This “mompreneur” lives a very full life, managing her business on youth and social etiquette while at the same time being hands-on with her teenage sons. She shares how she got her groove by having a solid routine, discipline, and priorities. What’s a day like for an institute director?

Titled “A Day In The Life Of A Woman,” this series celebrates the women in our lives. From the everyday to inspirational, the series aims to highlight women from various fields and share a bit of the diversity we experience every day.

Juliana Sliwka says that as a mother of two boys, she began building her business while traveling around the globe with family. Her lifestyle was hindering her full presence at work as an employee.

She became serious about small business when life took another turn and hit her hard through a traumatic experience that changed her life perspective and felt she had to make a choice on how to live their everyday lives.

In three years, Juliana established and developed a lifestyle brand covering etiquette, styling, and healthy living. The business was then launched as an institute in 2016, focusing on three core areas: business, youth, and social etiquette. Juliana’s mission for her enterprise is , “looking good, acting good, and feeling good” that touches people and their entire relationships around the world.

For Juliana, she emphasizes she is a “mompreneur,” and says there’s a reason why “mom” goes first in the word. She says motherhood is still her first priority, starting and ending her day as one which is why Juliana juggles her responsibilities of being a mom with those of being an entrepreneur.

She offers insight on what a typical day looks like in her life:

6 AM: My alarm goes off. I express in prayer how thankful I am to have woken up this day because someone went to sleep that night and didn’t wake up with their “little big problems.”

I mentally walk through my priorities for the day (family priorities, then work priorities). I write down the priorities for the day if not the night before. I must get all the mental notes that have been piling up in my mind since I woke up on paper before I forget it. It gets me mentally organized.

I stretch and try to focus on my breathing. I do my morning salutation and then have my morning washing routine done quickly.

6:30 AM: I wake up my boys (mostly five minutes earlier to prepare them slowly to wake up), talking to them, asking about how they slept, just being totally present for them. I never want them to feel the rush in the morning or that I’m too busy to care about even the little things they have going on.

7:15 AM: For breakfast I mostly join the boys with a jug of hot water and fresh squeezed lemon and manuka honey. This morning though, I have a bowl of quinoa or oat cereal with some chia seeds and pomegranates. Afterwards, we leave the house together to catch the school bus and once they are off, I go for a 40 minute jog or walk depending on how my night’s sleep was.

I’ve made exercise a critical part of my morning routine whether I want to or not. If I don’t get it done first, it won’t happen at all and then I lack the energy and clarity to be productive during the day.

I shower and dress up for the “office.” I rarely plan a meeting or workshops before 10am, except the holiday workshop camps.

8:30 AM: I spend most of my day in my home office handling business matters, social media, and the family schedule such as menu and shopping plans. I also see if there are any school activities or early after-school activities planned for the boys during the day.

9:30 AM: I’m in the office or institute in the heart of downtown. I change from wife and mama mode to business woman and professional, spending a lot of time in front of my computer typing away, responding to emails and inquiries, researching, reading, writing, checking all my social media platforms. I do this while promoting the business with design ideas, content and networking, and if it’s a workshop day, I’ll be in the boardroom for coaching sessions with clients until 2 PM, sometimes later, depending on the Q & A’s after each workshop.

I usually meditate for a few minutes before the workshop sessions and just make sure I am really present, so I can help my clients as much as possible over the next hours.

11:30 AM: I take a break to grab a quick lunch, a sandwich or salad. Then back to my day of management, website control, marketing strategies, how to make cost reductions and raise sales.

I own an educational institute. I like working early hours. I have learnt that if I do not put in the time, my business will not only begin to go stagnant, but if I’m not careful, the competition will swallow me up. I want to constantly grow my business, expand, and stay ahead. This is what keeps me at the office as much as I can afford, otherwise I’m only at my home office if the day schedule requires it.

One of the things I love about my business is that it is global and is a people business and I can serve all women, men, and children all over the world, no matter which socio-economic background!

3 PM: It’s like the Flintstones whistle and I’m out there, into the car and back to my other role as “mama-taxi,” schlepping kids from activity to activity, snacking while chatting about the day, where it’s mostly a monologue.

My boys are teens now so it’s me who wants to be around them after they are at home or at any of their afternoon sports activities. I treasure every single moment with them and the satisfying feeling of simply being together and being part of their lives. I also inform and include them in my business adventures. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies with two teen boys but most of the time they enjoy that quality time too.

5 -7 PM: If there are no evening sports activities and once the boys are doing homework or whatever activity to calm down from their activity-packed days, it’s back to the computer for me to tie up loose ends in the evening before dinner time.

