21. Balancing Business, Motherhood & SEO – Small Steps for Big Impact with Guest McKayla Spencer - Caffeinated Chaos

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back to Caffeine Chaos,my friends.
Today, we have another amazingguest, and it's not just because
I like her name.
Mikayla, who is also the name ofmy daughter, Mikayla Spencer is
a mama of three littles, fiveyears and younger.
I get it.
She says a mediocre crocheter,but also an SEO strategist and a

(00:25):
blog content writer.
Essentially, what she does isshe helps small business owners
and brands organically show upon Google using sustainable
strategies that work with yourcapacity.
A bit of blogging on top, ofcourse.
So, get ready to get in beca Getready, settle in, grab your

(00:50):
coffee, because me and Mikaylaare going to talk a bunch about
SEO and parenthood.
So, let's dive on in and welcomeher to the podcast.
Mike's in the way.
Do you have the yeti too?
That's what I have.

(01:10):
I do.
I haven't quite like figured outthe proportioning, but we're
good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I'm like, my computer screen islike an arm's length away and I
kind of keep it to where thewrist would be.
So I don't know.
I quite haven't figured it outyet either.
Plus my taller comes over hereand she's like, we'll grab it

(01:32):
and be like, hello, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, we're recently, I got anoffice in June, June, July,
maybe, and so now it's separatefrom the house.
But, you know, I've been workingat my dining room table for, for
forever, so.
Yeah.
Now everything is separate frommy children.
See, I can't wait for us to,we're trying to find a bigger

(01:54):
place because right now my It'slike a cubicle in my living
room, you know, and then I havemy husband is entertaining the
girls in the bedroom.
I just didn't want the, I didn'twant my computer to be in the
bedroom.
We try not to have too much techin the bedroom.
Like it's, there's a TV andthat's about it.

(02:16):
Um, okay, cool.
So, um.
Yeah, also, I forgot to mention,if you throw out a curse word or
anything, that's totally fine.
As long as you're not, like,Dropping it left and right.
You've got total sailor mouth,yeah.
Um, but other than that, we'regood to go.
Okay?
Alright.
Alright.
So, ooh, wait, sorry, one morething.

(02:37):
I keep forgetting to say this.
Could you please state yourfull, your name, so that in case
I don't, I forget how to say it,I have you saying it.
And then, yeah.
Michaela.
Michaela Spencer.
Michaela Spencer.
Okay.
So it's literally the same.
Okay.
Wait, I want to start because Iwant to like, I'm just going to
say this for the podcast.
Okay.
So welcome to the podcast,Michaela.

(02:59):
So nice to have you here.
It was great to be here, thankyou.
And, and for those who arelistening, um, and Mikayla, I
think I briefly mentioned thisin my email, but you and my
daughter have the same name.
My toddler is also namedMikayla, so I hope, hopefully it
won't get that confusing duringthe podcast, but yes.

(03:22):
They're spelled differently,though.
That was gonna be my nextquestion.
Spelled similarly.
Um, which, funny, by the way,uh, I was only named Mikayla
because my mom thought thatKayla was not a real name, quote
unquote, so she was like, wegotta put an M C in front of
there, so, you know, turns intoa real name.
My daughter is the samespelling, minus um, it's,

(03:44):
instead of M C Kayla, it's M IKayla.
Yeah.
That's a common one.
If only my mom would have justthought that too, then I
wouldn't have the mic.
It's okay.
My grandma has spelled itdifferent for, for years.
Every Christmas is a differentspelling.
She loves me though.

(04:05):
I, yeah, my full name, my fullfirst name is Whitney Lynn, and
no one knows how to spell Lynnproperly, um, that like most
people think it's like L Y N orL Y N N, you know, like, like
old Jamie Lynn, you know, thatkind of thing, um, but it's
actually L H Y N E.
I don't know why or where thatspelling came from, but I've

(04:29):
been, I've been called likeWhitney Lyne, and I was like,
yes, Whitney Lyne, because thatalso makes sense, you know, um,
but yes.
I totally, I totally get it, um,too.
And so, yeah, it's nice to knowanother Mikaela that's not my
daughter.

(04:50):
I mean, do you throw tantrums inTargets?
Because mine does.
Um, not lately.
Probably not for a while.
They're tempting though, so.
I see where she's coming from.
Yeah, I mean, you know, you havelittles as well, right?
Yeah, you know, I've got mythree, um, One, he actually, my,

(05:10):
my oldest just turned five, soall of them are still under,
under five and under.
Um, and yes, we have our fairshare of, Tantrums, and Target,
and Starbucks, and, you know,Food Lion, wherever, wherever we
are.
Oh my gosh.
And then one starts, and thenit's like a chain reaction.
I'll get lucky on occasion, andthen you have like the one, one

(05:31):
of them will stand back and belike, what are you guys doing?
For the most part, it's, it'svery much a chain reaction, and
one, one tips off, and theother's like, he's upset, I need
to be upset.
I don't know what we're doing,but we're doing this together.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
They know.
That's a team.
They're, they're on the kidsteam.
They do.
It'd be so nice when theyfinally come to our side, to

(05:52):
our, you know, they'll, they'llget it when they have their own
kids usually.
And in like 20 years, um, well,that'd be 25.
Well, I had my first at 20.
Yeah.
I was 19.
And then on my 20th birthday, Ifound out I was pregnant and I
was like, okay.
That works out.
And so, you know, maybe in 20years, he'll understand me.

(06:12):
He'll be like, yeah, I get it,mom.
I get it.
Just be like, refer back to thispodcast in 20 years.
Give this a listen, here, son.
They'll have to, like, pull usout of, like, those, like,
Indiana Jones storage archiveboxes, then, you know.
Yeah, okay.
We totally skipped over what youdo.

