Making Room for Your Calling: Erin Meinel on Homeschooling, Burnout, and Pivoting

What do you do when the life you built starts to feel like too much? For my guest Erin Meinel, the answer was to lay some things down. Not forever, and not because she failed. She did it because she was listening to what God was asking of her in that season.

Erin taught 4K and kindergarten for a decade. After becoming a mom, she started a sleep coaching business, then co-founded a branding and marketing agency with a friend. With two businesses and two little boys, burnout, as she put it, hit her like a train. Around the same time, she and her husband decided to homeschool. So she stepped away from both businesses.

Today Erin coaches homeschool moms, helping them find capacity and margin to teach their kids well and, if they feel called, to build a business from home. Here's what I took from our conversation.

It's okay to lay something down

Erin's businesses were running well. Walking away from them was not an easy decision. But she knew she couldn't homeschool and run two businesses at the same time, so she stepped back from parent coaching and handed the agency fully to her partner.

She didn't stop working entirely. She took a part-time marketing role for another online business. It gave her work that still felt like her while she figured out what homeschooling would look like in her house.

Try this: Look at everything on your plate. Is there one thing you could pause, hand off, or scale down for this season? Pausing is not quitting.

Build a brand that can move with you

Erin runs her business under her own name on purpose. She knows her work will shift as her life does. In her words, "the beauty of a personal brand is that it can ebb and flow with you and wherever God is taking you."

I set up my own work in a similar way. The podcast and everything else lives under me, because people are following a person and a story, not a single offer.

So many business owners I talk to are scared to pivot. They worry their audience won't follow. Erin found the opposite. Some of the parents she coached years ago are now her biggest cheerleaders. Some people will move on, and that's okay. The ones who are truly connected to you will come along.

Try this: If you're feeling called to change direction, write down why. Then share it with one person you trust before you let fear make the decision for you.

Make your own margin

Homeschool moms are with their kids around the clock. As Erin said, "There really is no break. So you need to make your own break." That's true for every mom running a business, homeschooling or not.

Erin helps her clients set four to five daily "anchors" so their days feel predictable. She said predictability is good for everyone's nervous system, and it actually gives you more flexibility, not less. When everyone knows roughly what's happening and when, you can find the pockets of time to pour into your own work.

This is exactly how I think about systems. Structure isn't there to box you in. It's there to give you room to breathe.

Try this: Pick two or three anchors for your day, like a morning start time, a lunch break, and a quiet work block. Keep them steady for one week and notice what changes.

Remember who you are outside of their schedules

We talked about how easy it is to lose yourself in this season. Your kids' hobbies quickly become your hobbies. For me, that means a lot of outdoor youth sports. For Erin, it's hockey tournaments every weekend from November to March.

Erin asked a question I keep coming back to: if she started something now, even a couple of hours a week, what could it become by the time her kids need her less? She also encourages moms to look at what they've already been through. If you've solved a problem in your own life, someone else is probably still searching for that answer.

Try this: Make a short list of what you enjoy, what people come to you for help with, and a problem you've already solved. Then pray over it and talk it through with someone you trust.

Listen to the full episode

Hear Erin Meinel's full Mess to Mission story, from the classroom to burnout to building a business that fits her homeschool season: Listen on Apple Podcasts

Erin also hosts the podcast Homeschool Moms Make Money and has a gift waiting for Mess to Mission listeners at erinmeinel.com/mess. You can find more from Erin at erinmeinel.com.

Ready for systems that feel like Sunday?

You don't have to choose between your family and your calling. Systems Sanctuary is where I help women build simple systems that create real margin, so there's room for both. Join the waitlist at lindspaulson.com/table.