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The Life of And podcast is for high-achieving women and working parents who are ready to stop living a life of “have to” and start designing a life they actually want. It’s a space where we talk honestly about the things we’re often afraid to admit — even to ourselves. The exhaustion. The ambition. The loneliness. The joy. The tension of wanting more without losing yourself in the process.
If you’re in the thick of it — feeling stretched, tired, hopeful, driven — this is your invitation to take a breath, get real, and find your way back to your own Life of And.
[00:00:00] Tiffany Sauder: Know what season you're in. Are you in a season of triage or are you in a season of planning and progress? Have you established your priorities in service to your goals? Do you understand your family's priorities and how all those work together? Have you re-calendared or recommitted to your planning meeting so that you are ready for the coming week and you can properly run the family meeting?
[00:00:24] Tiffany Sauder: And then having your physical space actually reflect the season so that the physical chaos does not create emotional chaos, which starts to create relational chaos
[00:00:35] Tiffany Sauder: I'm Tiffany Sauder, entrepreneur, wife, mom, to four girls and a woman figuring it out just like you. Come on, let's go build your Life of And .
[00:00:46] Tiffany Sauder: This episode is dropping in a season of what is likely transition for all of us that are listening. If you are a working mom in particular, we're in this back to school motion of all of the systems, all of the motions, all of the v- like visual things that are in our home are starting to change because now the bus is coming, kids are going to school, and this is how life works now.
[00:01:10] So just as we planned intentionally coming into summer, we want to plan intentionally going into this new season of change for semester. S
[00:01:19] o even if you don't have kids in school, this is an awesome time to look at the year and say, "Okay, I've got five months left," and I'm gonna convince you that you really have like three good months left because November and December is taken by business planning, and budgeting, and the holidays, and wrapping gifts, and all of the things often that are external to our like sort of getting our own goals done.
[00:01:42] So we've got 12 weeks, maybe 14, of really good weeks left in this year where we can make excellent progress towards the people we're, we are becoming and the things that we want to do in the world. So that is what this episode is gonna be about. I
[00:01:56] f you are looking for a checklist of how do I do transition well, that's what I'm gonna talk about here in the solo show today
[00:02:04] Tiffany Sauder: if you're watching this on YouTube, I'm sitting in the studio. I have what looks like a scrap piece of paper with like, this is like my literal like I'm gonna go home and do this starting now. I'm a couple weeks out from when this is gonna air, and I'm getting to work on these things right now. So this is a like real time let's do this.
[00:02:22] Tiffany Sauder: So get your notebook out and I want to help you feel confident in the season of transition because if we don't go into it with a plan, then the thing starts to plan our time. Everybody else's yeses take space on our calendars, and we are left with the leftovers, which oftentimes is really crappy minutes of the day, and we don't decide when we're gonna do us, and we don't intentionally prioritize what's actually gonna happen in the home, and let's make sure that we're set up well.
[00:02:49] Tiffany Sauder: So I went into summer with what I thought was a plan, and life threw me some surprises. And so I chose to pivot off of that plan. So what I want, I guess, to say to you is sometimes you don't-- are in a season of life where you don't have a 90-day or 14-week time horizon.
[00:03:13] Tiffany Sauder: Like something is going on in your life such that I don't have that much visibility into what things are gonna look like. I'm in triage mode right now, Tiffany. Like this is hard. I'm going through an illness. I'm sick, I'm going through working through something with my kids, I'm working through some things in my marriage, I'm working through, like, big transition in my business.
[00:03:32] Tiffany Sauder: I do not have line of sight to 12 weeks out. And if that is where you are, I'm coming out of a season of that for the last several months, I understand completely. And you may need to say, "I'm gonna save this episode and get back to it when I do have more line of sight into my priorities, into where it is I'm going.