(06:33):
Why don't you tell ourlisteners, like, who is Mikayla
Spencer, and what does she do?
So, hi, I'm Mikayla.
I am the mom behind the KamaMama Co.
at, you know, I Gotta Do TheRoutine, because this is how I
keep it all organized in thisbrain.
Um But I'm the mom behindthecomicmomico and I am an SEO
strategist and blog contentwriter.
So I do all the things that getyou on Google and then I all do,

(06:57):
do the, all the content thingsthat also help with Google, but
blogging goes a little bitbeyond that.
But my whole thing is.
You know, I'm really out thereto create sustainable strategies
and sustainable Essentiallythings that can work within your
capacity because we have so manythings going on That seo as you
see it online or blogging as yousee it online like a lot of it

(07:19):
just seems without our reachbecause we just we Our time is
like these little five minuteshere and there.
And so my whole goal is to makea strategy and share strategies
that you can do in those fiveminutes.
Or if you only have fiveminutes, like there's something
that you can do to get evencloser to ranking on Google,
because once you get on Google.

(07:41):
You know, it just kind ofhappens organically.
You can be in the middle of atoddler tantrum in Target and
have someone come visit yourwebsite.
You're not online, you're notactively doing anything, but
that's the whole point of doingthe SEO.
Like, we have so much going on,we can't be on our phones 24 7.
So, that's exactly what I do.
I hope you do that.

(08:01):
Yes.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
I just had this talk about,like, getting ranked.
Um, on Google, too, especiallyfor the podcast, since it's so
new, and I was just like, yes, Ihave to do this all over again,
like, you know, cause like, Idid it for my business and now
I'm like, okay, now I gotta doit for the podcast and, um,

(08:23):
yeah, I mean, luckily, the onlyother podcast that's ever been
named Caffeine Chaos is like,has two episodes and was in
2012, so.
You get like a few more episodesout, you'll be fine.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I just, I just releasedepisode number 10.
By the time this episode is out,we'll probably be on, like,

(08:46):
episode 25, so.
So you'll greatly be outweighingwhat they got going on.
Yeah, yeah.
100%.
No worries.
Um, awesome.
So, like, are you, do you do,like, one on one services or do
you do group services?
Is that kind of, like, your jam?
So, right now, I mainly just doone on one.

(09:08):
Nice.
I found that that works, worksbest with the lifestyle that I
lead because I can alwayscontrol, um, you know, how many
drafts that I have to deliver ina month or, you know, if I bring
on an SEO audit andoptimization, like I know I have
capacity for one a month or, youknow, if it's during the school
year, sometimes I can squeeze intwo.
Um, but then once we get intosummer, I just don't have the

(09:30):
capacity to do it.
And especially since mine are solittle.
I had thought of hosting a groupprogram, um, last year.
I was like, it'd be really coolto, to sit down and do a
program, you know, where I, Iwalk people through and we can
do the drafts at the same time.
I can help walk them through theedits and through the
optimization and getting itpublished and then we can do
like a quarter of contenttogether.

(09:51):
So like you're just on top of itand you don't feel as pressured
because you got, you, you havethat support.
Um, but I wouldn't be able togive that support.
Because I was, you know, tackledwith toddlers, and, and still,
still am, but it's not nearly asbad now that my, my youngest is
coming up on her secondbirthday, actually, when this
episode goes live, it'll be inabout a month, um, maybe less

(10:13):
than a month, so, she'll be twohere soon, and I'm really,
really hoping, fingers crossed,um, Well, I'm not hoping.
I'm already in the planning ofit, but I'm going to do a group
program, and we're going to walkyou through how to turn your
podcast episodes into blog postsor blurbs, because I love some
blurbs, um, and have them rankon Google.

(10:34):
So it's going to be a groupprogram dedicated to that, and
I'm so, so excited just to, youknow, I've been at this for Uh,
Comma Mon Co has been around forabout six years now, and I've
been in the online space forabout eight, and doing like
blogging and stuff, and thiswill be like my first group
program ever, so I'm superexcited.
Yay! Super excited there.
Yes, I'm like super, uh, okay.

(10:54):
So that's gonna be like reallyexciting.
So at that time, like, how areyou gonna balance family and
your business?
Like what's the, what's theplan?
So we are the hope is we'reactually going through a lot of
like shifts right now that wenever thought would happen

(11:15):
because You know this but youknow, this is our first year my
first full year that I have notbeen pregnant I'm not Breastfed,
you know, I don't have a toddleron me 24 7 like on the boob.
So we're safe there and thosetake A lot out of you mentally

(11:36):
and physically and both of thoseaspects.
We're coming out of postpartum,so we're hitting that two year
mark postpartum, which is reallynice.
And I can kind of start feelingthat I'm mentally sane a little
bit, a little bit more maybe.
Um, and I think it does helpthat my five year old is
starting to do things moreindependently.
And so is my three year old,which is really nice because

(11:57):
she'll turn four in May.
So we really are becoming alittle bit more independent, so
versus three kids being superdependent, it's turning in, it
went from three kids dependent,two kids super dependent, to one
kid being really dependent, andby that I mean like, I don't
have to change their, help themwalk through changing their
clothes, or putting their shoeson, like obviously their kids

(12:17):
are still dependent, but it'sgetting a little bit off of me,
so um, My husband's thinkingabout stepping back from his job
that he does, because he worksat a, um, he does blue collar
work and does print press andall this good stuff.
And, um, he's thinking aboutstepping back and essentially
staying home, which I guesswe'll know by when this episode

(12:39):
goes live, but I don't knowright now.
We haven't officially decided,but.
Either way, he's going to eithertake half days or compromise a
little bit on his end so that Ican successfully run the
program, which I'm very excitedfor because I do think I have
the potential.
I have a strong community and,um, I would really love for him

(12:59):
to You know, because you haveone, you know, my spouse works.
I don't know if yours does, um,but my spouse, you know, has
worked for the past few years sothat when I was pregnant or, um,
breastfeeding or we were in thebaby phase, um, that I wouldn't
have to worry about taking onmore clients to, to, so that we
could pay our bills.

