Today, I’m excited to welcome Chelsey Diaz from the Rainmaker Family as we dive into a topic that I’ve been dreaming about—a "magic hamper" that takes care of itself! If you’ve ever wished you could hand off some of those household tasks that eat up your time, this episode is for you. Chelsey shares her personal journey with outsourcing and the mindset shifts that help women free up time at home so they can be more present for what matters most. Tune in to explore creative ways to outsource everything from laundry to meal prep, and finally, say goodbye to some of those time-sucking chores.

Key Takeaways:

• What is Your Time Worth?
• Finding the Right Help for Your Home
• Mindset Shifts for Outsourcing
• Practical Tips for Getting Started Outsourcing Tasks in Your Home

Connect with Chelsey:
www.rainmakerfamily.com
www.rainmakerfamily.com/the-rainmaker-show
www.instagram.com/therainmakerfamily

Listen to the episode here!

Or watch the episode here!

I’d be honored and grateful if you would head over to iTunes to leave a review and let other female entrepreneurs know what you learned! While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Intro: I've had a dream for a long time of having what I get to call a magic hamper. What do I mean by that? Well, my husband always refers to our laundry hamper as a magic hamper because he puts dirty clothes in and they come out clean. Well, the magic is me. I'm the one doing it. 

[00:00:15] Intro: We have a good equitable distribution of household chores, but laundry is what I do. And I detest it. And so, our guest today on the podcast, when I knew that she had strategies on how to outsource things around your home, such as laundry, I knew I needed to have her on the show. So I'm excited for you all to join me on this conversation. 

[00:00:39] Megan: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Work Life Harmony. I am very selfishly super excited for our guest here today because I am hoping I can get a new perspective on one of the things I spend, I feel like a significant amount of time on that I would like to stop doing. 

[00:00:59] Megan: So without further ado, Chelsea, welcome to the podcast. I would love it if you would introduce yourself, let everyone know a little bit about what you do. 

[00:01:07] Guest: Wow. I'm so excited to be here, Megan. I absolutely love what you're all about, what you're teaching.  

[00:01:12] Guest: So thank you for having me. I hope what I have to share today just resonates with your audience and helps in any way possible. But yeah, I. My journey in entrepreneurship started 10 or 11 years ago, my husband and I met very young, got married right away and jumped right into running a business. 

[00:01:31] Guest: And we were actually in the service based industry. We were wedding photographers and videographers. And you know, we jumped right in knowing nothing really about how to work together, and I just remember like there was such struggle in creating systems, but also like a huge desire to have a family one day and looking at our lifestyle, looking about even the type of work that we were doing and just saying like, This isn't really sustainable. 

[00:01:58] Guest: And that kind of led us down this whole path of what we now teach moms how to create like their first e commerce product online. That was our story. We were looking for extra revenue, trying to find more leverage in our life, more leverage in our finances and our, in our time, not feeling like we had to say yes to everything. 

[00:02:15] Guest: Every single client that came our way, which at the time it kind of felt like that was our only option. And it was really in this season of burnout where our friends and family stopped calling us. And we kind of stumbled into this leverage vehicle that we now are known for and teach moms how to do. 

[00:02:32] Guest: But the funny thing is, is looking back on that journey is like, I wasn't a mom yet. It was just like a desire in our hearts. And I feel like as soon as we had our oldest, who's now for Kaizen that business like really took off and grew and helping and coaching. And then it became like this passion of mine to not only have leverage in your finances, which is what we teach, but also to have leverage in the things that you're doing at home. 

[00:02:58] Guest: So that. At the end of your work day, you know, we are all passionate about what we do and we care about the people that we're serving, but also like we need to be able to show up powerfully and strong and our best versions for our family first. And that's really hard to do if you don't have systems. I think even like it's, it can be hard to do if you don't have help or you're outsourcing, not only things in your business, but things in your home as well. 

[00:03:23] Guest: And so I'm thankful for this journey. I feel like it's. Always evolving entrepreneurship is never ending. There's always a new problem you can solve. And so with that like I, I'm super passionate about believing that women can have impact inside and outside of their home and that it doesn't have to be one or the other. 

[00:03:41] Guest: That the things that you are learning in your business on outsourcing on creating an amazing product on having connection community, like leaving a legacy that can all be applied to your family as well. So that's a little bit about me,  

[00:03:54] Megan: yeah. And I really love that you brought up I know I'm paraphrasing, but. 