[00:03:52] Tiffany Sauder: But right now I'm kind of in, I'm in survival mode. And so I don't have the luxury of, quote, 'midterm planning' and being able to look out 90 days. I've just gotta take care of the here and now. I've gotta be in the day." And I would say that's really how I spent the summer. It was, it was doing the day and doing the week, but I did not have a huge line of sight into exactly how some things going on in my life were gonna totally play out.
[00:04:17] Tiffany Sauder: And so it was much smaller increments of time.
[00:04:23] Tiffany Sauder: And I think my takeaway coming out of summer is that the more uncertainty there is in your life, thus the shorter the time horizon often is in how far you can see and how much you can plan. And I get so much stability out of a plan and out of certainty.
[00:04:41] Tiffany Sauder: And so when I'm in these seasons of shorter windows of time of being like, I literally don't know what it's gonna look like a month from now." And we were moving and just, like, the boat felt like it was really rocking. And I had to look at the day and the week and say, like, "Did I make progress on the most critical things?
[00:04:58] Tiffany Sauder: And other than that, I just don't know. I'm gonna have to sort of have some patience with myself and how much progress I can make." So, Sam is going through some similar things. Not to... She's sitting in the studio with me. Not, not to, like, you know, tell all of her s- but it's, like, the same thing. It's like there's just some things that they're working through in their family we don't know how all of it's gonna go.
[00:05:16] Tiffany Sauder: And so making grand plans on a trip or commitments, it's just like, "I don't, I don't know." And so I just, I think in this season I have more empathy for that reality that sometimes literally making a 12-week plan it's either an impossibility or you know in writing it down it's almost certain failure 'cause you just don't know if you're gonna be able to get there or not because you're in triage mode.
[00:05:40] Tiffany Sauder: And I've also been in seasons where it's like I'm just unorganized. I know exactly what needs to happen. I'm just not paying attention and I'm unorganized. If and I can get focused, then I totally can get there. So take stock of where you are. Have some grace for yourself. I'm practicing that right now. If you are in a season of triage, and know that at the priorities for the week or looking at the priorities for the day, that toois, um, I wanna say the word important, but that feels like- Too benign.
[00:06:13] Tiffany Sauder: I guess to like be introspective for a moment, as I think back over the last few weeks, as I was just focusing on the day and the week, it wasn't that it was important. I think for me it was, it was stabilizing of when you feel like the boat is rocking, when you feel like the ground underneath you is shifting, it's like, well, what can I see?
[00:06:33] Tiffany Sauder: What can I control? What, can I make progress on? And it might not be as far and as fast and as big as what a fully resourced version of me would look like, but I am still, I am still making progress. And I think for me, that was, it's been part of the journey over the last few months. So I don't know, maybe that's more confusing than helpful.
[00:06:55] Tiffany Sauder: But, um, I think for me, it's been helpful for me, for people to tell me like, "Dude, you're going through a lot. Maybe you're not mo- able to move as fast," and be like, "Actually, I can't." And for them to be like, "Yeah, that sounds super normal." So that's what I'm trying to say to you just in a million words.
[00:07:10] Tiffany Sauder: So assuming you are in, I'm gonna say a fully resourced version of yourself, and what I mean by that is more like from an energy perspective.
[00:07:18] Tiffany Sauder: Like, okay, I know where I'm going, I know what I'm doing. I just need to get organized so that in this new season where there's new rhythms, I can show up well. That is the version of which we're gonna sort of plan for based on the rest of this episode.
[00:07:32] Tiffany Sauder: I look at the year in our world of, in like sort of sprints.
[00:07:37] Tiffany Sauder: And so I see that there are two sprints left in 2026. The first sprint is like August 15th to November 1st. Kids are back in school. You've got, uh, I would say a holiday free season that's coming up. And if you can get really dialed and focused in personally and professionally, you can make some real progress against the priorities, which we're gonna talk about here in a minute.
[00:08:01] Tiffany Sauder: And then we start planning going into what I call holiday season. It's a different rhythm in our household, a different rhythm in my time and money and energy in that holiday season. And so I also think about that transition into that. The clothes I need to have, what our calendar looks like, who needs to go where, the concerts that are happening.