(13:20):
So he's always kept theconsistent job, but now we're
hitting and, you know, he's beenthere for a while and they don't
really treat him well and it'snot great.
And, um, I would love for him tofind something that he is as
passionate about that I am aboutmy stuff and the only way he can
do that is for him to step backand for me to step forward a
little bit with the income andearnings and I'm hoping that the

(13:44):
season will bring it but it'sgoing to be, it's going to be so
tricky.
I really, I feel like there'sgoing to be a bunch of
compromise.
There's probably going to be afew, like, touchy days.
Like, were you supposed to dothis today or was I supposed to
do this today?
But we'll, we'll figure it out.
Um, I'm just excited that we'regoing to try.
You know what I mean?
Like, we're, it's like anadventure.
Yeah, I completely agree becausewhen I was pregnant with So my

(14:07):
toddler, when I was pregnantwith her, it was during COVID.
So we were both home, like justworking remotely.
But during this last pregnancy,um, my newborn is five months
right now.
And so one, basically I had herin July and I left my job in
March.
So like that whole time, um, thepregnancy was really rough and I

(14:29):
needed to like, basically justrest the whole time.
And my husband, he was like.
Just, just, you calm down, like,you just do what you need to do,
and, um, yeah, he took care ofeverything, he went to work, um,
luckily we have a housemate whoalso helps out, so then my, uh,
Michaela, my toddler, was, um,getting the attention that she

(14:51):
needed, while I was also havingsomebody around in case I had,
um, another episode where I hadto go to the hospital, and so,
that was nice, and the, the twoguys, they just, Took care of
everything.
Um, and now that I'm like, okay,I want to start the podcast.
I want to do this.
Like, I'm like, I feel like I'mjust like ready now.

(15:15):
And, and he too is in a job thathe He likes the industry.
Um, but yeah, I think that hewants to be able to like climb
the ladder and it's just nothappening there.
Um, and so being like, okay,what do you want to do?
And even to like my housemate,who's like basically my brother

(15:38):
in law, I was just like, what doyou want to do too?
And he's like, I'm chill.
I was like, you don't have tobe, I was like, yeah, you don't
have to be the Manny of thehouse anymore.
Like if you want to dosomething.
Uh, and he's like, no, I'm justchilling.
But he's like, he's like thisyoung, like 20 year old, like,
you know, he's just chilling.

(15:59):
Um, and, and I was like, okay,fine.
You know, he's, it's sointeresting.
Cause my toddler is picking upthe like personality of my
housemate because they're alwaystogether.
They're like best friends.
Right.
Okay.
And she, she's like, Oh, Uncle'sdoing this and Uncle's doing
that.
And I was just like, Okay.
And then she goes, Me and Uncleare going to the magic store.

(16:22):
And, and, like, they play Magicthe Gathering.
And so.
Oh, yeah.
My toddler.
I was like, do you know MagicThe Gathering?
And she goes, it's a bunny.
And I go, okay.
Yeah.
you know, magic.
That's, it's a bunny.
Good job.
It's a bunny.
That stress as a wizard, youknow, we actually, we play Magic
The Gathering, which I mean, wedon't get to as much anymore.

(16:42):
'cause we used to have, we usedto host game nights, like
regular game nights over at ourhouse.
We'd have like our friends comeover mm-hmm And, um, we'd all
sit down and do cards.
But when we, we, after the thirdone, it got kind of complicated.
That's right.
Instead of like one person pertoddler, you got one person with
two toddlers and then one personwith us.
Because, you know, you have allthese cards on the table and, oh

(17:03):
my gosh, it would end up in justchaos so often, but um, that's
how my, my five year old is.
He's like, I want to play thecard game, mom.
And like, you can when, when youcan read, unfortunately.
We have to wait, we have to hitone more milestone.
Like, you're getting, we'reworking on it.
We're working on those sightwords, and we're working on
everything.
But he, we gotta get thatreading down, and then we can

(17:24):
talk about playing the cardgame.
But, she gets all the tokens.
Yeah, yep.
We, um, we have a lot of theextra lands and stuff, and he's
like, or the mana, and he'slike, I'll have these, and we're
like, per perfect.
Whatever you need to do, man.
Game included.
But we did introduce Candyland.
Ooh, that's a good one.
They've been doing really well,my three year old and my five
year old.
They've been doing really wellwith it.

(17:46):
Um, I was really surprised, andit's so much easier to sit down
and do, like, a board game withthem than it is for us to, like,
do the imaginative play.
Mm hmm.
Um, so now we can all sit downand play Candyland, and my Um,
youngest will sit in my lap andbe on my team and, and my
husband will make the card, uh,where she can only pick one.

(18:06):
Yeah, yeah.
And she's like, look, and that'swhat she's like, look, mom.
And then she'll, and then we doour turn and everything.
We've lost every time.
I don't know if it's her luckwith the cards, but, um, every
single time.
I made it in last.
I mean, what can you expect?
It's a one year old drawingcards.

(18:26):
Who knows?
Beginner's luck.
My toddler, she, um, she isreally into, I got her the Bluey
Scavenger Hunt game.
And technically it's a boardgame.
Right?
But there, there's a topic thatsays find.
And so if you land on it, He'slike, find something green.

(18:47):
And so then you, you turn theclock and she has to like run
around and find something green.
And so like at the end of thegame, we have this like pile of
toys next to her because shejust went into a toy box and was
like green and then brought itback to the board game or like
red.
And so she's getting used tothat.
But then, when it comes to,like, the magic, so, my

(19:10):
housemate, he has the cards,but, like, we don't pull them
out very often, because, youknow, just like you, like, she
just wants to, like, touch allthe cards, so we all have, on
our phones, the arena game, aversion, the digital version of
Magic, and so we'll literallyplay there, and sometimes, um,

(19:30):
I'll just let my daughter playagainst him, and because the
cards light up blue when you canuse them, and so she just sees
blue, and she's just like, okay,she moves it to the center of
the screen, and so I just hearin the other room like, oh man,
and I go, what did you do?
Oh yeah, you're kicking uncle'sbutt.
And she's just like, whateverblue card lights up first,

(19:52):
that's the one she's playing.
Um, but it's interesting becauseyou get to like see.
Your kids, like, develop theirpersonality and their love for,
like, certain things and, andsometimes, you know, my daughter
wants to be a ballerina, butthen also be, like, a dinosaur.
And, I just, toddlers are sointeresting and, like, people

(20:17):
could study toddlers as, like, awhole different, like, species.
They have their own language,their own, like, mannerisms.
And it just seems, like,interesting.
Um, I don't know if this is athing for you and super off
topic, but my sister and I weretalking and she goes Did you
introduce dinosaurs to yourdaughter?