[00:03:58] Megan: not giving the best to your business and leaving the leftovers for your family. And I know early, early on in my motherhood journey, juggling a full time career and building a business, I hit a wall where it's like, yeah, I do feel like my work life is getting the best of me. Cause they're getting me at my core hours where I'm at my best, right. 

[00:04:16] Megan: From, you know, morning till up to the dinner hour. And it's like, what was left over with my family Was when I was not at my best self. And that that's a real, that's a real struggle. And obviously I'm sure all of our longtime listeners can understand why I have Chelsea on today. She has a passion for systems and processes and optimizing things as well. 

[00:04:35] Megan: And I know one of the areas I personally have struggled with, with this, which is why I'm excited to have you here. We've done an excellent job with the business on. Efficiencies systems, all of that. And I know for me, when I think to translating it to my home life, while I've come up with a lot of great systems to keep up with all the household stuff, what I really struggle with is all those systems, the vast majority of them. 

[00:05:04] Megan: fall on my plate. I'm the executor of them. And outsourcing when it comes to business, I think, especially for women and, and probably for men as well, it's much easier to feel good about doing something where you can realize, Oh, I'm outsourcing this. And it's helping us jet. Like you see the direct financial line back to you. 

[00:05:25] Megan: But in particular, I know one of the things you talk about is one of the banes of my existence, and it sounds so silly, but laundry. Like, I literally look at the mounds of laundry I go through every day, and I know it's not nearly what other women do, because we're a much smaller family. I've got a great system for it, but I don't see a pathway to an outsourcing of that. 

[00:05:48] Megan: That doesn't involve like hiring a housekeeper, which seems like something I'm like, well, I don't know if we're there yet. So I'd love if you have some tips on the home side of things, how do we start to outsource the things that don't typically are things we're not thinking we can.  

[00:06:05] Guest: there's a couple of things that come to mind for me, and this is in my own journey of growing and I'm still continuing to grow because I have friends that outsource way more than I do. 

[00:06:15] Guest: And so I'm, I'm constantly learning from them, but I think especially for women, at least for me in my life, like I said, saw my mom do everything and she's amazing and I'm so grateful that she taught me how to cook, how to clean, how to take care of my kids. But that was also in that time, like my parents didn't have extra resources, extra finances. 

[00:06:38] Guest: So a lot of it did weigh on her and because I watched my mom, what felt like do that so effortlessly, you know, and that's just what they did. And I, and I think even that generation, like. At least in where I grew up, like there wasn't a lot of extra help. Whereas entrepreneurs, it feels a lot easier to do because it's like you understand that your time is so valuable and why not have somebody else there? 

[00:07:02] Guest: So I think just understanding where almost, I don't know if it's shame or just like really getting at the root. of like, why do I feel like I can't do this? Is it because I feel like I can't afford it? Is it because I'm uncomfortable with somebody in my home? Is it because I have some shame around like, you know, this thought that I have to do everything? 

[00:07:26] Guest: So I think understanding like where your reasoning is coming from, like, why you feel like you can't outsource. So I think that's a really important place. And that was for me, like just understanding those deep feelings of like, well, why, why am I afraid to outsource? Like, what is it? And it's usually more than just a financial thing. 

[00:07:47] Guest: It's something deeper than that, that I think holds, holds true. Women back from, you know, even if they have the finances, like, why aren't you, you know? So I think that's important. I think the next thing is start slow. Most people don't go from like having no help to a whole full blown house manager, house cleaner, five days a week, a nanny, like all those things you build your way up. 

[00:08:10] Guest: And so. My story is that we actually started outsourcing certain parts of our business and household things simultaneously before we had kids. So I was already working that muscle and it started as simple as this. We had a house and we decided to rent an extra room in our home on Airbnb. And I know that's not for everybody for, but for us, it was like, Hey, this bedroom is not being used. 

[00:08:37] Guest: We're gone a lot on the weekends. Why not make some extra income? And so at first, like when we had those initial bookings, it was really fun for Steven, my husband and I to like be the ones cleaning the room. And then it got old really, really fast. And so we just like hired and looked out for someone who we trusted that we kind of knew that could work. 

[00:08:57] Guest: You know, I think max was like 10 hours a week and they would come in, flip the Airbnb room for us. You know, we were still able to create extra income and then they would do other things for us. And I just remember it was like slowly, but surely like releasing control of what I wanted done. And it was learning to communicate what you actually wanted. 