I publish a blog post that I have already written about on my upcoming workshops. I delete and respond to a few emails because I like to go to sleep with zero emails in my inbox as I think I sleep better. J

8 PM: I’ve almost reached the top of that daily mountain all parents climb. Mostly, it’s downtime with the entire family watching a Netflix TV series or documentary film, or just spending some quality time together.

I only go back to the computer after dinner around 7:30 – 9 PM when there are upcoming workshops for the next days or any articles needed to be done before publication deadlines.

10 PM:  Recently, both my husband and I have always made it a family routine to bring the boys to their rooms, take turns in chatting briefly about their day with each of them, and say good night. This is also the time where they calm down and mostly open up to us about things going on in their lives, a precious time for both kids and parents.

10:30 PM: I go to bed and briefly talk with my husband about our day and plans. I sometimes read one of the three books I’m currently reading and then pray to God for how grateful I am for my family. Finally, my day ends and lights out! It’s been an exhausting but great day!

Juliana says that this example of a day in her life isn’t exhaustive as it doesn’t list down her mom duties much. It also doesn’t detail her other work duties, like pre-booked activities or publication deadlines for contributions for example. She also has what she calls a “Me Day” where she does yoga, massage, etc. She calls this her wellness day.

Still Close Family Bonds Through It All

As Juliana previously said, she believes in finding your own groove with discipline, routine and priorities. And as the kids grow, you also adjust your daily routine and life continues to change. “In a nutshell, despite being both working parents, our morning time and most evenings are family time,” she explains.

“It’s our top priority and it truly belongs to the boys and our family life which we cherish so much. This is the reason why we still have a strong bond with our teens despite being entrepreneurs and my husband who mostly works much longer hours, having conference calls through different time zones, being in a restaurant or meetings or traveling the globe. The stable routine at home continues.”

“Every parent’s life is a balancing act and as a mompreneur you must make the most of your free time to keep your business growing, your family happy, and yourself sane otherwise you’ll go crazy,” Juliana shares.

“There seems to be a method to the madness; knowing your routine and sticking to it whenever possible, allowing few distractions. Of course, life doesn’t always go as planned so there’s always tomorrow — a fresh slate to wake up with that ‘fire in the belly.’ But it’s also important to be there 100% in every situation. My boys want me to be Mom, my business needs me to be the tough boss, and my husband married me, not my small business. I try to think of what my primary role is at different times throughout the day and keep myself from getting pulled in too many directions at once.”

“Having children who are completely dependent on your every move, organizing a household, and trying to run and manage a fully functional (and hopefully profitable) business isn’t an easy task. So, while mompreneurs look for a daily balance between chaos and symmetry, we are most happy when the biggest ROI comes in the form of a well-adjusted family.”

“Ironically, I always advise my clients to be cautious with taking on too much because it can leave them overwhelmed or overworked which will eventually affect their families and the work that they produce,” she continues. “You don’t want to under-deliver in your career.”

Real Dirty Work Behind The Scenes

Juliana explains, “We’re living a life we love and chasing a dream that we believe will change lives. Having purpose like that is invigorating. But when you take a step back behind the scenes, you’ll quickly find that those living the mompreneur life are not necessarily living a life of glitz and glam and unparalleled success. And if you’re a mompreneur yourself, you’ll know what I mean.”

“In terms of posting on social media, if I’m speaking for the things I post, what you’re seeing is real, but what you’re seeing is only a piece of the story. I mean check out these pictures of people drinking wine on Facebook, standing on a rooftop in NYC or wherever on Instagram, winning pitch competitions in Silicon Valley, and prepping for a spot on the news. Nothing says glitz, glam and a damn good time like these pictures.”

“What you’re not seeing is the meltdown, discussions about pricing, knocking at doors about 100 times to get a business deal, endless negotiation with no outcome, tight shoulders from hours of working at computer, etc. The list is long.”

Happiness Is Key To Work-Life Balance

“I am a firm believer that the happier you are in your career, the more successful you become. Happiness is the key to work-life balance and my day is mostly a great balance of all the things that make me happy.”

“Helping people launch their dream careers, helping people become the better version of themselves, promoting and instilling character education in youth, spending as much time with my boys and husband and feeling fulfilled by reading and being by myself so that I can be fully present,” these are what make Juliana happy she says. She also says that her kids encourage her and are her inspiration.

Juliana shares some final inspiring words. “What I’m sharing with you is that, whatever life you have, you can choose to use your position as a learning lesson for your children. And I hope that while my boys grow and grow, they’re able to describe me as a strong woman who took chances that required sacrifice, never feared to fail, stumbled but rose up again, and yet showed them love and made them always a priority in the process.”