(20:38):
And I go, no.
And she goes, why does it seemlike every child, no matter if
you never talk about dinosaurs,seems to find out about
dinosaurs and has a love of themfor like a year and then they're
over them, you know?
Literally, like dinosaurs arethe interest.
You do get on some kids that aresome toddlers like my nephew.

(20:59):
He's the same age as my, mymiddle girl.
Um, and he, he can, Dinosaurs?
Can name them.
Um, same with tractors.
He knows the different types.
The, the excavators and thecranes.
Like, he can name them all.
And I'm like, What the heck?
How do you know that?
My, my, my daughter just likesto throw out big words like,

(21:20):
That's magnificent.
Or, it's delicious, mommy.
I'm like, okay.
Good word, but it sounds soweird when you say it.
She has to put that emphasis onit too.
Like, it's delicious, mommy.
Okay.
Okay, I know for a fact that mydaughter gets her like building

(21:43):
one from rubble from.
Oh, yep.
That's where she got it from.
But Diana, like the dinos one islike, we never watched land
before time in front of her.
Like, we never watched JurassicPark in front of her.
And she just got into dinosaurs.
They really do.
They pull it out of nowhere.
And then you start seeing themeverywhere.
Then there's like dinosaurs ontheir fruit pouches.

(22:04):
And then there's like dinosaurson their juices.
And I'm just like.
I was like, no way did all thesethings have dinosaurs before I
bought them.
Like, they just magicallyappear.
You know, that mimicking, itkind of brings me back to, um,
my, my youngest right now.
Because the other two kind of,they kind of do their own thing

(22:26):
at this point.
But she's still into mommy work.
So, you know, when I'm sittingat my computer, so for
Christmas, she got my littleleapfrog computers.
And so now she'll pull it upnext to me and she'll go, mommy
work.
Mommy, work.
Okay, if that's what you want todo.
And she's really into it.
She'll sit here for a while andjust Just work.

(22:46):
Tap away and work.
And I'm like, okay, girl.
I guess we'll work right now.
That's fine with me.
Yeah, like if you're contentchilling Yeah, I think I feel
like my daughter has gotten overme working I like to you know,
and I think you have kind of wetalked about this before we
started recording But like bringour littles into our business

(23:07):
and like kind of like Show themwhat's possible like you were
just talking about how?
Um, your daughter comes over andsays work.
I mean, my daughter comes overand she's just like, Are you
doing your homework, mommy?
And I'm like, Yes, technicallyI'm home and I'm working.
I'm doing my homework.
And she goes, Okay, I'm going todo my homework.
She has ABC mouse.
And so she's like, I'm going todo my homework.

(23:28):
And then she starts doing it.
And she goes, I got tickets.
Did you get tickets?
I'm like, I wish somebody gaveme tickets.
I kind of got paid at somepoint.
Yeah.
I get the money to buy yourtickets.
Yeah.
We, we, this is how we boughtthe ABC Mouse, ma'am.
Um, No, I, mine do the same.
Very, very, very similar.

(23:48):
Um, but mine have been in mybusiness for so long.
I think the very first time thatI paid for a brand shoot, like a
brand photo shoot, I had mylittles in it.
Which is funny because, um, atthat time my, my, my middle girl
was younger than my youngest isnow, and so it's so crazy to

(24:08):
look back at it.
But, um, you know, and we, I'mliterally called the Comma Mama
Co.
Right.
It's in your name.
My husband, yeah, yeah, myhusband came up with the term.
I was like, what if I call mybusiness?
I really didn't want it to beMichaela Spencer because at that
point I was originally planning,you know, we hadn't been married
yet.
And I was like, well, what if Ichange my last name?
Which He took the marriagelicense away and his, um, his

(24:32):
jacket after we got married, um,and his groomsman returned the
jacket because we just, werented them from his warehouse.
And we took off to Florida andit wasn't until we, like, we're
almost in Florida.
He's like, Oh my gosh.
The marriage license is in thejacket, which luckily the, the,
um, guy, the person who did the,oh my gosh, the person who

(24:55):
actually married us submittedone, the officiant.
Yeah, like the officiant.
He actually submitted one for usbecause he's like, I'm not going
to give it to you.
I'm, I'm going to go submit thisand send it in.
So we're, you know, we'relegally married, but I don't
have a copy to take anywhere.
I don't have a copy to takeanywhere to, like, change my
name or do anything.

(25:15):
So I was like, well, when youcan get up there and get a copy,
I'll change my stuff.
But until then, we'll skip it.
So I was like, I'm not gonna,I'm not gonna call myself, you
know, Mikayla Spencer.
And it just seems presumptuousfor me to change it to Mikayla
Steen already.
Also, I'm not a big fan of howMikayla Steen looks as, like, a
dot com.
What do I call myself?
That's fair.
Well, what do you like to do?

(25:36):
I'm like, well, I like to write.
Like, this whole thing iswriting.
Like, it's stemming from My needto write.
Mm-hmm And he said, well, okay,why don't you do Mama with
Something?
I'm, and he's like, what doesMama sound good with?
I'm like, all right, well we gotthis, this.
And he is like, what about CalmMama?
And the funny thing is he doesnot Remo remember this
conversation.
He's like, I did that.
And I'm like, yeah, you're thewhole reason this, you know,

(25:57):
came into fruit fruition.
Like, you, you are the geniusbehind the name.
And he's like, Hmm, okay.
Yeah.
I could see that.
But, um, they've always been,they've always been a part of
it.
It's been crazy.
You know, maybe one day I'llchange it, but I don't see that
coming anytime soon, but.
And, I mean, they're in, I, uh,up until yesterday I had a, a

(26:21):
little setup in my office forthem to play.
We just took it out, um, becausethey have brand photos this
upcoming weekend.
And we, I was like, maybe thePaw Patrol car can move for
that.
But, they watch me and they sitwith me and, um, it's really
cool to watch them.
Because I, you know, we'remarketing on Instagram and we're
connecting with people andeverything like that.