[00:09:18] Guest: So I think like, just knowing you can start slow, I think another great tip on like outsourcing things I've heard of this done is like, could you step into seasonal outsourcing, meaning like, you know, from the month of say September through December are. Hectic for our family with going back to school and the holidays, and I just need some extra house help around the house versus, say, the summertime when we're gone all the time. 

[00:09:46] Guest: I think that's a great way to ease into it. I think, especially when spouses might not be fully on board with outsourcing right away, like, Hey, could we try seasonal outsourcing and then go from there?  

[00:09:59] Megan: common place to start and I know that the one place we get help and I think where I see a lot of people start is to have a cleaning service of some kind. 

[00:10:08] Megan: There's businesses out there. A lot of people are doing them. It's like, yes, that's low hanging fruit. I mean, even us as a family, when we. Finally, when I finally kind of cried, uncle was like, I'm spending my weekends doing all this. One was we, we like distributed the effort amongst all three of us. And after two weekends of that, both all, everybody came back and was like, Let's, let's look at where we can cut finances somewhere else to pay for cleaning, which was ultimately what I wanted. 

[00:10:36] Megan: And so we, you know, we moved into that. But outside of the cleaning, when I think of something like laundry, I wouldn't even know where to go to say, how do I outsource things like that that don't fall in a traditional, you know, You know, common business bucket, like a house cleaning service.  

[00:10:52] Guest: Yeah, I think there's a couple of different places that you could even start with that. 

[00:10:57] Guest: So again, like going back to my story, like I had a newborn and my mom was coming over taking care of our oldest and she just started during, you know, newborns. Nap for a short amount of times and they're up and so she was starting to do laundry for us And it got so nice because I got so used to it Just like you megan like our weekends were spent doing laundry and it was tiring and exhausting And my mom was already doing it. 

[00:11:23] Guest: So for us I started with like actually paying my mom to do our laundry. So she would watch my son for a little bit and then she would do our laundry. And that allowed me to ease into it because I was uncomfortable with a stranger folding my laundry and doing all of that. And then as our boys got older, it kind of turned into like, Okay. 

[00:11:45] Guest: We, we have a little bit of help with our, with our boys, our nanny, she can like fold and do all of that. And now I'm to a place where we just moved and we have a new nanny who I don't know as well. Like we're getting to know and I'm just like, do it all. I don't care. Like, here you go. And so I think just easing into it, but there are so many different avenues that you can go. 

[00:12:04] Guest: So number one, if you already have someone who comes in and cleans your home, whether it's once a week, you know, once a month, I would just ask them. Hey, would you be willing to, or would you be open to like doing part of my laundry or making my bed? Like what, would that be an additional service? How much? 

[00:12:23] Guest: And I think you would be surprised by how many people are willing to help you that you might already like services that you might already be using that you can just tack on. So that's another great, I would just start there if you don't know where else. And I, and I've had different friends who like, Oh my house cleaner, she just does the laundry on this day a week for me. 

[00:12:40] Guest: Nowadays. There are so many laundry services that you can hire, whether they come to your house, pick up your laundry, or you can drop them off. We moved from a very small town to a really big area. In our small town, I wasn't aware of an actual clean, like, laundry service. However, there are lots of people that were willing to do that. 

[00:13:01] Guest: Like, you know, you could post on a Facebook group and find people available where it versus the area I live in. There's lots of services available that already offer that. So I think it depends on your area and just getting creative. That's the beautiful thing about social media. Like you might even know a friend of a friend, you could post on social media and be like, I'm looking for somebody, you know, three hours a week to do this. 

[00:13:24] Guest: And I think you'd be surprised about how many people are willing to do something as simple as doing your laundry for you. So, yeah, looking for services, adding something on, if you already have somebody coming in, even if you have a babysitter who's just like, Oh, maybe this babysitter does like. date night once a week for us, could they come a couple hours early and do your laundry for you? 

[00:13:46] Guest: Again, it's somebody that maybe you feel a little bit more trusted with instead of complete strangers depending on your comfortability level. And I think just getting really clear, like In business, and I'm sure Megan, you're great at this, like communicating what your, your wants and needs are. It's the same thing when it comes to your house and, and creating checklists. 

[00:14:05] Guest: And like, here's the checklist. I like my clothes hung this way. I want these hung up and showing them like, you know, how to do it and then understanding that sometimes most often people don't always get it right the first time and that's okay. So use that opportunity as like a training ground, you know, those just like we do when we hire a new employee or contractor, those 30, 60, 90 days are really crucial that you set a good foundation because if you know, if somebody is putting away your laundry in a way you don't want it, But they never know about it. 