[00:08:19] Tiffany Sauder: It's a different season. I don't need to plan for that right now, but my mid-October self is very much gonna be thinking about what the holiday season looks like so that we've got good priorities going into that, and that we are ready and not reacting. That is the point of all of this. We are ready and not reacting because when we are ready, we are ready.
[00:08:37] Tiffany Sauder: Okay, Diviny, you're so profound. Um, okay. So planning for the upcoming season, August 15th to November 1st.
[00:08:44] Tiffany Sauder: Number one is priorities. Write down your priorities. I say this word all the time. Priorities to me is this: goals are the destination. Your today self is sitting at point A, your goals are point B.
[00:08:58] Tiffany Sauder: Priorities build the bridge from where you are to where you are going. So they are the road on which your time, money, attention, energy travels And when I set priorities that connect my today self to my future self, then I actually get there. But our goals are oftentimes not actionable. Losing 15 pounds is not actionable in and of itself.
[00:09:20] Tiffany Sauder: The priority of walking 10,000 steps and eating 100 grams of protein a day, those are actionable priorities that get me to my goal, as an example. So what are your priorities? Sit down with yourself. What are your goals that you set out at the end of 2026? Or as you look between now and the end of the year, where do you want to be?
[00:09:39] Tiffany Sauder: And define a priority that you can name, that can actually be calendared, and identify that thing so that it can go on your calendar. So what are your priorities?
[00:09:51] Tiffany Sauder: And sit your family down. Okay, that sounds like such a commanding way. Invite your family into the conversation of also what are their priorities.
[00:09:59] Tiffany Sauder: So who's in season? What games you're gonna be going to? What trips do you need to take? Who's in club or travel season? My daughter's going into her senior year, so I've got some specific things that need to be priorities, like her senior pictures and that kind of stuff. Different memory-making we wanna do, things we want to teach her.
[00:10:18] Tiffany Sauder: So what are the priorities? Give your family a two to three-day heads-up. Invite them to a dinner or some time around the living room, and play a game, whatever it looks like, and ask everyone to share between now and November 1st, now and Thanksgiving, what is it that you want to say you've done? What's going on in your school calendar?
[00:10:37] Tiffany Sauder: What's going on in your sports calendar? What friends do you wanna have over? Here's what's going on with your parents or you if you're a single parent. what are your priorities? And get clear on those because that starts to drive what goes on your calendar, what gets your money, and what gets your attention.
[00:10:51] Tiffany Sauder: So it starts with priorities.
[00:10:53] Tiffany Sauder: the second, I get very lazy on this in the summer, maybe you do, maybe you don't, but family meetings and my planning meeting. So my planning meeting is usually on Friday mornings where I sit down and I look at the coming week and I look at what are we gonna eat for dinner, what groceries need to be ordered, who needs to be where, what carpool do I need to set up?
[00:11:14] Tiffany Sauder: Is my husband traveling? Do I need to be somewhere? And I'm planning the next week. So your planning meeting, get that back on your calendar. Respect the integrity of that time. If it's 20 minutes, great. If it's an hour, great. But you will get those minutes back in spades so that you are not micro-solving the next week.
[00:11:34] Tiffany Sauder: You guys have heard me say I hate same-day solving. No same-day solving in my house. We already know who needs lunch. We already kn- know who needs DoorDash at school. We already know who needs to be picked up. We already know who's doing it. So in an emergency, yes, we will same-day solve.
[00:11:49] Tiffany Sauder: But other than that, everybody knows the plan because we do the next thing, which is your family meeting.
[00:11:54] Tiffany Sauder: So I've got whole episodes on the family meeting. Sam will put that in show notes if you wanna go into that in more detail. But respecting the integrity of that time where your team, your family, gets together and says, "What's coming? Who needs what? Is there any place of uncertainty that is coming in the next week so that we can solve for that right now?"