(26:42):
So they get to, and they used topop in during calls and stuff
like that and, but, um, they'llsee where I'll be talking to
someone like for example, um, Iworked with a trademark lawyer
not too long ago in Arizona andshe's got these amazing power
suits.
Her name is Chandler, but she'sgot these amazing power suits
that she wears on occasion.

(27:03):
Um, especially to her speakingevents and Addie, my daughter,
was just like, What is shewearing?
I'm like, well, it's like a it'sa suit, baby.
You've seen one.
She says, I like it.
He's cool.
And I was like, that's reallycool.
Because there's no way she wouldhave seen, you know, a trademark

(27:23):
lawyer in a power suit anywherenear us.
We're, we're, we're in a veryrural area.
Um, you know, most of us eitherwork, like, I'm the first person
to have our little businesshere, or work online or do
anything, and more of a creativefield, I would say.
Okay.
You know, it's typically, you'reinto nursing, or, um, you go
work in an office, or, um, youstay home, you work as a

(27:46):
teacher.
That's, that's Most of our,like, women jobs here and then
the men typically work bluecollar work and, um, work in the
factories that we have aroundhere or the warehouses or, um,
just different jobs like that.
So it's, it's very nice tointroduce these different ideas
or even just to have thisbusiness and they're like, oh,
you work on your computer?
I'm like, yeah, I do.

(28:07):
It's really, it's really cool.
And, you know, then when we getto go on the, on the zoo days
and stuff, they're like, youdon't have to work today?
I'm like, no.
Oh, we could just, we could justgo to the zoo guys.
Um, so it's been really nice to,to kind of have that balance
and, and that introduction.
Yeah.
Into the different ideas anddifferent worlds.
And I mean.
Before I got started in this,um, I knew, uh, I wanted to do

(28:31):
writing of some sort.
Like, I knew I wanted to write,but I didn't know how I was
gonna write.
I was like, well, I'm not reallya book writer.
Um, I'm interested in being ajournalist, but then I had,
like, a situation, and I waslike, well, maybe I'm not
actually a journalist.
I don't think I'm personableenough.
I'm not extroverted enough to dothat work and actually like talk
to people.
And so I was like, well, whatthe heck do I do then?

(28:52):
Like, that's 90 percent ofwriting, isn't it?
Um, and it wasn't until I, I, Ihopped on Upwork and I had
discovered that there were suchthing as blog writers and.
You know, um, and doingmarketing and stuff like that.
I was like, oh yeah, that doesmake sense now that you think
about it.
But before that, I was like,that's not an actual, like, job.
People just, it just appearsthere somehow.

(29:14):
And so it was really cool to, tobe able to kind of introduce
that to my littles.
Like, they now know thatcopywriters exist, content
writers exist.
And they ask questionssometimes.
And I'm like, well, this is alawyer or this is a therapist,
but she's not seeing people atyour school.
She's like seeing, seeing peopleonline or, um, You know, just,
just different, different peoplewho we would have never met.

(29:37):
Absolutely would never met.
I swear, um, I feel like mytoddler is It's more an
extrovert than anyone else inour family.
She'll literally walk up tosomeone and she'd be like, Hi,
I'm Mikaela.
This is Jasmine, my littlesister.
This is mommy.
This is daddy.
This is uncle.
And I'm just like, God, nobodywants to hear our life story

(30:00):
right now.
Like, we're just trying to checkout, you know, but like, it's so
true too, because like.
So before I started doing moreof the online business, um, I
was going to local pop ups and Iwas working with small vendors
at their like, you know, attheir markets and all that.

(30:21):
And so we would go around andshe'd just be so interested and
she's like, what's that?
What's this?
What's that?
You know?
And we worked in a very like,High Hispanic area, right?
But we are not Hispanic.
Um, I'm half Filipino.
My husband's from Guam.
And so she's seeing like, oh,what's that?
Like, oh, that's a candle and ajug.

(30:42):
Like, you know, and then alsojust being like, okay, this is
this culture.
Like, and then.
And then everybody was like, solike, Oh, she's so cute.
Like, let me tell you, like, andso she just loves, she asks us
so many questions and she lovesmeeting new people that she will
go out and meet people who don'teven want to meet us, you know,

(31:04):
that are ready to meet peopleright now.
Yeah.
And so I'm just, I always findit funny.
I literally did this the otherday, but she was like wanting to
hold something.
I was paying for it and she'slike, I want a card.
And so I'll give her my businesscard.
Right.
And then she goes, Oh, it'smommy and daddy, like on the
card.
And then she'll go around andstart flashing it to people.
Look, it's mommy and daddy.

(31:25):
Look, it's mommy and daddy.
And I'm like, I was like, Iswear somebody like scans the QR
code off of that.
And I'm like, I'm going to haveto give her referral bonuses.
Like, yeah.
But she's just going aroundshowing people like my card and
they're like, oh, you know, goodjob.
Yeah.
I got to give her more ticketsbecause like, someone's going to

(31:46):
be like, oh, that's really nice.
Like, oh yeah.
I see it.
And you know, and then of coursethey look closer because they're
like, are you lost?
Like, do you need me to findyour mommy and daddy?
They do a double take of what?
Yeah.
Are you looking for them?
Yeah.
I was like, Oh, Michaela, leavethe nice people alone.