[00:14:39] Guest: How are they going to be able to correct? You're just going to be  

[00:14:41] Megan: frustrated and you haven't given them an opportunity to do anything different. People can't read your mind. What do you see as a lot of the hidden time sucks that may be pulling away, you know, from our time with our family time for ourselves, et cetera, that are some good low hanging fruit to start to consider outsourcing. 

[00:15:01] Guest: I definitely think laundry for me, at least again, I hated the weekends. I never want to do laundry again. Another big one for me is meal prepping and just, you know, Like I like to go to the farmer's market every weekend and buy fresh produce and chopping up the food, even if it's not making it like I still enjoy the cooking aspect, but I think there's a lot of time suck in like marinating your meat or, you know, chopping up all the. 

[00:15:29] Guest: Vegetables you're supposed to have. I think that's really low hanging fruit that we don't always think of, even if they're not like cooking it, they're just like chopping it and prepping your kitchen for you. I think that's another really good one. Obviously house cleaning, I think is huge. I even think organizing, organizing things like I love a tidy home, but I'm not. 

[00:15:51] Guest: I don't always have the energy or I'm not, I'm not as like nitpicky about things. Like I like it clean, but I'm not always the best at organizing. So I think even hiring somebody who's really type a that loves doing that. I think that's another huge like, time suck that people don't realize as well. 

[00:16:09] Guest: Yeah.  

[00:16:10] Megan: I was even thinking about, you know, I kind of rotate through over the course of the year. There's those closets that just. somehow always kind of get out of control or like the Tupperware cabinet that you restack it off like suddenly a month later, it's complete chaos. I could even see things like that on rotation of, you know, being able to keep certain parts of your house a little more organized and tidy as well. 

[00:16:32] Megan: Do you find Is it kind of a wide range age group wise of people that you find that are interested to actually do this work when you are, you know, as you work with people as they're outsourcing?  

[00:16:43] Guest: . I think you could hire you know, a, a teenager who is just looking to create some extra income. 

[00:16:51] Guest: Yeah. All the way up to somebody who's retired that just wants to work a couple of extra hours. I think it really, I think. I think there's no age that somebody isn't willing to do this type of work because people are always looking for ways to make income. And I think sometimes those abnormal, like chopping and prepping food, like that might be, that might light somebody up and get someone so excited. 

[00:17:14] Guest: Like, wow, I get to do this. It's for three hours a week on top of, you know, like the little side hustle. People love that. And I think just because you don't love doing it doesn't mean somebody else doesn't want that job. And it's like, think it's like, you know, an amazing opportunity.  

[00:17:31] Megan: And I will say, I know that is true only because my husband also loves it. 

[00:17:34] Megan: Loves that. Like for him, spending a Sunday in the kitchen is how he relaxes. That is my definition of a nightmare. So I do know those magic unicorns exist. Thankfully I'm one who does thank goodness for that. Right. But all the other household stuff. Yeah. You know, not so much. I, I really appreciate this because I think it's so important for women to, you know, recognize We may have been raised where we saw a certain, you know, persona or certain activities happening. 

[00:18:08] Megan: And I think subconsciously for a lot of us, you know, similar to me, I would watch my mom who did all of it. And my dad was in the military, so he was gone a lot. It really did rest on her shoulders. And there was no community or network. And so it really was her and my very child ish child. Like I saw it looking effortless. 

[00:18:29] Megan: Right? Oh, this is what you do. And she was always in a good mood and loving and all of that. And so I think I entered into marriage and motherhood with a very rose colored glasses view of what homemaker tasks  

[00:18:45] Guest: felt  

[00:18:45] Megan: like and looked like and then suddenly here I am doing it I'm like this stinks but and then feeling guilty for not enjoying all of that part but not really you know, we don't have a lot of examples to look at of, hey, it doesn't all have to fall on your shoulders. 

[00:19:02] Megan: And, you know, we can actually outsource some of the traditional homemaker roles and responsibilities and that's okay.  

[00:19:09] Guest: Yeah. And I think there's so much freedom in Talking about it like we are. I know I have, you know, a mastermind that I'm in with really high level women and they all, whether they have kids in the house or not, they all have some form of help throughout the week. 

[00:19:27] Guest: Like one of my friends, Shay I think you had her husband Graham, like on your podcast not too long ago. Yeah. I love Shay and her, their girls are older, they're teenagers, but they still have someone coming in that Helps water the plants, food prep, run errands, unload the Instacart order. Like there's different things like that that give me even ideas of like, Oh, how, what else could I do? 

