When first getting my business off the ground, I worked 16-18 hour days, 7 days a week. I worked almost non-stop for four years because I had to. I had a mortgage, two babies, car payments, and life I we had to pay for. Luckily, over the years, I got better at being a business owner, charging appropriately, setting boundaries, and working in time to actually live life, spend time with my family, and enjoy the fruits of my labor.
While I haven’t always had the best work-life balance, today I can say we’ve successfully achieved the dream we had when I first quit my job and started freelancing back in 2005. We have awesome clients and fulfilling work, we work hard and enjoy the challenges, and we spend a lot of time having fun. We do a lot of hiking and traveling — and get away from our computers. We also go to a lot of concerts and enjoy local live music.
Work-life balance for us is more about work-life integration. Our life is a blend of the work we love and the things we enjoy doing, and now that my husband and I work together and are both self-employed, we create our own schedules. They key is structuring our lives and our business with systems that create the flexibility and freedom we need to live the lifestyle we want for our family.
When you combine our ability to truly manage our own time, our belief that a lot of critical learning happens outside the classroom, and our desire to create lasting memories with our kids, it’s only natural that we’re going to have some ditch days!
Playing Hookey For A Good Cause
Today I took the afternoon off, picked Natalie up from school at noon, and headed down to the Sacramento International Airport for a free concert — all we needed to bring was a Target Gift Card of any denomination to donate to St. Jude!
We reached the Terminal B Departure Area around 12:40 and there was already a line of people waiting in anticipation to see Andy Grammer and Hunter Hayes. These were some dedicated fans! We barely stopped for a moment to assess where we needed to go and some very excited fans promptly informed us where the end of the line was! We got in line, marveled at the turnout on a Friday afternoon during the school day, giggled to ourselves about playing hookey, and posed for some radio station photos. When they let us in the concert area, we were able to get spots up close, with only two people in front of us. That was awesome because we’re both short and if we get stuck behind a tall person, we’re done for.
Hunter Hayes took the stage first, performing his new song Amen, as well as hits Yesterday’s Song and Wanted. About fifteen minutes and one backdrop switch later, Andy Grammer took the stage, performing Honey I’m Good and Fresh Eyes. It was an awesome, fun way to kick off our weekend and to share with my daughter, especially since we were back home before her friends even got out of school!
Free Benefit Concert
On Friday, December 9 from 1:30 – 2:30 pm, a benefit concert for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was held at the Sacramento International Airport Terminal B Departure Area. Featuring performances by Andy Grammer and Hunter Hayes, the acoustic concert was free, but attendees were encouraged to bring a Target gift card to donate to St. Jude.
The concert was promoted by many local Sacramento radio stations, with 105.1 KNCI and Now 100.5 on site to introduce the artists. It was sponsored by the Sacramento International Airport and Esquire Grill, who provided sliders and fries.
The benefit concert precedes the KNCI Country Cares St. Jude Radiothon happening from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm on December 15-16, 2016.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. Everything we do is centered on finding cures and saving children. And families never receive a bill from St. Jude. We pay for treatment, travel, housing and food, because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.
By sharing our knowledge freely and exchanging ideas openly, we’re inspiring more collaboration between doctors and researchers worldwide, and, as a result, more lifesaving treatments for children everywhere. At St. Jude, we won’t give up. We do everything possible to end childhood cancer and other deadly diseases.
Andy Grammer
Starting as a street performer on the Santa Monica Promenade, New York-born Andy Grammer is a pop star who plays for millions of fans who attend sold-out tours around the country. Signed by S-Curve Records, Grammer released his 2011 self-titled debut album and became the first male pop star in a decade, since John Mayer in 2002, to reach the Top 10 at Adult Pop Radio on his first two singles. Those songs, Keep Your Head Up and Fine By Me, sold more than two million downloads combined.
For his second album in 2014, Magazines or Novels, Andy Grammer solidified his role in the pop music landscape as a premiere songwriter and hitmaker. Andy’s music permeated radio and TV networks for nearly two years straight, and as a result, Honey, I’m Good became a triple platinum smash and one of the ten best-selling songs of the year. It topped the iTunes pop chart and spent thirteen consecutive weeks in the top ten. It was also #1 on Billboard’s Adult and Dance charts.
Andy has been off the road recharging and writing a new album. From these new sessions, a luscious first single has emerged entitled Fresh Eyes. Lyrically, Fresh Eyes paints a snapshot of those special moments when you realize you’ve fallen even more in love with your significant other.
Hunter Hayes
Hunter Hayes is a country music singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, playing more than 30 different instruments. He has been nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, he won the Country Music Association Award for New Artist of the Year in 2012, and he has won three BMI Awards.
Signed to Atlantic Records Nashville, Hayes released the single Storm Warning in the summer of 2011 that made the country Top 40, and his self-titled debut album was released later that year. The album sold more than 1.1 million copies, and its most successful single, Wanted,, went quadruple platinum in 2012, making Hayes the youngest male act to ever top the Billboard Hot Country Songs. On September 7, 2012, two days shy of his 21st birthday, he was inducted, as the youngest member, into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame at the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Led by its first single Invisible, Hayes’ second studio album, Storyline, was released in 2014. The 21 EP followed in the summer of 2015, and sold well that Hayes accompanied it with The 21 Project — a set of three EPs where the songs were recorded three different ways later that year.