(32:07):
Um, but I totally agree withyou.
The fact that like, we get toexpose our children to new
things that they normallywouldn't be exposed to,
especially so young now, youknow, and they're like really
inquisitive state that they are.
Um, I think it's great.
Um, I was talking to you aboutthe wedding dress behind you.
So everyone listening to this,Michaela has a wedding dress,

(32:29):
her wedding dress hung behindher.
And I was telling Michaelabefore we started recording that
I help with a bridal boutique, alocal bridal boutique here.
And My daughter loves going tothis boutique with us, right?
And she'll, and I swear, she cansell a dress.
We can walk in and they'll havelike a, like a client, a bride

(32:50):
in a dress.
And she walks in and she goes,Wow, you're a princess! Oh.
And I'm just like, okay, like,and then, you know, I was like,
okay, yeah, I'm just here tolike, like, get some shots for
Instagram.
And she goes, you look really,really pretty.
It's really, your dress is sosparkly.

(33:11):
And I'm like, sell it, girl,sell it, you know.
And, and so she loves thedresses, she like, has kind of
learned also the weddingindustry, in a sense, at least
from, like, the dresses, butshe'll like, do flower girls,
she's posed for them for flowergirl dresses, and, um, they

(33:33):
absolutely love her, like, shegets paid in toys, so they
literally just like, Gave herlike Christmas gifts for like
baby dolls and all that and andI'm just like, okay.
Well, she's happy I'm happydoesn't you know, you're happy
as a client And so I think thatit's really important and then
then she also gets to have thatlike moment Like I feel like a

(33:54):
princess too, you know, but thenat the same time like where's my
toy like Where'd it go?
Girls gotta get paid, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She should.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, before we move to yourchaotic moment, do you have any
like small actionable steps thatyou would recommend our

(34:17):
listeners take if they're likegetting into SEO and starting to
think about like, Oh my gosh, Ineed to get started on this for
my website?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I want you to think about theamount of time that you have.
And whether that's five minutesor the time that you know you
can create.

(34:38):
And most tasks for SEO, if you,if, excluding blogging, blogging
is probably the only one thatwould take longer.
But most tasks for SEO, you cando something in 15 minutes.
Some things you can do in fiveminutes.
So think about the amount oftime that you can commit.
And it could be daily, weekly,monthly, that's fine.

(34:59):
Because every little thing thatyou do will snowball and it will
help.
It is not an all or nothingthing.
Obviously, if you can do it all,it's going to work quicker.
But if you can take these littletiny steps and these little tiny
pockets of time, it willsnowball and it will help as you
continue.
So think about this time andthen think about an action you

(35:22):
can take.
So typically, I say, all right,there's A few different ways of
SEO.
You have your on page, your offpage, local content, which is
pretty much blogging and thecopy on your pages.
The easiest thing to do in ashort amount of time is probably
your on page because then youcan log into your website,

(35:42):
update your title, your pagetitle, and your meta
description.
You know, you want to be, youwant to tell them what's on the
page, who it's for.
And and what you do, um, if youhave a little bit longer, so say
10 minutes, you can startworking on your off page.
So reach out to a friend or, um,someone else in the industry and

(36:04):
you can reach out to someone youdon't know.
That's perfectly fine too.
Just send them an email or Um,looking to do on podcast episode
together because us doing thisepisode when you publish it on,
um, when you finally go andpublish it and it's online and
Google can see that I was aguest here, that's going to help
my SEO.
So.
Everything like that, everylittle step helps.

(36:25):
So go ahead and pitch yourself.
Um, if you can do a guest blogpost, you know, maybe you can't
do it on your own website, youdon't have the time to commit to
the consistency, pitch a guest,guest, wow, pitch a guest blog
post, um, and write a blog post,you know, sharing some insight
like you would on a podcastepisode.

(36:46):
Um, if you have a lot of time,that's when you can consider
blogging, or, you know, deepdiving into keyword strategy and
stuff like that.
Um, But that does take a littlebit more time and it's going to
perform best with consistency.
So I always like to say, startwith these small, these small
things.
And if you're guest posting orpodcasting on other people's

(37:06):
podcast, you can always ask,say, hey, can I use our podcast
episode and turn it into a blogpost for my website?
Because you can do that without,you know, duplicating the
content.
Because if you're rewriting it,structuring it differently, it's
going to be different.
Um, and that'll give you somecontent to work from or, um, You

(37:27):
know, you can use your carouselsand turn it into a blog post and
try and structure it for SEO.
There's a, there's a lot ofdifferent ways to navigate the
time you have.
So I guess my first little thingis just to look at the time you
do have and then find somethingthat can fit into that time.
Um, you don't want to forceyourself to make more time

(37:47):
because then that's just gonnaput more pressure on you.
So if you can't sustain it,it's, it's not gonna work out.
So be realistic about, okay,well, I really only have five
minutes.
That's quick enough.
You can look on Instagram andyou have, you have to do it a
little five minutes at a time.
Maybe the first five minutesyou're finding someone you wanna
collaborate with, um, the secondfive minutes you're actually
applying to their show orlistening to an e, the, you

(38:09):
know, a few minutes of theepisode to see if they're a good
fit.
And then that third five minuteday on the, that Wednesday
you've done Monday, Tuesday, andnow you're on Wednesday.
That's when you actually apply.
And then you schedule atimeframe.
And if you have to say, youknow, Hey, my kids are.
Wake during these hours.
Is there any way we can squeezein an interview after 8 p.