[00:19:50] Guest: And I think it also just normalizes like entrepreneurship. We already have to think differently on what we spend our money on. What we, where we use our time. Like, it's just a different lifestyle than someone who. Is at home or working in nine to five. And so I think just being around others that are doing it this way, it just normalizes like that. 

[00:20:11] Guest: This is okay for me that that's been a huge, like, it's okay that I have help and I'm doing this. Even if some of my friends aren't in that place or don't want to do it or for whatever, whatever their reasoning is, it's okay that I'm choosing this.  

[00:20:26] Megan: Oh, I love that. And I know, you know, one of the things that helped me on the business side with outsourcing early on was really walking through the exercise of what is my time worth? 

[00:20:41] Megan: Like when I am doing revenue genning activities, what does that mean? Like put a dollar per hour. If I can outsource someone to do that for You know, 70 percent less. Why would I not do that if it's freeing up my time to go do the things that matter most? And I think when it comes to our time outside of work, we can't put a price tag on the, the time that we get to spend when we are our best selves with the people that we love the most. 

[00:21:16] Guest: Yeah.  

[00:21:16] Megan: And I, you know, it's almost a, if I'm going to outsource anything first, let me think about the things that allow. Me to be my best self when I'm with my loved ones, instead of them only getting the exhausted. I have no energy left because I put all of it into this other bucket as well. And I know that's definitely been some of the mental mental work I've been going through of starting to think about, you know, outside of, we do have people who come twice a every other week for, you know, kind of a cleaning, like what else am I spending my time on in my home right now that. 

[00:21:51] Megan: is sucking my energy that would protect it to have more time to, to spend with the people I love the most.  

[00:22:01] Guest: Yeah, and just keep a mental note of that. Like, like, I love what you're doing. You're already thinking through, okay, I already have somebody coming twice a month. So what are the other things that again, I could ask them to do right away. 

[00:22:13] Guest: That helps me because in the moment you might be thinking of something, but then it just all of us have our phone with us all the time. So just like, Put it in your phone and then create like a list, whether that person who's already in your home, maybe they can take it off of you or from there, then you can create like a job listing of like, here are ABCD, like the things that I would love done every other week or once a week. 

[00:22:36] Guest: Here's what I'm willing to pay. And I'll, I think you'll be surprised at, yeah,  

[00:22:40] Megan: I agree. I've been willing to do it. I teach always is doing that time audit. And so I've been doing mine as a school year starter back over. I always redo one with this intent of like, cause I know I'm like, okay, Megan, you got to challenge yourself here. 

[00:22:52] Megan: And for me, it's like, I spend a good two to two and a half hours a week collectively running errands. And it's not errands that I enjoy. And I'm like, what if I just started with finding. A teenager, a college kid where I could let the Aaron stock pile up. And once a week go, Hey, you know, here's the three Amazon returns. 

[00:23:13] Megan: You've got to go drop off here. I have that, you know, I'll go to one certain store just for the one thing that I need, like, here's the money to go buy this thing over here. Go do the returns over there. Go do the pickup over here. Right. And. Wow. How great would that be to wonder things I hate? Like, it's not fun for me. 

[00:23:30] Megan: I don't enjoy those errands. And then I have the fun of thinking, how would I spend that time if I weren't doing those? Like, what does that free up for me to do? Which is really exciting to think about. Yeah, I love that. Thank you for for challenging us to think about this. And really starting the conversation of let's normalize it right. 

[00:23:51] Megan: Let's make this something that that we get to talk about that we get to do. We don't need to feel guilty about or anything that it takes a lot of work to keep. a household running and it doesn't mean that we have to do all of it ourselves. I love that. Yeah, definitely. So where can everybody learn more about everything that you guys do? 

[00:24:15] Guest: Yeah. So if you want to hear more about the rainmaker family, we also have a podcast called the rainmaker family show. We interview amazing guests like Megan is a great show. Oh, thank you. Yeah. We interview lots of different guests there. So if you're a podcast listener, I would encourage you to get plugged into there. 

[00:24:34] Guest: You can follow at the rainmaker family as well on Instagram. We, we post quite a bit over there, kind of a mix of what we're doing and Leveraging like more income for families, but also lots of motherhood things as well. On that Instagram account.  

[00:24:48] Megan: Awesome. Thank you so, so much for being here. I really appreciate it.