oh yeah. I said Yes, and I've been having like this really like. Idea that's been nagging at me. I wanna start like a podcast directory and she's like, oh my gosh. She said, me too. She's like, alright, let's put our brains together on this and like talk about us. Okay. So that was at the end of last year, 2024. And we like took the holidays and stuff like that and then we regrouped in like maybe mid-January. We both did like some market research for it regrouped in mid-January and we launched it. The first Monday in February. I wanna say dates are like a blur to me right now, but I think it was like the first Monday in February. But anyways, it's called the Podcast Hub and it is a, directory. It's a paid directory, so we're doing$50 for the a year or$5 a month for the first 50 people that sign up. And then after the first 50 people sign up, it'll be$10 a month or a hundred dollars a year. We're currently at. I think like 22, 23 members from our launch. Nice. That just happened like two and a half, three weeks ago. Thank you. Yeah. So it's, a directory where if you're looking to be a guest on a podcast, you can go in there and post that. You know, you'll, you are looking to be a guest, what it is that you speak about. If you need a guest for your podcast. You post in there about meeting a guest and what it is that you're looking for. We also have like podcast tech support in there. There's a guy who's in there who does like the techie side of podcasts and stuff, so you could ask him questions and pick his brain about that. Awesome. We've also put like resources in there from our own businesses, so I put some public relations resources in there. I did a webinar, the 12th of this month about how to be a good podcast guest, so I uploaded that information into there. I've also put some of my information in there about like how to pitch yourself and different things related to PR and podcasting in there. Ellen has put some stuff in there. We also have another list of resources of like tools that we use ourselves for our business and for podcasting as well. So we created it because we were just tired of all the fluff and spam that you can get. Sometimes I'm not. Mm-hmm. Facebook groups are great. I got a lot of. Guests from Facebook groups when I was first starting out, but we also realized how overwhelming it can be and how sometimes, yeah, it can just be like really spammy being in there. Or when you're in a group with, you know, a hundred thousand people, you kind of get lost in it. And we're also tired of like the pay to play type thing where you're talking with somebody about being on their show. And you're like, okay, this is a great fit. And then you go and they're like, oh, well it's$50 to be on my show, or, you know, it's whatever. Because that's happened to me before. Someone put out the, in one of a podcasting group that they were interested in, you know, guests. And I said that I wanted to be a guest. And then we're messaging and we're talking and we set up the time and they're like, okay, so it's$45. And I was like, you never said anything. About it costing. And she was like, oh, well I can do a mini session for$10 then or something. I'm like, no, no, thank you. And I went back and looked at the post to make sure I didn't miss anything about it costing right. And I saw other people commenting, saying, Hey, you need to let people know that this costs before we go on there. So we were just tired of stuff like that. So. In the group, there is no pay to play. If you're looking for a guest for your show, you cannot be charging people to come onto to your show. It's just, like I said, it's no spam, no fluff, no nonsense. Just straightforward. Find a guest. Be a guest. Get extra help with any podcasting questions or things that you may have. I love that because when I was building this podcast and I was, you know, I just had the baby and so I was just like, I really wanna try to get this down. Uh, it was something that I wanted to start during the pregnancy, but I had a really rough pregnancy and so I just didn't have the energy to, and, and when I was coming out and of the funk from, having my daughter. I was just like, I really wanna get this down. And luckily somebody who I like was connecting with anyway, she, um, her name's Erica Rooney. She does glass ceilings and sticky floors and her podcast. Yeah. Love it. And she just, she just released the book by the same, um, name and she was like. Girl, mama, you got like 30 minutes. I got 30 minutes. Like hop on, hop on Zoom right now. And I was like, okay. Yeah. And she goes, this is what you need. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I was like, thank you. You know, like, and she was like, and here's my application. Feel free to just copy it and write your, you know, whatever you need. And I was just like. Awesome. Like, thank you so much. And she's like, no biggie. Like, have a great day. You know? And then she was gone, you know? Yeah. It was just like little fairy godmother, like dust. Yeah. And, and we still talk about it. I, I'm like, I always talk about how like lucky I was because without you, I would've had to like. Figure it out, like through all the noise and all that, right? Whereas when she just came in and she was like, boom, this is what you need. Here's how to do it. Like, you know, this is what I use. And so I, I love that she shared that with me, and so I'm always sharing that story with people, but I totally get what you're going from, like literally. I the 19th. Today's the 20th when we're recording this. Yesterday I had a Podcasters Network group where I just put it out in the threads and I was just like, Hey podcasters, who wants to network and just like meet each other and like talk about what's going on? And like nine people showed up, which was great for our first meet. Yeah. And two of them hadn't launched yet, and so they were asking us, you know, questions. We had somebody who had a podcast for four years, you know, and we were like giving each other advice. We're telling each other about our, our stories and how we started our podcast. So I feel like the need for such a hub is there and I'm so glad that we're having this conversation. Literally the day after I had this networking group, you totally have to come to the networking group and like, oh yeah. Talk to the other podcasters. Um, okay. Definitely. Yeah, and we're gonna do it once a month. I feel like there's such a need for that because even in that very small session that I had yesterday. Two people who have never launched before, were just like, oh, can I ask you like, what do you do for applications? And I was just like, take mine. I was given to it. She said, pass it on. I'm passing it on to you. You, your job is to pass it on to someone after, you know? Right. Um, and, and so yeah, I think that you should definitely come. Check out the podcasting group and talk to the other podcasters.'cause I feel like a lot of them too would be so down for your hub. Like I'm super down for your hub right now. Cool. And I just learned about it like Yeah, yeah, definitely. I would love to let me know what it is. I would love to come and chat with them.'cause that's what the group is all about. And the reason that we want to charge for it is to. Weed out. The people that aren't really serious about it weed out mm-hmm. The spammy people. And that's why it's not like a super expensive type of thing. It's just enough to be like, if I'm not joining this for the right reasons, I'm not gonna really invest in it. Right. But if I am joining it for the right reasons, then I don't mind, you know. Investing into this to get to where I need to be. And we wanna add like some other tools and resources to it and stuff and really get it to like grow and find out, you know, what the people want so that we can keep people happy. So I would definitely love to come and chat with your networking group. Yay. Okay. Awesome. So, okay, so how can people learn more about the Hub and also to connect with you? So if you want to connect with me, I am at the mod sc on. Threads, Instagram and Facebook. LinkedIn. It is just Angel Wilborn. And then to learn more about the podcast hub, you can go to my website, which is the mod sc.com, and there is a link forth there under the podcast tab. Awesome. And listeners, don't worry, I'm grabbing all of the links from Angel and I'm putting them down in the show notes as always. So you can go down there and click the links as well. In case you didn't have a pen, but if you did, please tell us what type of pen you have. Yes. And what color it is. And what color it is.'cause that's important to us. It is very important. Are you, are you team Brown Pen or Team? Purple Pen. So are you with the husbands or are you with the kids like, yes. There we go. Husbands or kids, let us know y'all. Angel, thank you so much for coming on. I'm like, I absolutely loved our conversation and I definitely, I think you should come back after you know, you like get the hub all set and more people learn about you.'cause I would love to get a recap of how that's going later on. Okay? Yeah, definitely. And Whitney, thank you so much for having me on the show. I have enjoyed, this was a great conversation. Also, I would love to have you on my show because. I think that, we'll, I mean, we've obviously already had a con awesome conversation over here, so I know that it'll be an awesome conversation over there as well. Yes, yes. Let's do it. I'll bring my pens. We'll schedule you in. Yes. Okay. I love it. I love it. That's like our new inside thing. Now we're, we're gonna send threads of pens to each other from now on. People are gonna be like, what is going on with them? Is this something new like secret society or something? What's, what do the pen mean? You have to listen to, you have to listen to the podcast to find out. So, yes. Exactly. Well, thank you so much and thank you everybody else. I will see you on Thursday. That's a wrap on another episode of Caffeinated Chaos. I hope you're leaving with a little more clarity, a lot more inspiration, and maybe even an extra shot of motivation. If you love today's episode, don't forget to follow us. Leave a review and share it with a friend who could use just a little chaos and caffeine in their life. Until next time, keep embracing the mess. Chase your dreams and make magic happen. One caffeinated, chaotic moment at a time. I will see you all soon. Bye now.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Whitney Mihalko - Aguon

Host
Head Shot

Angel Wilborn

Guest

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