(38:30):
m And some people willaccommodate that a lot of people
will just You know, communicategently and say, you know, Hey,
this is, this is what I gotworking for me.
Or if you do do a guest post andyou're like, Wow, it's gonna
take me a long time.
I don't know, um, how I can getthat done.
Just say, okay, well,realistically, maybe I need two
weeks to do this instead ofthree days.
Or say, hey, can I, let's dothis, but I probably won't be

(38:52):
able to have the draft to youuntil X, Y, Z.
Like, just be real, stick withyour time frame, stick with the
time frame.
Um, and make those baby steps,because every little thing will
count.
And it will.
You will see a difference.
I promise.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Yeah, that's really important.
And I love the fact that youtell our listeners to like,

(39:14):
first look at their time.
Because the last thing we wantis to just pile on stuff.
To time we don't have likeexactly um, and I, I really even
just spending a little bit oftime on seo is going to make so
much of a difference in twoyears or say if you're on your
first baby and you're like man,you know, I do have plans to

(39:36):
expand my my family and I wouldlike maybe one or two more kids
if If my, if my body works outand everything goes as I would
love it to.
Working on these little stepsduring this first postpartum
period, or pregnancy, or even ifyou're in your second and you
want to, you want to expand inyour third, or say you want to
do homeschooling and so you knowthat your time's going to be
short in like two years and itwill snowball, which means in

(40:00):
two years, you won't have tospend so much time being logged
on.
You won't have to be soconcerned about making sure that
people see you on Instagram orthat you send the next email
because you will have yourwebsite working for you,
continuing to show up, and ifyou've done some blog posts,
you'll have those continuing toshow up too.
So it's just, it brings us somuch more visibility, especially

(40:23):
when our time is so limited.
Yeah, that's fair.
That's fair.
Good point.
Thank you, Mikayla.
Okay.
So, we can't call ourselfCaffeine Chaos without talking
about a chaotic moment.
So, do you have one?
I do.
Um, this is probably one of mymost memorable ones.
This is back when I was takingcalls in my nursery.

(40:45):
So, um, I moved from my, my,well, my son's room is now into,
um, the nursery.
And this is after my secondbaby.
And I don't remember what my sonwas doing.
He's probably taking a nap orsomething, but she was not.
She was chillin until shewasn't.
And this was the one day, um, itwas probably one of my longest
term clients, and I lovedworking with them.

(41:06):
And I do think I got lucky withthe client that I happened to be
on the call with.
Um, it just so happened that shehad also brought on one of her
directors to be on the call withus, and I had never met him
before.
And I was like, okay, well, Inormally don't talk to the men,
and, um, Because I work withmostly female founders or female
entrepreneurs, and so normallymen just aren't in there, and

(41:27):
I'm like all right well Greatfirst introduction and
everything's fine, and she's nomore than like four months old
Maybe it might have been eventhree because she was she was
really little and of course Shehad to be fed.
She was screaming and shewouldn't settle and I was like,
Oh no, I'm gonna have to, I'mgonna have to whip it out.
I'm gonna have to whip out theboob because none of my babies

(41:47):
would take bottles.
I tried.
I really did.
And, you know, you know, yourmilk starts coming in when they
start crying too.
So it was like, either I'm gonnafeed her or I'm gonna just be
dripping down my shirt.
Yep, yep.
So I had to like Pause itbecause they were also on a
short time frame and I was like,okay, we can continue this But
I'm gonna have to feed her likeright now.

(42:08):
So, um, they it was fine.
But like I afterwards I had likethis like Embarrassment
hangover.
I was like, oh my god I justthat just happened and of course
that you know, you're in thatfresh postpartum this and I was
like, oh my gosh Luckily, I whenI say I was lucky with a client
they actually do They work withbabies Not directly, um, but

(42:32):
they work with the mothers, andthey were a company that stored
umbilical cords.
Oh, okay.
So that, like, you could havethe stem cells in case anything
happened on later in life.
Um, they're, they're awonderful, wonderful company.
Um, but it was just, I was like,I've never met this man before.
I don't normally get on, youknow, facing calls anyways.

(42:54):
And now I'm gonna have to whipout my boob and feed my baby
and, like, make all theadjustments.
Cause there's no easy way to doit.
I'm sitting at a tiny desk andmy Daughter's nursery, which is
also small, and the mostuncomfortable chair ever, and
I'm like, I don't know how thisis gonna work out.
You know, I'm just hoping thatthe crying isn't gonna wake up
my toddler, or disturb him fromwhatever he's doing, and I'm

(43:15):
like, we're gonna have achaotic, like, we're just gonna
have an event.
But, luckily it worked out, andwe've had, I've had so many more
interruptions on calls, now whenyou book a call with me, it
says, um, You know, there may beinterruptions, you, or, I don't
know if I have it on my mostrecent call scheduler, but it
used to be for the longest, itsaid, um, there may be tiny

(43:37):
people coming into our call,just, just be prepared, there,
there's no stopping them, like,A toddler is a pretty
unstoppable force as far as theygo.
Oh, yep.
Yep, and if you stop them, thenyou will hear them anyways.
It just makes it worse.
Yeah, like it just, then youhave the entire meltdown instead
of just like a baby meltdown orinterruption, and then you have

(43:59):
to like, monitor, and thenyou're like, well, is it better
if they just come say hi or Youknow, what, but then they say
hi, and then they're like, well,I need to tell you my life story
now.
I ate mac and cheese for lunch.
Um, Addie fell on her face.
Addie got, Addie got in trouble,or Bubba got in trouble, and

(44:19):
then you, you just have to hearit all.
And, uh, so it's always like ameasurement of, do I, do I just
let them come over here and sayit, or do they walk away?
Um, but luckily, most of, I willsay most of the clients that
I've had, Or, calls that I'vehad, people I've had calls with
in the past year, for sure, havebeen very understanding.
They've been like, oh, it's niceto meet them, and I'm like,
well, good, that means we're,we're, we're good to work out.

(44:42):
We're good friends.
Oh my god.
That just totally just remindedme of this story.
Um, so, my I was on Discord withsome gamers, and luckily it
wasn't like a work call oranything, but I was talking to
them, um, it was not throughvideo, but through audio, and I
was talking to them, and mytoddler comes up to me really
loud, and we're, we're pottytraining right now, and she

(45:05):
goes, she goes, Mommy! I got apoo, like really loud and then,
so then everyone hears itthrough my headphones and I was
like, Oh, sorry, got to take mytoddler to the bathroom and I
was like, we're potty trainingand then it was, they were like,
so supportive and really funny.
They're like, Oh, yay.
She's going to go poo in thetoilet.

