The May Mompowerment Mama is Lis Riley, founder and CEO of Fuel Your Soul Foods (FYS). The interesting thing about Lis’ story is how she has pivoted a few times in recent years. When I spoke with her 6 years ago, she was working in the publishing industry and starting what she referred to as the second part of her career. Since then, things have changed yet again. Lis didn’t realize that a healthy snack she created for her older child would eventually become a successful, growing business.
Learning to Pivot
Lis studied supply chain management as an undergrad. This has served her well over time. Soon after finishing her undergrad studies, she worked at Dell. Initially, Lis was in a supply chain management role, which ultimately required her to be available 24/7. While still at Dell she moved into a pricing role and then eventually a business development role that helped develop partnerships for Dell. In her final role at the company, she negotiated a 35-hour week, which she was in for about a year and a half so that she could have more time with her child. She left the company not too long after that when she was pregnant with her second child.
After Dell, Lis stayed home for about a year and focused on her role as a mom. And then she started to pivot. She worked in ad sales for two different local publications, which allowed her time to learn new skills and get a certification in integrative yoga therapy. This is what she thought the second part of her career would be – yoga therapy. Lis did end up working as a yoga therapist for about a year in an integrative medicine doctor’s office. (Little did she know that her experiences as a mother would lead her to create a new business.)
When life throws you a curve ball
As if being a working mom isn’t challenging enough, Lis’ situation has an extra layer of complexity. When Lis’ oldest child was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at age 8, Lis looked to non-inflammatory food as part of the path to healing. Lis describes this challenging balance as, “trying to be a superwoman nurturing mom, making all her daughter’s meals and snacks from scratch and going to numerous doctor appointments week after week, while attempting to keep a toe in the working world and contribute to her family’s bottom line.” It was all-hands-on-deck for her child’s ailing health and yet trying to keep some semblance of normalcy and a career. Such a tough moment!
As a solution for an easy snack for her daughter, Lis created energy balls that were made of organic, non-GMO ingredients, that were soy and dairy free as well as low-sugar. Any ingredients that aggravated her daughter’s condition were removed and nutrient and protein-rich items were added. The combination worked! Her child was thrilled and so was she. Lis continued to experiment with an array of healthy superfoods mixed with nut butters and before she knew it, she had an array of flavors.
The combination of low inflammatory foods, naturopathic medicine, and detoxing her daughter’s body of burdening toxins proved to be the recipe for success. Lis is a strong believer that “food is medicine”.
When experiences as a mother create opportunity
About 8 months into her role as a yoga therapist, Lis received a call from a previous client she had when she worked at a local publication. The company had sampled some of the energy ball snacks and wanted to sell them in all four of the company’s locations. Yes, you read that right! (Her experiences as a mother led to a new business opportunity.)
Initially, Lis hesitated and thought “No way! How could I manage that?” And then the stars aligned and a new business partner swooped in to help get the new endeavor going.
She dropped the yoga therapy and focused 100 percent of her work time on building what became FYS. In recent years Lis has bought out her business partner and is humming solo with her business along with 2 employees, both mothers. She has the stability and overall balance she initially wanted, even though there have been bumps along the way.
What does work look like?
Along the way, Lis has worked 35 hours per week at the large tech company and 10-15 hours while doing ad sales and yoga therapy.
And these days she’s working about 50 hours per week, squeezing in hours after the kids go to bed and on the weekends when needed. She shares that when you’re running your own business, you’re not counting the hours. The clock never stops but there’s no bitterness in it. If you have passion in your career, you will make the needed time for the success of it. The key is that you get to define success!
While still at a large company she worked Monday through Thursday in her flexible role. Once she pivoted into ad sales, she worked 3-5 hours a day while the kids were at school.
As an entrepreneur, she now works much of her waking hours but prioritizes windows of the work day and weekends to put work aside and have meaningful family time without interruption. When she works, she’s working, when she’s with her family, she’s with her husband and kids 100 percent.
The challenge of flexibility and part-time roles
No question that Lis got the flexibility she was looking for along the way, but she was also in a commission-based role. If she didn’t work, she didn’t get paid. And that is a challenge that entrepreneurs, in general, can face, especially as they build their businesses. She has been able to change that somewhat in recent years as she has a team and works with suppliers.
Lis looks at her role as 100 percent mom and work is on top of that. Lis’ husband has a demanding job with lots of travel. When she transitioned to a part-time role, she and her husband talked about how her role at home would change and she agreed to take more on at the house.
When she launched FYS there was no space for Lis to carry 100 percent of the household duties. Lis and her husband now outsource cleaning and empower the kids to do chores. They subscribe to a weekly community-supported agriculture service that delivers locally grown produce as well as dairy and meats. They periodically lean on meal prep services to save time during especially busy weeks.
The benefit of working part time and having more flexibility
Lis was ultimately able to take a step back and figure out what else she was interested in, which is why she started down the yoga therapy path. She wanted something that filled her passion and allowed her to contribute financially to her family. And that gave her space to jump on the FYS opportunity when it presented itself.
She is able to maximize her work time and still pick up her kids at school. And, ultimately, she’s able to use skills she developed over time. She can use her supply chain management from her big tech days, combined with her knowledge of wellness.
Lis is excited that along her work-life balance path, she contributed to her family’s well-being and also feels that when it comes to her professional life, “There is value in the work I do.”
Advice
For Lis Riley experience as a mother led to a new business. She has advice for other working moms out there, whether you start a business or work for a company:
- Find the balance that works for you. There is no question that you’re pulled in many directions as a working mom so that you don’t give your family 100 percent or your work 100 percent.
- Build a strong community and ask for what you need. Lis has learned to lean on her friend and family village and never hesitates to assist in return. This give and take has been instrumental in mastering the parenting juggling act. Support is what everyone craves. It feels good to help others and boy does it save the day when others swoop in for a few hours of child care or taxi service!
If you’re wanting to read more from moms like Lis. Grab your copy of either of the Mompowerment books today.