[00:12:15] Tiffany Sauder: Everybody walks into the week with a plan. Everybody knows what they need to be doing. You are free mentally and physically to be where you are, and you know everything is covered. It's amazing. And if you have little kids, their expectations are set for what the week is going to feel like. It's incredible how much just anxiousness, anxiety, worry can come out of the house, like leak out the doors
[00:12:38] Tiffany Sauder: when they know what's happening, and it seeps in when everybody doesn't know the plan, when every single day feels like what I call an improv routine. No bueno, no bueno. So set priorities, get your planning meeting on, family meetings. I wanna take a quick moment to thank my partners at Share Your Genius. For the past four years, they have been an incredible part of my journey. Behind the Microphone, Share Your Genius is a content and podcast production agency that helps leaders and brands bring their message to life.
[00:13:07] Tiffany Sauder: So, whether you're trying to find your voice, develop a content strategy, or get your leader behind a microphone, they're gonna help you make it simple, strategic and impactful.
[00:13:16] Tiffany Sauder: the other thing I really like to do, this is a big thing for me, is our physical space should be a support to what's going on in our family and what our priorities are.
[00:13:28] Tiffany Sauder: So an example, my kids almost all take their lunch to school, much to my chagrin. but to be able to ha- have them do that, I have all of these like little two-ounce cups that they can like squeeze ranch and Chick-fil-A sauce into, that they put in their lunches. We've got different sized containers that are plastic because my middle schooler can't take glass to school.
[00:13:50] Tiffany Sauder: And so I'm like restocking the drawer of all of the little sizes of things that they're gonna need to be able to pack lunch and leftovers to be able to take to school. So that's an example of me prepping my physical space to prepare for what's coming, packing four lunches every single day. Lord help me.
[00:14:09] Tiffany Sauder: I don't pack them. They pack them, but I have to have all the crap. I don't have to, I just like to. the other is like our mudroom. So it looks very different in the summertime right now. It's got beach towels. It's got sunscreen everywhere. It's got a place for people's sunglasses. It's got our big giant bog bag.
[00:14:25] Tiffany Sauder: It's like you walk in, it's like, it's probably summer. It will shift over where I put all of the flip-flops into their closets, and I make room for their school shoes. The wall where people have hooks will be cleaned off, and there'll be a spot for their backpack. Again, so that you would walk into our, that room in two weeks and you would say, "I bet school's in session."
[00:14:47] Tiffany Sauder: So I'm physically preparing the space for how it's going to be used in the season that we're in, and it makes it so that it's clean. Everybody can put their stuff away. The last season stuff is like now maybe put on a higher shelf because we are not going to the pool every day. If we're doing that in the summertime, now the towels are a little harder to get to.
[00:15:05] Tiffany Sauder: I'm like swapping stuff out so that the things that are accessible are the things that we're using right now. I'll also like revisit with my kids, like, "When you get home from school, here's where I want you to put your lunch boxes. Here's how, like unload your stuff into the, dishwasher." It like sounds silly, but it's prepping for the physical motion that's gonna support what's happening in our home.
[00:15:25] Tiffany Sauder: We have an agreement on after-school snacks. Kinda silly, but it's one thing from the pantry, one thing from the fridge, and I'll just like do a quick rundown of like, "Hey, remember, girls, when you get home from school, one thing from the pantry, one thing from the fridge." And I'm just reminding them, this is how we do this season.
[00:15:41] Tiffany Sauder: they have responsibility. These are my expectations. We're walking through it." And that way everybody doesn't walk in the house, drop their crap by the back door, take off all their shoes, keep their stuff in their backpack where it's moldy the next morning when we're packing their lunches.
[00:15:56] Tiffany Sauder: Like, I don't want that to happen. I don't want that mess. I don't want that conflict. I don't want that struggle. And so my compromise is let's get ahead of it and let's set it up. So giving you that example so that you can sort of see it in your mind's eye of when the path is made for it to be clean and tidy and self-sufficient, then they will do it.