(45:25):
I was just like, okay, I'm goingto go AFK.
Let me turn off the sound.
No, I totally understand that.
For my, um My, my middle girlwhen she was potty training,
actually still now, she has toannounce it before she'll even,
like, start her trip to thebathroom.
She's like, I have to go pee!And then she, like, looks at you

(45:48):
and she's like, I have to gopee! And I'm like, then go to
the bathroom and then she'll go.
But she has to announce it everytime and then when she comes
back and she's like, it was justa pee, mom.
It's not a poop.
I'm like, me too, girl.
Me too.
You know, I took a potty breaktoo.
It's fine.
She's, but she's, she, um, mylittle ones have such strong

(46:10):
personalities and I absolutelyadore them for it.
Um, my favorite is that my, ornot my favorite, but one of my
favorite situations is my, mythree year old.
Um, she's very straightforward.
So you can be like, did you likethat?
No.
Yep.
Is that your favorite?
Yep.
Did you do that?
Yep.
Okay.

(46:31):
Okay.
Like, it's just the way they sayit, too.
Yep.
I respect her so much.
She's great for it.
Um, my son will do the samething, too, on occasion, but he
likes to go into the spiel.
Um, but my, my one year old isdefinitely picking up the same
pattern.
She's like, yep.
Nope.
Nope.
I'm like, all right, girl.
All right.
I see it.

(46:51):
That's fine.
Yeah.
Do you think they get that fromyou or your husband?
Probably me.
Probably me.
I always say that, like, theylook like my husband, but they
have my personality.
It's been, I think we have apretty good mix.

(47:14):
I'm, they're definitely allmore, well, I would say my son,
he's not nearly as extrovertedas the other two.
But my girls are so extroverted,which is just like my husband.
I'm very introverted.
So it makes me and Carson willlike sit back and we'll be like,
okay, y'all can just chit chatwith people and do your thing.

(47:35):
And we're just sitting in thebackground like, okay.
But so far, um, my son has themost interest like us.
Jesus.
But my son has the most interestlike us.
You know, he's really into likehis, his video games and his car
games and stuff like that, whichI guess he was around the most
because we were able to do it alittle bit more when he was,

(47:56):
when he was younger and it wasjust him.
Um, my daughter though, mymiddle girl, um, she's, she'll
do it, but I think she's justdoing it cause we're doing it.
She was like, okay, it is prettycool, but it's not something I
can spend a lot of time in.
She's way more interested inlike, dance or her Barbie dolls

(48:17):
and, you know, doing her babydolls, um, and art.
Oh my gosh, she will paint allday long if you let her.
She got an easel for Christmasand she will just paint.
All day long.
She loves it.
And then my one year old, she'sjust, she hasn't really done
anything yet.
She's still one, but, yeah.
She's just like, wherever momis, that's where I want to be.

(48:38):
And she's very aggressive.
Um, not like hitting and stuff,but like with her affection.
So if loves you aggressively.
Oh yeah, she loves itaggressively.
She will grab your face and justsquish it and then, like, or
she'll grab you from one sideand then squish her cheek to
your cheek and just push.
Doesn't want to give you a kissor anything.

(48:59):
She's just like, Oh, you got tobe face to merge.
Yeah, she's like, this is asclose as we can possibly be.
I love you, mom.
And I'm like, but she does it toeverybody.
My mom thought it was thefunniest thing and I was like, I
don't know what to tell you.
She hasn't grown out of it yet.
She's been doing that since shecould, I guess, physically lift
her head.
But if she wants affection, shedoes cheek to cheek.

(49:21):
She's like, we're cute.
That's so adorable, though.
I'm loving it.
It's quite cute, but it is veryaggressive.
It's not like a gentle cheek tocheek.
It's like a, no, you get overhere.
I'm like, okay.
Yes, ma'am.
Yeah.
Whatever you need.
All right.
Before we go, um, how can.

(49:41):
Listeners get in contact withyou.
Alright, so, the easiest way ifyou want to check out my stuff
is TheKamamaCo.
com, but if you just like tohear me talk or you just want to
chat, probably Threads orInstagram, and both of those are
at Kamamama.
co.
I'm probably the most active onThreads because I feel like it
doesn't take as much strategyand planning to stay active on,

(50:04):
but I am over on Instagram too.
I love Threads.
I'm starting to really love it.
Yeah, very much on Threads.
Awesome.
Okay, so I will put all of yourinformation down in the show
notes for our listeners, as wellas a link to your website and
your page.
Okay, Yay! Any final thoughtsbefore you go?

(50:25):
No, but um, this was an amazingchat.
I love to just, I could, I couldtalk forever on this.
Yeah.
For sure about the mom stuff,like I could definitely talk
forever, and so I'm just happyyou, decided to have me on.
Thank you so much for coming on.
I'm so glad I got to meetanother Mikayla.
I mean, I'm sure one day mydaughter will be like, You have
the same name as me.

(50:46):
Like, cause she's never metanother Mikayla.
Yeah.
My daughter's name is Addie, andwe met another Addie the other
day, and they're like, almostthe same age, and she's like,
She's an Addie too?
And I'm like, yeah.
Isn't it so weird when you alsomeet someone who's like the same
age group as you?
Mm hmm.
Like was our names popular atthe same exact time, thank you

(51:08):
so much for coming on and I hopeyou have a wonderful rest of
your day.
You too.
A big thank you to Michaela forcoming on if you're listening to
this podcast when it releases onFebruary 17th, Michaela will be
to blog challenge, which I amjoining basically, it's a three

(51:29):
day challenge helping podcastersturn their episodes into SEO
blog posts so that your podcastcan do more work for you.
All right.
So if you are interested inthat, go check out Michaela and
contact her.
All the info is down in our shownotes.
And as always, I will see youall on Thursday.

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21. Balancing Business, Motherhood & SEO – Small Steps for Big Impact with Guest McKayla Spencer

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}21. Balancing Business, Motherhood & SEO – Small Steps for Big Impact with Guest McKayla Spencer