[00:16:17] Tiffany Sauder: If there's friction at every step, like I didn't know where to put my backpack because the bog bag was there, all the shelves are filled up with sunscreen which we haven't used in three weeks, it starts to create this physical confusion that settles into the way that it feels than to be in school. my mom I think is like world-class at this.
[00:16:35] Tiffany Sauder: I think that's where I learned to feel it and observe it, but it really changes the way the home feels in a way that for me feels like more congruent with what's happening. So, I'll start, prepping different kinds of foods so that the girls can take it to school 'cause it's different when they're meeting or eating lunch at home and have access to like a cutting board versus at school and it's like a Ziploc bag for everything.
[00:17:00] Tiffany Sauder: So, that's the last one for me is prep your physical space. So know what season you're in. Are you in a season of triage or are you in a season of planning and progress? I kinda like that designation. Are you in a season of triage or a season of planning and progress? have you established your priorities in service to your goals?
[00:17:22] Tiffany Sauder: Do you understand your family's priorities and how all those work together. And it's can you say yes to everything or do you have to sort of shift some things around? have you re-calendared or recommitted to your planning meeting so that you are ready for the coming week and you can properly run the family meeting?
[00:17:40] Tiffany Sauder: so that's the next thing to sort of reestablish the integrity of your family meeting. and then having your physical space actually reflect the season so that the physical chaos does not create emotional chaos, which starts to create relational chaos. To me, those are like, ooh, little dominoes that affect each other.
[00:18:00] Tiffany Sauder: So, Nobody asked, but how am I feeling going into the season? Thanks for asking. Um, but this is the only school year for our family, because our girls are so far apart, where all of our kids will be enrolled in our public school system. My oldest is gonna be a senior. The youngest is going into kindergarten.
[00:18:22] Tiffany Sauder: This is the first, like, the only time we'll, you know, kind of, I don't know, just like school supply shop together. it's like all in the same system for the first time and only time. And it's like so interesting to me. I think it's like, I remember five years ago being like, "Oh, there's gonna be a time when that year happens," and it feels I'm like here.
[00:18:45] Tiffany Sauder: I am in this moment for our family. I was telling someone last night, I was like, I picture our family like a cocoon where like we've all been inside of it. And just like when a chrysalis, I'm gonna mess up the terms because I haven't been in third grade in a long time, but that like the, the, the cocoon starts to go away and Is it the worm that breaks through, Sam?
[00:19:09] Tiffany Sauder: The butterfly? The butterfly. The, the worm becomes the chrysalis. I'm stressed. So Sam is reminding me that a butterfly does not come in and a worm does not come out. A worm goes in and a butterfly comes out. But I feel like th- like Aubrey, we're starting to like see a hole in the cocoon.
[00:19:27] Tiffany Sauder: I'll just stick with what I know. And she's gonna turn into this beautiful butterfly, not a worm, a beautiful butterfly, and not fly away, but kind of fly away. and it's just a very poignant moment in our family, and I'm feeling an urgency to be very present and to just be like, I am, like I'm sitting in this moment right now, and it feels consequential in like a really special way.
[00:19:53] Tiffany Sauder: So that's where we are as a family. That's where I am personally. I hope that this episode helps you in this season of transition because it can, it can just feel like not disruptive. Like, okay, yeah, we just did that. We've got a toolbox for this. This is how we transition in and out of seasons, because transition is the one constant in your life, mama.
[00:20:12] Tiffany Sauder: So, thank you for listening to this episode of Life of And. I hope it has helped you step into a season of progress. And if you are in a season of triage, I love you, I see you, I wanna give you a hug, just say thanks for joining me this week on The Life of And. And if you have gotten value from this, I would just love it if you would share it with a friend.
[00:20:31] Tiffany Sauder: It's the fastest way that we grow the show. Thank you all for being here, and I'll see you next week.